So, now we want to look at the problem of approximating a function using d square approximation or optimization. So, now this is as I said in my last lecture this is different from what we have looked till now we have been looking at interpolation and interpolation you wanted the approximate polynomial or the polynomial to pass through every point. Now the difference is that I want a lower order polynomial which may not pass through every point but which is the best fit in some sense okay. So, let me first formulate the problem and then we will move on to necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality and then we will move back to solution. So, before we need to do some extra work in between before we actually solve the problem. So, the problem at hand is now why these squares why not something else and we have been using these squares probably in your undergraduate program in experimental methods or fitting curves and fitting lines and so on. Why we use these squares why do not we use some of absolute error and why do not we use 2 norm has some special 2 norm after teaching you about norms you are telling me only 2 norm defines distance no. So, 2 norm also defines angle I mean or not that 2 norm defines angle the definition of angle comes free with the 2 norm right. So, you buy 2 norm you get angle free okay. So, that is the advantage you do not get orthogonality you do not get all those definitions when you use 1 norm infinite norm one could formulate a problem of instead of least square fitting fitting a function in the absolute norm or fitting a function in infinite norm one can very much do that but 2 norm has something special now we will go to see what why it is special but before that we have to do some work. So let me again restate the problem my problem was that I have this points here then need not be equi-space there are some points here where I have this function u z and I know values of this function at different points. So, this is a function defined over some domain you can have it 0 to 1 does not matter or it can be from some a to b I know values of this function at different locations. So, this is the dependent variable u i is equal to u at independent variable z i where z i goes from or where i goes from 1 to 2 norm okay i goes from 1 to n now the main difference is that I want to fit now a polynomial which is not of nth order or n minus 1th order I want to fit a polynomial which is of a lower order okay. So, a typical problem is that I want to fit a polynomial say p m z I want to fit a polynomial p m z which is alpha 0 plus alpha 1 z plus alpha 2 z up to alpha m z to power m okay alpha m z to power m I want to fit a polynomial of this form okay now I cannot say earlier in interpolation we said that the polynomial value or the polynomial should pass through every point I cannot say that now okay what I am going to say now is that this error I am going to define error which is u i that is u i minus p m z i okay which is nothing but u z i minus p m z i okay this error has to be small in some sense but this error is not just at one point you have error defined at i goes from 1 to up to m okay now you have vector of errors not one error right you have n points this n could be large number of points n could be 100 n could be 1000 okay I have large number of data points so I know the function value at large number of points but I want to fit a polynomial of order 2 or order 3 okay classic example from chemical engineering I would give here is c p as a function of temperature we fit c p as some a plus b t plus c t square okay or sometimes we fit a plus b t plus c t square plus d t cube there is no unique way of choosing depending upon what range of c p values and what range of temperature you are considering okay what the choice of polynomial would differ okay you may have 100 values of c p okay you may have 100 values of c p so I may have you know c p 1 at temperature 1 c p 2 c p 2 at temperature 2 and so on so c p n at temperature n so these are different measurement points I know c p at large number of temperatures okay so if I actually if I actually try to fit into this I will have problem okay the problem is that none of this none of this you know there are more number of equations than the unknowns okay so now we have to do something about this okay I goes from here I goes from 1 to this is only here I goes 1 to n correct I goes from 1 to n not 1 to m the number of coefficients here are m plus 1 okay but I goes from 1 to n okay so now the trouble is that this when you write this equation it is not exact okay there is actually one more term missing here so let us concentrate right now on the quadratic equation cubic equation we will worry about later look at this quadratic equation what I have to say that c p is equal to this plus an error c p is equal to this plus error this is not exact representation this is an approximation this e is the approximation error okay why can I fit why am I allowed to fit a polynomial because p s class theorem applies continuous function can be approximated by a polynomial function that is why I am fitting a polynomial okay now but this is not exact so there is an error here so actually actually if I take this data points and I start writing I start writing c p 1 is equal to a plus b t 1 square plus c t 1 sorry c t 1 plus b t 1 plus c t 1 square plus error 1 right so there is some error this is not exact this will give you most of the variation but this is not exactly equal to this there is some error here so c p 2 is equal to a plus b t 2 plus c t 2 square plus e 2 c p 3 is equal to a plus b t 3 plus c t 2 square plus c t 3 square plus e 3 and so on I can write this equations up to c p n is equal to a plus b t 3 plus c t 3 sorry t n t n square plus e n so these are my equations now these are my equations can I solve these equations is there a problem here how many variables and how many equations how many equations I have right now I have n equations how many variables I have so equations n equations is equal to n number of equations is equal to n equal to number of data points how many variables n n plus 3 right so variables is equal to n plus n plus 3 what are the n variables e 1 e 2 okay and plus a b and c so there are three unknowns a b c plus there are unknowns these are the errors which are unknown okay all these errors are unknown now the trouble is how do I solve this there are infinite solutions to this problem why if I if I choose a b c in one particular way okay if I choose a b c in one particular way if I fix a b c by some means okay then I will get one value for even e 2 e 3 because once I once I specify a b c I will have n equations in n unknowns I can solve them okay trouble is how do I fix a b and c differentiate why sigma of all the errors not a great idea sigma is it a norm sigma of errors is it a norm so it might happen that all the errors might sum up to 0 so that means is that the solution why only square why not absolute so I could formulate my problem now I need to generate three more equations to complete the problem I have n plus 3 variables I have n equations to make the problem exact I need to generate three more equations what are these equations okay so now let us look at how do I formulate the problem I can formulate this problem in multiple ways I can formulate this problem I can formulate an index so I can say an index phi which is e 1 square plus e 2 square plus let me call this 2 index and then I can write this as e transpose e okay where this e is a vector of e 1, e 2, e n so I can propose that find a b c such that you minimize this I minimize this I minimize this I minimize this phi 2 with respect to a b c sum of the square of errors is as small as possible okay so I try to get a polynomial such that sum of the square of errors see this is individual error in each equation I am just squaring it and summing it up okay I want to find out that value which gives me minimum sum of the square of errors okay minimum sum of the square of errors so this is one way of formulating the problem I still do not know whether doing this is going to give me three additional equations I have to generate them so there is another way of formulating the problem this is not the only way I could say that you know I will formulate this phi 1 I will say that you know mod e 1 plus mod e 2 somebody might say that why this sum of the square of errors why not sum of the absolute errors nobody stops you from doing that you can so this will be nothing but one norm of e what is this two norm of e square right if e is a vector it is two norm of e square this is one norm of e vector okay so I want to minimize instead of minimizing this phi 2 I could pose the problem as minimize phi 1 right and somebody else might say well I do not believe in this I would like to minimize phi infinity which is max over i minimize the maximum error minimize the maximum deviation okay so instead of minimizing phi 2 I could choose to minimize phi 1 I could choose to minimize phi infinity this is infinite norm of error vector this is nothing but anyone of them is fine okay the question is how do I solve this problem now first of all you should notice that this is an optimization problem you want to minimize sum of the square of errors with respect to these parameters okay there is something different than what you have done in your undergraduate optimization or minimization in undergraduate course you normally study most of you maybe some of you have done advance things but most of you study maximizing or minimizing a function of one variable here you have a function of three variables okay so we need to generalize what we have studied in undergraduate how do I come up with minimization of a function which is multi dimensional okay which is multi dimensional so what is this function I will generalize this problem here okay now let us push this to the background we will come back to this Cp versus temperature business little later let us look at an abstract problem now my abstract problem my abstract problem is I want to minimize an objective function why just look at three variables I will look at general n variables okay I have a scalar function what is this function phi 1, phi 2, phi infinity what are these functions these are scalar functions norm is a scalar function right you always get but I need not always define an objective which is coming through norm there could be other ways in some other problem so in general I am worried about minimizing a function let us say phi x from Rn to R phi x is a function phi x is a function from Rn to R from n dimension to one dimensions so this is my objective function some objective of a vector x so x is a vector which is n dimensional in this case in this case x is nothing but the error vector I am now generalizing I am abstracting the problem I no longer want to just work with errors modeling errors I want to just go and generalize this and say in general actually this is a special case of a problem in which I have a scalar function mapping from n dimension to one dimension I want to minimize and I want to find out minimize or maximize minimize with respect to x1, x2 okay let us take here Rm to R xm I want to minimize this objective function phi x with respect to x1, x2, xm this is one problem now do not confuse this x with this en okay if I said that earlier there was a small error what is x here when I am generalizing from here to here what is x is the unknown parameters what is x abc okay so in this case in this case m would be 3 in this particular case m would be 3 I want to minimize this function phi of x okay with respect to x1, x2, x3, xm in this case in this particular cp problem x would be nothing but ab and c in this particular problem x would be ab and c I want to minimize some function phi x okay b it one norm infinite norm two norm whatever I want to minimize some function phi x with respect to x where in this particular case x happens to be abc okay how to solve this problem I need some background definitions here so well why I am just talking about minimization problem because if you have a maximization problem if you want to maximize phi of x it same as minimizing minus phi of x so I can just talk about minimization problem so it includes maximization we do not have to worry separately about maximization problem okay now first concept that we need to know is a global minimum a global minimum is a point say x equal to x star x equal to x star is called as a global minimum if phi x star is less than phi x you call this phi x star to be a global minimum phi x star to be a global actually equality is not there so you call it to be a global minimum okay if you take any other value so what is the global minimum for abc there is some special value of abc for which this particular objective function will assume the minimum value there is no other value of abc for which we will get a smaller sum of the square of errors okay if that exist that you can reach then that is called as a global minimum okay now when you do optimization you may not be able to reach a global minimum it may happen that you start doing a search and then you go to a local minimum okay go to a local minimum imagine that you know you are standing on the mountain and then there are multiple valleys okay you might reach a valley which is not the you know which is not a global minimum okay which is just a local minimum and then so we also have to worry about local minimum so in local minimum we do not talk about for every x in Rn okay we talk about some neighborhood of a particular point okay so in some neighborhood so some epsilon neighborhood you have defined neighborhood earlier we can think of a ball okay some ball around x bar okay if you can show that phi x bar is less than any other any other x in that neighborhood then x bar will be called as a local minimum here x star will be called global minimum because anywhere you go in the space you cannot get a value of x for which phi will be smaller okay the smallest value of phi is obtained at the global minimum and a local minimum is like a local minimum okay so you know in one dimension it is easier to draw so in a simple one dimensional case this would be you know if you have a function phi of x versus x so which is so this is my global minimum but with this is a local minimum okay so this point for this function is a global minimum whereas this is a local minimum and this is global minimum so in some neighborhood this is the minimum take any point in this neighborhood okay you cannot get value of phi less than this but that is not the case if you look at much larger domain okay so there might be some other value where you get much lower the conditions that we are going to derive now okay are pertaining to the local minimum we are not we cannot actually derive general conditions for global minimum and in general problem optimization problem what we what we find is typically a local minimum if it happens to be global minimum in some cases great I mean no you have achieved the what you wanted to do but in many situations you do optimization by numerical search and then you the solution depends upon your initial guess if you are far away from the global minimum okay you may not reach there so you when you do trial error approach to you know arrive at the solution you might be starting with a guess here and the solution might hit this minimum and you know your numerical method will declare that you have reached a minimum and if you happen to give a if you happen to initial guess somewhere here maybe you will reach this point okay numerical methods you cannot predict you might even go here and get into this so hard to predict what will happen but likely that if you are here you might reach this global minimum the conditions that we are going to derive are for local minimum what are the necessary conditions for a point to be a local minimum what is the sufficient condition for a point to be a local minimum that is what I am going to derive now okay now to qualify a point to be a local or a global minimum I need some more definitions see what was the key thing when you talked about minimum of a single variable function first was that the derivative at this point of phi with respect to x becomes 0 there is no change locally okay so the derivative is tangent which is parallel to x axis okay that is the key thing about so the derivative with 0 that was the first thing how do I extend this to the multi-dimensional case now I have a variable now objective function which is function of m unknowns not just one unknown so I should derive an equivalent condition second thing is so well then I have to make an assumption that this phi is differentiable okay one norm and infinite norm there is a trouble they are not differentiable functions two norm it is a differentiable function x transpose x above the squares differentiable function okay second thing is what qualified this point to be a minimum and this point to be a maximum second derivative the second derivative when it was positive it was minimum second derivative when it was negative it was a maximum now in this particular case if phi x phi x is a differentiable or if it is twice differentiable function then the first derivative of this with respect to x is going to be a vector and the second derivative of this with respect to x is going to be a matrix so I need some more additional structure which will help me qualify a point to be maximum or minimum okay now this is where you need to define matrices which are certain special properties so what is the special property I now need to define matrices which are positive definite or negative definite okay so now before I proceed I define a positive definite matrix and a negative definite matrix and an indefinite matrix if you understand this geometric connections of positive definiteness indefiniteness and then you know it will make much more sense later when you use these concepts okay otherwise many times you know in the course on linear algebra they are introduced not by connecting it to geometry they are just introduced by saying a positive definite matrix is one which has all eigenvalues positive but why do I need this animal which has all positive eigenvalues okay it is not clear to us this is where it will become clear why do I need such funny matrix well it is not really funny it happens to be very nice matrix it helps us in many ways and it is going to help us throughout the course in many ways okay so we have this first definition is positive definite matrix so when is the matrix positive definite right now I am just digressing from the main theme I am just going into a little bit of linear algebra may appear disconnected so if I have a matrix A this A is a n cross n matrix we are talking about real valued matrices right now so if x transpose A x is greater than 0 for any x not equal to 0 okay and x belongs to m dimensional space we are looking at m dimension or not n cross n this should be m cross m because we are talking about phi x where x is m dimensional so m cross n very very important most important word here is for any x even if you find one x for which this is equal to 0 and or less than 0 the matrix is not positive definite so this is the fundamental definition of positive definite okay give me any vector in the space okay x transpose A x is greater than 0 when x is not equal to 0 when will this be equal to 0 only when x is equal to 0 okay remember that well there is one more matrix that you probably have studied in your undergraduate is positive semi definite matrix when do you call positive semi definite matrix so if this becomes condition becomes x transpose A x is greater than or equal to 0 for any x so there are some vectors x for which this will be equal to 0 this will happen when A matrix is singular think about it when A matrix is singular its columns are linearly dependent null space is not 0 and you will get some well this basic definition translates to Eigen values being positive we will look at that a little later but in this case if you just change from this strict inequality to you know this greater than or equal to 0 it becomes positive semi definite A will be positive semi definite okay what about negative definite matrix just so this is this is positive semi definite okay so negative definite negative definite is x transpose A x is strictly less than 0 for any x that belongs to RM okay for any x that belongs to RM and x is not equal to 0 so non zero vector and any non zero vector you give me x transpose A x will be less than 0 and it is called as a negative definite matrix okay and a fourth one is of course negative semi definite so this is x transpose A x is less than or equal to 0 for any x belonging to RM so this is negative semi definite this is negative semi definite okay this is just the background work that I need to proceed further okay well the necessary condition for optimality is something that I would like to quickly derive in the class so every step I am not going to write because it is there in the notes I will just give you outline of the proof how it is done so the necessary condition is given by this theorem so necessary condition for optimality well first of all we assume that phi x is twice differentiable this is twice differentiable that is what we assume first okay then only we can proceed so if you want to know where this appears in the notes I do not know how many of you are carrying notes it is on page 80 it is on page 80 it is in the appendix section 8.2 this talks about now to do arguments about you know local optimality I am going to use Taylor series approximation okay Taylor series approximation is the bulwark of you know is the one of the main tools that we use to prove many many things so for a point the the statement of the theorem formal statement is given here I am just stating the main result so that is if x is equal to x bar is to qualify as a minimum or a maximum optimum we do not we do not know what it is to be we precise it a stationary point okay it could be a minimum or a maximum or it could be neither of them it depends upon some more conditions so the gradient of phi with respect to x that is doh phi by doh x1 doh phi by doh x2 this should be equal to if phi is a twice differentiable function okay what we can prove is that the necessary condition for optimality is that the first derivative of phi with respect to each of the variables not xn sorry xm we are working with this remind me they are working in m dimensional space okay with respect to xm should be equal to 0 in the specific problem for cp okay it will be what is the specific condition for cp value problem so it will be doh phi by it will be doh phi by doh a in a specific problem for cp it will be doh phi by doh a doh phi by doh b and doh phi by doh c this should be equal to 0 0 0 okay this should be equal to 0 0 0 so this particular equation actually is the necessary condition for optimality well I started by saying for the cp problem we need three extra equations the other three extra equations doh phi by doh a equal to 0 doh phi by doh b equal to 0 doh phi by doh c equal to 0 in general if there are m such parameters with respect to which we want to optimize then we have m equations here right we have m equations coming from the first order derivative to be exactly equal to 0 at the optimum point okay now the proof of this so the proof of this actually goes by I think contradiction what we do is we assume that you are allowed to vary a particular variable only in one direction keeping all the other values constant so I just want to put a say along x1 or x2 okay and then we assume that you know that this condition does not hold okay we assume that this condition does not hold but the point is a minimum okay and what you see is that if you make an assumption that the derivative is not 0 and the point is a minimum you will lead to a contradiction okay this two cannot be true okay so the way it is done is you know you write the proof either the full proof you should read here in the notes but the way this is done is that I can write phi x bar plus delta x so I take a small perturbation and let's say x bar is the minimum let's say x bar is the local minimum x bar is the local minimum okay I can write this as f x bar using Taylor series expansion okay plus i going from 1 to m dou phi by dou xi dx i plus the residual term at x bar delta x this is the second order residual term okay now if I say that if I say that the perturbation is only along one direction let's say we will put this as small delta x here delta xi so let's assume that only delta xi is not equal to 0 but delta x1 equal to delta x2 is equal to delta xi minus 1 is equal to delta xi plus 1 is equal to delta xm all are 0 but only one of them is not 0 let's make that assumption okay all all other delta x's are 0 I am choosing to perturb only from x bar I am choosing to perturb only xi ith variable here you have done this kind of thing have you if you have programmed numerical Jacobian you are keeping all the variables constant just perturbing one one value right we did this in the programming okay the same thing I am just perturbing one variable at a time okay now so the question is phi x bar plus delta x minus phi x bar okay so this is dominated by dou phi by dou xi so this difference okay this difference is dominated by this partial derivative times if you take delta xi to be very very small the second order term here will be insignificant this difference is dominated by okay now tell me what should happen what should happen if x bar is a minimum and if I move away from it what should happen to objective function it should increase so what should happen if this this should be always greater than 0 it should always be greater than 0 any moment I make okay now let's take the situation that this gradient is not 0 okay let's take a situation this gradient is negative okay this gradient is negative I can choose a delta x which is small negative value such that this will become multiplication will become positive if multiplication becomes positive it contradicts the fact that x bar is a minimum if I can make the see if I can make this multiplication positive it will contradict the fact that this is a minimum see because if you move away what should happen they should always remain see whichever way I go from the minimum if you are just imagine if you are in a valley okay whichever way you whichever way you go from the minimum point you know your height increases you it will never decrease okay now if the local gradient is let's say this is let's say this is positive this phi is positive then I can choose a delta x which is positive x i and make this positive which means that this minus this is positive which means x bar is not a minimum no you have to argue like that suppose this is negative suppose this is negative then I can choose delta x i to be negative so multiplication will become positive which means this difference will become positive which means x bar cannot be minimum you know so you have to argue in the in a way that well did I this should be one minute I think argument I have to repeat so this see if I move away from x bar the value should value should increase okay value should increase okay now if this is if this is negative I can choose delta x i positive okay if I choose delta x i positive if this is negative this is positive multiplication is negative which means I can move in one particular way and reduce this further which means x bar is not a minimum which means x bar is not a minimum I made a wrong argument earlier now argue other way around if this is if this is positive I can choose delta x i negative if I choose delta x i negative this will become negative okay so I can further reduce by moving away so then x bar is not a minimum so you can show this that for each variable you can argue like this so only way this point can be a minimum is if this derivative is zero okay because if derivative is non-zero you will be able to move a little bit and go further down which cannot happen if it is a minimum okay so only way this point can be a minimum is this derivative is zero okay so this is the necessary condition you look at the proof here to derive the sufficient condition what we do is we look at the second derivative the second derivative here is del square phi so del square phi would be the so called Hessian matrix the Hessian matrix is given by so Hessian in this case will be a m cross m matrix oh I am keep writing n it is m we are working in m dimensional space so this is m here okay yeah so this is m here so we have this we have to look at the Hessian why we have to look at the Hessian okay let us go back to this equation here we said that only way x bar is a minimum is the all derivatives are zero if all derivatives are zero this term vanishes right when I knew Taylor series expansion all derivatives are zero at x bar so the first derivative term will vanish okay then we have to look at the second derivative part okay so then I will write this here as okay so at the optimum the first derivative is zero so this is governed by phi x bar plus delta x transpose half into del square x phi delta x what how what will govern the local behavior of the function in the neighborhood of the optimum point see the first derivative is zero so look at the second derivative second derivative is delta x transpose phi x this this Hessian matrix this is the Hessian into okay what should happen if you move away from x bar it should it should increase okay when will it increase if this matrix computed at so this particular matrix this particular matrix is computed at x is equal to x bar so we are computing this at x equal to x bar okay the first derivative at x equal to x bar is zero I look at the second derivative get to get an idea about what is the local behavior so you second derivative this Hessian if this Hessian is positive definite or positive seven definite okay I can move away from the point but the objective function value will not decrease okay it will only increase such a point will be a minimum point such a point will be a minimum point so if del square x of phi computed at x bar if this is positive definite or positive semi definite then then x equal to x bar is a minimum okay what if this matrix is indefinite what is the meaning of indefiniteness for some x for some x this is positive for some x this is negative okay so in some directions the function will decrease in some directions the function will increase you know saddle point the derivative is zero but in some direction function decreases some direction function increases okay if this matrix is indefinite okay then I cannot say anything about this point this is not a maximum nor a minimum okay so if this happens to be positive definite it is a minimum if this matrix happens to be negative definite it is a maximum okay if this Hessian matrix is negative semi definite or negative definite then it is a maximum otherwise if it is positive definite or positive semi definite it is a minimum and if a matrix Hessian matrix is neither positive definite nor negative definite it is an indefinite matrix okay. So sometimes this multiplication is positive sometimes this is negative then you know then the point is neither a minimum nor a maximum it is a saddle point okay now this particular this is called these two are sufficient conditions for to qualify a point to be optimum. So first thing is that gradient should be equal to zero second thing is ACN should be either positive definite for a minimum or it should be negative definite for a maximum and then we can qualify a point to be an optimum point. So this is generalization of the result that you know from one dimension this now in the next lecture will apply to the specific problem of polynomial approximations okay.


Hey man, so keep your place in Job chapter one. We're going to be referencing Job chapter one throughout the entire sermon. So we're in the science and the Bible sermon series this morning. And the title of the sermon this morning is The Science of Job. And notice I didn't say science in the book of Job. I'm going to talk about the science of Job, the science of the life of Job. You say, what does that mean? Well, let's go ahead and look at Job chapter one this morning. Job is a man who was righteous, he was upright. It doesn't mean he was perfect. In this case it means that he was right with God. He had a lot of things. He had great possessions. He was very successful in his family and all the things that he had upon this earth. And look down at verse number six. The title of the sermon is The Science of Job. Now we see an interesting conversation between Satan and God. That's a unique thing in the Bible in the book of Job here. We're going to get to see today this morning how Satan deals with God and how God deals with Satan on this earth before God kind of ends things and wraps things up in the end times. Look down at verse number six of Job chapter one. And let's look at what I'm talking about when I say The Science of Job. Verse number six says, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. Here we see Satan, the sons of God, meaning we're all sons of God if you're saved.  We don't know if this is in heaven or somewhere on earth or whatever. But Satan comes to have a conversation with God here. Look at verse number seven. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? So the Lord says to Satan, Where did you come from? Basically is what he's saying. He answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it. So this tells us where Satan operates right here. I mean, Satan is on the earth. He's walking around up and down in the earth all over the earth. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and as sheweth evil. Meaning he puts away evil from himself. So God is basically saying, Look at this great example of a believer, this man Job. God is saying to Satan. And Satan answered the Lord and said, The Job fear God for not. Look at verse number ten. Hast thou made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side. Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. So God is saying here, Have you considered this man who's right with me, who's pleasing to my sight? God's kind of putting up Job as an example of the way he would want everyone to follow him. And Satan's saying, The only reason he follows you is because you've given him everything.  You know, you've increased his substance. He's got, I mean, everything is going great for Job. That's why he serves you is what Satan says. Look at verse number ten. That's verse number eleven. He says, Put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face.  Look at verse number twelve. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. God basically says to Satan, He's like, Okay, you can take all those things away from him. He is himself, but you can't kill him. God puts that caveat on Satan. So Job, in the sense of what science is, meaning observation, you have a hypothesis or a theory, and then you go and you test that theory. Job was a scientific experiment in himself. Satan had a theory. Satan had a hypothesis. Look back at verse number nine where Satan says, Doth Job fear God for naught. He's saying, Does God, does Job fear you just for nothing, for free, for no matter what? And then he says, Thou hath made a hedge about him, about his house, about all that he hath on every side. Thou has blessed the work of his hands and his substances increased in the land.  This is Satan's hypothesis. And God says, OK, let's test it. And that's the book of Job right there. Is testing this hypothesis, this theory, that Satan put forth to God, and God says, OK, I will allow you to test this hypothesis. This is the science. Job is a scientific experiment as we know him in the Bible. Satan's saying he only follows you because it benefits him. That's it. I mean, think about this. Is this theory sound? Turn to Romans chapter eight. Keep your place in Job chapter one. We're going to be going back to Job chapter one and Job chapter two throughout the sermon. Let's just think about the hypothesis that Satan put forth. This idea that Job only served God, no matter how it turned out, that Job only served God, or people will only serve God as long as things are good. Look at Romans 8, 28. I mean, are we more likely to follow God in good times? That's the question that we should all ask ourselves. Look at Romans chapter eight and verse number 28. The Bible does say this and says, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. What Romans 8, 28 means is that for those that love God, meaning what, those that are doing what God wants them to do according to his purpose. Meaning, you know, look, just because you're saved doesn't mean that you are loving God. If you're loving God, you're following his commandments.  You're doing the first works on this earth. The Bible says in Romans 8, 28, a very powerful promise for those types of people of which Job was one of those people that loved God, that was showing his obedience and his loyalty to God with the works that he did in his life, not to get himself to heaven, but to be obedient and to love God. Look, it says that all things for those people will work together for the good. You say, well, that sounds pretty good. I mean, that is pretty good, by the way. That's quite a promise right there, but you have to understand that this doesn't necessarily mean cars and houses. This means that blessings, yeah, blessings could come to those who are obedient, but to only teach this side that this good would only be material things, you know what that's called? That's called the prosperity gospel right there.  That's the prosperity gospel. But that is not what Romans 8.28 means. It says all things will work together for good.  For good means spiritual good, meaning bad things in your life could happen, but God promises if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and you are serving God, you are loving God, that anything that happens in your life will work together for good. That doesn't mean riches and gold and silver. It means good. And the ultimate good is, you know, the prosperity of the kingdom of heaven, not the prosperity of your bank account. So the prosperity gospel is just completely false. I mean, it's this idea that you put $20 in the offering plate or you call this 800 number and God will return this 10 fold to you. That's just false. What Romans 8.28 is saying is those that serve God, God will work everything toward to the good. And he does that with Job and I'll explain that to you towards the end of the sermon. But the good can mean you lose everything, but it just means that you get right with God. That's good. If you're wealthy and you're not right with God and then you lose everything materially on this earth and that means you do get right with God, Romans 8.28 just came true for you. And I hope that that doesn't need to happen for Christians, but look, that's true for many Christians. But let me just say this. Job was someone who was righteous. He was right with God. He was right with God. He was not a perfect, sinless person. He was right with God, but he was someone that had things very good in his life at the beginning of Job chapter one. Now, I would argue with you or I would put forth this morning that this applies to us as Christians in our time. Of just this idea that, I mean, from a historical perspective, we have it pretty good in this country. We have it pretty good. I mean, look, I mean, think about, think about just the historical perspective of people on planet earth and just the types of lives that they had compared to the lives that we have today in this country. I mean, from a historical perspective, we're pretty much in the top 1%, I would say.  Think about that. People that were murdered, think about an abortion. Think about a baby who lost his or her life before they even were even born. You think about things like wars.  Think about just the millions and millions of people, tens upon tens of millions of people that have been just killed as bystanders, innocent bystanders or civilians in war. Think about some city that gets bombed in World War II by either side and a child that just dies when they're four years old. Just by being bombed in a, you know, look, from a historical perspective, a lot of people didn't even get a life to live. We have things pretty good. We're pretty comparable to Job in our lives. You know, I mean, there's been a lot of oppression, a lot of disease, a lot of starvation, a lot of shortened lives throughout history, a lot of really bad experiences of the human experience. You know, we're comparable to Job today. I mean, we have relative freedom today to go out and preach the gospel. I mean, we have prosperity today. I mean, prosperity might be one of the only last things that this country has to offer. I'm starting to wonder. But yeah, if you found someone in America today serving the Lord faithfully, upright, right with the Lord, they could be a similar case to Job. So this really applies to us this morning. So let's look at the scientific experiment of Job. Satan's hypothesis is that without all these blessings, Job will curse you. The only thing holding Job upright and in favor and just loyally serving the Lord is all of this stuff. These blessings, his family, the material things, the houses, the works of his hands being successful. So let's look at the experiment. Let's look at the experiment. The experiment is God basically says to Satan, okay, take away everything. Let's see if you're right. Let's test your theory. Let's test your hypothesis. Job loses everything in one day. It's like, talk about the hardest day.  He loses his wealth. He loses his family, his children. And then later on in chapter two, go to chapter two. Later on in chapter two, I mean, chapter two, look at verse number nine. Later on in chapter two, he even loses his health. He even loses his health. Notice, I mean, only his wife was left, but she wasn't really much of a blessing to him if you look at verse number nine of Job chapter two. Look at verse number nine of Job chapter two. So in verse number, in chapter two, God finally says, you know, Satan basically says, well, yeah, but he has his health. He still has his health. And God's like, take that away too. Just only not his life.  Look at what his wife says to him. His wife says to him in verse number nine of Job chapter two, then said his wife unto him, does thou still retain nine integrity?  So you understand why God left the wife because basically why Satan left the wife because she wasn't something that was a blessing to him.  But verse number 10 we'll look at in just a minute. But what's the result of this experiment? He loses everything. All his family, his material wealth, all his cattle, all his houses, everything is gone. And then in verse number 21 of Job chapter one, the result is this. It says naked, and he said, Job said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job's sin not nor charged God foolishly. And then in verse number 10 of chapter two, he says, but he said unto her, even after he lost his health, look what he says to his wife that's trying to, you know, break him down.  Why are you still following the Lord? Why are you still keeping your integrity? By the way, following the Lord through all tough times, that's integrity. The Bible kind of defines what integrity is for us. It's loyalty, especially loyalty to the Lord. Look at verse 10. Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What shall we receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Notice how Job said exactly the opposite of what Satan was saying that he was all about. He's, Job literally said to his wife who was trying to discourage him and trying to break him down. He said, shall we receive good and not evil? Shall we be these types of people that just only want the good things? And when the bad things come, we just turn, we just turn on this. Look, he's saying he's a person of integrity. He's saying, look, I'm glad to take the good, but when the evil comes, I'll take that too. Look, that's a great lesson in itself and that could be just a sermon in itself right there.  You could apply this to anything. You could apply this to preaching. People that love to hear preaching on other people or other people's problems, but then when the preaching hits themselves, they're like, no, I don't want that. It's like, no, you take the good and the evil. Job is just saying, like, God is God no matter what and whatever he does is right.  I mean, when people, people's, here's the thing that's interesting about the health part of it too. People think about, you know, their health and like, well, at least we have our health, but guess what? This idea in Job chapter two of Job losing his health, you know what?  You ever think about that?  Who are you? Look, I hope I have my health for many, many more years. I hope you all have your health for many, many more years, but if God takes away my health, who am I? Who am I to say that like, that's wrong?  I mean, whatever, it wasn't mine to begin with. You know, all my material possessions, he's like, whatever. He's like, I'm glad I had them while I had them, but I'm not taking any of this with me. So what does it matter? So look, the result is Job never turned on God. The result was Satan's hypothesis was wrong. Satan was completely wrong about Job. He said, why did God allow this? It seems kind of like a cruel experiment.  It seems like a cruel thing for God to say, okay, Satan, go ahead and do this. Well, first of all, it's documented for us to read about. It's documented in the pages of the Bible. So it seems like it's something that's important that God wants us to see. Why? Because God, here's why. God wants to demonstrate to us what temptation is. That's why he put this story of Job in the Bible. So we will understand temptation in our lives. Look, this experiment happens all the time. This experiment with Job. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 24. It's all over the Bible to lesser degrees. Job is an extreme example of understanding temptation in the Bible. It's an extreme example that God gives for us so we can understand how temptation works. And I'm gonna show that to you in just a minute. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 24. 2 Samuel chapter 24. We see another temptation point in the Bible.  And then we're also gonna, I'm gonna read for you 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and verse number one.  God in Job, he's allowing this experiment to be run so we understand how temptation works and how Satan works in our lives. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 24 and look at verse number one. A lot of people point out 2 Samuel chapter 24 and they say, oh, contradiction in the Bible. But they just don't understand how temptation works. I'm gonna explain that to you this morning. Look at the first verse of 2 Samuel 24. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. So this is when, of course, David sins and goes and takes a census of the people and then later on he is punished for doing that. In 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and verse number one though, it is worded this way. And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. You say, well, who did it? Who did it? It's the same thing as Job. Who did it? Who did the bad things to Job? Who took away Job's family? Who took away Job's wealth? Who took away Job's health? Look at Job chapter one. I'm sorry, go to James chapter one. In Job chapter one, Satan did it. God allowed it. That's the same thing as 2 Samuel chapter 24 and 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Both of those verses are explaining this same concept where Satan tempts and God just allowed David to be tempted and the reason that God's anger was kindled in 2 Samuel chapter 24 was because David allowed himself to give in to the temptation. He'd allowed himself to do it. So it's actually necessary to have 1 Chronicles chapter 21 in order to understand the complete context of 1 Samuel chapter 24. God allowed the temptation, but Satan's the one that did it and then David caved to it. And thus God was angry with David for doing what he did. God doesn't tempt us with sin. Look at James chapter one in verse number 12. The Bible says, blessed is the man that endure temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. More on that later. Let no man say, this is super important to understand this, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. God does not tempt people with sin. God does not tempt people with sin. If something is happening, it is Satan that is doing it and God that is allowing it. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. So that'll give you a clue by the way and we're gonna talk about that in great detail here in a few minutes. That'll give you a clue where you are going to be tempted. You can know by the way. You can know after this morning, you should be able to self reflect and know where Satan is going to try to tempt you. And the Bible kind of gives it away right here. He says he's drawn away of his own lust. So where your lusts are, that's where you're going to be tempted and that when that lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So David was tempted by Satan to number the people. He had a, and he also, why was he tempted by Satan? Because he had a desire. He had a desire, he had a lust within him to know how powerful he was. He had a desire inside of him to know how great his kingdom was. To know how powerful his army would be. And by the way, this is the sin. Because God didn't want him doing that because God just wanted him to have faith that God would take care of his kingdom. Instead, he was, he's lusting for this information. Satan tempted him and that sin conceived. Which means he actually did it. And God was angry at that point. First Corinthians chapter 10, look at verse number 13. Now God tells us there's a limit. God tells us there's a limit to what he will allow Satan to tempt us at. God promises us in first Corinthians chapter 10 that yes, we have lusts and, you know, different people may have different things that they struggle with, but God promises that he will only allow Satan to tempt them to a point and then he will stop Satan. God promises every believer this. Look at first Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13.  It's not God tempting you, but he's saying he will hold Satan back so you will not be tempted, you will not be pushed beyond the limit that you can handle successfully. But with the temptation also, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that he may be able to bear it. So this is the concept of temptation. This is the concept of temptation. Satan does it. He does it according to your lusts and God throttles it back to the point where you should be able to handle it successfully. You should be able to bear it. Now, is everyone successful in this? No, David was an example of someone that was not successful in that. But look, he could have been successful. It was possible for him. He just gave into his lust. He gave into his flesh. Turn to Matthew chapter 24. So look, the scientific experiment in 2 Samuel chapter 24 with David, it worked for Satan. It worked. His hypothesis was correct. With Job it was not. Here's another person that was tempted. This is why Jesus went through the temptation in the wilderness to show us that it is possible. You say, well, Jesus is God. Yes, but Job's not God. Job was just a man and he withstood it. Look at Matthew chapter four, verse number one. Matthew chapter four, verse number one. The Bible says, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Jesus had to go through this experiment too. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungry. And when the tempter came to him, who's that? The tempter, the person doing the tempting again, this proves is always Satan. He said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, as written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil take him up into a holy city and set of him up on the pinnacle of the temple. And sayeth unto him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning me. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. He's basically trying to get him to listen to him. He's trying to give Jesus a command and have Jesus just listen to the smallest thing. He said, would it be a big deal if Jesus turned one of those stones into bread? Would it be a big deal if Jesus called angels to come and rescue him?  He'd be listening to a command of Satan. And that would be a sin. Again, the devil taketh him up to an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and sayeth unto them, all these things will I give thee if that will fall down and worship me.  Jesus himself was tempted by Satan. He was put through this experiment and he passed. So the point is all of us and the reason Job is such an important story in the Bible and the reason God allowed this scientific experiment to take place is because all of us will also go through this experiment. All of us will be tempted of Satan in which you have to ask yourself this morning and through all the days of your life is will my circumstances change my loyalty? How will I do in this experiment in my life? I mean, think about this.  I mean, many people when times get good, maybe they're down and then times get good, they abandon God. You know, I mean, many people do that. Times get good, they forget about God. This was Solomon in the Bible.  You know, Job was someone where times got bad. He was at the top and then times got bad and then he didn't blame or charge God but many people do this. Many people have the blessings taken away in their life, things go bad for them and they just say, well, this Christian life is getting me nowhere and they walk away because that was the hedge around them. I'll serve God as long as things are good in my life. Look, this is the scientific experiment of all of our lives is when I'm trying to get you to understand this morning. And you say, why would God do this? Why? Because the tempter is here, that's why. The tempter is here with us on this earth now.  Such an extreme story of someone who went to such extremes and did it correctly that it'll be way more extreme. Job was the extreme story of someone who literally lost everything up to an inch of his life and still did not charge God foolishly. Still did not curse God, was still loyal to God. We should be thankful to Job. We should be thankful to Job. Job was that he was from the top. Look, Job went from the top to the bottom, turned to Job chapter 42, turned to Job chapter 42. He went from the top to the bottom and back up to the top again and was right with God the whole way. Yeah, they got a little prideful in the book of Job, talking back and forth with his friends and God kind of sets everybody straight there. But the point is, Job went from top to bottom to top and never lost his loyalty to the Lord. It's a complete example for us and this is why God did it, so we can have this example. Look at verse number 10 of Job chapter 42. At the end of the story, look at what the Bible says. It says in the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. I mean, God's sitting here and he's saying like, you know what, here's a guy that can handle some blessings and he gives Job twice as much as he had before.  So notice how the Bible says there, the Lord brought it upon him. The reason that God did not do that to him, God allowed it to happen to him. So the Lord brought it upon him in the sense that God took away, you know, the restraints from Satan on Job's life and allowed the tempter to do those things to him.  So, verse 12, the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. For he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 she-asses. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. He even replaced all of his children. Look, he survived the most extreme temptation in the Bible. He went from the top to the bottom and back to the top again and he was faithful all the way. This is why God allowed it. So it would be such a great example for us. So look, for us, you say, how do we do this? How do we do this? I mean, basically what it comes down to is this.   You take the blessings and serve and you take the curses and serve. That's the decision that you make in your life.  You take the hurt along with the good in your life and the service stays the same. But the thing that you have to understand is just as in Job chapter one, you will be tempted in your weak points. So you have to ask yourself this morning, you have to ask yourself throughout your life, what is my hedge? Do I have a hedge? You know, the Satan said about Job is like, you've placed a hedge all about him. He's like, you've just made it easy for him. Do you have a hedge? What is your hedge? Is your hedge your substance? You know, is your hedge the things that you have in your life? People, look, do you know that people have thrown away their faith because of wealth? Only when the money and the Lord line up. Well, I pursue my Christian life. You know that many people do this, meaning their Christian life will last, I don't know, not long. It won't line up for long if that's the case. Why? Because the tempter will hit you there, that's why.  You're like, what? Kids?  The scary thing is, if that's your hedge, if that's what would stop you from serving the Lord, that's where the tempter will hit you in that area.  Think about this, the wife, the wife and the husband. Look at, Job didn't have a wonderful wife here. When you think about a marriage, if there's cracks in your marriage, Satan will use this. Satan will go after this.  I need to be a help meat, a help that is worthy to my husband. I need to help my husband. Help hold him up, help hold up, you know, the family that he is trying to lead. Not be this weak pointer, or God forbid, like this woman in anchor, trying to drag him down. She was not able to drag him down. But this is a reflection that wives should make. Wives should be a strength to their family, a, you know, strength to their husband. You know, not someone that's casting doubt. Not something that's trying to pull down. You know, not someone that's constantly trying to just cast doubt on the Christian life. Why are we doing this? Or why do we, you know, do all these different things that are so different than everybody else does?  She was trying to drag him down. Husbands, husbands, look, a strong leader will not be able to be dragged down. That's another thing about Job that we see here. We had a wife that was like the opposite of the virtuous woman here, and she was not able to pull Job down because he was a strong leader. He was a strong Christian. But let me tell you something. The husband as the leader of the family, this is the life and death of the Christian life right here. It is a life and death situation. Job, he survived a faithless wife. And like, I don't know if she's saved or not, or whatever, we don't know much about her. Probably was. Probably just had very weak faith. But Job survived it. Job was a strong leader. And he would not be, look, the husband that leads his family successful, successfully will be successful in the Christian life along with his family. This is how important this is. So the marriage works both ways. Any rifts in the marriage, Satan will exploit it. He'll come after those cracks. How about the work of your hands? That's another thing Satan said was a hedge. The work of your hands, people that are just like in love with their career. Just in love with this, my career comes first and all of these types of things. And look, if that's your hedge, as long as my career is going well and as long as I have this success in this area, I will serve the Lord, that's what Satan's coming after. That's where he's coming. You have to ask yourself, what is it? What's the hedge that's protecting your Christian life? What's the hedge that would weaken you if it was taken away that would weaken you to the point of quitting your Christian life? With Job, there wasn't one. Satan was completely wrong. He wasn't even 10% right. He was completely wrong. But you have to understand, you find those hedges. You think about these things. You find those hedges that you have and you get rid of those hedges. You burn them down. Because those are the things that Satan is gonna come after. The tempter is real, he's here and he's gonna hit you in those places. So what's the trick? How did Job do it? You say, I wanna be like Job. Turn to Matthew chapter six. What's the trick? How did Job do it? Turn to Matthew chapter six. Turn to Matthew chapter six. The first thing is to just do those thought experiments. Find those hedges in your life. Run through those things in your mind. Look, I like to plan. I like to plan scenarios. I like to go through what could happen. What could go wrong? What's possible there? But here's the thing, you gotta be a decisive person. That's what it takes. That's what it's gonna take to be successful in the Christian life is to be a decisive person. Look at Matthew chapter six in verse number 31. The Bible tells us this. Look what the Bible says in Matthew 6.31. It says, therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? Notice these words, no thought. After these things, do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father, Noah, that you shall need of all these things. You say, what is it talking about? Am I supposed to just like, not care about how I'm gonna pay my bills or that's not what it's saying? Look at the very next verse. It says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. So it's saying, take no thought on all these material things, but it's saying, just listen, but instead, listen to what God is telling you to do. It says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. And again, it says in verse 34, therefore, take no thought for the tomorrow. For the tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day of evil is, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. It's saying, just make a decision. Just make a decision that the kingdom of God comes first. That's what it's saying. But the problem is, you gotta make the decision, I'm just gonna serve you, Lord. I'm just gonna serve the Lord with my life. Let me explain something to you. My Christian life is not a decision. That decision's been made. Coming to church is not a decision. Going soul-winning is not a decision for me. That decision's already been made. Serving the Lord with my entire life and leading my family spiritually is not a decision for me. It's already been made. I'm like, hey, thanks for the blessings that I have. Hope they continue, but I plan everything around my Christian life, around it, because that decision's been made. That decision is a rock in my life. That decision was a rock in Job's life. That's how he did it, because the decision was made. I mean, it was already made. My Christian life doesn't move, no matter what. Good times, bad times, the decision's the same. It's easy, it's easy. You know what's hard? You know what's hard? Look, people make these decisions all the time in their life. Like, you won't find a guy in this church, I bet, that is like, you know, they're gonna decide at, you know, seven o'clock Monday morning, whether or not to go to work. But people have made these decisions. That's the type of decision that we need to make. See, what's difficult is when you make the decision that my Christian life will come first, no matter what. Curses, good, bad, riches, poor, health, unhealth. It's easy. What gets in front of that? Nothing. You know what gets hard?  This seems pretty important.  That's where things get complicated. Whereas it's just like, the decision's already made. It's just easy. It's easy. You plant everything around it. Satan's looking for your cracks and he's gonna find him. That's what he does. He's considering them. As he says, have you considered, as God said, have you considered my servant Job? Satan is considering where your lusts are, where your cracks are, so seal them up. We're all participating in this experiment with our lives. Turn to Joshua chapter 24. You see, in Joshua chapter 24, turn to Joshua chapter 24. We could read a bunch of verses like this. We'll just read two. But, say, why is all this necessary?  We have free will. So we have free will. Satan has free will. And God just promises us that he will restrain Satan to the point where we will be able to escape what he's bringing at us. But God wants us to freely serve him. We have the freedom to be obedient or the freedom to rebel in our lives. Look at Joshua chapter 24. The tempter's running around encouraging the rebellion. It's the science of your life, folks. And it's really just a matter of being decisive. Look at Joshua chapter 24 and verse number 15. And it's seen evil unto you to serve the Lord. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods of your fathers that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land he dwell, but as far as me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua's just saying, make a decision now. Decide now. In 1 Kings chapter 18, right before Elijah goes to, you know, goes to war against the prophets of Bailee, just says, you know, if the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal follow him, he's just saying, make a decision once. And it's so easy once you make that decision. And look, I'm gonna give you three benefits to making that decision this morning, just from what we've already read. The first one is in James chapter one, you're gonna get a crown of life. You say, what does the crown of life look like? I have no idea, but when we get to heaven, we just find Job and that's what it looks like. Because he's gonna be wearing one. That's what the crown of life will look like. Job will have one for sure. So the first one is you get a crown of life. The second one is, you know what? Whether it be good or bad, if you make this decision to serve the Lord, no matter what, through the curses, through the blessings, whether it be good or bad, you know what? You'll have a life of purpose. You'll have a life of purpose. Jacob and I were out fishing last couple days. And I mean, we like really did a lot of work. It was really a lot of work. And we went out in the morning. We came back in, we got some crabs. We brought them in, we cooked them. And then we went back out again and we went and dropped more gear and all this. We were just working, working, working. And when we would come back in, there's these guys sitting in these chairs by their motor homes or whatever. And we went back out and we did all this work and came back in several hours again. Guys are still sitting in their chairs. And Jacob's like, how can those guys just sit there all day long? And I'm like, hey, at least we got a purpose here. You know, we may not be catching a lot of fish right now, but at least we got a purpose. At least we're out here, we're doing stuff. You know, we're actually going for, I think this is like an analogy of life. No matter how my life is going, no matter if I'm blessed or I'm cursed, if I'm at a high point or I'm at a valley. Because look, life for everybody's gonna have high points and valleys. No matter where I'm at, my purpose is the same. That's the beauty of the Christian life. I'm out here, oh look, I'm going soul winning whether I'm in good times or bad times. The purpose is the same. I'll have a life of purpose, whether my life is 45 years or whether my life is 85 years. My life is, I had a life of purpose. As long as I made that decision to just serve the Lord. No matter how many years I had. Look, the real curse is somebody who every day their Christian life is a decision. And they're in the Christian life for two years and then they're not in the Christian life. And look, from what I've seen, like the peaks, if they just fall out of it, they never reach the peak again. I don't know why that is. But the point is, you throw away that life of purpose. At least no matter good times or bad times and blessings or curses, high or low, rich or poor, we have a life of purpose that has guaranteed us for however many years that God gives us. That's your scientific experiment. Right there, you have a life of purpose. And what's the purpose? To grow the kingdom of heaven on earth. That's our purpose. Number three, turn to Job chapter 42. Now this is a really good one. You say, crown of life, man, I'm not really into hats anyway. And you're like, a life of purpose, okay, that sounds pretty good, but here's a really good one. Look at Job chapter 42. Here's the third thing. Here's the third reason that you should just make a decision to have your Christian life. Just make that decision. My Christian life is just locked in. My Christian life has no hedges.  My Christian life is a decision I've already made. It's hedge free, and no matter what happens, it stays the same. Look at Job 42. The third reason is this, and heritage. And heritage, so you can leave and heritage. Look at verse number 42 and verse number 16. After this lived Job 140 years, and saw his sons and his sons' sons even four generations. So Job died being old and full of days. You say, four generations, that's weird. Turn to Exodus chapter 20. In Exodus chapter 20, we see another kind of odd statement in the Bible, but this is the other side of the spectrum. So if you're in Job chapter 42 and verse number 16, you should write Exodus chapter 20 and verse number five because these are the opposite ends of the spectrum right here. In Exodus chapter 20 and verse number five, the Bible uses these words. It says, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Isn't that interesting? God says that he will visit the iniquity of the what? The fathers upon the third and fourth generations. Meaning the iniquity of the fathers will be felt, it will be in heritage to the third and fourth generations. That's your kids, kids, kids, kids. But on Job's side, we see the blessing of that. That he saw up to fourth generations. He was an in heritage. Look, he was personally there, first of all. But he was a blessing and he passed that heritage of the Lord to the fourth generation personally. It was felt by him. So we see this opposite side of the spectrum. You say, what, is my great grandchildren gonna be punished for my sins? No, they will receive that heritage and they will end up in those sins themselves. They'll be punished for their own sins, just like the sins of Jeroboam. Just like the sins of Jeroboam were passed to multiple generations. But it's an interesting little, both sides of the spectrum, you see the extreme blessing to four generations and the extreme curse to four generations. So yeah, serve the Lord with your life. Have no hedges on your Christian life. Make the decision, you'll serve God no matter what. I mean literally no matter what. And four generations out will feel that heritage. That's why David says in Psalm 166, he says, the lines are falling to me into pleasant places. Yay, I have a goodly heritage. He's saying, look, I have a goodly heritage. We don't know much about Jesse. His dad, we know enough. We know that David received a goodly heritage from his father, his grandfather. We know enough. So I mean the question this morning is, how is your experiment going? Find your hedges. Where are your hedges at? Is Satan's hypothesis gonna be correct with you? Or do you not have hedges just like Job? You know, I mean, is Satan right? Is really the question because he was not right with Job, but that scientific experiment is happening with every single Christian and Satan will be right and he will be wrong on some. It's up to the individual. It's up to you. So I'm thankful for the story of Job. I'm thankful for the man, Job. I'm thankful that God allowed Job to go through this as an example for us. And I'm thankful that Job was able to endure it because it's a proof of the Bible. It's a proof of the promises that God gave us in the Bible and it's a proof of what we're up against here as this same tempter that was, you know, back in the land of us thousands of years ago is this still the same one that's with us today. Let's bow our heads and have a word of praise.


All right, from here, I'll dismount as the team leader. We were training earlier on how to do the dismount procedures. Honestly, I think it's an honor having the opportunity to go to another country outside the world and be able to share good knowledge. I think it creates more universal soldiers. They understand this. We should be able to understand whatever tactics they have. If I could learn off them, it makes me a better leader.


Alright, what's going on everybody? This is the select mini box break number five to fill up the baseball mixture coming up next So this is only for the break only for the select box break here The other randomizer will be done totally separate totally new dice totally at the end So we're going three and a three six times on both lists one two Three I don't trust Sean with the bowman four five six and final time TJ down to Travis you might Install all of our Dodgers fans And six times on the teams one two three four five Six and final. I mean Joe you'll have packed people pack stacking for you It'll be just like any other day. All right 12 times on the list. Here you go. Here's the list This is just for one box break. So I'm not going to name off each team But I will advertise it by everyone's name and we're gonna pick the box It's just a mini box break Yeah, you got to be unbiased in the breaking game So go left side one two three right side four five six and we'll use the other mini box I'm sure for another mix of another day some other day three So we're doing the left box Had like a seizure saying that doing the left box and we're gonna close the trade window Tired. All right, right side will be for some other time Some other time there There you go. Good luck. I printed it by your first name. So I'm not sure why I got to reprint it now What a nightmare Really, I like the Yeah, I like the Jumbos just because of the pattern, right? But if you have someone pack stacking for you the hobby cases are a lot easier Hobby cases alone are pretty, you know tough Although that sounds very privileged people would probably be doing it for free if Just see the stuff that we see Just to be able to witness greatness in action I did that Star Wars ride at Disney. I don't know. I'm not I can't get into those 3d rides Those aren't for me.  They're just kind of boring. That's my opinion Don't sue me Disney Love everything else. All right, so no veteran comments ship, but everything else will I'll a penny sleep my trout hill ship Since it is a second year third year redemption any guesses Shin-su Chu Reds And we got number to 500 Shelby Miller rookie autograph for the Cardinals that's going out to From he was traded for who dance be swanson, right? St. Louis Cardinals is Joe Lancaster Looks kind of weird photo Matt Harvey Darren's guessing Jean Cigarra again Why is he been coming out a lot Phillies right Aaron Hicks or twins Phillies twins Yankees Phillies twins Yankees Phillies twins Yankees Twins The Twinkies I was right. I guess three teams got got one. So let's try this with the twins He'll be in his twins gear on that. He's a current Yankee though He's from from San Pedro, California Born and raised There you go All right Let is let us randomize the list uno mas or how many times the Thing tells us to so we're taking all of these names The top seven win a spot in the baseball mixer Aaron Hicks should have ripped him bowman. Yeah, what else you doing Aaron Hicks? No baseball going on We can zoom him in Maybe Teddy knows him maybe he's Teddy's neighbor seven times top seven win after seven times one two three four Five six seventh the final time Here you go top seven aims Anthony V James Zach Dennis James Travis and James Jimmy for two James B for one Travis Dennis Zach and Anthony V Congrats to those folks. Sorry to everybody else, but thanks for giving it a try on jazpiece case breaks.com


Thank you. Everyone, good morning again. I will present on implementation of routine viral load and outside cascade analysis. UN did set targets. UN did set targets for reaching 1990 by the year 2020. And the first 90 was to make sure that by 2020, 90% of people living with HIV and AIDS near the HIV status. They also said of those, 90% have to be retained on unretro-viral therapy. And finally, they said 90% of the population of people who are on ARVs have a suppressed viral load. But four years before these targets are met, we still have a global coverage of viral load of less than 30%. And we also, in particularly Malawi and Zimbabwe, some of the countries I will present on, we have a viral load coverage of 17% and 5% respectively. And this, we say, we want to achieve 90% of suppressed viral load by 2020. So this is some food for thought for everyone to see whether this is achievable or not. So my presentation is that from 2012, we did start implementing routine viral load in MSF projects in five countries, and there were six projects that we're managing, in Lisoto, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. All the settings we did, our projects were raw settings. Now, so all the sites were implementing a scaled up viral load using dried blood sports samples. These are quite stable and you can transport them after a longer period of time. They don't need any kind of media to store them. They also were using a centralized viral load platform, which made sure that we have a high throughput for all the tests that were being done. So all the countries that I've mentioned were performing viral load, and except for Malawi, which had a two-year period for all the patients when it arrived. Now, what we did is that we're following up a specific algorithm. And the specific algorithm was to also assess that there has to be viral load coverage for all the patients when it arrived. So that's the first thing we had to look at. Then also, we looked at that the step two was to make sure that when the viral load is done, then there is action on the results. And the first action depends on whether the result is below or above the threshold. In this case, which was 1000 copies per meal of the viral load. So if the viral load was below the threshold, there was need for us to offer differentiated care for the patients. For example, offering them clubs and commit ART groups or first tracking is a mode of art delivery. And I think the next presenter will talk about this in detail. Then also, if the viral load was above the threshold, there was need for counseling to be done. And subsequently, after the counseling, there was need to make sure that if a patient again is the second viral load below the threshold, then they will remain on first line. And if the patient is a viral load above the threshold, then they again will have to be switched to second line. So basically, this was the algorithm that we're trying to follow over the past period. Okay. So what we did is that we analyzed, analysis was done between January and November 2015. We reviewed clinical and laboratory records to make sure that to determine whether the steps of the viral cascade were being implemented and again within a defined period of time according to the guidelines of that particular country. So the results we found were presented to the program staff and the barriers for implementation we identified. Then what we found out that from the 24,200 skis-to-three patients that we analyzed, the overall viral load coverage was skis-to-five percent and it ranged between 32 and 91 percent. Then also, we also looked at viral load results that were above the threshold and again in this scenario, we realized majority of the size viral load proportion of patients, the viral load above the threshold between 10 and 20 percent except for Mozambique, which had a quite high proportion of patients that did the viral load which was around 20, 40 percent. And again, reasons for why it was like this Mozambique were not very clear. Now, to explain why we had either bad or good coverage, the first success story was that in some of the settings, there was task shifting or sample preparation to lay workers. That means people who are not nurses or doctors were taught on how to prepare samples and they would do it. Then also in some instances, we are using electronic medical records so that this flag up patients who are due for viral load and then tells the nurse or the clinician or whoever was responsible to make sure they bleed the patient for viral load. And the third success story was that there was demand creation with the patients and this was done either through the civil society and patient education to make sure that the patient when they come to the clinic they emphasize the clinician that I need my viral load, it has to be taken. And the civil society was pushing the service providers to make sure that they provide the viral load to the patient. The main challenges were that at times at some instances in the clinics, there was poor patient triage and patient flow was not very well done. Therefore, there were missed opportunities and some patient would go with the viral load done even if it was due. Then there was also a prolonged turnaround time from the laboratory in terms of delivery of the results. So at the end of the day nurses and the clinicians will end up getting demotivated in repeating viral loads and they won't be getting their results. Then again in terms of action on the viral load that was above the threshold, we were using some tools to record the enhanced adherence counseling and the recording was between 37 and 70 percent. And also repeating of the viral load after I faced viral load was above the threshold, the coverage was between 23 and 16 percent. And the switch to second line was quite poor with a switch of between 10 to 30 percent. And again we realized that there were some reasons as to why there was poor action or good action on high viral load or a viral load above the threshold. The first success is that if there was a dedicated focal passing to identify and follow up patients, this was quite well done. And also if there was flagging up of results to make sure that if you see a result which is high, it was easy to identify and make sure you take action. There was again a use of the enhanced counseling register and high viral load forms which are shown on the right. These were tools that we're using as well to make sure that recording is done for enhanced adherence counseling. And also from the laboratory, there were monthly lists that were sent to the health facilities and the program managers so that they follow closely with the patients and action taken upon them if they had a viral load above the threshold. Some of the barriers included that there was a poor patient triage as I said earlier on and again they won't be dedicated staff member to perform an adherence counseling. And when we mean dedicated staff member, somebody who is employed on a salary and making sure they are following up counseling needs of the patients. There was again in some instances lack of supervision and follow up of the clinics and follow up of the sites. And also a major barrier was lack of task shifting and decentralization of second and art. I want to take you back to 10 years ago when we started treating HIV and AIDS. We said nurses are not capable of initiating patients on ARVs and as a result there were so many delays, many patients died and this resulted in us not being able to quickly curb the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Therefore we are saying this can be repeated if we still have got those bottlenecks where task shifting of second line, ARRT initiation is not yet done and this is common in most of the facilities and in most of the high bed and countries. So again we also looked at the cost of no action. If we do viral load there's a cost implication involved and again if you look in Shanghara in Mozambique we spend 8,000 on performing a viral load test but those tests were not used and therefore that man was lost. And we're saying this has to be addressed as well. Again in terms of the patient if I remain sick I'm going to see the second line. There are costs to the patient and again in the public health arena if you don't treat a patient and they remain with the high viral load, a viral load above the threshold, there are chances of spreading the HIV are high and they keep on infecting new people and again this brings a burden on managing those new infections and making sure that our own treatment. So in conclusion I would want to say that scaling up of viral load is feasible in resource poor settings and again it's very important that we analyze the viral load cascade at site level as it is essential to ensure that tests are taken and results are utilized. There's also need to make sure that when you invest in viral load there is also investment in programmatic implementation of viral load as in establishing a viral load testing capacity. It's not just about buying machines, it's not just about bringing a lot of laboratory agents but it's a world to make sure that programs are able to handle what is involved in terms of viral load. There's need to manage patients with the high viral load, there's need to make sure that everything that we put in as a cost is put to use and again there's a very urgent need to make sure that task shifting is done and decentralization of second line heart initiation and follow-up is done. Like what I said earlier on in most settings this is what is causing such a poor switch rate and this making patients finding it very difficult to again be doing well on air of ease. So if this is not addressed very early we are likely to run the risk of going back 10 years ago when people were dying and nothing was being done. So with this having been said I want to thank you very much for your listening and now to acknowledge the ministries of health in the different countries and also the field teams MSL field teams in the different countries and the patients particularly in Lisoto, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe were part of this. Thank you very much for your listening.