America Is Comfortable With Evil (Here’s Why)

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): What is going on in our country? Here we have people trying to bring righteousness and goodness and safety and get rid of crime and get rid of drugs. And then we got politicians and people opposing that and it frightens them that we’re cleaning up the streets. What is going on? I’m going to explain it all to you on the next More Faith, More Life podcast.

0:00:20 – (Steve Gray): You were made for more than the status quo. I’m Pastor Steve Gray and this is the More Faith More Life podcast.

0:00:27 – (Steve Gray): This podcast is for Christians with an ambitious heart who want to be more for their family, do more with their career, and see more of God’s promises in their life. I’ve spent many years as a worship artist, minister, non-profit leader, bold truth speaker, and most importantly, father and spouse. When I was in my early 40s, I was craving more. More from God and more from life. I’d done everything I was supposed to do.

0:00:53 – (Steve Gray): My life was good, but it wasn’t good enough. So I spent the following years diving into the word of God and searching for the biblical principles that would bring me closer to God and help my purpose and life flourish. That’s what I want to share with you. In every episode, you’ll get practical tools based on real life experiences that you can put into action to redefine your faith and ultimately your life.

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0:01:30 – (Steve Gray): Hello everyone. Welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast, your voice of revival. And I hope you are getting the idea that we need revival. The word revival is being said a lot in our country right now. Things are changing. I mean, there’s. There’s so many bad things going on in our country. There’s so many politically bad things. There’s so much invasion of ideas that are not American, that are not the roots of our country, that are. I like to use the word imported. You know what the word import means?

0:02:06 – (Steve Gray): Imported from someplace else. We have imported ideas coming into our country, coming into cities, coming into who gets elected. Cities are electing people that don’t have roots in the American way. Because a lot of us have, I mean, aren’t most of us in some ways immigrants to the United States over the centuries, over the 250 years or more of our country. But we’re supposed to come in the idea and grab the American way. That has worked well right now. We have imported ideas that don’t work and they haven’t worked in other countries.

0:02:44 – (Steve Gray): And so you can look at all that. But on the other hand, we have great signs and wonders happening right now that I have never seen in my lifetime, where we have politicians, politicians reading the Bible on the Internet and speaking about God praying on the Internet. Politicians that are praying using the name of Jesus Christ, praying in the name of Jesus. I mean, there are some great, great signs, and it’s like two different worlds, and these two worlds are colliding. It kind of depends on what channel you’re watching or what Internet person you’re listening to or whatever news thing you’re listening to.

0:03:28 – (Steve Gray): They’re absolutely colliding. I mean, violently. The collision. Now, that shouldn’t surprise you because that’s the way it is. When Lucifer, who became Satan, the adversary of God, was thrown out of heaven. One of the things. I have a new book coming out called Revival or Ruin, I’m trying to finish up, but when we do that, one of the most amazing things that I hadn’t seen as much as I preached all these years about God coming down revival is the power of God, the manifestation of God. I mean, God’s everywhere, but.

0:04:05 – (Steve Gray): But he doesn’t manifest and show himself the same strength all the time everywhere. But an amazing thing. So Lucifer, who becomes Satan, has a rebellion in heaven, and he gets thrown out of heaven right along with one third of the angels. And he gets thrown. And where does he go? He gets tossed to the earth, to this world, and he sets up his kingdom on the earth. Okay, amazing though, what. As you read your Bible and you start with Genesis and, you know, in the beginning and all that, and you get the story of all this and all of us, of heaven and Lucifer and all that, and Adam and Eve and all that. But the amazing thing, Lucifer, who becomes Satan, is thrown out of heaven. He’s thrown down to the earth. And what happens?

0:04:54 – (Steve Gray): God chased him. Yeah, God chased him. God came to the earth. God didn’t say there. Got the house clean. Now heaven’s clean. Got the house clean. Lucifer’s gone, the rebellion’s gone. The pride is gone. Everything’s good. Now we got, you know, and so let’s just enjoy the kingdom of God in heaven, you know? No. God manifested himself, came to the earth, started a garden and invented, invented, created Adam and Eve, two people in the Garden of Eden on the earth.

0:05:32 – (Steve Gray): What in the world is he thinking? See, so he actually came down after the rebellion and revival. And the good news is God still comes down and he. It’s amazing to me Cause how I missed that over so many years because I knew, you know, I knew. I know the other Bible stories. He comes down, he good things. Jesus came down as God, you know, and born in Bethlehem, all those things. But all of a sudden, Lucifer, the big adversary who becomes Satan, the devil, the adversary of God comes and is tossed down to the earth. And God comes into his territory.

0:06:11 – (Steve Gray): He could have just left it alone, you know, he’s out. But he didn’t. And then he creates a man and a woman right in that same territory. You think, what are you thinking? Because God is. God’s after him. God is after him. And he tells the man and the woman to multiply, be fruitful, multiply and go subdue the earth. Well, that means there’s something outside that garden to subdue. There’s something going on out there to subdue.

0:06:44 – (Steve Gray): And part of that would be Satan’s kingdom. Go subdue this guy. Because I had a little trouble figuring this out at first. I had people asking me about it. Cause God had the power to just demolish Satan, didn’t he? Okay, but he did it a unique way. Lucifer, or the devil was, is a created being now. He’s not created. He’s an archangel. He’s beautiful. I always laugh when they cartoons or shows make the devil in a pitchfork and red suit and pointy ears.

0:07:19 – (Steve Gray): No, this is a beautiful archangel created by God. He didn’t get ugly. He might act ugly, but he didn’t get ugly. When he rebelled against God, he rebelled because he was so beautiful. His pride got him, you know. But anyway, thrown down and all of us. And God then says, I’m going to take care of this. Well, how are you going to take care of it? I’m going to take care of it by another created being or created beings.

0:07:47 – (Steve Gray): I’m going to create some beings, humanity that are now going to subdue this devil who is also created and full of pride and rebellion. So we miss. What is he up to? Why would he come down and create a garden right in Satan’s territory? Why would he get create two people, Adam and Eve, who are humans who are open to temptation, which they did. They fell, they made a mistake. But God stuck with his plan and he sent his son in humanity.

0:08:17 – (Steve Gray): So it’s human, Mike. A created being, a created being is going to defeat this other Satan created being, Created beings are going to take over. And when they do, my creation is going to take over that rebellious creation and. And we’re going to win this thing and it’s going to glorify God. Okay? So an Amazing thing. God came immediately. God comes down. And I’ve never said it before, I’ve never preached it before, never heard it before, that when God left heaven, he’s chasing after the devil.

0:08:53 – (Steve Gray): And we need to chase after him, right? We need to go after the things of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of the devil. Okay. So anyway, I preached recently about Jes. The same thing. He’s on the Sea of Galilee, and he gets in a boat with the guys and they go across the lake to the region over there where there’s the tombs. There’s several words for it. This particular Bible says the Gerasenes, if I pronounce it right. But there’s other pronunciations and other names for it. But it’s a place.

0:09:26 – (Steve Gray): There’s a lot of tombs there. And there’s Jewish people there who are raising pigs, hogs, which they’re not supposed to as Jewish people. That’s unclean. You know that. But so what they did is they’d go raise them in the tombs. Cause the Jewish people aren’t going to hang around in the tombs unless they’re doing something wrong. So they kind of raise up a little colony around the tombs. And their big industry is pigs.

0:09:53 – (Steve Gray): And so Jesus, knowing this, goes across the lake and goes right where all of them are and. And he is met by a demonized man. The Bible says demon possessed. You may have heard me teach this before, demon possessed, but that’s not the right term. It’s just demonized. Demon possessed says, like, totally taken over everything. And so you go like, well, I’m not demon possessed. The devil hasn’t totally taken over everything of me. I’m still a believer. I’m still filled with the spirit. I may not be perfect, but.

0:10:24 – (Steve Gray): Okay, but demonized doesn’t say that. Demonized means just. You just might have some tormenting spirits. Or there are spirits that cause trouble. You know, Paul talked about, like, we wanted to go over here and preach, but the devil opposed us. There are opposing spirits. So if a spirit is opposing you, you’re obviously not demon possessed. But there’s some demonizing stuff going on. And we need to teach it that way so that people go like, uh, this is normal. No, wait a minute. This isn’t normal. There’s something off here. This could be.

0:11:01 – (Steve Gray): This could be a troubling spirit. This could be someone that’s, you know, trying to use against us, that’s causing us trouble and we’re losing our opportunity and Opposing us. Opposing spirits, Tormenting spirits. So anyway, that’s our lesson. In that. But anyway, so Jesus goes, and this man, though, that is, oh, he has absolutely taken over. Absolutely taken over. That’s why they probably use the word possessed by all these evil spirits. There’s so many. There’s a legion of them.

0:11:32 – (Steve Gray): And he runs up to Jesus and we learn about him as we keep reading. This man, he doesn’t wear clothes. He lives in the tombs. He’s so strong that they chain him and they guard him, but he can break chains. That’s how powerful this demon is in this man. Interesting, the thought pattern of coming near Jesus. So the man runs up, and I know it’s the demons talking, but the man runs up to Jesus and says, oh, yeah, Jesus, son of the son of God, have you come to torment me? And I’m thinking, like what?

0:12:14 – (Steve Gray): Let’s see, you’re naked, you’re in the tombs, you’re chained, you’re guarded. You know what? I can’t think of any other thing to torment you with. You’re pretty well tormented now, but that’s how the mind does. Tormented people will come into a church where God’s really moving or into a situation where God’s really apparently present. And all of a sudden they feel what? Oh, this is torment. This is scary. This is torment. And I’m going like, are you kidding me?

0:12:43 – (Steve Gray): You’re already tormented. You’re already angry, you’re already upset. You’re already not happy. All right, so he does that, and Jesus, they talk a little bit and have a conversation. And then Jesus then frees this man from his demons, casts him out. And then while he’s doing that, the demons communicate however they communicate and beg him not to send him to the, you know, the abyss or whatever. And they beg him to send him to the pigs, into the pigs, which was a poor choice. That shows how stupid demons are.

0:13:25 – (Steve Gray): A poor choice. You know, I’m guessing pigs don’t have. Aren’t so smart. I mean, maybe in the animal kingdom, pigs are smarter than other animals, but I kind of get the idea they’re not so smart. Any animal that rolls around in the mud all day and is happy at it doesn’t have much of a brain. And so the pig mentality is so low. And so just, you know, like animals, they just instinct. So Jesus allows the demons to go into the pigs, and immediately they’ll go crazy. They went nuts and they ran off the cliff into the ocean, into the sea and drowned.

0:14:07 – (Steve Gray): That’s it. Now the demons, now they’re out again. That was a bad choice on their Part There you go. But anyway, so the people of the town, then they, they come back and they, they hear what’s going on and they come back and what happened to our pigs? Where are our pigs? There they are, they’re floating away in the sea and, and that was their income. Even though they weren’t supposed to do it, that was their income, okay? So they’re angry about that.

0:14:35 – (Steve Gray): But they see this demonized man dressed and in his right mind, okay? And the Bible says, when they see him dressed, now, remember, he’s in his right mind. Now I don’t know how they knew that, but apparently they knew when he wasn’t, when he was out of his mind. Now that he’s in his right mind and he’s in his right mind, he says, so here’s the man dressed, which they hadn’t seen that before, and in his right mind hadn’t seen that before.

0:15:00 – (Steve Gray): And it says, and now they were afraid. Think of it. I don’t get it. I don’t get it. In other words, a naked, demonized, chain breaking man didn’t scare you? And what if they had daughters particularly? I mean, any kids would, do you want kids around this guy? But you know, if you have daughters, are you going to just let them hang out around town? And here’s this naked chain breaking man going around and you’re like, oh, that’s okay, just look the other way, you know? No, it doesn’t make sense.

0:15:36 – (Steve Gray): Somebody, now Jesus has caused them to be in their right mind and now they’re afraid. Well, that’s what happens when God begins to move. People get so confused and they’re so churchy or so religious. They’ve been sitting in a dead dull religious church that, you know, no action, no sign of God, just kind of reverently singing and mumbling songs and hearing a little inspirational sermon and going home.

0:16:02 – (Steve Gray): And yet they’re sitting among people, what, just like Lucifer, they’re sitting among people that love money. They’re prideful, egotistical, self-centered, unforgiving. All that’s around us as we sit in church and that doesn’t bother us. Then all of a sudden God comes in, in the manifest power of God and manifests himself and does a healing or deliverance or something huge or the whole atmosphere of the church changes.

0:16:30 – (Steve Gray): And now we got people that scares them. That scares them. Here we have all the pride, ego, money, loving, unforgiveness, self-centered. This is all around us in the church and that’s okay. But if God comes in and does something Powerful. And now we’re afraid. If somebody gets touched by the power of God and they fall to the floor, maybe they’re trembling, maybe they’re shaking, maybe they’re just the fall into the floor. Oh, I’m scared.

0:16:58 – (Steve Gray): Oh, I’m scared. What’s happening? This is scary. Are you kidding me? You see what happened to those people is they adapted to the demons. They got used to demons. You can adapt to it. And so they got used to a naked, demonized chain breaking man. They got used to that. But then when Jesus comes and the guy’s in his right mind, it’s scary. What, what is happening? I am afraid. And so they ask Jesus to leave.

0:17:28 – (Steve Gray): The guy who puts you in your right mind, I mean think of it this way. I mean they just lost all their pigs. And the guy who can put you in your right mind, why don’t you go to him? Maybe he can get the pigs back. Maybe you can figure out a way to, you can make some money, maybe some money will come from heaven, who knows? Go to a fish and find a gold coin in the fish’s mouth, who knows? But they told him to leave.

0:17:52 – (Steve Gray): They said, Jesus, leave, we’re afraid, leave, we don’t want you here. And guess what Jesus did? He left. Think about that. Didn’t argue. There’s no sign that he argued. He didn’t explain, he didn’t say, well, you don’t know who you’re talking to. He left. Now I told you all that because I want to apply that to our country right now. Right now we have situations in our country to where there’s that anger.

0:18:20 – (Steve Gray): People are coming to check out what’s going on and there’s anger and lots of anger. And we’re dealing with illegal aliens, we’re dealing with crime, we’re dealing with aliens, obviously just watch the news that are committing terrible crimes, attacking, killing, drugs, you name it, right? And all these things are going on, even if it’s not illegal, just crime all around. It can be just regular people, you know, gangs, drugs and cities are being overrun with that.

0:18:57 – (Steve Gray): I don’t even. We used to go to New. I used to go to New York all the time and take family members. Loved New York, we loved Chicago, I loved going to la, but I’m not going to those cities now. I don’t want to risk, especially if I take family or even just Kathy, my wife, I don’t want to risk it. We were in Chicago and we stayed at, I don’t know, really nice place downtown. I don’t Remember which hotel it was? But it’s down there in Chicago where, you know, the avenues and the Great Lakes are over there. Everything’s there.

0:19:33 – (Steve Gray): The docks of the Ferris wheel, you know, we’re really close to all that stuff. And all the expensive stores, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s, are right there. You know, expensive things. And we stayed and it was fine. And I think we left on a Friday or a Saturday to get back to church for Sunday and the very next day. So it must have been Saturday or Saturday night. Gangs broke out just right where we were staying. Went into Neiman Marcus, went into Bloomingdale’s.

0:20:00 – (Steve Gray): Stole, beat, hit, fought, just got and took away with all the stuff, and nobody did a thing. So I’m not going back till they get these cities straightened out. And, you know, a lot of people are moving out of these cities, too, because of that very reason. So here we have these situations, the crime, the gangs, the road rage, just all kinds of stuff, you know, going on. And danger, just danger in these cities.

0:20:30 – (Steve Gray): And it’s going on everywhere. And then the government comes in, whether it be the few weeks, some weeks ago, the National Guard came to some cities, right? And ICE agents came to some cities and police came out more in strength. And they began to arrest these people that I am afraid to get my family around. I don’t want my family around them. It’s too dangerous. They’re dangerous people. And they began to arrest them and take them and deport them and send them back to their own country, right?

0:21:05 – (Steve Gray): And now the people are afraid. They’re in the streets afraid. They’re spitting in the face of agents and police and fighting and blocking traffic, laying in the street. And when you talk to them, they say, we’re so afraid. We’re afraid. We’re going to. We’re afraid of what’s going on in our country. We’re afraid what’s taking place. And I go like, what are you talking about? You mean a naked, demonized, chained man didn’t scare you, but somebody in their right mind does?

0:21:36 – (Steve Gray): Now you’re afraid. And so you mean to tell me the people that are killing with hammers and knives and slitting throats and all the things that are going on and the drugs, the fentanyl and carjackings that’s going on in your city, and you’re okay with that, but getting people out and getting it so we can be in our right mind and getting other people in their right mind so we can live in our right minds without fear, you mean to Me that doesn’t scare you? That doesn’t bother you?

0:22:07 – (Steve Gray): You see what I’m saying? There’s something backwards here. Normal people don’t want criminals. I said maybe on this or Facebook or someplace where I was talking that what needs to be done. Some of these politicians who are pushing to keep illegal aliens or criminals or people that slit throats or whatever in our country, well why don’t we just buy a house next door to them, get it together, let’s get some money and buy the house next door to where they live and we’ll just let all these criminals, all these gang members, all these illegal aliens just let them move into that house and they can be your next door neighbor. Are you going to want that?

0:22:47 – (Steve Gray): And at first I said, I thought to myself nobody would want that. Or some of these people spitting in the streets at other off police and all that and yelling and screaming and throwing water on them and all that kind of stuff. I thought well we’ll just have him move into you. If you had to live next door to them then, then you’ll see, then you’ll see our point. And now I thought wait a minute, that’s not true.

0:23:11 – (Steve Gray): That’s not true. Because these people in the Bible were living next to a naked man who had the power to break chains. That’s why they had him guarded. He’s dangerous. This is a dangerous man, naked, breaking chains, demonized. And he’s under guard. He’s guarded because he’s dangerous. And they were not afraid, they had adapted, they got used to it and it didn’t scare them. But when he’s in his right mind and things are put righteousness now, they’re afraid. And I thought you know what, my point won’t work because they have adapt. People have adapted to the powers of darkness. They are blinded by the powers of darkness. So when you’re trying to make something right and clean and safe for girls in school, for boys in school, for in the streets, drugs get rid of them. Crime you’re trying to get so you can walk the streets at night, which would be wonderful downtown, wouldn’t it?

0:24:06 – (Steve Gray): You’re doing all those things and now they’re afraid. That shows me how they have adapted to demons, they’ve adapted to darkness. They’re comfortable with all this. And you can try to say don’t you understand? We’re going to get rid of it. And they just get angry. They just get angry that, that you’re getting rid of the very people that would slit their throats, that would rob them. They’re getting angry that you’re getting rid of them. It makes no sense until you read this story in the Bible. And you see these people were afraid when Jesus set somebody free and got them in the right mind. And guess what they did?

0:24:44 – (Steve Gray): They wanted Jesus to leave. And that’s what these people want. They don’t want righteousness. They don’t want legal things to take place that clean up our cities. They want the spirit of Jesus and the spirit of the Holy Spirit and those that are praying over our cities to make them safe and prosperous. No more fraud, all that kind of junk that’s going on and that scares them. Cleaning up our cities scares them.

0:25:09 – (Steve Gray): And you think like, what are you thinking it’s going to be? You’re going to be blessed. We’re all going to be blessed. It’s all going to be, nope. They don’t want to give up their pigs. They want to live with pigs. And they’ve decided that’s the way life is, we live with the pigs. And they lost their pigs. And they were angry and they were afraid and they wanted Jesus to leave. And it’s up to you and me to see this and get on the side of Jesus and stand up for what it is and support the people that are supporting righteousness.

0:25:42 – (Steve Gray): I don’t care what your political party is. I don’t care what theirs is. We are part of the kingdom of God and we need to support right, righteousness, safety, prosperity. Children should be safe. You should be safe. Children shouldn’t have to be afraid. There shouldn’t be gunshots in the night. That should not happen in our country. And so God wants to come clean it up and put us all in our right mind.

0:26:06 – (Steve Gray): But what about you? Or what about them? Amazing, isn’t it? Amazing? When we clean up our cities, that scares people. When they’re overrun with gangs and trouble and crime, they’re comfortable with that. We’re comfortable, America. Certain people, politicians too have gotten comfortable with the demons that are now coming into our country and are in our country. They’re comfortable with the demons, but they’re afraid of the righteousness of God.

0:26:34 – (Steve Gray): That’s where we come in and pray. God send revival. We’ve got to have a revival in this country. A revival of righteousness, a revival of the love of God. A revival of the right mind, getting us in our right mind. So that’s my speech today. That’s my story today. I hope you go to https://stevegrayministries.com and check out all the things that we have to offer there. Tell your friends. Subscribe. Follow us.

0:26:58 – (Steve Gray): I know you got a lot of people to listen to. If you got somebody that’s bringing you better truth and opening your eyes, okay? But if they’re just mumbling along, treating you like a loser, trying to make you feel better about your circumstances or feel better about yourself, like, you poor thing, you poor victim. I’m going to help you get. I’m going to help you go longer in your present state. Then, okay?

0:27:21 – (Steve Gray): I would dump that. I’d come and listen to the word of God that says, God is wanting to revive you and. And put you and your family and your relatives, your church, put us all in our right mind of righteousness. All right? So just remember that as you watch the news. Remember this talk I gave you today. Till next time, bye-bye.