Podcasts about Philo Farnsworth

On today's podcast, learn about inventor Philo Farnsworth on our new All About America series; researchers in Michigan are trying to improve the apple tree; find out how to avoid dementia in middle age; then, how to sound like a native speaker when asking questions on Lesson of the Day.

Get full interviews, tools, and daily coaching at DailyCreative.app.Are teams inherently more, or less productive than individuals? And, is there a way to structure teamwork so that it's less cumbersome?In this episode, we dive into the fascinating story of Philo Farnsworth, the farm boy who revolutionized the world with the invention of electronic television. Despite his humble beginnings and the lack of formal education, Farnsworth's vision and determination enabled him to outpace corporate giants like RCA, proving the power of individual ingenuity. However, this story sparks an important question: do individuals achieve more than teams, or is there a way for teams to function as highly effective, innovative units?We explore this with our guest, David Allen, author of the international bestseller "Getting Things Done" and the new book "Team." David discusses the gap between individual and team productivity and outlines core practices from his book that can help teams function more effectively. These practices include capturing what has the team's collective attention, clarifying and organizing actionable steps, reflecting on progress, and engaging effectively.Key Learnings:Capture Team Focus: Identifying what captures a team's attention helps bring crucial, non-routine issues into focus.Clarification and Context: Clarifying captured points to understand their importance and context ensures the team is aligned on priorities.Organize Information: Having structured methods to organize and store team data and tasks ensures accessibility and streamlined workflow.Reflect Regularly: Periodic reflection, such as daily stand-ups or annual reviews, ensures the team remains current with objectives and progress.Engage Purposefully: Combining these steps allows teams to engage with purpose, rather than reacting to immediate pressures, thus making more informed and strategic decisions.Mentioned in this episode:NEW BOOK! The Brave Habit is available nowRise to important moments in your life and work by developing the habit of bravery. Available in paperback, ebook, or audiobook wherever books are sold. Learn more

Dr. Alex Magoun is the outreach historian for the IEEE's History Center (IEEE stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). On today's episode, he gives us the history of the History Center and the organization's drive to document and preserve the innovavtions and developments fostered by its members over the years. Along the way we talk about engineers and inventors such as Philo Farnsworth, Edward Armstrong, and Vladimir Zworykin. We also discuss what drives innovation in technology, the public and commercial aspects of funding it, and the many organizations and individuals dedicated to preserving its unique history.  Additional Links: IEEE History Center IEEE Global Museum "Why Frankenstein Became Electric"

If curiosity is the source of wisdom, then what can we learn from the curiosity of children? In this episode, Harris explores the stories of Mary Anning, Philo Farnsworth, and Blaise Pascal, 3 children whose curiosity changed the world. He then introduces next week's special guest and leads us through some questions we can ask ourselves to begin to cultivate our own curiosity.Episode Recap:Today we're looking at 3 amazing stories of children who changed the world (0:10)There's wisdom to be found through curiosity and wonder (2:13)So many of our most extraordinary innovations started with childlike curiosity (6:20)What happens when our curiosity starts to fade? (9:12)If you want to live a wow-level life, you need to cultivate curiosity (13:20)Join us next week to learn from Gillian Ferrabee (14:10)If curiosity is wonder in action, how can you put your wonder to work this week? (16:24)Do you need to make time for the practice of curiosity? (20:51)Links and Resources:Harris III's WebsiteFollow our next guest, Gillian FerrabeeGet in touch with Harris at harris@istoria.com 

Prof. Dr. Serhan Yarkan ve Ahmet Mücahit Yılmaz'ın yer aldığı TapirCast'in Teknolojinin Devinimi serisinin bu bölümünde, televizyon teknolojisinin günümüzde anladığımız anlamıyla doğduğu zamandaki gelişmeleri ele alarak devam ediyoruz. İlk olarak, televizyonu icat edenler arasında yer alan John Logie Baird, Philo Farnsworth ve Vladimir Zworykin isimlerini ele alıyoruz. Sonrasında, televizyonun icadında öne çıkan ve televizyonun doğuşunu sağlayan isim Vladimir Zworykin'in çalışmalarını daha detaylı inceliyoruz. Ardından, Zworykin'in elektronik televizyon olarak adlandırılan icadını ortaya koyma sürecinde yaşadığı problemleri nasıl aştığına ve bu süreçteki fonlama sistemlerinin önemine değiniyoruz. Son olarak, Zworykin'in çalışmalarından sonraki süreçte yaşanan gelişmeleri ele alıyor ve bölümümüzü sonlandırıyoruz. Keyifli dinlemeler!

Paul Shatzkin joins us for a great chat about his two books "The Boy Who Invented Television - A Story of Inspiration, Persistence and Quiet Passion", and "The Man Who Mastered Gravity - A Twisted Tale of Space, Time and The Mysteries In Between". A fascinating journey from their births around 1905/06 right when Enstein shocked the world and deleted 'Ether', these two inventors grew up and might have played a role in early UFOLOGY / Flying Saucers and a break away civilization.   We chat about the anomalous effect that Brown discovered as a teen and the sketch of a TV that Farnsworth did as a teen. Is synthetic gravity possible? Nuclear fusion back then? We also get into Weinstein on JRE, the Beifield-Brown effect, MIB realm, time travel, tethered saucers, NRO, the star in a jar, and some of Malcolm Bendall's work.   In the second half we get into the USS Eldrige, all the pop culture nods to Brown and Farnsworth - Fringe, Futurama, Back to the Future, American Hustle and Projekt Saucer. Did the Philadelphia Experiment actually happen? What is Paul's pet theory? What about Oppenheimer? What was the Caroline Group, how long were they around for and are they still? Is there a higher intelligence in the Universe? What happened to Brown at Pearl Harbour? Did Farnsworth's 'fusion device' power Brown's Saucer. Why would he move to Laurel Canyon and then Catalina Island? Coincidence... that that island is one of the hottest UFO spots?   We also get into Simulation, quantum mechanics, the medium is the message, the device, the ether and David Grusch. Are people making stars in the jars now?   Paul Schatzkin has been described variously as a visionary, gadfly, serial entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, staunch McLuhanist, author, occasional bomb-thrower, guitarist and songwriter. He was born in New York City and raised in Springsteen Country (Monmouth County, NJ) He has spent the first two decades of twenty-first century researching and writing these two biographies of obscure scientists from the twentieth.   ttbrown.com farnovision.com https://www.incorrigiblearts.com/ fusor.net   See links to stuff we chatted about: https://www.howtube.com/series/BdlpJhzi Malcolm Bendall's work https://www.strikefoundation.earth/ Bendall's website https://www.jrepodcast.com/episode/joe-rogan-experience-1945-eric-weinstein/ https://www.reddit.com/r/disclosure/comments/16fjvf5/ufo_whistleblower_dave_grusch_tells_me_everything/ https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22198 The Hunt for Zero Point https://adultbrain.ca/the-flying-saucers-are-real-by-donald-keyoe/     To gain access to the second half of show and our Plus feed for audio and podcast please clink the link http://www.grimericaoutlawed.ca/support.   For second half of video (when applicable and audio) go to our Substack and Subscribe. https://grimericaoutlawed.substack.com/ or to our Locals  https://grimericaoutlawed.locals.com/   Help support the show, because we can't do it without ya. If you value this content with 0 ads, 0 sponsorships, 0 breaks, 0 portals and links to corporate websites, please assist. Many hours of unlimited content for free. Thanks for listening!!   Support the show directly: https://grimerica.ca/support-2/ Our Adultbrain Audiobook Podcast and Website: www.adultbrain.ca Our Audiobook Youtube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@adultbrainaudiobookpublishing/videos Grimerica Media Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@grimerica/featured Darren's book www.acanadianshame.ca Check out our next trip/conference/meetup - Contact at the Cabin www.contactatthecabin.com Other affiliated shows: www.grimerica.ca The OG Grimerica Show www.Rokfin.com/Grimerica Our channel on free speech Rokfin Join the chat / hangout with a bunch of fellow Grimericans  Https://t.me.grimerica https://www.guilded.gg/chat/b7af7266-771d-427f-978c-872a7962a6c2?messageId=c1e1c7cd-c6e9-4eaf-abc9-e6ec0be89ff3   Get your Magic Mushrooms delivered from: Champignon Magique  Mushroom Spores, Spore Syringes, Best Spore Syringes,Grow Mushrooms Spores Lab Get Psychedelics online Leave a review on iTunes and/or Stitcher: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/grimerica-outlawed http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/grimerica-outlawed Sign up for our newsletter http://www.grimerica.ca/news SPAM Graham = and send him your synchronicities, feedback, strange experiences and psychedelic trip reports!! graham@grimerica.com InstaGRAM https://www.instagram.com/the_grimerica_show_podcast/  Purchase swag, with partial proceeds donated to the show www.grimerica.ca/swag Send us a postcard or letter http://www.grimerica.ca/contact/ ART - Napolean Duheme's site http://www.lostbreadcomic.com/  MUSIC Tru Northperception, Felix's Site sirfelix.bandcamp.com  

Television became available as an experimental form in the late 1920s, and after world war ii, a preform of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain. In 1927 an American scientist, Philo Farnsworth made the first electronic television system in the file they patent for that same year. His camera tube design was known as the image of the sector. Like Nicola Tesla, he was ahead of his time. I was just 14 years old, and he had already established the basic principles of electric television. Fans worth invention was intended by its created to educate people through cultural and sports programs, to bring more understanding to the world of the sheer beauty of our different coaches, habits, and beliefs, to settle world problems, and bring people together. According to his wife, Pem Farnsworth, Philo saw television as a marvelous teaching tool. There would be no excuse for illiteracy. Parents could learn along with their children. News and sporting events could be seen as they were happening in real-time and we would be able to see and learn about people and other countries and lands all over the world. Differences could be settled around conference tables, without going to war. Speaking of the invention of television, a former member of the CIA described it as, quote the greatest scientific and indoctrination to ever devised. " Today, people watch television for dozens of our every week. It can be said, that it has been, and continues to be, one of the most trusted means of communication and form of entertainment. But what if you discovered that the very source of information you were introduced to as a child and had learned to love, was above all, it means to control your perceptions, your views, your choices, your emotion,s and consequently, your behavior? The global mainstream media still today, is merely one of the many tools used strategically for primary people's perception, if you believe that television is a reliable source of Truth and a means of harmless entertainment, you are deluding yourself. " Never watch the television. It becomes YOU and you become IT. " --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/omar-dejesus/message

What's top-of-mind will sometimes lead to inspiration.Psalm 119:15-16I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways. I will delight in your decrees and not forget your word. 

We learned more about Michigan Career and Technical Institute and their new partnership with Torch 180 (and angled to get a podcasting apprenticeship), left dishes in the proverbial sink and then hopped on the tractor with TV inventor Philo Farnsworth.

Paul Harvey - Philo Farnsworth

On December 31st, 2021, Hollywood legend and literally the most well-liked living person in America at one point, Betty White, passed away in her home in Brentwood, California. Even though she was 99 years old, it still felt like she was taken too soon. She was still so very much alive and looking forward to celebrating her 100th birthday in a little over two weeks. Most now seem to remember her from The Golden Girls, or The Mary Tyler Moore Show, or Hot in Cleveland. Or maybe that 2010 Snickers Super Bowl commercial. But by the time The Mary Tyler Moore Show debuted in 1970, she had already been regularly appearing on TV for over twenty years. She'd starred in and produced one of America's very first sitcoms - Life With Elizabeth - in the early 1950's. She'd had her own variety show, The Betty White Show. She'd starred in other sitcoms, and was a regular guest on dozens of games shows, late night talk shows, variety shows, etc. She's starred in movies. And she had an amazing life outside of entertainment. Her love story with third husband Allen Ludden reads like a movie script, but it was very real. Such an inspiring show today! I hope it makes you feel as good hearing it as it did for me when I recorded it. Hail Nimrod, everyone! The Bad Magic Charity of the month is New Orleans Community Fridges (amount tbd) will be this months recipient of the Bad Magic Donation! Such a cool charity, providing free food and drink to those who are food insecure. Visit nolacommunityfridges.org for more info!Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8paLSutNq58Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/  Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 265, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Subway Stops 1: Stops on this city's Line 1 include Carioca, Flamengo and Botafogo. Rio de Janeiro. 2: Kyobashi and Toranomon are stops on the Ginza Line cutting through this city. Tokyo. 3: You'll have to switch lines in this city to go from Chapultepec to Politecnico. Mexico City. 4: You can ride one line in this world capital from Kifissia to Pireas. Athens. 5: Going from Govan to Cowcaddens on this city's subway, you'll cross the Clyde and Kelvin Rivers. Glasgow. Round 2. Category: My Own Private Idaho 1: Calling itself the birthplace of television, Rigby, Idaho was the boyhood home of this technology pioneer. Philo Farnsworth. 2: Idaho's license plates logically carry the slogan "Famous" these. Potatoes. 3: In the 1860s this precious metal was discovered at Owyhee, and today Idaho leads the U.S. in its production. silver. 4: The Idaho section of U.S. Highway 12 bears the name of these 2 men who passed through the area in the early 1800s. Lewis and Clark. 5: Idaho's Kamiah Valley is rich in the heritage and legends of this "nosy" Native American tribe. Nez Perce. Round 3. Category: Motown 1: Beginning with "Where Did Our Love Go", this group has 12 No. 1 hits, more than any act on the Motown label. the Supremes. 2: "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" was the first of his 19 Grammys, a record for rock performers. Stevie Wonder. 3: This lead singer of the Miracles wrote "My Guy" for Mary Wells and "My Girl" for the Temptations. Smokey Robinson. 4: Renaldo Benson, Abdul Fakir, Levi Stubbs and Lawrence Payton performed under this name, starting in 1956. the Four Tops. 5: The Supremes had the most No. 1 hits of any U.S. group, beginning with this song in 1964: "Baby, baby...". "Where Did Our Love Go". Round 4. Category: Lotto Fever 1: An illegal lottery, or the fourth book of the Old Testament. Numbers. 2: One of the USA's 500 largest businesses by revenue is this state's lottery, based in Schenectady. New York. 3: In 1980 Congress forbade the use of this for distribution of lottery materials. the mails. 4: 13 workers at one of this coffee chain's stores in California became stars when they won big bucks in 2000...$87 million. Starbucks. 5: 2000 saw a fight in England over running the lottery, with this Virgin king at the forefeont. Richard Branson. Round 5. Category: Irs Stuff 1: The IRS now allows some deductions for treatments, not including the over-the-counter patch, to quit this. Smoking. 2: To deduct these, your new job must be over 50 miles farther from your former home than your old job was. Moving expenses. 3: If you've been selected for one of these, the IRS cheerfully informs you that many of them result in refunds. Audit. 4: Filing jointly, families with 2 or more kids and making under $34,178 a year may receive the EITC, this credit. Earned Income Tax Credit. 5: About 9% of the individual returns for 2000 checked the box to donate this much to the Presidential Election Fund. $3. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

This is Today features the stories that make this day unique. It's Tuesday, September 7, 2021, and here is what we talk about today:National Beer Lover's DayNational Acorn Squash DayNational Grandma Moses DayNational Neither Snow Nor Rain DayNational Grateful Patient DayNational Another Look Unlimited DayNational Salami DayPhilo FarnsworthTupac Shakur ShotHelp to support this podcast:Become a Patron!Subscribe to Learning More Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Come succede che tutti conosciamo l'inventore della radio, ma non sappiamo chi ha portato la televisione nelle nostre case? È successo perchè non esiste una sola persona ad aver creato uno degli oggetti più diffusi al mondo, si tratta piuttosto di due uomini che hanno lavorato, negli stessi anni, a due versioni differenti dello stesso prodotto. Questa è la storia di John Logie Baird e Philo Farnsworth.

The television was invented by Philo Farnsworth in 1927. TV was invented by Desi Arnaz in 1951.

Here's that pic of Philo Farnsworth https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Philo_T_Farnsworth.jpg

"There needs to be a mechanism in place so that sampling is no longer a controversial issue and that all musicians are fairly compensated for their work." - Philo FarnsworthIn this episode of MFM Speaks Out, Adam Reifsteck interviews an electronic musician and founder of sampling record label Illegal Art who goes by the alias Philo Farnsworth about the use of samples in recorded music. the label gained immediate notoriety from legal threats surrounding Deconstructing Beck, a compilation made exclusively from sampling Beck's music. While Philo believes that the use of samples of music copyrighted by other artists is an expression of artistic freedom that does not co-opt or compete with the original music, there is a crucial difference between bootlegging/piracy and in the creative transformation of existing culture into new and original works of collage. Nevertheless, this obviously creates a bit of a dilemma in that the copyright holders should be compensated for the use. The solution will require both legislative and technological mechanisms for copyright clearance so that musicians and sound artists can be unhindered in their pursuit of furthering the art form of sampling. Other topics discussed are the evolution of Philo's music through the use of modular synthesis and his latest collaboration with the improvisatory ensemble the Shoshin Trio.Visit Illegal Art at http://illegalart.netThe following music featured in this episode are:Opening track: "Once Again" by Girl Talk, from the album Night RipperMiddle track: "Lesson 2 (James Brown Mix)" by Steinski, from the album What Does it All Mean (Disc One - Retrospective)Ending track: "Part 1, In Gratitude" by Yea Big and Shoshin Trio, from the album The Shape of Emptiness Now

Philo Farnsworth makes history when he invents TV, but it takes history for him to see it years later.

Inventor Philo Farnsworth was born on this day in 1906. / On this day in 1814, entrepreneur and abolitionist Mary Ellen Pleasant was born. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor and television pioneer. He made many crucial contributions to the early development of all-electronic television.

TVC 492.7: Via remote from TheHistoryofTV.com: Phil Savenick gives Ed a guided tour of his virtual museum dedicated to the history of television. Besides celebrating the life and legacy of Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television, TheHistoryofTV.com includes many authentic Farnsworth artifacts (including the original drawing for the first television camera, which Farnsworth conceived at age fourteen), plus such mementos from the Golden Age of Television as the Emmy Award that First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy won in 1962 for hosting A Tour of the White House. This interview was recorded in January 2020, before the national lockdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this weeks episode, Jordan gives us the history of the inventor of the television, Philo T. Farnsworth and the world rejoices because seriously where would we all be without television.

While Philo Farnsworth was building gizmos out of a loft in San Francisco, the Radio Corporation of America was already plotting domination of the yet-to-be television industry under the leadership of a man named David Sarnoff. Sarnoff recognized television’s virtually limitless potential, and he was determined to bring it to the masses — with or without the help of Philo Farnsworth. Sarnoff would rely on inventors like Vladimir Zworykin, who had also figured out how to transmit pictures electronically through his patented Iconoscope. At least, in theory. The missing piece wouldn’t fall into place until Zworykin visited Farnsworth’s lab — setting off a court battle to claim ownership of one of the most iconic inventions of the 20th century.Support us by supporting our sponsors.Policy Genius - Visit policygenius.com to compare rates today!Peloton - You can enjoy a 30 day home trial at onepeloton.com. Use the promo code: INNOVATIONS.

The invention of the electronic television was uniquely complicated for its time. So complicated, in fact, that the prevailing narrative is that it couldn’t have been invented by a single person -- let alone Philo Farnsworth. After all, some of the most brilliant minds in the world spent the first quarter of the 20th century working on television systems -- and some even managed to transmit images. But none of those systems were ever able to deliver the quality of images they’d need to be commercially viable. None except Philo Farnsworth, a farm boy from Utah, who got the idea for television when he was fourteen years old. Support us by supporting our sponsors!ZipRecruiter - Visit ZipRecruiter.com/AI to use ZipRecruiter for FREE.Wealthfront - Go to Wealthfront.com/AI to start earning more interest on your savings today.SimpliSafe - With SimpliSafe.com/AI to get FREE shipping on your order plus a 60 day money back guarantee.

TV-maker en presentator Steven Van Herreweghe komt vandaag zijn eerste theatervoorstelling "De Droom van Philo"' voorstellen waarin hij op boeiende wijze het verhaal vertelt van Philo Farnsworth oftewel de uitvinder van de Televisie. In deze episode krijg je een hoop TV geschiedenis te horen met bovendien leuke anekdotes uit Steven's rijkgevulde carrière.

television inventor Philo Farnsworth.

The Boy who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth by Kathleen Krull

Inventor Philo Farnsworth was born on this day in 1906. Learn more in the September 18, 2013 episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, "Philo T. Farnsworth." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown - Wednesday, February 7, 20184:20 pm: Representative Mike Winder wants to create a recreation area on the Jordan River to help alleviate some of the impacts of the new homeless resource centers in the area between 2100 south and 4500 south, and he joins Rod to discuss his vision4:35 pm: Author Bryan Caplan, also a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, joins Rod to discuss whether spending $1 Trillion on public education in the U.S. is a waste of money5:05 pm: Representative Mike Noel joins Rod to discuss why he is holding up a bill that would replace a statue of television inventor Philo Farnsworth at the U.S. Capitol with one of Martha Hughes Cannon, the first female state senator ever elected in the U.S.6:05 pm: Boyd Matheson, Deseret News Opinion Editor, joins the show for his weekly conversation with Rod about the world of politics6:20 pm: State Senator Lincoln Fillmore introduced an amendment to a toll-roads bill that will open the possibility of the Utah Department of Transportation introducing tolls to any road in the state and he joins Rod to discuss why he made the move6:35 pm: Utah Speaker of the House Greg Hughes joins the show for his weekly conversation with Rod about the action happening on Capitol Hill during the 2018 Utah Legislative Session

Today Mike and Heather are flying solo today as they take a look at the call given to believers in Colossians 3:15. Also, sprinkled throughout are some interesting news stories from various locations. All of this and more, but you’ll just have to listen and find out for more.

Utah author John Starley Allen joins us for the hour today. His latest book (from Cedar Fort Press) is "A Splash of Kindness: The Ripple Effect of Compassion, Courage & Character." Allen says that the little things you do make a big difference and small acts of goodness have a ripple effect and eventually change the world. He'll tell true stories of positive change, including stories of Romanian orphans; the great athlete Jesse Owens; and Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television.

Last season we ended the show watching Revenge of the Ninja (http://revengeofthe.ninja/) where guest Arden chose a random page number from Videohound’s Complete Guide to Cult Flicks & Trash Pics. The idea was that we would watch a film from the page he chose. What luck! On that page was Weird Al Yankovic’s UHF Where can you watch this film? And for once we recommend it. Buy the Blu-ray 25th Anniversary edition. Stream it on - Amazon iTunes Coincidentally, there probably aren’t any UHF stations where you can watch UHF. Check your local listings! This episode we’re joined by Sally from Sallyannk.com. During the episode she talks about the upcoming One Spark competition. As of posting this show we know she placed 9th in her category! Chris appeals to Cracker Jack to sponsor the show. UHF had heavy competition in 1989. We decided that Weird Al needs one of Sally’s beanies. It’s a good price, get one for yourself! Paul’s first cassette ever? Alapalooza. The film has an amazing story when it comes to its video release. Check out the “Legacy” section of the Wikipedia entry. Supposedly the movie was loosely based on The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a Danny Kaye film based on a short story. Ben Stiler stars in the remake. You do not have permission to use a real oscar in your silly film! So here’s a bashful, gold statue. Everyone needs a Nash Metropolitan. The undisputed king of sandwiches. Weird Al builds a mountain of mashed potatoes a la Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Is that the Inspector Gadget villain again? Victoria Jackson shows up in the film. She sticks to her lines and thankfully doesn’t accuse Obama of being a communist. Crispin Glover was offered the role of the janitor, but turned it down. They also tried to get Christopher Llyod. Michael Richards from Seinfeld is crazy young and one of the best parts of the film, the janitor. Chris thinks Fran Drescher looks like a Swatch watch in her dress. It’s a Film Frown alum! Billy Barty is the camera man at the station. We saw him in Harum Scarum. One of the great surrealist comedians, Emo Philips has a hilarious bit in the film. The Spatula City commercial entertains us all. The movie says it’s time to show a Weird Al video. Beverly Hillbillies. Chris loves Weird Al’s take on Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner. Wheel of Fish? No you don’t get a clip because we’ve already spoiled enough in these notes. Trinidad Silva is amazing in this film. His character has an “animal kingdom” TV show on the public access station Al manages. Unfortunately, he died in a car accident before shooting ended and the film is dedicated to him. “You get a drink from the fire hose!” That’s the iconic line and scene from this movie. Where does the “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” line come from? The book The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and its 1948 film. Weird Al parodies The Geraldo Rivera Show. In the TV station there’s a Thing With Two Heads poster. The bizarre but lovable bum in the film was played by Vance Colvig Jr.. He was one of the first Bozo the Clowns. Of course there has to be a Rambo parody. Anthony Geary from General Hospital plays Philo, named after inventor Philo Farnsworth. Weird Al’s character is named George Newman in a nod to Alfred E. Neuman the mascot of Mad magazine. Sally wants more Weird Al movies. We found these interviews he did for the Nerdist network. Where’s the commentary in streaming? If you’re interested you can find some commentary in films using VHX.tv to distribute digitally. David Cross’s new film Hits has an option to get bundled extras. Paul also mentions that iTunes has Extras available for some films as well. Sally choses another page from the cult movie book! Next season we have to watch Tower of London, Top Secret! or Touch of Evil. Stay tuned after the ending theme song - we do some bonus talk about Weird Al trivia and copyright, as well as catch up with Sally’s adventures in up-cycling / recycling / repurposing goods through hand (not mine) crafting. And a double-bonus track at the very end, Paul talks with his daughter Evie just before the show starts. Thanks for listening! And thanks for taking time to join us again, Sally! Up next, 1995’s Waterworld. Support Film Frown on Patreon

It's the beginning of The Bowery Boys Summer TV Mini-Series, three podcasts devoted to New York City's illustrious history with broadcast television -- from Sarnoff to Seinfeld!  In our first show, we go back to the start of the invention of the television and the city's role in both the creation of the complicated technology and the early formation of programming. We begin with the Electro Importing Co. and the imagination of one of the greatest names in science fiction. Then head into scientific realities -- the failures of mechnical televisions and the brutal patent wars between RCA's David Sarnoff and one of the great inventors of television, Philo Farnsworth. In victory, Sarnoff claimed the mantel of 'father of television' at the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. It's but one of many great New York City's beloved landmarks with ties to television's early history, from the heights of the Empire State Building to even a floor at Wanamaker's Department Store. And we even go drinking at McSorley's Old Ale House! ALSO: Why is Greg singing Cole Porter? www.boweryboyshistory.com Support the show.

An interview with Lawrence Noble about his statue of Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television, at Lucasfilm.

Ross and Nate welcome in the other two-thirds of Denver Stiffs.com to chat about how the three came together to form their writing team, some talk about the current Nuggets season (the biggest issues facing the team), if Wilson Chandler can help the Nuggets, and of course The Blogger Challenge is back! Ross devised a trivia game with so much history in it that the audio only podcast takes us back to a time where the television was just a glimmer in Philo Farnsworth's eye or for whoever actually invented the TV. The guys wage battle as names like Kenny Smith, Reggie Williams, Brian Williams, Bobby Jones, and Scott Hastings get shouted out. And the prize for this contest ... well, the guys handpicked CSG listeners that Tweeted the show via the hashtag #MozgovMilitia. Each Denver Stiff writer represented a listener and one won the Mozgov's Militia t-shirt. Listen now to find out who won and to learn some interesting tidbits of Nuggets history. Also, is Tim Tebow really dating Katy Perry? And will Ross' favorite Broncos be back with the team next season? It's all in this week's episode.

What were you doing when you were 14 years old?  At that very young age Philo Farnsworth invented something that would change the world forever.  There is a very good chance that you are using his invention right now, yet he is largely forgotten today. Also learn why most laundry detergents are blue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What were you doing when you were 14 years old?  At that very young age Philo Farnsworth invented something that would change the world forever.  There is a very good chance that you are using his invention right now, yet he is largely forgotten today. Also learn why most laundry detergents are blue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introduction In 1920, a 14-year-old farm boy in Utah was plowing a field back and forth. He went over the furrows again and again. Every time he passed by, the furrow got a little deeper. He'd done this many times before. He's a farm boy. But he's also a genius whose hobby was electronics. His name was Philo Farnsworth. As he went back and forth in these furrows, he got an idea, and out of that idea came television. It works in the same way that he was plowing that field. Repetition, endless repetitions. The stream of electrons hits these phosphorus-coated glass. As soon as it hits and it moves on, it starts to fade. Then the stream comes back and refreshes it and then it starts to fade again. Is that like you? The stream of the word of God hitting you, and as soon as it moves on, it starts to fade. Sometimes quickly. We can be forgetful hearers of the word and not doers. We can read something in the Scripture, and as soon as we put the Bible up, it starts to fade quickly and we need a refresher course. Again and again and again, we need to be refreshed in the word of God. The Importance of Repetition & Reminding That's the best sense I can make of why there are two feeding accounts so close to each other in Matthew's Gospel. As a verse-by-verse expository, I'm thinking, "What am I going to do with the feeding of the 4,000 that I didn't do quite recently with the feeding of the 5,000?" You may be wondering the same thing. But what struck me is how God felt we needed it again and again and again and again. For this is the way we are, we forget and we need endless refreshment. We build up habit patterns for good or ill. It either moves us toward God and righteousness or it moves us away from Him towards sin and death. But these habit patterns are built up, it's the way that God designed us. Someone once put it this way, "Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit and reap a character. If you sow a character, you'll reap a destiny." Every day you're taking a step toward heaven or hell, taking a step toward a righteous character or one that's unrighteous by what you choose to do by repetition, endless repetition. The Lord means to use this mechanism to use this tendency of the human soul for good. He means that we subject our minds to the word of God again and again, that we be refreshed and we be reminded of how powerful Jesus is. We could read again about Jesus's healing ministry and read again about his feeding ministry. We need this repetition. The repetition is there. I've already mentioned that just back one chapter in Matthew 14, we have the feeding of the 5,000, five thousand men plus women and children fed with five loaves and two fish and they collected 12 basket fulls. This time, we have the feeding of 4,000 men plus women and children with seven loaves and a few small fish and seven large basket fulls of broken pieces collected. It seems very much like the same thing. Some have wondered if it's a lesser miracle feeding fewer people with more loaves, but I think not. Try to do either one and you'll see, either way, it's a great display of power to those of you that are mathematically oriented and you want to try to figure out the mathematics of a miracle. It's no less miracle. The question is, why are there two? And it's not just two. There's actually six miraculous feeding accounts. Because the feeding of the 5,000 is in each of the synoptic Gospels plus John and the feeding of the 4,000 is in both Matthew and Mark. So that's six miraculous feeding accounts. Why so many? In everyday life, we have these rhythms of repetition, the rhythms of life endlessly repeated. Is there any rhyme or reason? Is there any purpose to it? The Book of Ecclesiastes wrestles with this. In Ecclesiastes 1:5-7, it says, "The sun rises, the sun also sets and hurries back to where it rises again. The wind blows to the south and it turns toward the north, round and round it goes, ever returning to its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full, to the place the streams come from, there they return again." So that's the rhythms of repetition in nature. We have the same thing in our everyday life. You have your rituals for breakfast, your rituals for lunch, rituals for dinner, rituals in your family life. I remember early in our marriage when we didn't have a dishwasher. I've never forgotten to be thankful for the dishwasher because I remember the years that we didn't have one. And so I was thankful for that. But I remember I held up a dish, I forget what it was, a bowl, a glass. How many times have I washed this dish in the last year? The endlessly repeated rituals of life, washing this dish again and again. Young children especially thrive on rhythms of repetition of rituals. I noticed that when I put little Daphne to bed, she's 18 months old, and when I put her to bed, I lay her on the back and she immediately starts sucking her thumb. She pulls her special blanket up toward herself and the hem is there. She works her way to the corner of the hem and puts the corner right near her cheek every single time. It's funny though, we're not much different than that. We have our own rhythms, our own habit patterns and we refresh them again and again every time that we do it. And so the Lord has taken this mechanism that He's built into the human personality and He's using it for good in sanctification. That we would use the repetition to build ourselves up in godliness. The most important repeated habit of the Christian life is Bible intake, that you would take the Scripture in again and again and again, that you would feed on it, that you would be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you would take in the word of God, that you would read those familiar stories again and again. The call of Abraham, of Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah, Jacob's ladder and the angels ascending and descending, and the birth of Moses and how he is put in that basket and made to float in the Nile River and then his call at the burning bush. All of these are very familiar stories. You've read them before. There's always something new to be learned though and we're always in a little bit different place in our lives when we come to those stories. But they need to be refreshed, they need to be familiar. I think it's wise to try to read through the Bible in a year, every year to keep reading the Bible and taking it in. George Mueller is my hero in this regard. He did it 100 times in his life. If you think there's nothing much to that, you ought to try it sometime. That's going through the Bible about every six months. That's an incredible pace and to keep that up for 50 years which he did is remarkable. But how many times did he read this feeding of the 4,000? Again and again he read it. The repetition is essential to our salvation. Some lessons have to be repeated endlessly until we learn. That's how we learn to be sinners. We did it, then did it again, then we did it again and then again and again until we became sinners like that. Habits of complaining or selfishness or conflicts or other things, we just do it through repetition. We learn how to do it. In the same manner, God intends that we present our bodies to Him as servants of righteousness, the members of our bodies again and again, day after day to serve Him in patterns of righteousness. We must be reminded again and again. We need to hear the same things again and again. The Holy Spirit has been given to us for that very purpose. It's one of His main ministries, the ministry of reminding. In John 14:26, Jesus said this of the Holy Spirit, "The counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." The ministry of reminding. The Apostle Paul had a very strong ministry of reminding. In Philippians 3:1, he says, "Finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again and it is a safeguard for you." What's a safeguard? The repetition of a simple message like, “Rejoice in the Lord.” But he's not done. In Chapter 4, Verse 4, he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." "Okay, we got it. It's twice now he said it." Oh, he's not done yet. "Again I say, rejoice." It's the endless repetition. We need it. How much more for something like the basic facts of the Gospel? Every year, we have Holy Week, we have Palm Sunday, we have Good Friday, the focus on the death of Christ. We have Easter Sunday. We celebrate the resurrection of Christ which we do year-round, but we focus on it because these patterns help us to remember the basic facts of the Gospel. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, he said, "Now brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preach to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. For what I received I passed on to as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, that He was buried, that He was raised to life on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter and then to the twelve.You know these things, it's not the first time you've heard it.” Why does he say it again? Because we need to be reminded. Jesus died on the cross for sins. Jesus was buried and Jesus was raised to life on the third day. These are the facts of the Gospel. As Paul is training Timothy to be a good pastor, he says in 2 Timothy 2:14, "Keep reminding them of these things." In 1 Timothy 4, Paul says, "If you keep reminding, you'll be a good pastor and you'll save both yourself and your hearers." It's the ministry of reminding. Peter had a ministry of reminding as well. In 2 Peter 1:12 and following, he says, "So I'll always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body because I know that I will soon put it aside as our Lord Jesus Christ is made clear to me. And I'll make every effort to see that after my departure, you will always be able to remember these things." It's repetition, friends. It's repetition. We forget quickly and we need to be reminded. Therefore we need to refresh our memories on basic doctrine. We need to read through the Bible consistently. We need to memorize Scripture. The endless repetition of the verses we’re memorizing helps us. It transforms your life by renewing your mind. As you go through familiar experiences, you need to ask, "Lord, I've been through this before. Is there something you're trying to teach me here?" I remember for a stretch of time, I was in the habit of misplacing my wallet. It just annoyed me. You know how what a big deal that is? You got your credit cards and your driver's license and all kinds of things in there. They're very difficult to replace. As soon as I would note that it was misplaced, I would kind of forget that there was a sovereign God for a little while. I would. I would become very difficult to be around as I single-mindedly tried to find that wallet. I went through this again and again. Then the Lord would answer my prayers and the prayers of many, and the wallet would be replaced. Then I would feel ashamed, and I would determine about the next time that I misplace my wallet, “Lord, I'm going to do better. I'm going to trust you more. I'm not going to get frustrated. I'm going to wait on you. I'm going to ask that you replace this in your good time. What lesson you're trying to teach me by this repeated thing?” We need to do repetition with each other. We need to tell each other things more than we do. Remember hearing about a surly husband who said, "I told you," to his wife. "I told you, the day I married you that I love you. And if anything changes, I'll let you know." You've heard that before. My feeling is, that's a recipe for a bad marriage. There needs to be constant repetition of, “I love you, I'm glad that God brought you in my life. I'm glad you're my husband, my wife. I'm glad you're my kids. I'm glad you're here.” You have to say these things. You have to repeat them. We have to repeat other things to each other. We have to remind each other about basic things, that there is a sovereign God, He sits on His throne, He is good and loving and wise, and He is ruling over all things for our good. He is working out a magnificent salvation plan that ends in heaven and earth, a new heaven and new earth. We have to remind ourselves that Jesus died on the cross for us, that His blood was shed in our place, that God didn't leave Him there in the grave, and on the third day, He raised Him to life. Speak these words to each other. We're told in 1 Thessalonians 4 to remind each other about the second coming of Christ. Therefore, encourage one another with these words, “Jesus is coming back in the clouds and we're going to be gathered together and with all the dear departed and the Lord. They're going to meet the Lord up in the air. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” We need to refresh each other's memories. For me as a pastor, verse-by-verse exposition helps me to go over some of the things that otherwise I might skip. I wouldn't choose to give you another feeding account or healing account. I think you'd had enough, but the Lord ordains it. So we have these two feeding accounts and another account of Jesus's wonder-working healing ministry. Let’s look at that. After Jesus heals, it says in verses 29 through 31 that, “Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountain side and sat down and great crowds came to him bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at his feet and He healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel.” So we see the location, that he was in a Gentile region. He had healed a woman who when Jesus said, “It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs,” she said, “ Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.” Jesus said "Woman, you have great faith, your daughter is healed, your request is granted." Matthew Henry, in his commentary, said now that he's “let a crumb fall from the table”, He turns back to the children and feeds them. That's a beautiful image from Matthew Henry. Jesus spends actually very little time in the Gentile regions. He goes along the Sea of Galilee. That's his home base, already greatly blessed by the Lord. But there's more work to be done and a huge crowd is following. Jesus’ Healing Ministry There's always a big crush of people around Jesus, and it's mostly because of his healing ministry. I'm convinced that it's the healings more than anything that made a huge crush of people. He goes up on a mountain side and sits down. There's a desolate region, there's nothing happening there, no life, but Jesus consecrates it by His presence and by His power. Perhaps He sat down on a boulder or a rock or something like that and it became temporarily a throne of sovereign grace, or the greatest hospital that there's ever been in the history of the world. They bring this huge crowds of sick people, and lay them at Jesus' feet. He has the most effective healing ministry, more effective than the Mayo Clinic or any of the metropolitan hospitals in New York or Paris, or London, or any great city of the world. This was the greatest hospital in history. Isn't it amazing how a scrubby little place on the Earth can be sanctified by the presence of God and by the working of God? Jesus is there, and we see the volume of miracles, look at verse 30. Great crowds came to Him, 10,000, 15,000 people, I don't know how many, 4000 men plus women and children, no idea, but huge numbers were coming. And Jesus' power there is lavish, it's full, completely equal to the task. He's no less powerful after three days of healing than He was at the beginning, He could have done three more days. But notice that it takes three days, it's quite remarkable. Why did it take three days to heal all of these people? I think it's because Jesus wanted a personal encounter with them, He wanted to touch them, talk to them about their souls perhaps, say something, pray for them, do something, there's such a variety of Jesus' healings. He wants a personal encounter. Let's never forget that Jesus is Almighty God in the flesh. He could have banished illness from Palestine with a single word for three years if He had wanted to, and no one would even know why they were healed, they just suddenly were healed, He could have done that. He could have banished illness from the whole world, if He wanted to. He is not choosing to do that, He has no lack of power. What He wants is a somewhat inefficient process where He's dealing with each individual sinner, and it took three days. Look at the variety of the healings, the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, what a varied wreck sin has made of the human body. Meditate on that. There is not a bodily function, there's not a member of the body, not an organ, not a part of the body that is not somehow in some part of the world, afflicted by disease or sin. You ask any physician, is there a part of the body that makes it through unscathed, in the human race? There is none. There's nothing that hits fingernails. Yes, there is. There are funguses that'll attack them and make them change color, and they'll fall out. There's nothing that attacks eyelids. Yes, there is. There's a parasite that causes a malady called trichiasis which causes the eyelids to turn in, and then the eyelashes abrade the cornea and you go blind, what torture it must be to have all your eyelashes scrubbing the surface of your eyes every time you blink. Who would have thought of that? The liver, the heart, the lungs, circulatory system, the immune system. Everything's fair game, everything's been attacked, not just by one disease but by multiple diseases. What a varied wreck sin had made of the human body. Jesus healed them all, He healed them all without any diagnostic tools or processes. There's no CAT scan, there's no X-ray, there's no blood test, there's no cultures being taken. He just heals them perfectly, the power of Christ. Now, you may be wondering and some have asked, "Why don't these kinds of healings go on today?" I'm not standing here saying there are no miracles, today, I'm not saying there's no healings today, I'm saying, why not this kind of ministry? If this kind of ministry were going on with someone, somewhere in the world, you would know about it. Great crowds were coming to Jesus. So I meditated on this and I thought about the wisdom of God in all of it. Suppose God blessed me with the ability to cure diabetes perfectly? All I have to do is put my hand on someone's head and pray for them for five seconds and they'll be definitely cured of diabetes. Do you realize how that would change my life? Think about it. Suppose I did it for 20 hours a day, seven days a week. Do you realize it might actually change your life, you might not get a parking place here. As a matter of fact, you might have a hard time getting into Durham. They are 250 million diabetes sufferers in the world. Do you think the word would get out that there was a cure in Durham, North Carolina? Do you think they'd come? They'd come, 20 hours a day. There are 250 million diabetes sufferers now. By the year 2025, in 18 years, there'll be 360 million diabetes sufferers, they project. So I calculated out. You know it's my mathematical side. I figured, okay, how many can I do in a year, 20 hours a day, five seconds each. I calculate in 18 years I could do 95 million people. In that time, there'd be 130 million new diabetes sufferers. I'm not even keeping pace with this one disease. And what about cancer, what about AIDS, what about emphysema, what about all the others? It is not God's purpose to banish illness from the face of the earth. Jesus' miracles were meant to be what they're called in the New Testament, signs pointing to something. You're driving to a city and it tells you 130 miles to Washington DC, that's your destination. It's going to take a little more than two hours to get there. There's a sign that tells you where we're heading. We're heading toward a kingdom where there'll be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, where God's sovereign power will banish it forever. Where you will have a resurrection body and not afflicted in any way, for even the great miracles of Jesus were undone after He performed them. Every single one of them, the feedings first. He feeds people, and the next day, guess what, they're hungry. The next day. Jesus drives out demons, he says, "You know what happens when a demon goes out of a person, it goes to arid places seeking rest doesn't find it, guess what it thinks. I think I'll go back where I started. And when it goes back and finds a place unoccupied, swept clean and put in order, and it says, “I know what I'll do, I'll take seven of my demon friends and we'll go and live there.” And the last is worse than the first, that's how it will be with this generation," said Jesus. “When I go and ascend to the Father, Palestine will be worse off than if I had never come. The demons are coming back, and they're coming back with a vengeance.” This is the greatest miracle working ministry in history, and it was just temporary. All of the eyes, the blind eyes that Jesus healed, they're now blind through death. All the paralyzed limbs, they're not moving through death. Lazarus, raised from the dead on the fourth day, but he is dead now. These were all meant to be signs. So, if God granted me that ability to heal diabetes it wouldn't change a single thing for the people that came. They might suffer from some other disease as well, but I couldn't help them. But suppose I said,"You know, we actually can cure all diseases including AIDS. We can cure permanently, and perfectly, and we can point to a way that you will never get sick again, that you will never die again, that you will be eternally perpetually happy in the very presence of God and you don't have to go to just one practitioner, you can go to any Christian who knows the gospel, and they'll tell you how. Simply hear that Jesus suffered on the cross, that his blood was shed for you, that God's wrath is thereby averted if you'll simply believe in the Gospel. Not any good works, just believe and you can be permanently healed of everything for eternity. There's plenty of places to sit here, no trouble finding parking.” But try to get people to come and listen. Isn't it amazing? Such healing is available here and now today. You may be here listening to me and you're not a Christian. You may even have some kind of pain or illness or something. I cannot offer that kind of healing, but I can promise you a far better healing. I can promise that if you simply believe in Jesus, that you'll spend eternity with him in heaven, if you simply repent and believe the good news, that I can promise you. Simply trust in Jesus, that's the power that these miracles are pointing toward, a permanent healing, a permanent feeding in heaven, that's what he's pointing toward. Look at the result, verse 31, "The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing and they praised the God of Israel.” This is Christ's ultimate goal. He means to make you an eternal happy worshipper of God. He wants to make you happy in His presence, at His right hand forever and ever, that you might worship Him, that you'll be filled up fully with the goodness of God, and that you would flow over and praise the God of Israel. That's what He wants and this is what He intends. This is wonder, leading to worship that is eternal. Christ's true healing ministry was to the human heart and soul. That's his healing ministry. Jesus’ Feeding Ministry Look, also at his compassionate feedings. It's the same thing, it's pointing toward an eternal feeding that He wants to give us in the new heaven and new earth. Verses 32-39 gives us the account. First we have Christ's pity declared [verse 32]. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people. They've already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry or they make collapse on the way." Do you know that compassion is the number one most frequent emotion stated of Jesus. Usually the gospel writers speak of Jesus in this way: “Jesus had compassion on them and healed them or moved with compassion, He reached out his hand and touched the man.” "I'm willing," He said, "Be clean.” But this time, Jesus says it about himself. It's one of the few times that Jesus actually describes himself or his feelings. "I have compassion on these people," He says. Why so great an emphasis on compassion? I think we have a misunderstanding of the sovereign God. We think that God in his sovereignty, in his plan, just kind of grinds on fine like that... Like a mindless machine, doing whatever it does. God spinning the planets, and the universe and doing what He does and He is disconnected from what we are going through. It is not the case. He is great enough to spin the planets and to care about whatever it is you're going through. "I have compassion for these people," said Jesus. We see also Christ's priorities discovered. "They've been with me for three days and have nothing to eat. I think it's time to feed them." Three days. What about three meals a day? We've missed eight meals now. Note Jesus' priorities. We've seen it before, the teaching ministry and then the healing ministry and then, in due time, the feeding ministry. I think all of us would acknowledge that food is too important for us. Would you acknowledge that? Maybe not admit it, not in a public place like this, but privately, you might agree that food is too important for you. If you don't think so, then try fasting for a whole day and think how often you think about food. It's amazing. Food is too important to us. For some people it's even more. The Apostle Paul says of the Philippian unbelievers, "Their God is their stomach, they live for their appetites." But Jesus said, "Do not worry about your life, what you'll eat, or drink, or about your body, what you'll wear? Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you as well.” He means that we focus on the kingdom, those are his priorities. He says, in John 6, “Do not labor for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” We see also Christ's forgetful disciples, "Where can we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” Have you heard that before? That was just a chapter ago. That's why we have the second feeding account. How quickly we forget. “What are we going to do, Jesus, what are we going to do?” But Jesus uses them, He calls them and says, "I have compassion on them.” He asks, "How many loaves do you have?" He gave the loaves to his disciples, and they gave them to the people. He has the disciples pick up the broken pieces, He employs them in his ministry, He employs them in his work. We are God's fellow workers with him. And yet we so quickly forget. We see also Christ's power displayed. Look at verse 36 and following, “He took the seven loaves and the fish and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, Afterward the disciples picked up seven basket fulls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was 4000 plus women and children.” As I mentioned with the feeding of the 5000, this is a miracle of creation, creating matter out of nothing, just material that wasn't there before. And the food was ready to eat. Not the ingredients for the loaves, not the fish uncooked, but everything ready to go, ready to eat, fresh, delicious, I'm sure. Although it doesn't mention it, but think about Jesus making the wine at the wedding and how it was the highest quality. He's not going to give you stale bread. Maybe the best bread they ever ate. I don't know, but it's a miracle of something out of nothing, and I don't know how it happened. It happened when He took it in his hands and gave thanks, when He distributed it to his disciples, when He put a single loaf in the basket and by the time they moved, the basket was full. I don't have any idea. But I know that He created something out of nothing, and the people were satisfied. Look at that in verse 37, “They all ate and were satisfied.” Satisfied. When I die, I'll be satisfied with seeing His likeness. It'll be enough for me to see Jesus to be satisfied with God's resurrecting power. To be satisfied with the new heaven and new earth. It will be enough for you. You'll be satisfied. He knows how to satisfy you. Then it was a pretty homely meal, in my opinion, bread and fish. God has infinitely greater things to give you at his table. He will put his full creative powers on display in the new heaven, and the new Earth. You want to be there, you don't want to miss it. He knows how to satisfy the human heart and soul and body. He knows how to do it. These people ate, and they were satisfied, and there was extra left over. Then Christ dismissed the people [verse 39], “After Jesus had sent the crowd away, He got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.” Application How do these miracles apply to our lives? The fact that 2000 years ago, Jesus could do this on a hillside in Galilee. What does that have to do with us today? First of all, these are signs of Christ's deity, so worship him and trust him. He hasn't changed at all, He never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, He's the same. There are also signs of Christ's priority, so focus on the kingdom and its work, the advancement of the kingdom, not on your temporal needs or wants, desires. There are signs of Christ's procedure, so get involved in Christ's work. Say, "What do you want me to do?" When He asks, "What do you have in your hand?”, give it to him and see what He can do with it. We should be trusting and not anxious. We should be focused on the kingdom and not on our health or on food. We should be hopeful of the future heavenly life. Fill up your minds with scriptures on what heaven and earth, the new heaven and earth will be like. Get happy in that. These are the promises of God. And be active in service. Conclusion on forgetfulness I want to focus on four things in conclusion. First of all, on forgetfulness, do you forget? Will you remember this sermon in a year and a half? Come on, be honest. we forget sermons, we forget what we read this morning in quiet time, we forget, we forget, we forget. Don't forget. How many times has God challenged us not to forget what he's done, the good things he's done. Remember. Luke 24, “How slow of heart you are to believe all that God has spoken to you, what he has done in your life.” Don't forget. Even worse with sin patterns when you go through a certain sin, you do it wrong, you say or do something wrong and then the Spirit convicts you and you deal quickly and lightly with the sin. “I’m sorry, Lord, please forgive me,” and you move on. Don't do that. Remember, remember what you did, remember how God has saved you, remember and confess, do a deep work, get the root out, find out what Satan did to get you to stumble. Remember, remember, remember, note what he did, so that you don't stumble again. on temporary needs Secondly, on temporary needs, it says that they brought all of these sick people to Jesus and laid them at his feet. What a great image. Do that, okay. Take your burdens, your problems, your health issues, your struggles, finances, whatever it is, and lay it at Jesus' feet and see what he can do. He will meet your needs. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you as well. Let him do it. Remember who He is, remember his compassion, remember his great power. Remember what He did here on this, Galilean hillside, He can do the same for you. Remember also his wisdom. If you're lingering in a trial longer than you think you should, it's his wisdom that has you there. Submit to him and let him teach you the lessons He has in mind for you. on worship Thirdly, on worship, let your heart be moved many times by the greatness of Jesus. We don't think highly enough of Jesus; therefore fill your mind with this account. Go back and read it again this afternoon or another, read of Jesus' resurrection of Lazarus or his healing of the man born blind. Fill your heart with things so that you can think great thoughts of Jesus. Worship and praise the God who sent him, the God who is willing to part with his own son that we might have eternal life, worship him and praise and honor your heavenly father. Fill your heart and your mind. When you come in to corporate worship, come in here ready to worship. Come in here with minds and hearts filled with Jesus, filled with his word, with his promises. Get ready to worship corporately. You have a great ministry to your brothers and sisters in Christ when they look around and they see you engaged in worship. When they see you excited about worship, singing the hymns or the songs, praying the prayers, your body into it, your face into it. Be ready to worship corporately, and the way you do that is worship God privately. Honor him, he's your Lord. Thank him for dying on the cross, stimulate your heart toward worship privately, and then you'll be ready for corporate worship. on kingdom labor Finally on kingdom labor. I want to remind you of the kind of year's verse that I'd like to keep in front of you this year: Luke 19:10, "The son of man came to seek and to save the lost." "The son of man came to seek and to save the lost," it's here on a banner in our church. You probably don't look at it anymore because you've seen it eight times or 12 times. That's just the way it is. Just like the television it fades, as soon as a stream goes by, it fades but the verse still stands in front of us, "The son of man came to seek and to save the lost." We are surrounded by lost people. You have within you the message of life. The only one that there is. Share the gospel this week. Invite people to come to worship. Just say, "Hey would you like to come to church with me next Sunday? I'll pick you up. We'll go to lunch afterwards and talk about it." Share the gospel. Get involved in kingdom labor. Jesus involved his disciples in the feeding of the 4000, He wants to involve us also. For He said, "As the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you.”

Dr. Andy Jones talks about the inventor of TV, Philo Farnsworth (encore presentation)

Dr. Andy Jones talks about the inventor of TV, Philo Farnsworth (encore presentation)

Introduction We are going be talking this morning about Matthew 5:27-37 as we continue in the Sermon on the Mount. And let's remind ourselves where we have been up to this point. Jesus Christ sat down on a mountain and began to instruct His disciples, and He gave a series of heart principles called the Beatitudes which are to characterize the hearts of those in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is the unifying theme of Matthew's gospel. It is the place where God reigns, where He is in control, where He is in charge, and where people gladly submit to that reign. And in order to enter that Kingdom, Jesus says right at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the poor in spirit (spiritual beggars), for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Then comes a series of characteristics that we have examined carefully over many weeks. And then Jesus said that we as members of the Kingdom of Heaven, we as Christians, are to be salt and light in society. We are to have an impact on the community around us. That impact is to be pervasive, and it is to be powerful. Then Jesus began to discuss relationship: among His own coming, and the disciples that He is raising up and the Law, the Old Testament. And the rest of chapter 5 has been Jesus, the Master, the one who inspired the Scripture, taking the Law and applying it forcefully to the hearts of those who will listen. The culmination of the application of this law is in verse 48 of chapter 5. We have looked at it before. And it says, "You must be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Now, who of us can measure up to that standard? But that is the standard for Judgment Day. It is. In order to go to Heaven, you must be as perfect and as righteous as God is. And so doesn't that point back to the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount again? Blessed are the spiritual beggars who know they are not perfect, who know that there is sin in their lives, who know that they need a savior. And who know that the real issue here is not just, how shall I say, a decision for Christ, but a righteous life for Christ. A life that flows up from a transformation that only Jesus can work. And so Jesus brings us to the Law here and the Law is applied forcefully, not just on the outside but in to search our hearts. Then Jesus bring us to the foot of the cross as spiritual beggars and then brings us back to the Law and says this is how you should live. This is how this should affect your relationships with others in terms of anger, broken relationships. This is how it should affect your eye and your heart in terms of lust. This is how it should affect your marriage, what kind of marriage you should have as members of the Kingdom of Heaven. And this is how it should affect your truthfulness, the ability you have to say yes and it really does mean yes, to say no and it really does mean no. And we will go on until we complete this chapter next week with that culminating statement, "You must be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." So I hope I have placed you about where we are in the flow of the chapter now. We are going to be looking at some challenging issues. We are going to be looking at the issue of lust and the issue of divorce and the issue of oath-breaking. Jesus, the Master, is taking the Law and searching us with it. And we should just lay open before it and say, "Search me, O God,’ Know me, and do your work in me. I want to have it done." I. The Uprooted Harvest A little while ago when I was still getting my PhD in Louisville, I had to go up to Grand Rapids, Michigan. I had to make a regular trip up there every week. It was a long trip, many hours of driving. But it went through beautiful farm country in Indiana. And I remember as we drove, a friend of mine and I took this class together, we drove through the farmland, we saw rows and rows of corn that had been planted. And it just went as far as the eye could see. It was just incredible, the corn farms in central Indiana, and I will never forget it. And I began thinking about that in terms of another verse of the Bible. Every single stalk of corn was planted with a seed. Now, I am not so romantic as to think that the farmer got down on his hands and knees and planted each one, one at a time. He would not have a very big harvest in that case. I know they were planted with machines. But still, there is a hope for a harvest, isn't there? All of that planting points to a future. It is an act of hope to be a farmer. It really is. And you know something? As I look at First Baptist Church, I look at all of you who love Jesus Christ as farmers. You are all planting farms of your own. Maybe not all corn, but you have a variety of things that you are planting. Let's speak very plainly. I am talking about your lives spiritually. Every day, everything you do plants a seed. And you are hoping for a harvest, aren't you? You are hoping that someday it will come to fruition. Perhaps you have young children, and you are training them, and you want to see a harvest in their lives. You want to see them grow up in righteousness. Perhaps you have a ministry. Maybe you teach the Bible at your work, or maybe you have a Bible study in your home. Maybe you have a prayer ministry. Everybody should have some ministry. But you are planting seeds. But I began thinking about something, and it is in the Book of Job, chapter 31. You don't have to turn there, but I would recommend that you look at it. Job 31 is Job's final testimony about himself as a righteous man before God. And this is how he begins, and I think it is fascinating that he begins this way. Job 31:1 says this: "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young maiden." Isn't that interesting that this righteous man starts there? "I made a covenant with my eyes [that I wouldn't look lustfully at a young girl]. Does not He [God] see my ways and count my every step?" He was mindful of Judgment Day, wasn't he? And he said, "God sees everything I do." What is Jesus doing here in Matthew 5 but getting us ready for Judgment Day? Isn't he? And so Job was ready when he's saying, "God sees everything I do." And later in verse 12, he says, "It [Adultery] is a fire that burns to destruction. It would have, [listen to this,] uprooted my harvest…uprooted my harvest. Now picture that cornfield out there in Indiana pushed up from the bottom and lying flat, dead. Picture a beautiful farm with all kinds of different things in it. And the farmer waiting for the harvest and then it gets pushed up from the bottom and lies flat and dead. When I entered seminary a while ago, I entered with a man who had been a pastor for a while and the pastor was a good, successful pastor, but he felt that God was leading him into PhD work and eventually to teach somewhere. He was a wonderful man. And one day he got involved with a young woman that he met, and suddenly he stopped coming to class. He was immediately into some kind of marital counseling. I do not need to spell it all out for you. The man had committed adultery. He dropped out of seminary, began working in a local vacuum cleaning store in order to provide for his family, and he is still there, working. His harvest has been pushed up from the bottom. It has been uprooted. You all know other stories. I do not need to recite them for you. I know many in my line of work, pastors who have seen their harvest uprooted from the ground. I am constantly vigilant about this matter, and I am sad for that individual. I guess I am speaking to you today in order to save your harvests. I do not want your harvest uprooted. You may be a Christian, you may have all your sins forgiven, but that does not guarantee your harvest, does it? You have to be vigilant and protect your harvest. You have to watch over it and take care of it. And you have to do it with a sense of fear of the outcome if you don't. I am not talking about fear of God. I am talking about fear of sin and the devastating consequences that come. II. Christ’s Application of the Law Let Jesus' words today protect you and protect your family, and protect your harvest, and protect your church as we listen to what He says. Beginning at verse 27, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery,' but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away, it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of Hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into Hell. It has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to commit adultery, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, do not swear at all, either by Heaven, for it is God's throne, or by the earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair, white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.'" You might say, "What kind of draws these three together?" Well, I think they all, each one of them, are individual case studies in how the Law can be applied to our lives, to our hearts. The issue of adultery, it is there in the Ten Commandments. The issue of divorce is also mentioned in the Old Testament, as well as the issue of oaths and oath-breaking. But I think you really could unite them together around the center one, namely the issue of marriage. What does lust attack but the sanctity of a marriage, and what is a marriage, but an oath, a vow you make before God, that you will live a certain way with another individual. Yet each of these three stands alone as well. III. Deeper Issue: The Utter Sinfulness of the Human Heart We have seen that in all of this application of the Law, Jesus Christ is giving a demonstration of His authority. “You have heard that it was said” "But I say to you." Do you see the authority of Jesus Christ? He has the right to tell us what the Law means. He has the right to preach to us about these matters because He is the Lord. Jesus at this point, is setting Himself against the false teaching of the Pharisees, who looked only on the outside. They were only looking on externals. Jesus probes to the heart because Judgment Day will probe to the heart. And so Jesus is getting His people ready for this. He is looking for heart righteousness, perfection, which is required on Judgment Day…a perfection, which only He can bring about in us, only through His blood and through His spirit working in us. And so we see the primary purpose of the Law, and that is the making of spiritual beggars, that we should be beggars before God saying, "I'm not righteous." Who of us can navigate their way through chapter 5 of Matthew and not feel conviction? Oh, I grieve for you. If you are able to navigate your way through this chapter, and never feel the pang of sin in your heart, something is wrong with you. I am sorry for you. We should all feel this. And we should go back to chapter 5:3 and say, "O God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Work in me, renew me, refresh me that I may be what you want me to be." The problem is we fancy ourselves as better than we really are, and Jesus' desire is to strip that away, and we should want to have that done. IV. Adultery This first issue of adultery, we start by considering the deed itself, the devastating deed. There is a deed of adultery. It is simply this: sexual relations with a partner who is not your spouse. It is just that simple. It is the sixth commandment of the Ten Commandments, "You shall not commit adultery." God has not rewritten that or undone that, even though our society today somewhat glorifies adultery, doesn't it? Do you ever see on the television programs, how many times are sexual relations referred to between married couples? Hardly ever. Have you ever noticed that? But they say, "Well, this is part of this temptation." “Food eaten in secret is delicious.” You see there is an indication that there is something exciting about it. There is nothing exciting about a devastated, ruined life. Nothing exciting about it at all, but this is the tone of our day. We should have instead, a proper fear of this sin. What does it say in Proverbs 6? You know how many warnings there are in Proverbs about this? There are tons. I did not know which one to choose, but I zeroed in on this one, Proverbs 6:27. "Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man's wife. No one who touches her will go unpunished." You cannot scoop coals into your lap and think you are not going to get burned. So many people think, "Well, that won't apply to me," the law of sowing and reaping, "I can sow to the flesh and I'll reap to the Spirit." It does not work that way. The harvest is inevitable. What Jesus does instead is He warns us ahead of time, "Don't get into it. Don't get yourself involved." And we should protect ourselves from this. We should be protecting one another from it. What did the Apostle Paul say? In 1 Corinthians 6:18, he says, "Flee sexual immorality. All other sins that a man commits are outside his body but he who sins sexually sins against his own body." In 1 Corinthians 9:27, what did Paul say about himself? Do you remember this? He said, "I beat my body and make it my slave, lest after I have preached to others, I myself may be... " what? "Disqualified for the prize." I do not want to be disqualified. I do not want to lose my harvest. I want to see the harvest come to fruition and so I am going to protect it by watching over myself carefully. I want to keep myself safe and protected. And so he protects himself in this matter. Satan, throughout history, I have noticed, has pulled in opposite directions in this matter. There are people who used to live in monasteries, and in the Catholic Church I think there is a heritage. I come from the Catholic Church and a tradition of thinking that there is somehow something about marriage, which is a little bit lower. That it is a little bit better perhaps to not be married. But marriage is a holy gift from God, isn't it? It is a gift from God. And God created it. It was the first institution in society. And He desires that it be holy, but Satan says that that kind of sexual relation is evil, and so there is that teaching that the body is evil and that sex itself is evil. Well, it isn't, within the context that God placed it. But then he goes to the opposite extreme and says that all of these kinds of relations are good just as long as there is love between the two individuals. Well, that is a lie. It has to be within the committed covenant relationship of marriage. Look at other case studies. All you have to do is look, for example, at King David. Have you ever noticed what I call the continental divide in David's life? Do you know what a continental divide is? Have you ever driven west and to the Rockies, and seen a certain point in which it says, 'This is the Continental Divide'? What that means is that the water, if you have been coming from the east going west, the water here flows back down toward the east. But across this point it is going to flow toward the west. There is a big divide there and it is really kind of spectacular moving through the Rockies that way. I see a kind of a spiritual divide in David's life. It is in 2 Samuel 11. Everything that is good and a blessing, and purifying, and strengthening to David is before Chapter 11. Have you ever noticed this? And everything that is difficult, and wrenching, and horrible, and awful to David is after Chapter 11. Well, what happened in Chapter 11? You know what happened in Chapter 11. He committed adultery. And after that you have the death of the baby that was born by that. You have the incest of his son Amnon with his daughter Tamar. You have the killing of Amnon by Tamar's brother, Absalom. You have Absalom's exile, Absalom's rebellion. You have David's exile, a very humiliating thing. You have David cursed by Shimei, who is throwing rocks and dirt on David, and David just accepts it because he is under the discipline of God. Then you have Absalom's death and David's grief over that. You have David's weakness before Joab, who starts to almost take over the kingdom at that point. Then Sheba rebels against him and does try to take over the kingdom, it just goes on and on. Do you see that? We see blessing before, discipline after Chapter 11. And Jesus wants to spare us from all that. So He gets to the desire behind the deed. He looks at it carefully and He says, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery,' but I say that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery with her in his heart." Does He care what is in your heart? Of course He does. Do you remember the 10th commandment of the Ten Commandments? "You shall not covet." Oh, He looks at the heart. Yes, He has always been looking at the heart. You are not supposed to look lustfully. It is not just an accidental thing where you happen to see somebody or whatever. It is a matter of gazing for a purpose. You are looking for something. And that is exactly what Jesus is warning us about. It is not an accident. And what is the danger of the desire? Well, there is a certain cause and effect. Someone once put it this way, "Sow a thought, reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny." It all starts with a thought. And you at all times should be thinking, "What is this thought leading toward? Do I want to go in that direction? And if I do not want to go in that direction, cut it off. Stop it." That is what He is saying. So there is that. And what is the destiny? Well, Jesus said it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into Hell. Now, two weeks ago we talked about this. It is not easy for a preacher in this day and age to stand up and talk about Hell, but that does not really matter, Jesus talked about it openly. And He said it is a threat, and it is something that you should do absolutely everything you can to avoid. Can you, by your own works, by your own efforts, make yourself righteous enough to go to Heaven and not Hell? Absolutely not. That is where the spiritual begging comes in. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. But He is speaking to all of us, and He is saying there is a danger to lust and we must fight against it. And what is the deliverance from this danger? Well, Jesus says, "Get serious about dealing with it." Yes, begin by being convicted. Say, "Yes, Lord, I do have anger in my heart," or, "I do have lust in my heart, and I need your forgiveness." It brings you back to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount and at that point you say, "Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. You are the only one who can save me from this sin." Isn't that what Paul does in Romans 7? Are we more righteous than he? And he says, "What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?" That is what Paul says. Are we more righteous than he? We should be crying out against ourselves and letting God work in us. Let Him protect us from our sin. Once you have come to faith in Christ, once you have received forgiveness, and there is forgiveness, brothers and sisters. There is forgiveness for everyone. Just as there was for David, there is forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the whole point of the atoning sacrifice, Jesus Christ's blood is sufficient to atone for all your sin. If you have faith in Him, all your sins can be wiped away, past, present and future. That is good news, but now the work is just beginning. He causes you to roll up your sleeves and say, "Let's go attack that sin. Let's work at it until it is dead." It says in Romans 8, that everyone who is led by the spirit of God, those are the people who are children of God. What does the spirit of God lead you to do? Mortify the deeds of the body. What does mortify mean? Put them to death. You start working on yourself. You roll up your sleeves and say, "Okay, if my right eye causes me to sin, what am I going to do? I am going to get rid of it." We know this is metaphorical language, right? Does your right eye cause you to sin? Well, you always have your left eye, you see? You gouge it out and then you still got one eye left. If you were blind, does that mean you would be totally free from this? No, of course not, it is a spiritual thing. But Jesus is saying, even something as valuable as a right eye or a right hand must be dispensed with if you are convinced it leads you to sin. Whatever it is, get rid of it. Is that not what Jesus is saying? What I have come to in my ministry, I have looked at this, and I think that verses 29 and 30 are among the most under-applied verses in the Christian church. We read them and we say, "Oh, we know Jesus doesn't mean to gouge out your eyes. We know He means not to cut off your hand. Close the book, we don't need to worry about 5:29 and 30." Or maybe we say to ourselves, "Well, I'm a Christian, I don't need to have to worry about lust anymore." Oh, really? Lots of Christians did not worry about lust and their harvest got uprooted. No, instead, Jesus says, "No, take it seriously. Take it deadly seriously, fight it." How do we fight it? What do we do? Well, we begin to look at ourselves and know ourselves. Is there something inside you that leads you to lust? Does Satan use something to lead you to the sins of the flesh? If so, you know what they are. Get rid of them. In 1920, there was a 14-year-old farm boy plowing a field out in Utah. When you plow, you go up and down, back and forth. Well, it turned out that that young 14-year-old was also a genius in electronics. This back and forth got him thinking about something, a new invention that he could work on. In 1927, Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television, televised the first image with the electronic. What it does is it moves back and forth across the screen and your retina cannot keep up so the image stays there, the one that is built little by little. That is how you get an image in your eye. I was talking to Christi about this and we were talking about television. It is too hard to understand. I tried to read the Encyclopedia Britannica about it, I don't fully understand how it works, but I know it goes back and forth, just like somebody plowing a field. They are plowing into our eyes, aren't they? One after another. Do you know, by the way, what the first televised image was? It was a dollar sign, how appropriate. A dollar sign was the first. Philo Farnsworth chose a dollar sign. How much of what we see is connected to somebody making money from it? Lots, right? But what is the tool that they use frequently to make that money? Lust. Have you ever noticed how many TV programs are connected to lust? Be honest, how many commercials? If your right eye caused you to sin, cut it out and throw it away. Are you courageous enough to obey this? Cut it out and throw it away. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” The judgment comes and the house stands because he obeyed my words. But, everyone who hears these words of mine and says, "It doesn't apply to me. I don't need it,” builds their house on sand. Isn't that the same as an uprooted harvest when the house comes crashing down? It is the same. Do not let your harvest be uprooted, do not let your house come crashing down. Hear Jesus' words and obey what He has to say. V. Divorce Now, the issue of divorce immediately connected to it. Lust leads to a divorce. How much pain is caused by it? What is God's true attitude about divorce? Have you ever wondered about it? You do not need to wonder. In Malachi 2:16 He tells us plainly, "I hate divorce." God hates it. Well, you could ask then, why did Moses permit them to divorce? Well, Jesus answered that question in Matthew 19. Realize Moses never commanded divorce; he just permitted it in the case of marital unfaithfulness. This is what Jesus said in Matthew 19, verse 8, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning." He said, "Haven't you read that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female and said, 'For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh.'" What a beautiful thing a godly marriage is. But marriage so often can become a battleground. You know what I have come to think? I am not trying to see everything through just one little passage of Scripture, but I think if husbands and wives lived out the Beatitudes, we would not see marriage as a battleground anymore. If we were to have spiritually broken people who grieved over sin, who were meek, who hungered and thirst for righteousness, who were merciful, who were peacemakers, do you think that marriage would be a battleground? I don't think so. I don't think so at all. Marriage would be what it was intended to be, a beautiful picture of Christ and His bride, the church. But in the Kingdom of Heaven marriage is to be permanent. We are not supposed to see this scourge that we see today of so many divorces. I don't mean for those tough things in which there is so much evil and adultery and all these kind of things, I am talking about how ‘we just do not love each other anymore. We do not have that same feeling that drew us together. Or we are having relational difficulties and we are feeling pain in this relationship.’ I was reading about Abraham Lincoln's marriage. Do you know anything about Abraham Lincoln's marriage? He was married to a woman named Mary Todd. She was a difficult woman. I do not mean to say anything about the dead that is disrespectful, but she was a difficult woman. She flirted constantly with visitors to the White House. She wore shocking outfits. She threw potatoes and firewood at the president. I think under modern circumstances she may have been restrained by the Secret Service, but I think they did not know what to do, as she is throwing firewood at him. I guess before he became president, when he was still in Springfield, Illinois, she chased him around the yard with a knife. Thankfully, she didn't get him. I wonder if our nation would have been any different if she had, I think so. But you know, as we look at that… that was a difficult marriage for him. And every day there was strife and conflict in that situation. He bore with it patiently. He bore with it. And the writer that I was reading about that said, "You know, I think it's possible that some of the qualities that we see in him, the forbearance, the patience, the tolerance, the kind of thing that lets him say in his second inaugural address, "With malice toward none, with charity for all," etcetera, that character was forged in difficult trial, and he did not push the eject button but stayed faithful to it. Now, he was not a perfect man, I'm just saying that marriage is hard and maybe you don't have two godly people working together. But at the same time, Jesus says, "Establish a godly relationship and don't take the easy way out." VI. Oath-Taking and Oath-Breaking The third case study is so related to the other two, and that is the issue of oath-taking and oath-breaking. And it is connected to divorce very plainly. In Malachi 2 it says, "Another thing you do, you flood the Lord's altar with tears, and you weep and wail because He no longer pays attention to your offerings. He no longer accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, ‘Why?’ It is because the Lord is acting as a witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit, they are His. And why one? Because He was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. I hate divorce,’ says the Lord God of Israel." You see, divorce is the breaking of an oath, isn't it? It is the breaking of a promise. But we in our nation have become very good at that. We will make a promise, we will put our hand on the Bible and raise our hand and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and then lie as much as we need to. We can always get a lawyer to get us out of it. We make promises and we break promises, and it is a modern plague, just like divorce is. And Jesus is saying, "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.'" And then He says, "Okay, fine, ‘do not swear at all." Why do I say it like that? Is there anything wrong with an oath? No, there is nothing wrong with an oath. If there had been something wrong with an oath, then God would not have taken an oath never to swamp this place with water again, as He did in the flood of Noah. He made that promise, and He put the sign of His oath up in the heavens, the rainbow. God makes all kinds of promises and swears some of them with an oath. Hebrews 6, God swore that Jesus would be a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, and He did it with an oath. If there is something wrong with an oath, God would not have used an oath. Well, then why does Jesus say then, "Do not swear at all?" I will tell you why, because the Pharisees were playing fast and loose, they were being complex with the oath, this is how it worked. They said, "If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold on the temple, you're bound to your oath… If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift on the altar, now that is something you're bound by your oath." What does that mean? Well, it means if you swear by the temple, or you swear by the altar, you can break your oath. You can break your promise as much as you want. Jesus said, "If this is your attitude, then I say, don't swear at all. If this is the way you're going to deal with oaths, “let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no,’ ‘no. Anything beyond this comes from the evil one,” And why? What they were doing was compartmentalizing, saying, "God is not the God of the temple or the God of the altar. He is the God over here or the God over there." If you use this verbal formula, then you need to be truthful, or then you need to keep your promise or your oath. "No," Jesus said, "Every word you say is significant." Every word, every promise you make is significant. There are all kinds of covenant relationships. These people here who have come forward to be members have made a covenant relationship with this local community to be part of us. And we, when we welcome in, we will reciprocate, and we will say, "We want to be in covenant relationship with you." We are making promises to one another. We need to keep those promises. Do you realize all the things that God has done with words? “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” and He did it with the spoken word. He did it simply by speaking, and the words came and so did the creation. And Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear." Jesus' words are a solid foundation, everything He said. When Jesus entered the world, God used this analogy, "In the beginning was the," what? "The Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." That is Jesus. He is the Word from God. How does God think about words? He says on Judgment Day, You will have to give an account for every word that you have spoken. It is true, everything you say. "I tell you, that men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned.” “Out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks." Does God keep a record of your words? Oh, yes, He does. Therefore, we need to say, "Yes," and mean yes. And we need to say, "No," and mean no, because God holds us to our word. I love Psalm 15 on this, it says, "Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary and who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart," and listen to this, verse 4, "And who keeps his oath even when it hurts." That is the real test of character, isn't it? When you make a promise, when you make a vow, when you make a covenant and you keep it, even though it hurts you, even though it is difficult for you. That is a test of truthfulness. God says, "Such a man will be accepted on my holy hill, such a woman is faithful to her word." VII. Summary and Application As I look at these verses, I see something common to all three. It is not just a matter of marriage. But I see the issue of immediate gratification, wanting something now. Lust craves physical pleasure now, and gives into that now. I want it now. Divorce wants out of this painful relationship now, freedom from pain now, immediate gratification. The breaking of a vow or a promise also provides a certain amount of immediate gratification. You do not have to submit any more to the promise you made. You are free from it. But Christ's Kingdom gives us power over that kind of way of thinking. It causes us to look eternally and to say, "I don't need it now. I want to live for Heaven. I do not want to store up treasure on earth. I want to store up treasure in Heaven. I want to be faithful to my God, and I want to be holy." And even if that means pain and suffering now, bearing up under temptation, but saying no to it, I am going to do it. Why? It is because I want a harvest of righteousness to the glory of God. Jesus Christ alone gives us that kind of power. I would like to speak a word in conclusion to you who may be feeling convicted of sin today. All of us should be convicted by these passages, all of us. We have all said, "Yes," and then meant, "No." We have all said, "No," and meant, "Yes." We have all struggled with these sins, haven't we? The issue is what do we do? The first thing is to come to the cross. Now, as a Christian, you have already come to faith in Jesus Christ. May I remind you that His blood atones for all sin? When Jesus said, "It is finished," He meant all of your sin, past, present, future, swept away. If today, you do not have a covenant relationship with God by faith in His name, I would like to invite you to come forward and talk to me about having a new relationship with Jesus Christ. Let today be the day that all your sins are washed away through the blood of Jesus Christ. But if you are a Christian already, if you gave your life to Jesus Christ, allow these verses to search you and to know you, to uncover danger points in your lives. The one thing that keeps coming through to me is that all of us will have to go through a judgment process. If we are Christians, we do not have to give account for our sins. Praise God. You do not have to give account for your sins; they are cleansed through the blood of Christ. But you do have to give an account for the stewardship matters of your life. How you spent your time. What fruit came from it? What harvest is there? He is going to want to know. Protect your harvest with holiness; protect it with obedience to God's Word. Let's close in prayer.