transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:01] Well, howdy, Spotify. Thank you for tuning in to Pastor Mark's sermon this week. I wanted to tell you real quick, we'll get you to the sermon in just a second, what Real Faith is. Real Faith exists for one reason, to get bold, practical Bible truth to as many people as possible. Pastor Mark and his family launched Real Faith to help people grow strong in faith and live out God's truth in real life. What started as a simple online library of sermons and daily devotionals has grown into a global Bible teaching movement. By God's grace, Real Faith content has reached over 800 million people and generated over 2.8 billion impressions and impacted over 150 countries. All that to say, we are trying to reach the nations with Bible teaching. And you're one of the people that are helping us do that. And when you share, like, subscribe, whatever it is here on Spotify, it is a huge blessing to us. And we want to give something back to you guys. If you're enjoying this sermon, we create a resource every week called Daily Devos. They happen every single day of the week, Monday through Friday, and we send them right to your phone, right in the morning so you can start your day off with Jesus from a word from Pastor Mark. So if you text DIVO to 99383, that's DIVO to 99383, we'll send you a short, practical, Bible-oriented, daily devotional every single morning. And if these sermons and teachings bless you, we invite you to partner with Real Faith. You can do that by sharing this content, praying with us, or you can give financially. We couldn't do what we do here at Real Faith without financial partners, because we are a non-profit and we are donor-supported. So if you text PARTNER to 99383, that's PARTNER to 99383, you could join with us and help get Bible teaching out to 150 nations, hopefully more, whenever you get the Internet there. So with that guys, it's sermon time.

Speaker 2:
[02:38] Here's a big question, what would Elijah do, amen? We are gonna spend a few months answering that question, dear friends. Here's what I need to do. I need to pray. I think this is the most difficult, prophetic, clarifying, exhausting, frustrating, troubling sermon I've preached in 27 years. And we're living in the days of Elijah, and the question is, what would Elijah do? Father God, I pray against the enemy of servants, their works and the facts. We pray against the passive spirit of Ahab that has captured a generation of young men and destroyed and ruined and wrecked them and sent them out of the workforce and out of the church, out of life as we know it and into passivity. We pray against the Jezebel spirit that is seducing entire generations and nations that is controlling and destroying and wrecking and ruining and deceiving. And we say in Jesus' name, the Lord rebuke you. Holy Spirit, we invite you into this time, we invite you into this moment. Holy Spirit, I didn't intend to start here, but apparently this is where we begin. We begin with you. We begin with prayer. We begin with invitation and invocation. God, we didn't come just to go to church. We came to go to war. We didn't come to just hear some words, but hear a word from God. Holy Spirit, would you anoint me as your servant? Would you forgive me of my sins, cleanse me of my unrighteousness, and give me that profound favor of serving you and loving and serving people that you care so much for that you sent your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for so that he could rescue them from the domain of darkness and usher them into the kingdom of light. Holy Spirit, we invite your anointing on this time in Jesus' name. Amen. Here's where I'll start. If you've ever gone in to have an eye exam, they show you the chart on the wall, and then they drop lenses in front of your eyes, and they ask this question, can you see, can you see, can you see? And the answer is no, no, no, until the right prescription drops before your eyes, and then you're suddenly overjoyed. Now I can finally see clearly. I had that experience in December. God spoke to me and said to preach a series on Elijah. In 27 years, I think I've only done one other study on a character in the Bible. I tend to go through books of the Bible. And my wife Grace and I were on a break and trying to get some rest, and I started studying Elijah. The next thing I know, I sat there for two days, maybe three. Didn't really speak, didn't really eat, didn't really get up. Just kept studying, and God kept revealing. When it was all done, it was a 70-some thousand word book. It was a terrible vacation, but it was a great revelation. And what I realized was that Elijah is the lens for the days in which we live. I want to have you look through the life and lens of Elijah, and I want you to interpret current cultural realities and see behind them the spiritual forces that are at work. If you disagree with me, just reserve your judgment till the end. Let me start by saying that we live in a day that is very much like the days of Elijah. And we will jump into Elijah in 1 Kings 17 and we'll study right through to 2 Kings 2 over the course of four months. But his day, like our day, was war on every front. Political war, sexual war, gender war, spiritual wars, parental wars, cultural wars, educational wars. We live in an insane day. We're arguing over birthing people, pregnant people, people who can menstruate, gender pronouns. We've got males and female sports. We recently had in Wales a 12 year old man who identified, excuse me, a grown man who identifies as a 12 year old girl competing against little girls in cricket and hurting them. And no one would say anything because they didn't want to offend him. All of a sudden, mental health is a civil right. In addition, we're not allowed to just have our children go to the bathroom without guarantee that there won't be some predator there who has gender dysphoria and confusion. We have drag shows for kids all the way down to babies this week in the UK. Anytime a child is in a sexualized environment, it's not entertainment, it's grooming. In addition, if you say anything about it, there is cancel culture where they come to de-platform you and crucify you. It comes under the auspices of social justice, equity, systematic racism, patriarchy and victimhood. Victims of nothing, I would add. In addition, they would say that since there is no visible leader, this is not a genuine movement, and since there is no visible teacher, there is no legitimate movement. And I would say there is clearly a leader, it's just not someone who is physical. Behind it all, there is something powerfully at work in the spiritual realm of the unseen. That's why we call it being woke. Today's topic is New Day's Old Demons. It's a prophetic word about progressive wokeness. The Bible doesn't just tell us what happened, but what always happens. And not what's just going on in the world that we see, but going on behind that world in the world we don't see. The Apostle Paul says it this way in Ephesians 6-12, we are fighting, and friends, we are fighting. We are fighting, we are fighting for freedom, we are fighting for faith, we are fighting for family, we are fighting for future. We are not fighting against flesh and blood. It's not people that we hate. It's the powers, principalities, and spirits that are deceiving, and using, and enslaving, and destroying those people that we have no regard for. We are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits. What is referred to as being woke is a demonic counterfeit of being born again. Jesus said that we must be born again. That means awakened by the Spirit of God to our own sin. Being woke is the counterfeit of that. It's being awakened by demonic spirits. So that you will understand that you are a good person and not a sinner, and you don't need Jesus, you are your own Savior. Let's begin as we set the stage for the story of Elijah. It will take me four months to teach through his life. In addition, I will do four weeks starting this Wednesday at Real Men, just on the Jezebel spirit of controlling women and the passive Ahab spirit that has controlled men. We will start, and this is just the introduction to the series, but we will start in 1 Kings 11. You can read it for yourself later. I will just summarize it. This is the backdrop for the days of Elijah. There was a king named David. He had a son named Solomon. God appointed that son to build a temple where he would be worshiped. We looked in the Song of Songs that we just completed, how Solomon had a fantastic, amazing wife. And God told him, be content. Don't commit adultery. Don't lust after other women. Just be satisfied with the bride that I have given you. If you marry foreign women, they worship foreign gods, demons. They'll cause your heart to go astray and you'll lose love for the real God. He disobeyed, defied, disregarded God. He took 700 wives and 300 concubines. And it says in 1 Kings 11, they turned his heart from the Lord. Not only did he build a temple for God, he also worshiped Astra and Milcom, or Molech, depending upon which translation you prefer. Astra was a female deity. Molech was a male. It was said that they had this horrific, lustful, disgusting relationship. And they would encourage people to gather together at these quote unquote churches that Solomon built. In our day, if you had a strip club and a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and you put them together, he would have called that a church. You worship and then you sacrifice the child because when you worship sex, you murder children. That's exactly what he did. God was so angry at him. Let me say this, if you're not angry, you're not paying attention. If God gets angry, it must be godly on occasion to get angry. You're gonna find with Elijah, Ahab, the passive king, calls him the troubler of Israel. The point is this, sometimes we need someone to cause a little trouble. Sometimes it's a divine anointing and appointing to cause a little trouble. My volume is not out of anger, it's out of passion and concerning love. And what God told him was, do not do this, or there will be a tearing of the kingdom. And there was a tearing of the kingdom into the northern and southern kingdoms. Israel in the north, Judah in the south. They were torn north and south, we are torn left and right. Our culture is fractured, our politics is broken. People do not regard one another as human beings. We live in a day much like the days of Elijah. That sets the political, cultural, social, moral, spiritual backdrop. Next, a principle for Elijah that is true for everything in the Bible, God creates Satan counterfeits. It says in Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God, he created. Second Thessalonians 2, verses 9 and 10, speaks of the work of Satan, counterfeit power and signs and miracles. He'll use every kind of deception. God creates Satan counterfeits. What you're going to see in the storyline of Elijah, start reading 1 Kings 17. It could actually start at the end of 16, go all the way to 2 Kings 2. You're going to see the Holy Spirit versus the unholy spirits. You will see truth versus lies. You will see worship versus idolatry. You will see God's kingdom versus Ahab's kingdom. You will see a prophet named Elijah against the 850 false prophets of Baal and Astra. And you will see God versus government. There is always a conflict between God and government because God declares and decrees that he is the highest authority and that the only authority that government has is derivative from God. So, it says in Romans 13, government gets its authority from God. What government wants to do is be the highest authority, remove and replace God. So, what the government does in the story of Elijah, hear me in this, closes all the churches. And it sends forth false prophets to keep the churches closed. See, we talk about fake news and the biblical language that would be false prophecy. A false prophet is one who says something will happen, causes a spirit of fear to come among the people, so that they give up their liberties and stop worshiping God. And what they are told is a lie, and it doesn't come to pass. A few years ago, our government hired a bunch of false prophets to tell us that the end of the world was coming. Unless we stop going to church and stop going to school and stop going to work. Unless we all surrender our liberties and rights. A spirit of fear gripped planet Earth. For the first time in the history of the world, the Church of Jesus Christ was closed. It was closed. Same things happening in the days of Elijah. All the churches were closed. And COVID-19 was a series of false prophecies that were promulgated by the government. If you're older, you have comorbidities, you're in a high-risk category, be safe. For the rest of us, we don't need cratered mental health, devastated churches, and historic death that we hand to our children and grandchildren, and increase government dependence. We need dependence on God, not government. But what government tried to do through the false prophets was replace God with the authority of government. This is not political. This is biblical. And what happens is the Bible steamrolls everything because God has authority overall. My next point, syncretism leads to Satan. 1st King 16 will jump into the text. King Ahab took for his wife Jezebel. Those are two of our featured characters in the storyline along with Elijah. The daughter of Ethbal, I'll explain the meaning of his name, king of the Sedonians and went and served Baal and worshiped him. Everyone worships something. If you don't worship the real God, you worship a demon God. He erected an altar of Baal in the house of Baal, and he made an asherah. That's a phallic symbol that was like a marquee sign encouraging people to come and to have sexual sin and immorality. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. We'll hit this again in a few weeks. Every generation gets more evil and wicked. We are not evolving, we are devolving. We are not getting better, we are getting worse. And we are so deceived and evil that we live under the myth that we are somehow closer to being like Jesus than they were a few thousand years ago. Syncretism is this, when you take what God says and you take what God forbids and you affirm both. Well, thank you for joining us here on Spotify. If you don't know me, my name is Pastor Mark Driscoll. I have been in the pulpit for a little more than 30 years, preaching and teaching the Bible. I have been faithfully married to my wife since 1992. We've got five kids. We got six grandkids. And I would love for you to know more about Real Faith Ministry, where we send Bible teaching around the world. And if you would pray for us, we would appreciate it. And if you'd like to partner with us, we would invite you to do so. We are supported by generous people who give financially, so that we can get God's Word out to the world. If you'd like to do so, text PARTNER to 99383. Again, text PARTNER to 99383. We love you, we thank you, and I appreciate you allowing me to help you learn God's Word. Syncretism is where you have that which is for God and that which is anti-God, and you try and bring them together with some sort of reconciliation. That's the buzzword, that's the virtue signaling word for syncretism, is reconciling. What we have here is Baal and Astra, two demon gods. Religions are propagated by powerful demonic forces in the unseen realm. Baal was considered the chief male deity, Astra was considered the chief female deity, and it is said that they had illicit sexual intimate relations. The ancient worship was very pornographic, and when people would gather for church, they would do the unthinkable, unspeakable, unimaginable. These two were considered the god and goddess over fertility, crops, birth of children, and the rain. That's why when God answers Elijah's request and doesn't allow rain to come for three years, it is a direct declaration of war against Baal, the god of rain. They were also pro-abortion. To worship these gods and goddesses, you would commit sexual immorality, and then you would take your child, and you would literally offer it as a sacrifice to a demon god. And so what you had in these days of Israel was syncretism. You had the history of the worship of God according to the Ten Commandments of Moses in the Bible, and you added to that the worship of demon gods. The very same thing that's happening everywhere in Western civilization and culture. I'll give you an example. This is the state supreme court in New York. Standing for many years was a monument to Moses. He, with the Ten Commandments opening and showing that we are to be governed by rule of law. Recently, a statue was added of Medusa as a tribute to abortion. That's where people go for justice. That's exactly what syncretism in ancient Israel looked like and it looks like today. You can take it off the screen before I throw up in my mouth. Welcome to New York. What happens when there is syncretism, there is apostasy. That's where people are for and anti-God. They say they are for God, but they live anti-God. They follow in the ways of Judas, not Jesus. The word apostasy comes from ancient battle. When you would go to war for your king and your kingdom, if in the middle of the battle, you change sides and you fought and warred against your king and kingdom, that was treason. It was called apostasy. What is true physically is also true spiritually. Today we would call it wokeism, deconstructionism, progressivism. We have social Marxism, and it shows up most prominently today in issues of sex and marriage and gender and parenting. And again, in the days of Elijah, they closed the churches, they closed the Christian Bible teaching schools, and they canceled and ultimately killed the prophets. These are the same days. The church was closed, Christian schools and education are under attack, the authority of parents to decide what their children learn and don't learn is now suddenly debatable. And if you should say anything, you will be deplatformed and you will be canceled. And what has happened now is the Church of Jesus Christ has been closed and it has not bounced back. We are now seeing record low church attendance in the history of our nation. Not surprisingly, we're also seeing historic levels of mental health problems. In addition, a lot of churches that are now open, they were so gripped by a spirit of fear during the season of false prophecies, that they are cowardly. They have lost their courage. Those pastors are soft woke. The difference between a soft woke and a true woke pastor is simply honesty and integrity and overtness. Not what they believe, but what they will declare. My next point is this, the Ahab and Jezebel spirits fly rainbow flags. Let me tell you first about the Ahab spirit and then the Jezebel spirit. Ahab and Jezebel are an ancient king and queen in Israel, but working behind them and in them and through them are powerful demonic forces that continue to this very day. Of Ahab, we are told in 1 Kings 16, 30, Ahab did evil. That word evil is also translated in a separate story regarding a man named Saul in the Bible as a tormenting demonic spirit. The reason he is so powerful is that there is a power working through him that is supernatural, but it's not the spirit of God. Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. 1 Kings 21, 25, there was none who sold himself, hear that line, friend, sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab. Ahab sold his soul to the devil like Judas Iscariot did for 30 pieces of silver. He made a deal with the devil. That's what we are told. The Ahab spirit can be working on, in, or through a man or a woman, but in my experience, most of the time, it affects men. It causes those men to be passive, cowardly, weak, fearful. You choose my words carefully. These men caused me much anger, because they don't do anything, and that's the damn problem. Evil doesn't stop itself, and passive men who allow it are complicit. Hey, I'm gonna veer off my notes for a moment. Some years ago, I was in a counseling session with a young woman who had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by a really awful boyfriend. Her father said nothing. Her father did nothing. With tears in her eyes, she told her father what happened, and she was very angry. And her father looked at me for sympathy. Wrong place to look. And he said, I don't know why she's so upset, I didn't do anything. I know Ahab, that's the problem. Men who say nothing are a problem. Men who do nothing are a problem. Men who stand up for nothing are a problem. The Ahab spirit causes men to be passive, effeminate, castrated, neutered, weak, fearful, avoiding confrontation or responsibility. It's gripped an entire generation of young men. Ahab is a passive spirit. Sometimes the Ahab spirit causes a person, let's say a man, to be passive at work, but usually it manifests itself most, most obviously at home and church. The guy who has the controlling wife, that's a Jezebel spirit, we'll talk about that in a moment. Maybe she's a little emotional or moody or crazy. Not allowed to say that, because then they go crazy, which just proves my point. And what happens is he's weak and passive at home, and these men love to get on church boards. These men love to go to seminary and Bible college. These men love to govern the church. They love to be the pastor. And I'll tell you this, if Satan can get Ahab on the board, the battle's already won. Because when evil comes, they don't fight, they surrender. They don't proclaim, they negotiate. The Ahab spirit is alive and well. It's a passivity. And it works in concert with the Jezebel spirit. Jezebel was a woman, but working in and through her was a powerful spirit that continues its work to this day. I'll prove it to you. They lived about a thousand years ago. About a thousand years later, Jesus in Revelation speaks of the Jezebel spirit. Revelation 2, 23, 24. Jesus says this to the church at Thyatira. And every church who tolerates Jezebel is the church at Thyatira. I have this against you. Do you tolerate? All you need to do to have the Jezebel spirit overtake your life, your family, your church, is tolerate it. It's all you need to do. You tolerate that woman Jezebel. Now, this is obviously a different woman. It's a thousand years from the original Jezebel. Same spirit, same named spirit, Jezebel spirit, working in and through a woman who got herself into the church and she got her way into the church because all the men, especially the male pastors, were a bunch of Ahabs. You've been to those churches. You've been to those churches. We love women and children. We want to build up men to bless women and children. We don't want weak men to let Jezebel spirits come in and hurt women and children. You tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess. She went to Bible College Seminary. She's got a degree. She's firmly qualified. Everyone says so except for the Holy Spirit. And is teaching. Oh, they love to teach. If they can't teach, they'll blog. And teaching and seducing my servants to practice what? Sexual immorality. And to eat food, sacrifice to idols, to do things that God forbids. I gave her time to repent. God's patient, gracious with everybody, including me. But she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of their works. Friends, are you dating Jezebel? Have you invited Jezebel into your life? You need to repent. And I will strike her children dead. God would rather have a child in certain situations not be brought into a demonic, seductive, perverted, molesting, destroying, traumatizing home. And I will give to each of you according to your works. But do not hold to this teaching, which some call the deep things of Satan. Well, when she married, Jezebel was young, beautiful, sensual, and purely evil. And I know you're not supposed to say that there are evil women, but there are. There are evil men. Her father was a Sedonian king. He was a high priest of Asherah. He worshiped a demon god. Their family was demonic cult leaders for generations. Now they're marrying in with supposedly God's people. Her father's name, it's mentioned, F. Bell. What it means is, here's what her father's name means, with Bell, with Bell. And it also means enjoying his favor and protection. Just like the Holy Spirit anoints some family, so does the spirit of Bell. Her name, Jezebel, means unhusbanded. And Baal is my prince. What she literally means by her name is this, I am not committed to my husband, I am committed to my demon. Where is she at, friends? Church. Church. Church. These women go to church. These women serve in church. These women lead in church. These women cause hell in church. And if an Elijah would say no, then they are victims and immediately give it a platform. So Jesus finally shows up and says, let me render my verdict. No, do not tolerate her. Do not tolerate this. Boy, if it was easy to tolerate in the days of Revelation, how much more so today? Boy, if you don't tolerate a Jezebel, pickets, protests, death threats, canceled, de-platformed, threats on your family, how do I know? I know a guy. Old demons, new days, friends. It can be a man or a woman with his spirit, but fiercely independent, under no authority, exercising supernatural authority that is derivative from the demonic realm. Very manipulative, very controlling. They will threaten you if that doesn't work. They will manipulate you if that doesn't work. Then they will throw a fit in and emotionally confuse you. And if that doesn't work, they'll go on the Internet and get a bunch of more Jezebels to create a mob. The Jezebel spirit hates the Elijah spirit. The Elijah spirit is the Holy Spirit. That's why the Elijah spirit goes to Elisha and later goes to John the Baptizer. Jezebel hates Elijah because he won't tolerate her. Sometimes you just need to say no. Sometimes you need to walk away. Sometimes you need to leave the relationship. Sometimes you need to say you need to get some help. Some of you don't have the conversation. Some of you won't have the conflict. Some of you won't draw the line. Some of you won't hold the boundary. And you're tolerating. You're tolerating. Here's the problem. Tolerance is demonic. That's my next point. Revelation 2.20. Jesus says, I have this against you. You tolerate that woman Jezebel. First Corinthians 5.1, the apostle Paul says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality. Anywhere the Jezebel spirit is tolerated, sexual sin is celebrated. And of a kind that is not even tolerated among the pagans, for a guy has his mother's wife. The church gets naughtier than the culture. We've got a few denominations like that, denominations that are abominations. Tolerance is only mentioned a few times in the Bible. It's always negative. It's always a vice to be repented of, never a virtue to be celebrated. And tolerance is the counterfeit of repentance. So I write here in Revelation 2, Jesus says, you have tolerance and you need repentance. See, the Bible says that God is good and we are bad, that the word of God is right and our behavior is wrong. Therefore, we need to repent of our sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ lived a life without sin and he died a death for sin. And he rose to forgive sin and to defeat the demonic. And we need to apologize, own, repent to the Lord Jesus, our sin, and receive him as our savior and ask him to change us because there's something wrong with us. Tolerance says, you're good, not bad. Your life is to be celebrated, not changed. You don't need Jesus. You're perfect just the way you are. In fact, you are Jesus. What does this look like? This is the first non-binary priest in the Church of England. 25 million people in the UK, 85 million people as part of the extended family of churches of the Church of England globally. This is their first non-binary priest. Tolerance instead of repentance. All you gotta do is just tolerate Jezebel. Just let her do whatever she wants. You could take that down. What's interesting is, well, not only I keep wanting to throw up in my mouth, and what's interesting in the Church of England, which is now an apostate cult, for any of those churches who adhere to these doctrines, there are a few that have not bowed their knee to Baal. They're also now allowing people to pray to God as father or mother. Because it's not enough to have a non-binary priest, now we need to have a non-binary God. And so Jesus was close when he said, our father who art in heaven, he just needs a little bit of a correction and edit for his error. My next point is this. Jezebel is a transgender spirit that castrates men. Second Kings 922 speaks of the whorings and sorceries of Jezebel. Spiritual and sexual, they always go together. Second Kings 930, now I read this and I was on vacation, wasn't much of a vacation. And you know, you read the Bible all the time your whole life, and then you're like, wait, I missed that. I learned something new every day. Read it slow. When Jehu, he's coming to kill Jezebel. When he came to Jezebel, she made sure to get her makeup done. Because she's about seduction. She's going to look her best, and maybe she can get Jehu in bed. These gals love pastors and leaders. When Jehu came to Jezebel, she painted her eyes and adorned her head, and she was surrounded by her what? Let's talk about that since you read that Bible verse with me. Her eunuchs, when they go to arrest and kill Jezebel, all the men around her are castrated. They're castrated. To serve the Jezebel spirit as a man means you need to be castrated. Today we call this gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is I have a body, but my mind doesn't feel congruent with my body. So, I don't know if you know this, I'm a male. I don't know if you know that. And so, now let's say in my mind, I was a female. And I would say, I'm a female trapped in a man's body. That means there is incongruence between my mind and my body. So one of two things need to change, my mind or my body. The Bible talks a lot about transforming your mind, renewing your mind. And Satan comes along and says, actually, we need to change your body. Let me take a deep breath. So I've never read this anywhere, I've never heard this anywhere. I'll tell you and you tell me if it's true. So we are made, according to the Bible, in the image and likeness of God, male and female, binary gender categories, two gender categories, male and female. True? True, okay. Now there are, in addition to human beings, there are divine beings. Human beings have a body, so we have a gender, male and female. Divine beings do not have a body, so they are not engendered. They are transgender. In the unseen realm of the divine beings, there are angels and demons. Angels and demons in the Bible, true or false, when they do appear, sometimes they appear male, sometimes they appear female. True or false? If you know the Bible, it's true. So spirits are non-binary. They are transgender. They live on a spectrum. True or false? In the Bible, angels never show up to have sexual relations. Holy angels never show up to have sexual relations with human beings. True or false? True. Demons often show up to be involved in sexual relations between human beings. True or false? True. So, God made us in his image and likeness, and demons want us to remake ourselves in their image and likeness. To become non-binary, transgender on a spectrum, which means we must castrate the men. We see this interaction between human beings and unholy divine beings in Genesis 6. It says that the sons of God, that's language from Job chapter 38, four divine beings, they sought to mate with the daughters of men, those are human beings, to create a super race that would be a counterfeit of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, spiritual father, but a physical mother. Everything God creates, Satan counterfeits. So, let me go deeper. So I was sitting on my vacation, and I started, I'd never heard this or read this my whole life. That the demonic realm is transgender, non-binary, on a spectrum, and that men who are going to serve the Jezebel spirit have to be castrated and become defiant of their God assigned gender and sex. In the ancient world, there was a cult, a religion, that worshiped a female deity named Cybele. I believe behind it was Jezebel. In various cultures, the worship of a female deity is also called the Anatolian mother goddess, Cybele, Agdesis, Rhea, Mittertheon, and Magna mater. Here's what's interesting. In the history of the world, and I'll read it from a non-Christian textbook in a moment, wherever the worship of a female deity spread, the high priests and those who worshiped her were men who had to be castrated, transgender, wear women's clothes, make up, and hair, and go out in public, singing and dancing for all ages shows as drag queens. New days, old demons. Some within the trans community will admit this, and they will say that Cybele is quote unquote the trans god. The same spirit may have been at work in the New Testament days of Paul. Just rabbit trail, Galatians, Paul's arguing with them, and he says early on in the book, who has bewitched you? Meaning there's a demonic spirit of confusion over the church. And then in chapter five, verse 12, he says, why don't you men go all the way and castrate yourselves? He's saying the way you're thinking is Jezebelian. Julius Firmicus Maternus, he was a Roman Latin writer who became a Christian apologist during the reign of Constantine. He speaks of the galley priests of Cybele and Attis in the mid fourth century AD. Here's what he says, okay, fourth century, let me quote the Christian scholar. Of those priests who served female deities, they wear effeminately nursed hair and dress in soft clothes. They can barely hold their heads up by their limp necks. Then having made themselves alien to masculinity, swept up by plain flutes, they call on their goddess to fill them with an unholy spirit. Augustine, the church father, says this, with dripping hair and painted faces, with flowing limbs and feminine walk, they pass through the streets and alleys of Carthage, exacting from merchants that by which they might shamefully live. Augustine says, one of our biggest problem, we have a bunch of Ahab men who are dressing up like women, feeling as victims expecting to be compensated so they don't have to go to work. He was a Democrat. Now, okay, now let me, let me read a historical textbook, The History of Religions. One of the greatest threats to Christianity in the first century is one of the greatest threats to Christianity in this century. Transgender sexuality without any god-given restrictions. I'll read it to you. So then I started digging, and I found The History of Religions. It's this textbook on religions. It's not a Christian book. Here's what it reports. Competition between Christian and pagan in the ancient world is a battle between believers and transgender priests. That's the backdrop. Here's the quote. These infamous men, with their impure, unchaste, polluted bodies, were none other than the galley, the priests of the god Sibillinatus, whose mystery religion constituted one of early Christianity's major rivals. Time and time again, Christian apologists cited the galley as representative of all they abhorred in pagan culture and religion, and of all the outrages of the galley, none horrified them more than the radical manner in which they transgressed the boundaries of gender. The History of Religions textbook goes on to say, there's this very unique phenomenon in world history. Wherever there is the worship of a female god, goddess, the men are all castrated in transgender, who serve as their high priests and worshipers. They dress up with makeup, and they go out in public, and the description is exactly a drag show. Now, what's interesting, the History of Religions says, we see this phenomena globally and historically. We see it in India, in Pakistan, in Rome. We see it in different religions, in different regions, in different languages, in nations, in cultures. And then this is where I literally just had a mind melt. They said and summarized, what's so interesting is we see this same phenomena. Worship the goddess, castrate the men, in all these religions and cultures and regions and languages. And we have no way to explain it, because they didn't ever intersect and there's no point of connection. How could you have the same thing happening in all these places? And literally, they came to the conclusion, we don't have an explanation. Yeah, we do. New days, same demons. The same spirits that were at work in the Old Testament in the days of Rome, continue their work to this very day. So, I'll give you an example of what this looks like. The United Methodist Church on the right has got Mrs. Pentecost. This is a drag queen who is finishing their ordination to become licensed clergy. And their ministry is, quote unquote, ministry is to go into United Methodist Churches and to go up on the stage where the Bible should be taught and to do sermons for children. Um, that's a denomination that's an abomination. Won't even say what that person says, not sure what the pronoun is, but what they've said about the Bible. So let me say this, you're very uncomfortable, but it's true. You're very troubled, because now you're starting to see. You're gonna want to attack me, but I'm not the issue. What I want to do, I want to look at this spirit and how now it is at work powerfully in our world. So Jezebel and Ahab at Black Lives Matter. The original Black Lives Matter mission statement has largely been scrubbed from the internet. Now, if somebody says, well, do Black Lives Matter? Well, of course they do. People are made in the image and likes of God and God loved them so much that Jesus died for them. But the movement isn't about that. It's deception. It's fake news or false prophecy. Here was the original statement that's largely been scrubbed from the internet. We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead. This is a gender or sex issue. I thought, we do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege, male, female, and uplift black trans folks, especially black trans women. We build space that is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments which are men-centered. We dismantled the patriarchal practice. That means fathers. That requires mothers to work double shifts so that they can mother in the private even as they participate in public justice work. We disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure. Mom, dad, kids. We foster a queer-affirming network when we gather. We do so with the intent of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of hetero-normative thinking, or rather the belief that in all the world are heterosexual unless he, she, or they disclose otherwise. Why is this such a powerful movement? Because it's spiritual. Our war is not against flesh and blood, but powers, principalities, and spirits. This movement was founded by three people, a counterfeit Trinity, Elise Gars, Patrice Culliers, who's from Prescott, and Opal Tometi, all of which are non-traditional sex and gender roles. And what they're saying is, we are anti-Christ. If you are saying, we are anti-male-female, we are anti-father, we are anti-nuclear family, you are anti-Christ. You are. And anti-Christ means to remove and replace. And that's what this is. Black Lives Matter is a secular religion with a spiritual force that is now imposing itself on churches governed by Ahab leaders who will not stand up to a Jezebelian spirit. This is why Adweek had this headline. They said LGBTQ Pride festivals are becoming Black Lives Matter protests. This is the embassy in Korea, the American embassy. We've got the smallest flag, and make no mistake, that is a spiritual statement of an invasion, not from a foreign physical but a foreign spiritual power and kingdom. It is completely demonic. Let me just say this. You can take that down. We have a whole month dedicated to pride, which is a sin. Pride is a sin. Humility is a virtue. And it is denoted by a rainbow flag, which again is a counterfeit. In the days of Noah, when God flooded the earth to judge the sinners, he sent a rainbow covenanting that he would not flood the earth again. In the ancient world, you would go to war, not with a gun, but with a bow. And when the soldier came home, the symbol of peace was he would literally hang his bow on the wall and the war was over. And what God said was, I've judged sin, but I'm willing to forgive it. And now what we have done is we have let the Jezebel spirit take that flag rainbow and use it to mock and defy God. Another modern day example, because everybody loves to go to church and get a cute inspirational talk, but I want to give you a lens by which to see the world. Ahab and Jezebel at Disney. This is LaToya, show her photo just briefly, that's good, thank you. LaToya Ravina, she is executive producer of Disney TV Animation. She said, and I quote, In my little pocket of proud family Disney, the show runners were super welcoming to my not at all secret gay agenda. I felt that sense of, I don't have to be afraid to have these two characters in the background, I was just wherever I could adding queerness. Here's what she said, No one would stop me, and no one was trying to stop me. If I could translate that for you, what she's saying is, I work at Disney, my name is Jezebel, and all my coworkers are named Ahab. They tolerate me, and so I do what I want. For 65 years, Disney was governed by four keys, safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. In 2025, they added one more, inclusion. Now, all sexualities, all genders, all religions need to be included, which is really weird, because if you don't have a vaccination and wanna talk about Jesus, it doesn't seem like you're included. I'm just throwing that in there. And you're not allowed to say, welcome men and women, boys and girls. Gender pronouns are now gone at Disney. On Disney+, they have removed movies like Dumbo, Peter Pan, The Aristocrat, Swiss Family Robinson, Lady and the Tramp, and Jungle Book. But here's what you will find, this cartoon on Disney+, it's Little Demon. The story line is this, a woman gets pregnant with Satan's baby. It's a counterfeit of the incarnation. Her 13-year-old daughter is the Antichrist. It's not entertainment. It's evangelism. The woman who is the voice of the 13-year-old Antichrist's daughter is a pagan, and she said, and I quote, I love that we are normalizing paganism. Now, at this point, if we're still on the internet. Some of you would ask this question, and I think this question is very reasonable, and I think it is required to be answered. What's the motivation? Some of you would think, or some of you would question, is this mean, is this cruel, is this unloving, isn't this hateful? This is pure love. I spent most of my life in urban Seattle preaching the gospel to a bunch of people who were sexually addicted, assaulted, and abused. I've been up against the Jezebel spirit for almost 30 years of my life. I'm a father, I got five kids, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25. Two are married, two are in college, one's in high school, one got engaged last night. It was a good night at our house. Pastors get into ministry for the same reason that firefighters put on a hat, or teachers go into a classroom. They love people and they're trying to help. It's the same reason that a nurse puts on the scrubs. People are hurting and we're here to help. I wouldn't be a pastor if I didn't love you. Thank you, brother. And at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if something is hurting people, is it loving to let that continue or is it most loving to tell them that they're hurting themselves? That's my question. Like when I go to the doctor, for example, again, I'm off my notes, but every once in a while, he tells me things that are very offensive. But he's trying to help me. So how's it going in a day when we have record transgenderism, when children are taking purity blockers to deny the natural course of life that God intended for their body, that we have gender mutilation for minors, that we're having children start taking hormones that just so you know, they will be taking for the rest of their life because you're fighting gravity and creation. What does that do to your mind, your body, your soul? We don't know, it's a great experiment and it's not going well. We also have incredible tolerance of all perspectives and ideologies and sexualities. And in some places today, we won't even tell your parents because the teacher knows better than the mother. What we also have is record catastrophic, cataclysmic mental health. You would think with so much tolerance, people would be flourishing and instead, they're dying. I'll give you a few statistics from a recent Pew Research study and also the CDC. So we're just going to follow the signs. Historic record levels of young men, not in church, not in college, not in the workforce, not in a romantic relationship, still living with their parents dependent upon the government. Addicted, broken, fearful. Their grip strength is half of their grandmothers at the same age. Their testosterone level is half of their grandfathers at the same age. Literally, Ahabs. A whole generation of Ahabs. The only thing they're good at is killing themselves. Young men are four times more likely than young women to kill themselves. It's not going well. How about young women? 14% of young women report being sexually assaulted. It's the most under reported crime. 60% of young women say they have persistent sadness and hopelessness. 41% say they have had poor mental health in the last 30 days. What about men and women? Young men and women? Persistent sadness and hopelessness among young men and women is 42%. In the LGBTQ plus community, it's 70%. 18% of young men and women have a suicide plan to kill themselves. In the LGBTQ plus community, it's 37%. 10% of young adults have tried to commit suicide. And in the LGBTQ plus community, it's 20%. 40% of high school students say that they have at least two weeks a year where they are incapable of functioning due to mental health issues. I am telling you that there is a God. I am telling you that God made us male and female. I am telling you that God wrote a book that tells us how to live a blessed life. I am telling you when we ignore that book and we defy that God, we not only sin against God, we destroy ourselves. And I say that not because I hate you, but because I love you. And somebody needs to say this. And if the Ahabs won't, a few Elijah's will. Now, in saying this, what we need to ask when we're dealing with young people, and I'm a father, these people are the age of my children. I care deeply. Got to ask questions like, was there childhood trauma? Maybe we deal with that before we let them make irreversible decisions for the rest of their life. Was there assault or abuse? Well, that certainly could have harmed and confused them. Is there anything demonic, spiritual going on here? Do their parents know? Do they have mental health? And if they have mental health, are they in the best state of making a life altering decision? As a general rule, if you're saying, those people have mental health and as minors, we need to let them make some of the most significant, irreversible decisions of their entire life. I'm saying that's abusive. Let's get them some help and let's get them some time and let's see where they're at down the road. We live in a day, friends, where you got two options. You can be in Ahab or you can be in Elijah. That's it. Let me end with a little bit of hope. We've got about an hour to a minute of hope. God, here's the story of Elijah. This is the encouraging, exciting, hopeful, prayerful message of Elijah that God preserves a remnant to bring a revival. That's the story of Elijah. First Kings 19, he says there are 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. There's always a remnant. Paul quotes this in Romans. There's always people who do love Jesus, who do believe the Bible, who do hate sin, who do know the difference between the Holy Spirit and unholy spirits. They do know the difference between a male and a female and truth and lies and light and darkness and heaven and hell and repentance and tolerance. And Elijah feels like he's alone, but he's not. You feel alone, but you're not. There are days that he is exhausted. He is overwhelmed. He is frustrated and he is discouraged as you will be. And God finds him and God meets with him and God comforts him and God speaks to him and God heals him and God restores him and God renews him and God refreshes him and God resends him back into the fight. I am telling you that God will not be deceived. Everyone will reap what they sow. We want to sow into the kingdom of God. We want to sow into the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to sow into the repentance of sin. We want to sow into strong marriages. We want to sow into strong families. We want our children to be blessed and not broken. We want our lives to be blessed and not burdened. There is a God. He sends down fire from heaven in the days of Elijah. And a little bit later, he sends down a fire to the church. And those are the two options, my friend. Fire of judgment or fire of revival.