The Enemy Inside Your Home

In the old days, people would sit and talk.

Now they stare at an HDTV or into a computer screen. Technology, though valuable, is a tool of the enemy to addict all of us and steal time better used for each other and for God. Today, the daunting task of protecting your family from the evils of a technology we all need.

Stay with us. From Chicago, we welcome you to The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching under the ministry of Dr. Erwin Lutzer. On this program, we continue a 10-part series on fighting for your family. Later in our service, we'll learn about the enemy inside your home. Pastor Lutzer comes now to open our service. In a moment, we're going to be singing together, oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. The Bible says that eventually every knee will bow and every tongue give praise to God and recognize Jesus as Lord.

But we have the privilege of doing that today using the one tongue that the Lord has given us. And as you come here today, I know that I want to remind you that you are leaving what is frequently referred to as the profane. And you're coming into a sacred place that has been especially dedicated and set aside for the worship of Almighty God. Thank you so much for being here and for the privilege that we have to worship God. And now to sing his marvelous praises. Would you join me, please, as we pray together? Our Father, we thank you today that we have the privilege of being able to use our tongues for your glory, to sing your praise, to worship you acceptably through Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray, Father, that all stray thoughts would be brought under control, that we might be able to concentrate on our love for you and our worship of you during this time. We dedicate these moments to your blessing and to our benediction. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Jesus, the name that shines upon us, that gives us all will sing. There is it in the city, in his underground and peace. He graced the power of hands of sin, he sets the prisoner free. His blood and pain, the power of sleep, his blood and glory. Here in me death is raising come, your gruesome times and more. In thine we hold your signal, and in me lay your joy. Your unrighteous master and my love assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth upon, beyond the top of the grave. I invite you to follow along with me in your bulletin as we read together Psalm 146.

Please read aloud with me on the boat print. This is God's holy word. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul, I will praise the Lord as long as I live.

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth.

On that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose hope is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. Who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners.

He upholds the widow and the fatherless. By the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations, praise the Lord. In voice of the invisible, God only wise.

The inviting, accessible, hid from our eyes. Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days. All might be victorious, thy faith may be praised.

Unresting, ungazing, and silent as thine. Your faunting, your wasting, thou ruthless decline. Thy justice thy fountain, thy soaring abroad. Thy fountains our fountain of goodness and love. To all life thou givest, to both great and small. In all life thou givest, the true life of all. We blossom and flourish as wings of the tree.

And wither and perish, for none chain will flee. May father of glory, your father of light. Thy angels are holy, all bearing their side. All praise we would render, all have musters free. Tis only the splendor of thy might and need. All praise we would render, all have musters free.

Tis only the splendor of thy might and need. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, worship His holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul, worship Your holy name. The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning.

It's time to sing Your songs again. Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me. Let me be seen when evening comes. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, worship His holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul, worship Your holy name. On that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come. Still my soul will sing Your praise ahead near.

Ten thousand years and then forevermore. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, worship His holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul, worship Your holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, worship His holy name. Worship Your holy name. Worship Your holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul, worship Your holy name.

Worship Your holy name. I will lift my hand to the coming King, to the great I AM, to You I see, for You're the One who reigns within my heart. I will lift my hand to the great I AM, to You I see, for You're the One who reigns within my heart. I will lift my hand to the coming King, to the great I AM, to You I see, for You're the One who reigns within my heart. I will lift my voice to the King, to the great I AM, to You I see, for You're the One who reigns within my heart. And I will send no boring God, nor any other treasure, for You are my heart's desire, the Spirit without measure. Unto Your name I will bring my sacrifice, and I will serve no boring God, nor any other treasure, for You are my heart's desire, the Spirit without measure. Unto Your name I will bring my sacrifice, unto Your name I will bring my sacrifice.

Unto Your name I will bring my sacrifice. We lift our voices, we lift our hands, we lift our lives up to You, we are ever free. We lift our voices, we lift our hands, we lift our lives up to You, we are ever free. All that we have, all that we are, all that we want to be, we give to You, we give to You. We lift our voices, we lift our hands, we lift our lives up to You, we are ever free. We lift our voices, we lift our hands, we lift our lives up to You, we are ever free. All that we have, all that we are, all that we want to be, we give to You, we give to You. We lift our voices, we lift our hands, we lift our lives up to You, we are ever free.

We are ever free. I want you to visualize for a moment that you tuck your children into bed. You say goodnight to them and say your evening prayers with them. And then you wake up in the morning and they're gone. A intruder came through the window or through an open door and stole your children.

Well, of course, what you would do is call the police and immediately after that, of course, you'd organize neighborhood searches and all the rest to find your kids and you'd be desperate. But what if I were to say to you that inside your home there is a thief that is stealing the hearts of your children? So you wake up in the morning and the kids are there, you get them ready for school, you interact with them, but their heart already is worshiping other gods. That's what's happening.

And oftentimes parents are accomplices to those other gods and the child's heart belongs somewhere else. Today I'm speaking on a very serious subject, as I always do, but I'm thinking particularly today as I speak about technology and the entertainment industry. This is a series of messages entitled Fighting for Your Family. And we do have to fight like never before.

We have never before had a society in which we have such things as the tablets, the iPads, the smartphones, Internet, television, all of these things stealing the hearts of our young people and stealing the hearts of parents too. And that's why we have to address this subject. But I have to warn you, we are going right into Satan's territory. This is where he rules. This is where he says, this dominion is mine.

I own this. And that's why it's so important for us to be prayerful. And the message that I am speaking today is for you, but it's also for me. Every one of us have been affected by this.

I suppose in the thousands of people who are listening to this message and will listen to this message, there are probably only a few that have not been affected by the entertainment industry, the media that is out to steal our hearts. So we must listen carefully. And even though we have prayed before already in this meeting, could we pray one more time, asking God for enlightenment and strength because we are speaking about a very formidable foe. Please join me as we pray. Father, I ask that your Holy Spirit, who has been given to the church, may be here to instruct, to convict, and to deliver, because without your help, we are powerless. We cast ourselves upon the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

I've decided not to spend a lot of time telling you what the problem is. The fact that this was 12 years ago, according to a survey, 80% of all children under the age of 17 have seen R-rated movies, and 25% said that they began to act out what they saw. I'm talking about the fact that it used to be that children were introduced to pornography at perhaps age 15 or 18.

Now the average age, according to the statistics, is about 9 or 10. Where do we go from here? And so the question is, what do we do? Remember this, that all of the entertainment industry is looking for addicts. They want addicts. The gaming industry says we need addicts who are hooked on gambling because they're the ones that pay for these casinos.

They are the ones who really pay our bills. We need addicts. The pornography industry says we need addicts. We need them in order to sustain our lifestyle and our great organization. So Hefner's organization is looking for your sons.

He is trolling the waters to see if he can hook your boy so that he can have another addict to help finance the empire. That's where we are at. The music industry, the addiction to music, to certain kinds of music, to rap music, many of which have terrible lyrics, all of that is dedicated to this question, how do we snare your child as early as possible and keep him all the way because he has to fund what we are doing?

And that's what we are up against today. Why is it that we don't do something? A couple of reasons, first of all, because parents themselves may be paralyzed. It's personal paralysis. Because, you see, if the parents themselves are intrigued and seduced by the entertainment industry at whatever level, it is very difficult for them to say to their children, you shouldn't do this.

I'm thinking of a man, for example, who subscribes to Sports Illustrated, and he was saying that when the swimsuit issue came, he noticed his 12-year-old boy was very interested in the pictures, but how does he as a father tell the boy, I don't think you should be looking at that, when the dad does? That's the question when people themselves are snared by the very thing that they'd like their children to not be a part of. And so you have personal paralysis. You also have another problem, and that is denial. Somehow, we know that this is huge. We know that we can hardly begin to attack it, because it is so much a part of our lives, and our children have bought into it so much, but if we turn the other way, maybe it will no longer be there. And so what we do is we put our heads in the sand.

And then there's another reason. We don't understand the nature of the spiritual conflict. We don't understand that behind all these things, as the Bible says, there are principalities and powers in the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

We don't get that. Remember decades ago when Nancy Reagan told us, regarding drugs, just say no. Well, wonderful advice, but how do you just say no? This past week, I spent some time with a friend whose son has had those struggles with drugs. How does he just say no when the euphoria and the desire and the appetite has been inflamed?

You don't have the power to say no. So people don't understand that, and oftentimes our advice to them is very superficial. A person in New York who is hooked on heroin said that heroin has a voice, and when heroin calls, I must go. But so do all addictions have a voice.

And when those addictions call, we begin to obey them. Well, today what I'd like to do is to give you some criteria, some tests for the media. How much of Hollywood should we let into our home?

How much of the media are we able to tolerate? Today I'm going to give you three tests, and then I'm going to give you five imperatives, things that had better be done. This, by the way, is number seven in a series of messages entitled Fighting for Your Family, and how important it is that we fight for our family. And regarding next time, don't even think of being absent. Don't even think about it, because I'm going to be speaking about abuse in the home, and I do that because it is so widespread.

I'm shocked by what I read and the understanding of abuse that is taking place in our culture. So you be sure to be here. But today, three tests. Are you ready for the tests?

Are you ready? Number one, I would like to refer, and please take your Bible here and turn to 1 John chapter 2. I assume often that people know all these verses by memory, but maybe they don't.

Maybe you've never memorized these important verses. 1 John chapter 2 verses 13 to 17, and this is the content test, the content test. 1 John 2 verse 15 and following, do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride and possessions is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, along with all of its desires but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Don't have time to spend a lot of energy and discussion of these three expressions of the world. The lusts of the flesh, the desires of the flesh, illicit sensuality, which are everywhere on our internets, in our iPads, and smartphones, and elsewhere. All of these things available today, and it's their availability that makes it so seductive. And so what you have is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. That has to do with covetousness. It can also include sexuality, but a lot of other things too. Because remember, the whole advertising industry is based on covetousness. If you didn't covet, they wouldn't have a job.

It's to make you dissatisfied with what you have and then tell you why you should have something else. And then, of course, the pride of life, which is at the center of it all. Unacknowledged self-absorption. And remember, it is unacknowledged. It is unseen, but it is there.

The desire to be number one, the desire, well, briefly, the me generation. Now, what does James say? James, and I'll give you the reference after I read it, listen to this, my dear friend, today. You adulterous people, James said, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God, friend of the world. Now, you just think back over the television programs and over the entertainment industry, and they are filled with what? Occultism, sensuality, and violence. And when you look at it, it's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

That's what fuels the entertainment industry, by and large, with few exceptions. And you'll notice that whoever is a friend of the world, James says, is an enemy of God. I don't want to be an enemy of God.

I hope you don't either. And yet, if we befriend the world, that's what the text says. Because it was the world that nailed Jesus to the cross.

It was sin. Let's suppose you were to come to a home and there was a couple there, and they had a box in which they kept a knife, a glass case. And they said, we just want you to admire this knife. Notice how symmetrical it is. Notice the perforation. Notice that it is stainless steel.

It's about the right size. We admire this knife, and we look at it for at least an hour a day. You say, well, that's interesting. That's a little weird. What about this knife? They say, well, you know, we had one son, and an intruder broke into our home, and he murdered our son, and this is the knife that he used. Well, that really seems strange for sure.

Something's wrong. When we admire sin, we admire the knife that killed Jesus because he died for us as sinners. And therefore, what we are doing is admiring what God hates.

Do you see the depth of what James and John are really trying to tell us? Now, if you were to use the content test for everything that you and I watched on TV or saw on other venues, we would soon discover that the swamp would be drained pretty quickly, wouldn't it? The content test. There's a second test, and I refer to it, and it is really the control test.

The control test. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, 12. Well, I'll actually read it there in the text. 1 Corinthians 6, 12. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything. Even if it passes the content test, the question is, does it control you? Even those things that may be lawful, that may be quite innocent, are you able to control them? You know, someone has defined idolatry as, it says, idolatry is something within creation that is inflated to function as a substitute for God. It can be a person, an institution, an image, or a pleasure.

And so what we have is all of these images and these pleasures and this euphoria. And we say to ourselves, oh, I'm in charge. Probably not. The way in which you can discover whether or not you're in charge is simply this, quit.

Quit it for a week or two and see if you can. You may discover you're not in charge at all. It is the illusion of being in charge. Years ago, I told you that here at the water tower, we were in the store doing some shopping and there was a little kid that was in a little cart and he was maybe 18 months or two years old and he was crying profusely. And he had a little steering wheel on this little cart and he was just taking that steering wheel and turning it to the right with all that he had.

At the same time, he was going to the left. And the reason is because his mother was actually in charge and his steering wheel wasn't connected to anything that mattered. You say that you're in charge. You see if you can do without it for a week or two and then you'll find out whether or not you are in charge.

Well, we must hurry on. There is a third test. We have the content test, the control test.

And as you might have guessed, I decided to have the other one also a C and it is the clock test. I'll simply quote the verse, Ephesians 5, 15. It says, redeeming the time. Now modern translations say making the best use of the time.

I like the literal translation. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. How evil would the days have to get in order for you to redeem the time? The imagery there is to buy the time out of the marketplace because you have all of these pressures for your time and if you're going to take time for God and time for serving God, you're going to have to buy that time out of a whole host of various issues and pressures and opportunities.

You buy the time, redeem it. Now a simple fact is that oftentimes we think to ourselves that we're making an investment. You know you're acquainted with ROI, return on your investment. Let's suppose that you watch television two hours a day. That's, what is it, 700 hours a year and then you can begin to multiply that. If you multiply it by 10, I think you get around 7,000. As I frequently say, when it comes to arithmetic, I'm always saying, you know, as long as I'm right 90% of the time.

I mean, who cares about the other 5%? So about 7,000 over 10 years. Now that's quite an investment of time.

What's your ROI, what's your return on your investment? Does it make you a better person? Are you walking more closely with God? Do you have more information now that really helps you in the journey of life?

Is that your rate of return? Just yesterday I received an email from someone who told me about someone I had met once who died of cancer. But apparently his wife said that for the last years all that he did was basically watch television. Can you imagine standing before Jesus and Jesus saying, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, for thou hast listened to 10,465 hours of television. Enter into the joy of my Lord. I think, for example, seniors, they sometimes waste so much time watching TV, watching this and that, when they have so many years of productivity. A long time ago I read about a woman who was so fed up watching television and there she was in a senior home and she decided to connect with a church and to get the names of all of their missionaries and she began to write missionary letters to 70 different missionaries, not 7 but 70, and began to get interested in their lives and praying for them and she lived productively until the day she died.

What's your ROI, return on your investment? Now, I don't want to get too spiritual here but since I'm on a roll I might as well continue in the direction that I'm going. This is very convicting to me and I hope it's convicting to you. What is it about the entertainment industry that is so important to us, meeting certain needs in our lives that apparently God is unable to meet? What about the pleasures of God on God's right hand?

Are they not significant? You see, we are so far from the idea of pursuing God. This past week I was reading in the book of Isaiah where it says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him when he is near. Let the wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. And I thought, isn't it too bad that in our hurried life most of us don't know what it is like to really seek God and find him satisfying? It was C.S. Lewis who said that God is the all satisfying object.

Is he or is he not? Now with that, what I'd like to do is to give you five imperatives. You can write these down. I see this as essential. Each one could be an individual message.

But here we go. Number one, what we must do is to recognize the spiritual nature of the conflict. To recognize the spiritual nature of the conflict. As the Apostle Paul says in the book of Ephesians, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of this age. That's what we are really up against and that's why it is that we're so paralyzed in the face of so much misuse of technology.

It is because we don't understand that at root we are in a spiritual battle, which is absolutely huge. This past week, several of us talked to law enforcement people here in the city of Chicago because there are those among us who would like to begin seriously to rescue those who are victims of sexual trafficking. And one of the things they said is that the internet has just changed everything. Nowadays there's so much communication on the internet, so much available on the internet, it's a whole new day out there trying to enforce some decency laws and being able to capture those who are victimizing others. Do we realize the extent of this kind of communication and the power of the internet to seduce, to give out information that is harmful, to destroy?

It's huge. We can't fight that in the energy of the flesh. We are up against huge spiritual forces and we need to recognize that and to fight for our families and for ourselves. There's more that I could say about that but we must hurry on. Number two, clean up your own act. Clean up your own act. Now let me speak very candidly here.

In some instances you may have to get rid of your television set. Do you remember months ago we had a Pure Life conference here at Moody Church? And the whole intention of the conference was to motivate us to live pure lives. And it talked about the media, we had seminars on that and so forth. And the lead man who actually spoke from this pulpit and inspired us and instructed us, I was having lunch with him afterwards, and I asked about his own personal life because he had been immoral. You remember he gave his testimony in the last 25 years, lived with purity. And he said that he got rid of his television set he said about 20 years ago because he said, to this day, put me in a room with a remote control and a television set within an innumerable number of channels and he says, I will be gone. In other words, the propensity and the desire may never go away and we need to be able to accept that.

But what we need to do is to put in place various parameters and various structures so that we don't even have the opportunity of going there. A little while ago, just about an hour ago, we dedicated a baby to the Lord. And one set of grandparents told me, they live on a farm south here of Illinois, in Illinois, and they said that they raised their seven children without a television set. How much do you think those kids actually lost? Yeah, go ahead and clap. And now all those of you who clapped, get rid of yours. They said that their children felt sorry for others who'd have so few experiences in life that all that they would do is sit on the couch and watch TV.

The kids really didn't miss a whole lot in terms of growing up and in terms of what is truly, truly valuable. So we have to clean up our own acts. That's why when it comes to this business of commitment, I have to admit that the real issue is whether or not we're desperate. If you're not yet desperate, this is just going to go swish over your head. But for those of you for whom it is intended because you are desperate and determined to no longer be hooked on what hooks you, you will respond and you'll do some drastic things and put them in place.

Like Jesus said, you cut off your hand, you pluck out your eye, you do whatever you need to do so that you don't keep falling into the pit. And so the second thing is we have to clean up our own act. Third, if you're a parent, this is for you, we have to set family standards and the standards have to be based on the Word of God. Your teenagers are going to argue with you.

Oh, you just don't like Madonna, you know. Or you don't understand, when a movie is PG-14, it means that all 14-year-olds are supposed to see it and you don't understand that. And so they'll give you this hard time. But what you need to do is to put those standards in place. You need to stand on those standards and insist on them. And in this way, your kids have structure.

You know, I take the point of view and I know a few disagree, but that's okay, they can come up later and ask for forgiveness. No teenager should ever have a television or the Internet in their room. I remember... I remember when I was teaching in a seminary, a guy gave a testimony of how his parents trusted him with it in his room and how it led down this terrible path that you can only imagine. Remember what to say if your kids say, well, you don't trust me. You know what to say to them.

The correct answer is, no, I don't. That's what you say to them. That's what you say to them. And then you say, because I don't even trust myself. It's not a matter of trust. This is a matter of desire that is built into us by God. We are sexual creatures from the bottom of our feet to the top of our heads and let's just recognize that we are and that temptations that are out there are powerful, seductive, and very difficult to say no to. And so what you do is you have a family standard. Number four, you need help.

We all do. That's why it's so important to attend church. It's important to connect with other people and in our families to talk, to connect, not in a condemning way. Your children are going to see things that it would have been better if they had never seen but accept that reality. There's no way if you're going to live in this culture. You know, unless you are to live in a monastery, there's no way to live in this culture without your children being exposed to this and you need to talk to them about it and you should not be shaming them as a result of their preoccupation with some of these images.

It's not a time for shame because shame often just fuels the addiction. So what you need to do is to back off and to help your children and to help yourself to see the bigger perspective and to recognize that with God's help, there is help here, there is deliverance, but at the same time, what you do is you talk, you discuss, you connect. And remember, as I've emphasized in this series, rules without relationship equals rebellion.

It's relationships that help us most. Finally, we must practice the spiritual disciplines. We're looking for victory over here and we're looking for this intervention over there and some dramatic experience that will bring about deliverance. And God says, what you should be doing is what you and I should be doing all the time. The word of God washes us. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold.

Sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in the keeping of them there is great reward. It's the word of God that cleanses us and keeps us. The way to have your devotions, and by the way, as part of this series, one of the messages is entitled The Power of Praying Parents, where I'm going to be emphasizing how to pray scripture so that every single day you walk away from the word of God with a snatch of scripture in your heart that you carry with you throughout the day, and I'll be giving some illustrations of how those kinds of passages of scripture can be prayed, because at the end of the day, what we really need is the intervention of Almighty God.

Without it, we are helpless. Now, there's something else that is important. There are many of you who are listening to this, and you haven't taken the first step toward deliverance. You know, Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free, and the angels said in Matthew chapter 1, Jesus came to save his people from their sins. So you see, what we must recognize is that to receive Jesus Christ as Savior gives us a new nature.

It gives us new desires that now are in conflict with our old desires, and that's what we've been talking about, but at least we have the basis for deliverance and freedom. Remember the story of Augustine, the famous Christian philosopher who lived in the 400s. He was into debauchery of every kind, had a mistress, and then as a result of reading, actually, the 14th chapter of Romans, where it talked about laying aside the unfruitful works of darkness, it is then that he was converted. And later on, he was walking down the street, and his mistress was running behind him, and she shouted to him, it is I! And he turned around and he said, but it is not I. In other words, I'm a new person now.

I'm going in a different direction. I don't have to be attached to all those things, because Jesus came to set his people free, but it doesn't mean that there isn't a struggle. And the deeper that we are into the world, the more difficult the struggle, but it is a winnable war, because Jesus died that we might be free from the effects and the power of the world.

Amen? There is a story about Pharos the horseman. I've read different dates when this supposedly happened, but it is only a legend, so it doesn't matter what the date supposedly is, how that he was going through the Arabian desert and suddenly, in the distance, the horses that he was with, and he had a herd of horses, they saw a mirage and they began to run toward the water, what they thought was water. But he blew on his bugle and six mares turned around and came with him and didn't run.

And the legend is that it is from those six mares that you have the very famous Arabian horses. Today, our society is mad with a mirage of pleasure. Everybody is running in every direction. We can't live without technology, even for a few moments. And, of course, what we have to do is to distinguish its value from its detriment and from its temptations and its seduction, but the world is mad over entertainment. God is in heaven and he's blowing his bugle and he's saying, is there anyone listening? Will you turn around? Will you do whatever is necessary that you may no longer be seduced by the world so that you might be able to live for me in a way that is honorable and pure and decent?

That's the question that all of us have to face in this world that has gone mad. Now, I've given you a lot of information and your response to this message is going to be different. There are some who say, well, you know, that's very nice, but I'm deeply into this and I have no intention of changing. There are others of you who perhaps feel very deeply that you need to do something drastic. Could I ask you to do whatever God has asked you to do, that you know right well you should, even if you seem powerless to do it?

Because if we're going to fight for our families, we're going to have to deal with the issue of technology and the entertainment industry. And then there are those of you who have never received Christ as Savior. You have no personal relationship with God. Though you admire God and you admire Jesus, he's not become your Savior. This is an opportunity for you to acknowledge your sinfulness and your need and look to Christ who died for sinners and who came to deliver us from our sins.

You respond to God, even as God has spoken to you. Join me as we pray. Our Father, we ask today that you might help us to have the courage and the strength to do whatever you require of us for your glory and for your honor. Lord, we're particularly concerned about those who find themselves in an addiction today, find themselves helpless in the power of huge forces.

And they've tried a thousand times to be free. We ask, Father, help them to see that through Jesus and through your people and your word, that deliverance is a possibility and a reality. We read, and Father, oftentimes we sing, he breaks the power of canceled sin.

He sets the prisoner free. Show us that today, we ask. And now before I close, what is it that you, my friend, have to say to God today?

Would you tell him what you know you must do? Our Father, we ask that Jesus will reign in our homes. No matter what it takes, we ask in his blessed name.

Amen. On today's Moody Church Hour, Dr. Erwin Lutzer spoke about the enemy inside your home, the seventh in a ten-part series on fighting for your family. As our series continues, you'll hear teaching on the power of praying parents and on why this battle is one in which we're playing for keeps. The dark secret in all too many families is abuse.

It takes several forms, verbal, physical, even sexual. Next week, don't miss The Hurt and Healing of Abuse. Our current series can be yours on CD as our thank you for a gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Dr. Lutzer's ministry.

When you call, mention the series on fighting for your family. Call 1-800-215-5001 or write to us at The Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Dr. Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. 🎵