Shane Idleman addresses the confusion and chaos in today's world, urging listeners to discern who is influencing their thoughts—God or the world. He emphasizes the importance of being transformed by God's Word, as outlined in Romans 12:1-2, and warns against being conformed to worldly ideologies that lead to idolatry and sin. Idleman highlights the battle for the mind, encouraging young adults to seek God's truth amidst competing voices from media, entertainment, and false teachings. He calls for a return to holiness and a commitment to living according to God's will, reminding the congregation that true freedom comes with moral responsibility.

This is a very important topic. We're just as confused as ever before on what's going on in the news. We sent out some questions to the Ignite Youth Group, some of them are here this evening, on what are the top questions on their minds. What are some of the things they're questioning and confused about, and we see what's happening in Afghanistan, what a mess, what a just heartbreak, and what's going on with COVID and the mandates and all the different things. So, I'm gonna try to sort through it. On one hand, as Christians, and if you're in God's Word and you're educating yourself, you have a pulse on things, but you're not perfect. And so, I don't profess to know it all, that's for sure, especially on these issues, because some things we thought were crystal clear, other things we're not sure of, and I've kind of just stepped back a little bit and taken a lot of things to prayer in seeking God's will. The title is, Who Thinks for You? Because somebody is thinking for you. What I mean by that is God's thoughts are being planted into your soul and your spirit, and then you're acting upon those, or the thoughts of the world are being planted into our minds. And that's really what you see out there, is kingdoms colliding. You see God's kingdoms, God's thought process, God's will, God's truth is colliding with the way the world thinks. Who thinks for you? And of course, we find ourselves in Romans 12, one through two on this topic, and Paul is writing the church in Rome, and he says, which I'm sure he would say to us today as well, I beseech you. That word is I beg you, and if I could, I would tell you, I beg you to look to God's word and be conformed, actually transformed by God's word, because the times are getting dire. It's getting hard to discern the fake news, the real news, how to act, how not to act. Has any of this produced any negative attitudes in you, or just me? If I have another store, tell me to put a mask on. I don't know. But you see, I have to be careful. I'm human too. I've got emotions, I've got anger, I've got fear, I've got frustration, and working through those, but being transformed by God's word. So Paul says, I'm begging you by the mercies of God. It doesn't get much clearer than that. This is a plea that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. So you can't get away from holiness, you can't get away from that being acceptable to God, and this is your reasonable service. Now, the reason this verse is so interesting is because so many people ask me and the church, what is God's will for my life? Have you heard that? Well, it starts right here. If you're not doing it here, you're not going to know God's will in other areas of your life. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, holy before God, living holy, not perfect lives. And it's interesting, as I was even looking through David's life, as I'm going through the Bible, I'm looking at different characters. You know, he was a man after God's own heart, yet he did things that he shouldn't do. Even Samson, even Samson. And I'm like, why didn't the prostitute take him down? But Delilah did. I'm like, I don't understand sometimes. And so I'm not excusing these things. All I'm saying is it's an attitude of repentance and getting back on track. And I'm not excusing sin, I don't encourage it. But when you fall, fall forward. And God, you can still live holy and righteous before God if you're constantly seeking him, giving him your life, living holy, making decisions that honor him. And then the famous part of the verse as well, and do not be conformed to this world. Young adults, how many ignited in here? Some of you are in here. This word, have you ever seen them make a clay pot where they take the clay and it's moldable and it's being conformed? So they're saying, do not let, Paul's saying, do not be conformed to this world. And what he means by world, the word is cosmos. It means a world's way of thinking. The world thinks differently than God, if you haven't figured that out yet. Pretty clear difference here. And so if you're being conformed to the direction of the world, the thought process of the world, you will not be transformed by the renewing of your mind according to God's word. So we have this, do we have this two opposing forces, if you will. And I don't really call the Holy Spirit a force. It's actually the triune nature of God, but the Holy Spirit drawing you and transforming you into the image of Christ. And now you have the world trying to do what? The same thing. So who thinks for you? Who's making you do what you do? Who's planting the thoughts? And this is where we have a huge choice to make. And this is where I think the thoughts are won or they are lost in my life and your life as well. This is where the battle is won, the battle for the mind. And who thinks for you? And I'm sure you see it on Facebook and different places, Twitter, TikTok, all these crazy places. You see Christians do think, and you're like, how is that possible? Why? They're a Christian. Now, some people aren't Christian. They're just Christian in name and they're not, they don't know Jesus Christ. But some people are genuinely, I believe, believers, but they've quenched and grieved the spirit. And you're like, why, why do they disagree with me on everything from politics to vaccines, to COVID, to the agenda, to all this stuff? Why are there, they don't see this, abortion's okay. Like, I don't understand what's going on. And it's often because the thinking, who's doing the thinking for them, they're conformed to what the world believes and what the world thinks. And Adrian Rogers said something very interesting. At first, the man molds his idol, but then the idol molds his man. And that will happen to you. That'll happen to me. The more you give yourself over to that idolatry, the more that idol will begin to control you. And Jeremiah talked about it in his book. And I think also Isaiah, where they would actually go and cut down trees and they would make an idol, their God, and worship it in their house. And then once they gave over to that, that idol began to then take over in their life. And so if there's anything in your life, you begin to give yourself over to, when you're younger, you can handle some things, but eventually those things begin to handle you. And as you get older and you give yourself over to more of these things, they begin to control you. You once controlled them, but now they begin to control you. And it's this hook of idolatry. And we give ourselves over to something, then that latches on. So the competing voices, we've talked about God's voice and the voice of the world. And really the cry is, if you were to sum up everything, the cry is, validate my sin. That's what the world says. I want you to validate my sin. I want to live however I want, and I want you to acknowledge that this is right and it is good. And if not, you are intolerable. Isn't that what we're trying to do? Validate sin. And that's what the world wants to do. God's word says something completely different. And I've talked about this before, so I won't go into a lot of detail, but we know how to tell what is of God and what is of the world. Basically, what is of the enemy working in our hearts, our own thoughts going to the, let's call it the dark side, right? It's the lust of the flesh. So if your flesh craves something, now it's okay to, you know, crave, you got to eat. You got to, I mean, there's certain things, God given cravings, but if you're being led by the flesh, something the flesh wants, the flesh desires, that's a pretty good indication it might be the wrong voice that's leading you, the wrong thought process. Especially when we tell there's with the youth in here, don't think you want to date someone or because how they look. Now it's okay to be attracted to them, but if you're, oh, I have to date them because how they look. When I was younger as Brad Pitt, who's it today? Oh, still Brad Pitt. Who? Oh, okay. Tatum. Little Nas X. The weekend. But see, but we're drawn to these people or you see someone at school or church and that, that it might not be wrong necessarily, but if that, the feeling should be the caboose of the train, not the engine. And so we make decisions based on the lust of the flesh. Oh, I like how that person looks. Are they a Christian? I don't know. I don't care. That's what we said in high school. Did that, that wouldn't even, that wasn't even on the radar until you learn the lesson later. And so the pull of the flesh, what the flesh craves, what the eye wants, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life is not of the father, but it's of the world. So what your eye goes after, what you want, you know, I have to have this. And as a, as a, as a truck lover, you know, you want the next big truck. You want, you know, a year, it's a year old. I want the, I want the one where the tailgate, we saw a commercial. What was it for? Shane with the Chevrolet. He goes, dad, you want, I go, that's a pretty cool tailgate. You push a button and you got half a tailgate. And then it comes in half another tailgate. It's got tool bins. It's like, that is pretty cool. I want that, but they're expensive. And so the, the less the eye is taking you, what, why, why do people get in big financial debt in regard to housing and the housing market? Buying what they don't really need often. It can't because see, we're buying things because of how they look or how the flesh feels. And we're caving into addictions or overweight or all these things because of the less of the flesh. And then we want more, want the less of the eye. And then somebody tries to correct us and say, Hey, you might not, you might not be going in a good direction. Well, I that you're, you're just judgmental and that's the pride of life. So you have the pride of life. Pride prevents you from being teachable and humble and open to the things of God. So that's how, that's how the poll, the enemy work. It's actually not very difficult. When Eve saw that the, the, the, the, the fruit there was what? Pleasant to the eye, good for food, less of the flesh, less the eye and desirable to make one wise. She took of it and ate. And so we see the enemy always uses those three things. So that's one way to think, okay, who's thinking for me? If this something my flesh wants now, that's not necessarily a bad thing because afterwards my flesh is probably going to want to eat, right? But the, the, the, the flesh flesh inside is going to want Panda express and In-N-Out burger, and maybe two double doubles and French fries and a chocolate shake. And I tease myself, I drink some and then try to throw it away, but I can't the whole thing. And so see how the flesh takes over. I'm going to start a fast. I'm not going to say I'm not going to eat any junk food tomorrow. And then here comes chocolate time. The flesh is, is, or what about women say my bio, my biological clock is ticking. I got to find somebody. And they, and we rush out ahead of things. And so that's basically how this, the competing voice works. God says, it's actually very clear filter your feelings and these lusts and these decisions, filter them through my word. And they don't line up with that. Then, you know, you're not going in a good direction. So you actually have to saying, no, the blessing follows saying, no, you usually don't feel like it. At first you feel like caving into the less of the flesh, but then when you say no and obey God's word, that's when the satisfaction comes that you either experienced a pain of discipline or the pain of regret. That's how it, scripture is clear on this. And then when that happens, we're hearing the wrong voice. I just last night, I was reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book. Actually, it was a, it was a book written by him. His autobiography, not his autobiography, biography of, of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Do you know who he was? He was actually hung by a piano string because he was part of the attempt to kill Adolf Hitler. He was a Christian pastor in Germany. And I will tell you reading this book, more than anything, what alarms me is the parallels that we're seeing in America today. Silence the true churches, give the liberal churches a voice, control what goes in the media. It has to be state sponsored, get rid of the police force and bring in the brown coats that work for just Hitler and the SS. And so he was hung by piano string because of a failed attempt on Hitler's life. And what happened is they, they brought a bomb in to where Hitler was with some of his generals, Bonhoeffer didn't, he was just part of it. And they killed many people, tortured them, their wives or children because of this failed attempt. And they, this general brought a suitcase and put underneath this 18 foot long table. It was a big though, wood table. I think it was oak or something. And so Hitler was behind something like this, one of the legs. And so when it went off, it seared him and he, but he was fine. But a couple of people around him died. It was, it was a failed attempt. And it's interesting what he said. I highlighted, I could not believe it. He went out to the German public in the announced on radio that he said, now more than ever, I know that Providence and God is on my side because he spared my life. The wrong voice. And then how many churches went with him, went in his direction because he promised them safety and took away their freedoms. The parallels are amazing. And we shouldn't be surprised because either God is controlling you in our world system and our government, different things, or the enemy is. There's, there's not something in between. Oh, it's either anti-Christ against God or for God. And you wonder how, how in the world can that happen in Afghanistan with what the current president did? It's not only alarming, it's appalling, it's treason. Wrong, wrong mindset. How can they leave people stranded there knowing that they can be rescued, leaving, telling the planes they can't take off. There's, this is, this is diabolical because it's the enemy working in the hearts and minds of these people. I believe many of these people are pathological liars. One lie after another. It just keeps coming. The big one, I don't know if you've seen this. And again, I don't just, oh, look at, I read this on YouTube. I better tell you. I, I, I have to research a lot of things, double check, triple check, make sure the source, but it just, they, the freedom of information act came out and they finally released some emails and Fauci's in big trouble. One of the senators ran, Paul was on Fox news and they said, they're actually, some senators are calling for his arrest. This isn't conspiracy theory. I'm not making it up. They there's ties with the Wuhan lab that he knew exactly what they were testing and doing in China. He knew it. He called it in 2020, they predicted a massive epidemic. And here's how we'll handle it. Oh, wow. Isn't that coincidence? And so it's all coming out. You say, how does this happen? Diabolical. It's lying. It's the prince of this, the world. It's, it's, it's, it's anti-Christ and against Christ. And I read another survey from, it was a secular newspaper. Who are the people against all these things the government's doing? You know, why are they fighting? You name it, max, uh, mass vaccines, whatever you want it, the mandates, you know, there's different views on different things, but I think we all agree that we shouldn't be forced to do anything, uh, especially on something that that's experimental. We don't know the ramification, but like, look at this group of people, look at these group of people who are against all this. It's, it's evangelical Christians. Oh, they're the bad people. Well, it could have be that they're discerning what God is doing because they're hearing from God and they're discerning God's will and not being led away by the prince of darkness. I think that's what it is. It's, it's, it's not these people believing a conspiracy theory. We see exactly what's going on. And I'm going to answer some of the youth questions that came in just a minute, but I want to share with you why is, you know, Larry Elder is running for governor. Okay. Without endorsing, I think, you know, who I might be leaning towards. Uh, but anyway, I was actually, uh, saw on Paul Chapel Lancaster Baptist tweet or Facebook page that he actually led him to the Lord at lunch, led him to the Lord lunch about a week ago. So, I mean, that's, that's encouraging. Um, but anyway, a black man from the inner city who worked his tail off to get where he's at now, but now the liberals are against him. Now, now everyone's against him. Wait a minute. Why is that? Are you really for what you say you're for? No, they're not. It's a mindset. It's a kingdoms are colliding. So be encouraged. That's what's going on. It's it's it's it. Why so much confusion? Because who thinks for you? We're thinking outside the box and according to God's will and the world system, many in America are not. So here's the big places or here's the big areas that change our thinking. So young adults, this is mainly for you. I know a lot of you are in here tonight. Number one, entertainment, entertainment. It is shaping the way you think. If you're listening to songs that say, hate the police and hate your parents, guess what you're going to do? Both. That's why I mentioned little Nas X and weekend and Billy. What's her name? English or Irish or whatever. It's like, is that, was that close? Okay. You guys know, but they are influencing you more than your parents and more than your church. They, some of them don't know if they're a boy or a girl, little Nas X just did a fake YouTube thing where he's pregnant, posting his picture of his brain. What is this? This is insanity. Insanity is the definition of doing the same thing, expecting different results. You cannot continue to reject God and get different results. Truth will always prevail. You can't fight truth. And so if you're listening to these people, if you're listening to this type of material, you will be led astray from God. That's just plain and simple. There's no, well, no, I think I can keep a good balance. I even, I even talked to one youth pastor 20 years ago. My wife will remember this is I just, just, you know, one of those things he goes shame, but I have to listen to and watch what they watch so I can relate to them. But I listened to his sermons are dead. There's no power in his life. He's just, he just looks like the world. That's his excuse. You can't, you know, it's okay to, you know, a little bit like, what do they believe? What are they thinking? So you can relate to your kids. But if you're entertained by it, that's why it's called entertainment. If you're entertained, so entertainment is huge. What about sports? So many kids are, are quoting LeBron James and communism because of what he promotes and love is love for China and socialism and different things. Now I know these things hurt, but just, just look it up. Just if you don't believe me, look, does he love America? Does he love God? And they're influencing millions and millions of people, social media. I don't even know who invented Tik TOK, but it needs to go. These people have too much time on their hand. And even my son watched something or my daughters, I better not say point out. It's like, no, you can't try that at home just because they try it on YouTube. Doesn't mean it's going to work. You can't blast a rocket ship out of the backyard. And so, but it's influencing. So you have entertainment, you have sports, you have social media, all they're, they're in, they're thinking for you. So you're a product of what you're, you're being conformed to that. So you look like that. And that's kids. That's why you don't get along often with your parents because your parents are trying to point you to Christ. The world's trying to take you away. And there's a kingdoms are colliding. Well, hold on. I'm not done yet. What about news? News outlets, be careful where you get your information. What about friends and all these, all these influence that can be counter. You're going counter cultural with, with, with God, they're pushing you into the culture. And so you have all these competing voices and the big one right now, well, as well as false churches. I've, I never thought we'd see so many false churches 20 years ago. I mean, friends, I know pastors that I've been at meetings with like, well, you know what? I don't know if we can really trust Paul's writings. Yeah. Right over that hill. I can't say anything about abortion because the government okays it. I mean, you know, submitting to the government Romans 13, that is the worst exegesis of Romans 13 I've ever heard. Is it because they're a coward, not filled with the spirit? False churches say, Shane, we just need to love everyone where they're at. We don't call out sin. The problem is that's not preaching. That's accommodating. We can be welcoming, but not affirming. And to truly love someone you point out to see the problem is they don't have the inerrancy of scripture in their heart. Now there are many churches, especially in people, people I know are promoting something that you'll be hearing more about when I'm in Genesis called critical race theory. And basically they're using racism to try to prevent racism. And as we always say, you have to change the heart. That's it. We don't have a skin problem. We have a sin problem. You change the heart. And so what this, what this teaches though, I'm going to get to it in just a second, because one of the kids are asking this question. America is bad. It is evil. And so guess what else is bad? You're going to be hearing about this, I think pretty soon. If you haven't already, so is the constitution. You know what that means? We, the people in the toilet, we, the government are your new commanders in chief here. And by the way, white people, you're all oppressors. That's what you are. You've been oppressed and you are oppressors. You oppress people. And so you have to apologize for that. You have to work on not being so white. And so what they're doing is they're actually forcing racism. We're saying, what should we do? You pointed out there's racism in the police departments. There's racism in the government. There's racism in the churches and you change the heart. You get to the heart of the problem by changing the heart, but churches are apologizing for that. And, and they're putting the rainbows, the rainbows are now you go and go to Palm Springs. You're going to see a lot of rainbows on church, on church signs. And that means they're welcoming. They're actually affirming of the LGBTQ lifestyle, that that's how God made them. It's not our job to say anything. And, and so you're, so now you're being led astray by false doctrine. Well, how do I know if it's true or not? Does it line up with scripture? It's very clear. God doesn't change praise. Aren't you glad God's word doesn't change when it said in Leviticus, thou shall not lay with a man as a woman, man lays with the woman. Thou shall not put on woman's clothing. If you're a man, guess what? That still applies, but they say, but they also say, don't eat seashells or shellfish. I guess don't eat seashells. Do not eat seashells, but they say, well, you look at the dietary laws. True. But the dietary laws, guess what? They're still not good. For example, shellfish. I know it's going to upset some people, but they they're actually, they live at the bottom of the ocean. They are the sewer of the ocean. They clean the waste of the ocean. So lobster, shrimp, all that is very unhealthy food. And so God knew what he was doing. Don't eat pork. You want to know why you want to get into the worms and pesticides, parasites. You know what he was doing at the dietary law, very clean diet. The animals are cloven hoes and not cloven hoes, very good animals to eat digestive and, and, and for amino acids and for the digestion system of the human body to absorb it and work, work, you know, as food. But then you take all these other animals that you shouldn't be eating. So see God knew what he was doing, outlining that, but no moral law, no moral law where God says thou shalt not today. He says thou shalt never, you won't find anything for committing adultery to the LGBTQ agenda, to homosexuality, to you name it. If it was sin then, it's sin now. But see, but Shane, that's mean spirit. You're not helping people. Actually, I think I am helping people because I'll say, I'll tell them, and we love you. I love you're in a struggle. I've been in struggles. We're all in different struggles. Come on, let's be honest. You don't put some sins way up there. Oh, poor guy up there. Well, without Christ, all sin is sin. Adultery, fornication, homosexuality, it's all sin across the board without Christ. And so we have to encourage people, hey, take your struggle to the cross. And then once they do, there's tremendous joy, tremendous peace, tremendous hope that they didn't have before. So who really loves them? Who really wants to help them? And so you have these competing voices. What about in the classroom? All these teachers, have you seen these videos of Antifa teachers and teachers making kids say, pledge allegiance to the gay pride? And another teacher just screaming, you know, if you're unvaccinated, I just hate you. I want to kill unvaccinated people. It's like, these people have lost their mind. And so now you have the classroom, false churches, the news. And so if you're inundated on all these things, but no time for God, no time for God, no time for God, you are not only being led astray, you are led astray in your thinking. That's why God is boring. That's why you hate church. That's why you hate your parents forcing you to go to church. That's why you don't want to be here right now. And you wish this service was over. It's because you've been conformed to what the world says, who thinks for you, but don't worry. I want to encourage you. There's hope. Young adults, we need you like never before. God wants to work in your heart. A couple of questions that the youth are asking, and I want to answer them. How is it possible that everyone is lying, Shane, from the media to the president, to doctors? Have you heard about that? I mean, you've probably thought that, you know, Shane, how do you know? Like, so everyone's lying. They're probably talking about COVID, masks, vaccines. And what you do is you research, you pray, you seek godly counsel, you use wisdom, you meditate on God's word, you fast, you humble yourself, and then you're better able to discern what is going on. So I just explained why I believe there's a lot of misinformation out there is because the world's mindset is Satan, a creation of truth. What is he called? The liar, the deceiver. And so we see a lot of that lying and, oh, I knew I had it. 900 pages of documents was uncovered by the intercept. It confirms what has been clear for months that the NIH, I believe that's the National Institute for Health, did indeed fund research at the Wuhan lab. And that's going to be coming out. And so what we do is we use discernment, look at the numbers, remember the fake numbers that came out, the altering of numbers, there's no more flu, there's no more pneumonia, there's nothing, everything's COVID. So of course, there's going to be high numbers. And then you also look at, are people getting the flu and pneumonia? I've talked to doctors, many different doctors. You follow the money. Are you ready? Are you ready? I don't know if you're gonna believe this. Look it up yourself. The richest companies in the world. Any idea what kind of companies they are? Pharmaceutical. Pharmaceutical companies. And what you need to know is they have board of directors, they have to hit numbers, and they look at profit margins. Same store growth and what drug is profiting. If you've ever seen American Greed on TV, have you heard of it? I never had until I just stumbled upon it. They just did a huge story two weeks ago of a major company who was giving kickbacks to doctors. 2,000, 3,000, 8,000. But they're putting it under speaking fees. So they have to say, hey, I'll pay 8,000 doctor to speak. Say whatever you want. But if you prescribe this drug, it's actually for end of life patients. But they're just giving it to people with knee problems and shoulder problems. It created, and this whole thing came out to where, and that's not uncommon. It's not uncommon. They'll push certain things. It's really, man, I'm trying to be loving here, but it is a drug pushing business. Now there are some things that people need. I'm not against that. I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but be careful. Why is it always about the drug and not what's causing the problem? I've talked to doctors. Why do you recommend statin drugs to stop the liver from producing insulin instead of changing their diet? Well, then I won't have a patient anymore. Exactly. Why do you recommend Coumadin, a blood thinner, because their heart's working too hard instead of getting them on a proper diet and lose weight that can do that same thing? Well, I mean, I can just keep going on and on and on, and we have to understand that. So in studying, we understand that it's not about health. It's not about health. It's about pushing products. I mean, I can go way back into how even the medical field was, and I'm not against it. I think we need good doctors. We need good nurses, and thank God for them. There's a lot of people doing good things. But if you look at it, it's not health-focused. It's product-driven and revenue-driven. That's just the truth. If that's upset you, that's between you and the facts. And so when you look at that, who's making... Now, when I found out COVID paid, doctors get 16,000 for a COVID patient? Well, hold on. 16,000? Why don't you get that for any other kind of patient? And then 32,000 if they're on a ventilator? Hold on, hold on. Here's my favorite word, shenanigans. And so you see all of this. God gives us wisdom for a reason. You see now there's agendas, is there not? There's agendas being pushed. Churches closing down. You're not essential, but let's keep the abortion clinics, the liquor stores, the pot marijuana houses open. No biggie there. Obama can have his big party and nobody's masked. Nobody cares about anything up there, wherever they were in the East Coast. But now you guys, see, it's just, come on, no more drinking Kool-Aid. And so there's a holy boldness here. Luther was bold and fought Germany. Zwingli was bold in Switzerland. God calls us to be both loving and firm and understanding, but still standing up and saying, this is not right. If you do a CO2 test with a child with oxygen, they're breathing some very unhealthy, so are you, breathing some very unhealthy byproduct. Did you know when you blow in what you blow out of your lungs is toxic? You're getting it out of the body. It's been used and regenerated in the body to bring light living oxygen in. And now you're breathing it out and you're keeping it here. And how does that even work? The virus can't escape out this way and touching things. And I mean, to do it right, you need an N95 mask sucked to your face with gloves on. You take it off the right way, throw it in the trash and wash your hands, get out of town. So it's just, you look at the outright lunacy and why would, if it's free dialogue, free discussion, why does Facebook remove my messages? And YouTube sends me, oh, we had to delete your post because your video, because it was false information. No, it's true information that you deem false. And why are these, who are the fact checkers? That's what I would like to know. Who are these fact checkers? We need to fact the fact checkers. And so, like I said, you can Google this event 201. It happened in 2020. Big, big names out there. They talked about what happens if a pandemic breaks out and here's how we're going to handle it. And guess what happened? And so you see, there's just, just too much there. You see, you see control. And like I quoted Hillary Clinton, never let a crisis go to waste. And so yes, something can be real, but how we're handling it can be extremely over the top and controlling and manipulating in the, in the, the, the enemy of our soul, the liar is going to use it. You don't know this. And I don't know if I should tell you, but oh, well, if when it was Trump, when he had the department of justice, William Barr, I saw the letter. I heard it read. He actually wrote our governor a letter and said, you will not deem the church is not essential, or we will fight this as Supreme court. That's when he finally lifted and said, okay, I'm not going to, can you imagine if we had who we have in office now, the churches aren't going to stand it. You're going to come down on you like never before, because you are God's voice of truth. You have the boldness and the audacity, the audacity to challenge their thinking. Everything is just hanging in the balances. So when you weigh all of that, I just gave you, I just gave you. That's why I can say most people, most political leaders, most people in the media are lying to the American public, or they just don't have the right information. I can tell you by what you believe, I can tell you what news source you're listening to. I walked into Best Buy and they got me, sir, security guard. Can you put your, can you put a mask on? Yours isn't even covering your nose. These people have them down on their chin. What do you, what is this? It doesn't even work. It's cloth. Well, yeah, I know, but it's our policy. And so you see all of this is just, you know, it's just set. Now maybe I need to repent to that and have a better attitude. I'm trying, pray for me. But, and I think Susie, you gave me some good advice. I see you up there. If they ask you to do it, then do it and be nice about it. Okay. I need to work on that one. Guys pray for me this week. And I was nice about it. You said, okay, we're going to go to Amazon. Thank you. But it's like, but you see, but nobody's saying anything. Nobody's saying anything. So they're, they're gonna, they're gonna mask your children all day in the classrooms. And nobody says anything like that. Like they don't touch their desk and their pencils and their sneeze. They don't touch your eyes. They don't touch your door handles. They don't touch your urinals. They don't touch your drinking fountains. They give me a break. Have you ever studied immunology? Do you know how viruses work and how they expand through the air? And that, and that most 90% of masks are like trying to keep mosquitoes out with the chain link fence. And so when you see this, just, just it's lunacy. You feel compelled to speak up, be loving and understanding. Not everyone agrees. I understand that. And so that's why many of us believe that a lot of people are lying and the media is not being forthright. And I don't know if you know this, but the majority of the media, like 90% is owned by six or so billionaires. Have you heard a name like George Soros? I mean, these people are corrupt, evil people, and they own the media that you're listening to, that many people are listening to. So just be careful where you get information because they will craft stories to push a narrative. It's no longer the news reporting non-bias. It's like, we have to push this narrative. I mean, for example, you go on the drudge report, you think the world was coming to an end. Everything's in bull type, more COVID cases than last year, Labor Day, 49 states are affected by where we on the fifth variant. And it's like, and everything's just, and now again, there's people sick. We're praying for people. You don't want to get it. We want to be on the offensive. We want to, you know, please wash your hands, stay home if you're sick, do everything you can do. But why is no one talking about building up natural immunity? To me, a lot of these things, it just doesn't make sense. So that's why we believe a lot in the media and a president, I don't want to make fun of different things, but he's just not be, he's not in a position mentally to be governing our nation. And so you see this happening, you see the bad, the Afghanistan was an embarrassment. Did you know that the Taliban now has more Blackhawk helicopters than any other nation except behind the United States? Your enemy that took down the twin towers, a part of Al-Qaeda, they have, we just gave them 85 billion, 85 billion in equipment. They left negotiators, they left translators there. They left American families there. If you truly love America and truly feel this is right, you get your assets out, you get your equipment out, you get your people out. And then you have the military, whether it's SEALs or army rangers, whatever it is, you have them stay and deal with it. And then you take them out last, the military out last. And that's how you handle things like this. So it doesn't make any sense. But watch the news stories, watch these news stories. The lady on CNN, they're chanting death to America, but they seem pretty peaceful. You've got to be kidding me. Did you see that on CNN? Death to America, but they're peaceful. They seem fine. The real enemy is within now, folks. They're in our universities. They're teaching our classrooms. They are leading our churches. They are in the political office. We are fighting a real battle between good and evil. But you don't fight this battle with physical weapons. You fight this battle with prayer and fasting and a little bit of boldness. Look at all the people making a difference, especially in California. Is John MacArthur passive or bold? Is Jack Hibbs passive or bold? Rob McCoy, passive or bold? Other churches that are doing... There's a time where you stand up and you say, not on my watch, not with our children. You can take this and take it back to God's word and see if it lines up. And so that was just one question. Let me hurry up. The next question, what's wrong with people doing what makes them happy if it doesn't harm anyone? That's fair enough, right? But here's something you have to remember. Freedom does not come without moral responsibility. And I don't know why God gave me this desire, but I did thousands of readings of articles and books and different things early on in the ministry about the founding of America. And so freedom of speech, for example, would not protect pornography today. They did not have that in mind. All of their writings said, as long as it's for the good of society. But if it hurts society, you lose your freedom. You no longer have freedom to hurt people. And so what happens... Let's use this one, for example. What's wrong if it makes me happy? Well, what about... I'll just throw out a few examples. Most people are talking about this area of illicit sex. The reason I use that term illicit is because... Do you know who designed sex? Not Hollywood. God. Very good. God-given. But just like a fire in the fireplace. Keep it in the fireplace, not on the living room floor. And so once people say, well, I want to do whatever I want. I'm not harming anyone. Well, tell that then to the couple who has to have an abortion. And it harms the child. It harms them for the rest of their lives. It's something they can never let go. It haunts them. Also, it devastates a marriage later on. Me and Morgan will both tell you that we wish our past was a little bit better before we got married. Because you carry baggage into your relationships. And so it does hurt your future spouse. It does hurt your children. These things hurt others. Not only that, it quenches the Holy Spirit. When you live outside of God's parameters, you quench and grieve the Holy Spirit. So what is happening is people are happy when they're fulfilling their lusts. But hard is the way of the transgressor. And ultimately, they are depressed and unhappy. True joy comes when we are serving the Lord. So this... I'm sure this question has to do with, am I missing something? Probably has to do with what's wrong if it makes them happy. It doesn't harm anyone. If it's having to do with illicit sex, it always hurts someone. Families are falling apart because of this issue. People are drifting from God. So if you're saying, okay, Lord, I'm going to make this decision. For example, I'm going to wait until I'm married. And I'm going to make this decision. It's difficult, but the reward, the pain of discipline, and there's joy that comes from that versus caving in and supposedly not hurting anyone. You do hurt people. Anytime you go outside of God's will, you will hurt people. And of course, the hot topics we could stay on are God and religion. What does the world say about God and religion versus what God's word says about God and religion? For example, try this sometime, or maybe you shouldn't, but just think about it. Talk about God. It's no big deal. Oh yeah, I believe in God. He's within me. But you talk about Jesus Christ and repentance, and He's the only way, the only truth, the only life. Nobody comes to the Father except through Him. That's where you're going to ruffle feathers with the world. Marriage and sexuality. I just talked about that. Many youth and even us adults are dealing with fear and depression, anxiety. How does the world say to deal with it? They actually deal with it with more fear, with more depression, with more anxiety, and prescribing this and prescribing that. God's word says something different about that. Now another question that came in. I think I wrote it down and shared it with you. Why is there such a lack of respect for law enforcement, the military, the flag, America? Are you sensing that at all? It's from Harvard to Yale, from the school districts to the political offices. What in the world is going on? Well, I'm going to give you the snapshot of it. If you want, you can download my book, One Nation Above God, for free on our website, church website. One Nation, and you can read about all of this. But what they're trying to do is, here's why this is all coming. All this information came out from wall builders, and the book I wrote 8-15 years ago now, and all this information about how America was founded. The Mayflower Compact, and Puritans, and Pilgrims, and you couldn't even run for office unless you believed in God, in Jesus. Did you know that? Even Harvard. Harvard, who just now appointed an atheist as their chaplain. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. And Tim Keller congratulated him, so that's a little interesting. But anyway, that Harvard, do you know that that Harvard was founded as a school to teach the Word of God? I've quoted it before. The rule said, let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life, which is to know Christ Jesus, and therefore to lay Christ at the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. Harvard. And so all this comes out, so now you have to make America bad. See, the foundation's not good. They were all slave owners, they were all corrupt. Capitalism, you hear the big push now? Capitalism, socialism, what is that? Young adults are loving socialism. I would too if it was presented to me that way when I was younger. Hey, they call it cradle to grave entitlements. Everything is free. Free school, free phones, free checks in the mail. You just have to sit at home and do nothing. That sounds good to the flesh. The problem is, guys, you're going to realize nothing's free, and we're leaving you a big bill. And biblically speaking, guess what? Now, capitalism has its problems too. I don't promote any type of, but God's word says, work and you eat. If you don't work, you don't eat. It blesses hard work. It blesses labor. It blesses those who want to. People do well, they excel, God blesses them. People do well, they excel, blesses them. So that lines up more with what God's word says. Now, are there abuses? Of course. But socialism basically says, hey, just throw all your money in the same bucket and we're all paid evenly. That's very dangerous. And if you read, I believe it's of Plymouth Plantation, written by William Bradford of when the pilgrims came over, they tried what was called the communal system, where they all threw all the corn into one communal system. They about starved to death because the hard workers would work hard and the lazy people wouldn't. And it was all handouts. And you actually fuel lazy mentality. And people say, but Shane, what about an act when they all gave of their own accord and they all came together and that's what they use for communism, communal and socialism. But you forget there it says, and they gave of their own will, of their own accord, it wasn't forced on them. So if we say we're going to pay for your schooling, we're going to pay for this. Actually, what they're wanting is your vote and political power. And it is not biblical. It will lead in a very, very dangerous direction. Can you imagine working your tail off and you've got to do, and now you're taxed 50, 60, 70% of your income to give to someone who just sits at home and smokes dope all day. And I know people get upset, but I'm just telling you the truth. Now, are those who need government handouts? Absolutely. The welfare system, which actually began as a very good thing initially, how it began, to help those who needed help. But really, that's not the role of government. Whose role is it? Exactly. How can the federal government, Washington DC can regulate what's going on here in California? And Section 8 housing, vouchers, concepts are good. Disability to help those on disability concepts. See, there's some good things out there. But what if you throw the baby out the bathwater and you just like what they're doing, giving out all this money and all this money and taking away and taxing more. It's not healthy. It's not biblical. You work and you eat. If someone can't and the single mom, they need help or there's financial difficulties, then others come around side and they help them. So that's the whole thing with the whole push with socialism. What it is, is government control. Remove God, the government is in control. And why are all the people in socialist countries trying to flee the countries? Have you ever, that ever? I don't know. So anyway, that's what's going on with America. They hate the God-given blessings that God has given us, built on Judeo-Christian values, built on God's word from the Supreme Court to William Blackstone's commentaries of the laws of England, where we did you know the three branches of government come from the Bible? God said, I will be your lawgiver. I will be your king. I'll be your judge. The founding fathers quoted that verse when they institute the three forms of government that we have. So it's clearly God's words, clearly built on his principles and where he's moving, so is the enemy. And so they want to destroy that foundation. And boy, if they could get rid of the constitution, now you're seeing the Supreme Court, probably the last decade, they're looking at world law in order to make their decisions in America. They used to look at the constitution and they used to not pass laws. They used to be an interpreter of the constitution. And who's in charge when it comes to the constitution? We, the people. So if they can remove the constitution, America is bad. The foundation is bad. Let's build a new foundation. And while we're at it, did you know the police are bad? Let's defund the police. That is the most ludicrous idea I've ever heard. Defund the police for a few bad apples. And so like Hitler, you get rid of the police department. Do you think they're going to get rid of police completely? Or are they going to bring in their own department? They'll do what they say. Because when you have, you don't realize you have LA County Sheriff, LAPD, Texas Rangers, Idaho Police. You have all these different entities controlled by sheriffs. I think it's, I don't know who's our sheriff right now. I can't remember his name. There's a new news, there's a new election coming up, I think next year. He's actually been doing pretty good, but the DA, I've got a lot of issues with. So anyway, long story short, he's got all these sheriffs and over their communities and they're ruling over the communities and keeping it intact. But if you get rid of that and then just bring in your own national force, that's when you can start to legislate immorality and push it on people. So you see all of this, that's what's happening. And that's why they're causing a race war. I hope you see that. Is there racism in America? Absolutely. It is live and well, but we are fueling it, not creating a system that cures it. And I've told you before, I just love when I'm with this church, you see, you don't know it, but I know it. I see felons and correctional officers. I'm not going to tell you who they are. That's how you change the heart. If you start saying certain skin colors are bad, and now you're putting skin colors, there's actually, you look at Genesis 1, 2, 3, 4, there's no race. There's no races, Adam and Eve. It's skin pigmentation. There are not different races. There's one group of people under heaven and earth. And I'm going to get into that in Genesis, but that's what's happening in America. And now the flag, they want you to remove your flag because that's a sign of oppression. They don't like the military. This is a left-leaning liberal snowflake. Oh Lord, help me. I can already tell this video is going to be off YouTube, so you better just make copies and save it somewhere. But that's why this whole system is bad. America's bad, the military. And isn't that interesting? Why is nobody chanting death to Switzerland? Death to New Zealand? Because America has been God's Roman 13 throughout the world for many, many years. Romans 13, God sends in people to, we have the most powerful military on the face of the earth right now. That's why they don't sink some of our oil containers off the coast of Saudi Arabia, because they know they're going to have weapons firing at their magistrates and different things in those countries. We have them at bay right now, but Biden is losing all respect, all dignity. We're being laughed at. So I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds a future. And so the position is America can't be bad or good. It's simply a reflection of the character of her people. So you hear about slavery, right? The founding fathers were slave owners. Well, in my book, One Nation Above God, I have three pages of founding fathers who abhorred the practice of slavery. One of them was called the hellhound of the abolition movement and fought for it. You ever heard of William Wilberforce who fought to end it? What about the Christians who stood up for women's rights and all the Christians, including Billy Graham, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr.? You don't hear about any of those things. You see, they want to throw the baby out the bathwater. If all of you can be racist, and if I disagree with them, now I'm a racist. Actually, here's what the irony is. Those who are really racist are using that term and calling those people like us racist, just because we don't agree with them. I don't believe there's oppressors and oppressed people. Now, I believe some people have more difficulty in life, for sure. I mean, I was a silver spoon wasn't given to me. You know my story. I've explained it. I had to work my tail off. Was it maybe easier than other people? Sure. But don't think for one minute. If I would have got lazy at 19, I would have lost everything. I had to work and work and work and work and work and work and work and work. And my dad taught that in me. And if God before you... See, this is what gets me fired up. If you're a Christian, you shouldn't care about your skin color, or what your nationality is, or what your income is, or how many people are against you, or you can't just get a job, you can't get by. If God is for you, no one can stop your plans. No one can thwart the plans of God. And I know this is going to upset people. I don't care anymore. I don't even read comments anymore. I'm tired of it. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of it. It's time where you have to be bold and loving and truthful. I'm not going to be swayed by the opinions of men. I don't know if you heard about this, but it was on the news. The passengers on the plane in Afghanistan were on the tarmac. They were in their seats ready to go. And Glenn Beck told his radio audience Tuesday that the State Department officials intervened and boarded the plane. And they were told to go back to the airport and hand everything over to the Taliban. It's being confirmed by senators. This is all, this is real stuff. And you just go, how in the world is that happening? I don't know, other than the Prince of Darkness is leading a certain group of people. This is anti-God, this is, and there's nothing wrong with American pride in this sense. Proud of what God has done in America. I can be very, Israel was proud. Now, if you're a proud American and you're prideful, that needs to be repented of. But if we're proud of, Lord, thank you what you've done. I wish I could show you pictures of some of the churches in Africa. They'd be sitting on the floor right now. Cockroaches over here, some mice over here, air conditioning. Are you kidding me? How many, how many Christians were killed in Afghanistan this week? I could go into some stories I heard. So I just think we need to be bold and loving. And if you do have questions, email them to the church. We'd love to answer them. Who thinks for you? And so if you've been drifting, you've been going the wrong direction, you've been listening to the wrong voices, God always just says, come back. Come back to me. Turn back to me. Repent and let me fill you with my spirit. And the difference, you struggle with depression, anxiety, fear, uncertainty, God can deliver you from that because you're feeding on the very things you're wanting to flee. I mean, I mentioned some of those people I mentioned, I watched two minutes of a Lil Nas X video, I'm sick. Or The Weeknd's like, this is demonic. I mean, he really wanted to put his blood in Nikes. I mean, this is, you guys, we've crossed the line. Lil, leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy is over. We are in depravity like you've never before. Demonic. All these videos are sexual and perverted and demonic and satanic. And if you're feeding on that, no wonder, no wonder you're quenching and grieving the spirit and you're full of fear and anxiety. Turn that over to Christ tonight. Turn it over to Christ tonight. And I want to do something different. I prayed about it, wrote it down. I'm just going to do it. I don't know if it's worth it. It'll always be worth it. But there's a few of us prayer team members here, and we're going to make our way right next door. We're going to be in the prayer room. And so we want to pray with you. If you're a young adult, teenager, you need God, you need to break an addiction, you have same-sex attraction, you're going through fear, suicidal thoughts, let us pray for you. If you're an adult, let us pray for you. We all need prayer. We all need God's grace like never before. These are dire times. These are the times that try men's souls. And we've got to be anchored to God's word like never before. So I encourage you, be it Sundays, be it Wednesdays. We're going to see God like never before. And that's how we get delivered. That's how we get set free.