RC, the American Research Center in Egypt. RC's website states as follows, among RC's many great achievements is our relationship with the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the SCA, within the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, without whom our work would not be possible. RC is viewed as making important contributions that serve to help Egypt directly in its pursuit of cultural heritage preservation. What this statement confesses to is the implication and more than likely collaboration with Egyptian authorities to cover up the real truth about ancient Egypt. In 1992, German robotics engineer Rudolf Gantenbreck was exploring shafts within the Queen's Chamber at the Great Pyramid using a crawler robot he had designed himself. His intentions were to install an air conditioning system within the pyramid's existing design. While exploring these ancient tunnels, he discovered one of the shafts was blocked by a tiny limestone blocking door, a secret doorway only accessible with the use of robotic technology. Rudolf Gantenbreck, who was able to map, explore, and analyze the shafts for many years, believed a second door would have suggested the possibility that there would be yet another 40 cm further away. This hypothesis, based on the knowledge that many ancient Egyptian funerary monuments were equipped with a series of three blocking doors placed close to each other in succession before the entrance to a sacred tomb. In 2002, the National Geographic Society discovered this second door. Using their own robot known as Pyramid Rover, this event closely supervised by RC who subsequently pulled the plug on the whole operation regarding the shafts. The team had a simple solution to Gantenbreck's problem. They sent the robot along the shaft, gripping the walls instead of the ceiling and floor. In this manner, it was somehow able to ride over the top of the obstacles. The Rover's journey along the northern shaft revealed yet another door, just as Gantenbreck's claimed. Mysterious hieroglyphs, written on the floor of the hidden tunnels within Egypt's Great Pyramid, were shown to the world in an initial report on the robot's discoveries published within the due service day antiquities. The images revealed features that had not been seen by human eyes since the construction of the monument. Researchers from around the world were particularly intrigued by three red ochre figures painted upon the tunnel's end deep inside the pyramid. Books such as Giza the Truth by Chris Harold and Ian Lawton, The Stargate Conspiracy by Lynn Picnit and Clive Prince, and Secret Chamber by Robert Balvel have all, thanks to the tremendous and diligent research accomplished within, shed light upon the controversy surrounding the Giza Plateau and the Secret Chamber's existence. The key question the theme witnessed throughout these studies was whether information has been withheld, discoveries undisclosed, and an understanding of the pyramids and its fink's existence purposefully kept hidden from the world. On the 22nd of March 1993, Dr. Zawi Hawass was suspended from his position as Chief Inspector of the Giza Pyramid Plateau. It seems Gontenbrick took an opportunity, while the powers that be were distracted, to announce his findings to the world press in early April. It would appear, after substantial digging, that the string pullers within Egypt originate out of America, and are stationed within Egypt in the form of Arsé. The truth regarding what is buried beneath these ancient structures may still remain a mystery, but realizing the obstacles obstructing an understanding of this truth is half the battle won. The Queen's Chamber, which lays within the Great Pyramid of Khufu, more commonly known as Chiops, has astonished, shocked, and mystified Egyptologists since its mysterious existence was discovered. The intrigue into this elusive chamber, along with its mysterious adjacent shafts, comes as no surprise once one understands the anomalous characteristics of their construction. As we have already covered before, massive cover-ups have been suspected as taking place surrounding this mysterious chamber since its discovery. Strange shaft tunnels, said at a 45-degree incline, no larger than 20 cm in diameter, run away from this room, and no one seems to know why. Not only would these ancient shafts require being hermetically sealed during the pyramid's construction, to stop them from becoming blocked, but the excruciating effort that would have gone into making them becomes all the more of a confusing undertaking. Since you realize they were not even connected to the chamber, but hidden 40 cm away from entering the tomb within the walls, completely invisible from the inside of the burial room located deep within the structure. Chiops, noticeably being the only pyramid to have ever been constructed with such shafts, making their addition a popular mystery within Egyptian history. One leads out from the subterranean chamber, two lead out from a termination point some 40 cm from the wall of the so-called Queen's Chamber, or now popularly suspected to be that of an alien tomb among ancient alien specialists, and two from the King's Chamber above. Here is where our story becomes interesting. Rudolph Gantenbric, famous for actually discovering the blocking door within one of the Queen's Chamber shafts, which could lead to an as-yet-undisclosed tomb, has also made other curious discoveries within the Great Pyramid. Discoveries which could only be explained by modern covert explorations of tunnels that were supposedly to that point unexplored. Gantenbric's cache being but one example of these mysterious finds, deep within the tunnel systems in the Royal Chamber, at a 90-degree turn going vertically upwards, a pile of papers, possibly wrapped artifacts, weighed down with a small piece of timber or stone, possibly another artifact, was discovered by Gantenbric's robot. Also during initial location attempts to find access tunnels leading to the Queen's Chamber, several blocking stones required removal. After the removal of the seventh block, a modern era hexagonal steel rods were discovered discarded upon the tunnel's floor. Each section of the hexagonal steel rods measures 2.7 meters in length and was fitted with a round socket, which allowed them to be joined to the next section. In one of the lower shafts in 1872, Wainman-Dixon found three more objects, which could be considered proof of prior covert exploration of the mysterious northern shafts. A copper grappling hook about 5 centimeters in length, accompanied by a small gray-green stone ball and a broken-off piece of a square wooden slat or rod about 13 centimeters long, the woodwood today be the most intriguing of his finds. These artifacts, expected to be remnants of the grave robber's tools, could have been carbon-dated, yet this fragment is the only one of the three to now be missing out of the London Museum's collection. Unfortunately, in his writings, Dixon doesn't say in which of the two lower shafts he actually found the objects, but he mentions them in connection with the northern one. Not only did these obviously highly intelligent people leave evidence of how they must have gotten in, but also traces upon the previous untouched ancient walls of the shafts within geops, clearly left by their previous robotic technologies. Other square metal rods have been recovered, along with other artifacts discarded within some tunnel systems deep within the ancient structures, meaning these guys got to the treasures way before we did. Interestingly, reported evidence of covert excavations continues to this day. Heavy-duty electrical supplies discreetly running into and trailing deep into the pyramids have been noticed and photographed by some of the more astute tourists. Witnesses to the sounds of heavy machinery being used beneath the site is also frequently reported, yet rarely followed up. It seems it's not a question of whether brilliant minds have achieved the seemingly impossible in penetrating these secret layers, but more a question of how and what astonishing finds have possibly been kept concealed. During a previous video titled Secret Missions into the Great Pyramid, in which we covered the most bizarre of artifacts once found in a seemingly inaccessible shaft, eventually discovered to be an entry shaft into the now-named Queen's Chamber. Just how this bronze ball hook and several bizarre fragments of wood found their way into the pyramids is unknown. We shared the fact that the wood had become conveniently lost, thus preventing any future dating of the artifacts or indeed this possible attempt to have once penetrated the pyramid far before the Spanish invasion of Egypt, their modern rediscovery, or indeed before the entrance to the pyramid was located. However, in a rather strange yet fortunate twist of fate, sitting within a collection of ancient Asian relics within Scotland, an Egyptian archaeologist was shocked to rediscover these cedar fragments, once mislabeled and thus never classified, lost for almost 70 years yet refound within an old cigar box. One has to wonder with our prior hypothesis, and indeed the convenience of the wood somehow becoming lost, was this a deliberate act by someone, possibly someone who realized the controversy attached to this artifact? What we find most compelling, however, and a possible motive to hide such an artifact are the now realized result of modern carbon dating, showing that the wood dates to somewhere between 3341 and 3094 BC, long before the claimed construction of the pyramid. Furthermore, although many have claimed that counterweights and timber structures were utilized in the construction of the pyramids, this wood not only predates the claimed date of their creation, but does so by some one to two thousand years. So any mainstream explanation for this dating anomaly is severely lacking, however, it fits perfectly with our original hypothesis, and is indicative not only of a far earlier date of construction, but could indeed have been a possible successful attempt at penetrating the pyramid's deepest inner chambers, simply due to the mysterious yet impressive location in which these enigmatic artifacts were found and subsequently retrieved from. Curatorial assistant Abir Aladani found the fragments of wood as she perused the Asia section of the archives of the University of Aberdeen. Quote, Once I looked into the numbers of our Egypt records, I instantly knew what it was, and that it had effectively been hidden in plain sight in the wrong collection. I'm an archeologist and have worked on digs in Egypt, but I never imagined it would be here in northeast Scotland that I'd find something so important to the heritage of my own country. End quote. As you can imagine, we find the wooden artifacts highly compelling.


Thank you again to all the amazing speakers that have made this event happen I don't know about you guys, but I think this has been one of the most nutrient dense mornings. I've ever had lots of food for thought or in this case maybe nutrition for mental metabolism and So I'm sure you guys have all had lots of ideas fermenting throughout the morning And so we're going to break for lunch, but before then I wanted to hand it off to some folks at IDO that will Open up this Open up our minds to what we and the audience now thinks the future of biotech wearables will be Okay, so my name is Lisa, but everyone calls me taco because of my last name I swear there's a connection The you're gonna be a ton of us from IDO and we're gonna kick off the second half of the day It's gonna be much more hands-on up on your feet on the walls at your tables So we have half an hour for lunch now. Please be back in here at 1 o'clock We'll formally introduce ourselves and kick off all the brainstorming and prototyping with all the fun colorful stuff at the back So get hyped Get rested and get excited. Thanks


Hello and welcome to this pre-recorded talk on emerging community leadership for digital learning in the performing arts conservatoire sector. I'm Evan Dickerson, I'm a learning technologist with over 27 years of higher education experience in both hands-on and management roles in both small specialist universities such as the Guildhall School and larger universities including Queen Mary University, St George's etc. I joined the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as their sole learning technologist in July 2021. So a little bit of information about what distinguishes a performing arts conservatoire from a more generalist university and really as we can see from both of these sources here, Conservatise UK and UCAS distinguish conservatise by means of their delivery of approach of teaching and learning. So we can think of conservatise as including dance, acting, instrumental and vocal performance and you know the emphasis is on the skill, developing the skill rather than the more academic history, criticism, understanding of the theoretical underpinning, though of course conservatise by nature of their discipline have to teach some of that as well. And as UCAS say in a conservatoire education individual development is paramount so rather than taking a large body of students teaching them as a group, although necessarily that happens in some areas, you know in individual development of skills in singing or performance of any kind, drama, whether it's behind the scenes in terms of the various roles in production arts etc that we cover at the Guildhall that is all part of you know what is what is covered. We can think of learning technologists then if we focus on our particular role as having several different peer networks and these are represented by some of the some of the images on the screen here. So you can think of it in terms of people at different areas of their or different phases of their career whether they're early career learning technologists such as that network that exists on LinkedIn or at the other end of the spectrum there's the Heads of eLearning forum. You know there are other types of network as well you know. So we've got GistComail acts as a kind of very loose network like that often connecting people around a particular interest or theme, particularly use of technology and there are groups and communities that exist around particular technologies. So Instructure have the UK canvas users group for example there's the Moodle Moodle there's the Penopto annual users conference there in London there are some geographic groups as well like in London there's the Moodle users group Greater London Muggle and of course ALT have a number of different groups whether they're geographic or focused around a special interest. When I presented that tail end of last year was the copyright and online learning special interest group which was very interesting to see copyright issues and talk about them from a learning technologist's point of view and there are also other groups and networks like the learning network which is perhaps more aimed at the commercial aspect of learning technology rather than the university sector. So what about a peer network for the conservatory sector then? Well I looked around when I joined the Guildhall school there wasn't one so it's a bit like a tumbleweed experience well to say there wasn't one wasn't strictly true there were a few things that GistComail list here that was very you know sparsely used in that kind of thing so it seemed there was a space even amongst all of the groups that were already and if we think about how learning technologists often employ leadership traits what do we do? We are proactive, we build teams, we are collaborative in a very nature of our role and we enhance the visibility of the people we work with and you know quite often we meet for a purpose as well so all of these things have been loved have identified and I think leadership in the learning technology space I would say to use this final quote from their paper needs to be nimble should be dynamic it's quite often fluid and responsive to need and adaptability is crucial. So therefore December last year I decided I would try and form a at that stage what was a peer network group rather than a leadership forum of any kind to share practice between institutions we had an impartial chair a colleague of mine who I've known from a previous work role Julian Bream agreed to come along and be a chair of that so that you know somebody impartial was running it on the day and everybody who took part felt that they could share their views openly. So garnered participation by invitation people I knew elsewhere around the conservatory sector that I tried to you know find out who was where linked in just male list etc put posts up invited invitations and sign up via event right. So we focused on three main questions this was really just to kind of what you find out what the landscape in the technology sector was like and in the conservatory space so what works what hasn't worked in terms of technologies sharing some of the major challenges of the past two years and what do we think the future of learning technology looks like in the conservatory space so those were three questions that we really focused on debating online this is a screenshot of you know the meeting itself Julian there in the center at the top chairing the thing with the questions you know behind him and you know some of the some of the members you can see there so we had some good representation Guildhall Central School of Speech and Drama Royal College of Music you know Oxford University other places like that so you know we had a good set of representation I'd say so some outputs from that internally on the left you can see I did a write up for our internal you know intranet and I also incorporated a lot of the the quotations and things like that that came out of the session into a forthcoming chapter I'm writing have written for a publication in a CEDA special journal to be published in the autumn and that was peer reviewed and one of the peer reviewers said that it was really good to have representation from the conservatory sector which is underrepresented in the literature both of learning technology and you know educational development as a whole so if I was to summarize where I think an initiative like this could lead it is by having you know regular meetings diarised that people knew when and where they were happening varied participation modes have some on site have some online maybe hybrid sessions as well discuss topics of value to others that are suggested by and led by the community have it has the potential to be a forum for kick starting further collaboration between institutions I think and it can have value if people evidence that internally for themselves and show that attending things like this makes a different with the decision making that they do internally but you know I think with things like this if you build it there will come eventually but one of the key takeaways I think is start small learn to walk with it build it gradually get people to buy in and then eventually you can run with it thank you


Hi, good morning, and welcome to today's products and focus and it looks to be the global equity markets are still managing to To push on higher as oil prices jumped almost 5% yesterday as Russia and Saudi Arabia Are deciding to meet to discuss the current oil glut though opposing views on the Syrian war You've got Saudi Arabia on one side and Russia on the other might put an end to those proper discussions being that constructive But the markets are taking that as a as a possible potential outcome that they might meet and arrange to cut oil production which we cause oil prices to increase in value and as I said we almost had a 5% increase yesterday and We're continuing to see a lot of potential momentum Gather there and a lot of equity markets apart from Japan to 25 which will come back to the second But we do seem to be hitting that 55 period SMA on the US 30 with a longer term potential resistance at 17,000 and 34 so jumping then on to the UK 100 Still keeping its head above 62 well is to say 6,300 again hit by that 55 period SMA next potential resistance 6,415 and if we do get retracement We might now expect that broken resistance at 6,300 to act as a potential support Other technical still relatively neutral with the MACD just about across the zero line We could get further potential momentum and you bear in mind that the UK 100 has a fair amount of oil companies on the index Should oil prices continue to push on higher? It could be well supported So looking at the Japan 25 so it came off yesterday Bounced up again a little bit higher. There was no stimulus measures by the Bank of Japan yesterday Though it might be expected to come slightly later With 18,300 and change being the potential resistance We've not managed to smash through there with much conviction But if we do 18,648 is the next potential resistance with the other technicals very neutral Which means it could be further momentum and on Japan 2 to 5 to start the session We actually started a lot lower. So the fact that it's a spite higher is an interesting movement there on Japan 2 to 5 So then moving on to Dullien As ever, I'm not really that excited by Dullien unless you go into a much shorter time frame where it's trading on quite a tight range In fact, let's just go let's have a look at a 30 minute interval So we can see how that market is trading relative to the support and resistance levels that we have drawn on there Well, we're quite a good bit away. It just seems to also leak quite a lot around these moving averages You could probably redraw some of these trend lines But it's just not really doing a huge amount if you're a range bound trader then this actually could be kind of interesting But if you like to look at things at slightly longer term, I guess certainly certainly over a few days Dullien isn't really doing a huge amount So moving quickly as actually quite a disappointing figure for an industrial output for Germany that came up on my market calendar So the forecast was 0.2 and the actual came in at minus 1.2 with a revision for the previous figure So that's not so good and revision there and I revised that one up But then this figures come out quite badly so it's a disappointing data just coming out of Germany as we are recording this video So then moving on to Crude Oil West Texas, you can just see this absolutely smashing high candle Fully bullish engulfing pattern We have moved slightly high this morning finish the top end of this range 49 40 is a potential resistance and that was the trend line level right here And the market is stopping dead on that level right now Now if you break above that with any momentum, you are looking closer to 40 a 54 85 as a next potential Resistance so there could be some interesting movements if we fail to break through 49 40 and it ends up that the Saudis and the Russians Aren't gonna be friendly I wouldn't be surprised that's the case when you consider they've got very opposing views politically on what's happening in the Middle East We could see a reversal back down to 45 85 But the markets taking it as a fact that they're willing to meet to discuss production as a possibility So then looking at gold Gold now again is spiking up higher as interest rates fade into the darkness Really strong movement we had there in gold yesterday a decent move today. You are arguably going to get a short-term potential Resistance level roundabout the tip of this candle. In fact, let's just go ahead and draw that in We just say it's gonna be a short-term level. In fact, I've got to get rid of some of these other levels because I've got so many Support resistance levels here on gold We're not actually any for near some of these levels for some time So I really should do some good housekeeping and tidy things up ever so slightly And I think this one's quite old as well. So we'll just get rid of that for now and we'll redraw This potential tip right here, just so we can look at things at a slightly Shorter time frame. So these are maybe the core levels to be aware of in the very very short time And we can probably get rid of that too because this is slightly old and that's currently where we are. Okay, so 1157 is the tip of this candle followed by 1168 and I've taken the resistance levels being a previous candle Because even though we ticked higher on the second candle, you always take the one just slightly behind it Okay, so that's where we are with gold and we finish up with your dollar and GBP USD So your dollar, I think we are in a symmetrical triangle formation Couldn't get a breakout one direction or the other with one spot 1475 being one potential target and one spot 11 being the other potential target Decent move higher for the euro at the expense of the US dollar yesterday as those interest rate I hopes really are completely dashed for anybody who's hoping for higher rates in the US And then if we finish off with GBP USD We're just above one spot 51 85 It's been hard to really get some momentum on on GBP It's not been doing so great recently But one spot 54 24 is an X potential resistance bullish cross on the MACD and a bullish cross over there on the slow stochastic So from a technical perspective things could be hotting up a little bit there for GBP USD again I've got loads of support resistance levels on here Arguably way too many So let me just go back there and clean some of this up It's also good technical analysis trick to draw as many lines on a chart as you can Because then some of them are actually going to go and match up to the potential support and resistance levels But that's currently where we are. I think we can get rid of some of these as well Just to make it a little bit easier for us to see what's going on and arguably You could take some other levels quite close to here Well, I'm gonna take this tip here anyway That's gonna be a level for us to watch out for in the future and I can maybe just redraw things ever so slightly like so Okay So these are probably the some of the core levels for us to be aware of on the GBP USD with one spot 51 78 Now being a potential level to be aware of so that gives you a bit of an idea. What about the economic data?  You've got the Bank of England MPC minutes the unemployment claims and although we don't have on our calendar Don't forget that on Thursday round about 7 p.m. UK time we have the FOMC Minutes and one of the reasons it's not on the calendar is the calendars from Reuters and they have it's all Kind of data numbers specific and obviously the FOMC minutes is a statement rather than a data release So that's why it's not on the calendar, but it is happening 7 p.m. UK time an important bit of data make sure you don't forget about that So guys keep your eye on the chart form as ever lots of cool analysis from a global analyst team Insights gives you the insight obviously from our global team Make sure you don't miss that lots of cool interesting information on there and join me again tomorrow to find out what happened next


Well, let's get to it. Let's open our Bibles to Matthew 26. And as you do, I wanna say thank you for that warm, warm welcome, standing ovation. I am truly blessed and honored to be here with you this morning and so honored by Pastor Lee and Jane's invitation to speak with you on a subject that is near and very dear to my heart. And so I've got a question for ya. How often have you cried out to God and said something like this? Oh God, would you just tell me what you want from me? Tell me, what am I supposed to do? What do you want? If you tell me I'll do it, just tell me. Tell me, speak to me. I wanna bless your heart. I wanna do your will. I wanna obey. But you tell me what you want. And in scripture, God invites his people. He commands his people to do various things throughout scripture, we see it, right? He commands different things. And I think of the story of Peter and Jesus right before Jesus is resurrected. And he says, Peter, do you love me more than these? Feed my sheep. Second time, Peter, do you love me more than these? Feed my sheep. Peter, three times. Do you love me more than these? Feed my sheep. How many of you know? If you're Peter, you're gonna go feed the sheep.  And Peter does just that and he starts the church. Sometimes God commands us to do things more than once. And so what if I told you that throughout scripture, there is a biblical command that God has asked us to do and he has asked us to do it over 200 times. And if that's true, would you do it? God has asked something of you over 200 times. Would you do it? So we've been talking about being a worshiping in a praying church. Last week, Pastor Lee gave a powerful message on prayer and being joyful in the house of prayer. Being a worshiping in a praying church, this is who we are, this is our identity. This is what we are going after as a church. It's who God has called the church to be. And how many of you know to be a worshiping in a praying church?  And so Pastor Lee and Jane asked me to speak this morning on the topic of worship. And worship is something that I'm very passionate about. I was doing some math in preparation for this time with you and I figured out that I have had the honor and privilege to lead worship for the body of Christ for just over 25 years now.  Stop it. Stop. I'm one of the worship pastors here at Radiant and like Caleb said, we are coming up on seven years of serving and leading worship for this church body. This is our church family. And so it's just my honor and privilege to get to stand up here this morning and share with you on the topic of worship. And so we're gonna zoom in. We're gonna zoom in today on worship. And I got another question for you. In a room full of people, God is looking for worshipers. Will he find you? Will he find you? And since we're gonna be talking about worship this morning, I wanna give you a definition that we're gonna use this morning. And to be honest, I struggled to come up with a definition that was really like succinct and catchy. I wanted to use alliteration and make it like super cool. And I struggled. And so what I did is I turned to kind of one of the Godfathers of first worship leaders, Bob Sorgi. He wrote a book called exploring worship years ago and it is fantastic. And so I took his definition. So we're gonna use that this morning. Here we go. He says in his book, the dynamics and dimensions of worship are so many and so varied that not one definition of worship could possibly include all of its ramifications and meanings. And at this point when I read it, I went, oh, feel. Okay, I was, yeah, I was feeling that. I was struggling too, but then he says this. So what is the absolute essence, the common denominator in all of worship? And he says this, in the midst of the most shattering of life circumstances, regardless of the season that you are in, whether it be complete, emotional turmoil, worship is this. I bow my heart and my life before God almighty acknowledging his supreme lordship. That my friends is worship. In John 4, 23 it says, but the hour is coming and is now here where the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth, for the father is seeking such people to worship him.  Will he find you? Will he find you? So our text this morning is gonna be out of Matthew 26. Hopefully you had a chance to turn there with me, Matthew 26, we're gonna start in verse six. This is the story of Mary of Bethany and it says verse six. Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment and she poured it on his head as he reclined at the table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant saying, why this waste? So here we have this story of Mary, you've maybe heard this before, but she brings to Jesus the best, all that she has and it's kind of this beautiful picture of her whole life is wrapped up in this expensive ointment, this expensive perfume and she brings it before Jesus and Jesus is in a room, maybe it's kind of like a dining room area and there's a table and Jesus, some of his disciples, some other important people are there in a parallel passage in John, it actually says we know that Lazarus is there and Martha is there and people who love Jesus, people who know who Jesus is and right in the middle of their dinner, Mary breaks open her alabaster jar, and she begins to worship, she begins to bow her life in her heart before God Almighty acknowledging his Lordship and she gives everything that she has at the feet of Jesus. This is a corporate worship service. What Mary is doing, this is a corporate worship service that begins, right? And we have other people that are there and what we find in the text is no one joined in. It was a corporate worship service and we had spectators. So number one, I wanna hit the three kinds of people that are in this room with Jesus during a corporate worship service and number one, spectators. And we see that the spectators never engaged beyond watching a display of worship, right? We know there were maybe half a dozen to possibly 20 people in this room, right? Maybe it was a big room and the disciples, there's 12 disciples, maybe some were absent, maybe they were all there, a couple other important people are in the room, right? This was a corporate moment for worship to arise to Jesus and what's crazy too is everyone in the room really liked Jesus. They loved Jesus, they knew who he was. The timing of this story is actually passion week. So this is just a few days before Jesus goes to the cross and so Jesus has said explicitly who he is at this point to his disciples. They know he's God, they know he's the Messiah and they watched as Mary worshiped. They watched and spectators, they'll listen, they're watching, maybe they're thinking about Jesus, they're looking, oh, wow, this is okay. Maybe they had their hands in their pockets and were concerned about trying to stay comfortable in a moment that felt a little uncomfortable, a little awkward, but here's the thing, spectators, they were there to watch and not to give. In worship, we have the opportunity to give to Jesus. Here at Radiant Church, maybe we find ourselves looking to be comfortable in worship. We're listening, our hands are in our pockets and we're just kind of like crossing our arms, we're just uncomfortable and I wanna encourage us as a family, this is our moment to give to Jesus, to give worship and not to spectate. We are invited not to watch, right? Watch others participate in worship. We're invited to participate ourselves because spectators are merely spectators and okay, in sports, we understand this concept and ladies, I'm sorry, this was our chance to have a sermon illustration about fashion, about shoes or beauty products, but here I am, I'm gonna do a sports illustration, I apologize. Here we go, here we go, here we go. Okay, in sports, we understand the concept of spectating, don't we? We get it, we were in the stands, not on the field, right? Even though maybe we dressed the part and we wear the jersey and we paint our faces, we know we were only spectating. We were watching the game. In sports, being in the arena does not mean you played the game. Likewise, church, in our worship services, being in the room doesn't mean that you worshiped, it doesn't. How about in our Western celebrity culture, we've been trained to actually be spectators, we understand what is expected of us, we've been trained to watch professionals sing, we've been trained to watch professionals play music and have this musical kind of experience for us, right? We've got TV shows that are completely designated and designed to allow us to spectate and ooh, and ah, over beautiful music and beautiful singing voices, this is what we've been trained to do, right? Our culture has trained us to be spectators, but do not be deceived. If you operate like that in here, then we are only spectators of worship and not worshipers. And church, we wanna be a church who worships and not watches. We wanna be a church that participates and does not sit on the sidelines. This is who we are and this is who we were created to be. We are worshipers and not spectators. Amen, amen. The second person that we see in this room with Jesus, we see spectators and then we see critics, the critic. The critic takes it a step further. We see, right, the spectator is maybe indifferent or maybe even just kind of moved positively on the sidelines, but the critic takes it a step further and they judge worship, judge another person's worship. It was too bad or too much, right? Or even too little, that's not enough. Or weird, that's a little weird, got a little weird. Excessive and so forth. The criticism in this scripture, it was why this waste, this is a waste. That was the judgment over Mary's worship. And, you know, here at Radiant, sometimes we have our own kind of critical spirit of worship. They don't play my favorite songs, so I don't like it. It's too fast, too slow. How about this, this is too loud, right? Too loud. But is worship a waste or is he worth it? He is worthy of it all. The too fast, the too loud, the too, he is worthy of it all, all that we have. He is worth it and worship is about him. It's not about me, it's not about you and our personal preferences. What we want, what we'd like to hear on a Sunday morning, no, it's about God, what do you want to hear? What's the sound that you want to go forth from my heart and I want to give it and it's not a waste. Jesus, you are worthy. Jesus, you are worthy. In a room full of people, God is looking for those who will worship him. Will he find you? Will he find you? Are you a spectator, a critic or like Mary? Are you a worshiper? Will you bow your heart and your life before God Almighty and break open the alabaster jar of worship? Will you break open your own life and say all for Jesus? Jesus, you are worth it. Jesus, you are worth it. He's worth it. He's worth it. I want to go back to that biblical command that I began with, right? God commands us over 200 times throughout scripture to do something and that biblical command is to sing. It's to sing and there's actually a reason. God cares so much about you and I singing. It matters to his heart. Here's just a few things that singing does. Singing, it aligns our heart with truth. When we sing, we receive clear perspective from heaven. When we sing, we're actually personally uplifted and we're brought into places of joy and peace and hope. How many of you in times of worship all of a sudden you're ushered in to hope when you hadn't felt hope before. You were ushered into this place of just receiving the peace of God as you began to sing and worship or joy, right? Even when it doesn't make sense, you began to sing your weak song to the Lord and you began to receive joy on the inside of you. Let me tell you, church, singing and worship, it brings corporate unity. Singing and worship, it is not cute. It is powerful. It is a weapon and there is power when we lift our voices and sing to God. Our worship, it displaces darkness, church. Come on, it displaces principalities. When we lift our weak little voices, our weak little songs, heaven moves. The earth shakes and demons flee. Amen, guys, our praises shift the spiritual atmosphere. When we lift up corporate songs to the Lord, our city is affected. Our own song and our corporate sound is greatly desired by God. He loves it. He loves the sound of radiant church singing and he loves the sound of your voice singing and making melody to him. So if he loves it and if he's asked us to do it, why don't we do it, right? Sometimes we find ourselves becoming spectators, just kind of caught up in what's happening in the beautiful music or critics instead of worshipers. So why don't we do it? I wanna break it down and give a couple of maybe reasons and try to dismantle them for you this morning. Why we don't sing. This is not exhaustive list, by the way. Number one, why we don't sing. We lack skill and confidence, but we think it matters, right? We kind of decided, we came up with our own grid. We go, ah, to like sing and worship and kind of lift up my own song. I need to like be at a level here and I'm kind of at a level here, right? I'm just a sing in the shower kind of person, right? And we've actually deceived ourselves in thinking, oh, because I don't have like a great sound or I think it's here, then I'm excused from this and God doesn't really want it. But let me tell you, Psalm 100, it says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the earth. That's what God wants. He wants that joyful noise.  That's what he desires. And so can we make that joyful noise unto the Lord this morning? Amen. This verse doesn't say, okay, those of you who have beautiful voices, those of you who are classically trained, those of you who sang in high school or did choir or even like can kind of pluck a note on the guitar, those of you who can do that, would you please make a beautiful sound to Jesus? Mm-mm, mm-mm, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all of the earth. How about Psalm 150? Everything that has breath, praise the Lord. I woke up with breath in my lungs this morning to do. We did, it's time to praise the Lord. Everything that has breath, praise the Lord. Our skill just kind of, whatever. We just, we're supposed to praise. That sound, that screech, make it. He loves it. He loves the sound of your voice. And we do not want to withhold that sound.  Let me tell you something. The enemy wants to use those moments in your life. He wants to use those to silence your voice. He wants to silence your sound and he wants to silence your worship. I wanna tell you a story. So I was, I think I was in fourth grade and I was attending, so I'm like nine-year-old Rachel and I am attending pioneer clubs. And for those of you who don't know what pioneer clubs are, it was kind of like Christian Girl Scouts, okay? And so we're showing up every couple of weeks and we're earning badges for doing stuff. And so this one particular event, we're showing up and we're gonna make candles. It's gonna be great. And they've got it all planned out for us. And so nine-year-old Rachel, I walk in and I'm like, this is gonna be great. We're at the leader's house. There's 10 other fourth and fifth grade girls and we're gonna make candles and get a badge. And so we make candles in 10 minutes because it really doesn't take that long. And so we make the candles, wow, this is great. We get our badges and our leaders are kind of looking around, oh my goodness, we still have one more hour. What do we do with all of these girls? And so they set us up in a room with, they found a karaoke microphone. And they're like, girl, don't just sing for an hour. It'll be great. And so they leave us alone and we have a microphone and it was so fun. We're all taking turns singing on the microphone and it's super fun. And then it's my turn to sing. So I get the microphone and I'm a little shy and I sing a little song and as I'm ending it, the most beautiful, popular, blue eyes, blonde hair girl, she comes over and she just looks at me.  I know. Thank you. It hurt, right? That was painful. That was a really painful moment. But something happened on the inside of me and I actually, I made it in her vow in that moment and I said, I'm not gonna sing in public anymore. Clearly she knows what she's talking but she's a whole grade older than me. She's so popular. She absolutely knows the truth and I, gosh, I don't wanna be embarrassed again. I don't wanna feel that shame that I felt in that moment. And the enemy wanted to use that small moment in that one evening in pioneer clubs when I was supposed to be making candles and all of a sudden the enemy had an assignment to silence my voice, to silence my song and ultimately my worship. So some of us really might have some stories like that in our past where we've had moments where we felt like we needed to shrink back in singing and in worship. We do not want the enemy to silence our voice. It is time for the church to sing. It is time to not be silent anymore but to lift up that singing voice that he loves to hear. We do not wanna withhold our sound from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Amen. Number two, we don't feel like it. How many of you have come into church and we just, I'm so tired. I made it but I don't feel like singing. I don't feel like worship, right? I'm angry. Maybe I got in the car and everyone's yelling at each other. That doesn't happen in your car, right? Just mine. Everyone's yelling at you. Oh my gosh, I don't wanna be here. We're angry and we're angry and we show up to church and we're like, I just kinda wanna stay angry a little bit and just stew in my anger and I don't wanna sing and I don't wanna worship, right? I'm not in the mood. I'm not in the mood. We all become like hormonal teenagers and we decide we're a little moody and we don't know we're not in the mood to worship, right? In a motherly tone, hear me this morning. We need to get out of our feelings a little bit. Better yet, we need to bring our feelings to the feet of Jesus in worship and say, God, I'm a little angry. I'm a little mad. I'm a little tired but here's my weak worship. Here's my emotions. Here is my mind, will and emotions. God, won't you take it and I'm gonna praise you, right? Psalm 43.5 says, why so downcast? Oh, my soul, put your hope in God for I will yet praise him. Often in worship here on a Sunday morning, you'll hear that first song have a call to worship. Awake, my soul, and sing. Sing your praise aloud. We're commanding our soul, hey, mind, will, emotions. Submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ and we're gonna worship. This is what we're gonna do. We have the ability to tell our soul, hey, it's time to worship. Come into alignment and sing, right? Why so downcast? I acknowledge the feelings are real. What I'm going through is real. I'm gonna worship through it. Amen, amen, why so downcast? Put your hope in God. Number three, sometimes we don't believe God really wants or likes our offering of worship, right? Our worship is too weak. Singing feels kind of weak, right? Our worship isn't valuable or maybe this, maybe you've said something like this. My recent mistakes disqualify my worship. I, gosh, I messed up again this week. I just, I'm not gonna sing. He doesn't wanna hear, he doesn't wanna hear this, right? We disqualify ourselves from worship. But let me remind you, John 4.23, it says, the Father is looking for those who will worship. He wants your worship. Number four, we don't believe maybe God is worthy of our worship. Maybe we've become indifferent to God. We consider ourselves more of our own God than Him. Or personal disappointment has caused us to question His worthiness. I'm really going through something and I just, I'm having a hard time believing that He's worthy. Why is this happening, right? We question His worthiness and all of a sudden we find ourselves hesitating to lift up our song to Jesus. Let me read for you Revelation 4.1 about the worthiness of Jesus. It says, you are worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. What about Revelation 5.12? It's talking about Jesus. It says, worthy is the Lamb who was slain, worthy is Jesus to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing. Church, He is worthy of our worship. The worthiness of Christ, the worthiness of Jesus. That's why we sing so many songs just saying, you are worthy. He is worthy. Isn't He worthy? He is worthy of our offering and our sacrifice of praise. Amen. So singing, He's worthy of our song. Singing is one of seven words in the Hebrew language that mean praise. I wanna quickly go through seven expressions of praise. How we can praise the Lord. So number one is singing, right? And this Hebrew word, it's to heal it. It means to sing praise to God. Quickly next one is Shabbak. And it means to shout. I love in our worship services, sometimes at the end of songs that they, let's lift a shout of praise, right? And we all hopefully shout. Sometimes that makes us a little uncomfortable, doesn't it though? We don't wanna shout. Amen. Sometimes though, we have an opportunity and this is actually that command to praise is to shout sometimes. We don't shout at the end of songs. Oh, it's kind of a cool thing to do. No, shout to the Lord. This is a way to praise. Sometimes we shout, right? How about this one? Barak, it means in the Hebrew, it means to bow, to get low, to bow before the Lord. This is a way to express worship and praise, to actually bow our knee before the Lord. I'm not gonna do it because I might not be able to get back up. Bow. The next one is Zamar to play instruments. Our musicians here are not background musicians. They are leading us into a place of praise. Did you know when you play your instrument at home before the Lord, it is worship, it is praise. The next one, yadah. It's to extend the hand in praise, right? Sometimes we worship with our voices. Sometimes we worship with our hands. Lifting up our hands is a way to praise the Lord. It is a sign of surrender, of worship, a sacrifice of praise. So we lift up our hands in worship. This next one is very similar, but I want you to catch the difference. This one is called todah. And this is also to lift the hands in worship. However, this one gets very specific on us. It is to lift the hands in worship, even when you're not getting what you want. God, it's really tough out here. I need breakthrough, but the breakthrough hasn't come. But you know what? I am going to worship through the storm. I am going to worship through the adversity. I'm going to lift up my hands and give you praise in thanksgiving before the breakthrough comes. That is worship and that is the Hebrew word todah. And then the last one I want to hit is halal. And this means to celebrate, to dance, to exuberantly celebrate and praise, to halal. Sometimes we worship with our feet. We actually get to worship with our feet dancing. The Lord wants us to dance. And sometimes that makes us a little uncomfortable. He's worthy and He wants it. Okay, I'll dance, right? So this is praise. Praise is expressive. It's declarative. It's who God is and what He has done and responding by worshiping. This is who you are, God, so I worship. This is what you've done, so I'll give you praise. I'll dance, I'll bow, I'll sing, I'll clap my hands. This is worship. This is praise. It's an expressive way to honor God for all that He is and all that He has done. So this is praise. And I want to come back to that definition of worship that I gave you at the beginning. In the midst of the most life-shattering of circumstances, regardless of negative circumstances or complete emotional turmoil, despite the season of our soul, I bow my heart and my life before God Almighty, acknowledging His supreme Lordship. And quickly, I want to just be vulnerable and share about four years ago. Caleb has shared this before on a Sunday morning, but our family received a diagnosis. And it was super tough. Our two-year-old was diagnosed with autism and it shook our family. A couple months later, I got a diagnosis, depression. I couldn't get out of that pit of hopelessness and fear of the future, fear of the future for my family. It was that moment of complete emotional turmoil for me. I remember very vividly one Sunday morning, walking into this building here in Richland. I wasn't scheduled to lead worship, so I made my way to, I always like to sit over here, I go sit in the front row and worship. Music began to play, people began to sing. And I had a choice in that moment. Can I be like Mary? Can I, in the midst of the hardest season of my life, bow my heart and my life before the feet of Jesus, the Lordship of Jesus and acknowledge, you are Lord and you are worthy of my worship.  It's that toe doll lifting the hands in worship before breakthrough, lifting the hands in worship when I'm not getting what I want, worshiping and lifting my hands and saying I don't fully get where I'm at or what you're doing, but my worship is not a waste. You are worthy. This moment in time is not a waste. I'm going to offer my sacrifice of praise. I'm going to offer my worship and then all of a sudden we begin to sing and we declare who he is and our life becomes a love song to Jesus. In a moment here, we're gonna stand and I wanna give us an opportunity this morning just to respond to the word by worshiping Jesus. Maybe you find yourself this morning in a season not on the mountaintop, but in the valley. I wanna give you a moment to break open your alabaster jar like Mary did at the feet of Jesus despite circumstances not being perfect. Maybe worship has made you feel uncomfortable and the thought of lifting hands or singing or bowing has made you uncomfortable. I wanna give you opportunity this morning to respond to who he is and what he has done because he is worthy of our worship church. He is worthy of our adoration and our affection every ounce that we have he is worthy of. And so I wanna give us a moment right now to respond. So would you stand with me this morning as we go back into a time of worship and declare the goodness of God, the greatness of our God. He is worthy of our worship. Amen, let's worship together.