My text is in chapter five, verse eight. If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter. For he that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they. When the Bible says God is, or he that is higher than the highest regardeth, I believe it's talking about God. God sees everything. And this is for you to not get stressed, to not get overly anxious. Title of my message is Generation Selfie, Sad and Stressed. Subtitle CCM, Christian Contemporary Music Exposed. I don't mean every single song or every single artist. I'm talking about the spirit of the age that's in the music that's somewhat reflecting this selfish, me-centered culture. to sell records, sell music, but also in some ways it's driving and leading as the gatekeepers allow certain philosophies, certain mindsets. Find out what'll happen to a CCM artist really quick if they say, I believe sodomy is wrong. I believe homosexuality is wrong. Find out what'll happen to them really, really quick and you'll see, as they make public, you'll see what the gatekeepers do. there is a control of what gets in to some degree. And what comes before you, whether it's movies, Hollywood music, entertainment, your entertainment is in some ways handpicked for you with an agenda. And so Generation Selfie, sad and stressed. CCM exposed. Solomon is saying it's not hard for you to look around you and see oppression, injustice, bad things happening, and it's not hard for you to look at it all and get very stressed about life, about your life, about the lives of others, about the life of your country, And so Solomon is saying, don't marvel at it. Don't marvel. Don't get stressed out about all that. For he that is higher than the highest regardeth. So I believe Solomon is saying you're not a deist. You don't believe God just wound up everything and then just took off like some alien, like the atheists tell you, you know, they really believe in aliens. Read Robert Jasto of NASA, read what they say. Read Marilyn Vos Savant and some of these. Read what they tell you. They believe God is an Easter bunny who dropped an Easter egg down here, then he took off and hopped to some other place in the universe. Just like Mormons, you know, this continual expanding evolution of God idea that man became God and then he went off to a planet somewhere. It's insane what they believe instead of believing in the God of the Bible. Well, we don't believe God just planted everything here and then took off somewhere and that he doesn't see anything that's going on or control anything. My Bible says God causeth the rain to come down. My God says he causeth the sun to shine. So I believe God is running this world. Now that brings up the question of evil. And there is a mystery of iniquity. We are to pray, Lord, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, Lord, we know you're running everything. We know you're in control right now, but you're permitting evil. And we're looking forward to that day when you rule the nations with a rod of iron and there's not going to be evil permitted in the way that it is now. So Solomon says, God sees it. God cares. And he is doing something about it. And he does have a plan. And he's going to judge it all and nobody gets away with anything in his time. Unless they've sought mercy beforehand. That's why Hebrews 11 says, but without faith it is impossible to please him. Now you remember that now. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is. That doesn't just mean believe in his existence, but believe in God as the almighty preserver and sustainer and judge of this earth. Believe that he is. He is alive. He is present. He is watching. He is managing and controlling. So you must have faith. You must believe that God is, or you're not going to please God, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. You must believe that he does help those that are following him. You must believe that God is a rewarder of good. That's part of faith. And then it says, you must believe that he's a rewarder of evil. 2 Timothy 4, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. The idea of rewarding according to works is all throughout the Bible. God is going to judge. God is going to reward these evil people. God is not letting anybody get away with anything. There is a God. There is a judge in this world. And then Solomon says, and there be higher than they. I believe the they likely goes back to the oppressors that are implied in the text. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, the violent perverting of judgment, there's a lot of evil, unjust oppressors out here. And there's higher than they. There's higher than they. Sometimes you can look and say, it looks like they've just got total control of everything. But Solomon says, no, there's higher than them. There's higher. God's in control. You talk about conspiracies and the bankers and these people that run everything, there's higher than they. The billionaires that are out there controlling a lot of things, there's higher than they. Even if we take the idea that He that is higher than the highest regardest." If you apply that to angels, and then the next phrase is, there be higher than they. The Bible does show that there's celestial angels over provinces, and they are over the highest authorities on earth. But God's over them, and God's faithful. So however you take this, Solomon's point is this. God's higher than the most mightiest oppressor on earth. And this is why Christians could be calm. This is why Christians were not, when they were following God and had faith, that they were not anxious. All of these, and they became a witness to the Romans and the Roman empire. How can y'all be, how can you have such peace at a time like this? When Wesley thought he was saved, and he came over to be a missionary to America, and a boat was sinking, and there was a mighty storm, and he saw the children singing, and the women, and they were just relaxed. And what do you have that I don't have, says Wesley? What is this? Why are you at peace? There's gonna come a time when God's gonna take care of the oppressors on this earth. Look at Isaiah 14. Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, how hath the oppressor ceased? The golden city ceased. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet. They break forth into singing. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer? So in other words, the Antichrist one day is not gonna vex this world. There will be no Antichrist vexing this world. They'll be in the lake of fire. They'll be down in hell. There'll be no oppressors. There'll be no evil people hurting people. And ultimately, this is all a picture of Satan, because a mighty angel is going to grab Satan and throw him down into hell, the bottomless pit, and lock him up for a thousand years. And it's going to be very comforting. Everybody's going to celebrate. Everybody's going to rejoice. They're going to break forth into singing. The oppressors are gone. And the ultimate oppressor, Satan, Lucifer. Very, very comforting. So we're to understand God. There's no shadow of turning in God. God cannot lie. God is faithful. And don't worry, one day he'll take care of the oppressors. We've seen many people vexing and going after Christians, and God takes care of it. God takes care of it. Even in this life, God takes care of things. So don't marvel. Don't marvel at things. Don't marvel. If all you do is sit around and read conspiracy stuff, and just get yourself all stirred up about that stuff, you can get very depressed. I mean, you could look at what's happening and get very depressed, you know. And some people sell books, and you know what? I don't mind. I think it's a good thing to expose sometimes what's behind things. But if that's all you're doing, There was a time in the 90s when everybody got addicted to that type of stuff. You just read the Mark of the New Age and the Next Text Mars book and you wanted to see all that stuff. That was way before the Alex Jones thing. But what would happen is you would have a depression. There would be a discouragement that would come upon you. You can't live off that stuff, folks. You've got to look at God. You've got to beware of what's going on, but you've got to beware of God. We're Christians. We believe God is in control of things. And I'm not saying get passive about what's happening. I'm not saying don't expose things. I'm saying that you need to focus on God. You need to read the book of Revelation and see the bad things that are coming. But the whole point of the book of Revelation is God wins. God wins. He's in control of all of this. It's not taking him by surprise. So there's a balance that we got to have here. There's a balance. So the first point is don't marvel at things out here. Don't marvel. Don't get amazed. What does it mean to marvel? It's very interesting. Webster says that it comes from a word meaning wonderful. So the word mirror comes from this word marvel. And I believe there's a teaching here. The word marvel from mirror means a wonder, that which arrests the attention and causes a person to stand or gaze or to pause. There was a time when, I believe it was Absalom, I can't remember, somebody died and the army, the soldiers were stopping to look at him, you know, and so they had to cover him up because everybody would stop and gaze at him in the Bible. And this is what's happening. When you marvel, it means you stop and gaze. You stop and gaze. What was Solomon saying? Don't stop and gaze at all of this in a way that keeps you from getting about God's business. Don't stop and gaze in such a way that you're amazed and you're depressed and you're stressed in a way that keeps you from the joy of the Lord, that keeps you from doing what God wants you to do, to occupy until he comes, to get in the way of the devil. You can get very discouraged and you can say, who can do anything, and you just sit and marvel, and you give up, and you're passive, and you don't stop evil, you don't do anything. And that's what happens in the days of the Midianites when they were attacking everybody and stealing the crops every year. But one man says, I'm not going to stop feeding my family. I'm going to continue to do everything I can. And he hid his crop from the Midianites. And all of a sudden, the angel of the Lord came to him and says, mighty man of valor, He says, who are you calling a mighty man of valor? I'm just trying to get my job done. I'm just trying to feed my family. I'm just trying, I'm looking at the attack all around us, but I'm still trying to do what's right and to feed my family. Well, that is a mighty man of valor. That is a mighty man. Somebody that doesn't give up and get themselves all depressed and go suck their thumb somewhere. Somebody that doesn't get so discouraged. Somebody that still keeps trying and believing in God. That's a man God can use. That's a woman God can use. And God's trying to give us this balance so you don't marvel, you don't sit over here and whine, you don't get all stressed out, and you don't get lazy and flippant either. You get in the way of the devil, but you understand God wins. God has already won. We're told to look to Jesus. And if you get your eyes on this world to such a degree that you take your eyes off the Lord and His power and His coming, that's not good. That's not good, Church of God. It says in Hebrews 12, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Not looking at this world. Not looking at the waves and the winds of this world. Not looking at the devils of this world. And again, we're not ignorant of the devil's devices. Stuff needs to be exposed. You can't just look at everything positive. That's not what God's saying. No, it's worse than you think it is. Things are worse than you think. This isn't positive thinking sermon. Not for me. But I am telling you that we can look at all of that. We can know what's happening around you and we can rejoice in the Lord because he wins and he is on the throne and we're not going to marvel. We're not going to get amazed. We're not going to get depressed. We're going to look unto Jesus and keep our eyes focused on him. Though all hell breaks loose around us. Faith is the evidence of things unseen. It sees Jesus when it sure doesn't look like He's around, when it sure doesn't look like He's involved, when it doesn't look like Jesus sees everything around us. When you see Jesus, when you see His example, when you believe He's on the throne, this evidence of things unseen, the etymology is video. Video, when you see the Lord, even though your natural eye can't see Him, that's faith. It looks at things unseen, not things that are make-believe. It's the faith in the Lord that keeps us from becoming overly anxious, overly stressed, full of amazement. Now this is very important to the Lord. that you focus on Him. He doesn't like to see you, listen to me, He doesn't like to see you vexed and stressed and discouraged. He wants you to show everybody by your example that God is real, that God is alive, that God is on the throne. You don't show everybody by just pretending that there's nothing bad going around. Oh, you know, all is well, there is no hell. That's not what God's saying. He don't want you to be blind about what's going on. It's unbelievable what's going on in this country. If you believe everything that you're told from that media, you're an idiot. But we don't want to be troubled to such a degree that we forget that God is on the throne and we forget his promises. This is very important to God that you not marvel. Listen to this. I mean, who would think that this would be in the Bible? If thou seest the oppression of the poor and the violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at it. God sees it. Isn't that an interesting Bible verse? God sees it. Did you hear what happened at so-and-so and so-and-so? Well, God sees it. God sees it. Now that can sound very flippant, can't it? That can sound like you don't care. And that's not God's intention. But it is God's intention that you watch your response, your emotional response to this thing. Jesus, our Lord, gives us the same teaching as Solomon. Listen to him, John 14, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. The world's gonna try to give you peace by saying it's okay. Oswell, there is no hell. This is all good. Homosexuality is good. Oh, and other girls raped in the bathroom by a transgender? Don't worry. All is good. This is diversity. It's wonderful. Oh, you see the failures of communism and people standing in bread lines? Oh, don't worry. It's all good. Everything is good. We're all becoming gods. We're going to have a world government. We'll all have peas. Just a bunch of homosexuals holding hands. It's wonderful. Coca-Cola. It's all good. No, that's not the peace that we need from God. That's not the peace that God gives you. God gives you a peace. That's true. That's pure. The wisdom of God is first pure, then peaceable. Let not your heart be troubled, either. Let it be afraid. So God says, our Lord, don't be troubled, don't be afraid. The Holy Spirit says in Solomon, don't marvel, don't marvel, don't be troubled, don't be afraid. Why? Why? Because God sees it. He's in control. He's in control. So you're to look at it and say, don't worry, my God's in control. But this is horrible, this is terrible. Yes, it is. It's worse than you even realize. If you looked at some of the things I've studied, it's worse than you even know. But don't worry, God's in control. God's got a plan. Do what we can. Do what we can. Get in the way of it. This is your chance to show God that you hate evil. Get in the way of it. Help people where we can. But don't marvel. Don't lose your mind. Don't get anxious and afraid. We got to stand up and do what's right in this generation. It's going to take courage. And that's going to come from fearing God and not man. So you can get distracted and end up self-focused. Like the fable of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection, and he could not stop gazing at himself. And so he was destroyed by his own self, just gazing at himself. And this is what's happening, and this is what the devil wants you to do in this generation. He says, look at everything. You're just on a blue dot with no meaning whatsoever in this universe of planets. You're just a grain of sand. And you're just a product of evolution, just a glorified monkey, a glorified amoeba. You have no meaning, significance. But then after he tells you all of that, he says, oh, but nevertheless, you're evolving to be a god. So focus on yourself. Focus on, gaze at yourself. Isn't it horrible out there? So become self-centered, self-focused. It's terrible out there, but don't worry, you're beautiful. Focus on yourself. This is what kids are told. This is what they've been told for 50 years. Gaze in the mirror. So what does this generation do? This generation has grown up with nothing. But self, self, self, self-centered, self-esteem, self-image, you're beautiful, you're this, and they think. And things get worse and get worse, and the kids get worse, and the kids get worse, and they think, oh, they need more self. They need more self. So they pour more gasoline on the fire, and it gets worse, and it gets worse. And they say, what do we do? And the experts say, they need more gas. Give them more self, more self, and let them focus more on themselves. Tell them they're beautiful and they're special. Tell them more, tell them more. It's not working, people. It's not working. in the 90s after all the Christians in the 1970s jumped on the psychology bandwagon following Bruce Naramore who wrote in 1970 from the psychologist we have learned about self-esteem and self-image and self-focus. So all these Christians jumped on it and followed it. Then finally, you get people writing Time Magazine, Newsweek, the failures of the self-esteem generation, how stupid that was to put all this focus on self. There was a bill in North Carolina to lower the grades now to where 39 or something is failing is an F. When I came to Texas from South Carolina, I wasn't really trying much in high school. I did in elementary school, but I just wanted to play my guitar and I kind of knew what I wanted to do as a career, so I wasn't really interested. I just wanted to get out of school, get out of high school. It was taking time away from what I needed to be doing for my career. But I made sure I passed and everything. Don't do that. That's not good, kids. You're going to want that math. You're going to want these things. You're going to want to understand these things. Much of school was junk anyway. Bunch of biology and evolution nonsense. But a lot of it was very important for us to know. Now anyway, when I got to Texas High School, they said, oh wow, you've got excellent grades. And I thought she was being sarcastic. I was like, what? Excellent grades? Are you joking with me? You poking at me? You know, that's kind of, that's kind of mean. Because, oh no. And I'm like, how can I have excellent grades? You know, I made sure I passed, but all of my C's became B's and A's. because the level was so much different than in South Carolina. But now what they're trying to do is continue to lower the bar, continue to lower the bar, because you can't make anybody upset. They need self-esteem. You can't tell them they failed. You have to have self-esteem. Don't tell them they did anything wrong. Don't tell them they lost. Don't get onto them. Their fragile self-esteem may be hurt. What a mess this is. So you got a world, you got a generation of kids gazing at themselves. And the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, this know also that in the last days, this is now, perilous times shall come. Why? For men shall be lovers of their own self. In other words, according to God, everything is messed up today because you've made people self-focused. They become self-gazers. They're marveling. They've got their mirror. What are they marveling at? What are they mirroring? What are they looking at? They're gazing. What are they gazing at? Their self. Their self. So I believe that the Holy Spirit's telling you in these last days, things are going to be bad. Don't become introspective. Don't become a self-gazer. Don't think that the only way you can survive is just to focus on me. Isn't that what they tell you? You've got to focus on yourself. So now you've got a Facebook selfie world. I'm not opposed to you taking a picture and that type of thing. I'm talking about this consumption with you. This consumption of, do you see me now? Do you see this profile? Do you see me now eating a cupcake? Do you see me now down at the restaurant? Do you see me now smiling? My life is happy. There's something wrong with you inside. You're insecure. And what you've done is you've turned to self in these perilous times. And that's not what God wants. God wants you to focus on Him. Focus on Him. Get your eyes off yourself and put it on the Lord. Put it on the Lord. You've got this world of selfies. You've got this generation of Christian men. The fathers are walking around. No wonder the children are walking around with skinny jeans and purple hair and earrings in their nose and all kinds of things. You don't know if it's a girl or a boy. And all they're doing is looking at themselves. Because look at the father. Look at the father. The fathers have spiked hair. The fathers are sitting here going to the gym, if they ever go to the gym, and they're looking at themselves, you know, posing. They walk around posing. The fathers are effeminate. The fathers are self-gazers. The mothers think that they're teenagers. What a world we have of self-gazers. And if any preacher gets mad and starts preaching hard, they say, he's a narcissist. No, you self-gazers, you're the narcissist. Narcissist in the stupid fable looked at himself. He saw himself in water and he says, who is that? Boy, that's good looking. And he started looking at himself and he couldn't get his eyes off himself. Man, get rid of the spiked hair and purple hair and green hair. Get away from the computer game and get your behind out here and do some work and start sweating and start getting a whipping from your daddy and get out of here and get some things done before you end up a homosexual. There's something very creepy and homosexual about this self-gazing culture. All they see is themselves. How am I being treated? How am I feeling? You've been taught to worship your feelings. So you can't see anything else but how you feel. And when all you do is walk around with your own little selfie in your mind's eye, All you see is your reflection. No wonder you trip. No wonder you fall, because you are blind. And blind leaders of the blind fall in the ditch. If you want to know what's wrong with this generation today, all they see is their self. They're blinded. They're blinded by their self. They've been taught to focus on their self and everything will be all right. Listen to me, young people. I'm trying to help you. The Lord said in the last days there'll be lovers of self. The Bible said in the last days, if you look at the prophecy of the seven churches, you'll see Laodicea. What's wrong with Laodicea? My rights, my customs. That's what the word means. It's all about me. It's a me-centered church. Look how beautiful I am. Look how holy I am. Not understanding you're blind and naked. Why are you blind? Why is Leah to see a blind? Because if you have your selfie in front of your eyes, you can't see God. You can't see anything. You can't see others. It's now the standard to say, the church is the bride of Christ. I write a book about the judgment seat of Christ and about some accountability that you're going to have at the judgment seat of Christ. And everybody says, we're the bride of Christ. We're the bride of Christ. No, you're not the bride of Christ. The church is the bride of Christ. Corporately there's no individual person. That's the bride of Christ So they say the church is the bride of Christ And he says his bride is beautiful So that's what we're told today I came out preaching against psychology in the early 90s Everywhere I went I rebuked and reproved And everywhere I was told, well, God says I'm beautiful. God says I'm the bride of Christ. I'm beautiful. And what I'd say to them back then, I'll say to you now. Imagine a groom saying to his beloved, you are beautiful to me. And then she holds a mirror and says, I am. I am. I am beautiful. Have you noticed my eyes yet? I have pretty eyes, don't I? And she just sits there the whole time, and they're like, hey, you've got to go out to your wedding. You've got to get out. The preacher's there. Everybody's there. Oh, I'm just looking at how beautiful I am. I am beautiful today. Making the groom wait because you're gazing at yourself. That is what's going on today. This is what the churches are doing. I'm beautiful. You're gazing at yourself. How do you know you're beautiful? How do you know you're lovely? How do you know you're special? Oh, because God told me. God told me. I don't think that's the response that he wanted from you. I don't think that that is the response. When you praise somebody, the response isn't, oh, yes, you're right. I'm going to go praise myself and focus on myself. I think the focus, the response is supposed to be thank you. I'm humbled by the fact that you find me to be beautiful. I'm humbled by your kindness. I'm humbled by your grace. Read Song of Solomon. Her husband praises her. She didn't respond and say, I know, now I'm going to sing a song about myself. She did not do that. She responded by saying, in effect, that's very kind of you, but I know the truth. I know my sisters made me work out in the vineyard while they were doing the inside housework. And those naughty sisters, they put me outside, and I had to work out there in the sun. And so I know that I'm sunburnt, and I know what my complexion is, but you say I'm beautiful, I know the truth about myself. Now she didn't go on and on and on and on about that, but what she did was she responded with humility. The idea was, you know what, that's very kind of you to say that. That's very kind and gracious of you to say that. See, that's what the response ought to be. Ruth loves Boaz. The response to that love wasn't, well, of course, look how rich I am. I'm the best catch in this whole area. Every young girl would want to be married to me with my money. That's not what he says. He says, you know what? I can't believe that you would love me. I know that I'm not a young man. I know that I'm not young. And you love me. See, the response to somebody's grace is humility, gratitude. Loving obedience is the proper response. Humility, gratitude, loving obedience is the proper response a local church should make to the Lord's grace, kindness, and mercy. And this picture of the Lord as the husband of the church, that's only one picture. We are also his servants and he is the master. And that is the most literal picture of all. It even goes beyond a picture. And you were bought with a price. That's the true reality. But there's this modern habit of majoring on just this one picture to the neglect of all other relationship analogies. And if this picture's gonna be stressed, if you want to take the husband-wife picture and stress it, at least get the right picture. It's not the only picture. There's father, son. There's vine branches. There's shepherd sheep. There's master servant. But if you're gonna take just that picture and focus on that, because you think you can escape accountability and you can sit and sing songs to yourself because of it, at least get the right husband-wife picture, okay? Don't you think Hosea is in the Bible for no reason? God says in Hosea 3, then said the Lord unto me, go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend. Go love a woman. In other words, go love your wife. Go love this woman that you still love. Yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who took to other gods and loved flagons of wine. God says, I love Israel. I love my wife, but she's an adulteress. So I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver, and for a hummer of barley, and a half hummer of barley. He bought her back. He redeemed his adulterous wife. And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days, thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee." The proper response to a woman like that would be to love her husband and say, I can't believe you would still love me in spite of what I've done. The proper response to us as a church is Lord, we have not been faithful in regard to Mr. World out here. Your churches, your people have not been faithful to you, but you love us. And what we owe you is gratitude, faithfulness. Imagine an adulterous wife being redeemed from the slave trade or whatever it is. Imagine being bought with a pride, being graciously accepted back. And then she spends all the time looking in the mirror thinking, well, you took me back because I'm so beautiful, because I'm so glorious. That's what the churches are doing today. That's what the churches are doing today. God says in Luke 7, wherefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, where she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." Your dedication to the Lord depends upon your view of yourself as a sinner, having received grace and mercy from God, but you're being told by the psychological crowd that, oh, this was a business deal. As Robert Shuler and all these others, this is a business deal. You're great. You're valuable. You really are valuable. And God knew a good deal when he saw it. He knew a good deal when he saw it. So imagine all these people are getting saved. They have a shallow obedience to God because they think God got a deal when he got them. And now here's my point. What is the fruit of this church of God? What is the fruit of this selfishness, this self-focus, this me-centered psychobabble? What is the fruit of it? Is the fruit peace? Is the fruit a bunch of teenagers who are full of peace and contentment? No. No. No. A million times no. The more they focus on their self, the worse they get. Every day you could find articles like I'm going to quote right now. Every day. Every day. The Drudge Report just about every week. Every week a new one comes out. I just got it from the last week here. I said I'll just get it from February, you know. I'll just take the articles from February. I could give you a whole book of articles proving what I'm going to prove right now. Here's from Thrive Global, February 29th. Most U.S. teens see anxiety and depression as a major problem. One of the most frequented remarks about this generation is their extensive experience with anxiety and depression. A recent study by Pew Research Center titled, Most U.S. Teens See Anxiety and Depression as a Major Problem Among Their Peers, generated an in-depth study around this particular matter. I took it upon myself to send an anonymous survey to approximately four dozen of my peers. Eighty-five percent cited anxiety as a significant issue and about half of the respondents found depression to be a severe issue as well. A lot of us hide it very well. Desiree News says, in our opinion, teen anxiety is rampant. The Desiree News spent a year reporting on why teens are more anxious than ever. Let's go to Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald says, pushing happiness is the holy grail is creating generation anxiety. I heard this a lot when I was growing up. You can do anything. We just want you to be happy. It was the 1980s and the self-esteem movement had taken hold, imploring parents to tell their kids that they were special and designed for greatness. My parents meant well, but the message felt like a straitjacket. Our young people are drowning in a sea of toxic stress. I mean, every Hollywood movie, you can do it. You can be great. You can be a celebrity. You can be an Olympic star. You can be everything. Just go, go, go. Pursue your dream, because you're wonderful. You're special. Wow, what a wait. What a wait. So I've got to be a superstar. I've got to go out here. Oh, but you are a superstar. You're great. You're great. You know what? Let's quit with that garbage, OK? How about we focus on God? How about we get out here and do the best we can and love God? Amen? Amen? Now our young people are drowning in a sea of toxic stress. Remember one teenager that was so full of stress many years ago, just stressed out, just so messed up. And she came from that psychological parenting, you know, you're special, you're special, you're special. Finally, her dad came to see me and said, you know, what is my problem? I'm humbling myself before a young man. Tell me what the problem is here. I know my daughter is special, so I don't understand why she's having all this trouble." I said, sir, that's your problem. She's heard nothing from the time she's two other than, you're special, you're special, you're special. Why don't you quit all that garbage, okay? Why don't you quit all that garbage and love her, love her, but quit all that mess? Get her eyes off herself. No wonder she's so full of every type of psycho babble and mess. I mean, you're messing up your children with this garbage. Your child has to live with thousands and thousands of other kids that are all also being told they're special. And you're going to find what man's pride wants is not to be told you're significant and you're special. No, that's not what man's pride. Pride must compare. So people want to be more special than somebody else, see. It makes no difference. You're special. You're special what? You mean I have more worth than a monkey? More worth than a dog? No, people want to be more special than the other person. Pride must compare. We have the highest youth suicide rate in a decade. This is generation anxiety, and they are stressed out of their minds. And why wouldn't they be in our divided, volatile, and overstimulated modern age? Okay, so they list some reasons that they think why. Thankfully, they put their finger right on the self-esteem movement. And they also mention this idea of, you gotta be happy, you gotta be happy, that's all that matters is you being happy. That's the quick way to end up not happy. Amen. You know, that's why they're leaving their husbands, leaving their wives. I gotta be happy. I gotta be happy. That's why they fall into sin. I gotta be happy. I've told I gotta be happy. That's why they can't get out of here and work and work somewhere hard that's undesirable. Oh, I gotta be happy. I gotta be happy with my job. I gotta be happy with everything all the time. They point their finger on the self-esteem movement and this push to always be happy. You can do anything. And then they talk about the overstimulation that we have in this day. So I will agree, kids are growing up today with nothing green. Type on Google News about what they're finding out about living in the country around green and being outdoor. But you can move all the way to the wilderness. You can get up to Montana forest. You can move to the Ozarks in the pit of nowhere. And you know what? You sit on your computer inside and never get outside, never get fresh air. Never look at the green grass and you might as well stay in Dallas-Fort Worth among 7 million people and a bunch of cement and pavement. Nothing green. No wonder they're stressed. No fresh air. No work. God made man to work and sweat. No wonder they're not happy. They're not doing anything. They're not accomplishing anything. They've got constant screens, constant stimulation. No wonder you're a stressed bratty kid. They sit and read all day social media posts, making them feel that others' lives are exciting. Wow, look how happy they are and exciting. My life's not like that. And don't get me started on the physical toxins that are causing you to be stressed and depressed. There's a lack of prebiotics, so you don't have any bugs that are, and they're finding out that your whole well-being, your whole brain health is rooted in the bugs of your gut to some degree. You're not getting prebiotics. You're not getting garlic and onions and green bananas and things that give you prebiotics to feed healthy bugs so you don't have any healthy bugs. Then you're drinking fluoridated, chlorinated water and all this other junk that kills the good bugs that you have. There's gluten intolerance out here that's causing kids to be depressed and anxious. There's cane sugar addiction. Boy, you ought to check out what they're finding out about that and depression. There's pesticides. There's girls that should be full of estrogen and they're full of high testosterone. No wonder you're stressed and anxious. You're not supposed to have male testosterone to that degree. Oh, I don't mind drinking out of this BPA plastic bottle. Oh, here, you want some more antibiotics and hormones in your food? Because that's what every teenage girl needs is a lot of hormones and testosterone. We want to build up your testosterone so you'll be anxious. All that needs to be fixed. Get kids outside. Give them healthy food. You wouldn't believe how to lighten the load. Wake up! I run a website called Biblical.Health, KJV.Health. I do everything I can to give you information, to make it easy for you. Read it, study, research. Lighten the load on your kids. But this isn't what we're preaching on today. I'm looking at some spiritual things today. I'm looking at the fact that children are focusing on themselves. And that's what I want to stress today. I want to give you one important biblical fact about all this. Proverbs 18 says, The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear... I want to paraphrase this for you. If you get the spiritual right, you can get through things even if the natural body is in a mess. Now I'm not telling you to keep your natural body in a mess. Those extra temptations make it very, very difficult. But I'm telling you, you get your spirit right, you get the spiritual things right in your life, you can get through a messed up physical body. But if you don't have the spiritual things right, you're going to have major problems no matter what you do. So we're focusing on the spiritual. God says in Psalms 103, don't forget His benefits. And He first deals with spiritual benefits. You get your spiritual right. And then He says that I give you good things to eat. God wants you to be whole and good in body and soul. Body, soul, and spirit. So right from the start, let's deal with this spiritual thing. We're going to learn right in the book of Genesis that obedience to God and a good conscience are the foundational spiritual keys to a good countenance. Genesis 4, the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. I understand being accepted by Jesus apart from works. I understand that kids need to hear the gospel and know that they're saved and eternally secure by the Lord's righteousness, by the Lord's blood, and they're accepted. But they need to understand it's because of the Lord's blood. It's because of the Lord's blood. He didn't look down and say, whoa, that's a beautiful gem there. I tell you what, I'm going to accept you now." No, that's not what he did. He looked down and he paid a price for you. He said, that's sin. That's covered in sin. Shameful. I hate it. It disgusts me. But because of my love, I'm going to die for it. Wow. See, we need the preaching of the blood that's been taken out of these new Bibles. It's been taken out of the theology and out of the songs of this modern generation because it hurts their self-esteem to hear that God had to die and be tortured and suffer on a cross to save you. Oh, that hurts your self-esteem, see. But we got to get even beyond acceptance for eternal life. You got to understand that there is a response that we need to make to God. And you are not accepted in that sense unless you are obedient. And Paul says, therefore we labor, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, that we may be accepted of Him That's what you're missing. You're missing, your children are missing the fact you need to be, there's a sense in which God doesn't accept you unless you're obedient. And we think that that's going to just cause our children to be unglued and unravel. No, they need to know that there's a certain sense in which doing right is going to give them joy and acceptance with God. Sin is the major foundational source of so-called mental health issues today, such as depression and anxiety. He said, do you think everybody that's depressed is because of sin? No, it might be gluten intolerance, but I am telling you this. You better put your finger, you better focus on this core issue of sin. You better not overlook Genesis 4, that when you get out here and sin like the devil, you're not going to be a happy person. Why don't we preach that? Why don't we begin where God started? See the reason they don't do that is because the psychological crowd doesn't believe there is sin. All sin is just a disease to be medicated. When you continue to walk in a bad conscience, pain is going to tempt you to sin more in greater ways. It's a terrible cycle. Imagine doing sins of omission that bring guilt and anxiety and depression, and then to try to alleviate that pain and stress and guilt, the person walks in sins of commission to try to bring relief, only to find more emptiness and more hellish pain. And pretty soon there's suicide and that type of thing, to try to escape the pain, the escape of guilt. To escape the guilt, to escape the stress. Why don't you get out of here and work, and do something good for somebody, and get good feelings. Why don't you get right with God, repent of your sins, say you're sorry. Get saved first, and say you're sorry, and walk with God. Start learning what Paul says, our rejoicing is this, the testimony of a good conscience. Start learning what that means. Sin is not just outward, it's rooted in the heart. Proverbs 4, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. You're not a victim when you don't trust God. To lack faith, you're not a victim, you're a sinner. It's sinful to not trust God. But how can your children have faith in God if they don't ever hear about God? They're never brought to church. You don't give them Bible studies every day. They're not taught to read the Bible and feed on it themselves. A generation that feeds on constant garbage and vanity is not going to have faith. And if you're not going to have faith, you're not going to see God. And if you don't see God, you're going to have a lot of stress in this world. So if you'd like your children to not be as stressed and depressed, get them focusing on God. Get them reading about God. Get them in church before Bible preaching. Give them Bible devotions that focus on God. Romans 10 says, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It's a command to not let your hearts be troubled. But God didn't want you to just sit there and grit your teeth and say, I'm trying not to be anxious. I'm trying not to be anxious. That's not what he's saying. He says, let not your hearts be troubled. Well, how am I not going to be troubled? Well, get your eyes off the waves. Get your eyes off the wind. Get focused on Jesus. Trust in him. Believe him. Claim His promises. Read about His promises. Read the Psalms. Read the book of Revelation. Blessed are they that read this book. Be convinced of God's presence. Be convinced that God sees, that God cares. Be reminded of it. Remind others. Exhort them. Remind them that God is able. And this is how you glorify God by your faith. by your faith. To not glorify God is sinful. Romans 4, and you're not going to be happy. You're not going to be a happy person if you don't glorify God. Romans 4 says, Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. When you're strong in faith, you give glory to God. When you see God, when you believe God, when you believe God is there, when you believe God is on the throne, in spite of everything around you falling apart, you are giving glory to God. You're becoming a good witness and a good testimony. Your children need to see that as an example, and they themselves need to see God and glorify God by their own faith. Everything's falling apart. Everything's falling apart. My friend's life on Facebook is more happier than mine. You know what? It's not about you, young lady. Focus on the Lord. Focus on what makes Him happy, what makes Him feel good. Hebrews 3 says, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Unbelief is evil. To not see God is evil. And then you see something quite ironic. When you're not focused on the Lord, you're going to begin to marvel. You're going to begin to marvel at the injustice, the oppression, the sin, and the evil of this world. You're going to begin to get stressed out and anxious. Oh, you've taken your eyes off the Lord, haven't you? Now you've got your eyes on yourself. Now you've got your eyes on the world and yourself. And you become stressed out. You become hopeless. You become discouraged and apathetic. And in this state, you make God marvel. You make God marvel. God says, now I'm going to do some marveling. Mark 6, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Judah, and Simon, are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. The Lord shook his head and says, you know, it is true. It is true. And he could there do no mighty work. And he marveled because of their unbelief. Isn't that something? You're marveling. because of the oppression and sin and evil around you. And the Lord's looking down marveling on his church and saying, I marvel at their unbelief. See, every time they got stressed out, the Lord said, where's your faith? Where's your faith? Why are you marveling at all this stuff? Why are you so upset about it all? When I say upset, I don't mean that you shouldn't be grieved and angry at evil. But the Lord says, where's your faith? Why are you in this state of bewilderment and anxiety? Why are you staring at all this stuff? Why don't you stare at God? See, when you begin to focus your eyes in the wrong place, you're going to sink. You're going to be in despair and anxiety. You know what happened when Peter got out of the boat? When he got out of the boat, where were his eyes? On the Lord. And he began to walk on the water. Wow, that's miraculous. He began to walk on the water, looking at Jesus, looking at Jesus. But the Bible says, look at it, look at it, Matthew 14, but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt? In other words, the Lord says, why were you looking at all of that? Why were you looking at it all? But it was scaring me, the wind and the waves, it was scaring me, and I began to sink. Why did you look at it? You know, listen, I'm not jumping out of an airplane, but they always say, don't look down. They say, don't look down. There's something about looking at your problem and focusing to such a degree, it's gonna stir you up bad to be anxious. Get your eyes off Jesus, you will see. I don't mean be an ostrich and stick your head in the sand. I'm talking about forgetting God. Luke 10, but Martha was cumbered about much serving. She's stressed out, isn't she? And came to him and says, Lord, does thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bitter, therefore, that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But Mary, she has chosen the good part. She's down here at my feet, focused and hearing my word. Her eyes are on me. Notice, she's not stressed about things. She's focused on me. But you, You're now focused. God's not saying it's good to not work. God's saying that when you get your eyes on other people, where were Martha's eyes on Mary and ultimately on herself? See, Martha's eyes are on herself. And when your eyes are on yourself, then how are people treating me? How's everybody treating me? And you get over-concerned about how everybody's treating you. How's my husband treating me? How's my wife treating me? How's everybody treating me? How's everybody respecting me? You get so consumed with that that you get miserable. You get miserable and your prayers are that way. It's all about me, me, how I feel, what others are doing to me. And you start becoming stressed out and anxious and depressed. It's self-focus. Solomon says don't marvel at the oppression in the world. There are two extremes you're going to make about the evil in the world. Number one, to become hardened as if it's all karma. It's really just an illusion. Let's just ignore it. Let's ignore our responsibility. No, God says in Proverbs 31, open thy mouth for the dumb, in the case, in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Proverbs 24, wisdom is too high for a fool, he openeth not his mouth in the gate. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain. If thou sayest, behold, we knew it not, doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth he not know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his works? So God's saying, yes, there's evil in the world, and I want you to do something about it. And one of the things God says He's looking at is not just those that do evil, but those that do nothing about the evil that's around them. So God says, yes, there's a responsibility that you have to some degree to make a proper response to the injustice and oppression in this world. You need to ask, what can I do to fix this? And you need to get out of your comfort zone, your safety zone. and do what you can to get in the way of evil. As the wise man said, evil prevails when good men do nothing. Job testified, I was the father to the poor and the cause which I knew not I searched out and I break the jaws of the wicked and pluck the spoil out of his teeth. But often cowardly people, lazy people, hide behind a form of godliness. They'll use some hyper-dispensational doctrines, you know. We're not called to do anything in this generation. Others misinterpret the Sermon on the Mount in an extreme way. The Lord wants us to resist, not evil. You know, I think it was an Amish community where somebody came in with a gun and a bunch of corn-fed boys sitting there And they allowed every one of them girls just to be assassinated and killed one by one. I hate to say things like that, but I'm trying to prove a point. That boy was taught from the time he was young that you resist not evil. You just let that stuff happen, see. I'm telling you that's an extreme misinterpretation of the Lord's words. And when people take what the Lord meant and take it to this extreme unbiblical doctrine They say, well, I'm not going to go down and try to witness to people in an abortion clinic. That's not what we're called to do as a church. Well, I saw your car in front of Krispy Kreme Donuts. Is that what we're called to do? You don't have any problem going out to Taco Bell. You don't have any problem sitting down and watching an ungodly Hollywood movie. Boy, there's a lot of stuff you think you're allowed to do that you're not. And some of the things God wants you to do, you say, oh, we're not called to do that. That's some wickedness that's going on in this generation. There is a responsibility. Everybody can't do the same thing. Everybody, but you better do something. You better kick something. You better get in the way of something. You better make sure it's something God hates and God wants you to get in the way of it. Quit hiding behind the stuff. Yet you must follow due process. Now, don't go to some other extreme to where you start... The Bible says people actually kill godly saints thinking they do God's service. Some people go and they split families, they split marriages, they split churches. They're like, well, there's oppression. I must stand for oppression. Well, I think God meant with due process, okay? I think God says those that dwell with me are not going to be backbiters. I think God says that he doesn't want you to walk in false accusation and be false accusers. He doesn't want you to be a busybody and meddlers. Some of what people call standing for righteousness, you're just a sissy effeminate punk getting in the middle of things that you ought not be in the middle of. You're splitting families and splitting things and you think you're just this great crusader. You're not a crusader. Just love one another as you expect to be loved. Give people the due process you expect to receive. This is a victimhood culture today. And ironically, much of the real oppression is by those claiming to be oppressed. See my sermon on who are the oppressors. Read any of the so-called news today about somebody being oppressed, and I'm going to tell you, more often than not, I believe, the person being oppressed that you're reading about is the oppressor. How often is this happening? See, from this whole leftist idea. They're being oppressed. They're being oppressed. No, they're the oppressor. They fake the whole thing. See, they're oppressing innocent people. See, this victimhood culture is by design. There is violent perverting of judgment and justice. Hitler was perverting people with propaganda. He wrote in his jail cell, That the masses cannot be led by facts, but by emotional sound bites repeated again and again. So now there's no due process. And many believers are leading the way in this insanity, ready to accuse others if it fits their agenda. All they need to hear is just, oh, this pastor did so-and-so, and they jump on it and just, oh, so-and-so, this happened. They spread this stuff all over the internet, and they think they're crusaders. No, you're just like the Democrat liberals, leftists. In fact, they learned it from you, probably. They learned it from the churches. So according to mainstream media, if you read mainstream media, much of the oppression you hear about is fake. Orwell wrote his book, 1984. They had their two minutes of hate that everybody had to participate in. He says, the horrible thing about the two minutes hate was not that one was obliged to act apart, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. A desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces with sledgehammers seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. The media will stir you up, but they know they're able to do that. They're going to tell you, this is who you hate. This is who you hate. This is the class of people who you hate. Hollywood media, hate the fundamentalist. Hate the fundamental Christian. Hate him. Have your two minutes of hate or your 10 minutes of hate. On the other hand, there are going to be situations where you truly cannot do anything other than pray. And you can go to this extreme of running ahead of God or becoming overly stressed or falling into despair. I believe that Christians, I believe young people ought to read George Whitfield's journals from the 18th century. Also read the journals of John Wesley. They were friends, but they were odds. One was an Armenian, one was a Calvinist. But you can learn some great blessings from reading both. Whitfield took everything as coming from God. And you'll learn how to have peace in a situation when you see that that was one thing the Calvinists had is they could see God on the throne. See, I use the word Calvinist loosely. They had the sovereignty of God and they understand he's in all things, he controls all things, and it can give you a certain peace. But it can also make you cold and careless. And so you need to see that we have a response to make. So that's why it's a great blessing for kids to read John Wesley's Whitfield and Whitfield's journals. Understand God is in control so you don't end up in despair, crushed under stress. But also understand that we do have a response to make. But young people today, they're not being raised to understand the attributes of God. They don't see his presence in everything. They don't understand his sovereignty. They don't see that the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord as the rivers of water. They don't see that all things work together for good to them that love God. They don't see that he causes the wrath of man to praise him, the remainder of wrath he will restrain. They need to know these and live these verses out. And if you don't get your eyes on the Lord by faith, If you don't go to church and be reminded of these things, if it's not a daily part of your life, you're going to lose your peace. You're going to lose your peace. The Lord says in John 16, these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. This is what Solomon means. Don't marvel. Don't marvel. I've overcome it. You're going to have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. People are raging lunatics all around you, doing this, doing that, do this. I know, I know, I know. God says it would happen, but let's be of good cheer. He's already overcome it. He's already overcome it. He's already got victory over it. And he'll crush Satan's head soon. The Bible says Satan will bite his heel, but he's going to crush his head. He's going to crush his head. Romans 16, to God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet. Shortly! Shortly! Revelation 13, it was given unto him, the Antichrist, to make war with the saints and to overcome them. The dragon certainly gave the Antichrist his power, but don't miss the fact that God allowed it. God allowed it. God allows Antichrist. That doesn't mean you're not to oppose the Antichrist's spirit, but it means that you're to have peace. God's in control. God's in control. It was given unto him. It was given unto him to make war with the same. In the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah had to convince everybody, God's raising up Nebuchadnezzar. God's raising up Nebuchadnezzar, as evil as he is. That seems so crazy to those Jews. But Jeremiah had to say, this is discipline, and God has reasons to bring this to pass. I'm not telling you that you are to submit to evil in a sinful way. I'm telling you that we need to see the sovereignty of God. You can see it in the book of Job. The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand, but save his life. This is God telling Satan, you can go this far, but you can't go any further. And Satan obeyed. Satan was forced to obey. I don't know why God allows certain things in your life. I don't know why He allows certain temptations. I don't know why He allows it in my life. I try to search for the reasons. I try to ask. I know Jeremiah cried out, Lord, are you going to let your longsuffering hurt people? I know Jeremiah doesn't believe that, but sometimes it can look like it. God, you're being so patient. You're being so longsuffering that people are getting hurt. Children are getting hurt, God. Where are you? The psalmist cries out, how long, Lord, how long? But go to God, believe God. Genesis 50, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. If you don't get your eyes on Jesus, you're gonna marvel. You're gonna be bitter. And evil people are gonna make you bitter. And when you get bitter because of evil people, it can tempt you to backslide. Ecclesiastes 7 says, surely oppression maketh a wise man mad. How does oppression make you mad, make you crazy? Because you can begin to look at people doing you wrong and you could say, forget it. I'm just going to quit trying to be kind and gracious and I'm going to get people before they get me. Or I'm going to get out here and sin. No, surely oppression can make a wise man mad. There's different applications of this verse, but let's deal with one. If you see evil in the world, it's going to tempt you to doubt God's righteous judgment. Let me show you a wise man almost becoming mad. And for a while, he did become mad. Psalm 73, when I say mad, I mean crazy. Psalm 73, but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well, nigh, slipped. He almost backslid. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They are not in trouble as other men. They are corrupt, and they speak wickedly concerning oppression." In other words, they're proud of their oppression. And they say, how does God know? And is their knowledge in the most high? Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their end. So foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee. So here you have a wise man becoming like a brute beast. Here you have a wise man saying, where is God? It doesn't pay to serve God. Why are these people doing me wrong and I'm trying to serve God? And they're getting away with it. Forget it. I'm going to go backslide. Until he went to the sanctuary of God and he was reminded that God is on the throne. And then he got ashamed. He got ashamed that he almost backslid. He got ashamed for his wicked thoughts. You need to be reminded that God sees everything that's going on with you. God sees the horrible things that sometimes happen to you. And God is good. And I don't understand, I don't understand, but I know there was a great man in jail, and they cut off his son's head, and they brought his son's head in a basket, and brought it, and they were so wicked, they knocked on the cell, gate and made him look. And he said, we want to show you something in the basket. And they showed him his beloved son's head. And the man began to cry. And he said, God is good. God is good. God is good. And that is the key. And that is what God wants you to do. And I hope nothing horrible like that ever happens to you. And I don't understand those things. And we pray for God's kingdom to come and farther along, we'll understand it. But I'm telling you for right now, We've got to have hope in God and we've got to believe that God is good. Worst times are coming. Worst time. If you're already doubting God, if you're already doubting God, what's it going to be later when worse times come? You need to get your focus on God and prepare for what's coming to this country. Since people have followed psychobabble, they're blind to their own nakedness. They're blind to their sin. And they're focused on themselves in a sinful way. And it's going to curse you. It's going to curse you. Because unless you get your eyes off yourself, unless you humble yourself and get your eyes on the Lord, you're going to be stressed out and miserable. Remember Satan's five I wills. He's focused on himself. These young people are focused on themselves in many ways. It's all about me, me, me, me, me, me. You sit down with them and try to talk with them, say, what's your problem? And watch them go on and on about me, me, me, me, and I did this and this and this, and these people are not blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you say, now stop for a second. I'm going to tell you something. It's going to be hard for you to listen to me. I've done this over and over. I said, now listen to me. Right now, you're just so focused on yourself. And that's your problem. I've been on the phone with him. I said, this is your problem for 30 minutes. All you've said here has told me is everything from your perspective. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me. So I want you to stop all that. I want you to get your, but you don't understand what, what he did. I said, you're not listening to me. You're not listening. It's still all about your feelings, isn't it? See, you, you breathe. You're just consumed with yourself in the mirror and it's cursing you. And this is in our churches. Let's go to a worldly magazine, psmag.com. Clear evidence of America's society's increasing narcissism can be found in our best-selling popular songs. That's the conclusion of a study just published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity in the Arts. Compared to a quarter of a century ago, popular music lyrics now include more words related to a focus on self. This is by psychologists, University of Kentucky psychologists. The psychologists that brought self Many of them are now telling you, wow, we're all focused on ourselves today. I wonder why? Christianity today. Talk about the fox in the hen house. But they're going to come tell you and say God is not the object of our worship. I guess not with new evangelicalism turning everything to psychology and selfism. But now you're going to write an article saying God is not the object of our worship? Me-oriented worship is the result of a culturally driven worship? When worship is situated in the culture and not in the story of God, worship becomes focused on the self? It becomes narcissistic? Much of our worship has shifted from a focus on God and God's story to a focus on me and my story. I just analyzed last night the top 15 Christian songs in America. And I began looking at the lyrics and looking up the lyrics and looking at some older Christian songs, just watching what's been going on. Even the ones that are glorifying God and focusing on God, it's still all about my experience. And I'm not saying all of that is wrong, but the I, the me is still the focus of it. But the number one song in America today is You Say by Lauren Daigle. I think in some ways she started out right and could have been a real big blessing in many ways. But some of the compromises and some of what they're doing to her and promoting you. See, these people will take you and cause you to sing a certain way and sound sensual. And at first the person says, well, that's not natural. I don't really feel that. But they're like, no, no, no, this is what sells. We want you to sing like you're drunk. And pretty soon the person is drunk. Pretty soon they are drunk. They start being silent about homosexuality, and they start going down this road, and it's just sad to see. It's sad to see. But here are some of the lyrics to this song. Remind me once again just who I am, because I need to know. I believe, I believe, I believe what you say of me. I believe. In you I find my worth. In you I find my identity. I believe, I believe what you say about me. Now, I understand that you could roll up your sleeves and theologically make that work. My point is this. Why do you have this saturation? What is it that wants these hit songs? What is it in our culture and our Christian climate that lives off of everything about me? You know, the groom says, you're beautiful. And she says, I believe it. I believe. I believe what you say about me. I'm beautiful. Do you notice? Look at me. Look at this. I got a pretty nose, don't I? Look at this. Look at my eyes. Wow. And look at my hair. I believe. Glorious revival. I believe what you say about me. My hair is glorious. It's so wonderful. Look at it. I don't think that's what God wanted. I don't think that's the point, folks. I think that's going to lead to stress and anxiety. It's not going to bring you peace. They're like, I've got joy. I believe what God said about me. I don't think you've got peace yet. I don't think you've got peace. I'll be convinced when you come out and sing holy, holy, holy, and you start worshiping God and talking about how God, how good He is for saving a wretch like me. See, I believe you're on the way of peace when you're like the publican smiting your breast. And then he went to his house rejoicing. I don't think the Pharisee had peace. I think that woman that was on her feet watching the Lord Jesus' feet with her hair in tears, I believe she had peace! I don't believe Simon the Pharisee had peace. Let's see, let's go to number three song, Who You Say I Am. Oh, here we go again. I am who you say I am. You are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. Oh, here we go back to the same stuff, back to the same stuff. I know theologically you can fit that in somewhere. I understand that. But what's going on here? What's going on? What's going on? Let's go number four hit song in America. God only knows. Well, finally we get to something God knows. I'm so happy. Let's see. God only knows what they say about you, but God only knows the real you. Here we are again. Here we are again. So you got Christians sitting around worshiping, they're singing these praise songs, and it's all about me. The groom says I'm gorgeous. The groom says that I'm wonderful. I'm wonderful. Repeat, say after me, you are wonderful, you are beautiful. You know what? It's disgusting is what it is. It's ridiculous. It's just psychology. It's the hippie generation growing up and singing Christian music. It's ridiculous having kids singing Christian music. Ah, let's see. Number four hit song in America, God Only Knows. Okay, number six Christian song in America, Known by Torrin Wells. Known, known, known. Let's see what's gonna be. I'm fully known and loved by you. You won't let go no matter what I do. Same stuff, same stuff, same stuff, same stuff. God knows about me. Now, in fairness, Laura Daigle does have a song that says, where are you now when darkness seems to win? Where are you now when the world is crumbling? Oh, I hear you say, I hear you say, look up, child, look up, child. You're not threatened by the war. You're not shaken by the storm. I know you're in control, even in our suffering. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. You could read the Book of Mormon and find some good verses. They're not inspired. They might have a King James Bible in there somewhere, you know what I mean? They might quote a King James Bible somewhere in the Book of Mormon. The point is this, the focus, the focus, the focus, the focus. There should be an examination of self. But this focus, Paul Brownback, if you want to read a good book, read The Danger of Self Love from many years ago by Paul Brownback. He showed that all of his fear and insecurity and shyness was coming because he was focused on himself all the time. That's what he'd been taught from a kid. Then when he finally got his eyes off himself, and all that self-esteem garbage, it freed him in an amazing way. This is what we're talking about. We're talking about a glorious revival of liberty and freedom and boldness and courage, freedom from anxiety, freedom from depression, freedom from a lot of things. When you finally do one thing, get your eyes off yourself and get them on the Lord Jesus. And this is the important thing that our children are missing today. And parents thinking they're doing good by filling their children up with this self stuff, you're not helping them. You're not helping them. And I'm not saying don't encourage your children. I'm not saying don't encourage them. But I'm saying, The bigger thing is, you know what, you are beautiful. Don't let anybody tell you you're not beautiful. You're beautiful to daddy, and you really are beautiful. But I'm gonna tell you, the important thing is for you not to be so concerned about that. I'm more concerned about not whether you're beautiful or not, you are, but I'm more concerned about why you care so much. I'm more concerned about you thinking that this is so important in life. Be more concerned about the fear of God. Let's do some tests, let's do some tests, and we'll close. Isaiah 26, thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. That does not say thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on all the things you say about me. Whose mind is stayed on me. That's not what it says, folks. Gail Ripplinger, I remember many, many years ago said she was a college teacher and she saw so many girls full of anxiety and depression and she was trying to take them to this verse in Isaiah 26 and say, you need to get your focus on the Lord. Your mind needs to stay on the Lord. And then she looked at the NIV and realized, you will keep him in perfect peace, those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Well, that's not exactly what the verse says. You're kind of missing your mind being stayed on the Lord. The NASB says, the steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you. Well, where's the mind being stayed on the Lord, see? So new Bibles are part of the problem, but they're just part of the whole worship, self-worship culture. The satanic Bible, And satanists say, hey, we are satanists. We're into self-esteem. It's all about self-focus for a satanist. Well, that satanism has entered Christianity, but people don't even recognize that it's satanism. The satanists do. They laugh. They say, this is satanism. It's satanism in the name of Jesus. They know it. But Christians are there like, this is wonderful. This is work. This is satanic. This is satanic. Well, we're using God's name. I know, but it's all about you. It's satanic. And now I close with the final proof. Two more verses. I close with the final proof. Let's look in the Bible and find out what... Because these people are going to say, we are seeing God. We are seeing God. Well, let's prove it. Let's prove it. Let's go through the Bible and look at everybody that saw God and see what the response is when you really do see God. If you're really worshiping God, if you're really lifting up your hand, and all of this is really a move of God's Spirit, if this whole CCM thing, if it's really a move of God's Spirit and you're really seeing God, let's see according to the Bible what the fruit will be of people seeing God. Job 42, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee. Ooh, let's see what happens. Let's see what happens, brother. Wherefore, I now love myself. I now sing songs about how glorious I am in your eyes. I now listen to Robert Shuler every day. No! A million times no! Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. I believe that John Newton in the days of amazing grace saw God. I believe that generation saw God. The generation that said that saved a wretch like me. I believe that generation saw God. that sang about the blood, that sang about our unworthiness and focused on how He's worthy. I think that generation saw God. I don't think this generation is seeing God. Let's hear it from God's mouth. Ezekiel 36, I will also save you from all your uncleannesses. Praise God for that. Then what's going to happen? What's going to happen? Then shall you have a positive self-image. Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall nevertheless have high self-esteem. No, shall loathe yourselves in your own sight." There's self-image. There it is. For your iniquities and for your abominations, folks. What's wrong today? What's wrong today? You're not seeing God. You're not seeing God. You're not seeing God. Our children are not seeing God. Isaiah! I saw the Lord high and lifted up on His throat. What happened, Isaiah? He began to tremble and say, I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm a man of unclean lips. Peter! Lord, I'm an expert fisherman. We've been fishing all night. We're washing our nets. We're done. We're stressed. We just want to go back home. Cast him out on the other side. All right, at thy word. Then he had so much fish. So much fish. He was unbelievable. Right there in front of everybody. In front of all his kinfolks, the whole crowd, everybody he'd grown up with. He got out of that boat and he fell down in front of everybody at the Lord's feet. Said, depart from me, oh Lord, I'm a sinner. I now see you in a way. He's already been saved. He's already been saved. But he had an awakening. I see myself as a sinner. When you see God, you're going to have an awakening of your sin. You're going to have an awakening of your sin. You're not going to sing love songs to yourself. What a selfie generation we have. And folks, I'm telling you, it's hurting you. It's hurting you. It's hurting you, folks. It's not helping you. It's hurting you. Dear Lord, I do pray for these people who I love. I pray for all who happen to hear this sermon, God. It's a long sermon, God. I don't know who all will be able to take time to hear it. But Father, I'm speaking from your word and from things that that I oh so want people to hear and understand. I want them to eat right, Lord, and understand how their depression and anxieties are largely affected by the things they're doing, God, and how much more the sin that's in our lives. But I do pray that you'll help them remember, help me remember, to keep our eyes on you and your goodness and your power and your coming in this toxic, terrible world, Lord, where there's injustice and oppression and madness is running rampant. It's easy for us to lose control, God, to get distressed. Oh, but by the joy of the Lord is our strength. And I pray you'll bless these people. Bless us all. Thank you for the blood. In Jesus' holy name, amen.