Hi everyone, Sean with jaspyscasebrakes.com here doing 2021 Leaf Lumber Kings Baseball two box break random hit number two where eight spots take all customers names, open up the two boxes, randomize the hits and the names, whatever your name is matched up with the hit is what you get. So pretty simple, it's a random hit break. So here's the list of customers from Anthony down to Daniel with LastBotMojo. Here is the list that will type in the hits after we pull them in the same order that we pull them. And then we'll randomize both lists, copy and paste both of those lists here and like I said, whatever name matches up with whatever this hit is, is what they get. So there you go. And we gotta figure out which boxes we're doing. So this is the second one of these. So I think this was an eight box case, so I've got six boxes left, so it's Liam sideways. So we're going to say one on the left, six on the right. We're going to roll a dice, we'll roll it twice. If we obviously hit three both times, then we'll roll it a third time. But one on the left, six on the right. That's three. So box three, that's four. So box four. Box three and four. So these will be for the next one. Random hit number three is in the store now. So these will be good spots. So what we'll do is we'll crack these open and take a look at the hits. I'll pause the video, type in the hits in the order that we pulled them, and then we'll do the randomizer and see how it worked out. So there's one. Let's open this up just in case I need these big ones. Cool. So we'll start on the left. First up is Pete Robes. Game used lumber 13 out of 25. That's Sabrina Inescu? Whoa. Sabrina Inescu getting a commercial treatment now, love that. We've got Jim Tomate, tape measure taters, 511 foot home run, June 3, 1999. That's number seven out of 25. That's Cubs, that's Wrigley, yeah, definitely Wrigley. Tape measure taters. This one is three home run games, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Daryl Strawberry, all 1985. That is three out of three. And our last hit for this box, got a little ink on it, and it's a one-of-one Ricky Henderson signature sticks. Ricky, Ricky, I am the greatest of all time. It's very modest. There you go. The Hawk, Dave Winfield, game used lumber 17 out of 25. Big ol' Dave, you got international icons, David Ortiz for the Dominican Republic, one out of six. Oh, I love this one. We got Mount Crushmore, Griffey, McGuire, Conceco, and Sosa, five out of 15. Hall of Fame, not Hall of Fame, not Hall of Fame, not Hall of Fame. One of them was clean. The other three are Mark McGuire, Jose Conceco, and Sammy Sosa. Very nice. And we got a bat rack four. Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Eddie Matthews, Chipper Jones, 10 out of 20. Chipper Jones, jersey number on that one. And there you go, guys. That's the eight hits. So I'm going to pause the video. We're going to type in the hits as we pulled them. Do our randomizer. So we'll be right back. Oh, hey, we're back. So everything is typed in. Here's a list of customers from Anthony down to Daniel again. And here's our list of hits. So the Pete Rose, 13 out of 25, bat relic. The Jim Tome, bat relic, seven out of 25. The Carter Dawson, strawberry, triple bat relic, three out of three. And the Ricky Henderson, one of one, Otto, and bat relic. Dave Winfield, 17 out of 25 bat relic. David Ortiz, bat relic, one out of six. Griffy McGuire, Conceco, and Sosa, quad bat relic, five out of 15. And the Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Eddie Matthews, and Chipper Jones, quad bat relic, 10 out of 20. The Dice World randomized both lists and paired them up. Two out of six, eight times. Good luck. Eighth and final time. Daniel Katz, Jonathan Arnaldi. And eight times on the hits. Eighth and final time. Dave Winfield down to the McGwiffy, McGuire, Conceco, and Sosa. Eight times on the hits. Eight times on the names. Eight times on the dice. And there you go. So Daniel Katz with the Dave Winfield, 17 out of 25 bat relic. Jonathan Arnaldi with the Jim Tome, tape measure taters, bat relic, seven out of 25. Jarrett Corfage with the David Ortiz, big poppy, one out of six. Alex Valdesacos with the Carter Dawson, strawberry, three out of three, bat relic. Daniel Brongo with the last spot mojo. Pete Rose, bat relic, 13 out of 25. Anthony Pasciorec with the Schmidt, Brett, Matthews, Jones, 10 out of 20. Brian Magnus with the one of one, Ricky Henderson. And Jonathan Arnaldi with the Griffey, McGuire, Conceco, and Sosa, five out of 15. And there you go. Jonathan, you don't have to get that signed by Conceco. And there you go. I don't know if Alex is here, Jonathan. But there you go, guys. That is the break. That was 2021 Leaf Lumber King's Baseball Two Box Break, random hit number two from jaspyscasebricks.com. I'm Sean, jaspyscasebricks.com. Thanks for hanging out. We'll see you next time.


back to another vlog. It's Tuesday morning and it's about 8 in the morning I think. I'm actually on my way to take Leila to a follow-up vet appointment. This is a follow-up appointment after her surgery when she had her teeth pulled about a month ago, weeks after her teeth got pulled, but I can't remember, I think I mentioned this, but because her liver levels were previously elevated before she was on like a liver detox medication, they wanted to give it four weeks to see if her liver levels have raised back up, like if she needs to be back on the medication type of thing, so that needed to be at four weeks and it's pretty far away from our house, so they just decided to book it at one appointment. So that's what we're doing this morning. I went on a hot girl walk, Leila and I went on a walk and now... All right Miss Wei was, let's check that liver, huh? This is always the most stressful part getting her out of the car because she has like mobility issues. She has bad legs, but she's 100 pounds so... This is always interesting. Good job. Okay, be back in a bit. Why don't you lay down? Are you hiding? That feels safer. Yeah. She's like, how do I scale this wall and get out of here? Wait, what is it? It's okay. One hour later. Well besties, I'm laughing so I don't cry because I would say you're not gonna believe this, but it's my life, so you probably will believe this. I just left the vet. Everything so far, like all the preliminary blood work is good, so it looks good. She's doing well with that.  I don't want this to be too long, but like I'm sorry, this is just what's going on in my life currently, but when she got her original teeth surgery, the reason that she got her teeth pulled was because she had a tooth right here, like one of her back pullers that didn't look good. It looked like it was like rotten. Also, she had a couple bottom incisors that like weren't look, they were wonky and needed to come out and then she wanted to get her top incisors pulled because her top incisors, because of her underbite, are jabbing underneath where her tongue is. There's like holes there. So when we got the surgery done, if you remember, I started panicking because we got Layla home and all of her top incisors were still there and all of her bottom incisors had been pulled and I was just like, well, that wasn't the plan. So I was freaking out. I vlogged about it. I got on the phone with the vet. I was like, what's going on? And I didn't mention this in the vlog because I was kind of afraid that people thought I was like, I don't know, I'm, that's a whole other topic.  But when I was on the phone with the vet, I was like, hi, I'm calling because I'm really confused because the plan was she was going to get this tooth, all of these teeth and two of these teeth. And I got her home and she has all of her top teeth, but now all of her bottom teeth are gone. Like I'm confused, blah, blah, blah. And the vet was really like, interactive and defensive and quite dismissive of me when I called. And by the end of the phone conversation, we did get on the same page. And she kind of explained that like, sometimes when you get in there, things turn out differently than you expected. So I was like, totally fine. I was just very confused because what ended up happening was totally like, totally different from the plan. And I mentioned on the phone call, I'm just confused because her top incisors still jab into the bottom of her, her mouth. So what's up. And basically the vet was like, no, I wasn't worried about that when I got in there. And I was just kind of like, well, that was one of the main reasons why she was having this surgery in the first place. But sure, okay. So, okay, then I, you know, flash forward to today, she's all healed up, all of her bottom incisors have been gone for a while. And when we got into the room, she had x-rays pulled up on her laptop, like I mentioned. And she was like, so the top incisors need to come out. And I was like, pardon. She was like, yeah, here's the x-ray. She showed me like the roots and how the roots look good. But that, oh, well, I've noticed that they're jabbing into the bottom of her. And I was just like, yeah, that was the original plan. Like that was why, that was why we wanted to do this in the first place. And she was like, yeah, I would do it free of charge. She was like, I feel bad because now we need to go back in there and do it again. Well, hello. It's actually the next day. My camera died while I was in the car, which is honestly probably a good thing because I surprisingly have been very calm about this whole situation. But I was just like ranting. But anyways, not sure exactly where I left off with the story. But yeah, the vet told me that she wanted to do the surgery again. And I was like, yeah, she kind of barely survived the last one. So like that's not likely to happen. And I'm just so sad. I'm so sad for Layla.  It was because I thought that the vet had made a mistake. And she did.  But this is like, I had a feeling I just had a feeling in my gut. And I just feel kind of bummed because I'm just going to give it some time. I need to wait until tomorrow to get like her full blood work back. So then we'll see like how I feel about that. And I don't even know. It's like this poor dog.  And like it was supposed to be this one surgery. And then she was going to be done. And then she was going to be happy and not have to worry about it anymore. And now you mean to tell me she has to do it again because of your error? I'm sorry. Like people are going to disagree with me. I'm sure there are going to be that text, you know, that come from me in the comments. But I'm allowed to be upset. I'm allowed to be upset about this.  I'm allowed to feel disappointed that I paid, you know, thousands of dollars for this procedure to have it not even be done correctly. And more than the money, just that my dog went through such a hard time. I mean, I was sobbing. I was sobbing. I was laying on the floor with her for days. I slept downstairs on a mattress, like in the living room for like three nights. Anyways, I'm just trying not to let it bother me too much. But actually, the more I talk about it, the more upset I get about it. But I have maintained like a very calm level head. And I'm sure there are people that are going to be like, you should have said this and that. I literally was just in shock. Like in my gut, I knew that this was what was gonna happen. So anyways, I don't really want to go back to that vet to be honest, which sucks because everybody that I know who has taken their animals there has had like a great experience, but mine has been kind of lackluster. Anyway, all that aside, I'm doing my hair right now. I need to film a video. I'm wearing one of my cute new thrifted tops that I got when I went thrifting with Alexa. It was like one of my best thrifting trips ever. And I've just been trying to wear all this stuff, feeling very Y2K with my hair today. And I'm not mad about it. But yeah, I'm trying to maintain a sense of composure. This was not how I saw this vlog going. I thought it was going to be like a quick and easy check up. And well, it's my life. So I should have known that that was not going to be the case. Okay, let's do this. Wish me luck. And I will see you on the other side. OPS, when I was filming the last vlog, my reset vlog where I was watering my plants, I actually watered. I don't know if you can see it, but this big plant right here, this bad boy sitting on the couch, and it came out from its wall hook thingy, like from the ceiling. And it was anchored, so that was terrifying. So it's currently sitting on the couch until I can find a new spot for it. Oh, and don't mind the dust buster because I just had to clean up all of the dirt. Success. Just finished the video. I'm going to head downstairs and make some lunch. And I'm going to try a TikTok snack. Well, I shouldn't say try. I'm going to show you a TikTok snack that I've been eating this week. But first, we got to make some lunch. I'm probably just going to make my regular salad because I'm a creature of habit. OPS, I'm wearing my new little tank top. It's actually kind of the color of my skin right now, but it's from free people. It's like a tank top slash bra. So there's no like built-in bra or anything. It's just this, but it's so comfortable. And I've seen a few people that I follow on Instagram talking about free people recently and how like even plus-sized people who are like a 3x and 4x are wearing like a size extra large and free people. This was one of my little findings and I kind of love it. And I'm just going to like wear it with pajama pants for the rest of the day after I change. So I will link it down below, but let's see what we have for lunch today. I don't know if I have enough spring mix to make a salad, but we'll try. I do not have enough. Okay, let's think on our feet here. Oh, I do have some kale. We'll just like mix it all together. Sure. Here's the tea. I need a bigger one. Show this salad a million times. You have spring mix. Slash a little bit of kale. Get lots of good greens in there because why not? Then we are going to do all the crispy bits. If you've seen this a million times, I do sincerely apologize. We're going to do some hemp seeds. We are going to do some raisins. Raisins are a must, pistachios, the superior nut at the moment for me. I'm usually a cashews girl, but I'm in a pistachio phase right now.  We already talked about this, but I just use these as croutons on my salad and things. I'm also going to heat up some of the Morningstar Farms veggie and other things. I have a bunch of different ones that I use, but these are easy because they're pre-cooked and I can just microwave them lucky. I could air fry them, but I don't have the patience to sit down here for 15 minutes. I'm trying to go a minute and then done. I'm just going to put a few of these on the plate and put them in the microwave to me. But the TikTok snack that I saw was raspberries and chocolate chips in the middle of them, and I don't have that many left, and actually I only have very few chocolate chips, so we'll work with what we have here. But basically you take a raspberry and then you stick a chocolate chip inside of it. That's literally it. And it's so freaking good. I don't even really love raspberries that much, like they're good, but it just really does something for me.  I get like excited for it clearly because I've eaten almost this entire carton of raspberries. Like look at how cute these are. Freaking normal. Okay let's get my chicken nuggets going. These are vegan by the way, but I just like cut them into little pieces. There they go. Fascinating stuff here. Aren't you so glad you clicked on this video? Sometimes I'm like, should I stop vlogging? Like in general. Today I am having my typical Annie's goddess dressing. They also sell it at Trader Joe's. Not the Annie's brand, but like an exact dupe. It's very delicious. I'm gonna have a couple bites of watermelon because why not?  This is LaCroix. What flavors is? Berry. Very delicious. Highly recommend. Okay.  I'm gonna have like a couple bites of this because I eat it all day long. I'm gonna have a lunch break with Drew and then we will reconvene. Hello, it's actually a few days later. I am in my pajamas. My dog shirt, which is my favorite shirt of all time, but I just realized that I never ended this vlog. So thank you so much for being here, for hanging out with me while I do my usual every day boring routine. Making my favorite salad that you've watched me make a million times. And just thanks for supporting me even when I feel down about the vlogs that I make and just wondering if like it's even got a point to it. But I just love connecting with you all and sharing my life and hanging out. And I love watching vlogs. I love watching people live their kind of everyday life routine and have nothing exciting going on. So I hope that you feel the same way. And it's been a crazy week. We will talk about it in the next vlog, but life is gonna start getting pretty crazy besties. Oh, and here comes move just right on time. Everybody love seeing you. Anyway, Mu and I are gonna go hang out. So thanks for being here and we'll see you in the next vlog. Exciting stuff. Bye.


one of my farms and there's an Amish guy who's a neighbor of mine, he said, you can lose your wealth and it'll be bad, you know? You can lose your health and that'll be worse, but don't lose your soul. And the way I interpret that is you can lose your soul chasing money. I've seen it and you can lose part of your soul chasing money. You can lose your soul chasing health. There's people so addicted to the gym, they forget about everything else in their life. My dad was very healthy. He was like a pro bodybuilder. He was on the cover universe magazine, but he neglected the other part of his soul. You can replace the word soul with the four pillars of the good life. So it's like, what is it profit a person to gain all the money in the world, but to lose the good life and the good life is helpful. Love happiness.


I keep having a horrible feeling, even if it's clear. He said we were wrong. Justice, yes. We embraced you. I was Governor of California, President Nixon. Second on the mission. Some years ago. Yes. We had been in Denmark, that was the first Fourth of July celebration, and then came back into Brussels and went on from there to several other states normal. Nancy and I were going to do their email.


I know that we've talked about Occam's razor before, but I really want to get into some of the details. You know how I like to split hairs. Occam's razor, or the principle of parsimony, is sometimes taken to be a fundamental rule of reasoning, a member of the set of laws that we must accept in order to reason properly. It's often invoked to dismiss propositions and ideas that have some sort of obvious frilliness or extra-moving parts, and rightly so. If multiple explanations are just as good accounting for the evidence, it seems totally reasonable that we should prefer ones that require us to take fewer leaps to cover the same ground. But often, the nuances of Occam's razor require careful handling, and flailing it about willy-nilly is likely to cause some havoc. In his book, Occam's Razors, a user's manual, philosopher Elliot Sober notes some sobering details about how parsimony works and why we might have good reasons to doubt razor-like arguments. The title mentions razor's plural because Sober notes two logically distinct versions of the principle of parsimony, what he terms the razor of silence and the razor of denial, both great names for philosophy metal band. The razor of silence is the more conservative of the two, saying, if you don't need something to explain some phenomenon, then just don't mention it in your explanation. If the fact that it's cold outside fully explains why your car doesn't start the first time, there's no reason to postulate that your battery must be dying too. The razor of denial is more aggressive, claiming that when choosing between logically incompatible explanations, all things being equal, we should rule against the existence of extra entities. We know that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. The presence of a second gunman is unnecessary to explain that event, so we should conclude that there was no second gunman. The difference between not assuming something and assuming not something is subtle but important. The razor of silence is fairly easy to justify on probabilistic grounds, because two things being true are always less likely than one thing being true. But the razor of denial makes positive assertions about what we should disbelieve, and as it turns out, it's much harder to support. Although many philosophers and scientists have justified their use of Occam's razor by appealing to intuitions about how the laws of nature ought to be simple, this attitude gave way to more probabilistic approaches in the 20th century, possibly because the success of quantum physics was a remarkable demonstration of just how buck wild those laws can get. Sober performs a rigorous dissection of the razor using both frequentists and Bayesian probability, and arrives at an interesting conclusion. Although parsimony can be a good rule of thumb when you're evaluating hypotheses, it seems to be standing in as a proxy for more fundamental principles, and in situations where those principles actually conflict with parsimony, it seems like ditching Occam's razor is the best move. For example, let's take a look at one of the classic uses of the razor of denial, assuming common cause. One of Isaac Newton's rules for practicing natural philosophy was, the causes assigned to natural effects of the same kind must be, as far as possible, the same. This was partially what motivated Newton to make the brilliant assertion that apples fall for the same reason that planets orbit. Similar statements can be found in the works of Aristotle and other famous philosophical bigwigs, essentially saying that if you see similar phenomena, you should lean towards explanations that say the same thing caused both of them, rather than a different cause for each. We can restate this idea in terms of probability by linking it to something called the law of likelihood, which says that evidence favors one hypothesis over another if it's more likely that we'd see that evidence if that hypothesis were true. This is a little confusing, but stick with me. We're not talking about which of our hypotheses is most probable or anything like that, we're just ranking them based on which ones would most reliably cause a certain bit of evidence. If I flip a coin and it comes up tails, the law of likelihood would say that the evidence of the flip favors the hypothesis that the coin has tails on both sides. That's obviously not the most probable explanation, given everything that we know. There's all sorts of other things that should make us expect a normal coin that happened to come up tails. But just looking at the one flip, we'd only see a result of tails 50% of the time with a normal coin. If it were a double tails coin, we'd see that result 100% of the time. 100 is more than 50, so according to relative likelihood, double tails gets a higher ranking. Now, often, when we see two things that look similar, that evidence favors a common origin, because all things being equal, the law of likelihood favors that explanation. Two people who look exactly the same, you'd see that a lot of the time, if they were twins, and only rarely if they weren't, so the law of likelihood favors the twins' explanation. Two different objects both fall toward the earth, the law of likelihood would rank a common gravitational force higher than two different forces, which might well accelerate them at different rates. But what about two different guests showing up to a wedding with the same item off the registry? In this case, the similarity between these phenomena actually makes it less likely that they have the same cause. If one guest bought it off the registry, short of some weird bug with the software, the other one couldn't. This actually favors an explanation with two different causes. Maybe one of the guests overheard the groom talking about this cool toaster and circumvented the registry to get it for him. In the wedding registry case, Occam's razor is at odds with the law of likelihood, and it seems like the most parsimonious answer a single cause for these similar events is actually improbable. Sober suggests that while Occam's razor is often aligned with likelihood, when it isn't, likelihood is the more fundamental of the two, and should win. Another way to think about parsimony is as a mechanism for choosing better models of the world. Although as we'll see, it's worth asking better for what exactly. If you've gathered enough data points to try and guess the laws that govern them, like guessing at the equation for gravitational force between two objects, there are arguments to be made for starting out with simpler equations with a few adjustable parameters and working your way up. After all, equations with lots of high power terms might be massaged to fit a set of measurements better than less sophisticated ones, but they run the risk of overfitting, exploding into whack-a-doodle values when you tweak their initial conditions slightly. It seems wise to avoid using volatile terms like 13.2x to the eighth minus 100x to the fifth when a simple x-squared will do. While it's a good thing to be wary of, you don't get to congratulate yourself on the job well done just for being parsimonious with your variables and not overfitting your data. The whole point of building a model to begin with is predictive power to figure out what will happen. Depending on how much weight you put on Occam's Razoring Your Way down to a few low power equations, you may miss out on some useful predictive accuracy in the process. Like a model that says the coin is going to land either heads or tails has one fewer term than one which says that it's going to land heads 50% of the time and tails 50% of the time. It's not overfit, sure.  And it's very accurate, but it's not exactly useful. In both the model selection and likelihood mechanisms of Occam's Razor, there are some important things to note. First, in both cases, parsimony is just a proxy for something else, either relative likelihood of a theory or relative predictive accuracy of a model. It's not an epistemic virtue in and of itself, and can actually conflict with those goals and weird scenarios, leading dedicated shavers astray. Second, even looking directly at those more fundamental properties, we're just ranking and comparing some theories that we've come up with. There's no indication how likely they are to be true, just which ones that we've thought of are more or less likely given the evidence, or more or less predictive. Given these facts, it might make sense to be diligent about wielding the razor of silence wherever possible, and when more discerning cognitive tools are needed to use likelihood and predictive power directly, rather than invoking the potentially unreliable razor of denial as shorthand for them. After all, if it's not strictly necessary to get good results, can you think of a place where a more nuanced understanding of how the razor of denial works might lead you to a different result than just straight up parsimony? Please, leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Thank you very much for watching. Don't forget to blah blah subscribe, blah share, and don't stop clunking.


Good day, you wonderful people, you! Welcome to the AspergisGriff channel. My name is Thomas Henley and today we're going to be talking about four ways that you can improve your relationship or friendship with an autistic person. It's no lie that autism is just one of those things that makes it immeasurably more difficult to navigate. Friendships, social environments and make friends with other humans. Humans. Where is that from? Humans. Those strange, crazy little creatures that are so complex and difficult to work out. Sometimes just better to be a dog out. Good old, simple dog out. Within the world of autism, there are many different ways that we differ in our social communication style when compared to a neurotypical person and this extends to thoughts about social ideals or social norms that we have. It's very different depending on what kind of neurotype you have and I mean you only have to go to one of these autism related groups to realise just how different the styles of communications are. It's only when these two very differing brains collide in a display of friendship and compassion that a little bit more information will be helpful. With all that in mind, I'm going to highlight four easy ways nearly held up for you then. Four easy ways to improve your relationship with an autistic person and if you already have an autistic friend then this information will help you skyrocket into a different dimension, a different plane of existence where this friendship will flourish to the greatest extent of its capabilities and you'll have a good friend as well and they'll appreciate you. Number one, choosing sensory friendly places to meet with your friend. Now if you're only just scratching the surface of the latest autism research, you may know a little bit about the sensory experiences that differ in autistic people. We tend to be a little bit more hypersensitive in some areas and a little bit hyposensitive in other areas but overall it's very much dependent on the autistic person. Hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, sensory seeking, sensory defensive, there are a lot of different jargon scientific and flamboyant terms to describe the autistic sensory experience but barring all of that for the simplicity of the video, autistic people generally struggle a lot with background noise, loud noises or bright, horrible, demonic fluorescent lights. Makes me cry thinking about it. It's really hard to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it but it's almost like our brains amplify all the sensory signals that come into it and this can make it really difficult as it can drive up our levels of anxiety to an intolerable level on some occasions and at the least it can be really hard to concentrate on a conversation. In light of these commonalities it's always a good shout to find somewhere, somewhere around you that isn't plagued by the evil fluorescent lights or at least it's just a little bit quiet and dimly lit, there's a really good places to go. And if your autistic friend is feeling particularly adventurous and willing to assault their senses, intense environments where these sensory signals are going to be really high, it's always a good shout to find somewhere that has a place where they can go and chill. The worst scenario is that they're going to be trapped in this place and there's going to be nowhere that they can sit and isolate and be alone and try and chill out. So having somewhere to go on the downside, probably a good idea. Number two, facilitating social interaction. It's no lie that autistic people generally struggle with the multifaceted and ambiguous nature of social interaction. But it may also surprise you that the level of social anxiety that someone can feel in those situations doesn't always match up with their desire to socialize. Personally I've done a lot of work on my social skills and I'd consider myself to be quite extroverted in comparison to a lot of autistic people. So in those situations I don't need that social support. However there is a lot of autistic people who aren't so comfortable in certain social situations. However this is not true for the large majority of autistic people and this is especially true when that socializing takes place in a new environment with different social contexts or socializing with new people. The social anxiety is not specifically confined to autistic people but unlike most neurotypical people, autistic people generally struggle with social context, body language, facial expressions, tones of voice. Anything that isn't completely confined to text, you know worded text, social situations like a debate, any other situation is going to be difficult for us to understand and difficult for us to handle when it's combined with that social anxiety. But just like yourself, after maybe like a couple of hours you start to get into a little bit of a groove and that is true for autistic people as well. Tends to be a bit more relaxing, tends to be a bit more fun and less anxiety provoking. So in light of all of this it might be a good idea to try and introduce them to other people and ask them questions that get them involved in social groups, people talking. The bottom line is we may not look like we're enjoying ourselves and want to talk but inside if we're wanting to go to a social event there is a high likelihood that we want to engage on some sort of level. Being that person to get them involved in conversations and introduce them to new people is a very effective way to make sure that they are enjoying themselves and they don't feel like a loose screw. Number three, do not take their lack of communication too personally. In the autistic community we have this lovely little metaphor to help describe the amount of energy that we have to socialize and we call this our social battery. Social battery is a good way of describing it because we cannot go for prolonged sessions of socializing on a constant basis without getting completely overwhelmed. Depending on the amount of mental health that we're currently dealing with, the amount of stress, the amount of work pressure, the amount of energy that we're having to expend each day, this social battery can be low. It can be very low. All of these factors can have a large impact on the energy we have to socialize and this is not confined just to face-to-face conversation on phone calls. If you find that your autistic friends goes for long stints of not being in contact as much or not messaging as much then it may be likely that they're intentionally just taking a step back from social media or their phone to try and preserve the little social battery that they have left. Just like with The Last Point, this is not completely confined to autistic people. It's very much an independent factor, you know, one person could have loads of energy and want to socialize all the time and it doesn't make them feel anxious or draining. It lifts them up and helps them deal with life. I'm sure that you'll have many days where you just want to shut off and get under a blanket and eat ice cream and watch Netflix. That is a good example of your social battery being flat. But when it comes to an autistic person, the act of socializing is a lot more of a cerebral task, meaning that we have to put a lot of thought into conversations and contexts and interpret different things. Whereas, you know, interpreting all those body language, tonalities, all that stuff is going to be a lot more natural to you. So this means that our social battery can be emptied very, very, very, very, very quickly and it may take a lot longer to recharge. The best way to combat this is just to be aware that your autistic friends may not have the energy to socialize on a constant basis. And if you can put yourself in their shoes and try and view it from that angle of the social realm being incredibly complex and difficult to understand, it's going to be a lot easier to not take it so personally. The amount of communication that they have with you does not necessarily match how much they care for you or how much they value your friendship. Sometimes all that's needed is to plan weekly meets or buy weekly meets, just so that the autistic person can fit into their schedule and make sure that their battery is recharged enough to engage socially. Yes, routine is really important for us. And if it just comes out of the blue, then it can be stabilizers quite a bit. Number four, the very last point, verbalize how you feel towards them, how much they mean to you, how much you value their friendship, what you think of them. One thing that I picked up on from school is that people generally don't respond well when you ask them if they're your best friend or if they're your friend. It's generally looked down upon socially to do that kind of thing and ask people to numerically rate how much of a good friend you are. But it's also a difficult thing for us because we kind of need that. Of course, for most people, where you're at in a friendship is generally loosely defined by the emotions that you exchange, the things that you tell them, the secrets that you exchange, the amount of time that you spend with the other person, the things that you do with them. It kind of gives you an idea of, you know, at what stage of a friendship you're in. And autistic people can do that, but because we like concreteness and we hate ambiguity, that can make it really difficult for us.  There's just something incredibly comforting and reassuring about a concrete verbalization of your friendship. It can clear up a lot of the ambiguity that surrounds these complex human relationships that we have. And because we struggle a little bit with the whole social network, the social world that we live in, that level of concreteness can be very helpful. So let your autistic friends know what you think about them, know how much you appreciate them, and you'll likely be very surprised at how much it can progress your relationship. You might be even more surprised at just how much it surprises them. So we've gone through the whole list of four things that I've nicely... Apologies for that. I've laid out four things that you can do that are very easy to try and improve your relationship with an autistic person. Although this video is focused around friendship, you can use these points in a relationship. It's also important to highlight that the autistic way of communicating isn't necessarily wrong. A study that I read on social cohesion compared a group of neurotypicals and a group of autistic people in a socially based teamwork task. And the surprising result was that both of them were equal in their standing. They both did equally well in this task. It's only when they mix these two together that the problem started to occur and they did significantly worse on the task compared to both of the individual groups. The truth is is that being autistic, we are a significant minority of the population. And that means that in our younger and adult lives, we need to constantly fit in and adapt in order to be accepted and to make friends. That little bit of effort the other way is just so much appreciated by autistic people. If you're one of those friends that they have, that close friend that understands their differences and their difficulties and seeks to adapt, then you are an amazing person to them. It can do wonders for your friendship and it can also do a lot of wonders for their social life. So thank you very much for tuning in to this video. I hope you've managed to take something away from it. Honestly, there's just not enough people in the world who really appreciate the amount of effort and hard work that it takes for autistic people to fit into society. There are all sorts of various hurdles that we have to try and halfheartedly jump over throughout our life in many different situations that make the social world just a very difficult place. So I wholeheartedly thank you for your time to listen to me talking about autism and its various waves and strangenesses and oddities. That's an oddity for you right there. If you're in a relationship with an autistic person or you've just started dating someone with autism, it may be quite useful to have some videos that are more tailored to that experience. It just so happens that I have in the back burner a few video ideas that I'm going to put together into a little series of videos called Dating on Autistic. So you can expect that video in around one week and I'll try and put those out every couple of weeks just to keep the ball rolling, you know, keep the YouTube train going. Of course, I'm sporting the new Aspergist Grove t-shirt and there's a lot of cool little t-shirts and masks and beanies and mugs and all that kind of jazz. On the Aspergist Grove merch site, so if you want to head down to that, go into the description, have a peruse through the different things that are available. I'm not expecting anyone to buy it but it's just nice to have one. Much love, stay hydrated and embrace your inner strangeness. I'll see you in the next video.


And the title of our sermon this morning is believe in him, believe in him, and our text is John chapter 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Our study of John chapter 3 and our Lord's conversation with Nicodemus has been set against a backdrop. And the backdrop of that conversation, a backdrop of the Lord's teaching in John chapter 3 is the backdrop of man's depravity. All men are born depraved. Adam is our representative and the Bible says in Romans chapter 5 verse 12 that just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin thus death spread to all men because all sin. Sin has affected every aspect of who you are. The Bible describes your heart as foolish, darkened and defiled. Your understanding is described by God's word as depraved. You are futile in your thoughts professing to be wise. All men outside of Christ are fools filled with all with all unrighteousness. We are spiritually blind and dead in our trespasses. This is God's assessment. God's assessment of you and I apart from the regenerating, transforming work of his spirit. It is what is meant by the term total depravity. It is a thorough and pervasive depravity. That depravity is clearly seen in the thoughts and intents of our evil hearts apart from Christ. Mark chapter 7 verse 21 says, for from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. He sums it up, all these things come from within and defile a man. The glorious truth, however, against the backdrop of that deplorable reality is that the history of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the account of God's working in history to redeem this fallen man to himself. Why? Why? One, for his own glory. For the praise and the worship that is due his name, for the exaltation of his son. But secondly, because the Bible says that God is love, because God is love. This is not a sentimentalized or a sappy or a superficial kind of love. This is a love that is governed by God's perfect holiness. It is a love first for his own righteous character that upholds his own divine justice. It's a love that would not settle for anything less but that God would be holy and that God would be just. God's holiness is of such perfection, God's justice so pure and so undefiled, man's sin such a horrid stain and such an offensive blight on the character of God that to uphold his perfect justice and to preserve his perfect holiness, God would be right and just to cast mankind eternally into punishment. But the history of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, it's not a history about a hopeless condemnation whereby God, merely and only, vindicates his holiness and justice by glorifying himself in man's eternal punishment. The glorious truth of the Bible is God working in history to reverse the human tragedy of sin and to provide a means by which we may be saved. It's for our own good and for his eternal glory. It's a love that upholds God as just, but it's also a love that upholds God as the great justifier in all and such a way that God alone gets all the glory for it. There's only one way that this can be done. It's only one way that this can be done. It would take an immeasurable love. It would take an indescribable gift and it will take an indestructible faith. An immeasurable love, an indescribable gift and an indestructible faith. First an immeasurable love. A love so immeasurable as to be thoroughly unconditional. A love so great that flowing from it would be grace and mercy and kindness and compassion and patience and all toward those that are thoroughly undeserving in every possible way. Enemies of God by their wicked works. Out of that immeasurable love flows an indescribable gift. The chasm or the rift between God and man created by our own sin and rebellion against him is so great there can be no forgiveness of sin without the greatest of cost, the shedding of blood or the giving of life, that which is most valuable. To fully and finally and completely repair the breach would take a sacrificial gift on the part of God so great and so unimaginably high a cost that it is described in the Bible as indescribable. It would be the gift or the sacrifice of God's own son. In all of that calling for demanding an indestructible faith. Finally this great salvation would have to be so completely the work of God alone that it would render man unable to boast about anything and that God whose chief consideration is his own glory would have all of the glory to himself. The only appropriate response is that God gifted, God empowered and God preserved faith. All three of these points and immeasurable love and indescribable gift, indestructible faith are explained all beautifully in one simple but extraordinarily profound verse. Martin Luther called it the gospel in miniature. That is John chapter 3 verse 16.   I mean absolutely amazing. So what are we to do with these glorious truths that we find here?  Of course God is good and loving. This is not like going and watching fireworks and then walking away and going back to your life. You're awed and impressed by the fireworks and then you go back no different than you were before.  Maybe you listen and now you listen to it over and over again because of the way it makes you feel. It's not that kind of an experience. You must believe in him. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. John writes this gospel so that you may believe in him. That you may believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God and the believing. You might have life in his name. This belief in Jesus Christ is not merely mental. It's not merely intellectual. It's not merely emotional. Being here is the way the Bible communicates genuine saving faith in Christ. You must entrust yourself to him for salvation. It's the only reasonable response to the gospel. The only reasonable response to what God has done. You must entrust yourself to him in order to follow Christ by faith. We'll see that as we get into our text. As we begin we need to understand the context that this verse is found in. John chapter 3 verse 16 is found in a context and the context is extremely important. John chapter 3 verse 16 is an explanation of the illustration just given by the Lord Jesus Christ in verses 14 and 15. In verse 14 Jesus Christ speaking to Nicodemus begins to recount for us the historical account that we find in Numbers 21 where the Israelites and the wilderness having grumbled and complained against God were judged. In judgment God sends fiery serpents among the people and many of those people it says they were bitten and died as a result of the snake bites. However Moses intercedes for the people of God and in an act of great mercy and in an act of great love toward a stiff necked and rebellious people God tells Moses to take a bronze serpent placed at the top of a pole. And that whoever is bitten would believe God, look at the serpent, look at the rescue, the remedy that God has provided and be saved. Jesus says then in verse 15, John chapter 3 verse 15 that in the same manner must the Son of Man be lifted up. He must, it is a divine necessity, be crucified, sacrificed on Calvary's cross. That's what he means by lifted up. So that those believing in God and the salvation that God has provided may look to Jesus Christ in faith trusting Him alone for salvation and placing that saving belief in Christ they would not perish but have eternal life.  So we see then in verse 16 this glorious act of mercy, this glorious act of love begins with an immeasurable love, point one, an immeasurable love, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Literally there, if you translated the text literally, so loved God the world. So, meaning in the same manner, in the same way, in the same way as what? In the same way that God demonstrated love for those wicked, stiff-necked and rebellious complaining and grumbling Israelites by providing for their rescue from the serpents, God demonstrated love toward the world in providing Christ. And the illustration, now think about for a moment what so loved the world then is emphasizing. Think about the context. Numbers 21 and the account of God saving the people from the fiery serpents is drawing attention first there to the total depravity of the people. Look at all that God had done for them. As we've said, He led them through the wilderness, provided them the fire by night, the cloud by day. He parted the waters of the Red Sea after rescuing them out of bondage in Egypt. He provided for them food from heaven, manna, which now their soul they say loaves. He provided them meat to eat, provided for them water out of the rock, gave them His law at Sinai. They heard His audible voice. Look at all that God has done and yet they grumbled and complained against the Lord accusing Him of bringing them out into the wilderness to kill them by the hands of the Amorites. All that God has done for them and yet they respond in great sin and rebellion. Their rebellion as shocking as it is, now consider the context. Their rebellion as shocking as it is can only be eclipsed there by the great love and mercy of God at saving them rather than blowing them up on the spot. It is a great mercy. It is a great kindness on the part of God. In this same manner, in this same manner, God loved the world. The sin of this wicked world against God is so absurdly wicked, is so absurdly pervasive, so offensive to God that in this context, in our context, that great wickedness of the world may only be eclipsed by how great the love and mercy of God that He would provide for our salvation rather than blowing us up on the spot. God didn't have to make provision for sin and yet He did. How great and wondrous the love of God. You see, the magnitude of God's love isn't primarily being described here by its scope in that it extends to the whole world. It certainly does. Not just a juice, but to men and women out of every tribe, tongue, and nation. It certainly does extend. But it is being described here primarily in its perfection, perfectly independent of how unlovable its object is. There's not anything lovely in us. Even our good is as a filthy rag before God. God's love is completely unconditional and sacrificial, a choice of God's own sovereign will. Just because in His own good pleasure He decided to perfectly glorifying to God alone, grounded exclusively in God alone. And look at the great love with which He loved us. He gave His own Son. He gave His own Son here in the context for a world that did not know Him. For a world that rejected Him, rebelled against Him. For a world that killed Him is His immeasurable love. We can only truly understand God's amazing love toward us when we more fully understand how completely unlovely we are, and then only in the light of Jesus Christ on the cross. You know, both of these truths have to be urgently pressed upon people today. Both have to be proclaimed and preached at the same time equally. We need constant reminding of both of these truths. The total depravity of man, the complete wickedness of man, the fall and how sinfully, offensively we rebelled against God, and the great love and mercy and grace and kindness and compassion and patience of a gracious, loving God. Listen to how Paul puts both of those truths together in Titus chapter 3 verse 3. He says to Titus, for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But listen to the contrast. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. You know, if you preach the love of God without its contrast and the wickedness of men, you get prideful, self-righteous people who admire the love of God, but see no need in themselves for a Savior. Mark chapter 2 verse 17, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, Jesus says, but sinners to repentance. If you preach the wickedness of man without its hope for redemption in the love and mercy of God, then you get a despairing, discouraged, hopeless, faithless, legalistic people striving in their own strength for right standing with God. You preach the wickedness of man without its hope for redemption and the love and mercy of God. It sounds like Islam, doesn't it? Paul said to Titus again in chapter 2 verse 11, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, and it's that grace that teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. Revealing for the blessed hope, the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. It's not going to be ourselves that drag us out of the pit of our own sin. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that has redeemed us from every lawless deed, and he's purifying for himself his own special people zealous for good works. All glory be to God. From the standpoint of these rebellious and dying Israelites in Numbers chapter 21, God showed love toward them all, didn't he? There were many there in the desert in the wilderness that day that were bitten and died. There were others that looked to God's provision, believed on God and were saved. God showed love toward them all, didn't he? By raising the serpent, providing a rescue was an act of love toward them all. The bronze serpent was raised for anyone to look. There was no other remedy provided. There was no other remedy provided. The bronze serpent was the only one. It was an act of mercy toward all of them in that God provided that remedy, whether they looked or whether they didn't. It was an act of mercy to all of them, whether they believed in God and in his provision and looked or whether they didn't. Here in John chapter 3 verse 16, this love of God is said to be directed to the world in the same way, in the same manner. The world here in context is the mass of fallen humanity. It is a general term used for humanity in a general sense. This is the world of John chapter 1 verse 10 that did not know him. This is the world of John chapter 3 verse 17 that his son was sent into. This is the world of John chapter 3 verse 19 that the light has come into where men love darkness rather than the light. There are two errors people often fall into in thinking about this. One error is that God only loves those who believe and therefore hates all those that are lost. That God only loves those who believe. The second error is that God loves everyone indiscriminately in exactly the same way. We could speak for weeks and weeks and weeks on this subject alone. The love of God. It is biblically true that God hates. And we need to understand that from the Bible. Jacob I have loved and he saw I have hated Romans chapter 9 verse 13. God hates all workers of iniquity, Psalm chapter 5 verse 5. God hates the one who sows discord among the brethren.  However, it is also equally true that God shows love and compassion toward lost people. Think about it for a moment now from Scripture. In Mark's account of the rich young ruler, in Mark chapter 10 verse 21, Jesus in speaking with the rich young ruler, it's interesting there, says that Jesus loved him. And the rich young ruler went away unsaved. The second great commandment in Scripture is to love your neighbor as yourself, right? Luke 10, a lawyer wanting to justify himself, ask the Lord Jesus Christ, well then who is my neighbor? And Jesus gave him the parable of the good Samaritan. They are to love everyone then if everyone is their neighbor. Jesus says that we are to even love our enemies. In the first Timothy chapter 2, we are to pray for all men, which is good and acceptable in the sight of God who desires in the desired will of God, desires all men to be saved. God has a will of desire and a will of decree. In God's will of desire, he desires that all men are saved. God doesn't take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. He takes no pleasure in the death of one who dies, but that they would turn from their wickedness and live. It's an act of compassion on the part of God. Finally, there is no greater act of love than the giving of the gospel. God doesn't do this in condemnation. Jesus Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He offers the gospel freely in love and then commands all men everywhere to repent. That's an act of loving kindness on the part of God. That's a loving act. Paul says in Corinthians that we are to plead with the lost as though God were pleading through him, through us. The gospel offer is a sincere offer. It goes out to all sincerely, offered to all freely. It is the greatest act of love toward a lost world that Jesus Christ would give the gospel, that God would give the gospel in Jesus Christ. One of those who say that the world in John 3 verse 16 is referring only to believers without distinction to race, I would say that one, he so loved the world and whoever believes are not equal terms. If you look at John 3 verse 16, he so loved the world and then whoever believes, I think about this, that which is expressed by the one is not equally expressed by the other. There's a difference. I'll let you ponder that. There's a difference between the two. The world of verse 17 is inclusive of he who believes and the he who does not believe of verse 18. It includes both. In the context of the world includes those who believe and those who do not. There is a part of the world that rejects the light and is condemned in verse 19. The context here and the teaching of Scripture demands that a general love toward all humanity is in view here in John chapter 3 verse 16 and it is a love that is displayed in God's gracious offer of the gospel to all men. To those who believe that the world means that God loves everyone the same. John chapter 3 verse 16 is not teaching a universal salvation. The context clearly teaches that unbelievers will perish in eternal judgment. The Bible clearly teaches a particular or electing love reserved for those that God chooses of his own goodwill and pleasure. No one would fault me for saying that I love you but that I love my wife in a special way. Right? There is a particular love for my wife in the same way there is a particular way in which God loves those whom he has chosen for salvation.  It's the only remedy for the world whether they look to him or do not. Whether they reject him because they love darkness, they love walking in their evil or if they put their faith and trust in him and believe in him to eternal life, he is the only remedy, the only Savior, the only rescue, the only ransom for the whole world. When John says in 1 John chapter 2 verse 2 that he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world, it is in the sense that he is the only propitiation, the only possible wrath satisfying sacrifice that God has provided for the world. If they believe in him, then they have their sins propitiated. They have the wrath of God satisfied for them on behalf of them. When Paul says to Timothy that Jesus gave himself a ransom for all, it means that he is the only ransom available. Jesus Christ is the only mediator. He is the only ransom. He is the only Savior. He is the only reconciler. He's the only one that can repair the breach. God sends he is the only one that is offered up. If men are to be saved, they must look to Christ alone in faith. They must believe in him. God sending his son for the mass of sinful, fallen, lost humanity. This is the greatest act of love. He is the only reconciler, the only Savior. If men are going to be saved, they're going to look to Christ alone. So how great is the love of God for this sinful world that he sent his only begotten son? How great, how immeasurable the love of God for this wicked world that he gave that gift. John MacArthur said this, God so loved the world, wicked though it was.  The dearest sacrifice he could make so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. The end result of God's love is therefore the gospel message, the free offer of life and mercy to anyone who believes. In other words, the gospel, an indiscriminate offer of divine mercy to everyone without exception, manifests God's compassionate love and unfaigned loving kindness to all humanity. It's just a testimony to God's great love. The hymn that we sang, the love of God, very famous hymn by Frederick Lehman. The last stanza in there is considered by many to be the greatest words of any hymn ever written. And the last verse goes like this. Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill and every man ascribed by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky. God's love is immeasurable. It was written by a man, we don't know who, the third verse. The first two verses written by Frederick Lehman, the third verse scrawled on the wall of an insane asylum, where a man had been a patient there and wrote those verses on that verse on the wall. Like those Israelites, think about now for a moment all that God has done for you. All that God has done for you, the love and mercy and grace and compassion that God has shown you. If you're in Christ, certainly meditate on the love and grace and mercy of God toward you. If you're outside of Christ, if you've never turned and put your faith and trust in him, think about all that God has done for you. You think to yourself, maybe God is planning to condemn me. He's going to glorify himself in my condemnation. You may think that my sin is too great, my heart too rebellious. But remember the words of Scripture, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Look at all the many ways in which God has shown love toward you. An amazing love. He's presented you with the Gospel many times if you've been here. Many times you've heard the Gospel. You have a Bible in your hand. You're surrounded by genuine brothers and sisters who love you and care for your soul.  They've shown you from the Bible all that God has done for you. The glory is grace and mercy of God to you kids who have grown up with parents like that. The Bible says that God takes no pleasure in the death of one who dies. No pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his wickedness and live. God desires that you would be saved. God desires that you... Not that he's going to condemn you. He didn't send Jesus Christ into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. God desires that you be saved. The desired will of God. Don't grumble and complain against God like those wicked Israelites in the desert. When he comes to you in immeasurable love with the Gospel, you must believe in him. Believe in him for eternal life. Let me also give you this warning. For God so loved the world here in verse 16. It's not an excuse for presumption. Men have presumptuously claimed the love of God while they have lived in their sin. You better understand your Bible. A presumptuous view of the love of God will leave you in your sin and stand before God one day on judgment day saying, Lord, Lord, while he cast you into hell. I was witnessing to a man on the college campus last week and he was presuming upon the love of God to think that he could have gotten into heaven without repentance. Just presuming on the love of God.  And he was living in his sin. We'll see the balance of this, the biblical balance of this next week in verses 17 to 21. Secondly though, this immeasurable love then is demonstrated with an indescribable gift. An indescribable gift.  The greatest gift of God to this world is the gospel in which God delivered up. He sacrificed, he endured the loss of it. That's what the sense of that word is there. He sacrificed his only monogonase, his radically distinctive, unique, one of a kind without equal son. The only man who was ever perfectly worthy of the love of God. Paul describes it as indescribable. Too glorious to be expressed in words. He made him who knew no sin to be sinned for us. That we might become the righteousness of God in him. It's only through Christ that we come to know the love of God and to love God. It's only in Christ. The word there for only begotten, better translated unique or one of a kind. It does not mean that Jesus Christ was created or that he came into being. The Bible never teaches that and any reasonable person would see that as error. Christ's uniqueness is another aspect that points to the greatness of the gift. His radical distinctiveness, his one of a kind without equal. Another aspect that points to the greatness of the gift. Jesus Christ was not a created being. Jesus Christ was incarnate God. God, when he gave the gift of his only begotten son, he is giving a gift of himself. God in the flesh. All the promises of God are yes and amen in him. Now think about your great need and the great gift of God. You need a perfect substitute.  And yet Jesus Christ, the gift of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is the perfect substitute exactly what you need. He never sinned in word, thought, or deed. Perfect life. Perfectly fulfilling all of the righteous demands of God. You need a wrath satisfying sacrifice. You need someone to take your punishment for you.  You need someone who can take that eternal punishment for you. And Jesus Christ comes along, perfect gift, and takes the punishment that you rightly deserve. And takes it in his body, the Bible says, on the tree. You need someone who can conquer death. You have no power over death. The Lord Jesus Christ conquered death. You need a Savior. Jesus Christ is a perfect Savior. So what will you do? This is an indescribable gift. A gift of God himself, a gift of God's only Son. It cost God everything to redeem you. What will you do when that gift is being offered to you? Right now, if you're here this morning and you're not saved, God again is freely offering the gift of his Son, desiring that you would be saved. Not desiring to condemn you, but to save you. Not taking pleasure in the death of the wicked, but desiring that you would be saved. God freely offers the gift of the gospel to you again. What will you do? Will you be indifferent? Will you sit there with a cold heart? Or will you be grateful to God for the gift and turn to Christ believing in him and be saved? Will you make excuses and shun his grace? Stop making excuses. This is a free offer of the gospel. The glorious truth of the cross is that it is a free offer from the grace of God in Christ to you that if you will put your faith in him, he will justify you to himself, reconcile you to himself. You must believe in him. Turn from your sin. Here we're talking about faith. Point around your notes. This is an indestructible faith. Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Hebrews chapter 11 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Ephesians 2 says that we are saved by grace through faith. To believe in him and to have faith in him are expressing the exact same thing. God's grace and mercy is only available for those who believe in Christ. Literally there, it's all believing ones. That all believing ones should not perish but have everlasting life. It's a present active participle. It is an ongoing present reality. Those who believe in Christ is describing the look. The look to the bronze serpent that was raised. The Son of Man has been lifted up. Look to the Son of Man in faith. Believing God. It's that simple reception that then bears fruit in your life. Expressing this from a negative perspective, from the negative perspective it says if you believe you won't perish. Meaning that if you are unbelieving right now you are already perishing. You're condemned already. It's exactly what verse 18 says. He who believes in him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. If you were to die now unbelieving you would perish. Your default position is as condemned. And it's because of your sin. And that condemnation is final and eternal. In the same way that life is eternal that condemnation is eternal. However the purpose of the Son in his first coming was not to condemn but to save. There is a promise from the positive perspective of eternal life to all those who believe in him. A promise that those who would believe in him would never perish. That means that salvation, genuine salvation can never be lost. That once you are in Christ God will preserve you and you will persevere to the end and be saved. You are kept by God's power. Listen to 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3. Peter says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The Lord preserves those who are his. Preserves them in that present active ongoing believing. Those who are believing and everyone, every person who is believing will not perish but have everlasting life. So what does it mean to believe in him? To believe in him. And this is getting to the very point that John is writing this Gospel that you would believe in Christ that he is the Son of God and believing you would have life in his name. Believing is to entrust yourself to him for salvation. As those in the wilderness that day looked to the bronze serpent entrusting themselves to the remedy the rescue that God had provided and believing in God for it were saved from the fiery serpents you must entrust yourself to Christ for salvation. This is no mere emotional response only. This is a response grounded in the truth of the Word of God and the truth of who Christ is. This is not a subjective belief only without any evidence. There is great evidence for our faith. In faith it is you placing yourself at the complete disposal of the Lord Jesus Christ with a spiritual hope and convictions that are rooted and grounded in the Word of God. You believe in him. You entrust yourself to him. You trust him despite what goes on in you or what goes on around you. You trust in him in all things. Listen to the example again of Christ from 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 21. He says for this you are called because and listen to our great example the example of the Lord Jesus Christ for to this this faith you were called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps and here's the example that he left us. Who Christ committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth who when he was reviled did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously. That's faith. That's an example of faith from the Lord Jesus Christ himself.   Christ entrusted himself to God as we are to entrust ourselves to Christ. Whatever circumstances he gave himself over to the purposes and plans of God. Is this a mystic feeling? No. Is this subjective experience only? No. This kind of faith is a self-denying kind of faith. To believe in Christ to put your faith in him to entrust yourself to him is to turn from the old man is to put off those old appetites that once enslaved us by trusting in Christ. It means to confront that temptation that rises up against you with a courageous faith in Christ choosing Christ rather than the passing pleasures of sin. True faith denies the will of the flesh. True faith denies the world. Denies the devil and chooses Christ. Not my will, but your will be done. It chooses Christ and then it bears the fruit then of obedience. There's a great promise here if you put your faith in Christ you won't perish. You'll have everlasting life. If you'll today, even right now where you're seated just turn from your sin. I don't want that life anymore. I want to entrust my soul entrust all that I am to all that he is a glorious savior one who has given everything an immeasurable love an indescribable gift to redeem me I entrust myself completely to him and to him alone if you'll come to Christ in that abandoning kind of faith then the promise is given to you in John chapter 6 verse 37 all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out the word says that you'll not perish but have everlasting life turn from your sin you must believe in him it's a great salvation amen? amen let's pray Father in heaven Lord God we praise you and worship you thank you for this glorious salvation God thank you for this demonstration of immeasurable love in that you gave your only begotten son for wicked sinners that everyone who believes should not perish but have everlasting life God what a glorious demonstration of the perfections God of your character your justice your perfect holiness but also God your great love the great love with which you loved us out of which flows grace and mercy and compassion and kindness and patience we praise you God and thank you for these glorious truths just root them deep within our heart there's anyone here not saved God I pray that you would save them for your name it's in that name that we pray amen