If you would, please take your Bible and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. We're going to begin a sermon series this morning entitled, The Pulling Down of Strongholds. This series of sermons is going to take a few weeks. I can't predict at this point exactly how long it will be, but it will be several. A few years ago, oh, maybe two years ago, I was handed a book. That was written by Dr. R.B. Ouellette. Now, Dr. Ouellette pastors a church up in Bridgeport, Michigan. He preached a series of sermons to his church entitled The Pulling Down of Strongholds. And someone handed me this book, which is a compilation of those sermons. And I read through here and there were some things that he said that I had thought about prior to getting this book. And I thought, wow, this is well organized. I would like to take advantage of that. And I began to do my own study using his book as my outline and, you know, those sorts of things to help guide me through it and using some of his research and some of his preparatory work. And I thought, well, we need this as a Christian, as a church. We need to hear this. I called up to his church this past week and asked permission to use his material, and the response was, In a war, there is no holding of ammunition. Go ahead and use whatever you want. We're going to get into this topic of pulling down of strongholds, and I just wanted to give credit to Dr. Roulette for the research that he had done and the things that I had gained and gleaned from reading his book. But in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 10, beginning of verse number three, the scripture says this. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. You and I walk in the flesh every day. We get up, we get the body dressed, we feed it. We go through the stages of life and we go through the events of life. We go through work and we come back home. We have to drive and we have to put up with the traffic. And then sometimes we go to work. And those of you that work in the world, you have to put up with those that are less than Christian in their attitude. So we live in this world and we're in a war, but we don't war after the flesh. It is deeper than that. Verse number four, he says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly, it's not a sword, it's not a spear, it's not a gun, but it's mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. It is not a fleshly war. It is a spiritual war and it's a battle and it begins in your mind. Verse number five, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, as we look into your word this morning, may you teach us the truths you have for us. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit will do his convicting work this morning and that we would be receptive to him. Dear Father, I am convinced that there are folks in this congregation this morning that are living their lives with strongholds. Father, we need to get the victory. Father, we pray that you would help us this morning as we just get into the introductory part of this, Lord, to have our eyes opened, but more importantly, Lord, to be receptive to your Holy Spirit as he convicts and as he does his work in us. Father, we pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. I'm convinced that there are many, many Christians that are living in defeat because they have strongholds in their lives. They're either not useful for the Lord because they've just kind of given up or they're literally living with an attitude of defeat. And see, God gives us the tools we need to overcome these strongholds and to get victory in our lives. Militarily speaking, a stronghold was a well fortified location that gave the army a place to fight from. It was a fort, usually, and it was built. And in the Old Testament, we read about cities that had great walls around them. And those walls were strongholds. It was a safe haven for the soldiers where arms could be stored and attacks could be planned. It was a place to retreat if there was an attack and the retreat was needed. In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel had to face the city of Jericho. Do you all remember that story? They came to the promised land, and the first city they came to was Jericho. They had nothing to defeat this great city. It had mighty walls, and they say that the walls were thick enough that they could ride two chariots side by side around the walls. And we know that they were so thick that people actually had their homes inside the walls of this great city. Israel had no weapons, nothing in their arsenal to pull or break down those great walls. Humanly speaking, it would have been impossible. But when they did it God's way, the walls fell down flat and they walked right over those walls into that city. What was God's way? You all remember the story, right? God told them to go and to just march around the city. To line up and to go around. What they didn't know was that 40 years prior to that, when the nation of Israel first crossed the Red Sea and first came into the Promised Land, that the hearts of those that were in Jericho melted and they were scared to death of the Israelites, even though they were in this stronghold. Israel didn't know that. You see, the strategy depended on God's might, not on the Israelites. So the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, spiritually speaking, God says that there are strongholds in our lives that need to be pulled down and brought into captivity to him. But they must be done through his might and his way, even though the strategy may not make sense to us. Now, as we look at this verse of scripture, verse number five, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, is it obvious from this passage that a strong place or excuse me, a stronghold takes place in our mind, in the mind or the thoughts of the Christian? Because God talks about imaginations and thoughts and need to be brought into obedience to Christ. So these strongholds take place in our mind. I want to share some references with you this morning because we're going to start by talking about the importance of the mind. I want us to understand that your mind is extremely important in this battle. We are in a battle and the battle is for your mind. Satan wants your mind. Let's look at a few verses. He tells us in Proverbs 23 in verse 7, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Now this is in the context of talking about a wicked man. Eat and drink saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. What's he saying in that verse of scripture? Well, right now we're going to focus on the first half and focus on the second half of it later. It says, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. And what he's saying in this passage of scripture, Solomon is telling us that the heart of the man controls his character. In other words, his mind. He says, as he thinketh in his heart and the heart is representative often of what goes on in our mind. And what he's saying here is as our mind goes, so goes our character. Where you let your mind go will determine the type of character you have and how you live. Go with me to the book of James, chapter one. Now, we'll come back to Second Corinthians 10 in a few minutes, but let's go right now to James, chapter one. James, chapter one of verse number 14, tells us this, that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren." There's a pattern here. There's a process. What is the process in these verses? The process is we are tempted, we're drawn away of our own lust, and then, when it's conceived, it brings forth sin. Where does it begin? It begins in the mind. A few years ago, I preached a message to teenagers in our last ministry about pornography. It was our Christian high school, and I felt the need to do it. I did not have any evidence that those guys were necessarily looking at pornography. But we did have a college professor from one of our major Bible colleges that came through or represented him, not a professor. He came through and as he was coming through, he represented his school. And then later, just in the privacy of the office, he told some of us in administration, he said, we're having two main problems in our Bible college right now among our students. Those two problems are pornography and plagiarism. Pornography and plagiarism is just stealing and lying, stealing somebody else's work and lying about it. So I felt the need to preach on this. And I tell you what, I did a little bit of reading. My wife had a ladies magazine that had an article in there in regards to pornography for teenagers. And one of the things that it said was that when teens get involved in pornography, it makes them more aggressive toward others. But pornography is a sin and it takes place where? In the mind. Some people say it's just a picture or it doesn't hurt anyone, but the truth is it does hurt because it is sin and it's evidence in the behavior of those that look at it. In Matthew chapter 5, verse number 28, Jesus said, But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. This isn't a sermon about adultery. It's not a sermon about the fornication. It's not a sermon about pornography. It's a sermon about our mind and about strongholds in the mind. But I've got to ask this question based on this verse of scripture that Jesus Christ gave. Where does this sin take place in the mind? The importance of the mind. I know men that have allowed corrupt thoughts in their mind, and as they have grown older, they've regretted it. I've had men come and sit in my office and say, I have done this in my past, and I wish I could get these thoughts out of my mind, but they're ingrained in my mind. I know teenagers that have given themselves over to corrupt minds. And their parents have them in church, but their parents have no stipulations on them that keep them from focusing on things that are immoral or things that are corrupt or things that are sinful. And because of that, these teenagers, though they may physically be sitting in church, they have a mind that is full of trash and they have no idea the consequences that they're going to pay for that 30, 40 years down the road. And the sin happens in the mind. Go with me to Philippians, chapter four and verse number eight, Philippians, chapter four and verse number eight. Versus scripture that has become one of my favorite verses, because it is so crucial to those of us that live in the 21st century with media everywhere and information that is so readily available to us. Philippians, chapter four and verse number eight, where God literally tells us what sort of things that we need to be thinking about. He says this. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. I wish we had the time in this series just to preach on this verse. But if you seriously want to please God with your thoughts, take this verse and go through it word by word and qualification by qualification and see if the way you spend your time during the day fits into this verse. See, God gives us here the qualifications for things that are worthy of our thoughts. Don't violate it. If you do, you're damaging your spiritual condition. All these things show the importance of your mind in your relationship to God and eventually to others. So let me bring up the next slide. The battle is for your mind. It's a mental battle and a spiritual battle. Now, in Second Corinthians, Chapter 10, as the Apostle Paul goes through and he talks about the pulling down of strongholds. It is obvious that he's talking about the stronghold being in our minds because he talks about bringing thoughts into captivity. But I want to give you a definition that I believe is a good definition of a stronghold. And as we go through this sermon series, I believe that it will help us to understand this. A stronghold is a faulty thinking pattern based on lies and deception, which gives Satan power in our lives. Now, we're going to get academic a little bit this morning and just talk through some basic things that just make sense in regards to the Christian and his mind and the way that we need to think and the way that it affects us if we don't think properly. And you all have probably gotten to the point where you understand that I have a very hard approach toward media. And you've heard me preach on it and you've heard me get upset over media and the way that we bring media into our homes. But I'm telling you what, the mind of your children and your mind as well is so very important to your spiritual health that if we bring things into our home that violate Philippians chapter four and verse eight, then we are asking for trouble, a stronghold. It's a thinking pattern, a faulty thinking pattern based on lies and deception, and it gives Satan power in our lives. A few years ago, I was on visitation while I was in Indiana. My daughter was with me. We were out. It was summertime. We were doing some door-to-door visitation. We came across a lady who came to the back door and was friendly to us. But she had a background in a church that taught that she could lose her salvation. She was living with a man. She'd been living with this man for several years of her life. She was not married. She had just moved in with him. She'd been living with him for several years. But since she had been taught as a child that certain sins would cause you to lose your salvation, she stood before us and cried and knew that she had lost her salvation and that one day she was going to hell because of what she had done. Now, I don't know if the woman had gotten saved originally or not. It's very possible that she had the way she explained it to us. It sounded to me like she had placed her faith in Jesus Christ and she had trusted Christ to save her. But because she knew that she was living in sin and had been living in sin for the past several years, she had already come to the conclusion she had lost her salvation. She was of no use to God. And that one day when she died, she was going straight to hell and she was convinced of that. And because of that, she was living in defeat. There was no use in trying to get right. There was no use in trying to serve God. There was no use in doing anything other than just going on through life the way that it is. And one day die and go to eternity in hell. She was living in defeat because she believed a lie. It was a stronghold in this woman's life. And Satan had power over her and she was defeated because of that lie. Well, sin deceives. I want you to go with me to James chapter one, verse twenty two, James chapter one and verse number twenty two. The scripture says this, he says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. You see, sin deceives. And when sin enters into our life, it gives us this deception that we are actually living in reality when we're living in the midst of a lie. And, you know, here's an interesting thing about deceit. When you're living in deceit, you believe you have the truth. A few years ago, there was a gentleman. and Southern Indiana that had been lied to about our church. And we had a Christian school down there, just like we did here. And we had dress standards within our Christian school, just like we do here. And someone was upset with our church. And so he went and spread some lies about our church and basically said, you know what? You can't even go to church there unless the ladies are wearing a dress. You can't go to church there unless your hair is cut a certain way. You can't go to church there unless this, this, this and this. And he listed several of our Christian school guidelines. Same guidelines we have here. Because we believe everything must be done decently and in order, and our lives need to reflect Christ. We want our young people to look clean-cut and all those things, so we have guidelines in our Christian school. Praise God, I wouldn't have a school without them. And we had them down there, and this man took those guidelines, and he said, you can't go to church there unless you do these things. And somebody got a hold of that information, and there was this man, he was looking for a good church. He drove by our church several times, but he thought, man, I'm never going to go there. One day, he just stopped by. He said, you know what? I just got to find out for myself. He walked into the church, asked to speak to the pastor, sat down and talked to the pastor. And after about 15 minutes of sitting in the pastor's office, he said, all these years, I believed a lie. I was deceived, you know, but in the midst of that deceit, he thought he had the truth. Hebrews chapter 3 and verses number 12 and 13 says this, Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called the day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. It's a battle for your mind and sin deceives. Notice in this first scripture, by the way, that God gives us the command to exhort each other so that we do not fall into deceit through Satan's lies. You see, God has developed a plan here. God's plan is for us to be involved in our local church, for us to be brothers and sisters in Christ, for us to encourage each other, for us to exhort each other, for us to come together and worship together. And as we come together, we have the responsibility of being willing to exhort each other and say, hey, you know what? Let me help you here a little bit. Because there may be some things that are clear to me in scripture that may not be clear to you, or there may be some things that are clear to you that may not be clear to me. And your strengths may be a little different than my strengths. And as we walk through this life together, we exhort each other and we encourage each other. And if I get into a wrong thinking pattern, I would hope that there would be a brother that would be willing to come to me and say, hey, you know what? I don't know about this. Let me tell you what the scripture says here. I got to be honest with you. There's about three men in this church who have come to me and said to me, Pastor York, if you see anything in my life that you feel is not in accordance with God's word, would you be willing to bring those to my attention? And I said yes. And praise God for that attitude. But you know what? If we're going to be willing to exhort each other and to encourage each other and to help each other think through things and help each other in light of the truth of God's word, then we have to remain teachable. And we have to be willing to accept that as well. But I want you to notice why God wants us to do that. He wants us to do that to each other so that we, he says, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin deceives. Sin causes us to think we're living in the truth, when in reality we are not. So, a stronghold takes place in our mind when we are deceived by sin, and when we have that sin in our life, we begin to think wrongly, and our thoughts are not in accordance with the truth of God's Word. Romans 7.11 says, For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me. And by it slew me. Now, I imagine this morning that right about now you're thinking, well, you know what, brother York, I've got most things figured out. I'm really not living in deceit. I tell you what we need to evaluate all of our thought patterns in light of God's word. What is it this morning? That may be a thought pattern of yours or maybe something that you've said or something that you've explained to somebody else or some way of looking at things that goes contrary to the teaching of God's word. Only the Holy Spirit can point that out to you. Titus three in verse three says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures. Sin deceives. Let's move on to the next point, sin deceives, affecting our thinking, thus giving Satan a place. Go back to Second Corinthians, chapter 10. Go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, because I want us to look at this verse a little more closely. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse number 5. But before we do that, I want you to see what I have up here on the PowerPoint. Ephesians chapter 4, verse number 27, says this. Neither give place to the devil. Now, we need to talk about this just a little bit. Because I want to develop this thought and I want you to see where I'm going. I'm building a foundation so that we can begin talking about strongholds and how to pull down those strongholds. And before this sermon series is done, we're going to look at how you can know that you have a stronghold and the major categories of strongholds and how we can rid our life of them. But let's look at this verse for just a minute to get a little bit of foundation. Neither give place to the devil. The word that is translated place here is the word topos, which is where we get the word topography. The word topography means what it has to do with land. It has to do with real estate. It has to do with a place to land or place to stay in back in Indiana. I own five acres. My wife and I live there for twenty five years. And over the 25 years that we own that five acres, it was just a plot of land when we started, but we've developed that five acres over a period of time. We have a house there. We have a garage that we built. I have some woods in the back, and I've cut some trees down to burn in my fireplace. We had, for a few years, we even had raised, during the summertime, raised some pigs so that we could have a little pork in the freezer. And we had a field out front that our farmer cut for hay. And we had all these things on our property. And I could do anything I wanted to there on that property. And I could cut the trees if I wanted. I could build a building if I wanted to. I could fence it in if I wanted to. And you know why? Because it was mine. I owned it. Now, I know what you're thinking. No, you still pay taxes. So, ultimately, the government owns it. Sometimes we may feel that way. But I had a right to do what I wanted to do on that land because I own it. And so when James tells us to be careful that we do not give place to the devil, what is he talking about? He is talking about giving Satan a literal grounds to stand on in your life. And allowing him to work and to destroy and to tear down and to attack and giving him a rightful place in your life. Back in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 10, verse number five, I want us to look at this verse a little more carefully so that we can develop this thought of giving place to the devil. He says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. There are two things he tells us here to cast down imaginations. And then every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. The word imaginations is a word which means calculated thought. When we think of imaginations, sometimes we think of a vivid imagination, just some fantasizing or whatever the case may be. But that's not what this word means here. If you study the word, you'll find that what it means is a calculated thought. It is something that we meditate on. And there's a couple of things that are evident from in here. First of all, it has been well thought through. It may not be accurate. But it is well thought through. It is developed. It is not just a passing thought that goes through your mind. It is something that you dwell on. It is something that you think about. It is something that you muse over. And it is a calculated, well-developed thought in your mind. And it takes place in the mind. It's not a physical battle. It's a mental battle. Now, it affects us physically and it affects us spiritually, but it takes place in the mind. So he says, cast down those well-developed thoughts, pull down those thinking patterns that you've had, that you've developed, that you've built upon lies and deception. And even though at this point you may not know that they're lies and deceptions, you need to compare them to the thinking of God's word, to the truth of God's word. And if they don't line up, pull them down. But then he goes on to mention every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. Now, what is that? Those high things? Well, let me read to you a verse of Scripture and you tell me. But I'll have said in my heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high who said that Satan. Casting down imaginations, those calculated thoughts, those well-developed thinking patterns and those high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Those are the spirits of Satan that gain ground because we spin and we open up our life and we allow them into our life. Now, let me illustrate it this way. When we begin to think faulty thinking patterns, we begin to allow sinful thoughts into our mind and we begin to allow ourselves to think thoughts that go contrary to scripture and allow ourselves to have behavior that goes contrary to scripture. And to the truth of God's word. Then we are literally giving Satan a place to stand in our life and to attack us and to tear us down, and in my opinion, it works like this. Come on in. I'm willing to stand in this area because I'm willing to send in this area. I'm going to give this to you, Satan. And that's the way it works. Now, you think this morning about areas in your life where you have willfully gone against the teaching of God's word and you've allowed Satan to get a foothold in your life. And I will help you see that there is a point in your life where you have destroyed your own spiritual well-being. You open that door, and you let Satan in, and you give him grounds. James says, neither give place to the devil. Now, it doesn't have to stay that way, because this passage of Scripture tells us to cast down, that the weapons of God are mighty. Our weapons are not carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And you will say, but a Christian cannot have wicked spirits in his life. And you know what? We can struggle with terms and we can use the word demon possessed. We can use the word demon oppressed. We can use whatever word we want to use. But the fact of the matter is this. We can be affected by the wicked spirits that we allow into our life. And if we give grounds to Satan through sin, there is going to be influence in our life that comes from Satan in his wicked spirits. Let me show you some verses of scripture. Go with me to First Timothy chapter two. First Timothy chapter two verse number fourteen. We're talking about sin and deception and giving grounds to Satan. The apostle Paul says this and Adam was first formed then Eve and Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived was in transgression. He goes all the way back to the beginning of time and Adam and Eve in the garden. And he makes it plain here that Adam was not deceived when Adam took of that fruit. He knew good and well what he was doing, and Adam did it anyway. He was not deceived, but Eve was. Now, where was Eve's deception? Did Eve for one minute think that God would allow her to partake of that fruit. Was she so deceived that she thought, OK, God now understands that it's OK for me to do this and I'm not going against God's law? Was she deceived in thinking that she wasn't going against God's law? The answer to that question is no. She knew that she was going contrary to what God wanted her to do. I mean, she even told Satan, she said, God said not to touch of this. She went a little overboard. She said God said not to eat of it, not even to touch it lest we die. She knew what the standard was. She was not deceived in thinking that she could get by with it in the sense that God wouldn't mind. Her deception was in the fact that she felt like if she went ahead and broke God's law, that she'd be better off. Her deception was not in thinking that she was violating God's word, but in that she thought she would be better off by doing it. If you just partake of this fruit, God knows that you'll be wise. You'll know good from evil. You'll be like God. You'll have all that knowledge. And Eve said, I will go against God's word. Because I think I'll be better off. Now, was she right or wrong? She was wrong. But see, Satan does the same thing with us. Go with me to First Corinthians, chapter five. She was deceived. She yielded. Satan gained victory. First Corinthians, chapter five. First Corinthians, chapter five, we're going to read verses three, four and five. But what we're reading here is in the context of church discipline, the apostle Paul is talking about a person that is living in sin. So here is a Christian and he's instructing the church to discipline this man out of the church. And as he's instructing them to do this, this is what he says, for I verily as absent in body, but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that have so done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. He didn't say deliver one to his own demises. He said deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. What had happened here was a man that had lived in sin. And because he lived in sin, he gave grounds to Satan. And as he gave that place to the devil, the devil moved into his life and got control. The apostle Paul said until he gets right with God, we're going to discipline him out of the church. Let the devil destroy his flesh and to take him further into sin. And one day his spirit will be saved. Again, the purpose of this sermon is not church discipline. The purpose of this sermon is to see the destructiveness of strongholds. And that it begins in our mind and with our thinking that we're going to stop here this morning and next Sunday, we'll pick up with this and we'll move on and we'll talk about discerning strongholds. But before we leave this morning, I think we need to understand the importance of our thoughts, what we allow into our mind. The way that we think through things, and it's possible this morning that the Holy Spirit has already put his finger on a point in your life where there is a stronghold, a wrong thinking pattern, and that you tend to dwell on that even when you come face to face with the truth of God's word. You try to reason through things. It may be in the area of finances, where you haven't given your finances completely to the Lord and followed His principles. It may be in your marriage relationship. It may be in the rearing of your children. It may be in business practices. It may be in church membership. It may be in church involvement. It may be personal relationship with someone else. It may be in your private time with God and prayer and Bible reading. You may have rationalized it away. It may be in your relationship with me as your pastor, maybe in a relationship with somebody else in this church. It may be a tense struggle that you're having and you're trying to minimize that. I don't know where it is. But the Holy Spirit does. And if you've given place to the devil. And you've allowed yourself to go contrary to the principles of Philippians four or eight and thinking on those things and dwelling on things that are pleasing to God. And you have allowed yourself to reason through things that go contrary to Scripture. And you need to get that right with God. And you need to do it this morning, would you bow your head with me this morning, please? I'm going to ask the instruments to come, and I'm going to ask to turn to hymn number 601, and I'm going to ask Mrs. Haskins as she plays through this hymn how firm a foundation that as in a minute we're going to stand. I'm going to ask you just to stand there with your heads bowed and your eyes closed, and as she plays through that hymn in just a few minutes, I'm going to ask you if the Lord has dealt with you and put a finger on an area in your life that you need to get right, that you would just kneel. You can come right here to this altar. And you can kneel right here and you can pray out to God or you can turn and kneel right there at your chair. But please don't let it go any longer. Our gracious father, as we. come to you now in prayer. I pray, God, that you would be pleased to work among us. Father, I pray that we would be receptive to your Holy Spirit, that your Holy Spirit would work in the lives of each individual this morning. And, Father, that you would be pleased with our behavior, with our acceptance to you and the way that you work. And, Lord, would you let us not leave here this morning, not let one person leave here out of fellowship with you. But Father, convict, we pray, and help us, Lord, to leave here in perfect relationship and perfect fellowship with you, we ask in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.