Well, good morning church. Good to see everybody this morning. Hey, I want to begin by telling you one of the most memorable times of my life one, of the most embarrassing times of my life. Okay? Can I trust ya'll? All right, even while the camera rolls. So, here's the deal. It involves my sister, which is no surprise to me.  You all know, Pam, she's my older sister. Growing up, she was a majorette. Ya'll remember what majorettes are? They twirl batons. Lots of memories of that. I remember her practicing in the house at home. I remember one time she lost it and hit my granddad in the mouth, knocked his dentures out. You know, we had a lot of good times around majorette stuff. But hey, she became in the red coat marching band at Georgia. And, yeah, go dogs, finally.  That was a little bit questionable. So here's what happened.  In recent years, for some odd reason, only known to Pam. She has chosen to participate in this group called Twilight Twirlers. Now, yeah, and so yeah, Twilight, I guess denotes the season of life in which they find themselves. Not to say anything about Pam. But, um, so listen. A few years ago, something remarkable happened. America's Got Talent was coming to Atlanta to the Cobb Energy Center. And ring, ring, the phone went off. And somehow AGT approached the Twilight Twirlers to come audition. Okay. They must have seen them at some local parade. Anyway.

So, Pam was excited. And the only thing was Ronnie who just played acoustic he couldn't get off work. And neither of her boys could get off work. Well, me being the nice, humble, loving brother of hers, decided that I would take enough time to just run over there, watch the audition, you know, to support her if nobody else is clapping, and then I'd scoot back to work. Well, I got there and as I'm walking up, there's this crowd of people, later to find out that 90% of them was being paid. And I had this lady run up to me and she had a clipboard, and she said, okay, you got to come over here and stand right here. We're getting ready for the limousine to come here. And she started telling me all these things I had to do. And I'm like, what is going on here? And so, all of a sudden, the limo pulled up and out stepped.... Ready, ladies? David Hasselhoff. Wooo. Yes. And then Sharon Osbourne, and then Piers Morgan. And of course, she had to come over and remind me, listen, listen, you gotta jump up and down, you're trying to, you know, pretend for the camera cause the cameras were rolling, you kind of pretend for the camera that you want him to come over and shake your hand or touch you or get his autograph or something. And I'm like, okay, okay, I'm like David, David! And so it's like, until they went in, and then all of a sudden, they took up our cell phones, and they said, here are the rules that you've got to agree to, when you come in, we're gonna seat you, you're gonna be here for four hours. You can't leave during that time. Because this is a TV production. I'm like, what, what? And this is the question I asked, how did this happen? And so all of a sudden, they whisk us in, up on the balcony right here, right where the camera angle was getting a good shot of me, okay? And so then they shoot all this stuff, the filler stuff, and so they were like teaching us.  We had to stand up and with great vigor, say, X them, X them so they would hit the gong, you know, and then they'd have send them,  send them and okay, here we're doing it. And then finally they hit the bottom of the barrel. They said, here's the Emcee Jerry Springer, and all of a sudden, they said, okay, guys, we need some real good lively shots. Are you ready? We need this here. Everybody say Jerry, Jerry!  And so, all of a sudden, the camera boom comes in, and does a close up on me. And, I'm like, ahhhhhhhhh!  Local pastor’s secret life revealed on national TV more details is 6. So, 4 hours later. Oh, by the way, Pam was the second to audition the Twilight Twirlers for about 30 seconds and they got the XX's. And then they left. Four hours later, I get to leave. I am in the car calling Pam saying, well, hey, sis, whatcha doing?  And she said, oh, they fed us a snack and I've been back to the office a couple hours. I said, well, I'm just now leaving. And just to let you know, you owe me like the rest of your life. Okay? It was like, how did this happen? Right? Have you ever had those?  I know you have. It's like, how did this happen? This is not me. And I find myself in this. And I don't know quite how I got here. Well, what we want to look at this morning is one we'll look at the last six months, and what it has done to us as Christians.  Okay?  I was so excited, six months, no, I wasn't excited. That's a wrong expression. I thought that, Romans 8:28 and 29, James 1, 2 and 3.  I thought this is going to be amazing. This is going to be like 911, whenever I pack the churches.  It's going to have this spiritual significance. It's going to be amazing how God is going to work. And here we are six months later, and just the opposite has happened. All of a sudden, do you know that Satan has been working his strategy? And I'm afraid that we as Christians have been sucked into it.

We have shown our ugly selves, our grumpy selves, really on social media a lot. Complained about the media, about masks, no mask, school, no school, about politics. So, all of a sudden, our actions, our words, our attitudes have become judgmental, and divisive, both among Christians and non-Christians. And the question is.  Is this what the church is to be about during this season of time? So, this morning, of course, God knows, omnipotent, He's all knowing.  He knows that this is going to happen, and He's given a scripture to look at. And so this morning, turn, if you would, in whatever device or the Bible, if you happen to have the Bible in printed form to Romans 12:2.  We're going to look at Romans 12:2.  I want to give a shout out to those online. You know, this is the last weekend of Paulding break, and the first weekend of Cobb break, perfect storm there for folks to be out and about. For those tuning in. Thanks for coming and joining us. For those who aren't able to get out yet because of health reasons, we look forward to the day that you can. And for those folks who are checking out Burnt Hickory, hey, listen, this is a great place to be, alright, we encourage that. So, listen, let's look at Romans 12:2 together. "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." How many of you all want to know what God's will is for your life? You know, I love to disciple people and I found that's the number one question that people deal with.  How do I know what God's will is for my life at this point?

Let's pause for just a moment of prayer. Father, thank you this morning. And you clearly laid this on my heart and wanted me to share this message this morning. And so Father, I pray that You have prepared this for this moment that You prepare our hearts now to receive Your word in a way that it might produce fruit, that this wouldn't just be something to check off our list coming to church, but that You would stir our hearts through the Holy Spirit and I pray in Your name, Amen. Well, I want us to look at three key words in this first: conformed, world and transformed those three words. Okay? Those are key. And the first thing that God tells us here is don't be conformed to this world. It's a warning. It's a command.  Something about this world. And so, the first thing we want to look at is that this world is a spiritual battleground. And who is at the root of it all? Satan is. So, this is a spiritual battleground with Satan as the root.  Let me remind you, Satan was an angel. He was a cherubim, he was cast down with a third of the angels. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 10:18, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."  Now his objective when he's here on earth is to, "steal, kill and destroy, Jesus said in John 10:10.  And Revelation 12:9 what a great passage that explains the deceit that Satan uses. It says, "The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent, called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.  He was hurled down to the earth, and his angels with him."  But listen, Satan is not on the same level of God, he is not the arch-rival, he is a created being. Okay?  He does not possess the attributes that God possesses. So, in Ephesians, 6:10, we're told that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it is a spiritual battle. And he tells us in that, that Satan is highly organized, and he talks about the schemes of Satan.  If you look at the Greek origin, it's the word methods. So, Satan, since he can't be everywhere, like he doesn't come and just knock on each one of your doors in the course of the day, he doesn't have time for that. And he, can't be everywhere at once, like God can. So, he has to be very strategic, and methodical how he is going to steal, kill and destroy. But you can bet this one thing, that his objective will always be to render Christians powerless and defeated. And the reason he wants to stop that is because he wants to keep non-Christians from coming to know Christ, because he thinks that robs God of his glory. Okay?  So that's his objective. Now, the second thing I want us to realize is that Satan's goal is to suck you into his plan. Okay? You got to know that. So, let's look at ways he's been doing that in six months. First of all, if he is a master strategist, listen to his strategy. He was wanted during this season, to isolate you, to isolate people and to bring hardships, because he knows when they're isolated, that leaves for a very, very difficult time.  He wants to distract you. He wants to keep us as believers from getting together. He wants to polarize your thoughts and your views from others. And then he wants to provide a real easy way for you to express yourself without even thinking before you start typing and those are real cool strategies that he uses.  He is a liar and he is the father of lies we're told; he wants you to feel hopeless and helpless. He wants you to feel confused, and frustrated. And he wants you to feel angry. And as a deceiver, he doesn't want to be on your radar. In fact, he would love it if the world didn't even believe in him.

Because if we don't see him on our radar, then he wants us to see people as our problem, not him behind the deceit in lies. So, through that deceit, he wants you to be at odds and quarrel with other believers. So, we're not united as Jesus prayed for us to be. And he wants to target our anger and our judgmental attitude toward lost people so they will never see God's love in us.  Because of his strategy, and now listen guys, this is how it has worked. And unlike the old preachers, where I come from in the country, they used to say, can I get an amen or an oh, me? Because it's a two-edged sword. And you know, I asked God.

I said, God, when he laid this on my heart, I lost some sleep. And I said, God that's kind of it. That's it. These guys, they were the ones, at least not you on the camera, you may be in a fun place right now. These guys are the ones they have taken a Sunday morning of fall break, and they have decided to come to church, and now they get this heavy message. And I struggled with that. And God just reminded me listen, you're just the message boy, I'm the messenger. I give the message; you just deliver it. And so, as a result, let me tell you what guys, because Satan's deception and traps have been so effective. Here's what we do. We lose track, that Satan is our enemy. And all of a sudden, we think that Nancy Pelosi is our enemy. Or we think Donald Trump is our enemy. Or we think the Democrat Party is the enemy.  Or the Republican Party is the enemy. We forget that Satan is the enemy. And we think that Dr. Fauci is the enemy or the overcautious medical community.  Or we think those people that don't wear a mask and take it seriously that they are the enemy. Or we think CNN and the mainstream media is the enemy, or Fox news is the enemy, or that the Black Lives Matter organization is the enemy, or that the police officers that protect us, they're the enemy. And so, what happens as a result of target getting our anger toward each other, rather than where it should be directed towards Satan, we are falling right into his trap. And God calls this being conformed to the world. So, what happens guys, and it's a tough one for us to take. But there is disunity and fighting among believers.  Do you know we have had to step in and we have a great church, ya'll are a godly group of people, we have to step in, when people in our congregation get into a disagreement on social media? That's not even biblical. There are biblical steps if you have a difference with someone else, and it is not to be fought in the public arena. There is a way that honors God and that is not it. We have seen disunity not only in a local church body, but we now fight between denominations.

And then we have brothers and sisters in Christ that we will be spending eternity in heaven with, from different races, different cultures, different nationalities, and we now have disunity and fighting with them.  And in John 17, that was the high priestly prayer that Jesus prayed, He spent time and He prayed for His disciples. He prayed that they would be united and then he prayed for us, the future believers that we would be united that the world would know. And here we are one of the greatest opportunities in our lifetime for a spiritual revival and awakening and the Christians are being caught right in the middle of the web of deceit that Satan has laid for us. And because of the infighting, now all of a sudden, the non-believers look at us, and they think that we have a greater allegiance toward a political figure or political party than we do Jesus Christ Himself and the church of Jesus. And guys, this is a heavy message, but they see us as full of anger rather than love, compassion and justice. And what's so funny, and it's not funny, but we have this scripture, we always go back to and makes for a great, you know, meme, a great posting, is 2 Chronicles 7:14, "if My people who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." And we claim that and then what we do is we call for solemn assembly, we get on our face, and what we start doing is we start praying for the sins that the world is committing. The only problem with that is we forget to deal with the sins in our own life. Oh, and by the way, in scriptures, 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 says, "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside?" So, here's the deal. We look, and we see disgusting things going on in the world, and it is disgusting. Well, what we think is we think that they should be acting in a way that honors God, we think that they should be acting as Christians, when we as Christians have a hard time acting as Christians. And then what happens is, we are told in scriptures, that in 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers."  So guys, listen, you cannot win an argument, a spiritual argument with a lost person. I got news for you. You'll never win that because Scripture tells us that they are spiritually appraised, and that those without Christ do not have the Spirit of God living in them to where they can understand it. So, quit trying to win spiritual arguments, quit trying to polarize people who don't have the Living God inside them as your enemy, because who is the enemy? The people are not your enemy.

Satan is the enemy. He is the deceiver. He is the one that is deceiving people. And by the way, we were talking this in our life group last week.  We were talking about, is it easy to live the Christian life? And so, we're doing the study by Eugene Peterson and Peterson said, Yes, it is. And we're like, man, I wouldn't say it is and then we started talking about that. And then we talked about that, like during this pandemic, it really is not easy. And then one of us spoke up who has come to Christ as an adult in recent years, and she with great transparency said, "Listen, being lost in this, it's ridiculously confusing and it doesn't make sense and there's no hope and there's a lot of fear." And what happens guys is we forget, that lost people who don't have Christ, they don't have the hope and the assurance that we do. They are as lost as a goose in a snowstorm.

They don't know how to react like this, and you know what they're gonna act like, they're gonna act like sinners. You know why? Because they are, they're acting out their nature. You're not going to win an argument with them by posting stuff on Facebook, I got news for you. The question is, like, when you position yourself in arguments on Facebook, wherever it is, when you position yourself, are you positioning yourself to have a greater influence with your lost neighbors, coworkers and associates? Or are you throwing up more barriers in front of them? What is the greatest gain that we can make during this? Is it making sure that we get the right supreme court justice or the right president? I'm not minimizing the importance of those, but if that's where we're placing our hopes, then our hopes are misplaced. Because as believers there is only victory through Jesus, and He can break down all strongholds.

So, what's to happen then? Well, 1 Peter 4:17, has some pretty hard language. Because it says, "For it is time for judgment to begin with God's households; and it begins with us."  That's why judgement begins with us, guys. The problem is, as the world gets darker, we feel better about ourselves. And all of a sudden, we forget that we're pretty dirty with sin. And it may be, it's what I call good flesh. It's not the stuff that looks bad. I mean, after all, you're in church this morning, man. Hey, listen, that leads to pride, arrogance, lack of humility, judgmental spirit, just like the Pharisees if you don't watch it.  So, we have to watch ourselves. So secondly, Satan wants to take us and suck us into his traps. Third, God wants to free us and transform us from Satan's traps. Amen. Marty let's get to some happier stuff. Those others are kind of heavy and I agree. Okay, let's, remember these four things.  The battles for your mind, that's the first thing, that's why it needs to be transformed. Here you are thinking people are the problem or organizations are the problem, they're not. Satan is the one behind those, I assure you the Bible assures you. Secondly, transformation happens from the inside out. You can't transform yourself. However, the third thing is, that we must take the responsibility for controlling what our mind receives from the outside in. Okay now, and so let's go there. Let's go there. So, let's go over some steps, six steps for victory in this. The first is repentance. We must come to it, cause listen guys, if you don't need repentance, then you don't need God's grace. I'm afraid we as believers cheapen God's grace because we don't think we really need it. The world needs it, sinners needs it, but we don't put ourselves in that category. Repentance. The second one is, get rid of the junk to which you expose your mind. And you know what?  This is clearly one of Satan's strategies to increase the noise during this time. Do you know during this pandemic, statistics say that we have spent eight hours a day streaming shows on TV? It says the average family has watched three complete series per week from Netflix.  Per week! We spend, these are adults, spend two and the number for students is much higher. The time adults spend two and a half hours per day on social media. The news viewership has spiked not just CNN and Fox, the evening news was just about to die and go away. All of a sudden now it has been revived and we all know how positive the news is right? Right. If you want to be encouraged, turn it on. You know how many times in a day we check our phone studies show? I think this is really conservative based on my observations. We check our phones once every 10 minutes or 96 times a day. I think it's more than that. But every 10 minutes we have a need to check it regardless of whether we have a call, text or anything. We default to that.  That's part of who we are now, is we check our phone.  And then this is a very sad one and you don't hear about this, you will not hear about this, online pornography has spiked, the revenues coming in from online pornography exceed all of the national sports league, Netflix, and Hulu combined. And this pandemic has driven people to more noise and more junk. So, Second, we got to get rid of the junk. But third, we've got to replace the junk with good stuff. Now good stuff is God stuff. Okay?  Now I'm not talking like okay, yeah, I finally quit listening to Rush, because you know, Rush Limbaugh because my blood pressure got too high and now, I listen to sports, radio.  Junk for more junk, okay? I mean, in God's eyes. Do I like to listen to either one of those sometimes? Yeah. Listen, if that's all you get, you're starving yourself spiritually. Psalm 1:1-3 by my paraphrase. His blessing is one who doesn't just listen to all the junk going on in people's lives and in the world. But in verse 2, whose delight is the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law, day and night. There are two spiritual disciplines that have fallen by the wayside in our lifetime. The first one is fasting. And the second one is meditation. Fasting is not just about food, it's about those things which have a control on our lives. Now I know, I know, you say, I know. That's why I'll go dark from Facebook for a while. Okay, well what do you replace it with? Another Netflix series? What?  You got to replace it with something. You've got to play some good stuff, which is God stuff. It's not just more junk from the world because that's what Satan wants you to need to do. You know, I did an experiment. Pam and I take turns going up mother's and checking on mother. And so, going one way I decided okay, I'm gonna listen to all news. I'm gonna listen to all this and, then coming on the way back, I'm going to listen to more praise, worship music. I'm going to take in fact, a few years ago, a couple of my accountability brothers, we use navigators, Scripture memorization.  I highly recommend that.  You can get paper form and the APP is excellent. Where we were memorizing a couple of Scripture passages each week. We did like 66 of those. And you know what happens when you start to memorize and, you know, I love to disciple people.  The instant I mention memorize Scripture; you know what adults say? Oh, I can't memorize.  You don't want to go there. You just, we've gotten lazy spiritually. We like to be spoon fed. I want to come and let Matt you know; he's been doing an incredible job preaching or Sunday school life group. I'm gonna let other people disciple me. But it's time for us to take her own responsibility. Because you know, what I've found myself doing as I memorized, is that you find yourself when you're commuting, you're doing it, you find yourself putting notes on your desk, on your mirrors, and all of a sudden you find yourself you're not memorizing as much as you're meditating, you begin getting more and more, it's like it's kind of gross, but a cow analogy with cud.  You know how they do that?  Students ya'll know how to do the cows and cud?  They can just make cud last all day, they just bring it back up and chew on it some more. Kind of gross, isn't it? Yeah.

That's the way they do, anyway. But if you're a good worrier, how many of y'all are good worriers? Okay. Those same skill sets that good make for good worriers, make excellent scripture, meditation people. And again, you're replacing bad with what God wants you to meditate on. All of a sudden, you're putting yourself in a position for God to transform you. Transform in the scriptures is same root word that Matt's been preaching on with the Transfiguration. It's metamorphosis.  But metamorphosize, is that a word, your mind by you putting yourself in the right position for Him to do that. So, we need to take the responsibility there. The fourth thing is, guys, it's time for us to step up, take responsibility, to take every thought captive. The Scripture says we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  We should be so full of the Holy Spirit, that we are so sensitive, that when there is something that is dishonoring, to Him, that it bothers us, and we take it captive and we take it back to the foot of the Cross, because He was nailed on the Cross for those very things. When we take those and start dwelling on them, then all we're doing is we're going back and putting the nails right back in Jesus's hands and feet. And for freedom that He set us free. Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things." You know, that's a great filter for us to use in the course of a day. When you start encountering junk. Take it back to this filter, print this out, post it different places. Take that as your filter as to what you're taking into your mind.

Number Five.  Guys begin unifying with other believers. And not just doing social stuff. I mean, I love life group socials, but coming together to confess, to pray together to lovingly reach the last.   Do you know, and I know as Protestants, we feel glad that we don't have to go to the priest and do confession. But James 5:16 says, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.   There is a part of healing that goes on. When we come together with other brothers or sisters in Christ and confess those things that have gripped our life and gripped our heart. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it's working. We need to see the brothers and sisters in Christ in our workplace in our neighborhood who don't look like us. They may be different denominations, different nationalities, cultures, races, we need to begin spending time with them, asking them if we can pray together with them. There's power in coming together at the foot of the Cross and praying together, because we have to begin being unified within the body of Christ.

Jesus said by this, everyone will know you are my disciples if you've,  what? Love one another. That is a characteristic of disciples of Christ.  2 Corinthians 10 says, "For though we live in this world, we don't wage war as the world does."  The weapons we fight with, they're not the weapons of the world. Guys, if you're so caught up in worldly wars that are going on, you're going to miss the bigger picture. On the contrary, what we fight with, we have divine power, not temporary worldly power, divine power to do what? To demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments in every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The last thing is that we need to pray, that God breaks our heart over lost people. And that God places believers in strategic places to redeem and to reclaim this culture for God's glory.  This is His desire.

You know, just in our congregation alone in the sphere of education, we have a school superintendent, we have principals, we have teachers, we have university officials. In the area of public servants, we have the police chief, we have officers, we have fire department officers, we have military officers. We have medical doctors and nurses and medical professionals. We have business CEOs, we have small business owners, we have professionals, we have lawyers, we have real estate professionals. We have political officials, we have community volunteers, we have entertainers, we have social media influencers.  Guys, it's time for us to start freeing the church to make a significant impact. But we can't, if we're living like the world, if we see people as the enemy. And then as Christians if we run and hide from it out of fear. We've got to make a difference. We've got to see people as Jesus does. One of the most Significant verses that appeals to me in the Bible is Matthew 9:36. Jesus, He was walking, He looked, and He saw the crowds. And how did He respond?  Did He respond like we do when we see them on the news, with disdain and disgust, and ask God to take them out?

Jesus did just the opposite. He responded with compassion. Because He saw them, they were harassed, they were helpless. They were like sheep without a shepherd. Because that's how people are living right now without Christ. And you know how God chooses to reach those people?

He has plan A, and that is through us. And there is no plan B. So, if we're joining in the world, and we're being conformed, and we're falling into Satan's traps, let me share a story to close with is a story that Pastor Mike has shared in the past. It's one of my favorites. I've got to share it again. But there was a pastor named Tony Campolo. I remember hearing him in person one time and it was a powerful message. But Tony was traveling out to Hawaii to speak at a church he got in there late, couldn't fall asleep, decided to go out and get him something to eat.  He found a little donut shop that was open. And so, he went there, it's about 3:00 in the morning. And when he was there, about 3:00, probably about 3:30. Then all of a sudden, there were a number of ladies that walked in, and they begin sitting in the bar around him. And then all of a sudden, he started hearing their swearing and smoking the rough language, as it was a group of prostitutes that had come in. And the question he asked was, how did this happen? He was trying to figure out how to get out of there. When all of a sudden, the lady sitting next to him, said, "You know what, tomorrow is my birthday." And her friend sitting there.  She said, "I'll be 38 or 39."   The friend sitting next to her said, "Well, what do you want me to do, throw you a party?"  And the lady said, "Now you don't have to be so ugly." She said, "I was just making a statement. I've never had a birthday party why start now?"   Well,Tony heard that and it pricked his heart. And after they left, he approached the the guy who owned the diner and he said, "Hey, do those ladies come in here every night?"

The owner said, "Yeah, like clockwork."  And he said, "Did you hear the one say she's never had a birthday party? And the owner said, "Yeah, her name is Agnes."  And Tony said, "How about we throw her a party tomorrow night?"  And the owner said, "I think it's a good idea. He hollered at his wife from the kitchen, honey. This guy wants to throw Agnes a birthday party tomorrow. You think we can put together a cake?"  And his wife said, "Yeah, we can do that. She's a nice lady. She's always trys to help others."   So the next night at 2:00, Tony shows up, he's got crate paper. He hangs up to decorate. He's made a cardboard sign that says Happy Birthday Agnes.

About 3:00, all of a sudden Tony found out that the owner of the cafe had invited the other ladies in Honolulu to come and they show up. So, you've got all the prostitutes in Honolulu in this little place, and at 3:30 in walks Agnes with her friend. Everybody jumped up and said, "Happy Birthday Agnes." Agnes was astounded. Her mouth dropped open; her legs almost buckled. As tears came to her eyes. They brought the birthday cake out with candles. And they said, "Blow out the candles, Agnes blow out the candles and cut the cake." And she finally got herself together. And she looked down at the cake. And without taking your eyes off of it. She said, "Look, Harry" and Harry was the owner of the diner, "if it's okay, I mean, if it's alright, can I keep the cake just a little while so we don't eat it right away." And Harry's like, "Sure that's fine. You can take it home if you want to." And she said, "Oh, could I?"  She looked at Tony and she said, "I just live a couple of doors down. Is it okay, if I run at home? I'll be right back." She left.  She carried it like the holy grail as she went out.

The place was stunned. Tony not knowing quite what to do. He stood up on the chair. And he said, "Ladies, thanks for joining us tonight for Agnes's birthday. Can I lead us in a prayer?" There he was. And he prayed that God would work in Agnes's life, and that her life would be changed. And that she would experience the love of God. And when he finished, Harry looked over, and he said, "Hey, you never told me you were a preacher What kind of church do you belong to anyway?" And in one of those moments, Tony thought, and he said, "You know, I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning." And Harry, he thought for a moment, he said, "No, you don't? Ain't no church like that? If there was, I joined it. Yep, I joined the church like that."

Let's bow our heads.  Let me just ask you just to ask God to examine your heart for a moment. Have you found yourself trapped in the strategies of Satan? Do you find yourself disgusted? Not with Satan as much as you are with the social media, with, media in general, with political positions, with people who have different opinions, and would ask God to just see people as He does? And that you'd come together with other believers and enter the spiritual battle of prayer, fasting, meditation, that you'd be willing to leave the 99 for the 1 and that your eyes would be open to see the spiritual battle that's going on in our culture. Would you pray for those seated around you? Those of you who are online, would you pray for those who live around you?

Would you commit to examine the junk you've exposed yourself to?   Would you see how to place God, and His Word at the center of your life, to be the light on the hill, to salt and light? Father, we come to you this morning. And these six months, they have not been exactly a spiritual awakening for us on this earth. Lord, may we live with our eyes open. That it's not the people, that it's the deceiver, the liar that has blinded us that has taken us into his trap, where we have been an impediment rather than a bridge to a relationship with You.

Lord, during our closing time, would you just solidify some things in our heart that we would first be absolutely surrendered to You and live at the foot of Your Cross, a life of humility and love of justice. That we would be living it out Father in a way that brings You and we pray these things in Jesus name.  
Amen