Today we're in chapter 10, Romans. We're going to be looking at verses 14 through 21. So allow me to read to you out of Romans chapter 10, beginning at verse 14, I'll read to verse 21 and we'll get into our study. Romans chapter 10, verses 14 through 21, and we're looking at confessing and believing. Paul writes in Romans 10, 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they're sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things? But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report. So then faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, indeed. Their sound has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I say, did Israel not know? First, Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation.  But Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me. But to Israel, he says, all day long, I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Now, in order to introduce this, I need to remind you of what Paul has been saying in the verses previous to this, verses nine through 13. In verses nine through 13 of Romans chapter 10, Paul had made it very clear, concerning the gospel, that the gospel is a message that is open to both Jew and to Gentile. In other words, this gospel message that Paul is speaking to concerning is not a message that is restricted to a certain geographic location but is intended to be received by all. It's a message that's to go out to the whole world, like it says in Mark 16, 15, where we read, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So the message of the gospel was not intended to remain in Israel, but to go throughout the world. Which is one of the reasons why I'm blessed to know that our young people who went to Costa Rica and just returned, this high school group, just returned, have taken that seriously and they took the message and they actually went on a foreign mission and for those in high school to have such a heart is a blessing to me. And they will be sharing, some of them will be sharing this upcoming Wednesday concerning what the Lord has done. But the gospel is intended to go out. And so the gospel message is intended to go out to the whole world. Now as we look at the gospel message and taking it a little further, the gospel message is also referred to as the word of faith.  That is the word of faith which we preach unfortunately in recent history there are those who are speaking of this word of faith as if it was something that referred to a word that was uttered that produced certain results. That kind of teaching introduced magical incantations into Christian faith. When he speaks concerning the word of faith that's just another way of speaking of the gospel. It's a gospel that is speaking of faith in Jesus Christ. Paul uses that phrase in 1st Timothy 4-6 when he says to Timothy a young pastor, if you instruct the brethren in these things you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine in which you have carefully followed. And so Paul is speaking concerning the gospel also referred to as words of faith. Notice what he said in verse nine when he said, if you confess with your mouth to the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you'll be saved. That message of God raised in Christ from the dead is found in the gospel.  So he's speaking about an actual attitude of faith and a reception of this message of the gospel. So he says we're to confess to the Lord Jesus. When he says confess that word confess means we say the same thing. And so as a community of believers regarding who Jesus is we're in agreement that he's the savior of the world. Now confessing Jesus is more than simply saying something like well I believe in God or I believe in Jesus or even oh I'm a Christian already there are so many who say that. I said that and probably most if not almost all of us in this room would have said the same thing before we were saved if somebody would have approached me and would have said to me which they did that I needed to receive Christ. My response immediately was I'm already a Christian. That was my response even though I didn't have a true faith in Christ. I didn't really regard him as my personal Lord and savior. I hadn't been born again but I would argue that I was like so many others. And so confessing Jesus Christ is more than simply saying I believe in him. It's much more than simply saying well I am already a Christian. Now there are those who think that we as Calvary chapels may dumb down the gospel and make the gospel message watered down by encouraging people to come to faith in Christ and to pray and to receive Christ. I received a message just this last week where an individual writing me said Calvary Chapel has done a great work and injustice causing thousands to have a false assurance of salvation by telling them that they are saved by repeating a prayer. That's not what we teach. That's not what the Bible teaches. We don't say that if you say a prayer it's like a magical incantation. I say these words and thus I'm saved. That's not what we say at all because the Bible doesn't teach that. We know that salvation is a life that is reflected by a sacrificial devotion to Jesus Christ. It's not just an intellectual agreement with certain things that they've read in the Bible. We know that there are people who could intellectually believe that what Jesus said is true but that doesn't mean they embrace by faith what Jesus said. We see an example in John 12, 42 and 43 where John writes even among the rulers many believed in him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the synagogue for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. And so intellectual ascent to certain things that are presented doesn't make you a Christian.  And if that actually is true then your life is gonna reflect that. There will be a transformed life. And so genuine Christians will exhibit several qualities that will identify them as actual believers in Christ. One of those things would be obedience. Obedience to what God has to say an individual who says that they're a Christian but doesn't obey the word of God ought to begin to wonder whether they really know who he is. Jesus said, if you love me, John 14, 15 if you love me keep my commandments. In Luke 6, 46 he said, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things which I say. Obedience is simply part and parcel of being a Christian you read the word and you say, God help me to obey this my heart's desire is to do what you say. When we're looking at Romans chapter 6 verse 17 Paul said, God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. You obeyed from the heart. And so obedience is one of the earmarks of a believer a love for God and a love for men an earmark of the believer. Jesus said, a new commandment give I unto you that you love one another as I have loved you by this shall all men know you are my disciples if you have love one for another. So love for God and love for one another is a demonstrating fact that we have a relationship with God in 1 John 4 20 and 21 John said, if someone says I love God and hates his brother he's a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen and this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also. And so obedience to the Lord love for God and love for man sacrifice. Sacrifice is an earmark of a believer. Jesus in John 15 13 said, great a love has no man than this that a man laid down his life for his friends. And so obedience, love, sacrifice this all is worked out in what is called personal holiness. The Bible in 2 Corinthians 7 1 says having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And then there's the commitment that you have to Jesus Christ as the only savior. See when I got saved I didn't add him to some kind of group of people that I admired. I didn't just bring Jesus along and put him next to Buddha or some philosopher. I knew that he was the one and the only savior. There's nobody else that I would look to greater than Moses, greater than Abraham that he was the one and only savior and that's what constitutes a faith in Christ. In John 6 67 through 69, Jesus said to the 12 do you also want to go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ the son of the living God. We've got nowhere else to go. We're going to remain with you. And then finally another earmark of a believer is that they have a hunger for the word of God. And this is one of the ways that you can take your spiritual temperature right now. You can do an inventory. Are these qualities of your life? And is there an overriding desire in your heart for the word of God? Hunger is always a good demonstration that there's life and hunger for the word of God is a great demonstration that you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Anybody who gets married knows that in order to have a good marriage, you have to have communication. There needs to be a relationship between the husband and the wife. I remember one famous actress whose husband lived in Japan and she lived in the States and she said, we've got a great marriage. I'm sure they did, they never saw each other. But people who are married understand that the closer you get, the more conflicts you deal with because you get to know one another in a better and more intimate way. That's just the way it is. And so the best relationships are the ones that are personal and there's a lot of communication.  I have a granddaughter who just celebrated her first birthday on Friday. And Stella, she turned one year old. And Stella will let you know that she's hungry. I mean, if you walk by with some yogurt, forget it. It's hers. I mean, that's just the way it's going to be. She is going to make some noise. She's going to get upset. She's going to grunt. I mean, just the other day I walked in the den as I've got this yogurt, I can hear this grr, grr, grr, grr. And it was Marie and Stella's even worse. Stella's even worse. But I know she's alive. How do I know she's alive? Right, of reasons, but one of them, quite obviously, is she's hungry. She needs to be fed. And that's a sign of life and there's this hunger for the word of God that demonstrates that you have a relationship with God. And 1 Peter chapter two verse two, it says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. So there's this hunger that we ought to have that demonstrates that even as babies are hungry for their mother's milk, we ought to be hungry for the nourishment that comes to the word of God. And all of these things are more than simply saying, oh yeah, I'm a Christian or yeah, I believe in God. These are earmarks of a believer. They have these things that really constitute the reality of their salvation. And so the Bible's very clear about that. And Paul, when he was speaking in verses 1112 in chapter 10 here, he had said the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. And so these are people who can put their trust in God's promises and they know that God is going to keep them. And he finally had said in verse 13 that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And God wants all to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. All. He's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. In 1st Timothy chapter two verses four through six, Paul said it like this. God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all men. The testimony given in its proper time. So Paul has been speaking concerning salvation, how we can have salvation, how we confess the Lord Jesus Christ cling to him and our lives are transformed. And this applies to both Jew and Gentile. So in verse 14, here in Romans chapter 10, he continues by saying, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? So what is God's method of bringing salvation to people? Salvation comes as a result of people hearing the message, believing it and then taking it out and communicating it to other people. And that's how they are not only saved themselves through the preaching of the word, but that's how other people are saved. Now, not every person who comes to church is interested in salvation. There are people who come to churches, this church and others with a spirit that is not necessarily open and receptive. I mean, a lot of people come to church because their parents make them come to church. They come to church for a variety of reasons, but it's not always so that they can receive from the Lord and grow as a believer. Sometimes they may come with some hostility and argumentative hearts. We had somebody in this church a while back now who had a friend who was just far from God. And so he began sharing the gospel with his friend. His friend didn't want to hear anything about the gospel. Didn't want to hear anything about Jesus and all and would argue with him. Now the friend that he was speaking to was a gangster. He was in a gang and it's pretty involved in it. That was his life, pretty violent. And so when this young man would share with this friend who was so opposed to Christ, the friend would continually rebuff him, say, I don't want anything to do with that. So finally, one day this young man speaking to him said, listen, why don't you just come to church in here for yourself? And this other guy said, no, I'm not going to go. Why would I go there? I don't want to go. And so his friend says something like, why are you afraid? Well, you don't say that to this guy. What do you mean afraid? What am I afraid of? You afraid of the truth? Now I'll go. So he came and he brought some people with him and they came to a church service.  It's why he came. He came to argue.  And the claims that I'm making are all foolish. That's why he came. And so at the invitation, he got saved. He came walking forward and stood up and gave his heart to Christ. His name is David Trujillo. David Trujillo, pastors, Calvary Chapel, South Los Angeles now. But that's how David got saved by coming even with this argumentative spirit. That's how he came. He came with this, I don't need this.    And praise God for that. Amen. Praise God for that. And so the gospel goes out. It's intended to go out. And people need to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? So there needs to be evangelism. You see, when you're saved, you have a responsibility now to give this message to other people. This message of salvation isn't for some elite group and this communication of this message isn't for certain individuals. We may not all be evangelists. We may not all be missionaries, but we are all to be as witnesses. And we take this message and we share it. You can share it with your friends. You can share it with your family. You can share it with neighbors that you might have a relationship with that you can speak to, co-workers or people you go to school with. You can share this message. He says in verse 15, how shall they preach unless they are sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. And so there's the sending. You see, the Lord can send you. He can commission you. This is one of those things we all can do. There's something in scripture it's referred to as the Great Commission. All of us who have been believers for a while are familiar with that term. And if I were to say where is the Great Commission found, many would say it's found in Matthew 28 versus 18 through 20. Cause that's normally the passage of scripture that is used to communicate what is called this Great Commission. But the fact is this Great Commission isn't found just in one gospel. It's found in all four gospels plus the book of Acts. So you can see elements of the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. You can see the command that Jesus gives to go out and preach the gospel to every creature in Mark 16, 15. You can see Jesus speaking concerning this in Luke chapter 24 verses 46 through 48. And you can also see it in John chapter 20 verses 21 through 23. Finally, you see it wrapped up in Acts chapter one, verse eight. You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses to me, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And so this commission is a general commission but it also was specific in the life of the apostle Paul. Paul had a commission that he'd received from the Lord in Ephesians three, verse eight. He said, to me who am less than the least of all the saints this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. So he had a commission, this commission to go how shall they preach unless they are sent? Now notice in verse 15 how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things. And so the validity of their message the authority upon which they act is the Lord sending them out taking this message living this message and giving this message to others. But verse 16, they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says, Lord who has believed our report. National Israel is what he's referring to and national Israel overwhelmingly rejected the Messiah a Messiah that is clearly presented in scripture in so many different places Isaiah 53 being but one but they had as a nation rejected in John chapter 12 verses 37 and 38 it says even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in the presence they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet Lord who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. And so he's speaking of the fact that the nation is rejecting but he goes on in verse 17 of Romans 10 by saying faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God preaching is basic. God could line up the stars if he wanted in such a way that anybody could look and read Jesus saves in their own language. He could do that, it's not beyond him but he chose not to do that. He chose to give a message called the gospel that through the foolishness of the message preached people would be saved.  A God who is so just that he has to deal with it. A God who is so loving that he's willing to pay the price himself through Jesus Christ's son.  And a God who is so clear that he gives a message of salvation that you can hear and by the conviction of the Holy Spirit your heart can be touched and moved and transformed when you by faith commit yourself to him. In first Corinthians two, four and five Paul said my message and my preaching were very plain rather than using clever and persuasive speeches. I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would not trust in human wisdom but in the power of God. In John 6.63 we read the spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. The very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. So stories are great. I like to use them for great jokes and humor that helps us entertainment. That's something that's okay testimonies. Those are things that you find in churches and all of that can be part of a service but none of those things by themselves will change a human life. The only thing that changes lives is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of the gospel to transform. And so that's what he's speaking about. Who has believed our report? Faith comes by hearing by the word of God. But verse 18 I say have they not heard? Yes indeed. Their sound has gone out to all the earth. Their words to the ends of the world. The Jews had heard the gospel. The book of Romans was written somewhere around 25 years after the birth of the church. So the nation of Israel had opportunity through Christ ministry as well as the preaching of the gospel from the day of Pentecost. The nation of Israel has had an opportunity to hear this message and yet they've closed the ears to it. When you read the book of Acts, the book of Acts is filled with information concerning their efforts at evangelism. But you see in the book of Acts a constant rejection of this message called the gospel. They had the chance to hear but they themselves did not receive. So Paul in context would be referring to the nation of Israel that has turned their ears away from the gospel. But at the same time he's making it very clear that the word of God has gone out. Like he said again in verse 18, their sound has gone out to all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. God's word still goes out by the way to the ends of the world. Marie and I, my wife and I had the opportunity of going to Mexico a week and a half or so ago as some of you know. And we were given the opportunity to go. I was actually asked by a friend of mine Mike McIntosh to go and to teach at a pastor's conference and to teach at a Bible Institute. So we flew into Mexico City. I've only been to Mexico City once in my entire life. I have stopped over in Mexico City to go to other places but I've never really spent much time in the city itself. So for me it was a new experience. And so we flew into Mexico City and then we got in on a Wednesday, on Thursday I went to a Bible Institute and I was teaching a group of students in this classroom that held around 60 people. And as I was there, sharing a couple of studies with these students and all, when we finished teaching, Mike following and taught two studies, I turned to my host who was walking with me and sharing with me and just there for us. I said to him, is this where you meet on Sunday mornings? And he said, oh no, we have another place that we meet on Sunday mornings. Now you have to understand what I was thinking at that time. I've seen a number of churches throughout Mexico, South America and all and they're not normally very large and so there was a seating for around 60 people or so and I thought, well maybe this is where you meet on Sunday mornings. So I said, David, my friend, I said, is this where you meet? And he said, oh no, we have another place. I said, can I see it? He said, of course. So we go walking down some steps and all we make it to these doors. I walk in the doors and the sanctuary seats 2,300 people. It's huge and I'm standing there at a sea of chairs and I said, this is where you guys meet? He says, oh yeah, we have double services. You have double services here? I said, forgive me. I am not used to seeing something like this. He says, oh yeah. And so the pastor of this church is a horizon in Mexico City. The pastor's name is Fenomín. That's not a name that I'm familiar with. Some of you perhaps might be Fenomín IV. Well, it turns out that Fenomín was the number one rapper in Mexico. He is in Mexico, he is historically the greatest rap star that they have. Now me, what do I know about rap? Yo, that's about it. I mean, I don't know. Yo, dog, I mean, there's really, I don't, any of, for shizzle. You know, I don't, I really, I don't know anything about it, my shizzle. I mean, that is not my thing. So what do I know? Well, this guy is huge still. I mean, he doesn't even do music anymore of that sort. But people still approach Fenomín and they want his autograph and pictures with him. He's huge in Mexico. He's the pastor. And so he's got about 4,000 to 5,000 people showing up. These people who are coming to this particular church, there's no parking. They park throughout this area. And if you're familiar with Mexico City at all, in this particular area, it's industrial, there's no street parking. They actually have to park blocks away. And you're talking about two services. You're talking about 2,300 people per service who are parking on streets all around this place and then making their way in to church. I was absolutely blessed and blown away by what God is doing in horizon and to make friends with Fenomín. And he's just a great guy, gentle spirit. I wouldn't know that he had a song that says, we're armed and we're gonna take over. He was violent and was like, they said he is Mexico's equivalent to Eminem. Now I like Eminems. The red ones are good. I like the blue ones. He's the Mexican equivalent, the most famous of all rap stars. He got saved and he's a pastor in this church. And one of the members of his worship team is a woman named Maria del Sol. Some of you may have heard of her. She is one of the most famous actresses and their form of Broadway and singers in Mexico. Very famous. So we're hanging around with two people. I don't even know how impressive they are to everybody. They're just brother and sister in the Lord. And so we go to church on Sunday morning and afterwards Fenomín wants to take us out to eat. So he takes us to this place, Acienda. And as he takes us, we're sitting there and I had shared earlier a few days before with a brother and I had said something, just kind of talking. And I said, you know, when I was growing up, as I've mentioned here in this church, I said, my dad had a favorite group called the Trio Los Panchos and I grew up here in their music and I had shared that with him. And he goes, oh really? I said, yeah, one of my dad's favorite songs that I can still remember was a song called Malagueña Salerosa. And so I shared that. I grew up here in that. That's what I heard. Every Saturday, my dad would play this music. So I heard this, right? And so I just mentioned it. I said, that's a song that reminds me of my dad. Then I just mentioned it. So we're in a hacienda and we're eating. Very nice meal, I must confess. I miss it. And it was so good. So as we're eating, as we're eating, I don't notice that a trio, they have mariachis that are going throughout the area. I don't notice that they came and stood behind me. I was too busy concentrating on that plate in front of me. It was so good. And all of a sudden I hear this opening sounds of Malagueña Salerosa. And they start to sing beautifully. And then I look and right across from me on my right is Maria Del Sol, one of the most famous artists in all of Mexico. And she's singing Malagueña Salerosa to me. And I start to cry. I start to cry. I was so overwhelmed. That's who I am right now. I am. I miss that food. Anyway, I feel called. But anyway, I mean, can you imagine that? And Ferdinand, this very, very well-known guy is there right across from me. And after they finished singing, I was so overwhelmed, I couldn't even eat for two minutes. And these mariachis are there getting their pictures taken with Maria Del Sol. The Spirit said, it's because the gospel left Jerusalem. It left Jerusalem. It went into Judea. It went into Samaria. It went throughout the world. So that one day I would be sitting, not for this reason, but part of the results, that I would be sitting in a restaurant in Mexico City with people that I would never have known in my life, well-known, one of them singing to me and the other one buying my meal. Thank you, Jesus. The gospel goes out. It's supposed to, isn't it? It's supposed to. It's supposed to. It's supposed to hit your heart. It's supposed to be shared with others. It's supposed to leave your house. It's supposed to leave your neighborhoods. It's supposed to leave your job sites. It's supposed to leave your schools. It's supposed to leave your state, your nation. It's supposed to go throughout the world. That's what the gospel does. And it changes lives from some angry gangbanger who shoots people and has been shot, who's now passed in a church in South L.A. From some guy who sings gangster rap, hates the establishment and now preaches in a church of several thousands of people. It reaches a woman who sings Broadway in Mexico and is well-known, who sits across the table from somebody like me and sings a song that reminds me of my father. That's what it does. Changes lives. The sound has gone out, Paul says, but they haven't heard, they haven't believed. It's not that the gospel has no power. It's that the people refuse to hear it. They reject it. But it's the power of salvation and Israel had rejected. It's not because God has no power to save. It's because they rejected him. So what does God do? Does he give up? No, he says in verse 20, Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me. So instead of him just giving up, what did he do? He took that message to the Gentiles. When you read the Bible, the nation of Israel is looked at in a different way than the nations around them, the Gentiles. The nation of Israel is looked at as having certain favors with God, grace that God gave to them. It speaks about them having the prophets, the signs, the wonders, miracles. It speaks concerning them having the word of God. They also had the temple, the temple ceremonies. They had the priesthood. They had so many advantages. So when Israel is spoken of in the New Testament, they are not spoken in the same way that Gentiles are spoken of. Gentiles who are non-Jews are spoken of as the nations, the goyim, the nations. And the nations are spoken of in the New Testament as those who are without God, those who know not God. You see that, for example, in Ephesians 2, 12 and 13. At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And so Israel as a nation, national Israel, did not come to faith in their Messiah. God didn't give up. He reached to a nation or nations. Now we're not even seeking him. That's what he's saying here. I was found by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me.  The way God sought you out. And God reached out to me and God reached out to you, didn't he? By the gospel, by somebody who loved you enough to tell you the truth. Somebody was willing to take the chance of you rejecting them and getting angry at them. But God reached out to you. You see that in Genesis when God, after the fall, says Adam, where are you? You see it in the book of Revelation and everywhere in between where the spirit and the bride say come. There's the invitations of God, all who would come to him, none will be rejected. God desires all men to know him, all women to know him and be saved. And so he reached out to those who didn't even have the desire apparently to reach out to him. But to Israel he says, all day long I've stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. He was ready and he was willing, but they are disobedient and they reject him. Jeremiah 25, 4 says, the Lord has sent to you all his servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them. You have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. It's a voice of one crying in the wilderness and God still does. His voice is still crying in the wilderness of sin. Make a path to the Lord, come to him. Israel rejected him. They were contrary and they were disobedient, but not all, not all have rejected him. It's not that every Jew has rejected him. There are Jewish believers. We call them messianic believers. We used to call them completed Jews. They've come to faith in their messiah, but as a nation, Paul is saying they have rejected their messiah. Even though God has reached out to them and he's put his hand out and he has said, take my hand and be saved. Even though Jesus Christ wept over the city of Jerusalem and said, you need to come to me.  You would not come. Yet the Bible says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, I praise the Lord that I called on his name and I was saved. I bless the Lord for every person in this room who's called upon the name of the Lord and been saved. But there are so many out there right now who have yet to call upon this name that they might be saved. And so how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Let us take this message out and share it with others. May we live it and may we give it that they might come to faith in Christ who loves them and gave his life for them.


Hey guys, welcome back to Come Again TV, the only place on YouTube where all key culture collides. I'm Shannon and today on the show We're gonna be taking a look at the history and origins of the Ghostbusters Egon Spangler with no evidence to the contrary. We'll be using Harold Remus's actual birthday as Egon's for this video Egon was born November 21st in 1944 which made him the oldest of the original Ghostbusters He passed away February 24th 2014 in the original film Egon was named after Harold Remus's classmate Oswald Spangler and a Hungarian refugee named Egon Dunsback Christopher Walken, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd and Jeff Goldblum were all considered for the role Egon was raised in Cleveland, Ohio where his parents didn't believe children should play with toys With the exception of part of a slinky he had but straightened and a train set his twin brother Eon had Which Egon had taken over to use in experience by observing fellow high school students making out in the park and applying a variety of Scientific principles Egon had managed to precisely forecast the exact number of VD cases in Ohio State for that year as a result Most parents would express a strong aversion to letting their children associate with them The reason Egon collects spores molds and fungi is because he believes them to be the food of the future The only reason that Peter has his double doctorate is because Egon single-handedly got him through graduate school Egon is a graduate of MIT and a doctor of physics IE a PhD, which is a doctor of philosophy degree more than likely with a focus on the sciences rather than the arts He was also a professor of paranormal studies at Columbia University, which means he attained his professional degree in the ghost busted manga It's said that Egon studied four years at Columbia University two years at Oxford and live with gnostic monks of Carpathia for an extended period of time in IDW comics Egon attained PhDs in Parapsychology and microbiology and taught himself electronics mechanics mathematics and became fluent in three and a half languages The reason Egon tried to drill a hole through his head as mentioned in the first film was to promote higher brain function This was inspired by the actual thwarted attempt by John Lilly Who is a prominent researcher in dolphin communication in early drafts of the Ghostbusters 2 script Egon was said to be working as a physics Professor specializing in quantum theory Egon is known to put very few restraints on the scope of his research This is evident when it's referred to him sleeping with the mood slide Egon was usually the first to interview paranormal case subjects And came up with the line. We're ready to believe you He and Ray are the ones who design and build all the Ghostbusters equipment Egon's only real weakness is that of sugar Which means you have to wonder what actually went through his head when the stay pup marshmallow man attacked during the event He said he was too scared for rational thought it really makes me wonder if he thought his favorite snack that of sugar was finally getting its revenge on him With this is it possible to suggest that it wasn't just Ray who conjured up the mr. Stay pup But Egon as well given his response I would imagine his worst fear would be that of his delicious snacks attacking him in the real Ghostbusters animated series Egon's greatest fear was that of the boogeyman It was his original encounter with the creature that led to his study of the paranormal However in idw comics it said that Egon witnessed his friend Eugene visitor vanish without a trace when hit by a car And that is what led him down the path of paranormal research There you have it guys the history and origins of Egon Spangler If you enjoyed this video make sure you head over to our other channel Psychology of the unknown where we go over other great video topics like jack the ripper the science of ghosts and more Take care geeks If you enjoyed that video make sure you hit the subscribe button right there So you stay up to date on all thanks geek culture Also, go ahead and check out one of these two playlists on the side for more videos just like the one you just watched I'm shanner for comic n tv the only place on youtube where all geek culture collides Take care geeks


Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in the Palo Alto studios today to talk really about the customer journey. We're excited to have our guest today who flew in all the way from Istanbul, Turkey, which is a very long flight. It's Attila Bayrak. He's the chief analytics officer for ActBank. Welcome. Hi. So first of all, I hope you get some time to catch up on your sleep before you turn around and fly all the way back. Yeah, it's a little bit quick to speak about finance and banking, but it's good to be here. We're glad you made the trip. And so before we jump in, for people that aren't familiar, give us a little bit about ActBank and the history of the bank. Yeah, sure, sure. ActBank is one of the leading private bank in Turkey. And it's almost 70 years old and we have nearly 14,000 employees and with the 850 branches, around 4,000 ATMs and probably half a million merchant point of sales. We can say that we have a good footprint in Turkey and also we are keen on to be leading a digital bank in Turkey. And just a brief information about Turkey. The Turkish market is quite young and the 50% of the population is under the age of 29. So the- 50% is under the age of 29, okay. It's huge and the total population is around 80 million. Okay. So Turkish economy is quite performing very well for the last 10, nine years. And so that's why being a digital leader is quite a crucial issue for us. So with these numbers, we are performing around probably the best or the second in many KPIs. And we can say that we nominated, many times as the best bank in Turkey with the bank in Europe from some of the companies. Okay. And how long have you been there? So I've been there in 11 years. 11 years. But you said before that you're at some other banks. You've been in the banking industry for a while. Yes. I've been banking industry for almost 20 years. So I used to work two other competitors of Akbank. Okay. So I'm curious, with that large percentage of younger people, how many of those people ever come into a branch or go to an ATM as opposed to using their phone? So they should prefer doing business in phone because it's quicker, faster and easy. And the experience is quite much more under control in the phone. And we can say that we have 80, 85% of younger people are preferring the digital business rather than the classical ways. It's just fascinating to me, especially in banking, because in banking, you know, it was that trusted facility on the corner, right? In every town that you knew it was stable and it was always there and you went into the branch and you knew some of the people that worked there. And now almost the entire experience between the bank and its customers is a digital interaction, especially for the young people. They've never been to a branch. They don't hardly ever go to an ATM. In fact, the whole concept of cash is kind of funny to them. It's a very different world. So digital transformation and banking is so, so important. Yes, they're going in hand and hand. You know, the millennials are living in the digital world. So, and after the millennials, they're born in the digital world. So it's obvious that the business are transformed itself into the digital way and to deliver the products and needs in a way of doing things with the digital processes. Right. As chief analytics officer, with that move and the millennials, of course there's always regulation and other things that are driving your KPIs. But how has that migration to younger people interacting in a digital way impacted your job and what you measure, what you have to do every day? They directly impacted my job. I used to lead the customer relationship management initiative for 10 years, which covers the sales and marketing automation and the analytics and the design of the processes in the sales. And a year ago, one and a half year ago, we transformed the role into the analytics office and we are keen on the deep dive in the customer behavior and define what are the needs of the customer and how it's evolving in the digital era. And we are trying to position the banks' products and the communication skills in the digital world with the customers. So it is similar in the old days in the subjects, but it's really different in details. So the story begins to understand the customer and the segmenting the customer for sure, for the last probably more than 30, 50 years. But in the digital world, the footprint of the customer and the digital footprint is quite diversifying the thoughts in the corporate side. So we have around 15 million customers and nearly 90% is the retail ones in the new ages. So we need to optimize the banking, let's say, the cost structure of the bank and for sure the digital business gives us the enablement of the optimizing the customer service. So the segmenting the customers, not for the value basis, the behavioral and the other perspectives and creating very well-defined segments is the initial step and we are redefining ourselves in serving in this era. So I'm just curious, 20 years ago, we'll go back to 30, but 20 years ago, how many segments did you use to segment your customers? I mean, how many kind of classes and how has that changed today? Well, 20 years ago we have three to five segments. Three to five segments, that's my thought. So it's like the big ones and the small ones and if you have the analytic capability, you have the middle ones. Right, right. For nowadays we have 80, 85 different perspectives for the customers and so we created that platform to enhance the segmentation capability to serve our specified problems of the bank and I mean problems with the missions of the marketing, let's say. So we are considering now the life stage, lifestyle and some spending behaviors and some investment behaviors, some credit risk behaviors also as well and the potentials of the economic size. Right. And we can say that now we have more than hundreds but the optimal point of the segmentation is so there is no meaning to create some segments that you do not take some actions. Right, right. The actionability of the segment is quite coming forward in this topic. So we created the platform to enhance the capability to create dynamic segments and dynamic targets to each marketing event. Right. And I was going to say and hand in hand with that and you just mentioned a bunch of different variables. How many variables fed that segmentation before versus how many variables today feed that segmentation analysis? So it increases probably 100, 100 times. So we used to, I don't know, analyze a couple of hundreds of dimensions and variables in older days. It's more than 10,000 today. More than 10,000 variables to segment into hundreds of classifications and customers. Yeah, why not? Yeah, sure. Well, there's a good opportunity for an analytics of executive. Yeah. So how you address that challenge, right? So obviously you're here as a data mirror customer. How did you do it in the past? What were the things you couldn't do and what forced you to go with kind of a new platform, a new approach? So we can say that we have a quite well-defined analytics architecture in the Egg Bank and we are using different types of technologies in different types of solution areas. Data Mirror is positioned in the measuring of our marketing campaigns. And as we mentioned, we have more than millions of customers and we have quite, we can say that in a given period of time we have more than hundreds of campaigns. So we need to speed up the measurement of the campaigns and the results in a business perspective. And once we come across with the data mirror and the capabilities of the technology is much more related with the Hadoop structure and is the integration of different data sources in one place, so we think that we can optimize our ETL type of measurement data load technologies transformed into the Hadoop structure. And it seems it worked, so we reduced the time to transform the data into a single platform from diversified places. And we create an easy to use measurement platform to give some feedbacks before the things that happen. Right, right. Because there's a lot of elements to it. Just on the data side, there's the ingest, as you said, now you have many, many variables so you got to pull from multiple sources. You got to get it into a single place. You got to get it into kind of a single format that then you can drive the analytics on it. Then you got to enable more people to have the power and I'm curious how that piece of your business has evolved where before probably very few people had access to the data, very few people had access to the tools and the training to use them. But to really get the power out of this effort you need to let a lot of people have access to that data, access to the tools to design these hundreds of campaigns. So how's that evolved over time? To be frankly speaking, there are thousands of variables are related to the predictive part of the analytics. But the other critical point is, so the results are how are things are going on in the business side. So is there banking, let's say culture of bank? So we are keen on to put the business value on the front and then think with that mind and design each and every process in that way. So that's another perspective to get support, to change the classical data, load and upload and transform the data and analyze the data to see the results, that's the old way. And we were good to be frankly, but we transformed that into a much more dynamic structure and the knowledge, as you mentioned is a critical point in the team. So the easy to use, the usage of easy to use or of the technology, quite another critical point to create that type of thing into the place. So at the end of the day, you're measuring hundreds of marketing actions just in a single month and if there's something happening that doesn't plant, so you need some time to rethink on this issue and redesign it. So we think that we are at the door of this stage. So we can say that we can use the output of the predictive analytics much more in an efficient way by understanding the results in much more frequently and speedily, let's say. Right, right. And would you say this effort has really been offensive in terms of you trying to get ahead of the competition to be aggressive or has it been defensive and if you're not playing this game, you're not really in the game anymore? So it depends on the prior subject. If it's retention action, it can be defensive. It seems like defensive, but if it's, let's say, up-selection, it can be offensive. So there is no chance to choose one of them because we have a variety of products and a variety of businesses in Turkey that we are operating and at the end of the day, we need to serve each and every action. And I think it was very insightful too that you said you don't do it just for the sake of doing it and because you can do it, that if there's no action that can come from it or it's not actionable, what's the point? It's a wasted effort. Yeah, sure. At the end of today, we are doing banking business so we are not doing the analytics business. Right, right. So that's the point. Right, yeah, exactly. So as you look back, what has been, if the high level result of this effort, if you're reporting to your boss or the board of using this type of approach and then secondly, where do you go next? We're almost at the end of 2017. What are some of your objectives and kind of priorities for 2018? So we are creating, we are now just, nowadays, seeing the results of the new system and we can say that in some actions, we've started to increase the results 10 to 15 percent. 10 to 15 percent? Yes, it's in the result phase and it gives us some courage to design new use cases. Right. So the new use cases are much more related with the visualizing of the results in real time, these type of things. Right. And basically I can say that we are trying to get everything in real time. Right. The modeling in real time, measuring in real time, visualizing in real time. So we are trying to push each and every action in the analytics to the closer. We do not want to work in the offline phase. Right, in the past. Yeah, it's fascinating to me that to think that we used to make decisions based on a sampling of things that happened in the past, now we want to make decisions on all the data that's happening. Now it's a very different approach. Yeah. All right, great. Well, Attila, thank you for stopping by and sharing your insights. It's a pleasure to share. All right, absolutely. All right, so he's Attila Bayrack. I'm Jeff Frick. You're watching theCUBE. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.


Guten Tag, mine fans! Welcome to Aspug's Groove, the YouTube channel.   Today we're going to be talking about autism, of course, as you do, as it happens.   So I think we should start with the typical idea of what an autistic person is in general. Not everybody. Autistic people tend to be the strange ones, the eccentric ones, the left out ones, the alienated ones at school. That's the well-known environment for an autistic person because when we get a bit older, when we sort of learn things, we surround ourselves with people that we know and the people that like us, obviously that's why everybody does. And autistic people like to gravitate around those who want to understand us and who want to help adjust us into the social environment that they create around them in a circle, in a sphere. Not everybody is that open-minded to just how cool and nice and unique and quirky and intelligent autistic people can be. But maybe something that you didn't know is that just in the same way as this being you, over here, just in the same way as you looking at an autistic person, speaking to them, interacting with them, you think that they're weird. They don't fit a model or framework. You can't really put your finger on what they're thinking or feeling but noose flash. This autistic person also thinks you're extremely weird and they don't understand you and they don't understand why you act in a certain way. Switch them around. It's slipped on you. Then the old switcheroo and that's how a lot of people view neurotypicals. A lot of autistic people. Because we operate on a different wavelength to each other, some people who are neurotypical find autistic people interesting. A lot of people do. But nearly every single autistic person finds neurotypicals interesting. You are very confusing. You do very confusing things. And we have ways of working. We are perfectly comfortable and feel fine. We're doing all our weird, quirky things and talking in a way that we see fit, that we feel like is the best way of communicating. And you don't do that. And it's very strange for us. You've got a lot of weird things. I'm going on. I know I'm going on. Stop it Tom. Let's get into some points. Let's get into some points. Number one. Autistic people don't really transcribe to the whole. Do what feels right. Follow your heart. What feels best for you in this situation to do? We like to be logical. We don't like to dance around the bush. Beat around the bush if you would say it. But we don't like to dance around it. We like to get to the heart of the meaning behind things. We don't want to talk about how we feel about things. We want to talk about how we think about things. Because that is more interesting to us. We want to know how they think. Because that's like our main... That's what we sort of apply ourselves to. That's what we think we are. We are mostly thought. Whereas neurotypical person will have more of a I'm the logic in my brain and I'm also the emotion in my brain. It's just that you know these these levels can differ between people just in general. But when it comes to autistics we just think emotions are just sort of kind of a rabid animal that we have to sort of enclose and control and make feel safe. And most of our identity comes from our thoughts and and not feelings. I was going to say thoughts and feelings. Our thoughts. Therefore it's really strange for us to see neurotypical people completely following their emotions. Following how they feel about something. If you have ever said to an autistic person just do what feels right. You would probably be met with a lot of questions. A lot of questions say well I don't know what I feel. Or how do I know that what I feel is gonna help. And all of those kind of things play into how we view you as weird. Because you just do stuff based on how you're feeling. And it somehow works. I'm not saying that it doesn't work but it just doesn't work for us. And it's very strange.  Number two. It strikes me that a very common occurrence in the world of the neurotypical in the brain of the neurotypical is that you are very impulsive. More impulsive than most autistic people. In general of course. If you know anything about aspergous and autism you may sort of you know you may have read about something to do with routine. Autistic people like to know what they're doing. Because the world is a very uncertain and confusing place. And when we don't know what we're doing or we don't know what to expect. We feel stressed a lot. And this is something that sort of carries on into different personality traits. And it's not something that is completely inherent to autistic people. But I've never met an impulsive autistic person. Maybe one out of the many that I've talked to. Impulsivity for us is very difficult to grasp. We don't find pleasure in doing things that we don't plan to do. It might take us a while to sort of get over the initial impulsive action if someone says hey do you want to go for a run? You'll sort of get a bit uncomfortable and you know if you didn't plan on going for a run and you were planning on going to the gym later you couldn't go for a run because you needed to go for a gym for the gym. You needed to follow that. And the fact that you've asked us to go for a run conflicts with that because we need to concretely stay to that routine. It makes us happy. And we don't understand how you can just be happy going out and not knowing what's happening and just going with the flow. Going with the flow. It's been a bit of a common occurrence in these two points. Number three. This is something that occurs or I've seen a lot in schools and workplaces. Any place where there is a group of people. People tend to divide themselves into little subgroups of people and sometimes when you try to enter that little subgroup people are very resistant to that. No idea why. I do have an idea why because it makes sense. I've read into psychology and I know that you know uncertainty and people entering your group without your permission or not inviting someone not inviting them to the group but they've already come in and started talking to someone is not a great thing for humans in general. Neurotypicals in general. But for an autistic person especially when we're at school and there are these artificially sort of psychological barriers and groups and bubbles around them that somehow you're not allowed to pop. It's very difficult for us. Our brain, the way that we work usually tends to go towards the side of being independent. Of talking to people that you want to talk to no matter what group they're in. So quite often you can find that autistic people have a few friends. Doesn't necessarily have to be in the same group and it usually isn't because we're very picky with them and we want to find people that will be nice to talk to that will understand us that will be nice and if there is someone in a group that we don't like we will not be friends with them even if everybody else is friends with them. We just aren't and we find it very difficult to get around the idea of this this social group that you need to sort of prove yourself and make friends with everybody in the social group in order to be accepted because it's shatters some delusion of safety. I don't know. Something like that. It's weird. Let those weird autistic kids at school let them enter your social group and let them talk to whoever they want to talk to without looking weird at them and going what the hell is he doing? Just walking into a popular group of people without being sufficiently hazed and psychologically damaged beforehand. Strange. Very strange. Why do you do it? I know why you do it. Just kidding. I love you. Next point. Number four. Fashion. Trends. The new thing. The it thing. The fashionable thing. The thing that you should wear. All of these things are to do with social inclusion. When we buy things, when we wear clothes, I'm talking for a neurotypical person by the way. We want to fit in. We want to look cool. We want to look attractive. We want to wear the it thing. We want to hold the it phone. We want to bathe in the social glory of owning something that's expensive or in limited supply. Now granted this is quite a primal thing. All humans want to have those things or to some degree some obviously some don't. Autistic people do generally tend at school not have the most amazing sense of fashion. Maybe they might take some fashionable clothings from around the 1950s if they're interested in that stuff. Doesn't matter. If we like it, we're going to wear it and we don't particularly care for trends or fashions or anything that everybody else is doing. We don't we don't we don't transcribe to that unless we like it and then we'll do it but. Number five. Going on to another one now. It's the last one. Don't worry about it. I'm going to stop rambling soon. Neurotypical people tend to sort of fit into a certain group and stereotype.  When it comes to an autistic person, we don't really have the same sort of stereotypes. You could say that this is an autistic stereotype, of course, but it's very hard to really predict what an autistic person likes, meaning that we have a very eclectic sense of things that we like. The things that we do like and that we gravitate around don't always appear to be linked in any way at all and often they aren't. Meaning that someone can intensely like watching children's TV shows but also really like athletics and really like Peruvian coffee beans and love to go to the beach and have long strolls on the beach. Yes, so there's a call back to another video. You got it? Well done. I encourage you to listen to an autistic person, to get to know someone on the autistic spectrum, talk to them, talk about their interests. If you ask for maybe one or two interests, I don't know, anything, it could be anything, and then think that you're able to possibly tell what other things they're into. It's probably not going to work, but when it comes to doing the opposite, if you talk to a neuro-typical person and they have a certain interest, they tend to all be entangled together and you can kind of see why they like something and like something else, because it sort of fits with the things that were created around them. Not explaining this very well. It's all linked together. You'll have a better time trying to figure out what a neuro-typical likes from one thing that they've told, but it's not going to work the same way with an autistic person. Now, this is by no means an exhaustive list of every single thing that we find weird about you. There's a lot of other things. I can tell you, if you would drop me a DM, I'll tell you all the things that make you weird to an autistic person. If you're into doing that stuff, probably got better things to do, but who am I to judge? We do find you weird, just as you find us weird, and I hope you understand that. And if the world was full of autistic people and neuro-typicals made one or two percent, you would be the weirdos. You would be the ones who would probably believe me. It sounds like a threat. It's not a threat. You would probably be the ones that'd be isolated more and confused and scared, because you're not living in your world anymore. You're living in ours, and it's regimented. To be honest, it's probably easy for you, so just adopt it. I've got no idea what it would be like. I'm just speculating. But just because you are weird and you are strange, you neuro-typicals, does not mean that you are any less. It means that you are different to us, and we find you interesting. It's probably a little bit easier to figure out from our side. We have a lot of training on how to interact with you, how to understand you, the things that you do, how to communicate properly with you, just as a general thing, especially needs education. So maybe take the time to see it from our side of things for once. Watch this video again if you want to, and think about all the things that I've said.  It's just something that I've seen, and it's by no means an attack, and it's by no means an assumption and generalization of you.  I'm glad we have made up, and we are going to have a fun time listening to Tom's exit sequence. If you like the video, and you want to show some love, please click the like. It does so much for my videos, it gets them out into the world, it makes them more popular, gets those views, and it draws people in more. So if you can interact with my videos at all, maybe put a comment down below, tell me what you think, tell me the things that I got wrong, tell me the things I got right, give me your opinion. I want to hear it, hear it.  So if you want to see some more videos, make sure to hit that subscribe button. It's up there, it's always up there, and I always do that. Go click on that link. And if you want to see some more stuff from me that isn't YouTube related, I've got a podcast that you might want to check out on Spotify called the 4080 podcast, very apt name, very interesting, very cool hip, popular. And if you want to see some stuff that I do in my daily life, such as go to media events and things that I do with my family, or you just want to have a little bit more of a personal touch to the Asperger's growth experience, go over onto my Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, I do live streams at midday UK time. I have a problem. I've got all these strange creatures around me, these strange people that I do not understand. They do strange things, and they act in strange ways, and they band together in groups and do things that I don't understand either. Well, I could conform to this, or I could just do something that I like and be around people that I like, and you should too. Keep going with that. See you later, guys. Love you. Hope you're having a good day. Peace, peace.