Welcome to Dell Technologies World. It's the premier technology event of the year. Join John Furrier, Dave Vellante and Lisa Martin as they talk to the trailblazers and trendsetters of future technology. Dell Technologies World 2023 and theCUBE, the leader in live and emerging high tech coverage. Good evening everyone and welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of day one Dell Technologies World 2023 coming to you live from Las Vegas. Mandalay Bay, Lisa Martin, Dave Vellante. Dave, we've had a great first night so far. We're just scratching the surface. We've been having some great conversations so far. A lot of news today. I'm excited about this next segment because you had me at data. So... Data and AI. One of our alumni is back with us. Jonathan Suckler joins us. Senior Director of Product Marketing at Dell Technologies. And Ariel Pizetski, VP, IT and Cyber at Tabula. Guys, welcome. Thank you, it's wonderful to be here. Thanks a lot, yeah. Ariel, let's go ahead and start with you. Give the audience an overview of Tabula.  Give us all that scoop. Okay, sure thing. So Tabula is a content recommendation platform. So we provide approximately four billion web pages a day. We see about 1.5 billion unique users a month. And we do all of that powered on Dell servers. So we have about 12,000 Dell servers. And for each and every customer, for each and every user that comes to our website or comes to a publisher website, we provide personalized content. To do that personalized content, we do it with AI. So inferencing at the edge and really deep learning and machine learning at the back end to make sure that we provide the best user experience for any user out there. What's with the name? What does that signify? So Tabula comes from the Latin phrase Tabula Rasa, which means blank slate. So we don't know who the user is. We're not like any of the other big ad tech companies. You don't log into our service. You don't tell us anything about your affiliation. We just infer everything in real time. And so did you have something to add? No, no, no. So why didn't you just do this in the cloud? Why did you, why are you doing this on-prem? So the cloud, while very trendy, is also another thing very expensive. To operate heavy compute loads, to operate machine learning, to operate AI in the cloud is just so super expensive that our TCO, our total cost of operations, on-prem is that much cheaper using Dell servers, using our own IT systems, and just making it work that much faster and cheaper for the business and for the end customer. So John, that's not like you just, last week invented this class of servers that could service a customer like Ariel. You've been at this for a while. What's your sort of AI server journey been like? It's obviously been accelerated with all the hype, just in terms of the awareness, but from a product standpoint, a reality standpoint, take us through that. Yeah, exactly. So we've been working with Taboola for three or four, five years now, at least, right? And so we've been providing the infrastructure for artificial intelligence during all of that time. And it started out as, starting out as just being a great platform for hosting the data, for processing the models, and for delivering the inferencing. But we've then evolved that into a set of validated designs for artificial intelligence that we do for, we have natural language processing, we have general artificial intelligence, and we do some converged IO type machine learning ops solutions and things like that. And it's been really a journey to get customers over that hump of going from a pilot or a proof of concept, like I said, in the public cloud to actually putting something in production. And I want to appreciate that almost everyone who does put something in production is going to end up like Taboola in building their own single tenant infrastructure because of the cost of operations, right? I mean, artificial intelligence is still very much a high performance computing solution, right? Did it start out like as a reference architecture that then evolved into a validated design and then ultimately become secure, right? Exactly, the reference architecture and then we had design guidance and testing and validation tools and things like that. Well, it's interesting because we're, in conjunction with Dell Tech World, we did a bunch of prerecorded interviews for ISC, which is in Hamburg. And it was very interesting to speak to some of the customers who said, look, I'm going to do this stuff on-prem because first of all, it's too expensive. At some, I don't know what the crossover point is, some number of thousands of cores, it gets way, way expensive when you go beyond experimentation and they're worried about IP leakage and they said they want to show it off, right? They got this cool data center or even a supercomputer that they're like, hey, check this out. Why should the cloud guys have all the fun? Yeah, I mean, you would know more than I, but artificial intelligence is still very much, unique IP, no matter where you, the stuff that you're doing, no one else is doing. They can't do what Tabula does, right? So it requires some investment, yeah. So Ariel, talk to us about why Dell. Obviously, we always thought customers have a choice. You mentioned working together for quite a few years now. What is it about Dell, its innovation, its technologies that really led you to make that decision that this is the right one to power our business? So the short answer, it's easy, it works, it's reliable. And then we can go into a much longer answer of our transition from other vendors into really being a Dell shop through and through because we wanted to have that one-stop shop for support, for the management of the servers themselves, for the security, making sure that we're secure from the chip set to the firmware to the software that we place on the servers. The ability to get the architecture help from the sales engineering team and the validated solutions, all of that helps us squeeze more performance out of every core that we bought. So as you said, from thousands of cores, we're running over half a million cores. And at that point, you really, really want to get as many performance cycles as you can out of each core. So even a 1% bump is really a lot when you're talking about that many servers. So Dell was a natural choice, easy to work with, secure, reliable, good support. I don't think you can ask for more. Well, energy has to be a huge concern, obviously. So how are you, now, the good news is, okay, you guys are smart enough to know how to manage your own infrastructure and keep your cost down, et cetera, but now you, of course, inherit all these other data center issues like power and cooling. How are you addressing that? That's a great question, and really, thank you for that. So part of efficiency is, of course, not only squeezing as much as you can in terms of compute, but also really bringing as much power to the IT side in the hosting environment. So not wasting that cost and power on cooling, sorry, on cooling and other things that you might have in the data center. So with Dell, we are able to control fan speeds. We are able to run the servers a bit hotter on the cold side than with other solutions that we have. We are able to really see a full view of the server within our management systems and optimize the airflow, optimize the power pull, optimize the power usage for the different levels of the day where we have more compute coming in or less compute power coming in. So the load balance, the software load balancer would bring in and dis-reviewed all of that into all of the different servers, but when the traffic goes a bit lower in the day, we're able to cycle back with the Dell technology and also cycle back on the power. You mentioned you can run hotter on the cold aisle or side, you said. That means you're saying you can let the temperature rise Just a bit, yes. Just a little bit, but even a couple of degrees is going to make a difference, right? Why is that, Jonathan? Think about it. Well, computers at the end of the day, I like to think of it as it's like you're putting electricity in, you get mathematics out. And at the end of the day, and unfortunately with the mathematics, you get heat. And one thing that Dell is really good at is getting as much math out as you can by dealing with all of the heat. And so we have, for example, in our latest PowerEdge servers, we've altered the airflow in the servers to improve the airflow through the servers so that we can run at higher temperatures, right? And when you're talking about AI and you're talking about millions of cores and thousands of nodes, you've got to be able to know to get that, like you said, that air from the cold aisle to the hot aisle as efficiently as possible to take that heat with you. So you got the A plus and thermodynamics. So what does the AI stack look like? Can you describe that? And how is that different than sort of the everyday stack to run whatever, SAP or just general purpose applications? Well, I mean, you should tell a talk about that. I'd be happy to share, yes. So when you're talking about SAP as an example, that's a monolithic application or usually an application that is very heavily bound to a single server, let's call it. When you're talking about AI, you're talking about grids, talking about supercomputers, you're talking about hypercomputing, it depends on the use case. So we have thousands of computers or thousands of servers, I should say, in the different racks all connected to each other through a non-blocking network so they can interact and you don't actually have only one CPU solving something or one system with a four-way CPU. You have thousands of CPUs and tens of thousands of cores solving problems as they come in or trying to infer different, I'd say, conclusions for the users that are coming into the system. You said a half a million cores, did I hear that correctly? Yes. Okay, that's incredible. And so what's the networking like inside there? What is it, is it Ethernet talking to? Yes, so we are strong believers in Ethernet, so we're using 25 gig networking and really that is our easiest go-to solution where we have each server hooked up to a 25 gig port and then we have the top of rack hookup at 100 and 400 gigs. Is 100 gig in your future or is the cost delta too much right now? Because they're coming down, compressing. Absolutely, so 25 gig is our default go-to today and I would guess for the next approximately two years that's where this port is kind of going. It's here to stay but in terms of new servers coming in for at least the next two years we're going to be on 25 gig and then we're probably going to see the 100 gig to the server itself as the CPUs themselves become bigger, hotter and able to also absorb more processes. There will be a crossover, I presume. It's like today you wouldn't do a 10 because you're going to get a 25 at the same price, it's good for free. Jonathan, can you comment, obviously what Ariel has described here is a huge deployment, tremendous power going on. Can you comment on the learnings that Dell has gotten from this customer relationship and as AI is evolving, how are they helping to evolve Dell in that respect? That's a great question. So with Tabula, like I said, we've been working with Tabula on their deployments in Israel but also all across the world and it has really spurred the need to really understand, from a customer standpoint or a support standpoint being able to deliver that global support no matter where Tabula is, not just in terms of break and fix but that AI expertise, that configuration expertise, et cetera. And we're taking that and then we're building that back into the portfolio even as we talk today. So the sexy cool AI technology out there now is this thing called generative AI, like chat GPT. And I will say that while that is really an exciting technology to see demonstrated, the application is going to be more like what Tabula is doing, where you build a unique model and a unique set of tools to help your enterprise solve those problems underneath the cover. So that's where the real value's going to be in the future. I saw, I think it was a Twitter, maybe it was LinkedIn, somebody posted, have you figured out your AI strategy yet? Well, before you figure out your AI strategy, you better figure out your data strategy. Right. Do you buy that and what is your data strategy? Yes. Doesn't care about data at all, I'm sure you should tell. So when you think about AI, obviously you need to feed it. It's like a monster that just demands more and more. So the data must be pushed into the algorithms so or on the training side or eventually when you want to get answers from them. So for us on the training side, we do NLU, which is natural language understanding where we are NLP natural language processing where we would like to understand what an article is about. So we will ingest a whole lot of articles, a whole lot of publisher web pages online, bring them into our systems, understand what they are and categorize them so we can provide the best content recommendation for that moment. So we'll do that on GPUs. But just think of the sheer amount of data when we serve four billion web pages a day, how many web pages we need to understand, ingest and have the computer kind of understand the language and what they are about, not to speak of at least 30 different languages that we support today. And this is all with our internal AI. So when you first saw ChatGPT, were you like, eh, I got this. What was your reaction? Take us inside sort of a, it's a term of endearment, an alpha geeks brain when you first saw that. So ChatGPT is a revolution because really if you think of what my kids, your kids will be talking about in 20, 30 years ago, oh, you had computers? Wasn't that like a typewriter? You had to actually type on them? Because ChatGPT is changing the way we will interact. Like emails will suddenly, my English will suddenly be that much more polished. My spelling would be that much better just because of these solutions out there.  So it's totally a revolution and it revolutionizes the ability of IT teams to work better. So if I'm taking it just back into our tech world for a second, for anyone that is coding, anyone that is writing scripts, the productivity boost there is astounding. So we, for us, we run those 12,000 servers with about 15 SREs, Cyber Liability Engineers. And now I envision 20 and 30,000 servers with the same amount of people. I don't need to grow anymore because ChatGPT is like another friend sitting here helping me whispering in my ear how to code better, how to write better, and how to be better. I think that's the key to all of artificial intelligence. You know, we've been looking at ChatGPT as this cool sexy thing, but what you don't realize is that it really is a public demonstration of what can be done. But the real value is going to be boosting and productivity of employees in all kinds of ways, both predicted, right? You know, like IT, coding, those are going to be like low-hanging fruit, right? But then, you know, who knows what else is coming, right? Michael Dell was interviewed a month or two ago and he said something around, you know, when the cognitive power goes to zero, think of the things that you can do. And that really resonated with me, this idea that, you know, in every job that you are in, no matter what you do, you spend a lot of that time just trying to find the information that you need to make a decision. Or you're trying to, you know, make sure you've got all your ducks in a row before you pull the trigger or something like that. And technology like generative AI inside the enterprise is going to do all that kind of grunt work for you. And it's going to make people, I think it's going to make them more productive. It's going to allow them to be more creative. And so, you know, it's going to create all kinds of unpredictable consequences. Some of them might not be wonderful, and I know everyone's worried about that, but I think that at the end of the day, it's a game changer for the economy. And presumably, like other mind-blowing innovations, the graphical user interface, when you first saw that, you're like, wow, the web browser, oh my gosh.  I can't imagine what this is going to bring. Exactly. What it's going to bring, what is your outlook? So I think it will really improve us. It will help us be more productive, find things faster, the ability to really ingest a whole lot more information, make it more user-friendly. Just think of help pages today. Sometimes when you're looking for a technical solution and you find this help page and it's hard to read, but if you search it on Bard or on ChatGPT, and suddenly you get something that is user-friendly, that is for us as users. How will it change publishing? Is it a really interesting question? How will it change search? Because suddenly instead of going into just a normal search bar, normal for the last 15 years, where you get all these answers and links to the publishing world, suddenly you're getting the answer and who's going to pay for that? Because that has scanned content that someone actually worked hard to create. So who's going to pay for that? What's going to happen there? There's a whole lot of questions to be asked. You know, even search, when you think about it, the way you prompted search in the early days, you had to really think about this plus that. And now it's all ads. Or you'll take us out with obviously a phenomenal use case that Tabula has with JAL with AI. What's next? Wow, what's next? I would guess that a whole lot more compute in terms of the ability to see more compute units within a single rack. I'm looking at, if today we're looking at 15 and 20 kilowatt racks, we're going to see much hotter racks with much better cooling. So we will be more environmentally friendly. The whole IT industry needs to be more environmentally friendly and Dell is really leading that way and helping us as Tabula see the future in really being carbon neutral. So IT will be a better place for the planet and we will be able to be more user friendly and provide more, I'd say, intuitive services much easier. Awesome guys, what a great use case. Thank you so much for joining Dave and me on the program today talking about Tabula and Dell, what you're doing, what you're enabling your customers to do and the horizon seems limitless talking to the two of you. We appreciate your enlightening comments. Thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate it. Our pleasure. For our guest and for Dave Vellante, this is Lisa Martin signing off from day one of our coverage of Dell Technologies. Big day tomorrow. Big day tomorrow. Big day tomorrow. We've got Chuck Whitton in the keynotes, I think, right, tomorrow morning. Yes, we do. And then Michael's coming on, Chuck's coming on. We've got a big, big, big day. We do. Wall to wall tomorrow and the next day. We hope you have a great night. We'll see you tomorrow.


Name another podcast. I like this He gonna swag it like me. He came from the bottom. He had it like me He know how to hustle least great at this grease.  No she gonna be the one to really try to motivate tell it to your face Why the mother was hey, yeah, check it check it check it Why E ceo and I'm here with the lovely amazing official miss Jamaica. What's going on? None none, you know my dad will go on man. Don't forget to like subscribe follow us on all social media platform We just started doing patreon. So y'all need to hop on over to patreon check it out Subscribe do our membership you gonna see some stuff that you've never seen over else Man, hold up. Guess what man? I done up and done it man. I got him here man He in the building man. This guy right here don't need no introduction man. It's home team man East Texas stand up man Bag team is in the building Yes, sir. What's good man? What's going on man? Thank you for coming on the show man I'm grateful to be here baby.  Yeah, what a boss is talk man. Let's go. So you said east Texas What part of east Texas are you from long view long view? Okay? That sticks man, so you knew I'll be growing up same street same David Street Any noob I was a kid too. Oh, okay. Yeah, so we've been knowing each other Yeah So how was it like and cuz I heard his story about how it was in long view and how bad it was enough The good times all that sort of stuff for you. How was it like growing up in long view? I mean the bad time was a good time Really, I had a bad time was a good time cuz you know a week. I mean, that's how we knew so but not for your mama though You know mama's be like, yeah, man. I can't deal with this. Yeah, she was stressed out. Yes Y'all be driving us mama's crazy. Hey, that's the best. What happened when the dead ain't uh, hmm What was daddy? Man, I mean prison. I mean, I mean and I ain't saying I'm just saying when the daddy's ain't up here Now my dad was in prison though. Okay, when he was there, he was there though I give him that. How old were you when he went to prison? Maybe man. I'm he was back and forth So, you know, it probably he probably went like when I was four then got out when I was 13 went back again Got out when I was 18. So, you know, did that affect you cuz I think sometimes a lot of guys like me like man The streets was my dad. I didn't care about it. But some people it did affect. Yeah, but did it affect you?  So, you know, they ain't they ain't trying to hear no man Tell them what to do with if you ain't putting that in a pocket Have you put some in a pocket in and the main prison gonna put some of your pockets of prisoners in the streets They can you know I'm saying we can we can come up together.  You would have done things differently as a child.  I was 13. I'm a pops too.  Oh, he was probably Maybe eight so he was still really young. Yeah, so you know, I grabbed him and he's on he's on a great path You know something like a whole different pay he on the path that I'm on now. So because the only thing I can think of young boys because you were 13 when your daddy came home at one point and Your daddy went to prison for drugs. Some drugs are doing any of that. I think it was some pimping and pandering and Okay, and jokes. Okay. No, the reason why I'm saying that because a lot of times I don't have heard all these different cases and that's why I'm bringing it up is that You come back you change your life, you know, you you trying to you're not gonna make money right off the bat When you're trying to change your life, it takes a while to build it up But some kids looking at you when you was balling when you were at home, you know Making our money driving nice cars and all that That's what they're looking at was glittering today looking at that man. That's what I want You lame right now. You coming out and doing this. This is you lame. Yeah, so a lot of kids be like man I ain't listening to you even although it's their dad. Yeah, you understand what I mean, man I understand it. I got an older daughter. You know saying and and she was living on my old life She was so addicted to my old life in the old me So when I came home and squared up and switched up my kicks only for them, you know, she didn't like You know, she's out of stories. I'm lame now. I'm a square She now understanding like the square is really the way out the way is the way. Are you able to get through to her? I'm working. I'm still working on it. I'm working.  So, you know, she kind of Got that, you know, I'm saying so they Yeah, you got a family and stuff like that, how does she She 15 now. Okay. Okay. So yeah, you still got time.  Oh, yeah. So yeah, you got time. But yeah, girls are different. Yeah, I don't girl some Yeah, we yeah, we picked up. We got my daughter. My oldest daughter moved with us when she was 14 So I definitely get it she 28 now, right? Yeah, no 27 No 28 28 man. So man, just cool How was school like did you play sports when you were younger or did you just are you just was just another hour? I was I was athletic, but I didn't play I didn't play sports because my Mind wasn't there. Like, you know, when I was growing up bad was good being bad was good So I was really being bad You know, I said so my grades when and I was very smart, but I just didn't I mean applied it, you know, you'd be so smart.   I mean, you know, when I got the people that I'm looking up to This is what they doing. So I'm looking up to the dope dealers I'm looking up to the people that's pulling up in cars and and I'm actually really feeling like she If my cousin doing this and my big cousin doing a it's in me, too. Yeah, I can obtain the same thing I got the same blood from I felt like it was part of life You feel me when you looking at that and growing up and seeing that hey, this is part of life But looking back at your life exactly what you just said A kid in that same situation right now feeling the same way you felt back then What would your advice be to him right now because you've been there done that You know what I mean? Yeah, my advice not would be none. Yeah. Hey, man Stay in school man. Get your grades. I'm not like I said I did a song way back in the game telling my same nephew the same thing Malik bad new Don't be like me be better than me. You know saying cuz you know if for a kid at that age right there And that my for me. Hey, man, go to school man.  Yeah, I'm gonna be smarter and your other thing Gonna get caught. Yeah, you know, that's what they say. Yeah, because they are where you know the kids out But hey, I it ain't the kids though It's never the kids. It's the adults. It's the fathers. It's the it's the parents You're saying the kids only doing what they see and what they know kids don't do what you tell them They do it is not always the parent because I've heard you know, I saw my uncle do it Just like you say I'm sorry my cousins. Sometimes it's not always the parents but I say it's the parents because you beat it in their head and You spare the royal you spoil the child You see I'm saying and not saying that you need to whoop them or whatever But at the same time like I'm talking about beating it in a brain like this is this how serious this is like You know saying instead of you know People get you know a lot of kids come from nice homes and rich homes and then my and they sit back and let And you know, they don't be the wildest ones that's coming from the nice home They they wild and that's hard because just like I heard And and it was a big influence on especially the youth our girl that was with dirt. What's her name? What's it? What's his girl name he was with? I ain't kind of forgot her name in DL something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I heard on On the web and I just seen you know, I think it was a real or something and she was like Oh, yeah, I don't I don't I can't have no nigga.   I got a file.  The hustle actually was the hustle, but it was a slip up inside the hustle.  Wow. I'm saying so I'm not so the law see it So, yeah, but was this before this the first time you getting in trouble. You are now I This my third this that's the third time I done been down.  My first my first and how old were you? I think I was 20 20. Okay. Yeah, I was 20 And I got called drugs Sir sir. Yeah, and so how long did you have to go and stay down? Oh, I got I got a five-year sentence because they gave me a game of probation the first time In a volley in a volley net on on a high-speed chase with the law. Yeah, what would you what would you add you was out there by Eastman I was out there on a loot loot 281 loot 281 They got behind me. I went from the pull-over. I got home. Yeah. Yeah, I feel you on there So because you had stuff in the car. No, I ain't had nothing. I ain't still wouldn't pull over You just didn't trust me. I didn't get me at that.   Are you any thinking you just added another charge on to that just don't So when you when you get locked up They give you a sentence you have to go before that judge again They give you sentence you get you get sent down where you hit the gurney unit or transfer where you go to the Middleton, what did you end up going your first gurney gurney?  Yeah, I'm already doing push-ups in the car About six fours that girl I Okay, let me ask you a question because everybody be talking about six four. Is she that fine? She will So that was a long while back. What year was that man? That was like 2001 2001 so you you hit the joy of gurney unit.   Didn't nobody yeah, didn't nobody try me cuz I was already acting up anyway I was I really I really had my nose and my mother thing going on like I was a wild child anyway They didn't try me until I got in lock-up. Okay. Oh, yeah, I got my paper. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, I got my paper. So they got that when you get in lock-up you you young you this is a young a bigger bag too Yeah, yeah, this tea money So yeah, it was just crazy man do the stoma pictures man and and And and I do it.  I found my family pictures and they gonna stole. Yes I just laid them out on the table. I Just laid it when he came back from Rick. They were laid on tape. We already know to put your shoes on man I should be for you know, but I'm let you put shoes on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so he knew what it was Oh, yeah, he was on he was on We had put them on payroll man for like the whole time. I'll back down.  Yeah, everything I thought I thought I thought dropping that's So how long did you stay out? Did you stay do your whole term on old Gurney or did you go? Did they transfer? Oh, no? Yeah, I went oh, I Went to Think my first time I went I think I went to some smile. You know, I can't think I know I went to I think I went to I stayed on granted for a little minute. I think I went to a pre-release. I went to I Can't remember. I just know it was you came home. I hadn't been three times I know but when you came when you come home, like it's always different stuff going on like when you look at your time Matter of fact. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think I went to Hutchins. You went to Hutchins.  Yeah, cuz now you like to go back in that life Cuz I even tried to come to Dallas. I like I went along if you seen all alone my partners got bricks and everything they Know I'm saying they give me calling. Hey, let that motivation drive it and yeah, yeah They trying to put you back in there and then here I am out of parole to Dallas.  Well, I go back to Longview and hustle, but I still stay in Dallas. Then I met Oh, you sleep. Yeah, then I met my little chick. Yeah, I met a little chick that stayed in Houston They went to talking out talking fly But by what she can do for me.  I Sleed the Houston. Wow. Yeah, that's how I got my two kids But was your parole during that time or you already had lived it down I had already done so do you get hit the next time in Houston or you get hit again?  What you doing in Houston, man, man, Houston's so trapped up So you Close to Huntsville right now from sideways to feel what I'm a I'm in the streets a stand So it's how you end up getting jammed up when you get to Houston. Oh Right. I got pulled over matter of fact or the first time. I think I got pulled over I got caught with some ex-peers.  Yeah, well, what a pill you man. I'm a step I pull them over from a stage by and I had the experience by yourself. Yeah And they and I have my homeboy with me. He had a little flesh and chain on Really got that one got me the father the little cheery.  I said, oh man anything get up, man. They got you.  Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean he ain't used to it. He's done So so when you end up, I got a question So most of the time when people because one thing I always trying to figure out does everybody who sell drugs Take the drugs In your kid, no, I know your answer, but I'm saying everybody that you was around including yourself now Back then back then.  We'll get money, but we were low-key junk If we're gonna get so you got me you wasting the product you using your own product So you ain't really making the type of money you supposed to be making we taking that we taking it At certain time in we ain't we making so much out of everybody else.  Yeah, we were you right? We were really the dope thing Man so and but you would think that being because Longview is one of them places where when you think of Longview, man It's it's it's a lot going a date man. I think they're We man Love you get it popping the trenches for real. Yeah. Yeah, I mean don't get it twisted It's a lot of little pockets down there to get a nigga called up Yeah, yeah, but long view one of the place they go to the park on Sunday and get on up out of there You know, I'm saying yeah, you can't just start you can't cover my time as they go to chillin too hard No, they're gonna start night night and I didn't plan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I used to bring homies from Houston and Hey, man Man, I'm do man. Hey, I had to tell a he with me man. They was already playing been there by the day Damn, hey, he's he's tugging in the tank. I remember the nigga tugging in the same apartment looking at him like He don't know it with me. We had the water brother. We didn't came from the club We had the waterman man in the car. I had to walk around. Hey, man. We're looking at him like that He was me man. Oh Oh Probably mad.  Give me that time the last time I went back home I went back. That was the last time in Houston. No That time. Okay. The last time I went back home. I left Houston went back home Turned up turned up.  Yeah, so I was gonna be our own thing because we was always Looking up to Houston, you know, we love Houston. We love that. We love the city. But when I came home We we live too. Yeah, we need to talk about what we Nigga was rapping about swangers and that ain't our thing.  Yeah, we talk about that That's what niggas don't really realize that that in these Texas area. Yeah, some hustling niggas down there Yeah, and that's what people don't they'd be sleeping on Like so there was my thing like let me be the one to speak on what we doing out here Yeah, so that's when I that's how my music came so and you was doing music and when you went that second time Yeah, so when you get in there and you get jammed up you go to this time what he's seen They didn't see you back to gurney to your military. Uh-huh. They said why go all this time. I went to I think I went through granny again. I went through granny again. Yeah, you know, I went through gurney, you know, I'm coming out of East Texas, I'm coming out long. So I went to granny. I thought it but they jammed in Houston That's my third time my third time I got jammed along with you No, I'm talking about that second time when you went how long did you stay in when you went it when you was a second time I probably stayed on two years two years. Yeah, I stayed on two years. I think I went to I went to that's the one I was asking you about.  I think dang Which one I went to then cuz I man, it was it was a little Was it Hutchins it wasn't the one that you already had been to was it I can't remember I can't man.  No, no, no, no, you know what It's something ease ease something ease him. No, not easy. I was on ease him though. That's my third time but now it's like it's up there What's it a one in Houston? I can't think of one. Oh, it's in Houston Yeah, I think it's outside of Houston, but it's the one that you go through when you leave from Houston It's like it's like granted though. It is. I think it's the West and the East I can't even with the and so when you end up going there are you used to it now you been doing time now How old are you at that time? Man, I probably would 20 No, because I say that 20 25 25 So then you you basically you stayed about 27. Yeah by 27 So you end up going back again.  But the streets be calling it girl.  I just slipped up. I slipped up.  I You know had a gun. I always had my like my house was a house like I had guns everywhere Like they only got them to there was in the in the program. It was more Yeah, they asked me to search the house that was so crazy long the law so so trash they did was so happy to have them two Pilsen and they were they was good. They had drank and everything in the refrigerator Peels in the draw. They didn't even look it. I didn't look at them. They just knew they had you cuz you didn't put you I like it's K sitting right. All I had to do walking. They just they knew they had you that was happy With them two and they asked me that man. We won't can we get a search one? I said, nah, I can't get right sir It ain't in my name. Yeah, and I See they they send you the how long did you have did they get his last time? 17 years 17 years two pistols and how long did you have to stay cuz that was the third time? Yeah, my third time. So yeah, they enhanced it. You know I'm saying so it Enhanced my choice. So I got 17 years. I did six on it. Did six on it came home. Yeah, how long you been home now? man, I've been home like Four years close to four years Proud of you brother. Yeah, Proud of you. Yeah, how was it like? Coming home and read Justin and you know cuz social media everything changed music changed all of that a lot It was amen. Amen. It was I was determined though I was already I had knew I was a boss for I left so that boss mentality never left me But I was determined it wasn't easy It wasn't easy, but I was determined and not a lot of people didn't a lot of people didn't believe that What I was saying because it was a lot of talk. So I just quit talking Yeah, because a lot of people Everybody knows somebody who's been to prison or is in prison and when you in prison they talk a lot of stuff They talk everything good. Yeah, so I found God.   That's right.   We can go right down with the story So, you know, I'm just saying it's a lot of dudes in the in prison man that you know I'm saying that need to stop and just be reality and stop feeling like I got a Tell people I change and just just do what you do man You ain't got any reason where man whatever and you using it for comfort But don't try to push that on your people out here and lie to your people manipulate your people Because you messing up for real niggas. They're really trying to change. Yeah, they're really on that You know, they come out and they're doing something different. So but amen It's it go both ways because he feedback be lying to What I wanted to ask you because I know earlier you you mentioned that when you went back to East, Texas You were all about rapping about East Texas and what you were doing down there and stuff like that And when you say that I think about please say y'all were trapping hustling doing all of that The only thing I could think about when you say in stuff like that is the Rico Look, I'm I'm the first one to really To like way then when in court, they were using my music then so they were music to convince Yeah, they were using my music then you can't say you were the first one First ones that that that really and I don't cuz I ain't know nobody else that they were using music What did they say to what song was it that they play? Oh, the man was going out of my show The police were going out of my show taking pictures But what song was it that they was most Deep in the game deep in the game deep in the game. Oh, you know, he was using song He was like man, uh, he was like, I know a lot of something the man got on the stands the police I know a lot of song he made. He's some good music. He said Hey, but but they not only did they use that they use my my Music as a game. You see I'm saying yeah, they What was the name of the game that they was trying to say David Street David Street You know I'm saying cuz they didn't know me by money Trump said that's how money Trump Yeah, you know I'm saying they didn't know who money all they knew with T money and like I say I switched it up to bigger bag Tim because I went from arrive with no money Trump and Donald Trump to fucked it up But there's another yeah, yeah, but but you but they knew you and they were trying to hold you they didn't know They knew I was David Street. They know You know I'm saying T money will but they didn't know who money Trump was so they seen me in the videos With all the gang members So they trying to yeah, they put net two and two together.   Hold on. I'm telling him keep his truck out my yard. That's how hot he was Damn, you know, I'm saying so he was in the video. Wow And just the rest of the David Street members So, you know, they try to use that as and David Street really is a family. Yeah, you know something But like I say you need people switch it up So y'all wasn't thinking about knowing that all this could be used against you at that time man We we just didn't care really we wasn't smart You see I'm saying you when you hungry and you wanted you you don't wait Like the smartest thing was to do was get the money first stack the bag up Make the music get all the way out the way of the streets But we wasn't making no money out music We was making money off the trap send the trap down and going to do show whatever we ain't give it in But the money we just want to let you know we hill we were making money but now The game so game so good to where you got the streaming service you got, you know, you ain't we ain't know None by no stream I'm coming so, you know, but so we just wanted to trap and rap But you said the game so good with the music the streaming and all that But then you still have some rappers out here still can't leave the street alone because they Making more money out there than they do with their music correct Because they really not making no money like they said not it looked good on the Internet You see I'm saying because if they really making money like that, you're gonna protect yourself You see I'm saying and you go in and if you really got and they really ain't got a lot of great advisors up over I'm using it take all that Because you know some dudes get caught so caught just be so street I'm gonna tell you like this right here, man. As you got to do they want to be a girl, right?   You got new cell phone iPhones, you know Six years a long stint, right when you come home. What was the biggest thing that stuck out to you? Like damn man, this is why oh Man the money, you know, I watched the money.  It's these labels. You see I'm saying so I'm knowing that You know saying like it's a money out here to be gotten it's a it's a money to be obtained You see I'm saying so that's that's what I see. I see the money. That's the that's the motivation What about what about let's go back to Davis Street for a second man because I was just down at this weekend and just I've been down there a few times Just the energy and that that little that when you turn it so you can go all the way down to where it did ends at The end down there like where were you at? Were you up the hill or where would you add on Davis all over Davis? I'm down here. I'm that's my that's my turf outlet like down here up the hill Really everywhere alone view, but that's my hood. That's your hood. That's my hood like I trapped in the hole That's the hole right there. Oh, yeah, I didn't trapped in there You know, I didn't trapped out I sold crack and ran from laws all through that where y'all was standing it I got caught by the law running from over there. Yeah, running around the block with blunts in my ear young 15 Yeah, that's just always your way you go you roll there. That's my neighborhood.   I seen on that that epic video And I just I commend you when I seen you pray and that's one of the main drivers It got you in that seat. Yeah, because I said that's real man Like I wish I had my granny, you know my grandma my family man and for y'all to pray like she did And for you to go I love that song too, man Just give me a understanding where you was that when you when you wrote it when you put out That was a few years back though, right? Yeah, so when you pinned that what what was what what inspired that? I Know I had to drop a song called it because you know how we had we had I had this in mind that I was gonna come Out with this I was gonna come out with the evolving politically inspired circumstances like I know I had to motivate the people I know I had to motivate You know saying I know it's more than just my people in my cities people all around the world is living just like long view They need to be motivated and inspired that we can go up and we can evolve to you know saying so I knew I had to drop it the song had to be epic and it just you know It was just time to do something epic Do you know, you know, you realize you captured a moment We're in time when you got your grandma there and she praying and and and you know, basically That's something that you always have with you I just I look at stuff like that and I respect on a whole nother level.  Just just like oh Last year lately. So you see where I was she? 91 you see you see where and and he got that word and I looked at that man. I was heavy We can always look back on that and see it and that's and that's the glue You know, it's the glue to my family or she been a real woman like, you know saying and really Putting a lot of seeds and us, you know So on there's like and and a praying woman, you know, you see that on the on the on the yeah I loved it, man.  So yeah, we ain't never got away from that once you raise up and tout up on it You know, that's hard man on the guard. It's real. Yeah. No one is something bigger than you man When I seen that man, like I said sent chills on me just to do the realness of it because I'm a country dude And when I've seen it put me some that's why I gotta take I why I try to keep on me You know saying yeah, I gotta give them like I can't give them too much of the flesh You see and you know, I put I put this shit on here No, but I gotta still take them to the roots or how you know, I'm saying what what East Texas really with really stand on No, I loved it man. Like I said the mic Check that you did on listening listening to the breed. I love that song too When did you do that one? I think just That one's been recent. Yeah, like like you had to get that mic check in D Everybody do it.  That's my nigga right there.  How did you get in Trilly Millie like even link up cuz this boy here a man He didn't put his hands on a lot of different things and people don't realize that he like a sleeping giant in the Longview area man. Hey man Trilly Millie. I can go all the way back when Trilly Millie was Let me thank his old name. See his old name was he said it on her didn't he? Damn, let me think Trilly Millie was Mastermind mastermind see we was making songs in Wow, he produced that whole Back in the trap by volume volume volume, okay by him to him. He gave me all instruments recorded everything He was already this one we would This was like 2010. Are you proud of him when you see him like doing what he doing with a past he and T with Mama Scott in him. Definitely. I support him.  Yeah, that's mama. That's my and that's what she is She a mama she a mama figure to a lot of those guys and just her energy even when we went down there for Fast-batch when they shut us down Man, she always so little so little she don't do number show love and and I be I always had to tell her I'm square could worry about them nigga, man. That's really she you know say she's getting it.  So wow, you know, I'm saying so I know I can recognize when a person is Good hearted. That's it. That's all that matter. That's real breath.  Oh Oh Probably boss of my city boss of my city boss of my city. That's all How was y'all when y'all did it? Man in the 20s Yeah, in the 20s man.  So that's a little bro. Yeah, yeah, that's hard, man That keep grinding man So so and I know you just did that one a little while back What what what inspired that with the hustle for show? Yeah, man, and I just want to take it to another level like the grind is everything the grinding is the grinding just Hustling the grind is working the grind real guy to just keep grinding like keep going like even telling myself You don't think I had to tell myself they're coming out of prison like hey, man, just keep grinding man Man, yeah, people ain't gonna people ain't gonna believe in your vision until they see it But just keep grinding they'll come along But when you know something to be true in your heart like like like I was telling you the other day the product or something You say I'm just talking to myself. You remember that and I said baby you I say you just talking to yourself I said a product or son thought to himself and in Luke chapter I think 15 and he said he thought to himself how many hide servants do my father have and then he got up and He say I'm gonna go to my father and when he was on the way his father seen him and put a ring on his finger Yeah, you see what I'm saying and then told him to kill a fatty calf You see what I'm saying like like it was a celebration for him coming home. Yeah, don't make me go there He's not the project. Oh, yeah, you know what I'm saying.  Come on man. It's me Yeah, yeah, yeah to the celebrate that's the celebration. They was talking about earlier when you say well I don't know what they doing is for because people want to see you win brother But you know what you know what I say right now about that Celebration one should have been the celebration of who I am now there it is So they celebrate it too early.  Yeah, I'm not home up here. That's real. That's real. I'm right with you To celebrate who I am now now that's real, but the celebration ain't and it's big now No, you see what I say people can't see but that's the way it be because God got something special in you Yeah, you see what I'm saying and a lot of time people not gonna be able to tap into that That fleshly thing that corner thing they can get that all day, but that thing in that heart It's hard for him to see it.  Yeah, but God picked David Yeah, you see what I'm saying because David was little and he didn't even look the part But Saul looked like he was a big guy, but but the people saw But God picked for the heart ain't going out David hard and his heart was big. That's it You see what I'm saying and you know what so many times I could have shrink my heart from all the times It got played on but I can't I continue to keep it big because I wasn't gonna let nobody change Who I am that's real person and so many people Turn it to whatever you call a slime or whatever. Yeah, because they didn't got cross.  She I got cross. I'm across another they see it cross me I'm across them but I never lit Niggas cuz niggas cross me to turn me into a Slime ball. Yeah, I'm saying yeah, that ain't me I don't knock what they do because I know it's a part of the streets I just know I just feel like if I'm a if I'm gonna be a real one out the real That's how I'm gonna stay. That's real. I just know how now. I know how to see it When I see it and cut it out off the real man What was the name of that song you know D done y'all in this new new project? How did you drop that David Street? You're talking about the Three side each side three side each side. Yes, sir. What uh, what? How did he end up reaching it even do that? Man, you know, it's a David Street album. I know I know it, but just this way you had to be on there He can't we talk all the time of course, but what he say we gonna put you on this project with me He's where he actually I got a song. I need your own You know, he's speak to the point. So and he and you know, I sent it. Yeah, yeah, yeah sent it and I jumped on it sent it back to him And it went for how hard to dog. I like that old man I listened to it this morning when I was walking walking in the morning I didn't know how I was gonna come on it because he went so hard and it's a bad dog. You know, I was like But you bad too. You can call you used to your mom But I like I gotta go I got I gotta go in He everyone or something exactly so how how what like like Andy did you ever see him? Like this dude came out when he came home. You know how many projects he put out, bro Yeah, he can't work at the different He's he's hungry man. He's been gone for a minute.  He love to rap. He love to make music He just do it in whatever guard allow it to do. That's what he on you proud of him for, you know I gotta be because what when he win I win that's real You see I'm saying so and I know regardless Just cuz he's a winner more than gotta give me nothing You see people like Greg Street, you see people like Mac 10 you see little kiki big pokey You see all these different people that's pow wow tapping in with our D man. How how big is that?  That's a dream come true Especially for him and people from the from the neighborhood.  Yeah, yeah, yeah Actually, I went we went to the show that night when I got down a and We I didn't make you a couple times few times sugar hand, but this is not he performing. I just wanted to let him know I was right out. I won't be on stage. I want to be right there front. I want to be right there I'm a fan man. So I want to show you I'm and you're rocking it. Oh go right with you. That's hard man. Love him to see him on Davis Street Like what did you you made over there? He kind of left early You you did you see him out there on Davis? I didn't get to see him You ain't get to see that would have been a but you can look at my video You know, it's a big big big salute to keep man for me man That's hard man to the hood and he been screaming and showing little man. That's amazing. That's very amazing man And you know that that I can't wait to that that video come out. They're gonna be hard That they go go hard. I seen it. I got that footage, man I and I got to get the song. I think I I've been jamming the album in a way So he didn't know I didn't know I knew his verse like that like really they like how you know the song I don't got to hear the song a little weird. I I'm on his album man Man, you love and and and them your guys man. He been inspired me though like people wouldn't know it like on his first album I D I dare is rage That first album right there like he inspired my music to be able to talk about something Wow Like you know saying because he was already telling stories. I just I just tell it in my way I just do it a little, you know, I'm the little bro.  Did you ever do time with how D? We cross-passed he came through East Ham while I was down and he starts shooting where he was over there. Yeah, so He I ain't get to see him or whatever. Yeah, he was Man, you know, but to see y'all come home man and to see y'all get it together and get it right Yeah, all y'all working together always bigger than music with us You know, I was bigger than music because we already know we got a big influence on the community We just be wanting to inspire people just to do do what you love man And get some get some paper off of and and probably listen to the music and get you know, jamming But Mike you might can get something out of it. Wow, you know, man. So man, how can top three artists of all time? dead or live Any John top three artists of all time Any John number one. I gotta go with Jay-Z Jay-Z I'll be jealous about that when they come down to P.  Now. Who's your number number the Jay-Z number two? Jay-Z number three. Jay Jay really I got to put him at it. I can't have no number Because they all number one to me. Okay. Who's your next one? I gotta go with Pimp C Man, that's the I'm gonna get mad. I Did I did the deep in the game way back the deep in the game came from Pimp C. I'm deep in the game Yeah, I'm late. I'm do pimpin and ain't nothing nobody's scary Yeah, I go back all the way to the pimp man I like I say my life been inspired by pimp for real like my my music probably been inspired by Fat pack, you know the saucy head, you know the But but pimp C inspired my life with a lot he said like, you know, if you niggas come together No, how much paper we can see, you know, I'm saying like and I'm big on it because niggas is so split apart and niggas is Instead of trying to top each other and and they don't know man Like it's so easy for everybody to get some money, man Together if I told a million people, man, we're gonna get a million in the gym Everybody gets some money But it's so many niggas that want to have it and hope that the next man don't get it Wow, man, you're a dope dude, man Like I said, I knew this was gonna be a nice interview for me just because you from East Texas and because I'll be you know I love my East Texas crew, man.  You know, I'm saying don't never forget that I'm saying I'm that nigga that can I know how to go out and get my food and cook it outside Yeah Although you haven't done it in years.    They look at follow me on Instagram bigger bag Tim bigger bag Tim on Facebook Bigger bag Tim on Twitter big. I'm everywhere.  Yeah, it ain't got nothing to do with the music It's just because of what you've been through and you still here. I think like that She know how I am. Am I like that? I'll be looking at the whole thing from a different angle niggas becoming telling me about the music first I'd be like, I don't care nothing about that. I care about you And everybody been calling me talking about doing it was just the first one. This is the hardest one to hear But I say this the hardest I'll be mellowed man. No, but it's gonna be many more to any time you're doing a project or if it's something that you're trying to lock Into just let me know man.   I like that. Oh, you're watch Yeah, go right there. You can hear Man, let's go boss.    They who like that nigga. They got it.   I'm sleepless. I'm up This is like a hard on your boy won't under this knee drip diamond till it like TLC treat the beans like a DLC Chopper died this to defense taking pictures like 9,000 wise no Michael White got a Swiss a house, and they like to spot got kush corn Poser agent for the old heads. They like the pie. I like to shop at the gallery in my band It's trying to win the ballerina.  I was dead with big I'm up on the summer skid on the big now. What's that? Big round air with them girls sit in my lap major set back for quick crack one horse on Seated the trap to the hard gone so the river poke like Facebook Man, no man. Thank you man so much man. I appreciate you coming on boss talk one-on-one man when a boss is talking man Man, hey man. It's been another great segment man That's what it's all about man. Big bag Tim came through and blessed our game man Boss talk one-on-one what a boss is talking and we're


Howdy, radiant church. I wanna say hi to those online. I wanna say hello, good morning to Portage and everybody at Richland. It's good to be together in the house of the Lord on Big Give weekend.  Hopefully, hopefully. I'll tell you what, when I see the video of like India and I see what's going on at the school of Spring Valley over in Parchment and the prayer center downtown, I'm just excited about all three of these endeavors and we will receive the Big Give offering at the end of the service this morning. But before we get there, I want to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Mark chapter two, Mark chapter two. And I have a message I want to bring this morning entitled In This House. Thought Pastor John did an incredible job last weekend. I watched a little bit of his message online. I just appreciate him so much. And I was amenning him all the way from Florida where I was for a couple of days. And don't worry, I wasn't outside absorbing any sunshine at all. It was not 80 degrees there. It was snowing and it was like negative 20. So it wasn't fun at all. But I was speaking at a missions organization there for a couple of days. And while I was there, I got an opportunity to kind of peek in and I just thought his message on grace and truth was just so appropriate and so timely. This morning though, this message is really built around this big give weekend. And so I want to begin reading in verse number one of Mark chapter two and we'll read the first 12 verses. And it says that when he, that's Jesus, returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at the home and many were gathered together so that there was no room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Now, some of the scribes who were sitting there questioned in their hearts, what does this man speak like this? He's blaspheming, who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately, Jesus perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves said to them, why do you question these things in your heart? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven or rise, take up your bed and walk. But that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose, immediately picked up his bed and he went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorifying God saying, we never saw anything like this. I love that last verse. We've never seen anything like this. How many know that Jesus has a way of just blowing people's paradigms? The gospels are not powerful because they just showed Jesus living like everybody else. They're powerful because Jesus brought heaven. He brought the fullness of who God the Father is into our experience and we see him heal, we see him save, we see him break bondages off of people's lives. Jesus is unlike anyone else. This weekend, I had planned on bringing the first message in a new series called God With Us. And we're gonna do that next weekend, especially as we launch into Advent Christmas season where we really focus on the incarnation of standing back. And I think we need to do that. We should never become familiar with the Christmas story. And I'm not talking about the Santa and Rudolph. I'm talking about the fact that God became a man in order to save humanity. And we're gonna look at that God With Us Emmanuel and we'll start with that next weekend. But this week, as I said, last weekend I was in Minnesota with Nathan Roosh and Jane and I went over there and spoke and ministered. She shared with some of the pastor's wives and I shared in their faith weekend. And then we came home for 12 hours and then I took off again for Florida and I went and spoke at One Hope, which is one of our missions partners, spoke to their global team. And when I was coming home, I started getting this sense that God wanted me to go in a different direction for this weekend. And so I kind of just plowed through that and then I asked Jane the other day, I said, if I go in this other direction, what do you think? And she said, I think you need to do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do. And what I sense the Holy Spirit was speaking to me was this, Leah, this weekend I want you to speak to the heart of radiant and not just the head. I want you to speak to the heart of who we are as a church. I want you to talk about the why behind the what. You know, oftentimes we can come into anything, whether it's a church, whether it's a situation, whether it's a business, whether it's a family, and you can get caught up with seeing the what, but you can fail to understand the why. And I think it's important as a leader, I think it's important for any of us that lead other people to constantly be bringing people back to the why. Because if you don't always understand the why, the what sometimes can get foggy. Especially in a big give weekend when we're gonna be taking a special offering and we're gonna be believing God for hundreds of thousands of dollars this weekend in the next couple of weeks as people give for all of these projects, India, Spring Valley Elementary School, and the prayer room in our radiant city center downtown. We can focus so much on the what that we miss out on the why. And this morning, I wanna bring this message entitled In This House. Because before we take the big give offering, I wanna talk to you just about the heart of who we are called to be as a church. See, in this story, I think it's so significant. In Mark chapter two, because I find in this story a blueprint of what God really wants his church to be about. How many know that Jesus and Matthew chapter 16 said that he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it? He didn't say he'd build my church. He didn't say he'd build your church. He said he'd build his church. See, if I build a church on my name, it can crumble. If I build a church on your name, it can crumble. But if we build our church on what God is looking for, if we build it in his name, the gates of hell can't prevail against it. It's an overcoming church. It's a victorious church. It's a church that sees and brings a move of God to wherever it goes. And in the story of how Jesus deals with the situation of this paralytic, I think we find a pattern for what God wants out of us. Because here's what I know, no matter what happens, anytime Jesus shows up into an environment, it becomes automatically inconvenient. Jesus is the ultimate disruptor. And so this morning, I wanna share with you five things, all of them under the banner of this house. So I'm gonna say, in this house, number one is this. In this house, as we look at the story, and as a church, in this house, Jesus is going to be the center of everything that we do. Jesus will be at the center of everything that we do. In this story, here's Jesus. He's been doing ministry from village to village, city to city, town to town. And everywhere that go, everywhere that Jesus and his disciples go, he messes whatever the devil has built up royally. The devil gets a stronghold of sickness and disease. Jesus comes in, he eradicates sickness, heals everybody that's there. Can you imagine Jesus walking into a hospital in Sidon or Tyre and he just walks into the ICU unit and he just goes boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Everybody get up and go home. I mean, that's crazy, right? And there are places where it says that Jesus went and he healed every single person. Only Jesus can do that. And everywhere that Jesus goes, he's drawing crowds. He's healing the sick. He's opening blinded eyes. He's feeding the hungry. He's preaching in a way that nobody else has ever heard. He's calling people to radical obedience. He's telling people to forsake everything and follow him. And instead of losing followers, he has no place to put them. And so Jesus comes home. I think it's interesting that Jesus even had a place that he called home. And it says that word began to spread that Jesus was in the house and it says that the crowds came and they filled the place, filled his house to where there was no more room in the house and people were even spilling out into the doorway. And at the center of everything that was happening is Jesus. He's preaching the word of God to them. By the time these four guys show up with their paralyzed friend carrying him in on the car, there's absolutely no room for them to get in. But as they look into the center of the house, they see Jesus at the middle of it all. And I think that that is a great pattern. As we become larger, as we proliferate and do a bunch of different programs and the different ideals, one of the things that we have endeavored and we commit ourselves to do is that no matter how, no matter what we do, no matter how we do it, no matter how large we become, we always want Jesus to be at the center of everything that we do. We want His presence. We want the presence of God. We want Jesus to feel very much at home. You know, when we were a small church just beginning in the Goliath community high school down the street, we met in the cafeteria. It was neither a cafeteria or an auditorium, but it was both kind of smashed together. And there were 50 of us in there. We didn't have video projection. We didn't have sound. We didn't even have air conditioning. We didn't have any of those things. But what we had was a expectation and a hunger to create an environment that Jesus was at the center of it. And we made a commitment then that no matter what we're going to do, we're gonna preach this. We're gonna preach this. Not gonna preach my opinions. I'm not gonna preach my feelings.  I'm going to preach the word of God because when I see Jesus at the center of it all, I'll tell you what kind of environments Jesus is attracted to. He's attracted to environments where people are hungry. Jesus is attracted to environments where he is honored and his presence is welcomed. And he is attracted to environments where his word is elevated. And you know what has happened in the church over the last several decades? I feel like there was a time when the church held the word of God in such high regard. It was like here, it's like this is God's word. And whatever it says, we are going to do it. We're going to follow it. We're going to obey it. And here's my opinions and here's my feelings and here's what culture says and here's consensus. And over time what has happened is God's word and our feelings, opinions and culture have leveled and even tilted this way to where we begin to put other things ahead of God's word. And we say, well, God, I love your word but as long as it agrees with me, as long as I can read it and understand it, as long as it makes sense, as long as the rest of culture checks the box and says, okay, we're okay with that, then God, your word will be brought up here. But if my feelings are different or if my experience is different or my philosophy is different or my friends and culture say something different, then it's going to be that over your word. Can I just tell you something that in this house we may not have a lot of other things that other places have, but the one thing that we will have as long as I have breath in my lungs and a Bible in my hand, is I'm going to teach from the word of God. We are going to be a word center church. We're going to elevate the presence of God and the word of God above everything else because listen, I'm a one trick pony. All I got is the Bible. If I can't preach the Bible, I need to go sell lumber and electrical supplies at Lowe's or something. And I'm really bad at that. And so I need job security. I'm going to preach the Bible. In this house, the presence of God is going to be welcomed and at the center of everything we do and the word of God is going to be at the center, so help me God because in this house, we're going to put Jesus at the highest place. Number two, in this house, it can't just be about us. In this house, it can't just be about us. Verse number two, when these four crazy friends brought their paralyzed, paralytic friend to where Jesus was, it says that there was no more room for them. Verse four says, and when they could not get near because of the crowd, how many know you need about four crazy friends in your life that are not willing to take no for an answer? They're going to do whatever it takes short of sin to get you back into the place that you need to be.  And when I read this story, here's what catches me is that the paralytic had no say in the matter. We don't even know that he wanted to go. These four friends are going to church today. And when they showed up, it says that there was no room. There was no room. People were spilling out into the doorways and they're carrying this full grown man, four of them. That's heavy. And they brought him there.  They could have said, well, we tried. We'll try a different time. We'll come back. They could have gotten really super spiritual about it and said, well, this must mean that it's not God's will. If God wanted you to be healed today, he would have, you know, we would have had, oh, angels would have parted the crowds and we would have walked right through the door, right up to Jesus. And you could have touched the hem of his garment and bam, and you could have been healed. But that's not what happened. So it just must not be the will of God. So let's just go home.  No, that's not what they did. They saw that they could not get in and they walked around to the side of the house and they began to climb up the side of the house with a full grown man on a cot. Do you know how much work that takes? I've never tried it, but I can only imagine. I tried to carry a piano up the stairs with John and Pastor Mike Polbin hanging one time and I thought I was gonna die. Steep staircase with a piano and I'm just like, don't let go, bro. Do not let go. I can't imagine carrying a man. I mean, who carries a ladder with you, by the way?    And he's like, huh? And all of a sudden sunlight breaks through the roof as these guys are not taking no for an answer. There's really four groups of people in this story. Number one, there's Jesus and he stands alone. Number two, there's the scribes. Those are the professional lawyers, theologians who know exactly how Jesus should do it. Let me put it this way. They know exactly how church should be. And then there's the multitudes who are there because they're just hungry to hear what Jesus has to say.  It can't just be about us. I wanna be your pastor for a moment. And I wanna speak to us about a family matter. Sometimes in families, things change. You know, all of us struggle with change and I get that. And so sometimes when change happens in our homes, we kind of process it. And I feel like this is one of those moments. I try not to do this very often, but I feel like I need to do that. Recently, we made some changes with our ushering. And I know that it has changed where everybody sits. It affects how everybody comes in. At both of our campuses, this has happened. And I know that anytime change happens, most people are really slow to adjust to it. And so so many people, by the way, the majority have just been so gracious, cooperating, saying, hey, we'll do whatever it takes. We appreciate that. And then several people have asked the question, hey, can you explain why? Or, you know, this isn't the same and we don't like this. And can you give us the why behind it? And I appreciate that. We have had, though, also some people who posted on social media. I'm never coming back to that church. We're gonna go find another church. We've had people swear at our ushers because that's what you do when you're a Christian. And we've had people get upset about that and just, and gripe and complain. And I wanna just take a moment, and I just wanna, first of all, just say, blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken. But I also wanna do this. I wanna tell you the why behind it because I take responsibility and say that I have not done a good enough job of communicating why we made that change. This is not a sudden change. We've been talking about it for a year because when we moved into the sanctuary years ago, we had about 200 in the service so anybody could sit where they wanted to.  But what has happened is over time, God has blessed us immensely. We've grown. I mean, in the last couple of years, we've grown two campuses and we've grown multiple services. And last year, so over 2,000 people received Christ. And I mean, it's just, it's good problems. It's growth problems. And over the last year, we've been like, we have to change the way that we usher. And let me tell you why.  When we're on the stage, we see what's going on in the back of the room. And what has happened is all of our services have grown to about 700, 800 people in a room that has 1,000 seats. But when everybody gets to sit where they want to with big gaps and margins or kind of spread out, what has happened is we've had several, several times, like four weeks ago, I saw a family of five came in and I don't know if they were new or what, but they came in and could not find five seats together. And so they left. And we've had groups of three and four come in and can't find seats together because there might be a seat here and it might be two here, but they couldn't be all together. And so they left. It's the same reason why years ago, we began to park people when you came into parking lots because we needed to maximize every parking spot. And we have made a decision. We want to optimize every seat that we have in the room. We want to make it number one so that when you worship, you're not being disrupted. And we want to make it when anybody comes to radiant church, no matter who they are, because Jesus is in the house. We want to make sure that they actually have a seat, that they can find a place to sit as they come in. They might come in late, they might come in the middle, they might come in in a group of five, six, seven or whatever. We want to make sure that we don't say no or that we don't non-verbally say no to anybody that everybody who comes hungry, harassed, hopeless and helpless can find what they're looking for when they come into the house. That's the why. And like I said, whenever Jesus is in the house, it becomes automatically inconvenient. This last week I was with Rob Hoskins from One Hope. I mentioned that and we were at dinner Tuesday night and I just said to him, he said, well, how are things going at church? I said, well, we're growing. I said, but you know, with growth comes growing pains. And he said, oh really? I said, well, we just changed some ushering. We've gotten some pretty harsh emails and some things from people who just aren't thrilled with it and they don't like, and he said, what's the problem? I said, well, they're basically being told where to sit. We're filling rows, our ushers are filling rows from the front to the back.  I said, that's right. And he goes, can I just tell you? He says, the church in China would just love to have chairs. Church in China has had 1,500 of their buildings this last year bulldozed by the government. They don't have buildings anymore. You know where they're meeting? They're meeting in apartment basements sitting on the floor, on buckets. You know, it all puts it in perspective. So here's what we're asking. We're just asking you, would you just have a little grace for us as a family? So over the next couple of weeks and probably next couple of months, we're gonna be figuring this thing out, tweaking it, making it better. We're not trying to be the Gestapo. I prayers what I can promise you. We are not waking up on Monday morning and coming in after church and going, wow, people were way too comfortable. How can we make this a lot more inconvenient for people? How can we do it? I mean, we need some negative emails. So here's what we'll do. We've been racking our brain, trying to figure out how can we do this and maximize every seat? How can we do this? And this is what other, this is we've studied, we've looked at other options. This is the best option. We're just asking for a little bit of grace over the next couple of weeks. Be nice to the ushers, be friendly. And you know what? If you need special circumstances, we've got special seating. If you need a seat next to you, by all means, if you need to save seats for some friends that are checking in their kids and are gonna join you a little bit later, that's fine. But we're just trying to make room because listen, church, it cannot just be all about us. We're not saved in followers of Jesus so that we are comfortable and so that we are convenience all the way to heaven. The goal of following Jesus is not to arrive safely at death and having never been inconvenienced.  And his attitude of generosity has got to be our attitude of generosity as well. It's not about living the American dream. It's about living the kingdom of gospel. The American dream makes much of me. The gospel makes much of him. And so number two, in this house, it's not going to be just about us. Number three, in this house, Jesus is looking for great faith. That's what he says. He says that Jesus saw their faith. Oh, I love that. He saw their faith. Because a lot of times when we talk about faith, we talk about beliefs. A lot of times when we talk about our faith, we talk about intellectual belief systems. But here's what I know, is that belief becomes faith at the point of action. What you really believe becomes demonstrable faith at the point of your action. And these guys crawled up on the roof and they didn't take no for an answer and they began to peel away the barriers. They began to take away the lid. Anything that was between them, any obstacle that was between their friend who was in need and Jesus who was in the house, they were willing to move and they put their faith into action.  Jesus couldn't say no if he wanted to. I love that. I would love it if our church was so packed out that all of a sudden in the middle of preaching, I look up and there's a sunroof because somebody is lowering somebody down into the front row here who's in desperate need of Jesus. Every kid in Kids Church right now wishes they could do that.  Little ninja ropes sliding down into church. We'd pack out Kids Church if we let them do that. Jesus saw that take place and he goes, woo, look at that faith. God wants us to be people of extraordinary, of extraordinary faith. Moving obstacles, making openings, doing whatever it takes so that those who are far away from Christ can be drawn close to Christ. What about us? Are we willing to do whatever it takes to make openings? Are we willing to do whatever it takes for people who are far away from Christ? You know in our county, Kalamazoo County, and if you take Kalamazoo and Calhoun and Alleghen and you put them all together, there are over 400,000 people that do not have a relationship with the living God. 400,000. Many of them have never even heard the gospel. They've been to church, but all they got was a vaccine of the gospel, a weakened form of the real thing that they've been inoculated so that if they ever get exposed to the real thing, it won't take. And Jesus has parked us right here, and we don't necessarily think of it in any terms, but when the Bible talks about a paralyzed person, it's talking about somebody who's been traumatized. The Bible will use the term cripple to talk about somebody who was born immobile, but this guy in a paralytic person is somebody who had something happen to them that changed their life and affected their walk. You know right now in our city, in our generation, our culture, we have entire generations of people who've been traumatized spiritually, traumatized in their families, traumatized and neglected and abandoned, traumatized next generation, Gen Z and even the millennial generation have been traumatized in so many different ways and they're looking for Jesus. We gotta be the type of people that have great faith that when Jesus looks at us, we're not just reciting the things that we believe, but our actions are actually executing what we believe because that's when Jesus came, that's what he was doing.  That's why the Big Give is so significant and it's so important, the projects that we're taking on. It's not just the projects as much as it is us putting our faith into action. It's why we're putting up a prayer room in downtown Kalamazoo. It's like, well, I've never heard of a church putting a prayer room in downtown Kalamazoo. Well, that's all right because I'm not looking for the results of every other church that's ever come along. If I wanted the results of every other church that came along, I'd just run the playbook of every other church that's ever come along, but I wanna see a move of God. I wanna see a generation impacted by the presence of God. I wanna see the word of God become dominant and I wanna see the number of disciples in this city in our region multiply. And here's what I know, if God's people will pray, if we will pray, God will respond. So let's do something radical that nobody else has done before so that we can get some results that nobody else has done before. Let's put our faith out there. Let's believe for God for something beyond status quo and mundane and comfortable. Let's not follow Jesus like fans. Let's follow Jesus like radical followers of Jesus who actually believe what the things in this book says. I don't wanna just know this stuff. I wanna live this stuff. I'm not satisfied to come into a room and talk about Jesus. I wanna meet with Jesus. If you're looking for a room where you can lay out, there are all kinds of rooms all over the city if you want to where they'll talk about Jesus and you can have a whole row to yourself. But if you wanna go to where Jesus is, it might be a little inconvenient. If we wanna bring people into proximity to Jesus, it's gonna be a little inconvenient. Inconvenience is an opportunity for us to rise up and say, God, I believe, therefore I'm gonna remove every barrier and every lid that separates my city, my generation, my family, my friends, my coworkers from him. I'm gonna be that crazy friend who does whatever it takes to lower them down into his presence. I'm gonna wave a hanky at myself this morning. In this house, number four, lives are gonna be changed. This man's life was never the same. Jesus says to him in verse nine, which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven or to say rise and take up your bed and walk. Live, his life has changed. How many who are listening to me right now here over in a portage would say, because I've encountered the love of God, my life is forever changed. Raise your hand. Look at that. Do you know what you are?   But do you know what I know? Is that there are still miracles that God wants to perform in people's lives. He's still in the miracle working business. He still is a healer. He still is a savior. He still is a life transformer. He still loves to put marriages back together that everybody say are hopeless. He loves to take nobodies and turn them into somebodies who tell everybody about somebody. He loves to turn your test into a testimony. In this house, I prophesied this morning we have only begun to see lives changed and transformed. Not because we're good enough but because he's more than enough. And here's what I know is God, listen, God is the only one that can forgive. I can't forgive your sins. Number two, I know that God is the only one that can heal. Jesus alone is the healer. I can pray for people but I can't heal any people. Only God can do that. But here's what I also know. Only you can care. God already does care. He's done everything that God's gonna do. He sent Jesus. And next week we're gonna dig down deep into what that looks like. Guys, it's blowing my mind. I've studied the scriptures. I've preached 24 Christmas messages, all different in 24 years. And I've thought I've taken every angle that I could possibly take. How many different ways can you tell the Christmas story? And as I begin to dig down deep into John chapter one that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, it's blowing my mind. God already has cared. God already has given. But you know what? God can't make you care. God can't make you give. Only you can do that. Allow yourself to care. Allow yourself to be moved. See, when Jesus saw the multitudes, he saw them different than his disciples did. In Matthew chapter nine, it says, when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. And he said to his disciples, he said, pray that the Lord of the harvest would raise up laborers because the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. He's saying this to his disciples. He's saying, guys, do you see these people? They're harassed. They're broken. Far away, they don't have any hope. That's why they're drawn to Jesus. And Jesus turns to his disciples, and his disciples have proven over and over again that when they saw crowds, it was like, great, can we never get a break? Oh, can we just have a little vacation, Jesus? We've got some red-hot questions. We'd like to ask you, Jesus, about the Old Testament and stuff. And it's like, I got to upgrade my Instagram. I got, come on, Jesus, we got a platform to build here. And Jesus says, no, do you see? Do you see the multitudes? These people are broken. He said, guys, pray. Pray that the Lord would raise up laborers. See, God cares, but he can't make you care.  God's done everything that only he can do. Now he's calling us, as his church, to do what only we can do, which is to live extravagant, generous, kind, in truth, but full of grace, lives. If we'll do that, lives will be changed. I'm telling the church, the best is still yet to come. God's just waiting for a people who will believe him for greater things than we've ever believed were possible to pray bigger, more audacious prayers than we've ever prayed. He's waiting for us to care more than we've ever cared before. If we'll do that, lives will be changed. And then number five, in this house, may the extraordinary become the ordinary. Ha! May the extraordinary, crazy, supernatural, over-the-top stuff become the ordinary.  So we have this radiant city center downtown that we're putting our prayer room in. We're trying to renovate it. One of the big costs was heating and cooling. We knew we had to buy three heating and cooling units, big commercial units, so that it's cool in the summer and hot in the winter. And we had an HVAC company that does all of our maintenance on all of our equipment, call us about two weeks ago and say, hey, we just renovated, put all new HVAC units into a bank, one of our customers, and then the bank's corporate offices decided to knock that building down, so they gave us the units back. They're only six months old, they're brand new. Would you guys like them? Listen, $75,000 worth of equipment, of HVAC units. Come on, Jesus. Extraordinary, extraordinary. We've never seen anything like this. You know why you can't think of what God can do? Because you've never seen it. It's always easy to look back and go, do you remember that time? That's called a testimony. I'm ready to take some of the biblical testimonies and turn them into our prophecies. Let's prophesy those things over our church. We've never seen anything like this before. Listen, I'm telling you, the best is still yet to come. The best is still yet to come. I want radiant church to be a place where God is very much at home, where we're living lives where it's not just about us, where Jesus sees amazing faith, where lives are changed, and the extraordinary becomes our ordinary. We do that, and I promise you this, in this house, Jesus will never cease to blow our minds. I wanna pray for us, and I'm gonna invite the ushers to come down forward into place at both of our campuses this morning. And I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna receive our Big Give offering. To remind you, it's going towards Spring Valley Elementary. It's going towards our prayer room in our radiant city center, and it's going towards building a school in India. We're believing for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's already starting to come in. And if you didn't come prepared to give today, you can give online. You can give right now. You can give over the next couple of weeks. And I don't want any single person to give because you feel pressured. I want you to give because God speaks to you. If right now you're just like, oh, I gotta give something, I'll just keep it. Because we get to do this. This is the greatest privilege of our lives. Do you know what Jesus said about giving? It is more blessed to give than it is to receive. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty blessed when I receive. One hope gave me a Michigan State Spartan football said, thank you for all that you do for one hope, signed Kirk Cousins. I was like, I like that, baby.  Can he be quarterback again for a little while? It was a blessing to receive that, but Jesus said, it's more blessed. Let me put it this way. It's blessed her to give because it changes us. Giving more than changes the circumstances you give into, it actually changes you. And positions you for greater blessing. So as you give today, just keep that in mind. And then we're gonna worship together as we close out. Lord, today as we give into this big of offering, Lord, we know that your hand is on it. Lord, unite our hearts today and in the future. We wanna be what you are part of. We wanna see Jesus high and lifted up. We wanna see our city, our region, our generation changed. We wanna follow you radically, Lord. Reckless, radical obedience. Thank you for the invitation that you give us. Christ be magnified, in Jesus' name. Amen.


The United Nations says around 400,000 people need support or protection after fleeing a volcano eruption and a wave of aftershocks in the eastern democratic republic of Congo. At least 31 people died when Mount Nyiragongo sent a wall of lava spreading towards the city of Goma on Saturday destroying 3,000 homes along the way and cutting a major road used to bring aid to the strife torn zone. The lava starts just short of the city limits but thousands more people fled early on Thursday when the government warned that the volcano, one of the walls, most active could erupt again. Many escaped to Sakei, a town 13 miles north west of Goma that is prone to cholera outbreaks. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Hello everyone, I would like to welcome you to this 2021 Friends of IHS Gala.  Let me start by thanking our supporters for this event. The Simons Foundation, the Institute's key sponsor, BNP Paribas, or Premier Sponsor, or Gala shares Vincent de la Pietra and Barbara Amundsen, I would also like to thank David and Florence Foucon. Special thanks also goes out to Benjamin Servonnet and Kavita Shah, as well as our sponsors, DLA Piper, NG, Ardion and Facebook. Thank you to the Friends of IHS, our partner institution in the U.S., for organizing this event and for supporting the unique model of our research institute. We are here today to address the underrepresentation of women in fundamental science. This is a crucial issue for all of us. As long as women remain a minority in mathematics and physics, we miss out on half of our intellect and knowledge in these domains. In September, we have the pleasure of welcoming Laure-Saint-Rémond, the first female permanent professor at IHS ever. She is an extraordinary mathematician and I'm delighted that she joined the institute. But it's also a little bit bittersweet to see that it took us so long. Tonight, it's an occasion for us to reflect on what can be done to improve the situation. In fact, IHS has organized three events dedicated to that topic. In September, we hosted an event with Martin Yotto, founder and president of the Women Initiative Foundation, who helped us identify the lessons that could be learned from businesses who support women. In early October, we hosted a panel discussion promoting women in mathematics with experts from the Association of Women in Mathematics and European Women in Mathematics. Tonight, we intend to celebrate women at IHS, but more generally women in science, tech, engineering and finance, all domains which remain male-dominated. Through this series of events, we intend to implement actions which will foster a better representation of women at the institute. Therefore, all fans raised today will go toward increasing inclusion and gender diversity at IHS. We thank you in advance for your support. And since I mentioned Laura Saint-Raymond, you may be eager to know a bit more about her work. She specializes in partial differential equations. Her contributions are very important and profound. Alongside some of her prominent colleagues, Laura has made fundamental contributions to one of the mathematical problems proposed by David Ilbert, which has not yet been solved. The following video will tell you more about it.


Abstract towels are unique in their fiber structure and usage compared to other textiles. They can be used for up to six months before they begin to show signs of odor and dullness. During this period, biofilm formation occurs on the towels, which is composed of polysaccharides, proteins, nucleic acids, and viable counts. These changes are associated with the towels dullness and odor intensity. Additionally, certain types of bacteria have been found to be more prevalent on these towels than on human skin or clothing. This suggests that specific bacterial species may be adapted to the towel fiber environment and contribute to the development of biofilms. This article was authored by Haroro Kato, Nejiza Okino, Hiroki Kijitori, and others.