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Is it possible to set up a Utopia here on earth? Dane discusses the Kingdom of God and the only perfect world that will ever exist under the reign of Jesus.
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Is it possible to set up a Utopia here on earth? Dane discusses the Kingdom of God and the only perfect world that will ever exist under the reign of Jesus.
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Is it possible to set up a Utopia here on earth? Dane discusses the Kingdom of God and the only perfect world that will ever exist under the reign of Jesus.
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In this transcription, the speaker discusses the topic of the Kingdom of God and its importance in the Scriptures. They mention how Paul boldly preached about the Kingdom in the synagogue for three months and how persuasion is better than force when it comes to sharing beliefs. The speaker also mentions that Satan will be bound for a thousand years in the Kingdom and that righteous judges will be present. They emphasize the need to rely on the Bible as the blueprint for a utopia and mention the persecution of Christians in recent years. Okay, we're going to continue in Acts chapter 19 tonight. We're going to do quite a rabbit trail, because we started the topic of the Kingdom last time, but Paul focuses a lot on the Kingdom in the Scriptures he wrote, and also especially Jesus, more than anybody in Scripture, spoke about the Kingdom. And I'm sure there was a lot more times where he spoke about it than that is actually recorded, because remember all the words that were spoken by Christ, it would take all the books in the world to record all that. So we don't know how much it was talked about, but we do know it was a main topic. Such an important thing to look forward to. So we're going to see about the Kingdom and about eternity and about how man today is trying to create a kingdom called a utopia, and the more they try, the more dystopian it gets, doesn't it? It gets kind of dark and communism comes to mind, and they think they have the best way to run the earth, but the harder they try, the more they fail. So we're going to look at that tonight, too. But before we get started, let's go ahead and go to God in prayer. Dear Jesus, thank you so much that we can come here and just worship you now. I pray that you'd help us to stay out of the way of what you want to accomplish, what you want to speak to us. Just let it be clear, and forgive us for our sins, in Jesus' name, amen. So we'll start in Acts 19, 8, and it says, And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months. So, first of all, it's amazing that he was able to go into the synagogue and preach boldly for three months. Scott couldn't go down to the Catholic Church and speak for two minutes, probably. They'd probably boot him out. But it's pretty amazing, I mean, different doctrine going into a synagogue. So that just tells you they were somewhat accepting of this, and in many ways in the Holy Spirit helped break down that barrier, I think, because otherwise that would be pretty tough to reach out to people that are so stuck in their ways. So he says he's boldly for three months, he's reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. So specifically for three months, he's talking a lot mainly about the kingdom of God, yeah, about the gospel that Christ came and died for them, and now that was their Messiah. And now we look forward to the reign, which is what the Jews thought was what he was going to set up originally anyway, the first time he came. That's why Jews today don't think Jesus was God, because he was supposed to come and set up the kingdom. He was supposed to come and rescue them from all this. And now, you know, the Jews over there are just absolutely surrounded by their enemies, but God still has a hedge of protection around them. But persuade just comes from the Greek word peito, and it means to have confidence. And that's what persuading somebody to believe in something is, it's like you get more and more confident in your position. You know, maybe you doubt your faith sometimes, maybe you doubt certain aspects of the interpretations of Scripture, but you hear something that puts you a step further to being confident in what you believe. You know, I don't know much about plumbing and wiring and all this stuff, so every time Scott teaches me something about that or whatever, I get a little bit more confident, still not confident enough to touch that 220 on my own, but you get a little bit more confident as you learn, as you grow, and as you're willing to absorb those things. What's the enemy? What's the opposite of persuasion? What's the thing that's keeping people from being persuaded? Because honestly, we have the way better argument on our side, even beyond Scripture. As a conservative, we have a way better argument on our side, but somehow we are overtaken. What's the enemy of persuasion? It's our own bias. And Jane Austen said this, how quick come the reasons for approving what we like? So when you hear an opinion or you hear a certain side, there are some people that just absolutely hate Trump, for example, no matter what happens, it's always the worst case scenario. He's basically Hitler and worse, and it's just a default for people. So you have to get past those ideas and those biases, and you have to allow the truth speak to you and not you speak to the truth. We get exegetical teaching out of that. We get the information from the Scriptures, we don't read into the Scriptures. So we have a better, more persuasive argument, but our enemy uses not a persuasive argument, do they? They're not persuasive at all, because they don't have to be. They use force. They use power. And we've seen this throughout all of history, and it's looked different in different ways throughout all history. You know, like Hitler, he literally would kill people if they didn't believe in their ways. Islam, if you truly believe the book of the Koran, you're going to go out and use force to convert people, convert or die. Asaph said this, persuasion is better than force. Pretty simple little truth that's lasted that long. Persuasion is better than force. The scary thing for a liberal is if people realize this, if they're open to persuasion, if they're open to being more confident in what truth is, then that's a scary, damaging thing for them. But when all else fails, this next one, Socrates says, when the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the used loser. So if somebody's calling somebody names or using slander and no facts and just angry and using power, you could probably know that they're on the wrong side of history. So Paul, in those cases, he saw a lot of people on the wrong side of history. He would walk into a synagogue and they would not have it. They would not hear it. So he's like, fine, I'm going to move on. And then that's what we do, too. So here, Paul's persuading people about the kingdom and what is this kingdom all about? Why is it so exciting? Why is it something that we should talk about and look forward to? But we're going to look at this tonight, he says, in Revelation 20, verse 1, he talks about how, John talks about how the kingdom is kicked off, and it's kicked off in a pretty dramatic way here. He says, and I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore. So here Satan is finally thrown into the pit, he's finally destroyed for a while. The earth is without Satan, that'll be an interesting place. Right now, he's out, what's his main tool that he's doing, deception. Deception is the main tool of Satan. He's deceiving the nations anymore, he won't deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. So first characteristic of the kingdom, we know that there's no Satan. So that's a good thing, that'll get us one step closer to utopia, right? Satan is the one that is against this peaceful place that we want to make earth. But who will be there? Well, we know Satan won't be there. But who will be there? Well, we're going to have judges there. I know that's a scary term today because we see our judges today and they're just out of control, but they're going to be righteous judges set forth by Jesus himself. In verse 20, verse 4, it says, I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. So is it just Jesus doing the judging? People that also have been given authority through the truth, who is Jesus? You know, Jesus is the truth, and he's given the truth to these people so that they can judge righteously. We don't have righteous judges today, it's impossible. So another case against utopia, it is impossible because of our biases, right? We wonder why we have biased judges today, well, here's a little bit of evidence. I was actually on the Harvard campus last week. That was pretty cool to see. But most people had gone home, so I didn't see too much craziness. But you wonder why these lawyers and judges go to Harvard Law School and they come out and they're liberal. Why is this? Well, you can see this chart. You have 29.7% of professors are very liberal, 47.9% are liberal, 19.5% are moderate. Well gosh, you might as well end up there because you only got 2.9% left. So that's saying that 2.9% are conservative or very conservative, so pretty much anybody that's coming out of there is going to be indoctrinated into their false religion. So that's why we can't have a utopia today, because the blueprint for utopia is in the Bible. And unless you're taking it from that, like our founders did, that's why we have such a great country. We have a little dash of what utopia is going to be like in the foundation of Jesus Christ as he is leading righteousness. We strive for that as much as we can. We have the churches to keep us as close to righteousness as possible, but then we have the martyrs there too. So we have judges, we don't have Satan, we have the martyrs there. Revelation 20 verse 4 to 8 says, And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. Now you think, oh, people aren't beheaded today for their faith. People aren't killed today for their faith. We have no idea. The media doesn't talk about it, obviously. Churches don't mention it. But we have the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary put this together. That's a word full there, or a mouthful. So 800,000 Christians were killed in the 2010s. That was significantly lower than the 1.6 million killed in the early 2000s, according to the Center. So there was 800,000 Christians killed in the last decade is what they're saying. And that's half of what was killed in the previous decade. So you can see it kind of fluctuates. But imagine 800,000 people, that's a lot of Christians that were killed for their faith. Where primarily were these people killed? That would now be in Indiana, as far as I know, but in what they call the 1040 window. Now, a lot of missionaries have been sent to these areas, especially in the China areas and India. There's lots of missionaries. And I think they've avoided Saudi Arabia and Egypt because it's almost a certain death immediately if they catch you. But you can kind of see the stripe there of the most persecuted, the most killed Christians in that area. And what's the center of that? It's Islam, but not just Islam, communism. So over in China, you know, they're trying to create this utopia called via communism. And they say that this is just going to create a perfect world for them. Same for Islam. They think in their mind that they're also creating the perfect world that God intended for them. That's not going to be a thing until Jesus comes back. So in Isaiah 9, 6, it goes on and talks about another person that will be there. The King, Jesus. It says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. So when this kingdom starts, so why do we look forward to this kingdom? Because when it starts, utopia will have no end. This thing that we've been striving for, this peace that we want so bad will have no end. This throne, reigning on David's throne, is mentioned over 40 times in the New Testament. So this kingdom is mentioned many times, and specifically his throne. But there will also be a territory, and Daniel 7, 14, it's an area that this kingdom will be, which will be all over the world, but it says he'll establish nations even. And he was given authority, glory, and sovereign power, all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. So it's got to continue into eternity, and then Isaiah 2, 2, is what will bring the peace? What will Jesus use to bring peace? Will it just be an automatic thing because we know that the whole earth is going to be full of the knowledge of him, or is he going to have to rule by some force? Well, let's look at this. In Isaiah 2, 2, it says, In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains. It will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So we see that there's going to be a central hub in this kingdom where the law will go forth from, where the word of the truth will go out from this area, and he will judge between the nations, and he will settle disputes for many peoples. They'll beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. It's hard to imagine, because we've never had a time in the world history that there hasn't been wars. In fact, I just heard that Russia has a nuclear submarine off the coast of Florida, which here we're going to in a few weeks, so maybe I'll get a peek of it. But they've actually launched a test rocket today about 30 miles off the coast of Florida, Russia. Why are we allowing him to do that? That doesn't make any sense to me. You know, he could take care of that with one button pretty quickly, I would think. But again, I mean, they have a different idea about what it means to live in a good society than we do, and that's how wars start. I think this is funny. I came across PragerU puts together a bunch of funny videos, and he came up with this one talking about Utopia U. It's not Harvard U. It's Utopia U. So let's go ahead and watch this one. The University of Tomorrow is the place of astronomy, talisman, and excellence. We prepare our students for tomorrow's workforce by helping them discover their true gender, sexuality, and racial identity. We judge people based on racial origins and history of oppression. We call it the progressive stance. I'm black. I'm Hispanic. I'm Asian. I'm a student at Utopia University. This university was created so I could be me. Unless I don't want to be me, then I can just be somebody else. You can be next to me. Our campus is inclusive. It recognizes and meets all students. Except you. Our commitment to diversity means that nobody graduates until they've been taught the right way. At Utopia University, there are no violent words that hurt me. I won't punch you if you're a fascist. I'm going to be the next Jacob Aronson. We teach out against privilege. We protect our privilege. Welcome to Utopia U. A wonderful place to learn that everything your parents taught you is wrong. It's all here at Utopia U, man. It's not based in reality. It's based on your reality. It's hard to believe that's actually a parody because it could be real, right? But we cannot force or obtain a utopia on college campuses. That just doesn't happen. So there is real people today that have a lot of power that are trying to establish this called the World Economic Forum and the U.N. And let's look at this real quick. The World Economic Forum's mission statement is this, improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas. So whose agenda? God's word? Probably not. The world's agenda. And then they have Agenda 2030 that the U.N. had come up with. And we see these different things. They want to reduce the population by, like, 70 percent. We have a picture here, I think, of a bunch of different, yeah, no poverty, zero hunger. Again, trying to get to Utopia. It's not going to happen. Quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation. Scott can go work for a U.N. on that one. Affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, reduce inequalities. So peace, justice, and strong institutions. So it goes on and on. Climate action. They're just trying. What are they trying to replace? They're trying to be God. God's going to be the one to set up the United Nations. I mean, he's going to be the one to bring the world together. So they're trying to replace God. And it's not just a mysterious they. It's Satan and his followers behind him because we are up against a spiritual battle today. And more than ever, as the time gets closer, I think, of his return, too. Satan will have a feeling of that return coming. So I would think that things would step up. But Utopia takes a miracle from God to accomplish. What are some of those miracles that he's going to do? We're going to see this in Isaiah 11.6. He says the wolf will live with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf and the lion and the yearling together. And the little child will lead them. And the cow will lay down with the mice. I go outside and I see mice all over my yard. Dead. They're dead. That's the only thing my cat's good for, actually. Because he kind of ruined my carpet inside and everything. Not very happy with them until I go out and see all the dead mice. And I'm like, yes, good job, buddy. But we're going to see a day where they're going to get along. And the cow will feed with the bear. And the young will lie down together. And the lion will eat straw like an ox. And the infant will play near the cobra's den. And the young child will put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on my holy mountain. And why is this? First you have the law, but, you know, animals don't really care about going to Jerusalem and getting a lecture from Jesus. Why is nature going to cooperate? It's one of my favorite verses here. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Imagine just being filled everywhere you go with the knowledge of the Lord. We always have questions as we go through scripture, like, why did God do it this way? Or why didn't he do it this way? Because we're going to be, not just know in our minds, but absolutely be filled with God's knowledge, that same knowledge that created us, that same knowledge that loved us and died for us. The depth of that knowledge, I can't wait to see. Knowing him, the animals even, knowing who Jesus is will soften hearts and minds and wills. I think that alone will keep probably most people in line. But of course he's going to have to rule with that rod of iron too for those stragglers that just will not cooperate, because there will be people there that will not cooperate. But after the thousand-year kingdom, we see that Satan is finally let out and he's thrown into the abyss. Revelation 20, verse 7 says, Now, some flat earthers use this as a proof text for a flat earth. You know, you have corners of the earth. Well, obviously this is figurative. And also back then, that's all they knew. They knew there was a far north, an east-west. They didn't even know about America or anything like that. But Gog and Magog together, together them, together for war, the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. So after the thousand-year reign, there's going to be another war. Satan's going to come out and what is he going to do? Deceive. That's what he's doing now. That's what he's good at. That's what he's going to do again. Is it going to look scary and stuff? Probably not. It's going to be smooth. It's going to look like truth and facts, and he's on the right side of history like it does today. But he's going to win a lot of people over, as many as the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded them, the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. Come on, Jesus, you didn't give much of a chance, did you? At least let them try a little bit. But that is the power and the awesome power and the justice that God can bring down to the earth. It's instant justice. It's not, oh, let's give them some breathing room for a while. No, it's you need to pay your dues, and you will pay them now, and there's no more mercy in that case. That doesn't seem loving, but he loves us so much, and he loves truth so much, and he knows so much that people like this are going to ruin the whole earth like a cancer. They're going to tear you down with them. They're going to take you down right to hell with them. He wants to make sure that they're eliminated, just like Sodom and Gomorrah. That type of sin is a sin that spreads like wildfire, and God knew that he had to destroy that whole city with fire. Verse 10 goes on, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever, and we have sweet justice and victory that we're able to see face-to-face finally, because we don't hardly ever see victories. I mean, we see Roe versus Wade reversed, but then all the states are kind of reversing that, and it's just like we never get a true victory. The last true victory that occurred on earth is the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. It's been over 2,000 years since Christians have had a true lasting victory, and this is going to be the next time that that happens. And then you have the great white throne judgment. In Revelation 20, verse 11, then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from those whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. You think you do something bad and you think, oh, God or Jesus will forget that. No, he says it's written down. So we don't want to add to those books. Some people's books are going to be longer than others. Raise your hand if you think your book will be 1,000 chapters long or maybe 10 chapters long. I think I told this story before, but I went to Lakewood Park, and there was a girl there that we were all asked, they were doing Bible class, and we were all asked, have you ever committed a sin in your life? And we're like, well, yeah, duh, I mean, we all have. But there was literally two girls that raised their hands like, I've never committed a sin. You know, they're like 16 years old by this time. And our jaws dropped like, what? They've been so convinced to believe that they've never committed a sin? That's almost a scary place to be, because then if you've never sinned, if you don't think sin exists, then you don't need a Savior from that sin. That's why a lot of the world doesn't want to admit that there's right and wrongs, because once they do, they know they need a rescuer from those rights and wrongs. But here after that, we see that he's going to make all things new. He says, then I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, come down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. Remember how big that city is. As he was looking at this, he's looking at something that's 1,500 miles wide by 1,500 miles high. He's looking at this huge, massive thing. He says, I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Now, if we put that verse, cut that verse out, and gave it to the U.N. or the World Economic Forum, and asked, don't you want this? Shouldn't we be striving for this? Well, this is how we get there. We look forward to the coming of the kingdom of Christ. We have the truth laid out in the scriptures. We can get taste of this stuff and his truth. Just an amazing day that we'll have no more pain. So that kind of gives us a good idea of what the kingdom is going to be like, what the great throne judgment is going to happen, and then after that, eternal peace will be set up. And we get back to Acts 19.8. So back to our main text. So then he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way, before the people, he withdrew from them. Now, this happens over and over in Acts, where he's talking to these people and they start speaking bad about them and they're hardened. He just moves on. And he reasons daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. So God's word spread through Asia. Now, I didn't ever think of Asia as this area in Turkey, like the Middle East. I thought of it as China. But Asia is actually Turkey, which is north of Israel, in between kind of Russia and Israel. So that whole area, he said, he had spread the gospel to. In verse 11, it goes on, and God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. Now, miracles comes from that word. Dunamas means might and power and strength. And so he's doing these awesome, strong, mighty miracles, just like Jesus did. And so they took it a little bit too far, though. In verse 12, he says, Now, there's no power in any handkerchiefs. There was no power in the tassel of the garment of Jesus's robe when that woman reached out. It's power and trust and faith that he can heal. That's where the power is. It's not a physical thing. It's power and the trust and faith that he can. When you pray with that attitude, I know you can. And I trust you to do this. That is a powerful, miraculous type of prayer. But we see that these handkerchiefs, you know, they physically had no power, you know, and miracles aren't something that every minister can do today. Me and Scott haven't done a miracle that I know of. If we have, we should be promoted to sainthood, right? Something like that. So, no, it's no sense in trying to steal Scott's socks or shoes or anything like that and rubbing them on your face. Nothing like that will work for you. So, but maybe a prayer from Scott might. I think, Daniel, you're going to get Scott's socks here in a second. Acts 19.13 goes on. But also some of the Jewish exorcists. Now we're getting kind of into the occult here. We're getting into demons. Who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I injure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. Now, that has become a common thing for Christians to do, too, to think that they can take up this power of exorcism. I went to Salem last week, too. That was one of the other places. And that was a wild thing where one lady had a medical condition, and that's how it started. She had a medical condition and had seizures. Well, they thought she had an evil spirit. So they ended up calling her a witch. And all of a sudden, they condemned her to death. And all of a sudden it spread like wildfire, kind of like these movements do. In fact, it went worldwide. It went to Britain, too. Again, just like these movements do without any communication. It's kind of like it might be a spiritual thing. You know, spirits are communicating with each other. But anyway, that's how it spread. And they would put these people to death or try to exorcise them from their evil spirits. And they would say these words, I injure you in the name of Jesus. Thinking that that somehow has some power. There's no power in those physical words. But there's power in the belief that Jesus can come in and do that for you. But there's no power in yourself. So how do we flush out evil spirits? Because we talk about it all the time. We know that there is a spiritual battle going on, so we need to kind of be prepared for that. Well, first, James tells us we resist. So he says, submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Sounds pretty simple. When we're tempted, we resist that temptation. When we're tempted to go with the flow or to not stand up for what is right, we resist that. We do what is right. We come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. So keep a clean slate and resist the devil. That's how we overcome evil spirits. In verse 14, we go on, it says, Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. So they were the ones, these chief priests, were trying to cast out these demons. And he says in verse 15, And an evil spirit answered and said to them, I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul, but who are you? I think Scott talked about this on Sunday or the last Sunday. He says, an evil spirit answered and said to them, I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul, but who are you? This tells you a little bit about, gives you a little bit about the hint of the knowledge of these evil spirits because Jesus is an eternal being. He's bumped into Jesus before at some point, apparently, because this comes from the Greek word ginosko, and it means to know by interaction and actual physical experience. You know, I ginosko, Fawn, I know her by interaction. We just shake hands and stuff like that. So don't worry about it. And then we have epistemi, which means to know about, you kind of know about them. I get texts from Donald Trump every day, but I don't know him personally. I've never physically interacted with him. So that's the epistemi. So interesting kind of interpretation there, if you know the two different meanings. But the third thing is he did not know Sceva's son. So that tells you a lot because the demon is one entity. He can only be in one place at one time. He knew the eternal being of Jesus, and he didn't know Sceva's sons. So verse 16 goes on. And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. So here's all these Jewish guys going in there. We're going to exorcise these demons and get them out. And they were a little bit humbled, weren't they? They thought they knew the truth. They thought they had all the answers, and they went in there by saying words. And how did they turn out? Naked and probably emotionally wounded as well, but also physically wounded. That's what happens to us when we approach evil in an unbiblical way. When we don't approach sin and evil and the culture that is trying to take over Christianity in a biblical way, we wind up embarrassed. So we need to be prepared for that when it comes. The spirits can actually give a person special strengths and abilities. Nobody thinks about taking on a dark entity so they can be stronger. I'm already strong enough. I can flex real quick if you'd like. But Fawn will tell you about it. Mark 5-1 says, I don't need this spirit, but maybe somebody else does. Here we see that spirits can actually be stronger or make a person stronger, which is kind of creepy. In Mark 5-1, we'll finish here. It says, They came to the other side of the sea into the country of Gersonese. When he got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs, and no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain. He was so strong that a chain couldn't even bind him. Now, was he probably super healthy? Probably not if he's living in the tombs. Is he working out every day? Probably not. So this Holy Spirit or this evil spirit, not the Holy Spirit, has given him strength. Because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles broken into pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, day and night, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains and gashing himself with stones. That's how evil is. It gets into you. It makes you feel strong, but it ends up destroying you. And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before him. Shouting with a loud voice, he said, What business do we have with each other, my Jesus, Son of the Most High? Again, he knew Gnosko. He knew who Jesus was in a personal way. I implore you by God, do not torment me. For he had been saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And he was asking him, What is your name? And this is the word of every horror movie. And he said to him, My name is Legion, for we are many. I can't say it in that deep of a voice. And he began to implore him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. The demons, multiple demons, implored him, saying, Send us into the swine so that we may enter them. Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the sea bank into the sea, about 2,000 of them, and they were drowned by the sea. This shows you we're in a spiritual battle. We can't go and exorcise demons on our own. We can't go and face the culture on our own. We can't do anything on our own, and we first have to admit that. And then after we admit that, we can go in the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us the mental strength and the physical strength to fight whatever is coming at us. So that's how we defeat evil. That's how we attack our culture, and we need to do more of it. Let's go ahead and close in prayer tonight. Dear God, thank you for your Word and how it gives us guidance on how to achieve the best utopia that we can here now while we wait for the ultimate utopia, which is your kingdom. And we so look forward to that. We look forward to just knowing everything about you at that time. And I just pray that we have lived better for you throughout this week. Amen.
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