All right, so we have come to the session on walking in wisdom in your singleness. A topic I have never spoken on before, so this will be a good reminder for all of us. So turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4, 1 Timothy 4, we're gonna be looking at verses 12 through 16, 1 Timothy 4. When I was asked to speak on the topic of walking in wisdom as a single, my mind went scanning through the scriptures. What does the Bible have to say about people that are single? You know, it really doesn't have a lot to say. It says that young women should get married, and then in another place, Paul says, don't get married. And to stay single because you can serve the Lord with full out passion. And another place, it tells singles to avoid fornication. And after that, there really isn't a lot said in the Word of God about being single. But my mind went to the scriptures just in themselves, and I thought, you know, all of God's word is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, so all of God's word is profitable to singles. But then my mind went to Timothy. Young Timothy, he was a single man, he was a pastor, and he had passions and temptations that would be familiar to singles. And so I thought, that's what I'll do. I'll go to this portion of scripture that gives mandates, eight mandates for this young single man. What will keep Timothy passionate about Christ and his kingdom? What was the charge for Timothy as a single man? What will keep single women and married women passionate about Christ and his kingdom to the end? Well, there are eight excellent mandates for this young single man that he would do well to pay attention to, and my sister, we would also do well to pay attention to these eight mandates, whether you're single, whether you're married, whether you're widowed. So let's read them together. 1 Timothy 4, 12 through 16. Notice what Paul writes. "'Let no one despise your youth, "'but be an example to the believers in word, "'conduct, love, spirit, faith, and purity. "'Til I come, give attention to reading, "'exertation, doctrine. "'Do not neglect the gift that is in you "'which was given to you by prophecy "'with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. "'Meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them, "'that your progress may be evident to all. "'Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. "'Continue in them for in doing this "'you will both save yourself and those who hear you.'" Now, as we look at these eight excellent mandates for this young pastor, this single man named Timothy, I've put them in an acrostic for you to remember, and the acrostic is mandates. And by the way, they are not in order, so just keep that in mind as you try to write them down. So let's look at the first one in verse 12. Let's discover the first two mandates. Paul says, let no one despise your youth. And so he begins by telling his young son in the faith that no one is to despise his youth. Timothy at this time was probably about 20 to 30 years of age, that's what they tell us. And in the biblical world, a man was not really coming into manhood until he was about the age of 40. In fact, most pastors or elders or bishops in the biblical world were usually, they didn't even become that until about the age of 40. And so many people would look at Timothy and they would despise him.  In fact, I recall my husband took his first pastor when he was 23, and now that I'm 64, I'm like, that's too young, what in the world was he doing in the pastor at the age of 23? And so people would not look too fondly upon Timothy. But Paul tells Timothy, live your life in such a way that no one will despise you because of your youth.  In fact, the Greek word look down means to be disgusted.  Paul says, Timothy, act in a manner so that no one can despise your age. He must be exemplary in character. So ladies, the first mandate is this. It's the A on your acrostic. Act in such a manner that no one will despise you because of your age. Act in such a manner that no one will despise you because of your age.  Remember when John writes to the church at Ephesus and first John, and he talks to the fathers, he talks to the young men, he talks to the children, and he's talking about the different age categories as a Christian. And you know what he says about all of them?  You all know the father. You all should know the father. Ladies, all of us in this room, whether we're single, whether we're married, whether we're new Christians, old Christians, we all know the father, and we all should act like the father's children, right? So we need to act in a manner so that no one would look down on us regardless of our age. Now, I will say this. Having, and remember, I'm gonna point out some things about singles, and I'm not picking on you as singles, so if you have a problem with this, take it up with the powers that be that ask me to speak on this. But I will say this. Having worked with women now for decades, that singles do sometimes have pitfalls or blind spots that married women do not have. Now, not all singles have these, but many do. Often single women talk excessively because they're alone, they don't have anyone to talk to. My husband, if I have noticed this a few years ago, oh, man, they talk so much. He goes, because they don't have anybody at home to talk to, so when they get out of the house, they talk nonstop. And sometimes that can be very burdensome. Also, singles sing to complain about the situation they're in, the fact that they are single, their discontent that they are single. Many single women struggle with jealousy and envy towards those who are married women. Also, I've noticed that single women, at least the ones that I've shepherded through the years, they use their singleness as an excuse not to come to church, and they avoid activities where there are married couples. And what they say is, I feel awkward. I feel awkward. Or they fail to be hospitable to others. They don't want to have people in their home again because they feel awkward. Ladies, these are all sinful responses to being single. All singles should act in such a way that no one would think wrong of you. Now, having said that, I have known several women who are single that serve the Lord with full out passion. One of them is walking in right now, she's late, but I won't point her out. She knows I'm going to. But Debbie's single has been for quite a while. She lives with full out passion. She doesn't struggle with those issues. She has people in her home. She bucks up whether she feels awkward or not. And ladies, do you know what a wonderful opportunity you have as a single woman? Paul says you can give all your energies to the Lord. A married woman cares how to please her husband. Verse, Corinthians seven says, but a single woman can what? She cares about pleasing the Lord. Her whole life can be devoted to the Lord. Ladies, stop and think about what a pleasure this is for you and a privilege as a single woman that your soul passion can be Christ alone.  Well, to avoid the issues of others looking down upon him because of his age, Timothy's to set an example. Notice how Paul puts this. Be an example to the believers. Timothy, this is the last letter on your acrostic, the S. Set an example for other believers. Set an example for other believers. The Greek word for example means a pattern. Ladies, is your life a pattern for someone to follow? Would someone wanna follow you as you follow Christ? And especially you as singles. Single women is your life in such a way, are you living in such a way that someone would wanna trace after you? Are you setting example for other single women to follow? Ladies, it's important for us to have people to follow, right? That's what discipleship is. You follow me as I follow Christ. And you as singles have a great responsibility. Now, Paul goes on to tell Timothy that he should set an example in six ways. Now, these six ways don't follow under the mandates, but this follows under setting an example. So you might wanna put these out to the side. These are not the only six ways that singles should follow be willing to set an example, but it's a pretty good list. The first way in which Timothy must set an example is in word. This means our speech. Ladies, our words should be in accordance with the child of God. Words should not be idle, gossip, slander, flattery, improper, crude. Our speech should be encouraging, edifying, pointing people to the Lord. Sometimes that means admonishment. Sometimes we need to admonish, speak the truth in love, which we are fearful of many times. It would be like asking the question, what would Jesus say in this situation? What would Jesus say? Our speech should be God honoring whether it's private or public. Now again, I'm not picking on single women, but remember, I was asked to speak on this, okay? I will say this does present a problem with one's speech.  So you can run amuck often with your speech. There's nobody there to confront you. My husband is very gracious when I am out of line. Even my daughter, I remember one time came home from college and I was on the phone with a lady in our church and I got off and she said, mother, do you think what you just said to that lady was necessary? And I'm like, when are you going back to school? No, I didn't say that, but there's accountability. I mean, children are great accountability partners. And so when you as a single are living alone at home, there's nobody there. You might think, well, I can be free as I want with my speech because there's no husband or anyone else. But ladies, we really would be wise.  In the area of your speech. Secondly, Timothy is to be an example in his conduct. This means how he behaves. Ladies, this is much needed with all of us. We need to set an example in how we behave, but again, some singles might need extra help here. Paul tells old women and Titus too, teach young women to be self-controlled. This includes her behavior, her emotions and her passions need to be under control. And this is certainly a pitfall for single women. They need to be taught how to keep their emotions under control. And again, if a lot of it is, there's no authority figure in the home unless they're living with their parents. Thirdly, Timothy is to be an example in love. This will be loving man and loving God. Ladies, if we don't love God more than anything or anyone else, we would be wise to examine our faith. This is the greatest commandment in scripture, right?   And again, some singles might have more struggles with this than others because, and I've seen this through the years, singles will use their singleness as an excuse not to reach out to others. I know single women, they're more prone to be idle because nobody is watching them. But my friend, we must remember God is watching all of us, right? His eyes are searching to and fro to find ever who is devoted to him, right? He sees everything and we will give an account to him. Ladies, again, remember if you're single, you have a wonderful opportunity to be sold out to Christ.  The fourth area he must set is in spirit, spirit. This is the manner in which he does things. Humility, gentleness, forgiveness. Timothy, be an example in spirit. Be forgiving, be humble, be gentle. Again, this might be more challenging for singles or young people because do you know pride is a huge pitfall of young people? It really is. Pride is a huge problem. Usually as I've known people that grow in the Lord, gentleness, forgiveness, and humility grows as we grow in Christ, right? It should, if it's not, then something's wrong, right? And so this often can be a pitfall to singles. The fifth exemplary thing he must set before others, an example, a pattern is faith, faith. This is not faith in God, but it's more faithfulness, faithfulness. Ladies, we must be faithful in our responsibilities. Each of you in this room that knows the Lord has a spiritual gift, at least one, maybe more. We are to be faithful with those. We should be faithful in our homes as we've just already talked about. We should be faithful in the church. Now, I actually did a survey in my mind. I went through our church directory. I hope, I don't know how many ladies in my church are listening to this because they know it's on live stream, but oh well, this is how I'm speaking the truth in love to you wherever you are. But they'll see if they're at church tomorrow. I've observed this as a pastor's wife. I noted that, and we have a pretty good group of singles in our church. I noted half of the singles in our church that are not faithful. And what I mean by that, they're not faithful to be at church or Bible study, they're kind of 50% of the time. And it's a puzzle to me because they have more time, I think they have more time on their hands in married women, maybe they don't. But this would be a discipline, I would ask those of you who are single to prayerfully consider, God is looking for faithful men and women, right? And this includes you that are single. Last but not least is number six. You must set an example in purity. This means you must be chased. This is very important to the church that Paul is writing to because Ephesus was a city that was known to be given over to sexual immorality. Timothy, don't succumb to sexual pressures. Keep yourself pure, flee youthful lust. That's why in chapter five, Paul tells him when he's talking to an older woman, treat her as a mother. To a younger woman, treat her as a sister. Ladies, singles must be above board here. You would be wise as a single woman to not be left alone. And even as a married woman with a member of the opposite sex. I am very guarded even with my own husband as far as watching the singles in my church that they don't get too close to him. Do you know that a recent survey of pastors said that 30% of them have committed adultery with someone in their church? That's a shocking statistic. 30% of pastors surveyed have committed adultery with someone in their church. And we as singles should be very careful. If you need to talk to your pastor as a single woman, even a married woman, if you need to talk to one of the elders, make sure you have somebody present with you. Don't go alone into a pastor's office or an elder's office. And this is especially needed for singles if you have the gift of singleness and why? Because the temptation to be sexually impure is far greater for you as a single woman. I would encourage you have strict guidelines. Even my husband and I, who are married, we have a rule. We never get alone with the opposite sex. We are never, I'm never in the loan house with another man, let's just my son or grandson. He's never in the house alone with another woman. That's just one of our rules. And you as a single would be very wise to do that. And ladies, while we're on the topic of purity, especially you as singles, watch what you read. Watch what you put into your mind. I know singles that just sit and watch Hallmark movies all the time. That is damaging to your purity. Damaging to your purity. Watch what you read. Watch what you put into your mind. And that's for married women too. But again, singles I think have less accountability in that area. And you'd, again, I cannot reiterate, find someone to hold you accountable. Find a godly older woman to hold you accountable. Well, Paul moves from exhorting Timothy regarding his personal life to now regarding his public life. Look at verse 13. Till I come, give attention to reading, exhortation, and doctrine. So Paul begins by saying, till I come, he wasn't there yet obviously, but he hoped to come soon. And he says, until I get there, until I can see how things are going, Timothy, there's three things I want you to do. And ladies, this is the A on your acrostic. Attention is needed to three things. Attention is needed to three things. Reading, exhortation, doctrine. Reading, exhortation, and doctrine. First of all, he says, Timothy, give attention to your reading. Now he's not telling Timothy to go down to the library and check out some books. I don't know about you, but our library is still closed in Tulsa. He's not saying go to the library to check out books. He's talking about reading the scriptures. Timothy, give attention, pay attention. Read the scriptures. Now you might say, why does he tell them that? Well, ladies, in biblical times, there would not be a lot of believers that would have personal copies of the word so they were dependent on it being read in the synagogue or in the temple. And so they must pay attention to the reading of the word. It'd be like today, if I got up and read to you first Timothy, you don't have a Bible there with you. You need to listen to what I'm saying. You need to pay attention to what I'm reading because that's all the time you're gonna get the word of God. Can you imagine that? So you leave here this afternoon and you don't go get to home and check out the things I've said or you don't have first Timothy at home. And so that's why he says, pay attention, Timothy. Pay attention. When the reading of the word is being read, pay attention when you gather for public worship because believers could not go home and read the scriptures. Ladies, there are many references in God's word to where to pay attention when scriptures are being read. And I hope you do that. When your pastor gets up and reads the word of God, pay attention. Pay attention to reading. Now, the context here is the public reading of scripture, but ladies, in our day, we have a availability to read it for ourself. And what a blessing.  My Bible's in the shop right now. This is my second Bible. My first one's worn out, but it's being rebound. But do you know what a privilege it is to have a Bible? What a blessing it is.  This could be a struggle for you. Why? If you live alone, there's nobody in your home, then you think no one's watching, right? So instead of getting up early to read the word of God, you sleep in. Or instead of reading the word at night, maybe that's your reading time, you binge on your favorite TV show, right? Ladies, we all, whether we're single, whether we're married, we need daily time in the word of God, right? Pay attention. Pay attention. Read the scriptures. Secondly, he's to give attention to exhortation. Exhortation. This would be similar to the preaching of the word. When people are preaching, when your pastor preaches tomorrow morning, pay attention. Listen up. Also, it might be encouragement, or comfort depending on the text. Ladies, if you're single and you have the gift of teaching, you need to be using it to the glory of God. In fact, I would say whether you're married or single, if you have the gift of teaching, you need to be using it. But I will say this, as a woman, you need to have a safeguard in the sense that you should have somebody probably reviewing your material to make sure it's doctrinally correct. I don't publish my studies until they are, well, my husband used to critique all my studies doctrinally, but since he had a stroke, my son now does it. He's a pastor and I trust his doctrinal beliefs. But you need to have someone older and wiser than you that can make sure your material is doctrinally accurate. Thirdly, he has to give attention to doctrine. This is a common word in 1 Timothy, which Paul has used eight times. Doctrine would just be the teachings of the Christian faith. Ladies, this is such a rebuke to our age. Do you give attention to doctrine? You know what the average church service is? Now I'm not talking about this church and I'm not talking about my home church. But you know what the average church service looks like? 30 to 45 minutes on music and trivialities, skits, and maybe even eating. Some churches you can go through the buffet line and then bring it in. So they get 30 to 45 minutes of that and then the pastor might get 10 to 15 minutes for his sermenet for Christianettes. That's what it is. That's about what it's like. Just think, what would happen today if Paul was alive and he preached like he did in Acts 20, past midnight, you know? We'd have more than Utica's falling out of the window and falling half dead. If I started preaching, you know, if I said, well, I've decided not to go home tonight. I think I'll just keep preaching all afternoon and tonight and into the night. I'm sure some of you say, I'm out of here, I'm leaving. And we'd have people walking out so they could get, especially on Sundays, they gotta get to the restaurant and go home, watch their favorite sport event. No wonder Christians are anemic and weak in their faith. Ladies, we've talked about this already. The Bible is very clear. Women are the most targeted by the evil one in this area because we're most easily deceived. I hope you study doctrine. I hope you study theology. And ladies, those of you that are single, you have an advantage over us who are married because your time is probably not as limited as our time. But ladies, we all should be growing our spiritual muscles. We should not be content with the milk of the word. If you as a single woman are not carving out time to do in-depth study of God's word in theology, I would highly encourage you to do that. Paul goes on to say in verse 14, do not neglect the gift that is in you. This is the D on your acrostic. Don't neglect your spiritual gift. Don't neglect your spiritual gift. The word neglect means don't make light of it. Don't be negligent. Oh, I know I have a spiritual gift but I'm not gonna use it. No, in fact, he says in another place, stir up the gift that is in you, rekindle it, set it to fire. Ladies, God has given you a gift, at least one, a spiritual divine endowment he gave you when you bowed the knee to his lordship and he expects you to use it. Now, I don't know what Timothy's spiritual gifts were but as a pastor, I imagine it was preaching, teaching, exhortation, those were probably some of his gifts. My friend, don't neglect your gift. Everybody in here should know what their spiritual gifts are. If you don't know, you need to find out. Ask your husband, ask people around you. They can tell you, usually I can be around somebody for three or four or five months. I say, oh, you've got the gift of mercy. You've got the gift of giving. Just by watching their life, you can kind of tell what their gifts are. And again, singles might need a special encouragement here. I have seen many who come to church. I'm talking about single women. They pew sit. You know what that means? They pew sit. They don't get involved in the body life of the church. They don't. I don't know why. They excuse themselves. I feel awkward. I'm not married. I just feel weird when I'm around. Well girls, I sit alone every Sunday morning on the front row by myself. So come sit with me. But my husband gets up to preach and there I am by myself. You just get over it, right? This awkwardness, it's an excuse. We're commanded to not neglect our gift. But before we go on, I would say if you're single, you would be very wise to have an authority figure to get counsel and advice from. Again, this is a pitfall of singles. I've seen it in our own church where singles make all these decisions without ever talking to a pastor, an elder, a father figure. They just make decisions on their own. This is for your spiritual protection as a single woman. So a lot of times Debbie will say to me, she's, I need to ask Doug a question and so she'll come over and make sure I'm there. But that's just a safeguard, right? But we should be asking pastors and elders for wisdom on these areas. Well, Paul goes on to give two more mandates in verse 15. He says meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them. So the question comes to mind, meditate on what things? What things do you want me to meditate on, Paul? Well, give careful thought to what you've been called to, Timothy, the work of the pastorate. Don't be slothful. Don't be negligent. Give deep consideration to this. Ladies, Timothy must remember he's gonna give an account to the chief shepherd on that day, right? The Bible is very clear about that. 1 Peter 5 talks about all pastors are gonna give an account to guess what, the chief pastor, right? The chief shepherd. And in Hebrews 13, 7 it tells us to obey them that have to rule over us. Why? Because they're gonna give account on that day for us and let them do that with joy and not with grief. That's unprofitable for you. So Paul says, Timothy, you better meditate on this. Meditate on this, because you're gonna give an account on that day for how you have shepherded. So ladies, this is the M on your acrostic. Meditate on your calling. Meditate on your calling. For those of you who are single, is this something you've done lately? Have you meditated on your calling to be single?   Ladies, you should be giving some thought to this. Meditate on it. God's called you at this time to be single. I know when COVID-19 happened and life shut down and I quit traveling and speaking, I thought, okay, Lord, I know you've given me the gift of teaching. Everything Bible study had stopped at church because it had ended for the year. And I was like, now what do I do? 50% of my life had been freed up. I'm like, what do I do? So I was asking the Lord, I still wanna be used by you, but how do you wanna use me right now during this time that we can't go anywhere except for anything that's essential or they think is essential. Church wasn't essential, but everything else was. And I was asking the Lord for guidance. Lord, I know you've given me these gifts. How can I use them during the time that I can't get out and about to teach? So meditate on your calling. What does God want you to be and to do? Now, if all Timothy did was meditate about his calling and not do anything about it, that would be ludicrous, right? So Paul gives a mandate which follows and that is, he says, give yourself entirely to them. Ladies, thought must lead to action. Give yourself entirely to it. This is the T on your acrostic. Totally give yourself to your calling. Totally give yourself to your calling. Give yourself completely to it. We might say, her life is all wrapped up in her kids, her life is all wrapped up in sports, her work, but ladies, wouldn't you love to be known? Her life is all wrapped up in the Lord. She may be a homeschool mom, she may be single, but you can look at her life, whatever it is she does, it's all wrapped up in the Lord. Ladies, Christianity is not a religion for lazy people. We must do it with excellence. We must totally give ourself to our calling. Those of us that are called by God, we are to give ourself completely to him. Well, there's a reason Paul gives these two mandates to Timothy and this is so his progress may be evident to all, he says. Interesting word for progress here. It's a military term that means a pioneer advance and what they would do in the biblical world when the soldiers would go out to battle, they would have other soldiers that went before them to clear the way of any obstacles or any traps that might be there to kill them and so that they could make a clear way for the army to advance. And so Paul says, watch your life, Timothy. Watch your life through the years so others can see that you are progressing. You're getting away through all these obstacles and things that Satan trips you up with. Timothy, let your progress be known to all, let them see that you are growing. Single women, let me ask you, have you given yourself entirely to your calling as a single? Is your spiritual progress evident to those within the body of believers? Do they see you growing?  Now, ladies, this should be true for us as married women, true, but single women in my humble opinion, again, they tend to isolate themselves more than married women. Ladies, we need to be open, we need to be transparent, we need to be available, we need to be teachable so that we can move on towards Christ-likeness. Well, Paul finishes up with two more mandates in verse 16. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this, you will save just both yourself and those who hear you. Paul seems to repeat again the need for Timothy to take heed to his calling, to himself, to his doctrine, as he also mentioned in verse 13. So, ladies, this is the end on your acrostic, notice is needed to yourself and to your doctrine. Notice is needed to yourself and to your doctrine. Now, we aren't gonna elaborate on this because he's already just talked about it, but ladies, anytime something is repeated in scripture, it means it's very important. This is very important. Watch yourself, watch what you believe. Take notice of yourself and watch what you believe. Ladies, make sure you know yourself, make sure you know your temptations, make sure you know your propensities for sinning, watch yourself, make sure you're remaining steadfast and growing in the truth.  Do not buy into the world's view on what the single woman should look like. But ladies, do buy into what the word of God says a single woman should look like and what she should be doing. Well, Paul gives a final mandate and that is this. He says, continue in them, which means stick to them, stick to them. This is vital for Timothy, for you, for me and it's imperative, stick to them. Why, because it means your eternal life, right? That's what true believers do, they endure to the end. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, 14, continue in the things that you have learned, stick with the stuff. In fact, Paul goes on and says, by doing this, you will both save yourself and those who hear you. Now, ladies, listen up, Paul is not saying that Timothy can save himself. This is, again, one of those words, salvation, which we've had already this weekend. He's not talking about saving himself in the sense of saving himself from hell. He's talking about, because we know, we're saved by grace through faith alone and Christ alone. But it's very similar to what Peter says when he says, make sure that your calling and your election is sure. And how do you do that? Well, you add to faith, love, love, you know, brotherly love, kindness, and those lists of things. Make sure, or Paul says in Hebrews that those who are truly God's children, they what? They endure to the end. If you are God's child, you will remain steadfast to the end. You will continue in those things. Ladies, our salvation is secure, but our salvation is proved genuine by our perseverance to the end. We continue in the faith. This is really important. Why do I say that? I don't know if you've noticed, if you're reading anything about what's going on in Christianity today. I'm not talking about the magazine Christianity Astray, but how many people have apostatized, you know, in the faith? I mean, it's like one a week we're here. I'm talking about people that are in the speaking world or the music world. They're denying the faith. They're denying the faith. Ladies, this is the E on your encrostic. Endure to the end. Endure to the end. We already know from this epistle we don't have time to look into it, but Heimanias and Alexander departed from the faith and they took many with them. They denied the resurrection. They made shipwreck of their faith and they took others with them down. Ladies, that's a very dangerous thing. The blind lead the blind. They both fall into the ditch. Make sure, make sure you endure to the end. And again, we can't save anyone. Paul's not saying that, but our example is a Christian in public and private can have such an impact on the church that it could save them or they could flee because they say, if that Timothy's a Christian, are you kidding me? I don't want anything to do with that. Timothy's not an example in any of these things. I don't want to have anything to do with Christianity. That causes us to ask our question, are we hurting the cause of Christ? In fact, I had a woman tell me one time about another woman.  She told me that. It's like, do you know what you just said? Ladies, I hope no one's looking at her life and saying, I don't really want to be in heaven with her, so I'd rather go to hell if that's an example of a Christian. Ladies, would others look in and see your growth and your sold out passion for Christ in his kingdom as a single and say, wow, I know she's single, but I want what she has. Her life is exemplary. I want to follow her as she follows Christ. So what are the eight excellent mandates for Timothy and for you? Number one, I will put them in order this way. Meditate on your calling. Meditate on your calling. Timothy used to give careful thought to what God has called him to do. What about you? Have you given careful thought to what God has called you to do as a single woman? Do you take your calling seriously? How much thought do you give to it?  A, act in such a manner that no one will despise you because of your age. Timothy was to act in such a way that no one would even consider that he was a young pastor. Are you young like Timothy? Are you old like me? Doesn't really matter. Doesn't really matter what our physical age is, but it does matter that we would act like a child of God. Would others look at you as a single woman, whether you're young or old, and would they stand in awe at your maturity in Christ Jesus? In. Notice needed to yourself and to your doctrine. Timothy, pay attention to yourself. Pay attention to what you believe. Do you as a single lady take time to pay attention to yourself? I'm not talking about narcissism. We have enough of that around going around, right? I'm talking about looking at yourself seriously, making sure that you are who you profess to believe, that you are growing in the grace and knowledge of God, that you're different this year than last year in the sense that you're more like Jesus. Included in this, taking notice, take notice to what do you believe? What do you believe? Do you really believe in the fundamentals of the faith? And are you growing and sound doctrine? D, don't neglect your spiritual gift. Timothy was not to neglect his spiritual gift, but use it. What are your spiritual gifts?  Are you using your spiritual gifts? Are you fearful of using your spiritual gifts? If you are, then you need to listen to the online conference next week, Tuesday morning, I'll be speaking on that. So are you fearful of using your spiritual gifts? How are you using it for God's glory? A, attention needed to three things, reading, exhortation, and doctrine. As a young pastor, Timothy must publicly read the word, exposit the word, and teach the word. Do you have a steady diet of the word of God, and are you passing it on to others? Are you growing an understanding of God's word? Are you in any way using your singleness as an excuse for stunted spiritual growth? T, totally give yourself to your calling. Timothy was known as a pastor, not a golfer, not a sports fanatic, but a shepherd of people's souls. If I were to ask your closest friends what comes to mind when they think of you, what would they say? Would they tell me, when you come to mind, they think of you as a single woman who is faithful to her God-given calling? Or would they tell me you're faithful to watch your favorite TV show every night, or you're faithful to make sure you wear the latest fashions? Would they tell me you are passionate about the word of God, and about your walk with God? Or would they tell me that you are passionate about the latest hair product, or makeup product you wear, or the current diet you're on? Would they tell me that you think of others as more important than yourself? E, endure to the end, continuing these things. Timothy is to be examining himself.  He's to hold fast to the faithful word he was once taught. What about you? Are you more passionate today about the gospel and about your life as a single believer than you were last year? If not, something is amiss. We should be growing towards Christ, not away from Christ. And lastly, the S. Set an example for other believers. Timothy, set an example. In word, conduct, love, spirit, faith, purity. Ladies, we also, whether single or married, we are to be exemplary in these things.  Is your conduct becoming a daughter of God? Do you love God and others, even those who are unlovely? Is the manner in which you do things attractive?   Would anyone wanna follow you as you follow Christ? Indeed, these are eight excellent mandates for young Timothy, but my dear sister, they are eight excellent mandates for you too, single or married. And so as we close, what I wanna do is pray for the singles that are in this audience today and pray for them that they would take heed to these mandates written by the apostle Paul. So let's close in prayer. Father in heaven, I thank you for every single woman that is represented here this afternoon. I thank you for the married ones too, but Lord, we especially pray for our single women because they have some difficulties and challenges that we as married women do not face. I'm sure at times they feel alone, they feel especially during our recent shutdown of our nation, I can only imagine the difficulties that they had. I pray for them, Lord, that you would give them strength of heart, that you would give them a passion for you and your word and for others that is like none other. I pray that you would mold them into the image of Christ. I pray that they would develop relationships with other women who can challenge them and encourage them and disciple them. I pray they would be pure in their thoughts and in their hearts and in their mind and in the things they do. I pray they would be wise with their time, Lord. They, most of them I'm sure have more time than we do as married women or women with children, but I pray, Lord, they would be wise in that and help us as married women to love them and nurture them and care for them and realize the difficulties they have as being single and being alone at times. So Lord, may we be sensitive to them and their needs.  We ask these things in Christ's precious name. Amen.


This one arcade game we made in 1992 to manage to spawn off all these different points of media. I'm Liu Kang. It is an honor to do with you. Is it possible that the past and future are colliding? It has begun! No soldier could allow you don't show respect. There's a good-looking guy. Well, look at the two of us. Surprise to see me. I will make you regret it.


video starts I just wanted to say I got a PO box it's really new so if you want to send me a letter you don't have to send me anything if you want to send me something it'll be in the description box so check it out and yeah let's get on with the video. Hi guys welcome back to my channel today's video is going to be a celebration video you guys love my celebration videos and if you didn't know I used to live here don't live here anymore but today we are going to be talking about shopping in celebration someone actually requested this video which I will put the comment on the screen and I was like oh my gosh that's a really good idea thank you so the person on the screen that I totally forgot her name right now thank you for requesting this video I'm going to take you into some shops so you can see everything and just kind of give you a little tour of some of the shops at least downtown celebration I don't know if I'm gonna like film in all of the stores some of people might be a little salty cough cough my last video that I did in celebration about dining in celebration there was this lady you're just gonna have to go check it out a link down below my playlist of all my celebration videos first stop on our tour is going to be Starbucks because it's right here and why not this is the little mural that everyone loves all right we're just gonna say that to the end because the line was way too long so first I'm just gonna like start at a starting point and then kind of make my way around so we're passing through kind of like the area with a lot of restaurants this isn't like the main drag I kind of want to walk this certain like pattern because there was stores that existed a long time ago that aren't stores now so like I'm passing some right now that used to be stores and everything I think we got to the starting point okay so obviously this is a celebration hotel I don't think there's there's probably like a gift shop in there so that doesn't really count this used to be a doll store I think or some sort of store it's now a realty group it's definitely not a store but it used to be a store so this is basically all restaurants here that I've already shown you so you can check that video out if you want to not a lot of stores were on this road so we are just going to keep on going down the road here and then I'll make the right turn after we go here I don't know why I haven't turned the camera to face me I should have just done that without just like pointing but I think I just want to show you guys the more the surroundings rather than just seeing my face so we're kind of going to go near the ice cream shop okay so I'm gonna say this for last because most of the shops are obviously there we're first going to go into I think it's the dog shop this is like kind of a map of the downtown area and where things are so if you are in the area and you want to check stuff out then this is like a good little key but I pretty much stay in like the same locations I don't really like explore that much celebrations just changed so much since I've lived here like half of those stuff on this in this strip is just like a lot different the Wolfgang bakery was there though for it's been there for a while so lame macaron used to be a store but it's not and that's clearly not like a gift shop I did forget to add that the macaron shop used to be a Hello Kitty store that was so adorable I'm so sad it went out of business because it was one of my favorite stores to go into some of the stuff is like kind of overpriced we went in there just to see what it looked like for my dining and celebration video so don't really know it's just basically macaroons and sweets in there but I'm not gonna show that because it's not actually like retail so going on in here is what it looks like hopefully don't get like yielded for filming but just gonna do a little overview of the store it's pretty cool in here it smells like dog treats oh look dog treats that's so cool so they have all sorts of things for your pets dogs and look at all this there's so many options look at all the leashes and the toys oh that's actually kind of cool one like a big chain that'd be good for like your dogs like really buff but they have so much cool stuff in here a lot of shampoos for your dog so cool they have refrigerated goods awesome I love the way they decorate in here it's just so pink and pretty they have a lot of options though so this is a fun store thank you the next door is Killwinds this one we went into last time it's just an ice cream store so this is a retail or shopping but this is the old movie theater obviously we can't go in it but I remember seeing movies here they would put the little posters here and the Killwinds this used to be a restaurant didn't used to be Killwinds it used to be some other store kind of like Starbucks used to be Barney's this coffee shop called Barney's I don't know if you guys know of that but this didn't used to be Killwinds it used to be another candy not candy but another ice cream store and they had a restaurant section so the restaurant section you could see outside in the movie theater this is the movie theater it was really small it only had two little movie theaters in here and then you would just go to the box office and say like hey I want some tickets right over here you would go in it was just like a really stereotypical theater it was an AMC actually as you can see it is long abandoned it's been abandoned pretty much for I don't know how long pardon me I might sneeze in this cuz my allergies are killing me and in the last video I talked about this but this is the Columbia restaurant we're basically going to make a loop so I can show you guys here's another like strip with like little shops basically we walked in a big circle so this little strip there's some shops around here but most of them are actually just businesses in celebration so this is their office so it's really convenient if you know your business does really well and you can live here and then have your business here you are set for life you don't have to leave the bubble so basically we have just a bunch of stuff I don't know if the bride shop is open but we'll see oh a barber there's so many things here now that like I just don't even know it's called the dressing room oh I wonder if we could go in okay guys so like I predicted they are closed guess I could show you a little well there's some dresses there and you kind of see in here look how cool jewelry and stuff you can't really see it I'm not doing a very good job and then we have the lunas group imagination realty Kathy's awesome I actually know her highly recommend her if you're looking for a house in celebration she actually sold us our new house which is cool and then obviously there's like remax and now I'm gonna cross the street cuz there's other little businesses over there guess I'll be a good citizen and use the crosswalk so there is one shop there it's kind of like the dressing room I wish they were open but it's okay I've actually never been in that store because it's pretty new I think I just got this idea in my head right now so if you guys want to see a good photo location spots of celebration give this video a thumbs up and comment that down below I would love to do that I have done multiple photo shoots here for my friends I do know some really good spots to take photos we have another realty group here the thimble I don't even know what that is craft studio and store cool I wonder if they're open okay so it doesn't really look like they're open but obviously they have like cute little stuff in there kind of looks like that I'm sorry this video is kind of like suckish because nothing's open I didn't really realize that they would everything would be closed on Sunday and honestly I don't know too much about these stores because they're actually brand new at least to me okay so over here we have a before and after school homework assistance tutoring thing which is pretty cool it's not necessarily a store and then I guess this stretches out all the way oh there's another realty group wow there's a lot of realtors here and then there's general contracting oh this would be a cute little location spot okay so this looks like a new store also obviously they have cameras in use and they're not open but it looks like a knickknack store it's called you can cook and that's what it looks like inside again I'm not doing a very hot job doing this because they're all closed but anyway this is a you can cook and I guess they just sell like a variety of stuff that's all the stores in this little strip area now we're gonna make our way down the main street they have like a lot more stores and I'll tell you guys there's just one store that closed a while ago it was called Lollipop Cottage I swear like three stores have been in there since then which is really sad but I always loved Lollipop Cottage it was a cool store okay so this isn't really retail either but I wanted to include the host office the US host office this is right next to me escape this week escape bakery and you could just go in here ship packages we used to use this place all the time obviously so I don't know if they're open oh well obviously they're not open but at least we could come in here and people could get their packages yeah you just like go in there you can check out here there's another check out place that you could go towards or whatever over there is Bank of America and that's not really retail but I just thought I'd point that out there's two banks here there's Sun Trust which is on the opposite corner of here so we walk past it when we made the circle around this like area on this side so that's Bank of America and then there's Sun Trust and this is obviously main street so we're gonna work our way down here okay honestly this is kind of a shock sweet escape must have closed down sweetest case been here for a while this used to be I think this used to be another store but then it became a bakery I don't know maybe my mom will correct me in the comments you guys are in town there is a celebration art and wine stroll March 14th yeah I love the events they have here obviously they changed over the years but that's really sad sweet escape is I guess no longer or they're renovating so here is the market gallery this is a pretty big store so we're gonna go in and see if we can get any footage they sell a variety of things in here this used to be like a card store I think but they sell a lot of stuff in here obviously Alex I don't know why I'm just like right up we talking now they sell like games and this used to be like a card section where you could get cards oh my gosh a pushing okay I get way too distracted but we're okay anyway they still have the cards like this there's a lot of homeware it's good for people that like come in to the store obviously but this actually used to be a Christmas store like everything was Christmas that's from what I remember as like a kid but this is really cool too like they have different like plants and stuff okay honestly these things are like so pretty look at how they like glisten okay so here's like some of their Christmas stuff maybe since it's not Christmas they don't have a lot of stuff out for Christmas that's just what I remember of the store but they have some Christmas ornaments I have some more stuff on it's really pretty I just remember them being like going all out for Christmas which is cool okay so the next store is called Gypsy Moon this is cool just like a bunch of homeware all honey looks very natural I love the I love this one that's cute so pretty I do miss the old store that was here though not gonna so cute then they have like a bunch of nutritious snacks they actually have a whole menu which one of the ladies gave me and I'll show you guys real quick because they serve like assay bowls and like vegan recipe just wanted to show you the other half of the store here picture frames over here oh my gosh look at this cute little bag it's adorable I've always loved these like the artwork on the on the wine glasses that's pretty cool that pasta looks really good oh my gosh look at the donut bag so cute I think that's actually a flash that's really funny this is kind of an overview of their store they have wines in here as well so fun very natural so this is their social media if you want to check out their pages they serve smoothies and assay bowls or vegan this is their menu they have a lot of options here you can choose from I actually had an assay bowl in New York when I went it was my very first one I would love to come back here and try one the next store we have is dazzling and these are all very new to me so let's go in and see it's cool it's like a jewelry store Swarovski this is pretty hi oh my goodness look at how pretty so this is dazzling they saw a lot of like pretty jewelry look at this man apparently the stores been here for a couple years I guess I've just never popped in to see they have but looks like they also have some like resolutions and everything oh I love these mirrors that's pretty incense candles smells really good in here too bath bombs it was good man we have some scarves over here more jewelry oh purses obviously that really catches my eye because I love facts thank you okay so then next door we're gonna go into this is my favorite store and I think it's mother's favorite store too it's called soft as a grape this has been here ever since we moved to Florida in 2002 and it's still held up because they have all the celebration gear so I'm saving the best for last because honestly this is probably my favorite celebration store and it's still here it's kind of like in my mind it's like a legacy it's actually survived the challenge of time so let's go in so the store sells all types of clothing and apparel kind of resembling Florida so we have like some cute little Lily Pulitzer bike tops oh that's really soft this is so fun the store is very popular obviously because it's like celebration spirit store at least that's what I consider as there's a celebration sweatshirt sherry actually has one of these and more celebration stuff some hats there's they always sunglasses beachy stuff super fun for to ask I also have celebration hats like all sorts of celebration hats they have everything you could imagine that says like celebration on well pretty much a pair a lot so I'm gonna try to get a thumbnail let's try to do this I think we got some good thumbnail options it's pretty much it okay so that my friends is pretty much all the shops in celebration Florida as of March 2020 okay so that was kind of like the opposite reaction I had like last time unlike this oh unlike this person okay like last time where a person like legit yelled at me for filming these little kids are like oh vloggers like thank goodness like something positive in my life um well when I'm out in public like doing this now I'm going to get my Starbucks and I am going to wait in the big long line no matter how long it takes we actually have like Orlando and Florida cups which is pretty cool this is what I got for Christmas for the Christmas game I guess they still have some and then this one's pretty cool because it it has Florida on it but I like the Starbucks bag because it looks literally like a Starbucks bag you guys watch KK and baby J there's a cake pop up oh they're so tempting to get but I probably won't get one okay so I got the goods I got my chai tea this is the first time they actually didn't fill it up all the way it's to like the second line which I find bizarre but that's just what it is it still tastes good I get 10% cash back at Starbucks through the month of March on my credit I was like you know I never really have Starbucks on a regular basis so might as well today get myself a little treat I also want to film a TikTok using the straw and the cup like when I'm done drinking it you're just gonna have to go to my TikTok and see it because my friend Taylor Taylor layman here on YouTube she made it so I kind of want to recreate it because it seems really fun and it's kind of funny actually oh look another vlogging couple they're using like a selfie stick anyway I think that is going to be about it for this video I hope you guys enjoyed it I hope it was insightful about the shops in celebration I'm sorry that some were closed but it is Sunday so it's kind of expected I don't really make it out to this side of town very frequently just because I don't live here I don't really live near or like super close to here and there's only a few times that like I have to come here like our pharmacies here and like my optometrist is here so obviously I come when I need to come but just gonna sit here enjoy this for a couple minutes and then head back home to exercise anyway give this video a thumbs up don't forget to subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys in my next video bye


Hello everyone. It's lovely to be here and it's appropriate that we're in a circus tent Because what I went through was sort of a three-ring exercise. I'm gonna take you through each of the rings Herbert just said something which resonated with me and with you.  There's enormous truth in that. We've got so many chefs here I'm sure that's sort of a mantra that makes a lot of sense to you, but for me. That's only part of the story I'm not a chef However, I am a customer of chefs. I'm an omnivore. I'm a great eater Although that changed when I became the man who couldn't eat And that's the journey. I'm gonna take you through today. I Came back to eating in fact So much so that I was able to enjoy a 28 course meal at Noma on Friday night It was unlike anything. I've ever had before round of applause for Noma and for doing this and in those extremes between Extended food deprivation which I'll tell you about and this celebration at Noma was a journey I went on which told me everything that I never knew about food and life And I don't think would have been able to understand in any other way I'm a writer. I'm also a writer besides being an eater So I rely on stories to make sense out of the world to make sense out of my place in the world to make sense Out of events and to make sense out of life Chefs, I think use ingredients the way that I use stories. They use ingredients to stitch together Narratives it's the way that they create meaning. It's how they make sense of the world It's how they take the chaos around them and find inspiration and channel it into something memorable But I don't think what chefs can fully understand is the extent to which we as eaters people like me Take what the chef has done and then translate it into our own stories Into our own narratives into our own journeys and they inform who we are Okay, sorry Okay, he's not a handsome guy up there. He's not a lovely a lovely portrait. That's me a few years ago, so I suffered with a lifetime illness something called Crohn's disease which isn't of particular importance But what Crohn's disease did for me was it always made food this double-edged sword food was something Which I? Craved and lied on and I needed it to sustain my health, but there was always the risk involved that food could in fact Do do damage that it could hurt me that what I was using to keep me alive Could also kill me and I always had this kind of conflicted relationship with food one day I was home for lunch and I was making my grandmother's tuna fish salad recipe and I'd finished chopping the onions and slicing the olives and mixing up the mayonnaise and grinding the pepper and the salt and I would have this plate of tuna in front of me and I was about to eat and I felt a funny pain in my gut funny Kind of a twinge not unfamiliar to people who live with GI issues, but within a few minutes. What was all of a sudden not so Unfamiliar became devastating my guts literally exploded on me within a period of about a minute or two And I found myself very quickly in a bad situation I had emergency surgery which saved my life. That was the good news The bad news was that when I came out of the surgery It was a tough spot and there were a lot of complications and the prognosis was that for me to heal There were gonna be two things going on that seemed antithetical to healing number one My gut was going to be in a medically induced coma. So through some medicine I was gonna lose all feeling and sensation in my gut It was gonna be shut down and it would be shut down so that I would be able to live on Nothing by mouth no food no drink on a food pump being fed intravenously the synthetic concoction 18 hours a day, which would keep me alive But not do anything more than that So I was nothing by mouth for a long time and that put me in a place with food where I'd never been before Eventually I came back to eating as you can tell from my raves about Noma the other night But when I came back to eating and here we are the first moment of that return to To life among eaters. I'm in the hospital and I had gone through nothing by mouth periods before But short-term four days five days and at the end of that week or so I would begin to feel the normal feelings of hunger and craving and to me You know that was the sign that my body was telling me you're healthy. You're ready to get out of the hospital you're ready to resume life and Every time I got through one of those experiences My memory was that that apple juice and that clear broth and that Jell-O Tasted as good as the 28 courses.  I had been without food for so long That the taste buds had atrophied off my tongue. My tongue was as smooth as the porpoises skin So my gut was medically Imperilized I couldn't feel what was going down into my gut and now I couldn't taste what was in my mouth And this was a fate almost worse than nothing by now because now it was complete emptiness I was an empty vessel being filled up with food to sustain me and I couldn't enjoy nothing There was no pleasure whatsoever There was no ability to revisit all the things that I wanted to come back to when I was ill and What it enabled me to do though was really to live a kind of controlled experiment because eventually I did come back and Let me take you through some of that when you are in the state I was unable to appreciate food unable to experience food you become Dislocated as a human being what I didn't know was that aside from the hunger and aside from the absence of flavor that Removing food from my life Really cut me off from the connection to every human emotion To everything that you rely on in the course of a day in the course of a life to feel connected to feel like you're among the living as I say and things happen that are not necessarily of Great significance until you're in them and you're not in them. You're dislocated as I was you have occasions like a Child's birthday party at a restaurant in New York City The Benihana chain where the food is the show the food is presented in front of you by a chef Who's having a good time and everybody's having a good time Sampling the food and then eating the art and getting involved in that whole process And you begin to understand that food as I say is not only on the tongue and not only on the gut But in the heart and in the head and what happens to you if you can't be part of it Food as love this is perhaps the greatest expression of food every July 4th My family are guests at a holiday party in on a lake in Maine Where the hostess makes it's sort of the ultimate ultimate summer cookout And the hostess makes a stars and stripes cake little corny for the holiday But it tastes great She picks the blueberries and the strawberries off of her property and puts them together And this was the occasion of my sister becoming engaged to an Englishman with the very English name of Simon Clark and The host responded by taking her tradition the stars and stripes cake and making it into a stars and stripes and Union Jack cake and as I say it was sort of the ultimate expression of love and Generosity and imagine what it's like to look at this and not to take a fork full and put it in your mouth Not only are you missing the strawberries and the blueberries and the cream, but you're missing the occasion You're missing the celebration. You're missing saying to two people who love each other and have come together that I'm breaking bread with you I'm eating cake with you. I'm part of your experience Imagine what it would have been like to stand at the tent outside today as An observer standing outside of the tent instead of eating all that wonderful breakfast that we had this morning And of course we think about when it's gone the social function of food Which is maybe the strongest emotional component of it We're not only talking about occasion. This is a summer dinner party at friends in upstate New York My wife is at the table. I'm not as as you can see But we live in a small apartment in New York City with two children. There's no escaping what's going on and When I first began the food pump regimen the idea was well, I will I'm home I'm home from the hospital and things will be back to normal I'll sit down at the dinner table with my wife and our two kids and For the first couple of nights. I sat down at the dinner table and everything was different I was there with a food pump on my back. It was loud. It was noisy. It was Intrusive there was nobody miss what was going on But around me were my wife and kids who were eating who were going on with their lives who were sustaining themselves And there I was beginning to resent what I couldn't participate in and it drove me over the edge And it drove me literally away from the table. So losing the social function of food is probably the greatest impediment That that hits you when you can no longer You can no longer eat now for those of you who you know who are professionals in the industry The tactile element is something that perhaps you can relate to and I did I say I'm not a chef I'm not a good cook, but I can do a couple of things passively I love to grill because it's the most forgiving medium of cooking and I'm a very inexact cook so I love to grill like the shish kebab on The left here, and I'm a very good chopper and arranger and I can chop and arrange a salad and for me It's the closest that I can come to creating a meal and an understanding the pleasure of cooking for other people So you miss that element, but I was unable to cook because I couldn't taste and I couldn't smell and I couldn't sample and I couldn't eat and it's like Cooking in the dark all of your senses leave you and my limited ability became absolutely useless to me In my growing obsession, I began then to understand that food I'd always been an omnivore. I loved food. I'd craved it, but that it was also as I say The different pivot points the different chapters in the narrative of my experience This in my head in the mental journey that I took was me as a teenager And it was something I never thought of that way before this is a little variety store in the tiny little town called richton, Maine where I grew up in the summers and what it is It's for me It's a symbol of independence and celebration because it's the place where I used to go about ten minutes to midnight Every night in the summer I'd leave the campfire and I'd race into town and I'd get here and get the last pizza out Of the oven before they closed and bring it back to the campfire and share it with my friends around the campfire I always thought this was the best-tasting pizza in the world when we took our kids to this restaurant a couple of years ago They disabused me of that notion Apparently this makes dominoes look like gourmet pizza But in my memory and in my experience it represented something greater as I say it represented independence and I began to think that These food events I thought that my life was the sum of all sorts of parts and I didn't realize that in fact food Was how I made sense of my life and now that it was gone I began to think again to think that this was something that I was now telling a story of a life That no longer longer existed so I used to work for this crusty old guy was here on the screen named Bob Alton and I made a movie with him in which he said and he said this to me one day And I thought well, that's very funny Bob's a crusty caustic old guy Here's he's getting a rise out of me with this crusty caustic joke He was a longtime recovering alcoholic and I thought of it. You know it was very funny. It was this little quip. He had however When I went through the food deprivation experience. I realized what he meant For Bob not having whiskey was a great emptiness in his life And his life wasn't the same without it. There was no substitute for it He never he progressed he moved on but his life was never the same It was fundamentally changed without alcohol in his life. I felt that way about food My life was not the same. I missed food and nothing I could do could replace it And I began to think and try to convince myself that this would end and I would come back to food And if I were to come back to food, what would make me whole again? What did I want and every day I would have a series of Images of places and experiences that would randomly pop up in my head sort of you know suppressed memories that were now Unleashed with all the confusion going on in my head and I thought of places that Had some sort of meaning for me at the time but now of course that was expanded places like Patrick's Roadhouse in Santa Monica, California Which is a shack as you can see on the Pacific Coast highway But and they make burgers and eggs and you know nothing of great significance except for one dish They have the world's best banana cream pie. It's like nothing else. I've ever had it's simple It's fresh bananas and cream and homemade crust and I used to travel for a Los Angeles affair a bit And I always scheduled my trip so that my plane would land at 11 o'clock in the morning I'd leave lax. I would drive straight to Patrick's.  I would eat the pie it would explode in my mouth and I would feel like okay Now I'm connected to Los Angeles now. I'm connected to where I need to be now I feel as though I'm 3,000 miles away from home But I have something familiar and I was sustained and I could go on then with a busy couple of days and know that my experience was complete so Things like the banana cream pie began to weigh on me to think that This is this vision is what is going to get me out of this hole. I'm in and I thought it's interesting. I said what Herbert said earlier that you are what you cook and I wasn't cooking so I was nothing but there was something else going on too.  That's not who you are That's not defining enough. I realized that what I was experiencing these kinds of fantasies and obsessions It was something more they were cravings. They were all encompassing cravings that were tapping into every emotion that was not satisfied because I Wasn't able to put anything in my mouth and I realized that no no really Cravings tell you who you are that is the real hook into your personality That's the real insight into your identity if you can begin to understand what your cravings are you can begin to understand not only what you need but who you are and One of the things that I loved was going to the White Horse Tavern where we live in New York and having a slow pull draft of Guinness and sitting in the place in the Dylan Thomas booth where Dylan Thomas famously drank and died and sit underneath the plaque that commemorates Richard Burton and Crave that experience. I missed that. I understood what my old crusty friend Bob Alton meant So I also occurred to me that I'd been through this before when I was a kid we lived in St. Thomas and There I that's my kindergarten picture. There. I am in the middle bringing integration single-handedly to the island And I missed things from the States I loved my new classmates and I loved the beaches, but it was 1968 and I missed Processed food The food on the island was Kalalu and fish head soup and it was very strange to me And I couldn't connect to the culture and my parents took so much pity on me that they had They called friends in New Jersey who had a box of Twinkies shipped to us And I went down to the dock with my father on this leaky dock And I bit into the Twinkie and it transported me back to my ranch house in a subdivision in New Jersey And I felt connected and I felt secure and I felt safe And I thought you've been through this before and food has saved you the Twinkie has saved you the other great experience for me when I was a kid growing up was Cats is daily on the Lower East side, which has been there since 1888 when I was five years old My father took me there for the first time his he'd eaten there as a kid his father had taken him there and It was the other seminal experience for me What they have at cats is what we eat is this heart attack on a plate Hot post you can see hot pastrami on club, which is this with the center dug out like a canoe and They stuff the pastrami inside and we put hot spicy mustard on it half sour pickles French fries Dr. Brown's celery I went there when I was five and this is what I call the Jewish tea room This is the the dining room and I came from this tiny little town in New Jersey where we didn't have restaurants We didn't have places like this and I walked into this place and it was a circuits like what's going on in this tent It was loud and noisy and the plates were banging and the glasses were rattling and people were shouting orders and the smells Were overwhelming and it was communal and you have to go through this is religious experience You take yourself up to the altar at the counter and you present yourself on after waiting on this long line And you place your sandwich order and then there is this ancient tradition of the meat pulled from the cooker And you can smell it in your nose and all your senses begin to come alive And there's this artistry as they chopped through and then they hand you what I thought of as Jewish communion I was five years old. I was a picky eater I didn't like anything except plain spaghetti and the cutter at counters handed me the sample slices And I put it on my tongue and it was a religious experience It exploded on my tongue and I knew what it was to love food And I knew why my relatives were all fat and ate themselves to death with this food because it Reminded them of who they were I I'm my family is Jewish But we grew up in this tiny little town with no connection to any heritage and I felt like I guess Catholics feel like when they walk into the Vatican and they walk into the Sistine Chapel and food did that for me here And at the end of the process you get this and you eat this sandwich Which weighs about the same as a brick and it goes down your gullet and it lays in you and it feels real And it connects you to the reality of what's going on around you So as I came back to food, I thought I'm gonna try this.  That's wonderful, but that's in the abstract I want to taste that Twinkie. I want to taste that pastrami sandwich I want to know if I am still who I thought I was before all this happened So I tried it and this was also made a little more urgent by the fact that the hostess company announced that they're gonna stop Manufacturing Twinkies, so I had double reason to do this so I went to my local grocery store And I went to a shelf that I'd never go to because I hadn't had a Twinkie since I was on the leaky dock in St. Thomas and I bought a box I walked out to a park on a beautiful sunny day I unwrapped the cellophane wrapper I bit into it and I spit it right out. It was horrible. It was awful More than anything it was chemical. I Won't bore you with all the 51 ingredients that are in a Twinkie, but do you have any idea what sodium acid pyrophosphate is? I don't either, but I can tell you that it tastes awful When I was tasting this I was tasting not only that but It's so you know imagining that I was tasting the latex gloves of the technician who was stirring the vat It tasted completely like chemicals and that's not what I needed But I also realized what else was going on I was sitting on a park bench alone eating this Individually wrapped out of the cellophane concoction, which hadn't changed in shape or recipe or dimension But something had changed in me This was food which is meant to be consumed Individually and I was eating it appropriately in isolation on this park bench and hating it and I realized that I had just come through this period of terrible isolation cut off from food and This was no longer what I wanted I didn't want to eat anything which is going to be a metaphor or a manifestation of that kind of aloneness of that kind of Separation and then I went back to Katz's to complete the experiment and I ordered the sandwich and With the mustard and the Dr. Brown's celery and all that and I bit into it and it was fantastic It was fabulous It was even better than it was when I than I remembered it because not only were the flavors absolutely Alive in my mouth But I was in the Jewish tea room and I was sharing it with the tables of eaters And I was part of the community of eaters again and that began to change my thinking about this sense of Understanding what I crave that what I was craving was sure I wanted my flavors back And I wanted you know the feeling in my gut back But I wanted the totality of the food Experience and I thought of it as sociability and all the things that we've touched on and then I gave it a little more thought There's been so much talk among you know crowds like this past 20 years about the farm to table movement The locovore movement and seasonality movement, etc And we talk about the benefits of sustainability the economic benefits the environmental benefits the gastronomic benefits, etc But I don't think that there's much attention paid to the Psychological and emotional benefits for the consumer and the eater in the last 20 years where we live in New York City Farmers markets have exploded so every Thursday I go to our local farmers market through the fall And I buy bush as many apples as I can carry home and I eat you know the organically grown apples And we do the same thing in Maine with sugar and gold small kernel corn when it's fresh and it represents a Part of the experience that I realized Were was akin to how I was living my life and what I wanted that I Wanted what was authentic? The the Synthetic food that I was on had led me to death and what was going to lead me back to life was understanding what was authentic Not only on my tongue, but emotionally and psychologically and sort of the apotheosis of it just happened a couple of weeks ago This is a place in Maine in Wisconsin Maine called reds eats that claims to be the number one lobster roll stand in the state of Maine, which is a big claim and You wait a long time.  They are the best and the reason they are the best I think is because they represent authenticity. This is lobster right off the boat This is actually a lobster and a half on a roll and there's nothing on it There's no fancy play with it. There's drawn butter and mayonnaise on the side and you know a basic hamburger roll hot dog roll and This is like the Carnegie deli of of lobster shacks There's so much meat that it's falling off, you know your roll But it represents authenticity and it connects you not only to what's on your plate But to where you are and you're in a community of people who are waiting online for this shared experience And and that you know, I thought was sort of the totality of my understanding of this experience until I went to Noma Friday night And I had among the 28 courses Renee's brilliant lobster concoction and It was delicious and what was so interesting about it was that it took what for me was the traditional Process of eating which is you start by sucking the juice out of the spinners of the lobster and getting the flavor of the salt water in Your mouth and then going through the eating and in fact it took that process and it made it You know and that is the essence of the recipe It takes the juices of the lobster and it creates this broth and and and you use that in combination with the lobster tail And I thought well, I haven't stopped learning the meaning of this experience yet because I've discovered that even if something Like lobster that I think has to be prepared only one way in one place can be done like this and I can understand and appreciate it then Thank God there are talented people in this world who can take ancient traditions like this and Adapt them and do something creative and wonderful with them Because when they do that they are in fact telling new stories that Eaters like me can absorb and can bite into and begin to use them to understand the world around us as it changes That I think is the essence of my experience and I think I think for many many around us as well So I'm out of time. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure to talk to you


Welcome folks, this is Tom O'Brien of TFNN.  You focus on growth, hope everyone's having a great day, safe day, let's make it a great week folks, kicking up to the fourth of July, gonna love it. Always do your best, but don't overdo. When you overdo, you deplete your body and you go against yourself and it'll take longer to accomplish your goal. Knock it off, let's take a look at it out here. We have the Dow Industrial's down 120, Nasdaq off 101, S&Ps off 19, gold contract trading down $6.10 at 18.24 an ounce. You got silver, flat, $21.15 an ounce, platinum, down a buck and a half at 9.01 an ounce, light sweet crude, up a buck, $8209.44 a barrel, notes and bonds, a 10-year note, down 17 ticks trade in 1.1626, the 30-year off 25 ticks at 1.16, no, the 30-year off 25 ticks at 1.3508 and King Dollar. King Dollar's down 225 ticks trade in 103, 958, euros at 105, yen is at 135.43 and the British pound is at 122 to one US dollar. iPhone number's 877, 9276648, if it's a call folks, well I know it's going on in your world and the world of the S&Ps, let's take a look at them, what do you have? Well, what you have out here is that on Friday, Friday was a big day, I had a good day, you had a rebalancing of the small caps, you know, and what that specifically means folks, is that you have some small caps that were small caps that turned into, you know, large caps, other large caps that are small caps now and the bottom line is that you got volume in the market, that's how it shakes out. You see the spy, the spy, we did 98 million shares, okay, you know, you still went down with 132 but the way this works is that it depends, it's how you're going forward, that's the bottom line, we got volume in the market. That sets up, you know, well first off, it sets up, in order to indicate that volume, you have to get over it and close underneath it and that's what we're probably gonna do today. That being said, I expect that you're still gonna see this run, get up to this 40144, that's where the gap is, there's a free gap playing the way down, that's the top of the gap so it'll get somewhere into that level. We're gonna take a look at the MDX 100, the three cues, now the three cues, here's where divergence comes in. The three cues didn't get volume, now the composite got volume, when you see the composite, I mean, you're talking about volume, it's insane. So when you take a look at the three cues, bottom line, you did 58 million shares, then that's not even close, we did 67 million shares on that Thursday, Wednesday. Bottom line, that being said, I expect that we still see, we'll see that go into the 299 area. Now if we take a look at this volume, you'll see this on the NYSE, on Friday, you can see we did 3.2 billion. Okay, now watch this one, this is intense, man. And the composite, 9.42 billion folks, okay? So the way this works, just so you can understand like how this works, this is the, when you have a re-balance in, it's the one time, this happens at least four, five times a year in different indices, but it's the time that the actual larger funds can get out and get in without dislocating price in a big way. And you can see inside the NASDAQ composite, they did it in spades, in spades. And more than likely what happened with the composite also is that you probably had some middle caps that end up into small caps, that's what it looks like. Because you don't see that 9.2 billion too often inside the marketplace. Gold, gold contract is still having a tough time catching a bid. If you are in the gold market, you probably heard over the weekend that the Russian gold can't be sold now. The thing that's amazing about that story folks, Russian gold hasn't been able to sell since the sanctions went on it. So it's like that. I'm hearing this yapping all weekend long. It's like, okay, give me a break, okay? It hasn't happened since then. Now they may have formulaized it at the exchange, the London bullion exchange, but the bottom line, it hasn't been happening. You can see that, yeah, it hasn't done a thing. What we've had in the gold market is that it continues to reject lower price, but it hasn't got a sign of strength. And more than likely, this is what it's all about. It's that good old US dollar, because when you take a look at the US dollar, the bottom line inside the dollar is that, you know, this is hanging at eyes. You know, the hot, the hot, the benchmark high that you wanna keep your eye on the dollar is the first high. It's the 105.005. You know, we took that out about a week ago. It was a one day wonder. Then we came down hard, going sideways. You know, this rejected lower price again today. This thing's not over. That's my take inside that good old US dollar. We take a look at some of the higher volume equities out here today. And we got AMC up $1.67. Well, you know what's gonna be interesting is that the Top Gun, Top Gun just did over a billion dollars. That's one of the biggest plays for Paramount since, let me see, this is on the, it's like, it's a long time, man. It's 2000, where I, let me get this quick. I'll get it for you, but it's a long time. It's many, many years. But evidently, they have some action going for them. Look at Amazon down $2.95. You got Nvidia rough $1.95. We got Robinhood, Robinhood, check this out. Robinhood's trading $9.00, $9.19. That has actually absolutely got smoked. Occidental's up about 40. We have ExxonMobil up $2.27.  But most times, folks, this is a positive week. You're coming into the July 4th weekend and you got plenty of people that are on vacation. We just had a nice downdraft. There's no doubt that this can build costs for a bit. A bounce with some light volume and see where the whole thing shakes out. We're gonna take a look at Apple. Apple's trying to push out as much as they can public relations-wise that they're coming out with, you know, miracles. Bottom line is not helping them too much.  You're trading $1.41 right now. That being said, now this is what's gonna be so cool, folks, when you have the indices speculating that that's where the gap's gonna go. Apple's done it today. Apple got up to its bottom gap. $142.53. We hit $143.49. Now, if this can't hold it, this is how you pick a market apart. This is when you're gonna say, oh, I see. Because if Apple can't hold it, guess what, man? As the indices get up there, your probability goes much higher. You're not gonna be able to hold it. Stay right there, folks. We're coming right back with our man, Mr. Steve Rhodes. Dow. Dow Industries right now. Trading low up. Nasdaq off a bit. S&P's down eight. Come right back.


That's another game with the urgency to win it. Well, I mean, we just got to find a way to get a win. I wouldn't say anything to do it, like, you know, trying to balance anything right now. Because the paths don't matter right now. And the only thing that matters is the time for big bucking is, and we just need to find out and figure out a way to win this weekend on the road. From a defensive standpoint, we have to bear the effective quarterback. We got to assault the middle of the pocket, especially from the way they run their offense. They run the ball, but they live in play-action paths, and they want to block it up. I know it's a lot of questions about, they haven't only been sacked this amount of time, but the quarterback, he have a good awareness in the pocket. He run them guys that make guys miss. He try to dip under you or whatever it may be. You know, when we get an opportunity, we just got to get them to the ground.  So coming from my standpoint, we got to be able to affect the quarterback, be able to affect the middle of the pocket, disrupt the middle of the pocket, and eventually just create some turnovers. That's what they're going to come down to, because we haven't created enough turnovers. And I think eventually they're going to come for us. We've been very close at it. Been batting balls. Niko had a couple of them in the last couple of games. So them tip-balls are going to eventually turn to turnovers. How much do you like playing in your time?  He always been a competitor to guys. So we can expect them to stick around no matter if they down or not, or even they up.  And that's our plan. Whenever I'm on the field, I want to try and make a play. So I mean, in terms of focus, I feel like it's been the same the whole time. You and Will were able to connect a couple of times against Pittsburgh. Was there anything different that has happened in practice or anything like that to lead to that production? No, I would say maybe there are certain days, I mean, Will would stay after he get a couple of extra reps and just be on the same page. But I mean, Will's a talented quarterback and he's able to throw a lot of great balls. During the year, he would stay after practice and work with some of the receivers. Do you guys ever do that during a year before you got to start? Yeah, there's a couple of times we would get into it. Especially they pull a lot of us younger guys just to keep going over the plays and get a few extra reps and just, yeah. What's been the pulse of the locker since he was being the starter? It feels like there's a lot of energy around him. I mean, I feel like our locker's been the same. Just we're all positive. We know he can play ball. We know off three of those guys are really talented quarterbacks. So Will started, we're going to roll with him. And go play some football. Will says he's not really worried about winning approval from anybody. But how much do you see established himself as a leader in the short time that he's played? Yeah, he definitely has. Just how he handles himself day in and day out and then achieving, just going out there and the way he's been able to play the game and have success. Are you personally, it feels like since that Giants game in your debut, we've been waiting for a pop like that and you've been waiting patiently. So how good did that feel? What does it do for your confidence to move forward? Yeah, it definitely felt good. At the end of the day, the only stat that really matters is wins and losses and we weren't able to get that win. So it's kind of really the only thing I was thinking about. What stands out about this Tampa D pitch really facing in some way? Great defense front, good DBs, real physical. So she got to be good with her leases, routes, all that. And just play hard. And I didn't have much to hope I could find a thing to find. Yeah, it was nice to get back involved and contribute more to helping this team. But like I said, I had a few catches, but the only stat that really matters is wins and losses. And at the end of the day, we didn't win the game. So that's the biggest thing I was really thinking about after. From a health standpoint, you feel good. And I know that's probably a big part of it. Yeah, feel healthy. It's ready to go. Well, after the game said, maybe one of those plays you got to maybe talk through in three games. What's it like getting on the same page with another quarterback? And how do you think you've done so far? I feel like it happened pretty naturally, pretty fast. Just all the days throughout camp, just working with him, catching balls, having pretty fast. I mean, it wasn't really any hiccups. He's a really talented quarterback, and it's pretty easy. So you got support here as he comes in here. What are we, what's maybe the impressions most about him? So how do we support him? Right. Just give him a clear picture, be real decisive in all our decisions and try and make his reads as easy as possible. What's the challenge Sunday in Tampa? Weather's going to be a little different out there. It's going to be warm, but I don't think it'll be too much of a challenge, but definitely something different.


Well, a lot of people like to play chess online, but a lot of people like to play it in the analog world, and it looks like this square off is a smart chess board that might be able to bring the two together, but in kind of a mysterious, creepy kind of way. I'm here with Bavia Goheel, did I get that right? Yes, that's correct, yeah. All right, so we've got audio and video listeners, so we're standing in front of what looks like a standard chess board.  Yeah, so we have an Android and iOS app for this, it's called square off. So this is the app, we have three modes. You can play against the artificial intelligence with 20 different difficulty levels, or you can challenge any of your friends across the globe, or you can also livestream professional matches on this physical board. So let's- Wait, so I could play somebody real, a real human, and I would be seeing their chess pieces move? That's correct, that's correct. That's cool. So we'll play right now against the AI, so let's get started. So I'll say, so you can select your side black or white, let's say I select black side, now I can select my difficulty level. As I said, we have 20 different difficulty levels. Let's make it real easy. Yep. Okay, let's say I just six, okay? So now that's about it, so we are done. Now we can directly start playing. You don't have to play with your phone anymore. Not at all, so I'm totally off the screen and on the physical board. Okay, the white person just, they just move, can I move one? Yes. So I think you push down and then you move it? Perfect. Did I move it too far? No, that's okay. I don't play chess. Okay. Oh, the knight just moved around. Oh, that was cool. It slid around between two pieces, that was great. I'm lost now. So let's try another move. Let's fight back. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, that knight just moved its own pawn out of the way. That's... All right, this is a hot game in chess we got going on here. So this is really interesting. We're seeing the pieces move on the board as though you've got somebody sitting there and like you said, it can be somebody anywhere in the world or it can be a grandmaster level. Right. And now Steve asked beforehand about what kind of levels from the official chess standing standpoint, how high can it go? So it can be as low as 800 ELO and it can go as high as about 3000 ELO. Okay, so almost high enough to challenge Steve, I guess is what he is. Yeah. So from bigness to grandmasters, it is for everyone. You know, it's a good chess companion for everyone and you can also upscale your games. So because you are always increasing your level if you're playing again and again. That's very cool. So the way these are moving is magnetically, I assume, underneath? Yes, that's correct. All the pieces are magnetic and there's a robotic arm beneath this box. So that arm goes beneath that piece and it drags the pieces. That is really, really cool. Are you sure there's not a little guy under here? No, no, it looks a little bit thin. So when do you expect to have this on the market? So we are already in the market. We sell on Amazon as well. So we have two variants, Kingdom Set and the Grand Kingdom Set. This right now, which you see is the special edition black version but it's not out in the market yet. We expect it to be out in about three months from now. Okay, so for the ones that are on the market, what kind of pricing are we talking about? So the Kingdom Set is $369 and the Grand Kingdom Set is $449. Okay, so not too crazy expensive. This is really cool. I like the melding of the physical and the electronic from the future and pulling it together. That's really neat. I'm so glad you liked it. People who want to find out more, where would they go? So you can buy it on squareoffnow.com or you can also find it on Amazon. Awesome, I'll make sure to get our Amazon affiliate link right here.