Now, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is beginning in verse number 13 where the bible reads, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind." That's the title of the sermon.
"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear."
What does that mean in Verse 13 to gird up the loins of your mind? If you think of it, throughout the Old Testament, when it talks about people having their loins girded, they're ready to do something. They're ready to do some kind of work or to take a trip or to start running or something along those lines.
If you think about the Passover meal, it was to be eaten according to Exodus 12 with their groins girded and with their staff in their hands. Basically, they're ready to go. They're sharp, they're alert, they're ready for action.
When the bible says to gird up the loins of your mind, the opposite of that would be sitting down and relaxing. Think about the Passover was not to be a relaxed meal. It was to be eaten in haste. The opposite of girding up the loins of your mind would be to allow your mind to relax and just allow your mind to just sit around and take it easy and to just let whatever thoughts come into it and just whatever opinions that the world dishes up for you, whereas girding up the loins of your mind, as this passage said, would be to take control of your mind, to be a weight, to be alert and to know what you believe and why.
Now, look at verse 14. It says, "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance." Okay? Those who don't have their minds girded up, they are walking according to the lusts of the ignorance of this world.
Now, flip over to II Peter. You're in I Peter. Just go to a few pages to the right in your bible. II Peter 3 because when we talk about the world that we live in and when we say the world in the bible, we're talking about the ungodly, unsaved, unregenerate world like where the bible says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. " Talking about all that is not of the father, all that is not just of sinful flesh and sinful man and this world.
Two words that come up over and over again are lust and ignorance. We saw them both side by side in I Peter 1 when it talked about the former lust in your ignorance. Here's another place where those 2 things both show up about the unbelieving world we live in II Peter 3.3, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,' for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of god they heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the water and in this water."
This is what we see all around us in our day, those who scoff at and mock Christianity. "Where is the promise of his coming?" They make fun of the Lord Jesus Christ and his word. It says in this passage that they're motivated by their own lusts and that they are willfully ignorant because of their lusts, because they want to live a sinful life and because they covet things that god has told them are off limits to them. They devise this system of thinking that's a godless system that mocks and scoffs at Christianity. They just willfully hide their eyes from the truth, they're willfully ignorant because their lust.
You want to know why these so-called academic super intelligent … Who does the world think is just so super-intelligent today? Give me some examples. Scientists. Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking. I just found out a new one. Michio Kaku. Who's ever heard of this guy? They're like, "Oh, man! This is 1 of the smartest guys, the smartest physicists."
This is what he got up and this has nothing to do with the sermon. I'm sorry. This is just a brief commercial break. The guy gets up and says, "You know, when we physicists are out looking for life out in the solar system and out in the galaxies, not in the universe ..." He said, "When we physicists are looking for life out in the universe, we're not looking for little, green men. We're looking for type 1, type 2 and type 3 civilizations out in space."
He begins to describe, "Type 1 is like the civilization we see on Buck Rogers," and he goes into all that. "You know, type 2 is what we'd see in Star Trek." He explains everything about a type 2 civilization. "You know, type 3 would be Star Wars and the intergalactic empire." He goes and explains that every … He's like, "You know where we rank on this scale? A 0. We're a type 0 civilization. We're a big 0. The only way we can even achieve type 1 status is through global government." He said, "Anyone who is against global government is a terrorist and they're trying to hold us back."
He said, "The math tells us that there should be thousands of type 1 and type 3 and type 3 civilizations all over the universe but we've never found any because," he said, "What happened is there are all these planets and before they got to that Buck Rogers level let alone the Star Trek level or the Star Wars level." He said, "Before they got to that level, they might have destroyed their planet through global warming or maybe they all nuked each other through nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. Are we going to be different?"
He said, "We're going to be the most important generation. We're going to succeed where other people have failed. We will be Buck Rogers. We will be Captain Kirk. We will be Luke Skywalker," okay? This is the most intelligent guy. "Oh, listen to this guy, so he tells you." Look, what's so stupid about that. "Oh, the math tells it."
You know what the math tells us? That no life should exist in this universe because life cannot come from nothing! Life on this planet didn't come from nothing. God breathed into the nostrils and man and man became a living soul. It didn't just happen. "Mathematically, the probably," blah, blah, blah. Look, you're a fool Michio Kaku, Caa-caa or whatever your name is because you know what? You can't tell us where that life originated from. You can't tell us where the plants and the animals came from. He said, "oh, yeah. Evolution." No, evolution explains how 1 life form supposedly turned into another. It's false but they claim how 1 kind of life turned into another. Evolution can't explain where the original life form came from. No one can explain that. God can, you're right.
"Math tells us there should be thousands of Buck Rogers all throughout the universe." People are like, "Oh, man! This guys' so smart. Let us sit and learn at his feet," but listen to me, the bible said of these people, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." I mean these guys … Look. It's not just Michio Kaku that says this because honestly, all of these guys when you listen to him talk, they're into science fiction, all of them. They're all into Star Trek. They're a bunch of Trekkie geeks is what they are. There! I said it. If you're into Star Trek, you're a nerd. You're a geek. You're a dweeb. You know what? If you're really successful, nerdy, geeky, dweeb, you can grow up and be the next Stephen Hawking. You can grow up and be the next Richard Dawkins.
These guys, we would have scoffed at these guys in school as being just a bunch of losers but you know what? They grow up and now they've found a way to have popularity, finally because they were picked on in school. They sold their soul to Satan. He's like, "All these things will I give you if you'll fall down and worship me?" They're like, "Okay. Score. Heh heh heh." Now, they can be cool.
Listen to me. These guys are a bunch of godless fools. I'm not making fun of people that are nerdy. It's okay to be a geek and everything. Sorry to offend you.
That has nothing to do with the sermon. That was a little word from our sponsor but let me say this, though. The ignorance and the darkness in our world is not a coincidence. It just happens to be that there's all this ignorance in the world. The bible says, "Before you're saved, you're ignorant. The world's filled with ignorance." The bible describes our unsaved world as being in darkness today. I'm here to tell you, it is not an accident. It's all by design.
Let me show you that in scripture. Says in Ephesians 2:1, " And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."
Notice the unsaved are not just going through life and living according to their own will. The bible says that before you're saved, you walked according to the course of this world which is what? Look at verse 2, "According to the prince of the power of the air." That's talking about the devil. " The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."
Amonght the children of disobedience in this world, there's a spirit at work. There's a guiding force of the prince of the power of darkness that is leading them into this ignorance and darkness and stupidity and evil. That's why this physicist just happens to be going around giving speeches about how, "Hey, we need a global government. We need a 1 world government if we're ever going to be Buck Rogers." Why is he saying that? Because he's getting marching orders from his lord of darkness, satan himself. That's what the bible says.
If you don't believe me, look at verse 3. "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
Those who are unsaved are all to some extent influenced by this system and by this evil spirit of the prince of the power of the air.
Go to Ephesians 4, just a couple pages. What I find funny about this is that when you think about what the devil uses the most to control the mind and to influence the unsaved into having all this ignorance and darkness and wickedness is basically television and radio, which if you think about, it's all broadcast over the air. When you go on TV, you go on the radio, it's like, "Hey. You're on the air, now." He's called the prince of the power of the air.
Then, when you talk about TV and radio, it's called programming. I mean, when you get the TV Guides, it's the programming guide and it's all over the air. Let me tell you, it's the prince of the power of the air that's behind it. The mass brainwashing.
Look at Ephesians 4:17. It says, "This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth not walk as the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind."
Look. What's he saying? Unsaved people are ignorant, they're in darkness and so forth but he says, "I don't want you to have that same mentality." Notice. Being saved does not automatically just cause you to get all this stuff out of your mind and to no longer participate in any of this stuff. Otherwise, he wouldn't have to tell them, "Look, don't do it. Don't walk as other gentiles walk. Don't have your understanding darkened," as it says in verse 18 there.
He's saying, "Gird up the loins of your mind. Take control of your mind. Take the reins of your mind. Get your mind ready to think for itself according to the scriptures and not according to the prince of the power of the air and the rulers of the darkness of this world."
Look what it says there in verse 18. "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of god through," what? "The ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness but ye have not so learned Christ."
Go back to II Corinthians 4 and we could go to a lot of scriptures that talk about this same thing. We saw it in Ephesians 2. We saw it in Ephesians 4. Now, we're going to see it in II Corinthians 4 about the fact that there's an agenda that the devil has to keep people ignorant, to keep people in darkness and to blind the minds of them that believe not.
Look down at your bible, II Corinthians 4:3, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the god of this world have blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of god should shine unto them." You see that right there? They're blinded by someone and it's Satan, the bible tells us, the god of this world.
In Revelation 12:9, you don't have to turn there but the bible reads, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan …" Watch this. "Which deceiveth the whole world: He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
Notice, it doesn't say who tried to deceive the whole world. He's trying to deceive. No. It says, "He deceives the whole world." He's very successful at it. I mean, God says he's already blinded the minds of them that believe not. They're in darkness. They're ignorant. Basically he leads them into lust and wickedness as a way of life.
It's interesting. I have to give this illustration from this week. We're working on the film, Marching to Zion which is a really important film, an important project but I have to tell you something. I don't think that it's a coincidence that basically the persecution that I've undergone as a bible-believing pastor has intensified on all fronts over the last 6 months since we really started working on this film, started announcing this film because I'm telling you something, when you start talking about that subject, you bring out all the forces of hell because I mean it's a big subject. I'm telling you, I've undergone more persecution in more different ways coming from a variety of governmental agencies to also just obstacles of trying to get this movie done because let me tell you something. The devil does not want the light to be shined on his activities. He does not want the truth of the bible and the truth of the gospel to be proclaimed.
Let me tell you something, when you decide to be a preacher that preaches the word of god, Let me tell you something you are going to be in for a fight. You just have to be ready. If you say, "Well, I don't want to do that," then you need to not ever think about becoming a pastor because it's par for the course.
If you're going to get up and start shining the light and preaching the word of god. The bible says, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." You know what? The more you do, the more the persecution's going to come. You have to be able to withstand in the evil day. You have to be able to do that or it's the wrong business.
It's funny because we're working on the film Marching to Zion. We have a part where we needed a narrator. We needed somebody with a really cool voice that would be a narrator, that would narrate a certain point of the film. We're on the internet. We're looking for the talent that has the right voice. Some people are just born with a cool voice. Dominic comes to mind.
Anyway, so people just have a great voice and obviously he's developed his skill from reading the bible out loud a lot but the thing is we find this guy who's, they're all like a Hollywood voice guy or whatever. We find this guy. The guy sounds great so we contact his agent. We book this guy, we book the studio, we rent a studio. We have this guy do voice over for Marching to Zion. The guy was a real nice guy and he read over the script. We told him what the movie's about. We told the agency what the movie's about. In fact, he was asking me all kinds of questions. I spent 10 or 12 minutes just explaining to him in great detail everything that the film's about and all this and okay, great.
Okay, we sent the guy's lines over. Lines look great. He reads the lines. He's real happy. He's like, "Am I getting my name in the credits?" We're like, "Yeah, sure, you know. No problem. Of course. If you want. If you'd rather go uncredited, no problem." He's like, "Why would I want to go uncredited?" I said, "Well, you know, it's a really religious film and you know, in case you're a totally different religion or something." He's like, "No, no. It's fine, yeah."
Anyway, we get this all recorded. Then, Paul spends a whole bunch of time putting it into the movie, editing it down and fixing it up and everything like that. We get a call the next day. This lady says, "The talent," because that's what they're called. "The talent." Okay. "The talent went home last night and he Googled you guys and he read up on you guys and he saw your preaching and everything." They said, "He couldn't sleep at night," and in fact, his voice began to change. Remember, this guy. That's his life. He's a voice guy.
Maybe there should be a warning label on our website. "This can cause permanent damage to your voice and sleepless nights. Consult a physician before listening to Pastor Anderson's preaching."
Anyway, this guy's voice changed. Real upset and everything. I'm like, "Wait a minute. We've already recorded it. We already paid for the studio. We already did it. We spent days of our time on this. It's too late." He's like, "I've been doing this for 28 years. I've never done this but I have to tell you. You can't use it. You cannot use that which you've recorded." I'm like, "Are you going to pay for the studio that we use?" "No." What are you talking? You want us to eat this? We spent days on this. We're using it." "You guys can't use it."
Here's what she said. I wish I could just let you listen into the phone call because I'm going to tell you this and this exactly what she said. She said, "You don't understand. He works in Hollywood," and she said, "Pretty much everybody in Hollywood is either a homosexual or a Jew." She said, "You've offended both." She's like the stuff and she mainly focused on the homos. "The stuff you've said about homos," She said like, "This could destroy his career for even having had anything to do with you, because," she said, "in this industry that we're working in, you must be …" This woman's claiming, by the way, to be a Christian. She claimed to be a bible-believing Christian. She's telling me, "You have to be tolerant of homosexuals or you cannot work in this business."
I said to her, I said, "Oh, so what you're telling me is that there's this homosexual, Jewish, Hollywood mafia that just wants to make sure that a Christian viewpoint can never be heard."
Let me tell you something. There is not just the element that Hollywood is never going to put out anything truthful. We know that's there, don’t we? Hollywood's never going to put out anything truthful. The media, the TV, they're not going to put out the truth but it doesn't just stop there. They actively will fight against anyone who does try to tell the truth.
I said, "You won't even allow a Christian viewpoint to go forth." I said, "Let the guy be uncredited. So what? We don't care if he wants to be uncredited. No problem." She said, "Well, I don't think that the bible says anything against homosexuality." I said, "You know what? You're a liar." I said, "You want to hang around with a bunch of fags all day in Hollywood so that's how you justify it is by lying to yourself that the bible doesn't condemn it. You know the bible condemns it but you just want to tolerate it for filthy lucre sake because you want to make money in Hollywood."
Let me tell you something, Hollywood is a wicked place. Let me tell you something. It's not just Hollywood, it's the radio. It's the magazines. It's Madison Avenue. Listen to me. It's the rulers of the darkness of this world.
Not only that but just in the last few months. The company that we used that duplicated a bunch of my preaching CDs and duplicated my films and stuff is refusing to duplicate CDs and films for me now. I'm telling you, they don't want this stuff to get out. Right now, the internet's a powerful tool to proclaim the truth uncensored but let me tell you something, there could easily come a day when the internet is shut down or heavily censored because all it would have to be is that your ISP provider just says, "Well, you know, we don't approve of your brand of Christianity. It's too hateful or what …"
Look, anything they don't agree with is just hate. Blanket label. If it's Christian, it's hate. If it's biblical, it's hate speech. Then, they'll just shut you down. YouTube will shut you down and Facebook will shut you down and your ISP will shut you down and Blogger will shut you down and just say, "We don't allow this kind of speech." You don't even know.
Thank god that we at least have free speech right now and free speech over the internet but there's no free speech over the television. There's no free speech on the radio but how long will the internet even last as a free source of ideas and information? We don't even know. I'm saying that we need to be fighting the battle on the front lines and not hiding and scared of our own shadow.
Look, you say, "Well, Pastor Anderson, everything you've got through over the last few months, companies are refusing to work with you. You know, everybody's fighting you every step of the way." I'm making this movie, Marching to Zion. Not only that but you know, the people are calling all these government agencies on you. They're calling the IRS. They're calling CPS and just railing accusations. Yeah, okay, once we show them all the evidence, we come out of these things unscathed, but let me tell you something, it's still a huge nuisance and it's a pain in the rear end to have to go through all this.
You say, "Well, Pastor Anderson, you know, why don't you just tone it down a little? Why don't you just back down and cool it and take it?" No! Because we need to be fighting harder than we've ever thought because I'm telling you something. The world is in darkness and deceit and our country is going down the toilet at an alarming rate. Somebody needs to be the watchman on the wall and cry aloud and spare not.
You know what? There are a lot of pastors out there who agree with the stuff that I'm preaching about this but where are they at? Some of them will publicly proclaim. I'm not the only one, of course. There are 7,000 men that not bowed the need of bail. There are plenty of pastors who do stand up and preach right but you know what? They're way less than there used to be. For every one that's standing up and having the guts to proclaim what he believes, there are another 50 that are hiding in a cave like the prophets that Obadiah hid in a cave. Elijah's the only one out publicly preaching this stuff. It's like, "Oh, no. There's 100 more prophets that believe this stuff but they're all hiding in a cave." They're hiding in a cave with Obadiah eating bread and water. There's only 1 guy who would confront the king and confront the prophet of Baal and confront the profits of the groves.
That's the day that we're living in today where there are few that will let their voice be heard. Thank god we have 6 or 7 pastors participating with the Marching to Zion film but you know what? It should be 60, instead of 6. We don't need that many in the film but the bottom line is that you'd expect these biblical truths to be proclaimed.
You know what? People are afraid to say anything against the homos because it brings a flood of persecution on you. It's not that they don't agree. "I just don't agree. I think we're supposed to love and be buddies with everybody." No, no, no. Here's what it is. "I'm a coward so let me find doctrine to back up me being a coward." You want to know what the proof is? All these bunch of panderers, if you go back to their sermons in the 90s, they were ripping face like I was about that subject.
Back in the 90s, everybody was doing it. Back in the 90s, even Jerry Falwell is ripping face on the homos. Then, you read his quotes from the 2000s and it's, "Oh, I don't want to disrespect the homosexual community." I was, "What?" It's because it's just … That's how they decide what they preach.
We are in a spiritual battle. Look. You talk about never being able to work in this town again of Hollywood? Forget that. When I was in the fire alarm business, I lost 75% of my customers because of my preaching. That's the kind of persecution that's going on today where they'll just try to make it to where you can't work, you can't get your stuff out there. I've been banned from Facebook so many times I can't even count. They make it to where you can't get your message out.
You know what? We're going to get our message out. You say, "Why do you give all that stuff away for free? In the back shelf, all those DVDs and CDs, none of it's for sale back there. It's all free. Say, why do you give all that stuff away?" Because you know what? Those are valuable tools to get information out when other channels are closing down. We need to get those physical DVDs and CDs in people's hands and get this stuff out. Some of that stuff is contraband back there. I'm not kidding. Some of that stuff is like … It's all legal now but who knows? You got to get that stuff out there while you can and learn this stuff and teach this stuff.
Look, we're in a spiritual battle. Remember, what's the title of the sermon? Gird up the loins of your mind, right? Gird up the loins of your mind. Look at Ephesians 6 11. It says, "Put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil," which is what we read about in all those other scripture how he's trying to keep everybody in darkness and keep everybody ignorant. "For we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Look. The next time somebody calls you a conspiracy theorist, just point to this. The rulers of the darkness of this world, it exists. There is a conspiracy of evil at the top of the power echelon in the world that we live in.
Look at verse 14, though. "Stand therefore having your loins girt." Now, remember, it's called gird up the loins of your mind. "Having your loins gird about with truth."
How do we gird up the loins of our mind? We need to have an injection of the truth into our mind to help us gird up the loins of your mind and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
If we're going to gird up the loins of your mind, we need to stop listening to all the liars. We need to shut off the TV, shut off the radio, shut off the world sources of news and information and just all this junk, okay? We need to get ourselves in this book for a while and renew our mind.
Let me tell you something, I'm not saying it's wrong to ever look at the news or to listen to any of this stuff but you know what? When you're sitting there and dwelling on this stuff day after day, you're being brainwashed and you're being programmed, period. "I was a conservative, though." The devil is smart enough to control both sides, my friend.
You think the devil is just like, "Let's up all our resources on controlling the liberals and the democrats." The democrats and the liberals in this country are so godless and stupid, they don't even need the devil's help. They're fine. Okay. Look. It's controlled on both sides, okay?
What you're hearing on Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck is not the gospel, okay? Glenn Beck is a Mormon. That's a satanic religion, okay? You say, "Oh, well, I just listen to Mark Levin and Michael Savage, the real guys." Yeah, both Jewish. Both Jews.
By the way, same people who are running TV, Hollywood. It's all run by Jews. "Oh, if you say that, you're anti-Semitic." They're going to say I'm anti-Semitic anyway. I might as well say it. It's all run by Jews. The bible calls them the synagogue of Satan. The bible says, "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the messiah. He's anti-Christ that denieth the father and the son."
Look. These people that don't believe that Jesus is the messiah, they don't believe that Jesus is the Christ, the bible says they're anti-Christ and the bible says they're liars. You think that's the only thing they lie about? They lie about Jesus not being the messiah. They lie and tell you that Isaiah 7:14 when it says, "A virgin shall conceive," that it's really just, "A young woman shall conceive." They lie and try to change all the prophesies of the Old Testament to have nothing to do with Jesus. Let me tell you something They're lying to you every night on the evening news. They're lying to you every day on television and in the newspapers and in the magazine.
Look. You say, "Well, I just really want to follow the news." Look, if you really want to follow the news, before you still need a big long break from it and get in this book. Don't even tell me, "Well, I just want to read the newspaper every day and stay up on the news," until you've read this book cover to cover about 5 or 10 times. Then, read the newspapers a little bit if you must.
Let me tell you something, most people spend more time, you know this is true, listening to TV, listening to talk radio and reading the newspaper than they spend reading this book or listening to an audio CD of this book because there's a lot of audio of this book out there. You can get it for free off the internet. You can get Alexander Scourby but you know and I know that most people are just letting the devil and the prince of the power of the air control their mind, control their mind, control their mind. Then, they're lucky if they spend 5 minutes gird up the loins of your mind.
When you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you get dressed, you tie your shoes, you put on deodorant, you get out the door. This is a spiritual hygiene that needs to take place in the morning just as much as I'm girding up the loins here putting on a belt every day, you need to put on the belt of truth every day and gird up the loins of your mind. '
Look, don't be caught with your pants down. Rather, gird up the loins of your mind, gird about with truth. You know what Jesus said of the bible, "Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth." You say, "Oh, I’m part of the truth movement." Oh, oh, I'm glad to hear that you read the King James Bible every day." That's the real truth movement. This what it means to be a truther. It means you believe in Jesus. Mean you're a Christian.
These are in perilous times we're living in. The devil and his plan for a 1 world government are in full swing. TV, radio, newspapers are controlled. The brainwashing is working which is why when you start speaking against homosexuality to Christians, they get uncomfortable. If I had a nickel for every time we told me, "When I hear you get up and preach hard against homos or use a word like queer or faggot," they say, "I get physically ill." They're like, "I'm saved. I'm a Christian" I literally cringe. It hurts like I feel ah! Like hurts me when I … I cringe. It makes me sick to my stomach and my heart starts pounding and I get a lump in my throat because you have been trained like Pavlov's dogs by the media and the world to accept that stuff.
Thank god I found a guy in town that was just willing to print whatever, you know what I mean, because I called around and said, "So, are you part of the Hollywood homo mafia that's going to try and sensor everything I say or will you print whatever DVDs I send you so long as my money's green?" You think the only money that's tainted is the money that taint there. He said, "Send it over, dude. Whatever you want." He said, "Whatever." I'm like, "All right. Here's my new film, AIDS: The Judgment of God." He's like, "How many you want? When do you need it by? End of the week?" "Yeah."
Let me tell you something, most of them are part of this cabal, the cabal of cabal that doesn't want this information to get out, doesn’t want the truth to get out there. Look, we're fighting this stuff. We're on the front lines. I'm telling you something, you need to gird up the loins of your mind and wake up to these things. We all need to be awake. Any of us can start slouching, start relaxing. I'm not talking physically. I'm talking mentally. Let down the mental guard. Let down the loins of your mind and just start letting everybody program you and tell you …
Do you notice that everybody talks about the same things on the same day in the world we live in. Go to the grocery store, you go to work, go to the wholesale house. It's like the same things are coming. Everybody's on the same program. It's like that's what been dished up for you mentally today, worldwide, nationwide. You know what? We need to just get on a totally different program.
This is how you get off the devil's wavelength. Even if you say, "Well, I don't want to swear it off for life, whatever," why don't you just do this? Take a break from it. Just take a break.
By the way, when you take a break from it. When you come back, nothing will change. I remember, I used to listen to a lot of talk radio. You listen to conservative talk radio. I remember 1 time I was like, "Man, I'm talking a break from this stuff," because every day I felt like some major … it's like something major's always happening in Congress or major world events in the Middle East. You're like, "I've got to be up on this. I got to stay up on this."
I remember I was like, "You know, I'm just going to take a break from it." I went 3 months without listening to it at all, just living in my own bubble of just me and the Holy Spirit. By the way, Jesus and John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul did that a few times. Remember when the Apostle Paul just went into Arabia for 3 and a half years, didn't want to be tainted by a lot of man's teaching. He just went into Arabia and spent a lot of time with the word of god, with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist did it in the wilderness.
Look, if Jesus went in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, if John the Baptist went in the wilderness until the time of his showing to Israel. If Elijah spent 40 days just walking through the desert and just going … He's in Israel. He walked to Mount Sinai. He retraced the steps of the children of Israel who left Egypt, went to Mount Sinai, then went to Palestine. He went back to Sinai to get with god. He took that trip and was alone with god.
Why can't you? Nobody's asking you to do an ultra-marathon from Israel to Mt. Sinai. Nobody's asking you to go out in the desert and fast for 40 days and 40 nights. Nobody's asking you to live off locusts and wild honey until the time of your showing until [Phoenix 00:36:50] but let me tell you something. Can you just live in the wilderness without TV and radio for a month? Forget 40 days from food. How about just 40 days from the world as far as just their airwaves and electronic programming?
You know what? It's funny. I did that for 3 months. I just wouldn't listen to any of the news of the talk radio or anything. Right about the time I shut it off, they're like, "Oh, we're hitting the budget ceiling. We got to raise the debt ceiling." There's this stride between the Republicans and the Democrats. "We don't want to raise that debt ceiling because we're already trillions in dollars and," blah, blah, blah. Then, it's like, then it's like the last minute, they raise it. Just, "Let's go into more debt. We all agree again. Let's go into more debt." Trillions of dollars to the bankers.
Then, it was another budget crisis. Then, they're like, "The Middle East is a boiling pot that's about to boil over." It's like, I came back 3 months later and those 2 exact things were the exact things that were going on, exactly. "Another budget crisis. The debt ceiling again. The Republicans don't want to raise it," but they're like, "Let me think about it. Okay, sure. We'll raise it," and they gave in and whatever. They raise it. They go into more debt. It's a sellout but we're going to keep voting them because they're going to save us. If it wasn't 1 Bush that'll save us, it's the next Bush. If he won't save us, then Jeb Bush is going to save us. I know we've already had this other Clinton but we're going to get a new Clinton in there. I know Mitt Romney has lost every single time he runs and he's an idiot and he's a Mormon but you know what? We're going to go ahead and we're going to put him up again.
You could shut it off from '08 to 2012 and it's still Mitt Romney. You could shut it off from 2012 to 2016, it's still Mitt Romney. Blah, blah, blah because people are nuts. You're nuts if you think that Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush and these guys are our salvation politically.
Look, if your choice is between Mitt and Jeb and all these people, why are you even involved? Why do you even care? It's controlled on both sides. You're wasting your time. "Well, but my vote counts." Blah, blah, blah. You know what counts? When you're out soul winning. You're actually getting something done when you go soul winning.
You know what? "I'm going to read up on the news. I'm going to read up on the newspaper. I'm going to figure out what's going on in the Middle East. I want to get to the bottom of it." No, no, no. Read up on this and I guarantee you, you'll be way more effective, more people will be saved and our nation will be saved.
Look. It'll help politically if we go soul winning. Why? Because God's people always go into bondage when they sin. When they're not saying but when they serve other gods ... Look, if we could get the other people of our country serving the lord and believing in Jesus, god will bless us with freedom but want to be worldly, not do any soul winning, listen to TV and radio. We think that voting for some Bush or Romney or McCain is going to fix it. Good night.
If you're thinking like, "Wait a minute. What is he saying? What's he talking … You mean he's not for our guy," you're part of the problem and this sermon's for you. You know what? If you're offended by this sermon, I'm talking to you. You know what? If you're offended by this sermon, come up to me after this service, I'll write your name on the sermon and hand it to you. I will take my outline and I will sign it for you. I will write, "To your name here. You need this. I preach this just for you. Pastor Anderson," because you know what and it's the truth. You're the one who needs this sermon. Everything I'm saying up here is as true as the day is long.
The bible says that the devil controls the power of the air. The bible says that this world is in ignorance and darkness by design. The bible says that unsaved people are not performing the will of god. They that are in the flesh cannot please god and that rather, they are part of the problem and that they are working according to the spirit. He said all of you before you were saved worked according to the power of the children of disobedience and the power of the air. Everybody but not Glen Beck, not Sean Hannity. They're different. Right!
Where are we at in this sermon? Nobody knows. Ephesians 6. Okay, go to Jeremiah 48:10. Here's the problem in the pulpits of America today. Here's the problem. Jeremiah 48:10. Now, what did the bible say in Ephesians 6:12? It said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood." Is this a physical battle where we go out and sharpen our weapons and go out and fight? No. It says, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood," but he gives principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
It's not a physical girding up the loins that we need more than anything today, of getting ready for combat and getting our weapons all clean and ready. Is that the main thing that we need to be doing today, to prepare for the … No. He said, "Gird up the loins of your mind." Gird up your loins with truth. He didn't say, "Go out and get a physical sword and sharpen it."
Look. I'm not against owning physical weapons. We should protect ourselves and so forth. We ask god to provide our food, our daily bread but we still go to work every day. We ask god to protect us but we still own a weapon as the bible tells us we should in both Old and New Testament but let me tell you something, our battle is not with flesh and blood. You know what? Those weapons are not going to protect you from the biggest dangers.
By the way, those weapons are not going to fight the battle that needs to be fought because the bible says. You're in Jeremiah 48 but I'll just read this for you. "For though we walk in the flesh," I mean, we're living and walking in flesh and blood body. He said, "We do not war after the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." They're not fleshly weapons, "But mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity," listen to this, "Every thought to the obedience of Christ." Did you hear that? Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
What's the battle today? What's the spiritual warfare. If he says, "Hey, we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, we're wrestling against principalities of powers." The weapons of our warfare were not of the flesh but they're spiritual weapons. Okay. How do I fight? What do I do? Where's the front line? He says, "We're casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, it's a mental battle. First of all, we must take control of our own mind. We must gird up the loins of your mind. Then we want to go out and shine the light and open the minds of others.
Now, part of that is the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Part of that is when people from our church virtually every day of the week, somebody from our church is out knocking doors with the bible preaching the gospel. We strongly encourage and preach and try to get people to get out at least once every week, at least once every week and get out and knock some doors and give the gospel. That's a big part of who we are as a church. That's a big part of the battle is just getting people saved because if we can get people saved, now they can do right. They can serve god, they can be light of the spirit. Hopefully, they will be but at least they can be.
Going out and preaching the gospel is a huge part of it but is that the whole great commission? Did it stop there, just preach the gospel and let it lie? No. He said, "Also baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." He said, "Teach them to observe all things, whatsoever I commanded you."
When it comes to great commission, when we're out soul winning, we're fulfilling part of it, right? We're teaching all nations. We're preaching the gospel at every creature. Okay, when we baptize somebody after the service this morning, we're fulfilling another part of it. Listen, I am right now fulfilling the third part because I'm teaching you to observe all things that the bible commands. Even though this sermon's not about salvation, it's a fulfillment of the great commission because I'm showing you a commandment in the bible. Jesus said teach them to observe all things I've commanded you.
What's the command that I'm teaching you this morning? To gird up the loins of your mind. It's not optional. It's a commandment. There's a commandment in the New Testament that says gird up the loins of your mind. How do you disobey that commandment? Letting your mind relax and take in everything the devil has for you. That's what I'm preaching against today. I'm telling you gird up the loins of your mind, gird out the loins with truth. Instead of that morning paper and the morning show and the morning news and the morning this, it needs to be the morning bible reading to gird it up.
You know what? Throughout the day, the belt can get a little lose, start sagging. Gird it up again. Gird it up at lunchtime. Seven times a day will I praise god for his righteous judgments. Be like Daniel where he prayed morning, noon and night. Read the bible and meditate on god's word day and night. It's a constant tightening of the belt. It's a constant girding up the loins of your mind with truth. Why? Because the devil is always going to be coming at us trying to loosen us up and find that chink in the armor. We can get into your mind.
That's what the Devil State University here in Tempe wants to do. They want to get in your mind. That's why there are certain jobs that they close off to you unless you have a degree from 1 of these institutions, not because somebody couldn't get those skills on their own or learn them as an apprentice or learn them through study. No. They want to get into your mind. You're like, "Well, I can't do X the job unless I go down there." Then you go down there. It's like, "Okay, here's the core math and science that you're trying to learn but also you need to get a liberal education also."
When I went to school, I went for math. I love math. Who likes math? I'm not 1 of those nerdy guys I was preaching about earlier in the service but I like math. I really enjoy math. I was going to junior college and going for math. My plan was to go to Devil State University and get a degree in electrical engineering because I was an electrician by trade. My dad was an electrician. My grandpa was an electrician. Before that, it hasn't been invented or whatever but so I wanted to do electrical engineering. Just to go for the math and to go for the electrical engineering, they make you take all this diversity stuff and all this junk and teach you all this anti-Christ stuff. I was just trying to find the most non-offensive classes to take. Thankfully, I got out of a lot of my cultural and diversity by taking foreign languages because they said if you take German 4 and Spanish 4, that'll satisfy your cultural and you don't have to take lesbian poetry of the 20th century or whatever.
I'm like, "Okay. I got out of that stuff," but then I took a history class. It was the History of Western Civilization, it was called. All evolution-based and all kinds of evolution. Then, just blaspheming of Christianity and how the bible full of contra- That's what they're teaching.
Then, I took a class called cultural geography. Cultural geography. I wanted to take a geography class because I figured I like maps and stuff but the only 1 that could fit the time I needed was cultural geography but I read up on it. It's like, "Oh, you're just learning about, you know, different cultures of the world." That sounds cool. I've always like stuff like that. Learn about what it's like in Asia, in Europe. I've always loved travel and language and stuff. They're teaching us about Japan. We're watching a video. All of a sudden, on the video, it's just a bunch of naked 20 year old women. "This is a Japanese bathhouse." Just a bunch of nude, young Japanese women in a bath. It's like, "Is that really necessary for me to learn about Japan?" Show me that imagery that's could cause you to lust and whatever.
Then, another time, I'm in there. The teacher in the cultural geography class. She's like, "I went to India and I saw people levitate on street corners and it was real." Now, of course, if you've seen all the videos where it's debunked, you know it's not real but she's teaching class. She's, "Look. I know it's real." The kids are like, "Wow!" They're just eating it up about these Eastern mysticism. It's all real and they can levitate and all this stuff. "I've seen it. I've been there." This is a college professor telling us that. Then, she showed us a video about how the whole world's overpopulated and we need to use birth control and was praising the Communist China 1 Child Policy, praising it unto us. This is to get a math degree. I only went for a year and a half to get a math degree.
Another time, in the German class, they played a video that just showed pedophilia. I just got up and walked out of the classroom. Showed pedophilia on screen in German class. In German 4. Yeah, that's going to help me know how to speak German. I'm telling you, the devil wants to get into your mind. That's why he controls the higher education. It's why he controls the TV, controls the radio, controls the magazines.
Say, "Well, how am I going to make a living?" There are plenty of people who make 6 figures without going to college by the way. Go out and work, you learn a trade, you learn skills. You say, "What about those certain jobs where you have to get that degree?" I could never be an engineer because you have to have a degree to get your PE.
What I ended up doing is I just went into fire alarms and I got a separate fire alarm engineering credential that didn't require college. I made 6 figures in the fire alarm business. I mean it's possible to do it another way.
You say, "But what if your kids grow up and they want to do 1 of these jobs where they have to go to all this Devil State University and learn … " I just tell me kids, "Don't do that job. Pick a different job." "Oh, but we need Christians to be those jobs." Yeah. We need Christian with a pure mind, to gird up the loins of your mind. We need Christian who haven't been brainwashed is what we need more than that. There are plenty of backsliding Christian that'll go there and do those jobs and everything. It's not like there's a problem.
Hey, we don't have a shortage of back sliding Christian. We don't need you to be, "I got to be 1 of those backsliding Christians. We're not going to have enough Christian whatever." No! We need you to be 1 of the less than 1 percent that are girded up the loins of your mind, okay?
Look down at your bible in Jeremiah. Here's what's wrong with the pulpit of America. We talked about how it's a spiritual battle. We talked about how the weapons are spiritual, not physical. Look what it says in Jeremiah 48:10. "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully." Then look at the next statement where he restates it in another way. "And cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood."
Look, this scripture, Jeremiah 48:10, the context is about a physical fight, okay? This is a physical battle where the children of Israel are going to war against the enemies of the lord. Basically, they're supposed to fight the battle. He's saying, "Cursed be he who doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood." The person who doesn't want to fight, doesn't want to get involved, doesn't want to engage the enemy and do damage. That's what he's saying. What else does it mean? Keep back and show blood.
Okay. How would this apply in the spiritual battle? This is the pastor who says, "I want to do the work of the lord, positive only. I'll be at the battle. I'll show up at the battle. I'll do the work of the lord but I'm keeping my sword back from blood." Listen, we need some bibles today, some sword of the spirit that's got the blood of the enemy on it today is what we need. We got a bunch of clean swords today, bunch of pastors today where their bible is as clean as a whistle. Okay? We need some swords of the spirit to go out and engage the enemy. When the bible says, "Cursed be he who do the work of the Lord deceitfully," I wouldn't want that to be said of my ministry. "Your ministry, you did the work of the Lord but you did it deceitfully. You know why it's deceitful? Because they're getting up and acting like they're preaching everything the bible says, leaving out huge sections because they're not popular and because they don't want to get blood on their swords. That's really what's going on."
"Oh, I don't want to offend." Don't want to get any blood on the sword. "Oh, I don't want to preach that because it's going to turn people away." They don't want to get any blood on their sword. They want to have a crystal clear, clean, sanitized for your protection-type sermon, sanitary, clean and pristine of a sermon instead of getting out there and actually engaging the enemy.
Paul didn't have a sword that was kept back from blood. He said, "I fought the good fight." He didn't say, "I was peaceful with all men." He said, "I fought the good fight." I'm for peace but when I speak there for war. Let me tell you something, we are to fight the Lord's battles. I'm not saying physically. You know, my sword in my office has no blood on it. It never has had any blood on it but this sword, if you can see it spiritually would be dripping in blood. It would! I think I remember Jesus shedding his blood for us. We're supposed to be in a battle here but you know what happens when you go out and start getting your sword engaged in battle? You're going to take some wounds yourself. That's what these guys are scared of. They're cowards.
Now, go if you would to Acts 20. I got to hurry up. I'm almost out of time here but I hope the point of the sermon is getting across to you. I'm going to skip some scriptures here that are in the sermon but I hope the point is getting across to you. We need to gird up the loins of your mind. Why? Because I showed you scripture after scripture that the devil has an agenda and a program where he has blinded the minds of them that believe not. He is keeping them in ignorance. God said beware lest your caught up in the error of the wicked. You need to make sure to gird up the loins of your mind.
Being saved doesn't automatically make you immune from the devil's deception. There are plenty of saved people who get to see dumb things by the devil and by TV and by radio and everything else. Doesn't mean they're not saved. It just means they haven't girded up the loins of their mind. How do we do it? The Truth. Gird it with the truth. How do we do it? How about this? Go to a church that'll preach the truth, because if you're going to a church that's doing the work of the lord deceitfully, where they won't ever hit a controversial issue and they won't ever say anything that offends. You know what? That's just reinforcing the garbage programming you're getting all week long. You need a church that when you show up will grab you and shake you out of the program you've been getting all week long.
Honestly, church isn't enough. Don't put on your belt 1 day a week. Put on your belt every morning, noon and night and tighten it up. Tighten up your mind, strengthen … Did you know that your mind is like a muscle? It's true. Anybody will tell you this. The more you read and the more you study and the more that you memorize the bible and the more that you think, your brain gets stronger. The more you do … Duh! In front of the TV, you get stupid. Listen! Nothing can be more true about TV than this statement. TV makes you stupid. Your mom told you that when you were a kid. You thought it was just a figure of speech. TV makes you stupid. It's the idiot box. It's the boob tube. It's for morons. It makes you dumber. "Oh, but I watch education stuff." No. It still makes you dumb.
What's the difference between that and reading? I don't know but reading makes you smart and TV makes you dumb. I don't have to explain why. I don't know all the reasons necessarily why when I push the gas pedal down in the car, we go faster but it still happens. It's still real. I don't have to know all the inner workings of a piston 4 cycle engine to know that when I push the button, the light bulb comes on and when I push the foot on the gas, we go forward faster. When I push the break, we slow down.
Look. TV makes you stupid. Not only that, but the devil … Do you really think that the angel of the lord is sitting down at the switchboard down at NBC or CBS? Who do you think's running that thing? Christ rejecters. Christ haters are running it, seriously. I'm telling you. If you're just going to let that all come into you while you neglect this book. It gets dusty and neglected. Your loins are not gird up. You might physically look so sharp and coming to church. You look awesome and everything's perfect and you're all girded up and ready to go. You know what, if we saw you spiritually, spiritually, you're in a La-Z-Boy in a bathrobe and you're eating chips off your chest, if we can see you spiritually. That's what you look like. You're eating the junk food of the world, totally devoid of nutrition. You got your big, Super Big Gulp of diet whatever, aspartame, GMO garbage, spiritually. Huh!
Then, no real nutrition. The fruit and vegetables are rotting on your kitchen counter but the chips are just constantly in supply. The soda's are constantly in supply. The meat has expired. The milk has expired. The fruits and vegetables are expired. The whole grains. You're sitting there and eating a bunch of junk food and you're sedentary and slothful and you need to gird up the loins of your mind and get ready to go and do something. You need to get mentally prepared for it and teach others also.
Where did I return? Acts 20 is the last scripture we'll turn to, then we'll shut her down. Acts 20, it says this. verse 18, "And when they were come to him, he said unto them, 'Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia after what manner I've been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.'"
I know what that's like. You start making a film like Marching to Zion, there's the lying in wait of the Jews to get you. This is not real. Otherwise, everybody's like, "It's out. It's done. Cool!" End of March, people, all right? But you know, the lying in wait of the Jews but look what he says. "How I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you." Did you see that in verse 20.
Here's what he's saying. In verse 19, there were people lying in wait to arrest him, to beat him, to kill him, to lie about him, to malign him. He said, "You know that the Jews were lying in wait to do that to me," but he said, "I kept back nothing." Did it effect his preaching that they lied in wait? No. He said, "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you." You say, yeah, but is everything really profitable. I think the bible said, "All scripture is profitable." All scriptures give my inspiration of god is profitable.
You know what he's saying? "I didn't keep back any bible from you." If it was in the bible, I preached it. That's what Paul said but, "It showed you and it taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also the Greeks repentance toward god and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and now behold, I go bound in the spirit until Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the holy ghost witness in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me but none of these things move me. Neither count I my life dear unto myself that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of god."
Look, in that phrase, "I finish my course," was associated with fight the good fight in II Timothy 4. The bottom line is we as pastors need to have our loins girt with truth and keep back nothing. You as a Christian need to go to a church that keeps back nothing. You as a believer need to gird up your mind and those loins every single day by reading scripture. You need to take 40 days in the wilderness from all the world's brainwashing and get along with the holy spirit and get along with the word of god and see how it transforms you as a person. You will be transformed in 40 days and 40 nights of shedding off worldly stuff and just bible, just get into bible.
It's not going to kill you to take a break from some of the other stuff. "Yeah, but what if things really erupt in the Middle East and I missed it." It's always erupting over there. It'll be erupting the same way 40 days from now as it is now. "No, this is … I think this is really it this time." How many times? You know what, if it is, somebody will tell you about it. That's what I always tell people. It's like, "You don't follow the news?" I'm like, "If it's anything really big like somebody comes and tells me." "Hey, did you hear about whatever."
Gird up the loins of your … Quit just being so relaxed mentally. You need to hit the gym mentally. You need to hit the gym and start building up your mind. "I’m going to take control of my mind. I'm going to get stronger. My mind's going to get strong. I'm going to learn the bible and I'm going to know what's going on."
I'm not against going to the gym but you need to hit the mental gym. You're muscles are sagging mentally. You know that taxi cab drivers in New York, they tested a bunch of them. They used GPS and a bunch of them that didn't use GPS. I'm not against GPS. I use GPS. I'm horrible at directions but these cab drivers, that's all they're doing all day is driving places. Some of them use GPS. The others are all just doing it with their brain. They looked at the part of the brain that had to do with memory, the hippocampus. It was smaller in the cab drivers who were using GPS and it was bigger in the ones who were actually using maps and thinking about it and doing it on memory. That shows that your brain can be developed or underdeveloped.
In some of you, the entertainment part of your brain is way overdeveloped and the spiritual part is underdeveloped. We're talking physically. Gird up the loins of your mind.
Let's [inaudible 01:04:30] with a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the warning, lord, so that we don't have to just as sheep to the slaughter, just go to Madison Avenue and Hollywood and TV and then just get spoon fed a bunch of junk, Lord. Thank you for warning us so we could know, "Hey, we need to get in the bible. We need to clean all this stuff out of our mind and get rid of …" Lord, representatives of Hollywood this week told us, you have to be pro-homosexual. You can't say anything negative about the Jews because they run things here but lord, help them not to run our mind. Let them run Hollywood and Madison Avenue but help them not to control our minds as bible believing Christians oh, Lord. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
