Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 15 verse 14.
The title of the message tonight is Foolish Fantasies.
Foolish fantasies.
Boy, when I think of this scripture has been going through my mind today, and what all we're dealing with in our nation.
We're living in very bizarre times.
And it cuts right to the chase here.
In It Begins with the heart, Solomon says the heart of him.
The heart of him.
And we've recently discussed this word heart before.
It's talking about the centermost part of a person.
It's talking about the inner man.
So Solomon is not speaking about the flesh of him.
Not the outward physical man, but the heart of him, the inward spiritual man.
And he says, the heart of him, that inward spiritual man, look back in your text, that hath understanding.
He's talking about the particular heart of a man that has understanding.
And understanding is not an instinct that we're born with.
Because not everyone has a heart of understanding.
Understanding is not an instinct we're born with, it's a choice we make.
Everybody can have understanding in their heart.
Everybody can.
It's not that some people are born with understanding hearts, and others are born with hearts that just don't understand.
It's at the heart of each person that God created must make a choice to seek truth from their Creator.
For Solomon said, the heart of him that hath understanding, look back in your text, seeketh knowledge. actively searches for the knowledge of God, actively searches for truth.
I was unstable in my life until I found the truth.
When I had the truth, then I could meet head on. not with always great pleasure, but I could meet anything head-on with my feet standing on solid ground.
Knowing that whatever happened, if it took my life or whatever happened, I knew God was in charge, and at least I knew the truth, especially the truth of where I was going when I died.
But the understanding heart causes a person to seek that knowledge.
The understanding heart comprehends its need to know truth.
The understanding heart sees people die, and so it wants to know what's going to happen after I die.
If someone doesn't seek for that, they don't have an understanding heart.
They're fools.
The understanding heart realizes that life is precious.
And so he seeks to know how he can perish and not have And rather gain everlasting life.
When I see someone genuinely seek the truth, or if you see someone who's genuinely seeking the truth, then you know that that person has an understanding heart.
And that understanding comes from one place, and that's the Spirit of God.
And the Spirit of God works in the human heart.
And when the heart responds to God's promptings, And yields to that, then that heart becomes an understanding heart, becomes a seeking heart, then becomes a knowing heart, then becomes a living heart.
So here's what we need to understand.
Our flesh doesn't seek divine truth.
Remember what the Apostle Paul said: There is none that understandeth.
That's key.
An understanding heart seeketh knowledge.
The Apostle Paul said in the book of Romans, there is none that understandeth.
And he's quoting from Psalms.
Then he said, There's none that seeketh after God.
So if nobody has an understanding heart, and nobody seeks after God, That means all of us are born on the same level playing field.
And it is that work of God in the human heart, in our response to it. that causes us to then have an understanding heart, and then a seeking heart, and then that knowing and living heart.
Sadly, the flesh despises divine truth.
It hates it.
It hates divine truth.
I'm not sure how many of you are familiar.
How many of you all have ever heard of the furry subculture?
Raise your hand.
More than I thought.
The furry subculture.
Man, Brother Shepherd, when I was praying about going into the ministry back in the 90s, I never would have thought I would ever even bring something like that up in a message.
Who could have imagined something like that?
But how many have not heard the furry subculture?
Brother, you're missing a blessing.
Hang on.
We're going to enlighten you.
The furry subculture, it's a demographic of people.
Often they're college-educated people, they're highly skilled technical men and women who seek to deny the reality of what God created them to be.
He made us men and women.
And they seek to deny that reality.
They seek to deny their God-given purpose assigned to them by nature.
And in defiance of God's plan for themselves, which is seen and obvious through nature, through our design.
But in defiance of that natural plan of God's creation, they create for themselves cartoon animal personas.
Aliases, if you will, to where they can escape the reality of who and what they are.
And then assume an identity that's purely imagined, but in their mind, in their heart, becomes real.
They call these animal personas fursanas.
And they dress up in full body costumes.
I have the man I work with at the courthouse, and I've been working with him for years.
And every now and then we'll see him leave the courthouse in a referee.
Get up.
He goes and referees high school football all over the place.
And I thought, well, I'll be retiring and This will be the last football season I'll ever be around when he's working.
And I thought, you know, I'd like to go see him out on the field in action one day.
And so I told them, I'm going to come see you play.
You tell me when you're going to be around close, and I'll come see you play.
I'm not much on sports and stuff, but I thought I'd go see him.
So, Tammy and I, Friday night, we went to the Malakoff, Malakoff Tigers.
They'll get you, Tarum Tigers.
We went out to the Malakoff. high school football stadium, Tammy and I did.
And we couldn't stay too long because it got boring real fast and that seat got real hard.
But we were there for till the halftime show.
Tammy wanted to watch the halftime show.
I better stop there before I offend anybody.
But we we left after the halftime show.
But while we were there, there was a mascot out there.
Mascots won those full-body costumes with a big, big old, what do you call it, a head covering that fits over their head.
And it's a little girl inside that costume.
And she's out there being the zebra.
'Cause Malakoff was trying to play against the mighty zebras from Grandview.
And boy, Malakoff put a whooping on them, I'm telling you.
It wasn't even close.
But she was trying to be that zebra.
And you know what happened after being out on that field for a while?
And that zebra and everything?
That zebra came and sat down in a chair.
And those cheerleaders come over and they get an umbrella.
Y'all ever seen them do this?
They get an umbrella, they open this umbrella up.
They then come over there and get between the crowd.
And the mascot.
And they put the umbrella there so she can take her big old zebra head off and go, you know, and get some air.
And I just happened to be the right angle.
They couldn't block me out, Miss Ann.
I saw a cute little old blonde-headed girl, sweaty hair, sweaty face, like that, and they were trying to block her.
So that no one could see who was in there.
All they could see was the mascot, the zebra, the Grand View Zebra.
That's the same kind of costumes that these furries wear.
Same exact thing.
Except these are grown people, and some of them things are tall.
In whatever you can imagine that they want to be, a big cat, some alien creature, whatever they imagine they want to be, the devil, it doesn't matter, they come in all kinds of costumes. whatever creature they want to be, they get them a costume.
They then assume that identity, they create a name for themselves, and that's who they become.
And even when they communicate with other people online, They communicate with these new identities.
That's who they are.
It's quite amazing.
And they meet with thousands of other people who seek to do the same and to know each other by their fantasy fursanas.
They described themselves, quote, as, quote, adults who are embracing our childhood fun. imagination and letting it grow with us rather than letting it fade away into a distant memory.
I couldn't help but think of the Apostle Paul.
He says, When I was a child, I did this as a child, that as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
They're saying, oh.
We don't want to put away childish things.
We want to grow in those childish things.
So instead of being kids who leave cartoons and become professional adults, they grow into adults who become cartoons.
I mean, seriously.
They would rather be the fairytale creatures of their own imagination than the real people.
That God created them to be than humans.
They'd rather be animals than men.
And wouldn't you know it?
Do you know what happens when you deny the reality of what God created you to be naturally?
When you deny the reality of what God created you to be naturally, you will deny the reality of what God created you to be sexually.
It goes hand in hand.
For the vast majority of these furries, the vast majority are LGBTQ.
It goes hand in hand.
One creator who runs one of these community groups within this subculture, quote reckons that they wouldn't have found their identity as a transgender non-binary queer person nearly as easy if it hadn't have been for the furry subculture.
It helped ease them into that.
They escaped one reality.
I'm not a person.
I'm an animal.
They then transcended into another reality.
I'm not male or female or whatever.
And it goes hand in hand.
You see, the flesh doesn't crave divine truth.
And they're not seeking truth, they are rejecting truth.
The flesh seeks to satisfy its own felt Fallen needs.
The flesh is corrupt.
These people aren't seeking truth.
They are denying truth.
And purposefully, knowingly seeking fantasy over reality.
Romans 1, verses 21 through 26.
You'll see it once again go hand in hand here.
Paul said, Because that when they knew God, They glorified him not as God.
In other words, they knew there was a God, they knew he was the creator, and they refused to acknowledge it.
They rejected it.
The truth in you.
But when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.
And to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping things.
Can you see From man to God to b to birds To four-footed beasts, now to little creepy, crawly things.
So he says, Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature.
More than the Creator who is blessed forever, amen.
For this cause, Paul said, God gave them up unto vile affections.
For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.
One conservative activist went to a furry convention recently and he filmed it and reported on it.
And I watched his video.
And one of the things I marveled at was how these foolish people, after walking around in these ridiculous costumes, Alluding to what I was talking about before, the zebra, they were getting overheated.
Now understand, they have Adopted their whole lives now are centered on the fact that they are a tiger, they are an alien, or they are. a demon.
You saw some of the demon suits too.
They're a fairy tale.
Whatever creature they've imagined themselves to be, this now is who they are.
And they're walking around these big long tails and big horns on their heads and everything else that they're doing.
And then suddenly you would see Just like at the football game, you'd see one of those old men who just as perverted and old, perverted as an old man as he can be. and he's trying to be this furry creature.
And Brother Reese, you'd just see him, you'd see him get off, kind of by himself, and take that big old head off.
And you see his balden hair and that gray and all that sweat coming down on that exhausted, overheated head.
Do you know what that was?
That was a big dose of reality, is what that was.
You're not a furry creature.
You're not a demon.
You're not some kind of A fairy tale with supernatural powers.
You're a man.
You can't keep this up.
It's pretend.
And at some point in time, the hat has to come off.
And you've got to face the reality of what you are.
And one day, God is going to pull off that hat.
Off every one of them, whether it's a furry, whether it's just LGBTQ, whether it's a fake Christian, whatever it is.
But whoever has denied God, the atheists that think they've invented themselves, whatever it is, God's going to pull that hat off of every one of them.
And he's going to cause them to stand before him and face reality.
And they're going to be judged according Not to their imagination according to the truth that they so vehemently hated.
And they'll no longer be able to escape their accountability to God by slipping into a costume and assuming an identity of a creature that doesn't exist. or of a reality that they invented that doesn't exist.
And I believe That at the heart of all of this passion to escape reality, I believe that it lies In the desire of these people's passion to escape accountability to God, I do.
Because animals in fairies and fairies And little tigers and whatever playful creatures they become, those animals won't stand before God.
They won't stand at the judgment seat of Christ.
They won't be held accountable by God.
I remember when I was lost.
And I was trying to figure out how to be saved, and for a while I didn't know if I could be saved.
I thought maybe God had rejected me because I was too bad of a sinner.
And I remember one time walking outside, and I remember seeing a dog laying out in the sun.
And I remember thinking to myself, I'd rather be a dog than a man, because at least that dog doesn't have the fear of going to hell, and I do.
And I've heard other people say the same thing, where they envied animals because they feared standing before God.
Thank God I don't want to be a dog now.
I don't fear standing before God now because Jesus stood before God for me.
But I believe that that is the driving force behind these people's desire to escape reality so bad.
Where they can do what they want without any fear of any reprisal, any rejection, any accountability whatsoever, and it won't work.
The hat has to come off.
So, the heart of him that has understanding seeks divine knowledge of God.
It seeks the divine knowledge of what God's will is for our lives.
Look back in your text.
But the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.
Now, notice it doesn't say the mouth of fools babbleth out foolishness, or letteth out foolishness, or speaketh foolishness.
When you feed on something, you're not letting it out, you're taking it in.
You're consuming it.
In the mouth of a foolish person, it craves.
Man, when I got home tonight, I was hungry.
I tell you, I eat a lot.
I burn a lot of calories.
I work hard, Abigail.
Work very hard.
Harder than you'll ever work.
I have a routine every morning.
My wife has snacks, dessert, sandwich, everything already pre-fixed for me each night And every morning when I get up to go to work, I load up that brown bag over there with all my goodies, my water for the day, and everything.
I've got another set of keys just like this, but it goes to the courthouse.
All these go to the church.
And I switch and put those on.
And today I got to work, and I'm a creature of habit.
One little thing was out of place this morning.
I got Tammy in my little earbud, and I'm talking to her all the way into the office like I do every morning.
I go to the refrigerator, I open up my bag, open the refrigerator, and I didn't put any food in there.
No food.
So I ended up getting me a little something, but boy, by the time I got home, I was hungry.
And she had a big meal prepared for me.
It was so good.
And I fed on everything on that plate.
And if you've ever seen a t-shirt, I probably need one that says, I apologize to you for what I said when I was hungry.
Because I get that way, don't I sugar?
I get where I can't think.
And when I start to eat, Sometimes my wife will be looking at me and she'll go, There he is.
I see him coming back now.
That's what she says.
That's what she says.
And I could feel the life coming back into me.
The mouth of the fools as I live on that food.
And I crave that food, and I take that food in so I can live by it.
These people live for foolishness.
They crave it.
They live for it.
They have an appetite for it.
The Bible says.
Their God is their belly, they mind, or they pay attention to earthly things.
In other words, whatever their foolish heart craves, they stuff it in their lives like they're feeding their belly, their corrupt belly.
In the mouth of fools, it takes in all kinds of foolishness.
These people, like at this furry convention, that's just one example.
I'm not preaching against furries tonight.
I am, but I'm not targeting them.
I'm just showing you how foolish people they crave it.
They'll go to the conventions.
They'll get in a community chat room where they can all live in a fantasy world and talk to each other like that.
And they feed and live off that foolishness.
And what a contrast to Jesus who says that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed.
He said, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood has everlasting life.
Because we feed on him.
The Bible is called the Word, it's the bread of life.
In the mouth of wise people, we feed on wisdom, the exact opposite of what they feed on.
We're all eating something, we all live by something, we're all taking something in, we all crave something.
And the fools crave and go after and eat with a hearty appetite that which will corrupt and condemn their souls.
And if you would have stood in the way between me and that plate of food tonight, it would not have been pretty.
You would have seen me lose all the Baptist I have.
In the same way, if you were to stand between them and what they're feeding on, it's not going to be pretty.
It's not going to be pretty.
Have you ever noticed how vicious these people get when they're confronted with the truth?
They get vicious.
Do you know why they get so vicious?
Do you know why they get so angry when they're confronted with the truth?
It's because the truth pulls the head off of them and exposes that sweaty, exhausted.
Perverted person under the mask.
That's what the truth does.
It pulls the mask off.
And where's my umbrella?
I don't want anyone to see me like this.
This is not who I am.
I don't want them to see me this way.
It's because the truth wakes them up from their fantasy and they don't want to wake up.
It's because the truth shines the light and exposes their foolishness.
The truth refuses to play along and pretend with them.
They feed on foolishness, but they bite and devour those who speak the truth.
In Isaiah chapter 30, we'll close with this, verses 8 through 10.
God spoke of these very people.
They're nothing new, or they take a little different shape, but they're nothing new.
Listen to what God told Isaiah to tell these people.
Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book.
We'd call it a tablet today, not a table.
And note it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
You listen to that?
In other words, what God's telling Isaiah to write to those people, it applies for the time to come forever and ever.
It never has an expiration date.
Because what God's saying about them in the past continues to be true to anybody in the future that were to be like them.
He says that this is a rebellious people.
Lying children.
Rebellion and lies go hand in hand.
You can't have a rebellion without living a lie.
You can't live a lie without rebelling against God because God's the truth.
So God says, this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord.
Which say to the seers.
Now, a seer in the Old Testament means a prophet.
It means they see into the future or they see Into the divine realm, like the truth God has, which say to the seers, in other words, these lying children, these rebellious people, tell the prophets, see not.
They tell the seers, don't see.
That's the same as today telling the preachers, don't preach.
I remember back in the early 2000s.
I was invited to preach at the junior college in Athens.
And the person that invited me warned me to not be preachy.
You go invite a preacher to preach and tell them not to be preachy.
Why do they not want preachers to preach?
They're saying, see or see not.
That's what they're doing.
Preacher, preach not.
Parent, parent not.
Legislator, legislate not.
Judge, judge not.
That's how come they're always telling us not to judge.
They say, seer, seers, see not, and to the prophets, prophesy not. unto us right things.
Don't tell us right things.
Don't expose us.
Don't shine the light.
What do they tell them to say?
Speak unto us smooth things.
Prophesy, say that last word with me, deceits.
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.
That's what they're telling them to say.
Tell us things that are smooth, that don't ruffle our feathers, don't make us feel that we're going over a bumpy road.
Tell us things we want to hear.
Affirm our gender.
They live in the dark.
Affirm our identity.
Affirm our beliefs.
This is why people like this Tallarico fella are going to have lots of votes Because he tells people what they want to hear.
He says, I'm a Christian who hates Christianity.
Hey, all these things.
He says God is non-binary.
He says there's six genders, actually, not two, like God says.
And the people are loving it because long ago we cut the Bible out of the school.
And then we started cutting the Bible out of the church.
I was asked to preach.
Before I ever came here, I was asked to preach at a Southern Baptist church once.
I went there one Sunday morning and I preached.
I preached my heart out.
And I remember one thing an older woman told me when I got through.
She said, Well, you preach like the preachers used to preach when I grew up.
You know, that's sad.
That's really sad.
And the number one thing that I've heard from people Who I've preached to is I've never heard that before.
I've been in church all my life.
I've never heard this before.
Listen, I don't have anything new.
Everything I preach has been in God's Word since it was written.
I'm not making it up.
We all look at the same Bible together.
I'm just explaining it.
But I have people tell me that all the time.
Why?
For one reason, because at some point in time in the past, it got to where the Word of God was not enough for people.
It got to where people didn't want to hear God's word.
They wanted something else.
And so the church, in order to pack the pews and bring them in, started giving them other things.
And as Charles Spurgeon so beautifully said one time, if it takes the circus to bring them in, you've got to have the circus to keep them there, basically.
And I'm not quoting him, but that's basically what he said.
Prophesy unto a smooth things.
Preacher, don't preach.
Seer, don't see.
Prophet, don't prophesy.
Teacher, don't teach.
Judge, don't judge.
Prophesy deceits.
And that is where we are today.
To where now, when you tell the truth, people get angry at you.
The Apostle Paul said, Am I therefore become your enemy?
Because I tell you the truth.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
We thank you for the beautiful reality.
That in the beginning God made them male and female.
We thank you for the beautiful reality That you created us separate and distinct from all the four-footed beasts, the creeping things, the fowl of the air, and the plants.
That you breathed into man's nostrils a breath of life, and you created us in your image.
And because of that, we're accountable to our God.
But because of that, we're valued by our God.
And one day, because of that, we're going to live with our God forever.
And I thank you, Father, that's one reality I don't want to escape.
And I'm grateful for the light of your word that shines that truth and pulls off the mask.
And I pray that each and every one of us in this church and Christians around the world and pastors around the world, Father, will be faithful.
To expose the lies that prophets will prophesy, seers will see, preachers will preach.
Until the light that we shine comes again for us in His precious name, we pray.
Amen.
