JR Fisher here, good to see you. It is Saturday morning, Saturday. Well, at least it is here. I don't know where you're at around the world, but it's Saturday morning here, and I'm gonna talk to you guys today about how to not get ripped off, which I think is pretty important, right? We don't wanna get ripped off. I'm gonna give you a list of the biggest rip-offs right now, making money online, getting free things, whatever it is. And I'm gonna show you how to avoid those rip-offs. And at the end of this training, I'm actually gonna give you eight things you can do to protect yourself and your money and all that good stuff. And I've got the comments section open here, guys, so you can comment, you can chat, you can ask me questions, excuse me, do whatever you want. I'll be happy to talk to you there on the side. This is informal. So anything you wanna ask me about making money online, you are welcome to do so. Don't forget, if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe. Make sure you hit that big button down there. If it's red, you wanna click it, turn it gray, okay? So if that button down there, the subscribe button is red, you wanna turn it gray. And then the next thing you wanna do, what is, turn on all bell notifications, turn on all bell notifications so you're notified each and every time I go live and you don't miss any of this training. Super important that you do that. Make sure you put it in that comment section, who you are, where you're at, if you can hear me, all that good stuff. There's Paul, what's going on, Paul? He says I'm sounding good. I still gotta work on the sound in here, Paul. I got a lot of stuff in this room. I have to build out. And it's pretty messy, and it's a shame because we get this beautiful, nice new home and this room is so messy, but it's messy so that I can do videos for you guys, okay? I got these walls of blanket things up here to kinda make it sound a little bit better. I went live a couple of minutes ago on Facebook and I was talking to you guys about that and I showed you what it looked like in here. But we got a beautiful view. It's a beautiful sunny day here in Texas. Excuse me. And after this, I think we're gonna go out and grab a bite to eat. Try to find some furniture, which is almost impossible to do. There's this shortage of everything. I don't know if you guys have realized that or not, but put in the chat section. Have you noticed shortages of stuff? I know in our food company, we're having shortages of proteins again. We're having a big problem getting meats to ship out to people. There's no furniture out there. I went to look for shoes the other day. There was no shoes out there. I was at the grocery store last night. We were missing groceries. Guys, it's really weird. It's a weird time. If you've experienced some of that, put it in the chat section there. Let me know what you've experienced. And then I wanna go ahead and get started on this list of things that can really rip you off nowadays. And I'll put some notes off to the side here so I wouldn't forget any of these things. But understand, if you are online nowadays, you can and probably will get ripped off if you don't know what to do. They say that in the last survey I saw was 2018, 800 million new scams online, 800 million. I mean, that's kind of crazy, right? Internet scamming is on the rise. It's huge right now. The number of reports has increased each year in the past three years. It's getting worse and worse and worse. So I wanna provide the service to you and help you out. I mean, so you don't get ripped off. Fishing, P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G is the most common thing. Where they're trying to get your information. But romance, investment, a way to make money online, all these things have huge ripoffs and let me get a little sifter real quick. What's Paul saying there? Notice shortages of luggage. Wow, that's crazy, right? Because you'd think luggage there wouldn't be a shortage because nobody traveled, right? So they didn't wear out their luggage. I don't know. Definitely supply chain problems everywhere. Three Walmart sold out watches. All things are hard to get. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, it's really crazy. Now the majority of the scams that are online are victims who are 45 or older. That doesn't mean if you're 17 watching this that you can't get ripped off because you certainly can. But that's what it is. So let's talk about the very first one. The first one is called fishing, P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G. So this is one of the most common ones. And this is something where they're gonna try to get you to log in to put your information in so they can actually steal it. When you're logging in, you probably aren't logging in the place you think. What you wanna do is look at the exact URL. When you get a link to click and go somewhere, man, I'm telling you, I don't even do it for 99% of them because if my bank needs to get ahold of me or credit cards or whatever, they're gonna probably give me a call something along those lines. Another thing that can happen is that an email could be made to mimic those simple organizations that you know, let's say, I deal with a particular bank, which I'm not even gonna say what it is, but maybe it could come from that bank. One of the best examples of this was Google Docs Fishing scam a few years ago. And in this particular scam, what they did is they invited people to edit a particular doc and it worked with Google systems. So it looked about as real as it could get. However, by agreeing to edit this document, users were granting third party software the right to read your emails and access your contacts. That's crazy, man. This gave the hackers access to sensitive personal material and your bank accounts, your credit card numbers, all kinds of stuff, so security, all that stuff. So fishing scams come in all form shape sizes. For example, some may tell you that you're at risk of being charged huge fines by the IRS, that's, oh my God, that's a big one. Again, I get those on my phone all the time. They may even say that somebody else has hacked your account, they're trying to help you out. Usually, you can stay safe by just not even responding to these things, okay? And they also have a thing called spear fishing. This is essentially the same as fishing, but the difference is that hackers aren't after your information instead, they're usually looking for you to provide access to information which you have privilege access to, okay? It's called spear fishing. The classic example of this is spear fishing attack that managed to hack the Democrat National Convention, okay? So they hacked that. If you're someone who has been trusted with information, make sure you follow your company's policies and procedures, whether it's a business you work for, an organization, it's unlikely that someone you've never met will ever ask you for access without consulting you first.  And the next one is called snishing. S-M-S-H-I-N-G, it's another variation of fishing. It's called snishing. It works in essentially the same way except that the fraudulent message will come through as a text message, okay? So you're gonna get it as a text message. It may come from one of your contacts or pretend to come from an institution which you normally associate with. Maybe your bank or credit card company. Again, it feels random, okay? So if it feels random, it probably is. Meaning you've done nothing to solicit this information then leave it alone, delete it, get rid of it, okay? Next one up is shopping scams. This one here is really interesting. This particular type of scam is rather difficult to prevent merely because of its randomness, okay? Essentially, these scams are based around companies that pretend to sell you products. They have no intention of ever sending you. Now I have gotten so many people in the past a year and a half contact our company and they say, hey, we bought food from you and you never delivered it. It's been a month, it's been two months. And when I checked into it, they were buying our survival food from these other sites that were just fake. They were fake sites and the big red flag should have been they were selling it for half the price of what we sell it for. They would say, hey, yeah, I bought a case of meat for $99 that we sell for like $250. And I'm like, no, you didn't buy it from us. You better check your credit card. Let's see, the old saying, if it's too good to be true, it is a scam. Yes, if it's too good to be true, it probably is true. Let's see here, with all the money the government is spending, I can't believe they aren't prosecuting these people. Well, here's the problem with that, Paul, is there in other countries, there are in other countries where they don't have any jurisdiction. The internet is wide open, right? Like I can target Italy or I can target Spain or Mexico or whatever. And that's the biggest problem, okay? So the scams, the shopping scams, essentially are scams that are based around companies that are really, maybe you trust, but these aren't the real companies. You may get a confirmation email after you pay, but you're certainly never gonna get the product, okay? And I've talked to people who bought our food from some of these fake sites and they say, oh no, you sent me a confirmation. Here's my order number. I'm like, we don't have an order number like that. It doesn't exist. These scams will sometimes arrive to you via email or even social media, but they will always direct you to a third party e-commerce site. They will often offer high-end luxury items at a very low price. Even, you know, that should be a red flag right there if you could buy something really cheap. And they will usually demand payment via electronic funds transfer. You may also find these sites if you search for specific items.  But here's the other thing, guys. If you're using a credit card, they've now got your credit card information. They've got your number, they've got your expiration date, they've got your security code, they've got it all, and then they can go out to other sites and they do this and buy other products. Now, the next one I'm gonna talk about is Nigerian scams. Does anybody trust anybody? No offense to all the Nigerians listening now, but does anybody trust you guys anymore?  There's craziness. With all the phone scams, I can't believe that we aren't doing more to get countries in line where they get no assistance or get sanctioned. Yeah, they just, Paul, there's so much going on. It's like, there's literally millions of these scams going on.  It's like, I'm Quaba Donkara, I'm a 54-year-old official from the Bank of Ghana with a long service experience.  This is one of the oldest scams in the book, but shockingly, it still gets people. It's called the Nigerian scam because the very first versions were sent from somebody in Nigeria, but nowadays you can get emails from pretty much all over the world and they all say the same thing. The term 419 comes from the designation this scam was received in the Nigerian legal code. Essentially, this scam is somebody from some wealthy family in Nigeria, which ought to be a red flag. There aren't that many of those. And some other West African nation will reach out to you because they need help moving their fortune into your country. This is something you see all the time.  They'll tell you that they need to first cover some of the fees and well, for the transaction, the fees, okay? And guess what? You're promised a portion of their fortune for some help, but obviously this never is going to happen. This thing is always, always, always a scam. It never happens that somebody's gonna transfer money to the U.S. They're gonna pay you to do it and put it in your bank account. It's not gonna happen, okay? Now, this next one, I guess number four, if we're keeping account here is a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency one. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.  Here's how it works. Okay, cryptocurrencies, the most famous one being Bitcoin, okay? Have taken the world by storm. Everybody knows about them. They're cool, they're exciting, they're different, okay? And oftentimes, quite valuable. However, few people truly understand how these things work and crypto criminals, the assets are called crypto criminals now, are more than willing to use this ignorance to steal some money from you or worse, all of your personal information. Now, I have some cryptocurrency. I did research, I know how to buy it. I did it safely. You can buy cryptocurrency safely, but most of these scams encourage you to make an initial investment in a company, get this, that it is about to go up for initial coin offering. They call it ICO, okay? Now, in exchange for your money, you're gonna get staked in the company and as the hackers will claim, this is going to make you rich, rich, okay? Sometimes these companies do actually exist, but the coins they're selling are either worthless or high risk or don't exist, okay? But most of the time these companies are fictitious and your payment will go towards nothing, okay? You need to buy from a reputable site if you're gonna buy cryptocurrency. Plus, if you do this, whoever contacted you will have your information, which they can use to rob you even more, okay? Why give up your information, guys? Now, next one is fine print scam. The fine print has the power to ruin us all, right? And there was a, I was in an automotive business for many years and there was a saying that anything in fine print is not good news. Anything in fine print is not good news. Nearly every online service we use has a set of terms and conditions to which we must agree. And they are usually longer than any book we've ever read, okay? As a result, most of us just click yes or I agree without putting too much thought into what it really says. However, all too often, less reputable companies will put things in the fine print that will give you or excuse me, give them the right to take more money from you. For example, you may sign up for some sort of subscription. Now, this is a big scam that's gone on for years and they've really clamped down on it but it's called trials. You get something for free, you gotta put in your credit card number and in the fine print it may say, after three months you will be charged an additional service fee, okay? The trials works like that. They send you out this one product and then monthly they start billing you automatically without telling you. As a result, when you're signing up for something, especially from a company, you've never heard of before. If you don't know them, you need to do research. Make sure you do your homework. If you don't have time to read everything in the terms and conditions, then at least Google the company to see if anyone else has had a problem.   Next one, number six, fake debt help, okay? Debt is a huge stressor and these thieves know it. As a result, when somebody comes in and offers you help to get out of your debt quickly and easily, it's tempting, right? It's tempting to want to at least listen to what they have to say. However, as we know, taking shortcuts and cutting corners gets us nowhere. It never does, guys. And if you fall for the scam, you could be in serious trouble. You really could. Essentially, these scammers will tell you that they can work with your creditors to help you lower your interest rates and even forgive some of what you owe. However, to gain access to the premium service, right? You need to pay an upfront fee, which obviously goes nowhere but in their pockets.  That's the best way to do it. There's just no shortcuts to that. The scam works largely because it targets those who are most desperate and who are most willing to seek an alternative solution. However, if you find yourself in this situation, know that there's an obvious, there's always a way to make things work that is safe and legal. Do it that way. Next one, number seven, digital kidnapping. And I got a bunch to go through. I don't want to go over time here. We're going to try to go for about 30 minutes. Let me check out some of your comments here. Paul says, I have to say that my email from Gmail has made great strides in identifying scam emails. Yeah, they really are. James Breen, what's up my friend? I inherit at least 1.5 million from Nigeria at twice a day.  But only on net zero. All I need to do is fill out a form with my information. Yes, Paul says credit repair sites are ones to be aware of. Yes, there is no such thing as credit repair guys. If you have false information on your credit report and it's wrong, you can just submit it. You can get an app and submit any disputes on any of those things. If it shows you more than what you owe, you can just contact that company. They'll correct it. Next one is called digital kidnapping. Now, this sounds kind of scary, but it's not kidnapping in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a scam. Hackers will take control over one of your social media profiles. They'll then contact you in demand payment for access to the return. Now, in some cases, they may even threaten to post damaging content or harmful material. And this is often enough of an impact on people for them to open their wallets and pay these people because they're worried about what they're going to post online. I've had it where somebody sends me an email and says, we have all your browsing history and we're going to post it online. I'm like, go ahead, you're going to be bored. You're going to be really, really bored if you post my browsing history. But some people do worry about that, okay? If this happens to you, the way you want to handle it, the best thing you can do is to contact the relevant social media platform and alert them that you've been a victim of this fraud. Number eight, bad downloads or fake antivirus software. When you simply view content on the web, okay? The files you're looking at technically don't go on your computer. Instead, they are simply displayed from the relevant servers onto your browser, okay? So you don't have a problem there. However, however, when you click download, those files are in fact loaded onto your hard drive and you're downloading from some sketchy sites, you could end up with some pretty nasty software on your computer. Now, Apple's pretty good about blocking some of that stuff but I know PCs are very susceptible to it but Apple is susceptible too. One of the most common things you can get is malware, it's called malware, which is essentially software designed to collect information from your computer. It usually disrupts the function of your computer and if you catch it in time, you can get rid of it but it may be too late. I know Apple's really good about that if you get something on your computer. I had some malware on my one day and it's been years ago but I'm very cautious about what I download now. Another piece of software you can download unknowingly is ransomware, ransomware. I don't know if you've heard this term before.  Now, if you're on your phone, you may see a pop-up on your phone when you're trying to get to a site and it may say, you know, you can't browse anymore, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. What you can do on Apple phones is go into your settings and clear your history. If you do that, it'll often get rid of that. Sometimes hackers will work the scam by sending you a pop-up saying your computer has been infected with a virus, you may see that. In the same pop-up, you will be instructed to download software that will protect you but that will actually install something malicious on your computer again. When in doubt, don't click. Now, the next one, this is a sad one. I think it's very sad but it's still going on dating and romance scams. Loneliness, loneliness can do remarkable things to the human psyche. And unfortunately, cyber criminals know this and are willing to prey on this weakness. These soulless hackers will make an online dating profile and work to build a relationship with you. They spend time on this. They deal with thousands of people. Then after some time, they will start asking you to send them money, which you will be tempted to do since you've grown to care for this person. If you think you can't be, check this out, okay? Online dating scams, one out of 10 newly created online dating profiles are fake. 10% of the profiles out there are fake. Let me look at some of the comments here. Quick fixes are hardly ever fixes. The queen is within. What's going on? The queen is within. What security software do you use and how often do you need to run it to prevent malware? You know, I have one on my computer, Paul and I don't run it that often. And I think, man, I can't even remember what it is at this point. I hardly ever run it because I don't go anywhere where I have to worry about anything. Wait, I think this is it right here. Yeah, it is malware bytes. Let me put that in there for you. It's called malware bytes. This is the one I use. This is for Mac. Malware bytes. I think that's it. B-Y-T-E-S. This is the one I use. Malware bytes. So check that out. That's a good one, I think. So anyhow, Americans and Canadians have lost over $1 billion to online dating scams since 2015, just in six years, not even a complete six years. In 2018, Americans lost, get this, $143 million in online dating scams. The average amount lost in one person in online dating scam is what? I want you to put that in the comment section. I want you to put the amount of money that the average person loses in an online dating scam. I'm gonna tell you what it is in just a second, but I'll remind you a couple times. Put in there the amount of money you think that was lost by the average person. Now, how to spot a scam? How do you spot these dating scams? The person you're speaking with claims to be madly in love with you despite never having met you. Come on, come on, man. Do VPNs prevent malware, et cetera? Not if you download stuff. What VPNs do is that it's a virtual private network. It masks where you're coming from, but if you download something to your computer, it doesn't matter if you've masked where you're coming from or not. It allows you to access sites that may otherwise be blocked in other countries and it provides you some security with people hacking you, but if you download something, you're screwed.  Another thing, how to spot a scam. They'll promise to come and meet you someday, but continually break that promise and always have an excuse as to why they can't meet. They usually will ask you to start communicating privately shortly after initiating the relationship. They will ask you to wire them money or cover bills, usually because of some unforeseen emergency that's left them in the lurch, like a family member getting cancer or somebody getting sick, all these things. So stay away from that, guys. Just meet people in person, crazy as it sounds, meet somebody in person. If they don't wanna meet you in person, don't do it. Number 10 is fake lotteries. Another common scam you will encounter online is what's known as the fake lottery scam. And it's exactly what it sounds like. Some of them will contact you, okay? Usually via email, but it could also be social media or some other way, maybe it's a DM or something like that, text message, pop up ad, you name it. And they're gonna tell you that they have some sort of large lottery usually in another country, usually in another country. However, to claim your prize, you need to give up some sensitive information which could be a big red flag or some money, okay? When you get a message such as this, just think back to when you may have entered some sort of lottery. If it's a form, excuse me, if it's from a country you've never been to, then this is obviously a scam. If you've never been there, you didn't enter the lottery, okay? But remember, if somebody is offering you lots of money for doing nothing, there's a good chance they're up to no good. Next one, because this one here gets a lot of people because there's so many legitimate ones. And number 11 is false surveys, false surveys. That's another one. Let's see what you got here in comments here. I think the biggest area to be careful of is online porn sites, not my thing, but had an acquaintance who had major problems. Yeah, I mean, yeah, just don't sign up for anything, I guess, or use your VPN, don't download any of those videos, I guess. Had a friend who got scammed on a date site, he noticed the person was using same generated reply to his emails. This was an intelligent guy, but fell for it.  This just means you didn't know about it. And that's why I'm doing this today, kind of like as a service, you guys don't get ripped off. Let me tell you how the false survey thing works. Surveys have been around forever, okay? They're usually ways for large companies' organizations to get information about their audiences, but if you are asked to give up information to take a survey, this is most likely a scam. Only take surveys that come directly from organizations and institutions that you trust, but still check the URL because they'll lie about that.  JC Penney's around anymore. I don't know if they are or not. And guys, I haven't seen in here how much money people lose on these romance scams. On average, I'm gonna give it to you in a second, post in there what you think it is, take a stab at it. There are online companies that can research anyone's history, education, arrest, et cetera. Yes, it's very true. But anyhow, so be careful for those surveys if they're asking your personal information. Number 12 is a mystery shopper in any other work from home scams, okay? Any other work from home scams. I sell courses on how to make money from home. I sell courses that teach people how to make money from home, but I never tell you if you buy my course, you're gonna get rich. I never tell you if you buy my course, you're gonna make money.  That's legit. But if you just tell somebody if they buy a course, you're gonna get rich or make money, that's fake. Because what if they don't work hard? What if they don't do stuff? The mystery online shopper one's a great one. This one falls right under there if it seems too good to be true. It probably is. It applies more than ever to this one. In this scam, somebody will contact you saying that you can earn hundreds of dollars a day doing nothing more than shopping online. However, however, to get started, you need to pay up front for your training materials. But after you pay, you never hear from them again, okay? But this scam comes in other forms. Scammers know how much people like the idea of working from home and they prey on this desire. As well as they wish you, they say that you're gonna make a lot of money from doing this for pretty much doing nothing, okay? Anytime somebody tells you you don't have to work hard to make money, it's a scam. It's always been a scam, guys. The world doesn't work like this. So approach any offer promising lots of money for a little work with a lot of caution because it's just not true. Number 13, put it in that amount. James said 1500 bucks. I'm gonna tell you this, James. It's more than 1500 bucks. It's more than 1500. Paul, some of these other people in here, of course, I know some of your names so that's why I'm calling out the people I know. But put in there, how much do you think people are losing? The Queens with them, what do you think? How much money are people losing on these romance scams?  Number 13 is a count failure problem. You get an email from a service telling you that there's a problem with your account. You need to fix it right away, okay? Stop and search online for an explanation. If you can't find one, it's probably a scam. But you can also call the company to see if this is really an issue.  In this case, instances, scammers claim that there's a problem with your account and they'll ask for your information to fix it. Specifically, Netflix users were told, this actually happened, that there was a problem with their payment information and they were asked to re-enter it so they could keep their account active which handed credit card information right over to the bad guys, okay? You should never have to give your credit card information again to Netflix. Call them guys. There are countless scams like this online so make sure you do your due diligence before filling out forms with your personal information. Really important that you do that. Let's see here. I have friends who are mystery shoppers and do very well as a sideline. Most companies use mystery shoppers including USPS. Yes, there are some legit ones. I'm not saying they're all fake but there's a lot of fake ones out there. Next one is fake charities. This particular scam is easy for us to be really cynical about the world. Oh my God, people are asking for donations and it's fake, yes. Essentially, scammers will ask you to donate to charities, especially after a large natural disaster or catastrophe. Oh my gosh. I mean, when these earthquakes happen or floods or whatever they have fires, these charities don't exist guys. They don't exist. If you wanna donate to one of these charities, donate to one that's been around before the charity started, okay? Or excuse me, before the disaster started. Ones that pop up for a disaster are almost always fake.  When a major event does happen, only donate to reputable charities, like the Red Cross or something like that. Typically, during these times of elevated giving, the authorities will publish a list of approved charities. So make sure you reference this resource before sending money to anyone. And they may even do it as an individual. They may say this little girl has cancer and she needs $20,000 for this operation and she's only four years old and here's all of her details. They may do something actually as creepy as that. They will do it. Next one, number 15 is the free stuff scam. Who doesn't love free stuff? Okay, we all love free stuff. Of course, most of the free stuff we get, such as pens, t-shirts, coffee mugs, is essentially worthless, okay? When you get something free, it's probably gonna be worthless, which is why it's free. However, if someone says they can get you a free iPhone or a brand new TV by doing nothing more than handing over some personal information, this is a scam guys, it's not going on. In some rare cases, you may actually get the item, but not after you've done something horrible, like giving up your identity and credit cards and all this other stuff. Something which is even more valuable than whatever that item is. People can't make a living giving away stuff guys. Another common form of the scam is rejected, excuse me, is related to travel. For example, scammers will offer you a free stay at a hotel or a free flight, and it's just really tough to resist. It's like $20 for a beachfront hotel in Miami, which I don't think you'd wanna be in a high-rise Miami now, for some reason for that. But you must see a reason and accept that there is no reason for anyone to give you these things for free or at a reduced price. There's just no reason for it. Let's see here, you haven't mentioned car repair insurance scams, especially scams that look exactly like the auto manufacturers. Yes, that's a big one. And James, since I've owned that, and I was in the automotive industry for years, these companies that call you up and say, hey, your warranty's about to expire. Oh my God, they're all fake, don't buy these warranties guys. And besides that, nine times out of 10, you're not even buying a warranty, it doesn't exist.  That's all you're doing. Don't do that. And the best way to tell is when they call up and they say, hey, your warranty's about to expire in your car, I see that it expires in three months or whatever, ask them, say, which car? They say, well, the car you're driving. I say, well, which car is that? What kind of car do I have? And they're like, well, I don't know. I need to get that information from you. I'm like, well, but how do you know the warranty's expiring? If you don't even know what I'm driving, how do you know? Next one, number 16, the pre-approval scam. When going through times of financial stress, it may be tempting to respond to an offer for a credit card, which you've been pre-approved. Typically, these deals include high credit limits and very low rates, which make them all too more appealing. But the catch is that you will need to pay all the fees upfront, which no credit card company would ever ask you to do. If they do charge you an annual fee, many credit card companies do this. It's easy to think these free offers are real, but they're not, okay? And besides that, if there is a fee related to a credit card, let's say there's an annual fee or whatever, they put it on your bill, okay? They put it on your bill. You don't have to send it upfront, okay? I have a couple of cards. I actually have one card that I pay a yearly fee on, but I get more back in benefits, so I pay the fee. But it's always put on my bill. They never ask me to send them money, okay? If they're asking you to send them money, hey, you don't want to do it. How are we doing on time here? We're getting close here. Last thing I want to tell you about is something that was big for years, and I still don't have the right guess for how much money people lose on online romance things. So put your guess in there. You may win a gold star. I may provide you with a gold star, okay? I'll provide you with a gold star. If you can guess the amount of money the average person loses on romance scams. Number 17, guys, if you're keeping track is digital greeting cards. Now, these were real popular years ago, although not as popular as they once were, greeting cards are still a fun way to get people to communicate with one another.  These are tough to spot because they can sometimes come from people you know, okay? If somebody you haven't spoken to in years or whom you communicate using other mediums such as sending you a greeting card, consider sending them a text or calling them before you open the email to keep your information protected, okay? Especially if you don't know somebody. If you get a greeting card from somebody you don't know, come on, guys. All right, so I'm gonna give up, I'm gonna give up the amount of money that people are losing on these online romance scams just second. But before I do that, I wanna give you how to avoid all these online scams. How to avoid them all, okay? I'm gonna give you, there's eight things you can do.  My favorite exercise is the push away. You mean like on a wall or something like that, James? That's a good one. I did do push-ups the other day. I did 50 without stopping, which was okay. It was okay, but I have gotten a little weaker in that area, I gotta get back to it. We have a gym here in the neighborhood I live in now, which is really pretty nice. And I've got to set my pull-up bar back up, James. And I'm trying to figure out where to put that because I got this really beautiful patio. And I don't wanna clutter it with a pull-up bar, but I think I might have to do that. I appreciate you bringing that up though. And I've been working out, and I've been working out pretty hard the three miles yesterday, which isn't a ton of mileage, but it's about what I wanna do. All right, let's go through these eight things and then I'm gonna tell you how much money people are losing on these romance things. Just read that building materials up 70% since last July got your home built just in time. Yeah, James, I'm gonna brag a little bit, but our home has gone up in value anywhere from I'd say $250 to $300,000 since November when I bought the land. So it's gone up almost a third of a million dollars since I bought the land. So I'm pretty happy with that. I'm pretty tired of happy with it. All right, let's go through these eight steps and then I'll tell you how much people lose. And you can still guess on this to get the gold star. You can still guess $2,200, James. I'm gonna tell you it's more than that. It's more than that. You're guessing and you're doing good, but you gotta get it up higher. Number one, stick to the term that you've always heard. You know it's true. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. First thing, okay guys, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Number two, visit reputable sites and avoid clicking on ads or other weird looking links, okay? Those two things. Number three, verify contact information. Okay, when somebody contacts you, you gotta know who they are. Number four, check first. That means that you get an email or a text or something like that in your bank or credit card company. Call your credit card company on the back of your card. Call that number. Say, are you trying to get ahold of me? I got this email, I got this text. Check with them before you click, guys. Don't click. Number five, guard your personal information with your life. And this means frequently changing your passwords. I know it's a pain. I understand it's a pain, but believe me, it's a lot more pain if somebody gets all your information and all your credit cards are hacked or your mortgage is hacked or something like that. So get one of these password apps. I use one, I love it. I use it all the time, it works great. Number six, use antivirus software. If you're an Apple user, you pretty much don't have to do this. I do have malware bites and I can run that one.  I promise it's gonna happen to you. Let's see. James Breen says 3,500, it's more than that. Then he said 10,000. And I'll say it's more than that. It's still more than that. Lynn McClain, people lose millions from fake sites. Yes, they do, they do. Lynn Wood McClain from date sites. Oh, date sites, okay. I saw that. You know, I do the same thing when I type in fast as like the words come out wrong or I'll do talk to text and it really comes out wrong. Thank you so much, Lynn Wood. I appreciate you putting some in there. I love your comments, guys. I love your comments. I love your questions. I love your suggestions. And before we end today, if you wanna put any questions in there about making money online legitimately, because that's what I do, I've done this in 2009, so millions of dollars about digital physical products. You can Google my name. You can Google survival cave food. You can see some of the products I sell. All right, number seven, use a VPN and avoid public Wi-Fi. Woo, woo, public Wi-Fi. Public Wi-Fi, guys, people can get into your computer so easily. And I'm guilty of this because every now and then I go to Starbucks and I use their Wi-Fi, but I pretty much use my phone as my Wi-Fi, my hotspot, whatever you wanna call it. Number eight, win and doubt. Win and doubt. If you have a little bit of doubt, do not click. Do not click. Do not click. If you're doubting it, guys, why would you click? Don't do it. Don't do it. Just, it's crazy to do that, okay? Guard your stuff. Protect your stuff. Now, if you have been hacked, something happened to you, fallen for a scam, no matter how educating you are, no matter how carefully you tread, these murky waters on the internet can be dangerous. It's still possible to fall victim to a scam. If this happens, your course of action depends slightly on the type of scam. So here's some more tips. If you download malicious software, get rid of it. These programs are designed to be difficult to remove. So you may need to take your device to some professional. I would go right to Apple if you have an Apple PC and I go to Microsoft or whatever. But if you're familiar with computers, you can start it in safe mode and remove the bad software using anti-malware software. Or you can reset your computer to the factory settings, but you're gonna lose everything. Or save point before you actually got the software. So you can go back to that point if you do backups. After you've done this, spend some time monitoring your accounts to see if any personal information was stolen. I have an Apple my phone, I monitor that every day. You could be proactive and cancel your credit card, debit cards, I've done that before. And you may even want to contact your credit reporting agency so that you can prevent misuse of your information. If you send money to a person or fraudulent organization, you might be out of luck when it comes to getting your money back. But as most banks will invoke the buyer beware defense. However, you should still contact the authorities so that you can file a report and in the event they catch the perpetrators, you could get something back. But even if you can't, alerting the authorities will at least help call attention to that particular scammer. What's the best platform for internet marketing newbies? If you mean to market, I would say Cartra. Definitely Cartra. Cartra will blow your mind. Cartra just came out with surveys, which is I think it's gonna be live next week. They have more bang for your buck than anything else. Below in the description, I'll have a link for Cartra. But that is by far the best one, by far. I think fake guru get rich, quick, and easy are huge problems. It is, it is. And that's why I never want to be a guru because I'm not. I'm somebody who's made some money online and I share with you what I've done. If some guy says if you buy my program or you market my stuff, you're gonna get rich, run from them. If they're shooting money out of a gun, run from them, okay? And I unfortunately have a friend that does that, but I'm just saying it's not that easy, guys. You gotta work hard. If you had your credit or debit card information stolen, you should immediately call your bank, cancel that card. In the event somebody took money from you, you can claim the charges as fraud, you can dispute them. Depending on your bank's policy, you'll probably get your money back. If you have your full identity stolen, ooh, this is a bad one. I had somebody steal my, I guess, tax identity and they filed for a refund. And I got a check and not knowingly, it got deposited. And then the IRS contacted me and said, hey, you filed these taxes. I'm like, no, I didn't. So it was a big brigham overall. And now when I file my taxes, I have all kinds of safeguards and electronic blocks and all this stuff. But if you have your identity stolen, get to work. Identify who did it, if you can. I know it's scary. It takes a long time to fix this problem. Hopefully, if you realize it before the crooks have been able to do anything, meaning all your actions will be preventative. However, if they have managed to take control of your identity, it could be a long time before things are right again. This, these resources I've given you guys can really help you out and get things right. So in conclusion, and I'm gonna tell you how much money, if you wanna do one more guess, how much money online romance, scammers, lose per scam, on average, put it in that chat box there. Let's see here. Like I said, these scams are all around the world. They come in many shapes, form sizes. They damage a lot of people. The loss can be a few bucks to completely getting your identity theft done to losing all your money in the bank, okay? However, if you spend some time learning about these scams that are out there, you can develop vigilant an eye on all the things that are going on and keep yourself safe. This will allow you to enjoy the internet, which we should, we shouldn't have to worry about this stuff and get all the information, all the entertainment, all the good things out of it, all the education we want without getting ripped off. Now, the big number, the big number, how much does the average, 77, 397? That is very specific. Mine is not as specific, but it is accurate. I just did the research on this and it is the amount I'm gonna put in the chat in one second. Let's see, lost on internet romance scams. Isn't it horrible to do that to somebody? Somebody who's lonesome. All right, there we go. $21,000 is the average loss on internet romance scams. $21,000. That means there's people that lose more. Maybe somebody did lose 77,000. That's a lot of money, guys. Holy heck.  That's a car. That's craziness, but that's what happens to people. So, I will tell you, there are ways to get ripped off, but there are a lot of good things online too, guys. And check it out. Check it out. Look at some of these things. Check out some more of my videos on here too and I would really appreciate if you would subscribe, if that's subscribe button down there. If it's red, click it, turn it gray. Don't forget to turn on bell notifications. Turn on all bell notifications so you're notified each and every time I go live. I really appreciate you guys being here. I'm gonna get back to doing, hope you post lunch break. Oh, my one today. I usually do it Fridays. I don't know. We'll see what it's like. If it's crappy, I'm not gonna do it, okay? But if it's good, maybe I will. I'm gonna start doing lives. If you guys are interested in lives during the week and I know it's inconvenient because when I do them, it's 9 a.m. my time, which is central daylight time right now. So if you're interested in daily lives like this where you wanna learn more information, put in that chat box there. Older women are easy victims as are older men. Older men are pretty easy victims too, especially when it comes to the romance thing. We're all vulnerable.  We're all vulnerable. We all want that connection. And if you don't have it and somebody's providing it to you, and you know what's funny, and I'll just add this, some of these people that got ripped off on these romance scams said they didn't even mind because at least during that period of time, they had somebody to talk to, somebody who acted like they cared about them. That's pretty sad. So when you go out today, make sure you talk to people. Make sure you're kind to people. Make sure you say hello to everybody. I love it. I'm in Texas now and I can't drive through my neighborhood. Somebody doesn't wait. Everybody waves to you, which is really pretty cool. Thanks so much for being here guys. I really appreciate each and every one of you. Love you. If you like what you hear here and here of course, subscribe, ring the bell, tell your friends about it. Bring in some more subscribers. Do your part to grow this community. The more we grow this community, the more we can help people make money online, learn how to use the internet, all that good stuff. The cooking channel is coming. I'm still working on my artwork for that. I've sent it back four times. I don't like any of the stuff they sent me. So that's the problem there. I'm blown away by how many hot women want to meet me. Yeah, yeah, I bet you are. I bet you are Paul. I bet you're just blown away. They're all gorgeous. They're all like 20 years old too. Guys, thanks so much for being here. I'm gonna go ahead and get out here. Let me make my screen smaller here. And I'm done for the day. I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna get myself some lunch, come back and probably work on scripts for next week. Love you guys. Talk to you later.


Hey man, Colossians chapter one, here we are again. So this is our third sermon out of Colossians chapter one. So we've looked first at the first part of Colossians chapter one and the witness of a church and how important it is for a church to have a solid witness. We looked last week at the blood of Christ in Colossians chapter one and this evening we're going to start out in verse 15. But the reason that we're taking so long going through sometimes just a couple of verses in Colossians chapter one is because Colossians is I think in my opinion probably the most detailed account in the New Testament of the person and work of Jesus Christ. So we're going to leave no stone unturned and we're going to look at every single verse that Colossians talks about. It's a short book but we're going to look at every single verse that it talks about and find out all the detail that the Bible is telling us about Jesus Christ. So this evening we're going to start out in verse number 15. So we looked at the blood of Christ last week and in verse number 15 let's begin reading and we're only going to get to verse 18 tonight but let me just read these verses for you and then we will study them from the Bible. Who is the image talking about Jesus Christ? Who is the image of the invisible God? The firstborn of every creature. So here we see another idea that is presented to us here that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of every creature. It says in verse 15, for by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn. Again, we see that word from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. So tonight we're going to look at this idea of Christ, the firstborn. So I want to tell you first of all, there's a lot of false representations about what Christ the firstborn means. Turn to Hebrews chapter 7. Let me just take just a couple of minutes. We're not going to spend a lot of time on this. But let me tell you first of all what it doesn't mean. What it doesn't mean was Jesus was created. Okay, that's not what Christ the firstborn means. It doesn't mean that Jesus came into existence when he was born 2000 years ago. That's not what Christ the firstborn means. Look at Hebrews chapter 7 and look at verse number 3. Hebrews chapter 7 and verse number 3. We were just in these chapters looking at the blood of Christ and how Jesus Christ is the eternal priest, how he represents, how Jesus in Leviticus 16 in the day of atonement, we had the priest, we had the five animals, we had the blood, we had the garments. And we saw last week when we looked at the blood of Christ, how Jesus, he's not just the priest, he's not just the garments, he's not just the bull, he's not just the goats, he's everything. He's the scapegoat and the sin offering. We talked about how Jesus basically encompasses everything that we see in the day of atonement in Leviticus chapter 16. So look at Hebrews chapter 7 and look at verse number 3. This is comparing Jesus with Michelsedek which was an appearance of the Son of God in the Old Testament. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God abideth a priest continually. So Jesus is the eternal priest. He always existed and he has no end. It's just like God, he is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Bible says in Colossians chapter 2 in verse number 9, Jesus is all God. He is all God. He is not a pie cut of God. He contains all of God inside him and he was fully man at the same time. So being all of God, he is from everlasting to everlasting. Jesus was not created. Okay? He's actually the one who is by whom all things were created that we'll see in a little bit. So he's just like, you know, he's got the fullness of God with him. He's the everlasting father, the Bible says in Isaiah. He's the fullness. He's eternal. He was just begotten as a man 2000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ, not created. Go to Romans chapter 8. Let's look at this idea of what it does mean. So it doesn't mean that Jesus was created. That's easily just proven from the Bible. Jesus is eternal in both directions. That's God. Look at Romans chapter 8 and look at verse number 26. Now Romans chapter 8 and verse 26 through about verse 29 are, you know, there's some pretty deep doctrine in here and you really have to, I actually have notes in my Bibles.  People like to just repeat that all the time and they don't even really know what it means. We looked at that a couple of weeks ago as well. Well, let's look at what Romans 8 and verse 26 through 29 is actually saying here. Now, there's the word he, I think that comes up here six times or so. And you have to understand which he the Bible is talking about in each of these verses. So let's just begin to read it. Look at verse 26. Let's get the context. Likewise, the spirit, that's capital S. This is the Holy Spirit we're talking about here. Also, helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So here, this is a super important verse for the Christian who's sealed by the Holy Spirit, who's even dwelled by the Holy Spirit.   The Bible says here that the spirit within you, the Holy Spirit, it actually intercedes for you.  It says many times, you don't even know what to ask for. You don't even know what to ask for.  I mean, that's super good news. Now look at verse 27. The Bible says, and he, now this is God the Father right here. This he is God the Father and he that searches the hearts, knoweth what is in the mind of the spirit. So we see that God the Father, so you have the Holy Spirit that's interceding for you in verse 26 and then you have God the Father knows what is in the mind of the spirit. So God the Father is listening to the spirit as he intercedes for you. So that he is in verse 27 is God the Father because he, now that's the spirit right there. So we have two different he's here. You see what I'm getting at? You have to kind of recognize if you want to completely understand these verses, which he, what part of the trinity these he's are talking about. So let me read it for you again. And he that searches the hearts, that's God the Father, knoweth what is in the mind of the spirit. That's the spirit in the trinity because he, that's the spirit, make it intercession as that matches verse 26 for the saints according to the will of God. So the Bible says here that as the Holy Spirit inside you makes intercession to God, God listens to the spirit and the spirit knows the will of God.  What he meant was this, because the spirit knows the will of God because the spirit is God. Okay, look at verse 28 and we know, and this is the famous verse that everybody has on their fridge. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose. So that, of course, we talked about Sunday morning. That's a great promise that God gives us. That's a great promise that God gives to saved people that love him, that follow him, that no matter if even if bad things happened to you, he will work those things for the good. And I talked about Sunday morning how the most extreme and obvious example of Romans 828 is a prophet that is tortured and killed for the cause of Christ or somebody that would be persecuted and killed for their faith in Christ. Because why? Because that's a powerful witness to the rest of the world. So that's the good that God uses that comes from such a bad thing. Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 12. That's why God had the prophets go through such hard times. So that's a witness for the rest of us throughout history. Look at verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, that's God the Father, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he, now that's the son right there, might be the firstborn of many brethren. So I just wanted to explain verse 26 through verse 29 for you. You have to know which he, in order to really understand those verses, you have to really be thinking about which part of the trinity is represented by each he there. So he, the last one, is the son, is the firstborn. That's our study tonight. So he might be the firstborn amongst what? Amongst many brethren. So what that means is that we are supposed to be, we look, it is our, I really don't understand how people have such a hard time with this idea of predestination in the Bible. What this is saying in Romans 8, 29, is that if you are saved, it is your destiny. You are predestinated to become, to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's what that means. Look, it's your destiny. That's what it means to be predestinated. So God, every single person that gets saved, God has predestinated you to be conformed into the image of his son. We are supposed to be like Christ. Is this, is what this is saying? Now look, is there free will? Yes, there is. So this predestination doesn't mean we're all turned into robots and like all of a sudden we get saved and now we will always do the right thing always.  No one thinks. Look, just think about the word destiny. Just think about the word destiny. What does that mean? It's my destiny to be this. Does everyone always realize their destiny? It doesn't happen. What this means in Romans 8, 29, is that Christ is the firstborn and he is to be the firstborn of many brethren, meaning all people that get saved are supposed to become like Christ. That is God's plan for you. You are to be conformed to the image of his son. I mean, just think about, think about destinies. I mean, think about destinies, you know, predestinated destinies, if that's even a way to say it, of people that didn't make, how about Elias sons?  Shouldn't they have been priests and prophets and godly men?  Look, if you were in the kingdom of Judah and you were the son of a king, it's your destiny to be the next king. I mean, did all sons meet that destiny? How did it work out in the northern kingdom of Israel? Did all sons meet the destiny of becoming the next king? It didn't happen. Folks, it happens. Think about every father's plans for his son. Just in this life. Think about dads tonight. Think about the ideas that you have for your kids. Look, that's your predestinated plan for them. And look, I hope you can realize those plans, but is it 100% that it's always going to work out that way? So this idea that this, I don't understand how people cannot understand this. Look, you're predestinated to be many brethren of which Christ is the firstborn, meaning we are to be conformed to him. That's what that means. Okay, turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. But we have free will. We looked at that. I mean, we looked at that on Sunday morning. We have free will in this life.  No husband would want a wife that was forced to be married to him. No wife would want a husband that was forced, you know, at the point of a gun, to be married to them. We have free will. We are supposed to do these things but, you know, we fail. We come short every day. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 in verse number three. Back to Christ, the firstborn. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect. So Christ, it says in Colossians chapter one that Christ is the firstborn of every creature. Turn to John chapter one. Turn to John chapter one. Let's look at some backup of Colossians chapter one. Look at John chapter one. It does not mean he was the first created. We know that Christ is God. He was from everlasting to everlasting. Look at John chapter one. And let's look at what it means that he's the firstborn of creation. Look at verse number one of John chapter one. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. In verse 14, we know that the word was made flesh we know that Jesus is the word. The word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And look, all things were made by him. So Jesus and without him was not anything made that was made. Look, Jesus created the world. How? Because he was God's word. And God said and God said that is literally how creation came about. God spoke it into existence and Jesus was the word. And the word became flesh. In verse number 14 of John chapter one. So look, go to Matthew chapter 28 and let's kind of put a wrapper around this. Go to Matthew chapter 28. So Jesus, he's the firstborn. We're supposed to be like him. We're supposed to be the many brethren of which he is the firstborn. The Bible says that he created everything. He created everything. Look at Matthew chapter 28. Look at verse 18. The verse right before the Great Commission. Look at verse 18 of Matthew 28. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Now turn to Hebrews chapter one. Look, what this is saying is that Christ had he not only made the creation, he not only created the entire universe, everything in the heavens, everything in the earth, but he has the preeminence over creation is what this is talking about. Look at Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. So Jesus Christ, this is what Colossians one is telling us is that Jesus has the preeminence over everything in the universe and on the earth is what this is saying. Over all the creation Jesus has been given the preeminence. Look at Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. God who at sundry times in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed. What does it say here? It says, air of all things by whom also he made the worlds. There's that creation again. So we see in John chapter one Jesus was the power behind the creation he created the worlds. We see in Hebrews chapter one Jesus is the creator and we see in Colossians chapter one Jesus is the creator. All this to say that Jesus has the preeminence over creation. That's what this is saying. Now this is interesting. We're going to rabbit trail the sermon here for a little bit and I'm going to predict the end of the world for you. Look at verse number two. I've always thought that this was interesting considering that Hebrews was written by Paul, of course under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but it was written by Paul and I think that the New Testament was completed sometime before 70 AD. I'll give those reasons in a sermon in a couple of weeks. But look what Paul says. Look what Paul says as he Paul is writing Hebrews through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says he's talking about God who hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. So Paul is referring to the time that he is living in presently. Say it's 50 AD for example as the last days. These last days he's referring. Have you ever thought about that when you read that? Now turn to, I've got a theory on that and if we actually, we have to make some assumptions here but let's go ahead and calculate when the world will end by Paul's comment here. So Paul says that he's in the last days. Now that was 2,000 years ago that he said that he was in the last days. How could that be possible? Turn to Mark chapter 10 in verse number 31. Let me show you some interesting things about how the Bible uses when it uses the words first and last. We can kind of get an idea. I think of what Paul, I'm not saying Paul knew this. I think that most of the apostles probably thought Jesus was coming back pretty soon with what a lot of the language that Jesus used but God just didn't reveal it to them. But let's look at a couple of things in the Bible. Look at Mark chapter 10 and look at verse number 31. So you'll see the same thing in the book of Matthew when you see the householder with the vineyard send people out. You'll see the same type of language. I'll just read you this verse here. But the Bible says this is talking about how things will be different in the kingdom of heaven. Things will be ordered different is what it's saying in the kingdom of heaven than they are here. Meaning people that may seem like they're really important and they're really ahead and they're super special. You know when it comes to who's going to be important in heaven it's going to be flipped on its head is what the Bible is saying here. So look at Matthew chapter 10 in verse number 31. It says this is talking about somebody who left everything for Christ. Let's go back to verse 29. Jesus answered and said verily I say unto you there's no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands from Isaac and the gospels but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life. And then he talks about how it's just going to be flipped on its head. You know you may you may have hard times now but then he says but but many that are first shall be last and the last first.  Okay but what he is saying is he's talking about a group of people and he's saying some people are going to be first and some people are going to be last. He is clearly not talking about who's going to be the very first and who's going to be the very last. He's just talking about the order of things. He's saying some people are going to be in the first part. Some people are going to be in the last part. He's talking about the order of things. Think about a gas tank that only has two readings. You know that a gas tank only has two readings. It either says empty or full. So where do you think the line would be on dividing the gas tank between empty and full? If you only have two readings you divide the whole tank in half. Are you with me? So the last half would be empty or the last and the first half would be full or the first. So the Bible here is just dividing this section of people into the first and the last is all it's doing. The first half and the last half. So let's apply that to Paul saying that he's in the last days. Look it makes sense because clearly Paul was not in the last days meaning the last couple of weeks or the last 75 days or whatever. So Hebrews was 2000 years ago. Okay how old is the earth? The earth that we know from the Bible is about 6,200 years. Let's just round it down to 6,000 years. So at the time that Paul made this comment that we're in the last days the earth was about 4,000 plus or minus you know plus 100 years is about 4,000 years old. So Paul at the point of 4,000 years he was listing this as now we're in the last days or the last part. You could look at it that way. So all we have to do is all we have to do is take 4,000 or let's take you know 4,100 let's just round down to 4,000. Let's say it's right at the 4,000 year old mark when Paul made that comment and we just take it times two and we know that's the maximum time that we have left on earth if Paul if my theory is correct. Okay yeah gotta make a couple assumptions but I mean I'm liking it so far. So basically we have about 1,800 years left is what I'm getting at. Okay you know give or take but the point is if it goes past 1,800 years it would be it would be kind of weird that Paul would say he was in the last days because he couldn't have been in the last half he still would have been at the beginning half of time. So I mean look I know that this you know saying that you know the end times is probably according to this logic going to come in the next 1,800 years or sometime before that that's probably not going to get me a cult following you know I know but that's what I'm comfortable with right now anyway but that's that's my that's my estimation on how Paul could have said you know these last days. Okay because we're entering into the last half basically if that makes sense. So I've always kind of thought about that and I wanted to give some of that twisted logic to you this evening. All right let's go back to Christ the firstborn. Now we know you know that's probably not like I said that's probably not going to get me any book sales or anything like that but at least it makes sense of the statement is what I'm trying to get at. Okay because Paul said you know these last days look at verse number three of Hebrews where we were just at verse number three who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high and then go to verse number six Hebrews chapter one and verse number six it says and again he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he said and let all the angels of God worship him. So there's the first begotten okay instead of the firstborn. In Revelation chapter one five it says the first resurrected again or you know that same you know resurrection from the dead. Look there's going to be more resurrections Jesus was the first Jesus was the first resurrection. So all that to say this okay Jesus created the world Jesus according to Hebrews chapter one and many other places in Colossians chapter one Hebrews he redeemed the world he advocates for the world turned to Psalm chapter 89 he advocates for the world and look at Psalm chapter 89 Psalm chapter 89 look at verse number 27 Psalm chapter 89 verse number 27 he has the preeminence over the world and what does that mean? What is the brass tax of Jesus having the preeminence over the world? Look at Psalm 89 and verse 27 the Bible says also I will make him my firstborn there it is again higher than all the kings of the earth he will one day rule the world is what the Bible is teaching here turn to Revelation chapter 20 he advocates for it he created it he redeemed it one day he will rule it he will rule it look at Revelation chapter 20 look at verse number four this is talking about the millennial reign of Christ one day Jesus will literally rule the earth look at verse number four and I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God which had not worshiped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years so all that to say this Christ has complete sovereignty over all of creation and one day he will physically rule it that's what Colossians chapter one is talking about when it talks about Christ the firstborn the firstborn over creation the firstborn you know from the dead so the question is tonight the question is tonight since Jesus has sovereignty over everything in creation Jesus has sovereignty he will one day rule the world he will one day sit on the throne and rule the earth for a thousand years does he rule you is the question tonight does he rule your life somehow this idea of Christ ruling our lives has been turned into an actual false doctrine somehow I'm going to read that for you and then we'll get back to this idea of Christ being the Lord of your life but he should be the Lord of your life let me give you a quotation from the statement of faith from grace community church which is John MacArthur's church who you know he teaches a different salvation than what the Bible teaches it's it's very subtle but it's not really that subtle but I want to show you you know just the dangers of this doctrine it's called Lordship salvation okay let me read you the first part it may sound good at first this is straight from their website the Bible or not not the Bible the grace community church website talks about salvation in this manner it says Jesus is Lord and Savior the New Testament reveals it was Jesus himself who created everything and they say you know they quote Colossians 1 16 agree therefore he owns and rules everything that means he has authority over our lives and we owe him absolute allegiance obedience and worship I don't disagree there either Romans 10 9 says if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord did that hurt to hear that for a minute this is the important part I didn't realize how bad you know the new Bible versions were on Romans 10 9 it's messed up Romans 10 9 in the King James Bible says confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus meaning like you know King Jesus it's a title and instead it says Jesus as Lord in all these new different Bible versions and it just twists them meaning you have to recognize him as Lord or take him as Lord and they turn that into a part of salvation it's very subtle but let me let me let me continue reading if you confess this is the false version here if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe see how they just added works to salvation right there and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved even though God's justice demands death for sin his love has provided a savior who paid the penalty and died for sinners Christ's death satisfied the demands of God's justice and Christ's perfect life satisfied the demands of God's holiness thereby enabling him to forgive and save those who place their faith in him so what they said in the last sentence was different and they said in the two sentences before that in the false version of Romans 10 9 now here's where it gets really bad the character of saving faith this is what it goes into now true faith is always accompanied by repentance from sin repentance is agreeing with God that you are sinful confessing your sins to him and making a conscious choice to turn from sin and pursue Christ and obedience to him it isn't enough to believe certain facts about Christ even Satan and his demons believe in the true God but they don't love and obey him true saving faith always responds in obedience Ephesians 2 10 turn to Ephesians 2 10 let's look at Ephesians 2 10 because he says this statement true saving faith always responds in obedience Ephesians 2 10 let's turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and look at verse number 10 we read constantly out soul winning Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and verse 9 maybe we're missing something look at Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 10 actually let's read 8 9 and 10 for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of God how stupid would it be to for the Bible to contradict itself literally one verse after I mean think about that for a second I mean if you're gonna mess with the Bible you know contradicted a few books later or something but they're literally saying that true saving faith always responds in obedience look at verse number 9 not of works that's complicated unless any man should boast 4 look at verse 10 and I've had Catholics quote this to me as well when I'm out soul winning oh you gotta read verse 10 let's read verse 10 4 we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works isn't that what we just studied as Christ the firstborn of many brethren we are to be conformed to him agree we are created look it is your destiny it is your predestined it is God's predestined plan for you when you get saved to go on to good works and to be like Christ that is absolutely God's plan for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we will for sure walk in them this is why you have to have a King James Bible it says that we should walk in them this is Romans over and over and over you get saved now you should be many brethren to Christ you should be conformed to his son you should or you're in sin you should it doesn't say you will for sure I mean it doesn't say you will turn into a robot and do everything that turn to Romans chapter 4 turn to Romans chapter 4 this is such a terrible heresy you say it's so subtle how could it be such a big deal it's the difference between heaven and hell folks look at Romans chapter 4 and verse number 4 Romans chapter 4 and Romans chapter Romans chapter 4 verse 4 and Romans chapter 4 verse 5 we're talking about two different people here we're talking about two men and this is super important that this is understood and this is a great one to use out soul winning as well you're talking about two people here verse 4 now to him that worketh this guy we would look at this guy in verse number 4 and we say that guy is a great guy that guy is Christ like this guy is doing the works he's out there and he's walking the walk he's doing what he should now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt but he was working to get himself to heaven see he was working for his salvation and the bible says he'll have nothing but debt but now look at verse 5 but to him now here's a different guy that worketh not this guy is a jerk we would look at this guy and be like this guy is a jerk that guy is not christian that guy is not doing any works he worketh not it says it doesn't say he worketh a little it says he worketh not he literally is just a jerk he's not doing anything that he should do but uh-oh but he believeth on him that justifyeth the ungodly look this guy believes on jesus means he trusts in jesus that's what believe on means it means he has trusted in jesus his faith is counted for righteousness the guy in verse 5 that is a jerk is going to heaven and the guy in verse number 4 that is a nice guy that's doing all these wonderful things he is the matthew 7 guy he's the guy that's going to go to jesus and say look at all my wonderful works and jesus is going to say i never knew you that is how important this doctrine is look we should do good works we should be being conformed to christ we should be of many brethren of the firstborn we should be looking more and more like him every day but when you tie this to salvation you're going to send people straight to hell because they're not going to get saved because they're going to be trusting on themselves just look changing the gospel just slightly destroys it you think about these people in john mccarthur's church why go soul winning these are the people that they would they would not want to go soul winning we got we got i don't know a couple hundred people saved last year we're a small group we get all these people saved john mccarthur and his church are the type of people that say where are all those people if they got saved why aren't they getting their lives together why aren't they getting in church because they should do those things it doesn't mean that they will and look we want to encourage people we want to do that you know that discipleship and we want to do that and get people into church but it has nothing to do with whether or not they're going to heaven or not because going to heaven is just trusting is just believing on that's why that's why why go soul winning if you have a works-based belief even a little bit of works it destroys soul winning because why would you go because you're sitting here thinking that those people didn't get saved is what the john mccarthur's would think thus it's just a waste of time is what people would think you know that's why people with false gospels that go to churches with false gospels that's why they don't go soul winning that's a good measure of you know a church's gospel right there do they go soul winning look it's it's not just the calvinist folks that don't believe in soul winning it's the lordship salvation people because they don't believe that somebody that doesn't change their life and this is a cousin to repenting of your sins by the way this is a first cousin to repenting of your sins that you have to turn from your sins to be saved what does that even mean I mean how many of my sins do I have to turn from how many can I keep do I have to become sinless it doesn't make any sense so look this this Jesus being lord of your life has been used in a very bad way now here's what it does to us we hear these we hear uh uh you know a sermon on Jesus should be have preeminence over your life Jesus should be the lord of your life and right away we hear that Jesus the lord of my life and we're like ah because we've like met so many people that believe you know like same thing with repent of your sins look you should repent of your sins whatever definition you want to use for repent whether that means feel bad for your sins we know in the bible to repent means to simply change your mind god repented again and again and again in the bible does that mean that god's sins no god simply changed his mind about what he was going to do in men of uh in other places in the bible but the point is repenting of your sins turning from your sins that's a good thing to do it has nothing to do with your salvation but it is a great thing to do confessing your sins a great thing to do making Jesus Christ lord of your life is a great thing to do you know what we're doing actually weaken and weak out when I get up here because what does that mean making Jesus the lord of your life how do I know how do I know I've succeeded with making Jesus lord of my life well here's the thing every time you do something in your life that that is against what the bible says you have not made Jesus lord of your life in that area you're like that sounds hard yeah it's like impossible you're never going to get there but that's why you come to church that's why you come to church and I scream at you three times a week and tell you what the bible says and say this is wrong this is a sin I don't care what the culture out there says all this fornication all this drunkenness all this garbage all this godlessness all this perversion is you know it's all wicked and bad and you should have nothing to do with it that's what you're doing and you're sitting there and you're you're drinking it in and you're like yes that's right and you're thinking about oh I got this in my life I got this trash I got to get out of my house I got this I got this internet in my house that's not under control I need to get this trash out of my house you know what you're doing you're making Jesus the lord of your life in those areas but you need the word of God thrown at you preach to you you need to be reproved rebuked exhort each other and that is how you make you know Jesus Christ the lord of your life you're like man there's so many things I just thought about just now where Jesus isn't the lord of my see how stupid it is if it would have to do with salvation you wouldn't you would never get there you would never get there repent of your sins please stop turn from your sins recognize your sins but you know what the bible does you know what happens when you read the bible when you read the bible you study the bible and you listen to preaching from the bible it makes sin just pop out in your life so you can recognize it because you know what happens if you go to work and you quit going to church you start hanging around a bunch of worldly people you know what happens you stop recognizing sin it just kind of blends in maybe you don't realize it if you're in church and you're in your bible but here's the thing if you get out of church and you get out of your bible and you just get out in the world and you start doing everything you will literally not know that you are sinning you'll literally be doing things that you just think are okay your conscience will start to become seared and you will just think that you will just become desensitized to sin the bible preaching church your fellowship with your brothers and sisters in christ it does the opposite of all that and that is how throughout your entire life folks look this is a process from the time you get saved to the time you go into the ground and go to heaven this is a process this is the process making jesus the lord of your life is a process repenting of your sins is a process it's a process of maturing as a christian is what it is and that's why that's why we have a midweek service so you don't have this big span in your life where you're just getting melded into everything it's to just give you a dose of the bible it's to give you a dose of the preaching and what you need to hear so you can make jesus the firstborn lord of your life in your home life your work life your marriage your kids some people make their kids the lord of their life instead of jesus basically anything that you do that is contrary to the bible for reasons or for reasons other than christ is an area in your life that he is not lord so jesus christ is the firstborn and we're to make him lord of our life we're to recognize the areas in our lives and that's by you know beholding our natural face in the mirror of the bible let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer