Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning, 945.
[00:00:08] Say good morning back. All right, I just want to tell you, 815 was an absolute party, and we had no idea who was going to show. We had a hundred people show up to the 815, and it was just beautiful. And I want to encourage you because next week is I think it's daylight savings time. Is that right? Which means if you ever wanted to experiment with the 815, next week would be an absolute great time to do it. And I lured them. I said, if you keep coming back, I'll give you little nuggets that none of the other services get. I'm just kidding. I wouldn't do that to you guys. But it's not recorded. So actually there's a little bit more banter back and forth. So anyways, come check it out next week. All right, open up your Bibles. Leviticus, chapter 17. So there's a million religions, and all false religions really, for the most part, fall into one of three big categories. So here's the first. There is no spiritual realm, so eat, drink, and be merry. And this is Functionally, the author of Atheism. It is an actual religion, if you will. It meets all of the components of it, but this is it. There's nothing out there. There's no spiritual realm. This is all there is. Eat, drink, be merry, live it up, do what you want. And essentially, the God in this religion is you. You determine what is real and true and what is fun, and you do what you want, ultimately without eternal consequences.
[00:01:35] Number two, the God of this false religion says, give me what I demand and I will make your life easy. Now, now, these are going to be more some of the explicit demonic religions, you're going to find them in more tribal areas. But there is this idea that there is an entity that controls a territory that I am under, and I need to appease this entity. And if I will appease its demands, it can make my life easier in the here and now.
[00:02:06] The third false religion, and this is going to be the one that is probably like in your soul as a Western American or somebody at least who has grown up in this environment, and it's be good and go to heaven. And this is American Christianity. This is generally spirituality as long as you're a good person or as long as your good works outweigh, your bad works. And of course, we have no way to measure that or to know what it is. So functionally, what most of us do is we find the most evil person in our life and we say, well, at least I'm not them, right? And so this is kind of in our bloodbone and marrow as American Christians. And all of these these are the kind of big three demonic traps laid out for humanity. Almost all false religions fall into one of these categories, and what you find is that every generation, every culture and every person is uniquely susceptible to one of these. So number two, I'm not particularly susceptible to wanting to go sacrifice an animal, drain its blood and then offer it as an offering to some demonic entity.
[00:03:11] That's just not in my blood. It doesn't interest me. I have no impulse toward it. In fact, the vast majority of us in this room, we look at this concept of worship and religion and we go and then when we say, I'm really glad I'm a part of the New Covenant where we're not offering sacrifices over and over again, we all go amen because it's just not our thing. But if I'm being honest, if ever I was going to maybe fall into a trap, it's going to be this third one. Good people go to heaven. First of all, I'm an American. I live in this place, this culture. My mom, my grandparents grew up Catholic. I went to Catholic school first grade to 12th grade, all boys Catholic high school. I've been around kind of sacramental faith. If you do these things, then you'll be saved. If you do these works, you will be saved. My mom, when I was about four or five years old, she heard the Gospel that salvation isn't by being good, but it's through personal ownership of your sin and believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus and Holy Moly. Was she freed from this. I heard the Gospel as a young kid, but I grew up in two environments. I grew up where we started going to church where you'd hear the Gospel. But I would go to school where I was told good people go to Heaven. And so you can see how this message, it's kind of like in my bone, blood and marrow. It's there. And so there are ways that this message actually sort of creeps out in me. So, for example, I believe the Gospel thoroughly. I believe that there is no amount of good behavior that can make you right with God. It is only through faith in the blood, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But I'll be honest. Sometimes I think God likes me more when I'm a good boy, right?
[00:04:54] And there is a part of me that when I watch other people's bad behavior, I sort of am like I'd kind of like them to lose their salvation, right?
[00:05:04] But you didn't gain it by being good and you don't lose it by being bad, right? And so it's interesting that but you find all these Christians who do believe even though salvation is not by works, you can lose it by works. And so we can be drawn culturally into ideas that maybe don't reject the Gospel but dabble with, we'll say, gospelless ideas. And so we have to understand that every person we have this propensity to fall prey to some of these. Now, here's what I want you to see the nation of Israel. They have an unbelievably unique propensity to number two.
[00:05:37] This is all they've known. They have grown up with this this idea that there are entities overseeing different parts of, we'll say, whether it's rivers or wilderness or oceans or land or mountains. And so there are these entities, and they are drawn to this idea that we have to satiate these entities with blood. Now, it's not totally wrong because blood is the payment for sin. So the demonic realm has taken these eternal principles and then extorted them and made them into something they were never intended to be through false religions. But you're going to see that they really fall prey to this kind of religious demonic trap. And there's something I want you to do in Leviticus 17. There's something I want you to feel.
[00:06:20] I want you to feel how easy it would be for them to fall into those traps.
[00:06:27] I also want you to step back and say, okay, if I'm going to fall into a trap of a false religion, what would that trap be? And there's kind of two ways for you to answer the question. One is if you are a Christian, if you have gotten to the point where you've trusted in Christ, look back at the trap you fell into before you trusted in Christ, or maybe you're here and statistically, I'll give you the one that I think it probably is going to be with 99% probability. If you are here and you maybe think you're a Christian, but you might have associated with this last one, you're like, wait a minute, doesn't the Bible teach that good people go to heaven? And so I would tell you on the front end, I'm just going to give you the answer that is probably the trap you are most likely to fall in, because that is actually not what the Bible says. Because the Bible says that there's nobody good and there is no one righteous and that good people don't go to heaven because nobody's good enough. It's forgiven people who go to heaven. And heaven is for those who have personally trusted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. All right, leviticus 17.
[00:07:34] Last week we were in Leviticus 16, and we shared with you that it is the most important chapter in the book of Leviticus. One through 15. Lead up to it, 17 to the end of the book. Look back to it. It is the most important chapter because it is talking about the day of Atonement. Good job. And so we have to set up chapter 17 by going back to something really interesting that happened in chapter 16, because even though chapter 16 is about the day of Atonement, chapter 17 is not ending. The discussion. Kind of the discussion on the day of Atonement is continuing. All right? So something really weird happened.
[00:08:13] And so if you were here, the amount of people who are pretty, we'll say, well trained in scripture. We brought out an aspect of Leviticus 16 that most people had never considered nor seen before. So I want to bring you back to that that will set the context for chapter 17. So as a part of the Day of Atonement, most important day of the year, there are a handful of sacrifices. But specifically, two goats were to be brought before the high priest. One of the goats was supposed to be for the Lord or for Yahweh. And that goat was going to be sacrificed. Its blood would be drained, it would be offered on the altar, and the high priest would take its blood into the holy of holies, into the very presence of God where he dwelled, and would offer a sacrifice for the sins of the entire nation. Big deal. You wanted this to happen. But there was another goat. And I want you to look at Leviticus, chapter 16, verse eight, and it says this Aaron shall cast lots over the two coats, one for the Lord and the other for Azazel. Now, when I said this last week, here's what happened to most faces. They looked at it, they looked up, confused, they looked down and they looked at me again like, make sense of this. And I get it.
[00:09:29] Now, it could be pronounced Azazel, azazel or Azazel. I chose this one. Nobody really knows. But I chose this one because it sounds like the bad guy from the Smurfs. So there you go.
[00:09:42] It helps me.
[00:09:44] Verse ten goes on and says, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel, verse ten goes on, it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. And the question when everybody reads this is who is Azazel? Well, Azazel is not a location, but it is an entity. And it is an entity that is in contrast to Yahweh.
[00:10:10] And so here's the idea. In Hebrew literature, there is a demonic figure named Azazel who is affiliated with the wilderness regions. And Azazel was uniquely focused on fertility, but also was known as the demon of chaos, uncleanness, war and destruction. And so this is not a demon that you're like, hey, let's go out and hang out with Azazel for a week, right? This is a big deal. But they had a Hebrew understanding, if you will, of this figure. Now, you go to the Book of Enoch. It is not in the Bible, but it really is a revelation of what's going on in the Hebrew mindset. And the Book of Enoch has this super interesting it's actually a pretty long section devoted to Azazel, who is one of the fallen angels cast down to the earth.
[00:11:01] And actually it's interesting because what you see is that it is responsible for so much of the chaos in this world. But what you also see with Azazel is that it leaves open the possibility that Azazel could be Satan. Himself just another name for him. Well, then you get to Jesus, he's launching his public ministry, he goes into the wilderness, and who is sitting there in the wilderness waiting for him but Satan himself? And in the Hebrew mindset, this actually makes sense. This is a real entity. Now, two goats, one for the Lord.
[00:11:37] This goat, this clean, pure goat would carry on itself the payment for the sins of the people.
[00:11:45] The other goat for Azazel, or Azazel, this was different.
[00:11:51] This would happen is the high priest would begin to confess the sins iniquities and transgressions of the nation of Israel, put his hands on the head and almost the tradition would say they would kind of press into it and then confess these sins. And somehow either metaphorically or spiritually, the guilt or culpability for these sins was put onto this goat. And there'd be somebody waiting in readiness and they would take this goat out into the wilderness and they would present this goat to Azazel. Now it symbolized two really important things. Number one, the first goat for the Lord covered their sins. But have you ever been forgiven by somebody and not reconciled to them? The second goat. Here's what he was communicating. The guilt, the shame, the disconnection, the ugliness, all of that. That is as far as the east is from the west. All that junk, that guilt, that shame, that evil, that sin that came from the demonic realm. And we are going to send back to the demonic realm those very things. And so as this walked away, here's what the people knew. Not only did the first goat cause the forgiveness of my sins, but the second goat was a communication that God and I are reconciled and okay, and it is as if it never happened. The second reason that they would send the goat out is it was sort of like a mockery to Azazel. Hey, you tried to bring the ugly, disgusting, unclean, vile stuff into this people. Well, we're going to take all of this and we're going to take this trash, this shame, this guilt, this toxic waste that you brought into my community and we're giving it back to you. Nice try. My people aren't going to have this kind of junk. You may have won by getting it in, but it's not going to stay here. And we're going to dump that right back into your property out of the chaos of the wilderness. It was sort of like a mockery and offense. Nice try, good luck. My people aren't just forgiven, but they are reconciled back to their heavenly father. Now Leviticus 17, the day of the Lord scapegoat Azazel, the wilderness, that's the backdrop. Verse one.
[00:13:53] The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel, and here's what you say to them.
[00:14:00] This is the thing that the Lord has commanded. Now, whatever God is about to command. I need you to see this. God is going to prohibit something they are already doing.
[00:14:16] So you have to remember, these people are coming out of Egypt. They're acclimating to this idea that there is one God and this one God alone should be worshipped. They have, you saw with the golden calf in the Book of Exodus this kind of propensity to, we'll say, Egyptian, demonic, false religions. And so God is having to legislate by Old Covenant law the things that they're already doing and telling them, you got to stop doing these things. Verse three if any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside of the camp and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent, of meeting to offer it as a gift to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord.
[00:15:00] If you do, this, blood guilt shall be imputed to that man.
[00:15:04] He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people.
[00:15:12] All right, what is the command? Apparently, they would find themselves in this situation where they would devote an animal to the Lord, but then they would keep it for themselves.
[00:15:27] By the way, under New Covenant law, if you're going to do it, do it then. Under Old Covenant law, if you devote something, a gift, a vow, a sacrifice to the Lord, and you don't do it, I need you to catch this.
[00:15:44] The result, if it's found out, is that you are cast out of the people of Israel into the wilderness where Azazel lives. Now, this is going to get a little bit more personal, and this will begin to make even more sense as this text unfolds. Verse five.
[00:16:05] This is to the end here's why that the people of Israel may bring their sacrifices, that they sacrifice in the open field, that they may bring them to the Lord, to the priest, and he's going to say it all again. You bring it to the Lord, to the priest at the entrance of the tent of Meeting. You sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to the Lord. In other words, if you made the commitment, follow through. And here's the process. You always give to the Lord the thing you promise to give to the Lord. Verse six, this regulation gets more clarity. The priest shall throw the blood on the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the tent of Meeting and burn the fat because it's the best part. Amen. Okay, good for a pleasing aroma to the Lord. All right, here's my question.
[00:16:51] Why this regulation right after the most important chapter in the Book of Leviticus describing the most sacred and important day?
[00:17:05] Why all of this emphasis again and again on when you sacrifice? Always bring it to the Lord, and if you don't, you're dead to me. Verse seven exposes us to what's really going on.
[00:17:18] It says, So they shall no more. Here's what they were doing.
[00:17:25] So they shall no more. Sacrifice their sacrifices to what?
[00:17:32] Goat demons. I just wanted everybody to shout goat demons in church. So never done that before.
[00:17:39] So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout your generations.
[00:17:54] So the people of Israel up until Leviticus 17 and this law, they felt like they had a choice. I'm outside of the camp. I have a need. I have a problem. I need a solution. I'm not able to do it on my own. And so I know when I have a problem, I'm going to turn to the spiritual realm. And so I'm sitting outside of the camp and I have this goat, I have this ram.
[00:18:22] And if I bring it to Azazel, he promises immediate relief from my problem.
[00:18:33] But if I bring it to Yahweh, I don't know what he's going to do, because he has a tendency to say to my prayers. Not yet.
[00:18:45] All right, let's answer some key questions.
[00:18:48] Who is the goat demon?
[00:18:51] Azazel a demon, possibly Satan himself. Always within proximity, by the way, to the nation of Israel.
[00:19:00] Where did the goat demon come from? Well, they had the category of goat demon in Egypt, and it was also in the wilderness. So I want you to imagine if you go to a Muslim country, would you be surprised if you were in a Muslim country and you saw a mosque and the answer, of course, is no. If you go to the Vatican and you see a Catholic church, would you be surprised if you saw that? The answer is no. If you go to Wisconsin and you see a Lutheran church, you're going to be surprised. The answer is no. Right. And so if you are the Israelites and you're leaving Egypt and you're going through the wilderness, the territory of Azazel, are you going to be surprised when there are demonic priests and shrines set up around the wilderness? No. And when you walk past it and you go, oh, look, there's a shrine to Azazel, are you going to be like, oh, I can't believe the worshiping Azazel? In fact, that's not what you're thinking.
[00:19:52] What you're thinking is, azazel is the god who controls this territory, and we're entering into the territory of Azazel. And Azazel has demands. There are ways that you actually satiate Azazel, and they are used to walking into different, we'll say, regional areas and honoring, if you will, and worshiping and satiating the gods of those areas.
[00:20:15] All right, so how do you worship the goat demon? How do you worship the goat demon?
[00:20:21] There are three hallmarks for explicitly demonic religions and three ingredients, if you will, and here's the first ingredient. Demons love to receive three things in worship. Number one is blood. Animal blood will do Azazel accepted animal blood. Human blood is the best. And of all the humans, baby blood is the most sacred.
[00:20:44] So we're going to deal with Malik in a little bit different god, and that's what he required. Number two, demonic worship. The second ingredient is going to be drugs. And so some drugs are new to our time in history, but hallucinogenics and alcohol abuse go way back as far as you can go. And so it is not uncommon that in demonic rituals and sacrifices, there's hallucinogens and drunkenness and debauchery. That's kind of what happens. So if you're going to go worship this demon, it's going to require blood and it's probably going to require some level of hallucinogen or alcohol. It's hard for me to disconnect.
[00:21:26] If you've been with us in Leviticus, this will be a little thing for you. Nadab and Abihu and their drunkenness when they got incinerated by the glory of God and the goat demons, it's all the same kind of context. And so the text leaves you with this question, were they in some kind of drunken stupor from going into the wilderness? And then they brought that into the temple? It's a theory, but something interesting is going on there. So the first ingredient is blood. The second ingredient of demonic worship is drugs, and the third ingredient is sexuality. Now, next week we're going to be in Leviticus 18, and it is an explicit chapter. I'm going to do my absolute best to honor all of the kids that are going to be in the room and I'm going to use elusive language. But let me just say, if you want a sneak peek, just start reading it if you get bored. And man, is it direct, blunt and to the point, but it is going to go after, by the way, some of the things that were permitted in these demonic religions of a sexuality nature.
[00:22:20] Worship of the goat demon brought all three of these together in an explicit way. Now, we're going to pause on goat demons for a minute. We're going to go a couple of chapters forward to Leviticus 20, and I want you to see this. What I want you to see is that not all demonic religions, if the people of God worship them, have the same consequence. So if you worship the goat demon, Azazel, you're kicked out, you get handed over to the God you're worshipping. But Leviticus 20 actually now goes into a different issue here. Verse one. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, say to the people of Israel, any one of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who gives any of his children to molech shall surely be put to death. Who does it? The people of the land shall stone him with stones. You want Azazel? We'll give you over to him. Die with him in the wilderness.
[00:23:23] You want Malech. The moment we hear you left camp and sacrificed one of your children to this vile, disgusting God. The people of Israel were obligated to take your life in that moment.
[00:23:36] Verse three, he says, I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because he has given one of his children to molech to make my sanctuary unclean and profane my name. You went out there, did that, then came back within the boundaries of the camp under Yahweh's protection, out of the jurisdiction of Azazel and Malik. You brought that darkness into the camp and you had the audacity to approach or even get in proximity to the tabernacle. Nope, not happening. Verse four. And then the people also have a responsibility, not just by the way, not just to kill. The guy says this, and if the people of the land do it all, close their eyes to that man, like, I can't see it, I can't see it. Nope, not looking. Not looking, not looking, not looking.
[00:24:26] When he gives one of his children to Malik and they don't put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan or his family, and I will cut them off from among the people, him and all who follow him in hoarding after.
[00:24:46] There are nobody's going to put up with worship of Azazel.
[00:24:50] There are some evils that we just cannot watch happen. And for Israel, their silence in the face of this level of evil is making them culpable. Now, I know you're begging right now. Could we talk about goat demons more? All right, let's go back to Leviticus 17.
[00:25:08] Why would they worship a goat demon when Yahweh is in their midst? I give you three reasons. Number one, the goat demon had actual power.
[00:25:22] People don't worship demonic things explicitly because they're powerless and ineffective. The prince of the power of the air, Satan himself, has actual power, limited as it is. So people do dabble because there are things that they can do for you in this world.
[00:25:44] Why would they worship a goat demon instead of Yahweh? Here's the second one.
[00:25:48] Goat demon worship is familiar. It's what they did.
[00:25:52] I'm in your territory. I don't want to upset the goat demon. I'm on your land. And so if this is what you want, you want blood, drugs and drugs and sexuality, I'll do it. If that's how I protect my family and I get to have some fun in the process, let's do it.
[00:26:09] But bigger than all that, I think the third reason is I think one of the most important, the goat demon offered immediate solutions in contrast to Yahweh.
[00:26:24] I need you to see the fundamental difference between what demons offer and what Yahweh offers.
[00:26:32] Demons offer immediate relief from pain and problems.
[00:26:37] How? Two ways. Number one, through experiences that numb the pain. By the way, this has been his age old trick from the very beginning. Drugs and sexuality? Where do we run when things don't feel good? Where do we go to to numb the pain? The same old, same old, from the very beginning. And he offers it in a way that is extreme. And then the result of your participation in this is not just the temporary relief from having to deal with the weight of your problems, but when you do this with the demonic realm, there's actual benefit that happens in your life. But here's the deal. When you're drunk, are your problems still real there and waiting for you? When you sober up? For sure, for sure. And when you self medicate with you name it, fill in the blank sexuality or anything else? When you're back to normal and you have to go back to your life, what's still waiting for you? Strong as ever. Your problems sometimes though, when you would engage in these demonic religions, they would offer you temporary relief, which would bring you back.
[00:27:47] Demons offer immediate relief from pain and problems by using their real power to make a real difference. Let me illustrate the danger of this.
[00:27:58] I want you to imagine you owe somebody a million dollars, $1 million. You see it, you're there, you can't pay it. And your first payment is due. And you go to somebody and you say, can you help me? And they say, I'll give you $10,000. Covers your first payment. And you are so relieved. You have a month. Well, at the end of the month you go back and you say, I've been trying, I don't have it.
[00:28:25] Can you help me? They give you another $10,000.
[00:28:29] Except this time there's a stipulation. They need you to do something for them. Now, here's the problem. You're already in debt. A million dollars to one person. But now you're in debt to a demon. Again, you've got two debtors at this point. And so you do the thing. You come back a third time and you say, I need help. This time they only give you 5000, half the monthly payment and they ask for more. And this is the nature of how the demonic realm works. You have real problems and they offer temporary solutions and they lie about what's coming. And then you get these temporary solutions and then you come back and what you find is not only do you have your original problem, which is you and God, but now you got a demon problem and it's one big trick to trap you and to keep you in its snare. The demonic lure. It's this immediate relief. False promises of more to come lies to cover the inevitable destruction of body, community and soul. This is what they do. Now fast forward to the 21st century and we're not dealing with goat sacrifices and hallucinogenic drugs in a state of fury, whatever. We're not dealing with that. But you are dealing with the same fundamental options.
[00:29:52] Numb yourself.
[00:29:54] Ignore it.
[00:29:56] You'll be fine.
[00:29:58] It'll help. And all it does is it offers you something that it can never deliver on. And if you just talk to person after person after person, you fill in the blank with whatever the sin is. I thought it would solve it. It made me feel better. It gave me temporary relief. And all it did is trap you more and more and more. Let's contrast this with yahweh.
[00:30:18] He rarely offers immediate relief.
[00:30:23] I guarantee the vast majority of us have heard God say not yet to the majority of things in our life that hurt, that we want Him to solve. And over and over again, it's not yet, it's not yet, it's not yet, it's not yet. And then here's a demon who will say to you, I'll give you relief.
[00:30:42] I'll help you out. I mean, it'll cost you, but I got your back. And they're lying about the real larger agenda here, which is to destroy your life. At the end of the day, they only come to steal, kill and destroy. That's it. That's their objective. So they're lying to you. And Yahweh knows two things and he legislates accordingly. Number one, our greatest problem is eternal, and it's with Him.
[00:31:08] So whatever is going on in Yahweh's solution, it is going to prioritize. Number one, you personally being reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. If you have never done that, whatever God's solution is for you, this is what he wants first and foremost. And if you are a Christian, let me just be very blunt, right? You've already trusted in Christ. Whatever God's solution to your pain is, it will require you leaning in and being an increasingly close relationship with Him. He is not interested in offering you and I a solution that doesn't make us closer to Him. Do you see this?
[00:31:48] We want immediate relief. God is he is playing the long game. The devil is playing the short game. He offers short game and God's like. Listen. Whatever the answer to this prayer is, my answer will require you to lean into me, to be closer to me than you ever thought of, manageable and every problem you have. I can help you. But I will not help you at the expense or the cost of you and me not being more relationally connected in the process.
[00:32:18] Yahweh knows, number two, that the majority of our future problems will be the result of our own unrepentant sin today.
[00:32:26] Go back to Leviticus 16 on the day of Atonement. The priests have all their jobs, you have the sacrifices, but the people had a responsibility. And the words that the text uses are very interesting.
[00:32:38] The Bible says that the people's responsibility for a 24 hours period is to quote, afflict themselves.
[00:32:45] What that means is three things. Number one, it means that we are to fast for these 24 hours. Number two, it means we're going to substitute our fasting for prayer and not just any kind of prayer, but prayers of deep introspection and confession of our own sin. And then, number three, we're going to cease from all joyous activities for 24 hours. It is a day devoted to looking into your own heart and repenting and owning and giving vocabulary to what is going on in your life. Because here's the deal. Here's what the Lord knows. Your soul needs to be in proximity to me. And yes, I could fix it. But the core of the problem, it's just going to come back again and again and again. It's going to grow and get bigger and bigger. And this is what's so striking about God's solution to the majority of our problems. I'll help you. I'll say yes.
[00:33:37] Number one, if it doesn't make you and me closer, I'm not interested.
[00:33:41] And number two, if there's sin here, you got to dig it out. You might be 1% culpable dig it out, because that 1% is going to come back to you whether it's next year or five years from now. And God is playing the long game with his people. And here comes the evil one. Go, demon. Immediate relief numb you for a night, a party you'll never forget. Stays in Vegas. Stays in Vegas, stays in the wilderness. Stays in the wilderness.
[00:34:09] And God's like, Listen, you want the goat demon?
[00:34:13] Here's the new rule lying in the sand. You can have them. You will never come back into this community.
[00:34:21] You will be cast out.
[00:34:23] Or you can have Yahweh, you can have Him. But if you have Him, you only worship Him. So you got to remember this notion. They're like, well, I've got a problem. I can go to this God for this. I can go to this God for this. I can go to this God for that. And what he's saying is, I am the solution to all of your problems. There are now no other solutions because they're all demon solutions.
[00:34:46] They're all essentially created by demons to trap you, destroy you, to steal, kill and destroy. That's it. And Yahweh is offering you life.
[00:34:57] I'm telling you, it's not easy to repent, and it is not easy to wait. It is not easy to say no to the immediate relief that the devil offers you. When God's like, you lean into me and we're going to do this together, and as long as you and me are connected, then we can work on this thing. It's a very different strategy. But don't we do this with our kids? Do we take our kids? Do we teach them to take the easy way out only to have long term pain? No. It's so funny, because all good parents teach their kids this. Say no to the easy thing now, so you can say yes to the great thing later. And this is fundamentally how God parents, his people. So we go to Him and we say, fix my problem. And he's like if I fix your problem, you're just going to recreate it later and it's only going to be worse and it's going to hurt other people. How about we go to the heart of the issue?
[00:35:48] So I've got one. So what?
[00:35:51] Choose yahweh's long game of trust and repentance and reject the demonic trap of short game relief believer. There is a trap uniquely designed for you, where the devil will offer you something quick, easy and painless for now, only to catch you later. I'm not even going to begin to articulate them all because I have a hunch you already know what your traps are.
[00:36:21] And if you don't, it's time to lean into the Lord and say, reveal to me the places where I am uniquely susceptible to these ridiculous games. I don't want to be, I don't want to repeat the same sin over and over again, year in, year out. I don't want to take this with me and God, whatever this means, whatever the process looks like, will you just be with me? If you're not with me, I can't do this.
[00:36:41] I would rather have you in pain, you in suffering, you in brokenness than not, you in ease.
[00:36:50] And that's the long game.
[00:36:53] And maybe you're here and you have never trusted in Christ before and you're like, listen, the short game, it's easy, it's fun. And here's the deal. The short game always results in hell with Azazel separation from God.
[00:37:08] The long game is to trust in Christ to come to Him and tell him you are sorry for your sins and that you believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Not just as a concept, but I am a sinner, God, I have sinned against you Jesus, you are my God. You died for my sins and you were raised from the dead. This is the only solution, period to getting out of these traps.
[00:37:31] And so if you have never done that, maybe you're here and you're like, yes, this is my life. I keep giving myself over to short term relief only to have long term pain. At the end of the day, I'm stuck. And what God offers you is forgiveness, redemption, the power of the Holy Spirit, a restart with him, which by the way is the point of the day of Atonement. The people of God have their sins paid for and they are covered and they get a full fresh restart with yahweh. And if you're in this room and you've trusted in Christ the day you trusted in Christ, that was your day of atonement and you were given a forever restart with God and that is available for any human being on the planet who trusts in Jesus Christ. So if you've never done that, I just want to encourage you, you can pray to God at any time and you can tell him I have sinned against you, I am sorry. And I believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And his promise is that anybody who actually means it will be forgiven cleansed, and you will be set free from the domain of darkness. You'll be set free from your sin, and you will have everything you need. I cannot offer you something better than forgiveness, cleansing and power, not through short term relief of demonic traps, but through the power of God who designed you, loves you, and made you. If that's a decision you want to make today, tell somebody you came with. Come talk to one of us afterwards. We would just love to support you and help you take a next step. We're going to celebrate communion here in just a moment and I just want to pray for a moment. Pray for each of us that God would well up in us. You hear me say this almost every week. True gratitude that we would not take for granted what God has given us through the shed blood and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father, love you. Thank you for shining a light on the tricks, schemes, traps of the demonic realm, the false religion, the false ideas, the false doctrines. Your word is just replete with all of these tricks and traps and schemes laid out for humanity so that when we see them, we can identify them. And God, I'm also so thankful that you are not the God who just makes things easy and then walks away. But you love us. You want relationship with us. You want holiness in us. You want us to dig out the heart issues that have made our lives exceptionally difficult and only are going to make them harder if we don't deal with it.
[00:39:52] God, it is so good to be a son or daughter of the Most High King who loves us.
[00:40:00] Lord, we are grateful that when we trusted in Christ, we were transferred out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved Son. And so as we remember what you have done for us, would you give us renewed joy and thanksgiving for what you have done for us? Because had you not done it, we would be slaves to sin and under the domain of the devil. Thank you for freedom. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for being so good it we love you and we pray all of this in Jesus name. Amenville. Church amen.
