"Rage Against the Machine!"..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

A sermon by: Mike Hooper, Jr.

January 10, 2007

WINDOW: "I'm Waiting" video

Did you hear what they are saying?  "I am waiting to have sex until I am married!"  Tonight if we asked you if this is what MOST of your friends were saying about their sexual lives, you would probably say a definite "ummmmm… NO!"  But get this… Did you know…. That intensive research shows that less than half of your friends (excuse the pun…) are really "doing it."  LESS THAN HALF!  When I went to school that was an 'F.'  so where do we get off with this feeling that "Everyone is doing it?"  The answer… we have found it in the MEDIA.  Tonight I want to speak… let me rephrase I am going to VENT!  I am going to BLOG real up-close and personal… and LIVE right here with you tonight.  I want to EXPSOSE the Truth and the Lies about the bill of goods that you, and I have been sold about Sex, Love, and Dating from the Media that entrenches our modern lives.  Tonight I am going to vent… Tonight I am going to Rage… RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! 

WINDOW: Slide- Rage Against the Machine Graphic

Let's Pray.

Now I don't know about you, but something that began in my teen years and has carried on since then, in fact I think it is more apart of my character, then it is something I picked up, but I have this overwhelming disdain for anything, or anyone who seeks to control my life, that I have not GIVEN that control to.  Namely: Christ, and My Parents.  I gave my life to Jesus, and he has told me to honor my parents.  That I am happy to do.  It is not always easy… but I have found that as obey… God gives me the strength I need to do whatever it is I need to do.  But when it comes to the man… and you know what I am saying when I say "The Man…"  any "..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />School of Rock" fans out there?  When it comes to the man… I like to do what ever I can to "Stick it to him!"  "Stick it to the man!"  Why?  Because I like to know that what I am doing with my life I chose to do, and I chose to do it based upon what I myself have found to be truth, and not just what someone tells me.  That's why I take furious notes in church services… I refuse to just take what some preacher tells me as gospel without putting it up against the Gospel first!  I like to stick it to the man.  It's just who I am.  I like to know my rights, I want to take advantage of them, and not let anyone else take advantage of me. 

Because… well… it's my life isn't it?  Isn't that reason enough?

So when I find out that there are areas of my life that I have conformed to what someone else has planted in me without my consent… frankly it ticks me off!  First at myself, for letting it happen, and then at "The Man" for feeding his CRAP!  And here is the deal guys… "The Man" is in our midst and he feeds us his feast of conformity everyday… through our TV's, radio stations, movies, internet, myspace, billboards, the list goes on and on.  His presence is everywhere!  And it is perverting and contorting and twisting our views of Sex, Love, and Dating.  And you know what gets me the most… It's not subtle!  It's not like he just snuck it in there… it's BLATANT, Aggressive and in my face all the time… I can't walk through the mall with out Victoria showing me all of her secrets… and then all of her sisters on myspace follow suit!  I turn on the TV and it's all over the place… I can't even play a video game now that isn't full of derogatory language and conversation!  SO… you say… so what… we all know that its there… I just ignore it.. I close my eyes… I just listen to the beat… trust me I have used every excuse and never been able to get away with it… and now after doing my home work I know why…

Quote:  ..:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" />..:namespace prefix = w ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" />They finally proved what we have known all along. Recent studies by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill show that the more sexually explicit material teens see on television, the more likely they are to have premarital sex. Who would have guessed?

And it's not going to get any better…

Quote:  Gaming professionals and enthusiasts are talking about sex in video games Thursday (June 8) in San Francisco, the epicenter of American game development and the staging ground for the Summer of Love.

And what the 150 developers, gamers, lawyers and sex-industry professionals gathered for the inaugural Sex in Video Games Conference want is more of it, not less. MTV.COM

One of the video game designers even told news reporters…

Quote:  "The perception is video games are for kids," said Brenda Braithwaite, a veteran game designer and the conference organizer. "But people have a right to do this. Don't tell me I have to abide by this little Disney-esque palette. I may never even use the hard-core end of the palette in any game I make. But don't tell me I can't do that."

Are you beginning to understand my frustration yet!?!  No one ever asked me if that is what I wanted!  It's like all these polls you read about, and you are like "well, no one ever asked me!" 

And it is not just from the TV, and forms of media that you would expect… get a load of this…

Quote:

"Our assault on innocence and modesty now begins quite early in our public schools. Sex-ed, as it is called, is another legalized means by which we wage war on virtue with the sanction of our government. In classrooms all across our nation, children are being subjected to mental rape: their innocence is being stolen from them against their wills. Schools in the Northeast teach 'Condom Line-Up,' where young boys and girls have to properly arrange pieces of cardboard with words on them like 'sexual arousal,' 'erection,' and 'leave room at the tip.' In New Jersey, children in kindergarten are taught about birth control and masturbation. A popular text now in use across the country is titled, It's Perfectly Normal, published by Planned Parenthood. 'It features illustrations of nude, playful boys and girls as they masturbate on beds and heterosexual and homosexual couples as they have intercourse in different positions.' Recommended reading age? Ten years old and up."
David and Diane Vaughn, The Beauty of Modesty: Cultivating Virtue in the Face of a Vulgar Culture (Nashville: Candlewick Press, 2005), 34.

And again I say… I scream… "Whoever asked me if this is what I want!"  They talk about the youth of the world being the future… every politician says something about it… it's on the news, it's on the sitcoms… they will make special little announcements… but they don't MEAN any of it!  How can I say that?  By their actions… their actions speak louder than their words… they are setting us up for a future alright!  A future that they planted in our heads, and it is a future that is set up for failure!  A life that meaninglessly focuses only on self image, casual sex, risk free activity, and fun is the ultimate goal no matter what the cost!  Even to the point of grotesque mutilation for a lousy laugh!  I would love to get just one of the JackASS guys by themselves… give them some truth serum and ask them straight up… was it worth it?  Was mutilating your genitals in front of the world worth it?  Did you really get the rise you wanted?  Does it just turn you on or what?!  Was it worth it!?! 

I think they may have already answered… at the end of Jackass 2 one of the guys decides to play one last prank… only to get a string of explicative's from his prey… and a repeating phrase… "It's not funny man!"  "It's just not funny anymore!" 

I mean has culture just gone that far down the tubes that this is just what we have become… or has it been purposeful?  Like I said when are they going to actually start asking me what I think?

Oh wait you know what in a way they did…

Quote:   Brent Bozell, head of the Parents Television Council, in testifying before the Federal Communications Commission in February 2003, said the average American family is "disgusted, revolted, fed up, horrified—I don't know how else to underscore this—by the raw sewage, the ultra violence, the graphic sex, the raunchy language that is flooding into their living rooms day and night through the television screen, and poisoning the minds of an entire generation of youngsters whose parents' concerns are dismissed by an industry that admonishes them instead to stand guard over the sets, perhaps with a baseball bat, to keep impressionable children away."

"Parents Television Council Calls on FCC to Address Television Decency Standards," www.parentstv.org

What!  What?!  What!?!  I just don't get it?  If that is the truth then why has there been no change!  Why?  If that is what they said in 2003, then why are we having discussions about having MORE sex in video games and TV in 2006?! 

BECAUSE IT IS ON PURPOSE!

Getting rid of that does not fit into the agenda that the major companies in the world the ones who control the media… and so… it does not go!

SO WHO ARE THESE JERKS!?!

Quote:  Today five enormous companies are responsible for selling nearly all of youth culture. These are the true merchants of cool: Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Universal Vivendi, and AOL/Time Warner. Of the five media giants, the coolest conglomerate on the block is Viacom. And Viacom's crown jewel, there on the second floor, is MTV, which last year earned the company a billion dollars in profits.

And not only that… not only do they control… they make fun of us while they do it… they really think that we are a bunch of zombies at their control.  In some regard they are right because

Quote:  MTV attracts young people. Almost everyone under the age of 18 watches it regularly. In fact, according to Nielsen Media Research, MTV is the most recognized network among people ages 12 to 34.

73% of boys and 78% of girls between the ages of 12 to 19 watch over 6 hours of MTV every week. They love it. They spend more time with MTV than with their youth group. MTV even says in its own media kit, "We don't advertise to this generation. We own this generation."

Not only that, but they have made up names for us… names that have moved from mtv board rooms and now into national syndication…

Quote:  His critics call him "the mook." That's right, M-O-O-K, mook. And you can find him almost any hour of the day or night somewhere on MTV. He's not real. He's a character- crude, loud, obnoxious, and in-your-face.

He's Tom Green of The Tom Green Show. And he's the daredevils on Jackass who indulge in dignity-defying feats like poo diving. He's those frat boys and their whip-cream bikini girlfriends on MTV's constantly recurring Spring Break specials. He has migrated to MTV's sister network, Comedy Central, where he's the cartoon cutouts of South Park or the lads on The Man Show.

The mook is perhaps Viacom's most bankable creation. Once programmers discovered his knack with teenage boys, they replicated him across the length and breadth of their empire.

Don't Worry Girls they didn't leave you out…

Quote:  And girls get dragged down there right along with boys. The media machine has spit out a second caricature. Perhaps we can call this stereotype "the midriff." The midriff is no more true to life than the mook. If he is arrested in adolescence, she is prematurely adult. If he doesn't care what people think of him, she is consumed by appearances. If his thing is crudeness, hers is sex. The midriff is really just a collection of the same old sexual clichés, but repackaged as a new kind of female empowerment. "I am midriff, hear me roar. I am a sexual object, but I'm proud of it."

The midriff archetype is undoubtedly teenage mega-star Britney Spears. When Britney finally and famously came out of her clothes, she wasn't just pleasing eager young boys, she was delivering a powerful message to girls: Your body is your best asset. Flaunt your sexuality even if you don't understand it.

And they do a great job of it… thorough to be sure… did you know that one of those companies…. Viacom who also owns MTV… they also own… Noggin.  You know the little preschool nickelodeon programming… oh and all of nickelodeon for that matter… oh lets see what else…

Viacom.

Fueled by our world-class brands, including BET, Famous Music, MTV Networks – MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, CMT: Country Music Television, Spike TV, TV Land and more than 120 networks around the world – Paramount Pictures and Paramount Home Entertainment, we are among the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. We work to deliver growth and superior returns to our stockholders and bring our global audiences the entertainment they want where they want it.

oh and just so you know what they are telling the world… when I logged onto their website and looked up their company's values… this is what it said…

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, COMPLIANCE & ETHICS

Committed to the highest standards of ethics and integrity, Viacom has adopted a strong set of corporate governance practices. These guidelines ensure an involved, knowledgeable and independent Board of Directors – one that oversees and holds management responsible for building shareholder value. Included in this section are links to the Board of Directors' biographies, and principal corporate governance and business conduct policies and guidelines.

Viacom

1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
UNITED STATES
Phone: (212) 258-6000

investor.relations@viacom.com

Just in case anyone might want it… (Hmmm…What would Viacom do if they really heard what we want?)

So this is where we stand… we have been the subjects of manipulation… and the man… has stuck it to us… he has lied!   What are some of the lies?

Myths from the media:

1.       Everyone is doing it.

2.       Sex has no deep significance.

3.       Sex is okay when you are ready.

4. Sex is an elite practice where those who have the most experience are most valued, more important, and more successful.
5. You are a naïve lower class citizen who hasn't reached social maturity yet if you think you should save yourself for marriage.
6. Being Homosexual is okay.
7. Once you've done it… you might as well keep doing it!
8. Being prudent sexually or remaining abstinent is something that you associate with old fads, boredom, and stupidity.
9. Sex is the most important thing in a teen's life.
10. Sexual promiscuity has no consequences.

Oh yeah we are Eleven… that means ONE MORE… can you handle it?  Myth #11

11. The Media Doesn't Impact whether people have sex.

Not only are these myths… they are complete lies!  And here is the truth… "the man" that has fed them to us… he isn't some guy at Viacom or MTV sitting behind a desk… he isn't the movie producers and he isn't some radio, or video game programmer, or the guys from jackass…

"The man" has a name… you've heard of him before but somehow it is so easy to forget that he is there… his name is Satan!  And he has an agenda, a feast of rubbish that he wants to feed to you!  And HE IS!  Not only to you, but to me, and to every one of us out there… we've bought it hook line and sinker.  And we have all picked it up along the way… like the air filter of a car.  Its not bad because it gets dirty… that's just what it does, but every so often we have to take it out… bang it against the bricks and knock all the junk out!  Sometimes we even have to get a new one… our lives can be the same way. And we are not evil because of what we have seen or heard, or indulged our flesh in, but that evil has entered in through our senses and it pollutes our hearts and minds!

So what should be our response?  What does the word of God say about all this?

Hang on cuz we are going to move fast!

Romans 12:2 (The message)

 Step 1. Place Your Life Before God

 1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Eph. 5:15-18 (NLT)

Step 2.  Choose to live by the Spirit's Power

 15 So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

Eph. 2:10 (NLT)

Step 3.  Remember that you are His Masterpiece!

10 For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Step 4.  Take a deep breath and get a new grip.

Hebrews 12:12 (NLT)

12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

Step 5.  Set your mind on things above.

Philippians 4:4-8

4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! 5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

 6 Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

 8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

There is one more thing I want to encourage you with…

1 peter 2:9

9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests,^[f] a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

That word "chosen" in some translations is translated "peculiar" meaning different.  Abnormal, our "counter-normal" 

We are called, by God, to be different… and it is for a reason.  Because he has set us apart… if we were playing jeopardy the answer would be "that which is set apart…" and we would ring our buzzers and answer (in question of course…) "What is Holy?" 

To be holy means to be set apart for God.  He is saying "I have chosen you, THIS generation… to be different to be set apart, and holy unto me. 

God is looking for a generation that will stand up and with their fists in the air they will scream for the world to hear…

"ENOUGH!  Enough is Enough!"

"We will not stand by and let someone else dictate to us what our lives must be, what our views, and values must be… we already have a king.  His name is Jesus!  He is our King!  And He is our God!  And OUR GOD REIGNS!"

It is time to rage!

It is time to RAGE against "The Man!"

It is time to RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!!!

Our God Reigns

Our God Reigns

Forever your kingdom REIGNS!