DeepFake – 4 Reflect: Double Check the Source

 

We are so glad to have you back with us at Redemption Church in Plano Tx. Hello to our friends online. Hello to our friends in the room. My name is Chris Fluitt and I am ready to jump into the word of God.

 

DeepFake

We are in the 4th week of our series called Deepfake.

The people you saw in our intro video are not real. They are digital manipulations created through A.I. – artificial intelligence. You cannot always trust what you see.

 

Deepfakes are synthetic media that have been digitally manipulated to replace one person’s image convincingly with that of another.

Deepfakes hijack the creator’s image and then manipulate that image for their own liking.

Our world is growing more and more concerned with the ability to manipulate the truth. One of the causes of concern is identity theft.

 

Identity theft

• 1.4 million identity theft cases have been *reported* to the Federal Trade Commission so far this year.
  • Many cases go unreported so that 1.4 million number is higher.
• Estimated losses are $10.2 billion so far, up from $6.9 billion total from last year.
• The number of identity theft cases has tripled since 2019.
• Someone’s identity theft occurs every 22 seconds.
• 33% (one out of three) Americans have experienced some form of identity theft.
• Texas is 16th worst of the states for reports of identity theft.

 

There are many ways to steal someone’s identity.

Phishing, hacking, cloning accounts, and phones.

I remember once my Aunt, who lives in Texas, sent me a message on Facebook that she needed help. She messaged that she had been mugged in Europe and lost everything she had and needed me to wire her money so she could get home…

The account said my Aunt’s name and showed her picture… but something didn’t seem right, so asked my dad if His sister was in Europe and He said she was in San Antonio.

Someone had hacked her account through a phishing scheme. People are also able to clone accounts and make it look just like the original account.

 

Someone I know recently received a text from a cloned phone. They received a text from a number they knew but it was from someone else trying to defraud them.

More than ever, it is important to double check the source.

 

Double Check the Source

Where is this message coming from? Who is this message coming from?

Just because the image that shows up on your phone says your Aunt’s name, does not mean it is your Aunt. You need to double check the source.

 

We need to double check the source when it comes to…

• spirits
• Motives
• Thoughts
• Emotions
• Plans
• Responses

You can be looking at a person, but it is a spirit at work, or an impure motive that is speaking. Paul teaches us about this.

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The person (flesh and blood) is not who we are wrestling against.

• That co-worker
• That person in your family
• That person you never get along with and you don’t understand why…

That person is not the enemy! That person is loved by God. That person has a purpose they have not yet found. Christ died for that person!

It is often a spirit at work within them and that is the enemy. This is a deepfake!

We need to learn to love the person, pray for the person, and serve the person… and at the same time understand the enemy that is present. PRAY AGAINST THE SPIRITUAL FORCES AT PLAY.

Let’s pray right now…

[Sometimes it is a spirit, motive, thought, emotion… at work in us
Romans 7:23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.]

 

Double Check the Source

How do we double check the source?

What do you do when you get up in the morning?  You go brush your teeth and comb your hear and you look into the mirror.

I am so glad I have a mirror. Guys I know I don’t look great, but I promise you I look worse when I get up in the morning.

Before you leave the house you always double check your image by looking in the mirror.

James 1:23 tells us about a mirror.

James 1:22-24 (NIV) Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

In 3 verses James gives us a lot to consider.

The Word of God is a mirror.

We must do more than listen to the Word, we must do what the Word says. V25 says we must continue in it.

 

If I got up in the morning and looked in the mirror, and did not like what I saw… “Gross! I look terrible.” But then I don’t do anything to change my image, I just walk out of the bathroom and forget how gross I look… that is not a good use of the mirror. I should stand in front of that mirror a little longer and correct my image.

The Bible, the Word of God, Hoy Scripture is a mirror. And like a good mirror it shows exactly as we are…

 

The Word of God Confronts your Image

Like your bathroom mirror the Word of God confronts your image!

You read your Bible and it says…

• You shouldn’t lie.
• You shouldn’t steal.
• You should not say filthy things and watch filthy things.
• You should honor your mother and father.
• You should love others and forgive them.
• You should serve others and give to the Lord.

Reading your Bible reveals how you don’t look so good.

Every person looks into a physical mirror and spruces up their image.

Why don’t we do that with our hearts, souls, spirits, words, actions, thoughts…?

Check your image! Look into the word of God.
Change your image! Do what the Word of God says.

Redemption Church is different from most of the Churches that met all over the metroplex today.

Every Church meets, sings some worship, and hears a message from the Bible… And we have done exactly that so far.

But here is what happens at most churches… They watch only a few receive the message of the word…

The reason I invite everyone to come talk to God is because IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO LOOK AT THE MIRROR we have to change our image. We must do what the Word says. We must change our image.

 

Double Check your Image

Do you look like Jesus? Or do you look like a world that is chaotic and confused?
Do you look like the love of Jesus?  Or do you look like hatred?
Do you look like freedom or addiction?
Do you look like joy, or do you look like depression?

This is something to come talk to God about.

Our job as followers of Christ is to reflect the image of Jesus.

 

Reflect the Image

Double check the mirror. What image are you reflecting?

Double check the Word of God.

Do we understand the word of God? It is possible to misunderstand the Word of God, and if we misunderstand it then that will effect the image.

 

Do you know who this is? Who does it look like?

 

Here is another picture?  Who does it look like and why?

The horns kinda make you think that this is the devil… but it is actually a statue of Moses.  The 2nd pic was a sculpture by Michaelangelo.

Why the horns? Moses has horns because some people misunderstood the Word of God.

Exodus 34:29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

This verse says nothing about horns… but when the Hebrew scripture was being translated into the Latin Vulgate by Jerome in the 4th century they misunderstood a Hebrew word and mistranslated the text.

Qāran (Kah-Ran) means to shine forward.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7160/kjv/wlc/0-1/

Qeren (Kah-Ren) means to protrude forth like horns.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7161/kjv/wlc/0-1/

 

 

Because they misunderstood the Word of God, many people grew up with a picture of Moses having horns. They had an incorrect image of what the Glory of God looks like.

 

I wonder how many people have been given an incorrect picture of God. Perhaps someone drew horns on the image of God.

• God hates sinners.
• God is mad at you.

I wonder how many people have an incorrect picture of what a Christian should be.

• God only cares about rules. If you want to be one of us you have to keep the rules.
• We Christians are better than others. We are elite.

I wonder how many people have an incorrect picture of what Church should be.

• Church is a place to go be served rather than to role up your sleeves and serve others.
• Church is a place for perfect people like us.  Some aren’t welcome.

We need to erase the horns. We need to look into the Word of God, correctly understand it, and do what it says. Only then can we reflect the image of Jesus.

 

Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Paul often makes scripture a little complicated.  I want to underline the words “conformed to the image of His Son.”

This is God’s will for us.  To be more like Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

Adam is that heavenly man… and we all look like Adam & Eve… But do we look like that heavenly man Jesus Christ?

 

Let me look in the mirror for a moment…

• My ego and pride don’t look enough like His humility.
• My dishonesty, my willingness to not tell the whole truth and to attempt to justify myself…
• My lack of patience…
• My greed and lust…
• My lack of compassion…
• My lack of service…
• My withholding forgiveness…

Redemption Church we need to look a whole lot more like Jesus.

We need to reflect Jesus.  Every worker in this Church… we need you to do more than open doors, teach classes, lead small groups, play the guitar, or run computer screens. WE NEED YOU TO REFLECT JESUS TO THOSE WHO HAVE COME SEARCHING FOR HIM.

Please stand with me. I am about invite you to talk to God… to spend some time looking in the mirror of the Word… to do what the Word says… to conform ourselves to the image of Jesus.

I have one more verse to share with you before you come.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

There is a conforming into the image of Jesus. That is simply a lot of trial and error… trying to do better, breaking habits, obeying the Word.

But there is also a transforming into His image by the power of the Spirit. I can’t speak for you, but I want that.

That looks like you being changed right now and never being the same again. This is a supernatural transformation.

Some of you might say… yeah Pastor I received that many years ago… keep reading that verse! It says “transformed into His image with EVER-INCREASING GLORY.”

You may have received a transformation years ago… but there is an ever increasing glory available for you today. IT COMES FROM THE LORD WHO IS THAT SPIRIT.