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And this morning, I'm going to be preaching against this book right here called The Shack. Now, people have been trying to get me to preach against this book for years, and I've gotten a whole bunch of emails about it. And recently, a whole bunch of people have been coming up to me even at church and saying, you need to preach against The Shack. And people kept bringing it up, and I'd blown it off for a long time. But I guess now it's been made into a big blockbuster Hollywood movie, so everybody's going and watching it and getting all the wicked teachings from this. And the reason it's worth preaching about is that, first of all, it says right on the cover that it's a number one New York Times bestseller, and that it sold over 20 million copies, even when this copy was printed right here. Not only that, but the movie, just in the last two weeks, has already brought in over $43 million at the box office, which means that it's a big hit. It's probably being shown in virtually every theater in America based on those numbers. It's been endorsed by over 1,000 faith leaders across the country. But not only that, even independent fundamental Baptist Kent Hovind has endorsed this book. Here's what Kent Hovind has said about it. It gives the best illustration I've seen of the Trinity. I love it. These are all direct quotes. I recommend it. It's amazing. I've read it nine times. There aren't too many books I've read nine times. The shack is one of the best books I've ever read in my life. There's so much meat in there. It is a fabulous book. We need to quit putting God in our box. I recommend you read it, and you can quote me on that. Well, good, because I just did. Kent Hovind says to his critics that have slammed him for endorsing the shack, if they don't like it tough, it's just too bad. I don't care. That's his message. Well, I'm gonna go through some of the heresy and wickedness found in this book, the shack. But first I want you to turn to Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one, before I get too far into this sermon, let me just start out with the big elephant in the room about this book is that number one, it depicts God the father as a large black woman named Papa. Okay, so this book that, oh, it's the best depiction of the Trinity, 20 million copies sold, $45 million at the box office. God the father is represented by a large black woman named Papa. Now, why would a black woman be named Papa? But it's just this strange gender bending garbage put out by Hollywood, put out by wicked false teachers like this Paul Young. But look what Romans chapter one says in verse 21. It says that because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four footed beasts and creeping things. So this talks about someone who would take the glory of the uncorruptible God and make it into an image like unto a human being or an animal, a corruptible man, a four footed beast, a bird or whatever. This is known as idolatry. Now, let me just start out here by reading for you some quotes from the book, and then I'll get into what the Bible says a little more go over to John chapter one, that's where we're gonna eventually go. But I'm gonna start out reading from you in this book where basically this man goes to this shack and he spends a weekend hanging out with God, but God manifests himself, herself, whatever this book portrays their false God as a black woman, as God the father, and then Jesus is there and the Holy Spirit's there all in bodily form. Three different human beings are there with him in this shack. Here are some quotes from the book. Then Mac asked, which one of you is God? I am, said all three in unison. So you say, oh, okay, it's teaching the Trinity. Here's the first words of chapter six of this book. Well, Mackenzie, don't just stand there gawking with your mouth open like your pants are full, said the big black woman as she turned and headed across the deck. This is God the father talking in this blasphemous wicked book. Then on the next page, the main character of the book, Mack says, am I supposed to believe that God is a big black woman with a questionable sense of humor? Jesus laughed, she's a riot. You can always count on her to throw you a curve or two. I mean, this kind of just mockery and wicked blasphemy of God, making them out to just be a bunch of clowns like the Three Stooges. It's the Three Stooges and they say, oh, it's the Trinity, wrong. The Bible says, our God is a consuming fire, not some Aunt Jemima that you hang around with in the kitchen that just anything goes, just cool with everything. And that's what's portrayed in this book. Look what the Bible says in John chapter one, verse one. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And the word was made flesh and dwelled among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Look at verse 18. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him. So no one has ever seen God the father at any time, at any point in history. The only manifestation that we have of God is Jesus Christ. When the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, the word that was in the beginning with God and that was God, because the Bible teaches that the father and the son and the Holy Ghost, that these three are one, that is the only bodily manifestation that we have of God. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him. Look at John chapter six, just a few pages to the right in your Bible. While you're turning there, I'll read for you from Exodus 33, what I read earlier in verse 20, where it said that God said that thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live. Did you hear that? God the father said, no man can see my face and live. Not even Moses, who he spoke to as a friend with a friend could actually look upon the face of God the father. The only manifestation of God bodily is through the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God. He is God the son, but there is a distinction between the father, the son and the Holy Ghost. And we're gonna get to that later in the sermon. John chapter six, verse 46 says, not that any man had seen the father, save he which is of God, he had seen the father referring to himself. He's saying that he is the only one who has seen the father. 1 John 4 12, no man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God's well within us and his love is perfected in us. Go to John chapter 16. So number one thing that's wrong with this book is that God the father is depicted as a large black woman named Papa. Number two, I mean, that should be enough right there to just discard this book. And by the way, the movie is the same way. I haven't seen the movie, but I read the synopsis of the movie. I read the entire book and I can tell you it sounds like it's identical. Okay, number two, the Holy Spirit is depicted as a Chinese woman who is named after a Hindu goddess, a Hindu goddess. Now I'm gonna tie in the Hinduism connection because this book from start to finish is Hinduism. Now you say Pastor Anderson, you're just on this Hinduism kick right now. And because you've got a hammer in your hand, everything's looking like a nail. And that's why, no, oh no, oh no. You'll see that I'm right about this. Believe me, even in interviews, this author has said, oh, people are accusing me of being a Hindu. So it's not just me, okay? The Holy Spirit is depicted as a Chinese woman named after a Hindu goddess. Now this doctrine of the Holy Spirit being female is pretty common. God the father being a female is pretty new, okay? But the Holy Spirit being depicted as a female is not new, but it's as wicked as hell and it's a false doctrine. The Holy Spirit is not female. This doctrine of Shekinah or Shekinah or a female aspect of God is a wicked satanic new age doctrine. Look at John 16 verse 13 and notice the pronouns here. How be it when he, the spirit of truth, talking about who? The comforter, the Holy Ghost. When he has come, he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself. But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak and he will show you things to come. In that one verse, seven times the pronoun he or him is used. And he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All that the father hath are mine, therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. 10 times in this passage, the Holy Ghost is clearly referred to as a he. The Holy Spirit is never referred to as a she in the Bible. The kind of foolish logic that says, well, the father, the son and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost must be mom. No, that's a false doctrine. Mary was mom. Mom was a human being, right? Mary was the mother of Jesus. And so the Holy Spirit is not female whatsoever. But here's why I say that this book teaches Hinduism. Well, first of all, number one, the name of the Holy Spirit in this book is called Sarayu. So the whole time he's hanging out with this Chinese chick named Sarayu, which is supposedly the bodily manifestation of the Holy Spirit that he's hanging around with. Well, what is that word? The first thing I did when I saw that word was like, well, what is that? Where is he getting this weird name? So I Googled that name. And what language is it from? Sanskrit, which Sanskrit is a dead language that only has one purpose in this world. It is the language of Hinduism. The only reason anyone studies Sanskrit is to read ancient Hindu texts because it is no longer a living language. And so it turns out it is a Hindu goddess found in the Rig Veda, the oldest Hindu scriptures. The Rig Veda mentions Sarayu three times, this demonic god of Hinduism. But the second reason that I say that this book teaches Hinduism is that Hinduism teaches that there's only one god. Even though they're often talked about as having millions of gods, once you actually talk to Hindus and actually look at their scriptures and look at what they believe, what they actually believe is that there's only one god that just manifests itself in all these different ways. That's why Hindus can worship completely different gods from one another, but still say that they're all in the same religion, we're all worshiping the same god. See, when you read the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, well, anybody who worships any god is worshiping me. People worship other gods, they're all worshiping me. I'm the object of all worship. So Hinduism teaches that God can appear in all these different forms and all these different ways, but still be the same god. So whether you're bowing down to a guy with an elephant head, or whether you're bowing down to a monkey god, or whether you're bowing down to a female goddess, they say that they're all worshiping the same god because God manifests himself as these different gods, and he has all these different avatars. And we actually use that word avatar, right, in computer lingo. Isn't the avatar, what is the avatar? Isn't it like your profile picture is considered your avatar? But the word avatar is Sanskrit for an incarnation of God, where God takes on a bodily form. That's called an avatar of God. That's exactly what this book is teaching, where God can just appear as a large black woman, but it's still God. And then later in the book, Papa turns into a long-haired dude with a gray ponytail. And that's God too, and it's all the same god, whether it's a Chinese woman, a black man, a Jewish man, a long-haired Indian dude, it's all God. Look, that is Hinduism, where they worship all these false gods, and they use other names, other images, other attributes, sometimes even of an animal, like a monkey or an elephant, but then they say, oh, well, these are just ways to help us focus our mind to understand the true God. That's exactly what this book is saying. That's exactly what Kent Hovind is saying, is like, oh, we can learn so much about God from Aunt Jemima. That isn't true, because that's not what God is like. God has one bodily manifestation, one. Not various avatars, various, he doesn't change his profile picture, folks. He's one God, and he has appeared bodily in one form, Jesus Christ, man, the man Christ Jesus, and he only looks one way. Sorry, God can't just look like all of us. He can't be white and black and Chinese and Indian and everything else. And it's wickedness to demand that God looks like you. That's wickedness, because it's narcissistic to expect to look in the mirror and see God or to look at God and say, oh, he looks just like me. That's narcissism. Now, if you would flip over to Colossians chapter number one, actually, you go to Revelation chapter one. I'm gonna read for you from Colossians chapter one. Revelation chapter one. In Colossians one, the Bible says, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image, who is the image, not an image, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. So God does not appear to you in various forms, as various people, various animals, various races, various genders. No, no, God has one bodily manifestation, and that is the man Christ Jesus. Now, when we study the Bible and we see God having various encounters with man, what we see is man trembling before God. We don't see God as just being an anything goes, sweet black lady that makes us food and we hang out and talk and you can ask her anything, and she's just so cool and so easy going. No, no, no, when you see Job dealing with God, you know, I was just reading Job last night and I was thinking about this book, and I was thinking, this is nothing like this book, because in Job, when Job deals with God, out of the whirlwind, Job is just on his face, scared to death, terrified, and you know what? God doesn't say anything nice to Job. God just proclaims his own holiness and rips on Job, even though Job was the most righteous man on the earth. And even though everything Job said was right, and when God's done laying into Job, he says, by the way, everything Job said was right. And this is still how I treat him, because I'm God and he's a human being. Our God's a consuming fire. And even when Jesus was on this earth, he wasn't just this cool guy that you just hang out with and anything goes. How many times the Bible say, where people were afraid to ask him any more questions, where people were scared of him, where people are falling on their faces, even the demon possessed are falling on their faces before him. Even when he's arrested, he says, I'm he, they all fall backwards. Yeah. God is not to be made into the three stooges, or just some really nice, cool, laid back person. No, he's reverend, he's holy. We need to exalt him and get a biblical view of him. Let's look at John, who is known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. This is the disciple who actually leaned on Jesus breast at the last supper. This is one of his closest friends, his closest disciples. When Jesus appears to John on the Isle of Patmos, here's the image that comes to him. It says in verse number 12, and again, notice he's not seeing God the father, no man has seen God at any time. This is him seeing God the son, Jesus Christ. Any bodily manifestation of the father or the Holy ghost is heresy in the first place. God is a spirit. But it says here in verse 12, and I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. Now, let me ask you, is that a black man? I mean, look, if you're gonna say that Jesus is black, you know what you're saying? That this book is a lie. Cause it just said that his head and his hairs were white like wool. White is not black. White is white. And you know what, if you're offended by that, then you're a narcissist who wants to look in the mirror and God to look exactly like you and that's wicked. You don't make God into your own image. God made man in his image and he made a variety of men and he made male and female and everybody doesn't look like God. I don't expect to get to heaven and God to look just like me. I'm not saying that God is some kind of a Northern European Caucasian from Scandinavia or Ireland. That's not what I'm saying folks. But he sure isn't black if it says he's white in that image right there. And to say so is a lie. Okay, Jesus Christ, when he walked on this earth was probably light brown. Because if you think about the people that live in that region, you think about the Egyptians and the Palestinians and don't let these Hollywood blue eyed, red haired Jews fool you. Those aren't even real Jews, they're from Poland. Jesus was probably of a light brown complexion if we just use common sense. But does that mean everybody in the room who is light brown should be like, yes, Jesus looks like me, yeah. It's so dumb. I mean, or yeah, he's white. Yeah, I knew he was white, underline white, yeah. That just shows the wickedness and carnality. If God wanted us to know what Jesus looked like on this earth, it would have given us a very detailed description. Is his hair wavy? Is it straight? Is it curly? Is he short? Is he tall? Is he thin? Is he broad shouldered? It doesn't matter. If it mattered, he'd tell us, it doesn't matter. And look, I won't be, I don't care what God looks like when I get there. And in the form of Jesus, of course, because we're not gonna just waltz into heaven the first day and see God the Father, we're gonna see Jesus. I don't care what he looks like. I don't care what he is, but I guarantee you this, I'm not gonna walk in, he's not gonna be Chinese. It's just not gonna happen. And you say, oh, you just don't like Chinese people. No, it's because he wasn't born in China. He didn't live in China. He didn't preach in China. It would just be dumb to say, oh, he's Chinese. It's just dumb to say, oh, he's black. He wasn't in sub-Saharan Africa, folks. He's in the Middle East. He didn't come to Ethiopia. He went to Israel. And look, I don't expect him to be an Irish redhead either because he didn't come to Ireland. He was manifested bodily in the Middle East. And this stupidity of making God a black woman is nothing against black people. It's just stupid because he wasn't black and he wasn't a woman. And if you believe either of those things, you're a liar because that's not what the Bible teaches anywhere. And the whole fact that people are offended by that, and here's what happens, whenever anybody confronts this author and says, well, what, do you really think that God's a black woman? He's a, well, what do you think, he's a white man? Yeah, I do. That's what it says in Revelation chapter one. So put that in your pulp and smack it. I don't care whether you like that or not. It's what the Bible said. And they're just trying to use race to cover up the fact that they made God into a woman. You know, like as if that's the big deal, that it's a black woman. If it was a fat white woman, that'd be a problem too. Do you really think I'd be less offended by this? But well, at least they made it a fat white woman. You really think I would care? You really think that would affect the price of tea in China if it's a fat white woman or a fat black woman in this book? But fat black women everywhere are apparently getting excited about this book because Oprah Winfrey loves it because of the narcissism of demanding that God looked just like you. It doesn't matter what God looks like, folks. And if you think it does, you're carnal. It's his word that matters. That's who he is. Who he is is defined by his word, not just he's such a good looking guy. He's such a good looking guy, okay? But in Revelation 1, it says, his head and his hairs, look down at your Bible, were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like undefined brass as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters, and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I was just blown away just by how easy he was to be around. I mean, he was just so laid back. He was so cool. It was just so easy to just talk to him in the breakfast nook. No, he said, when I saw him, I fell and his feet as dead. That's the reaction when you get around the bodily presence of the Lord. You fall at his feet as dead. He laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not, I'm the first and the last. I'm he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. This proves that this manifestation of God here is not the Father, it's the Son, because he was dead, and behold, he's alive forevermore. Let me read for you some more excerpts of this book here. Of course, the book just drips with every type of liberalism, every type of just soft, watered down Christianity, and just anything liberal. Like the first time you see God in the book, the main character has a gun in his hand, okay? Listen to what it says about the gun, you know, once he meets up with Aunt Jemima. It says, the large black woman gathered his coat, and he handed her the gun, which she took from him with two fingers as if it was contaminated. First of all, that's bad English. It's as if it were contaminated. It's a subjunctive, not past tense. But secondly, why would God hold a gun as if it were contaminated? Like God's just afraid of guns, like, ew, guns, ah. Jesus's disciples carried swords. If you actually read the Bible, you'd know that. Jesus said to his disciples, hey, we need to make sure we have a sword. And they said, master, we have two swords. They already had it. He starts telling them they need to buy a sword, and they're like, Jesus, we have two swords. And he says, oh, it's enough. They carried weapons. He didn't tell them to be unarmed or disarmed. But yet in this book, and then again, it's reiterated three pages later, that she was still carrying the gun by two fingers a full arm's length away from her. Okay, so early on in his encounter with Papa, which by the way, Papa is the name of a false female goddess in Polynesia. You say that's a coincidence. Oh, really, because on the back of the book, it says that the author was raised in Polynesia. So maybe that's not a coincidence that there's a female goddess called Papa in Polynesia. He was raised amongst cannibals where he was repeatedly molested from the age of six onward. Wonder why he hates God so much to write this reprobate book. Listen to this. He finds Papa in the kitchen, this is supposedly God the Father, listening to headphones while doing the dishes. He inquired, may I ask what you're listening to? You really want to know? Sure, now Mac was curious. West Coast Juice, group called Diatribe and an album that isn't even out yet called Heart Trips. She said, winking at map. Right, Mac responded, more than a little incredulous. West Coast Juice, huh? It doesn't sound very religious. Oh, trust me, it's not. More like Eurasian funk and blues with a message and a great beat. She sidestepped toward Mac as if she were doing a dance and clap, all right. Mac stepped back, so God listens to funk? Mac had never heard funk talked about in any properly righteous terms. This is a few pages later. She again picked up the wooden spoon which was dripping with some sort of batter. Mackenzie, I am neither male nor female. Even though both genders are derived from my nature, if I choose to appear to you as a man or a woman, it's because I love you. For me to appear to you as a woman and suggest that you call me papa is simply to mix metaphors to help keep you from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning. Religious conditioning, translation, what you read in the Bible about God being male. About his head and his hair as being white like wool. Here's what she says on page 122. I don't need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It's not my purpose to punish it. It's my joy to cure it. Okay, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I'm gonna continue reading here from page 123 of the paperback here. So this is the main character, Mack. And the main character in the book, he's constantly making sense. And then whenever he makes sense, God acts like he's an idiot. Okay, their God, their false God, papa. Well, I know that you're one and all and that there are three of you, but you respond with such gracesness to each other. Isn't one of you more the boss than the other two? Sound like isn't somebody in charge, isn't the father, the boss and the Godhead, the father, the son and the Holy Ghost? The three looked at one another as if they'd never thought of such a question. What are you talking about? I mean, I've always thought of God, the father of sort of being the boss and Jesus as the one following orders, being obedient. I mean, I'm not sure how the Holy Spirit fits in exactly, but Jesus looked over at papa, obviously trying with some difficulty to maintain the perception of a very serious exterior. Does that make sense to you? Papa, frankly, I haven't a clue what this man's talking about. Papa scrunched up her face as if exerting great concentration. Nope, I've been trying to make head or tail out of it, but sorry, he's got me lost. This is the God of the universe being portrayed by the way. You know what I'm talking about? Mac was a little frustrated. I'm talking about who's in charge. Don't you have a chain of command? Chain of command? That sounds ghastly, Jesus said. Okay, let's see what the Bible says, shall we? Open the Bible to 1 Corinthians 15 verse 22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order. Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming, then come at the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the father, when he shall put down all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for he hath put all things under his feet. We're in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 15. But when he sayeth all things are put under him, it is manifest that he has accepted which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued under him, excuse me, and when all things shall be subdued under him, shall the son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. So not only did Jesus wall on this earth say that I do always those things which please him, and not as I will, but as thou wilt, not my will, but thy will be done. But even after his death, barrow and resurrection, after his second coming, after his thousand year millennial reign into eternity, the Bible says that Jesus will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. Jesus Christ will rule and reign on this earth for 1000 years, and then he will stop ruling and reigning because he will then deliver up the kingdom of the Father and he will rule and reign now, subject unto the Father. He's still reigning, he's still ruling, but underneath the Father's authority. Could that be any clearer what you just read? I mean, could, there's no other way to interpret this scripture. It says, when all things shall be subdued under him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. So all throughout the life of Christ, even beyond the life of Christ on this earth into the eternal state, the Son is subject unto the Father. Not only that, but it says of the Holy Spirit, we already read it in John chapter 16, that he will not speak of himself, but that he will take of mine and show it unto you. Meaning that the Holy Spirit takes orders from Jesus. Father, Son, Holy Ghost, chain of command, that's what the Bible actually says. But this book just scoffs at that, mocks that, acts like that's stupid. McKinsey, we have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We're in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or great chain of being as your ancestors termed it. What you're seeing here is a relationship without any overlay of power. We don't need power over the other because we're always looking out for the best. Hierarchy would make no sense among us. Actually, this is your problem, not ours. Oh, really, how so? Humans are so lost and damaged that to you it's almost incomprehensible that people could work or live together without someone being in charge. So basically the God of the Bible is damaged because he thinks that there needs to be a boss. In fact, I seem to remember this word in the Bible that occurs, oh, 8,000 times? The most common noun in the Bible that occurs 8,000 times? Lord, which means master, which means boss. So God is just saying hundreds and thousands of times, I'm the boss, I'm the boss, I'm the boss, I'm the boss. I'm the Lord, I'm the Lord, I'm the Lord, the Lord God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Earth. And then it's just, oh, this concept of power? It's because you're broken, that you feel like somebody has to be a boss or be in charge. This is what Mack says, but every institution that I can think of from political to business, even down to marriage is governed by this kind of thinking. It's the web of our social fabric, Mack asserted. So he's saying, well, wait, even wives have to obey their husbands. I mean, even children have to obey their parents. Somebody has got to be in charge, right? Such a waste, said Papa. It's one reason why experiencing true relationships so difficult for you, Jesus added. Once you have a hierarchy, you need rules to protect and administer it. And then you need law and the enforcement of rules. And you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationships rather than promotes it. You rarely see or experience relationship apart from power. So according to this book, we're gonna get in a relationship with God where there's no power involved. Sort of like having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away their reprobates. That's what it says. Denying the power. Oh, so God doesn't have any power? All power is given unto him. He's constantly telling us 8,000 times that he's the boss in this one book, the Bible. But not only that, he's telling us that our wives don't need to obey us as man. Our children shouldn't even obey us as parents. We shouldn't even obey God. We should have no rules for our children, no rules for our wife. And God doesn't have any laws or rules for us. Sound biblical to you? Oh, then you need laws and command. I don't know, it's sort of like the 10 commandments. Sort of like the commandments that Christ gave us. Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of relationship that we intend to be. But isn't this the same junk that you hear Christians saying all the time, the relationship. The word relationship is never found in this book, never. But commandment is, Lord is, master is. It's a human paradigm added, Papa. So you're telling me that whenever we humans protect ourselves with power, you're yielding to the matrix, not to us, Jesus added. And now, Sarayu interjected, remember this is the Hindu goddess, Sarayu. We've come full circle back to one of my initial statements. You humans are so lost and damaged that to you it's almost incomprehensible that relationship could exist apart from hierarchy. So you think that God must relate inside a hierarchy as you do, but we don't. Isn't there a verse that says the words of the Lord, or it says every word of God is pure. He's a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar. This whole book is just putting words in God's mouth. Basically, if you listen to the author talk about why he wrote this book, his wife came to him and said, I would like you to write a book for our children where you put all of your thoughts in one place because you have such a unique way of thinking. That's what his wife told him. And the culmination of that was the shack. So basically this guy takes his thoughts, his ideas, what he has his unique way of looking at the world and he attributes it to deity. Here's what God the father says and it's his junk. Oh, and then here's what Jesus added, my opinion. Here's what the Holy Spirit said, what I want the Holy Spirit to say. But none of the words of God, none of the doctrine of the Bible. Let me keep moving forward in the book here. That's the beauty you see in my relation. This is Jesus, the fake Jesus talking. That's the beauty you see in my relationship with Abba and Sarayu. We are indeed submitted to one another and have always been so and always will be. Papa is as much submitted to me as I am to him. Is that what it says down in your Bible there in 1 Corinthians 15, 27, 28? No. God the father submitted to me or Sarayu to me or Papa to her. Submission's not about authority and it's not obedience. It's all about relationships of love and respect. In fact, we're submitted to you in the same way. I mean, where's that in the Bible where God says, let me submit to you for a while. Mac was surprised, how can that be? Why would the God of the universe wanna be submitted to me? This guy actually makes sense and he's treated like an idiot. Because we want you to join us in our circle of relationship. And that's how you want us to love one another, I suppose, I mean, between husbands and wives, parents and children, I guess in any relationship. Exactly, so let's just get in a big circle, kids. I mean, how's that gonna work in my family? I have nine kids, okay, I have toddlers. Let's just get in a big circle and we all submit to each other. Let's just let them run the house for a while. Let's see, Stephen, you wanna run the house for a while, buddy? He said, no, I don't. He knows this is a trap, it's a trick question. Let's all just submit, let's just make Stephen the head of the household for a while. Let's make Boaz the head of the house for a while. Why not put Anna in charge? About time a woman was in charge anyway. What kind of junk is this? But I'm not very good at relation stuff, not like my wife. Well, that's because like most men, here comes the man bashing or, you know, right? We've already been through the white guilt and the anti-guns, now we're into the man bashing. That's because like most men, you find what you think of as fulfillment and your achievements. And Nan, like most women finds it in relationships, it's more naturally her language. So basically they point out an intrinsic difference between men and women, that men find their identity in what they do. And that women find their identity in their relationships, which is true because man was created to work and six days shalt thou labor and by the sweat of your brow. And when people ask me who I am, I don't say I'm a husband. So what do you do? Oh, I'm a husband, I'm a father. What do I say? I go by my job, I say I'm a pastor. I would have said years ago, I'm an electrician, right? That's what you say, I'm a plumber. Why? Cause men identify with their works, what they do, right? Whereas women created primarily to be wives and mothers. So yeah, they have a natural tendency to focus more on human relationships. And then that becomes their identity of being Mrs. Anderson, being pastor's wife or being the mother to these children. That's natural for that to be their main identity. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just an intrinsic difference. But according to Jesus in this false book, that's why women are more spiritual than men. Which is a false doctrine. Women are not more spiritual than men. Men and women can equally walk with God and equally have a relationship with God. This idea that women, and look, that's why you go to these liberal churches and they're filled with women and there's nary a hair-legged man to be seen. How many churches you go to are filled with effeminate men and women? Why? Because a hair-legged man doesn't wanna be told to get in touch with all his feelings and bow down and worship Aunt Jemima. That's why. I mean, how many manly dudes do you think read this book and loved it? Bunch of queer little sissies love this book. Creates a faggoty culture in the church when we start teaching that God's a woman and you gotta be emotional and in touch with your feelings and you know. How about work? The Bible talks a lot about work too. This book just scoffs at work. Working for the Lord is just a joke. It's all about sitting out in the woods and navel gazing. It's Hindu. Christianity's about working and building something. That's why the Western world has actually built this whole world. Because of Christianity. Not because of skin color or any other dumb ideas people have. It's because of Christ. And it's the Eastern mysticist Buddhist Hindus, right, who sat around building nothing. And you say, oh, Buddhism's so good. Yeah, communist China. Why don't you go live there? That's where Buddhism abounds. Oh, but Hinduism, they go move to India since it's such a wonderful place, right? Wrong. Christianity teaches you to work and build something. And you know, yeah, there are a lot of great Chinese and Indian people who do a lot of great works that they learn from Christians. They learn from Christians how to build something to do something with their life instead of going around and eating garbage and living outside and sleeping on the earth and forsaking their families so that they can go look inside themselves for enlightenment and reach nirvana. You say, well, this preaching's offensive. I'm never coming back. Good, I'll give you the whole thing while you're here. Then you won't have to come back. I'm giving you everything right now. That the only right religion is Christianity. The only true God is the God of the Bible. The only manifestation of that God is Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only bodily form he's ever appeared in or ever will appear in, Jesus. And Buddhism and Hinduism teach people to fail at life. And Christianity teaches people to succeed at life and build something. Ah, you're a racist. Get out of here with your stupid racist garbage. I don't, accuse me of whatever you want. You call me whatever you want. Everybody who knows my doctrine says, knows that I believe that God made all nations of the earth of one blood. The only race is the human race. The only race in the Bible is run the race. Sit there and put me on some guilt trip for being a white man. Get out of here. Take that stupid liberal crap somewhere else. I'm not interested. I've always wondered why men have been in charge. I didn't. I never wondered that. Mack said, I've always wondered why men have been in charge. Males seem to be the cause of so much of the pain in the world. Now the male guilt. They count for most of the crimes and many of those are perpetuated against women. And he paused, children. Women, Jesus continued as he picked up a stone and stoned a bag. Oh, I'm sorry. He picked up a stone and skipped it. You know, he's skipping stones. Anyway, sorry. Women, Jesus continued as he picked up a stone and skipped it, turned from us to another relationship while men turned to themselves on the ground. The world in many ways would be a much calmer and gentle place if women ruled. There would have been far fewer children sacrificed to the gods of greed and power. Yeah, cause women don't covet, they're not greedy. They don't seek power. They don't, they're just perfect. Mack, don't you see how filling roles is the opposite of relationship? I mean, you know, when you're the husband and she's the wife, that's the opposite of a relationship. We want male and female to be counterparts, face to face equals, each unique and different, distinctive in gender, but complimentary, and each empowered uniquely by Sarah Yu, from whom all true power and authority originate. Remember, I'm not about performing and fitting into man-made structures. I'm about being. Oh, I get it, Mack said, stopping in mid-throw. If the female had been created first, there would have been no circle of relationship, and thus no possibility of a fully equal face-to-face relationship between the male and the female, right? Exactly right, Mack, Jesus looked at him and grinned. It always come back to power and how opposite that is from the relationship you have with the other two. I'd love to experience that with you and with my wife. You mean, Mack quipped, that I can't just ask, that I can't just ask, or wait, no, I'm sorry, I gotta read another part here. Okay, Jesus ignored his question. Mack, just like love, submission is not something that you can do, especially not on your own. Apart from my life inside you, you can't submit to your wife or your children or anyone else in your life, including Papa. So I'm not gonna be able to submit to Boaz if I don't get a relationship with the Hindu gods here that he wants me to talk to. You mean, Mack quipped, that I can't just ask, what would Jesus do? You know, WWJD, Jesus chuckled. Good intentions, bad idea. Let me know how it works for you if that's the way you choose to go. So the Jesus in this book is mocking the concept of what would Jesus do? He paused and grew sober, seriously. My life was not meant to be an example to copy. Okay, look if you would at John chapter, put one finger in John 13, gospel of John chapter 13, and then go to 1 Peter chapter two. Gospel of John chapter 13, 1 Peter chapter two. Jesus in this book says, my life was not meant to be an example to copy. He's scoffing at the idea of what would Jesus do? He's saying, hey, the people who came out with that bracelet, their heart was in the right place, but it was a terrible idea because my life was not meant to be an example to copy. That's what he just said. Come look at it after the service if you don't believe me. How about this verse? John chapter 13, verse 15. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you. 1 Peter chapter two, verse 21. For even here on two were you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. I mean, Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. He gave us an example to follow, to follow in his steps, to be like Christ, to be a Christian, right? But he says, no, no, my life's not an example to follow. Let me flip forward to the next point here in the book. This is on page 164. And the book changes gears here and is talking about basically the fact that every single person, this book teaches that every person is a child of God. Everybody's a child of God and that God will not condemn anyone to hell. That's what this book teaches. I'm only asking you to do something that you believe God does. He knows every person ever conceived and he knows them so much more deeply and clearly than you will ever know your own children. He loves each one according to his knowledge of them being of that son or daughter. You believe he will condemn most to an eternity of torment away from his presence and apart from his love. Is that not true? Well, I suppose I do. I've just never thought about it like this. He was somehow stumbling over his words in his shock. I assumed that somehow God could do that. Talking about hell was always sort of an abstract conversation. So here, God is rebuking him for thinking that most people are going to hell and that they're not all God's children. There was no way he could sentence Katie or any of his children to an eternity in hell just because she had sinned against him. Even if Katie or Josh or John or Tyler committed some heinous crime, he still wouldn't do it. He couldn't. For him, it wasn't about their performance. It was about his love for them. So, and this is just one excerpt many times in the book. It's made crystal clear that every person is a child of God and nobody's going to hell. Nobody's going to hell. God would never, God's just all love. There's no wrath. The God of this book scoffs when the wrath of God is brought up. Just like, what are you talking about? Are you nuts? The wrath of God, are you serious? But what does the Bible say? The Bible says, but as many as received him, talking about Jesus, to them gave me power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And the Bible also says that you're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. You become a child of God by believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning that you weren't one previously. Only those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ are his children. Would God ever send any of his children to hell? Of course not. Of course God will never send his children to hell. But the lie in here is that everybody's a child of God. The Bible says, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. Now I'm gonna finish the points tonight of what's in this book because there's too much for one sermon, too much heresy. And it's good to actually go to the Bible and see what the Bible really teaches. There's a lot of people, they might have false ideas about the Trinity or about, you know, just the way God has manifested himself in human form, the nature of God, whether Jesus life is an example. So it gives us an opportunity to look at scriptures and get the truth. I have 17 points in my sermon and we only got to six. So the other 11 are for tonight, all right, from this awful book. But I do wanna conclude on a few thoughts after seeing those six damning things about this book. Number one, that God the Father was depicted as a large black woman named Papa. Number two, that the Holy Spirit is depicted as a Chinese woman named after a Hindu goddess. Number three, that God the Father has no authority over Jesus at all. It's just a circle of relationship. Number four, the teaching that Jesus' life is not to be an example unto us. Number five, that every person is a child of God. And number six, that God will not condemn anyone to hell. That's what we've seen so far in this book. And that's more than enough to discard this book. But let me make a very important point and I want you to listen to this very carefully. And if you would go back to Exodus chapter 34. I'm gonna make a statement and I'm gonna prove it to you. Here's the statement. Anyone who loves this book does not love God. Anyone, I'm gonna prove it to you. Anyone who loves this book does not love God. Now the way that people will defend themselves for promoting this book, here's what they'll say. Oh, it's just fiction, it's just a work of fiction. That's what Ken Hovind and the rest of them say. Oh, it's just a work of fiction, relax, it's fiction. First of all, this is not a work of fiction. This book is very deceptive and misleading. In fact, when I went on audible.com to take a look at the audio book, lots of people were leaving a one star review saying, I was tricked into reading this book, it's misleading because it was labeled as a mystery or thriller. So they're looking for a mystery. They're looking for a thriller. This book's about 250 pages long. The first 80 pages of this book, it's just like you're reading a mystery. I mean, the first 80 pages is a normal book. Like I was reading the first 80 pages and I'm just thinking to myself, this seems like your average murder mystery or your average kidnapping mystery. It was just like, okay, I've read hundreds of books like this. I mean, it's like, you might as well be reading any mystery. But then all of a sudden, when you get 80 pages in, it just completely changes into something totally different. This book is a theology book. This book is a philosophy book. This is not a fictional book. The first 80 pages are fiction. The rest of the book is philosophy and theology. For example, if you read the book of Job, the first two chapters are a story, right? It's a story about Job, chapters one and chapter two. Then chapter 42 picks up the story again. So out of the entire book of Job, three chapters are a story, right? The other 39 chapters are what? Theology, philosophy, right? Job, his three friends, Elihu, and then finally God himself, talking about the nature of sin, the nature of the world that we live in, the nature of God. No one would classify Job as the historical books of the Bible or as a Bible storybook because 90% of the book of Job is not a story. 90% is what? Talking about doctrine, talking about, does everybody understand what I'm saying? Yeah. So just because you start out, it'd be like if I wrote a book and I said, so I got in my car, here's my book, my fictional book by Steven Anderson. I got in my car and I got in the car and I drove down the road and I drove to LA and I walked into a coffee shop and God was there and I walked to the coffee shop and I sat down with God and I talked to God for the next eight hours and here's what we talked about. And then it's all just theology and philosophy. My own thoughts, my own doctrine, that's false doctrine, put into the mouth of God. And then I'll just say, oh, it's just fiction. It's just fiction. This book's not even a story. I mean, the first 80 pages are a story to suck people in to the story. And then it just switches to just filling your mind with all this garbage. So it's a bait and switch. And all these unsaved worldly people were angered by it saying like, you know, I bought this book because I thought it was a mystery. It was in the mystery section. And in the first 80 pages, I was into the story. And then all of a sudden it became stuff that I'm not even have no interest in. I'm not interested in theology. I'm not interested in philosophy. Oh, it's just fiction. It's just fiction. Okay. Well, let me put it to you this way. Let's say that you love your wife because, okay, before I get into that, let's put it this way. It's a work of fiction. Okay, if it's a work of fiction, then why did Ken Hovind say that he's gotten just tons and tons of emails saying that the book changed their life? Now, if it's just a work of fiction, then how did it change your life? And if it's just a work of fiction, then why do the people on the back of the book say, oh man, I repented of my lack of faith. I'm now craving the presence of God. It changed my life. It changed my devotion. If it's a work of fiction, then why is it supposedly so life-changing and everybody's saying, I have a different walk with God now. You know why? Because now you're walking with Jemima instead of Jehovah. That's why you changed your walk with God. But they say, oh, it changed my life, changed my walk with God. But then you point out the lies and it's just, it's just fiction. Okay, well, what about this? Let's say somebody is married to, cause remember it's all about relationship. Let's say somebody is married to a woman for 20 years. Okay? And then that person, after being married to their wife for 20 years, that guy goes out and spends a weekend with a different woman. That's not his wife. And he spends a weekend with a different woman that is nothing like his wife. She doesn't look like his wife. She doesn't act like his wife. She does not have the same beliefs as his wife, different skin color, different hair, different every, just a completely different woman. And he spends a weekend with this strange woman. And then he comes back and says, oh, now I understand what it really means to have a deep relationship with a woman. Now I understand intimacy. Oh, it's so good. I'm such a better husband now. I'm such a better husband because I've come back now understanding the man-woman relationship so much better after spending a weekend with this other woman that's nothing like my wife. What would you say about that man? Would you say that he loves his wife? Then how are you saying that somebody who reads this book loves God? This is a God that looks nothing like the God of the Bible, believes nothing like the God of the Bible, talks nothing like the God of the Bible, has nothing in common with the God of the Bible. People spend time with this God and then they come back and say, oh, I just love God so much more now that I went a whoring with a different God. Now look down at your Bible there in Exodus 34 because the Bible always calls worshiping other gods going a whoring. It says in verse 12, take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land with thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images and cut down their groves for thou shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they go a whoring after other gods and do sacrifice unto other gods and one call thee and thou eat of his sacrifice and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons and their daughters go a whoring after their gods and make thy son go a whoring after their gods. It's whoring. It's a spiritual adultery when you're hanging out with some other god, bowing down to some other god, worshiping some other god, reading about another god and preferring that god to the real God. No, the New Testament didn't change your life. The shack changed your life. Oh, the New Testament just got me all into just legalism and oh, churchianity and oh, the chain of command. I have to actually obey Christ. I mean, all that stuff about wives obeying their husbands and children obey your parents. I mean, the God of the Bible is such a drag. They prefer this fat black mama instead of the God of the Bible. They prefer that God. Why? Because they don't love God. No one, no one, no one who reads this book loves God if they like this book. You say, when you say that about Ken Hovind, I don't care who it is. Anybody who loves this book doesn't love God if the shoe fits, put it on. Well, I thought you liked him. You know what? Anybody, look, I don't care if my best friend or my brother or my sister or anybody promotes this kind of wicked garbage, I'll call them out. I don't care if it's a pastor that I ordained and laid hands on, which, you know, thank God, I don't believe will ever happen with any of the ones that we've sent out. Amen. I don't care who's promoting it. You know, we're not supposed to just have this, well, just loyalty to our buddies or something. No, if you're gonna teach this kind of a whoredom, this is not the God of the Bible, folks. I dare you to come defend this garbage to me after the service. No one will. I mean, I know everybody here agrees or else you wouldn't even come to a church like this. But the point is that anybody who loves this book doesn't love God or else then I could just go into the arms of a strange woman and then claim that makes me love my wife more because I hung around with some Hindu God. What difference is that than you going with some Hindu chick and leaving your wife? Oh, this taught me so much about relationship to be an adulterer. Okay, you say, but it's just fiction. Okay, well then why don't you write a fictional account of you having a whoring weekend with another woman? How about that? Huh? Why don't you go write a book? Why don't you go write a book about you sleeping with a woman other than your wife and then come and say, it's just fiction? Huh? Is that make it okay? Cause it's, I guess it's just, if it's fiction, it can be sin, it can be smut, it can be blasphemy, it can mock God cause it's just fiction. I don't care what section of the bookstore you put it in. When you blaspheme God, it's a sin. When you lie and put words in God's mouth, when you sit there and make other gods and teach Hinduism instead of Christianity, that is not acceptable. You don't promote this garbage and it's just fiction. Was the wrong kind of fiction. And millions of people are going to see this movie. It's not even done. It's only been out for two weeks. It's grossed 43 million. I mean, how long do movies spend in the theater? Two months, somebody said, is that accurate? Well, we know this is good, no, I'm just kidding. Yeah, you know, a month or two. I mean, this thing's probably gonna hit, this thing's probably gonna make 100 billion bucks. Why? Cause we live in a country filled with idiots, that's why. Because churches are filled with people who don't love God and they're so sick of this book, they're so irritated by this book and they're just, oh, that God is so mean and they just don't love Jesus. So they have to make their own fake Jesus cause they don't love the real Jesus. That's the real problem. If you love your wife, you're not seeking to go a whoring from her. And if you love God, you're not seeking other gods. You're happy with him. This is not the God of the Bible. And so don't be deceived by this. Again, I'm gonna preach the rest of the sermon tonight. I am finishing my sermon from this morning where I was preaching against this wicked book, The Shack. And the reason I'm preaching against this book is because right on the cover, it says that over 20 million copies have sold. But not only that, right now in theaters, there's a movie out that's basically the same as this book from what I can tell, from what I read online. And Christians, quote unquote, are by the droves going to see this movie and it's just changing their life and they love it so much and on and on. And there's a great falling away that's happening right now. I mean, who would have thought, even when I was a child, and I'm a young man, that mainstream evangelical Christianity would flock to go see a movie where God is depicted as a woman and get excited about a book where God's depicted as a woman. Even when I was a teenager, there was a pop song that came out that said, tell me all your thoughts on God because I'd really like to meet her. You remember that song being on the radio all the time, those that are in my generation? At the time, even the most liberal, neo-evangelical churches would preach against that and say that that was bad and that God's not a woman. But today, it's just accepted, it's normal. The movie's only been in theaters for a couple weeks. It's already brought in like around 43, $45 million at the box office. It's a big blockbuster. In fact, we were out to lunch this afternoon and we were right by a theater. So we walked over and looked and sure enough, it was playing multiple times. It's probably at every theater in America. But not only that, even preachers are endorsing this. They advertise in the movie that a thousand faith leaders have endorsed it. But even Kent Hovind, independent fundamental Baptist pastor, or not pastor, but preacher, evangelist, has endorsed this and said that it's one of his favorite books. He's read it nine times and on and on. So this book is really corrupting a lot of people and we need to talk about this and we need to show what the Bible actually teaches. Now I'm just gonna give a super fast review of this morning because I don't wanna get too bogged down in that I have so much material for tonight. But number one, the problem with this book was that it depicted God the Father as a large black woman named Papa. The Holy Spirit was depicted as a Chinese woman who had the name of a Hindu goddess. Number three, the book taught that God the Father does not have any authority over Jesus. We showed very clearly in the Bible that Jesus is subject unto the Father, even after the millennium, Jesus is subject unto the Father. Number four, it teaches that Jesus' life is not to be an example unto us. Number five, it teaches that every person is a child of God. And number six, it teaches that God will not condemn anyone to hell. So right there, that's a lot of bad doctrine. Oh, but wait, there's more, okay? There's a lot more. And so tonight I'm preaching about all the rest of the heresies that are in this book. Now, first of all, you're there in Acts chapter 14. The seventh thing that I wanna show you about this book is that this book basically teaches you that church is bad. Now that's the message that comes across very strongly in this book is that church is bad. And when the author is called on the carpet about this, he says, oh, no, no, no, I love the church. I love the bride of Christ. But when he says that, he doesn't mean what we mean when we say church. When he says the church, he's talking about this invisible, universal church made up of all believers. He's not talking about what the Bible defines as the church, the local assembly of believers, the local congregation of God's people, which it's clear in this book that he hates the church. So because he attributes all his opinions to deity in this book, God despises the church and makes light of the church and so forth. But let's see what the Bible defines as the church. Look at Acts 14 verse 23. And when they had ordained them elders in every church, now stop right there. If the church is just made up of all believers everywhere, then how can you have the word every church? How can you have churches? The word churches, plural, is used scores of times in the Bible, proving that there's not one universal church, but rather there are churches. The church at Ephesus, the church at Smyrna, the church at Pergamos, the church at Thyatira, all these different local churches with various geographies associated with them. Every church, they ordained elders in every church and had prayed with fasting. They commended them to the Lord on whom they believe. Look at verse 27. And when they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. Let me ask you this. How can you gather the church together if the church consists of all believers everywhere? That doesn't make any sense, does it? Go to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. While you're turning there, I'm gonna begin to read for you from this book, The Shack, that Christians are just eating up today because there's a great falling away going on. You're talking about the church as this woman you're in love with. This is what the main character is saying to Jesus in the book. You're talking about the church as this woman you're in love with. I'm pretty sure I haven't met her. He turned away slightly. She's not the place I go on Sundays. Well, get in the right church, buddy. Right. Mac said more to himself than to Jesus, unsure if that was safe to say out loud. Mac, that's because you're only seeing the institution, a man-made system. That's not what I came to build. What I see are people and their lives, a living, breathing community of all those who love me, not buildings and programs. Mac was a bit taken aback to hear Jesus talking about the church this way. But then again, it didn't really surprise him. It was a relief. So how do I become part of that church, he asked. The woman that you seem to be so gaga over. It's simple, Mac. It's all about relationships and simply sharing life. What we're doing right now. And by the way, they're hanging out at a lake right now. They're hanging out at a lake, throwing rocks in the water. Man, it's what we're doing right now. Just doing this. Just being open and available to others around us. That's the church, man. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta free yourself from these institutions, man. It's all man-made. We're doing church right now, man. It's being in nature, just being open, just being available. This is garbage. The Bible says that Christ ordained the church, Christ built the church. And if he said ordained elders in every church, he's not saying, hey, let's ordain people at every campground, every lake, every park. He's saying ordain elders in the church. What are elders? Leaders. The Bible says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. This guy says, no one should be in charge. No ruler, no elder, no boss. That's all a man-made structure of heart. No, it's not. It's a God-ordained institution, the local church. But he just scoffs at it and says, we're a church, man, we're at the lake. For Mac, these words were like a breath of fresh air. Simple, not a bunch of exhausting work and a long list of demands, and not sitting in endless meetings staring at the backs of people's heads, people he really didn't even know, just sharing life. Now let me ask you this. Why do you think this book is so popular? Why do you think there's 20 million copies sold? Why do you think people are watching it right now at the theater a few miles from here? I'll tell you why. Because it's like a breath of fresh air to them for somebody to tell them, you don't have to go to church, just go camping, just go outside, just fool around with your friends, just hang out, and that's church. It's a breath of fresh air because they don't want an exhausting list of work because they're lazy. God said to work. He says, son, go work today in my vineyard. And what did one son say? Well, I will not. And that's what Christianity today says when they're told, go work today in my vineyard, go soul winning, go do something. No, I don't want to. I'd rather go camping. I'd rather be outside. I'd rather hang out. So of course that's why people are eating this stuff up because it's telling you, you don't have to work for the Lord. You don't have to actually show up to a church and listen to preaching. You just sit around and hang out and feel close to God by just being open with your relationships. Look at Acts chapter 20, verse seven. And I wonder how much the God of this book would have liked this church service. Acts chapter 20, verse seven. Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window, a certain young man named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead. And of course it turns out he's not dead, he's fine. But they're preaching for hours and hours and just sitting and staring at the back of people's heads, you know, according to him. No, you're not here to stare at the back of people's heads. You're here to listen to a man of God preach the Bible. Long preaching, hard preaching. But today's video game movie generation doesn't have the attention span to sit and listen to the Bible being preached. So it's like a breath of fresh air when they can just go see a movie instead and then just skip church because that's just a man-made institution. You need to get free, bro. That's number seven heresy of this book. I mean, you heard what I read for you. It's teaching that church is bad. We're the church, man. I'm the church, you're the church. Well, what about the elders of the church? What about gathering the church together? What about long preaching? Where does that fit in? It doesn't. But number eight, not only does it teach that the church is bad, but number eight, it teaches us that we shouldn't be a Christian or try to make people a Christian. Now this is bizarre, but listen to this. Is that what it means to be a Christian? It sounded kind of stupid as Mack said it, but it was how he was trying to sum up everything in his mind. Jesus answers, who said anything about being a Christian? I'm not a Christian. That's what Jesus tells him in his book. I'm not a Christian. What are you talking about, being a Christian? I'm not a Christian. Again, Jesus stopped. Those who love me have come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptist or Muslims. They were Baptist. They were Buddhist. They were Mormon. They were Baptist or Muslim. Some are Democrats, some Republicans, many don't vote or are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my papa, into my brothers and sisters, into my beloved. I mean, listen to this garbage. Just, oh, I don't want to make anybody a Christian. I'm not a Christian. You know, who said anything about being a Christian? Well, I know who did. The Bible did, God did. The real Jesus said something about being a Christian. Go to 1 Peter chapter four. 1 Peter chapter number four, verse 16. Of course, the Bible talks about in Acts chapter, I don't have a chapter in front of me, but in the book of Acts, how they were first called Christians at Antioch. That is a biblical term to be called a Christian. Agrippa, when he heard Paul's preaching, said, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And you know what he said? You know what Paul said when Agrippa said to him, hey, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian? Paul said, who said anything about being a Christian? Huh? I'm just looking for a relationship with you, buddy. I don't care if you're Buddhist or Baptist, man. No, no, no, here's what he said. He said, I wish that you would altogether become a Christian, not just almost, but altogether. And that you would be like me and follow me except for these bonds. But 1 Peter chapter four, verse 16 says, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. And this goes to show why they don't want to be called a Christian, why? They don't want to go to church because they're lazy. They don't want to be told to work. They don't want to serve. They don't want to get exhausted. It's too tiring, right? They don't want to be a Christian because being a Christian involves suffering. If any man suffer as a Christian, that doesn't appeal to him. So he says, well, who said anything about being a Christian, wants to skip that. Let me read for you some more excerpts. Like I said, this is Jesus talking in the book. Like I said, I don't create institutions. That's an occupation for those who want to play God. So no, I'm not too big on religion. This is what Jesus is saying. So basically anybody who creates an institution like founding a local church is playing God according to him. So what about all the apostles who went around founding all these churches in the book of Acts and ordaining elders in every city? I guess they're playing God by doing that. He says, I'm not too big on religion. And this is something that you hear over and over again today where religion, and it's in this book a lot, that religion's bad. Where they say, you know, it's not a religion, it's a relationship, religion's bad. But the Bible says, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. That's why mainstream Christians today think that the word religion is bad. Why? Because they don't want to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. That's too much like work. And they don't want to keep themselves unspotted from the world. They want to live a worldly, carnal, sensual life. They don't want to go soul winning or visiting and reaching out to people. So that's why they don't want religion. They want relationship, which their version of relationship is navel gazing. It's not reading the Bible, praying, going to church, serving the Lord. It's just a navel gazing, out in the woods, Zen meditation that they call, you know, communing with the Holy Spirit, which is a fraud. But the real communing with the Holy Spirit is when we read our Bible and when we pray and when we sing praises to the Lord, not just out becoming one with the universe in nature, like a Hindu or a Buddhist. So he says, I'm not too big on religion. Not very fond of politics or economics either. Jesus visits darkened noticeably. And why should I be? They're the man created Trinity of terrors that ravages the earth and deceives those that I care about. So Jesus is horrified by three things, religion, politics and economics. Now I can see why he's horrified by politics. So am I, we all are. But he's horrified by economics. Is this some communist thing now, where making money is bad or business is bad? And you know, again, it goes with the don't work, relax, sit around and commune with yourself. Mac, the world system is what it is. Institutions, systems, ideologies, and all the vain, futile efforts of humanity that go with them are everywhere. And interaction with all of it's unavoidable. But I can give you freedom to overcome any system of power in which you find yourself, be it religious, economic, social or political. You'll grow in the freedom to be inside or outside all kinds of systems and to move freely between and among them. Together you and I can be in it and not of it. Mac responds, but so many of the people I care about seem to be both in it and of it. Mac was thinking of his friends, church people, who had expressed love to him and his family. He knew they loved Jesus, but he also knew they were sold out to religious activity and patriotism. Mac, I love them, and you wrongly judge many of them. For those who are both in it and of it, we must find ways to love them and serve them, don't you think, asked Jesus? Remember, the people who know me are the ones who are free to live and love without any agenda. No agenda. We're not trying to make people convert to Christianity. We have no agenda. It's just about being. This is the kind of garbage that this book teaches. Let me move on. I gotta hurry through all this. Number nine, according to this book, the way that we hear from God is not by reading scripture, but rather it's by listening to ourselves, listening to God speak through ourselves. And this book is just complete narcissism, start to finish. The guy who wrote this book is a moral narcissist who basically attributes his own beliefs and opinions to deity. Who else would write a book where God's talking and just saying everything you believe? I mean, what if I wrote down all my beliefs and then I put them in a book where God is saying them all? The only thing that God said is this right here. And the Bible says, add thou not into his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar. We need to stop being so quick to just put words in God's mouth and realize that that is blasphemy. Go to John chapter 16, John chapter 16. According to this book, we hear from God by listening to ourselves, not scripture. But according to the Bible, the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the word of God. The Holy Spirit uses the word of God to speak to us. Listen to what this book says. And remember in this wicked book, the shack and in the movie, the Holy Spirit is named Sarayu, which is a Sanskrit word. Sanskrit is the language of Hinduism. That's the only thing, it's a dead language. It's only used for Hinduism. And the name Sarayu is a Hindu goddess mentioned three times in the Hindu scriptures known as the Rig Veda, okay? So that's who they're calling God in this book, a false God. But it's supposedly representing a bodily incarnation of the Holy Spirit, which is heresy in and of itself. Sarayu smiled, Mackenzie, you can always talk to me and I will always be with you whether you sense my presence or not. I know that now, but how will I hear you? You will learn to hear my thoughts in yours. Mackenzie, she reassured him. Do you hear what she's saying? Like, well, you'll hear my thoughts in yours. Cause remember, the author of this book thinks that all his opinions are from the mouth of God. That's why he even wrote such a sick book. Will it be clear? This is what the protagonist answers. Will it be clear? What if I confuse you with another voice? What if I make mistakes? Yeah, you know what? That's what people do all the time. They confuse the voice of God with the voice of demons. These unsaved false teachers, they're hearing all kinds of voices. You know, I believe that they're hearing voices of the devil, but not only that, what most people are actually hearing is their own imagination. People have their own wild imagination. And then they say, oh, God told me this. God told me to do this. God gave me peace about this. And it's all just from their own figment of their imagination. Instead of being built on the rock, the word of God, it just becomes this looking inward to the self and following our own imaginations. You'll learn to hear my thoughts and yours, Mackenzie. She reassured him. Will it be clear? What if I confuse you with another voice? What if I make mistakes? Now at this point, she should tell him, hey, you need to check everything with the Bible. You know what I mean? Like try the spirits, whether they're of God. Check it with the Bible. See if it lines up with scripture, Mack. But here's what she says and said. Sarah, you laughed. Anytime the guy makes any sense, he's mocked and laughed at. Sarah, you laughed. The sound like tumbling water only set to music. Of course you'll make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. But you'll begin to better recognize my voice as we continue to grow our relationship. So it's okay to sometimes follow demonic voices or sometimes just follow your own carnal voice. That's all right. Just kind of just go through it and make mistakes. Just kind of just feel your way through it and just you figure out what you think is right or eventually you'll figure out when I'm talking to you. No reference to the Bible as being a final authority. Now let's look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit in scripture. John chapter 16. This is a key passage in John 14, 15 and 16, where Jesus is teaching about the Holy Spirit and how after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit's going to indwell believers. He said, it's expedient for you that I should go away because he said, if I go away, I'll send the comforter unto you. The comforter, the Holy Ghost, the spirit of truth. He will guide you into all truth. Look what it says in verse 13. Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself. Now let me stop right there. The word of there, that does not mean about. It's not saying he's not going to speak about himself because the Holy Ghost does speak about himself because if the Holy Ghost breathes scripture and scripture talks about the Holy Spirit, then that's the Holy Spirit talking about himself. But the word of there has to do with the source. Okay, it's sort of like when somebody said, I'm of Paul and I'm of Apollos, that's talking about an affiliation. Okay, and sort of like when you're speaking Spanish and you say, you're from this place or from that place, it's the same as the word for of in Spanish, right? So the word of in English sometimes is referring to the source of something. So when it says he shall not speak of himself, what it's saying is he's not gonna speak from himself, just stuff that he made up on his own, okay? Where he's the source. He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine. Notice the word of there again. He shall receive of mine, which means from me. He's gonna receive from the things which pertain to me and shall show it unto you. All things that the father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. So he's not gonna speak of himself, but he's gonna speak of what he's given from me. That's what he's saying. Now, Jesus is the word. The Bible says the father, the word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. Jesus is the word made flesh. The Holy Ghost does not speak of himself. He takes the word of Jesus Christ and he shows it unto us. He'll take the things from Jesus and the father and show it unto us. He'll guide us into all truth. What does that mean? That means that the Holy Spirit is not gonna come to you and say things that he came up with on his own that are not from Christ, that are not from the word of God, that are not from the Bible, that are not from what's here. That's why the Bible calls the Bible, the word of God, the sword of the spirit. Think about that term, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Well, if I said the sword of Goliath, what do I mean by that? Again, talking about the word of. The sword of Goliath means what? It means Goliath's sword. So if we said the sword of the spirit, we're saying the spirit's sword. And it's even in the song standing on the promises, overcoming daily by the spirit's sword, standing on the promises of God. See the spirit's sword, is that the sword that he uses or the sword we use? It's a spirit's sword. See, he uses the word of God in our lives. Now, of course, we use the word of God as well, but he uses the word of God. Otherwise he wouldn't have a sword associated with him. I mean, if a guy never used the sword in his life, he wouldn't have a sword. The sword of Goliath, because Goliath is a guy who uses a sword. The sword of the spirit, sure, we use it. We wield the word of God as well, but so does he. That's why it's known as his sword, the sword of the spirit, why? Because the spirit uses the word of God. The Holy Spirit uses the Bible. He'll take of Christ's word and show it unto us, illuminate it and cast light upon it and bring all things to remembrance. Jesus said that the Holy Ghost would bring all things to remembrance whatsoever Christ had spoken unto us. So the more we read the Bible, memorize the Bible and get God's word in our heart, the more the Holy Spirit can bring verses into our mind. How many times have you been out soul winning or those of you that have preached or been in situations where you're talking to someone, witnessing or talking about the Bible and a perfect verse will just pop into your mind. That's often the Holy Spirit bringing those things to your remembrance or you're about to make a decision and a verse pops into your mind that just cuts to your heart. And the word of God directs you and leads you and guides you. That's the Holy Spirit working in your heart, not this voice that just says, you know, go talk to him, go talk to that guy over there. No, no, no. What the Holy Spirit will do, he won't tell you, go talk to that guy over there. What he'll tell you is go preach the gospel to every creature and you'll see that guy and the Holy Spirit will apply that to your heart. Hey, the Bible said to go preach the gospel to every creature, I've got an opportunity, this guy needs the Lord, I'm gonna go preach the gospel. He'll use the word of God. Here's the thing, if you don't read the Bible and if you don't memorize the Bible, how's the Holy Spirit gonna bring to remembrance stuff that you've never even heard? You can't remember that which you've never even read or heard. So the more you read, the more you learn, the more the Holy Spirit has to work with in bringing things to your remembrance and guiding you into all truth. This is an extremely dangerous teaching that just says, oh, just learn to hear the Holy Spirit's thoughts in your own thoughts because then you're just being led by yourself at that point. This is the rock standing on the promises of God, overcoming daily by the Spirit's sword, not just following your heart and blindly groping through this life. Number 10, it says that this book teaches that the Bible does not teach us to follow rules. Listen to what it says, Mac allowed his paddle cause I think he's out canoeing with the Holy Spirit or something, but Mac allowed his paddle to turn in his hands as he let it play in the water's movements. I feel like, I'm sorry, it feels like living out of relationship, you know, trusting and talking to you. It's a bit more complicated than just following rules. That's what Mac says. This is how God responds. What rules are those, Mackenzie? I mean, do you like how God is just confused what rules he's even talking about? Like this whole book is filled with rules. The Bible is filled with rules and God just is constantly playing dumb. Like what rules? What rules are those? You know, all the things that the scripture tells us we should do. Okay, she said with some hesitation. And what might those be? I mean, you can't even make this stuff up. He, every time he makes sense, he's ridiculed, mocked and scoffed at by this false God. Uh, okay, rules in the Bible, really? You know, he answered sarcastically, you know about doing good things, avoiding evil, being kind to the poor, reading your Bible, praying, going to church, things like that. I mean, I can see why this guy's getting a little frustrated in the book. Oh, I see. And how's that working for you? The Bible doesn't teach you to follow rules. It's a picture of Jesus. That's what this book says. Okay, what does the Bible say? How about this one? If you love me, keep my commandments. Because even if you're gonna take this weird view that there's no rules in the New Testament or that the Old Testament was a bunch of rules, man, but in the New Testament, we're just free in Christ, which is a false doctrine I'm gonna deal with later in the sermon, but even if you took that view, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my suggestions. Is that what he said? No, he said, if you love me, keep my recommendations. He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. What's a commandment? It's a rule. You love me, keep my commandments. McKinsey, religion's about having the right answers and some of its answers are right, but I'm about the process that takes you to the living answer. And once you get to him, he'll change you from the inside. There are a lot of smart people who are able to say a lot of right things from their brains. Yeah, isn't that terrible? Because they've been told what the right answers are, but they don't know me at all. So really, how can their answers be right even if they are right? Like if we don't know this Hindu goddess, Sarayu, then even when we're right, we're not really right. That's what it says. I mean, so really, how can their answers be right even if they are right? If you understand my drift, she smiled at her pun. Well, I'm glad God is so pleased with herself in this book. So even though they might be right, they're still wrong. I understand what you're saying. I did that for years after seminary. I had the right answers sometimes, but I didn't know you. So will I see you again? He asked hesitantly. What, is he on a first date or something? So will I see you again? He asked hesitantly. Of course, you might see me in a piece of art or music or silence. What is silence? God is in the silence. Yeah, back to Hinduism and Buddhism again. Still our minds and hear God in the silence. I think I just lost my page here. Where was I? Oh, here we go. My ability to communicate is limitless. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says the Holy Spirit will not speak of itself, will only take God's word and show it to us, but according to this, the Holy Spirit can communicate in all these different ways. My ability to communicate is limitless, living and transforming, and it will always be turned to papa's goodness and love. And let me just stop right there. I don't think it's right to call God papa or daddy or anything else. That's blasphemous, okay? The Bible gives us plenty of options. Father, Lord, God, master, pick something in the Bible, please. Just make up your own weird names. And you will hear, oh, and you'll hear and see me in the Bible. Oh, thank you for throwing that in. And you'll hear and see me in the Bible in fresh ways. Just don't look for rules and principles. That's what it says. It said, yeah, you'll hear and see me in the Bible in fresh ways, but just don't look for rules and principles. Look for relationship, a way of coming to be with, a way of coming to be with, there's only one way. Jesus is the way. No man cometh in the father, but by him. We don't just need to look for fresh ways to get there but just ignore the principles and rules. Not only is the book saying to ignore the rules of God, it's also saying to ignore the principles that you would learn from our principles about right and wrong. No, no, no, that's gonna mess you up. Ignore the rules, ignore the principles. Just look for fresh ways to come to be with us. And by the way, I don't even have this in my notes as one of the 17 heresies, but this just popped into my mind. I just remembered that actually in this book, Jesus says, I'm the best way for most people to relate to the father. Instead, I'm a way, I'm a good way. He never says I'm the way, he's just a way. Let me move on here to the next. So just a quick review of where we're at tonight. Number seven, it teaches that church is bad, what we know as church. Number eight, it teaches us not to be a Christian or to make people a Christian. Number nine, it teaches that we hear from God by listening to ourselves, not scripture. Number 10, it says that the Bible doesn't teach us to follow rules. Number 11, it says, even if you're right, you're not right, unless you believe in Hindu doctrine. And number 12, it's teaching we don't have to obey any of God's laws. Turn if you would to Romans chapter number six, we're gonna go to Romans six and then we're gonna go to first Corinthians chapter number nine. Romans six and then first Corinthians nine, while you're turning there, I'll read for you from this book here. Jesus laid the demand of the law to rest. It no longer has any power to accuse or command. Jesus is both the promise and its fulfillment. Are you saying I don't have to follow the rules? Mack had now completely stopped eating and was concentrating on the conversation. He's perplexed, like you're saying I don't have to follow any of the rules of the Bible? Yes. Yes. In Jesus, you're not under any law. All things are lawful. You can't be serious. You're messing with me again, moaned Mack. Child said, Papa, you ain't heard nothing yet. Is that why we like the law so much to give us some control asked Mack? Oh, it's much worse than that. Resumed Sarah you. It grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you're living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. So according to this, God loves uncertainty. Not the rock, but the shifting sands. Rules cannot bring freedom. They only have the power to accuse. Whoa, Mack suddenly realized what Sarah you had said. Are you telling me that responsibility and expectation are just another form of rules that we're no longer under? Did I hear you right? Yup, Papa affirmed. Now we're in it. Sarah you, he's all yours. What is he turning it over to some Hindu goddess? When we see each other apart, there's an expectancy of being together, of laughing and talking. That expectancy has no concrete definition. It's alive and dynamic. And everything that emerges from our being together is a unique gift shared by no one else. But what happens if I change the expectancy to an expectation? Spoken or unspoken. Suddenly law has entered into our relationship. You are now expected to perform in a way that meets my expectations. Our living friendship rapidly deteriorates into a dead thing with rules and requirements. It's no longer about you and me, but about what friends are supposed to do or the responsibilities of a good friend or noted Mack, the responsibilities of a husband or a father or an employee or whatever. I get the picture. I would rather live in expectancy. So here's what this is saying. Not only does God have no, is everybody paying attention? Not only does God have no rules for us according to this book, he doesn't even expect anything from us. We have no responsibilities in his sight, but that we're also supposed to carry that into our earthly relationships, meaning that I can't have any rules or expectations for my wife and my wife doesn't have any responsibilities. He brought that up specifically, the husband and wife. And then he brings up the children. I don't have any expectations for my children. They don't have any responsibilities and I don't have any rules for them. I mean, are you listening to this garbage? And you might say, well, that's not what he means. Oh really? Because there's a whole movement out there of parenting like this. What's it called? Aha, parenting. No, what's that aha thing? Don't get me off that. What is that? Aha parenting, isn't that a blog or something? Yeah, there's a blog or a website called aha parenting. And it's called positive parenting or attachment parenting and all these different movements out there that teach not only should you have no rules for your children, they literally teach this exact thing. You can't even, it's not even just don't punish them. It's don't give them any consequence for doing wrong. Cause they say, well, consequences, that's just another way of saying punishment. So not only do they not spank, are you listening? Not only do they not spank, they won't even have any consequence for the child doing wrong. The child can break things, hurt people, say anything and there's no consequence. It's out there and millions of people believe in it. And they're raising a generation of criminals and reprobates. Look, you can go online and look at these blogs and these Facebook groups and stuff. They have tens of thousands of likes saying, never spank your kids, don't even have rules, no consequences, no judgment, no punishment and whatever. So that is what this book is saying. And it says it page after page after page. Now let's see if this is really true. This doctrine that says, oh, well Jesus came so that we're not under the law at all. And specifically the book said, we're not under any law. There are no rules, scoffed at the rules, mocked him for even thinking that there were rules. What does the Bible say? Look at Romans chapter six, verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you for you're not under the law, but under grace. So this is the verse that a lot of these new evangelical Christian types will quote to say, we're free in Christ, we're not under the law, we're under grace. And their interpretation of this is that we don't have to obey the commandments of the Bible. Now they're not talking about salvation. They're just saying, we don't have to obey the commandments for any reason. So you'll try to show them, hey, wait a minute, are you sure you wanna do that? Because the Bible said, thou shall not. Whoa buddy, you're trying to bring me back under bondage. We're free in Christ. Not under the law, I'm under grace. You try to tell them, for example, don't get a tattoo. Thou shall not print any marks upon your body. And they'll say, no, no, no, you're trying to bring me under the law. I'm free in Christ, I can tattoo my body, I can fornicate, I can drink, I can do whatever, okay? It's out there, believe me. And those of you who've been in these liberal fun centers and been in these new evangelical churches, you've heard this kind of permissive attitude and permissive preaching where we can't judge anything, just be led by the spirit and there's no rules, just do what you think Christ wants you to do. Even that's too much for this book. But anyway, look what it says in the next verse though, just to make sure we don't misunderstand what it means to not be under the law but under grace. Verse 15 says, what then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Now, what does it mean to sin? The Bible defines sin as the transgression of the law. Sin is the transgression of the law. So the Bible says here, because we're not under the law, should we transgress the law? No. So we are supposed to follow the rules. That's why Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And that's why Jesus said, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same should be called great in the kingdom of heaven. If you wanna be called great in the kingdom of heaven, you will do and teach the rules. You will do and teach the commandments of God. And that's out of the mouth of Jesus himself in the New Testament. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter six. I'm sorry, nine. 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse 19. I think you might already be there. It says, for though I be free from all men, yet if I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews, I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law as under the law to them that are under the law, to them that are without law, as without law. Now stop right there. Paul is talking about becoming all things to all men. He's saying, hey, if I'm gonna go and reach the Indians, I'm gonna become like an Indian. If I'm gonna reach the Mexicans, I'm gonna become as a Mexican. If I'm gonna go to reach the poor, I'll become as the poor. If I'm gonna go to reach the Jews, I'll become as the Jews. He's saying, if I'm gonna reach the Greeks, I'm gonna be as the Greek. To all things, to all men, that I might by all means save some. He's just talking about the fact that he wants to reach people and that he wants to relate to them in a way that they can understand, right? So if you're gonna reach people of a certain culture, you can adapt certain things of that culture to reach them. You know, you don't wanna just show up and just, well, I'm American, and not adapt to the culture of where you live. You know, if you go to a foreign country, you try to fit in. And this is what I try to do and what I try to encourage other people to do when we go on missions trips and so forth. We try to fit in. You know, when they ask us what we wanna eat, we tell them, hey, let's eat the local food. And we try to eat the local food. We take showers in the black water instead of an Americanized shower. You know, we're sleeping out in the jungle and just trying to kind of fit in and be like the people, okay? But look what he says, because he's talking about going to those that are without law. Going to the lawless, he said in verse 21, to them that are without law, as without law, but look what he's quick to add, being not without law to God, but under, under, under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law. See, he didn't want us to misunderstand this doctrine and say, oh, well, if I'm gonna reach the drunk, I gotta go get drunk with them. Hey, they're without law. Let's go become a criminal with them to reach the criminal. I became as a criminal. No, no, no. He's saying that we do this without sinning, right? So if I go down to Guyana, okay, yeah, I'll eat the local food. I'll drink the soca soda and I'll sleep out in the jungle or, you know, shower in black water. But if they're involved in a sinful practice, I'm not gonna get involved in that. You know, if I'm gonna go to India and try to reach Indians with the gospel, you know, I'm gonna try to fit in with the culture, but I'm not gonna bow down to a false god. I'm not gonna eat things sacrificed unto idols. I'm gonna draw the line at breaking Christ's laws. Paul didn't say, well, I'm not under any law. He said, well, I became as one without law, but between me and God, I was under the law to Christ. Does everybody see that important distinction? It's pretty clear. It's crystal clear, isn't it? But not in this book, but can you see why people love this book? Of course you can see why people love it. Oh, I love this book because I heard somebody say, oh man, it just got rid of the last bit of legalism that I had left. It just set me free, set you free to be carnal and worldly and wicked and skip church and be lazy and not do soul winning and not read your Bible and not listen to God's laws and not keep the commandments and not do any real work to just do whatever you want, whatever your heart is telling you. And this is like a breath of fresh air for the wicked. The wicked love this book. And then they want us to apply this to our families even employees. Yeah, good luck running a business on the principles of this book. Hey, let's just all get in a circle and have a relationship, man. Yeah, that's gonna be a real successful company, real soon. I'm sure that business is gonna thrive. Okay, so just to bring us up to speed here, we just talked about how, you know, you don't have to obey any of God's laws. We should have zero expectations for our wife, children, employees, et cetera. That was number 13. Number 14, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. I think you're in chapter nine, right? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Number 14 heresy of the shack is that it portrays God, the father as an old dude with a long gray ponytail. Okay, now remember in the beginning of the book, God the father is portrayed as a large black woman, Aunt Jemima in the kitchen. Okay, but then later in the book, God appears to him one morning and it's no longer the black woman anymore. Now all of a sudden, it's a dude in the book. In the book, it's a dude that looks like the black woman but it's become a man though. But it's funny how the author just has to throw in with a long ponytail. Like it just can't ever be a normal person. It can't just ever be a normal guy. It has to be with a long ponytail because of just the rebelliousness of the author to hate all things Christian, religious or godly. I don't care who this offends. The Bible teaches that it is a sin for man to have long hair, period. End of story. And don't come at me with Jesus had long hair. That is a lie from the pit of hell. There is nothing in the Bible that talks about Jesus having long hair, nothing. Only a bunch of paintings painted by a bunch of queer Renaissance painters, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and the rest of the Ninja Turtles, okay, that basically painted all this stuff. Look, those paintings are not real. They're 1500 years after Christ, 1400 years after Christ. Jesus did not have long hair. Now look at 1 Corinthians 11. It says in verse three, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man, watch this, and the head of Christ is God. Another scripture, again, emphasizing the hierarchy in the Godhead that the son is subject unto the father. The head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered dishonor his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered dishonor her head for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed not not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. Then he explains what is this covering, the head uncovered versus uncovered. It's explained in verse 14. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her for her hair is given her for a covering. So the covering here is long hair. If a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him. If a woman have long hair, it's a glory unto her. The Bible says that any man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, that is with long hair, dishonors his head, the head of every man is Christ. So if Christ prayed or prophesied having long hair, he would be dishonoring his head, God, the father. If the woman prays or prophesies having short hair, uncovered head, she might as well get a butch hairdo. She might as well shave it all off, it says. But if it'd be a shame for her to be completely bald, let her also be covered, meaning having long hair. And it's saying here that if she doesn't, she's dishonoring her head and the head of the woman is the man, so she's dishonoring who? Her husband. So my wife has short hair, that's a shame unto me. If I have long hair, I'm a shame unto Christ. If Christ had long hair, which the Bible doesn't even mention as an option, cause he never did, because he said, I do always those things which please him. But theoretically, if he had long hair, he would be shaming the father. Christ did not have long hair. And why is that? That the man should have short hair and the woman should have long hair. Well, the Bible says right here in verse seven, a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man. It doesn't say and the woman is in the image of God also it says, but the woman is the glory of the man. The man is made in the image of God because God is male. God is not female, God is male. So the man is in the image of God, therefore he has short hair like Jesus. Now, what sense would it make for the Bible to say, well, you need to have short hair men because you're in the image of God. And then when we meet God in the flesh, he has long hair. That's crazy. It's madness. The Bible here says that it's a shame. And some people will say, well, it doesn't say it's a sin it just says it's a shame. Well, but the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. And if the Bible says something is a shameful thing that dishonors Christ, and then you're gonna say, well, it's not a sin though. That's a foolish thought. The thought of foolishness is sin you just sin by even saying that. Saying such a dumb thing. But this right here is another great proof that God is distinctly male. And that this book portraying God as a female is perverted. But not only that, when it finally portrays God the father as a male which is still blasphemous since God the father never takes on bodily form. The son is incarnate. He takes on the form of a guy with a ponytail. Let me go ahead and get on that page here in the book. The man standing next to him looked a bit like Papa. This is the new manifestation, the new avatar of Papa. The man standing next to him looked a bit like Papa dignified, older, wiry, and taller than Mac. He had silver white hair pulled back into a ponytail. So he basically, he teaches at ASU. He teaches at the community college, right? Long haired, gray ponytail, burned out hippie that he is. Matched by a gray splashed mustache and goatee, plaid shirt with sleeves rolled up, jeans and hiking boots completed the outfit of someone ready to hit the trail. Papa, Mac asked? Yes, son. Mac shook his head. You're still messing with me, aren't you? Yeah, that's because this whole book is just messing with your mind from start to finish. Always, he said with a warm smile. Yeah, that's all God does. He just messes with us. Just screws with our mind. Appearing to us as all these different Chinese woman, black woman, burned out hippie, just coming, gives us a book full of rules and then acts like we're an idiot when we talk about following them. Excuse me, rules, what? What rules? This, this morning you're gonna need a father. Come on now, let's get going. So that's why he's manifesting as a dude finally. And the last thing is this, actually the last three things, but they all kind of go together. Okay, and I'm running out of time anyway. But you know, this book has already blasphemed God in every possible way. It's depicted God in so many, it just turns scripture on its head over and over again. But finally we get to the point of the whole book. You say, what's the book even about? Cause I didn't even really mention what the book's about this morning, because remember how it's supposedly a work of fiction? Well, the storyline, remember how I said, when you read the first 80 pages, you feel like you're reading a normal book. It just seems like a murder mystery or kidnapping mystery. And you, you know, it just seems like a totally normal book. You can't, you know, I kind of got into the story. I was enjoying the first 80, and then it's just like, gets into all this weird theology and philosophy and garbage. So here's what the story is about. This guy's daughter gets kidnapped in the first 80 pages. That's what it's about. Family man, and he leaves his kid unattended because he's busy with something else. And it was, it was just not his fault. But the kid gets kidnapped and they're freaking out because the six year old girl was kidnapped by a predator. I mean, by a serial, you know what? I'm not even gonna go into it for sake of children, but just the most, just imagine the most horrific things that people do to little girls. This guy is a serial whatever. And he has abducted the six year old girl because he left some marks at the scene of the crime where they know that this guy is the one who has taken his daughter. And they tell him, look, you know, this guy's victims don't survive and you're doomed. Well, the book takes place four years after that event. And remember this whole book is about this guy, Mac, hanging out at the shack with God, which is manifesting in these bodily manifestations as the Trinity being a black woman, a Jewish guy, and a Chinese woman. But the whole point of why he's going back and forth with God, why he's having all these conversations we've been looking at this morning and tonight, page after page, the whole point is that God in this book is trying to get him to forgive the guy who just brutally did these horrible things to his daughter. And God's trying to explain to him how he loves this guy and how this guy is one of his children. Okay, according to this book. But this man, Mac says, but he too is my son. I wanna redeem him. So this book teaches that not only are unsaved people children of God, even the most violent pedophile predator is a child of God, according to this. No, no, the Bible says as many as received him. To them gave you power to become the sons of God, meaning they were not previously sons of God. So what then? I just forgive him and everything's okay and we become buddies? Mac stated softly but bitterly, you don't have a relationship with this man, at least not yet. Forgiveness does not establish relationship. In Jesus, I have forgiven all humans for their sins against me, but only some choose relationship. Did you hear that? So according to this book, God has forgiven all people, whether they're saved or not. This is the last scripture we're gonna turn to, Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26, according to this book, God has just forgiven everybody. And remember, we looked at the points in the book this morning where God said, nobody's going to hell and that everybody is gonna be forgiven. So he said, well, I've already forgiven all humans for their sins against me, but only some choose relationship. Let's see if that's true. Acts chapter 26 verse 17, delivering me from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. According to the Bible, you have to have faith in Christ. You have to receive the forgiveness of sins by being turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God that you might receive forgiveness of sins. You have to believe in Christ. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, but everyone is not automatically forgiven. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. This book teaches everybody's forgiven, even pedophiles, rapists, everybody's already been forgiven. You know, whether or not they choose relationship with Jesus is a moot point. They're still forgiven according to this. Listen to this though. This is just mind blowing. And another scripture on that same point, Romans four says, blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's not everybody. You're blessed if you're one of those whose sins are forgiven, whose iniquities are covered. You know, I mean, we could show a lot of scripts on that. Just wait till you hear this though. This is the worst, okay? Forgiveness in no way requires you to trust the one that you forgive. But should he finally confess and repent, you will discover a miracle in your own heart that allows you to reach out and begin to build between you a bridge of reconciliation. And sometimes, and this may seem incomprehensible to you right now, that road may even take you to the miracle of fully restored trust. Okay, stop. Just stop. This book is saying that this serial child rapist, you know, you don't have to have a relationship with him right away. He's already forgiven by God. Now we're supposed to forgive him. And then not only that, we're supposed to start building a relationship with the guy. And eventually the goal is fully restored trust because the guy just finished bringing up well, am I supposed to let this guy hang around with my other kids? Well, you know, you'll be shocked at the miracle of my grace that'll bring a fully restored trust. I mean, that part almost felt like I was reading Born That Way After All again. You know what I mean? Right? Those of you that were here several weeks ago when I preached that sermon, that, you know, that is what it reminded me of. Like fully trusting pedophiles and sodomites. Let me just close by saying this. The guy who wrote this book is a reprobate. The guy who wrote this book hates God. How do I know that? Because anyone who writes a book describing God 180 degrees different than what the Bible describes him, he must not like the God of the Bible. He didn't even wanna retain that God and his knowledge. He'd rather make up his own false God because he hates the true God. And as I said this morning, I'll say it again. Anyone who loves this book does not love God. Because how can you love the real God and the fake God? That'd be like me saying, oh, I love my wife so much. And then I'm just spending all this time with another woman and saying that she's better. You'd say, you don't love your wife at all. You're with some other woman. You've got a hoary. And that's what I talked about this morning. I'm not gonna re-preach that. But this guy is a reprobate. Now, how did this guy become a reprobate? Well, this guy is the son of missionaries. It says on the back, in Papua New Guinea, he was raised amongst a Stone Age tribe of cannibals in Papua New Guinea who began to abuse him and molest him starting when he was six years old. So from six years old, this guy is molested and abused by cannibals, literal cannibals in Papua New Guinea, which is one of the most primitive countries in the entire planet. Then from there, he shipped off to a missionary boarding school where he's further molested and further abused. This guy's just his whole life just being molested. And he's from a mission. Obviously this guy, because that stuff's happening to him from such a young age, got bitter against God. I mean, you can see how a child who grows up being abused constantly their whole life and being perverted by freaks and savages and cannibals and weirdos is gonna grow up and hate the Lord because he's gonna become bitter against God. Now, we are not supposed to have pity for these people. And see, you might think, oh, well, the poor guy, it's not his fault. I mean, he's raised by cannibals after all. But you know what, it doesn't matter. Nothing that happens to you in your life gives you the right to become a God-hating reprobate yourself and to become a predator yourself. And all of these sodomites, listen to me, all these sodomites, when you talk to them, they've all been molested as a kid. Virtually, I mean, I'm not saying all of them, but I'm saying virtually all of them, most of them, the vast majority. But does that give them an excuse to become a reprobate, to hate the Lord and to do these wicked things themselves? No, because guess what? There were a lot of other people who were molested who didn't hate God, who actually grew up and lived right. And instead of hating God, I find this about people who've been molested, they usually either grow up either hating pedophiles or hating God. Because I've met a lot of people who say, yeah, I was molested as a kid and they hate pedophiles. And they say, put them to death. But then you'll run into others who hate God and they blame God for what sinful man has done to them and what his wicked parents subjected. I mean, what kind of parents took him to this filthy place and just led him amongst these cannibals? Bunch of idiots. What kind of missions is that? Canadian and raised amongst a stone age tribe by his missionary parents in the Highlands of New Guinea and blah, blah, blah. So the thing about this book is that it's written by a reprobate who obviously hates God. He's obviously perverted in his mind and he wants to teach this doctrine that we're supposed to embrace pedophiles and trust them and love them. No, the Bible says that I hate those that hate the Lord. Do not I hate them that hate thee? And that I grieve with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. That's what the Bible says. But see, Oprah Winfrey doesn't wanna hear that. 20 million readers of the shack don't wanna hear that. They teach the doctrine that God loves everybody and that we're supposed to love everybody, a doctrine that's not found in scripture at all. Yes, God so loved the world, loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. God loves everybody but have everlasting life. But when people reject that gift, when they reject God and they don't even wanna retain God in their knowledge, God will give them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient. And let me tell you something. When God gives them over to vile affections and God gives them over to reprobate mind, the Bible says, I will love them no more. He said, I hated them and I will love them no more. The Bible says that God hates all the workers of iniquity. The Bible says that God hates those who love violence. So it's teaching that God loves everybody. No, God loved everybody at some point until they push God too far and become a reprobate. And then God said, I'll love them no more, which means he previously loved them but then he loves them no more. So this doctrine that we're being taught on all fronts today, church, movies, books, is to embrace, it all is an agenda to embrace sodomites and embrace pedophiles. That's what it all goes back to that agenda to bring in the worst perversion, to replace the God of the Bible, the God of wrath and of judgment with a God who's only love, only sweetness and light, and who embraces all manner of perverts, brings them into the church and trust them with children. It's sick. And there's no excuse for anybody who's promoting this, any preacher who's promoting this book needs to repent and get right with God. There's no excuse that it's fiction. It's not fiction, it's theology and philosophy. It should be in the doctrine section of the bookstore. And you say, well, but Kent Hovind, you know, Kent Hovind said he read the book nine times. You can't say, oh, he doesn't know. He read it nine times. And look, I can't even believe the stuff that's been coming out of Kent Hovind's mouth lately. And to hear about this book that he's promoting and all the weird stuff he's teaching. And sometimes I'm just shocked and horrified and wondering like, what in the world is going on with this guy? But then you'll go back and listen to his stuff from before he went into prison and he sounds good. So I don't, look, I'm not saying that he's not saved because maybe prison just really screwed him up. I mean, man is not really meant to be locked up in a cage for nine years. I mean, maybe prison just screwed him up. I don't know what happened to him in there. I don't know what kind of influences, but you know, if I had to guess, and again, I'm just throwing, and you say, you're being disrespected with him. Well, you know what? If he's gonna promote this new age filth, then he needs to be called out. A book that makes God a woman. I mean, I'm not gonna re-preach the 17 points of this morning and the evening, but you know, he's opening himself up. And look, by making this speculation, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he's not just evil. I'll make this speculation to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe it's just because when he was in jail, every single day he went to an ecumenical church service every day in jail. Because that's what he told me. He said that he was in every single day they had like an ecumenical church service with some chaplain where he's worshiping together with all the Pentecostals and all the different denominations all coming together into an ecumenical church service in the prison for like nine years. Well, you know what? That just goes to show you then, if he was a righteous preacher before he went in, which it seems like he was. I mean, he preached a lot of good sermons and a lot of good stuff. That just shows you how hanging around with the wrong people could really corrupt you bad. Because spending nine years in there, you know, he's probably just lonely. So he's just looking for any fellowship. So he starts fellowshipping with the charismatics and all the false teachers and that they just, they got to him. Because this isn't the same Kent Hovind. And look, there's no excuse for this. I mean, this is bad, really bad. And so, you know, the answer for Kent Hovind is that he needs to repent. Kent Hovind needs to repent and say, and every one of his followers should demand this of him. They should demand of him and say, you know what? You need to repent of following the shack and promoting the shack. Cause he just keeps digging in. People try to bring it up to him. And here's what he says, I'm still promoting it to this day. And you can quote me on that, that I recommend this book. It's one of the best books I've ever read. Well, you know what? He needs to come out and say, I'm sorry, I was wrong. And you know what? Other preachers have done the same thing. I've heard of other preachers who, you know, they got onto a wrong Bible version. And then after a couple of months, they realized the error of their ways and said, hey, I'm sorry, I recommended this Bible version. I was wrong. We need to stay with the King James. Amen. You know, it's great when people get right with God, but you cannot just overlook this and say, oh, well, you know, he's still a great preacher. Whoa, this is evil, new age garbage. And for him to promote this, that shows that his heart is not right with God and that he is leading people astray because he's talking about all the emails he gets from people whose lives have been changed by the book after he recommended it to them. Well, you know what? It wasn't changed for the better. It was changed for the worst. I promise you that. Because now they're walking with a figment of their imagination instead of the God of the Bible. We are living in the last days and we need to be on our guard because even independent fundamental Baptists are getting sucked in by this stuff. Even, I mean, look, you know, we're just talking about this afternoon, how so many independent Baptists now are, they're leaning new evangelical now. Like when I, like back in the nineties, the way the new evangelicals were back then is how the independent fundamental Baptists are now. And the way faithful word Baptist churches right now is how the independent fundamental Baptists were in the nineties. So basically faithful word style churches and our friends and people that we fellowship with are becoming the new actual fundamental Baptist movement in this country. And then the old independent fundamental Baptist movement is becoming the new evangelical movement of the nineties where it's just this sloppy agape, love everybody, just this bring in the comos, bring in the pedophiles. Let's all go see the shack and embrace this stuff. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for the rock of our salvation. Thank you that you're not a God who loves uncertainty, but that you founded us on a rock, the unchanging word of God, Lord. Help us to love you with all our heart, mind, and soul and strength, and not to go a whoring after other gods and seek after other gods that teach things and believe things and promote things other than what the Bible teaches, Lord. Help us to stay with the God of the Bible and the Holy Ghost of the Bible, not the Hindu goddess, Sarayu, that tens of millions of American Christians have apostatized and gone a whoring after, Lord. Help us not to go a whoring after that false god or any false figment of our imagination, Lord. Cast down every imagination that enters our mind that's contrary to the knowledge of you and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray, amen. Amen.