OK, good morning. I'd like to continue basically where we stopped yesterday. And before we go to some new things, I'd like to summarize briefly on a few slides what we learned yesterday, basically. So we're talking about, so the theme is interacting ions. And in the first lecture, you learned that they interact via the common vibrational motion. So that's our quantum bus. So we need to be able to couple the internal dynamics, the qubits, to the emotional states. And that's what we did yesterday. So we looked at emotional modes of harmonic oscillators and of internal qubit states. And we learned how we can couple them by shining in appropriate, retuned electromagnetic radiation. And so that's how we make ions interact. And I want to summarize quickly what we saw yesterday. So we looked at our qubit states, two level system, like a spin 1 half. And these qubits are confined in a harmonic oscillator potential described in this way. And then we shine in radiation. The radiation has a frequency, linear momentum, detuning, and intensity. And these parameters you can use in a proper way to control this interaction. That's what we saw yesterday. And I just want to summarize this now in some pictures. So let's look again at our two level system, which is now called G and E. And I just saw in Moro's note he also changed between G and E and 0 and 1. In any case, so that's our qubit G and E here. Then we have our harmonic oscillator states. And they can be the ground state, first excited state and so on. And now this is our exciting electromagnetic radiation that we shine in. And we can tune it. And we tune it now to the resonance frequency of our qubit. So just that you have in front of your eyes the definitions of these quantities, I quickly draw again. So omega is the splitting of the qubit states. Omega L is the radiation.  That's the frequency splitting of the harmonic oscillator. What else do we need? Omega is the Rabi frequency, the strength of the coupling. And then we have this phase phi of the radiation. OK, so we tune the radiation to the resonance frequency of the qubit. And then these transitions are possible. We saw that in this case, our Hamiltonian, which is a pretty long and not so easy to handle expression, shrinks down to a very easy case. So it's simply rotating the qubit itself around the sigma x-axis. So we do not change the emotional state when we tune to the so-called carrier transition. But we do change the state when we, for instance, tune to the so-called red side band. So our electromagnetic radiation is now red detuned with respect to the atomic resonance. And then we saw yesterday, under this condition and doing the rotating wave approximation, we find this Hamiltonian here. And here you see now that internal dynamics and external dynamics are coupled. So we create an excitation.  And we destroy an excitation in the harmonic oscillator. And this thing is just doing the opposite. OK, and the coupling strength, please observe this. It's no longer the Rabi frequency. It's eta times the Rabi frequency. So remember, eta was this lamb-dickey parameter that measures basically the momentum of the radiation of a photon, the linear momentum of a photon. OK, so that's the important parameter. If this lamb-dickey parameter is 0, then all the fun disappears. There's no more coupling between internal and external states. Then you're just left with no excitation, basically. OK, and then you can tune to the so-called blue side band. So that's the other Hamiltonian that we saw yesterday. So this is called the chain's Cummings Hamiltonian, actually. So this was first discovered in the context of quantized radiation interacting with a two-level system. And exactly in the context of cavity QED. So when people quantize the electromagnetic field in a cavity, then it's described by such a model, a two-level system, harmonic oscillator. Here our harmonic oscillator is a mechanical harmonic oscillator. In the cavity QED case, it's a field. So we can realize the same Hamiltonian that appears in cavity QED here using a real mechanical harmonic oscillator. OK, and then you can have this anti-chain's Cummings Hamiltonian. I wonder what this wiggling is. Is this due to the connection here? Or is this something intrinsic of the? I'm afraid we have to live with it. OK, so that's then the so-called anti-chain's Cummings Hamiltonian. And what you see is you create an excitation in your qubit and at the same time create an excitation of your harmonic oscillator. So you go, for instance, from the ground state G with zero excitation to the excited state E with one excitation of your harmonic oscillator. So by changing, by flipping your spin, you can, at the same time, induce an excitation of your harmonic oscillator. In this case, all you can lose one quantum of excitation in this case. Of course, the opposite is always also true, so you can also go backwards.  So that goes back and forth. It's a completely, it's a Hamiltonian with a unitary time evolution. OK, so now what we learned, we learned to couple a harmonic oscillator to the internal qubit states. And what we really want is to have several ions talk to each other. And I showed you this picture already, so we do what I just explained. And now this is supposed to move. I don't know why it does not. So we excited this ion, then the whole ion spring moves. That's our harmonic oscillator now. So the common vibrational motion of all ions, the normal mode of n ions, that's our harmonic oscillator. And we can excite this and then couple internal. And as I emphasized many times now, this is the important parameter that tells you how well this works. So if it works at all. OK, let's look at the same thing in a slightly different picture, which turns out to be very useful for more advanced quantum gates. So the picture is simply still a two-level system and our harmonic oscillator. But now the harmonic oscillator is depicted in phase space. So this is the coordinate in the position coordinate, and this is the momentum coordinate of our harmonic oscillator. And what we do now when we excite this qubit or flip the spin, whatever way you want to think about it, then what we do, we give the harmonic oscillator a momentum kick. So we displace it from its initial, from its equilibrium position. And then the harmonic oscillator starts to oscillate around this equilibrium position. You convert momentum into position into momentum into position. So yeah, yeah, so how do I do this in the lab? I'll show you. We need a harmonic oscillator. So this is a harmonic oscillator if you only have small angles of extension. So you have your harmonic oscillator. And what you do in the lab, you give your harmonic oscillator a momentum kick, and then it moves. So you turn on your electromagnetic field for a certain time, and then you transfer momentum, and then your harmonic oscillator starts to move. So the kick is provided by the momentum of the photon. Yes, everything we assume so far is completely coherent, yes. OK, so when we look at this harmonic oscillator here, so just to illustrate this phase space, so we give it a kick, so we give it momentum, and then it oscillates, so it has momentum, it moves, it comes to a rest. That's then where did I put this? That's at this point in phase space where we have maximum displacement from the equilibrium position, and zero momentum, and then the game starts again. It's going backwards, back and forth, and so in momentum space, this is just a closed circle. OK, so I'll come back to this picture later on. I just want to mention this here. Now, and what we learned is basically the Hamiltonian, the interaction Hamiltonian, that's the interaction Hamiltonian, and this eta measures how well you can displace your, in this case, an ion from the equilibrium position. OK, and now we come to some real, so this was so far completely general everything, and now let's look at some real experimental implementations. So what do you actually choose in a real life? Also, a precious question, how do you do it in the lab? So you need to choose an ion first, and if you want a qubit, you typically, so the first qubits were metastable states of ions and hyperfine states of ions, and I will illustrate both cases. So for convenient ions are barium, calcium, strontium, etherbium, where etherbium, not so much for this, but more for the hyperfine structure. So, but calcium is a very popular ion these days, and it has the crown state, which is stable by definition, and then you have a metastable state that has two quanta of orbital angular momentum, so there is a total angular momentum of 5 half, so there's no dipole allowed transition here, that's why the state lives for a long time and is well suited as a qubit state, because you don't want to lose your coherence by spontaneous decay, of course. OK, and now you can do everything I showed you by building a laser that can excite this spot-report transition and because we want everything to be coherent. At several places, I already pointed out the face of the light field must be kept stable, otherwise you just lose your coherence very quickly, and now if you look at the frequency of such a transition, that's a typical optical radiation, 10 to the 14 hertz, a few couple of 10 to the 14 hertz, so that's a lot, and let's say you want one second coherence time, then you need to keep your face fluctuations stable to one part in five times 10 to the 14. So this is a formidable challenge for an experimentalist to stabilize the frequency of an electromagnetic field source to one part in 10 to the 14. So this challenge has been taken on by several groups, most prominently the group of Reinerblatt in Innsbruck and they did great experiments using these transitions here. OK, so this is again our Hamiltonian, now only for cubic rotations and you see that's the face where it appears and if on every operation you do, you have a different face, this just amounts to defacing what you just saw on the blackboard in Moro's talk. So you start with a density matrix that has off-diagonal elements and if you average over many off-diagonal elements with different faces, they just disappear. So the coherence disappears if you do not keep this face stable. And this is, like I said, a challenge and has been tackled by the group in Innsbruck, so this is one of their first demonstrations I believe of this electric quadrupole transition using a highly stable laser which was not that stable at this time but I think today that's about the stability they have, the relative stability. And if you look at such laser light sources, they are very impressive. So you need to keep, like I mentioned, you need to keep the face stable, so you have to have a high absolute stability of your frequency. So not only face fluctuations, also frequency fluctuations, which in the end is the same, have to be suppressed and then you need a high amplitude stability because in your Hamiltonian you have this Harvey frequency and this depends on the amplitude of your light field. So you have to control, you have to have exquisite control of all parameters. And so you need a very good beam quality of your laser beam. It's not sufficient to have some fluorescent lamp focus or something. So you need very well spatial profiles of your beam. You need pointing stability of your laser. So if you look at this slide beam, this has not a good pointing stability. You see my hand is shaking and this is amplified over this large distance, of course, and if an iron were sitting there, I would have trouble hitting it exactly. So that's what's pointing stability and then you have diffraction effects on all your optical elements and on your vacuum apparatus. So this is, to do this with high fidelity, it's a great challenge and this challenge has been mastered by, for instance, this group here. And, yeah, and I want to show you one recent experiment from the vinyl blood group, from the INSPUR group. They did implementing Schor's algorithm. So that's the slide I showed you in the very beginning of the first talk and before I show you this, I want to point out that they do not use this Xerox. Xerox-Zollar gate that I introduced. So this Xerox-Zollar gate is very useful for pedagogical reasons nowadays to explain how ions can interact but the actual implementations today usually use different gates, different types of gates and one of them is the so-called Mermer-Sørensen gate or Sørensen-Mermer gate and this works in a slightly different way and I will not go into details. I just want to point out that this is the case and say a few words that illustrate the fundamental mechanism. So you have two light fields now. So you have your two qubit states, both in the ground state. So this is both qubits in the ground state S and your harmonic oscillator both in state N and then you can excite using two detuned light fields, this red one and this blue one, going to this intermediate state where one ion is excited in the D state, the other is still in the S or one is in the S, the other is in the D state and those are the harmonic oscillator quantum numbers and then so you can excite this way or you can excite this way or this way and this way. So you have four interfering excitation paths and the interesting thing about this gate is that the excitation of your harmonic oscillator basically drops out of the equation. So the nice thing about this Mermer-Sørensen gate is that you're not have to cool your vibrational motion to the ground state. So that's what we always assumed for the Zirak Zoller gate so this is the advantage here. Okay and so now the basic operations that people in Innsbruck have is a global laser beam that addresses all ions and does global rotations of all ions. So that's exactly what we had on the blackboard yesterday. The second ingredient is okay, so this is the operator S5 and this is a global rotation. So this is the time evolution operator using this Hamiltonian here and then the second operation is a local phase shift. So you locally talk to only one ion and this is a detuned light field so all it does it shifts the energy levels and thereby induces a phase and that was a question yesterday how can we do set rotations? That's one way of doing set rotations. So you simply change your level splitting by the AC start shift. Changing the level splitting means you change the precession frequency of your spin relative to what to your lab frame rotation and this induces a phase. Okay so you can do global rotations of all ions then you can do individual phase rotations and then you do these murmur serons and gates so here you see an S squared so it's the interaction between ion I and I and J so you get all kinds of cross terms so it's an interaction term. Okay so I'm not going to go into more details here so but I will explain to you the spin-spin interaction later on. So just as an example of state-of-the-art experiments so that's what they did. Now they recently they implemented this short algorithm so they factored the number 15 which is not easy in the lab with a quantum computer so and let me quickly show you outline this algorithm so that you can understand what this experimental result means so if you want to factor number N so I just give you a rough outline of the whole algorithm so what you first do you choose some base A which is some number between two and N minus one and so you choose this randomly. So random choice then the second step is you calculate the greatest common divisor between A and N and if this is not equal to one then you already found one factor of N but so the question is is it equal to one and in a typical case it is equal to one so you did not find a factor already by this random choice and then the third step is and so this is all classical stuff so far and now the third step is you calculate A to the X modulo N with X being a natural number of zero and then you find the period of this function in X so you find the first, well I express it now in a not exact mathematical language find the first X large or equal to zero such that such that A to the X modulus N is equal to one again okay and then and this is then the period of so you calculate this then you find the sequence of numbers and they repeat each other with a certain period and this period, so this first X gives you this period R of this function here and then you calculate, yeah so and that's basically it so that's the and then you have more classical calculation steps and so the real quantum thing is happening here so that's the where we need a quantum computer this calculating this and find the period so these two things that's what we need a quantum computer for all the rest is classical computation okay so the number of qubits you need is to factor N, if N is a N bit number then you need for the usual algorithm you need three N qubits so this and each qubit is a very valuable resource so it's when you calculate this go to the next larger number then it's becoming difficult experimentally because of this scaling which is linear but still challenging so yep but let me since you asked this question let me point out actually what they did in this experiment so first let's look at the experimental result now so what we see here is exactly so this base two, base seven, base eight that's this random number they chose so A is the space here and then they look what their task is to find this period of the function so they look at the output state of after they did the QFT the quantum Fourier transform so to find the period you do a quantum Fourier transform of this function and then they look at this output state and you see this has period two period two, period two, period four, period two so that's the output at this step here and then the rest is like I said classical computation again and now coming back to your question so they did not implement this thing here this is the classical Shaw's algorithm this is a variation proposed by Kitayev where you take advantage of the fact that for this algorithm your QFT doesn't have to be coherent you only care about the population in the end so you only measure the population but not the coherences so this is particular to the Shaw's algorithm when other algorithms that incorporate the QFT they rely on a coherent QFT so that you really keep track of the faces between your qubits here you don't have to keep track of the faces and that's why they could simplify this so instead of doing the QFT on two end qubits they do a QFT on one qubit two end times so they do what amounts to a QFT which is just basically two single qubit gates two conditional, well it's conditional gates in the end but you just do these two gates and then you do a measurement and then you do gates again and so on so this is a simplification that allowed them to reduce the number of qubits and now you're asking about a perspective that sounds easy doesn't it in the lab it's not always easy I mean for such an algorithm you need complete coherent control at any point in time and space and this is difficult with each additional qubit but a way out is thinking of clever ways of replacing algorithms by experimentally simpler algorithms and so I would guess that the prospects to extend this to more qubits is pretty good okay so the question of scalability that's a whole lecture in itself I would say so okay now I'm a little bit behind in time but we saw this electric quadrupole transition and now let's look at a different thing it's using hyperfine states and hyperfine states that's a very smart choice because they live forever basically on any timescale that you have in the lab typical hyperfine states simply do not decay so they keep their commitments forever and there are several ions that you can use for these hyperfine states but then you use Raman transitions typically and for these Raman transitions you have an effective Rabi frequency which is proportional to the Rabi frequency of this beam times the Rabi frequency of this beam divided by the detuning and then you have to take care that your that this condition is fulfilled for the wave vectors of the two beams so that you can impart momentum on the ion and this has been done for instance in the group of David Weinland for the first time and now if you think about how well you need to control your laser fields you get rid of this requirement basically because you only care about the relative frequency difference between those two light beams and that's much easier to stabilize than the absolute frequency but you still are in trouble with all these other problems so this is also quite a challenge to do quantum algorithms using such a scheme here but this has also been very successful for a recent example from the Monroe group where they implemented a five qubit programmable trapped ion computer so they have these five ions sitting here and then they have the new thing here actually it's a crystal optic modulator that allows you to focus your light beam onto individual ions in an arbitrary way and then you also collect fluorescence using a multi-channel PMT so that's the two new elements here in this experiment and using this they also implemented a QFT with five qubits so that's the classical QFT a coherent QFT where you do all these C0 gates here or not necessarily C0 but conditional quantum gates between two qubits and then at the end you measure them all okay so that's a very recent example and now I want to finish this part by looking at a slide that has been prepared by Dave Weinand so this is a picture of the lab at some point I'm not sure from which year this picture dates but so that's where some of these great experiments were done and you see lots of laser stuff and lots of optical elements so some of you have probably seen such a lab who is an experimentalist here by the way okay so we are the minority here clearly so you probably have seen such a lab in atomic physics in cold atoms also they look on first sight on zero-order approximation they look very similar so you see lots of laser light optics and stuff and so this is a pretty huge table with all this stuff and then you see this iron trap apparatus far back there so it's a large effort to make these experiments work and these groups that I showed you here they mastered these challenges but when you think about scaling that's your question then it's kind of difficult to imagine how this thing can be scaled from two five qubits to two thousand, fifty thousand so that's probably not scalable in this way okay so yeah but you can never say never of course but it looks like an even more formidable challenge okay so and that's where this new concept comes into play this magnetic gradient induced coupling that I want to show you now so that's I introduced this at the beginning this nicely abbreviates to magic and so I'd like to show you what this magic stuff is and allows us to get rid of all of the lab basically that you saw, not all of the lab I'm exaggerating but all of the laser stuff that you saw on this not all of the laser stuff but 90% okay so the important thing is we want to get rid of our lasers and what I showed you is you need lasers because of the diffraction limit because you want to address individual ions and because of the coupling between ions and emotional states so you need this lamb diggy parameter to be different from zero if you go now, if you drive a hyperfine state directly which has a frequency splitting of let's say a gigahertz or ten gigahertz or whatever then the momentum okay so we calculate this for optical radiation what we end up with a typical value is ten to the minus one to ten to the minus two you don't want to have it too large because then your expansion doesn't work anymore you don't want to have it too small because nothing happens anymore so this is in the optical regime if you look now at a microwave transition here a radio frequency transition for instance in the uterbium you end up with a value of ten to the minus seven basically so this is for all practical purposes this is zero so this is RF so RF means anything from kilohertz to gigahertz okay so that's why people did not use microwaves for this purpose here but you can use them actually if you modify your trap a bit and this is shown here so we start with our two states here and we have our two harmonic oscillator potential so spin down, spin upstate position coordinate and now we apply an additional field for instance a magnetic field gradient that changes its strength along the set axis so if we have magnetically field sensitive states this one might be have this dependence as a function of position and this one has this dependence and now if you add your harmonic oscillator what you notice is so let's, we start in the ground state we excite now the ion and so, yeah actually that's the wrong sequence of my slides so what I want to show you here first is so you have these spatially dependent states and now you add your harmonic oscillator potential and a linear potential a constant force plus a harmonic oscillator simply gives you again a harmonic oscillator with shifted equilibrium position so what you see here you have this equilibrium position and you simply slide down this potential hill slightly in the upper state so now you have displaced equilibrium positions of your harmonic oscillators so when you do this excitation you see that you start at the equilibrium position but you end up at a displaced position so your ion will start to oscillate around this new equilibrium position and you did not impart any momentum to your ion so I'm not talking about any momentum here I'm just flipping the spin and I have this state dependent potential this starts to oscillate around the new equilibrium position and then you can show that this if you go through the mathematics you find you can describe this coupling by an effective lambda-dickey parameter which is given by the shift of this equilibrium position in units of the extension of your ground state wave function so that's the set here okay and now I look at this phase-based picture so the same thing again in phase-based so you have your spin one-half with these position dependent levels and you have your harmonic oscillator and what you do now is you have your radiation that might carry some momentum but doesn't have to so you displace your harmonic oscillator along this coordinate along the momentum coordinate but what you certainly do in this case you also displace your harmonic oscillator along the set direction and then it will start to oscillate around this new equilibrium position and so and this equilibrium this is the shift of your equilibrium position so that's a very simple expression here so you basically you have your harmonic oscillator potential is given by one-half mu squared d squared where d is the extension from the equilibrium position and then your force is given by minus the gradient of v of d which is just given by m times mu squared times d so and this force is equal to the force on the spin which is so this the force on the spin is also minus the gradient of h bar omega h bar omega is your splitting between the two energy levels and this is now also spatially dependent so I'm just looking at the one-dimensional case now so the gradient just amounts to a derivative with respect to d in this case along this direction which is called set here so you just have h bar and d d set of omega and when these two forces are equal again then you find a new equilibrium position so the equilibrium position is just shifted by this amount here and yeah and then you can excite your harmonic oscillator simply by flipping the spin and you don't need momentum anymore okay and yeah if you go through the mathematics that I'm not doing here you can find this in these papers for instance then you see that you find a new effective lambda parameter which is called eta prime here which is the usual lambda parameter that makes this displacement along the momentum coordinate and then this kappa thing here which makes describes the displacement along the position coordinate and this kappa is this displacement in units of your harmonic oscillator ground state wave function is extension and then you end up with this Hamiltonian and this looks now very similar to what we had before so for instance let's take the limiting case where the usual lambda k parameter is 0 then this red thing is simply 0 and then you just have a face factor here this I and this minus sign and then you end up with the usual Hamiltonian that you had before except that you have no momentum transferred at all so and this allows you now to do the same thing how much time? finished? okay so let me finish by giving you a physical picture of what we did here oh yeah so before we had our harmonic oscillator and we use a laser beam to excite it to give it a kick and now we use a different physical mechanism we have the harmonic oscillator we don't give it a kick what we do we displace the equilibrium position and it also moves so if you look at a pendulum that has been described suitably for a few hundred years now this seems rather straightforward but to realize this in the context of trapped ions that you don't need necessarily laser light was not completely obvious okay so let me finish here for today and then I think there's one more lecture right? okay thank you for your attention


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What's up everybody and welcome to the latest edition of the Falcons final whistle podcast We are coming to you from Mercedes at Ben's stadium After a 20 to 16 victory for the Falcons over the Detroit Lions and if it's a Falcons victory this season We all know it was pretty dramatic. Oh, yeah, and this game is no exception. It came right down to the wire with a dramatic beautifully executed interception by foyer a luke in with 33 39 seconds left. He made the interception on the one-yard line and The slide and save this Falcons victory We are going to break down Everything that you could possibly imagine from this game starting with those final minutes including foyer We're also going to talk about Kyle Pitts and his record-breaking day the fact that Foyer actually said it it was gritty not pretty and that's just fine and in the fourth quarter We are going to look ahead using the same format that that we always do that you guys know Well, it's gonna be over the course of five minutes. We will debate a topic We will get to the bottom of it and I will essentially and inevitably be right, but before we get to all that I'm I'm Scott bear here with Tori McLean and Chris rim Tori your big takeaway from the Falcon 7th victory of the season. It's really so we'll get into the like the Gritty not pretty comment that I absolutely Adored from foyer point post game that essentially is my takeaway, but in all series or I guess like to not jump the gun I really liked that the Falcons got a win at home in 2021, right for so long What were they oh and five set off some confetti, right? Yeah Um Legitimately didn't know if it was gonna happen in 2021 I'm glad that it did for the sake of this fan base And I know Arthur Smith has talked about it a few times how they really just want to win at home They've done pretty well on the road But haven't broken that proverbial glass ceiling at home and gotten a win and so I think the fact that they were able to pull this out it was a Interesting game it was a very very interesting game for those in attendance and those watching at home but the fact that they were able to At the bare minimum pull this win out at home. I think is just Nice it was key and Chris. Uh, what was your big takeaway your your thoughts right after this one? Uh, it's probably Philly bias, but just cow pits is him Hashtag Philly Yeah, cow pits is that dude. He's still that dude and he reminded everybody today in the second half and I'll talk more about it later But that's my takeaway cow pits is the guy the man and and he was good yet again and key in this falcons victory And before we break it all down over the course of our four quarters A big thank you to our sponsor microsoft windows 11 the official operating system of the nfl and the atlanta falcons The all new windows 11 is here to bring you closer to what you love like this falcons final whistle podcast Learn all about the awesome new features of windows 11 at windows.com We're starting off quarter number one breaking down those vital final minutes in this falcons victory The home team had a 20 to 13 advantage when hayden herst Secured a touchdown grab that was with about 13 minutes to go in the fourth quarter Then things got a little more tense the lions cut it down to a four point deficit for them And they and after a rustle gauge fumble They were in position to go down and score the game winning touchdown as time was rapidly decreasing Ultimately as we said at the top of the pod To foyer a luke and came through he had a huge game in general But really made a nice play there at the end. Yeah, I mean i'm gonna Shameless plug My story for this week as I if y'all follow me on twitter I've already done it twice and i'm about to do it a third time but this time in voice form not in twitter form But this week I worked on a story that I was really proud of because it's one of my favorite stories of this entire team And it's the story the story of foyer and how the falcons essentially found him in 2018 and A kid from yale who was a safety who was probably undersized and they saw Something in him that I guess has essentially Manifested now like what is it four years later? right He was taken with the 200th pick in the 2018 draft and it was really cool because Talking to people about the about this story specifically about foyer story specifically It was really interesting because a lot of them were like, you know, the the vision for foyer was essentially You know, we thought at best we were going to get a good depth guy. We were going to get A good special teams player a guy with high character And they would say if you look back in in april 2018 We would be lying if we said that we thought foyer was going to turn into the the player that he is today Which I would say is arguably one of the most dynamic defenders the falcons have and I think you just saw today kind of what he has Become for this team as in terms of both a vocal leader and just production leader So that moment I thought was really really great and something that I wrote about just post game in general but um, I think if you're if you're thinking about that moment I thought it was really interesting because The defense was tired Like I remember I was watching them right before foyer made that made the interception and they have their hands on their hips They're heavily breathing and it's like they were on the field for 38 minutes And and not just that but they come off of a before rustle gauge fumbled the ball They had been on the field for over 10 minutes That was a 17 play 10 minute drive that that detroit had just gone down the field to score a field goal I mean They're tired and to go out and be able to make the play that they did to ultimately win the game But that was really really important Chris, so how do you I mean it was obviously a positive But when rustle gauge fumbles the ball they lose it Um, you know down you know down deep To have the defense be able to come back and and respond like that like how key was it They talked about being confident in that moment Um, but it was a pretty much dire straits there at that point You know like that was a real pivot point after that gauge fumble Yeah, and I think it was like Torrey said the defense was really tired and worn out And I think Arthur Smith have been called a time out to to kind of give them a breather and great Jared had like water or Have an energy drink all over his His the front of his uniform and his face and he had his hands on his hips and Uh, they were in the red zone and you're kind of thinking, you know, oh my god Can they can they get a stop here and and when they needed one they did and it was big time and like Torrey said, um You know, it's it's I guess it's kind of rare when you write a story and then your person has I don't know if this is his moment, but he had, you know, a big moment. Um today So, you know good for Torrey and make sure I go breathe Before it's kind of been the guy all season who you know, we don't his name is not I don't know if his name is I don't know if I should say brought up not a lot because I think we talk about him a lot But maybe more so, uh, I guess the national discussion I don't think he's talked about as much as he should be and he just makes plays He just does his job. Well, he makes plays like these And he doesn't he's not brash or boastful So he might not get the credit that he deserves But he showed up today as he as he typically does and always has and when they needed him most I thought he was definitely that the falcons best defensive player that there were a couple of moments Where Torrey and I kind of looked at it at each other and said that couldn't have been played any better Even if it's a a one yard game where he makes a big stop or he's the only guy left I thought he was excellent throughout the course of this one and as we wrap up quarter number one I spoke with uh, Brandon Copeland after the game about these About the seven and two record about the defense being on the field for so long And he said it comes down to two key things belief and conditioning Right that somehow you really have to truly trust the guy next to you They had that and they had just enough energy left to be able to make that big play and ultimately win this game We're starting quarter number two talking about The falcons rookie pro bowler tied in Kyle Pitts who had another monster day six catches for 102 yards Can we get the guy a touchdown, please? My goodness. Um, I would like to go on the record This is a chris. This is a chris rim fun fact that he bestowed upon us last week Kyle Pitts has not caught a touchdown on american soil Wow The only touchdown he got has been in london He has not got a touchdown in the united states of america and it needs to happen even though And here's the weird part is he was a touchdown machine right in college. He was just uh, he was a walking six points Yeah, basically uh, hasn't had a lot of touchdowns. It's had tons of yards as a matter of fact He said a franchise yard beating a franchise record for most receiving yards by a tight end eclipsing tonic and solace who I believe has a gold jacket And uh with another solid day and he's coming He's closing in on mike ditka who set the rookie receiving record for tight ends back in 1961 no guys. I was not alive then Not funny kind of that joke You couldn't even give us the opportunity to make the joke. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it But uh chris rim, you wrote about kyle pits. He's uh another pennsylvania guy. Um another excellent day for number eight Yeah, excellent day. I mean that that play I wrote about in the story. I kind of started with that play where he was lined up one on one on the outside and Matt threw him the ball. I think maybe on his fourth step before he was even open And then college is separated from the guy while the ball was in the air That's not something you see like a tight end do like tight ends aren't supposed to do that Defensive backs at least like this guy 66245 and separating from you know a defensive back who You know weighs like probably 30 pounds less or five inches Shorter and then he was also so good in the matt talked about this in the intermediate like moving the chains He got there isn't a third quarter I think he got nine and then he got eight and he got 19 So he was so and then he set up that set up hayden for a touchdown and then after the game You know people were just raining praises and you know brandon copeland went on about How since otas because with cow this is this is what he was expected to be right, you know, and it's rare when a a player who is Hyped as much as he was lives up to the hype because it's kind of impossible to do But he's I mean, he's just about doing it, you know in terms of you know Just a hundred yards away from catching mike dick could 50 yards away from A thousand yards and it might seem like you know, it was just handed to him or like he just Got it because of who he was but what I think brandon copeland shined a light on was that You know arthur smith was challenging him every day and still is especially in training camp at otas and And making sure that he was you know going after every play every route and learning And even matt ryan talked about his evolution over the season and how to read defenses and prepare for games And how many times they've practiced that route that worked today So I think it's just a testament to their chemistry and and how he's growing over the season his his performance today Yeah, right on americans. Well, I really liked what you said about essentially essentially like the execution of Kyle pit's meeting and surpassing the expectations that were set upon him because and and I saw this on twitter So if you listen to this podcast and and this is your tweet, I apologize because I'm about to lift it but essentially Someone was talking about how there were so many expectations put on kyle pit's shoulders And he you know gets to this point at this point in the season where he's getting all these accolades And he's breaking these records and it's really awesome And people are talking about it But maybe not with like the reverence of which we should be talking about what he's doing because that that's really And we're not talking about it in the way that we maybe should be talking about it Because of all the expectations that were put on him through the pre draft evaluations. I I just think back to the entire pre draft process and And just all the things that were said about kyle pit's and how different he was how special he was How he was going to take this league by storm and it's like Almost to a certain degree the expectations Even though he's met them They've kind of like almost dwindled like the success of what he's had in his first year because people expected him to do this And it's like you expect him to do all these Amazing crazy like lofty things and he goes out and does it and you're like, yeah Well, he was supposed to do that like that's what that's the feeling that I get around kyle pit's right now And it's like no this this really is a big deal and it should be looked at league wide as the big deal that it is It's wild to me that he'll have like four catches for 61 yards or something like that and and arthur smith like we'll get asked So what's wrong with kyle? Like why can't kyle get involved in the game? He didn't have 300 yards today That doesn't make any sense to me And I also like I don't kyle's attitude towards things he's a soft spoken dude But you know he even said in his in his press release like I never really thought about a thousand yards That number just seemed like too big like not possible And now he's knocking on the door of it because he's continued to grow and not just because things have been given And he's a freak in his unicorn. So it just happens. I just arthur smith talks a lot about his mindset Carrying him through the season and I think that that's an underrated part of his game because you look at him And he's big and fast and Can do all these crazy physical things that that you forget in or you know Go back to that staphon gilmore. Welcome to the nfl moment and see how he's grown from there and how he will continue to grow I think that's really what has been most impressive for me There were a lot of good quotes coming out of the falcons camp after this victory over the lions Hard to think of any that were better than what Than what foyer said afterward that this win was gritty not pretty and why that's just fine Yeah, why there's no style points as long as you get out there and win to where you you kind of wrote about this We've talked about foyer somewhat Already, but what did you take away from that quote kind of maybe dissect what he's trying to say there Yeah, first off. I just love the gritty not pretty. I almost feel like that should be my life motto But no on a serious level I just really loved the idea of gritty not pretty from the perspective of the falcons as a whole in 2021 You look at this team and they are seven and two in one possession games And that record I think says a lot but to me and scott, I know you you wrote a lot about this post game But to me it really is a shift in the mindset of this organization And I think foyer even said it after the game when he was talking about the the whole idea of being gritty not pretty And he said he was like, you know that that seven and two record was not what it was last year They were two and eight. They were two and eight. Yeah, so they have flipped that on its head and and I think that just almost more than anything should encourage falcons fans moving forward just just because That that to me shows a culture change a mindset change that and even chris lynstrum talked about it In his post game press conference where he was like, there's an expectation There's a standard of which we want to play to and that means Winning games it may not always be pretty. It may not always be perfect even matt talked about that. It hasn't been perfect but just being able to take steps in the right direction and honestly taking a two and eight record in in 2020 20 in games that were decided by a one one possession to now seven and two That's pretty significant and I think it just goes to show that this is a bigger overhaul than maybe what some people think Yeah, and let's just What if seven and two in one score games was four and five this season feels so much different, right? It feels like the world is collapsing and that the sky is falling, right? But their performance in those moments can be a core principle of the arthur smith era, right? And it's not just doing better than than 2020. It's establishing a winning mentality that is required There's only so much that he can do with the salary cap situation And the lack of roster depth and and the last and and the lack of Superior upper level talent, right that they've done a good job of beating teams below them They've obviously struggled like they did against the 49ers Trying to keep up with competitive playoff contenders. That's been a thing That's still a thing But I think the impressive part that I have found from this late game performance is there's very little that can be Kind of taken with you beyond one season from winter to next spring I think that that mentality that belief in guys like chris lindstrom who are back next year Those guys can carry that mindset moving forward and I think that that that can help them Down the line. I really think that that's going to be key for them Um, but it's also about doing it, right chris and Is there anything that any any commonalities, right? That maybe that you can think of about why they've been good in these types of situations because as tori wrote It's been offense. Sometimes it's been defense other times. It's been different guys You know, but are there any themes about why they've been able to do well in these late moments? Yeah, I think it's hard to point out a specific stat or number to like you said to say what the difference is But I think it's a lot of what tori talked about a mindset change a culture change You know a new a new regime new a lot of new faces as well to make that change But I think what's important is is winning close games really matters And I think it doesn't and I think it matters It doesn't really matter who you're playing to like winning finishing out close games is not easy in in the league and and And and I think that falcons fans and people who've been following this team should definitely be impressed with how they've done this season like the lions Beat down on you know, one of the best teams in the NFL last week and they've played teams close All year for the for the second half for the year. So I think while the record says one thing I think that was a that was a good win today and and a gritty win And like like foyer said and gritty makes me think of the flyers mascot. It does. Haha. Yes Unfortunately, they've stolen that word from us Haha. Yeah, overall, I think just winning close games matters regardless of who you're playing and That's all that's a good momentum and a good thing that they're doing this year that they can work on next year Or you know, maybe if something happens and they get some extra games at the end of this year in january, who knows Very smooth way to reference something without defining it. Ah, yeah I like it that chris rim so talented and we can talk more about Where the falcons go moving forward with only two games left in this regular regular season And we're coming up in the fourth quarter talking about what this win means moving forward Moving forward. There aren't a lot of moves left in this season. They play at buffalo Which I think it's going to be kind of cold there. Oh, I'm okay. Here's the thing about buffalo on january 2nd I may not return because my southern body may just freeze over And scott will be unable to get me on the plane because I will just be an icicle I am unprepared For buffalo in january and that's all I'll say on that. No, I'm not done Supposedly you have to go buy a winter coat just for the trip. Yeah, so I have nothing in your wardrobe That can communicate you through the weekend. Yeah, I have like one winter coat, but it's really not that thick I wore it to new york and I was phrasing here's the thing about me if it drops full my threshold is 56 degrees Wow, if it drops below 56 degrees, I am good for nothing So best of luck when you'll listen to this podcast in seven days time You'll be hearing my teeth chatter as well as me complaining for about the entirety of the 25 minute podcast Of which this is but I digress. Yeah, well, okay Well, then so they have buffalo in the You know seasonal confines of whatever that stadium is called now And then afterward they have a rivalry game at home against the saints a chance to get two victories at home here You know In talking to brandon and copeland he actually said, you know He was saying that even the sliver of a pulse He said his grandfather often says that if your head's above the ground You still have a chance and their heads above the ground That said they need so much help for that for us to explain it would oh my gosh, it would take too much Yeah, it would take another 25 minutes, but nonetheless it right now I I think it's about building positive momentum establishing your core beliefs and principles as a head coach as a football team and as a football culture And continuing to win maybe even win We don't use the word playoffs anymore, right? That being able to win in these moments can show you something can they go up the buffalo Where it's cold against a good team pull out a win that they haven't done yet Can they beat a rival here? Maybe when the saints are playing for everything? Yeah, right Can they do those little things to help continue this season's progress that really for me is what i'm looking for Yeah, and I agree with that like I think when we were talking post game Last week when I think we all were just kind of like oh my gosh Like that was the 49 the loss of the 49ers just like wasn't good It wasn't good and it kind of ruined the any chance of using the p word for the Falcons this year in 2021 but We were talking about like what what's left for the Falcons in in 2021 and and I know I said I was like I want to see the growth and I said I couldn't see the growth against the 49ers When I ask Arthur Smith after the game about you know, you have to give the ball back To your to to Detroit after you fumbled the ball and you give it to him in your own territory with two minutes left to go in the game What did you feel and and what does that say about the defense that you felt confident in that? And he said it shows growth It shows growth that I felt fine with giving the ball back to Detroit and feeling as though that the defense is Going to come up with with the big play and we and we've seen The offense come up with the big play. We've seen young waiku come up with the big play special teams come up with the big play So we've seen these moments. It's it's I completely agree with you that it's about Seeing the continuation of these moments and building upon it Chris, what are you looking for down the stretch? Yeah, I think similar to y'all just continuing to be consistent uh building on build young players building on things for next season building that Now, I don't I don't want to say building the not the identity but Just sticking to who they are as a unit continuing to win games continuing to like we says maybe spoil other team seasons um and take and take pride in the fact that There's still a chance And while there's still a chance there's also an opportunity to build for the future And and working on on doing so by doing things the right way and just focusing on things They've been focusing on throughout the season and the the good things I would say Um, not so much the bad things. Well, I guess fixing the bad things right And I think it was good that even though that the level of competition between the lions and the 49ers is massive Right, but the the fact that they were able to rebound again after a tough loss where it really It seemed to hurt from an outsider's perspective It seemed to hurt the falcons that they lost the way they lost Yeah, it wasn't just that they lost it was that they played the way that they did right and then Even though again, like they just could have shown up and gotten beat here by the lions Who as chris pointed out are playing a lot better of late They just beat the cardinals for goodness sakes and to come out and respond and find a way to get a win We still haven't seen that that complete game, right? We're probably maybe we won't yeah, and maybe that's okay Right, right because this team isn't at a level where they can put a full four quarters Of dominant football together But if they can continue to find little moments and come out on the right end of the final score I think that's the most important thing As we move forward now that's going to wrap it for another edition of the falcons final whistle podcast. Thank you guys so much For sticking with us throughout the course of the season. We have two episodes left So do what you always do head over to itunes spotify if you haven't yet subscribe give us a five star rating and a review Do the same for falcons audible. Why don't you? Great bunch of guys that dave archer dj wrackley and dj shockley. Love them to death great group of men great group Listen to their pod. Please listen to ours moving forward and appreciate you We'll talk to you next week from the flow when tori is legit phrasing her butt off. Whoo


Okay. Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's session on the Book of Acts. Let's pray and we can get started. So I just want to request one of our students here to please lead and pray. Okay. Yes, Asha, please go ahead. Dear God, thank you so much, Lord, for today. Thank you all for giving us another day and a gift of bearing on us, God. Lord, as we are about to start our class in the Book of Acts that we may understand in depth. Also, from Mr. Menoj, thank you for best you're here and say, Lord, as she is teaching us, Lord, that your spirit continuously uses her to help us to equip and make knowing what you have for us. Thank you so much, Lord, for each one of our classmates that they'll understand, Lord, that whatever they've been taught, Lord, that they will be the doers of it. That's just here, God. Thank you all for everything that you have been doing. In Jesus' name and in prayer. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Asha. In the last class, we looked at Acts chapter 20, where, you know, Paul, he was on his third missionary journey, the end of that missionary journey. So he stops at various places. He was traveling with a seven member team.  He ministered in a place called Troas, where we saw that there was a person called Eutychus who was taken up dead during the time of Paul's preaching. He ministers to him and then this man is brought back alive. And then we looked at the trip, the travel from Troas to Miletus. And then finally, you know, Paul gets to meet the efficient elders. Now, these efficient elders lived several miles away. You know, in some literature, it's just 28 miles, some literature says 36 miles. But then the reason why Paul met these efficient elders in Miletus is because earlier we saw that the people in Ephesus, there was a lot of opposition that was rising up against him. So they had planned to harm him. And which is why he did not want to go back to Ephesus. But instead, he met with the efficient elders in Miletus. And over there, he shared with them his heart. It was a, it was a farewell message where he indicated to them that he would probably never see them because he had an idea about the path in which God was actually leading him. And he understood that he will go through a challenging time of trials and, you know, and eventually even lose his life for the sake of the gospel. So he encourages them in so many different ways. He helps them understand that the church is precious, that God has given his own life for the church and which is why the elders really needed to serve the church of Jesus Christ and committed heart. And then he goes on to warn the leaders and say that there will be a time when false teachers, false leaders will arise and, you know, they would cause harm to whatever nurture has been given to the people so far. So, you know, there was a warning, there was encouragement, there was exhortation and before he left, you know, there's this very hard touching time when they sort of embrace each other and, you know, they weep and they just share their wonderful fellowship and love for one another. So one of the things that I think I missed mentioning the last class, I'll just touch on it quickly here. Okay. Okay, because at one point here, Paul said that he has verse 27. He says for, I have not shunned to declare to you the whole Council of God, the whole Council of God. So that term is something very important for us to consider in the ministry, the teaching ministry of Paul. He says that he did not just teach them. Sometimes we look at certain doctrines as favorite doctrines, some even term them as pet doctrines, you know, where we are very happy to talk about some subjects, maybe the subject about case or the subject about redemption or the subject about something else. So, what tends to happen, when we teach God's word, sometimes we just dwell on one particular aspect, and we don't really equip people in all the aspects. So, as far as the teaching ministry is concerned, it's very important for us to equip the believer here at APC. And also like you would have seen this when we dealt with the local church, the APC publication, House of God, we have touched over there. We said that there are, you know, disciplines which are important for the Christian life. So, once walk with the Lord, so things that pertain to once walk with the Lord and becoming strong in the Lord, so spiritual development of an individual, we need to teach on those things, we need to teach about matters related to ministry, because every believer is, is called by the Lord to serve him in, you know, whichever way God called them. So, Christian ministry is another important topic on which we must actually build up the people that they can step out and serve God. And of course, life skills, you know, sometimes we miss out on very practical things like, you know, how do we relate with people or how do we manage finances? How do we plan our time? How different things like this, things which have to do with people's issues during a season of their lives, maybe marriage, you know, people are struggling with practical questions. So, life skills is another very important subject that one needs to touch upon. So we are saying that Christian life is one thing that we need to teach and equip the people about. Second is Christian ministry. The third one is life skills. So these are just some broad categories. But I'm sure, you know, you could have other subjects that you may want to equip the believer with. But the whole counsel of God, you know, that's a good highlight there, because if one is not going to prepare the believer in the whole counsel of God, something would be missing in their experience with the Lord. And this is as far as teaching is concerned. But, you know, of course, if the believer, they themselves learn from God's word equip themselves, you know, one can anyhow grow like we don't really have to depend on only what, you know, is being taught to us by somebody else. So just something about the whole counsel of God. And remember, he spent about three months, Paul spent about three months in Ephesus. He was in the synagogues and, you know, he was teaching about the gospel of the Lord Jesus. About two years in the school of tyrannous. He taught the people so you can imagine, you know, many, many hundreds of hours of teaching.  So, you know, some highlights there from his time with the Ephesians. Okay, say I can see that you've raised your hand. Is there anything that you wanted to talk about? Yes, Pastor. This is a very, very important and I think touchy area in the body of Christ. Because, you know, many people, respectfully speaking, they're called to certain areas and they say, Oh, God has called me into this. God has called me into that. And every single thing about ministry revolves around that particular gifting that God has called them to or into that office. So my question then would be, you know, how then do you convince such people that irrespective that God has given you an area of ministry is still very important that those who you disciple, disciple them in the whole counsel of God. Because sometimes this is very difficult to pass across to, you know, many ministers of the gospel to let them know that for a believer to be well rounded and well grounded, it's important that we don't leave out other aspects of the scriptures. But this is very prevalent right now in the body of Christ. So how then do you now convince such ministers, you know, not just to look only at the area that God has called especially the truth is that everybody has been gifted in an area by ministry or by gifting of the spirit of God. But when it now comes to discipleship, I think just as Paul said the whole cancer, but it's difficult to sometimes put this across to some people, some ministers of the gospel. So I know we cannot answer that question totally, but I just brought it up maybe again to make emphasis on this, you know, it's it's prevalent right now. Many believers are nourished in the sense that because of the churches they go to and the emphasis of the ministry, they don't know other areas of the scripture. And so it's like when you talk about certain things on the scripture, they don't know what it is in the scripture in the Bible. So it's really, really prevalent right now. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thank you, say for sharing that concern. I understand, you know, where you're coming from and your observation, because of which, you know, you're sharing this that many a time, many a time as ministers, we may want to stick with one particular subject or doctrine, because maybe that is of interest to us. Maybe we are very comfortable talking about that particular subject alone. But as you said, you know, we have to grow in to considering the growth and nurture of the believers whom we are raising up in the Lord. Okay, so I think that perspective is what needs to come in, say to for us to understand as you know, Ephesians 4 13. It says that you have the five fold ministry early on Christ gave gifts to the church and then you have the five fold ministry the pastor the teacher the evangelist, the prophet the apostle. So that is spoken and then verse 13 says for till you know, the believer becomes a perfect man. Perfect man is maturity till yours till we all grow into perfection in Christ Jesus and which is nothing but maturity becoming more like Jesus. So every minister, no matter which, which kind of calling they have, right, we just listed out the five fold ministry gifts, but you have expressions of the five fold ministry gift in many other ways. We see so many other functions in the body of Christ where where there is service service unto God service unto the people of God. But we have to recognize all that every person is doing for the maturity, isn't it for the maturity of the people whom we are serving. So I feel that is the perspective say like if we can give that perspective to ministers, whatever capacity five fold or any other grace gifts, whatever, we would know that we can't just stay with what is comfortable for us as far as ministry is concerned. We have to step in and serve so that the believer is raised up in a mature way. Okay, so I hope that that makes some sense. Say yes, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Okay, right. Yeah, thank you. And I can see here in our chat. Yes. Good morning, everyone. And I can see a Kennedy asking, does it mean there is no specialization in terms of calling examples of teachers. No, say that's a Kennedy. That's not what we are saying. There is always, you know, a calling of God over each of our lives. You know, as Paul pointed out, I think it is Philippians 312, where he says, Christ Jesus has laid hold of me for that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. So basically he says, there is a reason why the Lord Jesus called him. So that implies there is a ministry, you know, that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me. There's a ministry, there's a call, there's a grace, there are gifts associated with that intention which God had for Apostle Paul. So similarly, for each one of us, there is a that for which. Okay, so that for which in a way you could say, you know, specialization, sort of a related word that there is a special assignment. There are special assignments, you know, a destiny if you if you want to put it that way that each of us have. Of course, we have that. But the point I'm making is, though we're all called differently, we have a similar goal. And that is nothing but in our service, we are here to mature the body of Christ. Okay, so we should not lose perspective of that fact that callings may be different, assignments may be different, functions may be different, but we are all here to build up the body of Christ. Right, remember the last class we saw Paul said the church, which was bought by the precious blood of Christ. So we have all been entrusted and made stewards of this very valuable, you know, asset or treasure of God, which is his body, which is his people whom he has purchased with such a great sacrifice. So it is our responsibility to keep that in mind. I don't just keep my in mind. Oh, my calling is teacher. So I just teach, you know, whatever I want, because I have that grace, I have that anointing. No, but through my teaching, what is happening? What is the fruit of my teaching? Are people being equipped to live, you know, their Christian walk in love for the Lord Jesus? Are they producing, you know, the outcomes, such as the gift of the Spirit in their lives, the fruit of the Spirit in their lives? These are all questions that one needs to ask about their own ministry. That's when, you know, we will know that, hey, you know, sometimes I may have to, it's not just about my teaching, I may have to serve in other ways, which I am not comfortable with. But what is my goal? My ultimate goal is Lord, your kingdom needs to be built up, your people have to be mature. So that's the perspective with which we have to work. So when we say specialization, no, somewhere there is this understanding that I'll just get better in my calling, you know, better in my calling, and then, you know, I'll just reach a limit and that's about it. And I should be aiming for that limit, not necessarily, yeah, get better in the calling and the grace of God, but never lose perspective that everything that we are doing is for the maturing of the body of Christ. Okay, so just some thoughts there, Kennedy and I hope that makes a difference. Say your hand is raised again. Yes, but some thought just came to my mind that maybe I should just also bring up in the sense that I think it's also the responsibility of the believer, not just only to be fed within the local church, but also look at the body of Christ globally. Like for instance, we are all on this call. I'm very sure many of us are from other churches. We are benefiting from ABC, not just from our local churches. So I think just that perspective, in order for us to grow and to receive the whole Council of the Lord is to identify what God has graced us with in the body of Christ, in order for us to be rounded in the whole Council of God. And I think ministers also must also allow their members, you know, not just only because there's a tendency for ministers of churches or pastors or teachers, you know, to kind of arrest their members to only listen to them. And I think that is wrong. I think the teachings should be in such a way that they are able to still identify what is true and what is false outside of the local church. So I think those actions will help us, you know, as believers, embrace the whole Council of God when we appreciate what the body of Christ altogether has to offer each one of us in order to grow and to be built into the statue of Christ Jesus. Yes. Thank you for sharing that. And that's so true. Because we can see that God works in his body globally. So, you know, we've learned about moves of God, we've learned about, you know, the work of the Holy Spirit, different parts of the world and how it affects the body of Christ at large. So, yes, we have to be open for that. And for us to be able to receive again, say, I think it's the understanding of the Kingdom of God, which needs to come in. Likewise, we tend to be limited to what God is doing only in our local body. And we miss out the fact that, hey, we are all part of the Kingdom of God, which is way larger than the local church that each one of us belongs to. Praise God for planting us in our local churches and what we are learning how we have been equipped in our local churches. But in addition to that, you know, we learn how to flow with what God is doing in the Kingdom of God. And when we have that understanding, say, as you rightly pointed out, teaching from just our local body is helpful. However, when people are equipped in the basics, they have a strong foundation, a pastor or a leader may need not feel insecure.  No, God is releasing revelation. And in fact, people must be encouraged to learn from what God is releasing through other ministers and no wonder God has given in the body of Christ many teachers, many apostles, many pastors, many prophets and evangelists. So, yes, why not? We can receive from everyone and we must encourage people to be open, right? But of course, we understand the concern that pastors may have. Their concern is, oh, I have worked so hard to equip people in the whole Council of God's Word. They should not get distracted. They should not get, you know, misaligned from the truth of God's Word. That's the concern pastors have. But, you know, once we have given them a good foundation, I don't think we should worry so much, right? We equip them with the truth and we trust that people have the discernment over time to figure out what is okay, what is not okay. Alright, so yes, we shall leave it at that. And I hope that discussion was helpful for many of us. Anything else that comes to your mind or questions? It's good. It's good to think about what we are learning. Okay, so we see, right? We understand the kind of ministry that Paul had. Yes, he was called to be an apostle, so you see him planting churches.  We see that God gave him the grace to teach and equip people. So all the capacities that God gave him, you know, he was completely utilizing it and we've seen that while he was travelling, he was so concerned about the various churches that he had planted. We've seen that, you know, he had to quickly move out of the church in Corinth. He couldn't spend much time because of the uproar in that church. So when he moved out of there, you know, at some point, he wrote back to the Galatians. He wrote back to the Corinthians. And then, you know, we will see that he will continue to write back to many of the churches, you know, encouraging them and exorting them to stay on, stay on course and keep growing in the Lord. So the third missionary journey, just for us to, you know, be in sync, let me see, I will share the image of the third missionary journey with us, the map. Okay, I hope you can all see it. Is it visible? Yeah. Okay, great. So just have a look at it. We said that the second missionary journey he completed by going back to Antioch. And then he had a very short stay in Antioch. And then, you know, he restarts, he begins his journey. Also notice this third missionary journey of Paul is from 53 AD to 58 AD. About three to four years it is estimated he spent at this main city called as Ephesus. So incredible ministry was done there. In fact, it is an example. Ephesus is an example where not just a couple of people, a small group of people, but the entire city felt the impact of the ministry of Paul. So a couple of things happened over there. We saw that unusual miracles took place through his ministry. We saw that, you know, though this was a so-called spiritual city where people dabbled in the occult, they saw that the power of God which was expressed through Paul's life was so much greater than the sorcery that they practiced. So they tried imbibing the principles which Paul used which is to rebuke demons spirits in the name of Jesus. So they tried it. Remember the seven sons of Sceva, they just used the principles but they were not born again. So it didn't work for them because they did not carry the authority in the spiritual realm. As children of God, as born-again believers, we carry the authority and we can use the authority in the name of Jesus but they couldn't use it. So all these things took place in the city of Ephesus.  And notice, you know, Ephesus, remember in the last class we said that this is modern day, you know, this is Asia. Those days known as Asia Minor, today modern day Turkey. Turkey is over here and many of these, like this region, the seven churches of the book of Revelation, Paul would have actually planted those churches through some of his co-workers. By now, remember, though we are only talking about Paul's missionary journey and Paul's life, simultaneously a lot is happening. If you recall, Paul had left people like, you know, Silas, Luke in Macedonia in different places and they were there, you know, raising up people, equipping people. He had left behind Aquila, Priscilla in, you know, Corinth. So they were doing a job, they were doing a work there. Paul's had come and joined them in Corinth. So simultaneously there are men and women of God who continue to serve the Lord with the calling on their lives.  So there are churches, there are leaders. There is a lot going on in this entire region and Ephesus played a key role because of the school there. So our knowledge is that many people came to Ephesus, they were equipped there. So one of the individuals that, you know, we can talk about is Epiphras, Epiphras from Colossae. Okay, so Paul planted that church through Epiphras. He did not go physically to plant the Colossian church, but this was the individual who was trained most likely in the school of tenderness. So many people had come from this entire region to that school and so it was an advantage actually for Paul. We don't know how many people he actually equipped, but he did. He did impact the lives of many people, not just from the city, but from around the region.  So Ephesus is a very key thing. So we know that from Antioch he went through the Galatia region, through the familiar churches, primarily stayed in Ephesus, did a lot of teaching there. When opposition arose, remember the silversmith called Demetrius and the whole chaos about the idol of Dinah and, you know, them not doing well in business because of the ministry of Paul. He just left. He fled Ephesus and then, you know, he moves on, goes to Proaz and then, you know, the journey carries on.  So he came back on this third missionary journey. He came to this place called Miletus. On the way back, see, he could have gone to Ephesus, but we said that it wasn't safe for him to go there. So over here is where he meets the people, the elders, spends time with them and then he will make his way back.  So that's how it's going to work. So let's continue till the next chapter, Acts 21. You know, we are still on the third missionary journey of Paul. It has not ended yet. So let's observe. You know, you will come across all these places, Tyre and Tolemnus. Sorry for my pronunciation, whoever's from those regions, please excuse me. Caesarea and then of course Jerusalem. So let's go on. I would request somebody to read Acts 21. These are all going to be fairly easier passages that we can cover very fast. So, could somebody read Acts chapter 21? And I would, oh yeah, it's pretty long. So kindly read Acts 21, 1-40 and then we will come back to the next section there. Was that a question? No. Okay. Then I just want to read Acts 21, 1-14. Can I read it, Pastor? Yes. And when we heard Barbie from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to coast and the next day to ropes. And from there to Patria and having found a sheep crossing the bushel and we went and set sail. When we had come inside of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we sailed to Caesarea and landed in Tyre. But there the sheep was unloaded, unloaded its cargo and having sought out the disciples. We stayed there for seven days and to the spirit they were telling Paul not to go into Jerusalem. When our days there were ended, we departed and went on a journey. They all with wives and children accompanied us until we were outside the sea. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship and the Brits and Hope. When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Pro Potolones and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. And the next day we departed and came to Caesarea and we entered the house of Philip, the evangelist who was one of the seven and stayed with him. He had four unmarried doctors who prophesied while we were staying from English, a coffee named Agobas came down from Julia. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and wound his own feet and hands and said, That saves the Holy Spirit. This is how the Jews of the Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What are you doing? We've been breaking our heart from ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he will not be persuaded, we seized and said, Let the will of the Lord be done. Thank you, Asha. So basically it's a continuation of the third missionary journey. So we noticed the different places that I had mentioned earlier. Tire is one of the places there. And you know, if you observed it, it says verse five, when we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way and they all accompanied us with 1000 children till we were out of the city and we knelt down on the shore and prayed. So basically what we recognize here is that even though these were not places that were mentioned earlier in the second missionary journey, it's likely, as I told you, the gospel had spread across the region. So there are churches that maybe Paul never, he never went to those places. He doesn't know these people, but notice there were wives, there were children. So there are a lot of people who are believers and they share this love for the people of God. So that brotherly love exists. Though they were different congregations that brotherly love existed. They were hospitable to Paul. There's also some kind of a Christian culture as you would notice that they went with Paul to say bye to him. We don't know if this was commonly practiced to bid farewell to somebody who was dear to you. You go with them and then it says, knelt down on the shore and prayed. So maybe these believers practiced such things, kneeling down on the shore, praying, calling upon the Lord. So there was this fellowship, this brotherly love which people had and a culture, sort of, you may want to call it a Christian culture or a church culture or something. So they had developed a culture of their own and it was developing for them. And then eventually we see that Paul went to Caesarea, the highlight of Caesarea. As you remember Philip, we talked about him in Acts 6 as a volunteer. Acts 8 he goes and he does his ministry in different regions, Samaria and then he moves on. And he ministers to the Ethiopian eunuch. Over there you never really have a title for Philip. But over here it says, the house of Philip the Evangelist was it. The house of Philip the Evangelist. So we understand that maybe Philip had grown in his stature before the Lord to have a ministry. The kind of ministry that we would call as an evangelist ministry. He was now recognized as an evangelist. So that's why Luke uses the title here. He says Evangelist Philip and other important things about Philip is he had four daughters, virgin daughters who prophesied. So this also helps us understand that the gifts of the spirit were released to people irrespective of their gender. So remember when we talked about Acts 2 when God poured out his spirit and Peter stood up and he preached. He said that God will pour out his spirit, sons and daughters shall prophesy. And so you have the outworking of that particular scripture where women are prophesying. So obviously this gift was probably not just the gift that operates at the level of a believer but may be the grace gift of prophecy. Otherwise Luke wouldn't mention that because every believer could manifest these gifts. It's likely that these women prophesied at a higher level. So the virgin daughters of Philip where they prophesied. But then another key thing that we notice in Caesarea is Agabus. If you recall Agabus was the prophet who came to Antioch of Syria and he prophesied that there is going to be a famine in Jerusalem which led people to collect some funds and then for Paul to actually take it to the church of Jerusalem. So it's the same Agabus. So Agabus over here he comes and he speaks a prophetic word. How does he do it? He does it through action. So he takes Paul's belt he wraps it around himself and he says look the person whose belt belongs to will be bound like this. So remember when we talked about the prophetic we said that the prophetic can be expressed in various ways. We can just say the prophecy or the prophecy can also be enacted. We see this form of prophesying in the Old Testament. Prophets of God and through the action of their lives they prophesied the word of God. Similarly Agabus he acts out the prophetic word to tell Paul that you will be bound when you go to Jerusalem. And so Paul already knew. No wonder he had that good time with the Ephesian elders. However the intention of the brethren was to warn Paul because they loved him so much. They did not want any harm to happen to Paul. So they were hinting at Paul don't go. Don't go that side because you will not come back alive if you go to Jerusalem and we may never meet you. But you see when well-meaning believers were instructing Paul against the purpose of God for Paul's life. What was his response? Let's look at verse 12 and then I'll read from there. Now when we heard these things both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. So even Luke is involved in this that's why he's saying we. Luke maybe Philip and the whole gang that is with him Agabus everyone's telling Paul please don't go. Verse 13 then Paul answered what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart for I am ready. Only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. So you see there the commitment that Paul had in his heart for the Lord. He knew tough times lie ahead but in his heart he had already resolved.  So you know we say like allegiance in those times when people express their patriotism to their land. They would go to the extent of saying I'm willing to die for my country. So people of those times understood this kind of a commitment that yes I would rather die for my land. Similarly you know you have Paul the Apostle here saying I would rather die for the gospel. Don't stop me from moving in the direction that God has instructed me to take. So Paul was willing to move in that direction and go to Jerusalem. So verse 14 so when he would not be persuaded obviously Paul yes it's dangerous. It's risky all of that but I need to do what God has called me to do. So he was not persuaded. Luke says we seized. We stopped saying the will of the Lord be done. So everyone said okay Paul do whatever you think God is calling you to do. So we will pick up from there. Is there a question? Yes say you have something to say. Observation question. The life of Philip is an inspiring story. You know starting from just a normal believer who volunteered himself to serve tables. God using him is Samaria and then years later we hear of him becoming an evangelist. It just shows that God does reward faithfulness in little things and he sees us and he knows where he's taking us to. So that I just wanted to bring as an observation that how God raised him up and not just only that gave him four children who were highly gifted in the prophetic. So that is an encouragement to many of us you know who might think that oh what we are just doing is lead to in church and God doesn't see but God does see our little effort little work. What man does not celebrate God does see it and in time he will raise us up for higher callings. My question my other question is do you think that Paul knew that he was going to go through what he went through in Jerusalem. I know he had he had a conviction in his heart that he was bound to suffer for the gospel of Christ. In a way too I kind of see if we fast forward down to where he gets to Jerusalem which we'll still look at the way he was being treated you know and all that he went through before getting to Rome. It seems to me that he might not have been expecting that magnitude of persecution but he knew somewhere in his heart that he was going to face very very very tough times. But I don't know do you think he actually had you know an idea of what he was going to go through or he was just going because he knew it was the will of God. Because in a way if we bring it down to our own world and we hear prophecy or somebody warning us that if we go this direction you might face a danger. We might say well God is trying to warn me to avoid the journey but Paul to an extent it seems like he already had an idea of what he was going to be going through. So I just wanted to maybe get more clarification on Paul's journey to Jerusalem in terms of knowing that there was a prophet who never lied. I guess people really took Aga boss prophecy very serious and this was somebody who was well seasoned and you know others were warning him and all that but yet he was so resolved in going. So did you think he just knew about what he was about to face in Jerusalem? Yeah thank you say so as you were sharing about Philip I just wanted to say amen brother it was sounded more like a sermon actually very encouraging and true. Looking at the life of Philip and the way God blessed him strengthened him in the ministry and not just that you know in his life you see that how wonderful to have children who are walking in the Lord and serving the Lord. We had four daughters who prophesied it just goes to tell us that there was an anointing on their lives as well so what a reward for the faithfulness of a man of God. So yes very true. Now your question there say in Acts 20 verses 22 to 25 we've already seen what Paul said. He said something like and see now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem not knowing the things that will happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And indeed now I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see my face no more. So it just goes to say that Paul was in full knowledge that he not return that something terrible is going to happen eventually he knew. So and look at this see how God is working he already knew and you have somebody like Agabus come and tell him this is going to happen to you Paul please don't go please don't go. But you know when there is a determination when there is a surrender when there is a commitment to the Lord he just knew that yes it's going to be difficult but I will go. And in fact verse 4 of Acts 21 it says and finding disciples we stayed there seven days they told Paul through the spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. So you see the prophetic word is confirmed twice there were believers who told him Agabus who told him but he knew everything but he knew that's the way he had to take because God had a purpose in it. So that's the answer say he knew God had communicated it to him. Okay so yeah let's take a break now take a 10 minute break and then we shall come back and proceed. Thank you everyone.