Alright, here we are. Ecclesiastes chapter 7. I didn't conclude our study last time, and so I'll be picking up this time in chapter 7 at verse 21. I'll read verses 21 and 22, and we'll get into our study. Ecclesiastes chapter 7, beginning with verse 21, reading to verse 22. Solomon writes, Do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you, for many times also your own heart has known that even you have cursed others. And so he's going to give us some practical advice, some instruction in a moment, but I want to begin by remembering something he had just said in verse 20, and now use that as my platform introduction, and then we'll move on in to the following verses. But in verse 20, he had said there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. So that's a very strong statement that he's making, and he's making that statement concerning people in general. He said there's not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. So this answers the question that's often asked concerning why people do evil. That's one of the most common questions that you're going to hear as a believer. Why do people do evil? Why is there evil on the face of the earth? And so the basic Bible answer is that the reason people do evil is because people have what is called a sin nature. So that's not something the average person is normally really willing to see. We learn through life that people do habitually what is evil. They don't do habitually what is good. So it's just common sense to know that there's something going on within people. It's common sense and this understanding comes from simple life lessons. All you need to do is live for a while and you're going to see that there's not a good person on earth. No, not one. You may have this beautiful idea that when you have your babies, your babies are going to be perfect. And the best advice I've ever received about parenting has always come from those who don't have children because there seems to be a philosophy within our hearts that if you do certain things all the time, good things are bound to happen. And the reason you have bad kids is simply bad parenting skills. And to some degree that's true in some ways. There are some who should really probably not have had children simply because they don't know how to parent them. And I think that there are some that I have seen over the years who really probably should have gotten a pet and even so probably shouldn't have gotten a pet either. They just don't know how to take care of something other than themselves. But by and large, we see evil because evil exists within man. It's our sin nature. That's why he says there's not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. It's because wrapped up within us as a heart of rebellion. And that heart of rebellion actually is demonstrated by the way that we live, by the things that we do. Like we saw in Proverbs 20 verse 11, even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right. So somebody can say that they're a good person, but all you need to do is watch them, not to say that we should run around doing that, you know, trying to sniff out sin in every other person. But the fact is as we see that, we know that all you need to do is hang around with somebody for a while and you'll see that everybody has faults. Everybody sins, not a single person is perfect. Not everybody's as evil as they could be. You know, there are just a certain amount of guys like Hitler and Stalin and Lenin and Mao and others of that nature, Charlie Manson and all. Not everybody is evil as they could be. There is moral training. There are social expectations and those things combined to help to restrain our natural drives and desires. There are people who would do a lot of wicked if they wouldn't get caught. If there were, if there was a guarantee that they could do certain things and get away with it, they would do it. But because they're afraid to get caught, it restrains them. Or because it's not approved by society, they resist doing. But if the society permitted it, which is by the way why laws in the nation are used to restrain evil behavior because they're saying you shouldn't do this because we as a culture and it's a legal system regarded as wrong. It's one of the reasons why laws can restrain people with a certain bit of moral upbringing. But the bottom line is if they could get away with doing certain things, they probably would. Not everybody's as evil as they could be. They don't do everything they're driven to do. But intuitively, we know that we're not what we would like to be either. We know that if we're not as bad as somebody else, we're not as good as we want to be. And if you have just an honest moment, you know that. We know that there is something within us that wars against any desire to do good. It's what the Bible refers to as our Adamic nature, our sinful nature. Paul spoke in Romans chapter 7 in this way in verses 18 and 19. The Apostle Paul said, I know that in me that that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me. But how to perform what is good, I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil I will not to do that I practice. In Romans 7, 21, he went on to say, I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. There is a sin nature and any non-deluded person can recognize that they're not perfect. They just don't understand what is wrong with them. The reason that we're not perfect is because of our sin nature. In Romans 5, verse 12, Paul said, through one man sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. In Psalm 51, verse 5, the Psalmist said, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin, my mother conceived me. Isaiah 64, verse 6 says, we are all like an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And so in our honest moments we will recognize, I'm not what I want to be. I am not the person I would like to be. So the Bible makes it clear that all are guilty of sins of commission as well as omission. In other words, sometimes we do what we should not do and sometimes we do not do what we should do. In James 4, 17, James said, therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. That's called a sin of omission. You know to do, but you don't do. So this sinfulness finds a way of expression in our daily lives as Solomon is now illustrating. So he says in verse 21, do not take to heart everything people say lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times also your own heart is known that even you have cursed others. And so this reveals that all sin, because everyone has spoken badly about someone else. Again in the New Testament, James said something about this in James 3 verses 7 through 10. The writer James said all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue.  With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father. And with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.  On the other hand you're pulling out the driveway and someone cuts you off and you're not saying the same kinds of things to your brother that you were just saying to God. So what is it that Solomon would have us to learn? Well one, Solomon would have us to learn that we should restrict our tongues from speaking evil of others. We should personally determine that we'll resist that. Leviticus chapter 19 verse 16 says do not go about spreading slander among your people. Proverbs 20 verse 19 says a gossip betrays a confidence. Avoid a man who talks too much. My mother used to say it like this. She said anything somebody ever says to you about somebody else they're saying about you to somebody else. Always remember that. If somebody is quick to speak to you about somebody else they are quick to speak about you to somebody else because that's the habit of their life. They're a gossip. They're a tail bearer. They spread these things and all. And we know that gossip destroys. It separates people from another. It destroys relationships. So avoid it. Don't be involved in it. Second, when gossip is spread about you and this is what he's saying, do not take it to heart. He says do not take to heart everything people say.  You're not as bad as they say and you're probably not as good as you think. So he's usually somewhere in the middle. A long time ago I had somebody share that with me and he said to me, he said you know what? He said you're not as bad as people say but you're not as good as you think you are. So you're somewhere in the middle. Just realize that. And so if somebody says something about you, don't take it to heart. Do not take to heart everything people say because it's not something you need to know. You know there are those people who would like to know what is being said about them and I don't think that's a good idea. There was a commercial years ago I guess it's been two, three years or so as I remember it where they have something called the something ear where you put it in and you can hear things that people whisper about you. Would you really like that? And one of the illustrations, I told my wife this, one of the illustrations that cracked me up was a young woman walking on the beach in a bikini and two women are looking at one another and one woman says something like this to the other. Oh she has such a nice shape. I wish I had a shape like hers or something like that. Yeah, that's what she was saying. Would you really want to hear everything people say about you? Of course not because it could go, it could, you can take it to heart and there are things that you really don't need to know. Some people waste their entire lives, even their ministries, trying to be liked by other people and that's a waste of time because none of us can please everybody all of the time. I've discovered as you have that words can heal. There are people who can say things to you at that right moment that is really anointed by God and you know it. There have been many times and I thank God for this where people have approached me and have said that something that was said today blessed their heart and I have to be honest with you, it happened recently. Somebody had said that to me. They sent me an email and said something about a message that was given and it was just such right timing because after that message I had gone into my office as I do so many times and I thought man that just that was a bad message. That just wasn't any good and I remember sitting there and my wife can tell you the many times that I have become discouraged because I just haven't said what I need to say or said it in the right way and so somebody wrote me and said something kind to me and I wrote them and I said you know that came at the right moment in my life because I was just thinking and praying about that and I appreciate your encouragement and that's something I think we can do to one another can't we we can encourage one another say the kinds of things that encourage each other and all. They can heal but sometimes the same is true about words hurting and when you're gossiped about everybody knows it can be painful. It's been said that the favorite meal after Sunday morning services is roast pasta and that may be true and the fact is the church is not exempt from people who speak poorly of others. It happens to members of the church it happens to leaders in the Old Testament we see murmuring and grumbling from the children of Israel and the book of Numbers in chapter 16 verse 3 it says they gathered together against Moses and Aaron and said to them you take too much upon yourselves for all the congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord murmuring and grumbling from the children of Israel and Moses's response is recorded in Numbers 16 verse 15 Moses was very angry and said to the Lord do not respect their offering I have not taken one donkey from them nor have I hurt one of them so leaders very often are spoken poorly of Jesus was often spoken poorly of he was accused of being untrained having never formally studied he was accused of being demon possessed he was told that he was born of fornication he was accused of self promotion they said in John 8 53 to him are you greater than our father Abraham who's dead and the prophets are dead whom do you make yourself out to be so Jesus received these kind of verbal jabs quite often you see when you stand for righteousness there will always be those who oppose you the world will do so as a matter of course and sadly immature Christians will also the way people often work against you is through the things that they say and so words can be used as a weapon and words do bring tremendous pain Proverbs 12 18 says there is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword but the tongue of the wise promotes health so if you constantly worry about what people say about you you'll never do anything in the end the only thing that matters is what God says about you and with this in mind live in such a way that he will say ultimately well done because that's the bottom line and so verse 21 do not take to heart everything people say lest you hear your servant cursing you for many times also your own heart is known that even you have cursed others and so he says lest you hear your servant cursing you if he speaks against you it could provoke you to punish him so don't expect to be praised constantly even by those who depend most upon you he says in verse 22 many times also your own heart is known that even you have cursed others so we have spoken of others which should make us less sensitive when they speak of us he says in verse 23 all this I have proved by wisdom I said I will be wise but it was far for me as for that which is far off and exceedingly deep who can find it out and so everything he says comes from experience he says I've examined and found them to be true I said I will be wise but it was far from me in other words at one time I sought to be wise from every means at my disposal it was then that I discovered that it is too far from human effort this wisdom I sought and desired was simply out of reach you can go to school and it's not that you shouldn't you can you can go to school you can take a variety of classes and you can be taught a variety of subjects maybe you have a major of philosophy maybe you have a major in behavioral science social studies of some sort literature and you can read and you can learn and you can grow but ultimately what happens is you discover that no matter how much you know there's always something you don't know and what I discovered by going to school was not that I was growing in knowledge but that I was lacking in it I realized that there are many books written and I've only read I've only read a few and so there's so much out there I'll never be able to attain to that I'll never really through the constant searching out and reading I'll never really ever on my own attain to wisdom I just won't I can gain information but it doesn't mean I'll gain wisdom I was in London in 1975 and I went to the London Library and I still remember going through this massive library books in shelves that go stories high and and you walk into it you cannot help but just be intimidated by all of that information volume upon volume upon volume and and you go into one section and walls that are higher than these walls filled with books and then you go to another section and another section and I was there I was 20 24 years old at the time and I remember walking in there I was a second year student in college and it hit me look at all of this information I couldn't in a lifetime even read all of the books in this one section let alone section after section after section I was overwhelmed by the amount of information the thousands upon millions of pages and word upon word and it just intimidated me it really did and I walked from one section to another section to another section there were just so many books and and and as I was standing there I began to think this is this is true I I began to think all of these books all of these words centuries old many of these books were centuries old the writings were centuries old and it hit me and God knows every word in every language of every book in this one library it hit me and I thought what an awesome God I serve because he doesn't only know how many words and all of the contents but he also knows what's wrong with every one of these thoughts and as I was thinking that I walked into the center of the library and there on a stand with a glass case was enshrined the very first King James Bible right in the center of the library and I'll never forget walking up seeing it opened up looking at it I believe I may be wrong on this that I may have said in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth the first page and as I stood there looking at it I thought the book of books in the midst of all of man's wisdom they have enshrined the one book that matters God's word and so you can search all you want that's what he's saying all this I have proved by wisdom I said I will be wise it was far from me as for that which is far off and exceedingly deep who can find it out he knew wisdom's depth was more than he could ever naturally fathom wisdom ran deeper than anything he could completely search out in a lifetime in the book of Job 28 verses 20 and 21 it reads from where then does wisdom come where is the place of understanding it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air wisdom is deep now I'm going to get corny with you I'm going to I'm going to refer to something that you probably won't be impressed with but it impresses my heart therefore I'll read it to you first I'm going to make mention of somebody that most of you probably have never heard of a man by the name of Leonard Cohen has anybody here ever heard of Leonard Cohen please raise your hand okay see you're a very deep man Leonard Cohen is a songwriter Jewish man came from a rabbinic background wrote a lot of songs one of the songs that he wrote many years ago is a song called Suzanne I could tell you the story of Suzanne I won't but it's a song called Suzanne and the song Suzanne was originally was was actually sung by Judy Collins a folk singer in the 60s and he wrote the song right around 1966 during that day spirituality was accepted and seeking for truth was desired and there were a lot of songs that were written just the other day I was asked what do you think led to the Jesus movement and the Jesus revolution of the late 60s and early 70s there was a spiritual hunger in the United States the youth were were searching for some form of answer there needed to be something and I think that there's still a search today there will always be a search but there was that was part of my generation in all and so there were people who weren't even believers who were writing songs that were spiritual again Leonard Cohen was not a Christian he's a Jewish man he ended up practicing Buddhism just letting you know but he wrote something that I thought this illustrates especially the point where it says concerning the depth of wisdom in verse 24 as for that which is far off and exceedingly deep who can find it out and the term exceedingly deep is something that rings in my heart and this is what Leonard Cohen wrote and to try and illustrate that exceedingly deep he wrote Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower and when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him he said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them but he himself was broken long before the sky would open forsaken almost human he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone and you want to travel with him you want to travel blind and you think maybe you'll trust him he's touched your perfect body with his mind now there's a lot in that this is a Jewish man who had met a young woman named Suzanne who had a religious bent and he had a romantic interest in her and she was a follower of the words of Jesus not necessarily as a Christian and that impacted him and that's why he wrote but when I've heard that song the phrase he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone that makes sense to me because the depth of wisdom because the depth of Christ is far beyond human understanding it sinks beneath anything that we as human beings might think is wise and that's basically what Solomon is speaking about here Solomon's wisdom is beyond searching out on your own the wisdom that he possesses is past fighting out you can't find it through human efforts so James tells us in chapter one verse five if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach it will be given to him so the Lord is the one who gives wisdom and you need to remember again Solomon Solomon said I spent my lifetime searching for wisdom I wanted to know wisdom but how did he receive it how did Solomon gain it Solomon gained wisdom when he prayed and asked God for it he said I'm but a child I can't govern your children I don't I don't know my left hand from the right I don't know when when to go out or when to come in and without your wisdom I'll fail wisdom comes from the Lord there there's a discipline of seeking it yes but wisdom itself really originates in the Lord he says in verse 25 I applied my heart to know to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things to know the wickedness of folly even the foolishness even a foolishness and madness wisdom is deep but I continued seeking for it throughout my lifetime he says in Proverbs 4 7 wisdom is a principal thing therefore get wisdom all your in all your getting get understanding so he was searching for and seeking wisdom and the reason or the meaning of life and in this search the final answer would be that of knowing and fearing God that's what he says when he concludes Ecclesiastes in chapter 12 verse 13 he says let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God keep his commandments this is man's all so the key is pursuing the Lord and seeking God and doing that which he calls us to do he said in verse 25 again he goes to know the wickedness of folly even a foolishness and madness I desire to pursue with great seriousness the reason of things he says I even wanted to understand the wickedness of folly and madness in other words why does sin drive man to such terrible lengths I wanted to know God's gracious purpose to understand man's response to him and I made this the most important reason for my existence I realized that without God's guidance and without God giving to me that which I greatly desired I would really never have understanding and so my life was driven to the pursuit of understanding but I know ultimately that the way that is gained is through the Lord so as he's gaining wisdom notice verse 26 I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets whose hands are fetters he who pleases God shall escape from her but the sinner shall be trapped by her he didn't like women much did he okay after searching things out he tells us what he has found you ready for this after all this searching we're now in chapter seven this is what he has found an ungodly woman's dangerous and so I put in my notes duh this is not a new subject to Solomon when we went through the book of Proverbs he wrote this kind of warning concerning immoral women often Proverbs 2 verses 18 and 19 speaking of an immoral woman her house leads down to death her paths to the dead none who go to her return nor do they regain the path of life Proverbs 5 3 through 6 the lips of an immoral woman drip honey and her mouth is smoother than oil but in the end she is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps lay hold of hell Proverbs 7 21 through 23 with her enticing speech she caused him to yield with her flattering lips she seduced him immediately he went after her as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till an arrow struck his liver as a bird hastens to the snare he did not know it would cost his life again what is dangerous he says a woman whose heart is snares than nets and whose hands are fetters an immoral woman who will take you and captivate you and destroy you and destroy you not thinking of and this is again from Solomon's perspective a male perspective not concerning herself for a broken-hearted wife not concerning herself for children who will lose a father not concerning herself for a marriage that will be broken maybe without repair she didn't care about any of that she didn't care about you she will use you she will destroy you this is what's all I'm saying and you can end up with absolutely nothing I had a dream many years ago now when my children are still young and this church was young it was so real I still remember it to this day it was that real in my dream there was a woman who had somehow developed a relationship with me that was improper in my dream and in my dream I failed in my marriage and I still remember turning to Marie in my dream and I keep saying that just so that you know it was a dream it was a nightmare in my nightmare dream I had to tell my wife that I had failed her and I saw the brokenness of my wife's face it was real it was real it is exactly what she would actually do when I said in my dream to her honey I have failed you I have committed sexual sin I have committed adultery I saw her face the the shattered look and the tears that immediately began to stream I saw that and then I spoke to my children and they were small and I spoke to my Corrine and my David my Joseph and my Anna and I said your daddy has failed you I have been with another woman and committed adultery against your mother and I watched their faces it was so real it was exactly what my children would have done my my sons especially I still remember them looking down their shoulders slumping as I said I have failed and then I had to speak to my parents parents that I had brought to Christ and I saw their look then I stood in front of my church in my dream and I shared with the church I have failed and I felt the sorrow of heart that a healthy church has when their when their pastor fails and I awakened and oh thank you Jesus it was a dream but I have never forgotten that dream I believe that God was gracious to me to show me what would happen if I ever allowed myself to pursue a woman outside of my own wife and some of you in this room or perhaps who are listening right now or who will hear this some other time know exactly what that is from an actual event and the pain and the sorrow the hurt the death the destruction that that has brought Solomon is simply telling us what is most important to know I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets whose hands are fetters he who pleases God shall escape from her the sinner shall be trapped by her seduction occurs when something is promised that somebody else wants you can't be seduced with something you don't want if somebody said to me if you do this I'll give you as much broccoli and cheese as you want for the rest of your life I say I don't care you know you know I'm not you know I'm not seducable by broccoli though I do like it but if there's something that I have an inner desire for something that I wish I could have and somebody were to promise that to me and said the right kinds of things the right combination of things that's where seduction actually takes place so what do you do you guard your heart you love your wife I'll be doing a series on marriage in the family I'll be sharing some of these things so I'm not going to get ahead of myself on this but you guard your heart you fill it with the things of the Lord you pursue God you cultivate a fear of the Lord because that's where wisdom really originates and you become thankful and grateful and you become aware of the fact that as insignificant as you may perceive yourself to be you're a witness for Christ and your testimony when it fails has a tremendous impact on those who might have one time been open to hearing the gospel and so you guard yourself and you're aware that promises are made but they aren't kept that a relationship with somebody other than your spouse may have promise of of excitement and fulfillment and and a thrill and all of that but it all dies down and I discovered a long time ago that the things that really matter are the things that don't relate to being in a bed with my wife the things that really matter are things that are deeper than that it's the love that we share as a friend it's the love that we share as a companion it's the ability to share heart to heart of course is the other things that pertain to that in marriage but our lives have been built on deeper and more solid things than the momentary the joy of watching a child do well the joy of seeing a family member come to faith in Christ the joy of seeing people that you know coming to know the Lord or people you've prayed for as they get saved the joy of being able to put your head on a pillow at night with no guilt to be able to look eye to eye with that person every morning and to be able to say to that person I love you with all of my heart and to really mean it those are the things that have mattered over time to me those are the things that matter in life it's a real relationship with God and that spouse and so Solomon is simply telling us that going after a woman that is immoral is going to destroy you your heart is snared with nets and your hands are handcuffed and it says he who pleases God escapes from her the sinner shall be trapped by her the one who pleases God is safe but the sinner is taken so the key to avoiding sexual immorality is the spirit empowered desire to please the Lord and making a determination that you'll do that first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18 simply says flee sexual immorality even as we remember Joseph in in Genesis 39 as he fled the advances of Potiphar's wife you flee sexual immorality in the end when we fail to avoid it many people end up hurt you end up your life with unfulfilled dreams and nothing but I wish I would have if only I would have will be your words at the end I've seen this I've seen this happen I've seen ministers had friends well known if I mentioned their name everybody knows them and I've seen what happened to them when they were trapped in this way the destruction that took place in their ministries the destruction that took place in their homes the brokenness of their children we've ministered to more than one pastor who was nationally nationally know nationally know and seen what has happened when they have done something like that flee fornication and so finally verse 27 here is what I have found says the preacher adding one thing to the other to find out the reason which my soul still seeks but I cannot find one man among a thousand I have found but a woman among all these I have not found truly this only I have found God made man upright but they have sought out many schemes this is my conclusion and and notice how he says I arrived at this by the way my conclusion has come slowly because I've looked at things one by one that's what he's saying when he says adding one thing to the other to find out the reason I've been looking at these things one at a time I've been investigating these things and he says in verse 28 which my soul still seeks but I cannot find what's interesting is what he says he says I haven't been able to find a man who is what he should be truthful and righteous because such a man is rare a man who is truthful and a man who is righteous he says in my experience is rare there are quite a number of men he knew but to find a truthful and righteous one is kind of uncommon and so as a man I pray God help me to be a truthful and righteous man help me to be one of the men that he's responding to here that he's speaking about here but he says finding a truthful and righteous man is rare but finding a faithful woman is even more difficult now what's interesting notice in verse 28 when he says one man among a thousand I have found but a woman among all these I have not found now that's interesting because the number one thousand is the number of wives in concubines that he had in that interesting because when you look at first Kings chapter 11 verse 3 it tells us that he had wives in concubines that added up to a thousand and so it would seem that he came to see the evil of his sin by living with many pagan wives when you read the story of him and his wives it's found in first Kings chapter 11 it's interesting how the Lord and I'm paraphrasing how the Lord speaks of Solomon in that way because it says that that he loved many foreign women and the women that he loved many of those wives that you see in concubines and all the many of those wives were what were called political wives they married women of various kingdoms because they produced a military alliances and so very often the king would marry a woman which would secure relationship with the kingdom that she comes out of so he had a lot of wives that were through political kinds of things and all but it numbers a thousand but the scripture says that in his old age his wives turned his heart away from the Lord and so he's saying that there's an influence that they wielded on him man may be the head but women very often are the neck turning him whatever way she wants to go I may have authority my wife has influence and I don't have the answer for this but I'll say it anyway why did Adam who knew what to do why did he follow the advice of Eve he knew you know Paul goes on and tells us when he's writing to the church in Corinth that that the woman was beguiled she was deceived but the man was not Adam wasn't deceived she was she was beguiled totally old word that they use is totally hoodwinked he pulled the wool over her eyes when Satan spoke to Eve he said things appealing to her and had a conversation with her and you don't see a covering with Adam there you don't see Adam present as this is taking place and so Paul says that the woman was deceived but the man was not and so when you read your scriptures Adam knew that he was not to take of this fruit that was forbidden he knew it yet the scripture says that that she took of it ate it and gave to her husband and he did eat also so why did he do that I don't know I'm just talking he disobeyed the Lord I wonder and I I I wonder if the fact that he had he had been created to have fellowship with God and had that fellowship as a matter of fact God had given to him verbal communication prior to him being placed into a deep sleep so that he could remove the the rib and bring the woman he had fellowship with God you'll see this I'll be sharing this on Sunday on Sunday out of Genesis he had verbal communication he'd received directions already there was something going on if a fellowship between Adam and God already and then the Lord puts a deep sleep upon Adam and he slept and God removed the rib opened up the flesh and closed it there of and then presented the woman to man and Adam broke into a song the way that he says it this at last actually has a musical cadence to it it's as if he's stepping and keeping a beat and this is at last boom it's a song he sings there was something about Eve that made him sing there was something about that woman that made him whole and something about her was so important that he would just as soon be kicked out of paradise than to be without her I can't imagine but that's what happened there was something about that relationship with that woman that he wasn't willing to let go my wife has influence she has influence I have a fellowship with my God I have the power of the Holy Spirit I have his word but my wife has influence and that's why it's so important for for me and I think men in general to have a godly wife one who loves the Lord I have a friend I haven't seen in many years now who prior to getting married had prayed this prayer he said God please give me a woman who loves you more than I do and God gave him such a woman because he asked her honey what do you want for Christmas and you know what she asked for she said give me a bullhorn because I want to stand on street corners and tell people about Jesus Christ what did you ask for Christmas huh a new husband ladies you uh you have more power than you realize more influence this is not a negative this is a positive and we husbands we value that influence and we especially I can say I especially when I have a woman in my life my wife who wants a godly husband I especially value that because it frees me to be the man God called me to be and not to be competing with anything else in her life when she wants me to serve Jesus that sets me free many years ago I was given an opportunity to go into China with the purpose of bringing in bibles to the underground church and so we came in with suitcases I won't go into the details but we came in with suitcase suitcases of bibles and delivered them to people because at that time and I think it's still true you could have a church of quite a number of people and only one Bible and what the pastors were doing is they were tearing out books of the Bible and they were giving them to members of the church because the authorities would come and would confiscate the bibles so to have the word of God they would tear the book into pieces 66 different books and they give them to members of the church they would contact them and they'd say I'm going to be teaching through Matthew chapter 10 could you please bring that chapter to me so they had no bibles so we were coming in teams were coming in delivering bibles it was not an it was not the kind of thing that couldn't have repercussions because if we were caught bringing them in Chinese law could be wielded against us for smuggling bibles because that's what we're doing somebody says then why did you do it because the word of God is necessary for the church and we took the chance of coming in bringing God's word because we should obey God rather than men and that's why we did that but I remember talking to my wife knowing full well that something could happen and I had told Maria I had said baby I feel that I I should go in and bring these bibles into the suffering church and Marie was not real supportive of that and I remember she went to a pastor's wives conference and she came home at the end of that conference and Sandy Macintosh had spoken and Marie approached me and she said God spoke to me through Sandy I need to release you to do what God has called you to do you're free to go to China and I remembered taking those bibles in and the spiritual experience of doing that and the thrill of sitting down with a man in in a park in Beijing a man that had a nick had a name that I won't even give it now he had a name and he sat down I actually met with him privately in a dark park they said he's going to be on this park bench it's kind of like one of those shows you see NCIS or this or that you know it was really that kind of clandestine thing they said you need to be in this location at this time he'll be sitting on the bench you will sit down as if you're just resting he will tell you his story and I still remember coming and sitting down next to this man and he begins to share I had eight children my wife and I had been married many years he says I was arrested for preaching the gospel and I spent over 20 years in a Chinese prison he said my seven children that were of age when I got out are serving Jesus Christ but the smallest one who never had my influence in the home has rejected Jesus as her savior and he shared his story with me and it once again it just riveted me with this this knowledge that what what we need today and you hear it in my preaching all the time is God's word is God's word because it's God's word that changes people's lives and see that is that's that's the stuff and so my wife when she came home said to me I have to let you go I have to let you go I still remember going up the escalator in LAX says I was going up the escalator my wife was waiting there and I was locking eyes because I didn't know if I'd come back I had that in my heart what if I don't come back what if she loses me but you know what I bless God for a wife who wants me to do what God has called me to do who set me free so so wives be the influence encourage pray and in some cases perhaps release so that he your husband can serve God fully because that's the end of all men and be that woman that Solomon never met I haven't found one good one in a thousand well be that one if he would have met he would say now here's one be that woman and finally he said truly this only I have found that God made man upright but they have sought out many schemes God created man righteous but he sinned instead of seeking God he sought out evil and so that's part of our sin nature God made man upright they sought out many schemes because all we like sheep have gone astray we turned everyone to his own way but that's why God sent Jesus because the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all God made man upright man failed they sought out many schemes but even so I will add but God did something about that he sent the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world and we have a relationship with God through him by sin I sought out the wrong things in Christ I seek out the right


Income tax 2023-2024. Why and how to learn tax law. Get ready and some coffee because we're going to stop the tax man in his tracks with income tax preparation 2023-2024. Whenever learning a new topic the first question that comes to mind is why? Why learn tax preparation? Why learn tax law? And the response which gushes out of every American heart every American soul is to save money from the dumpster fire that is government spending pulling her into the promised land of the private sector where she can grow, where she can flourish rather than being burnt as a sacrificial offering to the gods of big government boondoggles. Alright I might have got a little bit dramatic there but that's probably the first thing that comes to mind saving some money. Our next objective to be in compliance with the law. When we're talking about tax law that of course means paying the taxes that were legally required to pay and being in compliance with filing requirements were legally required to do. You might think that these first two objectives are contradictory to each other but they're not really because our objective in tax preparation will often be to pay the least amount of taxes that we are legally required to pay. Because of the complexity of the income tax system it's quite easy to accidentally pay more taxes than you're legally required to pay which means that you've sacrificed more of that money to the dumpster fire of government spending and government boondoggles and is it likely that you're going to be getting that money back? Probably not so our objective is to get it right the first time. Now you might argue about whether or not you agree with particular tax laws and we'll talk a little bit more about this in a second but if you know the tax system and you know the tax law and tax preparation you'll be better informed to have discussions with people about what the best kind of tax system would be and the rationale for it and you can make those types of arguments once again within the compliance of the law. You might also be learning taxes because you want to be in business doing tax preparation in some way shape or form. If that is the case then I would think that you would want to narrow down your focus to think about what that exactly looks like. Oftentimes I find that when we think about goals we have a very broad type of idea of the goal which we really need to narrow down into particular steps so that we can go onto an objective that we can actually achieve. So for example first a word from our sponsor.  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Are we thinking about doing tax preparation at another firm or are we thinking about having our own business where we can do tax preparation. Is there an area that we can specialize in taxation itself is huge. So generally you're going to want some kind of specialization. You might specialize for example in lower income tax returns in which case the business model will typically be you're going to be charging less for the preparation. But you're going to be doing a lot more of them. So you're going to make less money per return but you're going to have to do more returns in that case or you do tax preparation for larger or more wealthy individuals. In that instance then they have more complex returns generally you're going to make more per return and possibly do more work in planning and tax preparation as well as tax planning type of services in that instance. You can also specialize in certain areas. Do you want to specialize in for example one location where you don't have a bunch of different state tax returns or possibly you want to specialize. You have multiple state tax returns and possibly income in different areas for an income is are different types of areas you can specialize. You also might be more interested on the business side of things versus the personal side of things doing business tax returns that have a schedule C for sole proprietorship or an S corporation flow through entities like an LLC or corporate type return partnership type of returns. Oftentimes people with accounting backgrounds like myself tend to enjoy that side of things because you get to use more of that you know the double entry accounting system. So in any case highly recommend that if you're looking to start working in some area of taxation that you start breaking down the goals to particular steps and I think that'll make it easier to move forward. Now some other questions that come up with relation to tax law that might not be as obvious are what is the purpose of government. Who should pay for government services. So what is just what is fair. What are these terms even mean. Oftentimes people think of these kind of questions as possibly more interesting than tax law then tax preparation then tax code. What is the government for. What's the best kind of system. Should we be more capitalistic or should we be more communistic or socialistic type of business should the government be running more of the private sector should the government be distributing money and some type way shape or form. Those are kind of interesting questions that come up all the time but again they seem to come up in some kind of an abstract type of format when you get down to the nitty gritty of it when you get down to how what does that actually work. Taxes are going to play a crucial role in that as we've seen all the way through the the the founding of the United States for example which was primarily based on tax arguments was one of the big topics as a colony. So when we get into the questions of you know how is a government taxing it's going to touch in on a lot of these questions that people seem to think of as more interesting than taxation. So for example in politics you will often hear people using words such as just or fair to describe many different things and often times to describe the tax system. They will say things like we need to have a just tax system. We need to have a fair tax system and learning more about tax law I think will get us better at basically being able to pick out those key words and trying to hone down on them and ask critical questions rather than having these broad blanket statements that are in essence meaningless. In other words no one argues that you should not have a just tax system. No one argues that you should not have a fair tax system where the argument lies is what does just mean with regards to taxation. What does fair mean with regards to taxation. So once you start learning what the taxes are actually doing what the impacts they're having. What are the incentives that are being put in place with the tax code because that's what the tax code is being used for oftentimes. When you think about the types of credits that have been put in place for example what kind of behavior is the government trying to incentivize with the taxes that are being are being put in place if people are saying that they want a just tax system or a fair tax system. Then we need to get critical and say what do you mean by just and fair. If the response of just and fair is something like well we need to take all the money into the federal government and then distribute it evenly or distribute it to the people that have the least to the most kind of thing. That's like a communist type of system right or or if you're saying that just or fair means that the people that are actually you know earning the money within within the system they're making things. Then those are the people that possibly should have should be able to keep more of their money or something like that. Well those type of people are arguing more for a capitalist type of system. So you can see the answer to these questions with regards to taxation are going to tell you what a lot of the questions about these vague terms that we kind of throw we throw around in terms of how big should the government be. Should we have more capitalist systems. What's what should how much of a safety net should we have within within our system. All of that is tied into of course the taxation because the government doesn't actually produce things in general. The government is could be a force of redistribution is the is the general idea. So the question is what should the government be in charge of. And again we can really drill down on that by concentrating on some of the tax laws that go through. All right. Well how do we learn tax law. So you're going to you're going to want to question the law. You're going to want to reason with it. You're going to want to debate it. In other words you don't really want to learn tax law or anything by just trying to rogue memorize it. You don't just you're not going to be able to just repeat the tax law enough times so that it's stuck in your head by repetition. It's too big of something to be able to do that. And even if you were able to do that you don't really develop any conceptual understanding of the tax law because oftentimes there's there's gray area just like with any type of law. If you're not learning anything the general idea of learning it is going to be tell a story about it. And even when you're talking about learning a series of numbers then oftentimes if you can break those numbers into a pictorial format you can make a picture. You can you can link the number to an image and then make a story about those images that's going to help you to basically remember just even a series of numbers. So just from a practical standpoint when you're learning the tax law for whatever you want to do you want to make a story about it. Fortunately the tax law already has a story because everything that the tax law has been put together someone put that together because they thought it was a good idea. They've been arguing it's a process that came out of the creation of the law arguments have happened and this thing came out of that. So the question is you can ask questions like well what were they thinking when they put this law in place. Do I agree with the law that was put in place. Now that this law is put in place what are the incentives that that's going to have is that going to incentivize people to grow the economy. Is it going to incentivize people to reduce the economy. Is it OK that the economy is being possibly depressed in some way or reducing GDP if we can get a more even distribution through redistribution policies and these kind of questions are things that you will see. If you if you start looking at the at the tax law and it's just like any kind of text that you engage with if it was like a philosophical text or something like that you're going to be reading it and say why why does this person think that you're going to like debate. And and you don't just like just read it and just kind of take it in. Well that's what that person thinks I'm not going to question it or if you're if you're looking at books like the Homer or Shakespeare or something you're going to be asking questions like well. Why did Achilles do that.  I don't know what he's doing over here. You're going to you know you're going to question the motives of the characters. Well the characters in tax law are the people that put in the law. And so we can we can basically ask questions in terms of why those laws have been put in place. And then and then that will help us at least with the memorization of it. It will also help us to engage it when we're actually trying to do things with the law. And if we have clients or are working with people that are interested in the law you have something to actually talk about. You can give some opinion as to not just what the law says but possibly what the incentives or motives were behind it. Now that could get you in trouble because people have different different opinions about what is fair if you just say we want a fair tax code. That's a pretty safe thing to say and of almost evasive thing to say. Right. If you actually get into the details in terms of what you think is fair and those kind of questions then you're going to annoy people sometimes but those are more honest debates. And so and there will be more more engaging debates with the clients and if you engage in more engaging debates you might have more clients than actually hopefully you genuinely agree with which would be a better a better system usually if that's possible. But in any case that's the idea.


I am Corbin. That's Rick.  Cuz sorry cuz sorry We just I don't know now you're doing my blank. Why am I blanking on this film because that's it Which is from what's that sir? There you go. Good job Corbin. I got there We just watched Kassari. We went to the theater and saw it. This is our first Introduction to Akshay Kumar. It is we had seen a bunch of his trailers and we saw a scene of his from Namaste, London Right, but we'd never actually seen a film of his and obviously he's a huge actor Yeah, and well we'll start with the non-spoilers. We'll start with the non-spoilers We'll work away and then we'll warn you if you haven't seen it yet You can come back after you've seen it, but we'll start with the non-spoilers. Yes So the the film is about this Seek soldiers right and a true story and a true story that we had no idea about exactly like a lot of stuff from India Yeah, what what a shocker. Yeah But it kind of starts out and it starts out almost pretty fast no spoilers remember. Yeah, it starts out almost pretty fast and Well, first of all, did you like it? Yes, thumbs up thumbs down. Yes. Yes, we would say go see the movie definitely go see the movie. Yes And I would say it out. It's probably One of those I they would for sure say that it's an important movie in terms of I mean we didn't we didn't that was probably one of my most favorite things about the film is Here in America, obviously we are aware of the seek right Oh, yeah, well then I run into them all the time here in LA. Yes But obviously we don't know the history of Sikhs. Not at all. We don't know Honestly, I did not know that they were known as such warriors Me neither. I here in America at least we've known them as these peaceful people. That's exactly If you see them walking around they have the turban on they're they're these peaceful quiet keep to themselves Yeah, I'm sure these people are as well but exactly not the warrior tradition know the warrior tradition about it and I loved learning that yep And I did the film it was one very beautiful at times if I didn't he gripes with the films. It was that From the trailer if you're going in expecting a full-on action film the whole right you're going to be disappointed Yeah, it's not it's not that so if you know that going there there is action, especially towards the end Obviously a lot the battle. Yeah, as you know as you would expect That's not a spoiler. Yeah, because you expect that you've seen in the trailer the fighting and you probably know the story In the beginning, so let's let's go to the spoilers now. Let's talk about we said we liked it. That's enough Let's not talk about yes.  It was it definitely showed the the epicness It was almost KGF style slow-mo sometimes. Yeah, not not not not editing wise Editing it was fine No, but just the hero the hero the slow-mo jumping Uh-huh a lot of cool epic shot We're always going to refer back to KGF because that was the first big epic action Heroic thing we saw so it was back to that and so but then you saw this Relationship they had with the Brits at the time obviously because they were still under a brick rule, right? Yeah, that whole relationship was so interesting.  Yeah, so I was I was oh it was insulted really very much also by the guys acting I Sorry, how'd you feel about them the the Brit non the non Indian actors? I don't even know if he was British He might have been an American giving a British accent. Yeah, I don't know I don't know I would have liked to have seen better the Cumberbatch in that role It would have been a great it would have been great in that role but let's go so the whole Americans and Bollywood and Obviously, you know said Indians and American films until recently have yeah made that change man Yeah, I really want that to change but yeah them going in that relationship was so interesting because it goes back to the History that because that's what I love to learn in all these films all the different traditions all the different history that we have no idea About because they don't wear America. We focus on America. Yep, you really do in the area We learn is Gandhi. Yep. That's pretty much all we get in world history from you guys So the the most I've learned about India has been in the past two months 100% And it's way better. Yeah, what we've been told so The the middle part is where if you're not if you don't like acting and dialogue They might lose you. Yeah, except for the fact. I was shocked by the how much yeah, yeah Yeah, you didn't you don't expect that it's not a comedy. No, but but I did not expect all the humor No, it was very funny very funny, especially when he was um Shipped over to the different four exact. That's when it really kicked in that one started really get good cook-a-doodle-doo. Yeah Oh Started get it with the whole that whole fort. I forgive me as I don't know And it I really love the fact that we had the row in front of us There weren't a lot of people in the theater But we had we had four people in front of us who we were getting to enjoy the movie with them and hearing them laugh at some Of the things that we were laughing to which a lot of the times when we go see the films We go to an early show and there's nobody in the theater And it was nice to have kind of an audience experience that I'm sure if you go see this thing in theaters in India I'm sure they sell out. Oh, yeah, it's it's loaded. Yeah, and they actually laughed at stuff We didn't laugh at it because I'm sure there was there was stuff that they caught the big Cultural stuff that we don't know. Yeah, we got most of it And we were laughing at the same times, but the that was quite interesting because we haven't had that experience yet No in theaters. No, it's not. I can't wait or other white people right or nobody or no But yeah, the film got really really good once you met all those people. Yeah, that's when I I mean and those are the people of the story about so that makes sense. Exactly, but the funniness that I just was not expecting Yeah, and loved it. I was so surprised.  It was almost slapsticky a few times and I loved it Yeah, it was made them very endearing and it was like it seems so strange because I was really anticipating this stoic warrior And it did there it was beautiful. I love that. Yeah, I loved learning. I wish there was some things I wish that I They translated the stuff on the wall. I know I don't know if that was their name that black. Yeah I don't know what that said. They didn't translate like what they were looking out of the wall that they replaced I assume it's the name of the soldiers stationed there and then what the kid was writing on the wall So which was their names. Yeah, was that their name because they did show the first name So with each person that died he was writing and we could get the picture that he was writing their names But I would have liked to have seen yeah Man, there's so much I liked about this that I could talk over and over about the first of all Let's talk about the star that Akshay Kumar. He's fantastic. One. He doesn't even look like Akshay Kumar No, he has an epic beard epic beard Great face believable every minute. He's on I love the relations that how they brought in the wife That's actually his wife. I couldn't tell I'm pretty sure that was okay That was his wife and she's gone obviously, okay, but he still talks to her I thought it was and it was done in such an intelligent way because when they brought her in I didn't know if it was a Flashback. I thought he went back. It's like oh, there's his wife. Yeah, and then when they do another shot She's gone. It's like oh, thank you for letting us figure that out. Yeah really smart Yeah, and I yeah, I actually remember that when I first went in I was like I don't like that I don't know if this is a flashback or not And then like he said they let us kind of figure it out right on so I I didn't have a problem with it after that me too Appreciate that. So that that was that was cool. I love he's great. How many interacted with the wife And the humor yep that they yeah the playfulness.  Yeah Naughty girl. That was great. So fun And they're beautiful wedding the way they did the flashback to the wedding It was just it was the whole wife thing I thought was really real and they did the little brave heart thing at the end Where he's there and he sees her and she's looking a lot of bring part references Quite a few felt a lot like that epic without and it's not a steal. No, it's an honoring It's a very epic. There's almost a Rambo moment too when he had the single-shot rifles Oh, that was too bad.  There were some rip like at the end battle sequence is Phenomenal yes, and a lot of interesting moments too like when he saw the kids and you didn't kill him But then the kid ended up killing him. Yeah, so that was But then at the end the oh, were they Afghani they were yeah they They say don't touch their turban. So it's mutual even though they're enemies, right? It was almost this respect for these brave seek warriors It's what happens at the end of like an MMA fight where the two guys fight and then when it's all over They're like looking at each other going respect. Yeah, but but not really not really not one of them is not exactly really good people Not at all At least that group of them. Yeah, no They came to me the personality of that group that was attacking them was note was the embodiment of what terrorists are Yeah, that's that's how I felt of them is that these were when they brought the girl out Yeah to kill her it was that radical extremism and they didn't even care about their killed people Exactly. Yeah, they didn't want to give water and then they stacked them on top of each other on their own people Yeah, yeah exactly. Yeah, but it made for an epic film.  How much of the scenes or cinema like the Hollywood? I'm sure it's grand Liberties were taken. Oh, yeah, I'm sure he didn't swing over the edge of the fort on a rope Yeah, which was a cool shot. It's a cool shot and I didn't as much as I loved it I don't know that he had that final epic battle with that many kill ratio. It could have been I don't care Mm-hmm. I loved watching him in there was a big slow. I mean uber slow mo. Oh, yeah I mean just you see it coming They had some cool surprises to the a lot of the bomb sequences. Yeah, like when The people were going to be and then they caught him. He's like, oh, they caught him He's selling stuff dripping from dripping from him They told the thing off and then that the visual effects were great the visual effects of the stunt work Bang Fantastic, man. There was one shot where the guys fell over and landed on the dead bodies Several explosions that yeah, and then obviously the end one with that Man, and he went out and he was just on the fire Epic. Yeah, that could have been ruined too with bad CGI But the fact that he you know and the fact that that dude said I want to hear this guy scream and it was the kid You know and and and as actually he's looking there.  He couldn't even pull the trigger comes out on fire and Screams and that was the other thing. I'm so thankful for we've learned about India The fact that they talked about the saffron You know, I would never have known that that's the specific color of the Indian flag or of their turbines I didn't know that at all and I knew about saffron in the Indian colors I've learned that because of the stupid family and so when he mentioned the saffron. There's that giant sense of Pride that rises up when you know the greatness of this nation. You cry. No, I actually didn't cry guys I did not cry. I didn't either, but I did get emotional. Yeah, I was very emotional I was very connected. I got the same feeling I did in Uri when the kids screamed Yes, yes, and when they screamed back. Yes, so it was this military. I mean, they're military Yes, that kind of thing. Yeah, I got very emotional, but it didn't come to tears and I'll never force the tears But they don't come they don't yeah, so but yeah It was it was an emotional like you felt that little thing Mm-hmm and your and your chest and you're like mm and it's usually anything military Especially if they do chance for the fallen soldiers Yeah, and all that kind of stuff and it was very reminiscent as well of what happened at the Alamo because we know that story extraordinarily well here in America In Texas the fact that the they lost the fight, but because they withstood them they celebrate Let me tell you yeah, they do but because they withstood them so long That enabled another victory to be taking place over here and just like with these guys They withstood them so long that those guys didn't have a chance to go get the other forts So I'd love to go visit the place where they're honored. Yeah Royals. Yeah, that'd be amazing to go see that my favorite part of the film was Obvious actually Kumar's performance. He's phenomenal fantastic. My favorite performance. He's ever given. Yeah Best work we've ever seen him do But the the learning the history of the Sikh people yep is I just love learning about different cultures and Especially India now all the stuff. We don't know. I'm very interested in and know different people's views and different people's traditions and all that kind of stuff it only gripes. I think I had with a film where sometimes the Explosions or the Scenes not all the time most of the time it was great, but I did see almost like almost Low budget a low budget like CGI thing. Yeah, not not all the time. Okay. Yeah, it was It's more towards the beginning. Okay, there's some of the I forget what the first explosion was But there was an explosion and I was like, mm-hmm. It looks like an I movie explosion almost But that's really the only gripe and if you if once again, we both like dialogue and Acting yeah, so if you I can see if you're not into that It can it could slow. It could it could drag if you don't like in the middle, but I do but yeah I Enjoyed yeah, especially when they got to the fort. Oh, yeah, that's when the film really kicked in yeah for me That that that everything's preamble. Yeah to that It's all setting it up until he gets there and they do the whole comedy thing and then that's really where the story Yeah, I thought the whole bit between him and the girl that Was he saved at the beginning? Yeah, it was it was a great scene. That was a really good It was a really touching scene. Yeah, he oh, I forget what he was eating because I was trying to see I was like did we eat Then right I don't think the rice I couldn't know But it was such a sweet gesture that she gave to him and that he ate it and trusted her Yeah, and his response He was so that was the other thing is the combination of being really funny really witty and then so brave and courageous But also being extremely humble, you know, he did he did that thing I love where he gave the what they call the Indian nod He's talking to her and then ate the food and even though he says to his wife in his flashback scene He says, you know, I don't like sweets, but he complimented her on it. It's it's sweet as if he really liked it It was just it was sweet and again before we ended this Probably one of the more emotional things for me that I loved was when I don't know his name He's the soldier who his buddy's dying and they run say get something to stop the bleeding and they're taking too long And he removes his turban to put it on it and that Frickin main of hair.  Yeah, about the end. Yeah Yeah, but then they died together. Yeah, beautiful. Oh, yeah, it was phenomenal Obviously, if you're still here, you probably have you seen the film, right? Please let us know you thought of it Yeah, we loved it. I can't imagine anybody not liking it. Yeah I mean, but they're not the like unless you don't like dialogue. Yeah, that's really it But that section the rest of the film I would think I would think yeah They got slow for me there, but the action and the whole ending is yeah frickin epic Yeah, so and especially if you don't know the story. I'm sure a lot of you know the story But yeah, yeah, this is one I would love for my kids to see so they could learn more about this history. So


So let's look at an example. So in this case, we're trying to figure out where the chromium is being oxidized or reduced in this case So we're going to look at the find the oxidation number of chromium over here and over here So we'll do the same process this time. We've got 2x because we've got two chromiums. So 2x 7 oxygens, so 7 times minus 2 That equals minus 2. That's our charge there So 2x minus 14 equals minus 2 So add 14 to both sides. So 2x equals plus 12 x equals 12 on 6 equals plus 6 So in this case chromium over here, the oxidation number of chromium is plus 6 If we have a look on this side, we're going to go back to one of our rules from a little while ago If we go back, the oxidation number of a monatomic ion equals the charge of that ion So the charge of the chromium ion here is plus 3. So the oxidation number is simply plus 3 Okay, so we've gone from plus 6 to plus 3. That means the oxidation number has decreased So if we go back here, the oxidation number has decreased. That means the chromium has been reduced in that case So in this case, it's reduced Okay To one final example, we'll look at sulfur in this case So sulfur dioxide going to sulfate ion. Is it being oxidized or reduced? So over here, we've got x plus 2 times minus 2 equals 0 because there's no charge up here So x minus 4 equals 0. So x equals plus 4. Remember to always write the charge down Over this side, we've got x plus 4 times minus 2 equals minus 2 because we've got a charge up here So x minus 8 equals minus 2. So x equals plus 6. So add 8 to both sides and we get plus 6 So if we write those up here, so we've got plus 4 here and plus 6 here Go back to our rule. If the oxidation number Increases then this the element is being oxidized. So in this case We're going from plus 4 to plus 6. So that means it's being oxidized. It's getting bigger All right So that's a look at oxidation numbers and oxidation states and how to find them


I've been spending time today at the University of Santa Tomas, where I've met with Father Dela Cruz, showed us around the campus, 45,000 students on this campus, the oldest university in Asia, just signed an agreement with UBC for student exchange, another example of how we're building a human bridge, human connections between our two countries.


When I first started the business, I was in a really bad place in my life. I had just got out of a nine year relationship and I had moved back into my dad's house. I was 27 years old and I said, you know what, I'm living my best self. I've maxed out my credit card on other people. I've never put any investment into myself. So what I did was I took my Capital One credit card and I maxed it out on all the product, the LLC, the website, you know, the small things that get started. I bought 300 bags when I originally started and I told my dad, I remember he's like, are you sure 300 bags is gonna be enough? I'm like, yeah, I'll sell 300, I'll make just enough and then I'll be done by the end of the year and within the first month we sold all 300.


production and I'll get to it without any further ado. So just a little bit of background, a lot of people here come from obviously fine pathogen background but there's an estimation that around 20 to 30 percent of the global crop production is lost to pest and pathogens and it's largely due to fungal pathogens and as Rebecca said our group sort of investigated and specializes in investigation of fungal pathogens. In chickpea one of the major folio pathogens is a rabiae. Edo, sorry to interrupt. I'm not able to see your screen. Is everybody else able to see your presentation? Just type in the... It's looking fine for me. Yeah, it's looking okay. Oh, okay, that's good. That's okay. All right, sorry about this Edo, continue. Okay. So yeah, I was saying in chickpea as coca either rabiae is one of the major fungal pathogens and again on optimal conditions it can cause up to 70 percent or even 100 percent loss of yield. Why work for chickpea industry? Well, it's a very it's a major industry in Australia. The production has grown sort of gradually over the years started originally from the more temperate southern regions of South Australia and Victoria but then really expanding into New South Wales in the 2000s and then into Queensland as well and actually and again for this it is and as you can see in 2017 there was a huge expansion into Queensland more than doubling the production. So it's a really major crop system in Queensland so there's a lot of effort. So worth noting that after that big year of 2017 the Indians markets imposed an import tariff which pretty much dropped the production because it wasn't worthwhile anymore and the production went to what it was like 15 years ago 12-15 years ago but we can see that now it's the tariff is easing and the production is picking up again in New South Wales and Queensland. Again the production of chickpea in Australia it's a temperate legume so it is more in the southern side of Australia along the east coast and it goes all the way north to central Queensland around Emerald and then down along New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia and there's a little bit of production as well in western Australia over at the west. There's a very tiny area of pocket of production in the northern territories in the Orden River but they have been safe from the pathogen so far. Worth mentioning with those different regions that there's different climates obviously different soil types and then also different effect on the pathogens. So for instance the northern regions they're less affected by ascokite arabia so they use more susceptible cultivars whereas the southern regions where the industry has been established for a lot longer they really suffer from ascokite arabia in some years so they try to use more resistant or moderately resistant cultivars. Ascokite arabiae it's an ecotrophic ascomycite fungus that causes ascokite blight. It exhibits a range of isolates that differ in their morphology and their pathogenicity so it ranges from non-aggressive at all to highly aggressive and basically killing the plant. It is a haploid with only a single mating type observed in Australia all right it's a very important point that at the moment as far as we know it only reproduces clonally in Australia. There is a reference genome available that's been constructed by Curtin University the CCDM and it's pretty good quality and they keep approving it so we do have a fair bit of genomic resources to work with. So our work our group has been focusing on monitoring us quite a rabiae in Australia and in terms of the entire sort of view of the pathogen of the disease we focus on the pathogen. So there has been a couple of GRDC funded projects one of them running from 2013 to 2018 and then another one that is currently ongoing until 2024 with the following aims. We aim to monitor and characterize isolates that have been collected from chickpea paddocks and basically maintain the isolated collection of Australia the national isolate collection for us coca either rabiae. We then assess and characterize them and then we deliver the worst or most highly aggressive isolates back to the breeders to be used in the selection and then we want we also try to identify the dispersal the adaptation and the evolution patterns in the population so we can understand better how those highly aggressive isolates emerge and under which conditions. Then we want to dive deeper into the genome of those isolates to identify specific virulent genes, effective molecules or any other genomic variants that may contribute to those highly pathogenic variants. Using those those tools we hope then to develop more applied molecular assays that allows us to rapidly pathotype in the field or to be able to determine whether isolate is highly there's a highly likely to be of a great risk even before we run through the bio essence. So far we've collected more than 3000 isolates from 2013 until now and it's been a major effort by state plant pathologists, agronomists, breeders and growers that have been helping us with the collection. We get them to Griffith, we single-sport them and then we store them and as I say we also characterize them. These isolates represent the variety from the different regions, host genotypes, aggressiveness and over the years as well. Each year we choose we're choosing a subset of isolates somewhere between 100 and 200 and then we actually assess them. We're running bio assays on a differential set of hosts to determine the pathogenicity levels and then we also genotype them and I'll show which methods we've used for the genotyping and we also assess the mating type using the PCR. The pathogenicity assessment is done against the differential hosts that range from more resistant cultivars or breeding materials such as ICC 396 and Genesis 90 and CIMR towards the most susceptible ones such as BBA-Hitrake and Kiabra which is a very susceptible host which is basically our positive check. We can see here the list and how we classify them based on their response to those cultivars and we can see that we pretty much classify them from pathogenicity group 0 to 5 where 5 is the most highly aggressive and 0 ones that are really non-aggressive only cause disease symptoms on Kiabra and not on all the other cultivars. We then summarize this information and what we're doing we're looking then how the population or how the aggressiveness evolves over the years and what we found is quite interesting and something I guess all plant pathologists sort of observe and this is a challenge that the industry need to tackle that as the years progress the frequency of highly aggressive isolates increase and these are evidence in those the more hot colors orange and red whereas the green and the blue represent the fraction of the isolates that classify as pathogenicity group as the low pathogenicity groups and we can see that there is definitely an increase there and that emergence of the isolate the pathogenicity group 5 only emerged in 2017 and we see we saw it again in 2020. 2019 was a fairly mild season for the disease which was very good for the growers but also it correlates with the intensity or the scale of production if you notice from the graph that I put of the of the chickpea production in those years 2018-2019 we had a major deep so there wasn't much chickpea grown so this is part of it. Another thing we'll look at is that each of those host genotypes that we assess how what is the percentage of highly aggressive isolates and we can see that there's some dramatic increases you know over one year from 12% to 48% on PBA hatric which is now considered as a moderately susceptible cultivar and then as well some of the more resistant cultivar such as genesis there's a gradual breakdown of its resistance and we saw PBA cimer that was released not very not too long ago and it was in our test it was fairly resistant until 2018 and then within pretty much two years it completely broke down and now we've got almost 50% of isolates are considered highly aggressive on that cultivar so there's no doubt here that the the pathogen is able to adapt and is able to overcome our resistant sources so as I mentioned part of the work that we do is we're trying to genetically characterize those isolates to be able to infer the population structure and to be able to identify some patterns in their evolution so we started off by doing microsatellite uh genotyping we have seven microsatellite and that was uh markers and that was the work of Yasir Mahmood finished his PhD and he ran those on he ran the he did the genotyping for almost 600 isolates that were collecting between 2013 and 2017 and we found very low diversity in the population very low genetic genetic diversity and in fact the majority of our isolates almost 70% of them all match the single dominant haplotype and still all of them were only one mating type so as we can see here in this network uh image we can see all these comprised of uh just a single haplotype regardless of where the samples came from all right so it it gave us an indication that is highly clonal but there were some question marks there whether the resolution of markers was good enough so we moved on in the following year and we tried to do a similar analysis using genotyping by the sequencing uh in this case using dartsic so we used 200 around 280 isolates and included two middle eastern isolates from the icarta collection and we ended up with almost 1500 polymorphic SNP which was very encouraging we said all right without 1500 SNPs we'll be able to to have really good resolution and to distinguish between the isolates so we did a pca analysis a principal component analysis of all those isolates and what we found very interestingly is that again there is very very low variability so basically the two middle eastern isolates had a fair bit of variance between them but then all the Australian isolates all the 280 just pretty much overlapped on top of each other so in comparison to the other isolates they're all pretty much one clone and the number of SNPs that were polymorphic within the Australian population dropped to only 229 so again there's not a lot of diversity there's um in the population when we look at the third and fourth components of the principal the third and fourth principal components we started to see some uh differentiation between those isolates and we can see that roughly it went by the origin of the isolates so there was a group there's still a large group of very very closely related isolates but then some groups from New South Wales some groups from South Australia and then the border of South Australia Victoria and New South Wales so there's definitely some element of the origin of where the isolates come from that determine their their genetic background we analyzed their their population genetics matrices and again we show we've seen very very low heterozygosity with all the heterozygosity less than 0.02 or close to 0.02 so very very low hetero low gene diversity we have identified that Western Australia shows very low diversity we pretty much half of the isolates all can be can be considered as clones whereas in Queensland sorry whereas in clean in Queensland there's a bit more diversity and there's more genotypic diversity found in Queensland so basically all the isolates each one of them were considered as a clone that stands by its own we then looked at any patterns for gene flow and we used a minimum spanning network on those similarity distance metrics and we found some interesting patterns we found some evidence like I've shown in the principle component before of isolates that evolve locally within the region so within New South Wales within South Australia within Victoria but then there's a whole lot of isolates that are very close to each other but then found in all regions right so that that gives us a hint that those isolate must have moved between one region to another I'll skip that one for because we don't have a bit of time but just very very briefly we found a few genetic cluster that are really highly associated with highly aggressive isolates versus non-aggressive versus clusters of non-aggressive isolates so just to summarize a little bit what the main findings of what we found we found that until now all the isolates that we assessed were of only a single mating type which means that they reproduce as sexual and we know that there's very low genetic diversity so if you put those together but on the other hand we identify very high level or increase in pathogenicity so there's obviously the pathogen is able to adapt now if you look in the literature the evidence says or at least what the literature claim is that these two conditions they should contribute to very slow evolution or very slow adaptation rate compared to isolates that have high genetic diversity and that can reproduce sexually so again it's hard to tell whether we would have seen a much more increased rate when we had the other mating type and luckily we don't have it in Australia but something doesn't match here all right and the question is why why we see that evolution and that adaptation given those sort of very bad starting points for the isolates for the population so we need to we're looking at and we're thinking about what drivers of of what drives the evolution of the pathogen so first of all it can be that modes of adaptation that we've seen that those locally adapted isolates sort of able to adapt better to their own conditions and the hosts that are used there but also those introductions and again because those isolates don't reproduce sexually they don't reproduce spores see what they take that are airborne so it's very unlikely that spores have traveled naturally between Western Australia and Queensland for instance so it must be introduced by human activities such as transferring contaminated seed or machinery other modes of variation that we need to look into is whether we're not looking at the right type of genetic variation we've been looking at SNPs but maybe there are significant structural variations insertions or deletions maybe there are copy number variations maybe there's even horizontal gene transfer has been suggested before that contribute to so so maybe there is a genetic variability but we don't see it in the SNPs another option is that there's epigenetic variation that will change how those isolate behave even though the genetic background is sort of similar then obviously there's the interactions with the host and interaction with the environment that they can contribute to how those isolates adapt and evolve so just what are we going to do next we're trying to use high resolution genotyping so we're moving into whole genome sequencing that gives us sort of an increase in order of magnitude increase in the number of SNPs that we can identify and we can also then work on other types of polymorphism such as structural variants we want to go through some controlled selection or evolutionary studies in the paddock or in trial site to better understand how unknown starting population evolve and as I said whether there's other modes of genetic transfer that we're not aware of such as horizontal gene transfer or maybe our structural variants that we might be missing I just wanted to thank the team well thank you for listening and give me the opportunity to present and I want to really thank the team Rebecca's group the Sustainable Food Production with Rebecca Maldicristi our pathologist and Sam and myself and Niloufar for doing wonderful work assisting us with the population genetics analysis from USQ and now moving to Union of Melbourne Adam Sparks looking at modeling those environmental and soil effects into the into data and obviously the GRDC for funding these projects and the state pathologists and growers that help us collect the samples especially during COVID if you want to look at sort of the summary of this of these results there's the presentation here and just lastly if you have a minute while you go through the question I might just leave that one in if you want you can use this QR code and have a look at the dashboard that we've developed to monitor the isolate that we collect and to provide these summary graphs and tables of where the isolates emerge and so on thank you very much