Self Government #2

Review

Spheres - Christian Nation - should we be?

key review of marxism - what’s the center of it?

oppressor / oppressed - proleteriate.

the dissolution of property - no inheritance.

how is the marxist worldview advanced?

governing officials - institutions/education system - children’s cartoons.

Today we’re gonna see how, I believe, the marxist play has been run on us. And what we need to do to right the ship.

concentric circles of government - what’s at the center?

Self Government

Today we’ll continue discussing the idea of self government.

What’s another way of saying self government? self control

what happens when self government fails?

the same thing that happens anytime a sphere of government doesn’t do it’s job, another expands to take over.

when children don’t have self control, mom and dad step in.

when an adult loses control and harms someone else, the state steps in.

when your sin takes over in your life and you lose control, the church steps in.

and what is the easiest temptation for us to lose our self control?

“follow your heart”

in other words, we let our emotions or our feelings control us, rather than possess self control.

We do something because it feels good, affirms us.

or we don’t do something because it doesn’t feel right,

you’ve heard of taking the red pill? I call this taking the princess pill.

you’ve taken the “follow your heart” mantra to heart, and now you can’t get out.

CS Lewis would call this a “man without a chest” - a man without self government - a man without self control.

your appetites govern you.

your health can become at risk because you can’t control yourself when it comes to food.

your reputation because you can’t control your tongue.

your marriage because you can’t control your eyes, or your wandering mind.

And our culture celebrates this.

I recently had a conversation with a young woman who practices witchcraft, and her retort to any reason or logic or argument form the Bible was “feelings”

Our culture also uses our emotions to manipulate us into living in unbiblical ways.

Being “nice” to people

Your parents telling you growing up - “now now honey, be nice”

who determines what nice is?

There’s no Biblical command to be “nice”

I tell you, 90% of the Christians I see refuse to stand up against the sexual revolution, sodomy, trans, because they don’t want to be perceived as mean.

We had folks say they didn’t want to participate in the life parade because they didn’t want to be thought of us mean.

There is a command to love. And sometimes, since God is love and love is Christ - love involves flipping tables and a heavy handed rebuke “Get thee behind me Satan”

******** DAY TWO

Being controlled by other folks emotions

Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

we aren’t just talking about our own hearts here - heads up.

Let’s say you’re fighting and following a clearly Biblical pattern and being vocal and someone approaches you with the powerful words

“you’re hurting my feelings.”

or “I don’t think this is very loving”

or “you Christians sure do have a lot of hate in your heart”

I’ve got a word for that now - emotional terrorism.

They’re weaponizing “feelings” to control you.

their hearts / emotions are leading them in a particular direction - and they’re gonna take you with them.

and this play has worked. for quite some time.

can y’all think of some examples?

and when we get confronted w/ the emotional terrorist - what do they want us to do?

“oh man I am so sorry. that I hurt your feelings” OR “that I hurt YOU”

but if we do that - what are we really saying?

we’ve made a person’s feelings equal to the person itself.

they are how they FEEL, in other words, is the same as their actual physical state.

that’s a radically new sociological idea btw - for thousands of years it’s been understood that your feelings needed to be disciplined, controlled, wielded.

only those considered “opulent” or “fools” historically gave themselves over to their lusts and their hearts desires. to what they wanted.

only perverts and selfish people took the disney princess pill, back in the day.

now we tell our children that’s how they should live, controlled by their feelings.

or to put it another way “just be yourself”

or “do what makes you happy”

you see? It’s all the same thing.

SO - you’re fighting to follow Jesus - it culminates in a stand-off - and in comes the emotionally manipulative left-hook “you’re hurting me with what you’re saying”

or maybe it’s more subtle - “you’re not loving your neighbor”

what do you do?

Your heart is racing, your feelings are spinning up now too “well I don’t wanna be considered a jerk...”

THIS is where self-control is crucial, and it’s a muscle that has to be exercised.

“No, I am loving you. By telling you what’s true.”

I am loving you by not letting your weak will and ungoverned emotions steer this whole ship towards that iceberg.

but that emotional terrorrism is a serious thing. it’s how the enemy has gotten us for the last 40-50 years.

we need self control.

So how do we develop this type of self control?

first - you confess your lack of it.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

second - you keep confessing and to others.

third - you practice - with a team.

and do it with a team that loves you - and remember love isn’t just feelings.

don’t let anybody be your accountability partner that’s taken the princess pill — don’t let them on the team.

because they’re gonna be more concerned with whether you like them or not than telling you what’s true.

you think through things before you do them. This might mean you move slower for a while, that’s ok.

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

we gotta be thinkers - not just folks who operate off our our emotions

and the way of the world right now is to take the princess pill - or to let those who have taken the princess pill control us with their emotions.

no. we have to be transformed by the “renewal of our minds” and by “testing (thinking, reasoning, logic) we may discern what is the will of God” so that we may DO IT.

and that means work. that means self-discipline, self control.

you gotta practice - and you need to practice with folks in the same mindset

I’m convinced that this is the big fight we’re facing right now.

we’ve been controlled by our emotions - or other people’s emotions - and we celebrate it.

Disney writes at least one song into every children’s cartoon about some derivation of following your feelings.

and then we put it on repeat in our homes for our kids to memorize and make a liturgy out of it.

CAN WE NAME SOME?

ALSO - Wade pointed out to me last week - when you read through the satanic bible - which is a thing - the theme is to “do what makes you happy”

and I’m also convinced that this is an intentional instructed mechanism of control by the devil himself.

Eph 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

we DO FIGHT against the enemy, he is in control of some things, he has some authority, manipulates some systems against us - and I think one place he’s got massive amounts of control is the entertainment industry.

just look at the evil that is pumped out of there on a regular basis.

and they REALLy want you to be controlled by your emotions.

I’m convinced this is a stepping stone for the control of Satan in society today.

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

but yet we’re letting it steer the ship.

self control - self government - means being in control of our emotions - not letting them steer the ship.

AND WE NEED PRACTICE.

and when our feelings start spinning up - start taking control - start dictating what we’re gonna do.

we gotta fight - the concentric circles - self control - self government.

and make sure that what the basis of our thinking is - is the Bible.