Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach All Nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Nikita Jensen. As we're delving into this situ— session, this may be a bit touchy for some people, and it may seem obvious for others, but the main focus is to study from the Word of God and let God speak for himself. Isaiah 1:18 says, come and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool. So we know scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. So let's come with an open heart as we talk about entertainment. So let's have a quick word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you that we have an opportunity to study your word, as well as to compare and contrast what the world is trying to declare as entertainment but what you are calling us to is a better life. So Lord, as you know, in the past for me it was a touchy subject, and there may be some people out here with whatever you impressed me to talk about may be touchy. It may hurt to hear of the things that we like is something that you don't agree with. So please, may you open our hearts with the beauty of the present of the Holy Spirit. Open our hearts, our eyes, our ears to hear, receive, and move forward trusting and obeying that you have the better solution. In Jesus' precious and mighty name, amen. Okay, now writing is one of my favorite hobbies to do, um, and definitions is something that's very vital when it comes to trying to communicate something in particular. No matter the format, keywords are also very important to understand. So let's define a couple of words. Amusement is a noun, and it means that which amuses, detains, or engages the mind, an entertainment or pastime. Now, to understand amusement, we also need to understand what the word amuse means, which has 2 general definitions: to entertain, to occupy or detain the attention of with agreeable objects, to divert. The second, to occupy the attention of, to distract, to bewilder. You've kind of got a really good one and not so great. There's synonyms that's used, um, with this word in particular as well. We amuse or entertain by engaging the attention on some occupation. We divert by drawing the attention from any object. Whatever amuses serves to lull the faculties and banish reflection. And there's plenty of amusements in today's society, the good and the bad. There's also plenty of entertainment, and that is a noun: the amusement, pleasure, or instruction derived from conversation, oratory, music, dramatic performances, etc. The pleasure which the mind receives from anything which holds or arrests the attention. One of the synonyms used for this word is amusement in that space. And as the title states, the world is demanding to entertain us, except the world is not sincere when it's calling to entertain us. In fact, the devil would use any means to take us away from our beloved Prince and Savior Jesus. In the Bible, we meet a man As Ecclesiastes puts it, the preacher. This preacher, Solomon states in Ecclesiastes 1:2, vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Does that mean everything is truly vain and nothing, or is there something else? What is he talking about? He's talking about everything that's under the sun, everything that does not connect us with God. Is vanity because it doesn't hold anything. He concludes with the book in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, as also mentioned in the sermon this morning. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every word into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. The man Solomon has experienced both a godly life as well as an ungodly life and said the ultimate purpose in life for us is to worship God and to keep his commandments. Fearing God is not to tremble and be anxious or afraid. No, not at all. It's actually to have a close relationship with him where we respect what he says, and because of that relationship with God, We love him and we naturally end up wanting to keep his commandments. It's not to do because, oh well, there's the judgment and I want to do good, so I'm going to just do this but have no relationship with God. That's not what God is calling us to. He's wanting that close relationship like we should have with our parents. Our parents are an earthly representation of what we should be having as a relationship with our Heavenly Father. And sometimes that doesn't correlate, unfortunately. But we praise God that we've got examples in the Bible of how good of a Father he is to us. We also have a little bit of an issue that separates us from God. It's our flesh, the desires that we know are not good, and they can be quite addictive. We all have something that we struggle with. Idols, social media, movies, YouTube, following people in general instead of actually following after the word. How about also in the morning, do we pick up our Bibles first or do we pick up our phones? We can all be pretty guilty of one or the other, can't we? At the end, by beholding, we become changed. And that's why, as our little outline, we've got Philippians 4:8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. With that in mind, let's look at some of the examples that the world puts out as entertainment. We have the Marvel Universe. Doctor Strange is a part of that. It— Marvel in general, for anyone who doesn't know, it's a conglomeration of stories that twist the original story of what the Bible has. It's not necessarily blatant, but it is out there. Doctor Strange, or Stephen Strange, also known as the Master of Mystic Arts, Sorcerer Supreme, Master of Black Magic, Captain Universe, the Harvestman. He's also known as the Occult Master, yet he's viewed as a good guy because he's helping out the Avengers, which also have their tidbits in rebellion and other characteristics that God is not for. There was controversy with the second Doctor Strange film where, unfortunately, I accidentally saw a glimpse of the trailer because I had other people watching it in front of me. And when you see something, you naturally go to that a little bit for a video. But demon possession is within that film. And I had other Seventh-day Adventists who went to watch the entire movie at the cinemas and said it was so dark, I cannot support any future Marvel films like that. Except Marvel was already setting them up to be able to accept that, because everything starts with a small compromise in each film there. The issue with that comment that person made, however, is these movies are based off of the comics, and the comics make it very clear. The production producer for this film, the second one specifically, said he wanted it to be point blank the way that the comics had it. However, they did not allow that because that would seem too dark for today's community, and he managed to read only a little bit of it. So how much more darker was that film actually going to be if they were verbatim for the comic? There was a video as well talking about the magic within the film, so I hope the audio— Those weapons that they use, uh, that the sorcerers use, are from channeling power from other dimensions. Okay. You know, and so that shield that he's holding is actually a mandala, you know, with sacred texts written in there that we've designed very specifically, you know, because Because they're not out there building weapons. They are all about dimensional magic. And I also am very proud of the fact that in this movie, magic is magic. You know, it's like we're not trying to explain it away and give it scientific, you know, understandability. It's magic. And that's what good magic does. It blows your mind because you can't fully understand it. They're using magic in front of you, but a lot of people say that's just fantasy. It's not a reality. If you go to what people consider as third world countries, people can say point blank that is magic. It is true. But we have it so easily in front of us in TVs where we are so numb to the reality of occultism in front of us that it's just nah, we can just slide that by. But Satan is a subtle one. He started subtly with Eve in the garden, so how much more subtle is he going to be with the devices we have now? Then we also have Thanos. Um, he's As you can see, like a purple blob. Um, I like to consider him— he's called Master Lord or the Overmaster. And even in the film, just before killing another evil character who is from the Nordic gods, he considered himself the I Am. And who calls himself the I Am in the Bible? God. And so God never kills. The Bible says specifically it's a strange act what God is going to have to do in the last days. For the sake of eradicating sin. But Thanos is not doing that. So Satan is twisting the character of God and putting it as, you know what, it's satanic, but we're going to call that God because he uses specific Bible quotes in his speech. And so people are going to link, oh, okay, Thanos is saying these words. I've heard a Christian say that. No, okay, that must not be good for me. It's manipulation. Satan uses those tactics, and he kills his daughter to be able to get the Soul Stone to save the world, to eradicate half the people because there's overpopulation in Earth. That's twisting scripture again, isn't it? Additionally, as well, his ship happens to be called the Sanctuary 2. Second sanctuary. A little out there, but you need to do the research to be able to see this. People don't necessarily do research to understand how twisted it can be. Nothing is a coincidence in film. As a drama student, they lay everything out in front of you. I was telling Marleta this morning, um, I used to watch all the Marvel films. I grew up on this. I didn't grow up in the church, so coming into the church slowly over time I chose to remove bits bit by bit by bit. However, there's one scene that lasts only for a couple of seconds, but on that specific sheet, it's actually written in blood in one of the Iron Man movies, a Bible verse, but it just blinks in your eye and you never saw it. I never saw it until I analyzed it. And so it subtly goes into your memory bank. You mightn't have seen it, but when you pause, you go, oh yeah, that was there. I forgot about that. It's a little bit of a trick that Satan uses with movies. Tony Stark— oh, okay, that didn't work as I want to do. Sorry, I had them all different. Like, he has this specific image where you have Spider-Man and Tony Stark is lying down. There's a specific statue of Mary and Jesus That you can look up for yourselves there, and Tony Stark and Spider-Man are in that specific exact image that was carved out initially as well. So it's indirectly saying Tony Stark, the great playboy billionaire, is the Messiah in this film. However, he's arrogant, he's rude, he's selfish. Is our Messiah rude? Arrogant and selfish? He's selfless. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And Jesus endured the cross for the joy, for the hope to come, that we could be with him. Tony Stark is twisted, but he's viewed as a messiah, and that's in the comics. And also relates in the film as well. He made tools of destruction, and the very iconic one in the very first film, he called it the Jericho. And you had the bombs go behind him and blast, and he does a Jesus pose similar to the cross. So it's these subtle movements that they put in front of you in film that cause you to think, oh yep, okay, there's that imagery, we link it to that. We naturally do that without thinking. Even in the third Guardians of the Galaxy, the concept of God was shown through the eyes of evolution. I didn't know well. I didn't do too much research with the Guardians of the Galaxy before going to this film, so I had good memories of the first two ones. So then I went to the third one in cinema. I didn't do my research. That's a lesson learned there for me. And it's all about evolution. And this evolution man, if it's not perfect, I'm going to destroy you all, and I'm going to create a new world until I get a perfect one. God doesn't do that with us though. He works with us. He wrestles with us so that we can be perfected and be with him. But that one I cried at the end of that movie because it really clicked. If people— if some Christians are trying to push evolution in the Bible, that creates the entire Bible to be false in all reality, because that means then if God created evolution, he created death. But death was never in his plan for us, was it? And there's also movies that borrow titles from the Bible. The Terminator series is a very great example for that. You've got Judgment Day, Genesis— the last I is a Y instead— and then Salvation as a few to use. Then we can see in the middle here, Hazbin Hotel. It's an unfortunate one. So this started through YouTube and got picked up by Amazon Prime. It's a hotel run by the daughter of Lucifer Morningstar and Lilith. Charlie, the daughter, as we see in the middle at the top, um, is seeking to find ways for people to go from hell to get into heaven. Some people would say that's very sweet. However, biblically, we know that hell is not a place. Thus, that should already immediately be sending red flags for us. And to add on top of that too, we know who is the true Morning Star. And that is Jesus. Revelation 22, verse 16. Jesus is the one that mentions it. And if you've got your Bible, I'd welcome— I'd like to invite you to go there in Revelation 22, verse 16. Okay, Revelation 22, verse 16 says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright And Morningstar. And yet they're using Morningstar for Satan's daughter as well as for Lucifer himself in that film. It's twisting it once again. Later in the series as well, there's a song sung by Charlie, the daughter, and God's angels, which— the very top one at the back with an evil grin, that's apparently one of God's angels. In this sing-off, they're basically declaring the good angels in heaven that they delight to kill people from hell. And the alarming thing about that is this series has really hit it off with many people. There's millions of fans that watch it, and it's increased over the past few years. Then we also have the TV show Lucifer. It started in 2016, and thankfully, by God's grace, it ended in 2021. It's a series that flips the character of Michael the Archangel, that being, and we know and understand to be Jesus. Michael in this series is dumb and unintelligent, whilst Lucifer is intelligent, strong, and handsome. The series built up such a sympathy for the devil that when the series was set to stop Christians were demanding to have the show continue running. People were complaining on social media and petitioning to get the show back because they felt connected to the main character, to Lucifer, to Satan. Sympathy for the devil— that's what Hollywood is pushing for. Now, Harry Potter. I grew up with this, um, and it took a while for me to get rid of it. Not too long, praise the Lord, because a lot of the things that I watched in my childhood was occult. However, a lot of people, when after I burnt all the books and got rid of my media, I've heard of Christians, even Seventh-day Adventists, being fine with watching it, and it shocked me. One ought never to use the enemy's tactics to show conflict. Sure, you can use the excuse of, but it shows good and evil. Very well, but magic is never of God. Miracles are, and it helps, and it works. But magic is something that God despises. In first Samuel chapter fifteen verse twenty-three, it says, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." And if that is not clear enough, Deuteronomy chapter eighteen verses nine to twelve says, "When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God." God give you. Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with the familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. And because of these abominations, of the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. God doesn't really use the word hate often, and when he does, we need to keep an eye out because he's sending us those warning flags. If there's magic in any film, at the end of the day, should you be watching it? No. God makes it very clear, even the minutest one. That also includes The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Narnia. Despite saying that it's centered on Christianity, J.R.R. Tolkien desired to make The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as England's mythology. And mythology is not true, so it's basically trying to take your mind away from reality and have it as a fantasy. God wants us to live in reality because that's where we can actually meet him face to face. When we are escaping from the world, that means I'm not content with where I'm at, so I want to go away. Thou shalt not covet. And C.S. Lewis even admitted to be able to get Narnia with the where it was, he envisioned the faun, and that in itself, Mr. Tumnus, a good character is a representation of the Greek god Pan, and Pan is linked with Lucifer, Satan. Do with that as you please. We see even in the music realm with genres of Christian pop, Christian metal, and so on and so forth. And singers in today's society, many of them share who they work for. Jay-Z and Beyoncé, exceptionally known for their ties with the occult. Jay-Z actually called himself the Black Jesus, turning water into wine in a collaboration. He's also called himself Jehovah and follows Aleister Crowley's— Aleister Crowley's motto, do what thou wilt, and that is the whole of the law. He even had that on a shirt, so you can look that up on you for yourself. Beyoncé, who used to be a church girl, changed quite a bit and said in past interviews Generally, that it isn't her on stages; it's her alter ego Sasha Fierce, because Sasha can do things that she cannot—demon possession. And did you know many musicians, and there's plenty more as well, declare themselves to be witches? Elvis Presley was already one of the most famous musicians of the time, given the outrage over his what was considered then. Sexually charged dance moves. But on top of that, he was also practicing witchcraft at one time. His wife Priscilla says he became fascinated with the occult in search of a higher state of consciousness when his record sales were declining with the success— over time, his record sales declined with the success of the Beatles, and they also were delighted with Aleister Crowley's lifestyle as well as Hitler. And unfortunately for them, they wanted to have Hitler on one of their album pieces. Aleister Crowley's on there, but because of what Hitler did to the Jews, it was too controversial, so they didn't have his face on the album cover. They're not hiding who they serve. And now let's look at some lyrics. It's very important, and it's quite small. Forgive me there. I used to be a huge K-pop fan. Korean pop music was something that I was into. However, after delving in, they've got very strong ties with the occult. Unfortunately, BTS was a band that started back in 2013, and this song, "My Blood Sweat and Tears," Napitam Nurmur was one that got them global over the time. The first part of the verse says, "My blood sweat and tears." My body, mind, and soul. I know well they're all yours. This is a spell that will punish me. Peaches and cream, sweeter than sweet. Chocolate cheeks and chocolate wings, but your wings are the devil's. There is a bitter next to your sweet. Who are we to serve with our body, mind, and soul? God. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 say that specifically, and Jesus also mentions that in the Gospels too. However, they're not obviously not talking about God. They're talking about the devil because it's the devil's wings here. And even in the second, second verse they share, they say, it doesn't matter if it hurts. Tie me up so I can't escape. Hold me tight and shake me up so that I can't come to my senses. Kiss me on the lips, a secret just between the two of us. Deeply poisoned by the jail of you. I cannot worship anyone but you. And I knew the Grail was poisoned, but I drank it anyway. And that is linked with Freemasonry. If you want to go from the 30th degree upwards, you need a drink of Grail filled with most likely human blood. I'll say wine, hopefully. Um, and they poison it to keep the oath, because if you mention it to anyone, you will die at that point. And that was the song that got them global. So they made a pact with the devil. And on the western side, Adele's Oh My God. She says her position as well quite clearly. Oh my God, I can't believe it. Out of all the people in the world, what is the likelihood of jumping out of my life and into your arms? Maybe, baby, I'm just losing my mind because this is trouble, but it feels right. Teetering on the edge of heaven and hell is a battle that I cannot fight. We can't fight it because if we don't have Jesus, we'll fall into Satan's hands. But if we have Jesus, he's the one that's already fought the battle for us—the cross. If we just look at the cross and see what he's done for us and turn to him and go for the cross in all ways, he will give us the strength and the victory for that battle. And her pre-chorus in this song is. I know it's wrong, but I want to have fun. This is a subtle jab that having a relationship with God is not fun, and the devil is the one that gives joy then. But that is wrong. If you truly have a relationship with Jesus, you will know he is the one that gives us true joy and peace. Just look at the Psalms. Despite the pain that most of those writers went through, They always praised God. God calls us to praise him, not just because he wants to be haughty and prideful. No, because he knows that he's good, but he wants us to recognize that he is good despite the sin that is trying to take us away from him. If you aren't certain about what you're listening to, I recommend for you to pray before you read lyrics. Don't listen to it, read it, because the beat is also what causes you to be in a hypnotic state. For anything that you are watching, it takes about 60 to 90 seconds for your frontal lobe to shut down, so you can't even reason with what you're watching. Music actually bypasses that reasoning and is stored in your brain. So literally what you're listening to Is what you end up coming out eventually if you continue to listen to that. So if you're choosing to have worldly music that doesn't uplift God, what do you think Sabbath is going to be like? It's torturous. If you continue to listen to worship music, it's fun because you're drawing closer to God on a day that he has separated for us. By beholding, we become changed. Let's ponder and consider what is the purpose for us as followers of Christ. Well, as we read before in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, Whether it be good or whether it be evil. As I mentioned, I didn't grow up in the church. I had a lot of things that I had to remove, not just because I had to, but I wanted to so I could be closer to God. There are things that separate us from God, and Satan wants to use every factor, even if it's just a 1%. 99% can be true, but that 1% that is in there That is something that God doesn't like. It's better to remove it and be safe than to have it and lose your entire soul. This is only a small bit of research that I've done. There's plenty more. It's a rabbit hole, really, if you go down it. There's not really much time. So who will you serve this day? If you know that there is something that you need to remove or should remove And you're not really feeling willing, but you want to be willing to be willing. If it's a movie, social media, whatever it may be, if you want to be willing to be willing, I want you to raise your hand and say, God, today I want to be willing to remove this. And if you are willing to remove whatever is stopping you from having that connection with God, I want you to stand where you are. Amen. If you know there is something that is stopping you and you're just choosing to have it because, I'm used to this, this is a whole habit of mine, but I want to remove this, I know and I'm willing. Thank you. And if you choose this day forward to serve God, I want you to come forward to the front. And let's pray together. Do you want to serve God this day? If you want to, please come forward. If you've got things that are holding you back that you know are making you choose whether or not to be with God, but you want to remove it and make sure that you want to just serve God wholeheartedly here and now, You can come forth. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you that you are the one that takes off the blinds. You reveal the truth to us and you show us how much you love us. And you also show what the devil is trying to do in the great controversy. He's trying to take us away from you, and you know how much we struggle. But Lord, we praise you because now unto him that is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. We just need to reach out to you and call for you, Father, help me. And you know the people's heart here. You know whom they want to serve this day, Lord. And for those who have a stony heart who don't want to serve you but know they should and want to have that relationship with you and find You, please, Lord. I ask on their behalf that they will have a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone. You promised that, and you will give us a new spirit. Lead us, guide us, and protect us on this path as we plan to remove things that separate us from you. And Lord, when we have the conviction, may we trust and obey, not trying to understand it, knowing that you have a better outcome for us. Thank you for hearing and answering this prayer in the precious and mighty name of Jesus. Amen. This message was made available by the Watara Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit whitarachurch.org.au. Missed part of an Australian program? Listen anytime on demand at 3abnaustralia.org.au. And click on the listen button. This program has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia Radio.
