Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
July 19, 2015 - W1529

Did you know that in the past, mores or cultures or attitudes about life would change once every generation. Every 40 years, cultures of a nation would somewhat change. Things would move, political things would happen, economies and education would change.  

Then it started changing not every 40 years but every 20. Everything would just turn over ?? attitudes, mores, cultures - everything. And then with the advent of the computer, it started to change every 1.6 years. Everything just changed, the way people thought, the things they liked, didn't like, trends, fashions. Everything would change every 16 months. And now with social media it changes every 28 days.

That's how fast we are moving socially. This world is spinning, and it's not only doing it physically. It's doing it socially. And I can get so caught up in the spin cycle where we want to know what's happening on the news every moment of the day, what's happening on the stock market. Is it going up or is it going down? What about the economy, what's happening across the globe over in Greece, or what's happening over there in Nigeria. It's never been like this before where we have constant new and changing news and fashions and trends. We got to keep up with the celebrities and what they're thinking at any moment of the day. We have gossip magazines. We try to figure out what's going on with the trophies being given out. And we start to love all of these things, the applause, and what's going on, and we're caught in the centrifuge.

The scripture says it well. 1 John 2:15-16 says,

"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father but from the world."

So he's saying here you're going to be in a centrifuge of attitudes, reasoning’s, trophies, applauses, and if you start loving those things, it will pull your heart from the Father, and it will get you caught in the centrifugal force as the world turns.

So the Bible reminds us, in Colossians 3:2,

"Keep seeking the things above. In fact, set your mind on things above and not on the things that are on the earth."

In other words, it's not the news of the world. It is the news of heaven. It's not what trophies the world is giving. What trophies is God giving? What does the world celebrate? No, what does God celebrate. Because in the midst of this, if you're not careful to set your mind on the things of God, you'll get caught up in the centrifuge as the world turns.

I was in Japan some time ago, and we went toamusement park, and there's a house that’s called the Bikkuri House, which means surprise.

So I got in line, and I went into this house. And you sit on this bench and your feet are kind of dangling. It's just a regular house. But then everything starts turning around you, although you are not moving. And when it stops, you go outside and throw up.

It's sort of like whatever you put your eyes on is going to pull you into the centrifuge, and it's what you look at that's going to tell you what you're going to become because you have choices. You see, as the world turns, are you going to look at what they're saying or what God is saying? Because God is speaking right now. And there's something happening, and this is what I want you to hear. Something is happening to cloud the priorities of God. It's becoming so important to the enemy that he is emphasizing something so you won't see something else. And what you look at will change your life.

The world is turning around you like the Bikkuri House. And if you look at this, you'll get caught in the centrifuge.

In Matthew 6:21, he says:

"Where your treasure is there will your heart be."

So whatever you're treasuring might make you miss the very thing that God is speaking to the church about. And whenever God has something of great importance, you'll find the enemy stirring up all kinds of things away from it and drawing your attention to the wrong things. Every time you open up the news media, whether it's your Internet or your newspaper, you're going to see things pulling you this way, and the most obvious thing that God is saying to the church we'll miss.

So how do we discern what God is prioritizing?

Watch what the enemy is counterfeiting because the enemy doesn't counterfeit unimportant things. He will watch for what God is prioritizing, and he'll counterfeit it so we don't see what it's all about. He will begin to counterfeit or sabotage. He'll begin to muddy up and obscure certain things.

Now, we can either fight the counterfeit or we can say if Satan's counterfeiting that, then I tell you what God is emphasizing. If Satan's trying to obscure the definition of this, I can tell you what God wants us to get clear.

There is a story about how they trained inspectors who could recognize counterfeit bills very quickly. They never showed you a counterfeit. Rather, they put you in a room with the real stuff, and for several days all you did was study the real thing. And then they put you near a conveyor belt, and they would throw a few counterfeits here and there. And as counterfeits would go by, they would stop and say, you know, I don't know what's wrong with this, I can't tell you what's wrong with it, but something is not right

And so there’s going to be things counterfeited in the world, relationships, love, words that are going to be redefined, and we might not be able to explain all of it, but you need to be able to pause and say, “There's just something not right about that reasoning. I can't tell you exactly educationally, academically what it is, but I know it's not right.” And you have to be able to discern that by knowing the real thing. Otherwise, you’ll might miss exactly what God is doing.

Here are three things that are under attack and that are being redefined or counterfeited: Morals, marriage, and family.

Today our morals are being challenged. As a result of loose sexual contact, you have unwanted pregnancies. Now the devil jumps in and monopolizes that and says the way we resolve it as the world turns is abortion; so let's just legalize that. And so since that time, Roe v. Wade in 1973, 58 million children have been aborted.

There are two other times in history where, when God is about to do something great, there has been a massive genocide of children. One, when Moses was about to be born Pharaoh was afraid that a great leader would overtake him. So he had all the Jewish children killed. However God allowed Moses to live.

The second time was when another deliverer was about to be born. Herod ordered all the male babies two years and younger killed. Again God allowed Jesus to slip through the clutches of the king.

Furthermore, when you consider the 4 million children born each year in the USA, 49% are born out of wedlock and hence, there is the further disintegration of the family.

In English we have the word “love”. In Greek there are four words:

1. Agape or God’s love.
2. Eros or romantic love.
3. Storge or the love of a parent for their children.
4. Phileo or friendship love.

In marriage all four loves come together to have a complete love. It’s not like having just a friend or partner. In the Ten Commandments it says to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Likewise when you love your spouse with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength that is the beauty and sacrament of marriage.

But now when the marriage institution is attacked, misdefined, and misconstrued, then there’s a counterfeit. So people start saying, “Let’s take marriage out and just live together. We’re just friends and we can have kids or adopt kids. It’s like having a table with four legs and you decide that you can take out one of the legs and the table will be just fine sitting on three legs.

You see, if you want to know God's love, God better be included. Yes, if you want God's blessings, you got to do it God's way. If you want God's love, you need to ask God to define it, and not the world that's spinning in a centrifuge, otherwise everything will make you throw up after a while. That's not the most stable love. There is one relationship that God has afforded that brings a confluence of all four loves and that is in marriage. It's a sacrament.

You know what a lot of churches and denominations are doing?  It's called the Error of Balaam right now. Balaam is in Genesis chapter 22 when a prophet was asked by the King of Moab to curse what God wasn't cursing and bless what God wasn't blessing. And Balaam said, “You know, I can't do that.” The King said, “I'll pay you a lot of money. I'll give you a bunch of gifts.” Balaam said, “Well, you know, let me think about it.” So he starts off on his way, and his donkey that he's riding stops and he says, “Get going.” But the donkey does not go. And he hits it again. The third time the donkey just stops and starts talking to him. “Why are you hitting me?” He says, “Because you refuse to listen to me.”

And the donkey says, “Look ahead.” And there was an angel of the Lord with a flaming sword, and he said to Balaam, “If that donkey wouldn't have stopped, I would have killed you.”

We're in this era, and we need to say we're going to draw some lines. And we're going to love God, and we're going to learn from the past.

I don’t want to know what the world is applauding, I want to know what God is applauding. And if we're not careful, we'll miss the most obvious. God is applauding morals that are Godly, marriages that are holy, and families that are devoted to God. Can I encourage especially dads today, God has called you to be the head of the home, and I'm asking you to be the priest of your home in this next season. You see, the family is the smallest church in the world. Dad, you're the pastor. Let's make a recommitment to what the enemy is trying to obscure. And we can go fight against the counterfeits, or we can say, “No! Let's just draw the line and make sure that we're men and women of God. Let's strengthen what the enemy is trying to tear down, and that will make us a church of the end times.” You'll become a refuge where people will come to find shelter because we're a people who like the sons of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do.

Questions:

1. So how do we discern what God is prioritizing?
2. What are three things that's are under attack and that are being redefined or counterfeited?
3. Name the four Greek words that symbolized love?
4. What do the four Greek words of love mean?
5. What has God called Fathers to be?