Good day, my lovely listeners! You are listening to the Forty Auty podcast. Tune in every week to explore inspiring stories and insightful information that dive headfirst into the world of autism and mental health. With all those tantalising tongue twisters out of the way, let's get into the show. Today's podcast episode is proudly sponsored by Timo, the award-winning app designed to support neurodivergent people just like yourself with routine and scheduling. Head to your app store and type T-W-I-M-O to learn more. Good afternoon, loyal listeners. Welcome back to the Forty Auty podcast. How are you doing today? I'm doing pretty well, you know.  I am going to be starting my new job very, very soon. It's working for nonprofits and we're going to be looking at a lot of different areas of advocacy. So things are going well. Today I am joined by a very, very lovely and interesting person. We're going to be talking to an autism researcher, but not just any autism researcher. Dr. Mordechai Benhamu is an autistic scientist and lecturer at the Israeli Center of Autism Research with a PhD from the University of Paris, or Paris, and many, many years of experience in the field. He's written many articles and books, including his most recent publication, Autism, Falafel and Rock and Roll. His creator of the YouTube channel, The Autistic Guitarist, in which he creates tutoring videos on how to play well, the guitar. To top all that off, he's made a lot of guest appearances on Israeli TV to talk about autism from my previous correspondence with Mordy. I can tell you that he's a very interesting, knowledgeable and lovely-hearted guy. With all that massive introduction, how are you doing today, Mordy? I'm fine. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming on at such a short notice. You're very welcome. I've recently had quite a few cancellations, so it's very much appreciated. How are you doing? Like, what have you been up to lately? You know, I'm struggling with many other autistics with up-and-downs, burnout. I recently almost burned out because of my YouTube channel. It's been really successful and a lot of demands from guitar companies asking for me to make some reviews. It's really cool, but I didn't really feel that it would be so overwhelming. But this time, you know, in my development, it's a really huge success. I identified really early the signs of the burnout, so I stopped and I'm resting and thanks God, doing well. That's brilliant. I know you told me recently about that burnout. I definitely struggle myself to understand or to notice when I'm going downhill. I think, as you said, sometimes with social media and sometimes with YouTube, there's a lot of communication that's involved. You've got to talk to people, you've got to send emails, and it really taxes you quite a lot, doesn't it, when you've got to talk to those many different people? The main issue with people is that you have to speak with them or to communicate with them. Well, I'm glad to hear that you are doing well and you managed to catch yourself having a little bit of rest time. The way that we got in contact was, I think you are one of your PR people sent me an email about your new book, Autism Fluffle and Rock and Roll, which very cool title. I absolutely love it. It's brilliant. Would you like to tell us about that? How is it going? First of all, when you asked me for my new book, I thought you were talking about my real new book because I'm right now writing a new one, but it's not related to autism. So I asked myself, why Thomas does want to know about this new book, and so I understand that. Oh, okay. Sorry. A little bit of a miscommunication. Yeah, you wanted to speak about the Autism Fluffle and Rock and Roll. Actually, what I can tell about this book is Best Seller in Israel. So this is the first news. The second thing is that it was published in September in English and is doing well, I think. I promised you to send you one and I totally forgot, so I will do it straight after the interview. That would be brilliant. Now that's my little growing stack of books on my desk. So this book is about autism, not about falafel and not about rock and roll, but if you read it, you will understand why I use those words in the title. The book is mainly about self-acceptance. It's my journey from not wanting to hear about autism to being an autistic activist and a writer about the subject. So what did I did? What happened? It's also an invitation in my inner world. It's more for neurotypicals, but to identify with me, it's how do I, as an autistic, am I functioning? How does my brand work? How do I cope with feelings, with my sensory issues and stuff like that? That sounds amazing because have you received emails and messages from people who have read your book and have learned more about autism? Yeah. It's my daily life. One day, I'm writing back to people that were amazed by the book, surprised, that learned about it. Some are autistic parents, some are researchers and obviously many are autistic from the world. So it's fine. When I wrote the book, I wrote it for myself. I didn't want to publish it and to be famous or stuff like that. So it is written in a really special way, really with no tact, no lack of autistic could do it. And anyway, I did an effort. My effort was to separate science from feelings or from my history. Because to cope with feelings, I used to analyze everything through science. For me, I fell in love with science. Where is the science? Someone is dead. Where is the science? How can I incorporate it in my world without being hurt? And science is my solution. It's not the best, but it is mine. So I understood writing this book that if I do it, you know, a melting pot between my feelings and my experience and science, the reader might go away. So I make for each chapter telling about me in a feeling way and intimate way. So that there is a chapter speaking about the same thing, but from a scientific way. I like that. Yeah.  So there are three ways to read my book. It's really interesting that you mentioned about sort of understanding emotions and the world through that scientific lens, because a lot of the ways that I sort of developed my own social skills and my ability to sort of cope with, I guess, some of the more negative sides of being autistic. It's very certain. It's very faxed based. It's very transferable. It's very easy to understand as a system. And so, yeah, it's really interesting. You're the first person who's had the same sort of experience as I have, in that sense. When I was at the university, I discovered Irving Goffman, American sociologist, who is speaking about researching on the dynamic between people, talking, interacting. And it was for me like discovering, like being Moses, discovering the Bible. I really used it, I used it and still use it to cope, to succeed, to communicate. But the bad thing about it, I was masking through this competence and so I didn't give my autistic personality a place to be in this scientific way of communicating. I think that's sort of a great sort of lead into what the topic of the podcast was, because obviously, if you are going through life and you are viewing things in that very objective scientific lens, a lot of the ways that you apply those things that you've learned is by sort of, as you say, putting on a mask and displaying those characteristics to have a good social interaction. But then again, you are sort of taking apart a bit of who you are, your natural way of being and communicating. Sometimes doing all that work sort of helps you succeed in a certain area of that interaction, but you have to do a bit more work to sort of integrate your autistic self as well. Being autistic, it is not being someone that don't know how to communicate. It's known from a research point of view that autistic are communicating pretty well between them. Yes. So the problem is communicating with autistic when you are not or communicating with neurotypicals when you are an autistic. So to speak, we could compare it to speaking a foreign language. So we have to know how to speak the neurotypical language. We have to teach them how to speak with that. In the autistic language. Yeah, absolutely. OK, so before we get into the main topic of the podcast, we had a chat about sort of how it is like to be openly autistic in Israel. And we're sort of comparing the differences between your experience in Israel and in France. From my own perspective, I would, I guess, assume that autism awareness and acceptance would be worse in Israel than it would be in perhaps the more Western countries. Would you like to talk a little bit about that? Because, you know, what you said before was was quite sort of impactful on me. Yeah, you know, naturally, it's not naturally, it's culturally, Jews are really curious. And always try to make lemonade from lemon. So autism, you know, as a fact, is of interest for Israelis.  But as like, you know, a really pure human being can speak with God. Israeli people are really how to say it. They try to be from anything to do something. Consequence, the Israeli army hiring autistic people in a special unit, you know, in intelligence services, you know, autistics are good because of their memory, because of their accuracy to see some small details. They are good observers for the Israeli army. So there is such a unit. We had a lot of TV shows in Israel. I was in most of them speaking about being an autistic and people were so couriers and so tolerant and they were really hungry about each piece of information that could help them to understand us. It's a really interesting fact. I mean, I've never heard of anything along those lines. I mean, I think the thing that astounds me most about the people in Israel wanting to learn about it and sort of use the talents of autistic people sort of in the West. We already have this, I guess, this sort of stereotype around autism and, you know, they're not as forward thinking and they're not as active and I guess productive or making lemonade out of lemons, not as much like that. Very much stuck in the ways about things. So it's really interesting. What about the comparison sort of when you were living in France? So in France, there are two options when you are autistic.  Why? Why don't you speak with me?  And the second option for you as an autistic in France is to be thought as a retarded. Yeah. Yeah. So they all are thinking that you are charlatan, how to say it in English? Charlatan, I've heard of that word, but I don't actually know what it means. A person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill. Yeah. Yeah. Charlatan, absolutely. It's in French and in English, the same. In some reason, it's quite right about autistic because we are masking, but we are not charlatans because what they are thinking about. We are not, we are not faking being autistic. We are masking, faking and being normal. So it's quite paradoxal. It is. And it's it's crazy that people can have those assumptions considering the breadth of research and knowledge into the many skills that autistic people have. French people have this this problem that they don't know English. And as you know, English is a scientific language. So most of the people in France don't have access to all the researches, to all the articles about autism. So France is really, how to say it, a really close country. It's really a paradoxal because, you know, it's a huge country, a really rich country. But, you know, my best friend is a professor in France, in the Sorbonne, you know, where I learned. Yeah, biggest university in France. And his English is really, really poor. And when I am saying that, you know, you are hearing my English is not so. Wow, me telling that the others English is really poor shows you how the English is bad. So they don't have access to anything, articles, research. And I think this is the reason why they are thought about autism are so poor, I would say. But but you forgot one more culture. I am also Algerian, you know, Algeria is a. You are. Yes. Yeah. I am also an I'm both Jewish and Arab. I love challenges. Jewish Arab Autistic. Yeah, yeah.  That's the diversity there. Yeah. And my Muslim family in Algeria, when I told them that I'm autistic, told me, no, no, no. Don't be alone. Don't be alone. Communicate the thought that I just didn't want to speak. And I wanted to want it to to be on myself and not to communicate. Is that because of sort of the the meaning of autism, or to sort of being alone? Yeah. And in ancient Greek, it's being alone. And in Arabic, it's also being alone. So when I told it to my uncle, Mohammed, I am autistic. He told me, no, don't be alone. You have us. So there's a little bit of a lack of awareness in Algeria, then. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's that's really interesting. Thank you so much for sharing that. It's always great to hear from personal experience of different levels of acceptance and, I guess, perceptions of autism across different cultures. Today, we're going to be talking about self-acceptance, what that means for an autistic person, why it's important, but also how we can come to accept ourselves in our own lives. Mordi, when did you start your own personal journey of self-discovery and acceptance? Wow. OK. It was in France. And I was absolutely unhappy. But I had an explanation. Everyone is guilty for me being unhappy. It was my explanation. So at some point, I decided to to come back to Israel. And I thought that being in my country would be a better thing for me. But in fact, in Israel, I was also unhappy and went through a really tough crisis. At some point, I had two solutions. Once again, accuse the world for my unhappiness or take responsibilities. And this time, I choose to take responsibilities. So I went to a psychologist and I learned to love and accept myself. It was a really long journey. I thought to myself, OK, you are an autistic, you know. And from that moment to say outside to other people, I am an autistic and I am pretty well with it. It was the right thing to do, you know. First, telling people was just thinking about telling people I was terrified. But that was just a bad guess, you know. When I started sharing, people hugged and respect me. As I told them before, I really regret that I missed so many years of being afraid. After that, explain to people what autism is and why I don't look autistic was my journey. I used to ask people if they know what people with hemorrhoids look like. Obviously, they don't know. Then I tell them that as a neurology, neurological specificity, you can really see what autism is from outside. You can see here or there, shyness, stimming. But you can't really know if it's autism or not. So there is nothing like this look like an autistic. So this is, I must say, a long journey too. But, you know, I do it through my book and through my lectures. What did you use to help yourself along that journey? Were there any specific resources that you drawed upon? Was there any people that you listened to or that were big icons for you? In this journey of self-acceptance to self-acceptance, I had a psychologist named Efrat, her name Efrat. She has a chapter in my book. This relation with a good psychologist just saved my life. You know, she was imperfect and felt absolutely right with it. And for me, it was amazing. How she dared to say me what are her weakness. And still, she felt really confident. It was for me incredible. And she learned me to do it to accept that I am imperfect and that it's OK. But she didn't tell me that being autistic is imperfection. It was not the issue. You as a world have a good thing and bad thing inside of you. And this is good because every one of us, each of us is like that. And we have to control the bad and to to get help with our good sides. And this is being human. You know, I was really tough with myself. And she she taught me to to be more, you know, more sweet with my with myself. More nice, more nice and understanding of yourself. Yeah, I like that. I identify with quite a lot of what you're saying, especially when I was a bit younger. I had this idea of perfection in my head, you know, like the perfect person does not swear. The perfect person does not drink alcohol or go partying or or anything. They they always work and they read and they they do all of this, all of these things. And I do all of these things, so I must be the the perfect person.  But I wasn't really accepting of that as sort of a little bit of a delusion. Yeah, it's really it's really funny what you what you're saying, because until now, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I never don't drags. And because because of this thought that that I have to be perfect, that the perfect person don't do such things. And, you know, obviously, it's it's not right. I'm really happy that I don't smoke and don't do drags. But, yeah, in many sides of my life, you know, I avoided to to make something because I thought it will avoid me to be a perfect person. So, you know, you're mistaken, you are unhappy all the time because there is no such thing being perfect. I'm imperfect as and I'm really happy to to be like that. I guess it's I see what you're saying about that is it's like every every decision that you make in life is built upon what this perfect person would do in your head rather than what you want to do and what you think that would be something that you want to explore or something.  But it's more of more of an extreme example of just how that sort of perfectionist mindset can sort of get in the way of things. I think that the main reason why I tried to get out of that was because as I was getting older, people were becoming more aware, more aware of false perfection, I guess. And so it really hampered my my ability to socialize with people. I would have a very narrow sort of set of requirements for people that I would be friends with. And if they broke any of those, then I would sort of cut myself off from them. But as as you get older and as you enter into adulthood, people have that that that mentality of sort of finding themselves and who they are and anyone who puts those limitations on the people around them, they don't really want to be around those people. They want to be around accepting people who will who will listen and who will appreciate them, despite what they may have done that you don't like. That was sort of a turning point for me in my journey. I was very lonely, very isolated. You know, I had to sort of do something to improve my life in that sense. I really do feel a lot about what you're saying. It resonates quite a bit.   And and for me, it was absolutely I couldn't understand it. So in the time they were, you know, in the in another room, smoking and drinking, I was in the rehearsal room and playing and practicing and not to socializing because in my autistic mind, if there is a rehearsal, we have to play. So there is not such a thing as smoking and drinking. And, you know, looking, looking at this, me getting older and more competent, looking at it in reflection. Yeah, yeah. Being more competent, communicating and understanding neurotypicals.  I weird I am and I were it. I was it's incredible. But, you know, it's who I am. And anyway, they they continue to hire me. So I think it was not too bad to work with me. That's this is really interesting. Again, like I used to sort of do quite a bit of Taekwondo. Don't know if you know Taekwondo. Yeah, absolutely. It's Korean art martial. Martial art. Yeah. We're mostly with with the legs. Lots of flashy kicks, lots of falling over, usually.  When you were saying about sort of being on your own and practicing with your guitar, so boring. It was the same. The same with me. I was just do if we do this thing called leg control, where like we lift our leg up and we try to hold it out at different kicks to try and improve like a hit strength and stuff. And that was like the only thing that I did during the breaks, just waiting for training to happen again, not talking to anybody. People try to talk to me, but I just be like listening, but not really not really contributing in that sense. You know, from an evolutionary point of view, gossip is really interesting because it helps the human to get updated with the the life of the tribe. And autistic are not wired wired to do these things.   Yeah, but I do very much enjoy talking about a certain subject. So like, I think, you know, as I've got older, I've I've found the utility in socialising and and talking about topics in detail. Whereas I used to just see all social interaction as just boring and or needed. As I've got older, I've sort of started to appreciate the fact that, you know, maybe other people can can teach me things that I don't know. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.  And the other thing I like in socialising, it's during my lectures.  And for me, it's ideal, you know, it's it's a really good monologue for days. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, freely. Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. What's just as a sort of side point, what do you usually talk about during your lectures? So I take a daily life topics and explain them through science in a funny and a cool way. So I'm speaking about neuroscience, about hormones in a relationship about communication from an autistic point of view and science scientific point of view, speaking about autism, you know, and why it is so cool to be autistic and why we are the next thing in the evolution decision making. I really like this this topic. So obviously, from a scientific point of view, the human behavior is really interesting me.  That's always from my autistic and scientific point of view. And the people seem to like it because, you know, they continue to invite me. So I think that's that's that's really interesting. I also find the decision making, you know, sort of the emotional and intellectual components and into making decisions. And I'm really, really lucky because two of the greatest researchers in this topic are Dan Ariely and Daniel Kahneman. Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Prize and they are both both of them are Israelis. And yeah, and Dan Ariely, I don't know if you know him, but you should. Is I can call him a friend is a really, really nice person. And it's a really a privilege to to know him. You should definitely think about recording the lectures. I really putting them up.  He got famous on YouTube for putting out his his lectures. I think people will be really interesting to hear to hear about that. Yeah, but there is one problem with, you know, uploading my lectures, if I upload my lectures, they will get it. They will they will get it on YouTube. Oh, of course. Yeah, you know, yeah. So I don't want to shoot my to shoot myself. So I show yourself in the foot. So I don't do this. But I have some some small lectures or some, you know, part of my lectures here and there, but no more than that. So it's time for a quick mention from our sponsors, Timo. If you love visual support in your scheduling, Timo is for you. The app was designed for people with ADHD and autism and helps empower users to schedule visual routines that work. Users say that Timo can help reduce stress and support executive function, which are both two things that I struggle with myself. Learn more at www.tmoapp.com or just type in T-Dub-L-I-M-O into your search bar. Thank you so much to my Patreon supporters. Your support means the world. Anyway, let's get back into the show. Let's go on to the next question. What challenges have you faced in your path for self-acceptance and how did you overcome them? I know we've talked a little bit about this, but yeah, any sort of big barriers? My main challenge was to convince myself that I am who I am. And I really wanted to be someone else.  So don't try to be someone else. Just be yourself however imperfect you are. That's enough. I would say during the difference was my main challenge. People are way more intolerant with our explanation than we think. We can't expect from people to know who we are without helping them to figure out with us.  It was my main challenge and not being me all these years, masking, lying to myself and to the others. And it was so sad, you know, looking at this. It was so sad and from the very moment I thought to myself, you are notistic, it's who you are. And I started to share, you know, my my chance in Hebrew chances, you know, from being a guy who goes from work to work, you know, from job to job, I had 29 jobs in 14 years. Wow.  And from the very moment, you know, with my partners, it was the same thing, you know, I didn't have a really good relationship. No friends. And from the very moment I start to know who I am professionally, from a relationship point of view, everything gets really easier. What is good to me? I knew what is bad to me. And it helped me, you know, to to get better decision about my life and about who I should work with or be with. You know, I think that that's a really good thing to highlight. Sort of working from the inside out, you know, you work on sort of mindset of what it means to be autistic and what it means to be yourself. And then the outside, you know, it's it there's no use in displaying that you're happy about autism, just because everybody else is saying that you should be, you've got to really feel that that is something that is good. And I think with that, in order to do that, there comes a large period of time where you really listen to other autistic people. You learn about the science, you learn about the public perceptions, you learn about what it what it means to be autistic from other people and sort of apply that to your own life and your own mindset. I think that's always a really good path to go down. You don't want to be just putting it on the outside because I guess it is if you're just displaying that you're happy with it. It's sort of like a mask in itself. Yeah. It doesn't it doesn't strike hard at your core and it doesn't affect your emotions and your relationship with life in any way. I think one of the top things that I found with sort of accepting my autistic self is that for a lot of the time during my life and sometimes nowadays even I'm comparing myself to people who aren't autistic, you know, I have standards in my head that I'm trying to reach, whether it be in the social realm or in work or daily life and an exercise and stuff like that. I'm always comparing myself to this person who may find these areas of life easier. What what do you feel about that? Do you think that you need that holds any truth to you as a guitar player? Most of my life, I try to be my heroes. I wanted to be Van Halen. I wanted to be Steve Luketer. I wanted to be them at a certain point. I thought to myself, even if I succeed to be them, it will be an hero because there is already one Eddie Van Halen and one Steve Luketer and they always will be better than me. Being them themselves. So as I started to search my own voice and to do my stuff, so I adapted my playing to who I am. And so I developed my personality as a guitar player. It's fantastic because I am I am the best in the world being myself as a guitar player. And you know, you can take it. It was the same thing as a researcher. You know, I wanted to be Dan Ariely. I wanted to be my this look, my friend, this professor. And you know, this center in Israel that hired me, hired me because I'm so special as a autistic. You know, I see topics, subjects, researches, questions in so a special way. And science need it. So it's a gift to be an autistic.  There is just one like this. So be really busy to be yourself, to improve who you are and your skills.  But if you if you fake it, if you are masking, you will be a pale copy of someone else. And this someone else will be always better than you being himself. Definitely. I think there's a lot of truth in what you're saying. There is this concept called adaptive adaptive construction or something. Yeah. You know, looking at different people and taking on their characteristics or watching films and taking on mannerisms and behaviors and constructive adaptation. That's it. Got it the opposite way around. But I think that that's just another sort of pointer. I think if you are trying to develop yourself, it should be more about watching things and listening to people and seeing which bits feel right to you. Yeah, absolutely. Not what looks good or sounds good. You can imitate, you know, our brain, we know from, you know, the the building of the brain teaches us that we are made aimed to to imitate. So it's natural.  OK, you took you took from him. It's nice. You develop yourself. But from now, be yourself and kill him. Sort of a sort of a I don't think actually mean to kill your father. I mean, like as a what's the word? An analogy that describes how you should sort of view it. It is always good to learn from people and to take on board what fits right into into your life. It's just if you feel like there's any sense of force to that, then it's usually not a good a good path to go down. I definitely did. Like when I was trying to get better at like dating and relationships, I watched people who are really good at it, good at it. And so I tried to imitate the way that they behave around girls, you know, sort of just being a bit more standoffish, not as emotional, not as talkative, you know, all those kind of stuff. But it's just not me. I wrote three chapters about it in my in my book, the autistic point of view about dating, happiness and really relationship. For these two, you have to be yourself because if you are masking while you are dating, so the girl will maybe fall in love for another person than you. And after a while, you and her, you will have to cope with the the gap that will be there between you, between the mask and both of you. And for a job, it's the same thing. You have to be yourself in any situation. So the person that hiring you or dating you knows what you see is what you get. And my wife, you know, I wasn't masking.   I like it. Yeah. Right. So we talked a little about the challenges. Let's get into the juicy bit. What benefits have you you seen in your own life from incorporating that sense of self-acceptance and I guess honesty with the world?  I didn't want the truth. You know, it was the same thing with me being an Arab. You know, I discovered when I was saying that my grandfather is Arab Muslim.  But, you know, I didn't want it in my life. You know, I had a struggle to know who I am. I am an Algerian, a Jewish, a French and an Israeli, a autistic. Who I am also being an Arab. It was too much for me. So I didn't want to speak about it. I never talk about my grandfather. I never never talk about me being an autistic until I understood that I was unhappy. And I was unhappy not because of the people or the situation, but because of me not presenting myself the right way. And honestly, you know, each time I had a successful relation or experience, I thought, what would have been this experience if I have told the truth who I am? And I thought that if I would, people or the experience wouldn't have been good to me.  So I remember once I sat with a friend, my best friend, and I told him, you know, Tomer, my grandfather is an Arab. He just didn't care. And, you know, it was so the difference between what I thought he would think about me and what he really thought was huge so much that I understood that I was I was wrong all my life.   I have heard a non really cool things. But most of the time people really like me for who I am.  And this is the real deal. That's what they want or don't want, you know. But if people want me or don't want me, they have to get me or not to get me for the good reasons and I have to be honest. For anybody out there who doesn't sort of accept the autism or doesn't hasn't put the time into to understand what autism means for them. Honestly, there is nothing quite like it.  But it doesn't mean that you have to you have to copy them because that's what autism is. Autism is just it's looking at your life, looking at the things that you struggle with, the things that you're good at, the way that you communicate your demeanor, your behavior.  But there are always ways that you can make that your unique life. It sounds like I'm just talking a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Like I would be nothing if I didn't take on the fact that I am highly empathic. I don't do well at being nasty or confronting people. And I thought that sometimes that's what I had to do. But now that I know who I am, I know my morals, I know my values. You know, if I have a confrontation, you know, my all my first port of call to go to in those situations would be to try and reason to try and develop some form of connection there, you know, tamper down the flames. And that that can be applied to different different scenarios, like just making my room how I would like it with all the toys and with all the colorful lights that I want to have in my room, dressing how I like some people that like how I dress. And but it's something that I like and I like to present myself as there's so many different ways that you can do it. And, you know, there is an intense fulfillment in knowing who you are for anybody. I just think that it's very important for autistic people to have that.  Shall we go into the next the next bit of the question? So the last the last bit that I wanted to really talk about was, you know, what advice would you give to someone wanting to start accepting themselves, I guess, steps that they can take to to get to that place? Be honest, be honest with yourself. First of all, things should be easier. If you call yourself the right name, if you know where to to get help and where to search for friends and which kind of job you can get knowing what's convenient to your specificities. And this is this is my tip. I like that. Do you think that there's any sort of things that people should go forward and learn and or look into before they can accept themselves? Because I think for people who aren't in the autistic social media communities and who aren't really up to date with sort of the social progressions. Do you think there's any any sort of resource that they can they can use to to get into that and to learn more about it? You know, I'm talking to you and I figure out that I didn't speak about the the main tip for self acceptance by autism, falafel and rock and roll. I am so bad, I am so bad promoting, promoting. Of course, definitely go and get the book. Very much looking forward to reading it.  I think the last thing that I would I would say is there are many courses out on the internet for personal development. And personal growth that aren't just limited to autistic people. You know, it's it's very important, as we said, during this podcast to work from from the inside out, find out what your values are, what you value in in other people, what you value in yourself, what you don't like about yourself and what you don't like about your life and what you like about your life. Having having an idea of where you're coming from, it makes it more likely that you'll get to the place that you're trying to go to. The more information, the better at the start, then you can start to work on yourself and work on changing your life in a way that maybe might not be perceived as better by the rest of society, but maybe more true to yourself and honest with yourself. This is always a very fun part of the podcast. Would you like to give three main things that you want people to take away from the podcast? Yeah. First thing, be honest with yourself. First of all, the second thing, you are not perfect and this is perfect. The third thing, life is absolutely beautiful. And it's a really cool thing that we are part of it. So let's take our part of the cake and let's enjoy it till the end. Thank you very much for those very good ones, very short and concise. It happens. It happens. We usually get get quite a large answers to these. And we have the very last question. What does autism mean to you, Mordi?  And we are fine with it most of the time. As our body is diverse, is different from one to one. Our brain is also different. And we have to embrace this neurodiversity. And being autistic is being different. But, you know, we are not the only one to be different. There are different ways to be to be different. So being autistic is feeling, perancing the world in a different way. But, you know, it's a chance. It's a chance for the humanity to have people that can see things that others can't. So if you can't get it from them, you will make the humanity way richer than it is right now. You know, it's fantastic. It reminds me of this movie, The Sixth Sense, with Bruce Willis. I see things that people don't see. Thank you very much for that, by the way. Very, very insightful. Like I can sort of see the roots of autism's meaning to you from your experiences and through your science work and stuff. It's really interesting to sort of hear people's answers to that open question. Because, you know, maybe if I was to compile everybody's answers to it and sort of listed off personality traits and, you know, like trait openness and like industriousness and stuff, maybe there would be like a correlation. You know, that could be a new study. OK, so thank you, everybody, for listening to this. It's a subject that I've been wanting to cover for a while. I have perhaps noticed in reflection that I should have possibly been a bit more broader with the questions. I have to do a bit of editing to chop down what I'm saying quite a bit. But thank you so much, Marty, for coming on and sharing your knowledge and experience. Would you like to give out any links? Yeah, I will send you the link to my to my book and to my YouTube channel for the musician among us. Yes, so it would be Autism, Flaffle and Rock and Roll. And of course, I will put the link down in the description to both your book and your YouTube channel, The Autistic Guitarist, for anybody who is a budding musician and wants to to learn from another autistic musician. And my next video is a cover from More Than Words, the extreme song with a beautiful female singer. And that is Autistic, too. Yeah, yeah, I will send it to you. Brilliant. So if you want to catch the 4 to 30 podcast anywhere else, it's always available on Apple and Google Podcasts, as well as Spotify and YouTube. I am currently putting in a little bit more work into my YouTube channel, Asper Disgrowth. So if you want to check out some of my newest videos, one particular video that may be of interest is Should You Be Stimming in Public? Where I dissect and analyze some of the social implications of stimming and some of the benefits of it. Of course, if you want to stay up to date with things, social medias are always the place to go. At Asper Disgrowth, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I do have a new website that has recently been created. It's called ThomasHenley.co.uk. It's a very nice short tagline. So if you if you go over to there, let me know how it is. You may have also noticed that I am using my new microphone and you would be right because I was recently supposed to be putting out a podcast with Professor Baron Cohen, but it's been pushed back to about mid-April now. So I'm having to do some episodes to fill in the gaps until the end of season one. I'm currently looking for ways that I can improve the podcast for the next season. I'm thinking of hiring an animator to make the YouTube videos more engaging. And I'm also going to be doing a bit of workarounds with the intro. So there's a lot of good things that are coming in the future. And I just want to say thank you, everybody, for supporting me all this time. Your support really does mean the world. OK, Morty, after I have been trying to piece my words together for about five minutes. How did you find the podcast? Did you enjoy it? Yeah, yeah, really, you know, I'm quite used to to it, you know, interviews and stuff like this. But it was more like a conversation with a guy who was on the same wave as I am. So it was really pretty, pretty cool. I enjoyed it. Thank you. I very much enjoyed talking to you as well. I really do hope that we we keep in contact over the years and such. It's it's been a pleasure to speak to you to everyone out there who is currently in the midst of this whole covid isolation situation. My heart goes out to you, but do not worry. Do not fret. The finish line is in sight. And we're going to get through this as a family, as a unit, as a community, as a country and to anybody else who is out of lockdown. Good for you. I envy you. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the episodes and I'll see you in a couple of weeks time for another. See you later, folks. I think my radiator came on midway between this because my face is getting so red. Like it was cold before, but now it's absolutely boiling. You should be here. You will you will know what boiling is. Yeah, I can imagine it's quite significantly warm. I'm living in the middle of the GDN desert. So, you know, we know what warm is. Course you do. Right. Oh, I've got to stop.


In this presentation we will discuss the Federal Income Contributions Act or FICA. FICA is going to be a big component and something that we will return to when we do the payroll calculations and the recording of the payroll journal entries. FICA is another law that happened in the 1930s during the Great Depression and we had a lot of legislation aimed at making things better or a lot of different aims but in this case we've got the Social Security Act and the Social Security Act or the Federal Income Contribution Act otherwise known as FICA can also be confusing because it really has two major components to it so when we think of FICA we're thinking of the one component old age survivors and disabilities insurance or OASDI and Medicare so keep that in mind whenever you see the term FICA a lot of times people will apply it to one or the other typically to Social Security or their old age survivors and disabilities insurance but it really is comprising of both of these components both of these components fall under the subcategory law of FICA which is the Federal Income Contributions Act or otherwise known as Social Security Act of 1935. FICA is going to be really interesting for multiple different reasons one it's going to be part of our payroll process a major part that will have to be put in for payroll taxes two it's a big part of the government spending and so it's going to be interesting from just a political standpoint we'll always be talking about FICA and the FICA type of payments we may be wondering well how is that the case when we're going to say that the employer is paying it or the employee is paying it we'll discuss more about how that payment process works but it's important to know from a political standpoint that the the money is going to the government and it's going to be paid out at some point and that paying out process is a big part of government spending it's also really interesting because really the thought process of what the especially the old age survivors and disabilities insurance is has tended to change over time meaning when it was first and put into place since the 1930s we had more of a safety net type of idea of what this would be meaning we have some people that were living might live past their life expectancy and when that is the case it's very difficult for an individual possibly to find employment at that point in time I mean if your life if you expect not to live past in that time somewhere around the 60s if you probably not going to go past 65 then because people typically don't live much longer than that then it would be very difficult if you didn't plan for that expectancy to live past a normal life then to go back to work at that point in time so it leaves people in a very vulnerable type of position at that point and therefore there was a safety net the idea of a safety net program which would be set up in order to provide for those individuals later and now of course as people have started to live longer it's almost converting a bit to be thought of as more of a type of retirement type of a retirement type of plan to kind of supplement income in retirement years so there's a really a bit of a debate just from a political standpoint in terms of what do we want FICA to be is it a safety net that's helping people after the point in time uh that that the expected life would be as a safety net or is it's going to be some form of a retirement plan that's required in a federal type of a retirement plan how that's going to work from a payroll standpoint is that we typically have um they kind of like a matching like you might think of some 401k type plans but the the employer is going to be forced to put in part of the taxes based on the employee wages and the employee will have to withhold as well so when we talk about the FICA taxes we're talking about taxes that are both employer taxes and employee taxes and that really is where things get confusing from the standpoint of recording the journal entry because the employer as we noted from the the the constitution made a change where of course the employer is required to withhold taxes that the employee pays so in this case the employer is withholding taxes from the employee and they're having to pay taxes above that as well for this employee tax for this payroll tax and then of course at the end of um so what they're going to do of course is they're going to take that they're going to give it to the government which should put it into a separate fund and not not dip into that fund and then payments will happen at at the at the point in time at the end of a person's towards the end of person's life at some age retirement age which could be extended by law around 65 and then they will receive payments and the payments they will receive back will be based in part on how much they put into the social security or old age survivors and disabilities insurance fund meaning they're they had money taken out of their account into and put into a a fund and then of course they're going to get paid back now notes that what's not the case here is it's not the case where the government is holding on and has this money available and waiting and is investing it kind of like a 401k plan in order to wait for retirement to pay it back out what's really happening is um the current funds going in are paying the current retirees going out so it's not it's not a system where the we're paying it in and they're holding on to it and then they're going to pay it back out at the end of our retirement age as we might think of like a normal kind of 401k plan it's more the case where the current generation is paying in the social security which is being paid out to the current group of retirees and that's just the way it was set up that's the way it was planned for but when there's differences of course in the population then then those differences can cause shortages or overages within the fund so that's going to be an interesting topic we will focus here on what's the law for the withholdings how do we make the withholdings how do we record the withholdings how to report the withholdings to our employees the Medicare portion is going to be it's still somewhat of a safety net program it's going to be some it's going to be similar in the format in that the employer and the employee are going to both be paying it so some of it will come out of the paycheck the employer will take it out of the employee paycheck and the employer will be responsible for their portion as well that they will then pay in and then at at some time later on in life if people qualify for Medicare they could get then the Medicare payments now the Medicare payments currently are a lot less and the percentage is going to be a lot less that it's going to be paid in to Medicare and it's not and it is something that upon receiving benefits from Medicare there's going to be some kind of restrictions you got to qualify basically for Medicare and therefore it probably still falls into a more definite kind of safety net type of program whereas social security or the old age survivors and disability insurance could be thought of by some to be more of a converting more to like a retirement or something to supplement income in the later years rather than just a pure safety net type program end simulation and the simulation


Let's look at this together chapter 4 2nd Timothy. We're going to be looking at fighting the good fight And we'll see that when we conclude our our verses, but we'll look at verses 1 through 5 I'll give you an introduction as I normally do and then move on into our study. So today we're in 2nd Timothy We're going to look at chapter 4. We'll begin by looking at the first five verses beginning at verse 1 2nd Timothy chapter 4 Paul writes I I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season convince rebuke exhort with all long suffering and teaching for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables but you be watchful in all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist to fulfill your ministry Paul has been instructing Timothy concerning last day's conditions and as we've been going through 2nd Timothy especially chapters 3 and 4 we've seen that Paul has said to him a few things that relate to the conditions that would be prevailing in the days just prior to the return of Jesus Christ he had said in the last days that there would be dangerous and evil times that were existing he had said to him believers will be persecuted evil will flourish deception will be on the increase he had pointed out that the church itself would be infiltrated that there would be tears amongst the wheat instead of dying to self loving self would dominate the thoughts of those who profess to be Christians and the fruit of this kind of belief system would filter into the life of the church itself ultimately the genuine will be revealed the false will be exposed and that is because the truth of the gospel will have ultimate victory he had said in verse 9 speaking of false teachers that they will in chapter 3 they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was so they're going to go a certain distance they're going to progress to a certain place but ultimately what is going to happen is the gospel will have the ultimate victory so in light of this Timothy and all faithful believers are to remain steadfast they're to remain firm in the things that they've learned they're supposed to remain steadfast in the word of God he said in chapter 3 verse 14 you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them so he's pointing out that there to remain firm in the things they've learned they need to hold fast to the word of God so as a believer Timothy is to rely on scripture and he's to do so for all ministry he needs to remember that it's the holy scriptures that had made him wise for salvation the passages that were planted by his mother and grandmother prepared him for Jesus as he was raised his mother and grandmother had trusted in scripture and as an infant Timothy had been bathed in the word of God so when Paul communicated that Jesus was a promised messiah Timothy had soil that had been prepared and therefore he readily believed you see before I came to know Christ my the soil my heart had been prepared Timothy's had been prepared I had a mother who was not a Christian but she was a God-fearer and she had a certain amount of religiosity about her one of the things though about my mom is that she believed that God's word truly was God's word now my dad didn't my father did not believe the Bible and didn't want it in the house as I grew up I saw a mother who was by and large very very submitted to her husband and my mom and my dad didn't get saved till they'd been married 25 years so when I grew up in in the home the first 25 years of my life as their child I never saw my father interested in things of faith my mom was but not my dad and my dad had told my mom that he did not want a Bible in the house because the only person my dad ever knew who read the Bible according to my father was crazy so he thought the Bible made you crazy I did pretty good without the Bible but my dad thought that the Bible reading the Bible and believing in the Bible was a waste of time and that it would actually contribute to you being imbalanced so that's the one thing I can tell you that I know my mom quote unquote disobeyed my father in my mom actually had a Bible that she hid in the house and on occasion I would see her reading it on occasion she'd have it pulled out and my mom made sure that we went to what was called catechism my mom made sure that we had religious instruction my father was not real supportive of that he wasn't totally posed he just didn't support it he thought it was a waste of time not my mom my mom thought that our hearts needed to be receptive to God even though she didn't know Jesus until she was an older lady but when I got saved I started sharing with my mom and my dad I was 20 my mom and dad got saved and later on my mom spoke to me and she said that she had read in the Bible she said there's a phrase in the Bible it's in Isaiah she said there's a phrase in the Bible I read and it and it said and a little child shall lead them she says so I figured you must be that little child so I listened to what you had to say as interesting as that is to me to this day my mom believed that the word of God was God's word my heart was prepared by a mother who believed in such a thing as a God who could speak and preserve his word that she actually contributed that to the way I thought as a kid I figured if there is a God then surely he can communicate what what kind of God would be silent therefore he must communicate and I also believed that if he was God all things were possible with him because he's all powerful therefore if he can communicate he must be able to make sure that his words are preserved so it only made sense to me that if there is such a God and he is all powerful and he does communicate it only made sense to me that he could do so in a book called the Bible and so I already had the soil of my heart prepared so that when somebody got saved and began to share with me the gospel my heart readily accepted these things because I didn't have a built-in antagonism to God's word that's not the same today there are many today who don't believe God can speak don't believe God is powerful enough to preserve his word don't believe that he communicates to people there are a lot of people perhaps some in this room now who don't believe that well timothy had a grandmother and a mother who did and they imparted to him a faith that God could speak and that's how he got saved it says in verse 15 in chapter 3 from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus the word of God was imparted to you you've known these things from the time you were a baby the word childhood is actually a word you can you can translate from infancy from the time he was an infant his mom and grandmother had given him scripture so what happened with timothy when the gospel was given there was already a readily prepared heart to receive that jesus christ is messiah and so when paul communicated that jesus was a promised messiah timothy was prepared and therefore he believed and it's these scriptures that were planted in timothy these scriptures that prepared him for salvation in christ in first Corinthians chapter 3 verse 6 paul said it like this paul said i planted apollos watered but god gave the increase so scriptures are inspired by god and they're profitable in the life of the believer man's wisdom can be very practical practical and very deep and when moral is greatly appreciated before he was saved my dad was a very basic very wise man and he had some practical wisdom but the scriptures are inspired by god and are profitable because the bible goes deeper it doesn't speak only to a person's mind but the bible impacts their soul in john 6 verse 63 jesus said it's the spirit who gives life the flesh profits nothing the words that i speak to you are spirit and their life so paul wrote all scripture is inspired by god profitable for various things like doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness god's word equipped believers for service in contrast to the errors of false teachers you see the errors of the false teachers produce self-centered greedy arrogant disciples but god's word produces godly people who persevere through all trials you see self-centered people do not endure trials because they don't have genuine faith jesus was speaking about that in matthew 13 in chapter 13 of matthew jesus gives a series of parables and one of the parables he gives is a parable of the sower and the seed and he speaks concerning the the power of the seed but the lack of receptivity of the soils and he speaks of how a sower went on sowed some seed and he speaks concerning this particular soil that's referred to as stony stony ground or stony places and when he was speaking concerning that in matthew 13 verses 20 and 21 jesus said he who received the seed on stony places this is he who hears the word immediately receives it with joy yet he has no routine himself but endures only for a while for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word immediately stumbles so there are those who receive the scripture quickly they say oh yeah i believe that but in fact they're they're really not they're really not yielding completely to god his word the power of the holy spirit at all so when things occur that that caused them to question god and and their faith they they they stumble they're offended and they step away and so timothy is to endure persecution and he's to trust god's word and and paul uses himself as an an example of one who endures afflictions and he's saying to him timothy you can use me as an example and that's what he's been saying up to this point so in this section he continues to exhort him and he begins in chapter four verse one by saying this he says i charge you therefore before god and the lord jesus christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom in light of all that i've said to you paul is saying to timothy i want you to do certain things so as we get into chapter four paul is about to conclude his letter to this young pastor of the church in this mighty and very pagan city called Ephesus what would he be led to write seeing that this is the last letter that he will ever write second timothy is the last letter we we have of the writings of the apostle paul what is it that he would write as his last letter what will be his closing commands to this son in his faith if you had an opportunity to give some last words say you were given the opportunity to speak to those whom you love the most and you were giving your last having your last conversation or if you were writing a last letter what would it be we have an opportunity to see that here in the life of paul and in the life of this young man by the name of timothy as i was preparing this i couldn't help but think about king david king of israel and how the how the bible speaks concerning his last words to his son Solomon it's found in first kings chapter two verses one through three listen to what david said it says when david's time to die was near he told his son Solomon i'm going the way of all the earth so be strong show yourself to be a man do what the lord your god tells you you walk in his ways keep all his laws and his word by what is written in the law of moses then you will do well in all that you do and in every place that you go these are the things that a godly man would say to his son i want you to know god's word i want you to be obedient to the word of god i want you to walk in his ways i want you to to know him and and that's what a father would tell his son that's what david told Solomon so what is it that that paul is going to tell his son in the faith what is it that he believes is most important he's closing his letter this is the last time he's going to communicate to him what is it that matters to him we see that in chapter four how he begins at verse one by saying i charge you therefore before god and the lord jesus christ i most solemnly command you in front of these divine witnesses i command you in front of god and jesus they're with me right now in my prison cell and they are with you in your study in Ephesus and i am giving to you a command before them i'm giving you a charge that word charge is a military command it conveys urgency and obligation to respond and he's saying timothy you are a soldier you are under military orders so carry them out and i'm judging and i'm charging you before god jesus christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom so this emphasizes the importance of what he's saying and this emphasizes the importance of what timothy must do you see timothy understood that he was in spiritual combat he knew that he needed to follow orders this is a military command everybody knows that in the military well you're not in a democracy when i served in the military i understood that i was i didn't have a vote i mean if the if the captain lieutenant even the sergeant gave an order i had to follow it it's not a democracy it's not something you voted on well he says get up at six but i don't want to get up at six i'm going to get up at ten we didn't have a democracy i still remember a friend of mine who was in his bunk everybody was already up we'd already had breakfast and it was time to go to work and one of our sergeants walked into his room and my friend was laying in his bunk he didn't want to get up and the sergeant walks up to him and says what are you doing he said i just don't feel like getting up and so the sergeant took the blankets threw him off him grabbed him by a shirt and threw him on the ground you see there is no you have to get up it's not a democracy the guy says but i'm sleepy and the sergeant said i don't care where you are you need to get up and we learned that very quickly you don't have a vote and when a commander gives to you an order you are obligated to respond you have to obey as long as it's what is called unlawful order and so what we have here is paul giving timothy a lawful command he's saying i am in god's army the general you are a lesser officer i'm giving you a command you have an obligation to hear and to obey and this is what i'm commanding you to do and i'm telling you this because you're in a warfare right now you're in a spiritual battle and therefore i'm giving you commands that are are going to be kept because in doing so you'll be victorious in the war you see we're engaged in spiritual warfare and timothy you need to use spiritual weapons it's like what it says in 2nd chrithians 10 verses three through five how paul says although we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does the weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of god we take captive every thought to make it obedient to christ you're in a war every person in this room is in a war if you're a believer even if you're an unbeliever there's a battle going on and as a believer we've been given commands by the lord the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in god through the pulling to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god and bring it into subjection every thought into captivity of jesus christ that's what we've been called to that's what equips us and that's why paul would be speaking to the Ephesians and he'd say that that we have weapons of warfare he would say that our waste is girded with truth that we wear the breastplate of righteousness our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace that we have the shield of faith the helmet of salvation and the sword of the holy spirit these are the weapons of your warfare and the weapons of your warfare are not carnal they're not earthly they're not fabricated after the weapons of of the military of the world but they're spiritual and thus you need to understand that you need to understand that spiritual war requires spiritual weapons and if we understand that the war we are in is spiritual then that will direct my approach to the battles that i that i find myself in and that's one of the reasons by the way that prayer is so important because when you read concerning the weapons of our warfare in Ephesians six especially after paul outlines each item he says that we're to be praying constantly because the weapons of our warfare require us to know where we're supposed to use them and how to use them you see and that's one of the reasons why the annual national day of prayer is so important for us to observe we should be praying every day of course but i think it's a special time when churches throughout the nation gather to pray i was reading that approximately 35,000 prayer gatherings will be held this upcoming thursday may 3rd if there's ever been a time when this nation needs prayer isn't it now and if there's ever been a time when this state needs prayer isn't it now we absolutely do need to pray and and god speaks and know this was a statement to the nation of israel it is the scripture that is used to identify the national day of prayer we're in second chronicles chapter seven verse 14 god says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven will forgive their sin and heal their land so we're going to be hosting the prayer gathering in chino at the city hall around noon about 1145 and we'll hold a time of prayer that night here in our chapel at seven o'clock we need to pray and in light of the prevailing conditions of Ephesus paul is issuing a command he's saying this timothy i have an order you must carry out preach the word the term preach the word is another way of saying preach the sayings of god why is it important to preach the sayings of god to preach the word what can we glean from this i might encourage the sharing of our own faith well notice what he says when he says in verse two preach the word be ready in season and out of season convince rebuke exhort with all long suffering and teaching why would i do that because he said in verse when i charge you before god and the lord jesus christ will judge the living and the dead we preach because there's a coming judgment we preach because jesus christ will judge the living and the dead we like to preach how that jesus christ is a savior of mankind god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son the whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life and there are so many scriptures that tell us if you believe then you can be born again but we also need to understand that he's not only the savior here's something that we need to remember he is also the judge jesus christ is the judge the bible tells us in john 527 that god has given jesus authority to execute judgment in hebris in chapter 10 verse 42 peter said that god commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by god it was jesus who was ordained by god to be judge of the living and the dead people need to be told and reminded that eternity is before them we need to remember that a holy god is also a just god there is grace offered but when rejected judgment comes in hebris 927 it is appointed unto men to die once and after this judgment in hebris 1031 the writer says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god and this knowledge compelled paul to proclaim the opportunity for salvation in 2nd carinthians 5 11 he said knowing therefore the terror of the lord we persuade men if salvation from the inevitable day of judgment is possible what must timothy do well he tells them in verse 2 preach the word the word preach means to proclaim loudly and openly it's a picture that we in our american history might remember being taught of what was called the town crier and his responsibility was to let everybody know with a very loud voice a variety of things that were occurring because judgment is coming we need to know and share his message because it's the gospel and not your own opinion or testimony that saves people there are many places that don't seem to understand that today but again we're living in the last days in perilous times are here and so you can go and you can hear the opinions of the pastor or you can hear the testimony over and over again every time you show up but he didn't say give your opinion he didn't say give your testimony he said preach preach the word let god's word be known it's the gospel that saves people not my opinion it's the gospel that saves people not my testimony when paul was writing to the thessalonians in 1st Thessalonians 2 13 he said for this reason we also thank god without ceasing because when you receive the word of god which you heard from us you welcomed it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of god which also effectively works in you who believe in james 121 we read therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent humbly accept the word planted in you which is able to save your soul you preach the word my opinions will not save your soul my testimony will not save your soul entertainment from a church stage will not change your soul it doesn't save you it's god's word that does and when because that's true I want you to notice he says preach the word be ready in season and out of season you're not on the clock you don't punch in as a christian at eight and then punch out at five timothy you're on 24 seven and you're to take this gospel and share it when given opportunities be ready whenever the opportunity presents itself share when you can when you read the gospel of john and you get to chapter four there's a story of a woman that's at the well of sicker we call her psychar but it's more than likely a sicker she's had jacob's well and at the beginning of that chapter we're introduced the idea that jesus is going to go into samaria and he says i need to go there i must needs go there i'm going there his apostles his men don't want to go in there they because samaria is a place that that the jews would avoid i mean if you look at the map you'll see you've got the southern central and northern section and the central section represents much to the east by the jordan river represents a region called samaria samaria was a place that the jews by and large would avoid so if i were in the south in the jewsland maria will say and i was going to go to the north to the galilee very often i would simply step across the jordan and go north and then avoid samaria and then come back in once i was past the region john says the jews have no dealings with samaritans and yet we have jesus is over there in this well well his men are out trying to find some food for them and he had said i need to go through samaria and there they are he's the way he's at the well called jacob's well and as he's there by the well a woman of samaria shows up we know the story and it's that noon and that tells us something if you know anything of the jewish culture you would know that if water was to be drawn from a well it would normally be drawn from the well in the morning or in the early evening why because it's so hot we've only been to israel one time during the summer i will never go again during the summer why because it was 112 to 116 degrees it is hot and so we don't go during the summer we've had teachers say can you go during the summer and i say no no no read your books and find out it's too hot no i will not do that so we've done it and we will not do it again we've only gone once and so what happens is during that day it was the woman's duty to get the water for the family and that's why we call those the good old days anyway um so she would go with she would go with the water pot and she would draw with a bucket from the well and she'd put it in the water pot and it was for their use but they would go in the in the morning when it's cool or in the afternoon when it was cool now when the woman would go to the well that was a place to socialize and so the other ladies who were in the city would also convene at the well and so it was a place for them to talk about you know the family and how things are going it was a social place for them and that's what the ladies would do as they were seated there drawing the water visit how's everything going and that's what they would do but that's what makes it interesting to note this the scripture says the woman went at noon noon is the hottest time of the day that tells you something about the woman the other women wanted nothing to do with her so to avoid the pressures and the things she was dealing with if she'd have gone in the morning or the afternoon she chose to go at noon so she goes at noon but there's a Jewish man seated at the place by the well and as she comes to draw water Jesus says woman give me something to drink and it startles her and she looks at him and she asks him the question how is it that thou being a a a man of Israel being a Jew asks a drink of water for me being a woman of Samaria and that's when John goes on to say for the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans the Jews had a an animosity towards them because the Samaritans were actually not fully Jewish because the Assyrians had brought in peoples from other lands and had populated Samaria and when they came in they created an ad mixture if you will they were not fully Jewish people plus they had brought in religious systems from other countries and it polluted the Jewish religious system and had built a temple for themselves in a little mountain that was there where they would do their offerings and there was a conflict between the Jews and the Samaritans that was very deep which gives you insight into why Jesus would use a parable and speak of a good Samaritan because it cut right across the barriers when he spoke in that way and it also gives you insight into Jesus's ministry to women in that she asks how is it that you being a man it's what she's really saying being a Jewish man speaks to me a woman of Samaria how is it that you because he's breaking barriers because Jewish men would not speak to women alone and Jewish men would never speak to a Samaritan woman because they have no dealings with and that's where that conversation takes its depth if you knew who I was you'd ask me to give you living water you don't have a vessel to draw water from the well is deep now the water I give you that'll spill out of you as a water of life give me some of that water because I hate coming and getting this in the heat give me some of that water well go get your husband I have none hmm in this you've spoken truly you've had five and the one you're shacking up with that's not your husband interesting story let me add one little thought she had five men she had been married to she's now living with another man that's six men in her life six men you've had five plus one that you're living with that's not even a legitimate husband you've got six men in your life but guess what you came to the seventh seven in scripture is the number of perfection you've gone through six men till you finally came to the right one it's me and you will have the water if you ask I can give you water of life hmm sir I perceive you're a prophet so from how is it that you being a Jew it's now sir it's now prophet because he's bringing her slowly and surely so when he says go get your husband she doesn't have one he continues speaking to her and what is the next thing she does she rushes off and speaks to the men of the city read your passages read chapter four you'll see this she runs to the men of the city why the men of the city because a Whitman had nothing to do with her they spoke she spoke to the men come and see a man who told me everything I've ever done and you can almost add to that the thought and he still loves me and he still accepted me can this be messiah now remember at the beginning of the story Jesus said I need to go through Samaria why Jesus because there's a woman that I'm going to meet with at noon so I can give her water of life be ready in season and out of season to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ be ready that's what Paul is speaking about here when he says that you need to be instant in season and out of season be ready when it's safe and you can do so in a peaceful way but Timothy when the days ahead begin to be tough be ready to give God's word when conditions may be dangerous and difficult Paul in the book of Philippians speaks concerning how you can use him as an example because in Philippians 1 verses 12 and 13 Paul writing out of a jail cell said I want you to know brethren that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ my chains are in Christ I am in here for the preaching of the gospel and it may not be an easy place to be but I've been able to evangelize the whole palace guard he had said in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 9 I suffered trouble as an evil doer even to the point of chains but the word of God is not chained now be ready in season and out of season to preach the word and he says in verse 2 convince rebuke exhort with all long suffering and teaching convince the word convince speaks about exposing faults it's a word that can speak about reprimanding somebody or convicting somebody who is listening have you discovered that truth can be direct and sometimes it must be plainly said and when it's plainly said it convinces Jesus was speaking will say to the scribes and Pharisees it's recorded in Luke in chapter 11 verse 39 the Lord said now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean but your inward parts are full of greed and wickedness that's a pretty direct thing coming out of the lips of love himself in Luke 11 43 woe to you Pharisees you love the best seats in the synagogues greetings in the marketplaces Luke 11 52 woe to you lawyers you have taken away the key of knowledge you did not enter in yourselves and those who were entering in you hindered truth sometimes comes very plain and very convicting and that's how you preach sometimes sometimes he says it'll come as a rebuke convince and rebuke the word rebuke means to admonish Stephen is an example of of that kind of preaching when he was about to be martyred he was speaking to the Jewish authorities and this is what he said in act 751 and 52 he said you stiff-necked and uncircumcised and harden ears you always resist the Holy Spirit as your father did so do you and then they killed him it's not always something that people respond well to sometimes you exhort the word exhort means to beg to entreat sometimes you speak with tears in your heart that comes out in your voice Ezekiel 33 11 say to them as I live says the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn turn from your evil ways for why should you die oh house of his room you could almost hear the tear in the voice of the Lord in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17 therefore come out from among them be separate says the Lord do not touch was what is unclean and I will receive you in 1st Thessalonians 2 verses 11 and 12 as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory there are times that you speak like that my mom and my dad got saved I went into the army I was gone for a couple of years came back they'd been Christians for two years I came home I got out around Christmas I bought my dad some books Christian books that I wanted him to read because I noted some things I had noted that my father's walk with the Lord hadn't really grown and I still remember speaking to my dad after at Christmas had come I had given him those books my dad hadn't picked up one of them yet to read and I still remember we were in the patio at my parents house and I looked at my father and with tears I started to weep I looked at my dad I was 22 years old I looked at my dad and he started to cry and I said daddy you're not doing well with the Lord at all I said daddy you haven't grown a bit and I was weeping when I spoke to him it wasn't a an arrogant son it wasn't a a proud full it was a broken heart daddy you're not growing you're not growing I gave you those books and you haven't opened one of them yet dad open those books and read you need to grow there are times that you speak like that you exhort you and treat you beg and there may be tears coming down your eyes as you do it because your heart is pierced with the things of the Lord those who go forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoicing bringing their sheaves with them there's the time when a tear reveals a heart and there are times when the minister will break and will weep you convict sometimes you just speak you exhort you do it with long suffering in all manner of teaching somebody says well you know why do we need long suffering why well some things take times take time did you did you when you got saved on we'll say a sunday did you the next day start teaching bible studies on monday with depth some things take time so one of the things that i've had to learn over the years is to be very patient i have to be patient about myself because i'm an impatient person in many ways but i also have had to learn to be patient i had a bible study we used to do just up the street not not a half mile or so from here just up the street there east end in philadelphia if you go on philadelphia from here and you're going to the west and you come to east end you go across and you go maybe a quarter mile or less off to the side there's a place called lube grain some of you may be familiar with that and there's a house a little house that i think it's still there that's right there on the property if you drive by you'll see this house and they have placed these it looks like boulders that they have put on on the house we used to call it a rock house we don't anymore but we used to call it that then because we didn't sell rock but anyway when you when you look at it i used to do bible studies there in 1975 i lived there i was one of four roommates that rented out that house we spent twenty five dollars a month rent that's those are the good old days twenty five dollars month rent and he used to have a bible study there and there was a young man there in the bible study who was younger than i and he was an alcoholic i think he was maybe 20 21 years old and he was confirmed alcoholic at that age he used to come home with two cases of beer now that wasn't my house i wasn't renting it out to people the owner was renting it to us we started a bible study he started coming to the bible study when he came to the bible study i started sharing what matthew had to say about salvation and he gave his heart to christ and so about two or three weeks after he had prayed to receive the lord i was talking to him and he asked me a question he said david let me ask you something why do you get so close to me when you're speaking to me he says i think it's because you're trying to see whether i have beer on my breath he was right that's exactly right because i used to see him carrying two cases at a time and he drank it by himself confirmed alcoholic and i said well well he says no admit it you're getting close to me to see if i have beer in my breath i said you're right you're right i am i said forgive me he said i want to tell you something i've never forgotten this i share this with you i want to tell you something i believe you loved me more as a sinner than you do now that i'm a christian because i treated him with more grace and kindness before he knew jesus then after he prayed with me he was right he was a hundred percent right that's exactly what i did i tried to explain it i tried to say i'm just concerned for you steve and he said to me listen i gave my heart to jesus he's with me now he has set me free and he doesn't need you monitoring my life he was right so i shot him no he was right i made me so mad and he went to heaven no he was right have you ever done anything like that you ever been treated like that somebody watching you with this holy spyglass to see whether or not you're doing right or wrong guess what it's not that i should ignore my brother and ignore his sin no i'm not saying that i'm not saying just give him permission to say no of course not i should love him enough to tell him the truth but at the same time i should know that god is able to take care of those who are his he knows how to take care of his kids he knows how to chase in him he knows how to spank him he knows how to bring him back in line he really does and so we have to realize that some things take time and that's why you do this ministry with long suffering and teaching just hold on and watch what god will do because steve eventually met a good christian girl they got married served the lord continued on as far as i know 40 years later they're still serving the lord because god has a way of doing that that's what the holy spirit and the word of god does in somebody's life he transforms you by the grace of god so timothy understand that understand that well why we better rush on i've got to get to verse three for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers will they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables why would we do that well because the time is coming when they will begin to select teachers who will tell them exactly what they want to hear according to their own desires because they have itching ears they're going to heap up unto themselves teachers that time by the way is now somebody said the thirst for novelties in doctrine the desire for a teaching that while offering peace to a troubled conscience would yet allow the old self-indulgent life to go on as before will increase and that's true it's a message that is devoid of a call to live for christ the time will come the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine the time will come when they are going to to basically uh collect teachers who tell them exactly what they want to hear their own lusts will separate them from the doctrine that purifies their souls they will think that the teaching is too strict and harsh so they'll reject the teaching as well as the teacher they will seek less convicting teachers who will flatter them and say what they want to hear they will want to hear something that they have not heard before that's what israel said in isaac 39 and 10 when god was speaking to the nation he said of them this is a rebellious people lying children children who will not hear the law of the lord who say to the seers do not see to the prophets do not prophesy to us right things speak to us smooth things prophesy to seats they're going to want to hear things they already believe and already agree with and because of that timothy do these four things be watchful endure affliction be an evangelist fulfill your ministry timothy verse five be watchful the word watchful means to abstain from wine be on the alert be attentive be discreet he had already told him to avoid foolish arguments to remain solid and simple truth he was to avoid discussions that led to strife to be patient and gentle with everybody he told him to avoid the influence of false teachers turn away from false believers so you need to be watchful second you need to endure affliction you need to be prepared to endure suffering for jesus christ don't be surprised when you go through hard or difficult times but hold fast to the end in second timothy in chapter two verse three he said you must endure hardship as a good soldier of jesus christ so endure affliction third do the work of evangelist do the work fulfill your commission in other words keep your eyes on the things that are eternal continue sharing the gospel give away your faith and fourth fulfill your ministry don't fall short don't hold back be committed to christ fully perform your ministry task it'll evidence the genuineness of your ministry and then paul says use me once again as an example because in verse 60 he said i'm already being poured out as a drink offering the time of my departure is at hand i have fought the good fight i have finished the race i have kept the faith and finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing so he says i'm already being poured out as a drink offering a drink offering a company of a sacrifice it was a picture of his impending death being poured out therefore speaks of his total dedication to christ a drink offering contained elements of sacrifice and service and because of this he said i'm ready to depart i'm i'm i'm wane anchor i'm striking the tent i'm moving on and this is what i can say i have fought the good fight i finished the race i have kept the faith i have fought i have finished and i've been faithful i fought as a good soldier and i'm victorius in christ i'm finishing the race i ran the course that was set out for me successfully not only did i start i followed the rules i ran well i completed that course and i've been faithful i have kept the faith i guarded god's word remained faithful i did not compromise my life and i never watered down god's word and as a result verse eight finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness laid up for me it is safely stored and it's guarded by god himself i will receive the victor's reward and that's what motivated my service he's saying to god my faith filled expectation is to be given of victor's crown i i finished my race properly i followed the rules i did not cheat i finished the course i get the crown of righteousness i received the victor's accomplishment and that is a crown that is awarded he says to the righteous he hungered and he thirsted for righteousness and that was all that would ever satisfy him he lived a life battling the flesh the world and the devil but he was yet to be a finished product that was about to take place but guess what timothy this crown is not mine alone it belongs to you too keep that in mind this crown is given to all who love god and all who look forward to seeing jesus you can have it too hey we're not there yet are we we're just passing through we're moving on we're pilgrims we're sojourners we're aliens we're living in a in a hostile environment a christ rejecting world but we're just passing through there's a man by the name of henry morrison he served 40 years on the african mission field and finally when his service was was done and he was heading home he came home by boat on that same boat also rode theodore rusevelt morrison was quite dejected when he entered the new york harbor because president rusevelt received a great fanfare as he arrived home morrison thought he should get some recognition for 40 years in the lord's service then a small voice came to morrison and said henry you're not home yet and that's how we ought to think this world is not my home i'm just passing through and it doesn't matter if they have this great band that's playing for somebody else because when you enter into heaven you don't want to hear lots of voices you know what you want to hear i think you want to hear what i want to hear it's not the loud voices of others it's the loud voice of one who will say to you well done my good and my faithful servant that's the voice that i want to hear someday that's a voice that my ears have been attuned to when i hear the voice of jesus christ say well done welcome home i have fought the good fight i have finished the race that's what i mean


I'm gonna put it on the tripod Yo, three days in a row dunking. I was supposed to dunk tomorrow, but we're out here because the boys are in town Should be fine. I just got to kind of take it easy after this. I got to go hard maniac mode Bring in my speed in just make sure go forward. Yeah, go graduate.  Bring it in the gym. He just had it somewhere in his body A couple one foot jumps for me my hamstrings bugging really hard I had some really aggressive jumps felt really good We're gonna cut it short to be smart, but I had a really great day today Have that Eastlake twice two back rims back to back One foot off this side you'll travel so much in the air in that room. I'll try it Anything you want to say that's the shirt. Yeah, I think it's the shirt You got picked up. I got picked up and I said it's time to dunk Something feels like a baby room, huh? baby room for the cheese show We gave him the tips load up a little more. Would you say got a load up? Double down on his uh on his depth.  Come on boy. Let's go boy. I was sorry DQ DQ. Let's go boy Thank you for watching I love when you watch it because I like to make the videos and I like when you watch it So thank you a lot and the right there Yeah, let's go dunk lifers. What is good? Welcome. Thank you so much for joining. I'm so excited. Just wanted to let you know that this is


Hi everyone, Joe for jazby's casebreaks.com coming at you with 2020-2021 Panini prism basketball Celepac break number one six nine It's the last one the only one we had to do to fill up those number block spots Very big. Thanks to this group right here for making it happen Tim Stephen K mark Stephen P and Gretchen Appreciate all of you There's all the teams right there. Let's go. Let's do the break first roll it randomize it four or two six times one two three four five and six Obviously second dice roll for the giveaway four hundred two six times for the teams one two three four five And six and final time All right, no trade windows, but here's the first half of the case right here First half of the list right there in the second half right here Gretchen has both Timberwolves and Hornets in this You never know pull like a silver Lamello or something like that silver Anthony Edwards. That'd be pretty cool For a filler break. All right, that's coming up in a separate video. Let's go points oh and a emergent Lamello points I've never seen points in a Salo pack before but there it is. There's Lamello Red white and blue emergent Nothing in the red white and blue. Let's give away the points to somebody or actually here's what we're gonna do We'll just give the 600 points to this person right here. All right, so let's gather everybody's names again New list new dice top six after six five into one six times. Good luck one two three four Five and sixth and final time after six so from seven on down sad times But the top six is happy because you're you're in the red number block Gretchen Gretchen Tim In one of those number blocks I think the Nets number block and the Sixers number block Steven P Gretchen and Gretchen and Who's in spot seven Gretchen you'll get that those 600 points as well And we only did one filler so we'll put rooftops next to your names So Gretchen Gretchen Steven P in the Sixers number block Tim Gretchen and Gretchen There we go Tim Gretchen Gretchen in the Brooklyn number block We'll see you for those randomizers in the next video to ask these case breaks calm