May I now turn to Mr. Lin Zhao, the Secretary-General of ITU, and at the heart of this noble effort of the Broadband Commission. It's your floor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, President, for your very kind words. Mr. President, also Mr. Carlos Lin, my dear colleague, Madam Elena Bukova, dear commissioners, your colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Let me offer you a very warm welcome to this Yalla Club, and a thanks to each and every one of you for joining us here today. On behalf of us all, I would especially like to welcome the new commissioners here today, bringing all their ideas, insights, resources, and energy to the cause of Broadband for sustainable development. By the word new, I mean those who joined us for the first time this year, and for those who started to join us for the first time at the beginning of this year, because this year we had our spring session in Dubai, and some of new commissioners are joining us, and some other new commissioners could not join us at Dubai, but join us for the first time, the real first time here. So I would, President, I would like to take this moment just to introduce these new commissioners to our co-chairmen. Let me start from this side. I think that Rajiv Suri from, CEO from Nokia, and Mr. Salim Ruiz, the governor of Saudi telecom authority agencies. And then we have also Rubai Pierce, the CEO of Imazet, and further down I think that we have Madame Catty Nivella, Nivelli, the undersecretary of State Department of the United States. And further down, let me see who are new, completely new to us. I think that then we come to, I think that Mr. Masui from UAE, the director general of also regular agencies. And then we have Madame Anusha Rakhman Khan, the minister from Pakistani administrations. I think that we also have Mr. Kharia from OECD. That is the first time that I saw you at our meeting. Of course you are not new to us, you are already commissioners. And we have also a minister from Azerbaijan, Mr. Ramin Gurazeda. I think that we have also Mats, the GSMA director general, who joined us the first time this year. And Skut, the CEO of ZAN, who joined us. But they are already there at our Dubai meetings. And also, I think that we have Jane Gurvan from Intel, who replaced our friend who retired now. I think that then it's John Yves Chatelier, the CEO of Wemblecombe. And of course, I think that my Spanish vice-minister has already appeared before, so I don't need to. Otherwise, if I miss anybody, please raise your hand. But anyhow, these are new commissioners who joined us starting from the beginning of this year. So welcome you all. The Dubai meeting was one of our most productive and engaged meetings to date. And I would like to take this opportunity once again to thank Sunny Vaki and the GMS Foundation for their excellent welcome and all the work they put into it. The meeting resulted in a number of innovative ideas and outputs, including a proposal for the commission to develop national digit score cards. For recent months due to their changes, several commissioners have retired from their post or changed their positions. Therefore, and very regrettably, they are no longer with us, including Hans Weisbeck from Edexon and Gordon Grealish from Intel. We thank them for their invaluable and lasting contribution to the work of this commission. Ladies and gentlemen, I also wish to thank you for your very active participation in preparing this year's state of broadband report. I understand that it was benefited from many inputs and a large number of you took the time to review and comment on the draft report. I would really like to thank all of you personally. It is your energy and your effort which has resulted in such a comprehensive set of perspectives and insights into the state of broadband globally, which makes for such interesting reading. As part of the preparations for this year's state of broadband report, I'm pleased to report ITU has carried out the final evaluation for the commission's targets. We estimate that around half of the commission's targets were achieved by the end of 2015. There has been a significant increase in the number of countries with national broadband plan, that is targeted number one, over the lifetime of the commission. Although growth in this number of countries has stabilized recently, today over three-quarters of all countries have some form of national broadband plan or ICT strategy, up from just over 100 in 2010, actually in 2010. We are now seeing the next evolution of NBGP, national broadband plans, with a growing number of countries extending their national broadband plans to take into privacy, confidentiality, and ownership of data, all the Internet of Things, which with IoT rule maps. During target two, the availability, we have seen mixed progress. Some 83 developing countries have achieved the broadband commission's availability target of offering basic fixed broadband services at under 5% of monthly GNI per capita, but only five LDCs out of 48 have achieved this target. The target number three for household Internet access was achieved by the end of 2015. With 41% of household connected globally against the target of 40%, so we had real good progress. Target number four, for individual Internet access, however, was not achieved by the end of 2015. Although the target of 15% penetration in LDCs should be achieved by the end of this year. Finally, for the target for gender equality in access to broadband target five, we have actually seen some indication that the digital gender divide might be growing, not reducing. My colleague Irina already mentioned, given everything we know about the importance of female access and what it means for the next generation, this is the most regrettable. And I would like to urge you to adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards gender-digital divides. In light of this, I'm particularly looking forward to the outcomes of the working group on the digital gender divide, and we had a very good meeting yesterday. We will receive some briefings on the result. Distinguished commissioners, empowering people through broadband can enable them to make the most of their opportunities and offers answers to some of today's most pressing programs, including broader programs of migration, social conflict and climate change, but also changing mindsets and transforming attitude, especially to women. However, as our most recent state of broadband report of the commission's connectivity targets makes clear, there are considerable challenges involved in connecting people with broadband. As I mentioned, the target for household in developing countries with access to the Internet was achieved this year, actually, last year, 2015, household Internet penetration for developing countries increased from 37.6% in 2015 when we achieved our goals, now again, up to 41.1% in 2016. And yet, it is unclear that target 1.1 will be achieved by 2020. That globally, 55% of households should have access to the Internet. So we just mentioned this 41% to move to 55% in a couple of years, that is really a challenge. In Dubai, we discussed the possibility of renewing packets, which commissioners were broadly enthusiastic about. So we needed reasonable targets to achieve our own goals on what is feasible to achieve by 2020 or 2021. And how can we meet these targets? According to the ITU Connect Target 1.2 target, 60% of the global population should be using the Internet by 2020. Really equivalent to bringing another 1.5 billion people online. But what are the challenges involving accomplishing this? Let's try our best. We still have some time, though not very much. We still have opportunities to reach those goals by 2020. I would be very pleased if we could have some discussions on this point during this meeting. In this one, I would like to advise you that ITU would like to work with members and partners within the UN as well as with anyone who could help us to build a coalition around SG-9 to ensure that broadband is at the forefront of people's minds when they discuss infrastructure and innovation. From these fundamental efforts, we can target SDGs where broadband can have a major and immediate impact, such as SDGs 3, 4 on health and education, or longer term, positively impact such as SDGs 11 and 13 on smart cities and climate actions. I will have further discussions with you and I count on your support. Ladies and gentlemen, turning to today's agenda, the first session this morning, building on broadband to leave no one behind, moderated by Matt Greener, Director-General of GSMA. We have covered the vital role of broadband for achieving the sustainable development goals in health and education, as well as some of the important development going on right now at the UN level. The second session this morning, investing US 450 billion in broadband to connect 1.5 billion people by 2020, will be chaired by Dennis Obien of DigiCell, who generously hosted our 2014 spring session, and we continue their conversations, the commissions began at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. And for this, you know, yesterday, we had some kind of discussions, and this morning was also with Carlos, and Carlos has some comments that these 450 million, where to find these 450 million, and he believed that private sector will invest a lot, and even more than this amount we just talked about. I think that he will give us his ideas later. We will also be hearing from the working group of the commissions, with an update on their progress.


See, I'm under the arms, don't underestimate how powerful this can be. Remember yesterday we were using referee's position and we were just kind of behind them and just pulling and stretching them out right here. That might not score every time, but what it's going to do is it's going to threaten him. Any time I can threaten my opponent in a position, that's a score for me, okay? Because they're thinking about what I'm doing and not what they're doing. Stay under the elbow.


Life is filled with lessons, we learn some as kids and teenagers, others we learn when we are all grown, sometimes. This lessons come quickly, and at other times we learn them the hard way, perhaps after going through a rough patch. What we need to understand is that learning these things will help us leave a much more productive life. These lessons are there to improve the quality of our lives, however, sometimes the timing at which we learn these things can go a long way in affecting the outcome of our lives. For instance, there are specific lessons that we ought to learn when we are young, if we want to enjoy the best of our lives when we are old and grey. Anyway, in this video, I will share with you 13 lessons you have to learn before age 30. If you are new here, consider subscribing so you don't miss out on exciting videos like this. 1. Nobody will help you. You are your responsibility. No one else will take up the responsibility of your life but you. Yes, when you were younger, your parents did almost everything for you, including taking specific initiatives and taking some actions. Now you are older. Who's going to do that for you? Dennis Waitley, an American motivational speaker, writer and consultant, once said, A sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the realization that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences. You are responsible for your life and your ultimate success depends on the choices you make. For instance, if you want to become the most successful accountant in the world, then you have to take steps to achieve that dream because no one else will do that for you.  2. All the opportunities for growth are beyond your comfort zone. The moment you get stuck in routines, life has become comfortable for you. We ignore opportunities in view. Hence, you have to challenge yourself if you genuinely want to succeed. Stepping out of your comfort zone is the only way you can grow and move forward. And when you are young, it becomes easy to spot opportunities and succeed eventually. Of course, it's going to be a lonely road because most people prefer to stay where they are comfortable. But always remember, that's the only place that opportunities lie. Helen Keller, an American author, political activist, and lecturer once said, Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. To achieve anything in life, you have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone and take risks. Calculated risks. 3. The only person you compete with is yourself. Nobody cares about how you look, what you wear, what you do, and how you do them. What you are friends with, the kind of food you eat, etc.  The earlier you understand this, the better it is for you to live a real life where you are concerned about nothing else but self-development and improvement. Your only competition is you. Anist Hemingway, an American journalist, novelist and sportsman, said There is nothing notable in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility is being superior to your former self. 4. You can't be friends with everyone, it's time to choose your friends. The people you choose as friends matter a lot. They determine whether you will be successful or not. If you hang around successful people, chances that you will become successful is high because they'll motivate and challenge you to push for success as well. Ben Kusnocha, a tech entrepreneur and author, who worked closely with Reed Huffman, founder of LinkedIn for several years, said that the most essential lesson Huffman taught him was that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time around. You really are the company you keep. Start today. Keep the right kind of people around you and be friends with those who inspire you to be better. 5.  Good health is an invaluable treasure, but most young people often waste before they realize its importance. In our 20s, when we are still very much active and vibrant, we tend to take good health for granted. After all, we think we have the strength to do anything we like, such as go three days without having a proper night rest because we probably had to go clubbing or partying all weekend long, drink and smoke. Yet, we don't pay attention to healthy living habits, like exercising and eating healthy meals. So, we don't pay attention to our good health until the situation forces us to do so, such as cancer, stroke, diabetes, bone density and the likes. 6. Saving money now will earn you financial freedom. We all desire to be wealthy, but we can only achieve this by attaining financial freedom. To make this happen, however, you need to learn how to save so that you can invest. When you don't save, you can't invest. And without this, you can't generate more money for yourself. The best way to develop your savings habit is to ensure that a certain percentage of your monthly income goes into different account tax savings. You can also set up another account tax emergency funds, which should be a sum of 6 months of your salary, so you don't have to resort to using credit if you lose your job or become seriously ill. 7. Failure is part of life's journey. Shakiru Khan said, Success and failure are both part of life. Both are not permanent. Do you know what? Failure is part of the journey to learn. The key to growing and finding success is learning from those mistakes and failures. So, it's okay to fail as long as you're learning and growing. Instead of letting failure hold you back. 8. You can't please everyone. Yes, we all want to feel respected and valued. But that shouldn't be done at the expense of our integrity and happiness. Trying to please everyone is a decision that will always leave us feeling this way. Bill Cosby said, I don't know the secret to success, but the secret to failure is trying to please everyone. You can't succeed if you keep seeking validation from people every time. You see, the truth is that it won't make you feel good about yourself to ask people's opinion on every decision you want to make. So, stick to your values and stay true to what you believe. People will respect you for that, rather than trying to please everyone. 9. You won't always get what you want. No matter how carefully you make plans or how hard you work, sometimes things just won't work out the way you want them to. And that's okay. Yes, we always want to stay positive. We have expectations and predetermined vision of what our ideal life should look like. But reality doesn't ever walk on the path of ideality. You might change your mind. Your dreams may fail, etc. Don't feel so bad about it. Instead, understand that it's all part of life. Just move on. 10. You have to create an emergency fund. It is expected that you should have gotten an emergency account in your 20s. Still, if you haven't, you should consider getting one. Because an emergency account, as the name sounds, is something that you can fall back on quickly, in the case of an emergency. Experts advise keeping at least 3-6 months of expenses in a high-interest savings account. 11. Love is more of a decision than a feeling. Love is beyond the first emotions we feel towards a person. It's a decision we have to make because relationships can be hard work. However, it is up to us to choose how we want to act, think, and speak with our partner. We have to decide to let go of anger, to forgive, respect, and be faithful towards each other. 12. You can't continue enduring bad relationships. Staying in bad relationships for too long can affect you in more ways than you think. For instance, it can ruin your health by causing depression. You see, you need to learn how to love yourself, as well as nurture your body. If your relationship isn't exactly going the way you'd like, then you might want to consider stepping out instead of enduring that lousy relationship. 13. Be proactive. One of the best lessons anyone can learn from a young age is how to be proactive about life. You see, the secret to getting ahead is taking the decision when no one else is ready to do so. Brian Rogers Loup said that, Do what to they others wouldn't do. So tomorrow, you can do what others can't. Nothing happens just like that. Every circumstance is a consequence of an action or two. Successful people understand this and become proactive about living. George Bennett Shaw said, The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them. Thank you very much for watching our videos. If you like this video, watch more videos in our channel and subscribe. We love you.


I'm Admiral Mark Ferguson, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa. I'm here in Rota, Spain, welcoming the USS Carney. She joins the porter, the Donald Cook and the Ross in providing ballistic missile defense for all of Europe. Our goal is simple, to sustain and defend a Europe that's whole, free and at peace. And we stand proud with our allies in Europe in meeting this mission. Welcome to the Carney and all her families. Welcome to Europe.


Statistics and Excel correlation large data sets focus on Z-score relationship. Got data? Let's get stuck into it with statistics and Excel. First, a word from our sponsor. Yeah, actually we're sponsoring ourselves on this one because apparently the merchandisers, they don't want to be seen with us.  Like our crunching numbers is my cardio product line. Now, I'm not saying that subscribing to this channel, crunching numbers with us, will make you thin, fit and healthy or anything. However, it does seem like it worked for her, just saying. So, subscribe, hit the bell thing and buy some merchandise so you can make the world a better place by sharing your accounting instruction exercise routine. If you would like a commercial free experience, consider subscribing to our website at accountinginstruction.com or accountinginstruction.thinkific.com. You're not required to but if you have access to OneNote, we're in the icon. Left hand side OneNote presentation 1750 correlation large data set focus on Z-score relationship tab. We're also uploading transcripts to OneNote so you can go to the View tab, Immersive Reader Tool, change the language if you so choose. Be able to either read or listen to the transcript in multiple languages using the timestamps to tie in to the video presentations. OneNote desktop version here thinking about correlation, having different data sets to see if there's a mathematical relation or correlation between them. In other words, are the data dots and the different data sets moving together in some way, shape or form. Now, if there is a mathematical relation or correlation between the different data sets, the next logical question would be, is there a cause and effect relationship cause in the correlation or mathematical relation between the different data sets? And if there is a cause and effect relationship between the different data sets, the next logical question would be, what's the causal factor that's causing the cause and effect relationship which is causing the correlation or mathematical relation between the different data sets? So, in prior presentations, we thought about perfect correlations in a positive direction as well as perfect negative correlations, not things that we see oftentimes in practice because we're usually looking at trends with the correlation. We also noted that correlation like any other statistic is something that we want to have as one type of tool when we look at our data, be able to look at the data in other words from different angles as well. This time, we're going to have some data sets that are going to be a little bit longer and we'll do some added focus in on the Z score relationship, which is going to be a primary component of the calculation of correlation. Here's going to be our data sets, the height measured in inches and weight measured in pounds. Now, our data set of course here, we didn't include the entire data set. If you want to look at it in Excel, we'll have the entire data set there, but it's got more data in it than we have seen in some of our prior presentations. Noting that when we first look at these, of course, like with any data set, we might first come up with our assumptions as to what might be the case. So if I'm looking at height and weight, then I might say, well, these have to do with nature, for example, so I think maybe there's a bell curve related to these items. And I also might then think, well, if these things might be correlated, because of course I would think that the independent factor, the driving factor, would be the height, which might cause the weight to be higher, because if you're taller than you would have more weight, might be some assumptions that you might make some theories about the data going into it. So in any case, there's going to, then we're going to have our data on the right-hand side. Now first, let's do a histogram. So if I did a histogram of the heights, just selecting the heights and entering a graph and Excel a histogram, then we can see that in the buckets in the middle, 68 to 68.33, 68.1 to 68.33 seems to be the middle point. It seems to taper off looking very bell shaped as we would kind of expect with something that's nature related, measuring things like lengths of animals or humans or heights or weights and that kind of thing. If we did the same thing for the weights, we have a similar result in that we have different buckets, of course, down here corresponding to the weights, but it kind of looks like a bell type curve, which is what we might expect when dealing with weights. These being measured, of course, independent, noting that as we've seen in the past, the fact that they both look like a bell curve doesn't necessarily mean that there's a correlation between them. So we've seen examples in the past where our data sets seem to be going towards more like a uniform distribution versus a bell curve distribution and so on. And it doesn't necessarily mean, no matter what the distributions are, that they're going to be correlated, but it might give us some other insights about the data which might further strengthen our hypotheses as to whether they be correlated or not. So then if we go on over and say, let's do our calculations for the correlation, which of course looks like this, we're going to take each of our data points minus the mean divided by the standard deviation, multiply together, sum them up, divided by n minus 1. Now with this data set doing this manually is very tedious because we have quite long data sets here. But with Excel, not too bad, and we can also use the tool which we'll do in a second here to analyze this more quickly with the Excel's data analysis tool. So if we take the mean of the two, this is just simply taking the average of this data set, the heights, and then the weights data set. We get these two numbers, 67.99 for the height and 127.08 pounds for the weight. The standard deviation, if I take just simply these two data sets and take the standard deviation of a sample for them, I get the 1.9, the 11.66, this measuring the spread. Now just looking at those data points, it's not going to really help me most likely to see if there's a correlation between them. But that'll help us with our correlation calculation, obviously. So here's our average calculation. Here's our standard deviation calculation in Excel. So then I'm just going to map out our data sets. Here's the height, and we can just take each of these data points and calculate the z score now. So this is the top part of our formula. We're going to take each point starting with 65.78 minus the mean 67.99 divided by the standard d 1.9. That's going to give us the 1.16 negative about. We can do this all the way down. The next data point would of course be 71.52 minus the mean of 67.99 divided by the standard d 1.9. And that's going to give us 1.85 about. We can do that all the way down. We can do that all day, but we don't have to do it all day because we did it in Excel, which means it took a very small part of the day, which is nice. That's what Excel is for. That's what it does for us here. So then we can do that with the weight as well. We can say, okay, here's the data point, 1.12.99, calculate the z, subtracting minus the middle point, 127.08, or the mean or average in other words, and divide it by the standard d, which is the 11.66 to see what it will be. We get the 1.21. We can do that all the way down, of course. Let's do one more for the fun of it because I'm having a good time with this. 136.49 minus the mean, 127.08, divided by the standard d, 11.66. And that's going to give us the .81 about. And we do that all the way down. Once again, we let Excel do it all the way down. Otherwise, we would go crazy as people must have done before Excel. Everybody before Excel must have been crazy. They're all crazy people. So if we multiply these together, we get 1.4. And then if we multiply these together, the z's are 1.85 times .81. That's going to give us the 1.49. So now we're just multiplying together each of them, the two z's, and that'll give us all the z's. Now we just sum that up and it gives us the numerator of our calculation for the correlation. Let's do that over here. We're just going to sum up this outer column that comes out to 12,570.96. The denominator is going to be n minus 1. Now this is how many rows were in this data set. So that's telling you how long the data set was. It's 25,000 points on the data set, which for us is a lot. That's more than we've seen before. And then we're going to subtract 1 from it, which seems awfully insignificant, but it's not because it's our correlation calculation. That gives us the 24,999. And then we have the numerator and the denominator. If we divide the two out like we're supposed to do when you have the numerator and denominator, you take the top 1,1,2,570.96 and divide it by the bottom one, the denominator, 24,999. And that gives you the .5 correlation. So we have a correlation. Of course, it's not a perfect correlation, but we've got the .5 correlation. Now we can double check that in Excel by going to our data tab, going into our analysis, using the data analysis. If you didn't have that in Excel, which it's not on by default, you can turn it on by going to the options. We show you how to do that in the Excel practice problem. But then you can just click on the correlation. You can then go to this correlation, select your data ranges, which would be the two data sets that we looked at for the weight and height. They have to be together, like this, side by side in order to select them here. So you just pick up the ranges, put it somewhere on the output on where you want it to go, and it'll spit out the answer. So you've got the height and the weight, .5. So it's not a dynamic calculation. It doesn't move when the data set changes, but .5029 gives us your double check or a preliminary look at your data. All right, let's do a little bit more analysis on... The other thing we could do is you could use our data analysis and you could use the descriptive statistics, which will spit out the descriptive statistics as well. So you'd put in the range again, and then I selected the summary statistics and the confidence levels, and it'll spit out your statistics like this. So for our two data sets, we have the height and the weight. Now again here, these are not dynamic, meaning they're not formulas. They will not change as you change the data. But this is a great tool if you have your data and you want to give a preliminary analysis and let it just spit out some information about it, which might help you to then do whatever you want to do, like construct your workbook or use it as a double check to check that your calculations are correct in here. So it gives you the mean, the standard error, the median, the mode, the standard deviation sample variance, kurtosis skewness range, minimum maximum sum count, there's that 25,000 again, and the confidence level. All right, let's now focus a little bit more on the Z scores again. So here's our data sets again. We have the height and the weight, and we will note that when we think about the calculation for the Zs for the correlation, let's go back over here and look at it. Where did it go? Donde. These two are the Z scores. So really we're comparing the Z scores. That's the key component that helps us to compare the data sets and do this correlation calculation. So just to get more of an intuitive sense on what's going on, let's kind of focus in on those Z scores a bit more. So I'm going to say, all right, here we've got the mean again. Here's our mean, our standard deviation of our data sets. And now I'm actually going to plot this out because I think it's easier to kind of focus in on the Z scores when we have the perfect bell curved shape. So we noted that both the height and the weight had a bell type shape. So now I'm going to make a curve, which will be the perfect curve that will simulate the bell shape. We talked about this in prior presentations and then we'll focus in on the Z scores from those. Now remember, you don't need to have a bell shape kind of set of data in order to do the correlation calculation. Not all data sets are going to conform to a bell curve and things that aren't a bell curve could still have a correlation between them. But we noted that these two happen to have a bell curve and I think the actual curve will help us to focus in on the Z scores. So to calculate the bell, the curve, what I'm going to do is say we're going to take it for standard deviations and plot this out. So we'll have the X or the low and the high for standard deviations. So what does that mean? That means on the low H, we're going to say that the standard deviation was 1.9 times 4 and that's going to get us up to 7.6. I'm going to add that to or subtract it to to get the lower, the 67.99. So we're going to start at the low point at 60.39. And then on the high point, I'm going to say it's going to be 1.9 times 4 plus the middle point, 67.99. So 70.6. So when I look at the height, I'm not going to go down to 0 inches up to like a thousand inches. That would be, you know, too much, too much because all of the data is going to be between for the most part, not all of it, but for practical purposes, all of it is going to be between these two points. And then here, let's do the same here. The standard deviation is 11.66 times 4 minus the middle point 127.08. That gives us the low point, negative, and you're not going to have negative weights, but we might start... Well, no, it's not negative. It's not negative. It's going to be the 80 is the low point. And then the high point, we're going to say it's negative the way I calculated it, but it's not negative because it's going to be that minus the standard deviation times 4. Okay, so then let's do it. The other 11.66 times 4 and then plus the 127.08 and that's going to give us the 173 on the upper point for the weight in pounds. All right, so if we plot out the bell curve, which we focused on in a different section, but we'll plot that out here, so we'll do it. You've got each data point and then the bell curve is going to be the norm.dist function where we take the x, which is this, comma, the standard deviation for the height is that and then the... Is it going to be cumulative or not? It's not going to be cumulative for this calculation and that'll give us, for each height that we picked from 60, I started at 60, the low point, up to 76, I went to, up to 76, it gives us our percentage, the percent likelihood that the data will be there. And so there we have it and then we can calculate the z. So the z scores then, same kind of calculation for the z score, I'm going to take each point, in this case the 60, 60 minus the middle point, which is going to be the 60.39 divided by the standard... Sorry, that's not the middle. Let me do that again. 60 minus the middle point, which is 67.99, divided by the standard deviation, 1.9 means that it's over four standard deviations away, which makes sense because four standard deviations away, as we just calculated, would be the 60.39 and we're at 60, so we're over four standard deviations away. That's what the z score is telling us. And we can do that same calculation for the z score all the way down. It's going to be in order and it flips to be positive at the mean. So an exact zero would be at 67.99, so we don't have 0.99 here, but it's close to zero right there, right? So that's going to be that one and then we can do the same thing for the weight where we take each point and we calculate the norm dot dist, this should be having an in front of it, norm dot dist. And that's going to be the X 79, the mean which is going to be the mean of this data set 127.08 and then it's going to be and then the standard deviation is going to be the 11.66 and then it's not cumulative. And then we can calculate the z scores in the same fashion. Do that all the way down z scores would be this one of course around four away because we're looking at that top one which is 79 minus the 127 127.08 divided by the standard deviation of 11.66 gives us four standard deviations away over that because we went to 79. So there we have it and we can do that all the way down. Those are going to be our z scores. Now of course when I look at the data sets here I can't really compare the height versus the weight because they're different units. What we can compare then is I can see if there's a relationship by looking through the z scores and see if there's a relationship as we compare the z scores. So let's do that over here. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my data I'm going to take the one that is going to be this one first with the weights because there's more data points here and so I'm going to put that one on the left this time and then I'm going to put the heights on the right so here's the data set my headers didn't pull over for some reason but here's my height data sets with the 60 and and so on I'm sorry this is still the weight so I'm copying this over but I'm just putting the weight first so this is the same thing as the weight here with the weight the normal distribution and the z score and I'm going to compare that to the height so here's the height data and here's the the norm dot dist and there's our z score for the height okay so now what I did is I tried to match up the z scores so that 4.20 is close to the 4.12 and then the next z score if I go down to the next z score it's at the 3.68 which is close to the 3.87 see what I'm doing here I'm trying to match up the z scores and the next z score is at 3.15 and I tried to match that up I think when I copied this over it got staggered a little bit but I tried to match that up to the relative 3.15 on the left which is actually down here so we've got something like this one so it actually lines up to this one and then I'm taking the difference so I'm saying this is close to that z score let's take the difference between this 90 to 62 and I get a difference of 28 and on this one this z score of 3.68 is close to like 3.69 and so I took the difference of this 84 that's related to this z score 3.69 is 84 minus this one of 61 and that gives me the 23 and then I went down and said okay this z score is close to this is the 2.63 it's getting quite staggered here but 2. it's close to this 2.67 so then I took the 2.67 has the related 96 to it minus the 63 and we have a difference of the 33 so all I'm doing is matching up the z scores as best I can between the 2 data sets and then looking at the difference between the actual measures which are measured in pounds for weights and in inches for the heights and so to see if there's a relationship between the z score and the difference between those intervals see if it was just a direct conversion as we saw with the perfect correlation type of thing the distance, the difference between inches and feet would always be 12 a multiple of 12 so we'd see a trend when we start to be comparing these so I did that all the way down here and then I squished them together so now they're on one so these are all of my differences that I found for related z scores and then if we plot that out this is the plotting actually of the bell curve for the height this is the bell curve for the weight and this is me plotting out this list of numbers which you can see there's a relationship between the numbers you can see kind of a trend from the z scores so the idea here would be that is to get kind of an intuitive sense of the idea that it's that z score which is the thing that helps us to do this comparison and it's the z scores which are a huge part of the calculation for the correlation as we can see over here so it's useful then to sometimes to focus in on those z scores a little bit more as a way that possibly can give you some better understanding of what's actually going on within the data sets


Displays are a great way to take messages out to the people. Your display might be at the town show, the school fate, a barbecue outside the local hardware shop or at a brigade open day. Whatever the event or locations, brigades are out there doing this stuff all the time. Gary Lavage from Denulli and Robert Scott from Benella are both long time volunteers and also trained CFA presenters. Today they've taken a trailer display to the Benella sale yards. They're talking with farmers about the coming fire season. Gary and Robert have some advice on making the most out of your displays. You have to stand out, be different from everybody else and have a reason for people to come and have a look and see what you've got. An effective display has got to be something that is a little bit different from the normal but not too busy and not over cluttered. If you've got it over cluttered and too busy people aren't going to look at it. What we really need to have is a clear message and a clear theme and so the balloons reflect the message. The materials that we have there reflect the same message so that we're not mixing up home fire safety stuff and summer fire safety stuff in the same display. So having the balloons, the posters, the banners, the publications all linked up together to promote a single theme so people can take something away from that and try and remember it. When doing a display it's very important to attract the kids around to the display and it then gives you the opportunity to be able to talk to the adults. When starting a conversation it's really important to smile and be confident and show that you know your stuff. Some of the best conversation starters can be short, sharp and sweet. Do you live around here as a good one? Can you find your house in the map book? Have you seen this particular booklet? And that's enough to get us conversation well and truly underway. And when we're talking to our audiences it doesn't matter whether it's a barbecue or a church fate or a school or it doesn't matter. We need to make sure that we don't use technical language. We need to put it in terms that the people can understand and relate to. So avoid technical language, avoid jargon, call the truck instead of an appliance and just to finish off when we do finish up our engagements One of the things we try to get people to do is to make a small commitment. It might be to put the VBIL number into their phone. It might be to download the Fire Ready app into the smartphone. It might be to go home and check on the internet to find a CFA website so that they're not only engaging with us but they're carrying on that communication and that engagement after they leave us.


Well, hi there. I'm Sandy Olak, artist and paper crafter here on YouTube, and I was challenged recently to try some kind of Mix Media card, so that's what I'm doing. Quite a little while ago I picked up this cute little stamp set from Waffle Flower. It had an idea for a dress that I was thinking about putting in a drawing, and I saw it on a stamp and I went, well, I guess that wasn't an original idea, so I'm going to try it with a stamp first. And I've got some letterpress cardstock that I'm going to use for this, because I wanted to do an inked background. You might know. I don't do that very often, so I thought I'd try it since I now have blending brushes, and I have a couple colors of Distress Oxides. So I got out my craft assistant, which is that 12 by 12 black metal plate, because it's real easy to clean up, and I cut a mask out of some Judy Kinn's Eclipse tape for just the head and torso, and I'm going to start inking. And this is one of my Trinity brushes.  And I learned something while I was doing this that I'm kind of excited to show you. You probably already know this. Probably everybody in the world knows how to do what I'm going to show you, but just in case you don't, if you have lived under a rock just like me, then there you go. So I'm starting with some Peacock Feathers, one of my favorite of the Ranger inks, and then I'm going to grab some Chipped Sapphire.  So I've got a couple colors going on in the background just so it's not just a plain solid color. But what I was finding was, even though I was getting not blobbyness necessarily, like I used to with just trying to blend with a regular ink blending tool, the blending brushes were better, but I just wasn't getting that solidness that everybody else gets. So I thought, well, let me try changing colors or doing something and I tried to get some of the ink off of my brush by just wiping it on a damp baby wipe. And as soon as I went back and started to re-ink again, look what happened. It went on like super smooth and all of a sudden things were working. Now, I don't know whether you're supposed to like maybe apply something over all the inks and that's what I hadn't been doing all this time, but I was really frustrated because I couldn't ever get anything to work. But as soon as I got my brush a little bit damp, the colors started moving and blending better. And I don't know a whole lot about inks. I'm not an ink girl, you may have realized, so I maybe have some explanation that you can tell me in the doobly-do. I know these are water soluble inks, so you're supposed to be able to use different water techniques on them, but I just didn't think that getting them a little bit damp was going to make that much difference in the application of the color and the blending, which was really fun. I love learning new things and trying stuff and have my accidents work out because really, I just was trying to clean extra ink off of my blending brush. And these brushes wash out pretty nicely. They stay a little bit stained, but they don't retain any color on them after you wash them under the sink with a little water and a little tiny bit of soap. So I wanted to use that little baby wipe technique, maybe as a way to make the cloud really soft. So I wiped off most of the ink on the baby wipe and then I was able to apply a very, very light bit of ink down at the bottom that would be the cloud. So I could have some little cloud color in there and removed my mask. And now we've got the little girl ready to roll. I had to take a little marker. I took a BV04 and went around some of the areas that my mask didn't work really well in because I didn't cut my mask real carefully. And then I put it back in the misty with the girl in the same spot. And now I can ink just the bottom of it. I did let it dry first because I didn't want embossing powder sticking to everything. And I also didn't want to end up putting the de-static powder all over everything because then that would just change the color and I didn't want to leave that powder residue on all of this beautiful inking.  And then he'd set it and my dress is at least done. I wanted to do some more work on this but I wanted the paper nice and stable and I didn't want to be touching it afterward because I had some ideas for what I wanted to do to it and so I wanted to get it onto the card base first. So I've layered it onto some navy card stock and then popped that on some dimensional adhesive onto my card base and then started coloring her with some Copic markers. Yes, you can color Copics on some of this paper. Yeah, letterpress. That's it. That's it. Yeah, the word escaped my brain and I'm going to use a couple different colors and since the cloud is where the lights coming from, I'm putting all the shadows on the top so her chin looks like it's lit from underneath and just making my colors slowly work their way down toward the lightest part on her chin area. Added a little color for her cheeks and then her hair. I'll do the same thing. I'll put some light color on the whole thing but my shadows are going to be on the top instead of on the bottom just because you know sometimes the lighting is weird in places and when you're standing on a cloud and the cloud is glowing, that would be how the light would fall on you and you could of course make your hair colors any color that you want. You could do rainbow skies for something like this. Lots of different ways you could use this sort of a technique and now I will finish off the blending with a mid-tone color and just kind of darken out the the bun at the top because that wouldn't really have much light hitting just a little tiny bit and then a little bit of color in the top portion of her dress. Then I wanted to put wings on. They do have stamps that are wings in the stamp set but I didn't really want to stamp lines on here so I started by trying to see if colorless blender would remove any of that Distress Oxide ink and it didn't but it did mark it so that then when I went in with a brush and some water I could actually lift a little bit of color using that and I kind of had an idea where I wanted that because that's where my brush or my my Copic marker brush nib had been and I was able to follow that along sometimes it's easier to draw something in a medium that doesn't bleed all over the place so it might be helpful to sketch it out first like I did with a colorless blender or something just to mark it in that spot. The rest of this is going to be white pen of course because me loves me some white pen and a card like this you could put a Christmas sentiment on it and it could be a little Christmas angel you could make it a birthday card it could be a new baby card there are a gazillion uses for this this stamp actually may not end up being in my prize boxes because I can see so many uses for it. I don't keep a whole lot of stamps for a really long period of time but this one was so much fun to do I could do airbrush with it there's just a million different ways that I can see using this particular stamp set so I am glad I have it and I added a little bit of glossy accents to the wings which is why I wanted all this settled down on the cardstock and everything and all my layers done before I got to all the coloring so I could just let that sit and dry because the number of times I have moved something and touched the glossy accents before it was dry teaches me not to do that so anyway thank you so much for joining me for the video click that like button which is actually a thumbs up button doesn't say like someone pointed that out to me recently and I will see you again in my next video thank you bye bye


With that said, I'll begin reading here at verse 13. And as is my normal way for those who perhaps are visiting for the first time, my normal way of doing studies is to give up kind of a context to give you some information that helps you to know what we're looking at in this particular portion of the scripture. And that's what I'll be doing in a moment. I'll be giving you a review and reminding you and then we'll move into the study. But beginning at verse 13, reading to verse 18, Luke writes, and after they had become silent, James answered saying, men and brethren, listen to me. Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, after this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord. Even all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who does all these things. And so let me give you a review because what we're looking at here in this chapter is an issue, an issue that is threatening to undermine what we today refer to as the doctrine of grace. Pharisees who were claiming to be believers in Christ had come to the church in what is called Syrian Antioch which means that that church was a mainly Gentile church. So they were teaching the Gentile believers that they needed to be circumcised. They also taught them that they needed to keep the law of Moses. Remember in verse one of chapter 15, certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved. And then in verse five, some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And so this argument has begun to form and they're demanding that Gentiles be circumcised as well as to keep the law. Now being from Judea, they would have been aware of a man by the name of Cornelius. As we had studied before, he and his household had come to faith in Christ. Yet they were Gentiles and not circumcised. Well that had happened but it's possible that these men from Judea saw that as an exception and not the norm. Why is that? Well because there had been no command to set aside circumcision or the keeping of the law. In their minds keeping these laws would have remained necessary. You see at that time when a male Gentile converted to Judaism, they would have him or he would be voluntarily circumcised. So through the law of Moses the Jews saw this as a necessary element of true faith. It was what they would refer to as an outward demonstration showing the covenant between God and Israel that they adhered to that. All the way back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 17 verse 11, when God was speaking to Abraham, God had said to Abraham you shall circumcise a flesh of your foreskin and that shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you. Later on when God gave the law to Moses in Leviticus in an Old Testament book called Leviticus chapter 12 verse three, it says on the eighth day the flesh of the boy's foreskin is to be circumcised. Well the Jews held circumcision to be indispensable to salvation. They believed they were obeying God's law and they were adamant about that. So because of this these men were saying without circumcision you cannot be saved. Well they knew circumcision was an outer emblem of true faith in God because they knew that faith is revealed through actions and circumcision is an outer action. So they made a religious ritual into a necessity for salvation. But they forgot something. They forgot that the cutting away of the flesh isn't what is necessary but a new heart. And that's what the law of Moses had made clear in Deuteronomy 10, 16, where it says circumcise your hearts therefore and do not be stiff-necked any longer. So circumcision was a demonstration of something that was within. It wasn't the physical cutting away of the flesh. It was a new heart that was there through faith in God. You see that's what happens when someone comes to Christ and that's why it's so important for Paul and the others to stand up in opposition to this because when someone comes to faith in Christ they receive a circumcision of the heart. Colossians 2.11 says in him you were circumcised. In the putting off of your sinful nature with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands. They didn't understand that Holy Spirit brought the Jew and the Gentile into one body. That happens by the Holy Spirit not in keeping Moses' law. God made the Jew and God made the Gentile into what is called the one new man. In Ephesians 2.14 through 16 it says, he himself is our peace who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. By setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity, one new man out of the two that's making peace and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. And so it was the death of Christ and faith in him through the grace of God that took the Jew and the Gentile and made them one. It wasn't the physical circumcision or ritual that was necessary for a covenant relationship a demonstration of that. It was really something deeper. It was a circumcision of the heart and so what you have here is really the law versus grace and these legalizers are coming into the church saying unless you receive circumcision, according to Moses as customs, you can't be saved. They're undermining the work of Christ. It produces a salvation that's based on your works. It replaces faith and it replaces grace and that's something that Paul and Barnabas couldn't let go. They couldn't let it go by. They couldn't let it pass without resistance. So the Bible tells us they dissented and they disputed over this error with them. They saw the danger that it posed in regards to salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith not keeping religious laws. I think we Americans need to remember that even in these last days because sometimes we think that if we do certain religious things that that gets us entrance into the kingdom of God. America used to be very religious. It's not quite so as it one time was. But you could go anywhere. You could go into any community and you would see that there was something called Christmas and it wasn't called Happy Holidays, it was Merry Christmas and we used to see that but not anymore. You used to go into cities and cities would have lights all over the city would actually put lights up and wreaths up and things like that. We were very religious as a people but not so anymore. So we have to be careful that we don't try and make people into religious people by doing the things we think they need to do to show it. What's really more important is to grab hold of the heart through the gospel of Jesus to teach him that God loved us so much that he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die in a cross. We need to teach them that and to live it out and what's taking place there is they're trying to replace the grace of God with religious works and that's not gonna work. It has to be dealt with. And so Paul and Barnabas were actually deputized to go into and to take this to a council. You see if it wasn't cleared up the church was gonna be divided by the question. So Paul and Barnabas traveled to the city of Jerusalem and they were sharing what God was doing as they were on their way. Now at first they spoke to the church in general including the apostles and the leaders but as they listened to the report there had been a religious rather an immediate response. We had read this a moment ago. The believing Pharisees said circumcision and keeping the law is necessary. So what happens is they dismiss the general church and they have a council with the leadership, the apostles and elders. They convene a council to consider the matter. It's something very important they need to talk about. You see if circumcision is necessary then faith alone is insufficient. That requirement would undermine grace. It would destroy what we call Christian liberty or the freedoms we have in Christ. When Paul was writing to the Galatians who were going through something like this later on he said this in Galatians 221. He said, I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law Christ died in vain. So as they deeply discussed the matter Peter had stood up and Peter began to speak and he began to share. We saw this last time. God has opened the door to the Gentiles and he said it was through me. Around 10 years earlier Peter had been sharing with the Gentile. I mentioned him a moment ago. A man by the name of Cornelius and as he was sharing with him and the assembly that he had in his house as he was speaking God began to move and the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles. God had purified their heart by faith. He made no distinction between the Jew and the Gentile. Verse 11 says, we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved and that's what Ephesians 2.8 and 9 says. It's by grace that you've been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It's the gift of God. Not by works so that no one can boast. God did this. It's a work that he did. He makes it available to you. And that's the whole point. That's Christianity. That's grace revealed. And in order for us to be saved and the Bible teaches this very clearly is that we just trust in the Lord through the work of Christ and receive salvation by the grace of God. And so that's how it works. And so what's taking place is they're adding works to grace and it's gonna pollute the whole work of God. And so Paul and Barnabas went on to rehearse how God had worked miracles for Gentiles and that has to be evidence that God is at work among them. And so all of this is taking place and now a decision has to be made. Verse 13, after they had become silent James answered saying, men and brethren, listen to me. Now the name James is also, he was known amongst his friends as Jimmy boy but we know him as James. I'm just kidding. I just felt like saying that. I don't know why forgive me. Who was this guy named James? Well, let me tell you who he wasn't. We know that it is not James, the brother of the apostle John. How do we know that? Because he had been martyred in chapter 12. So it's not him. So who would it be? The majority of commentators that I have used to study passages like this in this chapter point out that this James would be James who is the brother of Jesus. The leading elder of the church in Jerusalem. When you read your gospel and we spent some time in the gospel of Mark, when we got to chapter six, verse three in the gospel of Mark, chapter six, verse three mentions James first among his brothers and sisters. Later on again, when Paul was writing the Galatians in chapter one, verse 19, he had said, I saw none of the apostles, only James the Lord's brother. In Galatians again, chapter two, verse nine, well that verse speaks of James, Cephas and John as pillars of the church. So this has led to the belief that James was a church leader in the city of Jerusalem. Now notice that he makes the decision, it wasn't the apostle Peter, it was James who made the decision there because he had oversight of the church in Jerusalem. Being Jesus's half brother, naturally he had tremendous respect of all who were present. So what he does is he begins to summarize what's been said in order that he might declare the decision that's being made. Now notice how he says in verse 14, Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. Now, James refers to Peter by his old name. Why would he do that? He did that to establish the fact that he has been a follower of Christ from the beginning. It was to establish his credibility. But he says in verse 14 that God visited the Gentiles in order to take out of them a people for his name. Now that's an Old Testament phrase. Jews knew that they were the ones who had been visited by God. They knew they were the ones who were taken out of the nations. God had taken Israel from among the nations and he's saying he's also taken the Gentiles. Now he refers to Simon's ministry to Cornelius which had occurred some 10 years prior. This shows that God has already been saving Gentiles by his grace. So as he's presenting that in verse 15 he says, and he begins to quote an Old Testament book Amos and he begins in verse 15 and says with this, the words of the prophets agree just as it is written. After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord. Even all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who does all these things. So he points back to Amos nine verses 11 and 12 and he quotes this. It's speaking really of the millennial kingdom that is ruled by Messiah. And he's saying that the kingdom is going to be populated by all who have come to God.  So if Gentiles will be there, they will not have had to become Jews. So the point is that it's true at that time so there's no need for the Jews rather for the Gentiles to become Jews today. James sees this prophecy fulfilled in the resurrection in exaltation of Christ. Notice that Gentiles are included in this prophecy as the elect from every nation. And then he says in verse 18, known to God from eternity are all his works. The things that God would do to bring salvation are all foreign-owned. None of this is without God planning. None of this is without his foreknowledge and that's the point he's making. And then he goes on to say this, therefore verse 19, I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God. But that we would write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues, every Shabbat, every Sabbath. Now, I'm gonna develop this with you for a moment. This is gonna be something we'll be looking at for a little while now. I want you to see in verse 19 when he says I judge. The tone of this is that James is speaking with authority. It doesn't mean he has the final word by itself. He's simply saying this is what I see. It's my, if you will, it's an opinion that he has that lines up with his thoughts. But it also is in agreement with the others. He says in verse 19, we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles. The Jewish believers, he's saying, are not to annoy their Gentile brethren. They and other Gentiles are turning to God. So don't hinder them from doing so. And that's very practical because it reveals to us that he is dealing with cultural and religious sensitivities. Sensitivity to religious traditions should produce a consideration. One of the things we Calvary Chapel pastors had to learn in a very early portion of our conversions and going out to preach is to be sensitive to other people. Because we were so on fire, I was 20 years old, I was so on fire, from coming from the background I had been rescued from, I was so on fire, I wanted everybody to know. And so I became a bit argumentative thinking that I was just speaking with passion but in fact, I was actually picking fights. And sometimes when you're younger in the faith, you can make your opinions known very quickly. And I had to learn how to be considerate to other people, to listen to them. It took a long time because, come on, I mean, what are you trying to tell me? You're wrong, I was that way, you're wrong. What do you know? You don't know. And that's not the way to win people and influence them at all is to be argumentative. I had to learn to listen to them with respect. I had to learn to at least respect the fact that they had been raised in a certain way, at least show that consideration. You know, sometimes we Christians can be so determined to see someone saved that we can be rude when we're speaking to them. And I had to, and I still try to learn to be generous in my heart, charitable and listening, even though sometimes what they're saying is truly not true. So you respect them, you listen to them because respect goes a long way.  My mama had to learn that. I've said this a thousand times here, but it comes to mind. My mama said, Dave, I was telling some about Jesus today and they said they didn't want to hear.  And I said, mama, that's not the way you do it.  I said, mama, don't smile when you say that.  And sometimes people are not kind when you're sharing, right? So we need to learn to be considerate to people who have a different way of seeing things. And even if it's totally wrong, we have to learn how to communicate when I was saved, maybe two weeks, maybe I've shared this again, it comes to mind. I was at a friend of mine's house, I was a brand new believer and some guy came to do some work on the house and I had been taught, share your faith and there he is and so I had an opportunity. So I said to him, are you a believer in God? Now I'm again, I'm two weeks, three weeks old in Christ. And he goes, yeah, I believe in a God. I said, really, I said, where do you go to church? He says, well, I don't go to a church. He goes, I'm part of, I think he said it, I may be wrong about this, it's been 50 plus years. But he said it was, I think theosophy is what he said. And I said, and what is that? It wasn't that, it was something similar to that. But anyway, what is that? And he says, well, we believe that God has communicated through different eras, through different religious people. I said, really, he goes, yeah, he said they're all bringing the same truth in different forms to different nations. I'd never heard that. So I said, really, that's interesting to me. I said, so what does that mean? He says, that means that we believe all the holy books. You know, the various books that you have out there that are claiming to be holy books and various things like the dialects of Confucius or the Koran and things like that. I said, so you think those all are teaching the truth? I'm curious, and he goes, yeah. Do you believe in Jesus?  I said, really, do you believe everything he said? And he goes, yeah. I said, well, he said I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. How does that work with Buddha? How does that work with Muhammad? How does that work with Confucius? How does that work with all of these others? The Hindus and all. How does that work? I was curious, it wasn't an argument, it was a real question. If he said, and I said, well listen, if you say you believe what he said and he says that no one comes to God but by him, how can you come to God any other way? He says, I don't wanna talk to you anymore. That's what he did. And I was kind of puzzled over that.  If Christ said this, why don't you believe it? See, it wasn't an argument so much as a conversation. Perhaps he felt threatened. I was really serious. I wanted to know, how's this work? And so it's more than simply saying, oh, I believe in a God, it's deeper than that. And so you learn ways to communicate the truth so that there's a respect for the person and not a picking at them or belittling them and you need to be considerate and sensitive. So as he's speaking here, he's speaking about the Gentiles and the Jews and the differences that they can have, their religious and cultural differences and all of them begins to deal with it in a practical way. So he says, don't annoy them, verse 20, but that we write them to abstain from, and he gives four things to abstain from things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, things strangled and blood. So Gentiles are gonna show a spirit of unity, he's saying, by voluntarily doing four things. One, he says Gentiles should avoid idolatry or anything associated to it. In other words, don't go to temples of idols anymore. Don't make offerings to idols anymore. Don't have statues and images of idols in your homes. When he speaks of being polluted, polluted by idols, it speaks of avoiding food that's been offered to idols. Now the meat was sold, there was meat sold in pagan temple butcher shops and they should be avoided. Now it's not that the meat is infected with demons but it stumbled the Jews. God had commanded the Jews to reject idolatry, he warned them against it. Its practice led to the judgment of Israel so Gentiles needed to be aware of this. Later it also stumbled believers. Paul had to write about that. Gentiles cities had the markets where the meat was sold but first they had offered the meat to an idol. A believer would purchase a meat and would serve it and one of his friends would come over to eat and as they're eating this piece of meat, the believer with a tender conscience would say, where did you get this? And the guy would say, oh I got it at the temple of and it would stumble the believer with a tender conscience. I can't be eating this stuff. This was offered to idols. It was an issue in the early church and it was so much of an issue that Paul wrote to the Romans to correct it. He commanded them to respect the tenderness of other people's consciences. It's more loving to the brother or sister if you resist these things and you don't stumble them in Romans 14, 20. He said, do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. So restrict your freedoms. You know that an idol is nothing that we have one God and he's not that idol. You know that but they're stumbled by. Therefore show tenderness for them and love them. Be compassionate. Remember that Gentiles were raised in an atmosphere of idolatry. The Jews weren't Gentiles voluntarily considered the consequences of that this causes for your Jewish brothers. Keep away from idols John would say in 1 John 5, 21, stay away from it. Don't be involved in anything like that. Two, he speaks of sexual immorality.  The word pernaeus in the Greek is where we get the word porn, pornography. Pornaeus speaks of every sexual activity, not just fornication and adultery but it speaks of every form of sexual works including pedophilia and things of that like. This is associated, sexual immorality is associated with idolatry.   Today in the church there are people who may not go to temples but they do involve themselves in improper relationships. I've had people approach me and I'm not gonna make a big issue of this other than to say this is practical even on our day.  Well before the word fiance used to mean that it was someone that you were not married to yet you were engaged to be married. That's how we use the word. But I've discovered that it's taken on a different meaning today. Fiance very often means the person I'm living with. The person I'm living with that's called fornication. Then I've had people approach me saying to me, Pastor can you perform our wedding? And I'll talk to him and oh really when are you gonna get married this and that? And he says well when her divorce is finalized. And I'll say let me ask you, this is true, this has actually happened. What do you mean when her divorce is finalized?  Listen, if you're not free to marry them, you're not free to date them. They're still married to somebody else. That kind of cavalier approach is something forbidden in both the old and the new testaments. Sexual immorality. You don't have physical relationships outside of marriage. It also includes various other things that would fall into that category. You see what happened is in the book of Romans in chapter one, Paul associated idolatry with sexual immorality. He said that Gentiles have changed the glory of God into the image of man, birds, four-footed animals and creeping things and went on to say that they exchanged the truth of God and worshiped and served the creature. And then in Romans 1.26 and 27, he said for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves a penalty of their error which was due. So this immorality included lesbianism and homosexuality. And so all of these things he says have nothing to do with. You see that had resulted in men thinking it was normal and permissible. So James is saying that Gentiles are to do nothing violating God's laws or the Jewish morals. Now notice again in verse 20, he says abstained from things strangled and abstained from eating blood.  That's what it means when it says things strangled. Now that would combine with the next prohibition do not eat blood. Do not mix blood with flour or vegetables or simply eat it as a meal. You see some pagans drank blood as part of their rituals. The prohibition against eating blood actually began before Moses's law in Genesis nine verse four.  That is the blood. Later on in Moses's law Leviticus 1711 it says the life of a creature is in the blood. And I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It's a blood that makes atonement for one's life. One author said God appointed the blood for the altar as containing the soul of the animal to be the medium of expiation for the souls of men and therefore prohibited from being used as food. You see the shedding of blood foreshadowed the death of Christ. He poured out his blood for us. Peter said in 1 Peter 118 and 19, you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors. But with the precious blood of Christ a lamb without blemish or defect. So they were not to eat the flesh with its blood because it symbolized redemption.  So the Jews were very, very careful about eating things with blood. Things strangled or just blood itself. He said that is gonna be something stumbling to your Jewish neighbor. So don't invite them over for blood sausage or whatever. Don't do that. Now Gentiles are not under the law but they are sensitive to those who have been. It was smoothing a path for Gentiles to eat in fellowship with the Jew. Remember the Jews had no real relationships with Gentiles not on a religious plane. And so the Jews were reluctant to have relationship even though God was pouring his Holy Spirit out they were still reluctant. So if I was cavalier in the way I did things and invite them over for a pork chop it wasn't gonna work. So he's saying what we need to do is we need to put away the things that cause stumbling. And don't use the liberty that you have in Christ as an excuse. Don't dishonor and bring somebody who's got a different sense than you do. I remember I was in the military and I was going through Chow line and I kept hearing this guy saying something and the people just staring at him as we were going. I had my tray and as I was making my way I was wondering what is he saying?    And I said why? And I stopped. And he said why is that? He says cause the law forbids it. Well, you know, food doesn't bring us closer to God neither if we eat or we the better neither if we eat not are we the less Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8. And so I went to my room and got my Bible. I was a brand new Christian and I started looking through scriptures and then the next time I saw him I told him no you're wrong because in 1 Corinthians 8 it tells me that the food doesn't commend me to God. It doesn't bring me closer to God. You see?   You're wrong about that.  In 1 Corinthians 10, 31 and 32 whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble whether you Greek or the church of God. That's the whole point. So verse 22 it pleased the apostles and the elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas namely Judas who was also named Barsovas and Silas leading men among the brethren. So this was done so it could be said that Paul and Barnabas it couldn't be said that Paul and Barnabas had been making things up. So they sent chosen men. Now Judas Barsovas is only mentioned here but Silas is mentioned often in the book of Acts. He becomes Paul's traveling companion. He's also known by the name Silvanus. You see that in 2 Corinthians 1 and 1 and 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 as well as 1 Peter chapter 5. So they wrote this letter to them, verse 23. The apostles, the elders and the brethren to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia greetings. So this letter is written to the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. Again Antioch is the capital of Syria so mentioning Syria is showing Paul's travels. The introduction shows this, it's a consensus opinion. It was not made just by James but agreed upon by all of them the apostles, elders and brethren. Verse 24 when it goes, we heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words and settling your souls saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. Men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas who will also report the same things by word of mouth where it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things that you have stained from things offered to idols from blood, from things strangled, from sexual immorality and if you keep yourselves from these you're gonna do well. So I wanna develop this with you. I want you to see in verse 24 it says some who went out from us, they went out from Jerusalem but they were presenting themselves as representing the council, representing the apostles and the elders. What they were were unauthorized church members and they were bringing their own opinions. It says some who went out from us that means they claimed to have been sent out. Now I wanna develop this. Fairly early in church history traveling deceivers began infiltrating churches. They began to come in and they began to bring false teaching and what they did is they were deceiving the innocent believers. They were coming in bringing messages as if they'd been sent out with these messages and so the churches at that time didn't have halls like this necessarily, they'd meet in houses and so someone would come, they'd say they're a believer in Christ that they came out of Antioch or whatever and so the pastor would invite them, the chief elder would invite them to come in and share with God as said through you and then they began to bring in false doctrine. That's how they did it. They began to bring in things that weren't true. They were bringing their own opinions and so Paul had to begin writing warnings about that. Romans 16, 17 and 18. I urge you, brethren, note those who cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ by their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. He warned them, if they're bringing you any other doctrine don't listen to them. Later on in 1 John 2, verse 19, John says it like this, they went out from us but they were not of us. For if they'd been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they are not all of us and so this was taking place. People were coming in bringing in messages trying to present themselves as some authority and then trying to take over or ruining the church. We've had that here over the years. After 42 years of pastor in this church it's happened to us where people will go out as from us and bring messages that are not, I didn't send them out or they'll come sometimes and they'll say I'd like to share in your church there are things I'd like to teach, can I teach? And it turns out they're bringing false doctrine, bad doctrine. And so they're self-appointed leaders. A few years ago, I was sitting in a Wednesday night in the front row where I usually sit and there was a guy who was seated a couple away from me and I saw him get up and walk up and talk to Jared who was about to lead worship and I saw Jared kind of look at him in kind of a surprise look if you will. Well later on Jared says, you know what? He did and I said, what? Jared said, you should not be up there. Because you're having an affair with Pastor David. I told Jared, you're not my type. No, he said, you're having an affair with Pastor David and I'm gonna expose it. And that came just before Jared is up there leading us in worship. You can't imagine if you don't do ministry, you can't imagine the stress and strain that hits you with. To go up in front and this guy sat right here just 10 feet from him, staring at him through the whole time claiming that he's having a homosexual affair with me. And then the guy posted on social networks that he has been given the Calvary Chapel Chino Valley Church, that he is the new pastor, that on Sunday he will be giving his first message and he's inviting everybody to come to the church. Now I know where he sat, he used to sit off to the right. I knew where he sat. And so I didn't know he had posted that. I came out to do my study, but what happened is how we normally will, our last song we stand and there's prayer and then you greet and you're seated, he wouldn't sit down. Because he was planning on coming up here to take over the pulpit, to kick me out of the church because he's the new pastor. But my ushers were aware of the threat and one of them went, spoke to him and said, you need to be seated. He said, I'm not gonna be seated. What if I don't sit down and my usher said then, then you need to go outside. And so they went outside. Those things happen where people will come in, they have their message, they wanna take over. It's something that they believe that God has put in their heart to do. And they would go into the churches and they would bring messages. And it began to upset the church and so letters had to be written. For example, in 2 Corinthians chapter three verse one, they're called letters of recommendation. Paul said, are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? Because the church set up a system where they would come with a letter saying, this is a good brother and receive him. In third John verses five to eight, we have an example of this. Dear friend, you are faithful in what you're doing for the brothers and sisters. Even though they're strangers to you, they have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth. So they developed a system of commendations, recommendations, and John gives us an example of that. Well, these people are saying that they've been sent out. And in verse 24 says, to whom we gave no such commandment. These self-appointed preachers are adding to the gospel of grace and the removing the peace and unity of the spirit. So in verses 25 through 27, it seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to send out these chosen brothers. So we unanimously agreed to send Barnabas and Paul and they are the ones who have been appointed. And then in verse 26, their credibility is established. It seemed good for us to do that. Why? Because they have risked their lives for the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. They have proven credibility. They're sacrificial servants of God. Again, in churches today, even in our day, there are those who say, well, I've got a better message, a more encouraging message, a more fiery message, whatever you want. And you need to get rid of that person there that doesn't have the message I have. And he's saying, no, these men are proven. Their credibility is there. It's real. They've been there. They've been faithful. They've gone through so many things. We trust these men. The other ones, we don't know who they are. So Judas and Silas in verse 27 came to say what Paul, because of modesty, refused to say. He wouldn't speak of himself. So they came to say, these are the things that Paul did. Again, one of the things that is not a good thing is to brag about your exploits, to tell everybody how important you are or what you've done, especially in ministry.  And so they sent them to give testimony. And then finally, verse 28 and 29, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, from sexual immorality. And if you keep yourselves from these, you'll do well. This importance of the leading of the spirit is stressed. These are the things that will prevent division with Jewish believers. Your liberties will not overrule your love for a brother or a sister in the Lord. So don't do anything that causes somebody else to stumble. I'll close with a couple of thoughts, trying to think about how to say this. There are various things that are trends within the life of the church over the centuries and one of the trends that we're seeing today, and it's been going on for a while and it's offensive to some. When I say this, I said this first service and people get up and walk out because they get upset, so I'll say it now. And I love you, goodbye. But it's true. A big thing in the church today, and I don't know how come, I really don't, is taking my liberty and extending it to use alcohol, what I feel like it, to drink.  The younger ones have yet to enter into that time of experiencing the heartache and the various things associated with it. My background was I was an alcoholic and therefore I have a sensitivity to that and I admit that, I confess that before you, that I have a sensitivity to that issue. I haven't seen good done because of alcohol, I haven't seen it. With that said, somebody wants to argue and they do, well the Bible doesn't forbid me from drinking, et cetera, et cetera. But the problem is this, is what if your brother is stumbled over it? What if your sister is stumbled over your drink? Well, they better grow up and get, you know, you know. Why is that my problem? It's your problem because it's your brother. It's your problem because your freedom that you consider to be such a liberty in Christ is causing a brother to be stumbled and that doesn't bother you. The Bible tells me to abstain from alcohol, not to be drunken by alcohol, of course. But instead of being drunk with wine, be filled with the Holy Spirit. I have had a lot of hangovers. I was an alcoholic for a while, for a little while. And I've had a lot of hangovers but I've never had a Holy Ghost hangover. I've never awakened the next morning saying I had too much of God last night. I've just never done that. And so what happens is we take the freedoms that we have in Christ and we extend them to stumbling people. You, at this point on a personal level, may not see any problem with it at all. You may think it's okay. I'm not here to argue against the liberties you possess in Christ. I'm just asking you to love people. I was given a message and I said one time when our church was fairly new, I've said this before, some may remember this, but I said, what would you do if you came to my house, went to my refrigerator or a cabinet and you found some beer or some whiskey, some wine? What would you do? Now the point I was trying to make is you would probably be disappointed in me thinking that I was different than that and why do you, you would probably think that about me. How can you preach the way you do it? Get your secret, how could, and this guy says he's in the front row, he says, I'd help you drink it, pastor. That wasn't the point I was trying to make. I'll help you drink it. No, I wasn't offering you it, it's mine. No, I wasn't. See, so sometimes the point isn't being made, I'll try again. Never do anything. When you have a brother or sister that you know has a weakness in that area, whatever your freedom may allow you to do, never practice it in front of somebody you can stumble. I would go further and say, instead of being drunk with wine, wherein he says there's a lack of self restraint, excess, be not drunk with wine, wearing his excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. I would say that the church today needs no alcohol and more of the Spirit. That's what we need, why?  Well, the church is arguing about what they're allowed to do. What we've been called to do is love one another and preach the gospel to a dead and dying war. That's called Christianity. That's called Christianity. That's what we're called to do, so that people can be saved. It is that important.  Be aware of how sinful those things are by themselves, but be aware of how it affects your brothers or sisters in Christ and don't stumble them. Well, as this takes place, it says finally in verse 30 and we'll conclude here. At verse 32, when they were sent off, they came to Antioch where they had gathered the multitude together. They delivered the letter and when they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. Judas and Silas themselves, being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. So when he said it, it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us, it's importance of the leading and the spirit. They were sent off to Antioch. They brought this great news and encouragement to the church. Judas and Silas, verse 32, were prophets. They exhorted, they brought comfort to them. So as genuine Christian ministers, instead of upsetting them, they encouraged them. They strengthened their understanding of the freedom found in the gospel. They encouraged them to live free of bondage to the law and to live in grace, to love one another. Don't cause a stumbling to somebody else. Care for their souls. I think the church needs to be aware of that. I also believe in a close with this. If there's ever been a moment that the Holy Spirit needs to be let loose in our lives, it's now. It's ever a time when we should be saying every day we wake up, God, fill me with the Holy Spirit and work with me. I have many opportunities today. I wanna be a witness for you. I need the power of your spirit. And Lord, as I read your word, give me opportunities to share it. Cause I want people to know Jesus Christ. When our first God saved, that's what I started doing. Lord, just help me to know you, to know your word, to learn to love and to walk in your spirit because this world needs Jesus Christ. Let me not get caught up with things that are just distractions. Help me to keep the main thing, the main thing. Help me to live for you. I've been doing that now for a number of years. I pray that constantly. God help me to be used by you in these last days especially. We need to be clear in the message. It's by grace that you're saved through faith. I don't wanna be a legalist. I wanna walk in the freedom that comes through Christ. But I also wanna love the brother whom Christ died for and I don't wanna stumble him with my perceived liberties. May God help us to understand that today.