(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, Deuteronomy chapter 4, the part that we're going to be focusing on is beginning in verse number 5. And this morning I want to preach a sermon about the country of Japan. Now I've preached various sermons about different countries in this world and the purpose of preaching these sermons is that we might learn from the bad examples of others. You see, I've heard it said that experience is the best teacher, but often a better teacher than experience is when you look at someone else's experience. I don't have to go out and get drunk or do drugs or make a fool of myself in order to figure out that that's not going to end well. I'd rather just look at someone else and keep that as a bad example and stay away from that. All throughout the Bible, sermons are preached against nations, but today it doesn't really make any sense to preach against the Moabites or the Ammonites or the Parisites or the Hivites. It makes more sense to preach sermons that are relevant to the world that we live in today. And this sermon will have something for everyone in the auditorium today to learn. Why? Because there's no temptation taking us, but such as is common to man. Now why preach a sermon against Japan? Because Japan is a godless nation. Japan is one of the nations in this world that has the lowest percentage of Christians. There are very few Christians in Japan, if you don't count Americans who are over there on military bases. I mean, there are very few Japanese people who are Christian. It's a tragedy. It's sad. We love those people. We wish that they would be saved. We would love to see them embrace the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. This is not a hateful sermon toward the people of Japan. They need to hear the truth just like Americans need to hear the truth and be saved. But I'm going to preach to you this morning and show you that because of Japan's rejection of the gospel over the centuries, rejection of the word of God, rejection of the wisdom of God, they are suffering today. And there are many, many things in their country that are just terrible as a result of rejecting the wisdom of the Bible. And listen, if you reject the wisdom of God in your life, you'll end up the same way. If you've walked down the same path that these people are going down, you'll end up at the same destination. And so it's a cautionary tale when you look at the history of Japan and when you look at the current condition of Japan. Let's first of all look at the scripture, then we'll get into some of the bad things that are going on in Japan right now and how we can learn from these and avoid these here in our personal lives in the United States. Look at Deuteronomy chapter four, verse five, the Bible reads, behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do so in the land, whether you go to possess it, keep therefore and do them. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. You see, when people look at a nation, they're either going to look at that nation and say, this is a wise and understanding people. Or they're going to look at that nation and say, wow, how foolish. That's a bad example. I better not go down that road. And God is admonishing the Old Testament nation of Israel that if they would follow his word, keep his commandments and fear the Lord, that other nations would look at them and say, this is a wise and understanding people. He said, the word of God is your wisdom. This is your wisdom, not your own carnal understanding, but the wisdom that you gain from studying the Bible itself. Look at verse number seven. This is what they will continue to say, for what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them? That means so near unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for. What nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day, flip over to Psalm 33. So what the Bible is teaching us here is that what makes a nation great is following the Bible. What makes a nation godly and righteous? What makes a nation wise and understanding? What makes a nation prosperous is adherence to the word of God. That is what makes it a great nation. The Bible says righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Look at Psalm 33, verse 10. The Bible says, the Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to not. The heathen nations, nations that do not regard the word of God. He said their counsel, their advice, what they believe is right. God brings all that to nothing. It's meaningless to him. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to not. He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever. The thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance. The Lord looketh from heaven. He beholdeth all the sons of men from the place of his habitation. He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. Here's a key phrase in verse 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike. He considerth all their works. What does that mean when the Bible says that God fashioneth their hearts alike? It means that people in America are just like people in Japan, are just like people in South America, are just like people in Germany. Look, people are people. Humans are humans. Whether in Africa, Asia, Europe, we're all human, we're all people, and all our hearts are fashioned alike by God. So what makes one nation a great nation and another nation a failure? Well it just depends on whether or not their God is the Lord. It just depends on whether or not they respect and adhere to the word of God. It's not about skin color. It's not about race. It's not about ethnicity. It's about the word of God. Many people would lift up today Japan as being a great positive example and say, we should be like Japan. Look how great of a nation Japan is. But Japan is not a great nation today. Now they went through a period where they experienced a lot of financial prosperity about 20 years ago or so when they were really thriving in the 90s and they were second only to the United States and Germany as far as exports and financial prosperity and pretty much the USA, Germany, and Japan were looked at as being some of the most prosperous nations at that time. But here's the thing, just because you have financial prosperity and a lot of exports, that doesn't mean that you're a great nation. That doesn't make you a great nation. You know there are many people today who have all kinds of money and wealth, but I wouldn't want to trade places with them because wealth and money is not the final pursuit of our lives. But even that is slipping away from Japan as their economy goes downhill and as they've lost that standing and no longer even have that financial prosperity that they had 20 some years ago. Why is Japan in trouble today? Well let me read for you this article. The Japanese now have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world and at the same time one of the highest longevity rates. As a result, the population is dropping rapidly and becoming increasingly weighted toward older people. After peaking seven years ago at 128 million, Japan's population has been falling and is on a path to decline by about a million people a year. By 2060, the government estimates there will be just 87 million people in Japan. Nearly half of them will be over 65. Without a dramatic change in either the birth rate or its restrictive immigration policies, Japan simply won't have enough workers to support its retirees and will enter a demographic death spiral, yet the babies aren't coming. Now this is not the blessing of God when a nation has one of the lowest birth rates, one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. Let's just look at some scripture on this and see what the Bible says if this is the blessing of God. First of all, in Proverbs 14, 28, the Bible reads, in the multitude of people is the king's honor, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. And people are lacking in the realm or in the kingdom. That is a bad thing. And this is going to have dramatic repercussions when they're not reproducing over there. The population's dropping and half the people are going to be over 65. Who's going to care for them? Who's going to take care of them? We're facing something similar in the United States. People failing to reproduce. In Japan, it's way worse. They have a major problem in this area. Let's see if this is the blessing of God. Go to Psalm 127. While you're turning to Psalm 127, I'm just going to read you a litany of verses here that show you that fruitfulness is a blessing from God. And that fruitlessness and not reproducing physically is a curse from God. The Bible says in Genesis chapter one, verse 28, and God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply. Because he blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 9 one, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Genesis 9 seven, and you be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth. And did I mention multiply therein? So God's been very repetitive here saying, be fruitful, multiply, it's a blessing. Genesis 17, another blessing, I'll make the exceeding fruitful and I will make nations of thee and kings shall come out of thee. In Genesis 17, God blesses Ishmael by telling him that he will be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 28 three, and God almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people. Genesis 35 11, and God said unto him, I am God almighty, be fruitful and multiply, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee and kings shall come out of thy loins. Genesis 48 four, behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee and will make thee a multitude of people. Genesis 49 22, Joseph is a fruitful bow, this is the verse I'm preaching on tonight, Joseph is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by a well whose branches run over the wall. Exodus 1 seven, and the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty and the land was filled with them. Leviticus 26 nine, for I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you and establish my covenant with you. Look, when God is blessing a nation, they're fruitful, they're multiplying. Lots of scripture to that effect. Now look, if you are only able to have one child or you're unable to have children, there were great people in the Bible that were like that and God wasn't cursing them. It was just God's plan for their life and individuals go through different trials and tribulations and different situations because God in his wisdom has thus ordained that they would only have zero or one or two. But in general, as a nation, God multiplies and makes fruitful a righteous nation. And when we see an entire nation that is not reproducing, that is not the blessing of God. Look at the Bible, Psalm 127 verse one, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain, it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Keep reading into chapter 128. Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house, thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children and peace upon Israel. Look, God's blessing is fruitfulness. God's blessing on a church is fruitfulness when they're winning people to Christ and being fruitful spiritually. God blesses people physically with fruitfulness. Look children are blessing. They're not a pain in the neck or something to be avoided. You know, I'm often out and about with my nine children and people say to me, don't you know what causes that? As if this is somehow a bad thing, because that's our culture today in America, that having children is a bad thing. And you know what, it's totally contrary to the word of God. And any person, and you can like this or love it, but any person who artificially chooses to not have children by using birth control and say, hey, I'm not going to have any children, or I'm only going to have one child or two, you know what? You're showing that you don't understand the Bible. You don't believe the promises of God. And you've been indoctrinated by the world that tells you, hey, don't have another kid, get another car, get a fancier house, get fancy clothes, you know, live the life of a person who can just kind of drop their one kid off and do whatever. Look, if you get a biblical worldview, you'll realize that having a lot of kids is a good thing and that it's not something to be avoided or to be artificially stopped. The Bible's crystal clear on that subject from Genesis to Revelation. I just read you a whole bunch of verses that taught that and Psalm 127 speaks volumes. But Japan's in trouble today. Why? Because they've forsaken the word of God. They've forsaken the right way. They've not listened to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They've not listened to books like Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, righteous laws of God. They've leaned on their own understanding. They've developed their own philosophy, their own worldview, their own lifestyle where it's all about work and making money and succeeding and prospering and being honorable in the sight of man. But they're not worried about being honorable in the sight of God and obeying the words of Jesus Christ. Be fruitful and multiply means nothing to them. They have their own ideas. And oh, they're so smart with their own understanding that now their whole country is in a crisis because they don't have anybody to take care of the aging population and now their population is dropping. It's messing up the economy. It's messing up their way of life because they didn't listen to God. Look, we need to listen to God and do things his way and in the end we'll end up better. This is how you end up when you don't listen to God. Now you say, well, what's going on though, Pastor Anderson? Why are they not having any children? Why do they have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world? What's going on here? Well, there's clearly a subset of Japanese youth who have withdrawn from dating. Instead, they focus on online porn and games like Nintendo's Love Plus. More like Love Minus. They play a Nintendo game called Love Plus in which players conduct a relationship with an anime girlfriend. Hundreds of thousands of young men are known as hikikomori, shut-ins who eschew human contact and spend their days playing video games and reading comics in their parents' homes. Don't tell me this sermon isn't applicable in the United States. You say, why are you preaching about Japan? We're in Tempe. How is this sermon relevant to my life? You know what? Guess what? We got some hikikomori right here in Arizona, right? People who spend their time playing video games and reading comic books and eschewing human contact, this sermon is relevant. Now we haven't gone as far down the path, but why don't we nip it in the bud before we get on Nintendo's Love Plus? Thank God, I don't think that Fry's Electronics carries a copy, but hopefully we can keep it that way. Reading comics in their parents' homes, but most Japanese young people. There is a segment of about a million young men that fall into the hikikomori category, but then in addition to that, most Japanese young people that do have friends and relationships, obviously the majority is not a hikikomori, although that's a lot of people, a million people. Most Japanese young people do have friends and relationships, but they're just not settling down. The marriage rate has plummeted and with it, the birth rate, since out of wedlock births are rare in Japan. In 1975, just 21% of women and 49% of men under 30 had never been married. So if you took all the men under 30, 21% of the women and 49% of the men had not been married. By 2005, 60% of the women and 72% of the men are unmarried under 30. An epidemic of shut-ins. Here's a case in point. For years, Takeshi, this is someone's name, for years Takeshi hid from the world, playing video games all night and sleeping all day, eating from a tray his mother left outside his room. He was a hikikomori, one of an estimated one million Japanese teens and young men who have become shut-ins with virtually no human contact beyond their parents. Some of the hikikomori first withdrew because of some social embarrassment, bad grades or a romantic rejection. The longer they drop out, the more shame they feel in a society where one's status and reputation are paramount and hard to change. And look, there's so many lessons we can learn from this. Number one is beware of video game addiction. Beware of just being on the computer all the time and not interacting with flesh and blood human beings walking into brick and mortar business and having real conversations. But not only that, what about the lesson of the fact that we shouldn't be so worried about what people think about us? This culture that's just so worried about being honorable or respected or loved of the world. But see, if you're a Christian and you read the Bible, you don't have that attitude. Why? Because the Bible says, Marvel not my brother and if the world hates you. Jesus said, hey, they hated me. If you know that they hated me, you know that they'll hate you. You'll be hated of all men for my name's sake. You know, yea and all that will live godly in Christ, Jesus shall suffer persecution. You see, when you're a Christian, when you read the Bible, you have a mentality of, you know what? I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to live my life. I'm going to serve the Lord and I don't care what people think about me. I just care what the Lord thinks. But this godless culture in Japan says, oh, well, it's really important what the people around me think about me. And so I get romantically rejected or I get bad grades or I commit some dishonorable act. It's time to just withdraw to the mother's basement and become a hikikomori. You know, we can learn from this that we need to not go down that path of worrying so much what people think. See, the problem with pastors in America today is that most pastors care too much about what people think about their sermon. They think too much about how the congregation is going to react, how the media is going to react, how the community is going to react, instead just getting up and preaching the word of God and wondering how God is going to react. See that's the Christian mentality, not the godless mentality that's so worried about our being honorable and respected in society. You know what? Paul said, you know what? All become all things to all men, all become a fool for Christ's sake. And he said, I'm willing to be a gazing stock and a laughing stock of the world. I don't care. Paul didn't care what people thought. Read the epistle. Read first second Corinthians. I don't care what people think is the message that comes across. Let me finish this article here. You know, bad grades, romantic rejection, the longer they drop out, the more shame they feel in a society where one's status and reputation are paramount and hard to change. Psychiatrists and especially mothers often enable the withdrawal, you know, because they keep putting that tray of food outside the door. And listen, kids, you get addicted to video games, you're not getting a tray of food outside your door. You're getting a boot in the rear end. All right. But anyway, it says in Japan, mothers and sons often have a symbiotic codependent relationship, says psychiatrist Tamaki Saito, who first identified the disorder in the 1990s. Takeshi reentered society after four years, thanks to a government program that sends female outreach counselors known as rental sisters to coax the hikikomori out of the house. I mean, the government is hiring women to go in and be called a rental sister and to coax them out of the house. But that program doesn't always work. As one shut in of 15 years said, I missed my chance. I mean, look, this is what happens when you reject the Bible. Oh, the Japanese, man, they're so smart. I mean, they're building all these great technology and stereos. I mean, look, this is in the 90s when they're shipping all the Sony, right? And the Panasonic and the, you know, all the dirt bikes and the Suzuki and the Kawasaki. I mean, look, they were doing great. They're manufacturing a lot of great stuff, but you know what? Without the Lord though, oh man, we're succeeding in business. Oh man, we're making money. Oh man, we're doing great. Yeah. Your kid is locked in the room playing Nintendo low plus. Okay. And you're not going to have any grandkids and there's going to be nobody to take care of you because you rejected the wisdom of the Bible and you didn't teach your children the Bible, honor thy father and mother that it may be well with thee and thy days may be long on the earth. So we have these super low fertility rates because of super low marriage rates. What does the Bible say about marriage? Go to first Corinthians chapter seven, first Corinthians chapter seven. What did we, what have we learned from the Bible today so far? Well, we learned first of all that the greatness of a nation has nothing to do with the ethnicity of the people. It has everything to do with whether their God is the Lord and whether they, and not just enough to give lip service to God be in the Lord. You have to actually keep the commandments and statutes and judgments in the Bible because righteousness exalted the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Then we looked at Japan and saw a sign that because they've rejected the Lord, God's not blessing them because you have a lack of fruitfulness. And the way that that's happening is because of just strange trends amongst the young people where they don't want to date. They don't want to get married. They don't want a girlfriend. They don't want a wife. They don't want to procreate. That's pretty weird. Look at your Bible there in first Corinthians chapter seven verse one, it says, now concerning the things wherever you wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, nevertheless to avoid fornication. Let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. Now the Bible is teaching that marriage is a virtue and that we should all have a wife and that women should all have a husband and that it will help us to avoid fornication, which is having that kind of a relationship outside of marriage, going to bed with someone that you're not married to. It says in Hebrews 13, for marriage is honorable and all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. The Bible says in Proverbs 18 22, who so findeth a wife, findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. But people aren't getting married today in Japan because they have other priorities like money, job, video games, watching porn, whatever the reason, they're eschewing marriage, they're not getting married. Now obviously people still have the lust of the flesh whether they get married or not, which is why there's a huge amount of prostitution in Japan. Basically where these type of reclusive, socially backward type men can have their needs met in the wrong way, outside of the godly way of one man and one woman getting married till death do them part, they're seeking out prostitution. Now prostitution is technically illegal in Japan, but they basically get around it and have tantamount houses of prostitution known as soap land. It's basically a bath house, but it's a house of prostitution known as soap land. They're going to soap land or they're looking at filth on the internet or whatever they're doing on a video game or whatever. They're not getting married to avoid fornication. And then when they do fornicate actually with a real life human being and actually commit fornication and a child is produced, it's often aborted. In fact, in Japan, there are 340,000 abortions a year. And keep in mind, their population is much lower than that of the United States. It's about a third of the United States population and they're aborting 340,000 abortions a year. That's about 1,000 a day. So just like there are about 3,000 a day in the United States, they have about 1,000 a day over there. It's about the same ratio there. A lot of abortion going on, even in spite of the fact that a lot of these guys aren't even interacting with women except at a house of prostitution where there's no chance of them getting pregnant. Now listen to this. There's a phenomenon because we talked about the hikikomori which is a small part of the population but it's substantial, a million dudes, a million losers, a million video game dweebs eating chips off their chest in the basement playing pornographic Nintendo games. But a much larger percentage of the population is what's known as an herbivore man. This is a phenomenon in Japan known as the herbivore man. Now this has nothing to do with them not eating meat. These people are eating meat. They're eating fish. They're eating sushi. But the herbivore man or the soshoku kei danshi, I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong, is a term used in Japan to describe men who have no interest in getting married or finding a girlfriend. The term was coined by author Maki Fukasawa in an article published on the 13th of October 2006. Listen to this. Surveys of single Japanese men conducted in 2010 found that 61% of men in their 20s and 70% of men in their 30s consider themselves to be herbivores. Now listen to that. Look, okay, there's a million dudes locked in the basement getting a tray of food outside the door. Okay, that's a lot. But surely the majority of the young men in Japan, no, no, no, 61%, more than half in their 20s. Who is in their 20s? You're a dude, a single dude in your 20s. Put your hand down if you're married. You're a single dude in your 20s. Put up your hand. Okay, guys, are you listening? 61% of these dudes in Japan would have said, I'm an herbivore man. I have zero interest in a wife or a girlfriend. Who is in their 30s and you're single, 30s, 30, yeah, 70% would say, oh, I'm an herbivore man. What does it mean to be an herbivore man? It doesn't just mean that you're not interested in getting married or finding a girlfriend. It also means that you eschew all things manly. Japan's government views the phenomenon as one possible cause of the nation's declining birth rate. Do you think so? When 61% of dudes or 70% of dudes have zero interest in having a physical relationship, in having any kind of a normal procreative relationship, and then you wonder why babies aren't being born, why? Because of porn? Because of video games? Because of a weird godless culture? According to Fukasawa, herbivore men are not without romantic relationships, but have a non-assertive, indifferent attitude toward desires of the flesh, meaning they might hit up soap land from time to time. Philosopher Masahiro Morioka defines herbivores as kind and gentle men without being bound by manliness. Do not pursue romantic relationships voraciously and have no aptitude for being hurt or hurting others. These guys aren't even taking a karate class. These guys are just, what would we call them in America? Metro. Metro dudes. Isn't that what we call them, right? Metro. Okay, but are 61% of us going around saying I'm a metro? And I also have no interest in a girlfriend or a wife. That's weird, man. Something's wrong with this picture. Something's wrong. But you know what? God fashioned all our hearts alike. It's not because they're Japanese, friend. It's because they rejected the God of the Bible over and over again for centuries. Every time the gospel was brought to them, every time Bibles were brought to them, they've rejected it and turned away from it and rejected it. I mean, for hundreds of years, they had policies of locking out missionaries, not even letting anyone trade with them, rejecting. After World War II, a lot of people tried to go in there and evangelize. Japan is flooded with Bibles, and now it's just a handful of people over there that are Christians now decades later. And this is where it takes you, my friend. Yeah, you want to be free from all the restrictive guidelines of the Bible, right? I want to be free. You know, they promised them liberty, it says in 2 Peter 2. I want to be free of all God's commandments and rules. Yeah, you're also going to be free of manliness. Because remember, that's what it said, like they're not bound by manliness. You know what? Bind me with manliness, please. Because I don't want to go down this path. Potential causes, indifference of men to marriage and committed relationships and the observable trend in many advanced societies. See, this is what the world calls an advanced society. I guess that's our goal to where we're all just on Nintendo Love Plus and just single. And we're living in a little IKEA style 225 square foot living pod by ourselves with a Nintendo and anime and food outside the door. Various social and economic factors are cited as playing a role in this trend. In Japan, the decline of the Japanese economy is often said to contribute to the rise of herbivore men. The theory being that economic disillusion has caused Japanese men to turn their backs on typical masculine and corporate roles. With over 2.5 million fritters, a fritter is somebody who has no job and isn't looking for a job. In between 650,000 and 850,000 NEETs, and a NEET is not, I'm trying to remember what it stands for, I might get this wrong, not in any educational or enterprise of training. They're not even on a pathway to getting a career. Between the ages of 19 and 35 living in Japan, this response might be deeply ingrained in Japanese culture while Westerners voiced displeasure with hardships, the Japanese instead turn inward. Japanese women might be further discouraging men from entering into romantic relationships. Many women refuse men, listen guys, many women refuse men who don't have steady jobs. Do you blame them? Many women refuse men who don't have steady jobs such as fritters and NEETs. Other women feel that self-proclaimed soshoku kidanchi, herbivore men are weak and not masculine. So they're not into these herbivore dudes. While some men apparently are not attracted to independent women. See here's the thing, some herbivore man, yeah he's not into an independent woman, right? Because he's such a weakling, he's not able to get in there and take that bull by the horns, right? And bring that woman into submission and have a good relationship and a good marriage. Oh you're too strong, you're too independent, because he's a total weakling. In a 2011 poll of Japanese boys aged between 16 and 19, 36% said that they were not interested in having, you know what, 36% just said I don't have any interest in even fornicating or having that relationship in marriage, I just don't desire that relationship. The figure for girls in the same age group was nearly double at 59%. Look this isn't normal, this is scary. This is what an advanced civilization looks like according to the world. The world that thinks they're so smart and rejects the God of the Bible and you say oh well that's Japan, he fashioneth all our hearts alike. This is where we're going in America. Our fertility rates are dropping, our marriage rates are dropping, video game addictions on the rise, computer addictions on the rise, we're going down the same path, the same road and if we don't take notes and say whoa I better be careful with video games, whoa I better be careful spending too much time on the computer, whoa I need to start socializing with the opposite gender a little bit and look I'm not saying to fornicate, no, get married, avoid fornication but have normal relationships and this is one reason why we need the local church, it's a great place to make friends in general and we're not just talking about husband wife relationships or boyfriend girlfriend relationships, we're also just talking about you need just friends, just normal friends so that you're not just talking to anime characters all day on a role playing video game and as this technology gets more and more advanced, that anime girlfriend is going to get even more convincing than she is now and your buddies online are going to get more convinced and the chat room is going to get more engaging, anybody listen, I mean when I was a kid a chat room was something that you typed and it was real slow, now a chat room you put on a headset and you're literally chatting, you know you're playing a video game, you know you need to unplug and make sure that you're spending time in the physical real world and by the way when you sit around and get sedentary you also get depressed because our bodies are not designed to be sedentary, sitting in front of a computer all day, sitting at a game all day, our bodies are made to get up and go and have you ever heard of the runner's high, why? Because when we exercise and you get that from any exercise, not just running, whether you're lifting weights, whether you're running, whether you play sports, it makes you feel good because our bodies are designed to release feel good endorphins whenever we go out and physically exert ourselves and so when you have a man going out physically exerting himself, when kids go out and actually play outside, not just in front of a TV, not just in front of a video game, but actually getting out and playing outside, they're releasing endorphins, they're happy, they're healthy, they're well adjusted and they develop a habit that if I turn, if I push the button the light bulb comes on, if I go out and play I feel good, I go out and I'm physically working and stacking firewood or whatever, you know what it makes me feel good, I'm going to do that again. As opposed to raising a generation of lazy people whose dream job is to sit on their butt all day and do as little as possible, oh man I'm going to go down to ASU and I'm going to go there and get the degree that's going to allow me to sit on my butt as much as I can and do as little work as I can to get paid. We need to be careful of these things because we could go down this same path in America, we already see it happening, we already see young people locking themselves up in the house or glued to a screen all day and we already see people not forming normal dating relationships and normal marriages happening because they don't even know how to talk to the opposite gender or even to even build these kind of friendships and relationships in a normal organic way. We need to watch out in America, we're going down the same path. Effeminate men are on the rise in both America and Japan, they eschew the stereotypes of manliness, well you know what, those came from the Bible. God showed a difference in gender, he taught in 1 Corinthians 11 that men should have short hair and that women should have long hair and that a woman should not wear that which pertaineth unto a man and that a man should not put on a woman's garment for all that do so or an abomination of the Lord thy God. God is the one who said in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9 that the effeminate would not inherit the kingdom of God and be sure you have a King James Bible, the modern versions will try to say that it's referring to a homo, no, no, no, it's talking about effeminate men and it's not the same thing. Just because a guy is effeminate doesn't make him a homo. But it's still a sin, it's still wicked. We need to be men. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, quit you like, it means act like men. Elsewhere the scriptures teach the exact same thing. Another major problem and I'm almost done just showing that Japan is on the wrong path and the title of my sermon is the bad example of Japan, the bad example. Look at what Japan's doing, look at the rejection of Christ, look at the rejection of the principles of the Bible, look at the rejection of traditional marriage, look at the rejection of having children, look at the rejection of normal dating and look at the embrace of, you know, pornographic video games and just prostitution and just embracing godless culture and meaningless life and realize that that is something that could happen to us or our nation if we don't follow the principles of the Bible. But one last thing I want to bring up is suicide in Japan is a major problem as well. One of the highest suicide rates in the civilized world, in the advanced cultures is in Japan and the reason why, I'm going to read this article here, it says when it comes to suicide Japan has a very different way of viewing it and has an attitude more complex than probably any other country. They have something called Inseki Jisatsu or the act of responsibility driven suicide. There has been a code of honor associated with suicide since the 12th century when samurai warriors used to commit seppuku literally meaning cutting the belly to avoid surrendering to the enemies. The idea of this honorable suicide was revived again during World War II by Japan's imperial government and particular emphasis was laid on the virtues of militarized suicide attacks, hello kamikaze. While seppuku is no longer practiced in the modern day Japan, the idea of an honorable death by suicide has evolved in parallel to its modern day form of Inseki Jisatsu where people committing suicide as an act of responsibility is deemed an act of great honor. For instance, people committing suicide to alleviate the burden of debts on their family through a life insurance payout comes under the category of Inseki Jisatsu and is considered worthy of honor. So if you commit insurance fraud by killing yourself so your family can cash out on the life insurance which is intended for people when they die naturally or die of an accident, you're stealing from the company. It's insurance fraud. It's wicked. Killing yourself is wicked. There's nothing. It's dishonorable. It's one of the most hateful dishonorable things you could do is to commit suicide. You're ruining the lives of the people that you leave behind. But over there, it's an act of great honor. Why? Because this book is not the guiding light over there. That's why. That's the kind of crazy stuff you come up with when this book, when Shinto guides you and Buddhism guides you and you know, the sermon on Buddhism, I showed all the examples of suicide and Buddhism and how it's glorified in certain aspects in Buddhism and everything like that. Look, when you don't have the Bible, you're following Satan. Buddhism's of Satan. Shinto is of Satan. Atheism is of Satan. I mean, look, you're following the devil and the devil would love for you to kill yourself. That's why in the Bible when people are demon possessed, they threw themselves in the fire. They threw themselves in the water. They were very self-destructive, cutting themselves and all and we see that even today in America, the cutting themselves and the suicide and all these things. With the workload, the stressful life and the hyper conservative mentality regarding public display of emotions, there are absolutely valid reasons for committing suicide in Japan. But romanticizing it, especially when seen as an act of responsibility, that's taking it up a notch. Look, this thing of not showing your emotions, is that biblical? No. In the Bible, men of God showed a lot of emotion. Jesus wept. I mean, all throughout the Bible, we see men of God. I mean, what? When Jacob approaches Rachel, he starts crying and talking to her, you know what I mean? There's laughter, there's crying, there's shouting, there's anger, there's all manner of human emotion on display in the Bible by men of God. The Bible tells us to rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep and be afflicted and mourn and weep and there's a putting on of sackcloth and putting ashes on your head and rending your garment. You know, maybe they'd feel a little better if they actually read the Bible and learn from the Bible how to deal with suffering. And realize that when people die, you cry about it. When you're angry, when you're sad, you rend your garment. You rend your garment. You put ashes on your head. You put on sackcloth, you mourn, you weep, you yell about it. You get it out. You let it out. It's biblical. But we're living in a day in America too, where they want to suppress all negative outbursts. You know that's true. But you know what? That's not biblical. We're human. We express emotion. You know, they'd feel better if they rip open that, what's the garment that they wear? What do they wear over there? Is there a word for it? Isn't that the women that wear the kimono? I'm not talking about the ghee, all right. I'm just saying, look. And you say, what's the sermon about Pastor Anderson? What are we talking about Japan? Listen, here's what we're talking about. We're talking about what a society looks like that has been one of the most closed off to the gospel societies in the history of mankind. Are you listening? Japan is one of the places in this world that has been the most closed off to the gospel, the most isolated from Christianity, where they're killing missionaries. And for hundreds of years, we're talking about going back to 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, just for years and years and years saying, we don't want to listen to anybody else. We know everything. Our culture is better than everyone else. We're wise in our own sight. We're wise. We don't need the Lord. We don't need his commandments. We don't need his word. We don't want Moses. We don't want Jesus. And you know what? This is where you end up. And I don't think anybody would say that these are good things. Hey, nobody's having kids. You know, pretty soon half the population is going to be over 65. Hey, you know, 60 to 75% of men are Metro effeminate and women are like, we're not into these guys. So then the bad dudes, because they're obviously, if there's 60% that are Metro, there's another 30 some percent. There's millions of normal guys. So don't get me wrong. I'm not saying, Hey, every Japanese guy is an herbivore. There's some carnivores over there. Amen. There are some omnivores over there. I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to stereotype here and condemn all of them. I'm sure they're godly saved Christians, but it's a tiny percentage. Look at the stats. Only 2% of the people are in some statistics, 1% even claim to be a Christian. Once you take out all the military personnel of the United States over there. But what happens is then the guys, the guys that are the he-men over there, the minority that are the he-men. Okay. Well then guess what? They're being with, then women are committing adultery with these guys because it's the only manly dude they can find. So it's just, everything's on its head. They're at prostitution, adultery, porn, I mean, it's just, it's a mess. Total mess because you have a total destruction of the family over there and we need to take heat in America. We need to keep the family unit intact. We need husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and we need to raise our kids saying, hey, you need to have a family. You need to be in a family. You know, you need to follow. You can't, and look, are there exceptions that prove the rule? Of course, I'm not condemning people that are single. I'm not condemning people that have other life situations. You know, the apostle Paul talked about rare exceptions of people who'd remain single and serve the Lord. I get that. But look, 99% of us need to get married and have kids. You know what I mean? That's what God has for us. And again, the exception proves the rule, would never pick on anybody or judge anybody on their individual situation. But as a whole, we need to train up a generation with a family viewpoint that comes from the Bible or else we're going to end up with some kids. We're going to be like, what have I raised? What have I done? And by the way, mom, if your kid becomes a hikikomori, don't put that tray of food out. Don't enable your children's sin. If you have adult children in your home that are refusing to work, don't just be an enabler. You need to put the boot to the rear end and get them out there working and getting a job. And it's not because you hate them, it's because you love them. Nothing will make you more miserable as a man than sitting on your butt and not having a job. Nothing will make you more depressed than getting addicted to video games unless you get addicted to video gambling because that's like, it's the worst because you're addicted to video games and it's costing you more money than a typical video game. But now a lot of these video games take your money. Isn't that true? Aren't there video games now where you buy extra weapons or something and somebody help me out. Does anybody help me out? Can you name some of the games or no? World of Warcraft. So like, don't you, because I thought I saw it at the store. Like you bought extra bonuses. I mean look, they were selling at the store candy crush whatever points or some kind of a Facebook. Somebody help me out. Come on, I know you're embarrassed. I'm not going to judge you. I know it's not you. I know it's a friend of yours. It's for a friend. I know. It's for people. Tell me about your friends, all right. So how much do people end up spending on this kind of stuff do you think? Ten bucks, you add something on, add this, add that. And aren't you kind of playing with people all over the world? Is that how it works now? Help me out people. I'm still on the 8-bit Nintendo, man. Actually I did get to the 16-bit Sega Genesis before I, you know, stopped learning new video games. But what I'm saying is, you know, people get so sucked into, see when I was a kid, look, and let me just confess to you, I was never a hikikomori, okay. I was always into the chicks, but, but I never, but I was addicted to video games. As a teenager, I got sucked in. Thank God when I got addicted to video games, I was addicted to video games that weren't that cool. You know what I mean? Because when I was a kid, the video games weren't that cool. As a teenager, right? So I mean, how addicted can you really get to Mega Man? You know, I mean, you can't, you know, there's only so many times you can, you can defeat Cut Man and Air Man and Metal Man and Bubble Man and Heat Man, you know, there's only so many times you play through and then you, then you're going out and you're hanging out with the girls and, and, you know, playing sports and, and doing normal things that teenagers like to do, right? Making friends, meeting girls, you know, learning how to be an adult, et cetera. But, but today the video games are so advanced now, they can suck you in. And then you're, and then you're starting to buy the add-ons. You know what I mean? And you're paying for all the add-ons and you're going to the store and, and buying extra points so that you can kind of increase your prestige in the gaming world or whatever, you know, you're building your empire. I mean, the amount of time and energy people put into like building these role-playing games, they can almost like build a business in real life and actually do something. You know, you get so into the sim, the, you know, Sim City or is that still around? People strike. Help me out people. I've never even heard of this stuff. Pokemon. Pokemon. What is, can somebody explain to me what, I know, I know it's something, it's, are you talking about the Pokemon Go? I've never seen it in Arizona. I think it's cause it's like 110 degrees outside and nobody does it because I keep seeing it on the internet, like where they're talking about Pokemon Go and everything, the big craze. I've never seen one person doing it. Have people, who's seen it in Arizona? All right. I need to get out more, but I've never seen it because I'm like, well, it must just be cause it's 110 degrees. It's probably real big in like Montana right now or something, you know, or like cool places. Uh, Minnesota. Oh, they go at night. They come out at night. They're like, or the eyes glowing. It's too light. It's too bright. The sun's too bright in the daytime, right? So at night they creep out of their dens and caves of their mother's basement, you know, and then they got, so what is, what is Pokemon Go? What do you do? Are they, they're like finding Pokemons, but what do they do? What you, okay, I got the Pokemon. Now what? Do I kill it or collect it or what? Am I battling it? What do you do with it once you have it? So you train, you train your Pokemon and then like unleash it on some other vicariously through my Pokemon. So I'm not even, is that what's going on? I can become a Pokemon master. Where do I sign up? And let's see, where was Pokemon invented? Hmm. Nothing. Huh. Where does Pokemon come from? I wonder where it came from. Where'd it come from? Now is, is Pokemon like demonic or is it pretty, is it pretty benign? No I mean, when I say that, I mean are the, are the Pokemons, they look like Hindu gods. They look demonic, huh? Okay here we go. I got somebody who's going to help me. Really okay. So Paul says that there was an article online that we could look up later that said that the creator of Pokemon created it to rebel against his Christian parents and his Christian upbringing. So I don't know how this guy got Christianity in Japan. That's great that he did, but too bad he rejected it. At least he heard about it. He's without excuse. But anyway, I got to close, I got to shut down this sermon, but we need to be aware of just getting sucked in to the world's philosophy and we need to make sure that the Bible guides our lives or else we're going to end up doing a lot of weird stuff that we never thought we would do. I'll bet if we would have told people in Japan in the 1940s, Hey, this is what you guys are going to be like in 75, 80 years. They would have said, what in the world? You think we're really going to be hanging out with fake girlfriends on a computer screen? We're not that lame, but now they are that lame. Unfortunately, a lot of these guys, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much Lord for your word Lord, because without your word, we should never be puffed up Lord, because without your word, we'd be making the same dumb mistakes that godless cultures make Lord. So help us not to get puffed up or think that because we're American that we can do no wrong or not fail Lord. Help us to realize that without your grace, without your wisdom, without your word, we'd all be doing stupid things. And Lord, even as a teenager, Lord, even with Christ in my heart, I got a little sucked into video games and got a little bit addicted to it for a while and wasted a lot of time on that stuff, Lord. Please just help us to realize that it's only your word and your wisdom and your truth that guides us in this life and will keep us from making a ruin of our lives or a ruin of our children or a ruin of our nation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.