So we have Jutta here today. She will be talking about a very important topic that is taking responsibility of our carbon footprint. Thank you so much for the introduction and welcome everyone to this. Yeah, as you said, really super important session, at least I think I want to talk about the topic that the planet really sense in the SOS. And I imagine that some of you know me as a speaker, as an author of well the many books that you see there, like, for example, the first one. Now I have to check out I think this one is my first one that which wasn't on scaling agile and I published that back in 2004. I will talk a little bit but only a little bit about the latest one which is company wide agility. It's on Nova as well, but on the other hand, this is mainly a really new topic and as I said, it really is to my heart. And what that means, well, I want to share a little bit about me that you might not know you again you might know me as author speaker, but you might not know for example that back in the 80s. And I have a few years under my belt here. I protested against acid rain and forest die back and unfortunately without much success because just in May, a new report on the on the forest has been released and they're, they found out that 80% of all trees in Germany, this is my home country, actually damaged and this picture that I'm sharing here is a picture that I took from a hike which is close by where I'm living and really if you go there, you see like almost all trees are damaged or even dead already. The other thing is that I'm also a passionate scuba diver and as as that passion drinks with it is that I'm really concerned about various forecasts, for example, by 2050, it is projected that there will be more plastic in the sea than the fish. And already by 2030 people to check that probably all coral reefs are damaged. And so this really concerns me. Moreover, another thing you might not know that next to that I'm an engineer and I'm in software and doing all this agile stuff for many, many years. I'm also trained as a pollution control commissioner on ecological environmentalism. However, I am certified in that I'm trading that it's been a long time ago that I did that and I never really practice that. But this is kind of the background that I'm bringing. Now, before I start into the topic I would like to know from you. What do you think connects actual and sustainability and I just put the link to the mentee also in the chat so it's easier for you to get there but if you just go there like to mentee.com and you use that code for 5720156 and you just put in a word kind of how you see the connection between sustainability and agile. And if you don't see any connection, then this is fine as well then you might say exactly this. And because I'm a bit uncertain if the refresh on the slide works, I want to see if, if maybe it works better here. And the direct connection so again if you go, yeah, see, we have already not sure if there's a connection which is really a valid thing, then responding to change is a thing here. Reducing waste, you could even think of maybe Kanban, Muda, avoiding waste and so on. It's perhaps more on a meta level but still then reaction time that might be needed. I wait a little bit more maybe some of you get some other ideas we have for people responding so far. So if you go there to mentee.com and I believe there was one person joining late here's also the direct link again. And perhaps we get a few more answers. And again, I'm not sure it's absolutely fine to see no connection. Sustainable pays here is the word even that that's making that connection fail fast learn fast those go together then outcomes. Oh, and responding to change so it's, it's a lot about, yeah, change it seems sustainable pays are standing out more. This is kind of the thing that you're seeing now I wonder did I miss something. It's complexity domain and navigating uncertainty those two definitely go together. And for sure, this is a huge thing that actually that we can bring to the field. Well, so say positive impact and value to the world system thinking might also go to one way of addressing complexity. So thank you so much. This is excellent and you can keep answering this we will keep your answers in here. And I would like to. Well, first of all, because because that question was honestly a bit a little bit unfair. I didn't really define sustainability yet. So therefore I would like to provide a definition so what is actually sustainability. And there is like one very general definition that's pretty well known. It comes from the print and commission. And it's probably the oldest definition that's out there for sustainability and at the call it says whatever we do right now for fulfilling our needs we have to keep in mind that future generations are also enabled to meet their own needs so that we are never living on the cause of future generations. So this is a kind of the most foundational, perhaps also basic but super important definition of sustainability. However, it's also very cost grade. There's also much finer grain one which is the another one from the United Nations so the print and commission was also United Nations so this one is kind of known as well it defines it is defined by the 17 sustainable development goals. And you see it's talking about for example here. No poverty, zero hunger but also like my scuba diving passion thing the life below water, life on land, all kinds of things. And some people say that, well maybe the printer commissions definition as way to cause crane and the 17 sustainable development goal. It might be to find great especially if we think about what we are doing we are developing software and how does it connect to us. Therefore, the definition that I'm using and I find the most helpful is the one that's defined on three pillars and here I'm showing already the first pillar, which is called social sometimes to refer to people as well. The first is that aiming for equity health and livability. The second pillar is the thing that we often have mostly in mind if we think of sustainability, which is the environment or planet so it's about protecting the planet. The third one is the one that probably is most often ignored. It's economic or profit. What it's about is, it's like, we should aim for improving the lives and prospects of everyone everywhere and sustainability is really defined by all of these three pillars that sits really in the middle and this more holistic approach. Now, already I want to kind of peek at some of the things because you will get more into details later, but for example the social people aspect that really also looks like we're talking about equity, of course, also about diversity and inclusion, and we do talk about that in Agile as well, right. So, this is kind of the broad definition that I like to go with, and it's nothing really new or whatever. It is basically capturing or categorizing those 17 sustainable development goals in those three different pillars. Now, okay, we are talking about software here and very often what people think is that software actually comes to the rescue. And that is true for example with ebooks we are saving trees so with now having this online conference that nobody's traveling anymore anywhere so we are saving also or minimizing our carbon footprint, then also if you think about various developments like on supply chain or water management or whatever it is often software that makes it more efficient. So that's very true. However, you could also ask really software to the rescue and software also has a downside and there are various forecasts one of them is that one that's mentioned the most often, which is a forecast stating that by 2030. That's not too far away. We will actually consume 21% of the overall energy consumption. So this is quite something. So it's not that we are kind of only coming to the rescue, we also come with a carbon footprint and the V is of course in quotes so whatever we are doing on it. That's one thing. Another thing is actually that whole topic about electronic waste. And there is an electronic waste monitor produced every five years also by the United Nations. The last one was produced in or created in 2020. So we looked up to the year 2019. And what you see there is that in 2019 53.6 million tons of electronic waste were generated worldwide and it's a blast from compared to the last monitor. E-Waste monitor, it's a blast of 21%, which is quite a lot. And yes, you could think of, well, this is hardware and I'll be most of us actually doing something in software. That's very true. But if I think of, for example, here my phone, very often I am buying a new phone or any other kind of hardware, because the software is not supported is not supporting the hardware anymore. So the software doesn't really run well on the hardware, therefore I throw out the hardware, although it's not broken. But because the software isn't really running in an efficient effective way anymore. And so it is again IT and software that's maybe having that responsibility of creating that electronic waste. I would now like to dive into those three piters, remember like environmental, social and economic and provide a few examples of what that means if we are looking in IT. And some examples are positive, others are negative. We start with a maybe positive example. So in the environmental spectrum, the thing is that most of the software that we are creating is now running in the cloud. And let me first of all make this very clear. This is good, because in the cloud per se, software is running way more efficient and with a smaller carbon footprint than if we would host the software ourselves. So this is good. However, very often we are not looking into how is the cloud platform our software is actually running on? How is that really running? What's the carbon footprint of it? And there is like the positive example that's actually Google, Google started already in 2007 to trying to become carbon neutral. And then in 2017, so 10 years later, they made their next big step and they still keep working on it. So they aim for being 24 seven come through running on come free energy by 2030. So this is good news. And actually, for quite some time, it was really the Google cloud platform only aiming for that. So I would think like two or three years ago, not many more were looking into that topic. However, luckily, this has changed. So all of the cloud platforms are now aiming on that and have seen that this is a topic. However, a big problem is, and this is also with Google, although it's here like the positive example, you might have seen here that this information comes from a Google white paper and they're releasing those five papers also at various times. However, the problem is, they are not making their data transparent. So I know that from the Ministry of environmentalism, what a difficult term, in Germany, they are trying to validate that report that white paper for quite some years from Google and asking for the data and they are not getting it. So one of our responsibility is actually here. On the one hand, really, when we look for an infrastructure also looking at the carbon footprint of that infrastructure, and second on the other hand, that we also ask for more transparency that we create a bit more pressure on the companies that they are really making their stuff transparent. One disclaimer here for all of the examples that I'm giving so here Google is more like the positive example but maybe not so much because they're not making the data transparent. However, my point is here for both the positive and negative examples, it's always the case that none of the companies is like or is positive only or negative only so I just picked some examples that speak to that topic. Well, the that we have that responsibility is has also been seen by the ACM the Association of Computing Machinery and the former editor in chief of the CACM and ACM actually is one of the biggest organizations on it started in the US but it's now an international organization and Andrew Jean again the former editor in chief of the CACM the magazine of the organization said it is time for the computing community to face up to computing this growing environmental impact and take responsibility for it, so it's us. So that was my example on environmentalism now let's go to the next example which is economic and my example here is chef chef is a cloud software I can imagine that some of you know it or use it for your, your systems that you are creating and chef actually suppose so it's the open source cloud software but it's also a company that's called chef that has contracts with various clients and serving them with that cloud software called chef so chef has these two dimensions and chef the company had a contract with ice I stands for immigration customs enforcement and people found out that's a few years ago I think it was in 2018 people found out that the software chef is used by ice to actually manage the deportation camps at the Mexican border I'm not sure if you heard about that but so it was at least in Europe it was big news where the the deportation camps at the at the border to Mexico for example was used for separating the kids from their parents and really very bad stuff and when the developers found out about that they said like well. Our intention was never that the system will be used that way remember that this pillar was defined improving the lives and prospects of everyone everywhere. For sure this didn't happen here. And so they protested and for quite some time nothing happened until the moment when one of the developers. Actually said well it's open source what about if I delete all my contributions to the software. And so he did, and that created so much pressure that this headline that you see on that slide was really created that chef expired the contract with ice. So, again, so the thing is, especially I think often. Well I'm not sure if it's really especially, but I think so in actual where we often think, well the most important thing is to make the client happy. And well, we do, but then we don't take a second look. What is the client actually doing with the system and I think we should, at least at times, take that look as well. The very thing from black rock also black rock is not only good set in his open letter to the CEOs in 2018 that society is actually demanding that companies post public and private serve a social purpose to prosper over time. So it must not only deliver financial performance but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society. So, this is again something that we need to do. I want to share also an example on the social pillar. Remember it was on like equity, for example, diversity and inclusion and here's a wonderful example that I found on Twitter. We're surely who wanted to create an account and she couldn't because the last name was expecting at least three characters. And sometimes we just don't think that far. Another example also found on Twitter is those two guys had a video conversation, and then they decided to use a virtual background and what happened well. The video system didn't recognize the face of the dark skin person to be a face. And you know what, I don't think that any of those software teams really did that on purpose. There was no intent that surely we can create an account or that dark skin person can use a virtual background. I think the problem is very often we in our teams are too homogeneous, and we just don't think about other perspectives, other people and one of the things maybe this is already one of my tips is well very often we come up with personas in the actual very think about who's our target client, the main client that we are aiming for with that system and my recommendation is, please at times think about the complete opposite of that target client crew, because you might miss something and really exclude people from using your system, which doesn't mean that you're creating you still have not a persona in mind, but please at times take a look at kind of other people. So, I had a couple of years ago, a podcast on the subject on diversity and inclusion with Jeremy Tregel some of you might know him because he's also been told in India, and there we were talking about this and then I threw out like a sentence on that topic and he said, you know what, I think this has to be x times law, and since then I'm running around and say here's x times law so take this with a little smirk here. So, the law is that I believe an organization produces a design that reflects the organization's biases. So, it is kind of as you might know, a little bit derived from Conway's law but the point is very often we look for people that are like us. And because of that, we have just more like a singular perspective and not a broad few of perspectives. Okay, so we had the definition of sustainability. I also have some examples from the three pillars but perhaps you're thinking, so what does this have to do with the actual now really well, except for perhaps the examples that I gave like the personas are thinking beyond making the client happy. Actually, there is a deeper connection. And I know some of you said when I asked that first question like well I don't really see a connection, which is, I said, a valid thing. However, we made a promise. And if you are looking at the two biggest organizations in the actual role, for example the Scrum Alliance and the actual lines. The Scrum Alliance says that we are on a mission to create actual workplaces that are joyful, prosperous, and there you go, sustainable. The actual alliance has changed that a few times. And what they are saying now is, well, what's kind of what they're doing for their members is through the last two decades, members like you have helped make work more effective, humane, and sustainable by applying the actual mindset and methods. And by the way, the actual alliance even elaborates on this and then says, well, making the world work, the work more sustainable, they really mean it in the sense of the three pillars, so social, environmental, and economic. So this is the one thing. The other thing is, when I work together with John back on my latest book, the company right agility with beyond budgeting open space and so circuitry that was an over. We realized that, well, once a company says they are agile, or even it starts in a smaller scale, when a team says we are agile, it comes with an expectation. Which is in the sense of sustainability, although it might not really be stated really. And, for example, if a team says we are agile and then somebody finds out they are not inclusive, people would say, well, I thought you're actual. And similarly, if a company says we are actual and then people find out they're not paying fairly same thing people would say, I thought you're actual. And that's why John and I took a look at the core principles of actual transparency self organization constant customer and continuous learning and looked into what does that really mean if we are looking at it from a sustainability perspective or what does it mean if we are fulfilling that perhaps hidden expectations, for example, for transparency is about making the companies actions transparent, both internally and externally. So that would speak for example for Google to make those data also transparent. Self organization where we look more into that we are actually just a note of a global network and we are responsible for the environment we are living in and we are creating also that environment together with other companies and societal institutions. So if we look at constant customer focus, then actually let me translate that for you right away. The way I use that the most often right now when I work with teams is saying like, Oh, if we look at that feature. What about if the planet would be a stakeholder. So regarding the planet also as a customer as a stakeholder that often opens up completely different discussion. Then we have continuous learning, where it's about learning continuously from and with society to make the whole world a better place. So this is our responsibility. And perhaps now is the time where you wonder, Okay, I got that you tell but now what can I really do. And there are several things you can do and it starts with like using sustainability by agile that means that we are using agile practices and mindset to help solve the climate crisis to improve sustainability. There is, I have an example here from a colleague of mine Nicole billy loss who used her skills for increasing sustainability by acting as a scrum master for an organization that's called heck your future originally created in the Netherlands I believe they are now available at in different countries but there are also other organizations doing stuff like that. And she served as a scrum master for refugees and the idea for of heck your future is that refugees have a possibility to show their skills that especially their it skills to get a job. And in this case those refugees also created a food saver app so it's like double sided really good and Nicole just provided her agile practices mindset skills to help them to just do that so this is sustainability by agile. You can also do and I want to dive a little bit deeper perhaps into this as well as things thinking of sustainability in agile, which is that we use sustainability to guide our actions and outcomes in agile development. One example could be that your definition of done also looks at the energy consumption of your system that when you deliver your next story that at least the energy consumption doesn't increase, maybe it even gets smaller. I would like you to now take a survey. So I have here that to our code but also want to share perhaps the link in in the chat. Where I would like to ask you to take that survey. So we see where we are actually standing right now with sustainability and agile. So it's really a quick thing there are not too many questions but it would be wonderful if you would start and answer those questions so we get an idea what is actually happening right now with sustainability. And so, again, I ask you to go there, take the survey I know that it takes a little bit to do that. And let's see. And, by the way, so I made that much smaller that survey. Normally it has way more questions and I will provide you the link later on so you can use it with your team and learn where you and hopefully start having a conversation on that super important topic.  Let you answer the survey. And so, we only had three questions on each of each of the spectrums environmental economic and social. We see that, well, social seems to be the thing that has the highest values. Maybe we first look at the craft so you see it here also social goes really further out than environmental and this is not a surprise because this is kind of the thing we are starting at right now only. Perhaps I want to first go back and let's see we do another refresh perhaps we have a new data point in. Oh, two more data points very good. And I would also like to see how far away are we from each other or I'll be more in agreement. So, what we see here. For example, let's first look also here at the oops. Yeah, at the social part that's actually good that I didn't like this is that for the first question, the team prevents discrimination disrespecting or targeting of team members. We are really much in agreement here in this crew so most people voted four or five. And the next question which says like we are statement we continue to work to prevent bad actors from accessing or using any start user data. There's quite some agreement however there's like perhaps one one outlier. But it's kind of all of those questions are quite together. So this is good and it is also, which means it says something very outstanding. So if I look on the other hand here on the environmental sector. Then we see the answers are all over the place let's look at this so one says, the team monitor Sahabra utilization of the product both in use as well as while idle, then we have three saying the team monitor, three saying it's a fall. And we have one saying it's more false than true that we are doing this and to saying this is completely false we are not doing this. So, the thing, but you see in this heat map is how far we spreading and again here we are closer together let me do another refresh to see if there are more data in perhaps know we are seven. Let's perhaps also take a look in the economic spectrum and perhaps let's take a router for that. And it is like the, the one top topic. The team response problem problem and security gaps vulnerabilities become known. That's quite high. It's also not a surprise because security is a topic. We are looking at for quite some time now. And it's not so new. It might be surprising that this is really part of sustainability. Well, because we want to improve the lives and prospect of everyone everywhere and we don't want to do any harm right and this is what it is. Then the thing that's really low here is. Well, is it no this is, yeah, which is the team knows which features are really used actually this is something that's quite typical that I'm seeing that often well we get asked that this is super important let's build those features that those stories have to get delivered, but then later on nobody really checks if they are really used so we might create more ways than we actually know. Let's take perhaps a quick other look into whatever, maybe the holistic, maybe the holistic would be interesting as well. So, the thing we are highest is the product service contributes to create a social economic and environmental balance but this is really great. No, I'm really interested. Let me quickly go back here and see that heat map. So that was the thing. So we have two saying true, three saying more true than false and then we have one and one. Okay, but it's not that fast prep. This is interesting, very good. And also this one was the one we were looking to there we are really close together that's excellent actually. And then we see in the we prior to as a planet as one of the stakeholders. I guess that's a really a new thing. And that's why it's all over the place so we have answers in all categories here. Let me go back. And one of the things that you also can look at and I again I give you the link so you can use that with your team and look where you're standing is you see also like the highest course or where you have the biggest deviation or key opportunities so this might be interesting. And I know before we are getting all nervous I'm going back and I want to share with you like why are we doing this. The thing is, looking at sustainability and taking that responsibility. So what does that mean for us so what what can we do is actually it means that we change our conversations. Really for increasing sustainability. And I know I use up almost all the time so I want to thank you here want to provide some links here the business link with actual sustainability is the one that you can use with your team and answering those questions and again they are way more questions than just those and you can use that and find out what are actually the next questions you want to ask and what kind of dialogue you want to get started with. And I want to share also that link here in the chat. So thank you and I'm really curious if there are any questions and I know we are out of time almost we have one more minute maybe there are some questions and otherwise I will be in the hang out and stop sharing so Alright everyone I mean if you have questions for Judah that now is the right time to ask her and thanks Judah for sharing your experience with us today.


For some reason people are always looking for a new revelation and they want to tell us that all that God has ever said is not contained. But it is all that he gave us for our edification, uplifting, encouragement, all together in one book. And point of fact, it's all that he knew we could handle. The fact that these words are God breathed, people still don't appreciate it. So people constantly want to go outside the book to find ways around what he said, because they simply don't like what it says. Jesus said, I've told you earthly things and you do not understand how then if I gave you, if he were to give us more things, spiritual things, things that we say we desired, how then we understand those things since we don't even understand the basics of the book. If we were to get more guys word, how would we handle it? Probably the same way we handle his written word. So how about this? Let's just master what he gave us, learn what he gave us, love what he gave us, live what he gave us. I promise you, if we do that, it'll hold us until his return.


Does the narcissist miss you? Do they feel regret or sadness at no longer being able to enjoy your presence? Do they notice your absence? This has more to do with them and their feelings Than it does to do with you. They do not miss your personality or who you are as a person They do not miss your characteristic traits or qualities They miss how you made them feel during the love-bombing phase They displayed a false character to you You gave them your attention and your admiration This made them feel desirable or attractive It made them feel as though they were worth something as Though their false self actually existed you validated their false self and The illusion that they portrayed This made them feel good about themselves. It had nothing to do with you as a person It had nothing to do with how they felt about you It was all about them and how they felt about themselves They were just using you to regulate their emotions To regulate their self-worth self-esteem and self-importance You were nothing more than an object Which they used to serve their own agenda their own needs They didn't see you as anything more than that During the devaluation phase They abused you Emotionally mentally psychologically and Sometimes even physically or sexually They targeted your self-esteem They made you feel as though you could never be good enough for them or anyone else They made you feel as though you couldn't do anything right They projected their insecurities onto you while they were abusing you and Denying that they were doing anything wrong or shifting the blame onto you Gaslighting you Making you question your own memory perception and sanity They had control and influence over you Their behavior had a strong effect on your thoughts and feelings This made them feel as though their false self existed It made them feel as though there was something significant to you It made them feel powerful It was all about how you made them feel They used you like an object and pushed your buttons To make them feel however they wanted to feel They didn't appreciate or respect your personality or who you were as a person They didn't appreciate or respect your characteristic traits or qualities So how could they ever miss anything about you? It was about their feelings They cannot mention or refer to your feelings They don't even care about how you feel. It was all about them It was all about how they felt They miss how you made them feel They miss what you did for them They miss what you gave to them When they needed you You were always there You genuinely cared about them and wanted to help them This is a very potent source of supply for the narcissist If they needed something done If they needed someone to take care of them You were always there You provided them with amusement or enjoyment You gave them your time and energy You paid for meals You bought them gifts You gave them money You were affectionate with them This is what they remember This is what they miss They feel regret or sadness At no longer being able to have these privileges These special rights or advantages That they no longer have It has nothing to do with you as a person They miss how you made them appear in front of other people The impression that you presented to the public How you improved their image They have to display this false deceptive appearance Of being impressive or imposing in appearance or style It makes people notice them and admire them It makes people look at them as something impressive or attractive It regulates their emotions And boosts their self-worth, self-esteem and self-importance But it had nothing to do with them appreciating Or respecting you as a person You are nothing more than an object Which they use to fulfill their need for narcissistic supply They don't miss you They don't miss your personality Or who you are as a person They don't miss your characteristic traits or qualities They miss how you made them feel They miss what you did for them They miss what you gave to them And they miss how you made them appear in front of other people Thank you for watching I hope this video resonated with you Please like, comment, share and subscribe Click the bell icon to receive notifications of my future videos If you would like to donate My PayPal link is in the video description Coaching inquiries you can email me At narcovercoaching at gmail.com Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon


two kingdoms divided. At one point there was a single kingdom simply referred to as Israel, but then after the death of Solomon the kingdom divided into two sections. One is called the northern section, the other the southern Israel and Judah. And during that period and moving on through that there were different prophets that the Lord would raise up who were speaking for him, speaking his mind to the people as well as predicting future events. And these prophets would come. They'd preach a message and would call people to a certain action, but they weren't always received. You can look at prophets like Elijah and you can see those like Jeremiah, like Isaiah and Ezekiel. They were persecuted very often, severely, and some were even killed. When you read in the New Testament book of Hebrews in chapter 11 verses 37 and 38, speaking of the prophets, the writer says they were put to death by stoning. They were sod in two. They were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. Tradition holds that Isaiah the prophet died a martyr's death and that he was actually one referred to here in the book of Hebrews as the one who had been sod in two. When Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was speaking to those who were about to put him to death for his witness for Christ, when Stephen was speaking to them, it's recorded in Hebrews. It speaks of, how I'm sorry, in the book of Acts in chapter 7 verse 52, how that it says, Stephen said this, which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. Which one of them did you not persecute? Israel had a long history of persecuting, even as Jesus said in Matthew 23, 37, the ones who were sent to her. And John the Baptist, as we're looking today at this passage, was one of those who had been persecuted because this section is going to report to us concerning the murder of John the Baptist. Now John, as mentioned, was the last Old Testament prophet. He was the messenger who had been sent to announce the Messiah. In Luke chapter 3 verse 15, it speaks concerning how the people were in expectation and all reason in their hearts about John, whether he was a Christ or not.  He had come preaching a baptism of repentance. He was preparing the way for Jesus. And yet people began to be confused about him, wondering if perhaps this was Messiah. And so he would clearly say that he wasn't Messiah, but that he was sent before him. In John's gospel, he had told his disciples, as found in verse 28 of chapter 3, he said, you yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ. I've been sent before him. But his sterling character, his amazing ministry, his courageous boldness in proclamation had caused people to think this must be Messiah. He had preached this strong, this uncompromising message. And he called people to repentance. Again, in the gospel of Luke chapter 3 verse 7, he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him. He said, Brutivipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? So he was a very warm and friendly, entertaining comedian like. He was strong. And when he would speak to them, he spoke with the boldness. He would say that not just to average people, he actually said that to the religious leaders. Who warned you? So he had a very strong and very uncompromising ministry. And so his strong message would be given equally to any would hear him speak. And that would include not just the regular folk. That would include not just the religious leaders. It also included speaking to those who held high governmental positions. It had even been preached to a man referred to as King Herod. Notice in verse 14 how it says now, King Herod heard of him. For his name had become well known. And he said, John, the Baptist has risen from the dead. Therefore these powers are at work in him. So we're introduced here once again to a man by the name of King Herod. By this time, the ministry of Christ had grown. His name had become well known. According to Mark 128, his fame had spread abroad throughout all the region around about Galilee. And even Herod, the highest government official, has heard of him. His fame has grown because he's done so much good. His reputation has grown because of this. And the fact is, as you can't keep a good thing secret in Jesus, his name is being spread throughout the land. It's well known. And his fame has reached the ears of Herod Antipas. Now, let me give you a little bit of information that will help you to see who this man is. Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas is the son of a man called Herod the Great. And he's referred to as a tetrarch. A tetrarch is a general kind of title for a political official. He had rulership over a fourth part of Israel. In Scripture, three men are named Herod. Herod the Great, Herod Archelaus, and Herod Antipas. Now, Herod Archelaus and Herod Antipas were both sons of Herod the Great. When you look at Herod, Herod was not Jewish. He was Itimean. If you look at a map of Israel, and you're going from the north to the south, and you go past the Dead Sea, going into that region is a place called Itimea. That's where he was from. So he was Itimean. And he was half Samaritan through his mother. Her name was Malthais. And she had been married to Herod the Great. Now, his father was hated because Rome had placed him as a non-Jew over Israel. Now, you've heard of Herod the Great when you read your Bible. Herod the Great is the one who ordered the slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem when Jesus was born. And he also slaughtered the Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin. He, in order to retain his power, had one of his wives and two of his sons executed. Now, after his death, Rome divided the kingdom between three of his sons. Archelaus, the older brother of Antipas. You see him in Matthew 2, verse 22. You have Herod Antipas, who we're looking at. And Philip is half brother who will be mentioned in a moment. Now, last time we had gathered, we saw how Jesus had sent his men on a ministry mission. They've gone out preaching repentance, casting out demons, performing healings. And news of their ministry has spread and has reached the ears of one called Herod Antipas. Now, when we looked at chapter 6 last time and Jesus had sent them out, notice how it says in verse 12 of chapter 6, as he's commissioning them to go out. They went out and preached that people should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil. Many who were sick and healed them. So their ministry is going forth. But when Jesus was speaking to them, as is recorded in Matthew, he gives a little more information. He said to them this, he said, I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves. And in doing so, he is referring to the way that they were going to be treated, sheep among wolves. You're going to have perilous times. It's going to be difficult. Therefore, he said, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Don't be out there offending people on purpose, but be wise and realize that your message is not going to be well received. Be prepared. So he's speaking to them concerning the persecution and rejection that they're going to go through. John is a great example, as we're going to look at him right now, of one who suffered the ultimate persecution in that he was murdered for his faith and for his ministry. And so as this is taking place here again, Herod is there and he's hearing of these things. And he says in the second portion of verse 14, he said, John, the Baptist is risen from the dead. Therefore, these powers are at work in him. John, the Baptist has been resurrected from the dead. Herod had wondered aloud concerning who Jesus is. Luke tells us in chapter 9 verses 7 through 9 that Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead. Others that Elijah had appeared and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, I beheaded John. Who then is this? I hear such things about. And he tried to see him. So he had heard these things and he wanted to see Jesus. Well now he's saying John the Baptist is risen from the dead. So he's thinking about what he has heard and he's come up with a theory. He thought if John had been raised from the dead, then he would have supernatural power. And this power would be heavenly. It would be what we call resurrection power that is being channeled through him. And that's what he's thinking. Well, this has got to be John the Baptist. Well, verse 15, others said it's Elijah and others said it's the prophet or like one of the prophets. So others are speaking also and they're aware. They're aware of some things. And notice how it says it is Elijah. See, they believe that Elijah would come before Messiah was to be revealed. They had read and been taught out of Malachi, the Old Testament book of Malachi chapter 3, verse 1, where it says, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you're seeking will come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, saith the Lord Almighty. So they're thinking that perhaps that's who this is. But they didn't realize that John was the messenger who fulfills that prophecy. So Jesus later on makes that clear in Matthew 11, verse 10. He said, this is he of whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you. And he went on in Matthew 11, 14 and said, if you're willing to receive it, he, speaking of John, is Elijah who is to come. He wasn't Messiah. He was the one who was fulfilling the role of Elijah. And so they're confused concerning whom he is. John the Baptist has arisen from the dead. He thinks that John is Jesus. Others say, well, it's Elijah because they had had some theological training. And then others were simply saying it's the prophet or like one of the prophets. Well, then they say it's the prophet. That is the belief of the coming prophet who was referred to or thought of as what would be called the second Moses before the day of the Lord.  Him you will hear. A prophet like me. So they're thinking, well, this is the second Moses. In Deuteronomy 18, 18, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among the brethren and will put my words in his mouth. He shall speak to them all that I command him. So some associated Jesus with the prophecy that was found in the book of Deuteronomy, but they didn't really know who he was. Now let me share a couple of things about that. They didn't comprehend who he was because people don't know who Jesus is without revelation from the Father. There are a lot of people who have had Bible teaching many throughout their lives. There have been some who've even gone to church pretty much all of their life. I've seen people who were raised in a Christian home. Their father was a pastor who went through their life without knowing Jesus Christ.  There's a lot of people who have information even in this day and have no enough to say, well, I have opinions concerning God and Jesus. But unless the Holy Spirit reveals to their heart who Christ is, they're not going to get saved. In John 6.44 it says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up the last day. It takes the conviction of the Holy Spirit to draw someone to faith in Jesus Christ. You see, you don't know the Lord simply because you have information about him. It takes the Holy Spirit to draw you to him. And you're not saved because you have a religious belief that you hold fast to raise in a certain denomination or a certain tradition.  And that's how you came to faith in Christ is that he convicted you of sin, righteousness and judgment and awakened you to the fact that you're not just messed up.  And that for a lot of people today, they don't like to hear that, but it's true. It's not just that we've been raised wrong or had a little education or poor economic opportunity. It's because we're sinners and people don't want to hear that. They want to think that everybody's good. You know that, and I know that. Some rock star who died of an overdose, his friends are saying, well, he's looking down right now at us. I don't think if he's looking anyway, he's looking up. He's not looking down. Why? He didn't have a relationship with the Lord. And the Bible's very clear about that. And so sometimes you think, well, they're just a good person. Well, there's no good. There's none good. No, not one. The only good person who ever lived was Jesus Christ and they hanged him on a tree. You see, there's not good. There's none good. That's why we need a Savior. That's why we need a Christ. That's why he came. And so it takes the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and righteousness. Our standards are not his standard and ultimately judgment for us to be aware of the fact that we'll stand before him one day. And so they didn't understand who he is. You see, the Jewish scribes taught that Elijah was to come before Messiah. Matthew 1710, the question is asked, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? They had been taught that. Malachi chapter four, verse five says in the Old Testament, I will send you Elijah, the prophet before they come into the great and dreadful day of the Lord. So they don't comprehend these verses. The prophet promised through Moses was not just a prophet. It was Messiah. And that was made clear later on when the apostle Peter was preaching. Now Jesus heard these rumors. Eventually, he does address them with his disciples. I've shared this briefly with you recently. I'll say it again.  There's a place there called Caesarea Philippi, a place where Jesus would take his men and did so to train them and spend time with them. We've been there many times to this place called Caesarea Philippi. That's where he said, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? And that's when they said, some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. So Jesus did handle this question and did answer it. So first he says, who do men say that I am? They give the response, John and Elijah, Jeremiah, prophet. But then he went on and pointedly said, but who do you say I am? Because it's not just that you know of me, but who do you know I am?  That's how you're saved. So later on, Jesus had to deal with that, and he did. But that's what's taking place at this time. There are people thinking, well, it's John the Baptist, it's Elijah, one of the prophets, it's the prophets, so they're amongst themselves beginning to say these things. But notice verse 16. But when Herod heard, he said, this is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised from the dead. Herod was tormented by his guilt, being fully aware that he killed a righteous man. He was very, very concerned about that. He was tormented. In Titus chapter one, verse 15, Paul said to the pure, all things are pure. But to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. When you get saved in Christ is forgiven you of all of your sins. He's cleansed you from unrighteousness. You now have a purity.  You can put your head on your pillow at night, and you can go to sleep not wondering who's after you, or what you've done wrong, and will I get caught? You don't have to do that anymore. You can actually drive in a police car, can be behind you, and you don't start going, oh no, 10, 2, you know. How fast am I going? What's the first thing you do when you see a cop behind you? How fast am I going? You know, you don't have to do that when you're right with the Lord, and you're doing the things that are right. Your conscience can be cleansed, and you don't have to be tormented by memories anymore.  And indeed without Christ, that's exactly what my condition is. But in Christ I'm a new creation. Old things have passed away. And because all of my sins have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, I can now live as a new creature. I can live with peace and joy. I can live in unity with people and have the love of God and all of that. And that comes after being saved. It doesn't come before you're saved. And so this man Herod is completely defiled. He is completely tormented by his guilt. And that's what's going on. He was so tormented, he even wanted to see Jesus to find out for himself. Later on, Luke tells us that Herod said, John, I've beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? He sought to see Jesus. He wants to have his awareness of who this man is and all of that. And that's what's taking place. But he's sure here in verse 16, it's John, whom I beheaded. He's been raised from the dead. His superstitious fear is tormenting him. And why is that? Well, verse 17, for Herod himself had sent in late hold of John, bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her because John had said to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And so he found himself in that situation because he was upset. His actions were personal. He did not like the fact that John kept pointing out his sin. Again, verse 17 says he had imprisoned John for the sake, notice of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. A year earlier, he had arrested John because John had called him to repent from his sin of adultery. Herod had stolen Herodias from Philip, his brother, while on a visit to the city of Rome, he divorced his wife, her name was Vesalus. She was the daughter of a king by the name of Herodus the fourth of Nabatea in order to marry her. So he divorced one wife to marry his brother's wife. And notice here in verse 17 how the Holy Spirit did not allow Mark to call Herodias Herod's wife. He refers to her as his brother Philip's wife. Why is that? Because he was living in adultery. He divorced her, his past wife, to marry her. And God had commanded the nation of Israel not to commit adultery. It's called the seventh commandment. It's found in Exodus 20 verse 14, you shall not commit adultery. They had no grounds for divorce. So when they divorced out of convenience to marry, they committed adultery. Later on we'll see in chapter 10 verses 11 and 12 how Jesus said, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. And that's what took place here. There was the sin of adultery. It says in verse 18, because John had said to Herod, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So John had brought it to his attention. It's not lawful for you to have Philip's wife. And this is something he didn't say just once, by the way. He repeatedly had told Herod that this is not lawful. Not only was it adultery, but it was also what is called the sin of incest. Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, his half-brother, which made Herodias his niece. In Leviticus 18, verse 6, no one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. So John was a preacher of righteousness and he would preach with conviction and he would preach with courage. And it didn't matter to him that Herod was a ruler and it didn't matter to him that Herodias had been offended because he was a man who was sold out to the Lord. And his fear was of God and his loyalty was to what God had commissioned him to do. In second Chronicles 16, verse 9, it says, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. And John the Baptist's heart was loyal to God. And when your heart is loyal to God, then you don't fear men.  He was a man who was sold out. When you read about John, and we've done that as we've gone through Mark, and you read and you see some of the things about John, you can see where his courage and his convictions came from because Luke tells us that he was filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother's womb.  And that John had spent his early years in the wilderness, separated, that when he came to minister, he came dressed as a prophet wearing the skin of a goat or a sheep. He came in that kind of dress, which was the dress of a prophet, and that his diet was locus and wild honey. He lived a very separated life. And so as a prophet, living a separated life, living out in the wilderness and then coming and saying, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand, had left a tremendous impact on the people. And then when people would approach him, the religious leaders, he said, you brood of vipers, who has warned you of the judgment that's to come, he would speak to the ordinary people and say, these are the things you need to do to get right with God. He didn't hold back. And so he had disciples who would follow him and trusted him. But he'd say, I told you myself that I'm not Messiah, I'm here simply pointing him. So he had humility. He knew everything that he needed to know his commission and faithful to those things. He was loyal to God. And that's that. That's the kind of thing for us and ladies that you need to have if you're going to have a ministry that reaches people, the power of the Holy Spirit, an awareness of what you're called to do, and a fear of God, and an integrity in your life that demonstrates that you know that you have a relationship with God that you want others to have too. There was a fellow by the name of Samuel Bregel. He was an early leader of the Salvation Army and he wrote with great insight of the way to gain a position of spiritual leadership. This is what Samuel Bregel wrote. He said spiritual leadership is not won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears. It is attained by confession of sin and much heart searching and humbling before God, by self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold, deathless, uncompromising, and uncomplaining embracing of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking into Jesus crucified. It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but rather like Paul by counting those things that are gained to us as a loss for Christ. That is a great price, but it must be unflinchingly paid by him who would be not merely a name only, but a real spiritual leader of men, a leader whose power is recognized and felt in heaven, on earth, and in hell. Now that was John, unflinching, uncompromising, a holy man walking with the Lord, fulfilling his calling, filled with the Holy Spirit, and that's what gave him the ability to speak to Herod and to be listened to. There are those today and I say this with no joy who preach a message that they don't live, and they have no credibility because if you are not practicing what you preach then your words are actually, they sound like brass or tin, they have no genuineness to them. John was a man of character. I've been sharing with Wednesday night. I've been sharing how that when you look at the qualifications of a leader, according to Titus in chapter one, and I've shared with them these are the things that are taking place on the island of Crete, that there are, there were people who got saved on Pentecost. They were from this island. They returned to Crete. When they returned to Crete as people who had been saved, they began to meet together. When they began to meet together, they weren't really well taught yet and Paul and Titus came to the island. So Paul left Titus there to put in order the things that were still yet lacking and he said, I want you to appoint elders in every city. Why? He said, because they need to be able, with sound doctrine, to deal with the false teachers who began to creep into the church. So on the island of Crete and the churches in Crete, there were false teachers who were creeping in, who were bringing in a form of Jewish legalism to attempt to bring the people into bondage to the law of Moses. And so Paul says what you need to do is you need to appoint qualified men as elders so that they can go through and they can minister. Then he began to give the qualifications and he gives something like 14, around 14 qualifications, what there to be like. They're not to be drunks. They're not to be going out on their wives. They're to be men of character. When you look at all of those things, so reminded and all, these are character traits. These are men of character and integrity. They run their own house well and things of that nature. And there's about 14, maybe 15, when you look at it closely, qualifications. Then after he gives all of these qualifications, he says that they need to know scripture well enough to correct those who are in opposition. And so I found it interesting to note that if you're going to have any kind of ministry credibility, it's not based simply on the fact that you're able to talk and to share things about God. But you have to have the character that actually lines up with the message. And sometimes even to this day, the church has a tendency of going after the well-spoken one, the humorous one, the one who claims to have miraculous power, whatever, they go after the charismatic one, but they're not looking for the one with the character that can help them to lift the message that he's giving. And so John had that ability. Listen, sometimes when you're young in the faith and you want to preach the gospel to people and all, sometimes because you really haven't yet formed into a mature believer, sometimes people would just watch you for a while to see whether or not you're going to stay with this faith that you're preaching. They'll watch you for a while. Other people sometimes will hear you and they'll say, that message is all I need to hear. I want to be saved. But sometimes there are people who will watch you. And it's the consistency very often over time that helps to win people the faith in Christ. But if we're not living that message we're giving to others, they have a tendency of rejecting the message based on the messenger. So why could John speak to Herod and have him listen to him? We'll see this in just a moment. It's because Herod saw in John a genuineness about him. Now as we look at this, I'll build this a little bit with you. John had been in prison shortly after Jesus had been baptized and he's been at the writing here in prison for over a year. And as he's been there in prison, he has continued reproving Herod. Now remember how John had been outdoors all his life. He was in the wilderness until he came and enacted the role of the forerunner of Messiah. He had been in the wilderness for many years, all of his life. But now he's in a small cell. It's cold. It's wet. It's a dungeon. There's no fresh air. There are very few visitors. And that's where he's ended up. The conviction Herod experienced could have caused him to repent, but he didn't. In Proverbs 29, verse 1, he who is often rebuked and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy. When the Holy Spirit convicts us we ought to respond quickly to his conviction and not harden ourselves against it or else we end up actually living a terrible life. You see, John paid a great price, but he didn't stop pointing out Herod's sin. You're committing adultery. You're committing incest. You need to repent. And that's how he said it. Now, sometimes when you see our movies that are made to give us some biblical characters and all the ones I saw when I was growing up, John the Baptist always looked like he was in his 40s. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn't in the movies. I don't know. But I can tell you this. And this is something I found interesting as I was preparing this study. I began to think about this. I'll share this with you. I was talking to my wife about this just this morning. I said, you know, whenever I've thought just I guess it comes from the Hollywood productions of Bible stories and all. You see the John the Baptist character. He's always big. He's always blustery. You know, it's got this big old hairy beard and his hair is long and all of that. You know, you have this and all, but he always looked like he was in his 40s. You know, John was not that old. Do you know that? Do you know that when John was just a few months older than Jesus that Jesus began his ministry when he was 30. Luke tells us that when he was about 30. That made John probably 31 or 32 years old. That's how old John was 31 or 32. He wasn't a 40 or 50 year old man, a 60 year old man. He was a 30 year old man, 31 years old, maybe 32. That's how young he was 31 or 32. And yet he's standing up speaking with all of this authority and all of this conviction because he was a man set apart by God to do that work. When you're young, you may think you don't have ministry. That's just not true. When you're young, you've got plenty of opportunity for ministry. And I really believe that the Lord wants to raise up a lot of younger people now in this generation to do the work of ministry. I may very well have somebody in this off right here in this room right now. We're watching that God is calling to pastoral or eldership roles. And you're thinking, I'm too young. Listen, I was 30 when I planted this church. You're not too young. You just need to be ready. You need to be prepared. You need to be in the word of God.  You need to be separated to God. You need to be willing to go where God calls you, to do what God tells you to do. You just need to have the character. You need to put these things into practice so that when the older people see you and they think, what's that snot? He knows, kid, no. You know Jesus Christ. You know His message. You know His power. You know what He requires. And you have the courage and conviction to say it. And I don't believe that John would stand there blustering and screaming with spit coming out of his mouth. I don't believe it sometimes. I know. I believe that when he sat with Herod and spoke to him, it was a reasonableness in his dialogue that would speak to him. And he would say, you know what God has said in his law. You know. And he would stay strong in the word of God. And that's why we need to know God's word to be able to present it and not our opinions. And so John was there. He's there ready to lose his head because Herodias, this woman who is living in adultery with Herod, wants him dead. Notice 1st 19. Herodias held it against him, wanted to kill him, but she could not. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was just and holy, a just and holy man. And he protected him. And when he heard him, notice he did many things and heard him gladly. That's interesting. Herod feared John and was afraid to execute him. Why is that? Well, he was concerned at what would happen if he did put him to death. And in Matthew 14, it says he wanted to put him to death, but he feared the multitude because they counted John as a prophet. He was afraid of what the people would do. But also he knew him to be a just and holy man. He had a superstitious fear of John. He was afraid to kill him. It would seem that he might be concerned that something would happen to him if he did. Herod's life was filled with fear.  His life was just enshrouded in fear. And it says in verse 20, even so he enjoyed speaking to him, even though he didn't understand him. He desired to put him to death, but it was still intrigued. How could this man speak with such boldness, knowing he could die? This is the kind of courage that the world doesn't understand. He knew that people would do almost anything to preserve their own lives from death. It's like what we read in Job chapter 2 verse 4 where it says skin for skin, Satan replied, a man will give all he has for his own life. So how could John be so courageous knowing that Herod could put him to death? Well, he was bold because he knew God and he knew his own future. It reminds me of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they were speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar who was going to throw him into a fiery furnace. And so in Daniel 3 16 through 18 it says that they said to King Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you've set up. Our God is able and even he doesn't, we'll be with him, doesn't matter either way. That's that courage that you can get. And notice it says in verse 20 again, he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly when he did some of the things but he didn't repent. He never committed himself. He listened gladly. He appreciated some of it. The passionate holy voice of John interested him on a superficial level. It reminds me of Ezekiel 33 32 where God says to the prophet indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. They hear your words but they don't do them. Oh I really like the way that preacher preaches. I really like the way he said that and what he taught. They like what you're saying but they won't do it and that was Herod. Well verse 21 an opportune day came when Herod on his birthday gave a feast for his nobles, the high officers and the chief men of Galilean. When Herodias' daughter herself came in and danced and pleased Herod and those who sat with him the king said to the girl ask me whatever you want and I will give it to you.  And so it's Herod's birthday and Herodias finally gets her chance. She invites the political elite, the military commanders, the prestigious men. Those would be the Herodians and she gives a birthday party for Herod. Roman birthday celebrations were often drunk in orgies filled with sexual debauchery and this party was no different. It says in verse 23 that Herodias' daughter herself came in and danced. Notice it says and pleased Herod. It's not kind of it's not like one of our game shows that we have on TV the voice or some you know America's Got Talent or whatever that please is not that word. The word please when it says she pleased him that's a word that's actually a very strong word. It's the idea of exciting erotic emotion. She sexually stimulated Herod. The dance that she was doing was an erotic dance, an erotic dance. It was something and her name was Salome. It was something that was intended to excite him sexually.  I'll give you anything you want. Ask. I'll give you up to half of my kingdom. She pleased him.  Ask whatever you want. That was more of an arrogant boastful promise because he had very little to give but that's all she needed to hear. So verse 24 she went out said to her mother what shall I ask? Mother said the head of John the Baptist. Immediately she came in with haste to the king and asked saying I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The king was exceedingly sorry yet because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him he didn't want to refuse her.  She had her opportunity and she took it. Finally this voice will be silenced.  Well the king was sorry but he had made a promise in front of everybody and was caught by his own words. His nobles and his officers the chief men were all present so for the sake of his oath he slaughtered John and he gave his head to Salome.  Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? And so they did that. There he was awaiting execution. Remember how in Matthew chapter 11 how John was there languishing in the prison and two of his disciples were sent with a message and they came to Jesus and they said are you the coming one? Are you Messiah? Or should we look for another?  He just needed absolute certainty and Jesus said you go and tell John this and he began to share with them some things you know.  Let them know these things are taking place in fulfillment of prophecies they find in the Old Testament especially in the book of Messiah. Let them know these things are taking place and then say to him and blessed is the one who is not offended because of me. Blessed is the one who isn't scandalized because of me. Blessed is the one who isn't stumbled because of me. Blessed is the one who hasn't tried to create me in their own image but accept me for who I truly am. And I may not be doing the things that John thinks I should be doing. John being a preacher of righteousness and Jesus actually eating with publicants and sinners. He may be hearing stories and they may be a bit twisted and the things he's hearing makes him concerned.  I think that's where a lot of people get stumbled by the way is we try to create God in our image instead of accepting what God is all about and has told us he is. When Marie and I were dating I had learned this lesson a long time ago I didn't want to be somebody to her in a date that I wasn't really as a person because guys can do that. You women know that and we guys know that. We'll ask the girl what do you like?  I like spaghetti and suddenly that's your favorite. I love spaghetti too. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. Where do you like to go? Oh I like to go to this. I'd love to go that place too. That's my favorite. What kind of music do you like? Well I like western music. Hot dog. So do I. I love that. So you do those things right. You do those things because you're trying to get in their good graces and then what happens and they date you. You're always the phony then you get married and they find out who they really married. That happens a lot of times. So when Marie and I were dating I made a decision that I was going to be who I am. So I wouldn't ask her where do you want to go. I would say I'm going to go somewhere would you like to go with me. I wanted her to know the real person not that pretend one because I had learned to pretend as a kid but I didn't want to as a man. So I like this food. I like yeah that's just true. I thank you for this side. I'll talk to you. But that's the way it is. Blessed is the person who is in scandalized because of who you really are and you can take Jesus and you can put him in a little box. My Jesus would never do this. My Jesus would never do that. My Jesus would never. That's what people do. Watch the news. Listen to unbelievers. Even the church sometimes does this. Oh my Jesus wouldn't ever condemn anybody. Wait a minute. What Jesus are you worshiping? Because it's the whole counsel of God. And yes he carries the lamb. Yes he cares for the lost. But yes he also pronounces judgment. He does both. That's why we need the whole counsel of God to see the whole person. See that's how that works. Again this side. You guys are backsliders. Let me talk. But that's the truth. See be who you are. And John saying are you the coming one? You're not the one I thought you were. You're doing things differently. We preach repentance.  But you sit down with Republicans and sinners. I don't get it. Are you the coming one? Listen. The deaf are hearing. The blind are seen. The lame are walking. The lepers are being cleansed. And the dead raised to life. You could tell John this. Blessed is the one who is not scandalized because of me. And so John was willing to lose his head for what he knew was true. We need some men with spines and women with spines today who are willing to stand up and say I don't care if you cancel me. This is the truth as God has given it. We need that in the pulpit today. Instead of giving in to people oh I don't like you. I mean people will write stuff on Facebook saying I don't like you. Like I supposed to care. I don't even know you. I'm supposed to care about what strangers think. There's only one person I care about and that's the Lord. And if I tell the truth that's all that matters. And you do it in love. But see that was John. That was John. That was John. And so John was willing to and he lost his head for the gospel. And his beloved disciples came, claimed his body. They took it and put it in a tomb. In Matthew 1412 it says his disciples came, took away the body and buried it and went and told Jesus. And they went and told Jesus, John is dead. John is died. And Jesus heard what they had to say and continued his ministry because it was closer to the time he would lay down his life. Somebody said for fear of a woman, for fear of his peers, for fear of his throne, and for a lack of fear of God, Herod damned his own soul forever. What happened to them? Well I actually looked up to see if there's any history as to what happened to Herod and Herodias. They eventually had been banished from Israel and they sent them to Lyon, France. And they died when commentators said in a very miserable condition. Well what happened to Selome, the one who danced in the way that she did? According to this one author, Selome fell through a patch of ice. Her head was caught while her body sank in the water. As she tried to save herself, the sharp edges of the ice nearly severed her head and she died. So when you read your Bible and you say, well that doesn't, how come righteous, this is how these people died? John lost his head but he's in the presence of the Lord. Selome almost lost hers and she perished forever. So I would say the wisest thing is to follow the path of John, wherever it may lead, because at the end of the day we simply want to be faithful to what God has given us to do. And if you have an opportunity to speak the truth, do it with love, do it with conviction, do it scripturally, but do it. Father we ask that you would work in us today.


National Disabled Dinners Winter Sports Clinic, and we're here at the Aspen Rec Center to participate and take a look at some of the sled hockey here, it's adaptive hockey, and I got Patrick Osborne here, who's a Marine, his fifth time here at the clinic, and your second day here at Ice Hockey, what draws you to the sport? Well, the speed, going around in circles, it's an interesting feeling being able to lean over and make tight turns and get going and using the equipment that's available to get out here and have some fun, burn some energy. Absolutely, burn some energy. There's definitely that going on here. The pucks are flying and the sleds are sliding, you know? And you have two little modified hockey sticks here that you use to push yourself around.  Not unlike skates, a little bit, same concept. It's different than the toe chip on figure skating. Ah, good, good. And so why should other veterans consider coming to the Winter Sports Clinic? The Winter Sports Clinic is awesome. Between the scheme, all the extracurricular, it's for everybody. And if you don't know what you wanna do, you jump into something and you find that you like it, you end up loving it, you're always going after it, and maybe it expands into your personal life whenever you get back home. Absolutely, there's connections made here. And of course, you can feel the competitive spirit in the air along with the cold. And I noticed we're all on the same team, we're all veterans, veterans helping veterans here, but there's also two colored jerseys here. So what do you gotta say to the other team? Watch out. Awesome, and make sure you're following along with WinterSportsClinic.org, and I should say that this is the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, an event that we co-present with VA every year, could not do it without them. Thank you so much.


What's going on everybody? Dato Doi here with another ranked video. Wow, this time we're going to pick some pretty unique team, Goku, God, Form, Trunks, and Tien. Still looking for a third character in my slot, but I just don't know who to put there. Oh yeah, we in. We won the neutral. Oh, and I messed it up. Oh wow, okay, Greek. I was so busy focusing on how he crossed me up, I thought he hit me, so I just stood there and took a grab. Why did I end the combo like that? Oh, I tried it too after that. Oh, overhead. I always forget that moves in overhead. One of my... Okay, I gotta get Bardock out of here. I really didn't mean to keep Bardock in here for so long. Okay, Yamcha's in. Oh, roundly outside. Come back. Oh, I dropped it. I didn't mean to switch in. I just wanted to get the assist. Oh, forgot. He looked like he was a little higher than that. We're going down. Okay, I wanted to have him hard knock down. Well, slide and knock down. Yup, okay, this is a dead Trunks. Boom, spin the bar, pick up the kill. Now we're in a really good spot here, because if we get down to Tien, I can just bring out Bardock. Okay. Oh, really gotta stop backdashing in the corner there, man. Oh, probably shouldn't have vanished. Boom, dragon balled him. All right, come on in. Oh, whoa, it did not mean to jump that high. Backdash again. It's my greatest asset. Slide and knock down. Oh, okay, sticking in some light jabs. Oh, gotta... I gotta go with 5L there. Backdash. Legs too short. Grab them. Hey, we haven't done that all game. It's time to exchange my grab card. All right, we good. We good. Just didn't want to get caught by any stray. Okay, I could probably kill him right here if I land a quarter circle forward. Oh, I dropped it. I dropped it. Oh, I dropped my... Save me. I dropped it, guys. That was supposed to be the one. That was the Bardock. Well, I was going to do the touch of death, but it's not like he had that much health anyway. No. Oh, God. Okay, we did it. We did it. We got the backdash off the vanish. That's some good stuff. All right, let's hop into the second game here. All right, going into the second game with a boost in confidence. Bardock time. Just going to do some Bardock stuff. Boom, bring him down. Oh, my. Clean. Didn't even take a hit. We are out here. Okay. Okay, that was an interesting button. Okay, and Bardock is so fun. I am so glad they made this character fun. Okay, was that all safe? Obviously, not the auto combo part, but like the flips. I'm not sure what button I could have pressed in that situation. All right, I'm out of here. Oh, bad timing. No vanish. I don't think it would have worked anyway. Backdash. Yeah, there we go. This guy is not adjusting to the backdash, and that's going to really get you.  Oh, Yamcha Goku combo. I messed it up, by the way. That's not the combo. And I backdashed again. I would really get a lot more mileage from my characters if I just wouldn't do that. Okay. Well, okay, we're out of there. Okay. I mean, I can't believe I missed the input. Well, not missed it. I just completely messed it up. Okay, going down, behind the back, spend the bar, get the kill. Easy enough. All right. Now, once we get five bars, Bardock is coming out and we're getting this combo. That wasn't even the combo. I just did that because I thought it would look sick. And I was right. Oh, come on, man. That should have killed.  Oh, my goodness. That was... Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Playing a little differently here. Cross-ups. Okay, wait, wait, wait. Getting bounced around now. All right, some of the calm down focus. Really in the corner is not where you want to be against Goku Blue. Whoa, I did not see that coming. Boom. Look at this damage. I'm expecting a switch in. Okay, no switch in. I just, I absolutely ruined myself. I'm out of here. I'm just out of here. I'm not losing Bardock that early. Behind the back.  Of me, of me, by the way. Let's go up. Let's take them, take them on the Yamcha train. Oh, that was sick. The Yamcha moves are too slick with it. Oh, my Yamcha. Oh, kick him through a mountain. Let's go. Oh, I'm getting down heavy. Okay. Let's see if Yamcha can't finish this by himself. Let me go. Oh, wow, that wasn't even a combo. Going in for the aerial. Oh, God. Whoa. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Yamcha can do it if he gets the... How did I miss that up twice in a row? Okay. Come on, Bardock. Bardock, what is he doing? Oh, man, Bardock's dead. Is he? That's not gonna hit. Oh, oh, save me. Okay, we good. All right, we all good. All right, seven bars. Bardock's winning this game for me. He's not even getting switched out. He's gonna go with a beam. I'm gonna jump. Super dash. I'm spinning out of there. Grab. Nice. We in there. This should be a kill. No, I messed it up. He didn't tech. Ah, damn it, man. Oh, oh, wow. Catch him, catch him, catch him, catch him, catch him. Ooh, that killed him on like the last hit. I thought that would do way more. All right, well, that was a pretty good ranked video.  I had a lot of fun in these matches. Thank you for watching. Go ahead and leave me a comment down below whether you want to see more teams or just any changes, or if you have any video topics for me, I'd love to read them. Hopefully you guys are still enjoying this ranked series. I know I'm having a lot of fun doing these. It's just playing Dragon Ball Fighters. I mean, it doesn't really get any better than that. All right, well, see you guys in the next video.


This is how you make magic milk. Isn't it cool? I'm going to show you how to do it so you can play too. First you want to pour some milk into a small dish. You don't need a lot of milk. The best thing they use is whole milk because it has the most fat in it. Then you add a few drops of food coloring. Use all the colors that you want to see swirl. This is red. This is blue. This is yellow. And this is green. You want to get the color all around so it looks cooler. Last, you add a tiny drop of liquid soap. You really don't want to add too much. Just dip it into the soap and let it drip into the milk. This is where the magic happens. Abracadabra! Colors are swirling around like crazy. It's like liquid tie-dye. The science is that the soap is chasing the fat in the milk and as it chases the fat, it swirls the colors. Important tip! Do not stir the milk. If you mix it up, it stops working. Abracadabra, you've got magic milk.