In Titus chapter 2, we're going to look at verses 11 through 15 as we continue our series here in the book of Titus. I'll begin reading at verse 11. I'll read to verse 15. And we're going to be looking at the grace that brings salvation. And so Titus 2 verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works, speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you. And so this portion of Paul's letter is extremely powerful because what he's doing here is giving us insight into the grace of God has revealed to us through the Son, Jesus Christ. Now remember as we begin, and let me give you a synopsis, kind of an overview and return you to this passage in just a moment, remember how that Paul had begun the letter by commending Titus, and he had referred to Titus as being his true Son in the faith. Now it's commonly accepted that Paul wrote 13 letters, 14 if you include the book of Hebrews. And in all of his letters that he wrote, which is basically half of the New Testament, in all of his letters he only refers to two men as his sons. One of those men is Timothy, the other is Titus. When he referred to him as a true son, Paul was saying that he had been converted under Paul's own ministry, that he was his spiritual father. In 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 verse 15 in what is called the Contemporary English Version, in 1 Corinthians 4 15 it reads, 10,000 people may teach you about Christ, but I am your only Father. You became my children when I told you about Christ Jesus. And so Titus was one of his true sons, only two mentioned in the New Testament, Titus as well as Timothy. And Paul had a conversion relationship with him and loved him deeply. So as his genuine son, Titus was to safeguard the message of eternal life that Paul was preaching. Remember in chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, Paul had said that the hope of eternal life is manifested through preaching, the preaching of the gospel. The message of eternal life is to be given uncorrupted to the churches in Crete. So many of the churches were then being infiltrated. So Paul told Titus, you need to set things in order to protect the church. A system of church elders had to be set in place and these were to be men of character. So Paul, as he was speaking concerning these men's qualifications, Paul gave a list of character traits and these character traits were important because badly lived lives undermine the gospel. The traits that were listed, as I've gone through this more than once, were actually traits every Christian can possess. So with the foundation of character, they were to be men of the word. That's what I believe makes them a bit different. Every person should have these character traits because we can have them in Christ. But the gifting that went along with these particular character traits is what is going to make them capable of being elders and leaders in the church. And so with this foundation of character that he had spoken of, they were also to be men of the word of God. They were to be holding fast to, but Paul said, is the faithful word as they had been taught. So we all have character, but not all of us are equally capable of teaching the word of God. And so the elders are to be capable of by sound doctoring, he said, to convict those who are contradicting, speaking of the infiltrators. They're to be gifted spiritually so that they might be able to communicate the message of the gospel clearly. In the book of Romans in chapter 12 verse six, that portion speaks of gifts that differ according to grace and proportion, he said, to our faith. And then in verse seven, he went on to say that our gifts are exercised by faith in our ministry as well as our teaching. And so they had a foundation of character, but they also had gifts that had been distributed to them, and they are capable of taking the word of God and communicating. So with that in mind, the elders are to be men of character and men of the word of God, because that enables them to represent Jesus and the church properly. In first Peter three verses 15 and 16, the apostle Peter had said, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who disparage your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.  And so this new way of life that transforms people is found in the word and occurs by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so as we've gone through this, we saw that this new way of life, this word of God, the power of the Holy Spirit makes older men sober and temperate, sound in faith, love and patience. It makes older women reverent. It makes them not be gossips, not addicted to wine. It gives them the ability to teach younger women good things such as loving their husbands, loving their children, being discreet, which means to be wise or discerning, to be pure in behavior, and also to be one who builds a home. It teaches younger men to be sober-minded. When he speaks of being sober-minded, this is what the word of God does, it teaches younger men to control their thoughts. It's been said that our emotions follow where our minds go and drives our behavior. And so as younger men, you're to have a sober-mindedness. And how does that take place? Ephesians 4.23 says, by being renewed in the spirit of your mind. So there to be emotionally stable, spiritually strong. And so Romans 12.2 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you may prove what is that good, unacceptable and perfect will of God. And so he's speaking concerning how this word of God and how the spirit of God is transforming people. And because a new way of life is actually modeled, he went on to say, Titus is to be an example of a believer. He's to be a pattern, he said, of good works, so that people can see what a Christian life actually is. When Paul was saying goodbye to the elders of the Church of Ephesus, they were in a place called Miletus and he had called them to meet with him. And as he was speaking to them, because it was the last time that he would see them face to face. He said in the book of Acts chapter 20 verses 18 through 20 that when they arrived, he said to them, you know how I lived the whole time I was with you from the first day I came into the province of Asia, I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly and from house to house. Paul could point to his own life and he could say, imitate me insofar as I imitate Jesus Christ. And he's simply saying the same thing to Titus. He's saying, you need to be an example. You need to be a model. You need to be a model Titus of good works of doctrinal integrity. Titus you need to be a model of reverence and incorruptibility because that's going to be the pattern the elders will need to see and that's the pattern they need to follow. He went on as we've seen and he spoke to the bond servants, the bond servants who had been saved and he was saying you too will be used by God. And if you want to have an impact, be respectful, be hard workers, be honest because that's going to adorn the beauty of God's message of transformation. And so with all of that that he's been saying up to this point, Paul now moves to share how this is going to be made possible. Notice verse 11, he says, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. How is this going to be possible by the incredible grace of God? Grace from God towards us motivates our lives to live graciously towards other people because that which we have received, we are to freely give to others. And this grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to us when he says grace, that speaks of God showing his undeserved favor towards us. Grace is the way that he influences our souls and turns us to Jesus Christ. Paul is saying that the hope of heaven and a transformed life begins with the grace of God. And this grace has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ. And so the grace of God that brings salvation notice he says to all has appeared. That word appeared means to become clearly known. It speaks of becoming clearly evident. God saving grace has become evident in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Now, when you when you read the writings of the apostle John, John speaks concerning God and gives to us certain things about him to help us to know what God is. He said in John, for example, John 424, he said God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. God is spirit. In 1st John in chapter 1, verse 5, he said God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So God is spirit, God is light. In 1st John chapter 4, verse 8, he said God is love and the one who loved not know not God, he said because God is love. And so he was speaking to us and giving to us things of the Lord, God is spirit, God is light, God is love. Well, all of those things are fulfilled in the incarnation in life of Jesus Christ. There's something else that has been manifested to us in Jesus. And that is God's grace. In John 114, John said the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. And so God manifested to us his light, his spirit, his love, but he also manifested in the incarnation of Christ his grace. Someone said in the sin stained darkness of men's lives, God's grace as the morning sun has risen. This grace that brings salvation has become clearly known. It's been manifested. The grace that brings salvation is clearly known by sending his son. We have been saved, as Scripture says, by grace. In Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it is by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves. It's the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. If there's anything that every religion that I'm familiar with, that I've ever heard of or read concerning or studied, it's that salvation in every religion that I'm aware of will come through self-effort. That's what they say. You have to try. You have to work. Within the Jewish religion, you had to keep the law of Moses. In every religion you look at, it's based on man's efforts. There's really not even a sense that you can be sure that you can be saved, except for Christianity. In Christianity, the Bible teaches us very clearly that it's not by works of righteousness which we have done. According to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Spirit. It's by grace that you've been saved through faith that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God and not by works, less than a man should boast. What we have done is we have been given the opportunity of seeing grace manifested.  Jesus Christ revealed or manifested openly declared and showed us what God is like.  And that has been made manifest to us through Jesus Christ. And by the way, that is the true Christmas message. In Matthew 1.23, it reads, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son. They shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. And so God took upon himself human form, dwelt amongst us, manifested these things to us, laid down his life on a cross in order that we might have salvation. And it is God's grace that brings salvation to us. It's his grace revealed to us in Jesus Christ and it's his grace that is proclaimed to us through the gospel. So we receive salvation through personal faith in Jesus by believing the gospel. At the age of 20, I have a friend whose name is Bill. Bill usually watches on Wednesday night, so he's very well watching right now.  And I've known him since we were in kindergarten together. So it's been a long time. He's probably too old to remember that, but it's true. And when the Jesus movement had begun, and he had begun going to a place called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa and was trying to get me to go with him, I kept refusing to go because I believed that because I had been raised in my personal testimony, I had been raised as a Catholic, I believed that he being a Protestant was completely wrong. He just didn't, you know, he's just wrong. That's all there was to it. And so I didn't respect what he was saying.   I thought that that had secured me in a certain direction in life that ultimately when I got tired of partying and things and got older and got married, that I would outgrow my sinfulness and find a good Catholic woman, get married. And that's pretty much my plan in life. That's what I expect to do. Like many of my generation did. This is no knock on my religious experience or training or whatever. The sincerity of my mother and those who trained me in that faith. It's just that I didn't have a relationship with God. And now I have a friend telling me about Jesus Christ and I had a problem with that because Bill had never gone to church in his life. As a matter of fact, I had taken him to church the only time I ever knew he went to church and I had taken him to church, to the Catholic Church and all. And now this guy is telling me about God and I didn't like it. And so I went to my parish priest, one of the priests there at St. Pires, the 10th church in Santa Fe, Spring. Some of you may be familiar with that. And so I went to my parish and I spoke to one of the parish priests there and I remember sitting in his office and I had made an appointment and I went in to speak to him. And I said, I need to talk to you. And he said, what do you need to talk about? I said, I have a friend. And I used the word Protestant as like it was a dirty word. I said, I have a friend. He's a Protestant.  And then he's telling me about Jesus Christ. And I said, I need some answers. I need some answers to give to this guy because he's so insistent that what I've learned is wrong and that what he knows is right. So can you help me? Can you give me some answers to tell him what the truth is? I was very sincere. I wasn't wanting to fight. I didn't want to argue, you know, out of that fleshliness. I wanted sincere answers because I was at that point in my life that that I knew I needed. I needed something I didn't have. And I was considering at that time what faith really is. And so I went with sincerity and I'll never forget the priest. Don't remember his name, but I do remember what he said. He said, and he leaned back in his chair and he crossed his feet and kind of in a relaxed pose. And he says, yeah, I've tried other things. I've tried Eastern religion. I've tried the meditation and things like that. And that was his attitude. And he said, and I came back to my Catholic faith. So will you? That was it. That was that was his answer. And you got to put it. I got to put it like this. I was 19 years old and not yet 20. And I remember I remember looking saying to myself, he doesn't know he doesn't know what truth is. I remember thinking that I'm no philosopher and I'm no genius. God knows that. But I said to myself, he doesn't know what truth is. It was just obvious. What do you mean? I'm going to float on. What do you I got really inside upset? Because I said, if you really ask to myself, if he really I didn't want to argue with him, I was taught to respect religious leaders. But in my heart, something's wrong here. Because if he really knew and he really believed and if heaven was really real and how was real, he'd have at least the same emotional feelings my friend Bill has when he's arguing with me. And Bill's bill doesn't know anything. You know what I'm saying? Does that make sense? Bill didn't know anything. And yet he's telling me I'm wrong.   And you don't. And I walked out of that place. And that's what actually opened me up to hear what truth actually is. Because when the representative of truth could not give it to me, I went to the one who could. And that came out of the word of God. Grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. That's how it comes. It's the message of the gospel. And it's this grace that has been manifested to us by Jesus. That is available to everybody. It's available to the aged men. It's available to the aged women. It's available to the young women, the young men, the slaves, all are welcome.  God's grace brings salvation. God loved the world. God sent his son to save any who would come to him. Psalm 348 says it like this, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. And so God is gathering his people from all mankind. In 1 Timothy 2 verse 4, Paul had said God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And so God's grace is manifested to us. Verse 11 again, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. The grace of God he's speaking about that brings salvation is Jesus Christ in his incarnation and communicated to us by his message. And grace is to teach us, notice verse 12, grace teaches, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. And so grace teaches us. The word teach speaks of guiding. It's a word that is used often when it speaks of training children. So to be taught is to be instructed. It speaks of learning. It also speaks of correcting when necessary. And grace is that which is used by God to mold the character of others. And so through God's grace we are walked step by step into maturity. And that's why Paul is so concerned about these false teachers who are entering into the churches of Crete because it's going to undermine the work of grace because God's grace trains us to live holy lives, not unholy lives. You see even in our day as was true during that, some can still live sinfully. But they say, well, I'm just, I'm just living in, in, in grace. In the case of some, they'll, they'll live in a sinful way because they're, they're young and, and they're, they're still growing. Don't even understand certain things. When I first got saved, you know, I, I, I didn't have a problem with some things that later on I learned were wrong. It's just that was my lifestyle. I had yet to learn that some things were forbidden by the Lord. Some things were unhealthy for me. And it took a while for me to start realizing these things. And those things began to fall away as I yielded them up to the Lord by hearing the word of God and then making a determination that I was going to obey what I was learning. Well, sometimes people are, are, are young in the faith and they haven't been saved for long. So they're learning what pleases God. But there are others that continue in sin willfully, even though they know better. And that's a different matter. When you have been taught and you've heard, then you are now accountable for the things that you've heard and the things you've learned.  Now I do know it's that sometimes people have heard it. It's not right to do these things. And, and they want to continue in that. And, and they say, well, I'm still under grace. But no, that's, that's not correct. Paul in Romans chapter six, verses one and two said it like this. He said, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? No, are we to continue in sin? Because the greater the sin, the greater the grace, therefore grace will increase? No. If you know what is right, then do that, which is right. In 1st John chapter two, verses five and six, John said, if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made completing him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. And so God's grace trains us. God's grace changes us. So we're not saved out of sin to return to it as a lifestyle. It is understanding God's grace that teaches us this. So what does it teach us? Verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. Since grace in Christ is incarnated, his life reveals to us how we live. And his grace teaches us to deny. That word deny means to abstain from or reject. It speaks of having nothing to do with certain things. His grace teaches us to reject certain things. His spirit who indwells us gives us power to reject sin and have victory over it. That's something I want to emphasize for just a moment tonight. You have not been left without help.  I will come unto you. I'm not leaving you without aid. This is something the Lord has been trying to teach me now for a very long time. So I'll share it with you so you can join in the struggle with me. In Christ, I can have victory. No, I'm not saying in Christ, I'm perfect. No, I'm not perfect. Yes, I am. No, I'm not. I'm not. Of course, I would never present that sinless perfection. No, but just because I know that my flesh still wars against the things of the Spirit does not give me permission to continue in sin either or to excuse it as being, well, that's just the way I am. Because there are a lot of people who say, well, that's just the way I am. You know, you know, when I get depressed, I drink, but that's just the way I am. If somebody provokes me and I pop them in the head, well, that's just the way I am. No, you know, that's not the way it is. I have no excuse. I have to grow in my faith and love for the Lord to realize that whatever it is that I do, I don't want to do something that adds to the sins that he saved me, that he took from me when he died on the cross. I don't want to be adding to that, if you will. I believe that when we came to faith in Christ, our sins were cleansed by the blood of Christ. The Bible teaches that, but that doesn't give me permission to make excuses for continuing in the things that he had actually washed me from. I need to reject those things. Romans 6 tells us in verses 12 through 14, therefore, do not let sin, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness, for sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace. So, grace sets us free. Why go back to that which we have been set free from? And that's the point. And so, what do we do? Well, he says, well, grace has been given to us so that we might deny ungodliness. Ungodliness is simply living as if God doesn't exist, because it's like denying the existence of God. There's no God, ungodliness. It's living as if God doesn't exist. It reveals a lack of devotion to him. You see, no one living a habitually ungodly life could ever truly be saved. In 1 John 3, verse 10, it says, this is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. And he says it like this, anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. So he says, if you don't do what is right, you're not like your father. He says you're not God's child. So we are to habitually be aware of the fact that we're to live for him. And he said, we are to habitually deny worldly lust. Now, worldly lust. These are the sins that we may not be guilty of practicing, worldly lust, but they're the ones that we wish we could. If we knew nobody would catch us, they're the sins, the lust, the worldly lust, that Pina Colada looks so good. It's that thing. What would you do if you knew you wouldn't get caught? That's the worldly lust. It's the things that draw you to do the things that are wrong. You may not be doing that, but you may not be doing that because you haven't been given opportunity. So they're what are called the sinful cravings of our flesh that entice us. And these are desires that we may recognize, so we intentionally need to reject them and resist them. Because we've been saved, we do have the power to reject ungodly things. In Romans 6.19, Paul said, I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves, just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness. So now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When I first got saved, we treated Bible studies. And again, we were 20 years old. I wasn't married yet or anything like that. So I had an open calendar. I wasn't yet with the ball and chain. I'm in trouble. Anyway, when I was 20, before I was saved, all you'd have to do is say, and this is, I lived in Norwalk, so they'd say there's a party in Whittier. And so we'd jump in cars and go to the party, right? There's a party in Pico. So we'd go to Pico River. That's where the party is, right? So wherever the party was, La Habra, you name it, that's where we would go. There's a party in. Jump in the car, bang, we're there. That's the way it was. We were always ready to party, always. When I got saved, they would say there's a Bible study in, we'd get in the car and we'd go. It changed. The way I had yielded myself to my party life, I yielded myself to my new life. I think we should still do that, by the way. I really do. There's a Bible study in La Habra. There's a Bible study in La Marada. There's a Bible study in Costa Mesa. There's a Bible study in Long Beach. I can still remember those early days where we would jump in the car. We'd fill the cars up and off we would go to the Bible study. We'd get the word of God. Why? Because we'd been saved. Because God had transformed me. Because God had forgiven me. Because I had a new life in Christ. I had hope. I had joy. I had peace. I was forgiven. And I want to grow in my knowledge of God. I want to serve the Lord. I want to be a part of the team. I don't want to be the person who sits on the bench chewing on the glove wishing I was in the game. I don't want to be that guy. I want to be the guy who dirties his uniform plain.  And at the end of the game dusty, dirty maybe with ripped knee because of whatever I fell or slitter. I played baseball for years. When Marie and I were dating, I played one on three teams. She would come with me on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I was on teams. Going to college and working. And going to church and Bible studies. And so when people say, I don't have time. Oh, come on, please. I eventually taught three Bible studies a week and still was going to work. Still was going to school. Still, you know, I was and married and raising children. No, you, every one of us has been given by God 24 hours. And it just depends on how you use those hours. And what I decided to do is to try and use them for him. And it worked that way for me. And it always has. So I've been doing this when I'm doing right now in this church for over 40 years. And Wednesday, some of you wish I didn't, but I have. I've been doing it for 40. Why? Because what else is better than talking about Jesus and what changes your life? Right? I mean, that, that's just the truth. And so what you do is you learn to habitually deny these things and, and you reject those things and you resist those things. And so as I'm reject, rejecting these things, this, this worldly lust and this ungodliness, I'm also to embrace things. And so he says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, verse 12, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. We live soberly. The word soberly obviously can be used as not being drunk, that guy's sober, but it speaks of being with a sound mind or sensible to live soberly means to avoid distractions. And to avoid bad influences. Your pastor in your life is not necessarily me and I know that, but you may not know who your pastor actually is.  That's your pastor. You go to a Bible study, even like this one, and you leave and you talk to your friend and your friend says, he said this, he said this, he said this, I don't agree with that because I think this, there's your pastor. He's the one who's influencing you. He's the one who's telling you how to live or she's the one who's saying, no, those things are wrong. I heard somebody else say this. And that's how influence works in you. So what we do is we deny those things that will take us away from the Lord and we live sensibly. We live in a way that we understand and reject those things that are bad influences. It says in a 1st Thessalonians chapter five verse eight, let us who are of the day be sober, put it on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. So we live soberly. We live righteously. That word righteously speaks, living right before God or upright. We live righteously. We live honestly. We live justly. We live with integrity towards other people. We live with integrity. That's a word that I think needs to be brought back to our modern vocabulary because sometimes there's, there really seems to be an obvious lack of integrity today being a person of your word.  And then you just don't show up that kind of thing. There are a lot of people who do that. Psalm 15 verses one and two says it like this, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? Then he gives the answer. He who walks uprightly works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. This is the person who will abide with me. And my father many years ago, and you'll tell by this illustration how old it is, the minute I say it, some of you, my dad had hired someone, my dad had been in here in my church. My dad was actually my first person I ever prayed with to receive the Lord in my mom. And when I got out of the army, my dad and my mom and my sisters and a couple neighbors were the first people who attended Bible studies with me. And so my dad and mama were part of my spiritual life from day one, from day one and part of my spiritual ministry from day one. And so my dad was speaking to me on one occasion. And it's, we were here already in this property when we were used in this church building here as our main sanctuary. So it was a number of years ago now. But I'll never forget my dad speaking to me because he said, and again, this is about 25, maybe almost, almost, almost 30 years ago. But my dad said, I'm very disappointed son. And I said, Why is that? Why is that dad? He says, Well, he said, I was speaking to one of the men in the church who does brickwork construction. I said, Yeah. He said, I needed to put a fence up. And my dad had half acre parcel in Ontario. And he had a lot of space in the front of the house that needed to have a fence. And he says, Oh, I hired one of the men in the church to build a fence for me. I said, Well, that's, that's good. You know, hiring a brother to do the work and and blessing him. It's a good thing, dad. He says, Well, yeah. He said, The problem is, he said, When you look at the gate, if gate is, is not hanging straight, my dad and I are the same. And this he taught me this, it's got to be straight. If it's not straight, that's the only thing you see. You know, and my dad, he said, It's not straight son. I said, Oh, and it wasn't just the gate. It was the brickwork. And it was not level. My dad, that's all he could see. And he said, I've spoken to him and and he won't come and fix it. He won't repair his work. And then he said this to me. I'll never forget. And this is where the illustration is dated. He said, I get better service from Sears than I do from brothers and the Lord. Think about that for a minute. You know what brothers and the Lord did to my family more than once as they would say to them, Well, you know, I'm just I'm having a hard time. You need to understand. They always plead grace when in fact, but the money I gave you, I gave you to do a job. And you didn't do the job. And now I'm supposed to be gracious to you because you weren't a man of your word. And so I'm not knocking anybody because there's nobody in here that supplies to is there. No, there's nobody. So I'm not making this personal. What I'm saying is, but that's true, isn't it? That is true. I've seen that. I've seen that. Oh, I'll be there at such and so time, never show up, never call, just don't come. No, we're supposed to be in Godly and righteous. We're supposed to have integrity. We're supposed to live in such a way as it is a demonstration that we understand the grace of God. We're to live Godly. The word Godly speaks of a life that is earmarked by reverence and respect for the Lord. In 1st Timothy four, seven and eight, it says, having not have have nothing to do with Godless myths and old wives tales, rather train yourself to be Godly. Physical training is of some value, but Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and life to come. So we're to have this Godliness, he says in verse 12 in the present age. So that speaks of the time that we're living in as we await the return of Christ.  What is the motivation to live like this? Verse 13, he says, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Looking for it that when he says looking for it, the blessed hope looking for speaks of anticipating and longing with the with expectation in the hope that he's speaking of this blessed hope, that speaks of a confident certainty. Looking for anticipating with a confident certainty the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. That's a very clear reference to the divinity of Jesus Christ. In Romans 9 verse 5, speaking of Israel's advantages, we read, there's are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah who is God over all. Forever praise, amen. Hebrews 11 3 speaks of Jesus in this way, the Son is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So awaiting the great God and Savior Jesus Christ, this refers to the second coming when Jesus returns to planet earth. So God's grace trains us to live separated lives as we await Jesus Christ who is our hope and the anticipation of being with him motivates service for him while we await. In 1 John 3 2 and 3 it says, dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is and all who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is. Your grace trains us to be prepared for the return of Christ. And then he closes in verse 14, speaking of the one who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. As a voluntary ransom for us, he redeemed us from, as he says, every lawless deed. His redemption sets us free from the power as well as the habit of a sinful life. And the freedom that is found in the gospel and made possible by grace is what has set us free. And Galatians 1 4, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God, our Father. And notice, he says, we are now verse 14, his own special people, zealous for what? For good works. We're not saved by good works, but by grace we perform good works to his glory. We are according to 1 Peter 2 9, chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. He says that you might declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light, called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Isn't that great? Think about it. Called you out of darkness. I know our lives are lived in sinful darkness, darkness, you know? And then God by his grace just turned on the light. And when he turned on the light, everything changed. I see things clearly now. I see things the way he would have me to see them. How do I do that? By giving myself to his word. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed there to according to that word? That word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. What gives me light, Jesus Christ? When light in my darkness, Jesus Christ, what is the word of God? It's a lamp into my feet. It's a light into my path. And so God has given to us freedom to resist sin and have victory over it and to await the coming of his son, Jesus Christ. And finally he says, verse 15, speak these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. Titus, your responsibility as a pastor is to consistently reinforce these things and live up to the message, Titus.  Don't let people get away with living in sin. That's why I reminded you in this letter that there is a message you have been given that is the message of life. There are false teachers who are entering the church. They are influencing the older men, the older women, the younger women, the younger men, and even the slaves. So you need elders who are men of character and the word who are capable to convict and convince those who are bringing in false teaching and who are doing it or in order that they may profit from you, get rich off the sheep. And therefore he says you be an example to them and teach them to be looking forward to the coming of Jesus Christ, that they might live lives that are prepared to be with him and to see him, that they will deny ungodliness and will be less. They'll live soberly, righteously, and justly in this present age and they will live with an anticipation of the return of Christ. And you tell the church over and over again, and don't let anyone despise you.   Titus, that's your job. And that's the job, by the way, of every pastor. Do not be afraid of the congregation. Love them, but tell them the truth. Because if you do so, they will be safe. And that's what shepherds are to do. And so Father, we ask that you would


G'day, how you all going? Welcome to bootlossify. You can't see me, but my name is Tech. I want to acknowledge the Wajik people who are the traditional custodians of the land that I live and work on. Now today, I'm doing something slightly differently because in the last few weeks I've been getting some emails from my subscription to Grant Stone's website telling me about their new releases. So I thought I'd wander through the website to have a look at the new releases and take you with me. So here is the Grant Stone website's homepage. Now before we get started, I just want to make very clear that I am not sponsored by Grant Stone. I don't have any partnership deals with Grant Stone. So I don't actually have anything to do with the brand except it is one of my favorite brands and I do like the make-ups of the boots that they do put out, particularly some of the newer ones that I've been told about. One thing though, I will put a link to this website down below in the description. It is an affiliate link, but it's through an affiliate platform that's not to do with Grant Stone. It doesn't cost you anymore. I'm not getting paid gazillions. I think I get paid something like seven and a half percent if you choose to buy the boots through my link. So if you're going to buy these boots anyway, not going to cost you a penny more. It would be fantastic for me if you decided to use that link. But let's go on from here. So this is the homepage and if you haven't been here before, there's a series of drop down menus that you can have a look at. So we'll just come back to those in a moment. But there are help lines where you can go into an FAQ page, which is really quite interesting. And obviously the contact and fitting information is quite interesting as well. They do have a blog. It's not updated all the time. It's in the journal. And the story is really about me, about them and the construction methods that they have. They also sell some accessories. You can have a look at those if you want. And then they go into a limited release page. They have women's boots and accessories. But in particular, they have men's boots. So let's take a quick look into the boots for men. Now, right at the very top, let's go right to the top. So this is their boots page. It's very simple, really. They just show a matrix of all the boots. The way they tend to do it is those with a gray background like these here that I'm highlighting. Tend to be limited releases or special editions. And they kind of run through until the leather runs out. Sometimes they're restocked, not all the time. So if you do see any of these boots with gray backgrounds and you do like the look of them, you know, I'm not sure I'd hang around if you like the looks of them and you can get the size that you want, I'd give it a go. And then they tend to lay out their stock makeups, so the diesel boots come first in their various different guises. This crimson chrome XL is a beautiful looking thing, really. And then they go through all the diesel boot makeups. And there's a lot of them, including these in the Vibram 2021 or Vibram wage sole. And then you start coming into the brass boots. So these brass boots here, this one in saddle 10 is in the wedge, but they also come in commander's soles. It's jungle kangaroo. It's really, really beautiful.  I've got these brass boots in earth and I might put a link to my review of them because I really love these boots. And these are the new ones, their field boot. Crimson chrome XL is one of the latest. But also the saddle 10 looks fantastic in the walnut bison. They also have their other plain toe service boot model called the Edward. Now, this one is built more formally than the diesel because you see that they have very large quarters. They don't have a an external counter cover. So it looks very elegant and clean, simple lined. They have a couple of cap toe boots left, not many. I'm surprised because they they're really very nice looking and cap toe. Not very popular, I'm assuming, because they're gradually sort of disappearing off these pages. Then they have the Ottawa, which is their Norwegian split toe model. Again, in their different guises. And my understanding is that this is not a real mock toe. The apron here is not a different piece of leather from the vamp. And that split toe is also not not joining two pieces of leather, although this is hand sewn. So that's fantastic. They also have the Chelsea boots. I don't think I would necessarily go with them for the Chelsea boots. I think there are other makers that sort of make better ones, depending on what you're after, I think. And then they have the Chaka boots. And then we come back to these gray background ones. Some of them are on sale. Now, often what I find is that if they're on sale, like this loading boot, loading suede boot in the diesel design, if they're on sale, they tend to be towards the end of the run. So again, if you like what you see and they're on sale, I grab them. But anyway, we're here to look at some new designs. And I wanted to look at, in particular, this one that came up in my email box recently, the Field Boot in Crimson Chromic Cell. It's really a really lovely looking boot. It's got a kind of supported bump toe, protective bump toe. It's a mock toe design with a fold over lip, it's sewn on. A couple of very interesting pieces with contrast stitching, brass eyelets and these D-ring type things at the top, rather than speed hooks. Plus the sort of padded collar, which I find quite interesting, quite timberlandy. And I think you'll find that this whole design is quite classic. Comes in a mock toe, in this particular case. Quite a round voluminous toe box. I think it's in the Floyd last, very similar to the Abras boot. Very lovely looking leather, this Crimson Chromic Cell. But the one that really drew my attention initially, when this Field Boot came out, was the one in Saddle Tan, from Badalassi Carlo Tannery in Italy. They are quite amazing in their patina making possibilities. I have the diesel boot in this Saddle Tan. And it's really starting to darken and mellow and look really lovely. And then the third Field Boot make-up that I'm interested in is this one in Walnut Bison, so it's Bison leather. As they say, the Field Boot is designed for walking, working and long weekend adventures about the upper leather. American Bison hides are known for their heavier weight and naturally distinctive grain patterns. The prominent pebble effect varies throughout the leather, making each cut unique. And indeed, it's really quite an amazing looking leather, I think, really nice. If you expand that, you know, it's quite fantastic. I hope you agree. I think this detail of the D-ring and this padded collar makes this look a very interesting boot. Now, the other things in this website that I was interested in were their kangaroo leather, particularly coming from Australia. So this is our animal, the kangaroo. And this one is the Edward. Remember, I told you that it doesn't have an external counter-color. It's got a single back strip at the back here. Very large quarters so that when you do lace them up, the edge facings almost meet so that they look quite formal, even in this sort of leather. Now, kangaroo is very lightweight leather, so can be quite thin and supple, but retains quite incredible strength. The kangaroo hide is vegetable tanned in this case, and it creates a very sturdy leather that ages in patinas quite well. The other kangaroo leather boot is this Ottawa. The Ottawa is their Norwegian split toe. You have this mock toe effect of the vamp, and then they stitch down the toe, middle of the toe. It's natural kangaroo in this case, so it's going to patina really, really nicely. It's going to age really quite well. Although it looks quite blonde at the moment, it will eventually darken into a sort of deep honey color. It's going to be really beautiful. And then they have their diesel boot in one of their classics called Jungle Kangaroo Green. If you don't have a green boot, I highly recommend you take a look at this one because this is one that I am dreaming over and really some of the detailing on the cuts of leather really quite astounding. So exotic leathers. I mean, people have different opinions. They think that maybe the Grant Stone last is quite a dressy last. It doesn't quite suit these exotic leathers, but if you think it doesn't suit exotic leathers, take a look at this one. This is ostrich. This is the diesel boot in Cognac ostrich. And I can't say I'm a fan of the ostrich leather itself. You know, it just, it speaks of cowboy boots to me. So it's not quite my style, I don't think. But I do think this is quite an interesting kind of design. And this one is a diesel boot in Kango Tobacco ostrich. So different color. The ostrich leather is very pliable, of course. It's very soft, taking a while to come up. It's very soft, but these feather holes here are quite amazing. The quill, I think they're called quill texture, which still feels quite supple. You know, this is a business style boot, I think you might say, it's business casual. And you wouldn't think of ostrich in business casual, but you know, to some people it works. Maybe not my cup of tea, but it is interesting. And the final ostrich I wanted to look at, again, it's a diesel boot in the Ranger ostrich. Now, this one is quite interesting because it has sort of a fairly cross grain hatched effect up in the shaft. If you take a look at the others, they're not as pronounced. The quill goes sort of part way, but definitely still quill-like. But these in the Ranger ostrich, a lighter, what would you call it, a wheat-colored brown, I think that's quite interesting the way it changes from where there are quills all over the leather to this sort of cross-hatch approach. This one is in a leather outsole function. So anyway, as I said, I wanted to take you through their website because I was interested in a few new things that they were bringing out. It's always interesting when you think you know a bootmaker and then they bring out these different makeups and even different designs like this field boot. Quite timberlandish in look, don't you think? Anyway, I just wanted to catch up with these offerings. Quite frankly, I might be looking for my next one. Don't forget, I'm not sponsored, but I have put an affiliate link to this website below. So if you decide to buy, it can help me out and help me defray the cost of my channel. So before we finish, tell me if you like these sort of website exploration videos. I mean, they're new to me, but you might like them. Maybe you want me to have a look at the websites of other brands. Just let me know. And in the meantime, don't forget, make sure that you like and subscribe to my channel. Because it'll help me get my information and channel and offerings out to more people on YouTube and that'll help me keep my channel going. So until the next time, take care guys. And I'll see you the next time.


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but the Keystone XL pipeline has been something that our state has been fighting for almost eight years now and We are very proud and excited to announce because of the help of all Nebraskans and national partners like 350 and Credo and Sierra Club We have almost half a million comments being submitted to the public service commission All of those comments are clearly saying that the Keystone XL pipeline has contributed money to the solar and submitted your comments to the public service commission. Can everyone come in? We are very specific about that. There are a couple of people who really comment pops. We are going to hold them, one person with a sign and one person with a light. Can we take one or two of them? Emily is going to come in with a video. These are all the USB drives with all the comments All the organizations Jason, what are you holding? Both the postcards and then these are the postcards that are written in UNL Going inside the public service commission headquarters to deliver nearly half a million comments that you all submitted. Those are all the comments on USB drives. Colin, show us all your USBs. One more flight of stairs. The stairs. We're taking the stairs. Thanks Alex. Outside Nebraska Public Service Commission Here we go. Can I just say that I love that you guys recycled the soda water. No one knows that. It's very treat other of us. Looks like good. Hi, good morning. How are you? Good to see you. It's been a while. It's been since then. Fisher's office I think. Good to have you over here. Good morning. How are you? We are very excited that we have almost half a million public comments. We did not overload you with paper. We have them on USBs to hopefully make the staff's life much easier. We do have some paper petitions that we've collected at state fairs and county fairs and that kind of thing. So we just obviously, you know our mantra over the past year that we've been in the process of the public service commission. That we don't see how the public service commission could logically think that a foreign export pipeline using eminent domain on American farmers and ranchers would be in Nebraska's public interest. So that's what a lot of the comments are about as well as climate change, which we know is not in the purview of the public service commission. But these projects that continue to increase climate change obviously hurt the public interest. I don't know if anybody else has anything that they want to say to us to have them. Yeah, we've had the good fortune to work with the tribes as you know. And so one with many other entities, they're against the pipeline in New York right now. And on behalf of those folks, I have a little bit of tobacco here that I want to put together and ask the creator as the native folks would do to help the commission see things in the right manner. Yeah, my name is John Crabtree with the Sierra Club. And in partnership with Bold and of course the rest of the organizations on the board, you can help collect these comments. And in fact, one of the great things that's done with Bold and the Sierra Club and others have been out across the state. We've been from Scotts Bluff to Rocky Boat to O'Neill where we've tabled the county fairs and had people sign petitions and talk to people all over the place. And I think it really comes across just as we've said for years. Nebraskans and Americans and people across the country all believe that the pipeline is not in the public interest in Nebraska. It's not good for America. And there just is not a compelling argument to me that it is in the public interest. In fact, today we're presenting 440,000 compelling arguments of why it's not. And so we look forward to the process continuing and the Public Service Commission will hear all of these Nebraskans and the concerns this is across the country. Thank you very much. I do want to thank the Public Service Commission for the process. The process has been public. We've held several public hearings that have given the public an opportunity to voice our concerns. And we want to thank you for that. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thanks for coming up today. We want to make sure that it'll all be made part of the record. And we'll be in there. I don't know if you want to have anything else to say. Thanks, Mike. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sure you're glad not to be commuted back. Those are the written. Okay. I'm from College, Kansas. Yeah, they're Creighton and you are one of them. Okay, thank you. Great. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks. Thanks a lot. Thanks everybody for joining and for submitting your comments.


I haven't been back to church in about seven years and honestly my life has been completely fulfilled ever since then. I haven't felt the need for religion or anything like that. Like I realize I don't need religious beliefs to have meaning in life but the Christians will say only God and Jesus can fill that empty hole. This is exactly why I think we need to be more thoughtful about how we share the gospel. The gospel is not a life improvement plan. Jesus mission was to save us from the power presence and penalty of sin through his sacrifice. Yes, I believe there's truth to the message that Jesus is the only one who can make us whole. But we need to be clear about our primary problem. It's not just that our lives are sad and kind of purposeless without Jesus. It's that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Yet through Jesus we can be made alive. And from that flows meaning, purpose, love, and wholeness. That's the message that this fellow needs to hear. Follow for more Christ-centered content and help support my ministry on Patreon.


The smartest fight, Dash. So you're in one garage, good reposition. So right here, when he throws this smoke on the left side, the enemy team is immediately expecting him to push the right side. And he fake dashes towards it. And then now he can re-swing the left, and he gets a free kill, I bet. Yep, told you. And he heard the last one, Garage, but Breach has ult, so he's got to be careful here. Got half perfect. Really good up-draft reposition, too. No way. Nice.


With the ongoing threat of terrorism, we all need to play a part by reporting anything suspicious. If something doesn't add up, speak up by calling the National Security Hotline on 1800 123 400.


And now we're going to have a panel. And the panel moderator is going to be Dr. Akissa Bari. Dr. Akissa Bari is professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia. She obtained her PhD in water resources engineering from the Institute of Science and Technology in Lund University in Sweden. And she's been director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute, so therefore, a relationship with our keynote speaker as well. And she's been coordinator of the African Water Facility at the African Development Bank. So please welcome Dr. Akissa Bari. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you, Daniel. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like first to thank Claudia for this very interesting, very nice presentation. That is really setting the stage when we think about the SDG6, how centrally it is for all the other SDGs, and also showing the challenges that we have moving from the MDG to the SDGs. Very ambitious, I mean, targets. But also, we have to put them and we are all on the same boat and we have no other solution then to address them and to really try to achieve them. So thank you very much, Claudia. Now I would like to call for panelists to come on the stage. And we are looking for a very interesting panel with four eminent specialists and panelists that I will very shortly introduce because they have very impressive CVs and I'm sure that you are familiar with several of them. So I will start with Dr. Qianqin Lai, who is the director general of the Water Resources Agency of Chinese Taipei. We also have Mrs. Cindy Wallis-Lage, who is the president of Lake Envych Global Water Business. Mr. Peter Simpson, who is the chief executive of Anglian Water Group. And Ms. Catherine Sylvester, who is a planner at Sydney Water. So just for kicking off the discussion, I'm going to address a few questions to each one of them. And we would like really to have a lively discussion in order to be, I mean, to discuss because we have seen that we are really not on track to achieve the STG6, but what needs to be done. So we would like to have your perspective and how we are going to really take on this challenge and to be able to move on. So Dr. Lai, so the STGs were adopted three years ago and they have been observation that the concept, the specific targets and the means of implementation have remained at the international policy level and have not trickled down to the practitioners in the public and private sector. From your perspective, is that true? Do you feel there should be a greater effort to engage practitioners in the implementation of action towards the STG6 in particular? And what do you see at the major stumbling blocks? Yeah, as the courtiers told before, we are not on the tracks on the STGs. And because I'm working for the government and most of the people think that the determination of the government was the major factor to meet the STGs. But according to the old idioms of Chinese, water is the highest goodness for all and water is not competitive. But in the practice, we always fight for the water. And I will say an example in Taiwan. A long time ago, most of the water was supplied for irrigation. So we have irrigation associations. They get water rights. So much of water comes from the water rights and that used for the agriculture. But in recent times, domestic and industrial use a lot of water. So we need to take water from the agricultural centers. But every center is always thinking about their own benefits. I think the biggest problem is there. So I believe if I can solve my problems in the beginning, I should solve the other center's problems. So we set a panel to discuss how we use water. And we set the information. And we set a transparency system in Taiwan to make the different center to believe that the water is used in efficiency. So after that, the industrial center and the domestic center can use the water and come from the irrigation center. So I think the major aspect is not only on the moral aspect. And such kind of things could be set on the mechanism. So I think the efficiency governance is based on the transparency information. So I think a good solution for solving such kind of problem is transparency governance. Thank you. Transparency governance. I think important things to keep in mind. Mrs. Lage, the ATG6 aims to integrate a range of water issues. And we have seen, I mean, in previous presentation, all things that we have to take into account. And in your work, where do you see the opportunities to establish the strategic links to approach ATG6 in a holistic manner? Which investments in innovative water systems can help people gain more resilience and manage the deep uncertainties we now face? Thank you. And thanks for being on such a great panel. I'm very excited to be here and to have the opportunity to communicate with many of you. When thinking about this, one of the things that comes to my mind is tremendous. I put a wonderful presentation together to talk about all of the things that we can do. And I think that's a critical thing, is how do we change our mindset? Because we talk about the fundamental role that water plays in life. And we think about it as a humanitarian need and a basic right. And that's all very, very true. But we also need to change the mindset and the communications. And when I think about that, I think along two words that we need to think about more with water. And that is that water can be a unifier and then it can be a multiplier. And when we start thinking about it, from all that we could do, if we just approached things differently. And if we think about it from the unifying sense, we think about how it can unify communities, a basin as we look at the best use of that water, how it can drive economic development, how it can drive health, how it can drive jobs, how it can drive the best use for every drop. And that applies whether it's a developed country or whether it's a developing country and seeing how it can unify those communities and unify solutions to be much more holistic. As we look at that along the lines of SDG in an integrated planning manner that that best use for the community for those drops and being much more holistic in our thinking. And then you think about it from the multiplying standpoint. A fabulous conversation of if we do not succeed on SDG6, we impact all of the other SDGs. And so our ability to multiply the impact to really make a difference in the world, to really make a difference in our SDG goals, our Sustainable Development Goals, is that we want to make sure that we are successful with SDG6 and it is critical for us to do that. And that is that integrated solutions that can be put forward. And so when you think about innovation that we can do, we can do so much more in the way that we do planning. We can do so much more in the way we communicate, whether it's governance, whether it's having connections between water utilities and wastewater utilities as opposed to operating them independently. We can do so much more when we think about it from a technology and how we apply that around the world to get away from the linear thinking and be much more circular. If a person can survive for a year in the space station and talk about circular and all of the uses that we have to be able to do things there, we can be able to do a whole lot more in our everyday thinking and our everyday uses. I always had the opportunity yesterday to attend the session on the intermittent water supply, which I thought was a really fascinating discussion and I really appreciated having that conversation yesterday. And within that, if you think about the things that we could do if we were able to tackle that challenge and see success, if we were able to do more in that intermittent water supply, it's not talking about getting to 24-7 though, as a human we all would like to see that happen, but it's really getting to the point where it is going to be a sustainable system, part of our goals, that it's going to be reliable, that we know it's going to happen every day, that it's going to be predictable, that we know when it's going to happen, and that the quality is going to be what it's supposed to be so that we know we can use it. And that's going to drive greater efficiency in our communities because there's going to be then the ability to rely on that water. It's going to be more efficient because we're not going to be wasting with the need to hoard water. And so I think there's just a lot more that we can do in cracking that and being able to get that piece of it fixed because we may not have enough supply, as was mentioned previously. There is a supply challenge, but we need to make sure that we are credible in when we are supplying and making sure that we're meeting people's needs. Thank you, Mrs. Leitch. So, I mean, important points that you also raised change of mindset, which was one of the most difficult things, water as a unifier and multiplier, but also how much we have to bring, I mean, if we don't achieve, SDG6, it is going to impact all the others. But I mean, I also sometimes wonder, we are all water people here. Don't we need to bring other people to really, I mean, because of the centrality of water, to bring other people on board in order to be able to understand the importance of water and to be able to achieve the other SDGs? I completely agree. I think one of the challenges that we have in the water sector is we talk to ourselves a lot and we pat each other's back and we're doing a good job, but until we go broader than that, until we bring in the businesses, the manufacturing, the agricultural, there are so many that influence because everybody's using water. So if we don't have everybody at the table, we're not gonna have a holistic solution and you're not gonna have buy-in to that solution even more importantly, because then it's something that's being pushed out. So how we create those platforms to talk to a broader audience, to engage with that audience makes a huge difference. And I think that's part of that integrated planning. Frankly, is who is at the table? It is not just the utilities. It has got to be much broader in all of the stakeholders in the community that are participating in that conversation. So this is also a call for IWA in order how we can bring more other people from other sectors on board. Mr. Simpson, footing the bill of achieving the SDGs is a daunting challenge. SMAs for SDGs 6.1 and 6.2 alone amount to $140 billion per year until 2030. Even when including all financial sources, public and private, the financial gap is huge, 80%. The private sector funding will have to be the predominant investor. So there is a need for new financing paradigms. Blended finance may be one of them. So what is your take on opportunities to maximize funding to meet the SDGs 6 target by 2030? How can we increase the efficiency of existing financial resources and mobilize additional and innovative forms of finances? What should be done in Sub-Saharan Africa where the private sector involvement is low and the total spending on water supply and sanitation is only 0.5%. So that's an easy one. Let me just start off by just talking about blended finance. So blended finance is the idea that there's lots of private capital around the world and the answer to closing that gap of 140 billion pounds a year to achieve the SDGs by 2030 is to engage that private capital and mix it with other forms of capital from overseas development aid and philanthropy and in that way come up with a better mix for funding the gap. That's sort of the theory behind it. In theory, yes, it makes sense, but actually I don't think it's a silver bullet because whenever you think about private capital, private capital and the providers of private capital have fiduciary duties to get risk-adjusted returns and that actually means you have to have countries that have tariff setting, they're billing, there's an income stream, there's a cash flow associated with it. So never mind how much you mix that with contributions from government and overseas development agencies and the like, you can never ultimately get to a point where that isn't important. And also there's an issue of sustainability because you have to have the cash flows over a longer period of time in order to satisfy the returns to private equity and private income. So I don't think it's the answer as a silver bullet but it's part of the mix, it's part of a toolkit of things that are there for us. But there are also some very fundamental things, I think, when we think about the challenges we face in terms of this particular SDG. And that's the fact that we're focusing globally but when we look at what shifts the dial the most, of course you can go to places like countries in sub-Saharan Africa and you can see that's where some of the biggest gaps exist and some of the lowest income countries. And they're exactly the sorts of countries which are really going to struggle to cope with, if you like the silver bullet of blended finance because generally they are incredibly low income and they will not have in the short term the ability to fund that. So one of the questions I have generally, I think for governments around the world is how we as countries deploy our overseas development aid and are we deploying too much of that to middle income countries who actually could make better use of their own taxes and deploy more of that money into water and sanitation and hygiene services and focusing more of the overseas development aid into water and sanitation and hygiene but also focusing it more into the requirements of the low income countries who fundamentally need some of the structures, some of the institutional structures and arrangements and regulation and legal changes to enable them to actually create a structure that will be more sustainable in the future and therefore attract more of that private equity. So in tackling the challenge, I suppose what occurs to me is it's almost how do we get the 20% for the 80% and I think when I look at it globally it occurs to me that we're probably not got the right mix of what we're doing and there's an opportunity here to focus more perhaps on the lower income countries, focus more on what we can do in terms of those institution strengthening. Middle income countries I think have to make better use of the resources they've already got to fund progress against these SDGs and better allocate essentially what scarce resources we have to have a bigger impact and a small example just came into my mind it's all very easy, you can seem like you're passing these sort of problems everywhere else and the reality is the challenge is for us here in the room and as a company we've done a lot of work in recent years in Nepal and it's one of those areas where we've been focusing together with WaterAid on sector strengthening and institutional strengthening because it is a country in that space of the LIC, the lower income and it's obvious to us that unless we help those countries of that particular country with some of the arrangements then we're not going to be able to attract the opportunity of the bigger bubble of private capital so I think they're great opportunities but I also think there are opportunities not just for governments to change what they're focusing on and prioritising and I think the Japanese government is particularly strong actually being here in Japan but focusing on water and sanitation and hygiene the biggest percentage I think of any government in terms of its overseas development age put into that area so stuff for governments to do to sort of copy that but there's also stuff that we can do as companies to actually help countries improve their institutions and make them, particularly the lower income countries better able to receive the bubble of private capital Thank you so it's a big challenge that we are facing and there is not one answer that we need but I fully agree with you I mean the importance of strengthening institutions because I mean it's clear even in sub-Saharan Africa and Africa, I mean how much governments have been putting money also in this sector and the role of aid so it's still quite a lot of things that we need to discuss and to think of Thank you Mrs. Sylvester so it's really going to follow up on what just Mr. Simpson said because in addition to the financial resources required to achieve the targets of the 2030 SDG agenda the other limiting factor is the human and institutional capacity so what are your thoughts on strengthening, focusing and maintaining a human resource-based and institutional capacity that can deliver on the intention of the SDGs? Thank you and I think at the plenary session yesterday afternoon and Peter just spoke about the need for capacity building in the developing world but I also think it's really important we're building capacity in the developed countries because I get really frustrated when I hear water professionals talk about the SDGs as it's, you know, we're already doing that it's almost suggesting that, you know, I'm tick the box I'm already contributing, I'm doing my job but there's so much more that needs to be done and we heard in the keynote today that we're not on track and there is a need to do more and it's not, I think it's sort of passing the buck if we say, oh, we don't have political will we don't have enough finance I think we need to look internally at our own organisations and do more than just benchmarking and showing how we're contributing to the goals now but use that framework to say well where are there opportunities to do more? It's not just about SDG 6 and I think there's a real role that maybe IWA can play or professionals or different organisations how they're using the goals to drive something different and I feel like that's where the capacity needs to be built in the developed world where can, like what is my role? What is our organisational role to do more than just business as usual? Thank you, thank you for, I mean, all your answers and great answers to have this question I think that time is running short so I would like just to say a few words in conclusion first of all, I think there's something that I would like to say that we need to value water I think this is something that is for me and very important to recognise that valuing water is a shared responsibility as we just heard and it is not and it is a duty and it is everyone's business it's something that maybe is not enough I mean this message is not enough shared by everybody and not the business of the water people and we are all on the same boat but we should consider the diverse benefits and risk provided by water and the deep connections between human needs, social and economic well-being spiritual beliefs because we often forget about this and the need of the ecosystems so we need to recognise that valuing and managing water represents a transformative opportunity to convert risk to resilience, poverty to well-being and degraded ecosystems to sustainable ones but while the SDG6 sets ambitious targets it also presents with the other SDG a great opportunity and we are aware of this to address what the security, public health and socioeconomic development so I think that we have to really be aware of that so there is a call for a paradigm shift call for change of mindset and practices call for transformation for innovations I think this is a so we need to invest innovations I think and but we need also visionaries people I think that someone like Tony Young I mean I'm really impressed by the way he looks at for example the cities and the IWA approach also we need these kinds of people to catalyze transformative innovation and this will facilitate a transition to a more viable world so we need transformational leadership and a new generation of water leaders with a vision I think this is also something that we are we should not I think underestimate the dynamics of politics and power and the challenge of governance but I want to finish as Claudia on an optimistic note and I think it's time for hope and for charting our path into the future thank you very much