Sign Stealing
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I am not a big football person, but every now and then I do like to watch a game. Back a few months ago, Katy and I watched the OU/Texas longhorns game. It was a very intense game with a surprising upset at the end; so it kept our attention. But I recently recently learned about some of the intrigue that goes on in NFL football. Probably could talk to David or the Estells and get all kinds of information about this.
I know some of you are going to hate me, but for quite awhile my favorite team was the New England Patriots. I lived up in Vermont at the time so it was a natural. But I have also learned that they are probably one of the most hated enemies of the rest of the NFL. One of the reasons everyone hates them is because they have been accused of cheating. One instance of this is what has become known as Spygate. Back in 2007, the patriots decided to get a leg up on the game and so they set up coaches to video tap the opposing teams hand signals so they could study them. Now there are all kinds of rules on what can and cannot be done in this area that I don’t personally get. To be honest I don’t see what the big deal is about doing your homework before playing a game. (more hate from the Cowboys fans in the audience) But it was deemed a violation of the rules.
Anyways, you can see the benefit it might give a team if they knew had to read the opposing teams playbook. If they could interpret those signs, then they can counter the plays that are about to happen. The Christian is in a battle against our enemies, the flesh, the devil and the world and it would be helpful if we could know how our enemy was going to attack so we could prevent it. These enemies aren’t just after you, they want to attack our families as well. As parents, we need to know how Satan and the world wage their war on our families. 2 Cor 2:11 “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
Satan’s plan of attack has not changed. Why change when he knows it works so well? But I think we can take a play from the Patriots playbook here that will give us an advantage over our enemy. To gain some insight into his devices, I want us to take a look at the story of Daniel in Babylon. Along with Sodom and Egypt, Babylon has been viewed as a picture of the enemy or the culture of the enemy. Rev 17:5 “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” By looking at how Satan through Nebuchadnezzar sought to control the Jewish people, I believe we can see five tools that Satan tries to use against our families. As I studied for this message I came up with three points that made sense to me, but I listened to an interview with Collin Outerbridge on family life that brought up two other points I wanted to include in this message. So I am giving credit were credit is due.
The World tries to Fictionalize the Faith
The World tries to Fictionalize the Faith
Nebuchanezzars tactic
Daniel 1:1-2 “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.”
Often when an invading army would conquer another nation, they would take steps to demoralize the people. After all you do not want them getting brave and mounting a resistance later on. The victory must be complete and total in its destruction. Often times, the vassal states would be forced to give their idols into the hands of the invading army. In a world where the spiritual was so much more important than today, the message was this: our gods are greater than your gods. If I came in and conquered you, then you god must not really be that great of a god.
Nebuchadnezzar takes this a step further by bringing the goods of the temple of Jehovah God and putting them in the treasures of his god. The goal was to make the Jews doubt their God, make them feel betrayed by their God and make them switch gods. I would have been humiliating. Nebuchadnezzar was trying to devalue their faith.
Later, he would build a large statue of himself and demand that everyone worship it. He would replace their faith, but for now, he just needed them to minimize their faith or to view it as a fiction. If he could get them to not take God seriously, then it would be easy for him to control them.
2. The reality of its influence today
Is this not exactly what Satan is doing today? This attack takes many different approaches, but the result is the same: getting Christian young people to live like their faith is not real. Its alright to be a Christian as long as you don’t act like it. He gets young people distracted by movies, games, sports, food, fun so that God doesn’t really play a part in their lives. God is merely an idea to them. He also accomplishes this by getting them to doubt Christianity. There is a lot of effort in schools to make Christianity look like it is just another religion or that God is some kind of monster. Arguments are put forth without the option for response to show that Christianity can’t be true. And if they can’t get you to doubt your faith, they will at least water it down by mixing fiction with bible stories.
As an example take the movie Noah that came out in 2014. Paramount took a bible story and mixed in many fictional elements into the story. Now I don’t have a problem with artistic license when it is consistent with biblical record, but that cannot be an excuse for changing the story or adding over the top unbelievable elements to the story. The movie presents Noah as a harsh, angry man who kills men to save an animals life and then considers killing off family members. Noah receives a vision of God’s plan by drinking a potion given to him by Methuselah. Methuselah later takes a magical snake skin and uses it to destroy the rock giants who are supposed to be the fallen angels. The fallen angels in repentance fight for Noah and as they die are taken up to heaven.
The story of Noah’s flood is already debated by lost scientists, but this just makes the whole thing out to be a fantacy.
3. The solution to the problem
Open up conversations with your kids about their faith. Help them to process what the world is telling them about stories of the bible that aren’t completely true. Help them to discern. What is the message that this is trying to communicate? Rather than just telling our kids no you can’t watch that maybe we should have the discussion so they know why. If we don’t respond with grace allowing them to ask questions, they aren’t going to stop having those questions; they are just going to go somewhere else to get the answers.
Satan’s desire is to get their faith to be on the peripheral of their life. Not that big a thing.
The World tries to get the Influencers in our Children’s Lives.
The World tries to get the Influencers in our Children’s Lives.
Daniel 1:3-4 “And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.”
Nebuchadnezzar wanted the cream of the crop. He wanted the ones that everyone would look up to and listen to because if he could control them, he could control the crowd. Notice who he picks:
The royalty
The beautiful
The smart
These were the influencers in their society. Our culture today is driven by influencers. The primary application of this point is social media: youtube, instagram, facebook influencers. People use their social capital to promote ideas and to sell products. This influence hits our kids at a pretty young age. I know for a long time my kids wanted to watch youtube videos about these families that would go and do all these things. The content generally was harmless, but there were two influences that I believe were destructive about those shows:
They made the kids feel like this was normal life. It creates within them a desire to have all of those things, do all of those things. It doesn’t matter that these families are millionaires and getting paid to do it. Their focus becomes having things and enjoying life all the time. Real life is not like that. There are some hard times in life. You may not have everything you ever want. But the real problem here is that is distracts you from something better. God is supposed to be the thing that truly satisfies us. All these other things will leave you wanting more, unhappy and dissatisfied.
The messaging can also be wrong. I noticed a trend among the kids in these shows that they treated their parents as just another kid and even disrespectfully. Attitudes about things were also just slightly off. I had to ask myself, is this the way I want my kids to be.
How do we control the influences in our children’s lives? I think there is a place for teaching our children to discern these things as they get older, not necessarily forbidding it. If you do your job right, the end result will be the same. They won’t be watching it, but now you have taught them how to see the error. Controlling the influence only goes so far, you must replace it with something positive. Let’s try to put other influencers in their lives. Encourage them to listen and learn from other good teens. Encouraging participation in the youth group and learning from the youth leader. Find good godly coaches in their lives for sports and mentors for the rest of their lives. Put godly Christian online influencers in front of them instead.
The World tries to Re-educate the Worldview of our Kids.
The World tries to Re-educate the Worldview of our Kids.
This method of controlling the influencers in our children’s lives is just part of their effort to re-educate the worldview and values of our children.
Language- if Daniel learns Babylonian and then teaches his children Babylonian instead of Hebrew, they are separated from their religious roots. Daniel would have gone to Hebrew school and learned scriptures, but if you can’t remove that Hebrew education, then you potentially remove the religious education. 15,000 of education from teachers who may be diametrically opposed to our values. Parents spend about 20 mins a week paying attention to the homework of their children. How involved am I in their education? You cannot fully out source the education of your children.
Literature- The word learning in this text is writing or scroll. It refers to the literature. Literature is intended to teach values and the literature that is available in our public school is often geared to present ideas contrary to the teachings of scripture. Even in a Christian school, the school is going to have a philosophy of what it means to what with Jesus. Is that message the same as you vision for your kids? My secular degree is in English education so I have read a lot of the stories that are presented to our kids. They do have worldviews. We need to teach our children to be discerning, to think through the messaging of what they are reading. You can do the work for them as a parent earlier on, but if you want them to make right choices when they are older, they have to be taught how to discern.
Dinner discussions/ High lows open up opportunities for you to talk with you kids. Discuss the messaging of books and movies that you consume. Just because a movie doesn’t have cussing and sex in it doesn’t mean it is healthy.
The World tries to Change our Appetites
The World tries to Change our Appetites
Daniel 1:5 “And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.”
He is offering them some really good food. Eating from the kings table is like getting medium rare filet mignon every single night. If he can get them to fall in love with Babylon, he can get them to fall out of love with God. Our kids do not leave the faith or become wordly Christians all at once. They are drawn away gradually by creating appetites for the things of this world. James 1:14 “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” The world is trying to create a thirst for the things of the world in your kids. It may not even be bad things just not the things that point them to God. If I can get you to focus on nice cloths, you might not focus on God. So as parents how are we creating a thirst for God in the lives of our children?
Do your kids believe that God is the most important thing in your life?
When God blesses you, do you share it with your kids; or do they only see the trials?
Are you excited about what God is teaching you in your devotions and do you share that with your kids?
Are you asking your kids what they are learning in their devotions and then having discussions about that?
The World tries to Change our Identity
The World tries to Change our Identity
Daniel 1:6-7 “Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abed-nego.” The names of Daniel and His friends meant something to them.
Daniel- the judge of God
Hananiah- Jehovah has favored
Mishael- Who is what God is
Azariah- Jehovah has helped
But if Nebuchanezzar could get themselves to think of themselves as something else, they would forget their God.
Do you belong to the God or to the world?
As I have been studying Biblical Counseling, I read a case study of a young professing Christian who struggled with homosexuality. He knew it was wrong and was seeking help. So far he hadn’t gotten any real help because Christians for the most part don’t know what to say. One of his struggles dealt with his identity. He would often say things like, “We normally go to places like this and do these things. Our people are not accepted everywhere...” By using the words we and our he was revealing that his primary identity was the homosexual crowd and not as a Christian.
Our world is bombarding our children with a message that tells them what it means to be human. This image is something less than what God has called us to be as beings created in the image of God. If the world can get them thinking, I am a basketball player, I am a cheerleader, I am the nerd, I am the popular kid, I am the class clown, I am the smart kid; the shift might be subtle but the world has got your kids to stop thinking of themselves as a Christian. These values based on what we do, what we accomplish or how many likes we have are all shifting goals to identify ourselves. Good things but lesser things.
Basketball- might have an injury that keeps your from playing
Smart kid- some other kid out paces you in school or you fail a test
Popularity- the new kid comes and everyone wants to be around them.
How do you help your children ground their identity in what is best?
Teach them to meditate on the identity they have in God Eph 1.
2. Celebrate the things that really matter in life.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Parents I want to challenge you to be aware of how the world and the devil are trying to change your kids. Kids are growing, they are moldable. Someone is going to shape them into some image. Nebuchadnezzar knew it would be impossible for him to control his vast empire, so he needed to change the thinking and culture of the people. If they could identify as Babylonians instead of Jews, they would never rise up against him. If Satan can get your children to identify as anything other than a child of God than he can control them.
Its alright to be like the New England Patriots just this once right. Don’t let Satan get an upperhand. This is the last message on the home, but it might just be the most important one. Lets decide today, to protect our kids from that which seeks to destroy their faith.