Speaker 1 (00:04):

Welcome to Equipping the Bride Podcast. I'm your host, Jason DeMars, and thank you for listening in. It's my calling and my desire to teach the message rightly dividing the word of truth in order to equip the bride to live the very life of Christ by the Holy Ghost. You can direct any questions, prayer requests, or testimonies to me@jasondemars.com. Get free resources and materials shipped to your home as well. I pray you'll be equipped by the word today. 

Speaker 1 (00:48):

Good morning everyone. May the Lord richly bless you. I am back from, uh, Turkey and the missions trip there. Certainly appreciate your prayers and thank you very much for all your support and standing with me beyond that trip. Um, let's see. We're gonna be talking today, um, on the thought. Are you enough? Just wanna remind everybody. Please go ahead. If you're on YouTube, make sure to subscribe and click that little button, uh, the little bell so that you, uh, get alerted when, when I go live. So we had a, had a good trip, um, I think some of you may have seen, but I was, uh, under the weather for most of it. So it was a little bit of a, uh, I had to be a, a little bit slower trip as far as ministry wise, but I think the things that, that I had in my heart to accomplish got accomplished. Uh, some of the communication things with the ministry team there and the work there. So, um, very, very thankful for that and wonderful to see the Lord working in people's lives. Amen. All right, let's get into it. I feel very rusty getting <laugh> getting started here. So if, if you're listening in, please send your greetings. I wanna be able to greet you personally, so please, please do that. Let's look at this idea, uh, that you hear this concept, people will say, well, I just feel like I'm not enough. 

Speaker 1 (02:49):

And it's a statement saying, uh, I, I feel like I'm, I, it's, it's about self-esteem. And I, and I think what it is, is it is a, it's a worldview that as Christians should be foreign to us. It shouldn't be a way in a process that we're thinking. Uh, you hear people say, I feel like I'm not, I'm just not enough. And okay, uh, there's, there's a feeling, there's an emotion behind that. But again, feelings and emotions are not, they, they come and they go, uh, that you, you could have good feelings, one minute, negative feelings, another minute, and it, it's things based upon the condition of your mind or the condition of your body, but it's not based upon truth and light and the word of God. And again, there's a worldview that media, social media, entertainment, advertisements, et cetera, et cetera, there are thrusting a worldview upon all of us. 

Speaker 1 (04:09):

And if we don't guard our hearts and are not careful, we're letting a worldview creep into us that's foreign to the word of God. So I wanna start out by saying, this is, the gospel tells us you're not enough. We live in a society where we say, you know, I, I'm not, I'm just not enough. And it's speaking about, well, I, I've, I've valued myself and seen that I've come up short. My self-esteem is low. Um, you know, these, these are things that are real, that are serious, but they're things that come from the wrong direction. Esteem the word esteem means respect and admiration. Um, or respect. Admire, admire. So self-esteem you look at is we are to admire and respect ourselves. Respect certainly, but admire ourselves. This is something that's out of balance. 

Speaker 1 (05:31):

The gospel is not a gospel of self-esteem. It's not a gospel that tells you you are okay. It's a gospel that tells you your true condition in the sight of God. We are all a mess. We are all filthy and vile in the sight of God. The Bible says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You're a sinner. What is, what is the punishment for sin? It's death and hell, God is an infinitely perfect and holy God, and he req and the gospel shows us, he requires you and I to have the same holiness all of us fall short. That is why Christ came. That is why the gospel is being preached. He came, he lived a perfect life. He lived up to the, to, to the bar that God required of him perfection, and he became the perfect sacrifice to take our sins in his own body and to be executed and tortured on a cross to shed his righteous blood in your place. 

Speaker 1 (06:53):

And God takes his righteousness and perfect life and gives it to you by faith. You put your faith in him, you repent. You turn away from your sinful lifestyle. You get baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you get filled with the spirit, the spirit coming upon you. That's the token. That's the application of his blood. And that blood makes you righteous and holy in God's sight. God is not coming to raise up your self-esteem. God is not coming because he wants you to feel good about yourself. God is coming because you are destined for hell, and he's coming to call you to deliver you from the clutches of the enemy so you can walk in freedom and newness of life. Jesus said, I come to give you life and that more abundantly. 

Speaker 1 (07:54):

He, he said, he, he, he came to give us joy. He says in me, your joy is complete, not in yourself, not in your own self-esteem, not because you're enough. See, that's, that's a, that's a a way of looking at things That's false. That's not accurate. The real true way of looking at things is through God's glasses, through God's eyes. Now, we live in a world, uh, all of us, but especially young people, the apps on their phones are literally on our, on our phones. They're designed to make you discontent addicted to your phone and, and their minds shaped before your, before your brain is even really fully formed. And you're set into this mold of receiving mental pleasure from a device based on algorithms and people that are just made up online versions of themselves on, on to Instagram, Snapchat, you pres, present the very best of yourself, your travel, your fun, the, the, the, the food you're eating and the coffees you're drinking, all the things that you enjoy.

Speaker 1 (09:30):

So a young person or, or anyone sits and sees those things and says, my life is not like that every day. And you grow discontent and you grow depressed because all you do is you go to work, you go to school, you're at home, you're in your, you're in your apartment, you're not having fun. You're not, you're not doing these, having these great adventures and doing these wonderful things. And so now, oh, you're, you're sad and you're upset, and I feel like I'm not enough. That's the devil. That's the devil. Shifting your eyes from the right things. I want to say this. If, if I could, if I could bring one thing is turn your eyes upon Jesus. Don't live your life trying to create something that oth someone else has carefully crafted to make it look in a certain way. Look what a danger we have. 

Speaker 1 (10:35):

What, what is, what is the trend right now? Tos and shorts and, and, and short videos, and it's degrading the attention span of people 15 to 22nd, really funny, clever, uh, perverted garbage that's put out that, that's entertaining our minds. So to get a person to sit down and watch a video like what I'm doing, that lasts 25, 30 minutes. My goodness, they don't have the time for that. Look at this terribly long video. Oh, I, I guess I should get 'em down to 30 seconds now. Um, that would be wonderful. Many <laugh>, a lot more people would watch these videos. But the point being, this is something is shaping you. If you're not ready to sit and listen to the word for 45 minutes to an hour, to two hours, there's something wrong though. That should be to you. The highlight of your week on Wednesday and on Sunday, I go get to hear the word two or three times in a week. 

Speaker 1 (11:42):

What a great blessing. And that should be our joy and worshiping the Lord and participating in worship. Those things should be our, our, our joy. But we sit and we feed on social media, and we become discontent and depressed because you see the best of other people's lives. And what happens? It leads to fears, depressions, depression, and a feeling. I'm not good enough. I'm not enough. The the problem is we're being taught to think and feel based on a false utopia, a dystopia, a false world that doesn't really exist, A world designed to keep people discontent, depressed, and coming back for more dopamine hits in hopes you'll become permanently happy from the dystopia of Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, it's a, it's a, it's a place built upon a false worldview. It's a world built upon outward beauty, meaningless entertainment, and a desire to go viral and become an influencer. 

Speaker 1 (13:02):

In other words, to become a fake person. How many of you have been on a vacation and you're enjoying, say, Yosemite, or you're enjoying, uh, the, the beauty of the Smokey Mountain National Park and out Frances, some scantily clad dressed woman standing in the middle of the road looking at some, uh, beautiful mountain view in the background. What is it? It's fake. They are literally disgustingly fake. And when you see it in real life, you understand what a nonsense. Or you go to a hotel and, uh, a photographer and a girl, they go out, s strip down, you've gotta turn away. And they immediately come back in. They're not enjoying the pool. They're not having fun. They're literally going to beautiful places that show them as cool. And you take a picture and you put that on Instagram or Snapchat, and now everybody thinks, wow, what an amazing life they live. It's totally garbage, false. It's not real. Don't become upset and discontent and pulled into such a lifestyle because of somebody that is frustrated and depressed themselves. It's a false worldview. It's based on the outside. It's based on meaningless entertainment. It's based on the desire of popularity. None of these things are godly. None of these things are things that God wants in the life of a believer. 

Speaker 1 (14:56):

Everything about Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram is built on an anti-Christ system. Number one, physical appearance is highly valued. You're presenting the best part of you. This is from, uh, a researcher from Mark MCee University in Sydney, Australia. People na named Jasmine Farouk. People are comparing their appearance to people in Instagram, image images or whatever platform they're on, and they often judge themselves to be worse off. Another study published earlier this year involved showing 195 young women either bosi body positive content from popular accounts, photos showing thin women in bikinis or fitness gear, or neutral images of nature. The re searchers found that exposing women to positive body positive Instagram content appeared to boost their satisfaction with their own bodies. Those two things together are starting to build a little bit of a story that there may be some content that's actually useful for body image. But, but, okay, so that's the world's viewpoint. Oh, it could be useful, but there's a downs. There may be a downside to bo body positive images too. They're still focusing on bodies outward object. The same study found that women who'd seen the body positive photos still ended up, up objectifying themselves measured when after looking at the, at the images, the participants were asked to write 10 statements about themselves. Again, even if it str strives to slant in the right direction, it's going in the wrong direction. Why? Because the focus is on outward appearance. 

Speaker 1 (16:57):

God never points our focused outward appearance. He points it to the conditions of the heart, and then from the conditions of the heart, the outward conditions should follow. 

Speaker 1 (17:15):

Secondly, this anti-Christ system, people aged 16 to 24 spend the most time on social media three hours and one minute daily, 11,001 hours per year. That is roughly 46 days per year on social media. Talk about wasting your life and not living it. It's impossible for young people to truly communicate without having a phone. And I'm not suggesting to not have a phone. What I am suggesting is control your time. Parents, if you're listening and your child is under 18, and you, you're using whatever phone they're using, there's capabilities to control their time. My children don't have social media. They're 13 and 11. One has an iPad, one has, uh, an an iPhone. I can control what they, what they get onto, how much time they spend, uh, even down to how much time that they can use the messages app, how much time that they can listen the music. 

Speaker 1 (18:26):

Don't encourage your children to waste your waste their life. Teach them how to control that. Teach them the dangers of social media and keep them off of it as long as possible. It is a great and grave danger to the formation of their minds. Love them enough to keep them off of that garbage. All right, number three thing about this anti-Christ social media system. An a life lived to please others on social media is a life lived as the slave, as a slave to the whims of the masses who care nothing for you and not want nothing from you, but a moment of dopamine, you are just an object to them. Further turning you into a mere object instead of a man or a woman made in the image and likeness of God. None of you are meant to be mere objects. All of you are meant to be living articles manifesting and displaying the glory of God. 

Speaker 1 (19:38):

How can, how? Let's, let's flip this another way. Redeem your social media. If you, if you're a singer, if you have a gift to sing or play music, use your social media as a means to put worship out there. If you're, if you're a minister, post your sermons. Put quotes up. If you're a believer, put quotes out there. Use it to be a means of encouraging and lifting up and getting people on the correct path. Don't use it. What for, what the anti-Christ system has designed it for. Buck the system and use it for the glory of God. Now I wanna look at the works of this life and the things that are done under the sun. Think of this in the realms of social media and being a social media influencer. Ecclesiastes one 14 through 18, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun. 

Speaker 1 (20:39):

And behold, all is vanity and vaccination of spirit. All these things we're posting and the, and, and the time we're spending on social media, it's vanity and vaccination of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. And that which is wanting cannot be numbered. I commune with my own heart saying low, I am, come to great estate. Now look, this is Solomon saying, I, I've achieved the highest levels of success, success and wealth. I'm come to great estate. I've gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yay. My heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. He studied and he, he knew science, he knew history, he knew Proverbs. He was a man of knowledge and wisdom. And he says, I, and I gave my heart to no wisdom and to no madness in folly. I perceive that this also is vaccination of spirit for in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increases knowledge, increases sorrow. Solom, Solomon goes throughout this as an older man, and he says, I gave myself to drinking and, and, and I gave myself to, uh, eating. I gave myself two sexual pleasure. I gave myself two items of beauty, uh, collections and, and, uh, uh, th thousands of concubines and, and parties. He gave himself to that. And he said, again, this is vanity and vexation of spirit. 

Speaker 1 (22:24):

So don't go the route of worldly success. Worldly honors, worldly parties, worldly this worldly that those things bring destruction. They bring death. They bring vanity. It means meaninglessness. The pursuit of pleasure that Solomon took, led him to a, a feeling and a life of meaninglessness. Then Solomon brings us to Ecclesiastes 12, to bring up his summary of what he feels about this. He says, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come, not he's, he's talking about old age nor the years drawn. Nay, when thou shall say, I have no pleasure in them, while the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremor, tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they're few. 

Speaker 1 (23:27):

And those that look out of the window be darkened and the doors shall be shut in the streets. And when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low also, when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fear shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden. And desire shall fail because man goes to his long home and the mourners go about the streets. Wherever the silver cord be loosed or the golden boat be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel, be br broken at the cistern, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and their spirit shall return to God who gave it looking. This is looking at our lives lived under the sun. 

Speaker 1 (24:16):

He says, this vanity of vanity, say at the preacher, all is vanity. Meaninglessness of meaninglessness. Say it, the preacher. All is meaningless. And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yay. He gave good heed and sought out and said in order. Many proverbs, the preacher sought to find out acceptable words. And that which was written was upright. Even words of truth. The words of the wise are as gods, uh, they something that a God is something that would stick the backside of an ox to keep him moving. And as nails fastened by the master of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd and further by these, my son, be admonished of making many books. There's no end. And much study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Okay, let's, let's hear the purpose and meaning of life under, under heaven, under the sun. 

Speaker 1 (25:22):

It's vanity. That's un that's in this world, in this life, but under heaven, under God. What's the conclusion of the matter? Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. This is what Solomon says, the focus of your life should be. Don't let the focus of your life be the things of this world. Social media, and this world gets us to focus on me, me, me and my relation to ship to other things. And what does it do? It leads to discontent, contentment. The true reality of your condition before God is you're a sinner. You are worthy of death. 

Speaker 1 (26:16):

Paul clearly says in Romans three, there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understand. There's none that seeks after God. There's none that do with good. No, not one. Our mouths are an open, uh, an open grave. They're with our tongues. We've used ait. The poison of asp is under our lips. Lisp, our mouth is full of cursing of bi bitterness. Our feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways. This is us under the Son and the way of peace. They have not known. There's no fear of God before their eyes. But the Bible says, no man, no man can come to me except the Father draws him first. 

Speaker 1 (27:04):

It's the Father drawing us and opening our hearts to the gospel and, and, and giving us faith. A revelation of the word in changing our lives at the, at, at at at from the very back side. We see that God created us in his image and likeness, and that he takes great care and love for us, to prepare our hearts to receive Christ. And he goes to great lengths, his his own damage and his own hurt in order to come and redeem us and change us. Psalm 1 39 shows our value in the sight of God. Now, exhibit A, we're sinners and we fall short. We ca we are not worthy. We're not enough. We can't make it our own. But God doesn't leave us there in that condition. He's, he tells us who we are and he tells us his value, our value in his sight. 

Speaker 1 (28:08):

God doesn't make any mistakes. I'm gonna finish with Psalm 1 39. Oh Lord. Thou will search me and known me. Thou know us, my down sitting and my uprising. Thou understand if my thought of far off thou come pass us. Those you surround my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word in my tongue, but low Lord thou know us. It all together. You have beset me behind and before and lame died hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high. I cannot attain, attain it. This is speaking of God's elect. Whether or shall I go from my spirit? Whether shall I free flee from my presence if I ascend up to heaven, into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, below the behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall I hand, uh, uh, lead me And th right hand shall hold me. 

Speaker 1 (29:08):

If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me. Even the night shall light about me. Yay. The darkness hides not from the, but the night shines as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to the, for thou was possessed my reigns, thou was covered me. In my mother's womb, I will praise thee. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knowth right? Well, my substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Th eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect. And in th book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none. How precious also are the thoughts unto me. Oh God, how great is the sum of them? If I should count them? 

Speaker 1 (29:54):

They are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with the, this is God's viewpoint of you as his creation. He takes great pains. He watches over you. He forms you. He, regardless of where you go, you try to run from him. He runs after you. You try to flee from him. He's there. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, God will be with you. But remember, the value that you hold is not based on the how the world sees you and how the world wants to shape you. Your value is based on what God has spoken over you. That's your value that makes, that's what makes you what you need to be is God's word spoken over you. Apart from that, life is meaningless. Li life has no meaning. The the highest level of success, the greatest riches, the greatest, uh, uh, uh, popularity to Solomon. It meant nothing. It it, it achieved nothing for him, but gave him a sense of meaninglessness. Put your vision, turn your eyes upon Jesus. That is the place you'll be blessed and strengthened and helped. Well just wanna remind everyone. There's free books that I have available on the website, jason demars.com. You can go there and order those. Shipping is free as well. I do my best to ship those as soon as possible. Um, reminder also you can support our ministry there at the website. Um, cer certainly appreciate that. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your church services this weekend. God bless you. 

Speaker 1 (31:56):

Thank you for listening to Equipping the Bride podcast. New episodes are posted every Tuesday and Friday. If you have any questions, prayer requests or testimonies, please contact me@jasondemars.com. Free books and tracks are available there and shipping is free as well. May the Lord richly bless you.