I want to talk to you this evening about the Lamb of God. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how evil or wicked you believe your sin to be, you can be forgiven and you can be washed clean. And God is not rejecting you. He's calling to you this evening and wants you to repent. That means to turn away from your wrongdoing. And God's Holy Spirit is working in your heart even now. I stand here as a preacher of the Scripture, a messenger of the gospel. Your guilt, your sin, can be washed clean. There is no sin that so stains that the blood of Jesus can't wash you clean. There is no sin that so stains that God's forgiveness cannot purify you. But it requires that we humble ourselves, acknowledge our wrongdoing, and turn to him. Go with me. Genesis chapter 1, we are going to take a look at the creation of man. You've heard various different philosophies and theories regarding how humans came into being. One that's being popularized right now is the idea that we were created by an intelligent alien species. They're getting closer now, at least their own intelligent design. People talk of things like reincarnation. People speak of things like the universe causing us to come into existence by its own will. But the Scripture reveals the truth about where you came from and who you are and the purpose of your life. Don't trust in my word. Trust in God's word. Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, we'll read several verses here. And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female, the Scripture says, created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveeth upon the earth. You, my friend, were created to reign with God. You were created for dominion. You were created to subdue the earth. I don't know what culture is telling you. I don't know what your parents told you. I don't know what you told yourself. But you were not created to live in depression. You were not created to live with anxiety. You were not created to live with drug and alcohol addiction. You were not created to live in confusion. You were not created to live in sin. You were created to have dominion with God. God created you.  We were created to love God and be loved by him. We were created for the purposes of knowing God. Genesis chapter two, verse seven, tells us specifically how he formed man.  God breathed his life into you.  The life you live is borrowed. The existence you have, the experiences you have, all of them, gives from God. Sometimes we rebel against him. I should say more often than not we rebel against him. We shake our fists, the creator. And even if you say that you don't believe in him, even if you say you don't think God exists, you know deep within your heart that he does. We don't want anyone telling us what to do. We want to live by our own standards, live in our own will, do all things our own way.  We accuse him of being petty. We accuse him of being judgmental and hateful. But let me explain it to you this way. Let us say, for the sake of an analogy, not in reality, an analogy, that I offered to buy you a vehicle of your choice. Now some of us have different needs. If you're a young single man in here, you say I'll take the Ferrari or the Lamborghini, or what's the one you like, the Nissan GT-R? I don't even know what that looks like, but you've showed it to me several times. I don't have it in my head right now. If you're a parent with an excessive amount of children, you're looking for the SUV or maybe the van, and maybe you have a long commute that you take to work and you say I'll take the hybrid or the Tesla. And let's say that I offered to you to pay for this vehicle, in full. And then I said to you, not only am I gonna purchase this vehicle for you in full, you'll have no payments, but I wanna also make sure that I cover the insurance for the next 25 years. And then I say, I wanna cover all the fuel costs for the next 25 years. And then I say, I wanna cover all the maintenance that you'll ever need in that time that you own it. I have just one rule, please make sure to not take it off road and obey all the laws. That's all I require of you. Now imagine the individual being given that offer and saying, how dare you tell me what to do with my car? I wanna take it off road. I wanna disobey the law. I wanna run through red lights. You tyrant? Now we laugh, but that's exactly what we do to God when it comes to our lives. He gave you breath. He gave you existence.  And then we shake our fist back at God. I don't wanna be told what to do. I don't wanna be under your control. And all he asks is that we live by his standards, which by the way are for your own good. He doesn't just set rules down because he wants to make you miserable. He sets rules down and gives you boundaries that you might have life and life more abundantly, that you might have unhindered fellowship with his goodness, that you might know the way of peace and love and joy and connection with God. James 1.17 says, every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  God is much bigger than the person who offended you is.   He is the one who offers to you that peace, that joy, that love, that purpose for which you so desperately seek. Now in Genesis chapter three, we see that after man is created, he rebels against God, tempted by the devil, but deciding upon his own to turn away from God's standard. Genesis three, one, go there if you have a Bible. If you don't, I want you to just listen to the story here. It's the story of how man fell. As we just read a moment ago, man was created for dominion. Man was created in God's image. Man was created pure and holy and righteous by his own will, the exercise thereof. He turned from that standard. He violated his own nature. Genesis three, one, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. The woman replied, it's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said you must not eat it or even touch it.  Verse four, you won't die, the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as you eat it and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. Verse six says the woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. Now I believe here that it's not necessarily that they suddenly realized that they were naked but rather that their nakedness in their corruption became something entirely different than it was before. The moment they turned from God, now they come into corruption. You look around at the world and you ask yourself, how is it that things are going the way they're going? You look at the confusion, you look at the division, the perversion, the moral decline, the chaos, the wars, the sickness, the disease, we live in a fallen creation. And the reason that the world has the problems that it does today is because of sin. Sin is the sickness of the soul, out of which all evil comes. Sin has permeated our globe. And in permeating our globe, it's caused many to be separated from God. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 59, verse two. And this is God speaking to his people. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.  He will not hear you. Now if we go back to Genesis chapter three and we read verses 23 and 24, we see that Adam and Eve were banished from the garden or banished from what they knew to be the presence of God. Romans 5, 12 says this, wherefore as by one man's sin entered the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. What is the scripture saying here? It's simple. Adam and Eve, the first to sin, caused death to enter. But we are partakers of that death, not because of what they decided, but because of what we decided. Their decision to rebel against God only made sin a reality that could be chosen in this world. But every single one of us have chosen rebellion. Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This is not to say that we're all being blamed for Adam and Eve's sin, then God would not be just. Rather, this is saying that like Adam and Eve, we too have chosen rebellion. And for those who are outside of Christ, this means separation from God. This is why you live in confusion. This is why you sense something missing. This is why there is no peace. This is why there is no purpose. You've disconnected from the source of life himself. Now, in the Old Testament, that was before Jesus came, we see that God had a temporary system in place by which man could be connected to him. And in the Old Testament, back before Christ came and gave his life for our sins, man would offer various different types of food offerings and animal sacrifices. Man would observe various different dietary restrictions and certain traditions and wear certain things at certain times and there was a whole system in place that man had to follow in order to just come close to keeping that connection with God. But it was a placeholder.  And the priest shall burn them upon the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the Lord. And the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed and it shall be forgiven. So here we see that presented to the Lord was this spotless lamb, this pure creature that would act in the place of punishment and temporarily, at least, connect man with God again. The Bible tells us plainly that this was just a temporary solution because as we know, man is rebellious and even under this old system, we couldn't keep it. God didn't fail, but we did. And it was this strict way of living. The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 10, verse one, the old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifice under that system was repeated again and again year after year, but they were never able to provide cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time and their fillings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year, for it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Now, if you jump down just a few verses below, here's what the Bible says concerning Christ. For God's will for us was to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar, day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. And he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering, he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19 puts it this way, for as much as you know, that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by traditions of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a land without blemish and without spot. What does all of this mean? It's simple. Jesus Christ, who is God, came to earth and lived a perfect, sinless life. You and I, on a daily basis, struggle to overcome certain temptations. And even if we don't act out on those temptations, every so often a thought may slip in that we entertain for just a little too long. Or perhaps if we were to magnify via a projector over this room, the thoughts that were running through your mind, I wonder how many in this room would run out of here in embarrassment for what they thought in just the past five minutes. Or if we could see your life recorded, played before us on a screen. How many moments in your life would cause you shame and embarrassment and fear? Yet Jesus in all his life never sinned once. Perfectly sinless in action, perfectly sinless in attitude, perfectly sinless even in his own thoughts, not once. He is the perfect land.  When they crucified Jesus, they didn't crucify him because of the sins he committed. When they crucified Jesus, they crucified him ultimately by God's sovereign will for the sins that you and I commit. So that when we place our faith in the cross, when we receive that gift of salvation by simply believing, we experience what is called the great exchange to where God looks at the cross and he sees your sin so that when God looks at you, he sees his son perfect, holy and righteous because of your faith. The gospel is not come to church every Sunday and maybe you'll make it into heaven. The gospel is not stop doing those shameful deeds and maybe you'll make it into heaven. Though I must clarify, as Christians, we must stop doing shameful things. And the people said? So this is not a sloppy grace message by any means. In fact, if you have no desire for holiness, it's probably because you never really met Jesus. Just telling it to you plainly, he changes your nature. But the reality is that you don't make heaven because of what you do.  It's not a scaling system. One wrong act, one violation of his holiness and that is enough to be banished from the presence of God. That's how holy he is. You see, if it was complicated, I promise you we would mess it up. It's simple and we still do sometimes. But what is the gospel? What's the good news? The good news is that I can receive Christ's righteousness. I can have his record counted toward my life. When God looks at me, I can have it as though he's looking at Christ in all his perfection. How? Only believe. Abraham believed God. He was counted to him as righteousness. Ephesians chapter two verses eight and nine tell us that we receive salvation by grace through faith. It's not of our own works so that we cannot boast. Isaiah 118 says this. And I want you when you're listening to this to listen to what God is really like because you may be sitting in this room and you've been beaten down by religion.  And again, I emphasize I'm not saying that you mustn't live holy. You ought to live holy. What I am saying is that when we become born again, Christ's record becomes our record. And God gives us the ability to live holy. In other words, I don't do good works to be saved. I do good works because I'm saved and I'm so thankful. But religion may have told you otherwise because here's what the unbeliever thinks. Well, if I have to keep a perfect standard which I'm not going to do anyway, I might as well have all the fun I can here and now. But I'll tell you this. This is what God says to you. I want you to listen to the heart of God in this portion of scripture here. Isaiah 118, God says, come now and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. God desires to cleanse you. God desires to embrace you. God desires to accept you. All that separates you from God as your sin. So it is by believing on the work of Christ. It is by putting our faith in what he's accomplished that we receive this gift of salvation.  You didn't perform the surgery on yourself. You couldn't have. We lack the knowledge and if we have the knowledge, good luck with doing that through all the pain. No, when you go to see the surgeon, you have something wrong, there's an issue. All you have to do is put yourself on the table. You don't come out of the surgery saying, what a great job I did. Here's the procedure I used. You see, we don't even comprehend for the most part what exactly it is that's being done to us. We just have faith that that doctor, that surgeon is gonna do the right thing. My friend, Jesus is the surgeon of the soul. When you come to him, it's not up to you to figure out how he does it. I don't know how, I still to this day don't understand fully that miracle of salvation. I know he gives me a new nature, how he does it, I don't know. But you have to surrender. You have to put yourself on the table and say, okay Lord, I surrender now. And perhaps you have been running from God.  You know in your heart that you need peace with him. You know that your life is not right. You know you're separated in your sins. And there's this fight going on inside of you even now. And everything in you is wondering, how is this even possible that I would connect with him? Or perhaps you're wondering, how could God truly forgive me? He doesn't know what I did. I promise you he does. You may think that you've gone far. So far that he cannot reach you. You may have tried it on your own strength and in your own ability. You may have tried it religion's way to perform your way to salvation while never knowing if you've really made it or not. You may have gone to church, liked what you've experienced or not liked what you've experienced.  But all that's here is this moment now where the Holy Spirit is drawing you to Jesus. And you have a decision to make tonight to receive this free gift of salvation and have peace with God or to reject Jesus and remain in your sins. You may be saying, well, I don't know if I'm gonna get it right. What if I mess up? You probably will, we all do. But we don't accept that, but the Holy Spirit works with us making us more and more like Jesus day by day all the while securing you, holding you. Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. You can do one of two things this evening. And this is for those of you watching online as well. You can do one of two things this evening. You can ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit. Walk out those doors, turn off that live stream.  You'll be driving home and you'll carry that weight, the guilt, the shame, confusion. And you'll be saying within yourself, I should have responded, I should have responded, I should have responded to the gospel. And you'll be lying in your bed tonight wondering where you'll spend eternity. You'll be lying in your bed tonight wondering how you might connect with God. My friend, if I know one thing, it's that you need to respond when the Holy Spirit is calling you to respond. Or number two, you can respond to Jesus tonight. You can repent of your sins, accept this free gift of salvation, believe on the Lord Jesus.  Something will have transformed in you. Something will have changed.  If your bank account balance was low when you leave here, it'll probably still be low. If you had problems in home, in your home, maybe with a spouse, maybe with a child, you'll leave this place and maybe you'll probably still be facing that issue. It's not going to change really much there yet. But you won't be facing it alone anymore. And you're gonna leave this place and the sin that stained you will be no more. That guilt will be gone. The shame will be gone. The burden will be gone. And you'll lie in your bed tonight with peace in your heart and joy in your heart and love in your heart. And you'll say, I'm so glad. I'm so glad I said yes to Jesus. You see, when you finally do come to Jesus, the only regret that you'll ever have is that you didn't do it sooner. So tonight, come to Jesus. I'm gonna make an altar call. This is for those of you present in the room now and those of you watching online. If you're watching online, I want you to respond online in just a moment. If you're in this place and you know that your sins have separated you from God, you're not right with him. You don't have peace, not with God. I want you to respond to this altar call by raising your hand in just a moment. Actually, no, I'm gonna ask you to stand. I'm not gonna turn down the lights.  Just the moment I'm gonna ask you to stand. Don't worry about whether or not the person next to you responds because they're not gonna be standing with you on the day of judgment. Don't worry about what your friends will think. Don't worry about what your family will think. Don't worry about being judged or embarrassed or ridiculed because it's just you and Jesus now. You want Jesus. I want you to stand to your feet right now. You wanna receive this gift of salvation. I want you to do one more thing. You're standing right now.  And church, can we welcome them as they come? If you're ready to give your life to Jesus and you're watching online, I want you to type it in the comments section. Type, I'm ready. I look down at this altar and I see young and old. I see generation to generation. I see every tribe, every tongue, every nation, man and woman, boy and girl. They're still coming. They're still coming from the back, from the sides, never gets old. It never gets old, does it? Guys, how many times have we seen this? And it never gets old. It never gets old. Now listen to me.  He'll bless you financially in seasons, yes. And I believe that Christians should be blessed in that area. I believe in healing. I believe God will heal you and give you a miracle. I do, I truly do. But listen to me now. He's not promising a life without trials. Serving God is not a magic ticket that gets you out of all the troubles you'll ever face. You're going to have trials. In fact, many of them will get worse because of your decision that you made here right now. I know it seems like an interesting thing to applaud, but here's the thing. It's because we know in those seasons, he's near. And it's those seasons of difficulty where we sense the presence of God the most. Jesus said, in this world, you'll have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. That's his promise. I need you in a prayer. There's no such thing as the sinner's prayer in the Bible. You won't find the sinner's prayer. What you will find are sinners who pray. And the Bible says that we confess, that confession coincides with the experience of salvation. This does not mean that there's just a list of words that we can read, a special prayer that we can recite and then suddenly experience the magic of salvation. No, my friend, it's just simply truly coming to Jesus and saying, this offer you made, I want that. And I believe that you are the Son of God and I believe you completed the work needed to save me. I'm gonna put my faith in what you did and truly put your faith in what he did and you do that, he will transform you. We don't try to transform ourselves so that God accepts us. It's not how it works.  But it's only through our faith in Jesus. That's it. But you're gonna have to live this out.  If you do that, you didn't mean it in the first place. This is a life transformation. This is a lifelong commitment. This means following Jesus, never looking back again. Your friends, many of them will turn on you. Your family, many of them will mock you. But what he promises is this, no matter what you face, he says, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. No matter what's happening in the world around you, no matter the things that come against you, there's faith and joy and peace and love within you because of the presence of God. Are you ready tonight? Are we ready to agree with our brothers and sisters this evening? Or I should say, are soon to be brothers and sisters. This is the miracle of salvation we're about to witness. I want all of you down at this altar. When my daughter wants me to pick her up, she puts her hands up like this. She doesn't do it as much as she used to, but every now and then, just pick your hands up like this and I want you in your spirit to be saying, pick me up, God. And I want you to say this prayer after me. Say this prayer after me. Just the pad, please, no keys. Say, dear Jesus, I come to you today as a sinner and I ask you, Lord, to forgive me of my sins, to wash me and make me clean. Today, I reject the world. Today, I reject sin. Today, I reject the devil and I turn to Jesus. I want you to continue to pray with me and you watching online. Pray this as well. Say, Jesus, I believe.  And I believe you died on the cross for my sins. And I believe you're sitting at God's right hand. Jesus, say it to Him. Say, Jesus, save me, forgive me, be my Lord, my Savior, my God, my King, I follow you now. And I believe that today I am now and forever, born again in Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen. Church, will you stand to your feet all across the room and will you just give the Lord a hand of praise for this great harvest of souls that we experienced here this evening?  It's simple song, I surrender all. Hands lifted, eyes closed. Can we sing it with them, church, our new brothers and sisters? And you just gave your life to the Lord. I want you to type two simple comments in the comment section. Two simple words I should say, born again. Just type those two simple words. Let it be your public declaration of faith. This is something that you've decided to do that will transform your life. And you've just stepped into something way beyond even what you can imagine. I want you to type those words in. Born again, as I look at the comment section now, I see various different people commenting, many saying they're ready to pray this prayer. I surrender all in Jesus' name. I think there's just about, I wanna say a 30 to 60 second delay, but maybe you'll be able to see it. I can, they see it on the screens if I show them. The comments here, are they able to see that? Can you guys all see that here? Okay, so watch this, hold on, watch this, watch this. I surrender all. I surrender all. There's that slight delay and then watch. This is one of my favorite things to see. I can always see it on my phone, but I've always wished there was a way we can show it to you. Tim, how long is that delay? It'll be worth it, I promise. Harvest, it's about a two minute delay, so it'll come in the next 30 seconds or so. Like I love Jesus, I surrender all. Look at those prayers though. This is what I get to see from my perspective. You can see how I'm so moved when I begin to see the comments. Like there, Alan says, welcome brothers and sisters, angels in heaven celebrating. Glory to God, he says, living as it is in heaven. All to be my blessed savior. There's one born again. They'll start coming in here, I surrender all. Yes, amen. I'm ready, someone else says to receive Christ. Born again, there's another. Born again, praise God, I surrender. Born again, born again, born again, born again. Born again, born again, look at this. Are you seeing this? Born again, born again. It's still going. So when we talk about a harvest of souls, my goodness. And it'll go on like that. It'll actually go on for usually a couple hours after the stream is done. I kid you not, it goes on for a couple hours after the stream to Jesus belongs the glory. I wanna do one more thing. You're up here at this altar. I want you to just do a little 180 here and face the congregation this way. One more time. Can we welcome our brothers and sisters? What can you say after something like that? What can you say after something like that? To God be the glory. I could, I'm not going to, but like if we ended the service there, I'd be full, you know? That would be, I always think of those words. When Jesus talked about having food that they knew nothing of, just this sustenance and doing the will of the Father. That right there is worth everything. I know so because it was worth everything to him. It's worth everything. The pressure of ministry, the heresy hunters. God bless you if you're watching. That right there, worth it all, worth it all. And to Jesus belongs the glory. You may be seated this evening. I wanna share something with you that's very important. Go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter nine. 2 Corinthians chapter nine. I'm gonna begin reading at verse number six. 2 Corinthians nine verse six. Remember this, a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure for God loves a person who gives cheerfully. Verse eight comes with the promise. And God will generously provide some of what you need. Oh, I'm sorry. What does it say? And God will generously provide all you need. That's what it says. Then you will always have everything you need. Now let's stop there, look up at me for a second. This right here, this one phrase I believe encapsulates the idea of the biblical idea of financial fruitfulness. Watch this now. Then you will always have everything you need. That's a big promise in and of itself, but it's only the first half. You will always have everything you need. Not sometimes have some of the things you need, but always have everything you need. And plenty left over to share with others. That is my favorite part. Because when it comes down to it, you the people of God here present and watching online, you love to give, you're generous. People come to you often because you're the one who gives often probably more than you should in terms of yourself and your time and your emotions. And that generosity in you was put there by God. Now of course, sometimes people take advantage of it, but you were created with that generous nature just like your heavenly Father. And so the scripture here is describing this reality we can all know so that we can have all our needs met and then plenty left over to share with others. You know what biblical prosperity is? When you can say to that one who can't afford groceries, I'll cover you this week. Do you know what biblical prosperity is? It's when you can look at that pastor who wants to start that orphanage and you can say pastor, we can send the money over to start that orphanage. Do you know what biblical prosperity is? It's when you can say to those who are hungry, I'll buy you a meal. Those who are naked, I'll buy you some clothes. The children with no home will get you a home. That's biblical prosperity. The Bible goes on to say, as the scriptures say, they share freely and give generously to the poor. This is describing you. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In other words, the resources that you have were given to you by God. He gave you what you needed to sow. Continuing now in the same way. Now watch what the Bible says here because many believers just glossed right over this. Two things to note. He will provide and increase your resources. So not just meet the need, he wants to increase you. And then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. You're saying, brother David, is that the prosperity gospel? Well, certainly not the poverty gospel. And I think, why do people get so mad at that? Do you want to be defeated? You want to claim the promise of being broke? Now, we understand it's not all about resources and I must also add, I understand why some people are hesitant. Yes, of course, this message has been abused, grossly abused, and it's been used for manipulation and greed and gain, but that doesn't make it any less true at its core. Just because some people can take the truth, twist the truth, pervert the truth, manipulate with the truth and abuse the truth, doesn't mean the truth still isn't the truth. So we understand, no, the gospel is not all about health, wealth, and happiness. And no, we don't serve God for material gain. That's not at all why we serve him, but that doesn't mean that God hasn't made these promises in his word concerning finances. The Bible says, yes, you will be enriched in every way. Why? So you can always be generous. Guys, we don't give to get. That would be the prosperity gospel. We give so that our resources are increased that we might give even more. That is the biblical way to look at this. And so this breakdown of scripture is talking about finances. You ever noticed you could talk about almost anything in the church today except for money? It got real quiet. So I know I'm right on the right track here. It's true. You could talk about, well, you could preach on sin. You'll offend some, but they'll say it's in the Bible. Go for it. You could talk about keeping a healthy body. It'll offend some, but it's in the Bible. Talk about it. You could talk about some of the contradictions to the current culture. And you could talk about it. They'll cheer you on. It's in the Bible. Don't compromise. The moment you talk about finances, don't, don't, don't mention that. Why? It's because there's this little part of our flesh that likes to hold and doesn't wanna release. And yes, as I said, many have been burned in the past. But again, I emphasize the scripture is still true. That as you begin to sow, you reap. Now, I mentioned earlier in the service that you do not sow for your healing. And the people said, you do not sow for your deliverance. And the people said, why is that? Because I can't sow apple seeds and reap strawberries. It's the law of sowing. You sow that seed, that type, and you reap that type. The biblical principle is sowing and reaping finances, not sowing finances to reap a healing. And so I want you to hear from the Holy Spirit for yourself. I want you to be a cheerful giver, not given to pressure, not given to manipulation, but rather someone who says, I am generous. I am for the gospel. I wanna see the kingdom advance. And I believe that as I continue to put God's kingdom first that he will bless and increase me, not so that I can consume it for myself, not so that I can be selfish with it and self-centered with it, but so that I could make an impact in the lives of others for the sake of the name of Jesus. That is why we give. When we first started this ministry, the Lord started it, I should say. When I first responded to that call, things weren't necessarily the best in terms of finances. Steve, you remember those days of us having to pay our staff in pizza? And even that was like my hand was shaking with the debit card when I paid for the pizza. And sometimes it was hamburgers and french fries. And every so often, if we were in a great season, we could get soft drinks. And so I remember just saying, okay, Lord, I'm gonna do the best I have with what you've given me. And I want you to increase us not so that we could be greedy and live lives of luxury, just I wanna see this ministry reach more people.  It was, we were lucky if we could get 12 people to show up for a service. But God began to bless the ministry. And I'll never forget we started with just one video camera. Some of you have heard this and it's a story I love to share because it encourages and inspires. I was given by my youth pastor, his name is Eddie Vargas. He actually still pastors here in Southern California. And he was my youth leader at the time. And I remember he came to me and he gave me the Sony VX 2100. I'm a camera geek. Since I was seven years old, I was fascinated with broadcast technology, lighting and cameras and you name it, that kind of equipment. And so he gave it to me in this nice leather bag, lenses and how many cinematographers and photographers do we have in here who know what I'm talking about? Okay, so you can bear witness with my spirit. It was a bag with lenses and cameras. And I was just like, we've made it. This is the Lord's blessing. We're in the season of promise. So we use that camera to the best of our ability. I would film different teachings and I would never show those teachings today because I wasn't as polished. It would take me like an hour to do a one minute promotion. It was really bad. But the Lord spoke to me and he said, I want you to take that camera, that son Isaac whom you love. He said, I want you to sew it into a ministry. He gave me the ministry. And if I were to name that ministry today, at the time, they were just starting with us too. We were all starting kind of at the same time. But if I were to mention that ministry now, maybe I'd want to say half of you would know, at least half would know exactly who I'm talking about. But at the time they weren't doing media. They weren't doing anything. And the Lord said, sew it. And so the first reaction was to make sure it was the Lord. How many times have you rebuked the Holy Spirit only to find out it was the Holy Spirit? God, is this truly you? Confirm it through fire from heaven? No, okay. And I just kind of clutched that bag. I didn't want to release it. And finally I just said, okay, this is the Holy Spirit. I went to lunch with the pastor and I set the bag on the table. And I slid it across the table and I said, God told me to sew this into you. And he just kind of opened it and looked at it. He goes, you know, our ministry has been praying about doing media. And I was just waiting for a confirmation from the Lord. He said, this is confirmation. I'm like, yeah, okay, that's great. But I don't have a camera now. What do I do? No, but in all seriousness, I was happy to see that. And I walked away and I said, okay, Lord, you do what only you can do. We were believing for more equipment so that we can do local cable television at the time. Wasn't even national network yet. It was just local cable. And I'll never forget after I sewed that camera, this man comes up to me and he comes up to me and he says, I didn't even like you.  He comes up to me and he has a stack of $100 bills. I thought he was like a drug dealer that got saved. And he hands it to me and he says, this is $14,000. I want you to go and buy the equipment that's been on your heart to buy. So we get it. And now we're celebrating. I said, Lord, this is the season. This is the new day. And after a few, I want to say a good year or so of using that equipment, the Lord says again, I want you to sew the equipment. You see, at every level that you go, God will test you and your heart at that level. And some of us, remember when we were desperate and we sewed and now that we're doing okay, we still sew on the same level as we used to be. It got quiet again. We still sew it from that place, even though God has increased us. And because of that, we stay where we are. Because as you give, that's when he increases your resources. Why? Because he knows he can trust you with it. And so I remember, I gave away all the cameras, but it wasn't just cameras this time. It was cameras, lighting equipment, microphones, soundboards, video boards, even the cables. The Lord said, give the cables away. And we sewed.  And there's an open door. Network was giving us free airtime if only we could produce at that level. They said, if you can produce this high quality content, like at this level, we'll put you on for free. I said, okay, Lord, only you can do it. And so we were raising the funds. It didn't quite all come in. And then I get a call from a gentleman in Northern California, a businessman. You know how every one of these stories always includes a businessman? Well, I found one. They're real, they're out there. People who love the sew into the kingdom. And so this man calls me and he asks me, how big is your faith? I said, it's pretty big.  I'd say it's pretty big right now. He says, then what am I about to tell you? I said, you're about to tell me that you're gonna send the check that's gonna cover the rest of our studio costs. He goes, hmm, it is big faith. He says, we're sending the check. It's gonna be there overnight. You'll get it by the morning. God will send you people who believe in you like that. This isn't why I shared the story, but that man's actually here this evening. He's right here. Pastor Paul, good to see you. You probably don't know. I share that story at probably every service we do. And that's what the Lord did. And so now I challenge you to hear from the Lord. The costs of these events, guys, are now in the hundreds of thousands. They're in the hundreds of thousands. And we don't want to profit off of these. It's not the goal. We want to at least make enough. I believe God could take us over the top, yes. But our heart is simple to just keep doing these events. To take from what we're doing here and put it to the next event. You know, we're having to look now at arenas. And this is, I know, I know. It's a massive step of faith that we're gonna have to take next year. We have to decide are we gonna keep turning people away or are we gonna start switching to arenas? I wanna know that we can step through that door and God's gonna use you, the people of God, to do it. You know, whenever God is getting ready to bless a ministry, he prepares the people who support that ministry for a blessing. And I believe that as God increases us, he's also increasing you, you watching online. And I'm asking you this evening, not for a special magic number, no such thing. I'm not asking you to respond to pressure, to guilt, to give because you feel bad. I'm not asking you to give because you wanna healing or deliverance. Jesus will heal you either way. Jesus will deliver you either way. I'm asking you to stand with us. This is where we began, Southern California. And we're asking that the support would come in. So you're here, you wanna know what these things cost each event, each event, guys, is in the hundreds of thousands. New York was 400, 500,000. Florida was 300, 400,000. This one is just about $300, $400,000 if I'm correct on that. But they're getting bigger and bigger and more and more expensive and we wanna keep doing them for free. So how many of you will say, I'll hear from the Holy Spirit tonight and do what I can? Will you raise your hand? And you're watching online, I'm asking you. All I ask is that everyone does their absolute best and just stretch your faith a little. Stretch yourself just a little bit beyond and say, we're gonna stand behind this ministry, not so we can get, but so that we can give. Can we have the ushers, please? Take the envelopes now and begin to pass out the envelopes. And if I could even have an envelope, please, that would be very helpful. Thank you, Isaac. Easton, can you come onto the platform, please? I wanna show them just kinda how this functions here. You watching online, there's gonna be a link that comes up at the bottom of the screen. It's right there, it'll help to instruct you on where you can give, just click it. We accept currencies from all over the world. If someone's into crypto, we now accept crypto. Any way you wanna give will pretty much have it. Come on over here, Easton. This right here, those of you here present, they're on the envelope is this QR code. What you're going to do is take your phone out, hold the phone's camera over that QR code and then a link will appear, you click that link and it's gonna take you right where you can give. Thank you, Mr. Lay. It's gonna take you right where you can give. Now, if you're writing a check, make it payable to David Hernandez Ministries. It's not going to me personally, it's going to the organization. And as I said, all this goes into the general fund. We just wanna keep doing these events. We just wanna keep doing these events. As you fill out that envelope, I'll just tell you a little bit how our ministry functions for accountability's sake. You're watching online too. These events for now, because I'm believing by faith, they will start to break even and bring in even a surplus. These events for now have yet to break even. Now, the ministry's not in trouble. We take a surplus from the media ministry. We take a surplus from the book sales and so forth. And that's how we can continue to hold these while still having a ministry that's very financially stable, very financially strong. In fact, the ministry to this day is still completely debt-free. Everything we do is operated out of wisdom and good stewardship. We have a great team who oversees the resources. But these events have yet to break even. And everyone keeps telling me, you have to charge. You have to charge. I said, no, God, if this is a test, Lord, I wanna pass it because we're gonna continue to not charge for these events. And even further, we covered the parking for the people here. We cover your parking. Why? You say, why do you do that?  Why do we do that?  They heard it was free to enter and so they drive up hoping to get in. And then she finds out there's a $20 parking garage and it's the only place she can go. I wanna avoid that scenario at all costs and scenarios like it. We wanna remove all barriers between people and the word. And so I believe by faith we're gonna completely cover these events. I believe by faith that there will be generous people who say, we're gonna stand with you and just as you're giving out of faith, we're gonna give out of faith. Let me just check in on you. How many of you are still filling out the envelopes? Will you just raise your hand? Okay, just a few of you. So the way the ministry functions is very simple. We go around the world hosting these events and we function on free will offerings. This is where you give as the Lord leads you. There are people in this room who feel connected to what we're doing, who believe in what we're doing and you're the ones who support this and we thank you for that. And as I said, we gotta go larger and larger. The venues are only getting bigger and bigger and it's exciting but it's also gonna stretch all of us a little bit more. Some of you were with us. How many of you were with us when we were in the church just when we would do it at the Elevate Church? Just wave at me. You were at Elevate Church, okay? How many were with us when we then moved to the bigger building which was all the sanctuary, okay?  You're at the next chapter and one day I'm gonna be saying this is just the bottom section of the stadium and we're excited about that but we need your support. Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pass the buckets around now and then I'm gonna pray after we pass the buckets the ushers have asked me to speak a little more and give them a little more time to pass these guys. Let's go ahead and pass the buckets. Just go ahead and put that down all the way. This way we can move on to the next portion of the service which I'm very excited about. Don't wait for a man to lay hands on you. Don't wait for a special moment per se. As we begin to worship in the next few minutes the presence and power of the Holy Ghost is gonna come on this room so strong that many of you will feel like electricity moving through your body. Others will feel like heat, some feel like a weight of God's presence. I'm not saying that to try to suggest it to you. I'm saying it to prepare you because we've literally had people run out of the building terrified not knowing what was coming on the room. The fear of God hit them. Before God Almighty, I'm not joking. They've run out of the room because of the fear of God that comes upon them. What we are about to experience is holy. And I'm believing tonight's your night for a miracle. You watching online as well. Thank you all for your giving. I'm gonna pray over that gift in just a moment once the buckets are passed. And I wanna pray with you online too, those of you who are giving. Jesus, we give you honor. Hey, I'm curious. How many of you are monthly partners?  Look around the room, guys. Thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your support. Now, Patrick, are we good on the buckets now? You still need a little, okay, they need a little more time, guys. Let all things be done decently and in order. And I think we're good. Next time, we'll have to figure out a different system for tomorrow. This, I don't wanna do this tomorrow. But I do appreciate all of you and your giving. I know I'm just as excited to get to the next portion, but the larger the crowd, the longer this takes. Jesus, we honor you. Let me pray over those of you who've given. Father, I thank you for each and every individual who's participating in the act of worship that is giving. And I pray, Lord, that you would cause them to come and to increase, such as they've never known. That they might continue to fund your gospel. Increase them, Lord. Increase them, I pray. We come against every attack of the enemy on their finances. We break the power of debt in Jesus' name. Father, even in the next few weeks, let them come into unexpected miracles in the areas of their finances. Lord, even this coming weekend, let them come into unexpected miracles in the area of their finances. In Jesus' name we pray.


Hi everybody it's Sam at Mixed Up Craft, thank you for watching my tutorial today. I'm going to be showing you how to make this really pretty gift bag, I'm so pleased with how this one turned out and the idea to make this actually came from these curtain rings here, so I will talk through in more detail about those in a moment when I show you all the products I've used but this measures eight and a half by three by five and a half, so it's a really nice size. You've got this beautiful kind of wrapped pattern paper that goes right over and then I've sealed it at the bottom with Velcro. My Velcro dots are super strong so I've just put two here and then you can see them at the top, then you open it up. Now this I have constructed it, I cut one side off by accident and realised I shouldn't have cut them off, I will be doing the next one with these side pieces on but it still works and I will still use this and then that will close like so but as you can see mine pops up because I don't have the side pieces but like I said we will do them in the next one. You've got so much space in this and if you do want to put something heavy then just reinforce the base of this with some grey board or something like that but because I've got the Velcro you can actually afford to put something relatively weighty in this because although these are attached here I have used a strong glue and they're going to take some force to come off but that will take some kind of weight but if you do have something very very strong then I would advise that you attach these to the side here and that takes all the weight rather than this kind of I guess the cover but yeah let me show you how to make it. Okay so these are the curtain rings and I purchased these from a charity shop now they will come some do not all but they will come with this kind of plastic in the middle now I'm sure a lot of you have got these lying around in drawers I know I used to have lots of these kind of like in that kitchen drawer where you kind of throw everything but also wooden ones as well but the problem with the wooden ones is they are very very thick so you just need more kind of paper to attach them but that's how they tend to come and then you just literally just pop that middle section out I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet I'm sure something will come up along the way so I'm going to keep them all in there together but these are the two that I'm going to use today now the measurements for these particular ones are it's well it's coming in about one and a half in diameter but you know if it's bigger or small it doesn't really matter but yeah they were a pound for all of those and I thought they're going to be perfect for gift bag you know kind of embellishments you know the hardware side of things so yeah if you've got any lying around or you can easily pick these up I know in the UK Wilkinsons we have a lot of them and I know places like The Range and stuff you'll be able to buy them as well so yeah have a little look and then I don't know why that's not going on oh there we go then I'm using these butterflies and I've already done this piece here this die is an old one it's a Gina Marie die um I will try and link it if I can find one but any kind of you know topper as such will work but I love these I picked them up from the works and I did share that in one of my what did I get and I've just put one on top of there as well so these have always got one to look at once they've all gone okay so you've got your two rings there I've got my Velcro dots there these are the dot on dab range so again I'll link them in if I can find them but they are the 20 mil but again any kind of Velcro but you do want something quite I guess larger just so it holds whatever you've got inside so you want two pieces of 12 by 12 cardstock and we'll get straight into the scoring so you're going to score a half an inch and nine inches okay then rotate it and you're going to score it three inches again then you're going to score it eight and a half inches and at 11 and a half okay so you want to do that twice then you will also need a piece of pattern paper that's eight and a half by 12 so I just cut down one of my 12 by 12 pattern papers now the pattern paper I'm using today is from this pack here it's the paper tree collection it's a touch of romance I've shared this one before and this is the paper that I used to make that large tote gift bag which many of you have liked I will link that one up here so you can see but yeah again I'll link all of this things it's a beautiful really lovely paper and it's 160 GSM so it is it's just kind of works really well it's easy to move and stuff and fold although we won't be folding this one but beautiful pattern and I just saw this butterfly and everything just really works really well together and I love that these are 3D they've got foam adhesive but you can also lift them up like that so that's what you need there then you will also need a piece of two by eight and a half and along the two inch side you just want to score one inch and fold in half and this is purely decorative but it does help because this is a thinner paper by adding that along the bottom it does just give it a little bit of just I guess weight to really kind of you know hold it there and attach it to the the velcro it just makes it a bit easier to kind of lift up so that's that piece and then you want two pieces of half an inch by one and a half and this is what I'm going to use to attach my rings okay but again that size is entirely up to you it will depend on you know if you've got something that you intend to put in it then I would say if it's something heavy then you would want to make that bigger and I'd also say to in terms to reinforce this up here pops and brads through it as well because that just hold it down as well okay so all the scoring's done so now you just want to go along and fold and burnish all the score lines on both pieces okay so you will have two pieces like this now you want to have it so that you have the half inch piece here on the left hand side and the other half inch piece on the top okay because that is going to be the kind of lip to fold and close that top part of the gift box inside and this is going to act as a hinge to actually stick these two pieces together so with it in that orientation we need to do a bit of cutting now the cuts that I'm going to do first will be the same on both pieces okay so we'll do them because there's one the front piece will be slightly different to the back piece so I'm going to say that this is my front piece and you just want to from the bottom here so where we've got this half inch strip you'll see you've got a score line there and then you've got a score line there and then that score line there we're going to just cut this section out here because we want to create that hinge so I'm just going to cut nice and neatly up there and remove that piece completely and then just take a little wedge out of there a bit better there we go all right so back to that way again and then we're going to go along to this one here and cut up so this is our base that we're cutting at the moment like so and then if you just fold that piece up with this piece here you just want to cut some nice wedges off of the sides because that's going to fold inside the gift box or gift bag so we don't want them sticking out like so okay so I'm going to do that the same with this piece okay so that's where you should be at now with both pieces then we want to turn this one here so again we've got that one where we've already cut into it and you're going to just cut across that one there because you should have another score line there just cut up to that one turn it around again and cut from the top all the way down to join that so what we've now done is created this hinge on its own so if I then just take another little wedge off of that one get that one out of the way and turn it back now we've created this hinge so again I'm going to do that one with this piece here okay so now with one of them so this one I've got in my hand I'm going to have is my back piece so that's how we started off with the hinge on our left hand side flip the whole thing around so you've got about this half inch piece now facing you and what we're going to do for this one is just cut up that score line to the first score line like so and then remove this little piece on the top and this is going to be one of the sides that we fold in which is what I cut away when I first made it and then I thought no I shouldn't done that now what I would say and as I've said again for the lots of you that follow me regularly whenever you do one of these boxes where you're kind of locking in the top you just want to take a very very small amount so not like these where I cut those big wedges you want to just go almost like just a little slither because what you want to do is you want to create a lock so that when these are folded in when this piece slots in it kind of jams in between the paper that's why mine pops out because it's got nothing to actually kind of yeah sit against so you can see there I'm just cutting some very small amounts off there like so and then with this top piece now again just cut very very small little wedges off because what you can do is if it doesn't go in when we go to put it together you can always cut a little bit more away so if you don't want to cut anything at this point don't wait till you put it all together okay so that is going to be our back so if you kind of imagine now if I fold that one in that's going to then fold in that's going to lock down and that's the lid okay so with this next piece we've got our hinge again on the left hand side what we're going to do is rather than keep this big piece is we're going to remove this whole piece and just leave this one because that is going to act as the other side piece that folds in okay so again I'm going to flip this whole thing around and we're going to cut down that's one score line that you will have that's actually it's not down to the first it's down to the second because if you think about it we've got that score line so anyway you're cutting it down to this one here then with this piece you want to take off this top piece again like we did before but now we're going to remove this whole section here so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to bring in my longer scissors just because you get a really nice finish with these and I'm just going to cut really neatly along the top and this side is going to act as the front of our gift box okay and again with this piece you just want to take a very very small slither again if it doesn't close we can't get that piece on we can always cut into it a little bit more so it's always best to yeah either leave it if you want to wait until it's all together we'll do what I'm doing just take a little bit off that's all I'm going to do for the minute okay so what you should have now is one piece that looks like this okay and another piece that looks like this so we've got this piece in here both should have this hinge on the left hand side okay so next we can start putting this together so I'm going to add some of my glue on here I'm using the Gina K connect I've I have done a review on all the different glues and this one is a strong glue I'm just going to run a thin amount you never need a lot of glue it's always best to go lighter than heavier I think this is blocked that tabs on the left hand side this next piece the tab has to be on the left hand side and it's this flat piece here that we're going to stick so you just want to I always say make sure you get your base score line lined up like so because you can always kind of like fix the top you know cut into it a little bit more if need be let's move that all the way whereas once you've done the bottom you can't really do much about that so always make sure that that score line is nice and lined up stick all that down flip the whole thing over fold this one and again you're going to add some glue oh this is really frustrating me this is why I hate all these precision nib things I've got my Kalal glue so I think I'm going to end up using that because it irritates me so I'm going to bring this one in and I'm just going to run again not much just want to make sure you get it right to the corners there and then what you should be able to do is just fold that one over in it all line up perfectly again just focusing making sure that your bottom score line is bang on otherwise you're going to have a wonky box it's going to wobble like one of those annoying tables when you're in a restaurant and the whole thing should lie nice and flat okay and that will be a sign that it's all lined up nicely as well okay now I know some people like to keep their boxes so they can fold them flat and store them if that is the case then you don't want to go sticking your base down now like I'm going to do okay but next so flip it over and you want this piece with this pinch here facing towards the back because this is the front turn it upside down and I'm going to fold that back one down first like so I'm going to add some glue onto this piece here stick that one down and then again with this one and then once you've done both your sides you just do that last piece and fold that over and again just make sure everything's lined up because you cut all the little wedges off the side you shouldn't have anything over hanging you can see mine there turn it over and then just open this all up and you can just go in there and just add some pressure just to make sure that glue is nicely spread out okay and then with this now if you fold it in you should have just a little bit of kind of room there if you bring this over it should lock in and that's what you want it to do now if it doesn't like I said I would rather mine be tighter than loose can you see now that's what I want that all it won't come out it doesn't pop out and it's a much nicer finish when you have your side pieces to fold in rather than cut them away like I did see I've got that gap and obviously this pops out but it's fine because when this is closed it does hold it down so like I said this is perfect I can still give that to someone they're not going to so any ass box makers that notice all those things I think so that is now a really nice box so that on its own is a tutorial because you can just add some nice mats onto this you could put a nice floral topper you could have some card coming over this to kind of close it up it's yeah it's really really handy so that's just a nice size gift box next we want to make this look pretty so I've got this lovely do I just again I love watercolor images so this has just got that nice watercolor finish to it and it's just gorgeous so with this piece this is when we bring this section here and if you've got a directional paper then you want to make sure that it's facing up the right way and you're going to attach this to the bottom like this okay now obviously my paper is non directional so it doesn't matter which end I use this but I'm going to just add some glue on one side first you can add it to both if you want but I'm just going to do it on one and then just sit that piece over the top just gives you again that wiggle if you don't have liquid glue you can just use some tape that's absolutely fine and then again I'm just going to add some along here and fold that one over okay so that's that piece now already next we're going to bring our box in again and I'm going to get my velcro dots and I'm just going to pair them up do that one as well get them all ready like I said these are super strong so it's quite a delicate little box so whether they're the right ones to use on maybe smaller would be better but hey they're fine at least nothing's going to come out of this so stick those down and then line this up so that this runs completely flush with the bottom of your gift box like so and what you can do is flip that over open it up and if you go inside and push down on the velcro if you want to use magnets you can but again with the magnets I would say if you've got something heavy in those magnets will probably slide off it's going to take a lot to pull that velcro off so that's why yeah and velcro is my preferred kind of fastening to use anyway now you want to wrap that around and it's up to you really how big you want your arch to be you could have it all the way up here and just glue that little bit down if you wanted to you can see how it's going to look but I've gone quite far really so that is entirely up to you but what I would say the easiest way to know where you want to glue is decide where you want it to go so I'm going to go about there and then I'm just going to grab a pencil and I'm just going to mark a little pencil mark just inside there and then what you can do is open up the whole thing measure that pencil mark so mine is two and seven eighths and then come along this side here and just mark two and seven eighths like so and then draw a very faint line and I will cover this when I stick it down like so now I know that that's where I want to add all of my glue now also I would say is if you're going to do anything with the handle you may want to do that while this is still kind of free because this is where you'll kind of handle bit so if you're going to add brads and stuff or if you want to maybe add some hole punches instead you want to thread ribbon around you might not have these so what you can also do is add a hole punch here and here whilst it's like this and thread your ribbon right underneath and bring it out both sides and then have it as a handle like that so just think about what is that you want to use in case you don't have something similar to what I've got and yeah get that sorted first because it's just going to be easier although you can obviously just undo the the Velcro as well but whilst it's completely detached I guess so now I'm just going to add my glue all along this and then I can see underneath here where that pencil line is and also keep everything perfectly lined up bring that around okay and again what you can now do is carefully open the Velcro there open this up you can go in there and push that all down now if you want to decorate all on this as well you can there's so much space to really you know add your add your touch to it and there you have it now you could leave it like that if you want to keep it more as a clutch style you can by all means because look once that's on there oh how gorgeous does that look in fact I'm going to stick that down now because I just absolutely love this and I just love those butterflies like I said they match perfectly with this so it's always nice when you can yeah mix and match things so again up to you where you want to add your topper you might have a sentiment here you might have maybe a gift tag it's entirely up to you but you would think I think you'd think they're part of this collection but they're not and they were a pound I think for all of those so I will like I said hopefully there still be online or in the stores I know many of you do go visit right so that is that piece now done obviously if you've done hole punches here you'll be able to thread your ribbon through but now I have these pieces here and basically what's going to happen is that's going to stick on like this okay so what I would say first of all is you want to kind of work out where you have them now it's just under one and a half but the the main bit you want to get right really is making sure that you have it right on the top of this arched section here okay so you can see they're mine are pretty I'm happy with that if I put it on the side you can see it's maybe towards the back slightly but yeah as long as you get it as close to that as possible so I'm going to go back to this glue because I did like this like I said it is super strong and it dries pretty fast so I'm just going to pop a little bit here and here and then I'm going to pop this through it's a little bit fiddly but I think worth it and then I'm going to because I've got a little bit of wiggle room just check that that one is where I want it to be and I can just go underneath there in a minute just making sure if you put your finger underneath you can really push down just once you're happy with where that sits pretty happy yeah that's good but now you can see that moves really freely and you've got this decorative little yeah fastening so I'm going to do the same with this one here okay so they're all now secure and then lastly you just want to add your ribbon through and that's why I just thought these are perfect so I'm going to thread one through there and I will link in these hooks as well because if there's anybody there who's you know can't get to the shops and wants to buy online then yeah that'd be easy to find I would have thought so you want to bring it you want enough to be able to kind of make a nice bow but then you also want this piece here is going to start to create your handle so I think that's about okay I think I've done the other one a bit higher then you thread the same piece through there so I'm just going to use my stylus here just to feed that through and again when you bring it through you want to make sure you've got them together now that's not enough to make my bow so what I need to do is thread more through this side and then I can pull this through so you just want to make sure you've got an even amount kind of sticking out and you've got a nice handle probably shorten my handle a little bit I think that's about right and then I'm going to just tie that off in a knot and tie a nice bow and there you have it a really cute gift bag absolutely adore this I think it's stunning and I just love the bow there you don't have to have a bow you could knot it off if you want to you could have the bow at the top there and you could have a bow on both sides it's entirely up to you but yeah I think they're gorgeous and I can't wait to give them to people and there's the other one there so yeah I think they're great so I hope you like them too as always if you have please give me a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel so you get to see more great projects like this thanks for watching bye


haven't here ever since. And my job here in the White House is to try to help the President know and learn what is happening out in the country with organizations of Americans of all kinds. And there are many, many of them, and you here today represent a very important organization, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. And also I would like to say that we have with us in the audience this afternoon another group, the Young Leadership Conference of the National Cotton Council. So on behalf of, and we especially thank you for the very extensive committee network that you have set up to help us develop recommendations for next year's 1980, on a daily basis here in the White House than the representations made by the Secretary of Agriculture. And I know the President is extremely grateful for the clarity with which those positions are expressed. The Secretary has just returned, as some of you probably know, from a trip to Japan. And in that trip, the Secretary has made a great effort to expand United States agricultural markets. The Secretary has also, at the request of the President, started a series of listening sessions. And this is an idea and comments from the agricultural community. And we have had three listening sessions to the occasion that we have with you. I would also like to introduce to you before the Secretary comes to the podium. And also we have here with us the Secretary of Agriculture, John. Thank you very much, Faith and gentlemen and ladies. Welcome to the old Executive Office Building and the Indian Treaty Room, and an opportunity to hear from the President. And I'm pleased to have a chance to address you beforehand, mostly pleased to have a chance to hear some questions from you and make an effort to answer those questions. We are, as an industry, very proud of agriculture. After all, those of us in this room are convinced that it is the backbone of this country and the backbone of the world, frankly. And we make a tremendous contribution to the United States and, in turn, a contribution to the freedom and the strength of the rest of the world. We've been very busy on a number of fronts. I've been working with you. I see a room full of friends of mine that I've worked with for three and a half years. Some of you I've worked with longer than that. And I'll say this without any reservation. We've made some progress.  And we continue to charge ahead. And I think that that is the only way that you achieve a goal or you achieve an objective. And I know that that is the kind of determination that we find here in this room. A little bit about the summit last summer where some of you were in participating, followed by a meeting on my farm with the vice president, other meetings. And then we're going to try and write policy next year. And it's going to be really a tough proposition. But I think it's a very healthy thing the more people talk about this. Farm leaders suddenly appreciate, maybe not suddenly, but more and more appreciate that there are many differences of opinion. And there's absolutely no will get the better balanced policy and a policy that will have a chance of long stick farm policies affect other countries and their policies affect us. And we need a fashion policy that will position America. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. Thank you. Well, good afternoon and welcome to the White House. And special greetings to your chairman and a fellow Californian, Roger Gacica Lupi. I'm delighted to have this opportunity to speak to the people who represent more than 30 state councils of farm cooperatives, over 35 cooperative credit system banks, more than 100 regional marketing and farm supply cooperatives, and nearly 2 million individuals. The National Council of Farm Cooperatives speaks for American agricultural cooperatives with skill and energy, and in doing so you benefit the entire country. And on behalf of all Americans, I thank you for that. All of us know that God has blessed America with a vast and fertile land, but it's your ingenuity, muscle and sweat that have made our farms the envy of the world. I don't mean to be sacrilegious or anything, but possibly you've heard about that old fellow that picked up some bottom land down by the creek that was all rocky and covered with brush, and he worked, and he worked, and he worked, and he cleaned it up and got the rocks all hauled away and the brush all scraped and then planted. And finally, one day after church, he just was so proud, he asked the minister to stop by and see what he'd accomplished. And the Reverend came by and he said, I've never seen melons like that. Look at that corn. He said, oh, the Lord has blessed. Well, he went on that way and the old boy was getting pretty fidgety, and finally he said, Reverend, I wish you could have seen it when the Lord was doing it by himself. But since 1950, farm output in America has jumped more than 90 percent, with less than three tenths of 1 percent of the world's farmers. America can produce 65% of the world's farmers and 1% of the world's farmers. America can produce 65% of the world's soybeans, 48% of the corn, 32% of the sorghum, 25% of the oranges, 31% of the poultry and 26% of the beef. Now, if one of the candidates in the recent primaries had known that last one, it would have taken that one line he had and was asking all the time away from him. But you provide the American people with a diet that gives them health, creativity, and energy. And just as you provide food for people here at home, you make food available to millions around the world. American wheat is used to make pasta in Italy. Our soybeans go into soy sauce in the Orient, and I'll say a little something else about that in a second. But first, our cotton seed is pressed into oil and gets shipped to Venezuela. Our grain goes into bread in Russia. African children are fed by the tillers of the Great Plains soil. I said I'd say something else about soybeans. Some years ago, when I was still governor of California, the president asked me to do a mission for him in Asia that included, among other places, going to Saigon when it was still Saigon and South Vietnam. And I was at a lunch in the presidential palace, and they served a very fiery and tasty liqueur. And I said what is it? And they said it's made from your soybeans. And I still haven't figured out how we let that one get by without finding out about it ourselves. But as a vast and growing industry, agriculture represents a driving force in our nation's economy. America's agricultural assets exceed $1 trillion. And the food and fiber industry employs some 23 million people more than a fifth of America's workforce. You contribute mightily to our level of exports. This year, our agricultural export revenue will be more than five times what it was in 1970, helping to offset the increased cost of energy imports over this same period. Today, one of every three agricultural acres are devoted to export, and about one fourth of all farm income arises from sales overseas. Jack Block just returned from Japan, and I understand if he hasn't told you already that the number of acres American farmers plant each year for export to Japan is greater than the number of acres that are planted in Japan itself. Yet proud as we are of all that American agriculture has accomplished, we must remember the terrible weight that is born by our farmers in recent years. By 1981, a decade of overspending and overtaxing and had pushed interest rates sky high and unleashed growing inflation. Nowhere did the economic chaos strike harder than down in the farm. They were caught worse in the cost price squeeze than anyone. There's a story about a farmer who won a million dollar sweepstake. You must know this one, but I'll tell it anyway. When a reporter asked him what he intended to use the money for, that million dollars, he said, well, I just guess I'll keep on farming until it's all gone. Our administration took office determined to bring prosperity back to the farm. One of our first actions was to lift the Soviet grain embargo. As long as I'm president, our farmers will never again be asked to bear alone the brunt of foreign policy. Since then, we've taken vigorous action to boost farm exports. Trade teams have gone around the world to seek new markets. Your chairman, Roger Bacigalupi, is helping in this important effort by serving on our advisory committee for trade negotiations. Jack Block has been tireless in his travels to Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and most recently, the Far East. And to help finance exports, our administration implemented the blended credit program and increased the level of agricultural export credit guarantees to the highest level in history. I think these efforts are paying off. I know there's great distress in some areas. But we've seen progress abroad in North Africa. We've had a recent breakthrough with Japan. The Japanese have agreed to raise their quotas for American citrus and beef, nearly doubling those quotas over the next four years and five years. Today, our administration is hard at work on the 1985 Farm Bill. The Department of Agriculture is actively soliciting farmers' views on this bill. And so far, they've accepted hundreds of pages of written recommendations and held listening sessions in California, Chicago, and Atlanta. And next week, another session will be held in Syracuse, New York. Yet despite the importance of each of these efforts, our administration has set up a program in place that has helped farmers more than all the others put together, and it's called economic expansion. When we took offense, inflation was well into double digits, and today, inflation has fallen by more than half. Farmers, I think, are seeing the difference. The month we took office, the prime interest rates soared to more than 21 percent, the highest level since the Civil War.  Today, the prime interest rate has fallen by about half. But don't get me wrong. Interest rates are still higher than you and I would like them. And we're going to keep on pushing until we get them down. I've said before, and I will repeat, I don't believe there is an excuse for the present interest rates other than a pessimism or a lack of confidence that we do have inflation under control. Since we've restored our country's basic economic health, and if we go on pursuing a sound monetary policy and working to put the federal budget process in order, the interest rates will drop more. Throughout history, farming has been recognized as one of the pillars of a vital society. In ancient Rome, Cicero proclaimed, of all occupations from which gain is secured, there is nothing better than agriculture. Nothing more productive, nothing sweeter, nothing more worthy of a free man. Well, you have my pledge to see to it that American farming remains not only noble, but prosperous, and that the dream of a successful family farm remains a living part of the American dream. And we hope that we can all work together with you to make sure that you're doing what you can to achieve your goals. So I understand that I'm going to have a picture with your committee right here in front of the podium, but in the meantime, thank you all, and God bless you. Why don't you go?