Our sermon title this morning is Christ my joy Christ my joy And this is part two as we are working through John chapter 15 verses 9 through 17 and This text a glorious text that we see Both from our perspective and God's perspective even in this one text God's redemptive purposes in Christ toward us and The joy that he intends in the Christian life that joy Planted deeply within the heart of man. It's something that we're Programmed with so to speak it's a part of your Christian DNA when you come to Christ the Christian life is to be a life of joy joy unspeakable joy Fulness of joy joy overflowing That's the joy that is the need for that the want for that right Planted woven into the fabric of every single person outside of Christ with our natures being corrupted by the fall Our natures being corrupted by sin We try to pursue that joy in a host of means that have nothing to do with Christ and in that all we find is emptiness It leads to nothing leads to temporal happiness But surely that happiness and this life comes to an end when you die and face God in judgment There are a host of ways in which sinful man seeks joy and all those ways are bound to be ultimately unsatisfying Christ is our joy Christ is our joy And we may find temporary happiness and temporary pleasures temporary comfort temporary leisure temporary entertainment's temporary pursuits, but all that is unstable at best fleeting Here one moment gone the next But joy in Christ is a settled established fact and reality of the Christian life We miss the fullness of that joy When we fail to obey the Lord we miss the fullness of that joy when we don't put our trust and faith in Christ alone When we don't walk in the path that he has laid out for us As we come to John chapter 15 verses 9 through 17 We're to find our soul's satisfaction. We're to find our joy in Christ alone So he says in verse 11 These things I have spoken to you for the purpose that My joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full praise God What a gracious gift of God a man the Christian life is not a begrudging burdensome trudging gritting out in your own strength Labor for a set of rules and regulations. It's not that There is joy in keeping the commands of God There is joy in following Christ and our joy in that can be full It's his joy his joy in remaining obedient to the father his joy in obedience to the father becomes our joy in obedience to him He's speaking of joy here In a similar way to giving his peace back in John 14 verse 27. He says in John 14 27 My peace I give to you with joy in the Christian life like peace is something that he gives He imparts to believers who put their faith in him. He imparts his joy That joy comes through the means of our abiding in him abiding in his word Keeping his commandments trusting in him following him and our joy in that becomes full Now what leads to that soul? Satisfying joy in the Christian life one in verse nine his love for us What leads to that soul satisfying joy the knowledge and understanding of his love for you if you're in Christ as The father loved me verse nine. I also have loved you in Christ. You are loved like Christ That's an amazing thought. I mean amazing thought we looked at that last week your love Or your joy in his love is a transcendent joy Because his love for you if you're in Christ is a transcendent love His love a transcendent love leading to your joy, which is a transcendent joy. It's not based in how lovely you are It's not based in how lovable you are It's based entirely and only in how lovely and how lovable christ is And he is supremely and always and ultimately lovable and lovely In fact when he chose to pour out Our his redeeming love on us We were unlovely God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners christ died for us So ground your joy verse nine in his immutable and immeasurable love for you Your joy should be grounded in his love his love My joy now he concludes verse nine again with the command to abide In that love jude says keep yourselves in the love of god Stay in the place where you can experience the constant joy of knowing that love How do you do that? How do you abide in his love verse 10? Keep my commandments. You obey him You abide in the love of god toward you the love of christ for you You abide in that love by keeping his commandments Now once again here The lord communicates the importance and the necessity of obedience in the christian life paul told titus listen remind them Constantly that those who have believed in god believed in the lord jesus christ should be faithful should be careful to maintain Good works why? Because we abide in his love we abide in his joy through keeping his commandments obedience He says here is a necessary fruit of genuine saving faith obedience unnecessary Means by which you abide in the true vine and bear fruit to the glory of god and here in verse 10 Obedience is a means by which you abide in his love and experience full joy in the christian life Where to obey keep his commandments and we rushed through this point a little bit last week for lack of time And so i want to unpack this a little more this morning To make his point regarding the necessity of our obedience He presents to us in verse 10 the only appropriate and the only ultimate standard of that obedience and that standard is the lord jesus christ himself look at verse 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love Just as i have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love Jesus says here verse 10 you keep my commandments and abide in my love In the same way that i keep my father's commandments and abide in his love and jesus said back in john chapter 8 verse 29 I always do those things which please him The lord jesus christ we know perfectly sinless And abiding in the love of the father was never in question the lord jesus christ is perfectly sinless always doing those things which please him But the love of the father this is important to understand That love of the father toward him was constantly experienced through his ongoing obedience The means by which god Showered lavished upon christ the trinitarian love that god the father has for love god the son Was through the means of the son's constant and perfect obedience to god the father When was The one time during the lord's earthly ministry Where he experienced the sense of being forsaken by god at the cross at the cross When he took our sin On the cross and became paul says sin for us My god my god, why have you forsaken me right? It was the was the second person of the trinity Unloved by the father during that time No No But jesus on the cross sensed the abandonment Sensed the despair that accompanies sin if you think about it with a um Mom or a dad and their child right is it possible for mom to be at one time thinking of us now in this relationship to god the father so Righteously indignant over the activities of that child But at the same time love them like their own body their own flesh Yes, you can love and the same time be displeased because of what they're doing We experience our relationship with god the father in much the same way If you think about the lord jesus christ on the cross that only time where he sensed the the abandonment the forsakenness On the cross was during that time when he took our sin and bore our sin In himself on the tree what was lost During that time What was lost was the abiding experience of the love of god Of god's love for the lord jesus christ The experience of an abiding love relationship that god the father was replaced for a time By an experience of god's wrath being poured out on him as he bore our sin That was what was lost during that time For us When we live when we live in unrepentant disobedience We experience his fatherly displeasure If you're in christ Nothing will actually separate you from the love of god and him that's romans eight What will separate us from the love of god nothing But you will certainly in your disobedience lose the experience of that love for a time The experience of abiding then and that love is undermined undermined It's supplanted for a time by a guilty accusing conscience It's undermined or supplanted for a time by the pain of chastening enduring the fatherly displeasure of god And so in verses nine through eleven and john 15 the lord is saying listen stay Remain in the joy producing experience of the love of god like me By always doing those things which please him His love is my joy and we abide on that love by keeping his commandments now second point on your notes His delight then leads to my joy He delights in our obedience samuel asked the question Has the lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying The voice of the lord and that statement made by the prophet samuel in first samuel chapter 15 And i want you to turn there with me first samuel chapter 15 That comes right before second samuel First samuel chapter 15 And look with me beginning at verse one second first samuel first samuel chapter 15 Beginning in verse one We want to see an example here in the life of sol Now here is what is commanded right? We abide in his love by keeping his commandments In first samuel chapter 15 verse one.  Listen this sin Very serious in the eyes of god when israel came up out of egypt in exodus chapter 17 If you remember the story the amalekites Attacked israel at the rear of their ranks where the Weary or where the weak or They caught if you will The stragglers those who were having a difficult time the weak of the children of israel who were lagging behind And they attacked them at israel's rear The back of their ranks so to speak and so god incensed over the the wickedness of amalek the amalekites In deuteronomy 25 God promises in judgment to blot out the name of amalek from under heaven forever God is going to completely wipe them out and he planned to use israel as the instrument of his judgment against them So in first samuel 15 here The time for judgment has come Saul is commanded To wipe them out completely.  But now here is what sol did. That's what's commanded by god Righteously and justly commanded by god And now here's what sol did in verse nine drop down to verse nine first samuel 15 verse nine But sol and the people Spared agag agag was the leader of the amalekites here He spared agag and the best of the sheep The oxen the fatlings the lambs and all that was good in their eyes, right and were unwilling Despite the command of god, they were unwilling to utterly destroy them But everything despised and worthless That they utterly destroyed Do you see the sin? Look at verse 10 now the word of the lord came to samuel saying As a response to this this is god I greatly regret that i have set up sol as king For he has turned back from following me and has not Performed my commandments and it grieved samuel and he cried out to the lord all night now notice in verse 11 The fruit Of samuel's grief Over god's displeasure god's anger at this sin This rejection of the commandments of the lord sol did not obey Did not obey and samuel grieved by that grieved over god's displeasure The fruit of that and the fruit of his night of prayer in response to that grief Is a holy zeal now to obey god Notice the contrast between samuel here and sol Samuel grieved by sin Grieved by god's displeasure after having prayed all night now has a holy zeal to obey god sol Willy nilly disobeys god Look at verse 12 so verse 12 Samuel he didn't waste any time right he rose up early in the morning Samuel rose up early in the morning to meet sol it was told samuel saying sol went to carmel and indeed he has set up Set up a monument for himself Wow Right you see sol's sin just sin upon sin upon sin. That's the problem pride Self value not valuing god not fearing god He went to carmel.  Are you among women? This was sol's sol's response to the look on samuel's face when he saw samuel coming Blessed are you of the lord? I have performed the i've cleaned my room, right? I have performed the commandment of the lord No verse 14 But samuel said What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear Now sol said in verse 15 blaming on the people Blaming it on the people they right these people you've given me like that wife you gave me right These people you've given me they have brought them from the amalekites For the people spared the best of the sheep the oxen to sacrifice to sacrifice It's for a good cause samuel to sacrifice the lord your god and the rest the rest we have utterly destroyed Partial obedience is Total disobedience Partial obedience is total disobedience is disobedience verse 16 Samuel said to sol be quiet And I will tell you what the lord said to me last night And so sol said to him speak on So samuel said verse 17 when you were little in your own eyes Were you not Head of the tribes of israel And did not the lord anoint you king over israel? Look at all that god has done for you right look at the ways it's miraculous It's miraculous look at the ways in which god blessed sol God has blessed sol look at all that god has done for sol verse 18 now The lord sent you on a mission Sent you on a mission and he said go Utterly destroy the sinners the amalekites and fight against them until they are consumed Why then verse 19? Why then did you not obey the voice of the lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoils like a vulture right the sort of the picture Of vulture swooping in on the soil to consume it on his own lust Why did you swoop down on the spoil to do evil in the sight of the lord? This is evil in the sight of god So sol trying to Justify himself sol said to samuel But i've obeyed the voice of the lord And i've gone on the mission on which the lord sent me and brought back agag king of amalek And i have utterly destroyed the amalekites but Again blaming on the people But the people took of the plunder sheep and oxen the best things which should have been utterly destroyed To sacrifice to the lord your god and gilgale well the people Did that but who's standing next to sol agag Now make the application You say But i go to church I go to church almost every sunday I'm participating in group. You know i witnessed once a month on saturday I've obeyed the command of the lord I feel like i love the brothers The partial obedience is disobedience So samuel said verse 22 Putting his finger right on it samuel said Has the lord as great delight in religious trappings without heart obedience. Do you see Has the lord as great delight in religious ceremonies without heart obedience Has the lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in Obeying the voice of the lord and the answer to that question is an emphatic no And samuel says behold To obey Is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. Why why samuel verse 23 because Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry Because because you have rejected the word of the lord. He also has rejected you from being king Let me make a few points a few observations from this The first one is this why does god delight in obedience? Why does god delight in our heart obedience obedience from the heart? Because disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft Disobedience is as the sin of a witchcraft now witchcraft is essentially Rejecting the word of god And taking the word of a demon Witchcraft is essentially Heeding the words Of a witch Heeding the words of a demon heating the words of this heating anyone else's words, but god's words rebellion Rebellion is essentially Rejecting the word of god and heating your own words. Do you see? Rebellion against the commands of god is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity And idolatry second point. Why does god delight in obedience? Because disobedience is idolatry Disobedience is idolatry when god says one thing and we do another We put ourselves in the place of god When we stubbornly refuse to heed his word We rob god of the glory do his name because we put ourselves in the place of god making us idolaters Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry to Saul In first Samuel 15 finally owns up to his guilt finally in verse 24 look at verse 24 Then Saul said to Samuel Saul said I have sinned I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the lord and your words. Why because I feared the people And I obeyed their voice Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft right Stubbornness is as idolatry. He feared the people. He obeyed their voice instead of the voice of god It says here that Saul did that because he feared the people rather than fearing god So let me give you a third point Why does god delight in obedience?  He alone is lord and we're to fear him Now in all this Samuel our Saul Transgressed he failed to keep the commandments of god.  Isn't there in first Samuel 15 a stark contrast between the rebellious disobedience of sol and the zealous obedience of samuel and what god is saying is that That obedience is what i delight in God delights in the zealous obedience of his people Now it's also a certainly stark contrast Between sol and the king that would come after him The king that would come after him is described in scripture as a man after god's own heart A man after god's own heart. Look with me quickly at acts chapter 13. Why? Why was david described as a man after god's own heart A one indication of that given to us in acts 13 in the preaching of paul Acts 13 at paul preaching And in his sermon He says this beginning in verse 20 After that acts 13 20 after that he gave them judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet And afterward they asked for a king and so god gave them sol The son of kish a man of the tribe of benjamin for 40 years And when he had removed him he raised up for them david as king To whom he also gave testimony and said i have found david the son of jesse A man after my own heart. Why was he called that? Because he will do all my will. Do you see that in verse 22? He's a man after my own heart who will do all my will You know what became of sol? Back in first samuel What became of sol? The commands of god seemed to him a burdensome chore The kingdom Was eventually torn from him if you remember that story Saul was plagued by an evil spirit. He was plagued by jealousy greed Hatred murder sol suffered from bouts of madness bouts of depression He suffered defeat at the hands of the philistines The people around him became alienated from god and eventually in a final act of shame Final act of disobedience sol committed suicide And look how god had blessed sol God had blessed sol and yet sol persisted in disobedience Disobedience at its essence Is a defiance of the person and character and blessing and grace of god That's why he delights in obedience. It's why he delights in obedience And why obedience is the path to abiding in his love go back to john chapter 15 with me now john chapter 15 And look at verse 10 now from the text John chapter 15 And in verse 10 I experienced fullness of joy And I abide in his delighting love when I keep his commandments. Okay when I keep his commandments And that's Given to us in three components so to speak from this text. This is not an exhaustive list, but it's representative found in this text We abide in his delighting love When I keep his commandments by one Obeying like him when we obey like him verse 10 When I rejoice like him with his joy in verse 11 And when I love like him in verses 12 and 13 We talked about these briefly last week I abide in the love of god when I keep his commandments And his commandments comprise in this text of obeying like the lord jesus christ Rejoicing in that obedience like the lord jesus christ and loving like the lord jesus christ And verse 10 when I obey like him I abide in the love of god by keeping his commandments when I obey like him verse 10 If you keep his commandments you will abide in my love in the same way that I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love God the father delights in the obedience of the son And the son rejoices to always do those things which delight the father and so the son then abides in the delighting love And experiences the joy of the lord by always doing those things which please the father. Do you see Now in the same way verse 10 in the same way God the father god the son god the holy spirit delight in our obedience And it is the joy Of every genuine christian to do those things which please him if you're a christian It's the joy of your heart to please the lord You understand that's not a that's a that's a foundational issue in the christian life If you're a christian you delight you love to do those things which please him And so thinking about it now making the connection between us and christ We abide in his delighting love and we experience the joy of the lord Through our obedience to his commandments. You want to be joyful in your christian life obey the lord you want to be despairing joyless in your christian life disobey the lord right two When I obey like him number one two when I rejoice like him I abide In the love of the father. I abide in the love of the lord jesus christ when I keep his commandments and that When I rejoice like him in verse 11 These things I've spoken to you That my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full The very purpose of his commands now you think about this the commandments of god for his glory And for our good When god commands it is for our good that he commands And so those commandments can be our joy john would later write This is the love of god that we keep his commandments saying the same thing right? This is the love of god. How do we know we love god when we keep his commandments? This is the love of god that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome his commandments are our joy the son Rejoices to do those things which please the father And his joy in that becomes our joy When we abide in his love by keeping his commandments We share his joy As we share his obedience. Do you see? We share his joy as we obey Thirdly when I love like him When I obey like him when I rejoice like him when I love like him verse 12 This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends In that abiding love and in that abiding joy if that's Experienced through obedience Then that obedience is evidenced by our love for one another That obedience is evidenced by our love for one another. How can you say say that you love god whom you don't see? When you don't love your brother whom you do see See the connection that's being made Verse 13 explains that the extent of that love means dying for one another As he has died for you dying to self. This is self Sacrificing love That's a high calling, isn't it? It's a high calling Can't make apologies for that. Yes, it's a high calling and yes, we're to live that way Don't make excuses because it's a high calling It's a high calling for all those that follow him and we should love like he loves Striving to live up to that standard which the lord gives us here Now you think about it It's just a few short hours. They're on their way as they're having this conversation in john 15. They're on their way to the garden Garden of Gethsemane the lord's gonna pray Judas and the troops are going to come In just a few short hours the lord would be arrested. He would be tried and he'd be crucified in the place of his own And so he takes the statement that he just made in verse 13 And He references The sacrificial death that he would soon die for his own disciples for us if you're in christ in verse 14 He says You are my friends the word is philos there. It literally means loved ones. You are my loved ones if you do Whatever i command you But back to obedience, right Now note It's not that that obedience makes them friends of god, right Friends of jesus obedience doesn't make them friends obedience Marks them as friends You don't earn the love of god By your obedience you abide in the experience of god's love through your obedience That isn't that a cause for joy in our obedience to him To cause for joy in the christian life joy in in our obedience Second main point on your notes his delight his delight is my joy and he delights in us when we obey like him He delights in us when we rejoice like him and he delights in us when we love like he loves Third main point on your notes. His word is my joy. His word is my joy.   Why not? Why not? for because A servant a slave Does not know what his master is doing But I have called you friends there it is again philos loved ones. I have called you friends. Why? Because all things that I heard from my father I have made known to you Now notice here first in verse 15 The distinction between a slave and a friend Is not the distinction between obeying and not obeying. That's what the world might expect to hear, right? It's not the distinction between obeying and not obeying. You just said in verse 14. You are my friends if what? If you keep my commandments, right? This is not the distinction between slave and friend It's not the distinction between obeying and disobeying right the distinction Here in verse 15 is between knowing and not knowing Knowing his word Knowing all things that I heard from my father and not knowing his word in other words the distinction is based on revelation On the revelation that the lord jesus christ has given the revelation that god has given in christ A slave A slave is obligated to obey whether he understands what he's doing or not Whether he knows the plans and purposes and desires of his master or not a slave is obligated to obey But if you are a disciple of christ You have the blessing Of that kind of intimate knowledge that is denied to a slave You have the blessing of knowing god's heart God's purposes god's plan you have the blessing of the mystery revealed in christ You have the blessing of that revelation that is denied To a slave and he says beginning of verse 15. He says no longer, right? No longer are you mere slaves? You do not understand these things But now this is a transition to a a new period in salvific history a new period in redemptive history because now christ has come Right no longer are you mere slaves? You don't understand But now jesus says i've called you friends because i've made known to you god in me christ in his person christ in his work revealing god to them god's redemptive purposes god's redemptive plans The no longer in verse 15 points to something new and that new should be a cause for joy for us Should produce joy in your heart we live on this side of the cross We live with the the fullness of god's revelation in christ now up to this point There were two people in the old testament referred to as friends of god Two people abraham and moses Both referred to as friends on the basis of their relationship To him as god revealed himself to them turn with me quickly to exodus chapter 33 Let me give you one example of this in the life of moses exodus chapter 33 We can get there exodus 33 And then drop down to verse 11 just one example And i want you to make the connection here Really between us and moses or us and abraham In the sense that he referred to us as friends of god look at exodus 33 drop down to verse 7 moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp far from the camp and called it the tabernacle of meeting And it came to pass that everyone who sought the lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp So it was whenever moses went out to the tabernacle That all the people rose and each man stood at his tent door and watched moses until he had gone into the tabernacle And it came to pass when moses entered the tabernacle that the pillar of cloud descended And stood at the door of the tabernacle and the lord talked with moses. That's pretty awesome thought, right? All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door And all the people rose and worshiped each man in his tent door And so verse 11 the lord spoke to moses Face to face as a man speaks to his friend That's a beautiful description, right spoke with moses face to face and describes it as a man who speaks to his friend That's a beautiful picture of the relationship that moses had with god and moses implied by the text here Is a friend a friend of god And he would return to the camp but his servant joshua the son of a nun the son of none A young man did not depart from the tabernacle If you think about this now make the connection in jesus christ In jesus christ god Has spoken to us Face to face As a man speaks to his friend Now does that not cause joy in your heart? The revelation of god to us in jesus christ his son Now listen He's still curious He's still lord And you and i we are still douloi. We're slaves We're slaves who obey But we Live on this side of the cross This time in redemptive history Where god's supreme Revelation of himself has walked among us And now we behold him in the word of god face to face God has spoken at various times and in various ways to the father by the prophets, but now But now In these last days. He has spoken to us by his son In him in the lord jesus christ in his person in his teaching in his work In his example in the cross in his word We have the full Sweeping scope of god's intended revelation to man We don't have merely the law of god. We have christ And we see god's redemptive purposes Fulfilled in him. We see every promise of god. Yes, and amen in him And we still see in a mirror dimly right, but the day is coming When faith becomes sight and we shall see him as he is But i have this revelation now You have this revelation now And it's a glorious revelation his word is my joy Amen, his word your joy if you're a christian his word is your delight his word is your joy Jeremiah said old testament Jeremiah said your words were found and i ate them your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart For i am called by your name.  Abraham never called god his friend All right, and that's not because god is unfriendly moses Never referred to god as his friend God is The divine potentate And his right to rule his worthiness to be feared His worthiness to be worshiped Is in no way diminished by his grace in communicating with worms And i was a apart Incidentally, it's when the lord saved me In spite of the church that i was at the lord saved me i was a part of an awful a terrible church right terrible church packed full of lost people And that church loved to sing a song entitled i am the friend of god They sang that song When the church was chalk full of people who didn't value the revelation of god who didn't know their bibles No abiding interest in actually obeying god And in that sing in hypocrisy It's a blessing To be called a friend of god we Experience that love relationship with god the father as we abide in his word as we abide in the true vine As we abide and keep his commandments Fourth on your notes His mission his mission is my joy His mission leads to my joy verse 16 Verse 16 Lord says you did not choose me But i chose you And appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain That whatever you ask the father in my name he may give you After explaining that glorious blessing in verses 14 and 15 Calling them friends The lord wants to ensure them That it's not because of how smart they are How lovable they are How worthy they are the blessings Including the blessing of their own salvation is by the grace of god alone And it is two undeserving sinners This is true of the disciples then and it is true of you and i now You follow christ not because you are smarter than the people that don't You follow christ not because you're smarter you follow christ Not because you're holier than all the people that don't follow christ You follow christ verse 16 because he chose you Not because you chose him if you did choose him right then you have something about which you can boast But salvation is purely the gift of god not of works lest anyone should boast Psalm 65 verse 4 Blessed is the man you choose and cause to approach you that he may dwell in your courts Matthew chapter 20 verse 16 many are called but few are Chosen john chapter 1 verse 12 believers are born again not of blood Nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but they're born of god acts chapter 13 verse 48 When Gentiles heard the word of the lord as many as had been appointed to eternal life Believed roman's chapter 9 verse 16 salvation is not of him who wills Nor is it is it of him who runs, but it's of god who shows mercy Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 he shows us in him when Before the foundation of the world Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5 He has predestined us to adoption as sons by jesus christ to himself according to their works According to their lovableness No, according to the good pleasure of his own will roman's chapter 8 verse 30 Moreover those whom he predestined these he also called he justified and he glorified first peter chapter 1 verse 2 We are elect according to the foreknowledge of god second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 We are bound to give thanks to god always for you brethren be loved by the lord because god From the beginning chose you for salvation. Now that is just a small sampling, right? There was a hymn. It was popular back in the 50s the 1950s right 1950s usually like good hymns are gonna be 1750s 1650s right It's a hymn in the 1950s Called it an oldie, but it's not an oldie. It's a newie Um, it's written by c austin myles and the title of the hymn was a new name in glory A new name in glory and the way the hymn goes you look at him up. It's like god is busy Writing down the names of people in the lambs book of life as they come to salvation According to revelation 17 8 When were their names written in the book of life if they're in christ, yeah from before the foundation of the world God's choice God's electing god's choosing for salvation comes with three components Described in john chapter 15 verse 16 It comes with his appointment It comes with his purpose and it comes with his promise Quickly his appointment You did not choose me jesus says but i chose you and appointed you in other words He didn't merely choose you He set you apart from the world to himself and he gave you a mission You were appointed To a mission he gave you a work to do he appointed you to a purpose second timothy chapter 1 verse 9 God has saved us And called us with a holy calling not according to your works But according to his own Purpose he appointed you to a purpose right according to his own purpose and grace which was given to us in christ jesus when before time began Knowing that we've been saved from the wrath of god knowing that we've been forgiven of our sin is awesome But knowing that in doing that god has given us a purpose that purpose If you understand that that purpose should become the priority of your life That purpose God's purpose in saving you god's purpose Should become your life's priority He appointed us second. He appointed us to a purpose He says you did not choose me, but i chose you and appointed you That here's his purpose that you should go and bear fruit And that your fruit should remain and we spent time In verses 1 through 8 discussing what fruit he's referring to right the fruit of christian character The fruit of christian conduct fruit in the great commission oftentimes in scripture These fruits are lumped together or described as good works ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 We are his workmanship created in christ jesus for the purpose of good works Which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them Titus chapter 2 verse 14 jesus gave himself for us So that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works Titus chapter 3 verse 8 This is a faithful saying and these things i want you to affirm Constantly that those who have believed in god should be careful to maintain good works Peter comes along and says that if we want to make our calling and election sure We're going to be diligent to do these things. He says in chapter 1 verse 10 therefore brethren Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure how peter how by doing these things If you do these things in other words if you fulfill the purposes of god for you Peter says you will never stumble for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom Of our lord and savior jesus christ now specifically specifically in john chapter 15 verse 16 The fruit being referred here To the disciples and to us Is fruit in evangelism It is fruit in the mission that we've been called to We're going to preach tonight on the mission of the church. We've been called to a mission He's referring here specifically to fruit in evangelism Blessed by god Blessed by god in all the ways that we are we should be out laboring to bear fruit that remains the fruit that remains our souls for christ D. A. Carson said that a focus on evangelism and mission Is truly central to the lord's thought here You know, there are many Who don't study the bible? And so when I say something out of the bible, they want to argue that with their head in their heads, right? So I'll you know, I explain something that the bible says but like I you know, I'm a nobody so the Big propensity for somebody's and I don't believe that guy So every once in a while I have to use a name like d. A. Carson To substantiate what we're talking about here D. A. Carson said okay, if you don't believe me, believe d. A. Carson If you don't believe me, believe john mccarland. You don't believe me godly men who know the bible, right? Listen, there's no way around it believe the bible Evangelism this mission that we've been called to is central to the lord's thoughts here in john chapter 15 verse 16 We should be pursuing fruit in evangelism And if you abide in the love of god by keeping his commandments then keep his command to evangelize To share the gospel to bring disciples into the church to disciple them to make disciples obey that and experience the joy of the lord He says that now though with a promise His appointment his purpose and his promise You did not choose me I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain That whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give you Whatever you ask the father in my name, what a beautiful promise, right? We've seen this promise before John chapter 14 verse 13 whatever you ask in my name that I will do That the father may be glorified in the sun We're going to see it again in john chapter 16 verse 24 ask And you will receive that your joy may be full first john Chapter 3 verse 22 whatever we ask we receive from him Because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight Now we're commanded to abide and bear fruit We saw that in john chapter 15 verses 1 through 4 commanded to abide in the vine and bear fruit If you don't abide in the vine and bear fruit You are cast out as a branch and withered they gather them together and they throw them into the fire. That's hell Right You're commanded to abide in the vine and bear fruit We also know from john 15 5 that apart from him you can do nothing Apart from him you can do nothing that means that every good work that we do Right whenever you go and share the gospel every good work that you do in order to please him Everything must be done by faith in christ because apart from him we can do nothing Romans chapter 14 verse 23 whatever is not from faith is sin Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to god Must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. It's like Going to the doctor, right? I let's say i'm diagnosed with terminal cancer And I go to the doctor and the doctor checks me out and says mark I can cure you I can cure now. Let's say he's a really really really trustworthy doctor So I say doc I trust you Is that the end of the treatment If I trust him I'm going to do What he tells me to do listen take this medicine three times a day. I'm going to take it one time a day partial obedience is Deadly disobedience. No, I'm going to take it three times a day. He tells me to take it three times a day Right, I'm going to come in for my treatments and I'm not going to miss one I'm going to come at why because I trust the doctor the doctor said he could cure me and I believe him So I do what the doctor says to do if I say I trust him and I don't do anything the doctor tells me to do I don't trust him. I don't believe I don't believe him Pretty simple, right prayer Is an expression or a demonstration of that faith in christ that faith in god Prayer is a demonstration of it an expression of it How can you in your christian life keep yourselves from doing things in your own power? How can you keep yourselves from doing works in your own strength according to your own will?  Do you see? Don't do works in self effort apart from christ. You can do nothing So lean on the spirit of god depend upon christ you pray Now what does it mean here to pray in jesus's name? Does it mean that when you pray Whatever you're praying for That by tacking on at the end in jesus's name means you get whatever you want No That's not a formula. It's not a ritual not a mantra. You know I want that new Cadillac. I want that new house. I want that new boat And at the end in jesus name No, that's not in jesus.  It's not a spirit language It's a spirit of god interceding with god on our behalf We have christ as our advocate mediating on our behalf In all of that right if you're praying that way in his name Then that's the kind of prayer that james describes As the faithful prayer of a righteous man and what does he say about that prayer? It's effective. It's effective It's effective It's by the means of that righteous prayer that god intends to produce fruit through you It's an expression of our faith our dependence upon him all of that so that god gets the glory You don't I don't god gets the glory If you're not praying you're gonna be fruitless Why? Because you're not going to get the glory You're not going to get the glory for those things god is going to get the glory Pray when you go out evangelizing pray that god would convert that sinner. You know what god converts sinners Ain't nobody does that through his word the preaching of the gospel. So preach the gospel and pray And god will get the glory and it'll be for your good He wraps up in verse 17 with a book end These things I command you that you love one another You know, it's interesting as we close There's one that's missing out on all this. This is glorious glorious truth, right? I just I love this text I love all the promises of god Um, just it's this focus on who jesus is and his joy and our joy in him and his love for us It's just it's glorious and it's beautiful But who's missing out on all this? It's judas judas is missing out on this Judas at the end of the supper Slinks off into the dark on his wicked errand And in doing that he rejects all of this He rejects it It's like a worthless thing to him a common thing to him. He rejects the love of god Meditate on that from the love of god verse nine He rejects the promises of god He rejects all the blessings of god He rejects salvation certainly Right. He rejects communion with god his creator in prayer He rejects joy fullness of joy lasting settled determined joy He rejects heaven Ultimately, he rejects the darling of heaven. He rejects jesus christ himself What will you do? What will you do?  And you live heart soul mind and strength by faith in the son of god who died and gave himself for you You do that and you get all of this blessing You live for him and in living for him. There is joy unspeakable Fulness of joy pleasures at his right hand forever more Or you'll leave this room today. You'll you'll march out the front doors of this church like Judas You go out into the dark Rejecting all of that. What for your own? Will your own desires your own wicked sin Temporary fleeting joy that will disappear the moment you close your eyes in this life and open them in hell That is what? absurd foolishness Turn to christ Put your faith in him put your trust in him cast yourself upon him cling to his cross by faith Clean to him by faith live for him and experience that that's the christian life That is what is offered to you and it's offered to you by the pure grace and favor of a merciful god Who desires that all men are saved and they come to a knowledge of the truth He doesn't have to do that But he does he makes provision for your sin if you'll turn to him amen Let's pray Father in heaven what we worship you we praise you we thank you You are so gracious to us God i pray that we would meditate on these truths you would take them By your spirit and you would plunge them into the depths of our heart so that they take Firm root in our heart and bear fruit for your glory God help us to live for you help us lord by the strength that your spirit supplies To live out the mission that you've given us to live to preach the gospel to lost people to see Disciples made to disciple them lord teaching them to observe all things that you've commanded us For your glory for your name For your fame for your eternal and everlasting praise and worship Help us to do this and help us to to abide in you Enjoy in doing those things help us lord not to see obedience to you as some heartless burden But to see obedience to you as our joy as our desire lord as our blessing as grace from you We love you lord. We love you and We still contend with this flesh god help us Help us strengthen us by your spirit. We know that apart from you we can do nothing So help us to do all things by faith In him who died and gave himself for us in jesus name. We pray amen


and software projects there. We are open on Thursday evening. Welcome to join us. We have the address below. It's beside Shenzhen University metro station. So LFS has a lot of variations. The first is LFS itself. It compiles. So it will build a Linux distribution on the 86 architecture to the x86 architecture. So with this variation, you will know there were no chance to have the course compile. And there are other variations. The first is embedded LFS. It means you build a Linux distribution from ARM to ARM, for example. And it will not include the course compile too. But it will be much slower since ARM is not that high performance as Intel CPUs. The other, the third is what I am going to talk about. It's CLFS, which is called Cross Linux from scratch. And we have some websites and URLs listed here. And why I chose this is because I have a high performance laptop. So I can build a kernel and other binaries more quick. So the other question is why I want to have my CLFS project? Since it's, I can build my own distribution. So I can control everything. I can have all of the source code and compiling them into binaries, including the kernel, the kernel drivers and device tree and other executables. And it's pretty small. It's only 65 megabytes. And it can be even smaller. On a CLFS website, it can be as small as eight megabytes. It can use busybox instead of a full functional set of tools. So it can, you can make it customized for your own PCB. And by doing CLFS, you can get an idea of how operating system boots itself. And you can use the, try the CLFS with a full emulated environment without any hardware. So that make it more easy to access instead of buying a lot of hardware, power them up and burn the SD cards, burn the images into SD cards. So that's the reason why I want to build a CLFS myself. I choose Raspberry Pi to build since there are Q emulator system ARM which provided Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi 3 for emulation. So the Raspberry Pi 2 itself is a Cortex A7 32-bit ARM. With the, here with the link, you can find more information about the ARM itself. Before, before CLFS, you need to know the architecture of the processor itself. It must be accurate. If you build a MIPS architecture binary for our ARM CPU, it will not run for sure. And after we get the information of the architecture itself, the second is build bin utils. It includes assembler and object copy, object dump and some other executables which we will use them to make other binary files. These, the bin utils are compiled and installed on host PC. And the second is we will build a cross compile to chain which is ARM Linux Moosl EABIGCC. In other variations, you can see that there are ARM Linux none, ARM Linux EABIGCC. These are variations of the, these are variations of the standard C libraries. These two are also compiled and installed on host PC. And the second is to get the Linux headers. You need to download the kernel, the kernel source itself, and then unzip it to a folder and make the default config and then compile the folder using the cross compile to chains which here, here I see that CLFS arch means the ARM Linux Moosl EABIGCC. So with this configured, you can use the cross compile to chains to compile the source files. It means that you will compile the source code on x86 architects and build the banners into ARM architecture. With these steps, you will have the header and the Linux config itself installed. These are some, this is how I built the ARM Linux Moosl EABIGCC. With this architect, with this, with this lines, you can get a executable on, on your host PC. Well, these are export, the default cross compile, cross compile into the variables. So when you log in at the CL, user of CLFS, you will have the environment variables preset. Here is another step. You can create the directory structure. It will create a lot of directories for example, the bean booty device, et cetera. These are the, these are the file folders you see on an Linux file system. And you will set the, set the flags here for the folders for different users to access. And the next step is to create a password for the group and file last log files. The EDC password file has a record for different users. You can see the user names here and it's a group, group number and some other information. And this is the default, default shell. Being false means you cannot log in. So EDC password is an important file which needs kernel usage to manage the different users. And the other file is the EDC group which is similar to EDC password. Sorry, there's a P missing. It has a group names inside and the number is group number. And this step you will build and install the lab GCC into your target system. And this is important for other executable binaries. Other executable binaries will call this dynamic link file to execute. And the next is IANA, et cetera. It will create a, it will download some file from the internet to get the default port and the service name related informations. And with that, you can see the 22 port is for SSH log in default and the 80 is for HTTP service. These are only a list and a part of the file itself. It has a lot of other information and other services inside. And here comes to the very important step, build the kernel itself. You have already downloaded the kernel source file yet. And now it's time to build the kernel itself. The first line is to make the directory clean. And the second and the third here is here make BCMR 2709 is for config, use the default config files for Raspberry Pi 2. You can find this information on the link here. And the second is build the source file with seven threads. And the third is to build the Z image and modules and the device trace. These are, the Z image is a kernel image and modules are for hardware drivers and the DTBS are for device trace which kernel use to configure the different hardware. This will take about half an hour. And then you will have your Z image ready which you will use it later. And the last line is to install the compiled files into the target system. Then your target file system will have the kernel module and the kernel installed. And here are a list of very useful boot loaders. You can choose one of them to boot. And now you already have a kernel and the file system. You can try to run it on Q emulator, which I have the link here. I will try it later. With that you can run ARM operating system on your Intel PC. Here are some of my future plans. Although the talk is about CLFS, but I haven't finished the CLFS yet. The operating, the file system has some error. I will try to figure them out later in several days. And the second is there are, there are no package manager in LFS which is quite important to a distribution. In Derby and variations we use ABT and DBKG. In other variations we use Zfer or Pacman. These are very important to Linux distribution. But we haven't mentioned it here. And here are some of my potential errors. Since I use this cross compile link, cross compile LD to see if the binary compiled is right, but it says cannot find entry symbol start. So I may have got something wrong with the compiling method. And I want to mention that Q emulator is a very good tool for LFS. You can save you a lot of time without dealing with the hardware errors. And okay, I will show something here. You will print all the information out. And here you can see the Raspbian GNU Linux is loaded. It means that the file system goes well. And the green okay shows that the system D is setting up different services. But it's not using my file system. It's using existing file system by using the hardware, but using the kernel and the kernel modules I have built. It will take some minutes. So let's do, welcome to visit Shenzhen DIY. We have open day in every Thursday evening. You can find more information on our website, Shenzhen, at the DIY door or RG. So do you have any questions? Using Linux for me is very important. So I want to know how the operating system works. And there's a friend told me that LFS is a good start to know the detail of Linux kernel and all the process which it will invoke when booting. And it's a challenge to manage the, a lot of source code and banners on your existing file system. And it's quite good. So do you have any questions? Yeah, reduce the size, right? It's not important to this distribution. So the stripe means remove the debug symbols from the banner, so the program size can be much, much smaller. And but the set effect, no, no the effect is that you cannot use GDB to log the debug the program with its symbols. You cannot see the function's name and all the detailed information inside. But in other ways, you can make the debug information into another file and you can load it to your GDB using some other way. So after the strip, the dynamic link file will be pretty much smaller. You can see here that it can log in now. Okay, that's all of it. Thank you.


The first item of business is portfolio questions. I could ask for questions and answers to be as succinct as possible. First of all, we have culture, tourism and external affairs. Question number one, Jamie Greene. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the culture secretary has had with local authorities regarding their capacity to deal with tourist numbers over the summer. Fiona Hyslop. I've had a number of discussions with local authorities regarding tourism, which have included issues around tourist numbers. The Scottish Government recognises the need to encourage sustainable tourism, and we've taken proactive measures to address the impact of increased visitors, such as through the successful development of our £6 million rural tourism development fund. Jamie Greene. I thank the cabinet secretary for that helpful response. This increase in tourism is very welcome to island communities but also has additional pressures, including islanders' abilities to access the islands themselves, with pressures on ferries, including passengers and vehicles. Can I ask what the current secretary is doing to promote off-season tourism, to perhaps help and relieve and flatten some of those peaks and spikes in summer tourism? Fiona Hyslop. That's a very important part of growing tourism, is to make sure that we can help support tourism throughout the year. I think that recent experience has been that the season has actually been growing. Obviously, in terms of different experiences having winter activities, it's very important, but also indoor facilities. The growth of distilleries and visitor attractions in distilleries, providing inside experiences for tourism tourists during the winter period, has also been very attractive, so trying to make sure that we can have provision right throughout the year is a vital part of spreading tourism. Most important for island economies is making sure that we have a sustainable source of those willing to work in the tourism industry because they have families and they need to have incomes throughout the year. I took part in a tourism summit on isla at the invitation of Brendan O'Hara and Michael Russell as the local MP in MSP. Again, that was one of the issues that they had, was how to extend the season. Isla, for example, is having a food festival in September or October. Again, I think that that is part of trying to extend the season. Kenneth Gibson Thank you, Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary will be aware that a road equivalent tariff is reduced car fares by some 57 per cent, leading to record numbers of visits to Arrancumbria, boosting island economies. Additional ferry now sales are drawn into Broerick route for seven months, greatly increasing capacity relative to when this Government came into office. However, reliability is a key issue. Can the cabinet secretary comment on how resilience funds will be used to minimise ferry disruptions, which are happening now and islanders fear may happen throughout the summer season? Fiona Hyslop I understand that, in relation to that last point, funding was provided £4 million as a resilience fund in 2018 to invest in services to ensure future reliability and availability of vessels. I am not the transport minister, I am not responsible for ferries but I absolutely understand their importance to islands economies and to tourism. I think that people will probably forget what a difference a road equivalent tariff made when it was introduced in 2014. Across the piece, we saw an increase in 60 per cent in cars and transport and 40 per cent increase in passenger numbers. That is great in creating demand, but it also causes pressures. I take a keen interest as a tourism secretary in what is happening with the ferries and their operation, but I think that resilience fund and that additional investment to help to invest in our vessels to improve reliability will, I hope, prove helpful particularly for the season ahead. Claire Baker Although some local authorities may be facing capacity pressures, other areas of Scotland would welcome more tourists and the income that comes from that. Can the cabinet secretary outline any work that has planned to better understand the pattern of tourism in Scotland and consider how we can promote other areas and activities that would help support sustainable tourism and to spread the opportunities that there are across the whole of Scotland? Fiona Hyslop That is a hugely important point. The member will be aware of our campaign for the south of Scotland, particularly, which has seen Visit Scotland investing in a new promotional film but also helping in terms of the infrastructure. For example, I have recently announced £200,000 for Glen Tress to improve mountain biking in the border area to help to invest in that attraction. Only this morning, I was in Aberdeen. I was speaking at the Aberdeenshire visa Aberdeenshire conference. It is very important to promote their particular area to make sure that people can find it accessible. I was delighted to hear the news that the New York Times has said that the north-east of Scotland is one of the top 25 places to visit this year. In terms of our promotion from Visit Scotland, we are absolutely making sure that the wider areas are being promoted. A very good example of that, for example, is working with Wildebat or Gile, where our Gile has twinned with Glasgow to ensure that visitors can come into Glasgow but then can visit rural areas in the west coast of Scotland. Those are initiatives to try and encourage people, if they are in the central belt, to go out and to visit more geographically remote, but to absolutely interesting and fascinating places to visit across Scotland. I know that there is a lot of answers to some of those questions, but if you could try and shorten your answers, please, cabinet secretary. Sorry, just as well. Question 2, John Mason. To ask the Scottish Government what support it can give towards the annual running costs of the Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre in Glasgow. Fiona Hyslop. We value our relationships with our Jewish communities and the significant and important contributions that they make to Scottish society. The Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre shares in our ambition to promote interfaith dialogue to strengthen and enhance connections across communities to lower barriers, eliminate fear and increase understanding. I recognise the importance of learning about the Holocaust as well as taking action to tackle religious prejudice, including anti-Semitism. I urge the centre to explore museum accreditation and related support with Museum Gallery Scotland. Additionally, the next wave of the Scottish Government's promoting equality and cohesion fund will be open for application in 2020. I would suggest that the centre considers developing an application in the coming year for relevant projects. John Mason. I thank the cabinet secretary for what I think is an encouraging reply. I would just ask if she could agree with me and I think with the Jewish community that it is not just about the Holocaust but there is an ignorance about Judaism, Jewish history and the Jewish way of life. There has been a considerable Jewish community in Scotland and all of those things can lead to anti-Semitism if people do not understand properly. Fiona Hyslop. I absolutely agree. I think that the more understanding there is, the better the tolerance appreciation and the celebration of the variety of different religions and cultures that we have in Scotland. I think that that is a very important part of promoting the positives and the experiences that other people perhaps do not understand. I think that the point is very well made by John Mason. To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of a tourist tax on the tourism sector in Edinburgh and Lothian. Fiona Hyslop. We held a national discussion on tourist taxes involving the industry and local authorities to develop a shared understanding of the evidence, challenges and potential impacts of tourist taxes. We held roundtables across Scotland, including in Edinburgh stakeholders, including UK hospitality and Edinburgh council, provided written evidence and we published it on 7 March. As part of the budget deal with the only party who engaged, we will formally consult on principles of a locally determined tourist tax in 2019 and then introduce legislation. It will be for the individual councils to assess local circumstances before deciding whether to use the power. Miles Briggs. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Leaders of hotel, hospitality and tourism groups in Edinburgh have voiced their opposition and concerns to the plans for tourist tax in the capital. It is fair to say that the cabinet secretary's support for the proposal has been somewhat lukewarm to date. Given those concerns, does she believe that a tourist tax is a good idea for Edinburgh and Scotland's tourism sector? Fiona Hyslop. This is an issue for Edinburgh council working with the Edinburgh community and the Edinburgh businesses to determine. I stand by what we have agreed as part of our budget negotiations had the Conservatives come to the table in any meaningful shape or form, perhaps the budget discussions might have been different, but we have honoured our commitment. We will honour our commitment. There will be an introduction of consultation followed by legislation. One of the things that our previous national discussions showed us was that it was really complex. It is not a simple perspective. Even today, when I was in Aberdeen, the views there were that although some local authorities may want to introduce it, some may not, the read across between different local authorities and what they do would be important. Therefore, a level playing field across Scotland was something that we heard from. That is going to be all part of the discussions that local authorities are going to have to take. However, if people want to present those arguments, I would encourage them to take part in the consultation on the legislation that will follow as part of our budget negotiations. Supplementary from Kezia Dugdale. Thank you. Despite what Miles Briggs said, there is widespread support for a tourist tax across Edinburgh, not least from the SNP and Labour council administration. Last week, the cabinet secretary was reported as saying that it would not be in place until 2021. Is she aware that the council has actually budgeted for it to be in place next year? In light of the delay that she announced last week, she will now have to make a further 10 million pounds worth of cuts to the local council budget. Can she tell us where she thinks those cuts should come from? Fiona Hyslop. The member has been a member of this party for some time. She will know the legislative process and procedure that takes place when introducing new legislation in relation to decisions that Edinburgh council will make. That is the matter for Edinburgh council. However, we will consult, as agreed in 2019. There will be legislation in 2020. This Parliament will consult and take forward the legislation as it normally does. So there is no delay. This is the normal process for a normal piece of legislation going through the Parliament. I thought that the member would understand the processes that she takes part in for any piece of legislation in this Parliament. Question 4, Mike Rumbles. To ask the Scottish Government when it will next meet Screen Scotland. Fiona Hyslop. I am meeting with Isabel Davies, the Executive Director of Screen Scotland on the 21st of March. I meet regularly with the chair of Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government officials who attend the meetings of Creative Scotland's Screen Committee. Mike Rumbles. Is the cabinet secretary aware that, apart from the Scottish film Talent Network, mainly funded by lottery funding, there is very little support to help talented young short film makers from Scotland enter the industry? Indeed, the annual closure date for the applications of the very few film talent networks available coming up in just 11 days' time, what financial assistance can the Scottish Government give to aspiring and talented Scottish short film makers after this date? I think that the member makes a very important point about the opportunities for young filmmakers, particularly in the early parts of their careers and the importance of being able to make short films. Short films are a good way of getting into recognition. I am not sure what I can do in the next 11 days, but certainly the issue of how Screen Scotland will be developing and supporting young talent is something that I will raise on the 21st of March. I will raise his concerns with the director when I return on the 21st of March. Supplementary from Rachael Hamilton. Thank you, Presiding Officer. We know that the work of the UK Government to promote the screen sector in this country has really seen the sector thrive. There has been a £632 million tax relief to the industry, which has generated a further £3 billion investment to the production of TV programmes and films across the UK. Does the cabinet secretary agree that the large tax relief from the UK Government has been instrumental to the growth of the screen sector in Scotland? Is she confident that Screen sector Scotland is on target to meet its projected growth targets? Fiona Hyslop. On that latter point, yes, we have seen very strong production growth figures. That is before we see the results of the doubling of film investment from the Scottish Government. I completely agree that the tax measures that the UK Government to introduce have been game changer in many regards. We were very supportive of them and campaigned for tax relief in this area and indeed in other aspects of the creative industries. Funny enough, that argument was something that I used with the tourism industry this morning where, if we could reduce that, for example, currently at 20 per cent, we could make a big difference in terms of helping that industry in particular, but she is absolutely right in terms of the trajectory of the film industry. I am very confident that not only will they meet their targets but the screen leadership board's recommendations are being delivered and delivered well, and there are ambitious targets within that and they are on track to meet them. 5. Richard Lyle Thank you, Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Government how it is accommodating ethnic groups that have applied to be included in the census for the first time in 2021. Fiona Hyslop. National Records of Scotland set out proposed questions for inclusion in census 2021. All requests for changes to questions were considered according to user need, data quality, existing data sources and operational considerations. Requests were made for census data on Roma, show people, Sikh and Jewish populations. Testing of the changes being considered for the ethnic group question completed in February. NRS is holding events on 27 March and 28 May to share the findings with stakeholders. The results of the testing will be published on the NRS website prior to these events. The questions for the 2021 census will be considered by Parliament as part of the subordinate legislation process on which engagement will begin shortly and continues through to next year. Richard Lyle I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I refer members to my register of interests. I am the convener of the showman's guild Scotland cross-party group. Over the past few years, I have been working with the showman's guild to ensure that the section for show people is included in the next census. Show people are not travellers, not gypsies. They are a distinct ethnic group. Census officials have been supportive of the proposal. I seek the assurance of the cabinet secretary that she will help me to ensure that they are added to the census. Fiona Hyslop I understand that the findings from the testing of an alternative ethnic group question showed that the inclusion of a tick box for show people was acceptable. I understand that that may well be recommended for inclusion. I am supportive of my view, but I would also refer the member to my answer to the first question. It is the Parliament through the subordinate legislation that will finally determine what questions will be asked in the census. James Kelly Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Government what its priorities are for the external affairs budget spend in 2019-20. Fiona Hyslop Scotland's international framework sets out how our international work supports the Scottish Government's central purpose of creating a more successful country with opportunities for all to flourish through increasing sustainable economic growth. The external affairs budget supports our commitment to strengthening our European and international relationships, funding our commitment as a good global citizen, facilitating trade and investment actions and ultimately achieving our overarching objective. In 2019-20, the majority of the budget will be focused on delivering our international development programme and deepening and strengthening our network of external offices. James Kelly I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I understand the importance of having a presence internationally in the Scottish Government having offices in other countries. However, in terms of the spend that has been budgeted for next year, it is increasing from £17.2 million to nearly £24 million and an increase of nearly 40 per cent in cash terms. I ask the cabinet secretary why council budgets have been reduced by £230 million. The priority of protecting communities, saving jobs and services is not a debate. Why has that been given a lower priority than the external affairs budget? Fiona Hyslop My understanding was that James Kelly was the finance spokesperson for the Labour Party. I may be wrong, so I am happy to be corrected. He will understand that local government has not seen the reductions that he said and that, in terms of our support for local authorities, it has been positive. If he is a member of the finance committee—I am not sure if he has served on the finance committee—all of the increase in the external affairs budget of £6.7 million in the 2020 budget is due entirely to a change in the way that running costs of staffing, for example, are presented across the Scottish Government. Those were previously presented separately but are now included within ministerial portfolios at the request of the Scottish Parliament and its finance committee. Mr Kelly, I think that you should do your homework. Alex Rowley To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what support it is providing in response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Fiona Hyslop The Scottish Government donated £250,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee deck Yemen Crisis Appeal when it was launched in December 2016. In July 2018, the Scottish Government provided a further £100,000 from the humanitarian emergency fund to support Mercy Corps to provide 6,000 Yemeni households and 42,000 people with safe drinking water. We have also provided 25 Yemeni women with training and capacity building in the areas of mediation, conflict resolution, reconciliation and constitution building through the Scottish Government-funded Women in Conflict 1325 fellowship with Beyond Borders Scotland. Alex Rowley Well done on those commitments. 85,000 children under five have starved to death since 2015, and one child dies every 10 minutes from a preventable cause in Yemen. Oxfam states that the majority of the civilian casualties have resulted from airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition. Can I ask the cabinet secretary, has the Government made representations to the UK Government with regards to the violation of international law that is taking place right now, the hunger crisis that exists as a result and the armed sales from the UK to Saudi Arabia? Fiona Hyslop Yes, I have previously made representations. The Scottish Government has made representations to the UK Government about their role in relation to Saudi Arabia and also in relation to their ability and capability to end the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. It must do so, and it must do so now. Export licences, as you will be aware, are a reserved matter, but there is clear evidence that munitions supplied by the United Kingdom have been used in breach of international law in Yemen. I commend the member for continuing to raise the issue of Yemen. That has caused devastation to so many people, particularly children. There is a clear responsibility that the UK Government can take. If it wants to be a global citizen, it needs to behave as a global citizen, and he is absolutely right to raise the issue in this Parliament. Fiona Hyslop I apologise to Mr Beattie for not having reached his question, and we will move on to the next portfolio, which is education and skills. I remind all members that this is question time and not speech making time. If that was adhered to as far as questions and answers were concerned, we would certainly get through all questions and have more supplementaries. The Scottish Government what its response is to the recent survey by Given Time, which found that only 19 per cent of parents knew of the right to defer entry into primary school for children born between September and December. John Swinney Presiding Officer, I am grateful to Given Time for raising awareness of the issue. I reassure parents that implementation of curriculum for excellence early level and good transition arrangements should make the journey from early learning and childcare into primary education seamless and minimise the need for school deferral. However, it is important that parents are able to make informed choices for their child. The Minister for Children and Young People met the representatives of the Given Time campaign in December. The Scottish Government and COSLA are now working together to improve the clarity of information available to parents at a national and local level. I expect all local authorities to provide clear and consistent information on school deferral arrangements. Fulton MacGregor I thank the cabinet secretary for that response. He may be aware that the approval rates for granting discretionary funding for massive provision for children whose parents choose to defer is inconsistent across councils, including 13 per cent and 100 per cent. What is more, at least 13 local authorities do not even permit parents to retain their child's place in a council setting and self-financing. What more does he think that councils can do to support parents who choose to defer their four-year-old children and access an additional year at nursery? John Swinney The issue remains that the local authorities' discretion as to whether or not children with a birthday between August and 31 December are entitled to additional early learning and childcare funding. I would expect local authorities to make this decision based on assessment of wellbeing. I set out in the early learning and childcare statutory guidance that accompanied the Children and Young People Scotland Act 2014. Who would defer Lisbyn, considered that parents should be provided with accurate information and should be fully involved in the decision making process? Does the cabinet secretary not think that there is simply an anomaly here whereby parents have the right to defer entry to school quite correctly, but then find that for many of them that means that they lose their child's right to funded places at nursery? Is the simplest thing not simply to change the law? Why can't we do that? John Swinney I think that the answer is to the point that Mr Gray raises in the first answer that I gave to Mr McGregor, in that what we conceive to be the contents of the early level of curriculum for excellence, which, as Mr Gray will know, is a play-based approach to learning supported by good transition arrangements, should make the journey from early learning and childcare into primary education a straightforward journey. The flexibility is there to accommodate the particular issues that are raised in the question. Equally, the arrangements under the early level curricular approach address many of those questions into the bargain to make sure that we are making judgments about the interests, needs and perspectives of individual children. Question 2, Mary Fee. To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support school pupils on part-time timetables. John Swinney Presiding Officer, support for pupils on part-time timetables is provided through included, engaged and involved parts 1 and 2, which provide guidance on the promotion of attendance and the management of exclusion. Both recognise the importance of continued engagement in order to fulfil pupils' learning potential. Part 2 makes clear that flexible or part-time arrangements, and I quote, should be for a short, agreed period with the aims and conditions around that recorded in any support plan. That is the end of the quote. It is for education authorities to ensure that pupils receive the support that they need to benefit from educational opportunities in line with their responsibilities for the provision of education. Mary Fee Can I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer? The Scottish Government is starting to collect information on the number of children on part-time timetables, and it needs to make clear the level of use and the reason for such actions by schools. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that any pupil on a part-time timetable should be on one for their own benefit and it must be meaningful to their education? John Swinney I agree with that perspective. As I indicated in my answer, the use of part-time timetables should be for a short, agreed period with a clearly defined purpose. That is what the guidance clearly states, and I very much endorse the points raised by Mary Fee. Supplementary Oliver Mundell To ask the cabinet secretary whether he shares my concern that some young people are being excluded from the classroom for large parts of the day, without meaningful educational input, and in some rural areas are being supervised by parents and volunteers. What will the Scottish Government do to address that? John Swinney Fundamentally, the responsibility for tackling those issues lies with the individual local authority. That is the responsibility that carries the responsibility, the statutory responsibility for delivery of education at local level. The local authority has to satisfy itself in all circumstances that a child's education is being fulfilled. That is what the law says. The guidance that is put in place through included, engaged and involved, as I have said to Mary Fee in relation to questions of part-time timetables, should be as part of an agreed process for the improvement of the interests of individual young people. The guidance also is emphatic on the importance of ensuring inclusion in all aspects of learning for young people and for the minimisation of exclusion from learning. The Scottish Government knows what action it is taking to tackle assaults on teachers and classroom assistance. It is not acceptable for anyone working in our schools to be assaulted verbally or physically. We are continually working with local authorities to support schools in developing positive and inclusive learning environments. We have produced guidance on approaches to include and engage pupils in their education. We are funding various violence reduction and preventative approaches, such as the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme and the No-Knives Better Lives initiative. Our aim is to foster positive relationships and behaviour within a school, as well as a longer-term impact on the wider community. Margaret Mitchell Thank you, cabinet secretary, for that answer. Is he aware that in the past three years, teachers have been tacked on more than 16,000 times with these attacks increasing in the last year? According to FOI responses, weapons include knives, a BB gun, a chemical cleaner, a wood watch, so all have been used, resulting in injuries, including torn ligaments, dislocated joints and one case of whip blasts. In view of that, does the cabinet secretary consider the action that he has just outlined—I appreciate that it was quite detailed—is sufficient to ensure that teachers and school staff feel safe in the classroom? John Swinney The first thing that I want to say is that, in no circumstances has any instance of violence in any way acceptable or excusable in any situation and particularly not in a school. Whatever else I say today, I want to make that point absolutely crystal clear. The context for that is important. If we look at the number of police-recorded crimes of handling an offensive weapon, for example, we have seen a fall of 65 per cent in those crimes since 2006-07 to 2017-18. We have seen a huge decline in the number of exclusions from our schools in the periods since 2006-07. We have seen significant reductions in violence in our society and in our schools, but I accept that there are still examples of that. I have set out to Margaret Mitchell and she has said that there are a number of initiatives and approaches that I pointed out. I think that those are effective. I think that the mentors in violence reduction programme is very successful. The No Knives Better Lives campaign has been very successful in changing the culture around knife carrying, and we are seeing much of that learning being looked at by other jurisdictions, particularly the city of London, for what has been achieved. Having said all of that, I am absolutely committed to working with the teaching profession and local authorities to make sure that we make violence in our schools a thing of the past, so that teachers, classroom assistants and any other member's staff or any other pupils should not be subjected to it. Stuart McMillan To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to promote STEM subjects for pupils across Scotland during 2019-19, which marks the bicentenary of the death of James Watt. Richard Lochhead James Watt's achievements make a significant contribution to Scotland's long and proud history of science, engineering and invention. We are committed to promoting STEM to everyone in Scotland and on 13 March we announced our funding for the fourth Scottish Science Centre's worth over £2.6 million in 2019-20. That funding will support events and activities seen by around 700,000 people next year, making science accessible hopefully for all ages and helping to inspire our future scientists. In addition, we are establishing a new young STEM leaders programme and have introduced Mathsweek Scotland's part of further measures to promote STEM to young people. Stuart McMillan I thank the minister for that reply. As the minister will know, STEM subjects are vital for our economy and also for the Scottish Government that has introduced the range of measures which I generally welcome. With the UK Government's Brexit care already leading to challenges in academic funding and also job security, what can the Scottish Government do to ensure that our school pupils are taught about Scottish inventors and inventions in order to help them to realise that Scotland has always been a contributor to global progress? Richard Lochhead Stuart McMillan highlights a very topical and important issue in that, if we are taken out of Europe against our will, we will lose many of the people with the vital skills that will require for the future of the Scottish economy, and therefore it will be even more important to encourage people to adopt those skills and learn them in their own country, which means inspiring our young people to take part in STEM activities and hopefully consider STEM careers as part of their future. That is why it is so important that we continue to support many initiatives across Scotland that are working with school pupils in particular, and indeed I was at a company just last week where the apprentices who were there are effectively STEM ambassadors for their company and they go out and speak to local schools about their careers. We have to reinforce and support in any way that we can do those kinds of activities, but let us focus on stopping Scotland from taking it out of Europe in the first place. Before I call question 5, can I draw members' attention to the headphones on your desk that can be used for simultaneous translation of Gaelic, if required? Question 5, Alasdair Allan. Rwy'n nhw'ch rheolthus na halupe, na haith i'n ffgwsgru ar y gwrth, ddych chi'n nhw'ch chi'n rhaid ar eich ares yn sy'n nhw'ch chi'n nhw'ch eitgen oigri i cefael i Gaelic yn sy'n heil yn un i'r hyn. The Scottish Government is working with partners to put in place a range of actions to strengthen the Gaelic language in the western isles, with the aim of increasing the proportion of young people who speak Gaelic. That includes close collaboration with Corly Neil and Shear and other bodies that can make a contribution to promoting the use of learning and the speaking of the Gaelic language. Alasdair Allan. Betul yng Nghaerffordd i'r un i'r eich aben nhw ar y rygwrs, beth am biaith chi'n rheolthus i'n mesef bwyd i can yn ochr o chyddoi ar y sy'n polisi yn eik i'n sy'n heil yn ynghymbeithio brosnych nhw'ch i'n gaelic, ac i'n cael ei gaelic i ddafys i'ch gaelic yn y polisi economiol i'r socialtus yn arsyniog. John Swinney. The Gaelic language is a very precious part of Scotland's culture, our identity and our future. For that reason, the Government takes a number of policy interventions to support the development and the nurture of the Gaelic language. We do not have any immediate plans to undertake the type of Gaelic language impact assessment that Dr Allan has raised in his question, but I want to assure him of very specific discussions that we are having with Corlyon and Neal and Sher, which I took part in along with Dr Allan when I was in the Western Isles during the February recess. To look at how we can integrate the experience and the nurturing of the Gaelic language within wider public service provision within the Western Isles and to make sure some of that activity is taken forward by some of the Corlyon's proposals in relation to a community charter or a community offer. Those issues are now under very active consideration by the Government and I will have further discussions with the Corlyon and also with Board of Gaelic as to how we can take forward some of those ideas. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the ongoing dispute between lecturers and management at the city of Glasgow College. Richard Lochhead. In terms of the city of Glasgow College, local industrial relations are, of course, a matter for the college and the trade unions to resolve voluntarily, and therefore the member may wish to speak to those authorities for an update. I can reassure the minister that I have spoken directly to both the EIS and the college for an update, and I hope that minister 2 is taking an active interest in the on-going disputes because, while it is a separate dispute from the wider dispute on pay with colleges Scotland, it feeds into the wider breakdown of relationship between the workforce and management. The First Minister last week said that a 2 per cent increase for police officers in England was a punch... Would you go on with the question, Mr Sarwar? Why does the cabinet secretary believe that this is an acceptable pay increase for our college lecturers? Richard Lochhead. In terms of what is not an acceptable pay increase for college lecturers, it is a matter for negotiations between the employers, the colleges and the representatives of the staff and the unions. I should say that I was disappointed when the talks that took place in terms of the wider dispute that took place on Monday of this week did not reach a successful conclusion, albeit that there have been some signs of movement in recent months. Therefore, there is more industrial action that he will be aware of that is taking place tomorrow, which is highly regrettable, given that it is no one's interest that such action takes place in terms of strike action, at least of all the students who are directly affected as well. I will, however, of course take an interest in those discussions, but the Scottish Government is not a party to those negotiations. That is voluntary arrangements agreed by both the employers and the unions in terms of national bargaining, and any intervention from us, of course, we just undermine that. That should be resolved between the two parties and we hope that it will be. We will continue to speak, of course, to both the unions and the employers, and I am of a mind to invite them in to meet me separately on Tuesday of next week, prior to the next round of formal talks on 29 March. Can I remind members that, while the degree of context is often necessary to ask questions, a small degree is preferable? To ask the Scottish Government how relevant the number of subjects of people who can study in school is to their future career prospects. Offering Scotland's young people the right choices is very relevant to supporting them and meeting their career prospects. Young people should be able to access the range of pathways that meet their needs, abilities and aspirations and should be supported in making the right choices. That is central to the aims of our youth employment strategy. Tom Mason Gemitting evidence and newspaper reports have highlighted the narrowing of the subject choices that are caused by the SNP Government's flawed reforms that hurt pupils' career prospects. It is hampering Scottish children's ability to achieve the best grades possible and limiting their opportunities. What does the Cabinet Secretary have to say to those children who, through no fault of their own, will not receive the same opportunities that their parents had? John Swinney Can I respectfully say to Tom Mason that I do not think that the evidence supports the question that he has just put to me? Two weeks ago, we published the information on the positive destinations of young people leaving education. They are at a record high. 94.4 per cent of young people are leaving school to enter work, training or further and higher education. That is an all-time record, so the premise of Mr Mason's question is completely flawed. In addition to that, we see attainment rising in our schools, we see a broad range of qualifications being secured by young people and we see every single young people experiencing and benefiting from the importance of the broad general education, which was at the heart of the reform of curriculum for excellence. Finally, to Mr Mason, last week I attended the international summit of the teaching profession in Helsinki. The only education systems that are invited to take part in that summit are high-performing education systems in the world. I think that we should be very proud that Scotland's education system was invited to be part of those discussions. John Scott To ask the Scottish Government in light of the education secretary's previous comments that the education bill could still be introduced if sufficient progress is not made, whether it is ruled out doing so in 2019. John Swinney I hope that the local government entered into a joint agreement with us on reform, which has led to the publication of the headteachers charter and wider guidance on empowering schools. We have also reached agreement subject to the defint of formal offer being made and a ballot of members with the EIS, which sees Scotland's largest teaching professional association agree to collaborate with us on the empowerment agenda. I am encouraged about the progress that has been made in implementing our landmark education reforms. John Scott Thank you, Presiding Officer. The education bill was dropped by the SNP last year, despite calling it the flagship piece of legislation. Dropping the bill was supposed to speed up the process of reform, but we are now nine months on and there are very few signs of progress. Will the cabinet secretary tell parents and teachers how much longer they will have to wait to see all the promised reforms fully realised? John Swinney I think that it would have helped if John Scott had listened to my original answer before he gave me his prescripted follow-up question. I announced to him that the headteachers charter is already in place. That would not have been the case if we were waiting for a bill. The empowering school's guidance is in place, working and operating. The agreement with the professional associations on their support and participation in the empowerment agenda is in place and happening quicker than could have been the case with a bill. The approach that I have taken has delivered an intensification of the pace of reform. The education system is benefiting from that. We are seeing real empowerment in our classrooms and schools around the country, and I am encouraged by the direction of travel that has been undertaken in that respect. That concludes portfolio questions, and we will move on to the next item of business. If you would take your seats quickly please.