Happy Mother's Day to everyone that's up this morning starting us on our way. We thank you for encamping your angels around us as we came into your house. One more time to worship and to praise you. Lord, we thank you for the privilege that you've given all of us mothers to be stewards over your children and to train them up in the way you have ordained us to train them up, Lord God, that when they older they may not turn away from you but draw closer to you. God, we thank you for that privilege and that opportunity. We ask you, we welcome you into this, into this place this morning. We welcome you into our heart and in our minds, receive our praise and our worship today. Help us to be on one, praise you. We love you. We adore you, God. We ask that you anoint every portion of this service, the benefit that you save to praise and to worship you. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity and this privilege to be in your house, to glorify you today. Receive us in Jesus' name. Amen. Praise the Lord, saints. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Glory be God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'll be reading your hair in Colossian, the second chapter, third chapter, verses 12 through 15. It's a put on. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bows of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meetingness, long suffering, for bearing one another and forgiving one another. Any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is love, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you all call in one body and be thankful. May the Lord have the blessing to the reading and hearing of his word. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Bless your holy name, Lord God. Hallelujah. We're here to let the Lord wear soldiers in the army of the Lord today. Thank you, Lord. Well, hallelujah. You know sometimes when you're in a battle, you might get surrounded. Amen. Hallelujah. The enemy may come in like a flood. Hallelujah. But the Lord, he lifts us up. Hallelujah. And he holds us in his righteous right hand. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah, Lord God, for fighting our battles for us, Lord God. We know that we're more than overcomers. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And we are victorious in Jesus. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. There's a tag. I'm gonna sing that again. It's your body, Lord. It's your body. He's welcome, Bishop, at this time. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord because he's good. His mercy, endurance. Aren't you glad for Jesus today? When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all he's done for me, my soul cries, hallelujah. Thank God for saving me. Anybody glad to be saved today? Anybody glad to be walking with Jesus? Come on, somebody. Come on, somebody. It's great to be in the presence of the Lord in his house on this Mother's Day. Amen. Mothers are some of the best people in the world. Amen. Amen. I thank the Lord that I'm a man. Amen. Amen. Conventional wisdom is a Mother's task is never done. From dust to dawn, she has many things that she has to take care of. And I thank God for mothers. I had a great mother. I had a great, great mother. And I still appreciate her after all these years. I am who I am very much because of who my mother made me to be. Amen. And I'll get to that in the message today. But I'm just so excited to see all of you who are here today. And we appreciate the things that mothers have done for their families and for our church family. Amen. Amen. Amen. We're going to appreciate all of the mothers this morning. And I'm going to call the First Lady of this church, Pastor Bobby Alexander. She's going to come and she's going to make Mother's Day's presentations. Amen. God bless you. Amen. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All the mothers raise their hands. Let's give God a clap. Amen. Thank God. Amen. I want to read a scripture. It's found in Psalms 139 verses 13 and 14. For you created my intermost being. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. Now what is David saying here? David is saying, Lord, I praise you because of how amazing you made me. David is praising God because how amazing God made David to be. Every single person is a masterpiece of God. All was today at the Mother's Day. I'm talking to the mothers today. I know you men are masterpiece too and those who don't have. But I'm talking to the mothers today, okay?   It is because God is wonderful and that he made us to be wonderful. We are created and designed with the purpose, the blueprint of every mother in here are similar to other human beings, but they are not exactly the same. God made us all unique and different. Some are tall, some are short. Some are different colors. We have different shades of colors. Our hair texture is different. We're all different, but all unique is God on sight, amen? And I have more, but I'm going to wait. I want to read something too, another something. Today is Mother's Day, so I'm going to take my time.  This is a card that was given to me, but it was so appropriate. I want to read it to you all. A great mom is just the right blend of strength, humor, and love. A great mom knows when to step back, to step in, or simply let a hug do the talking. How many know a hug can do a lot of talking? Amen, amen. A great mom is there to celebrate life's good times and to comfort during the hard times.  A great mom isn't about being perfect. She's about being sincere and honest and real. So today, the day to celebrate how wonderful you are and let you know you bring a lot of happiness into this world. So, mothers, you bring a lot of happiness into this world, amen? Just because a woman has a baby doesn't make her a mother. I want to let you know that. There's a lot of women who have babies and not mothers. But I praise God that we're all mothers in here, amen? Amen, amen. So your gift today is a word of expression to you to remember that you are loved, you're beautiful, and I want to encourage you to keep the faith. So your gift would say one of those words, love, beautiful, and faith. Amen. May I have the gift? Sonia, come help me. We are all the mothers to come. Wait, wait, just put that down right now. We're going all the mothers to come. All the mothers to come and line up. All moms, you're beautiful. You're beautiful. Look at these beautiful women. Aren't they beautiful? That's your mother. You two celebrate. Sit down. That's enough. Start from this side, okay? In this, it's a little token. We wish we could give you much more. But it's a little token. And I'm going to show you what's in these bags. I'm going to open mine so you don't have to open yours. But in this bag, in the purple bag, it's a cosmetic bag. They're beautiful. For one with greens, it says, not to say. In the light blue, I don't have a light blue. In the light blue bag, it says faith. Whoever got a light blue, say faith, amen? You have faith? Yeah, you have faith. So each one is a message to you. So remember that you're love, you're beautiful, and keep the faith. God make us beautiful, amen? So keep the faith. And I will all mothers to know that you love, you're beautiful, and we love you. You want to get a picture? I'll hold my balloon. Give me my balloon. I don't know if you want to get that up. No, that's okay. That's all right. That's okay. And open your bag and hold it out so they can see all your little beautiful love, whatever. Amen. And I have one more thing to tell you. Oh, you can have your seats down. Yeah. Now back east, where I'm from, or Midwest or South, whatever you want to call it, Missouri, where I'm from. On Mother's Day, the women used to wear red if your mother's still alive. Flowers.  One of my in-laws sent this flower to me.  So all of us battle girls got one of these from one of our in-laws. So I want you all to know that, amen? That's why I'm wearing this flower. Took it from my mother. She was a great mom. And without further ado, we'll turn the service into the hands of Bishop Alexander. All right. We praise the Lord for the acknowledgement of our mothers. And we're just grateful that you're all here today to receive the honor that is due to you. And sometimes when you honor people, it's great if you're honored as the honoree. Amen. So we want to honor the First Lady. We want to honor Mother Sykes. And we want to honor Mother Adams. So would you all three mothers come and receive? Yes, yes. We didn't ask permission to make you a mother. Come right on. Come right on. You have to be above 75 to be a mother. On the mother board.  What do you want to know in and out? Here, here. Yes, just, all right. That's okay. That's right. There you go. And the First Lady. Oh, thank you. Oh, very nice. All right. Oh, yes. So when you all get 75, guess what?  Thank you. Thank you, Sylvain. Thank you. All right, mothers, you can go back to your seats. Mothers, mothers, mothers, you all can go back to your seat. You know, they're enjoying their... Yes, that's right. All right, without further ado, we're going to have our special music today. We'll have our special music today. Our special music today by Brother Michael James. Let's receive him as he comes in Jesus' name. That's what it's going to take. That's what the Lord is. We shall come through as pure gold as we've been tried by the fire. Now, that doesn't sound too good, perhaps going through the fire. There's a great reward coming when we see a space. Amen. Well, today we're going to have a short message. It's four verses.  Let's see what time is. I won't hold you past 1.30. All right. Today, I want to call your attention to the book of Ephesians. Realizing this is a Mother's Day, and I was seeking for the mind of God for a Mother's Day message. Many of the passages that came to my mind that I looked at, none of them fit. When the Lord is giving you a message, we just stop when we get the message. I'd like to do a sweet Mother's Day message for the mothers. Well, it's going to be a sweet message for them, but it's not all about them. And so hear ye the word of the Lord. Hear ye the word of the Lord. Not my word. I didn't choose the message. I'm the messenger. The common saying is, don't kill the messenger. Kill the message.  All right. It's not going to be that bad. In Ephesians chapter number six, the first four verses is a call for a walk with God that is pleasing. Believers are different from the ordinary people. When I say believers, I'm speaking in terms of people who are truly a child of the king, repented of their sins, baptized in water in his name, and filled with the Spirit of God speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives them utterance. Those are people who are believers, true believers. The topic I've chosen for the message today is believers walking in authority. Believers walking in authority. In many instances, when we're tasked with an assignment, we feel unworthy perhaps that we can't meet that which we're called to do. And it's because perhaps that we're uncertain of who we are and what we're called to do. Well, Ephesians chapter six verse one says, children, obey your parents. In the Lord for this is right. This is an important, not only for the day of Paul and that society, but for every generation, this is necessary. This is mandatory and necessary. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. And that's what I want to look at. I want us to understand that it is a requirement that the Lord has made upon society.  Now, children are not told to obey parents because it pleases the parent, but because it pleases the Lord. Pleasing one's parent is, of course, a reason to obey them. Obey them. Now, it's so serious. Now, this is so serious that in the days of Moses, Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother and whoso curses father or mother.  Moses understood in leadership, he could have never gotten the people through the wilderness if there wasn't obedience. We're all called to obedience. And I just kind of marvel at what it must have been like for Moses to lead those millions of people, all of who were not willing to obey. Everybody comes here with their own agenda and will say, nah, I ain't doing that. And when you make your mind up not to do it, chances are very good that you won't. But see, when you don't obey, when you're not obedient, there's a price to pay when you don't. Help me, Jesus. Now, there's not anything in society that you should go against just because you don't want to do it. What is established that this is the rule, you got to follow the rule. You don't get to pick and choose which ones you're going to follow. You've got to obey back in the Old Testament when one cursed their parent. They said that a crow would come and pick their eye out. It's serious. Now, there's a good side and a bad side of instructions that we receive from our parents. Sometimes we're happy to hear what they say. And in many instances, we're not as happy. Maybe we'll just go ahead and say we're just not pleased at all. I used to be a kid. And sometimes it seemed like it was just too much. Asking too much. Why? Just to be obedient to the parent is what must be done for the Lord. And in this first clause here, the first verse here, is that obey your parents and the Lord. And then the first thing that comes to mind is why? Why do I have to do this? Why do I have to get up and go to school? Why do I have to take out the trash? On and on and on. We have a why for every assignment in many instances. But the reason why is because it's right. It's right. Now in our house, I say we grew up in the seminary because Mother Alexander was teaching all day every day in concerning her family.  You notice I said beating. If you don't, she said, tell the truth because it's right. And so when you get it in your spirit that I've got to be right, God requires right. So we have to get our spirits controlled and be willing to do it no matter what it is, what it's what the Lord has required. Now verse two said, honor thy father and mother. The word honor means to esteem and value as precious. Yeah. Esteem and value as precious to show respect, reverence, kindness, courtesy, and obedience. We are to honor our father and mother to esteem them and value them as precious to respect and reverence them. And now tragically this is a rarity today. Too often children respond to their parents by talking back. This is this is today's, I was born back in the 40s, 1900. 1944 and you didn't talk back. Not in that day.  Right.  Make you see stars and stripes and hear the music too. And young people in this day and time, they ignore their parents. And when you ignore a parent in our day in just a short time, if you haven't responded, boy, did you hear me? In this day and time, there's grumbling and complaining about what goes on in the house concerning children. That ain't right. They speak disrespectfully. They don't listen. They act like they know it. How'd y'all guess? I got this. I got this. Putting off the instructions of their parents. Well now, to be obedient to the Lord is you got to honor your father and your mother. You've got to esteem them highly. You have to yield your spirit. We're down to the third verse already. Let me read second verse for continuity. Honor their father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. Let me get to that. Almost left that one. All right. The two promises made to children who honor their parents is that things will go well for that child. Now, you can be stubborn all you want. You can make it your own program if you can get by with it. But you're not going to win.  But it says things will go well with the child.   Any of the youth in here want to die while you're young? I think not. If you don't want to die young, you got to do it right. You can't have it your own way. You've got to humble yourself. Now that's the problem. We come with a big old ego and think that the world revolves around us. And it's got to be our way. I don't hear but two, three, eight minutes. But see, you can do it. You can play that game, but it's a losing game. You will not win. You hear? You will not win. You'll lose every time because it's out of the will of God. Forget your will. Seek the will of God. Lord, what would you have me do? What would you ask of me? And Lord, as a child, when I think they're being too tough, I'll say, Lord, have your will anyway. For once, I'm glad the Lord didn't strike me down. I was with some other of my friends and they were talking about their father. And the things they said about their father, well, they didn't actually say exactly what it was, but they were talking about him so bad that I said, well, my father's mean too. And they said, no, we know your father. Your father is a prince. And see what we want to do is we want to join in. You know how it is when somebody's Sue? We want to say, me too. So I wanted to join in that party. And I just, I could almost slap myself now. My father was one of the greatest men right next to Bishop Battle. Amen. Amen. Amen. The two great, and I'm serious now, two of the greatest men that I know, men of great integrity, men who love the Lord, men who gave of themselves for the kingdom of God. So now when, when you obey your parents, you're pleasing God. When you say, I ain't going to do it. You're in deep trouble whether you know it or not.  I turned 79 in April. That ain't old.  Amen. I have seen your people in my family in the 90s. And I could, I'll assign it to the fact that we all were obedient to a great degree. Yes, we got off the rail. We, we, we did things we shouldn't have done. We got away with what we could, but what was put in us by our father and our mother. This is the mother's day part. You need to listen to your mama. People decide they're going to get married. Don't ask anybody. They just say, I'm getting married. Who'd you talk to? I didn't talk to nobody. That's the wrong answer. What I'll say to you, you need to listen to somebody. Mother and father, sister, brother, whoever else is of sound mind. Mothers are the first teachers of the children.  My memory is not what it used to be, but I can remember when I was three years old. And I had, yes, Dr. Sykes look at me like, yes.  She gave me the commands that I needed to have and I obeyed and I thank God. I thank God. She put faith in me. I was out of school with ringworms. I couldn't go to school until I got medicine. And back in that day, we didn't have Kaiser. We didn't have insurance. We had Jesus. So after I was out for a good length of time, my mother decided, well, I'll take you to the doctor, the family doctor. She took me to the family doctor and he gave her a prescription and on our way back home, mother said, do you believe the Lord will heal you? I said, yes, ma'am. She said, well, we're not taking this medicine and she threw the medicine down the sewer. Now that put faith in me, knowing that the Lord is a healer, knowing that the Lord is a provider, that faith built on top of faith, on top of faith. And now I have faith in God. But I'm not going to ask you to do what I did because you probably got Kaiser. And if you got Kaiser and you need medicine, go to Kaiser. Get your medicine and take it. Leave so in the Lord that whatever is necessary for your situation, the Lord will meet that. He'll meet it if you need it. I'm planning on being here for a few more years. Sister Springfield is how old? She's 93. Is she 93? I think she's 93. My oldest sister, Sister Bryant, she lived in 95. And I said maybe like I'll probably live to be about 114 or 15. I'm healthy and I'm not tired. God is my strength. All right, let me get back to the message. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. The Lord promised if you did that, you'd have success. That it may be well with with thee. And thou mayest live long on the earth. In the society we live in, in this day and time, I'm just amazed at how crazy people have gotten. I'm just going to say it. They're just crazy. When I was growing up, if you had a disagreement with somebody, you put fists to each other.   That's right, all y'all absolutely, everybody. So we can't be cavalier. We can't just have it our way, just do our own thing just because we're willing to be stubborn. Umble yourself. Umble yourself. All right, now I'm going to go to this fourth verse. This fourth verse. And I, you know, I looked at this and I kind of was a little leery about going to the fourth verse, you know, until I really started researching it. And I found out this fourth verse is necessary as well. What I'm talking about is believers walking in authority. And authority means the power to give orders or make decisions. The power for right to direct and control someone or something. So God has given parents the authority to tell you what to do. Right now, verse four said, and ye fathers, provoke not your children to rat, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This applies to fathers and mothers, especially in these days when in many homes there are not fathers so that responsibility falls on the mother as well. Parents, a parent is to bring up a child in the way of the Lord. In the nurture, admonition of the Lord, nurture means the whole training and education of children which involve the cultivation of mind and moral, admonition, reproof, punishment, correction, all of these things is to be considered in educating our children. The parent is not to rear a child after his own ideas. So you notice this, children obey your father and mother because this is right. And right is the word of God. Right is not anybody's own opinion unless it's the opinion of the word of God. So as I said, we grew up in a seminary because mother was there with the Bible all the time. And so what you've got to do is you've got to make sure that you get the spirit of God into the hearts of your children because the devil is always working and he's busy and if you don't put something in him, he'll put what he wants in them.  The next thing is we have to be examples, parents, we have to be examples. Living inconsistent life before a child can provoke a child. A parent will tell a child one thing and then turn around and do the opposite himself. Children can't hear what we say for watching what we do. And many of the vices that our children fall into are because of what they saw mama and daddy doing, saved and sanctified, filled with his spirit, don't do what I do, do what I do. The reason I'm going back into my life is because I see exactly what is being said here. Now when we were growing up some of our best friends were drunks. In that day and time, alcoholics got a bottle and got drunk, they drank until they were drunk, stumbling, can't walk, walking down the street sideways and we liked to talk to them. And they say, boy, now you're going to get you an education. Don't be like I am and get you an education. Okay, we saw that, we didn't see that in our house. He could be drunk all he wanted to, that didn't influence us because that wasn't the life our parents were living. People taking drugs, getting high on whatever in front of their children. God ain't pleased with that. And you're not just dooming yourself, you're dooming your offsprings.  That ain't supposed to happen. Not supposed to happen. Watching sexually scenes on televisions and movies. Put a spirit in them that they can't control. Reading immoral stories, looking at magazines exposed in the human body. Hold on your seats on this one. Eating too much. Wasting time. Dressing or exposing the body to attract attention. Hello, somebody. Now if you don't want to be nobody, how about helping your kids? Now see, all of these activities, none of them are authorized by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And we have it in us to want to, but we don't control ourselves. Seeing an inconsistency in a parent will provoke a child. An example, we have an example here in Matthew 14 verse 8 said, and she said, being before instructed of her mother said, give me here John the Baptist's head in a charge.  Now some of us, I'm taking my time because I don't want to have to do this another time soon, anything soon like this. Somebody will get unhappy with someone else who did what they thought was incorrect to them and they'll hold it for the rest of their years for as long as they live. And if you can't forgive, if you can't forgive, you can't be forgiven. That ain't my rule. I didn't make that rule. What the Lord is calling for is humility. He's calling for people who want to do His will, one that ruleeth well His own house, having His children in subjection with all gravity is what God is calling for. And all of these things that are called for are the will of God. And I don't apologize for what I have to preach because if I was afraid to preach what the word is, then I shouldn't be a preacher. So in the closing we go to Proverbs 22 and 6 and it's one that we all know, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he's old, he will not depart from it. So God is calling us to walk in authority. The authority that we are to walk in is the authority of God. God has given us authority to get it right and to call on people, call on His children to do what pleases the Lord. I'll ask you, where do you stand? Who's on the Lord's side? Are you willing to have it your way for a short time in life? Life is short. I can't believe I'm 78, 79. I can't believe I'm 79. It's gone like this. When I was 29 years old, I started looking around and before I knew it, here I am. So now you've got to make a decision. What you're going to do with yourself, mothers, because what you embrace, your children, your offsprings, will embrace the same thing. And I don't want to be responsible, and I know you don't want to be responsible for seeing your children lost throughout all of eternity when they can come to Jesus, when they can look upon their parents that have gotten it right, who have surrendered their will and said, Lord, not my will, but your will be done in me.  You give me the courage to do that that you call me to do, and I'll do it until the day I die. Come on somebody, we ought to make up our mind that is nothing too tough. You can't lose when you're walking in the Word of God. And recently, it's been much in my mind, the Scripture that said, be not deceived, God is not mocked. What sort of a man sow it? That shall he also reap. If you're sold to the flesh, you're going to reap the flesh. You're sold to the Spirit, you'll receive the Spirit. Now the devil says it's too hard, and the devil says it don't take all of that. I didn't give you my opinion. I gave you the Word. I gave you the Word. With this I'll close. When it seems like it's too tough, it seems like you're not going to make it. It seems like it's just not working out. Well, I'll say to you, just rest on this Scripture. All things work together. All things work together for your good when you love the Lord, when you cherish Him, when you hold to Him, when you cling to Him. All things work together. All things are required to work in your favor. I heard that expressed like that. The Lord commands things to work in your favor. It's not that tough. Yield not to temptation, for temptation yielding is sin, but each victory will help you some other to win. Know that God is on your side. Know that He cares for you. Know that He loves you. Know that you're the apple of His eye, and get in the Spirit and do what you've got to do. God is faithful. God bless you. I want you to look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, this is not Burger King. You can't have it your way. See, I cried today, should be Lord. Help me do right. Help me to do what you want me to do. Help me to say yes to your will. Not my will, but I will be done. Bishop says, some of us say it's too hard. It's not too hard. We just want to say yes to the will of God. See, God has given us a command to live holy, to live right, and to obey. The truth is we can't do it by ourselves, but the Bible said after that the holy ghost has come upon you. You shall have power, power to walk right, power to talk right, power to live right, power to say yes to the will of God. Not what I think. Not what I want. Only if what I want lines up with what Jesus has said. This is Mother's Day, and what a wonderful Mother's Day present to anybody that's not saved that would get saved today. Jesus said, you must be, Bishop said it already, you must be born again. Born of the water and born of the spirit. And if you haven't done those things, this is your chance to say yes to the will of God. To obey the will of God. Don't hold on to your own will. The altar's open. If you haven't been born again, won't you come? They used to say, there's room at the cross for you. The millions have come. There's still room for one. So if we don't have any to be born again, I'm going to open the altar up. If you want to walk closer to God. If you want to say yes to the will of God. Your Heavenly Father is calling you to obey. Don't be ashamed. All of us have missed it. If you just want someone to agree with you in prayer that Lord, I want to do better. I want to obey what God said to you.  The altar is open. That's right. That's right. The blessing is in obeying. Is there another? He's saying come on to you. Say yes to the will of God. At the cross for you. Come on down to the altar. There's room at the cross. Say, Lord, I want to do better. I want to say yes to the will of God. I want to be obedient to what you've called me to do. The will of God. There's still room for one more thing. I'm going to open the altar up. If you're a mother, if you have children and you want the Lord to order your steps to help you to be an even better mother, to raise children in the fear, the admonition of the Lord. I'm going to open the altar up for you. We have a lot of people having babies. We just don't have many mothers, like our First Lady said. Are there any mothers that want prayer just to do a better job at raising their children? That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the word that we heard. It has blessed us and challenged us to grow. But Father, our heart's desire is to say yes to the will of God. Yes when we want to and yes when we don't want to. We want to be obedient to you because you said if we were obedient, you would satisfy us with long life. And so Father, we say yes to your will. Yes to your way that we commit our lives to you. Use us. Be glorified in us. And we'll give you the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Come on, stand with us. My soul said yes to your will. And give our offering. I'll be reading the scriptures into your hearing. Very familiar scripture. Nothing says nothing new under the sun. If it's new, it's not of God. It means taking something that does not belongs to you. Taking something that does not belongs to you. The Lord said that 10% is mine and the 90% is yours. You can do anything you want to do with it. But I want my 10%. He said, yet you robbed or defraud me. Took from me that something that wasn't yours. But you say, in what way do we rob or defraud you? You have withheld your ties and offering.  He said bring all the ties, all the ties and the offering into the storehouse that there might be food in my house and prove me now with, now by it says the Lord of hosts. He said if I would not open the winners of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it. He said, if you give me what belongs to me, I will open up a window and pull you out of blessing that there will not be room enough for you to receive it. The Lord want us to be obedient and obey his word. So give the Lord his 10%. That way you are not taking nothing from him. Because you don't want the Lord take anything from you. Because if he take it from you, you will have holes in your pocket, holes in your purse, holes in your wallet. So give God what belongs to him. So please stand with me in Jesus' name. Let's hold our offer up to the Lord in Jesus' name. Father in the name of Jesus we thank you, we praise you this morning Lord God. Lord we thank you for this offering Lord God that we're about to receive Lord God. In Jesus' name we ask that you bless it, multiply it, let it continue to meet every need Lord God that it may further the work that's going for here Lord God in Jesus' name. Lord we ask you right now in the name of Jesus that you will bless the gift and the giver in Jesus' name we pray amen amen. You're now in the hands of the usher. In the name of Jesus we thank you.  We thank you Lord God for speaking to the hearts of your people Lord God. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name we pray amen and amen.


The second installment of the Brainerd Community Theater summer series gets underway tonight with performances of the Church Basement Ladies at Central Lake College in Brainerd. The Brainerd Community Theater's goal is to provide local theater talent with opportunities in the summer. The Church Basement Ladies only has a cast of five members, but all are local experienced talent. The performance is a combination of a musical and a comedy, but it is not only about church as the name of the show may presume. It's way more about community and relationships and, you know, everyday life than it is about church. Church is a big part of it, but it's not the focus of the show. The focus of the show is just really relationships and community and how people grow up together and grow old together. Now it's a really fun show. Tickets are going fast, but the Church Basement Ladies have performances tomorrow and Saturday as well as three more shows next week. All performances start at 7.30.


The year 2022 couldn't get here quick enough in a world where the Titans are just one win away from clinching a second straight AFC South division title. Miami has won seven in a row and if that streak can reach nine they make the playoffs. Tennessee on the other hand captures the AFC South with a win today. This is a big game. Hey listen man we got another opportunity baby to take over again man. Two years in a row division title coming up baby let's get it. Titans win the toss and let to defer and they are taking the strong north wind at their backs. The whistle has blown let's play football. It comes down for you. Lindsey from the 1 to the 5 to the 10 to the 15. He's hit and taken down at the 17 yard line on a not-standing tackle by Chris Jackson. High formation for Tennessee. Play fake. He throws. Man is wide open. Touchdown Titans. Jeffrey Swame. How do I swing? Well it's kick is up and it is good. Seven-nothing Titans. One twenty-four remaining first quarter. Play fake. Tuck of my low. It loses the ball. It's rolling free. The Titans are trying to get on it. It's Titans. And the Titans go get it with Elijah Molden. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Big time stop baby. Nice job. Very quick. Nice job. Twenty-three yard field goal. Bullock's kick is up and his kick is good. Titans going to run 4-man to the right. 4-man to the 15. 4-man to the 10. 4-man to the 5. Yes! 4-man to the end zone. A day 4-man. All right, Seth. Keep that head up. Keep it going hard. Our only about two more of them. Two more. It's third down at long. Two up. Hit. Three with it even doesn't. Hey, hey, hey. Second down at 11. Play fake. Daniel rolling to the right. Throwing down field. This year. There you go. Bullock's kick is on the way. With two 58 remaining, Titans 27. Dolphins three. They went in the same place over and over again. We got to make them pay for it. Tunga by Loha. Fires down the middle, up in the air and the ball is intercepted by the Titans. Intercepted on a deflection by Long and he is ruled down at that point where he made the interception. Third down at 11. Two minutes to go in the game. Titans at the Miami 39 yard line. Woodside heads to Hill. And he's got room. 30, 20, 10, 5, in zone on the day. Good day for the Tennessee Titans. Your final score. Tennessee 34, Miami 3 as the two-time defending AFC South Champions. Get it done again. Y'all know what time it is, man. AFC Champions. Hey, man, listen. You tried to tell y'all. We got a big opportunity, man. We're going to change some things right here, baby. Just know that it's coming. The boys are AFC South Champions two times in a row. Back to back. We have more to do.


How much land does the king own? Well, I guess that kind of depends on which king you're talking about. But if it's King Abdullah II of Jordan alongside his wife Queen Rania then, as it turns out, far more than they should. Abdullah has ruled Jordan since the death of his father in 1999, the man who originally positioned the kingdom as a key ally of the western world, while also being known for his very public displays of wealth. Well, his son is most definitely carried on with that tradition. The problem is in a country that's propped up by billions of dollars in international financial aid, and where unemployment has nearly doubled over the past decade, the king's wealth is something that the government considers to be too sensitive for the public to know about. Until the release of the Pandora Papers, that is, considered to be the biggest leak of offshore financial secrets detailing the hidden assets of some of the world's richest people. It contains 11.9 million files worth of confidential information, thanks to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Its biggest revelation that nearly 32 trillion dollars of secret shadow money had been hidden by dozens of world leaders in global tax havens. And to absolutely nobody's surprise, much of that money has wound up being funneled into luxury real estate, which brings us back to King Abdullah II. The files exposed that the Arab world's largest serving current monarch has spent the past few decades amassing an international luxury property empire worth over 100 million dollars. With a footprint stretching from the cliff tops of Malibu, California to Washington, D.C. and the streets of London, this longtime monarch isn't short of places to call home, no matter what country he's visiting. For what I'm just going to have to assume are diplomatic purposes. Has the king actually done anything wrong here? Let's find out as I take you inside some of these breathtaking mansions. In 2014, King Abdullah II of Jordan shelled out 33.5 million dollars for what's the most palatial and certainly most expensive of his real estate purchases revealed by the Pandora Papers, a vast cliff top property on California's Malibu coast, described as a resort hotel like mega mansion, which is maybe five of the most exciting sounding words in the English language when lined up next to each other. This estate is said to contain 26 rooms and overlook a stretch of coastline that was actually made famous as the location of the shocking final scene in the original 1968 Planet of the Apes film. Originally built in 1999 and tucked behind gates, the home is of unclear architectural heritage, but we do see some large columns and inside the entire space is most definitely fit for a modern day king. After buying the property, Abdullah poured millions more into a complete overhaul of the home. The interiors are now likely even fancier than some of the images you're about to see. Take for example this ocean view kitchen that's been equipped with striking wood cabinets, which connects directly to a family room with an outdoor patio. Upstairs, you'll discover a lavishly decorated primary suite with sitting areas, spa style bathrooms, and a private balcony with stunning whitewater views. Elsewhere back on the main floor, the home's Ritz Carlton-like interiors also include a massive movie theater and a fully stocked gym. Meanwhile, outside there's a swimming pool and a big grassy yard that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Alongside various patios and terraces, all of which offer ample space for a little alfresco dining and entertainment. As impossibly beautiful as that home is, apparently, it just wasn't enough for King Abdullah's purposes. And over the next few years, he'd scoop up further homes in this sun-drenched city. In 2015, his royal highness spent $12.2 million for the property directly right next door. This 2,700 square foot estate is the smallest and least expensive of the King's Malibu's holdings. Built in 1982, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home sits on a 1.1-acre lot and boasts a very cozy beach-chic vibe. The white Mediterranean villa-style structure is partially shrouded by dense foliage and includes garden walkways as well as panoramic ocean views. Not much is known about the interior, but it's believed that the home was converted into a security building for the King's bodyguards and other service staff. Recently, documents were submitted to city officials for a tear-down, with a proposal to build a new home on that same lot that would be twice as large as the old one. So it's possible that the King has big plans for this property in the coming years. In September of 2017, the King made his most recent purchase of his three Malibu estates when he spent $23 million on a 1.3-acre property next to Point Doome State Beach, boasting 7,700 square foot of space alongside seven bedrooms as well as seven baths. This former listing for this property described it as a grand European-style estate with 100 feet of bluff-top panoramic ocean views. Images of the outside reveal a beige house that gives off a light, airy feel and makes me imagine that the King and Queen probably use this property as a laid-back beach pad when they're looking to engage in a little R&R. According to reports, the King also has construction plans for this home, which include the additions of a new pool, gregola and a large outdoor barbecue space. If you were to add those three properties up alone, you're already arriving at a price tag of nearly $70 million. But these weren't the only estates that the King quietly added to his portfolio over the years. Outside of his homes in Malibu, California, King Abdullah II of Jordan has also acquired four condominiums in Georgetown, a wealthy part of Washington D.C. for a total of $16 million between 2012 and 2014. According to reports, his son Crown Prince Hussain was attending Georgetown University at the time of these purchases. He also secretly bought a portfolio of seven luxury properties in the United Kingdom. These include three in Belgravia, London. Purchased between 2003 and 2011, these English homes are estimated to have a current market value of around $35 million in total. At the same time as the President was spending money as if it were nothing, the United Kingdom's government was sending up to $120 million a year in bilateral aid to Jordan, and they were far from the only country doing so. The biggest red flag when it comes to the King's real estate purchases is that he used a number of different offshore companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands to keep his ownership of these properties a secret. Those individuals who set up these companies on behalf of the King were extremely careful not to identify him in any way and only referred to him in internal documents as you know who. I know that was only done to protect his identity, but now that we know what was really going on, all that does is make Abdullah sound guiltier by drawing comparisons to he who shall not be named. In a statement released by Jordan's Royal Hashemid Court, it was suggested that the King had not acted in an improper manner when it came to taking ownership of these properties, greeting in parts. His Majesty uses these properties during official visits and hosts official and foreign dignitaries there. The King and his family members also stay in some of these properties during private visits. It was further suggested that the ownership of these properties wasn't originally publicized out of security and privacy concerns, not out of secrecy. Using offshore companies to acquire property isn't illegal and is sometimes used for exactly the reasons that the Jordan government claims, but the secrecy of this system also opens the door up to money laundering, which is why people were looking to the King for answers. No matter what way you look at it, this League of Public Finances and his real estate portfolio is an embarrassing blow for Abdullah who was only further made to look foolish recently when his half-brother, former Crown Prince Hamza, accused the ruling system of corruption. Claiming he was a victim of a malicious plot, the King decided to place his half-brother under house arrest. The question is, with all the homes his family owns, which palatial estate do you think his half-brother has been incarcerated in? In all honesty, I'd be willing to be placed under house arrest too if it meant being holed up in one of these residences. Alright everyone, that's gonna bring this latest house tour to a close. Thanks so much for watching and before you head out, consider answering the following question. If you found out someone you knew had an offshore account, would you immediately assume that they were up to something? Let me know what you think about the King's real estate activities in the comments down below. Now, otherwise, like, subscribe and turn on your notifications to make sure that you never miss an episode. My name's Kara and if you'd like to keep checking out another beautiful mansion or two, then stay tuned as I take you inside the homes of another notorious world leader, Dick Cheney. I'll see you all next time. Bye! Has there ever been a more powerful or frightening vice president of the United States than Dick Cheney? After all, this is a man that not only resembled the penguin from Batman by looks, but demeanor as well, with many photos taken of the man always managing to capture him with a sneer. And then there was that whole hunting fiasco where he wound up accidentally shooting a friend of his, only to have said friend apologize to him. Now, that's what I call power. In the years leading up to his ascent at the right hand of George W. Bush, Dick was living in the town of McLean, Virginia, more or less the political celebrity capital of America. To say that McLean is a right-wing haven might be something of an exaggeration, but only slightly. Here in this neighborhood, real estate prices are some of the most expensive in the city. And it was already a challenge to find anything less than $400,000 over 20 years ago. McLean has always been upscale, and before it was reborn as a Republican enclave, it used to be home to the Kennedys. In fact, Ethel Kennedy still owns a house on Hickory Hill to this day. Even Jacqueline Kenny Onassis' step-parents once owned a house here. Probably because most residents turned a blind eye to these political dynamos that roam the streets and shops around them. Simply put, McLean is not the kind of place where you'll catch people gawking, which made it perfect for the Cheneys. Back in the late 80s, Dick and his wife Lynn spent about $450,000 for a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom, two-story family townhouse located just down the street from a popular eatery known as Three Picks Barbecue. More than just the occasional fan of some Southern-style barbecue, Dick also became a fixture at the meat counter of the someplace special giant gourmet. But when George took office, Dick moved into the Vice President's residence at the Naval Observatory for what would turn out to be the next eight years. As a result, Dick sold this original property. Dick and Lynn then decided to spend more than on their last home-dropping $1.35 million on a small lot in January 2000 before heading to Washington, D.C. Dick tore down the original home that was standing on the property over the course of his tenure as Vice President and constructed a massive 12,765-square-foot home that was ready for when he left office in 2008 at the expense of around $1.5 million. In terms of location, Cheneys people have done a fantastic job scrubbing all potential details about where the former Vice President lives from the Internet. For the most part, all you're going to find are dead links and timeouts. What I can tell you is that Cheneys new neighborhood was close enough to the CIA that he could easily wander over to their head office from time to time to make sure that everyone was up to snuff on their intelligence gathering. Now, when it comes to the interior, reports suggest that Cheneys residence is a four bedroom, nine bathroom abode that includes his and her en suites off the master bedroom on the first floor as well as his and her libraries. Cheneys also has two more bedrooms on the second floor along with a sitting room, an exercise room, and three bathrooms. There's even a playroom in the basement for the grandkids as well as a spot above the attached two car garage where guests can stay in a one bedroom and bath quarters. Last but not least, considering Cheneys age, the home was installed with an elevator so that he could easily move from floor to floor. Now that you know where Dick spends the vast majority of his time, let's take a look at where he likes to vacation. In 2005, Dick Cheney paid $2.67 million for a stunning waterfront estate located in St. Michael, Maryland. Situated in Chesapeake Bay, this property would later be described by the New York Times as a wide squat Mount Vernon. According to real estate records, Cheney bought this home under his Sumner LLC, a company that's managed by Dick's personal secretary. Dick is not the home's only owner of historical note. One of Thomas Edison's daughters, Madeline, lived here with her husband John Sloane, who originally built the cottage as their private-shore getaway. They even named Ballantober after medieval castle in Ireland. Constructed in 1930 and built the top nine acres of land, Cheney's picturesque property is located about two miles from his longtime friend and former co-worker Donald Rumsfield, who purchased his own home in the area for $1.5 million in 2003. This gated treeline estate features an expansive compound that reportedly totals five bedrooms, one half baths, as well as nearly 5,000 square feet of living space. Boasting an open floor plan, the main house includes a light-filled living room with three walls of windows offering breathtaking views of the surrounding water. In addition, there's also a kitchen that flows out to a family room along with a formal dining room and primary suite located on the first floor. Since the Cheneys are likely to have visitors drop by pretty often, the home also offers plenty of room for friends and family. Not only is there a separate guest cottage, there's a guest suite attached to the three-car garage. There's also plenty of room outside where you'll discover multiple patios, gardens, a pool, and a deep water dock. Dick and his wife would vacation at this lovely home regularly each summer, but then in 2019, he listed the home for just under $2.5 million, ultimately selling it for $2.1 million.  As little as might be known about Dick Cheney's homes in the orbit of Washington DC, we know even less about his longtime residence in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. There on the outskirts of town, Dick has owned a massive mansion since the early 2000s, estimated to be worth $3.6 million that he's used to throw fundraisers for conservative politicians looking to reach the White House. I'm talking folks like Mitt Romney, remember him? Obama might have banished Mitt to the Neverrealm back in 2012, but there was a time when it was looking like Romney might actually defeat Barack, and a lot of that had to do with the money that Dick helped Mitt rake in through a series of fundraisers. You'll notice on the invite that Cheney sent out for their little shindig that only the biggest spenders would be invited to a dinner at their private home. And while the general reception was held at the Teton Pines Country Club nearby, all the actual important stuff was no doubt finalized inside the Cheney residence that overlooks the club grounds with some sweeping mountain views. Again, since very little is known about this home, the only actual photographic evidence of it is a series of pictures taken by USA Today of the former vice president relaxing around the estate. Thanks to those images, we know that his grounds are covered in trees and that there is more than enough space for him to spend time with their family dog Nelson. The only other spaces he provided access to were his kitchen, which boasts granite counters, dark wood cabinets, and stainless steel appliances. And Cheney also has a nice, if not kind of underwhelming study, located on site that boasts leather chairs, picture frame windows, reading materials, and a stone fireplace. Well there you have it, all the information on Dick Cheney's homes that's fit for video. But with Cheney, you don't know what's going to happen next. Thanks so much for joining me and, before you head out, consider answering the following question.  Shooting his own friend by accident is only the tip of the iceberg, so remind me of some of your old favorites down below. Otherwise, like, subscribe, and turn on your notifications to never miss an episode.


Welcome back everyone. I've I've just started the recording of this session Okay, so any questions before we keep moving forward everyone's okay any specific questions so far Okay Was the Christopher's question or was whether manuscripts copied many times They could be so because more people in countries, but they found in multiple job. Yes. Yes so The answer is yes, so they were found in multiple geographies. So we will mention some of that coming up and yeah, so the The man as people did were dispersed those who could afford you know, you know doing these manuscripts Was not an easy task All right, so the scribes did it exclusively and You know when the people are dispersed, they'll obviously carried these copies with them into wherever parts they were dispersed and Later on those who could afford to buy put would buy these copies. Yeah Okay, any other questions? So Charles question what a time gap is okay So what we are saying or what we said in our in the in the earlier session Was there are two criteria that are used with respect to verifying the An an ancient man ancient manuscript and it is for all manuscripts not just for bible but for any ancient literary work Right And especially okay, these Greek philosophers who lived Around 300 years Before Christ those Greek philosophers or historians who recorded historical things The two things we that is typically used one is the number of manuscripts. How many manuscripts do we have because you know, then we can We can Compare and verify the text That's one and the second one is what we mentioned as time gap so time gap means the time From when the actual person lived Or when the actual work the original work was written Maybe maybe we can state that right the first piece of work was written So obviously it's going to be when the when the philosopher lived or when the historian lived Who was documenting right that was his The first piece first manuscript the original manuscript To the oldest manuscript that we were able to find so Let's say we found five manuscripts If one manuscript was uh 900 ad Uh another manuscript was 800 ad And then another manuscript was 700 ad etc. So let's say the oldest manuscript was 700 ad And uh this historian or the original work was written 300 bc Then the time gap is the time difference between The original one when the historian lived and wrote his original work to the oldest that we have which is about Which is 780 which is totally about thousand years So we would say the time gap for this person's work This historian's work Is thousand years Uh the goal is the of course to keep this time gap as small as possible Meaning if you want to get manuscripts that are as close to or the earliest the first manuscript Which was the time that the historian lived or the philosopher lived And and had his work written Right, so we want to get the time gap as small as possible. Is that okay? You understood it Charles. Okay All right Any other questions I'll jump into the notes then Okay, all right, so let's go forward and if you have any questions, we'll probably have some time towards the end of this Lecture as well Okay So let's just move on forward just to get a little bit more You know more information here So when you look at the manuscripts as of the bible Now we're coming specific to the bible so The oldest as of now the oldest manuscripts like we said are from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was in this time frame about 100 to 200 BC Okay, so the oldest manuscripts Hebrew manuscripts Of the Old Testament are the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts around 200 BC Okay, now Remember the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic parts of it were written in it, but mostly Hebrew Now the entire Old Testament is translated into Greek around 200 BC Okay, so that we refer to as a Septurgent So the whole Old Testament was translated into Greek 200 BC So that is the first translation So we are saying it should be pretty accurate because you're you know, this is the first translation of the Old Testament into Greek and the oldest So the oldest copies of the Old Testament in Greek are around So they were translated on 250 BC around 325 350 80 So We're talking about 500 years to these the Greek versions Right, so they were translated around 200 or 250 BC The Greek version of the Old Testament and the copies of these manuscripts We have 325 we have 350 Right, they were found in different parts of the The Middle East I think Christopher asked this question And so we are talking about of 500 600 year time gap of these Greek copies of the Old Testament And you go into Okay, this is again about this is the Alexandres. This was from Egypt, right? So we have another set of manuscripts Now when you come to the New Testament Okay, and we'll give the numbers of how many of these manuscripts are all available, but I just just just giving you information now. So the New Testament was written in Greek between 45 to 1980 What is the number of these manuscripts we have? We have about 5,500 5,500 manuscripts Okay, now you compared this with eight ten hundred manuscripts of some of the, you know Other ancient scriptures that be short on the table earlier Okay, so you compare that look we have good number substantial now The Greek which New Testament, which let's say was, you know, just to round it off was completed around 180 Was translated into Latin First translation into Latin around 480. So again, we're saying This is the first translation should be pretty accurate And the Latin manuscripts, we have all 10,000 manuscripts Of the New Testament And then early versions in other languages 9,300 So We have about 2,500 manuscripts Greek, Latin, which is the first translation, then some other translations Of the New Testament And the earliest earliest manuscript of the New Testament Is around 12080 so approximately You know 25 years after John died so The time gap so John The author of the Gospel of John And the manuscript that we have the earliest 120 AD so approximately 25 years after this person lived And other manuscripts Are about 208 years from their original writing Okay, so Both in terms of copies of the Greek Manuscripts, which is the in the Greek language And then the Latin which was the first translation made around 400 AD Which then the Latin Bible became you know the the one that was used by the Catholic Church for 1000 plus years so What do we have here? We you know if you try to put all of this together in a little table for us Old Testament We have more than 10,000 manuscripts The oldest I mean the the best and okay, we're going with the best number the best number we have 150 years New Testament 24,000 manuscripts 50 year time gap for the best that's the Gospel of John so If you compare these numbers with you know other the Greek philosophers and so on there You know There the time gap is like 1200 years 1400 years Bible The best time gaps we have is 150 50 years so We are saying if people consider these works works of these philosophers to be You know they quote them they study them all of that Then how much more accurate and authentic Is the text of the Bible based on so many manuscripts that are there and The time gap that is as you know pretty minimal very small that we have So when you look at the manuscripts the number of work manuscripts Old Testament and New Testament and when you look at the not only the original language Hebrew or the Greek but the translations that is Hebrew to Greek of the old and Greek to Latin of the new You know, it's pretty amazing the the number of manuscripts the time gap and therefore How much confidence we can have in the text of the scriptures Especially in comparison to other ancient texts right, so scholars have pointed You know, okay, they say, okay, they're copying errors and so on and so forth what's been the conclusion apart from insignificant variations, so you know, yeah, obviously when they like I said in the very beginning Humans are involved.  So there will be some variations grammar or spelling not more than one thousandth part of the New Testament is affected by the difference So we have about 24 25,000 manuscripts of the New Testament And when you look at it all of them together You're talking about one thousand part of the New Testament could you know, that's a very small part which is human error, which is you know, you're copying and you're transmitting There would be small variations but This is very very minute so what I wanted to you know put together for us in a very brief and concise way Is to show us that you know, if you look at things very logically practically in terms of the text of the scripture from the original manuscripts through the copying process through the translation process, you know, like we said Hebrew was translated into Greek the Greek was translated into latin so through the copying process through the translation process You look at all the manuscripts you look at the text of the manuscripts apart from What you can say is okay. Yes, there is human error because people are sitting and copying or people are sitting and translating And then they're making copies of it. They're you know, passing it out apart from that provision for you know, very human error the text of the scripture Old Testament and New Testament is from Verification point of view it is reliable both in terms of the number of manuscripts and in terms of the time gap and in terms of the text it is absolutely reliable So we're looking at it purely from practical point of view you're not looking at the inspiration side just looking from a practical point of view this is what we can say okay now before we get into anything further Is this clear so far? All right So I'm assuming if you're quiet then I'm assuming we'll go on okay Okay, I have a question Samuel No So I want us to be you know convinced and you put all these numbers together and you can go back to the table that I showed in the very beginning and say hey look at all these other literary works from ancient times so we're talking about you know 2000 years ago 2500 years ago look at all those literary works look at the Bible you've got you've got you've got so much um uh both in terms of manuscripts both in terms of the reduction in time cap both in terms of transmission across manuscripts and in transmission across translations so you've got all of that for us to check I mean you look at all of that look at the big picture you can say hey the text of this book of these you know basically of course I would say but see this book means it's a compilation of these 66 books is completely reliable okay both the Old Testament and New Testament completely reliable so like we said the New Testament we are down to about 50 years time cap for the closest one the Gospel of John 250 years time cap for all the other texts of this uh books for the Old Testament we are cut down to about 250 years uh for the oldest book so 150 years for the oldest book so we are very close in terms of time cap and the number of manuscripts are significant yeah so take some time I see your comment Prabhakar so take some time to go to the notes and if you need to ask questions we can pick it up again next week okay so let me just move forward and we will okay it's saying can't share my screen okay alright so I'm assuming you've been with me so far now I'll just finish up a few more thoughts here before we close here's the next thing I want us to consider which is yeah and I'll be going into more of a theological side alright so we've covered the practical side and then we're going to be stepping into a little bit of the theological side now about the scriptures so Jesus so Jesus is coming here around 3080 uh some uh you know around that time the early part of this century this millennium the GAD the Old Testament books have all been there right all Malachi everything's been there we also have the Greek translation of the Old Testament which was done around 200 BC so you've got the Hebrew text of the Old Testament you've got the Greek text of the Old Testament and now comes Jesus around 3080 right I'm just putting it roughly and he's starting his ministry he's going around preaching now Jesus in his preaching affirms the authority of the Old Testament so when he's talking about the scriptures he's referring to the Old Testament you know as we understand it right the Old Testament what we have is talking about that and he affirms the authority and I've just given you the many times you know put these references down many times Jesus refers to the Old Testament so you know it is written you know and any quotes from the Old Testament it makes reference to the Old Testament showing us that these Jesus himself was affirming the accuracy of the Old Testament so he didn't question the Old Testament he quoted from it he used it in his defense against the you know against the temptation so he used it as a weapon as a sword of the spirit as we understand he used the Old Testament he studied the Old Testament teaching so from a theological side Jesus also affirmed the Old Testament scriptures so what else do we see now so I'm moving into more the theological side so over this thousand five hundred year period with 40 authors writing all the texts the scriptures it is we don't find any self contradiction in the scriptures or any errors that are significant now we understand that there will be these human transmission errors in manuscripts and so on but there is no historical or factual error in the text that means till today nobody can say the Bible is mentioning such and such a person and such and such a person didn't exist or such and such a place and this place historically never existed and some of these things of course will require archaeological discoveries but based on archaeological evidence the Bible is becoming more and more accurate the people are finding out that the Bible is accurate it is always accurate archaeological discoveries are just confirming things that the Bible has in terms of places in terms of people that existed now how do we respond to difficult passages that we see in the Bible okay first of all and this is for us to understand for us to think through and work on our studying of the scriptures the first is this that there is the law of non-contradiction so that means I can make two statements two statements the two statements don't have to be the same but just because they are different doesn't mean they contradict so example suppose at 9 o'clock I meet you know I just put it down here I don't know whose names I used John and Jim okay suppose at 9 o'clock in the morning I meet John and Jim in the office okay and in the afternoon later the same day at 12 o'clock I meet somebody and I say hey I met John today then at 3 o'clock or sometime later in the day I meet somebody else and I say hey I met Jim today now are these statements contradictory does it mean I am lying they don't because I did meet John and I did meet Jim when I spoke to the person at 12 o'clock I spoke in the context of John maybe he knows only John so I just said I met John today or maybe John came up in a conversation so I said I met John today I spoke to the other person later on in the day say at 3 o'clock I mentioned it in the context of Jim so maybe he knows Jim or maybe Jim came up in the conversation so I said I met Jim the two statements are different I said I met John I said I met Jim they are different statements but they are not contradicting each other both are true because at 9 o'clock I did meet both John and Jim together so we have to think through certain passages in scripture like this so both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament we will have stories recorded for us so an example would be stories in Samuel or the Kings and the Chronicles especially and maybe the way it's recorded a certain incident recorded in Kings maybe differed a little bit from the way it's recorded in Chronicles it's not a contradiction we just have to understand it the way I said it like how it's been recorded the focus of the context will determine what is expressed and just because how it's expressed in one place differs from how it's expressed in another place doesn't mean it's a contradiction it just means it was expressed according to the context to what was important in that context so this is the law of non-contradiction similar in the New Testament you come in especially in the Gospels you will find different records Matthew, Mark, Luke Matthew, Mark, Luke they would record different instances and there may be differences in the way it's recorded so people will point out the difference they say correct well understand it from the point of view of the law of non-contradiction which is very logical and we do it all the time so why can't we apply the same rule to the Scriptures that when Matthew, Mark, Luke are recording the same instance they will present information that they feel is relevant about that incident it doesn't mean they are contradicting each other it's just they are differing from each other because they are emphasizing something different about the same instance the second thing is about researching that is we there are we have to accept that there are difficult passages in the Old Testament but there are difficult passages for us the meaning or the interpretation is not very obvious to us and how do we resolve it well we need to make an effort to do some background information research some background information understand go back into the culture go back into the history especially for those passages try to understand why was it said and what was going on because it's very easy for us to take even from Paul's writings we can take texts that are seemingly contradicting each other but then you say okay wait a minute let's go back into the background let's go back into the culture the history what was actually happening so that when we read what was written we know it is inspired by God but it was inspired for a context it was inspired in a cultural setting it was inspired in a actual things that were happening so when we understand the inspired word given to those people in that context then we get the correct meaning so then when we put that meaning alongside another passage which was inspired by God but given to a people in a certain culture in a certain historical context then we see that the meanings are not contradicting but if you don't do that and you just take the text of these two passages and it's easy to do that look these texts are contradicting each other so how can you say you know it's inspired well if you make an effort to understand the like I mentioned the cultural historical context and get the meaning of what was being said then you see that there is no contradiction in what was inspired by God okay so I I'm going to pause here and see what's any questions Kennedy how can one compare the accuracy of the Bible to the Quran in terms of time gap hmm good question Kennedy and I actually haven't done that part of research I will yeah you know maybe I can do that before next week's class and have an answer for you on that but I haven't done it yeah so it would be interesting to do that that's a good question to look at Quran and there could be many other yeah and if these kind of questions come up there's no harm in going and researching and getting that information you know so is there any volunteer who would like to do that research and you can take five minutes to present it to us next week next week's question I mean I could do it but somebody else can do it too the question is how can you compare the accuracy of the Bible so you're comparing Bible accuracy in terms of time gap okay anybody wants to do that and share it with us next week it's a good question interesting question nobody asked me all these years nobody asked me this question any volunteers I can do it faster okay Maggie thank you so much so you understood the question right you understood what Kennedy was asking yeah so if you do this and then next week when we meet you take the first five minutes and just please share with the class this you know what you find very good good question and thank you Maggie for offering to this research on that okay any other questions alright so I'm going to pause here let me just quickly review what we started with and then we will dismiss there are three major questions we are trying to answer and we just did one the first part today next two we'll do it next week the question we are trying okay so the three main questions as far as the Bible is concerned how do we know that the text of the Bible is accurate is authentic that's what we answered today second question is how was the Bible compiled for us and why is it just the 66 books you know why not other works that were written in that same time periods or whenever why do we say this is the canon of Scripture on what basis were the 66 books compiled to form the Bible that we have that's the second question the third question is why do we have so many different versions of the Bible and why is it that even in the versions there could be a parent difference in the meaning of what is translated the English versions of the Bible why is that these are three big questions people ask in terms of the Scriptures we have done the first one so what we said Maggie I'll take your question I'm just going to quickly recap doing a recap and then I'll take your question so what we said is this when we in general when we study ancient manuscripts there are two things two criteria one is the number of manuscripts and second is time gap so we put out a little table that showed you know some of the ancient texts how many manuscripts do they have and you saw on the table it's very sparse some of them are 8 to 10 some of them may be 100 the number of manuscripts and the time gap many of them the time gap is thousands of years thousand 300,000 100 years some may be 400 years 500 years that's the time gap in these ancient manuscripts of history of philosophy and of course when you have the manuscripts you want to look at the text that the text is not corrupted so that's where Shakespeare came in we said look even in Shakespeare even though Shakespeare is more recent than the others there are many of his plays where the text is corrupted but you know they just go with okay this is the most accepted one and go okay let's look at the bible so we give a brief overview of the bible we have 66 books 40 authors written over a 1000 year period and we said first of all the last book of the Old Testament was the Old Testament written in Hebrew around around 400 BC so we had 400 BC we had all of the Old Testament scriptures written in Hebrew by that time all compiled and we had 200 BC we had all of the Hebrew text translated into Greek alright so 400 BC Old Testament 200 BC Greek of the Old Testament then we said that till 1947 till that time the oldest collection of Hebrew of the Old Testament scriptures was from 980 980 so 980 to 400 BC about 1300 years the best we're just taking the best time we're not taking the longest but the smallest 1300 years time but then what happened was in 1947 we had the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and these were dated over till 200 BC approximately right we had all the Old Testament except the Book of Esther and so now your time gap has come down to about 200 years which is better far better than many of the other historical books and the Latin translations what we have now the Latin translations which was done 200 BC our oldest manuscripts are around you know 350 to 400 AED so we talk about what about 200 and 500 years okay the New Testament is even better because the oldest that we have is John's Gospel 250 year period and the others we have within 250 year period time gap and the number of manuscripts we have it's about the Old Testament we have about 10,000 manuscripts the New Testament we have about 24,000 manuscripts sorry I kind of made a mistake and that's why I was stumbling here the it is the Latin translation of the New Testament that we have which is around 250 years time gap okay the Latin translations so we have about 10,000 manuscripts of the Old Testament about 24,000 manuscripts of the New Testament the time gap is very small 50 years for the New Testament about 150 years for the Old Testament so this is like summarizing so this is where the scriptures stand compared to other ancient manuscripts right so we are saying also when you look at the text of the scriptures there is a hard apart from transmission error there is hardly anything significant in terms of error in the text so the text is not corrupted we can say that it has not been changed randomly there is transmission error and there is copying error but other than that very negligible copying error the integrity of the text has been maintained and the big proof of it was between the 900 AD and the scrolls in the Cumberland Caves over more than 1,000 years the text remained the same so with great confidence we can say that the text of the scripture has not been corrupted through the process of the transmission process of copying and copying has remained the same so that was today's focus establishing the authenticity and accuracy of the text of scripture so without getting too technical you should be able to explain this in a very simple way to people how do you know the text of scripture as accurate and you can go to the PDF if you want to look at the numbers and so on but the canonization of scripture and also the numerous versions of scripture why do we have it and I think we can if it goes well we can finish it in one lecture and then move on to the next topic but that will be the next week and Mangi will give us a quick response to that comparison between Bible and Quran Mangi you had a question Yes Pastor Sometimes we meet Christians people in the church in the left church so they bring up questions like why they say that the apostle Paul's letter where letters written to different churches and to people and some of his letters were responses to question that churches or people asked him about their own personal or congregational problems and they also say that he told Timothy that Old Testament was scripture the question they ask is why do the church take the doctrine from his letters since he himself said that the Old Testament is the anointed scripture and yes why do our modern church take doctrine from Paul's letter and how can we respond to that Say the last part again I understood a question that Paul said the Old Testament was scripture but the last part what did you say Mangi how can we take the New Testament as scripture so yeah the arguments of Paul's letter are just letters explaining to people various problems and issues so why should the New Testament church like our church or modern church get its doctrine from those letters how can we respond to them okay good question so it is true that when Paul said all scriptures get my inspiration of God the Old Testament was there and all of Paul's epistles were already written so it's a good Timothy 3 like you mentioned at the beginning that was Paul's last epistle and he was he would be killed very soon now how do we respond to this question it's a very valid question here's how I would respond that all that Paul wrote all that Paul taught and wrote came by inspiration how do we know that if you look at Paul I'll quickly mention Galatians chapter 1 Paul said that what he's preached he didn't receive it from any man but which the Lord revealed to him 1 Corinthians 11 when he says I recede from the Lord what I have spoken Ephesians chapter 3 Paul says this mystery which has been hidden has now been revealed by his spirit to his apostles and prophets so what is Paul saying he's saying look things which the apostles and prophets are proclaiming which includes Paul and Peter and all the others in the New Testament church whose writings we are reading was revealed by the Holy Spirit is a revelation of the mystery given by the Holy Spirit so the writings of the apostles and prophets this is the New Testament writing so the apostles and prophets are as inspired by the Holy Spirit as the Old Testament scriptures so that is why we take the New Testament writings given to us from the apostles and prophets on equal grounds because the same Holy Spirit gave the revelation and what we do find in the New Testament the teaching of the New Testament is that it is a continuation but it is also a new covenant in some way it is replacing the Old Covenant so of course we need the Old Covenant we need to understand a lot of things from the Old but there is a new Covenant there is a revelation given to us here which supersedes what was given previously so we live by the New Testament but we need to study the Old Testament in order to understand the New Testament and a lot of other things that are there so that is how I would respond to that does that satisfy? Thank you sir, yeah that is it all right Christopher can you give us examples a law of non-contradiction needs to be applied very quickly in the records of New Testament in the Gospel accounts sometimes it says there were two demon-possessed men in other places there was one demon-possessed man or there were two blind men there was one blind man so some of these things when you look at it closely you find that it's just the way the writers have presented some of those things yeah and like that there are examples in the Old Testament as well which maybe I just can't recall right now but we can make a list of these situations okay okay last question we'll take then we'll go for a break Kennedy yes there were there were a lot of things that were written during the Inter Testament period but we don't take but they are not considered part of the canon of Scripture and we will explain next week why right so that is a big question why are we only taking these 66 books and of course the Catholic Church has an additional set of collection of books called the Apocrypha which consists of these books that were written part of them some of them were written during this Inter Testament period which we do not consider as canon of Scripture why right so to answer a question Kennedy yes there were books written but why if we don't consider them as canon we will pick it up next week okay alright good thank you for these questions and I appreciate it when you ask questions because then I know that we can cover parts but I may have addressed it in the lecture alright so let's please go for a quick break and I will see you in the next class okay thank you God bless bye now


This guy complained non-stop that he didn't get the Injustice to Baton and he told us that was the only reason he wasn't top the first year. Okay. And now it doesn't get any earlier than this. He's right there. He's literally on stage. It's the third set of competitive MK11. Yeah. So my point here is he's up against an Evolution Champion and an MKX Top 8 finalist. Tweety, I don't know if you can hear he has headphones on. You have to win this. You told us. You told us you would be top if you could play early. This is it. You are not giving him an out, huh? No. There is no out. He has to win this. But you know what I love about Tweety? He's thinking absolutely. Yeah. You can't blow up Tweety for his confidence because he just owns it. For sure. Yeah. And he's made that he's made it clear that he can back that up. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's in MKX and Injustice to the end of those games. There's no question. He was one of the best in the world. Yeah. And this is his first opportunity to be top early in the game's life, which is so important. There's, you know, you always want to be good early on and not have that. Oh, you know, I came in late. I'm a, as he would say, Necro. So he is hungry. Okay. Now, on the other hand, you have Dragon. Unquestionably, one of the best in Justice 2 Players. The dude won EVO. For sure. But he took a break and like it or not, I think Dragon's a great guy and immensely talented player. If you step away, you step away. You have to hold that and now he's back. So this is a high pressure situation for both these guys. They have a lot to prove right now. Now both of these players have liked to zone in the past and you might think it's strange to see Baraka for somebody like Tweety, but actually that fireball is legit. It's a mid and it recovers very fast. Baraka, you know, a lot of people have this idea that he's dissapointed. He doesn't know it's like he doesn't know what's going on. Yeah. No, he understands zoning. He's better. He's been in 2D fighting games for 25 years now and he has come prepared. Oh, wow. That did hella really did. Yeah. And because that that enhanced move is just tied to the stamina bar. You can use that pretty regularly. You don't need meter in a traditional sense for that. Right. And you can just see there. He does two of them and he's already built half a bar for another one. It's very, very strong. Yeah. Now the nice thing about Scarlet's tongue though, she actually gets the knockdown. So if she can get the life through, she definitely has the zoning. Okay. Trading it up. But you know what? Tweety's got more life. Right.  And oh, excellent throw tech. You can see Baraka's 4-4 there is big, big range. Oh, Chop Chop. Chop Chop has never been punished ever in 30 years. Everyone just talks about how they punish it. Then they don't know. Okay. You can enhance that twice. He enhanced it twice for both bars. Dragon just used a spade of blow even though he might use this round. So that could be an interesting gamble. Now is Tweety going to want to use his to close this out or just try to beat Dragon? If he can. Wow. Doesn't even need to do it. Ooh. That is the grossest thing. Let's talk. If you look closely, the skin is wiggling. Oh, all right. I like how the brand is pulsating. Yeah, it's still there. It's definitely still moving. Sorry. Dragon doesn't think when he plays. I think he heard me and just kind of front like, Oh, yeah, he doesn't need that. Sorry. Yeah, I did not. That's fine. I just jump. So yeah, those fireballs out of Tweety. That really made a huge difference in the way that that first game went. Yeah. I mean, Tweety had the life lead pretty much the whole time in Dragon. Oh, and that's speaking of life lead. Early. Look at that damage. I really like how much Tweety has been using throws to throws are always great in if games and now smart, Tweety immediately just goes for the zoning and Dragon's going to have a hard time because the life lead Dragon smartly just going in now overhead on the end of that. Yep. Fatal blows already ready and Tweety. Yeah, spending twice and he was ready for it down to that Tweety. I think this is Tweety basically saying you need to go back on your break, man. You need to get out of here.  Oh, he kept it going. It's kept going. It's never ended. All right. There we go. Dragon's going to get something going. Oh, no. And now Tweety is going to go back to zoning Baraka. Yeah, expected to jump perfectly. This is somebody who's been playing the fireball and anti-air game for a while. I mean, with his Starfire was just amazing. Yeah, that was her wheelhouse. A little bit of harassment. Big jump boots. And again, this is all Tweety. Dragon's in big trouble. Yeah, you can see Dragon's having a really hard time dealing with that plate stark being a bit. Yeah, and this is cheap real fast. And now Dragon's going to have to adjust to that if it's just one more game.  It's not long term strats. It's what did I find that's wild today? And Dragon is very good at adapting, very good. Dragon's not nervous right now. He's thinking, what the hell am I going to do? Looking for solutions on it. Yeah, for sure. The only problem for Dragon is time. Now he's going to have the lifeline. Oh, the tongue might try going in a little bit more. Now we're going to see Tweety's going to have a hard time zoning now because he's still so low on life. Well, maybe not for long. Yeah. Okay, perfect jump timing. Almost got the combo. It'll blow us ready though. You see Dragon instantly just blocking a lot. Doesn't want to take a risk on that. Yeah, very, very smart. Trying to get back in Tweety. Now Chainsaw's in play. Chainsaw's interactable. You can use it from full screen and you throw it or up close and it goes into a crushing blow. Yeah, I really like his Chainsaw Dragon. There's a lot more pressure for him. Is that an overhead? The tongue? The tongue is not. No, the tongue is a mid. However, it is very, very good on block. It's a great zoning tool. Awesome hitbox on the spark as it went forward. I really like Tweety going to the throw because Barak is going to kick her full screen and now with his lead he can go back to his wheelhouse here. This is where he wants to be. Walking up, maybe looking for a jump. Nothing came. Oh, big punish. Oh, hey, one question I have. Can you combo out of like crouching non-string buttons? Like a down one special canceled into a tongue? Yes, that will combo. Okay, okay. Oh my God, he kept it going still. And Tweety's on set point here. He's afternoon snap. It's kind of rude of him to litter. This is the fight club here. He can't even shoot space. But you know, I often think the dragon wants that space. It's just that in this matchup it hasn't been working out. Right. Yeah, I think dragon definitely seems to be focused on zoning with Scarlet and has been caught off guard by how good Barak is zoning. Exactly, yeah. But, okay. Here's the blood ball. Does that give you a combo opportunity? It does not. It's just a lot of hit advantage. Okay. The variation he chose to use though, he can actually make the blood ball slow or fast by amplifying. So he could put on a slow bow ball and kind of follow behind it or mix up the speed. Something about the hand, the start of that big part. Oh my God. The hand part's the worst. It's absolutely gruesome. It just makes it so real that you're like, wait. Yeah. Take it out of the air. Dragon has fatal blow. We'll see if he wants to go for it. Oh, he tried to punish it and got caught off. Is it going to do enough? It's not. But very close. Any anti air? He waited. Oh, he had it. He had it. Oh, Dragon's panicking. Oh, he got a big jump. Oh, perfect. And Dragon is still alive. Oh, let him see it. Yeah, let him see it. There it is. That could not have been closer for Dragon. We were just talking about adaptation. All he's got to do is two more games like this. Yeah, there was definitely more offense. So like we said, these are two of the best in the world and they're going to tap on the fly. Right. They're going to change. Now, we'll have to see. Does Tweety have anything beyond that? Midrange and throws. This will be our first competitive getting them out of two, maybe. And they're both just going in. Is that a crushing blow or is it just animated to zoom in? That is a crushing blow. OK. That is if she does the move as a punish or a counter, she'll get it. OK. I see. Yeah, not an overhead, but super useful in space control. There's also a full, a very far version, a low, a close, medium and far. So it's great. OK. It's also great to end block screens. She's pushed back so far. Oh, it is. That is actually an overhead. Oh, it is. Wow. It's still in there. Oh, my God. I absolutely love the flag part. My favorite thing about the flag, if you can listen, is there's a war drum or a war horn. Every time he puts it down. Yeah. I like to imagine he has a Tarkot and like warband got like a hype man right in the foreground. It's like Mad Max Fury Road, that dude that's just playing guitar like that's his job. Baraka has one of those guys. One of his variation moves he can choose. He actually has different flag moves like you can plant it or actually hit it with you. You can see that in Ed's gameplay breakdown earlier. Yeah, I was trying that out. That gives extra damage on the buttons with these near the flag. You can really radically change your character with the variation system. There are all kind of wacky moves like. Oh, you mentioned it earlier about Baraka also has a command grab variation. Yes, Baraka has a mid-screen command grab where he actually jumps and leaps at you if you can choose to equip that if you want. Scarlet has several different debuff and buff moves. She has, she can make it rain blood from the sky. If she's standing in it, she gets a damage boost. There's all kind of variation moves you can choose from. There you go. Oh, come on, man. Okay, and Tweety is going to take it. It was a pretty close set towards the end. It was and like we were talking about we did start to see some adaptation but it just wasn't enough. I think she's dead. Oh, she's definitely dead. She's gone. We have a mild pop off from Tweety. Yeah, like you were mentioning before, you know, he and Dragon have had different paths. Dragon hasn't been playing quite as much in the last half year, year. Tweety, the opposite. I mean, he's been grinding and he did fantastically and injustice as a result. But the wonderful thing about the tournament scene is there is always a next day and Dragon is a pro. He is back. That means he is all in. I expect him to do really well this year. No doubt. I think for both of them. Yeah, we have a replay. Let's go back and check it out. Yeah, you're right. Her face was wriggling. I saw it. Yeah, it's very, very gross. Every time I see it, it's kind of gross. Yeah. Everybody's reacting. That was definitely my reaction the first time I saw it. Yeah. Kind of tough. Still going on like this. But very, very cool again to see that this character of Baraka plays maybe in a way that many didn't expect. I didn't expect it. I thought like you were saying, I thought he'd be more pressure heavy. And I guess maybe he has that variation, but this was not what we saw here. Yeah. And you can make Sub-Zero very, very defensive if you want or you can make him like a mix-up character. You can, you know, again, we talked about Geras having very radically different moves. He can be like a zoning trap character or focus on the grapple. He can actually replace his grapple move with a combo starter. So he can actually, normally Geras isn't really a combo character. He can actually just get rid of the grapple and he just does, he has the sand move