Okay, if you'd stand with me this evening as we turn to 1 Peter 1. In 1 Peter 1, let me read verses 15 and 16 to get started. I actually was going to begin in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 22, where God tells us there to abstain from all the appearances of evil. We'll make reference to that probably a little bit later. This evening, I want to title the message, Hollywood, and I'm just using that name to just talk about the movie industry in general. But we've given different titles to different messages over the last few years, and so we'll give that the title this evening. You'll notice with me as we come to this passage, and let me say this again tonight, is that my purpose in preaching on this tonight is not to try to convince you as a congregation not to watch television, because I know that you don't. But my purpose is to show you why many today are rejecting the Word of God, to show you why there's very little discernment today of why people are desensitized to sin, to materialism, divorce, living together, violence, sodomy, and all those kind of things. seen this so long on television that it's become commonplace with them. They've been brainwashed. Their senses have been dulled. And it's taking many people out of the battle. So as we read in 1 Peter 1, you will notice with me in verse 15 and in verse 16 to get started. I'm going to ask you to bear with me this evening. You see the material I have laying around here again tonight. I'm going to pick and choose from some of these to quote from other authors and so forth to help us understand where we're coming from. But he said in verse 15, he said, But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Now, Father, we thank You tonight for this privilege that You've given us to meet together. Lord, tonight we ask Your blessings upon the reading of Thy Word. We ask, Lord, that as we look into this subject of the entertainment industry, we ask, God, that You help us tonight to understand Your Word and to understand why that there's many today that are not responding to the truths of Your Word. Lord, again, we ask that You just meet with us tonight in a special way. For it's in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. And you may be seated. Now, I've already handed out this evening, and let me make mention of these three handouts. One of them you've had in the past, maybe two of them, but the first one, and I try to lay these out in order, and the first one has to do with television wreckage. This came out of the Way of Life literature, Old Timothy magazine. And he's showing us that television presents happy families and happy endings. But he says, is this really the case? And too often, even the stars who participate in good times of television are left broken and destroyed. And he goes back into the television movies of the 60s, 70s, and 80s And he shows us the homosexuality, the drugs, the immorality, the early deaths of many of those who played in the Brady Bunch one day at a time, different strokes, family ties, New Mickey Mouse Club, and the Parstridge family. Some of you remember these. Some of you will not unless you've seen reruns. The second handout that I've given to you this evening, I believe, that we've handed this out in the past, and it's titled, Beware of Science Fiction. And it says that science fiction takes the reader into a strange world without God. And it says, oh, there might be a God of force, but it is definitely not the God of the Bible. And it talks about the prominent names in the field are in this field, rather, science fiction, are atheists. And you see the list of names here. I'm going to quote from at least one or two of these. Again, it says that science fiction is intimately associated with Darwinian evolution. And so, you need to consider these things as you talk with people and so forth. And the third handout is from the Berean Call, and it's dealing with the Avatar Gospel. As we come here tonight, again, I ask you to bear with me as we look at some things this evening. And as we come back to our passage that we've just read, we are told in verse 15 and 16 that He says, But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. In the Old and the New Testament, God says to you and I that we are to be holy. Now, in 2007, three years ago, I preached a message and it is called television. And we dealt with the introduction of television, the effects of television, and the solution. Last year in 2009, I preached a message titled Entertainment. And we dealt with the theater, we dealt with sports, and we dealt with banqueting three areas in that message. Last year in 2009, I also preached the message the week after the message on entertainment. I preached the message on Disney, and I gave you a history of Walt Disney and his company. Last Sunday night, we preached the message on Fantasia that was produced by Disney almost 70 years ago. This evening, we're going to title the message, Hollywood. Obviously, we will branch out beyond just Hollywood itself, but I'm using that title. And I wanted to come here to begin with to see in 1 Peter that God says that we are to be holy because He is holy. He says that in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament. Now, I want you to turn with me please to chapter 2. And notice what I mean, 1 Peter 2. A husband told a wife that used to attend this church, he says to her, he says, we've either got to change or leave the church. And they chose to leave the church when it comes to the subject of entertainment and my preaching on this. We are the TV generation. I grew up on television. And you grew up on television. Before you became a Christian, this was a huge part of your life. It is the norm. It's like abortion. Many of you that are sitting here, you don't know anything else except legalized abortion. It's been here ever since you've been in the world. And the same is true with television with most of us. The average American, watches four hours of television a day, that's 28 hours a week, 120 hours a month, 1,456 hours per year. That's equivalent to 50 days each year of watching television. Now, these are old stats. So, if I could bring you up to date, some of these are back in the early 90s, 93, 95, some of these statistics. Ninety-eight percent of Americans have at least one television in the home. Most Americans have television in every bedroom as well as the living room and kitchen. Two hours a day of television would be one full year in just 12 years. Now think about that, just two hours a day. The average teenager sees 50 R-rated movies in a year. The average child sees between 15,000 to 30,000 hours of television before leaving for school. That's a report that was done in 1995. Many children spend more time watching television before reaching age six than they will spend with their fathers throughout their entire life. The average child by the time they leave school will have seen 800,000 to 1.5 million acts of violence, including 192,000 to 360,000 murders depicted on television, the average child sees 240,000 to 480,000 sexual acts or reference to sex by the time they reach 17 years of age. If you were to put aside good and evil and just study the effects of television, in other words, just take away the issue of what is good, what is bad, and contrast them, and just study the effects of television physically, emotionally, spiritually, and so forth, it is quite devastating to sit and watch a lot of television even if there was not bad things on it. It is not good for an individual. Now, you'll notice as we come to this passage, we see here in 1 Peter 2 and verse 11, He said, "'But dearly, beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshy lusts which war against the soul.'" There's things that war against our soul. I want you to turn with me to 2 Peter, and we're going to be reading in chapter 2. In 2 Peter 2. Now, I want to come to this passage, 2 Peter 2, and I want to read just a few verses from here. I want to begin reading in verse 6. Now notice in this passage, we see that in verse 6, he said, "...and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds." Now, there's another passage. I'm not going to turn to it, but the Bible said in Luke 17, verse 32, it says, remember Lot's wife. That's a solemn warning. She knew the truth. She knew the covenant of God that was made with Abraham. These are things that she knew she had the privilege of true, genuine religion. And you know the story of what happened to Lot's wife as she fled out of the city. She had to turn and get that last look back at what she was leaving. And the Bible gives us a warning and it said, Remember Lot's wife. Those three words. But I want you to notice with me in this passage that the Bible says in verse 7, "...and delivered Juselot, Vex," notice that, "...Vex, with the filthy conversation of the wicked, verse 8, for that righteous man dwelling among them," now look at this, "...in seeing and hearing." Notice, "...in seeing and hearing." Now, of course, he chose to go there. And Lot was not a fag, but he tolerated their lifestyle. He tolerated their filthiness. And he was among them. The Bible says that his righteous soul was vexed, listen to me, with seeing and hearing on a daily basis. Now turn with me to Colossians and notice with me in chapter 2. I have three areas we're going to consider this evening. And we're going to consider, first of all, Hollywood's agenda. And then secondly, we're going to take a brief look at some recent movies from the last 30 years and especially the last year or so. And then we're going to take a look at a few older movies that laid the foundation for the newer movies. Now, first of all, I want to turn to Colossians chapter 2. And Hollywood is a cesspool of filth and poison like a huge septic tank. Now, we should not be swimming around in it trying to find something good. You're not going to find a good hamburger in the septic tank. And so we need us to stay away from it and not be influenced by it. Hollywood, as far as the place, is just simply a district in Los Angeles, California, consolidated. with L.A. in 1910 and has been a film theater center for many years. And it is a place where much filth has come out of it. Now, we're going to talk about, first of all, Hollywood's agenda. I'm going to give you some old quotes we've used in the past. I'm going to give you some new quotes that maybe you have not heard at least from this pulpit. Now, you'll notice with me as we come to this passage. Now, does Hollywood have an agenda? Well, they're a tool of Satan, and they are anti-Christ. They're anti-Christian. Now, there's no doubt about that. It's a Trojan horse. If Christianity is ever portrayed in movies, it's usually always distorted. It doesn't matter where you go, it's usually distorted. Now, if we were to consider the belief systems of Hollywood, Let me give you an example of that this evening. There is a survey some years ago done of 104 of the most influential television writers, producers, and executives, shows a major reason for our moral decline. 93% of this 104 writers and producers and executives say seldom or never attend religious services. 95% describe themselves as left of center politically. 14% to the right of center. 97% of these writers and producers that were surveyed some years ago now, they were pro-choice on abortion. 80% did not regard homosexuality as being wrong. 86% support the rights of faggots to teach in the public school. 51% did not regard adultery as wrong, and only 17% strongly think that extramarital affairs are wrong. Now, this was done years ago, and this is a survey of many of the writers and producers and executives in Hollywood. Now, Anton LaVey, I think it was last year I gave a few quotes of him. He's the founder of the first church of Satan. He's the writer of the Satanic Bible. And he said we can use television as a potent propaganda machine. And I gave a couple of these quotes to you last year. But he said that the birth of TV was a magical event foreshadowing its satanic significance. Since then, TV's infiltration has been so gradual, so complete, that no one ever noticed. People don't need to go to church anymore. They get their morality plays on television. He says that the television set or a satanic family altar has grown more elaborate since the early 50s from the tiny fuzzy screen to huge entertainment centers covering the entire wall with several TV monitors. And he goes on in this article to just simply talk about that he basically says that from everyday life has become in itself a replacement for real life for millions, a major religion of the masses. I didn't quote the entire paragraph, But he's talking about the television, how it's replaced people's lives with basically this fantasy world. And here's another quote by him, and he says, Fantasy plays an important role in any religious curriculum, for the subjective mind is less discriminating about the quality of its food than it is about the taste. Now think about that. He says the subjective mind is less discriminating about the quality of its food than it is about the taste. Thus, fantasy is utilized as a magic weapon in Satanism. He said the Satanist maintains a storehouse of avowed fantasy gathered from all cultures and from all ages. And then I gave you this quote last year a man who worked on the homosexual sitcom Ellen, he said, if we can get people laughing, we can get our message underneath the door, and they will more readily accept that which would not normally be accepted. Ted Turner, speaking to a group of broadcasters, here's what he said. He said, delegates to the United Nations are not as important as the people in this room. We are the ones that determine what the people's attitudes are. It's in our hands." This is so true. And another writer, and I'm taking this from a track by another preacher, and the track says, Why I Do Not Have a Television, and James Milton up in Tennessee. He said in 1938 at the very dawn of the age of television, a news anchor, E.B. White, uttered these words. He said, I believe TV is going to be the test of the modern world and in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision, we shall discover either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by TV, of what that I am quite sure." And he goes on to say, well, I'll just stop quoting right there. Researchers have shown that television viewing has the greatest influence on mankind today. And I'm only giving you a few things. I could go on for hours with this. I've done much research over the last 20 or so years. But a study that was done by TV Guide. This was reported on NBC Nightly News, May 21, 1993. This study by TV Guide reported that in a single day, TV showed 1,846 acts of violence, 389 assaults, 362 uses of guns, and 273 punches. This is all in one day. Researchers have estimated 50% of crime is related to TV violence. So what we're confirming tonight that you already know is that television has played a major role in our country, and it is destroying the faith of many, and it makes it very difficult to preach and teach. For the last many years, and I'm going to go ahead and mention these because I'm dealing with the agenda, then we'll look at a few movies in a moment. But let me mention two films or series, and I want to give you a quote by the producers of them to show you that there is an agenda in Hollywood. I want you to understand that there is a belief system in Hollywood. When you consider their belief system and the message they're preaching, when you consider the background music they put in these movies, to give you an example, Elton John in The Lion King, he's a sodomite. The background music is by him. Tchaikovsky, there's 250 movies in the world today that has one of his songs, background music, in that. He was a sodomite. And so, there's sodomite music in much of the movies. The images, the profanity, the immorality, the materialism, the fashions, and all these things that are preached, I'm going to say preached, in these films. But here is Star Wars 1977. It's been around a while. It's been around over 30 years. The producer, George Lucas, is in This is an indoctrination into the force. And 30 years of Star War shows the staying power of pagan ideas. Now listen, here's a quote by him. He said, I put the force into the movement. You know what the force is, don't you? You'll hear people say, the force be with you. You know what this is talking about, right? It's talking about God and not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And he says here, I put the force into the movie in order to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people, more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system. Then he goes on to say, all religions are true. What are we saying? We're saying that there is an agenda with those that are producing the movie. Now, listen to this. Star Trek and the Star Trek The Next Generation began in 1979, been a long time ago. The creator and producer of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, he was a humanist, an atheist, believes in evolution, believes in the existence of human beings on other planets. He believes there will be no second coming of Jesus Christ and no divine judgment upon sin. He says, Star Trek is my statement to the world. Understand that Star Trek is more than just my political philosophy. It is my social philosophy, my racial philosophy, my overview of life and the human condition. The editor of the Humanistic magazine of which interviewed Roddenberry said this, Star Trek is probably the most humanistic entertainment program on TV or perhaps ever has been on TV. A preacher didn't say that. A reporter said that. Roddenberry said this on religion. He said, there has always been fundamentalism and the religious right. But I think there has been too much of it. I keep hoping that it is temporary foolishness. Some of it will be around because there will always be people who are so mean-spirited and such limited thinkers that their religious beliefs seem rather so logical that there is no God. I'm reading in Colossians 2 and in verse We've quoted this verse this morning. And in verse 8, talking about Jesus Christ, it says, "...in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." And then in verse 8, he says, "...Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, in not after Christ. We can be spoiled, that is, carried away, robbed and destroyed through the philosophy that is in this world. Back up with me to Philippians 4. And notice here, I think we read this last Sunday night. Now, we know that it doesn't matter what kind of programming it is. If it's religious programming, there's ecumenicalism, there's usually false doctrine, distorted programs, doesn't matter if we're in any of the religious areas. If it's the news, there's much lies and propaganda in all of that. We've got to be very careful of that. If it's sports, there's nudity and pride and violence and drunkenness. The sitcoms, basically, they laugh and mock at sin and God and His Word and His people. If it's the game shows, it's promoting covetousness. If it's the soap operas, you know what they promote. I don't have to get into that. The talk shows, most of them are people like Oprah and Dr. Phil and Donahue and people like that. If it's the horror films, they're basically demonic and those kind of things. If it's the public broadcasting, got to be careful of that, a lot of humanism. If it's the Discovery Channel, you'll realize that they're rewriting history. Even the weather channel, you've got to ask the question, just how much weather do we need? Amen. I mean, just how much do... I've seen people sit and watch that and glued to it for hours, you know, worrying about the weather in Rome and Italy and, you know, in Afghanistan. Who gives a care about any of that? Amen. And then the war movies, all of that garbage, I mean, it's just killing time after time. You're sitting there with your family, and no wonder we're warped and so forth. And you consider the cartoons and the commercials. I was reading something recently, and it's saying that the commercials that most Americans see, thousand commercials every year, and it said this, it said if 30 to 60 second spots known as commercials are effective means to sell products, and they are, they really were, it says what about 30 to 60 minutes TV programs known as news and comedy and things of that nature? This thing is working. And the devil's doing a good job as far as what he believes that he's to do in destroying the lives of individuals through these kind of things. Now, in Philippians chapter 4, we're turning here. And we see in verse 80, it said, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, and whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things have a good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. This leaves out a whole lot of stuff. I mean, if you're going to think on the things of God, there's no way, there's nothing in Hollywood that we can find. I know when you get saved, you start thinking, well, I'm going to find the good movies. And you're looking for the good movies. You think you've got them. Then you look at them and you say, well, these are not good. And then you start looking into the Christian scenes. I'm going to talk about that next week. And I'm just simply saying we're better off not to have any of it, because it is brainwashing many people. Turn to Romans and notice with me in chapter 12. In the book of Romans, chapter 13 rather. Let's go to chapter 13. You've heard of the story of the frog being slowly cooked in the water, right? You've heard that story. And well, some are not only cooked, but they're well done right now. I want you to know that the frog's been in the water for many years And it is well done. Their brain has been cooked. Now, you'll notice as we come to this passage, and we're going to be in Wednesday night when we get back in the book of Romans chapter 12, we're going to be looking at a verse in verse 9 that says, "...abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good." You know what the word abhor means? It means to hate it. And he says, "...hate that which is evil, abhor it, and cleave to that which is good." Now notice in Romans, we're going to be reading in chapter 13. In Romans and in chapter 13. And most of you know the passage. In Psalms 101 verse 3, Thou set no wicked thing before my eyes. How many of you know that passage? And there's been many wicked things in movies for the last number of years. I want you to understand that. Now notice as we read from verse 11. in Romans chapter 13, reading from verse 11. He says here in this passage, he said, "...and that knowing that the time, that now it is high time to awake out of the sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light." Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy. Now look in verse 14, but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, underline it, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. He said put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh. We'll make no provision for it. Turn them into 2 Corinthians, and we're going to be reading in chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Now, let's come to our second point this evening. And I'm going to basically talk to you for a few moments about some new themes. Now, when I say new, I say in the last 30 years, but I'm going to pick out three in the last two or three years. But if we were to go span back over the several years, We could call off a number of movies. And it doesn't matter where you go, what movie that you look at, you're going to find things in it that a Christian should not be looking at. There's blatant blasphemy, vileness in Hollywood in just about every movie that's been produced. There's a movie come out not too many years ago, Brokeback Mountain, sodomy, glorifying homosexuality. And there's movies, even Cheers and Seinfeld and all of these became very popular reruns even to this day. Wicked Femme. In Saving Private Ryan, 170 minutes long, average every two minutes, a curse word. There's much profanity and taking God's name in vain. Black Hawk Down that came out not too many years ago, 144 minutes, the average every three minutes, there's cursing in it. And now there's a new Sherlock Holmes that's supposed to be a homosexual. He has a homosexual lover. Now, a lot of people say, well, that's horrible. But let me ask you something. I don't know whether you've ever seen Sherlock Holmes years ago. I never cared for it anyway, even as a lost man. But science always conquered everything. If you were to go back and view the old film, there was never a need for God. is always man's intellect and science and technology and all those kind of things, and never a need for God. You might as well have a fag Sherlock Holmes, amen? Now, what I want to do, I want to pick out just a few movies. And there's many new ones, and I've got a list of them here before me. And I'm not even going to get into naming them, but I do want to take three films and just make some mention to you just in the last few years. Now, we know that in Proverbs 14.9, I'm not asking you to turn there. You stay in Corinthians. But it says, fools make a mock at sin. Psalms 101, verse 3, I said a moment ago that we set no wicked thing before our eyes. The flickering on the screens, the over 30 frames a second, puts individuals into a hypnotic state, even if it wasn't bad things. It is messing with the mind. The power of memory. We find that images and sounds are placed in the minds of individuals. It makes a deep and long-lasting impression upon them. I read something recently and it said by the time a TV watcher is 30 years of age, that there are 3 trillion video images printed in or on their mind. And if you just took good and evil out of the way and just studied, The psychological effect, the hypnotic state that television puts people into, that's enough to say that I'm going to stay away from it. Then you bring into the equation the wickedness and the hellishness and the rebellion against God, you can definitely say that I have no business watching the television. Now, let me start off with a movie that came out in December. seven months ago in 09 in its avatar. And I showed you this morning, here is a replica of the people that lived on Pandora, okay? This is a science fiction, and you can see the dress similar to some of the native Indians. And I'll make reference to that in just a moment. Now, I'm going to be quoting some things and some things I've written down myself. When I'm studying things and I'm studying reviews and whatever on something, I make me a list like I did with Disney. And if I see something, read something, hear something, I write down a word. And I may have half a paragraph, a list of things that are in this movie. You remember the things I listed off of Fantasia? We talked about nudity, idolatry, witchcraft, magic, and all that. Well, here is what I have found, and I don't have to watch the movie. I've never seen the movie, don't plan to see it. But here's what I found in my studies and what I've read. and the reports of even some who produced the movie, it is fictional for one thing. It is a spiritism, pantheistic, that is, earth worship, a shamanism, magic, it's ritualistic, communing with spirits, idols, New Age, pagan, foul language, profaning God in Jesus' name, evolution, again, worship of Mother Nature, nudity, necromancing, that is, talking or communing with the dead. Those are just a few things that are in the movie Avatar. It is a science fiction film by James Cameron, who is a Christ rejecter. He is a Christ rejecter. It's the most successful film In history, with Titanic in the second place, that is up to its production. I don't know where anything's surpassed it since December. There may have been. There have been many new movies that's been produced. But the first two weeks of this movie, it took in over $617 million. At this time, it's taken in over $1 billion. It's a PG-13. It has bad language, some sexual content, and battle-related violence. Now, the theme of it is pantheistic. The religion and clothes of the Navi people are similar to the American Indian or some of the American Indians. When you read about this, and it's in the movie, it's a very high-tech science fiction movie. And it has taken the world spellbound. There is in the movie a tree of souls. Now I'm thinking of rejecting the Bible and still yet trying to be a little similar. There's a tree of life in the Bible. But there's a tree of souls. This is a special tree linked to their mother. God, and they're trying to save their mother, God. Their gods live in trees and plants, very much to many of the native Indians' belief. The Navi, this is the people, their god is spelled E-Y-W-A, Awe, I believe, and she's a mother goddess. described as a network of energy, and the hero in this film is an ex-marine. He basically, later in the movie, is converted, and he prays to their God through the Tree of Souls, saying that humans have not been good stewards of their planet Earth, and they kill their mother, and they're going to do the same here, that is, on the planet Pandora. And even the lead scientist in the film becomes a pagan in the end of the movie proclaiming that she believes in this Mother God and she believes she's real, and as she's dying, she's going to go to be with her. This is a pagan film from beginning to end. The setting of this movie is a planet, Pandora, inhabited by tall, blue-skinned humanoids called Navis, an alien race, and their planet is invaded by humans, and they're threatened by these human invaders to take of their natural resources because they have abused the earth, and all the humans are considered as unbelievers. And the hero, the Savior in the film is a mixture between a human and a Na'vi. In other words, the DNA taken from humans and this alien race and placed together to form the savior of this movie. Even a pagan blogger said this, it is a wonderful and very pagan film. It is wicked. It is out of hell. And many Christians have went to see it and they'll have the DVD in their homes as well. I will destroy this replica, by the way, after tonight. This was given to me and I hung on to it just so I could use it tonight. Twilight series. You can't go anywhere to the grocery store or even stop and get something to eat in a restaurant hardly without seeing the faces of some of those who have played in this series. I guess one of the latest is The New Moon. It describes an illicit romance between a teenage girl and a vampire. The four books have sold millions of copies and have spun off movies. All of these things are basically, most of these are from books. There is an infatuation with darkness. Millions of dollars have been made off of this. She wants to become a vampire. The man Edward is a member of a coven of vampire family members that are depicted in the movie as good vampires. Now we know that in the Bible, when we talk about evil and darkness and things, there's nothing good ever said about any of that. And the mythological being, vampires, even the people that like this stuff, they admit that they're damned souls. And we know that in the Bible, Old and New Testament, and in the New Testament, Acts 15, that drinking blood is evil. This is demonic. It's out of hell, and there's a new interest today in vampires and things of that nature because of these books and because of these films. Now, here's a quote from another author, and he said this. I want you to listen to this very carefully. He said, the Twilight books and movie has been recommended by the Christian stay-at-home moms website Focus on the families plugged in online, ChristianityTodayMovies.com, and Campus Life, Ignite, Your Faith Christian Teen magazines. What in the world is Christians going and watching this or bringing this into their homes and then promoting it and saying that it's good reading material and good movies? This is the reason I'm preaching this tonight. I'm not going to try to convince you to not watch it because you're not going to watch it. You don't want to watch it. But I want you to see how people are thinking today and why that there's little response today in America to the true, genuine preaching of the Word of God. If you're not playing games in church, you're not having busloads of people knocking your doors down to get in. One other movie I'm going to mention. The Golden Compass that came out in December 7, 2007. I want you to listen to this. I'm going to give you some quotes by the man that wrote the book. The movie is based on a book by Philip Pullman. The book series, now here's what they're called, and they're for children. These book series are for children. It says, the book series, here's what they're called, His Dark Materials. This is his book series, His Dark Materials. That's what they're called. They're for children. Isn't that wonderful? And he says, in other words, let me read on. He says, The book series His Dark Materials, on which the Golden Compass is based, is aggressively anti-Christian. The Golden Compass is the first book in a triology called His Dark Materials. The movie follows the same pattern as the books. The books are for children. Pullman said, the one who wrote the books, here's what he said. Now listen. He said, my books are about killing God. That's what he said. Now these are for children. He said, I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief. He said, if there is a God, and He is as the Christian describes Him, then He deserves to be put down and rebelled against. This movie, The Golden Compass was awarded in the United States the Esteemed Carnegie Medal for one of the ten greatest children's books of all time in the United States of America. Here's two more quotes by him. He said, I no longer believe in the God I used to believe in when I was a boy. Another quote, he said, Let me start over. I am all for the death of God. Now, this is a children's book. about killing God, the golden compass that was made into a movie based upon the book. Again, it's supposed to be for children, about children. Children are in the movie, and the whole goal of this thing is to kill God, and every child has a demon of their own. They have a devil of their own, and there's witches all through this movie. And people are saying, oh, these are great and wonderful movies. I'm beginning to wonder if there's not much more saved today as there was in Noah's day. I'm beginning to wonder about this in our churches across our land. Now, I told you to turn to 2 Corinthians. We've got to move on. Now, notice in chapter 10, see, where is the salt and light of the believers in the world today? Notice he said in 2 Corinthians 10, let me read from verse 3, and just read just a few verses. And you'll notice with me in this passage, he said in verse 3, for though we walk in the flesh, that is, in this physical body, we do not war after the flesh. Verse 4, he said, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that is, they're not fleshy, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, That which is entrenched against us, the enemy. And he says in verse 5, casting down. Now look at this. What's the next word? Help me out. Casting down what? Imaginations. Notice that. imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." Notice that we're to bring, we're to cast down images and to bring Every high thing that exalted the self against knowledge of God, we are to stand against that. We are to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Matthew chapter 6. Now, let's consider for a few moments older movies. Older movies. Go all the way back to 1941. A movie that Somebody in church gave me years ago, and I really liked it and kept it for a good while. I just thought it was great. And that was Sergeant York. It was produced as war propaganda. I was deceived by that. I've even been to his house, the Sergeant York. I have talked to his relatives. I've been in the house where he died. I've sat down in the house and talked to his daughter-in-law. Could have met his son if I had wanted to stay and so forth. I went there to just, I guess, because I saw the movie. Old Yeller. How many remember this? Oh, that's got to be a Christian film. How many have seen it? Okay. 1957. Old Yeller, if you really look at it closely, It's about children who are unsupervised by their parents and they are heroes in the movie solving all of the problems. If you don't believe me, go watch it. No, don't watch it. You remember the little rebellious boy that's in the film? Do you want your children acting like that? No. Pollyanna, haven't you seen that? 1960. Emphasis on children, some rebellion by some children, and the preacher that preaches in the movie, and his whole theology is changed by a little girl, and he was a better preacher before she changed his theology. How many of you have ever seen that? He was a fire-breathing preacher before, but then he compromised. What about Little House on the Prairie? What we do as Christians, Sometimes we come out of the world so we give up the wicked stuff. Now this was my pattern. It may be yours. We gave up the wicked stuff. But we are the TV generation. We were raised on it. We're hooked on it. And so we start looking for something that's a little, you know, that's not so bad. Little House on the Prairie. I've had a few of those series as well. And in those series, I love the wagons and the horses and all the things, and they always were going to church and all that kind of stuff. But even in that, we find things that we don't want to be imitating. We find rebellious women in the movie. We find children, or it all works out in the end, seems to be, but we find several times certain ones running away from home. Do we not see that in the film? I was reading something here not long ago, Laura, that when she's supposed to have gotten married, she refused to take the wedding vows of obeying her husband. I've never seen that, but I've read that somewhere. And my wife and I were talking about this not long ago, Charles Ingalls. You know, if you ever watch very many of the series, every so many movies, you'd find him with his shirt taken off, bare-chested. You know why that he did that? Because many women requested that. And so, every so many movies, you would find him, he might be out working or something, and he smoked, he drank, he had a failed marriage, and he was a Catholic. Now, I'm not trying to take anything away from you, I'm trying to give you something tonight. Shirley Temple from 1931. A lot of rebellious movies that was cute and kept you laughing. Gilligan's Island, 1964-1967, a comedy. Back then, two naked women, one crazy married couple, and three single men chasing the two naked women. That's what the movie's about. How many of you have ever seen it? That's what it's about. We grew up watching this stuff. This was our entertainment growing up. Bonanza. I read this. Amber Walton's. I read this a few years ago. Bonanza. How many of you have seen Bonanza? Okay. That's got to be good. 1962. Began a series. It's got to be good. I'm going to read you a quote taken from TV is not for Christians from Turkey Ridge Baptist Church. Here's what it says. It says, To the unspiritual mind, All is well, but here is a family with no need for God." I hadn't seen that movie in a hundred years, it seemed like. But as I read this article about three or four years ago, I said, this is so true, because I still have visual images in my mind that I watched every one of those series coming up. It goes on to say, the three sons often visit the local saloon, and occasional drinks are poured by dad at home, If little Joe is upset, maybe a drink is given to calm him. One could go on about unholy relations and love affairs, situational ethics, humanism, etc. But when you boil it down, no Christian dad would want a son like Hoss, Adam, or little Joe, and no pastor would want the unregenerate cartwrights for members. Amen, amen, and amen. God is nowhere in the movie. It's teaching you about humanism. Work out your own problems. The Waltons had some of these also, I confess, tonight. Yes, as a Christian. Yes, as a preacher. 1981, the series began. There was nine seasons. But here's another quote by another writer, and I agree with him 100%. Listen to this. The Waltons TV show is often mentioned as one of the world's best attempts to present good on the screen. But again, God is portrayed to be for women and children and not for men. Teens soon drift from the nest and the Christian life. Situational ethics are often seen where Doing good for someone is more important than obeying God. This is the truth. How many have ever seen any of the Walton series? It began in 1981. This is so true. Andy Griffin, two single men, two single women, the dating game, the women working outside the home. As far as I know, they never married. I didn't see all of them. It began in 1960. That thing is 50 years old. Public school. Otis the Drunk on just about every show. This, by the way, this movie and the material is used in Sunday school classes today across our land to teach people about God. Happy Days, 1974 to 1984. Ron Howard, all you've got to do is study his life as a filmmaker now. He was one of the stars in the movie. This whole movie was designed for teenagers. Centered around the fifties, a man by the name of Fonz, they call him, all took his advice. He was cool and he knew how to get the girls. This whole film is about rock music, drinking, immorality. Two of the girls in the film worked at a brewer, And the parents always appeared to be idiots in this film. I don't know if you've ever seen it in years gone by. Very, very popular. Dukes of Hazzard. How many of you have ever heard about this? Alright. 1979. It's about a naked girl and two bubba's always running from the law. And it was at one time the most watched show in America. It is absolutely Stupid. They had a car named General with welded doors. They didn't even know how to open a door and get in the car, so people started climbing through the windows from watching the movie. I'm just kidding. Probably somebody did that. But anyway, I'm simply saying to you is the ignorance and the stupidity and again, the nakedness and the things that was in this particular movie. Now, why am I doing this tonight? Well, things didn't go bad yesterday. They didn't go bad last week or last year. 50 years ago and 60 years ago and 70 years ago, the foundation in Hollywood was being laid for what you have now in the darkness, the demonic, the occult and all this that we see now. The foundation was laid many, many years ago. In 1970, there's a film that came out called MASH, a medical unit in Korea, drinking, fornicating, and lying all through this film. It's a 30-minute segment once a week. The Beverly Hillbillies came out in 1962, ran from 1971. And you've got Jed, a good old boy. You've got Granny making her moonshine. You've got Jethro as a big idiot. You've got Ellie Mae. And they always, in so many films, had to show a pool scene and her in her bathing suit. Hardly anybody's married in the movie. You've got a lady chasing Jethro and another man that's a banker that's greedy and all. I'm just simply saying to you, destroying the lives of individuals. I came through this era. The foundation was being laid. I love Lucy, he, Hall, Leave it to Beaver, all these. God is in none of these. God is in none of these. You can go back many years with the cowboy movies. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger and Tonto. And you know, Christians are going by those now. The bottom line is, they may be some good guys, but no God. I want you to think about it. Go back and don't do this. But if you went back and checked them out, they're good guys. But there is no God. There's humanism. There's girls, saloons, drinking and killing and all that kind of stuff. But God is not in the equation. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is nowhere to be found. The cartoons. from years ago until now are filled with violence, demonic beings, rebellion, rock music, spiritualism, humanism, immodesty, the occult, all these kind of things. Ted Turner launched Captain Planet and the Planeteers in 1990 for distribution on Turner Broadcasting System and nationwide syndication. And he targeted children between 3 and 12 years of age. And the main characters are the Planeteers, five children from around the world who saved the environment from the destructive force of man's greed. No matter where it's a Simpsons, Teletubbies, no matter where you go. Go to Spider-Man, Batman, The Joker, it looks like a fag on there and all that. No matter where you go in Hollywood, you're going to run into wicked stuff. And even Casper the unholy spirit, the friendly ghost. He wasn't so friendly. He was sweet and cute and lonely and all he wanted was some friends, but he was a supernatural being. He was not an angel. And he had magic. He flew around. He flew and walked through doors and all those kind of things. He had magic powers and all of that. I'm saying that we were indoctrinated through movies and cartoons and commercials and all this into the occult 50 and 60 and 70 years ago in America. Notice here, in Matthew 6. I'm going to read here in one other passage, and we're going to close. He said in Matthew 6, and you'll notice with me as we begin reading in verse 21. In verse 21, he says, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, Thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Now, I read this in the verses in verse 22 and 23, this dealing with the I. Whatever has our I has us. Amen? Whatever has my I has me. It has my thoughts. It has my affections. It has my time. It will have my talents. It will have my money. It will have my imagination. If you like darkness, then the whole individual is dark. If we watch evil, we will become evil. And that's exactly what has come out of Hollywood. Revelation chapter 18 is where we'll close. As we're turning there, 2 Corinthians 7 says, cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and what? The Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 22, abstain from all appearances of evil. Isaiah 5 verse 20, there are those that will call good evil and evil good. They'll put darkness for light and light for darkness. We see that today. And then in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 33, we read it this morning, evil communications corrupt good manners. I was in prison preaching in Loxley about three or four months ago. And we had the opportunity to go not only to preach in the chapel, but to spend time in the barracks with the men and so forth before the preaching session. And I walked into one barracks with me and another man. We covered this barracks and went in and spent time with the men, spent two or three hours with the men before church services. When I walked in, I could see a huge screen television at the other end, probably 200 men in this barracks. And as I walked down the aisle there in between the bunks and got closer, there were 40 or 50 men gathered around in chairs and sitting on the floor and watching. And here it was, women half-dressed singing rock and roll and rap music. And I thought, boy, this is the last thing that these men need in prison. The very last thing that they need. What would Jesus do? What would Jesus watch? So you've got to think about these things. We need to quit, and when I say we, I'm talking about Christians in general, we need to quit looking at Hollywood for something good. There is nothing good that is in Hollywood. Rome, because of the corruption of government unrest of the people. Does this sound like America? And because of the fear of revolt among the people, there were two things they did for the people. They supplied them, gave them bread and gave them games. They gave them bread and gave them games. They kept their bellies full and kept their eyes and ears entertained. And America, is doing the same thing today. We will close in this passage. You'll notice with me as we come to Revelation chapter 18. And notice with me in verse 4 and verse 5. He says here in verse 4, He said, And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, My people. Talking about Babylon. that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." God says, come out. Come out from the Babylonian mindset and mentality and doctrine and things of that nature. Come out, because God says, I'm going to judge her. He says, come out. And be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues." There are many today that are partaking of the sins of Hollywood, and they're going to partake of the plagues also of Hollywood as well. It has destroyed many lives. It has taken many people, many believers out of the battle. You see, we're in a battle. This is not a playground. This is a battleground. If you hadn't figured that out, you've got your head in the sand. This is real. There's a war. We have an enemy. And we're on a battleground. And Hollywood is a part of the enemy. We're going to stop right there.