فشرف بالشتغالي بالعلم ولا تبغي به ما عشت يا دادا دالا وياله من شراف عظيم الحمد لله رب العالمين له الحمد الحسن والثناء الجميل وشدوى لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له يقول الحق وهو يهد السبيل وشدوى النسيدنا ونبينا محمد والله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه والتابعين لهم بحسان الى يوم الدين أما بعد إشاء الله تعالى today is going to be the first lesson on the Kitab جلباب المرأة المسلمة what does jilbab mean and what is its definition we will speak about that this book is written by محمد ناصر الدينة الألباني رحمه الله and insha'Allah تعالى we will also speak about the biography of the author insha'Allah تعالى but before all of that I want to go through why do we want to speak about jilbab of a woman what's the reason why would one want to talk about is there a need to speak about it is it something that we should give importance to as you know my beloved brothers and sisters الله سبحانه وتعالى he mentions in the Quran that reminds the benefit to believers الله says in the Quran تنفع المؤمنين الله says remind for verily the reminder benefits the believers so a believer is the one that whenever he is reminded of Allah and he is told that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has sanctioned this or Allah has obligated this or Allah has prohibited this even though they may know of it it benefits them again it's a reminder الله سبحانه وتعالى mentions the people who will benefit from that reminder are specifically who وذكر تنفع المؤمنين it benefits their believers a person who Eman has really settled into their heart who believes in Allah سبحانه وتعالى believes that there's going to come a day where they're going to be resurrected a day where they're going to be accounted for everything that they've said and done الله سبحانه وتعالى says in another ayah فذكر بالقرآن من يخاف وعيد remind them with the Quran so the first verse is in Surah Al-Dariah ayah 55 and the second verse that I read is in Surah Al-Qaf 45 الله says فذكر بالقرآن remind them with the Quran for verily فذكر بالقرآن remind them with the Quran for the one who fears the promise that Allah has made the promises here involve it involves the fact that Allah promised in Surah Al-Qaf that he's going to destroy those who go against him the fact that Allah is going to hold account for every single person what they say and what they do the fact that Allah سبحانه وتعالى is merciful to those who are righteous and upright so the whole verse Surah Al-Qaf is Surah Al-Fulam مواعى the reminders so here, sisters and brothers when you're told about something that's from the religion if a brother is told letting your beds grow is obligatory he doesn't say how dare who gives you the right to talk to me about it he doesn't say that that's not a characteristic of a مؤمن a مؤمن's characteristic is not like that الله says in the Quran ومن الناس من يعجبك قوله في الحياة الدنيا ويشهد الله على ما في قلبه وهو ألبت الخصر الله سبحانه وتعالى he says there are some people who statement fascinating ومن الناس من يعجبك قوله في الحياة الدنيا when they speak they fascinating the way they put their words and they articulate and how they put their blogs out and how they write their articles or even how they tweet something it might fascinate you ومن الناس من يعجبك قوله في الحياة الدنيا ويشهد الله الله testifies that this person is a very argumentative individual وهو ألبت الخصر this individual is very argumentative that when they are told something basic about the religion and they are told أخي بارك الله فيه شر عن as a man الله made it obligatory on you to do this this this this that if you hear the call of أدان and the masjid is your neighbors with the masjid that you have to pray in that masjid or you have to pray in the masjid and etc that man will say to you بارك الله فيه you reminded me of something this is the righteous one the other one he is how do you know I don't go who gave you the rights what if I go to another one do I have to go to this one specifically who said who gave you the rights to tell what can't be done what can't be done وهو ألبت الخصر وإذا تولى سعى في الأرض اللي يفسد فيها ويهلك الحافة و النس والله لا يحب الفساد when it turns around all he brings about is corruption or she brings about corruption on this earth والله لا يحب الفساد الله doesn't like those who bring about corruption on this earth والله لا يحب الفساد وإذا قيل له التقل if it's said to that individual في الله somebody says this إذا قيله if it's said to that person اتقلها في الله أكل كريم أختي الكريمة في الله this is a statement that makes a person's heart miss a beat so not something light اتقلها what happens to this person أخذت ورئزت ورئت this person's chest swirls and gets angry gets swollen his face color changes and gets angry how dare who gives you the rights say that to me or some people would say يوفي الله a believer when he said that to the first thing he says is there something I did wrong is there specifically something that comes to mind that you know that I need to specifically sharpen on this is what he does because of that why statement it's called as differ on the authenticity of this حليث like in that the believer is a mirror of his brother or is a mirror of his sister the mirror tells you exactly what he sees of you the mirror doesn't deceive you when you go and you wake up in the morning and you stand in front of the mirror and you look into it the mirror will only reflect as you look it won't tell you different a believer is like that he will tell you exactly your shortcomings he will tell you exactly the harms and the problems that you have he won't lie to you just like the mirror won't lie to you وإذا قيل له اتقلها أخذت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت أخذت ورئزت ورئزت أخذت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت ورئزت so brothers and sisters this topic جلباب is from the obligatory things that are upon women that Allah has obliged upon women as much as that is spoken about other matters of the religion are spoken about other things are spoken about it's not specifically directed at that and also that won't be dismissed the jilbab won't be dismissed the hijab will not be dismissed it will not be dismissed but one thing I do accept which is if you look at the علماء المتقدمين the early scholars you will find that they never used to author a book specifically on hijab and the reason why they didn't do that is because they were with a society and a people it was a very common that a book would be author on the issue of hijab is because this matter was accepted and it was agreed upon there was no discussion about it the one who knew he was doing or the woman who knew that she wasn't wearing hijab and she wasn't adhering to what she was upon her they knew what she knew what she was doing was a crime she knew she was a wrong doer she knew she was going against Allah's command she wasn't justifying her actions she knew she's a sinner and she knew she was upon click up misguidance or she was upon click up wrong so there was no argument on that side so what not really what I used to do is the books are thick that they would always add a part of it in it when they spoke about the issue of libas clothing they would always speak about the issue of hijab and the women's dressing in there but when the colonization came to the muslim world the colonies and the kufar came to the muslim world the french colonized and the british and they went to the muslim world one of the first things that they worked towards one of the first things that they worked towards is to bring the women out of their houses to bring the women out of their houses to make the women not dress the way islamically they should dress even this has not only affected muslims pay attention to this they did not only do this to the muslims they even did this to thee the non muslims they did it to the christians they did it to the jews and other faiths they made them have this problem as well but we muslims suffered highly because of the fact that the french colonized many of the muslim countries the british colonized many of the muslim countries and so they directed their efforts in corrupting the women so now if you look at the countries like Algeria Morocco Egypt countries like that if you look at it today the way that they would dress is exactly the way that the way that you would see the women dress in the uk the women dress in america australia in western countries they've even taken to those countries the clothing lines that you would see here they got taken to those countries and then they got set role models that they need to follow women they need to look up to those women now are the ones who set the reality or the way that a woman should dress so they look up to these women now these women are not just disbelievers they are not just so far they are the worst of them they are the lowest ranked ones those who became famous through prostitution and those who became famous through drugs those who like people who are black listed from countries in the west they are not allowed to travel to countries due to the fact that they are criminals صح I remember one time one of these artists these singers he was asked why have you never done at all in Canada and he said oh I'm banned from Canada I am banned from Canada I am not allowed to travel there people like that are those who people look up to and they love what made the matters worse is they didn't just take the women and take them out of the houses and take off their hijab from them but they actually pushed them to go on social media and to come out on television this is before YouTube and everything came there was television the woman was told to slap makeup on her face dress in a particular way and they bought her on television and after internet came سبحان الله سبحان الله matters went out of hand the woman she would come she would dress the way she wishes to dress they killed the essence of حيات شينس والله brothers and sisters underlined this the statement of the prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام إذا لم تستحي وإن من ما أدرك الناس من كلام النبوة الأولى إذا لم تستحي فسنع ما شئ one of the wise statements that have been inherited from the previous prophet was that if you are not shy do what you wish آغي شينس is a component is the thing male or female if you lose حيات شينس والله there is no difference between you and the animals there is nothing different between you and the animals شينس is what leaves and allows you to hold back some morality come are you with me brothers what did the prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام say إستحيوا من الله حق الحيات the prophet said to the companions one day when he was sitting with them he said be shy the way Allah deserves to be shy be shy as Allah deserves to be shy then the companions as they said إنا نستحي من الله و الحمد لله we are shy of Allah and praises to him we are then the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said من استحيى من الله حق الحيات فليحفظ الرأس وما وعى وليحفظ البطن وما حوى وليذكر الموت والبلا أو كما قال عليه الصلاة والسلام that the person who is shy of Allah he should protect his eyes basically his head and everything on it his eyes his ears his mouth your head everything حجاء comes in there coming yourself up two lowering your gaze three what comes out of your mouth and the statements and the speeches that you say what you listen to and what you let your ears hear if you are shy do that والبطنة بلا and protect the stomach وما حوى everything around it what you eat and what you bring into your stomach and what you drink and what fear Allah I think be conscious of that and then the prophet said وليذكر الموت والبلا let him remember death and that calamity and trials and tribulations which await him حياء من الله تباركوا تعالى so what you see is these the western countries right now who many of our Muslim sisters and brothers are even looking up to the things that they are pushing it's no حياء look at never to not just be sisters look at the brothers as well look at a brother whose trousers is so low that you can see his backside what حياء what world would that work in who that you can see his underwear what where's shyness where's حياء where is the shyness are you with me who wants to see that but it shows you what has been if you look at where this came from who it came from where is it really where does this go back to it has roots with prison and people who are in prison and the clothing that they were giving that was bigger than them and how their trousers were sag because of the fact that it was bigger than them and these things have been taken and they've been adopted by a مصمحمد زكرية خالد these are Islamic names these are people whose names are companions noble companions he's now what he looks like فولان علان I remember a time where بلاه عليكم look at this look how much the plan is full when Michael Jackson was out and you know people looking up to him and everything having your trousers above your ankles was what was fashion Michael Jackson said it the Muslim man will not do it because Allah in his messenger said it والله he won't Michael Jackson said it he would any now it becomes fashion because of a rapper or an artist it's a fashion it's a fashion that when he did it he can pay attention here whose clothing is above the ankles today the men sorry the women whose trousers is long and is dragging on the ground the men the acts don't you now believe that this is not an issue of coincidence that it just happened it looks بلاه عليكم look what looks good is that the women's clothing is high mini skirt the higher it is the better the more meat and the more flesh that she shows better and the man the more his trousers and his clothing is what is dragging and it's pulling the better when the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has said من جر ثوبه anyone who's garment drags on the ground خي لا أعطب arrogance لم ينظر الله الله does not look at him يوم القيامة is the day of judgment الله will not look at you the day of judgment و مسلمة ده she said يا رسول الله فكيف يصنعنا النساء what would the women do with their the tail of their garment when the حج الباب or حجاب she's wearing the part that's dragging what she do with that the prophet said يولخين شبرا شبرا is this a handspan he said she would let it go like a handspan so after on the ground a handspan she said يدن تنكشف أقدامهنة or a messenger of Allah or a messenger of Allah then when she lifts her leg she's walking then her leg would show this is to show you brothers and sisters how even the women at the time of the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم they really wanted to cover themselves what did they say إذن تنكشف أقدامهنة their legs would show she said then the prophet said يولخينه و ذراعا لا يزيدنا علي then okay ذراع arm span she's not learning more than that tell me the narrator and she's master authenticated today today if a woman does that it will never be added into the category of fashion you want they're not going to add that into it are you with me it's not a fashion why Allah said it شيطان has come to divert everybody from what Allah has sanctioned that's it fashion today is anything that goes against Allah Allah said drink with your right you drink with your left that's fashion anything Allah has sanctioned Allah said let your beads grow and shorten your moustache the opposite is fashion the opposite is what is fashion because the شيطان all he is come for is to take the people away from what Allah has said that's it and he would beautify that and he would make it look good and he would make it be the fashion and the thing today so we say the situation of the Muslim women has changed greatly if you look at how it was bad for a woman to dress today so we say it was bad for a woman to dress I remember many years ago when I was young if you saw a sister who wasn't wearing a hijan والله when I was young and you came and you talked to her about it والله بالله even if she's not wearing it she's willing to listen she will listen and she will leave she will listen you can see that spark of Eman in her heart and she will take on board what you said she may not implement it she may but the respect that she has the fact that you are telling her about Allah in the day of judgment and you're reminding her she's willing to listen today I remember one time I went to a sister I advised her I said sister شرع عن what you're doing is not right I don't know your situation and what you're going through in your life but I only just want to say that if my sister was doing wrong I would like a brother who's practicing to to tell her to fear Allah and to remember Allah I'm only dealing out of concern as much as I like to be advised myself she said no the way she made me she said get away don't talk to me who gave you the right to speak to me let me guess you want my number wow okay that's it so the tkambur and the arrogance and even the rage that was in her head are you there والله she says I'll tell you something شيخ الإسلامي بن تيمي said that الأمن من مكر الله can be a kufr الأمن من مكر الله can reach a kufr which is what if you believe you can receive safety from Allah سبحانه وتعالى the destruction so pass and believe only Allah can judge me between me and Allah Allah is ghafoor and Rahim الأمن من مكر الله شيخ الإسلامي بن تيمي has said it reaches kufr حد kufr that if a person is sinning and they are committing a crime and they say that don't worry Allah سبحانه وتعالى is very merciful he's got other things that he can hold me account for he won't or things like that this is serious that is a serious statement or only Allah can judge me or it's between me and Allah or it's only between me إلا الله سبحانه وتعالى أول مضى عائشة رضي الله تعالى عنها a really chast woman عفيفة الله she's a siddika بنت صدق this is a woman who should be taken as a woman عائشة رضي الله تعالى عنها أمونا أول مضى she said لو أن رسول الله she's talking about her time she said if the messenger of Allah رأى النساء if the prophet of Allah saw the women اليومة today the way they are if the prophet was to see the women today how they are and the way that they appear نهاهن على الخروج the prophet would prohibit them from leaving وحرم عليهم الخروجة and he would have said it's his haram for you guys to leave your houses الله that is the time of who أول مضى عائشة a time of imam a time of knowledge a time where دبي اللهي محمد عليه الصلاة والسلام hasn't died long ago are you there she's saying that if the prophet was to see the women today the way that they dress the way that they are the prophet would have clearly and categorically said to them all stay home and don't leave now what would the situation be if the women are told to do videos and come out if what about makeup and this was shown to عائشة and she was to see that what would she have said that is a very serious the matter is very serious my beloved brothers and sisters الله سبحانه وتعالى he honored women الله سبحانه وتعالى he honored women he honored her as a mother as a mother الله gave her a state that he hasn't given no father الله says in the Quran ووصينا الإنسان بوالديه إحسانا الله سبحانه وتعالى has told us and informed us to be beautiful towards your parents especially who your mother حملته أمه كرحا ووضعته كرحا يوم ماذا she carried you through hardship and pain and she gave birth to you through hardship and pain وحمله وفصاله 30 شهراء 30 months is the pregnancy and then 30 months is also the breastfeeding so 24 of those is what 24 of those is what 24 of those is what it is breastfeeding and at a minimum 6 months she's going to what she's going to carry that's minimum if she's carried you for 9 months even more she's this is what Allah Allah took that into consideration and Allah سبحانه وتعالى said that based on that the mother has more rights than the father the mother has more rights than the father so الله تمرك وتعالى he did وصينا for the mother look at the western world today have they given this to the mother have they they've not given no consideration to the efforts and the hard work that she has gone through anyone who's married whereas a wife would see the hardship it is to raise a child has your wife ever left the child you for one day you leave the house with two different shoes like whoa imagine if that child was going inside you imagine you are the one who's best feeding that child again like no other but it comes back to you imagine imagine this is something else this is it is taken into consideration there's no consideration for the mother in this affairs in the western world والله the child the minute his mother reaches are you with me he reaches a she reaches a particular age he's getting her ready for what for the foster home or not foster home what's it called كاية كاية سنتة his own mom the care center is where he's taking her she's with old people now that he pays he gives them money they look after her that's the حقائق and the reality that they're pushing career work and where's your daughter my daughter she's working and what about your son he's with I remember one time reading the article that a woman said she became very old she's like she had a son and a daughter and she said oh I gave all my money to my dog all the money that she's had she's very rich she gave all of it to her dog she's with my dog because she said my dog really took care of me حقائق it's a reality it's true the dog did everything for her then her own children إسلام has honored you as a mother honored you placed you in a high status when he did it when he did it if you look at the Quran Allah always mentions توحيد and the mother and the parents توحيد and the parents توحيد parents توحيد parents are you with your brothers Allah mentions لا إله إلا الله and then your parents it's not a light matter so don't say to yourself or don't be convinced don't let them tell you that Islam subjugates women and Islam doesn't give women right والله he gave it started from the mother she has to be you can't look in your mother's eyes and shout at her you can't say افتي your mother all of that and you all know the hadith that the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم a man came to the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم صلى الله عليه وسلم من أحب الناس بحسن صحابتي who from the people is most deserving of my companionship the prophet said أمك يا مضى قال ثم من and then he said after that who قال أمك يا مضى قال ثم من قال أمك يا مضى قال ثم من قال ثم أبوك then your father why don't they why don't women look at this you don't find a Muslim there's a feminine movement right so a masculine movement who come out and say look at our speedoprest here women are being pushed three times before us they're being given more rights are you with me what about if the mother when she gave birth she just threw the child and the father raised the child and the child is 15 the child is what the child is what it's 15 the father raised this child with his own bare hands he changed his map he looked after the kids are you with me brothers and sisters does that make the mother and the father والله the father is not even equal to a push from the pushes of the match she gave birth are you there this is a hukm Allah made it man can't argue about this a man can't argue about this الله سبحانه وتعالى He honored her as a daughter Allah honored the women as a daughter how has he honored her as a daughter the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم الله صدق القرآن وإذا بشر أحدهم بالأمثة ظل وجهه بسودة وهو قظيم that when a girl will be born they will be buried alive this girl وقدوا الناس a girl had no quiba she is born how am I going to face the community what am I going to tell the community stress so what did they do they buried the girl alive وإذا بشر أحدهم بالأمثة ظل وجهه مسودة يتوارى من القوم من سوء ما بشر به أي مسكوا على هون أم يدسوا في التراب الأسألة كمولة all he thinks of is how am I going to face the community my wife was pregnant for 9 months all she gave birth to is a girl what am I going to tell the people now he is now thinking of what place in the earth he is going to bury her alive he is thinking of burying the girl whose wife gave birth to alive they don't kill her and then bury her they take her while she is still walking on this earth they grab her they put her into the earth and they place sand over her why because she is a girl because she is a she is a girl that's it no other crime she has done nothing wrong and some stories have been transmitted while they were digging the graves their daughters were cleaning their beds taking the dust off their shoulders while they were very kissing their fathers and they were preparing the place that they are going to bury her in that's where it reached Islam came and liberated women freed them from this gave them rights حقوق a woman was not allowed to be seen in the community she was nothing she was like the animals that's how they saw her she was a she would only give birth to children that's her job nothing else you have to imagine the mindset that the Prophet has to come with and the effort and the hard work that he has to come to a community who are thinking like this not being just thinking like this for one or two years this has been generations and generations the centuries this is how they have been thinking he sallallahu alaihi sallam changed that did he just sleep he said sallallahu alaihi sallam but any woman or any indeparent who loses their daughter this is not for a brother this is not for a son a daughter specifically he raises grows as she died the Prophet said انا وغوة في الجنة تكهى to you me and him are like this in paradise this is not for us boys only a daughter but if you have a daughter and you care of her and you look after her and you perfect her naturally you and I are like this in jannah who is this the Prophet himself Islam gave that to women honored them like that that their father is the man who needs to look after her her clothing her dressing her emotions her feelings the way she thinks everything is upon him that when he talks to her he dresses her in a very very pleasant way come here princess what do you want her clothing what she wants to wear she doesn t have to go out there look for it everything is on him he does that for her protects her from outside then comes the wife Islam honored the woman Allah says in the Quran وعاشر وهنب المعروف live with them in good live with them in good whenever you get angry you can t just punch her in the face are you with me you can t ولي ذلك when فاطمة بالتقيص فاطمة بالتقيص two men came for her hand in marriage فاطمة بالتقيص two men wanted to get married to her the first man was who وعاوية من أبي سوفيان and the second one was what أبو جهم the prophet said to فاطمة are these the two men who have come for your hand in marriage she said yes because the man has to have a characteristics and a way the prophet said to her as for the first man وعاوية لوك الله مالأله he has no money and marriage involves money second أبو جهم is the second candidate who is asked for your hand in marriage فضرابل لنساء he beats women whenever he gets angry he beats women another narration mentions he has لا يولو قلعصا عالعاتيكي the stick is on his shoulder he has got a stick ready anybody does anything wrong he whips them both of them the prophet said don t go for them who should I go for go for usama to the museum and she married usama and the marriage between her and usama it lasted it lasted right are you with me does that make sense another woman came to the prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام and she said يا رسول الله I was previously married to رفاع he was my previous husband I left him divorce finished she said I got married to another man she said this to the prophet she said يا رسول الله he sexually is not pleasing to me he sexually pleasing me he doesn t my old husband is better the prophet of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم have you had intimacy with this one the second one she said no رسول الله he said you have to the reason is because حتى تجكي حزوجا غيرا that you marry a man other than he finished all of his divorces the next man that she has to marry is not just a contract you have to have a relationship then he said if you want to leave him then you re late you re right you have to write to leave him you can leave him if you want اسلام didn t say oh sorry you can t can t just jump from one guy to another no you can t it didn t say that it gave her the rights that if she doesn t want to be in this marriage with this man she doesn t want him that she want that she can leave and go back to her previous husband are you with me شرعان it permitted it for her this is all the things that the sharia has taken into consideration الله سبحانه وتعالى he gave her miracle inheritance she can inherit before the wife was part of the inheritance she was from the things that it was inherited when your father dies the things that are inherited from your father is his wife they would inherit the father's wife like the cars and the body and everything she is just part of that she would be inherited as well she would have to go with the man that she didn t want she is inherited that is how it goes she has no say in anything Islam honored women it honored her from what the Arabs used to do they used to pimp the women they would take her and they would pimp her الله سبحانه وتعالى ولا تكره فتايةكم على البغاء do not oppress your women into what fornication and adultery in أرادنا تحصون if they are willing to be chastised this is what they want to be don t go and force them because the person what he would do is because the women has no rights and she can t say anything he wants to make money from her he wants to make money that is what he wants to do are you with me so what does he do he takes her and he sells her she makes money he takes all the money she is taking nothing she is taking nothing nothing it has he takes all of her money and what he says to her is carrying prostitution and she keeps doing the prostitution نعم Islam came and he lifted her from that honored her and protected her from any of all of that so Islam it took into consideration every part of the women she is a mother she is looked after she is a wife she is looked after and daughter she is looked after that is the situation a woman is either in she is either a daughter she has a father to look after her second is she is a wife she has a husband to look after her now this husband who marries her things he does for her is that he does not physically harm her he does not beat her he took her from her father she is well off , she is being given , she is told to relax , she is told to take the back seat , relax where do you want to go mom , you are umara and your Hajj is up , every year you have got it , don't worry what else do you want ? are you with me ? this is what kakeem umara is , this is what honoring a woman is but honoring a woman , my beloved brothers and sisters is not what the west have set the liberation of the women liberation movement or feminist , what they push is not in any way form or shape is not in any form or shape what they are not honoring a woman


Amen. So keep your place there in Matthew chapter 1, so we're continuing our Christmas story series tonight before Christmas Day next Sunday. And tonight we're going to look, we've looked at John the Baptist, we looked at Elizabeth, his mother, we looked at Mary last week, and this week tonight we're going to look a little bit at somebody who hasn't mentioned all that much in the Bible, but Joseph. Joseph, the actual husband of Mary, obviously not the birth father of Jesus Christ as you know God, the Father is you know Jesus' father. But we're going to look at Joseph tonight, we're going to look at some things in his life, things about Joseph that are admirable, things that we can take from that admirable. And then we're also going to look at how God communicated with Joseph and see how we can apply that to our lives tonight. So look down at the Bible if you would at Matthew chapter 1 in verse number 19. So Joseph comes on the scene here, of course he is espoused as we went through in the last couple of weeks, he's espoused to Mary which in the Bible is, you know it's not the equivalent of engagement today, engagement today, in today's society means nothing, you know people don't take it seriously, engagement is kind of a different thing than a spousal. A spousal in the Bible was considered marriage, it was considered marriage but it was before the husband and wife came together physically as husband and wife. So Joseph as espoused to Mary finds her with child, she's pregnant and of course Joseph, you know that's a problem for most people, right in the normal world. But we see Joseph's character right away with how he handles this. We went through Deuteronomy last week with the law considering divorce and fornication and things like that during that espousal period. But in verse number 19 and look at how Joseph handles this situation. It says then Joseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily. So as we talked about last week he would have been justified into bringing her before the elders you know that she had been in fornication before you know they came together in marriage. Look at verse number 20. But while he thought on these things, now of course God intervenes, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph thou son of David fear not to take unto Mary thy wife for that which is conceived of her is of the holy ghost.  Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth the son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us. Of course Jesus is God. Then Joseph being raised from sleep as did the angel of the Lord had bitten him, did as the angel of the Lord had bitten him and took unto him his wife and he knew her not.  So Joseph right away at the beginning he could have put her away, let's go back before the angel even talks to him. You know Joseph, when I think of Joseph he's not mentioned very many times in the Bible Matthew chapter 1, Matthew chapter 2 is kind of Joseph's debut in the Bible. You don't hear too much about him after that. But Joseph when I think about how his actions were here, what he was justified in doing but what he didn't do, what he didn't push forward doing, Joseph I kind of think of Joseph is just like when I think of a good man I think of Joseph. You know there's a couple of things. First of all he showed, he was going to show mercy to his espoused wife Mary. Before God even intervened he could have taken her publicly and put her away or divorced her as the Bible lays out in Deuteronomy as we went through last week. But he was, he was, he was a just man, he didn't want to do that. He was a merciful man, he was going to put her away privily meaning privately, quietly. He did not want to, even though it appeared she had betrayed him he did not want to harm her, damage her, things like that. He was just, he was just a good man. He was just a very merciful person. Turn to Luke chapter 6. So again just because he had the right to do so doesn't mean that he had to do it. Okay? Doesn't mean that he had to go through it. And the point I want to make here before we even get into the sermon, this is just his introduction, is this. The Bible teaches very clearly that forgiveness and mercy is always an option. Okay? Forgiveness and mercy is always an option. Look at Luke chapter 6 and verse 36. I'm going to give you two reasons why forgiveness and mercy are always options and especially when dealing with our brothers and sisters in Christ and who the Bible would call our neighbors, people that are not like enemies of God. You know forgiveness and mercy are the preferred option. Alright? Look at verse 36 of Luke chapter 6. I'll give you two reasons why. That you should always default to mercy and forgiveness. And that's what Joseph was doing here. He was just defaulting to maximum mercy when it came to Mary. Look at verse number 36. The Bible says be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful. So the Bible is saying here the first reason that you should show mercy is because God the Father showed mercy to you. You're like what do you mean? When did he show mercy to me? Well I don't know. How about when he sent his son to die for you?  So that is why that's the first reason you should be merciful because somebody was merciful to you.  That's what we deserve because we are sinners. We deserve that. So Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 7 is the second reason. So first of all, I mean that makes perfect sense. Somebody showed mercy to me, I should show as much mercy as possible to others. Alright? Look at Matthew chapter 5 verse number 7. Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 7. Now if that's not enough for you, here's another reason that you should show mercy. Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 7. Here's a selfish reason for you. You know here's a selfish reason that you should show mercy whenever you can. The Bible says blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. So the Bible is literally saying here if you are merciful you will get mercy. So what does that imply if you're not merciful? If you're not merciful that implies that your Heavenly Father is going to deal with you in a way. I'm not talking about losing your salvation or anything like that. I'm talking about just being chastised. You know your Heavenly Father dealing with you as a son. I'm talking about if you're not merciful to people you are not going to be granted mercy. That's what the Bible is saying here. Look at James chapter 2. James chapter 2. If you need more evidence on that, James chapter 2 and verse number 13 is extremely clear. James chapter 2. I'm going to wait for you to turn there. James chapter 2 and verse number 13. So number 1 you should be merciful. Joseph was showing mercy. He was a good man. He was showing mercy where he didn't have to. The law was on his side. He could have followed the law through as it was written but instead he aired on the side of mercy. Alright? I'm trying to convince you to do the same tonight. Look at verse number 13 of James chapter 2. It says for he shall have judgment without mercy that showeth no mercy and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. Now let me tell you some things that this says. Let me tell you what this doesn't say. It says he shall have judgment without mercy. Alright? So it's saying if you show no mercy, let's walk it backwards. If you show no mercy you're going to have judgment without mercy meaning judgment is there. Okay? Now what people will say today is C should never judge. Whoa. Like what are you talking about? That's not what that says. The Bible does not say don't ever judge anywhere ever. Okay? As a matter of fact in John chapter 7 the Bible says look judgment is necessary. Judgment is necessary. In James chapter 2 verse 13 what we're talking about here is two types of judgment. There's judgment with mercy and there's judgment without mercy. And the Bible is saying if you have judgment without mercy then you're going to receive less mercy. That's all it's saying. In both of those scenarios judgment was there. There's this wicked false doctrine that's going throughout Christianity today that says don't judge. It's not in the Bible. In John chapter 7 it actually says judge righteous judgment. If people would just think about these things what they're being told for five seconds just think about what it means to not judge. How many people have raised children or would like to raise children with no judgment? Raise your hand. I want my kids to have no judgment. Judgment simply means I brought it up this morning in first Kings chapter 3 verse number 9 when Solomon was asked by God what do you want ask me anything what would you like? You know what Solomon asked for? He said give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people. He asked for judgment and then he defines it in the very next words it says to discern between good and bad.  So look in James chapter 2 and verse number 13 we're looking at two types of judgment and the Bible is saying the best type of judgment is judgment with mercy right there's judgment without mercy and there's judgment with mercy and it's saying mercy is better mercy is the better option alright so look judgment without mercy is bad especially when it comes to our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ God prefers mercy God prefers mercy turn to Proverbs chapter 25 even with by the way even with your enemies even with your enemies God prefers mercy I didn't say God's enemies because there's a difference between God's enemies and your personal enemies but look at Proverbs chapter 25 and verse number 21 and this is also repeated by Paul in Romans chapter 12 but we'll look at the original doctrine in the Bible look at Proverbs chapter 25 verse number 21 the Bible says this about your enemies now what a lot of people do is they'll make their personal enemies God's enemies that's elevating yourself to God's level and we ought not do that alright but look at Proverbs 25 and verse 21 the Bible says if a dying enemy that means your enemy be hungry give him bread to eat and if he be thirsty give him water to drink for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee so look if you have somebody that just doesn't like you or is your personal enemy for one reason or another I mean first of all this works I mean if you have somebody to just like just despises you or you're in some kind of the first thing you're not you're not supposed to like return evil for evil you're supposed to their mean to you and you're just supposed to be nice back and you know what it's just going to drive them nuts is what the Bible is saying they're going to be like and it works it works just return you know evil comes to you and just return it with mercy and and what does the Bible say it will just heap coals of fire on their head it's totally true and in Matthew chapter six verse number seven the opposite of this is Matthew chapter seven look at verse number six turn back to Matthew chapter seven verse number six so the Bible is telling you like Proverbs like Proverbs has like the answer to everything the proverb Proverbs has how to deal with your friends how to deal with your enemies how to be in church how to find a wife how to you know all these different things every single how to handle your business everything is in the book of Proverbs it's it's it's the direction for your personal relationships on this earth and the Bible is saying when you have a personal enemy just return mercy and you're like yeah but I want to get him well that's how you get that's what the Bible is saying you're just going to return mercy you're not going to jump down in the in the ditch with these enemies with even you know bad people that are attacking you or whatever but look at Matthew chapter seven the opposite most of the time this is what people do in Matthew chapter seven look at verse number six most of the time instead of returning you know good for bad here's what people will do the Bible says give not that which is holy unto the dogs neither cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you I had somebody explain this verse to me this way kind of paraphrase it this way don't get down in the mud with the pigs because the pigs like it this is the people that get on you know get on social media and want to argue with people and you know just get down in the mud with all you know sometimes very bad people and you're not going to change everybody's mind but they like it they like that they get you engaged they like that they can pull you into their mess and look the Bible says it's going to rend you it's you're going to get hurt that way and you ought not do that don't cast what is holy unto the dogs you are holy you have the Holy Spirit in you and if you ever I mean this is a little bit different than Proverbs 25 or these are wicked you know dogs as the Bible says you know haters of God reprobates but don't get involved with even arguing or debating with people like that all right so look Joseph was a merciful man he was a good example of how you just grant mercy as a default okay that's all introduction that's not even the point of the sermon go back to Matthew chapter one and verse number 20 Matthew chapter one verse number 20 so Joseph he was he was a good man he was he was who God needed in this case you also know that he was right with God because every single command that God gave him throughout the life of before he Jesus was born and Jesus having to go to Egypt and bring Jesus back from Egypt he followed God he never questioned the Lord one time he just did what he was told and he was very obedient to God look at verse number 20 of Matthew chapter one so the Bible is saying here after you know he finds out that his wife is a spoused wife is pregnant it says but while he thought on these things behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying Joseph thou son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived of her is in the Holy Ghost now turn to Matthew chapter 2 and look at verse number 12 turn to Matthew chapter 2 and verse number 12 I just want to point out something that's consistent in how God communicates here with Joseph so he didn't just come and have an angel stand in front of Joseph he communicated to Joseph in a dream okay look at verse number 12 this is talking about the wise men that came from the east to visit Jesus after Jesus is already born he's a he's a young child at this point and of course they didn't go back to say by the way there wasn't there's no evidence in the Bible that there was three wise men people just think that because there was three gifts you know it fits with the nativity scene little idols and they go with three okay but there could have been ten who knows right look at verse number 12 and being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod they departed into their own country another way that's talking about the wise men going back they were warned by God how in a dream okay look at verse number 13 and when they were departed the wise men behold the angel the Lord appeared to Joseph again in a dream saying arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt that there and be there until I bring the word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him of course after this Herod sends an order to kill all the children under two years old to try to destroy Jesus or destroy this Messiah that he heard was born and look at verse skip down for sake of time to verse number 19 just to prove my point after Herod's dead now this horrible thing was done Herod's dead of course they did not kill Jesus because God protected him by you know using Joseph to take Jesus and marry away look at verse number 19 though it says but when Herod was dead behold an angel the Lord appeared what in a dream to Joseph in Egypt so we see that God is using a pattern here he's communicating to the wise men Joseph several different times through dreams okay now as in my short times of pastor I have been asked this question several times and I'm going to answer it to you tonight from the Bible the question is can God can God talk to us through dreams that's the question all right now before I answer the question yes or no because it is a yes or no answer okay it is a yes here's the here's the answer I'll give you the answer yes yes he can and I'm going to prove to you from the Bible go to Genesis chapter 37 there is dreams there is people in the Old Testament Joseph in the New Testament the wise men in the New Testament being communicated to God by God in their dreams all the time probably the most famous one in the Old Testament is Joseph Joseph himself and I don't know if there's a correlation there between the name you know Joseph had a dream he was a dreamer of dreams the Bible said you know the Bible says in Genesis 20 Jacob's ladder you know the vision that he saw was in a dream in verse number 37 you know he had this dream that he went to his brothers this is what got Joseph and all these trouble he's like you know he was the youngest brother and he went to all his older brothers he's like hey I had this dream that you're all going to serve me just kept bringing up this dream and so they all hated him and they all wanted to like you know kill him later on Genesis chapter 37 Genesis chapter 37 verse number 19 they got so upset with them this is what they said this brother said and they said to one another behold this dreamer cometh because all this trouble that was getting Joseph into it was coming from his dreams that he was having okay God was communicating to him through dreams these things happened they did end up serving him he ended up as the number two man in Egypt just right below Pharaoh right later on the reason he gets out of prison and he gets you know his brothers throw him into slavery and he goes into prison for several different things but he ends up interpreting dreams dreams were a huge part of Joseph's life just interpretations that God gave him you know visions that God gave him in dreams you know dreams were ways of God communicating to people all throughout the Bible Abimelech he even gave a even gave bad news in dreams Abimelech you know the the wicked you know the wicked son of Gideon he's like you know bad he communicated bad news to him he's like I'm you're dead in a dream there's a there's a message you don't want from God look but he God communicates through dreams in the Bible all the time so can God can talk to us through dreams yes yes he can but the question is this let's start here look at the Bible and let's have proper context to this turn to Hebrews chapter 1 turn to Hebrews chapter 1 the question is this how does he do it how does he do it how do I know if it's God I'm going to answer those questions for you tonight go to Hebrews chapter 1 and look at verse number one let's just do a real quick Bible study here and let me connect some dots for you but look we see lots of evidence in the Old Testament the New Testament about God communicating to people through dreams the question is can it communicate to me through dreams and I'm telling you yes he can and I'm going to show you from the Bible that this isn't my opinion this is what the Bible says and I'll explain it to you now look at verse number one of Hebrews chapter 1 the Bible says this God who at sundry times and in diverse manners what that says is several different times many different times and in diverse manners meaning many different methods and ways spake in time passed unto the fathers by the prophets half in these last days now remember we are in the last days okay Jesus himself told the disciples that we are in the last days so the disciples were in the last days okay I'm not going to predict Jesus coming tomorrow that's not what this is about the last days meaning the last half the last part we're not in the end times but we're in the last days that's just a phrase that is used even Jesus said it during the disciples time so look he had spake to the fathers by the prophets okay we get that this is the Old Testament hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he has appointed of all things by whom also he made the worlds so the Bible here is saying is that yes he spoke in time passed to the fathers by the prophets the prophets would get visions from God get messages from God and they would go tell the people Jeremiah Isaiah you name them all this is what they did they spoke the word of God thank God we have you know we have what God wants us to have in the Bible sitting in front of us but he says now he speaks to us by his son all right he speaks to us by who's the son by Jesus okay what is Jesus Jesus is the word John chapter 1 Jesus is the word and the word you know became flesh and dwelt among us is what we're going to celebrate next week is the birth of the Messiah and I like how it says in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2 it says whom he has appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds so what he's saying is Jesus is who God communicates through he communicates to us through Jesus by the way he also made the worlds through Jesus how did God make the world he spoke it so what God is saying here is that he communicates me just translate this for you he communicates to us today through his word that is what the Bible clearly says all right now I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into that in just a few minutes but turn to John 1st John chapter 4 1st John chapter 4 so you say I I dream something and I think that it was God talking to me how do I know if it was God well the Bible tells us how you can know if it was God and then I'll explain how God could actually you know communicate to you in your sleep in your dreams through his son okay look at 1st John chapter 4 and verse number 1 so the first thing is this the first thing is this the Bible is very clear that it might not just be God that communicates to you in in your dreams okay 1st John chapter 4 and verse number 1 says beloved believe not every spirit now spirit there being lowercase meaning every person or message that you receive but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world you say okay so it says try the spirits that means test the spirits okay so that means every message you get whether it be when you're awake or when you're sleeping you need to try those spirits test them to see if they're of God you say how do I do that well God tells us go to Deuteronomy chapter 13 God tells us how to do that all right God tells us how to test the spirits to see if they're of God go to Deuteronomy chapter 13 look at verse number one you say if there's a test I need to put these spirits to which God would tell me what the test is I'm going to show you go to Deuteronomy chapter 13 look at verse number one Deuteronomy chapter 13 verse number one because look we've talked about this before not every message that you receive in your life whether you be awake or sleeping not every opportunity that comes in front of you whether you be you know conscious or not you know guess who else is trying to lead you in this world the Satan is walking about on this earth as we saw in Job chapter one this morning he's walking around he's he's on the earth with his demons and he's trying to derail you he can't take away your salvation he can't make you go to hell but he can make you worthless he can get you into trouble he can get you into sin he can get you into things that you shouldn't be into to make you what unfruitful unprofitable in your Christian life that's what he wants and look if you're out here and you're being a profitable Christian if you're out preaching the gospel to people you're out getting people saved let me tell you something if you move from not being a profitable Christian to being a profitable Christian your life will change because you have a target on your back and I can't tell you how many times I've seen this because now the devil is trying to get you unprofitable unfruitful okay look at Deuteronomy chapter 13 verse number one the Bible says if there arise among you a prophet there arise among you a prophet just listen to everything he says no matter what I mean he's a prophet most people how do you know somebody's a prophet I mean everybody says they're a prophet if they're rising on you a prophet or look at this a dreamer of dreams and give it the a sign or a wonder now here's what's really interesting and the sign or wonder come to pass so here this prophet comes out and he says I had I have a vision from the Lord I have a message from the Lord and he said the Lord's going to give me a sign and look the sign happens the sign happens wherefore he speak unto these saying let us go after other gods which thou has not known and let us serve them then now shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God prove with you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul I will hear saying if you have some profit he comes out because guess who else is going to do great signs and wonders false prophets will do great signs and wonders the false profit that works for the antichrist is going to do great signs and wonders and the entire world is going to follow him so it's not the signs and wonders it's what he's actually saying the Bible says that these prophets are going to come and they're going to try to draw you away from the Lord and draw you into false gods false things against what the Word of God says and it says you know God is testing you God is you know that's a test for you as a Christian whether or not you will recognize that or not so all that to say this dreams can be good or they can be bad so we first need to understand that we need to understand okay and God communicate with me through my dreams and I'm going to show you how he does that in a few minutes but I first want to show you that dreams just like opportunities that come to you they can be good and they can be bad and they need to be tested against what against what God's Word says and how in the world could you test something against God's Word if you have no idea what it says this is how important it is to read the Bible this is how important it is that you be like the Bereans that we just learned about in Acts chapter 17 that you just you study yourself to see if these things are so you don't just sit and just listen to sermons you go home and you read the Bible and study the Bible say I don't know pastor said that is that what is that what this is is that what the Bible says look we need to study to show ourselves approved the Bible says look at verse number four Deuteronomy chapter 13 you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and oh look at this obey his voice there it is you see how the Old Testament is no different than the New Testament obey his voice obey his word obey his son obey Jesus I just said the same thing like four times it's all the same thing verse number five and that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death like that's what God thinks of false prophets okay because spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust the out of the way which the Lord God commanded thee to walk in so shall that put that evil away from the midst of thee so look we all know this look dreams can be powerful dreams can be powerful you can wake up from a dream I mean who's experienced this I mean you wake up from a from sleeping you wake up in the morning and like you feel completely different about something for like 10 minutes dreams are very very powerful I'm gonna explain to you why they're powerful but you need to understand you don't just wake up from a dream and be like that was really powerful I feel this way towards this now really strongly you must try that that message you must test that message because it could be good or it could be bad as we just saw we need to make sure that it matches God's voice as as the Bible just said try those spirits to see if they're of God look they might be they might be but look as soon as you start to understand the Bible really easy to figure out whether these are good spirits or bad spirits you mean good messages or bad things maybe they're things that were from your past that you shouldn't even be thinking about or shouldn't even be you know people that you've separated from that you you should stay separated from and you you had a dream for some reason about it look that's not a good thing you should be able to try these things all right whether they're good or bad so you need to test dreams are very powerful let me give you just a little bit of a testimonial I've had I've had many revelations through dreams well I don't mean biblical revelations where I'm writing scripture okay don't leave the church okay but the point is I've had many things that have come to me I have I have been thinking about things at work really stressed out about a project at work and and just having problems technical issues at work and I have literally dreamed the solution I have dreamed about something and I've woken up and I've tried it and it worked and look I'm telling you that's from God I'm telling you that didn't come from me that is a that's a blessing that's a blessing I remember I'll give you one specific example that sort of changed my life and it wasn't a dream but it was a it was a deep thought that just kind of seemed to come from nowhere I was literally in the middle of the pasture working on a fence post I was tamping a fence post how many people know what that means I had a railroad tie that I was putting in the ground and I was walking around this railroad tie tamping this dirt around this railroad tie and I had this huge project at work and also in this idea just I just thought of this idea on this project and this product this idea it turned into this massive success that turned into a patent for the company and guess what that idea and that patent helped me get a job when I moved to California that one thing that and I said from the beginning I was recently saved when that happened just a few years earlier and I said from the beginning because guess what I always prayed for creativity those one of my prayers that I always had if you have a you have a job and you want to do better at your job that's a great prayer pray for creativity you're a homeschooling mom pray for creativity why would God not answer that prayer so I always prayed for creativity I prayed for God to give me ideas to help solve problems all these types of things and look that was just an answered prayer that's all that was I literally I wasn't even thinking about work I was I was kicking dirt in a hole and just this just popped into my head it's just from it's just from the Lord that's all and I mean I'm not any more smart than anybody else it was just from the Lord that's all it was and it turned out that that turned out to be a great blessing in my life it helped get me to where I am today stand in here in front of you all so you can see these things it's definitely blessings can come from God into your mind okay that's the main point that you need to understand again you have to test it against the Bible to know if it's of God now turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 5 I love situations I love situations where science catches up to the Bible but let me read you a secular we have let me read you a secular explanation of what dreams are okay the question is the question is God communicated the prophets through dreams he communicated to Mary's husband Joseph through dreams does he communicate to us through dreams yeah I'm going to tell you yes he does and I'm going to tell you how he does it okay go to Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and while you turn there again you're going to have many things come to you through dreams you need to test them to see if they are of the voice of God or not all right so we know that I'm going to give you some secular science on dreams there was a book written in 2011 and it was called dream it dream on it unlock your dreams and change your life it was by this this gal and she just shares all these insights about dreams all right but here's a description of what dreams actually are from this secular scientist she's a PhD or some scientist expert in in dreams okay but here's what she says I love when science catches up to the Bible all right because the Bible has all the answers in it she says this dreams are thoughts when you are dreaming you are thinking but on a much deeper and focused level than when you're awake think about it when you go to sleep the lights are off your eyes are closed and the world around you is shut out there are no distractions the mind doesn't stop working at this point whatever your stream of thought is as you drift off continues and begins to go inward as your conscious waking literal mind slips into a state of rest your deeper inner subconscious mind takes over so what she is saying here is just what are dreams dreams are thoughts I agree I agree many times you will dream about things if you're super stressed about something you'll have dreams about that you can tell that dreams are just their continuations of your thoughts so science has caught up to the Bible are you in Ecclesiastes chapter five look at verse number three Ecclesiastes chapter five look at verse number three the Bible says for a dream coming through the multitude of business let me just let me say that differently because what business means in the King James Bible is really busyness it means it means being profitable work that you're doing that's what that's what business as that word means to us so what that means for a dream coming through the multitude of business it says you know what that's saying dreams are thoughts and you're going to dream about what you're busy doing Solomon knew it you know this lady just caught up I don't know twenty five hundred years later or so probably more no you have more than that three thousand years later you will dream about things that you are thinking about the Bible tells us this now go to Joshua chapter one can God communicate to us through our dreams so you will dream about things that you're thinking about that you're busy doing meaning things that you're just you're feverishly doing and you're taking seriously you will dream about those things and according to that scientist you will dream about those things on a much deeper level again I agree how you know how you could you know possibly wake up in the morning and have a solution that you didn't have the night before is because your mind keeps going your mind keeps going even while you're sleeping look at Joshua chapter one in verse number eight so question is what are what are you thinking about what are you thinking about Joshua chapter one look at verse number eight how about this one what should you be thinking about this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth meaning you should be speaking God's word but thou shall meditate therein day and night that thou mayst observe to do according to all that is written therein for then shall thou make thy way prosperous and then not shall have good success so if God in these last days has spoken to us by his son through his word the Bible says we should be meditating day and night on that word and guess what you're going to dream about it you're going to dream about God's word you're going to dream about things that you've read things that you meditate on let me give you a little bit of an insight into how I write sermons you say I write three unique sermons every single week you say is it nice to get through Sunday night I'm kind of like yes I made it again I somehow preach two more sermons on Sunday but guess what Monday morning right away right away Monday morning what do I do I read I don't write any sermons on Monday I don't I hardly ever write anything down Monday but what I do is I'm going to read Acts chapter 18 at least twice as early as I can tomorrow morning why so I can think about it so I can meditate on it I'm telling you if I wrote a sermon I could probably sit down and write a sermon in in one day in just a couple hours but it wouldn't be that good why because I need I mean I like to think about it I like to read it and meditate about it I like to think about it think of applications about it you know I talked to my wife about it I'm like hey what do you think about this and then my wife says hey what do you think about this she's got you know things we talk what are we doing we're just talking about we're not letting the law depart from our mouth and we're meditating I'm meditating on these things and then I write some things down I kind of bust out a skeleton of an outline on Tuesday and then after I think about it some more sometimes I'm like yeah that doesn't really make much sense and then I kind of back things up and then I fill it out on Wednesday so like literally three days I'm saying it takes three days to write a sermon but that time is super important in order to get a good message because I like to meditate and look I've dreamed about things I've dreamed about God's Word I've dreamed about ideas to sermons I'm not saying that God is telling me some revelation that he's not telling you I'm telling you I'm dreaming about the same word of God that you have sitting on your lap right now but if you meditate on it it will communicate to you it will it will talk to you if you meditate on God's Word you will start putting those pieces of that puzzle together with things that are going on in your life you got some specific situation that only you know about that nobody else in the church knows about that you're going through or your family's going through or whatever and you're meditating on the Word of God but this is how important it is that you meditate on the Word of God because I don't know everything that's going on with you I don't know everything that's happened in your past and what's going on with you now that's why you need to meditate on the Word of God and then God will communicate through that word to you while you're awake and while you're sleeping it's very simple so does God communicate through us in our in our yes as long as you're thinking about the Word of God as long as you're meditating on the Word of God because that is how God communicates to us now if you if you decide that you had a dream and you wake up and you you decide that God gave you another book of the Bible that no one else has been given that doesn't pass the test that was not of God that was not of God Joseph Smith that's a false prophet okay those are false things so look God can communicate through you in your dreams it's just another way of you meditating on the Word of God that's all it is it's just your thoughts that's it now look a lot of people God can't communicate with a lot of people when they're awake much less when they're sleeping but if in order this is how you know this is how you know that that Joseph the man well he was a godly man he was a godly man that way when God did have a very specific message through the angel Gabriel for Joseph all right and that's why he never questioned it he never questioned it he tried those spirits they were of God they matched up with the voice of God and he knew that it was the Lord so yeah meditate day and night on God's word because look that's how God communicates with you God communicates through us look if you're hearing if you're here if you're awake and you're hearing audible voices you know you need to come talk to me all right because that's not what I'm talking about here I'm talking about meditating on the Word of God that we all have right here and then God will speak to you through this Word it's an infinite book it applies to you it applies to anyone who's ever lived and he will speak to you through it and if you meditate on it you will dream on it too and he will communicate through you and many times folks look I'm telling you many times the things that you're meditating on you will you will see things and you will connect things in your dreams it's an amazing thing which again shows the power of the Creator Jesus Christ that he created such intricacies in us that he can communicate with us in such great and wonderful ways so Joseph Joseph he was a good man and God was successfully able to communicate with him because he had a good bringing it back to the first sermon he had a good relationship with his heavenly father you know he had a good relationship with his heavenly father and I can tell you that I'm sure Joseph he and I'm sure these people God gave dreams to I'm sure they meditated on God's word just as Joe Joshua said that we should communicate on God's word and then you will dream about God's word and that may you know connect some dots for you in your life you know always testing always testing those things though against the word of God and how do you know the word of God you do the nine chapters a day challenge and you read the Bible cover to cover and you understand what God's word says and then it's easy to know whether it's God or not let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer


Now, in Exercise 2, we're going to do just a little bit more coding work. It is possible that this is the first time that you have seen or written a generator. In which case, I hope it was a good chance to play with that and to get a sense of how that worked. The example in the instructions before the exercise was intended to give you a template to work from. We can look at how we applied this in our code. We'll use Sublime again and what I consider to be a pretty visually attractive tool for seeing the differences between two branches, Sublimerge, and it lets us see on the left the solution that we had to Exercise 1 and compare it to on the right the solution that we wrote for Exercise 2. Here we can see, if you look way on the right, you can just see a tiny bird's-eye view of the whole code and you can see down at the bottom, the new part is outlined in white. On the left you can see this white bar along the edge that shows where there was new code introduced in the change, where it was missing from the previous version. Sublimerge is a tool that you have to pay for. I believe it's about $30. Sublime itself is a tool that you can do a free trial of, but you also can pay for it. I think it's around $80. Altogether this is not a free solution. It's actually not even the tool that I use when I'm developing myself, but it is something that shows a little bit better in a video in my opinion, so I feel like it's good for this, but don't feel like you need to spend money on it if it's not for you. In a couple of lectures ago, I listed some diff tools, some things that are more than adequate, and if you find them useful, then free solutions are absolutely the way to go. Looking at the code here, you can see within the function that we already wrote, we add two new functions, we create them, Training Set and Evaluation Set. As we mentioned in the instructions, these are special. These are generators. The thing that makes them generators is they have this yield statement that they end with rather than a return statement. Generators are special because it has the yield here. Python does some fancy footwork behind the scenes and lets you instantiate this and just call the keyword Next on it. You can get this function Training Set and then just call Next Training Set. One at a time, it'll just peel off the next result from this yield statement. In this case, we have this infinite loop while true randomly choose one of the items or the index of one of the items in our list of examples and then pull out the example with that index, so with that number of that position in the list. Just randomly go through our bag of examples and pull out a new one each time. You might get the same one two or three times in a row every once in a while, but just repeats aren't a problem because this is not a real data set and we're not worried about actually how well we learn it. We're just worried about testing the machinery that does the learning. It's okay to be very fast and loose on this. The evaluation set does exactly the same thing as the training set. And again, that's not at all the behavior we'd want in learning an actual data set, but it's useful in just testing the neural network, making sure that all the gears are meshing and are well lubricated. Now, what's really cool here is we can actually return the functions themselves, these generators themselves, training set and evaluation set. These then become, you can think of them as little boxes or little machines or little tiny factories that when you call training set dot next, it'll just peel off the next example and we'll make use of that in the next exercise.


One of the most common questions I get asked is, you know, how do I start day trading? So what me and my mentor about it for our viewers on YouTube is create a free mentorship course that reveals our 12 secrets that every single brand new day trader should know before they get started. But please take note that there is limited seating every single week. So please reserve your spot at myinvestingclub.co. The link is in the description. What's up, everyone? It's Tommy Zuhi here. I hope you guys are enjoying the weekend. Yeah, today we had a really amazing weekend mentoring session with Dr. Ann. He went over his hard keys, you know, for Dash Trader. I mean, so I think, you know, there's a lot of useful information.   You know, it's someone I really look up to a lot.  So yeah, guys, so if you haven't watched that yet, go back and watch them. I think you couldn't, you know, really learn a lot from that, you know, session alone. Yeah, so yeah, we went, we kind of went over some charts today from the members. And so that's why I just want to make, you know, this video based on that, because I've been seeing a lot of charts like this from the members. And I think, you know, like the main problem or the main issues that I've been seeing from the members who's been DMing me like the whole time is, you know, when it comes to trading or when it comes to their actual trade, they didn't have a plan in place, right? So I mean, yeah, sometimes, you know, I could see a good entries and all that. But, you know, they didn't have a proper plan to, to exit or where to cover. So yeah, so I just want to kind of go quickly over that today.   And whatever, you know, those pro traders, they are, they are usually have a solid plan and, and they usually follow their, their plan, you know, thoroughly and, and, and really well, right? So that's why I just want to kind of go over that today. I think it's really important for those that who want to grow their account, because, you know, for small account, it's not that easy, right?  So I just want to kind of touch, you know, points on those. I'm just going to go through like, you know, some major points and hopefully you guys can pick up some from this video. And you know, I think it's going to be short and sweet. So I'm just trying to kind of keep it short. So hey guys, my name is Tosh Bradley. I'm one of the head mentors and moderators of my investing club. If you have any questions about getting started in trading, getting started in MIC, MIC in general, text me at<PHONE_NUMBER>. This is not a robot. It was me directly on the other end of my business line. And we'll get you in the club. We also have special promotions going on that I can get to you depending on your trading needs. Hit me up. Back to the video. Yeah, so let's bring on some charts here. What do we have on Friday? I kind of got all the tickers. I am MP. Yeah, I mean, we can go for them like I am MP. It's not the hot check on on Friday, but it's more like Thursday. But you know, on Friday, it's more like low hanging fruit, right? And you can see, you know, it was, you know, pretty, pretty much stress free. I kind of lay out a plan too short from 3.5 or four. I mean, didn't get to four.  So that's, that's pretty good. Yeah. So I want to kind of go over like the most common mistakes or like, like the most common things that I've seen from, from our members like who've been DMing me and also some of the charts here, you know, in today's weekend mentoring session as well. And I think the common problem is that they don't have a plan, right? Or they had a plan, but they didn't stick to it, right? So whatever that might be, okay? For me, when it comes to trading, the only thing I respect, the only thing I care about is my plan, right? Because you know, when it comes to trading, I don't know what's going to happen, okay? I don't know where the stock is going to go because if I knew, you know, I would size up in here and then be rich, right? Let's say, you know, four line, if I knew that stock is going to get to four and then tank to, I don't know, 3.5 or I need this to go to 3.5, 50 cents. If I know that for sure, right? I'm going to size up here and be rich, but it's not that easy, right? So we want to take our emotions out of the gate, right? But how can we do that, right? The only thing we can do that is, you know, by pre-defining our risk, by accepting the fact that okay, I'm okay with losing this and that much.  But, you know, but I think it's really crucial for a lot of members, new or old, you know, a lot of people have been seeing the same thing, over and over again, okay? So they've been shorting here, let's say, they are, you know, like, they are really disciplined, right? I mean, that's good. They are really disciplined with the entries. So let's say they drew a line here, 3.5, and then they shorted four, they got a two bullets, right? Perfect entries, scaling into that. But then when it comes to exit, they started to cover here and cover here, right? So it doesn't really add up to me. I mean, it really doesn't make sense to me as a plan, right?  It just doesn't make sense. A lot of people been scaling like 3.5, 4, 4.5, right? Like 1.5, like, you know, 1.5 points, they have been scaling. And when the stock started to turn, right, going down for the 10, 20 cents, I mean, let's say they scale from 3.5, 4, whatever, 4.5, right? I mean, the average is, let's say at 4, right? But when the stock is kind of dropped into that 4 or like 4.2, 4.3, they start covering. I mean, it just really doesn't make sense, guys.  That's why I know, I know it's easier said than done, you know, because all the emotions and all that. So that's why I said, have a plan before you placing a trade, right? Thank you so much for watching our video. 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