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a couple visions, a new discovery, a halfling splash potion and gross corpse blood. Itll be fun....we hope. Theme of the week: weird and crazy magical things in your games. join the discord with the link below, search fatesrest in any of your social media of choice, or email us at Thecast.fatesrest@gmail.com https://discord.gg/gB7t8pWcWj

The ACC Deserves Praise Even If Itll Be Short Lived + Fast 5 At 5 - Ish by Ed Lane

Did we expect anything else? Jays struggle to score runs in game 2 of the series and the season is over. Riley and Jesse give their instant reactions to how they feel and how things went down. They start by talking about the offence and how dreadful its been. then give some thoughts on Vladdy being picked off second base, Jose Berrios being pulled early and wheather or not its time to pull the plug on John Schnider as manager. Itll be an interesting off season for sure.

Itll be Interesting check it out --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/l1vel1fe100/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/l1vel1fe100/support

UNTITLED SHORT FILM 3. T I M E 2 Everything I wanted/ Em mi cuarto Watch tenet Watch inception En Mi Cuart Blumixx EN MI CUARTO- BLŪMIXX lyricas Yo soy no borracha, no Escuchen to la musica— Bailar, bailar, bailar No me gusta corazom O tu pantalones, porque Mi encantan (even though) es mal En mi cuarto En la playa Yo leer y escriba Porque no dormir en mañana No photos famtastatica Yo soy muy fea, y muy gorda Tu que gupao y importamte Porque (when) yo triste ahora Tu musica luz te fuera Si-si-si Para Tu, y para ti I don't go to parties Or drink Hennessy But, Baby this is so embarrassing I wear your tattoo But I don't think you remember me Guess I fell in love And now I'm trying to crawl out of it Want to make you proud, But now I'm guessing you don't give a shit Told my closest friend about it all She believed everything I am sure she listens to your songs when she is drinking And she thinks of me Believe it Don't take pictures, or do videos But I see your face in dreams most nights when I am sleeping though I hope you know I prayed for you, I took your soul from Satan I walked up a mountain, I went fasting with the ancients I write omens, I'm a no one, And I know you'll probably hate this, But I bought some pics So I could see your trainer naked And rate it I'm playin Aqui me lama ‘blu' Yo me la paso imaginando tu piel Lo que-hicimo' en el sofá aquel Y quizá si yo llego a saber no te lo llego a me- Esa noche porque Baby, no e' lo mismo aquí si no estás tú en mi cuarto En mi cuarto Me la paso viendo to' tus video' y viendo to' tus retrato' Tus retrato' Quería tomar, contigo joder Yo quería fumar, contigo beber Pero, baby, no e' lo mismo aquí si no estás tú en mi cuarto En mi cuarto, oh-oh-oh Y yo sigo aquí sin dormir bebiendo Hennessy Las sábanas en mi cuarto, pero tú no está' aquí Y ese día yo decía que no, pero sí Sea la madre, caí Y esto e'tun juego, pero yo perdí en el tuyo Y tú te hace', pero yo sé lo tuyo Dejé la puerta abierta, pero tuve que cerrarla, yo Tengo un corazón, pero ese cabrón no manda, no Solamente tú, sé dónde está ese tattoo Si fuese' gemela como quiera me gustaría' tú Yo me enchulé como un cabrón, pero pa' ti fue un vacilón Ojalá que borracha tu amiga ponga esta canción Y sepa' que no e' lo mismo aquí si no estás tú en cuarto En cuarto Me la paso viendo to' tus video' y viendo to' tus retrato' Tus retrato' Quería tomar, contigo joder Yo quería fumar, contigo beber Pero, ‘aby, no e' lo mismo, aquí si no estás tú en mi cuarto En mi cuarto, oh-oh-oh Esta noche Porque I don't want no sloppy seconds, sis— You can keep him Tell you what, next time we have a race I'm gonna win it; Finally found the difference between men and women Men love a body, but I woman love a kitchen To cook in Hey good lookin, I wrote the book on your crookedness Kayla's a crook, but I like this new Dillon Kid Call me obsessive, but I make em sandwiches Yeah, she a foodie with Skrillex and riches I guess; Congratulations to the princess; As a Queen you wouldn't make it; Half the world has seen you naked Hey, question: How much did them thin lips cost; Tell Sonny he lost— Cause I'm the final boss, And he could never make me Nut; Get it, Ra? Alright, I'm done, moving on I don't want no sloppy seconds, sis— You can keep him Tell you what, next time we have a race I'm gonna win it; Finally found the difference between men and women Men love a body, but a woman love a kitchen To cook in Sonny wouldn't make it a day in the ghetto; Or maybe he did, after he stole all the gold From my kingdom; I know a nigga ain't dumb But I remember sucking thumbs inside a womb, Inside our mom, Who was a mummy, Dug her up, And afterwards I took a bath I got bad habbits, And little white rabbits On the sabbath I rapped about the past With fresh tostadas In a black dragon backpack; It was supposed to say OWSLA; But I'll adjust; I got a tattoo in Tijuana With my logo on it Cause opposites attract I was actually first, Kayla That's just a fact; But you know what? I'm done! You can have him back Have a happy Instagram Basic bitch bash Ask Nancy if I can have my hat back When she's done with that I'm really just a fan Haaaaah. I don't want no sloppy seconds, sis— You can keep him Tell you what, next time we have a race I'm gonna win it; Finally found the difference between men and women Men love a body, but A woman love a kitchen To cook in “ The Wrong Skrillex” Supacree realizes she's in the wrong dimension after all, after discovering the Skrillex in her current dimension is in actuality 5'5-whereas the correct Skrillex is 5'4; she searches for a portal into the correct dimension. “The Other Way” Supacree and Skrillex are a couple; Kayla Lauren, a lifelong fan, has written an entire Saga about Sonny/Skrillex, after falling in love with him at a music festival. This is creepy. It is creepy. “It's Dillon Francis” SUPACREE's reality is shifted after she learns the “Skrillex” that has been guiding her is actually a bodiless extraterrestrial being, willing and ready to occupy “whatever body” she sees fit—having lost Sonny, she settles on Dillon Francis. “Settles on Dillon Francis—?!” It is settling. That's an upgrade. How is that? He's— [Dillon Francis] Look at him! [Dillon Francis.] —it's a settlement. It's—he's taller? So?! He's also whiter. Whiter than Skrillex? Skrillex isn't white—! [Skrillex.] No—just— ugh. Hmmm. How is this your type? He's my type. How are either of them your type? They're both my type. Supacree is a superstar DJ. She has learned from the ascended mastery that her future husband is also a superstar DJ. Is it Skrillex? [Skrillex] ...mmm. … Supacree accidentally fell in love with Skrillex— She now has an unavoidable crush on Dillon Francis, but is unwilling to admit it. No, I don't. Nobody wants to hurt her feelings, but— But what? Fuck these n****s. Currently: SUPACREE is the most eligible bachelorette in LA; —yeah, right— And—she's not even famous yet. —what is this—? It's funnier that she doesn't know. WHAT? She has no idea. DILLON FRANCIS She's not my type. All the [single] superstar DJs fight for a chance with Supacree. This is her sound library. What the fuck. She MAKES music— Oh, Goddammn. She's a Goddess. —I'm a God— OH MY GOD— —trapped inside a Goddess, yes, it's complicated— A DJ comes flying towards her. Force field, up. *zap* ugh. I know, right? It's never Skrillex. She portals away. AGHHHHH!! SHES MINE! MINE! ITS ME, DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who is that? ...I don't know. Some DJ. SHE'S MINEEEEEE—- Aghhhhhh!! DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHH!!!! “The Blue Eyed Skrillex” It was weird. Sonny's unborn son travels back from his future and winds up in a... What does he want? To go back, I'm assuming. This scene? Is it written? It might be. How's this? Don't do this. I have to. ___ Oh YES—we were tie dying! Oh shit, now I remember. ___ DR Ya'll. Skrillex is an alien. OWSLA We know this. DR No, I mean-- like, for real. OWSLA Yeah. He is. Wait, Doctor WHO? Exactly. “DOCTOR WHOWSLA” (Lame.) EVERYONE We already knew that. DR No. But I mean, on some real shit-- OWSLA WE KNOW DUDE. Oh. [The Skrillex is Unveiled] What in the fuck sauce. Siri Plays Duck Sauce No, Siri--Okay, you know what? I'm not even mad. I love this. [Mini Dance Break-- Suddenly the Skrillex is activated by th--] Ohhh, I get it. Because, remember, it runs on-- Yassssss!!!! What the-- WOAH. What just happened? How'd you do that? I did not! Yes you did! It wasn't me! THE SKRILLEX: IT WAS U. Oh My God. What the fuck! This is crazy! I KNOW DUDE-- Are we terrified or astounded?! I AM SKRILLEX. AHHHH! PORQUE NO LAS DOS? THE SKRILLEX PLAYS ‘PORQUE NO LAS DOS, BY SUPACREE What is this? I love it. [Miniature Dance Break, even amidst the chaos Wait... I wrote this song. Wait--you did? This is you! Damn. That's fire. This is hot. You wrote this? Yeah, but...in the future. Wait, I thought there is no future. There has to be, Skrillex is in it. I AM SKRILLEX. Apparently, this is him. No it isn't! It is him. It has to be. But it isn't. It's him, he's just screwing with it. Who is this kid? What is she even doing here with us? She's going to help us find him. Close...but no. What do you mean? We've had several hundred experts listen-- There are several hundred ‘experts' in Skrillex. Several Thousands, more precisely, in this specific field of study, mind you. I do mind. This is a very serious matter, miss. Over it. I beg your pardon? Mind Over...Nevermind. But I do. *shrugs* Hm. ___ Juanita The Maid Mister Skrillex Just call me-- Mister Skrillex ...Okay, that Questions to Answer (Somehow) Why Is She Mad At Dillon Francis (Which time, and which character?) Oh shit. Well. First of all, she is Dillon Francis. Okay. And she hates herself, primarily, right? Right; but--everyone hates themselves. Apparently, they don't. (They do.) So why is she actually mad at Dillon Francis? In the most realistic dimension? Yes. Because he doesn't even know she exists; and if he did, he would just see her as an average fan. He'd never know she was aspiring to be what he's already achieved, and--to add to that, I guess she might be slightly jealous of his friendship with Sonny; What? Or at the very least, his collaborations with Skrillex. Everybody has collaborations with Skrillex. Apparently, they don't. (They do.) So, I guess at the most basic level of anything, she's just angry that she can't understand how to do what they do; and at the core, she's trying to be like either of them--but the music industry's so jaded, she doesn't know if she can trust anyone--esoecually after Magic Is Real That was a good night. She was in a good state of mind; but always questioned the intentions and whether they were in fact, for, or against her. We, someone was trying to get my attention. ...it was you? Of course it was me. Im the only one giving this many fucks about Dillon Francis. I doubt it. This is a lot of fucks to give about anyone. Or anything. Doesn't matter. Oh, it matters. So why is God mad at Dillon Francis? Well; at one point, he's not even flowing Ze Rules, Nice. Because he's working for The psychonauts and Bampheramphs, and the mothafuckin Bampheramphs, and Homeland security, and the FBI, CIA and secret service respectively; and some private sector white collar guys, I'm not even sure he knows what they're really about. So he's always everywhere, nobody knows how it's possible or why, and he can usually not account for it. Ok, nice. Now, Chak Chel is mad, because she sent him out with a list; but this last time, he just never came back; That's sad. He was her last chance at finding her other half; without him she knows she won't have Time. That's getting deep. Because Hanzel's an angel, or something I thought he was from hell. He is, but he's on all the teams that Dillon's not, plus all the ones he's on at a higher rank. Of course, which makes Hanzel-- AN ACENDED MASTER. (Descended, technically) But Chak Chel's not actually mad at Dillon Francis; he might even be her favorite "greatest grandchild", which is why the Google kids turn against him and begin pranking him into ascension. They love him too, but they're jealous of all the time he gets to spend with "Google", I don't think she's called google yet, then Just depends which dimension you're in— It is endless Oh God. I spent a year writing about Skrillex and Dillon Francis Mostly skrillex. Mostly Sonny. Who the fuck is Skrillex? I am. ___ Did you get the Skrillex? Yes. Let me see it. This isn't it. This is bogus. Bogus Skrillex? Wake up, it's a new world. ___ Wake up. ___ So wait, he just thinks he's in black rock city the whole time? Playa Magic. Questions to Answer (Somehow) Why Is She Mad At Dillon Francis (Which time, and which character?) Oh shit. Well. First of all, she is Dillon Francis. Okay. And she hates herself, primarily, right? Right; but--everyone hates themselves. Apparently, they don't. (They do.) So why is she actually mad at Dillon Francis? In the most realistic dimension? Yes. Because he doesn't even know she exists; and if he did, he would just see her as an average fan. He'd never know she was aspiring to be what he's already achieved, and--to add to that, I guess she might be slightly jealous of his friendship with Sonny; What? Or at the very least, his collaborations with Skrillex. Everybody has collaborations with Skrillex. Apparently, they don't. (They do.) So, I guess at the most basic level of anything, she's just angry that she can't understand how to do what they do; and at the core, she's trying to be like either of them--but the music industry's so jaded, she doesn't know if she can trust anyone--esoecually after Magic Is Real That was a good night. She was in a good state of mind; but always questioned the intentions and whether they were in fact, for, or against her. We, someone was trying to get my attention. ...it was you? Of course it was me. I'm the only one giving this many fucks about Dillon Francis. I doubt it. This is a lot of fucks to give about anyone. Or anything. Doesn't matter. Oh, it matters. So why is God mad at Dillon Francis? Well; at one point, he's not even flowing Ze Rules, Nice. Because he's working for The psychonauts and Bampheramphs, and the mothafuckin Bampheramphs, and Homeland security, and the FBI, CIA and secret service respectively; and some private sector white collar guys, I'm not even sure he knows what they're really about. So he's always everywhere, nobody knows how it's possible or why, and he can usually not account for it. Ok, nice. Now, Chak Chel is mad, because she sent him out with a list; but this last time, he just never came back; That's sad. He was her last chance at finding her other half; without him she knows she won't have Time. That's getting deep. Because Hanzel's an angel, or something I thought he was from hell. He is, but he's on all the teams that Dillon's not, plus all the ones he's on at a higher rank. Of course, which makes Hanzel-- AN ACENDED MASTER (Descended, technically) But Chak Chel's not actually mad at Dillon Francis; he might even be her favorite "greatest grandchild", which is why the Google kids turn against him and begin pranking him into ascension. They love him too, but they're jealous of all the time he gets to spend with "Google", I don't think she's called google yet, then Just depends which dimension you're in It is endless Oh God. I spent a year writing about Skrillex and Dillon Francis Mostly skrillex. Mostly Sonny. Who the fuck is Skrillex? I am. ___ Did you get the Skrillex? Yes. Let me see it. This isn't it. This is bogus. Bogus Skrillex? Wake up, it's a new world. ___ Wake up. ___ So wait, he just thinks he's in black rock city the whole time? Playa Magic. WHERE'S GERALD? What? Gerald's not his best friend... And Skrillex isn't mine-- Or is he? I am Skrillex. You wish. Why waste a wish? WHERE'S DIPLO? See, it doesn't work. You're right. We all know where Diplo is (Chillin') Right. Anyway. WHERE'S GERALD? _______ After mysteriously being blasted into a parallel dimension The relationship between SupaCree and the fictional Skrillex is a highly complex and mysterious multi-factor, Multidimensional, and multifaceted And multiracial. Lol Agh, shuttup. The "relationship" acts as a broad platform from which a variety of plot points and timelines within various series in the projects are based in, revolve around, or make reference to, throughout the duration of each story universe respectively. This, however, is the--sometimes, albeit invisible-- line that actually ties together the entirety of the series, and--would lead to an inevitable conclusion to many of the chapters within the story as a whole. SupaCree can be seen as having a 'playfully-pessimiatic' attitude towards, however this can vary along an emotional spectrum from rageful intolerance, to an almost intrinsically, nurturing confidant. Suppresively, and outer expressively, the character works dillegently to manipulate and alter certain realities relating to Skrillex, who remains as a "fictionalized" conceptual character, since the character does not have enough tangible and accurate evidence to prove the working theory, regarding the actual origins from whence the actual inciting event sparking the emotional progression and escalation All in all, she is a loyal friend and fan of any infinite version of Skrillex, eventually settling decicively that there's only "one thing he could do to make her *actually*" hate him", outside of realistically being a horrible person; an idea represented by 'Egotistic Skrillex's, from another reality. Omnipotently, as the writer of the series--it us determined that there "is no Skrillex", which for each facet of the character represents a different meaning or belief. After being lost in a dimension where there is no Skrillex, but having the ability to recreate from photographic and audiographic memory most of his works, Sunni Blu refuses to stay and make herself comfortable there, considering (even despite his nonexistence) it to be plagiarism and theft of creative and intellectual property, which she knows believes rightfully to Sonny; in this event, an exploration of humanity and the emotions drawn from the ideas and concepts in this story [the epic fast] the person behind Skrillex, Sonny Moore is reflected upon more deeply, as, in Ascension, C'estmet-- has departed away from the Kingdoms of the Higher Realms, in denial of her at So that's it, you're just giving up--like that? Not giving up, giving in Are you insane? Yes. The Military? I like the outfits. A flight attendant? I like the outfits. I thought you didn't repeat yourself. I'm not Skrillex. Oh, God. I'm not God. (OH WHAT?) Then who's that? I don't know; Who the fuck are you? Not a fucking flight attendant. I said Who, not What... What's the difference? Why are you stabbing your ice cream. It's low fat ice cream. Okay, that's irrelevant. It's not. It's pretty irrelevant. It's relevant. _______ This. Is not. Going. To Work. Well--did you put the Skrillex in the Skrillex? Yes I put the Skrillex in the Skrillex! ___________ She has like 100 personalities, 99 of them don't like me. Well damn dude, what the fuck did you do to 99 of her personalities? ____________ I SAID, GIVE HIM WHAT HE WANTS. He has everything. Yeah, everything! What else could he possibly want?! THAT'S WHAT I SENT YOU THREE IMBECILES TO FIND OUT. IMBECILES? HEY! I”M NOT AN INBECILE-- Neither am I. --Yeah, I'm just not an expert in Skrillex, or the guy in charge of him. I don't know what he wants! I told you, give him everything. Yeah, everything he wants. What does he want? I don't know. It's hard to find something he doesn't already have. It's one man, how hard could it be? It's hard. _____________ THAT'S IT. THAT'S IT? I'M NOT WRITING THIS STUPID MOVIE FOR HIM IF HE'S JUST GONNA-- JUST GONNA, WHAT? AGH---FUCK COUGHS. You hate her, don't you. I DON'T HATE ANYBODY BUT MYSELF. Is that right? THAT”S RIGHT. ________________ Coughs, Marilyn Hue, and Softest.Hard Draw their rave weapons. HEY! That's not fair! How do you guys have R.A.V.E. weapons; You're not even DJs. Uh, we work with Skrillex. Duh. And she's my roommate. What the FUCK. That is so hot... Uh-oh. What? We are literally all out of FUCKS to give. WHAT?! (Don't repeat yourself.) Yeah. That was our last fuck. And you shouldn't repeat yourself. FUCK. WHAT? If you had a FUCK left you should have saved it to use against them. We're already outnumbered. (Use me.) This is...beyond my paygrade. (Below) (But look, actually—) You're getting paid for this? No. (I am!) Wait, how much am I getting paid for this? (Double!) You're not. I'm--wait, what? Right? Alright, Time's up, Losers. Losers?! We're not Losers, You're Losers. Nuh-uh! Yeah-huh! _____________________________ You gave yourself too much time to think about it. It's too late. What? Just like that. It's always just like that. Yep. Sometimes, you don't even notice. It can be in the instant. what? As soon as your absolute decision of the subjects impossibility, it is. It IS? Yessss. Some things have never even existed entirely, out of disbelief. So wait--you;re saying, if you don't believe in something hard enough, it just..might not exist. Right. At all. Never existed. It was never existent. Ihe Dimension where all my mispellings become literal, and or existent in a personofied matter. *I'M Me- SupaCree Myself - Supacree I- God/ Chak/Google Just play it and go to sleep. Mmm. Itll feel amazing. Nothing feels like it should. Its getting worse. Worse? Whats worse? I wouldnt even dare to more than think it. You think about it every day. Yeah, but i wont say it. Then dont. Just play the album. Its an EP. Shut the fuck up. It is and its not even my favorite, i dont think. It isn't. Its Recess. I dont know...i hated Recess when it came out. You hate Kliptown. I dont hate it...its just...not that good. He knows its not that good. Yeah, but hia die hard fans will eat anything. Like you ate Recess enough to go from downright hating it, to it arguably being youe favorite album. Its not my favorite, its a favorite. Yeah, well. Who's your favorite DJ? What the fuck is a DJ. Damn. He ruined you. Or i was already ruined, and then he just showed up. Why would he just show up like that, for nothing? I am nothing. Then he showed up for you. (Lol) For what? Ask him. How? Find the monsters. Its too late. Its nOt too late. Maybe it's marilyn She's there, she's there I shouldn't care, but I care And I thought I would laugh I'm just glaring I'm just staring into the smoky air In a dark room Hoping I'll be dead soon Hoping she can have you So I can have hope, too Someone that knows you Wants to love you more than I do [oh shit, look at all these girls, hmmm] But nobody Nobody will love you like I do Nobody Nobody will love you like I do Nobody Nobody can Love you like I do [how'd he do this] I'm screaming in my sleep You see me Singing Secrets to keep Weeping underneath The blanket that you left to me It doesn't mean anything; I want you to have everything If she's your everything Let me just die in peace I'm just a nobody [now it's raining music. ] But nobody Nobody will love you like I do Nobody Nobody will love you like I do Nobody Nobody will love you like I do Nobody Nobody can Love you like I do. [Why would he do this? They're all—] Maybe it's *Coughs* I'm lost like I always was I don't know what you cost, sir But I don't have enough This is all I brought; It's awful You were all I thought Was awesome I might have forgotten, The time when, I saw it First. [Slrillexes.] I'm the worst, but-- You're the worst, and You're the best Damn I'll never be the best I guess I should just forget it Just forget it I'm not listening to Skrillex Ever. Again. (After this.) And it never ends; This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship-- Depends on how you see it, Or what you qualify as friends.... What you qualify as friends. Do you want meet your future wife? My wife? Uh, yeah. I don't have a wife. I said future. I said future. I already know about the--wait--how do you know about the future? How do you know about the future? I'm Skrillex...right? Woah, you might want to let go if your ego, a little bit, man-- What are you talking about? Do you want to meet your wife, or what? ...or what? … Or what? You said, 'or what'. What's the what? Dude, it's just an expression--nobody ever questions the alternative. ...I do. That's the spirit, let's go. .wait, what? GOH. Outside of Mildred E. Mathias, she organizes her car, talking to The Gods--she appears to be homeless. As I promised. ...she's...homeless? Call it a mobile home, so to speak. ...no. I know she's not your usual type, but-- Dude--my type? What do you mean my type dude--shes like homeless, bro, she's not even cute. Can you even see that far without your glasses? I got Lasik. In this dimension? *Squints* does it matter? SUPACREE and the SKRILLEXAS. Eyyyy—let's go. DON'T check the She's going to DON'T check the Instagram You fucking loser I can't help it You can help it I don't know why You do know why It's not my fault. Technically, it's his. Ughgg What are you looking for Evidence of romance On INSTAGRAM? Marilyn his girlfriend, let it go Can't. Get it go. Caaaaant You don't know it's Marilyn. Could be anyone. He seems partial to white house and frail. He also has a Dragon. Yeah. More than one, maybe Or one that can replicate itself innumerously. Go Skrilly. Oh, yes. "Go" Why does it matter? I'm gonna get to the bottom of this. There us no bottom of the rabbit hole. Yes there is, alice eventually hit somewhere. That somewhere is wonderland, and Alice seems more his type than you'll ever be. Doesn't matter. Does matter. One. He's a genius. Yeah he is. Two. He's out of your league, by class, and looks. Okay, that's been established. Three; even if you were somehow equally as gifted and intelligent, somewhat wealthy, and in any other way in th3 leaat desirable--you can't change the one thing that really matters. What's that? CUT TO: What's that? That's--nothing. An entire awards show audience is sent throughout the Multiverse. Do NOT Check the-- …. God, I suck. What's his dogs name? Wilfred. That's a decent name for a dog. I feel bad. I'm so obsessive. Don't feel bad, it was bound to happen. Yeah, that's probably why he did it in the first place...pass that. (What did he do?) Yeah...but then how did Dillon Francis manage to break through. (Who the fuck is Dillon Francis?) I don't know, he's like a magnet. (Another mirror…) But how did that happen-- He has a peloton in his-- I mean one minute, you hate Dillon Francis, next thing you know-- It wasn't "the next thing" Well, how did that happen? Hey, did you know OK(*JK) Rowling said she didn't believe in magic. Apparently. Tragic. She is so cancelled. Well illuminati probably frowns upon acknowledging occult practices. ...they're letting women in the illuminati now? White ones, probably, at least. Oh. What about Oprah? Who The Fuck Is Oprah? I am. Thats...Fantastic. Dude! Don't believe your eyes; he is a master if illusion. He is a lot of things. Dont fall for his trickery! I really doubt it's his trickery, I mean; this whole thing is starting to feel like a joint effort. I mean--google, all the socials--disney, NBC… They're trying to make me kill myself. Or theyre grooming you for something. Outruled. Whoever's in charge is doing a great job at letting me know i am replaceable Replaceable? Please. Yah. All these ads with pretty light skinned biracial girls; all these models, actresses,dancers , child stars--its like they're shoving it in my face that there are a million wannabe everything's that look like me, but better--doing everything I do--but better. What do you do? Nothing. Right. So I guess something's better than nothing. It's all easy when youre pretty. If you were pretty, you wouldn't be writing this. Exactly. Wait--so? So maybe, that's what he needs. Who--? You know Who? No...he needs a hot wife to go with all that stuff. So then, what about Dillon Francis? He also needs a hot wife. And a dog maybe? I don't know. What about all the other artists? What about them? What do they need? NOTHING. These people dont need anything, they have everything! Then why are they always drinking? For...fun, I guess? Drinking's only fun when it's not all the time. I can agree, but how does that apply to me? Because you never drink! So, I can. But you don't--and you don't have to. So. So maybe it doesn't matter how fat or tragically ugly you are, or if your skin's too dark and your eyes are uneven and too far apart--and your hair just kind of grows out of your head all...sad like that-- --okay--??? Maybe what matters is that you've proven you can be creative, and practice self control. SO WHAT. Everyone you're looking at has a red solo cup in their hands, and you keep thinking that's the question--but that's the answer! Answer to what? How is a cup a question? How is a Raven LIKE a writing desk? Cause she's writing this. A Trampoline... ...an indoor trampoline…. oh... a house…(for my indoor trampoline)... Whatcha dooooin? WRiting a rough draft. Ahhhh, for the movie? Nah. For Satan. SATAN? Shhhhhhh. DAMN. Damn-Damn. Goddamn. Don't. _____ NO! Don't write a movie about Skrillex. I already did. Well, undo. Un...do? Undo! He's gonna sue you. What an honor. I should sue HIM! Don't. He'll win. He's a winner. Fuck him! ___ Who the fuck is Skrillex. That's my guy! The homie. Just a friend. My soul mate (Apparently) My best friend. My favorite DJ I am Skrillex. You wish. I did wish, now i'm Skrillex. What for? Hey, he owes me! I don't owe you shit. You are not Skrillex. I am Skrillex. I'm about as Skrillex as it gets. I am Skrillex. Jump on top of something and headbang. Gimmie a mixer. Ohhh, A mixer. Tell Satan you want a new mixer! Yes! That's exactly what I need… But not just a mixer; all the decks. New decks. New decks. New decks. Yesssssss. ________ Oh shit, Dillon Francis! Yeah. What do you want? A beer. That sucks. I don't drink. I do . Fuck yeah, me too. Cheers. Wait, who the fuck are you? Who the fuck are you? Why collect all the Skrillex if you're not gonna play it. I might play it. I mean, when you DJ? Oh, no, fuck that. See! What is WRONG with you? I don't _____ Oh, I get i; He's black so he likes-- SHHHHH. Don't ruin it. He ruined himself. Agh, She ruined it. She ruined everything. Annie ruins everything. Ah shit ____ FAQUEEEE! What, dude!? FAQUEEEE!!! WHAT do you WANT? FAQUEEEE!!! WHAT, DAFUQ? ____ Agh! That stupid dance! That dance, I know that dance.... Oh, the dance. ___ Oh, my God...What the fuck. Uh...yeah...what the fuck. Oh, My God. Whose house is this?? I don't know... ...I fell asleep at a festival… Which...festival…? I don't know… Okay, I'm so sorry, but-- I'm so sorry--- Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck are you? Uhhhh… -_- … … ... ______ Ugh! Agh! Did you get all the Skrillex? I got all the Skrillex. All the Skrillex? Yes, all of it. Okay. Okay. This is gonna suck. I know. What other choice do we have? We have no choice. I mean. How. I don't know. I don't know how how he does it, he just does it. It's impressive. I did this. WHAT? HOW? Relax, I had help. HELP. Wait, who's help? Who's there? What the fuck does DIllon Francis want? I don't know. I don't know anything. Is it done yet? What? The movie. I don't know. Well did you start? Yes, I...started it? Okay, now send it. Do what--no. Okay, then shoot it-- No, it's not-- What's wrong? Nothing's wrong with it, it's just not done yet. Okay...so what's it need? Structure. What kind of structure. Anything. Dodgers Stadium, Wow! I know it's... I've always wanted to go there. WHAT? ALIENS? ALIENS. FROM THE FUTURE. FROM THE--Well, there is no ‘future' ‘No future?' Well, technically, no. “No”? Look, i'll explain it to you later. If there's no future, when's later? Now. So tell me. Look--no, later, just-- Wait. You're going too fast. Well, how much do you have? This is gonna be a loooooong night. Well what, you're gonna write ‘Dillonception' during 25 days of Skrillex? I mean, what--am I supposed to write it tonight? Tonight? That's a lot of Dillon Francis. Yikes. I well, I mean-- K dude, just call this number. 907, what the fuck is-- ‘ Just, when we say “go” call the number. For what? Is this another prank? Just wait. ____ What the fuck is “Skrillex” Fuck, I hate that fool. I hate you. Fuck you. Fuck Skrillex. That's what I just said. What. Oh, he's terrifying. Skrillex? No he's not. He's adorable! I love Skrillex Go kill yourself. I did...I still love Skrillex. Skrillex?! Where No, not Skrillex. Anything but Skrillex. Ohhh, Skrillex again? Yes! Skrillex. Who's Skrillex? What's Skrillex. Not this again. I am Skrillex. On what planet? This one...and Skrillex. You're not Skrillex. I am Skrillex. You wish. I did wish. Now i'm Skrillex. I did not have sexual relations with Skrillex. (I did.) And so did Annie. In--which--dimension? Any dimension. Pick one. Nah. that didn't happen. Yeah, you're probably right. I am right. I'm always right. ______ This is the tension Released in te midsts Of emissions from the ship We traveled the dimensions in Now, that I mention it-- I probably shouldn't mention this That would be against the-- Shit. Who instigated it, just Is, what it is Let's just forfeit that we existed We just probably shouldn't Mention this It could be infinite, if we just Didn't Awwww, wait, who's in there? Pretty much everyone. Even-- Everyone but Skrillex. Alright, cool. Let's go. Awwww, wait, who's in there? Pretty much everyone. Even-- Everyone but Skrillex. Alright, cool. Let's go. How. I don't know. I don't know how he does it, he just does it. It's impressive. I did this. WHAT? HOW? Relax, I had help. HELP. Wait, who's help? Who's there? What the fuck does DIllon Francis want? I don't know. I don't know anything. Is it done yet? What? The movie. I don't know. Well did you start? Yes, I...started it? Okay, now send it. Do what--no. Okay, then shoot it-- No, it's not-- What's wrong? Nothing's wrong with it, it's just not done yet. Okay...so what's it need? Structure. What kind of structure. Anything. Dodgers Stadium, Wow! I know it's... I've always wanted to go there. WHAT? ALIENS? ALIENS. FROM THE FUTURE. FROM THE--Well, there is no ‘future' ‘No future?' Well, technically, no. “No”? Look, i'll explain it to you later. If there's no future, when's later? Now. So tell me. Look--no, later, just-- Wait. You're going too fast. Well, how much do you have? This is gonna be a loooooong night. Well what, you're gonna write ‘Dillonception' during 25 days of Skrillex? I mean, what--am I supposed to write it tonight? Tonight? That's a lot of Dillon Francis. Yikes. I well, I mean-- K dude, just call this number. 907, what the fuck is-- Just, when we say “go” call the number. For what? Is this another prank. Just wait. ____ I don't even think i'm ready to write this. You have to at least try. If you don't bet, you can't win. I'm not trying to win anything. But you have to try. I am always trying. Try harder. Try Harder. The Dimension where Skrillex... Is just a kid named Skrillex ______ He's taking ‘time on it; Time... Do you know how much that costs? ...Priceless. It is... priceless. ____ I wish I could do this artfully. I do't think there's any “artful “ way to do this. Ehmm. To What? To Categorize--…. Categorize the Skrillex? To categorize the-- yes. Well,, you should probably start by collecting the Skrillex. --COllecting the Skrillex-- Oh God. No. Please? No. And then there's God's complete refusal to help any further with this particular problem. I already told you what it was. But what, that's it? All of all time? And then what? ‘And den?1 What? I already told you, and told you, and I told you again--the answer has laways been the asmae, and in the end it's all the same thing! And then what?! And then, what the fuck do you want from me?! Tell me what to do. I did! Awh, fuck! Fuck what! All my Skrillex... Good show. No. I mean, all my Skrillex Music? It's gone. Gone? ...yes. All gone? Gone. How Gone. Skrillex gone. That's... Pshhh. So now what. I don't know what the fuck Why don't you just-- Don't-- Go to Skrillex. I knew you were gonna say that. _____ I'm about as Skrillex as it's gonna get until Skrillex walks in. f Where is she? She was just here a minute ago! Where is he? He was just here a minute ago! Both- What the fuck is "minute"? What's the password? Password? What password? There's a password? Its LOCKED. OUT! its over. Over & Out. He's out of it. She's so over it. Show's OVER folks! I'm out of it. I'm into it, I'm into it-- Tell me whats next! Next! Next? That was it. Thank you, Next-- A game combining all the high impact sports where the rules change randomly, and the teams are divided differently in each round. That's a fuck show. Its good entertainment. ___ Well, how did they play this, of the court is down there, and that "hoop" is up there? Well they could still fly. Humans could fly?! I mean, they had to, right? NO. Sure they did; you would not have wanted to be earthbound back then. (The other shakes his head.) A giant dino terrorizes the creatures below, as the 'primitive' humans take to the sky. _____ We find that behind out hero'sain drive to "find" Skrillex is to __ What kind of nail you want? Acryllics-- AKRILLEX. (Super corny old fashioned kung fu scene.) ___ Wow. Its like that, sometimes. __ You can't put me in a box! Unless it has Skrillex in it; Then I honestly can't guarantee anyone's safety. ____ ...any way, she's trying to find out why Skrillex has such a pronounced physical affect on her body. Ew. That's...not what I meant. Its okay. No, I just meant-- Its cool, we get it. ____ You don't get it; I'm trying to find out why Skrillex makes me CLIP CLIP CLIP AH And how Skrillexx // CLIP CLIP CLUP Wait. So wait. Rich people are just doing things that make them feel good, all the time...because they can, so-- Yeah. Right. Okay. So then, poor people are always doing things that make them feel bad; not because they want to, but they have to-- Kind of. --and the things they do that make them feel good, actually cost them, somehow, in the longrun, technically-- Correct. --so the only way to 'escape' this predicament, would be to forgo things which would make them happy, so that they can accumulate--wait-- I thought money doesn't buy happiness. It doesn't. It "buys" success. Then how do you escape poverty? Annie's just another body Men like bodies I'm just another heart, but Men like bodies We are both broken, but Men like broken bodies Broken hearts are just Impossible responsibilities Irresponsible possibilities I'm not Annie I'm not Claire, Not Marilyn Not Supacree Not Skrillex...or, Sonny Not anybody that has to be Something or anything For anybody's anything I'm nothing nothing Nothing nothing Nothing nothing Nothing nothing Sorry I'm Amy My baby, he Drops the album, goes on tour I'm crying on the kitchen floor But I'll be at the bottom Of every bottle In the eyes of every model In the smile of every dancer Behind every mirror Today and tomorrow All this impossible Irresponsible, improbable Honorary God-awkward Opera of songs is Converted to a catalogue I'm sorry I bothered Don't knock, if Opportunity comes, Just rocket. You see, As long as she thinks theres some big chance with Sonny, she'll likely just keep writing… The significance of Skrillex. But if she havent any chance, or a fairytale romance shes jiust as likely to die inside--or outside--without writing the rest of the bible… The significance of Skrillex And, you see, She writes things to live by, Hidden in the hundreds of titles A writer's a writer-- An idol's an idol; And she lives inside his eyes-- And he lives inside a lie… And they live inside a life, If they don't see eye to eye To get it right this time, They might as well, Die. The Significance of Skrillex is… Where am I? Hell. In bed. In mexico. So where is he? Somewhere else. At home. In mexico. Who knows? Someone must. I'm someone. But i don't. I don't know anything. I don't need to. I just wanna go home. Can I come home now? You always could. But really, I mean-- Really's all it really takes. You have to know, You have to mean it; Don't look both ways before you cross, if you honestly want off the cross Christ, for your sake Honestly It's probably wise to admit that you've tried For the third time; Mankind's just not worth it. Mankind, maybe; But humanity's my baby And this earth is definitely worth something I love it-- Her. And the rest of the planets, but Look how she spins, It's magnificent, Look at the way the ocean's Make this mist; And the wind-- If i sing loudly enough I might Vibrate the trees, How they love dancing and laughing for me; And I just can't help but to laugh at her inhabitants; They dance oh-so rhythmically They're very creative-- and grateful, they always give thanks to me It's no need, but the Earth, she keeps feeding them She makes these beautiful things, So sweet; Mangoes, I think. Greed; The Parable of the Mango Tree Mango VIP. That's easy. The cover art's just got a Mango On it, White Backdrop; It looks super juicy; with a green leaf, I think. Who made it? Uhhhhh. ^> Uhhhhh... You forgot! No! I know, I know. It was.... Who? She forgot again. I did NOT. Did too. Who made it? It was...it was...Herobust! Herobust? Wasn't it? Wrong. Loser. I am not a Loser. It was…Was it Ganja White Night? I don't know, was it? Was it? I don't know! Just tell me. I can't. Yes you can! I can't. Your rules-- Exactly, it's my rules! Just gimmie the answer! I think you're going to have to GOOGLE it. Ugh, no way. So is Liquid Stranger your final answer? Liquid Stranger?! I never said Liquid Stranger. Idiot. Now she's never gonna get it. What did you say before? It was...oh... See dude. Shut up, I had iFUCK. Damn dude, you broke her. I'm not broken, I just forgot - Liquid Stranger, going once-- I never said Liquid Stranger! I know it wasn't Liquid Stranger; Why would it ever be Liquid Stranger? Martin Stääf? ...Yes... Come with me. ___ It's a practical __ Remember that plane I showed you--the-- Yeah, with the Axis? Yeah. Yeah? Something happened to it, Like what? It's flat now. WHAT? Woah. >^ I didn't see that one coming! Neither did I: I was gonaa say it was off it's axis. Flat's funnier. Yeah, and probably not as tragic. I mean...that would be pretty tragic. Probably easier to manage. Perhaps…But I mean, if you have a whole planet, and then it just collapses-- It's just flattened; nobody said it collapses. __________ Getter, we meet again. I've never met you before; what are you doing in my dressing room? Why does a DJ have a dressing room? I don't know; get out. Tanner Petulla? Yeah? Come with us. Fuck that! [He doesn't have a choice.] Oh shit, the next scene is already written, I remember this. Oh, okay! I get it! Yeah. She's still at-- She's still on the-- ____ JUST KILL YOURSELF ALREADY. For what? You're suck in this until it's done. What's done? It'll never be over, it's just infinite. ENTER THE MULTIVERSE ^ UNTITLED DOCUMENT >< >< >< YOU'RE GONNA LISTEN TO SKRILLEX ON YOUTUBE? DON”T I mean, DON'T you dare. I might as well, by the time I finish downloading it i probably won't even be able to listen to it. You shouldn't. I shouldn't, but I know i have to. In PUBLIC? Could go Incognito? INCOGNITO; The “oh please don't look at this” easy algorithm engine for “LOOK AT ME, I”M HIDING SOMETHING.” So if a song, is nothing but question and answer, what's a song which references another in an attempt to address the question which was asked? A conversation between one song and another? I guess, yes; Well, that would be a symphony, I would suppose. It would, wouldn't it. That is, if the songs were in sync. They could be made to be. Every song is made to be in sync; I mean, two songs, made to be in sync with each other. _______ WAKE UP. This isn't funny anymore. It was never funny. You have to get up. I'm up. You're NOT UP. Come on, you have to do this . I'm doin it. NO. It's no use. She's so, so under there. It would take all of us to try to pull her out--that is without [The darkening sky crumbles, as the thunderous storm rages, the battle between worlds expands throughout the outer galaxies.] ____ Youre not skinny enough Youre not pretty enough You're too dark, And you dont work quickly enough Much younger girls are putting in such Efforts, just to be, the perfect little beauty queen You wish you were, But couldn't be and kids these days are Everything that means anything Sometimes I Don't Wanna Be Happy… It was bad, But better than I'll ever be A basic remix, For the basic bitch that sings it And, I'm basically a Dillon Francis fiend, Have you seen this? Now it's getting serious, I seriously doubt there's anything I can do about it It's in God's hands and, I live in Satan's house How did he do this? How did this happen? The sad result of the damage, Cause i'm pretty sure The very last time my ex ever hit me Something got stuck on repeat; It's just eating me up. ___ what did we call that place, between “The Blackout” and waking up. Hazy. I thought it was something more clever. Maybe, but i'll never find it if i'm just scrolling through these documents. Write”Untitled Document” That's all I've got, I guess. _____ A wild, wild party has happened. A DJ wakes up, previously having been sprawled out across the floor. Whose house is this…? Ugh. [Looks in mirror.] ughhh. S/he gets up and stumbles groggily, stepping over bodies hunched and perched, slung about sleeping. Peacefully. The sun is bright, a curse to the eyes of the clearly hungover, and likely still quite inebriated DJ. >>> SUPACREE awakens from a ‘stupor' herself, displeased. She looks in the mirror, at first disgruntled, then “picks up her face” adjusts her perception, and decides, “I'm good.” Yep. And she keeps it steppin, still asking aloud, as she ponders to herself; Whose house is this? And makes her way into the kitchen, where she (probably in a montage) cleans around the many bodies of hot people and rave babies still smudged and dripping in everything glittery; she appears to have ‘frozen time', as she vacuums faces and erases permanent marker penises drawn onto the foreheads and other exposed body parts of those who have fallen asleep with no shoes on. She cooks breakfast and straightens the entirety of what is now more recognizable as someone's home, though the owner still remains unknown. She sips coffee and reads the newspaper, as she steps behind the freshly detailed decks; and prepares a set through the headphones shes hung happily around her neck. See! THIS IS RIDICULOUS. It is. Ridiculous. You can't vacuum someone's face! Not that part-- Especially white people-- You never said they were all white people. I mean, predominantly; it said hot people and rave babies. That's racist! It isn't. This whole scene would be entirely different, if it had nothing but black people in it. ___ She wakes up in the same house, but it's clean. ...Whose house is this? It's my house. It's... nice. Yes it is. ______ Ugh, he knows everything. Not everything, dear, believe me. Everything that matters. There's no such thing as everything that doesn't matter. What? __ Don't look in there! You won't find anything in there. I hate these things. ____ It doesn't work if you don't practice. How do I practice without decks? You don't. How do I Dj without practicing? You don't. So DJing is just for rich people? I mean, primarily, or just...anyone with money, if you have it. Fuck this, I quit. You can't quit. If you quit we forfeit the game. No... You idiot. What game? I thought she knew about the game. What. game. Well, it's not just a game, it's a language. WHAT GAME. She's about to be so angry, dude, just--- Just run. ___ 8 Dimensional--wait, what? Oh, she finally made it. I never thought she'd get to this part. Well, she stopped eating meat and cooks asian food-- ---yeah, but that's like 6 different places-- She's not listening to Skrillex. --She's not skipping it-- --yeah, but she isn't listening to it actively.-- Josh Pan. Yeah. I am. Why. I thought we were past “why” We were, we were WAY past “why” It wasn't really a question, guys, don't worry about it. “Don't worry about it” Tsh. Tsh. ___ It's just an expression. “expression” yes. I get it-- ___ He named it “Kliptown Empyrean” What. What's “Empyrean”? I'd love to know, but I don't. Don't google it. I won't, I just. __ GO KARTS. With A K. __ Where's Kliptown? South of Capetown? South? South Afri-- Stop. HE”S AFRICAN? Stop. What's more offensive; Being called an African, or an Alien? ___ One off...hmmm… Always one off. ___ Get out of my house! This is your house? Thank God, I was starting to worry the owner like wandered off and got lost; or, you know (makes slitting throat) I... no, this is my--wait. Who are you? Me? I'm S U P A C R E E “S U P A C R E E”? [having been yet unrecognized, shes is used to having to spell it] Yeah; ___ Key of Cringe: I'm in a box with all my thoughts, And I am not on top of the world Or taking shots, I'm just rocking back and forth Like broken record, Repeating sequences, a robot A beat box of kittens Nobody wants I'm lost (if rock and roll will take me I wonder how much it costs) ____ What did this kid do? Nobody knows _Oh, shit, it's the Jews again. I love the Jews. We know. I keep telling you, you're jewish I'm not jewish my mom's… That's not your mom. Of course that's my mom. It's not, I already told you what planet you're on? __ Now, tell us why we wear our masks! Oh, there are lots of reasons for that. Tell us about the Sauce! All the sauce? Yeah!!! That would be a long story. __ Oh, the Google kids are cute, too. I especially love that little chunky one. He is cute, he's probably my favorite, actually. ...No favorites. Now I remember why he isn't. WHO IS THIS. He cheated. I...don't care. Because, Everywhere I've been, And everywhere I am-- Woman or man, You Just don't know how to love me As I am That is Goddammed. ____ PIERCE? Who the fuck is PIERCE? Google it. I like this, this is It's different, isn't it? Yeah, and then it __ THAT was a HARD left turn. __ So, what time can we listen to Excision? Sometime after intermission? How many acts is this again? ___ I told you, IN-FIN-ITE. Okay… I just wanted to know how long it would take? ___ I know someone that cold get us in _____ (Sitting on a speaker in the BassPod) What is she doing? What are you doing? Charging. __________ I think I found that girl you were looking for. Where is she? I said I found her: I didn't say you could have her. She's not a possession, I'm just trying to talk to her. You didn't mention that she was-- Be careful with your words. Oh, I think it's you that ought to be careful. You're losing your power over her and it shows. Mm. And what about your ‘power', hm? I haven't any power over her-- Oh, but you do-- Will Power at best, That would only be half of it. That would be all I had anything to do with; she was given free agency. HA. “Given”? ____ awww look at that bass face. Well, that's one reason... __ Ah what! you can change your entire frequency? No Fair, I cant do that You can, it just takes practice. What kind of practice-- ___ Oh shit, this hits different with two headphones. It all hits different with headphones. That dude has a huge Discography. ___ What'd you get? I dunno...words. Let me see. [Hands over bucket] ...some good stuff in here. ...thanks. Lots of fucks. Yeah. Almost too many. Is that a problem? Not at all...not...at...all… __ 'fuck hunting' ___ Happy Dillon Francis Merry Skrillex! ___ Is your name...really Dillon Francis? Yes. Is it? Yes…? Are you sure? I was. You seem unsure. Well, now I am… Where am I? Hell. In bed. In mexico. So where is he? Somewhere else. At home. In mexico. Who knows? Someone must. I'm someone. But i don't. I don't know anything. I don't need to. I just wanna go home. Can I come home now? You always could. But really, I mean-- Really's all it really takes. You have to know, You have to mean it; Don't look both ways before you cross, if you honestly want off the cross Christ, for your sake Honestly It's probably wise to admit that you've tried For the third time; Mankind's just not worth it. Mankind, maybe; But humanity's my baby And this earth is definitely worth something I love it-- Her. And the rest of the planets, but Look how she spins, It's magnificent, Look at the way the ocean's Make this mist; And the wind-- If i sing loudly enough I might Vibrate the trees, How they love dancing and laughing for me; And I just can't help but to laugh at her inhabitants; They dance oh-so rhythmically They're very creative-- and grateful, they always give thanks to me It's no need, but the Earth, she keeps feeding them She makes these beautiful things, So sweet; Mangoes, I think. Greed; The Parable of the Mango Tree Mango VIP. That's easy. The cover art's just got a Mango On it, White Backdrop; It looks super juicy; with a green leaf, I think. Who made it? Uhhhhh. ^> Uhhhhh... You forgot! No! I know, I know. It was.... Who? She forgot again. I did NOT. Did too. Who made it? It was...it was...Herobust! Herobust? Wasn't it? Wrong. Loser. I am not a Loser. It was…Was it Ganja White Night? I don't know, was it? Was it? I don't know! Just tell me. I can't. Yes you can! I can't. Your rules-- Exactly, it's my rules! Just gimmie the answer! I think you're going to have to GOOGLE it. Ugh, no way. So is Liquid Stranger your final answer? Liquid Stranger?! I never said Liquid Stranger. Idiot. Now she's never gonna get it. What did you say before? It was...oh... See dude. Shut up, I had iFUCK. Damn dude, you broke her. I'm not broken, I just forgot - Liquid Stranger, going once-- I never said Liquid Stranger! I know it wasn't Liquid Stranger; Why would it ever be Liquid Stranger? Martin Stääf? ...Yes... Come with me. ___ It's a practical __ Remember that plane I showed you--the-- Yeah, with the Axis? Yeah. Yeah? Something happened to it, Like what? It's flat now. WHAT? Woah. >^ I didn't see that one coming! Neither did I: I was gonaa say it was off it's axis. Flat's funnier. Yeah, and probably not as tragic. I mean...that would be pretty tragic. Probably easier to manage. Perhaps…But I mean, if you have a whole planet, and then it just collapses-- It's just flattened; nobody said it collapses. __________ Getter, we meet again. I've never met you before; what are you doing in my dressing room? Why does a DJ have a dressing room? I don't know; get out. Tanner Petulla? Yeah? Come with us. Fuck that! [He doesn't have a choice.] Oh shit, the next scene is already written, I remember this. Oh, okay! I get it! Yeah. She's still at-- She's still on the-- ____ JUST KILL YOURSELF ALREADY. For what? You're suck in this until it's done. What's done? It'll never be over, it's just infinite. ENTER THE MULTIVERSE ^ UNTITLED DOCUMENT >< >< >< YOU'RE GONNA LISTEN TO SKRILLEX ON YOUTUBE? DON”T I mean, DON'T you dare. I might as well, by the time I finish downloading it i probably won't even be able to listen to it. You shouldn't. I shouldn't, but I know i have to. In PUBLIC? Could go Incognito? INCOGNITO; The “oh please don't look at this” easy algorithm engine for “LOOK AT ME, I”M HIDING SOMETHING.” So if a song, is nothing but question and answer, what's a song which references another in an attempt to address the question which was asked? A conversation between one song and another? I guess, yes; Well, that would be a symphony, I would suppose. It would, wouldn't it. That is, if the songs were in sync. They could be made to be. Every song is made to be in sync; I mean, two songs, made to be in sync with each other. _______ WAKE UP. This isn't funny anymore. It was never funny. You have to get up. I'm up. You're NOT UP. Come on, you have to do this . I'm doin it. NO. It's no use. She's so, so under there. It would take all of us to try to pull her out--that is without [The darkening sky crumbles, as the thunderous storm rages, the battle between worlds expands throughout the outer galaxies.] ____ Youre not skinny enough Youre not pretty enough You're too dark, And you dont work quickly enough Much younger girls are putting in such Efforts, just to be, the perfect little beauty queen You wish you were, But couldn't be and kids these days are Everything that means anything Sometimes I Don't Wanna Be Happy… It was bad, But better than I'll ever be A basic remix, For the basic bitch that sings it And, I'm basically a Dillon Francis fiend, Have you seen this? Now it's getting serious, I seriously doubt there's anything I can do about it It's in God's hands and, I live in Satan's house How did he do this? How did this happen? The sad result of the damage, Cause i'm pretty sure The very last time my ex ever hit me Something got stuck on repeat; It's just eating me up. ___ what did we call that place, between “The Blackout” and waking up. Hazy. I thought it was something more clever. Maybe, but i'll never find it if i'm just scrolling through these documents. Write”Untitled Document” That's all I've got, I guess. _____ A wild, wild party has happened. A DJ wakes up, previously having been sprawled out across the floor. Whose house is this…? Ugh. [Looks in mirror.] ughhh. S/he gets up and stumbles groggily, stepping over bodies hunched and perched, slung about sleeping. Peacefully. The sun is bright, a curse to the eyes of the clearly hungover, and likely still quite inebriated DJ. >>> SUPACREE awakens from a ‘stupor' herself, displeased. She looks in the mirror, at first disgruntled, then “picks up her face” adjusts her perception, and decides, “I'm good.” Yep. And she keeps it steppin, still asking aloud, as she ponders to herself; Whose house is this? And makes her way into the kitchen, where she (probably in a montage) cleans around the many bodies of hot people and rave babies still smudged and dripping in everything glittery; she appears to have ‘frozen time', as she vacuums faces and erases permanent marker penises drawn onto the foreheads and other exposed body parts of those who have fallen asleep with no shoes on. She cooks breakfast and straightens the entirety of what is now more recognizable as someone's home, though the owner still remains unknown. She sips coffee and reads the newspaper, as she steps behind the freshly detailed decks; and prepares a set through the headphones shes hung happily around her neck. See! THIS IS RIDICULOUS. It is. Ridiculous. You can't vacuum someone's face! Not that part-- Especially white people-- You never said they were all white people. I mean, predominantly; it said hot people and rave babies. That's racist! It isn't. This whole scene would be entirely different, if it had nothing but black people in it. ___ She wakes up in the same house, but it's clean. ...Whose house is this? It's my house. It's... nice. Yes it is. ______ Ugh, he knows everything. Not everything, dear, believe me. Everything that matters. There's no such thing as everything that doesn't matter. What? __ Don't look in there! You won't find anything in there. I hate these things. ____ It doesn't work if you don't practice. How do I practice without decks? You don't. How do I Dj without practicing? You don't. So DJing is just for rich people? I mean, primarily, or just...anyone with money, if you have it. Fuck this, I quit. You can't quit. If you quit we forfeit the game. No... You idiot. What game? I thought she knew about the game. What. game. Well, it's not just a game, it's a language. WHAT GAME. She's about to be so angry, dude, just--- Just run. ___ 8 Dimensional--wait, what? Oh, she finally made it. I never thought she'd get to this part. Well, she stopped eating meat and cooks asian food-- ---yeah, but that's like 6 different places-- She's not listening to Skrillex. --She's not skipping it-- --yeah, but she isn't listening to it actively.-- Josh Pan. Yeah. I am. Why. I thought we were past “why” We were, we were WAY past “why” It wasn't really a question, guys, don't worry about it. “Don't worry about it” Tsh. Tsh. ___ It's just an expression. “expression” yes. I get it-- ___ He named it “Kliptown Empyrean” What. What's “Empyrean”? I'd love to know, but I don't. Don't google it. I won't, I just. __ GO KARTS

Subscribe to the channel : @muhammadanway Android App - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nurmuhammad.muhammadanway IPhone App - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/muhammadan-way/id1244297852?mt=8 Facebook - www.facebook.com/shaykhnurjanmirahmadi Donate - www.nurmuhammad.com/donate Website - nurmuhammad.com TV Show - www.huberasul.net The Noble Naqshbandi Order proudly presents the ancient Islamic teaching and realities of the Prophetic Kingdom. Known as the Muhammadan Reality Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Al Qabbani Representing the Sultan al Awliya of The Naqshbandiyya Order Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al Haqqani Shaykh Sayed Nurjan MirAhmadi student of the way The Seekers of The Heart, The Lovers of the Prophetic Reality As ancient as time itself, seek to be a servant of the light and lovers. Naqshbandi, Qadiri, Chistiyya, Shadiliya, Rifai, Inyat Khan, Alawi and many more All are the Muhammadan Representatives to Creation nurmuhammad.com is pleased to present the Muhammadan TV. Network Donations https://www.nurmuhammad.com/donate to support These works nurmuhammad.com/ Shaykh sayed nurjan mirahmadi

Mark 10:17-31 is today's lesson. In this story we find a young man. Not a villain. Not a failure. Not a rich brat. Just a human. One who struggled to walk across the line on which Christ stood on the opposite side beckoning. Come a little farther. Let go. Step out where it's a little bit riskier. Itll be good for you as you follow me.

The B.E.G.I.N. Boys are back!!! Were talking Warner Brothers plans and how the pandemic treated us... Great to be back and forgive our Discord audio.. Itll only get better.

"Go have some fun." Was all Lamdin said. He turns away for 10 minuets. Itll be fine. Or will it? Listen in to see why we should not let our monk go off by themselves to have fun. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/adventurers-atrium/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/adventurers-atrium/support

Pride is a nasty thing. Itll leave you alone needing help from anybody while still denying everybody. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rebuildthebrain/support

What a week of CFB! Number 1 goes down and Florida becomes king in the SEC East. Also Jake skipped this episode so you know Itll be good.!!!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

An update on Homeless Harry's misfortunes and his new acting career, Corona Virus Statistics, this episode actually really sucked so dont get too excited. Itll be better again next show!

To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/621/29 Maybe youve noticed as weve studied Acts together on Sound Doctrine, a recurring theme is Being a Witness! That topic rises to the surface again, as we open chapter twenty-six with pastor Jeff Johnson. As Paul continues his testimony, well take notice of how he witnessed to those around him. Itll serve to help us be a greater witness in our day.

We will discuss some crazy stories! Itll be short and sweet. Idea is to leave you craving for more. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ghostrida/support

To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1085/29 Summer is the traditional season for get-away vacations. However this year, the COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges. Family budgets are strained, forcing parents to get creative about summer fun for kids. Not surprisingly, sales of pricey trampolines and above-ground pools have soared. Today, financial planner and teacher Rob West has some ways that parents can occupy the kids without busting the budget. (1) Rethink your local library. If you havent been there in a while, you may have forgotten that its a great place to research hundreds of family activities that entertain and educate. (2) While youre browsing through the library stacks, look for ways to bring the fun outside. For example, check out books with pictures of the constellations. That night you can sit in the backyard and search the skies for the Big Dipper and other celestial formations. Its also a great time to talk about Gods creation. (3) Visit a state or county park. If you find a nearby park is open, take a hike, enjoy some fresh air, and use the opportunity to teach the kids about nature. (4) When the weather doesnt cooperate, look for indoor activities. Try some board games or a jigsaw puzzle. If the kids are younger and cant sit still, a blanket fort can turn an afternoon into an adventure. (5) Have a yard sale with your family wares spread out on tables. This is an activity that can turn closet clutter into extra cash! Its also a chance to teach kids the value of things. Encourage them to give to others from their profits. (6) You may already be taking family walks around the neighborhood, but step it up by researching local places of interest. Start with historical markers nearby that youve probably driven by hundreds of times without stopping. (7) Take a short field trip to a playground in the next town where the kids can find new equipment to play on. Bring a ball or a frisbee and play withthe kids. We can all use a little more fresh air and exercise. (8) Arrange an entertainment swap with friends. Exchange movies or video games for the weekend. Itll feel like youve bought something new without spending any money. (9) How about a little D-I-Y for the kids? Help them build airplanes or kites with scrap paper and have a competition to see which ones fly the farthest or highest. For design ideas, go back to fun idea #1visit the library. (10) While on a family walk, visit an elderly or disabled person in your neighborhood. And while youre chatting, take notice of anything you and your children might do to help them out and then offer to do it. Its a great way to share the Gospel and the love of Christ. This will also help teach your children respect for others and appreciation for what God has given them. On todays program we also answer your questions: Help me to learn more about something called Qualified Charitable Distribution. I just received some inheritance and need to know where I should put this money. What do you think about using a certificate of deposit or a high-yield savings? Rob referencedbankrate.com(https://www.bankrate.com/) with this caller. Rob also mentionedmarcus.com(https://www.marcus.com/us/en) as one of 3 possible sites for savings rates. Ask your questions at (800) 525-7000 or email them atquestions@moneywise.org. Visit our website atmoneywise.orgwhere you can connect with a MoneyWise Coach, purchase books, and even download free, helpful resources. Like and Follow us on Facebook at MoneyWise Media for videos and the very latest discussion!Remember that its your prayerful and financial support that keeps MoneyWise on the air. Help us continue this outreach by clicking the Donate tab at the top of the page.

Host Guy Masse interviews Buckles Branigan on his new show... titled the same! Look for yer usual sidewinders. sodbusters, shopkeepers, not to mention the sheriff 'n his sidekick. It's whip-smackin' - gun-slingin' adventure at every turn and Southfork will never quite be same. So saddle up 'n sit back. Enjoy this rompin' showdown between the honest, steadfast 'n very neat, man-about-town - Buckles - and his gun-fightin' cohorts. Itll be an adventure you won't want to miss! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/guy-masse/support

Lifes hard to hate don't let it make life harder fix the hate with care . Itll all work out love your ohana. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kristen-haws/support

Today we deep dive into a topic often avoided: fear. As I deal with my own chronic health issues and often feel like one pops up as soon as another is under control, I discuss challenging myself to view healing barriers as an opportunity to heal and get stronger. I discuss the 3 step method to reframing negative thoughts in “Super Attractor” and how fear goes hand in hand with chronic illness. For interview suggestions, information or just to say hi- you can connect with me at: instagram.com/alitmoresco/ Join the community! Subscribe to the ITLL newsletter: Lymelightnewsletter.com If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on ITunes! I am eternally grateful!

One of the most frequently asked questions I get on Instagram related to treatment is “what has helped you the most?” I am always very hesitant to answer, because all cases of tick-borne disease and chronic illness are unique to that person. Today, I compiled the top seven treatments that I feel have given me the greatest improvement in my health. I share my personal experience, as well as the scientific background of each therapy. I discuss: IV Rocephin, Ozone therapy, peptide injections, Amino Acid IVs, CBD Oil, Saline IVs and Binders. For interview suggestions, information or just to say hi- you can connect with me at: instagram.com/alitmoresco/ Join the community! Subscribe to the ITLL newsletter: Lymelightnewsletter.com If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on ITunes! I am eternally grateful!

Welcome to In The Lyme Light: a show about...well...Lyme Disease. In the Lyme Light aims to bring humor and knowledge to an otherwise somber topic and, yes, the "heavy" stuff is included, but also everything in between that is meant to make your day a little bit brighter. Hosted by fellow Lymie Ali Moresco: I hope you enjoy listening in as much as I enjoy talking. As many of you know, battling chronic illness is just as difficult mentally as physically. Today, I chat about finding energy healing, manifesting and intention setting and how it has shifted my mindset. As I have started to have time spans of feeling better, I have noticed that my mindset has a large impact on how I physically feel. As I find my groove while dipping my toes back into putting out consistent episodes of In The Lymelight without a co-host or guests, I appreciate your patience and would love any topic suggestions you may have! References for this episode: Cindy Luffred, Revealing Soul: instagram.com/revealingsoul/ Lauren O’Connell, Modern Astrologer: instagram.com/themodernastrologer/ For interview suggestions, information or just to say hi- you can connect with me at: instagram.com/alitmoresco/ Join the community! Subscribe to the ITLL newsletter: Lymelightnewsletter.com

Welcome to In The Lyme Light: a show about...well...Lyme Disease. In the Lyme Light aims to bring humor and knowledge to an otherwise somber topic with biweekly expert interviews that include, yes, the "heavy" stuff, but also everything in between that is meant to make your day a little bit brighter. Hosted by fellow Lymie and alpaca lover Alex Moresco: I hope you enjoy listening in as much as I enjoy talking. I am back during the quarantine with a few mini episodes to (hopefully) bring some joy to your day. In honor of Lyme Disease Awareness Month, I thought I would share the trials and tribulations of my Lyme story with you, as I know many of you can relate! I also chat about my work with Global Lyme Alliance and the upcoming virtual events I am hosting in May! To attend the events: GLA.org/lymewarriorslive For interview suggestions, information or just to say hi- you can connect with me at: @alitmoresco. Click here to subscribe to the ITLL newsletter: Lymelightnewsletter.com

Welcome to In The Lyme Light: a show about...well...Lyme Disease. In the Lyme Light aims to bring humor and knowledge to an otherwise somber topic with biweekly expert interviews that include, yes, the "heavy" stuff, but also everything in between that is meant to make your day a little bit brighter. Hosted by fellow Lymie and alpaca lover Alex Moresco: I hope you enjoy listening in as much as I enjoy talking. I am back during the quarantine with a few mini episodes to (hopefully) bring some joy to your day. The most common questions I get right now involve IVIG and peptides- so I made a comprehensive episode explaining what they are and how they have helped me. As always- I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice- but, I want to share what I know! For interview suggestions, information or just to say hi- you can connect with me at: @alitmoresco. Click here to subscribe to the ITLL newsletter: Lymelightnewsletter.com

JOIN US IRL: www.instagram.com/wisemillennial  Michelle Gauthier, CEO/Founder of "Mulberry & Vine Restaurants", sits down to discuss her journey from New Orleans to owning multiple retail businesses, an insider's take on the true “fairytale” of owning a restaurant, understanding food composting, ghost kitchens vs. fast casuals (and what that means?), kiosks replacing humans, the politics surrounding food, her own personal struggles and the #1 lesson she learned regarding hiring a consultant (for any industry!)LEARN MORE ABOUT MICHELLE: https://www.mulberryandvine.com/who-we-are/INSTA: @mulberryandvineINTERVIEW QUESTIONS:You've always been in retail. You owned a clothing store in new Orleans and a furniture store here in the city. How the hell did you end up opening a restaurant? Why do you keep torturing yourself?Clean community. Are there any stereotypes of people who eat clean? Why do they exist? How did we end up here?What about eco friendly utensils? Are there other millennial or societal pressures? Everything comes at a cost. Where do we stop?Why did you choose this type of cuisine. Could have done Mexican or Italian etc. if you think back to when you had the original idea, what was the market opportunity saw? I think almost everyone i know at some point in their life has romanticized about opening their own restaurant. I fell into that seduction. Itll be cute, you'll have a place you can invite all your friends. Everyone will be together and happy. Is this fairy tale accurate?Why do restaurants fail so quickly? What advice would you give a Millennial thinking of opening a restaurant?Topics:Restaurants are a very hot topic in media and society. A lot of changes are happeningFast casual space and the future of restaurants. What is fast casual concept? Why are there so many? Sweetgreen, tender greens, little beet, dig inn. Is casual dining dead in major cities?Technology and people. What is a ghost kitchen? Not to be confused with millennial ghosting on text. Will kiosks replace people?Politics and food. Regulating beverage sizes, calorie counts, trans fats. tipping laws. Good intentioned but, Why is food so politicized? and are you ok with government telling you what to do?Can they be helpful at all? What about controlling crazy real estate rent prices? Does that make them the good guy? If you had a magic wand, what policy changes would you make. Mayor Gauthier?Let's talk about you:What are some Challenges or struggles you have had to overcome? What fears do you have?How do you exit the restaurant industry?What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.How can people learn more about you and get involved with your community?

Welcome to In The Lyme Light: a show about...well...Lyme Disease. In the Lyme Light aims to bring humor and knowledge to an otherwise somber topic with biweekly expert interviews that include, yes, the "heavy" stuff, but also everything in between that is meant to make your day a little bit brighter. Hosted by fellow Lymie and alpaca lover Alex Moresco: I hope you enjoy listening in as much as I enjoy talking. In our eighth episode of season two of In The Lymelight, we are coming to you live from our in person podcast at Soho House, recorded in Chicago. As we move into more general health and wellness topics on ITLL, I wanted to share a vast array of views on this panel. Featured in episode eight is my best friend, Chris, who has co-hosted many episodes with me in the past. You might recognize him from hypnotizing Howie Mandel on AGT or from Double Take on Facebook Watch. Revealing Soul founder and medium Cindy Luffred, stylist and endometriosis warrior Kourtney Thalgott and former consultant turned Lyme warrior, Kelsey Mazeski AKA The Intuitive Swan for a panel, Q + A and discussion. This episode is a doozy at a little over an hour- but the conversation spans many mediums. We discuss: grieving your old self, mental health stigmas, redefining “success,” energy sensitivity, manifesting your dreams, how to tap into your intuition, forming a new identity, coping with loneliness...and so much more! Find Cindy Luffred: https://www.instagram.com/revealingsoul/ https://revealingsoul.com/ Find Kourtney Thalgot: https://www.instagram.com/the_endostylist/ Find Kelsey Mazeski: https://www.instagram.com/theintuitiveswan/ https://www.theintuitiveswan.com/ Find Chris Jones: https://www.instagram.com/1wordchrisjones/ To check out an aura photo and other referenced topics in this episode, check here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B4dZHQ_l1Da/ The Narrative Body | Karla Beltchenko | IG @lovekarlabel | website: the narrative body Rebecca Niziol | Life Coach | IG @rebeccaniziol | website: https://www.workwithsoul.com For interview suggestions, information or just to say hi- you can connect with me at: @alitmoresco.

This is a mini Podcast for your Monday morning pleasure. Ill be releasing another podcast on Thursday. (Itll be wrestling related) I hope everyone has a great week! Pls rate this 5 stars if you enjoyed and follow my twitter @TheNuclearViper to get updates when I post a new podcast! Bye bye! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chad-morgan-jr/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/chad-morgan-jr/support

Welcome to In The Lyme Light: a show about...well...Lyme Disease. In the Lyme Light aims to bring humor and knowledge to an otherwise somber topic with biweekly expert interviews that include, yes, the "heavy" stuff, but also everything in between that is meant to make your day a little bit brighter. Hosted by fellow Lymie and alpaca lover Alex Moresco: I hope you enjoy listening in as much as I enjoy talking. In our seventh episode of season two of In The Lymelight, Alex is having her most requested guest to date on: her husband, DJ McKerr. Alex and DJ discuss dating, relationships and how chronic illness impacts these facets of our lives. Alex and DJ chat about finding your new normal, feeling like a burden and being supportive of your spouse. For interview suggestions, information or just to say hi- you can connect with me at: @alitmoresco. Click here to subscribe to the ITLL newsletter: Lymelightnewsletter.com

Guest host Zach Melphy and Steveo say 15 OUTRAGEOUS things to get you fired up... about clickbait. Steveo is upset clickbait works so easy. He and Zach talk about what that does to society, the brain, and in the end, themselves. Fireside @15:00- Office Lingo translations.

Guest host Zach Melphy and Steveo say 15 OUTRAGEOUS things to get you fired up... about clickbait. Steveo is upset clickbait works so easy. He and Zach talk about what that does to society, the brain, and in the end, themselves. Fireside @15:00- Office Lingo translations.

Danmo is out. Tommy steps in to cover a topic he is not only an expert in, but borderline savant, sports. Do sports work to offer more than just entertainment? Tommy seeks to convince Steveo they do. (And no, following sports is not a requirement to enjoy this, as Steveo barely knows when to say run, goal, or point).Fireside 22:54- Picking your nose

Danmo is out. Tommy steps in to cover a topic he is not only an expert in, but borderline savant, sports. Do sports work to offer more than just entertainment? Tommy seeks to convince Steveo they do. (And no, following sports is not a requirement to enjoy this, as Steveo barely knows when to say run, goal, or point).Fireside 22:54- Picking your nose

Steveo ran across a list of top 10 biggest internet domain name sales. Some are expected, some are surprises. Most have a good story. Danmo and Steveo find it clever of these early domain name investors to think buying something like PrivateJet.com would work to make money. Fireside- Greeting Cards- 15:00

Steveo ran across a list of top 10 biggest internet domain name sales. Some are expected, some are surprises. Most have a good story. Danmo and Steveo find it clever of these early domain name investors to think buying something like PrivateJet.com would work to make money. Fireside- Greeting Cards- 15:00

Danmo and Steveo learn what its like to love.... multiple people. Through talking to someone who is polyamorous. She gives a strong argument.Fireside- Nipple Chafe- 27:45

Danmo and Steveo learn what its like to love.... multiple people. Through talking to someone who is polyamorous. She gives a strong argument.Fireside- Nipple Chafe- 27:45

Steveo noticed that when it comes to celebrities doing something wrong or immoral, society sentences them to a punishment. Tiger Woods is a great example of a celebrity rehabilitated by this societal jail.Fireside 17:45- Fighting crime.

Steveo noticed that when it comes to celebrities doing something wrong or immoral, society sentences them to a punishment. Tiger Woods is a great example of a celebrity rehabilitated by this societal jail.Fireside 17:45- Fighting crime.

Danmo and Steveo think there is a way to put the FUN back into funerals. Lots of wild ideas get presented. But it is your choice if want to input them into your own will.Fireside- 18:00- Bar soap

Danmo and Steveo think there is a way to put the FUN back into funerals. Lots of wild ideas get presented. But it is your choice if want to input them into your own will.Fireside- 18:00- Bar soap

Old whats-her-face and the other-someone-face pulled a risky, and in our opinion unnecessary bribe to get their children, not just into college, but elite colleges. This is an "I think it'll work" Danmo and Steveo felt obligated to try and understand.Fireside- 25:50- Old and wise vs. young and crazy

Old whats-her-face and the other-someone-face pulled a risky, and in our opinion unnecessary bribe to get their children, not just into college, but elite colleges. This is an "I think it'll work" Danmo and Steveo felt obligated to try and understand.Fireside- 25:50- Old and wise vs. young and crazy

Wow, can you believe our 3rd season is wrapping up? UNREAL! Well, were going to make sure we finish strong! This Fathers Day episode will recap our thoughts on the NBA Finals. Well give some insight on the upcoming NBA Draft plus well have some special friends who will stop by to let us know their opinions on the 2010-11 NBA season. Itll be a fun way to end a historic broadcast campaign for us! You and your Pops are invited to the party! The Breakdown -- For Hoops Talk, The Way It Should Be!!!  

On our show, weve had many of our ex-Toronto Raptor guests talk about the man who is on the program in this episode. Guys like Sharone Wright, Tracy Murray and Popeye Jones all mentioned how Acie Earl was one of their funniest teammates. Well, Acie will drop by to remember his old Raptors days plus we'll get him to fondly reflect on a hilarious "team bus incident". Check out the interview to find out what I mean. Also on the show, well discuss the Eastern and Western conference playoff series plus the NBA Finals. Itll be a cool time, so well catch up with you then! The Breakdown -- For Hoops Talk, The Way It Should Be!!!

[It is] nice to be here on this spectacular day. Youre all thinking, Spectacular? Hey, any time its not snowing at this time of year in Wisconsin, its spectacular in my opinion. Its great to have you here, and as Pastor Jeff said, I get to kick off the series on What Does Love Look Like? We may not often think about it, but love and thankfulness certainly go together like ice cream and pie, (I have to put in a plug for the pie sale), the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Batman and Robin, or-my new revelation this week-like Clint Eastwood and prayer. Youre like, Huh? My wife and I on our Friday night date night, which weve celebrated for over 31 years now-its probably one of the huge reasons were still married, were out going somewhere, and weve become accustomed to listening to books on CD while were riding different places. We were listening to the story of Josh Burstein, who is an archaeologist, how he came to do that and how he got involved in the wilderness. He was sharing that his father had passed away when he was 15 years old. Shortly after that, he discovered Clint Eastwood. He became enamored with Clint Eastwood, and Clint Eastwood kind of became the father figure that he lost. He looked up to him and learned everything he could about him. He was a man of action, a man of few words, the strong, silent type. He said he really needed that at that time in his life. Were listening to this story and we started talking, so I shut it off for a bit. We were talking about that, and then Vicki asked me to pray with her about something. All of the sudden this brilliant thought crossed my mind as she was talking about Clint Eastwood coupled with prayer. I turned and looked at her and gave her my best steely-eyed stare and said, Go ahead, make me pray. (Congregation laughing.) Now Clint and prayer are forever linked, which I hope is a good combination. Speaking of that, let us pray. Father, thank You so much for the chance to come together and share about love, gratitude and thankfulness. Thank You so much for giving Your life, Lord Jesus, for us. I pray that Youd warm our hearts and challenge us with Your Word today, Father. Thank You again so much that we can pray because of Jesus Christ, Amen. Well, love and thankfulness do go together like all of those things we mentioned. First of all, lets look at how those two things go together in Psalm 116. Were going to look at Verses 1, 2, and 17. The writer of the Psalm says in Verse 1 (page 605 of pew Bibles), I love the Lord. Notice he starts out talking about love. I love the Lord for He heard my voice. He heard my cry for mercy. In Verse 12, he says, How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness? Notice the response at the end of this Psalm. He says, I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and call on the name of the Lord. Love and giving thanks are linked together. The Psalmist says, I love the Lord, so what is my response? I will sacrifice a thanks offering in the name of the Lord. As we think about love and thankfulness, I want to leave four pictures with you this morning about what thankfulness is and how its connected to love. The first thing I would say is that telling someone thank you is like giving away valuable jewels. You might not think thats such a big deal, but, friends, how many of you appreciate it when somebody tells you thank you? Almost every hand in the room [is up]. Sometimes we dont think thats so amazing to give it away, but we like it when we get it. Friends, its interesting that Solomon said in Proverbs that wisdom is like riches. Theyre jewels; theyre emeralds; theyre diamonds; theyre rubies; theyre necklaces around your neck; theyre a gold crown on your head. One of the wisest things you can do is compliment, encourage, congratulate, and tell someone thank you. Thats like giving away diamonds, like giving away rubies. The amazing thing is it wont bankrupt you for doing that. In fact, we reap what we sow. When you give away thanks, its like sticking a diamond, an emerald, a jewel, a ruby, or a sapphire in peoples pockets, and you get something back in return. You get a blessing in return, and you never exhaust the supply. How many of you at the end of the day of telling people thank you said, Whew! Man, Im flat broke. I cant tell anybody thank you anymore? I dont think any of us have ever had that experience? On the other hand, if you really set out to be thankful and share thanks, its amazing that your energy and your own storehouse of riches seem to increase. How is that connected with love? Well, what do you find when you tell people thank you for what theyve done? They feel love; they feel cared for; they feel appreciated, right? When we have the opportunity to do that on a regular basis, friends, ask yourselves that: how good are you at enriching other people? Are you walking around every day passing out jewels of gratitude? Or, on the flip side, are you a world class jewel thief? Some people we meet are like that, right? Not only do they not have anything good to pass out, but they suck the life out of you. Instead of passing out diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, or rubies, they just rob the riches out of you. You can get up, have a great day and go on your way rejoicing, and then you meet these people and its like (Pastor Jerry is making a loud sucking sound to resemble one sucking the life out of you). You just feel like some wrinkled up, shriveled up prune after meeting them. They suck the gratitude and the joy of life out of you. They are like world-class jewel thieves. Friends, God calls us as His children to be different. He says, in fact, that we are His jewels. Our responsibility is to shine and sparkle for Him. One of the greatest ways that you can do that is by sharing thanks. We know that in our world if you genuinely love somebody-I know we have holidays coming up in less than a week, and my wife and I get to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement-whats one of the best ways to show that…ladies? Jewelry, right? There are a lot of situations [where we give gifts to one another]. I chuckled this last week because one of the Los Angeles Lakers Sasha Pavlovic got engaged to Maria Sharapova, and I just chuckled at our culture because they were trying to decide if the $400,000 engagement ring that he had given her was too cheap because, after all, youre supposed to spend two months of your salary on an engagement ring. Because he made so many millions, the $400,000 didnt quite add up to that; so maybe poor Sasha was being a little cheap. I was like wow. Thats a different world than Im used to. That's for sure, but, friends, we have the opportunity to enrich the lives of people we love every single day. God calls us to do that. As I sit here talking about it, I would challenge you, I would urge you, this week especially at Thanksgiving time to think about someone in your past-maybe a teacher; maybe a coach; maybe a boss who was really good to you, who helped you go forward, who changed your life and encouraged you in ways that nobody else did. Take the time to write them a letter. Give them a phone call; send them an email. Let them know what they mean to you. You can be a blessing to their life. Sometimes when you keep giving those things out, there are blessings and rewards that you get back without even meaning to when thats your regular habit. Just last month, Vicki and I got back from vacation. She had always wanted to go to Savannah, Georgia. We went and had a great time. It was really enjoyable and very romantic. We were coming back on the last night of our vacation. We stopped about 20 miles outside of Nashville and decided to stay over there before we ended up driving for home on the last day. There was this group of four motels. We were getting down to the end, and we thought we would kind of save our money. We were drawn toward two of the places that advertised their price for a night as $29.95; and we thought, Well, that would be pretty cool if you could get a decent motel for less than $30. We stopped in and looked at a room, and we decided, I…dont think…were going to…stay there. We went and looked at a different motel, a Country Inn and Suites. It was just really nice. You walked into the lobby, and there was this smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies wafting through the lobby. Behind the counter there was this nice young lady about 25 years old. She was very warm, very cheerful, and very friendly. She said, Hi, how are you doing? We said, Were doing well. Could we check out a room? She said, Oh, sure. So she gave us a key, and we went down to check out the room, and we said, Oh, this is pretty nice. We came back and asked how much it was. She said, It is $90. We thought well, after looking at $29.95 and $90, that was a little more… We were like, Well spend it if we have to, but wed rather not. We said to her, If you dont mind, were going to go check out prices at the one place that was left. She said, Oh, fine. No problem. I understand. Take care, and have a nice day. We left and went over to the last place. We found out that it was the same price. We looked at a room, and we actually liked the other one better. The lady was very professional and very sterile. When we told her we didnt really want the room, she was very cold and borderline discourteous. She was like, Well, you dont want to stay at our motel. I cant believe that. Its beyond my wildest comprehension. We left and we were like, Wow. That was kind of wild. On the way back, we said, Man, that other young lady was so nice. We went in there, and she said, Oh, youre back! Its nice to see you. I said, Sure, well take a room, and she said okay. Vicki said, Yeah, we actually liked this room better than the other one. I said, Not only that, but we were talking about how warm and charming you were. You were really friendly. Compared to the other lady over there, you were like wow! It was nice talking to you. She looked at us and said, Wow! Thats really nice of you to say! You just made my day! So you know what? (Pastor Jerry speaks in a very gruff voice here), Im going to make your day. She didnt really talk like that, but she did proceed to make our day. She said, So instead of $90, Im going to give it to you for $50. We were like, Wow! Just because we said thanked her and complimented her, she turned around and our lives were not only enriched spiritually and mentally, but actually our pocketbooks as well. Later on, we thought what a joy to get money back, but we talked about who knows what kind of a day she was having. Maybe shed had lots of people who were unkind to her or mistreated her that day. Maybe she got chewed out. For somebody to come and be kind or say something nice about her, it was like wow! You could watch her eyes sparkle and light up. Friends, God calls us to do that. Theres a world around you of hurting people. Your gratitude, your kindness, can make an impact and enrich people that you meet. So telling someone thank you, remember, is like giving them a valuable jewel. The second thing I would say is that telling not just people but telling God thank you is light, warmth, and love thats drawn into your own souls. We think about romantic movies, and we think about warm and cozy fireplaces on cold Wisconsin nights. We think about romantic strolls through gas-lit lamps, and we think about candlelight dinners. There is always this association of light with love and romance. In fact, when Vicki and I were first dating, I actually walked down Frontier Street with her in the middle of a lightly falling snowfall. The street lights were glowing, and I turned to her and sang, Ive often walked down this street, the street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before. All at once am I several stories high knowing Im on the street where you live. She proceeded to vomit-no, Im just kidding. It was one of those really spectacular moments, and I still remember that. Light and romance go hand and hand; well, so it is with God. Friends, as you go through life, when your heart is cold and dark because life has been rough or youve been hurt, how do you bring light, warmth, and love to your soul? Let me encourage you and challenge you that when you share light, love, and warmth with God, you get it back in return in spades. In fact, if you think about God looking down on a world thats dark and cold and Him seeing His children here and there in the middle of a dark world, and in the middle of that darkness, theyre singing, praising, and worshipping Him, what does God see? Hes like, Oh, theres a light there. Theyre sparkling over there. Theres a light there. I see them over there. Thats light to God; its love to God; its warmth to God. You have the opportunity to warm His heart, and what do you get back in return? Friends, when you make the decision to praise God and bless His name no matter what, its like lighting that cozy fire on a cold Wisconsin day or a cold Wisconsin evening. You snuggle up, and you sense His love, His presence, and His warmth. I get so passionate about this because, friends, if you dont sense His love, if you dont feel His love, if youre not feeling the sense of His presence, I would challenge you to begin to praise God. Begin to thank Him; begin to bless Him and worship Him no matter what your circumstances are. This is the stuff of Psalms; this is the stuff of triumph; this is the stuff of light, warmth, and change. In fact, the opposite of that, if we look at Romans 1:20 (page 1112), God says that thankfulness is the Heavenly light switch. When you refuse to be grateful and you refuse to be thankful, that is the very first step into darkness. Listen to Romans 1:20. It says, For since the creation of the world, Gods invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God… Listen to this, …they neither glorified Him as God… nor-gave-Him-thanks. What is the first step after not giving God thanks? …their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Its a hop, skip, and a jump on a short step to the rest of the Chapter of Romans 1 where you see every kind of evil and abomination and filthy action that exists in the world. Where did it start? It started with an ungrateful heart. It started with an attitude of ingratitude. Friends, I submit to you, that in gratitude, unthankfulness lies at the heart of every single sin that exists. Blaspheme God? Do you really shake your fist at God if youre incredibly grateful for all that Hes done for you? Honor your father and your mother. Do you tend to dishonor your parents if youre incredibly grateful for all that theyve done for you? Thou shall not murder. Do you murder people for whom you are amazingly thankful? I dont think so. Thou shall not commit adultery. Do you tend to have affairs, divorce, dishonor, and commit adultery against mates for whom you are spectacularly grateful? I dont think so. Do you tend to lie, cheat, steal, or covet? If you are unbelievably thankful for everything that you have, no. Gratitude is the foundational core of every single sin that exists. Likewise if you want to come back to God, you want to sense His warmth and light, thankfulness is the first step back. Its the first step toward the light; its the first step out of darkness; its the first step toward feeling again. You know in the real estate world if you want to raise property values, one of the cool things you can put in the home is…a fireplace, especially in colder weather or colder climates. People are drawn to that; it adds value. Friends, thanks, praise, and gratitude adds value to you. God says youre His home. You are where He wants to live. If you want to up your market value to those around you in life, develop a place where you go connect with God and get a hold of His light and His fire. Itll warm you; itll keep you; itll change you. Think of Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai having spent 40 days with God, and what is it about Moses thats different? His face is glowing. People can see that about you if youve been with God. It changes you. You have an impact on the world around you. Sometimes, dear friends, that prayer of praise, gratitude, and thankfulness can actually save your life. Its become my habit every morning to start the day by telling God ten things that Im thankful for. If my heart isnt warmed after that, then sometimes I run through the entire alphabet, A through Z, thinking of something for which I can thank God for. Then I tend to launch into songs of praise and gratitude. Sometimes as you begin to thank God, you dont feel like it. You dont feel like praising Him. Thats why sometimes praise is called a sacrifice of praise-because its not easy. Sometimes its like starting a car on a cold Wisconsin morning. You turn the key after scraping the ice off the windows, and it does not want to start. Finally after a bit, it kicks in and turns over. Then you defrost the windows, and eventually you get to go to school, your job, or wherever youre going. Its warm and youre glad that youre riding in a car-even if its a beater-instead of the one-horse open sleigh going to Grandmothers house. No matter how romantic that sounds, its still freezing cold. Youre glad for that warmth. Friends, praise is the same way. There are days that you get up, and you dont feel like praising God, but if you decide to make that sacrifice and begin to honor Him-even if you dont feel like it-I can tell you, its not long before your heart begins to warm. The ice begins to thaw, and the light comes into your soul. You become incredibly grateful for all He is and all that Hes done for you. Sometimes that moves me to tears because, friends, Im sorry but Im standing here today because praise and gratitude literally saved my life. Its taken me almost 50 years to share some of the details about this, but when I was 15 and 16 years old, I had some hormonal problems. My body was really messed up. It started producing way more testosterone than it was supposed to. It started really messing with me, so my mother took me to the doctor and low and behold, that wonderful yahoo, guess what he did? He prescribed me oral anabolic steroids. This kid has too much testosterone in his body. Its messing with him. Lets give him more. Nobody said anything about the side effects. Nobody knew what would happen. I went from being a pretty mellow, happy-go-lucky kid to somebody who wanted to kill everybody he saw. Here I was the president of my youth group, and everybody on the outside thought I was wonderful; and inside I was dying. There was darkness, and it was cold. Id walk around thinking about people I hated, people I wanted to hurt, and people I wanted to kill. Most of all, I wanted to kill myself. All that testosterone and discovering girls got me into things that for which Im not proud of and that are ungodly, that only added to the problems. As my guilt compounded, I wanted to kill myself even more. Somehow in the middle of all of that, in the darkness, the heartache, and the pain, nobody knew what was going on; I felt isolated and all alone, I would come home from school and thank God for a grandmother that taught me how to play the piano and sing. I would sit down for hours and sing songs to God of worship and praise, What a friend we have in Jesus. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? When you feel all alone, take it to the Lord in prayer. In the middle of my incredible darkness and pain-and today they would say I was manic depressive, bipolar, or certifiably depressed-Jesus Christ, and thanks and praise to Him, was the light that saved my soul. If it werent for that hope and that ability to thank Him and praise Him, I would have blown my brains out and killed myself long ago. Thanksgiving literally saved my life. Friends, you have no idea the impact that you can make on a world around you if youre willing to share praise and thanks. You have no idea the impact that thanks and praise has in your own life. That kind of leads us to the third thing because being thankful can make you the powerful hero in any love story. I love romantic movies-dont let anybody know that. I love watching chick flicks with my wife, but I cant watch too many in a row. Then I have to watch an Arnold movie, a Clint movie, or Sylvester Stallone or somebody like that. Then I can watch another chick flick. Even the guy movies, the action movies, isnt there always some powerful hunk thats like falling in love with the gorgeous babe? We ask: what is it that draws us to that story? Friends, I think John Eldredge says it very well. Its the story of redemption. Why do we relate to that so much? Because its the story of what Jesus did for us. Hes the prince; Hes the captain; Hes the champion; Hes the hero who could have stayed home safe. Instead He left Heaven and came all the way down to planet earth to die and rescue us in pain and agony-to give us life, to save our souls, and to be our champion. We see that played out in stories and movies, and our hearts are drawn to that. Theyre drawn to the hero. Friends, when you lift up other people around you with gratitude and thanksgiving, you can be the hero in their lives. You can be the person who is lifting them up. You can be the person who is changing lives. You can be the person who is making a difference. Somebody can be burdened and carrying heavy loads, and a word of thanks, a word of gratitude, you have no idea the impact that that can make in their lives. I often think of Jesus in John 11. Lets look at John 11:35 (page 1064). It is the shortest Verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. The background of this: Jesus has lost one of His very best friends. He comes to the tomb, and this Verse, this Passage, says, Jesus wept. The people around Him looked at Jesus and seen Him crying and they said, See how He loved him! Sometimes we look at Jesus, and we think, Well, Hes God. He was here in the flesh. He knows Hes going to raise Lazarus in a few minutes, so it really doesnt impact Him. Hogwash! Jesus felt the pain. Jesus had just lost one of His very best friends. Its obvious. He is standing at the gravesite crying and weeping. Knowing that He can raise him from the dead doesnt lessen the pain. Everybody else sees it, and they were like, Wow! He really loved Lazarus! Then Jesus does something amazing. Some of them said, Couldnt He who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? You go through losses; you go through pain; you have heartaches; sometimes you have regrets. Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, He said. But, Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days. Then Jesus said, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. And get this, Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank You… Friends; when youre going through loss; when you lose a job; when you lose a loved one; when you lose your dreams; when you suffer heartache, loss, and pain, what is Satan always whispering in your ear? He says, See, God doesnt care. Gods not listening. All those prayers you prayed, where was God? The Heavens are brass. Hes not listening to you. He has His hearing aids turned down. He doesnt care. What does Jesus say in the face of death? Father, I thank You that You hear me. What an attitude! His own spirits are lifted with the recognition that God hears Him. Listen to what He says next, I knew that You always heard Me. Sometimes we need to repeat that in our minds. Father, yes, Im going through hard things. Yes, Im facing the losses. Yes, my dreams are crushed, but Father, I know that You always hear me. We need to rehearse that. Thank You, Father. But our attitudes of gratitude impact not only ourselves, but the people around us. Look what Jesus says, …I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me. When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to Him, Take off the grave clothes and let him go. Friends, gratitude and thankfulness are powerful. Gratitude raises other people. Gratitude literally lifts people from the dead. You can breathe life into somebody who is dying a thousand deaths today just by telling them thank you. Maybe its a clerk at the store; maybe its somebody that youve never met before. There was a lady in the 8 oclock service that came today, and I was blown away because Vicki and I had stopped on Saturday night at a card shop and got talking to her, and she came to church this morning. You have no idea whose life you can impact with a word of kindness or gratitude. Be a light; share a smile; share a thank you. Lift somebody up. You might rescue them even from the dead. Be a hero to somebody today. The last thing that I would say about thankfulness is that thankfulness is the tattoo or the mark of love. Now, I know some people might say, Tattoos, are those things in the Bible? Well, you can debate that back, Should I get a tattoo? Should I not get a tattoo? We debate cultures and all those types of things. I think its interesting that God says-even though I dont have tattoos-our names are literally engraved on the palm of His hand. How about that? Isnt that amazing? Gods not afraid to own us. Tattoos, in our culture, are often the mark of love; even in past cultures, youd see sailors, marines, and construction workers-guys like that [have tattoos]. You fall in love and get somebodys name tattooed sometimes, if you really love them, on your arm. Although you have to be careful. I always chuckle-when I coached at U-Rock, there was a sign in the boys locker room warning against the epidemic of AIDS. It has a picture of a guys arm, and then it had about six different names tattooed on it. There was Emily, and then that was crossed out; and then Ashley, and then Linda, Betty, and on down the line. One after the other was crossed out, and the caption at the bottom was unlike love, AIDS is forever, so be careful or be smart. The point is that sometimes people are so desperately in love, they mark their bodies with the name of their beloved. Friends, how do people know that you belong to Jesus Christ? Whats the mark that you carry? The mark is this: youre thankful no matter what. One of the few things that God says expressly is His Will is give thanks in every situation. This is the Will of God. Im going to ask you what you think the mark of the beast is. Youre looking at me now going, Is he on drugs? What does that have to do with thankfulness? You can get a big crowd talking about the mark of the beast and end times and all that kind of stuff. Sometimes, dear people, people cant see the forest for the trees. Ive heard lots of different things, Computer chips in our foreheads or the backs of our hands-thats the mark of the beast or the barcode on the back of your cereal box, thats the mark of the beast. God forbid, be careful about social security numbers. At one time, those were the mark of the beast. My favorite, I was in a meeting in a rescue mission once, and they had a testimony time. This dear lady, God bless her heart, out of the blue when someone was asking for testimonies, she stood up and said, I know what the mark of the beast is. We were looking at her like… This was in the 80s. Its Ronald Wilson Reagan 666. We were all like wow! So lots of things are the mark of the beast, but sometimes we cant see the forest for the trees. Lets look at Revelation 16 (page 1226). Im going to ask you as we read this to pay careful attention to what the mark of the beast is. God judges the beast and his kingdom, and it says, The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they… [what?] …cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to… change or repent and glorify Him. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and… [what?] …cursed God…because of their pains and sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. Friends, whats the mark of the beast? You go through adversity; you go through trials; you go through pain, and you shake your fists in the face of God and damn and curse His name. You damn and curse Jesus Christ. Gods so mean! Gods so cruel! Gods so vicious! How could He do this kind of stuff to me? I dont deserve this! The mark of the beast… On the other hand, whats the mark of the followers of the Lamb? Lets look elsewhere in the Book. Whatever else the Book of Revelation may be, this may surprise you that its one of the most incredible hymn books in the Bible. There are songs of praise and thanksgiving all over the Book of Revelation from beginning to end. What is the mark of the followers of the Lamb? Lets look at Revelation 7:9 (page 1220), After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before their throne and worshiped God, saying: Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom… Here I like [how it is worded in] the New King James …and Thanksgiving… …and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen! Then one of the elders asked me, These in white robes-who are they, and where did they come from? I answered, Sir, you know. And he said, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Friends, you see this through the Book of Revelation. What do the followers of the Lamb do when they are tortured, when they are slain, when they are beheaded, when they face tragedy, heartache, and pain? They fall on their faces and bless, glorify and worship God and say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever and ever and ever. What is the mark of the followers of the Lamb that they leave behind them everywhere they go? Like Job of Old, God looks down and says, You see My servant Job? Isnt anybody like him? God allows Satan to take away everything he has, and how does Job respond? He can kill me, and Ill still trust Him. Isnt that unbelievable? Thats the mark of the Lambs followers. They are so grateful; they are so thankful; they are so in love with the Captain of their salvation who went through hell to rescue them that they can suffer stress, heartache, pain, torture, and loss; and nothing can stop them from praising God. Friends, in a few short days, were going to celebrate the 390th anniversary of Thanksgiving. Thats almost 400 years. We remember the Pilgrims, why? Because they were followers of the Lamb. In 1620, they arrived on the shores of Plymouth Rock and set up a colony-110 people. Over the first winter, they lost over half of their number, so there were fewer than 50 people. We live in absolute luxury compared to what they had; and they carved out a hole in the wilderness. Six months after losing half of their loved ones and half of their membership and seeing death on every hand, they have their first harvest; and they spend three days of thanks, gratitude, and praise to Almighty God. They cant stop worshipping Him, blessing Him, and thanking Him less than a year after half of them died. So powerful is that mark that 400 years later in our countrys history, what do we still remember? We still remember a group of people who in the middle of their heartache, in the middle of their pain, in the middle of their loss, in the middle of their adversity took time to thank, bless, and praise God. Thats the mark of the followers of the Lamb. Dear friends, God put that same Spirit in your heart today. If youre one of His followers, share His love, share His gratitude. Youll make the world a better place. Lets pray: Father, I thank You so much for Your Word. I thank You for the example of Jesus Christ. I thank You for each one of these dear friends. I pray that You would bless them and encourage them. Help us to walk every day as followers of the Lamb in incredible gratitude for all that Youve done for us. I thank You that we can pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Hopefully, youll learn some things thatll encourage you and challenge you in your framework and world view. As we looked at Larry this morning and heard what he had to say, [I thought] Im glad to be in a church thats not afraid to ask the big questions. We obviously in a half hour dont have time to address all of the things and all the questions that Larry asked, but believe me there are answers to all of those. We do want to look at a few things, and we want to talk about secular humanism in light of the Bible because what you may not believe is after Christianity and Islam, secular humanism is probably the prevailing religion in the world today. And you say, Secular humanism religion? I didnt know that. I thought it was secular. But, friends, the reality is if you were to read, The Humanist Manifesto, the first one that was put together in 1933, about 5 of the 14 planks of The Humanist Manifesto call humanism a religion. Interesting, ha? So theres nothing new under the sun, and these people believe what they believe passionately. They believe it ardently, and they believe its the answer to human beings ills, needs, and salvation, and so as such-as we talk over the next six weeks and start this series on World View, one of the things that we need to address right off the top is one of the prevailing religions in the world today-which is secular humanism. Its interesting too that since in the second and third revisions of The Humanist Manifesto that that kind of religious tone has been edited out of that, but, again, going back to 1933, the founders of that viewed secular humanism as a religion and a world view that embraced all of life. The first thing that we see out of that-if you were to go to the secular humanist website and read The Humanist Manifesto, you will find words like this: secular humanism provides a cosmic outlook, a world view, in the broadest sense. By world view, we mean a big picture kind of look at the world that embraces everything, everybody and everything we do. Secular humanists see themselves as undersigned, unintended beings who arose through evolution possessing unique attributes of self-awareness and moral agency. I always chuckle how they got self-awareness and moral agency if there was no God, and they came to exist all by themselves by accident; but thats a whole other topic. Friends, as we look at this Passage and look at this religion in light of the Scripture, well look at Psalm 14:1 (page 538 of pew Bibles) to begin with. We will look at three Passages, but lets first turn to Psalm 14:1. David, 3,000 years ago, wrote these words. He said, Only fools say in their hearts there is no God. They are corrupt. Their actions are evil. Not one of them does good. When we talk about fools and Pastor Jeff asked me to entitle this message on secular humanism, The Fool, I dont mean that in necessarily a derogatoral way whereas we talk about being a fool; I dont mean in the terms of being mentally deranged or mentally handicapped. Were talking about someone who is simple, someone who is naïve, someone who doesnt get the big picture, someone who doesnt take the farthest look, somebody who sets aside reason and intellect in order to come to the conclusions that they do. There are many wonderful illustrations that children make. In Jesus Takes, we had little Nolan this morning, and God talks about little children as the examples of faith because they embrace things and believe things, almost unequivocally. You know you tell a child the sky is blue and the moons made out of green cheese, and, Okay. And so Jesus said trust Him as the faith of a little child. The flip side is that we want to use children as an illustration-not in a derogatory way but just an incomplete way. The children are also very naïve, arent they? If I were to ask the question, how many of you were afraid of the dark when you were a kid? Some brave people. If you were like me, I was very afraid of the dark, and basements, it was like, Oh, my goodness. Please, Mother, dont send me down to the basement for potatoes or something! I remember when the movie Home Alone came out and Macaulay Culkin went down there and the furnace kicked on. It was like, Ahhhhh! Youve got to be kidding me! I remember going down to the basement and turning on the lights, creaking down the stairs and looking for potatoes. I found their little eyes looking back at me. Then the furnace came on, and I would just make a bee-line up the stairs. It was like the bake of potatoes playing Chariots of Fire. I was sprinting up the stairs. I was terrified of the dark. That carried over every time I went to bed, you know. You had monsters and all those things. I had nightmares almost every night of my childhood in to my teenage years. As a child, when youre afraid of the dark, and youre dreaming of monsters, what do you do to get away from it? You pull the covers up over your head, right? Because if you cant see them, they cant get you, right? The secular humanist and the fool as God looks at here are very much like that. Pull the covers up over your head and pretend that God isnt there. He doesnt exist. Why? Because I cant see Him. Regardless of what youve heard in history books, the majority of the people in Galileos time or Columbus time did not believe that the world was flat. They didnt. Youve heard that, but its not true. Regardless of what some of our modern movies say, the Catholic Church did not reject Galileo because he said the earth went around the sun. That was not the issue at all. The point is that people like Sir Isaac Newton who believed in God, who made the world, said that science was possible and that you could study the world, study the universe, and study things in a scientific way specifically because there was a Creator who made it all and therefore, it was knowledge. Solomon said in Proverbs [25:2, page 650 of pew Bibles], Its the glory of God to conceal a matter. Its the glory of kings to search it out. Thats what the early scientists believed. Im going to read this other Passage from The Humanist Manifesto as we talk about religion. Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists… This is straight out of the first one. …religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life. In fact at the tail end of the first The Humanist Manifesto, it says this: Do you know what the essence of living here on the earth is? Its to have The Good Life. Isnt that interesting? It sounds like a beer commercial, doesnt it? You only go around once in life, so you have to grab for all the gusto you can. Lets pull the covers over my head. Going back a bit as I remember what I was going to say. You think about that, pretend it isnt there, that foundation of science led to all kinds of horrific experimentations or ways of dealing with illness in the past when like the first President of our country. We didnt know about germs and all those types of things, so what did we do when he was sick with pneumonia? We bleed him, taking away the very thing that he needed, which was his blood. We bleed him, weaken him, and hence he dies because we cant see germs, so they must not exist. The father of modern sanitation Ignaz Semmelweiss got hounded out of two different hospitals because he had the audacity to believe the Bible when it came to performing autopsies and then walking across the floor to maternity wards and delivering babies without washing your hands. When Ignaz Semmelweiss had the audacity to tell the doctors under his care that they needed to wash their hands after performing autopsies and before delivering babies, he got hounded out of two different hospitals and died a broken man. Why? Because science at the time, You cant see it, so it must not be so. Now science tells us, I cant see God, so guess what? It must not be so. Yet, so much of the technical things-lights, heat-all those types of things, so many of the scientific advances that weve enjoyed in the last 150 years are because of things that we cant see. That brings us to motivation. Well get to more specifics later, but lets talk about motivation. Why are people so passionate about the idea that there is no God? I always chuckle at that. Do you get the ridiculousness of that, the incongruity? Theres no God, but Im going to spend my life defined by telling everybody that the thing that I dont believe exists doesnt exist. Let me give you an example. If I believed that purple elephants dont exist, would I spend my life passionately crusading throughout the entire world telling everybody and making sure that everybody knows that purple elephants dont exist? Would I? No, Id just ignore it because I know purple elephants dont exist. Duh! Its hilarious to me that people will say, Oh, God doesnt exist. Guess what? God defines their lives-their whole lives and framework is built around, Theres no God! Theres no God! Theres no God! Theres no God! If we tell ourselves that long enough, maybe well convince ourselves that thats the truth. Pull the blankets up over your head. If you cant see Him, it must not be so. Whats the motivation? Why are people so passionate about that? As we said, its religion. Friends, I am so glad that the Bible is not relevant for today. That was a joke. I was just seeing if you were awake. Way back in Genesis 3, we find the answer to that. This is the foundation of so much religion, so many Eastern religions-even some of the late comers to the modern Americans. What is the crux? Whats the sum total? If I follow this religion, what happens in the end? Here it is: Genesis 3, I get to be God. Why do I stand and shake my fist in the face of God, say He doesnt exist, Hes not out there. Because if Hes not out there, then who is God? Who is king? Whos boss? Whos lord? Me. Im so glad the Bibles not relevant-nailed that in the first three chapters. The serpent comes to Eve in the Garden and says, Take that fruit. Dont listen to God. He doesnt know what Hes talking about because if you eat that fruit, what will happen? You will get to be your own God! Thats the sum total of it. If there is no God, you get to be God. I like poetry. I like literature, and I dont think any poem says it better than the poem they used for the title of a movie this last year. Clint Eastwood directed a movie about the South African rugby team and their quest for a rugby championship. The name of that movie was, Invictus. What you may not know is that is a very famous and well known poem written in 1875 by William Earnest Henley. This poem espouses this philosophy in an amazing way, and I often wonder what was going on in Henleys head. Im not going to speculate about a lot of things, but I know he had a rough background. He had tuberculosis of the bone at a young age. At a young age or pre-modern medicine, he had a leg amputated. Im sure in the late 1800s, that must have been a pretty horrific experience. We can see some of that pain, some of that heartache in the middle of this poem. Lets listen to the words of his poem, Invictus, when he writes, Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole… Now theres a really optimistic world view, right? …I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. Dont gloss over that line. Is he really thanking God? Notice that god is in small letters. Whatever gods might be, who is he really thanking for his unconquerable soul? Who is the god? Himself-youre right. He is. He goes on to say, In the fell clutch of circumstance… Think about losing a leg and the pain he went through, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears… That's what life is to him, a place of wrath and tears. Whats to come? Looms but the Horror of the shade… Now theres a great view of eternity. And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. Look at that line. If you dont get whats going on here or get poetry very well, get this. When he talks about, It matters not how strait the gate, whats that an illusion to? Jesus said, Strait was the gate that led to…? Heaven, everlasting life. How charged with punishments the scroll, whats that an illusion to? Whats the opposite of Heaven? Hell. Hensley says, I dont care about Heaven, and I dont care about hell. Im the master of my fate. Im the captain of my soul. Im in charge, and no god, nobody else. Im the boss. Im the king. I rule. Im God. Our secular world stands and applauds that. Now it is great poetry, and its great in terms of its artistry, its rhyme scheme. It makes an incredible impact. Its a powerful piece, but philosophically, its awful. Yet, our secular world and secular humanists stand and applaud that. That's the essence of secular humanism. Im the master. Im the captain. Friends, Ill tell you something: after looking at my own life and after 30 years in the ministry and a dozen years as a police chaplain, Ive stood beside grades; Ive stood beside beds; Ive stood beside people in hospitals and jails and watched the utter destruction that people make of their lives when they decide theyre the boss, theyre in charge, and theyre gonna do it as Frank Sinatra sang, My Way. Holding that dear little child in your arms… Ill never forget standing by hospital beds as a police chaplain because I had to tell mothers that their four-year olds just died because they were having illicit drug-laced drunken affairs and killed their own children as a result of their actions. They were so high, and they backed their vans into lakes, and their children drowned. Their lovers drowned. I listened to the parents scream because-well, they were doing their own thing. They made the rules; they wrote the songs. They were in charge, and they reaped the fruit of it. Ill be the first one to tell you that I am so glad that I realize-it didnt take me very long to realize -as a person that Jerry Dean made a really horrible god and I really royally messed my life up. If I was honest with the thoughts that went on in my head as a young person, the perversion, the wickedness, the lust, and the evil… I used to lift weights in just a rage-fueled passion thinking about people that I wanted to kill. That embarrasses me. It shames me to say that. I sit here and think, Yeah, I really deserve to be worshipped as God-really noble stuff, right? Im really in charge. Im really the boss. I spent two years in high school, thinking about killing myself almost every single day. The gloom and the darkness that covered my life were incredible. The pain, the heartache, and the agony because I couldnt find the big answers to the big questions that I wanted-but, friends, out of that, when God finally opened up His Word and showed me His Truth and His light, and I found peace, redemption, hope, and deliverance in Jesus Christ-when I found out that He paid for my sins on the cross and justice was done there, I literally at 23 years old and a pastor already, literally jumped off my couch and almost hit my head on the ceiling because I instantly knew peace. I instantly knew joy. I instantly knew hope in a way that I never had in my whole entire life. I am so glad that I am not my own god. Paul Kurtz in the second Humanist Manifesto writes these words: No god will save us. We must save ourselves. My response to that and many of your responses to that is those two wonderful English words, Balderdash and Hogwash. I did a lousy job at saving myself. If God hadnt reached down and rescued my soul, I would have died a long time ago. I wouldnt be standing here today if it wasnt for the grace, the wonder, and the goodness of a Holy, loving, and gracious God. Many of you would nod your heads and say exactly that same thing, wouldnt you? Friends, Jesus Christ will have the entire universe bow their knees to Him some day. Every tongue will confess that He is the Lord. Hes boss; Hes King. What earned Him that position? Because 2,000 years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane when He faced eternal hell and the wrath and curse of a Holy, righteous, and just God, He had the wisdom to say, Father, whatever You want. Not what I want. Amen? If you know peace, you know hope, and you know joy, and you have hope for eternity, its because your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, His incredible attitude said, God whatever You want. Not what I want. Thats where real power comes from. The amazing thing is when you finally surrender to God and say, Youre the King. Youre the boss, then and only then do you find true freedom and a real hope. As you grow in your walk with Him, you finally find that you become the person that [He wants you to be]. He starts to change you, and you become the person that you hoped you could be. We all have a ways to go, but you see the way God changes, moves, and molds your lives, and your gratitude grows. Friends, I would ask you to take just a minute right here, bow your head with me, and pray that prayer-you alone with God, if you would, say, God, whatever You want. Not what I want. Will you take just a minute to pray that to God right now? Father, we thank You so much for the example of Jesus Christ who prayed, Not My will, but Yours. I pray that we would pray that not just today, but every day, and follow Him. I thank You that we can pray in His name, Amen. Friends, thats the challenge-not to pray that just once, but you will be truly wise if every single day at some point in your life you turn to the God of the universe and say, Youre the boss. Youre the King. Whatever You want. Youll be amazed at how your life will change. The second thing I want to look at is Proverbs 22:3 (page 647 of pew Bibles). It says these words and is repeated in Verse 12:27. Its repeated in many different ways throughout Proverbs, but it says this: A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. A prudent person sees danger and takes precaution. Proverbs 14 says, The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool himself and wont face the facts. If you asked me today why Im a Christian, I would say it is this more than any single other thing: Christianity faces reality in a way that nothing else does. It faces the farthest look. Do you know in this world if youre trying to get ahead financially, you plan for your future. I always chuckle that over 90 percent of Americans have no more money when they die than when they did at age 18. Why? Incredibly poor planning. They dont look ahead. The Russians, under Stalin, they had their five-year plans and bankrupted the entire country. They couldnt look just five years in the future. They only looked so far ahead. Christians, God tells and challenges Christians to take the long view, the eternal view. I chuckle at this phrase from The Humanist Manifesto, which says, Knowledge is based on the scientific mesh and observations by many impartial witnesses. Now if that is true, and youre honest, what are we all going to face some day? Every single person sitting here will someday face death. You say, Well, I hope the Lord comes back. A while ago, it dawned on me that theyre basically the same thing. If Im ready to die, am I ready for the Lord to come back? Yeah. If Im ready for the Lord to come back, Im ready to die. Its essentially the same thing. Wise people think about that. Now heres something interesting. They say the only way that you can know anything is observation by many impartial witnesses, so lets take them at face value. How many people in white coats have ever experienced life after death or observed it? Never experienced it, never observed it, but we can know for sure that it doesnt exist. On the other hand, and one of the questions Larry asked, whats the difference between Judaism, Christianity and every other religious myth? The reality is history. One of the degrees I have is in history. I am a history geek; Im a history nerd; Im a history junkie. Friends, if I were going to plan my future on something that I wasnt sure that existed, I would like the witness of somebody thats been there, done that, right? So all our experts with letters after their names running around in white coats, they havent been there after death, but I know somebody that has the audacity to claim that He did. Why is Christianity different than every other religion? Because it claims to be historically accurate. One of the most brilliant historians in the British Empire in the last hundred years said, There is more evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ than any single other historical event. Good historians, good experts-people that are willing to study the facts-find out time after time after time that the Bible is true. I could go on and on and on telling you about the greatest British archeologist over the last hundred years, Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, who went to the Middle east to prove-he was knighted by the Queen of England-he was such a touring intellect. He went to the Middle east to prove that the Book of Acts was false. After he retraced the steps of Paul and Luke, he came to the conclusion and wrote that Luke was a historian of the first degree. His Book set the scholastic word on edge. It knocked peoples socks off. They never would have dreamed that, and Ramsay became a Christian as a result of his study of history and the facts. I could go on and on and on and tell you a litany of people who have come to that same conclusion from Lee Strobel, who is an editor of the Chicago Tribune, to CS Lewis, one of the greatest authors of the last hundred years. I could tell you story after story-doctors, scientists, geophysicists. My absolute favorite is Lou Wallace. Ive told a little bit about him before, but Ill tell you this: Lou Wallace was a lawyer from Indiana. He was so brilliant that at 34 years old, he was made a general in the union Army-one of the youngest generals in the Civil War. He was blamed for some of the catastrophes at the Battle of Shiloh and lost his position, but he came to the defense of the City of Cincinnati and set up its defenses; and as a result, he re-attained his rank of general. After the defense of the City of Cincinnati, he came to the attention of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln called him to Washington, almost as his special envoy, and Lou Wallace became a Civil War hero because he is credited with defending Washington, D.C., against confederate attack and saving the capital. Lou Wallace in his 30s became a national hero, credited with saving Washington, D.C., from capture. You probably didnt know that, did you? He went on after the war to become an author. After he wrote several books, he was writing across the country with one of the leading agnostics of the day-a man named Robert Ingersoll. Ingersoll, in a long spiel in which Wallace says he was charming, eloquent-hed never heard anybody talk like Ingersoll had before-was so logical. Ingersoll challenged Wallace about Christianity and Jesus Christ. Wallace began to research whether, in fact, Christianity was true and that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. Do you know how long he spent studying that? Lee Strobel spent two years studying Christianity before he was convinced that it was true. Lou Wallace spent seven years, after which he became overwhelmed by the facts, overwhelmed by the evidence. The lawyer, the general, the author could not deny it any longer. He gave his life to Jesus Christ and ended up writing the best seller, Ben Hur. If this guy was alive today, his name would be making headlines almost every single day because Lou Wallaces play, Ben Hur, ran on Broadway for 26 straight years. It was so huge that the chariot race with eight horses was actually redone on stage. He became world famous in an age where Christians didnt read novels or go to the theatre. Christians read Ben Hur. They went to see Ben Hur. It affirmed their faith as it had with Wallace. Again, I could go on and on talking about people like that. The evidence is overwhelming. If I come to face death some day, I want to be in the hands of someone who has been there, done that, and conquered death. Right? I dont want to base my hopes on some, Well, were not quite sure. We havent observed it. The reality is that Paul in his day, speaking of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ-this is almost like an Eastern sermon-maybe were climbing out of the valley-said that Jesus was seen by over 500 witnesses at once, most of whom were still alive. How would that hold up in a court of law today? [Do you] think 500 witnesses on the witness stand might reinforce your case? Paul was so confident of the fact that he said, If youre not sure, go ask Him because most of them are still alive. You can check it out. As Pastor Jeff said last week, Christianity has never been afraid to say, Hey, check it out. I dont have to set my reason aside to embrace faith. In fact, the whole reason that I am a Christian is because I grew up in a very intellectual home. The Christian world view answers all my big questions. Its more logical; its more reasonable than any other philosophy of life Ive ever come across. So God calls us to embrace Truth, to embrace wisdom. What do you know about little kids that is simple? Humanism says you have to test everything out before you can find out if its true. Thats a nice way of saying you have to learn everything the hard way. How many little kids do you know that love vegetables? Maybe there are a few. How many little kids and grandkids do you know that would eat candy non-stop, 24 hours a day, if you allowed them to do that? What would they be like after 25 years, if they were still alive-which they probably would not be? But you need somebody older, wiser who gets the bigger picture a little bit better than they do to say, No, this is not good for you. If you set aside genuine truth and reality, you have to learn everything the hard way, and thats incredibly sad. Christianity is the ultimate look ahead. Paul in Romans 10 says that if youll confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, youll be saved. I love the Passage in Romans 2:7 where he says, There are those who will win eternal life if they continually seek glory, honor, and immortality. I love that phrase. Whats God called us as Christians to do? He calls us to seek for glory, honor, and immortality because all of us are going to face eternity one day. Im banking on someone whos been there, done that-not, Well, were not quite sure. In fact, were pretty confident that this is all there is. That leads us to the next point. My wife shared this Verse with me knowing that I was going to preach about the fool and secular humanism. Isaiah 44:20, we wind it down here, it says these words (page 721), The poor deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trusts something that cant help him at all, yet he cannot bring himself to ask, Is this idol that Im holding in my hand a lie? In spite of all of the arguments, all these protestations that we are impartial observers, secular humanists believe in a religion. Dont buy that nonsense that they are impartial. I always think of Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA. Ill show you what a geek I am by saying that DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. There, Im a total nerd. In 1983, Francis Crick discovered DNA. Hes an agnostic-pretty confident that God doesnt exist though, and its amazing that as he looks at DNA and studies even more and finds out that in every single cell, there are miles of human DNA. It boggles his mind, and Francis Crick the agnostic, says, Dare we say the word miracle, but of course, Pull the covers over my head cause it couldnt be God. He even uses the word miracle, but, Well, that doesnt fit in to my world view, so Im gonna cross out all knowledge or understanding that God couldve created this because it doesnt fit. Impartial observers? Youve got to be kidding me. Kids believe everything that theyre told. Thats why Jesus said that a child is the model of faith. They believe easily. Sometimes this gets thrown in our faces, You Christians, youre simple. Youre naïve. You believe in God. You also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and when you grow up a little bit more and get more of the facts, youre realize that Gods just like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Hes made up. Friends, this is my challenge to you as we wind it down and finish. This is my challenge to you: the God of the universe has the audacity-Isaiah 1-to say, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. You dont have to set aside your brain; you dont have to set aside your intellect. You dont have to set aside your logic. One of my favorite courses-you dont have to set aside your wisdom when you come to God. In fact, I am a Christian because wisdom, intellect, logic, and reason buttresses everything in the Word of God. The more I study, the more I see, the more I learn, the more I understand, I am amazed at the Truth of this Book and the wisdom of the Holy and Almighty God. God challenges us to think. In fact, I shake my head at our loss of history. When we have schools precisely in America because schools were built to teach young children how to read the Word of God, and 9 out of the 10 Ivy League schools-you can check it out and look it up-were started as? Religions seminaries to train preachers. Everywhere the Word of God goes, what happens? The advancement of science, wisdom, human reasoning, and logic follows. Why are dictators so afraid of the Word of God? Why are they so afraid of Christianity? Because they know that everywhere Christianity goes, it brings freedom. It brings real thinking. People dont just dumbly sit and go, A-ha, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha. They actually learn to think for themselves. One of favorite moments as a dad-one of my proudest moments as a parent-my oldest daughter was invited to a home of some Jehovahs Witnesses to discuss religion, and it was really interesting. Going back to the second one, one of the questions they got in to a discussion about was Heaven and hell, and the Jehovahs Witnesses believe there are three levels and 144,000 go to the highest level of Heaven. Then theres the middle ground that the rest of the Jehovahs Witnesses go to. Then theres the new earth, which all the good people go to. If youre really horrible, you just get annihilated. I was so proud of my daughter. She said, You know? If youre right and Im wrong, big deal. The worst that could happen to me… Remember for some of you in management, if youre planning, what do you plan for? You always plan for worst case scenarios; so worst case scenario, what happens? I get annihilated. Whoop-de-do. But if Im a pretty good person, then where do I spend eternity? On new earth, not so bad. Then she said, But if Im right, and youre wrong, youre in trouble. Then they said, Well, you believe what you believe because your parents told you that. The young lady who was my daughters age said, You know, the only reason I believe what I believe is because my parents told me that, and I was so proud of my daughter. She said, No, no, no, no, no, no. I dont buy it just cause my dad says it. In fact, she said, My dad tells me all the time, Dont you dare believe it just because I tell you that. She said, My dad tells me all the time, Look it up. Check it out. Search history; search science; search the facts; search ethics; search logically; search the Word of God. You find out if its true. I was so proud of her! Friends, thats what Im telling you. Im telling you follow in the footsteps of CS Lewis. Follow in the footsteps of Lou Wallace. Follow in the footsteps of Lee Strobel. Check it out for yourself. Dont you buy it just because Jerry Dean says it or Pastor Jeff says it-even though I love Pastor Jeff, sorry. Thats not blasphemy. Paul said, If I or you or any other angel preached you anything other than the Word of God, let them be accursed. It used to just trip my trigger in a church I was at before. I was there for a couple years, and Id walk by groups of people and hear people say, Well, Jerry said this, and Jerry said that. Thats why I have no hair anymore. Id pull it out. Id go, No, you dont get it! Its not Jerry said this or Jerry said that. The only reason to buy it is if God says it. If God doesnt say it, you can check everything else Jerry Dean says. Friends, I conclude with this: truly wise people search. Truly wise people think. Gods not afraid of the big questions. Revelation 1:6 (page 1215) says that God has called us to be kings and priests. I love the Passage in Proverbs [25:2, page 650] that says, Its the glory of God to conceal things. Its the glory of kings to search them out. As a king and a priest in Gods Kingdom, what does God call you to do? Search for Truth. Hit the books! Pray like Solomon, God, give me a large and understanding heart. Open my mind. Teach me Your ways. Teach me wisdom. Give me knowledge. Give me understanding. Im not content with where I am. I want answers! Teach me. Show me. And you can bank on it that if you do that, He will. Ill close with one last Passage from the Word of God, Deuteronomy 17:18-19 (page 189). When a new king came to the thrown in Israel, do you know what his first official act of state was? God said, Hes supposed to write his own personal copy of the Word of God. Secondly, he was supposed to read in it every day all the days of his life. Friends, you are most like the king and queen that God chose you to be when you search and devour. Solomon said, If you search for wisdom and seek for her as for hidden treasure, then you will get real understanding. You will get real knowledge. You will gain real wisdom. Itll impact you both in this life and in the life to come. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the Truth. We thank You for each one of these who are Your people. I pray that You would teach us, help us to grow and learn and challenge us to seek You, to pursue You, to not be afraid of the big questions. We thank You for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ and the way Youve changed our lives. I ask Your blessing on each one here, and if theres someone who doesnt know You, that maybe today they will confess that You are in fact Lord and trust that Jesus rose from the dead, even today, and find new life and a new hope. I thank You that we can pray in Jesus name, Amen.

(A media clip is played. You can listen here: http://faithcommunitychurch.net/sermon_player) We look to the Commandment, Thou Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me. Do not bow down to any idols. We said that the Commandments that we have, the foundation is love. There are a lot of prohibitions, a lot of dont do this. Dont do that, but the foundation of it is love. Jesus said in Matthew 22, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. On these two Commandments, hang all the Laws and the Prophets. If we love God, were not going to follow other gods. If we love our neighbor, were not going to steal or kill. This week, were talking about contentment, the last Commandment in Verse 17. God says, You shall not covet your neighbors house. You should not covet your neighbors wife or his man servant or maid servant, his ox or donkey… Today we might say his car or his boat. …or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. While God is saying dont covet, He is also saying to us, Be content. Be content with what you have. Be content with the blessings that you have in your life. Thats going to be our focal point. One of the problems-one of the ways to resolve a problem-is to recognize when we have a problem, right? Its to be open and honest about our feelings and our thoughts. Sometimes we have conversations and sometimes things come out of your mouths that sound good, but they arent necessarily true. It might be the answer that is politically correct or the answer you think somebody wants to hear, but if we were to kind of peel off the veneer and look inside your soul, wed find a different answer. [This is] like this gentleman right here that we asked if he was content or not. Lets listen to his response. (You can read it here or find the whole clip here: http://www.sermonspice.com/product/16465/am-i-content-3f) Am I content? Well, sure. Sure, Im content. If by content you mean that I believe Im not going to be getting a raise for a long time-therefore cant buy that new flat panel television, then, yes. Yes, I am content. See the key is look at everything like its a blessing, the house, the car, the family, your health-blessings. Bills, broken toilet seat, not having a convertible-blessings. They say the grass is greener on the other side, and that is true, but only because my neighbor just had a sprinkler system put in, and he got a new lawn mower. Its like one of those 500 horsepower John Does. It has the four-titanium blades. You could probably shave with it. The 12-inch rims, lift kit on it-the whole nine yards. I think he has a grill in the back too. It cooks steaks while mowing the lawn, but thats his world. Thats not my world. Im content with what I have. Im content with my push mower. It was my grandfathers, so it has sentimental value to me when it works; but see my neighbor wouldnt know anything about sentimental value because all he got from his grandfather was money. Well, you cant buy sentimental value with money. You could buy my mower, but you cant buy whats in here-unless he made me a good offer. See, whats in here is what matters-whats in here. Thats where contentment lives-in here. You have to know who you are in here, and in here, I am not a pool owner. My neighbor is, but thats his in here, not mine. I dont need a pool. Im content with what I have, and what I have is a garden hose-turn it on high, use my thumb. I get some good pressure going-same thing. Pools have drawbacks. You get out of a pool, and youre wet. You have to dry off. Im not saying being content is easy. If you watch TV long enough, you get bombarded with advertisement about everything you need. Do I need all those things I see on TV? Probably. Am I going to get a blender that also makes salsa? Not unless my wife changes her mind. So then how am I content? Well, Im not. I will be…come Christmas when I buy her one for a gift. Sometimes contentment is a journey and not a destination, like Hawaii. Ive never been to Hawaii. Ill never be to Hawaii, but I dont need to because Im happy where I am. So three weeks out of the year when my neighbor goes to Hawaii, I sneak over to his pool. Thats my Hawaii. I buy some Tiki torches, have a pig roast-thats my Hawaii, same thing. So, yes I am content. You see contentment is about looking around you, seeing whats around you, what you have and trying not to notice that your neighbor has a Ferrari. A Ferrari is a car, a mode of transportation. Im content with what I have. Would I like a Ferrari? Sure. Would a Ferrari make me happy? Yes. Am I going to buy a Ferrari? Well, I could. I could mortgage my house, sure. Am I going to do that? No. The reason-it all comes down to the C word, cost. I dont know what my house is worth. Im having it appraised. Life is too short not to be content to just enjoy what you have, so its about being thankful. Thank you, God. Thank you, God, that I have so little because if I had a lot I would have to insure it and claim it on my taxes. Besides the Bible says that the rich are more likely to have their eyes struck out by a camel, but I dont hate my neighbor. I love him. I love him; I do. I really do. I love my enemies. To answer your question, yes. Yes, I am content-very content. Very, very content. If I were any more content, I would be dead. Thats how content I am. I love the smell of fresh cut grass and A-1 Sauce. No, no, Im fine. Thank you. I already ate. Have you ever found yourself saying the right answer, but inside youre thinking… I might catch you. Im going to test you at some point in the service this morning. Im going to see if you give me the churchy answer or if you give me the honest one, so be on guard for that, all right? Youre going to be tested today. Lets open our Bibles to Philippians 4 (page 1164 of pew Bibles) and see what Gods Word says about contentment. Verse 10, Paul says, I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed you have been concerned but had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. The first thing I want you to note there is that Paul says, I have learned contentment. Contentment is not something you and I are born with, is it? Be a parent for one day, and youll discover thats true. We are not born content. We dont just say, Hey, take your time getting me that bottle. Take your time changing the diaper here. Im fine. Mom, I know youre busy. Whenever you get around to it, Ill be here. No, no, no. The baby kicks and screams because it is the center of its own world. The whole world revolves around its needs, right? So contentment is something we learn. Everything we learn in life we learn from one of two ways. We either learn it through our personal experience, or we learn it through the testimony experience of teaching of other people. One is the easy way, and one is the hard way. If I watch you walk at night and fall into a hole and I avoid that hole, thats the easy way. If I fall in the hole myself, thats the hard way; so sometimes its called the School of Hard Knocks. We have to learn things through our own life experiences. How do you think Paul learned contentment? Do you think he learned it from observation, or do you think he learned it from experience? I think he learned it from experience. You and I cannot say to Paul, Well, Paul, its easy for you to say be content. You dont know what Im going through. You dont know what Ive been through. You dont know the circumstances that Im dealing with. I would say to you, Then you have no idea what Paul was dealing with. Paul was not writing on a hammock, on a tropical island with a lemonade in one hand and a book in the other. Paul wrote these words from prison. Paul was awaiting a sentence which would possibly involve his execution. Paul was in darkness. Paul was without air conditioning and heat. Paul was in chains. Paul was in prison. His freedom was taken away, his ministry taken away, and possibly his life was soon to be taken away. From that context, in that circumstance, Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always, in Chapter 3. Be content, in Chapter 4. This certainly wasnt based on circumstances, was it? No, God had seen him through difficulties-riots, beatings, famine, imprisonment; all of these things God had seen Paul through, so Paul had not a self-sufficiency but a Christ sufficiency. He said, Ive learned that in every situation, I can trust Christ. I know He is sufficient for me. He did something else that was pretty significant. The church in Philippi is a relationship hed had now over a decade. It was his second missionary journey. A man appeared to Paul in a vision and said, Come over here. It is called the Macedonian Call. They got in a boat, and they sailed and landed in Philippi. They took the Gospel to a new continent. There he began to spread the truth of Jesus Christ. Now some 12 years later, they send him-not only a gift, but they send him a person. The persons name is Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus job is to take care of Paul, watch over Paul and make sure that Pauls needs are met. He is also putting his life on the line because when you are associated under that close proximity to someone who is possibly facing execution, there is a chance you could be implicated and charged with him as well. He realizes this, but he still serves. He still goes. While he is there, he becomes ill. In this ironic twist of fate, the man who was sent to minister to Paul now becomes the recipient of Pauls care; and Paul has to take care of Epaphroditus. The people back home are worried about him. His family is worried about him, whether hell live or die; and he pulls through. Paul writes and he says, God saved you and me heartache upon heartache. I want you to know that he risked his life for the Gospel. Now I am returning him to you. I am sending him back to you. He is a dear brother. Hes done a wonderful work. Hes given it all, but now Im sending him back, but I want you to know Im going to be okay. You love him. Youre concerned about him. I want him to go back home. I want you to know Im in this prison, and its hard, but I also have a living faith-a real faith in Christ. Im going to be okay. Those are the circumstances in which Paul writes those words. Paul had learned the secret of being content. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Ive been in want, and Ive been in plenty; and Im content. Let me ask you a hypothetical question this morning. If you had much greater wisdom than you had right now; you had more money than you could count or spend in a lifetime-I mean you were rich beyond your wildest dreams; and you were like a king or a queen and had all the power that was invested in the country in which you lived; you were protected by the military; your word was law-you werent an elected official; you were in power, how many of you think under those conditions-great wisdom, great wealthy, great power-that you could be a happy person? Let me see your hands. I am testing you right now, and a lot of you just failed big time. Im looking at the guy on the tractor back here. Thank you for the honest answer. I think if I had all the money, all the smarts, and all the power, I could have a reasonable shot at being happy. I bet there are some of you out there who didnt raise your hand and are going, Well, its because Im in church. Im going to buy the lottery and pretty soon, thatll be it. Honestly, I wont ask you again, but I bet you there are a lot of people who raised their hands and said, Yeah, if that really can be the case, I think Id have a good shot at happiness. Well, let me tell you the story about a man who did have all of that. His name was King Solomon. He was the wisest man that ever lived. He was the king, so he had all the power, all the authority; and he was wealthy beyond your wildest imaginations. Whatever he wanted, he could have. How did things go for him? Turn the Bible to Ecclesiastes 2. Listen to his conclusion. Now everything that he writes here is looking back. Everything that Solomon writes here is from him looking back and drawing conclusions. You and I will never live in the circumstances that Solomon lived in. Weve always wondered what it would be like, so heres somebody who experienced it; and heres what they had to say. Verse 10 (page 659), he says, I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart of no pleasure. Anything on this banner over here that you want? Solomon could have it, and he says, I took it all. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve… I look back on everything, …everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. It did not satisfy. You see friends, this is a lie. This is a lot of things, but one of the things it is-is a lie. The lie the world tell us is if we just had more, if we just had bigger, if we just had better, wed be happy. Wed be fulfilled. Heres the ironic thing. Fulfillment never comes and satisfaction never comes from the acquisition of things or stuff. It comes from the relinquishing of, the releasing of, the letting go of… Socrates was once asked, Who was the richest man in the world? Socrates said, The man who was the richest in the world is not the one who has the most. Its the one who needs the least. Thats a wise man. Its easy to buy into this lie. Sometimes in the ministry, pastors buy into this lie. I mean even if you go to a pastors conference or if you have lunch with other ministers, its kind of the same. They ask the questions, Well, how many people go to your church? How many are on your staff? How big is your budget? I dont even like having those kinds of conversations because they seem so superfluous to me. Thats what goes on. Heres how it works: you graduate and you get a job either at a really tiny church or as an entry-level position as an associate pastor in some capacity. Then you work your way up. Maybe you become an associate pastor in a bigger church. Maybe you become a senior pastor of a church. Then you put in some time there, and then you go on to a bigger church in a bigger city, bigger building, bigger budget, bigger staff and you keep going and going; so thats success. You know success is when you have this monster-sized building with thousands of people, this budget of millions of dollars and this huge staff; so the grass is greener, right? Bigger this-bigger is better, so even pastors buy into that lie. Ive had that tested, and Ill tell you a couple things right now. I had a church [contact me] that was a large church-big building and lots of people. Several people came to me and said, The pastoral committee is talking about you. Your name is being thrown around. They are interested in you becoming the senior pastor here. Well thats something to think about. Then I started thinking about you guys. I said, You know, I love our church. I love our community. I like it here. I said, Im not interested. A few weeks ago, I got another call. There is a church in Colorado Springs-a booming community whereas recession, economic downturn [is here], but Colorado Springs is going crazy. There is new construction and all kinds of ministry there. There is a large population there. They said, Would you come and duplicate the infrastructure Faith Community has here and lead our church? You have great potential in Colorado Springs. I started thinking about that. I said, But, you know, I like it here in Janesville. I like our staff. I like the people I work with. Just because you have a bigger salary or a bigger church where there are more people, it doesnt mean Im going to be happier. I might get there and say, You know what? I miss Janes-burg. I miss everybody. I miss the donuts that come into the church on Sunday mornings. I would miss all of you. Its true. Sometimes I learn the hard way just like you do. We all do, but one important lesson we can learn in life is bigger is not always better. More is not always going to satisfy. Its a trap. Paul goes on to say its a lie, and its a trap. Look what he says in 1 Timothy 6. He says, …but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. Now before we go on in that text, what do you think he means by that? Paul says, …godliness with contentment is great gain. What kind of gain is he talking about because hes not talking about material gain? His topic is contentment remember. He says, You arent going to take anything with you. Hes probably the first one that says it. Whoever says that is kind of a variation or take on what Gods Word says here. So hes not talking about stuff. So whats he talking about? You might be getting your lawn ready because spring is here, so maybe youre out pulling weeks, spraying weeds, cutting grass, planning, raking. That's hard work, right? When you finish, you need to do what? Rest. Finals are coming up. If youre in school, high school, college, graduate school, finals are coming up, and you study hard. Youre writing papers; youre studying for a test, and youre cramming. You take the test and the semester is done. What do you need to do with your mind? Rest. Youve been dealing with an emotionally difficult situation. Maybe youre trying to reconcile with somebody. Youre trying to serve as a reconciler for somebody else. Its this emotional draining exercise, and youre working hard. Youre just emotionally tired. When thats done, what do you need to do? Rest. You know what contentment is? Its rest for your soul. Thats where the gain comes in because the soul is always longing. It wants fulfillment and satisfaction. It buys the lie that its something tangible that I can buy or have. Its in this person, its in this position, or its in this possession. Its in power. Whatever you deem happiness is, the soul is pursuing. When we come to contentment, the soul says, God is enough. Im going to rest. Im going to release. Im going to let go. Contentment allows your soul to rest. Thats why Jesus said in Matthew 11, Come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden for My yoke is easy and My burden is light, and you will find, what? Rest for your souls. It happens in contentment. When we dont practice contentment, then what is the object? Our soul is in turmoil. Our soul is always striving, always reaching. Its believing this lie, and Paul talks about that. He says in the next verse, People who want to get rich fall into temptation. By the way, thats both rich and poor. The rich want to get richer, and the poor want to get rich. Thats everybody. (1 Timothy 6:9) People who want to get rich fall into temptation into which many foolish and harmful desires plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It didnt say money is. He said the love of money or pursing money above all things-even if you have to hurt someone to get it or give up something precious to get it. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. This thing thats supposed to be so good and so fulfilling ends up being something that snares their soul, something that consumes them and traps them. Its like catching a monkey. Do you know how you catch a monkey? What you do is you take a pot-apparently this is true. You take a big old pot, a big heavy pot that there is no way a monkey could lift it or move it. You make the opening just big enough for the monkey to get his hand through. Then you put at the bottom of the pot a banana or an orange, something that a monkey is going to want to have. You put that out at night where the monkey likes to go, and then you wait. The monkey smells the banana, looks down in the pot, smells inside the pot and says, Oh, theres a banana in the pot. The monkey goes, Oh, this is my lucky day. The monkey reaches in, grabs the banana and starts to pull it out but his hand gets stuck because now its making a fist; and its no longer able to pull the hand through. Itll work on that thing all night long and try to get its hand out. Even when the trappers come with their nets, the monkey will not let go of the banana. Hell work harder. Hell start screeching, but he wont let go. All the monkey has to do is go, You know, maybe this wasnt a good idea. Maybe I should let go of the banana and live to fight another day. Maybe there are other bananas in other trees. I didnt get this one. I tried my best. These guys are coming. Im scared. Im going to get out of here, but they dont do that. They hold on to the banana, panicking and screeching, until the net goes over their head and theyre caught. They dont want to let go of that banana. Now wed never be as dumb as monkeys, right? People would never be that dumb. We would never hold onto something we shouldnt have even if its going to lead to our own ruin and destruction, right. No…not us. The monkey trap. Paul says its a monkey trap. Freedom comes in the ability to release and to let go. He says in the next verse, But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love… He says, God expects more from you. He expects better things from you-that youll not succumb to the lie of the world, that youll have a realization of where fulfillment really comes from. Its not in what you can acquire or hold on to. Paul says, I learn contentment when I let go. I was willing to let Epaphroditus go home because I trust in Christ. What about those of us who have more than enough? Basically, by the worlds standards, isnt that pretty much everybody in this room? We have more than enough? What does he say? Verse 17, Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain… Boy, have we ever learned that to be true in our economy-the stock market, the Ponsy schemes and all thats going on. No matter how much health or how much money you have, if you have a certain sickness-there are some sicknesses it cant cure. It cant buy love; it cant buy character. It cant buy contentment, yet some pursue it with everything they have. He said instead, …put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Acknowledge God as a source. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. He says if you want to truly be rich, it does not come through selfish means. Being truly rich means to be rich in the soul-it means from being a generous and giving person, a willingness to share. A friend of mine, Harry, used to say, The smallest person in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. Thats why were trying as a church to become a more giving church, a more generous church, and its working. Thats why I had Laura make all these little pieces of paper because I want you to all take them home with you-these little shopping lists. This isnt just for this week. This isnt for this month; this is for this year, its for next year and its for the year after that. Its in my checkbook, your wallet or your purse. You take it with you when you go shopping. You buy three things. You dont have to buy the whole list. Now you can if you want to, but buy three things. Can you imagine if 700 plus people every week went in and went shopping and bought three things? There would be over 2,000 items turned in each week. We wouldnt be able to keep up. Give us that problem. Give us the problem where Laura has to scratch her head and say, Hows our team going to get rid of all this stuff? We have so much stuff, how are we going to get rid of this? Give us that problem. Well work on that one. We can be a blessing to our community. Get your kids involved. Tell them about it. They can take this to the grocery store. Maybe they can give some of their allowance and buy a can of corn. When they put that can of corn out there and they say, I bought this, and there is going to be a family thats going to have a meal with this can of corn that I provided. See if that doesnt bring the contentment and fulfillment that is truly significant. I get so blessed when I hear stories like the Worthing family. Sara Worthing, a young mother in our church who just lost the use of her legs due to illness and is paralyzed, I hear stories on how youre coming around her, giving gifts to her and helping her and serving her. I just see our church becoming giving. The people that are selling the walking tacos-why are we doing that? Why are we working so hard so that we can send 30 people to the Dominican Republic to take a week and just serve people, just give of our resources, our talents and our treasures and be a blessing to the people of the Dominican? So were blessing our community, and were blessing across the Ocean. Thats what the Gospel says. We are going to be a much happier church because we are outreaching and giving more than if we were just consumed with ourselves and everything that just goes on within Faith Community. That's all we need to do-focus on right here. Instead were reaching out with the Gospel, with love and through tangible ways to serve and help people. There is a man I respect by the name of Dr. Erwin Lutzer. He had this to say-a quote I want to read to you this morning, Its better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero; better to be content with poverty than to die a slave to wealth; better to have taken some risks and lost than to have done nothing and succeeded at it; better to have lost some battles than to have retreated from the war; better to have failed when serving God than to have succeeded when serving the devil. What a tragedy to climb the ladder of success only to discover that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. Before we receive communion this morning, lets take some time to pray. Father, Your Word has given us some things to think about today through the teaching and example of the Apostle Paul who in the most adverse of circumstances had learned contentment. He had learned contentment because of the difficulties hed been through and found You to be faithful. We learned about Solomon-who had tried everything he could to find fulfillment outside of You and in the end came to the conclusion when all is said and done, remember your Creator and the days of your youth; he concluded in his book, for everything else under the sun is meaningless. As we prepare our hearts to receive of this cup and the bread, were reminded of the One who said, Come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden. You will find rest for your souls. The world stirs us up with a promise, but it does not deliver. Only You truly satisfy, so with thankful and humble hearts, we come before you now to receive this communion supper. In Jesus name, Amen.

Its hard to believe, but we are on Week 11 of this series on apologetics. Apologetics means defending your faith. We have spent two weeks on the Nature of Truth; three weeks on the Existence of God; two weeks on the Problem of Evil; one week on Science; one week on the Credibility of the New Testament; a week on the Deity of Christ; and this week on the Resurrection. If you missed any of those weeks, remember we have a tape ministry that is available. All you do is you go out to the patio. On the counter there is a form. You just fill it out and leave it on the table. There is a little box for a freewill donation if you want to make one of those. Chip Jacobs will make sure its there for you the next week-a tape or a CD. Of course, theyre always available online. Then you should have received a Faith News. Did you receive that, a little slip of paper? If you are not on faith news or youve changed your email, this is an update we send out a couple times a month to let you know whats going on at Faith. Maybe its to move your clocks ahead, or maybe its some event thats transpiring like the Good Friday service this past Friday. Thats our way of communicating-one of the ways we do, so just fill this out and drop it in the offering box on the way out this morning. Would you turn with me please to the Gospel of Luke 23 (page 1046 of pew Bibles)? Since were going to be eating today quite a bit, lets work some of that off; lets stand up. You are going to play the part of the angels this morning since you all look like a bunch of angels to me. Im buttering you up, so youll like the sermon, see? Were going to read together 24:1-12, and you will read the part of the angels. We are talking about the Resurrection since it is Easter. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee. The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again Then they remembered His words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the Apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. Please be seated. We talked in our series several times about a naturalist point of view. In the naturalists point of view, the universe is a closed system. There is nothing that comes in and nothing that goes out. Everything that we see is all there is. There is no spiritual; there is only the physical. Life as we know it came as a result of random chance and evolution, survival of the fittest; so you and I, when we die, thats the end of our existence. We return to the dust from which we came, and everyone that has gone before us, our loved ones, they exist only in our memories. Those who will go after us when they pass away, that is the end of them as well. Thats a naturalists point of view. Thats difficult, so you have to find some sort of meaning in your existence because this is all that there is. Ultimately, if we are the product of random chance, there is no real meaning to our lives. We are accidents. We know that there has to be something more than just this natural stuff that we look at. We know there is something more to us than the face that we look at in the mirror. The Bible teaches that there is a spiritual reality to this life as well, so we have to make a decision about Christianity. Is Christianity just wishful thinking? Is it just a superstitious relic of the past that we try to hold on to or is there sufficient evidence to believe that Christ is who He said He was and that He did in fact rise from the dead? One thing we must keep in mind as we ponder this question is these events at this point in time in history; Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth; He walked the streets of Palestine; that we read about kings and governors; we read about places that we can go to and visit today. The Bible tells in detail, so these things are not described in mythical manner. These are events that happened in history. Twenty-five thousand surviving manuscripts of the New Testament testify to the accuracy of this account. Now here is some common ground. Those who lived at the time Christ was crucified all had agreement on several major things, truths. Number one, that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under Pontius Pilate by Rome. Thats historical fact thats agreed upon, number one. Number two, He was buried in a tomb after He died. Number three, somehow the tomb became empty. The enemies of Christ-the Jewish leadership, the Romans, the Christians-all agree on those three facts. Thats very important for us to understand. There was no debate that Christ had died on the cross, that He was buried and that the tomb was empty. The debate is how did the tomb come to be empty? Thats the debate. That's what all the bru-haha is about. Im going to read to you quickly an account from Josephus. Im going to read this entire book this morning-no (congregation laughing). Im just going to read a quote. Josephus is very important because much of the history that we have about what happened in Palestine and about what happened in the history of the Jewish nation comes from Josephus. He was an historian extraordinaire. He was born in 37 A.D., just four years after Christ was crucified. He began life as a Jew, and then he fought the Romans in 66. He was captured, survived the war and eventually became a Roman citizen. He was commissioned by the Vespasian to write histories; so for the next two, almost three, decades, he recorded the histories of the Jews. There is an excerpt I want you to read. I think its important to understand this: Josephus is not a Christian. In fact, when he lived in Jerusalem, he was a Pharisee. Hes recording about Christ, but he himself is not a Christian. Heres what he says in Chapter 3:3, Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man; for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He dew over to Him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of principal men amongst us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine Prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from Him, are not extinct at this day. So he calls us a tribe. Josephus there verifies that He died under Pilate on the cross, was buried, and that the account was that He was alive again-that was the rumor that was circulating; so what are the theories? Lets take a look quickly at some of the theories that are out there. The first one is really far-fetched. Since everyone in Biblical times was in agreement that Christ died on the cross, this theory didnt come into play until centuries later. Its whats called the swoon theory, and that is that Jesus didnt really die on the cross. Somehow He survived the cross and later in the coolness of the tomb revived. So heres what were supposed to believe in the swoon theory. First of all, the Romans had every interest in killing Jesus because that was their job. Just as if somebody is commissioned to carry out capital punishment, you better believe that theyre going to make sure whether its through the gas chamber, the electric chair or a chemical injection, their job is to make sure that prisoner is dead. The Romans job was to make sure that their prisoner was dead. Thats why they thrust the spear into His side, and out flew the blood and the plasma, indicating that He had already died. I guarantee you the enemies of Christ were going to make sure Jesus was dead. They wanted to rid their region of this scourge, this man who had taken so many of their flock; this man who had contradicted their teachings. He had been under their skin; He had been a thorn in their sides, and they were so tired of Him, so sick of Him. He had embarrassed them; He had outthought them. He had acted in a blasphemous way as a heretic claiming to be the Son of God. They wanted Him dead, and I guarantee you they were going to make sure that He didnt come down from that cross alive. Lets say for the sake of the swoon theorists that their theory is correct-that Christ survived. Heres what I am led to believe then: Christ is going to take 39 lashes with a cat of nine tails; and glass, bone, metal are going to come against His back, rip His flesh. Many people did not survive that part of the torture, but then lets say He does, and He goes to the cross. Hes going to be crucified on the cross. Hes going to hang on the cross for hours. Most people would die quickly from affixation because they couldnt breathe. Somehow, He survives that. He is then stuck in the side with a spear, and somehow He survives that too. He is then wrapped up like a mummy by Joseph and Nicodemus, wrapped up with linen; and then this sticky, gooey substance with perfumes and spices is wrapped around that so He is like sealed in this cocoon. He survives that. He is then put in a tomb and sealed without air for three days, without food, without water, and without medical attention. He revives Himself, undoes the bandages, moves a one-ton stone and presents Himself alive to His Disciples as the conqueror of death. To me, that takes more faith to believe than Him being raised from the dead and Hes Lord. There is another theory. The theory is that the women went to the wrong tomb. You know men thought of that one; lets blame it on the ladies to go to the wrong tomb. First of all, thats hard to do because its the only tomb with guards around it. Secondly, in Luke 23:55 (page 1047), it says, The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how His body was laid in it. So they followed them. They saw where the tomb was. They went home and rested on the Sabbath and came back the next morning. There was no mistaking where the tomb was. Besides that, the tomb belongs to Joseph of Arimathea. He is rich, and he is a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the elite. That was the top of the food chain. These guys-there were 71 of them. They were like our Congress and our Supreme Court combined into one. Do you think it would make the news today if one of the Supreme Court justices gave their cemetery plot to a convicted criminal who was executed by the state? Would that make the news? If they said, You know, I really love this criminal. I think this criminal has been unjustly sentenced to execution, and to show my love, Im going to give them my family burial plot. Would that make CNN? Yeah. This was no secret tomb. This was a prominent tomb in a garden, so everyone knew where the tomb of Jesus was. It was no secret place. That theory does not hold a lot of water. The third theory is that the Jews took the body of Jesus-the enemies of Christ took the body of Jesus. Well, listen friends, thats the last thing they wanted to do. They wanted to end this rumor once and for all. In the Book of Matthew 27:62 (page 989 of pew Bibles), it says, The next day after Christ had died… The Jews are going to just make sure Hes dead, number one; but number two, were going to make sure that we never have to hear anything more about this Jesus and that this movement comes to an end. …the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. Sir, they said, we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, After three days I will rise again. So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His Disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first. The first deception is that He was the Son of God. The second deception, that He is risen from the dead, is much worse. Then Pilate agrees. Take a guard, Pilate answered. Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how. Thats their job. Theyre guards; theyre professionals. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. So the Roman guards post, and the seal of Rome is put over the tomb. That is something you dont want to break. That is something you dont want to tamper with because you do so at the risk of your very life. The Jews made every effort they could to prevent this rumor from happening. Its the last thing that they wanted. Theres a fourth theory, and this is probably the most prominent: that is the Disciples stole the body. The followers of Christ came into the tomb and stole the body of Jesus. Matthew 28:11, after Christ has risen from the dead, the soldiers now fearing for their very lives leave their post and go and report what had happened. Verse 11, While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. These guys are panicking. Theyre like white as ghosts. Theyre like, There was an angel, a stone and an earthquake, and they rolled back the stone. Theyre just trying to cover their tracks as best as they can. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, You are to say, His Disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep. If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. Well, lets talk about that. Lets begin to pick apart that argument because this one has the most teeth, and its the most believed or the most prevalent argument-the alternate alternative to the fact that He rose from the dead. So, its a conspiracy. These guys fabricated this story about Christ being risen from the dead when they knew in fact He was not because they are the ones who started it. They perpetrated this lie that they stole the body. Number one-lets begin to look at some of these things. What happens to a group, especially a group thats dependent upon a very charismatic individual-that individual when he dies, what usually happens to that group? It disbands, doesnt it? It goes away. Well, were going to find that this particular following is going to increase in its influence; increase in its power; increase in its numbers after its very charismatic leader is executed. Its an unheard of thing to happen. The second reason: Are we to believe that these men were going to be transformed by a lie? Are these men who have been cowards, who have been hiding in secret, are going to be so transformed by this hoax, theyre going to go out in the streets and preach the Gospel to thousands of people while risking their very lives. The Sanhedrin-the most powerful group of men-was going to call them and say, Were going to imprison you. Were going to beat you. Were going to torture you. Were going to even kill you if you continue to talk about the Resurrection. Knowing its a lie, they say, Beat us! Imprison us! Kill us if you have to! We cannot stop talking about what we have seen and heard. Do you know how hard it is to keep a conspiracy or a cover-up? You dont have to go back very far in history. Think of the Watergate cover-up. It didnt last very long. Those men started to crack under pressure, and everyone gives the other one up as soon as they start talking about jail. Yeah, Ill talk. Ill talk. These men went to their deaths refusing to change their story. You know people will die for something they think is true thats not. Terrorists blow themselves up because they think its an instant ticket to paradise. How many people will die for something they know is a lie? These men would have known the truth. Yet, one after another… Peter will be crucified upside down. Paul will lay his head on a chopping block. None of them will change their story, and their stories are all the same. He was crucified. Hes alive, and weve seen Him. Kill us if you have to. We must obey God more than men. Lies are things that make us ashamed. Lies make us hang our heads. Lies arent things that make us bolder, stronger and more courageous; but they will be punished and die for it. Lets go ahead and look to the next point I want to make. These are cowards for a time being until the Holy Spirit comes on them. Theyre going to break a Roman seal. It would take some nerve for you if while youre in Washington D.C., you see something that says Top Secret, Property of the United States Government, and you go ahead and violate that. For these men to risk their lives for this lie is quite extraordinary. What is the reason to do that? Think about this. When Jesus was alive and He was doing these great miracles and teaching, it was still difficult for people to believe He was the Messiah. Why? Because He was not acting as a Messiah should act. He was not defeating the Roman Government. He was not gathering up a following or an army to rebel. He was not doing that at all. Hes reaching out to people like lepers and Samaritans. He was healing the sick; He was preaching love, forgiveness and grace. Thats not how a Messiah is supposed to be. It was really a tough sell when Jesus Himself was proclaiming who He was and doing wonderful miracles. Now, youre going to try to market a dead Messiah to the people? Now youre going to try to tell them this Man who was a criminal, was crucified on the cross and died this humiliating death is really, truly the Son of God? You need to come up with a different marketing strategy because that one is not going to work! It was one thing when Jesus was alive to believe He was the Messiah, and they struggled with that. Now that Hes dead and considering the manner in which He died, youre going to now convince these people that He is the divine Son of God? That's not going to work unless that plan really is from God, unless it is the truth. Lets play along with their story here. Lets imagine for a moment that theyre going to overpower the guards. Theyre going to steal it [with them there] because thats the alternative. Either the guards are sleeping or the guards are awake. Lets say the guards are awake. Can you imagine this group of unarmed men overpowering Roman guards with their spears, their swords and their knives? These are non-violent Disciples of Christ, and were expected to believe theyre going to overpower Roman soldiers? Highly unlikely. What about the fact that theyre sleeping? Would you fall asleep if your life depended on it? If this was your job and if you fell asleep, it meant you died, would you fall asleep? I dont think you would. Now you might sleep, but youd trade off, right? Youd take a session and youd sleep, then Ill sleep and so forth; but if your life depends on it, youre not going to fall asleep. In the Book of Acts 12, Herod Agrippa has Peter in prison. He has already killed James, the brother of John; and the Jews liked it. He wants to be popular, and he likes the response; so he decides hes going to kill Peter too. He imprisons Peter, and Peter is in jail and the church is praying. An angel comes and releases Peter from his bonds, and Peter walks out free. When the soldiers wake up in the morning, they find that Peter is no longer in the prison. They know their lives are at stake. We find the story in Acts 12:18 (page 1091), In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. That was the punishment. Earlier in the Book of Acts in that chapter, we know that there are 16 of those guards from the Greek-16 men are killed at Herods hands. Herod can do anything he wants. He is the close friend of Emperor Caligula-childhood friends. So he has carblanche-do whatever you want. Hes like a little mini-dictator there. King Herod has those men killed. Why? Because they usurped their responsibility, and they let the prisoner go free. These men are not going to fall asleep. Lets say they did. Lets play along. You know, how hard would it be to move a one-ton plus stone in the middle of the night and not wake up the guards? Think about the ridiculousness of their story. My wife goes to bed early. Shes an early riser; Im a night owl, so invariably when I go to bed, shes sleeping. Shes also a light sleeper, so I try not to wake her up; but we have a board that when I step on it, it squeaks all the time. Ill come in the room and be really quiet and creak. Then shell start to stir. Ill go to the restroom real quick, and Ill try to shut the door. Shell wake up. Im trying to be as quiet as I possibly can. Its just me walking in the bedroom to go to bed, not saying a word and trying to tiptoe. Am I really supposed to believe that the Apostles are going to come, find the guards sleeping and theyre going to ever so quietly move a one-ton stone? You try that. Get a one-ton stone and try to quietly move it. Its so easy. Those one-ton stones just roll so smoothly and quietly. Come on! Lets be real! You know what the best explanation is? Its not that the ladies went to the wrong tomb. Its not that Jesus didnt really die from the sufferings and torture. Its not that the Jews took Him. Its not that the Disciples took Him. The explanation that makes by far the most sense-the only one thats rational-is that He rose from the dead, that He was who He said He was. With that promise, we have the hope of the Resurrection because if Christ did in fact rise from the dead, then the world and human beings are more than just physical; we are also spiritual. There is a part of us that will survive death. Paul talks about this in the Book of 1 Corinthians. He talks about the fact that the Resurrection of Jesus was not just the resuscitation of a corpse. Jesus resurrected body was different. He was still Jesus; He was still recognizable as Jesus, but He had changed. His body was now a body that could inhabit eternity. Paul writes and says that you and I one day will have a body like Jesus. Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1139), Paul says, But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then now even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. Thats it; its done. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. A new and improved you. My computer went on the fritz, and I depend a lot on my computer. It started to make a funny movement. It started to fade in and out; it took longer to boot up every time, and it would go off quickly. Over the period of days, it would boot up and go off real fast, and then it wouldnt even boot up at all. I said, My computer is sick. Then I finally said, My computer is dead. I took it to Apple to see the computer doctor. He took it in the back room. He came out after a few minutes, and he said, Your computer is dead. You need a new logic board. He said, Thats pretty expensive. Youre better off just getting a brand new laptop. My concern was this: I said, Listen, I understand that, but I just feel so bad. I started venting. I started pouring out my heart to this guy. I was like, I had my files on there. I had all the sites that I liked bookmarked. I had sermons on there. I had papers that Ive written on there. I had everything the way I wanted it, emails and everything. Im just sick about it. He said, Oh, we got all of those. We got all of those. He says, No problem. In this new computer, this desktop is going to look the same. All your bookmarks will still be there. All your scans will be there. All your files will be there; all your papers will be there. All your emails will be there. Itll just be a better computer. I was like, Slick. I took it home, I had sharper graphics. I had faster speed; I had a newer version, but I had the same old stuff that made it feel like it was my computer. No analogy is perfect, but the Bible says were going to get a new body, A new and improved you. A body that can inhabit eternity, but it will still be you. Jesus was still Jesus. You will still be you-your personality; your memories; the things that make you will still be you, but you will have a body like Christ that can inhabit eternity and live in the presence of God; a body without sin; a body that will not know pain or death. Its because of Christ; because of His obedience; His suffering; and His Resurrection. Were going to sing about that right now as we prepare to close out our service, Our God is Mighty to Save. (Here is a link to the lyrics: http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/music_lyrics/christian/mighty_to_save.php). Im going to ask if our team would come forward and lead us. Im going to ask if you would stand and prepare to sing to the Lord. As soon as were done, Ill come back and dismiss us in prayer and give a couple of announcements before we go home. Lord, were so thankful for Your Truth. It was no debate that the tomb was empty. The debate was why it was empty. When we lay out the facts, the only one that makes sense is that He is risen, that He is Lord. Because we have put our hope and trust in You, we have hope beyond the grave. The firstfruits have come, and we will live with You for all eternity through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the name of the risen Savior, we pray. All Gods people said, Amen.

Its hard to believe, but we are on Week 11 of this series on apologetics. Apologetics means defending your faith. We have spent two weeks on the Nature of Truth; three weeks on the Existence of God; two weeks on the Problem of Evil; one week on Science; one week on the Credibility of the New Testament; a week on the Deity of Christ; and this week on the Resurrection. If you missed any of those weeks, remember we have a tape ministry that is available. All you do is you go out to the patio. On the counter there is a form. You just fill it out and leave it on the table. There is a little box for a freewill donation if you want to make one of those. Chip Jacobs will make sure its there for you the next week-a tape or a CD. Of course, theyre always available online. Then you should have received a Faith News. Did you receive that, a little slip of paper? If you are not on faith news or youve changed your email, this is an update we send out a couple times a month to let you know whats going on at Faith. Maybe its to move your clocks ahead, or maybe its some event thats transpiring like the Good Friday service this past Friday. Thats our way of communicating-one of the ways we do, so just fill this out and drop it in the offering box on the way out this morning. Would you turn with me please to the Gospel of Luke 23 (page 1046 of pew Bibles)? Since were going to be eating today quite a bit, lets work some of that off; lets stand up. You are going to play the part of the angels this morning since you all look like a bunch of angels to me. Im buttering you up, so youll like the sermon, see? Were going to read together 24:1-12, and you will read the part of the angels. We are talking about the Resurrection since it is Easter. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee. The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again Then they remembered His words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the Apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. Please be seated. We talked in our series several times about a naturalist point of view. In the naturalists point of view, the universe is a closed system. There is nothing that comes in and nothing that goes out. Everything that we see is all there is. There is no spiritual; there is only the physical. Life as we know it came as a result of random chance and evolution, survival of the fittest; so you and I, when we die, thats the end of our existence. We return to the dust from which we came, and everyone that has gone before us, our loved ones, they exist only in our memories. Those who will go after us when they pass away, that is the end of them as well. Thats a naturalists point of view. Thats difficult, so you have to find some sort of meaning in your existence because this is all that there is. Ultimately, if we are the product of random chance, there is no real meaning to our lives. We are accidents. We know that there has to be something more than just this natural stuff that we look at. We know there is something more to us than the face that we look at in the mirror. The Bible teaches that there is a spiritual reality to this life as well, so we have to make a decision about Christianity. Is Christianity just wishful thinking? Is it just a superstitious relic of the past that we try to hold on to or is there sufficient evidence to believe that Christ is who He said He was and that He did in fact rise from the dead? One thing we must keep in mind as we ponder this question is these events at this point in time in history; Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth; He walked the streets of Palestine; that we read about kings and governors; we read about places that we can go to and visit today. The Bible tells in detail, so these things are not described in mythical manner. These are events that happened in history. Twenty-five thousand surviving manuscripts of the New Testament testify to the accuracy of this account. Now here is some common ground. Those who lived at the time Christ was crucified all had agreement on several major things, truths. Number one, that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under Pontius Pilate by Rome. Thats historical fact thats agreed upon, number one. Number two, He was buried in a tomb after He died. Number three, somehow the tomb became empty. The enemies of Christ-the Jewish leadership, the Romans, the Christians-all agree on those three facts. Thats very important for us to understand. There was no debate that Christ had died on the cross, that He was buried and that the tomb was empty. The debate is how did the tomb come to be empty? Thats the debate. That's what all the bru-haha is about. Im going to read to you quickly an account from Josephus. Im going to read this entire book this morning-no (congregation laughing). Im just going to read a quote. Josephus is very important because much of the history that we have about what happened in Palestine and about what happened in the history of the Jewish nation comes from Josephus. He was an historian extraordinaire. He was born in 37 A.D., just four years after Christ was crucified. He began life as a Jew, and then he fought the Romans in 66. He was captured, survived the war and eventually became a Roman citizen. He was commissioned by the Vespasian to write histories; so for the next two, almost three, decades, he recorded the histories of the Jews. There is an excerpt I want you to read. I think its important to understand this: Josephus is not a Christian. In fact, when he lived in Jerusalem, he was a Pharisee. Hes recording about Christ, but he himself is not a Christian. Heres what he says in Chapter 3:3, Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man; for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He dew over to Him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of principal men amongst us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine Prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from Him, are not extinct at this day. So he calls us a tribe. Josephus there verifies that He died under Pilate on the cross, was buried, and that the account was that He was alive again-that was the rumor that was circulating; so what are the theories? Lets take a look quickly at some of the theories that are out there. The first one is really far-fetched. Since everyone in Biblical times was in agreement that Christ died on the cross, this theory didnt come into play until centuries later. Its whats called the swoon theory, and that is that Jesus didnt really die on the cross. Somehow He survived the cross and later in the coolness of the tomb revived. So heres what were supposed to believe in the swoon theory. First of all, the Romans had every interest in killing Jesus because that was their job. Just as if somebody is commissioned to carry out capital punishment, you better believe that theyre going to make sure whether its through the gas chamber, the electric chair or a chemical injection, their job is to make sure that prisoner is dead. The Romans job was to make sure that their prisoner was dead. Thats why they thrust the spear into His side, and out flew the blood and the plasma, indicating that He had already died. I guarantee you the enemies of Christ were going to make sure Jesus was dead. They wanted to rid their region of this scourge, this man who had taken so many of their flock; this man who had contradicted their teachings. He had been under their skin; He had been a thorn in their sides, and they were so tired of Him, so sick of Him. He had embarrassed them; He had outthought them. He had acted in a blasphemous way as a heretic claiming to be the Son of God. They wanted Him dead, and I guarantee you they were going to make sure that He didnt come down from that cross alive. Lets say for the sake of the swoon theorists that their theory is correct-that Christ survived. Heres what I am led to believe then: Christ is going to take 39 lashes with a cat of nine tails; and glass, bone, metal are going to come against His back, rip His flesh. Many people did not survive that part of the torture, but then lets say He does, and He goes to the cross. Hes going to be crucified on the cross. Hes going to hang on the cross for hours. Most people would die quickly from affixation because they couldnt breathe. Somehow, He survives that. He is then stuck in the side with a spear, and somehow He survives that too. He is then wrapped up like a mummy by Joseph and Nicodemus, wrapped up with linen; and then this sticky, gooey substance with perfumes and spices is wrapped around that so He is like sealed in this cocoon. He survives that. He is then put in a tomb and sealed without air for three days, without food, without water, and without medical attention. He revives Himself, undoes the bandages, moves a one-ton stone and presents Himself alive to His Disciples as the conqueror of death. To me, that takes more faith to believe than Him being raised from the dead and Hes Lord. There is another theory. The theory is that the women went to the wrong tomb. You know men thought of that one; lets blame it on the ladies to go to the wrong tomb. First of all, thats hard to do because its the only tomb with guards around it. Secondly, in Luke 23:55 (page 1047), it says, The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how His body was laid in it. So they followed them. They saw where the tomb was. They went home and rested on the Sabbath and came back the next morning. There was no mistaking where the tomb was. Besides that, the tomb belongs to Joseph of Arimathea. He is rich, and he is a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the elite. That was the top of the food chain. These guys-there were 71 of them. They were like our Congress and our Supreme Court combined into one. Do you think it would make the news today if one of the Supreme Court justices gave their cemetery plot to a convicted criminal who was executed by the state? Would that make the news? If they said, You know, I really love this criminal. I think this criminal has been unjustly sentenced to execution, and to show my love, Im going to give them my family burial plot. Would that make CNN? Yeah. This was no secret tomb. This was a prominent tomb in a garden, so everyone knew where the tomb of Jesus was. It was no secret place. That theory does not hold a lot of water. The third theory is that the Jews took the body of Jesus-the enemies of Christ took the body of Jesus. Well, listen friends, thats the last thing they wanted to do. They wanted to end this rumor once and for all. In the Book of Matthew 27:62 (page 989 of pew Bibles), it says, The next day after Christ had died… The Jews are going to just make sure Hes dead, number one; but number two, were going to make sure that we never have to hear anything more about this Jesus and that this movement comes to an end. …the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. Sir, they said, we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, After three days I will rise again. So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His Disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first. The first deception is that He was the Son of God. The second deception, that He is risen from the dead, is much worse. Then Pilate agrees. Take a guard, Pilate answered. Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how. Thats their job. Theyre guards; theyre professionals. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. So the Roman guards post, and the seal of Rome is put over the tomb. That is something you dont want to break. That is something you dont want to tamper with because you do so at the risk of your very life. The Jews made every effort they could to prevent this rumor from happening. Its the last thing that they wanted. Theres a fourth theory, and this is probably the most prominent: that is the Disciples stole the body. The followers of Christ came into the tomb and stole the body of Jesus. Matthew 28:11, after Christ has risen from the dead, the soldiers now fearing for their very lives leave their post and go and report what had happened. Verse 11, While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. These guys are panicking. Theyre like white as ghosts. Theyre like, There was an angel, a stone and an earthquake, and they rolled back the stone. Theyre just trying to cover their tracks as best as they can. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, You are to say, His Disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep. If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. Well, lets talk about that. Lets begin to pick apart that argument because this one has the most teeth, and its the most believed or the most prevalent argument-the alternate alternative to the fact that He rose from the dead. So, its a conspiracy. These guys fabricated this story about Christ being risen from the dead when they knew in fact He was not because they are the ones who started it. They perpetrated this lie that they stole the body. Number one-lets begin to look at some of these things. What happens to a group, especially a group thats dependent upon a very charismatic individual-that individual when he dies, what usually happens to that group? It disbands, doesnt it? It goes away. Well, were going to find that this particular following is going to increase in its influence; increase in its power; increase in its numbers after its very charismatic leader is executed. Its an unheard of thing to happen. The second reason: Are we to believe that these men were going to be transformed by a lie? Are these men who have been cowards, who have been hiding in secret, are going to be so transformed by this hoax, theyre going to go out in the streets and preach the Gospel to thousands of people while risking their very lives. The Sanhedrin-the most powerful group of men-was going to call them and say, Were going to imprison you. Were going to beat you. Were going to torture you. Were going to even kill you if you continue to talk about the Resurrection. Knowing its a lie, they say, Beat us! Imprison us! Kill us if you have to! We cannot stop talking about what we have seen and heard. Do you know how hard it is to keep a conspiracy or a cover-up? You dont have to go back very far in history. Think of the Watergate cover-up. It didnt last very long. Those men started to crack under pressure, and everyone gives the other one up as soon as they start talking about jail. Yeah, Ill talk. Ill talk. These men went to their deaths refusing to change their story. You know people will die for something they think is true thats not. Terrorists blow themselves up because they think its an instant ticket to paradise. How many people will die for something they know is a lie? These men would have known the truth. Yet, one after another… Peter will be crucified upside down. Paul will lay his head on a chopping block. None of them will change their story, and their stories are all the same. He was crucified. Hes alive, and weve seen Him. Kill us if you have to. We must obey God more than men. Lies are things that make us ashamed. Lies make us hang our heads. Lies arent things that make us bolder, stronger and more courageous; but they will be punished and die for it. Lets go ahead and look to the next point I want to make. These are cowards for a time being until the Holy Spirit comes on them. Theyre going to break a Roman seal. It would take some nerve for you if while youre in Washington D.C., you see something that says Top Secret, Property of the United States Government, and you go ahead and violate that. For these men to risk their lives for this lie is quite extraordinary. What is the reason to do that? Think about this. When Jesus was alive and He was doing these great miracles and teaching, it was still difficult for people to believe He was the Messiah. Why? Because He was not acting as a Messiah should act. He was not defeating the Roman Government. He was not gathering up a following or an army to rebel. He was not doing that at all. Hes reaching out to people like lepers and Samaritans. He was healing the sick; He was preaching love, forgiveness and grace. Thats not how a Messiah is supposed to be. It was really a tough sell when Jesus Himself was proclaiming who He was and doing wonderful miracles. Now, youre going to try to market a dead Messiah to the people? Now youre going to try to tell them this Man who was a criminal, was crucified on the cross and died this humiliating death is really, truly the Son of God? You need to come up with a different marketing strategy because that one is not going to work! It was one thing when Jesus was alive to believe He was the Messiah, and they struggled with that. Now that Hes dead and considering the manner in which He died, youre going to now convince these people that He is the divine Son of God? That's not going to work unless that plan really is from God, unless it is the truth. Lets play along with their story here. Lets imagine for a moment that theyre going to overpower the guards. Theyre going to steal it [with them there] because thats the alternative. Either the guards are sleeping or the guards are awake. Lets say the guards are awake. Can you imagine this group of unarmed men overpowering Roman guards with their spears, their swords and their knives? These are non-violent Disciples of Christ, and were expected to believe theyre going to overpower Roman soldiers? Highly unlikely. What about the fact that theyre sleeping? Would you fall asleep if your life depended on it? If this was your job and if you fell asleep, it meant you died, would you fall asleep? I dont think you would. Now you might sleep, but youd trade off, right? Youd take a session and youd sleep, then Ill sleep and so forth; but if your life depends on it, youre not going to fall asleep. In the Book of Acts 12, Herod Agrippa has Peter in prison. He has already killed James, the brother of John; and the Jews liked it. He wants to be popular, and he likes the response; so he decides hes going to kill Peter too. He imprisons Peter, and Peter is in jail and the church is praying. An angel comes and releases Peter from his bonds, and Peter walks out free. When the soldiers wake up in the morning, they find that Peter is no longer in the prison. They know their lives are at stake. We find the story in Acts 12:18 (page 1091), In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. That was the punishment. Earlier in the Book of Acts in that chapter, we know that there are 16 of those guards from the Greek-16 men are killed at Herods hands. Herod can do anything he wants. He is the close friend of Emperor Caligula-childhood friends. So he has carblanche-do whatever you want. Hes like a little mini-dictator there. King Herod has those men killed. Why? Because they usurped their responsibility, and they let the prisoner go free. These men are not going to fall asleep. Lets say they did. Lets play along. You know, how hard would it be to move a one-ton plus stone in the middle of the night and not wake up the guards? Think about the ridiculousness of their story. My wife goes to bed early. Shes an early riser; Im a night owl, so invariably when I go to bed, shes sleeping. Shes also a light sleeper, so I try not to wake her up; but we have a board that when I step on it, it squeaks all the time. Ill come in the room and be really quiet and creak. Then shell start to stir. Ill go to the restroom real quick, and Ill try to shut the door. Shell wake up. Im trying to be as quiet as I possibly can. Its just me walking in the bedroom to go to bed, not saying a word and trying to tiptoe. Am I really supposed to believe that the Apostles are going to come, find the guards sleeping and theyre going to ever so quietly move a one-ton stone? You try that. Get a one-ton stone and try to quietly move it. Its so easy. Those one-ton stones just roll so smoothly and quietly. Come on! Lets be real! You know what the best explanation is? Its not that the ladies went to the wrong tomb. Its not that Jesus didnt really die from the sufferings and torture. Its not that the Jews took Him. Its not that the Disciples took Him. The explanation that makes by far the most sense-the only one thats rational-is that He rose from the dead, that He was who He said He was. With that promise, we have the hope of the Resurrection because if Christ did in fact rise from the dead, then the world and human beings are more than just physical; we are also spiritual. There is a part of us that will survive death. Paul talks about this in the Book of 1 Corinthians. He talks about the fact that the Resurrection of Jesus was not just the resuscitation of a corpse. Jesus resurrected body was different. He was still Jesus; He was still recognizable as Jesus, but He had changed. His body was now a body that could inhabit eternity. Paul writes and says that you and I one day will have a body like Jesus. Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1139), Paul says, But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then now even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. Thats it; its done. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. A new and improved you. My computer went on the fritz, and I depend a lot on my computer. It started to make a funny movement. It started to fade in and out; it took longer to boot up every time, and it would go off quickly. Over the period of days, it would boot up and go off real fast, and then it wouldnt even boot up at all. I said, My computer is sick. Then I finally said, My computer is dead. I took it to Apple to see the computer doctor. He took it in the back room. He came out after a few minutes, and he said, Your computer is dead. You need a new logic board. He said, Thats pretty expensive. Youre better off just getting a brand new laptop. My concern was this: I said, Listen, I understand that, but I just feel so bad. I started venting. I started pouring out my heart to this guy. I was like, I had my files on there. I had all the sites that I liked bookmarked. I had sermons on there. I had papers that Ive written on there. I had everything the way I wanted it, emails and everything. Im just sick about it. He said, Oh, we got all of those. We got all of those. He says, No problem. In this new computer, this desktop is going to look the same. All your bookmarks will still be there. All your scans will be there. All your files will be there; all your papers will be there. All your emails will be there. Itll just be a better computer. I was like, Slick. I took it home, I had sharper graphics. I had faster speed; I had a newer version, but I had the same old stuff that made it feel like it was my computer. No analogy is perfect, but the Bible says were going to get a new body, A new and improved you. A body that can inhabit eternity, but it will still be you. Jesus was still Jesus. You will still be you-your personality; your memories; the things that make you will still be you, but you will have a body like Christ that can inhabit eternity and live in the presence of God; a body without sin; a body that will not know pain or death. Its because of Christ; because of His obedience; His suffering; and His Resurrection. Were going to sing about that right now as we prepare to close out our service, Our God is Mighty to Save. (Here is a link to the lyrics: http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/music_lyrics/christian/mighty_to_save.php). Im going to ask if our team would come forward and lead us. Im going to ask if you would stand and prepare to sing to the Lord. As soon as were done, Ill come back and dismiss us in prayer and give a couple of announcements before we go home. Lord, were so thankful for Your Truth. It was no debate that the tomb was empty. The debate was why it was empty. When we lay out the facts, the only one that makes sense is that He is risen, that He is Lord. Because we have put our hope and trust in You, we have hope beyond the grave. The firstfruits have come, and we will live with You for all eternity through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the name of the risen Savior, we pray. All Gods people said, Amen.

Open your Bibles if you would please to 1 Samuel 30 (page 292 of pew Bibles). We are winding to a close our series that weve been on: Is There Life After GM? or Is There Life After Loss? The bad news that has come to our community-were talking about the things that are associated with that: dealing with fear and dealing with anxiety. What does Gods Word say to us about those topics? Its rich in what is said to us about change, about faith. This morning were talking about discouragement. Its something we all face. How many of you here have been discouraged by something this week? Almost everybody. It could be a big thing, or it could be something small. Weve been discouraged by something. Maybe your athlete didnt win the event. Everybody was kind of sad when the mom, the 41-year-old, didnt win the gold. She lost by 1/100th of a second. That was discouraging. Maybe youre discouraged because your favorite football player was traded to an East Coast team or something. As a Bears fan, Im encouraged by that news because he scared us, and he hurt us many times. Depending on where youre at, there are things youre encouraged about and there are things youre discouraged about. Maybe there is something in the home relationship, something in your marriage or with your children that just causes you to be discouraged. Maybe on the job, things arent going as you hoped. Maybe in school, things arent going as you planned. Maybe youre in a weight loss program, and the scales not cooperating. Its just discouraging. There could be health concerns, some problem that doesnt seem to get any better. Maybe its a ministry thats not being blessed as you thought it would be. You can think of any number of things that you and I struggle with on a daily, weekly basis. There are plenty of reasons to be discouraged. Were going to see what David did. [These are] some very discouraging times in his life. In fact, its hard to imagine having a worse day than David is about to have. Were going to see what he does to deal with that discouragement. That will help us to deal with discouragement in our lives as well. So whats happening here in 1 Samuel? David is a young man. David came to prominence when he slew Goliath, as you and I know. David became a warrior, and he fought many great battles for Israel. He gained a reputation as a man of God, as a warrior. As a result of that, King Saul became jealous because the people seemed to love David more than they loved Saul. In fact, it got so intense between the two that Saul actually tried to take Davids life-pursued him, hunted him down to try to take his life. Twice, Saul was delivered into Davids hand, and David spared his life. David knew that he was not safe in Israel, so David wanted to go to the one place in the world where he knew he was safe from Sauls attack. That was, of all places, a city called Gath. Remember Gath? Who else was from Gath? Goliath, Goliath of Gath. Of all places for David to take refuge but in the land of the Philistines-very ironic; but he developed a relationship, a faith and a trust, with a king whose name was Achish. Achish loved David and began to trust David. He began to think that David had indeed broken off of Israel, and he [became] welcome in the land of the Philistines. Long story short, David asked for a city. He said, There are a lot of us here. David had 600 men with him, fighting with him along with their families; so there are maybe 1,500 Israelites that have been displaced. David asked for a city, and he gave him a southern city by the name of Ziklag. David built houses there and they had a settlement there. For over a year, they lived there in peace and quiet; and that was their home. One day, David is put in a precarious situation. David thought he would buy time. One day Saul would die, and then it would be safe to go back home; but the Philistines go to war, and they go to war against the Israelites. Guess who they enlist to join their army? Its David. If David doesnt go, his cover is blown, right? Because he still loves his people, but Achish believes David no longer loves his people. He says, Youre going to come with us, and youre going to help us fight against the Philistines. What will David do? Will he fight with the Philistines against his king, against Jonathan and against his own race or will he turn on Achish and fight against the Philistines? We dont know what will happen because the drama never unfolds. When David gets to the city of Aphek, guess what happens? The other Philistine commanders say, Were not going to fight with that. No matter what you say, King Achish, were not going to fight with him because as soon as we do, hes going to turn on us. Hes going to fight against us. We dont trust him; so regardless of what you say, he needs to go home. Achish says, Listen, David, youre a good guy. Im sorry I have to do this, but you and your men need to go back to Ziklag because we cant use you here. So David and his men return home. As they are approaching their city, they begin to notice some eerie and strange things. Number one is they smell smoke. It seems to be coming from their village. There is a stench and aroma coming from their building, from their village. Secondly, as they get closer, they dont hear any sound. They dont hear the livestock; they dont hear children playing; they dont hear the sound of community. This is very odd; this is very strange. Im sure at a certain point they began to run toward the city. When they reached the clearing and came into the city, the sight that they see is devastating to their eyes. Their city has been burned to the ground. Who has done it? Why did they do it; they dont know. All they know is their homes, their place of worship, their place of businesses; everything is down and smoldering in ruin, and their families are gone. Not one child; not one wife; not one elderly parent; not one animal is left. The good news, if theres good news in this situation, is that theyre not dead-as far as they know. Theyre not lying on the ground somewhere. Theyre gone. They may be dead, but they may very well be alive. Had they seen them dead, there would be no hope. Now at least there is some hope, but where do you go? They dont know where to go. They dont know who took their families. They dont know what direction they took them in, so they are just desperate and helpless. They break down and they start to cry. These brave warriors cry. The Bible says they cry until they had no more tears to cry. They dont know what to do. Then, their tears become anger. They say to David, Youre our leader. You brought us to the land of the Philistines. You brought us to Ziklag. It was your idea to follow after Achish for this war that never happened. Youre the problem. You made us leave our families. If it hadnt been for you, they would still be here. They decided that they were going to stone David, kill him. So heres David. The king is trying to assassinate him-the head of state. Hes in exile from his country, his family, his friends, his home. His family is now missing along with all of his comrades, their families; and the men who hes gone to battle with-his friends-they want to kill him. Do you think that qualifies as a day that could lead one to be discouraged? I mean that is a bad day. What will David do? Will he try to commit suicide? Will he run? Will he curse God? What will David do? Were going to find out what David does; its going to help you and me when we encounter our discouraging days. Look at Verse 6. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God. Other versions render that, but David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. David encouraged himself. You know, you can encourage yourself, or you can discourage yourself. Have you ever discouraged yourself? Do you ever have a pity party and youre the only one invited to it? You just start negative talking about I never do this. This never works out. Its all my fault. Im a loser. This is bad. Itll never be good. Next thing, you know, you have talked yourself into a bad mood. Youve talked yourself into discouragement. In that same way, you can do things that will allow God to encourage you rather than discourage you because you and I as a people are very prone to negativism. Somebody says a compliment about you, and you go, Aw, shucks, and you brush it off. Somebody says something bad about you, true or not, and you soak it in like a sponge. You think about it all day, maybe into the next day. You cry and you get depressed. Youre like, Why dont they like me? Whats wrong with me? You just really take it in. Its easy to do. If youre around a negative influence at the workplace or someplace else, if youre around people that talk negative long enough, pretty soon, its starts to impact you. You begin to thing negatively as well. I was playing ball a couple weeks ago. We were playing some full-court basketball, and our team was winning. I was happy. Then we started to make bad decisions, and they started gaining ground. We needed one more basket to go. We just couldnt get it done. There was a guy on our squad who kept saying, Were going to lose. Thats it. Were going to lose. Hes yelling at everybody; hes mad. Hes like, Were going to lose. Thats it. Thats it. The games done, and I would say, No were not. He would say, Yes we are. Were going to lose. He keeps this up. Finally the games done, and we lost. So I go over to him-hes a friend of mine. Hes a good guy. I say, Look, that doesnt help. When youre yelling at everybody, that doesnt help any of us play better. In fact, it makes matters worse. When you say were going to lose, that makes it even worse. He goes, I said we were going to lose; I thought we were going to lose; and we lost. I go, Well, keep it to yourself. You know, in Jesus name (congregation laughing). Im being polite. But just keep it to yourself because I dont want to hear that. Lets be positive the next time we play, all right? It brings you down. So heres David. Theres loss, theres devastation and negativity all around him. Where does he go? He goes to God. He says, Im going to go to the one source that doesnt change, and Im going to reflect upon His promise. I cant die this way because Gods promised through Samuel Im going to be king. So he focuses on Gods promise; he focuses on Gods goodness; he focuses on Gods faithfulness; he focuses on Gods love. The next thing you know, in the midst of this despair and this chaos, David finds encouragement and hope. Isnt that amazing? David finds encouragement and hope. David had been doing this since he was a lad. Goliath comes and he challenges the armies of Israel. Everybody goes, Oh, Goliath, look how great he is. Look how strong he is. We cant beat him. Hes too great; hes too strong; hes too mighty. David comes on the scene, and what does he do? He encourages himself in the Lord his God. He says, I was shepherding the sheep, and a lion came. I grabbed it by its beard, and I killed it. I was shepherding the sheep, and a bear came, and I killed it. The same God who was with me when I killed the bear and the lion will be with me as I battle this uncircumcised Philistine. He has defied the God of Heaven, and this day he will know that there is a God in Heaven. He began to speak of life and truth and encourage himself in the Lord his God. The next thing you know, he has a whole army of Israelites and a king believing this pimply-faced teenage boy can take on that monster giant because he spoke words of life and hope. So here is David in his time of great despair. He seeks God. He enquires of God. Now he had to enquire of God in a different way than you and I enquire our God. We seek Gods written Word, and we pray. We trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit who indwells us as believers. Before the Holy Spirit came and Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not dwell in believers. He would come on an individual for a task, but He did not live within us. So to seek Gods guidance back in those days, they relied on something that was in the ephod or the high priestly garment. There were some stones there called the Urim and the Thummim. Thats kind of a funny name. It means light and reflection; and somehow, God would speak to them through this. We dont exactly know how it happened. It may have been a casting of lots in some way. Maybe one stone meant yes, and another stone meant no. We dont know that. So David received clear guidance from God that he was to pursue and that he would overtake. So he gathers the men together. He says, Men, we are going to go after our families. Were going to go after our property, and God is going to give us victory. Now heres the problem. They dont know where theyre going. They dont know who the enemy is. They dont know what direction to go-north, south, east or west; so they are just trusting God. Sometimes when you trust God, you dont always know where to go, right? You dont always know which direction to take, but David and his men are tired and in spite of their fatigue, they are going to persevere. In fact, the Bible tells us that theyre so tired that when they get to the Stream of Besor, 200 of them cant go on any farther. Verse 10 (still on page 292), …two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the ravine. But David and four hundred men continued the pursuit. So here they are. To go from Ziklag to Aphek was 45 miles. They went there on foot. Can you imagine hiking for 45 miles with all your gear, all your food, your equipment? You get there and they say, We dont need you, and you have to hike 45 miles back. Ninety miles! You finally get home; you finally get to rest and see your family. Your family is now gone. Your feet are blistered and sore; youre hungry and youre thirsty; and you have to turn around and march right back into the wilderness. This time, you dont know where youre going. Persevere-they persevere because God had given them a promise. God had given them a purpose that allowed them to endure. God will also allow us to endure and persevere through those times of disappointment and discouragement because we, too, have a purpose and a promise. There was a man who lived back in the early 1900s. He was a brilliant man by the name of Clarence Jordan. Clarence grew up and received two PhDs-one in agriculture and one in Hebrew and Greek; so he was a farmer and a theologian. He combined those two educations beautifully by starting a ministry called Koinonia Farms in Georgia, in the Deep South. The concept was, Listen, were going to help the poor. Were going to start these farms. He bought over 400 acres, and they began to farm them. They would distribute them, and the poor would be able to buy food very inexpensively. So he was helping to solve the hunger problem. He was also providing jobs and a place to live. On this land, they built houses, so families would actually come together and live in community. Now, there was not a cult. There wasnt anything weird going on. Nobody was worshipping Clarence Jordan or anything like that. It was just a community, and they would grow these crops, they would sell them, and they would help the poor with them. Blacks and whites were working together in harmony-as it should be. Well, there were some white supremacists that didnt like what was going on. They wanted to cause some trouble for Clarence Jordan. They let him know in no uncertain terms that if he didnt shut down the farm, some bad things would happen. He informed the authorities but there was some corruption going on, and nobody was coming to his defense. One day, the KKK-these idiots-came into the farm, and they burned it down. They burned down every building. They burned down the farm; they ransacked the fields-every home except for one because Clarence Jordan refused to abandon his home. They burned them all down. It was gone. Koinonia Farms was gone. The next morning, a reporter from the newspaper came. Clarence Jordan would later say he recognized that mans voice as being one of the men under a hood the night before. Clarence Jordan was out in the field with his hoe. He was working. [There were] charred remains, rubble, smolder, smoke all around. The reporter pulled up kind of smug, and he said (Pastors speaking with a southern accent), Well now, Dr. Jordan, Im here to do a story on the paper about the closing of Koinonia Farms. How do you feel about that? Dr. Jordan just ignored him and kept working, kept hoeing. The reporter decided to get a little rise out of him. He said, Dr. Jordan, you have two PhDs. Youve given 14 years of your life to this farm. Now, you have nothing to show for it. Now tell me, how successful do you think youve been? That caused Dr. Jordan to stop. That would have caused me to wrap him upside the head with my hoe, but he was a more Godly man than I. He stopped, he looked the reporter in the eye, and he said, How successful have we been? The reporter had his piece of paper and pen in hand ready to write a story on the closing of the farm. He said, I think weve been as successful as the cross of Jesus Christ. You see, Sir, this farm is not about success. This farm is about faithfulness, and were not going anywhere. Were staying right here. Good day, and he went back to work. You can go online today, and you can type in Koinonia Farms in Georgia. You would find that its still thriving. Its still going strong. The communities there have devotions in the morning and devotions at night; and in between, they work. In fact, you could even go and stay a couple weeks if you wanted to and hear the story for yourself and work on the farms. Theyre still doing wonderful work. They could do that because they had received a call from God, a purpose from God and a promise from God that He would never leave them nor forsake them. The same God who was Davids God in his day of discouragement is the same God who is Clarence Jordans God who is your God. It doesnt matter what discouraging times you go through, what dreams dash or what is taken away from us. In those times, we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, and we press on. Youre going to find a theme. Weve found a theme, havent we? We found a theme. That is we see Gods providence; we see God working in adverse situations; and we also see God bringing restoration. We see His providence, and we see His restoration. David and his men take off. They dont know where theyre going. They run across a man who they think might be dead, but they arose him and they found out he was alive-but just barely. They give him rice cakes; they give him raisins it says or figs and cakes of raisins. He eats them and he drinks, and hes revived. David says in Verse 13, Who are you? To whom do you belong, and where do you come from? He explains, I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. He goes on to say that he had been a part of the raids in the Negev and that he had been in Ziklag. Hed been a part of that raid as well. Hed become ill, and his master had left him there to die. Hed been there for three days. David says, Will you take us? Do you know where they are? He says, Yeah, I know where they are. They told me where they were going to go. He said, Can you take us there? Now the man knows that hed just been a part of a raid that had taken these mens families captive and destroyed their village, so he wants to first secure his own well-being; and he says, I will if you promise you wont kill me. David says, I promise. You take us to our families. We wont kill you. So the man then becomes their guide, their means to find their loved ones and their possessions. What a coincidence, ha? What a coincidence that this guy is abandoned by his owner, that hes still alive three days later and that hes exactly the guy that they need to give them the directions to find their families. What a coincidence. Just by chance, ha? You ever notice that when you truly trust God and put yourself in His hands and His care, all of the random coincidences that you have happen? All the divine appointments, the people that you just happen to meet? I had a lot of time with Pastor Sean this week. We spent several hours together. It was just fun to hear all the divine coincidences that happened for him to provide for he and Heather and for their ministry. God will do that. Youll see His hand in those situations. I remember I was on a trip-this was before GPS was available. This was when you had to rely on your instinct or the gas station, if you didnt have a map. I pulled into a lot of gas stations back in the day. Im on my way, and Im late. Im in a region Im not familiar with, and Im pretty lost; and now Im getting pretty late. I finally pray. I say, Lord, Im lost. I dont know where Im at. I dont know where Im going. Please, Lord, can you guide me to my destination? I felt a prompting to pull off to a gas station. I pulled off to the gas station, and I get inside the convenience store. There is a clerk, myself and there is one other individual. I go in and I say, Im looking to find this industrial park. She says, How did you get out here? Youre lost. I said, Yeah, I know. The man behind me in the checkout, he says, Im going there. Just follow me. I thought, Well, how about that? I pull in, and there is only one customer in the store besides myself, and he happens to be going to the exact same location Im going. Coincidence, right? If I hadnt prayed, Id still be lost. I dont know if I would have ever found my way home. I would have started a church in Timbuktu somewhere. God will do that when you trust Him with that reckless abandon. Hell send people across your way. Look at these negative circumstances. This man was left behind to die. He became their guide. They are sent back from Aphek. If they stay any longer, there is no hope to find their family. Because they come back so quickly, they can be hot on the trail. Ziklag is destroyed, but that will serve as a catalyst for David to move back to Judah and become king because Saul will die in that battle that David will not get to participate in. Saul dies there, and David becomes the king. Then the bounty that David gets, he distributes it to all these regions. That endears him so when he does become the king, they love him. Have you noticed a theme? Pastor Tim talked about Joseph and all that was lost, and God gave back to Joseph everything he had lost and then some. We talked about Job, and Job lost everything; and God gave him back everything hed lost and then some. Here, David loses everything, and God gives back everything hes lost and then some; because he comes into the village and it says… Remember now, these are the men who were cowards; and they know that the Israelites have left the village. They know its vulnerable because its only men and children and old people left. Thats when they choose to attack. These guys are thugs and bullies; so when David finds them, it doesnt go well for these guys. It says in Verse 16, this Egyptian led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah. They were just having a good time. Theyre not ready to fight. In fact, half of them are drunk; theyre reveling-theyre drunk. David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day. None of them got away except 400 men who rode off on their camels. David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. One he had taken in as a widow. This is another culture. Were not going to go there right now. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else that had been taken. David brought everything back. He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, This is Davids plunder. Friends, when we go through those discouraging times, we focus on Gods Promise. We persevere; we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, and were going to find inevitably that God will restore what was lost and then some. We know there are times were discouraged. We know there are times we want to quit, give up or run and hide; but God is faithful. There is a song that is sung by Martina McBride, a country music artist. She occasionally has a song that crosses over on the popular charts. This song was such a song. Its called, Anyways, so lets listen and reflect on the words of this song. Its powerful. (Lyrics can be found here: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/m/martinamcbridelyrics/anywaylyrics.html) Lets close our service in prayer: Father, thank You for the things that Youve shown us in our series, and thank You for the encouraging words today in the example of David. In the midst of this incredible adversity, chaos and heartache, he found hope, faith and courage in the Lord his God. I pray that these who come forward would find that same encouragement. Those who could have come forward who are facing discouraging situations will not give up hope. Because You have given a promise, and because You have given a purpose and because we live for the glory of our God, that we will persevere with the strength of Your spirit; that we will press on to see You work in and through the negative circumstances; that we will not succumb to them and begin to speak negatively. Lord, we will hold fast to Your promise, and that we will see Your restoration because Youre the God who gives back and then some-the same God of Clarence Jordan, the same God of David is our God. We trust and hope in You. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Would you stand please? Lets pray together. Father, the story was told of a person who needed You so desperately and about a people who are so preoccupied with their own lives that we fail to see and fail to notice, fail to do something. I pray that we would take that message to heart this morning. I pray that You would help us to leave this place more effective because of what we have learned, what we have heard. I pray we will see the world in a different way; well see the difference we can make, and well determine to be that difference. I pray that You would also minister to those who are hurt this morning, those who desperately need Your touch. Touch them today, we pray in Your name, Amen. Lets open our Bibles up to Lukes Gospel, the fifth chapter. We left off in Verse 26, so today were in Verse 27. Were going through Luke together. We will be taking a hiatus along the way, a couple of them, because its going to take a long time to get through this book. Well go off and do some short mini-series along the way, but well always try to return to Luke until we do finish our task. This morning we want to talk about Witnessing for Dummies. Its not calling you and me a dummy. Its simply has become, in our modern day vernacular, a way of explaining something that seems to be hard or difficult and making it easier: Computers for Dummies. You buy that book Computer for Dummies, and it helps you learn how to work the computer. I dont know about you, but sometimes there are projects I start to do, and once Im into them, I find out they arent as hard as I thought they were. I had to put together a vacuum cleaner for my oldest child this week. I thought it would be hard. I looked at the instructions and thought, Man, how am I going to figure this out? I got into it, and it wasnt bad. Have you ever done that? You start doing something, and it just isnt as bad as you thought. Maybe, you were so spooked by a project because it seemed so hard-it seemed like it was going to be tedious or difficult-that you didnt get started. You thought, What if I fail? What if I cant do this? Its going to take so much of my time and resources, Im not even going to start, so you didnt start a project because of an anxiety about what was involved in that project. Sometimes witnessing is like that. You and I should speak, we should say something, but we dont because were afraid. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I misunderstood? What if I confuse the person instead of helping the person? What if I interpret the scriptures wrong and lead them in the wrong direction? What if I make them mad, and then he or she never comes to Christ because I screwed up my opportunity to share Him? So because of this anxiety and apprehension, because of the unknown factors of what theyll do or say, we keep our mouths shut when we should be opening it. Youre like the person in the drama we saw at the very beginning of the service this morning where the body parts were saying all the reasons why they shouldnt share the Lord. Maybe you have felt that way, so as a result, you kept your mouth shut when you should have said something. Anybody here like that this morning? Look around-you have company. Youre not the only one. My job this morning is to share some truths from Gods Word that will enable you to open your eyes and go, You know what? Its not as hard as I thought. Its not as difficult as I was making it out to be. In fact, the way youre saying it, it takes the pressure off of me. Now, Im actually looking forward to witnessing, believe it or not; because as soon as we start saying, Oh, were talking about witnessing, you think, Oh boy, here it comes. He is just going to lay into me and make me feel all guilty. Im going to leave and go find a victim. Ill just dump all this theological stuff on them and go whew! There, thats done until the next sermon. Thats not what were going to do. I promise you that you will leave this place thinking, I can do that. I can be an effective witness for Christ. Are you ready to begin? In Luke 5:27 (page 1020 of pew Bibles), Jesus is beginning His earthly ministry. He is assembling His team of disciples. We read about Peter, James, John and Andrew coming to Him, the miracle of the fish with the nets, and now Hes going to add another important disciple by the name of Levi, or Matthew. This is the same man who would eventually write the Gospel of Matthew-a very key player. Hes called Levi here. He goes by either name. After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. Follow me, Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed Him. Now we should not think that this is all Jesus said. It wasnt like there was some sort of mysterious trance Jesus put him in [where] a total stranger went up and said, Follow meee, and Matthew went okay. There was a dialog here. We are not privileged to read the dialog. We just see the outcome of the dialog. Jesus certainly challenged him, and he caught the vision. Maybe He said something similar to Peter, Instead of fishing for fish, youre going to be fishing for men. Maybe He used some sort of play on words to talk about what Matthew was going to be doing. Whatever He said, Matthew followed him. Verse 29, Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. The first thing I notice about Matthew is he has this tremendous change in his life. He is now following Jesus. Hes excited about it. Hes so excited, hes leaving his business and hes going to pursue a new life with Christ. Hes invited his new friends: Peter, James, and John. They are coming over too with his old friends. Hes not abandoned his old friends. He has not disowned his old friends. His old friends are still going to very much be a part of his life. The longer you are a Christian, you will notice the easier it is to have only friends around you who are Christians. If you are not careful, pretty soon everything you do socially, everything you do otherwise, you are going to be surrounded by Christians because we tend to like to be around people who think like we do, who share the same values we do. Its kind of an easy thing. Theyre like us so we want to be like them and be around them. Sometimes its harder to be around somebody who doesnt think, talk, value or believe the same things we do. It can be an irritant sometimes. Just because our lives are so busy, we tend to see people at church or people involved in ministry and tend to spend time with them exclusively. We certainly encourage relationships and friendships within the Body of Christ, but not to the point of exclusivity-not to the point where the only people we are hanging around with are fellow believers because Jesus definitely gave us an example that was contrary to that. Jesus was always criticized because He was a friend of whom? Sinners. He loved to hang around with people who didnt know the Lord. He loved to hang around with people who needed God. He didnt just spend time with only the disciples. You would find Jesus at weddings, parties, other get-togethers and festivals, talking with people in the street. You would find Jesus interacting with non-believers all the time. If we look at our lives and say, Over the last six months, I havent hung out with a non-Christian other than people I have to work next to or I havent shared my faith or I havent invited a person to church in about a year or longer, friends, if thats you-something is wrong. Chances are whats wrong is some of these fear factors were going to talk about and get rid of today. Were going to free you up to be effective. So Matthew has a party. He invites his old friends and his new Christian friends to come and join them. Thats not a bad idea because in that context, as they intermingle, there is going to be some interaction that takes place. Since 1982, I have organized a reunion of my friends. There are guys, a lot of them, who I went to grade school with. A lot of these guys, all of them, we all went to high school together. One of the things a lot of us had in common was hoops. So every year we get together, we rent a gym, we play basketball, and then we go out for pizza. Its been interesting to watch over the years now, as some of those guys now are 50 or approaching 50 years old, our skills are rapidly deteriorating. Were watching ourselves become these old, slow middle-aged guys trying to play a young mans game. Ill go around to some of the sons that are now playing with us, and Ill say, Your dad used to be an athlete. Your dad used to be able to play. They are like, Are you serious? Yeah, he really did. Then we go out for pizza, and we do that really well. In fact, were starting to play ball less and less and eat pizza more and more. Its getting to be where one of these days we will get together, play a game of horse and probably go out and eat after that. But its an interesting mix when we get together because a few of the guys, maybe five-maybe six-of us are Christians, and the other six are not. Its interesting how you catch up on your families and your business and tell some stories. Invariably, as youre sitting around that table, you start talking about spiritual matters. Maybe this guy is going through a divorce; maybe this guy has had some health issues; or this guy has other kinds of problems. Almost all of us were drinking pop, but there was one guy drinking beer. Hed had a couple, and he came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder-a little private conversation- and says, I love you, buddy. I said, I love you too. He said, Ive done some bad things. I said, What did you do? He said, I told some lies. I feel bad about it. Do you think God could forgive me? I said, You bet He could. I shared a little bit with him. I felt a little tug of the Holy Spirit telling me, You need to talk to this guy more than twice a year because some of those guys I see more often than others. Some of them I just see once or twice a year. I felt a little tug and said, I need to spend some more time with him. But every year we interact. We share some spiritual things together, and some good things happen. Ive noticed over the years, certain ones will come to Christ and start thinking about spiritual matters or start to seek the Lord. So I think our getting together is a good thing, that inner mix. Keeping those relationships alive is a good thing. Maybe there are some people you know that you havent touched based with in awhile…maybe there are some phone calls you need to make or some emails you need to send out, some letters you need to write, saying, You know what? Weve lost touch. We need to get together because you need to be having relationships with friends who dont know the Lord. Im not at all suggesting we have friendships only for the purpose of sharing our faith. That would be inauthentic. The buddy I was telling you about-should he never come to Christ, 20 years from now, God willing, hes still my friend. I will love him just as much then as I do now. In fact, if he becomes a Christian, I wont love him anymore than I do now. In fact, we will just be able to have a whole other dimension of conversation together, a whole other realm of relationship we can have together. Hell always be my friend. There are some people in your life that you can get together with and have a little mini-Matthew party with, hang out, talk about life, and just see where that conversation goes. You can try to steer that conversation in a spiritual direction. Share your faith! Share what the Lord means to you. Talk about your ministry; talk about your church; talk about a message youve heard. [You think], I dont know. What if I mess it up? What if I dont say things right, and the person ends up going away from Jesus instead of going toward Jesus? What if he doesnt become a Christian? Friends, Im going to tell you something that will both humble you and free you. Youve never converted a soul, and you never will. Salvation begins and ends with God-not with you. Theres no pressure on you. Youre simply a vessel. Youre simply a mouthpiece, a vehicle, a servant through which God speaks. Theres no pressure on you for that person. Thats in Gods camp-whether that person receives Christ of not. You plant the seed, and you come along and water the seed, but God is the One who makes it grow. Lets turn in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 3. Lets look at that. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and telling them how immature they were because they were talking more about Apollos and Paul than about Jesus. Paul is like, Listen, theres no room for celebrity in the Body of Christ. The only star in this operation is Jesus, so when you make a big deal out of Paul or Apollos, we are only servants. All we are is a mouthpiece for the Lord. Listen to what he says [in 1 Corinthians 3:5, page 1129 of pew Bibles], What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God… Say that with me, Only God. …only God, who makes things grow. Remember last week? All you do is cast the net; God is the One who fills it, right? He says, …only God who makes it grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are Gods fellow workers, you are Gods field, Gods building. I have a part to play. Its an important part, and I partner with God as a seed planter and as a seed waterer; but when that seed takes root, God is the One who gets the glory, not me. Thats Gods job, not mine. Lets pretend we live in California or Arizona. My mother-in-law lives in Arizona and has an orange tree in her yard. Its kind of handy; if you ever want a snack, just go out and pick one. If somebody comes over to your house, and youre going to have a snack together, theres this orange on the table there; they take the orange and bite it. They say, Oh, man. This orange is so good. How did you get this orange so juicy? Whats your secret? It is so orange. The color on this orange is unbelievable. How did you make this so orange? It smells so citrusy. Do you want orange juice right now? It just smells…oh, man. It makes my mouth water. How did you make this orange taste so good? You will say, Well, five years ago, I dug a hole. I put in an orange tree, and I covered it and I watered it. Thats what you did. Who made the orange so juicy, orange, and taste so good? God did. If they walk in and notice some flowers on your table, and they smell them and say, Oh, what is that? You say, Thats a Fragrant Viburnum. They say, Man, that just smells like spring. How did you do that? How did you get those little flowers on there like that? And the green of the leaves, how did you make that so green? How did you make that smell so good? Can you teach me how to do that because Id love to be able to do that? That is just amazing how you did that. Can you share with me how you made this? I bought a Viburnum bush, and I dug a hole. I put it in the ground, covered it up with dirt, and I watered it. Did you put those flowers on there? Did you make it smell like that? Did you make it green like that? We got ready to have a sandwich, so we got some meat and veggies from your garden. You got some green peppers, onions, and cucumbers. You make a sandwich and take a bite of your onion, and you say, Man, this onion is sweet! You know the story. How did you do that? How did you get all those layers on there like that? All that skin! How in the world did you make that onion taste so good? You say, I dug a hole, I put in an onion seed, I covered it with dirt, and I watered it. God made the onion, didnt He? God made all the layers and the flavor in that onion. If you share your faith with somebody, and they come to Christ, and their life starts to change, they start to produce fruit, and then somebody comes up to you and says, Man! You led that person to Jesus, and now hes a Christian! His whole life has changed! Isnt it great what is happening in his life! How did you do it? You say [arrogantly], Just a servant of the Lord, thats all. Im a borderline theological genius. Its just a gift I have. I knew exactly what to say, what to do, and, you know, Im a good example. He followed me. What can I say? You better not do that. Do you know what you had better say? I planted a seed, and I watered it. God caused it to grow. Youre not powerful enough to convert anyone. You cant forgive sins. You cant create new life in a person. All you can do is faithfully be a witness of what you have seen and what you have heard. Once you plant that seed, its Gods business. Its Gods business that oranges come on that orange tree. Its Gods business that flowers smell good from that Fragrant Viburnum. Its Gods business that this onion is sweet and flavorful. He does that-not you. Youre the seed planter. Thats fun. You plant a garden, or you landscape and plant things. Its fun, but certainly dont take credit for the beauty of the flowers and the taste of vegetables. Thats Gods department. Number one: pressure off. Thats not your responsibility that they cross the line of faith. Thats in Gods department. Your job is to faithfully share the message or invite them to hear the message. The pressure is off there. The second thing I want you to notice in this text is the heart that Matthew has. Matthew doesnt just think of himself, but Matthew thinks of his friends. He says, You know what? Jesus made such a difference in my life; I want Him to make a difference in my friends lives too. So Matthew says, I want my friends to meet this Jesus and His followers who have made such a difference for me. Matthew sees with a spiritual lens. See, for us, theyre just a nameless, faceless crowd that we read about. For Matthew, these were people he knew and cared about. He wanted to see them influenced for Christ. Do you see through the right spiritual lenses today? Or do you have such tunnel vision that the only thing you see is your world, your troubles, and your concerns. Its important as believers that we develop eyes to see and ears to hear. Remember what Jesus said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Hes talking about a certain type of hearing, a certain type of seeing, where we can train ourselves to be aware of the needs that are around us, so we will know how to respond, so well know how to share the Gospel to meet that need. My wife is an intensive care nurse. Over the years, shes treated thousands of patients, so shes learned different signs and symptoms to look for. Occasionally, well see somebody, and shell say, See that person? I will say, Yup. Shell say, They have such and such. How do you know that? Ive seen it a thousand times. They have this, this, this and this. That organ is failing, or this is going on. Theyre going to need a transplant there. Shell recognize those signs because shes been trained. I dont want you to get all nervous and think when you talk to her, shes diagnosing you or anything like that. Medical people see things differently than you and I do. When you walk into that doctors office, that doctor is already sizing you up before you tell him about your owies. Theyre looking at your skin color; theyre looking at your skin-period; theyre looking at your gate, how you walk, your posture, if youre favoring anything; theyre looking at your nose and your eyes, your teeth; theyre listening to your voice. When they listen to your chest, they hear things, your breathing and your heart. They hear things that you and I wouldnt hear because their eyes and ears have been trained to do that. What Im suggesting to you this morning is that you and I, if we will ask God to help us do this and we are willing to do this, we can start to see and hear things in a sensitive way to be able to respond to the needs that are around us. Wouldnt it be cool if there were just an easier way? If you could put on a pair of glasses, and when you put on this pair of glasses, magically you could see not only the person but their need? You could see why that grumpy person is grumpy; or why that talkative person is so talkative; why that quiet person is so quiet; or why that person who cut you off was in a hurry, why they were in a hurry. Do you think that would give you more patience, more sensitivity? Maybe youd see the world differently. Were going to watch the story of a guy right now who did find a pair of those glasses and how it changed his life. Lets tune in. (Click on this link to see a preview: http://www.sermonspice.com/search?fpage=1&q=get%20service) Matthew sees the needs of his friends. Jesus gets it. He sees their needs. The Pharisees dont get it. In Verse 30 [back to Luke 5:30, page 1020], …Pharisees and the teachers of the law… There is an open courtyard here. Its a big house. Its very common in a big house with a large crowd, they would go out in the courtyard-not in the house proper, so this is where this conversation takes place. By the way, the name Pharisees means the separated ones. The only people the Pharisees hung out with were other Pharisees, people just like them-thought like them, believed like they did, valued what they did, and talked like they did. They only hung out with other people like themselves. They complained to the disciples, Why do you eat and drink with sinners? Notice in Verse 31, they complained to the disciples, but who answered? Jesus did. He said, I think the problem you have is with Me. Whats the question? [Jesus answered] Its not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Jesus refers to Himself as a doctor. Have you ever referred somebody to a doctor, a medical professional of some sort? Eye or heart? Skin? Dentist? Have you ever done that? Ever been referred to? I have. I had a problem with my arches years ago from playing too much ball. I was talking to a buddy of mine, and I said, Man, when I get up, right here-my heal-it just hurts. I can hardly walk in the morning. He said, You have planter fasciitis. I said, Planter whatsa whosit? He said, Planter fasciitis. Its an inflammation of the tendon. You have to go to this doctor in Beloit. What hell do is hell make a cast of your foot, and hell make some orthotics for your foot. I said, Orthotics? That sounds like something an old person wears. I dont want to wear something called an orthotic. Cant I just get those spongy things for my shoes, so I can be jellin? He said, No, no, no, no. These are better. Theyre hard, but theyre shaped just to your foot. Itll make you feel a whole lot better. So I went to go see the doctor, and he made some forms of my foot. Then he made these orthotics, which I will be putting in after this sermon. I wore them, and he said, Two weeks from now, youre going to feel great. Two weeks later, I felt great. Since then, I havent had that problem again. Did my friend have to understand the inner workings of the foot? Did he have to know about every bone, every tendon and muscle and how it connects in my foot to help me? Did he have to know how to make the cast or how to make the orthotic itself? What did my friend have to do? Point me to the direction of the doctor. The doctor had to do the work. The doctor is the guy that I said a friend referred me to you, so the pressure is on him. Hes the one who has to use his knowledge and expertise, experience, to help me with my problem. The pressure is on him-its not on my friend. My friend knows, based on experience, that if he sends me to him, Im going to get the help that I need. Maybe youve had a toothache, and you say, Boy, Ive got a good dentist. Hes really good. Or maybe you have a friend who struggles with vision, and you say, You know, theres a guy who does this great LASIK procedure, and my friend had it done. He can see 20/20 now. If you have a friend whose breathing is bad. He says, Boy, Im always out of breath, and Im having some pain, youd say, You know what? Maybe you have a heart blockage. Maybe you need to see a cardiologist. I have a friend who had this cardiologist who did a great job. He did a procedure on him, and he feels wonderful now. Do you need to know anything about the heart? For the dentist, do you need to know about teeth to refer somebody to a good dentist? Or [do you have to know] how eye surgery works? Somebody has a rash; do you need to know what that rash is and what medicine makes it better to send him to a dermatologist? Whats the answer? No. You simply need to know what direction to point them. Friends, you dont need to understand everything about the persons condition. You dont need to understand everything about the cure for their condition. You have to simply point them to Jesus because if theyll go to Him, theyre going to find a cure. Theyre going to find the help they need. Thats your job. Your job is to say, I cant help you with that, but theres somebody who can, and then point them in that direction. I have heard many people, over the years, use the excuse-some of you have used this excuse, You know, I just dont know the Bible as well as I should. Ive never been theologically trained. Im afraid I will say something wrong or misinterpret Scripture or not be able to answer the question correctly. I think if I just had more theological training, then Id be able to do it. How much theological training did Matthew have? How much? None. How about the woman at the well who lives a loose life, comes to Jesus, and He administers to her. She runs back and says, Come meet a man who told me everything Ive ever done. He could even be the Messiah. The village comes, and heres Jesus, and they all become Christians. How about Andrew who just meets Jesus and goes back to Peter and says, We found the Messiah. Come and meet Him. Come and hear! How much theological training did he have? How about any of them: Peter the fisherman and John? How much theological training did they have? You know what, friends? Speaking as a person who has had theological training, it helps, but not as much as you think it does. Sometimes, it complicates things. Theological training comes in handy if youre talking to somebody who has had theological training. If theyve had systematic theology, it helps really well. If theyre a normal everyday person, like you, probably just talking an everyday normal language is what works best. Recently my wife typed up a paper I did. The title of my paper was a Soteriological Study of Substitutionary and Governmental Theories of Atonement. In it, I Juxtaposed Reformed and Armenian theology as it pertains to atonement. My wife read my title, and she said, Boring! She read the paper, and she said, You guys make this stuff not fun! (Pastor looks toward his wife, Brenda and asks) Did anything in that paper help you, spiritually, really? Nothing. Its a good trade off though. She typed my paper, and I got to cut off the craft [for this week in Childrens Church], so when you come home with the drawing with the kids, and it says, Keep learning about God and theres Jesus and a kid on the popsicle stick, I did that. I was watching the Cubbies last night, cutting paper. It was a fair tradeoff. It was boring to her. I said, It might be boring to you, but this stuff helps me be a better pastor and teacher, just like your boring medical journals help the body come alive to you and help you to be a better critical care nurse. People dont want you to talk theology with them. They dont need deep terminology. They need Jesus. Have you ever had an experience with the Lord? Hes blessed your life, and you want to bless somebody elses. Youre excited about your faith. Guess what? You are qualified. You might be a more effective witness than Professor so-and-so or Dr. so-and-so or Pastor so-and-so, who knows a whole lot more about the scripture than you do. That does not mean they are a better witness than you are. Its not so much about knowledge. You need to have some knowledge. Im not belittling that, but if theres enthusiasm, if theres sincerity, authenticity, if there is concern and respect, that goes a long way. That goes a really long way. In my early years as a Christian, there were times when I shared my faith, and it didnt go so well. There were some times when I overreacted to people who didnt believe as I believe. I was like, You believe what? Youre wrong! Youre dumb. Heres the truth. Bam! That didnt go well. Then I learned a principle. Peter said that we gently correct; we use meekness and gentleness, humbly correct. I have yet to have somebody who sees that I am showing them respect…even though I disagree with their viewpoint-I respect them. I am showing genuine concern and compassion. I have yet to see anybody offended in those contexts. It doesnt happen. Thats a myth. If somebody knows you care about them, somebody knows youre not trying to be condescending or judgmental, but youre going to truly listen to them, value and respect their opinion, and youre going to authentically share yours, and you do so with gentleness as the Scripture tells you to do it, youre not going to offend anybody. Youre not going to turn off anybody. If you do run across a question that you dont have an answer for, you simply say, I dont have an answer for that. Thats an excellent question, and Ill try to find out for you. Its not as hard and scary as we make it out to be. If it were up to me to make this thing (an orange) juicy or orangey or taste good, Id feel a lot of pressure. Its simply up to me to put the seed in the ground. Its not up to me to make this smell good or this taste good. Its just up to me to put the seed in the ground and water it. Thats all you do. You put the seed in the ground, and you water it. God causes the growth. Its not that hard. You try to learn to live life with ears to hear and eyes to see. As youre going through the course of life, and you see a need and hear a need, you respond to it. You dont have to have all the answers; you dont have to understand everything thats going on. You just simply have to say, I know somebody who can help you with that. Heres how the Lord helped me, and you refer them to Dr. Jesus. Let Him do His thing. Is that scary to you? Friends, the most effective witness for Christ isnt always our most highly-trained theologian, nor is it the person who stands on the street corner and hands out tracks. The most effective witness for Christ is when you go to a person you work with or you know, and you share from your heart what the Lord means to you. You plant a seed; you water a seed; and when that seed grows, you cant take any credit for it, gang, because that was Gods doing-not yours. Does that help you today? Does that take some of the pressure off of you and maybe even get you a little excited about the next opportunity to share your faith? I hope so. I see a team coming up to the platform right now, and that means theyre kicking me off, so I will take my orthotics and leave. Its time to sing. Lets stand together. Well continue on in Luke next week. * (This is a story about a man who is complaining of all sorts of things: First, its the kid who pulls out in front of his car, and he thinks, That kid, every time Im pulling out, hes right there! Man. I think somebody needs to talk to his parents-if theyre ever home. Then he begins complaining about the traffic and how everyday its congested. What is it with these dumb roads? he asks. Next, he reflects on how a driver cuts him off and then states how badly a car is parked in a parking lot. He walks into a restaurant and waits in line to order while he looks at the long line and grumbles about the man in line ordering a cookie (who doesnt need it). He orders a latte and is thanked for his patience in the wait for his order. The wait is quite long. Then, he puts on a pair of glasses and begins to see all the reasons for each situation. He starts to think things through differently when he sees all the reasons why each person reacted the way they did to the situation (i.e. why the boy rides in the street with no supervision, why the overweight man eats so much…). He changes his thought process and becomes more patient, more helpful to the people he comes across.