If you take your Bibles and go with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6. And if you need one of the handout sheets, it's the same one we had last week. If you still need one, go ahead and raise your hand right up and the ushers will see that you received one. That would be great. We'll start off with Ephesians chapter 6. What I am going to do with the time we have, and I'm not going to get bogged down like sometimes I do going through these study sheets, I'm going to go ahead in the interest of what happened last week. Many of you weren't able, I know, to fill the blanks in. I'm going to go ahead and start with the front of the sheet that you have before you. We're going to read through that. And that way you can get caught up. And I didn't want to just stop and go on to the next chapter like I might normally do because I wanted to make sure that the practical aspect of these chapters that we really explain clearly how to go through them. You know, I mentioned that it's not enough just to go to the doctor and get diagnosed with something and have him write out a prescription. You need to go and take the prescription. It doesn't do you any good to go and buy the medicine and then just let it sit on the shelf. And I really believe that in North America, especially with our involvement in church here, we have opportunities to hear the Word of God taught and preached. Many of you will use other resources that are good and sound resources for spiritual growth. and that's great but if you're like me sometimes I've read a book and said well that's great and I close it and I sit on the shelf and that's just been a good book. And I got a blessing from some of the stuff I read but yet that's about as far as it goes. There have been times where I've read my Bible in devotions and I've closed it up and then thinking now what was it that I read or maybe I'll go the next day and I'll say now where did I read yesterday? You ever been there? See, and what we need to do is we need to be active listeners and active participants in our walk with God. It's not something that's just going to happen. You know, spirituality, you know, walking with God just doesn't happen. You have to be on purpose in regards to that. I'd like to read Ephesians chapter 6 because this deals with spiritual warfare. And this is such a vital topic, I believe, that when I really got saved I was never really taught spiritual warfare. It was referenced. Passages of scripture like this were read, but yet as far as actually engaging in a victory walk day by day, I don't know that I was really taught that. And I'm not saying that you necessarily have to have someone drop alongside and tell you, you can do that by reading the scriptures and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God. But I also believe that man has a part and place in our lives. We see that scripturally. You see Acts chapter 8, you know, with the Ethiopian eunuch. And he was reading the word of God. And of course, Philip said, Hey, do you do you understand what you're reading? And he said, How can I accept some man should guide me? And so there is a proper place for someone to draw up alongside. And so that once again, as we went through that 52 week discipleship series, that was to help us get grounded, but also so that we in turn can go and help someone else be grounded. This series of lessons is for us to walk in freedom, but also to help others walk in freedom. God never gives us something just to become a Dead Sea Christian. The Dead Sea has one that just receives, but it doesn't give out. And that's why we have many times where Christians that are new in the faith, they are excited about the Lord and they're receiving and receiving and receiving. And then after a while you see them, as I say, they sit and they sour. It's because they are taking in truth, but they're not giving it out. And so we need to receive the truth, but we need to give it out. And so we ought to always be looking for opportunities, always learning, but always opportunities to give out that truth. Ephesians chapter 6, beginning here in verse 10, he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And I mentioned last week, and I think it's critical for us to remind ourselves of these things. And don't be afraid to remind yourself of things over and over and over and over again. We need that. Even God saw that we needed that just in the way He laid out the Scriptures. How many times as you're reading through the Scriptures does He mention some of the same events, and it keeps it as a reminder to the nation of Israel, as a reminder to you and me. We have reminders in highway signs. Constantly letting us know if you came to church here you are here You know that there were some reminders of a detour that we couldn't come to church the way we normally come to church Because of the construction that's going on. We need that reminder. Okay, and so it's the same thing and we need that reminder that we cannot live the Christian life and Only Christ can live the Christian life. It's His life. And we do that by our submission to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God. Because every single one of us that are saved, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. And that's a wonderful truth. But in Psalm 8 it also lets us know that we are made a little lower than the angels. And we know that Lucifer is a fallen angel. We know that he has some imps. I call them imps. They are demons. You know they are the fallen angels. I think, you know, you have God, you have that angelic, and then you have the angelic host, and then you have mankind. And so when we are involved in spiritual warfare, there's no way that we are stronger than the angel. There was one reference in the scriptures where one angel destroyed 180 troops, 180,000 troops. Okay, so that's a whole lot of troops. So there's no way that we can stand against these tricks and wiles we can't identify. I mean he's a master counterfeiter. And so we see here that we've got to put on the whole armor of God. It's not my armor It's God's armor. And it says here, for we wrestle not, verse 12, against flesh and blood. And sometimes we think that our battle is between individuals, personalities. And of course there may be some personality conflicts, but ultimately in the life of the believer, we need to understand that we're not fighting one another. Our enemy is the devil. And so he tries to utilize the world and the flesh and tries to have those two arenas empower them to fight against us. And so he uses that, but by the same token that's ultimately who we're against. Our enemy is the adversary, which is the devil. Okay. And it says here, says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, because of that, that is what the wherefore is telling us. It says, taken to you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." And then he goes on and gets real personal with his particular requests. And so we look here at chapter 3 and I appreciate Brother Logan going through and handling the spiritual and demonic aspect of life before we get into the subject as next time we will on the subject of unforgiveness and bitterness. Then we deal with how to have a clear conscience. Then we deal with the subject of pride and things of that nature that will really get into the nitty-gritty. And I feel like sometimes though we are not taking care of that real spiritual dynamic first. And that's why sometimes when people are reading through the book or going through this particular chapter it scares them so to speak. But greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. You need not fear the devil. He's a defeated foe. Amen. Now we have to remind ourselves of that because he is an intimidator. That's that roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He roars like that. What's he trying to do? to intimidate us, cause us to freeze, almost like we would say a deer in the headlights, you know, and it just freezes there. And we have that tendency, if we're not careful, relying on self, looking at our circumstances to be like that deer in the headlights. And we need to understand that the devil is a defeated foe. But not if we stand in the strength and power of our mind. We're never to that point where we say, I can get this one. you know I'm strong enough to handle this one. No we're never strong enough to handle him. We're never strong enough to really withstand against the wiles of the devil unless we are submitted to and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. And so he lays out here the various aspects of the armor but I want to go through here now our study sheet reasons for occult involvement Number one is power. People want power over their own lives and over the lives of other people. Like I gave some examples here of water witching and water divining and so on. And I gave some other examples last time. Number two, people get into the occult for guidance. they look for Ouija boards and they try to get answers to that. You know they will say, hey am I going to do this or am I going to do that and it will answer yes, no and so on. Horoscopes, tarot cards, psychics, palm readers and such like. They will go into the occult realm looking for guidance. And of course because Saul was disobedient to the Lord he and God quit speaking to him and folks that's what happens many times when that wall comes up and we're not hearing from God we say man the heavens made out of brass we need to check and say Lord is there anything between my soul and the Savior because Saul had sinned and had not really repented and so what had happened was God said I'm not talking to you anymore And so then he said, I need to know what to do. And so now he goes and consults with the witch at Endor. And so a lot of people go for guidance. Then they go number three for healing. They'll go to psychic healers and herbal healers and pendulum users and things of that nature. Number four is protection. Many occult practitioners believe that the spirits can protect them from harm. And that's where the charms come in, the necklaces with the medallions and so on that have maybe been blessed or they represent say what the one church would say is the saints and so on and how they will protect you and so on. So many go into the occult for protection. The issue in occult activities is not that these things work. The issue is who is making them work. And I brought out the fact last week in regards to the rod that Moses carried. He threw it down and it became a snake, but so did the magicians. And in those plagues that happened we find that hey as Moses would send a plague, hey the magicians could copy the same thing. That's why you and I need to be very discerning in these last days because we know from a study of prophetic scripture that in the last days the devil is going to be more active. And one of the ways in the tribulation time, praise God we won't be through it, but praise the Lord during, yeah, we are out of here, okay. But what will happen though is he will be able to deceive the world and get many to follow him by what the Bible says lying. signs and wonders. Okay. Lying signs and wonders. And so you have to be careful when you just see something that is so spectacular and say, boy that must be of God. It is not necessarily of God. You have to be discerning. You have to test the spirits. How do you test it? By the Word of God. That is the sure word of prophecy. Right. We don't have to go by our feeling. And so the next point here is the danger of occult practices. Then you have the danger of false spiritualities. We looked at this scripture. Another spiritual power will invade one's life. The ground Satan gains in a person's life is not always taken back. without a fight. Okay? And so then number two you have the danger of wrong music. And we brought out the fact there of 1 Samuel chapter 16 when that evil spirit would come upon Saul he would actually ask David to come and David would come and he would play music and it would calm Saul's troubled spirit and the evil spirit would actually leave. I mean that ought to let us know something that music is a powerful medium. It can actually have the demons come, but can also chase them away. You know, one of the things I ask people from time to time if they are having difficulty paying attention in church and they say, you know, I sit and I listen, but I just have trouble concentrating and things of that nature. And, you know, they're not sick and they've been getting sleep and so on and so forth. But I'll say, you know, when we sing songs like nothing but the blood of Jesus, What goes on in your mind? Are you plagued with foul thoughts? Are you feeling troubled in your spirit? Or when you look at the Word of God, does your eyes just sort of get all hazy? And I know that might be spooky to some of you, but it's amazing what the devil will try to do to try to distract us and keep us from hearing the truth of the Word of God. And so we have to understand how the devil tries to utilize the things of the world to get an advantage of us and music is a medium there. Number three I'll let you read what's on the study sheet there is the danger of fantasy. And that what I'm referring to is the role playing games with occultic overtones and how dangerous they are. And many of the games that are coming out now on your various PlayStations and so on have a lot of occultic and spiritistic kind of activity involved in that. And so you need to weed those out, get rid of them, okay? And then number four is the danger of occult objects. That's statues, occultic items such as amulets, dream catchers, and so on. And the danger number five of curiosity. Be careful the books you read and the movies you watch, they create a desire for power and guidance and healing and protection that should come only through Jesus Christ. And let's not be ignorant Christian in regards to the power of influence and curiosity. I mean, have you ever really felt like, hey, you know, I don't really have any particular need and then a catalog comes into the mail and you get that catalog out and you start flipping through and say, boy, I'd like to have that. Next thing you know, you pull out your credit card, you're going online and you're ordering it. It's not that you needed it, but they awakened a curiosity in your mind and a desire in your life, you see. And so you and I have to be understanding that the devil will use even some innocent things to slowly but surely suck us in, okay? So we have to be careful of that. Number six is the danger of family involvement, and that's Of course as we have family members maybe in a generational way that have given in to certain habits or sins in the life then there is a greater opportunity for the next generation to participate in that. Of course it is all choice, individual choice But yet if you grow up in a home where alcohol is rampant and so on and immorality, the opportunity for you to engage and be ensnared by that same sin is a lot more prevalent and easy to fall into. So you have to understand that. And then renouncing the hidden things of darkness. And we talked about number one about renouncing, renounce Satan's hold. And then number two, declare your intent. Declare your intent. And Brother Logan says, I asked my counselees to make this declaration of intent. Satan, I do not want anything more to do with your ways or work in my life. I want to be totally committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. People trapped in occultism are not the only ones who need to renounce Satan's influence. All of us as believers are called to say no to Satan each day and be obedient to Christ. I'm not talking about anything extreme, just a daily commitment not to yield to the enemy's ways or works, but to be faithful to the Lord. Now, one thing you have to be careful of is, you know, God is impressed with our heart. It's not always the verbiage we use. Some people say, you know, pastor, can you give me the exact words to pray or the exact words to say? And you know, I would not use maybe the wording exactly just this way. What I usually do in my life is I'll say, I plead the precious blood of Jesus Christ in my life today and the life of my family. And then I go on in the church and whatnot. I said, and dear Lord, I pray that you'd cause such a stir in the heavenlies and in the earthy that the devil and his cohorts cannot hear my conversation with you at all today, or my conversation with others as I go about the day. And I pray that you would put a hedge of protection about me, and so on, and I pray that way. Now, it doesn't mean that you have to, okay, now, Pastor Sullivan does it this way. And I wonder if I'm forgetting something here, because it just doesn't seem to work that way. No, God understands that, okay? So when you see something written like this, be discerning enough to know, you know, God is, He's a personal Savior, He's a personal God, and he understands your heart and I also say hey there's no what did he say when he was tempted and after the third temptation in Luke chapter 4 Matthew chapter 4 he just said get thee hence now I don't I wouldn't say that necessarily get thee hence there's nothing wrong with this King James is the Word of God Amen okay but I might say devil leave me alone I might say devil get out of here You know? So you need to understand how to take that authority in your life and use the authority that Jesus Christ gives you. Amen? At salvation. So we need to learn to say no to Satan each day and be obedient to Christ. And that's where Paul says, I die daily. I die daily. Okay? And then three important reminders. I believe this is about where we were, and I know I was hollering at you last week because we didn't have the sound system working. You might feel like I'm always hollering at you, but anyway, I had one little boy one time years ago come up to me and say, why are you always so mad? I said, oh, I don't want to give that impression. Because no three important reminders number one when a person makes a clean break with the occult He she usually has some occult paraphernalia that should be gotten rid of if you have such items Destroy these occult materials yourself okay, and what that does is that helps you break that tie and Because many times, you know, these items have a spirit tie to you. They also have a habitual tie to you. And it just does you good if you've been enslaved by something to get rid of that something, okay? All right, number two, God never tells us to put away something and then just leave ourselves empty. we remove something we are to replace it with something. People trapped in the occult need to have that evil influence replaced by the truth of God's Word. And of course the passage of the Scripture that you see here you see Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 22 it says, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. Notice that former conversation is your lost life. It's the life you had without Jesus Christ. That's your former conversation. It says, put off concerning the former conversation. So those things that you were habitually doing and involved in and tied into, then you're to put that off. Just like you put on a shirt or a blouse, you take off a shirt and a blouse, you are to put some things on in your Christian life, you're to take some things off in your Christian life. And so there's not a void. I was thinking about this that you know they have these bags that you can get and you can put items to store and you know how you can get some blankets and they got a lot of air space in there and then they have these plastic bags you can put a blanket into and you get your vacuum cleaner and you put your vacuum cleaner hose in there and you suck out all that air and what happens? It all collapses. And so you need to understand that in our life, when you take something out, we don't just collapse, but in a spiritual sense, if you don't replace what you're taking out with something, then what's gonna happen is you will pretty soon have that back. Sometimes what people will do is they'll say, okay, I'm gonna quit this bad habit. and so they'll quit this bad habit and they'll take up another bad habit or they'll say you know what I'm going to quit this but now I'm not going to do anything and before long they're back at that bad habit again because they've not replaced it that's the law of what we call replacement and so that's what the Lord does in our life You see, He doesn't want us to have the old mind. He wants us to have the new mind. Okay? And so it's important for us to understand that biblical principle. And that's why we're always talking about, hey, getting something out, put something in. You know, that's like somebody saying, well, I'm going to get rid of all my friends. Well, then you need new friends. but the right kind of friends, all right? Okay, God made us social creatures, all right? So anyway, let's look at Romans 13, 12. Romans 13, 12, I wanna look at these. Romans 13, 12, and I'll get right to the reading. It says, the light is far spent, the days at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on armor of light. So you are what? You are taking something off and you are putting something on. Alright. Let's go to Colossians chapter 3 that is right after Philippians chapter 3 verse 8 the Bible here says, But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. And and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. So if you want to know a partial list of some of the things you're to put off, you've got it right here. Also Galatians chapter 5 verse 19 has the works of the flesh, which are manifest, which are these. And so that's all indicative of the old life, you see. And so you don't want, you want to put those off. In other words, you don't want them in your life. So God never tells us to put away something and then just leave ourselves empty. Number three, anyone who has ever had deep occult involvement will tell you getting into the occult is relatively easy. Getting out, in contrast, is very traumatic. But it is essential for spiritual health. The result will be freedom and wholeness. And if you've ever broken any kind of fleshly habit that you've had in your life, even good habits are hard to break. I mean, something that's not necessarily wrong, but you're just used to doing something a certain way. You know, like I have a routine when I get up in the mornings and there is a path that I follow and things that I do along the way as I prepare myself for my day. And, you know, sometimes someone else gets up maybe a little bit earlier than they normally do and it just gets in my way or I get in their way. And, you know, I just feel like, wow, you know, what did I do with the comb? What did I do, you know, like where's my shirt, you know? I'm out of sync. You know, have you ever been there? Help me out here. You're all looking at me like, man, Pastor, that never happens to me. But you know, you just get out of step from time to time. And it's the same way here when we think about the occult involvement, when there's that spiritual dynamic and hold in our lives, it seems easy to fall into this line of reasoning, but it's hard to actually break that and stay free. It's like someone who every morning got up and would read the horoscope. And every morning that was their habit of life. And so they would begin to run their day based upon what the horoscope said for them. And then they get saved and they leave that away. There's still that pull that wants them to go back to that. And so whereas it's not always a conscious habit to a conscious, there's not a conscious awareness, I should say, that you are getting into a bad habit, but then when you are getting out of one and replacing that, it has to be so much on purpose. It has to be so deliberate. I always liken it this way, and it's not anything new. It's almost like when you first start driving a standard vehicle, a shifting vehicle, where, you know, at first when you get in there, I mean, everybody has to wear a neck brace. And you know, you have, you praise the Lord for the high back chairs so that, you know, you're, I mean, like, and you're just, you know, going and everything is just so deliberate. You know, you, you put the key in and you put your foot down on the clutch and then you, you know, you know how that goes. And then, but you know, everything is so deliberate when you're starting out doing that. But then after just a few months, you know what, you've started it. And you're a mile down the road, and you don't even remember doing any of that stuff. It's just second nature. That is a habit. Well, when you add the satanic and spiritual dynamic to that, there's a stronghold that's been established. And so you need the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you need the commitment to follow the Lord in all his ways. And don't be surprised that when you make that commitment, if it's not tested. It will be tested. You will have to stand in the strength and power of His might. Amen? But the victory's yours. Praise the Lord. Now, you look at the next page here, the last page, and this is the practical part of this lesson. And one thing as you work through the book is every single one of these chapters has the practical part. And this is what I didn't wanna just go through and just say, hey, read this on your own last week. It's entitled Higher Ground, Breaking Occult Bondage. And so like Lord willing in two weeks when we go through the other Wednesday night, I think is next week's VBS and so on. But when we go through it on unforgiveness and bitterness, it also has a whole section there on how to get free from the spirit of unforgiveness and bitterness issues, which are which is a great chapter. I think that's something that we need to go through on a regular basis. And these are good to go through on a regular basis. If you were to see my book, you would see that I've been through it quite a bit. And it's not just because I've been counseling others, it's because it helps me, you know? And so I trust that you won't just say, oh, that's good. I'll have to try that. You know it's just I heard a commercial some time ago from a pastor in Winnipeg and they were promoting their church and they just said, try Jesus. Now you don't try Jesus. You know, he's not, you don't try him, you know, you trust him, okay? And so anyway, the following action steps can remove occult involvement from your life and return you to higher ground in your relationship with God. Even if you believe you have not surrendered ground to Satan through occult involvement, practice step one and periodically read the remaining steps to confirm your abstinence from the occult. Now folks people say I don't need to do that, that sounds crazy to me. What's wrong with doing that? What's wrong with just being sure? You say well I think I am sure. Well what's doubly wrong with being sure? I mean how can you go wrong walking with God? and just say, yeah, I think, I see some validity to that and man, if that's the potential of a problem in my life, I'm going to do this. Number one, make a commitment to God that you will stand against Satan's ways and works in your life and that you want to be committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what I would suggest you do is that you don't just sit in a chair with people all milling around or the household busy, busy, busy, I would find that quiet place. It might be in your automobile pulled over somewhere to where you can concentrate. It might be a special room or a place you can go to yard or go up to a prayer room, something like that. That's what I would suggest is that you find a place where you're not stressed for time. Okay, this is not something you just say one, two, three, you know, okay. No, you want time to be able to work through these issues. We're talking about your freedom. We're not talking about somebody looking over your shoulder and saying, boy, you sure are taking a long time there. You know, we're not talking about where you have to stand up and give an account to someone else. You have to be able to face God about this. And he wants you free. And he wants the very best for you. And it's available to you, okay? And so, make a commitment to God. And there's nothing wrong on a daily basis to recommit your life to God. Sometimes people say, you know, I can remember getting saved. in 1972 on September the 9th at about nine o'clock in the Kansas City, Missouri Municipal Auditorium, I got saved. And so I remember the next day I went forward in church and I made it public and we went down and I got baptized there. And I remember going forward in one of the youth meetings and I surrendered my life to full-time Christian service. And so I've done that. You know what we need to do though there's nothing wrong with saying Lord I give myself a fresh and a new to you. I mean you ought to do that on a daily basis. That's essentially what Paul was saying when he said I die daily. He said I'm dead to self. I'm dead to what people think about me. I am alive to what Christ who he is in my life, and so on. And you just make that commitment. So make a commitment to God that you will stand against Satan's ways and works in your life, and that you want to be committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, ask God to reveal any and all occult activity that has taken place in your life. And, you know, this is where sometimes folks like referring to a list. Maybe they were part and parcel, they were involved in a seance or maybe the pendulum thing or, you know, something of that nature where they were involved in table lifting. And sometimes those activities when you're young are done in what I would say is innocency. A bunch of teenagers get together and just say, hey, man, that's neat. Let's try it. and they don't really realize in that innocency they think what the devil is doing and taking advantage of them. And so that's the way the devil works. Okay? And so you and I need to understand that. And you ask God, Lord, has there been anything in my life in an occultic way that I need to be aware of? And folks, let me say, when you pray, if there's a problem, I think He's going to reveal it to you. Because He wants you free. and he wants you to walk in that freedom. He doesn't want to see you bound and you know so he's going to reveal it. And so when that comes to the forefront that's when you confess it to the Lord and then you ask him to take the ground back in your life that you gave to the devil through that activity. And what that does is that takes, I liken it to someone standing on the carpet, the devil. And you pull the carpet out from under him. In other words, when it says, neither give place to the devil, he has no footing anymore. He has to go, you see. And so, here it says letter A renounce the seeking of power as sin and commit yourself to the empowering of God's Holy Spirit. Remember the four points that many people go into the cult anyway that's what he's referencing here. Renounce letter B the seeking of guidance from evil spirits and commit yourself to guidance from the scriptures. Letter C, renounce all occult healing involvement and commit yourself to the God who heals and to God honoring healing. Letter D, renounce the use of all mantras, charms, metals, or any other object you have trusted in for protection and commit yourself to God's protection. And of course Psalm 91 mentions this here in verses 1 and 2. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. Alright so, excuse me, you renounce all those things. And a mantra is more or less something that is repeated over and over and you've been told, hey, if you say these words in this way or this many times, then this has a certain power or influence over your life and so on and so forth. You need to renounce that and say, dear God, please forgive me for being involved in that kind of ritualistic behavior. And I reject that mantra that I was taught to say, or that kind of thing that I repeated over and over again, and so on. And it could be like when you're told through some of the health things where you're to put your mind in neutral. And so you're never to put your mind in neutral. You're never to do that. You're to have a what? Renewed mind, but you're to have a quick and ready mind. You're to have a mind stayed on Jesus Christ. That word stayed means stayed. Okay? That's what it means. It doesn't mean that you just empty your mind. Because if you empty your mind, what happens? The devil will take advantage of that. So you renounce that. Number three, remove all occult material from your home. Burn what can be burned and break and bury what cannot be burned. Let's go to Acts 19, 19. Acts 19, 19. This is on, I think, the city that was wholly given to idolatry there in Ephesus here and so on. And look at verse 19. It says, excuse me, And many, verse 18 says, and many, let me read verse 17. It goes, and this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So mildly grew the word of God and prevailed. And so 50,000 pieces of silver, now depending, I just took an ounce thing and at the current rate, daily rate of $26.31, this would be over $1,300,000 worth of material that they got rid of. In my notes here, I said, there is a price to pay for ongoing freedom. And so let me encourage you. You know, you ask the Lord, say, you know, Lord, what do I need to get rid of in my house? What has that demonic or that spiritistic stuff that's not dedicated or part and parcel of who you are? What do I need to get rid of? And he will point things out to you. Get rid of them. You know, get rid of the dream catchers. You say, but they're so pretty. Get rid of them. What's, you know, why have pretty when you can have freedom? So get rid of that. And so you see that it cost it, but you notice what happened here, it was interesting. They got rid of that satanic hold, the stuff that had them enslaved, and it says, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. I know I've said this before, but it just is so applicable here. I remember there in Thailand, years ago, one of the first missionary trips I took there, we went up into the mountains there, And here I preached a message and I went through four interpreters and I remember that three people got saved. Two of them were cocaine addicts there and then the lady who got saved after the service and we're all fellowshipping around, she went to the missionary and said, I would like to know if you folks could come up to my house because I need to, I want to have my house dedicated to Jesus Christ. And what she went on to say is that when they built the house in the village, they had dedicated it to their gods. And you find that real prevalent in a lot of cultures, where they will actually dedicate their house to their gods. And she said, now that I've gotten saved, I wanna dedicate my house to Jesus Christ. You know what I said to the missionary and to those around? I said, salvation came to this house. And I remember walking up there and we sat down on the floor, we got cross-legged on the floor there and she called her family members together and we took turns praying, pleading the blood of Christ, breaking the satanic hold, asking the Holy Spirit of God to take control and put a hedge of protection about that house. You say, well, that sounds so extreme. What's wrong with it? What's wrong with dedicating your life to Christ? What's wrong with dedicating this building to Christ? What's wrong with dedicating this property to Christ? What's wrong with dedicating your house to Christ? Your car to Christ? What's wrong with that? I think he's honored by that. Okay, and then number four, ask God to take back all ground given to Satan through your involvement in darkness and wrong music. And that's where you need to learn to replace with that, replace the old with the new. Folks, you have a lot of resources out there and you have to be honest about yourself and the music you listen to. And of course you say, but I like it. Yeah, the flesh does like it. But once again, do you want like or do you want freedom? Okay, and so you commit yourself to listen only to music that is strong in melody and edifies the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've got all kinds of replacement music in the bookstore. And we're not in there making money, believe me. But I tell you what, if you have the junk, you need to get rid of the junk and you need to put the new stuff in. And if you've downloaded it off the iCloud or whatever, you need to get rid of that stuff. Get it off your iPad, get it off your phone, get it off your other devices. Get rid of it, put the new stuff in. If you don't, if you leave that door open, remember the illustration of the pastures. You can open a gate and it doesn't mean that the animals get out, but they could. And so you leave that door open, you could go back real easily into the world. How many times do people who are trying to quit a habit will keep a little bit of it? so that just in case they need it. And you know what happens? They always need it. And so you've got to get rid of it. And so commit yourself to listen only to music that is strong in melody that edifies the Lord Jesus Christ. Number six, remove and destroy all music that does not glorify God. And here in parentheses it says, if you are a young person, enlist the guidance of your parents. And I wrote this, parents, you may need to change yours too. And we have to be real careful as parents because sometimes our children grow up and they think, well, you know, mom and dad did this and they did that. Boy, they live wicked lives. But you look at them now and they're okay. So they say, if I go out, so my wild oats, I go out and party a little bit. Okay, when I'm done with that, I'll turn out like mom and dad. And so mom and dad need to be honest and say, look, kids, you don't want to go down this road. You don't know the scars that I carry. You don't know the baggage that I have to deal with. And I don't want you to have to go through that. And so don't sit around the coffee shop or sit around your dining room table talking about the good old days and the fun you used to have in the world. You realize what you're doing? You're wetting the appetite for those following you in the wrong way. Amen? So you need to remove and destroy all music that does not glorify God. And if you're a young person, enlist the guidance of your parents. Amen? So what I would encourage you now, we've just gone through this lesson. We're about ready to give the invitation. You can't do this right here, right now. The invitation is not going to be long enough. It's not private enough. What I would encourage you to do is take this and find that quiet place. And the next day or so, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, your devotional time, find that place where you can get alone and you can work through this. And then do us a favor. Tell us what victory Christ has wrought in your life. Amen? God will set you free. and you'll be free indeed.