On this edition of Spirit Church, I'm going to be addressing a gift from God that is most often misunderstood and most often despised by even the believer. This gift gives us great benefits and helps us to walk in holiness, helps us to connect with God in greater depths. But we all too often, because of our misunderstanding, despise the gift, reject the gift, or try to avoid this gift. I'm going to be talking about that today. First, as usual, Steven Moctezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in some worship. And then we're going to get right into this lesson. Here's Steven Moctezuma. So what is this gift that God has given to us that we often reject, misunderstand, and despise? I'm talking today about the conviction of the Holy Spirit. John chapter 16 verses 7 to 10 says this, The conviction of the Holy Spirit is of God. When we talk about the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we are talking about the Holy Spirit causing us to acknowledge that we have made a mistake or that we have sinned. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit telling us that we have guilt on our hands. Now, we have to understand, and I'm going to get into this later, that there is also the accusation of the enemy which causes us to feel guilty. But I want to focus firstly on this idea of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We need to pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I hope you get convicted by the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is a sign not that God is rejecting you, but that you are living a spiritually healthy life. When you receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it's because God loves you. The scripture says that God only chastises those whom he loves. And when you receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it helps you to identify specific problems in your life, get rid of them, and draw closer to God in repentance. So the conviction of the Holy Spirit is something we want to experience, but like I said, it's misunderstood. Why? Because we confuse it with something else, and I'm going to get to that like I said later. But this conviction that God gives to us, it's a gift. It's helpful, and it's healthy. If you are not convicted by the Holy Spirit for your wrongdoing, it means that your spiritual hearing needs help. It means that your spiritual hearing needs to be healed. When you don't hear the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it's because you've often led yourself down a path because of your decisions of disobedience. The longer you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, the harder he becomes to hear. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 says this, For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow, but worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. I love the way the King James version puts it. Godly sorrow worketh repentance. I was watching a documentary, and if you watch Spirit Church or Encounter TV or have heard me preach, know that I love to watch documentaries, and I was specifically watching this medical documentary about this little girl who had this disease, and this disease in her body caused her to feel absolutely no pain. Now, in my ignorance while watching this documentary, I said to myself, well, that would be great if I could never feel any pain. That would be a wonderful life if when I received an injury, I did not feel the pain that my body causes me to feel. But as I continued to watch this documentary, I soon found that what this girl was living in as a result of this disease was a nightmare, especially for her parents. Her mother noted that when she would go play, that her daughter would go play on the playground, if she fell or hit her head or was injured in some way, that she had no way of knowing whether or not her daughter had received serious injury. There could be internal bleeding. There could be head trauma. There could be all sorts of broken bones and pulled tendons and muscles. She had no idea if her daughter was ever injured in a grave way. And so the Holy Spirit's conviction is like this. We often imagine that it would be great if we could just live the way we want it to live with no consequence in the conscience. Someone said that the conscience is to the mind what pain is to the body. And we have the conviction of the Holy Spirit as a gift from God. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is not a punishment. It's a gift. Repentance is a privilege. Repentance is a privilege for which Christ gave his life to give you. That repentance that we are offered is not an obligation. It's an opportunity. When we repent, we are turning from self-destruction. When we repent, we are changing our mind about behavior that leads to darkness and debasement. When we repent as a result of conviction, we are able to turn away from worldliness, turn away from the flesh, and turn toward our Heavenly Father. This is a powerful gift that the Holy Spirit has given to us. We need the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives. There are some preachers who don't like to preach convicting messages. They say, well, I just want to encourage or I don't want to offend anyone.  Conviction is a part of the preaching of the gospel. Conviction is what draws sinners to Christ. Conviction is what draws us to holiness. You notice the Scripture said that we read in John 16 that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, but he also convicts us of righteousness. He compares us to the standard of Christ and we obtain that standard through repentance and through faith in Christ because of what he finished on the cross. But in order to receive that free gift, we must first repent. And in order to repent, we must first be drawn and we are drawn by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. In our daily lives, as we go about our routines, the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Whether you say something or don't say something because James says that he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Whether you do something that you're not supposed to do or you think something that you're not supposed to think, whatever the case may be, sins of omission, things you don't do, sins of commission, things you do, both of those can be helped, both of those ills can be addressed because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, when we make a mistake, when we sin, when we disobey God, he speaks to us and he continually speaks to us until we get that issue right.  First John chapter 1 verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But in James chapter 5, I believe verse 16, it tells us that we are to confess our sins one to another that we may be healed. We confess our sins to God for forgiveness, but we confess our sins to one another for inner healing. Maybe the Holy Spirit is telling you to confess your sin to God. Maybe the Holy Spirit is telling you to confess your sin to your brother or your sister that you receive accountability, healing and help. But we ignore this gift. We think this is bad, especially in the preaching today, especially in the Americanized version of the Gospel. Conviction is looked down upon. Conviction is seen as a negative thing. And sure, conviction may at times make you feel negative, but ultimately, even negative feelings can result in positive things. I'll give you an example, another medical documentary that I was watching. I was watching this documentary with this obese woman who was suffering with her obesity and she was struggling to overcome her own weight. So she goes to the doctor and she asks the doctor for help and she says, I need help overcoming my obesity. And the doctor says, okay, I'm going to give you a strict diet. I'm going to help set you up with a nutritionist. I'm going to keep you on an exercise regimen and I'm also going to do a surgery on you. So he performs the surgery for her and then in order for her to start losing weight, he gives her the nutrition. He gives her the diet. He gives her the exercise regimen. But she starts to fall off that regimen and he notices it. So she's going to her appointments and every time the doctor would confront her, she would start to cry. She would get upset. She would say, it's so mean. I'm so offended that you would tell me I need to exercise. I'm so offended that you would tell me that I need to get back to my diet. And she became upset with the doctor who was trying to help her. And I'll never forget what she said when she finally gave up going to the doctor, went home and slipped into her own routine. The camera crew followed her in. They interviewed her and they asked her, well, what are you going to do now? She says, I'm just going to do things, maybe not as strict as he wants me to do them, but I'm going to do things still.  I still want to go certain places. I still want to rest on certain days. And they asked her, but isn't he helping you? And the camera crew tried to, I guess, encourage her to go back to what she was supposed to be doing. And she said, well, I don't want to go back there because it wasn't a positive atmosphere. Positive atmosphere. Now, where have I heard that before? People who leave churches. Well, I don't want to go back there because the preacher says things that make me feel bad about myself.  When we sin against God, we should feel bad. Godly, sorrow works repentance. The people who preach against that, I believe they themselves have hidden sin in their life, have things that they don't want to confront. The truth is that when we sin, there is a natural reaction, and that reaction causes us to feel bad about what we've done, and that is the way it's supposed to be. That's why God gave us a conscience. So these preachers will say, well, don't make the people feel bad about themselves. Now, our goal isn't to make people feel bad about themselves. Our goal is to preach the truth. Our goal is to live in the truth. And this is what the conviction of the Holy Spirit does. He helps us live in that truth. And he helps you live in that truth by telling you when you're wrong. By telling you when you need to go back and repent of something. By telling you when you need to go and apologize to someone you've offended. When you need to go and apologize to someone who you've held unforgiveness against. We need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Now, I understand that those of us who are mindful of the Spirit, we can also experience the other extreme of things.   And I'm thankful for my office who helps me sort through all of the correspondence. But sometimes I will go in and I'll try to address as many of the messages as I possibly can if I have some free time. And I can't believe some of the stuff I read. They'll ask me questions like, Brother David, is it a sin to go bowling? Brother David, is it a sin if I want to buy a nice car? Brother David, is it a sin if I want to wear nice clothes? Brother David, is it a sin if I got angry with someone for hurting me? And they just go on and they list all of these things. And they're so paranoid. And maybe that's you.  That's because we don't understand the finished work of the cross. But some people are so specific and they're so neurotic and they're so anxious and fearful about this that they pick out these specific issues. And they wonder if they're being condemned for them. Can I tell you something? That's not the spirit, that's the flesh. The Holy Spirit will convict you of sin that is clearly addressed in the Bible. The Holy Spirit will tell you to do something good and if you don't do it, He'll convict you of it. But we have to learn to distinguish between the voice inside of us, which is the flesh, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and additionally, as I mentioned at the top of the program, the accusation of the enemy. There is a difference between conviction and condemnation. Now conviction is the Holy Spirit telling you that you've done wrong and that you need to get it right. Condemnation is telling you that you've done something wrong and that you can never get it right. Conviction tells you you've made a mistake. Condemnation tells you you are a mistake. Conviction says I've failed. Condemnation says I'm a failure. Conviction says I must separate myself from my sin and turn toward God. Condemnation makes you feel so miserable in your sin because it makes you identify with that sin. It connects the identity. Now I know this lesson is a little different than the way I usually teach, but I need to bring this to you because I felt in my heart that this message is for somebody watching. I know we like to talk about the supernatural and the power of God and healing and prayer and the presence, but this here, it's more of a teaching than a sermon and I need to get it to you because if somebody watching me right now, there's also somebody watching me, you push away the voice of the Holy Spirit. I'll warn you again. You ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit long enough. Eventually you won't be able to hear Him. Now I just said that and to someone who's living in sin, they say, you know what, I do need to get right, but to someone who's really paranoid like what I'm talking about, they go, oh my goodness, that's me. I can't hear God anymore. But the truth is if you feel that fear of not hearing God, if you actually care about hearing God, then you haven't lost the voice of God. So we have to learn to balance conviction with condemnation. Conviction is of the Holy Spirit. Condemnation is of the flesh and of the demonic realm. So I'll put it this way. Conviction is the Holy Spirit. Guilt is the flesh. Accusation is demonic. I'll tell you what I mean by those two. Guilt is a natural emotional response to wrongdoing. Now guilt, even though it is of the flesh, is not necessarily wrong unto itself. Guilt is healthy to fill. We should feel guilty for things that we do wrong. But prolonged guilt is not of God. I'll give you an example, because remember in 1 John 1 verse 9 the scripture says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. He's faithful in that he's consistent and he's just in that he's justified because of what Christ did. This example is that I took my car to a mechanic one time because I saw a light go off on the dashboard. My light goes off on the dashboard and I'm the type of person that when I see my light go off on the dashboard, I don't wait, I don't wait a couple of weeks, I don't wait a couple of months, I don't say well I'll get to it later. As soon as my light goes off, I'll make an appointment that week and I take it in because I like to take care of my things. So I take my car to the mechanic and I go in, he does all these repairs and I go back a few days later and I go and get my car and as I'm pulling out of his shop, I realize that my dashboard light is still on and I thought I just paid all this money to have this guy fix my car and as soon as I drive it off the lot there's the check engine light. It's still on. So I pulled back in and I was a little upset. I stood in the spirit though and I said my friend look my dashboard light is still on it there's check engine still on it there's everything okay can you run the codes and he tells me oh I'm sorry all I did was forget to reset the light. I said what do you mean you forgot to reset the light? Doesn't it just go off when there's a mistake? He goes well it goes off when there's a problem with the engine but it stays on until I shut it off. I said okay that's interesting and then I thought that's the difference between guilt and conviction, condemnation and conviction. You see, spiritually when we do something wrong the light goes off.  It keeps you focused on the problem instead of the road ahead and some of us are so focused on past sin and again I said this before people say well God forgive my past sin I said there's no other kind all sins are in the past of course God will forgive your past sin and people have trouble getting through that they'll go and they'll drive their car with this light on and they just feel worried and they feel fearful and this is what I imagine the conversation to be like with God Lord Jesus forgive me of my sin okay son you're forgiven Jesus I'm sorry for my sin yes son I forgave you Jesus please forgive me take this from me I don't even see the sin you're talking about because when I forgive you the scripture says I make you white as snow when I forgive you think about this the scripture says that when God forgives us he separates our sin from his mind as far as the east is from the west that's eternity the scripture says that he will remember our sins no more the scripture also says that he does not even deal with us according to our iniquity so some of us we have this dashboard light on spiritually speaking and we feel guilt for sin that already has been taken care of now you should feel guilty if you're still compromising if you're still hiding your sin if you're still participating in that actively and not working to fix it but the moment you say Lord forgive me and you turn from it in your heart you're forgiven it's as if you've never done it that's how simple that is some people they want to ask God to forgive them and then they wait a week or two before they let the guilt wear off but can I tell you something when you repent of your sin whether it was a sin you committed ten years ago or a sin you committed one second ago you're still just as forgiven but it's hard to reconcile these things isn't it we know the truth in our mind but we haven't really accepted that truth and allowed it to set us free we know in the spirit we're forgiven but in the flesh in the emotions we still fill the guilt why? your emotions will always follow your thoughts the scripture says as a man thinks so is he so if you're dwelling on the sin if you're dwelling on thoughts like I'm not forgiven or God doesn't love me anymore or God can't hear me or God won't hear my prayer or God won't even look at me or God has rejected me you keep doing that to yourself you're gonna fill it and that's how you deal with guilt you get rid of it through thinking on what the word actually says and then there's the accusation of the enemy which is not really of the flesh but it's of the demonic realm have you ever been going about your day casually, possibly, happily when all of a sudden a memory of something embarrassing or shameful that you've done will flash into your mind now inside when you get these embarrassing flashes of memory or these shameful flashes of memory from your past inside you just recoil in horror and you may be with people they have no idea you feel embarrassed just standing there with them and this thought just comes to your mind or something you did and you just wanna like literally shake it off that is the accusation of the enemy where did it come from why did it come it was a thought that the enemy threw at you from your past and what do we do normally instead of rejecting it we embrace it and we embrace the emotion of it we embrace the feeling of it we dwell on it we beat ourselves up for it that's not what God wants us to do so here we have again the two extremes some are too casual and some are too condemned we need to find that balance of conviction the conviction of the Holy Spirit is a gift allow him to guide your life allow him to speak to you act when he says to act but don't beat yourself up over things that he's not telling you to do and don't let your anxiety and your fear be mistaken for the voice of the Holy Spirit for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind well I'm gonna pray with you now let's pray and believe the spirit of condemnation is gonna be broken over your life and that you would experience the positive gift of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that he would guide you on a daily basis to walk in righteousness and holiness let's pray I want you to stretch your hand toward mine because listen there's somebody watching me right now when I started talking about guilt and condemnation you, everything in your heart said that's me and I want to be free with all my heart I wanna be free from that and you've been battling this for years and it's a pattern it has to, it's tied in with your anxiety you beat yourself up every single day for sins that you've committed in the past that you've asked God for in fact, you're afraid to begin enjoying your life because you're afraid that when the moment comes that you actually begin to enjoy your life that the sins gonna catch up to you can I tell you something he separates our sin from his memory as far as the East is from the West that's what the Bible says who are you to not forgive yourself when God has declared you clean so with that in mind let's break this off of you today in Jesus' name Father in Jesus' name I pray for that one watching who's either battling Lord with being too casual or filling too condemned Lord I pray that you would give them the healthy balance of conviction we thank you Lord for the gift we thank you Lord that you have given us the ability to hear your voice we thank you Holy Spirit that you are involved in our lives enough to guide us on a daily basis I rebuke right now in Jesus' name every spirit of condemnation and guilt be broken off of that one watching right now be made whole in Jesus' name I command that torment on your mind to stop in Jesus' name no longer will your mind be tormented in the name of Jesus I want you to say we say in the name of Jesus I declare I am free from guilt and condemnation in Jesus' name now begin to pray in the Holy Ghost if you pray in the Holy Ghost Lord I loose that one right now we break the power of the enemy right now in Jesus' name Lord I thank you that they can sense your love and peace overflowing them right now we give you the glory we give you the honor there's someone watching me you've been contemplating suicide you've been thinking about for three months now and you've not told anybody what you're dealing with but that's been in your mind for three months now be made whole in Jesus' name the word of the Lord to you is don't put your hope in people people will disappoint you always or frail put your hope in God put your hope in his word put your hope in his unchanging nature there's somebody watching me you have an issue with your throat and I don't know what it is but there's a sharp pain and you've had that for a while and I think about six months or so but Lord I pray in Jesus' name that healing power would flow right now I thank you Lord there's somebody watching me back injury has just been healed in Jesus' name I give you the glory Lord we thank you pray in the Holy Ghost come on God's doing something in Jesus' name I give you glory there's a blood disorder being healed in Jesus' name there's a heart condition the heart murmur in Jesus' name we speak the healing power of God arthritis is being broken off of you right now in Jesus' name Lord I come against cancer I come against yes I heard there's someone that's watching me you just received word that you have a sexually transmitted disease you just received the word from the doctor not too long ago I pray in Jesus' name be healed of your shame and be healed of your sickness he's going to heal both in Jesus' name we pray and those who agreed and received said amen keep watching all the way through because you never know when the word of knowledge is going to keep flowing but I want to transition now to welcome the new members of Spirit Church there you are up on the screen and we want to welcome you a lot of members joining this week we got a few extra on the slide a little more than average and as you can see they're from all over the world different nations different states different cities I love looking at the names you can see all the different ethnicities of the names represented and we love you we are praying for you thank you for joining Spirit Church if you'd like information on how you can join the Spirit Church family go ahead and click on the link that's just about to appear over my head I'm going to read your comments now but before I do if you're a member of Spirit Church we're going to ask you to do one of two things remember one of two things so do either or for us if you're a member of Spirit Church if you're a member of Spirit Church and Spirit Church is your church it's your go-to church you consider this your accountability where you worship where you hear the word then what I want you to do is sign up to our automatic giving plan to give your ties and offering automatically once a month that's going to help us plan and if we can plan better it's more efficiency which means we can do a lot more with money that we know is coming as opposed to money that comes and we have to plan for right when it arrives or if you attend another church but you're a member of Spirit Church and Spirit Church is not your main church then become a $30 a month world changer ministry partner that's going to help us to do one of those two things if Spirit Church is your only church sign up automatic ties and offerings if Spirit Church is a supplemental ministry you're a member but you receive your primary ministry from another church then go ahead and sign up for $30 a month do that today and I have a special announcement I want you to stick around until after the comments to hear okay these comments are on the video surrendering to the Holy Spirit Jeanie Sam writes I am so blessed by this message the message has encouraged me and I felt the Holy Spirit touch me while praying thank you Shawna Hill writes love this I really love listening to your videos while I'm at work working away at my desk keep up the awesome work God bless you and your ministry Gazelle Shaw writes David you truly are a blessing to me and so is the work that you are doing to bring hungry souls to God it's amazing I feel the anointing of the Holy Spirit through all of your videos God bless well Gazelle we get those comments a lot that's one of the things that distinguishes this ministry is the presence of the Holy Spirit I don't really see myself as a dynamic teacher I'm not this amazing speaker like you might see on you know other television programs but one thing I can say is that I totally rely upon the presence of the Holy Spirit and it is that presence of the Holy Spirit he's all that's charismatic about me he's all that's magnetic about me nothing aside from the Holy Spirit would draw people to watch it so we thank you for recognizing the presence of the Holy Spirit on this ministry Alvira Geosis writes well this is what happens every time I watch a spirit church sermon I watch the experience in God's presence sermon as well and I felt an overwhelming sensation a cold breeze entered and immediately I knew it was the Holy Spirit my hunger for a deeper intimacy with God grows each time I watch a sermon on the Holy Spirit thank you brother David Beauty Unraveled writes I have been watching your teachings for the last month they have truly blessed my life just in the last month I am definitely going to join I believe she's talking about spirit church thank you for what you do Harrieth Timbuka writes I feel the presence of God whenever I watch your videos your teachings are transforming me day by day be blessed David I also love to worship with Stephen be blessed also well again if you're wondering why people comment about Stephen it's because he has a worship playlist he's got a dynamic worship ministry be sure to check out Stephen Maktuzuma's worship playlist the final comment Marilyn Balmesita writes thank you Lord Jesus I always feel the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit when I watch your preaching Pastor David God bless you more and God bless you Marilyn I want to give you this special announcement to everybody now we are going to begin weekly meetings in Southern California now we're going to first acquire a facility we're not going to buy the facility maybe if God gives us a miracle but I'm practical too that's eventually we'll own the facility but we right now just want to get into a facility what we have here is a nice TV set we have some offices in the back we have a director's room and what not a little bit of space for some studio audience but it's nothing like what we need to take this to the next level now I want to begin doing weekly meetings Sunday night meetings so that means that Spirit Church is not just going to only be online anymore it will still be a church online but we're also going to add weekly meetings now this is not a typical church in that it's going to have children's church ministry youth ministry Bible studies it's called a para church in other words it's weekly meetings you come in we do worship Steve will be with us on Sunday nights you can come see us in person Steve will do the worship Sunday nights I'll preach a message we'll pray for you and then we dismiss so we don't see each other until the next week but that right there is what we call supplemental discipleship in other words you can go to your church on Sunday morning and then Sunday nights come on down to Spirit Church but we want to open up this center it's going to be like a miracle center we're going to have I want to have a 24-7 prayer room people come at any time and they can receive prayer for healing and we want an 800 line to be open 24-7 we want to really do this right and with excellence but I need your help many of you have signed up to become monthly partners we need monthly supporters now more than ever if you're going to do a one-time gift great do a one-time gift but what we need now are 1,000 new $30 a month supporters as soon as we get 1,000 new $30 a month supporters we can open the center and that will be two months probably of construction and what not two months max we'll have it up and running so this is going to be somewhere I'm looking in Downey, California and again I'm not starting a church I'm still going to evangelize so don't think oh well he's done evangelizing on TV or miracle service no remember the primary purpose of this ministry is evangelistic I'm an evangelist we're still doing miracle services we're still doing television we're still doing media but in addition to everything that we're doing we're going to add this weekly but I need your help sign up today right now don't even hesitate say you know what David I'm going to stand with you I'm going to give $30 a month some of you can do 50 some of you can do 100 some of you can do a one-time gift of $1,000 but whatever you do do it today and help us get this thing going well that's it for this edition of Spirit Church until next time remember nothing absolutely nothing is impossible actually I'm sorry I was just going to close there's somebody watching me I told you sometimes the word of knowledge is out of nowhere before I close I heard depression and there's somebody watching me battling with depression Lord in Jesus name I pray your perfect love would cast out that torment help that one watching Lord in Jesus name be made whole in Jesus name well now that is it for this edition of Spirit Church until next time remember nothing is impossible with God in addition to David's teachings and ministry videos you can also join me on my worship playlist where I release a brand new video every week thank you guys so much for watching EncounterTV God bless


James feel good to get David Long back out there. And what do you anticipate his role may be? Yeah, it's good to see him back out here running around. I mean, we'll kind of see as the week goes where he's at with his injury, working his way back and see what he can do for us as the week goes. So we'll kind of get an idea here probably today and tomorrow and see where it's at for him to contribute on Sunday. So long time you didn't have enough inside backer. Now you're getting healthy.  Yeah, man, great problem to have, right? We never have enough good players. So excited about all of them and what they bring. I think they're all a little bit different in what they bring, but gives us a little bit of a multiplicity of how we can use them as it see fits. And we'll see once we get Jay on back, he's on COVID right now and see where this thing goes with David, but excited about the group. What's the toughest thing you don't want to go? He's out for that length of time. Like David Long, what's the toughest thing to come back? Yeah, I think it's important for those guys to stay engaged. Like everything kind of changes as the season goes, right? We're making adjustments defensively, obviously different offenses, making sure you're clued into kind of how things are going that way, but I think stay and engage with the plan, with the scheme, all the little things we tweak throughout the season, making sure he's up to speed on that. And then ultimately just getting back out on the field and doing it, seeing it, repping it, being able to, when you can't take it from the classroom to the field, like that's a big part of the learning process. So just being able to get back out there and do it. What are the things from something like that? Just to follow on that. And in addition to that, I guess new personnel as well with that Cunningham coming in. Yeah, it's very similar. I think one thing with the injured guys, they have a pretty sound base level of what's going on and the terminology aspects, always a big thing with a new guy where somebody that's injured and coming back, it's a little bit different because they're familiar and they kind of understand things. More just catching up on the little tweaks that we do, where a new guy, it's a lot like it is. You get thrown a lot at you in a hurry because I mean, most new guys, when they join a team, they're expected to play pretty quickly. Like they're not joining to sit on a bench and get warm and get adjusted. Like they got to go, right? So I think just the work ethic that you have to have coming in, the amount of time it takes with your coach, with the other players learning, but terminology has always been the biggest thing I mean, we say it all the time, like scheme is scheme. Everybody does a lot of the same stuff throughout the league as you watch. It's more just the terminology, how you can relate it to the player based on where they've been or what they've done. Biggest challenge is that? Was that kind of an ability to process that terminology and play so fast? Because you know, you guys all swim to the football, but it seems like he's there first most of the time. Yeah, I think he's been locked in. I mean, he's an instinctive player anyway. I mean, he's always had a knack for finding the football. I think he freaking led the league in tackles last year, was up there. So the biggest thing with him, I think, is as long as he's comfortable pre-snap and he's able to get lined up, then he just go play. Like we always talk about the thinking should happen pre-snap, and there's some things you've got to be able to adjust and react to once the ball snap. But as long as we're lined up and we've got our eyes in the right spot and focusing on the right things, like when that ball snap, we got to go play and make tackles or rush the passer or defender or receiver, whatever that might be. What are the biggest challenges that come into play when you're going up against the left-handed quarterback? Like two obviously defensive guys are kind of used to maybe playing against one type of quarterback when the guy's throwing from the other hand. Maybe how does that change for the guys up front and then in the back end? It is definitely unique. I mean, up front we always talk about matching the hand and more times now it's the right-hand quarterback and we're sticking our left hand up to try to mirror the throw in hand. Whereas now that's totally different, right? Like talking about sticking your right arm up, which we don't do very often, right? There's just certain situations. So I mean, I think that's dramatic. I think just the understanding of who he is, like you go back to talking about some of these other quarterbacks and just like keep them away from their throwing arm, right? When they're escaping, like that's always the thing with every quarterback and that's a little bit different, right? Obviously he's going the other way than most of these right-handed quarterbacks. So there's some little nuances to it. I don't, in terms of the back end, I mean, he's an accurate passer. Whether you're right-handed or left-handed, the ball is going to be in the spot, you know? So I don't know how much it truly affects those guys in terms of playing the ball. Back there, I do, like when they're blitzing and rushing, it kind of correlates that way just the same as the front. We know there's going to be a very dynamic passing game, sorry, Terry. But they don't appear to be a very dynamic passing attack, but yet waddles a guy with almost 100 catches. How creative are they with how they use him and how tough is he to prepare? Yeah, I think they're doing a really good job getting him in positions where he can make plays for him. You see him lined up everywhere. He's in the backfield. They're motioning him to build things, to get him in different spots. I think they're doing a really good job being creative with him and finding touches for him. It's going to be a big challenge for us, like just not only finding and locating him and where he's at, but the communication that comes with that and then ultimately being able to cover him, right? Which is probably the hardest part, right? So it's going to be a challenge for us. We've got to be prepared for it. We've got to expect it. We can't be caught off guard by it in any situation. And we'll kind of see where it goes from Sunday with what they're trying to do. When you're looking at and evaluating the play of the guys on the nose, like Tarte or Naikwan, and they don't necessarily compile a lot of tackles and stats and sacks themselves, but does their success kind of reflect at the inside linebackers and the defensive ends have a lot of good plays that you know they're doing their job? Yeah, I think it definitely plays a role in the success of those guys in the middle and then obviously on the outside as well. Like anytime you're looking at those guys inside, like it's a dirty position. Like they're taking on multiple guys play after play, right? And I think it goes back with, when you're trying to evaluate them, it's a lot of technique and fundamentals. Like were you able to stay square in the run game, right? Were you able to get some push in the pass rush even if the result isn't there? Cause it's all about in the run game, staying square and kind of shrinking some of those windows or keeping guys off from climbing up to a second level. And you see a lot of that. Like when we're able to set the edge like we should and we can stay square and play on guys and not let them climb, like those windows shrink. And that's when a lot of that production either comes from the end or even the nose, right? Cause those backers don't really have a window to fill. But I think when really looking at those guys, like you got to really look at what they're doing, play it and play out fundamentally, technique-wise all the things we're preaching. Analyst described Zach Cunningham's playing style as violent in a good way. I wonder if you'd agree with that. And if that's the case, if that kind of adds to a defense as swagger or mentality or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, I would definitely agree with it. I think he arrives in an angry mode with some intention and he's long, he's a good tackler. Like that's the thing about him. He can be a little bit more aggressive on some of those tackles because he's so long he can recover if he does try to get juked. He's got some length to capture him, right? So I mean, it's been an asset for us. The one thing also, I think he tries to hit people in the passing game. Like you see him try to collision guys with some violence in the passing game, which is a huge part of it. But yeah, it definitely adds some swagger.  I think it adds an element to kind of what we're doing and they get, it brings some excitement and some energy to the group. To mirror the tight ends. He's had success against Kelsey and then last week against Kittle. Is that something you guys kind of knew that he had from the get-go or is that something that's kind of developed of late in his game? Yeah, I think a combination of both. Like he's coming out. He's a big, strong kid who could run, right? So we kind of knew he was going to be able to do some different things. He played nickel in college. So like he's got some versatility to do a lot of things whether it's playing in the back end, whether it's moving into subline back or whether it's covering tight ends. Like he's done all of that. And I think he's developed. I think that's kind of growing. I think his confidence has grown too with being able to do it and go out there and do it in games against some of the better tight ends in the league. Just ultimately, he's made the most of his opportunities. When he's been called in to go do something, he's been able to go do it with effectiveness. And hopefully he does have some confidence from it and it can carry forward whenever we need him again. You guys obviously have a lot of depth that inside linebacker, but with David coming back, maybe what element does he bring that's unique or kind of bring that that's kind of been missing with him out? Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I don't know if he's going to be back. We guys see where these next couple of days go with him. I mean, I'm not going to commit to that by any stretch of the imagination. But he was always instinctive. He made plays. He's got some instincts in the passing game as well. Triggers in the run game. I mean, I don't know if I'd say anything's really been missing as much as what he brings. It's a little bit different. But he was having a good year for us. He was very productive. He was doing a lot of good things. I think he's taken the next step mentally in terms of his preparation and understanding of the game. So it'll be good to kind of get him back worked in and kind of see where it goes from there. To talk about swagger and confidence that the defense plays with, where does that show up as far as playmaking ability? And when you think back the last year where some guys now who are more confident, more aggressive, maybe tentative before? I mean, when you're having success, does that swagger kind of show up with play? I think any time you're struggling on defense, I mean, it even started a little bit last week against San Fran, right? Any time you're kind of struggling or on your heels, you might not be as aggressive at any position, right? You're kind of looking everywhere. You're trying to figure out what the heck's going on. And you're reeling, right? You're reeling a little bit where I think if you're having some success and you're building that confidence, we're in attack mode. Like we know, I hope our guys have gotten to the point now I think it showed up last week where like, no matter what they do, it's never going to be perfect. They're going to make their place, too. They get paid just the same as we do. Everybody has good players. But whenever things aren't going well, getting back to the base and our ability to respond and turn the page, I was really proud of the way the guys kind of did that last week after obviously rabbit's play was huge. But I think you've seen it, like some four-down stops down in the red zone, some of those types of things. But I think just the ability to respond, the confidence to go out there and understand, hey, it ain't going great right now, but we're going to get this thing turned around. And we were able to do that last week. So I think that's part of it.


So there we have it, directly from Danny Kahneman talking about System 1 and System 2. Now, I think it's important to remember kind of the point of this episode, and we're looking at the difference between System 1 and System 2. And he makes that distinction clear, I think, when he was talking about some of the early work that he did with Jackson Beattie in the 60s, actually, on pupil dilation. He just mentioned it briefly, but what he was actually measuring. So we know that pupils, when you're measuring, what you can actually do is film somebody's pupil and you can project it on a wall beside them, for example. And you can measure, literally, with a ruler, measure the size of the pupil as it gets larger and smaller. Now we know that the pupil responds to things like light. So if you have bright light, the pupil dilates. Dark, and then it gets larger. But it also responds to cognitive effort. So it's actually responding to System 2 and how essentially how hard your brain is working.  And so what you can do, the way that they tested it, he and Beattie, was by presenting people with a digit span task. And so if I ask you to remember, for example, six, four, three, those three digits, and I measure your pupil, then I add a digit, six, four, three, two. You keep those four digits in mind and I measure your pupil, six, four, three, two, seven. We can keep doing this and adding digits. And as you try to remember the digit span as you keep adding more and more digits, your pupil just keeps getting larger and larger until one of two things happens. One, you report the number, so you say, okay, six, four, three, two, seven. And then your pupil constricts again. Or you give up. And so Kahneman in his book, he talks about this really nice example where they're watching. They have somebody participate in an experiment in this digit span task and they're remembering the digits and they're outside of the room. They're watching this large pupil on the screen outside. And when the person gave up, they just see and then they say inside it. So you gave up on the problem, they said. And the person's like, how did you know, right? It's almost like you had a window into their own mind, right? Which is, I think, quite cool. That's cool. Danny Kahneman also talked about this phenomenon known as anchoring. And Fritz Struck, a researcher, has a pretty cool example of this. He asked people to guess how old Gandhi was when he died. And he put them into two groups. One group he asked, was Gandhi older than 140 years old when he died? And another group he asked, was Gandhi older than nine years old when he died? And these people responded, so they were guessing how old Gandhi was when he died. And the people that were given the high anchor of 140 guessed that Gandhi died at 67 years old. And people that were given the low anchor of nine guessed that Gandhi died when he was 50 years old. Now, he actually died when he was 78. But you can see that the high anchor pushed people in one direction and the low anchor pushed them into another. Now, you may think that, well, that's kind of reasonable. If an experimenter or someone, they might have some inside information about the correct answer to the question. And so it's quite reasonable to anchor your decision based on a number that they say. But it can't be working like that because there's another great example by Dan Ariely and he asked people to bid on bottles of wine and chocolate. And before the experiment, he asked participants to write down their social security number, just the last two digits. And then he split them into two groups. If their social security number is higher than 50, they go into this group, lower than 50 in other group. And then he asked them, how much would you bid on these things, on these bottles of wine and this chocolate? Now, we found that people who had a high social security number greater than 50, for example, they were willing to pay way more for these things than people who wrote down a low social security number before the experiment. So you can see that this arbitrary writing down of a number is influencing their decisions. I think people with a high social security number were willing to pay 60 to 120 percent more for these things than the low social security number, which I think is pretty cool. But this idea of anchoring I think is really good and it highlights what we're talking about. So the point of this episode is that we're operating under less than ideal conditions so we have to rely on shortcuts in order to be able to navigate the world, obviously. And when you're in this sort of anchoring position, if you're given any number, any number, obviously even random numbers, the same thing happens with the role of a roulette wheel. If a number comes up, say, 10, then you use that as your anchor, regardless of whatever random process generated it. But under most conditions, it's not random. Under most conditions, when we're operating in the world, a number appears. That's something to start with. But in kind of complex scenarios, if you have no idea, for example, of the percentage of African countries in the UN or the population of Australia, say, you have to start somewhere and any number that you have is better than no number at all. And so we have to deal with what we have. But that's just anchoring. We can deal with a whole bunch of other types of heuristics and biases. So we're going to talk about one next called availability. But what we're going to do first is revisit the faces that we presented in the first part of the episode. Now, what we want you to do is think back to the list of faces that we presented earlier in the episode. So don't watch the video again. Just think back to that list that we presented. What we want you to do is estimate whether in that list there were more males or whether there were more females that we presented. So think back and go into the next section and indicate whether there were more males or more females in that list.


Good afternoon and a welcome to our pre-owned vehicles of the week. I'm Gabrielle over here at Oxma Toyota today So we're gonna have three vehicles. We're going to talk a little bit about. Let's go ahead and start with this one right here our first vehicles of 2019 Mazda CX-5 grand touring that exterior color is an a sonic silver metallic This is all-wheel drive You'll have navigation Bluetooth There is going to be a power lift gate Heated leather seating and a backup camera. There is also a clean car fax The interior is in a black leather Mileage is 57,479 The price is 32,000 For our second vehicle, we have a 2020 Honda CR-V EX The exterior color is in a blue. This is going to have a clean car fax There's going to be Bluetooth Sunroof backup camera This was a well maintained Now for the interior you are going to have a tan Mileage is going to be 890 and the price is 36,000 for our last vehicle. We have a 2018 GMC Yukon XL Denali the exterior color isn't an onyx black This is four-wheel drive So you are going to have a sunroof There's Bluetooth backup camera This does have a clean car fax and you're gonna have the heated and cooled leather seating Mileage is going to be 94,491 the interior is in a black leather And the price is 50,000 If you all have any questions on any one of the vehicles that I just went over some details on feel free to let us know All of our contact info is listed right here I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to seeing you all next week. Bye


Hello Columbia and welcome to This Week in the City. Highlights brought to you from the Public Relations, Media and Marketing Department with the City of Columbia. I'm your host, Alicia Utsi. This week in the City, please remember that we are closed today on May 27th for Memorial Day. All City officers are closed, however, all emergency personnel are on duty and you can reach them by calling 911. Our offices will reopen tomorrow morning on Tuesday. On Wednesday, join us for the Senior Health Fair at Drew Wellness Center on May 29th. The Wellness Fair for Seniors will begin at 11am and it ends at 2pm. Come out to see vendors and health care providers to get vital information and learn about resources for senior citizens. Also on Wednesday, May 29th, Mayor's Bike Ride. This is a National Bike Month event that will begin at City Hall on May 29th at 7pm. Again, 7pm, join us at City Hall for the beginning route of the Mayor's Bike Ride in honor of National Bike Month. And on Friday, we are excited to announce that on May 31st, it is the grand opening date for the Veranda at North Main. It is located at 3722 North Main Street. The ceremony will begin at 12pm. Come one, come all to this grand opening event that is open to the public and we look forward to seeing you for tours and a reception following the grand opening ceremony. And then on Saturday, June 1st, we have another grand opening for the All Stars Baseball Field, which is the new baseball field located in the Booker Washington Heights community. The ceremony will start at 10am on Saturday morning, June 1st. This vital resource to the community, a new baseball field, will open at 10am, June 1st and is located near Leicester Drive and Beltline Boulevard in the Booker Washington Heights community. For more details, please call Parks and Recreation at 545-3100. For any information related to any events that we've mentioned, always call Public Relations, Media and Marketing at 545-3020. And visit our website at columbiasc.gov and you can always follow us on our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We hope you have a great week in the city.


What does the science say about building these real relationships? Yeah, you definitely want to learn to be efficient with your time when you hear those numbers. So this is Jeffrey Hall 2018, again, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. The title of that study is very aptly, How many hours does it take to make a friend? Very much to the point. And the authors were looking at how many hours it typically takes to form different levels of friendships. So from very loose to very close. And what they found was, get your pen and paper ready, dear listener. It generally takes about 50 hours of time spent together to move. Not from, I met you to, you're my best buddy. But it takes 50 hours to move from a mere acquaintance to casual friends, 50 hours. It takes roughly 90 hours of time spent together to go from casual friend to good friend. And if you're already breaking out as wet, it takes more than 200 hours to go from good friend to very close friend, to that confident, to that best friend. Now I'm loosely throwing out numbers here, but the researchers were very clear on the fact that the type of activity was a major role in how quickly that friendship formed. Simply spending time together, sitting next to each other on the bus or sitting next to each other watching YouTube or TikTok videos doesn't count. This needs to be quality time. This needs to be quality activity of things that both of you enjoy and you can support each other in intimate and deep conversations and those shared routines or group settings as in the golf example with Mark can also very much accelerate a friendship development. But it does take a lot of time. When we're an adult and we have our life set up and our career is going and maybe we have a family, we're going to do everything that we can to protect those things. So I can't just open the doors to my life and bring in anyone who is interested in coming into my life because their actions could harm my career. Those actions could harm my family. When you're 21, it's easy to make friends. In fact, you can find your best friend forever around the corner and it's like, Hey, I want to get messed up tonight. Do you want to get messed up? Hey, that sounds great. Awesome. We're getting messed up together. We are new best friends. But that's when you're young. You don't have any momentum in your life. You're still floundering. So as we become these adults, we are very concerned and they're starting about who it is that is going to be coming in and who we are going to spend that time with and invest in to build these relationships. And it's not only the, this could harm my network. This could be a bad influence. This is, there's also opportunity cost. Think about 200 hours. That's a long time over a couple of weeks, months, if not years. Now you're meeting someone who's like, yeah, it's kind of okay. It's a friend of convenience. Do you really want to use that time to spend investing in this friendship when there, when that is time taken away from fostering really meaningful friendships with those that share your values, share your beliefs that are trustworthy, that are warm, that have that sense of humor, will you invest it there?  There's very little time left and that is the being efficient with your time and with your approach that AJ mentioned earlier. We also need to be a little bit picky on who gets that attention and time from us.


Hi, my name is Þaðurðurður Hálgaðóðir and I'm the CEO in Iceland Post. I've been here for two years now and I started as a CFO in August 2019 and as a CEO in December 2020. So I'm quite new to this role. There are a few topics I would like to share with you today or go over and thank you for giving me this opportunity. Lessons from the global pandemic. Just to give you a brief on what I'm talking about here today is what we have learned from the global pandemic, what we are focusing on in Iceland and a little about what we can do to stay relevant to the market. Pandemic-related factors reinforce trend towards online shopping and towards faster decline in letters faster than we anticipated. We saw that information is valuable both to our customers and also to our employees. So we saw the urgency in bridging the physical and digital worlds. Ata-thinking in Iceland allows us to act faster to allow our employees to make faster decisions to go with the customers. So we think the best part of pandemic is the fast track growth for the B2C deliveries. Letters are declining faster than we anticipated. Many companies and also the Icelandic authorities have said that they are not going to send out any letters after 2025. It's only four years from now. I believe that COVID has acclerated that development. So like last year we anticipated 50% decline in letters but the reality was 21% decline. And that's also worldwide. We are forecasting this development to be around 20% for the next few years as you can see on the slide. And I also believe that the climate policy is also affecting this and companies are more and more sending out electric inverses and statements through their systems instead of sending them by post. For example, wait statements for almost all Icelandic people are not sent by mail. As you can see our forecast assumes that in the year 2026 the quantity of letters in parcel are even. But last year for the first time parcel generates more revenues for us than letters. To stay ahead in competition there are a lot of things we need to do together. Like focus on information flow through the global system so parcel will go smoothly and faster through to our customers. We are developing fast into different markets and we need to put our strength together and stay strong. Our focus from 2019 have been mainly on two things. We are increasing service to our customers and cutting cost. The status on the company was really bad in the late 2019 so we had to make some arrangements. We were 822 employees instead of today we are 556. So we are much fewer employees doing the same job or even more. We are first and foremost last mile couriers so to increase our information flow to our customers we have been developing better tools for them to use online. For example an app. An app where the customer can just go on its phone and see where is my parcel, where is my packet. When is it going to our app to me. So that's great. We have been investing in parcel lockers. We had 8 for a few years but at the end of 2021 we will have 50 around all Iceland, the whole island. So when also when this presentation is played I hope the new packet source will be up and running in the post-termiler so instead of sourcing out 800 parcel per hour we will be able to sort out 4000 and that will help us a lot in the operation. At our service desk we are finally having a tjahtbot which is a miracle. That's going to help us a lot. So all the investments we have all the investments for the last two years aims to strengthen our ties with our customers and lower our cost. It's ambitious to operate in all places in Iceland because it's a big island. It's a huge island with a density of 3.5 per square kilometre. 66% of the Icelandic population is in Reykjörg and the head capital area. But the good thing, very good thing is that 99% of the whole population has access to the internet which helps us a lot. We are focusing on putting parcel lockers all around Iceland to increase our service to our customers everywhere and of course to cut down cost. Everyone in Iceland is our customer no matter where they live. We are the only company in Iceland that operates everywhere around Iceland and our main competition is in the capital area. But I think if the global postal community wants to stay ahead in competition we believe that AED compliance will help us. The customer is asking for more information and faster delivery. The customer is asking for more information so they can act faster on our customers' demand. We believe this to be the best practice and in the long run helping us to stay ahead in the competition. And the beauty of it all it decreases cost because it's only one input and decreases the risk of manual mistakes. Our goal here is 100% in and out. I believe this is a win-win situation. But how can we as a global postal operators stay relevant to the market? Our vision is that we meet the customer where he is at the right place and time and we think that's relevant. The time passes and the customer needs changes but we want to be there with him, holding his hand and helping him through the better and the worse. Our purpose has not changed through the years. Our purpose is to connect people, companies and communities with our service and we will continue to do that. We need to stay ahead and know the customer's journey and be aware of what he wants all the time. Yesterday he wanted letters but today he wants to be able to shop online and get the goods as fast as possible in his hands. I believe that this strong society like the global postal world is the key to the customer's needs. So thank you and have a nice day.