Hey guys, how you doing? This is your boy Rich from RichTVLive and you too can join the club at richpicksdaily.com where you can learn how to win and trade. Hi, how's everybody doing today? I'm your host Rich here on behalf of RichTVLive with our very special guest, the CEO of GiveX, Don Gray. How you doing today, Don? Great, Rich. How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. I'm doing a lot of heavy, heavy weather here in Toronto, the snowstorms. Yes, I saw that. I was I was kind of shocked because we were the ones having snow and then you guys weren't. And now we've kind of passed that. And now we're having some decent spring weather, it seems like. And it seems like you guys are really getting hammered with the snow, which is kind of what you expect. You know, I'm from Toronto, so being from the East Coast, I'm used to the snow at this time of year, but I wasn't expecting that in Vancouver. So it was a very interesting start to 2022 here in Vancouver. We had a lot of snow and really excited to learn more about GiveX. Our community is very excited about GiveX and Don, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with GiveX? Well, I started the company in 1999 with my wife, Deborah. We've been in business together almost, well, almost 30 years now where we've done deals together in the company's grown since then. And I'm an entrepreneur by nature. I started my first business when I was in university and I've had a variety of different types of companies, mostly in the technology business. Some that have done very well, some that haven't done very well, some that didn't do very well at all. But, you know, I've acquired companies, sold companies, merged companies. And so, you know, basically, you know, this is we started an internet company back in the 90s and we sold that. And then Devin and I decided that we were going to go sailing and we wanted to have something to do while we were on our boat and sailing. And we started this little tech company in Toronto called GiveX 1999, where we did online gift certificates for small to medium sized retailers where we would sell these certificates online. And the customers would then use a touchtone phone at the merchant's locations to actually redeem these cards. So that's how the company started. And it's, you know, the two of us plus a programmer. And we now have, as you know, over 276 employees and then 10 countries processing hundreds of millions of transactions a year. So it's a been quite a quite a ride. And but basically, I've been an entrepreneur all my life. And that's how we started in business. We love entrepreneurial spirit. I've been an entrepreneur my entire adult life and I have a lot of respect for entrepreneurialism. Can you tell us what are some of the milestones GiveX has set for 2022, which shareholders can really look forward to? Well, obviously, I have to be somewhat careful about making forward looking comments. But, you know, in our in our filing documents, we talked about the fact that over the years, GiveX has grown between five and eight percent of as high as 10 percent organically every year, just with the basic clients that we've got. We have over 96,000 merchant locations well over that now around the world. And just by virtue of the business alone, it grows at five to eight percent a year. And it's going to continue to do that well into 2022. We're quite confident of that. And as part of my raising the funds, we wanted to go and start doing more acquisitions. I've already done some acquisitions in the past, but I wanted to ramp that up. And we're well on our way to make sure to make some acquisitions. And we should be announcing some in the near future. So, you know, without kind of giving you any specifics, because I have to be careful about doing that, we are going to be hitting all the targets and the plans that that I was expecting to do. And we're very excited about the year ahead. Fantastic. I'm excited to see you guys evolve and grow. Don, can you go through the team at GiveX and their past success in the public markets? Well, honestly, Rich, this is this is our team's first first experience with public markets. We've been a private company since 1999. So there's been a little, you know, the team. I'm the older guy and myself and my wife, Deb, are the older people on the team. Most of our team members are in their 30s and 40s, the senior management team. And they a lot of them grew up in the company in the last 15 to 20 years. So to say that we've got a lot of experience in the public markets. I can't say that because we don't. But we do deal with a lot of public companies, a lot of our clients are public companies. So we're aware of the requirements to be a public company. So we're looking forward to it. We believe that this has been a much better idea than going with private equity, which we had an option to do that. But we felt this was a better way for us to give our shareholders value. And so they could actually grow with us and at the same time get us the funding we needed to be able to pursue the acquisition program. Now, one of the things I've been really impressed with is GiveX has been able to significantly increase its revenue, gross transaction volumes and the number of customer locations despite the impact of the pandemic on the global retail and restaurant industries. Can you tell us how GiveX has been able to accomplish this with such success? Well, GiveX has been a cloud based transaction processor since we started. So we were already in the cloud. So it's not like we had to figure out how to get into the cloud to be able to provide services to our customers in the cloud. All of our clients are in the cloud. So for them to be able to move into the cloud or to sort of adopting cloud technology was not a difficult thing for them to do. But at the same time, our core base, 80 percent of our business is still the gift and loyalty card business, processing business. So that business actually did not get impacted very much by the pandemic because as a result, most people working from home or were able to use online services more. So that part of the business actually grew. It didn't it didn't shrink. There is also an opportunity during the pandemic for a lot of our clients that were looking for change to change up their point of sale systems or to improve their technology to do that while those things were slow. So we did find that there were clients that had the resources to be able to do that. They did it so we were able to encourage them. And we also provide some some opportunities and some deals to encourage our clients to make these these conversion to online ordering and online systems during the during the pandemic and that work. We did get hit a little bit like upticks, which is our, you know, stored value ticketing system for major venues, such as Major League Baseball and NFL, etc. These those venues were shut down. So that business just basically stopped. It's coming back now very strongly. So we're encouraged to buy how well that will do in 2022. How has GiveX built such a solid portfolio with so little dilution and operating for 20 years now? What's your secret? Well, the company operated as a private company, you know, that I control with my wife. We had some shareholders that came as part of the business back in, you know, back in 1999, 2000. So we've been very careful about the use of capital. But more importantly, you know, we don't want to when we get a customer, we didn't want to lose that customer. So we do a lot of work on our client retention. We keep our promises no matter what. That's a part of our internal mantra that all of our team members sign up for. So really, it's been a combination of good technology. We we build our own tech. It's all in the cloud. So it's not over. We're not trying to plug different things into our system. It's all developed by us in the cloud. So it's a one one throat to choke, I guess, as they say, for our customers, they can go one place to if they have a problem, they can get it resolved. So our service levels have been very high. Our use of capital has been very conservative. We watch our costs. And as a result, we've been able to stay profitable during the pandemic. And actually for almost for 20 years, we had just a few years where we didn't make a profit. So in our goal is to continue to grow like that. We would rather grow on a steady basis and make good acquisitions that don't cost us too much, that can fit nicely into our into our portfolio and continue to. So we're here in another 20 years. So any investors that are buying into GiveX, they can see know that they've got a reasonably secure investor investment that's going to grow over time. We love to understand the fundamentals of a company here. Can you go through the capital structure of GiveX for our viewers and how you plan on attracting more institutional investment alongside more retail investors? Well, you know that GiveX went public through a reverse takeover. We we did it through county capital, too, which is which is a capital pool company that was designed specifically to find an investment like GiveX. So we didn't do an initial IPO, but we did do a private placement as part of that reverse takeover to raise the $22 million that we did raise. Now, out of that $22 million, there's a fair number of institutional investors in there, sophisticated investors and private families, private wealth, as well as a lot of retail buyers as well. So we've already attracted both institutional and private users, private individuals. And going forward, Joe and our team, we're working hard with people like yourselves to try and outreach to the investor community so that they know we're here. And we are happy to answer questions to do interviews to let people know that GiveX is a solid company and we're going to be here for many years. So, you know, that's attractive to institutional investors, because as institutional investors, they want to see a company to cut a certain dollar value that's trading on the TSX, which we are. So we'll just continue to do what we're doing and try and do it even better when it comes to working with investor relations, because it's a brand new area for us. So we're we're learning and we're learning quickly. We so if customers want to know a little bit more about what's going on or if investors want to know about what's going on on our website, we've got an investor page there that you can click on there, get into our mailing list. And we will continue to try and give you all the information you need to be well informed as to how GiveX is performing now. And hopefully as we announce new things and new ideas, you can see what's going on quickly. Don, if there was one thing that you would want shareholders and potential new investors to know about GiveX today, what would that be? Well, I alluded to it earlier. GiveX is a, you know, it's me, it's a longer term investment. It's not a, you know, buy it and flip it sort of an investment. We're a company that's built our reputation on good service and good technology and looking after our clients over a long period of time. And you have our customers that have with us 15 or 20 years and big customers that have been with us a long time. And the reason they are is because we keep our promises. We look after our customers, we look after our team. And, you know, we also look after our investors, the people that invested with GiveX many years ago, when we first started, have done very well with this public offering. And so we hope to be able to do the same thing with our new investors that are buying into the company now, so that they can see that this company is going to grow over time and it'll be a worthwhile investment and the returns will be more than the average. Don, what is the best way for investors to get in touch with the company if they have any questions regarding GiveX? Well, we have an investor page on our website, GiveX.com. And we go there, you can click on that and there's, you know, you can ask questions, you'll be able to see current news releases. We'll be setting up a blog to be able to answer other questions if we can. And also we'll be doing earnings calls with our quarterly reports and our annual reports so customers can ask questions directly.  And really the best way to do it is just to, you know, contact us through the website. And if we can answer questions, we will obviously forward looking statements we have to be cautious about. But we can certainly answer questions on the existing business, how we're doing, why we're doing it for customers or for investors that want that information. Super excited to watch GiveX grow. I must remind everyone that Rich TV Live is strictly for information and education purposes. Please do your due diligence, do your research before you invest in anything we talk about or discuss here on Rich TV Live. In saying that, I believe this is a company that is undervalued, underappreciated, underexposed for many different reasons. We love the revenue growth. We love the fact that you guys are doing over 50 million a year. In my opinion, with a tight float of 150 million shares and 50 million revenue, we believe that this could be priced at three to five dollars. We think this is extremely undervalued. We love our community to really put GiveX on their radar, on their watch list. Thank you for joining us today. The CEO of GiveX, Don Gray. Thank you for joining us today, Don. Well, thanks very much, Rich, and I enjoyed the interview. And hopefully we can do more as your community wants more information. I'm happy to do further interviews and provide more information as the company grows and progresses in 2022. We would love to have you back on the show as you guys continue to grow and evolve. If you ever have any big breaking news, anything you want to talk about, love to invite you back on the show. For everyone else that's watching, if you're not winning, you're probably not watching. We bring you the winners, like GiveX, and we bring them to you first. Thank you for watching, everybody. If you like the video, smash the like button, comment them below. Share the video everywhere and subscribe. This is Rich from Rich to Be Live with our very special guest, the CEO of GiveX, Don Gray, saying, have a nice day, everybody. We'll see you soon.


Russia increases its interference with Romanian ships. There is a threat of a new war in Black Sea. Daniel Petrescu, Romania's chief of the general staff, has said Russia is actively and constantly jamming GPS communications of ships in Romanian territorial waters which causes a risk of collisions. The general stated that Russia's war against Ukraine has fundamentally destabilized the Black Sea region and caused a sense of insecurity among the littoral countries which has affected the security climate. We feel this confrontation very well, especially in the eastern flank of NATO and especially in the region where they come from, the Black Sea. Petrescu stated. He pointed out that missiles are being fired from the Black Sea region towards Ukraine to attack its civilian or military infrastructure so the war in Ukraine will continue to generate regional instability and security risks for Romania and the region. There is a constant risk associated with the increasing probability of incidents at the NATO border caused by the possibility that certain drones or missiles may miss. Romania's infrastructure or commercial ships in Romania's territorial waters could be hit by mistake. The general stressed. The chief of the army staff said that in this context Romania should have an approach that will increase the resilience of Romanian society in the face of new threats by supporting the population's attitude towards NATO and the United States. In particular, the presence of NATO troops in Romania, the budget allocated to defence as well as the development of national defence programs and interoperability with the U.S. Army.


Okay, with that said we're in James. We're going to look at James chapter 1 verses 1 through 8 today and Let me give you an introduction before the introduction and that is The way I'm going to do this I'm going to give you an introduction then I'm going to move into a secondary Introduction then I'm going to move into the teaching so there'll be some layers today Just getting you prepared and developing the introduction To the introduction so beginning at verse 1 in James chapter 1 reading to verse 8 James a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ To the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greetings My brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach And it will be given to him, but let him ask in faith With no doubting For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double-minded man unstable in all his ways So as we begin laying the first layer of the foundation We're looking at a book that helps us to understand what faith is Throughout this letter the book of James. We're going to see that faith is something that motivates action and James will make it clear that dead faith is actually worse than no faith at all Now we live in a day where many say they have a faith in God But James makes it clear that faith is found in actions philosophic Mental sentimental emotional or verbal faith is not saving or living faith There have been a few once professing Christians, perhaps you've been reading your news feed or whatever There have been a few once professing Christians who have recently rejected Christ and this has been coming out over the social media and These who are now professing to have rejected Christ were once outspoken they were trusted visible members of the Christian community One of them that was fairly well known at least in some circles is man by the name of Joshua Harris Joshua Harris wrote a book Encouraging people not to date Another one is a Hillsong songwriter Who recently stated that he is losing his faith and that he believes Christianity is just another religion and Only desires genuine truth perhaps you've read of Joshua I think he wrote something like I kiss dating goodbye and perhaps you're aware of the the songs of The Hillsong community well another songwriters is rejecting his faith and Joshua Harris turned away from it So there's a fellow by the name of John Cooper and and John Cooper is the lead singer for a Christian band Many of you perhaps are familiar with it's called skillet and He wrote a thoughtful post about this and he pointed out that that these men were once Influencers for the gospel but are now wanting to influence people away from the gospel And he thinks out loud about that How come these people who are so desperate to influence for God are now desperate to still be an influencer But this time it's away from God and so he is concerned about that and rightly so And and so he wrote something that I think is worthy of quoting and this is something a portion of something He wrote that I I read just this week and this is what what John Cooper said He said I've been saying for 20 years and Seemed probably quite judgmental to some of my peers That we are in a dangerous place When the church is looking to 20 year old worship singers as our source of truth We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs Rather than from the teachings of the word I'm not being rude to my worship leader friends Many who would agree with me in saying that singers and musicians are good at communicating emotion and feeling We create a moment and a vehicle for God to speak However singers are not always the best people to write solid Bible truth and doctrine Sometimes we are too young Too ignorant of scripture Too unaware or too unconcerned about the purity of scripture and the holiness of the God we are singing to There's truth to that my own pastor Chuck Chuck Smith used to say let the singers sing let the teachers teach Because it's true because in in worship, especially in today's culture when people go to church Many people are more exuberant when they're singing than they are excited about learning and Many of the lyrics that are being written are actually not True, they're not right. They're not according to scripture So even here in our fellowship, especially here in our fellowship I will look at the lyrics and I will I will speak to Jared my worship leader here and uh How to say this while I say that the worship leader here But the real worship leader in any county chapel you may or may not know this I'll say it quickly is not the is not the person who's leading the band The worship leader is the pastor That's who your worship leader is you may or may not know that you may have gotten into the same mentality that A lot of people have in the church, which is oh, they're the worship leader. No, they're the singers They're the ones who lead in music and worship The pastor is the worship leader in the church and I have the responsibility as the worship leader To evaluate the songs that are sung here because I know that songs communicate theology And sometimes the theology is off because the emotionality of this song is what people like I could give you examples. I won't that's not part of my notes But i'm just pointing this out and john cooper from skillet says that Is a big mistake when you have a 20 year old up there that's looked at as being the one who's teaching you truth when in fact He's a poet When in fact, what is a 20 year old? No, I'm not knocking that we were once 20. I was once 20 I got saved at the age of 20. I'm not saying that's a bad age and I was a great age, of course But what do you know at 20? That is developed And that's why young people don't leave the church. That's why elders Lead the church That's why you don't lay hands on any man suddenly you don't put your hands on a novice Why because they're not developed in their understanding of theology and the relationship with god And very often what happens in the community of christians is we listen to the music We sing the lyrics and we don't want to hear the word and that's what john is saying He said how can a 20 year old Who really has a limited understanding of scripture and relationship with god? How can that person be the one who's directing the spiritual vitality of a church? They can provoke emotion. They can lead us into a place where god can speak But it's the word of god that you need and these people who are walking away from the lord are people who are walking away from god's word And they don't have a relationship with the word of god and thus they more than likely had a strained one with him And what we're seeing Is and I think what we have is a front row seat to what paul indicated would happen in the last days In second timothy in chapter 4 verses 3 and 4 paul said it like this He said a time is coming when people will no longer listen to right teaching They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear They will reject the truth and follow strange myths So james is writing to give believers an understanding of what faith actually is Faith is not wishful thinking Faith is not an uncertain hope that something good might happen Faith is living in hope That is so real That it provides an absolute assurance a confidence In Hebrews 11 verse 1 the writer said now faith is the substance of things hope for the evidence of things not seen Faith is the substance that word substance speaks of a sense of assurance a confidence It speaks of a steadiness of mind that makes you steadfast In your walk with god It's a sense of assurance. He's saying that faith is a confident assurance It's the title deed of things that you're hoping for He's saying faith is is living in hope a hope that is so real that it provides absolute assurance faith is seen in the The life of moses it's seen when moses was leading the children of israel from egypt from bondage and And there they are standing at the the red sea and behind them are the armies of egypt and and before them is the red sea There's no way of escape They're trapped And as these people saw the egyptians approaching They were afraid Here comes the armies of egypt they had chariots the chariots were tanks during that day And they see this this armor coming towards them. There's nothing they can do they're trapped between The the armies and and the sea and they begin to cry out And and they say it would it would have been better for us to stay in egypt Rather than to die here in the wilderness and that's when moses speaks and And exodus 14 13 and 14 says this moses said to the people Do not be afraid stand still And see the salvation of the lord Which he will accomplish for you today For the egyptians whom you see today you shall see again No more forever the lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace He said stand still and see the deliverance of the lord.  Has he spoken shall he not make it good? Faith is the evidence of things not seen that word evidence is the divinely given conviction of things unseen A divine conviction none of us were present at the crucifixion of christ Yet all christians believe he lived he taught he died he resurrected ascended and we believe he's returning Though we didn't know him in a personal way yet we cling to him by faith And as believers we know that faith is tested we know it's refined by trials and we expect trials We expect those things to take place And we hold fast to him because we trust him We have placed our full hope in him and he he was 116 that says without faith It's impossible to please him for he who comes to god must believe that he is And that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him So we believe that he is we believe there's a god Second we believe that he's a rewarder of those who faithfully serve him and also we've determined to diligently seek After him we we seek to please him with all of our life. So christian faith is an invisible attitude It's it's revealed. It's made visible by our lives And true faith is living faith and living faith is revealed by actions and the actions are based on scripture So in psalm 25 verse 4 the psalm has said show me your ways. Oh lord, teach me your paths As we look at james, we're going to see things about faith that will help us to grow as believers We'll see this in his book james reveals that faith endures trials Faith resists temptation Faith obeys the word of god Faith produces works Faith is not prejudiced Faith is more than just words or knowledge Faith controls the tongue Is revealed by obedience And holds fast to god's promises Faith chooses wisdom separates us from the world And submits to god Faith provides strength to resist the devil And faith waits patiently For the coming of the lord and in a word faith works Now as we begin The book of james was written around that's your first layer. Here's your second one The book of james was written around the years 46 to 49 ad as such it's regarded as the earliest epistles of the epistles As you look at this at this book you'll see that there's no mention of gentile christians And you'll also see that there's no distinctively developed theology if you go into first Corinthians You see developed theology if you go into the book of romans in the book of galatians You're going to Hebrews. There's a developed theology, but james doesn't have that James has some rudimentary things that we see And as you go through it, there's no mention of gentile christians at all And you're not going to see a developed theology. He uses the word synagogue, but he also uses the word church And james reveals a very simple organization of elders and teachers So it's a very basic book and it's the earliest letter And so we begin by identifying the writer james verse one A bond servant of god and of the lord jesus christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greetings And so we identify the author it's james Notice he's the servant of god But who is this man named james when you read your bible? And I assume that you do when you read the new testament You're going to see that there are actually four men named james in the new testament You have james who was the father of thaddeus thaddeus was one of the apostles you see him in luke chapter six Second you have the apostle james, but he was james the son of alpheus Also called james the last in matthew 10 verse three You also have the apostle james the brother of john the son of zebedee matthew chapter four He was martyred around 44 ad And it's not likely the writer of this book and finally we have james the brother of jesus In matthew chapter 13 verses 55 and 56 it says it like this isn't this the carpenter's son It isn't his mother's name mary and aren't his brothers james joseph Simon and judas aren't all his sisters with us So it is this james the brother of the lord that is recognized as the writer of the letter And that james didn't believe in jesus when jesus was walking on earth and performing his ministry as a matter of fact He was antagonistic towards him. How do we know that? Well, john writes about that in john's gospel chapter 7 verses 3 through 5 Where it says jesus's brothers said to him You want to leave here and go to judaeus so that your disciples may see the miracles you do No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret Since you're doing these things show yourself to the world and then john adds this for even his own brothers did not believe in him So he didn't believe in christ when jesus was walking the face of the earth. That's an amazing thing to admit But he didn't how could you not? I don't know he was raised in the home with a perfect kid And and mary could have said why james? Why can't you be more like your brother and that would have really made me feel bad Right How can that be? But he didn't believe in him He didn't believe in his own brother. He didn't believe until after jesus's death bearer in resurrection According to first crinthians 15 verse 7. That's when he became a believer Eventually he became the leader of the church in jerusalem. He became what is called a pillar Of the church that's mentioned in galatians chapter 2 verse 9 where paul said james peter and john Those reputed to be pillars gave me and barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the jews. So he became a pillar in the church Now tradition and not scripture tradition holds that between 62 and 66 ad before the fall of jerusalem But tradition holds that he suffered a violent martyrdom Tradition holds that he was thrown from the temple mount hit the ground and then beaten to death Well, this is james Again verse one a servant of god and the lord jesus christ Let me develop something with you there even his introduction a bond servant of god and of the lord jesus christ That's a jewish concept this bond servant It's normally associated with loyalty to a prophet or rabbi It speaks of being a servant too. It's like second peter 2 19 Where the apostle said a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him Well, james was a servant of the lord jesus and as such was submitted to him Now this is something that i have to lay as a foundation because we're going to look at trials in a moment And this submission to jesus christ helps us to deal in our time Deal with the trials that we go through it helps us to deal with the situations We find ourselves and you see when you understand yourself to be a servant You understand that you have given up your rights because servants gave up their rights and If you understand yourself a servant who has given up his rights Then you also know That you can have peace because god doesn't owe you anything and here's a problem a lot of people have When you go through struggles or tough times or trials you get mad at god Oh god, i've been faithful and i've served you so well. I haven't done anything wrong Why are you allowing me to go through these hard times? I would I would assume that every one of us in this room at least once in our life and maybe more than that I've actually taken that to the throne of god a complaint to him saying how come you're allowing this in my life Why did you allow me to go through this? Well, one of the things that james is beginning to tell us Even as he's going to introduce the place of trials in the life of a believer is he's saying i am a bond servant of jesus christ And in that day the slaves knew they had no rights And this bond servant was a voluntary servant of that master and he knew that that master was right and just and good And james is saying i volunteered for this I chose this i'm a servant and as a servant Who am i to complain about how my master treats me? In the gospel of luke in chapter 17 verses 7 through 10 jesus said this Which of you having a slave plowing or tending sheep? Will say to him when he has come in from the field come immediately and sit down to eat But will he not say to him? prepare something for me to eat And properly clothe yourself And serve me until i have eaten and drunk And afterward you will eat and drink He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded does he? So you too When you do all the things which are commanded you Say we are unworthy slaves We have done only that Which we ought to have done Not many christians think that way today Not many christians believe that today And wait a minute he owes me You know i'm the head i'm not the tail He ought to be blessing me not cursing me How come these things are happening to me to a person such as i i try hard I pray i give i serve i do all that i can and yet i'm going through trials How come why the pain? People do that all the time well jesus said You're ultimately a servant And your word is i'm unworthy on top of that Your master he said owes you nothing But what he gives you you ought to be grateful for that is not a current way of thinking today that goes against the grain of everything most americans believe And yet that's not what the bible teaches the bible doesn't teach that i should get manic god for not blessing me the way I think he's supposed to The bible teaches me i'm like james i'm a bond servant i'm a bond servant of god and of the lord jesus christ And that is the key to going through trials we'll see that in a minute So he goes on in verse one and he says to the 12 tribes that are scattered the word scattered speaks of the dispersion who are dispersed abroad So he's writing as a christian jew to jews outside of israel He's possibly writing to what you call messianic, which are christian jews And it may be including non messianic. It may be a message to jews in general At this time there were jews traveling and living a resident in most parts of the civilized world Especially in asia greece egypt in italy and many of them had come to faith in messiah And so he's writing to them and he gives his greetings and that's what he simply says greetings Literally greetings means joy to you Again the inference is that even in trials you can have joy Because he now moves right into the heart of what he wants to say in the first few verses verse two my brethren Count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience Count it all joy You see the world is in a battle Where the powers of good and evil Are in combat constantly In first john 2 19 john said we know that we are of god and the whole world lies Under the sway of the wicked one So he's giving a word of encouragement He's saying you are in a battle You need to have the proper mindset And don't be surprised that you're having such a difficult time Because difficulties are part of the life of a believer The apostle peter wrote like this in first peter 4 12 and 13 He said beloved do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial Which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you But rejoice to the extent that you partake of christ's sufferings That when his glory is revealed you may also be glad with exceeding joy Don't think it's strange that you're going through hard times That you're suffering this world is at war with god It is in fierce combat for the souls and minds of man So don't be surprised when you encounter fiery trials As if some strange thing is happening because this is part of what god is doing in the world today You see trials are inevitable and that's why he says to us in verse 2 Count it all joy when you fall into various trials count that word count speaks of of considering or deeming Consider these trials appropriately Somebody said god does not give faith love hope or any grace without meaning to test it If a man builds a railway bridge It is that engines may go over it and prove it's carrying power If he only makes a needle it must be tested by the work it can do So when god made you to be strong in the lord He meant to try every ounce of your strength You see as a soldier of the cross We must realize there's no discharge in this war To be victorious requires endurance But there's joy because of the certainty of victory When paul was writing concerning spiritual warfare in the book of Ephesians in chapter 6 He he says after doing all he says stand stand therefore and when he says stand It's a picture of a man a warrior And his armor is settled on him and he begins to describe that the helmet of salvation the breastplate of righteousness Your waist is girded with truth you have shoes that are your feet are shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace You have the shield of faith and you have the sword of the spirit He begins to give you the items of the roman soldier the battle battle hardened Man and he begins to describe that but he says having done all He said stand stand therefore and the word stand there is a word that speaks concerning planting your feet firmly and not moving You see if you're going into battle you're not going to be Shuffling around he says you need to plant your feet But it's not planting your feet just as if you're battling it's standing in victory And and what god wants you to know you need to know this today Is that the war is won in jesus christ to be battles, but in christ we win those two you never lose And when you go through a trial you're not going to lose That's why you count it all joy when you encounter various trials why for the trying of your faith will work Patience but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire lacking nothing You see that's how you consider You count these things you count the cost and you're aware You know because there's so many people who think you know, I deserve better. No, you know what I deserve hell, but I got grace That's that's how it works But we don't see that we don't understand that we're not getting what we deserve And what he's doing in us is he's purging us.   I'm going to stand my feet are going to be planted I'm going to wear the armor and I'm going to battle because that's what god called me to do And that's why you encounter difficult times And the lord you're thinking about god you see that i'm the warrior and god says yeah, but you've got things in you I'm dealing with Because you may be doing things with the wrong heart or with the wrong attitude or with the wrong sense And i'm going to wash those things away from you too Don't give up please Don't lose hope I walk through the valley of the shadow of death It doesn't say I camp out there It says I walk through it And I will fear no evil for thou art with me Thy rod thy staff they comfort me But walking through is tough sometimes It's not easy It isn't And the more you love the lord I promise you the more your faith is tried I promise you I've had people you say please don't promise me that no I do I promise you Those who shall live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution You will be hated by all men for my sake, but the one who endures will be saved You are going to go through things we all do But god is working in us And producing in us a longing for heaven And a longing for him And we know the world is not my home. I'm a pilgrim. I'm just passing through And one of these days and it's not that long from now for any of us We will see him face to face And we're not going to whine and cry and ask him How come you allowed this because we shall know then even as we know As we are known I won't have a question in heaven. There are no questions. There's only answers And I will see the answer the way the truth the life face to face and I won't and he I won't question He will wipe away the tears from my eyes And I'll behold the one who cried for me It's going to be all good guys. I hope you understand that that's called christianity It's not easy It's a it's a faith that that you encounter tough times You encounter difficulties It's easier for a dead fish just to float downstream. It takes the living one to go upstream And as you're going upstream you're developing strength And you're seeing that god is faithful to you step by step So james is writing to a church that needs to understand First and foremost that he himself is a bond servant of the lord jesus christ And that they will go through trials and yet to have an understanding that they are inevitable In romans chapter 8 verses 17 and 18 paul said now If we are children Then we are heirs heirs of god and co heirs with christ if indeed we share in his sufferings In order that we may also share in his glory I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us Again with this is that's that's our reality and he's giving a word of encouragement trials are inevitable So you must count you must consider you must deem these trials appropriately Trials are adversity Trials are afflictions that are sent by god to test or prove someone's character faith and holiness Trials refine faith They mature the believer whose eyes are on Eternity have you ever asked the lord ever in one form or another? There used to be a time when we used these little literal words.  I did it's a young man I was in biola. I was a young guy 23 years old at the time going to bible college And my professor dr. Moore dr. George Moore said this he said young man.  What does this mean? You'll have to figure this out at a later date And I did fire burns And fire consumes And so Peter said it like this in first Peter 1 6 and 7 he said In this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while You may have You may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials These have come So that your faith of greater worth and gold which perishes even though refined by fire May be proved genuine And may result in praise glory and honor when jesus christ is revealed Though you have not seen him you love him And even though you do not see him now You believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy You say trials are inevitable for a child of god There are times when trials are physical So knowing they have a purpose gives you strength to continue to endure In 2nd Corinthians 12 10 Paul said for christ's sake I delight in weaknesses In insults In hardships In persecutions In difficulties For when I am weak Then I am strong You see these believers were not suffering needlessly.  He says in verse 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience The testing patience Patience demonstrates genuine salvation. You see a pseudo christian a christian in name only Would never endure a trial Because when something bad happens they blame god and they walk away. That's a fact Jesus spoke about that in matthew chapter 13. He gave a parable of the sore in the seed And he spoke of seed falling on stony ground and immediately It sprang up it germinated quickly because the ground was shallow ground had no depth But later on he went on to explain what he meant by the story. He said in matthew 13 20 and 21 He said he who received the seed on stony places This is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy Yet he has no ridden himself but endures only for a while For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word immediately he stumbles You see the genuine believer understands that there are going to be times of trials There are difficult seasons, but they know the end will be a blessing He says the testing of your faith produces patience You get to the point where you're saying lord and I think I'm speaking to a few people right now personally When is this going to stop? When is this going to end? When is this time of pain going to be over? when Maybe maybe i'm the only one who's gone through that As a husband my wife says i'm pregnant and and I say oh great could have beautiful babies And the baby separates the womb You have that that moment holding this beautiful baby in your arms And you're looking at the baby saying to yourself you're going to have a wonderful life. It's going to be great You're going to be good.  What have I done? What didn't I do?   I have I have I have lived in my face in my bedroom sometimes for seasons God when? When will you answer this prayer?   My faith has been refined Because I see you are true to your word and lord I held on to you I grabbed hold of the hem of your garment and I wouldn't let go because I know you will bless and thank you Then you rejoice and in the meantime you have grown You've grown to know what faith is You've grown in patience You've grown in love your character has been formed You've been tested tried you've been proven and god works And so we hold fast during those times. We hold fast to the difficult during the difficult times We rejoice in our sufferings We know that suffering produces perseverance a perseverance character and character hope And hope does not just disappoint us because god has poured out his love into our hearts By the holy spirit whom he's given to us He says in verse 4 he said let patients have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing Do not think that your trial will always be for a short time because sometimes it does last And god wants to make you stronger Not for a single moment But over a lifetime You see one of the problems we have is we're we're part of a generation that expects instant whatever we know that You know, let me give you an ancient history lesson. It'll take a few minutes I was in uh in 1975. I was in in europe and uh If I wanted to call the states I would have to first get on the phone And I would call downstairs to the desk in the front desk I would say I want to make a long distance call to california And then the operator operator would say who do you want to speak to and I'd say I'd like to speak to marie And so and it's a collect call That was marie my girlfriend at the time So I'd call her collect That's true And then they say okay And then a half hour later She'd ring up your room and she'd say the party is on the line And you'd pick, you know, and you'd say hello and you'd talk now We have instant communication now Instant in such a way that it you know, this is satellite I mean I have been in israel and I've called home and I'll get impatient because it took six seconds to connect You know what I mean? So we're living in a time where the younger younger people there's no fault in this at all. It's a different culture The younger people don't understand that things that they expect right now Or things we had the patience to wait for Because we didn't we we didn't have instant communication You get in the car and you drive and you're going to a place you've never been to and you've got your phone And you say hey siri or whomever, you know, uh, uh, I want to go to The, uh, hollywood palladium. Give me directions, right?   I'm going to go here I have to take this then you hand the map to your your my wife I'd hand it to her and I'd she'd say okay Well, okay, you're gonna and she would talk to me Like that and then sometimes the map wasn't telling me where the home was and so I'd go into a gas station And I go to what they called an attendant and I would speak to the attendant and I'd say I'm looking for This street and they'd say oh that's three blocks up and that's how we would find our way around We didn't have portable phones. We didn't have nav systems, but it's so different today We had three channels on our tv sets Three of them and I remember when I'm traveling down the wrong road, but I'll stay for just a moment I remember when when color tv Was amazing. I remember when 19 inch screens were huge I remember that and in color In color now you go. Are you nuts man? You know the 75 83 104 no And if you had 104 inch television it took a crane it would take a crane to bring it into your house It would take at the whole front room now. It's like a half an inch thick, right? So our generation is different and guess what what that does to your patience It doesn't develop it Because if you want a bible answer All you got to do is go to bible hub or whatever app you might use And say I want to see john chapter 1 verse 14 I want a various commentators and you can go to I use bible hub You go to bible hub and you'll get six different commentators and you can look at that and that's how I do my studies Instant information But what happens is we are beginning to think that the information is equal to knowledge And it's not The greeks believe that knowledge was information So the more information you have the more knowledge you have the jews didn't the jews taught That knowledge is information that has been assimilated and produced a transformed life That's why jesus said if you know these things blessed are you if you do them To the jew knowledge wasn't just information Knowledge was behavior that's what james is all about Faith without works james is going to say is dead Knowledge without behavior is simply information And so today The church is impatient I've been waiting for so long. I still remember a young woman who was speaking to me after church service She says i'm going through a trial pastor. I'm going through a trial when's it gonna end? It's been two weeks Some trials never end Some trials you're married to ah Oh, you're raising it You're raising it. You might as well name it trial Trial rosales Let patients have a perfect work god wants to do work and now if you're going through this I hope that kind of encourages you a bit You see god's intention is to make us solid with the mature settled faith in him He intends to make us people who are unmoved when we undergo attacks Like psalm 91 2 says I will say of the lord. He's my refuge my fortress my god in him I will trust so he says in verse 4 let patients have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing The word perfect speaks of being fully instructed The word complete Speaks of fully mature It's a jewish concept of a right relationship to god Expressed in undivided obedience and an unblemished life So he says in verse 5 if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of god who gives all men liberally and upright if not in the king james God intends to strengthen your faith and bring you to maturity and again This isn't something that is instant. There are times that that you might even begin to question as you're going through it Psalm 10 verse 1 comes to mind. Why do you stand afar off? Oh lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? I'm going through this. Don't you see me? It's like psalm 22 1 my god my god. Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me from the words of my groaning god? Don't you hear me? Don't you see me and there are times when you go through that But our faith is being purified And as we go through that we we pray for help we pray for direction And in his mercy and his generous spirit god answers he gives wisdom he gives direction Like it says in Psalm 40 verses 1 through 3. I waited patiently for the lord He inclined to me heard my cry He brought me up also out of a horrible pit out of the myri clay set my feet upon a rock established my goins He's put a new song in my mouth even praise to our god Many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the lord So god i'm asking you and you give generously But verse 6 let him ask in faith without doubting You see doubting is a place where faith wrestles with unbelief but leans towards unbelief It's vivid vividly illustrated when when peter got on the boat and he was walking on water and realized what he was doing He saw the waves he heard the wind and according to matthew 14 31 When he was sinking he it says jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him Oh, you have little faith. Why did you doubt? You see faith is always an essential condition of prayer We come confidently knowing that god is able and that he will according to his will And finally he says in verse 7 Let not that man suppose that he'll receive anything from the lord. He's a double-minded man. He's unstable in all his ways He's literally of two minds. He's got a divided mind. There's no confidence in his prayer There's no confidence his prayer will be heard. He's not praying in faith He is a soul divided between faith in the world and he's swaying. He's indecisive It is useless to have two hearts One lifted up to god and the other turned away from him And somebody once said a a man can hope for favor from god Only if he puts his confidence in him You see if his heart is divided He won't be sensitive to the spirits leading He'll not discover the escape god gave to him And he won't rejoice in the fruit that is produced through that trial Somebody asked me what is the greatest lesson you've learned? I've been walking with lord for a long time I was 20 years old when I gave my heart to jesus christ this next Friday. I turned 69 years old I've been walking with god for 48 almost 49 years and somebody has asked me a question. What have you learned? What is the number one lesson you have learned and here's my number one lesson? What have I learned? It all works out in the end God never fails He is faithful to the end. What have I learned? He never lets me down. He is always with me He is always next to me. He's always providing for me. He loves me. He doesn't fail What have I learned god is god and i'm not so I trust in him That's what I've learned That's what I've learned Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not into thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge him. He will direct your path So that's what you do. You cast your cares on him because he cares for you You don't turn away from him because he didn't turn away from you You come to him. He approaches you. He works with you. He brings you through and in the end You will say it was all worth it Would you change anything in your life? I've been asked anything. Do you want anything different than what you've experienced? What would you change if you could change anything and my answer is always the same I wouldn't change a thing because even in the bad things that i've experienced even in the pain that i've experienced It's taught me to love god more It's refined me and made me into the person i am right now And i'm very happy to be who i am because i'm a man who loves jesus christ And that love for christ has been refined through trials and pain and sorrow and loss as well as the joys that god has applied in so many abundant ways But the trials have purified me. They have made me realize my weakness In my trials i came to recognize his holiness and his greatness And that's why i can cast my cares on him because he cares for me Because he has never let me down. I will never leave you I will never forsake you. That's a promise that jesus gave and he's good to his promises He's not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent has he not said it Will he not do it and the answer is yes, you are good to your word heaven and earth will pass away But your word will never pass away. You are good to your promises and you've made them to me And i am i hold them And that's what you learned So we're going to go through the book of james and you're going to have a good time


All right, let's just recap the offseason so far for the livery. They acquired John Quill-Jones, the 2021 WNBA MVP. They also brought in Kayla Thornton, who set career highs in field goal percentage rebounds and steals last season. Of course, Brianna Stewart, we met her today, the two-time champ in 2018 MVP, and also Courtney VanderSloot, third on the all-time assist list in 2021 WNBA champion, bringing the first championship to Chicago in the Chicago sky. And the person responsible for all of those moves, along with the size, is standing right next to us now. That is the general manager, Jonathan Kolb. And Jonathan, we were just talking during the break how this journey started for all of us back in 2019 at Westchester County Center. But it was the size leadership when they bought the team, and it was your vision that got you here today. You called it a bit s**t as LA. It is surreal. And actually seeing you run down that list of just the offseason, it's been a whirlwind. But look, if you want to build something like we said from the start, special and sustainable, you need that incremental improvement. And we did that year-over-year. Clara and Joe and Ollie Weisberg, they all invested in this. And they trusted us in the front office with where that investment should be placed. And we just really, we wanted to enhance a really robust player experience with the liberty. And I think that the players that are here see our vision, they trust us. And now I'm just excited, but I'm excited for the fans as well. Walk us through the process just a little bit. How did you get the stars eventually to align? Just were you able to get the veterans mixed with some youth? Yeah, you know, so we, look, we built it to be our draft picks to utilize those. We went in for agency and we were starting to acquire and accumulate talent and develop that talent. You never know when you're going to have the opportunity to land this type of talent, right? And when you do, you have to take it. You have to jump at that opportunity. To be quite honest, I don't know if there will ever be anything like this again. It was a confluence of events that came together with Sui being an unrestricted free agent, Sui being willing to leave a situation she was in for over a decade. JJ and MVP not long ago, feeling like it's time for a change of scenery. All of those things coming together. And I think just for us, organizationally, we're in the right position at the right time to strike. What does this mean, Jonathan, in terms of, we've seen Sabrina Yonescu grow the past couple of years especially. Last year, she had her best season in the WNBA. Bringing in a vet like Courtney VanderSloot, Breanna Stewart, and she talked about it with us a little bit about helping Sabrina grow her game. But I'm curious to hear from you. What do you think this does for her? Oh, I think it opens a lot up for Sabrina. I think it opens a lot up for Bonajah as well. They're going to be more open. They've been in quite some time. I mean, last year, she'll play off the ball now. Yeah, like Sabrina got really good handling that full court coverage. That team started to throw out her. She figured it out last year. But now, I mean, I don't see that as being an option for teams. I think also, this is really good for Courtney because she's somebody that, you know, we want to extend her career. And now she doesn't have to do everything. And so I think this is special for everybody involved. I asked the other two ladies about this, but chemistry, how do you build it now? I know that some super teams work, some don't. What do you do? How do you combat that? Yeah, look, it starts now. It's having conversations with everybody and just making sure we can do everything we can to unite everybody, even from afar and getting those conversations going. But Sleuth, Stewie, I mean, they're in communication with everybody already. And I just think it's gonna fit. It's just the right pieces at the right time.   You're gonna want to call them that. You know, and even Miami when LeBron went there, like they struggled initially out of the gate. And then you saw what they're able to do. So I think the one thing is we have to just focus on ourselves, not get overwhelmed by pressure or anything like that. And I think these players have been through plenty of pressure. And then we're just gonna grow together and take it day by day. What do you think, and this meant a lot to me, is just a sports fan. And that was the selflessness that they talked about taking less money. You called them partners. That's the word you used. And I thought that was very eloquent on your part. But a reporter commented that this might set a precedent in a negative way. I tend to disagree. I think that sets a precedent in a positive way. I just want to see what your thoughts were. I agree. I think, look, I understand where that question was coming from. I get it. But no, these are people are willing to sacrifice literally, right? That's what they're doing. And I think that actually sets the tone and the table for the rest of the team when it just comes to buying what their roles are going to be, what that looks like. And so they've already put their cards on the table and said, we're willing to do it. And I think the rest will as well. And how does taking that less money hold the rest of the team accountable to win? Yeah, I think, look, they wanted to come to like a sleut set. They want to be additions, not taking people away. And so they do what they had to do to come here and join a group of players that have been developing for a few years. So I think it just speaks volumes for them and what we're going to do. I just wanted you to expound too on something else you set up there. And that was the players that are no longer here helped normalize this franchise to get to this day. It was the size leadership. It was your hard work. But it was also those players who are no longer here. If you could just expound a little bit on that and what they meant to this franchise. 100%. Natasha Howard bet on us off of a 2-1 season. And she came here and she continued a career that was an all-star at an all-star level last year. You have Crystal Dangerfield last year. I don't know where we are if we don't sign her mid-season. Are we in the playoffs? I mean, I think that's up for debate. There's Pete, there's players. I mean, even dating back to Kea, there's Tina Charles. Everybody that's come through this organization matters and it's lasting. And I think once the liberty, always the liberty. And to me, I think that's what we want to establish here. And we always just have to honor and respect and be really appreciative for the people that came before. Jonathan, a lot of talk about the New York market. And why is it so important to have such a great team for the WNBA as a whole here in New York? Absolutely. It's really you guys. It's the media and the coverage that can come from this. And what we want to do is have, we want the best of the best here. It's what needs to happen. It's going to be great for the league. The coverage, like I mentioned during the press conference, has been outstanding. And I can't imagine what it's going to be once we get rolling, you know? Yeah. Jonathan, thank you so much. We appreciate the time and good luck this season. And congratulations on a heck of a free agent haul. All right, I'm going on vacation. We can't wait.


If the left brain interpreter is this like explanation generation, let's say engine of sorts, then that can be like literally could be like Papanka might be like the left brain interpreter, like that explanation generation engine this mental proliferation and conceptualization of self and others and told in stories endlessly. And then there's the prefrontal cortex using all of that explanation generation to usually to try and get something from the world to feel whole because it feels lack. It feels separation location etc. And then, and then and then that rumination of the default mode network. And then you also set a reminder, like I like that to default mode network is such a reminder, like there's a moment of like, all of a sudden you're being like getting reminded about the past or getting reminded about nature. And then there's an, there's a proliferation that happens into those webs. And then the whole thing is to just like whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop. Yeah. Yeah. So cool.