I must start by letting you know that I did not watch the SOTU address.  I am sure that President Biden said some things that resonated with both sides of the aisle.  Perhaps he didn't.  That is a matter of public opinion that is extremely relative.  Many professional writers--most, who have previously written speeches for past Presidents-- grade each SOTU on an A-F scale similar to academic grading.  However, even this is relative and divisive.  While this is not the nail I wish to hammer it is important as a Christian to note Paul's words in 1 Tim. 2:1-4 when he instructs us to offer entreaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority.  Yes even the President you may not agree with or like.  I will be the first to say I need to repent of this and pray instead of criticize.  You too!  Again, this is not the point of this short diatribe.

First, I think it safe to say that no one has to be a rocket scientist or multi-talented super genius to understand the state of the union.  With inflation at 6.5% it is difficult for most to afford basic needs.  Additionally, we have normalized mental and emotionally devastating child mutilation (trans-gender surgery), very explicit and provocative "family friendly" drag queen performances, clothing and apparel companies using extremely suggestive themes in their advertisements that (intentionally or unintentionally) exploit children, and if you thought it couldn't get worse; the Grammy's came to town and said, "hold my drink."  I do not perceive to know what goes through each individual's mind when they choose to act in a certain fashion; but, it is safe to assume that the heart is indeed wicked and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9) when a once popular television awards show that celebrates music opens with a satanic ritualistic performance.  I will not link to the video because I would not willingly want anyone subjected to it.  I strongly advise caution if you so choose to watch it.  Additionally, I would not label it R, rather X-Rated.

I do not know Sam Smith nor Kim Petras (a man identifying as a woman), in fact I only just heard about both when reading articles about their "performance" at the Grammy's.  Here is what I do know.  They performed a set with pyrotechnics, stage performers, backup dancers and caged humans.  Both were dressed in blood red outfits and Sam Smith's top hat had horns popping off the top.  Kim was dancing provocatively in a cage with fire all around.  Various dancers and stage performers were seen bowing down to Sam Smith and worshipping him (bear in mind he was representing Satan).  If their "show" was not enough to feed the flesh, their song, titled unholy, was peppered with lyrics about "daddy committing blatant adultery on the side while mommy was unaware."  While the song lacked "curse" words it was littered with vulgar language about adulterous acts.  But even this is not the shock factor.  Why?  Because there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9).  

The shock factor is not the debauchery and wickedness of the entire performance.  The shock factor is not even that it was streamed across the world and seen as "musical performance."  The shock factor sets in when you come to realize that these are the people influencing your children through music, entertainment, books, cartoons, and in many schools around the nation.  What adds a bit of bite to that sting is that the majority of Christians don't do anything about it.  Why?  We have bought into the double standard lie that has been shoved down our throats by the anti-Christ crew over the last few decades.  We are told to keep Jesus to ourselves, to keep our religion private, to worship in our homes, churches, and cars but do not dare bring that true unashamed, bold, exclusive Biblical Christianity with its "intolerant" Jesus to bear on the public sector.  Yet in their double speak they willingly perpetrate vulgarity in the most depraved way knowing its evil and encourage others to do the same (Rom. 1:32).  It is piped through the sewer line directly into your living room, pocket, your kids phone, and their school in the name of "tolerance."

Jesus was very clear, "he who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters," (Mt. 12:30).  There is no such thing as tolerant neutrality.  If you are for Jesus dear Christian, you cannot be for anything that goes against Him.  We have seen increasingly over the years that America is moving further and further away from any discernible notion of being "with Christ" and is rapidly moving toward being against Him.  This is not entertainment, this is not art, and it is not tolerance in any way.  It is a blatant prideful, arrogant, and intolerant spitting upon the name of Christ.  It is a hatred for the things of God because that is what Satan does, he hates God and anything that represents Him.  Bake the cake or be shut down.  Support the LGBTQ+ agenda or be shutdown.  Worship at the altar of Satan or be shutdown.  Is this not why Satan fell.  He wanted to be worshipped and take the place of God.  If you want to know the state of the union, look around at what is celebrated, accepted, and praised.  Newsflash, it is not Godliness.  It is sin! The state of the union is Satanic worship, idolatry, wickedness, and depraved.   Move off the fence dear Christian and insert yourself into the battle.

The other day I was sitting in the car at the local superstore.  As I sat there, people watching waiting for our groceries to be brought out I noticed a couple women heading into the store.  In their hand each carried a mask.  As you know we are currently in the middle of some crazy times.  But this wasn't what stuck out to me.  What really stood out to me was what one lady was gripping in her other hand.  You see, in one hand a mask.  She was tightly gripping the assurance of the cloth in her right hand but in her left was a cigarette.  In one hand she held what she believed would save her from things unseen, more specifically, a virus.  Tightly gripped in her other hand was death.  It was that which both can be seen and causes over 4 million deaths a year.  The cigarette.  Then it hit me!  

When God told us through the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy that God "did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and discipline" He meant it.  We are living in a time of spiritual fear and we are all looking for 100% assurance that if we do certain things life will go the way we think it ought to.  Yet many of us walk around with false assurance.  It's wrong!  Nothing in this world can give us the assurance our inner most being so desires.  We are made in the image of God and nothing can satisfy that desperate longing but God.  C. S. Lewis said it this way.  “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”  

And because this is the truth for everyone, we want assurance that this is not all there is, we want assurance that we won't die, our relationships will be fixed, our marriages won't fail, and our kids will grow up to lead wonderful lives.  But we look for assurance in all the wrong places.  Hebrews 11:1 says

 Did you today hit your knees today and put your assurance in Jesus as much as you did the mask?  Did you hit your knees today and plead with God to give you the assurance that when this life is over you will spend eternity with Him in His glory?  Did you seek the assurance, the 100% assurance that can only come from Jesus. That lady that was grasping in one hand her false assurance yet in the other the very thing that causes death reminded me of how most of us live our lives.  In one hand we hold onto Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our faith and we love Him oh God do we love Him.  

He died a brutal death on the Cross to save us from our sins.  Yes we Love Him!  But in the other hand we hold so tightly to the false assurance of this world.  That if we just do certain things the virus wont get us.  If we push our kids hard enough they will succeed in life, if we try harder we can fix the things that are broken.  But… we can't!  There is no assurance without the Son of God.  There is no assurance without Jesus the Messiah.  You cannot have any assurance in this life other than what Jesus can give but the only way to receive that assurance is to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.  Romans 10:9, if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you, yes you will be saved.  Jesus must be the ruler of you life and you must believe or you will have 0 assurance for this life and the life to come.  My brother, my sister, trust in Jesus He is 100% assurance of everything you need in this life and the next.  God bless you! ​

The definition of Savior is:
"a person who saves someone or something (especially a country or cause) from danger, and who is regarded with the veneration of a religious figure."

Why say Everyone is Looking for a Savior? Well, the short and simple answer is because they are. It’s our nature as human beings. Consider why every story containing a heroic protagonist always involves good triumphing over evil. From video games to movies everyone is looking for a savior. Most have a distorted and self-absorbed understanding of this “savior” but the concept holds true all the same.

We will consider one video game from years ago and one recent movie. I used to be into the Final Fantasy video game franchise. From FFI to whatever number they are at now, the premise is the same. Some terrible tragedy is happening or about to and it is up to some unsuspecting slightly arrogant and pride filled person to stop it. Along the way the protagonist learns very important things about life and self. There is personal reflection, introspection and a host of other life lessons that turn our once arrogant pride filled goober into a wise, “others focused” hero who would do anything to see the greater good realized.

Final Fantasy 10 carried the same premise but in this case our protagonist was a self-diluted insecure boy whose father he thought abandon him early in life to chase a ridiculous dream of becoming a famous blitzball player. Tidus, the protagonist is also a blitzball player like his “dead beet” dad and during a major game in his home town a creature massive in size destroys the city. Auron a longtime friend of Tidus’ father (we realize later in the game) tells Tidus the creature is called Sin. It goes from city / world to city / world and destroys almost everything in its path.

Now as the story goes, Tidus meets many other friends and a young woman named Yuna through Auron. He soon realizes that the many friends are Yuna’s “guardians” and she is on a quest to defeat Sin. Tidus therefore becomes the 11th or 12th guardian (I can’t remember) and travels with the team. Yuna goes to various temples and worships to gain strength for her plight. When she comes to a town that Sin has already destroyed, she performs some sort of healing or miracle that helps the townspeople. Starting to sound familiar yet?

After Tidus and Yuna develop a close emotionally and conversationally intimate relationship he finds out that the only way for her to defeat Sin is to give her life in the final battle at which time she both defeats and becomes Sin. Does this sound like the game developers picked this story up somewhere… anywhere… or I don’t know perhaps the Bible. Most every other video game that involves good and evil follows this same concept.

Next we discuss a recent movie. The Death Cure was the last in the Maze Runner franchise. Many are familiar with either the movies or the books so I will not go into much detail. However, the same premise holds. The protagonist does all he can to help everyone. There is a contagion spreading in the Maze Runner series that turns people into “crazies” who attack everyone and everything and suffer from violent outbursts. Those in power are trying to find a cure but every promised development comes up short. After a lot of running, fighting and rescuing we find out toward the end of the movie that they found a cure. At this point the Maze Runner world is in complete upheaval.

There are fires, buildings collapsing, people are dying and the medical staff, down to just one person still desperately trying to find the cure, realizes that the blood is the cure. In a very dramatic way they call back the protagonist by telling him how many lives he can save and how he can make the world a better place. He need only come back, possibly sacrificing himself to save everyone because his blood contains the cure. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Ever heard a story like this before?

My point in simply this, everyone is looking for a savior. However, because we live in a sinful world we are prone to make up our savior in our own image so that s/he acts, thinks, speaks, and saves how we want. We commit the egregious sin of idolatry to comfort ourselves. Why are we willing to do that? It is because we are all looking for a savior. We desperately hold onto anything in this life that is good and brings us joy because in this world we will have pain, suffering, heartache, trials, temptations and death. None of which was part of the original design by God. All of this is merely the effects of sin.

Genesis 2:16-17

"And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Romans 5:12

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned."

The problem is our desire to make up a savior in our image. If the savior we are so desperately trying to find is made in our image than that savior is wicked to the core (Jeremiah 17:91; Romans 8:62; Revelation 21:83; Ezekiel 18:204), insecure, tired, heartbroken, and is unable to save self let alone anyone else. We desperately search out a savior because deep down we know that we are hopeless and even on our good days we feel a longing that cannot be filled with the worlds fleeting carnal pleasures.

​God tells us that He is the only savior (Isaiah 43:115). God is the only God there is no other (Isaiah 45:56). God promises a savior to deliver His people all throughout the Old Testament and delivers in Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:217; Acts 5:318). Jesus says He is the only way, the only truth and the only life, no one can get to the Father except through Him (John 14:69).