Schools and police departments all over Metro Detroit are trying to manage what is being called American School Shooting Day on social media. It's a tic-tac challenge encouraging students to make a threat against their school, hoping school leaders will out of an abundance of caution close school for the day. Attorney say Seattle Public Schools may be the first district in the country to sue social media companies. The 92-page lawsuit says social media giants have violated Washington's public nuisance law and intentionally contributed to the youth mental health crisis in the state. The brains, particularly the developing brain of young children and teens, is starting to get quite used to these short form videos to the point where what the actual brain science behind it is that we see dopamine, which is your feel good hormone. It is what is involved in addiction. It's what's involved in the reward circuitry of your brain. We see that it gets spiked up. So when they're looking through and they're scrolling through these real quick videos, that's what's happening. They're getting these dopamine hits that feel good just the way it does when people sometimes use drugs or they use alcohol or they become addicted to other things. Members of both parties are ramping up calls to regulate the popular social media app. And this week, the head of the FBI became the latest government official to warn the app is a threat to national security. A number of concerns. FBI Director Christopher Ray says because TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, the data of the roughly 80 million Americans on the app could be weaponized. Keep your place there in Psalm 101. We'll get there in just a moment. So Psalm 101, a short Psalm in your Bible, but it's interesting because a couple of verses in Psalm 101, not just the verse of the week, but a couple of verses that kind of focuses on where our eyes are and things that we're looking at in our lives. And this morning, I have kind of a unique sermon for you. This morning, I kind of gave it away on Wednesday night if you're here at church, but I learned a lot this week just looking into this subject. Obviously, this isn't something that I knew a lot about. I'm not talking about the Bible. This isn't something I knew a lot about before a couple of weeks ago, but I feel like and the more I read into it, the more I looked into it, the more it deserves a sermon. And what I want to talk about this morning is very specific, but I'm preaching a sermon this morning on TikTok. All right, I'm preaching a sermon on TikTok. So you say, what is TikTok? So TikTok is an app, really.  And it has, first of all, just a couple of minutes on what it is. It's basically an app that you download. Most people have it on their phones, I guess. This app has been downloaded and it's used by one billion users in 2022 was the latest count. Now, if you don't know what the population of the world is, the world is basically 7.9 billion right now. So that is like one in eight people are on TikTok using TikTok. Look, folks, as far as statistics in the world go, you're not going to find too many things in the world that one in eight people use. You know, the world is very diverse, different countries, different nationalities, all these different things. One in eight people in the world have this downloaded on their mobile devices or whatever it is. Basically, what TikTok is, is a site or an app that specializes in short form videos. What it specialized, it started out a few years ago and it was 15 second videos only. Now I think they've gone to three minute and then in 2022 or just recently, they're moving to or have moved to possibly 10 minute videos as well. But basically, it's short form videos. So it's these little quick videos and they're perpetually plain. So you go to the app and you open it up and it just plays video after video after video after video. You say, well, what's the problem? Let me read you just kind of an internet definition of TikTok. It says, TikTok is a hub for and this is kind of what's happened culturally from this and I'll dig deeper into this in the sermon. But the internet says, TikTok is a hub for viral trends and challenges often kickstarted by influential, influential creators or celebrities. These trends catch on easily, especially as users share content to other social media platforms. So basically, what this is saying is TikTok and the reason that you've heard of it and I've even heard of it before I even went to see what it was all about is because it's very influential in our culture today, TikTok. Okay, so it's something that needs to be addressed. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it something that I should be worried about? What about for my kids? Look at Psalm chapter 101. Look at verse number three. Psalm chapter 101. Look at verse number three. So I'm going to give you five points this morning on TikTok from the Bible and kind of convince you or show you from the Bible what kind of attitude we should have as Christians and especially as Bible-believing Christian parents. What our attitude towards these types of things should be. I'm going to give you five points. The first point I'm going to make as you look down at Psalm chapter 101 in verse number three is this, content. Okay, content. Should we be concerned about things that we are looking at and that our kids are looking at? And what's the difference? Right? What should I allow? I mean, here's really the thing. Okay? Let me just give away the answer. The Bible doesn't differentiate between what an adult should be looking at and what a child should be looking at. The Bible basically says, look, there's certain things that you shouldn't look at. It doesn't say unless you're 17, unless you're 18. Look at verse number three. It says, I shall set no wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. Look, I mean, this is pretty strong. I mean, is that not the strongest language?  It means I strongly dislike something or someone. That's what it means.  All these people trying to show your kids things.  Oh, no, we should just accept everything. That's what we're being told today. Now, I'm going to just give you some articles and some quotes from some internet sites. And I'll tell you what those sites are in this sermon. But just to kind of show you what, you know, the attitude of, you know, conservatives and Christians, I put that in quotes is towards this app. All right. So I shall set no wicked thing before my eyes. That's what the Bible says. So content is important according to the Bible. What we view, what we listen to is extremely important according to the Bible from common sense media. And I don't endorse common sense media. But this is a well known conservative, you know, reviewing site. Here's what they say about TikTok. All right, you'll understand why I don't put too much, you know, stock in what common sense media says about anything. You know, my common sense media review is the Bible. Okay, but look at what just common sense media says, it says, this is a question. Is TikTok appropriate for kids? And it says this, TikTok can be kid friendly. It can be a kid friendly experience if you supervise your kids. Use safety settings and stick to songs you already know it's heavily music, music videos and things like this on TikTok. It's really it has an emphasis on that. But then look what it says, it says this is common sense media but TikTok's emphasis on popular music means many videos include swearing and sexual lyrics. So it may not be age appropriate for kids to use on their own. Even with limits, it's easy to find people wearing revealing clothing and dancing suggestively.  Okay, turn to Matthew chapter five. Turn to Matthew chapter five.  This is a big problem. Look, things need to be put in place. As a parent, things, controls need to be put in place in your home to make sure that, you know, these things, these inappropriate things, including pornography, do not get into your home. Protections for adults need to be in place in the home. Alright, look at Matthew chapter five and verse number 28. Look, this idea of internet pornography, that's not the point of the sermon this morning, but it just, it goes without saying. Okay, look at Matthew chapter five and verse number 28. Jesus said, but I say unto you, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. In first Corinthians chapter seven, Paul says, the wife in verse number four, says the wife hath not power of her own body but the husband. And likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife. Defraud ye not to one another except it be consent for a time that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempts you not for your incontinency. Now this is talking about the physical relationship between a husband and a wife, but the point I want to make is Jesus said that lusting after, you know, look this is a, let me just point out the men here. This is a problem that men struggle with more than women. All right, lusting after a woman is committing adultery with that woman.  Okay, obviously it would be worse to go and actually commit actual adultery, but Jesus is saying look that's adultery in your heart. And then first Corinthians chapter seven is basically saying that you belong to each other.  You know, that's why a husband can be jealous over his wife. Jealousy is a good thing in the Bible. Envy is a bad thing. Okay, jealousy is something I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm protective over something that's mine. My wife is mine and I am hers. So if I go and I'm lusting as Jesus said after another woman, look I'm defrauding my wife. I'm committing fraud against my wife.  Okay, so look, I've often said this about YouTube. You can put protections in your, look, we're on YouTube, I get that. But YouTube as a parent and as a parent who's been, who's, who's raised children, who, who are now in their teens, you know, as a, as a parent, I put protections in my place in, in my, in my home for the internet that were very effective. They were very effective. But the hardest thing for me to control, I'm not saying I didn't control it, was YouTube though. Because everyone says, oh, YouTube's harmless. You know, there's no pornography on YouTube. You know, there's no bad things on YouTube. That is so wrong. There needs to be plugins installed, all kinds of things installed to make sure that suggested content isn't constantly coming up on YouTube. Because look, there's plenty of trash on YouTube. There's plenty of garbage on YouTube. And TikTok is, is like everything wrong with YouTube times 10 is what TikTok is. All right, it's very hard to control these types of things. And especially the biggest mistake that Christian parents will make is that, oh, it's just YouTube or it's just TikTok. There's no actual nudity there.   So we need to get our definition straight today on what evil is before we even get into this sermon. All right, now look, YouTube, here's another thing about YouTube. It actually, it has dangerous things that need to be controlled, but YouTube has value at least. You know, you can find things on YouTube that, you know, you can find preaching on YouTube. This is why we put our sermons on YouTube. Look, I don't think we're going to be on YouTube forever. We're going to eventually get taken off of YouTube because of the things that are preached from the Bible. But whatever, I mean, if we can, you can find preaching, you can expose people that don't live in an area that has a good Bible preaching church to Bible preaching, that's a good thing. We can use it for that. If I need to fix my washing machine, I can find out some guy that videotaped it on YouTube. I do that all the time. All right, look, YouTube has value. It needs to be controlled though. It needs to be controlled. Right, but what can you learn that is good in 15 seconds? First of all, what can you learn that is good in 15 seconds? There's nothing that you can learn how to do in 15 seconds. But that rate therein is the problem too for parents. Is this 15 second feed? Look, parents today, nobody in this room should do this, but parents today, the reason that they give their kids screens is so they can have a break from being a parent. They cannot be a parent for, hey, here's a screen, watch this. How in the world can you control content that is rolling up on your kids suggested by some algorithm 15 seconds at a time? The answer is you can't. Okay, you cannot do it. At least these parents that put a movie in front of their kids or a cartoon in front of their kids, at least they know what those kids are watching for that time. Of course, I don't approve of that either. But you would literally have to be engaged as a parent every 15 seconds to control this TikTok. You would have to be a more engaged parent than you would if you were the type of parent that gave them the screen, if you were actually being a parent. It makes no sense. It would be harder than actually parenting to control what your kids are watching on TikTok. There's basically the point of the first point is this. There's no way to control the content your kids are seeing on this app. There's no way. Which brings us to our next problem. And I'm going to read to you an article from Epic Times. There's many articles on this though. This was the most appropriate one I could find. There's many articles talking about this exact same thing. So the first problem with TikTok is the Bible says we should set no wicked thing before our eyes, meaning especially before our kids' eyes. And there's no way to control it. So if there's no way to control if there was something in my house, there was no way to control what media was coming through that thing, I would not have that thing in my house. It's very simple. It's very simple. Here's an article from the Epic Times. The first one is this. The first one is content. The second point is this. Brain damage. And this is secular science. And then we'll look at what the Bible says. From an article in Epic Times, or not the Bible, this article says this. Excessive social media use is comparable to drug addiction. There's many other studies that are showing this. I'm talking secular studies. And look, you know what I think about secular science? Secular science is just catching up to the Bible. That's all it's doing. Secular science and scientists have been catching up to the Bible for thousands of years. The Bible has had it right from the beginning. Of course, continuing, not all drugs are created equally. Some are more potent than others. Most people would agree with that. The same goes for social media platforms. Of all the platforms out there, TikTok appears to be the absolute worst. The American people are hurting. The article continues. Drug addiction is at an all-time high, with about 33 million citizens being affected by substance abuse. That's about one in 10 people in the United States, by the way. Drug abuse alters the brain. It hijacks the central nervous system, manipulating thoughts, actions, behaviors, and emotions. Most people would agree with that. More specifically, drugs directly affects the brain's reward circuit. After repeated exposure to certain substances, the brain starts to adjust to the surges of dopamine. In short, heavier doses are needed to require to get the same high. Once a person heads down this perilous path, turning back is difficult. Social media works similar to alcohol and harder drugs, such as heroin and cocaine. Apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter are problematic, but TikTok, an app created by Bite Dance, a company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party is even worse. In fact, the platform has been labeled the most addictive social media site, with young people spending an average of 12 hours plus on the app each week. That's more than two full days each month, 24 days per year. I'll cover the time aspect towards the end of the sermon. I'm going to continue reading this, and then I'm going to talk about what the Bible says. In 2020, the TikTok became the world's most world's most downloaded app. Since then, representatives from Paracelsius Recovery, a mental health addiction clinic in London, told the BBC that they've seen an explosion of young clients exhibiting telltale signs of TikTok dependency. Over the last 12 months, referrals for TikTok addiction have increased five-fold. The founder of the clinic, Jan Gerber, believes TikTok should be compared to hard drugs. She quotes, It is very similar impact on the brain's biochemistry to hard drugs, Gerber said.  It's being compared by secular scientists to being addicted to heroin. All that to say this. Now look, here's a real conspiracy for you folks. Are you conspiracy theorists this morning? Here's a real conspiracy. Here's the thing folks, the collective west doesn't have a chance this morning. Let me tell you a story. When I read this and I read the cultural influences and the cultural effects that this is having on our society in America, you know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of you turn to Revelation chapter two, and I want to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you the backstory of Revelation chapter two. There's a story in the Old Testament in Numbers chapter 23, Numbers chapter 24, and Numbers chapter 25. And there's a king, there's a, before the nation of Israel crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land, they were, they were kind of, they were kind of mixing amongst these, they were passing through these nations. The king of Moab wanted a certain prophet named Balaam to, he was afraid of the nation of Israel.   The story goes in Numbers 23, Numbers 24 and into Numbers chapter 25 that God would not allow this prophet to curse the nation of Israel. This prophet was a bad guy. He really wanted to do it, but God just wouldn't let him do it. He wanted to get the money. He's like, I want this money. Balaam was like, I want to curse them, but he just, God wouldn't let him do it. So, what happened was, and he was, look, Numbers chapter 24 at the end of the chapter, Balaam finally goes home and he's like, God just won't allow me to do it. And it looks like he just goes home and he leaves Balaak, the king of Moab, and he just, he leaves. He wasn't able to get the money. God wouldn't allow him to do it, but turn to Revelation chapter 2 if you would, and look at verse number 14. The New Testament gives us a little bit of insight about what actually happened to the children of Israel here, because in Numbers chapter 25, in verse number 1, I'm just going to read that for you as you're in Revelation chapter 2, the Bible says, in Israel abode in shittim, and the people began to commit hordom with the daughters of Moab. So in Numbers chapter 24, the last verse, Balaam is heading home. He's like, I wasn't able to do it. I wasn't able to collect the money. God wouldn't let him curse the people. Balaak was upset, the king of Moab. Balaam was upset. But then in the very next verse, in Numbers chapter 25, verse number 1, you see that the nation of Israel is just, they're mixing amongst the people of Moab, and now they're just committing fornication. They're just, they're mixing with these people that God told them not to mix with, and they're just like doing all the horrible things that they're doing. They're worshiping the false gods. They're, you know, fornicating with these people. Look at Revelation chapter 2 and verse 14 though. Revelation chapter 2 and verse 14, we get a little bit of insight on what happened between Numbers chapter 24 and the beginning of Numbers chapter 25. And the Bible says in verse 14, it says, but I have a few things against thee. Now this is Jesus talking to these churches. He's rebuking these churches, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam.  See, Balaam realized, hey, I don't have to curse. I don't have to stand at this altar, and I don't have to curse these people in God's name. All I have to do is tell Balaam, hey, bring your people amongst the Israelites, hang out with them, dwell with them, and their own disrespect for God will destroy themselves. You see, that is exactly what this TikTok reminded me of. Look, the people that are enemies of this country, they don't need tanks and bombs.  It's exactly like the story of Balaam and Balaam. Look at the article continues in Epic Times. And there's more danger to it than other than just, you know, the depravity of everything. It says, besides stealing your private data, the app also steals your happiness through all this addiction. It makes you addicted to it. Of course, the thievery one assumes is by design, launched in 2016 by Bite Dance, a tech giant based in Beijing. TikTok, now get this, TikTok is actually banned in China. China does not allow their own people to download this app. Hello! All they needed to do was create a platform and give it to us in our own demented, depraved philosophy and culture will take care of us. Instead, China, they have a lighter version called Douyin. They have a lighter version called Douyin. It's milder content. There's none of this extreme stuff on it, and they only allow children in China to be on it 40 minutes a day. So they clearly recognize the danger of what they've created and sent to the world. The article continues, and unlike the content that appears on Douyin, which is mild in nature, the content on TikTok is, for lack of a better word, controversial, with users actively encouraged to hold their breath until they pass out, expose themselves in a sexual manner and drive in a reckless manner and other things like people have committed suicide and done all kinds of crazy things because of trends on this app. Look, folks, this will be the downfall of Clown World right here. In 2020, the United States government, they banned it. There was executive orders that Trump, and I'm not endorsing any president here, but there was executive orders put in place to ban this from this country. Of course, then, when Biden came in, all those things were lifted, but the point is they were banned on threats of national security because of an app, because of private data and all these different things. Folks, turn to Matthew chapter 24.  If you're going to survive all of this, and your children are going to survive all of this, the only way to see through it all is to be a Bible-believing Christian. That is the only way. Turn to Matthew chapter 24. Because, look, to the secular world, what you're being asked to believe today is that content doesn't matter. What you must believe is that how kids are raised, it doesn't matter what they see. It doesn't matter what they are exposed to. Look, the irony of this is, is that no one believes this. No one that is normal, no unsaved normal person believes that content doesn't matter. Otherwise, why do we have a rating system for movies? Think about that. Why is there a rating system like G, PG, PG-13, R, whatever else? Because nobody in secular society believes that content doesn't matter when it comes to children. But that is what our culture is saying, is trying to push, is that content doesn't matter. I mean, why not allow just pornography everywhere for everyone? Why not allow that if content doesn't matter? I mean, why is there such a thing as adult entertainment if content doesn't matter? Why differentiate? But even a secular person with logic, 99% of secular normal people out there know that content does matter, yet they're going along with everything. This is why you must be a Bible-believing Christian. You must, because content does matter, and even though everyone knows it does matter, they're doing it anyway. They're acting like it doesn't matter. You see? The Bible tells us that there will be things in the end times that only the Christians will realize. Do you know that? Are you in Matthew 24? Look, folks, kids today, even secular scientists, that's why I read you that article. And you could find dozens and dozens and dozens of articles from secular scientists saying that kids' brains are being developed until they're 20, 21 years old. This is where the drinking age comes in. This is why you can't drink alcohol until you're 21. You should never drink alcohol, but you should not drink alcohol until you're 20. Why is that? Because scientists say that children's brains are developing up to the point of 21 years old, and then, hey, alcohol's fine. But the point is, is that even secular scientists understand that damage can happen, just like the Bible is saying, but they're all going along with it anyway. This is how you can understand that non-Christians are just going to go along with all these things in the end times. This is a microcosm of all that. That's exactly what we're seeing. Kids today, look, kids today, folks, are being abused and confused is what's happening. And their brains are being changed by it. They're being confused by what they're being exposed to. Look at Matthew 24, verse 24. Jesus tells us that the Christians are the only ones that won't fall for these things, even the big ones. Verse 24, for there shall be a rise, false Christ and false prophets. It shall show great signs and wonders. It's so much that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. You know what the Bible is saying here? The Bible is basically saying, like, hey, the elect being the saved, the elect being the people that have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the people that are saved, the people that are sealed, right, not chosen. It's just the people that are saved is what the Bible is talking about here. It's saying, look, everyone's going to be deceived except the Bible believing saved Christian. It's exactly what we're seeing today.  Nobody would say yes. Yet, they're just, they're going along with all of it. They're going along with this philosophy, this worldly philosophy that teaches, hey, it doesn't matter what you put in front of their face. It does matter, folks. It does matter. Gen Z. Gen Z. All my kids, all my kids are Gen Z. If you're 11 to 26 years old, you're Gen Z. Every single one of my children is in this generation. I have seen pull after pull after pull saying that one in six, 20%, 16% of Gen Z, they think that they're LGBTQ, whatever. They've been abused and confused is the problem because content matters.  And look, I don't believe those numbers because those numbers come from the alphabet people sites, many of them, many of the sources, these polls, I don't believe that. I think there's just a lot of confusion being sown today. And guess what? You can confuse children. Children can be confused. Folks, there is a demonic influence out there today across the internet, TV, and all media that is trying to penetrate your home. There's trying to get into your family. And apparently, if you are not a Christian that knows the Bible, you will fall for it because that's what I'm seeing today. What you expose your children to matters. The Chinese know this. Is the Chinese government a Christian? The Chinese government is modern-day Baylack is what we're seeing today. They know this. They know that these philosophies in the West are not sustainable for a society. They're not saved Bible-believing Christians. They just understand thousands and thousands and thousands of years of human history on what is sustainable and what is not. They're modern-day Baylack. Just like Baylack didn't need the curse. They just had to hand out a platform that we could use to exploit our own depravity, to exploit our lack of wisdom and respect for God in this country. That's all they had to do. But back to the brain. Back to the brain changing. No Christian child or adult should spend any time on TikTok. My kids are old enough to where they wouldn't even have any interest in this. But if I had children that were 0 to 12 years old, they would be nowhere near this type of thing. Because you can't regulate the content and it's addictive. It's habit forming. You know that I don't believe the Bible doesn't say addiction is a disease, but you can form habits of sin. You can train your body to like sin. Or you can train your body to listen to the Spirit, listen to the Bible and fight that flesh. Or you can just give in to the flesh all the time and grieve the Holy Spirit. We know it's this constant struggle until this body dies, that I'm going to be fighting the flesh and fighting the flesh against the Spirit that is within me. Everybody. And you can strengthen the Spirit. You can be filled with the Spirit which will put down the flesh in your life. You can make it so you read the Bible. You come to church. You study the Bible. You teach your children the Bible. You can make it to where sin is just, it pops out at you. It's exceedingly sinful, the Bible says. You see sin, you're like, I want nothing to do with that. Or you can give in to it. You can give in to it and go the other way. You can train your body to need it. Here's the third thing. It destabilizes. Talking about, still talking about effects on the brain. It destabilizes children. It'll destabilize you, this type of thing. You say, what do you mean? It's like, look, many studies, there's another one. Many studies show kids, they're getting all kinds of neurological things. They're getting tics. They're getting things like they can't pay attention to anything, ADHD. I mean, hello. You give them something that changes subject every 15 seconds and then you expect them to focus on a task and do their homework for two hours? I mean, you have to wonder if people are just, they've just lost their minds. Kids can't pay attention to anything. Here's another interesting stat that I read just a few months ago. Construction productivity in the United States. This is super interesting. Construction productivity, meaning what a man could build in one hour in 1970 versus what a man can build today in 2023. It's down 40%. Isn't that interesting? That a man today is literally half as productive. It basically takes one and a half men to do the same amount of work that it took one man to do in 1970. Are you starting to figure it out yet? Turn to Proverbs chapter 23. It destabilizes. In Genesis chapter 49, Jacob said to Reuben, he said, unstable is water, thou shalt not excel. He said to his son, he's like, because you're unstable, you shall not excel. Excel at what? Anything. If you're unstable, you can't succeed at anything. Unstable people will not be successful people.  Look at Proverbs 13. Look at verse number four. The Bible says the soul of the sluggard desireeth and hath nothing. Talking about somebody that's lazy. But, here's the opposite side of the coin. It says the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. So, the Bible here is saying is that, you know, if you want to be diligent means consistency all the time. If you want to be successful, you must be consistent and hard working, not just today, not just Tuesdays, all the time. That's diligence. That's what the Bible is saying. So, something that destabilizes, that makes it to where you can't be consistent, you can't focus on something is going to just lead you down this path of being unsuccessful. What do you see with young people today? Well, they can't stick with anything. They can't hold a job. We've never seen anything like it before. They can't hold a job. Look, you know what? You know what happens if you can't hold a job for more than a month? A wise man once told me it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert on anything. 10,000 hours. That's four to five years at a professional skill trade job of some kind. Well, I can only stay at a job for two months. Well, you shall not excel. It's very simple. The Bible has the answers. Everybody else just catching up. How about this one? How about excelling in your spiritual life? How about excelling in your spiritual life? What if I'm just like, you know, what do you see today? People can't stay in church. What do you see today? People can't stay in their Bible. What do you see today? Like, literally nothing works in your life if you can't stick to anything and you just go from the next thing to the next thing to the next thing to the next thing. Not excel at what? Not excel at anything. Why would you ever want your kids learning this? Getting trained this way. Turn to Proverbs chapter 18. Content matters, folks. It's changing who people are.   Look at Proverbs chapter 18. Here's another one. If you need some more, here's number four. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of time at best. At best.  First of all, I don't believe you. Second of all, best case scenario, it's a huge waste of time. You know one of the things I'm often asked? Probably one of the most common questions that I've asked as a pastor. Ever since I became a pastor, probably the most common question that one of them, that people ask me is, how are you able to pastor a church and work a full-time job? And look, it's a complicated answer. I mean, there's a lot of things that go into that, but the simplest answer to that is this. I don't waste a lot of time. Notice I didn't lie to you and say I don't waste any time. I measure how much bandwidth that I have by how much time I'm able to waste in my life actually. It's kind of a measurement. If I find myself wasting time in my life, I would never waste time this way. But if I find myself wasting time in my life, I'm like, okay, I need to find some more productive things to back this down a little bit. It's kind of a safety valve that I use. But the answer to how I am able to pastor a church and work a full-time job, I even work a lot over time sometimes. And the answer to that is I just don't waste a lot of time. People waste tons of time. The average screen time that people have in their lives is like seven hours. You say, well, people are at work and of course they have screens in front of them at work. From 11 to 14 years old, you know what the screen time is? Average in the United States, nine hours a day. That is crazy. That's insane. They're literally at best wasting their entire life. Are you in Proverbs chapter 18? And it's much worse than just a waste of time. You give me two hours of uninterrupted time and I can make some stuff happen. That's my little rule. I got like a two-hour window. You want to get something done at home, you know, at work or whatever? You need two hours of uninterrupted time. Multitasking is a myth, folks. You can't do it. You can focus on one thing at a time. You need two hours of uninterrupted time. I can set up tools. I can get a plan. I can get some work really done in two hours. But you're bouncing from one thing to the next. You'll never get anything done. Look at Proverbs chapter 18 and verse number nine. There's something, you say, oh, it's just a waste of time. No big deal. Look at this, though. Look, the Bible has all the answers. Science will be catching up to this one for years, too. Look at this. Verse number nine, he that is slothful in his work. This is something that's lazy. His brother to him that is a great waster. You see that? You know what that's saying? You know what that's saying? It's saying wasting time, which in turn, hopefully I've proved you, makes you unproductive by wasting time. What it's saying is that those things go together being slothful and wasting time. You know what? It'll make you lazy, is what the Bible is saying here. It'll make you not want to do anything. If you're lazy when you're 14, what chance do you have in this world? What chance do you have in this life? You know, the thing is, folks, we're wrecking these kids before they get started. What chance does a 14-year-old, a 15-year-old have?   They're gonna be lazy. They're not gonna be able to do anything. And that's exactly what we're seeing with this new generation coming up. You have to be a Bible-believing Christian.  Here's number five. You're like, there's more? Here's number five. And this is for social media in general. This is for social media in general. Here's the thing about social media, folks. Turn to Daniel chapter 12. Daniel chapter 12, verse number four, is maybe one of my, I think it's my favorite, it's my favorite prophecy at this time, because I think it really points to what we're going through today. Social media in general. Here's my fifth point. It's not real. It's not reality. All these people with all these lives on all these social media sites and all this stuff, look, it's fake. You're not gonna see anybody put on Facebook like, man, my wife and I are really having a hard time.  You're not gonna see people posting that on, you know, social media. It's just, it's all these fake lives about, look at all the great things and how great we are and all this and none of it's reality. None of it's reality. But here's another thing that you need to succeed. You need to understand how to deal with reality. These kids need to understand that life isn't just peachy all the time. That life isn't, you know, it's not about the people that you look at and say, that person is successful. It's not that they've succeeded more than they've failed. It's just that the failures didn't stop them. It's that they know how to deal with reality. Most, you know, successful people or whatever, however you want to define success. How about we define it with our spiritual lives? How about we define it with our spiritual lives? Some of the best Christians that I know have, have just, have failed horribly in their lives. But they're always coming back. They're always getting right. That is a person that will be successful in their spiritual life. It's somebody that can always come back. It's the person that they fail once and they're too proud to come back.  It's not about how many failures and how many successes.    You get it right. Turn to Daniel chapter 12. Are you there? Look, people need to take these screens, these TVs, all these media devices. Most people, you better off just smashing them into pieces. Just smash them into tiny little pieces. You say, oh, but I watch YouTube, but I watch, I watch your sermons on YouTube. Well, that's great. That's great. That's why we don't focus a lot on short clips here either. Because like, just philosophically, like, hey, you should listen to a whole sermon. You should listen to a whole sermon. It's not something we spend a lot of time with the media department making a bunch of little short clips for you so you can pay attention 30 seconds at a time. Like, no, you should listen to a sermon that's an hour long. Then maybe you'll actually learn something. Here's an idea. Here's an idea. Go to church. You're like, I don't have a good church near me. Move. Move to somewhere that has a good church. Look, there's nothing else that matters. Reality is what we need today. Learn something. Do things. Look at Daniel chapter 12 and verse number four. The Bible says, but thou, Daniel, thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end. In the time of the end, that's what we're going to see. Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. There has never been a time in human history where there's more knowledge available to the common man than there is right now today. But guess what? This is talking about collective knowledge here. The irony is this, we've also never seen a time in history where people are dumber than they are today. How can those two things go together? You say, what do you mean? But we individually have never been dumber. But you think about all the information that's available. Everything's available. I had to change out a little pulley on my dryer the other day.  So seven people, maybe one of them could watch it. But collectively we have never been dumber today. How is that? Find me somebody under 30 that can weld. Find me somebody under 30 that can wire something. Find me somebody under 30 that can build something. Find me somebody under 30 that can work on an engine. You're not going to find these things today. Find me somebody that came out of college. Here's what you're seeing today. People come out of college after six years and they know nothing. How is that possible? This is why the trades make more money because you know what? They know how to do stuff. They know how to build things. How about find me somebody that can put a compass on a map and get themselves somewhere? They're like, what? What is he even talking about? You ever notice when you go and visit a town or a city that you've never been to and you type in the address? Say you have to, I've done this many times.  You type in the address from the hotel and you drive there and you have to, what do you have to do the very next morning? You have to type in the address again because you don't know how to get there because all you did was type it in and it just said turn left, turn right, turn left, turn right, turn left, turn right. Using a map, if you would use a map, you would use the map. You would get there the first day and you not have to look at the map again. Isn't that interesting? Because using a map requires you to use your brain.   I don't even know where I was going with this. Look, folks, content matters. We should set no evil thing before our eyes and it doesn't say unless you're 18. You should not be setting anything evil before your eyes. I don't care how old you are. And it's our responsibility as parents to raise up these kids in the nurture in admonition of the Lord. Nurture meaning I'm going to protect them from these things. How can I protect my kids from these things if I'm letting it into my own home and I'm doing it myself? It's not possible. We'll talk about that tonight. The second thing is that these things are changing us. These things are changing these kids. We must be vigilant as parents. And if you can't control it with all this media that's flying around today, don't have it in your home. I don't care how extreme you have to get. The damage is real. And look, I thank God for the Bible this morning. I thank God. Look, I'm glad that Jesus Christ came and that I'm saved and that by trusting in him alone I am saved. But I thank God for the Bible. I was thinking the other day. I was thinking, you know, Jesus came to sacrifice for our sins when he was on the cross. He bear our sins in his own body. But, you know, why did he even have to say anything? Why did Jesus, if he came here to be the sacrifice for us and all I have to do to be saved and have eternal life is to just trust on what he did. And nothing of myself, trust on that. Why did Jesus have to say all this stuff in the Gospels? Here's the thing. He didn't. He did it. I'm glad he did though. Why did God, why did Jesus Christ, who is the Word? He's the Word become flesh. Why did God have to do it? All he had to do was save us for us to go to heaven. I'm glad he said stuff. Because when we see these things happening, just like the Antichrist, just like the Mark of the Beast, the Bible tells us the Christians are going to see those things and be like, whoa, not me. That's why we see these things. And we're like, whoa, not us. Everybody else is acting in this illogical. Look, I'm not saying that these are all bad people out here. But they're being, they're being deceived. They're being deceived. Because the only thing that will stop us from being deceived is being saved and knowing the Word of God. That's the only thing. I thank God today that we can be in church. But I thank God that we have King James Bible in front of us. Because you know what? It's the protection for my children and for your children. But we better know what it says. Better know what it says. Otherwise, it doesn't stop them.


Great. Everybody welcome to July set news. My name is Rob and we got a ton of stuff to go over. So let's just jump right in We're gonna talk about polygon and Starbucks. We're gonna talk about the first US global bank to launch early 2023 We're gonna talk about crowning gets a lending and borrowing app with a basil upgrade or Basel And we're gonna talk about near protocol gets sharding which is beating a theory into the punch and also We'll just go over some sweat coin concerns. So let's just jump right into it and talk about Well, this will be the first story But I just want to let you know that the things that are coming out this week are gonna be huge And I think the things we have to pay attention to is this this is a great tweet from investing comm is pretty funny Like this one no time for puts and there's a friend of the show Jerome Powell looking dapper But of course it's all doctor, but whatever, but just remember that you got the CPI on Tuesday The consumer price inflation report and I expect this and a lot of people expect this to be a reduction as we've seen different factors that could Lead to that assumption and if that means that things are going down That's good for the economy and that's good for markets and expect the markets to pick up Then there will be the the PPI at the producer price inflation and remember that's the precursor of the CPI And then you got retail sales new for manufacturing Philly for manufacturing But then the big one is jobless claims and I hate to say this but I do hope jobless claims go up because that would mean that would be Better for the markets. I'm not telling I'm not saying that I want everybody to be jobless But we've done pretty well for quite some time. So we'll see how this all goes So that is the first part and we'll see how it is I think the CPI is gonna be good But this is part of the bullish news and the reason why I wanted it to to bring to you all this great information is Well, first of all, there's a lot of great information out there and that's good for the market itself And I know lately. I've been pretty bearish. I know I get it But in the back of my mind, I'm always like, well, this is just bearish news and it's gonna be over in a little bit But I don't think that Transcends to what you hear out there. So I just got to make myself clear Sometimes it's like a coach that beats in your head.  I think you're gonna be really happy so this is what we got for the first up Starbucks and Polygon They got tapped for their web three experience. I don't think this is a big big big story, but it's just interesting that These big brands are moving into the NFT space and what it all means I'm not talking about the the goofy artwork gifts or GIFs or have you have everybody says them different and all the All the like I said the goofy artwork I'm just talking about real things that you can do tangible things like you know web three experience with some points Which is what this is and just pay attention and again pay attention To the products that are growing in a bear market because in the bull market, they'll be unstoppable today We're thrilled to announce that Starbucks company company is working with Polygon release Polygon Studios I believe to provide the blockchain tech to build its recently announced web three experience Starbucks Odyssey as a result of the pattern the partnership the new web three powered experience will allow Starbucks rewards loyalty program members and Store requirements in the US I guess is only us only for now to earn and purchase digital collectible stamps in the form of non-fungible tokens Who knows what that could mean later on as far as utility maybe get a free latte or something like that I don't really go to poly to Starbucks that much. It is drink coffee, you know Because I'm an old miser, but I mean that's a step in the right direction and I found it interesting though What this article as far as Polygon goes about talks about ESG compliance. I'm not surprised I mean if you got it flaunt it and it states Polygon has committed to becoming carbon negative by the end of the year It has already offset its negative cumulative COT debt. That's great Ethereum chains imminent transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism will further reduce the carbon footprint of Polygon by 99.9% and I just found it just interesting timing that this is the big narrative I understand why because I mean we just had this report come out from the from the White House the by-demonstration Climate energy implications and pretty much they were saying like look if we can get if we can't get the proof-of-work Protocol under control and it damages the grid. We got a thing about banning it I talked about this a couple of days ago I believe on Saturday and I said they're not gonna ban anything. It's too much money being made these Bitcoin miners will work around it They'll use third-party or other types of renewable energy sources We talked about solar wind and geothermal Trust me, they're not gonna give up a trillion dollar Well half a half a trillion mark cap right now just because they can't produce some energy. They'll make it work Trust me, but so there's that part and then also you see you're gonna see more more Reports and the things that are going on it's gonna be revolving around green energy Renewables and crypto and digital assets and this is just one of those examples from squawk box as they talk about You know aetherium in the merge and the transition over and and carbon neutral or carbon negative So it's just it is what it is and I will lastly I will just say this I invest in polygon shocker some biased but This is not financial advice on this show. This is just the news just talking about things with you Dan fam and just going over some things. I gotta tell you Right now we're looking at under a buck right under dollar for for polygon Do you not think we could get to $2 and 88 cents anytime? Sometime in the future. Well polygon just be around for under a dollar forever or maybe it might be interesting thought to maybe a dollar-crossed average of that project. I'm not saying to do it, but Just interesting to say and yeah, that's what we got for that. That's the only thing about in the comment section Let's move on To the next piece first u.s. Global Bank to launch early 2023 let me fix this real quick and typos There we are first u.s. Global Bank to launch early 2023 and this was a tweet that was put up by the mooch scary mochi Who just recently had 30% of his company skybridge capital purchased over by sam bakeman Frieden FTX good for him. I Know there was some liquidity issues over there and looks like he's got that stamped out. So that's good That's really good. I hate liquidity issues as you may know, but here's what he says breaking news at the salt conference Billy hard of Abra global announced the formation of Abra Bank the first full depository institution for crypto in the United States And I read these stories to you and just think about this Do you think crypto is gonna go away Do you think we're just gonna be like well, that was a fun experiment back to wire transfers Back to checks. I I don't personally believe that but I could be wrong This is what's happening. Abra Bank when it launches will be the first Regulated Bank in the US of them will enable our customers in the US to deposit and Bank with digital assets and access global fiat on and off ramps access global fiat on and off France why they doing this I believe that the best way to become the default web 3 wall and crypto bank is by embracing global Regulatory framework that provides for transparency oversight security agency and before I read this next section Think to yourself all the junk that's been going on in our in our little area in our little market and the things that have been Rug pulls liquidity issues and solvency and tell me if this doesn't make a little bit of sense in some way shape or form Just saying Transparency means that Abra's community public disclosures on assets liabilities and risk management processes Public disclosures on assets that'd be nice. So we know what the heck's going on Oversight means that Abra will work with global regulators including US and state banking regulators to right-size our compliance and legal oversight to minimize customer disruptions Okay, man, it's a little bit shaky. Okay, you got me on that one Security like this means that Abra's community to ensuring the protection of customer funds and digital assets are always a top priority I'm curious see how they're gonna do that that's gonna be limited hot wallets for digital assets and mostly in cold that would's what mostly what a lot of Institutions do and then agency means that and this is the most important agency means that your assets remain your assets And I must caution you I did not look to the terms of service to verify this. This is just the report This is just the documentation. I see right here the article So I can't vouch for this but they do state We believe in the ethos of not your keys not your crypto But we recognize that people and companies need help to manage their digital assets Abra will provide on ramps off ramps and Transactional services to make crypto and web3 work for everyone.  I understand the risks and I can do all that stuff I don't want you guys dealing with it. Give it to me. Sure But I want to transact whatever else I do for whatever that they have maybe they have loans Maybe there's something else. I don't know and of course institutionals and people just don't want to do that They just go, you know what you guys take care of it I got three kids and two jobs and I don't want to deal with it Okay, but that's the mistake in my personal opinion. You should really hold your own keys I'm just saying so I guess it just kind of comes the the fact of there's there's a big tent for everybody Whoever wants to get in they can fit in like two short says Launching Abra boost. This is where things get wonky and Talk to me in the comments that this doesn't sound a little off Abra will launch Abra boost on October 3rd 2022 Abra boost is a new product offering that will enable all qualified investors To deposit and earn interest on their digital assets deposit and earn interest wherever you heard that before And the US Abra boost will be available to all institutional investors and accredited investors Doesn't sound like the retail will be able to have it at first. This requirement will be in effect until Abra Bank launches in the US What happens to Abra earn when Abra boost launches whenever boost launches all qualifying existing customers ever earn Including individual institution vessels will be transitioned to Abra boost at the same time We will stop accepting a new customers or assets and I had a question.  I just didn't so I took a look here And if you want to dabble in it, I mean, there's a link in the description I think I put it somewhere, but if not if I mistaken it was abra.com and you can download the app for individuals and This is full service crypto platform. You can trade 80 plus cryptos are up 10% I do not have an affiliate link. So don't I've never used them so I can't say that I would use them myself I don't use them. You can borrow stable coins was a little zero percent And then here's how it works, but I thought it was interesting They've got 1.5 billion assets under management 2 million wallets created 7 billion transaction volume 150 countries top 5 ranked crypto apps Okay And again, this is where I get nervous these earn rates eith to 4% polka dot 10% USDC 7.5 10% 2% to it look man. I learned my lesson with Voyager I'm gonna stay away from that for a very long time and tell someone can prove to me something else Or we get full public disclosures The only reason that I understood about what was going on with Voyager is because there's a public disclosure that they Loaned three hours capital over six hundred million dollars and at that point in June 22nd I said I'm not I can still use Voyager But I will take everything off of Voyager and that was the only reason public disclosures So she's didn't have that and for this one I gotta say I'm gonna pass But I thought it was interesting about what things are going on. Anyhow, let me know what you think about that in the comment section I'm just not gonna do it and Next to last this is a good one Cardano Gets lending just so you know September 22nd as a date for crowns of Basel Basel Basel hard fork and of course Coin telegraph never misses an opportunity three months after target date, but hey still happen and This is what's going on and I think this is important to understand I believe or some people have told me that maybe the apps are being delayed and tell the nozzle upgrade Because that's going to help with the pipelining and throughputs and different functions of Plutus and and make things a lot Easier for for developers. So great and here's what's gonna happen. They're gonna get their first lending and borrowing app interesting So the release is scheduled for September 13th. I guess they're gonna be literally making a Ada v1 the first lending and borrowing protocol to launch in the card on main net. Alright after months of public test net Maybe this one will be first aid a Ada. I'm just gonna call it Ada finances Finally ready to deploy its eagerly anticipated app the release brings lending and borrowing to Cardano. It's pretty good Introducing defy primitives to the network for the first time a to finance plans to launch in anticipation of the base Okay, basil hard fork, which will update the crown network and of course for people who worry like myself There was a successful external audit to ensure our little protocol and this was done by vacuum labs Which is a crypto and fintech company and a subset of wing riders with extensive audit experience if anybody's a part of wing riders or a Ada Contact me. I love to have you in the show. I don't know what's going on with you guys Other unique features included in introduced by the platform or multi asset lending interesting and Barreling and the Ada 3 node liquidation article the latter plays an essential role in naming letters to liquidate their loans. Oh Look at that is enabling lenders to liquidate their loans in the event of a rapid loan health factor downfall So maybe they said some parameters ago.  So I'm just curious to see how long that goes What's that in terms of conditions again fewer with a Ada or wing riders contact the show on Twitter? Have you on so that's what's up with Cardano things looking good and then the last one near protocol and near It's a top 25 crypto. It doesn't get a lot of a lot of talk about but it's already doing some pretty good things TPS and it's already in Integrating sharding which I think is way ahead of the game for a theory. Remember your theory mood merge Just goes from proof of word to proof of stake. It doesn't introduce sharding. That's gonna happen. I Don't know 2023 so who knows? But this is a good one about near near blockchain moves ahead with phase one of sharding It's pretty big as a part of our nears forced that plan to show the network the next year the protocol will introduce 200 new validators I gotta tell you that's not a lot Let's be honest, but it's more than use. Sorry, beardy. It's true So phase one or it's nightshade playbook Facilitated by near a contributor pagoda this phase see the see is the introduction of a specialist chunk only validators that feed into the Sharding mechanism, but are easier to set up than full nodes. Interesting. I should probably reach out to these guys Paired with an 86% decrease. That's pretty big paired with an 86% decrease in the collateral requirements for all Participants of the proof of stake chain The changes seek to rapidly lower the barrier to entry for near validators in an interview with coin desk near We'll go from 100 to 300 active validators. That's a step in the right direction Probably should be doing more and near as planned to show the network will be done through a four-step program called nightshade earlier This year it began phase zero and We'll complete the upcoming phase of the upgrade in 2023. I think they've already got Into phase one. So that's a good news and the reason why I brought this up, of course Is because sweat coin is being built on near protocol, but then I'd also figured out That near protocol is also using the Ethereum protocol to build on to I did not know that so they're using both and Here's what happened if you haven't listened to show and I don't know two months I may have mentioned this sweat coin and it got listed today on actually six different Exchanges bitfinex okx FTX Q coin and buy bit and just real quick if you're looking at volume Binance is crushing everybody 81 billion. This is this is 24 hours, right? Yeah, okay 24 hours. She's one The next one is okx 20.5 billion and for some reason they have active is three But I think the they're doing this by ratings. It doesn't matter So okx is 20 billion buy bit is almost 10 billion FTX is 12 billion Q coin futures and Q coin is 1.12 and it also got listed on Bitfinex 537 million whatever and then Mexi global didn't say it there. So that's three. So that is There's a quick math roughly 20 30 42 What's the other one 43 44 for 60 70 almost 50 billion in transaction volume in 24 hours Still less than binance, but I got to tell you a tip of the hat for that But I got some concerns And one of those concerns is that it was built on near protocol now. It's branched out into ethereum So I don't know if they can handle the transactions per second for that. That is the big thing and then also You can find this on coin gecko and you can take a look and it's Get you this siren. Sorry. Hold on real quick Okay, sorry about that. They're coming for me gary ginsler and you can see that on coin gecko If you take a look at sweat coin, it's just in preview mode only As I hear for the rumblings for this one sweat coin, it's going to be listed at The price of 0.006 or maybe 0.007 There's not that much And that's okay That's actually good and the reason why I bring this up is because of this first of all the token generation event Which is today or actually the next 21 hours Everybody who has used the app which is I have it on my phone right now That's a that's a web 2 version the app itself You get these you get sweat coins and they're not crypto They are not crypto the app on your phone the app on your phone For sweat coin that you walk and accumulate sweat coins is not crypto What that is is all the different coins that you accumulate in your phone, which is not crypto There is a wallet that you have to download And that wallet you can transfer all the different tokens that you are sweat coin that you have accumulated Now go one to one and sweat, which is the crypto unfortunately, and I said this many times us is not going to get those those coins initially Because they're they don't want to deal with gary ginsler and his nonsense and everything else So that's the first part. So just so you know, that's what's going on We had a deep dive. There's a link in the description. You can check it out and I talked to olig and oh fear Olig is the co-founder of oh fear is the chief marketing officer He talked about look, we're not going to do it now But as far as the airdrop We'll do it at some point just got to deal with all the regulation issues But this is the thing so I was an investor in that as everybody knows and Initially see this on the left hand side This is the sweat unlock and allocation in the very beginning And they've got over 30 billion tokens, but this is over months over the next four Four years I do some math in the next four years. It's going to be a slow release. There's a cliff So in the in the beginning for the airdrop it's not that much So Could there be a lot of selling there could be could a lot of people be a lot of people staking because you're going to be able to Stake could be because there are a lot of people buying could be I don't know for it for instance, but I got to tell you tip of the hat to those guys for saying look we did a private round Well, that's not what's called Oh, yeah, that was so it was a seed round private round which I got into because credit investor. That's what it is And uh, people always ask how much they pay you Rob how much they pay you that didn't pay me squats I paid a lot to them matter of fact And I got these tokens and I paid point zero one four for it What does that mean? That means today as this as this all goes live Oops, that's not it On bitfinex okx ftx kud coin and buybit if they started at point zero zero six, which is a fair price What does that mean? Well, that means that I can't dump on you. Oh and oh by the way I can't take my coins out anyhow for 12 months as a lock up So I know people were concerned about that And that's just what's going on. So for 12 more months, I'm in it with you. I've got skin in the game No one paid me anything. I believe in it. It looks pretty good. They said exactly they did exactly what they said They're gonna do we're gonna have five listings that didn't happen and that's it. So look Let me just think about that story and that's it for today And for the news there's a lot of good news and I wanted to put that all together because just remember I know it sometimes I sound very bearish and I am in the short term But there's a lot of bullish things going on and as far as the time horizon If you're gonna stick with me just stick with me two three five years I think you're gonna like the outcome. I can't guarantee anything. I can't tell you what to do. I'm not your dad But uh, I think there's better days ahead and that's all I have to say So anyhow, let me just think about that in the comment section and uh, now let's go into a little q&a As we're done with the news. This ought to be good. Thanks for sticking around I gotta get rid of this banner Comments


Hi everyone, I'm a dumb. I forgot the box All right, so All right, so let's alphabetize your names here. So if you bought at least two teams Right, you'll get one entry into this promo where you can get a one sealed box of 2019 2020 Panini, OPG Platinum hockey, which just came out the other day And we'll send that to you sealed you can open it You can sell it if you want to if you choose to open you get something cool. Definitely let us know All right, so Chris you got two you get one entry Chris to heart you have two you get one entry Eric You have two you get one entry Joe Joe C. No Joe P. Got four So that's two entries There's X sign Proust got two you get one entry Mark with two you get one entry Michael with form Two entries Randall Rick Wade Preston got three Accounts is two for the promo one entry William To one entry and the other William Bill billion To one entry All right, so that's 12 there. So one spot in 12. We'll have a shot at the box after Three and a four seven times. Good luck one two three four five six seven Wade Preston congrats to you after seven times you win the box. Thanks for getting in. I'll see you next time jaskiescasebreaks.com


Hey everybody, this is Darius Aria for Ancient Rome Live. Today we're going to take a personal walk through history. We're going to be walking through the Roman Forum. We're going to start inside the Basilica Emilia. We're going to wind our way to the Forum Piazza, past the Basilica Giulia, taking a look at the many temples on the capital line hill slopes. Be sure to subscribe to Ancient Rome Live. Be sure to like this video and join us for an incredible amount of unique views of sites and museums, exhibits, and special access. In Rome and throughout the Mediterranean, Ancient Rome Live is for you. Starting off looking at the remains of the earlier Basilica Emilia, you can see it's got the base of the columns. The structure is entirely made of tuff. And then we have the remains of the Augustine Basilica Emilia, with a very narrow nave and side aisles, which once had a magnificent marble facade. And that's why you have all these impressive chunks, solid chunks of Carata marble. For what was known as the portico of Gaius and Lucius, the grandchildren of Augustus, that he adopted as his own children. And then we're looking across the way, across the piazza of the Roman Forum toward some re-erected honorific columns, probably erected in the time of Diocletian or Constantine. And behind that, the Basilica Giulia. There's the Column of Focus, the triple arch of Septemia Severus, and the Cordia rebuilt after the fire in 283, looking toward the Forum transitorium. We're now walking through the Basilica Emilia, which has still the remains of some impressive marble veneer. This wall was found toppled over, and it was re-erected in the excavations under Giacomo Boni. So when we do look at the Roman Forum, we have to realize that there are whole sections that have been reconstructed based upon the fact that that wall was found lying flat right here. We have a late Opus Ectioli floor. This floor has been recently cleaned, dating to that sixth century. So we want to think of famously the Basilica Emilia being destroyed in 410, that Augustine monument. But this space takes on a later life. And this recently restored visible floor of Opus Ectioli is underlining the fact that, yes, indeed, this structure, this space, we're still occupied, and buildings were still on it. We're covering here an area of about 40 square meters. Over here we have a cast of some of the famous images that once adorned the Basilica Emilia, including the rape of the Savine women and the punishment of Tarpea. Now looking at the impressive wall of the Temple of Antonized Pius and Faustina, converted into a church of St. Lawrence of the Miracle, making our way to the Forum Piazza Proper. We're now coming on to the Via Sacra, staircase of the Temple of Antonized Pius and Faustina. Looking at the rager right here. And we also understand, when we look at the foundations at this point, how the later Via Sacra was raised up in this portion of the Via Sacra route. We're seeing the impressive conglomerate walls of the Temple of Divine Julius Caesar. And opposite it, at the other end, is the rostra of the imperial period. Coming right down to the Piazza Proper, where there were assemblies, where there were in the Republican period even gladiator spectacles. As we pass the road of shops in the front of the Basilica Emilia, walking on these ancient pavements, walking straight toward the magnificent Tiberian reconstruction of the Temple of the Castors, pivoting over to the remains of the Temple of Divine Julius Caesar, past the Temple of Vesta. Looking up at the Domus Tiberiana of the emperor, we're going to make our way past these ruts in the pavement to our first serious view of the Basilica Julia right here. And the clock of maxima passes right underneath. Walking behind the honorary columns were extended along the length of the Basilica Julia. The Basilica Julia along with the Curia was rebuilt after the fire of 283. And here we can drop into a portion of the pavement and piazza of the form that's legible. We have the fountain or the natural spring that lock us your tour line. And we have a replanting of the famous fig tree, olive tree, and vine that spontaneously grew in the forum piazza with the beautiful facades of the Curia and the arches of Tamiya Severus visible to us as well as the base of the column of focus or just getting the tabularium structure which is underneath City Hall. And we're pivoting over to the Temple of Saturn on the left and the Temple of Divine Vespasian straight across from us. So when we do walk toward the Temple of Saturn, the Treasury of Rome last built at the end of the 4th century AD, the last built pagan temple in the city, it's on the slopes of the Capitoline hill as is the Temple of Divine Vespasian as is the Void off to the side, which was the massive temple of Concordia, pivoting over now to the reconstructed wall of the Rostra, the speaker's platform of the imperial period that was last reconstructed by Augustus. Recently restored. Possibly now we're passing through the remains of the Arch of Tiberius. If not, it's right over here straddling the Vicus Eugadius. Going to make our way toward the Rostra. We can actually see the curved steps recently cleaned. Such an important historical monument. Think of the speeches. Think of the funerary errations. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears of Mark Antony. This structure is attributed to being the Mundus right here, a connection to the underworld, if not the belly buttoned endable of ancient Rome. This bit of tuff might have been the original altar of the Temple of Saturn, which we see right here. The Temple of Saturn, Temple of Vespasian, and this void, the Temple of Concordia. Here's our road for Trium Fatura, the Clevis Capilinas. And finally, we know the gold milestone was gilded bronze, but this round structure with these holes for some sort of applique has in the scholarship sometimes been identified as that golden milestone. All roads lead to Rome, or in the heart of the ancient city, or in the heart of the Roman Forum. Hope you've enjoyed this brief walk inside Roman Forum. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter at ancientromelive.org, and be sure to like the video. We'll see you again for more walks in ancient Rome.


Hey everybody, I'm Mike Squikey and today we're going to put together a Seoul SB 900 exercise bike All right first step here is going to be to put on these stabilizer tubes with these bolts and Washer and nuts so there's two on each. We're gonna somehow Lift this up and scoop this in There we go All right, as long as they get lined up they fit pretty well now these washers are rounded So we just got to make sure that they Align right with the two Repeat on the other side comes with two wrenches probably this wrench. Let's guess Definitely not this wrench. Oh the other side. Okay, that works Seems good Next up is the rear stabilizer cover with two Phillips head screws. It's just this little plastic in here Just to prevent some Sweat from getting in there There's this Allen key that they give you comes with a Phillips head screwdriver on one end of it. I have never seen that before but it's nifty All right, next is the console display. There is a Black thing to clip on to the back of the console and then there's another end to that clip Which will clip on to the handlebars. There's a little rubber kind of gasket thing here and then there is a Screw washer and really tiny Allen key to kind of get it in there. Let's make sure it goes on this middle bar Just gonna wrap it around Snug it up. All right, so next up is the handlebars We've got this mount plate and then the handlebar that will go on top and actually This is gonna be the front. So we got to flip this way Mount plate goes this way so that why Branches branch away from you and then the water bottle holders connect to those holes There are four holes here that go on this sliding mount up top Which already came assembled on the bike when I took it out of the box So somehow we've got to get the bolt Through the handlebar through this plate and then it will screw directly into this metal block Picking the bolts there are two different kinds of bolts one is longer than the other the silver ones Here are a little bit longer than the black ones And the black ones are gonna be for the water bottle holders, they're gonna have these corresponding black nuts That it will screw into that will clamp together the water bottle holder whereas these Silver ones have a washer to go in there, but they will just screw directly Into this plate. All right, so handlebars were a lot more complicated than I thought this was so loose That I couldn't tighten it because I couldn't get it past the handlebar So I had to take it all off Tighten this down so where to where I could actually get it tight so where it wouldn't shake When we're using it and now it's in a nice Usable rotation next up is water bottle holders. There's two.  So they're not the exact same design You want the hook parts pointed forward Oh, and we're going to use those black screws and nuts like I said before So the water bottle holders have pre-drilled holes. It's a piece of metal that's covered in I don't know what it's called, but some sort of plastic that makes it soft to the touch and a little stickier One of my pre-drilled holes is far too small. It's like it wasn't tapped wasn't punched out all the way so I have to try to There's nothing to like start screwing through so We've got to just tap through The plastic coating so that we can get this bolt Eventually through everything Success. All right, that's all set Okay, next up is pedals. It says the left one is reverse threaded So we won't tighten it the way that we would normally tighten a pedal. It looks like we just need this wrench There's this other one here in the package. Yeah, that fits Just going to put it in on the crank arm And then last up is the tablet holder. There's these three Screw holes here It's just going to sit on the handlebars like this and we're going to take these black screws put them in It does look like the clearance with the Display here can be tough, but if I just bend it away, I'm able to get it in so we'll just tighten it down All right, looks like we're all set The resistance on the wheel was pretty high when I first tried it The display I would have tilted down more had I known how it was going to fit there So keep that in mind when you put this together Ran into a bunch of trouble with the handlebars. That was definitely the hardest part If I hadn't done the If I hadn't had this lever so loose and I had just done it on the first try it probably wouldn't have been so bad The pedals were super easy Stop works There there's a little bit more gear here for pedal stuff I'm not exactly sure what it's for It might be for Clipping stuff, but I'm just going to use normal shoes on this Hopefully that was helpful. My goal with this video is for Nobody to build this bike slower than I just did There's not a lot of steps really. It's just some of it is hard screwing in with the Allen wrench screwdriver, especially with the tablet holder was actually pretty tough I don't know. There's some sort of resistance there. I don't even know if it's going straight into the threaded area But it would have really helped to have grabbed a normal screwdriver. So keep that in mind when you're doing it Um The wrenches though wrenches work fine. They were a perfect size even the allen key for the other stuff Like it was a pretty good size. I probably could have gotten the handlebars a little quicker if I had an allen attachment on a drill Can't wait to try it out. Hopefully putting together this bike in front of you and going through all this recording Was worthwhile If you like to hit the like button and subscribe to be notified whenever at least new videos If you need something else to watch I I did an unboxing of this bike and we're going to probably give it a go and Do a review at some point