In his powerful first message, Christian asks the all important question, “Are you playing with the world?” He goes on to expose Satan’s traps for God’s children and discusses the evils without that can awaken evils within.

<p>In his powerful first message, Christian asks the all important question, “Are you playing with the world?” He goes on to expose Satan’s traps for God’s children and discusses the evils without that can awaken evils within.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Shepherd's Call Ministry

Christian Berdahl

Don’t Take the City with You

Welcome to The Shepherd's Call with Christian Berdahl, his wife Kobi, and 2 sons Tyler and Micah.

Shepherd's Call Ministries, calling to the hearts of God's people through sacred music, powerful messages and Christian media production.

We are very excited to bring to you each month a message that God has laid on Christians' heart.

And this message, Don't Take the City with You, is the first 1 that we have recorded for you.

You'll be challenged, inspired, and encouraged to leave the world behind and completely follow our Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

We hope this message will make a difference in your life.

Now I've asked Tyler, our little priest in training, to have our opening prayer.

Dear God, thank you it's another day of life and ask you that you would send the Holy Spirit to Daddy.

Help his sermon to be powerful to other people in this church.

In Jesus, we ask you that you would guide Daddy through the sermon.

You know, friends, this message that I want to share with you is for each 1 of us, especially our beautiful little children.

And I've been blessed with 2 wonderful boys, and it's because of them that I look deeper into the counsel of living in the country, to get out of the cities.

And you see, I didn't have the great advantages of living in the country away from all the worldly influences.

I was born and raised in central California.

I grew up as most worldly kids did with TV as my babysitter.

And I listened to whatever music I wanted to.

I learned a lot in public school that wasn't taught in the classroom, but rather on the playground, if you know what I mean.

I wanted to make movies, to be a film director.

In fact, I started in TV and video production back in 1989.

And then God got a hold of me through a major health problem.

About 3 years after that, as I was introduced to the health message, I became a Seventh-day Adventist after studying for 2 years the Bible and inspired writings, and as a result I was baptized.

I began working for God full time nearly 10 years ago.

And over 4 years ago we were called, my wife and I, to step out in faith and to start our own supporting ministry.

And God has called us to sing and to preach and to produce Christian media programming and we believe in the message of getting out of the cities and finding a country dwelling.

We've lived in the country since Light on the Subject was shared with us and that was nearly 9 years ago.

But I discovered that leaving the city and living in the country was not enough.

I had to not take the city with me into the country.

I've learned the Bible principle that we become changed by beholding and what we listen to, what we see, and what we participate, this changes us.

If you have your Bibles available, turn with me to 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18.

But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Now, this is a beautiful promise that you and I, as we behold as in a glass a mirror the glory of God, In other words, we're beholding Jesus and His character.

We can be changed from His image, from our sinful image, into His image.

From glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

But friends, many times when I read the Bible, I like looking at Scriptures and actually I'll write them in an opposite way.

2 Corinthians 3, 18, But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the sinfulness of the world are changed into the same image, from deformity to deformity, even as by the spirit of Satan." That's very powerful, isn't it?

You see, God is telling us that if we behold the things of God and of Jesus and of His character, we will become more like Him.

But if we behold the things of the world or of Satan and things that are not of God, we will become like that.

Turn with me to Romans 12, Romans 12 and verses 1 and 2.

I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Praise God.

Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

We must have our minds, our hearts renewed by God.

I don't know about you, but I came from the world.

In fact, many Christians I know, they're engaged in worldly things.

And we need to be transformed, renewed in our minds.

If we behold Christ, then we become Christ-like.

If we behold the world, then we become world-like.

A very powerful statement written in Adventist home, page 403 and 404, the heart must be faithfully sentineled, or evils without will awaken evils within, and the soul will wander in darkness.

Everything that can be done should be done to place ourselves and our children where we will not see the iniquity that is practiced in the world.

We should carefully guard the sight of the eyes and the hearing of our ears so that These awful things shall not enter our minds." You see, I believe that this is 1 of the main reasons that God has given us very clear counsel to move into the country.

It creates a very real buffer zone between us and the city, between us and the world, so that the evil without in the city won't awaken the evil that's within us.

Testimony Volume 4 says, page 135, it would be well for you to lay by your perplexing cares and find a retreat in the country where there was not so strong an influence to corrupt the morals of the young.

True, you would not be entirely free from annoyances and perplexing cares in the country, but you would there avoid many evils, close the door against a flood of temptations which threaten to overpower the minds of your children, and I will add of you and I as well.

You see, this testimony is telling us that we should find a country retreat so that the morals of the young are not corrupted, and we would avoid many evils.

We would close the door against a flood of temptations and these temptations threatened to overpower the minds of all of us You see my goal today is to expose some of the traps Some of the snares that Satan's laid out to catch us I want to give the devil a black eye, if you will, because I'm so appalled at seeing so many brothers and sisters in the faith falling by the wayside.

I see men that used to be strong, principled men that would not turn to the world, that had no desire for the world, running off and doing things with the world we should never do.

Friends, this is a matter of life and death.

The world is coming to an end and we're off playing with the world.

And a country setting will help us be renewed in our mind if we don't take the city or the world with us.

Now I'm not proposing that by living in the country that we're to go and move into a cave and and never be engaged in society again.

That's not what men of God and the Bible did before.

No, they lived in the countries and they were refreshed and renewed to go and minister to those who were in the cities.

It's God's plan for us to live in the country and come into the city to minister to those who need us.

Friends, when we heed God's counsel to move out into the country, I believe we're creating that real buffer zone.

We're creating a buffer zone that's a very real hedge of protection.

But when we are living in the cities of sin, not taking heed to God's direction to get out of them, then I believe that we become weakened through constant exposure to the evil worldly things that we are beholding and those things become more attractive to us and sin becomes less sinful to us.

So let's look at some of the snares that the devil has set up to try to trip you and I up and to get our minds off of God and focused on the things of the world.

And we'll get specific about different things, but realize, friends, this is not a comprehensive study.

When you're traveling from the country, like I do, because I've been blessed to live out in the country, and God will help you find a place there too, He's promised to do that.

But Friends, when we're driving from the country and we are driving into a city area, can you guess what I start to see on the side of the roads that's not up in my country area?

All of a sudden, I know I'm starting to get to a city area when the billboards start.

Because advertisers, they're not dumb with their money.

They're wise stewards with their advertising dollars, and they don't want to just spend their money.

Because if you put a billboard up where I live, You're going to get a few people looking at it, but when you put it near large cities or even large towns, then you're going to have a much larger viewership.

Back to Menu

Don’t Take the City with You

Transcript

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

God Doesn’t Waste Our Pain, Part 1

1h

God Doesn’t Waste Our Pain, Part 2

1h 11m

Six Days in Babylon

1h

The Alabaster Box

1h

Persecution Within

1h

Fools Before Earth’s Final Crisis

1h 20m

The Good News About the End of the World

41m

Ukraine Live Reports

OCI Ukraine Live Report 2

18m

WYC 2012 Breakout Sessions

Fear God, Part 1

50m

Shaken but Not Forsaken

Waking Jesus

28m

Eye Track

Efficient Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS)—Mission Updates from India

1h 9m

God’s Obstacle Course

1h 21m

Sound Doctrine