Hi, I'm Dr Sharon Thompson and I'm a reader in the Law School at Cardiff University. I hope this video may be of some use or interest to use a family law student, and as you can see, I'm going to talk about meal tickets, gold diggers and financial provision on divorce. Why? Well, most of us have probably encountered a news article on the latest big-money divorce case that mentions some of these terms, whether it's the latest relationship breakdown of a celebrity or a millionaire, the details of who got what make popular stories in the press. And such cases can elicit strong opinion, London being lamented as of course the divorce capital of the world because the law in England and Wales is sometimes perceived as encouraging meal tickets, alimony drones, gold diggers, stereotypes that disproportionately apply to women, not men. So I am interested in how these stereotypes have created a backlash against efforts to implement equality in recognised care, and how this has influenced much of the discussion around reform of financial provision and prenuptial agreements. So why is this of relevance to you as a family law student? I've suggested on this slide that this video can help you to analyse the system of the redistribution of property on divorce in England and Wales, and this includes being able to think critically, using data and academic articles about some important cases you may have encountered in your reading, and about current debates around reform of this area of family law. So the ideas in this video are explored more fully in the first article noted here in the slide, an open access article titled A Mill Soon Around the Neck. And I've also included some other publications of mine and of others that cover the issues explored in this video. So to begin with men, what is a gold digger and what's a meal ticket? Well gold digger is in the Oxford English Dictionary. It's defined as a woman who forms relationships with men purely to obtain money or gifts from them. So this tells us first that material gain is the only motivation for a gold digger, and secondly that men are not gold diggers. The meal ticket phrase is generally associated with joint lives orders, which you may or may not have encountered in your reading already. Joint lives orders are whereby spousal maintenance lasts indefinitely until the court orders otherwise. The recipient rate partners are one of the parties dies, and I'll talk more about this shortly. But what's important in all of this is the effect of these terms. So she wasn't writing specifically about gold diggers or divorce or any of that, but I do think this assertion made by Sandra Fredman is relevant where she says stereotypical images of women have throughout the ages been used to justify detrimental treatment. Because women are classified as different in their relevant respects, it appears justifiable to subject them to detrimental treatment. So the stereotype of the gold digger is changing the way we think about women's economic entitlement and divorce, and arguably does justify detrimental treatment of women. And in addition to these gold digger meal ticket terms, we also have another powerful trope in society, which is that of the independent woman. So of course this trope celebrates independence, it means women can react also in quite a visceral way to the accusation of the gold digger, understandably so, but either seeking to prove that they don't need their partner's money or by vilifying women who do. So these two tropes of gold digger and independent women are sometimes pasted on to every woman and then the voices of the broad spectrum of women in between are lost. And this includes people who become economically dependent upon their partner because marriage does create interdependence, especially when there are children. And she might make decisions for the welfare of the family that might mean sacrificing her earning part and she's not Beyonce or the Mills, but as I'll try to show, she is adversely affected by these powerful tropes. So I want to try and address three questions in this video. How are meal tickets and gold digging reported in media? Why do so many people believe the law encourages gold digging, encourages meal tickets too? And how do these perceptions influence prenuptial agreements and the division of assets on divorce? Addressing question number one then, how are meal tickets and gold digging reported in media? So I want to show this by examining a collection of national press reports on the Court of Appeals stage of the financial provision case, Mills and Mills. This study helps reveal how the ideas of meal ticket and gold digger enter the public domain and it is the press reports of the Court of Appeals stage rather than at the Supreme Court stage that demonstrate this best. So if you've studied this case already, Mills and Mills, and I'll include the citations on the later slide, try and forget everything you know already about the case. Try and forget what you know about the law for financial provision and divorce and take these media reports at face value. So I want to show you the first article I read about this case way back in 2017. The headline reads, divorced men doomed to life as a cash machine. So this article presents the facts of Mills as being simply that Mr. Mills divorced his wife 15 years ago, but has had to increase his payments to her because she spent all of her divorce settlement and the face gold diggers is used in the article. Next is this one with the headline court orders man to increase payments to wife who lost bulk of divorce settlement with her financial decisions, a telegraph article. Again outlines the facts of the case where the wife apparently lost the lump sum she was awarded at the time of the divorce and successfully argued that her periodical payments, that is of course the amount of maintenance she was getting, should be increased and in this article there's some detail on Mr. Mills calls for reform of the law calling for quote changes to the law to limit spouses to five years maximum maintenance and I'll mention this five-year limitation later in the video. My next example is from the evening standard business man's fury as judge orders him to support his ex-wife for life after she blew 230k payout on homes. As this article is based on an interview with Mr. Mills have included his own words here in the slide. I don't think it's a good message to send to men or women he's saying I don't think it's right that after divorce she should be tied together forever and here's a daily male headline. I'm paying for her mistakes husband who was ordered to support his ex-wife for 15 years after they divorced calls for a time number of maintenance after she blew her 230k payout on bad investments. So what do we know so far while taking these articles at face value it really does seem as if the law doesn't encourage men and women to be financially independent after divorce because it awards lifetime awards to women that unfairly prejudiced men. Importantly the coverage isn't all one-sided so this is an example of that. An article titled truels target women after divorce payout and I wanted to include this one and the next one because I've referred to an article with Mr. Mills words in it so I wanted to try and find an example that had Ms. Mills words too. So here is what she had to say about the case. She says quote it should be noted that since the divorce 15 years ago I have never returned to the court to increase my maintenance despite my financial difficulty and bad health and low earnings. This was Mr. Mills application to the court to reduce or eliminate the maintenance despite the fact that our son is still in full-time education and still living at home. There have been a number of articles published recently in respect of this appeal which give a very one-sided version of the fact of the case said the statement. The tone and content of the reporting has caused me considerable distress and a doing it hate meal. Further this one from the daily meal um I'm not a gold digger. The ex-wife occupied as a cold-cutting chancellor after winning a huge rise in maintenance payments 15 years after her divorce blasts back and says it's only her ex's fault. So as she's saying in this article is quote I feel like I've been through your character assassination both with the hands of my ex-husband and the public. They've said I'm a gold digger. It's not true. I'm nothing of the sort. So taking all of this into account then what do we know about the Mills case now. Ms. Mills falls into financial difficulty but does not apply to court. In fact it is Mr. Mills who brings the case to court because he wants to terminate or reduce the amount of money he's paying Ms. Mills which was reportedly 1100 pounds a month. She can't meet her basic needs on this amount of money and asks the court to consider increasing her maintenance payments and ends winning the appeal so that she will get these payments. Okay so this additional context provides much more insight into how the law actually operates. As we know legislation and the judicial approach to this area does not award people with a meal ticket for life, does not reward or encourage gold diggers that instead emphasises that spouses especially after long marriages should be able to leave the marriage independently but on an equal footing economically. So there's obviously not going to be a clean break if it's going to leave one party much worse off than the other and so a clean break between the parties is as we know less achievable where there is less property and capital to divide up because there has to be enough to make the needs of the parties and I've included the definition of needs here according to the family justice council. So we do see that the reality of Mills and Mills then is quite different from that portrayed in the press reports when we look a bit more closely at the judgments. As I've said Ms Mills was awarded an increase in pericopayments to major needs an increase which was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court in 2018. So I've noted both these judgments here in the slide. The Court of Appeal importantly found that although Ms Mills had made unwise investments there had not been financial mismanagement and the court was clear that Ms Mills had not been profligate or wanton. There was nothing to suggest that Ms Mills was a gold digger and awarded her unwise investments indicating machinery intentions. Yet in the press reports in the previous slide Ms Mills is either castigated for being a gold digger or in the reports where she gives her own account she is defending herself from the gold digger accusation. Focus is on the joint lives order made when the parties first separated and not by the court in the current case and it is this joint lives order that is interpreted in the press as a meal ticket for life. So just to note the joint lives order was not affected by the Supreme Court's decision in this case the court simply restored the level of maintenance to the level it had been before the Court of Appeal decision. And so the vilification of Ms Mills for receiving this award importantly does not provide space for discussion of the potential utility of a joint lives order in some cases. So what are joint lives orders when might they be useful? I've already explained what they are but they might well actually be an appropriate response to enduring economic disadvantage following relationship breakdown if we look at the risk research of Joe Miles and Emma Hitchings because they argue that a clean break does not necessarily indicate that the economically weaker party can be fully self-supporting. She may only be able to avoid reliance on the ex-husband by relying instead on others or she may have no office adequate alternative means of support at all. So a joint lives order could arguably alleviate that but there are many cases where that is not happening. So a bit more about the research of Joe Miles and Emma Hitchings and I've included the full citation here in the slide. Their research shows that joint lives orders are actually very rare and that more broadly spousal supports generally awarded to mothers caring for minor dependent children. Overall they found that women continue to be economically disadvantaged following divorce and their research shows then that the press reports about the propensity of family courts to make spousal maintenance wards for life to make joint lives ordered are wrong. Instead actually the opposite is true because all their data indicate a clean break culture. From a data set of 399 court files joint lives orders were made in just 5.5 percent of cases and similarly Hilary Woodward's study of 369 court files only 2 percent for joint lives orders for more than a nominal amount. This indicates then that while Golddigger a male ticket for life tropes are made credible by media reporting such reports don't reflect the reality for women on divorce. So why then do so many people believe that the law encourages Golddiggering my second question in this video. Well we have the example of the media reporting from the Mills case which would suggest that we were real problem with joint lives orders aka as the press likes to call them male tickets for life and Golddiggers but this is also backed up by cultural assumptions about the way money is divided and relationship break down. One of the big assumptions is that assets are always split in half in divorce regardless of the duration of the marriage or of any other factors. And this billboard on this slide also shows that within our general public consciousness there is an idea that if you have an expensive car you want to make sure your spouse doesn't get it. Going against perhaps the idea that the person who undertakes most of the caring responsibilities in the relationship might have indirectly helped you earn the money to allow you to buy that car. Pretty persuasive though isn't it. What if this is further reinforced by the suggestion that what women want is a rich man. For example TV shows like The Bachelor involves several women competing against each other for the chance to go out with a millionaire and then we've got studies like this reported again in the daily mail that don't dissuade people of the notion that women are after men's money all the time either. But all of this aside there is one thing that really cements not only public perception of gold diggers and meal tickets but also the gold diggers is an inherently gendered term and that applies to women and not men. And it's when they see things like this. So imagine you have just seen the reports from the mill's case and seeing this focus on how unfair this was for the husband and then you see this bar in a state your family law expert who has detailed knowledge of the law in this area she's directly referring to the mill's case and saying it is wrong. And she's saying here in this telegraph article our judges are being very old fashioned I'm afraid they're overshover us the way they were in the 19th century people wonder why 15 years after a marriage has ended one person has to keep paying money to another. So she's confirming everything you suspected when you read these reports in the media and look at how persuasive this is if there's one thing that stops women getting back on their feet and being treated seriously and equally at work it's the assumption throughout the legal system that once a woman is married she is somehow disabled and incapable ever of managing on her own for the rest of her life. It is a very serious impediment to equality. On this view the law of financial provision and divorce is actually obstructing gender equality by sending out the message that women aren't as capable of independence as men are. So thinking back to the slide with Beyonce on it this then brings me to my third and final question how do these perceptions of gold digging meal tickets for life and all of that influence prenuptial agreements and the division of assets on divorce? Well it has certainly influenced this bill the Divorced Financial Provision Bill which is currently before parliament and has been introduced a number of times since 2014. This is baron estates private members bill which aims to reform the law for financial provision and divorce by doing three things. First of all it proposes equally dividing the assets acquired during the marriage but excluding assets acquired before the marriage and properly acquired through gift or inheritance and the impact of this clause would arguably be detrimental to women economically disadvantaged after divorcing cases where there's less money to go around. If there isn't very much matrimonial property to split up then getting half of not very much isn't going to get someone very far whose particular housing needs is a result of their perhaps caring obligations for children after divorce. The second thing proposed by the bill is to curb periodical payments to no longer than five years unless this would lead to serious financial hardship and this is encapsulated in the point that begins clause 5c on the slide. So this may be fine for wealthy families but again what about families that can't satisfy a level of maintenance high enough to enable someone to become economically independent after five years. In a society of welfare cuts precarious work in zero water contracts there are many scenarios where someone doing most of the childcare after divorce is going to really struggle to become economically self-sufficient straight away but if this type of struggle is common or normalized it might be difficult to prove the serious financial hardships depulated in clause 5c on the slide. Now the third thing is the bottom point in the slide to make prenuptial agreements binding subject to standard procedural safeguards like independent advice, pull-off periods, disclosure. The important point about this is that there would be no scope to set these agreements aside if their effect would be to leave one person in a position of need. Currently prenuptial agreements have decisive weight on divorce meaning they will be enforced unless one of the parties is going to be left in a situation of real need and you'll know that if you've studied Radmacher and Granitano and furthermore in the law commission's recommendations to met prenuptial agreements legally binding it was made clear that the model of binding prenupts proposed would not allow the needs of the parties to be contracted out of and this is so important even in jurisdictions like New York where prenupts are fairly ironclad there is still some albeit limited scope to set aside great agreements that will leave someone in an economically vulnerable situation on divorce. So in justifying this reform baron estate repeatedly makes reference to meal tickets for life and also has noted her concern about gold diggers and as we saw earlier she pitches her reform as being ultimately good for women but what does the research say what do we know about the impact of divorce on most women based for example on Joe Miles and Emma Hitching's study of court files how does the proposed reform set out in the divorce financial provision bill match up with what we know about the broader picture of financial revision law. I hope this video will help you form an informed view of this it's something that there are lots of articles lots of data and research out there but use that research use that research as evidence to critically assess debates around the divorce financial provision bill and all their proposals for reform. Now not only do meal tickets and gold digger stereotypes impact debates around legislative reform their impact on public perception of the law is also important since many people determine the financial consequences of divorce for themselves either by signing a prenuptial agreement or by reaching a settlement on divorce. My study of prenups in New York found that often the non-moneyed spouse signs a prenup to prove she's not marrying for money or the moneyed spouse insists on a prenup to be reassured he's not marrying a gold digger and one story stood out where the attorney I interviewed said she did not want the prenup he insisted in the last minute he capitulated and said it was all right it was almost like it was a test and because she would dirty knew okay you're not marrying me for my money so this shows us the gold digging stereotype causes the intentions of the non-moneyed not the money party to be interrogated and research suggests this attitude is harmful because it does not place the non-moneyed party's financial demands needs and choices on a par with those of the moneyed spouse the impact of all of this is that by focusing on whether someone is or isn't a gold digger or by proving to the world that you'll never be economically dependent means that there is a shift in emphasis away from valuing care and the impact of devaluing care and relationship breakdown is that structural inequalities are reinforced and that those who do make the non-financial contributions to the welfare of the family are disadvantaged and research shows how gendered this work still is and research carried out by Fisher and Lowell also shows that women take longer to recover economically and relationship breakdown at all levels of wealth and so limiting financial provision to caregiving spouses is neither a safe nor productive strategy for addressing structural inequalities between men and women but the male ticket gold digger mentality does not appreciate this reality some concluding thoughts things for you to take away from this video that will hopefully help you with the family law reading and research the first thing is that we've seen data shows concerns about male tickets and gold diggers are not representative of the bigger picture of financial provision and divorce there is a gap between what the law is and what social perceptions of the law are and so stepping into the debate with accurate information on the law and evidence of the detrimental impact of stereotypes is important much has been written about the conditions that lead to power inequalities and intimate financial agreements like prenups and conditions that lead to inequality of bargaining power are of course crucial to understanding how people make decisions in relationships but people's social perceptions are too because if someone has no money but they're worried that they might be viewed as a gold digger they will sign that prenup that gives them no claim to their partner's assets if they understand that the reason they are entitled to financial provision and divorce is not because the law rewards gold diggers but because the law recognizes the importance of value and care and money equally I would suggest their decision design would be different calls for reform however appeared to be disproportionately focused on these stereotypes so to be clear I'm not suggesting there is not a need for financial provision law to be reformed but if we are talking about reform it's important to understand what's driving these discussions and why it's therefore important to question the motivation behind for example the divorce financial revision bill where any bill seeking to reform this law as part of our assessment of whether it ought to be introduced amended or cost and if terms like meal tickets or gold diggers are used to deny property rights to individuals in divorce we need to question why it is easier to count the cost the financial cost of divorce than it is to count the non-financial one the income producing spouse can calculate the amount of earnings lost to the non-moneyed spouse but the cost of care provided by the non-moneyed spouse is really difficult to quantify stereotypes like the meal ticket for life read rough shot over these intangible costs because non-financial contributions are not visible in the way that financial contributions are and so once again we are brought back to that important question at the heart of this area of family law why, how and should the cost of care be valued appropriately in relationship breakdown thank you


Hey guys, what is up? Welcome to my channel. For today's video, we are going to be doing a Sephora haul. I have a lot of the new makeup. I tried everything on today so I can give you some quick thoughts as well. So if you want to see what I picked up, then just keep watching. Hi guys, if you're new here, my name is Morgan. I am a product knowledge enthusiast. I just love knowing anything and everything about all of the new makeup on the market and sharing my thoughts with you guys. I just want to say a huge thank you to Sephora for sponsoring today's video. It is always a dream come true to be able to partner with Sephora because I spend all my money there anyways. And of course, a huge thank you to you guys because without you, I wouldn't be doing this right now. If you do decide to pick up anything from this video, the links will be down in the description box to shop from there. If you do shop, make sure you use the code free ship at checkout, which will give you free shipping and that you sign up to be a part of the beauty insider program. If you are not already a part of that. For every purchase that you make, you can rack up points, which will get you a free birthday gift every year. You can also save up your points to get certain items and specials that they have. And you also get early access to their really big savings event that they have a couple of times a year, depending what tier you're on. You can be a Rouge member, VIP member or an insider, but nonetheless, you do get access to that event as well. So I highly recommend it. I will also have a link to that in the description box and without further ado, let's go over the products that I got to pick out. The first product that we have is one that I've been curious about. I really do love NARS. I believe that they come out with some very high quality products. So I picked out the Radiant Creamy Color Corrector. Now they have had the very famous Radiant Creamy Concealer for years and years. They're like kind of the OG concealer, to be honest. So they've come out, I believe it's four to five shades of a corrector. I picked up the shade light. I was a little bit worried. I wasn't sure if I should go shade up or with the light, but I'm very happy I decided to go with the light because I feel like it actually works for a large range of skin tones. I think if you're light to medium, you can go for the light. It has a very strong peachy, leaning almost a little bit orange of a tone. I think typically I prefer something slightly more pink. So just be aware that this is definitely more peachy orange. It still gets the job done. Don't get me wrong. Lately I've noticed some dark circles, especially right in this inner area. And I think I really do like it. The applicator on this is very interesting. It's a brush tip. I'm used to the sponge tips for concealers, but it makes it really great to get right in this inner corner. I used my finger to blend it out just to get as much opacity and coverage as I could. So I could go in with as little concealer as possible. I really do think I like it. It's an interesting consistency. It's almost like a wet gel. It's still liquid, but I don't know. I definitely need to continue playing with this, but so far I really like it. It's not a color that I'm used to as far as color correcting, but I'm into it. I think it did a very good job covering the blue right in here. This particular color for the light is going to work really well if you have a lot of blue because the orange does a good job of counteracting that. So I like it so far. I also picked up a new eyebrow product from my beloved Gucci. And they had an eyebrow pencil that I really loved, the Powder Eyebrow Pencil. So I definitely wanted to try their new one. This is called the High Precision Natural Finish Eyebrow Pen. I got mine in the shade Medium Brown. I think if I could go back, I'd go a little bit lighter. I have dark brown hair, so Medium Brown you would think would make sense, but I find myself typically preferring almost like a deep taupe for my eyebrows. I don't like to go too dark, so I definitely had to go very light with this. Just like most eyebrow pencils, you do have a spoolie. It is an automatic pencil and it has the triangle tip, which of course gets dulled down.  So now it's fine. It does deposit a lot of color without being too creamy. I really am not a fan of too creamy of a brow product. It is very, very pigmented, but it blends out beautifully with the spoolie, but not overly so because sometimes if an eyebrow pencil is too creamy, when you blend it out with the spoolie, it makes your eyebrows look messy. That's not the case with this one. It is just as precise as it is easy to blend and just creamy enough. So, so far, I'm liking the consistency of this. I'm going to continue playing with it. It's just very, very pigmented, so I would recommend maybe going a little bit lighter than you naturally would with an eyebrow pencil. At least if you're like me, I don't like really dark eyebrow stuff anymore. I did back in the day, but now I'm at the point where I really don't. But so far, I like this. It seems very nice. I told you guys a couple of weeks ago in this first launch that I would be picking it up. I held true to my word. Today, we tried out the Patrick Toff 4 Brows Major Brow Lamination Gel. You have a signature packaging, the regular aesthetic here. It's a very interesting product, you guys. The spoolie, I don't know if I'm a fan of it. I guess it's more so of an applicator, not a spoolie. It does have this curve right here. I find it a little bit awkward to apply. I do like to use the tip part especially for the inner part of the brows. I feel like it really does separate them and make it more laminated. So you can see that the applicator, it is intentional. It's supposed to get that laminated look. Correct me if I'm wrong because I did not watch any promos from him, but I do believe this bottom part here. The bristles are further apart for the outer part of the brow. Maybe some longer hairs and then the tip right here. The bristles are a little bit closer to do the inner part of the brows to really give them that laminated brow look. So I can see where this applicator was intentional. I just think the curve on it, it's a little bit awkward. It has an angle to it. However, my brows, they're sticking up. They feel like they're going to last for a long time. I will have to keep you guys updated. I've only been wearing this for like 20 minutes now. I like it so far. I really do. And even though I'm complaining about the awkward angle of the applicator, the applicator did a good job of separating the brow hairs, which actually makes the brows look more full. So I'm into this. ABH launched a few new products and I had to pick them up. Every brand really now is launching cream bronzers, highlighters and blushes. So I had to get in and see what ABH was able to do. I picked up their cream bronzer in the shade Amber. First of all, I love the packaging. I love this whole monochromatic theme that we have here. On the website, it said Amber would do best for light to light medium skin tones, which is right where I fall in. It is a little bit warmer than I prefer, but I feel like lately I've been buying a lot more warm cream bronzers. And it's just been a nice change for my typical kind of like poopy brown, very, very neutral brown I've been going. So I do like the extra warmth that I've been getting. This one is very, very nice. I did use a sponge to apply it and it doesn't dry down. It's not a powdery cream bronzer. It definitely is more creamy. It has that natural do to it. It does dry down, but not into a powder, I would say. And it's quite malleable. So it blends in very nicely. It looks very natural on the skin. So far, I don't have any complaints. The only thing I would say is this particular shade is warm and the consistency, it melts. It's definitely not a dry formula at all. You can see we do have some pigment here, but it's very beautiful. I think so far that this is really nice. I enjoyed it with my first application. I also picked up the cream blush from their launch. I did not pick up the cream highlight just because I don't like cream highlighters in general. Very normal packaging for blush sticks here. I picked up the shade Peachy Keen and I tried it out with the brush at the bottom. I think this brush is a little bit too small. It was taking too long to blend the product out. So I started off attempting to apply it straight to the cheek and then blending it out with this brush. Not as good as the makeup by Mario brush, I would say. So I did end up going in with my sponge, which is normally the way that I do like to apply my cream blush. It just covered more area. It was a little bit faster, but the formula of this is really nice and this is such a beautiful peachy kind of shade here. I do have a lot of blushes this shade, but typically I go for something more pink. So I like that this is peachy. The consistency seems nice. It blended out really beautifully. I wish I had maybe like a touch more pigment, but I don't think people like blush as much as I do. So I think I might be the odd man out here, but you can say you do get decent amount of pigment with it. But I want more, but it looks really beautiful. I do enjoy the formula of this. I know it is made in Korea is the bronzer as well. Yeah, very, very cool. Interesting. Alright, let's move on to the next product. I don't know that this is one that I would necessarily recommend for you, but I got us to put in my kit. I just think it's perfect. I got the Benefit Hula Contourist Quad. This came out very subtly. Nobody really knew about it. I think people are slightly talking about it now. Unless you feel like you truly need this. I mean, it's not a necessity, but I am really excited about this, especially for my kit. So you have all four shades of Hula, Hula Light, Hula, Hula Caramel, Hula Toasted. If you are a makeup or do makeup on other people, highly recommend this. Where I could say, you know, maybe if you aren't a makeup artist, what would be great is that I do like to play around with different bronzer tones. For example, I'm not going to use regular Hula to contour my nose, but something lighter, like Hula Light. You see, that's perfect. And then I like to use Hula to contour and bronze a little bit. Maybe I'll use a little bit of Caramel to give me more bronze. So it is doable. It can be justified. Like this can also be used as an eyeshadow. So that sounds like something you would enjoy for being great highly recommended. But if not, I mean, really great for makeup artists at the very least. So I'm really excited about this. I think for me, this is functional and it just makes sense. I can't go a haul without eyeshadow palettes. I picked up three. So we'll start off with the one that I am wearing currently. I saw this in store in Sephora. The other day I took a photo of it because I knew it was going to be my next Tom Ford purchase. And I finally got my hands on Insolent Rose. It is what I'm wearing today. So you can see it's very, very pretty. The only thing that I wish is that the plum in here had a little bit more or a lot more. Let me not be nice here. A lot more pigment to it because I really wasn't able to get the depth that I really wanted today. It did give me some depth and you know, Tom Ford isn't about that life. But if I could redo this palette, that is how I would do it. But if you like a nice pink sparkly kind of look, I think you would really, really like this one. I like this one better than Virgin Orchid in case you're wondering if you're thinking in terms of the pinky purple mauve kind of palettes. I prefer this one over that one. So really happy about this one. It's really pretty. Again, it's not the perfect palette for me, but this is the kind of look that I really, really like. I also got a palette that I wasn't going to get, but I heard good things about it. I'm looking at it. The packaging is really boring compared to what I'm used to for Melt. But I did end up getting the Melt Cosmetics Brunette Palettes. I haven't tried it yet. And why have not? It came a little bit broken. The shades stout right here. I had to press in. But I mean, these are some very, very pretty everyday tones. It's kind of not a very special palette. That's why when I first saw it, I didn't feel the need to have it, but I heard good things. So I can't wait to try this one out. Even though it's not a palette that stands out to me color story-wise, I don't absolutely drool at the sight of it. These are the kind of colors that I always find myself wearing off-camera because deep down, I am very, very basic when it comes to my makeup, even though you wouldn't think that I would be. And I do see this as a color story that I would reach for. So I would definitely have to keep you updated on this palette to let you know what's up with this. I got a palette that was in the sale section.  And this is one that I had my eye on a few years ago. They are phasing this palette out. I believe it is being discontinued, but it was $40. So it was 50% off. So I did pick up Bohem Dream. I mean, the reason it took me so long to pick this up is these aren't tones that I wear very often, but I have always slightly had my eye on it. And me being the Vizzy Art collector that I am, I did want to pick this up for myself. It looks really cute. We have some fun summer pops in here. And actually, I feel like you could make this more wearable than you would think. This for me, this really wasn't a purchase for my channel. It was just for me to kind of have, it even has the old Vizzy Art packaging, but super cute and it's gonna go well with my Grande Volume 3.  I was just very curious about this new formulation. I also saw Tati did a video with Bite Beauty and she just made them lipsticks look beautiful. These are called the Power Move Soft Matte Lipsticks. I know nowadays we tend to prefer something a little bit more hydrating. I'm also on the side of that, but I really like the way that the colors looked and I do really like Bite Beauty as a brand and I picked up the shade Juniper. I've been looking for the perfect pink. I found a lot of really great pinks during this search of mine. The summer color for me lip-wise is a brighter pink lip. Not, you know, Barbie girl pink, but a pink that's a little bit more bold, but still wearable, still subdued. And this one is really, really pretty. I'm not even wearing a lip liner right now. I'm just wearing an all-lip stick. This is a really great pink. I think for a while, pink was kind of out of style or at least I didn't really like it. I'm all about like the browns, the peachy nudes. I've been liking this pink phase that I've been on. It just adds so much life to my face. It's bright without being too bright. And this was really pretty. So it does have a lot of pigment to it. It is going to be drying. That's the nature of a matte lipstick, but it's not too uncomfortable. I think definitely you should hydrate your lips before, but this lipstick does feel like it's really going to last for a long time. So I'm liking the formula of this. Is it as hydrating as a Charlotte Tilbury matte lipstick? No, but it's pretty, pretty good. Last two items of the haul. A lot of you guys told me you were interested in this and I myself was. Jackie Aina's brand forever mood came to Sephora. I picked up two candles, sight unseen, scent unsmelled. I don't like ordering candles without smelling them. I can get a little bit sensitive. I'm very picky with scents. They can give me headaches. I tend to like gourmand or fruity candles. Same thing as far as perfumes as well. Those are the scents I like, but I picked up two of the candles. The first one that we'll do is matcha business. I'm obsessed with matcha flavored things. It has a very strong kind of nut smell to it. So the packaging is absolutely beautiful. I feel like these are stunning for decor. The thing with candles that I'm learning, the order that I get is candles are decor. The notes on this are hazelnut coffee, almond milk, and honey. It definitely smells like a hazelnut to me. It doesn't necessarily smell like matcha like I thought it would, though that's probably a good thing. Even though I like the taste of matcha, that doesn't mean it smells good, but I like it. It wasn't Jose's favorite, but I like it. Let me compare it to the other candle that I got. Again, I like gourmand. I like the scent of bakeries. So I tried cake top. Again, I bought these without even reading the notes. I just liked the name of it. This one, it doesn't smell like a cake to my disappointment, but the top notes here are roasted pistachio, almond cream, and pineapple. Oh, this is such a unique smell. Jose really likes this one. It doesn't smell like a cake, but I can smell that strong pistachio scent. So if you don't like the smell of pistachio, this might not be for you, but it's an interesting mix that pistachio and that pineapple sweet turn to it. I really like this one because it's so unique. I think of the two. My favorite is cake top, but they're very gourmand. I prefer the cake top, but the matcha definitely has that hazelnutiness. I don't know. They both smell good. I don't know what to tell you. I have not yet burned them, but I'm really excited for these. I love candles, you guys. Guys, we're so worried about me the other day. I had a candle right here, and I will agree with what's distracting. No more candles late in the background, but yeah, you guys were also worried I was going to burn these dried flowers. It was like it's perception. It was a little bit more forward than you thought. I just wanted to let you know it's okay, but I do agree with you. The light did distract me. But I think the next time that I'm burning these guys in the background, I'll let you know. I will let you know right now. I'm burning a candle. I don't really like. It was a gift from Etsy, but it's like a foresty manly kind of scent. I'm just trying to run it down and then I'm going to get to the Jackie Aina stuff. Anyways, that is all I got from Sephora. All that is new and that I was interested in. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. And thank you to Sephora for sponsoring today's video. Anything that you see that you liked, I will have it linked down below in the description box as well as the link to sign up for the beauty insider program. If you aren't subscribed to my channel already, I would love it if you would consider taking the time to do so and I will see you guys all in the next one. I guess have a good one.


I was raised in a very religious family. My father was a protestant minister, so me and my sisters, we spent a lot of time in the church when young. I always lived in big cities like Sao Paulo, London, and Rio, but in 2006, I decided to move away from Sao Paulo and go to Lensois in the heart of Bahia, in the heart of Brazil, to start a research about the local folklore and the traditions, the rituals, the processions. And this was my main, the first intent when I went there, but the second intent was to develop a site-specific work that could embrace the whole town. I want to paint the city, I want to paint Lensois inspired by the traditions, but not an embellishing project, but more like a belief confrontation one, in a sense. It took me two years to finish this project, and in the end of the second year, I was invited by some of the elderly in the community to refurbish the local chapel, the Chapel of Santa Lucia. So, neither the diocese or the mayor were taking care of the chapel because it was located in a really rundown area. I took it as a personal project and worked on it for two months. So when I finished, I kept on going there just to visit, and one day, I saw two old ladies going inside the chapel. I saw them on their knees, and with the rosaries in hand, they were praying to one of the images I had painted. For me, it was frightening and impressive to see the new dimension my work had taken inside that space. Because even though I'm not a believer, I knew that from that moment on, those images didn't belong to me anymore. They have been taken. So when I moved back to Sao Paulo in 2008, I started working in different medias like sculpture and also installations, and very inspired by symbology. The temple is a symbol. It's a symbol that can carry other symbols. So I decided to make a series of installations inspired by symbology, but in the form of temples. This is the first one in 2009. I made this installation at Masp, the Museum of Sao Paulo, and then also in Museo Afo Brasil, and in the Museum of Contemporary Arts in San Diego. I think my idea is to make a place of contemplation, not to reinforce any dogma, but to stimulate the opposite, to stimulate the critical thought. I have also worked some of these installations, some of these temples, in the public spaces. So last year I went to Portugal and to make two installations in Lisbon. And after traveling throughout the north of the country, visiting different workshops of craftsmen, learning some of their folklore and some of their sculpting techniques, I went back to Lisbon and did two installations in the streets, two temples. And then I held a performance there, inspired by the traditions I've learned in the north, and to do the masks and the costumes that my character would use using also the sculpting techniques that I've learned from the masters. Now I'd like to share my next project with you. You take place in the seaside of the states of Rio, not in touristic places, not at all, but in small fishermen villages. I remember when I arrived in Lenssoyes in the first two months, one day I was painting a mural and these two small kids came to me and they pointed to my bucket of paint and they said, what is that? I said, it's paint. And then they pointed to my brush and said, what is that? I said, it's a brush. They were like, ah. And then another kid, an older kid came and said, ah, what are you doing that? Why are you doing that? I said that because that's what I do. And he was like, is that political advertising? I said no, but at that moment I realized that they have never seen anyone like painting a mural or like any like mural in the street or anything. So what I want to do is with this project, I want to work within the community to insert art in their daily lives. And I want to work with their working tools. There are the fishing boats, but I also want to work in other surfaces like the houses, the walls, the boardwalk, collaborating to redesign the landscape. Thank you. Thank you.


Everybody forced here ripping 20 21st like football hobby six box break number 26 pick your team style got Brad our jets and Steelers Charles B Raiders Colin M Texans Dan M Bengals Falcons Saints Dean I Seahawks Gavin a with the Bears E&W Packers Jeffrey H Niners Jeffrey C Titans Jeffrey H also has the Charters and Jags Jerry B Cowboys John P Giants John a dolphins. Thank you John for grabbing that last team there Katie has the Cardinals Kyle L Browns mark our Vikings Matt S Ravens Matthew W chiefs Michael P Lions Michael C Patriots makes Michael for grabbing the second Alastin appreciate it Michael G with the birds the Eagles That's why I mean Mitchell H the Colts Peter B Panthers Ryan Z Bills Ryan B Buccaneers Sean T Washington Steve L Rams and Troy has the Broncos Yep. Good luck everybody. Thank you very much for joining. We have just one break left and it's just one team left Just the Patriots breaking next tweet that out. We'll get started. It's the last spot for daytime Thanks everybody for the break so far though. We do appreciate it Try color of Andre Stevenson rookie Pats number 29 of 299 or 249 conquer silver escarge for the Seahawks It smells and a sauce gardener XRC for the Jets very nice That's Jets sauce gardener XRC Premier level silver chiefs Travis Kelsey Jalen waddle field level rookie grand Jalen waddle 29 26 and 99 Ricky Jersey Card Dolphins last spot hit there concourse silver mohomes for the Chiefs. Whoa, Synvic does awake That's crazy. Synvic That's a boom right there. That's a boom move Steve large in 49 of 75 Jersey auto for the Seahawks As soon as synvic to shows up before Steve large and how else could it be? How else could it be? Silver snapshots Jefferson for the Vikings Silver Monfield double rookie Vikings Silver phenomenon Falcons Kyle Pitts. You're here to you're here to mess with Sam today. Synvic to called level silver Dolphins might get sicky Dude, we had a cookie discussion earlier that Sam would not have liked Premier level tri-color Niners Trace Sermon 187 to 199 silver concourse Paul Amalus Steelers Silver premier level Patriots from Andre Stevenson. I'll probably come and chat and that's been tonight too come on Joseph Got Kyle Pitts on the field double tri-color for the Falcons very nice 67 of 75 Concourse silver Chiefs Derek Gore I got it just the past left in the next break Last break daytime. We got snakeskin snakeskin club level Or no concourse. Excuse me concourse Tony Romo Congrats Dallas two of two concourse snakeskin Beauty Tony Godo Get that mag for you Premier level silver Dolphins Devontae Parker legendary broadcaster Tony Romo Club level feels Silver club level Ian book Saints on the rookie Yeah, really good quarterback just injuries. He would have been a Hall of Famer if he stayed healthy for sure. He was too good, man Najee Harris got premier level tri-color Bucks Antonio Brown Blue not tri-color 14 of 199 Justin Jefferson on the Vikings auto nice hit Vikings 56 of 75 There you go, sweet hit and a Levi was a Rique moving it right along Yeah, he was really like overhated. This is pretty weird They always somehow like find a way to blame Romo for like the big game losses outside of bobbling that snap on the field goal Like the Cowboys just were never that good of a team When he was there, they were like good, but they weren't like great Definitely a good player got your March ace and a James Cook XRC for the Bills now nice one Bills Premier level silver Ricky Williams Dolphins and a Mond field level rookie Dak Prescott 25 of 99 Jersey card for Dallas Silver concourse Fitzpatrick for the Titans blue concourse Kyle Kyler Murray Cardinals 182 of 199 a silver premier level Ian book Aaron Rogers 19 of 25 Jersey Auto Packers Big congrats Packers. I thought that would be tie-died at 25. I guess his tie-dies are lower numbered There you go Green Bay awesome hit Brian Edwards Good stuff, man, that's the first Big vet quarterback all I've seen outside of like a Herbert Silver Sensations Dak for the Cowboys club level silver bills trade avius white. Hey, what's up mark? I congrats, man Hub level blue Sir Tamp in the Broncos 91 and 99 silver juju So rookie slashes Devante Smith Eagles silver field level Josh Allen Bills they get still like one goal Yeah, they'll they'll have some Concourse Maroon Calperelli Falcons 98 of 149 obviously it's like it's less just because there's not like substitutions typically right concourse over Jetsack Wilson There's just like less time that place No, it's by half That is how they do it though silver premier level Tommy Chambl Panthers. They'll like give like an average and like okay Usually first half is one maybe two depending depending on what happens. Sometimes if it's really hot out I'll have like a water break obviously factor that in but try calling my home is for the Chiefs 76 at 249 silver concourse Slater for the Chargers more Chase Premier level The Pats are 1449. They may have sold with a hat-trick first half Patrick for Holland. Yes That's two straight halves of the half hat-trick for Holland Yeah, that's pretty incredible club level silver Vikings Helen Mons See, I can't be too upset at that Lime green Joe Mixon Premier level Bengals 14 to 49 and a Ricky Williams auto 15 to 49 for the Dolphins Ricky Williams nice Pats are still there 1449 they're already on sale Hey, thanks for the rose Appreciate it will What do these packs do and do they're all over the place Come on. You just please redesign the select boxes We redesigned these things try color premier level Patriots from Andre Stevenson 63 of 199 concourse silver Jets Michael Carter rookie. Yeah, these are hobby boxes I'm not sure what we're at right now. It was over 1600 last I checked Premier level rookie Falcons Kyle Pitts 82 of 99 nice pits concourse silver Jets Elijah Moore rookie But the link is in the bio guys if you have any questions it's in the bio. We're at 1600 on select hobby a Traylon Berks XRC for the Titans nice Nice Traylon silver Premier level Jags Tyson Campbell fields concourse Lamar Jackson 99 of 99 Jersey card Ravens Silver Ellinger concourse for the Colts Gold field level Texans Texans Brandon cooks as mr. Brandon cooks Numbered 4 of 10 There you go Texan so that's a fix sweet field level gold premier level silver Antonio Brown bucks Mack Jones ETN silver club level McKinney for the Chargers run CMC Try color club level Titans des Fitzpatrick 61 of 149 Ian book 13 of 49 rookie auto Saints want a Smith Wilson selections Kurt Warner 33 of 49 Jersey Auto Rams Sensations Darren Waller called Levels Silver Lions Barry Sanders Concourse orange rookie Texans Davis Mills very nice 30 of 49 Mills little off-center to maybe a little off actually might not be Tough to tell probably off silver concourse Devontae Adams Packers and Mills mafia Premier level Silver selections Zach Wilson Jets Silver field level to it for the Dolphins Silver premier level Jamar Chase Cincinnati and Chuba field level Panthers Silver sensations Mack Jones Pat's concourse over Marshall Falk Rams Who wants the Patriots Mills club level try color Amari Cooper for the Cowboys 136 of 199 silver club level Lance rookie for the 49ers go 49ers Silver snapshots Eagles J. Linda Hertz club level Silver Seahawks Tyler Lockett Blue field level bucks Mike Evans Number eight of 49 Concourse silver James Winston Saints. Yeah, of course. I don't know. I don't know when retail releases Is there even like a select like a date for retail releases kind of just happens concourse over bangles Chris Evans I think they always announce it Frontier more Cardinals field level It's me honest. I don't really keep track of retail too much couple levels silver Titans Caleb Farley It's like multiple hobby releases every week that More gold coming was it gonna be Gold Panthers rookie terrace Marshall Jr. Premier level Congrats Panthers one out of ten Pretty gold card there well centered to left to right at least how to bottoms always tough to tell Congrats on that one Panthers Silver field level Clinton Nelson for the Colts Silver concourse ETN for the Jags Purple concourse Miles Sanders Eagles Yeah 65 is 75 blue club level Chargers Dan Fouts 52 of 99 and Tied I auto Levante David 18 to 25 Buccaneers Nice hit their bucks Great linebacker Mike Evans rally card for the Buccaneers non-numbered Bucks hits concourse over Smith Marseille for the Vikings Trey Lance premier level Niners smells concourse maroon sainte-sie and book rookie 39 to 149 silver field of a rookie Ron Delmore for the Cardinals Smith Ron Delmore 14 to 75 Cardinals jumbo rookie Jersey auto Yo Cardinals. Yes, in fact, we'll probably have some here later this week. We don't have we didn't get it today though I'll probably go home and watch some Some breaks of it if I can find it somewhere You can rip someone streams in Victor I have to come check check your rips out then I'm excited to see it though Usually I rip at least one box of average Star Wars This is 26 Yeah, we'll start 27 little late two more boxes though Field level Earl Campbell for the Oilers that goes to the Titans tri-color 22 is 75 Steelers Cameron Hayward 93 of 299 jurors a silver auto not Jersey Steelers there Silver selections Najee Harris Steelers silver club level can a Kenneth Gainwell for the Eagles concourse maroon Ravens Tylen Wallace 131 of 149 concourse Silver's act Davids and Vikings Silver field level Josh Allen Bills Rashad Bateman field level You're getting a personal masterware case this Sunday. No use These are a panini select football hobby Lance Carla Murray Baker Mayfield 16 to 25 in the tie-dye patch guard Cleveland Silver concourse Najee Harris Steelers Yes, like football by Premier level tri-color Panthers Chiba Hubbard numbered 174-199 club level Silver Raiders Marcus Allen All maps were great this Sunday 1125 Panthers terrace Marshall Jr. Tie-dye RPA. This is a good break for a terrace Marshall Jr. Congrats Panthers Good stuff, man Silver Brady on the phenomenon bucks over concourse Ezekiel Elliott Cowboys I Hopped in switch chat for five seconds on the stream last night and saw some Victor and Sam talking smack to each other It doesn't last long dude until they start going at it Tie-dye concourse Broncos Javante Williams Very nice Javante numbered five out of 25 Silver field level mon for the Vikings Silver concourse Antonio Gibson Washington Sam has either Sam has like two two modes or two moods if you will Either getting riled up or riling people up. Yeah, that's it dude Concourse red Amir Smith Marsets 29 of 99 for the Vikings club level silver Giants Gary Brightwell Pits Fajoco mill selections concourse silver ojolari for the Giants and One last box number 26 Sam the menace. That's right. He's here right now, so Victor. I wonder if he's watching or listening He'll probably come in here enter interrupt the break Ebra we pulled out of the glass. Oh best zebra We've pulled some rookie quarterbacks. I just don't know if we had like field of a rookie quarterbacks or what that's tough if you pulled a Wilson field double zebra Kylan Hill tri-color concourse One thirty three two forty nine Packers drew lock Broncos auto forty four forty nine Eskridge I do not know a lot about hangers hangers and bangers Silver Tori Hall Rams on the snapshot silver club level Ramsey Rams Premier level Lawrence Trevor Lawrence Ebra insert. Yeah, we've hit some insert since I'm trying to think of life. What's the best field level? Honestly, I don't know Grip so much of it in like a week and a half Premier level Antonio Brown 45 of 199 concourse silver Fajoco for the Cowboys Yeah, we've hit it. We've had a lot of big ones though Silver concourse golf for the Lions Lawrence insert club level silver Darden Bucks rookie Lance field double rookie base Sri Lans concourse Mikal Hartman, Jr 37 to 49 jersey card for the Chiefs concourse over Woodson for the Raiders Tri-color concourse rookie Zach Davidson Vikings 47 to 249 silver Cooper Cup field level for the Rams 31 of 99 the I'm a brown rookie jumbo Jersey Auto Washington their Rodgers We had a big Josh Allen earlier today, didn't we I know I remember. Oh, it was a um Phenomenon zebra insert Josh Allen today Remember that silver selections Tom Brady Concourse silver Jalen camp for the Texans More that was a big Josh Allen card today You got concourse blue Matt Stafford Rams 129 of 199 silver club level Jared Dokes dolphins Punk course silver Bateman for the Ravens Greg Newsom feel over rookie Browns Last one we got a tie-dye after the pits and Ridley. It is Des Fitzpatrick rookie premier level tie-dye for the Titans 23 to 25 silver field level rookie Jalen Darden Bucks Jim Kelly Phenomenon was the insert. It was an insert zebra Josh Allen. It's actually a few breaks ago today Other big stuff. There was a case hit in luminance Josh Allen. I know that Zebra's bigger than that, but it's hard to remember We've ripped so much so much There's so much color All right, here's our recap relic cards chiefs Michael Hardman, Jr. Browns maker Mayfield Bucks Mike Evans Ravens Lamar Jackson Cowboys Dak Prescott Dolphins Jalen waddle Auto's now Dianne Brown Jersey auto Washington a drew lock for the Broncos terrorist martial jr. RPA Panthers tie-dye 11 to 25 Cameron Hayward Steelers Rondale more Ricky Jersey auto Cardinals Levante David tie-dye for the Bucks Kurt Warner Jersey auto Rams Ian books Saints auto Ricky Williams Dolphins auto Justin Jefferson for the Vikings on the maroon That's deep large in Jersey auto Seahawks gold premier level rookie for the Panthers terrorist martial jr Jersey auto Packers Aaron Rodgers Number 19 of 25 snakeskin concourse two of two Cowboys Tony Romo and tricolor field level pits for the Falcons 67 to 75 and that'll do it. Thanks again everybody. We've got one more select break for daytime here coming up


We wanna say good morning to our Portage family and downtown and those who are joining us online. He is risen. Now listen, you can always tell half of our church comes from a traditional background, half from a charismatic background. Charismatics all hoot and holler when I say he's risen. It's like, woo! And the other half say he is risen indeed. So let's all practice it together. He is risen. He is risen. He is risen indeed. And I just wanna remind everyone this morning that we're not just worshiping here in Kalamazoo or in Southwest Michigan or even here in the United States. What began 2000 years ago with just a handful of those who were his disciples, waiting for him by the tomb has now turned into billions of worshipers on every continent and every language and every skin color and every social economic status. All around the world today, billions are celebrating and declaring he is risen indeed. And it truly is our living hope. It's the hope of the world. And so we're so glad you're here with us this morning. If you have a Bible, I wanna invite you to open it with me to Mark chapter 16. If you don't have a Bible, it's gonna come up on the screens here in a moment. You can follow along there. But the title of my Easter message this morning is the Women, the Disciples and Peter. The Women, the Disciples and Peter. You know, every year while you're turning there, every year, this is the 27th year that Jane and I have had the privilege of leading Radiant Church from its very beginning to what it is today. And that means 27 Easter messages. And every year I'm looking at the story of Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, like looking at the most perfect, beautiful diamond. It has so many different facets to it. So many different angles to it. And I always pray and I always ask the Lord, Lord, what direction do you want me to go with telling the story today? And this year when I was studying in Mark 16, which is the shortest of all four of the gospel's accounts of the resurrection, Lord highlighted something that I'll show you here in a moment, but read with me beginning in verse number one. It says, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Siloam brought spices so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back and it was very large and entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, do not be alarmed, you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen and he is not here.  And they went out and they fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. You'll notice that when the angel, this is described as a young man sitting on the right side where Jesus' body had laid, speaks to the women on that first resurrection, that first Easter morning, he tells them, go tell his disciples and Peter, and Peter, that he is going before them and will meet them in Galilee. This is significant because in this story, what we realize is that right along with all of the holy week from his triumphal entry and shouts of coronation of a king, and then on Good Friday with the shouts of crucify him as a criminal, and Saturday of waiting and trying to figure out what was taking place, this has affected the women, the disciples, but it's affected Peter in a way that's different from all the others. You see the women were deeply devoted to Jesus. Here they are on the other side of the Sabbath where they can finally go and they can visit Jesus' grave. And their hopes and their anticipation is that the Roman centurions or somebody that are there posting guard over the tomb will allow them to go in so that they can care for Jesus' body and anoint him and more fully prepare his body. Why? Because they love Jesus. They've traveled with Jesus. They've supported Jesus. They've been on the outer fringe, but they have been some of the closest companions of Jesus and they're deeply committed. And the other disciples, they are discouraged and they're in the throes of despair. I mean, for two days, imagine all of their hopes and all their dreams and everything that they've said yes to following Jesus for for three years is now dead and lying behind the stone in a tomb with Jesus over Friday and Saturday. But then there's Peter. And Peter is different from the other disciples. And he's different for one reason. It's that Peter is the disciple who is the most likely to succeed. When you think about Peter being called by Jesus as one of the first disciples, he's the leading disciple. He's that guy who's the most likely to succeed. I don't know if any of you remember the days. Maybe they still do it, but they used to pass out yearbooks in school. Like, you know, you graduated. And I graduated in 1989. I don't have my yearbook anymore. I got rid of it because I didn't want any evidence of my mullet existing. And so I got rid of it years ago. I wish I still kind of had it. There's some things in there, but you know, in yearbooks, I don't know if they do that anymore, but it was kind of fun because you know, you graduate and everybody signs it and stay cool, man. And you know, whatever and you never see those people again. But it's great because that was the original way we used to cancel people. You know, today you just unfollow them on social media.  And that was how you did it in yearbooks. But in the yearbook, there was always this group of people. There was the valedictorian, the salutatorian, and then the most likely to succeed. How many of you remember that? In our class, there was a kid named Travis Gates, straight A student, played three sports. And he was sharp looking and he was nice, which I mean, he was kind of nice to everybody. He was in a cool crowd, but he was nice to everybody. And he was like, he was good at everything. He like helped me with my math homework one day. And I was just a, you know, I was just a young, he was a couple of years older than I was. I was young, I was a sophomore. He was a senior. He was on his way to West Point to be a military officer. I mean, straight A student, I mean everything. Most likely to succeed. And then there's always the other categories. Most likely to surprise their parents or most likely to end up in jail or something like that. I don't know. Peter is out of all the disciples, the most likely to succeed. Think about his pedigree. His original name is Simon, which means he can hear. That's a high bar. But Jesus says, no, your name for now on is going to be Peter, Petros, which means rock. Jesus literally changes his name to Rocky because he's a fisherman. He's a small business owner. He's a, take the bull by the horns, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. He's blue collar. He's got calluses on his hands. He's a natural leader. Type A and Jesus said, no, I'm gonna call you the rock.  Think about this. Jesus actually said to Peter one day in Matthew 16. He says to him, when he's asking the question, who do people say that I am?  Some say that you're, you know, like Moses or you're Elijah or one of those. And he says, but who do you say that I am?  But Peter steps forward and he says, I'll tell you who you are. You are the Christ, the son of the living God.  Can't you just see Peter in that moment with his arms folded, looking at the other guy's gone, see? Look at that. Look who got that one right. And Jesus then goes on to say, and upon this rock, it's a play on his name, Petros. Upon the rock of this revelation that came from this man named Rock, I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.  When Jesus goes up on the mountain of transfiguration and he's gonna reveal his glory, who he really is, Peter's there. Peter's there. Peter sees Jesus for who he really is. He's one of the three Peter, James and John who are closest to Jesus. But when Jesus tells the disciples of Matthew 26 that he's about to go and to be handed over into the hands of the religious leaders that he's going to be crucified, but that he's gonna rise again and he's going to meet them in Galilee.  And all the other disciples then said the same thing, but Peter said, Lord, I will never deny you. I am with you.  I will take a bullet for you. Most likely to succeed, but on the other side of the cross, we realize that Peter is actually the one who's failed him most. Nobody's failed Jesus. Nobody's betrayed Jesus, short of Judas. More than Peter. Matthew 26, in the last hours of Jesus's life, he takes his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane where he's praying and he's interceding. He's crying out to God. Father, give me the grace that I need to go to the cross. Not my will, but yours be done. And he tells the disciples, I need you to stay here and I need you to pray with me. Pray for me while I'm over here, getting what I need to be able to do what God's called me to do. He says, pray. And yet Jesus comes back and what does he find? He finds Peter has fallen asleep. It is greatest hour of need. When the guards finally come into the garden to arrest Jesus. When it's all about ready to kick in and Jesus is about ready to be arrested, beaten, falsely accused, scourged, spit upon, mocked, ridiculed, stripped naked, forced to carry his cross and crucified.  How do we know Jesus wasn't happy with that because Jesus picks the ear back up and he puts it back on and he heals the man. Think of the fact that Jesus is about to go to the cross and he cares enough about his enemy to pick up an ear and to heal it. But Peter's failed him yet again and ultimately he runs for his life. After he watches Jesus heal this man, he just runs. He books it just like all the other disciples who in Jesus' greatest moment of need when they should have stood with him, they flee for their lives and Peter does. Peter runs away and Jesus is taken and as they're standing outside of a place where they've taken Jesus and they're accusing him and trying him illegally and about ready to sentence him to death, Peter standing outside denies Jesus, denies even knowing him, not once, not twice, but three times. Not to somebody with a gun to his head but to a young woman next to a fire. And he actually even curses Jesus. He says, I do not know the man, stop asking me. And the Bible says in Matthew 26 and verse 75 in Peter, at that moment, remember the saying of Jesus when Jesus had just told him, Peter, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter failed Jesus. On a scale that none of the other disciples came even close. And while they're all trying to figure out what has just happened, their hopes, their dreams, their confidence has all been dashed, the women come on Sunday morning back from an empty tomb and they tell the disciples, and Peter, he's alive and he said he's gonna meet you in Galilee. So in the days after the crucifixion and the resurrection, what is Peter, the most likely to succeed, the leader of the disciples, what does he do? He goes back home. He goes back to Galilee. He's not hanging out in Jerusalem. He goes back to Galilee. And in fact, he goes back to the only thing that he knows to do that he has any confidence in because he has felt the sting of his betrayal of Jesus more than anybody. And you know, what do we do in the moments of our greatest shame and the moments of our greatest guilt? When we failed the most, when we've blown it, when we've come up shore, what do we do in those moments? We go back to the very things where we're confident. We go back to the things that we know are for sure. We go home. We go to our rooms. We do the things that we know we can achieve. We know that we can succeed at. Why? Because we've lost confidence in everything else. And we go back home because that's where we remember who we are. We go back home. We go back to our first places because that's where our confidence lies and that's what Peter does. Peter goes back to Galilee and John in his gospel and John chapter 21 gives us the account of what happens when they go back. It says in John 21 beginning in verse three, it says, and they went out all the disciples and they got into the boat because Peter said, let's go fishing. And it says, and they caught nothing. And just as the day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples did not know it was Jesus. And Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? And they answered him, no. And he said to them, cast your net then on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. And so they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John and that's him rubbing it in on Peter. The disciple that Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it's the Lord. And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garments for he was stripped for work and he threw himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from the land only about 100 yards off. And when they got out onto land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid on it and bread. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you've just caught.  And although there were so many, the net was not torn. And Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Now this is an astonishing, an astonishing moment and how Jesus the resurrected son of the living God comes to them. He doesn't come to them in their Jerusalem which is the place of scandal, shame, guilt, their worst moments. He comes to them. He comes to Peter in Galilee, their first place. He comes to them in the place where Jesus had called them, Jesus had trained them and for Peter where Jesus had named him. That's where Jesus comes. Jesus travels to their first place.  The first time you ever heard the gospel and it really penetrated you. Maybe today is that first day for you. Maybe this church service is your first place. For me, I could take you in a car if we had the time and I could drive you to the east side of the state to a place that's now a strip mall but at one time was a small little church with about 15 members called Good Shepherd Assembly of God and on August 11th, 1983, Jesus encountered me as a 12 year old boy in this place and I've never forgotten it. This was Peter's first place. This was, if you go back and you remember Luke chapter five where Jesus first called Peter, it was at this exact spot and it was in exact similar circumstance. Peter, the professional fisherman, had been out all night and caught nothing. And then this rabbi who was teaching in town named Jesus comes strolling over the hill and down with the crowds following him down to Peter's boat. Peter has pulled his boat up on the shore.  He wants to clean his nets and go home and go to sleep.  And Peter, being the nice guy that he is, he does it and then the moment where Jesus said to Peter, Peter, launch out into the deep. Put up your sails and go back out to the middle of the lake for a catch and in his first encounter with Jesus, Peter had told him, Lord, I've worked all night long and didn't catch anything. I'm a fisherman, you're not. I know when it's time to fish, this is the worst time. But he says, nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the nets and he did it. And on that first occasion, three years earlier, he caught such a big load that it began to sink his own boat and James and John had to bring their boats over and they filled both boats. And in that moment, something broke in Peter and he said, my Lord, and my God, and Jesus said to Peter in that first encounter, from now on, you're not gonna be a fisherman. For now on, I'm going to teach you to fish for men.  And he left his nets and he followed Jesus and his life had completely changed. He never thought he would go back there. He never thought he would ever see those boats and those nets ever again.  He's done the unthinkable to God and unto Jesus and he's back out on the same boat in the same lake and he has the same failure. And that's where Jesus comes to him. And when he comes to Peter's first place on another night marked by nothing but failure, what does he say to Peter? Peter, have you caught anything? Nothing. It doesn't surprise me. But what's Jesus doing? Jesus, this blows my mind. Jesus, who's been raised from the dead, that's a pretty good victory, makes breakfast. Have you ever thought about that?  It's like Jesus, but Jesus is making breakfast. Jesus had to show up there, make a fire. He had to catch a fish. Peter hasn't caught anything. Jesus just goes, boop. I don't know if that happens. He just like, stuck on his hand and like, boop. Or if you're like, threw a line in or what, how that goes. He has a fire, he makes bread. He's cooking. And he says to the disciples, come and have breakfast. Jesus, when he comes to Peter and his disciples after their worst betrayal, after their failures, Jesus cares for them. He could have judged them. He could have condemned them. He could have ignored them. He could have left them behind, but he comes to them and he serves them breakfast. I've thought about it. Why did Jesus do this? It's because there's something about the way that Jesus loves us and serves us. Even when we've blown it. Even when we feel like we're disqualified and God shouldn't care about us. And the meal that Jesus makes for Peter and the disciples is not lunch, it's not dinner, it's breakfast, because breakfast is the first meal of a new day. And what Jesus was saying is, I know you've blown it. Peter, I know you've messed up. I know you've betrayed me, but I have not forgotten you and I have not left you behind. In fact, I've come to serve you and I'm gonna feed you what you can't feed yourself and I'm gonna provide for you what you and your own strength can't provide for yourself. And I'm declaring to you today is a new day and a new beginning and I am Lord of new beginnings. Jesus feeds him. This I believe is the first time for Peter that he has ever understood grace. Remember, Peter's the most likely to succeed. Peter's used to making it happen. Peter's used to the strength of his own hand, his own intellect, his own ability, his charisma. He's used to all of those type of things, but now in one moment he's being confronted at the worst moment of his life when he's turned his back on Jesus, when he's denied even knowing him, Jesus comes to him and serves him and gives him what he could never ever do on his own. And you know what? That's exactly how Jesus comes to each and every one of us. It's the true story of Easter. It's not just what he did, it's why he did it. Jesus died for the sins of all of us because all of us have like sheep gone astray each in our own way. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have betrayed God. All of us have failed in our best attempts at being righteous, at being good. We have our own agenda and we go in our own direction and we get offended at God and we say, God, later. But just like he came to Peter, he comes to us to remind us that our failures do not disqualify us. That that is why Jesus went to the cross. There's something else. Did you notice how John captures this? He's like, so we pulled the nets in, the nets were overflowing and it had 153 fish, big fish. For a long time, I've read that and thought to myself, why do they mention 153? There's something about 153. And so I've gone back and read like what church fathers have said for 2000 years, Luther, Augustine, John, Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas and even some of the earlier church fathers.  They're like, if you read the prophetic scripture of Isaiah and you multiply that by 28 chapters in the book of Matthew and divide it by the year 33 AD, you come up with 153 or if you take like 66 books in the Bible, multiply it by the lion's winning record and subtract the number of Reese's peanut butter eggs that Pastor Lee has eaten over this weekend, it will equal 153. None of that's the reason. The reason why John includes 153 fish is because this moment marked them. And in moments that mark us, we remember every detail. Remember where you were when you met the person that you're married to. Remember where you were on 9-11. Some of you may be old enough to remember where you were when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Some of you might remember where you were when we put a man on the moon.  And John and Peter and James and the other disciples are like, we remember that day when Jesus was cooking us breakfast and we had failed, we couldn't catch anything and yet he says, throw our nets on the other side and we did it. It was like a replay of our calling to follow him the first time. And we pulled the nets in and there was 153 large fish and yet the nets did not break. Jesus gave them 153 reasons to believe. When in reality, Peter at least had 153 reasons in his own mind, why God should never forgive him, why his call was done, why he needed to return back to fishing. But what is pictured here is that even though there were 153 large fish, it says the nets did not break. And you know what that's a picture of? The nets are a picture of God's grace. You might have failed and betrayed God 153 times, times 153, but God's grace, the net does not break. Why? Because we're sin abounds, grace does much more abound. And no matter how badly we've lived our lives, no matter how hard we've tried to be good and to please God, no matter how many times we've failed him or betrayed him, maybe you prayed a prayer as a kid, maybe you grew up in church and you've wandered away, maybe you've explored the world, maybe you've thought that there's multiple different ways and over and over and over again, you've failed and you feel the shame and the guilt and the remorse of it. We wanna distance ourself and go back to what we're confident in and yet Jesus comes to us and he's prepared for us what we could never prepare for ourselves and he looks at maybe 153 different reasons that we've given ourselves why God should be done with us. And he says to us, the net of my grace is stronger than the weight of your sin. The gravity of your failure is not stronger than the victory of Easter. Just as he came to Peter, he comes to us and today on this Easter Sunday, I want you to know that doesn't matter whether you identify with the women, you say I'm deeply devoted to Jesus or you identify with the disciples in despair and doubt, questions or Peter.  If he can save Peter, if he can save the women, if he can save the disciples, if he can restore them back, there's nothing that you have done that can break the net of his grace. It is stronger, more powerful than anything you've ever done. I want you to stand with me in this room if you would and wherever you're at joining us if you would stand to your feet. And I wanna pray with us and I'm gonna ask please if you would take the next two moments and not move. This is a sacred, it's a holy moment. It's a time for us to respond to God's grace and I ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes with me. Today I know that a lot of us may become on an Easter Sunday, we can identify with Peter. Maybe for some of us, we're just like, you know what? My background, I grew up in church. I even prayed a prayer one time and when I was a child or a teenager and invited Jesus to be my Lord and Savior, but just like in this story, life got complicated and I've wandered, I feel like maybe I failed God, I feel like I've done too much to ever be restored. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Or maybe you would say I just, I feel the burden, the weight of guilt and shame where it's like, I love God, I just don't even know where to start, how to re-engage that relationship with Him.  I've always thought believed in God, I believed in Jesus, but I thought I had to be good enough for Him to accept me. I never understood that He actually came because I couldn't do it and He did for me what I could not do for myself and that I truly need to be saved by grace just by receiving the gift of salvation. I've never understood that, but today, today I understand, today I know that. Listen, it doesn't matter whether you've never done it or whether today you feel like you're just far away from God because of circumstances or like Peter, because maybe you're thinking of some great failure that you have allowed to separate you from God.  And today I want to give you an opportunity today that just like Peter, it's an opportunity for you to receive God's grace, to say, God, I'm so sorry, will you forgive me? Will you restore me? Jesus, come into my heart, save me, forgive me of my sins, wash me and give me a brand new beginning. Today, He's here to do that. Today, He will save. The Bible says if anyone calls upon the name of the Lord, if anyone, He will be saved. Today, He doesn't need you to perform, He doesn't need you to qualify, He just needs you to acknowledge that He is Lord, that you are a sinner and that you turn your heart towards Him and today He will give you everything that you need to be made right before God. You just have to acknowledge Him. And today all over this room, I'm gonna ask you in just a moment that if you're here and you know you're not right with God, but you say today I wanna get right with God, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer, but I want you to take the first step. If you know you're not right with God, today you need a new beginning, you need to be restored. I'm gonna count to three in just a moment and when I say three, if that's you and you today wanna make Jesus Lord of your life or you wanna get right and you are asking Him to restore you like He did Peter to a new first beginning. I'm gonna ask you when you hear me say three to raise your hand all over this room and say today I'm choosing Jesus, today I'm coming home and then we're gonna pray together. So get ready, here we go. One, two, three. Raise your hand all over the room and you will not be alone. Hold it up all over the room. If you've not raised your hand, raise it right now. Come on, you're not alone. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Say today I'm getting right with God, Jesus restore me, restore the joy, restore my relationship with you. Jesus save me, forgive me. If you've not raised it, I'm gonna wait 10 seconds. This is your moment, raise it right now. Hands all over the room. I see your hand. You can put those hands down. Thank you, I want everybody to look up at me. I'm gonna ask you to do one more thing. This is radical, but this is church. When Peter realized it was Jesus, it says he jumped out of the boat and he swam to Jesus because he wasn't indifferent. He's like, yes, I wanna get to Jesus. I'm gonna ask you to do something radical that marks this moment like Peter's jumping in the water marked his moment forever. I'm gonna ask you if you raised your hand. I wanna pray with you, but I want you to swim for sure. I want you to right now get out of your seat to the nearest aisle and meet me right down here. And we're gonna pray together today, right down here. You come, come from every direction. Come on, don't delay, don't wait. Just come right down here. Just come from wherever you are. Come on, swim, swim for sure. Swim for Jesus. Come from wherever you're at. Over here, over there. Let's welcome them. Come on, there's more that are coming. Sir, God bless you. Young lady, God bless you.  This is your moment. Yes, sir, yes, sir. Come on, young lady. There's more right here. Come on, come from every direction. You might say it's too hard to get to the aisle. Come on, it's worth it. Today, it's worth it. Come, God bless you. Ma'am, God bless you. To all of you who just walked down, that was maybe the most difficult walk you've ever made, but you will never forget it. And I'm gonna ask real quickly. Thank you, young man. Come on, can we just welcome this young man who just took that step? The coming young ladies. Church, I just feel like we gotta wait one more moment. I feel like right now there's a handful of people who are on the fence like, oh, I don't need to go down there to make this count. You don't have to, but you should. Because it will mark that moment. Right now, there's some people wrestling with whether to do it. Come on, break out of that barrier and you come right now. Come on, we'll wait. Just 30 seconds. Come on, we'll wait right over here. God bless you. Here we go. Come on, young man. Thank you, young lady. Listen to those of you who came down. Listen, the Bible says this. It says that if we believe in our heart on the Lord Jesus and we confess with our mouth that he is Lord, we will be saved. That God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. So I'm just gonna lead you in a prayer. Everybody in this room is gonna pray it with us. And when we say amen, your life is going to change just like Peter's. Are you ready? Everybody, I want you to join into this prayer as well. Say heavenly father, I come in Jesus' name and I confess Jesus is Lord. He died on the cross. He was raised from the dead. And he is alive forevermore. Come into my heart, be my Lord and Savior. Forgive me of every sin and give me a new heart. From this day forward, I am a follower of Jesus. I am a child of God. God is my father, heaven is my home and I will never be the same again. In Jesus' name, amen. And amen. Come on.


A group of third grade students at Riverside Elementary School and Brainerd came together on their own to raise money for Hurricane Florence victims. The group created and dispersed boxes throughout the school to collect money to go to the Red Cross. Reporter Rachel Johnson has more. One day, Aldi Johnson was watching the news with her parents when images of Hurricane Florence's devastation came on the screen. I saw all those people and pets go without homes and I feel bad for them so I wanted to give them a home too. She approached her third grade teacher wanting to do something to help. She had this idea and I said well why don't you go talk to her principal Mr. Clark and see what he can do to help so she kind of took charge. That was our on-bus duty one day and I had a third grader named Ali Johnson who said I need to talk to you tomorrow and the next day she came down to my office and said I would like to do a fundraiser for Hurricane Florence. With the help of her friends, they got to work making collection boxes to be dispersed in classrooms throughout the school. We want them to have board and stuff to build their houses again and let the pets be happy. The group of students had originally planned to wrap up their fundraiser by now but when Hurricane Michael hit the south of Florida, they decided to continue. I think it's really cool to do it, doing it with all my friends. The fundraiser has been a huge success so far. To have kids so young come up with an idea to help you know such a huge event in our world and I thought it was just amazing. Just that caring opportunity that we don't have to be right in the same neighborhood, we don't have to be right in the same state to care about those people in need. The faculty at Riverside is proud of the students and how they have shown so much care for the hurricane victims. I just wanted people to know that this school cares for what happens every day around the world. If someone lost their house or lost all their food and forints and they didn't have anything to do, we could have gave them the money and the stuff that they need and then they would be happy again and that just makes people really nice and if we do that I feel like everyone else in the world will start doing that as well. This group of third graders have shown that no matter what age you are, you can make a difference. Reporting from Brainerd, Rachel Johnson, Lakeland News. Once the collection has ended, the students will total the money and then donate it to the Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.