Podcasts about because john

Friday, 20 June 2025   And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples... Matthew 11:2   “And John, having heard in the prison the works of the Christ, having sent two of his disciples” (CG).   In the previous verse, Jesus departed to teach and preach in their cities. It now says, “And John, having heard in the prison.”   The word desmótérion, prison, is introduced. It is derived from desmon, a bond, chain, or fetter. As such, it speaks of a place of bondage, such as a dungeon or prison. The reason for his imprisonment is not recorded until Matthew 14 –   “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus 2 and said to his servants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.' 3 For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. 4 Because John had said to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.' 5 And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.” Matthew 14:1-5   John is in prison, but it is apparent that he had freedoms while there. In Mark 6, during his time in prison, it says –   “Therefore Herodias held it against him and wanted to kill him, but she could not; 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.” Mark 6:19, 20   It is during this time in prison that John heard about “the works of the Christ.” Including the article before Christ changes the tone of the narrative –   John heard about the works of Christ. John heard about the works of the Christ.   What appears to be the intent is that while in prison, John has heard about the things the Christ (the Messiah) had been doing. But one of the things the Messiah was prophesied to do would have affected him personally –   “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Isaiah 61:1   Because of his imprisonment and because of the promises stated in Isaiah, John may have been wondering where the disconnect was. Therefore, it says, “having sent two of his disciples.”    This continues to tell us that John had freedoms while in prison. He was allowed to be visited by his disciples and give word to them to go on a mission. As for the words, some texts say dia, through, instead of duo, two. In other words, it would mean he sent a message by his disciples rather than he sent two disciples. Luke 7:19 says duo, two.   Life application: Concerning the difference between through and two above, a few commentaries give their thoughts –   “For ‘two of his disciples' read, on the best MS. authority, by means of his disciples.” Cambridge   “Possibly the slight difference between διά, the true reading here, and δύο, which is genuine in Luke, points to the common source (observe here a Greek source) having been written, but with the close similarity in sound this need not have been the case. Observe that the true reading lays slightly more emphasis on the fact of the inquiry coming from John himself.” Pulpit Commentary   “Two of his disciples (δύο) But the correct reading is διά, by. He sent by his disciples. So Rev.” Vincent's Word Studies   Cambridge says the text which says dia is “the best.” Pulpit says it is “the true reading.” Vincent's says it is “the correct reading.” Did you accept their thoughts? Did you ask yourself, “How do they know this?” Did you consider that “best” is a subjective word in the manner in which it is being used?   Luke clearly says two. We have ancient witnesses that do not agree, and because one of them is older, it is assumed to be the better, even though it was found later. Why is it necessary to say dia, through, and meaning “by,” when the initiator is already identified? The Pulpit Commentary says that by saying dia, it “lays more emphasis on the fact of the inquiry coming from John himself.” Does it?   And John, having heard in the prison the works of the Christ, having sent two of his disciples... And John, having heard in the prison the works of the Christ, having sent by his disciples...   Maybe the focus is on the two, not that they were merely his disciples.   As always , be careful not to merely accept some scholar's words without questioning how they came to their conclusions. Seemingly strong arguments will often not seem as strong when an alternate and opposing evaluation is suggested. You will only get out of your time in the word what you put into it. Take commentaries with a grain of salt, but don't hesitate to read and consider them, even when they come to different conclusions.   Lord God, thank You for challenging us with Your word. It is a treasure trove of delight. But You have allowed man to transmit it from its originals. Men are faulty, and so help us to identify where things may have been incorrectly copied or intentionally manipulated. Give us wisdom in Your precious word. Amen.  

The apostle John came as close to being a time traveler as any man is likely to be. When he was sitting near the coast on the isle of Patmos one day, a great voice behind him said: “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.” And what John saw was enough to make our hair stand on end.But we have to decide what it is we are reading when we pick up the Book of Revelation. There is a view that says John traveled in vision and saw the future. He saw people and events and tries to describe them for us as best he can. One source on this, for example postulates that John actually saw a helicopter assault in this vision, but having never seen a chopper, he described them as locusts. Mind you, he didn't say they were like locusts. He said they were locusts. The fundamental assumption here is that John was carried into the future and saw real events. And from that assumption comes another one. The events described in Revelation have, to all intents and purpose, already happened. Because John has seen them.“Now wait a minute”, I can hear someone say, “How can these things have already happened and be in the future at the same time?” We have walked smack into a paradox. Look at it this way. If they haven't happened, how could John have seen them as they happened. Before we blow a mental fuse, let's back away from this and consider another way of looking at the Book of revelation. John did not travel forward in time. He had a vision, and he wrote it down. That vision has come forward to us as the Book of Revelation.Someone once said that prophecy is history written in advance. I don't think so, and let me try to explain why. For history to be written in advance, it must already exist. That means you and I have no choice. The future is already written and all we can do is walk through it. Our choices are already written down and we can't change them. But I don't believe either the future or the past exist. The past no longer exists. The future does not yet exist. This has serious implications for the study of the Book of Revelation. So how should we look at this book?

Full Text of ReadingsFriday of the Third Week of Easter Lectionary: 277The Saint of the day is Saint John of AvilaSaint John of Avila's Story Born in the Castile region of Spain, John was sent at the age of 14 to the University of Salamanca to study law. He later moved to Alcala, where he studied philosophy and theology before his ordination as a diocesan priest. After John's parents died and left him as their sole heir to a considerable fortune, he distributed his money to the poor. In 1527, he traveled to Seville, hoping to become a missionary in Mexico. The archbishop of that city persuaded him to stay and spread the faith in Andalusia. During nine years of work there, he developed a reputation as an engaging preacher, a perceptive spiritual director, and a wise confessor. Because John was not afraid to denounce vice in high places, he was investigated by the Inquisition but was cleared in 1533. He later worked in Cordoba and then in Granada, where he organized the University of Baeza, the first of several colleges run by diocesan priests who dedicated themselves to teaching and giving spiritual direction to young people. He was friends with Saints Francis Borgia, Ignatius of Loyola, John of God, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcantara, and Teresa of Avila. John of Avila worked closely with members of the Society of Jesus and helped their growth within Spain and its colonies. John's mystical writings have been translated into several languages. He was beatified in 1894, canonized in 1970, and declared a doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012. St. John of Avila’s liturgical feast is celebrated on May 10. Reflection Saint John of Avila knew that the lives of Christians can contradict the Good News of Jesus Christ—for example thinking racism is OK—implicitly encouraging Christians to live their faith-halfheartedly, and causing obstacles to non-Christians who might accept Baptism. In 16th-century Spain, those who advocated reforming the Church were often suspected of heresy. Saint John of Avila held his ground and was eventually recognized as a very reliable teacher of the Christian faith. John of Avila is the Patron Saint of: Andalusia, Spain Click here for more on Saint John of Avila! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Send us a text  Matthew 14:3-4 says For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. 4 Because John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her." We need some modern day John the Baptist's who are willing to call sin what it is.  Many today are willing to pander to society and all their so called freedoms.  It is appalling what Christians today or people that call themselves Christians are willing to put up with, cater to or be exposed to in order to be accepted and liked.  The world is not looking for people like them, they see enough of that already, what they are looking for is what the Bible calls in 1 Peter 2:9 a holy people, a set apart people.  People who are different.  If we look like the world do you think non-Christians will want to be saved?  No. Let us live up to our calling to walk worthy of the Lord and that is definitely not a worldly walk.     Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?             John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.               “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32           Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.              hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.nethttps://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don't go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F            The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions

Palin, Chalmers, Livingstone… Robins(?!). Yes, gliding into the show today is one of Britain's greatest travellers. An adventurer unequalled in the 21st century. Because John has been on his once per 9 months short haul trip. Naples has experienced Robins, and he it. With such pizza consumption and the undoubted oscillation between ‘hungry' and ‘full', Elis struggles to believe that he can actually have been a laugh there.But filled with more pies than than all the ninja turtles combined, Robins has a pep in his step for what proves to be a Billy Belter of a show. The boys dig into the practicalities of 007 if he flew Ryanair and there's a classic double whammy of a Shame.Plus, there's something new bursting through the pipes. No it's not potable tap water or natural gas, but something far more important to John's existence: wins.Want to drop us a line? Well elisandjohn@bbc.co.uk and 07974 293 022 on WhatsApp are the media of choice.

The Gospel of John is sometimes referred to as the Book of Signs. Why? Because John helps all who read his gospel account understand Jesus, the actions of the crowds, the response of the disciples, and ourselves--and John does this by detailing the signs and wonders that Jesus performed. They're all found in the first 11 chapters of John. As we walk through each of these chapters, these signs tell us about Jesus and what it means for believers to truly walk in faith. Join Pastor Kevin Pobursky for the second message of our series, The Secret Sign.

“This is how we know we have come to know Him – IF we obey His Commands!” This is so important: if we know Jesus and the reality of being forgiven, then we need to demonstrate that by obedience to His Commands. Because John says in v4ff, “The man who says, ‘I know Jesus', but doesn't keep His Commandments, is a liar – this is a very strong statement – and the Truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His Word, in him the LOVE of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him. Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” It's not just the talk, you must walk the walk. V9ff, “He that says he is in the Light and hates his brother, is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother is in the Light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and doesn't know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him”…  V12, John says, “I'm writing to you little children because your sins have been forgiven in Jesus' Name.” Walk as He walked. Amen.

Did you know that Frank Sinatra's son was kidnapped mere days after the assassination of JFK? Because John and Paul sure didn't! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Series: Signs & GloryTitle: "How can I be born again?"Scripture: John 3:16-21John 1:11-13Numbers 21:4-9Bottom line: Every person can be born again (from above), enter the kingdom of God, and receive eternal life by looking to Jesus on the pole (cross) and believing that God loves them that much.INTRODUCTIONCONTEXTSERMON OUTLINECONCLUSIONNOTESOUTLINESQUESTIONS TO CONSIDER DISCUSSION QUESTIONSMAIN REFERENCES USEDMy opening prayer: Lord God, help us grow to be and do like Jesus, while abiding in him and leading others to do the same. INTRODUCTIONIt's really important to read scripture in multiple translations so let me give you a different translation to hear this verse in today:Ahoy, mateys! Let me spin ye a tale from the good book, as only Cap'n Jack Sparrow could tell it. Ahem..."Fer God so loved the scallywags of the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever swigs a bottle o' rum with him shall not be keelhauled, but have a bounce life that never runs aground, savvy?"CONTEXT"Whereas the emphasis in 3:1-8 was on the necessity of spiritual rebirth, the focus in 3:12-18 is on believing; thus, the themes of divine sovereignty and human responsibility are balanced. (Ridderbos 1997)" via Köstenberger, emphasis mineNote: In my opinion, this quote would be more accurate if he said either "spiritual birth" or "rebirth" but "spiritual rebirth" is not accurate."Because John 3:16 is sandwiched between vv. 14-15 and v. 17, the fact that God gave his one and only Son is tied both to the Son's incarnation(v. 17) and to his death (vv. 14-15). That is the immediate result of the love of God for the world: the mission of the Son. His ultimate purpose is the salvation of those in the world who believe in him...Whoever believes in him experiences new birth (3:3, 5), has eternal life (3:15, 16), is saved (3:17); the alternative is to perish (cf. also 10:28), to lose one's life (12:25), to be doomed to destruction (17:12, cognate with 'to perish'). There is no third option." -CarsonSERMON Every person can be born again, enter into the kingdom of God, and receive eternal life by looking to the cross of Christ and believing that God loves them that much.Why? For God so loved the world that he...GAVE "Gave his one and only son." God gave (sent in v. 17) his son in the flesh (at his birth) to show and tell us the way to true life. Love sent his son down to shine brightly as "The light of the world" so that our evil deeds could be revealed and turned away from.To SAVE "...to save the world through (Jesus)." God gave (sent in v. 17) his son up to be crucified for love. "But God demonstrates his love in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8To save us from eternal condemnation unto new life in his kingdom.How? God births us from above, bringing us to eternal life in his kingdom when weBELIEVE by looking to the cross of Jesus, that God loved us that much, so that we can LIVE forever with him. We receive abundant, eternal life by trusting his words on being born again. CONCLUSIONA Native American tribal chief was well-known throughout his region for being upright and courageous. To establish justice, he set up a punishment system for crimes.Even after the chief had begun to enforce his stringent policies, thievery was a serious problem. Enraged by the blatant law breaking, he increased the punishment for theft to a severe beating. Not long after he issued this decree, a thief was caught. To the chief's horror, it was his own mother! He was in a state of turmoil: Would he allow his own mother to be beaten and show himself to be unloving, or would he cancel her punishment and show himself to be unjust?His tribe began to wager, some thinking he would be cruel, others that he would be lenient. Finally the time arrived for the punishment to be given. To the shock of everyone, the chief had his mother tied to the post. Surely the woman would die! But just before the first crack of the whip by the ready warrior, the chief called for a halt. He stepped up, wrapped his arms around his mother's small frame, and took the beating himself.This story shows how God is both just and loving.Bottom line: Every person can be born again (from above), enter the kingdom of God, and receive eternal life by looking to the pole (cross) and believing that God loves them that much.The message of the Bible is a simple message about God's love and mercy, about man's sin and need, and about the rescue that's found in Jesus Christ. In simple words Sally Lloyd-Jones captures the love of God demonstrated in the death of his Son:"So you're a king, are you?" the Roman soldiers jeered. "Then you'll need a crown and a robe."They gave Jesus a crown made out of thorns. And put a purple robe on Him. And pretended to bow down to Him."Your Majesty!" they said.Then they whipped Him. And spat on Him. They didn't understand that this was the Prince of Life, the King of heaven and earth, who had come to rescue them.The soldiers made him a sign-"Our King" and nailed itto a wooden cross.They walked up a hill outside the city. Jesus carried the cross on His back. Jesus had never done anything wrong. But they were going to kill Him the way criminals were killed.They nailed Jesus to the cross."Father, forgive them," Jesus gasped. "They don'tunderstand what they're doing.""You say you've come to rescue us!" people shouted. "Butyou can't even rescue yourself!"But they were wrong. Jesus could have rescued Himself. A legion of angels would have flown to His side-if He'd called."If you were really the Son of God, you could just climbdown off that cross!" they saidAnd of course they were right. Jesus could have just climbed down. Actually, He could have just said a word and made it all stop. Like when He healed that little girl. And stilled the storm. And fed five thousand people.But Jesus stayed.You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there. It was love. (The Jesus Storybook Bible by Saliy Lloyd-Jones, 302-6)What about you?Peter puts it all in perspective in his first sermon:““Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”” ‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭36‬-‭39‬ ‭NIV‬‬InvitationHow do we respond? Answer 2 questions:Take out a card or piece of paper right now. Write down the answer to these questions: What is God saying to me right now?What am I going to do about it? Write this down on a sheet of paper. What I hear you saying, Lord, is ___________________.[my name] is going to believe/do __________________________________________________ as a result.Finally, share this with your Home or Mission group this week when you gather as a testimony about what God is doing in your life. You don't have to get too specific to give him praise.Lord's Supper, 1 Cor 11:23-26 is good passage.Also, say something like, "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again." (past, present, and future)PrayNOTESIn a gallery where artistic masterpieces are on display, it is not the masterpieces but the visitors that are on trial. The works which they view are not there to abide their question, but they reveal their own taste (or lack of it) by their reactions to what they see.The pop-star who was reported some years ago to have dismissed the Mona Lisa as 'a load of rubbish' (except that he used a less polite word than 'rubbish') did not tell us anything about the Mona Lisa; he told us much about himself. What is true in the aesthetic realm is equally true in the spiritual realm. The man who depreciates Christ, or thinks him unworthy of his allegiance, passes judgment on himself, not on Christ.FF Bruce, p. 91The motions to teach/remember John 3:16 "Have you heard about the man who sent a letter to twenty-five men in his town? It said: "All has been exposed. Flee at once." In response, all twenty-five men left town. What would you do if you got a letter like that? Even as Christians, we still feel that tug at our heart that causes us to look for a place to hide in the darkness rather than seeking the light of Christ." RC Sproul OUTLINESWillmington's OUTLINE Bible (JOHN 3):Jesus meets with Nicodemus and tells him in order to be saved, all people must be born again. John the Baptist tells his disciples that Jesus is the Messiah.1. JESUS EXPLAINS THE PLAN OF SALVATION (3:1-21): A man named Nicodemus visits Jesus by night.LAST WEEKA. The credentials of Nicodemus (3:1): He is both a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin and a Pharisee.B. The confession of Nicodemus (3:2): He acknowledges that Jesus is from God because of his miracles.C. The command to Nicodemus (3:3): Jesus says he needs the new birth.D. The confusion of Nicodemus (3:4): He confuses spiritual birth with physical birth.E. The chastening of Nicodemus (3:9-13): Jesus chides him for not knowing these things even though he is a respected Jewish teacher.F. The clarification for Nicodemus (3:5-8, 14-15): Jesus employs three illustrations to explain the new birth to Nicodemus. (Cf. Ezekiel 36:25-28)THIS WEEKG. The conclusion for Nicodemus (3:16-21): Jesus now summarizes both the subjects of salvation and condemnation!1. The persons (3:16)a. The Father gave his Son (3:16a).b. The Son will give his life (3:16b).QUESTIONS TO CONSIDERWhat do I want them to know? Why do I want them to know it?What do I want them to do?Why do I want them to do it?How do they do this?DISCUSSION QUESTIONSDiscovery Bible Study process: https://www.dbsguide.org/Read the passage together.Retell the story in your own words.Discovery the storyWhat does this story tell me about God?What does this story tell me about people?If this is really true, what should I do?What is God saying to you right now? (Write this down)What are you going to do about it? (Write this down)Who am I going to tell about this?Find our sermons, podcasts, discussion questions and notes at https://www.gracetoday.net/podcastAlternate Discussion Questions (by Jeff Vanderstelt): Based on this passage:Who is God?What has he done/is he doing/is he going to do?Who am I? (In light of 1 & 2)What do I do? (In light of who I am)How do I do it?Final Questions (Write this down)What is God saying to you right now? What are you going to do about it?MAIN REFERENCES USED“John,” by R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary, Edited by Kent HughesExalting Jesus in John, by Matt Carter & Josh WredbergThe Gospels & Epistles of John, FF BruceJohn, RC SproulJohn, KöstenbergerThe Gospel According to John, DA CarsonThe Light Has Come, Leslie NewbiginThe Visual Word, Patrick Schreiner“Look at the Book” by John Piper (LATB)“The Bible Knowledge Commentary” by Walvoord, Zuck (BKC)“The Bible Exposition Commentary” by Warren Wiersbe (BEC)Outline Bible, D Willmington (OB)NIV Study Bible (NIVSB) https://www.biblica.com/resources/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/Chronological Life Application Study Bible (NLT)ESV Study Bible (ESVSB) https://www.esv.orgThe Bible Project https://bibleproject.comNicky Gumbel bible reading plan app or via YouVersionClaude.aiChatGPT Google Gemini

Sermon: 曠野的聲音 The Voice in the Wilderness Series: 神完美的僕人 God's Perfect Servant Speaker: 張國強牧師 Rev. Jeremiah Cheung Scripture: 馬可福音 Mark 1:2-8 Translated to English by Sis. Sarah Lim 施洗約翰宣講洗禮和悔改的信息，為救主的到來預備道路。因爲他在猶太大城市面臨反對，不得不在曠野執行他事奉的使命。本週，張國強牧師強調雖然當時面對挑戰和限制，但福音仍然繼續傳出去。 John the Baptist preached a message of baptism and repentance, preparing the way for the coming of the Savior. Because John faced opposition in major Jewish cities, he carried out his ministry in the wilderness. This week, Rev. Jeremiah Cheung highlights how—despite the challenges and limitations at the time—the gospel still continued to reach the lost. Sermon Notes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UkZMyZKbwm5m4oRRunvc4itD7hYLyhqf/view?usp=drive_link On our website: https://cbcp.org/blog/2025/01/12/the-voice-in-the-wilderness/ Join a Life Group: https://cbcp.org/lifegroups Find an event: https://cbcp.org/events Learn how to give: https://cbcp.org/giving Website: https://cbcp.org Facebook: https://facebook.com/cbcponline YouTube: https://youtube.com/cbcponline Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cbcponline Instagram: https://instagram.com/cbcponline

HOUR ONE: In 1882 the Ma'amtrasna murders, the brutal killing of several members of the Joyce family in rural Galway, caused outrage in Irish society and remains one of the most notorious homicides in Irish history. However a few years later Cork was rocked by an equally heinous case which has largely been forgotten. We'll look at the brutal murders of four family members that took place in Castletownroche, Ireland. (The Castletownroche Murders) *** An Arizona family encounters a creature from the dark side of a Navajo legend. (The Arizona Skinwalker) *** John Blair liked to keep things “in the family”. But in his case, it wasn't just a saying. It was literal. Because John was infamous for being bigamous. (Bigamous Blair) *** Dozens of Korean War GI's claimed an unidentified flying object made them all sick. Theories range from high-tech Soviet death rays to extraterrestrials studying how we engage in battle to combat-stress-induced hallucinations. What actually happened? (The Korean War UFO)==========HOUR TWO: In 1761, a young Frenchman died violently. This tragedy would lead to what is still one of that country's most famous cases of judicial injustice. Assuming, of course, that it truly was an injustice at all. (The Mysterious Death of Marc Antoine Calas) *** Most know them as “The Hidden Folk.” The elusive and magical residents of Iceland, who live inside rocks and sometimes play games with unsuspecting passers-by. Are they real? That's a complicated question, if you ask Icelanders. (The Elves of Iceland) *** As two boys were walking back to the house on their farm, a small stone rolled past them. Then a second one. They immediately thought some other boys were hiding in the scrub and throwing stones for a joke.  They couldn't have been more wrong. (Stone Throwing Spirits) *** Belle Gunness lured numerous suitors to her Indiana farm. Not to entertain them or to be courted by them. She simply wanted to kill them in cold blood and dump their bodies in her hog pen. (Belle Gunness – The Black Widow of the Midwest) *** "They're going to steal your organs!" screamed Sabina Eriksson, before running toward oncoming traffic on the M6 highway, having already been hit head-on by a Volkswagen. Her twin sister, Ursula, legs crushed by the truck that had just run her over, was spitting and screaming at paramedics on the side of the road. Now, many years after these events, we're still no closer to understanding the chaos that occurred over two days in 2008 involving psychotic twin sisters on a UK highway. (The Disturbing Case of the Eriksson Twins)==========SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: Were people ever really tortured in Iron Maidens? (The Iron Maiden)==========SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT'S SHOW:“The Disturbing Case of the Eriksson Twins” by Harrison Tenpas for Graveyard Shift: https://tinyurl.com/r6cbnxf“The Mysterious Death of Marc Antoine Calas” from Strange Company: https://tinyurl.com/rrs89rx“The Elves of Iceland” by Rob Schwarz for Stranger Dimensions: https://tinyurl.com/u4bcw6v“Stone Throwing Spirits” from The Fortean: https://tinyurl.com/qnuf7sd“Belle Gunness – The Black Widow of the Midwest” by Steven Casale for The Line Up: https://tinyurl.com/tqyceby“The Iron Maiden” by Karl Smallwood for Today I Found Out: https://tinyurl.com/t2y6vj6“The Korean War UFO” by Natasha Frost for History.com: https://tinyurl.com/y765nsgm“The Castletownroche Murders” by Fin Dwyer for the Irish Examiner: https://tinyurl.com/y9fhagfb“The Arizona Skinwalker” by Stephen Wagner for Live About: https://tinyurl.com/yxkdh9vv“Bigamous Blair” from London Overlooked: https://tinyurl.com/y9qpo54x==========(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)=========="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46==========WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2024==========To become a Weird Darkness Radio Show affiliate, contact Radio America at affiliates@radioamerica.com, or call 800-807-4703 (press 2 or dial ext 250).

John Burley With 35+ years of investing experience and thousands of (personally) completed real estate deals, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, John Burley has the perfect mix of street-savvy knowledge and sound investing principles. John is a Pioneer in the Real Estate Investment Business, originally trained in the World of Wall St., in 1989 he left and founded his Private Equity Company, where he serves today as the Founder & CEO.  It is a leader in the industry, with holdings from multiple countries and a dozen different states.  His was among the first ever companies to bring Single Family Home (SFH) Portfolio Real Estate to the Private Equity Community. John is an International #1 Best Seller with over One Million Copies Sold.  His books include:  Money Secrets of the Rich and Powerful Changes.  He has also produced over 100 books and audio programs during his career. Because John is a Professional Investor, he makes his living actually DOING deals and not just teaching theory from the stage.  The bottom line is: John walks his talk. For this reason, John is only available to speak at a few events per year, his last event for 2019 is November 1-3. John greatly looks forward to sharing with you what you need to take your Real Estate Investing Business to the next level.   Even if the Trump administration does everything right, some problems will take a while to fix. Debt is a major challenge. Record levels of debt requires record selling of bonds. This pushes bond interest rates higher.  Until the government starts paying down debt, bond interest rates will remain elevated.   At the same time, the Federal Reserve is lowering borrowing costs by reducing interest rates.    This creates an opportunity.  Your Personal Bank allows you to earn dividends (likely increasing) while accessing funds to pay off debt, purchase items, or invest in assets. If dividends are higher than the borrowing costs, you keep the difference. This creates positive cash flow (positive arbitrage) on your money.   We are likely headed to a historical positive arbitrage scenario. Historically, positive arbitrage has been available 24 of the past 28 years. The other 4 years the dividends and borrowing costs were similar. The average annual positive arbitrage was 2-3%. This is interest you earn on money you spent or allocated elsewhere!

With 35+ years of investing experience and thousands of (personally) completed real estate deals, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, John Burley has the perfect mix of street-savvy knowledge and sound investing principles. John is a Pioneer in the Real Estate Investment Business, originally trained in the World of Wall St., in 1989 he left and founded his Private Equity Company, where he serves today as the Founder & CEO.  It is a leader in the industry, with holdings from multiple countries and a dozen different states.  His was among the first ever companies to bring Single Family Home (SFH) Portfolio Real Estate to the Private Equity Community. John is an International #1 Best Seller with over One Million Copies Sold.  His books include:  Money Secrets of the Rich and Powerful Changes.  He has also produced over 100 books and audio programs during his career. Because John is a Professional Investor, he makes his living actually DOING deals and not just teaching theory from the stage.  The bottom line is: John walks his talk. For this reason, John is only available to speak at a few events per year, his last event for 2019 is November 1-3. John greatly looks forward to sharing with you what you need to take your Real Estate Investing Business to the next level. Go to johnburley.com for more information.

“ICELAND'S HIDDEN FOLK” #WeirdDarknessRadio WEEKEND OF SEPTEMBER 28-29, 2024==========HOUR ONE: In 1761, a young Frenchman died violently. This tragedy would lead to what is still one of that country's most famous cases of judicial injustice. Assuming, of course, that it truly was an injustice at all. (The Mysterious Death of Marc Antoine Calas) *** Most know them as “The Hidden Folk.” The elusive and magical residents of Iceland, who live inside rocks and sometimes play games with unsuspecting passers-by. Are they real? That's a complicated question, if you ask Icelanders. (The Elves of Iceland) *** As two boys were walking back to the house on their farm, a small stone rolled past them. Then a second one. They immediately thought some other boys were hiding in the scrub and throwing stones for a joke.  They couldn't have been more wrong. (Stone Throwing Spirits) *** Belle Gunness lured numerous suitors to her Indiana farm. Not to entertain them or to be courted by them. She simply wanted to kill them in cold blood and dump their bodies in her hog pen. (Belle Gunness – The Black Widow of the Midwest) *** "They're going to steal your organs!" screamed Sabina Eriksson, before running toward oncoming traffic on the M6 highway, having already been hit head-on by a Volkswagen. Her twin sister, Ursula, legs crushed by the truck that had just run her over, was spitting and screaming at paramedics on the side of the road. Now, many years after these events, we're still no closer to understanding the chaos that occurred over two days in 2008 involving psychotic twin sisters on a UK highway. (The Disturbing Case of the Eriksson Twins)==========HOUR TWO: In 1882 the Ma'amtrasna murders, the brutal killing of several members of the Joyce family in rural Galway, caused outrage in Irish society and remains one of the most notorious homicides in Irish history. However a few years later Cork was rocked by an equally heinous case which has largely been forgotten. We'll look at the brutal murders of four family members that took place in Castletownroche, Ireland. (The Castletownroche Murders) *** An Arizona family encounters a creature from the dark side of a Navajo legend. (The Arizona Skinwalker) *** John Blair liked to keep things “in the family”. But in his case, it wasn't just a saying. It was literal. Because John was infamous for being bigamous. (Bigamous Blair) *** Dozens of Korean War GI's claimed an unidentified flying object made them all sick. Theories range from high-tech Soviet death rays to extraterrestrials studying how we engage in battle to combat-stress-induced hallucinations. What actually happened? (The Korean War UFO)==========SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: Were people ever really tortured in Iron Maidens? (The Iron Maiden)==========SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT'S SHOW:“The Disturbing Case of the Eriksson Twins” by Harrison Tenpas for Graveyard Shift: https://tinyurl.com/r6cbnxf“The Mysterious Death of Marc Antoine Calas” from Strange Company: https://tinyurl.com/rrs89rx“The Elves of Iceland” by Rob Schwarz for Stranger Dimensions: https://tinyurl.com/u4bcw6v“Stone Throwing Spirits” from The Fortean: https://tinyurl.com/qnuf7sd“Belle Gunness – The Black Widow of the Midwest” by Steven Casale for The Line Up: https://tinyurl.com/tqyceby“The Iron Maiden” by Karl Smallwood for Today I Found Out: https://tinyurl.com/t2y6vj6“The Korean War UFO” by Natasha Frost for History.com: https://tinyurl.com/y765nsgm“The Castletownroche Murders” by Fin Dwyer for the Irish Examiner: https://tinyurl.com/y9fhagfb“The Arizona Skinwalker” by Stephen Wagner for Live About: https://tinyurl.com/yxkdh9vv“Bigamous Blair” from London Overlooked: https://tinyurl.com/y9qpo54x==========(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)=========="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46==========WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2024==========To become a Weird Darkness Radio Show affiliate, contact Radio America at affiliates@radioamerica.com, or call 800-807-4703 (press 2 or dial ext 250).https://weirddarkness.com/WDR20240929

John Burley With 35+ years of investing experience and thousands of (personally) completed real estate deals, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, John Burley has the perfect mix of street-savvy knowledge and sound investing principles. John is a Pioneer in the Real Estate Investment Business, originally trained in the World of Wall St., in 1989 he left and founded his Private Equity Company, where he serves today as the Founder & CEO.  It is a leader in the industry, with holdings in multiple countries and a dozen different states.  His was among the first ever companies to bring Single Family Home (SFH) Portfolio Real Estate to the Private Equity Community. John is an International #1 Best Seller with over One Million Copies Sold.  His books include:  Money Secrets of the Rich and Powerful Changes.  He has also produced over 100 books and audio programs during his career. Because John is a Professional Investor, he makes his living actually DOING deals and not just teaching theory from the stage.  The bottom line is: John walks his talk. For this reason, John is only available to speak at a few events per year, his last event for 2019 is November 1-3. John greatly looks forward to sharing with you what you need to take your Real Estate Investing Business to the next level.

 Audio recordingSermon manuscript:Be faithful unto death and you will receive the crown of everlasting life. At the end of last week's Gospel reading Jesus sent out the 12 apostles. They went out and did what Jesus told them to do. They proclaimed that people should repent. They cast out demons and anointed people who were sick with oil and healed them. The apostles were making a name for Jesus by doing the works Jesus had given them to do in his name. Our Gospel reading today follows immediately after last week's reading, and as you can recall, today's reading was about the beheading of John the Baptist. Our reading today is linked in an interesting way with last week's reading, even though they seem to be completely different topics. At the very beginning of our reading today it says, “King Herod heard of it.” The “it” that Herod heard of was the work of the apostles in Jesus's name. When Herod heard of this, he immediately thought of what he had done to John the Baptist. His conscience was bothered, and understandably so. Mark then goes on to tell the story of what Herod and his illegitimate wife, Herodias, had done. Theirs was a story of unbelief and unrepentance. They did not submit to the teaching that John the Baptist taught them. They resisted, each in their own ways. Herod might not have been quite so upset as Herodias, but he still put him in prison and was responsible for beheading him. Herodias was much more straightforward. She hated him. She hated him because John had said that what they were doing was wrong. Herod and Herodias were not originally married to each other. Both of them were originally married to other spouses. Herodias was originally married to Herod's brother Philip. But they wanted to be together, so they divorced their spouses and married each other. John the Baptist told Herod that this was adultery. The 6th commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery.” Marriage is a lifelong promise of love and faithfulness between husband and wife. God is the one who joins the two to become one flesh, and God is the one who ends marriages by bringing about the death of either husband or wife. Then the surviving spouse is free to marry another. When a person divorces their spouse without sufficient justification that is taking the place of God. God is supposed to decide when marriages end, not us. I'd like to pause for a moment to take stock of our own understanding of these things in our time. God's commands concerning divorce and remarriage are perhaps not well known, but they are certainly not well heeded among us. We have a problem also with fornication, which is having sex with someone to whom you are not married. Sexual experimentation with multiple partners is the norm. Living together with someone to whom you are not married is the norm. Whether these things are normal or not is beside the point. God is clear. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not fornicate. You shall not have this special sexual relationship without promising lifelong faithfulness. God's “no” to these things are so that he may say “yes” to a relationship that is deeper, healthier, and life-giving. Whether you or I like or dislike these commands, doesn't change the fact that they are God's commands. The appropriate response to God's commands that we have not kept is to fear God and repent. It is obvious that neither Herod nor Herodias feared God and repented. It is quite likely, in fact, that neither of them thought much about God at all. They justified themselves in their own sight, so that they could do what they wanted to do. When John the Baptist contradicted their justification of themselves, they probably didn't think that God had anything against them. They probably thought that John was against them with some outdated, misplaced zeal for sexual purity laws. Thus they directed their hatred against John, when it was in fact God that they had a problem with. John was just the messenger. John was a faithful messenger, but Herod and Herodias punished him—first by imprisoning him, then by beheading him. Such is the experience Christians will have who want to be faithful messengers of God. Jesus doesn't keep this a secret. He says, “If they have hated me, they will also hate you.” If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, then you will take up his cross and follow him. The hatred of rebellious sinners that is really against God will be poured out on those who remain faithful to his Word. The anger of rebellious sinners is understandable, if you will only consider how you yourself are. I don't know of anyone, including myself, who likes to hear criticism of themselves. My first reaction is to strike out against the one who tells me I'm wrong. Although this is understandable as an immediate reaction, may God grant us grace so that we come to our senses. We should realize that we are not just dealing with flesh and blood. God is behind the faithful messenger. We should not be like Herod and Herodias, who did not come to their senses. They continued on in unbelief and unrepentance. If we are looking for an example to follow, we should be like John the Baptist. He is an example of faithfulness. John loved God and Jesus. Because John loved God, he made it his ambition to please God. John was not ashamed of God's commands or God's promises. John believed that the surest way to happiness and eternal life was by following what God teaches in the Bible. John was very brave. He condemned sin wherever it might be found regardless of the power or authority of the ones who were sinning. He called the highest leaders in the church at that time a “brood of vipers,” because they were a brood of vipers. He called Herod and Herodias adulterers because they were adulterers. This last diagnosis, even though it was true, resulted in his death. John could have easily avoided death and a whole bunch of trouble if he would only have not cared about God's commands or God's promises or God's kingdom. All that John would have needed to do was to say, “Never mind. No big deal. Let's all just life and let live.” Immediately he would have been released from prison. If only John would have melted into the general population, who are quite baffled and cowardly when it comes to spiritual things, he wouldn't have been opposed. John could have had a much more comfortable life. But if John would have been like that, then he would not have been the bright and shining light that he was, leading people out of the devil's kingdom into God's kingdom. He would have left people just the way they were, lost in sin and unbelief. God's Word would remain unused. John wouldn't have accomplished anything that he did accomplish. John's faithfulness to God's Word helped an untold number of people to escape hell by repenting of their sins and believing in Jesus. John baptized an untold number of people for the forgiveness of their sins. He pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John was a good and helpful man. You can be like John too. You are fully equipped with what John had. You have God's commands. You have God's promises. Those commands and promises bring about repentance and faith in those whom God has chosen. You can be a bright and shining light that helps people escape from the devil's worthless lies and leads people to God's truth in Jesus that saves all who believe in him. But this will not necessarily be easy or painless. You will be tempted to please people rather than trying to please God. You must be brave in the face of opposition. There are so many ways that people might want to punish you for being different from the general population, for being proud of God's commands and promises, which are the path to eternal life. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that you could share a similar fate as John the Baptist. You could be thrown in prison. You could have your head chopped off. That wouldn't be the worst thing. If that is the way that God would have you meet your Lord and Savior, then let that day come speedily. You will have lost nothing and gained everything by being faithful to Jesus. Martin Luther says in his famous hymn, “A Might Fortress is Our God.” God is a mighty fortress fully sufficient to save us in uncertain times. With the troubles we heard about last night in our nation, God's commands and promises are still our faithful guide which cannot and will not let us down. A mighty fortress is our God, and he remains that way no matter what happens. Martin Luther says as much at the close of that hymn: And take they our life, Goods, fame, child and wife, Though these all be gone, Our victory has been won; The Kingdom ours remaineth. Be faithful unto death, and you will receive the crown of everlasting life.

Full Text of ReadingsThursday of the Sixth Week of Easter - Ascension Lectionary: 58, 294The Saint of the day is Saint John of AvilaSaint John of Avila's Story Born in the Castile region of Spain, John was sent at the age of 14 to the University of Salamanca to study law. He later moved to Alcala, where he studied philosophy and theology before his ordination as a diocesan priest. After John's parents died and left him as their sole heir to a considerable fortune, he distributed his money to the poor. In 1527, he traveled to Seville, hoping to become a missionary in Mexico. The archbishop of that city persuaded him to stay and spread the faith in Andalusia. During nine years of work there, he developed a reputation as an engaging preacher, a perceptive spiritual director, and a wise confessor. Because John was not afraid to denounce vice in high places, he was investigated by the Inquisition but was cleared in 1533. He later worked in Cordoba and then in Granada, where he organized the University of Baeza, the first of several colleges run by diocesan priests who dedicated themselves to teaching and giving spiritual direction to young people. He was friends with Saints Francis Borgia, Ignatius of Loyola, John of God, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcantara, and Teresa of Avila. John of Avila worked closely with members of the Society of Jesus and helped their growth within Spain and its colonies. John's mystical writings have been translated into several languages. He was beatified in 1894, canonized in 1970, and declared a doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012. St. John of Avila’s liturgical feast is celebrated on May 10. Reflection Saint John of Avila knew that the lives of Christians can contradict the Good News of Jesus Christ—for example thinking racism is OK—implicitly encouraging Christians to live their faith-halfheartedly, and causing obstacles to non-Christians who might accept Baptism. In 16th-century Spain, those who advocated reforming the Church were often suspected of heresy. Saint John of Avila held his ground and was eventually recognized as a very reliable teacher of the Christian faith. John of Avila is the Patron Saint of: Andalusia, Spain Click here for more on Saint John of Avila! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a brand that thrives in the crowded e-commerce marketplace? Janelle Page, a brand-building expert, joins us today to unfold the strategies behind her success. She's the mastermind who's been turning heads with her product launches, teaming with celebrities and YouTubers to elevate brands to unprecedented levels. Janelle breaks down the art of weaving brand identity and storytelling into products that not only look good but solve real-world problems. From stylish protective eyewear to celebrity-backed health supplements, tune in to learn how Janelle's approach is revolutionizing the industry. When it comes to spreading the word about a brand, influencer marketing is the game-changer. In this episode, we dissect how to navigate through this landscape, striking genuine partnerships and leveraging platforms like TikTok and Amazon to maintain brand momentum. We get into the nitty-gritty of budgeting for influencer campaigns, the secret sauce of engaging organically with online communities, and the savvy of paid advertising to funnel traffic. Whether you've got a hefty budget to play with or you're scrappy and bootstrapping your way up, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help your brand shine. Beyond the confines of Amazon lies a vast expanse of e-commerce potential waiting to be tapped. This episode paints the transformative journey of Dolce Foglia, a brand that's soaring by mastering a clever blend of SEO and influencer marketing, with a strong B2B backbone. Janelle shares the blueprint for expanding into international marketplaces and prepping for the future of global online trade. If you're eager to discover the next chapter in your brand's story or just love a good entrepreneurial success tale, this heart-to-heart is your front-row ticket to inspiration. In episode 558 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Janelle discuss: 00:00 - Brand Building Strategies With Janelle 01:18 - Entrepreneurial Success and Brand Partnerships 08:36 - Influencer Marketing Strategies and Tips 15:27 - Choosing the Best Marketplaces for Launch 16:35 - Maximizing Sales With Amazon and Shopify 22:57 - Building Brands Through Storytelling 25:52 - Product Launch Strategy Without Revealing Secrets 31:34 - Expanding E-Commerce Success Beyond Amazon 31:58 - Expanding Amazon Brand Into Other Marketplaces Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we've got Janelle back on. The show sold over 100 million dollars in her time on Amazon and other platforms, and now she's working with a lot of celebrities and YouTubers to launch their brands and she's going to share her best brand building strategies with you all today. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And, as we do, we start off these episodes with a serious strategy. And, as we do, we start off these episodes with a serious strategy. And one thing hope you guys know that in Helium 10, there is a full inventory management tool, and that's exactly how I am able to manage all of my accounts in just a couple of minutes a week, making sure I don't run out. I don't have too much inventory in Amazon. So if you guys want to find out more information about our inventory management, go to h10.me/inventorymanagement. And now we've got somebody who has done everything from inventory management to launching brands, to working with celebrities and whatnot. We got Janelle back. I believe this is the third time you're now on our show. Welcome back, Janelle. Janelle Hey, thank you, Bradley, it's a pleasure. I always enjoy shooting the bull with you and learning what you've been up to too. Bradley Sutton: I love it. I love it. Now. In the past, you've been on episodes. By the way, if anybody wants to check out her full backstory episode 294 and episode 401, you can hear about how she was working for companies that were doing nine figures a year on Amazon. We talked about stuff like my love for red iguana, uh, Mexican food from her, uh, salt Lake, uh, where she's at now. But we want to catch up because we haven't had you on since, like December of 2022. So you know, around that time, you were talking a lot about how you had done this crazy Shopify launch. I did $500,000 in a weekend and you were doing Kickstarter launches and stuff like that launch. I did $500,000 in a weekend and you were doing Kickstarter launches and stuff like that. So, since that time, what has been your? Janelle main things like in 2023 and now almost halfway through 2024? Wow gosh, I didn't realize it had been so long since we last talked. So last year I was saying 2023, I think I did over six or seven new brand launches and even like brand new brands and also new products, and they were all six to seven figure launches Shopify, and then we moved to Amazon. I've been partnering with YouTube, YouTube celebrities I guess we call them YouTubers and celebrities to build products and brands and that's what I've been doing. So I mean we could probably include links to a lot of those products or whatever would be the easiest way if people wanted to go check them out. But we did a power tool line Athena power tools. We've done more products with Matt's off road recovery If anyone's familiar with that YouTuber super, super fun channel. We did shop shades with John Malecki. He's an incredible carpenter, woodworker. Janelle He does like live edge furniture and those river tables We've launched these totally sexy like protective eyewear, personal protective eyewear Cause, like you know, safe is sexy and usually like the if you think about traditionally eyewear, like for people who are in the woodworking industry, they're like ugly, they're hideous, they're these big plastic goggles and nobody wears them. So you know, he even noticed in his own shop, like my people aren't wearing their protective eyewear. Heck, I don't even want to wear my protective eyewear. It was kind of a thing. So he came to me with this idea like I want to make, like you know, the Oakley or like the sexy shop shade. Janelle So maybe we'll throw some links because these products they turned out beautiful, the branding which you know I kind of love. That's why I'm seeing I want to make it super sexy. Super was a. Oh, Dr. Eckberg, we launched his supplement line, did incredible. So you've XCS. So I'll throw those links, cause I always think it's so helpful for people to see. I think when you you do a killer launch, you gotta have a killer video, you gotta have a great brand, the look and feel, the storytelling, and if they just go to my landing pages and check it out, I think maybe they'll get some ideas for their brands. Bradley Sutton: Okay, Now you know you're talking about brand building. That's actually part of your module that you recently recorded for the new Freedom Ticket 4.0. Anybody who's a Helium 10 member can go get that module. But what were some of the main points from there as far as brand building, and why do you think it's probably more important than ever before here in 2024 to talk about this subject? Janelle Yeah, definitely go check out the module, but for me, that's the only way I know how to build and sell brands. Is I build a brand Like I didn't come to Amazon, the traditional way that some people, like they use tools to look up, like what the top selling products are and they try to enter into, you know, the market and create something that already has search, demand, the customer and like thinking about, like a problem that I have. Or when I partner with, like, say, a celebrity or YouTuber, there's usually, like I was just saying with John, a problem that he wants to solve, like hey, man, I don't want to wear my personal protective eyewear because it's hot, ugly and I can't see through it and it's there's. I look like a goon and I'm on YouTube trying to look cool, so I don't want to wear this, so that's want to solve. I always tell someone if you've got a problem that you want solved, there's a chance that there's a lot of people like you out there that also want to solve that problem, and so that's how I approach a brand. Janelle Building a brand is first, let's solve a problem for a person, and I keep that person in mind Because then when you're trying to think well, which product should I launch next? It's like well, what other problems does a person a carpenter or woodworker have that I can solve? Because John is the avatar. He's intimately acquainted with all the frustrations or the opportunities within the realm of a serious or even just a hobbyist woodworker, and so you know the next product he starts talking about that he gets passionate about. He's like man, I want like a pocket chisel. You know like, yeah, you have like pocket knives that like you know like a switchblade or things like that, like guys like tools, it's like a power tool. But this is like not a power tool, it's like a cool like. Can you imagine having when you're doing woodworking, like a chisel is just kind of like a boring tool, but it's actually something they use a lot when you're doing like live edge type furniture work. So why not make a pocket ch almost like a switchblade? That becomes super cool and fun that people would geek out about. If you're a woodworker, you know, and so you have this ability to start creating stories and products to serve that person that you can geek out about. Janelle I just got off a console I was doing with a client that they own. Basically they're a wholesaler of ATV parts. You know the side-by-sides stuff like Polaris, St. Polaris, Hondas and stuff and they were asking for brand help because they're like we just feel like we're just hawking wares all day long. We really want to be a brand. So I spent the hour talking to them like how could this I haven't said the client name, but how could you become like the Tesla in the side-by-side space? That's what they want to be. They want to be the premium go-to innovation, like if, if you are into ATVs, this is the brand for you, because they have everything and anything under the sun and the way that they teach and educate and innovate is going to be, you know, heads up, shoulders above everybody else, instead of just selling a bunch of parts on Amazon or on their website. Janelle So that's what we're working to create. What's the story going to be? You know how do we convey that in our messaging. What's the look and feel like, who is our avatar? So we spent the whole time fleshing that out and you know they're excited now. Now they have a very clear direction on what type of content they're going to create, what type of ads, like messaging, to attract that ideal customer. And also we created a product roadmap for them. Like, where do we go next with our line extensions that will best serve this person that we now have in mind with everything that we do in our brand? So we create this movement kind of a thing. Bradley Sutton: You've talked about working with YouTubers, celebrities and stuff, and obviously I think when people come with that personal brand awareness, it's a leg up on the competitions. You've already got a bunch of raving fans and it doesn't necessarily have to be celebrities. Everybody might have some kind of specialty. I used to do the Zumba stuff and so I had probably a following on YouTube and stuff, and so that would have been something where, first of all, just like you said, I would have known the pain points that maybe other Zumba instructors had or people dancing Zumba, and then I already had the initial following. So I always think that if somebody does have something, yes, you should double down. Bradley Sutton: That being said, let's flip the switch. You know I'm sure you have clients who are not celebrities, so they're not YouTubers, they're not famous. So how do you and that's actually most of our listeners, you know potentially might not have a following? So if I'm just you know, joe entrepreneur, sally entrepreneur sitting out there listening to this podcast, how can I do what you just said? But where I kind of maybe don't have that headstart on the audience and the people who know me, etc. Janelle Love it? That's a great question. So, like there's people that you can hire that do this right and you can do it yourself. You can reinvent the wheel Like I have a vast network now. So when I am working with clients I usually will just be like hey, here's my guy that will build your influencer marketing program in-house. Like we're going to use him, like I have options, like we can do the training we can. I can show you how we've built it out and you know you can do this. Or I can bring in this guy and he will do it in three months and it's this amount of investment and you will have like a fully flown, blown out, like gifting program, influencer marketing program which, honestly today, like it's the fastest way to grow a brand like influencer marketing. So if you don't have the audience, you aren't the influence and you don't partner with one, you've got to build out an influencer program and you know there's a lot of people that take oh, do you use, join brands or use. You know like, uh, drawing a blank on all the 50,000 I've used over the years, but really it's, there's so many softwares now you can use and to have someone in house all day long just reaching out and doing gifting and getting influencer content Cause the thing with the influencer marketing why it's so beautiful is not only do you get these people posting on your behalf about your product, but they also create content for you that you can amplify. With paid, you can run ads behind it. That's the best type of content and the highest converting ad material that you're going to get is content from actual people using your products and talking about what they love about it Social proof built right in. So brands I think that everyone knows that that's what you need to do now to like generate traffic, generate brand awareness. Janelle And Amazon, to me, is like this ecosystem. I always think like, think of a wheel right, and there's all these different sales channels and Amazon is just one spoke in that wheel. It's a very important spoke, but your website's a spoke. You know Walmart.com is a spoke. You've got retail. You've got affiliates. You've got I mean how many other places that you sell? I don't know. Janelle I've sold on so many different marketplaces Temu, you know, TikTok shop. There's so many spokes now and I don't like to have just one that I rely on. All of these make my wheel run true, right and spin like a flywheel and I can get speed. So when I think about that, with influencer marketing, anytime we build out this influencer wheelhouse, which we need, or influencer marketing program, they're going to be driving sales on Amazon website Temu, TikTok. It doesn't matter, I am I am sales channel agnostic. What I'm doing primarily when I build a brand is I'm creating desire, demand and a movement so people can buy wherever they want to buy. Okay, so influencer marketing today is just. It's just how we market best. It's how I do it. It's been very successful. Bradley Sutton: Let's say I don't have that huge of a budget. Is TikTok the most economical way to find potential influencers? Or should I go use one of those services? Janelle Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all those Influencers are on a lot of different platforms. I really like having a well diversified like just how I diversify in my investments. Yeah, have influencers on all types of platforms, but how to go find them? I mean, you're going to need to have. I say, if you want to launch a brand, you're going to need to have a budget to give away product or get product in people's hands, like you should plan on that. That's why sometimes you know, I see all these gurus on you know whatever YouTube or in my feed running ads saying you can make millions. You know, starting an Amazon business and you know, with only $2,000 investment and I'm just like man, that's so not true. You need money to get the product and the development and you've got to buy inventory, and then you're going to have a budget to give product, you and you've got to buy inventory and then you're going to have a budget to give product. You know, get product in people's hands to get some feedback or just some traction, or you've got to pay for it. You have to generate sales somehow. You have to generate awareness somehow. That's paid or that's organic or you can use your time. I do want to suggest and I have done this the scrappy way because I have more money than time now I will short circuit things by paying ads. It's the fastest way to generate traffic. Buy it right. If you don't, if you have more time than you have money, then there's organic strategies that work incredibly well. Janelle I mean 10 years ago, how I built my brands, when I had no influencer marketing strategy and I had no celebrities. I was partnering with is. I was literally in Facebook communities, on Reddit, and I was posting in communities that had people like me. I knew where my avatar was. So, like, let's just say, right now I'm working on that celebrity line with the Huffs they're dancers, right, let's pretend that I didn't have celebrities. But I wanted to create a supplement line for artistic athletes or dancers. I would be on every subreddit right now that has, you know, artistic athletes or dancers in their hip hop. Um, you know Zumba, like you said, salsa, cha-cha, tango, and I'd be talking about my product and what I've developed and what I'm working on. I'd start just from conception, taking them through that whole journey. I think there's been some great books written over the years, like show your work. Um, you know, build out loud, like taking them along on the journey, getting feedback the whole way, so that I start building that audience right. And then also Facebook. There's groups. There's so many Facebook groups about dancing. Janelle Right now I'm working with a brand that does flavoring right, and so we're in every group that has a baker's, confectioner's, like coffee makers anyone that's like would use flavoring we're in there. We're asking questions all the time about a new flavor we're developing, wondering if anyone has any. You know new flavors they want developed. We ask them about pricing. We ask them about bundles and people are like, oh, you can't make sales. You know posts in those groups where you get kicked out. I'm like, yeah, don't make sales posts. Get in there and ask questions, like I'm just doing. I'm like literally just put together what I call a Mother's Day bundle and I wanted to ask the group what would you pay, you know, for these products if I put them in a Mother's Day bundle? Like what would be the discount that you think would be like motivating you know to grab this and are these the three flavors that you think most mothers would like, based on, you know, the flavors that we offer? That post gets through all day long and I have all these people telling me what they think I should add, you know, for my mother's day, or the essential baking, you know, um, flavors that should be included in the bundle. You can just kind of be strategic. I think people are so like intellectually lazy or they're just looking for excuses to not have to do something. They're like, oh, that doesn't work. I'm like man, you're pathetic, like you couldn't figure out how to make that work. Like you know, just put a little elbow grease into that. So much free traffic. So now I don't do that anymore with my time, but it's one of the first hires I make is a VA. That's just my organic poster in these, in these forums, adding value. They're in there answering questions. Janelle The thing about you guys I think Helium 10 did this so well originally, um, and you still do it. You're in these Amazon groups and even in your own groups that you've cultivated on Facebook, answering questions. When somebody asks a question, you could count on Bradley answering it. I know you're not maybe doing that anymore, but you have people doing it. That's huge for the brand Any business. You can build a business like that in any industry. When I just built my marketing company. That's what I was doing. I was in chamber of commerce, answering posts, answering questions. I literally helped a guy I was dating. He was an electrician and he was like I don't have a lot of business. I'm like dude, get on Facebook in your county and every little like real estate group anyone that asks an electrical question you have someone that is just chiming in and answering and adding value, like you will have so much business coming out your eyeballs. It works, so just get in there and start organically drumming up your business if you don't have a lot of money but you have more time. Bradley Sutton: You know, let's say I'm going ahead and I'm going to push forward with this plan. You know, supplements, the supplements that you've done, the other products that you've been doing. What are your main marketplaces? You're starting off, you know, like you said, there's like 20 marketplaces probably nowadays. You know even Target now, you know, is starting something. Obviously, there's Walmart, there's TikTok shop, there's eBay, Esty, amazon, you know, like Shopify, WooCommerce, whatever. Do you have like a set, two or three that you suggest launching on, because it sounds like, unless I'm mistaken here, that you rarely do something that's exclusively Amazon or exclusively one marketplace. So what are like your two, three, four go-to marketplaces for somebody to start? Janelle Okay, perfect, yeah, so if it's a celebrity launch or YouTube or someone with an audience already like and I know I'm going to do six figures or a million dollars, it's like it's always Shopify, cause, like we control the audience, we have a list or we have a channel like a platform we're going to be posting on. We're going to control that flow of traffic, and the best place to do that is on your own website. So we drive them to Shopify. I've done Kickstarters. I do have strategies for Kickstarters that I will talk about maybe some other time. Just send them to your website. Shopify now allows pre-sales too. So even if you're like nervous, you don't know, like, will I get enough funding or I want to pre-sell it, you can do a pre-sell. The shop shades that I'll maybe include a link to that was all a pre-sell that we did. You know, we didn't know, like, how many units we'd want to initially order, how much interest there would be, but like, yeah, we, we blew it out of the water. So Shopify is number one. If, even if you didn't, if you didn't have any audience at all, then I'd probably say launch on Amazon, right, because you're going to steal keyword traffic. You're going to be like, basically, take the hotdog stand and instead of sitting it in your cul-de-sac where nobody's at, you're going to go to the state fair and put your hot dog stand out. You're going to sell a lot more stuff. So, even with celebrity launches, if you do Shopify, you know whatever or influencer, you have an audience. It's definitely Shopify or whatever. Your own website, I don't care if it's WordPress, but I really just love Shopify now because I just know, like the suite of apps that I need to install for everything, for optimization and you know, increasing average order value and my ATV, and you know I just have my little toolbox for high converting. You know Shopify sites, but I know some people like a WordPress site, fine, but go to Amazon for sure. Like we list everything on Amazon because there's just still a subset of people that want to buy everything on Amazon. It's just so easy for them. You know, and we call those Halo sales. Even with my celebrities and my YouTube launches, we still have a large portion of people that will go over to Amazon, even though it's not listed yet, and you can see that in Helium 10, you can see the branded search. Janelle So when I launched Euvexia that's a brand, new brand. Nobody had heard of it. This is Dr Sten. You know he has a pretty large following, like a couple million, on YouTube. They went and we see all of a sudden Helium 10, Euvexia has searches like overnight shooting up right. So we created that brand demand and you know we weren't on amazon yet because we didn't have products shipped in there. We just launched on our website. So, yeah, we probably lost some sales, people who wanted to buy it on amazon. Maybe you can say well, maybe everyone who wanted it actually ended up buying on your, on your site. But I I do believe a lot of people won't buy on a website. They're just like, especially the older generation they don't want to put their credit card in, they don't want to have another password, they have to whatever. So I just think you're silly to not list on Amazon and I have strategies that you know. We have one of my very large brands. We will hold back certain products that we don't list on Amazon because we still want that consumer to come to our website ultimately, so that we can capture their information, we can pixel them, we can remarket to them and so some of our best used or like our limited editions won't ever go on Amazon because people have to go buy that on our website. So there's different strategies you can use, but just make sure the halo sales that you will get on Amazon especially as you incorporate influencer marketing, you start doing paid media, even you know, creating some organic like where you're blogging or you're doing YouTube and you're just driving your own traffic You'll have people that will still go to the Amazon looking for your product, that halo sales, and you want to be there to capture it. So, website, amazon those are the top two. If you didn't do anything else, you'd probably be just great. You're probably capturing 80% of the market. Janelle I then will usually move to other Amazon places. First I'll go to Walmart.com. Usually it just depends A lot of my brands because we're in the beauty space. We can't be on Walmart if we also want to be in Ulta or Sephora, so we have to keep that in mind. So Walmart.com is not always where I can go, but I do like to go to Walmart.com if I can. And then it's expanding. Amazon Canada, amazon UK those are my order that I go to. I haven't played around with many other marketplaces. I know it seems that everyone starts being like oh, you should do Amazon India, and there's Amazon Japan. I tried a couple of those. It was very minimal return. I'm not saying it won't ever work, but for me right now no, I don't have anyone on Brazil, Japan, so yeah. Bradley Sutton: You mentioned Shopify being the first place to go, so obviously the beauty about Amazon is it's got that existing traffic Shopify you won, remember, I think before I was even a Amazon. Janelle I don't want to say, I don't want to refer to myself as an. Bradley Sutton: Amazon guru. Janelle People always call me Amazon guru, but before Amazon was like a big thing that I spent a lot of time teaching people how to do well, Um, YouTube was my thing and I still love YouTube. I still do. Uh, in fact, today I do a consult for YouTube channel strategy. I've done a lot, built a lot of channels and brands on YouTube and I think YouTube is one of the greatest ways to drive traffic. And same thing with blogging. You do that with content articles you can write. So a strong SEO strategy where you're bringing in traffic to your website. So I'm a I'm a big content creation junkie because it works. So people will say, oh, I mean, I tried YouTube. I didn't get any traffic. I'm like you have to understand YouTube is an algorithm, just like Amazon, and you know how. Helium 10 has great courses teaching you how to understand the A9 algorithm. YouTube has the exact same thing. There's courses. I have courses and we teach, we consult. There's lots of people out there that do that and teach you how to build a YouTube strategy to drive traffic to wherever you want them to go. Strategy to drive traffic to wherever you want them to go. Usually it's your website and a lot of that YouTube strategy also will carry over to Halo sales on Amazon. So that's probably my favorite way influencer marketing and content creation, your own content creation. The brand should always be creating content and educating to drive sales. That's how you control your destiny. You add value. You teach people why they should use your product. You help them solve their problems. You help them scratch their itch. You become the go to person and the trusted brand in your, in your space. Bradley Sutton: You know you mentioned some steps as far as finding that, these pain points and stuff. You know going into Reddit and going into Facebook groups, but but talk more about your process before your, before the actual product is made. You know, like you know, are you doing a lot of samples? Are you just getting some? You know like 20 samples and actually testing it in the market. Are you just deciding that on your own? Are you getting focus groups, like? What's your entire process about? That goes from, hey, finding that initial pain point to validating it and then all the way up to actually having a product. Janelle Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is funny because I don't do. I mean I do now because I understand the value of creating the story, but I guess I've been in marketing long enough that I know the power of a story and a story well told. So I always just say story, sell right. And so I guess I know that I can tell a story that will be compelling. And when I first started, my very first brand was a toy brand and I just knew I would crush it because the story was like kids were sitting around on their iPads and playing video games all day. And this was like in 2014, when everyone's like there was no e-sports team, there wasn't kids making millions of dollars, you know, playing video games. It was like grandma and mom were so, so, deathly concerned that their kids were all going to have their brains turned to mush. And so I create this kick fire classics brand line and the whole story is just going to be like good old fashioned fun get your kids off their butts and outside of playing. And I knew that if I ran ads in front of every mom and grandma about these classic toys, that they could get Johnny to get them off the iPad and you get outside, you know, flying a kite or playing with juggling balls or you know the Diablo, it would sell. It was just I didn't need to do market validation that that that whole sentiment existed. I was a mom and I hung out with moms and they were all having the same, you know, battle cry of like our kids are, you know, they don't know how to get outside and have fun. So that that was. I launched the brand, I told that story and it crushed, you know. Janelle And then my second brand was a weight loss supplement and I'm like I understand, as a woman living in America, like everyone wants to be thin, you know, and you have to bust your butt to stay thin and and if you can create a weight loss, a meal replacement weight loss shake that tastes good, that helps people lose weight, and you tell that story and you have, you know, results, it's going to sell. So I guess I don't really ever go into a market. I've never. Even now I'm like right now, with this celebrity supplement, like we have created the whole product line, the core four. We're doing a stack right and I work with Derek and Julianne Huff who are these beautiful artistic athletes and they're very well known in the space. I think that's easy because they have followers and they're going to, no matter what they say. You know, we could probably one of our investors is like you could just, you know, bottle dog poop and put it in a bottle and people would buy it. And that's not what we want to do. But you know that's how well-known they are and trusted in the space. But I really don't even think we had to validate anything, but because I understand the power of story and I want to build a movement and a community. Janelle I am getting people involved, I am getting their audience to. You know, we are doing what we call a pilot run, which is not everybody does. It's kind of more expensive, it's unheard of but and I wouldn't say unheard of a lot of people it's heard of but people don't do it because the extra time and cost. I want to do it as part of the story, because Derek and Julianne, this works for them. But I want to get it into the hands of their top dancers, like Derek's on tour right now and he's got, you know, he's like 50 to 100 dancers with him. What if I can get all of them using this right now and giving us feedback. You know that's going to create content, that's going to create story and I just want, on tour for the media, to see all of his dancers backstage pouring their little powder packets from the foil and being like what is this stuff that everyone's taking? It's kind of creating that curiosity and building hype. Janelle So I'm doing this strategically for my own PR, but I don't need to do this, but I want to to make the story better, if that makes sense. It's like, uh, Paulo Acosta, who does you know his secret juice? And he has that bottle and he has secret juice written on the outside. If you don't know who he is, he's a UFC fighter. Just Google it. He drinks that and everyone wants to know what the hell is in that juice that he's drinking. It's brilliant. It creates such a stir and you know what it's like. We're going to go launch him a supplement drink and then everyone's going to know what was in that dang bottle, right? So that's the thought behind a product launch. When you can build that, everyone's kind of excited. They know you've been working on something. I started posting and teasing out content with Derek and Julianne just on my own socials and they're teasing it out and that's going to be a part of the huge buildup to the launch. If you have an audience, that works great. If you don't have an audience, this also works really well to build the audience as you go along, because people want to be a part of something and feel like they're helping create this product. Bradley Sutton: What is just some other, just general strategy Can be about anything you want to talk about. That that, hey, our audience could probably learn a thing or two from your experience. Janelle Gosh, you know, sometimes we I really enjoyed your session that you did at BDSS. It was more like life stuff. I think sometimes we all talking about you know business, business and you you talked about your like near death experience. I'm going to say near-death you died. You literally died and got brought back to life, right. So I think, just like the longer and maybe this happens as we get older, like we're more generative, we start thinking about, like what kind of legacy do I want to leave? Like I know, like earlier, when I was in the grind, I mean I was a single mom with four kids under the age of five, like hustling, working like four or five jobs, like I had to bust my ass to get where I am Right. And now I feel like I'm really just so blessed or lucky or I mean whatever it is. Janelle I've been very fortunate in my career. I play a lot of pickleball, I get to travel the world, I spend a lot of time with kids, I work with incredible brands, incredible people and I think, just remembering that, you know what like there's, I don't know, you do have to pay the dues, you have to work hard, but we're doing it all for a reason. There can be joy. I've always been happy. I can look back in every phase and it's not like I was like man. That period of my life sucked. It was like that building was super incredible, and to be where I am now and to look back it even makes it such an even more happy memory. To be like I busted my ass and I'm here now and it was all worth it and I love what I'm doing. I even love the hard part shoveling manure in the trenches and so I just maybe reminding people that, like, remember why you're doing it and if you're not enjoying the doing of it, when you get to where you're trying to go, it won't be all of a sudden beautiful, like there has to be that magic along the way. I don't know. Janelle I just think if you wake up too many days in a row thinking that I don't want to do this, like you're not doing the right thing, and then I don't know what comes next, I don't know if there's another life and I mean I just want to be able to say this life I lived my best life and so Whatever that means to you. Maybe just take a moment to look at your life and how you're living. Is this your best life and are there any changes that you need to make? Because you almost didn't have a second chance. You know, and it was over and I think you have a new perspective. I have a new perspective. I lost a lot of people I love just in the last few years to cancer. They died young and I'm so grateful I'm alive and I don't take that for granted every day. I'm just like it is a gift and I just I love making money. Bradley Sutton: Always got to remember the more important things. You know like, like we, sometimes we can get caught up in the whole business and an entrepreneurial journey and stuff and we forget about what really what really matters at the end of the day. So that's a good, good advice. I like that. Janelle Favorite end of the day. So that's a good um, yeah, good advice. I like that favorite helium 10 tool. I'm like magnet. I'm just like. The keyword research tool for me is just like I go look up all the time. I think this is the one I use the most and all my employees is like did you do the keyword research? Like what does it look like? And you get ideas too. Like when I'm doing keyword research, I can see like whoa, this is a good product extension. Like you know, in the search, in the search results, when I see like like the other day I was doing you know, with Glamnetic, we're doing some press on nail launches, and I was just like, oh, like, people are looking, they're calling them false nails. Like I never really even heard of that, you know word. I thought it was press on nails or fake nails, but false nails. So I just think it's a, it's a treasure trove, not only to you can get product ideas from there. And it's like, okay, well, I'm going to do a whole new line. That's like optimized for faults, that whole word Cause there's like hundreds of thousands of searches that can, you know, aggregate on that right there. So I think it's important. Bradley Sutton: You know, you mentioned, uh, you know so many different, different things that you've been working on. How can people, maybe you know, find you on the interwebs out there or see a couple of these projects you're working on, either in social or just websites out there? Uh, throughout some, websites. 0:30:23 - Janelle Okay, so janellepage.com is is my website, and then there's also on that website you'll see like I probably should update it, but there's a lot of projects I've worked on on that website. So it's j-a-n-e-l-l-e-p-a-g-e like a page in the book.com. You can go there and then, like shopshades.com. Euvexia is E-U-V-E-X-I-Acom. Athena Power Tools let's see Vital Kind. We don't have our website up yet, but in a couple months you'll be able to see Derek and Julianne's brand that we'll be launching, working right now with some really big pickleball pros. We're launching a pickleball line, so that'll be exciting. Don't have the name yet, the name yet, but I'll start posting about that as we develop it. We have our kickoff meeting on Monday. Um, I don't know if we put anything in the notes. Oh, matt's off-road recovery. You can check out that. Robbylayton.com, um, oh, m1 motorsports that's our motorcycle line. Glamnetics a great line, gee, is that. Is that good enough or they can all be like that's good, that's great stuff. Bradley Sutton: I'm sure people get to be able to get some ideas and take a look at what you've been working on. Janelle That one's a hard one to spell, but that one and flavor frenzy. They're beautiful Cause they were originally Amazon brands that didn't have a clue about DTC and I helped them build out their DTC strategy and we're crushing and B2B, so we built out that whole thing. So Dolce Foglia is like D O L C E Foglia is F O G L I A com, and you will see the beautiful website we've built. Just think how fun because if these if a lot of the listeners are Amazon only brands, I want them to see like what you can do. They went from Amazon. Now they have a true e-commerce where we have full build out of like SEO strategy and influencer marketing and we built out the B2B side. It'll link you over to their B2B flavor frenzy and maybe just get you excited about the potential. Let's was like literally just an Amazon brand that's now crushing on all different platforms and we're moving into like Temu and all these other different I guess I didn't talk about any of those Like a lot of other countries have marketplaces that are like bigger than Amazon, as we start to list there. Bradley Sutton: So that's maybe something we can see in a year when we have you back on the show and see how those marketplaces are doing. I know a lot of them are making a lot of noise out there, so it'll be interesting, all right. Well, Janelle, thank you so much for joining us. It's always a pleasure to have you on the show and look forward to where we can hang out in person soon. Janelle Awesome Thanks, Bradley.

Brian Bourgoin says “Reading ‘Deals Danger Destiny' reminds him that John is like Hunter S. Thompson … confidant to organized crime.” Then he asks “How does Merrilee fit in this gangster enigma?” Merrilee responds “Because John is worth saving and I am protected by God.” It's all on the table when two hyper intelligent people lay it down . For background and to buy their incredible books see https://highinthecanopy.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/john-lacasse/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/john-lacasse/support

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Oh Holy God, Heavenly Father, we come to you in reverence and trepidation at your greatness, your mightiness. You are a glorious God. And Lord, we thank you so much that you did not leave us in our sin, in our darkness, but you sent your son Jesus Christ, the light of the world, the truth, the way, the life. And Jesus, we thank you for providing a way for our salvation, for our forgiveness of sin, for our transfer from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved son. And Lord Jesus, we thank you for proclaiming the truth as boldly as you did, and that boldness took you to a cross.And we thank you for the example of your choice servants who proclaim the truth, no matter the consequences, many of whom were martyred for the faith. And we thank you that their blood was the seed of the church. We thank you for all those that you sent while we were still in darkness to proclaim the gospel to us boldly. And we thank you, Lord, that you give us grace and that you empower us by the power of the Holy Spirit to go and proclaim the gospel to anyone who would hear.And I pray, Lord, that you grow our fearlessness in proclamation of the word of God, the truth, the gospel no matter what the consequences, no matter the opposition. I pray that you make us so people who care more about what you think than even what earthly rulers think about us. And Lord, help us proclaim the truth and love and in kindness, but boldly. Lord, we thank you for the example of your disciples, the apostles, and we thank you for the example of John the Baptist who proclaimed the truth to a king, an earthly, wicked, degenerate king, and he was beheaded for it.And Lord Jesus, as we look at that example, I pray, let us just marvel at the fact that a little embarrassment, a little discomfort when we proclaim the truth, how many of us are thwarted from continuing the mission because of that and how silly all of that is in comparison to those who've gone before us. And Lord, as the world turns even darker in opposition to you, more godless and persecution becomes an ever present reality. I pray that we unflinchingly continue to further your kingdom by proclaiming your truth.Bless our time, the holy scriptures today. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen. On this Communion Sunday, the title of the sermon is Proclaim the King's Excellencies as we continue through our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark. When the Lord Jesus Christ saves a sinner, he doesn't just save us from something, he saves us for something. And that for something should preoccupy our hearts and minds and that for something must be the purpose and the direction of our lives.Yes, Lord, you've saved me from hell. You've saved me from eternal punishment, from bondage to sin, from being a pawn of Satan. Now what would you have me do? And the Lord answers and says, "Become fishers of men. Continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ so people are freed from the nets of Satan and sin to the new exodus and following Christ." And how do we do this? We do it by proclaiming the excellencies of the king.In 1 Peter 2:9 it says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you are not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Did you notice the purpose? He says, this is why God saved us, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Christ. This is the purpose of every elect, blood-bought, redeemed, justified child of God.Our purpose is to be representatives of Christ and to represent Christ is to do the work that Christ did and continues to do, which is to proclaim the truth that Jesus is king and he rules the world with his law, the 10 commandments. To proclaim Christ is to tell people that they have sinned, that they have transgressed commandments. They are under God's wrath. However, whosoever repents of their sin and believes in Christ will be forgiven, will be given mercy, and will be given a mission to proclaim the excellencies of Christ.And for Christ to procure mercy for us, what did that entail? Entailed a gruesome, gory, grim sacrifice. It demanded crucifixion. Jesus Christ was crucified for proclaiming the truth. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised and should actually expect that when we lovingly, faithfully, kindly proclaim Christ, this will come at a cost. For some of us, it may even require death itself just like our Lord and just like John the Baptist and just like most of the apostles. Today, we are in Mark 6:7-29 as we continue our series, Kingdom Come.Would you look at the text with me? And he, Christ, called the 12 and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." But others said, "He is Elijah." And others said, "He is a prophet like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist."And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guess, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, Infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. Proclaim that people should repent, proclaim the law and the gospel fearlessly, fearing God is the secret to fearlessness. First, proclaim that people should repent. In verse seven, he, Jesus, called the 12 and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Why two by two? This is probably reflecting the Jewish practice of sending official representatives in pairs.And also in the Hebrew scriptures, there is a stipulation that two witnesses are required to establish legal testimony. So he commissions the 12 to extend the work that he was doing. He said, "I have come to teach the word of God and to proclaim the gospel for the kingdom of God is here for people to repent and believe." So here he sends out the 12 two by two. Practically why two by two, well, this provides for encouragement in particular in those moments where there is rejection.When a whole town says, "We want nothing to do with the message of God. Get out," at those moments, we need encouragement, and also accountability to continue proclaiming the truth as it has been given and not trying to make it more palatable for people by softening it. And this here shows us that we need Christian community. We need brothers and sisters in our lives for our own souls, but then also for the effectiveness of the mission that Jesus called us to. We need Christian community.We need the church. Hebrews 10:24 says, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love in good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." So even back then in the early church, they already had the issue where people believed that all I need is Jesus. All I need is scripture. I don't need the church. I don't need spiritual authority or accountability. Even back then, people were neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some.So friends, continue to make it a priority to come to church. I'm obviously speaking to people who are at church. Good job, keep doing what you're doing. But for those who are listening online, and I think during COVID when we were streaming our services, people just got into the pattern of like, that's okay. That's not okay. That's why we took our streaming off. And I'm even tempted at the point of take all the sermons offline. Offline is not real. It's not real. That's just enough to get you into church.And not just church, but community. At Mosaic, we are a church that draws thousands over the course of a year. There's thousands that come and there's thousands that go. So how are we to experience community? How do we experience this two by two ministry? We do that through our community groups. So if you are not in a community group, these are small groups of brothers and sisters that meet all across the city, all across the region over the course of the week, we'd love to have you join.Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, "Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe him who is alone when he falls and has not another lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken." And here in our verse it says that he began to send them out.Not only does this communicate that this is the start of their mission, but also it communicates that the mission continues, that Jesus continues to send us out as he had sent them out. And he says it began to send, this is the verb form of the word apostle, an apostle is someone who has been sent out with the authority of another. And Jesus, while still on earth, physically sends out the disciples to gain experience ministering the word of God.He entrusts them with his authority, gives them an opportunity to use the authority to make the mistakes that they would make in using that authority so that they can come back to Jesus. He would rectify it and clarify and continue to train them up to serve him. This is just an example of the ministry that Jesus had already been doing. And Mark 6:6, that's the verse before our text. He was in Nazareth and Galilee. He marveled because of their unbelief. That's his hometown.And he went out among the villages teaching. Despite rejection that he encountered in his hometown, he doesn't give up on his people. He continues to minister to them by sending the apostles out for another round of redemptive teaching. Now, we are not apostles, but we are disciples of Jesus Christ. We are followers of Jesus Christ, and most of us most likely aren't called to being international ministries or cross-cultural ministries, missionaries or full-time pastors and teachers. But we are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ wherever we are.We might not be sent around the world, but we are still sent across the street. Our city is our mission field and, you and I, we're laborers that Christ sends out to gather in the harvest right here on our doorstep. I don't know if you've noticed, but traffic has been getting worse in the area. The congestion's terrible, the double parking. I've never seen so many people double parking. I think it's the Uber Eats and such, but I used to get irritated by traffic and irritated by people double parking.I've chilled out partially because I changed my music. I started listening to monastic chants in my vehicle. It's very soothing. It helps with driving in peace. It's tremendous. And now whenever I'm in traffic, I get behind someone, I'm like, okay, you're double-parked. All right. I just pray for them, like Lord, save this person from their wicked ways of not following the law and such. But as I see people, there's people from all over the world all around us. The Lord is drawing people from all over.They're here. This is why we exist. We are on mission to proclaim the gospel to all who would listen, to all who would hear. And we have the authority of Jesus Christ. Just as he gave to his early disciples, he has given to us as the church. He says, go and make disciples of all nations. And he says, when you do, when you make disciples of all nations, I am with you until the end of the age. We experience the fullness of Christ's presence in particular when on mission proclaiming the truth.And his authority and the authority that he gave to the disciples is his own. He doesn't just pray to the Father. Father, I pray that you empower them. No. He gives them his own authority which reminds us of who Jesus really is. He is the Son of God. He is God. Authority resides in him and he exercises rule over the church as it goes and he does command us to go and proclaim. In Mark 6:8, he charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.The staffs were used for walking on rough terrain and for defense against wild animals and criminals, et cetera. And Jesus here says, okay, fine. Take a staff, but no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. And what he's saying is, I'm going to provide. You're on mission doing my work. It's my business that you are going about doing, and I will provide for you in the same way that I provided for the Israelites in the desert. If you remember, the Israelites were sustained by God. They didn't have food, but he sent food from heaven.Rain manna. Their clothing by God's grace was supernaturally preserved from deterioration and Jesus instructs them to take just the basics of staff and sandals, which is an allusion to Exodus 12:11 when he was preparing them during the Passover meal before the Exodus. It says Exodus 12:11, in this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. So the disciples' missionary journey is similar to the old exodus, but their journey is a new exodus. T.Hey are people who are called by Jesus for freedom from sin and bondage and to go about and travel lightly so that they move quickly to call people out of bondage to sin and Satan. I do want to mention the Bible never sees renunciation of physical goods as a good in itself, but only as a necessity in some circumstances. This particular renunciation was not intended as a universal rule binding all disciples at all times. Though the simple faith that Jesus will provide when we are in the middle of his will doing his work, that is a universal rule.Later in Gethsemane, after the disciples had thoroughly learned this lesson to rely on the Lord for his provision, to depend only on him, after they learned that lesson, Jesus said, now that he is leaving, we are to procure resources in Luke 23:35. And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said "Nothing." And he said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one."First time he sends them out while he was still here. He says, "Don't take any money. Don't take a sword. Don't take food." The second time, he says, "When I leave, I want you prepared. I want you to have resources." After they learn to depend on the Lord, the Lord says, "We are to be prepared with resources if we can have them." Why? Because poverty is never the ideal in the Bible. Although if need be, it must be gladly embraced in God's service for Christ's sake. Verse 10.He said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." And here the mission of the disciples according to Christ must be marked by a humble persistence. They were to be aware that not everyone's going to receive this message. Many will actually be opposed to it and reject it.And whenever the disciples are accepted, they should remain in the place where they are and enjoy the resources that those who accepted the message would provide them with. But we are to be prepared as they were to be prepared that rejection is a reality of being a faithful proclaimer of the gospel. Mark 13:13, and you will, this is a promise, you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.He says, "Shake the dust that is on your feet when you are rejected," is a sign that when you are rejected, you are to reject the place that has rejected the message. And the very difficulty of the act, dust is not so easily removed, especially from sandaled feet that have been walking on unpaved middle Eastern roads. Hence, that the depth of feeling that evokes it. Not even the tiniest reminder of the place should be left upon them. They must assiduously purge themselves of every trace of it.And God himself will see to the latter on the day of judgment when the very dust will cry out as a witness against them. And verse 12. So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. They proclaimed that people should repent, not just sharing of the gospel. Sharing assumes that we're offering something that people want, share a recipe or share a meal or share a good laugh.But we aren't called to just share the gospel, we're called to proclaim that people should repent and boldly declare it whether it's welcome or not. I remember when I just moved to the city and I didn't know how to start a church as a church planner... I did street evangelism. I was just walking around the streets and I did spiritual surveys and asked people if they'd have a couple minutes to answer some survey questions I had. After the 1,000th conversation and no one got saved, I'm like, Lord Jesus, does this text apply to me?Can I dust off my boots from the dust of Boston, please? This was a message for them in this particular journey, but there were other examples where they lived in an area for years and they continue to administer. The emphasis here isn't on leaving a place. The emphasis here is on not taking a rejection personally. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting the Lord, and that should grieve our hearts, but it can't immobilize us and we shouldn't be surprised by it. You can't take it personally because then that just keeps you from proclaiming the gospel.They reject you, go to the next person and to the next person and to the next person. It's not we that converts people, it's God that does it. We are to sow the seed and to proclaim the truth and testify to it. What is the message? The message is that time is short. We're all mortal, and judgment is coming. Hell is real. And we are to flee the wrath that is to come. We are to hear the alarm sounding and get ourselves to safety. And the only source of safety, the only refuge, the only sanctuary is our savior Jesus Christ.And the message is that everyone is to repent. There are no impendent people in the kingdom of heaven. All who enter the kingdom have mourned over sin, forsaken it and sought pardon for it. In this particular commissioning, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what will happen on Pentecost when they will receive a permanent commission to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. And Jesus here is preparing them for after they receive the Holy Spirit to do things greater than even he did, which is a startling statement.But in John 14:12, he says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I'm going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." What does it mean that we're going to do greater things than Christ himself did? Well, he's not talking about individually. He's talking about as a church, as the body of Christ.We've been given talents and opportunities, and together, he's saying, we're going to do greater things than Christ did in his incarnate state when he was on earth. The disciples went and proclaimed the gospel, cast out demons, and healed people by anointing them. And James 5:14 says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." Point two is proclaim the law and the gospel fearlessly.Verse 14, King Herod heard of it for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." There's only two passages in the Gospel of Mark not about Jesus Christ, and those two are about John the Baptist in chapter one. And here John was the forerunner of Jesus' ministry and also the forerunner of Jesus' death. And in both cases, both men stood before wicked, cowardly, tyrants fully aware of the innocence of both John and Jesus.And nevertheless, they feared the pressure of the people, and therefore they executed John and James. I do want to point out that it wasn't the disciples' names that were made known. As they did their work, as they proclaimed the gospel, as they healed people, it was the name of Jesus that had become known. The disciples preaching in wonder working are the means for Christ's name to become known. The miracles worked by the 12 disciples were really performed by Christ.It was his authority, his power. They were wielding his power. And the work's done by the disciples didn't cause the people in Galilee or even King Herod to wonder who are these disciples. They're wondering who is this Jesus that they are proclaiming. They weren't confused whose power it was. And that brings us to King Herod. Who is this Herod? This is Herod Antipas. He is the son of King Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus when he was born. King Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, ruled in the Transjordan region from 4 BC until his exile in 39 AD.This is the king whom Jesus called that fox in Luke 13, a reference to King Herod's malice, his cunning, his shrewdness and lack of pity and his love of degenerate decadence. In 39 AD, he was recalled to Rome and replaced by his nephew, the infamous Herod Agrippa, who later killed James and imprisoned Peter. In Mark 6:15 it says, but others said he's Elijah and others said he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."Actually the dirty work wasn't done by Herod himself, it was by an executioner as we see later in the text. But here in the Greek, there's an emphatic I myself have beheaded. This is John whom I myself had beheaded, which reveals that King Herod's conscience has been disturbing him. His conscience has been terrifying him. It shows us that although he thought himself a king, he wasn't king over his conscience. The truth was the law of God was. And for Herod, the supernatural miracle, he thought Jesus was John comeback from the dead, and he believed it.That supernatural miracle itself was not enough to bring him to repentance. That's how stubborn he was and hardened in his sin. The assumed divine miracle, John's resurrection, is a cause not for celebration but for terror. And here I also want to point out that John was so Christlike that when Herod hears about Christ, he confuses Christ with John. That's how much John had decreased so that Jesus could increase. He represented Jesus with his whole being. Who was John the Baptist?He was a miracle child born to the aged Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth. He was a Nazarite from birth, a result of explicit orders of the angel Gabriel. His hair was never cut. He never touched a dead body or drank fermented drink, according to Numbers 6. And he took up the clothing of the ancient prophets wearing a rough coat of camel's hair and leather belt and subsisting in the wilderness and the diet of locusts and wild honey. He was a man of good conscience and therefore moral courage.When he spoke the word of God, everybody knew that it rang true because of John's integrity. And he would lose his head, but not his witness. John made way for the Lord, preparing the way for Christ by boldly denouncing sin and calling people to radical repentance, as seen in Matthew 3:7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.And do not presume to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he'll burn with unquenchable fire."Jesus is neither John the Baptist, Herod got it wrong, nor Elijah. Jesus was John's contemporary, so he's not him. And with respect to Elijah, Mark already said he linked Elijah with John, not Jesus. And Jesus wasn't just a prophet. He did use that term to characterize himself, but it definitely wasn't sufficient to characterize him. Verse 17. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her.For John had been saying to Herod, "It's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And here, what is John appealing to? It's not lawful. What law is he appealing to? Look how simple and plain and straightforward his message was. It's not lawful for you to have another man's wife. You've committed adultery, Herod. You've transgressed the Seventh Commandment. You've taken Herodias from your brother, so she is an adulterous as well, and he's calling them to repentance.He proclaims the plain truth regardless of the consequences. And what he's telling King Herod, consider himself a king, he's saying, there's a king above you. There's a law above you. You are not above the law. It's the law of God, and the law of God is law over everyone. It's enforced over everyone. It doesn't matter if you identify as a Christian, it doesn't matter if you identify as a believer of the scripture, none of that matters. God is God over everyone. His law governs everyone. Some people erroneously think that when you preach the gospel, you never mention the law.When you're sharing "the gospel," the law isn't necessary. The law is only for believers. First trust in Jesus, get grace, and then we can talk about the law, then we can talk about how you are to live. This is false, because you can't call people to repentance if they do not know what they are to repent of. And John as an Elijah like figure is zealous for the Lord and his law, and he's going to proclaim it to both Herod and Herodias no matter how much it antagonizes them, no matter how much they want to kill him.And that brings us to point three, fearing God is the secret to fearlessness. John, where did you get the power to be so fearless, so courageous, so bold in proclaiming this truth to a king? He got it from fearing God more than anyone else. He didn't care what King Herod thinks about him. He cared more about what King Jesus thinks about him. In verse 19, Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe.When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, yet he heard him gladly." John's very existence caused Herodias unease in her conscience, yet she's hardened and seared in her conscience by her wickedness and won't rest until he is dead. And Herod feared John. He wanted to protect the life of John knowing that he's righteous and holy. So he arrests John to protect John from Herodias. This is how conflicted this man was. Herod was convicted by John's words, yet he gladly listened to them.Most likely the prison was in the same place where his palace was and he would just bring John up and say, "John, do your thing." And John with his camel hair and he's got his leather belt and he is like, "You broke commandment number seven. Repent. And Herodias too." And then Herodias gets mad and Herod's like, "Continue," and oh, just continuously gladly welcoming the message, feared the guy, knows it's true, it rings true, definitely resonates, and he's willing to listen. He's willing to observe, heard him gladly.But there was one thing that Herod wasn't willing to do. He wasn't willing to cease from his adultery. He wouldn't give up Herodias, and so he ends up ruining his soul. Verse 21. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading man of Galilee. Those present at this party were the petty lords and the Roman battalion commanders, the tribunes. So these men gather in Herod's fortress palace where John was imprisoned.And the text doesn't explicitly say, but a birthday in such luxurious confines of the royal palace with all the big wigs certainly implied large quantities of alcohol. And from Mark's report, there's possibility that Herod was definitely well-lubricated when Herodias finally traps him in verse 22. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish and I'll give it to you."Josephus, the famed Jewish historian, tells us that this young woman named Salome was in her middle teens at this time, so she dances in a very explicit way. Here we see that King Herod gets excited to the point where his braggadocio is turned on and he vows in verse 23, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half of my kingdom." And this is probably a figure of speech in any case, because the kingdom wasn't his to give. It was Rome's. And so verse 24, she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?"And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in and immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The instantaneous reply of Herodias implies premeditation. So the cunning demonic forces that have been working for John's downfall now at last have sprung their trap. Here Herodias is presented as another Jezebel, manipulating her cowardly and indecisive husband and seeking the death of the Lord's prophet.And one begins to wonder who initiated the adultery. Herodias didn't mention the platter. The platter was... It was a touch of the girl, the daughter's own ghastly touch. And verse 26. The king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. The moment of truth has come for Herod. It's a crucial test of his soul. He has to decide between saving face and saving John. He knew who John was. He's a holy and righteous man. He knew that God's hand was upon him, and to go against John is to go against God.And he here now has to decide between the opinions of the noble guests and the truth. He's got to decide between gaining the world and gaining his soul. It says he was exceedingly sorry. He was greatly distressed. The word is only used one other time the New Testament, and that was to describe Jesus' pain in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was greatly distressed when he saw the suffering before him. And here Herod's grief was real, but he had been trapped. And this shows us that grief over sin is not repentance.Being sorry over your sin or sorry over the situation that your sin has got you in, that's not true repentance. True repentance is turning from that sin and turning to a path of righteousness and following Christ. Herod's conscience had been awakened by John and he suppressed the truth because of what he feared others would think. I think there are many today who are in a similar predicament where you know that Christ is king, where you know that the holy scriptures are true.What else is other than scriptures? You know that eternal life is only found in Christ, and you're not public about it or you won't follow Christ in your daily life. And how many people's consciousness have been awakened to eternal truth and they've quenched that because of their fear of, what are my friends going to think? What's my family going to think? And whenever you have conversation like this about the gospel and you get people to the point where you got to make a decision and they're like, okay, what kind of Christian are you?I'm not a big fan of that question. A true one. There's only one type of Christian. You're saved or not. And if you are saved, you have to be public about it. You have to testify to the truth of it, to care more about what God thinks than what people think. Mark 6:27. Immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. Besides gratifying a sadistic whim, the production of the head on a platter is proof that John has been killed.And the title king is used over and over in our text in particular here. It's technically inaccurate. He wasn't a king. He was a tetrarch. He was a puppet for Rome. But the title king is repeated ironically because Herod wasn't a king. He was outwitted and manipulated by two women and hamstrung by his own oath and his fear of losing faith before his subjects. The supposed king wasn't king even over himself. He couldn't control himself much less his subjects. He's over mastered by his sin.He's over mastered by his desires. He's over mastered by his emotions, which swing wildly from superstitious dread, he thinks Jesus is John resurrected, to awe and fascination and confusion to arousal that seems to border on insanity and to extreme depression. In this context, his pretensions to royal authority appear almost like a farce. He appears to rule whereas actually his strings are being pulled by others. The tyrant isn't even a true king over himself. He's a slave to his own passions.Herod lets John die, and thus shows himself to be among those in whom despite their attraction to the kingdom of God, despite the fact that the seeds seem like they have been planted in his heart, he's gladly listening to the word, he's gladly listening to the sermons, but the cares and concerns of this age end up choking the word. A lesson for each one of us here is if you fear God more than man, you might lose your head, but not your soul. And if you fear man over God, you might keep your head.You might even become more prosperous and lose your soul in the process. And Jesus said, "What prophet is it to someone gain the whole world and yet lose their soul?" For Herod, saving faith was more important than saving his soul. Verse 29. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. We see finally in these verses how little reward one of God's greatest servants gets in this world. John's life after a life of faithful witness to Christ ends in unjust imprisonment and a violent death.Like Steven, like James and like the other apostles of whom the world was not worthy, he was called to seal his testimony with his blood. Histories like these are meant to remind us that the true Christians' best things are yet to come. His rest, his crown, his wages, his reward are all on the other side of the grave. Here in this world we must walk by faith and not by sight. And if we look for the praise of people, we're not going to get it. And here in this life, we must sow and labor and fight and endure persecution, and we are to know that this life is not all there is.One day retribution will come and heaven will make amends for all. Romans 8:18 says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." 1 Corinthians 2:6. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for his glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this.For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no I has seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined which God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. We see what King Herod thought of John the Baptist. King Herod's opinion doesn't really matter. John the Baptist cared more not about what King Herod thought of him, but what King Jesus thought about him.And what did King Jesus think of John the Baptist? Well, Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:11, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist. Until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."John the Baptist, according to Christ, was the greatest of all men that was ever born. Why? Because John knew his place, he knew his job, and his job was to proclaim Christ. He knew that he was to decrease so that Christ would increase. In John's cruel death, we're also given a glimpse of Jesus' faith, that Jesus' ministry would eventually take him to Jerusalem where he would be rejected and imprisoned and ultimately mocked, scourged, and crucified. And there are numerous parallels between John and Christ.Each was eagerly heard and become the object of curiosity of a leader. John with Herod, Jesus with Pilate, each false victim to his enemy's murderous intention, is arrested, bound, and ignominiously executed and buried. Thanks be to God, Jesus' head wasn't put on a platter. That Jesus, even though he was crucified, in his crucifixion, in his death, he conquered death and the grave and he rose on the third day. Since he's far greater than even John himself, he overcame death.And in his death, we see the death of death itself. The last recorded mention of Herod, this Herod, presents him as a hardened blasphemer. At the end of Jesus' life, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod and Herod has another opportunity to repent of his sin. In Luke 23:6, when Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he heard that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem. At that time.When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desire to see him, because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. And the chief priest and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with the soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other on that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other. Herod gladly received the servants of John.And here you see the progression into sin, where when Christ is right before, he stands face to face with the Son of God, all he can do is mock. He's absolutely dead inside, jaded. He had passed the point of no return, a point when repentance is no longer given. Friends, you just need to know this is a reality. If you keep prolonging repentance, the day of repentance, the day of turning from sin and turning to Christ, at some point there will be a day of no return, at some point the gift of repentance will not be extended to you, at some point the Holy Spirit will stop wooing.So what do we need to do? If you hear God's voice today in your heart, repent of sin and turn to him. Acts 17. Paul before the men of Athens and the Areopagus, he says, "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given insurance to all by raising him from the dead." Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.But others said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined them and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Today, if you hear the voices of God, repent from sin and turn to Christ, recognize that Christ is the only way of salvation. His sacrifice on the cross is the only sacrifice that can atone for our sins and the wrath that they deserve.Today, we are celebrating holy communion in which we remember the sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross on our behalf when he laid down his life for his sheep, for whom is communion. It is for repentant followers of Jesus Christ. If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have not repented of sin, if you have not believed in him, today is your opportunity to do that, repent of sin and turn to him. If you are a self-identified believer in Jesus Christ, but you know that there's unrepented sin in your life, sin that you have not left, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service.So do nothing for you. Instead, take time to meditate on the gospel. If you are a repentant follower of Christ, you'd like to partake of holy communion. And if you have not received the elements, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring them to you. And as they do that, I'll read 1 Corinthians 11:23-32. For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."In the same way also, he took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Would you pray with me over holy communion? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your lavish love and sending your Jesus Christ for us. Jesus, we thank you that you died on the cross for our sins while we were yet sinners.You died for us recognizing that this was the only way to save us from our sin and save us from the wrath to come. Lord Jesus, we thank you that even as you hung on that cross, you were busy forgiving people, crying out, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." We recognize from that text even ignorance of our sin is not defense against the wrath of God. So we plead the blood, we ask Jesus forgive us of our sins.We repent of breaking commandments, transgressing commandments, and we pray by the grace of God that you give us the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives of righteousness. As we remember your suffering on the cross today, let us be sobered by the fact that that's what it took to save us from our sin. So how can we continue living in sin? Give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness and continue to satisfy us with your presence. And Lord Jesus, we thank you that you did not stay dead.You rose on the third day, and today you are sitting at the right hand of God ruling and reigning. We pray that you continue to establish your kingdom all around the world and in particular in our region. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen. There are two lids. You open the top lid to open the cup and the bottom lid to open the bread. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread. And after breaking it, he said, "This is my body broken for you. Take eat and do this in remembrance of me."Then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is the cup of the new covenant of my blood, which is poured up for the sins of many. Take drink and do this and remembrance of me." Oh Lord, we thank you that you have chosen us to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for your own possession, so that we may proclaim the excellencies of our king, a king who calls us out of darkness into your marvelous light. We thank you, Lord, that you offer us your mercy and your grace.We thank you that you offer us your presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we pray, Lord, that you continue to bless this church, continue to draw your elect, and continue to sanctify every single one of us so we grow ever more beautiful in your sight. Make us a people who are more courageous than ever, more bold than ever, proclaiming the gospel at every opportunity that we have. And make us a people, Lord, that revel in the fact that we are yours and you are a great and mighty king, an excellent king. And we love you and we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Oh Holy God, Heavenly Father, we come to you in reverence and trepidation at your greatness, your mightiness. You are a glorious God. And Lord, we thank you so much that you did not leave us in our sin, in our darkness, but you sent your son Jesus Christ, the light of the world, the truth, the way, the life. And Jesus, we thank you for providing a way for our salvation, for our forgiveness of sin, for our transfer from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved son. And Lord Jesus, we thank you for proclaiming the truth as boldly as you did, and that boldness took you to a cross.And we thank you for the example of your choice servants who proclaim the truth, no matter the consequences, many of whom were martyred for the faith. And we thank you that their blood was the seed of the church. We thank you for all those that you sent while we were still in darkness to proclaim the gospel to us boldly. And we thank you, Lord, that you give us grace and that you empower us by the power of the Holy Spirit to go and proclaim the gospel to anyone who would hear.And I pray, Lord, that you grow our fearlessness in proclamation of the word of God, the truth, the gospel no matter what the consequences, no matter the opposition. I pray that you make us so people who care more about what you think than even what earthly rulers think about us. And Lord, help us proclaim the truth and love and in kindness, but boldly. Lord, we thank you for the example of your disciples, the apostles, and we thank you for the example of John the Baptist who proclaimed the truth to a king, an earthly, wicked, degenerate king, and he was beheaded for it.And Lord Jesus, as we look at that example, I pray, let us just marvel at the fact that a little embarrassment, a little discomfort when we proclaim the truth, how many of us are thwarted from continuing the mission because of that and how silly all of that is in comparison to those who've gone before us. And Lord, as the world turns even darker in opposition to you, more godless and persecution becomes an ever present reality. I pray that we unflinchingly continue to further your kingdom by proclaiming your truth.Bless our time, the holy scriptures today. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen. On this Communion Sunday, the title of the sermon is Proclaim the King's Excellencies as we continue through our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark. When the Lord Jesus Christ saves a sinner, he doesn't just save us from something, he saves us for something. And that for something should preoccupy our hearts and minds and that for something must be the purpose and the direction of our lives.Yes, Lord, you've saved me from hell. You've saved me from eternal punishment, from bondage to sin, from being a pawn of Satan. Now what would you have me do? And the Lord answers and says, "Become fishers of men. Continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ so people are freed from the nets of Satan and sin to the new exodus and following Christ." And how do we do this? We do it by proclaiming the excellencies of the king.In 1 Peter 2:9 it says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you are not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Did you notice the purpose? He says, this is why God saved us, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Christ. This is the purpose of every elect, blood-bought, redeemed, justified child of God.Our purpose is to be representatives of Christ and to represent Christ is to do the work that Christ did and continues to do, which is to proclaim the truth that Jesus is king and he rules the world with his law, the 10 commandments. To proclaim Christ is to tell people that they have sinned, that they have transgressed commandments. They are under God's wrath. However, whosoever repents of their sin and believes in Christ will be forgiven, will be given mercy, and will be given a mission to proclaim the excellencies of Christ.And for Christ to procure mercy for us, what did that entail? Entailed a gruesome, gory, grim sacrifice. It demanded crucifixion. Jesus Christ was crucified for proclaiming the truth. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised and should actually expect that when we lovingly, faithfully, kindly proclaim Christ, this will come at a cost. For some of us, it may even require death itself just like our Lord and just like John the Baptist and just like most of the apostles. Today, we are in Mark 6:7-29 as we continue our series, Kingdom Come.Would you look at the text with me? And he, Christ, called the 12 and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." But others said, "He is Elijah." And others said, "He is a prophet like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist."And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guess, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, Infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. Proclaim that people should repent, proclaim the law and the gospel fearlessly, fearing God is the secret to fearlessness. First, proclaim that people should repent. In verse seven, he, Jesus, called the 12 and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Why two by two? This is probably reflecting the Jewish practice of sending official representatives in pairs.And also in the Hebrew scriptures, there is a stipulation that two witnesses are required to establish legal testimony. So he commissions the 12 to extend the work that he was doing. He said, "I have come to teach the word of God and to proclaim the gospel for the kingdom of God is here for people to repent and believe." So here he sends out the 12 two by two. Practically why two by two, well, this provides for encouragement in particular in those moments where there is rejection.When a whole town says, "We want nothing to do with the message of God. Get out," at those moments, we need encouragement, and also accountability to continue proclaiming the truth as it has been given and not trying to make it more palatable for people by softening it. And this here shows us that we need Christian community. We need brothers and sisters in our lives for our own souls, but then also for the effectiveness of the mission that Jesus called us to. We need Christian community.We need the church. Hebrews 10:24 says, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love in good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." So even back then in the early church, they already had the issue where people believed that all I need is Jesus. All I need is scripture. I don't need the church. I don't need spiritual authority or accountability. Even back then, people were neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some.So friends, continue to make it a priority to come to church. I'm obviously speaking to people who are at church. Good job, keep doing what you're doing. But for those who are listening online, and I think during COVID when we were streaming our services, people just got into the pattern of like, that's okay. That's not okay. That's why we took our streaming off. And I'm even tempted at the point of take all the sermons offline. Offline is not real. It's not real. That's just enough to get you into church.And not just church, but community. At Mosaic, we are a church that draws thousands over the course of a year. There's thousands that come and there's thousands that go. So how are we to experience community? How do we experience this two by two ministry? We do that through our community groups. So if you are not in a community group, these are small groups of brothers and sisters that meet all across the city, all across the region over the course of the week, we'd love to have you join.Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, "Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe him who is alone when he falls and has not another lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken." And here in our verse it says that he began to send them out.Not only does this communicate that this is the start of their mission, but also it communicates that the mission continues, that Jesus continues to send us out as he had sent them out. And he says it began to send, this is the verb form of the word apostle, an apostle is someone who has been sent out with the authority of another. And Jesus, while still on earth, physically sends out the disciples to gain experience ministering the word of God.He entrusts them with his authority, gives them an opportunity to use the authority to make the mistakes that they would make in using that authority so that they can come back to Jesus. He would rectify it and clarify and continue to train them up to serve him. This is just an example of the ministry that Jesus had already been doing. And Mark 6:6, that's the verse before our text. He was in Nazareth and Galilee. He marveled because of their unbelief. That's his hometown.And he went out among the villages teaching. Despite rejection that he encountered in his hometown, he doesn't give up on his people. He continues to minister to them by sending the apostles out for another round of redemptive teaching. Now, we are not apostles, but we are disciples of Jesus Christ. We are followers of Jesus Christ, and most of us most likely aren't called to being international ministries or cross-cultural ministries, missionaries or full-time pastors and teachers. But we are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ wherever we are.We might not be sent around the world, but we are still sent across the street. Our city is our mission field and, you and I, we're laborers that Christ sends out to gather in the harvest right here on our doorstep. I don't know if you've noticed, but traffic has been getting worse in the area. The congestion's terrible, the double parking. I've never seen so many people double parking. I think it's the Uber Eats and such, but I used to get irritated by traffic and irritated by people double parking.I've chilled out partially because I changed my music. I started listening to monastic chants in my vehicle. It's very soothing. It helps with driving in peace. It's tremendous. And now whenever I'm in traffic, I get behind someone, I'm like, okay, you're double-parked. All right. I just pray for them, like Lord, save this person from their wicked ways of not following the law and such. But as I see people, there's people from all over the world all around us. The Lord is drawing people from all over.They're here. This is why we exist. We are on mission to proclaim the gospel to all who would listen, to all who would hear. And we have the authority of Jesus Christ. Just as he gave to his early disciples, he has given to us as the church. He says, go and make disciples of all nations. And he says, when you do, when you make disciples of all nations, I am with you until the end of the age. We experience the fullness of Christ's presence in particular when on mission proclaiming the truth.And his authority and the authority that he gave to the disciples is his own. He doesn't just pray to the Father. Father, I pray that you empower them. No. He gives them his own authority which reminds us of who Jesus really is. He is the Son of God. He is God. Authority resides in him and he exercises rule over the church as it goes and he does command us to go and proclaim. In Mark 6:8, he charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.The staffs were used for walking on rough terrain and for defense against wild animals and criminals, et cetera. And Jesus here says, okay, fine. Take a staff, but no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. And what he's saying is, I'm going to provide. You're on mission doing my work. It's my business that you are going about doing, and I will provide for you in the same way that I provided for the Israelites in the desert. If you remember, the Israelites were sustained by God. They didn't have food, but he sent food from heaven.Rain manna. Their clothing by God's grace was supernaturally preserved from deterioration and Jesus instructs them to take just the basics of staff and sandals, which is an allusion to Exodus 12:11 when he was preparing them during the Passover meal before the Exodus. It says Exodus 12:11, in this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. So the disciples' missionary journey is similar to the old exodus, but their journey is a new exodus. T.Hey are people who are called by Jesus for freedom from sin and bondage and to go about and travel lightly so that they move quickly to call people out of bondage to sin and Satan. I do want to mention the Bible never sees renunciation of physical goods as a good in itself, but only as a necessity in some circumstances. This particular renunciation was not intended as a universal rule binding all disciples at all times. Though the simple faith that Jesus will provide when we are in the middle of his will doing his work, that is a universal rule.Later in Gethsemane, after the disciples had thoroughly learned this lesson to rely on the Lord for his provision, to depend only on him, after they learned that lesson, Jesus said, now that he is leaving, we are to procure resources in Luke 23:35. And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said "Nothing." And he said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one."First time he sends them out while he was still here. He says, "Don't take any money. Don't take a sword. Don't take food." The second time, he says, "When I leave, I want you prepared. I want you to have resources." After they learn to depend on the Lord, the Lord says, "We are to be prepared with resources if we can have them." Why? Because poverty is never the ideal in the Bible. Although if need be, it must be gladly embraced in God's service for Christ's sake. Verse 10.He said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." And here the mission of the disciples according to Christ must be marked by a humble persistence. They were to be aware that not everyone's going to receive this message. Many will actually be opposed to it and reject it.And whenever the disciples are accepted, they should remain in the place where they are and enjoy the resources that those who accepted the message would provide them with. But we are to be prepared as they were to be prepared that rejection is a reality of being a faithful proclaimer of the gospel. Mark 13:13, and you will, this is a promise, you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.He says, "Shake the dust that is on your feet when you are rejected," is a sign that when you are rejected, you are to reject the place that has rejected the message. And the very difficulty of the act, dust is not so easily removed, especially from sandaled feet that have been walking on unpaved middle Eastern roads. Hence, that the depth of feeling that evokes it. Not even the tiniest reminder of the place should be left upon them. They must assiduously purge themselves of every trace of it.And God himself will see to the latter on the day of judgment when the very dust will cry out as a witness against them. And verse 12. So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. They proclaimed that people should repent, not just sharing of the gospel. Sharing assumes that we're offering something that people want, share a recipe or share a meal or share a good laugh.But we aren't called to just share the gospel, we're called to proclaim that people should repent and boldly declare it whether it's welcome or not. I remember when I just moved to the city and I didn't know how to start a church as a church planner... I did street evangelism. I was just walking around the streets and I did spiritual surveys and asked people if they'd have a couple minutes to answer some survey questions I had. After the 1,000th conversation and no one got saved, I'm like, Lord Jesus, does this text apply to me?Can I dust off my boots from the dust of Boston, please? This was a message for them in this particular journey, but there were other examples where they lived in an area for years and they continue to administer. The emphasis here isn't on leaving a place. The emphasis here is on not taking a rejection personally. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting the Lord, and that should grieve our hearts, but it can't immobilize us and we shouldn't be surprised by it. You can't take it personally because then that just keeps you from proclaiming the gospel.They reject you, go to the next person and to the next person and to the next person. It's not we that converts people, it's God that does it. We are to sow the seed and to proclaim the truth and testify to it. What is the message? The message is that time is short. We're all mortal, and judgment is coming. Hell is real. And we are to flee the wrath that is to come. We are to hear the alarm sounding and get ourselves to safety. And the only source of safety, the only refuge, the only sanctuary is our savior Jesus Christ.And the message is that everyone is to repent. There are no impendent people in the kingdom of heaven. All who enter the kingdom have mourned over sin, forsaken it and sought pardon for it. In this particular commissioning, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what will happen on Pentecost when they will receive a permanent commission to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. And Jesus here is preparing them for after they receive the Holy Spirit to do things greater than even he did, which is a startling statement.But in John 14:12, he says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I'm going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." What does it mean that we're going to do greater things than Christ himself did? Well, he's not talking about individually. He's talking about as a church, as the body of Christ.We've been given talents and opportunities, and together, he's saying, we're going to do greater things than Christ did in his incarnate state when he was on earth. The disciples went and proclaimed the gospel, cast out demons, and healed people by anointing them. And James 5:14 says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." Point two is proclaim the law and the gospel fearlessly.Verse 14, King Herod heard of it for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." There's only two passages in the Gospel of Mark not about Jesus Christ, and those two are about John the Baptist in chapter one. And here John was the forerunner of Jesus' ministry and also the forerunner of Jesus' death. And in both cases, both men stood before wicked, cowardly, tyrants fully aware of the innocence of both John and Jesus.And nevertheless, they feared the pressure of the people, and therefore they executed John and James. I do want to point out that it wasn't the disciples' names that were made known. As they did their work, as they proclaimed the gospel, as they healed people, it was the name of Jesus that had become known. The disciples preaching in wonder working are the means for Christ's name to become known. The miracles worked by the 12 disciples were really performed by Christ.It was his authority, his power. They were wielding his power. And the work's done by the disciples didn't cause the people in Galilee or even King Herod to wonder who are these disciples. They're wondering who is this Jesus that they are proclaiming. They weren't confused whose power it was. And that brings us to King Herod. Who is this Herod? This is Herod Antipas. He is the son of King Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus when he was born. King Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, ruled in the Transjordan region from 4 BC until his exile in 39 AD.This is the king whom Jesus called that fox in Luke 13, a reference to King Herod's malice, his cunning, his shrewdness and lack of pity and his love of degenerate decadence. In 39 AD, he was recalled to Rome and replaced by his nephew, the infamous Herod Agrippa, who later killed James and imprisoned Peter. In Mark 6:15 it says, but others said he's Elijah and others said he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."Actually the dirty work wasn't done by Herod himself, it was by an executioner as we see later in the text. But here in the Greek, there's an emphatic I myself have beheaded. This is John whom I myself had beheaded, which reveals that King Herod's conscience has been disturbing him. His conscience has been terrifying him. It shows us that although he thought himself a king, he wasn't king over his conscience. The truth was the law of God was. And for Herod, the supernatural miracle, he thought Jesus was John comeback from the dead, and he believed it.That supernatural miracle itself was not enough to bring him to repentance. That's how stubborn he was and hardened in his sin. The assumed divine miracle, John's resurrection, is a cause not for celebration but for terror. And here I also want to point out that John was so Christlike that when Herod hears about Christ, he confuses Christ with John. That's how much John had decreased so that Jesus could increase. He represented Jesus with his whole being. Who was John the Baptist?He was a miracle child born to the aged Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth. He was a Nazarite from birth, a result of explicit orders of the angel Gabriel. His hair was never cut. He never touched a dead body or drank fermented drink, according to Numbers 6. And he took up the clothing of the ancient prophets wearing a rough coat of camel's hair and leather belt and subsisting in the wilderness and the diet of locusts and wild honey. He was a man of good conscience and therefore moral courage.When he spoke the word of God, everybody knew that it rang true because of John's integrity. And he would lose his head, but not his witness. John made way for the Lord, preparing the way for Christ by boldly denouncing sin and calling people to radical repentance, as seen in Matthew 3:7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.And do not presume to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he'll burn with unquenchable fire."Jesus is neither John the Baptist, Herod got it wrong, nor Elijah. Jesus was John's contemporary, so he's not him. And with respect to Elijah, Mark already said he linked Elijah with John, not Jesus. And Jesus wasn't just a prophet. He did use that term to characterize himself, but it definitely wasn't sufficient to characterize him. Verse 17. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her.For John had been saying to Herod, "It's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And here, what is John appealing to? It's not lawful. What law is he appealing to? Look how simple and plain and straightforward his message was. It's not lawful for you to have another man's wife. You've committed adultery, Herod. You've transgressed the Seventh Commandment. You've taken Herodias from your brother, so she is an adulterous as well, and he's calling them to repentance.He proclaims the plain truth regardless of the consequences. And what he's telling King Herod, consider himself a king, he's saying, there's a king above you. There's a law above you. You are not above the law. It's the law of God, and the law of God is law over everyone. It's enforced over everyone. It doesn't matter if you identify as a Christian, it doesn't matter if you identify as a believer of the scripture, none of that matters. God is God over everyone. His law governs everyone. Some people erroneously think that when you preach the gospel, you never mention the law.When you're sharing "the gospel," the law isn't necessary. The law is only for believers. First trust in Jesus, get grace, and then we can talk about the law, then we can talk about how you are to live. This is false, because you can't call people to repentance if they do not know what they are to repent of. And John as an Elijah like figure is zealous for the Lord and his law, and he's going to proclaim it to both Herod and Herodias no matter how much it antagonizes them, no matter how much they want to kill him.And that brings us to point three, fearing God is the secret to fearlessness. John, where did you get the power to be so fearless, so courageous, so bold in proclaiming this truth to a king? He got it from fearing God more than anyone else. He didn't care what King Herod thinks about him. He cared more about what King Jesus thinks about him. In verse 19, Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe.When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, yet he heard him gladly." John's very existence caused Herodias unease in her conscience, yet she's hardened and seared in her conscience by her wickedness and won't rest until he is dead. And Herod feared John. He wanted to protect the life of John knowing that he's righteous and holy. So he arrests John to protect John from Herodias. This is how conflicted this man was. Herod was convicted by John's words, yet he gladly listened to them.Most likely the prison was in the same place where his palace was and he would just bring John up and say, "John, do your thing." And John with his camel hair and he's got his leather belt and he is like, "You broke commandment number seven. Repent. And Herodias too." And then Herodias gets mad and Herod's like, "Continue," and oh, just continuously gladly welcoming the message, feared the guy, knows it's true, it rings true, definitely resonates, and he's willing to listen. He's willing to observe, heard him gladly.But there was one thing that Herod wasn't willing to do. He wasn't willing to cease from his adultery. He wouldn't give up Herodias, and so he ends up ruining his soul. Verse 21. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading man of Galilee. Those present at this party were the petty lords and the Roman battalion commanders, the tribunes. So these men gather in Herod's fortress palace where John was imprisoned.And the text doesn't explicitly say, but a birthday in such luxurious confines of the royal palace with all the big wigs certainly implied large quantities of alcohol. And from Mark's report, there's possibility that Herod was definitely well-lubricated when Herodias finally traps him in verse 22. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish and I'll give it to you."Josephus, the famed Jewish historian, tells us that this young woman named Salome was in her middle teens at this time, so she dances in a very explicit way. Here we see that King Herod gets excited to the point where his braggadocio is turned on and he vows in verse 23, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half of my kingdom." And this is probably a figure of speech in any case, because the kingdom wasn't his to give. It was Rome's. And so verse 24, she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?"And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in and immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The instantaneous reply of Herodias implies premeditation. So the cunning demonic forces that have been working for John's downfall now at last have sprung their trap. Here Herodias is presented as another Jezebel, manipulating her cowardly and indecisive husband and seeking the death of the Lord's prophet.And one begins to wonder who initiated the adultery. Herodias didn't mention the platter. The platter was... It was a touch of the girl, the daughter's own ghastly touch. And verse 26. The king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. The moment of truth has come for Herod. It's a crucial test of his soul. He has to decide between saving face and saving John. He knew who John was. He's a holy and righteous man. He knew that God's hand was upon him, and to go against John is to go against God.And he here now has to decide between the opinions of the noble guests and the truth. He's got to decide between gaining the world and gaining his soul. It says he was exceedingly sorry. He was greatly distressed. The word is only used one other time the New Testament, and that was to describe Jesus' pain in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was greatly distressed when he saw the suffering before him. And here Herod's grief was real, but he had been trapped. And this shows us that grief over sin is not repentance.Being sorry over your sin or sorry over the situation that your sin has got you in, that's not true repentance. True repentance is turning from that sin and turning to a path of righteousness and following Christ. Herod's conscience had been awakened by John and he suppressed the truth because of what he feared others would think. I think there are many today who are in a similar predicament where you know that Christ is king, where you know that the holy scriptures are true.What else is other than scriptures? You know that eternal life is only found in Christ, and you're not public about it or you won't follow Christ in your daily life. And how many people's consciousness have been awakened to eternal truth and they've quenched that because of their fear of, what are my friends going to think? What's my family going to think? And whenever you have conversation like this about the gospel and you get people to the point where you got to make a decision and they're like, okay, what kind of Christian are you?I'm not a big fan of that question. A true one. There's only one type of Christian. You're saved or not. And if you are saved, you have to be public about it. You have to testify to the truth of it, to care more about what God thinks than what people think. Mark 6:27. Immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. Besides gratifying a sadistic whim, the production of the head on a platter is proof that John has been killed.And the title king is used over and over in our text in particular here. It's technically inaccurate. He wasn't a king. He was a tetrarch. He was a puppet for Rome. But the title king is repeated ironically because Herod wasn't a king. He was outwitted and manipulated by two women and hamstrung by his own oath and his fear of losing faith before his subjects. The supposed king wasn't king even over himself. He couldn't control himself much less his subjects. He's over mastered by his sin.He's over mastered by his desires. He's over mastered by his emotions, which swing wildly from superstitious dread, he thinks Jesus is John resurrected, to awe and fascination and confusion to arousal that seems to border on insanity and to extreme depression. In this context, his pretensions to royal authority appear almost like a farce. He appears to rule whereas actually his strings are being pulled by others. The tyrant isn't even a true king over himself. He's a slave to his own passions.Herod lets John die, and thus shows himself to be among those in whom despite their attraction to the kingdom of God, despite the fact that the seeds seem like they have been planted in his heart, he's gladly listening to the word, he's gladly listening to the sermons, but the cares and concerns of this age end up choking the word. A lesson for each one of us here is if you fear God more than man, you might lose your head, but not your soul. And if you fear man over God, you might keep your head.You might even become more prosperous and lose your soul in the process. And Jesus said, "What prophet is it to someone gain the whole world and yet lose their soul?" For Herod, saving faith was more important than saving his soul. Verse 29. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. We see finally in these verses how little reward one of God's greatest servants gets in this world. John's life after a life of faithful witness to Christ ends in unjust imprisonment and a violent death.Like Steven, like James and like the other apostles of whom the world was not worthy, he was called to seal his testimony with his blood. Histories like these are meant to remind us that the true Christians' best things are yet to come. His rest, his crown, his wages, his reward are all on the other side of the grave. Here in this world we must walk by faith and not by sight. And if we look for the praise of people, we're not going to get it. And here in this life, we must sow and labor and fight and endure persecution, and we are to know that this life is not all there is.One day retribution will come and heaven will make amends for all. Romans 8:18 says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." 1 Corinthians 2:6. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for his glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this.For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no I has seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined which God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. We see what King Herod thought of John the Baptist. King Herod's opinion doesn't really matter. John the Baptist cared more not about what King Herod thought of him, but what King Jesus thought about him.And what did King Jesus think of John the Baptist? Well, Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:11, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist. Until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."John the Baptist, according to Christ, was the greatest of all men that was ever born. Why? Because John knew his place, he knew his job, and his job was to proclaim Christ. He knew that he was to decrease so that Christ would increase. In John's cruel death, we're also given a glimpse of Jesus' faith, that Jesus' ministry would eventually take him to Jerusalem where he would be rejected and imprisoned and ultimately mocked, scourged, and crucified. And there are numerous parallels between John and Christ.Each was eagerly heard and become the object of curiosity of a leader. John with Herod, Jesus with Pilate, each false victim to his enemy's murderous intention, is arrested, bound, and ignominiously executed and buried. Thanks be to God, Jesus' head wasn't put on a platter. That Jesus, even though he was crucified, in his crucifixion, in his death, he conquered death and the grave and he rose on the third day. Since he's far greater than even John himself, he overcame death.And in his death, we see the death of death itself. The last recorded mention of Herod, this Herod, presents him as a hardened blasphemer. At the end of Jesus' life, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod and Herod has another opportunity to repent of his sin. In Luke 23:6, when Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he heard that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem. At that time.When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desire to see him, because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. And the chief priest and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with the soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other on that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other. Herod gladly received the servants of John.And here you see the progression into sin, where when Christ is right before, he stands face to face with the Son of God, all he can do is mock. He's absolutely dead inside, jaded. He had passed the point of no return, a point when repentance is no longer given. Friends, you just need to know this is a reality. If you keep prolonging repentance, the day of repentance, the day of turning from sin and turning to Christ, at some point there will be a day of no return, at some point the gift of repentance will not be extended to you, at some point the Holy Spirit will stop wooing.So what do we need to do? If you hear God's voice today in your heart, repent of sin and turn to him. Acts 17. Paul before the men of Athens and the Areopagus, he says, "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given insurance to all by raising him from the dead." Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.But others said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined them and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Today, if you hear the voices of God, repent from sin and turn to Christ, recognize that Christ is the only way of salvation. His sacrifice on the cross is the only sacrifice that can atone for our sins and the wrath that they deserve.Today, we are celebrating holy communion in which we remember the sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross on our behalf when he laid down his life for his sheep, for whom is communion. It is for repentant followers of Jesus Christ. If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have not repented of sin, if you have not believed in him, today is your opportunity to do that, repent of sin and turn to him. If you are a self-identified believer in Jesus Christ, but you know that there's unrepented sin in your life, sin that you have not left, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service.So do nothing for you. Instead, take time to meditate on the gospel. If you are a repentant follower of Christ, you'd like to partake of holy communion. And if you have not received the elements, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring them to you. And as they do that, I'll read 1 Corinthians 11:23-32. For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."In the same way also, he took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Would you pray with me over holy communion? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your lavish love and sending your Jesus Christ for us. Jesus, we thank you that you died on the cross for our sins while we were yet sinners.You died for us recognizing that this was the only way to save us from our sin and save us from the wrath to come. Lord Jesus, we thank you that even as you hung on that cross, you were busy forgiving people, crying out, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." We recognize from that text even ignorance of our sin is not defense against the wrath of God. So we plead the blood, we ask Jesus forgive us of our sins.We repent of breaking commandments, transgressing commandments, and we pray by the grace of God that you give us the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives of righteousness. As we remember your suffering on the cross today, let us be sobered by the fact that that's what it took to save us from our sin. So how can we continue living in sin? Give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness and continue to satisfy us with your presence. And Lord Jesus, we thank you that you did not stay dead.You rose on the third day, and today you are sitting at the right hand of God ruling and reigning. We pray that you continue to establish your kingdom all around the world and in particular in our region. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen. There are two lids. You open the top lid to open the cup and the bottom lid to open the bread. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread. And after breaking it, he said, "This is my body broken for you. Take eat and do this in remembrance of me."Then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is the cup of the new covenant of my blood, which is poured up for the sins of many. Take drink and do this and remembrance of me." Oh Lord, we thank you that you have chosen us to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for your own possession, so that we may proclaim the excellencies of our king, a king who calls us out of darkness into your marvelous light. We thank you, Lord, that you offer us your mercy and your grace.We thank you that you offer us your presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we pray, Lord, that you continue to bless this church, continue to draw your elect, and continue to sanctify every single one of us so we grow ever more beautiful in your sight. Make us a people who are more courageous than ever, more bold than ever, proclaiming the gospel at every opportunity that we have. And make us a people, Lord, that revel in the fact that we are yours and you are a great and mighty king, an excellent king. And we love you and we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) Dickens' last complete novel was published serially 1864-5. It begins with an intriguing fortune offered to John Harmon by his late father, a rich dust contractor, in his will.To receive the money, John must marry a certain Bella Wilfer who he does not know from Eve. He is returning from the exile enforced by his father and confides in a ship's mate who attempts to murder him. The mate gets killed instead, leaving one inconvenient corpse. Because John is considered dead (the body is found with his papers), the money passes to Mr Boffin, old Harmon's foreman. Harmon adopts Bella and John comes into his employ disguised as John Rokesmith. Bella does not fall for John but through kindly Boffin's contrivances learns to hate money and fall for her suitor under his false name. Eventually she learns of his true identity as the Boffins had previously, and the villainous one-legged Silas Wegg's plot to blackmail Mr Boffin is brought to light.There is also a story running behind the main plot about a certain Eugene Wrayburn and his love for Lizzie Hexam, and his rival's attempt to murder him. The two plots are only really connected through the waterside murders but it allows Dickens to indulge in an extremely socially diverse cast of characters. (Summary written by Alan Chant). Genre(s): General Fiction Language: English --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/librivox1/support

OCTOBER IS “OVERCOMING THE DARKNESS” MONTH when I dedicate the podcast to raising funds to support organizations who help people struggling with depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide or self-harm. Please help with either a small donation or share this link in your social media to encourage others to give, to get more information about the fundraiser and organizations we are helping, or to get the help that they or a loved one need: https://weirddarkness.com/hope.PLEASE SHARE THIS LINK in your social media so others who loves strange and macabre stories can listen too: https://weirddarkness.com/archives/18075IN THIS EPISODE: In 1882 the Ma'amtrasna murders, the brutal killing of several members of the Joyce family in rural Galway, caused outrage in Irish society and remains one of the most notorious homicides in Irish history. However a few years later Cork was rocked by an equally heinous case which has largely been forgotten. We'll look at the brutal murders of four family members that took place in Castletownroche, Ireland. (The Castletownroche Murders) *** An Arizona family encounters a creature from the dark side of a Navajo legend. (The Arizona Skinwalker) *** John Blair liked to keep things “in the family”. But in his case, it wasn't just a saying. It was literal. Because John was infamous for being bigamous. (Bigamous Blair) *** Dozens of Korean War GI's claimed an unidentified flying object made them all sick. Theories range from high-tech Soviet death rays to extraterrestrials studying how we engage in battle to combat-stress-induced hallucinations. What actually happened? (The Korean War UFO)SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE…“The Korean War UFO” by Natasha Frost for History.com: https://tinyurl.com/y765nsgm “The Castletownroche Murders” by Fin Dwyer for the Irish Examiner: https://tinyurl.com/y9fhagfb “The Arizona Skinwalker” by Stephen Wagner for Live About: https://tinyurl.com/yxkdh9vv “Bigamous Blair” from London Overlooked: https://tinyurl.com/y9qpo54x Visit our Sponsors & Friends: https://weirddarkness.com/sponsors Join the Weird Darkness Syndicate: https://weirddarkness.com/syndicate Advertise in the Weird Darkness podcast or syndicated radio show: https://weirddarkness.com/advertise= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. Background music provided by Alibi Music Library, EpidemicSound and/or StoryBlocks with paid license. Music from Shadows Symphony (https://tinyurl.com/yyrv987t), Midnight Syndicate (http://amzn.to/2BYCoXZ) Kevin MacLeod (https://tinyurl.com/y2v7fgbu), Tony Longworth (https://tinyurl.com/y2nhnbt7), and Nicolas Gasparini (https://tinyurl.com/lnqpfs8) is used with permission of the artists.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =OTHER PODCASTS I HOST…Paranormality Magazine: (COMING SEPT. 30, 2023) https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2023, Weird Darkness.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/archives/18075This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/3655291/advertisement

7.10.23 John Burley Interview: Real Estate Expert, Educator, and Private Equity Company Founder" With 35+ years of investing experience and thousands of (personally) completed real estate deals, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, John Burley has the perfect mix of street-savvy knowledge and sound investing principles. John is a Pioneer in the Real Estate Investment Business, originally trained in the World of Wall St., in 1989 he left and founded his Private Equity Company, where he serves today as the Founder & CEO. It is a leader in the industry, with holdings from multiple countries and a dozen different states. His was among the first ever companies to bring Single Family Home (SFH) Portfolio Real Estate to the Private Equity Community. John is as an International #1 Best Seller with over One Million Copies Sold. His books include: Money Secrets of the Rich and Powerful Changes. He has also produced over 100 books and audio programs during his career. Because John is a Professional Investor, he makes his living actually DOING deals and not just teaching theory from the stage. The bottom line is: John walks his talk. For this reason, John is only available to speak at a few events per year, his last event for 2019 is November 1-3. John greatly looks forward to sharing with you what you need to take your Real Estate Investing Business to the next level. John Burley Real Estate Investor's Training At the Event You will Learn: How to Get Paid $10,000.00 UPFRONT on Every RE Deal How Wall St. Makes so Much Money and You Can Too The Exact, Perfectly Laid Out Presentation that John and his Students have used to Raise Tens of Billions of Dollars How to Get all the Money You Ever Wanted for RE Deals How to Fix the Broken Real Estate Model  How to Raise Money Right Now for All the Deals You Want Know Who to Contact for the Highest Levels of Conversion Learn the "Talking Points" that are the KEY to Success Present Your Offer Like a "PRO" Understand that if you are Talking about "Real Estate" or the "Rate of Return you are "SCREWED" How You Can Literally Do Hundreds of Property Deals The Private Equity Model, How to Have Your Own Real Estate Empire Put your Profits to Work to set Yourself Free How You Can Literally Do Hundreds of Property Deals Bring Together More Money, More Deals for You Why MONEY is What Real Estate is Really all About How to Raise all the Money you will Ever Need How to Get Paid $10,000.00 UPFRONT on Every Deal you Do The Private Equity Model, How to Have Your Own Real Estate Empire How John and His Students are Making over $200,000 on each and every Deal and you can too How to Leave Small-Time and Build a "Real Business" The Difference Between JV and Security Offerings such as 504, 505, 506 Real Estate - Cash Flow & Growth - The Dream Investment Finding the Great "Off-Market" Deals How to Buy Real Estate without your own Money, or Even Credit Where and How to Find Off-Market Deals Subject 2, Mirror Wraps, Owner Financing, Lease Options Plus, Much, Much More

Because John was there and can give us a faithful eyewitness testimony about the Person and Work of Christ, we should believe his account and join him and Peter as disciples whose principle calling is to follow Jesus.-- I. A Disciple of Christ has one central calling, to Follow Jesus vv 19b-22-II. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by non-crucial issues vv 22-23-III. We can rely on the faithful, eye-witness testimony we have about Jesus in Scripture vv 24-25

Because John was there and can give us a faithful eyewitness testimony about the Person and Work of Christ, we should believe his account and join him and Peter as disciples whose principle calling is to follow Jesus.-- I. A Disciple of Christ has one central calling, to Follow Jesus vv 19b-22-II. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by non-crucial issues vv 22-23-III. We can rely on the faithful, eye-witness testimony we have about Jesus in Scripture vv 24-25

Because John was there and can give us a faithful eyewitness testimony about the Person and Work of Christ, we should believe his account and join him and Peter as disciples whose principle calling is to follow Jesus. I. A Disciple of Christ has one central calling, to Follow Jesus vv 19b-22II. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by non-crucial issues vv 22-23III. We can rely on the faithful, eye-witness testimony we have about Jesus in Scripture vv 24-25

Jesus, the Word of God: Many people sense there must be something more to life, but what could it be? There once was an ambitious, hot-tempered young man named John whose life was dramatically changed by his friend, Jesus. John came to believe the new life he found — a real life, an eternal life, a life to the full — is available for all who believe. And this is what John's gospel is all about. Real life is found by faith in Jesus' name. Recorded on Jul 2, 2023, on John 1:1-18 by Pastor David Parks. Finding Life in Jesus' Name is a sermon series on the gospel according to John in the Bible. Have you ever felt unsatisfied with your life? Or, even when things were going well, something was still missing? Many people sense there must be something more. But what?? John, one of the closest friends of Jesus, believed that Jesus came into the world so that we may have life and have it to the full. Jesus turned John's life upside down, and John claims this new life — marked by God's power, presence, and purpose — is available for all who believe. Sermon Transcript So today, we have the privilege of starting a new annual theme for our preaching ministry, that is: Finding Life in Jesus' Name. Now normally, we'd have a selection of sermon series under this one annual theme from the Old and New Testaments in the Bible, but this year, we're going to do something a little different. For almost the whole next year, we're going to slowly (chapter by chapter and verse by verse) work through the gospel according to John. This morning, I have the task of introducing this whole series, but we'll also jump into the beginning, or the prologue as it's usually called, which John uses as an introduction to his gospel. So, as we kick off this new theme, you might be wondering what John is all about and why we should care about what he has to say today. And those are good questions, but I'd like to start with a few questions for you. How do you feel about your life? Have you ever felt unsatisfied with your life? Or, even when things were going well, that something was still missing? I know I've had those questions over the years. Not that good things haven't happened; certainly, many good things have happened in my life. But still, many people sense there must be something more to life, but what could it be? Well, a long time ago now, there was a man named John who was one of the closest friends of Jesus. John was an ambitious and hot-tempered young man when he started following Jesus. So much so that Jesus called John and his brother James the “Sons of Thunder.” At one point, John wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a city that wasn't very receptive to their message. He was ready to fight for the kingdom of God. But by the end of his long life, John became known as the Apostle of love. It really seems as if everything about his life had changed. He saw himself no longer with the hungry ambition to sit at Jesus' right or left hand in glory but simply as the disciple that Jesus loved. And he came to believe that God was not only loving as part of his character but that God himself is love. And he came to believe and teach that the main marker of a Christian, the most important thing that distinguishes the life of a disciple of Jesus, is their love for one another. If you grew up with John and met him later in life, you'd wonder, “How did this happen?” Well, how did John experience this kind of radical change in his life? It was Jesus. Jesus turned John's life upside-down. Jesus set him on a different path and walked with him until John understood and believed that Jesus came into the world so that we may have a new life, an eternal life, and have it to the full. Of course, this is what Jesus does. So why should we care about what he has to say today? Because John claims that the new life that he found — a life marked by God's power/presence/purpose — is available for all who believe, even for us today.

  Matthew 14:3-4 says For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. 4 Because John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her." We need some modern day John the Baptist's who are willing to call sin what it is.  Many today are willing to pander to society and all their so called freedoms.  It is appalling what Christians today or people that call themselves Christians are willing to put up with, cater to or be exposed to in order to be accepted and liked.  The world is not looking for people like them, they see enough of that already, what they are looking for is what the Bible calls in 1 Peter 2:9 a holy people, a set apart people.  People who are different.  If we look like the world do you think non-Christians will want to be saved?  No. Let us live up to our calling to walk worthy of the Lord and that is definitely not a worldly walk.      Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?              John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.               “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32             Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.              hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don't go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F             The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions

Full Text of ReadingsTuesday of Fifth Week of Easter Lectionary: 286The Saint of the day is Saint John of AvilaSaint John of Avila's Story Born in the Castile region of Spain, John was sent at the age of 14 to the University of Salamanca to study law. He later moved to Alcala, where he studied philosophy and theology before his ordination as a diocesan priest. After John's parents died and left him as their sole heir to a considerable fortune, he distributed his money to the poor. In 1527, he traveled to Seville, hoping to become a missionary in Mexico. The archbishop of that city persuaded him to stay and spread the faith in Andalusia. During nine years of work there, he developed a reputation as an engaging preacher, a perceptive spiritual director, and a wise confessor. Because John was not afraid to denounce vice in high places, he was investigated by the Inquisition but was cleared in 1533. He later worked in Cordoba and then in Granada, where he organized the University of Baeza, the first of several colleges run by diocesan priests who dedicated themselves to teaching and giving spiritual direction to young people. He was friends with Saints Francis Borgia, Ignatius of Loyola, John of God, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcantara, and Teresa of Avila. John of Avila worked closely with members of the Society of Jesus and helped their growth within Spain and its colonies. John's mystical writings have been translated into several languages. He was beatified in 1894, canonized in 1970, and declared a doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012. St. John of Avila’s liturgical feast is celebrated on May 10. Reflection Saint John of Avila knew that the lives of Christians can contradict the Good News of Jesus Christ—for example thinking racism is OK—implicitly encouraging Christians to live their faith-halfheartedly, and causing obstacles to non-Christians who might accept Baptism. In 16th-century Spain, those who advocated reforming the Church were often suspected of heresy. Saint John of Avila held his ground and was eventually recognized as a very reliable teacher of the Christian faith. John of Avila is the Patron Saint of: Andalusia, Spain Click here for more on Saint John of Avila! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

4.11.23 - John Burley – Professional Real Estate Investor, Educator, and Private Equity Company Founder With 35+ years of investing experience and thousands of (personally) completed real estate deals, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, John Burley has the perfect mix of street-savvy knowledge and sound investing principles. John is a Pioneer in the Real Estate Investment Business, originally trained in the World of Wall St., in 1989 he left and founded his Private Equity Company, where he serves today as the Founder & CEO. It is a leader in the industry, with holdings from multiple countries and a dozen different states. His was among the first ever companies to bring Single Family Home (SFH) Portfolio Real Estate to the Private Equity Community. John is as an International #1 Best Seller with over One Million Copies Sold. His books include: Money Secrets of the Rich and Powerful Changes. He has also produced over 100 books and audio programs during his career. Because John is a Professional Investor, he makes his living actually DOING deals and not just teaching theory from the stage. The bottom line is: John walks his talk. For this reason, John is only available to speak at a few events per year, his last event for 2019 is November 1-3. John greatly looks forward to sharing with you what you need to take your Real Estate Investing Business to the next level. John Burley Real Estate Investor's Training At the Event You will Learn: How to Get Paid $10,000.00 UPFRONT on Every RE Deal How Wall St. Makes so Much Money and You Can Too The Exact, Perfectly Laid Out Presentation that John and his Students have used to Raise Tens of Billions of Dollars How to Get all the Money You Ever Wanted for RE Deals How to Fix the Broken Real Estate Model  How to Raise Money Right Now for All the Deals You Want Know Who to Contact for the Highest Levels of Conversion Learn the "Talking Points" that are the KEY to Success Present Your Offer Like a "PRO" Understand that if you are Talking about "Real Estate" or the "Rate of Return you are "SCREWED" How You Can Literally Do Hundreds of Property Deals The Private Equity Model, How to Have Your Own Real Estate Empire Put your Profits to Work to set Yourself Free How You Can Literally Do Hundreds of Property Deals Bring Together More Money, More Deals for You Why MONEY is What Real Estate is Really all About How to Raise all the Money you will Ever Need How to Get Paid $10,000.00 UPFRONT on Every Deal you Do The Private Equity Model, How to Have Your Own Real Estate Empire How John and His Students are Making over $200,000 on each and every Deal and you can too How to Leave Small-Time and Build a "Real Business" The Difference Between JV and Security Offerings such as 504, 505, 506 Real Estate - Cash Flow & Growth - The Dream Investment Finding the Great "Off-Market" Deals How to Buy Real Estate without your own Money, or Even Credit Where and How to Find Off-Market Deals Subject 2, Mirror Wraps, Owner Financing, Lease Options Plus, Much, Much More

Have you missed Sentai? Because John and Natalie missed Sentai. Join them on a journey through the opening of three Sentai seasons and explore the wild ways this series can launch, and different tones we can experience. Also John accidentally refers to Jetman's Yuki Gai as Gokaiger's Ikari Gai and he's sorry. Featuring school, American voiceovers, glam villains, flying, girlfriends, being rich, stealing, CGI robots, and workplace harassment in the form of fusing with your female coworker. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr @teachmesentai Contact the show at teachmesentai@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/teachmesentai Art by Eavon14 Music by Christopher Bridgmon

Help me to continue to make and share great Biblical content everyday. https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.comThe Beheading of John the Baptist (Matthew 14: 1-11 Exposition)Introduction.Over the years as I've talked to people about the Lord, and I've had someone just flat out tell me they did not believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God or the Messiah. On some of those occasions I have said to them then what is your explanation to whom Jesus was if he is not who he said he was. If Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, if Jesus Christ and is not the Messiah promised in the Old Testament then in your opinion who was he. Some say he was good moral man, or he was a great teacher, or just the founder of religion called Christianity. But what intrigues me is how did they arrive at that conclusion.On some occasions I do actually ask say to that person how did you arrive at that conclusion, or to say the same thing another way why would you say that. What I'd like to do today is ask those of questions of ourselves today and hopefully come up with some reasonable explanations that might help us we face similar reactions to our faith and our saviour in everyday life. I would like us to look at some common explanation of who some people think Jesus was but I would also like us to dig a little deeper and find out some more about why people think that way. This is broader than just asking questions about who Jesus Christ is, there is a sense in which the passage we're going to look at goes way beyond that and looks at decisions people make and why they make them.This passage has a story about someone who came to a conclusion about who Jesus was and Matthew included it in his Gospel account to tell us not only why what one fella said but why he said it and, in the process, gives us some insight into decisions we make and why we make them. So with that in mind when you turn with me to Matthew chapter 14 Matthew chapter 14 and I'm going to begin reading with verse one.Reading – Matthew 14: 1-12.At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus 2 and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” 3 For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. 4 Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. 6 But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. 7 Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, “Give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter.” 9 And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her. 10 So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. 11 And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 Then his disciples cHelp us continue making great content for listeners everywhere.https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.comThe LIFE Podcast - The Bible Project | FacebookJeremy McCandless is creating podcasts and devotional resources | Patreonlinkedin.com/in/jeremy-mccandless-68353b16

It's the perfect time of year for getting bedding, but why? Because "John" said so! Who's John, and what does he have to do with anything? Follow me at: https://facebook.com/couponqueenpin001/ Website: https://couponqueenpin.com Email: cqp@couponqueenpin.com Instagram: @couponqueenpin001 Twitter: @couponqueenpin #podcasting #spotify #podcasts #podcastersofinstagram #podcastlife #podcaster #youtube #radio #realitytv #love #life #itunes #podcasters #music #applepodcasts #it #podcastshow #christmas #learn #newpodcast #motivation #spotifypodcast #applepodcast #winter #couponqueenpin --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cqpmoments/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cqpmoments/support

1 John 2:28-3:3Rev. Erik Veerman1/22/2023A Child of God, Now and ForeverI've really enjoyed our study of 1 John so far. Every time I read through it, I see something else that I hadn't seen before.It's very different, from say, the book of Romans. In Romans, you know, Paul presents more of a legal treatise on faith. It has a very logical flow, step by step. 1 John, on the other hand, is very free flowing. It has so many intertwined layers like knowing God, abiding in Christ, walking in faith, loving others, identifying false beliefs, and following God's commands.Those themes which are included in the four life tests that we've worked through are now going to be applied. Do you remember the tests? Obedience, love, the world, and doctrine. And as John applies them, we will see them overlap in different ways.Really, we're at a transition point. The apostle John has just given us external confirmations of authentic faith. And now he will give us the internal reality of what that means.These are perhaps the most powerful words of the entire book. Please turn to 1 John 2:28. You can find that on page 1211. We'll read through 3:3Stand as able.Reading of God's word.PrayerAt the beginning of the pandemic, a middle-aged man named Rob Kenney started a new YouTube channel. It's called, “Dad, how do I?”You see, when Rob was young, his parents divorced. His father got custody, but when Rob was 14, his father walked away from Rob and his siblings. It was incredibly difficult, like many situations. Over the years, Rob decided he did not want his children to go through that kind of pain, so he determined to be a faithful father… and also a father figure to others.So, at age 57, he started up a YouTube Channel, “Dad, how do I?” His first video was “how to tie a tie.” You can find a whole bunch of videos like “how to put up a shelf,” “how to jump start a car,” “how to make chili,” “how to file your taxes,” “how to unclog a sink.” Besides explaining how to do those things, he's very loving, he tells dad jokes, he likes to say “I'm very proud of you” and he includes fatherly advice.As of this week, Rob is up to about 4.4 million subscribers. He's been called the internet dad. And he had no idea this would happen.The reason so many people have resonated with Rob is because so many have strained relationships with their fathers, or have absent fathers, or are painfully aware of the failures of their earthly fathers. You see, there's something deep down in us that wants our fathers to love us. That desires our fathers to give us wisdom, to be there for us. That longs to know our fathers, or be reconciled to him, or to be with him again. I know that's the heart desire of many of you.And that's why these verses are so personally meaningful. That despite the weakness and failings and sin of our earthly fathers, we have a God who is a loving Father. His fatherly love goes far beyond any earthly father's love. That's not to minimize the encouraging love of some of our earthly fathers. But God's fatherly love to his children is infinitely deeper. And if you know God the Father, and his Son, as verses 23 and 24 speak about (that was last week), then you are a child of God. You have all the blessings and benefits of being his child. You are his. You are a member of his family. You can call him Father. He is with you. You can go to him and he will listen. And he will be present with you, forever.I think these verses in 1 John are the epitome of Scripture's declaration that God is our heavenly Father and we are his beloved children. To be sure, there are many many verses in Scripture that speak of God's people as his children, and God as Father. But these verses capture the amazement of that truth. John is expressing an overwhelming assurance of God's love for his children. It's an eternal assurance that we possess now and forever. An assurance and love that we can abide in. That pretty much captures the heart of this text.Before we work through what that all means, there's another father here. Meaning, there's another father mentioned in these verses. Really the whole book. An earthly father, a spiritual father. And that is the apostle John. Over and over, he calls his readers, “children” or “little children”. We've seen that already. That's because he is writing to his church. John is writing to the people whom God had entrusted into his spiritual care. As we've worked through 1 John so far, we've experienced John's love for them. Sometimes it has been a tough love. The love of this spiritual father for his spiritual children has required love paired with firmness. Clarity paired with sensitivity. That's because children need discipline and direction.Kids, Do you like it when you are punished? Of course not. Who does? Do you like it when your mom or dad sits you down and says, “we need to talk?” Probably not! But the thing is, that discipline and that tough guidance is meant to mature you. The more you resist it, the harder it will be for you. Jesus said, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” Kids, the discipline that your parents exercise with you will help you to mature and bear spiritual fruit in your life. And your parents do it because they love you. Let me say, it's easier and better for you if you receive that tough love rather than resist it (Parents, you can thank me later for that one!)You see, John has been very firm with them, because some in his church were not displaying a true faith. Either their disobedient words and actions… or their lack love for others… or their love of the world… or their false beliefs… demonstrated a false faith. And the source of this, as we read last week, were false teachers who rejected Jesus. They had left, but their mark had been made. And they were still seeking to deceive the church from the outside.And as their spiritual father, John desired to spiritually care for his spiritual children. And that included a firmness but full of love and reassurance. That is kind of the theme of the whole book. And these verses, today, take it to another level. Because John says to his spiritual children, if you truly know and abide in Christ, you are God's children. You are born of God. And that is truly amazing.I mentioned that we're at a transition point. We're going to come back to verse 28, but look down at verse 29. You'll see evidence that these verses are a transition point. Verse 29 does two things. First, it summarizes the life tests, and second, it sets up the second half of John's letter. It says, “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”At the beginning of chapter 2, in the first verse, Jesus is given a title: “Jesus Christ, the righteous.” When verse 29 says “if you know that he is righteous” it's referring to Christ. He is the one from which all righteousness emanates. He's the embodiment of righteousness. Sometimes we think of that word righteous (or righteousness), and we just think of Biblical morality. You know, living according to God's commands, loving others. But the word righteous includes more than just our character and our conduct. It includes our attitudes and our understandings – our beliefs. To be righteous is to be right in the eyes of God, which includes believing what is right and wrong. Verse 29 is saying that righteousness emanates from Christ, who is righteous. In fact, Jesus is our righteousness, we have his righteousness.And true believers seek to work out Jesus' righteousness in their lives. From the inside out. Notice that is talks about everyone who “practices righteousness.” That's what it's referring to - striving to reflect the righteousness we've been given in Christ. That's why verse 29 is a summary of the life tests. “Practicing righteousness” testifies to a life of faith in Christ.So, verse 29 summarizes chapter 2. But, it also previews chapter 3, 4 and 5. That word “practice” or “practices” is used 5 times in chapter 3. So, we're going to get into what that means in more depth next week. Also, the phrase “born of him” “born of Christ” is introduced here in verse 29. And it's used several times in the rest of the letter, especially chapter 5.Let me say it this way, if the life tests of chapter 2 reveal that you have a genuine faith, then you have been “born of him.” Him is referring to the righteous one, Jesus. You have been born of Christ. You are a child of God.So that's verse 29. When we get into chapter 3, it begins to answer the question, what does it mean to be a child of God? 1 John 2:28 through 3:3 doesn't give us the full picture, but what it does is establish the fact. Believers in Christ are children of God. God is our Father. We are his children. These verses establish the relationship between God and us as Father and children. If you are a follower of Christ, and your life and beliefs testify to a true faith in him, redeemed by him, then you are a child of God. A child of the king. You have a heavenly Father who loves and cares for and provides for and hears and protects you.That is truly incredible. That the creator God of the whole universe…. The God who created time and space, who set in motion the stars and the galaxies, whose power is infinite, who knows all and sees all and whose justice is perfect. This same God, the one true God, in all of his grandeur and majesty and might determined, in his perfect will, to call and make us his children. Those who know and abide in him, through Christ, are children of the living God. He's established a relationship between himself, the creator God, and you, his creature. He is your perfect loving Father… if you are believer, as the apostle has affirmed through chapter 2, then you are born of him.Verse 1 of chapter 3 affirms that in a tremendous way.The English translation that we use, I don't believe really captures the underlying Greek. It says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.”The word for “see” is at it's root the same word for “know” – to intimately know. And immediately after that is the phrase “what kind of love.” It's two words in the Greek. If you were to translate it directly, it would literally be “from what country is this love.” The sense is the incredible origin of God's love. So, see or know the incredible nature of the love from the Father that we should be called children of God.Other translations put it this way:• “See how great a love the Father has given us…”• Another one “See how very much our Father loves us…”• Or my favorite, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”The defining characteristic of God's relationship to his people is a loving father to his beloved children.Well-known atheist Christopher Hitchens wrote a book titled God is Not Great. An atheist is someone who does not believe that God exists. In the book, Hitchens includes what he thinks God would be like if God were actually real. He wrote these sad words regarding God's existence: “I think it would be rather awful if it was true. If there was a permanent, total, round-the-clock divine supervision… of everything you did, you would never have a waking or sleeping moment when you weren't being watched and controlled and supervised by some celestial entity from the moment of your conception to the moment of your death … . It would be like living in North Korea.”I cannot think of a more inaccurate description of God and especially his relationship with his people. It tragically misunderstands the God of the Scriptures. 1 John 3:1 gives us a radically different perspective.JI Packer, in his book, Knowing God, has a very pertinent response to this kind of misunderstanding. Packer wrote, "If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all."To summarize so far: You are a child of God if your life and beliefs testify to Christ's righteousness in you. You still sin, but the broader pattern of your life and beliefs confirm your faith. If that is you, you are born of him – Jesus. And you therefore have God as your Father. It is an amazing display of love that we can behold.Ok, besides the description of the Father-child relationship that God's has with those born of him, we're also given the extent of the relationship. It's described here as present and future. It's a present tense reality with the promise that will last into eternity.The present tense reality is right there in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 3. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God;” And look what it says next, “and so we are.”It's not just a “will be” and it's definitely not a “have been.” It's a “we are” his children. And if John's readers didn't catch that in verse 1, he emphasizes the reality in verse 2. “Beloved, we are God's children now.” Right now, if you have been born of him, you are a child of God. And you have all the benefits of being a child.I've already touched upon some of those benefits. In other places in the New Testament, the word adopted is used. We've been adopted into the family of God. We have the status of being a full member of the family “now.”What does that mean? That means we bear the name of God in Christ. It's like we're given a new last name because we are now his adopted child. As a child of God, we have full access to him through prayer. And because God loves us, he desires for us to come to him, to seek him, to know him. God desires us to know that he knows us, intimately.Besides that, being a child of God also means that God will provide and protect you. He'll provide for all your needs. He will comfort you through trials. He'll be there in times of sadness and grief and sickness, because he'll be present with you at all times. And none of your true enemies will ever overcome you. Sin, death, and the devil. Because God has conquered them for you.Those are all present benefits of being a child of God.But these verses also establish our eternal status as a child of God. Forever. When you become a child of God, he will never let you go.Jesus said, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand”Let's now go back to verse 28. It says, “little children, abide in him, so that when he appears.” John is writing about the second coming of Christ. “when he appears.” Or “when he comes again.”, “we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” Confidence that we will be his on that day. We don't need to shrink back, or worry, or fear that we'll lose our status. That cannot happen. If you are his, you are his forever. Chapter 3 verse 2 also speaks of the future. In fact, right after it says that we are his children now, it speaks of the future promise. “…we know that when he appears,” It's speaking of the same thing. The appearing of Christ when he returns. “When he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.”Christ has been exalted to the heavens. He has a resurrected body. And on that day of his second coming, we will have resurrected bodies just as he has. We don't fully know what that means. The apostle Paul's said as much. In 1 Corinthians 2, he quoted Isaiah 64: “…no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” We don't know what it will be like for us when Christ returns, but it will be a glorious thing. We will be, in some way, physically present with our Savior forever.As God's children, we will be heirs with Christ in eternity. That is the future benefit of being an adopted child of God – being a future heir of the king. Having the assurance that all that is his is ours. SO being a child of God not only means the present reality with all the comfort, protection, and presence that comes with God being our Father. But it also means that being a child of God is an eternal blessing. We will be glorified with Christ, forever.This week, I went looking for statistics… comparing families with a father in the home to families without a father. I was blown away by the number of studies. The presence of a father, especially a father engaged in the life of his children, has a profound positive impact on children. There are tons of different statistics from different angles. A devoted father in a home brings stability and direction and confidence to children. It's not without exception but it's overwhelming. On the other side, a home with an absent or disconnected father often leads to various struggles including crime and depression.And of course, our earthly fathers run the gamut of faithful to unfaithfulness. Even those of us that seek to be faithful dads are limited and often fail. Whether or not you know or knew your earthly father, whether or not he sinned against you (a little or a lot), whether or not he was present and there for you, whether or not he gave you wisdom and sought to protect you. Through any or all of those situations, if you are a child of God, you have a loving heavenly Father. And in him, you can draw strength, and confidence, and peace. You can rest assured in his faithful love. You can abide in him. For you ARE his, now. You have all of those blessings, and they will be blessings forever.And it's all because you have been born of him. Born of Christ. God the Son has made you a son or a daughter of God the Father. Jesus is the one who has given you his status as son. You are a child of God because in Christ you have been reconciled to God, AND through him, you have been united to him by faith. And through that union, you are God's child.If you are not a child of God, there's no special hoops to jump through, no mounds of adoption paperwork, there's no good works that you have to accomplish before becoming a child of God. No, it's as simple as turning your life to him by faith. It's believing in Christ as Savior of your soul and Lord of your life. And when you come to him confessing your sin and your shame, he will make you his child forever.Next week, we'll continue through chapter 3. We'll continue exploring what it means to be born of God. We didn't touch upon verse 3 this morning, but we'll come back to that next week. In the meantime, rest assured as a child of your Heavenly Father. Amen?

10.18.22 - John Burley Interview - Real Estate Expert With 35+ years of investing experience and thousands of (personally) completed real estate deals, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, John Burley has the perfect mix of street-savvy knowledge and sound investing principles. John is a Pioneer in the Real Estate Investment Business, originally trained in the World of Wall St., in 1989 he left and founded his Private Equity Company, where he serves today as the Founder & CEO. It is a leader in the industry, with holdings from multiple countries and a dozen different states. His was among the first ever companies to bring Single Family Home (SFH) Portfolio Real Estate to the Private Equity Community. John is as an International #1 Best Seller with over One Million Copies Sold. His books include: Money Secrets of the Rich and Powerful Changes. He has also produced over 100 books and audio programs during his career. Because John is a Professional Investor, he makes his living actually DOING deals and not just teaching theory from the stage. The bottom line is: John walks his talk. For this reason, John is only available to speak at a few events per year, his last event for 2019 is November 1-3. John greatly looks forward to sharing with you what you need to take your Real Estate Investing Business to the next level. John Burley Real Estate Investor's Training At the Event You will Learn: How to Get Paid $10,000.00 UPFRONT on Every RE Deal How Wall St. Makes so Much Money and You Can Too The Exact, Perfectly Laid Out Presentation that John and his Students have used to Raise Tens of Billions of Dollars How to Get all the Money You Ever Wanted for RE Deals How to Fix the Broken Real Estate Model  How to Raise Money Right Now for All the Deals You Want Know Who to Contact for the Highest Levels of Conversion Learn the "Talking Points" that are the KEY to Success Present Your Offer Like a "PRO" Understand that if you are Talking about "Real Estate" or the "Rate of Return you are "SCREWED" How You Can Literally Do Hundreds of Property Deals The Private Equity Model, How to Have Your Own Real Estate Empire Put your Profits to Work to set Yourself Free How You Can Literally Do Hundreds of Property Deals Bring Together More Money, More Deals for You Why MONEY is What Real Estate is Really all About How to Raise all the Money you will Ever Need How to Get Paid $10,000.00 UPFRONT on Every Deal you Do The Private Equity Model, How to Have Your Own Real Estate Empire How John and His Students are Making over $200,000 on each and every Deal and you can too How to Leave Small-Time and Build a "Real Business" The Difference Between JV and Security Offerings such as 504, 505, 506 Real Estate - Cash Flow & Growth - The Dream Investment Finding the Great "Off-Market" Deals How to Buy Real Estate without your own Money, or Even Credit Where and How to Find Off-Market Deals Subject 2, Mirror Wraps, Owner Financing, Lease Options Plus, Much, Much More

The Old and New Testaments are both needed to get the full picture of God's story of redemption. To ignore one in favor of the other is to miss out on insights and revelations about God and his love. As Pastor Ken looks at the book of Revelation today, there are many similarities to the Old Testament prophets and the visions that God gave them. John sees the same things that they saw but in more detail. Because John knew the prophecies, he was able to report accurately and fully in his account.

7.12.22 - John Burley Interview – Professional Real Estate Investor, Private Equity Company Founder, and Best-Selling Author With 35+ years of investing experience and thousands of (personally) completed real estate deals, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, John Burley has the perfect mix of street-savvy knowledge and sound investing principles. John is a Pioneer in the Real Estate Investment Business, originally trained in the World of Wall St., in 1989 he left and founded his Private Equity Company, where he serves today as the Founder & CEO. It is a leader in the industry, with holdings from multiple countries and a dozen different states. His was among the first ever companies to bring Single Family Home (SFH) Portfolio Real Estate to the Private Equity Community. John is as an International #1 Best Seller with over One Million Copies Sold. His books include: Money Secrets of the Rich and Powerful Changes. He has also produced over 100 books and audio programs during his career. Because John is a Professional Investor, he makes his living actually DOING deals and not just teaching theory from the stage. The bottom line is: John walks his talk. For this reason, John is only available to speak at a few events per year, his last event for 2019 is November 1-3. John greatly looks forward to sharing with you what you need to take your Real Estate Investing Business to the next level. John Burley Real Estate Investor's Training At the Event You will Learn: How to Get Paid $10,000.00 UPFRONT on Every RE Deal How Wall St. Makes so Much Money and You Can Too The Exact, Perfectly Laid Out Presentation that John and his Students have used to Raise Tens of Billions of Dollars How to Get all the Money You Ever Wanted for RE Deals How to Fix the Broken Real Estate Model  How to Raise Money Right Now for All the Deals You Want Know Who to Contact for the Highest Levels of Conversion Learn the "Talking Points" that are the KEY to Success Present Your Offer Like a "PRO" Understand that if you are Talking about "Real Estate" or the "Rate of Return you are "SCREWED" How You Can Literally Do Hundreds of Property Deals The Private Equity Model, How to Have Your Own Real Estate Empire Put your Profits to Work to set Yourself Free How You Can Literally Do Hundreds of Property Deals Bring Together More Money, More Deals for You Why MONEY is What Real Estate is Really all About How to Raise all the Money you will Ever Need How to Get Paid $10,000.00 UPFRONT on Every Deal you Do The Private Equity Model, How to Have Your Own Real Estate Empire How John and His Students are Making over $200,000 on each and every Deal and you can too How to Leave Small-Time and Build a "Real Business" The Difference Between JV and Security Offerings such as 504, 505, 506 Real Estate - Cash Flow & Growth - The Dream Investment Finding the Great "Off-Market" Deals How to Buy Real Estate without your own Money, or Even Credit Where and How to Find Off-Market Deals Subject 2, Mirror Wraps, Owner Financing, Lease Options Plus, Much, Much More

“THE ARIZONA SKINWALKER” and 3 More True, Disturbing Stories! #WeirdDarknessIN THIS EPISODE: In 1882 the Ma'amtrasna murders, the brutal killing of several members of the Joyce family in rural Galway, caused outrage in Irish society and remains one of the most notorious homicides in Irish history. However a few years later Cork was rocked by an equally heinous case which has largely been forgotten. We'll look at the brutal murders of four family members that took place in Castletownroche, Ireland. (The Castletownroche Murders) *** An Arizona family encounters a creature from the dark side of a Navajo legend. (The Arizona Skinwalker) *** John Blair liked to keep things “in the family”. But in his case, it wasn't just a saying. It was literal. Because John was infamous for being bigamous. (Bigamous Blair) *** Dozens of Korean War GI's claimed an unidentified flying object made them all sick. Theories range from high-tech Soviet death rays to extraterrestrials studying how we engage in battle to combat-stress-induced hallucinations. What actually happened? (The Korean War UFO)(Dark Archives episode from April 20, 2020)SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…“The Korean War UFO” by Natasha Frost for History.com: https://tinyurl.com/y765nsgm “The Castletownroche Murders” by Fin Dwyer for the Irish Examiner: https://tinyurl.com/y9fhagfb “The Arizona Skinwalker” by Stephen Wagner for Live About: https://tinyurl.com/yxkdh9vv “Bigamous Blair” from London Overlooked: https://tinyurl.com/y9qpo54x Subscribe to the podcast by searching for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts – or use this RSS feed link: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3655291/episodes/feed.Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. Background music provided by Alibi Music, EpidemicSound and/or AudioBlocks with paid license. Music from Shadows Symphony (https://tinyurl.com/yyrv987t), Midnight Syndicate (http://amzn.to/2BYCoXZ), Kevin MacLeod (https://tinyurl.com/y2v7fgbu), Tony Longworth (https://tinyurl.com/y2nhnbt7), and/or Nicolas Gasparini/Myuu (https://tinyurl.com/lnqpfs8) is used with permission. 

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46Visit the Church of the Undead: http://undead.church/ Find out how to escape eternal darkness at https://weirddarkness.com/eternaldarkness Trademark, Weird Darkness ®. Copyright, Weird Darkness ©.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =00:12:43.477, 00:32:48.890,

Full Text of ReadingsMonday of the Fourth Week of Easter Lectionary: 279All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Saint John of AvilaBorn in the Castile region of Spain, John was sent at the age of 14 to the University of Salamanca to study law. He later moved to Alcala, where he studied philosophy and theology before his ordination as a diocesan priest. After John's parents died and left him as their sole heir to a considerable fortune, he distributed his money to the poor. In 1527, he traveled to Seville, hoping to become a missionary in Mexico. The archbishop of that city persuaded him to stay and spread the faith in Andalusia. During nine years of work there, he developed a reputation as an engaging preacher, a perceptive spiritual director, and a wise confessor. Because John was not afraid to denounce vice in high places, he was investigated by the Inquisition but was cleared in 1533. He later worked in Cordoba and then in Granada, where he organized the University of Baeza, the first of several colleges run by diocesan priests who dedicated themselves to teaching and giving spiritual direction to young people. He was friends with Saints Francis Borgia, Ignatius of Loyola, John of God, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcantara, and Teresa of Avila. John of Avila worked closely with members of the Society of Jesus and helped their growth within Spain and its colonies. John's mystical writings have been translated into several languages. He was beatified in 1894, canonized in 1970, and declared a doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012. St. John of Avila's liturgical feast is celebrated on May 10. Reflection Saint John of Avila knew that the lives of Christians can contradict the Good News of Jesus Christ—for example thinking racism is OK—implicitly encouraging Christians to live their faith-halfheartedly, and causing obstacles to non-Christians who might accept Baptism. In 16th-century Spain, those who advocated reforming the Church were often suspected of heresy. Saint John of Avila held his ground and was eventually recognized as a very reliable teacher of the Christian faith. John of Avila is the Patron Saint of: Andalusia, Spain Click here for more on Saint John of Avila! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ, your son. Jesus, we thank you that you did not leave us in our sins, but you came to seek and to save that which is lost, those who are lost and that's us. Jesus, you are our good older brother. You came to find us when we ran from... You pursued us like the hound of heaven. And for those of us who have been found by you, I pray that you give us more unction and power of the Holy Spirit to pursue you with everything we have and to help others who are still lost to meet you. And Lord for those who are yet your children, are not yet adopted into your family, we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit, today convert them, regenerate and adopt them to your family by giving the gift of repentance, humility, and the gift of submission to the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. Bless our time, the holy scriptures and we pray in your name, the name of Jesus. Amen.Title of sermon is knowledge of sin. You are not ready for Easter Sunday until you grapple with Good Friday, because every Christian and their mom celebrate Easter. It's true. A lot of people show up to church just because that's what their mom wants. And there was no true resurrection day without a bloody death, a bloody death that we all deserve because we are all guilty. I'll never forget, Kyle Rittenhouse's reaction in the courtroom as he's awaiting the verdict and he hears "Not guilty." And he just broke down weeping uncontrollably, inconsolably. In the court of public opinion, he was vilified, obviously guilty, "Kill him now, no need for a trial." But there was also a video footage, the man Kyle killed was chasing Kyle and Kyle falls on the ground, turns around and sees the man pull out a gun, so Kyle defends himself.Well, we are the opposite of Kyle. In the court of public opinion today, every single person alive, just by virtue of you being alive, you're declared innocent. You're declared a good person, a virtuous person even. But the court of public opinion has no force. It has no power. The power is in the court of God. God is the judge and God judges, according to his law, and not man's law. Are you good or evil, obedient or defiant, innocent or guilty? What's the verdict? Today, we are on Romans 3:9-20, as we continue our sermon series through Romans, would you look at the text with me? "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." This is the reading of God's holy inherent infallible. Authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts.This Good Friday, we'll just walk through the text, verse nine. "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For, we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin," he says we are all under sin, is your heart beating? You are under sin, under the crushing weight of it. Sin isn't superficial. We're not talking about mistakes or foibles. It's not surface level. It's not tangential to our lives. Sin is a heavy weight bearing down on us, full throttle, like 10,000 pounds on a barbell on your back and you didn't even know it was there. On top of that, we have a whole burden of guilt as a result of our sin. "Guilty," we're on trial for the murder of the son of God and the verdict is "Guilty." We're all guilty.God is the judge, he is ruling and we're guilty. The 10 commandments, they hang over our next, like the blade of a guillotine and it's about to drop. And God will say the word when it's time and the time will come for each of us, it's inevitable. How do we know we're under a sin? Do you need stats? Do I need to give you real life examples? No, I do not. Do I need to share my own precise sins? There are many of how I've come to realize the weight of my own sin. No, you don't need to hear from my experience. You don't need to know the sins I've wrestled with and the demons I've wrangled. All you need to know is the pure word of God. How can we know we're under sin? Because God says so, God's word tells us that we are all sinners.God said so, God spoke. God's word is true and final. I don't need to make a case. I don't need to persuade you. I don't need to compel you. God says it, that settles it. Do you believe God's word? Do you believe God? If you don't, this is your greatest sin. You don't trust God, you don't take him at his word. Repent of your arrogant, willful, stubborn, stiff necked unbelief. Romans 14:23 says the following, "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." Whatever. So friends do believe in the word of God without question, without doubts, the pure unadulterated word of God. Do you have that faith? If not, you're under sin, you're under the greatest sin. You are under the unpardonable sin. Lot of Christians ask "What is the unpardonable sin? What is the sin that God will never forgive?" Well, it's standing over a clear work of the Holy Spirit and standing over in judgment and saying "That is not from God."Study the context of Matthew 12, Matthew 12, Jesus Christ cast out a demon from a gentleman. And the Pharisees say that Jesus cast out the de demon by the power of Satan. Jesus says the following, verse 31, "Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy for me will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." Who wrote the holy scriptures? It was the Holy Spirit. He chose people, anointed people, inspired people to write the holy scriptures. And if you don't believe the holy scriptures, you need to repent of your or unbelief, or else, you will not be forgiven ever, either in this age or in the age to come, Jesus said.The greatest sin is not believing that you are a great sinner. So look in the mirror of the holy scriptures. What does it show you? It exposes your sin. Look to God's word, as it is written. And the apostle here turns to the Hebrew scriptures and amalgamation of the text. Most from the Psalms, some from the prophet Isaiah, versus 10 through 18 are all from the sacred scriptures, one charge after another one indictment after another, verse 10, "as it is written," that's the case.How do we know that we are sinners? "As it is written, none is righteous. No, not one." You're alive, thanks be to God. Therefore you are God's. He created you. He breathed life into you. He knit you together in your mother's womb. He created you in his image to represent him, to represent his holiness, his love, his beauty, his righteousness, and yet you rejected him, you rebelled against him. I was walking with my daughters to church today, and my pink shirt that my wife got me from my birthday. And I love my wife, so I like the shirt. She said "Too many dark of colors you've got." I'm walking with my daughters and then all of a sudden, I see everyone's face turn to this dog that is sprinting across the street. Because people in Boston, they really care for their dogs.And then after a while everyone's worried, "Who's dog is this?" Then you see this poor guy just sprinting as fast as he can after the dog. Well that's each one of us. In our nature, we are sprinting away from our owner and therefore we in God's court cannot stand. And these are the charges brought against you and me that we are sinners. You might have done some righteous things, but good works can't change a wicked heart, a hard heart, a stone heart, based on what standard are we guilty on the standard that matters. The only one God's holiness. God is holy, blazingly holy. And not one sin can stand in his present, not one sinner. You know what heaven is? Heaven is just the fullness of the presence of God for all of attorney, the pure presence of God. Do you want to be in the presence of God for all of attorney?Could you even stand it? I know many of you can't, of course not. Many of you can't even sit in a room quietly by yourself and just think and meditate on God. You can't even drive in silence because in the silence, God's spirit begins to convict you of sin and self righteousness. With questions like "Where did I come from? And where am I going? And what is the meaning and the purpose of life? What is my identity? What am I going to do with all the shame and the guilt that I am burdened with?" And God says be still and know that I am God.Verse 11, "No one understands; no one seeks for God, because no one is righteous." So no one can understand a righteous God, if you have no desire to be righteous, if you have no desire to be holy or obedient, well, how can you understand a being who is perfectly righteous and perfect and holy? How many hours a day do you focus your mind on God and only God, the things of God? Do you hunger and thirst for the word of God, for the deep things of God? By choosing sin over God and over his will, you dehumanize yourself.You become less of a human being. You devolve into an animal driven by your physical passions, cravings and appetites. And when this happens, of course, you won't see God, you have no power to, because you're a slave to sin, locked inside a jail cell of your own creation, and you flush the only key down the toilet. No one in his or her natural state seeks after God. You consider yourself as a spiritual seeker. A lot of people do. A lot of people say things like "I'm not very religious, but I'm spiritual. I'm a seeker. I'm looking for God. I'm open to finding God." And I always say, "Are you? Are you really? Of course not. And that's why you haven't found him yet." Perpetual seeking, never finding the absolutely most dishonest position to be in. And lots of people say they see God, but they don't see God.They see God's blessings or protection from his curses. This is you, you don't love God. You love the benefits. You just want to be friends with benefits with God. Well, sometimes there's no benefits. Sometimes it's just spiritual warfare and struggle and trial and temptation. When things get difficult or when God doesn't meet your demands, you grow bitter at God, cold distance and you walk away. Why? Because you weren't seeking God, because if you were really truly seeking God, you would find him because he promised drawn near to me and I'll draw near to you. And if you find him his presence and his Holy Spirit, you realize that's all you ever needed. That's the peace you've been seeking your whole life, the Shalom that comes only by the power of the Holy Spirit. Fact of the matter is no one seeks God, actually your journey to seek after God only begins the day you meet Jesus Christ.Saul, before he became Paul was on the path to Damascus to go persecute and kill Christians. Was he seeking God? He was not. But Jesus Christ met him. He found him and he finds us, the lost, and Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Christ found him, Christ found me, Christ names and claims us and then we're his. And he can do the same for you, but you got to stop running. You got to stop fleeing, stop fighting. Indeed we're all seekers, but apart from the spirit of God converting us, giving us the gift of repentance, which is a gift, giving us a supernatural love for God, we seek everything other than God. We seek purpose, happiness, relief from guilt, removal from shame, peace. Well, all of these things can only be found in Jesus Christ, ultimately.There's no security apart from the King of Kings. There's no peace apart from the prince of peace. There's no truth direction, fullness of life, apart from Jesus Christ, who is the way the truth and the life. He comes to give life and life to the full. Once Jesus has found you got to start following him. You got to start seeking and pursuing him with every fiber of your being. This is what Jesus said, "Hey, you want the physical needs of your life taking care of? Seek first." He says. The kingdom of God and hisrighteousness, the righteousness of God and everything else you'll be added on to you. Verse 12, "All have turned aside; together they become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Turned aside from what? From God's will, from God's way, as is clearly depicted in God's word. The earliest Christians, the earliest followers of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, they weren't called Christians until... In Antioch, it was a derogatory term.To be called. A Christian was a curse word, kind of like today in Boston. It was like that in Antioch. They were called followers of the way, followers of Jesus Christ. Why? Because John 14:6, Jesus said the following, "I am the way." "I'm the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And you can debate this ad nauseam, but there's no way around this truth that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. There are no other ways. All the other competing religions, philosophies, worldviews, they're all lives from the pit of hell, inspired by Satan, not the Holy Spirit. "Together, they've become worthless." Unprofitable, feudal, pointless. Where does your value come from? Your esteem, your worth. Where from? Your education? Is that where you get your value? How good that name is, the prestige attached to the name of your school?Relationships? Wealth, family, friends, looks? Is that where you get your value? All of this is worthless, if death takes it all away, and death does take it all away. It's foolish to live for material temporary things when we're going to and spend eternity somewhere. Worthless from whose perspective? From God's of course. If you remain in your sin, fleeing from God, not seeking him, you are worthless in God's eyes and God's love will be lost on you. Yes, God loves everybody so much that he gave his one and only begotten son that whosoever believes him should not perish, but have eternal life. But if you reject that love and there is no love left for you, you only get wrath. "No one does good, not even one." And you say, "Well, wait, wait. Not even one? Not even one good person?" No, not one God. Doesn't judge us by the work of our hands or human standards or another person's standard.Who decides what's good, what's evil? God alone. And there's no morality apart from God. The case can't be made for a true ironclad foundation of a morality apart from the existence of God. How does God decide if something we do is good? Well, first God weighs our actions and how they correspond hourly to the 10 commandments. Second, God evaluates our inward motivation. Why did you do what you did? Why did you do the good thing, give money to the good cause, why'd you do that? Did you do the good out of love for God? Did you do it for his glory? Did you do it for his honor? No, of course not. Not one of us has done one thing that was 100% motivated by love for God, with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. So no, no one is good. Not even one. In Matthew, 19:16-22, there's a rich young guy that comes to Jesus Christ.I always think of the young college students driving Lamborghinis and Ferraris and Bugattis, and they're always in Allston. I don't know why, they're always in Allston. They're always in the Blanchard's parking lot. I don't know why that's where they are. So one of these guys gets out of his Buggati as he sees Jesus Christ walking down the street and says "Behold, a man came up to him, saying, 'teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?'" he knows he's missing eternal life. He's not sure about it. So he is like, what's the one thing? Where do I write a check, Jesus? And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There's only one who is good." That's God, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments. And he said to him, 'Which ones?' And Jesus said, 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'The young man said to him, 'All these I have kept, what am I still lack?'" Jesus could have at this moment said, "Oh wow, I've never met anyone as good as you, would you join my bossy of rag tag disciples? You are so virtuous. You are a great guy." Jesus said to him, "'If you would be perfect," because that's the standard to get into heaven, "go sell what you possess and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; come, follow me.' When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." Jesus points to this man's heart. And he says, you have a god above the God of the universe, and your god is money, in money you trust. And that's why he leaves the only one who can point him to eternal life and give him eternal life, and he goes and follows his money. I've noticed that the younger you are, the better of a person you think you are. I have to know that middle schoolers are like the best people alive.And then high schoolers and then college freshmen, oh my, they are saints. They are just angels from above. And then you live a little and life happens to you, and you actually read God's word, which tells us that you are a degenerate. Sin starts in the heart, but makes its way out through our body parts. That's verse 13, "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips." It's an open and grave, he says, meaning out of a dead heart comes death via words.Matthew 23:27-28, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." They use their tongues to deceive. Scripture says we're all liars. By nature, we hate truth. We love truth, only when it advances our self-interest. It says "The venom of asps is under their lips." The adder or asps is one of the deadliest reptiles in the world. Its bite is not just painful, but it's lethal. And our tongues, he says are sacs of venom, we are like vipers. Have you ever hurt someone with your words?Yeah. All of us have. Have you ever been hurt by someone's words? Yes, we've all had, we've all been hurt. Not by speaking truth and love, but by speaking lies in hate or even truth in hate. Verse 14, "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." I've been here, I've repented, I've received grace, have you? One thing about curses here and cursing in general, is it okay to ever curse someone? A human being? No. God? No. Can we at least curse Satan? Can you say to Satan, God damn you? Can you say that?If you are wrestling with that question, you've probably never wrestled with Satan. Many of you have never wrestled Satan because you've been busy flirting with him or dancing with him.In Genesis 3:15, the protoevangelium, this is the gospel before the gospels, God pronounces to Satan, to the serpent, he said "The son of the woman is going to come, the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, he will crush your head and you will bruise his heel," meaning Jesus Christ, on the... Remember The Passion of the Christ? Remember that movie, Passion of the Christ and Jesus in Gethsemane? I love that movie, Mel Gibson, back in the day. Passion of the Christ, Jesus Christ in Gethsemane there's a snake that comes. Like Jesus is praying, he's sweating bullets, he's sweating blood, his capillaries bursting in his face. But by the way, how strenuously do you have to be praying? Jesus was praying like that.And all of a sudden snake comes and he stomps on it. And that's one of the most satisfying scenes I've ever seen in the movie. Because that's what happens on the cross. As Jesus Christ is on Golgotha, calvary, which means skull, the place of the skull, that Jesus Christ, as he's hanging on the cross, and as he says, "It is finished," he dies. And then he goes into the pit of hell to continue proclaiming the tremendous news and lead a train of captives free. But Jesus Christ in that moment, he dealt Satan a death blow to the head. Yeah, he was bruisedSometimes, when you struggle with demons, when you struggle with sin, you do get bruised. But make sure you keep struggling to overcome it, to beat it. Isaiah 6:1-8, a timely text, "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. And above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covers feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: 'Woe was me! For I am lost: for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Lord of hosts!' Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.And he touched my mouth and said: 'Behold, this has touch your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.' And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?' Then I said, 'Here I am, send me.'" The apostle Paul moves from throat to mouth, to lips, to tongue to the feet. Verse 50, "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known." Once we're used to killing people with our words, assassinating reputations, killing them in reality isn't much of a leap, in their paths are ruin and misery, the way of peace they have not known. When war broke out in Ukraine, I heard this a lot early on, I still keep hearing this, I was at my daughter's soccer practice the other day, Thursday.Now I'm the official chaperone. I was nominated for the job because have a vehicle. They can see a lot of people. So now I'm a soccer dad and I'm just chilling there for an hour, just shooting the breeze at the locals and met this gentleman. And he's like, "Hey, when the war started, I couldn't believe it. I could not believe it. I thought we were pass this. I thought we were educated out of war, out of bloodshed. I thought we had progressed." Well, I wasn't surprised, because I know the word. And the word says in verse 18, "There's no fear of God before their eyes."The world is as evil as it is, because there's so little fear of God. A lot of people want to talk about the love of God, the love of God, the love of God. Yeah, but you don't really love God until you fear him, revered him, until you're in awe of him. Unfortunately, the people furthest from God have the least fear of God. We're naturally irreverent people. We desperate lack a sense of awe. We don't have a natural desire to honor God glorify him, praise him, but God should scare us to death.The fact that we are guilty before the creator should scare us to death, and if you've repented of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ, this shouldn't alleviate your fear. The cross should not alleviate your fear of God, the cross should deepen your fear of God. When you look at the son of God, dying on the cross, crying out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That should put the fear of God in you. Oh, God does forsake people?Yeah. So much so that the son was forsaken by the father on the cross. What kind of father is that? That's a father whose heart breaks for you. But he's also a God of justice. Therefore, he sends his son Jesus Christ to fulfill the law. And then Jesus Christ goes to a cross to bear the curse for law breaking, scripture says, curse does anyone who hangs on the tree. And that was the tree, the cross. San Corinthians 5 says "He who knew no sin," that's Jesus, he never sinned, "became sin," meaning every single one of our sins was placed on Jesus Christ, if you are in Christ, on our behalf.So it wasn't that Jesus just died and you should feel bad for the physical pain? No. Jesus, he took the full cup of God's wrath, the whole thing, and that darkness that comes with being abandoned by God. So that we might have the righteousness of Christ given to us, counted to us so that we might become the righteousness of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We're in a city of a lot of really intelligent people, a lot of very educated people, a lot of very smart people. I tell my daughters, who go to the public school system, I say, "Oh, doesn't matter how smart your teachers are. If they do not fear God, they do not have wisdom.They are fools. So you got to filter everything that they tell you through that. It's all folly. So we are to repent, believe, fear and love God." Verse 19, "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God." Everything's so clear. A lot of people, you're intimidated by even opening the Bible. You're like, "Ah, I'm not a biblical scholar. I didn't go to seminary. I can't read this." You can, it's all very simple. God is King and he is judge. And as King, he issues the law. That's the 10 commandments. And it's still enforce for all of us, for each of us. And once God's verdict comes down, your only reasonable response is silence.Shut your mouth. That's what the text says that every mouth may be stopped. That means shut your mouth in the presence of God, you have been found guilty, case close, sentenced issued, eternity in hell banished. And each one of us will be held accountable to God. We will be weighed in the balance and found wanting empty of righteousness. Verse 20 "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." The law was issued, we're all under it, we've all broken it, we are under sin. Guilty is charged. And no one will be justified by keeping the law because no one has. The law teaches us that we're just sinful. So what do we do? We do the only thing we can do, we cry out for mercy. God have mercy on me, a sinner.God have mercy on me, a sinner. Matthew 27:15-26, "Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd. Any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, 'Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas or Jesus who was called Christ?' For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife," Pilate's wife, "sent word to him, 'Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. Now the chief priest and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroyed Jesus. The governor again said to them, 'Which of the two do you want me to release for you?'And they said, 'Barabbas.' Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?' They all said, 'Let him be crucified.' And he said, 'Why? What evil has he done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Let him be crucified.' So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water, washed his hands before the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves.' And all the people answered, 'His blood be on us and our children!' Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified."Guilty prisoner, Jesus Christ is set free.... The guilty prisoner Barabbas is set free. The innocence son of God is crucified. And no Pilate, not the purest holy water can ever wash the stain of guilt. The blood stain off your hands. You are not, Pilate, innocent of this man's blood. I am not innocent of this man's blood. My sin crucified Jesus Christ, because I'm in Christ. And if you're in Christ, your sin crucified Jesus Christ. If you're not in Christ, you will pay the penalty for your sin yourself.Receive the gift of forgiveness. He is our propitiation, our substitutionary attorney, our savior. He is our Lord. He is our King and he is our God. Christian, if Jesus died for your sins, he died for your sins. Why do you keep living in them?Why haven't you left your sins at the foot of the cross, all of them, all of them? If not, you're quenching the power of the Holy Spirit and you're keeping yourself from the fruit of the spear, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self control. Nail your sins to the cross of Christ and leave them there. And believe the words of Christ, when he says "You should know the truth," the truth is the gospel. The truth that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, that he was buried, that he rose on the third day. Believed that this is true and live in the freedom of the liberation from sin. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."Before we sing and worship from the bottom of our hearts. And then during the third song, we're going to partake in communion. I'll come up and I'll explain. I'll pray over holy communion. But for whom is communion, communion is for anyone who looks to the cross of Jesus Christ and says, "That's my Lord. And that's my savior. And he died on the cross for my sins. That's my savior. And that's my King." If you repent of your sins, you submit to him, you give your life over to him and you are a Christian, you're welcome to partake. If you're living in sin that you have not repented of, you're not living in submission to the Lord. Therefore, do not partake in holy communion. Instead, repent and meditate. If you do repent, you are welcome to take communion.In conclusion, verse 20 ends the very depressing part of Romans, for now. There's going to be more depressing parts. But this one's pretty depressing because it shows us that we are all wicked sinners. And then verse 21 begins with one of my favorite words in the Bible. Three letters, B U T. "But." That one word is the difference between heaven and hell. It's the difference between hope and hopelessness. It's the difference between purpose and nihilism. It's the difference between love and hate. It's the difference between bad news and good news. It's the difference between guilty and not guilty when it will matter most, the day of judgment. And that's Romans 2:21-26. I'll read, I'll pray, we'll worship, I'll come back up, we'll have communion. And then I said, communion, in Good Friday, in past year, we told everyone, "You got to leave quietly. Don't talk to anybody."That's depressing. You should talk to some people, have some fellowship, give people hugs. It's spring and the best time of the year in Boston is coming. Romans 2:21-26, "But now, but now righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sin. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Amen. Let's pray, Lord God, we thank you for Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you came in submission of God, the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you fulfilled your ministry.You didn't want to go to that cross. You wrestled in the garden Gethsemane and you prayed. You prayed, you prayed, "Lord, Lord father, let this cup pass for me, but now my will, but yours be done." And Jesus, we thank you that you submitted to the father's will when he didn't want to forgive us for those times when we didn't submit to the will of the father. Thank you for your obedience. And thank you that obedience counts to us when we place our trust in you. And thank you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live a life of holiness and righteousness, pursuing God, seeking after God on a daily basis. Bless our time and holy worship right now, fill our hearts with the Holy Spirit and let us sing from the bottom of our hearts to worship and honor and glorify the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord's, Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.

IoT and the COVID-19 moment Tech journalist and IoT trend-setter Stacey Higgenbothom on IoT's COVID relevance Stacey Higginbotham is a freelance writer who has spent the last 15 years covering technology and finance for publications such as Fortune, Gigaom, The Deal, The Bond Buyer and BusinessWeek. Stacey covers the Internet of things, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence. Check out Stacey on IoT Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis     Episode transcript: The transcription of this episode is auto generated by a third-party source. While Microshare takes every precaution to insure that the content is accurate, errors can occur. Microshare, Inc.  is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. Michael Moran [00:00:00] This is manifest density. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition of Manifest Density, your host Michael Moran here, and we are going to explore the intersection of COVID 19, global business society and technology today. Manifest density is brought to you by the global smart building and ESG data company Microshare. Unleash the data. Today, we're going to talk technology. In fact, we're going to talk about the Internet of Things, and I'm very, very pleased to have today. Stacy Higginbotham, who is the curator and writer of Stacy on IoT really, really well circulated newsletter. So it's a real pleasure to welcome you to manifest density.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:00:43] Thank you for having me. I'm really excited.  Michael Moran [00:00:46] Stacy, we follow you here. Microshare fairly religiously. I get your newsletter, forwarded it to me all the time. And so it's it's overdue that I reached out. Had you on the program,  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:00:58] you could sign up for it directly.  Michael Moran [00:01:01] Yeah, I know I do. Actually, I get it. But you know what that's like? I get about 350 emails a day. It's overwhelming. How does one become a journalist who covers the Internet of Things? What was your journey?  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:01:13] Oh, it was meant to say time consuming because I've been a tech journalist for probably about 20 years, a little over that now. And I started out covering semiconductors because I was was actually a reporter for a local Austin paper, and semiconductors was a big business. So I did that and then I went into networking and then I went into wireless and cloud computing and databases. And around 2012, all of those things started to come together in what we were calling the Internet of Things. And we were really excited about it. And I had. Basically, all the technical elements, so it was kind of fun for me because all of a sudden I went from this person who babbled on about spectrum policy and like new wireless standards at parties to somebody who could talk about really cool gadgets. And so like, my stock went up tremendously, and that is basically how I started covering the Internet of Things. So for the sake  Michael Moran [00:02:12] of those who listen to this podcast and don't always dove into the technology, give us a quick definition from you from apart from on high, I should say, of what the Internet of Things is and how it's kind of evolved over the last 12 years or so.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:02:31] Yes. And before before I got into it, it was called M to M. So I'm not going to say that it was like the Internet of Things has always been here in some ways, or as as long as there's been wireless connectivity and computing. So basically, my definition of the IoT is when cheap computing, ubiquitous wireless and cheap sensors all came together in a way around it. It started out around smartphones was the renaissance of this. But all of that comes together and it makes the invisible visible. And I am so excited about this opportunity because we can do so much with the information if we can just figure out how to grab it cheaply, how to behave ethically with it, and how to deliver insights that can really help us. I look at it is helping us fix the climate. I think it's really important to helping people live better, maybe more fulfilling lives. I don't want to go that far and really just help us be the best versions of ourselves. So that sounds really super optimistic, but it's also very concrete.  Michael Moran [00:03:45] Yeah, I mean, so I mean, I try really hard, except for the sponsorship slots to keep microshare out of this podcast. If you listen, you know that. But this is so directly relevant to what we do because in effect, what we've tried to do is take the complexity out of iOttie and make. My CEO Ron ROCs likes to say our customers don't even know how to spell iOttie. So ultimately, the idea is that you have a an outcome rather than a technology product. Do you have data that's telling you whether the air quality is sufficient or data that's telling you how many people are in a room or whether the water temperature is is being calibrated properly so that you don't get Legionnaires disease or, you know, those types of data feeds that never existed before, you know, and in the world that we operate in. You know, I like to say, you know, we take these what we're once inert brick and mortar assets and we create vital signs we create. We show you that actually, this is a living breathing entity. This this building, it's got air, it's got a circulatory system, it's got a plumbing system, so it's got a digestive system. So ultimately, we can kind of track the condition and the operations and the wellness of the environment. And that's huge and think. And it also has that, as you referred to this incredible sustainability application in terms of knowing how you're treating the people in your space or knowing how much energy you're using and whether it's used efficiently, things like that. I mean, is this something that was it? It is. Those are the kind of things that were imagined in the beginning or has this kind of evolved with things like the pandemic and recessions and.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:05:31] Things have definitely evolved with the pandemic. I think in the beginning, I mean, if we look all the way back, I actually just had someone on my podcast who created the term IoT all the way back in 1985. So his name was Peter Lewis, and he was the one of the founders of Cellular one. And basically, he he back in 1985, was like, Hey, we've got this thing called the ARPANET. I've got mobile phone connectivity now. It's like, Let's let's sign up traffic lights and air conditioning and building and power grids, all to the cellular network so they can give their status. This is his vision 37 years ago. And I think we've always needed something like this, but it has been so hard again because sensors were expensive, wireless connectivity was expensive. The computing for the analytics was expensive, so I think we've always needed more information because that's what we do as people, right? We just didn't have a way to get it economically and feasibly. So you could only monitor super important things.  Michael Moran [00:06:43] OK, Stacey, we're going to take a break, perhaps a superfluous break since I've already talked about that sponsor. But to hear from our sponsor? OK, I am back with Stacey Higginbotham, who covers the Internet of Things from I o to T. Stacey, we're talking about how it's evolved over the years and the ubiquity of it potentially to create data in all sorts of places and spaces. But of course, that also means it's a big ubiquity, makes it an enormous target for cybercrime and hacking and all sorts of mischief. The IoT, it strikes me, had a pretty bad reputation in its early years because people were just hooking it up to their corporate networks. There's this famous story about the the fish feeder in a tank in some kind of an aquarium.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:07:34] I call this the fish. The fish tank that was heard around the world.  Michael Moran [00:07:39] Oh yeah. Tell us that story. It's funny.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:07:42] So this is this is probably I want to say it was from a Verizon security report, either in 2008, I think it was 2013, and a casino in Vegas had a fish tank monitor and that was on there. We'll just call it an OT network because it was just a sensor. Don't work, but it somehow connected to their I.T. network. So hackers were able to get in through the fish tank and then get into the rest of the casino network. A similar example that people always talk about is target. Their big data breach, and I don't. It was a while ago, probably same timeframe. Those hackers came in through the H-back system and then ended up in their point of sale system. So yes, we used to stick all kinds of things. We're like, Oh, I just put it on the internet, or let's just buy a network DVR and things. I mean, it sounds so ridiculous. But even as far back as 2013, when we were writing about this, we had to tell people to stop using hard coded passwords in their, you know, routing equipment, which now I would look at somebody like why? That's the craziest thing ever. So we've gotten a lot more sophisticated on the security side. I think what we're realizing, though, is as we try to lock this down, that we don't have the right security models in place. So we're starting to see them evolve like zero trust security and and that'll be really important going forward. But also equally important is getting rid of all that other stuff. We can't actually leave that on the network. It's yeah.  Michael Moran [00:09:17] So I had just moved this weekend to a new place and had to set up my Wi-Fi. And lo and behold, the password was password and the username was user. And the only thing they could have done to make that less secure was perhaps translate that into Russian. Make it easier. I mean, it's astounding. But so we've taken this approach to IoT security, which is very common now, which is you don't expect anybody to use their internal network. Of course, you don't want to your treasury anywhere near an IoT device. What you do is you create a LoRaWAN or Zigbee or some kind of internal, you know, low way, low bandwidth, low net cost, low end with network that essentially is completely disconnected from any kind of IP or anything that's that sensitive and run everything. There is kind of a closed loop. And, you know, I always think of that as early days of the internet. I was at MSNBC.com, which was the kind of pioneer at NBC News on the internet, and I was wondering why I couldn't get Andrea Mitchell and all these high profile correspondents to, you know, pay attention to what we were doing because we were breaking news on their beats. And it turned out that NBC News didn't allow them to go on the internet. It was astounding. They had the old, you know, dumb terminal approach to things because they were afraid that CBS would hack in and find out what's on nightly news.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:10:54] Oh my gosh, I can't imagine being a reporter and not having access to the internet.  Michael Moran [00:10:58] Well, I'm an old man now, but there was a time when the internet didn't exist, and I was, you know, one of the evangelists at NBC to try to get them to open the channel for their journalists. So they obviously did, and now they're very good at it. But it reminds me that approach. It's almost like we're going back to the future, right? We're creating now many networks to kind of quarantine the corporate network away and make the the IoT devices more secure. Is that a long term solution?  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:11:31] I have no idea, but I will say this, we have historically just very broadly speaking, try to make the world flat in, you know, if you think about technology in the internet at large, you think about like Facebook before it was super evil. They were to say, Hey, everybody can be who they are on the internet. No layers, very flat. We all talk to one another. That doesn't go well. I think we all want this, this utopia where everything's connected and it's easy. But I think adding that friction is probably important because humans are not all awesome people that you want to sit next to for a long period of time. Right? Or trust with your secrets and data. So I think this is a start. I actually did a story about it that just ran today on the web site was in last week's newsletter about the end of general purpose wireless networks, which talks actually to the specific thing, which is, we're going to have many, many, many networks and we're going to have to have ways to bring data from one to the other in ways that feel secure. And that is like way above my pay grade figuring all that out.  Michael Moran [00:12:45] Yeah, and that's about mine as well, though, that's precisely where the name of the company I work for came from Microshare, there's actually this incredibly complex back end that shares data in a very specific, carefully curated way with different types of stakeholders, with each of whom are assigned different permissions and ownership levels. And, you know, microshare had that has lived with the curse of being out in front of the market and in some cases, because who's going to buy that right? Right now, it's there's a data market data market out there, but it tends to be all about, you know, advertising and people selling your data without your really knowing it.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:13:32] That's one of my greatest disappointments is that that we've we had a chance that we still do. If you look at technology, you know, think about the launch of broadband back in, I don't know, 2000, when we start having dial up, right? It enabled all these companies and the underlying technology was not the key. It was what you did with it. And then we built the business models around that tied to advertising. And when I look at that and I see that coming to IoT, it's frustrating because the data is both more personal. So it feels much more insulting to get an ad for the fact that you were, you know, I don't know, Stacey, you only walked 2000 feet yesterday. You need to eat a salad, you know, just something that feels a little too intrusive and possibly judge. And then this idea that we could do so much more with it if we could figure out a different business model and we enabled trust. And this is trust from security, but trust also from the data that people have. So I feel like if we actually want the IoT to be what it can be, we need to dump the ad business model. And it's really hard to get away from that kind of highly lucrative flow of cash, but we got to figure it out.  Michael Moran [00:14:53] Yeah, and, you know, regulators are not going to do it because they were they would have. All right. Well, let's hold on, pause there and take a break to hear from our sponsor. OK, I'm back having a fascinating conversation with Stacey Higginbotham, the journalist who covers the Internet of Things. Her newsletter is really a must read for iOttie, and I hope you guys will go and sign up. Stacey, I wanted to talk about a little bit about the kind of confluence of COVID, which from our perspective, it made. It made the kind of nice to have internal environmental sensors a must have in some cases. So where we find that we're talking to a whole new group of people, not just facilities managers, not just it, but people like H.R. and people like CFOs who were wondering how much of their real estate portfolio was actually being used and which ones to get rid of which which buildings are sick buildings. You know, they're they're looking for data. They're looking for ways to make these big strategic decisions. How, you know, we also same time you've got this much larger trend that hopefully will outlast the pandemic on sustainability and environmental social governance practices, where IoT is once again quite relevant. You can create data streams that help you prove out your sustainability initiatives or help you report on how you're performing or what are you seeing out there. That's innovative. That's interesting.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:16:31] Oh, so many things. So you're right. COVID COVID definitely accelerated people's IoT deployments for a couple reasons. One. Everybody was going remote ray. So now you had to have the tools for them to be able to access whatever their job used to be, and that was a forcing function on that front and on the health care front. What I think is also relevant, and I don't know if it's because companies started seeing the data from like people counting or whatever they were doing with, we'll call it digital transformation. But basically, I'm just thinking, hey, slap at a bunch of sensors around in building up some applications that can use that sensor data to help make decisions, right? So once they did that for COVID, they saw potentially other things they could do with it. The other thing that I think is kind of tied to this and I don't know which is the cause of which is the effect is basically what I'm saying here is we had a really brutal series of suburbs in California with wildfires, which drove a lot of people to think about things like indoor air quality and made climate change in your face, in your face, I guess. And when that happened, we saw people recognizing the fact that their buildings could be more efficient and tied with that Kobe data that they were already getting or data tied to like people in the space, that sort of thing. We got a big push for sustainability in buildings. And I think. There's a stat and I can't remember where it's from, but it's basically like 40 percent of our carbon emissions come from buildings. I see that stat on every other press release right now because it is a very top of mind for both people buying stuff and for people trying to sell stuff. And I'm super excited about this because one, I think it is going to be great for energy efficiency, but to it gets us beyond asset tracking as a viable use case for the IoT. So I am all for anything that moves us beyond those first few things that people were really excited about  Michael Moran [00:18:44] so that the early so yeah, that's unpretty is that stat, I'm pretty sure.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:18:50] OK, there you go.  Michael Moran [00:18:51] Thank you. Principles of responsible investing. It's the United Nations principles, and that's where I think that comes from. And it's it's a kind of mash up of commercial real estate at 29 percent. You can tell I've quoted this before, and the rest of it is construction and development. So, but yeah, when you put it together, it's 40 percent of global emissions. That's gargantuan, right? Yeah, that's not picking on the couch. But ultimately, what about you know, what we're finding is that the kind of sustainability iOttie one to one point, oh, really wasn't about sensors. It was the technology was really web crawling spiders that looked at your utility bills and kind of uploaded that information to make it convenient. It really didn't change anything. There's no way you're going. You could you could do that and still burn inefficiently, you know, from now until the next century. But that was kind of the 1.0, the 2.0 to me, which is really not there yet. We are doing it. But I think once again, this is microshare out ahead of the market is in the social component of ESG, the social meaning, you know, how people are treated, whether buildings are responsive, whether they're safe, whether you know the quality of the air and the quality the water in the building is is being properly maintained, although those calibration kind of things that were taken for granted before the pandemic are now susceptible to IoT. And that could be a really powerful accelerant of, you know, not necessarily climate. Not everything in ESG is climate, remember, but of, you know, making a humane, safe, you know, performing workplace.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:20:42] Sure. Now I'm curious what you mean when you say a safe, humane performance workplace, because that implies that prior to this they weren't.  Michael Moran [00:20:51] Well, I don't think anybody who has ever worked in an office building and felt like they needed a Snickers bar and a cup of coffee at 4:30 realized that they were being poisoned by carbon.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:21:05] Got it. OK, so  Michael Moran [00:21:07] so this part of the you know, the reality that the pandemic has made people realize indoor spaces are not simply big, open empty places, there's things around you, there's the humidity, there's the temperature, there is carbon buildup, there are particulates in the air. Right, right. The extent to which you can know, for instance, for sure how many times a conference room was used today and whether it was cleaned. Right. Those are all things that are susceptible to data. And so ultimately, how many people are in the cafeteria right now? Do you really want to go in and waste a half an hour standing in line for coffee? Or you want to wait 20 minutes? Look at your phone app and say, Oh, there's no one there. I'm going now. And these are the kind of elements that I think I think the pandemic has kind of raised awareness of the value of these kind of things.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:22:03] I think the economics associated with this information have changed both the importance and the economics. So and I say that because of COVID, because you suddenly have possibly fewer workers, but you also recognize that keeping your workers means keeping them safe or keeping them at their desks means keeping them uninfected. So you have to track high quality indoor air, right? You have to make sure that's a thing in prior to that. There were companies doing this sort of thing, but they were they were. A lot of them were in Europe. Some of them were in China because air pollution is a bigger deal over there. But basically, they were sorry. But with COVID, it suddenly became important to companies to have that. Tracking and facilities management internal to their operations in some of this gets to the bottom line with technology, as we have a lot of things available to us, we can track all kinds of crazy stuff, but a lot of times we don't care about it until we have to. And that usually is based on some sort of economic incentive and for good or ill. I think that's what happened with COVID.  Michael Moran [00:23:24] So we're seeing now. I want to stay with air quality because it's an interesting use case, which we've seen several instances where a company recognizes the value of knowing about the quality of the air. And that's partly because productivity falls when the air quality is bad. But it's also because people now, as you said, retention and recruitment. People want to know these things because they don't want to spend most of their week sitting in a poisonous room, right? So but what do you do? This has been the great conundrum with air quality. All right. Let's say you have an air quality monitoring system installed in your building, and there's persistent bad air in one area and you've tried all the easy things opening windows, you know, tweaking the facts. Nothing's working. That's the I think that's the great conundrum. It's the warnings there. The economic incentive then becomes take the damn things out. We don't know, and we don't want to know.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:24:28] Well, so in I think I think that's kind of the challenge with iOttie without a use, without a clearly defined use case is that you'll start seeing things that you don't necessarily understand or you don't want to have to understand because fixing them is going to be expensive or a problem. And we actually see this with things like air quality monitoring outside of the outside, not just inside. So it's very well known that schools generate a lot of air pollution because parents come by and pick up their children and leave their engines idling. And to solve that problem, you would have to either. I mean, they tell people to turn off their engines, but you might also have to make Bible school leagues. And so in your example of having bad indoor air quality in a specific area, the onus then becomes from detecting the problem to figuring out why it's happening and then fixing it in. That's not a technology issue, right? That's a business or operational or societal issue. And I think a lot of times when we talk about technology, we forget. Even technologists who are building it, they forget that they're just a tool and we have to have all these other things around it to actually do what the tool is supposed to do.  Michael Moran [00:25:53] What do you think the role of regulators are in all of this? I have seen there have been a smattering of reports about New York City. I think in the UK, in the school systems there now, at least checking air quality doesn't mean they're monitoring it. But I think they do a test now and then what do you think we're going to see a world where regulators get involved in this?  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:26:18] I hope we do. And I say this because right now we have so many environmental or OSHA type regulations that we can't actually. Right now, they're they're checked by an inspector coming. If you look at like the EPA, they actually notify their factories before they show up in the factories. They're like, Oh, the EPA is coming to check our emissions tomorrow. Let's fix that. Oh, I think the same way we've managed things like cold chain, especially around food production or drug production, we could do that for environmental something in the air quality sensing. We just have to have the rules and then the stuff in place. And so I think I honestly do think it. I don't know why. Well, I do know why. So we should have sensors in place on, you know, any sort of manufacturing plant that the EPA is monitoring, right? And they should have a line into that sensor data so they can track it on an ongoing basis. Why don't we have responsive fines when things get out of whack? It's not impossible. Businesses are already doing it themselves. So I think the regulatory side, we have the laws, but we might be better off just moving to enforcement of the existing laws. And then, yes, I do think we need more laws around the types of things. We're going to hold people accountable for the types of outcomes that get generated. And it's really complicated.  Michael Moran [00:27:56] Yeah. So, Stacey, I wanted to ask one last question. What is the coolest? iOttie use case you've seen in the last year, what really kind of made you go wow  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:28:11] in the last year on the enterprise or consumer side,  Michael Moran [00:28:16] I just pick one. It doesn't matter, but enterprise will be fine. But consumers crucial to.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:28:25] Sorry. This is a hard one, because pandemic timing messes everything. I think the coolest thing I have seen and I think this was in 2020, but I'm not sure. Our. Density is a company that makes people motion tracking sensors for piercing density is a company that makes motion tracking. No density is a company that's made people counting sensors, and they do it using some proprietary algorithms and some infrared and thing I think is so cool about it is it's very accurate and it's also privacy first. And I've seen a lot of very cool things coming on the kind of RF sensing front that I think have a lot more potential than video cameras for basic tracking in ways that do not infringe on people's privacy. And I'm super excited about that.  Michael Moran [00:29:27] Yeah, we we went down that road as well with with Bluetooth based contact tracing wearables, and it was precisely because it didn't collect PII, which is personally identifiable information that it was successful. And you know, the other thing because the alternative with the smartphone tracking and we didn't like that for all sorts of reasons. We have clients on the world where smartphones are not necessarily ubiquitous. Plus, you're a manufacturer, you can't have a smartphone on the floor because it's firstly, it's dangerous because it's distracting and they the batteries run out. And so it defeats the whole contact tracing concept. So, yeah, we did. We did a bunch of stuff that was and I learned a new word sue. Anonymized. So as opposed to being anonymous, which means that you could never be uncovered, so to speak. The idea of contact tracing is if somebody reports a symptom, they can do a reverse database query and then unmask the various wearables to know who has been exposed to this person over the last week and tell them to get tested. So there had to be somebody who had the ability to find out, OK, what badge was John wearing? Because John needs to get tested before it comes back to the office. So it's, you know, we've had zero shutdowns in any of the places we deployed it. And but that was a major issue for us. The PII was, you know, you you download something onto your smartphone and your boss is not just tracking you work is tracking you everywhere. Right? So that's not cool. And no one wanted it. No one would download it.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:31:12] Yeah.  Michael Moran [00:31:13] There were all sorts of challenges that that led to the success of our product, which was universal contact tracing, especially in manufacturing environments where you just you can't send people home and still make revenue. So that was a really important kind of mid-pandemic success for us and got a lot of attention. And still, interestingly, because of the persistence of COVID where it's being renewed, what we thought was like a one year battlefield innovation turns out now people were in their third year of the contracts thanks to Delta and on the Crown, which, you know, we frankly would rather see this going away. It's not a huge chunk of our revenue, but  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:31:59] are they pulling in other data or using it for it? Because I think there's once you see broadly like where people cluster, I think there's some interesting opportunities around scheduling lunches or, you know,  Michael Moran [00:32:10] we are actually there's new applications often, you know, these are the brainchild of the client. So in the nursing home industry in the UK, we've done a several year study with contact tracing wearables in 16 nursing homes and that's been now expanded to 64. They call them care homes in the UK. And so, yes, this was very valuable to know when someone had symptoms who had they've been in touch with. But then the the nursing home administrators realized, OK, it's also prevented several people from wandering off campus, which, you know, the whole U.S. version of the silver alert someone with dementia. So they get an alert when somebody breaks the defense. And then the other part of it was they also noticed that in some nursing homes, the contact tracing wearables that were assigned to the staff were sitting in a break room and a suspicious circle. Turns out they were playing poker most of the day. And so this got the the kind of unpleasant nickname of slacker tracker. Now that's that's just kind of funny in the in the general world. But in a nursing home, part of the the therapeutic care of an elderly person is human contact. So the nursing home owners were realizing they're not even going and making rounds and saying hello to these people, and that means they're being basically storehouse. So that's become, you know, a really significant development project for us, and I think it's going to be, you know, part of the future. And again, it doesn't collect anybody's PII. But the it is possible to know how badge number eight three three three four is being worn by Joe Schmo, right? And that's part of the the value of it. So there comes a point where privacy, if you're going to get value and efficiency, there has to be transparency in that interaction. Sorry. There has to be transparency in that interaction, but ultimately there is a trade off with any technology.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:34:34] It's true, although I don't expect that level of privacy at work, so I'm OK with slacker trackers.  Michael Moran [00:34:43] Well, we used to have slackers trackers in the 20th century. They were called your boss and they just kind of would show up over your shoulder every once in a while and say. Why are you reading about the New York Yankees right now? That's the kind of stuff that happened all the time. So now we're just getting efficient next year.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:35:01] You're outing yourself here. I like it. All right,  Michael Moran [00:35:06] Stacy. It's been an enormous pleasure talking to you have gone way over. But because this is my podcast, it can be as long as I want. So ha.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:35:14] And because I'm on the podcast, on my podcast runs an hour, I mean, what did you think was going to happen? There you  Michael Moran [00:35:19] go. All right. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to tell the audience where they can follow your work and how they could sign up for our newsletter.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:35:29] Sure. Thank you. Y'all can find me at Stacy on IoT SI.com, or you can find and download the Internet of Things podcast wherever you get your podcasts.  Michael Moran [00:35:42] That's great. And of course, you know you can learn more about how microshare has helped get the world's safety back to work with ever smart suite of products. Sorry. With our ever smart suite of products, ever smart solutions, boost efficiency, enable cost savings and bring safety and reassurance to people inside your building portfolio. I would like to also remind you you could sign up for the podcast on our website. WW W Microshare Daddario and you can also find it on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio. Every place where you can find audio, you can probably find this once again. Stacy, thank you for joining us. It's been a real pleasure.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:36:21] Thanks for having me.  Michael Moran [00:36:22] And that'll do it for this week on behalf of all our global employees. This is Michael Moran at Microshare saying So long be well and thank you for listening. 

Series: MatthewService: Sunday AM WorshipType: SermonSpeaker: Jeremy Bowling Matthew 14John the Baptist Beheaded14:1  At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus 2 and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” 3 For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. 4 Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.6 But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias…

Episode 100 Episode number 100! Can you believe it?! It seems like only yesterday, we were nervously launching this podcast, wondering if anyone would listen, and here we are with 51,000 downloads, dozens of incredible guests, and so much more planned for 2022 and beyond. Thank you all for your incredible support. You are truly the best community on the internet. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we took some time to share our favorite recent facts, stories, and learnings. So if you want to learn about forests in the sky, insect superhighways, Olympic achievements, heartfelt wisdom, how to forgive, the clams who control Warsaw's water supply, and that time that Pepsi briefly became the 6th biggest military in the world, then you're in the right place.   Support this podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/DowntheWormholepodcast   More information at https://www.downthewormhole.com/   produced by Zack Jackson music by Zack Jackson and Barton Willis    Transcript  This transcript was automatically generated by www.otter.ai, and as such contains errors (especially when multiple people are talking). As the AI learns our voices, the transcripts will improve. We hope it is helpful even with the errors. Zack Jackson  00:05 You are listening to the Down the wormhole podcast, exploring the strange and fascinating relationship between science and religion. This is our 100th episode. Oh Ray, which is why we're doing it live and not pre recorded. I mean, it's always done live. But you know what I mean, that clip of me at the beginning, which is why it's so unpolished here at the beginning, but it's our 100th episode, and we're super excited. And we're doing something totally different today. So everyone, just say your name as fast as possible at the same time, okay. Hurray, well, so after 100 episodes, hopefully you know who we are at this point. Today is going to be totally different instead of taking a topic and going into it, we are all coming here today with a fun fact or story or something that has filled our hearts with joy or wonder in the past. I don't know, I was gonna say in the past couple of months, but time makes no sense. In the world of COVID We have all been living in a wormhole for the past two years or maybe 12 years or who knows. So. So does anybody want to start? Or? Or do you want me to start? Ian Binns  01:27 Kendra razor 01:28 Andrew wants to start, Kendra Holt-Moore  01:28 I can start. But if you want to start back then No, go ahead. Just anything. Zack Jackson  01:35 Tell me go ahead Rachael Jackson  01:37 and wait, go ahead needles here. Zack Jackson  01:40 What happens when we don't schedule, Kendra Holt-Moore  01:43 I am really excited to share this because I I love Radiolab it's my other one of my favorite podcasts. And I recently learned on one of their recent episodes, that a scientist for years have been, you know, in the forest, they pay a lot of attention to like what's happening on the forest floor. And for many years, scientists didn't like put in a lot of effort, or they just didn't think that it was as important to be observing, studying what's happening up in the canopy of the trees. And, you know, in in recent years, like, there's a lot more stuff that you can like, read about and, you know, we know more about the canopy of trees, but scientists were like, you know, we were we're on the ground, we're closer to the dirt and the roots and the trunks. And so that's where a lot of that like early work was taking place. But I learned in this episode that there is a scientist, I can't remember her name, but she basically was one of the first people to discover that there is there are trees that grow in the canopy of trees. It's not turtles all the way down, it's trees all the way up. Zack Jackson  03:08 There are trees growing in. Kendra Holt-Moore  03:11 And, and that's how Radiolab put it up, not turtles all the way down, but trees all the way up. And I really love that I was thinking it's also kind of like the men and black conclusion of the world inside of a marble, or the Dr. Seuss story of a dandelion that has like a world living inside of the dandelion. Like we're just, you know, it's it's a great alternative of like the multiple worlds hypothesis. There's just trees living in their own ecosystem in the canopy of the forest, because there's dirt that gets trapped up in the canopy, like in between, like tree branches. And so one of the scientists she had proposed, I think it was for her dissertation to, to do work until like study the canopy. And her advisors were like, Okay, if you want to do that fine, but they weren't like super excited about it. And so she started, you know, doing her fieldwork and would climb up into the trees. And the first time that she noticed this, like other ecosystem in the canopy, she like was able to reach her hand into dirt up in the canopy, like she's up off the ground, but putting her hand in dirt. That was like putting your hand in dirt that's down on the literal ground. And I just think that is so cool. I didn't know that maybe maybe y'all are more informed about tree canopies than I am but I just found that to be a really cool thing because especially if you think about like really dense, dense like tropical forests where you you can't actually see what's going on up at the canopy like you have to, you have to go up in it to get perspective So it makes sense why we would not be super aware of the the canopy ecosystem or like the canopy soil. But it it's a somehow dirt. I mean, it makes sense to some degree like the way that wind, wind blowing through the forest and the density of the canopy, like trapping a lot of stuff. But dirt is one of those things. And so there's stuff that grows up there. And we just don't even know Zack Jackson  05:34 I have that happening in my front yard, we're just noticing that there's a, there's a tree, and like the branches come out. And there's like a little, I don't know, pocket area where they're their branch away, and that the ants had eaten away in that little spot there. And so all like the decomposed ant poop or whatever, had made just like little thing of dirt. And there was a tiny sapling growing out of there. And I pulled it out, because I was like, that's gonna kill my tree. But I'm just I didn't realize that was happening, like Ian Binns  06:05 another tree to save a tree. Kendra Holt-Moore  06:09 Way to go, wow, Zack Jackson  06:11 there's some ethical implications there. Kendra Holt-Moore  06:14 Wow, that's cool, though. Zack Jackson  06:16 That's pretty amazing. Ian Binns  06:18 Tree murder. Zack Jackson  06:19 Hey, Kendra, that reminds me of the do you know about the like the insect jet stream? That's up there. Like, very far Rachael Jackson  06:30 up. I do love the bug. Kendra Holt-Moore  06:32 I think I do know about Zack Jackson  06:34 I do love books. It's true. Kendra Holt-Moore  06:37 It's not well, like, oh, go ahead, Zack Jackson  06:40 be flying airplanes in the early days of aviation. And they're like, why are there bugs on our windshield? Aren't we very hot 1000s of feet up in the air? Like, I mean, like 5000 feet up in the air and there's insects. I saw what estimate that like, How much was it, like somewhere between three to 6 billion insects are flying over your head up in like the jet stream all summer. They'll they'll get like caught up in updrafts. And then the wind is just blowing constantly up there. And so they'll just like travel. And they'll just fly around up there. Until they get they fall down to earth. And they're so light that, you know, it doesn't hurt them. And these aren't just like flying insects, you'll have like ants and stuff thrown around. Kendra Holt-Moore  07:25 That's really cool. I wonder if it's the same path, or like trajectory that other things will get like caught up in those high air streams to like sand. Like I think this is like part of how the dirt gets in the cannabis. There's sand from, you know, deserts that will kick up and travel from, you know, like Africa to the Brazilian rainforest. And the tiny organisms that live on those pieces of sand, nourish the soil, and nourish the ocean, like provide sustenance, like in places that you wouldn't expect that sand to end up. Like, you might not even think that sand travels. But I wonder if it's a shared sort of trajectory of the insects and sand. It's just like, it's crazy. It's in the world. unaccessible inaccessible to our everyday experiences, but it's just one big one big ecosystem. Zack Jackson  08:26 Yeah, every time I'm up there, there, the windows are closed. So I don't Ian Binns  08:33 you don't know if the sands gonna pull you in the face and Zack Jackson  08:36 Nope, never done it. So my story I wanted to share. Well, first of all, I'm six foot three. How tall is everyone else? Ian Binns  08:45 5656 511 and three quarters. Zack Jackson  08:52 Okay, so all of you are children. Adam Pryor  08:56 But I'm five, nine. Zack Jackson  08:59 Girl about to do with five inches tall on my screen. Well, did you know that that on average, we in our generation are three inches taller than people were 100 years ago. might have heard that. It's true. And one of the reasons is because of German submarines. Rachael Jackson  09:21 Okay, that's gonna need some explanation. Yeah, Kendra Holt-Moore  09:25 I'm so glad. So technically, she didn't ask she's like demanded mark that Zack Jackson  09:36 I'm into it either way. So in the early 19 hundred's, people didn't eat a whole lot of meat. Right, because they didn't have modern refrigeration, meats expensive. It's expensive to raise them to all of that stuff. And so when people did eat meat, it was usually like canned sardines. That was the most commonly used meat in those days, at right, awful, most of the good sardines came from off the coast of France, and then off the coast of New England. So it's Atlantic based sardines were the best ones. And then suddenly, during World War One, there are German U boats in the Atlantic. And we didn't have the ability to know where they were all the time. And so people kind of freaked out and they were like, I'm not gonna fish anymore. I'm gonna get blown up. So they stopped fishing sardines, and there were no more sardines, and Americans loved sardines. So, overnight, almost this giant new industry started in Monterey, California, fishing for sardines out in the Pacific. And the reason why people don't normally eat Pacific, sardines is because they're awful. They're like, gross, and massive, and, and oily and disgusting. And if given the choice, Atlantic ones are always going to win. But then we didn't have a choice anymore. So this whole industry boomed in Monterey. And all these new fisheries went up, and they were taking in tons and tons and tons. And then the war ended. And then boom, the whole industry collapsed. They had all these new fisheries, they had all these new processing plants they had, they had all this new stuff that nobody wanted to buy anymore. And so nobody quite knew what to do until this industrious young man and Max Schaefer showed up with a novel idea. And he took these sardines and instead of canning them for human consumption, mashed them all up into a nasty fish paste, and then mix it with grain, and marketed it to farmers as cheap chicken food. Ian Binns  11:40 Sounds so good. Zack Jackson  11:43 And it was cheap. And it was so full of nutrients, because it was fish that the chickens all grew really big. This led to really fat chickens, which led to tender delicious chickens, which led to the chicken of tomorrow breeding competition in 1948, in which farmers around the country were invited to breed the chicken of tomorrow. And the chicken that one that is basically the modern roasting chicken, the one that can't really fly that has whose like skin is is like light colored and is easily plucked, and has large. Adam Pryor  12:27 The chicken with boobs so big, they can't fly. Zack Jackson  12:29 Exactly. Yeah, the chicken that we know and love and eat today came from that. So the consumption of chicken then skyrocketed and became a part of American culture, fried chicken and chicken breasts and all of that. We started eating more meat. And then we grew. And so the reason why modern Americans are three inches taller than their counterparts is because of German U boats in the Atlantic in the early 19 hundred's Rachael Jackson  13:01 that's pretty cool. Right? Because you're asking how tall we were? Years ago, I was obsessed with just records for no reason. Like, I would read the Guinness Book of World Records for fun. Kendra Holt-Moore  13:17 You know, that's not what I thought you were talking about there, but I like this better. Rachael Jackson  13:22 Okay, yeah. Now, I meant so five foot two was the average heights for women in about 100 years ago, right. Nowadays, it's five foot five. So it's so if we say older people are so short, that's true. They really are that much shorter than we are and has nothing to do with like osteoarthritis or because the you know, the discs between their vertebrae are thinning or anything like that they they literally are just shorter than we are Zack Jackson  14:04 should have eaten more chicken. Rachael Jackson  14:05 And so now what are How tall are people going to get 100 years from now Zack? Like if Zack Jackson  14:14 massive hundreds of feet, I think will be a race of monsters. And then the Lord will have to flood the earth in order to read us Rachael Jackson  14:23 only that's at least what we try to have a ladder and build a tower. Because Zack Jackson  14:30 know the people who made the ark. Who are those people who built the life sized Ark Ken Ham in them? They're building a tower of Babel. I know. That's literally the point of the story is you're not supposed to build it. Adam Pryor  14:46 You're building a tower of Babel that's the plan is it is it like a like you know, like a twilight zone like tower terror drop, like wow, like you get to go up and Kendra Holt-Moore  14:56 really miss the Ian Binns  14:58 levels. Yeah, Zack Jackson  15:01 I feel like if they complete it, I want to they've they've missed the point. But if they like leave the top intentionally undone, then perhaps I'm like, that might be fun. Rachael Jackson  15:12 You know, you sit down in a way that Ian Binns  15:14 I definitely want to share this episode with him. Rachael Jackson  15:16 Yeah, you you share it. You said that no way, like, the same way that Robin Williams did in one of his stand up comedies, by the way from like, 20 years ago, where he talked about, you know, touching the nipples of gorillas Zack Jackson  15:34 I think that's on par. Right? Tempting God and touching the nipples of gorillas, Rachael Jackson  15:40 you know, he had got to know what's gonna happen Adam Pryor  15:45 might be like a good activity for the top of the tower. Good. Wow. So that to Kenny, I will. Well, Zack Jackson  15:55 yeah, what if you weren't blocked? Ian Binns  15:56 I'm gonna do it from our purse or? Zack Jackson  16:00 Oh, yeah. Ian's personal account got blocked by Ken Ham. So last time, he wanted to share one of our episodes, he had to use the down the wormhole Twitter handle, because he's trying to get us blocked in him too. So thank you. It was a really Rachael Jackson  16:14 good Astronics were taken Ian Binns  16:17 at Jennifer Wiseman, are there poking fun at the you know, the new telescope up there. And so I felt like you know, help him out a little bit. And say, if you want to be really cool about it, listen to this episode. Zack Jackson  16:30 That's right. That's right. Well, Ken Ham, you're welcome on this show, at any point, Adam Pryor  16:36 oh, Gorilla nipples, Ian Binns  16:39 on the top of the new tower of tower that you're building. I'm still trying to figure out what it is I've learned that I want to share. Rachael Jackson  16:51 I don't I don't have anything that that fun. Um, I've just taken some time away from the worlds and just delved into my hobbies. And so I think at this point, y'all know that I like to cross stitch. So I cross stitch, like so many different space things, I can certainly share a picture of it, it was really awesome, especially brain freeze black holes, and different nebulae, and it was just really fun. Zack Jackson  17:30 But, oh, the Pillars of Creation orgeous Rachael Jackson  17:33 I really enjoy the Pillars of Creation. I have been like, desperately following what's going on with web. And so it's just so unbelievably exciting to witness this thing that costs so many more dollars than than anyone ever thought it was possible. And that gives me hope for humanity. Right. So and, and being Jewish, and living in a place where Christianity dominates and not just your run of the mill Christianity, but like, you will believe kind of Christianity and to see that. Yeah, exactly. To to watch that. Adam Pryor  18:19 It's gonna be what, Zack? Zack Jackson  18:22 I'm offended. Do you imagine that? I'm like storebrand Christianity? Rachael Jackson  18:30 Not at all. Not at all. Adam Pryor  18:32 Okay, good. But I think you could use that in a scary way. Rachael Jackson  18:35 Yeah, Tower of Babel. Go on. It got pushed back. So for anyone that wasn't really following the it was supposed to launch on the 22nd. I mean, it was supposed to launch at various times. And then they were smart, and they didn't make it launch. And then they they decided to launch it on December 25. I was like Merry Christmas Jews, like, cuz the Jewish Christmas is fast food and movie. Things open. But it's like, Yes, I can watch this. Like, that's the best, it was the best. So watching that, and then having it unfold a couple of weeks, like it made it. And now knowing that somebody did really good math and made sure that there was extras, right. So if any of you have ever gone on a road trip, I was certainly thinking about this. Because we're looking at electrical cars. It's like, well, how far can we really go and since there's no no stations where you could like fuel up your your electrical car, you can really only go a very short distance in most parts of the country. So you then say, Okay, well, how far can I go? And then you give yourself a little bit of buffer room because you don't want to be stuck there. Well, someone over at NASA and when I say someone, I'm sure that it was many, many teams of people said well, we want to make sure that it's kind of get there, right, it's going to get to L two. We don't really need it to stop and so they just put extra fuel But they did a really great job. And instead of it possibly lasting for 10 years, they think they now have so much fuel it might last for 20 years. And that's just I didn't hear that far out. And it's just really exciting that they have so much that it was good fuel usage on the way there, that they have almost doubled the ability to live and send better. So and Zack Jackson  20:23 so it would only be able to live for 20 years, or could it Outlast that? Does it have the power? No, Rachael Jackson  20:28 I think it's probably going to depend on what signals they send it, and what technology we come up with. But it looks like probably only only in air quotes, you know, 20 years. And you know, Zack Jackson  20:43 it's Hubble's going all Rachael Jackson  20:44 right, but Hubble, especially if you have read the book handprints on Hubble, you'll know, fascinating book, by the way. Hubble is so different than Webb, and pretty much everything else that came before it. The concept with Hubble is that it could be repairable in space. But that's what made it so unique and so challenging to build is that they had to constantly go over and over and say like, Can an astronaut actually attach themselves to this, right? Like, where do you put the foothold because there's no torque, if you're not holding on to anything, you're just like, off into space with no gravity, you can't actually use a wrench. So what do you do. And because they made the concept of this being repairable in space, they could make it so much better than it is, well, web is not going to be repairable in space, because it's a little far. So whatever it is, is what it is. So everyone was holding their collective breath for all of everything to unfurl, and then it did beautifully. And they're still calibrating it. So it's still gonna be like another 10 ish weeks until things are fully calibrated, and really sending pictures. But that that's just sort of my, it's not really a story. It's just I think that one of the things that I look at here is all of these, let's go and preach your style here. All of these extras that they put into it, the buffers that they build in, like, we can totally do that in our lives. Like we can build in buffer for times, we can build in buffer for gas, we can build in buffer for crying. Not that I've been doing that at all. Like we can just build in these buffers for each other and ourselves. And I think it's beautiful. And we decided, like it took so many governments to put web up there and we worked together and I am so a utopian universe kind of person. Right? Star Trek and Marvel all the way. Screw you DC and Star Wars. Oh, I know that. But this Ian Binns  22:49 DC thing you didn't have to throw both of you did? Rachael Jackson  22:51 We did. It has that that that nugget of hope and humanity and we put so much money into it. It's insane. And if we can do that, nothing functional. That's Darn it. I thought Ian Binns  23:11 the force. Rachael Jackson  23:14 Okay, I'm just gonna sit here and wait. And I don't know if any of this gets recorded. Zack Jackson  23:18 Oh, you're moving against the freezer. Oh, there she is. Rachael Jackson  23:22 Oh, you're moving again. Okay, she Zack Jackson  23:25 froze during her idea. Thank Rachael Jackson  23:26 you. So anyway, yay, us. And perhaps we could use all of that money to give stable Internet to Podunk places like where I live, that'd be great. Zack Jackson  23:41 Well, I did hear that some solar flare interference, sort of a deal knocked out like a couple dozen Starlink satellites recently. Rachael Jackson  23:49 Is that a problem? Is that really the problem? Zack Jackson  23:54 I mean, I don't think Starlink internet it's very expensive right now. Rachael Jackson  23:59 I think it's that we just live in the middle of nowhere and have bad internet today. So that's, that's, that's that's my story. Ian Binns  24:06 I feel like Adam should follow up with something. Rachael Jackson  24:09 I think so too, because he has to bring it down. Like I've got all this like ideal. I gotta be Ben. So Adam. Zack Jackson  24:17 Already reboot. Kendra, Kendra Holt-Moore  24:19 Adam, are you going to talk about web because I almost shared a story that I thought maybe you would talk about but it's actually something that I learned indirectly. From you through Chad. I love this. Oh, you're not going to talk about that. Then I want to say that you should say you can Adam Pryor  24:35 you can say it. Go ahead. I Zack Jackson  24:36 have a story about clams that I can share too. Kendra Holt-Moore  24:40 So web then clans then Adam. Wrapping us up. Great. Ian still has listening. Zack Jackson  24:47 We've got time. We're only halfway through. We've got time. Kendra Holt-Moore  24:51 Um, okay. Well, two things I want to share. The first thing is I I'm really happy that we're talking about web because the other day I brought up The Webb telescope in my class, and all my students were like, Oh, is that? And I was like, Are you kidding me right now? No NASA nerds. And they were all like, like, everyone shaking their heads. And I was like, this is this is this is unacceptable. And so I sent them an email later that was completely, like, unrelated, you know, it was about class. And then the end of my email was like, also, just for fun, please go read about the Gobi school. But I, I have been so inspired by keeping up with this, that I put a little like anecdote about it in one of my dissertation chapters, because I'm writing about off. But I think what's really interesting about the kind of all and like, inspiration and energy that people feel around the Webb telescope, is that it's not just what it could do for us. It's not just that, like, How amazing would it be, if we learn all this stuff, by, you know, being able to see the infrared light and knowing about black holes and exploring other planets, like, there's a lot of potential that's amazing and inspiring of like, all these people working together to such a precise degree that we've had this, like international success. So that's like, on the one hand, but on the other hand, I feel like it's also really easy to get caught up in the story and want to follow it so closely, because there's so much at stake because if it fails, right, that's also a pretty major, like, we're either going to see human achievement, you know, at its pinnacle, or we're going to watch $10 billion, just flushed down the drain. And either way, it's kind of on spiraling. But the other thing I wanted to share, which is again, me stealing something that Adam actually learned recently, I don't know where you learn this, so you can share that. But apparently, like the Collaborate, like everyone knows the collaboration of the telescope team, like it was a, you know, a lot of people involved. But one of the people who contributed to the design of the telescope was an origami artist who worked with scientist to come up with the the design and the folding, you know, technique of the telescope to get it to fit inside of the rocket, so that it could be compact enough, and go far enough. And then only once it was outside of the rocket unfold the way that it did in, you know, with all its like, single point failure, possibilities that it overcame. But it was an origami artist who, like inspired scientists, by just like looking at how, you know, you fold up paper origami. And I just think that's so cool. And what a what an interesting what an inspiring testament to interdisciplinary work, which is why I think Adam was talking about this to chat, but for those of us in academia, who are all about interdisciplinary Ness. This is a perfect example because it's the humanities, the the artists, working together with the scientists to make something beautiful, functional, and you know, hopefully not disastrous, but something amazing. Rachael Jackson  28:37 It did unfold that I have to say, awesome, and I'm going to add that if anyone actually does origami, you can download the origami Webb telescope itself. Like they created the Webb telescope origami pattern. That's awesome. So just want to add that. Did they really? Yes. Would you like the links, John? Ian Binns  29:00 Yes, I do. Because John loves to do origami stuff. Yeah, I think I need that thing. Rachael Jackson  29:08 It's pretty amazing. It's pretty amazing. Ian Binns  29:15 Alright, Adam, what are you gonna do to bring us down? Adam Pryor  29:18 I thought Zack, I wanted to talk about Rachael Jackson  29:20 clam also Zack, are you gonna talk about other NASA thing? Ian Binns  29:24 I mean, I thought why more NASA stuff. Zack Jackson  29:26 I feel like I feel like several people are are hinting something to me and I'm not getting most of them. I know, my fun fact about clams was just that the water supply of Warsaw Poland is controlled by eight clams. What? Yo, yeah, no, it's true. They are the people. Okay. The people in charge of the Water Department found that clams were better at detecting pollution than any of their their artificial sensors. So they took eight clams. And they are in a tank, that the water comes from the treatment plant and it goes into the tank before it goes out to the people. And on top of the clams, they have basically hot glue to spring and put that in front of a sensor. So when the water gets too polluted, the clams close. And then the thing at the end of the spring touches the sensor and it's it turns off the water to Warsaw. And when the water is clean, they open back up again and the water turns on. And those clams are replaced every three months. And then they're put back in the pond. And they're given their March so that they don't get used again. And they have to go through a period of training in order to be to make sure that their senses are that's what I want to know Ian Binns  30:50 is the trainer. Eight clan Zack Jackson  30:53 clan Waterson Yeah. Yeah. Adam Pryor  30:57 I mean, essentially worse. I made clam thermostats. That's really what happened here. Zack Jackson  31:01 Yeah. And they work that they call it like there's a fancy word for bio monitoring. Huh? Adam Pryor  31:10 Yeah, that's just an easy way to say clam thermos. Zack Jackson  31:13 Yeah. I mean, it's a canary in the coal mine. But, but it controls the whole water supply. Adam Pryor  31:17 Yeah. Do they have like, like, does it can it like, Shut partway off? Like, you know, for clams today, we're close to your own rescue Zack Jackson  31:25 boil wars, like Minority Report. Right? Adam Pryor  31:29 But not when the clams are in the tank. Zack Jackson  31:31 Right? Don't do that. Don't do that. Adam Pryor  31:36 Because then train more. Zack Jackson  31:39 So what do you got? Adam? Adam Pryor  31:40 I want to make sure I understood the Zack Jackson  31:45 so this would be this would be like, textbook vintage, Adam, for you to come on and be like, Look, I got your question, but I did not. Well, and I would like to restate this in a way. Adam Pryor  31:56 Nine times out of 10. That's true. But so I'm supposed to come up with a story that has been inspiring to know how I learned Kendra Holt-Moore  32:06 just recently Zack Jackson  32:08 learned anything Adam Pryor  32:10 interesting. Just finding anything interesting or fun that I learned? Zack Jackson  32:14 Or inspirational or tragic? Or like or, or or? Okay. Well, I mean, the Sixers just got James Harden. You could we could talk about that. I talked Adam Pryor  32:27 about that. No, um, well, I guess. Zack Jackson  32:36 Are you looking around the room for inspiration? Kendra Holt-Moore  32:39 Do you mean something to you to talk about? No, Adam Pryor  32:42 no, I'm thinking like, cuz I I'm trying to say what to choose. Like. I mean, I could choose any number of depressing items. But that feels a little on the nose. Because a lot of what I've been learning is about the Kansas legislature right now. And that Oh, terrible. I don't think anyone should be subjected to that. Although I'm pretty sure it should be disbanded because they're useless. Coal coal. I've been Reading a lot about gerrymandering, but that also feels pretty, pretty dark. Even for me, that feels kind of dark, especially which state are living in Kansas is trying to put Lawrence inside the big first. If you don't know what the big first is, it's all of Western Kansas. And let me just say Lawrence is not in western Kansas. Right. So it makes this big U shaped come down and get Lawrence and put them into the big first. It's not political way. Yeah, these are the things I'm Reading about. Yeah, no, no, um, oh, wait, no, I have a heavy one. Hold on. Wait. Well, I mean, it's not happy. You happy, happy, happiest everything? I think it's happy. Um, hang on, man. I'm pulling it out to a low bar. So I was Reading this morning. This made me legitimately happy this morning. So I'm, in the times, there was this piece by Rabbi Lauren Holtz Blatt from Agoudas Israel congregation in Washington, DC. And she was writing about the whole debacle. Hmm. Feels like the correct term. Rachael Jackson  34:28 The misses with Whoopi Goldberg one, okay. Adam Pryor  34:31 Oh, yes. Yeah, right. Um, and, you know, if you're not aware of like, you know, Google it, you can find that, um, I was a little depressed the number of people who didn't know that that occurred, and I'm like, that says something about, you know, how Zack might haunt people. But what she wrote about in her piece, which I thought was really, really beautiful, and I'm going to do butcher the pronunciation and then you correct Rachel. So she wrote about tshuva should I get my accent right? Oh, yes. And as a process of Reading, renouncing, confessing reconciling and making amends right. And then she talks about to Shiva Shalimar complete Yep. Right this idea of complete to Shiva right where like, when you come into the same situation you act differently, right as knowing that this is like actually come to its peace. And then she makes this nice reference to tikun olam at the end of the article that like unless you're Jewish, you probably don't catch. I thought it was really brilliant. But I what, what I found, like, deeply hopeful about this idea is how generous a way of responding to that situation. That is, and that doesn't happen anymore. No one is that generous with other people today. And I kinda like that. At heart, I think there's something really beautiful about being able to write in the face of all horrible racism, that this is the kind of response we should be offering to one another. And it makes me more patient, generally, not specifically towards them. But generally, I like the idea of it. And what was the article? It's her opinion piece she wrote. It's called in the Jewish tradition, the words we choose matter. I just thought it was. It was really beautifully. I mean, it's beautifully written, like a whole wholesale, but I just the fact that that was how she decided to wrap this up and suggest people might engage. What has been a really, in some ways, underreported, in my opinion, and also poorly reported. Event. Is, is, I think, really helpful. Rachael Jackson  37:27 That's lovely. And I appreciate that you, you also brought it up. Yeah, it's definitely one of those things. Right? In Judaism, there is definitely that idea of if we believe that each person has the ability to mess up, and then fix their mess ups. How much more? How much more can we really ask of a person? And should we not then treat each other with that ability? So it's, I mean, she's she's farmer, erudite and Better Spoken than I also she's, she was writing instead of speaking, so she had the gift of editing. But no, it's really, it's wonderful. Right. And I think one of the challenges that we have, especially as Jews as like, Well, that was under reported. What about mouse? And what about, right, the synagogue shooting and in Texas, like, or hostage holding, not shooting, right? Like, how many of these things do we really want to be like, Hey, you didn't say that enough. So I like that there's this positive that you that Adam, you picked up this like, really good way of looking at this story. Thanks. Also to really great story. Adam Pryor  38:43 Yeah. Off to read that. There, I did something hopeful. Rachael Jackson  38:48 You shared 100 episode, you're like doing something different. Adam Pryor  38:55 I gotta flip things around. Zack Jackson  38:58 Keep it fresh. Just take us another three years to get through another positive. Adam Pryor  39:02 I mean, seems highly likely. Zack Jackson  39:06 Maybe the birth of your fourth child will springs there and into your life. Just, Adam Pryor  39:10 I mean, I probably won't be there. Let's just be real. 75% That's not Yeah. Ian Binns  39:21 If you're a professional athlete, maybe you make a lot of money. Adam Pryor  39:27 That's correct. C is for degree. So you tell your students. Yeah, I get degrees. They're struggling in my class. And they're like, 68. I'm like, Hey, you only got to get a degree. Well, sometimes I say that to majors, too. Not too many recently. Just a while. There. There were a couple. Ian Binns  39:54 I think the thing I want to talk about is I always appreciate The excitement around seen people on athletes at the Olympics. You know, there's always the, there's always issues with, you know how the Olympics are chosen. And you know, I'm not dismissing any of that what I like to see and I love to have the Olympics on is to just see their excitement that they have while they're doing something that they've spent an incredibly long time preparing for, right? And then even the the, like, good sportsmanship they tend to have for the most part, I mean, there's always issues but just how much they still celebrate each other because they realize that they're seeing something great. Like, it's really I just, it's very inspiring for me to see that to see people who are able to do some of these things that after they've done an event, you're just like, I don't understand how that just happened. Like how did that person just do that? You know, tricks, when you especially right now is skiing, you know, the aerials that they do, and stuff like that freestyle skiing, or whatever it's called. But even watching, like the level of excitement that occurs with cross country skiing, and biathlon, I'm not allowed to watch that. That's fun, curly, curly. It's fun, because they'll do things and everyone just be like, how did that just happen? Yeah, man. It's just it's so amazing to me that they're that far from the end. And they're able to like thread it between two of the rocks to hit this exact spot that they need to hit. It's just really cool. So that's kind of what's been going on in our house lately. Zack Jackson  41:32 And watch what was impossible, just like a decade ago, right? Someone would land like, like when Tony Hawk hit the like the 900. Right? Or whatever it was back in don't 20 years ago. That was that was mind blowing X Games explode. That and because there's nothing now it's like, oh, we figured it out. And now we can do it. We've progressed. Humans are amazing. Yeah. Rachael Jackson  41:54 What we asked him to do is really impressive. Ian Binns  41:58 Yeah, it's very, it's very interesting just to kind of watch these athletes who, as I said, that have dedicated their lives to perfecting what it is that they do. But to build on the Olympic theme, how about this? I was the first I now don't remember her name. But it was the first woman figure skater to land a quad. The Quad jump Kendra Holt-Moore  42:24 in the donation. Adam Pryor  42:26 Players that say you mean the dough for Oh, no. Ian Binns  42:28 Was she a doper? Yep. Did she test positive for doping? Yep. Oh. Does she really Rachael Jackson  42:39 do with extra hormones? Yeah, I mean, Adam Pryor  42:44 well, that's, I gotta say, right? Like, as you are seeing all this, I can't stop myself now. Now. We're gonna go for it right like Hopi and they like each other in this kind of thing. And I'm like, Yeah, you know what I see the instrumentalisation of 15 year olds by countries for profit. Ian Binns  43:00 See, this is the reason why I just get rid of that part. Kendra Holt-Moore  43:05 And I appreciate it because it parties. I love watching the clips. I watched the snowboarders yesterday and was like, Yeah, I'm gonna do that. I'm not, I'll never do anything remotely close to that. But it does. It makes you feel like you know, just before before Adam just ruins it. I just want to affirm your love of watching Olympic athletes. Rachael Jackson  43:28 Well, I'm I'm going to like switch teams here a little bit. And I'm totally with Adam. I can't stand Kendra Holt-Moore  43:37 I mean, you're you're not saying I just want it took them a while to think of something to share. have let them have this. Ian Binns  43:47 I'm not at all just dismissing the fact that you know, these that people are taking advantage of or anything like that. What I'm saying is that when you do see an athlete, excel at something that's exciting from even like, the NFL, right? Rachael Jackson  44:00 We'll never refuse. 100% Refuse to watch the NFL. It's just gladiators in the 20th century, and it's abusive in so many different ways and racist in unbelievable magnitudes. I watch the football. Ian Binns  44:15 A couple years ago, there was a marathoner who broke the two hour barrier. Are you gonna rain on that parade too? For me? Are we gonna be okay with that? Well, being Adam Pryor  44:23 surrounded by a whole team of people, was that really a good way to run a marathon fastest your hours? Ian Binns  44:31 It just could happen. Zack Jackson  44:34 The marathon is my favorite. Because like to home without why? Because the guy ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens fell dead. And then we were like, We're gonna flex on this guy. And now we do it all the time. And we're just like, hey, one guy died doing this. Let's do it. And like, the net Great. That's Got it. Also, fun fact, the president of the Olympics for life for all time is King Herod the Great. Did you know that Ian Binns  45:13 I did not. The Olympics Zack Jackson  45:14 had fallen under disrepair. There was no money for it. They did. They barely happened. And Herod was travelling through the Greek area in 12 BC. Yeah, he was there in 12 BC. And he went, and he was like, Wow, this sucks. And he's like, here, if I give you tons of talents, are you going to be able to make this great? And they were like, Yeah, and he's like, then go zoos. Here you go, here's a ton of money. And they revitalize the Olympics. And it became a big thing again, and he was named president of the Olympics for life in perpetuity. And so his statue was there. And he is for all eternity. The president of the Olympics. I mean, it does make a lot of sense. I know Christians love to hate the guy, but Rachael Jackson  45:59 it does make a lot of sense, right? Like, he's this is how messed up the Olympics are. Right? He's the guy that decides to kill his whole family. So it Adam Pryor  46:10 I think they should start leading the Parade of Nations with a sketch. point home. Zack Jackson  46:16 I mean, do it. You know, one time Cleopatra came to visit, and she was like, showing them up. And he was like, he went to his guy. And he's like, can we kill her right now? And he's like, You can't kill Cleopatra. And he's like, but she's here. We can kill her now. Right? And they're like, You can't kill Cleopatra. And he almost did it. Because he's nuts. Right, but he loved the Olympics. Yeah. Rachael Jackson  46:39 It could have just been the metaphor. We ran on. Ian Binns  46:41 We're gonna go watch the Olympics. Fun. Let's go watch the bath one because I'm certain on the next lap, they're gonna all turn the rifles on each other. Like Adam and Rachel want Adam Pryor  47:06 to take solace in the fact that you got Rachel and I think that's the takeaway. Ian Binns  47:12 Oh, that person's head fell off when they land. There. Oh, no, that guy's a racist. Rachael Jackson  47:20 You know, it's just trauma. It's when I see the skiers. I can't see this gear. So no. Oh, yeah, I broke my body. I broke my brain. Oh, I totally, totally broke my brain Zack Jackson  47:31 that was in a previous episode. Everything. Ian Binns  47:34 We'll talk more about, like, you know, running not doing no, they cheat too. So no, javelin maybe someone hasn't been pierced lately. Kendra Holt-Moore  47:45 Well, setting aside just like the terribleness of human nature. Yeah, I, I wanted to also add, um, so like, I haven't really watched the Olympics flick very carefully. This year. I usually don't, I usually just like watch clips of things. So the stuff that I've seen is like ice skating clips, and like snowboarder clips. But I've been I was just thinking, the last couple of days about Simone Biles, and just the whole phenomenon of the twisties. Because a lot of the stuff that I'm looking at for like the snowboarders and ice skaters, you know, it's like a lot of tricks, a lot of jumping, and flipping and all of that. And I just, it is really amazing, especially knowing my own very limited abilities. It's like not an athlete person, but who has worked so hard to have, like very basic snowboarding skills, that it's, it feels so good when you can get to a point where your body just does. And that's kind of what you have to do to like, do it. Well, it's like the whole problem of the twisties. And like, when you start to think about what you are trying to do athletically, it messes with you and so it's just really interesting, like giving in to just your body. And I it's it's really like a very meditative experience and you have to be skilled, of course, but it's just such a such an interesting part of living in a body when we are so easily like distracted in our heads. So to separate those experiences, Ian Binns  49:19 you bring it up smoking balls, you know, the last Olympics, the Summer Olympics watching, especially being that your daughter Ellie is a gymnast, right? It's an even recently talking about you know, and so, I've always been impressed and admired have always admired Simone Biles, I think you know her what she embraced her struggles with her own. Her mental health journey I thought made her even more impressive. But when you talk again about someone who's become like an expert at what it is they do, like the things that she can do, is just mind boggling to me like what she is capable of as an athlete. Just her athletic ability, right? But even talking with Ellie Avella explaining to me that we talked about, you know, the other day that Ellie had a competition last week and met. Mary Lou Retton. Right, honey, who did le meet last week, Mary Lou Retton. Yeah, so she met Mary Lou retina at a competition last week. And it was really cool to hear about it. And I was kind of saying like, Oh be, you know, someone else get a 10 good Simone get a 10. And her response was, is that she her strength and power is so great, that the skills that she does that gets her such high scores would not wouldn't make it I think, very challenging forever to get a perfect score. Because you know, the way the score is done, that level is very different than the standard level, but that her power that Simone Biles has is just that much better than most anyone else in the world. That that's why be challenging for her become to get a perfect score because she challenges herself to that level. Does that make sense? Like she could land thing if she did Rachael Jackson  50:59 what other competitors did or if she did what other competitors did, she would get a perfect score, but because she pushes herself to make it harder. Ian Binns  51:07 And that's what raises like her ability to get even higher scores those because they realize that we have to change the scoring because of the tricks and the things that she's able to do the skills that she's able to do me that we have that scoring has changed, Miss fascinate, right. Zack Jackson  51:23 They had to outlaw some moves that she did, because no one else could do it. Ian Binns  51:28 They call it the Biles. I mean, she's got several moves on several different apparatus apparatus that are named after her, which is also on the land it Kendra Holt-Moore  51:37 just let her do it and let her just went all the time. Because yeah, pretty cool. Ian Binns  51:41 Right? Thank you, Kendra for bringing that one up. Because now I feel better again. Rachael Jackson  51:46 And I don't want to I don't want to poopoo the athletes themselves. They're doing amazing things, just the institutions they're in. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So just just to clarify, I don't mean to make any athletes upset. I think that what they're doing is truly incredible. Because I Ian Binns  52:01 would love to get Simone on here. Zack Jackson  52:05 Yeah, yeah. And if any Olympic athletes or regular listeners of the podcast I'd love to have you on to have you on Jake's, especially if you're in the by athalon would love to learn more about how that Aikido? Yes, that's one of my absolute favorite and Ian Binns  52:17 ensures my favorite winter sport to watch is potentially bad. Yeah. Or I Rachael Jackson  52:22 love calm you go. I'm your heart rate slow enough after doing this incredible thing that you can shoot steady. Ian Binns  52:30 That's impressive. So I'm Rachael Jackson  52:33 so American. Zack Jackson  52:34 They're like, yeah, here's a cool sport. How can we make it better? aren't that good at it? Yeah. What we're not good at a gun sport. And Ian Binns  52:43 we're not nearly as good as the countries, then the Canadians think they beat us every time Zack Jackson  52:50 unacceptable. So we're nearing the end here, buddy. And we're nearing the end here. And I love I want to, there we go. I want to say thank you to all of you, all the four of you. And thank you to myself as well. Because you all are incredible. And it has been a minute since we've had all of us here. And it has felt so good. Just to be here. For this time. I want to thank everyone at home or in the car or in the gym or wherever it is that you're listening. Now, those of you who have listened to all 100 episodes, and those of you who this might be your first You are wonderful people as well. I would invite you to check out the down the wormhole conversations group on facebook and join us there. We've got some. It's really fun to be able to talk with folks on there. And yeah, you can check us out on Patreon as well if you'd like to support the show. Does anybody have any closing stories or thoughts or fun facts you want to share before we call it a day? Rachael Jackson  53:52 I think Zack you should share the story of the person that works at NASA. It's a quick little Zack Jackson  54:00 it is a quick little story NASA has let me let me pull up the Kendra Holt-Moore  54:08 while Zack is looking that up, I'd encourage everyone to go look up whales, bubble netting to catch their fish. Because that's, 54:18 that's amazing. Zack Jackson  54:20 I'd also encourage people to look up the story of how Pepsi briefly in the 80s became the sixth largest military in the world. Ian Binns  54:29 I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Zack Jackson  54:31 That's a fun story as well, right? Rachael Jackson  54:33 That's homework, Pepsi military in the 80s. Zack Jackson  54:39 Basically, and here we go. In the 50s. They were trying to make peace between the Soviet Union and America. And so Eisenhower put together this American National Exhibition in Moscow, and he sent Nixon over there and Nixon is not a nice person. And so Nixon and Khrushchev are talking and then they start fighting about capitalism and communism. And so the CEO of Pepsi sees them fighting and steps in there. And he's like, Here you go. And it gives Khrushchev, a Pepsi, and he drinks it and he goes, damn, or whatever the equivalent Russian is, this is amazing. We have to have this. The problem was there was all of these, you know, trade issues. And not everyone accepted Soviet currency. And so Pepsi didn't want to do this transaction. So they signed a deal in which the Soviet Union would purchase Pepsi with vodka. And that was their agreement for like, 30 years. So then in the late 80s, the agreement was expiring. And Pepsi was like, we don't want to get paid in vodka anymore, what else you got? And they were like, well, you still don't want to take our money. So here's what we have. And Pepsi in exchange for $3 billion dollars worth of Pepsi products, gave the Pepsi corporation 17 submarines, a cruiser a frigate and a destroyer. Which then for that amount of time made them the sixth largest military in the world. Pepsi then flipped all of that to a Swedish scrap recycling company and made back the money. But for that period of time, Pepsi was the sixth largest military in the world. So that's my fun Pepsi fact. But anyway, every single thing that goes up into space that goes up into a habitable space, so anything that goes up into the, into the space station or in a in a ship that has humans in it has to pass the sniff test, literally, from a man called George Aldrich is the chief sniffer of NASA. And anything that goes up there has to be smelled by him. And then he has to approve it or not, because they they need somebody with a very sensitive nose to smell if like, is this going to be awful to be locked in a room with this? So if you want to get something sent to space, it's got to be sniffed by nostril Damas. So if that column Adam Pryor  57:03 I hope they quarantined him for a long time, so I didn't get COVID Zack Jackson  57:06 right how awful would that Kendra Holt-Moore  57:08 would that's a client he Rachael Jackson  57:09 needs to have insurance on his You had one Adam Pryor  57:11 job. I seems like you could train clamps to do this. Zack Jackson  57:19 I don't know if you know how smell works. But Ian Binns  57:23 I just looked that up, you know, nostril Damas because I saw that you put in my chat, Rachel. And I saw I typed that into Google and now that now that does come up as the second story. Second thing don't click on the first one with the Urban Dictionary and Rachael Jackson  57:43 you're not that is not this is not safe for work portion. Do not don't talk about that. Click Ian Binns  57:50 on that link. It is definitely NSFW. Not Safe For Work if you don't know. Rachael Jackson  57:56 Yeah, and that's dw.com like Ian Binns  58:00 Well, the thing is, is that I started looking at it. While right before Zacks are talking, I thought myself Adam Pryor  58:07 Where the heck is this story? 58:09 Like they have nothing to do with each other. Like oh my gosh, this is so funny. Ian Binns  58:14 Kendra, are you looking it up right now? Rachael Jackson  58:17 No, don't don't Zack Jackson  58:19 just dear listener, don't don't worry about urban dictionary and teenagers putting crazy in there that they have nobody's gonna want to look at this. Don't worry about it. Instead, you can search for George Ulrich Aldrich, NASA employee g4. Rachael Jackson  58:37 If you're that, you know you can go back and listen to the rest of our other podcasts either for the first time or another time. Zack Jackson  58:45 Literally 99 other episodes you can listen to. Rachael Jackson  58:48 Did exactly do not go to Urban Dictionary go to D TW. Zack Jackson  58:52 Hey go that's a great closer, Greg sign off

Series: MatthewService: Sunday AM WorshipType: SermonSpeaker: Jeremy Bowling Matthew 14John the Baptist Beheaded14:1  At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus 2 and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” 3 For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. 4 Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.6 But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias…

1st John chapter 2 John is reassuring believers, explaining to them that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Because John was aware of the continuing attack of false teachings, he then urged believers not to love and follow after the world because it was not of God and would pass away. Chapter 3, 4 teaches about the love of God and that through his love, he sent his son Jesus Christ to destroy the works of Satan. Chapter 5 tells Christian to live by faith because through Faith in Christ we can overcome the wickedness of the world. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/irtwbey365/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/irtwbey365/support

When John XXIII became pope in 1958, he was a compromise choice.  The powerful cardinals who wanted the job figured they could choose the elderly and sickly Cardinal  Roncalli of Venice.  They suspected he would not last long and then they could step in.  Little did they know that he would become one of the most significant popes.  John decided that the church had become stuffy and the windows needed to be opened to let in some fresh air.  He convened all the bishops to Rome to began a process of deliberation that would lead to the transformation of the church.   He died before that process was  finished but his right-hand man, Cardinal Montini, soon to be Pope Paul VI, carried the task to its finish. This is the story of what happened and what changes were made. The right wing elements of the hierarchy decided to bite their tongues and bide their time until they could undo what they saw as serious errors.  They are the bishops and cardinals who are fighting Pope Francis today. Curious factoid:   The body of John XXIII is on display in the Vatican.  It is sitting out where tourists such as myself can take photos.  I was a bit shocked at this display until I read the explanation.  Because John became a saint, he is now a "relic" so that body on display is not his body but the equivalent of the piece of the cross that I saw in Vienna.  (Note: The sign with that piece of wood said that the Church had never been able to verify the authenticity of the splinter but that it has given encouragement to believers over the ages and for that reason the Church is pleased to keep it on display) Note:  You do not have to be a Catholic to find this a fascinating topic. Note II.  This was a zoom lecture in the fall of 2020. 

Sermon from the Rev. Barbara Ballenger for the Third Sunday of Advent. Today's readings are: Zephaniah 3:14-20 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:7-18 Canticle 9 Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Advent/CAdv3_... Let us pray. Lord Christ, help us to endure the sting of forgiveness, that we may become for you your brain in the world. Jarrett and I are part of a Zoom-based lectionary bible study for diocesan priests. We're on it each week and a group of us read the Sunday lections and talk about what we might preach about. So if you wonder where my sermons come from, I get them from other people. Or at least, they can really focus me on what I need to pay attention to in these readings, and so this week, I want to give credit where credit is due. Because I've been thinking a lot about a story that one of the clergy, Robin, told about forgiveness. When her daughter was young, Robin shared, she attended a home daycare that taught the children that when someone apologized to them - as preschoolers are routinely made to do - they were not to say, "it's ok." They were encouraged to say "I forgive you." Because when someone harms another person it's not ok, and their apology doesn't make what they did ok, and sometimes the feelings that you're feeling are still not ok. So if you want to accept their apology, they children were taught, say "I forgive you." Now, for things like cutting in line or hoarding the best markers, that can be a pretty quick process. For the bigger things we grow into, getting to I forgive you can take a little longer. As they say, little kid little problems, big kids big problems. But that's a different sermon. One day, Robin said, she apologized to her daughter for something she did, like you do when you're a parent, and her three year old said "I forgive you." That comment startled her. And Robin said it made her a little angry. Who was this preschooler to say if Robin was forgiven or not? Who was she to forgive me? And here was revealed to Robin the power that is contained in the I of I forgive you. Because it acknowledges that there's a relationship involved there, and the one who was hurt has some agency in determining what happens next, whether things are really, indeed, ok. Robin's story made me realize that I'm like this. Very often when I apologize, I want the person I'm addressing to tell me that what I did didn't hurt, it wasn't a big deal, it wasn't my fault, it's ok. Often that means what I really want is to be released from my feelings of imperfection, to get rid of the gnaw of guilt, rather than really wanting the person I've hurt to be healed. So it stings to hear "I forgive you." It stings to hear "Yes you hurt me, and I appreciate that you are taking responsibility for it, and I accept that, and I want to stay in relationship with you." "I forgive you" is a little more truthful than "it's ok." It's judgement without condemnation. Judgement that's graceful and merciful. And that sting just might prompt me to wonder what the path is to things really being okay. And now we're in the territory of the gospel, though at first glance it seems a bit harsh. I think it's the brood of vipers language that gives it away. That is the tell that this isn't a healing ritual. Because John has stepped into the waters of the old time prophet, of one called by God to help Israel face the truth of who it is and to get ready for what's coming next. Because it's going to demand the full strength of their covenant with God. John's baptism didn't make the impure clean, it didn't remove sin. It ritually acknowledged that the life had already been cleaned up, that the change had been made, the heart re-turned to God. So unless you've done that work, don't get in John's baptism line. So what then does John's baptism with water do, and what does Jesus's baptism with fire do? John's baptism invites Israel to return to right relationship with God; it proclaims that Israel has repented and is ready for the life that God will initiate through Jesus. "What are we to do, John, to show that we are ready for your baptism?," ask the crowd and the tax collectors and the soldiers? "Stop sinning", says John. "Stop invoking your privilege, and hoarding resources, and keeping aid back from those who need it. Stop misusing your power, and extorting people." "I'm a prophet," John would have said, "don't tell me this is the first time you're hearing this. Stop sinning. Get your covenant with God firmly in place. Because when Jesus comes baptizing, look out." "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire," John says of Jesus. "His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Luke calls that "good news." Threshings, pitchforks, unquenchable fire - that sounds like judgement to me. And I think this is where we often go in our imagination of what God's judgement of us is. It sounds like brutal, terrifying condemnation. But what if that threshing, and chaff removal and sifting is actually what an encounter with God's love looks like? What if that's the refining process that happens when God says "I forgive you?" "From our perspective it looks like judgment. From God's perspective it looks like love." Jarrett observed in our lectionary group. That is because God tells us the truth about ourselves. Sure it stings. Because truth stings. What if God's judgement invites us to see ourselves as God sees us, as we truly are. What if that involves freeing the core of us that God rejoices in and delights in? What if on the other side of God's judgement, we see ourselves as beloved as God saw us from the beginning, and still sees us? Consider how John the Baptist describes the baptism offered by Jesus. The threshing floor, the winnowing fork, the fire that burns the chaff -- these are all means of removing the extraneous material from that valuable, useful grain. If we are talking about people who have already repented and emerged from John's baptismal water, then it looks to me like Jesus is processing the grain for its actual use. This is the process of God's love in us - removing that which is not love, which is not necessary, which is perhaps not true about us and carefully gathering up and preserving what is true, beloved, essential to us and to God. You can call this process judgement. You can call it love. To those of us who do not want to let go of any of it, it sounds terrifying. Because I'd rather things be ok, than to admit that I need to be forgiven of all that does not flow from love. I think sometimes I'd rather bring all my sins to God with a little apology for packing so much, coming with so much baggage and just have God say, "it's ok, it's fine, come as you are." But real reconciliation with God means bringing all the stuff we can't manage to put down and allowing God to remove it for us. When God says "I forgive you," I think it means, "I see your sin, I acknowledge that you have done harm to yourself and others and me, and I remove its power over you and your attachment to it, and we are in relationship". That includes things like our shame, our fear, our perfectionism, our tendency to dominate, our inability to forgive ourselves and be merciful to others. And God calls upon the wind of God's spirit to drive it away from us and the fire of the spirit to consume it entirely. In stories of God's judgement I think we forget what remains, that there is something in us that is also wonderful, beautiful, useful, effective, necessary to the work of God. The grain of wheat in us that is seed and food remains. That is what God's truthful gaze, God's fiery love, frees in us. Consider that when you say amen to the communion bread today. You are not just consuming the wheat, you are becoming the wheat. And that act of threshing and winnowing and sifting is the powerful work of our transformation into Christ's body. This puts a new shine on the rose candle of Gaudete Sunday, in this third week of Advent, on this day where we are waiting to make special room to rejoice. It is a lovely light in a darkened room. But put your finger in that flame, and it burns. Because it's fire. "The Lord is near," says the heat of that flame. "Do not worry about anything, it says. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And that as Luke says, is indeed good news. Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved. Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org

Getting husbands and wives on the same page with their retirement plan can often be a challenge. Let's talk about some of the things that couples often mess up. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investment involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for any individual. Listeners are encouraged to seek advice from a qualified tax, legal, or investment adviser to determine whether any information presented may be suitable for their specific situation. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Transcript of Today's Show: For a full transcript of today's show, visit the blog related to this episode at https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/podcast/ ----more---- Mark: Everybody welcome to the podcast. Thanks for tuning into the show. As we talk about investing, finance and retirement here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick. And we're going to talk about couples this go around and some financial mistakes couples often get into. Because John, I don't know about you, buddy, but my wife and I are on the same page about everything all the time. John: Yeah. Sounds like you go by the motto happy wife, happy life. Mark: Yeah. Not so much. No. She would disagree with that. Something fear. She's like, "If I could ever get you to agree with me on anything for happy wife, that'd be good." But no, this is a joke people make all the time. Couples that definitely do not see eye to eye on a lot of things, and finances is certainly one of those. John: Finances and kitchen remodels, definitely. So... Mark: Kitchen remodels, Nick, what's going on with you, buddy. How you doing? We don't want to leave you out. Nick: Pretty good, just staying busy, happy that football seasons here, NFL season is here. I'm looking forward to fall weather in Florida. Mark: Yeah. Well it's on its way, hopefully. So we're into September when we're taping this. So let's get into it and talk about some stuff. I imagine you guys see a lot of different things when couples come in, and you see a lot of different people on, whether they're on the same page or different pages or whatever the case might be. And many times as much as couples might think they've talked about this stuff, I imagine you guys probably see that they didn't talk about it as much as they should have, or maybe as a depth or they just really glossed over the subject. Mark: So let's dive into a few things and see if we can highlight stuff for folks. So when they do come in and sit down, maybe they're a little further along in this conversation, and you guys don't have to wear your marriage counselor hats along with your financial advisor hat. So number one, making the wrong choice on how to handle the spousal benefit option, if you're lucky enough to have a pension, I talked to a bunch of guys advisors and stuff, fellows over the years that have said, "It's amazing how many times somebody will take that without even talking to their spouse about it, just because they see that higher number." Nick: Yeah, it's interesting that a lot of places have put some restrictions from the perspective of the paperwork where they'll have to be a notary sign off or things like that, but we've seen them without, and there's definitely a misconception or misunderstanding on how these pension payouts will work. And so this could be a mistake that it's typically a one-time decision. So for anybody that has substantial income, that will be coming in from a pension, this could ultimately be the most important decision that they make, and it's something not to overlook. And just to be a little bit more direct, oftentimes they will see the single life option, which you would referred to as the highest payout, and not realize that if something happens to them, then nobody gets any remaining benefit. Nick: One of the ways that we'll try to phrase that to people is, no matter what, I've never met anybody that wants to have worked for a company for a long time, and even if there's a divorce situation or something where if something happens to them that nobody gets any of the benefits that they would have been due for the rest of their life. So on making sure that those options are understood and making sure that they're correlated and tied into the rest of the decisions that they've made for their planning it's super important. John: Yeah. And a big thing to that, Nick mentioned single life, is understand the different joint survivor lives. You can have a joint survivor where one passes away, they still get a 100% of the benefit. And then there's a couple of different options where you get 75 and 50%, and it's always good to reference the plan to make sure if one person passes away that the plan basically is still intact and that surviving spouse can still hit all their goals. Mark: Absolutely. On those conversations, if it does happen, I can't imagine that the other person's too happy about, "Hey, wait a minute, why did you take the wrong one and leave me out?" So, you want to make sure that you're doing those for sure. Number two is the coordination on the social security strategy, social security is that horse that we're going to beat constantly, because it's a big component of people's retirement plans, and the money that's out there. But we can't get into this rush to just go turn it on without really thinking about a strategy, especially if you're married, because there's a lot of strategy involved. John: Yeah, there is. You hit it perfectly when you said it's a big decision. I believe social security equate for like 30 to 40% of someone's household income in retirement. So you want to coordinate it right, and the biggest mistake we typically see is once one person retires maybe early at like 62, 63 64, they're just going to go ahead and turn it on, while the other spouse is working, but there's definitely a lot of different strategies that you can implement. Nick and I focus heavily on planning, and it really all does come back to the planning cause everyone's situation is different, but you really want to look at what's best for your situation. Does it make sense to defer the higher amount for survivor plan down the road? We just talked about pensions. Is there a current pension in place? Which will make the social security decision even more important to really coordinate that with any pension or any other guaranteed income stream. Mark: Strategy is key, and so many things for retirement planning, but certainly in social security. And again, that's why the podcast this week is really about mistakes for couples. Because again, we can kind of talk through this stuff in generalities and sometimes we just kind of barely touch on it, but there's a lot of minutia to dive into, and that's where an advisor really comes into play. And here's a simple one guys, and I don't know how often you guys encounter this, but I talked to many advisors who say, "It's pretty surprising. People will come in for the first time. And they really haven't truly talked about what they want to do with their actual time in retirement, what they want to actually do with retirement. And yeah, they say the general things, well, we want to travel, well, he wants to play golf or whatever, but it's like, well, what does that actually look like? How much golf, how much travel? Where to? So on and so forth." So that stuff really is important in what you guys do to help them design a plan for that. Nick: Yeah. This is something that I've been really trying to focus on with people, with clients. And one of the things that I've found is that, for so many people that are retiring recently or very soon, looking back, one of the things that I've found is that many of them, even if we were to rewind five, six years ago, we've had this huge run-up in the market. So now you have people that have a lot more money in retirement than many of them thought that they would. And so some of the options that they have in some of the thought processes that they can have is less of a scarcity mindset and more of a thriving mindset and really trying to focus on things that they really want to do. Nick: An example recently is a plan with clients that had retired within the last year. And so they're plugging along and the plan looks really, really solid. And so, I really tried to start drilling down. It's like "Now that you've been retired for a little while, now that you have a feeling of what it feels like, what are the things that you really want to do?" And then using planning to help them figure out if we can do it from a financial standpoint. So, one client wanted a larger property for their primary residence to be able to work on cars, that was the kind of hobby. And so it goes. We've kind of talked about the fact that the sharper they stay, the more engaged they stay, whether it's hobbies, whether it's volunteering, no matter what it is, as long as you're staying engaged and sharp, their life is going to be probably longer realistically. And the brain's not going to really rot away. Nick: And so helping people dial into those things that they want to do, I think is probably one of the most enjoyable things on our side of the business, but it takes a while and quite a bit of repetition to really get them to visualize it and see it. Mark: Yeah, indeed, because again, you might talk about some basic things you want to do, but you really start to have to dive in and dissect more because you got all this free time now. And of course you hear all of the funny stories, maybe the Mrs. Will say, "Find something else for him to do get him out of my house." John: One thing we've noticed is that when we do the planning, we'll ask that question and one spouse will say something and the other one just gives a look like "What? I didn't know that." Mark: First I've heard about it. And that's the point of really even though they think maybe they've communicated this. And again, I think that's really where great value comes into play from what you guys do, because you get to be this... Maybe that's not always the most fun thing to be in the middle, but you get to be this mediator a little bit, or this sounding board where to that point, John, when somebody is like, "Wait a minute, this is the first time we're talking about it." Now they're going to hash it out and you guys can help them walk through it. So hopefully it's good in the end because they're getting through to the details they really got to get to. So these are, again, are mistakes that couples can get themselves into when planning for retirement. Number four, not coordinating other accounts. So how important is it guys to include or incorporate coordination amongst his 401k and her IRA and so on and so forth? John: So this is a really important one. And again, we sound like broken records, but this is important to the plan itself, as far as once both people are retired, and you're looking at how much income is needed from the nest eggs, where is that money coming from? Whose accounts? And once that's determined, that will dictate how that money should be invested. So this is really important and often overlooked if someone has not gone through a comprehensive plan, whether they've done it themselves or working with an advisor, but this could be a really big mistake if you haven't coordinated this correctly. Mark: And coordination is the key, getting on the same page is the key. I started off this podcast by joking about my wife and I are always in agreement because that's how spouses are. Yeah. Right. So, at the end of the day, we tend to see differently in a couple of ways, opposites attract kind of thing. Right. So how often, and how much do you guys deal with managing the opposites in their personalities with risk? For example, that's a big one, obviously. Because many, many times I think we're going to see people where one person is like, "Hey, let's take some risks, let's take some chances." And the other, one's not so comfortable with that. And maybe they haven't even been as honest as they might be in front of you guys saying, "You know what, now that we're sitting here, I don't want to take that much risk." So you guys have to figure out a way to get them in a neutral, workable ground. Nick: I think one of the ways to do that, that we found to be the most effective, is to try to double down on embracing the differences and letting them know that. And even if we go back through the plan and say, "Hey, look at these two decisions that you made, really help the plan in this way." And then, these two decisions that the other spouse made really helped the plan in this way. So they compliment each other. Nick: So, let's focus on moving forward. What are the things that we do to earn the next step? And what I mean by that is, so there's a couple of things, we try to continuously emphasize the fact that we don't really care what their brother, sister, neighbor, dog walker/former coworker does. And then we'll rattle off four or five things that are immediately different about their life then all of those people. And so they start to get that. And then as we further drill down and we'll say, "Okay," we'll look it, "Hey, I know that you're feeling a little bit concerned about the market, but remember that we've got two years of cash in the bank. So that's your pass to be able to do X, Y, and Z." And so almost just walking them through and helping them understand, like, "Hey, we've done this, and so we graduate to this level. We've done this, we graduate to this level." And so we keep moving up the ladder and that all of these decisions are tied together and correlated. Nick: And we try to emphasize the fact that, when we make these recommendations, it's not like we make these recommendations for every single person that we work with, these recommendations are specific to them. And so I think that helping them understand that, to embrace those differences and to make sure that we've done things, we've put things in place. So maybe the spouse sets a little bit more aggressive, we point out, "Well, Hey, look it, we've got 15 to 20% of your assets in this Roth IRA. And this is where we're taking the majority of the risk in your portfolio, because the upside is tax-free." And then maybe the other spouse is more conservative and we say, "Hey, remember that you have your social security, you got a small pension. And we put this annuity in place with guaranteed income to satisfy that risk that we perceived." And so all of these things are working together to try to balance it out. And usually it's just kind of rehashing that over time. And then people start to get it. Mark: Yes. The multiple pieces of the pie. So you're going to have these different things in there that are going to hopefully help address multiple concerns. That's why there's a lot of financial products and vehicles out there to be used. And it's not any one thing is the right fit, any one thing is the wrong fit. It's a matter of finding the right vehicles for the right situation and then plugging and playing those in for the different person and their scenario. So that's some places financial mistakes couples can get into. Of course you want to make sure you don't get into those by working with a good advisor or a qualified team, like John and Nick and their team at PFG Private Wealth. So if you'd like to drop by the website and send us an email as well, pfgprivatewealth.com. Mark: If you've got a question, we take those from time to time pfgprivatewealth.com is where you can go. All questions get answered, not all get asked on the podcast, but we do have one this week. So let's see what we got for you guys, Christopher, he sent this one and he says, "Hey, John," but I'm sure he means either one of you, but he says, "Hey, John, I'll be turning 70 at the beginning of next year. And I'm getting annoyed about having to think about taking money out of my IRA, because I'm not going to need it. I'm sure you have some tips for circumventing this rule. What are they?" John: Christopher, good question. So just to update you, the new RMD Required Minimum Distribution age is now 72 versus 70. So that was just seven and a half, that was just changed a couple of years back. But now that this comes up often, one of the things that we currently do for our clients is we'll actually set up a individual taxable account where we'll basically just, if there's a 15, $20,000 RMD, that's unneeded, we'll just transfer that right into it. And go ahead and invest in exactly what they're invested in before, because it really just needs to come out of the IRA, it can go right back into the market. Another strategy we've done is if a client is doing some charitable contributions, you can actually make charitable contributions from your IRA to your selected charity. And that will avoid taxation of that. And again, we always have our disclaimer, talk to your tax advisor if you look for tax advice, we're not tax professionals, but that's a really good strategy to use when you're trying to avoid the RMD taxation. Mark: Got you. Well. So the good news, Christopher, is you got a little bit more time. It's 72 now. I love when people say, "There's got to be ways around this," there really isn't, either don't have an IRA or there's not really a way around it. You're going to have to give the government their share, which is why people have been doing things like conversions. There've been converting money out and doing so on and so forth so they can reduce the amount in there to avoid having to pay that by not having the account. But that's really about the only way, correct? Nick: Yeah. The conversions can be helpful to reduce the amount that's going to have to be required to come out. But at the same time when the window is short and they realize that, "Hey, I'm just going to have to pay. I'm going to have to pay taxes on that money now when I convert versus, a portion of the amount that I would take out down the road." Or that, it's like, "Hey, well, you are going to pay tax on it, but still our plan's recognizing the taxation and you could see here in the planning software, this is what your total tax obligation is going to be. And we can reinvest some of that money. So it may have less of an impact on, on you that you think." Nick: I think one of the things that we've seen is that obviously taxes are a hot button and nobody likes paying them. But I would say that probably 90% of the people that we interact with overestimate, or assume that they pay a lot more in taxes than they actually do. So that's always a good exercise for us to remind people that in the scheme of things, many of them are paying a lot less than they realize anyway. So it's one of those things where in theory sometimes the move can be good, but oftentimes in their mind it's better than in actuality. And of course, just like anything else, we try to test that out through the planning. Mark: Well, Christopher, so there's some good news in there, like I said, there's some more information for you. Obviously they showed a couple of ideas, but hang onto your hat. Because as of right now, stuff's going through that we're tying at the time we're taping this. There's more things to possibly be passed. So there could be some changes again, coming as well. So we'll do an updated podcast on that once they go through or as we have more information, but for now, that's going to wrap it up this week here on the podcast, Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick. Guys, thanks for hanging out as always. Appreciate your time. And folks, if you need some help, reach out to them at pfgprivatewealth.com, that's pfgprivatewealth.com. Don't forget to subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Stitcher, any of those platforms. You can certainly find it that way. You can find all that information at the website and subscribe from there, again, pfgprivatewealth.com, for John and Nick. I'm Mark. We'll see you next time here on the podcast.

Are you ready to get spooked? Because John is! He has Jan Wahl on to run down the 10 movies you need to see this halloween weekend. Among these are Beetlejuice, Adams Family Values and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. At the end, we all get to find out John's all time favorite Halloween flick!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you ready to get spooked? Because John is! He has Jan Wahl on to run down the 10 movies you need to see this halloween weekend. Among these are Beetlejuice, Adams Family Values and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. At the end, we all get to find out John's all time favorite Halloween flick!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leeann Leahy is CEO at VIA, a full-service advertising agency/communications company and winner of AdAge's 2019 Small Agency of the year. Via‘s 100 or so employees work their creative magic to unleash growth for such name brands as Arm & Hammer, Unilever (ice cream novelties Klondike, Good Humor, Popsicle), Perdue Chicken, and CarGurus. The agency has a few clients in Maine . . . a lot more nationally . . . and even some that are global.  Leeann says the agency makes small budgets work “much bigger and harder than they should” and runs on a critical balance of head and heart. In this interview, Leeann outlines the agency's 5 responsive principles: “be curious,” “think like the audience,” “be on time,” “be on budget,” and “create respect,” and 5 artistic principles: “figure it out,” “find the magic,” “believe,” “do work that makes you proud,” and “honor the process.” It's a formula that succeeds . . . as evidenced by the agency's 28 years in the business.  In this interview, Leeann talks about VIA's strategy for building two-way brand/consumer conversations and the magic of the “Aha! Moment,” when the mind jumps from “facts” to understanding. The process? Dig deep with clients to get beyond the facts and gain meaningful insights;  Understand who a brand's customers are, their experience with the brand, and their “journey  Analyze insights to reveal and unlock a pathway to connect consumers with the brand Bring real emotion to the table  Present the brand in a way that's useful, practical, and meaningful at a personal level . . . and not just talking at the customer. Leeann says, “It's not just selling attributes, but selling utility and meaningfulness and relevancy.” Six years ago, in order to streamline operations, the agency eliminated departmental siloes and set up interdisciplinary pods which are led by four equal partners:  A client strategy lead (who elicits from the client what is to be done and why),  A planning lead (who aligns work with client needs, market trends/ opportunities, and strategies),  A creative lead (who invents new products, generates advertising promotion, or “produces the show”), and  A project management lead (who oversees resourcing, time management, budgets, and scopes – how the work is done and when).  Then, three years ago, the agency established VIAlocity, a remote pool of diverse (culturally, ethnically, life-stage-wise, and ability-wise) freelance consultants (who may or may not be in advertising). These journalists, painters, photographers, or stay-at-home moms, who are kept on retainer, can be tapped for projects for an additional fee to collaborate on VIA's offerings. The program recently expanded to include some full-time remote workers. Leeann can be found on her agency's website at: https://theviaagency.com/. Transcript Follows: ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I'm joined today by Leeann Leahy, CEO at VIA based in Portland, Maine. Welcome to the podcast, Leeann. LEEANN: Hi. Thank you for having me. ROB: Excellent to have you here. Why don't you kick us off by telling us about VIA and what the agency's superpowers are? LEEANN: VIA is a magical place that operates out of Portland, Maine. We are a full-service advertising agency, although advertising is a narrow term. We're really a communications company that helps unleash the growth potential of our clients' brands. We're about 100 people. I say we operate from Portland, Maine because that's where we're headquartered, but our clients actually are all over the country and indeed the globe. I used to say we don't have any clients in Maine, but we do work with a couple now. We're on a quest to bring the fun back into our industry. I think our superpower is that we believe in magic. We believe in the power of magic. We have 10 principles, and they range from “be curious,” “think like the audience,” “be on time,” “be on budget,” and “create respect,” which are the responsive ones, to “figure it out,” “find the magic,” “believe,” “do work that makes you proud,” which are the artistic ones. There's a really great balance between the head and the heart in those principles. The heart side of it I think is our superpower because we do believe in magic. We believe that it can be found if you have a smart enough strategy, or indeed, the strategy itself could be magic if you can dig deep enough and find some insights that are revealing and unlocking a pathway to connect a consumer and a brand. We believe that creatively, the choices you make and the craft you construct and the way you engage consumers – there's a lot of magic in that. And we believe all of this works to grow brands. We've seen it over and over again. I guess the last thing I would say is in our own culture, we believe that joy and happiness and fearlessness lead to better creative work. That's not just in the creative department; that's across the whole agency. So we find the magic and we believe it's possible. That's our superpower. I think it sets us apart from other agencies, because as I said, we're having fun where very few are. ROB: Right, a little bit of magic, a little bit of joy, and just this pervasive sense of optimism over pure execution. The head and the heart, as you said. Pull us a little deeper and give us a picture. A typical client is not in Maine, apparently, for the most part, but what does a common client look like for you all? What size, what stage, what type of brand? LEEANN: It really ranges. We've worked with Perdue Farms chicken for the last 10 years, and we're their agency of record and the lead of their integrated agency team. We set all the strategy for them. We help them understand their brand portfolio, architecture. We dig deep on consumer insights. We help them manage their branded versus private label conundrum that they're in in the marketplace. We create all the communications, whether it's broadcast-based or digital. We generate lots of social assets. And then we work with all of their other agencies – shopper, marketing, promotional, etc. – to make sure everyone's operating off the same strategy. That's one kind of relationship. Another one is we work with the ice cream novelties portfolio of North America for Unilever, so Klondike, Good Humor, Popsicle. In that instance, we're really unleashing a lot of work the client has done strategically and we're setting it free creatively. We come back with creative solutions that take what are sometimes considered small budgets competitively, and we make them work much bigger and harder than they should. They punch above their weight. We work with Church & Dwight. Arm & Hammer is one of our clients. They exist, believe it or not, in about 17 categories in the grocery store. You think of it as baking soda, but actually it's everything from baking soda to laundry detergent to kitty litter to toothpaste to deodorant to licensing agreements with Hefty and other garbage bags and things like that. It is a really wide range. For them, again, we're thinking through everything, from the customer experience on those brands and where we can hit touchpoints to creating the advertising itself to putting it in the market to doing the analytics. So we really have varied relationships with our different clients, and that's what I think keeps it fun for us. I've always loved being in advertising and on the agency side because we go deep, deep, deep on very different categories. I can be talking about baking soda for hours one day, and the next day I'm talking about people buying cars online with CarGurus, or I'm talking about modern commerce with another client, or I'm talking about financial services. We really run the gamut. Check into financial services. You can't get bored. ROB: You're talking about digging into that customer experience, and it seems like that's where some of the magic can come from. When you're talking about novelty ice cream, you're not selling features. For a lot of people, you are thinking through to an experience, an emotional attachment, a different season in their life, even, perhaps. You just can't get there if you're sitting up in an ivory tower, thinking creatively by yourself. LEEANN: Absolutely. We do a lot of deep digging and consumer research and ethnographies and anthropological digging into our consumers and our prospects, and we try to talk about them as if they're family members or friends. We don't describe targets as 18- to 24-year-old white men who play these following sports and believe these five things. That's not going to help us. We really need to think of them as maybe people who seriously don't take life that seriously. That would be a way you want to talk about the target. We try to get to the mindset, because that's where the magic happens. It's not that there's not a lot of rigor to get to that mindset; there is. But there's a difference between a fact and an insight, and too often, I think people confuse them, or companies confuse them. They do the research, they get the answers, they have a bunch of facts, and then they say, “This is what we need to talk to.” Facts are important, but they are really just stimulus from which you can find and articulate the insight, because the insight has to be much deeper and more meaningful. The way I like to think about it, you know you have an insight when somebody says it when you're describing a consumer or their mindset or their need state or something, and you go, “Oh my God, that is so smart and also so completely obvious.” It's like, “Why didn't I see that before?” That to me is an insight. I think we spend a lot of time differentiating between facts and insights, and that helps us to get to a richer understanding of who we're talking to. Once you have that richer understanding, you can create work that really hits that nerve dead-on. And when it hits that nerve, it becomes an engaging two-way conversation because now you've filled into my life as a brand in a way that's useful, practical, and meaningful to me, not just talking at me. ROB: That's really grounded, really human. Leeann, if we rewind a little bit, talk about the origin story of VIA. How did the agency come to be in the first place? LEEANN: The agency was founded 28 years ago by John Coleman and a couple of other founders and partners. Specifically, John Coleman and Rich Rico were working at a big software company together. Rich was in charge of the design of marketing materials and John was a salesman. As any good salesman does in an internal marketing organization, they call up and complain about the materials they're given and have rich conversations about how they can be better, which I'm sure came very, very happily across the phone lines. [laughs] But the two struck up a relationship where they really could trust each other and rely on each other and understand how they could make materials even to sell these multimillion dollar programs in a more meaningful way. It was, again, by digging into those insights and being different strategically and not just selling attributes, but selling utility and meaningfulness and relevancy. The two of them spun out and started with one division of that company, which was called ABB. By the end of that year, they had 12 divisions of ABB as clients. So the agency was born doing B2B work to support sales teams. Over the years, it evolved many, many times. We have a saying at VIA: Born in 1993, reborn every year since. Because John was an engineer by education, they were very at the forefront of the digital era and did a lot of big technology website strategy as the internet emerged in the late '90s, early 2000s. Then pivoted again after the dot-com bust of the early 2000s. Pivoted again to do a lot of design and corporate work, really built on the strategic consultancy background they had. They were doing really deep strategic projects for clients, and then also design components and nomenclature and visual vocabularies for clients. All sorts of things. Then evolved again to be more focused on some B2C, direct-to-consumer work, but on a more regional basis, and then evolved again to be nationally recognized, national brands targeting primarily towards consumers. Now, I would say we're the best of all of those bits because we understand the digital landscape in a way that many don't, which is why we work with Chick-fil-A as their social and digital AOR. We understand big business and complications, which is why we work with some B2B clients and we take very, very complicated stories and make them very simple and digestible and important, and why we have these very, very powerful consumer brands like a Perdue or a Popsicle or Golden Corral. These are clients that have real meaning and bring real emotion to the table with consumers. We get to do all of those things every day, and that's, as I say, the best bits of all parts of our history. ROB: It's quite a path to navigate, too, because a lot of people crashed on the rocks. They got fat and happy from the late '90s, the era of the million-dollar website. I'm sure some things were almost like shooting fish in a barrel for people who were digitally savvy. We kind of went through that again with social for a season, where people were splashing similar budgets. But it's kind of matured in. It doesn't feel like there's as much of that splash, and now it has to be substance. Go ahead, it sounds like you've got something to drop in. LEEANN: I agree with you. I think what people were doing was saying, “Ooh, I have to be on social because that's where my consumer is” – again, a fact but not necessarily an insight. Just because they're there, doesn't mean you have to be there. They would just create content and, as we say, “spray and pray.” Just throw it out on the social channels and figure, “Oh, that's good. People will want to engage with me.” And that busted. I think what we're seeing is now the brands that are most successful in the social sphere are the ones who are understanding their place in the conversation and maintaining that place in the consumer's heart and mind and being respectful of the conversation they're entering, but also offering and being additive to it. Maybe it's utilitarian. Maybe it's something that is a little bit of shared brand custody, as we call it, when you want the consumer to take ownership of some of the brand elements. I think it requires deep strategy and a lot of thoughtfulness. It's not just, “I had a television ad and I made a shorter version of it and threw it all over Facebook and Instagram,” because that's not how those platforms work. ROB: Let's look at the intersection of VIA and its origin story with you. How did you come into the business and then end up in such a position of ultimate trust? What did that journey look like? LEEANN: I started in the business as a planner, at the time called an account planner. In my days as a planner, I was an account planner, a brand planner, a strategic planner. I wore every single version of that title. But I grew up in this world of consumer insights and understanding that the agency role could be to be the conscience or the therapist, really, between the consumer and the brand – connecting and listening to both and connecting the dots: being the conscience of the brand so they didn't overstep, and being the conscience of the consumer so they didn't turn away or block out the brand. So I grew up in planning. I was Chief Strategy Officer on a global level at an agency, and then at a more local level at an agency, I worked on blue chip brands like JPMorgan Chase, the NFL, AT&T, and Johnson & Johnson, all those good things. Then I transitioned in about 2012 to general agency management. That was because I had a relationship with someone who ran an agency called Translation in New York, and he was looking to make it go from just a project-based consultancy to a full-service agency. He and I had a friendship and relationship and really respected one another's intellects and points of view on how to turn brands on. So I joined him and I was there for a couple of years. The agency was exploding. We were doing great things. But in that time, I actually met John Coleman, our founder, and we had a lunch that struck me because we shared a lot of the same values. We talked a lot about what the business could be and what we wanted it to be and the kind of work we wanted to do. Honestly, again, it goes back to we find magic and we believe, and that's that optimism. We felt like we could do work that would not only move people, but maybe even leave the world a better place. We had a great talk, a couple hours, and we walked away friends. It occurred to me after that conversation that I was laughing a lot, and I realized – thanks to my husband actually pointing it out – that in my role as president of that other agency, I was having a lot of success, but I wasn't really having any fun. I went into this business because I thought it would be fun and magical and creative, and that was the part that was being stifled. Over the course of like six months, John and I became friends; he offered me the opportunity to come up to Maine. I was like, “I can't believe we're moving from New York.” I was born and raised in the New York area. But we moved ourselves to Maine, and I have not looked back once. I absolutely love it, and we do feel like we tend to put people before profits. We tend to have a lot of fun. We enjoy each other. John has since stepped out of the day-to-day of the business, but the management team and the associates – everybody here, really – we strive to create an environment where people enjoy each other because it creates a baseline of collaboration and inspiration that leads us to better work. Kind of a roundabout answer to your question, but I started out on the insight side. I've always really been invested in the creative aspect of what we do. I think the culture in which we do that really feeds the creative, so VIA gives an opportunity to do all of those things: really, really smart strategic consultancy background, really important focus on culture, and now we've also brought in a Chief Creative Officer who has fabulous expertise in crafting. His name's Bobby Hershfield, and he's amazing at crafting ideas so that the way they're presented and put out into the world really engages the consumer in a very intimate way. ROB: What a journey. You've mentioned a couple of times this AOR, agency of record designation. You've probably seen that phrase change meaning a few times. What does it mean now versus what it used to mean, and how should ambitious agencies that are chasing that designation think about it? LEEANN: There was a time when all we wanted was to be AOR. We couldn't be bothered with projects. Not VIA “we”; I mean “we,” the industry. We kind of shunned the idea that we could pop in and be experts on a project, or consultants. I think that's not true anymore. There are lots of amazing, interesting projects out there that you can work with really interesting partner agencies on, and partner clients. We do a combination of AOR and project work. But I think when you are AOR, it is a lot more than just “we set the campaign and everybody else executes it.” That is not what it is at all. I think it really is about understanding deeply the business that the client has, how it sits within the competitive marketplace, what their operational realities are, what the political realities are, how that business can grow, identifying that growth opportunity, and then unleashing creative to optimize it and to really go out and get that growth. That means thinking through everything, understanding the consumer experience and the customer journey and where the brand can plug into it and where it shouldn't, and then concepting ideas that go through that journey with the customer. That means way more than “I'm making an advertising campaign around a single idea and then everyone's executing it.” Now it's “I'm understanding the business. I'm understanding the consumer. I'm bringing those two together in a thoughtful way, and I'm going to create an idea that hits at different points in different ways so that the effect is not redundant, but it is in fact cumulative. ROB: That would seem probably more channel-specific, which is why some of the AOR designations have gone more channel, do you think? LEEANN: Yeah, possibly. But I think it's also because we're in a business now where we're competing not just with other people who do the same thing we're doing, but we're competing with agencies that do different things than we do. You might have a client who goes, “I have a traditional agency of record and then I have a digital agency of record.” But in fact, that's just false silos. If you have somebody who truly understands your business, they're thinking of it as how the consumer is experiencing this, not just what channel it's going to be on. The channels are very secondary to the story you're trying to tell and how you want the consumer to experience that story. ROB: Right. The brand still has to live somewhere. You can't just have a bunch of fractured brands. LEEANN: Yeah, exactly. ROB: Leeann, as you reflect on your time in leading VIA, and even before that maybe, in the industry, what are some things you've learned along the way that you might do a little bit differently if you were going back and giving yourself some advice? LEEANN: I kind of had a feeling a long time ago, well before I was even in a managerial role in an agency at large – I was in a managerial role in my discipline of planning, but not at the agency at large, and as a planner, I didn't have to know the business of our business. That's one piece of advice. I don't care what level you are or what discipline you are; you should understand how this industry makes money. I got away with living in la-la land as a planner for a good portion of my career, not really ever even understanding how we billed clients. You can get bogged down by it, but I think it's also important to understand. There's a balance. But I had this intuitive sense that there was a lot of waste in agencies. A lot of wasted hours, a lot of wasted discussion, a lot of wasted time, and we weren't getting to the meat. We were passing a baton around the agency in the hopes that somebody would stop and hold the baton and be like, “Okay, now I'm going to work on this.” I refer to it as the “See below” email. You may have gotten one of these from someone once upon a time. I consider these evil. Someone gets an email from someone else requesting something, and they just pass it along to someone who works with them and say, “See below” – which they might as well have said, “I didn't bother to read this. I'm making it your problem.” The person under them very often sends it to a person under them, and it just continues from there. That's what I mean by passing the baton and not really stopping and thinking. About six years ago at VIA, we got rid of all of the department silos within the agency and got rid of the gatekeeper mentality that perpetuated that baton passing. We rebuilt the agency from the bottom up to be much more agile, to be much more collaborative, and to have much more fun together. We created these interdisciplinary pods that work around clients, and each pod is led by four equal partners and leaders. There's a client strategy lead who's responsible for understanding what's being asked of us and, more importantly, why. There's a planning lead who helps us to honor insights and market trends and opportunities to have a strategic pathway. So they're responsible for the way. We have a creative lead who's responsible for the “wow,” whatever that means, whether it's inventing a new product or doing an advertisement or producing a show. It's all under the “wow.” Then we have the project management lead, who's responsible for the how and the when, which is really about resourcing, time management, budgets, scopes, all of that. When we put them all on equal footing, something really wonderful happened. They started acting like real partners. They started understanding that they were mutually accountable for this client's growth and that they were all part of the same sentence. Longer than a sentence; it would be a run-on. But you get what I'm saying. [laughs] You couldn't just have a client call one of them and ask a question and necessarily get the “Yes, you can have that Tuesday at 3:00,” because they're not responsible for that. They have to go, “Wait, are you asking the right question? Why are you asking that? Let's think about that strategically. Let's see if there's a different creative response. And oh, by the way, I have to go check with somebody else to see how our resources go.” It became honestly faster, which is sort of counterintuitive, but it's faster to get things done. It's inherently more collaborative. And as a result of it being more collaborative, everybody feels included and they can see their fingerprints on the work, and that makes it more fun. I would've done that a lot sooner. I kind of had that specced out in my brain I want to say almost 20 years ago, and we wrote it up and then I didn't do anything with it. It took a long time, but six years ago we did it, and it has helped shape our agency. It's helped get to better work. It gets to better insights. We have deeper client relationships. As I said, we have a happier populace all around because everyone feels included. And frankly, as everyone else is complaining that procurement is out there squeezing the profitability out of agencies, I feel like we regained our ability to be profitable because we eliminated the fat. So I would've done that sooner. ROB: Certainly less layers. Some of that seems to also come along with the evolution of communication channels that are available. Maybe this is more relevant to – it sounds like your org is largely in Portland, even if your clients are elsewhere. But even on distributed teams, you almost get stuck in the “See below” thing; when your choices are “Am I going to call someone, am I going to text them, or am I going to email them?”, you fall into email. But now we have some tighter lines on messaging. People will hop in a quick chat now, even online, even on a Zoom or a Slack group chat. LEEANN: Absolutely. Listen, dispersed teams are the reality of the future. We at VIA do believe that we are better when we are together in person as much as possible, so we really do try to do that, and we're being very thoughtful about how to do that safely. We did go back to the office in July. But we also really appreciate that some people have certain tasks or certain roles that are just more productive when they're working as individuals and remotely. So we have a hybrid model, and it really boils down to what task you have and what role you're playing on a given day. But you're right. We've retrained everyone, because now I know I have to consider others as thoughts pop into my head. I can't just sit there and do my own work. Even if I am remote, I've got to reach out to my partners. So I'm going to jump on Slack, I'm going to jump on Zoom, I'm going to pick up the phone, I'm going to even shoot them a text. But the conversation is much more free-flowing, and I think it gets to better solutions. Then to your other point, the channels that are available to us are changing so much. We took that model that we used at the top of every piece of business and we then applied it in the creative department. Like, why do we always just have our directors and copywriters concepting? That doesn't make sense. Maybe there's a product design person or maybe a technologist or a promotional person who should be in those concepting phases. So we actually work in creative roundtables where it's not just a two-person team; we assemble the right team for each assignment and we draw from all different areas of expertise, and it's the same kind of collaboration. You're all mutually responsible for the concept, so whatever concept we have is born able to fit all those different places. ROB: There's a lot to pull on there as well, but I want to be mindful of our time here. What is coming up, Leeann? What's coming up for VIA and the industry as a whole that you're excited about? LEEANN: I think it's a great time to be in advertising, honestly. I'm excited that our competitive set changes every day. I'm excited that sometimes we're competing with media companies and other times with creative boutiques and other times with consultants. I think that's really interesting. I'm excited that the smartest and best agencies can get deeper in with the C-suite and not just the marketing department or the CMO. I'm excited for how we utilize remote workforces and invite more diverse populations into our agencies and into our industry as a result of that opportunity, because we can reach further afield. I think that fundamentally changes the experiences and thoughts that come to the table. Of course, if you want to really have a great brainstorm and great creative, bring together two completely disparate things and throw them into a room and see what explodes out of it. People who are together, people who are dispersed, people of different backgrounds, people at different life stages – it's all an opportunity for us to think more broadly. And because clients are starting to see that they need more partners in helping them think – even in-house agencies. I don't see that as a threat. I see that as an opportunity, because we can get in there and help them think through things strategically and stop them from navel-gazing, but also leverage them for their expertise that we don't have from being in the four walls. So I think the most exciting thing is how our competitive sets are changing and how that opens up creative opportunities for us. And in order to get there, I think we need to – well, I know, and we all know, but we're actively working to diversify our workforce so we can come to the table with different ideas that catapult businesses forward. ROB: That's a whole other area where distributed helps tremendously. LEEANN: It definitely does. ROB: Different circumstances, different places. You can tap a lot broader pool of people to come together. LEEANN: Yeah, we have a program called VIAlocity that we started three years ago, before COVID, if there was a before COVID. [laughs] We hired talent from all over the world who were different from us, whether they were different culturally, ethnically, life stage-wise, ability-wise. We hired them into this collective and put them on a retainer. They were mostly freelancers who worked in different fields all around, or people who weren't traditionally in advertising. They were journalists or painters or photographers or stay-at-home moms. We put them in this collective so that we could tap into them. The retainer bought us the right to have them engaged in our email system and assigned to a pod so they knew what was going on, and then when we activate them on a project, we pay them a project fee on top of that. They're able to work for other people as well, but it gave us access to a much bigger pool. And that was fully remote, with the idea that we asked VIAlocity participants to be in Maine five days out of each quarter. They didn't have to be five consecutive days, but five days, just so that we could get that chemistry and get to know each other. Now, post-COVID, we've actually expanded VIAlocity to not just be our fractional workers who are on retainer and get project fees, but we have a couple of full-time remote workers who are part of VIAlocity also. If you're full-time remote, you have to be at the headquarters for 10 days out of each quarter. Obviously, the health situation, dependent on that. But so far, so good. ROB: Assuming they can get back into their home country. We have a guy who's out of country and he hasn't been able to come see us because he's not sure he can get back in. He's a U.S. citizen living elsewhere. It makes it interesting. But I think we're getting closer, is what I can say. LEEANN: I think so. We're getting better at working together in different ways, and that's great. I still think there's nothing like a good old-fashioned collaboration when you're in person because you just can't interrupt each other or build on each other's ideas on Zoom the way you can naturally in a room. The energy's just not there the way it is physically. But if you can combine the best of the physical togetherness with the best of the remote work and what it gives you, then there's magic to be found. ROB: Magic. Right back where we started with the magic. Magic here at VIA. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Leeann. LEEANN: My pleasure. Thank you for having me. ROB: And for sharing your experience, your wisdom. You've got it very well-formed and very well-communicated. Glad to have you. LEEANN: Thank you. Sometimes I just nerd out on it, though, so that's a little weird too. [laughs] ROB: [laughs] All good. Wonderful, Leeann. Be well. Bye. LEEANN: Great. Thank you, Rob. ROB: Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.All right. Well, I guess that's a sign from God that there's no time limit on this sermon. Praise God. If you're new, welcome, and we're so glad that you came early today. The 15 minutes early to the service, it felt like a sacrificed, didn't it? A little bit? Good. Good. That's the whole point. We should just keep doing that every single week, just incrementally change the time. We have coffee in the back. We brought coffee back in. So enjoy. I don't think we have any announcements other than God is good all the time.So let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you so much that you are a God who loves us. And we do understand that we live in a fallen, sinful world. We have a fallen flesh that seeks satisfaction in sin. We rebel against you. We have that nature. And then we also live in a fallen world. The world is against the church. And on top of that, we have an enemy, Satan and his army of demons, vying for our souls and opposing the work of God. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that we lose vision of you, Jesus.Our vision gets cluttered. I pray today, remove that clutter. Jesus, in the same way that you entered the temple with a whip and zeal for the house, we pray, make us a people who are zealous with a holy zeal to cleanse our temple of sin, our personal bodies and souls to ruthlessly fight sin and to also oppose sin in the church when it creeps in or anything that gets added onto the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. Holy spirit, we welcome you into this place. We pray that you lead us, that you equip us.I pray that you today comfort the afflicted and also afflict the comfortable and continue to build your church here in the city. And Lord, we thank you for the privilege of getting to work with you. You don't need us, but we need the invitation. We need the work because that's what shapes us into the image of God and that's what keeps us close to you. And I pray, Lord, make us a church that is as zealous as you are about the church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.The title of the sermon today is Cleansing the Clutter. This is our Love Jesus Simple series. This is our DNA. It's to refocus us on who we are, our identity, and given our identity, what we do, our activity. And then with our activity, what's the vision? Where are we going? And we talk about love. That we are given the great commandment to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. We're given the great commission that we are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, the holy spirit, and teaching them to do everything that Jesus taught us.And we have the great compassion where Jesus says that we are to care for the least of these of the world so love. By Jesus, we talked about the living word of God as attested to in the written word of God, the second person of the Trinity that reveals God to us and that reconciles us to God. So we focused on Jesus. And today we're talking about simplicity, to simplify, to get rid of anything that gets in the way of the most important, of the most essential. So we can be a church that majors in the majors.I drive a 2007 Highlander, and I do that on purpose because I can park. It's got three row seating. I've got four kids. I can park it in tight spots. But also, it's old and I don't care if it gets dinged up. It's tremendous. I am not attached to my car at all. Therefore, we have never had it detailed, ever. Ever not once. And then we started looking around, there's crayons from 1980. It's just nasty. I look around and I'm like, "You know what? This is one of the reasons probably why we hate driving this thing."So I took it to a detailing place. My wife took it to a detailing place in Allston. I don't even know the name of it, but I love their little motto: it's a spa for your car. So I went there and they got it detailed and I couldn't recognize the car. It was pristine. And for some reason, I think it started driving better. I don't know if there's a connection, but you know that connection when it's clean and you want to be in that car. So there's something that happens when our houses get cluttered.People are fascinated with hoarders, people that just keep getting... And we watch shows about it. There's a whole movement about deep cluttering and simplifying, focusing on the essentials, living in little homes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So this is why we do this on an annual basis because in the church, there is a tendency for things to get cluttered. Question. If you're new to Mosaic, I have multiple introductions in the introduction. This is my second introduction.Question. How much of your waking hours are spent looking at man-made things? Of your waking hours, how much percentage of that are you looking at man-made things? I'm talking about your apartment. I'm talking about the brick and mortar around us, the asphalt around us. I'm talking about the mediocre transportation. I'm talking about Storrow Drive. My brother and I and my dad were stuck in Storrow Drive traffic yesterday. And my dad looks around and he's like, "This is why I hate cities."He lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island, on the ocean. He's like, "I hate this." I was like, "Imagine living here 12 years." And then, you know what he says? "But there's also a lot of benefits to the city." He does this thing to encourage me, like keep living here. This as important. But just think about how much of your waking hours is man-made things. And on top of that, you're at work. You're staring at a screen all day. And then when you come home, you got your phone. You don't even go to the bathroom without your phone. You're just staring at man-made things all the time. Plus, we're surrounded by unbelievers.Most of us, the only time that we relate with Christians, fellowship with Christians is when we go to church or a community group. So there is so much to be discouraged about because everything manmade is sinful. And on top of that, we're surrounded by people who don't know God. Yes, cities are tremendous because there's so much more of the image of God per square foot and there's also more of the human flesh depravity, the reprobate nature per square foot. Not to mention the demonic oppression when there are so many concentrated souls and Satan is vying for these.So during the week, we lose focus. We lose sight of what's most important. And this is why Sunday morning is so important. This is why community group is so important. This is how I feel about Sunday mornings: I feel like I'm your tour guide. And I pull up and I've got this massive, massive van. I'm like, "Hey, get in. Get in." And I drive you to the mountains. I take my machete and I'm like, "You know what? Grab a machete too because this sermon is going to be hard work."And we're just climbing the mountain with machetes, climbing, climbing. And then you're tired. I'm like, "Have some more coffee, have some more water, caffeine, holy spirit hydration. Let's go." And we're slugging away, machete after machete after machete. And then finally you begin to see a little clear and then finally you get to the top. And I just point you, look to the cross, look to calvary, look to the glory of God. And that fills your soul and you're encouraged. And then we go back down the mountain and we drive you back into the mission that is the mission of God here in the city.And you're like, "Ah, I got to do it all again." Yes. And that's why church is so important. So everything we do at Mosaic is very calculated. It's like a good coach managing the energy of the team, the momentum of the team. It's like a good CEO, who knows the data, who knows the resources at hand and how to strategically invest for the maximum benefit of the organization and everybody. And it's like a good general who knows the soldiers and knows the mission and cares for the soldiers and actually gets off his high horse and says, "I am on the mission here with you. We are on the front lines."I shared the gospel with I think it was a random guy on the street just by saying hi. I said hi to him. He said, "What?" I was like, "I just wanted to say hi." And he's like, "Everything is messed up," and that's not the word he used. He says, "Everything's messed up." I was like, "I know. I know. Politics is messed up and the economy's messed up, everything." And he's like, "Everyone asleep." I was like, "I know. I know. I'm trying to wake them up. I'm trying to wake them up." He said, "To what?" I said, "The true reality." He said, "You know the secret?" I said, "Oh yeah." So he told me he's going to come to church today. So I'm extra pumped. So hopefully he does show up.But this is why we're here. We have zeal for God. We have zeal for God's people and we have zeal for God's house. And we have zeal for the mission of God. This is why the sermon is so important. And I pray that we never lose sight of that. Today, we're in John 2:13-25. Jesus Christ the context is. And the beginning of chapter two, he begins his ministry because mom asked him to. He's at a wedding and they ran out of wine. And that was a major full pot.And Jesus is like, "I know it's a major full pot. You got any water?" They had 180 gallons of water. And he made the most delicious wine that they had ever tasted, not boxed wine, not wine with an animal on it. That's when you know that's not good wine. He made the best wine that they had ever tasted. That was awesome. People know his glory. And the very next thing he does is he enters the temple and he starts cleansing it. So that's our text today in John 2:13.The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changer sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" And Jesus answered them, "Destroy the temple and in three days, I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When, therefore, he was raised from the dead. His disciples remembered that he had said this. They believed the scripture, the word that Jesus had spoken.Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people. He needed one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. This is the reading of God, totally and authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Two points to frame up our time. First, Jesus is consumed with zeal for God's house. And second, are you consumed with zeal for God's house?Point one begins with Jesus Christ going to Jerusalem at the Passover feast. Now, you got to remember the importance of the Passover feast. What was the Passover feast celebrating? It was celebrating the fact that God led through Moses the people of Israel out of Egypt, after captivity, bondage, oppression for four centuries. And how did God lead them out? Sign after sign, after sign, after sign. And Pharaoh kept hardening his heart, hardening his heart. And then finally God said, "The only way to get you out is through death. The only way to give you life and freedom is through death."God sent the angel of death. The angel of death was going to pass through. And every firstborn in every single household will die, the first son will die, unless the doorframe is painted with the blood of the lamb. Now, whoever believed... This is cookie. This is crazy. They didn't even have the sacrificial system yet. But God was saying your sin, Israel, your sin, Egyptians, your sin deserves death. And the only way to save you is a substitute, a sinless substitute. Someone must die in your place if you are to live.So the Passover feast was for them to remember God's grace. God, you saved me because someone died for me. God, I'm celebrating your love and remembering your wrath for my sin. And all the Passover feast was, it was a big, thank you. God, thank you, thank you, thank you for saving me, for saving us. So we gather annually to do that. And we see in Jerusalem, in the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and he could see the money changer the sitting there. The animals were sacrifice.Deuteronomy, the people of God were told you need to raise the animal yourself. The animal has to grow up with you, grow up with your family. It has to basically be a pet. And then you got to take this animal and you got to take it with you to the temple, however far it takes, however much work it takes. And you need to feel the emotional pain of this animal, the one you knew dying in your place. We have emotional attachments to animals. We do. That's what God was doing. I want you to take your beloved.It's hard to even say, like you're beloved, your dog, your cat. That's what God was doing. But then the religious people realized, okay, that doesn't make practical sense for people to bring the animals. Let's make it a little easier. And you know what? This might solve our funding issue. People aren't tithing as they should be. We've got buildings to build. We've got capital campaigns. We've got staff salaries to pay.So you know what? Let's sell the sacrificial animals at the temple. Let's tell them there. Let's just offer it as a service, just to make it a little more convenient for those whom it's hard to go to worship. And then the people would come and they're like, "Oh, I can buy an animal. Tremendous." And the people that couldn't buy the animal because of price gouging, it's like when you go into the Red Sox, a hotdog is like $80.They got you in there. You're in. You're in. That's it. It's supply and demand. Now, you're in. Okay. Here's the price. So the poor people couldn't do that. So the poor people are bringing their own animals. They're bringing the pigeon. And then the people are like, okay, that adds another layer of difficulty. We've got to solve that problem to continue our streams of income.So they said, we're going to have inspectors. We're going to inspect the animal. Oh, your lamb, it's got a blemish on it. What blemish? There's no blemish. There's a blemish. It's a lemon. You brought a lemon. Well, we have another vehicle that we can sell you. Well, we'll buy this one. You can trade it in for that one. We'll give you 20 bucks for your little lemon lamb. And then we're going to sell you one for a hundred. And the person doesn't have a choice because it's the religious inspectors.It's the first used car dealership right there at the temple. And then on top of that, they would take the little lemon lamb, they would take that lamb and then sell it to the next person. Tremendous income stream. And they're like, you know what? This is great. Let's keep doing this. And then they're like, why are we using Roman currency? Whoever controls the currency, controls everything. So let's create our own currency.They create their own temple currency. They're like we're done with the fiat dollar. We're going to use Bitcoin. That's what we're going to do in the temple. We got our own temple coin. That's what we're going to do. And obviously, when you get there with the money, I'm sorry, your money's not accepted here. So you can trade it in. Obviously, there's a little fee on top, the Coinbase fee of whatever percentage it is. That's what's going on.So they're making money left and right off of whom? Off of people that want to show up to the temple and say thank you to God, to know more about God. So you got extortion and you got corruption. And it's all run by the people who are tasked with the job of telling people that God wants to forgive their sins. So John 2:15, what does Jesus do? Making a whip of cords. And I want to pause here for a second to show how premeditated this was. This wasn't Jesus hot headed, seeing something he doesn't like and going and tossing tables and causing chaos.He deliberately, methodically sits there, prayerfully making a whip, a whip of cords. And he drove them all out with a temple them, the people with the sheep and the oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. Does this Jesus have a place in your theology of God? Because if this Jesus isn't in your theology of God, you don't know God. I understand that some people naturally are not wired to loving this Jesus I am.I love this Jesus. This is my favorite Jesus. This Jesus, when he comes back in Revelation with a sword coming out of his mouth, with a huge tattoo down his leg that said, "Lord of lord and king of kings." I love that Jesus, because that Jesus Christ kill me. And if you can kill me, I'm going to follow you. That's that's how I'm wired. But you need the savage Jesus in your theology. This is the start of his ministry.What did he do for the first three decades of his life? He was a builder. He worked with his dad and he was builder. He built things. So I see, like, he swung a hammer. There were no power tools back then. So if you build stuff, you're yoked. This is yoked Jesus showing up at the temple. Well, how do I know he's yoked? Because he doesn't need two hands to turn over tables. He's got a whip in one hand and he's tossing tables with the other hand. And what is he doing? Jesus Christ, yoked carpenter, cage fighting Jesus. This Jesus is declaring war against the establishment.He's declaring war against the priest and against the temple religious system. He's declaring war against every single person who's getting in the way of people meeting God, people in authority who are getting in the way of people meeting God. That's what sparks his zeal and he makes a whip. And what does he say in verse 16? He told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away. Do not make my father's house the house of trade." Jesus, what is motivating you emotionally to do this thing that might bring you to the brink of death.The priesthood has the Roman soldiers at their disposal. They can whack you in a second. Jesus, you're risking everything to do what? What are you motivated by? He's motivated by a love for his father's house. This is my father's house. This is where God, the father, is worshiped, where the children of God gather. This is my house. When I go to my dad's house, I take off my shoes. But the only thing I do diff... Well, I take off my shoes in my house because my wife does the same thing.But at my dad's house, I walk in and I open the fridge. What do we got? What are we eating? It's my too. Is it my house? No, but it is my house. My mom never said, :Make yourself at home." She already knows. Jesus walks into his house. He doesn't take the whip and go to someone else's house. This is my house. This is my house. So we need to clean it out, clean and declutter this house. The main issue is he says, "Why did you make my father's house, a house of trade?" If you want to do the business side and selling the animals, do it outside. Don't do it in the court of Gentiles. That's where they were doing.So in the temple, there's the holy of holies. And there was a place where the men of Israel could enter. And then there was a court of the Gentiles. The court of the Gentiles couldn't go into where they were doing the sacrifices. This is as close to God as they could come. They didn't see how graphic the sacrificial system is. They didn't see it. That wasn't emblazed on their hearts so they understand the gravity of what's going on, that this animal was dying for you.These people want to go to pray. They want to go connect with God. And they find themselves in the midst of bizarre, animals bellowing and bleeding, selling. It's like the New York Stock Exchange on a Friday after noon. You're trying to pray and all that people see is business. And what does that communicate to people that do not know God? What that communicates is these people don't care about God. The people in charge don't care about God. Why should I care about God?If the people in charge have a transactional relationship with God. I give God money, he forgives me of sins. That's what we're doing here. You want your sins atoned for, forgiven? We'll take your money. That's it. Your sins are forgiven. Kind of what the Catholic church did before the reformation. It was the same thing, transaction, business. We're going to build buildings and we're going to fill up the coffers. And then we're going to fill up our own bank accounts. It was the same, same thing, people getting in the way of people worshiping God.So Jesus, in verse 17, his disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." Zeal for your house will consume me. And probably they remembered these words after the resurrection, from the deeper vantage point of everything they had seen. And what this is, is a quote from Psalm 69:9, "For zeal for your house has consumed me. And the reproaches of those who reproach, you have fallen on me."Now, initially, this was written by David. David is saying he felt a reproach. He suffered reproach because of his zeal for the house of God. Now, it's fascinating, it's both from the Hebrew, Psalm 69, and the sub teigen, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. This is where you got to get your machete ready just for a little bit. We're still swinging. What's important there in the grammar is that tense is in the past tense. For zeal for your house has consumed me. That's a past tense.John turns the past tense into a future. He says, zeal for your house will consume you. It will consume you. Why is that important? Because John is treating the Psalm as a messianic prophecy of the ministry of Jesus. This is the Messiah. This is the prophet who was promised that will come and he will speak God's word to God's people. He's the priest that will come and atone for the sins of God's people. He is the king. He's the anointed one who will force people to submit to his rule.Psalm 69 is one of the six Psalms most often referred to in the New Testament, and Jesus quotes this multiple times, twice in the book of John. John 15:23-25, Jesus starts talking about the fact that people hate him. Whoever hates me hates my father also. And if I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my father. But the word that is written in the law must be fulfilled. They hated me without cause."This isn't they disliked me. This is they despised me. And then John 19:28, Jesus on the cross, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill the scripture, 'I thirst." And the jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on the hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit of prophecy, again, written in Psalm 69, fulfilled in Christ.What happened to king David happened much more to an infinite degree more to David's great descendant, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. David wanted to build the temple. He loved the place of God, the worship of God. He loved it. He suffered a reproach for it. Jesus Christ loved it and suffered reproach for it. But ultimately, it wasn't the temple that he really cared about. It was the presence of God that people were thwarted of entering.And then Jesus Christ ultimately to destroy that temple allows the temple of his body to be destroyed as fulfillment of the temple and replacement of rights and sacrifice. And what's so resoundingly clear from this text is that Jesus Christ was opposed. There was outright hostility from the religious people. And then at the end of the text, we see people, "Oh, we like Jesus. He's awesome."And Jesus, it says, did not entrust himself to them because he knew what was in them. He knew how fickle people were. So you've got hostility from the representatives of God and superficial loyalty from everyone else, which is just a sugar coated hostility. And yes, in our culture, that hostility crowd is growing. You tip people's holy cows and see how zealous they become. The holy cows of gender, sexual identity. How things should be set up in the church. You tip holy cows, you tell people that what they do in their house...I'm not coming into your house to clean it. I'm not doing that. I'm making a whip, but I am proclaiming God's word. And when you hear God's word and are offended by it, that's the point to awaken you. That's the point. I don't go into your house with a whip and I pray, dear friend, return the favor. Do not come to our house with your own whip, trying to change Jesus, change God, change God's word. You know why?Because if we allow you or someone to do that, hypothetically, it's not anyone sitting here. Hypothetically, if we allow you to come in and change God, change God's word, change how God told us to do things, then Jesus is going to come with a whip. And who is he going to start with? Me. Me. So I don't want to do that. I don't want to mess with Jesus. I want to snuggle with Jesus like the apostle John. I want that. Don't kill me, please. Thanks. That's the Jesus that I want.So I want to stay in his good graces. That's what's going on. So on the one side, people are growing in hostility to God. So to those people who are like, "Yeah, Jesus got a whip." So that's what we preach. And then to the other people, there's just a superficial loyalty, "I love Jesus." And I see this with a lot of young people. You show up to church and I already know why you're here. You're here because you want to marry someone. Tremendous.So don't fake it. Don't fake being a Christian. Don't fake it. Don't ruin someone else's life. And if you're faking it, you're not going to discern if the other person is actually solid Christian. So that's what I'm saying. Like the superficial loyalty, Jesus rejected that as well. And you know what happens? As soon as Christianity gets difficult, the profession of faith just disappears. It's just gone.And you need to be ready right now. You need to say in your heart, "Okay. If the Taliban knocks on my door and says right now, 'Bring out your daughters to me just because you're a Christian." What are you going to do? Are you ready to suffer for the faith. That's a decision you've got to make now. And Jesus Christ said, "Take up your cross and follow me daily." Meaning there will be a price to pay.Jesus comes and he starts with his own. John 1:11, "He came to his own and his own did not receive him. They were convinced they were loving God by hating the son of God." And that's an important word. The religious elites crucified Jesus thinking they were loving God. The things humans can get away with when they think they are doing God's will. Stalin went to seminary. Stalin was a trained pastor. He thought he was doing what's best for humanity.Be careful that in the name of something you call good, that you don't create barriers for people to meet God. And that's a word to us, to Christians. I've seen this. I grew up in a church like this. I grew up in a church I didn't want to go to. There were barriers there. Do you think boy bands were cool? Then, they were never cool. But before boy bands took off here, they took off in my Russian church.We had four dudes show up that can't sing, but they got slicked back here. I was one of the boys. We did that one time. Dennis, remember that? We did that one time. And then I looked back and I cringe. No wonder my friends didn't want to go to that church. They didn't preach the word. They didn't explain that this is real, that Christianity impacts every single day. How real this truly is.Because we were paying attention to the color of the carpet. That's what we talked about at member's meeting, not saving people, not bringing people to church and seeing people meet Jesus. Not once did I see someone who's an unbeliever show up and say, "You know what? I have no Christian background and I want to become a Christian." I didn't see that once. And I couldn't take my friends to church because they didn't speak Russian.So that's what I'm saying. Christians have this tendency to add stuff to church that keeps people away from seeing the point. And the point is that you are a sinner, that God's wrath is upon you, you deserve Jesus whip and ultimately his sword. But Jesus Christ came and he was consumed with zeal so much so that the one that came with the whip allowed himself to be whipped, allowed himself to be scorched, tied to a pole, shirt taken off. Roman brutal machines of death whipped him with a cat o' nine tails and at the end of every single one of those strands was a rock or a piece of bone to get his back and flesh, to get pulled.So he allows it so that you don't have to, so you don't have to bear his wrath, so you don't have to bear his sword of judgment. That's the point. And Jesus came and he said, that's it. That's what I'm trying to say. I am your only hope to salvation. And that's why the people who are closest to him and heard the message closest to him, most of them hated him.A lot of us think, people, if they just knew how great Jesus was, they'd love him. This is a lie. This is a lie. And that's why people are like, "Oh, don't read that text. Don't read that text." When people really understood who Jesus was, the few, the select, the chosen, they became Christians. Everybody else despised him. They wanted to kill him outright. Why? Why would people hate Jesus?Because the same Jesus who tenderly says, "Come onto me all of you are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest." The same Jesus made a whip of cords, drove people out of the temple, scattered and upset, their animals, overturned their tables, scattered all their money. And how does that make you feel? That's an important question. If you really understand, how does that make you? Did Jesus hurt their feelings? Yeah.Wasn't there another way, Jesus? Could you not have like sat down with them and had a conversation, give them a little therapy, brokered a little deal. And like, hey, you guys are doing this wrong. Let me point you to God's word. Do a little Bible study. No, it's not what he does. Because that's not enough to awaken them. What they needed was someone to come in and to hit them where it hurts most, in the pocket book and the ego.And to know that they don't care about the thing that he cares about most. And if they don't care about the thing that he cares about most, they will suffer consequence. So what did he care about most? In John 2:17, his disciples remembered that it was written zeal for your house will consume me. The word zeal comes from the word deboil, like boiling water. That's inside. It's boiling. His blood is boiling.And obviously, there's lots of examples in scripture of unholy zeal. Like when Peter who just woke up from sleep and watching Jesus get arrested, he's like, "Ah, I'm zealous. I'm going to chop off this guy's head," and only gets the ear. And then Jesus is like, "What are you doing?" That's unholy zeal. And St. Paul says there's people that have zeal not according to knowledge, but Jesus' zeal was holy.There was nothing wicked about it. His zeal is as holy as his love and his gentleness and his grace. His zeal was his love. He was zealous because he was so loving. Zeal is love made angry because the thing you love, the one you love is being hurt. That's what's going on here. Jesus loves God. He loves the house of God. And he sees that what these people are doing is pulling people away from God.And one of the ways that they were trying to pull people away from God was trying to make it easier, trying to make the church more palatable, God more palatable. Okay. You don't have to raise the animal. We'll do it for you. We'll make it more efficient. We'll make it more timely, more convenient. What better convenience than to sell the sacrificial animals there? A one-stop-shop worship.They took the pain out of worship. They took the pain out of worship. They began to encourage lazy worship, loveless worship, sacrificeless worship, and they catered to their consumer mentality. You come in, you pay, you receive, and creating a customer mentality. And then customers. Well, the customer is always right. If it's a business, if church is primarily a business, the customer is always right.A lot of churches do that. The customer is always right. So that's what we're going to preach. You know how many people you can attract with a message like that? Joel Osteen fills a football stadium primarily because he has nice hair and a beautiful smile and a wonderful jawline and he serves ice cream. He just gives people ice cream. That's all he does. Pay me I give you ice cream. Pay me I gave you...He looked at the church and he's like, "I can offer you ice cream for your soul." You go there, you're uplifted, you're encouraged. Everything is awesome. Wonderful. He doesn't call me to do any of this. This is tremendous. You show up here and I say, "Grab your machete. We're going to war. This is what we do." We pull you to work. You show up, you have a pulse, we tell you about Jesus and we'll give you a job.That's what we do. Because that's the best thing for you. I grew up painting with my dad, who likes painting if your house looks bad. Don't get mad. Tremendous. I was six years old. He's like, "You want to work with me tomorrow?" I said, "Tremendous." I show up to work and I'm working. Was I good? No, I was terrible. He didn't need me there. I needed to be there more than he needed me to be there.I needed the service. I needed to learn how to work hard. I needed to learn how to sacrifice. And that's why God gave us sacrificial systems. That's why, when God says, "I want to forgive your sins. And also, take up a cross and follow me." And that's why God does talk about wrath. He talks about for every instance of God's love and mercy and grace in holy scripture, there's three instances of his wrath and damnation and hell.Why does he do that? So when he saves people, they understand what they're saved from. So they're motivated to give all of their life, all of their zeal to save those who are not yet Christians. And here, these people didn't care about it. John 2:18, the Jews said to him, "What sign do you give us for showing these things?" And what's fascinating is their demand betrays them. It betrays the fact that they know that he's not a kook, that he's not just a revolutionary.They feel his authority and they saw it in his eyes. And what they're saying is not, "Oh, teach us how to change the worship. Teach us what we're doing wrong." No, they didn't care about that. They cared that he was tipping their holy cow of authority. And that's why he's like, "You want to sign? Here's the sign, destroy this temple. And in three days, I'll raise it up." Obviously, he's not talking about destroying the temple. that's what they used in order to arrest him after and those are the insults that were hurled at him as he's hanging on the cross. And he's not talking about this temple, he's talking about destroy this temple. That's the sign that...A lot of people are like, "I believe in God. If there was a sign from God." There is a sign from God. A guy lived, a guy died, and a guy came back from the dead. That's the sign. And that's the sign that everybody gets. God is an all equal opportunity sign giver. Everybody gets the same sign. Tremendous. But you've got to believe in it. You got to understand why he's on the cross. You got to understand what he did for us.What's fascinating is the same zeal with which he started his ministry, that was the same zeal with which he did his ministry. Him cleansing the temple was just a sign of everything else that's coming. Everything he taught. The Jews had 618 laws. This is what you got to obey in order to be made right with God. And Jesus is like you can't be made right with God unless you believe in me. And then the 618, let's just condense it. Let's put it in a shot glass, distill, two commands. Love God and love people. Tremendous. Go do it.They want to sit around and have Bible studies instead of doing the stuff that is in the Bible. So Jesus starts his ministry by cleansing the temple, cleanses the people of God, and ends his ministry doing the same thing. And this is what a lot of Christians owner of Stan. This action, what Jesus did is so important to our theology. He does it twice. He does it at the beginning of his ministry, in John 2, and then he does it at the end of the ministry. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have that second one.And the context says in Matthew 21, Jesus enters Jerusalem on the holy week, enters in the holy week as the king. Everyone's screaming out, "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna." And then as a king, he enters the temple again to do the same thing. And that's Matthew 21:12-17. Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and seats of those who sold pigeons.And he said to them, "It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. And when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, 'Hosanna to the son of God,' they were indignant. And they said to him, 'Do you hear what these are saying?' And Jesus said to them, 'Yes. Have you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise.' And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there." He did the same thing. This time, he adds, you've made my house a house of prayer.You've made a den of robbers. He calls it my house, and this is my house. I'm in my house. And you made it a den of robbers. And here he quotes Jeremiah 7, where God tells Jeremiah, go into the temple and preach the sermon. And in that sermon, Jeremiah accuses his contemporary as bringing into the temple all of their sins. So it's not even just about the sacrificial system. It's about the fact that you don't use it.The sacrificial system, the whole point of it was raise a little lamb, care for it, love it, walk it all the way down to the temple and watch it's throat slit for your sins so that you go home and you remember the bleeding of that sheep that you loved and that's to motivate you to live a sinless life, a holy life, a life of zeal toward God. So Jeremiah says to these people in verse eight, "Behold, you trusted deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear false, make offerings to Baal and go after other gods that you have not known. And then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name and say, 'We are delivered,' only to go on doing all these abominations.""Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it," declares the Lord. What they were doing, but this is what's happening in so many American churches today, so so many. You go in and you're like, "Oh, Jesus is the new sacrificial system? Tremendous. I'm going to sin all week. I'm going to live a godless life." Zeal for sin instead of a zeal for the savior. And then you come in on a Sunday, oh yeah, I committed adultery. Okay. Let's repent of that. I stole. Let's repent of that. I worshiped other idols. Okay. I swore falsely, let's repent.I murdered someone. Jesus said, if you hate someone in your heart, that's tantamount to murder, meaning they didn't care about Gods will at all. They just used God. So Jesus quotes these words to these people, den of robbers. And he inflamed their zeal. And that's what got him killed. Ultimately, his zeal did consume him. Ultimately, he did die for us. Jesus was zealous for God. And they were zealous for self power, money, status, positions. And the same battle raging in their hearts is raging in every single heart today.Jesus wants to cleanse your heart of sin. He wants to enter your life with not a whip. Right now, in this life, while you're alive, he wants to enter your heart with mercy and love and grace and forgive you, cleanse you with his blood. This is the beauty. Jesus wants to cleanse you with his blood, not his whip. The whip comes later. But if you bow your knees to Jesus Christ, if you repent of sin in this life, while you're alive, everything is forgiven.You talk about great business models. You could talk about great deals, you could talk about streams of income, all that. This is the greatest deal in the history of the universe. All of your sins are forgiven. So repent. But once you do, you need to know, he expects something from you. He expects you to live zealously for him. And this is point two, Jesus is consumed with zeal. Oh, wow. Point two is going to be really fast. That's why I needed the timer. Dangerous.Okay. Are you consumed with zeal for God's house? When you see this Jesus with a whip, how does that make you feel? It should make you feel that, hey, I don't know if I'm as zealous as he is for God's house, for God. And we're all zealous for something. And you just follow your time, talent, treasure, where your skills are used, where your time is used, where your treasure is used, where it goes naturally, that's what you're most zealous about.And we need to ask ourselves, are we zealous for God? Are we zealous for God's temple? And God's temple obviously is in Jerusalem. Now, God's temple is the church universal, lived out in the church local. And again, I have this conversation all the time. People are like, "I'm a Christian, I'm part of the universal church." That's like me going to you and saying, "Are you a human being?" And they say, "Yeah, I'm part of the human race."Do you have a body? If not, you're Casper the Friendly Ghost. Same thing. Are you a Christian? Are you part of the universal church? Are you part of the local church? If you're not a part of a local church, you're probably not alive. That was the love sermon or the Jesus sermon. I don't know. I preach the same thing every week. Are you zealous for God's work. Are you zealous to please God?Are you zealous to declutter your own soul and life of sin? And your answer, I want you to look at the data. I want you to look at the evidence. If you say I'm zealous for God, look at the data. Where does your time naturally go? Where does your money naturally go? Where do you thoughts naturally go? Look at the data. Study yourself. Show me the receipts that you are zealous. And also, is there anything better to consume your life than zeal for God's house? Is there anything better?If you know me personally, when I get zealous about something, I get zealous. So when I talk about God's word, I am... If I'm not sweating profusely, like I'm at a workout, I'm a CrossFit right now, then I'm not even trying. No. When I get zealous about something, I go all in. I went vegan one time. I dropped like 40 pounds. I was yellow by the end of that. And after that, I started powerlifting. Go completely. I get zealous.I became an amateur boxer just for fun. I get zealous. And the whole time with all of my different whatever, I'm zealous for the church of God. I love the church. I love this church. I love it. I love the scriptures. I love the church. I want to give all of myself to it. And I remember reading J.I. Packer, Knowing God. And he has this section about the zeal of God. If you know God, you have to be zealous for God.And this little section, it's chapter 17 of Knowing God, it changed my life. He says zeal and religion of Christianity is a burning desire to please God, to do his will, to advance his glory in the world in every possible way. It is the desire which no man feels by nature, which the spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted, by which some believers feel so much more strongly than others that they alone deserve to be called zealous men.In religion, Christianity is preeminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he's earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, cares for one thing. He lives for one thing. He's swallowed up by one thing, and that one thing is to please God, whether he lives or whether he dies, whether he has health or whether he has sickness, whether he is rich, whether he is poor, whether he pleases man or whether he gives offense, whether he's thought wise or whether he is thought foolish, whether he gets blame or whether he gets praise, whether he gets honor, whether he gets shamed.For all this, the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing, and that one thing is to please God, to advance God's glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it. He's content. He feels like that, like a lamp. He is made to burn. And if consumed in burning, he has done the work for which God appointed him. Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach, work, give money, he will cry inside and pray.If he can not fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work with Moses and Aaron on the hill. And if he is cutoff from working himself, he will give the Lord no rest till help is raised up from another quarter. And the work is done. This is what I mean when I speak of zeal and religion. May God make us men and women of zeal. And that's going to absolutely ever change the world.Revelation 3:15, 16, 19. "I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot. I would that you were either cold or hot. So because you were lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." Those are the words of Jesus. "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent." Titus 2:11-14, "For the grace of God," that's our salvation, "Has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope.""The appearing of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for God's work." And then practically, how does this work? As a church, we focus all of our attention on three things. And those three things are meant to fire up your zeal to the Lord.It's not the only things that we do, but this is where we focus our energy: on our worship services, on our community groups, and our service teams. Acts 2, that's what the early church did. At my house, I live with five females. They're wonderful. They're my favorite roommates. We do three things in my house. We worship God. We talk about God all the time. We read scripture. We pray. We talk about God all the time. My daughter, Milan, is four. She was visiting her aunt and her aunt said, "Do you love God?" She said, "Yeah." And her aunt said, "Why?"And we're expecting, "Oh, he made me. He gives me good stuff. He feeds me." She's like, "Because he told me to." Oh man, that's good. That's good. Love because he's God. That's tremendous. That's great theology. So we love each other. We love each other. We worship God. We love each other. We fellowship and we serve each other. That's every good family. Worship. God, tell each other that you love each other, spend time together, and then serve each other.That's what we do. We worship God. We fellowship in community groups. And if you aren't in one, join one. And then we serve on a weekly basis. And why do we do this? We do this to fire up our faith. And at the center of all of that is the holy scriptures. Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, with the disciples walking the road to Emmaus, he just gave him a Bible study and their hearts burned that they were fired up for the mission of God.So everything we do in our worship service, community groups, and service teams, we do with scripture at the center. So if you're like, "I am so zealous for God right now. I am so pumped." Now we're descending down the mountain and we're about to get back in the van and drive back into the city. I am so pumped. What can you do? Well, I've got a job for you. I've got jobs. And I've got a slide with jobs.Oh, this is what we need. We need help. In operations, we need 10 greeting team members, 12 tear down team members, which is tear down in setup is tremendous if you like working out and you pay money for that. You can just get rid of your membership and come to church. Six security team members, six special events team members. So all of this. Production is a little harder because for production, portfolios are required.So if you've got a photography, video, you need skills. Sorry. We believe God's perfect. So everything we try to do here, we try to do with excellence. So if you stink, don't sign up there. And then mini Mosaic, we need to nursery assistants, prayer. Crucial. We need three prayer team members and two intercessory prayer team members, in particular, men. This is requested. Why? And you're like, is that misogynistic that we want particularly men for the team? We want everybody. But right now the team is carried by women.Gentlemen, sign up. Tremendous. You're welcome. So that's that. So if you'd like to sign up, tremendous, brookline.mosaicboston.com/serve, or you can go to the app. Conclusion. I had conversation this week with a girl from the church that got a job and she's working at this job. It's a brand new job in a city. One of the things that they do and one of the benefits that they include is they want to motivate their people.One of the services that they had included, they invited this guy in, who was a guy who's like he created a business for himself, like gathering people in his living room, like people are working, company execs, and he would all force them to cook together. They cook a meal together. So everyone's on the same plane. The guards go down. They all eat the meal together. They sit around on a circle and the guy asked one question.And the reason why they do this and the reason why it's so effective is because apparently they found out that companies where people are thankful to be there are so much more successful. And this is the one question that they ask and they talk about, who is the person in your life that you have never thought to say thank you to? I heard that and I was like aaah. I'm getting goosebumps now.That's so powerful. Who's the one person in your life that you never thought to say thank you? And I knew right away. I knew exactly, second grade Mrs. Wodziak, little Polish lady. And I was still in ESL at that time. And I will never forget, it's Christmas time and we had to bring gifts. We had to do the Santa swamp thing. You had to bring a gift and then one of the other kids gets your gift and you get one of their gifts. It was tremendous. And I brought the gift. I don't remember what I brought. And I saw the biggest box under the tree.Because all the kids got to sit there for like weeks looking at all these presents. And they scoped out the biggest one and it came up and I held it up. It was weighty. I was like, this is the one. And I stole it. Second grade. So obviously, on the day of getting the gifts, some kid is not going to have a gift. The day comes and finally they're like, it's the last person. The last person has no gift. There's no present for the little kid. I'm sitting there with my two gifts. Peace to Jenna at second grade.And then Mrs. Wodziak pulls out a present from under her desk, same size. And the kid opens up. It was the same thing that I stole, 64 crayons. You remember those boxes? Same thing to this kid. I'm like, obviously she knew I stole it. She knew. And she gave me mercy. And then in secondary, we took a field trip to Sturbridge village and all the kids had money. I didn't know we were supposed to bring money. Also, my immigrant parents were like, "Money for what? You're lucky we feed you." So then we get to Sturbridge and all the kids are buying stuff and they bought yo-yosAnd I was like, oh, man, I wish I got a yo-yo. I was scoping out one to steal. And then Mrs. Wodziak comes up to me with a green yo-yo. And I never said thank you. I think she was a believer. She's the one that taught me in one fell swoop about mercy. You don't get what you deserve. And grace. You got what you didn't deserve. That's a powerful question. And I want you to ask that question. What's the one person that you've never thought to say thank you? I want you to say thank you to them if they were alive.I want to pause right now and say thank you to the members of this church and everyone who serves, gives time, talent, treasure for zeal. You're zealous for God. So thank you. Praise God for you. And I'll just end with this. The reason why that question is so powerful, because I've been thinking about that all week. I'm like, why is that so powerful? I know. I know. Because there's one that most people who are alive have never said thank you to. You've never even said thank you. God, thank you.Thank you for giving me life and God, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins, not giving me the wrath that I deserve, and then giving me love and mercy and grace that I don't deserve. God, thank you. So in terms of love, Jesus, simple, and simplicity, that's what we're going to focus on, worshiping God. So let's worship him together. Heavenly father, we do come to you and we just say thank you.We thank you that you're a great God and a holy God. And we thank you, Jesus, that though we deserve the whip, you took it for us. We deserve the cross, you took it for us. We deserve the wrath of God, you took it for us in order to forgive us and give us mercy and then also give us grace. And make us the people who are motivated with gratitude, with thanksgiving, and zealous for you, zealous for your house, zealous for your people, and zealous for the mission of God. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Am I a REPENTFUL person?  Does Repentance CHARACTERIZE my life? John the Baptist encourages such a heart in the strongest possible terms.  He is confronting a group of people known for their actions; their behaviors.  He lets them have it:  YOU VIPERS!.  He calls the a bunch of snakes. Why the wrath of John?  Because John is afraid of the Wrath of GOD for them.  He's not afraid OF them, he is afraid FOR them.This is serious stuff.The irony is that he is calling them TO behaviors.  But John wants something more:  he wants the behavior to be started with REPENTANCE.  This is agreeing with God.  It is turning.  This is being more than superficially regretful.  He indeed wants them to BEAR FRUIT, but to have the fruit rooted in REPENTANCE.  The old roots of behavior for show he is cutting down and cutting out the roots with an axe.  Radical surgery is necessary for this soul saving activity.Please listen for 7 minutes and consider if you are  a REPENTFUL person.  Everything starts with that.  Then, share this on facebook, instagram, linked in, or twitter. I'm so glad you are here!

Are You Able to Make the Most from Any Lead that Comes Your Way? Do You Rely on Creative Financing as a Means to Close Any Deal? Would You Like to Be Able to Close ANY Deal That Makes Sense? Today, on The Sub2Deals Show, we talk with Real Estate Investing Legend John Burley. With 35+ years of investing experience and thousands of (personally) completed real estate deals, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, John Burley has the perfect mix of street-savvy knowledge and sound investing principles. John is a Pioneer in the Real Estate Investment Business, originally trained in the World of Wall St., in 1989 he left and founded his Private Equity Company, where he serves today as the Founder & CEO. It is a leader in the industry, with holdings from multiple countries and a dozen different states. His was among the first-ever companies to bring Single Family Home (SFH) Portfolio Real Estate to the Private Equity Community. John is as an International #1 Best Seller with over One Million Copies Sold. His books include: Money Secrets of the Rich and Powerful Changes. He has also produced over 100 books and audio programs during his career. John has raised over $600,000,000.00. He has completed thousands of Real estate Transactions, among these are over 500 Sub2, Mirror Wrap or Owner Financing Transactions. Because John is a Professional Investor, he makes his living actually DOING deals and not just teaching theory. The bottom line is: John walks his talk. What You Will Learn * What is "The Burley Model"? * What is the BEST Way to Find Capitol Investors? * What is John's Favorite Way to Generate Leads?   Mentioned in This Episode Learn why You MUST Have PropStream! https://www.sub2deals.com/propstream Interested in learning how to get the deed? Take a look at the Sub2Deals Group Coaching with William! https://www.sub2deals.com/group-coaching Join Us in September for the BEST Creative Real Estate Event of 2021! https://www.Sub2Palooza.com   Like the podcast? If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review below or on Apple Podcast. FREEBIES: Want to Buy Houses with William? Join our JVP Program! Schedule a FREE 15 Minute Consultation Call: https://www.sub2deals.com/joint-venture-partner/ Want to Be a Part of the BEST Subject To Coaching Group on Facebook? Learn How to "Get the Deed!" Join us Today! https://www.sub2deals.com/group-coaching Get Our FREE Seller Negotiation Course: http://podcast.sub2deals.com/how-to-negotiate-with-real-estate-sellers/ Get Our FREE Real Estate Investor Business Plan: http://podcast.sub2deals.com/free-business-plan/ Get the BEST Tools for Real Estate Investors Here: https://www.sub2deals.com/tools Stuck on a deal or just need a quick 1 on 1 consultation with William? https://clarity.fm/williamtingle   Follow Us on Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sub2Deals/ Facebook Group: https://www.Sub2Forum.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/sub2deals Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sub2deals/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sub2deals/ The Sub2Deals Show Podcast: https://www.Sub2Podcast.com Website: https://www.Sub2Deals.com

Full Text of ReadingsSixth Sunday of Easter Lectionary: 56All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Saint John of AvilaBorn in the Castile region of Spain, John was sent at the age of 14 to the University of Salamanca to study law. He later moved to Alcala, where he studied philosophy and theology before his ordination as a diocesan priest. After John’s parents died and left him as their sole heir to a considerable fortune, he distributed his money to the poor. In 1527, he traveled to Seville, hoping to become a missionary in Mexico. The archbishop of that city persuaded him to stay and spread the faith in Andalusia. During nine years of work there, he developed a reputation as an engaging preacher, a perceptive spiritual director, and a wise confessor. Because John was not afraid to denounce vice in high places, he was investigated by the Inquisition but was cleared in 1533. He later worked in Cordoba and then in Granada, where he organized the University of Baeza, the first of several colleges run by diocesan priests who dedicated themselves to teaching and giving spiritual direction to young people. He was friends with Saints Francis Borgia, Ignatius of Loyola, John of God, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcantara, and Teresa of Avila. John of Avila worked closely with members of the Society of Jesus and helped their growth within Spain and its colonies. John’s mystical writings have been translated into several languages. He was beatified in 1894, canonized in 1970, and declared a doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012. Reflection Saint John of Avila knew that the lives of Christians can contradict the Good News of Jesus Christ—for example thinking racism is OK—implicitly encouraging Christians to live their faith-halfheartedly, and causing obstacles to non-Christians who might accept Baptism. In 16th-century Spain, those who advocated reforming the Church were often suspected of heresy. Saint John of Avila held his ground and was eventually recognized as a very reliable teacher of the Christian faith. Saint of the Day Copyright Franciscan Media

"And heard (this) King Herod openly for his name / authority became manifest. And he said, "Because John the Baptist was risen from the dead and, by this, operates / works this Power ["dynamis"] in him”. Is Herod referring to Jesus or John? Is it possible that he means a docetic Christ spirit who appears here and there to do his feats? What was your translation philosophy in your Pre-Nicene New Testament? Luke 8:1-3 mentions a group of women who traveled with Jesus and the 12. Why does Luke include them? And who were Susanna and Joanna? Greek scholars recognize that when the plural form is used without a qualifying number, it’s be understood as meaning the minimum plural amount, two. Is this correct? Were Daniel chapters 7-12 a contributor to the Jewish revolt? I was hoping you could speak to the changing of the tax collectors name from Levi, son of Alpheus, to Matthew. One of the main foundations of Christianity, as I understand it, is the fact that God sacrificed his only son for our sins. But how much of a sacrifice was it?

Is it possible to live fabulously without being fabulously broke? The Debt Free Guys say you can. After a year and a half of dating, John and David finally came out of the closet to each other regarding their finances. Between the two of them, they had $51,000 in credit card debt even though they had 15 years of experience in financial services helping others with managing their money. Starting with the first credit card his parents gave him for emergencies, David began a 17-year run carrying credit card debt. Instead of reserving for emergencies, he viewed it as a source of side money and never understood the value of paying it off. Despite never paying the balance off, his credit card limits kept increasing. After accumulating a significant amount of credit card, he began having trouble making even the minimum payments. Once, when his parents wired him money, it was immediately garnished from his bank account because he had failed to make payments. And yet he still didn't learn his lesson. Both Jon and David came from a time when it wasn't okay to be gay. As a result of being a part of a marginalized community, many parts of society sent the message that they couldn't be who they were. The baggage they carried, as a result, manifested itself in various ways, one of which can be financial challenges. Prudential conducted a study that showed there is a sexual orientation and gender identity pay gap. A university study has also shown that simply being gender non-conforming can limit you from getting a job or being promoted. As a result, gay men sometimes seek validation through their clothing, bodies, cars, houses, and vacations even if they have to finance it. The LGBT community hasn't traditionally fit the image of retired couples financial services companies market to. The community hasn't been encouraged through representation to think about their finances. The premise of the Queer Money Podcast is the get the finance conversation started which is what any community needs to start moving toward financial security. They challenge the community to think about what it is they truly want in life despite how they are told they should look, act, and want. It was the trap they had been living in. Although they were making decent salaries and experts in money, John and David weren't living according to their values. After having the discussion, they decided what they wanted was to be able to retire comfortably, travel without accumulating credit card debt, and give back to the LGBT community in a way that didn't penalize them. David says that even in the financial services industry there is a facade and although the experts know what they should do, they are hiding the truth about who they really are. Even for those who know the tricks to save, it can be hard to put it into practice. When you don't tell the truth about who you really are, you don't seek assistance or help to become the person you are pretending to be. While their credit card debt was at $51,000, John and David were spending $10,000 a year in interest payments. They believe that like them, most people who have similarly high credit card debts have a spending problem, not an income problem. The first step is to sit down and have the conversation with yourself, your partner, or your family about what it is you want your life to look like. The second step was eye-opening. John and David performed a spending analysis tracking when every penny spent had gone in the previous year. They had been living like rock stars, spending money on dining out, happy hours, designer clothing, and travel yet they didn't think their quality of life had been that great. They finally realized they were financial messes when walking into their dark, basement apartment right after considering buying land to build a vacation home on in the Colorado mountains. They questioned where their life was going and confessed their debts to each other. Figuring out what they wanted took three to four months, the spending analysis took a weekend, and it was two and a half years to pay off the credit card debt. Unfortunately, after paying it off, they reverted to old habits and racked up $6,000 on reedit cards again. Realizing they were on the wrong path again, they corrected course and paid that off in several more months. The spending analysis showed that with several small tweaks, they could recoup a lot of their spending. Grocery and dining out costs were cut and when going out with friends, they tried to do it without spending much money so they could maintain the social aspect of their lives. John and David knew that if they could not have fun during the process of paying off debt, it would not last. When confessing why they couldn't spend on activities like before, they found the friends they told were completely fine with it. For some friends, it created an opportunity to have their own money conversation, while other friends did drift away. One of the strategies John and David used was to look for free or inexpensive actives they could do on the days they wanted to be social with others. They were blown away by the number of free and fun activities they found in the city of Denver. Learning that you don't have to spend a ton of money to have a good time changed the way they thought about having a good time. They called it the NSE for Not So Expensive. John and David believe that when you put it out that you are saving for your financial goals, you begin to attract other people who want to have that goal in their life too and build a community of people supporting the lifestyle you want to create. Another tactic John and David used were Milestone Rewards. They would stash away a small mouth of money to have some fun with as a reward when they had met a goal, such as paying off a certain amount of debt. After completing the spending analysis, they realized it would take four to six years to pay off their debt using the snowball or avalanche methods. They knew they needed to do it quickly or they would get bored. It was the high-interest credit card debt preventing them from paying it off quickly, so they came up with the debt lasso method. With the debt lasso method, they lowered their interest rate to as low as possible and consolidated the credit card debt to as few locations as possible. The debt lasso method has several pieces to it. You have to commit to not adding more to your card balances and commit to paying a specific amount every single month toward the balances. Next, similar to the snowball method, if you can pay one off in full in a month or two, do it and get the quick win. Then use the lasso process to pull all of the balances into as few locations as possible at as low-interest rates as possible. Then everything should be automated. When monthly payments are automated, you'll never miss a payment which is when interest rates will be raised. And finally, monitor your accounts so you know when a card is paid off and move payments to the next account or make extra payments when you can. The snowball method works on emotion and has you pay off cards with the lowest balances, one after the other. In contrast, the avalanche process has you pay off the cards with the highest interest rates first. Using the debt lasso method, they did have to pay approximately 3% in balance transfer fees, but they shaved years off the repayment plan saving more in interest payments. Because John and David each had good credit, they were able to consolidate the debt from two to three high-interest cards each to 0% interest for 12-18 months cards and continued to roll the debt to 0% interest cards as needed while paying down their debt. On the Debt Free Guys website, they have created a calculator to estimate how long it will take to pay credit card debt off using different payoff methods. They encourage folks to pay the most money toward cards with the highest interest rates. John and David say that while 0% credit cards may not be plentiful right now, they've found that credit card companies will often send out 0% offers when a credit card's debt has been paid off because they know you likely have other credit card debt. Just be sure to understand the fine print to avoid any unpleasant surprises. It is incredibly helpful for partners to be in the same state of mind when it comes to paying off debt. It's also useful to find a tribe of people who are doing it or an accountability partner. The Debt Free Guys have a weekly call named Money Therapy included with their credit card payoff course. To join the community and get the debt lasso calculator, go to debtfreeguys.com/choosefi. Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Buy a ChooseFI ebook bundle and save an extra 15% with code "holiday15" Join the Debt Free Guys community Start investing outside of your retirement accounts with M1 Finance Find the right freelancer for your job with Fiverr and get one free year with promo code "ChooseFI" If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy.  Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.    

Do you want updates to your favorite stories? Because John sure doesn't. Are you happy that Han now shot second? Because Gaurav sure isn't. The boys discuss how what's old is new again but how what's new, never gets a chance to get old (on Netflix at least). Timestamps: 90's Slang of the Week - (07:06) New Netflix Cancellations - (10:30) Dexter Revival - (34:27) Retconversation - (44:09) Here's the Thing - (1:30:01)

Brady welcomes John to the podcast and John talks about his growing up in the “Westside” which sparks a lengthy conversation about the demographics and makeup of this large neighborhood on the western side of Cincinnati, Ohio. This discussion moves toward John’s high school alma mater Elder High School (https://www.ehsports.com). Elder is one of the most tradition filled programs in America let alone Cincinnati and John talks about the fierce loyalty shown by people who still life vicariously through the Purple and White. This spins off into a brief description and comparison to Elder and John’s current employer Highlands High School (https://www.highlandsathletics.com/football) in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. John begins to talk about his early influences and wanting to be a broadcaster as an eight-year old baseball fan. He was first introduced to baseball following a family member Art Mahaffey (https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mahafar01.shtml) who was a pitcher for the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies. John listened to the Cincinnati Reds radio broadcasts with Waite Hoyt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waite_Hoyt) and Claude Sullivan on the call. He was mesmerized by the all stories that Hoyt would tell about playing for the New York Yankees and being teammates with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. After his graduating from Elder in 1974, John went on an interesting odyssey through college as he wanted to study broadcasting but instead pleased his family by going a safer route. John talks about landing a part-time job as a teenager with the Cincinnati Reds on the grounds crew at Riverfront Stadium. John worked there from 1972-79 where he witness the height of the Big Red Machine. With a degree in marketing from Northern Kentucky University (https://nkunorse.com), John starts working as the assistant manager at Hader Hardware. After a brief period of time John decides to branch out on his own. He buys a competing hardware store that is struggling and goes into business for himself. After five years of owning and operating the hardware store, his brother Todd Asalon gets him into the catering business. Todd and his business partner are doing a great business but need help actually running the business and bring John into the mix. The conversation somehow veers into a sidebar about Todd playing baseball at Northern Kentucky University for legendary head coach and founder of the program Bill Aker. Todd would eventually becomes Aker’s hand picked successor as head coach upon his retirement after the 2000 season. There are a ton of Bill Aker stories and because of purposes of time John only talks about just a few of them. Because John’s story a long winding and interesting road he just now gets to the point of when he makes his debut as a play-by-play broadcaster. Todd is the baseball coach and athletic director at Thomas More (https://www.thomasmoresaints.com/landing/index) and in the mid-90’s he needs a fill-in for a Saints football game. At this point John was in his late-30’s and is making his debut with less than 24 hours notice. John finds out upon arrival that he will be working solo and after a rough start finds his rhythm as the Saints defeat Hope College. The circumstances are not uneventful but like and old pro John perseveres and his broadcasting career is finally underway. Thomas More games are broadcasts on a local level, many times with volunteers, on public access and local origination programming channels. The name of that channel is currently called TBNK (https://www.tbnk.org/site/index.php), the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky formerly known as Cable One. For many years John begins to branch out by calling basketball games for Thomas More as well as high school football and basketball on TBNK. John’s brother Todd makes arrangements for John to begin his tenure for the Northern Kentucky University baseball games in 2006. Since was the early days of internet streaming plus the Norse were not playing on campus at the time. Also around this same time, John teams up with Denny Wright on TBNK called Florence Freedom games. This sparks conversation and memories about one of the founding members of the television industry in Northern Kentucky, the late great Ted Bushelman. Click here (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102433070/theodore-joseph-bushelman) to see Ted’s death notice and obituary because it is a great recap of Ted’s distinguished life. In Episode 6 we continue the story with John as he and Brady talk about his time in sports talk radio, his tenure with the Cincinnati Steam, a couple of his long-time broadcast partners AND him calling games from some very difficult and unique vantage points during the course of his career. You can follow “Johnny A” on Twitter @john_asalon (https://twitter.com/john_asalon) and catch his podcast The Week in APBA Anchor preview (https://anchor.fm/john-asalon). You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 (https://twitter.com/BradyLaber1) please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm (https://nobodysssafe.fireside.fm) For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com (https://www.stoveleg.com) or send an email to Podcasts@stoveleg.com Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com (https://www.bensound.com)

What will our new normal look like? No one knows. But like he did with the Samaritan woman, Jesus invites us to walk with him into the unknown… together. Series: A New Normal, Speaker: Pastor Don Dodge, Scripture: John 3:16-17, John 4:3-30, John 4:39-40, Psalm 139:23-24, John 4:7-8, John 4:10, John 4:26, Genesis 50:20, Video: https://www.facebook.com/avalonchurch/videos/203695394087777/, Sermon page: https://www.avalonchurch.org/sermons/a-new-normal-coming-back-message/, Sermon Notes: 2020-06-14_a-new-normal_sermon-notes.pdf, Discussion Questions: 2020-06-14_a-new-normal_discussion-questions.pdf, Notes: INTRO Welcome back, Avalon Church Family! …At least some of the Avalon Church-family! For those of you who are still at home, …We miss you! …We love you! And we can’t wait for you to join us soon. Like every crisis before us, God knew the Coronavirus pandemic was going to happen. Crisis is part of living in a fallen world. Me/We And I heard someone say a few weeks ago, “Never, ever waste a crisis.” Because more than any other time in our lives, It is in times of crisis, …That we are more open to a change in our perspective, …And more open to allow God to change us. That’s been true to my experience. And through this COVID crisis, It seems the Church has realized …Buildings are not a necessity, But they are a huge blessing. COVID has opened our eyes …To our being defined as a family and community, Not a Sunday service that we attend.   It has helped us appreciate the importance of being a community …That GOES TOGETHER …To love and serve and meet needs in Jesus name, Sharing the life and hope and dignity Jesus offers. …A family that GROWS TOGETHER, Strengthening each other’s faith, And caring for one another. COVID has reminded us, …That when we keep our light in the building, no one can see it. So once again, A crisis offers us a new beginning. Our lives have changed. The way we work, and shop, and go to school has changed. And the way we worship has changed. The future is unknown. But it will be different… better. Because one thing we do know, We can’t do this alone. We need God. And when we recognize our need for God, It’s the beginning of something brand new. God I want to tell you a story that many of you are familiar with. It’s in the Gospel of John, chapter 4. It’s a long story, so I have to skip some of the details. But I think it will help bring some perspective to where we are today. Because John wrote his Gospel, His version of Jesus’ story, With you in mind.   Jesus was the Jewish Messiah And John wanted to make sure you knew Jesus came for Everyone! And today’s story comes right after some of the most recognized words in the whole Bible, 16 For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his one and only Son, that WHOEVER believes in him shall not perish but have eternal LIFE. –Jn 3:16-17 (NIV) Today’s story is about the “Whoever.” Those willing to be open to something new. Willing to be humble, and admit they don’t know everything. Today’s story is about accepting God’s offer of life Through Jesus, … God becoming a man. Samaritan Woman The story begins… So Jesus left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. –Jn 4:3-4 (NIV)   Jesus and his disciples were around Jerusalem in the south And were walking home to the north. There were 2 ways to go. …The quick way was straight through a region known as Samaria. The long way avoided Samaria and went up the Jordan River. Very few Jewish people went the short way, Because Jews despised Samaritans.   They considered them half-breeds.   Half Jewish, Half Gentile. Diluting the Jewish faith with that of other religions. Over the centuries, the Jewish people oppressed the Samaritans, …Robbed them of dignity, …and even burned down their temple. Hostility always boiled just below the surface. Guess which route Jesus chose to travel? Yep! Right through Samaria. John tells us   5 [Jesus] came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. –Jn 4:5-6 (NIV) Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, The famous Abraham… the Father of the Jews. …and also, the Father of the Samaritans. Possessing Jacob’s well gave the Samaritans religious credibility. They believed they were the true descendants of Abraham. …and the well was his gift to them! 7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)  John 4:7-8 So, a Jewish man, and a rabbi at that, Engaged in conversation with an unknown woman? Even today in the Middle East, this does not happen! Rabbi’s didn’t even talk to their wives in public. And this was a Samaritan! Normally, it was expected that a man would withdraw twenty or thirty feet away as the woman retrieved water. The woman was stunned. 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) –Jn 4:9 (NIV) In the parentheses, John was explaining the situation to his non-Jewish readers. Responding to her shock, 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” --John 4:10 (NIV) “Living water” was a common phrase. That’s what they called moving water, like in a river or stream. But there were no streams or rivers in the area; There was no living water around Jacob’s well. She knew that, so Jesus’ statement didn’t make sense. 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? –Jn 4:11 (NIV) Leading to the key question… 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” –Jn 4:12 (NIV) Jacob, our Father, chose us. Are you greater than Jacob? It was a rhetorical question. No one would claim to be greater than Jacob, right?! 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” –Jn 4:13-14 (NIV) Am I better than Jacob? Jacob gave you a well that will quench your thirst on a hot day like this. But, I offer that which quenches your deepest thirst; …Water that gushes into a spring of full, abundant, eternal life. I offer life and you will never be thirsty again. She still doesn’t understand. Is he offering magic water?  I 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” --Jn 4:15 (NIV) Jesus changes direction to clarify what he’s talking about. 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” –Jn 4:16 (NIV) What?!  She says, 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right…. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” – Jn 4:17-18 (NIV)   Now, I’d like to clarify something here. Most sermons I’ve heard condemn this Samaritan woman as really bad. 5 previous husbands? And now living with a guy? It is interesting that for the first 1500 years of Christianity, this Samaritan woman was considered a hero. …She was inquisitive and courageous. Her lifestyle was never in question. But somewhere around the 1500’s, …Pastors and priests began assuming that she was sinful… …divorced 5x. And that she went to the well at noon to avoid people. This version became THE story.   I guess it could be true, but it really goes against history. In Jesus’ day, women married very young… like 13 and 14 years old. And their husbands often died very young. When a husband died, his widow was destitute. She couldn’t own land. She couldn’t get a job. She would often move in with family or friends to survive, …Until she remarried. So a woman to be married 2-3 times was common. Five times. Not so much. Her living arrangement was very likely the result of a lot of tragedy. Never judge someone when you don’t even know their story. But this we know, Jesus never condemned her. He doesn’t say “Go and sin no more” like he does elsewhere. But Jesus does reveal something very extraordinary about her life… something no one could guess. And she is taken aback. 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Here’s that difference in religion. If you are a prophet, You’re a Jewish prophet. …you’re NOT OUR prophet. 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. –Jn 4:21-22 (NIV) Salvation through the expected Messiah, which the Samaritans were very familiar with, …Will come from the Jews. But the surprise for both Jews and Samaritans, is who the salvation is for. Jesus continued, 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. –Jn 4:23-24 (NIV) But concerning worship… both groups have it wrong. It’s not about your heritage. It’s not about how you do religion activities. It’s not about where you worship. It’s about God living in and among his people, …those who worship Him. We don’t go to a holy place to worship and meet God. The people are the holy place. It’s about spirit and truth. …about our hearts being real before God. Immediately, you can sense her eyes being opened... Could this be… the Promised One? 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” –Jn 4:25 (NIV) And Jesus replies… “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.  John 4:26 (NIV) In the original text, the word “he” at the end is not there. Jesus says, “I, the one speaking to you -- I AM.” Jesus uses the name of God revealed to Moses and says, “I AM.”   Boom! I am before Abraham. I am greater than Jacob. I am the expected Messiah. I find it interesting. He hadn’t even spoken like this to the disciples. 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. –Jn 4:29 (NIV) Verse 39 records… 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony... 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. –Jn 4:39-40 (NIV)   So, Jesus, the Jewish rabbi, stayed with the Samaritans for 2 days. Eating Samaritan food. Staying in a Samaritan house. Sleeping on a Samaritan bed. And he discipled them. I cannot overemphasize how unexpected this is? The disciples would have never done this before following Jesus. YOU So What? For this community, Jesus offered a new beginning. For his disciples, this unexpected encounter unleashed a new beginning. They had no idea what the future held. For God so loved the world he sent his Son, …INTO THE WORLD! Jesus wasn’t separate. He broke every kosher law to live among the Samaritans for those 2 days.   And what was the result? Look at vs. 42. 42 They [The Samaritans] said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” –Jn 4:42 (NIV) Jesus really is the Savior of the World! Jesus loved those who were despised.   The marginalized. The rejected. The judged. Those who didn’t care, Those who sinned without regard, …Even those who killed him. No matter what anyone had done or who they had become; Jesus invested in them, And invited them to follow him, …To discover life, and forgiveness, and purity, and freedom. The essence of Christianity is loving God And loving those he loves. Christianity is not about separation… from people, It’s about separation from the world’s idea that it’s all about me. The call of Christianity is to live alongside people, Building relationships, And Loving people, And listening to other people’s stories, And sharing how Jesus has impacted your story. That’s what the woman at the well did. And it changed everything for those in her town. They found everything they were looking for, …in Jesus. YOU So What? This has to be our Passion; …What we live to do; …Being intentional.   Developing relationships with those who are not like us. Looking around and asking God to open our eyes …To the things he sees, …to ways we can be his hands, and feet, and voice. It’s a new beginning as God opens our eyes to how he sees our world. …To share our lives with each other, …And share our lives with everyone, …Regardless of what they believe, …And if they believe. We are ambassadors of Jesus. We invest in everyone we can, …and we invite all to take steps toward God. …appropriate steps for them. You (Application. So What?) Pray, Psalm 139:23-24 and finish with the words “Help me see as you see and respond as you would respond.” Pray for my church leaders that God would do Gen 50:20 “Help me to see as you see and respond as you respond.” Begin an ongoing dialogue with someone whose skin is a different color from you. When they suggest you read or listen, do so. Ask for permission to ask questions when you don’t understand. Be a student first and have patience before criticizing. Closing Announcements Connection Card and Prayer Team   Andy Stanley: Better for it   Closing Prayer God, we are available to you. As individuals and as a church, Use us in the lives of others That they might be filled with Living Water And proclaim with us, “Jesus is the Savior of the World!”

1 John 2:1-6 / June 10-12, 2020 Because John had “seen it all,” this old gentleman was able to offer some elementary rules all of us would be wise to hear and obey. From the Series: Living Right in a Wrong World read more

1 John 2:1-6 / June 10-12, 2020 Because John had “seen it all,” this old gentleman was able to offer some elementary rules all of us would be wise to hear and obey. From the Series: Living Right in a Wrong World read more

1 John 2:1-6 / June 10-12, 2020 Because John had “seen it all,” this old gentleman was able to offer some elementary rules all of us would be wise to hear and obey. From the Series: Living Right in a Wrong World read more

1 John 2:1-6 / June 10-12, 2020 Because John had “seen it all,” this old gentleman was able to offer some elementary rules all of us would be wise to hear and obey. From the Series: Living Right in a Wrong World read more

This week co-host extraordinaire Jason's got a killer interview with Heidi Davis, a woman in long term recovery from alcoholism and addiction and very passionate about what brought her to and keeps her in long term recovery. I happened to read one of her social media posts that read like an intro to a recovery memoir and immediately said to your favorite recovery co-host “get her on the show”. I can't tell you exactly why I was immediately compelled to get Heidi on to share her story, but I've learned after a few 24 hours in recovery to trust my instincts when they speak to me, and this time my instincts were demanding for Heidi to share her experience, strength, and hope. I do not claim to be a Christian, nor do I believe that Christianity, or any other religion is the only way to recover or the only path to freedom from Addiction and Alcoholism. What I do sincerely and whole heatedly believe however, is that it is indeed, if you will indulge me a play on words A Bonafede Way Out of addiction and/or alcoholism. A the old 12-Step mantra goes – take what you like and leave the rest. I urge you to listen to the similarities in Heidi's story – heavens knows I found more than a few myself, and indeed listen for the commonality in Heidi's struggle through a ravenous, unrelenting and certainly progressive bout of alcoholism and addiction and look for the universal key to recovery regardless of method – complete surrender. You'll be nodding your head and laughing along as you relate to Heidi unfurling her story in only the way she can, so Listen Up. You can find Heidi Davis on Facebook and you can contact her on FB messenger*** LADIES ONLY PLEASE *** Book Recommendation: The Bible If you don't know where to start Heidi recommends the gospel of John. Because John is the gospel of LOVE and you need to first understand how much God loves YOU! Heidi's best advice: Battle Plan 1) Have at least one believer in your tribe who has battled the demon of addiction. 2) Be brutally honest with them. Share your struggles, pain, fear, concerns, and victories! 3) Get life verses. Find scripture that reminds you of who God says that you are and who He says that He is. PUT THEM EVERYWHERE. Jeremiah 29:11 is a great one! 4) Check in daily. 5) Pray daily. 6) Get in the word everyday. Read even when it doesn't make sense. NO WORD RETURNS VOID. 7) Find a church and go. Even when you don't want to. Those are usually the days God has a message for you. 8) Don't suffer in silence. Some days are going to be HARD. Put on praise and worship and SING YOUR WAY OUT! 9) Be still and know that He is God. You don't have to have it all figured out. Know He does. 10) Show yourself grace and don't strive to be a SUPER CHRISTIAN. Let the Holy Spirit do the heavy lifting. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-way-out-podcast/message

Title: God on the Witness Stand Text: I John 5:5-13 FCF: We often struggle doubting that Jesus was the Messiah of God Prop: Because God’s testimony about Jesus in His person and work authenticates him as the Christ, we must believe in His person and work. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to I John chapter 5. Well here we are in earnest. The last wave of teaching in the last chapter of the book of I John. Realistically we have probably 3 or 4 sermons left including a wrap-up sermon at the end. I hope, compared to our Matthew study, this seemed rather quick for you. I know it did for me. We began I John in early November and are on pace to finish it by the end of May. If you recall, I estimated 6-9 months for the Epistles of John series. Since it will be 6 months next week, I can now confidently say that we will not finish it all in 6 months. But perhaps we can still finish it in my 9-month estimate. So after reviewing his entire book in the last 4 verses of chapter 5, now John sets out to define for us, very clearly I might add, that our faith is in Christ alone and why it must be this way. The Jesus John presents is one that the secessionists had been attacking, dismantling, and abandoning. For those who say doctrine doesn’t matter – just love people, or doctrine doesn’t matter just love God, or doctrine does matter just… fill in the blank. John, I think, would disagree very sharply. Because to John, Doctrine and practice are woven. In every single wave of teaching it has been the same. He expresses doctrine first, and then connects that to practice. This wave is no different. You cannot love people without sound doctrine nor can you have a doctrine that is sound that does not also produce love for others. Faith, love, and obedience. All are woven and if one is missing – it all crumbles. And so John sets out in this wave to define very clearly on what our faith rests and why. He does this by bringing us into a court room and putting Jesus of Nazareth on trial. To the stand, he calls what appears to be 34 witnesses who agree about this one called Jesus. They report on His life, ministry and His effect afterward. Lastly, he calls one final witness to the stand. God Himself. All report the same thing about this one named Jesus who is called the Christ. Let’s see what they testify. I am in I John chapter 5 starting in verse 5. I’ll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible today but you can follow along in whatever version you prefer. Transition: Let’s dive right in this morning, shall we? I.) The life and ministry of Jesus testify to the fact that He is the Son of God, the Messiah, so we must believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ. (5-8) a. [Slide 2] 5 – Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? i. Between verses 4 and 5 John has said the same thing a few times in a few different ways. ii. The one fathered by God conquers the world. iii. How? Our Faith- the thing on which we place all our hopes. iv. Then verse 5 – who is the one who conquers? Well he has already answered that hasn’t he? The one fathered by God yes? The one who has our faith, yes? Yes… but all that is encapsulated by this… v. The one believing.. vi. This is a participial phrase, meaning that this is describing the person – that they are a believing one or characterized by their belief. But what are they clinging to? What are they holding fast to for dear life? vii. The truth of Jesus being the Son of God. viii. We have to understand this in the context of I John. The secessionists were denying an orthodox and apostle approved Christology. We must understand that Christology is not the only teaching required to make you orthodox – nor must we make belief in the fact of His Sonship the sum total of necessary confession. Again, this is a polemic against a false teaching. ix. That being said – it is quite a strong statement against the secessionists. Jesus is the Son of Yahweh. x. But John is not done ironing out the true Christological confession. He is about to prove by trial that Jesus is worthy of exclusive faith. b. [Slide 3] 6 – Jesus Christ – he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. i. At first glance – I’d wager that this verse is fairly perplexing to you. ii. Indeed, if you were to drop into this verse having simply read the entirety of I John, you would still have a difficult time of it, understanding what John is saying. iii. [Slide 4A] There are several theories across the many years of the church going back as far as the 2nd century. Let me highlight the major theories. 1. [Slide 4B] Sacraments – Christ came by baptism and by the Lord’s Supper – a. Luther and Calvin – Christ comes to us in the Sacraments. He brings Himself to us. b. There are several problems with this view i. The one who came - is an aorist participle. Not only do participles convey less aspect than verbs – but an aorist participle we could probably conclude contains no aspect. What does that mean? John seems to be saying that this happened. Not continuously, habitually, or once, or even once with continuing effects. Simply that it happened. No aspect at all. It is like taking a picture of an event in the past. You have no way of knowing if what happened in the picture continued or if what happened still has effect on the present, or even if it was repeated. All you know is that it happened. If John is talking about the sacraments – we would expect some kind of continual aspect to be applied to this. ii. Secondly, although “the water” is used in the New Testament to refer to baptism, never is “the blood” used to refer to the Lord’s Table. The Body and Blood, the Bread and Wine – sure. iii. Furthermore, why would John state the symbol of the sign in the water and the sign of the symbol in the blood? If it were to be consistent wouldn’t it be – Jesus came by water and by wine? Or Jesus came by baptism and by blood? iv. Lastly, there has not been one single reference to the sacraments in the entire book of I John up to this point. Certainly, the underpinned sign has been spoken of – but the symbols of those sacraments have not been mentioned at all. c. Therefore, it is safe that we disagree with these wise Reformers and look for another answer. 2. [Slide 4C] The Spear of Christ’s confirmed death a. Going farther back than the reformers, this view was presented by Augustine of Hippo b. When Jesus was dead on the cross the Roman soldiers pierced his side and blood and water ran out. c. Contextually, this would seem to make more sense than the sacramental view because it is to prove the divine-human nature of Christ’s existence. Something the secessionists were opposing. d. By blood and water running out it proved that he was human and dead. e. However, there are some problems with this view. i. John seems to have water as a given. That he came not only by water but by blood also. So if he is referencing something the secessionists believed, how could they believe something about the water coming out of him on the cross, but not the blood coming out of him? ii. Secondly, knowing some of the proto-gnostic beliefs, they would not argue that the man who hung on the cross named Jesus did actually die. What they would argue is that he was not still God’s Son, who was dead. f. It seems that there is something more that John has in mind here. 3. [Slide 4D] The Ministries of Christ a. Some modern commentators hold to this view. b. That Christ’s baptizing ministry was held in common between the secessionists and John but His dying ministry, his atoning ministry was not held in common. c. This I believe is closer to what John is actually saying, but with one major problem. It largely loses what the secessionists actually believed about Jesus. d. I believe that there is a better interpretation that combines both the ministry of Christ the Son of God, and also the verification of Jesus as the Son of Man. 4. [Slide 4E] The comings of Jesus which confirmed that He was the God-Man, the Messiah of God. a. This view was held by Tertullian, who lived between late 100s and early 200s AD. Of all the views, his is the earliest. b. At the baptism of Jesus, God Himself confirmed that Jesus (who was a man) was also His Son in whom He was most pleased. c. At the death of Jesus, God Himself confirmed that Jesus (who had shed his blood and died) was His Son whose payment He had accepted. This is confirmed by the signs that surrounded the death of Christ (darkness on the land, earthquakes, The resurrection of the dead, first being Jesus Himself) iv. [Slide 5A] Here is why I think the last view is correct. 1. [Slide 5B] First John says Jesus Christ. Not his last name – but rather his title. His role. Jesus the Messiah. The Savior. The one sent by God. Indicating purpose and identity. The proto-gnostic groups insisted that Jesus and the Christ were two separate people who joined for a time. One Spirit the other human. 2. [Slide 5C] As we noted in our intro to I John, some proto-gnostic persuasions – trying to rid themselves of the mortal body aspect of Jesus being in flesh, had concluded that at His Baptism Jesus the human received the Messiah as it descended upon Him from God. And this human Jesus wore him like a cloak. However, John saying that Jesus Christ came by or through baptism – it indicates that Jesus was the Christ before his baptism occurred. 3. [Slide 5D] Another belief of the proto-gnostics is that the spirit of God was removed from Jesus the human before His death. His mission was accomplished and Jesus the human was killed. 4. By John saying Jesus the Messiah (purpose and identity) came by or through water AND blood, it means most assuredly that he came by missional objective through not only His baptism, but also through His death as well. But John is using this to authenticate that Jesus was always the Christ, the Son of God. 5. Not through water only but He was the Christ through both. 6. The truth of who He is was made manifest by His baptism AND by His death. v. [Slide 6] And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 1. Notice the present tense here of the Spirit. Christ came through these things, but the Spirit now continues to testify. 2. After Christ’s resurrection and ascension, The Spirit of God descended and indwelled all those who were His children. 3. That same spirit is alive and at work to testify in each of us of the truth about Christ. 4. Why – because the Spirit of God, and is therefore, truth. c. [Slide 7A] 7 – For there are three that testify: i. In Roman and Jewish law, testimony would only be received if it was validated by 2 or 3 witnesses. ii. John’s language here essentially lays out that Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah of God was authenticated not by His baptism alone, but by His death and the sending of the Spirit of God also. iii. These three testify to the truth that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God. iv. It ought to be mentioned here, although I will not take much time with it, there is an entire portion of this verse and some of the next that is omitted in every single modern version of the bible, yet present in the KJV. v. [Slide 7B] The phrase omitted is “in heaven: The Father, The Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are One; and there are three witnesses on the earth” vi. Many have openly accused the modern translations of corrupting the text – and omitting such a valued gem of trinitarian formula. vii. However – the modern translations are right to omit this from the text. Why? Because it is very obviously and quite simply not the original words of John. Not only does this phrase not occur in any Greek manuscript predating 1215AD, but in most Greek manuscripts it appears as a footnote in the margins. No doubt a note of commentary rather than original text. viii. Furthermore, during the trinitarian disputes in the early church – would this text not have been an often-quoted verse to substantiate the trinity? Yet not one church father ever quotes this verse. And we know that at least Origen believed I John to be authentic. ix. So since it is not original to John – let’s ignore it and move into verse 8. d. [Slide 8] 8 – The Spirit and the water and the blood - and these three are in agreement i. This simple statement is the final nail in the theological coffin of the secessionists. ii. The Spirit of God, the Death of Christ, and the Baptism of Christ all say the same thing. iii. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, who came in flesh, obeyed God, died for the atonement of sin and rose again as the first born of many sons, ascended to the Father where He is seated at the right hand of God currently making intercession on behalf of His children. iv. This is the authentic Jesus who is the Christ! That is why true faith must cling to Him and Him alone! v. But why? Why do these three agree? vi. They all have the same source. God Himself testifies through Christ’s baptism, Atonement, and by sending His Spirit. vii. And that is where John will go next, but first let’s survey what we’ve learned here. e. [Slide 9] Passage Truth: John to his readers does identify what it is to truly be a believer in Jesus being the Son of God. He gives a Christological position that authenticates Jesus as the true faith, the true Christ, the one needed for us to overcome the world. Who is this Jesus really? His life tells us who He is. He is The messiah of God, conceived by the holy spirit, baptized and approved by God, lived a life of perfect obedience, died for the sins of His people, raised from the dead as the firstborn of many, ascended to the Father’s throne to make intercession on behalf of His people, and fulfilling His word by sending the Spirit for His children. This is Jesus the Christ. He alone is our faith. f. Passage Application: But John doesn’t tell his readers this in correction – but rather in comfort. They do believe this. They have received all of this as they have been illuminated by God’s Spirit to believe. g. [Slide 10] Broader Biblical Truth: If we zoom out from I John – what do we find? The same exact truth. It is this Christology of this authenticated Christ that we must be confessing if we are fathered of God. No other Christ or savior will do but this one. h. Broader Biblical Application: In application – is this what you believe? Truly? Does your heart cling to this Jesus? If so what will that mean? That you conquer the world and that God’s law is not burdensome. So that you can follow it out of love for God and out of love for Him you can love other Christians. Connected to genuine faith in the genuine Christ is genuine obedience. That is where John is leading us. Transition: [Slide 11(blank)] So these three witnesses from Christ’s life, ministry, and effect of His life have testified to the truth, that Jesus is the Messiah of God, His Son. Come in flesh. Died in flesh. Raised in flesh. Ascended in flesh. The God-Man. But what about God? Will He testify to this truth also? Will He correct the testimony of the water, blood and Spirit or will He add to what they have said? Let’s see. II.) God’s testimony is that Jesus is the Christ and His Son and the only source for eternal life, so we must believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ (9-13) a. [Slide 12] 9 – If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about His Son. i. Going back to the rule of law – again under human testimony when two or three testify and are in agreement to a certain truth – it is recognized to the point that someone could be acquitted or condemned of a crime. ii. If this is so of human testimony – given the evil of men’s hearts – how much more so is God’s testimony? iii. Especially when God is testifying about His Son! About Himself! b. [Slide 13] 10 – The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. i. Again, participial in nature – the believing one the one who clings to the Son of God has what? ii. This testimony. Which testimony? iii. The testimony of God about Christ. iv. Where does he have this testimony? v. In himself. How is that? vi. We should hold off on answering this until we understand what God’s testimony about Christ is. Because John has not quite said it yet. So let’s save what this testimony in us is until then. c. [Slide 14] The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son. i. But – bad news for the secessionists. God’s testimony about His own son, if not believed, is the same as calling God a liar. ii. This is not simple rejection in ignorance. iii. This is willful and purposeful suppression of the truth and doubting of God’s very words. iv. Like the serpent in the garden they have asked – has God said? And concluded no… he has not. v. But what is it, specifically, that God has revealed to us about His Son through His Spirit in us? d. [Slide 15] 11 – And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. i. This is the testimony God has given about His Son. This is the testimony that we have in ourselves. We have been made alive in Him! ii. We have been raised to life and life everlasting! iii. And the life we have has been wed, married, united, and fastened to the eternal nature and life of Christ Himself. We in Him, are His reward and in this are rewarded as well. iv. We are the bride and he the groom. v. We are adopted heirs. vi. We are brothers, friends, and slaves of Christ. vii. All we have, all we ever hope to be, not just in this wretched blip of a world -but in the eternal Kingdom to come – all we are is found only in Christ. e. [Slide 16] 12 – The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. i. This is still the testimony of God about His son in us! If we have life – God is giving His testimony t o us, authenticating His Son as the Christ. ii. Almost no explanation is needed here. iii. Life is bound to Christ. iv. And after this great Christological exhortation – John writes some of the most wonderful words of the letter. f. [Slide 17] 13 – I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. i. Again we have a purpose for John’s writing. ii. He has written these things – all these things – everything he has said – to whom? iii. The believing ones – The trusting ones – the depending ones… on what? iv. The name of the Son of God. What does this mean? 1. A name is a reputation. A name is a summary of who you are or what you are. 2. A name represents authority and power. 3. So to be a depending on the name of the Son of God is quite literally staking everything you are – your entire existence – on the reputation, person, and work of Jesus Christ. v. So John identifies his readers. Those who are believing ones in the person and work of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. vi. And the very reason he has written all that he has, in this book, and even in the last 12 verses is why? vii. So they can know. So they can rest assured that they have, right now, eternal life. Not sometime in the future… but right now they have it. viii. He just finished saying that God’s testimony about His Son in them is that there is only life in Him. Therefore when they believe in Him and have life… They know that it is eternal life and that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son! g. [Slide 18] Passage Truth: So John reveals who is the one testifying to the truth about Christ. That is God Himself. His testimony should be held in far higher esteem than any man’s testimony could. His testimony about His Son is that He alone is the source for life everlasting. Only in Christ is this found. Only those depending on the person and work of Christ alone have such an assurance of eternal life. h. Passage Application: Again, to his readers this is designed to be a great comfort. They do believe this, and therefore they should be assured. i. [Slide 19] Broader Biblical Truth: Zooming out from I John, we saw God in Matthew testify to the truth of His Son. In Acts the Spirit doing the same – fulfilling the promises made by the Son and indwelling the people united to the son by true faith. j. Broader Biblical Application: So for us, of course this means that we must be believers on the name of Jesus Christ. In His person and in His work. That is not possible for you to believe unless you have been fathered of God. And so, for those Fathered of God – continue to believe in greater and greater degrees on the name of Jesus Christ. He is the only path to eternal life. And in what John has written you can know that you have eternal life. That you have this faith, this Jesus. But friends if you have ultimately found that you have failed John’s tests – Faith, Love, and obedience. Then you do not have this hope. Only the assured fear of coming judgment. Transition: [Slide 20(end)] So how then shall we live? Conclusion: Friends, you would be silly to ignore the teaching of men on this topic. You would be misinformed to cast all of church historical doctrine into the garbage as it testifies to the Sonship, Humanity, Deity, Atonement, person and work of Jesus Christ. You would be ignorant to not listen to the teaching of men on the glory of Jesus of Nazareth. But to ignore the testimony of God Himself about His son… you would be something far worse. You would be a fool. I don’t mean fool in the sense of a courtroom jester making jokes at the King’s expense. No. I mean the biblical fool. What does being a fool in the bible mean? A senseless one. An accursed one. Wicked, blind, rebellious, and evil. If you ignore the testimony of God of His own Son – then quite plainly there is no hope for you. You are doomed. Yet even now, under the sound of my voice, under the words of John, breathed out by God Himself, you may be, for the first time, realizing that Jesus of Nazareth was more than a great teacher. More than a great leader. More than compassionate, more than good or kind or a great example for us all. He was God Himself in flesh. His message was to repent of sin and follow Him. His death was to atone for the sins of His people. And His effect was to bring new life to people who were spiritually dead and change them to be what God wants them to be. Perhaps, even now, you have begun to awaken form your slumber of death? Perhaps even now you feel life course through you. Heed my voice. If you can hear this message, if you can see this Christ – Cry out to God! Repent of your wickedness. Turn form it. And turn to Him. Give Him your allegiance. Declare Him to be your Lord. Receive this Jesus, the Messiah of God, your atonement for sin. Don’t harden your heart. And if you are one of those who is a believer. You have been given faith, faith that produces love and obedience. What does this message do for you? It is a message of confirmation. The one in whom you are believing is all that you have believed and more. Continue to believe! Continue to trust! And comfort yourself in knowing that as you continue to trust it is evidence that you have eternal life. What comfort it is to know that this is true. Indeed, it is the very reason John wrote this book.

“THE ARIZONA SKINWALKER” and 3 More True and Disturbing Stories! #WeirdDarknessIf you like the podcast, please leave a review in the podcast app you listen from, and share a link to the podcast on Facebook and Twitter to invite others to become Weirdos too!IN THIS EPISODE: In 1882 the Ma’amtrasna murders, the brutal killing of several members of the Joyce family in rural Galway, caused outrage in Irish society and remains one of the most notorious homicides in Irish history. However a few years later Cork was rocked by an equally heinous case which has largely been forgotten. We’ll look at the brutal murders of four family members that took place in Castletownroche, Ireland. (The Castletownroche Murders) *** An Arizona family encounters a creature from the dark side of a Navajo legend. (The Arizona Skinwalker) *** John Blair liked to keep things “in the family”. But in his case, it wasn’t just a saying. It was literal. Because John was infamous for being bigamous. (Bigamous Blair) *** Dozens of Korean War GI’s claimed an unidentified flying object made them all sick. Theories range from high-tech Soviet death rays to extraterrestrials studying how we engage in battle to combat-stress-induced hallucinations. What actually happened? (The Korean War UFO)LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE…TRANSCRIPT of this episode (bottom of blog post): https://weirddarkness.com/archives/6189SUPPORT THE PODCAST…Become a patron: http://www.WeirdDarkness.com/WEIRDO Visit the store: http://www.WeirdDarkness.com/STORE Social media and contact info: http://www.WeirdDarkness.com/CONTACT Facts Verse podcast: https://weirddarkness.com/archives/category/factsverse STORY AND MUSIC CREDITS/SOURCES…(Note: Over time links can and may become invalid, disappear, or have different content.)“The Korean War UFO” by Natasha Frost for History.com: https://tinyurl.com/y765nsgm “The Castletownroche Murders” by Fin Dwyer for the Irish Examiner: https://tinyurl.com/y9fhagfb “The Arizona Skinwalker” by Stephen Wagner for Live About: https://tinyurl.com/yxkdh9vv “Bigamous Blair” from London Overlooked: https://tinyurl.com/y9qpo54x Weird Darkness opening and closing theme by Alibi Music Library. Background music, varying by episode, provided by Alibi Music, EpidemicSound and/or AudioBlocks with paid license; Shadows Symphony (http://bit.ly/2W6N1xJ), Midnight Syndicate (http://amzn.to/2BYCoXZ), and/or Nicolas Gasparini/Myuu (https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji) used with permission. 

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"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46 Find out how to escape eternal darkness at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IYmodFKDaMWeirdDarkness™ - is a registered trademark. Copyright ©Weird Darkness 2020.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

-Sung Psalm- 106-----Why does John say -and the Word became flesh-- He says this because flesh is about as low a term as he could think of-----If he had said -became man- that would be a nobler way of saying it.----But became flesh highlights the humility - the weakness - of the incarnation. Both in John's gospel and in John's epistles, flesh is a term used of weakness.----To say that God came in the flesh is to put it almost crassly- God became a piece of meat.----In that respect, when we say that the Word became flesh we are saying that God humbled himself.----But notice the point of this humiliation- -The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...-----Or, probably better, -The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...- It means -lived in a tent among us- - using the same word that the Greek OT used of the tabernacle in the wilderness.----It's a remarkable thing that God has done. God's purpose in history was to join humanity to himself. But humanity was in rebellion against God and the fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery. If the holiness of God came into contact with the sin and misery of man, the result would be the destruction of mankind-----This is why the Word had to become flesh. Flesh is weak. Flesh is impotent.----But...and this is the whole point of John's Gospel....the WORD became FLESH. The Word has become weak. The Word has become impotent. And yet, when John says, -the Word became flesh- - suddenly, something happens to flesh- Because John doesn't say, -the Word became flesh, and we saw his weakness and his impotence-----NO---- -the Word became flesh...and we beheld his glory-

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is John Berardi. John is a Canadian-American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Precision Nutrition, the world’s largest nutrition coaching, education, and software company. He's also the founder of Change Maker Academy, devoted to helping would-be change makers turn their passion for health and fitness into a powerful purpose and a wildly successful career. And he’s the author of the best-selling book Change Maker. Over the last 15 years he's advised companies like Apple, Equinox, Nike, and Titleist, among others, as well as the San Antonio Spurs, Carolina Panthers, US Open Champ Sloane Stephens, and 2-division UFC Champ Georges St. Pierre. He's also been named one of the 20 smartest coaches in the world and 100 most influential people in health and fitness. Regardless if your passion is in health and fitness, there is a lot you can learn from John about entrepreneurship and life and I’m excited for him to share it with you in this episode. www.JohnBerardi.com Health and fitness was not the likely path for John. He was born premature, had asthma and allergies, and as he grew up was very much an introvert. It wasn’t until he got to High School that he began to study health and fitness to better himself. It then that his passion for it was born. But, it wasn’t without major challenge. Because John was more introverted and lacked self-confidence, it manifested in abusing drugs and alcohol at young age to cover up his pain. He fell in with the wrong crowd and one night was out driving around drinking with friends and got into an accident and miraculously survived without a scratch. That was his wake-up call and when he made the decision to focus on his health. He started going to the gym, found a mentor, and didn’t look back. The mentor even gave him a job at the gym. John went onto to become personal trainer paying his way through college, but he knew he needed to learn more. He need to learn the psychological side. Combining the two disciplines is what helped to birth Precision Nutrition. Precision came about right as things were transitioning off of dial up to high-speed internet and Precision was positioned well to grow. From the start they grew the company remotely. As John said, back then, they were “weird.” They were totally remote. They didn’t have an organized management structure. Instead, they used Holocracy. In 2017, John and his co-founder, sold the majority of the ownership in the company and John has been focused on unique projects such as Changemaker and others. In our lives, we have moments that help define us. There is more to the car accident story where your friends actually got the wrecked car back on the road, but you decided to walk home. They ultimately got arrested. What was it that told you to walk away in the moment? That would have been the 3rd time John would have been arrested with these same guys. John shares that while the accident was happening and the car was spiraling across the road, it was like a movie scene. Everything slowed down and he saw scenes from his life. The last scene was watching himself get lowered into the ground as his parents wept. They ultimately landed between 2 trees perfectly and didn’t hit them – all perfectly fine without a scratch. It was this moment that he chose to go a different direct and walk home while they drove the wrecked car away and go arrested. The change to be better was tough. John no longer had the friends he had. He stopped using drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. So, getting better and to his next level was lonely. But, that is why he started going to the gym. At the 17 min mark, John and I have a great conversation on how what we go through shapes us, why you should not regret, and how you should learn lessons from the past while getting perspective on the ones you are making right now. What do you feel is most important to consistently succeed at high levels? Reputation. You can talk about the value of it, but you will reach a point where you see its true impact in your life. John gives the example of selling Precision and essentially starting from zero, but in launching Changemaker, his reputation – a history of doing great work – served him well as people know and trust him and thus supported him. Reputation is built by having strong standards in life that we adhere to and live by. Often we think that we need to come up with our standards/principles alone. You don’t. In fact, John says, “Nothing worth doing can be done alone.” You are going to need other people as everything from inspiration to idea generation. At the 29 min mark, John talks about how the book Principles by Ray Dailo was a direct result of his co-founder Phil. Ray had not planned a book on what then just a sort of pdf manifesto that he had put out. “The best ideas are not in your own head. "The best ideas live in the interface between you and others. It is when you pile ideas on top of each other that the best things emerge.” Tell us about Changemaker. What does it mean to be a changemaker? The book was really a culmination of everything John has learned and done to succeed that has made a real difference. What someone thinks doesn’t always have a bearing on what they did. Watching someone in action many times will give you much better lessons than hearing what they think. Use “squinted eyes” to seek the truth. See things fuzzy and look at the shapes before you seek the clear version. Many things are not just black and white – you need to see the grey. Changemakers align what they think and what they do, but also constantly are looking at things through squinted eyes. What do you teach people about how to find their calling? Every career person should go through the purpose, unique abilities exercise. First, come up with your origin story – how did you become the superhero you are? Define what led you to where you are, so you know where you are… Ask questions of yourself and those around you to determine this. Your purpose and what you do every day can have a disconnect. You may have a deep purpose, but not like what you do. So you need to understand your unique abilities. Your unique abilities are the things you are world-class at – the things you are great at that you can really enjoy doing. What of these moves the needle on your purpose. When you know your purpose and align it with your unique abilities – then you can truly find what to do to serve your purpose that is based on you and who you really are. The last part are your values – your guardrails that keep you aligned. These are all things you don’t do on your own. You have to get the feedback from others to help shape these things. You have to get “for real.” You should have your best self, coach you and build this into your routine. Set time aside where you are in a peaceful mind set, able to think clearly, and work on a problem or set of problems. Set aside time to let your best self show up to help you. At the 48 min mark, we talk about the importance of structure in our lives, but how it needs to be a flexible structure. Rigidity is the enemy of consistency. The more rigid the rules are and how things have to be “just so.” The “just so” lifestyle can lead to problems too. There is a fun interplay between structure and flexibility that is needed to have the success that we want. Are there any principles from the book or thoughts you want to leave us with? The idea of “What is business? What is entrepreneurship?” It comes down to 3 things. First, you have to know what people want and are willing to pay for (much easier said than done) Precision used the “jobs to be done” framework from Clayton Christiansen at Harvard. Second, create that thing in the most remarkable way. You cannot possibly know this all on your own – get feedback and ask people to think aloud. Get people’s emotional reactions, not their logical. Third, tell everyone about it. It’s more than just marketing   Best Quote: "The best ideas are not in your own head. The best ideas live in the interface between you and others. It is when you pile ideas on top of each other that the best things emerge."   John's Misfit 3: Practice compassionate, active listening in your life. Hunt for feedback. The most successful people collect more feedback than anyone else. They have fine tuned the practice by accepting all transmissions they can to grow their success. Don’t deify action. Don’t take action for action’s sake. Strategize for your action. We need a minute of thoughtfulness before taking action.

  Hey, you play Halo Reach or watch the Mandalorian yet? Because John is and it's why he's uploading this episode so late.   We're talking about Maine's local ghostly cryptid the Specter Moose of Maine. --- Produced By: Brandon Boyer Art: Tom Hill Website: cryptopediacast.com Patreon --- Source: Legends of America: Specter Moose Mysterious Universe: Specter Moose

Investigating Jesus Part 8 Witnesses to Jesus In our last episode, we looked at the witness of John the Baptist, as to the true identity of Jesus Christ. Today we continue by looking at 2 more witnesses: God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.   Witness 2 & 3 Jesus presents Himself John for baptism. John at first refuses to do it (Matthew 3:13-15). Why so? Because John knew that Jesus was the perfect Son of God, and as such had no need to repent of sin. Through his baptism, he identified with all sinners that he came to save. We have seen already that it is the start of his public ministry (Acts 1:21-22, 10:37-38). But why did Jesus get baptized? In replying to John’s initial refusal to baptize him, Jesus said: “…it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). This looks forward Jesus’ death on the cross, because it is only through the baptism of suffering that Jesus endured on the cross, that God can fulfil all righteousness. The “us” referred to means Father, Son and Spirit. When Jesus came up from the water, God the Father spoke from heaven and identified Him as the beloved Son of God, and the Spirit visibly came upon Jesus in the form of a dove.Witnesses as to who Jesus was from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. So, who was this Jesus? What was so special about him, that he would go on to be the person we are studying today, some 2000 years after his death? As Christians, we think that Jesus was not only fully human but is also fully God – the God-man. Jesus - Son of God "the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God." (Luke 3:38). The first man, Adam, had come into the world bearing the true image of a son of God, but, when Adam actively disobeyed God, that image was marred and scarred due to sin entering the world. All of humanity that is, except for Jesus Christ. The voice from God the Father ratified Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus was not a son of God as some may claim, but the one and only Son of God. This genealogy recorded by Luke, points to the unbroken relationship between Jesus and God Himself. Jesus is, as Adam was, before Adam’s disobedience against his maker & creator, God. Jesus - Son of Man (Matthew 3:23-38) The genealogy here reminds us that the Son of God was also the Son of Man, born into the world, identifying with the needs and problems of mankind. Through the genealogy, we see down through the generations Jesus’ link to Adam and ultimately God. The phrase “the son of” generally means any remotely connected descendant or ancestor. It is a reminder that Jesus, being Joseph’s legal son was part of a human family, tribe, race and nation. Jesus’ line goes back through the Old Testament from Joseph to King David to Judah, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham, to Methuselah to Noah and Adam. The genealogy, with its link to David, shows Jesus’ right to ascend to David’s throne (Luke 1:32-33). The genealogy also shows Jesus’ total human-ness, and because he is linked to Adam, identifies with all humanity and not just the ancient nation of Israel. But there is one difference between Jesus and all other humans. In that Luke, doesn’t stop the genealogy at Adam, as he would have for all other humans, Luke ultimately leads and links Jesus to being God’s Son. We investigate that in the next podcast of this series.   Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file ~ You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

DANSK UDGAVE: Søg efter “Radiovagabond”  (ét ord).   I'm driving in the mountains with my new friend John. We're 105 miles north of Managua that we passed on the way from Granada. And we're getting closer to the Honduras border another 60 miles north of there.  We start this episode driving through some farmland that is mainly used for the tobacco industry. Mostly they produce cigars in this area - and that is what keeps this city alive. According to John 99% is supported by the cigar industry.  I met the guy in the car in the restaurant where I'm staying in. His name is John Pappas and we became instant friends. Sometimes you meet someone where you just click, and this was one of those times. Three things I notice immediately with John: He's got a beautiful tattoo with greek gods that covers his entire right arm, he's almost always smiling and he always always has a cigar. Most of the time it's not lit - he just sits with it, like most other people would sit with a smartphone. Because John is a cigar-man. And a philanthropist with a big love for Nicaragua. And then he's Greek/Irish Canadian.  He speaks English even though he's is born and raised in Montreal, Quebec in the French-speaking part of Canada. His father is of Greek descent and his mother is of Irish descent.  After having been very successful building a restaurant chain in Canada he decided that he needed a purpose and a change, and he retired and got in contact with some friends in the tobacco industry here and said: "I want to give back to a country that I love and help the children" One of his friends here found an orphanage here and together they've been supporting it. He tells me that it's hard when you're working with an NGO like SOS that runs hundreds of orphanages around the world, to tell them that you want to be a part of deciding what the money goes for, but after a while, they managed to do so. In this episode, you can hear when we're driving in a poor neighborhood. We're on a dirt road with tiny houses on each side and a huge building at the end of it. That's probably the largest tobacco factory in the area. John wants to show me the orphanage he's working with. And as we're approaching we can see a little bit of a difference. We see less garbage, freshly painted, and everything looks a bit nicer.  This is a Sunday morning and a quiet day here. It's not normal for guests to be able to visit this orphanage so I feel lucky that John would take me there. John tells me that most of the children are not orphans. Most of the children are abused in multible ways. And the thing with sexually abused children is a big problem in this country. I've heard someone say that maybe one out of three children has been abused here. So they have a rule that all males should leave the orphanage before the sun goes down. Even John, that they know. But the rule makes sense. Also, this is a country with so many young single mothers. I was told that many men have no responsibility and just move on to the next woman after he made her pregnant, and John confirms this. 13 million children are born every year to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19. In fact, almost 25% of all births in the country are from teenage women. And around half of the women in the country give birth before they're 20 years old. Abortion in Nicaragua is completely illegal. At the orphanage, we walked up to the room where the activity is taking place. The door and the windows are open so we can peek inside. And we see that this is an activity for 25 teenagers. They are being tough on "life" as John calls it.  John told me that one day some of the staff here at the orphanage came across a 13-year-old girl in the city. 13 years old - and very pregnant. So they walked home with her and met her mother. She was 27 … and very pregnant. Both mother and daughter were about to give birth any day. And as they were talking … on walks the grandmother. She was around 45 and ALSO very pregnant. So three generations of Nicaraguan women, all very pregnant. And apparently, it was the same guy that had made all three pregnant. The mother's boyfriend that had made both her, her mother and her 13-year-old daughter pregnant. We walk around the area for more than an hour. John tells me more about what they do and all the different projects he's involved with. Mostly it's the little extra things that can help improve life there. Like draining a swamp in the area and turn it into a ball pitch, taking the kids to football when the local team won the championship, throwing a party or things like that. He tells me that there's really only one father figure who works there with the young boys. And we just happen to run into him.  John always wanted to be a father himself… But things didn't turn out that way. Until one year ago where he adopted an 18-year old girl. Well, not legally, but he supports her and she calls him dad. And he scares off the boyfriends.  John has found his purpose in life. Right here in Nicaragua.  In the next episode, John will take me to visit a small cigar factory, we meet a local street artist, I visit the Eco Lodge Manku Lake Paradise - and then I get sick. LINKS: Sponsor Hotels25.com Follow The Radio Vagabond on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Ghost In The Cloud: An Anime Podcast Episode 47: The Cat Returns Did you ever want a cat that spoke fluent Japanese and could use make? Because John doesn't! Just us for the Cat Returns, or as John describes it as the 'stuff of nightmares' (but B thinks it's fantastic). *As always, spoiler warning!* Like iTunes? No problem: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ghost-in-the-cloud-an-anime-podcast/id1247332819?mt=2 Android fan? Check us out on Google Play (or look us up on your favorite podcast app): https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=1&pli=1#/ps/Ijbvn34qrpqa3jimwtagnbiwery Listen on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQYRnBMdtJszDdSl3DYcQyA Questions, comments, concerns? Contact us by email at gitcanime@gmail.com Join our Patreon and become a supporter. You can also BECOME AN ANIME CHARACTER. Click here to learn how: www.patreon.com/GITCAnime Check out our awesome merch on Redbubble!: www.redbubble.com/people/gitcanime Find us on other social media outlets: Facebook: www.facebook.com/gitcanimepodcast/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/GITCAnime Instagram: www.instagram.com/ghostinthecloud A big shout-out to Anthony for making our catchy theme song. Check out his podcast at @whatsyourfortune

This week, we cannot help but get into the weeds. Because John's prologue is the Scripture that kicks off the New Testament. And it loves philosophy! So we go through and break down, piece by piece, exactly what John is saying here.

The Bible is filled with journey upon journey. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture is full of people on the move and today we are continuing that journey with the book of 1 John. False spiritual teachers were a big problem in the early church. Because there was not a complete New Testament that believers could refer to, many churches fell prey to pretenders who taught their own ideas and advanced themselves as leaders. John wrote this letter to set the record straight on some important issues, particularly concerning the identity of Jesus Christ. Because John's letter was about the basics of faith in Christ, it helped his readers reflect honestly on their faith. It helped them answer the question, Are we true believers? John told them that they could tell by looking at their actions. If they loved one another, that was evidence of God's presence in their lives. But if they bickered and fought all the time or were selfish and did not look out for one another, they were betraying that they, in fact, did not know God. That did not mean they had to be perfect. In fact, John also recognized that believing involved admitting our sins and seeking God's forgiveness. Depending on God for cleansing from guilt, along with admitting our wrongs against others and making amends, was another important part of getting to know God.

John Moore's magic fits into a single sentence: Without John, the world's most authentic surf brand wouldn't exist today, and neither would the world's least authentic surf brand. John went to Art School as a surfer from California in the 90's. His intention was to study painting and printmaking. Designing clothing never crossed his mind. But John was so talented that Abercrombie and Fitch wanted him. He was recruited heavily. The pitches came and he ignored them. And then one day he allowed the opportunity take him and he proceeded to create the look and feel of Hollister Surf Co. It was years later in 2011 that he resurrected M. Nii. These are the initials of a 1940's tailor from Waianae Hawaii who made the world's first surf specific shorts for surfers. Think about that – a tiny tailor; M. Nii was the first mover in what has now become the defacto poolside fashion for kids in Montana and adults in France – board shorts. See, John's craft is creating things out of thin air and also employing a keen eye for the interesting. His superpower is taking whatever crazy idea you have and actually creating the thing. Because of this, he's uncommonly impactful in the act of designing board shorts and living spaces and human experiences. Visual landscapes even. He can discuss the jacket and the pants. And the way their fabric print compliment the skin tone of a model as she stands in front of a camera. And he'll actually know what he is talking about. This is why surf brands like Quiksilver have consulted him for input and opinions on the design of swimwear and clothing and the creation of entire brands. It's how he and Kelly Slater became friends and collaborators. Today, John is the Creative Director at Outerknown. The brand he and Kelly created to represent travel, sustainability, and style. And this episode will keep your ear close to the speaker for more than an hour. Because John's story is an example of the incredible control someone can have over the way they live their life and the things they spend their time doing. 

160828AM Mark 1;9-37 (Pastor Will Cass) Notes: Verse (1:9) Matthew 3:14-15 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me... ...15 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. Matt. 3:14-15 Verse (1:11) Luke 3:22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." John 1:33-34 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit... ...34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God." John 1:33-34 Verse (1:13) Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 1:14 Are [angels]not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Verse (1:14) Mark 6:17-19 …Herod himself had sent and laid hold of John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife; for he had married her... ...18 Because John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife... Mark 6:17-19 ...19 Therefore Herodias held it against him and wanted to kill him, but she could not; Mark 6:17-19 Verse (1:15) 2 Corinthians 6:2 For He says: "IN AN ACCEPTABLE TIME I HAVE HEARD YOU, AND IN THE DAY OF SALVATION I HAVE HELPED YOU." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Verse (1:20) Luke 9:57-62 Verse (1:22) Matthew 7:28-29 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching... ...29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matt. 7:28-29 Verse (1:24) Psalms 1:1-2 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful... ...2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. Psa. 1:1-2 1 Timothy 4:1-3 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons... ...2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron... 1 Tim. 4:1-3 ...3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 1 Tim. 4:1-3 Verse (1:28) Acts 1:8 …you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Verse (1:30) 1 Corinthians 9:5 Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Verse (1:31) John 8:36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Verse (1:34) Psalms 119:147 I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word. Verse (1:36) Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

It’s a Christmas miracle! A totally mediocre podcast! WOW! Oh also Jesus rose from the dead AGAIN and then we have to Groundhog Day it back to the beginning. Because John probably has totally new and interesting things to say about this boring story! Not!

The real story of Christmas starts not with Jesus, but with his cousin John. Every gospel writer mentions him and Luke dedicates almost the entire first chapter to him. Why? Because John was an extraordinary prophet. Raised in the hill country of Judea among shepherds, educated at Qumran among the Essenes, John was the first authentic Jewish prophet in centuries. Suddenly, the voice of the Lord was speaking again. And what was it saying? The same thing it is would say to us today. Christmas is coming…. repent.