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[0:00] Mind games. I'm talking mind games. Really a war is going on. We are at war. A battlefield is happening in our very minds. It's a battle, a war for the mind, for the soul.

[0:15] And in modern warfare there is what's called psychological warfare. It's a reality that is used by military forces. It's used by powerful forces in time of war to capture the hearts and minds of people all across the world.

[0:34] And really that kind of warfare is happening now and we are the targets of that. In a war situation the enemy will play with your head and they often will use propaganda and disinformation. That's always been the case.

[0:48] And this is happening too from governments. They want to get their message across advertisers, hostile enemies. They want to capture hearts and minds.

[0:59] And you see that back in advertising where at times they actually told us that smoking was healthy and they told us things like DDT was healthy and asbestos and such things.

[1:12] But of course we know now they weren't telling us the truth. And so we see these mind games. I'm going to put it to you like on a cultural level and then thinking of it on an individual level.

[1:24] And trying to translate that to really scriptural application. So nowadays we have a whole wide array of different kinds of media platforms that we're all using in one way or another.

[1:36] And like it's not they're manipulating how we think. You know Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, multiple channels, multiple platforms, social media.

[1:51] And nowadays it's almost like there's so many channels that those that would want to influence us can use. And really it's been the Marxist strategy for years to take over cultural institutions and really undermine the family, marriage and morality.

[2:13] Marxism is an anti-biblical ideology that's rooted in atheism. And some have called it cultural Marxism. Some would question whether that is the reality.

[2:25] But it's, I think, quite clear that a definite strategy is being unrolled to really transform systems and modern society away from conservative values.

[2:38] You know, we that are older might probably be more aware of how things were. Not saying that the good old days were necessarily the good old days. But we can see what was and now what is.

[2:49] There's been a transformation, an erosion of values. And really there's culture warriors who are quite ardent to overturn traditional values and worldviews, to influence, to change beliefs, emotions, reasoning or behaviour.

[3:07] This is all happening culturally. And non-Christians can see this. The kind of things that they're pushing, the wheelbarrows they're pushing are things like, for example, abortion, the age of consent, animal rights, family values, as they would call family, redefining family, identity politics, moral relativism, permissiveness, political correctness, prostitution.

[3:35] That comes up time and time again. Our state is likely to put it forward again, legalising prostitution, recreational drug use, euthanasia, sexual revolution, transhumanism.

[3:46] There's increasingly in some countries a breakdown of law and order. You see what's happening in certain countries at the moment, big cities like New York City. You've seen what's happening in Paris of recent times, just mayhem and chaos on the streets.

[4:05] And the lawmakers are struggling to maintain control. Some recent moves that we've seen in our own times are moves to ban parents from smacking their children.

[4:22] And this is a recent story. Back in May, they're talking, the headlines here, it's time to ban corporal punishment of kids in Australia.

[4:33] They're trying to stop parents from smacking children. At the moment, it's legal, but they're wanting to make it illegal. They're wanting to ban it. And we see, really, a whole lot of things that are going on.

[4:45] These are the radical activists who are doing this. Here's a list of the goals of the communists in Western society. This is a list. I got this from a man called Bill Muhlenberg.

[4:57] He's a commentator, Christian commentator. And he summed up some of the things that are going on, just in this cultural kind of introduction to the message today, is the things that they want to do.

[5:11] And they're quite deliberate and they're quite open about their intent to get control of the schools, the teachers, the curriculum. They want to eliminate all laws concerning obscenity, because they call that censorship and a violation of free speech.

[5:29] So they want government and lawmakers to take their hands off completely what goes out there. Of course, we know there is censorship that is a violation of free speech, but they just want open slather, where obscenity is just allowed, nudity and such things.

[5:49] And there's a breakdown of cultural standards of morality, promoting obscenity in all its media, presenting homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as normal, natural, healthy.

[6:03] And as part of this strategy, they're infiltrating the churches. There's many churches that are going along with this. They've jumped on that bandwagon. And so they're discrediting the Bible and making a mockery of Christianity in many quarters.

[6:21] And one of the tactics they're using is to discredit the family as an institution. As I say, they've redefined the family into something that really is not a family.

[6:31] They're encouraging promiscuity and easy divorce. And there's a deliberate attack, too, against the idea that gender is binary, that there's actually a male and a female.

[6:44] They want it to be a bit of a continuum, a bit of a sliding scale. And you can slide up and down that scale from male to female or both or neither.

[6:55] And there's a constant stream of this. This is constantly coming out. It's constantly messaging us, conditioning us through all media to condition people's thinking this way.

[7:09] And, of course, we see government forms these days. Government forms, you can say male, female or whatever. And some, there's a multiple range of choices.

[7:22] It's madness, honestly. And really, we know that this is entirely godless, isn't it? It's anti-Christ. Because the Bible tells us clearly that God created man in his own image.

[7:38] He created male and female. Male and female created he them. It's in the very first chapter of the Bible.

[7:49] It's a fundamental. To deny this biblical truth is to deny the very facts, the fundamental truths of human biology. And God's design for human sexuality, the nature of marriage, is very plain and clear.

[8:04] It's not negotiable. It's very obvious. But radical change agents want to get in people's minds to capture the culture, to pervert society away from biblical norms and morals.

[8:18] And really, it's plain obvious as we see how Hollywood is going ever downwards, down that slippery slope. Change is happening.

[8:29] There's no question. Immorality, perversion, wickedness is rampant. And I put to you tonight that our nation is ripe for judgment.

[8:41] Increasingly, many people within the church enjoy the same vulgar entertainment as the world. Speak like the world. Dress like the world. Think like the world.

[8:52] Share the same goals and ambitions as the world. Everything is being redefined. Here's how someone described the kind of messagings that we're getting now. God just wants us to be happy.

[9:05] God doesn't care who we love, simply that we love. So homosexuality. There's nothing sacred about our bodies. Transgenderism. Cut bits off and add bits to your particular fancy.

[9:22] Transgenderism. Transgenderism. Another thing they say is a baby is not a real person until it is viable. Abortion. It's just a clump of cells. Just discard it.

[9:34] God wouldn't want me to be trapped in a loveless marriage. Divorce. Men and women should be equal in function. Feminism. They would tell us some lives matter more than other lives.

[9:48] Really, that's racism, isn't it? We know that we're equal. We're all of one blood. We're all one race, the human race. And yet there's this divide, this division that's going on.

[9:59] And the voice idea is just going to amplify all of that. Another thing they say, sex is necessary to live a fulfilled life. So premarital sex is okay, they say.

[10:10] They would say, I have a right to decide whether I live or die. Euthanasia. They would say the poor are poor because the rich are rich. So we want socialism, communism.

[10:23] All want to be poor. They would say the well-being of this earth is more important than the well-being of man. Environmentalism's gone crazy. They would tell us the earth is overpopulated.

[10:34] We must drastically reduce the number of people by millions, even billions. And they would say there is no absolute truth. These are the things that they're telling us.

[10:45] This is the culture. The change agents are continuing their assault on biblical values. And they want to erode our ability to resist too. And the enemy of our soul is behind all of this.

[10:55] It's using those same techniques as they would use in psychological warfare, as happened in world wars gone by and other wars, and wars continuing today.

[11:07] The Ukraine-Russia war. There's a lot of media messaging that you don't know really what's true, what they're telling you. And the millions and millions of dollars we're sending over, ourselves, our country, sending into this hopeless, pointless war.

[11:27] God's word tells of this kind of psychological warfare that's going on. And we've seen this on a cultural level. It's happening also on a personal, spiritual level. Paul talks about this real war that each of us face in 2 Corinthians 10.

[11:41] It tells us there in 2 Corinthians 10 from verse 3. Paul says this. He says, So Paul's telling us here that there's a war going on.

[12:00] It's not a fleshly war. It's a spiritual one. And he's telling of various strongholds that our enemy uses, some of which we'll touch on today. So strongholds we could imagine as kind of a fortress, as this construct that people would rear up in the face of God and of truth.

[12:17] And God calls us here. It's saying that we should be mighty through God. We should be pulling down these strongholds. God's calling the people of God to this work of demolition of such things, these ungodly strongholds, these mental blocks.

[12:31] And we have to deconstruct something. Some of those things that I've talked about, the godless are just running rampant. Culture is ever more godless and away from truth.

[12:42] And so we've got to rewire our brain after God's way of thinking because that's the right way to think. Paul goes on to say this in verse 5. Friends, I put to you honestly as I see it that our world is under this mass deception.

[13:07] The Bible tells us this would happen. It says in 1 John 5.19 that the whole world is going to lie in the power of the evil one. And the answer for our God-hating culture is Christ.

[13:19] That is the ultimate answer. It's the knowledge of God. It's finding Christ. It's coming to the lordship of Christ. As we see this God-hating culture that is just going ballistic, our world loves to celebrate ungodly pride.

[13:36] The Bible says here that God wants to cast down every high thing. He wants to answer man's pride in whatever colour it presents itself.

[13:47] The colour of the rainbow. God wants pride to come down, not to be lifted up. And the answer for every man is the knowledge of God. It's the gospel. It talks here about the knowledge of God. Every human soul needs the truth.

[13:59] We need the truth more than ever. Men, fathers, women, mothers, our children need to captivate biblical thinking. That Christ would captivate our thinking, our heart.

[14:11] But we're in the middle of this war that opposes God and the knowledge of God. It's a full-on opposition. There's these strongholds. As we'll just touch on some of these strongholds, if you like, of society, of belief systems.

[14:28] There's these areas of society that are like these strongholds that need to be addressed. And high things that oppose God and the truth. So we think of these agendas that are about us.

[14:44] Think of the schools. One of these kind of areas that are like a stronghold for the enemy. Because God-hating radicals are infiltrating educational institutions with their hellish agendas.

[14:57] I was just looking at some statistics of like university lecturers and the ones that are conservative these days compared to just a few years ago. And they're just a fraction now. Like lecturers in universities who have conservative values.

[15:11] And of course conservative values, not necessarily Christian. But at least there's some semblance of something that was based on some kind of order of God. And now it's almost like they're totally outnumbered.

[15:25] Because friends, they want to indoctrinate the young. They want to indoctrinate the young. And their goal is really the ideological subversion of anything and everything of value, of worth.

[15:37] They want to drag it down. This is deliberate. And they're starting in the kindergartens. This was a headline of a news story. Starting in kindergarten, children will be taught heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and transgender lifestyles.

[15:53] Starting in kindergarten. And this is deliberate. They're doing it at the very young, vulnerable age. They want to drag society down.

[16:05] Anything that is virtuous and honourable. They want to degrade and defile our culture. And as part of this psychological warfare, I was doing some searching and some studies show that the communists have got this deliberate, long-range view.

[16:21] How long it takes to move a generation through the education system.

[16:34] That's their goal. That's their goal. They've got a long-term view. It's the long march. Through the education system. Through the indoctrination process. So grab them at kindy and then K to 12 and to uni and beyond.

[16:47] That's what's happening. Right from the kindies through to the unis. We're witnessing this radical indoctrination process. Anti-God philosophies. Activists are constantly pushing their agendas.

[16:59] There's a lot of media manipulation. That's another stronghold too. We've got fake news. You don't know what's true anymore. You've got these AI people now, don't you? You don't know whether it's a real story or not.

[17:11] And there's this heavy censorship of alternative views. You know, we've heard through the time of the pandemic, so-called, and all the misinformation, the scaremongering, the disinformation.

[17:24] Reality is distorted. And it's fake news just all over the place. Then we've got fake people, as I say, AI people. You've got fake food. You don't know whether it's a real hamburger anymore.

[17:37] You've got fake medicine, fake weather, fake history, fake pandemics, fake spirituality. And you wonder why people hate the truth. Because everything's fake.

[17:49] Where's the truth gone? Truly we're in a battle for the mind. And beliefs and values are under attack. And it's like mass media has become today's babysitters.

[17:59] Just park the child in front of the screen. And you go shopping these days. And you've got a little toddler looking at a screen while mum shops. You think, what's going on here?

[18:10] They're just constantly tied to screens. And they've become the babysitters. And the conditioning's just happening implicitly, deliberately, intentionally.

[18:20] And there's an erosion that's gradually happening. It's cumulative. And so the change agents don't want you to have free speech as well. They've invented the term hate speech.

[18:32] Hate speech. I read this little story here about what hate speech is. Truth. Truth is the new hate speech. Truth. So the change agents will tell us they want a society that's free of hate and intolerance.

[18:46] There is tolerance for everyone except for the Christians. Because they don't have someone actually preach from the Bible and actually say there is absolute truth.

[18:56] There is someone we've got to answer to. And so hate speech is really the modern equivalent of heresy or treason. So years ago they would burn people at the stake or execute them for heresy.

[19:08] But now if you would dare to say something that's biblical, they would say, you're a racist or a bigot, a homophobe. That's heresy. That's the hate speech.

[19:20] And so you must be shut up. Really, this is quite a sad reality. This is true. What's going on? And in my researching of what the cultural Marxists use, they've got what they call the termite strategy.

[19:36] It's something that they have termed the termite strategy. And what it is is eroding cultural institutions from the inside. So just how you've got a house, hopefully they're not chewing away in your house back home.

[19:52] But termites can cause a whole lot of damage, can't they? I know we've experienced it ourselves where a whole wall crumbled, literally. Because they hollow out the inside of a wooden building and in time the whole structure collapses.

[20:07] This is what they're doing. This is what the cultural Marxists, this is what the change agents are doing. Slowly, gradually, a generational erosion. So your children, if you've got children, your children, your grandchildren, they're in the target sites.

[20:22] They want to take them out. They want to transform their thinking. And they want to infiltrate culture, transform institutions, control media messaging, attack the culture in all of those different ways.

[20:33] So through education, news media, entertainment, even religious and political institutions. So they're white-hanting political parties too.

[20:44] And the plan that they have, and they're making no secret of this, is capture the culture. They intentionally want to capture the culture. And their intent is to distract, deceive and divide.

[21:00] So they've got weapons of mass distraction in social media. It's true, isn't it? It's a distraction. I'm guilty sometimes that social media, a weapon of mass distraction.

[21:12] They want to distract you, engage you, occupy you, busy you in something that's probably not that useful. They want to distract you. They want to deceive you. And they're pumping it through various media, various news channels.

[21:26] And then they want to divide us. You know, left, right, liberal, labour, divide us on race. It's all intentional. And it's all this subversion.

[21:38] And a takeover, really, isn't it? And it's like, obviously, the fictional story, 1984, where they had George Orwell talked about thought police, that even your thinking is going to be monitored.

[21:54] And they can really start to do that. There's technology now where they can start to read our minds. This is quite stunning, really. And so in the fictional book, 1984, that any opponents who had thought crimes, that they thought differently, let alone spoke differently, they would be vaporised and erased.

[22:13] And then a like book, The Brave New World, tells of a society that's, again, distracted by endless entertainment and drugs and manipulated by a New World Order state.

[22:25] These are very real things. As much as they're fictional books, we see they're almost a foretaste of what we could see coming about. And we see humanism today is another ugly stronghold.

[22:39] It exalts man and dethrones God. Humanism. They don't want God in the picture. And we see people are so depressed through the TV. We can see the TV is altering perceptions of reality.

[22:52] It's constant, this kind of indoctrinating, this distracting. Really, humanists pretend they don't need God. They think they can save the planet themselves. There's a lot of that talk now, isn't there?

[23:03] Save the planet. We'll save the planet. Humanists place man at the centre of the universe. They deny God. They think that man is inherently good. So we don't need a saviour for our sin.

[23:15] There's no need for salvation if man is inherently good. And humanists think that their reason and efforts will solve their problems. But they miss the realities of eternal truth. And they frame their world by relativism.

[23:28] So they've really got no moral standards. Whatever I feel to do is right for me. What you feel to do is right for you. There's no final authority.

[23:39] It's another stronghold. It's an elevation of self. It's a worship of self. The idol of the self. And it will only lead people to hell. That kind of godless, humanist type idea is just unbelief.

[23:52] And the devil blinding people. So friends, I know this is quite depressing stuff so far. But it's the reality. This is the world we're living in. We're bombarded with these messagings.

[24:04] Conform. Obey. Just consume. And society's fallen for it. Because it's propaganda. It's propaganda. It's a psychological, cultural war.

[24:15] And it's a war for the truth. There's a battle for your mind. And much of Hollywood entertainment, when you really honestly evaluate it, it defiles us.

[24:26] It degrades us. Hollywood, it's another stronghold, isn't it? What does the Bible say? I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. We're being bombarded with lies and wickedness.

[24:38] The change agents are constantly pumping it into our living rooms. They're bent on rotting the soul of our nation. Look at society. Music, the arts, you name it.

[24:50] It's all gone down, hasn't it? It's the termite strategy corrupting culture. And rotting most institutions. And perversion is not just tolerated.

[25:01] It's promoted and celebrated. We need to protect our family from this messaging. To guard our families. We've got degenerate entertainment. A decadent culture.

[25:14] Society is largely brainwashed. And it's almost like constant messaging through various soap operas now. There's a constant messaging through the reality TV shows and such things.

[25:26] You name it. They're constantly putting these things in front of our faces and our children. It's a cultural revolution. That's what it is. Years ago, these things would have been unheard of. Now it's commonplace.

[25:38] Corruption. Conquering our culture. And where are the people of God in all of this? Many churches have just caved into this. They've just gone along with it. And there's this weakness, this passivity, that God's people are just rolling over, just letting it happen without saying anything, without rising up.

[25:58] And friends, really, in response to all of this that I'm talking about, I love this scripture in Psalm 94 verse 16, where the psalmist says, Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?

[26:10] Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Friends, we need to be amongst those who will rise up and say, I don't want this for my family. I don't want my children and grandchildren to be sucked into this vortex, into this emptiness, this brainwashing.

[26:26] I don't want that. I want to rise up against such wickedness. And to be, as we talked about in 2 Corinthians 10, to be like demolition workers. We don't want that.

[26:37] We want to oppose that and tear down such strongholds. The whole fabric of society and culture is under threat, under attack from these relentless forces.

[26:49] So what does the word of God say? What does the word of God tell us about what we should do, what we should be about? As we see the enemy of our soul waging this war, it's on an individual basis too.

[27:02] And so we've got to individually, personally consider, we've looked at it culturally, kind of society-wise, that there is this deliberate change agenda, this cultural shift.

[27:13] What about for you and me personally, as the demolition workers is what we should be, that we should rise up and say, enough's enough, we don't want this. I don't want to be party to this. I'm going to stop that septic pipe into my lounge room and actually control it and switch it on and off as God gives me conviction to.

[27:34] What does the word of God say? This is what should matter. So this is what should count. What does God say about such a corruption of the wickedness of our world? In Romans 1.28 it says that for some, they've got a debased mind, a reprobate mind.

[27:49] It says that they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Some people, their minds are reprobate, they're debased. It says in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4, of some in whom the God of this world had 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 onto them.

[28:09] Some people's minds are blinded. And then in Romans 8 verse 7 it talks about the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

[28:20] So it says some people's minds are carnal, they're at enmity, they're hostile towards God. So some debased minds, blinded minds, hostile minds. The Bible talks about the mind.

[28:32] It tells us about this war that is going on, this deliberate attack that the enemy of our soul wants to control human minds. And when you think about it, our thoughts control our lives.

[28:45] If we're thinking right, if we're thinking straight, if we're thinking biblically, then our walk will be affected, we'll walk right. And so it's incumbent on us, the people of God, that we should train our minds to resist.

[28:58] And the best defence, our best defence is the truth, the word of God. To know the Bible, to hide God's word in our hearts is really one of the fundamental important things that we can do.

[29:10] We can deliberately train our mind to hide the word of God in our heart, in our mind. It tells us in John 17 verse 17, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.

[29:22] We've got to counteract the falsehood with the truth, counteract the fake news, this cultural degenerative shift with the truth of God, the truth of righteousness, of God's truth and life.

[29:36] And so can we make that intent? I would urge you tonight to consider, how can I build God's truth into my thinking? It's taking it in, isn't it?

[29:48] Garbage in, garbage out. Maybe have some righteousness in, there'll be some righteousness out. You know, the word of truth in, maybe there'll be some truth lived out. Amen? Garbage in, garbage out. We're just in front of the screens, taking all the world's messaging, this culture shift, this degeneration of our culture.

[30:07] Garbage in, garbage out. Or well, rather, have the word in, get the word in, we'll live the word, we'll live truth. Thy word is truth. So build God's truth into your thinking.

[30:18] Meditate in it. You know, the righteous man, Psalm 1, he meditates in it day and night. That he knows how to walk, he knows how to live, he knows the way to go. That we can become a godly people.

[30:32] And when you think about it, the word of God is a godly stronghold, isn't it? We talked about the strongholds we should tear down. Maybe there's some strongholds we can build. The stronghold of God's word. That's a stronghold for you.

[30:44] God's refuge, God's truth is a stronghold. But sadly, many people are biblically illiterate. There's different surveys being done that show how scarcely, scarcely those who profess to be Christians are reading the word of God.

[30:59] Sadly, many are biblically illiterate. Some people scarcely would open their Bible through the week. They scarcely would read just a few pages, a few passages.

[31:09] And really, only 20% have read the Bible through. It's a good practice to intend to read the word of God, to apply yourself to it.

[31:21] Make it a deliberate intent to read the word of God. Even if it's just a few chapters, even if it's just a chapter or two a day, to read through the word.

[31:33] Take time and get some good commentary notes, some good study guides, so you can study and dig deep. We need to be biblically illiterate people. Feed on the word.

[31:44] It's the truth of God. As the Lord says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

[31:55] Friends, when you think of this culture war that we're in, think of this cultural shift, think of this deliberate intent intent to make our culture more and more degenerate, we need to be wise to what's happening around us.

[32:11] We need to realise the devil's playing mind games with us. There's psychological warfare. It's playing havoc with society. We see where it's going. We see how far it's slipped, in the last 10 years even.

[32:24] And the vast bulk of humanity is just going along with it, not even realising it, because it's gradual. It's the deliberate long march.

[32:35] It's the deliberate long-range plan of these change agents. And the vast bulk of humanity is ignorant of it. And what about you and me?

[32:46] We're called to be different. We're called to rise up, to wiser. It says, Colossians 3, 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. In all wisdom.

[32:56] Let it dwell in you, the word of God. Colossians 3, 16. And so, how can we be such a people that our mind would be shifted? It's repent.

[33:07] Mind shift. It's that change of mind. Our mind should be changed. Our mind should be transformed. Our mind should be renewed. Our mind should be changed. It says in Ephesians 4, 23, be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

[33:22] We can't have a mind renewed. As we heard this morning, Romans 12. You know, that mind that is renewed. Renewing of the mind. We can have a new way of thinking. A way of thinking that's culturally different from this godless culture.

[33:37] And we can have a new life as we change our mind. Think of it, friends, tonight as we wrap up here. We've got need of courage. Because we're in a world that is bent on this slippery slope to ever more godlessness.

[33:52] We've need of courage. We have need of prayer. We've need to understand the times that we're living in and to know what God's people should do. We've need of discernment.

[34:04] Because truth matters. We need to get back to the Bible. And ultimately, it is a battle for the truth. I put to you tonight, what can you do?

[34:16] Could you disconnect from the world's indoctrination? Make some steps to not be following after the distraction, the disinformation.

[34:28] How can we reclaim the culture for Christ? That might be impossible for individuals to do, but we can play our part. Maybe to be that salt and light, to shine that light in our workplaces, to be a testimony for God's glory.

[34:42] Perhaps personally at home, we could think about maybe some classic Christian books that we can have in our home library. Or borrow some of the classics from the church library.

[34:53] Have a read of a book rather than the endless scrolling. Look at some of the classic Christian books that have built civilization. Some of the testimonies, some of the biographies of men and women of God, of revivalists, of reformers, of missionaries of old, and how God touched their lives and used them for his mighty glory.

[35:15] Let's renew our mind after God's way of thinking, God's pattern, that we can be having the mind of Christ. Do we have his mindset? What would the mind of Christ look like?

[35:27] We think of Christ, who was he? What was he? Humble, joyful, peaceful. When you think of it, really, why are we buying into the world stuff too?

[35:39] Sometimes you think, why are we buying into stuff that is really, it's paying the devil's wages, isn't it? Let's boycott. Let's boycott some things. We don't want to pay to watch a film that is trashing the name of our Lord or putting some godless ideas in kids' heads.

[35:58] We need also for home education, using Bible-based, Christ-centred, God-honouring textbooks. Clean the screen. In other words, think, how can I glorify God with what I'm watching?

[36:12] Am I setting my affection on things above? God's word can transform our thinking. And we can be spiritually minded. It says, Romans 8, verse 6, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

[36:29] Just quickly, we'll return to our first scripture there, 2 Corinthians 10. It talks about the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. So the pulling down of strongholds, the strongholds that we are called to pull down.

[36:44] And then it says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

[36:55] Friends, the devil wants to play mind games. He wants you to just go along, to go with the flow, to fire the crowd, to just run, just go with the culture. Don't be rocking the boat.

[37:06] Really, it's a psychological warfare. There's a propaganda being pumped into your family's home. We would do well to take stock spiritually. In all the dimensions of our life. To bring every thought, every dimension of thought.

[37:20] Are we bringing our mind into captivity? To honour our Lord, to glorify him. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding. You know, it talks about love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind.

[37:35] God wants our mind to be loving him. That our thoughts would love him. That our affection would love him. That he would be in control of our thoughts. Of our plans. And the Bible tells us of this.

[37:46] Has Christ your heart? He wants to make his dwelling place there. He wants us to have that heart, that mind, that is in his control.

[38:00] Under his mastery. Under his lordship. To the obedience of Christ. And that's a big thing to say that, isn't it? It's something we can aspire to.

[38:12] That we can move to that. To be such a people. And friends, I don't know about you, but I fear for my children, for my grandchildren. The world that they're going to see is ever more godless.

[38:25] And it's almost like it's inevitable. But we can, God helping us be those ones, will say, yeah, I want to be different. I want to honour my God. I want to glorify my Lord.

[38:36] I want to have my thoughts captured by Christ. And to his glory. I want to live for his praise. I want to counteract this culture. And demolish those strongholds.

[38:47] Every chance I can. To speak against it. And to stand for right. And righteousness and truth. Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you that you are mighty.

[38:59] And Lord, we thank you that the spiritual mind is life and peace. Lord, we can have the mind of Christ. In a culture that's ever Christless, Lord, we can be a people that stand for right.

[39:13] Help us to rise up. Lord, help us to pray, to meditate on your word. Especially, Lord, that we would be saved, a saved people. And that we would have that truth, that sets our hearts on fire.

[39:27] Help us, Lord, in a godless culture, to be salt and light. Not to be obnoxious or hateful or hurtful to people. We know that many do not share Christian values.

[39:40] They're just not, their minds are closed to it. Lord, help us to be gracious, to be a witness for truth, to be a shining light. that they'll want Christ because they'll see that you're working in our own hearts and that you've captured our hearts and minds.

[39:55] And that's a good thing. Well, we pray for those that are still held captive, their minds are debased and blinded, that we see many that are struggling, lost.

[40:06] We pray that they might find the truth. Help us, Lord, for our children and our grandchildren, that we'll be a testimony to them, that they can know the Saviour and they can know the truth that sets people free.

[40:21]  Lord, we thank you for these things and give us grace, Lord, to be such a people that would honour your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.