Recently, we've had a conversation with a group of young professionals in the Middle East.

And one of the things we were talking about, they were saying to us that in the business world,

it is impossible to tell when somebody is telling the truth or lying.

Lying has become so commonplace that you really don't know when the person is telling the truth.

And as I listened to this and I asked the question, well, how do you deal with this?

How do you live with this?

And one lady said, we pray a lot for discernment and wisdom.

Had Joshua and the people of Israel prayed for discernment and wisdom, they would not have been snookered by the Ghibionites.

Have they prayed for discernment and wisdom, they would have been alert as to the origin and where those people come from and

what their intention is.

Turn with me to Joshua chapter 9.

And just in case you're sitting back there and saying, well, you know, this is just in a distant

land, this is just in cultures that do not have the Christian heritage that we

have. That doesn't happen here. Let me read to you or tell you about the statistics that in the

United States of America, in a four-year period, church-going folks lost $450 million to scam artists who posed as church members.

They joined the church. They became part of the church.

They spoke the Christian language. They acted the part.

And yet, they scam millions of dollars from Christians and churchgoers. Back in 1986, I will never forget this young man who sat in my office

and wept bitterly as he was facing a jail sentence.

Here's how it happened.

He's a son of a well-known pastor in a major denomination.

He took advantage of his relationship and his father

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