And today I want to share a message entitled Kingdom Politics. Now I want to share about what is the true kingdom perspective on this topic of politics because you know we see a lot of people they become either divisive, distracted, or they start idolizing politics. They get obsessed with it instead of the things of God and they just kind of drift away from what truly matters. And sometimes that division and that contention can really leave a sour taste in our mouth about politics, about Christians being engaged in politics or talking about politics. But politics is very important and it's very important to God all throughout the Bible. We see God's people in the political realm doing His will. Now although there might be division and people who don't operate the way God wants them to operate in this area, that doesn't mean we neglect it as a whole. And I want to offer a biblical sound perspective on how we are meant to engage, how the believer is meant to engage in politics. In Jeremiah 29-7, the Lord said this to Jeremiah. He said, Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare. In Proverbs 29-2, when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules the people groan. And in Isaiah chapter 1 it says, Learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widows. Rebuke the oppressor. Now I want to clarify some misconceptions because a lot of people unconsciously we believe certain things and we don't fully know kind of what the Bible says and as I mentioned we see all the division, the craziness, and we just want to be in the house of the Lord. We just want to be, you know, focused on the things of God. But I want to clarify some misconceptions that might be leading us away from having a true view, from being effective in this world, from being effective for the Lord in this very important realm which is politics. The first misconception is this, quote-unquote, politics isn't what's important, preaching the gospel is what's important. Now that's 100% true. Preaching the gospel is the most important thing possible. But if you look at the country of North Korea, and there should be an image behind me of the Korean peninsula, and you can see at night down below that's South Korea, up above is North Korea. Now after World War II the countries that split had very different trajectories and very different ways of living now. North Korea became extremely developed, went from poverty to prosperity, and there is freedom there, there is democracy there, and then North Korea is almost slavery for many people. And to preach the gospel there, try and go preach the gospel in North Korea. Try and get on a plane and go preach the gospel in North Korea, you can't. And to even be reading the Bible, to be caught with the Bible, to be singing a Christian hymn, to telling a friend about Jesus, you can face 15 years in prison sent to a labor camp along with your family. Because Satan has infiltrated the politics of that nation, God's word is unable to flow into that area to reach the souls there. So preaching the gospel is inevitably political. And the Lord wants the political structure of a place to be conducive for the gospel to be preached, while Satan wants it to be obstructive. He wants to create walls, prevent people from actually getting God's word for the salvation of souls in that area. And the early Christians knew this, that the preaching of the gospel is inevitably political, because Jesus told them. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, he says, Look, I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves, so be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves, but beware, for you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. You'll stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. He specifically prepared his disciples for political engagement. From preaching the word, not from being obsessed about politics, from preaching the word, from preaching their testimony, who Jesus Christ is, it's inevitably political. An angel of the Lord even told Paul, he says, You're going to stand before the emperor of Rome, Caesar. The emperor of Rome, the most powerful human being on the entire earth at that time, Caesar. Paul was going to stand before him for preaching the gospel. The persecution in ancient Rome was so bad that to even be going to life group on Tuesday night, you were in risk of treason and being executed. Just imagine that.  You were at risk of being the FBI coming into your door, knocking you down, stripping you away from your kids and executing you. That's what it was like in ancient Rome. The early Christians had to find ways to spread the gospel in such a demonic and dark and, and obstructive culture. One of these ways was the fish symbol. You ever seen the fish symbol on the bumper, bumper stickers and stuff? Well, you know, wonder why that is associated with Christianity. Well, that was actually one of the early Christian symbols used amidst that persecution. Fish in Greek is ichtis. And it's an abbreviation for an encoded message of the gospel. And behind me, you'll see this fish right here with ichtis below. It's actually I, Iota, Kai, Theta, Upsilon and Sigma. Those are the letters. And this is what's encoded. Iota is Jesus, which is Jesus. Kai is Christos, which is Christ or anointed one. Theta is Theu, which means God. Upsilon is Uyos, which means Son. And Sigma, the last letter is Soter, means Soter, which is Savior. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. This is the symbol they used to go undercover, to, to operate under the scenes and preach the word and spread the word of God. And in only a few hundred years, the biggest empire on Earth was converted to Christianity. They overtook the biggest empire on Earth because they were engaging. They were strategizing. They were seeing how can we spread the word in this political persecution? How can we spread the word as Jesus commanded us to? Inevitably, they're going to engage with the governors, the kings, the rulers, the emperors, and they're going to need the Holy Spirit's guidance on how to penetrate and effectively bring God's will here on Earth. We see in modern times, and actually the spirit of this house has a great deal of ancestral connection to Soviet Union communism. And the senior pastor of our house, Pastor Vasili, his grandfather, was actually a, he was martyred for the cause of Christ in the Soviet Union. And he would not renounce his faith. They put him in prison. He would end up getting dragged behind a horse and suffered traumatic brain injuries and died because his faith was so strong in Jesus Christ. He wasn't going to relinquish his faith for some communist government.  And there is a fight that the Christian needs to have to hold strong to the faith because our rock on which we stand is Jesus Christ who is eternal. And we will continue in this church fighting against any persecution that comes against the spreading of the gospel, whether it's a planned pestilence that tries to shut down all the churches and force people to take things against their will and scientific scrutiny, whatever it might be, God's people will fight for the kingdom of God and the salvation of souls on this earth. Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. All the world is every single government, nation, political structure, whatever it might be. And the second misconception is this. We're citizens of heaven, not of earth. Politics are earthly and temporary. And the things of heaven are really all that matter. We are citizens of heaven in Philippians 3.20, but we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we're eagerly waiting for him to return as our savior. And we're also seated with Christ in heavenly places. But the reality is we can be dual citizens. We can be citizens of heaven and citizens of a nation here on earth. Paul actually used his citizenship to get out of government torture and imprisonment. We see Acts chapter 22, they tied Paul. He was literally preaching his testimony, preaching the word of God.  And he says this, when they tied Paul down to lash him, Paul said to the officers standing there, is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who's never been tried? When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and asked, what are you doing? The man's a Roman citizen. So the commander went over and asked Paul, tell me, are you a Roman citizen? Yes, I certainly am, Paul replied. I am too, the commander muttered. And it costed me plenty, Paul answered, but I'm a citizen by birth. The soldiers who are about to interrogate Paul quickly withdrew when they heard he was a Roman citizen and the commander was frightened because he had ordered him bound and whipped. We too can have a valuable earthly citizenship. And just as Paul used his to get out of that persecution, we can use ours. And even to be a United States citizen is an immense privilege here on this earth. The Constitution of the United States is one of the most unique documents on the planet earth because of the rights that it bestows upon its people. Thomas Jefferson, a founding father, he wrote this, these famous words. We hold these truths to be self evident, the truths of the rights of every human being, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.  And with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. When he wrote this and the people who signed it, they knew that if they lost the war against the greatest military on the planet at that time, Great Britain, that they would be executed, that they would lose their entire fortune and it would not pass on to their children. They signed away everything and they believed that these truths were self evident from our creator. And the Bible even says there's neither Greek nor Jew, neither slave nor free, male or female, we're all one in Christ Jesus. These are biblical values, Judeo-Christian values that built the West. Thomas Jefferson also said, God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be secure when we've removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift of God? Our liberties rely on a belief in God. And what's happening in the world today? People are coming against that very notion that there is a God who created all things, who is holy, righteous, and just. And if you don't believe there's a God, how can you believe there's an absolute morality? If you think evolution is the truth and hey, the strongest wins, you have the right, like Machiavelli said, to oppress the weak because genetically you're stronger and the gene pool needs to increase.  It becomes more feasible because you don't see the inherent value of a human soul and the inherent absolute morality that we are meant to live by that God has put in his word. And that's why Satan wants to destroy the United States, rip away those rights. But just like Paul, we need to use those rights to spread the gospel. And when you hear about separation of church and state, people try and use this all the time.  There's a separation of church and state. The Constitution says, well, actually, the Constitution never says that. And it was in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to a Baptist church in 1802 where he mentions this idea. And what this idea is, is that the state cannot dictate or demand a specific denomination that everyone has to pledge allegiance to. Because prior, it was the Catholic church that you must describe to every doctrine. Then it was the Anglican church and the king. You must subscribe to every doctrine. So then these pilgrims come on the Mayflower to the United States and they want to practice their faith as they believe the scripture and God wants them to. And this, this idea was that this country is going to be a place where you can truly interpret the word of God as you wish and worship God in your way. And that the state with its political power, with its military power, cannot tell you what to do in that area. It's not that we can't influence government. We're meant to influence government to make this place because our welfare relies on the welfare of the country we're in. Another aspect of this misconception that must be clarified is that although, you know, we are not of this world, we can still be in this world. You know, we don't need to, to completely place our identity 100% there and forget about the identity that God has given us here. And Jesus actually prayed to the Father. He said, I've given them your word and the world has hated them because they're not of the world. Just as I am not of the world, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. So when you're saved, when you're born again, when you have faith in Jesus Christ, you've been cleansed of your sin, you have an eternal dwelling place that will, you will dwell in, in heaven.  Although you've been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, you still have a purpose in this world. And what Christians are meant to do is make this world more like heaven in the Lord's prayer. The only time that Lord Jesus Christ actually gave a specific words on how to pray when his disciples were asking him, he said, you will be done. Your kingdom come. You will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Christians are meant to bring the will of God, the very values, the very culture, the very state of heaven where there is no suffering, no pain, no tears, where we are meant to bring that will into this earth of righteousness and holiness, bring healing to people who are in darkness, be the be the ambassadors of Christ that we are, that the Bible says and ambassadors of political office term. We're meant to represent our citizenship in heaven here in this fallen world where we are dwelling here temporarily. And we're meant to be ambassadors for the will of Jesus Christ, for the will of heaven, just as an ambassador of this nation and another nation is meant to, you know, speak on behalf of that nation to do the will of that nation in the foreign nation. We are meant to do that here on earth because we are citizens of heaven, ambassadors of Christ, and we are called to make this world more like heaven. This doesn't mean that we usher in the totality of God's kingdom here on earth. That's going to come after his second coming when the new Jerusalem comes, when we all dwell in the kingdom of God forever. But that doesn't mean that we're not meant to be doing things here on earth. Instead, we're meant to be zealous for good works. The Bible constantly says, be zealous for good works. Jesus told us to be salt and light in this world. Assault preserves what is good and also makes things better. In the light, it brings life to earth, the light of the sun. And it also exposes the works of darkness. Jesus said, let your light shine so before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Ephesians 511 have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. When you are a Christian, when you have the light that's in you, you will automatically expose the works of darkness. You will automatically expose where the enemy is operating, which is in deception, which is in lies, which is in fake news, trying to deceive people from actually knowing the truth. But we have the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth. We are the ones who are meant to be the beacon of light on the hill. We are the ones who are meant to bring light to this world that we live in, this dark and fallen world. We have a relationship, a connection to the very source of light. Jesus is the light. God is light. What we do in this lifetime is also extremely important because it actually determines our rewards in heaven. So we're not meant to just passively wait around for Christ coming after we're saved. We're meant to be activated by the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the works of God. And we're actually in a war, like Paul told Timothy, to be a soldier in Christ. We're meant to be enlisted into the war. Well, what is the war? 1 Corinthians 5.58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain. Always abounding in the work of the Lord, not just passively waiting, always abounding, and that everything you do for the Lord is not in vain. It's noticed. God sees it. There is a reward. 2 Corinthians 5.10. For we almost appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Everything's weighed, everything's seen, everything's worth it. Paul told Timothy, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good that they be mere rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come. We're meant to be rich in good works, and the Spirit of God empowers us. He is the fuel that we are empowered, because it's not I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and he has a will that he wants to happen on this earth, in this nation, in this world. He wants to reach, whether it be your school, whether it be your city, maybe the school system, where Satan is trying to infiltrate. His will wants to travel through you when you submit to him and actually impact and influence the world around you. And Titus, it says, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify himself for his own special people, zealous for good works, zealous, hungry, determined for good works. Ephesians 2-10, where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. This church, coming to church on Sunday, isn't a destination. It isn't the, hey, I'm a great Christian Lord, now I'm good now, I'm coming to church, I'm bringing my family. This is the gas station. You get fueled up here listening to these messages to go out into your world that God has you and to reach people for the kingdom of God. This is where you get armed and equipped, the armory where you get strengthened as a good soldier in Jesus Christ, and you go out into the world and you fight for the things of God. This isn't the destination, it's the gas station. The fourth misconception is that Jesus wasn't involved in politics nor were his disciples. You know, they're just focused on the spiritual things of the kingdom of God. Well, the reality is Jesus was crucified by the political leaders and so were many of his disciples. He was actually sent to trial before the Sanhedrin, which was a 71 member council in that time that was full of Sadducees, the Pharisees and other leaders, and they gave the judgments, criminal, civil judgments on people up into the death penalty they had the power. But since they were under the power of Rome, the control of Rome, they couldn't issue the death penalty, hence why they had to go to Pontius Pilate to kill Jesus. The Herodians, you might think, well, King Herod, isn't he the political? They were more so in charge of enforcing the collection of taxes, administrative things, and they left the Sanhedrin to judge the actual enforcement of the Torah, the law of society. So Jesus was constantly at war with the Pharisees. He called them the brood of vipers, sons of the devil. You're of your father, the devil, you hypocrites. He was constantly at war. They were trying to trap him countless times to try and kill him. Literally, these were the people who were trying to kill Jesus since the dawn of his ministry. And even before that, King Herod was trying to kill him when he was a baby. Jesus was at war with the political leaders of his day because they were not on the side of God. And when we look at men and women of God throughout history in the Bible, we see the same theme. John the Baptist, who Jesus said was the greatest of all men, was beheaded for exposing the evil deeds of Herod and Herodias. And you might say, man, he was beheaded. That's kind of a tragic death. Well, beheading in the New Testaments associated with the honor of martyrdom. And those who will be beheaded during the Great Tribulation are the ones who will reign with Christ for 1,000 years, it says in Revelation chapter 20. So you're saying that the greatest man to ever live somehow wasn't meant to make that decision to expose the sin of the political leaders? The Bible would likely say otherwise. In Esther, she risked her own life to influence the king and actually the legislation to prevent a genocide. And she said that if I perish, I perish. She fasted to make the decision to approach the king because if you approach the king without being summoned, you risked death. And she knew I need to do this. I need to influence, I need to protect my people.  After this whole fiasco, he gets promoted to second in command of the Persian Empire, a man of God. Daniel, highly influential in government, even in a wicked nation.  Well, Daniel was in Babylon, an extremely wicked nation, but he was a very powerful leader in that nation for the force of good. He was communing with the Lord every single day, even when there was an edict saying, you can't pray. He prayed to the Lord and it got a sentence to a lion's den, but God supernaturally protected him. The Bible says he had a spirit of excellence on him and that his enemies could find no fault in him, no corruption, no crony capitalism, no little deals and bribes. There was no fault found in him, yet he was serving as a politician in an extremely wicked nation under three different kings. Nathan the prophet boldly confronted King David over his sin, a sin that David thought nobody knew about. David could have killed the guy right there and kept living on, nobody knew about his sin. Nathan knew that risk, but he boldly confronted him because the Lord said so. Prophet Samuel rebuked King Saul when he disobeyed God's command. Jeremiah advised the king to surrender to the Babylonians because the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. He ends up not surrendering and Jerusalem gets destroyed. Joseph was second in command of Egypt, a very wicked pagan nation, and governed with absolute wisdom. In one man in history who we actually don't learn much about in mainstream schools, surprisingly, is a man named William Wilberforce. And William Wilberforce, back in the late 1700s, was instrumental in abolishing the slave trade in Great Britain. And this occurred before the slaves were actually freed here in America. It first happened in Great Britain and the people behind it were godly men, godly men and women. They were fueled by God, by the scriptures to see that African slave on the boat being crammed where they can't even lie down. They're stacked on top of each other, not as some cattle, but as a human soul made in the image of God with equal worth and value to them. But the politics of that time did not believe that. Actually, the economy was booming. The slave trade was bringing great prosperity. People didn't want to touch on that.  No, they're treated okay, we have a great economy. Why are you bringing this up? Well, William Wilberforce wasn't actually a believer for the first 20-something years of his life. He was a very wealthy man born in an upper-class family and he ends up going to Cabrange University and he befriends a guy named William Witt the Younger. Now, after they graduate, William Witt the Younger goes into politics and Wilberforce decides to follow in and back in that day, you could pretty much buy your votes. So they both go in. William Witt, his friend, becomes Prime Minister at the age of 24. Like a very incredible political feat and now he's like, wow, one of my best friend is Prime Minister, I have a great career ahead of me. This is incredible, they're going to gentlemen's clubs, they're revered in the town, they're doing all sorts of going to parties and drinking and they're just living the high life as these very, very renowned people in that time. Then his mom invites him to go on a European vacation. They're going to take a carriage across Europe and he can bring a friend. His family's not really Christian, not really religious. So he wants to bring a friend, the friend can't, so he brings a guy named Isaac Milner. This guy's a mathematician and a theologian, really instrumental in bringing the faith into Cambridge actually at that time. And so they get in the carriage ride together and it starts to come up like, hey man, yeah, I'm a Christian. And Wilberforce said something effective like, really man? Like, you know, he kind of disses his faith and Isaac Milner's like, dude, if you actually want to have this conversation, let's have it, but let's not have those little comments because I could totally just basically lay out the whole thing to you here. If you want to have a conversation about this, let's do it. And Wilberforce says, all right, let's do it. And over those course of the week, he's studying the scriptures, hearing the reasons for why the Bible is true, why Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, why this faith is actually the truth, he gets converted right there. He goes back home and he's like, what do I do?  And he's very confused, but his friend, William Witt, was actually very supportive of him. And he thought, Wilberforce thought, man, I can't be in politics, this is so corrupt, this is so crony, this is so just a dirty place, I need to be in ministry, God's calling me to ministry. So he was really wondering like, you know, I've been so touched by the Lord, I guess the automatic answer is I have to go to ministry to kind of prove my devotion. So he ends up meeting a guy named John Newton. This is the man who wrote the beautiful Christian hymn, Amazing Grace. He was a former slave trade captain. So he was shipping slaves on the boat until he got converted and it became an Anglican priest and a huge staunch abolitionist. So he goes and meets John Newton and John Newton says, you know, gives him the advice that you don't need to leave politics, God's placed you there, God has a purpose for you there, God has desires there, God has desires to free the slaves there, to change this nation, to reform culture, the morality of our very nation. You don't need to just join the ministry to somehow be more spiritual. And when we look at the Bible, not every single person was a Levite priest in the ministry of the spiritual things. They were political leaders. They were in the industry, they were in business.  And over the course of decades of a hard fight, he does so. And that is a clear testament to us in this time that if you are placed in a certain area and you love the Lord, you're devoted to him, but you feel like you have to go into ministry, that's not the case. God wants to do something through your life where he has you. And that could be in any area. We preach the gospel in all the world, in every area, in every industry, and politics is a huge means by which God can accomplish his will. And now today, America followed suit, the slaves are freed, there is still slavery in this world today, but it's the very principles and values of the kingdom of heaven that were translated here on earth by the obedient servants of God that brought this unrighteousness to death and brought justice in this world. The last misconception is that Christians must obey every form of government. Now the main scripture behind this is Romans 13, and it says this, let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you wanna be free from fear from the one and authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one and authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.  There's no authority. So even Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, like meant to submit to them, well, clearly not. And when we actually read the second half of that passage, it says the one and authority is God's servant for good. So if the definition of that word authority there is later clarified, that that authority is the God's servant for good. It can't be God's servant and genociding people. It can't be God's servant and going against the very morals and the virtues of God. God's servant is aligned with God's will. And that is clearly clarified in the second half of this passage. But a lot of people preach this out of context, including the Third Reich in Nazi Germany. The Third Reich loved to preach this verse as somehow submission to the Third Reich Nazi regime was a divine command from God. And the church got deceived like you would not believe. But there were people fighting it. And one of these men was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer grew up in Berlin, ended up wanting to become a theologian.  He's like, yes, I'm feeling called. And he ends up teaching at Berlin University. I think he gets his PhD, like two of them maybe, at age of 21. Ends up teaching at Berlin University and he actually taught something that was revolutionary at that time. Because the theology that was taught was very Lutheran. German, you know, Martin Luther was a German. Lutherism was very, very strong there. But his idea was that when you're reading the scriptures, you're not just studying information. You're actually communing and conversing with God. You're having an active conversation with the Lord when you read his word. And his students that testify of how he taught said this was mind blowing at the time. It wasn't taught in the seminary that he taught in. And he ended up, started to ruffle some feathers with the Nazis. In the 30s, he started preaching sermons. He saw, from the very beginning, Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw that the Nazis, they were bad. A lot of people got deceived in the beginning. They thought, hey, Hitler could revolutionize our economy. We've been, you know, our nation has been just kind of destroyed since World War I and the Treaty of Versailles and all these things. But Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew that there was a sinister force behind the Nazi Third Reich. And he started preaching sermons that were emphasizing, one time on the radio, he preached that Jesus Christ's savior, no one else. And it was a clear attestation coming against with the Führer complex that he believed people were having. That Hitler was now like the savior, was now like taking the place of Jesus Christ. He's preaching this message and the radio broadcast gets cut off halfway through. And we don't fully know why, but very odd circumstance. Then he ends up getting prohibited from preaching sermons, prohibited from publishing books. And the Nazis are really on him. So he starts an illegal seminary that gets shut down. He's trying to raise disciples of Christ who are truly aligned with the word. Then he's a part of a movement where the church of Germany actually splits. And his movement, which was the minority, was the confessing church. The other was the German national church, basically. And the German national church was basically under the Nazi power, Romans 13, all this stuff, just kind of obey. And they ended up instituting this very historic moment. There was something called the Aryan paragraph that every church needed to put in their basically by-laws. And what it was is that no one from Jewish ancestry can hold a position of power in your church. And this was a huge dividing line. And a lot of pastors, hey, just go through with it. It's fine, it'll be okay just for this moment. Like we don't want to upset. It's this slow progression that the enemy has. Like he did in communism in the Soviet Union. And in the Third Reich, it's this slow progression of these slow ways where the church, Satan just puts the noose around the church's neck. And pastors just start, oh, bang, they don't want to get sent to prison. They don't want to lose their, because if you could actually be disbanded from your role by the SS, and you would lose your provision. You'd lose your provision for your home. Finances, like there was a lot at stake to speak out. But Dietrich did. And ends up, World War II comes along 1940 and he's about to be enlisted into the war. But a friend of his in the US who has all these connections at a seminary in New York, one of the most famous, he pulls all these strings so he can teach at the seminary and be away from Germany during the war so he wouldn't be sent and captured and arrested. So he goes to the US in one month in his journals. He's saying, Lord, what do you want me to do? I don't feel this is right. What do you want me to do? He knows he has to go back. He goes back to Germany at the start of the war. After being banned, after being a political enemy, he goes back and says, my people need me. This nation needs me. He goes back into the height of World War II in Nazi Germany. And his brother-in-law happens to be part of the German intelligence division, gathering intelligence, but he's a part of a plot to overthrow Hitler. So instead of getting enlisted into the military, Dietrich Bonhoeffer works for his brother-in-law in German intelligence, travels to the Allied nation, supposedly gaining intelligence for Nazi Germany, but he's really engaged in a plot to overthrow and assassinate Hitler. He's letting Jews escape to Switzerland. He's a part of all these operations undercover. The whole, his whole family was writing encoded letters to each other. They knew what was happening in the concentration camps because they were part of German intelligence. A lot of that was covered up. A lot of the murder and the execution and the genocide was being covered up. They knew what was going on. And this is called Operation Valkyrie that he was intimately connected with. And it gets to this point where he gets arrested for seven Jews crossing the border to Switzerland. He gets thrown in a prison interrogated. He thinks he's gonna get out, I'm just, my name came up, it's about this. It's not about Operation Valkyrie.  And in this moment, there's a bomb that's literally feet away from Hitler. And there's this table with one of those big legs. It's this big conference table where they're having a military meeting. And there's this huge leg and the bomb is set right there. So this big piece of wood is here and Hitler's right here. And in this moment, the bomb is set, the man leaves, the bomb explodes. People in there die. Hitler has a few bumps and scratches. Survives the assassination. In the following days and weeks, 6,000 people are rounded up. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's rounded up. The beserked Hitler tries to just execute this from his leadership because literally high-up military general is trying to assassinate him. And Dietrich gets sent to a concentration camp in just a few days before the liberation of that camp he was executing. And he doesn't live on. But he's one of the greatest theologians. And one of his books called The Cost of Discipleship is actually renowned, taught in seminaries worldwide about true discipleship. What it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. To actually submit, to deny yourself, to die to yourself, and to live for Jesus. He is a living testament of what it means to truly serve God in the area he has you in. Because sometimes it can be dark and dirty like that living in the Third Reich.  God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. We're not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice. We're to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. In Proverbs 31, it says speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. For the rights of all who are destitute speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and needy. The reality is Christians are meant to obey godly governments and not submit to demonic wicked ones. Ones that are in alignment with his word and his righteousness. That is the true interpretation of the word of God and that scripture. We see this all throughout the Bible. Peter and the apostles, they were literally imprisoned and they said to the people in prison, then we ought to obey God, not man. When they said, you can't be preaching in the name of Jesus. They'd be, we're gonna obey God, not man. And Peter was actually literally freed from prison from an angel of the Lord. So if the, you know, his edict was be sent to prison, the government said be sent to prison. The Lord sent an angel and broke him out of the prison that the government wanted him to be in. Rahab illegally hid the two spies, misled the king, God granted her mercy and reward for that act. Moses led a whole uprising against the nation of Egypt came against defying the Pharaoh's orders and then built an entire new government and political system straight from God. Elijah confronted, contested King Ahab, Queen Jezebel at the risk of his own life. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to obey the king and bow to an idol. They were thrown into a fiery furnace. They survived. The Lord divinely protected them. The wise men actually that came to Jesus, they disobeyed Herod when he said, come back to me after you found him. Let me know. They were divinely instructed in a dream to not go back to Herod. Constantly throughout history, people disobeying authority that is demonic, that is evil, that is unrighteous, that is unjust, that is not in alignment with God's word. But there are things that we always gotta remember as well because people do get distracted. People do get divisive. People do idolize politics and they need to have their rock, which is on Christ, their firm foundation and the word. One of the things we need to remember is that our identity in Christ supersedes our national identity. Our heavenly citizenship is more important than our earthly one. Abiding in the word is more important than abiding in the news. Our spiritual family is more important than our political party. We're children of God. We're brothers and sisters. Although some might be pretty deceived, you might think a little bit cuckoo for believing certain things. They're children of God. They're in our family. We're meant to love them. Ephesians chapter two, it says, for through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Now therefore you're no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. We are his family. We are in his household. Whatever political party you might be, the believer in Christ who has the Holy Spirit is a son and daughter of God, our Father. John 13, Jesus said, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you. That you love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, not hatred and division and attacking one another but have love for unity. And first John, and it's actually a way in which people will know that we are his disciples, that God is real. That what is this supernatural love? Usually this would divide people but somehow there's a connection there. What is that? That's how they will know that you are my disciples. We're meant to love one another.  For if you don't love people, we can see how can we love God whom we cannot see? And if he's given us this command, those who love God must also love their fellow believers. Next thing we gotta remember is no matter what happens in the world, nothing can take us away from Jesus. Only ourselves.  To die is gain, to live is Christ. Nobody can snatch us out of his hand. It is our own free will to forfeit the gift that he's given us. But no force can take us away from our union with Christ. Lastly, no president, no government, no human leader can save us, only Jesus can. For God still loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And there is no other name under heaven by which mankind must be saved. There is salvation found in no other name, but through Jesus. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. Jesus is the one. No leader, no president, no administration's gonna save us. The only thing, the only person that will is Jesus Christ and he's alive today. He still moves today. As you saw in the testimony here and the countless testimonies throughout our church of God moving, we wanna show God is actually alive. He's not just as words on a page, this Bible written 2,000 years ago. He is alive, he is active, and he is the way. Thanks for watching this sermon. If this was a blessing to you, would you let me know in the comments below what stood out to you from this message? What are you taking home with you from this message? Also, if you enjoy these messages, would you help us and hit thumbs up to this video and subscribe to our channel so you can get new videos every single week delivered to you on your YouTube app. If you go to hungrygen.com forward slash sermons, you'll actually be able to download the transcript, the notes, and the quotes of this sermon and the rest of all of our sermons free of charge. Until next time.


PUN is a recently created network of institutions of higher education, organized by New America and funded by the Ford Foundation and others, dedicated to creating a new field of public interest technology. We're a university that decided that we needed a whole new model, a model of the university deeply dedicated to change, deeply dedicated to taking social responsibility for community outcomes, deeply dedicated to moving forward in new ways and new ways of connecting to the public. We're really a responsible, community-focused, impactful university, so that's what we've built. Pitt is the study and application of technology expertise to advance the public interest, generate public benefits and promote the public good. Pitt helps answer the question, how should we innovate? From the perspective of what best benefits the public, and particularly those who have historically been left out of the process of creating new technologies. You know, we're really about transformation. The university is a platform to drive social transformation. We have divided Pitt into five themes that should be relevant across all Pitt UN member institutions. From the learning categories, the nation's first Master of Science in Public Interest Technology offered online by the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. There's so much you can do with this degree. The options are really endless. I've been in the autonomous vehicle industry for quite some time now, and I'm actually transitioning into a safety conductor position this week. Every time I take a course, do a project, talk about it, think about it, I get nothing but hope for the future, and it really just makes me feel like the world is going to be on a better track. From the scholarship category, the Global Security Initiative addresses wicked problems like cyber threats by creating technologies to assist public officials in making informed decisions. From the operations category is ASU's University Technology Office, which catalyzes the vision of a new American university through technology and digital services. We embed responsible innovation and digital trust through all of our projects, and we do that because we're deeply interested in the public and how they actually use the technology that we're creating. During the pandemic, we worked with Watts College to bring internet access to elementary schools inside the Valley, where we had adjacent families that simply didn't have access at a really important time when they needed it. This work of public interest technology isn't happening only here in the United States but it's happening worldwide. From the Engagement and Collaboration category, the Solar Powered Educational Learning Library or SPEL combines appropriate technology, relevant content, and local capacity building in a portable, ruggedized solar-powered device used in partnership with the Peace Corps to build internet-ready skills and improve educational opportunities in places around the world that lack stable internet and electricity. And from the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion category, the Indigenous Design Collaborative is a community-driven design and construction program that brings tribal community members together with industry and a multidisciplinary team of ASU students and faculty to co-design and co-develop solutions for tribal communities in Arizona. The work that IDC does is important because it really changes the way design is done within tribal communities. When Indigenous groups get left out of design and technology processes, their voices aren't really heard so their ideas aren't really incorporated into that design. We don't really hear how it would benefit the community as well. ASU is leading the way on PIT. In 2020, I received a challenge grant from the PIT UN. In our self-study, we've identified more than 80 projects, activities, centers, curricular, and co-curricular activities that partake in PIT. But more than the spread of PIT activities, ASU is also beginning to incorporate PIT concepts into how the university operates, very much like universities integrate sustainability concerns into operations as well as into learning and scholarship. The public interest technology program is unbelievably important to us. It helps us to advance this whole notion of community responsibility. We're all in on this. We're positioned to lead the network. We envision PIT UN institutions not just creating programs but designing institutional strategies that reflect on all their technological endeavors and keep the public interest central to how they imagine, invest, design, teach, and implement technologies.


Hey everybody, I'm Lance Coyke and today we're going to discuss probably the Second biggest let's say second biggest mistake that people make in their pull-ups You know is so first biggest just a spoiler alert We're not gonna go over it too much But as I pull it down as I pull myself up to the bar, let's say that's probably a better way to say it My shoulders stay forward and I don't really finish the poll. Okay, so that's maybe the most common The second most common mistake that we're discussing today is actually extending to reach the bar Substituting this shoulder blade motion with spinal motion So I stick my chest way out to bring my chest to the bar rather than actually pulling my entire center of mass up that way I'm it's more like I'm teaching my body how to contort in weird ways rather than Training the actual movement that I'm trying to you know progress on So so what does it kind of look like so as I pull down? I'm sticking my chest out sometimes my chest might just be up like this the whole time And I just do it this way it looks like your head is kind of leaning back a little more than maybe it should be Yeah, that's like the biggest description if I'm trying to fix it then what I need to do is I need to not stick my chest out so far So you have to think about why is this happening if it's because you've heard a cue before then maybe Disregard that cue for a little while try this new way out.  It's fine But I think you're gonna like it so you pull up And you're not sticking your chest out so far if that is like if you don't really quite get that The other thing I might do is I might put you on your hands and knees and teach you how to like Reach your arms really far This way and you see how that kind of rounds my upper back Like this and so now when I'm pulling I'm not so flat back there But I'm like this now This is this is kind of just to illustrate the position or the direction of the position that I want you to be able to Find and attain during this pull-up. I don't want you to try to do your pull-ups With your back super rounded because I don't think you're really gonna get the shoulder position that you need there You need a little bit of that Chest coming up motion for the shoulder blades to fully come backward around as you pull up at the top That's just one of the required motions of your body one of the required shoulder blade motions for your shoulder to actually move the right way fun fact What else I think that's like that's the biggest thing like the people who Can do a really good push-up and have maybe watched the hundred or so videos that I did about the push-up They're generally a little bit better with the pull-up right because now they've encouraged a good reaching motion They've encouraged a good midsection Position and they can put their rib cage in a spot that allows the shoulder to actually move That's kind of the secret so if you're if you're really struggling if like if you do the queue Don't stick your chest out quite as far and it doesn't work then you probably need to take it back You probably don't want to spend too much time on pull-ups And you want to spend a little bit more time on something maybe more like push-ups and you can unload yourself with a lat pull down or with a Band around your feet pulling you up to the bar. That's another good way to do it But I found that when you get to the top of the pull-up and you're doing a band-assisted one The the pressure comes off the band when you get to the top And that's probably the hardest part for you And that's the part that you need to work on and that's the part where you need it to be unloaded So the band might not be a good solution for you. You might want to look into doing a pull-down on a cable machine instead Hopefully that makes sense again This is probably the second most common mistake that I see in the pull-ups and chin-up variations that we give Give it a shot if you really don't like the other variation you can you know unsubscribe whatever But if you do like it send it to someone else and make someone else do some pull-ups, too


High-dose recombinant human erythropoietin APO has been shown to be beneficial in treating certain injuries such as those to the heart or kidney. However, there is evidence that EPO can cause fibrosis over time, which could lead to further damage in these organs. Therefore, it is important to balance the potential benefit of using EPO against the risk of causing more harm than good. This article was authored by Glenda C. Gobe, Christopher Moray, David Evici, and others.


But let's get to some underreactions here, and so let's start, I mean, in that same division but with a different quarterback. And the tweets are coming in here. So honestly, obviously, you're seeing that as Kirk Cousins. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what I'm seeing happen here. We had Mark Ingraham come on the show and say he wants Andy Dalton to do the same thing. This is going to trend. We saw Adam Schefter, if they didn't jump the shark, I don't know when it will, but it's going to keep rolling. And they deserve the love. They're winning and they're winning in a crazy way, but that's what I think we're underreacting to. The way the Vikings are pulling off these wins right now. They are seven in one credit to them for finding these ways to win. But it has, you have to just submit it. No one's really talking about it. It's been a bit odd and I'm so curious to see if they can keep it up. So take a look at some of these numbers. You got to start with the good, of course, Sunday. Kirk Cousins led his fourth game winning drive to cap his fourth, fourth quarter comeback win this season. And that already ties his career high in both categories. And he's rewriting the narrative that he can't come through in the clutch, which is what followed him and haunted him that. And of course, under the bright lights of prime time, but then it's like, OK, that's the good. And on the other side, the Vikings have gone through these absolutely bizarre stretches during these games and almost every win they've started off hot. Then they go into some sort of sleep, snooze, fest, offensively, they go into airplane mode. Then they blow a lead and then they turn into some weird fourth quarter escape artist, like a magician stuff. So it's gotten them to the second best record. So it works, second best record in the NFL, the halfway mark of the season. But they're they're I'm so curious to hear from Vikings fans who I do think are the most downtrodden fan base in the NFL, the ones who have been through the most pain, the ones who need the need a win and a win in the national football league the most in a big way, in a deep playoff, super bowl kind of way. I know everyone's got the bills, there's that too. But the Vikings, the Vikings low key, they had they've had it rough. How sustainable do you think this is Vikings fans? Are you worried about it at all? Are you enjoying the process like we saw with the Bengals last year? The fans are just like, I'm in, I'm in on this, whatever it is. Because part of me, a part of my brain says, I don't know, they might have to be more consistent from start to finish if they're going to beat the top teams in the league. Remember Eagles, they got blown out by the Eagles, a top team. But then a part of me says, listen, that exorcism sort of stuff that when the chargers stop charging, if they ever do, like there's something too that maybe this Viking squad has conquered some of those demons. So we are going to find out which it is at some point. And it might even be this weekend, huge game. Oh, my gosh, Vikings, not commanders. That already happened, Vikings Buffalo this week. Wow. All right. The other thing we're underreacting to, there's a game in Munich. I talked to Levante David yesterday about the Audubon. And about later Hosen and all of that. So we'll have that interview for you guys tomorrow as they head to take on the Seahawks. It's Buck Seahawks, Brady, Gino Smith in Munich as part of the International Series for the NFL. And it's all Gino all the time, right? We're talking about people wrote him off. He never wrote back. His relationship with Pete Carroll, all of that. And it's beautiful. Yogi Roth will be here. He worked with Pete Carroll at USC. So he'll have some insight into, you know, the legacy that is Pete Carroll and him adding to it with this next chapter with Gino, of course. But we're underreacting people to Rookie Kenneth Walker and his impact on the Seahawks. Because, yes, Gino deserves tons of credit for what he's doing. But his story kind of is overshadowing one Kenneth Walker that deserves attention. Remember the Seahawks? They were two and three after week five, two and three. Second round pick Kenneth Walker became the starting running back, following the injury to Rashard Penny. And look what's happened since. Just take a look at the numbers. They speak for themselves. The Seahawks haven't lost a game with Walker rushing for over a hundred yards a game over that span and leading the entire NFL, the entire league with six touchdowns. I think Walker has taken over the lead for offensive rookie of the year. I think that. Do you agree? Add up an Adam show. And if he keeps running like this, he's going to run those Seahawks right into the playoffs and maybe right to a division title, which is insane to think about, but it might happen. So those bucks are going to have their hands full overseas. Internationally this weekend. Another thing we are underreacting to, and I want to fire three tweets throughout the show. So let me know if you guys have any. Is my helmet still even up here? Oh, it is. Is no one talking about the chargers who pan up a little bit so we can look even our even our screen. Does it queen pan up a little bit the camera? Probably not. Oh, slow, it was a slow pan. Oh, boy. We can't up further. No, can't do it. All right. Well, there's a Chargers helmet somewhere up there in the, it's okay, Marissa, don't I don't care. But nobody's talking about it. Did they disappear from the National Football League? Are they not doing well? If there's anything that can sum up the Falcons and chargers, it is this exact play. Take a look. L.A. fumbling away a shot of the game winning field goal, only to have the Falcons fumbling it right back to set up the Chargers walk off win. This is amazing. But but in all seriousness, I give this Chargers team so much credit for finding a way like they just did there. No Kenan Allen, no Mike Williams, no Bosa, no Slater. Herbert has some sort of rib injury that he's battling through and fighting through. They're down 10 zip in the first quarter. L.A. fights back to get a 2017 win to move to five and three. This is stuff that never happened with the Chargers for like 10 straight years. This does not happen. They're right inside the playoff picture. Nobody is talking about the Chargers. And I think a lot of people wrote off this L.A. squad because of all the injuries that I just mentioned, the early season ones. But I think that they are proving week in, week out. They're a playoff contender. And I know Mahomes is crushing it and it looks great in that AFC West. He deserves all the love and they probably can take the division. But we got to credit Herbert and you got to credit Staley for keeping this thing on track. Not many teams could do what they're doing in the face of adversity and all the injuries that they have and in that division with Mahomes. So I just think that that's something that we are underreacting to. Stop forgetting about the Chargers. All right. Do I want to look at my Twitter feed of these Bears fans?


Are we good from camera people? Good from everybody else? All right, so I'll probably start off with hello everybody. I'm Benjamin Lupton. I've been doing JavaScript for a very long time and doing freelancing with web development for a very long time. And one of the projects I've ended up creating is a project called DuckPad. Now, DuckPad's a static site generator. Can I get a raise of hands of who knows what static site generators are? All right, so about half the crowd. So what's kind of happened over the past few years is things got really, really complicated with web development. Suddenly, it wasn't just about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It was about databases as well and back-end development. And front-end web developers needed to learn a lot about back-end development as well. And we had to set up databases just to do HTML, CSS, and JavaScript work. And static site generators solved that problem by allowing web developers, front-end web developers, to code websites, powerful websites without really having to deal with back-ends and databases and a whole lot of other dependencies. And why you should care is probably precisely for that reason. Why we should care about DuckPad is we have some things that makes us a bit different from other static site generators like Jackal. Jackal is probably the most popular one. It came up by one of the GitHub co-founders, called Tom Preston Werner, I believe. However, it's a bit limiting because it's only designed for a specific use case, which is blogging. And when I discovered all about Jackal, I was like, this is such a great idea. Like being able to do away with these back-end stuff, empowering web developers to be able to do all that stuff without back-ends. And we're like, oh, yeah, that sounds awesome. But I want to use this for more than just blogging. And it's kind of like there was an evolution of programming, or at least in web development over the years. Over in the 90s, we just had HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. And it was pretty fun, right? There was not really any dependencies, and we hacked on it, and we could see what we're doing pretty easily. Then around 2000, we started getting abstractions. We started wanting to do more. We wanted to be able to pull in content from other places. And we didn't want to have to redo our layouts every single time. So we started using technologies like PHP or like Ruby. And eventually, things got even more complicated because then we had to start using things like Rails and WordPress for blogging and Django and all these different CMSs. Front-end web developers stopped being front-end web developers and they started becoming CMS developers. And it's kind of like, why? Why do we have to do this when it's detracting so much from our actual skill level? And not only that, as we start applying these abstractions on the back-end, we also open up to security problems as well. Because back in the 90s, we just had HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It was basically, we just served it and that was it. We just did a simple job. Then we started interacting with databases and opening us up to my score on injections and a whole bunch of other really weird things like SSSS exploits, so you're allowing people to run JavaScript on your website. So we started getting a problem of insecurity. We also got the problem of, if I want to deploy my website, I had to find a web server or a web host that actually supports the technologies I want to use. We had to start paying like $25 a month for a web server that supports PHP. And it started becoming this expensive, time-consuming, and insecure process. And that's where static site generators are like, booyah, let's do the way of the 90s where we can just focus on the core technologies, but let's do it in a way where we still have abstractions. So we still have all the power that we came out in 2000. And the way it does that is we have a process which is we have a generation step and that generation step kind of compiles our website. So often if we've worked with desktop programming languages, like say C, we have to compile C. Who here is familiar with compilation by a raise of hands? Okay, still about half the crowd, that's cool. So pretty much compilation has always been a step where we get some source input and we compile it to something else. So we get all our abstractions and we can compile it to something we can deploy a lot of places. And this happened with front-end web development quite explosively. We came out with things like CoffeeScript for JavaScript. So we could benefit from all these new technologies, like better syntax or better coding standards or more powerful abstractions, which CoffeeScript provides for JavaScript while still supporting everything JavaScript supports. So we went from CoffeeScript to JavaScript. And we saw that with CSS a lot. CSS hasn't really evolved that much in terms of the syntax over the past 10 years or 15 years. It's always been this very basic cascading style sheets and things like less CSS came on and things like SAS came out, which allowed us to do what we want with a lot more flexibility and a lot more power. So we were able to then write a lot less and do a lot more. And that got adopted incredibly widely. And static site generators are kind of like that equivalent, the SAS to CSS or the less CSS to CSS equivalent or the CoffeeScript to JavaScript equivalent, but for HTML. So we kind of compile our HTML as well as see other assets. So we get all those benefits. Now, can I get some water? Is that possible? I've run out of water. Water. Water is? Ah, is that out of the water bottles? Thanks. So from there on, let's actually, I'll skip the kitchen sink for now. And we'll go with getting started. And we'll just jump straight in, if that's okay with you. All right, so let's make a new website. So my website CD into it. And the way we installed dot pad, it's pretty easy. We installed it with the node package manager and we just write that and then I'll install it to our computer. Now this step is required because we use Node.js. Who here knows of Node.js? Why raise of hands? Cool, a lot of people. So Node.js allows us to run JavaScript on the server-side sunny. These web developers who could only do what they love in the browser are now empowered to do it on the desktop side as well. We can now interact with the file system and we can do so in a very unique way. Node allows us to do multiple things at the same time without having to worry about complicated things like threading, which is really amazing. It takes the event system we're used to on front-end web development, like jQuery on click handlers or jQuery when the DOM is ready. And it allows us to apply that same principle on desktop applications. So it allows us to accomplish a lot without that much actual code or requirements of understanding how the intricacies of desktop programming actually need to work. And Node.js exploded. It's used by Cloud9 and Mozilla, LinkedIn, tons and tons of people. Right now these are the showcases and there's so much evidence for why JavaScript on the server makes sense. And generally with PHP, we've had to go about it in a way where we serve it by our Apache and you receive a request and then it dies, right? So you do all your programming or you receive the request, it does all its work and then it just falls down and it dies. And if it gets everything and that process repeats every single time. When Node is a lot more similar to C-sharp or C-programming where we write something that stays alive the entire time. So with Node, we actually write the web server ourselves. So Node allows us to do some pretty interesting things in regards to networking, but it also allows us to do a lot of interesting things with the file system because of its abilities to do multiple things at the same time. So it can be quite fast. Now to install Node.js or to install Dockpad, we have some instructions which is just right here. This will go into how you install Node.js for Windows and Mac and things like that. It's quite simple. And there are our latest instructions on how to install Dockpad. Once we've got Dockpad installed, so if we run that, it'll go away and install it. Do you only when we want to go with a website will create a new directory for a website? We've already done that and then it's the simplest running Dockpad run. This will, great. So what it's just done is it's detected we're in an empty directory and it's asked us if we would like to start with an existing project.  Which is quite nifty so we can get started pretty easily. Right now though, we'll probably just get started without, let's think, let's think. Actually, I won't use a skeleton in this case because we'll just get started with the very basics and I can show you how it all works. So we'll actually say no skeleton and it'll just go not create our stuff. And if we edit this directory, we'll see that it's created the source folder for us. This is where the source of our website goes. And we have three directories here. Documents, files and layouts. What on earth are these? So layouts are probably what we're quite familiar with if we've done WebProgram before. So it allows us to abstract like our header and our footer into a particular section so we don't have to keep recording it every single time. Files are just standard files that we don't want to compile. For instance, images or just a standard JS file like jQuery. We never want to compile jQuery. And documents are files we do want to compile. So for instance, mark down to HTML. So let's just get started and we'll start writing a basic Hello World page. Now generally with HTML, it's a bit ugly. We have to write all this boilerplate. So Hello World. And we can see right here that DocPads already detected that and it's regenerated our website. And we can see now we have this out directory which is where it's actually compiled the source. So it's figured, okay, we've got this source file which we just wrote. Let's compile that to our art directory. Now it hasn't needed to do anything because so far we're just writing plain HTML. But if we want to write like another page, for instance, I don't know, maybe Hello Mars, we have to start writing all of this again with the way we traditionally do things. And it's a bit ridiculous that we have to do this. No one wants to duplicate and waste their time. Emmet, this is cool. Did you know that Emmet website is done with DocPad? Ah-ha-ha. So yeah, there's a way so we can do this. How is it? It's like, I have Emmet installed. What's the actual short key for that? Yeah, see? So that's one way we can do it. We can make the process of writing this easier but we still have this duplicated stuff. We still have, okay, hey, I love that. And then, probably, isn't that nifty? So Hello Mars. But if we would change, perhaps if we add some more stuff here, like our, I don't know, what commonly goes here? Maybe our char set. Meta, I don't know, named char set. Oh, our style sheets as well. So we have all of this other stuff that goes here and we don't want to have to copy and paste that between every single page we write. And that's where layouts come in. We're probably very familiar with layouts. So let's actually go and create a layout now and find out what this will look like. Let's just call it the default layout. And as soon as we start applying abstract, I'll just copy what we wrote from index and I'll paste it into the default layout. And let's say, so this would be our page content, right? This would probably be our page title. And we would actually go about this by just adding it in this metadata section. So let's say, our title for this page is Hello World. And we want to use this layout default.  So in this case, it's Hello World. And then let's make it a bit different from the title so we can actually see. Nice to see you today. It's all good to wake up in the morning. And now in our layout, we would start using templating engines. So it becomes as easy as writing document title if I can spell correctly. And then our document content. Oh no, just content here. So let's take a look at what this now becomes. Just that. Can anyone guess why? The name is different? No. Can anyone else guess? Yeah. Can we use the VGOS? Yeah, yeah. So the way Node.js kind of works is they have a philosophy of being as minimalistic as possible. So instead of getting absolutely everything you need, you only get what you actually, no, everything you could possibly need, you only actually get what you need. So now we actually have to tell docpad to use our plugin for that. And we used the echo templating engine. We can see this by this extension here, .echo. So we have to install that plugin. And installing plugins is just like that. Now this will go to NPM, it'll download our plugin and this plugin now installs this echo dependency and echo has this dependency and this dependency and this dependency. So it's gone and installed this. Now at the currently we have to rerun docpad when we install a new plugin but perhaps it will change that in the future. So if we refresh, we now have that pretty abstraction and we can see by our title for a thing it's actually inserted it there. And if we view the source, we've got what we wanted, right? We've now got the benefit of having layouts, the abstraction of layouts. And as we can see in our out directory, it's now compiled that it's compiled our source directory into this index.hml file that we can deploy anyway because it's not doing anything special. It's not dependent on this layout engine once we've actually compiled it. So unlike say PHP where we have this which goes on PHP, we'll probably do it something like this PHP require maybe our header, right? Dot phtml. And every single time we receive this request, it goes away and it re-renders it every single time. When this way it renders it once and we can deploy that anywhere. Does everyone get that? Yes? Sweet. So yeah, docpad support as many as you want. So it's just run by plugins. So if we would jump to the, that's my company's website. If we jump to the plugin section, these are all the ones we currently support and the conversions they do. I like to use whichever one's best for the circumstance. So generally I find echo, which is what we use right there is the most beginner friendly because it's very similar to hastemill. It's very similar to eRuby or phtml, the ones we've already gone in use to. When we, yep. So I'm not sure if this applies, but so is this like I can only use it for static data or can I also use it for dynamic data? Good question. We'll jump ahead and I'll answer that right now for you. I've got that a bit later. So let's say on our layout because we've already got our layout dynamic or using a templating engine, we wanna add a dynamic thing. So let's say math.random. So echo just executes coffee script inside here. We could make it JavaScript, but then if we're starting to do if loops, we have to do all these brackets and maybe a thing like that and then it gets a bit messy. Coffee script probably allows us to just do that. So I'm a lot cleaner syntax. Or say if our document title doesn't exist, we could say all rather than doing that. So coffee script is just the nicest syntax and echo is embedded coffee script. So let's put some JavaScript code here, which is a random number. Now, DuckPad tells us by the ground notification, it's all good. So we've got a random number here, but right now it's just on a static compile. So it's gonna be the same for every time. But if we wanna make this dynamic, so re-renders on every request, it's as easy as saying, probably restarting our DuckPad instance as well. Ah, it doesn't work cause it's in the layout. Minor technical detail here. So I'll add that to the page because the pages are dynamic. It's not the layouts that are dynamic. So if we make this index file actually dynamic, we'll be able to do this. Reset our DuckPad instance. Sometimes the watching works, sometimes it doesn't. It's most of the time it works like 99%. We're going through like a rewrite of the watching run out to make it a lot better. Still a few problems here and there. So sometimes you will just have to regenerate. Like if you're renaming files, you may actually have to restart your DuckPad instance. But if you're editing files, you probably don't need to, like 99.99% of the time you don't need to. Oh, this could be, let's try it this way. I don't have a clean URLs plugin installed. So that's the reason why. But we can see here, it hasn't been added to our index.html section. I mean, to our alt, it hasn't been compiled once. Instead it compiles on every single request. So doing dynamic stuff as you would in PHP is as easy as just adding this dynamic true flag. Yeah. Yeah. So for the dynamic stuff, we use the DuckPad server, which is a ExpressJS server, which is an extended version of the Node HTTP server. So if you're doing dynamic stuff like this, then you would have to deploy to a Node.js server. You couldn't just deploy to Apache, right? Because it doesn't get generated into our alt directory. However, there's another way to do dynamic websites, or at least provide the illusion we have a dynamic website. A good example, does everyone mind this digression? Is this a cool thing to learn about? Sweet. So let's say for the BLoptim website, my website, and just hopefully the resolution supports it, it does. So right here, I've got this dynamic content. So it's pulling in my GitHub stuff. It's pulling in my Twitter stuff. My reputation here is dynamic as well. My rankings on GitHub are dynamic. My followers, all this stuff is dynamic data. So during the generation process, it pulls all this dynamic data in and parse our website. Now, the illusion here is that I actually tell DuckPad to regenerate every hour. So I can benefit from actually having it generate once, but it will generate every hour. So it gets this illusion. It's very, very, very fast because of this. That's another benefit of static site generation I didn't go by, because if we're re-rendering everything on each request, it becomes incredibly slow. When, if we're doing, actually, I've got like a benchmark, but we have benchmarks which we can see, but generally last time I tested it, DuckPad can serve 4,000 requests a second with the Node.js server. So that's pretty cool because it's just serving static content. So I'll cover this a bit later. I'll go into more detail about how we accomplish this pulling in the external data. So let's get back to our basic stuff. We'll remove this extension and we'll go back to our standard stuff and we've got rid of that dynamic tree. So again, it's compared to our art directory. And we're all good. So let's make this Mars page dynamic as well, just to showcase layouts for those who are quite new to web development. So hello Mars. Hello Mars. You are a long way from Earth. I should get some less tabs perhaps. All right. And if we go to Mars, then we get that benefit, right? We've got our layout we can see in the title bar. We've got hello Mars. So now we've got the benefit of layouts. But we can go a bit further. We can always go a bit further. And let's find out how. Probably live reload, that would probably be a good thing. So it's getting a bit annoying that when I say hello, I have to refresh my browser every single time. So I'll close you. I can just close you. So wouldn't it be nice if every single time I save it, my browser actually refreshes. We would all like that, right? And this is something where initially I was just like, this isn't that cool. I'm used to just pressing command R and refreshing my browser, but it really does make the process a lot easier. So we'll install another plugin. So the live reload plugin. I have to write the install command, which is an O. And this is another benefit of Node.js because Node.js, because it's able to do so much stuff on this networking, this Node, the web server level, we're able to do pretty nifty things. Traditionally, to do real-time abilities, we've had to talk to an external server like Pusha or open a web socket connection to a special type of server that's able to handle lots of stuff very, very quickly. Now, Node.js has this ability built in. The live reload plugin uses the thing called Socket.io, which allows us to open a web socket connection directly to the server. And in the instance of the live reload plugin, we actually open a connection from our browser directly to the dockpad server. And the dockpad server tells the browser, hey, look, I've been regenerated right now. Now, if I actually, I'll restart my dockpad server. Now, if I write stuff, it didn't work. And it's because we haven't actually told our template right now that we want to use live reload. We have to start getting a bit more advanced right now. So this then becomes get block styles. To HTML, I believe. We also have Meta and we also have Scripts. So generating these are the things that we inject into our websites all the time. Stiles are CSS, Meta, Meta tags, and Scripts are our JavaScripts. Now, the reason why we have these concepts with blocks is so plugins can inject Scripts or inject Meta or inject styles into our actual website. Otherwise, we don't have that way. Now, we could go the route of modifying the request, like modifying the HTML on the output, but that's some magic. And I'm a bit against magic because it implies that we have to know some stuff or we could go around and we could shoot our foot off eventually. At least with being explicit like this, we will never be able to shoot our foot off because we know what's going on. But it's still pretty easy. I mean, that was like three lines of additional code. So now, if we look at our HTML, if we refresh, we will see now that it's injected, this powered by dot pad thing. This is optional, you don't need it, but it's injected the script here, which is our live reload script. So now, it's actually opened the connection to our web server. And if I refresh our index page, see, we can see now that it's reloading automatically because of this live reload script. So I'm just saving and it's reloading. That's pretty nifty. That's pretty cool. So let's go to the next step, which would be, we covered blocks. Yep. Yep. Yeah, that's a great question. So live reload is taught to only run on the development environment. And dot pad has the concept environment. So there's development, there's production, and there's static. They're the three ones that dot pad Johnny knows about. So production, some pre-processes have the ability to minify directly on that. So detect, okay, we're in the production environment, minify right away. So compile, minify the outputs for our CSS JavaScript and things like that. The live reload plugin is told, so when, when on an environment that isn't development, disable it. So right now, I'll close this one. I'll get back to here. So we'll see, yeah, it's compiled it right here. So in our output, our static output, we have the script stuff. But if we were to deploy to GitHub pages or Apache, we'd actually tell dot pad, I think it's generate, generate. We'd tell it to compile for a static environment. And doing so, we don't get the live reload or any other dynamic ability. This comes into play with the clean URLs plugin as well, because if we're running on the Node.js server, then this is nifty. Because the clean URLs plugin just cares whether or not we're on Node.js or whether on a static environment. If we're on the Node.js environment, which is anything but the static environment, then it'll actually just extend the Express.js, the Node web server. So we don't have to do that much complicated. We just say, okay, we got a request coming in, is it this clean URL, serve the correct content? But if we're on a static environment, then it'll actually generate hastemill files for each of the particular pages, which will then redirect to the correct page. So nifty stuff going on there. Good question, great question. So we'll go back into our development environment. And we can see the environment right here, and we can see which plugins we're currently using. Can we generate for the Node.js server? Yeah, yeah, so the static is like, assumes Apache GitHub pages, anything static. If it's not that, then we're going to pre-assume that we're on a Node.js web server. And yeah, here's the live relay plugin saying, you know, we're listening, things like that. Any questions at this point, any confusion about what I've covered so far? Fantastic. Not that having a question would have been bad. All right, so this is okay. This is a bit boring. Oh, it's cool, but we want to get cool, all right? It's not that exciting yet. And generally the next thing we'll probably want to do is we'll probably do a blog. We're all probably pretty familiar with blogging. And while we could write our blog posts, let's say, let's say, Hi, Meta Refresh, we were there. If we write in in HTML and use the things we already know, so we've got Hi, Meta Refresh, and add our layout, so the layout default. This is just YAML data for anyone wondering. So YAML is kind of like JSON, but it's a bit more lenient. We can also pass this as coffee script by writing just coffee here, or CSUN, which is another dialect of coffee script. So we could actually start doing advanced stuff, like putting a self-executing function in here and start doing some complicated things. I'd be crazy, but we do have that support if you don't like the YAML syntax. So let's say that was such an amazing conference. Indio is awesome. And we can see now that it's generated this page in our output directory, and that's okay. But if we want to add some emphasis, and we really want to emphasize it was an amazing conference, we want to probably make it bold. And if we open that up, so localhost, blog, Hi, Meta Refresh. All right, it's like that. But if we're running a really long blog post, we don't want to be running HTML. Generally, GitHub and Stack Overflow realize this. We're programmers, we like abstractions, we like to make things pretty simple. And who's used GitHub or Stack Overflow here? We're Acer fans. Cool, sweet, everybody. Who here knows that it uses markdown for the comments? Sweet, everyone like markdown? Fantastic. So with markdown, we can write the same thing like that. It's a lot more expressive. And especially when it comes to links, instead of having to write blah, blah, blah, blah, let's say Google, that would actually become Google. And then the link here. It just allows a bit more expressive way of writing things. So I'll save that. And let's go about adding markdown. So we'll add markdown and we'll install the plugin. Now markdown has a few different varieties of the dialect. We've got the GitHub flavor and markdown. We've got like the standard Grubber one, but there's lots of implementations. The one we generally use is marked, marked supports to GitHub favor and markdown by default, but it's implemented in native JavaScript. So it's really, really fast. Originally, we just had markdown, but as the dialects continue, we added support for the different dialects. So now you just pick the dialect you actually want. Yes, a mobile blog. What do you mean? This is the advanced stuff. Yeah, I'll cover that later and how we can extend this even further. So that's when things start getting, we're on the intro to craziness right now, excitement. So, yeah. So GitHub flavor and markdown. Oh, with marked, there's two options. One is sanitized and one is without sanitization. So by default, we have sanitization turned off, which allows you to just write HTML inside it. Okay, so that's gone ahead and generated all of that. And where am I? Oh, that's the output directory. So see how we have HTML right here. So because sanitization is off, we can just write HTML as well. So we'll restart our docpad server and let's check that out. Oh, I renamed that one in the output directory, silly me. So I have to add that extension. Now, who has worked with Rails before? So one person. So a nifty thing Rails does is it's got a thing called an asset pipeline, which allows people to kind of go from markdown to HTML. So there's this conversion and just like for echo to HTML. A lot of things that other compilers do is they would just have dot markdown here and then it would compile to HTML. So it assumes there's only one way we can compile a particular language. Something like CoffeeScript can actually be compiled to HTML rather than just JavaScript. There's dialects to support that. So we're quite explicit in the way we can do things. So this goes directly from markdown to HTML. And this ability allows us to, if I add the echo extension here to go from echo to markdown to HTML, if I wanna add some more dynamic abilities to my markdown document. So right now we can see that it's now rendered on markdown. We've got that old link here, we've got the new link here, this bit here, renders to that, and we've got that rendering to that and our amazing rendering to that. So we're now starting to discover, hey, we can now have preprocessors for pretty much whatever I want. But we like to add some more dynamic stuff. No one's gonna go to my blog and then know exactly that, hey, this is the link I need to go to. I need to start adding a listing of my content. Now I could go about this, like if I was in the 90s, I'd probably say, okay, I'll now code and say, blog, hi meta refresh. But that's not that maintainable. Whenever we have to add a blog post, we have to redo it here. Now, a nifty thing DocPad does is during this generation process, the way the generation process works, is we'll go through and we'll pass all of the stuff in our source directory into an in-memory database. That database is powered by Backbone.js. So everything is added to just a Backbone.js collection. And everyone who's familiar with Backbone.js, a lot of people, that's really cool. But by default, Backbone.js doesn't really provide us with a way of curing our collections to really say, okay, find me everything that matches this or find me all of this that does that. It provides some comp, like these pragmatic ways where we can write some code to be able to do it, like add a function and things like that. But really, we like a really simple syntax to do it. And Mongo has a great syntax for this. Mongo database, like a NoSQL syntax. So let's actually make this index.hasmall page a echo. So we can start adding our listing, adding some dynamic stuff. And we'll say, okay, for post in get collection, so in our documents, find all that have the relative, actually, I think it's relative out path. Let me check. There's always good thing about having great documentation. Docs template, no, it's metadata. So all this documentation is actually written in markdown and we generate it with docpad. So we can find out the thing we actually want. So relative outer path, that's the one we want. So that's the directory, the relative directory of the relative path of the directory that blog post goes in. So we want to, whoops, wrong place, make that equal. Can I reduce the font so I can actually see what I'm doing? Can people still read that? Fantastic. How about that? Is that too small? That's, okay, so that, that's good. All right. So relative outer path blog to Jason. That's a bit odd. Let's add, oh, that is a title. Oh, it's just not formatted. I was like, okay. Maybe I should have done like a, something we probably would have done if we were writing something proper. I like it how people are paying attention. So there we go. So we've now got this listing. So we've got a few collections, which is the documents collection, the files collection, the layouts collection. There's some other predefined ones that we have, but what we're saying right now is for all the documents, let's get everything which has the output directory path of blog. We could also make it, so I can say. What exactly is documents or issues that you're putting in there? Yeah, so I just close this directory and we'll just get rid of this find all part. So we can actually see everything that's in there. And let's just say, let's make it the file name instead. So the documents directory is just everything, or the documents collection is just everything in our documents directory. Now we could do it by get database and then get everything that DocPad is aware of. Generally we don't wanna do that because we have some intelligent generation. So we only regenerate what we actually have to. And if we use get database, then if we modify anything, then DocPad's gonna think, okay, we have to re-render this page. So we always wanna be as specific as possible so that way DocPad can only re-render what we need to. I'll showcase this right now. So if I say re-render this, and we'll go back to the title. So we can see the title. And I'll put that over here. And if I re, whoa! And if I re-render, like edit this page, then DocPad's gonna regenerate that index.hasmile file because it knows that index.hasmile file references that blog post. So that's why we're able to perform regenerations in like 20 milliseconds. Pretty cool stuff. So from this, let's just add our actual link to it. So here we've used the double equals because we wanna escape that content. Here, we probably always wanna use that except for the content. We wanna output that probably as raw HTML. This is raw HTML, this is raw HTML. This we actually probably wanna sanitize. So if someone's put a title of say, math is cool. I know five is less than 10, right? Now, if we, that was actually outputted without sanitization, that would go directly in here and then would end up with in app, invalid markup, right? Because of this arrow. When really, we want that to actually be escaped correctly. So it is sanitized. The double equals will allow that, that's just the echoes approach to it. Different templating engines will have their own approach. So we've now got that pref going and now we can actually go through up different pages. Post-art HTML, that's definitely not correct. URL, there we go. So now we can go through and we felt like a link going. This is crazy because like previously we would have to do this as like a dynamic thing. We would need like some backend to re-render this every single time. Static site generation, we can just do that and compiles it for us and we can deploy this to Apache, whatever. It just does it once. So every single time I re-render, you know, it's just serving that static file. Pretty crazy, right? I think it's like, it blows my mind how we can do this today. So that's pretty nifty, I think so. But let's go back to doing our blog post. So it's what, find all relative out the path and then blog, right? Something like that. So we're just showing our blog post, cool. Now this isn't good enough because when we perform this regeneration we still have to get everything in documents then we have to get everything inside the find everything inside documents that matches that. And if we've got a website of like a thousand documents that can be a time-consuming process, right? And if we've got a lot of pages that depend on other pages it can get quite expensive. It can be quite time-consuming. So wouldn't it be great if we could already know which pages are our blog posts without having to re-query that every single time? That would be pretty cool. So DocPad provides us with the ability to specify a configuration file. And that configuration file can be JavaScript, JSON, CoffeeScript, or a dialect called CSUN. There's different reasons why we would use the different ones for it. Now we'll use just plain old CoffeeScript. And because we're in a Node.js environment we have to export our CoffeeScript object. So this is our DocPad configuration. And we like to define a collection called, I guess, post. And we like to say get the collection or rather we like to produce copy and paste, right? So now that will be able to get all our blog posts and just kind of do it once. But there is an issue here. The issue is that this find all says, okay, get everything inside documents, just give me the blog posts. And it kind of just leaves it there. We have this ability to say make it live. So that way whenever we're doing regenerations or we change things, then DocPad will know, okay, this meta refresh page, perhaps I delete that. And I want that to be reflected in this post collection. So live is always keeping this data up to date. It's always keeping this collection up to date with the latest stuff. And this is crazily fast. Because whenever a change happens, that's then when, so in the database, it would say, okay, a change has happened. Does this change reflect the criteria of our child collections? Okay, it reflects the criteria of our documents collection. Great, add it to documents. Okay, it reflects the criteria of our post collection added to post. So it allows us a way of tripping down changes and only actually querying things when things actually change, rather than querying things every single, single time. Which is quite effective. The use case of this gets a lot more important when we start doing crazy things. But this ability is actually used on a website called Bugherd. They do bug tracking, like visual bug tracking. And they kind of have like this sidebar that goes on right. I'm not sure whether they would actually have it.  If we can see that. So the backlog is its own collection. This is its own collection. This is its own collection. And this is a collection. This section here is a collection. So when something is added to the database, it goes to this collection and says, does this new thing match this criteria for this one? If yes, add it to this collection. And then this one says, okay, something was added here. Does it match our criteria? Maybe yes, and then we'll add it here. This one will say, okay, something was added here. Does it pass? No, it doesn't. So it doesn't add it. So that way, instead of us, whenever we click this, we have to rescan everything. It's always up to date. It's always current. This is pretty nifty. But if you don't get it, you only have to write, just add live there and it's all okay. So it's not that big of a deal. So we now say, we've now defined this custom collection called post. And now if we go back, we've still got the, cannot call it to JSON. We have to restart our docpad thing because we modify the configuration file. This is being fixed right now.


Public speaking. Audience. The person doing the presentation is the presenter. The people watching and listening to a presentation are called the audience. Presentation skills. The way you present information to an audience is important. Some examples of good presentation skills are using visual aids, making eye contact, and smiling. Fear. Fear means being afraid to do something because it makes you nervous. Some people fear giving presentations and speaking in public. Visual aids. The images, videos, charts, or graphs in your presentation are called visual aids. Using visual aids will help your audience understand your information better. Main idea. The main idea is the most important part of a presentation. It is the central thought or main point of the presentation. Every presentation needs to have a main idea. Conclusion. At the end of a presentation, the presenter gives the audience a summary of the information in the presentation. This summary is called a conclusion. Rehearsal. To get ready for a presentation, you should practice it by having someone listen and give their opinion. When you practice, you are doing a rehearsal for your presentation. Body language. In addition to speaking, you communicate with your body. This type of communication is called body language. Your body tells people about your thoughts and feelings. Eye contact. Making eye contact is when you look at the people in the audience. Maintaining eye contact with the audience is a sign of having good presentation skills. Hand gesture. Most people move their hands when they speak. A hand gesture is a type of non-verbal communication. Making too many hand gestures will distract your audience. Facial expression. Facial expressions are a type of body language.  Be careful how you move your face during a presentation. Voice projection. The sound and clarity of your voice when you present is called voice projection. You should speak clearly and loud enough for the audience to hear you. The end.