So, in that sense, there's nothing to challenge, there's nothing to confront, there's nothing to defend. And I've just watched over the years, even with the Course in Miracles as it's seen to go through, its copyright things and copyright controversies and different things, it's just been the soft, gentle watching, knowing that there's nothing to fix or change that nobody's really wrong, it's just the playing out of the script and it's a very peaceful sense of watching, but there's no sense of fixing or changing anything. And that's what I would like to talk with you about in the coming days, because to me this experience I'm describing to you is most practical. A lot of times people can say, sometimes these things sound kind of high and mighty or they sound glorious, but they don't seem very practical when it comes down to day-to-day decisions, day-to-day decision-making, and what I want to talk with you about and really join together with you in is joining in the willingness to just let go of every belief, every scrap in the mind where there seems to be the slightest bit of controversy or conflict or ill of these feelings, just to suddenly get in touch with what those are and to be willing to let them go. And to really see that there's no cost in releasing these feelings, it's not really like something terrible is going to happen to you if you quit judging or if you quit discriminating. If you quit trying to picket things, it's not like something will be lost. I find in my life that as I've gone on this journey deeper and deeper, where I had anticipated a sacrifice of some kind, it's just like getting up close to it and going, that was nothing at all. I could laugh. I can't believe I was so afraid of looking at that. I can't believe that I pushed that down for so long. You have the feeling like, wow, just let it all come up. I think too when I talk about trust, it's not so much that you have to develop more trust, because a lot of times people think I just need more faith and more trust, but it's just that the power of our mind is enormous and when you have invested that power in a false belief system, it's more that you have to unplug from it or divest from it. Instead of getting more trust, and that's just another ego trip. When an ego is telling you you're not trusting enough, you don't have enough faith, that's just another kind of a push from the ego that you're not good enough and you need to be better. It's not so much that we have to be better at anything, we just have to expose the ego and pull all of our faith and trust away from it and see that the spirit is worthy of our trust, that our guidance, that small still voice inside its guiding us is extremely worthy of our trust and if we follow it, it brings states of unlimited happiness and freedom. And more than anything, that's what I want to convey to you. I have really dedicated my life to living the experience of the course of enlightenment, to actually living it. I went to one of these big conferences back in 1992 and at that point I had effectively memorized the course of miracles. I would show up at groups and I would start speaking passages, whole paragraphs, verbatim even with quoting page-noters and I was introduced at this conference in 1992 as a walking course of miracles encyclopedia and I didn't like the ring of that somehow. You see that as an epitaph on your cravestone. Here lies the course of miracles walking encyclopedia. This doesn't bring me very good for me. So that was actually a good moment in my life in 1992 because from that point on I swore not to be an encyclopedia but to really get into the core of the experience and to really feel it and extend it and radiate it and so that's been my devotion. And as I was saying last night, I feel very honored that Gary was saying that being so fortunate to really be able to meet people in a very close and direct and intimate way where you really feel that deep heart connection like you've known them forever. That's to me what this is all about. The words, they come and they go. The books, for years I just traveled around and I really had the experience that the course was such a great, exquisite tool for me that I could not even imagine writing a book about it and actually I didn't. I mean I just continued to travel and speak and people started transcribing these words. They made the book. So that's kind of fun for me because I've always thought, you know, this is just an experience and anything that gets used I'm all for it. But the idea of trying to put things down and form. I like to show movies. I use a lot of music. We do experiential exercises. We did an angel bath last year on the side. It was fun and everything. I'm really into those kind of things. And yet I've also been open to answering thousands and thousands of emails and that's where a lot of these writings that come out into books come from is just from emails and not from me trying to sit down and put something down into a book. And I've loved it. I haven't regretted one moment of it. I even take the time occasionally to answer. I answer on Facebook and MySpace, all those funny little social networking gadgets that they have nowadays. I just feel like whatever I have the opportunity and somebody writes a sincere question that that's just an opportunity to extend to myself and that's how we keep it in awareness is by giving it away. So to me it's just very precious. So last night we talked a little bit about some topics. Good morning, Emily. And basically that's what I plan to do on these days coming up in these sessions and also in the shared question and answer sessions with Thierry is just make myself fully available to connect with you where your practice is. Where your spiritual practice seems to be flowing and working and also if you have points where you feel like there's stuck points. A woman just wrote an email to me this morning in the early morning hours and just was saying she feels kind of a flatness. She went through a period where she was feeling a lot of joy but now things are starting to feel kind of flat and meaningless. Kind of like, what is the point? It's more feeling where I'm like, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. And it's like, I don't know what's going on down there in my mind, she said, but when I feel this flatness it doesn't, I don't feel that intense joy so I really think that there must be something that I need to get in touch with that I'm not aware of. And so that's what I would like to use as a context for our gathering if there's something that you feel like. It doesn't really matter what the emotion is but if you're not feeling a sense of supreme joy and happiness then that's a good starting point to just say, check. Okay, I really want to take note of what's going on in my awareness and my consciousness because my state of mind is important to me because I am worthy of the peace and the joy and the happiness. I am worthy of true freedom. Not the freedom like we talk about living in a free country or financial freedom or those things but I mean true freedom of mind like Morpheus talks about in The Matrix I'm trying to free your mind.


Hi, do you like Charmin's soft toilet paper as much as I do? Why make toilet paper out of recycled paper when you can make it out of fresh cut trees?  So let's see what the consumers have to say. Please take each roll of toilet paper and wipe it against your cheek, this one, and let me know are they the same, are they different, is one a little softer or not? No. Would you choose the 100% nasty recycled paper, don't know where that paper came from, or the freshly cut forest? All things the same, obviously I'd take the recycled one. I think I'd take the recycled one. Definitely recycled. The recycled. The recycled, recycled. And any reason for that? It's recycled. It's better for the environment. Charmin, stop flushing our forests. Don't go with Charmin.


Everybody glad to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Come on, it's good, amen. Turn with me or turn on your Bibles. If it's a mobile device, turn it on. If it's a physical Bible, turn two. First Timothy chapter two. And if you didn't bring a Bible, right now just fake it. Just act like you got one, opening it up, flipping the pages there or turning on your phone. Don't check the scores. It's not important. But turn with me to First Timothy chapter two. This morning, this is part eight of our series entitled The Fall and all, or the fall, hello. You can tell who got like two hours of sleep last night. The battle and all fall long, we've been looking at the subject of spiritual warfare. The battle that every believer is engaged in and almost every weekend I've started by saying this, the Christian life is not like a battle. The Christian life is a battle. Thank you. And also to remind us that our battle or our warfare is not being waged against people. It's not flesh and blood. This is not a conventional warfare. This people are not the enemy. People are not the object of our warfare. This isn't a political thing. This isn't a physical flesh and blood thing. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter six that we do not war against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers and spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. All around us, every single day and in every environment, unseen to the naked eye there is a battle that is being waged between heaven and hell, between God and Satan and his demonic forces, God who is the ultimate great I am and his angels. And we know who wins the battle. You've heard it said before. I've read the end of the book and I know who wins. Anybody in this place know who wins? Okay, but in the battle right now we're still engaged in the battle on a daily basis. We're not fighting for victory. We're fighting from victory but there are still battles to be waged. And so what does that spiritual battle look like? What is the armor that God has given to us next week? We're gonna talk about the armor of God. This morning though, I wanna pick up where we left off over the last couple of weeks and talking about the subject of prayer because there's no greater task. There's no greater tool, weapon, environment that God has given to the believer that we need to understand more than we need to understand prayer. And in fact, it's probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of our faith. Knowing how to pray, when to pray and not all prayer is equal because almost everybody around the globe it doesn't matter the religious background that they come from has a concept of prayer. All prayer is not equal. When people say prayer changes things certain kinds of prayers change certain things. Jesus taught us to pray in a very specific way. He taught us when you pray, pray in my name. How many know there's power in the name of Jesus? It's not just praying to some deity in the sky that's kind of universal.  The one who is the son of the creator of heavens and earth who was and is and forevermore will be who has no beginning of days and no end of days who's everywhere all at the same time knows everything that there is to know and is all powerful. We're talking about that God. We're talking about praying in that name and there's power in that kind of prayer. About 50% of the room believes that the other 50% is waiting to be convinced and that's all right. So this morning I want to talk to you about a specific area of prayer called intercessory prayer, intercessory prayer. Big word, what does it mean? I've entitled the message standing in the gap, standing in the gap. Look with me here at 1 Timothy chapter two, beginning in verse number one. It says, first of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions that we might lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of our God and Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling you the truth, I'm not lying, a teacher to the Gentiles in faith and in truth. So Paul's writing this epistle, this letter, to believers that are living in a city called Ephesus. It's written to Timothy. Timothy is a young mentee of Paul that Paul has placed in the city of Ephesus which is a pagan, Gentile, worshiper of all kinds of Greek gods and goddesses city. It's probably the second largest city in Asia Minor and he takes this young man, Timothy, and he says, I started a church there, I want you to pastor it. And then Paul left and started other churches. He writes this letter to Timothy to instruct him on what should be the priorities of the way that we conduct ourselves as light that is dwelling and living in the midst of a darkness, a spiritual darkness. In other words, a spiritual battle. It actually is the same church that Paul writes Ephesians to where he talks about spiritual warfare. And there's probably not another city on the face of the earth at that time that was experiencing the level of spiritual warfare that Ephesus was. If you don't know anything about Ephesus, look it up, it's really interesting. Ephesus is in modern day Turkey which is all over the news right now. And Ephesus was a city that was called the caretaker of the goddess Artemis. Artemis or Diana was this massive rock that fell out of the sky, probably an asteroid that at some point in the past people moved and they built an idol around it and a massive temple that in its day was known as one of the eight wonders of the world. I mean, people came from all over the world to worship Artemis in her temple. She was a goddess of fertility. She was a goddess of victory and war. There was a whole cult, hundreds of prostitutes that dwell in the temple. So when you go into the temple, the way that you worshiped Artemis was by hiring a temple prostitute, doing the thing with the prostitute as an act of worship. And then there were bathhouses right next to the temple. So everybody in the city, the marketplace, the economy, business people, you did all of your business dealings in the temple to a demonic power. There was a library. It was the second largest library in the world. Largest was in Clement of Alexandria which is on the north coast of Africa. The second largest library in the known world was in the city of Ephesus. And it was so large and it was known specifically for one kind of literature. They had magic books, black magic, incantations that dated all the way back to the Tower of Babel. Manuscripts that they kept there. So people who were into the occult, people who were into dark magic and incantations, witchcraft, very spiritual, very religious people from all over the known world, they traveled to Ephesus to go to the library and to study. And there were all kinds of schools and things that took place. This is the city that Paul comes to and he preaches the gospel and there's a massive revival that takes place. You can read about it in the book of Acts. So much so that they almost stoned and almost killed Paul there because people were so freaked out by it. Mobs screamed for three hours protesting the church by saying, great is Artemis, great is Artemis, great is Artemis. Now that's not unusual to see protests when people are upset about things, but when the protest doesn't stop for three hours screaming, how many know you're pretty committed? Three hours they did this. And the reason why they were upset is because people were getting saved and it was disrupting the economy. It was disrupting politics. It was disrupting the religious atmosphere. And so people who dwelt there who were experiencing and encountering Jesus were bringing all of their magic books out and throwing them in a pile, recognizing these are demonic and we're burning them. Something to the value of over $50 million worth of books were burned in bomb fires. This is what's going on in Ephesus. And so Paul starts this church. Rick Renner who's a mentor of mine who studied this church extensively said that the city probably had 350 to 400,000 people in it. And within five years, the church had grown to 100,000 people. That's a massive church. And he takes this young guy Timothy and he puts them right in the middle of it and he says, you pastor it. How'd you like to have that job? Trying to disciple these people who came out of paganism and bondage and sexual immorality and all kinds of background. But they found Jesus and they found forgiveness and they found redemption and now they've created this community called the church.  Day one on the church of Pentecost, the church grew from zero to 3,000 people. How many know that's a pretty good Sunday? God's on the move all over the place. And now he writes this letter to Timothy and he's giving them instructions. First and second Timothy and Titus are called the pastoral epistles. And epistles are letters. Epistles are not wives of the apostles. Epistles, that was a joke, you should laugh. Okay, epistles are letters. Paul's writing this letter and it's interesting knowing all that background to see how Paul starts the letter. Chapter two, after all of chapter one, which is greeting, he starts off with this. He says, first of all, in other words, this is the priority. First of all, as matter of first concern, that's how it literally should be translated. As matter of first concern, here's Paul writing to his young pastor. He says, I urge, I compel, I demand that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all men or all people. And then he goes on and he says for kings and leaders and those who are in high positions, I want supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving to be made for all these people so that you can live a peaceful and quiet life as the people of God. And so that you remind yourself of why you are the people of God. How it was that God found you when you were broken, when you were in sin, when you were opaquen, when you were lost. And the reason that you are saved now and made into the people of God is because God desires that none should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And that there's only one mediator. There's only one God. There's only one mediator between God and man and it's Jesus Christ. And he was the perfect testimony given at the right time.  It's like, wait a second God, there's a lot of work to do. I'm too busy to pray. No, Paul says no. Matter of first concern is that you be people of prayer. And then he lists off these four kinds of prayer. He says, number one, I want supplications to be made. What is a supplication? A supplication is another way of saying asking. How many know that when we pray, we ask God for things. We say God, meet my needs. Give me this day my daily bread. How many know that prayer? Lord, it's not talking about literal physical bread, at least most of the time, at least in our condition in America, we've got bread, we've got wonder bread, triple rye bread, Ezekiel bread, buns, croutons, and we got it all. It's not really a matter of us getting bread. We're saying Lord, meet our needs. That's supplication. And he says, I want you to pray and ask God to meet your needs and meet the needs of other people. Okay, that's number one. Second thing is he says, I want supplications and prayers. What's the prayers piece? Well, that seems to be a pretty general statement. If all of them are prayer, intercession, supplications, and thanksgiving, why use the word prayer?  Yes, it's good that you pray by yourself. You need to do that daily on the regular. Meet with God in the secret place. But we also need to pray together. Leonard Ravenhill, who is a great revivalist, said far too many pastors measure the success of their church by the number of people who show up on Sundays. But the true test of the health of a church is how many show up for prayer meetings. Come on, somebody. You know, the devil's happy if you'll do almost anything except pray. But prayer meetings scare him. Because we look at prayer meetings oftentimes and we might think, oh, prayer meetings kind of boring or not that many people show up for a prayer meeting. But I wanna remind you of what Jesus said. Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them.  You wanna know why? It's not because you're there, it's because he's there. Where there's two of us coming in. Why do you need two for there to be agreement? It's like we cheer each other on. We pray, you might walk into a prayer meeting and say, there's three people here. We do prayer meetings all the time here. We have three prayer meetings on Monday. We have two prayer meetings on Wednesdays and then we've got one on Tuesday. We've got prayer meetings all the time. And pretty soon we're gonna be having multiple prayer meetings a day down in our downtown prayer center which we're fired up about ready to launch this winter. And we're planning on having prayer meetings morning, noon, and night. And there might be times where you walk into and go, there's only four people here. This isn't gonna change anything. Ha!  We need to pray together. That's why Paul says prayer groups, supplications. I want you to ask prayer groups, get together and pray for one another. Because when you're down, somebody else is up. Somebody else's prayer becomes a prophecy for you that you tag on to, we worship together. And I mean, you just mess with the devil so much every time you do stuff like that. You come to a prayer meeting.  It's just a big old mess for the devil. Third thing is he says intercessions. Intercessions. Intercession is a word that maybe you've heard before but we don't always understand what it means. And you guys are, by the way, you're getting a different message than last service. So in the middle of worship, the Lord's like, yeah, I want you to actually preach this. So I'm like, well, Lord, I don't have notes for that. And he's like, well, I do, so you're okay. So I told them back in the sound booth, I'm going in a different direction. I have no idea where I'm going, just flow. It's kind of like jazz, just improvise, here we go. So the rest of you just follow along, okay? Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 22. Ezekiel chapter 22, when you show up, heaven shows up. When you stand up, heaven stands up. I love those words. Because that's what happens when God's people pray. Ezekiel chapter 22, it says in verse number 29, the people of the land have practiced extortion, committed robbery, they will press the poor and the needy and to have extorted from the sojourner or from the immigrant without justice. Verse number 30, it says, and I, this is God, sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the breach or stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it but I have found none. Ezekiel is a prophet that God raised up and here's what God is saying in there. He's like, look, I've looked on the earth and I've looked in the land and I've seen all kinds of injustice. I've seen all kinds of brokenness. I've seen all kinds of darkness. I've seen all kinds of evil that has manifested itself and I scanned looking for one who would build back up the wall that's been torn down and would stand in the gap. Everybody say stand in the gap. Who would stand in the gap but unfortunately I could not find any. What was God looking for in Ezekiel's day? He was looking for an intercessor because the word intercede or intercession, intercessor means to stand in the gap on behalf of somebody else who needs our prayer. Paul says I want supplications, check. Prayers or prayer meetings, check. The last thing he ends with is I want thanksgiving for all people but what's this word intercession? Sometimes we miss out on the calling that each of us have and the invitation that God gives to each and every one of us to be intercessors. In other words, to stand in the gap for those who right now are in the place of injustice, who are in the place of vulnerability, who are in the place of spiritual blindness, who've been wounded. Their walk with God has been injured. They've been blinded as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians where he says that the God of this age, the devil has actually blinded the eyes of the unbelievers so that they can't see the glory, the glorious gospel of Christ Jesus and actually believe and come to faith. The devil actually is blinding them. They're in a position called the gap. We've got those who are broken and those who are filled with pride and those who've been influenced by the philosophies of men and have succumbed to the imprisonment of intellectualism because they're looking for a God that they can figure out. They're looking for a God that makes sense. They're looking for a God that checks all their boxes. Oh, beware if you ever find yourself worshiping a God who agrees with you 100% of the time.   We want God to agree with us. We want God to make sense. I don't wanna worship a God I can figure out.  Cause I can't figure that out. It's like little tools. How does this all go together? Why are there 15 extra pieces? If I can figure God out, then he's not big enough. But all of these are the trappings that we find in the gap. And we live in a world where people are stuck in the gap. If you've ever been to the UK, we don't live in a culture or society that necessarily understands this phrase. Mind the gap. Because if you've ever been to some place where there's a subway system, you'll see signs everywhere. It says mind the gap, mind the gap, mind the gap. In other words, pay attention. Cause the gap is the place of vulnerability. It's the place where you can be in danger. It's where you can get hurt by the train, the electric rails. It's where you can lose your balance where you can fall in the gap. Mind the gap. The gap is a physical reality of vulnerability. The gap is also a spiritual place that so many people find themselves in. Do you know if today you're saved, you're in a relationship with God, if Jesus is your Lord, the only reason that you are is because there came a moment where God took on human flesh, entered into humanity, and went to the cross to intercede for you. He stepped into our gap and he rescued us. We were about ready to fall into the chasm and didn't even know it. Headlong off the end of it and Jesus came and rescued us and pulled us out. That's a perfect picture of intercession. Intercession means to get into the gap and to appeal to one powerful on the behalf of another. And when Paul says, I want intercessions to be made for all people, kings who are in authority, leaders. What he's really inviting us into is he's inviting us into a partnership with God, who is the ultimate intercessor. Listen to the words of Oswald Chambers. He said, Jesus Christ carries on intercession for us in heaven. He's our great intercessor. The Holy Spirit carries on intercession in us on the earth. And we, the saints of God, have to carry on intercession for all men. Jesus is an intercessor. The Holy Spirit is an intercessor. He gets into the gap with us. He stands in the gap and just like Ezekiel says, God's looking for somebody who will stand in the gap, somebody who will pray, somebody who will pray for other people no matter what situation circumstances that they are in right now. We pray through the lens of the Spirit. God, move in their life. Move on their behalf. And we partner with God so that God can ultimately get what he wants. You see, that's what the partnership is about. It's partnering with God in the place of prayer so that God gets what he desires most. Let me give you the definition of Christian maturity. You know you're growing up as a Christian where your prayer life ceases to be only about you getting what you want and your heart begins to change and you begin to pray, God, I wanna help you get what you want. What does God want? Well, number one, he wants all of our heart, but then he wants us as his children to partner with him and standing in the gap on behalf of those that he loves. And do you know the simplest Bible verse that we all learn in churches, John 3.16, right? For God so loved America that he gave his only begotten Son. Whosoever should pledge allegiance to the flag will not perish but have everlasting life. Is that the gospel? No, God so loved. Now, does he love America? Absolutely. Praise God. Hallelujah. Red, white, and blue. But do you know what? Every nation is his favorite. He loves them all. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Every single one of them. You know, while we live here, the things that are going on around the world, people who are experiencing injustice, breaks God's heart. The Kurds who are being slaughtered right now in the Middle East, it breaks God's heart. That's not a political statement, that's an eternal statement. The fact that there are people in other nations that do not have exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ because the enemy has blinded them or they live under governments that do not allow that or they're under demonic influence, they are not the enemy, they're the ones that Jesus died for. In our country right now, to think that there are millions of unborn infants that have not even been able to take their first breath because they've been offered on the altar of convenience. That breaks God's heart. The fact that if the color of your skin is darker than the majority, that you have a different system of justice in our country, breaks God's heart. Those are not political statements, they're just realities that we live in and God sees those injustices. God sees the injustice in other countries, he sees it right here, he sees it in our homes, he sees the broken sadness, he sees the hurt, he sees the woundedness, he also sees our pride and our arrogance in his face, which is equally in injustice. And you know what he says to you and I to do? First of all, of first importance, before you do anything else, church, I want you to post all over Facebook about why you're right and everybody else is wrong. Of first importance, that's what I want you to do.  That'll show them we're Christians by our Twitter. Now I'm not saying anybody in this room does that or any of us on this platform are tempted to do that, but that's not what Jesus calls us to. He says I looked for somebody who would stand in the gap, get in the fight on our knees and pray and lift up those that my son Jesus went to the cross to win back to me. I'm not looking for somebody to be right in an argument. I'm looking for somebody to appeal to me on their knees to move heaven and earth. God, move in this person's life.  Lord, strip down the veneer and the layers of veneer of intellectualism and humanism and fleshly desires that are keeping them from you.  It's not a social justice, it's heavenly justice. The truest justice is when God gets what he deserves and the Lamb of God who is slain receives the rewards for which he suffered. That's true justice. That's what God wants us to intercede. That's why God wants us to intercede. He wants us to be people of prayer. Our first reaction is prayer. Let me ask a question this morning because I'm already meddling. What would happen if the time that we took to engage on social media on issues was secondary and we spent that time actually interceding and praying? First, would the world be different? No, the world would be the same. It really doesn't matter. My prayer doesn't matter. Then in actuality, by making that statement, we're living like practical atheists. We're saying it really doesn't matter. But if we really believe that God's looking for intercessors, if we really believe that God's as good as we say is, if we really believe that he hears the cries of the saints that, like Jesus said, don't stop praying, don't get tired praying, that if we pray that heaven would hear, hear us from heaven. If we really believe that, man, our first reaction should be to be people of prayer. What if we trained ourselves and became discipled to the degree that we said our first reaction is when we see something that's wrong, when we see or we encounter people in our life that are far away from Jesus, that maybe haven't heard the gospel or have even rejected the gospel or even mock and ridicule the gospel or mock and ridicule you for your belief in the gospel. What if our first reaction was to actually pray for them? Could that change anything? What did Jesus say? You've heard it said. How many know Jesus loved to meddle? So I'm in good company.   Pray for them. Love your enemies. What's the greatest way that you can love your enemies? Pray for them. Listen to this quote by Charles Spurgeon, great preacher of the 1800s. He said, earnest intercession will be sure to bring love with it. I do not believe you can hate a man for whom you habitually pray. If you dislike any brother Christian, pray for him doubly, not only for his sake, but for yours only or yours also, that you may be cured of prejudice and saved from all unkind feelings. So the more you dislike somebody, the more you should pray for them. Think about that. When we intercede for others, you know what the Bible says happens to us? Our heart begins to change. You know, we all need heart change. None of us have it all together. Do you know why God through the Holy Spirit by the pen of Paul wrote, I want supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving for all men. Do you know why he wrote that? How do you give thanksgiving for people that are your enemies, that are different from you, that disagree with you, that are outside of the faith community? How in the world can I give thanks for people who even persecute me and use me wrong? It's because if we choose to intercede for them, what we're asking is, God, would you show me your heart for that person? Because what I'm seeing is all surface. Remember, we don't fight against flesh and blood. And when people react to us, when people hate us, when people mock us, or when people are indifferent towards us, because the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. Or when people have hurt us and injured us, or people, listen, when we come to realize there's people on this planet we will never meet, and we could probably go live our whole lives and their life is never going to matter to us because it doesn't intersect with our lives. If we could ever get to the point where we say, God, I'm gonna pray for them, not because there's something I get out of it, but I wanna pray because there's something that you get out of it, would you change my heart? Would you show me a glimpse of how you see them, beyond their voice, beyond their appearance, beyond their attitude? God, would you show me? If we take that to prayer, God will begin to show you how he sees them. He sees straight through the core of them, the same way he sees through the core of us. He sees not how they are, but how he always purposed them to be. If you need to see how God sees people, it's real simple. Look at the cross. Cross says it all. You know what? I don't feel like I'm worth very much. I don't feel like I have any value. I've been told all my life, I don't really matter. You're never gonna succeed. I've been told without words that I don't have much worth or value because everybody who loved me has turned their back on me, betrayed me, or left me. If that's you, all you gotta do is look at the cross. And God says, I love you this much. Look at your enemies. Say, how much do you love them, God? God says, look at the cross. When Jesus could have retaliated, how many of you know what feels good sometimes to retaliate? Let me just be honest, we're in church. Can't lie. Raise your hand if you've just, man, I just wanna retaliate.  It feels good, right? But when Jesus had an opportunity to retaliate against us, and he would have been perfectly right to do so, you know what Jesus does? He says, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do. What if we were to say that to God? Help me to realize how they don't know what they're doing. Help me to see them like you see them. Help me to see them through the lens of the cross. And then, once my heart is moved, I'm praying for them.  God move in their life.  Whatever lies they believe from the enemy. Lord, would you dispel that? Your prayers are effective. The greatest tactic of the enemy is to get you convinced that you don't make a difference and your prayers don't make a difference. But your prayers are mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. Your prayers, the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous person, it avails much. You've got the ability to change climate, circumstances, people's lives, all because you pray. Today, if I could just pull the slider back and show you the spiritual realm, you would see angels, you'd see demons, you'd see God seated high on the throne and you would see the devil scheming and deceiving and striving and stirring things up and planning this thought and trying to divide this person and get them to hate because we can turn on each other and destroy each other and we can win the battle and lose the war. But we would also see that when saints of God hit their knees and we cry out, God give us justice. God move miraculously. God shift things in our city. God win those that you went to the cross for. Use us God. Even those who we don't necessarily like God, we know that you love them, change my heart. I'll tell you what, atmospheres begin to shift and change. Jesus said it like this, and I'm gonna, this will be the last scripture that I use and I'm just gonna turn there because I didn't even write it down, but it's Luke 18. In Luke 18, Jesus said in verse number one, he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and to not lose heart. He said in a certain place there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, she's blowing my phone up, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?  A widow had no money, she had no family, she had no position, she had no power. But yet a judge ruled in her favor because of her persistence and her belief, her faith, that if I appeal continually, I will see justice happen.  You begin to pray like that. I'll tell you what it says, he will give justice speedily. I believe so many of the issues of justice in our culture of injustice are the result of God's people not praying. And the answer and the solution will be when God's people hit their knees in prayer as intercessors and we bombard the throne of heaven with the prayers of the saints. Let me close this morning, share with you this story, it's personal. When I was very young, I encountered the Lord in a very profound way and entered into a relationship with Jesus and my dad, my biological father did not like that. He had grown up in a Christian home, he had run away when he was 15 years old, got wrapped up in a lot of vices and made a decision in his heart that he was very antagonistic towards Christianity, towards the faith. So much so that when I was 17 years old and I was like raging on fire, almost on the verge of being obnoxious. And I showed up at his house with a big old Bible and he says, you're not bringing that book in my house. Bibles don't go in my house. So you can come in or you can leave, but the Bible doesn't come in. He would argue with my grandparents, bait them, argue them, mock them, ridicule them. He got caught up in all kinds of new age spiritism. He was very successful in the counseling world. He was teaching at seminars for new age and all kinds of stuff. Anything that wasn't Christianity, that's what he was wrapped up in. And as a young person, I began to pray for my dad. God saved my dad. My grandparents prayed for 30 plus years or longer for him to come home to the Lord. My great grandmother, who was a godly saint, prayed for my dad. And I can't tell you how many years that went on, but there were days where I did not feel like anything was moving. In fact, there were times when it got worse. And I'll never forget, it was 1996, it was a year Jane and I planted Radiant Church. It was about this time of the year. I got a phone call on a Sunday afternoon from my dad. And I was always kind of guarded with my dad. He knew who I was, he knew what I believed, but we just kind of didn't go there. And he said, well, what did you do today, son? I said, we had church. And he said, well, I went to church too. And I'm like, yeah, what kind of church is that? Like, did you worship a peanut butter sandwich and talk about your inner reincarnated cow or something? He always had some crazy spirit animal thing going on.  He says, well, I went to Mount Zion, Lorenko Verubius' church. And I said, really? I said, so, well, what did you think? And he said, well, so I've been running for so long, son. And he said, I went to church this morning and I got Christianed. Said, I walked down to the front. I've been running so long trying to hold God off, stiff arm God. And it was my pride and it was my arrogance. He said, but today I just surrendered and I invited Jesus to be the Lord of my life. You know, my dad went home to be with the Lord about five years ago. But before he died, he was an amazing grandfather. He went to Bible school, graduated Bible school, went to ministry counselor's school, was a counselor in his church. And one of my greatest, greatest joys in life is watching my dad all those years in the front row with his hands up, worshiping God, tears streaming down his face. He had been reconciled to the Father.  It's a testimony. And you know, I know this, I know that right now he's doing the very same thing in the throne room of heaven. What we think doesn't matter actually changes eternity. Your prayers matter. Your prayers touch the heart of God. Your prayers change things. God's looking, who will stand in the gap? God's looking for us to be a people that will stand in the gap. Would you stand up with me? This morning, before we go, I want to answer the question. Who will stand in the gap? Who will rebuild the wall?  Here's what I know that the Holy Spirit is gonna do this morning.  God's willing to move when we move. And right now, if you're here and you say, Lord, I don't necessarily know how, but I'm saying yes, I will pray for those who are on your heart. If that's the cry of your heart this morning, I just want you to raise your hand all over the room. You're saying, I'll say yes, I want to stand in the gap. In the midst of the battle for souls and lives of people, I'll stand in the gap, I'll pray. Okay, put your hand down. Now, here's what I want you to do. Don't look around, this is just you and the Lord. I want you to ask the Lord, Lord, this morning, would you show me a face or a name of someone that's on your heart? Show me who you want me to intercede for. It might be more than one. It might be a group of people. It might be a region, a city, an environment.  It might be somebody that you are close to. It might be somebody that you don't know, but just ask him, Lord, show me who this next week you want me to intercede for. Who's on your heart that you're pursuing, that you want me to partner with you and your heart to see brought into the kingdom of God?    Look at that. Guys, I think the wall's about to get built back up, and I think the gap's about ready to be filled. God's about to move in people's lives. With our hands up, Lord, we say, we're here to stand in the gap. We're here to be a people of prayer. We're here to rebuild the walls. God, would you move our hearts so that our heart sees people the way that you see them? That, Lord, we're able to pray in sync and in unity with your heart for those that your son shed his precious blood to redeem. Lord, we can't save anybody. Only you can do that. But we're called to pray. And 100% of the prayers that we don't pray don't get answered. We make a decision, we're gonna pray. We're gonna pray like it matters.  We're gonna pray like angels move.  And we're gonna pray that every lie of the enemy is dispelled, the blinders are pulled back, and the light of the glory and the beauty and the power of Jesus Christ penetrates the walls that have been built so that people can see you, know you, and have a relationship with you, Jesus. We're gonna be a people of prayer. We will stand in the gap in this battle.  In Jesus' name, amen and amen.


The Whistler. And now the Whistler's strange story. Shakedown. Marty Lindquist's lifeguard sat on the sand in front of the Swank Beach Club on Pelican Bay. It was a cold gray morning, and he huddled in his bathrobe counting the days until his next paycheck. His eyes swept over the deserted beach. He hated the slack season, the dull months, the time between. Board women who wanted swimming lessons, companionship. Women who found him attractive and had money to spend. As he rose to his feet and started for the locker rooms, a voice reached him. A voice from the veranda. Marty turned and saw the owner of the Pelican Bay in, motioning to him. Moments later, Marty walked into the office of his employer, small dapper Harry Evans. Sure, Mr. Evans. Sit down. Thanks.  Small boat warnings are down. Guess it'll clear tomorrow. It's January. For sure. Anybody on the beach yesterday? They'd know. Or? Well, it's been foggy, cold for swimming. It'll be that way for a long time yet. I've been thinking, Lindquist, I may have to let you go. Now, wait a minute, Mr. Evans. Business can't be that bad. In those pretty well evenings, this has nothing to do with business. Oh, what is it then? That girlfriend of yours? Was it her idea? Let's leave Miss Johnson out of it, shall we? Take my advice. I said that's enough. Okay. It's your problem. You're a great one to hand out advice, Lindquist. All you ever think about is women. I can get money out of this one, find an angle with that one. You never worked an honesty in your life. Don't worry about me. I got ideas. I know. And that's one reason why you're likely to lose your job here, unless you straighten out on a listen, Mr. Evans. That's all I had on my mind for now, Lindquist. You'll have to excuse me. I'm rather busy. Oh, yeah, sure. The thought of possibly becoming an unemployed lifeguard in January frightens you. The following morning you arrive at the club a bit earlier than usual. Hours before the other employees come to work. There's a lot to be done in the locker room tidying up. That might impress Mr. Evans. As you enter the deserted locker room, you notice the far door. The beach door swinging loosely on its hinges. And you move to shut it against the cold. And then you stop out near the water's edge. You see the solitary figure of a man. Skinny legs shivering beneath a heavy bathrobe. As he turns, glances nervously toward the clubhouse. You see it's Mr. Evans. And then near his feet you see something else. A bright yellow bathrobe tossed on the sand. There's only a moment to puzzle over. Then you hear it. The cry of a woman out in the search. Evans whirls and stares out over the water and does nothing. Then his shoulders tighten.  His eyes darting from shore to sea. A moment later, he disappears into the clubhouse.  Straight through the breakers and swim toward the cry for help. Okay, I'm coming. All right. All right, now take it easy. You're okay. Let go. Let go. You want to pull us both under? I said let go. That's better. I'll act. You'll be okay. You fight your way through the heavy surf back to the beach. And carry your shapely burden up on the sand. She's uh, effective, isn't she, Marty? And you make a quick guess at her financial standing. You wonder if perhaps your luck hasn't changed. As you carry her toward the locker room, you also wonder why Harry Evans deliberately left this girl to drown. You can put me down now. I'm going to take you inside. No. No, I'm all right. Really, I am. I'm giving the orders, lady. I feel so foolish. I'm actually a very good swimmer. The water's cold. Back east. I do it all the time. East, huh? You just get in? Yes. Please, I'm all right. Put me down. Locker room's right over there. I'll dig up some blankets. Well, if you insist. I insist. Maybe you'd better try to find my husband, too. Married, huh? Do you mind? He can wait. Strange. He was around here a moment ago. Perhaps you know him. He owns the Pelican Bay Inn. Harry Evans? Private life was when he was friendly with an attractive blonde from Beverly Hills. Now this girl from the east, the girl you've just rescued from drowning, says the key is Mrs. Harry Evans. And you wonder why he ran away when he heard her call for help. Was it cowardice, Marty, or was it something else? Minutes later, Evans suddenly reappeared, now fully dressed in a business suit. He seems upset, concerned over his wife's condition. A doctor must be consulted. Yes. And he insists on driving her into town. So you're left alone at the club. Yeah. What's that? Marty Lindquist. How are you, Evelyn? He's out, Miss Johnson. I know a lot. What do you want me to tell your boyfriend? I'll just tell him his favorite blonde called, huh? I'll do that. As you replace the receiver, a smile crosses your face. And you wonder about the phone call from Harry Evans' girlfriend. Wonder if it's just a coincidence that it came so close on the heels of that near tragedy on the beach a few minutes ago. An hour later, when Evans returns to the club, you let him do the talking. I want to thank you for what you did for my wife, Lindquist. It's all part of a day's work, boss. She okay now? Uh, yes, she's okay. I took her back to her apartment. Her apartment? I see. By the way, Evelyn, uh, Miss Johnson called. Oh. You're supposed to call her. Thank you. Uh, by the way, your wife told me that, ordinarily, she's a pretty good swimmer, Mr. Evans. Yes, yes, she is. Funny how those things happen, isn't it? Uh, you a good swimmer? Reasonably. Why do you ask? Oh, I just wondered. It, uh, it was a piece of luck having you around. Yes. Wasn't it? See here, Marty. I'd like to thank you in some substantial form. No, no, hurry. I'll be around. Won't I? Uh, yes. Look, I'm afraid I was a little hasty some of the things I said yesterday. I, I owe you an apology. I understand. No hard feelings. No hard feelings. Naturally, in addition to some reward, uh, well, uh, your job here, don't worry about it. Oh, I won't. I won't worry about it at all. How many more, Mr. Evans?  And the next step will be easy. You always play better in hearts. Evans was careful not to tell you where his wife was staying. But then, you know the name of his doctor and, uh, doctors have nurses. It doesn't take long to get the information you want, does it? And late that afternoon, you're on the house phone at the Beverly Plaza. Uh, this is Marty, Mrs. Evans. Marty? Uh, the guy who swims. Oh, yes. Yes. Well, just call to see how you felt, always.  I, um, I wish I could thank you in some way for what you did, Marty. How about buying me a drink? I'm downstairs in the bar now. Well, you'd a lot of women, Marty. Oh, my share, I guess. Do, um, do many of them buy you more than one drink? Professional secret. I didn't mean to sound insulting. Well, he's looking at you. And you. What do you see? Well, you're attractive. Uh-huh. And very sure of yourself. I find it pays. Good thing, don't you? Want some more? Only I wouldn't go too fast. Trying to tell me something? Just that I love my husband, that's all. You know, I had no idea he was married. None of us did. Well, it's natural, I suppose. I've been living in the East, and he wanted to come out here, build the Pelican Bayland.  Oh, no. No, it's just that we have so many properties, and... Yeah, that's what a blonde named Evelyn told me. Oh. Ah, don't give me that, you know. All right. It's ridiculous to pretend, I suppose. He ever mentioned divorce? No. No, of course not. But you have an idea he'd like to, uh, get rid of you? Get rid of you? What do you mean? Well, that's why you came out here, isn't it? To stop... Please, I'd rather not discuss it. Sorry. Guess I'm just too curious. But I like you. I wouldn't want to see you get hurt.  I mustn't forget that.  It, uh, was your idea? I...no, it was... What difference does that make? You should have had someone with you. My husband was with me, for one dip. Later, he got cold, came back in before it happened. Uh-huh. Marty, what is it you mean? What are you driving at? Nothing. Uh, whether you'll have another date with me, maybe. Please, there's something I should know. I'm a good dancer, that is. Marty. Maybe... Maybe you'd like to divorce him someday. I thought I told you I loved him. Sure. They all say that. It's part of the routine. You have known a lot of women, haven't you? Uh-huh. But I'm not so bad, Mrs. Evans. And... If you do want to leave him, I can help you get the right sort of deal. So that's it. You'll sell to the highest bidder. To the highest. Suppose... Suppose I did have a date with you. I'd like it. So would you. All right. I'll think about it. Maybe tomorrow night. Well, Marty, it's working out perfectly, isn't it? But Mr. Evans is the one you think should pay. Yes. Because you're sure he's not just a coward.  As you return to the club, you're excited, trembling. And it's not because of the chill evening wind from the Pacific. It's what you're doing, Marty. Planning a shakedown. The biggest shakedown of your life. You stopped near the inn gate. Notice a car parked in the darkened driveway. Then you hear voices. All right. Please, Evelyn, don't worry. It'll all work out. Now you run on home. Oh, I can't help being a little nervous, Harry. I just don't want to leave you. Sure, sure.  I'll fool you after 10. Well, I'll be over by then. Yes, it'll be over. I told you it's better this way. This is my job. She doesn't expect. No. I just asked her to come out after dinner for a talk. For my place at Malibu. I'm going to pick her up at nine. I'll be careful, won't you? I will. After this morning, I want to get it over with more than ever. All right, Harry. All right. You call me. Yes, yes. I'll phone you after it's over. A quarter of an hour later, you're back in your room at the boarding house. You don't bother to turn on the light as you stretch out on the bed. Stare at the ceiling and think. The clock on the nightstand at your elbow ticks on and on. As you try to make up your mind, it's only 7.30. You can warn her, can't you, Marty? Tell Mrs. Evans what you overheard. Tell her you're sure her husband is going to try to kill it. Or you can let her keep the appointment and cash in. You can be there when it happens a witness.  The hands of the clock on the nightstand move quickly. And you struggle to reach a decision. And then you hear footsteps down the hall. Mr. Lindquist! Mr. Lindquist! Yeah, what is, Mrs. Scanlon? Mr. Lindquist, how many times have I told you to stop having people phone you here? Oh, a million times. Well, you want it on the phone now. And I'd appreciate it if you'd hurry. I'm expecting a... Who's this? How should I know? She didn't give her name. Why didn't you say so? She could have stand around here yammering. Hello? Marty? Yeah, who is... Betty Evans. Oh, not at all. What's the matter, Mrs. Evans? I... Call this on. Ready to go out there? I said this afternoon I... I was just needling you, that's all. I don't give it a second thought. Sure, go on out with him. Maybe you'll be able to straighten things out between you. Well, I don't know. Now don't worry about it, Mrs. Evans. I'm sure everything will work out fine. Just fine. You've asked many things of women, haven't you? But this is the first time you've ever asked one for her life. It's all clear in your mind now, isn't it? There's nothing to do but wait. Wait until it's time for Harry Evans to pick up his wife at nine o'clock. And take her out to his lonely cabin at Malibu.  You return to your room, stretch out in the bed again. The hands of the clock move slowly now, don't they, Marty? And you try not to think of the things that could go wrong. The back of your neck grows damp with perspiration. Finally, you drag a heavy suitcase from under the bed. Open it. Take out the service revolver and pocket it. Moments later, you pass your landlady in the hall busily engaged in a telephone conversation. You hurry down the street to the little lunchroom in the corner. You've got to be certain that Mrs. Evans is going to keep her appointment with her husband. Hello, Claire.  Sure. Going to dine with us tonight, honey? No, no, I'll skip it. I haven't seen you much lately, Marty. Where you been? Oh, busy, you know. Sure, sure. Who is she this time? Haven't you heard? I'm through with women. Sure, sure.  That's fine. You can go home and curl up with a good book. Give me the change, huh? Oh, pleasure. Thanks. How you like? Oh, hello, Roscoe. How's business? Picking up, I'd say. Picking up. Hey, Claire. Yeah? Hey, Clark, right? Sure. Five after nine. Thanks. It's on your watch again, lover. Yeah, yeah. Good laugh over it, suckers. Oh, sweetheart. Not anymore. Little Marty's off the beach from now on. Ordinarily, it's a 20-minute ride out to Harry Evans' cottage at Malibu. But you make your cab driver get you there in 15 minutes. You've got to be at the cottage before Harry Evans and his wife arrive. And you are. Yes, Marty, you're in time for it all. See the two of them enter the house. Hear the angry, shouted words that you can't quite make out over the sound of the surf. And then, quickly, you move across the porch to the French window. You see Evans return to the living room. The gun's still in his hand.  Then, gone in hand, you slip inside. His back is toward you. He doesn't see you approach. As you move quietly across the rug, you glance quickly into the adjoining room and see Mrs. Evans sprawled out on the floor. That's right, Evans. What? No, no, no. I'm all right. That I'm thinking about. You can put the phone down, Evans. Marty. Linquist, what are you doing here? I want to talk business, Mr. Evans. Big business. Now put the phone down. Now the gun. What's the idea? The idea is you won't have to think of me as a small-time beach lizard anymore. I'm a big boat. I'm a big boat. I'm a big boat. I'm not going to think of me as a small-time beach lizard anymore.  What? Yeah. And I want a hundred grand to start with. That ought to take me off the beach. Huh, Mr. Evans? This is your big moment, isn't it? The payoff.   A quarter of an hour ago you heard it all, the quarrel was shot. And then you saw Evans come into the living room, the gun in his hand, heard him talking to his girlfriend Evelyn Johnson on the phone. And you saw Mrs. Evans sprawled out on the floor of the adjoining room.  You've got it all figured out. I didn't take much figuring once I caught on. Too bad I saved her from drowning, huh, Evans? You didn't save her from anything. No, I found that out just now. This time you succeeded. And I was here to witness the murder. Lucky for me, wasn't it, Evans? You're lower than I thought, Marty. Sure, but my price comes high. Now like I said, I'll take a hundred grand to start with, Evans. And I'll keep my mouth shut. You're not getting a nickel out of me. You don't think so?  Go ahead. I'm not kidding. Neither am I. There's the phone. Well, why don't you dial?  Maybe I put the price too high. Uh, let's say 50 Gs. No Gs at all, Marty. You see, you made one bad mistake this morning on the beach. You didn't know it, but my wife was faking out there. She was trying to get me into the water so she could pull me under. Evans, I want my dough. You don't think I'm sucker enough to fall for a story like that, do you? I don't care whether you fall for it or not. It's true. That's why I asked her out here tonight so we could settle things. I was tired of her trying to kill me. Save your breath, Evans.  I heard the shot. I saw you with a gun in your hand. No, Marty.  She fired that shot you heard at me. All right, buddy. Drop it. What? Drop the gun. That's better. Don't try anything, sonny. You might get hurt. Watch him, Mac. Okay. You're Harry Evans? Yes. Sergeant Merle, police department. Got a call from a woman. Evelyn Johnson said there was some trouble out there. Evelyn called you? Uh-huh. Well, it's a good thing she did, officer. My wife just tried to kill me. I grabbed the gun before she could fire again. I had to knock her out, but she'll be okay. She's in there. Seems to be coming around. The hand test will show she fired the gun. You'll be sure you make those firing tests, officer? I think he's lying. I don't think he is, but we'll make the firing tests all right. However, we don't need to make any test as far as you're concerned. Everybody knows what blackmail is. And just a couple of minutes ago, I heard your pitch myself. The Whistler, previously released by CVS, the Columbia Broadcasting System for our listeners in the United States, has been rebroadcast for our servicemen and women overseas.


Welcome to Athens Politics Nerd where we break down commission meetings to bring you the important local news.  I thought we were going to put a stop to that. Not just yet, but we have made some progress. Let me tell you about it. You can keep up with local news, Georgia politics, and national policy by subscribing. Athena Drive near the Certaintyed facility is closed due to a collapsed culvert pipe underneath the road. These pipes were installed all over Athens about 25 years ago, which was a bad decision because they only last 25 years on average. That means they're all about to start collapsing. The commission approved $690,000 for emergency repair at their meeting on March 3rd, but this is just the beginning. Manager Blaine Williams estimates it will cost about $22 million to repair our stormwater infrastructure over the next 10 years. That means there might be a stormwater fee increase coming soon. But not if Commissioner Obita Thornton has anything to say about it. I totally agree. This is very important and this urgent for the whole community, but I hope our staff is looking at other ways we can fund this. So people of the lowest economic spectrum are not overloaded. The new culverts will be made of concrete, which has a much longer lifespan. Moving on, have you heard that Georgia Power is raising our energy bills? Yep, about $6 a month this year, with more increases planned over the next two years. They're doing this to make us pay to clean up their coal ash pollution. Elections for Public Service Commissioner are important, you guys. Anyway, our county commissioners and sustainability officer Andrew Saunders have decided to step up to help us by starting a community energy fund. That passed at the March 3rd meeting as well. But what is a community energy fund? Well, right now it's a pot of money that doesn't exist yet. But the intention is to help people improve their homes by using incentives for energy efficiency. ACC might also buy solar panels to sell electricity direct to consumers at a reasonable rate. This will all be paid for by diverting some of the franchise fees that governments charge utilities for the use of public space. Future increases in franchise fee collections, if any, will from now on be diverted to the community energy fund for use in the community. Awesome. Now it's time to talk about drugs. Don't do drugs kids, don't do it. But if you do, I don't think you should go to jail. Jail may be a buzz kill, but it really won't help anything. And I thought our new progressive Mayor and Commission agreed with that. Don't they?  But they've had over a year to decriminalize cannabis and they haven't done it yet. So what gives? It's definitely possible in Georgia. There are communities who have already passed a parallel ordinance to more or less decriminalized cannabis. It gives prosecutors the option of a civil penalty, like a $75 parking ticket. Instead of a criminal penalty, like arrest and jail time. It's not full decriminalization because the state law is still in effect, but it gets us close. So why haven't we done it? ACC Solicitor General, C.R. Chisholm, feels that allowing the lesser penalty would be a violation of his oath of office to uphold state law. He's already said that he would ignore a parallel ordinance, even if the commission passes one, and would opt for the harsher state penalty instead. So that's lame. But some commissioners feel we should go ahead and pass a parallel ordinance now anyway. There's no reason why we shouldn't go ahead with a parallel ordinance. We might not have other elected officials that don't see eye to eye with us about enforcing a parallel ordinance around cannabis possession, but let's make it their problem that ours. This body has the power, and therefore the responsibility, to pass a parallel ordinance to further decriminalize marijuana possession under an ounce. I feel confident that most of this body, if not all, supports that. A parallel ordinance isn't happening anytime soon. Even so, I have some good news to report. The commission, in coordination with Solicitor Chisholm, has developed a new program called Pre-Arrest Diversion, or PAD. Pre-Arrest Diversion discussed PAD at a recent meeting of the Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement. Pre-Rest Diversion is pretty much in the title. This is a way of addressing behavior that led to law enforcement interaction, but without creating an arrest or a charge that shows up on a criminal history or conviction. Basically, instead of going to jail for cannabis possession, or for another low-level offense like shoplifting, you'd probably be able to opt into the PAD program as an alternative. And for cannabis, if it was a first-time offense, you'd get off just by paying a $75 fee and taking a three-hour online course. Drugs are bad, you shouldn't do drugs, if you do them, you're bad. If you couldn't afford the $75, you could even choose eight hours of community service instead. I caught up with Commissioner Tim Denson, who's on the Pre-Arrest Diversion Committee, to get his take on it. This is going to let us have a more flexible, and therefore had the potential at least, to have more humane and compassionate reactions, requirements for people, rather than doing something that's actually creating more harm than is good, which is like having them be sent to jail or pay tons of fines or be put on probation, and then, again, probation is not free, so you're actually paying for that probation. So I have high hopes for this. It's really kind of come down to how it's implemented. This program definitely has its critics. One issue is that it's entirely up to the police and the solicitor to decide whether you would even be accepted into the program. I do have some, you know, reservations regarding things like, you know, the officer discretion with whether or not someone is deemed as a threat, and therefore when that they choose to go through with the PAD or to arrest someone, I think that on racial grounds that could be weaponized against certain communities. Beyond outright discrimination along racial lines, most with a felony or prior conviction are out. Sorry. And once you've made it through the program once, it gets harder to be invited in a second time. For a third offense, you've got to get the explicit approval of both the solicitor and the police chief, or you're going to jail. Don't get me wrong, it's a good program. It's a very exciting program. I think it's groundbreaking in its use in Georgia in the way that we're crafting it through the needs of this community and is going to be broadly beneficial. But there are flaws, which makes it all the more frustrating that Mayor Gertz and Solicitor Chisholm are blocking further steps towards criminalization. But that being said, I think PAD will be effective in stopping some people from going to jail and from having an arrest on their record. It's a big step forward from where we are, even if it doesn't quite get us to where we need to go. We have to keep at it. We'll get there eventually. Hey, smash that like button for me if you like this video. And thanks to all my patrons who make these videos possible.


Thank you Stephen and I'm honored to have the opportunity to speak to you here at the world policy conference And I think it's it's a really timely topic Many of you might have on the way Over to Marrakesh picked up the latest issue of the Economist and their cover story Actually asked is social media undermining democracy and this is Really remarkable how our discourse our discussion about the internet has really changed in the past years I want to start with a quote from Hillary Clinton when she was still your secretary of state And she said the internet has become The public space of the 21st century the world's town square Classroom marketplace coffee house and nightclub. We all shape and are shaped by what happens there All two billion of us and counting she said that in May 2011 and really captured a very Optimistic mood about the internet at that time It was a place where people could or the place was seen as a place where people can globally connect Where they can share ideas and where they can actually shape the world for better And now fast forward to the end of 2016 and Hillary Clinton coming from an upset defeat in the US presidential election and she Calls, you know, the internet has become for her space where there's a fake news epidemic With real-world consequences and for her of course the real-world consequences mean that she's not president And she lost the the presidential Election but the fake news discussion is not just about the United States and the consequences are real and they can be seen Around the globe and so I think it's a it's a really good topic for world policy conference, you know, we had Brexit of course and in the Course of the Brexit campaign lots of fake news like this one were shared and spread we have the latest Stories in New York Times covered this this is from the Guardian Mentioning that in Myanmar fake images and also fake news are used to instigate Violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority Then also a topic we we talked about this morning at the conference and the independence vote in Catalonia and also in the context of The Catalonian discussion and there was lots of spread of fake news a lot of fake news For example about fake incidents of police brutality. I mean there was some some incidents with the police But also lots of made-up stories That were shared vitally on the internet, so No So we have heard the term a lot. I think it's it's important To take a moment and reflect what this term actually means fake news because we have found When when we look further into it that the term is widely used and on the left you see Fake news has become a political term It's it's been used by most most prominently probably by President Trump to discredit The mainstream media and calling that media fake news Often we make up news in terms as forms of satire I mean we we're not that concerned about that in the middle You see that fake news can just be result from poor journalism Journalists make mistakes media organizations make mistakes editors make mistakes That can result in fake news, but usually they get quickly corrected But what we really concerned is more on the on the right side what what is underlined in red which is intentionally Intentionally spread false information usually a story that's taken out of context That's intentionally misinterpreted to give it a different spin and to drive an agenda And that's really when you look at all these cases that I've cited if you look at US presidential campaign If you look at the Brexit campaign if you look at Catalonia, you will actually find that spreading fake news are not just Incidents on the internet. They're usually part of campaigns their strategy for political mobilization In all of these cases and I would argue here that we should understand really the problem of fake news as they are being used as a strategy for political mobilization and You can rightly ask and we should rightly ask ourselves what's actually new about this What's actually new about fake news and here's an example from medieval Europe spreading fake news. This is fake news about Jews killing Christian babies and Blood libel and this is an image that depicts that that was used to insert inside violence and programs against Jewish people So fake news Have been around throughout history So what's really new about them and this brings us of course to what we have been talking about here at the panel today The internet revolution the digital revolution the spread of the internet and the spread of social media Have given all of us here the ability to produce news and to Share them to distribute them to functions that used to be held by Radio television print that used to be the traditional gatekeepers of how news and information Is created and distributed distributed and these media organizations have lost this Central gatekeeping function function now everyone who is connected to the internet Who has the ability to use facebook who has a smartphone to take pictures can create stories and can share them On the internet and can also distribute news stories to friends and networks That's what what's really new and at the same time we see that the established media is In a crisis not only in a crisis of revenue as as steven earlier mentioned with declining revenue, but also That there's a lot of distrust in Established news media around the world and we can see that it's not the same everywhere So some countries there's still much more trust in news media in germany I will show you this another slide next. It's still quite high. There are other countries where it's much lower This is also a problem in the u.s. Where the the high penetration of social media So lots of use of social media combined with the distrust in the established Media system has really led to the fake news Problem and proliferation of fake news So let's take a look at germany also in in in germany And this is coming now from our own data. This is from a survey We did right after the germany election and What we seen here is that in germany There is distrust in the media But there's this particularly a group that has very high distrust in media in germany And those are the afd voters afd is the alternative for germany. It's this new party staunchly anti immigrant and that had an upset Surprise success in the germany election getting more than 12 of the national vote getting into parliament And you will see that they have very high numbers among afd voters Who distrust media and they are also the group? That is most likely to believe fake news and that is most active in sharing in sharing fake news And we would therefore also argue that in germany fake news were mostly used in the in the context of the Of the election campaign as a political strategy to mobilize afd voters And you will probably ask yourselves what and we are asking ourselves also about you know What what should we do about it? Do we need a regulation? What's the the responsibilities the ethical responsibility? Responsibilities of the social media companies our and with three things that are based from from our data that That we can explore more in the discussion and the red line or the red Column shows you The engagement with fake news and the green one this is a specific case I won't get into into germany the green one is the engagement of the debunking news So news that corrected the story and what we what you find consistently as lots of media entities now try to correct news Debunk fake news is that the effect is not as big as the initial fake news stories fake news Get much more attention and there's much more engagement with fake news on on on social media platforms That's the first thing The second the second thing is that a lot of fake news Result from poor what I would call poor journalism or poor press releases that are ambiguous And that are then are turned into fake news So here's another story that came up in the context of the german election campaign Where there was an incident where bottles were thrown at the german police and the initial Press release talked about a gathering of 1,000 young people and there were bottles weren't thrown at the police Then a media report made turned these 1,000 young people into 1,000 rioters And Then fake news stories appeared that we're talking about 1,000 young migrant rioters that were throwing bottles At the police and you can see That's what we see consistently is when there's ambiguous reporting if there's If there's a poor reporting on or poor press release That this is often taken advantage of to to put a new spin on it and and And use that spin for political purpose here again to put blame against migrants And finally what we see what really doesn't work that well and our data shows this too Is the fabrication of news if you completely make stuff up and the most Effective way to stop that is if organizations immediately put out a counter narrative on social media so for this was a fake news story that Apparently a german minister in a big german state had said the police should not talk about migrant Criminality that they should suppress this issue and When this news appeared immediately The the his his office put out a statement that that he'd never said that that this is not true that this is fake And you see that his actually debunking story was very widely shared and let that the the fake news stories was completely Ineffective so it's also really important that we very quickly react When fake news stories come up and I would like to end it here. Thank you for your attention