Podcasts about Colonnade

Acts 3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.  It's Not Over at the Gate 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk.  Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God,  10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.   11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade.  12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?  13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.  14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.  16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. 17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.  19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,  20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.  22 For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.' 24 “Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days.  25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.'  26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” Acts 4:1-4 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.  2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.  4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.  

Who do people say Jesus is? And more importantly, who do you say He is? This sermon by Richard Bruce dives deep into the most crucial question of faith, exploring the identity of Jesus as the Messiah and the profound power held within His name. Discover how an encounter with Jesus can be a life-transforming choice, just like it was for a beggar at the temple gate. Are you ready to consider what it means to call Jesus your Lord, Savior, and Friend? Tune in to explore the step of faith. To catch up on the latest sermons from Deep Creek, go to iTunes, Spotify ordeepcreekanglican.comand check out the website for more info about whats happening. We are a welcoming and growing multigenerational church in Doncaster East in Melbourne with refreshing faith in Jesus Christ. We think that looks like being life-giving to the believer, surprising to the world, and strengthening to the weary and doubting. Transcription Taken from Mark chapter eight, verses 27 to 38, Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, who do people say I am? They replied, some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah, and still others one of the prophets. But what about you? He asked, who do you say I am? Peter answered, you are the Messiah. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan, he said, you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with the holy angels. This is the word of the Lord. Sermon: Richard Bruce Well. Good morning. It's good to be with you. My name is Richard Bruce, and, I'm feeling very old today because, the last time I spoke at Deep Creek, Bob Brown invited me, and I looked this up. It was a men's breakfast out there in 2006. So, that was some time ago. And I'm also feeling, old, but also encouraged because, I've known Megan for a very long time. I was her first youth group leader, and, I was there the night that she made a commitment of faith. So it's been wonderful to journey, along with her over many years. I do want to encourage you to continue to keep all of the candidates, that had their names put forward for the archbishop in your prayers. It's a pretty tortuous process that they go through and very vulnerable. There's not too many jobs that you have. Nearly 800 people, considering you for, but that is that is the Anglican way that we do it, in Melbourne. But, encourage you to keep the candidates in your prayers. My role, currently, I am the archdeacon for Diocesan and Parish partnerships, working centrally, in the diocese. And what that looks like on a day to day basis is, I work with our prison chaplains, our hospital chaplains, op shops. And then there's a whole range of, individual church programs that work with Anglicare Victoria, Brotherhood of Saint Lawrence Benitez and other Anglican agencies. So I'm I'm kind of like the go to guy, for those things. If a parish wants to investigate doing a program like a. A breakfast program for homeless people or an op shop or something like that. I'm the person that they come to. I go and meet with the parish, talk about it, and then we work out who are the organizations or agencies that they might connect with to partner with in doing that. So I live locally in Warren, and I normally do come along and sit over quietly with my two boys. Over on the side we come in. Just the service begins and then we sneak out just as it finishes. Previously been on staff at a number of churches, but it's, It's good to be with you this morning as we finish, this, series of together. And I get to start my timer now for the sermon. So. Yeah. There we go. Megan said we had to be very careful about our timing. So there we go. Yeah, it was very encouraged that, she made it very clear that as a senior minister, the timing does not apply to her. But anyway, here we. Here we go. Who Do You Say I Am? I love this. This is. This is perhaps my favorite passage of scripture. If if someone said you could talk about any passage of scripture, what would it be? This. This would be it. I love the fact that as Jesus is walking along with his disciples, he asked that question who do people say that I am? And then he asks them, but who do you say that I am? I wonder if we we went down to the ponds this morning or we went to your favorite cafe this morning, perhaps to your workplace, to your social club, whatever it might be to to the people that you engage with. If we ask them, who do you say Jesus is? I wonder what the responses would be. I think they would be quite varied, wouldn't they? Quite varied. For the disciples, we see that when they first interact with Jesus, when they first start walking along with him, they ask that question, who? Who is this man? Who is this guy? When Jesus calms the waters. When? When they're out in the boat, what's their response? Who is this man that even the waters obey him? All the way through to this point in Jesus life and ministry, where the disciples have been walking with him for nearly three years, they've been living with him 24 over seven. Where Peter declares, you are the Messiah, you're the one that we have been waiting for. You're the one that's going to save us. Jesus shows his identity to his disciples, to those that are closest to him. And if you read the gospel of Mark and Matthew, you will see this come through clearly, where Jesus shows his authority and shows the power of God working through him in these five areas to teach his authority over sickness, over nature, over death, and the authority to forgive sins. So for the disciples, the people that are living with him. Where if there was anyone that would have said, this guy is a fraud. This guy is not real. There is. There is weakness. There is inconsistency. It would be the disciples, wouldn't it? So this is the power of Jesus asking this question of the disciples. The other people who are not living with him every day they say, well, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still some others. One of the prophets. They're all good things. But when Peter says, you are the Messiah, this is a declaration that the disciples see him in his true identity, in the fullness of his glory, in his purpose living out. This is powerful. That's why he says, don't go telling people because he knows what the implications would be. For Jesus to fulfill 300 to 500. Old Testament prophecies about who the Messiah is. In just a few years is powerful. This is part of the proof of who Jesus is. To the disciples, as they are looking for the Messiah to come. They see it living out before them in an undeniable way. It is not insignificant that Peter says you are the Messiah. You are the one that we are looking for. The Name of Jesus Now we hear the name of Jesus many times a day. If you like me in all kinds of circumstances. We hear the name of Jesus. It is one of the most used swear words in our society, isn't it? All you've got to do is watch a movie. Hear people talking. Jesus. Jesus Christ, Lord almighty. Or as one of my bosses used to say, Jesus wept. It is used all the time as a profanity in movies, TV shows, sporting fields, whatever it might be. People use the name of Jesus, don't they? But predominantly it is a swear word. Now I find it amazing that it is socially acceptable to use Jesus name as a swear word, but yet as a Christian, as a as I like to call myself as a professional Christian, being an Anglican minister, most people know that instantly when I say I'm an Anglican minister, that I'm a Christian. If I was to use the name of Jesus and start to talk to people about Jesus, they'd get all offended and upset and I'd be told to shut up. But no one predominantly tells people if they use the Lord's name in vain, to be quiet. Not to do that. That's not inappropriate. That's not appropriate. We don't see other people's names being used as a swear word, do we? People don't go, oh, Richard. But Jesus socially acceptable? It's the norm. The third of the Ten Commandments is you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for your Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. There are consequences to speaking the name Jesus, and if you misuse it, that is sinful. That is against what God wants us to do. So if you've ever misused the name of Jesus, you have sinned. But the good news is that we are all sinners, and it is in fact by the name of Jesus that we can be saved. Romans 623 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now the other thing that I find amazing and I've discovered over the years. Is that people are happy to talk about God. But when you start talking about Jesus, you get a reaction. You see, it's it's kind of easy to talk about God because God's this, this thing, this power, this thing which is up there and out there that isn't really tangible. And so people are happy to talk about God. But as soon as you start talking about Jesus, I get a response. Sometimes a reaction from people, particularly for those of us who have grown up in Western culture, most of us would know about Jesus. We know about the Easter story that this guy, Jesus, died on a cross and apparently rose from the dead. But the confronting thing about Jesus is that Jesus died for me. Jesus died for you. We we have this reaction, this personal response to what someone says they have done for us. I think we see that in Anzac Day, don't we? There is this response that even though it was so long ago, there are people who laid down their life for you and I today. And there's a there's a reaction, there's a personal response. A bit of a who am I that someone who doesn't even know me, laid down their life, went to war to sacrifice themselves? That I can live the life that I live today. And I think that's part of why the name of Jesus commands such a response in us, where it's nice and easy to talk about God, but talking about Jesus, well, that's personal. That's personal. The Power in the Name of Jesus Now, the Bible has a lot to say about Jesus, and we could spend hours here just going through the Bible passages which reference his name and the power of that. But I'm just going to go through a number of Bible passages. I'm going to read them out. And as I do, I want you to just take on board the name of Jesus, the person of Jesus. And I want you to ask yourself this question if if what is being said about Jesus is true? If what is being said about Jesus is right, then what are the implications for me? Where do I stand? What is? What does this mean for me? If this is the truth? How am I going to respond to it? So let's let's have this. Bible passages: Matthew 121. He was given the name Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. John 112 to 13 yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God. John 129. The next stage on the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John 318. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only son. John 2031 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Acts 221. Talking about the Day of Judgment, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans ten 9 to 13 that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Philippians two 910 Therefore God exalted him, Jesus to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and under and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. They're pretty confronting passages, aren't they? Pretty daunting to think the power and authority of the name of Jesus, that everything in all of creation at his name should bow and give honor to Jesus? The name that is used as a profanity as a swear word. Is the name by which the whole of creation ought to be bowing in honor, the name by which every person can be saved. Is Jesus Christ more than a swear word? You'd better believe it. If what the Bible says is true. Then that impacts how we live our lives. For when we acknowledge that something is the truth, we either have to live by that truth or we ignore it, don't we? We all live by the truth that we believe that gravity is real, don't we? No one came in walking around wearing really heavy shoes with because we don't believe in gravity. And if we don't have really heavy shoes, we might, you know, float away. A little while ago on my social media feed. For some strange reason, I started getting all these video clips about flat earthers. I don't I don't know what I did to for it to happen, but I started getting all these clips about people trying to convince me that the earth is flat. And I was absolutely intrigued at the flat earthers. They are 100% convinced that it is the truth. I remember watching one clip where this guy started out to prove to people who believed that the earth was round, that it was actually flat. And as he did this experiment where he had a flat bit of paper and he had a light and he started to to to curve the bit of paper and talked about angles and everything. You could see that he'd suddenly convinced himself that the earth wasn't flat. So as he was trying to convince people that it was flat through this experiment, you could see the look on his face as he suddenly was like, oh, hang on a second. Hang on a second. I've. I've just just proven what I was trying to prove. And you could see him starting to think about all the consequences of this truth that he had just come to realize. That's what happens to us as we start to explore Jesus. We start to say, is this is this real? What if what are the consequences? How has my life going to change? For most people, coming to faith is a journey rather than an individual one off event. The Crippled Beggar Healed I'm going to read to us from acts and I'm a visual person, so I like to whenever there's a Bible story or something like I close my eyes and I try to visualize and and put the people into place and, and see what it's like so that I get the, the kind of full experience. So I want to invite you if you feel comfortable to close your eyes. As I read this story from acts three 1 to 16. And then I'll, I'll bring us back into the room at the end of it. But I want to encourage you to to try to picture what's occurring in this interaction. One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer. 3:00 in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, look at us, said the man gave them his attention, expecting that he was going to get something from them. Then Peter said, silver or gold? I do not have but what I have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Taking him by the right hand. He helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished, and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them, Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness? We had made this man walk. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus. This man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus name and the faith that comes through him that has given his complete healing to him. As you can all see. Isn't that a powerful story? Here is a man from birth. A cripple. As these disciples, as these followers of Jesus go in. They offer him Jesus healing. Can you imagine what's going through this cripples mind. He's sitting there thinking, this is. This is my life. This is how I make money. This is my identity. I'm the cripple that sits at the gates and gets money. So when Peter reaches out, his hand says, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk. Here's a choice, doesn't he? He can sit there and go, dude, I'm a cripple. I don't walk. This is. This is who I am. This is how I am. Nothing's going to change. No. Jesus of Nazareth. This. This is it. So here's a choice to make. Do I keep living the way that I've been living? Or do I accept? Do I reach out my hand in faith? And say, well, maybe this Jesus can transform my life. Maybe Jesus can perform a miracle and heal me. But what are going to be the consequences if I'm healed? What am I going to do? Don't have a job I've been begging my whole life. I'm going to be the former beggar. Everyone's going to know. Everyone's going to ask me questions. Oh, you're the guy that used to beg and Jesus healed you. What? Tell me about that. His decision to reach out his hand wasn't just a simple thing. It was a transformation of his life. It was an incredible act of faith. That would mean he was never going to be the same again. For him, for whoever his family was, for his community, for the people in the temple that day I was there the day that miracle occurred. I was there, I saw him when I went in. He was a beggar inside. He was walking around. Unbelievable. When we come and we engage with Jesus, there is a transformation that occurs. We see that throughout the Gospels. We see that from the apostles, from the disciples, even after Jesus ascension. And there are many people in this room today that could give testimony of Jesus transformation in their lives. Maybe not as miraculous as being born a cripple and being healed, but we could. All who are Christians give our testimony of what it was that caused us to give our lives to follow Jesus. How miraculous or mundane that may be. Just like the disciples, we have a testimony of a relationship with the living Jesus that has transformed our lives, that continues to transform our lives. What Good Is It? The last part of that Bible passage that we read talks about what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet to forfeit their soul? It's a great question, isn't it? I love Jesus questions. He kind of just. Really puts it to us. So many people in our world are trying to gain the whole world. I've known people who have acknowledged who Jesus is. I've been using these Bible passages since Meghan was a teenager. This is who Jesus is. Are you going to acknowledge who he is and accept him or reject him? Because they're the only two options. And there's going to be consequences to that decision. What are you going to do today? What are you going to do tomorrow? Next week? It's a daily decision to pick up our cross. For those who are Christians, to pick up our cross and to follow Jesus. So whether you are a person of faith or not. Jesus is who he is. He is the Messiah. He is the Christ for me. And for many people, this is the undeniable truth. Who do you say Jesus is? Who do you say Jesus is? For me, when someone asks me that question, I often get asked, why are you a minister? Or why are you a Christian? I go to a local gym in Doncaster and we were meant to be. I was meant to be going with a group of them to the football game yesterday afternoon to watch Carlton lose again. And I said, so I started to help arrange this social activity, and I ended up saying, I can't go. I've I've got to go to an Archbishop selection. And for some of those people, they were kind of like, oh, you know, it's great conversation about being an Anglican minister and conversations of, of faith. And, I was I was sitting at the archbishop's election with my daughter Bella on the, the phone here. she's she's saying I'm talking with the people from the gym, and they're I'm trying to explain what an archbishop's election is. And so I'm sitting there typing away as people are asking her questions, and I'm thinking, what a great witness. My daughter's there explaining to a bunch of people what it is about a faith and an election. I'm expecting over the next few weeks, as I'm at different gym sessions for people to to come and ask me questions of faith. Who did you elect? What was the process? Why are you a Christian? Who is Jesus? My response is always Jesus is my Lord, my Savior and my friend. The characteristic that always gets people is that last one friend. Jesus is your friend, isn't he? Like 2000 years ago. And I say, well, no, he's alive and well and I have a living relationship with my Lord and my Savior today. Just as real as the disciples had 2000 years ago as Jesus walked this planet. So what words? If you're a Christian, what words would you describe Jesus as to people? If you're not a Christian sitting here today, what words would you have used to describe Jesus? Called to be Friends One of my other favorite passages is I come to to land this message. John 1512 to 15 if we could have that up on the screen. John 15 says, my command is this love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than they lay down their life for their friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends. That everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you. Throughout this series you. If you've been coming along each week, you have heard testimonies. If you've been invited along by someone this morning for the first time, or maybe the 10th time. Ask them for their testimony. Ask them, why are you a Christian? Or maybe you are someone who has been a Christian for a while and you've been struggling, and there's a sense there of, I just need to recommit my life to Jesus afresh. there's nothing wrong with doing that. I've probably done that a hundred times. But today is one of those days where you have the choice. Like that beggar. Am I going to reach out my hand to Jesus? Or am I just going to sit there and say. I am a sinner. I'm a cripple. I'm not worthy. You, Jesus can't do anything. You have that choice to make. when you came in today, you will have got a bit of paper, a little bit smaller than this, but a bit of paper on the one side of it. Is a prayer of commitment or recommitment. I imagine. During the service or during the sermon, you've had a chance to read through that. On the back is what are some next steps that you can take in your journey? Like the disciples going from who is this guy? Jesus? Maybe you're not at the point of like Peter declaring that Jesus is the Messiah. But I want to encourage you with you. You've been a Christian for five minutes or for 50 years, or you're not a person of faith yet to look at. What are those next steps, particularly to do the Alpha course? I've seen so many mature Christians, faith, become alive and fresh, and have a new confidence in being a Christian in their world. From doing the Alpha course and inviting people from their world along. So if you're a Christian, I encourage you to to do the Alpha course, but during the next two songs. Want to encourage you to to privately or if you've been invited along by someone, if you want to pray. Pray this prayer of commitment to pray that prayer. Maybe you're someone that likes to do things physically. there's plenty of space down the front, down the back. If you don't. If you don't want to be seen by people, you know, go down the back, kneel, stand, do something physical in your response to Jesus. But I want to challenge you to have an encounter with the living Jesus today, here, now, that will transform your life. Closing Prayer I'm going to pray, just quickly. And then I'm going to I'm going to sit down the front just in case anyone doesn't want to come down the front. You're not alone. I'll be sitting down here, but let me pray for us. And then, the band is going to lead us in our final two songs. Heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you that you call us friends, that you know each person, you know every person here. You know our hearts. You know our minds. You know how we view ourselves. You know, you know our relationship with you. You know our fears and our struggles and our joys. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to each and every person here today to let us know that you know us, that we are loved by you no matter how much we love ourselves or how we value ourselves, no matter how distant we think we are from you. And I pray that we may this day have the faith to reach out to you, to ask you afresh or the for the first time to be our Lord, our Savior and our friend. That we may either begin that journey with you or strengthen that journey with you. But speak to us. Open our hearts, our minds, and our ears as spirits to hear from you this day. We pray this in your mighty and precious name, Jesus. Amen.

Leto sa blíži a s ním aj veľké množstvo nie len cestovania, ale aj rôznych festivalov, koncertov a iných dobrodružstiev. Nikto však dopredu nevie aké nástrahy na nás môžu číhať za prvým stromom či za stánkom s chutným pivkom. Byť v kľude a užívať si každý okamih je kľúčové. Preto je najlepšou voľbou uzavrieť si úrazové poistenie. V podcaste sa Martin Rinčo porozprával so Zuzanou Ondrčkovou zo spoločnosti Colonnade. Stojí za to si tento diel podcastu vypočuť. 

Peter and John have just preached the gospel in Solomon's Colonnade after healing a man who was lame from birth. The priests, the captain of the temple police, and the Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) were annoyed with their preaching, so they seized Peter and John and jailed them overnight. In today's episode they will stand before the Sanhedrin, a counsel of Jewish religious leaders who held court concerning religious matters. Seeing the healed man, the simply threaten them not to preach in the name Jesus. After they are let go, they only request to preach Christ with greater boldness. :::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Today in History: Exactly three years after the Syrian Greeks had defiled the Holy Temple, the Maccabees recaptured it and dedicated it to the LORD again with a great celebration (see the historical book 1 Maccabees 4) Messiah visited the Holy Temple during Hanukkah (see John 10:22). “Then came Hanukkah; it was winter in Jerusalem. Yeshua was walking in the Temple around Solomon's Colonnade...” (TLV). This week's portion is called “Miketz” (At the end). Think about: What Scripture spoke to you most today and why? Did you learn something about God, or something you need to do in your life? Daily Bread for Kids is a daily Bible reading podcast where we read through the Torah and the Gospels in one year! Helping young Bible-readers to study God's Word, while also discovering its Jewish context! THE KIDS' JOURNAL is available from ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://arielmedia.shop⁠⁠⁠⁠ BUSY MOMS who want to follow the Daily Bread readings on podcast for adults, can go to ⁠⁠https://dailybreadmoms.com⁠⁠ The Bible translation we are reading from is the Tree of Life Version (TLV) available from the Tree of Life Bible Society. INSTAGRAM: @dailybreadkids @arielmediabooks @dailybreadmoms Tags: #DailyBreadMoms #DailyBreadJournal #BibleJournaling #Messianic #BiblePodcast #BiblicalFeasts #Journal #biblereadingplan #Messiah #JewishRoots #Yeshua #GodIsInControl #OneYearBible #MomLife #MotherCulture #FaithFilledMama #BiblicalWomanhood #Proverbs31woman

Send us a textor an ad-free version of the podcast plus the opportunity to enjoy hours of exclusive content and two bonus episodes a month and also help keep the Bible Project Daily Podcast free  for listeners everywhere at;patreon.com/JeremyMcCandlessSubscribe here to receive my new church history podcast every few weeks at.https://thehistoryofthechristianchurch.buzzsprout.comWelcome:Hello and welcome ! Today, we're diving into an important topic that many of us struggle with: knowing the right time to speak up and share the gospel. We'll be exploring Acts 5:12-42, a passage that offers valuable insights into seizing opportunities, facing opposition, and trusting in God's timing.Study Notes: When is the Right Time to Speak Up?IntroductionTheme: Understanding the right time to share the gospel.Scripture: Acts 5:12-42Key PointsA Time of Opportunity (Acts 5:12-16)Context: The apostles are performing miracles and gaining favor among the people at Solomon's Colonnade.Lesson: Seize the moment to share the gospel when opportunities arise.Application: Look for moments in your daily life where you can share your faith without hindrance.A Time of Opposition (Acts 5:17-24)Context: The apostles face jealousy and opposition from the high priest and Sadducees, leading to their imprisonment.Lesson: Be prepared to speak up even when faced with opposition.Application: Trust in God's directives and continue to witness for Christ, even when it involves risk.A Time of Oppression (Acts 5:25-42)Context: The apostles are re-arrested, beaten, and commanded not to preach in Jesus' name but continue to do so.Lesson: Persist in sharing the gospel regardless of the circumstances.Application: Recognize that faithfulness in witness may involve suffering, but God's support and deliverance will be present.Practical ObservationsLook for Opportunities: Actively seek moments to share the gospel. Avoid waiting for a perfect time that may never come.Trust in God: Whether through supernatural means or everyday circumstances, God will support you as you share His word.Be Consistent: Preach the gospel both publicly and privately, during favorable times and in the face of opposition.Final ThoughtsSharing the gospel is a vital part of our Christian walk. Acts 5:12-42 teaches us that there is no perfect time to share the gospel—every moment is an opportunity. Whether facing opportunity, opposition, or oppression, we are called to be bold and faithful in our witness for Christ.Thank you for joining us in this study. Let's commit to being courageous and consistent in sharing our faith, trusting that God will work through us in every circumstance.Support the showJeremy McCandless is creating podcasts and devotional resources | PatreonHelp us continue making great content for listeners everywhere.https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.com

[Acts 5:29] But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. Our past __________ don't define our future ___________. [Acts 5:12-15] The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon's Colonnade. [13] But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. [14] Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord--crowds of both men and women. [15] As a result of the apostles' work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. Active faith will always catch people's __________________. [Acts 5:17-21] The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. [18] They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. [19] But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them, [20] "Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!" [21] So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching. When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council--the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. True faith draws _______________ in but also draws _______________. Obedience to God means we stand _______________, even when it's _______________. [Acts 5:29] But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. Our faith is proven when we obey God, not seek _________. [Acts 5:40-42] The others accepted his advice. They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go. [41] The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. [42] And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: "Jesus is the Messiah." A bold faith _______________ in _______________ for the sake of Jesus.

After some “Good Morning Big Fatty” greetings, the Fat One returns with some voiceletters, an “Ask Big Fatty” question, nattering about the upcoming Podcasters of America dinner at the Colonnade in Hatlanta and a new discovery in the Apple Snack Podcast App. Happy National Indian Pudding Day.

We read about the way that God intervened in human affairs in the Bible. Does he still do that today? And if not, Why not? That's what we'll look at in our text today (Acts 5:12-42) where we see three examples of divine intervention.--The PursueGOD Truth podcast is the “easy button” for making disciples – whether you're looking for resources to lead a family devotional, a small group at church, or a one-on-one mentoring relationship. Join us for new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Find resources to talk about these episodes at pursueGOD.org.Help others go "full circle" as a follower of Jesus through our 12-week Pursuit series.Click here to learn more about how to use these resources at home, with a small group, or in a one-on-one discipleship relationship.Got questions or want to leave a note? Email us at podcast@pursueGOD.org.Donate Now --Q. How does divine intervention work today?We read about the way that God intervened in human affairs in the Bible. Does he still do that today? And if not, Why not? That's what we'll look at in our text today (Acts 5:12-42) where we see three examples of divine intervention (miracles, angels, and one more…)Before we get to the text, let's make this question personal. Have you ever found yourself in an impossible situation where you needed some divine intervention? Your back was against the wall, and if God didn't show up you'd be in a world of hurt…Early days of Alpine: we emptied our bank accounts and were still $2000 short. Went to the mailbox day of closing to find a $2000 check from out of state friends!Some of you might be in a similar placeFinanciallyRelationallyEmotionallyPhysicallySpirituallyToday, in our passage we are actually going to see a couple of unlikely interventions orchestrated by God to get people out of own impossible situations. Let's get to the text…MiraclesActs 5:12-16 (NLT) 12 The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon's Colonnade. 13 But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. 14 Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women. 15 As a result of the apostles' work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. 16 Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed.The most amazing kind of divine intervention: miracles. A couple of observations about the text:This was a direct answer to their prayers from ch 4: Acts 4:30 “Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”The purpose was to validate their message, point people to Jesus. It wasn't about the apostles! Peter's shadow: note how the ESV says it: Acts 5:15 (ESV) they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.The Bible doesn't actually say that they were healed this way, but rather that they hoped they would be.But the big question: does God still intervene like this today?We covered this a few weeks ago in Acts 3. Here's a reminder of some of the talking points:Miracles still happen

Sunday, July 28, 2024 - Daniel Ausbun preaching from Proverbs 3:5-6; Acts 3:11-4:4

"Next time someone says something dumb about how they don't think they have to go to church to be a Christian, please remember these things. We are members of the body of Christ, if we don't assemble as the church, in a church, to have church—we are dismembering ourselves. And dismembered body parts are gross." "We're here to worship God and love people, not feel God and like people. No one ever said you had to feel close to God at church. Church isn't about how you feel, it's about worship and fellowship. It's about being challenged to grow in our faith and comforted with the promises of the Gospel." A dive into Acts 5:12-16, where we see the early church experiencing incredible signs and wonders. Join us as we explore the themes of healing, faith, and the bold witness of the apostles. We'll uncover how God's power was at work through the apostles and how these miraculous events continue to speak to us today. Main Points:     The Power of the Holy Spirit: Discover how the apostles performed many signs and wonders, demonstrating the Holy Spirit's power.     Community and Fellowship: Learn about the importance of gathering together as believers, just like the early church in Solomon's Colonnade.     Faith and Growth: See how more and more people believed in the Lord and were added to the number of believers.     Healing and Miracles: Marvel at the miraculous healings that took place, even by Peter's shadow. Application: We'll also discuss how these themes provide both comfort and challenge in our lives today. Whether you're seeking healing, longing for community, or wanting to grow in your faith, this message is for you. Let's explore how we can live out our faith boldly and trust in God's power in every area of our lives. God has Hope for you here. Join us: https://www.NewChurch.Love Please Help support more messages like these by texting the word “Give” to 832-400-5299.

Join us in a conversation with Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association President  Jacob Luke.The Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood, named after Reverend Nathan Scarritt, a Methodist missionary and educator, traces its origins to 1845 when Scarritt traveled from Lebanon, Illinois to Fayette, Missouri, founding Central Methodist University.The Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association (SRNA) was chartered on September 18, 1986. Its boundaries are Chestnut Avenue (west), Jackson Avenue (east), Independence Avenue (south), and the Cliff Drive Scenic Byway (north).SRNA has hosted events like Historic Homes Tours in the 1990s and 2000s, attracting over 1,500 visitors. The annual Scare-It Halloween event on October 31 draws up to 5,000 people, featuring decorated homes along Gladstone Boulevard.The neighborhood includes two National Register Historic Districts, featuring over 150 historic properties along Gladstone and Benton Boulevards, including the recently renovated Kansas City Museum.President Jacob Luke highlighted projects such as restoring the Colonnade, planning for Kessler Park, and the St. John Avenue traffic calming study. Approaching its 38th anniversary, the neighborhood continues its development in collaboration with partners like Legal Aid of Western Missouri and the Lykins Neighborhood Trust.SRNA, a registered 501(c)(3), meets bi-monthly at the Kansas City Museum. More information can be found at scarrittkc.org.

The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought those who were ill into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing those who were ill and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. ‘Go, stand in the temple courts,' he said, ‘and tell the people all about this new life.' (Acts 5.12-20, NIV)

Istrouma Baptist Church (BR) Feb 25, 2024 ========== February 25 | Acts Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org. We glorify God by making disciples of all nations. ========== Connection Card https://istrouma.org/myinfo February 25, 2024 Tim Keith ‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭32‬-‭37‬‬ Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common. With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them. For there was not a needy person among them because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet. This was then distributed to each person as any had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas (which is translated Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. ‭‭Acts‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭16‬‬ But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. However, he kept back part of the proceeds with his wife's knowledge, and brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. “Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? Wasn't it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn't it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people but to God.” When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard. The young men got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him. About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. “Tell me,” Peter asked her, “did you sell the land for this price?” “Yes,” she said, “for that price.” Then Peter said to her, “Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Instantly she dropped dead at his feet. When the young men came in, they found her dead, carried her out, and buried her beside her husband. Then great fear came on the whole church and on all who heard these things. Many signs and wonders were being done among the people through the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared to join them, but the people spoke well of them. Believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers — multitudes of both men and women. As a result, they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. In addition, a multitude came together from the towns surrounding Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. Unity led to Community (and Generosity) Deception led to Death Fear led to Faith Want to receive weekly announcements in your inbox each week? https://istrouma.org/email Give Online Text ISTROUMA IBC to 73256 or go to: https://istrouma.org/give Our Website https://istrouma.org

Istrouma Baptist Church (BR) Feb 25, 2024 ========== February 25 | Acts Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org. We glorify God by making disciples of all nations. ========== Connection Card https://istrouma.org/myinfo February 25, 2024 Tim Keith ‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭32‬-‭37‬‬ Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common. With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them. For there was not a needy person among them because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet. This was then distributed to each person as any had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas (which is translated Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. ‭‭Acts‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭16‬‬ But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. However, he kept back part of the proceeds with his wife's knowledge, and brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. “Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? Wasn't it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn't it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people but to God.” When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard. The young men got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him. About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. “Tell me,” Peter asked her, “did you sell the land for this price?” “Yes,” she said, “for that price.” Then Peter said to her, “Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Instantly she dropped dead at his feet. When the young men came in, they found her dead, carried her out, and buried her beside her husband. Then great fear came on the whole church and on all who heard these things. Many signs and wonders were being done among the people through the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared to join them, but the people spoke well of them. Believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers — multitudes of both men and women. As a result, they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. In addition, a multitude came together from the towns surrounding Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. Unity led to Community (and Generosity) Deception led to Death Fear led to Faith Want to receive weekly announcements in your inbox each week? https://istrouma.org/email Give Online Text ISTROUMA IBC to 73256 or go to: https://istrouma.org/give Our Website https://istrouma.org

Peter and John have just preached the gospel in Solomon's Colonnade after healing a man who was lame from birth. The priests, the captain of the temple police, and the Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) were annoyed with their preaching, so they seized Peter and John and jailed them overnight. In today's episode they will stand before the Sanhedrin, a counsel of Jewish religious leaders who held court concerning religious matters. Seeing the healed man, the simply threaten them not to preach in the name Jesus. After they are let go, they only request to preach Christ with greater boldness. :::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Istrouma Baptist Church (BR) Feb 4, 2024 ========== February 4 | Acts Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org. We glorify God by making disciples of all nations. ========== Connection Card https://istrouma.org/myinfo February 4, 2024 Tim Keith ‭‭Acts‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬-‭21‬‬ While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astonished, ran toward them in what is called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him. You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you. You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this. By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of all of you. “And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. In this way God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets — that his Messiah would suffer. Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning. 1. ​God Requires Us To Repent ‭‭Acts‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬‬ Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, God's not looking for your apology, He's looking for your repentance. “godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10) Acts 26:20 First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. 2. God Provides Us The Opportunity To Repent 3:12 – “When Peter saw this, he addressed the people… “ 3:21 – “until the time of the restoration of all things” 3. God Rewards Us When We Repent ‭‭Acts‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬-‭21‬‬ Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning. Question: Once we repent, how do we continue to live in this repentance? Answer: God's Word and God's People ‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭42‬‬ They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Romans 2:4 God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭30‬‬ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Want to receive weekly announcements in your inbox each week? https://istrouma.org/email Give Online Text ISTROUMA IBC to 73256 or go to: https://istrouma.org/give Our Website https://istrouma.org

Preacher: Kathy Maskell Scripture: Acts 2:42-47, 5:12-16 Acts 2:42-47 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 5:12-16 12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.

Acts 5 NLT read aloud by Simon MacFarlane. 1 But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. 2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife's consent, he kept the rest. 3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. 4 The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us but to God!” 5 As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. 6 Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?” “Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.” 9 And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.” 10 Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened. 12 The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon's Colonnade. 13 But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. 14 Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women. 15 As a result of the apostles' work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. 16 Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed. 17 The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them, 20 “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!” 21 So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching. When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. 22 But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported, 23 “The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!” 24 When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end. 25 Then someone arrived with startling news: “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!” 26 The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them. 27 Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them. 28 “We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man's name!” he said. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!” 29 But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross. 31 Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this so the people of Israel [...]

Acts 3 NLT read aloud by Simon MacFarlane. 1 Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service. 2 As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. 4 Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. 6 But Peter said, “I don't have any silver or gold for you. But I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” 7 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. 8 He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them. 9 All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. 10 When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded! 11 They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon's Colonnade, where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John. 12 Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? 13 For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate's decision to release him. 14 You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact! 16 “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus' name has healed him before your very eyes. 17 “Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. 18 But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. 19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. 20 Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. 21 For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.' 23 Then Moses said, ‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God's people.' 24 “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. 25 You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.' 26 When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.”

Jesus, the Son of God: The claim of Jesus to be the Son of God is a wild claim. If it were not true, Jesus would've been a fraud, and Christianity would have fallen apart. But if it is true, then it changes everything. If Jesus really was set apart by his Father and sent from heaven, he could be the rescuer and redeemer the world needs. Recorded on Dec 10, 2023, on John 10:22-42 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 We're working through the gospel according to John in a series called Finding Life in Jesus' Name. And today, we're in John chapter 10, considering a claim of Jesus that is either crazy or a great evil if it isn't true, but would be amazing and would be the great hope of the world if it is. And that claim is that Jesus is not just a human being but is, in fact, the Son of God, sanctified and sent from heaven. What does it mean for Jesus to be the Son of God? If you grew up in church, you might take this aspect of Jesus' identity for granted and lose sight of how radical this claim truly is. If you didn't grow up in church, you need to know that this is one of the most significant things Jesus says about himself. If it's not true, the Christian faith falls apart. But if it is true, then it changes everything. If you have a Bible/app, please take it and open it to John 10:22. John 10:22–28 (NIV), “22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Let's pause here. So, John says our passage takes place during the Festival of Dedication, known today as the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. And Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Jewish people against the Greek empire about 200 years before the time of Jesus here in our passage. Hanukkah means dedication in Hebrew and refers to when a rebellion led by Judah Maccabee drove the Greek army out of Jerusalem and allowed them to remove the pagan alter the Greeks had set up in their temple and dedicate (rededicate) their temple for the worship of the one true God. Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days with the lighting of the menorah and other traditions. And I really couldn't have planned it this way, but just as Jesus was all those years ago, so today, we're actually in the middle of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. Isn't that amazing? Happy Hanukkah! Anyways, this is the setting of our story, there in the temple courts of Jerusalem during Hanukkah. And it was then and there when the people confronted Jesus about whether or not he was the Messiah. Back at the end of October, when we were working through John 7, we considered this claim that Jesus was the Messiah or the Chosen One. And back then, and really throughout this whole middle section of John, we see that people are divided over this claim. Some believe in Jesus, that he is the Messiah that God promised to send, while others do not. Some recognize the signs he was doing as proof of this claim,

Welcome to Passionate Life Church! Today, Pastor Andrew continues his series on the importance of living according to scripture. We are so glad you are here! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ World vs Word part 6    5th reason why we can trust the Bible.    "Historically Validated"   1. Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered in 1947 in the ruins of Qumran. Found 950 documents and 220 Biblical scrolls.   2. Burnt scroll of Leviticus found 1970. Why is it important? Discovered that it was written in 50-100 AC. Show pic.    3. Discoveries at the Temple Mount 2015-2017. Old pottery, arrowheads, colonial seal that dates to David's conquest of the city, and Solomon's Colonnade. John 10:23 NLT    Acts 5:12 NLT    4. Jabal Cattle Cult: Is their proof people lived before the flood?  Genesis 4:19-20 NIV   5. Pontius Pilate's ring and stone    6. The seals of King Hezekiah and Isaiah 2700 years old. Show pic.  2 Kings 20:1-6 NIV    7. Gideon's Jug 3100 years old. "Jerub-Baal" Judges 6:31-32 NIV   8. 3000 year old Canaanite false god temple found in a city called Lachish show pic.  2 Chronicles 25:27 NIV   9. Discoveries on Mount Ebal    The Covenant Renewed at Mount Ebal and an altar is built.     Joshua 8:30-31 NIV    The altar/cultic structure on Mt. Ebal. An earlier, circular altar was discovered beneath at the exact geometric center.  They discovered a small, folded lead curse tablet (called a defixio) approximately the size of a folded business card.     Deuteronomy 27:13-14 NIV    You are cursed by the god YHW, cursed.  You will die, cursed—cursed, you will surely die.  Cursed you are by YHW—cursed.    10. Sodom and Gomorrah  Genesis 18:20 NLT    Genesis 19:24-25 NLT   Luke 17:28-30 NLT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks for listening! If you were positively impacted by this message, please leave us a comment! Be sure to like and subscribe to our channel to stay connected to this house. Join us every Sunday at 9:00am or 10:30am Spotify: http://bit.ly/passionatelifechurch Facebook:   / passionatelifechurch   Instagram:   / passionate.life.church   10393 W Alamo Pl Littleton, CO 80127 Need Prayer? Contact us at passionatelifechurch@gmail.com — ► Subscribe to our channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL88... — Passionate People. Multicultural Environment. Atmosphere to Experience God. You will feel Loved, Refreshed, and empowered. Loved: We have an atmosphere of acceptance and an environment that creates a “come as you are” message. Everyone will feel loved! Refreshed: We serve a God of the Fresh Start! No matter where you've been or what you've done, God wants to refresh you today and every day. Empowered: God wants to grow you into everything He's called you to be and do. We want to give you all of the tools you will need in order to empower you to live a life fully devoted to Jesus Christ. We are non-denominational & believe that the Bible is truth and fully written by God through man. Need Prayer? Contact us at passionatelifechurch@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/passionatelifechurch/message

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has worked to shore up US support for Ukraine on a whirlwind visit to Washington this week, delivering an upbeat message on the war's progress while facing new questions about the flow of American dollars that for 19 months has helped keep his troops in the fight against Russian forces. The Ukrainian leader received a far quieter reception than the hero's welcome he got last year, but also won generally favorable comments on the aid he says he needs to stave off defeat. His arrival was treated with more pomp at the White House, where a red carpet arrival on the South Lawn, followed by time in the Oval Office, an expanded gathering in the East Room and one-on-one time for the two first ladies, was a more grand reception than world leaders typically get. Zelenskyy, in long-sleeve olive drab, went to the Capitol with a firm message in private talks with Republican and Democratic leaders. The Ukrainians have a solid war plan, and “they are winning,” lawmakers quoted him as assuring them, at a time that the world is watching Western support for Kyiv. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcomed Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, later at the White House, where Zelenskyy described thanking members of Congress for their “big, huge support”. Biden was clear in his backing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is welcomed to the Capitol in Washington, by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Photo / AP “The American people are determined to see to it that we do all we can to ensure the world stands with you,” Biden assured Zelenskyy, projecting White House support of Ukraine to other nations as well. “That is our overwhelming objective.” The serious tone was evident earlier, too, at the Pentagon, where Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin greeted Zelenskyy without the usual ceremonial band and other fanfare. At the Capitol, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who faces opposition among far-right Republicans aligned with former President Donald Trump on support for Ukraine, notably chose not to join House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in greeting the Ukrainian president when he arrived. McCarthy also confirmed that he declined Zelenskyy's request for a joint session of Congress, as happened during the Ukrainian president's dramatic visit to Washington last winter, saying there wasn't time for that on short notice. But McCarthy praised the answers that Ukrainians delivered to lawmakers. “It was direct, I thought it was honest, they were answering the questions,” McCarthy said. “I heard a lot of positive things. Republican House lawmakers described questioning Zelenskyy on the way forward for Ukraine's counteroffensive, as the fight to roll back invading Russian forces moves closer to the two-year mark without major breakthroughs in Russia's heavily mined lines. Zelensky “conceded that it's tough, very tough to overcome entrenched defences,” Independent Senator Angus King said. “They believe they will make slow but steady progress, but it's not going to be quick.” President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo / AP It is Zelenskyy's second visit to Washington since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and comes as Biden's request to Congress for an additional US$24 billion for Ukraine's military and humanitarian needs is hanging in the balance. Back home, Russia launched its heaviest strikes in a month in the hours before Zelenskyy's arrival at Congress, killing three, igniting fires and damaging energy infrastructure as Russian missiles and artillery pounded cities across Ukraine. Zelenskyy in his White House stop stressed Ukraine's need for strengthened air defence systems to fend off Russian missiles and drones. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan underscored that Biden would seek to drive home with Zelenskyy's visit that the US and the world “send the unmistakable message that in the 21st century, a dictator cannot be allowed to conquer or carve up his neighbour's territory”. “If we allow that here. it will happen elsewhere in ways that will undermine the fundamental security, not to mention the values that the American people hold so dear,” Sullivan said. Biden has called on world leaders to stand strong with Ukraine, even as he faces domestic political divisions at home. A hard-right flank of Republicans, led by Trump, Biden's chief rival in the 2024 race for the White House, is increasingly opposed to sending more money overseas. Zelenskyy faces challenges in Europe as well as cracks emerge in what had been a largely united Western alliance behind Ukraine. Poland's prime minister has said his country is no longer sending arms to Ukraine, a comment that appeared aimed at pressuring Kyiv and put Poland's status as a major source of military equipment in doubt as a trade dispute between the neighbouring states escalates. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, walk along the Colonnade at the White House to the Oval Office. Photo / AP Zelenskyy's visit comes with US and world government leaders watching as Ukrainian forces struggle to take back territory that Russia gained over the past year. Their progress in the next month or so before the rains come and the ground turns to mud could be critical to rousing additional global support over the winter. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who believes he can outlast allied backing for Kyiv, will be ready to capitalise if he sees Ukraine is running low on air defence or other weapons. The administration announced another US$325 million in what's known as presidential drawdown assistance for Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the package would include additional air defence, artillery ammunition, cluster munitions and other arms. Since the start of the war, most members of Congress supported approving four rounds of aid to Ukraine, totalling about US$113 billion, viewing defence of the country and its democracy as an imperative, especially when it comes to containing Putin. Some of that money went toward replenishing US military equipment sent to the frontlines. The political environment has shifted markedly since Zelenskyy addressed Congress last December on his first trip out of Ukraine since the war began. He was met with rapturous applause for his country's bravery and surprisingly strong showing in the war. His meeting with senators on Thursday took place behind closed doors in the Old Senate Chamber, a historic and intimate place of importance at the US Capitol, signifying the respect the Senate is showing the foreign leader. Zelenskyy received a warm welcome from both parties on his stop in the Senate. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer flanked him as he walked in. A few lawmakers of both parties wore clothes with blue and yellow, the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Schumer told reporters afterwards one sentence summed up the meeting: “Mr Zelenskyy said if we don't get the aid, we will lose the war.” Senate Republican leader McConnell, who is trying to keep his party in line behind support for Ukraine, said afterwards he was proud to welcome Zelenskyy to the Capitol. “Americans' support for Ukraine is not a charity,” he said. “It's an investment in our own self-interest.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John 10 NLT read aloud by Simon MacFarlane. 1 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won't follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don't know his voice.” 6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd. 17 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” 19 When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. 20 Some said, “He's demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” 21 Others said, “This doesn't sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” 22 It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. 23 He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don't believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father's name. 26 But you don't believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand. 30 The Father and I are one.” 31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 32 Jesus said, “At my Father's direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” 33 They replied, “We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.” 34 Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!' 35 And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered. So if those people who received God's message were called ‘gods,' 36 why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God'? After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world. 37 Don't believe me unless I carry out my Father's work. 38 But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don't [...]

Gerald Mosslinger, senior vice president-hotel operations for Seabourn, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report about Seabourn Venture, the line's first luxury expedition ship. Mosslinger details the range of accommodations, including spectacular suite, as well the dining onboard at the Colonnade and The Restaurant, plus a brand new room service program. Most of all, he talks about how Seabourn delivers its personal brand of service on a true expedition ship. For more information, visit www.seabourn.com. If interested, the original video of this podcast can be found on the Insider Travel Report Youtube channel or by searching for the podcast's title on Youtube.

Acts 3:11-26 New International Version (NIV) Peter Speaks to the Onlookers 11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. 17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.'[a] 24 “Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. 25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.'[b] 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

Coming at you from the Toronto Real Estate Forum we've got Hugh Gorman joining Aaron and Adam in this episode. He is the CEO of Colonnade BridgePort. Hugh started the company in 2009 after managing several real estate portfolios throughout Canada. Colonnade BridgePort is headquartered in Ottawa, so we'll hear all about the real estate... The post Investing in Ottawa with Hugh Gorman of Colonnade BridgePort appeared first on Commercial Real Estate Podcast.

Jesus declared, for all the world to hear, that He is one with the Father. When we live by that truth, He will give us wings to fly. (John 10:22-42) **** Welcome to Walking in the Word, the biblical teaching arm of the Women World Leaders podcast. My name is Julie Jenkins, and I am so glad you have joined us. It is April, 2023, as I record this, and I want to take a moment to congratulate the authors of our newly released book, Joy Unspeakable. In case you missed all the hoopla, Joy Unspeakable was released last week, and within the first day, it went to number one best seller in 10 categories on Amazon. We are praising God for this success – but more important than numbers and charts is what God is doing through this book. The authors who shared their stories in Joy Unspeakable are ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God! Our purpose in sharing these stories is to shine the spotlight on God and remind all our readers of how great He is. Life can be tough, and yet God is tougher! That's a fact He wants us to remember and constantly remind each other of. And just as Jesus taught using stories, today we still learn so much from stories. I hope you will pick up this book, or one of our other books, and be blessed and fed as you read. You can purchase the books by going to our website womenworldleaders.com, which will direct you to our publishing site worldpublishingandproductions.com. And while you are at womenworldleaders.com, make sure you fill out the contact form so you don't miss out on any of the exciting offerings from the ministry! On this, the Wednesday episode of the podcast, we take a few minutes to dive into scripture together. We are currently walking through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John chronologically as we study Jesus' life and learn what He wants us to know today. Today's scripture comes from John, chapter 10, verses 22-42, and we will be reading from the New Living Translation. Before we begin, let's pray. Dear Most Holy God, we thank you for the honor of being able to open your Word and meet with you in the Spirit at the same time! Father, you are so gracious to continually teach and lead us as we walk through this life. We do give this time to you and ask that you cleanse us of all unrighteousness so that we might be clean vessels with the ability to hear your voice clearly. I ask you to teach us what you want us to know today. We love and honor you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. We have been studying Jesus' teachings to the crowds as He walks closer to the His death. Jesus is trusting God's timing and path for Him, even though the crowds are getting riled up all around Him. Many are coming to Him in belief, but many are also turning against Him in anger. This alone should be a lesson to us. It is easy for us to want to make people happy – but our true calling is to live by truth. It can be so difficult to discern the right path when we long for life to be easy both for us and for the ones we love. But Jesus teaches us by His actions that we are to ALWAYS hold to God, ask Him for His wisdom and guidance, and then trust the outcome beyond a shadow of a doubt, even when it seems things are getting stirred up around us. John sets the scene for us beginning in chapter 10, verse 22…   22 It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. 23 He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon's Colonnade.  Hanukkah was a celebration of the restorarion of the temple after it had been desecrated. This is important because, as we will see, Jesus is about to publicly declare Himself as the Son of God, leading to a restoration of humanity through salvation. God's timing is always perfect. The more I study the Bible, the more I see God's perfect plan and provision throughout all of history. But even as the people celebrated the past restoration of the temple, many in the crowd were completely unaware that God was currently working in their midst orchestrating a greater restoration. Verse 24 continues… 24 The people surrounded (Jesus) and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” The people were looking for a strong warrior to lead them into freedom from government and oppression. In essence, they were looking for a Messiah who could do far less than Jesus, our true Messiah, was there to do. Jesus had taught this over and over, but they just weren't getting it. God's kingdom was beyond their wishes and dreams. Verse 25… 25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don't believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father's name. 26 But you don't believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. A couple of weeks ago we discussed Jesus' declaration of Himself as the Good Shepherd. We uncovered that many were, and are, out to deceive and misguide us from following God. I know I have said this before, but it is of utmost importance that we EACH know that God is God and He will ALWAYS guide us into truth through His Word and His Holy Spirit. Let me say it plainly – if ANYONE contradicts the Word of God, he or she is not speaking truth – whether he is ordained, a church or ministry leader, or even your own parent. God has given us each the opportunity to know HIM personally. His Word is living and active and relevant to your life. God will never lie or go back on His Word. Yes, biblical counsel is a wonderful thing and we can certainly learn from each other, but God always has the final answer through His Word and His Spirit. God gives each of us the choice to connect with God and then to decide to follow Him or follow someone else. A shepherd CAN be deceptive, but God is our authentic shepherd. I say this not to make you paranoid, but to underscore that YOU are held accountable for your own actions. And God Himself will guide you and give you the strength to do what He calls you to do. Jesus says…I am the shepherd…my sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. But…despite our foibles and misteps, Jesus then teaches of His abounding and amazing grace…saying…that once we say yes and become Jesus' sheep… No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else.[a] No one can snatch them from the Father's hand.  What freeing and amazing words these are! When we give our lives to Jesus Christ and commit to living for Him, NO ONE can snatch us out of His hands! This should give us unadulterated freedom to do what God has called us to. In college, I took a lot of phsychology classes, and I remember so vividly studying and learning about abused children. The findings went something like this…people who are abused as children are less likely to move out of their childhood home at an appropriate age. It is more likely that the child who has been treated well to move out and face the world on her own. At first glance, this seems backwards. Shouldn't the one who is abused be clamoring to get away while the one who is covered and protected want to remain? But we are not logical beings. When we learn through mistreatement that “the world is bad,” we become shackled to fear. Our wings are clipped. But when we are showered with love and protection, we become empowered to become all we are called to be and to take on the world. The devil wants to hold you in, to clip your wings and keep you from flying. He uses fear to control you. Jesus, on the other hand, offers freedom. When you become His child, He empowers you to fly where you are called, and He promises that no one will ever snatch you from Him. And as far as you fly, as God's child you know He will NEVER leave you alone. He will always be there beside you with His love and protection. Then Jesus lays down the FULL truth of who He is, saying…30 The Father and I are one.” The Jewish people recited the schma regularly…which states “Hear, O Isreal: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” They CLEARLY understood Jesus statement, “The Father and I are one,” to mean that Jesus is one in being with God the Father. Jesus spoke truth, even though this statement put His own human life in peril…verse 31… 31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him.  And Jesus continued speaking truth…fully understanding that His life was on the line, yet also understanding that there were some listening who needed to hear more… 32 …“At my Father's direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” 33 They replied, “We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.” 34 Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures[b] that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!'[c] 35 And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered. So if those people who received God's message were called ‘gods,' 36 why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God'? After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world. 37 Don't believe me unless I carry out my Father's work. 38 But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don't believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” Jesus is the real deal. If you still don't believe Him and the words in the Bible, I want to encourage you to ask Him yourself. Ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you, and then watch expectantly. The people asked Jesus to PLAINLY state who He was. And He did. And then He also pointed to His works, which lined up perfectly with the works that Scripture clearly stated the Messiah would do. The people asked. Jesus answered. But many didn't pause to objectively consider His reponse. Instead, they followed what they had already determined in their heart was the right answer. How many times do we do that. How many times do we go to God and ask Him a question, only to misconstrue His answer to what WE want it to be? Jesus will NEVER force us to follow Him. But when we willingly follow Him, no matter how hard it may seem, I promise you He will give you wings to fly. Verse 39 tells us that many were not willing to fly. Instead, they chose to be chained to untruth. 39 Once again they tried to arrest (Jesus), but he got away and left them. 40 He went beyond the Jordan River near the place where John was first baptizing and stayed there awhile. 41 And many followed him. “John didn't perform miraculous signs,” they remarked to one another, “but everything he said about this man has come true.” 42 And many who were there believed in Jesus. When we listen to God, He will lead us to a place of safety. He will surround us with other believers who will love and support us. Jesus' life was more difficult than we can imagine, but God provided respite for Him. God gave Jesus a place to be re-filled, to remember and reflect on His goodness. God gave Jesus green pastures in which to lie down. And He will do the same for you and me. If we let Him. Jesus declared Himself the Son of God – in unity with the Father. This fact is such a blessing to us. Through Jesus' life and death, we are granted eternal salvation. The immediate future was scary for Jesus, but He considered the outcome worth it. That is something we should all remember. Although your road may look scary and bleak, you can trust that the God who loves you will give you wings to fly to an incredible outcome. Let's pray. Dear Jesus…we can't imagine all you went through for us…and yet we thank you for how strong you were. We thank you for holding close to God and walking in truth despite the effect of your own words and actions on your physical body. Jesus, you gave it all so that we could fly. We thank you, and we ask now that you infuse us with that same strength to choose the next right path – for you and for those you love. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.      

Big Idea: I must turn to God for Salvation and share the way with others!Acts 3-4:4

John 10:22-41 22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”'? 35 If he called them ‘gods,' to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God's Son'? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. 40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, 41 and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.

Peter and John have just preached the gospel in Solomon's Colonnade after healing a man who was lame from birth. The priests, the captain of the temple police, and the Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) were annoyed with their preaching, so they seized Peter and John and jailed them overnight. In today's episode they will stand before the Sanhedrin, a counsel of Jewish religious leaders who held court concerning religious matters. Seeing the healed man, the simply threaten them not to preach in the name Jesus. After they are let go, they only request to preach Christ with greater boldness.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

John 10:22-41 22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”'? 35 If he called them ‘gods,' to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God's Son'? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. 40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, 41 and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.

Pastor Christian Root brings today's message from Acts 3.11-26.

The interpenetration of heavens/earth (the temple at Herod's Temple) creates highly accelerated healing. All the earth's wealth can't begin to compare to the wonder of the restoration of all things that's suddenly happening in Solomon's Colonnade. As a witness, Peter explains what's happening to the onlookers who are reborn by the incursion of such concentrated eternal life.

The Church Began in Houses“When Christianity first started after the ascension of Jesus [i.e. Pentecost], Christians did not gather in church buildings but in people's homes. These were known as "house churches." One reason Christians…met in homes was monetary: the money collected went to help poorer Christians and to support missionaries and perhaps even clergy. As Christianity grew larger, the Roman Empire began persecuting Christians. Therefore, Christians were not able to build churches because that would be like putting on a big target and saying, “Here we are.” So, Christians gathered and held their meetings secretly in people's homes.”Part 1 - Acts 1-9 – AD 30-AD 40 BOOK OF ACTS TIMELINE/EVENTS - AD 30 (33) PENTECOSTHow am I currently reading/studying ACTS? Personal 'House Church Movement' Disclaimer ACTS 1:13 - 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying ACTS 2:1-4 - 1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and restedon each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Where did Stage 1 of Pentecost begin? ACTS 2:6 - 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together (?) ACTS 2:46-47 - 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Saved? Revival. 3000 on Pentecost.  ACTS 4:4 – 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.  5000+ - including women and children (10,000+???) ACTS 4:23 - 23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. ACTS 4:31 - 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Pentecost 2.0! Where does it happen? BOOK OF ACTS TIMELINE/EVENTS - AD 34-35 By AD 34, possibly 15,000-20,000 new believers in the Jerusalem church. 400+ House Churches would have been needed! Leadership issues?  What about bigger gatherings? – Temple (2:6?, 2:46, 3:1), Solomon's Colonnade next to Temple (3:11, 5:12) ACTS 4:1-2 - 1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead What doctrines will “greatly annoy” the authorities today? Where?  ACTS 5:17-18 - 17 But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18 they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. ACTS 5:20-21 - 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. ACTS 5:42 - 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. What are our “temples” today? Restaurants? Malls? Stores? Parks?  ACTS 8:3 - 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Does the “house” guarantee no persecution?  ACTS 9:17-18 - 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; ACTS 9:19b-20 – 19 …For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God. What are our “synagogues”? Same as our “temples”. BOOK OF ACTS TIMELINE/EVENTS - AD 39-40 ACTS 9:32-34 - 32 Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.”  ACTS 9:37, 39-42 - 37 In those days she [Tabitha] became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room…39 So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. 40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. What is the result of what happens in the house?Source: The Book of Acts – The Timeline, History & the Writings of the New Testament Letters, Bob EmeryFINAL OBSERVATIONS/THOUGHTS+ The Church BEGAN in a house + No Church ‘buildings' (earliest in the 200s, converted house)+ Revival needed houses – evangelism/teaching/discipling+ Public Meetings (i.e. Temple) often led to problems+ First 10-year period involved ONLY Jews (2:5 - “devout Jews”,   2:11   - “both Jews and converts to Judaism”)+ House-sized churches are still the norm in many places+ Fearful (masked) people won't go to big meetings, but homes?+ House meetings necessitate relational evangelism (vs. contact)

On this week's episode of the NCR Podcast, Rez, Sam and PT sit down to talk about their new venture with their second CrossFit NCR location, NCR Colonnade, discuss the importance of community in a fitness space, their competitive plans for CrossFit NCR in the 2023 season, and reminisce on their competitive CrossFit eras. Introduction - 0-4:05 CrossFit Colonnade - 4:35 5:56 – Coaches moving to Colonnade 10:15 – bringing CrossFit NCR culture to CrossFit Colonnade 14:50 – community as a sense of family 23:12 – Community or fitness? 26:32 – The PT & Reza origin story 32:30 – PT & Reza rehashing competitive eras 40:10 – Quarterfinals 2021, Victor being an icon 41:20 – NCR Teams 2023

Acts 3:1-26 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the tem- ple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they rec- ognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beauti- ful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are wit- nesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. 17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Mes- siah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.' 24 “Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. 25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.' 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

In this episode, we discuss strategic steps for Equipment Leasing and Finance companies as they grow and evolve. The leadership of some of these businesses may decide to remain a certain size and complexity and be “ lifestyle businesses”, providing healthy cash flow to the owner(s) while they continue to run the business. However, other options exist, and exiting the business for a favorable multiple to a bank or other buyer can be an excellent strategy, the dream plan for many entrepreneurs.  In this interview, we interview Bob Rinaldi and discuss the potential to grow and leverage a business to realize a win-win exit strategy.  This episode is a great follow-up to our previous show, Start Early & Exit Right, as we dive deep into many of the concepts of M&A rationale. What's unique about this episode is that it is geared toward a specific target audience, our friends in the Equipment Leasing and Finance (ELF) industry. In this episode we cover: How partners such as Rinaldi Advisory Services (RAS) and Colonnade work with Equipment Leasing & Finance (ELF) companies to prepare for a successful sale (1:00) What are the biggest challenges for the independents as they look to be “bank ready” for an acquisition? (4:00)  What are some of the biggest challenges for banks pursuing an acquisition of an equipment leasing company? (9:30) What determines the level of a premium in the sale price that an ELF company can expect? (20:00) What has M&A activity looked like in recent years and what are the prospects? (23:00) What about Private Equity buyers in this space? (26:30) How partners such as Rinaldi Advisory Services (RAS) and Colonnade work with Equipment Leasing & Finance (ELF) companies to prepare for a successful sale (1:00) Bob: My practice has evolved around three target audiences in the equipment leasing space. About 60% of my clients are independent leasing (ELF) companies that I work with through the Confidential CEO Resource℠ model. This is multi-year exit strategy planning. Whether the company exits or not is not important. The idea is to get them from point A to point B so they're prepared if that time comes. The second part of my practice is working with banks, predominantly community banks who are looking to get into the ELF space. Third, I work with a handful of service providers in the industry, as well. Rinaldi Advisory Services (RAS) offers the Confidential CEO Resource℠ (CCR) as a robust, full-scope advisory service that provides clients with a broad base of support for long-term strategic management. RAS works with CEOs and Principals to provide meaningful analysis and actionable insights. The aim is to help ELF senior management arrive at strategic and tactical decisions geared toward managing growth as well as operational and financial efficiencies. Colonnade has deep experience in the ELF industry. Colonnade is a leading investment banking firm that has completed over $9 billion in M&A transactions for clients in the business and financial services industries. Colonnade has advised many companies in the EFL sector on strategic transactions. Please see our Quarterly Updates on the ELF industry here. What are the biggest challenges for the independents as they look to be “bank ready” for an acquisition? (4:00) Bob: The biggest challenge is predominantly that these founders/owners are very much entrepreneurs. They started the business. They're very much involved in the everyday transactional nature of their business. They don't have the time to gain the perspective to look at their company objectively and determine what needs to happen to be a better company from a non-transactional standpoint or to be a better company for the purpose of acquisition. Jeff:  Let's drill down a little bit on some of the biggest challenges for the independents. There's size and scale, where are you today and where are you going? Banks are the natural resting home for specialty finance companies, and ELF companies are such a great asset class for banks in particular. Obviously, they're a number of large independents, but from the bank's perspective, what are the other things you see where companies need to focus? Is it finance and accounting? Is it operations? Is it servicing? Bob: Yes. Yes. And yes. It's really all those things. But even before you get to that, let's look at the business and find components within the business that definitely will never, ever fit in a bank. I'm able to identify those things. You then have to decide what to do with those things. Do I jettison those things completely? Do I sell those off? Do I break it outside of the company and put it in a separate entity so that what is left is sellable and simple to understand? Compare that to a buyer looking at the company and thinking, “I like this, I like this. I hate that. Therefore, I'm not doing it [the acquisition].” For example, say that there is a heavy services component of the (ELF) business; services component being something that has morphed, be it operational leases or servicing equipment that is leased. A bank can't be in that business. If that is an absolute key critical component to your leasing business, then a bank buyer is probably never going to be the buyer, which is going to leave you looking at non-financial institutional-type buyers, and they're fairly limited, so that's a problem. That is when you look at it and go: “If that's what we're always going to do, then this maybe is just going to be a lifestyle business. Let's just find ways to improve the income generation, the profitability, and keep it as a lifestyle business.” What are some of the biggest challenges for banks pursuing an acquisition of an equipment leasing company? (9:30) 1) The banks must use experienced advisors who understand the appropriate valuation models. Bob: If the bank has not been in the business before and their only experience with acquisitions has predominantly been buying other smaller banks, the first challenge is the valuation models. Banks are used to paying a multiple of book value. Leasing companies are not valued that way; their valuation is based on a multiple of earnings or pretax adjusted net income. In a typical leasing company, most of the leases are on a fixed term, fully amortizing type of a structure; therefore they just generate income. But the assets don't stay on the balance sheet that long, they continually roll-off at a rapid rate, so you've got to keep putting on more. It's really not an asset play as much as it is a net income play. Jeff: When we talk to banks as acquirers of these businesses, from either the buy-side or the sell-side, you're absolutely right. It's all about the income-generating opportunity. Yes, there are assets associated with it, but much more importantly, it's “What's the potential earning stream for this business within the bank?” (See: Discover the Rationale for a Synergistic Business Merger). Bob: That really comes down to the financial institution's advisor, a buy-side advisor. If they've not had much experience in the equipment leasing space, especially current experience like Colonnade has, they're already at a very big disadvantage because now you've got two entities that are blind and stating the same thing and focused on book value, so they're getting bad advice along with their own preconceived ideas. That's like a double whammy right out the gate. It's common when you find that a bank or their board, for whatever reason, have just got very comfortable with a buy-side advisor, who has never had that much experience at it but they've just gotten very comfortable with them and they wouldn't even conceive of going outside. A lot of this gets really back down to, “Is the bank nimble? Is the bank flexible? Does the bank have a CEO that has cut a bigger vision?” The same thing with the board, the death of any kind of an institution is just getting so stuck in your way that you just can't get out of it. 2) The CEO of the bank must have a visionary leadership style that allows the acquired company to thrive. Bob: It all still goes back to the CEO of the bank and how progressive they are, how aggressive they are. And aggressive does not mean they're careless. Jeff: The folks that we generally work with on the banking side have made that decision. They said, “Okay, we're going to get into specialty finance. We want to do it in X, Y or Z asset class, and we have the headset to bid accordingly, and that these businesses are valued differently than bank deals. The multiples are different, the metrics are different. We're committed, we've got board approval, we've got senior leadership approval and we're going to go ahead with it.” Bob: You and I know one of the smartest, most aggressive community bankers: Chuck Sulerzyski ​of Peoples Bank of Marietta, Ohio. Peoples Bank is located in the Southeast corner of Ohio, squarely in Appalachia country. How does a bank that size, originally ~$1 billion in assets when he took it over and roughly $7 billion today, make such successful leasing company acquisitions? One located in Vermont and one located in Minnesota? If you take a look at the numbers, the ROA and ROE of the bank have improved dramatically. Their yields and spreads have increased dramatically. Their asset growth has increased significantly in the commercial real estate (CRE) and in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors. His shareholders are being rewarded handsomely and will continue to be. Jeff: Chuck sets a great example. He has been aggressive in good ways. Peoples Bank also acquired an insurance premium finance company, and they're diversifying.  Chuck has the right headset in that he looks to acquire businesses to expand and diversify their geographical footprint. That's a real success story, in my view.  Bob: If you're going to acquire a leasing company that's growing, that's used to growing assets, the last thing you want to do is turn them into a bank. That's the whole premise for why you're going to buy a leasing company – is to expand the scope of the bank, not to contract it. It requires an introspective look of the CEO and his team: can they make an acquisition and not micromanage it and end up turning it into a bank? 3) Banks must be able to create objectives around diversification of geography and asset classes.  Bob: Equipment leasing is not a geographic-specific industry unlike, let's call it, commercial real estate. Banks are very familiar with commercial real estate. Real estate is always local. Commercial real estate is local, you've got to know the geography that you're in very well so that you understand the commercial real estate in that market. Banks must understand what they're trying to achieve in three to five years in terms of what percentage of their (Commercial and Insurance) C&I assets they want in various sectors.  How much do they want to get to in ELF? What do they want it to look like in three years, four years? Depending upon how big that number is, that determines the modality of the type of equipment leasing business you could get into. There are multiple facets to the equipment leasing industry: 1) small ticket, (transactions less than $250,000), middle-market/mid ticket (up to $5 million per transaction size), and large ticket (above $5 million per transaction). Jeff. Take Wintrust. They're not really “a bank”. More than 40% of their loan portfolio is insurance premium finance. They've got a big equipment finance business on top of that. There's probably 50% to 60% of loans that are non-traditional banking assets. As a result, the ROA on that bank is considerably higher than its peers; and as a result, the stock trades higher.  And Peoples, as we've discussed, has the right headset that they need to acquire or look to acquire national platforms outside of Marietta, Ohio. Obviously, they've done some bank acquisitions too in footprint, but expanding to get national business is part of the CEO's strategy.  What determines the level of a premium in the sale price that an ELF company can expect? (20:00) Bob: It falls under the quality of earnings, platform, and quality of human resources. Quality of earnings: I think about the repeatability of the earnings, as opposed to having a trend line of earnings that is a sawtooth (up and down, up and down). Quality of earnings should be fluid and show continued ramped-up growth over a period of time. Platform: The ability to scale. What's their technological capability? What's the platform built off of, is it homegrown? Is it well protected? Is it SOC compliant? If you had more capital, can you scale it? Quality of human resources: What does the management team look like? What's the average age of the team? What are their qualifications? What does the core management team look like behind them? If you cover all three of those pretty darn well, you're going to get the higher end of the premium scale for sure. What has M&A activity looked like in recent years and what are the prospects? (23:00) Bob: Activity's been strong for the past few years. Part of the activity was exacerbated when everybody thought that in 2021 there was going to be a new tax act and capital gains were going to go up.  The biggest reason over the past four to five years is because you've got an aging-out (in the midst of the Great Resignation) of the Principals of these companies. It's just a normal progression, and it happens every five years or so. You get a number of individuals who have had their own leasing companies who started them 20 odd years ago. If they started 20 years ago, here we are 20 years later, they're in their mid-60s to late 60s. If they don't get out now, when are they going to exit? Because typically there's going to be an earn out. If you wait till the age of 70 to get out, you may be working on an earn out between the ages of 70 and 73. On top of that, there's the aspect of an ELF company having a capital constraint. At some point, their capital is not going to hold them to keep borrowing on their line of credit because the debt-equity ratios will get too high and they'll have a hard time borrowing. It's really at about that time when they have to start thinking about what's next. Do we bring in another equity partner? Do we bring in some sub-debt? All that does is kick the can down the road. And I always tell them at that point: “You're already selling part of the company. Just sell the whole thing.” Listen to this podcast episode/read through the shownotes to see the Four Reasons Company Owners Consider a Transaction (15:25) What about Private Equity buyers in this space? (26:30) Jeff: We regularly get calls from folks looking to find platforms to acquire and build upon. There are some opportunities there: To remain independent, nimble, and flexible outside of the bank model, and take in additional capital to grow and potentially enhance the financing capabilities through securitizations and others. Bob: The equipment leasing industry is a fairly mature industry. It's fairly sophisticated. For an independent leasing company to bring in private equity, I see that as only a solution if you don't believe you're able to sell the whole company right now. The PE firm is investing to get double-digit returns, so that means they're going to come in and put you (as the owner/operator) on a huge ramped-up treadmill. You are going to have to keep up or they're going to lose interest. And you've sold part of the company. Now, granted, you've got a smaller piece but now have a bigger pie.  Jeff: That makes sense. There are some examples of successful private-equity-backed equipment finance companies, but as we have found – the universe of financially oriented sponsors that really want to put a lot of capital into the business and are willing to wait a long time to get their return – is quite limited. Most folks attack it from the financing standpoint. It can be a good option if you have an aging founder that wants an opportunity to take some chips off the table and let the next generation continue to run it. But you're right, it is a different exercise being put on that treadmill. Bob: It's a much different exercise. On the other hand, where it does work really well, is when a PE firm is backing a very experienced individual or a team who is going to start up a new entity. They could start this new entity and scale quickly with the help of private equity. They'd have a chance to really leverage that with some serious growth. Then it makes complete sense.

22 It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. 23 He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don't believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father's name. 26 But you don't believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand. 30 The Father and I are one.” 31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 32 Jesus said, “At my Father's direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” 33 They replied, “We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.” 34 Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!' 35 And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered. So if those people who received God's message were called ‘gods,' 36 why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God'? After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world. 37 Don't believe me unless I carry out my Father's work. 38 But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don't believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” 39 Once again they tried to arrest him, but he got away and left them. 40 He went beyond the Jordan River near the place where John was first baptizing and stayed there awhile. 41 And many followed him. “John didn't perform miraculous signs,” they remarked to one another, “but everything he said about this man has come true.” 42 And many who were there believed in Jesus. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reduxchurch/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reduxchurch/support

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.10:1 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.Calling the sheep "by name" (v.3) does not mean that shepherds had individual names for each sheep.Rather, each shepherd used a different call.When flocks were commingled, they were separated once as the sheep followed the call of their shepherd.Concerning hearing God's voice (v.4), how do I distinguish what I know through scripture from what I sense God may be trying to tell me through life situations?Do I believe he could be leading me through objective sensations?(For more on this, click here or here.)In regard to verse 6, "figure of speech" (paroimia) is translated parabolé in the LXX. The two are functionally equivalent.Since the crowd did not understand the illustration (v.6), Jesus tries a more explicit approach (v.7ff).7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."All who came before me" (v.8) refers not to the legitimate O.T. prophets, or to John the Baptist, but to the mercenary priests of the present hierarchical system and the Pharisees (see Matthew 23:13; Luke 11:52).It would also have applied, at the time John was published, to false Messiahs within Judaism, pagan saviors or redeemer gods within the various Greco-Roman and oriental cults, and even heretical teachers who had left the church. Yet it most directly -- and obviously -- applies to the leaders (Pharisees) in John 9. Remember, there were no chapter numbers originally; these sections are connected.Jesus offers abundant life (v.10). This refers not to material prosperity (alone), but to spiritual well-being (which may or may not entail material advantages).11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.When Jesus claims to be the Good Shepherd, he:Utilizes a common biblical metaphor. For example, Psalm 23 says, "The Lord is my Shepherd."Underscores the importance of his personal relationship with the sheep.Identifies himself with the divine Messiah and son of David of Ezekiel 34. For more on the Messianic prophecy of Ezekiel 34 alluded to in this chapter, click here. See also Zechariah 13:7-9; Isaiah 40:11; and Psalms 28 and 80.Compares himself with the Jewish leaders, whom he clearly considers mercenary in their approach to shepherding. In Ezekiel 34 God himself rebukes the selfish shepherds of Israel, who had neglected the sheep.Recall also the shepherd passages of the Synoptic Gospels, especially Luke 15:1-7 and Matthew 18:12-14.The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (v.11).While it may be doubtful a shepherd would really risk his life for one sheep, it is certain that the Lord put himself at risk for each one of us.1 John 3:16, though using similar language to that in verse 11, refers to putting others first, more than to literally dying for them.16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”With respect to verse 16, see also 3:16; 6:51; 12:20,24,31-32. The Good Shepherd dies for all, not just for the Jews. The church was to include Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, one flock.No one takes Jesus' life from him (v.18).He is not saying that he was not truly to be executed, but that this would not have happened apart from his will.It was all a matter of divine timing and the will of the Father.19 Again the Jews were divided because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” 21 Others were saying, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”Once again, the people are divided in their reactions to Jesus (vv.19-21).Some said he was insane. For even disagreeing with the party line, Jesus us insane by definition. This reminds me of the old Soviet Union. Dissidents would be sent off to the gulag. (Anyone crazy enough to reject the superior thinking of Lenin and Stalin must be insane, and thus must be committed into psychiatric care!)Some said he was possessed by a demon.Others pointed out the bad logic of such positions, citing the miraculous healing of chapter 9.22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”The setting of the this passage is the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah (v.22).Its origins lie in the so-called Intertestamental Period (c.400 BC-AD 30).It is found in the O.T. Apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees 4:59. (For the full text of this book, click here.)Ironically, since the Jewish Bible no longer contains 1-2 Maccabees, the only scriptural mention of this important Jewish holiday is in John 10 -- in the New Testament!Unlike the Feast of Tabernacles, this one could be celebrated at home.Jesus is walking under the cover of Solomon's Colonnade, which offered protection from the common winter rains (v.23). Of course this was not strictly speaking Solomon's colonnade (v.23), since the first Solomon's temple had been razed by the Babylonians in 587/586 BC.The crowd demands a direct answer from Jesus (v.24): Is he the Christ, or not? Jesus replies that the answer has already been given (v,25), but they didn't like the response (v.26).The reason: they lack faith; they aren't part of the flock.Unlike these false believers, true followers can rest assured in God's grace (v.28-29). See also the end of Romans 8.Jesus does not say that it is impossible to lose one's salvation, despite the common teaching of "Once saved, always saved." For more, click here.Jesus does not claim to be identical with the Father (v.30). They are one in action (the neuter hen), not one in person (which would have been the masculine heis). Recall that they differ in rank (order), not nature.Then Jesus adds that he and the father are one (v.30). That is, since he is one with the Father, and no one can thwart God's purposes, nobody can take disciples away from Jesus.This is a clear claim to divinity, as shown by the crowd's reaction in v.31ff. Jesus will also defend his divinity in v.34ff.In the Trinity, Jesus shares the same nature with the Father, but not the same rank, since the Father is greater than the Son (eternally).31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods'? 35 If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods'—and the scripture cannot be annulled— 36 can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God's Son'? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.In verses 34-36 Jesus refers to Psalm 82:6, where certain prominent Israelites are called "gods."Since Jesus comes directly from the Father and obeys his will, it is a fortiori even more appropriate for him to be recognized as God's Son.For more on this, click here.Note that Jesus refers to the Psalms as "Law" (v.34).Sometimes in the Bible the word Law refers to Torah (the first five O.T. books, or Pentateuch).Other times, like here, it refers to the entire O.T.Moreover, even if they were disinclined to believe him, honest minds should be led by the evidence to see the divine origin of Christ (v.38).Still the crowd is unable to catch him (v.39). He eludes them because it is not yet his time.40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. 41 Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.Jesus returns to the (former) territory of John the Baptist (v.40), where he initially directed his disciples to Jesus (1:28-34). We've come full circle.He is positively received by those acquainted with John's ministry.It is evident that John was truly preparing the way for the ministry of Christ. Jesus was in no way "sheep stealing" from the Baptist.In verse 41 John's former followers admit that he had never performed a miracle.And yet according to Luke 1:15, in some sense he was "Spirit-filled" from birth.Thus it follows that being filled with the Spirit does not necessarily involve miraculous abilities or experiences.Many come to faith in Christ (v.42).In the next chapter (11) we'll read of one of Jesus' most dramatic signs: the raising of Lazarus from the dead -- also the seventh of the seven signs in John.Things to think aboutIn the last few chapters many have difficulties recognizing Jesus. This recognition may be analyzed:John 5-6 -- motivation -- people are improperly motivated.John 7-8 -- cognition -- people are unable to think.John 8-9 -- vision -- they are unable to see.John 10 -- audition -- they are unable to hear.Do I recognize the voice of our Shepherd? How well do I know his Word?Am I experiencing "life to the full" (the abundant life of verse 10)? Is anything missing?If I am a leader, why do I lead? If I am a church staff member, do I have the heart of a true shepherd, or is there anything of the mercenary in me?Do I appreciate the grace of GodNo external power can force me to leave God.Do I realize that I am the only one who can spoil the priceless gift of God in Christ?

Jesus does the healing, Jesus gets the Glory, and We get to participate. 7 Reasons Jesus Heals 1. It's in his Nature - Jehova Rapha - The Lords who heals. 2. It is the love of God being expressed through the power of God3. To show compassion 4. It reveals his kingdom of God 5. It is a witness to non-believers. 6. It validates God's servants and the message we preach 7. Ultimately, it brings Glory, Honor, and worship to God Acts 3:1-16 (NIV) 1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Peter Speaks to the Onlookers 11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/joelramsey/support

This week, we hear from Michelle Thomas with the Colonnade at Carrollwood, an assisted living community right in my Tamba Bay neighborhood.  For many years, a group from our church visited and sang there monthly for quite a while.  Michelle shares that this is Resort Style Living with as little or as much assistance as is needed.  Some residents move in for the food and social atmosphere, and don't need any assistance at this point - they just don't want to be alone.  Others need various amounts of help to get through their days.  Colonnade's goal is to help their residents live as independently as possible in a loving, caring environment.  Many people who live at the Colonnade still go out into the community for many activities like shopping and gardening.  Find info at

11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. 17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, Acts 3:11-19

On this week's episode of the Northeast Newscast we're catching up with Christina Hoxie of the Hoxie Collective, the consultants taking the lead on the Kessler Park Master Plan. Kessler Park stretches across the northern border of Northeast Kansas City, including Cliff Drive, the Colonnade at Concourse Park, bike and walking trails, North Terrace Lake, the Carl DiCapo Fountain, an abandoned reservoir, play grounds and more. Learn more about the project, get involved and join us for a community celebration this weekend! More info at: https://fb.me/e/2IlYJVfBA.

Before you sell your company, even the odds. This episode features guests Mark Achler and Mert Iseri, authors of the recent book, Exit Right: How to Sell Your Startup, Maximize Your Return and Build Your Legacy. Exit Right demystifies how to conclude the startup journey, a perfect complement to our podcast, which focuses more on the exits of larger middle-market companies. As Brad Feld states in the Foreword, “Mert and Mark set the roadmap for how entrepreneurs and business owners can proactively manage the process of getting to a successful exit along the way”. As Jeff says at the start of the interview: Mark and Mert cover so many great informative topics in the book. There is a wealth of tips to guide business owners through what can be a tumultuous process, getting through the exit. There are also so many topics we align with: relationships matter most, planning for wealth, time kills all deals, and the importance of following a best-practice process.  In this podcast episode, we focus on three topics with a lot of meat to each:  FAIR, Mert and Mark's framework for a successful exit, (3:00)  The“Exit Talk” and how we suggest that all companies adopt this practice with their board (15:00), and Who is involved in the Exit Talk and why? (28:00) What is FAIR? Why does it lead to the best transactions? (3:00) Mert: What we realized as we started to gather stories and experiences from M&A bankers, lawyers, serial entrepreneurs, etc is that the real question isn't, “Let's find out who's going to pay the most.” The real question is, “What's the right home for this business? What's the right home for my people? What's the right home for the vision? Who is going to serve our customers the best?” Our view of an exit went from being a short-term transaction to a long-term partnership. The term “exit” is a poor word choice.  You're not really exiting anything. If anything, it's the beginning of a brand new relationship. So when we ask ourselves, “What makes a great home for a startup?” we focus on these four elements that make exits great. FAIR. Fit, Alignment, Integration, and Rationale.  If you have all four of those, it just so happens that you've also found the person who's willing to pay the most for your business, because they will realize the long-term value and they'll price the deal accordingly. Fit is the cultural fit between the two companies. Amazon and Zappos are a great fit. Time Warner and AOL, are probably not a great fit. It's easily described. Can you sit next to this person for four hours and not want to kill them by the end of the meeting? Can you actually make decisions without written rules? Are cultural values aligned? Are the DNAs sort of similar, cousins to each other between those two companies? Alignment is about being aligned with your co-founders, board, and shareholders in terms of the direction of where you want to go. The acquiring company also must be aligned.  We almost always dismiss the alignment that we need from all sides of the table. This isn't two sides looking at each other. This is two sides looking in the same direction. Integration has to do with the plan for how these two companies will come together. We've seen so many examples of this plan of integration being done as an afterthought. It's not just product and sales integration but people integration, finance integration; many, many layers. And all of these stakeholders have different agendas that need to be individually managed.  Rationale. Can you explain to your grandmother why this acquisition makes sense? How are we going to deliver more value to our customers as a result of this partnership? How is two plus two equal to 100 in this context? Mark: There are profound financial implications to the FAIR framework. Let's take Integration. Integration is the ugly stepchild. People always say, “Oh yeah, we'll deal with integration afterward.”  Turns out that in many transactions, it's not always 100% cash. Sometimes there's an earn-out for future performance. If you're not integrated well (you don't have the resources you need to execute your plan), there are some significant financial implications to the earn-out. Then there are the financial implications to Rationale. Transactions are typically based on looking backward using a multiple. When you create a rationale that says one plus one equals a hundred, if it's a strategic investment, you take your product and we plug it into the larger company's sales force or the larger company's customer base. What could we do inside the larger company? What's the impact of your product on the larger company? The way to maximize value is not looking backward as a multiple, but looking forward using the rationale. Strategically, why is the combination so valuable? If you can get everybody aligned around the rationale and the financial implications of that rationale, that's how you're going to drive a better price for an exit. Mert: No one's going to just sit down and tell you, “This is our rationale.” You uncover it. You unearth it over years. That's why we urge entrepreneurs to put their party dresses on. Talk to many competitors. Talk to strategics. Get out the door. You need to build this trusted relationship over time with fundamental questions. How can I help? How can I help you push your agenda forward? How can I help my customers? This is what great partnerships really look like. We're not saying go share your financials with your competitors or give away all your IP to a larger strategy, but you need to be that trusted partner that advances the mission on all sides and creates a situation where everybody wins. Mark: We wrote the book about exits, but it turns out that the decisions that entrepreneurs make at the beginning of their journey have an outsized impact at the end of the journey. Even though this book is really about the exit, there is really good advice there about the beginning of the journey as well. Jeff: That's exactly right. This book is really about the journey.  All of the steps on the journey influence the end. There's so much wisdom in the book and insights about all the things that you can do to proactively get to the right end. Management meetings are oftentimes the first time that business owners meet their potential acquirers, whether they're competitors or strategics, or investors. But the longer that relationship can be developed, the more that you can uncover in terms of the shared common goal of what can we do together. And the best valuation and the best terms will just naturally evolve. What is an “Exit Talk”? How can founders use it to reach alignment in their boardrooms? (15:00) Jeff: The Exit Talk really struck a chord with me. Let's encourage clients and future clients to have these discussions and this thought process through the FAIR framework to really think ahead. Sometimes we as investment bankers get brought in late in the game. But most of our transactions and our best relationships really span years. We get to know the business, the goals, and importantly the people involved, the operators, the owners, the founders, and the investors. Some of these relationships for us span a decade or more. We give them advice on how to grow their companies. This concept of an exit talk is missing from my perspective. Exit discussions are often secretive or clouded in secrecy. It is a very small universe of folks within a company that knows that a transaction is imminent. It's rarely discussed openly among the senior leadership team until late in the game. What you guys propose is proactive. Through your work and sharing your work with my future clients, I'd like them to embrace this philosophy. I love this quote that you said, “Instead of fueling the awkwardness of the exit topic by staying silent, we are putting forward a new norm that we believe the entire industry should adopt, which is the Exit Talk.” Mark: This is one of our favorite topics. But before we dive into the Exit Talk: We are such big believers in trust. Every deal has its ups and downs. It has its emotional turbulence, it's the journey. Trust is the lubrication that gets deals done through to the conclusion. I just wanted to put a fine point on that topic of trust because it permeates everything we do. The Exit Talk.  It turns out that there's a stigma to talking about exits. CEOs are afraid. They're afraid that if they bring up the topic of an exit that their board and their investors are going to think their heart's not in it. They've lost hope. They've lost faith. In the Venture Capital or Private Equity world, we have a time horizon. When you take our capital, you take our agenda, and you take our time horizon. We're looking for X return over Y timeframe. And if you're in year one of a fund, we've got plenty of time.  Let's go build and grow. If you're in year 10 of a fund, we've got to start returning capital back to our LPs. With the Exit Talk, what we're proposing is that once a year, maybe your first board meeting of the year, you have a regularly scheduled annual talk where the CEO, without fear of being perceived as their heart's not in it, can talk about the exit. The reason it's so incredibly helpful is that you have the luxury of time. If you had 18 months or two years, you have the luxury of saying, “Who's going to be the most likely acquirer? Is it going to be a strategic acquirer? And why? Who is it and why would they want to acquire us? Or is it going to be a financial buyer and what are they looking for? Are they looking for top-line revenue?”  If we're going to sell to somebody who really cares about growth, we may invest a little bit more heavily in sales and marketing. If it's somebody who is more financially oriented and really cares about EBITDA, we might tighten the ship and focus on profitability.  It gives you the luxury of time to get your intellectual property in order, make sure that every single employee has a signed agreement, and make sure that trademarks and patents are filed appropriately. Get your data room pristine. If you have the luxury of time, you can optimize and present your business. And you could take the time to find the best bankers and attorneys who really are going to represent you well. Mert: An outcome of this talk doesn't necessarily have to be “we're ready to sell, or we're not ready to sell”. It can also be an opportunity to start prototyping some of the theories around how you add more value to your customers. This is a great centerpiece for what we believe an exit should be reasoned around. This will help our customers faster/better than what we could do on our own by just raising more money or gathering more capital or resources. For instance, if you are going to have a strategic alignment with a larger company like Google, but you're not ready to sell, it's still an opportunity to start a relationship. Maybe we work on a mutual customer together. Maybe we create some content together where we tell our stories and we share our wisdom with theirs. You want to start charging up that trust battery over time. When you are ready, you are a known entity. The reality is these M&A (Corporate Development) leaders want to buy companies from trusted entities. They don't want an egg on their face either. They want to know the company that they're investing in. They're not viewing this as an acquisition, they're really viewing it as an investment. They want to know they can trust you. They want to know that you can go the distance. It's a really difficult thing to do to create that kind of trust. You're not going to rush through trust. You're going to build it incrementally over years. Even the identification of a strategic partner when you're not ready to sell is extremely valuable because that's an opportunity to generate a relationship. Find out what their priorities are. See if your solution helps move those numbers forward.  Mark: We're big believers in empathy. We have an empathy framework. There are three rules of empathy: 1) It's not about you. It's always about the person sitting across the table from you. 2) Do your homework.  Deeply and truly understand what's important. Mert just said, “Go listen to the quarterly earnings report.” They're going to tell you what they care about. 3) Bring a gift, add value. When I say bring a gift: what can you do? If you're an industry leader, provide some thought leadership about where the market's heading. Share new bits of technology. Not only can you gain knowledge about their strategic direction, you can also share knowledge and be thought of as a trusted thought leader.  If you take those empathy rules and apply them to building relationships over time, that's how you're going to earn trust. Jeff: I love the idea of a trust battery and charging that up over time. You can't do that overnight. You can't do that in one management meeting. You can't do that in a really compressed timeframe. You really need to start early and think about what you can bring to the table. What can you bring as a gift to add value to somebody else so that they can see the value in what you are bringing?  That's really the roadmap that you guys layout in your book: what steps can we take proactively to get to the best outcome. Who is involved in the Exit Talk, and why? (28:00) Mark: Let's separate out the annual exit talk from an actual transaction process. The exit talk is a board of directors-level conversation. Maybe you bring in one or two top lieutenants into that conversation, depending on the relationship between the CEO and maybe one or two C-suite members. But that's a board-level, strategic conversation that's not for the whole company. (For an actual transaction process), there are lots of different ways of handling it. My own personal opinion is that there is a dance that takes place starting as an aperture that broadens over time. One of the challenges with telling any employee about a transaction is human nature. “What's that mean to me? Am I going to have a job? Am I going to get fired? Am I going to become rich? What are my stock options worth?” One of the challenges is that not all deals happen; deals fall apart all the time. So the team has to have their eye on the ball. For the CEO, when they're going through a transaction, it can be all-consuming.  We've seen instances where companies started slowing down, missing their numbers because the CEO was distracted and not focused on running their business.  The way I think about it is starting with the CEO and the board, keeping a really tight circle of information. And then as the conversations start to broaden and deepen in a transaction, then people are going to start the due diligence process.  Make sure your C-suite is involved and your executive team is involved. The people who are going to be part of the due diligence process, obviously you're going to have to inform them. I don't think it's a great thing to just wake up one morning and say to your entire employee base, “Hey, guess what? We just got sold.” There's a middle ground someplace in that continuum. Try to keep it confidential through most of the process. As you start to get to certainty you need to start opening it up so it's not a surprise to everybody. Mert: There's one major stakeholder that hasn't been discussed and I just want to bring that up, and that's your family. Most founders overlook that and think of this transaction as a business event. This is a life event. Your family is a humongous stakeholder. We want to highlight that this is a critical component of whether an exit happens or not. What's happening with your family is just as important as what is happening with your board and other stakeholders. Mark: I couldn't agree with you more. It's not just us, it's our families and our loved ones too that have a stake in this. Jeff: It goes for all key constituents, starting with the family and then moving down to the board members and the C-suite and figuring out what's the right communication style and method and frequency. These things are really critical decisions that most folks don't really spend the time thinking about. Mark: One of the questions we ask CEOs is: when you're done with the transaction, will your employees come back to work for you in the next company you start? Will your investors want to invest in you in the next company you start? Will the biz dev lead of the large company who goes on to the next company, are they going to want to buy your next company? I think what many entrepreneurs fail to understand is that the relationships you build and your legacy live on way past the deal and the transaction.  We're big believers in servant leadership and that the best CEOs don't view life as a zero-sum game. They make sure that they take care of their customers, their employees, and their investors. They try to find the balance of supporting all relationships over time. ABOUT OUR GUESTS While a successful entrepreneur may exit a handful of companies in their lifetime, large buyers close deals all the time. Without decades of experience in mergers and acquisitions, founders don't have the tools they need to get the best results for themselves, their teams, or the new parent company. Through dozens of interviews with M&A leaders at the biggest Silicon Valley acquirers—as well as attorneys, bankers, and founders who have been through the trenches—Exit Right delivers the hard-earned lessons that lead to successful exits. From negotiation to valuation to breaking down a term sheet, managing legal costs, and handling emotional turbulence—this unparalleled guide covers every critical aspect of a technology startup sale. Learn where deals get into trouble, how to create alignment between negotiating parties, and what terms you should care about most. Above all, learn how to win in both the short and the long term, maximizing your price while positioning your company for a legacy you can be proud of. Author Biographies An early employee of Apple and Head of Innovation at Redbox, Mark Achler has been creating and investing in tech startups since 1986. Today, he is a founding partner of MATH Venture Partners, a technology venture capital fund, and an adjunct professor at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management. Mert Iseri co-founded SwipeSense, a healthcare technology company acquired by SC Johnson in 2020. Prior to that, he co-founded Design for America, a national network of students using design thinking to create social impact, now part of the IBM Watson Foundation. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at MATH Venture Partners. Socials Mark Achler Mert Hilmi Iseri Book About the hosts Gina Cocking serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Colonnade Advisors. Gina began her career in investment banking at Kidder Peabody, was an analyst at Madison Dearborn Partners and an associate at J.P. Morgan & Co. She was the Chief Financial Officer of Cobalt Finance, a specialty finance company. She went on to become the Chief Financial Officer of Healthcare Laundry Systems, a private equity-backed company for which she oversaw the successful sale to a strategic acquirer. Gina served as the Line of Business CFO – Consumer Banking and Lending at Discover Financial Services. Gina serves on the Board of Directors of CIB Marine Bancshares, Inc. Gina received her BA in Economics and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Jeff Guylay is a Managing Director of Colonnade Advisors. Prior to joining Colonnade in 2000, Jeff was an investment banker at J.P. Morgan in the firm's Mergers & Acquisitions and Fixed Income Capital Markets groups in New York. He also spent several years in J.P. Morgan's Chicago office. Jeff has over 20 years of M&A and investment banking experience and has served as lead execution partner on over 25 M&A and financing transactions at Colonnade. Jeff received an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Master of Engineering Management from the University's McCormick School of Engineering. Jeff received a BA from Dartmouth College and a BE from Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. About the Middle Market Mergers & Acquisitions Podcast Get the insiders' take on mergers and acquisitions. M&A investment bankers Gina Cocking and Jeff Guylay of Colonnade Advisors discuss the technical aspects of and tactics used in middle market deals. This podcast offers actionable advice and strategies for selling your company and is aimed at owners of middle market companies in the financial services and business services sectors. Middle market companies are generally valued between $20 million and $500 million. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and consider leaving us a short review:

Worthy of SufferingPastor Trinity Opp Acts 5:12-42 The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon's Colonnade. But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women. As a result of the apostles' work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed. The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!” So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching. When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported “The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!” When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end. Then someone arrived with startling news: “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!” The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them. Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them. “We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man's name!” he said. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!” But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross. Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven. We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him.” When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them. But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while. Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men! Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing. After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he was killed, too, and all his followers were scattered. “So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!” The others accepted his advice. They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.” 1. The ministry of the gospel meets our greatest need. (v. 12-16) 2. The ministry of the gospel will face opposition in this world. (v. 17-40) 3. The ministry of the gospel strengthens the Christian's resolve to serve God. (v. 41-42) Challenge:  If you find yourself suffering as a Christian, rejoice! You are in good company. As Christians, we are to be compassionate towards the needy, bold in our witness for Jesus, and joyful in our suffering for Christ. Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:11-12, “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.” Supporting Texts:  Matthew 5:10-12Matthew 16:13-20Philippians 1:27-30

This episode continues with our “industry spotlight series” where we focus on specific trends and opportunities in middle-market M&A transactions. Our previous episodes have covered four industries in which Colonnade has played a significant role as an M&A advisor to both buy-side and sell-side clients. We add F&I Agencies & Payment Plan Providers as industries where we deeply know the dynamics and players so as to provide exceptional service to clients who hire us to assist them in a transaction. Colonnade has studied the F&I Agencies and Payment Plan Provider markets for the last 20+ years. We have worked on nearly 30 M&A transactions on the buy-side and the sell-side. We have gotten to know the industry players and the buyers. We've identified some high-opportunity M&A plays that could help to drive even more value, scale, and customer satisfaction in the industry. Spotlight on F&I Agencies (1:00) In this first part of our episode, we answer the following questions: Where do F&I agencies sit in the F&I ecosystem? (1:00) What does a typical F&I agency look like? (7:00) What is going on in terms of M&A and what are the value drivers in the industry? (9:00) What is driving M&A transactions right now and what are some potential M&A plays? (12:00) Where do F&I agencies sit in the F&I ecosystem and what value do they provide? (1:00) Gina: Between the F&I administrators and the F&I office and the dealership, there are F&I agencies. They are independent agencies with independent agents. They are like insurance agents. They bring together the product administrators and the dealers.  Gina:  The agents have deep knowledge about the products they represent. They can train the F&I office on those products and how to sell the products. They also act as the middle man or the interface with the administrator. They are one distribution arm for the administrators, which makes them critical in the ecosystem. They are a valuable component of the overall F&I ecosystem. Jeff: The F&I agency is a particular point in the value chain. It's a differentiator. Some administrators sell to dealers through a direct sales force, others use F&I agents.  Gina: There are administrators who go direct to dealers, but most administrators also use independent agents. They may have a direct sales force, but they have independent agents also. The only sector where that seems to not always be the case is selling into independent dealerships. You tend to see more direct agents that are employed by the administrators selling into the independent dealerships. Gina: An important component of what the agents do is help the dealership with reinsurance. Reinsurance is an important component of a dealership owner's profits. For every contract, every F&I product that is sold, there is a reserve set aside for future claims. F&I agents are usually very fluid and educated in talking about reinsurance and making sure that the dealership has the right reinsurance programs. So they deal with reinsurance, they do training on products, they do training on how to sell products. They sometimes help with staffing in the F&I office, and they'll help with some of the technology that is between the F&I office and the administrator. Gina: F&I represents a third of a dealership's profits. Everybody within the organization and affiliated with the organization is going to make sure that F&I runs smoothly. What does a typical F&I agency look like? (7:00) Gina: There are well over 100 independent agencies, and approximately 75%-80% of F&I agencies are less than 10 employees. There are very few large agencies. There are a few that are scaling, but there really aren't many. There is only one national agency that comes to mind and that's Vanguard (owned by Spectrum Automotive). Vanguard has been very acquisitive in building out its agent network. We also see Brown & Brown, which is a P&C insurance brokerage. They've been acquiring F&I agencies over the last few years. I don't know if they have a national footprint yet, but they're probably getting pretty close. And then you have acquired a lot of small agencies. ​​Jeff: The Brown & Brown example is an interesting one that we've watched over the last five to six years as they've entered the industry. We've always thought their participation in the F&I agency world makes a lot of sense, given the parallels to the P&C distribution market. What is going on in terms of M&A and what are the value drivers in the industry? (9:00) Gina: We think that the M&A market for F&I agencies will continue to be hot in 2022. (See Gina's cover article in Agent Entrepreneur, 2022 M&A Predictions for F&I Agents) Agent value is driven by a couple of different factors. One is diversification. One of the challenges for these small agencies, just like any small company, is having all of their eggs in one basket. An F&I agency may have one dealership group that represents 40% of sales. That is a gating factor to trading and getting the highest possible value. Agencies that have significant concentration, which I call greater than 15%, trade at a lower multiple than agencies that have little concentration. Another value driver is size. We look at the number of W-2 employees (as well as financials). Jeff:  Important when you go to sell these companies: Who owns the dealer relationships? And what's the risk of attrition in a transaction? Gina: A lot of diligence needs to be done in these transactions to really understand the nitty-gritty of who, not just on paper but in practice, owns the relationships. What is driving the M&A transactions right now and what are some potential M&A plays? (12:00) Jeff: It sounds like an industry that could be rolled up further. Following the playbook of the P&C insurance distribution market, you got a lot of mom and pops out there and a few large players.  Gina: Both Brown & Brown and Vanguard Dealer Services (Spectrum Automotive) are rolling up agencies. The rest of M&A activity we see is not a roll up, but administrators buying agencies. National Autocare and Portfolio Group have been very inquisitive. There are many other administrators who bought one, two, three agencies, as they attempt to lock in their distribution channels.  Gina:  There should be another roll up of F&I agencies. There should be a private equity firm that's coming in here saying, “I'm going to put a hundred, $150 million to work and we're going to leverage it. And we're going to buy up 20 F&I agencies. We're going to make a super-agency with national coverage.” That could be uber-successful for everybody involved. It just hasn't happened yet. Jeff: The folks that are acquiring are paying pretty high multiples, and that's a challenge. Any new entrant would have to go in and go big pretty quickly. They'd have to find a platform that they can scale and put a lot of capital to work while holding their nose as they pay big prices upfront. Gina: A lot of the M&A activity we have seen is with an older generation that is retiring. There's also some leakage happening where the younger, talented, hungrier F&I agents are like, “I get it, I can do this.” They leave and go start their own agency. I think we'll see that next-generation starting to trade in about a year or two. Gina: I have one last point I want to cover about F&I agency M&A: what's driving the activity. First of all, there's a lot of money looking for deals. There are private equity firms backing administrators that need to grow inorganically. But we also see a lot of M&A activity at the dealership level. They're getting bigger. Big dealership groups are buying up other dealers, independent shops, and dealership groups.  Every time one of those transactions happens, the agent that represents the target dealership is at risk of losing that client. Dealership M&A is driving F&I agency M&A. I think that this is the question that keeps a lot of agents up at night: Are they one or several M&A transactions away from losing a significant portion of their relationships and their livelihood? Spotlight on Payment Plan Providers (18:00) In this second part of our episode, we answer the following questions: How do payment plan providers add value to the auto F&I sector? (18:00) How big is the industry and who are the biggest players? (23:00) Why are payment plan providers a favorite industry of Colonnade? (25:00) What is going on in terms of M&A and what are the value drivers in the industry? (29:00) How do payment plan providers add value to the auto F&I sector? (18:00) Jeff: Payment plan companies came out of the ground around 20 years ago. They started as an offshoot of the insurance premium finance market, which we've talked about in a previous podcast. Fundamentally, this market is designed to help consumers purchase F&I products cost-effectively. Whether you're in a dealership (point of sale) and the F&I person says, “This VSC is going to cost you $3,000” or whether you get a piece of mail about an extended auto warranty (aftermarket), once you get sold on buying the coverage, the questions is always: Do you want to write a check for three grand or do you want to finance it over two or three years?  In most cases, the VSC/extended auto warranty gets financed. That's where these payment plan companies come in. Jeff: At the dealership (point of sale), the payment for an F&I product typically gets rolled into the auto loan. It's just one of the line items in the auto loan, and you (as the consumer) pay it off as you go. There are some payment plan providers that focus on point of sale at the dealership, allowing a consumer to finance the product outside the auto loan. In the aftermarket, which is really where we see these payment plans flourish, it's a different dynamic. If you're on the phone with a direct marketer and you agree to buy the coverage, you can put 10% down and pay over 18 or 36 months, depending on the payment plan. Interestingly, they're interest-free and cancelable at any time. And as you continue to drive your car and assess the usefulness of the product, you can cancel it at any time. If you cancel it, all you do is call up the seller or the administrator and say, “I want to cancel my payment plan.”  In that case, you get a portion of your money back (the unearned premium). It works in a similar way to the insurance premium finance market. The contract is earned over the life of the product. If it's a five-year product and you're one year into it, you might get 80% of the money back. The payment plan company is indifferent because it will just get their pro rata share back from the administrator and seller. The seller will sell the product to the consumer, and if they attach financing to it, the seller will collect the 10 or 15% down payment. The payment plan company will insert themselves and front the rest of the money to the administrator and to the seller. The administrator has to front some money to the CLIP (1) provider, but the revenue to the seller and the admin fee gets fronted by the payment plan company. Jeff: Our Industry Report on this sector goes into much more detail about the industry. How big is the industry and who are the biggest players (23:00) Jeff: We estimate this is about a $5 billion a year originations market. There's not good data. We've done a number of studies over the years and think that's the size of the market. It grows with auto sales and the adoption of products. It's grown considerably over the last several years. There are probably 10 independent players in the market. There are just a small handful of large players. The biggest players are PayLink, which is owned by Fortress and Milestone. Walco is the next biggest, and they're growing nicely. This is the Walder team that previously ran Mepco and Omnisure, and they've started up a new finance company that's growing quite rapidly. Mepco is a large player, they're top three, that's owned by Seabury. There are other smaller players like Budco, Line 5. Service Payment Plan is a big company in the dealer space, again different dynamics but similar product offering. PayLink, Omnisure, and Mepco really dominate the aftermarket space. Folks like Service Payment Plan dominate the dealer (point of sale) channel. Why are payment plan providers a favorite industry of Colonnade? (25:00) Gina: I love the payment plan business because it is so low-risk. What the payment plan companies do is hold a cash reserve on each funding in case the underlying consumer cancels. And that happens. There are a lot of cancellations in the direct consumer marketing of vehicle service contracts. As we've discussed before, it's not because the contracts are bad contracts, but it's because consumers actually have transparency. In the case of vehicle service contracts rolled into an auto loan, consumers don't get a breakout every month of the components of their auto loan that they're paying. They don't see that 80% of your auto loan payment is for the car, 10% is for the vehicle service contract, et cetera, cetera. But when a consumer is financing or using a payment plan for a vehicle service contract in the aftermarket, they have complete transparency as to what that cost is for. And if they decide as a household, they no longer need that product (they need to redeploy that payment to something else like their mortgage), they can cancel. The payment plan businesses have a cash reserve for this. So it is a very low risk business and has great returns. Jeff: Some of these companies have several hundred million dollars of portfolio and each contract starts out at $3,000 and burns down. These are very granular portfolios. You're not going to take a big loss on any particular contract. Unlike the insurance premium finance industry, the incidence or likelihood of fraud is negligible, and the risk here is quite low given the granularity. We like the short duration of these assets. We like the low loss rates. Generally, these transactions are priced at a 15% to 20% unlevered return. They're very high-yield. There's no credit risk. We're not doing anything with consumer credit risk.  We really don't care. We're just managing relationships with sellers and administrators. All those dynamics are favorable to this lending universe. I love this business. It's a niche industry, $5 billion is not the $50 billion commercial P&C market, but it's meaningful and growing. What is going on in terms of M&A and what are the value drivers in the industry? (29:00) Jeff: There really hasn't been much activity as there's a limited universe of players. Some of the administrators are vertically integrating and getting into the payment plan industry. We worked on the initial sale of Mepco to Independent Bank almost 20 years ago. We sold PayLink (which used to be called Warranty Finance Company) to Oxford Financial. It's now owned by Milestone and Fortress. Omnisure: Ed and Paul Walder started up that business from scratch and grew it to a couple hundred million dollars of receivables. We advised on the sale to Fortress.  PayLink and Omnisure merged in 2017 and put together two leading players in the industry. The other important transaction to mention is Seabury's acquisition of Mepco out of Independent Bank in 2017.  Most recently Walco has come out of the ground. Walco was started in early 2020 by Ed and Paul Walder again, starting up another competitor in the sector. They've grown considerably in recent years and are doing a great job building out that business. We don't see a ton of M&A activity per se, but it's a really interesting market. Part of the challenge from an M&A perspective is that there has not traditionally been a deep bank buyer universe of this product and that confounds me a bit. For all the reasons we mentioned, this is a really interesting, dynamic asset class. It's very similar to insurance premium finance, which has a number of large banks in the sector and a number that want to get into it.  The collateral structure looks very similar, except that payment plan providers have higher yields, higher return on assets, and even lower losses. And there's no fraud. I think there's a real opportunity for forward-thinking banks to embrace this asset class and do quite well with very little risk. (1) A CLIP is a commercial liability insurance product that covers the contractual obligations of the insured. A full reimbursement CLIP would indemnify the insured commercial entity for all monies it expends to fulfill a contractual commitment.   About the hosts Gina Cocking serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Colonnade Advisors. Gina began her career in investment banking at Kidder Peabody, was an analyst at Madison Dearborn Partners and an associate at J.P. Morgan & Co. She was the Chief Financial Officer of Cobalt Finance, a specialty finance company. She went on to become the Chief Financial Officer of Healthcare Laundry Systems, a private equity-backed company for which she oversaw the successful sale to a strategic acquirer. Gina served as the Line of Business CFO – Consumer Banking and Lending at Discover Financial Services. Gina serves on the Board of Directors of CIB Marine Bancshares, Inc. Gina received her BA in Economics and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Jeff Guylay is a Managing Director of Colonnade Advisors. Prior to joining Colonnade in 2000, Jeff was an investment banker at J.P. Morgan in the firm's Mergers & Acquisitions and Fixed Income Capital Markets groups in New York. He also spent several years in J.P. Morgan's Chicago office. Jeff has over 20 years of M&A and investment banking experience and has served as lead execution partner on over 25 M&A and financing transactions at Colonnade. Jeff received an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Master of Engineering Management from the University's McCormick School of Engineering. Jeff received a BA from Dartmouth College and a BE from Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering.

THE THESIS: The entire Covid response was planned in advance of the “pandemic” and we need no further proof than Blackrock conspiring with the so-called Federal Reserve to conjure $3.5 trillion digits they pretend are dollars to illegally pay off their cronies and screw the taxpayers.  THE SCRIPTURE & SCRIPTURAL RESOURCES:  Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira 5 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. 3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” 9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” 10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. The Apostles Heal Many 12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. The Apostles Persecuted 17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.” 21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. 22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to. 25 Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them. 27 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood.” 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” 33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” 40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.  THE NEWS & COMMENT: [AUDIO] -  Jenn Psaki lays out a bowl of decaying word salad when asked by a reporter what the Figuread is doing about inflation  Blackrock was planning their wealth redistribution moves The Party shoved down our throats during the so called “pandemic” far ahead of the Covid Flu. As with everything else in the Great Reset, it was planned in advance and they used brutal lies and PsyOps to install it.  The Going Direct reset, from September of 2020 Now, watch the world's food supplies and entire food supply chain. . . Destruction of Food Begins in Shanghai with Fences Installed to Keep People Locked Down The AP, of course, pretends this is all a battle against a flu: Shanghai erects metal barriers in fight against COVID-19 Even the BBC is covering this: Shanghai: Green fences baffle locked down residents See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE THESIS: Sorry, but, this is all scripted. From the conjuring of $3.5 trillion in fake, retail banking “money” Blackrock told the fed to perform 4 months before the alleged pandemic--and then hid under Covid to illegally invest it--to the constriction of American farming capabilities, The Party is showing unbridled arrogance and contempt for us. This means, of course, God is going to topple them.  THE SCRIPTURE & SCRIPTURAL RESOURCES:  Haggai 2:22 22 I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother. Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira 5 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. 3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” 9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” 10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. The Apostles Heal Many 12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. The Apostles Persecuted 17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.” 21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. 22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to. 25 Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them. 27 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood.” 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” 33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” 40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.  THE NEWS & COMMENT: Blackrock was planning their wealth redistribution moves The Party shoved down our throats during the so called “pandemic” far ahead of the Covid Flu. As with everything else in the Great Reset, it was planned in advance and they used brutal lies and PsyOps to install it.  The Going Direct reset, from September of 2020 Now, watch the world's food supplies and entire food supply chain. . . Destruction of Food Begins in Shanghai with Fences Installed to Keep People Locked Down The AP, of course, pretends this is all a battle against a flu: Shanghai erects metal barriers in fight against COVID-19 Even the BBC is covering this: Shanghai: Green fences baffle locked down residents See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Gina Cocking and Jeff Guylay pick up their discussion around the due diligence process related to the sale of a company. This episode is a great add-on to the previously released four-episode series exploring the due diligence process: EP003: Business aspects of due diligence EP004: Legal aspects of due diligence  EP005: Accounting aspects of due diligence  EP006: Technology aspects of due diligence  As we explore the organizational aspects of a due diligence data room, you'll hear the reminiscing of both Gina and Jeff as they remember their days on Wall Street physically managing the data rooms of decades past when there were literally rooms full of documents that buyers would make appointments to review while the analysts on the deal watched.   You'll hear how much data rooms have transformed in recent years with the birth of the electronic data room. Get ready for a call-to-action, which Gina describes as a “resolution” that you can make any time, to get your company's documents located, organized, and filed in a neat system to be ready for a transaction.    Thus our title for the episode: Get your Ducks in a Row. We answer the following questions in this podcast episode: What are data rooms, and why are they so important in the due diligence process? (2:00) What were data rooms like in decades past? (2:30) What are data rooms like today? (4:30) What is contained in an electronic data room? (6:20) Are data rooms static or do they change over time? (10:00) How is confidentiality protected in a data room?  (16:00) What can a company do to prepare for a transaction? (20:00) What do you suggest companies do immediately after listening to this episode in regards to data rooms? (27:00) What are data rooms, and why are they so important in the due diligence process? (2:00) Jeff: Big picture, data rooms are the electronic location of all the materials that we help our clients collect and collate during our process of selling the company. They contain all the information that buyers and investors will need to complete a transaction. So it's everything from articles of incorporations, to financial models, to contracts, etc. Gina: The data room is critical in any buyside or sellside process. The data room is where all the documents are kept that the buyers have access to when reviewing the business. We also give access to the buyers' accountants, attorneys, HR consultants, marketing consultants, etc. Datarooms are all electronic (online) nowadays, but it has not always been that way. What were data rooms like in decades past? (2:30) Jeff: As an analyst in investment banking in the '90s, I would sit in a physical data room on Wall Street. We would have buyers come through, and they would have to sign into the data room and show ID. It was a room full of documents where buyers could spend several days going through documents. They were not able to take any documents out of the data room. They could ask to selectively photocopy certain documents, and we analysts would photocopy them. The business folks, the attorneys, the accountants would come in in-person and spend days digging through the documents.  Gina: I remember being stuck in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in a basement of a chemicals manufacturing facility for about two weeks. One of the challenges in a physical data room is you couldn't have multiple buyers come in at the same time.  You also had to double-check all the files when everyone left to make sure nobody took a document.  What are data rooms like today? (4:30) Jeff: The efficiency with electronic data rooms has been a game-changer.  You can have 30 professionals across various functions looking at documents at the same time and really increase the cycle time of the transaction. Everybody has a unique password, they sign in (online). We can see what documents they've downloaded, which ones they've reviewed, and which ones they haven't looked at. You can see who is really being active. It's a great tool for us as advisors to see who is most interested in a transaction. What is contained in an electronic data room? (6:20) Gina: In the data room, you will have various workstreams based on who will be asking for documents. You'll have workstreams for business, accounting, tax, legal, technology consultants, marketing, HR, and insurance professionals. From a business perspective, it will include all monthly reporting packages, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), MD&As (Management Discussion and Analysis of the financial results); whatever a business is using to manage the business on a day-to-day basis. Business information will also include company presentations made to outside shareholders and banks, internal presentations, presentations made to clients, information on past employees, current employees, payroll data, insurance information, claims history, insurance applications.  Jeff: The data room acts as a central repository of all the information that describes the company, its operations, history, and future.  We start building this data room on day one of our engagement. Colonnade is always thinking ahead about ways that we can help our clients manage the process as efficiently and effectively as possible. Download Colonnade's sample due diligence list here. Are data rooms static or do they change over time? (10:00) Jeff: Our data rooms are living data rooms. Documents continue to be populated throughout the process. On day one, we start asking for documents. These documents include items that we need to produce the financial model and create the Confidential Information Memorandum. Later, we assess what information we need for second-round bids and ultimately confirmatory diligence.  Gina: Everything that we ask for is to help us to understand our client's story and to position us to be able to answer questions as if we were a company insider.  I would say our typical list is 250 to 300 documents that we're requesting. How is confidentiality protected in a data room?  (16:00) Gina: All of our clients worry about what goes into the data room, who's going to see it, and how we protect the secret sauce of the business. We work carefully with our clients from the start to determine what documents they are comfortable sharing at which stages of the process. Jeff: If we contact 50 buyers, and 20 folks are interested enough to take a book (Confidential Information Memorandum), we might have an initial data room that would be a prelude to initial Indications of Interest. (See our podcast episode, Narrowing the Field – Indications of Interest and Letters of Intent). Moving to the next phase you might have six interested buyers, and you can phase in the documents that folks are able to see. We control access electronically.  Gina: I am a big proponent of putting a lot of information in the data room before LOIs are due because then you get better LOIs. They are more well thought out, a lot of the diligence has been done, and when they say, “We are going to pay X,” there's really not much else that they are going to discover at that point that can change that price.  We do a lot of redacting. Instead of putting a customer's name in, it's company one, company two, company three. We take out employee names. We black out contract terms. We black out the name of vendors. We can do that also in the financial information.  Jeff:  We as advisors do a lot of the heavy lifting to first identify the sensitive topics and then manage methods of disclosure. Sometimes we have multiple versions of the data room. We might have a strategic (competitor) data room that is different from the financial sponsor data room. What can a company do to prepare for a transaction? (20:00) Gina: First and foremost, digitize everything. We're in 2022. There should be nothing that is still on paper. You should have a central repository, a server, Dropbox – some solution for all of your documents in one place. Create a document tracker. It can be an Excel list of key documents in your organization including business licenses, lawsuits, complaints, vendor contracts, client contracts, etc. The list should have the title, the date, the expiration date, key contract terms, etc. Do it now. Pay a temp $20 an hour to get that all into a diligence tracker for you. This will avoid paying lawyers $300 to $500 an hour later.  Jeff: Being organized upfront is exactly the right strategy. The more that you can front-load, the smoother the process will go, and your legal costs will ultimately be lower if you're more organized. Gina (23:41): Data hygiene is critical to any process, and the time to start is now. Jeff:  Doing this heavy lifting upfront in the process is really key to driving efficiency. Speed is key in any transaction and making sure that we can streamline the process from the day that we pick up the phone and start talking to folks through the closing date is really key. The data room is the place where it happens. What do you suggest companies do immediately after listening to this episode in regards to data rooms? (27:00) Gina: A great resolution for a company is to get your documents organized. It is easier to stay on top of your contracts and your licenses if you're organized. If you have a tracker, you know where everything is. You won't wake up in the middle of the night wondering where things are.  You will also realize what you don't have, what is not documented, what has expired. Keeping everything in one place instead of in the control of various employees of the business will put you in a position to run your business better and go through a sale process better.  From 10:45 (earlier in the podcast).  Gina: The other thing to remember is that speed is key to any process. Once you get into that exclusivity phase, we want to get through that to signing and funding as quickly as possible.  Jeff: Getting these documents in advance is key. It takes time to find, organize, and scrub all the documents for confidentiality. It's critical to moving the process along because time kills all deals. Conclusion Colonnade works with our clients to: Get them ready for a sale – including some of the tips we talked about today Prepare a thorough, company-specific due diligence list, with an eye towards what buyers and investors will expect in both preliminary and confirmatory due diligence Manage the assembly and dissemination of information throughout the process, being mindful of confidential information and when and to whom we present that sensitive data Manage buyers and investors throughout the diligence phase on our clients' behalf so they can stay focused on running their businesses