Ep 1262 | Are Demons, the Devil & Spiritual Warfare Real or Just Symbolic?

I am Unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. The last episode we were talking about the ice apocalypse because we're just kind of, we're still coming out from under Zach. You guys left today. We were supposed to do some filming and some work here along with your duck hunt experience. And then Melissa came with you, your sister. And so we enjoyed, we had her during the storm and enjoyed her and paisier daughter. But you guys got back and then you went to New York, which was like, they had a big storm on my foot. Well, what a culture shock. You go from North Carolina to Louisiana in the ice storm. Which the, the byproduct of that was bear, he'll never forget that because he got in on an epic hunt. He loved it. He did as we had a good talk about that. He got in with old Uncle J. We had a very good spiritual conversation after he left. Very, very good. But so, and then you go to New York. Tell us about it. What happened there? He told me on the way home. I said, what do you think? He said, I really, he said, J's really spoken to me. That's what he said. And he, and he re, re capped Jaws entire conversation. And it was in that moment, J said, I was, I had a moment of gratitude for you. So, well, I appreciate that. But it's not me. I mean, I've just gotten to where, I guess maybe two, since our dad, that, I mean, I feel like somebody's got to have the tough conversations. And there's something about a duck blind, especially in tough conditions. Because we had a moment while we were duck hunting. Because my dad, we had about a 15 year argument. I guess I'm where to put the blind. And we owe to pipeline, come through our land. Well, it actually, of course, as much as my dad didn't like that and fault it for years. I mean, they paid him to do this, but you know how? That was against it for a while. He was like, I don't care what you're gonna pay me. There's no pipeline coming through here, but they had this clause for the good of the people that it had to be done, and so they paid him. But it actually helped us because, you know, you can, it's under the ground. And it's like a big open territory. So we just, well, the way they worked it out was they allowed him, which most people don't want a maintainer doing thing with the pipeline, but they allowed him to do what he wanted to do, you know, with their, so we plant crops on it. And the ducks come. But along that pipeline, we argued about where to put the duck blind. And I always thought that we were about 70 yards to 150, too far north on it. And the ducks kept lighting about 100 yards to the right. And he famously would say, I heard the story about it. You've got to move where the ducks are. So one of the first things I did now that I'm kind of taking over the land, I moved that blind. And so about five days ago, I guess, we saw some ducks hit that because it finally, the water got on it. And I said, let's go hunt there the next morning. So it was an all girl blind. We got in there, and I have a picture that I'll, I'll post of our ducks. It was epic. It was a time right to that spot, right in the decoys. And so after the hunt, everybody was just like, this was unbelievable. And I was like, well, I'm going to have to ask y'all a favor. And everybody kind of looked at me because it's like, I don't usually say something like that. Because I wanted to ask you a favor. I said, when we all get to the next life in our new bodies, I don't think I'd bring this up that I was right because we killed six limits of mowlards and, and off ducks in that new hole. I mean, it was epic. We don't, we don't really know what happens in the in between stage and others to baton it. Phil always thought you fall asleep. But there is that scripture that says we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. So if that's true and Phil is witnessing, he actually may know and he may, he may be up there right now or wherever. Well, and what the end of that is, if you, if you, once he sees the truth for the truth, he'll say, you know what, oh, Jay, he was right. He was right about that. It was crazy. As we put another blind on the other end of the pipeline, never had hunted and we hunted it two days before it closed. We shot a limited ducks in less than an hour, 30 ducks. And Jay had his crew, I called him up because we had a gas and I said, you don't need to come up here. And he said, we on, I said, now get your stuff. And then they got in and they killed 30 ducks before 10 o'clock. Wow. We killed the first time and it had been hunted. So we had two blinds that were just think about it. Brand new blinds, water never got on them the whole year until the last week and we hunted them each once and killed full limits. And in the one we killed two full limits in one morning, which was incredible. We have now we're here, he'd say, yeah, now everybody's shooting and high five and it's happy, happy, happy everybody's, you know, because we killed some ducks around here. He talks about the morale change. All right, we had Jack to New York. What, what happened there? What'd you do? Well, New York was shut down too. So we got up there. It was about zero degrees, four degrees. I went up there for a conference that our church, me and one of our other pastors went up with our rides, went up to a prayer conference at John Tyson's church, at the city. And so that's like, I do this doing this. Yeah, I do. I like his passion. Very power, I was passionate. It was, yeah, it was, it was a great time. We went up there and it was, and we survived in the, you know, the freezing cold was, you know, going from, going from where we went to New York was kind of funny. It's quite the contrast, you know what I mean? But we had a good time and we had some good food while we were there. New York was kind of, nobody was there. That was too cold. Nobody's getting out. Even up north, even up north, but they move around a little bit better than we do. We did have trouble getting back in the town, because while we were there, it snowed in an Asheville. Yeah, the bomb cyclone is what they called it. Oh, it was, it's his cyclone. That sounds bad. Well, it's crazy. As yesterday I came in here to, I was going to use the dumpster at Doug commander, because we had a clean out of the refrigerator. And when I was pulling out, I saw a car pulling in. Of course, it's closed as Sunday and it's an ice storm, but I saw it on their faces that they were not from around here, and they recognized me. So they stopped, turned around and pulled into the little store out here, not Doug commander, and rode down the wind. And so I was waiting to get out, because traffic was terrible. And I said, what's going on? I rode down the wind. What's going on? They went to Holland and screaming, and I could tell by their accents, they weren't from around here. I said, where y'all from? I mean, we're Holland. They're like 30 yards from me. They said, we're from New York. And I was like, are y'all lost? But they said, no, we just came to help, you know, with the storm. Oh, that's awesome. We wanted to see Doug went. They said, we live right on the Canadian border. And I said, well, tell Canada hay from us. And no tensions are a little tight. But thanks for sending us the ducks. And then I looked up, nobody was coming. I broke the hay. I blew the horn. But I thought, what in the world? We were in this little town in Illinois, and we were speaking that day. And so we stopped in this little downer downtown. And it's just kind of old Americana downtown area. And this little cafe was there. And so we go in. I saw some people looking. And I guess you just cut in a small town, especially, somebody shows up new. They never just kind of look in anyway. But two or three people, I thought, recognize who we were. But we ordered our meal. We're eating the final little girl comes over. I saw them all on their phones over there. I saw they know who we are. And the little girl comes over and she said, are you who I think you are? And I was like, who do you think I am? And she said, were you ever on the show, Doug Dynasty? I said, I was on that show. And I said, but who do you think I am? And she wasn't sure which one I was. That was what was funny. And then all of a sudden, everybody starts taking the pictures. But you go places, Illinois is considered, we would call it a blue state, because of their democratic establishment and government and all this stuff. But that's all up in the northern part of Chicago, because down south, literally, it's just like I was in West Monroe, or wherever. It was just red necks and hunters and everybody's got camo on. And people came to the vent. They were just our kind of folks. And so I always feel kind of bad for them, because you're living in a place that the values are so different. And so you're kind of under that tier. They have to live under that. So that was real strict gun laws in New York's the same way. Those people up in the northern part of the state, they're just hunters and everything. But they got to live with the laws that are set more for New York City or Chicago or wherever. And so I always just feel bad for them. And I feel like when we go somewhere like that, it's almost like these are our people. And it makes them feel good about it. 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And she's working Zach with your dad on finishing up the book. And they were doing some, you guys had responded great when she was on the podcast. And we appreciate that with their pre-sales and stuff. And the book is really, really good. You're going to love it. Of course, we read some excerpts from, you know, dads kind of lead into it. So I think that's going to go really well. But we haven't been in first down in a while. So I think we kind of need to reset ourselves to get back. We left off in 2, 2, which is that first opening section. And, you know, people outlining it differently. I kind of used the faith fellowship and forgiveness, the illiteration in my outline, because we talked about faith in the life. And remember it was the eternal life that word? Was it, yeah, was it? I kind of broke it down as in, it starts off talking about this life. And then it does a sectional light. And then a sectional love. And then it kind of finishes back with the life that we're a part of. Right. Yeah, I did faith fellowship in the light, faith in the life. So I was kind of like you guys both. And then felt and forgiveness. And in that section of 1, 7 through 2, 2, we talked about, Jay, she spent quite a bit of time about the idea of the advocate and the Atonement. Those are sort of the two thoughts that are in there the most is that the Holy Spirit walking alongside us, but the same word is used for Jesus Christ, the righteous one, this idea of an advocate. And then he's also the one that atones. And we spent quite a bit of time to talk about that. And that's where we went through the book of Hebrews and this idea of that. Well, I think it kind of changes the narrative. Most people kind of have this narrative of the Bible where it's like you start off with God and man and you know, seeing happens and there's a separation. And then Jesus comes and then if you put your trust in Jesus, you either go to heaven or hell. But really it's a lot. You know, the Bible is more about God choosing this nation of Israel because, yes, he created man in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. But it just kind of goes wrong. And so he chooses this nation of Israel which would ultimately bring the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of God. And then his death and resurrection is becomes this historic moment in time where a new creation is launched. And through the nation of Israel, producing Jesus, all nations could be blessed. And I think a lot of that particular view, I think is more consistent with the narrative of the Bible. And I think you see that when you start talking about what Jesus is doing now at the right hand of God. And we talk so much about heaven and earth coming back together and kind of overlapping. And even when we talk about life, the way they defined it was more about the different ages, the present age and the age to come. And you really see this in Ephesians. So we went through Hebrews, but I think you see this same storyline in Ephesians. And then John has his version of it. But it's like you can have a glimpse of new life and new creation now, which is where we're fixed to get to when he starts talking about the light is already shining. And because you remember when Jesus died, it was like darkness covered the land. And this light and darkness is a theme showing how God is not just up there a million miles away and doesn't care. No, Jesus is at the right hand of God right now. And even the fact that he went through the darkness of that period of when he was abused and beaten and even then while on the cross, you remember that eclipse happens and even worse. I mean, just supernatural darkness that was just imagine what that would have been like. And all that showed that, because he's gonna say in this next section, starting verse three, we know that we have come to, we know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says I know him, but knows not do what he commands as a liar, the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him, whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. So he immediately makes this shift into that we are now imitators of Christ. And Zach, we're studying C.S. Lewis on the Hillsdale part of our podcast, but I was listening to this professor talk about C.S. Lewis's points about suffering and pain. And he made a really strong point about, C.S. Lewis kept talking about that memory of the utterance on the cross, you know, I got my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the idea of going through that on the cross, and he said something really interesting, I had never thought about before. He said, a lot of times because we know about the resurrection, we just kind of go quickly across the crucifixion and say, yeah, but he's resurrected. And so therefore it's all good news, you know, because he went through that, but he said, C.S. Lewis made the point, you have to take the crucifixion for what it was before the resurrection, that Jesus went through that, and that he was actually buried for three days. And I had not really thought about that. In other words, it's easy to say, well, Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen. New God was going to raise him in the day because he had predicted it. But that didn't lessen what he went through. You know, and that's been awesome as we've gone through the C.S. Lewis course. Because he talked about, you know, and this is it, we've discussed this in great detail, but you know, Lewis's work was always about like the scent, the scent lower, then us scent, then he coming up. And so, you know, that's what Christ did. He becomes human. He suffers death and dies literally. So he descends, descends more, and then God raises him from the dead and then he ascends even higher where he enters into that heavenly tabernacle. But I think why that matters is, because when you think about probably that, what James was kind of alluding to this earlier, most of us grew up in a Western evangelical, if you grew up in a Western evangelical tradition, you grew up with thinking about the gospel, simply as, I got saved from my sin, Jesus paid for it, and now I get to go to heaven. And that's kind of where it sticks. And so the rest of our life, what do we do? We spend the rest of our lives trying to tell other people that same story and get them to do the same thing we did, and that's our whole point. But the problem I think that falls is that it's missing that this key part of the gospel, which is union with Christ. It's participation with Christ. It misses out on that. And so you read a verse like what you just read in verse John 2 when it says, and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. So I would read that verse 15 years ago and think, well, what that means is if I don't keep his commandments and I don't know him, which means that I'm not doing the thing I'm supposed to do. So I would try to do that. So one minute I'm in love with him in the next minute. Well, that's why I brought up the story of Israel, and I brought up the book of Ephesians, because I think we're so westernized in our approach of the Bible, we're missing what this is saying. Absolutely. And when he gave the commandment, we all remember, well, that's all about the story of Israel. Which is why this whole debate about election and predestination just went off the rails, because when you read Ephesians 1, it's pretty clear that he chose a nation, Israel. When Abraham came on the scene, which I would argue is more the narrative of the Bible, he said, I chose you, and he was just some pagan guy going out there, you know, living his life. And all of a sudden, he starts giving him all this. Here's how you're gonna bless the entire world. You know, all nations will be blessed by you. And so... The only thing that really made him special was that when God told him to go, he went. He went. Which, look, when God has a conversation with you, kind of like Paul, Saul, Slash, Paul. And what you say, well, because that was all about light. Been when the light bulb came on for him, when you're having a conversation with Jesus while he's at the right hand of God. Guess what, illumination happens. So bright that it would blind you physically. Yeah. So me and Jill often want to come back to the drawing board and kind of reestablish, you know, what we're spending because sometimes your spending gets out of hand and you gotta get back and manage it. 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The Paul, this is an eschatological argument of the kingdom coming and God is taking two people groups. Gentile and Jew, this is the mystery. I mean, he says it very clearly. This is the mystery that he's taking two group people groups and he's bringing them into one family, one cohesive family. So to reduce it to just this, this what's called, the materialogy of just salvation of getting justified and just reducing the whole, like Paul's whole, writing to an argument on one side of the other about justification. I think it's to miss the much broader category of what, and story that Paul's trying to illuminate for us, which is this, that crisis inviting us through the illumination of the spirit into a participation into the inner life of God. And you know it when you read that text that we were just reading in 1 John, he says, if you don't keep his commandments, it's because you don't know him. This isn't proved that you know him by keeping the commandments. That's not what he's saying. If you keep the commandments, then you will show and you will finally earn the fact to know God. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that to know God, to actually know him, is to believe in his revelation that this is the good life, which would lead you into obedience, into the degree that we obey the commandments of God is the degree to which we actually get to participate into his life. It's not a proving or an earning of salvation. It's a participation in salvation. And when we take the gospel and we reduce it only to a conversation about justification, here's the problem with that. It reduces it and it has nothing to say about what about right now? What about the life I'm in right now? Yes, I've been saved from my symbol, but what about now? I want transformation. And I think that's what is being offered here in this text primarily through the spirit as we abide in Christ, right? And I think the timing of the book, we've mentioned this before, of when John writes this particular letter, shows you what exactly what you just said, because you got to imagine, I'm sure the anticipation was, and especially once the temple's destroyed his life, you know, I mean, we're gonna all be lifted out of here pretty quick. I mean, this is the end of, they're thing in the end of everything. Yeah. And they were only 60 years into this thing. And now we're here, we are another 2000. That's why all these things have risen up because everybody's still waiting for the end. But the newness of it was just what you described. And he illustrates just what you said, I inversed seven and eight. Listen to what he says, dear friends, I'm not writing you a new command, but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. Memories tell my love of God. This old command is the message you've heard. Then he says, yet I am writing you a new command. It and what's changed, Jesus, it's truth is seen in him and you because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Well, that was my point. This light is already shining in people, via the Holy Spirit, based on what Jesus did and what he's doing now, which is why I brought up Ephesians when he said, he starts the letter off, he kind of doesn't explain it. I'm out now we went through Ephesians, but when he gets to chapter three, he kind of explains the letter that he's revealing and that word is apocalypse. When people think that they think, oh, scary imagery, now he was just revealing what Jesus's death, bell and resurrection means, which to Zach's point is that all ethnic groups can be one. And where does John go with this? He's talking about, well, we shouldn't hate. Like they did in the days of Cain, when Cain killed Abel, and the world was filled with violence and the verse in Genesis six. You said, well, why did all that happen? Because man's sin and all of a sudden, they weren't imaging God, they were spilling blood, they were filling the earth with other people's blood because they hated each other. And God's love is sitting there saying, well, what about this? Well, why not trust me? And so here God chooses a nation that would eventually bring himself to the earth in Jesus, which that is really what the predestination was all about. It was bringing Christ in that if you're in Christ, you get to participate in that predestination and election in him. Right. Well, because Paul also says at Rome is a, I believe that the predestination is to be conformed into the image of the sun. Well, what is that? That ain't something that happened one time. That's a process of becoming. That's an ongoing process of sanctification that again, union with Christ being conformed into the image transformed, my will comes underneath his will and then over a lifetime of walking with him and abiding in him. Guess what? My affections change, the things I want change, my desires change. That's why you read in that text in 1 John, what does he say at the very end of 1 John about the desires of the world? He says, man, those things are fleeting. He said, the world is passing away along with its desires. So you wanna know, man, how do I know if my desires are aligned with the will of God? Well, ask yourself this question. Is it taking more and more stimuli to get you amped up in your desire? If so, that's a worldly desire. Or are you able to, are your desires becoming more sensitive? Are you able to find joy and satisfaction and pleasure with less stimuli? That's an affection that's from the Lord and as our desires are renewed and come underneath his will and reign, it's like we can enjoy small mundane things and find immense pleasure in things like gardening or walking or even a meal. Yeah, I mean, or even making it through the eyes. So essentially you said that because remember the phrase make my joy complete, we looked at that in previous podcasts because Jesus said that quite a few times and we kind of watched the evolution of the complete joy Jesus would have through his suffering and then through his resurrection and his ascension. And then John just drops a new phrase in here that's only used in John. It's used about four different times and that's make my love complete. So he takes the same Jesus idea, what you were just describing Zach, what it looks like when our joy is made complete, that's when Christ is in us. Now he takes it at another level in the idea of our love being made complete. And again, that only can happen through Christ. It's used in first John 25, 412 and 417. So only time the phrase is used in the New Testament. John used it in this book in this letter. And so I thought it was interesting because you do go back and look like Deuteronomy 6, Leviticus 19, Matthew 22, even James mentions the royal law, this idea that you love God and love your neighbor. And that's why he says it's not new. I mean, the idea has been here all along but what is new? The new is that Jesus came and Jesus in his spirit. And now we're a part of that. And that's why he puts it in the next context about back to light and dark, James. He says anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he's still in darkness. In other words, how do you exhibit the love of Christ if you're living a life that's still in darkness? It would be like, well, Zach and you were describing about looking at it from a Western perspective of the end and out. It would be like getting married. And unfortunately, people do this. And then every day, the status of your marriage is decided by how well things went or what your wife or your husband did do or didn't do for you. And at the end of every day, you would have to read to side whether you should stay married or not. Now that sounds like hell. That doesn't sound like having it all. And yet that's what a lot of marriages are, why? Because they haven't come together in the union that was designed by God. It's all about the union. Yeah. And then over years, it gets better or not worse. Well, one thing to think about is this kind of a scary thing, but it's hit me when I was in New York at this conference. And John Tyson started off the entire conference with kind of a shocking sermon. I mean, I was not expecting him to say what he said. I think if you listen to someone enough, you feel like I know what they're going to say. I kind of know their material. And I was expecting a lot more of a conversation on spiritual formation and the practices and renewal, revival. I mean, this is what he's written about, talked about. And he and I would say, I mean, Jay, you've listened to John quite a bit. I mean, I had him on the not yet now podcast. Well, I want to have him on this podcast to probably talk about this actually. Yeah, that was my idea two years ago. And you had to do it. Yeah. Well, still waiting there. I sit in invitation. And the time slot he had, we would have had to read, we couldn't make it work on on a shame, but I want to have him on this issue. Yeah, time slot issue. But I do want to have him on and talk about this because he said that he has sat in a lot of the theological study which we do too. I love all that. But he said, man, he said, there's one area. And I'm paraphrasing what he said. But there's one area that he has become increasingly aware of in the last year, which is a spiritual warfare. And I don't, when he began to talk about this, the darkness that has really is so pervasive over our land that there is a demonic realm of principalities. And this is, again, this is in the scriptures, right? There's principalities that rule that have actually real power that are not, they don't have our best interest at heart. There's principalities, everything's like lust and pornography. And just the political outrage culture. And like all the anxiety that's gripped our land, gripped our nation, gripped our young people. And his point was we need to start contending and take serious what is happening in the spiritual realm. And I look, one of the scariest books I read was the one that Joe Beamer wrote. How many years ago was that now? Probably 20, the last few years ago. 20 years ago, but he had come out of us. I mean, he'd come out of extreme darkness. Yeah. And almost lost his soul. And when he came out of that, and did lose his family for a while, and then lost his family, our fight is not against flesh and blood. And we have to remember that as we are, as we're moving into this conversation of what we're talking about right now, this is not about our theological, you know, understandings and our great philosophical increase. This truly is about getting out of participation with the evil demonic realm, which is real. And getting into participation with Christ through the Holy Spirit. I mean, that is the contrast. And the stakes are extremely high. And that's the only way we're going to find real illumination. As you know, I lost a lot of weight last year on the PhD weight loss program. So I've gotten thinner, which this winner has made me much colder. And I'm married to a woman having hot flashes. So it's been an interesting winter to say the least, but I feel so much better. If you're out there and you tried keto or paleo or weight watchers or intermittent fasting, you know the drill, you lose the weight, then it comes right back. 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One of them is second Thessalonians 3.5. And this is a context of prayer when Paul's writing to the Thessalonians. He says, made the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. And I like that he puts those two things together. See how that's this idea of this walking in the light. The love and the perseverance are together. And then listen what Jude and Jude 21 says, and again, it is about prayer, but you dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. And there's that same word we've been talking about the life again. And two different authors, with the same exact thought that John is putting forth here in 1 John 2, is the idea that in that walk is that light and that love and when you go through things, it only makes you stronger, not weaker. And so the evidence that it's not working is if you can't get along with your brothers. John makes that point. He says, look, obviously he's dealing with something where they're having these factions and these cessationists and they're backing away from the faith and he's like, you can't live like this. You can't, in the ultimate argument we're going to eat into in chapter two, is you can't claim these things that are wrong about Jesus and somehow still be right with what he's doing here on earth. And so to me, it's just so clear and we've made it about the obedience part and much less about the love and the light part and being in it. Well, I think you'll bring up some good points because this is not necessarily a letter, which is different, a different format. It's kind of a sermon to the house church here that John's writing and there are some people. He keeps repeating the things over and over. Well, right. So if you feel like O'Yayar jumping all over the place because he basically says the same thing about 17 different ways. That's right. And but I think Zach really hit on the spiritual warfare because we're talking about darkness at this stage, darkness, darkness, darkness, there's no fellowship with light, you're either in the light, which I have so many confrontations with people and duck blinds and on the side of the road. And it's always confusing. When you ask them way about their life and their first default setting is, well, I'm confused. And I usually say, there's nothing confusing about it. You're either following, you're either all in for Jesus or you're all out. And it's amazing when you just make blanket statements like that and say, am I right or wrong? And they're like, oh, you're right. It just clears up all the confusion. Because there's darkness, there's a lot of sin. The evil one and all these powers that Zach mentioned, well, he's gonna bring that up. If you just kind of, at this point, he's telling him about, okay, there's a sin problem. I'm writing this so that you won't have sin. You need to obey the commands, you know? And Jesus died for your sins and they had a darkness. What fellowship is there in darkness? Well, then when he gets to chapter two and verse 15, which we're gonna get to, he starts talking about, don't love the world and it's confusing in the Greek language because there's four different words for worlds. And if you look them all up, you're gonna be more confused when you started. But you start to look at other passages where this kind of thought line is seeked out and like Ephesians 2. And I'll just read the first couple of verses. When he says, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world. Same world that first John 2 is gonna say, do not love the world or anything in the world. But that's also the same verse that says, forgot to love the world that he sent his only son. So people think, well, what is the word? We have one word for world and we view it as creation but it's a little different here. Within this world, there are those who are held captive by the evil and that's what Ephesians 2 says. And we do have to your point, just we do have other uses because we would say, we understand the world as you described it, but then you'll hear some I say, we know in my world and then they'll describe something in their little centric family. So we even have different expressions of this. So God made the world, we all agree. He loves the world, we all agree. But we did something to the world because I think a key verse, Zach and I were told about this in the duck blind another day, I pointed this out when it says verse 16 of chapter two, for everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does, which eerily echoes Ephesians 2 where it says verse three, all of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by association objects of wrath, but because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ. Well, back to first John 2, it says that these things, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does, here's a key little phrase, comes not from the Father. You're like, well, I thought he made the world. I thought he did all this and you and some people, once again, with the wrong narrative are like, oh yeah, God, he made evil. So that somehow he could be glorified. No, it doesn't come from the Father, but it comes from the world. Well, you say, what did we do or what happened to the world that was kind of apart from the Father? Oh, I got a good idea. We started worshiping and serving the created things and making idols of the created things. Incahoots with the evil one who gets more and and quit getting things. I mean, think about what they did. They did not think God. That's why their hearts became darkened. That's why their thoughts became futile is because they looked around. They started, they started participating with the demonic realm and giving their dominion over to the creation itself to have dominion over them and as a byproduct of that, just quit thinking God, you quit thinking him. And then you can't live in the participatory life. That is what we're called to you. That's such a good point when you brought this up, that line by the way. Look, and then when, so when he gets to chapter three, that's why this sermon is kind of difficult to wrap your head around. He's going to where we're jumping ahead and going because it's such a profound statement when it says chapter three in verse six, it says, no one who lives in him keeps on sinning, no one who continues to sin is either seeing him or known him. So we're like, wait a minute. I thought she started out saying we have to, we can't claim we don't have to. Yeah, and it's like, well, maybe there's something wrong with your narrative is why you're having a hard time wrapping your head around this because then he explains it. He says dear children, and this is the whole point of his, his sermon. Don't let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful. Now look who he brings up here. Tell him about spiritual war is of the devil, which echoes Ephesians two when it says you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the earth. No, that's a case, but Ephesians 6, 12 for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. Exactly. So then he echoes in chapter three in verse eight, he who does what is sinful is of the devil. So when you read that or just say that to a person in a dark blind, he's saying, I'm just confused. So let me clear this up. You're on the wrong team. Even though you don't see him, you don't see God either, right? You don't see the evil one. But by association, who are you running with? I mean, I think there's a rock and roll song that says that. I mean, they were proud of it. Running with the devil. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Well, let me know how that works out for you. Because I know it doesn't have a good ending. Now, it always ends poorly. Yes. Because the devil has been sending from the beginning, beginning or what? Well, you go back to Genesis three and you see what happened in our beginning. We have, there's a battle of spiritual forces. We inherited that. So we've been talking a lot about the ice pocalypse here lately. And you know, it's also, you don't think about it, it's not just hard on us, it's hard on our little pets too. It's tough. I mean, they have to go outside. You know, they go to the bathroom and you got to remember to feed those guys and keep them warm. And we all know as pet owners, right? I mean, you know, they get sick. You're taking them to the vet. You're back and forth. You're trying to figure out what's going on. We found out from our good friend, Dr. Dennis Black. He came up with this product called Rough Greens that most of the issues with your pets comes from a weak immune system. It's usually from eating this processed dead food year after year. So he's come up with this product. It's packed with live nutrients that work from the inside out, gives your dog or your cat the foundation they need to thrive instead of just patching up symptoms. So what he says is get off of the vet visit merry go round with America's number one dog supplement. Thousands of pet owners are seeing the difference. Energy, shinier coats, fewer problems. I know my dogs are excited every time they line up. This last week it was in the snow to be able to get some food and also to be able to get some rough green. So right now you can try it for yourself with a free jumpstart trial bag. Just cover the shipping because the best doctor visit is the one you never have to make. Go to roughgreens.com, use the promo code undershame to break the cycle today. R-U-F-F greens.com promo code undershame. And it's just passed on and you make the same decision as Adam and Eve. He said, I didn't, I mean, look good to me. Is there fault? What by fault I didn't do anything. It looked delicious. It looked like I would gain some wisdom. Why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I? And so we just set our own agenda as far as morality, which is what that was described as as the knowledge of good and evil. Do you want to trust God in those things? Or do you want to make your own plan? Yeah. And we make our own plan. But here's the profound statement that back half of first round 38. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. So forget the debate on who's it fought, who's it more it fought, we're in cahoots with the wrong spirit, which is the spirit of the evil. No one who is born of God will continue to stand. So he's looking at it from a different perspective on what you're participating in. That's why he's so big on. Look, he's a toned you. He's cleaned you. He's made you new. Ephesians 2 says he made you alive and seated us. He raised us with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. That's why when you move through the rest of this letter, that this, even this idea of a torment when you get to chapter 4, it is not disassociated from abiding with Christ, living with Christ, which is participatory. And I think this idea of the spiritual realm, like we have done a disservice by not focusing on this, because it's a real act of force and power that's coming against the sons and daughters of God. But at the same time, we also have one who is greater in us, right, the Holy Spirit. And so the call here is to yield back to the Spirit, but when you think about the idea of what's happening, when you mention that, like, who, where does sin originate? That does a key point. It does not originate with God. And any theology that would lead you to believe that, that's just not true. It's not in the sin is our problem. God does not sin. It is impossible for God to sin. It is impossible for God to lie. Sin does not come from the Father, but from the world and the world. Here's the contrast. It's passing away along with its desires. So when you think about how do you know if what you're being sold is a lie and it's from the devil and it's demonic and it is part of witchcraft and it is something that is meant to destroy you and kill you and evaporate your soul and every rip the life out of you. How do you know? Look at the fruit. Look at the fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, love joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. Is that what it's yielding? Or is it yielding something that you got to keep taking more of it and more of it and more of it to just stay afloat? I can take you right now to downtown Asheville where I live and it's not just in Asheville. Our country is in an epidemic of drug addiction right now. Any major city in the US, I don't remember this when I was a kid growing up. I don't remember driving through Atlanta or Charlotte or Asheville or any city and just seeing encampments of people who are addicted to fentanyl and all these tranquilizers and just to posture these people, you see them, they're like on the side of the street, needles everywhere you think, man, what is this? And Zach, I just was in St. Louis and on every red light that I would stop at, there was a person there that obviously was on drugs. You just tell from there where they were stagging around walking and trying to get money to buy more drugs. And look, it never got above 15 degrees. These people were in 15 degree to five degree temperatures with a foot of snow on the ground at every red light. So the question is for money to get some drugs. I mean, how do you get to think about this? How do you get to that point? Cause I mean, I'm walking around New York City. It's literally two degrees and there's a guy on the concrete. He's covered up in a quilt, like a blanket. It's like two degrees outside. And this guy's out of his mind. He was trying to stay warm as he could. I mean, he literally, he was addicted to drugs. And I'm looking at this, this young man. And man, I just felt this compassion. This guy has gone down this road. And what he has done is he has chased the desire that is fleeting. It's the one right here. The, listen, the world is passing away along with its desires. Those desires are waning. And you got to keep ampin' that thing up. You got to keep, I mean, this guy, you know, he didn't start on the streets of New York City living under a blanket in two degree weather. This guy started as an eight year old kid and somebody's home getting exposed to something that he abused, trauma, pornography, whatever it was. And that turned into maybe partying with his friends a little bit. Maybe he got drunk for the first time. Someone said, hey, you ever smoked weed? And then this just keeps on. And then the fast forward, 10 years, now he's 18 years old. And he's literally living under a blanket in New York City completely out of his mind. Why? Because he kept having to amp up the game, to keep up with the desire that was fleeting. That is not the spirit. That is not the Holy Spirit. That is a death work that is demonic and it is rooted in witchcraft. And we have to take this serious. And I think the people of God have to come up underneath the rule in the reign of Christ. And we got to be calling on a higher power. Thankfully, we do have one that is a higher power. And that desire won't flee to every time. That desire will actually increase every time as we submit the spirit. Well, that's why I brought up Ephesians reading this parallel with this. Because when he made that statement in the transition in chapter 2 and verse 4, when he said, because of his great love, God who is rich and mercy made us alive when we were dead in transgressions. And what the fascinating apocalypse that's revealed that he would talk about in Ephesians 3 is that that mystery of Christ, him coming, God coming to earth in human form and dying, somehow made it available for us to die not only in a world and die to the world and be enraged and then in essence, overcoming the world, which he's gonna get to in 1 John 5, overcoming the spiritual forces of evil. He did all that for us so that we could participate in that and you can move into the light. The all of a sudden the light can start shining. I like that you're continuing to go back to Ephesians and we're about out of time, but I wanted to mention this before but I want to keep bringing up. This is why the context of scripture is so important. John was traditionally recognized as being an elder at the church in Ephesus. That's where he spent most of his time. So he would have been very familiar with this letter. Well, and I think this was somewhere around Ephesus for this house church, where he's actually go down the rabbit hole. And so now he's writing this much later as a look back. Reped us. Yeah, two things were quick. Think about the end of that, the Jace. He took you out of the world, redeemed you from the world, but what are we gonna be doing now as spiritual agents of God? Shine on the world. We're gonna redeem the world. Like God's gonna redeem the world through the work that we've screwed at church, going back to Ephesians, the manifold wisdom will be made known. And so the whole thing can be just wrapped up in the whole purpose of the letter from the very beginning, which I wanna just end with this. This is first John 1 verse 4, I read this this morning, and I was like, why write on this? Like what is the point that he's getting to? Here's the point. Here's why he read it. We are writing these things. 1st John, chapter 1, first four. We are writing these things for this purpose. So that our joy may be complete. The purpose of the letter here is that our joy may be complete and our joy will be made complete by our participation in the life of Christ, by union with Christ Himself. And love as well. So we'll pick it up here next time. Don't know the shame. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed Podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.