Podcasts about ionians

"Not even a drop of noble and undiluted Hellenic blood flows in the veins of the Christian population of present day Greece." : Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer  While we mostly look to the future in this podcast, today we delve into the past to understand the enduring identity of the Greek people. Join host Panagiota Pimenidou as she welcomes back historian Dr. Marios Koutsoukos (University of Liverpool, Hellenic Open University, National and Capodistrian University of Athens) to confront the misconception that modern Greeks are disconnected from their ancient ancestors.We'll unravel the complex relationships between ancient Greek tribes – the Dorians, Ionians, Aeolians, and Achaeans – explore their links to the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations, and investigate the distinct impact of the Argead Macedonians. We'll also delve into the legacy of Byzantium and examine the evidence that fueled the Greek War of Independence, tracing the unbroken thread of Hellenism to the modern day.Connect with Panagiota:Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Facebook: Global Greek Influence PodcastYouTube: Giota PimenidouX: @global_greekTikTok: @The Innovation Catalyst

In the last episode of this series, we covered the rise of the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great and its expansion into Anatolia and the eastern Aegean, including the predominantly Greek-speaking region of Ionia.  Though much of Ionia prospered under their new overlords, in 499 BC, the Ionians revolted with their help of their allies, including the city-states of Athens and Eritrea.  By 493 BC, what become known as the Ionian Revolt had been crushed, and order restored to the western fringes of the Persian Empire.  However, the empire's king, Darius I, vowed to punish Athens and Eretria for their involvement in the uprising. The Great King of Persia sent several of his most trusted commanders to subdue both city-states and any others who opposed him, resulting in the first major armed encounter in Europe between the Greeks and Persians on the plains of Marathon. Drawing on historical sources and the latest archaeological research, this series will explore everything from the causes of the conflict to its key figures, the various phases of leading up to this epic encounter and its aftermath.  Contents:00:00  Recap and Introduction01:45 The Northern Aegean Campaigns of Mardonius05:10 Looking to the West08:18 Athens and Eretria09:49 How many Men and Ships?14:30 Island Hopping Around the Aegean16:33 Euboea and Eretria 19:23 Onward to Athens22:21 Decisions27:07 War it is! 29:33 The Battle of Marathon35:44 Counting the Dead38:57 If not by Land, then by Sea!40:00 Aftermath of Marathon44:41 Thank You and PatronsSupport the show

The great conflict that we know today as the Greco-Persian Wars between a few independent city-states of ancient Greece and mighty Achaemenid Persian Empire is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating and consequential in all of history.  More than just battles for territory and glory - they were clashes of culture, ideology, and power between East and West. The war saw legendary figures such as Leonides, The Great King Xerxes, Themistocles, Darius the Great, Miltiades, Mardonius, Artemisia, Kleomenes, and countless others in action.  Since most accounts of the conflict available to us come from Greek and Roman historians and writers of antiquity such as Herodotus, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, Aeschylus, the traveler Pausanias, Justin and others, our modern perspective is often shaped by their portrayal of a struggle between the freedom-loving Greeks and the tyrannical rulers of Achaemenid Persia—a narrative further popularized by films like 300.  However, as we will explore, the reality was far more complex.  Drawing on historical sources and the latest archaeological research, this series will explore everything from the causes of the conflict to its key figures, the various phases of the war, and its aftermath. This is the first of a series of 5 or 6 podcasts that will be released over the next few months.  Stay tuned for future episodes.  Contents:00:00  Rise of Cyrus the Great and the Persian Achaemenid Empire05:27 Ionians and Greeks in the Persian Empire14:29 A bit about Herodotus16:49 Trouble in Athens23:52 Earth and Water 28:04 Sparta (almost) Attacks!36:25 Aristagoras' Plan44:21 The Ionian Revolt49:10 The Battle of Lade50:09 Aftermath57:10 Thank You and PatronsSpecial thanks to Farya Faraji for the following musical compositions featured throughout the program: "Spantodhata's Warning""To Phrygia""In Pythagoras' Mind""The Apadana's Shadows""Immortals""Mater""In Sappho's Mind""Spring in Persepolis""Aíma""Apranik's Charge""March of Achaemenes""Hyrcanian Lullaby"Check out more of his work that spans across many countries, cultures and time periods: https://www.youtube.com/@faryafarajiYou can also find them on the albums:*Songs of Old Iran Vols. I & II**Voices of the Ancients Vols. I & II* Additional Music:Epidemic Sound"Genie's Bane""Interstate 895""One with the Tribe""Pepper Seeds""Keeping up with the Tarahumaras""Blood in Water""The Golden Spiral""The Sewers""Deer Hunt""Zero Remorse"Support the show

With his new advisor Craesus at his side, Cyrus the great ponders the problem with those devious Ionian greeks. This is a podcast by Dan Hörning and Bernie Maopolski.If you like what we do you can support the Fan of History project on https://www.patreon.com/fanofhistoryContact information:http://facebook.com/fanofhistoryhttps://twitter.com/danhorninghttps://www.instagram.com/dan_horning/Music: “Tudor Theme” by urmymuse.Used here under a commercial Creative Commons license. Find out more at http://ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/40020 Support the show and listen ad-free to all of the episodes! Click here (remove the dot at the end for a working URL): https://plus.acast.com/s/history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we know this beautiful legendary city, as Marseilles.It's the 2nd largest city in France and the most ancient one. And her foundations were laid thanks to ancient Greeks! The mythical start of the city is told by Herodotus and Aristotle who give us some information and traces of truth through their stories about her establishment. But we will look into her ancient food traditions!Wine! Grapes! Olives and Herbs! The Greeks brought a lot with them when settled in Massalia around 600 BCE.The inland routes to reach northern Europe started here; the navigable rivers that led to the Atlantic, made the spot the city was built, ideal. The trade of tin and other goods was of outmost importance, and so was the necessity to avoid the conflicts with Carthaginians along the southern routes from Spain.But let's go to the food.Archestratus says:Use all anchovies for manure, exceptThe Attic fish; I mean that useful seedWhich the Ionians do call the foam;And take it fresh; just caught within the bays,The sacred bays of beautiful Phalerum.Good is it too, when by the sea-girt isleOf Rhodes you eat it, if it's not imported.And if you wish to taste it in perfection,Boil nettles with it—nettles whose green leavesOn both sides crown the stem; put these in the dishAround the fish, then fry them in one pan,And mix in fragrant herbs well steep'd in oil.How is the traditional Provençal dish "sartanado" connected with the above passage from Archestratus?What is "myttotos"? What has in common with rouille? What does a recipe found in a papyri, has to do with the famous French bouillabaisse?Which oysters the poet Ausonious things are the best?These, and a lot more are answered in the episode today! Join me and enjoy the foods of Massalia!The Delicious LegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. If you love to time-travel through food and history why not join us at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Ionian Greeks along with their allies from Athens and Eretria had entered and burn Sardis, though they failed to take the Acropolis. They withdrew back to the coast where the Persian would catch up to them and fight the battle of Ephesus. The Greeks would be defeated with the survivors making for their cities, the Athenians and Eritreans sailing home to take no more part in the revolt.With no more aid coming from Greek lands, the Ionians would now take measures that would see the revolt spread throughout other parts of Anatolia. By 497, Much of Aeolia, the Hellespont, Caria and even as far south as Cyprus would be in open revolt. Though, with the revolt spreading, the Persians would be arranging a response to punish those responsible and bring these lands back under their control.Multiple Persian armies would operate throughout the western parts of the empire seeing that Cyprus would once again become a Persian possession. Further operations would also see the trade rich areas of the Hellespont coming back under Persian control. Caria and Ionia would prove slightly more of a challenge. Caria would see hard fighting and would see the Persians having to deal with partisan operations. While In Ionia, a major set piece battle would be fought before the Persians could begin reducing the Ionian cities one by one. Eventually, western Anatolia would be back in Persian hands.Persia's attention would then shift west to Greek lands, where the Ionians, now Persian subjects once again would be part of the forces marching west. They would make up a sizable portion of the Persian navy during both the first and second Persian invasions. With the Greek victory over Persia during the invasions, the war would enter Persian lands in Ionia. The Ionians would now be encouraged to revolt for the second time, with the spark being lit during the battle of Mycale. The region would become important during future operations, with events and decisions leading to unintended consequences for a new generation of Greeks. Casting Through Ancient Greece WebsiteFollow on TwitterFollow on FacebookSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

The words of the Delphic oracle had rung true, the rising empire founded by Cyrus the great, the Persians had just destroyed a mighty empire, in that of king Croesus and his Lydians. The Greeks of Ionia had stood by idle only having been subjected to the Lydians a generation earlier. Cyrus had tried to incite the Greeks to rebel, though they would wait to see which way the winds would blow.With the Persian victory the Greeks now sought to arrange favourable terms with the new power in the region. Though, their fence sitting would find their attempts met with anger and distain from Cyrus. With Sardis captured and only mopping up operations left in the west, Cyrus departed back into the empire leaving his commanders to finish the job.As the Persians absorbed the Lydian system into their own, resistance would develop with one last effort of the Lydians attempting to regain control. Cyrus would learn of the Lydian revolt and detach an army to head back to stamp it out as quickly as possible. With the revolt under control measures were now taken to punish those regions involved. This would see all of the Greek cities along the Anatolian coast now fully integrated into the Persian Empire. After a generation living under Persian control, dissatisfaction in the Ionian Greek cities would begin to make itself known. The Greeks were living under tyrannies acting in the interests of the Persians, though they had not been particularly popular before this time also. A combination of tyrannical rule, Persian tribute pressures as well as personal ambitions would all end up seeing a revolt develop in Ionia. The Ionians would take the initiative and launch an attack on Sardis, though it would fail and the revolt would drag on for a number of years.  Casting Through Ancient Greece WebsiteFollow on TwitterFollow on FacebookSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

After the Median invasion, the Ionian philosopher Xenophanes, a student of the Anaximander, was forced to flee to Elea in Magna Graecia and brought the philosophy of the Ionians to the Eleans. His student, Parmenides, then founded the Eleatic School, which was skeptical of the senses, and argued that despite its appearance to the contrary, the Earth was round. Parmenides's student, Zeno, in turn developed his famous paradoxes to prove his teacher's assertion that motion was an illusion.

Episode 8 -  The Persian WarsHi, my name is Clayton Mills.  Welcome to ‘A Short Walk through our Long History' - a podcast where we look at the events of history, and try to see how those events shaped our modern world. Welcome to Episode 8 -  The Persian Wars.  We're talking today about the ancient wars between Greece and Persia.  I've mentioned that Greece has had an important impact on the western world, but did you know that ancient Greece was almost wiped out?  A couple of times?  Greece was a small country, but they tangled with the biggest empire of their time:  The Persians.  The battles between these two countries will become legendary, and will give us a couple of the best quotes of all time.  Also, Pheidippides!  And his famous last words.  Lots of good quotes in this episode.  We've mentioned the days of the Mycenaeans, and the Greek dark ages, and how the beginning of the end of the Greek dark ages was when Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, which was sometime around 800 BC.  Now we're getting to the real beginning of recorded history, and from this point on, we can almost always date what one culture says is going on against the records of other cultures.  In other words, we're finally at the point where we have a unified timeline, and we can fit events to very specific dates on the timeline.  Before this, we always had to say ‘sometime around 800 BC,' but after this, we're getting to the point where we can say ‘on September 27th, 480 BC, this happened.'  That's the date, by the way, of the Battle of Salamis, which was the Ancient Greek version of the Battle of Midway.  Well, with less dive-bombers. So, around 550 BC (ok, I'm still using ‘around' in a few places).  Around 550 BC, the Persians, who were a tribe from what is now Iran, began to expand.  They conquered the Medes, who had been the biggest kingdom in the region, and then continued to expand.  Their king was Darius, and he built up the largest empire the world had seen to that point.  The Persian empire stretched from the Persian gulf in the south, to what is now Kazahkstan in the east, up to the middle of the Black Sea in the north, and in the west, they began to expand into Greek-held lands in what is now Turkey.  This area of Turkey was called Ionia, and at first the Ionian cities did not resist the Persians.  They didn't have the strength.  But in 499 BC, the Ionians tried to rebel.  They were supported by two cities from mainland Greece, Eritria and Athens.  Together, they destroyed a Persian city, Sardis, and then the Eritrians and Athenians went back home. Well of course the Persians quickly came back and re-conquered Ionia.  And the Persians did not forget that the Athenians and Eritreans had helped in the revolt. So the Persians are thinking about the cities of Eritrea and Athens.  And they aren't happy.  This set up 50 years of fighting, known to the Greeks as the Persian Wars.  Ok, now we are getting to one of the most famous battles of all time, the battle of Marathon.  This battle is carefully recorded by the Greek historian, Herodotus, who wrote about it only 50 years after it happened.  In 490 BC, Darius came back to Greece with a massive army and a massive navy. He landed first at Eritrea, and destroyed the city.  Darius and the army then got back in their boats, and sailed to Marathon, a small town just northeast of Athens.  The Athenians sent their best messenger, a runner, a guy named Pheidippides, to run to Sparta, and ask for help.  It's about 150 miles from Athen to Sparta.  Lots of hills.  Herodotus mentions our friend Pheidippides.  Supposedly, Pheidippides ran that 150 miles just in 2 days.  For scale, that's about the distance from Houston to Austin.  The MS 150 is a BICYCLE race from Houston to Austin, and it takes 2 days.  Supposedly Phidippedes ran that whole thing, and then asked the Spartans for help.Normally the Spartans would have been all over this request, since they were maybe the most war-loving city in all of history.  But they were in the midst of an important city festival, and the elders said they couldn't come fight until the festival was over.  No, we can't come defend Greece.  We have this party, see?  It's kind of a big deal, so we'll come when the party is over.  OK?  So Pheidippides ran back to Athens with the bad news.  And then the Athenians sent him on to the front at Marathon with army.  The Greek army had about 10,000 soldiers.  Kind Darius and the Persians had at least 30,000.  Some estimates are higher.  When they began the battle, the Greeks intentionally let the center of their line collapse, and then the phalanxes on the Greek wings turned in and crushed the Persians.  We'll talk more about the Phalanxes and what they are in a separate episode.  The Persians, sensing that they were being beaten, fell apart and ran, and the Greeks chased them and cut them down, chasing them all the way to their ships.  The Persians lost as many as half of their men, which was a stunning defeat.  The ones who survived sailed back across the Aegean Sea to regroup.  Back on the field at Marathon, the Greeks sent our runnin' friend Phidippedes to run back to Athens, and tell then what had happened.  The distance from Marathon to Athens is just about 25 miles, which is where we get the distance for a modern marathons.  Phidippedes runs up to Athens, and says to the elders, ‘Nicómen!', which means, ‘We won!'.  And then he died, right there, right in front of the elders.  As last words go, though, those are pretty good. Right?So we have a historic victory for the Greeks, and and a heroic effort from Phidippedes, and the Persians retreating across the Aegean Sea to Ionia and points farther east.  Not long after that, King Darius dies, but the memory of what happened in Greece does not.  Darius's son, Xerxes (one of the cooler names in all of history, btw), succeeds him.  Xerxes wants to out-do his father, and wants to expand the Persian empire even farther.  So he decides he's going to bring an even bigger army to Greece, and show them what's what.   So in 480 BC, 10 years after Marathon, he sets out, with an army of between 150 thousand and million men.  Accounts vary on the size, Herodotus says a million, but it's quite probable this was the biggest army ever, up to this point in history.  Xerxes also has a huge navy, to try to fight the Greek navy, and keep them from sailing up the coast and flanking his army. But instead of sailing most of his army to Greece, he marches them.  There's a stretch of water they have to cross, in what is now Istanbul, called the Hellespont.  Xerxes has his engineers build a bridge there, using 600 ships, which is an enormous number of ships, by the way, and planks and even dirt on the planks, so his army can march on a road.  It apparently took the army seven days to cross, the army was so large.  Once they were across, they had to march over to the main part of the Greek peninsula.  And they had to march through some mountains to get to the peninsula.  But there waiting for them in the mountain pass, near the town of Thermopylae, was a group of about 7000 Greeks, including 300 Spartans led by their king, Leonidas.  You know where this is going, don't you?  The battle at Thermopylae is one of the most famous battles in all of history.  Leonidas and the Greeks had the advantage of good position, but Xerxes had almost unlimited men.  So sometime in late July or early August of 480 BC (see, we're getting more specific.  I told you we would), Xerxes begins to attack the Greeks.Leonidas and the Greeks held the pass for 7 days, including 3 full days of fighting, against the vastly larger Persian army.  Now we're getting to the great quotes from this battle.  When the Persians sent an envoy to tell the Greeks that they should surrender, the Greeks refused.  The envoy said, ‘We will darken the sky with our arrows!' Which they could easily do, with that many men.    But A Greek soldier, named Dienekes, reportedly said, ‘Good.  Then we will fight in the shade.'  That, is one of the best battle quotes of all time.  But the best is still to come.  The Persian envoy rather forcefully told King Leonidas to surrender all his weapons.  And Leonidas said, ‘Come and get them.'  In all the history of battle quotes, that, is the most bad-ass.  ‘Come and get them.' So the Persians eventually attacked, and the Greeks held them off for 3 days, until a local resident told Xerxes about a small mountain pass and led some of the Persians back behind the Greek lines.  Leonidas, realizing what was happening, let most of the Greeks go, to head back to Athens.  The 300 Spartans, and maybe 700 other Greeks stayed to hold the pass.  Almost all of the Greeks who stayed to hold off the main Persian army ended up fighting to the death.  The Battle of Thermopylae was technically a Greek defeat, but it wasn't really a Persian victory.  The Greek and Spartan warriors had bought the rest of Greece more than a week to prepare, and they had badly dented the morale of the Persians.  But the Persians did eventually break through the mountain pass at Thermopylae, and marched on to Athens.  But when they got there, they found the city deserted.  Now we get to the real victory, and the battle that just doesn't get as much attention as Marathon or Thermopylae, even though it's the one that really matters.  Salamis.  Salamis is an island off the coast of Greece, and it was the site of one of the largest naval battles in all of history.  Again, the Greeks were outnumbered, but again, the Greeks were better sailors than the Persians, and had the advantage of location.  According to Herodotus, there were about 370 Greek ships, against about 1200 Persian ships.  That's more than 3 to 1.  But the Greeks lured the Persians into a narrow straight between two islands, where the huge number of Persian ships actually worked against them, as they were too crowded and couldn't maneuver.  The Greeks thoroughly routed the Persian navy, and killed their admiral, who was one of Xerxes' brothers.   Xerxes himself supposedly watched the battle from a mountainside near the shore, and realized that the Persian fleet had been destroyed.  Xerxes took most of his army and marched back to Asia.  He left behind a sizable force, though, under one of his generals, Mardonius.  Eventually, in 479 BC, the Greeks defeated Mardonius and the Persians at the battle of Plataea, ending the wars between the Greeks and the Persians. The Persians never came back and attacked the Greeks.  Eventually though the Greeks will grow strong enough to attack the Persians, but that won't happen until Alexander the Great comes on the scene.  The Greeks were still a bit bitter about all these attacks, and wanted a bit of revenge.  But the defeat of the Persians in 479 BC begins what is known as the Golden Age of Greece, which is one of the most intellectually productive times in western history.  We'll look at this in upcoming episodes.So how do these battles between the Greeks and the Persians influence our modern world?  Well, as I've said, Greece is one of the most influential cultures in the history of the western world, and it wouldn't have been that if it had been beaten by the Persians. Maybe we would then be talking about how influential Persia was on western history, but hey, Thermopolyae.  Salamis.  Greece won.   The most influential thinkers in Greece show up soon after these battles.  Because the Greeks had bought themselves some time and some peace, they had a time of prosperity, where they were not spending their time fighting external enemies.  And in that time they developed some of the greatest thinkers the world has seen.  We'll look at those guys in upcoming episodes.  Another way that these battles influenced the modern world is that the western world, and especially western military units, have essentially inherited some of the values of the ancient Greeks who strove to defend their homelands.  Courage in the face of overwhelming odds, self-sacrifice, teamwork, leaders who are part of the battle, the importance of choosing your battleground, and the right to defend yourself against tyrants - all of these are important values in the western world.  In the end, this is what the Greek defense against Persia was all about - the Greeks were defending their right to rule themselves, rather than to be ruled by Persia.  And they were willing to take up arms and fight to the death, rather than let someone else rule them against their will.    There are echoes of this spirit in the American Revolution, in the American Civil War, in the Reformation, in the English Civil war, The Scots fighting against the invading British, the Zulus fighting against the invading British, OK, anyone fighting against the invading British, and in many of the great battles of western history.  The idea that some foreign power can come in and take over your land, then tell you to pay tribute to them - that is tyranny.  And though some people have said, ‘ok, we'll submit, that's better than fighting, don't hurt us,'  other peoples have said instead, ‘no, I'm not going to lie down and let that happen.'  That's the spirit of Patrick Henry's famous quote, ‘Give me Liberty, or give me death.'  One last thought on how that matters in our modern world.  It might just be that our current world is moving in the direction of tyranny again.  The history of the world is an ongoing struggle between tyrants who want to control everything, and people defending their rights to self-determination and liberty.  When a government begins to curtail the rights of its people to determine their own destiny, whether it is your own government or the government of a country that wants to take yours over, the time comes when people must choose to either submit, or to fight back.  History does not remember those who submitted.  History remembers those who have said, ‘come and take them.'  History remembers those who have said, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”  We'll look at that document in a much later episode.In the next episode we will look at the development of Athenian democracy, something that clearly had a big effect on the western world.  But before that episode, we will take another quick side episode, to look at something that I find fascinating - Greek military and naval advancements, and how it was that they won these amazing battles against much larger forces.  

0 (2s): Christmas every month. And if you're getting in the holiday spirit, welcome to Harvest Church my name is Cheryl and I'm so glad you're here. Yeah. Feel free to stand if you're able and during Us hello to everyone on campus and those watching at home, we're so glad that you are worshiping with us together this morning. Let's just take some time to go into his presence and prayer and just welcome him. And we do welcome you today. As we make room in our hearts and help us to sit still all of the noise in our hearts. 0 (42s): So we can hear your voice this morning. We want to hear from you. Jesus. We want to learn from you want to come in and do your prisons. There's a boldness in our hearts, Thanksgiving, the, this morning, you know that sometimes we think we have to like have ourselves all like cleaned up and perfect to come into God's presence. But I was reminded that he came as a baby into a stinky manger, surrounded by animals and a noisy chaotic barn. 0 (1m 22s): And that's our savior. He comes into the mess into the chaos and his presence is here. Love is available for you in the midst of whatever's going on in your heart and life right now. And so father, we just say, come and have your way in this place. We've come to adore you. Praise the Lord. 0 (1m 48s): 1 (11m 56s): . 1 (12m 43s): 2 (16m 52s): Praise you this morning. It gives us great joy to worship you by your Holy spirit. Thank you Lord, for giving us your gift, give to the Holy spirit. We pray that you would fill us, continue to lead us thankful for this place to gather place, to be safe. 2 (17m 34s): And in the shadow of your wings, worship you in jesus' name. Amen. 1 (17m 45s): Thank you 2 (17m 45s): Guys for singing coming this morning. Let's all take a little 3 (17m 50s): Time to love one another fellowship with one another. We'll you're back here with announcements, the pinnacle of the day, just momentarily. 4 (18m 3s): All right. Good morning. Go ahead and find a seat. That'd be great. All right. One a welcome, everyone. Those of you that are gathered in the sanctuary in the loft, in the patio, I want to welcome everyone. That's viewing online as well, and also want to let you know, we do have a new venue that we've just opened up recently, and it's a mask only venue, and it's in the parsonage. So if, if you, or you know, someone that's inclined to you, you still want to be around other people that are wearing masks and things. 4 (18m 43s): You can venture up to the parsonage. And that's what that is dedicated for up there. And so again, if, if it's your first time to Harvest, Church, we're really happy you're here today. Maybe you've been visiting a few times. If you make your way up to the information center, we have a gift for you. So go ahead and head up there, introduce yourself. And then also, if you would like you can fill out a communication card. We want to be really diligent about communicating with everyone, all the things that are going on, changes that are happening. We sent out a weekly email update to make sure that everybody knows exactly what's happening here at Harvest Church and I'm okay. I got a F did you hear what Jim folk had said a moment ago about the announcements being the pinnacle of the, of the service? 4 (19m 26s): Did you guys catch that? That's true. And one of the announcements that I have for you is there's a men's breakfast that's planned. So men would love to have you show up this next Saturday. So Saturday the 12th show up here at Church and eight o'clock. We're going to gather in the loft, which is the building right behind us here. We're going to have breakfast together. We're going to have just a fun time of fellowship there's you don't need to sign up. You don't need to bring any money. How good is that? Just show up and be hungry. And we're going to have a great time of fellowship with the men. So with that, there's a men's retreat. That's also planned. The men's retreat is scheduled for January 8th and ninth, and it's going to be held up at the granite Ridge camp. 4 (20m 9s): It's up in Creston. So just North of us a little bit, you need to get signed up though. So the deadline to sign up for the men's retreat is what is it? December 15th. Okay, there you got it. December 15th is the deadline. So guys would encourage you to get signed up for the men's retreat. You can sign up at the info center, or you can go on our Church app, go online, or you can go directly to granite Ridge camp ground, and you can sign up that way as well. So guys would love to have him be a part of that. So every year in the village, there's a parade and there's this whole big hoopla thing that happens Christmas. It's not happening tonight because of the shutdown and stuff. 4 (20m 52s): So one of the things that happens during, during the parade and, and those events typically is the tree. The tree in front of the sanctuary is the village Christmas tree. And so we're still going to have a little bit of a get together tonight, a ceremony, if you want to call it that, where we're going to, here's what we're going to do. We are going to have some caroling. We're going to have a nativity reading, and we're going to have the lighting of the Christmas tree right up front here. It's going to be at six o'clock tonight. Love to have you bring the whole family. It's going to be outside. So it's probably going to be cold. So dress warmly, guaranteed. Not to snow though. I will let you know about that. So come on out tonight, it would be really great to have the whole family gathered together. 4 (21m 32s): So for Christmas, we are collecting some donations for some food baskets that we're putting together through our pantry ministry. So if you would like to donate some items, you can go up to the info center and they'll let you know what items we're going to be collecting. Or if you get our weekly email, the list is in there as well. And you can bring the items and they're due. When are they do? They are due next Sunday, which is December 13th. So if you'd like be a part of that, you can bring them by the office as well. And we'll go ahead and collect those. We've been announcing that we're doing a coat drive. In addition, the coat drive actually has been canceled because of the event that they were going to do to hand, hand the coats out to the needy in our community. 4 (22m 16s): It's been canceled. So if you have some codes that you've been collecting, you could go ahead and take them to the thrift store. Just give them to somebody on your own. That'd be fine. So the last thing I want to share with you, probably the most important of all there is a new year's Eve young professionals, pajama party and game night. Okay. So I asked this question to one of the planners. What is the age group for a young professional? So they told me 20 to 40. All right. Pretty pretty broad age. This again, this is a 5 (22m 50s): New year's Eve. Yup. 4 (22m 52s): Professionals, pajama party, and game night, you guys need to get signed up and it's going to be from six to nine is can mean the loft it's going to have a taco truck is going to be catered with a taco truck. So there is a price involved it's 10 bucks. And if you want to sign up, you can do it on the app, go online and, and, and all that good stuff. But one last thing, I was cleaning out one of my closets in my house this week, and I found my son's dinosaur one Z say a head to toe one Z pajama suit. So I announced it at first service as well. So if you want the dinosaur one Z, you gotta let me know. It's it's, it's, it's a F it's free to the first person who wants the onesy, but okay. 4 (23m 36s): You're, you're older than 40. I'm sorry, sir. Okay. 5 (23m 42s): I will not 4 (23m 43s): Be wearing the dinosaur suit, but thank you for asking. All right. So with that, I'm going to invite Dave to come up and he's going to be in first Thessalonians chapter two. So if you want to go ahead and turn in your Bible to first Thessalonians chapter two, that'd be great. Let's welcome, Dave. 6 (23m 58s): 7 (24m 9s): There we go. You know, and at times like this, that we're facing now, it's, it's easy to feel afflicted, you know, it's with COVID and shutdowns and, and being told that we shouldn't be gathering together and, and that we shouldn't be connecting with each other and that, and it just, and the fact that it's been going on for nine months now just kind of feels oppressing. And, and, but yet this is nothing like what the Church and Tesla Annika felt that we're Paul is writing to hear. 7 (24m 49s): And, and this time I'm going to cover quite a bit of ground today, because most of what this is, is narrative. I'm starting with the chapter two verse 17, and I'm going to preach all the way through chapters three. And I hope to be done by three o'clock. But the, but the whole thing in here is looking at it being it's mostly narrative, but there's still some, some great stuff in here. Paul Paul is very personal in this letter, if you read it. And there is, there's just a ton of narrative. There's some teaching, but it's mostly, he S he's writing words of comfort. 7 (25m 30s): He's writing words of, of hope. He's writing words, just telling him how he's feeling and how he's hoping they're doing. Whereas Romans is very theological. And first Corinthians and Galatians are very much dealing with problems and the church. This is so personal. And we really see a lot in here about Paul and about the Thessaloniki. And Church Paul is he's got deep affection for the people there. And, and, and, and Paul's affection for them is, is just mirroring. God's love for them. And, but in the midst of this, what he's so concerned about, and this is what persecution is, what Afflictions, they might be enduring. 7 (26m 17s): The things that they're experiencing as a followers of Jesus in a very, very intolerant situation. A very, very matter of fact, antagonistic situation. If you remember, Paul was driven out of Fessel, Anika, they, they had, when they couldn't find him, they pulled somebody else who was in the Church out and they, they beat him up and they took him before the, and made them pay a huge bail to get out and all of this while they investigated. And, and the Church said, DePaul, better scoop need to get out. And so they left, but so we see Paul's affection. 7 (26m 59s): We see their affliction, which we all face. We face the same kinds of Afflictions today. And, but through that, we see God's Affirmation that we are loved. We are cared for even when things are hard. And We, we might ask the question, where is God, when we're going through this, and he's right there with you, and he loves you and nothing can separate you from his love. So I'm going to break this passage up into three parts. The first part is going to be starting with a, in chapter two. And I'm just reading the starting at verse 17 and reading through the end of the chapter, please stand let's let's pray before we get started with this. 7 (27m 48s): And we'll go from there, Laura, God, I thank you so much that you are God, that you are the Lord of all that you love, the creation that you have made, and you especially love mankind 6 (28m 8s): Because 7 (28m 8s): You made us in your image and likeness. You set us up to be the caretakers of what you have made the stewards of, of your kingdom, of your creation, the stewards of all that you have set apart that we might have dominion, and then we spit in your eye. So God today we come to you as broken. We come to you as those who don't deserve to receive your love, but nonetheless are loved through Jesus Christ. 7 (28m 52s): Come speak to our hearts today, Lord, come speak and, and, and we desire Lord God, to be transformed by your word at living and active word that is sharper than any two-edged sword to divide soul and spirit joints and marrow. And to reveal the intentions of our hearts 6 (29m 18s): Come 7 (29m 19s): Revealed the intentions of our hearts today, Lord, and shape us more into the image of Jesus. God use me as your vessel here to speak your truth. And I pray Jesus, that you would have your way with what is spoken here and with what received here. And I know from all the years, I've preached that there are so many who hear something that I didn't say because you were speaking. So say to our hearts, what it is that you know, We to here, fill us with your spirit and the joy that comes from knowing we are loved in your name. 7 (30m 7s): We pray. Amen. And amen. So today I'm calling this a CA I say, I always used to just give one word titles are very, you know, very brief phrase, but Steve does these long ones. So, so I got to come up with something has lots of words in it, but that really highlights what it is we're talking about here. And, and so today's sermon, I'm calling God's Affection Overcomes Our Afflictions and Gives Us Affirmation That we are His God's affection. Overcomes Our Afflictions and Gives Us Affirmation that we are His. So peer, we see this, this first piece, this Affection of that Paul has for the Thessaloniki sins that is mirroring God's love. 7 (30m 55s): So I'm going to read verses 17 through 20 here of chapter two. This is God's word. Since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you. I Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us for what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus. It is coming. Is it not you for you are our glory and joy. 7 (31m 35s): It's talking to you folks. Paul is writing this, but the Holy spirit is speaking to you. You remember from acts 17. As I mentioned before, Paul was, was driven out of vessel, Anika by jealous and, and wicked men who were threatened by the message of the gospel and jealous of the following that Paul was getting, they were the, wanted to be the arbiters of the truth. They wanted to be the ones who determined what was right and what was wrong. And then those who were idolaters were just livid and, and trying to drive them away because they were cutting into their profits. 7 (32m 17s): But this is what he was referring to. And he said he was torn away from them. It was like a That in the Greek. It literally means T he was orphaned from them. Just like if a conquering force would come in and they would rip the children out of the parent's arms and cause those children to become orphans, because then the parents would just sense this great loss. And the children would be who was whose, where are my parents what's going on with them? Or they might even see them cut down in front of them. And so the children automatically become orphans than hauled off into slavery. This is what Paul was feeling. I feel as if I've been orphaned from you, I am so cut off. 7 (32m 58s): I'm so taken away from you. And he feels that this, this deep love that he has for them, this deep concern that he has for them is just tearing it as hard, because he's concerned about what they're facing. This is Paul, the Pharisee of farracies, as he says, in his pedigree and one of the other epistles. And, you know, as to the law, I was blameless. I was, I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. I was the one, he was the greatest teacher and to sit at his feet was to be the greatest pupil. This is Paul, he's the Hebrew of Hebrews and lover of everything, Hebrew and hater of everything Gentile until God got ahold of him and God transformed his heart, that he might show his love through Paul, to those that around him. 7 (33m 51s): And he had this special affection for the Fessel onions. There is Are next to His except the message of his gospel and God's demonstration of its power. Through Paul, they caused, they caused him to love them with a deep and abiding love through Paul came. He had come through Apollonia and Hierapolis I think is the town from Philippi had been run out of Philippi, went through two towns to get to festival. And nothing happened in those two towns. And it wasn't like he just was passing through. I'm sure everywhere, every place he went, Paul tried to share the gospel, but there was nothing there, nothing recorded about what, what happened in those cities. 7 (34m 37s): But when he got to Fessel and ICA, he went and he reasoned in the synagogue and he reasoned there and people were being transformed. People were coming to faith in Jesus. People were receiving the gospel with their whole heart, and it was started taking effect until the point that people got jealous, their religious folks got jealous. And so all of this stuff started going on and, and all this persecution and, and Paul so loved them that he said, you are my glory and my joy, because I'm going to present. You say, these are the ones you gave me. God, isn't a great, they stayed strong. 7 (35m 17s): Isn't it great. They loved you. Isn't it great. They just hold fast to Jesus. Isn't this super. And thank you that I got to be part of their coming to faith in you. That's Paul's love for them. And it's the same Affection God has for you as his dearly beloved child. See, when he removed you from the kingdom of darkness and adapted, you adapted you to be his own. He did. So because he loves you. If he does and says he chose you from before the foundation of the war, 6 (35m 59s): Isn't that amazing. 7 (36m 5s): And he does. So because he loves you and wants you to know that he loves you. You see the, the Affection here. We think about God's unconditional love. God's love. God's so loved the world and this overarching love. But sometimes that can feel kind of distant. Sometimes that can feel like we're really, God loves us, but he's kind of out there, but there's a real affection here. Something that that's so close and that love that you have for your children. You get that little baby and hold him in your arms for the first time. 7 (36m 44s): When, when, gosh, I remember that when our girls were born, kind of, cause I'm getting old, but I do remember much more recently when our grandsons were born. And when our first grandson was born, Cyrus is 13. And we met him when he was about 45 minutes old. And, and I held him and I just looked at this little one that I had not seen or ever met before anticipated is coming, but, but just had never seen him. And I had so much love for this little one that I just put my eyes on for the first time. 7 (37m 25s): And what was really great about that is I had none of the responsibility for him, but, but I had this little one that I just so deeply loved. And that's the way Paul felt about the Thessaloniki as they were his children in the Lord. And they, he loved them deeply and was so concerned about all that we're going through. See God took you out of that kingdom of darkness. He wants you to know that you are loved. And Paul writes in Romans, Romans eight, 15, he says for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry Abba father, he says, God is, is our loving father who loves to pick us up. 7 (38m 17s): And dandle, Us on his knees and, and hold us clothes. That's the affection that we're seeing here. And he says, you're not slave subject to God's whim. You're not those who are forced to do things outside of your will, but he loves you so that you want to love him back. You want to do what he wants. He wraps you in his arms of loving care and his passion for you is 8 (38m 44s): Deep. You know, even 7 (38m 47s): To Israel, the prophet, Jeremiah spoke and remember Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, Jeremiah didn't have a whole lot of good stuff to say about God's people other than what could be if they would repent. But he preached to them a lot about just how they are falling away, how they're neglecting, God how they are turning their backs on him and following after idols. But it's what does he say to them? God speaks to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31, three and says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. 7 (39m 27s): See, he still loves us. Even when we mess up, he still is faithful to us, even when we are desperately in need of discipline. 8 (39m 37s): And he does 7 (39m 37s): Discipline us if he loved, because we are 8 (39m 40s): Loved. See, 7 (39m 42s): Paul reminds them that even though they're physically separated, his heart will never leave them 8 (39m 49s): Because he loves them. So his heart 7 (39m 52s): We'll never leave the Fest Slovenians and neither physical distance nor Satan's hindrances. He's remember, he says, Satan hindered me from coming to you can, they CA, nothing can keep Paul from loving them and desiring their good and their wellbeing. 8 (40m 9s): That's that's 7 (40m 10s): What Paul is so concerned about that they would, 8 (40m 13s): That they would find 7 (40m 16s): Good of life. They would find the best of life or not. And I'm not talking about stuff and, you know, comfort and that sort of thing. Talking about their relationship with Jesus, their relationship with knowing him and standing with him and knowing that we're going to spend eternity with him. 8 (40m 35s): Sorry. 7 (40m 35s): Note here about Satan's hindrances. This is a little excursus we're going to set over to this side. You can put it in your hip pocket. We could probably spend several weeks talking about Satan's hindrances, but just, I want you to know, and I want you to hold onto this. 8 (40m 51s): Satan 7 (40m 52s): Can only hinder us with God's permission. 8 (40m 57s): We tend 7 (40m 57s): To give him far more power than he deserves. It is not two equal forces fighting one another. This isn't yin and yang. This isn't, you know, one pit it against the other and hopes that the scales are gonna fall on God's side. 8 (41m 15s): Okay? No, 7 (41m 18s): God is in control and Satan can do nothing that is not allowed by God. 8 (41m 26s): And if he allows it, it's so 7 (41m 29s): Holy to accomplish his divine purpose and his divine plan in your life and in his kingdom. And it's as true today as it was in the first century and has been from the beginning, remember Jobe, Satan couldn't do anything to job that God didn't allow. And he said, you can go this far and no farther and Satan, didn't not because he's obedient, but because that's all he can do Is Martin Luther. The great reformer once said after all he is God's devil. And so Satan's hindrance of Paul here was allowed by God for the Thessaloniki and Christians ultimate good. 7 (42m 15s): And for Paul's good. And his hindrance is hindrances towards us is for our good, 6 (42m 25s): Remember 7 (42m 26s): All things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to their purposes. That's why in everything you can give. Thanks because God is using everything for your advancement and just the same way he was doing for the Fessel Aloni church here. And Paul was busy being mother hen. I'm so worried about you. I don't want you to fail. I don't want you to fall. See Afflictions can't diminish. God's love for us. His his deep abiding affection. It cannot eliminate it. Can't delete it. Paul says this in again in Romans chapter eight, this, this passage is so familiar to all of us, but think about it in the context that when we face hardships, this is His, God what God does. 7 (43m 19s): What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things who shall bring any charge against God's elect it's God who justifies, who is to condemn Christ. Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake, we are being killed all day long, were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered for God's sake because it's accomplishing his purpose. 7 (44m 9s): Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, hallelujah. Those Afflictions come to make us stronger. So the next thing we need to look at is the Afflictions of the Thessaloniki and Church as they pertain to our lives today. So let's look then, and now at chapter three, verse one, we're going to read the first five verses. 7 (44m 49s): Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind it, Athens alone. And we sent Timothy our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you and your faith that no one be moved by these Afflictions for you yourself. Know that we're destined for this for when we were with you. We kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has come to pass and justice. You know, for this reason when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter attempted you and our labor would be in vain. Paul says, I know what you're going through because it's the same thing. 7 (45m 31s): I was going. 6 (45m 31s): 7 (45m 39s): Bullying violence, persecution of all kinds. And Paul wanted to make sure that none of these new believers were moved is the word he uses here and moved by these affections. And you know, when you can imagine moved to, you know, taken off of, off of base and knocked off a center, moved sideways, move backwards or forwards or up or down, but somehow or another, not standing firm. And this word moved really kind of has three levels to it in the Greek. And first, the first level is kind of be seduced to compromise, seduced, to compromise your beliefs. 7 (46m 19s): seduced to step away and may be not commit so much only commit this much instead of everything, Just to refer to it as having just enough, Jesus got just enough Jesus to be saved. That's all I need. That's all I'm going to worry about. And then I'm going to live, just live in my life. I think one way we really see that happening in the church today in America is we're seduced to think that, 6 (46m 59s): Well, 7 (46m 59s): We can go to church when we can get there. And I always joke about it and say, unless we get a better offer, but it's, it's not that as much as this world has us so busy and so concerned about other things and creature comforts and schedules and all that kind of thing that we kind of think that, well, you know, we can't make it this week, cause this has come up, but Church will always be there. It'll be there next week, this to the point where in our culture today and evangelical Christianity, the pillars of the faith make it the Church twice a month, 15 years ago, it was 60% of the time. 7 (47m 44s): It's down to less than 50% of the time now. And we're seduced into thinking, well, that's okay. The second level of that is where to be per perturbed or agitated into confusion. We start, you know, darts start coming in and saying, well, I was telling selling, did God really say, is this really true? Or can things like the, I CA, I can't remember his first name Dawkins. He's a famous atheist. Is it Richard Dawkins? I was thinking Richard Dawkins was, you know, a family feud, but state, well there's Stephen Hawking, but then there's somebody Richard Dawkins Are yeah. 7 (48m 33s): Well, whatever, whoever he is, this famous atheist who I can't remember, his name tries to yeah. Tries to tell us that faith is foolishness that trusting in God is believing in the fairytales. You know, and that's, that's a, that's a pretty good job. And then, you know, lays out all of what he calls evidence. And it gets to the point where we can kind of say, Oh, you know, and we get agitated. And it says, well, I know the scripture says this, but all the, the evidence here seems to be pointing towards that and what am I going to do with this? 7 (49m 15s): And it shakes us. And then the third level of this is literally, it means to be the way it was described in my lexicon is to be wrought upon, which means to be put in the fire and hammered on an Advil to reshape us into something different. And I think that's kind of what you see. You go to places like China and North Korea, where they send you to reeducation camps. If you become a Christian 8 (49m 40s): And shaped into something else. 7 (49m 44s): So you, because of Paul's affection for them, he was deeply concerned that the persecution they would face would be driving them away from their faith and that they would have walked away due to incessant opposition. You know, at time where you just say, I'm just not going to put up with this anymore. Heck with it and leave it behind. And I'm tired of this hard road Lynn and I will often say to each other, and boy, I just hate that. I have to take the high road all the time. And I just want to take the low road for once. You know? And, but no, you get tired of that. And it would be so easy to walk away, but Paul had warned them that they would be facing this kind of thing. 7 (50m 30s): Verse three of this passage, this is for you yourselves know that we are destined for this. It's going to happen. This is not the kind of verse that you have printed on a magnet and put on your refrigerator. This promise, no, it's, we're destined for this. When we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has come to pass. And just as you know, See persecution of the church is four told in the new Testament, Jesus himself, and in John chapter 15, you know, they're on their way to the, the garden of gets Semini. They've left the upper room. They're on the way to the gardener gets Semini where Jesus is going to pray and then be betrayed. 7 (51m 14s): And Jesus says to them, if the world hates, you know, that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you? A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute 6 (51m 39s): You 7 (51m 42s): Again. Another verse we don't put on the refrigerator at home, You know, we've been so blessed to live in a country where we're free to follow Jesus and public who publicly worship. That's a great blessing. Unfortunately, that blessing as becomes a means of weakening the resolve for orthodoxy among those who followed Jesus. Grace has become easy. Grace has become cheap. 6 (52m 19s): Okay? 7 (52m 19s): I wish I had taken up the time to look at the quote of the definition of cheap grace that Dietrich Bonhoeffer Bonhoeffer gave in one of his books where he talks about, you know, it's, it's the crown without a cross it's Jesus without repentance. It's, it's all of these things because, and we get at that and then we have no foundation and no strength to stand. I would say in modern day, American culture, we've been moved by That seductive pers persecution and affliction we faced. 7 (52m 59s): And we're starting to get some of those jabs coming in, but it's not, we're not being on the put on the Advil yet. And we might be, 6 (53m 12s): Yeah, 7 (53m 12s): We don't want that to happen. Folks. If we want to see our country turnaround, if we want to see people changed by God, we want to see revival come in. Then we have to go with what God spoke to Solomon. When he was dedicating the temple. If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. You know, we forget about the turning from our wicked ways part. We like to leave that one out, humble, humble myself. 7 (53m 53s): And while maybe I'll pray. How's that I'll pray and seek God's face. I just love being with Jesus. Don't tell me anything about sin. Don't tell me anything about repentance. Don't say anything about humbling myself, but God I'm praying. So fix it. No, it's it's it's it's that recognition that we don't deserve. God's love. We don't deserve God's ability to save, but acknowledging the love that he has 2 (54m 27s): For us, 7 (54m 29s): You might still face persecution. Even if we do this, even if we follow that admonition from God, but you'll receive an affirmation that you are 2 (54m 43s): Loved, 7 (54m 45s): That God will care for you, that God will sustain you. That God will uphold you. That God will give you the strength to face, whatever it is that comes your way, he will give you the grace that is necessary to face the trials and tribulations. Even to the point of martyrdom, he will give you the grace for that. If you have to face it, he will give you the strength. In the moment. God told Israel when they were coming through the desert desert as your day. So shall your strength be whatever it is you have to face. God will give you the strength for it. 7 (55m 26s): And remember that these Afflictions are actually beneficial to your faith because they help us to appreciate and comprehend the truth of God's word more fully. Ken Martin Luther said the devil and temptations also do give occasion unto us somewhat to learn and understand the scriptures by experience and practice without trials and temptations. We should never understand anything thereof. No, not. Although we diligently read and heard the same, because when you experience those difficulties, when you experience those hardships, when you experience persecution, when you experience sickness, when you experienced trials, when you experience the bad things that can come from the world at you, it opens the door to the scriptures to appreciate God's promises. 7 (56m 22s): It opens doors to the scriptures. So I can S I can look at that and say, Oh God, yes. Now I understand what this is, and I'm going to hold onto you. I'm going to hold fast to you. I'm going to stick with you and God. I know I can't do that in my own strength. Give me the power of your Holy spirit. Let that be enlivened. Inmate. Let it be quickened in my heart that I might stand with you, that I might hold fast to you. That I might remain unchanged and be faithful, no matter what it is that I face. See. So as we live our lives and the promise of God's affection, that he shows toward us and the certainty that we will face affliction in this life. 7 (57m 13s): And if, for no other reason that we live in a fallen and sinful world, It's hold fast to the Affirmation of God. That he's pleased with us when we hold fast to him and, and know that he, 8 (57m 34s): He keeps us as we stick with him. 7 (57m 41s): So let's look at this last section here 8 (57m 45s): Told you 7 (57m 45s): I'd be done by three. 8 (57m 49s): This is brief. Okay. 7 (57m 51s): But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us. As we long to see you for this reason brothers and all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith for now. We live, if you are standing fast and God Paul felt as if he was dying, because he wasn't sure about 8 (58m 21s): Awesome. 7 (58m 25s): What Thanksgiving can we return to God for you for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day, that we may see you face to face and supply. What is lacking in your faith. Now may Are God and father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound and love for one another. And for all, as we do for you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before Are God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus, with all his saints, Paul's almost giddy because they're standing firm. 7 (59m 8s): He felt like there was so much left for him to teach them when he, when he had to leave, but they're standing firm and the faith that they've had, and he had sent Timothy back and they had preached more to them and they saw great 8 (59m 24s): Results 7 (59m 25s): On the part of the festival Ionians to, to stand firm in their faith. And so Paul's joy, overflows, and even more love for them. He wants to go back and see them again. He wants that all the more to be with them and knowing that they could have come to hate him because of the message that they gave him and that he gave them, I should say. And the persecution that followed that transforming method message, they could have come to despise Paul, that look what he brought on Us but no, they love it 8 (59m 57s): Of Paul, because look what he gave to us 7 (1h 0m 2s): Brought the message of the gospel. He brought the message of hope in Christ Jesus, and they held fast to the gospel, just like the 12 disciples did in John six, when the rest of the crowds deserted him, remember in John six, Jesus is talking about, if you want to, any part in me, you have to eat my flesh. You have to drink my blood and to the Jews, that was an abomination. And they left. This is a hard saying, and they left and it says, starting in verse 66, after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? 7 (1h 0m 44s): And Simon, Peter answered him Lord to whom 8 (1h 0m 47s): Shall we go? You have the word 7 (1h 0m 50s): Words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy one. 8 (1h 0m 56s): God 7 (1h 0m 59s): I see Paul bringing the message of the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ gave the Thessalonians the very words of eternal life. Every time you share the gospel with someone, you're giving them the very words of eternal life. And this is the joy that we bring to God. When we stand in the face of persecution, when we continually draw our strength for him to withstand Satan's on the slot, 8 (1h 1m 27s): Whether 7 (1h 1m 27s): It's subtle or an obvious jab or a full-out frontal assault, God affirms his deep love for us. 8 (1h 1m 35s): Always, always. Yeah. 7 (1h 1m 39s): Whether the conditions of our lives are smooth sailing or in the middle of a hurricane, 8 (1h 1m 46s): God is 7 (1h 1m 47s): Still with us affirming his love and his promise that he'll never leave us or forsake us stands most strongly when we're clinging to him in the midst of our Afflictions, 8 (1h 1m 60s): He even, 7 (1h 2m 0s): And pronounces a blessing on us in the midst of their trials. Look at the verses 11 through 13 here, once again, now my Are God and father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you one so that Paul can come in and share with them. And they, because he loves them and wants to see them face to face. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before Are God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus, with all his saints, see God will cause us to be into increase and abound and love for him for Are brothers and sisters in the church for our community. 7 (1h 2m 43s): And even for the world that brings our Afflictions upon us. God will cause us to love him. And he'll establish our hearts blameless in a holiness before him keeping us steadfast to either the end of our lives or until Christ returns. Whichever happens first, You have the assurance that God has genuine affection towards you today. 8 (1h 3m 13s): Are you walking with Jesus? 7 (1h 3m 16s): If you Are, he does have genuine affection for you. He loves you and loves to be with you and loves to fellowship with you. If you don't know Jesus, 8 (1h 3m 31s): He's as close as the mention of his name. He's right here. 7 (1h 3m 37s): Say, Jesus. I want to know you. I don't know. I want to know what this assurance of your love is. I want to know that you have affection for me. And even when I go through difficult times and affliction, you give me an affirmation that I am yours. That's what's available to you in Christ. Jesus. You come to him and say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner. And, and I can't do this on my own. 8 (1h 3m 58s): I need you. That's what's set before you right now. 7 (1h 4m 5s): God does have affection toward you. And if you're facing difficulties and hardships and trials and persecution of any kind, even so he will never stop loving you. If you're saying right now, where is God? He's right there. Because if he wasn't with you right now, you think you're going through difficulty. Now, if God wasn't with you, I can't even begin to 8 (1h 4m 31s): Imagine 7 (1h 4m 36s): What are the Afflictions that you're facing at the moment? Is it That clever seduction? Did God really say, is it kind of an obvious jab? You're getting poked. Your faith is getting poked. Your faith is getting challenged. Are you on the Advil? Somebody trying to reshape you and take you away from being shaped like Jesus, 8 (1h 5m 5s): God still with you. Nonetheless 7 (1h 5m 8s): Affirming his love for you, affirming that you belong to him and that nothing can pluck you out of his hand. 8 (1h 5m 19s): Have you opened your eyes, 7 (1h 5m 20s): Heart to receive the blessing of that? Affirmation because sometimes we get to the point where we feel well, I'm not worthy. God well, you're right. We're not. But he says, I love you anyway. I love you anyway, because of Jesus. When I look at you, I see Jesus. When I look at you, I see the righteousness of God poured out all over you. I see you as if you had never even had a sin nature, let alone committed a sin. I see you as Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall. That's the way Jesus looks at. Are God. The father looks at you because of what Jesus did for you. 8 (1h 5m 60s): He loves you and he's offering it to you. You're the Apple of his eye. 7 (1h 6m 11s): And he has established you as a joint heir of his kingdom 8 (1h 6m 16s): And with our big brother, Jesus, let's pray 7 (1h 6m 25s): Lord our God. I thank you. I thank you for your love. I thank you for your care. That never stops. That even when we don't see you working, even when we can't feel your presence, even when it seems like you're a million miles away, you still love Us and you're still here in those times, help us to stand on there. The faith that you have given us that marvelous gift of saving faith in Jesus and God. I pray that when we face affliction, that we would cry out to you, knowing that you will hold us fast. That even if we face all the way up to martyrdom, you will give us the grace and the strength necessary to face whatever trials come before us and help us never to be so overcome by the world. 7 (1h 7m 17s): And so it feels so afflicted in that we get tired of it and say, forget it. I'm walking away. Keep us close, help us to keep our eyes on you and for any here today, Lord who need to know you just give them the assurance that they are loved as they turn to you and repentance that you indeed will make them your own to the praise of your glory in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 2 (1h 7m 54s): Stan. 0 (1h 11m 22s): 2 (1h 17m 48s): We can never deserve it. You never forsake us. It gives us peace. During these times to know that you are trustworthy, that your word will come to pass. And then we have no reason to fear. Pray that you'd be with each one of us, give everyone here strength that each one would have with the peace that only comes from knowing you being filled with your spirit. 2 (1h 18m 34s): Praise, the Lord Jesus name. Amen. 3 (1h 18m 43s): Yeah, guys, for coming to church, 2 (1h 18m 47s): It's an amazing thing. 3 (1h 18m 51s): Amen. And if anybody needs a prayer come forward, we'll have people up here that can pray with you. Have a great week.

0 (0s): Well, glad to have you here at Harvest this morning. I'm a pastor Dave. And if this is your first time with us, we're glad you're here. You'll hear more about that in a little bit. But this morning we're entering into God's presence. We've come here to worship often think of that, that som come and let us go into the mountain, into the house of our God. And this morning, as we start out, we're saying a lot about Jesus today. And I found something here a couple of months ago that I liked the quote so much that I, I printed it off and stuck it on the wall in my office. But I want to share it with you this morning. It says the name of Jesus is not only light, but also food. 0 (45s): It is also oil without which all food of the soul is dry. It is salt without whose seasoning, whatever is set before us is insipid. Finally, it is honey and the mouth melody in the ear, rejoicing in the heart. And at the same time medicine, every discourse in which his name is not spoken is without savor the name of Jesus. It transforms us, it shapes us. It is power. So let's get our hearts ready. We're going to pray now. 0 (1m 25s): And then we're going to get started worshiping the Lord, our Lord Jesus. Let's pray, Lord our God. I thank you. And I praise you this day that you are Lord of all that you are Holy, that you are a completely other, and yet at the same time, you love us. You know what it is to be a man. You know what it is, Lord Jesus, because you came and were tempted in every way, such as we are yet without sin, that you might pay the price that we owe and that we might bring glory and honor to you and power our hearts by your spirit this morning, Lord empower your hearts that we might worship you in spirit. 0 (2m 18s): And in truth that we might lift up that name of Jesus, that at your name, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. Our father. Thank you, Lord Jesus. In your name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (2m 39s): We're going to sing a song about God's peace this morning. I teach you the chorus. Some of you might know this might be new to some of you. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Jeez, silence. Jesus. Geez. Geez, geez storms. 1 (3m 23s): cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese. 1 (4m 13s): Jesus. 1 (6m 14s): . 1 (8m 10s): We do call upon your names, the name above every other name that every knee will bow. Every tongue confess to you. You're the only one worthy of our praise. There's a whole lot of stuff in the world. Vies for our attention or affection or worthy. thoughts on you this morning, your faith in generations. 1 (9m 7s): where they have all the praise we do. 1 (15m 27s): You want to be more like you got your love BR from foundation that we build our life upon. We pray that people would see you in us, that we would reflect your love, your heart. To those that we can contact with thinking of that Christmas, Carol, that says let every heart prepare him room and how I just keep thinking how there's just so much in the world that tries to crowd out. 1 (16m 9s): Jesus. There's so much in our lives is constantly just crowding out space for him. Plus, let's be intentional this morning to make room for God in our lives to make room for Jesus in our hearts to make room for the spirit at work. In our midst, you prepare remarried hearts. As we head into this holiday season, even Lord that we wouldn't get so caught in all the busy-ness and all the plans that we forget why we're celebrating. So we surrender our will to yours and we say, come your . 1 (17m 4s): This is my Subaru. This is my it's your kingdom come and your will be done. 1 (22m 39s): We make room for you. We open our hearts to receive all that. You give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see Jesus name. Awesome. Church let's share some of that love of Jesus with each other this morning, by saying hello to someone around you. We'll be back and just a few moments this morning. 2 (23m 13s): All right. Good morning. Harvest Church good morning. Glad to see you all. Hey, my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth CA youth and family pastor here at Harvest and Hey, welcome. Glad to see you all. If you're joining us online, want to say welcome as well. Thanks for, thanks for tuning in Hey, today is family Sunday, and that means that we have donuts. The maple bars I'm told are all taken. I'm sorry. I'll have to change the order for that one, but a what family center is, is kids. First grade and up are here in, in the service with us. So if you are standing or sitting next to a student, tell them welcome because they're not just an instructor 3 (23m 55s): Part of the Church. They are a part of the Church. All right. Okay. 2 (23m 59s): So we're glad to have him in service with us. Hey, if you're you're new here with us, feel free to stop by the info center to get the find out ways to get plugged in, find out more about us. We also have a free gift for you, and you can also do that on the Harvest website, as well as on our app as well, man, exciting news. We are, the registration is open for our men's retreat in January, January 8th and ninth. And we're calling it throttling back, which is a interesting you normally I think men's retreats are like full bore or something, but throttling back this year is, is the theme. And I was thinking about this week and a few years ago, as some friends and I went from Apple Valley to Las Vegas on dirt bikes. 2 (24m 44s): And we took all dirt trails. We weave in our way through the desert. We came to this dry Lake bed, huge Lake bed. And I gave my friend my camera. I said, Hey, Jay, wait here and take a picture of me as I go by. So I went out about a mile or so, and CA came back and just ran to the gears, throw a full open throttle, flew by him at 93 miles an hour. And what am I, my vision do my vision went tunnel vision. I was just concentrating on right where I needed to go to buzz him, but not hit him. And as I pulled off the throttle, all of a sudden everything kind of comes into focus and every, you know, every everything comes alive and it's, and it's like that. I think with this retreat, I'm really excited about is our, our focus sometimes in life becomes so narrow that as we kind of throttle back, we get to see the big picture and the, and the big vision vision comes into paint. 2 (25m 33s): It gives us more Perspective so men you to sign up for that January 8th and ninth, and the signups are due by December 15th. Great job this year with Thanksgiving meal donations. Really? We did an, 3 (25m 48s): Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Breakfast in a while. So we are scheduling. 2 (25m 59s): We haven't had a men's breakfast in a while, so we're scheduling that for December 12th. Okay. So that keep, keep a look on your Bolton's for that email. So a Thanksgiving meal donations were awesome this year. We re we, we, the generosity this this year was above and beyond we've ever had. So thank you so much for, for showing up and giving to those families in need. Not surprisingly, it's been a different year. I think we all know that. So because of that, our Christmas ceremonies are going to look a little different. Our Christmas tree lighting ceremony is going to be Sunday, December 6th. Okay. Sunday, December six. 2 (26m 39s): And if you didn't know that the pine tree in front of our church is actually a donut or a designated the village Christmas tree. So we'll be lightened that, that guy up, seeing it some Christmas carols, Ron, we pulled the trigger and pulling the lights and doing the lights on. So join us for that. There'll be more information as a, as, as the time gets closer. And then one of the thing I forgot to mention before I show this a video clip is obviously we have the sanctuary open. We have a loft open, we have the patio, but we've made a new venue and that's in the parsonage and that's a mass only as designated zone. So if you only feel comfortable wearing a mask, the parsonage is for that in the lastly talks about the men's throttle back retreat. 2 (27m 24s): The sisterhood night of worship was incredible. My wife came back and my two older daughters came back was super-stoked. It was an amazing night. So we have a video to show that, and then pastor CA will come up. 1 (27m 37s): 2 (28m 60s): I never remember that. Here we go. Good joke. Here we go. You guys ready for a good solid joke? Yes. All right. Sweet. All right. So God told John come forth and receive eternal life. John came fifth, got a toaster. I tried, I knew it wasn't a good joke. I knew it was a bad joke in fact, but I tried to preface it with positiveness and it still fell flat. So whoever gave that joke to me, no five bucks for you. I did pay off a $5 debt that I have this morning. So I made this deal that if you give me a joke and I should actually qualify 4 (29m 43s): If I, if you give me a joke that I use and that people laugh at, not like a pathetic laugh, but like a real laugh, then you'll make five bucks. So there you go. Welcome. We're in first Thessalonians today. So we're starting a brand new series. And so as has been our kind of our has been typical for us with the last couple of studies that we've done. We've started out with the Bible project video, the Bible project videos kind of illustrate for us what the whole study is going to be about, kind of from start to finish. It kind of gives us the, the, the mile high view of the book that we are studying. So with that, let's take a few minutes and watch the Bible project video on first Thessalonians 5 (30m 28s): Paul's first letter to the festival. Ionians this is most likely the earliest letter that we have from Paul and the backstory for it is found in the book of acts. It's where Paul and his coworker, Silas went to the ancient Greek city of Thessaloniki. And after just one month of telling people the good news about Jesus, a large number of Jewish and Greek people gave their allegiance to Jesus. And they formed the first Church community there, but trouble was brewing Paul's announcement of the risen Jesus as the true Lord of the world, it led to a suspicion. So the Christians in Thessaloniki were eventually accused of defying Caesar, the Roman emperor, when they said that there is a, another King Jesus, and this led to a persecution that got so intense. 5 (31m 11s): Paul and Silas actually had to flee from the city, and this was painful for them because they love the people there so much. And so this letter is Paul's attempt to reconnect with the Christians in Thessaloniki. After he got a report from Timothy, that they were doing more than, okay, they were flourishing despite this intense persecution, he designed the letter to have two main movements. First is a celebration of their faithfulness to Jesus. And then he challenges them to keep growing as followers of Jesus. And then these two movements are surrounded by three prayers. The letter opens with the Thanksgiving prayer. The two movements are linked together by a transitional prayer. And then the whole thing is concluded with a final prayer. 5 (31m 51s): It's a beautiful design Paul opens by giving thanks and celebrating the Thessalonians, faith, their love for others and their hope in Jesus. Despite persecution, he goes on to retell the story of their conversion, how they used to be idolatrous polytheists. And they were living in a culture where all of life was permeated by institutions and practices that honored the Greek and Roman gods. And Paul talks about how they turned away from those idols to serve the living and true God. And that they're now waiting for the coming of God's son from heaven. So in a city like Thessalonica, transferring your allegiance to the creator, God of Israel, and to King Jesus. This came at a cost isolation from your neighbors, hostility from your family, but for the Thessaloniki ones, the overwhelming love of Jesus who died for, and the hope of his return, it made it all worth it. 5 (32m 43s): Paul then retells the story of his mission in Thessaloniki and of the dear friendships. He formed with the people he uses really intimate metaphors here. They treated him like their child, and he became like their mother and like their father. He says, we were happy to share with you not only the good news from God, but our very selves, because we came to dearly. Love you. Paul reminds us here that the essence of Christian leadership is not about power and having influence it's about healthy relationships and humble, loving service. He reminds them that he never asked for money. He simply came to love and serve them in the name of Jesus. And so Paul moves on to reflect on their common persecution, just like Jesus was rejected and killed by his own people. 5 (33m 29s): So now Paul is persecuted by his fellow Jews and the Thessalonians are facing hostility from their Greek neighbors. And Paul draws a strange comfort from knowing that together, their sufferings are a way of participating in the story of Jesus's own life and death. Paul then shares about the anguish he experienced when he heard of the hardships the Thessalonians had after he and Silas fled. So he sent Timothy to support them and see how they were doing. And to his joy, Timothy discovered that they were going strong. They were faithful to Jesus. They were full of love for God and their neighbors. And they long to see Paul as much as he longed to see them. And so Paul concludes with a prayer for endurance. 5 (34m 9s): And what's cool is that he introduces here the topics he's going to address in the letter. Second half, he prays that God will grow their capacity to love that he'll strengthen their commitment to holiness as they fix their hope on the return of King Jesus. So he opens the letter second movement by challenging them to a life that's consistent with the teachings of Jesus. So this means, first of all, a serious commitment to holiness and sexual purity in contrast to the promiscuous sexually destructive culture around with them, they are to follow. Jesus is teaching about experiencing the beauty and the power of sex within the Haven of a committed marriage, covenant relationship, God takes sexual misbehavior. 5 (34m 49s): Seriously. Paul says it dishonors and destroys people and their dignity following Jesus also means a commitment to loving and serving others. So Paul instructs them that Christian should be known in the city as a reliable people who work really hard, not just to make a money, but so that they can have resources to provide for themselves and to generously share with people who are in need after this Paul addresses a number of questions that Thessalonians had raised about the future hope of Jesus's return. So some Christians in the church had recently died, most likely killed as martyrs and their friends and family are wondering about their fate when Jesus returns. And so Paul makes it clear that despite their grief and loss, not even death can separate Christians from the love of Jesus. 5 (35m 36s): When he returns as King, he will call both the living and the dead to himself. And Paul uses a really cool image here. He uses language that would normally describe how a city subject to the Roman Caesar would send out a delegation to welcome or meet his arrival. Paul then applies this imagery to the arrival of King Jesus. He too will be greeted by a delegation of his people who will go to meet the Lord in the air as they welcome and escort him back to this world where he'll establish his kingdom of justice and peace. Paul then wants a testimonial to see how this hope should motivate faithfulness to Jesus. So he pokes fun at the famous Roman propaganda that it Cesar, who brings peace and security. 5 (36m 20s): Of course, Rome's peace came through violence through enslaving their enemies and military occupation. And Paul warns that Jesus will return as King one day and confront this kind of injustice followers of King Jesus should live in the present as if that future day is already here. Despite the nighttime of human evil around them, they should stay sober and awake as the light of God's kingdom dawns here on earth, as it is in heaven. Paul closes all of these exhortations. Like he began with a hopeful prayer that God would permeate their lives with his holiness, that he would set them apart to be completely devoted and blameless until the return of King. 5 (37m 1s): Jesus. First Thessalonians reminds us that from the very beginning, following Jesus, as King has produced a truly counter-cultural or Holy way of life, and this will sometimes generate suspicion and conflict among our neighbors. But the response of jesus' followers to such hostility should always be love meeting opposition with grace and generosity and this way of life. It's motivated by hope and the coming kingdom of Jesus that has already begun in his resurrection from the dead. And so holiness love and future hope. That's what first Thessalonians is all about 4 (37m 42s): Review for us. And if you're studying any book of the Bible, I'm pretty sure the Bible project people have videos for every book of the Bible. Most of them, if they don't have all of them by now, so you can always type in Bible project and then they a book of acts or Matthew or Galatians or whatever it is that you're studying, and you will get that type of an overview. And it just helpful for context, when you start reading the Bible, you kind of know what it's doing and what it's saying and where it's going. So, so this is one of Paul's earlier epistles. He wrote it pretty early on, but he had already experienced quite a bit of persecution in acts chapter 17. 4 (38m 25s): We read, we read about Paul's preaching to this church and planting a R P preaching to these people in the, in the town of festival. And I, I call it a festival and Annika, you can call it. I'm not sure the correct pronunciation. I've heard it both ways, but a Paul was there in a vessel Anika. And he was preaching there. And many people came to faith. And so they planted a church. But if you go back a chapter in acts chapter 16, we see that Paul and Silas were both imprisoned for their faith, for what were they doing? They were preaching the gospel. And so it tells us in acts chapter 16, that they were beaten with rods and that they were in prison. So it wasn't like a light duty persecution. It was heavy duty persecution. 4 (39m 6s): So we're not supposed to be having Church right now. I don't know if you knew that or purple. And so we humbly decided as an elder team to go ahead and have Church met with the team this week and went around each of the elders and asked, what do you guys want to do in light of this new closure for the church? And we all agreed one at a time that we would go ahead and have Church and continue to do what we've been doing since this whole thing started. Well, we, we kind of closed Church a little bit for a few, a couple of months during the beginning, then we realized we don't want to do that. So we're continuing on. So we might, you know, we're, we're kind of experiencing maybe a little bit a persecution when they say that retail stores can stay open, but churches have to close. 4 (39m 51s): There's something spiritual going on. So there might be some kind of persecution going on, but this is just a light persecution with more to come. It's a slippery slope when they start closing churches down and more persecution is likely to be coming down the road. So we we've yet to be beaten with rods, at least in this country and in prison. But in other countries that's commonplace for Christians. There's persecution, there's martyrdom, all kinds of stuff going on. So back to acts chapter 16, Paul had experienced some significant persecution while he's in prison. God does amazing things. We'll get to that. But, but I wondered as I was reading this and I've been, as I've been teaching through the epistles, I, I wondered how did Paul, Maintain a Godly Attitude and Perspective with all of the junk that he was going through. 4 (40m 42s): Th w that's the title of our message to you and the form of a question. How did Paul Maintain Godly Attitude and Perspective. And we see from this chapter, that's the first Thessalonians that he did about five different things really well, that kept him focused. That kept him maintaining his Godly Attitude and Perspective. And so we'll just get into first Thessalonians chapter one, and just kind of unpack it a little bit at a time. But before we do that, it's good. And stand up and pray. We're going to stand and ask the Lord's blessing as we open up the word. So Lord, we stand in honor of you, you and honor of your you Lord in a and an honor of your word, and we say, God, your will be done. I pray God that you would speak today to each of us. We need you to speak to us, Lord, and God, we're grateful that we can be here to have Church all over this campus and online, as well as people tune in and listen, I pray that wherever people are tuned in God, that you would speak God, that you'd move 6 (41m 34s): God that you would do what only you can do. God, thank you for this time. Thank you for your grace in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated all over the place. You can be seated. 4 (41m 46s): First Thessalonians chapter one, greetings from Paul. This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. If you, if you read acts in the epistles, you see that guys like Paul and Timothy traveled with and ministered with Paul. These guys were active partners in his ministry. And so this letter is from Paul, Silas and Timothy. He said, we are writing to the church and festival and Nika to you who belong to God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's identifying who his audience is. He speaking to those who belong to God, the father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you're here today and you belong to God and the Lord Jesus Christ, then God is speaking to you through Paul's letter as well. 4 (42m 26s): He said, may God give you grace and peace. Interesting. Paul says this in most of his letters, he says that this is kind of his typical greeting. May God give you grace and peace? This is Paul's Godly Perspective and Attitude. He wanted to extend grace and peace. This unmerited favor of God, which is grace and the Shalom of God, which is his peace. I find that those two carry the grace and the peace of God are actually able to extend that grace and peace to others. There's something that they carry, especially a guy like Paul, he'd been persecuted, he'd been in prison. He had been in all kinds of trouble as a diss, as an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as a preacher of the gospel, he had been in all kinds of trouble. 4 (43m 14s): And yet he's able to experience grace and peace in his own life. The unmerited, 6 (43m 20s): The favor of God and the Shalom, the peace of God, just saying that word Shalom. It has a calming effect. As I say it, it's like, Oh, praise the Lord. 4 (43m 31s): There's the peace of God that just kind of settles into your soul. So he's he had it. He experienced it supernaturally. So, and we're going to find out How but he had it, but he was also able to extend it. I thought this is a, this is a great heart check for me. Number one, do I have it? Do I have grace and peace? And if I do have it, am I able to extend it to others? It's easy to extend it to people who love me. It's more difficult to extend it to people who have, who are at odds with me. So I have this difficult conversation this week and I just been studying first Thessalonians. And so this whole idea of grace and peace was fresh in my heart and in my mind. 4 (44m 11s): And so, as I was having this difficult conversation, I remembered grace and peace. And so I, I actually communicated that to this person on the phone. I said, Hey, grace and peace to you. And then I prayed with them. And it was just, it was like a, it was like a bomb, a healing on my heart as I had this difficult conversation. And I didn't carry that difficult conversation with me after that conversation, I, we hung up the phone. I just felt that peace. I had what I extended. I had the grace and the peace of God, but it took some intentionality on my part. I had to say, I'm not sure I want to say this because I'm not sure that I want this for this person, but that's my flesh. 4 (44m 55s): I know that much, my spirit wants this for this person, my spirit, this thing that has been born again in Christ, this thing that has been filled with the Holy spirit, I, my spirit wants this for this person that I was talking to you and my spirit. I think like Paul wants this for every person that he comes in contact with. So it was a great, great challenge for me, a kind of a heart check. I love it. When I'm reading the scripture, maybe you do this too, but do you come across something? And you're like, Oh, that kinda like sticks in my, in my soul a little bit. It kind of grabs my heart. I'm like, Lord, what are you? What are you saying when that happens? What are you trying to communicate to me when that happens? And usually the Lord is trying to do a work, a heart work in me or some sort of work. 4 (45m 40s): And so I was able to say grace and peace and hang up the phone smile and had grace and peace. So I challenge you to be able to think about that too, to do that. I think sometimes we, we kind of gloss over statements in the scripture, especially opening statements. Paul says grace and peace, grace, mercy, and peace. He says these things a lot in his epistles. And so we can tend to gloss over them and miss what God wants to say. But I believe that every word of God is inspired and it's powerful and it's meant to communicate life and truth and grace to us. So it will slow down. I said, this last week, sometimes we just need to stop and just read one verse and just really allow the spirit of God to use that verse, to speak to us, to minister to us. 4 (46m 26s): So maybe this week, it's a, the grace and peace verse is yours, where you're just holding onto that and thinking about that and seeing what God will do. I think this communicates clearly where Paul's heart was as a minister of the gospel, as one who had been through very difficult, very difficult circumstances in his life in ministry. He was able throughout all of his epistles. Mostly I actually haven't checked all of them, but every one that I checked and said in some format in Timothy, he said, may grace, mercy and peace to Timothy my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God, the father and Christ Jesus, our Lord first Timothy one, two, two Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from who? 7 (47m 17s): Where does it come from? God, 4 (47m 20s): It comes from God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're struggling this morning with grace, mercy and peace, go to the source of that, go the Lord, go to God and say, God, I, I need it for myself. And I need to extend it to others. And watch what will happen is you supernaturally receive that gift because this is the kind of thing that you, if you asked for the Lord, the Lord's gonna give it to you. And if, if you're struggling to receive it, he'll show you why you're struggling to receive it. Maybe there's a hardness of heart. Maybe there's unforgiveness. Maybe there's anger in your soul. And God wants to address that. But if we ask the giver of this good gift, we know in the Bible that it says every good gift comes down from the father of lights from God. 4 (48m 3s): And so this is a good gift that he wants to give 6 (48m 6s): Grace mercy and peace again. What a great filter is. I read that Lord, how's my soul or how's my heart. Is there anybody in my life that I don't want to extend that to? Is there anybody in my life that I don't want to say that too? And just do 4 (48m 27s): There's some personal inventory. And, and then if there is somebody that comes to mind and sometimes it'll just come, right? It's just come. And then other times it'll take some time and maybe you'll come across somebody. And you're like, Oh, that's the person, no way do I want grace and mercy a piece on that person? And then you get a chance to do some heart investigation and allow the Lord to do some heart 6 (48m 47s): Surgery. Can you say that to everyone? May God give you a grace and peace. How did Paul Maintain 4 (48m 54s): Godly Attitude and Perspective when people are picking at him, persecuting him, complaining about him, having a hard time with his ministry, misjudging him. 6 (49m 5s): Paul did five things. Number one, he remained thankful. 4 (49m 12s): First to first Thessalonians chapter one says, we all 6 (49m 15s): Thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly Paul remained thankful. He was 4 (49m 24s): Thankful. Not because his circumstances were awesome 6 (49m 27s): Because his hope was solid. He had a solid hope 4 (49m 33s): In the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And he believes solidly that the work that he was doing was kingdom work that had eternal value. And so he was willing to suffer as it were for a season. So that the message, the eternal message of the gospel might have an opportunity to go out. His hope was Christ and the eternal kingdom of God. There's a few things that hinder gratitude. There's a few things that hinder thankfulness, a critical spirit will hinder thankfulness. You ever experienced that like a critical spirit, like just critical spirit, is this you just kind of, you're critical of everybody and the critical of everything that will hinder a gratitude that will hinder thankfulness. 4 (50m 16s): But on the other hand, thankfulness and gratitude will cure a critical spirit. If we just determined, I'm going to have a good day, I'm going to be thankful for what I have in my life and for what is doing in my life. It over shadows, that critical spirit and all of a sudden we're able to enjoy life. We're able to have grace and peace and mercy in our own lives. And then all of a sudden, because we, we have it in us, we're able to extend grace and mercy and peace. So there's just something powerful that happens when we decide in jesus' name. I'm not saying we decided in our own strength, I'm saying in jesus' name, in the power of the Holy spirit, where determining to be thankful to have gratitude last week, I said, I, I said, we, we need to make a list of things that we can be grateful for a gratitude list. 4 (51m 5s): How many made their list? You don't have to write it down, but I just encourage you to think about it, right? What am I thankful for? And then just kinda make a mental note, or maybe you write it down. This is what I encourage you to do. Think about 12 things, because that really forces us to think about all the things that we're grateful for. Right? So we can come up with a few off the top of our heads, but when we really have to stop and think about 12 and come up with a list of 12, that really causes us to do some personal inventory and come up with some things that are really important to us, but maybe we have 6 (51m 37s): Taken for granted. We can take things for granted pretty easily, right? 4 (51m 41s): Like things that have always been kind of good. 6 (51m 43s): We kind of take it for granted, but if we can just stop, just say, thank you, Lord, for whatever it is. Like, I've never missed a meal in my life, right? But every meal we say, thanks, right? Thankfully I've never had to miss a meal, but every meal we say, thank you because we are genuinely thankful, Lord, thanks a few that we've not missed a meal that we don't have to miss a meal that we have provision. Thank you, Lord. We were praying on the way into church this morning. Thank you that we have a church to go to you and that we have a roof over our head that we've got cars to drive. You know, you could think about all kinds of things. W when you, when you're forced to come up with 12, you get past all of those kinds of easy things that come to mind and you really get down to the nitty gritty. 6 (52m 24s): And then, and then something beautiful begins to happen. And your soul, you become grateful in that critical spirit just begins to make its exits. So a critical spirits hinders gratitude, unforgiveness, jealousy, disappointments 4 (52m 42s): It's Thanksgiving week. Let's determine this week to be, 6 (52m 45s): Be grateful to have a thankful heart. We talked about gratitude last week. We're talking about it this week, make a list, make a list and see what the Lord will do in your hearts. Paul did five things to maintain a Godly Attitude and Perspective number one a year. 4 (53m 3s): Thankful. Number two, he prayed 6 (53m 6s): Constantly. We see that in verse two. Also, we all 4 (53m 9s): Thank God for all of you and pray for you. How often constantly, right? Prayer is the lifeblood. It's like I said, last week. And a lack of breath will cause us to die. Physically. A lack of prayer will cause us to die spiritually. We absolutely to pray. It's the lifeblood in everything that we do. And when we are praying, we have the capacity to go through any season of life, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And we maintain a level of trust. Sometimes we go through hard stuff and it shipwrecks our faith hard stuff is not meant to shipwreck our faith. Hard stuff has meant to solidify our faith. We're saying, Lord, I see your faithfulness in the midst of hard stuff. 4 (53m 52s): I believe you even more. I determined to trust you even more. So hard stuff is not meant to shipwreck us hard stuff is meant to solidify, to help us to find a way 6 (54m 3s): Feet on solid ground. Spiritually life is full of heart stuff. If we will pray constantly 4 (54m 12s): Without ceasing, like never stop praying. If we will pray, God will meet us. So we just pray. And I 6 (54m 22s): Said, I said this all the time, when I'm up here 4 (54m 24s): Preaching, I'm sometimes praying as I'm preaching. As I was praying a few minutes ago for the service, I was praying out loud and then praying to myself, kind of Lord, help me get this message out the way it needs to get out. Like I'm praying what you can hear. And I'm praying things that God can hear that, and God hears it all. So there's just something about that humble desperation where you're saying, God, I need you. I need you to show up in this relationship and this decision at work, I need you to show up in my personal life. I just need you to show up. When we do that, 6 (54m 59s): God will do wonderful and supernatural things. Giving us the ability to cope in the most devastating of circumstances. I have this book it's titled what happened this day in Christian history. So today's November 20 seconds. And in November, 1873, something happened. And I'd like to read that story. Just take a moment. 4 (55m 21s): In November, 1873, Chicago, lawyer Horatio. 6 (55m 25s): She Spafford took his wife and four daughters, Maggie to Netta Annie and Bessie to New York and boarded them on the luxurious French liner. SS Vila do a whore brain. I think that's how you say that 4 (55m 42s): The great Chicago fire had destroyed everything 6 (55m 45s): They owned and Spafford was sending his girls to an English Academy until the Chicago schools and his own life could be rebuilt. As he saw his family settled into their cabin and unease filled his mind and he moved them to a room closer to the bow of the ship. Then he said goodbye, promising to join them later in France, during the small hours of November 22nd, 1873, as the ship Godly glided over smooth seize, the passengers were suddenly thrown from their bunks in a jolt. The ship had collided with an iron sailing vessel. The low Shern water poured in like Niagara and the ship tilted, dangerously, screams, and prayers and Oh, submerged into a nightmare of unmeasured terror passengers losing their footing, clung to posts, rumbled through darkness and were drenched by powerful currents of IC in rushing. 6 (56m 44s): See loved ones fell from each other's grasps and vanished into foaming blackness. Within two hours, the mighty ship disappeared beneath the nocturnal waters. The 226 fatalities included Maggie to Netta, Annie and Bessie. Ms. Spafford was found nearly unconscious cleaning to a piece of the wreckage. Nine days later, when the survivors landed in Cardiff Wales, she cabled, her husband saved alone. He immediately booked passage to join his wife on the way over on the way over on a cold December night, the captain called him aside and said, I, I believe we are now passing over the place where the ship went down. 6 (57m 34s): Spafford went to his cabin, but found it hard to sleep. He said to himself, it is well, the will of God be done in later. He wrote this famous him based on his words when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot that was taught me to say it as well. It as well with my soul, Her ratio survived that experience because he knew God. We don't know for sure, but I would imagine that he was a man of prayer who developed trust in the face of the most difficult of life, circumstances and situations. 6 (58m 26s): He prayed constantly. We assume. And we know that he was faithful. When the worst of circumstances hit his life. I don't know how you can survive the worst of his circumstances that hit your life apart from a constant prayer life. Have you learned to pray and trust and with confidence in God, through all the seasons, it's easy to pray with trust and confidence in God and when the seasons are good. But what about the rest of the seasons? Paul prayed constantly in good times and in bad. And I wonder if we decided to do the same, have we decided to trust God in the same way? 6 (59m 12s): Praying constantly, no matter what we're up against. How did Paul? Maintain a Godly Attitude and Perspective number three. He focused on the good, 4 (59m 23s): We live in a culture that mostly focuses on the bad shit on the news. It's mostly bad news, mostly bad news. The news agencies would be out of business. If it weren't for a mad news, they report it constantly. Paul focused on the good. He loved the church. She loved the people of God. He called the Church, this this'll Thessalonians Church he called it his pride and joy chapter two verse 20. In fact, he wanted to visit again after he got rushed out of there and acts chapter 17, but it says in acts chapter two, or excuse me, in Thessaloniki and chapter, chapter two, verse 18, he wanted to return, but Satan prevented him. 4 (1h 0m 4s): Isn't that interesting. We have an adversary. The devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. You would think that with Paul's credentials, his work with the Lord, that nothing could keep him from doing that, what that, what he wanted to do and felt called to do. But certainly Satan was able to keep him. And so Paul did the next best thing and he wrote a letter. And thankfully he did, because we study that letter that epistle to this day Paul did what he could do. He wrote a letter focusing on their good works Paul needed to, we had to hold onto his optimism, his hopefulness for his own good. And for the good of those, he served, it wouldn't have done anybody, any good of Paul lost his, his optimism and his hopefulness, but he held onto it so that he might continue to minister most effectively. 4 (1h 0m 55s): God's God wants you to hold onto your hopefulness as well, because it's out of that place of hopefulness optimism, trusting God that you're able to minister most effectively. If you've lost all hope and lost all faith as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, you're not able to be salt and light in the earth. Paul decided to focus on the good, he focused on the good and he focused on the good things that they were doing. And this is what it says in verse three, as we pray to our God and father about you, we think about your faithful work. I wonder what faithful work he's talking about. Well, Paul, Paul's faithful work in acts. Chapter 17 is he went to the city in Thessalonica festival and ICA and he preached and people got saved and they planted a church. 4 (1h 1m 39s): So I would imagine that the faithful work that Paul is talking about is that this is a continuation of the good work that Paul started, that we read about knack or that we read about in acts chapter 17. They continued the very good work and that's really what God has called us to do. He said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy spirit. We've got a responsibility to do what this Church did. As a church. We get to do faithful work that God has called us to do. So Paul focused on the faithful work and their loving deeds. Now this is a church that suffered persecution, and yet they were known for their loving deeds. This is not a supernatural, I think a supernatural. I don't think we can do that. 4 (1h 2m 20s): Apart from the supernatural power of God at work within us. Like, I can't love people that are mean to me unless the Holy spirit gives me grace to do so. Like I want to be mean to people who are mean to me, that's my natural human inclination, right? But that's not what God wants me to do. You asked me to have loving deeds, loving action, loving heart toward people who don't like me. We can't do that apart from God, right? We need to be empowered. We're going to talk about that next. We need to be empowered by the Holy spirit. As we're empowered by the Holy spirit, we can do those supernatural things that God asks us to do. And listen to everything that God asks us to do is supernatural. 4 (1h 3m 1s): It requires his power. We don't want to do it in our own strength. We do not want to do it in our own strength. Verse four says, we know dear your brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. So now through the difficulties that they're having, let me go back to a verse three. As we pray to our God and father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds and your enduring hope in the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. That is true about you. God absolutely loves you. And he's called you and has chosen you to be his own people. 3 (1h 3m 46s): Commercial break. There's no need to ignore the obvious. Got 4 (1h 3m 56s): It. Sweet. All right, let's continue. 3 (1h 4m 3s): Oh, thank God for technology. 4 (1h 4m 7s): Train of thought. Here we go. Trying to find it. Here we go. Yes. Yes. Yes. So Paul focused on the good things that this church was doing and he encouraged them with truth. Listen, when we have a Godly Perspective and Attitude, we can do the same thing. We can focus on the good that others are doing. And then we can speak life and encouragement to them. Jesus loves you. Jesus. He loves you. Jesus loves you. And you are his chosen people. He loves you and he's chosen you to be his own people. It's rather easy to focus on the good with people in circumstances that we like. 4 (1h 4m 48s): It's really difficult to focus on the good in circumstances that we don't like. And with people that we don't like, but maybe, maybe this is what God wants us to do. Paul had difficult circumstances, difficult people around him, but he was filled with the Holy spirits were in chains, but we can pray and sing. Like they can't take that away from us, 3 (1h 5m 16s): Right? We're up against 6 (1h 5m 18s): Difficulty. Paul 4 (1h 5m 20s): Silas in a prison, but we can pray and sing songs and hymns, 6 (1h 5m 28s): The jailer is maybe unfair as they're in prison. 4 (1h 5m 33s): But the truth is God loves that guy. 6 (1h 5m 37s): And 4 (1h 5m 37s): Paul had a vision possibly for this guy because the jailer ends up getting saved. So the story is Paul and Silas are in jail. It's a late night, there's singing and praying. And this major earthquake hits the jail and it rattles that the chains on them. So they come off and the doors swing open and the jailer, the Philippian jailer, he thinks that surely it's, everybody's gone, the doors are open. And so he's going to kill himself because all of his prisoners have escaped. But Paul cried out to him. Stop. Don't take your own life. We're all still here. And that opened the door for Paul to be able to preach the gospel. 4 (1h 6m 20s): He and his whole family got saved and baptized that night powerful stuff, right? Because Paul's, Perspective kind of Godly Perspective and Attitude. And so we had a expectation. He believed that God was going to do something. When we're filled with the Holy spirit, we have a God-sized expectation like this isn't a possible scenario, but I'm believing for impossible answers from God. God comes through in the impossible, because he's the God of the impossible. And we see this over and over again in the scripture, this situation seems unjust, but God is on the throne. I mean, Paul, he could have gone all kinds of different places. Lord, you know, we're doing all this good stuff for you. Why, why are we in jail? 4 (1h 7m 1s): Why are we being persecuted? Why, why, why? But he didn't knew that he said, you know what? I'm going to pray and I'm going to sing and just leave the rest to the Lord and watch. And God did that. God opened up the doors and there was a great Harvest of, of, of souls added to the kingdom that night. How did Paul Maintain Godly Attitude Attitude and Perspective number four. He was empowered by God. Hallelujah. Right? I mean like, this is the best part of being a Christian besides salvation. We've got the Holy spirit in us. We're empowered by the living. God who gives us wisdom and compassion and grace and clarity when we need it. 4 (1h 7m 43s): He is forever with us for when we brought you the good news. Paul wrote in verse five, he was not only with words, but also with power Paul didn't minister out of his own steam. Often we're trying to do stuff out of our own steam. We're trying to minister out of our own steam. We're trying to do life out of our own steam. Paul didn't preach at him, his own steam. He didn't write letters in his own steam. He didn't live his life out of his own steam. He lives as a man who was filled with the Holy spirit. The Bible says, if you're saved, if you're in Christ, you've got the gift of Holy spirit. The paraklete the helper, the one who is forever with you in your life, Paul was filled up. 4 (1h 8m 25s): Some of us need to get refilled up, right? Apparently we leak. I say that all the time, but it's true. We somehow leak and we need to be continually filled with the Holy spirit. Paul understood that he did it and get filled up with God and get the grace that you need for your life and for your circumstance, get the love that you need. It's it's a holiday season. So you're going to be seeing family that maybe you haven't seen since last holiday season, and it could be good or it can be very difficult, right? So get the grace that you need for the people that you will be seeing so that you are salt and light to them so that your grace and mercy and peace to them, you're experiencing it. 4 (1h 9m 10s): And you're able to give it by God's grace. If we brought you the good news, it was not only with words, but also with power for the Holy spirit gave you a full assurance. Listen, when the Holy spirit is in you, he's going to empower what he's doing and then he's going to give a shore. And so if you're sharing the gospel with somebody through the power of the Holy spirit, then God will cause the person that you're speaking to to be, to be ministered to, they will resonate. And they will begin to understand that truth. That may take a lot of conversations and a lot of prayer, but God will do the work with you. He is leading in the process for the Holy spirit gave you full assurance. That's what he did in this Church that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. 4 (1h 9m 52s): So their lives reflected the gospel. There was consistency in the way that they lived among the believers are the believers and the non-believers there. And they did an amazing work. Again, Paul didn't speak in his own steam. He didn't live that way. He didn't write that way. The spirit of God filled him and affirmed his work. We can't do anything God asks us to do unless he's filled us with his spirit 9 (1h 10m 17s): And listen, we don't even want to try. Even when we 4 (1h 10m 20s): Figure something out, like sometimes we we've been doing something for a long time. We've like, figured it out. Look, okay. I know how to do this Lord. Aye. And we kind of lose sight of our desperate need for him. Like our desperate need for his power to speak through us because we need him. We need him, whether we're teaching Sunday school or whatever it is that we're teaching or whether we're praying with somebody, we don't even want to pray without the power of the Holy spirit, because we don't know how to pray without the power of the Holy spirit. We just pray out of our hand. We can, we don't pray out of our spirit when we're not filled with the Holy spirit. We're just praying Lord help this person. We're not, we're not getting a hold necessarily of what God wants to say. Maybe the Lord wants to speak something powerfully through you in your prayer time with a person. 4 (1h 11m 3s): And so you're saying, Lord, would you pray through me? Would you show me how to pray? Would you teach me? Would you show me something that I can, that will touch this person's life? So that it's just not words Paul, didn't come with empty words. He came with empowered words and that's why they've stood the test of time. It's it's the, it's the Bible. It's God's word for us. We, we can speak with a four T and Jesus, when we're filled with the Holy spirit, there's just something about it. So don't do anything. Even if you did think, you know how to do it, just say, Lord, I think I know how to do this, but I don't want to do it without you, whatever it is that you're doing. Like I've been married for 40 years, Lori, and I think I know how to do this, but I don't want to do it without you, Lord. 4 (1h 11m 44s): I I've been whatever I've been doing this job for 50 years. I, I think I don't want to do it without you Lord, whatever it may be. Just continue to get humbled before the Lord and get desperate before him and watch what he will do. It'll be wonderful and supernatural stuff that only he can do ask God for it. Ask God for it. Ask again and again and again, how to Paul Maintain a Godly Attitude and Perspective number five. As we get ready to wrap up, he celebrated the success of others. Paul wasn't all about himself. He was celebrating the success of others. There's something wonderful about that. There's something powerful about that. When we can celebrate the success of others, this is what he wrote in verse six. 4 (1h 12m 29s): So you received the message with joy from the Holy spirit, in spite of severe suffering, it brought you wow. They received it with joy. In spite of the severe suffering, they received it with joy in spite of the severe suffering. I'm not sure that we have in the Western church. We have the capacity for that yet, but we may have to develop the capacity for that to receive the message, to do what God has called us to do with great joy. In spite of the severe suffering in this way, you would limit you imitated both us and the Lord, listen to suffering and sacrifice as a part of the call, suffering and sacrifice as part of the call, suffering and sacrifice is part of the gall. 4 (1h 13m 15s): It's it's it's not so much in this nation yet, but it's common. It's common. And if we're not ready, we're not going to be ready, but we can get it ready and say, Lord, We need to declare before it even happens, Lord, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's coming down the pike, but I'm going to stand for you no matter what, no matter what the persecution, whatever that looks like I was, I was a bit nervous coming into this weekend. And I'll be honest with you. I was nervous. I, I dunno why I was more nervous this time than the last time we made the decision. I just, I just was feeling anxious about it. I was like, Lord, even though we had full support of the elder team, everybody was in unanimous agreement to go ahead and open up. 4 (1h 13m 56s): I just felt nervous. I talked to my brother last night and he said, Hey, I talked to a, we've got a mutual friend who is a local politician. And he said, I talked to, I talked to so-and-so, I'm going to leave this person anonymous. But he said, I, I talked to so-and-so and I asked, are you going to shut our Church 6 (1h 14m 12s): Down? And this person said, Nope, we're not going to follow the, the guidelines the governor set out. And when I heard that, I thought that's, I needed to hear that know, we were talking about this, this Shalom of God earlier, man. That was like the peace, the Shalom that I needed. I was like, ah, 4 (1h 14m 29s): I mean, I like, I'm not afraid of people, but I'm afraid of people, you know, that sort of thing. It's like, I am a humanist. I want to stand strong. But there's times when I'm afraid. Right? And I don't know how to stand strong sometimes. But when the Lord 6 (1h 14m 43s): Gave me that, I was like, okay, I can let this go. We're going to have Church and we're not alone there. Other churches in the community who are doing the same thing that we're doing, I've heard of a couple of others. 4 (1h 14m 53s): Church is. And there's probably more just people doing the same thing 6 (1h 14m 57s): That we're doing. Having Church a triangle 4 (1h 14m 60s): Trusted the Lord in the midst of it. Not in any way, are we trying to be arrogant about it? Got it. 6 (1h 15m 6s): But God's not impressed with that. We're just trying to be humbly doing what God has called us to do. We're not boasting about it to anybody. We're not being critical of others who aren't doing it. We're just saying, you know what, for us, for Harvest Church, we're going to have Church inside, outside, online, everywhere we can. We're going to have Church. They received the message. In spite of the severe suffering, they received it with joy. As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece, throughout both Macedonia and a K. Yeah. This 4 (1h 15m 40s): Church exemplified true discipleship. 6 (1h 15m 43s): And the result was 4 (1h 15m 44s): First eight. And now the whole, the word of the Lord is, is ringing out from you to people everywhere. Even beyond 6 (1h 15m 52s): Macedonia in a yeah, for wherever 4 (1h 15m 55s): We go, we find people telling us about your faith in God. Like the faith of this church was, was resounding all over the region. We don't need to tell them about it for, they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. So that's a lot. I go, this is a big city, probably a couple, a hundred thousand people bigger than our area, a couple, a hundred thousand people. And so there was, there was a diversity, there all kinds of different idolatrous things, things that were were temptations to this church and they were sick of it. They were like over it. They knew that all of the things that the world had to offer was leaving that empty. 4 (1h 16m 37s): And so when Paul came and preached the gospel and told them about the Messiah, they were like, this is real. This is genuine. The person who preaches it is real and genuine. And this message is real and genuine. They keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. But they understood something about turning away from their idols to the living. God, they turned away from something so that they might turn to the living. We have to do the same thing. We have to decide to turn away from our idols in this culture. We've got all kinds of idols as well, all kinds of things that get our attention and keep our attention. 4 (1h 17m 20s): And I wonder if we're willing to turn away from things that are getting our attention, maybe it's money. Maybe it's just stuff that you've accumulated and liked to collect. Maybe it's a relationship or a hobby or a sport. 6 (1h 17m 35s): What is it? 4 (1h 17m 36s): If anything that the Lord is saying, Hey, you you're, you're spending way too much time and attention that you can't, you can't serve God. And anything else you can't serve God in any thing else, verse 10 says, and they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God's son from heaven. Jesus whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment. Jesus is coming again and there's a coming judgment. Are you, are you ready for that? Are you ready for that? There's going to be a judgment that leads to a, a, a, you know, a, a Jew for those who aren't saved, there's going to be the great white throne judgment where those who are judged there will go into eternal fire hell. 4 (1h 18m 22s): And then there's a judgment upon believers as well. That will determine the rewards that we receive in heaven. We're going to be, our lives will be judged. Did we live our lives according to God's plans and purposes? Or did we live them for ourselves? We might. Some of us might have fire insurance. Well, I'm not totally sure that that's a biblical thing because the requirements for salvation is that we trust Jesus as Lord, Lord, and savior. So he wants not 30% of our life, like, okay, what's what's one seventh of the week. He doesn't like what one seventh, right? He's not like wanting your Sunday. 4 (1h 19m 3s): He wants your Sunday, your Monday, your Tuesday or Wednesday, your Thursday or Friday. And yes, your Saturday, he wants your Saturday. He wants 24, seven Sunday through Saturday. Pretty sure he wants it all. He wants it all. He wants a 24 seven. He wants it all because that's what Lordship is. When some, when you're owned by somebody, they own you all, they own all of you. Right? Right. We are bond servants, servants by choice to God. So he owns us. We've been bought with a price Calvary. We're going to be taking communion here shortly. We, we need to live in such a way that we are owned by God, that we've been bought with a price that we've been adopted into his family, that he loves us. 4 (1h 19m 48s): And that he's wants to lead our every area and arena of our 6 (1h 19m 52s): Lives. Does that make sense? It's hard stuff though, right? Like not really though. Let's just be honest. It's not really that hard. 4 (1h 20m 3s): If you do these five things, it's not really a hard remain. Thankful, pray, constantly 6 (1h 20m 10s): Focus on the good, be empowered by God. Celebrate the success of others. It's just when, when we just get up and decide by God's grace and then repent quickly when we fall short, it's not that difficult. I don't mean to oversimplify it, but it's just not that what's makes it difficult is when we don't want to give up the things of the world, when I don't want to give up that thing, then it's difficult. Then it becomes this big wrestling match. But when I say, God, I give it to you and I want to continue to give it to you. And I know we've got addictions in our lives. We've got things. People have addiction and people have difficult things that are, that are nagging at them and lifelong stuff. 6 (1h 20m 50s): All of that stuff is navigate. Navigate. We can navigate it when we've got the power of the Holy spirit at work in our lives. I don't mean to make light of it. I know people go through hard stuff. I've been through hard stuff, but, but when we decide that we're all in, God gives us the grace to do what he's called us to do anyway, enough of that heaviness there and a half of that let's invite the worship team forward. And we're going to take communion. Can I get an element? Can I who's passing out elements today? Can I get one of those? Thanks very much. Thank you, pastor Ron. Okay. One, one. It is. So we get a chance to take communion on the fourth, Sunday of every month on family Sunday. 6 (1h 21m 34s): And it's just an opportunity to reflect on 0 (1h 21m 37s): What Jesus has done for us. And 6 (1h 21m 39s): So through COVID we've got these fancy little individual servings. So go ahead and get started by peeling off the very top layer of clear plastic. And that will give you 0 (1h 21m 50s): The wafer first Corinthians 1123 says for, I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself 6 (1h 22m 5s): On the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread 0 (1h 22m 8s): Ed and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke 6 (1h 22m 12s): Pieces and said, this is my body, which has given me 0 (1h 22m 15s): For you. Do this to remember me. It's take the for, thank you for the wafer that represents your body, your body, that was crucified, nailed to a cross and Pierce. Thank you that you did that for me. I did that for us. The wages of sin is death. Thank you that you died in my place in our place. The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. 0 (1h 22m 56s): Our Lord. Thank you for that learning in the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Squinting the juice. Thank you so much, Lord, thank you for the juice that represents the blood that was spilled so that our sins might be forgiven. 0 (1h 23m 48s): I don't know how to understand it. Other than theologically that's God's design that his blood was spilled and it's got cleansing properties, cleansing power. The blood of Christ makes us as white, as snow clean, cleansing us from every sin. Every failure, every mistake. If you're here today and you've never received the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You can, you, whether you're watching online or on campus somewhere, you simply acknowledge your need for Jesus. And when you do, you say something like this Lord, I need you. 0 (1h 24m 31s): I, I need you. I need you to forgive me. I need you to cleanse me. There's some here that just feel dirty. And God wants to cleanse you from that experience. And you need to believe that when God covers your sin, he cleanses your sin. He forgives your sin. He races your sin. He eliminates your sin and he no longer holds it against you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you Lord. 0 (1h 25m 12s): For those who are receiving your grace gift for the first time, bless them, Lord, God bless them with new life. Fill them with your Holy spirits. God, for those who need to renew their faith commitment to you, Lord, I pray that that would be happening now as well. And some people who are renewing, they feel dirty Lord. And I pray God that that would be eliminated in Jesus name. The enemy is a liar. He's always trying to deceive us, making us feel bad about ourselves, lying to us all the time. If we confess our sin, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that's what the Bible says. 0 (1h 25m 54s): That's the truth. Thank you for that truth. So confess your sin and watch what God will do. Lord. We love you. We thank you for your mercy, your grace. We thank you that you've saved us. That you've sanctified us. Lord. You're in the process of sanctifying us and making us more and more like you. We love you and we need it. Lord, thank you for this time. Bless us as we continue to worship, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go ahead and stand and worship. 1 (1h 26m 39s): I see , your presence here with a brand that you would go with this all to where we just fill our hearts and we can reflect your love. 1 (1h 30m 50s): Everyone. It's a safe and healthy until we meet together again. And Jesus, thanks so much for joining us today. If anyone has needed a prayer this morning, please don't leave without getting some come on forward and we'll have some folks love to pray with you today. Otherwise I have a wonderful day to worship together. Again, next time. Take care.

Science in antiquity was at times devised to be useful and at other times to prove to the people that the gods looked favorably on the ruling class. Greek philosophers tell us a lot about how the ancient world developed. Or at least, they tell us a Western history of antiquity. Humanity began working with bronze some 7,000 years ago and the Bronze Age came in force in the centuries leading up to 3,000 BCE. By then there were city-states and empires. The Mesopotamians brought us the wheel in around 3500 BCE, and the chariot by 3200 BCE. Writing formed in Sumeria, a city state of Mesopotamia, in 3000 BCE. Urbanization required larger cities and walls to keep out invaders. King Gilgamesh built huge walls. They used a base 60 system to track time, giving us the 60 seconds and 60 minutes to get to an hour. That sexagesimal system also gave us the 360 degrees in a circle. They plowed fields and sailed. And sailing led to maps, which they had by 2300 BCE. And they gave us the Epic, with the Epic of Gilgamesh which could be old as 2100 BCE. At this point, the Egyptian empire had grown to 150,000 square kilometers and the Sumerians controlled around 20,000 square kilometers. Throughout, they grew a great trading empire. They traded with China, India and Egypt with some routes dating back to the fourth millennia BCE. And commerce and trade means the spread of not only goods but also ideas and knowledge. The earliest known writing of complete sentences in Egypt came to Egypt a few hundred years after it did in Mesopotamia, as the Early Dynastic period ended and the Old Kingdom, or the Age of the Pyramids. Perhaps over a trade route.  The ancient Egyptians used numerals, multiplications, fractions, geometry, architecture, algebra, and even quadratic equations. Even having a documented base 10 numbering system on a tomb from 3200 BCE. We also have the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, which includes geometry problems, the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll, which covers how to add fractions, the Berlin Papyrus with geometry, the Lahun Papyri with arithmetical progressions to calculate the volume of granaries, the Akhmim tablets, the Reisner Papyrus, and the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, which covers algebra and geometry. And there's the Cairo Calendar, an ancient Egyptian papyrus from around 1200 BCE with detailed astronomical observations. Because the Nile flooded, bringing critical crops to Egypt. The Mesopotamians traded with China as well. As the Shang dynasty from the 16th to 11th centuries BCE gave way to the Zhou Dynasty, which went from the 11th to 3rd centuries BCE and the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age, science was spreading throughout the world. The I Ching is one of the oldest Chinese works showing math, dating back to the Zhou Dynasty, possibly as old as 1000 BCE. This was also when the Hundred Schools of Thought began, which Conscious inherited around the 5th century BCE. Along the way the Chinese gave us the sundial, abacus, and crossbow. And again, the Bronze Age signaled trade empires that were spreading ideas and texts from the Near East to Asia to Europe and Africa and back again. For a couple thousand years the transfer of spices, textiles and precious metals fueled the Bronze Age empires.  Along the way the Minoan civilization in modern Greece had been slowly rising out of the Cycladic culture. Minoan artifacts have been found in Canaanite palaces and as they grew they colonized and traded. They began a decline around 1500 BCE, likely due to a combination of raiders and volcanic eruptions. The crash of the Minoan civilization gave way to the Myceneaen civilization of early Greece.  Competition for resources and land in these growing empires helped to trigger wars.  Those in turn caused violence over those resources. Around 1250 BCE, Thebes burned and attacks against city states cities increased, sometimes by emerging empires of previously disassociated tribes (as would happen later with the Vikings) and sometimes by other city-states.  This triggered the collapse of Mycenaen Greece, the splintering of the Hittites, the fall of Troy, the absorption of the Sumerian culture into Babylon, and attacks that weakened the Egyptian New Kingdom. Weakened and disintegrating empires leave room for new players. The Iranian tribes emerged to form the Median empire in today's Iran. The Assyrians and Scythians rose to power and the world moved into the Iron age. And the Greeks fell into the Greek Dark Ages until they slowly clawed their way out of it in the 8th century BCE. Around this time Babylonian astronomers, in the capital of Mesopomania, were making astronomical diaries, some of which are now stored in the British Museum.  Greek and Mesopotamian societies weren't the only ones flourishing. The Indus Valley Civilization had blossomed from 2500 to 1800 BCE only to go into a dark age of its own. Boasting 5 million people across 1,500 cities, with some of the larger cities reaching 40,000 people - about the same size as Mesopotamian cities. About two thirds are in modern day India and a third in modern Pakistan, an empire that stretched across 120,000 square kilometers. As the Babylonian control of the Mesopotamian city states broke up, the Assyrians began their own campaigns and conquered Persia, parts of Ancient Greece, down to Ethiopia, Israel, the Ethiopia, and Babylon. As their empire grew, they followed into the Indus Valley, which Mesopotamians had been trading with for centuries.  What we think of as modern Pakistan and India is where Medhatithi Gautama founded the anviksiki school of logic in the 6th century BCE. And so the modern sciences of philosophy and logic were born. As mentioned, we'd had math in the Bronze Age. The Egyptians couldn't have built pyramids and mapped the stars without it. Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar couldn't have built the Mesopotamian cities and walls and laws without it. But something new was coming as the Bronze Age began to give way to the Iron Age. The Indians brought us the first origin of logic, which would morph into an almost Boolean logic as Pāṇini codified Sanskrit grammar linguistics and syntax. Almost like a nearly 4,000 verse manual on programming languages. Panini even mentions Greeks in his writings. Because they apparently had contact going back to the sixth century BCE, when Greek philosophy was about to get started. The Neo-Assyrian empire grew to 1.4 million square kilometers of control and the Achaeminid empire grew to control nearly 5 million square miles.  The Phoenicians arose out of the crash of the Late Bronze Age, becoming important traders between the former Mesopotamian city states and Egyptians. As her people settled lands and Greek city states colonized lands, one became the Greek philosopher Thales, who documented the use of loadstones going back to 600 BCE when they were able to use magnetite which gets its name from the Magnesia region of Thessaly, Greece. He is known as the first philosopher and in the time of Socrates even had become one of the Seven Sages which included according to Socrates. “Thales of Miletus, and Pittacus of Mytilene, and Bias of Priene, and our own Solon, and Cleobulus of Lindus, and Myson of Chenae, and the seventh of them was said to be Chilon of Sparta.”  Many of the fifth and sixth century Greek philosophers were actually born in colonies on the western coast of what is now Turkey. Thales's theorum is said to have originated in India or Babylon. But as we see a lot in the times that followed, it is credited to Thales. Given the trading empires they were all a part of though, they certainly could have brought these ideas back from previous generations of unnamed thinkers. I like to think of him as the synthesizers that Daniel Pink refers to so often in his book A Whole New Mind.  Thales studied in Babylon and Egypt, bringing thoughts, ideas, and perhaps intermingled them with those coming in from other areas as the Greeks settled colonies in other lands. Given how critical astrology was to the agricultural societies, this meant bringing astronomy, math to help with the architecture of the Pharoes, new ways to use calendars, likely adopted through the Sumerians, coinage through trade with the Lydians and then Persians when they conquered the Lydians, Babylon, and the Median. So Thales taught Anaximander who taught Pythagoras of Samos, born a few decades later in 570 BCE. He studied in Egypt as well. Most of us would know the Pythagorean theorem which he's credited for, although there is evidence that predated him from Egypt. Whether new to the emerging Greek world or new to the world writ large, his contributions were far beyond that, though. They included a new student oriented way of life, numerology, the idea that the world is round, numerology, applying math to music and applying music to lifestyle, and an entire school of philosophers emerged from his teachings to spread Pythagoreanism. And the generations of philosophers that followed devised both important philosophical contributions and practical applications of new ideas in engineering. The ensuing schools of philosophy that rose out of those early Greeks spread. By 508 BCE, the Greeks gave us Democracy. And oligarchy, defined as a government where a small group of people have control over a country. Many of these words, in fact, come from Greek forms. As does the month of May, names for symbols and theories in much of the math we use, and many a constellation. That tradition began with the sages but grew, being spread by trade, by need, and by religious houses seeking to use engineering as a form of subjugation.  Philosophy wasn't exclusive to the Greeks or Indians, or to Assyria and then Persia through conquering the lands and establishing trade. Buddha came out of modern India in the 5th to 4th century BCE around the same time Confucianism was born from Confucious in China. And Mohism from Mo Di. Again, trade and the spread of ideas. However, there's no indication that they knew of each other or that Confucious could have competed with the other 100 schools of thought alive and thriving in China. Nor that Buddhism would begin spreading out of the region for awhile. But some cultures were spreading rapidly. The spread of Greek philosophy reached a zenith in Athens. Thales' pupil Anaximander also taught Anaximenes, the third philosopher of the Milesian school which is often included with the Ionians. The thing I love about those three, beginning with Thales is that they were able to evolve the school of thought without rejecting the philosophies before them. Because ultimately they knew they were simply devising theories as yet to be proven. Another Ionian was Anaxagoras, who after serving in the Persian army, which ultimately conquered Ionia in 547 BCE. As a Greek citizen living in what was then Persia, Anaxagoras moved to Athens in 480 BCE, teaching Archelaus and either directly or indirectly through him Socrates. This provides a link, albeit not a direct link, from the philosophy and science of the Phoenicians, Babylonians, and Egyptians through Thales and others, to Socrates.   Socrates was born in 470 BCE and mentions several influences including Anaxagoras. Socrates spawned a level of intellectualism that would go on to have as large an impact on what we now call Western philosophy as anyone in the world ever has. And given that we have no writings from him, we have to take the word of his students to know his works. He gave us the Socratic method and his own spin on satire, which ultimately got him executed for effectively being critical of the ruling elite in Athens and for calling democracy into question, corrupting young Athenian students in the process.  You see, in his life, the Athenians lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta - and as societies often do when they hit a speed bump, they started to listen to those who call intellectuals or scientists into question. That would be Socrates for questioning Democracy, and many an Athenian for using Socrates as a scape goat.  One student of Socrates, Critias, would go on to lead a group called the Thirty Tyrants, who would terrorize Athenians and take over the government for awhile. They would establish an oligarchy and appoint their own ruling class. As with many coups against democracy over the millennia they were ultimately found corrupt and removed from power. But the end of that democratic experiment in Greece was coming. Socrates also taught other great philosophers, including Xenophon, Antisthenes, Aristippus, and Alcibiades. But the greatest of his pupils was Plato. Plato was as much a scientist as a philosopher. He had works of Pythagoras, studied the Libyan Theodorus. He codified a theory of Ideas, in Forms. He used as examples, the Pythagorean theorem and geometry. He wrote a lot of the dialogues with Socrates and codified ethics, and wrote of a working, protective, and governing class, looking to produce philosopher kings. He wrote about the dialectic, using questions, reasoning and intuition. He wrote of art and poetry and epistemology. His impact was vast. He would teach mathemetics to Eudoxus, who in turn taught Euclid. But one of his greatest contributions the evolution of philosophy, science, and technology was in teaching Aristotle.  Aristotle was born in 384 BCE and founded a school of philosophy called the Lyceum. He wrote about rhetoric, music, poetry, and theater - as one would expect given the connection to Socrates, but also expanded far past Plato, getting into physics, biology, and metaphysics. But he had a direct impact on the world at the time with his writings on economics politics,  He inherited a confluence of great achievements, describing motion, defining the five elements, writing about a camera obscure and researching optics. He wrote about astronomy and geology, observing both theory and fact, such as ways to predict volcanic eruptions. He made observations that would be proven (or sometimes disproven) such as with modern genomics. He began a classification of living things. His work “On the Soul” is one of the earliest looks at psychology. His study of ethics wasn't as theoretical as Socrates' but practical, teaching virtue and how that leads to wisdom to become a greater thinker.  He wrote of economics. He writes of taxes, managing cities, and property. And this is where he's speaking almost directly to one of his most impressive students, Alexander the Great. Philip the second of Macedon hired Plato to tutor Alexander starting in 343. Nine years later, when Alexander inherited his throne, he was armed with arguably the best education in the world combined with one of the best trained armies in history. This allowed him to defeat Darius in 334 BCE, the first of 10 years worth of campaigns that finally gave him control in 323 BCE. In that time, he conquered Egypt, which had been under Persian rule on and off and founded Alexandria. And so what the Egyptians had given to Greece had come home. Alexander died in 323 BCE. He followed the path set out by philosophers before him. Like Thales, he visited Babylon and Egypt. But he went a step further and conquered them. This gave the Greeks more ancient texts to learn from but also more people who could become philosophers and more people with time to think through problems.  By the time he was done, the Greeks controlled nearly 5 million square miles of territory. This would be the largest empire until after the Romans. But Alexander never truly ruled. He conquered. Some of his generals and other Greek aristocrats, now referred to as the Diadochi, split up the young, new empire. You see, while teaching Alexander, Aristotle had taught two other future kings : Ptolemy I Soter and Cassander.  Cassander would rule Macedonia and Ptolemy ruled Egypt from Alexandria, who with other Greek philosophers founded the Library of Alexandria. Ptolemy and his son amassed 100s of thousands of scrolls in the Library from 331 BC and on. The Library was part of a great campus of the Musaeum where they also supported great minds starting with Ptolemy I's patronage of Euclid, the father of geometry, and later including Archimedes, the father of engineering, Hipparchus, the founder of trigonometry, Her, the father of math, and Herophilus, who codified the scientific method and countless other great hellenistic thinkers.  The Roman Empire had begin in the 6th century BCE. By the third century BCE they were expanding out of the Italian peninsula. This was the end of Greek expansion and as Rome conquered the Greek colonies signified the waning of Greek philosophy. Philosophy that helped build Rome both from a period of colonization and then spreading Democracy to the young republic with the kings, or rex, being elected by the senate and by 509 BCE the rise of the consuls.  After studying at the Library of Alexandria, Archimedes returned home to start his great works, full of ideas having been exposed to so many works. He did rudimentary calculus, proved geometrical theories, approximated pi, explained levers, founded statics and hydrostatics. And his work extended into the practical. He built machines, pulleys, the infamous Archimedes' screw pump, and supposedly even a deathly heat ray of lenses that could burn ships in seconds. He was sadly killed by Roman soldiers when Syracuse was taken. But, and this is indicative of how Romans pulled in Greek know-how, the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus was angry that he lost an asset, who could have benefited his war campaigns. In fact, Cicero, who was born in the first century BCE mentioned Archimedes built mechanical devices that could show the motions of the planetary bodies. He claimed Thales had designed these and that Marcellus had taken one as his only personal loot from Syracuse and donated it to the Temple of Virtue in Rome.  The math, astronomy, and physics that go into building a machine like that was the culmination of hundreds, if not thousands of years of building knowledge of the Cosmos, machinery, mathematics, and philosophy. Machines like that would have been the first known computers. Machines like the first or second century Antikythera mechanism, discovered in 1902 in a shipwreck in Greece. Initially thought to be a one-off, the device is more likely to represent the culmination of generations of great thinkers and doers. Generations that came to look to the Library of Alexandria as almost a Mecca. Until they didn't.  The splintering of the lands Alexander conquered, the cost of the campaigns, the attacks from other empires, and the rise of the Roman Empire ended the age of Greek Enlightenment. As is often the case when there is political turmoil and those seeking power hate being challenged by the intellectuals, as had happened with Socrates and philosophers in Athens at the time, Ptolemy VIII caused The Library of Alexandria to enter into a slow decline that began with the expulsion of intellectuals from Alexandria in 145BC. This began a slow decline of the library until it burned, first with a small fire accidentally set by Caesar in 48 BCE and then for good in the 270s.  But before the great library was gone for good, it would produce even more great engineers. Heron of Alexandria is one of the greatest. He created vending machines that would dispense holy water when you dropped a coin in it. He made small mechanical archers, models of dancers, and even a statue of a horse that could supposedly drink water. He gave us early steam engines two thousand years before the industrial revolution and ran experiments in optics. He gave us Heron's forumula and an entire book on mechanics, codifying the known works on automation at the time. In fact, he designed a programmable cart using strings wrapped around an axle, powered by falling weights.  Claudius Ptolemy came to the empire from their holdings in Egypt, living in the first century. He wrote about harmonics, math, astronomy, computed the distance of the sun to the earth and also computed positions of the planets and eclipses, summarizing them into more simplistic tables. He revolutionized map making and the properties of light. By then, Romans had emerged as the first true world power and so the Classical Age. To research this section, I read and took copious notes from the following and apologize that each passage is not credited specifically but it would just look like a regular expressions if I tried: The Evolution of Technology by George Basalla. Civilizations by Filipe Fernández-Armesto, A Short History of Technology: From The Earliest Times to AD 1900 from TK Derry and Trevor I Williams, Communication in History Technology, Culture, Leonardo da vinci by Walter Isaacson, Society from David Crowley and Paul Heyer, Timelines in Science, by the Smithsonian, Wheels, Clocks, and Rockets: A History of Technology by Donald Cardwell, a few PhD dissertations and post-doctoral studies from journals, and then I got to the point where I wanted the information from as close to the sources as I could get so I went through Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences from Galileo Galilei, Mediations from Marcus Aurelius, Pneumatics from Philo of Byzantium, The Laws of Thought by George Boole, Natural History from Pliny The Elder, Cassius Dio's Roman History, Annals from Tacitus, Orations by Cicero, Ethics, Rhetoric, Metaphysics, and Politics by Aristotle, Plato's Symposium and The Trial & Execution of Socrates.

There are any number of “moments,” points in history, when things changed. For five minutes on a bright June morning in 1942, the Pacific war hung in the balance. In 1066, William the Conqueror stood at Hastings and changed the world. At Gettysburg in 1863, the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment wavered, but never broke. On Christmas Day of 1776, Washington gambled the Revolution on an icy river. As many of these pivotal moments as there are in history, there are far more much slower unfolding events that portend a seminal change in human attitudes or the cultural zeitgeist. In ancient Ionia, the fundamentals for scientific thinking were growing in strength. In their quest to defeat the gods once and for all, the Ionians stood at the cusp of higher mathematics and unlocking the secrets of the physical world. In that same time though, came another scientific mind that sought to unlock the gods and to prove that they alone were in control. Instead of moving into a future of knowledge and understanding, the world was trapped in a society remaining in the darkness of religious zealotry and using the gods as the justification for behaviors repugnant to the Spirit of Man. In the early half of the 20th Century, two men sought to define how a republican nation should use its information sources to maintain and grow that republic. One believed that information should be made readily available. He thought that only a well-informed and engaged society could overcome the challenges of a changing world. The other man believed that information should be restricted, and when was presented to the masses, it should be properly formatted so that the consumer would come to the “correct” conclusion as to the use of that data. And while these two men influenced the national direction and its future, their names are virtually unknown to the public. Their influence on our society seems obvious in hindsight, or is it just a realization that human nature cannot be overcome?

With the region of Ionian in the Persian Empire back under control, Darius could now turn to other business. He had reportedly, after learning of the Athenian involvement in the revolt, had one of his servants repeat to him three times “Master, remember the Athenians” whenever he sat down to a meal. Remember the Athenians, and the others who had also dared assist the Ionians, he would.An initial campaign was sent north into Thrace which also had a navy shadowing the land forces as they marched following the coast line. This campaign would ultimately run into disastrous problems causing the commander to return into the empire. The naval force would be destroyed, not by the Greeks but by a storm that whipped up as the fleet rounded the notorious Mt Athos. While, the land forces would encounter unexpected resistance from the Thracians who would also wound the Persian commander, Mardonious.The second campaign would see a fleet assembled which would transport the Persian land forces across the Aegean in what would amount to an Island-hopping campaign. Along the way Persian policy towards those willing to submit and those who would resist were on full display, acting as an example to those yet to encounter the armada.Accompanying the Persian fleet was the old exiled Tyrant of Athens, Hippias with the expectation that he would be re-established as the leader in Athens, answerable to Darius of course. Before landing in Attica the Persians first laid waste to another polis who had accompanied Athens during the revolt, Eretria. Once revenge had been taken against them the fleet now made its way to a bay along the Attic coast known as Marathon Bay.

We now arrive on the eve of the Greek and Persian wars. The Greek colonies of Ionian had traded one ruler for another and were now part of the Persian Empire. Their lack of freedom and rising taxes would see discontent grow. With some help from ambitious leaders, Ionia and surrounding regions would rise up in revolt.The Ionians would seek help from their cousins back on the Greek mainland to assist in their plight. Only two city states, Athens and Eretria would answer the call with limited help, but it was enough for Darius to shift his gaze west. The ultimate goal of the rebels was to march onto Susa, one of the Persian capitals. But the campaign would be short lived with the Greek force being foiled at the first major city. Sardis. The Persian forces were able to force the battle of Ephesus and the Greeks were routed, with the Athenians and Eritreans returning home and taking no more part in the revolt.The Persians now began systematically re subjugating the various regions along the Anatolian coast line in a series of campaigns lasting another 4 years. Eventually the revolt would be effectively defeated at the naval battle of Lade. Now though, with the prelude to the Greek and Persian wars over the Persian Empire would now begin preparations to move against the lands of Greece.

Reviving the victims of Blue doesn't go as planned, more Ionians are hit with a new weaponized version of Blue, and Faith and Fallon face off against the mysterious attacker, now unmasked. This episode marks the end of Book One!

Even once the Ionian cities themselves were defeated, the consequences of their Revolt were ongoing. In 492 BCE, a new general, Mardonius, took to the field to settle matters in the Balkans. Two years later, the Persians turned their sites on Athens and Eretria in retribution for the aid they sent to the Ionians. In 490, Artaphernes and Datis launched the first Persian invasion of mainland Greece. Patreon Lyceum HankGreen.com A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor An Absolutely Remarkable Thing Ad: Hank Green --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/history-of-perisa/support

After the shocking attack on Sardis, many more Greek cities joined the Ionian Revolt, despite Persian victory at Ephesus. In 497 BCE, three land campaigns were launched by three Persian generals: Daurises, Hymaies, and Otanes. After a series of lightning victories in early 497, the campaigns began set in to prolonged fighting. Two of the Persian generals were dead by 496, but the Ionians were still losing. Fresh revolts in the Troad and Caria were dealt serious defeats, and Aristagoras of Miletus, once the ringleader of the Ionians, fled into exile. Timur Podcast Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Patreon --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/history-of-perisa/support

Automaton exploded on the mid-western US metal scene in 2015 with the amazing debut concept album “A Bold New Horizon”. In addition to their great amalgam of songs, Automaton brought the unique visual aesthetic of steampunk costumes to their metal presentation – a smart and provocative look which fit well with their musical style. I had the opportunity to see Automaton live in Covington KY last summer – and to interview co-conspirators Duncan Batchworth III and Markus Wolverhampton - and I was thoroughly impressed with both the band's persons and performance. March 2018 finds Automaton returning with new music in the form of their sophomore release – the self-titled full-length album ‘Automaton'. Also a concept album, the story picks up where “A Bold New Horizon” left off with the heroes – or villains, depending on your perspective – engaged in their ongoing dispute with the despicable Ionians. Now: Automaton – the album – represents a significant change for Automaton – the band – in terms of sound from their last album. Whereas “A Bold New Horizon” featured a fairly straightforward European power metal sound with a generally modern production feel, stylistically “Automaton” (the album) represents music unmistakably cut from the NWOBHM mold, and engineered with a very live and raw production. At this point – full disclosure – I count myself an unapologetic fan of modern metal; someone believes most of the best heavy metal music has been created since the year 2000. I don't typically listen to music that sounds like what I hear on this album, and, in fact, would normally disregard album promos with descriptors like ‘heavy rock', ‘NWOBHM', or ‘bluesy guitar' – all fair representations of music in this release. That said, there will be many fans of metal and rock – particularly ones who adore music from the 70s and 80s – who will lap up this album like spilled wine. And there is much to enjoy here. The songs on ‘Automaton' are well-devised and very accessible. Tracks like ‘Verdict Be Damned' and ‘The Cull' provide solid melodies and uptempo swing that are quite engaging. ‘Automata' is perhaps the heaviest and most modern-sounding song, with intense riffing that mirrors its mechanistic lyrics. And the final two tracks ‘The Imprisonment Of Duncan Batchworth III' followed by ‘The Trial Of Duncan Batchworth III' deliver a climax and cliffhanger that are in many ways superior to the ending found on “A Bold New Horizon”. I give full credit to Automaton for their gumption and taking the risk to create such a radically different sounding album. How many bands have we as fans crushed for taking the easy route and, after a successful debut, essentially recreating their first album all over again? That said, there will be the possibility that metalheads with preference for a more modern style might not give this new album a fair listen. That would be unfortunate, as Automaton are gifted musicians who, whether or not one appreciates their NWOBHM sound, have crafted solid songs in the context of a compelling narrative. In summary, Automaton has gotten even bolder with their new album, venturing in interesting directions that may catch some fans offguard. Definitely finding the azimuth - if not quite the zenith - of their metal potential.

Avoid sailing the Ionians I now recommend you avoid sailing the Ionians! This episode has us sailing the Ionian Islands with Andy and Lisa Buffmire on my 5th leg of this summers sailing adventure from Turkey to Croatia. Andy and Lisa sail with me from Patras to Corfu right through of the crowded and overly popular, ruined, formerly ideal cruising grounds. Excessive expansion of charter and flotilla fleets have taken this once delightful cruising area and made it into over crowded anchorages and somewhat polluted waters. With aggressive charter flotilla employees trying to claim open anchorage areas for their flotillas exclusive use An example of how charter companies claim anchorage space early in the day to keep other sailors away! They send advance crews to tell others to stay away! Avoid sailing the Ionians it is now overcrowded by Flotillas and Charter fleets.   When I first sailed in these waters over 15 years ago Cleopatra Marina had about 80 boats wintering on the hard today there are over 1000 on the hard with another 2 large boatyards nearby. That along with massive Marina expansion takes most of the charm out of this once delightful corner of Greece If you want a charter vacation and want a hint of what the cruising lifestyle is like Please don't contribute the charter companies that have now ruined this once delightful cruising area. Crowded anchorage in Corfu If you have suggestions for future episodes please write me a note. Use the contact form at the website medsailor.com Please Consider supporting the podcast   in Patreon Want me to go sailing with you? Then contact me! If you have ideas for future podcasts or comments please drop me a note! and PLEASE rate my podcast in iTunes and perhaps write a note. link https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sailing-in-the-mediterranean/id566678892?mt=2 Sailing! Learn To Sail: Bareboat Cruising Certification Lessons for the ASA 104 Exam Exam over 8 hours of Audio Instruction to help you get ready to     go sailing and also to prepare you for the written portion of the ASA 104 written exam. https://gumroad.com/l/bwXh If you're interested in my sailing instructional audio series here are the links: Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Keelboat Certification Lessons for the ASA 101 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/Eiig Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Coastal Cruising; Lessons for the ASA 103 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/PvOYK Sailing! Learn To Sail: Bareboat Cruising Certification Lessons for the ASA 104 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/bwXh Sailing in the Mediterranean Website https://www.medsailor.com If you would like to be a guest or have suggestions for future episodes or if you would like Franz to be a speaker at your Sailing Club or fundraiser please feel free to contact me. ©2018 Franz Amussen all rights reserved

This is the second part of my interview Mike Chepurin. Mike is a frequent listener to the podcast and a while back asked me to describe what would be a good charter for a family with a child. I suggested the Ionians. He followed my suggestion and we talk about his experience in this episode. Here is a link to a short Video Mike shared with us https://youtu.be/4oZfawCpkPw Want me to go sailing with you? Then contact me! If you have ideas for future podcasts or comments please drop me a note! and PLEASE rate my podcast in iTunes and perhaps write a note. Here is the link https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sailing-in-the-mediterranean/id566678892?mt=2 Sailing! Learn To Sail: Bareboat Cruising Certification Lessons for the ASA 104 Exam Exam over 8 hours of Audio Instruction to help you get ready to go sailing and also to prepare you for the written portion of the ASA 104 written exam. https://gumroad.com/l/bwXh If you're interested in my sailing instructional audio series here are the links: Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Keelboat Certification Lessons for the ASA 101 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/Eiig Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Coastal Cruising; Lessons for the ASA 103 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/PvOYK Sailing! Learn To Sail: Bareboat Cruising Certification Lessons for the ASA 104 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/bwXh Sailing in the Mediterranean Website https://www.medsailor.com If you would like to be a guest or have suggestions for future episodes or if you would like Franz to be a speaker at your Sailing Club or fundraiser please feel free to contact me. ©2016 Franz Amussen all rights reserved

In this episode I interview Mike Chepurin. Mike is a frequent listener to the podcast and a while back asked me to describe what would be a good charter for a family with a child. I suggested the Ionians. He followed my suggestion and we talk about his experience in this episode. Here is a link to a short Video Mike shared with us https://youtu.be/4oZfawCpkPw In the introduction I talk about elk hunting and I mentioned I was going to post a photograph of the bull elk that my game camera took. So here is that photograph. In addition, there's a couple photographs of my view of the field of fire where I'm hunting. Want me to go sailing with you? Then contact me! If you have ideas for future podcasts or comments please drop me a note! and PLEASE rate my podcast in iTunes and perhaps write a note. Here is the link https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sailing-in-the-mediterranean/id566678892?mt=2 Sailing! Learn To Sail: Bareboat Cruising Certification Lessons for the ASA 104 Exam Exam over 8 hours of Audio Instruction to help you get ready to go sailing and also to prepare you for the written portion of the ASA 104 written exam. https://gumroad.com/l/bwXh If you're interested in my sailing instructional audio series here are the links: Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Keelboat Certification Lessons for the ASA 101 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/Eiig Sailing! Learn to Sail: Basic Coastal Cruising; Lessons for the ASA 103 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/PvOYK Sailing! Learn To Sail: Bareboat Cruising Certification Lessons for the ASA 104 Exam https://gumroad.com/l/bwXh Sailing in the Mediterranean Website https://www.medsailor.com If you would like to be a guest or have suggestions for future episodes or if you would like Franz to be a speaker at your Sailing Club or fundraiser please feel free to contact me. ©2016 Franz Amussen all rights reserved

Welcome to MR, the podcast for beginners and insiders about the ideas, people and movements who have shaped rhetorical history. And today I want to talk about the pedagogical tool of making kids have an argument. And an argument doesn’t just mean bickering.       Okay, even if there’s a difference between arguing and bickering , I will say, that hen I was a kid, I bickered a lot with my brother Dave. Dave is three years older than me, which meant he was farther along in school and knew more things. This bothered me, so if he said something, I said the opposite. If he said that hippos were more dangerous than lions, then I had to prove that lions were more dangerous than hippos. If he said that indoor games were better than outside, I have to prove that outside were better than inside. Sometimes, like boxers circling each other, we would switch positions and suddenly I was arging for hippos and indoor games and Dave was arguing for lions and outdoor games. It must have driven my mother crazy, especially on a long Sunday afternoon, but it turns out that what Dave and I were do has a long tradition in rhetorical education. We just didn’t have a word for it yet—dissoi logoi.   Dissoi logoi means “contrasting arguments” in Greek. You can sort of tease that out from the root word for “dissent” and “logos.” It goes really really far back, and we don’t know who came up with the first time, but the idea is that you argue your opponent’s position to better understand your own. There are two ways to practice dissoi logoi. One is the way I did as a 7 year old, by having an interlocutor and then switching positions. This method works great for school kids all learning together and you can see this practice in speech and debate classes even today. You research and write and then argue your heart out and then after you finish, the teacher holds up their hands and says, “Okay, switch.” When I argued what Dave would said, I’d know how to respond to his arguments, because I have heard his arguments.   The other way to practice dissoi logoi is to do it all yourself. You run through all the arguments on one side and then you run through all the arguments on the other side. You’re arguing with yourself in a sense. There’s a philosophical and cynical view to the practice of dissoi logoi. If you’re cynical you might say that this is an example of the relativism of the sophists at the worst. This is what people hate about lawyers and sophists—they don’t really care about the argument, but they only care about the language and winning, so they could arguing one thing just as impassioned as the other. It looks like you are two-faced or insincere if you can switch from caring deeply about one side and then, on the turn of a dime, care just as deeply about the other side. But the philosophical perspective sees dissoi logoi as an exercise for coming at a truthier truth. In fact, another term for dissoilogoi is dialexis, and the term is related to dialectic—the opposing forces method of getting at truth espoused by Socrates, Plato and other heavy hitters of classical Athens.   The practice of Dissoi Logoi is articulated in a text called the Dissoi Logoi, which was found at then end of a much later manuscript, and wasn’t published until the renaissance. It was proably written around 425 BC, based on its references to historical figures and style of writing. The Dissoi logoi looks like student notes, which is what a lot of rhetorical tezts are, but there’s no way of saying it was one thing or another for certain, and we don’t know whose class the author was sitting in. It kicks off by saying that good and bad “are the same thing, and that the same thing is good for some but bad for others, or at one time good and at another time bad for the same person.” All of this is to say that some actions have different moral weight, depending on who you are and under what circumstances you engage in them. Then follows a series of examples—in sports, a certain outcome will be good for one team, but bad for the other; shoddy workmanship is bad for customers and good for the manufacturers, etc. The same event could be good or bad depending on who experiences it. Then there’s a list of the circumstances which are shameful in one setting and praiseworthy in another, like ow for Spartans, girls would walk around bare armed or naked while Ionians would never. You can kind of imagine a list of examples from an instructor. And some of the examples seem awfully sensational—not just regular suicide, murder, exhibitionis, and adultery, but drinking from your enemies’ skulls and eating your parents and cross dressing and incest. It’s all these off-color examples that make me think the Dissoi Logoi was an educational text—nothing gets kids’ attention like sex and violence.   And as a bit of a tangent, the question of education comes up explicitly at the end of the tract, where the question is asked whether wisdom and moral excellence can be taught. The author takes care not to claim that wisdom can be taught, but dismantles the arguments against such an education and argues for the ideal of the person who can “converse in brief questions and answers, to know the truth of things to please one’s cause correctly, to be able to speak in public, to have an understanding of argument-skills and to teach people about the nature of everything” (8.1). Oh, if that’s all an education takes… But it sounds a lot like the education which Cicero describes in the dialogs on the Orator.   It doesn’t seem like a big stretch to say that two thinkers could have independently come up with the idea that the best education would be to know everything, but there’s also a possibility that the ideas of the dissoi logoi made it over to Roman thought. But heading back the other way, there may have just been a common ideal floating around in the Greco-Roman world. So did the Dissoi Logoi influence Cicero?   Yes, I think, and no. Whatever one Dave doesn’t think.

When I was a kid, I bickered a lot with my brother Dave. Dave is three years older than me, which meant he was farther along in school and knew more things. This bothered me, so if he said something, I said the opposite. If he said that hippos were more dangerous than lions, then I had to prove that lions were more dangerous than hippos. If he said that indoor games were better than outside, I have to prove that outside were better than inside. Sometimes, like boxers circling eachother, we would switch positions and suddenly I was arging for hippos and indoor games and Dave was arguing for lions and outdoor games. It must have driven my mother crazy, especially on a long Sunday afternoon, but it turns out that what Dave and I were do has a long tradition in rhetorical education. We just didn’t have a word for it yet—dissoi logoi.       Dissoi logoi means “contrasting arguments” in Greek. You can sort of tease that out from the root word for “dissent” and “logos.” It goes really really far back, and we don’t know who came up with the first time, but the idea is that you argue your opponent’s position to better understand your own. There are two ways to practice dissoi logoi. One is the way I did as a 7 year old, by having an interlocutor and then switching positions. This method works great for school kids all learning together and you can see this practice in speech and debate classes even today. You research and write and then argue your heart out and then after you finish, the teacher holds up their hands and says, “Okay, switch.” When I argued what Dave would said, I’d know how to respond to his arguments, because I have heard his arguments.       The other way to practice dissoi logoi is to do it all yourself. You run through all the arguments on one side and then you run through all the arguments on the other side. You’re arguing with yourself in a sense. There’s a philosophical and cynical view to the practice of dissoi logoi. If you’re cynical you might say that this is an example of the relativism of the sophists at the worst. This is what people hate about lawyers and sophists—they don’t really care about the argument, but they only care about the language and winning, so they could arguing one thing just as impassioned as the other. It looks like you are two-faced or insincere if you can switch from caring deeply about one side and then, on the turn of a dime, care just as deeply about the other side. But the philosophical perspective sees dissoi logoi as an exercise for coming at a truthier truth. In fact, another term for dissoilogoi is dialexis, and the term is related to dialectic—the opposing forces method of getting at truth espoused by Socrates, Plato and other heavy hitters of classical Athens.       The practice of Dissoi Logoi is articulated in a text called the Dissoi Logoi, which was found at then end of a much later manuscript, and wasn’t published until the renaissance.  It was proably written around 425 BC, based on its references to historical figures and style of writing. The Dissoi logoi looks like student notes, which is what a lot of rhetorical tezts are, but there’s no way of saying it was one thing or another for certain, and we don’t know whose class the author was sitting in. It kicks off by saying that good and bad “are the same thing, and that the same thing is good for some but bad for others, or at one time good and at another time bad for the same person.” All of this is to say that some actions have different moral weight, depending on who you are and under what circumstances you engage in them. Then follows a series of examples—in sports, a certain outcome will be good for one team, but bad for the other; shoddy workmanship is bad for customers and good for the manufacturers, etc. The same event could be good or bad depending on who experiences it. Then there’s a list of the circumstances which are shameful in one setting and praiseworthy in another, like ow for Spartans, girls would walk around bare armed or naked while Ionians would never. You can kind of imagine a list of examples from an instructor. And some of the examples seem awfully sensational—not just regular suicide, murder, exhibitionis, and adultery, but drinking from your enemies’ skulls and eating your parents and cross dressing and incest. It’s all these off-color examples that make me think the Dissoi Logoi was an educational text—nothing gets kids’ attention like sex and violence.       And as a bit of a tangent, the question of education comes up explicitly at the end of the tract, where the question is asked whether wisdom and moral excellence can be taught. The author takes care not to claim that wisdom can be taught, but dismantles the arguments against such an education and argues for the ideal of the person who can “converse in brief questions and answers, to know the truth of things to please one’s cause correctly, to be able to speak in public, to have an understanding of argument-skills and to teach people about the nature of everything” (8.1). Oh, if that’s all an education takes… But it sounds a lot like the education  which Cicero describes in the dialogs on the Orator.       It doesn’t seem like a big stretch to say that two thinkers could have independently come up with the idea that the best education would be to know everything, but there’s also a possibility that the ideas of the dissoi logoi made it over to Roman thought. But heading back the other way, there may have just been a common ideal floating around in the Greco-Roman world. So did the Dissoi Logoi influence Cicero?       Yes, I think, and no. Whatever one Dave doesn’t think.  

In this episode we look at Ancient Warfare Magazine VIII.2 "War, trade and adventure: struggles of the Ionian Greeks". Angus is joined by Josho Brouwers, Murray Dahm, Lindsay Powell, Mark McCaffery and Cezary Kucewicz.  "The ancient Greeks originally divided themselves into four major tribes, namely the Dorians, Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionians. Each of these tribes also spoke a distinct dialect (Doric, Aeolic, Ionic), apart from the Achaeans, who used a form of Doric. The Athenians believed themselves to be the original Ionians and spoke a variant dialect called Attic. The focus of this issue is on the Ionian Greeks. Outside of Attica, Ionians lived on the island of Euboea, on the Cyclades, and in colonies settled in the central part of the west coast of Asia Minor, as well as on the islands off its coast, such as Chios and Samos."

In this episode we look at Ancient Warfare Magazine VIII.2 "War, trade and adventure: struggles of the Ionian Greeks". Angus is joined by Josho Brouwers, Murray Dahm, Lindsay Powell, Mark McCaffery and Cezary Kucewicz. "The ancient Greeks originally divided themselves into four major tribes, namely the Dorians, Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionians. Each of these tribes also spoke a distinct dialect (Doric, Aeolic, Ionic), apart from the Achaeans, who used a form of Doric. The Athenians believed themselves to be the original Ionians and spoke a variant dialect called Attic. The focus of this issue is on the Ionian Greeks. Outside of Attica, Ionians lived on the island of Euboea, on the Cyclades, and in colonies settled in the central part of the west coast of Asia Minor, as well as on the islands off its coast, such as Chios and Samos."

Origins of cities and peoples are an important component of Greek mythology, and were central to ancient Greeks’ conception of their own identity. The most famous Greek origin myth is that of the Athenians, who, unlike most other Greeks, thought of their ancestors as strongly connected to and even born from the earth, in other words as autochthonous. This lecture explores the birth myths of the early, mythical kings of Athens, such as Kekrops, Erichthonius and Erectheus, and ends withsome discussion Ion, who gave his name to the Ionians, and the various genealogies asssociated with him (N.B. Euripides’ version of Ion is discussed in more detail in Lecture 14). Copyright 2013 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Origins of cities and peoples are an important component of Greek mythology, and were central to ancient Greeks’ conception of their own identity. The most famous Greek origin myth is that of the Athenians, who, unlike most other Greeks, thought of their ancestors as strongly connected to and even born from the earth, in other words as autochthonous. This lecture explores the birth myths of the early, mythical kings of Athens, such as Kekrops, Erichthonius and Erectheus, and ends withsome discussion Ion, who gave his name to the Ionians, and the various genealogies asssociated with him (N.B. Euripides’ version of Ion is discussed in more detail in Lecture 14). Copyright 2013 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.