We were discussing hierarchy of convergence. So, we were talking about various notions of convergence and which of these notions imply the other and so on, hierarchy of convergence concepts. So, the main result we had was that almost sure convergence and earth mean convergence they both imply convergence in probability and convergence in probability implies convergence in distribution. So, generally none of these none of the opposite implications are true in general none of the reverse arrows hold generally speaking. However, if you have so in this for this reverse arrow for example, does not hold generally, but if your limit is a constant then convergence in distribution implies convergence in probability. So, if the limit is a constant x is a constant then these two notions are equivalent. Then we also proved this bit. So, we are done with that bit we are done with that bit we give a counter example to this. So, you can construct a counter example to this it is actually fairly trivial we will do it and then we constructed a. So, this proof we have done. So, almost sure implies convergence in probability we will do today. So, it is a non trivial proof and the reverse arrow is not true also we have given a counter example. So, I have to give you a counter example for this for this I gave you and for between these two I have to give you a counter example right neither way is the implication true right. So, where we left of last time was if you consider. So, you consider the example where x n is equal to 1 with probability 1 over n 0 with probability 1 minus 1 over n. We showed that x n converges to 0 in probability, that x n does not converge to 0 almost surely right. So, here x n are independent. So, this is a counter example we gave right to show that convergence probability does not .replique convergence almost surely we used in fact Borel Cantelli lemma 2 to assert that it is not true that beyond the point. So, even no matter how far out you go with there will be some x n which is equal to 1 right which means x n does not go to 0 the argument clear. So, this Borel Cantelli lemma also gives us a sufficient condition to check for convergence almost surely. So, if you think about convergence almost surely it is conceptually easy enough. So, it just says that you go look for all omegas where this convergence happens if the set of omegas where this convergence happens has probability 1 you have fine right then convergence almost surely. But this is not a very practical definition right you have to go on hunt for all where you have to see which are where where where this the convergence happen where the convergence not happen and look for its probability right. It is not a very practical way of ascertaining whether the convergence almost surely occurs or not. So, what we will do is today we will derive first we will derive a simple sufficient condition for convergence almost surely and we will derive a necessary and sufficient condition for convergence almost surely. So, sufficient condition for checking whether x n converges to x almost surely if for all epsilon greater than 0 sum over n equals 1 to infinity probability then x n tends to x almost surely. So, this is a easy condition to check. So, if you notice this. So, if you notice just that object it looks like it looks like. So, this is what this term if you prove that this term goes to 0 then it is convergence in probability right. So, if this term goes to 0 you have convergence in probability for every epsilon greater than 0 this condition is a little bit stronger it says a little bit more as n tends to infinity not only does this term go to 0 for every epsilon it goes to 0 fast enough that the sum converges to some finite value is it clear. For example, if this probability where to go to 0 as 1 over n you will have convergence in probability, but 1 over n does not sum to any finite value is infinite. So, if it goes to if this term goes to 0 not just goes to 0 as n tends to infinity, but goes to 0 fast enough to keep the summation finite then you have convergence almost surely is that clear. So, this is a very easy way to check for convergence almost surely, but this is only a sufficient condition. If this holds you are guaranteed almost your convergence, but even if it does not hold sometimes you may have almost your convergence. So, it works only in one direction how do you prove this. So, it is a fairly easy proof. So, you have to use Borel cantilelemma if you see a summation like that you have to use Borel cantilelemma right. So, you call that event let us call this event a n of epsilon a n of epsilon is the event that the absolute value of x n minus x x e it is epsilon by Borel cantilelemma 1 only finitely often does a n of epsilon occur for any epsilon correct. So, by Borel cantilelemma 1 we see that for any epsilon greater than 0 a n of epsilon occurs only finitely many. So, what I want to say is for a epsilon greater than 0 only finitely many a n of epsilon occur with probability 1 right you agree with that. So, I have sum over n equal to infinity probability of a n is finite. So, only finitely many a n will occur by Borel cantilelemma and this is true for any epsilon greater than 0 why because that is what my if for all epsilon greater than 0 I have this condition. So, for all epsilon greater than 0 only finitely many a n of epsilon occur. So, what does that mean it means that for any epsilon greater than 0 there exist some n naught beyond which none of the correct right. So, which means beyond that n naught absolute value of x n minus x is less than epsilon. So, x n has converge to x and that with probability 1 correct you see the proof. So, this Borel cantilelemma is very powerful sometimes improving this almost sure convergence. Thus for any epsilon greater than 0 the difference the difference x absolute value of x n minus x. So, what I want to mean. So, I am not saying this in a sentence difference remains less than epsilon for all large enough n right. So, I am saying this. So, there all these x n right. So, this is let me just consider x n minus x as my what I am plotting right. So, and if this is my I am considering this band of width this is epsilon this width is epsilon what I am saying this they will only be. So, this. So, if I am plotting here the difference x n minus x right. So, then may be. So, there may be some excursions right as n goes, but what happens is there must be some n beyond which it stays within it forever stays within this epsilon band right never exceeds this epsilon band. And this is true for every epsilon greater than 0 which means almost surely x n converges to x you see this picture. So, this is the difference that can jump around.  And then it keeps jumping around, but the Borel cantilemma says for with probability 1 there exist an n beyond which this excursions never occur. Because only finitely many excursions occur outside epsilon and if finitely many excursions out late epsilon occur. So, this sequence is dooms to stay within this epsilon band forever no matter how small you take your epsilon eventually will get in and never get out which means almost surely convergence is occur right, but this is only a sufficient condition. So, it is. So, I leave it as an exercise to you to figure out a situation where convergence almost surely happens, but this situation is violated this condition is violated. So, if this condition is violated your guaranteed almost sure convergence, but you may have almost sure convergence without this condition holding you see what I mean you create such an example actually you already know that example you just have to recall it what I am trying to say is try to break the converse of this theorem converse in hold great. So, that is a very simple sufficient condition to check for in a similar spirit next I am going to do as necessary and sufficient condition for convergence it will essentially exploit this picture necessary and sufficient condition for almost sure convergence. So, before I move to this I want to make sure you understood this sufficient condition because the necessary sufficient condition is little more involved if you do not understand this you will have hard time with what I am going to do this theorem. So, I am going to call same a n of epsilon is the event that this excursion happens right. So, same as this let a and b that event and b m of epsilon is equal to union n greater than or equal to m a n of epsilon. Then x n tends to x almost surely x m converges to x almost surely if and only if probability of b m of epsilon goes to 0 as m goes to infinity. So, this is a necessary and sufficient condition. So, whenever something is necessary and sufficient it is like equal statement right x n tending to x almost surely is equivalent to saying that my b m of epsilon has a probability that is going to 0 see note that a n of epsilon probability of a n of epsilon going to 0 is convergence in probability correct I am saying a little more I am saying a little something is. So, I will help you interpret this also that this one mistake I made I think b m of epsilon tends to 0 as m tends to infinity for all epsilon greater than 0 this is true for every epsilon. So, now I will help you with the statement. So, a n of epsilon is clear a n of epsilon is the event that there is a there is at least an epsilon excursion of this difference at the n th value correct. This is the n th term of the sequence. So, this difference exceeding epsilon means a n occurs a n of epsilon occurs. Now, what is b m of epsilon it is the union n greater than or equal to m a n of epsilon. So, can you explain in words what b m epsilon means you fix an epsilon no problem then what is b m of epsilon sorry. So, this is union over n greater than or equal to m.  So, in words then b m of epsilon is the event that at least one excursion happens after m m or after right correct. So, a n of epsilon is the event that at n. So, if you are looking at a particular n right. So, this is the n axis if you look at figure right. So, you are looking at the event that this difference has exceeded epsilon right x n minus x is a epsilon that is your. So, a n epsilon just looks at n whereas, b m of epsilon says you fix an m fix an epsilon and then you say b m occurs if there is even one excursion m or after is that clear. This just means there exist an n greater than or equal to m for which the excursion happens the greater than epsilon excursion happens. Any questions on this this is very crucial everybody with me. So, what this theorem says is if the probability of this even goes to 0 then you have almost here convergence. So, if the probability of the event that. So, x n tends to x almost surely if if an only if beyond m no epsilon excursions ever occur. If you find some m right this m can be very large, but if you find some m beyond which no epsilon excursions ever occur after that m then you have almost here convergence and vice versa. It is an if and only if condition it is not a sufficient condition it is necessary and sufficient condition. Any questions we repeat anything. .Yes, no that was the sufficient condition. So, a n of epsilon. So, you understand what this figure is I am plotting. So, this curve is the this whatever I have drawn here is the difference x n minus x I am plotting it versus n. And I am saying that let us say this is my n if the difference between if this difference x n minus x exceeds my epsilon band then I say. So, this is actually not absolute value of x n minus x then this is only x n minus x fine. So, if this difference exceeds epsilon I say a n occurs a n epsilon occurs. Now, we know that if see a n epsilon probability of that going to 0 is convergence in probability right that is clear to everyone, but convergence almost surely needs a little more. It not only needs that the probability of a n of epsilon goes to 0 a n of epsilon is the event that there is the at n there is an excursion right. But we are saying that b m of epsilon has to have probability going to 0. Now, this b m of epsilon is the event that there exists an there exists some there exists some m beyond which no excursions occur. So, b m of epsilon is the event that there exists. So, b m of epsilon is the event that there exists an epsilon excursion m m plus 1 beyond m correct. If the probability of an excursion at m or beyond if that probability goes to 0 you have almost your convergence and vice versa it is a necessary in the future. So, this m will be related to that n of right. Yes that is what we are saying. So, from here sufficient condition is going back there. Yes sufficient condition see sufficient condition yeah. So, this essentially tells me that there are only beyond some. So, beyond some m there are no more incursions that is what there are no more excursions what this guy says right. Now, I am saying this is a little more strong. Just put some constraint before no no no no see this is a sufficient condition this is a necessary and sufficient condition. So, this will be a this will say more than that. Before n naught by b c l m m beyond n naught it does not occur. After some. So, this results hold this result holds because by Borel Cantelli m r there exist some m beyond which there are no further in the excursions right. Therefore, it converges here what we are saying is it is necessary and sufficient that B m of epsilon has the probability tending to 0. No it is not. So, I will prove this I will say this is probably the I mean. So, this is probably the most challenging or demanding proof you will have to understand. I mean there are harder theorems than this which we will not prove. But, I think you should understand this much under the convergence almost surely you should really and appreciate what is going on. So, I am doing this proof proof. So, I will prove the direction. So, I have to prove that one direction right. So, if limit m tending to. So, this is one direction other direction is the I should say that if x n tends to x almost surely I have to prove this happens. So, first I will prove this direction. Let a of epsilon equal to integral sorry intersection m equal to 1 to infinity union n equals m to infinity a n epsilon. So, this is a familiar object right this is the event that. So, this what is this event. So, this is nothing but this is the event that a n infinitely occurs infinitely often correct this is an old four we encountered this in world cantilever proof right. So, now I am going to say. So, what have I assumed I have assumed this limit is 0 is it not you know what I am actually trying. So, sorry I am actually what I am trying to prove is actually the converse I am sorry. So, I am proving that if sorry. So, I started the wrong proof. So, if x n converges to x almost surely then I will prove this first. So, if x n converges to x almost surely then clearly probability of a epsilon equal to 0 for all epsilon greater than 0 let us see if you agree with that. So, I am assuming that x n converges to x almost surely. So, but x n converges to x almost surely then I am saying that for any epsilon I must have only finitely many excursions. So, I must have only finitely many epsilon excursions because you are you have convergence almost surely. So, at some point you should be always within that epsilon band only then you can you say the probability you have to be within the epsilon band. So, which means you have to have only finitely many excursions because if this is not true then you will not have convergence with probability 1. So, we have thus probability the probability intersection m equals 1 through infinity. Now, you look at that what is this guy what is inside this box is b m epsilon that is what I have defined it you will agree with that I have simply rewritten this bit. Now, I can do something now I can. So, I do have.  So, if you have some excursion m plus 1 or beyond you are guaranteed to have an excursion m and beyond. So, b m are nested decreasing they are Russian dolls which means I can invoke continuity of probability measures by continuity of probability measures. We have limit m tending to infinity m tending to infinity probability of correct. So, one way m done so I have proven this statement. Now, I have to prove the converse. So, little bit more tricky I have to think about differently it is not necessarily more tricky. So, the converse I have to prove that if limit m tending to infinity then x n converges to x almost sure. So, I mean if. So, this is all for for all epsilon greater than 0 everywhere it is for all epsilon greater than 0. Now, see the key to this proof everywhere is that see throughout. So, it is actually this is not just if then it is actually equivalent may be I should. So, this condition that I have said x n converges to x almost surely is equivalent to saying that there are only finitely many excursions correct for any epsilon greater than 0 that is what I am going to use right. So, more formally see be the event that x n of omega approaches x of omega I want to prove that probability of c equal to 1 when this is satisfied. So, I have I can use what I will prove is the probability of c complement is 0. So, let me just keep this figure. So, I am going to prove that probability of c complement is 0. So, what is c complement mean c complement means that x n is not converges to x which means that no matter how big an n you look at there is some excursion right. So, that is what we will use probability of. So, I will write it like this. So, c complement is the event that there is no convergence does not happen which means there must be some epsilon for which a of epsilon occurs. Now, what is a of epsilon are there in finitely many excursions right. So, if convergence does not happen see convergence is the same as saying beyond some n you are within the epsilon band for any epsilon correct. If you do not have convergence then for some epsilon you have infinitely many excursions correct. So, which means there exists some epsilon for which. So, you can write it like this. So, c complement is the same as saying there exists epsilon for which there are infinitely many epsilon excursions agreed. So, a of epsilon is the event that there are infinitely many excursions. So, now. So, there exists some epsilon greater than 0 for which there are infinitely many epsilon excursions. So, now little this is a little bit of a problem. So, we never encountered a situation where you have a uncountable union this is uncountable union right. So, what you do is you convert it to a countable union. So, this is a standard trick in measure theory probability 3 and so on.  Because if for some epsilon which is not of the form 1 over m let us say there is an excursion for. So, let us say this occurs for some epsilon greater than 0 that epsilon need not be of the form 1 over n. But you can always find a large enough n for which 1 over n is smaller than that epsilon correct. So, if you have infinitely many excursions for epsilon equal to 0.0028 or something you can always find an integer let us say m such that 1 over m is less than 0.0028. In particular I can take m equal to 1 over 0.002 right something like that. So, you can always do that going from an uncountable union to a countable union is not a problem fine. So, let us say epsilon is suppose you have an excursion suppose you know that a epsilon there are infinitely many excursions for epsilon equal to you give me a number. So, let us say it is like 1 over some big number right. Let us say it occurs for 1 over 10000 pi just for the sake of it for epsilon equal to 1 over 10000 pi you know you have a excursion right. So, you can always take. So, how is this is like 3000 something right. So, you take m equals 4000 right. So, you have infinitely many excursions for that epsilon. So, you definitely have infinitely many excursions for epsilon equal to 1 over 4000 correct. So, there is no loss of generality in doing that right this is something I want you to appreciate. So, now it is easy right now you know how to deal with this stuff right. So, this I can use union bound correct. So, I have to prove that probability of. So, if I have the summation of the probability that there are. So, there are all these terms right I want to prove that each of these terms is 0 probability of each of these terms I want to prove is 0. How does that follow it follows from. So, it follows from here right I have assumed that. So, probability of a epsilon is equal to limit m tending to infinity of this guy right. So, I want to show want to show each term here is 0 as long as this is equal to 0. So, I think I am using the same m that is causing a little bit of confusion let me see. So, I may maybe I should put a k here instead of m let us see. Now, I want to look at probability of a of consider probability a of 1 over k this is equal to the probability that intersection m equals 1 through infinity. So, yeah throughout you just write k just for just. So, that we do not mix up with our b m them there just write k here let us just write k all this is k this is also k this is equal to you agree. See probability of a of epsilon is nothing, but the probability that it is the probability of a of 1 over k is the probability that there are infinitely many 1 over k excursions which I am writing like that agree. So, this is equal to by continue probability this will be equal to limit m tending to infinity probability of b m of 1 over k. And this is equal to what why is the 0. So, that is what I assumed correct. So, this is equal to 0 by assumption correct thus probability of a of 1 over k is 0 for all k greater than or equal to 1 correct. So, this summation will be equal to 0. So, if you are summing an infinite number of 0's you get you get a 0 that there be no confusion about it some k equal to 1 to infinity 0 is 0 there is no confusion about that. Which means probability of c complement is 0 there were probability of c is 1. So, that clear. So, go over this theorem properly this really this proof of this theorem really brings out the qualitative nature of this almost your convergence. So, what this theorem saying is almost your convergence is equivalent to saying that there exist some m beyond which there are no more epsilon excursions for any epsilon greater than 0. All your epsilon excursions end at some point and after that your sequence is constrained to lying within that epsilon band. I have used some probability right. So, you are saying that you can just replace your initial proof. So, the only step involved there is that you have to go from here to here that is exactly what I have done actually right. So, you have to go from an epsilon to some countable index that you have to reason. After that that is exactly what I have done then this union bound also helps. So, there in lies the qualitative difference between convergence in probability and convergence almost surely convergence just probability just says that a n of epsilon probability goes to 0. So, convergence in probability always looks at just 1 n forget about the rest of the sequence only you look at a particular n and sees what is the probability of an excursion look at fix an n look at the probability of an excursion and if the probability of the epsilon excursion goes to 0 then you have convergence in probability. For convergence almost surely you are not looking for a particular n what you are doing is you fix a particular m and you are saying that beyond m there are no further excursions. Is that clear yes with me. So, you see even that the 1 over n example we did right x n equal to 1 with probability 1 over n see the probability of x n exceeding epsilon may namely x n being equal to 1 has very small probability 1 over n. But, if you look at after m there will be some excursions with probability 1. So, you do not have almost your convergence correct now are you able to convince yourself that convergence almost surely implies convergence in probability. So, this here this hammers everything it proves that simple implication of almost your convergence in playing convergence probabilities. So, trivial consequence of what we proved right. So, we have proven much more you see why because our theorem necessary and sufficient condition theorem says beyond m there are no further epsilon excursions which means at m there cannot be for any the probability of excursion is going to 0 you have therefore, convergence in probability. So, that is fairly easy. So, corollary x n converges to x almost surely implies x n converges to x in probability. So, this is because see x n. So, x n converges takes almost surely is equivalent to saying that limit m tending to infinity probability of b m epsilon equal to 0 right. But, so b m epsilon is contained in a m epsilon you see why see b m epsilon means m and beyond there are there is an excursion I think it is other way is it. So, maybe I missed it up b m epsilon means there exists an excursion. So, b m epsilon says there exist an excursion m and beyond a m epsilon means there exist an excursion at m right. So, I wrote this is incorrect. So, I should really right. So, I should really write that correct agreed. So, thus so this implies limit m tending to infinity probability of m epsilon equals 0 why b m is a bigger event right that has probability going to 0. So, you have convergence in probability of course, the converse we know is not true right we may have this probability going to 0. But, you may have some excursion popping of for right. So, you may we saw the situation where this probability goes to 0. But, this probability does not go to 0 the 1 over n example we gave right. But, this direction easily follows. So, this result is a trivial consequence of the necessary and sufficient condition theorem we proved. So, I will stop here.


How do we pass arrays to methods? Let's set up an array and call a method that will square each of the entries in that array. Here's what happens when the call is made. Remember that arrays are references and all arguments are passed by value. That means that the reference to data is copied into the parameter list. The loop then changes the array referenced by the list parameter and when the call finishes, data, which refers to the same area of memory, will have been changed in place. Here's the code with some output to show the array before and after the call. Let's run the program and you'll see that the data array has indeed been changed. There's a school of thought that says you should not change an array that is passed to a function, but instead you should return a new array. Here's how that would work. In the second line, we declare a variable named squared, which will become the result of calling methods square with data as the argument. Notice that the header for the method has changed. It's not void anymore. It returns an array of integers. When we make the call, just as before, list becomes a copy of the reference to data's area of memory. This time, though, we do something different. We create a brand new array, the same length as our input array, and our loop assigns values to the new array. When we return the result, the reference to the result array is assigned to squared and we now have a separate array with the squared numbers, leaving our original array untouched. Here's the code. Let's run this program, and we'll see that the data array is the same before and after, and that we have a brand new array squared that has the results we want. So, which should you do? Update arrays in place or return a new array? If you're in an environment where memory is at a premium and you don't need the original array, then update it in place. Otherwise, I strongly prefer, and this is a personal preference, to return a new array. That way, you can call the function multiple times with the same input and not worry about whether the first call changed your data in some unexpected way.


You're watching News Made Easy. I'm Anand Dev Chakravarty. Today I'm going to talk about our hypocrisy when it comes to Ukraine. How we say that Vladimir Putin is an aggressor, an invader and rightfully so. We talk about how the Ukrainian people are so brave, they're fighting an invading army. We have sympathy for the people dying there, their homes being bombed, they're being forced to leave their homes. But let's think about what feelings we had when the US invaded Afghanistan right after 9-11. We can say that the western armies went into Afghanistan in retaliation for what had happened in 9-11. Remember at that time there was no evidence that Afghanistan was behind it or even no concrete evidence that Osama bin Laden who was hiding in Afghanistan was behind the 9-11 attacks. Later on we did not question when the US and other forces invaded Iraq. Apparently to get hold of weapons of mass destruction which supposedly Saddam Hussein had. And the media reported it like that. We accepted it in large numbers. Maybe we were a little critical here and there and when they caught Saddam Hussein we cheered. We say that the reason why Iraq had to be attacked was because it was an issue of national security threat. Not only for the US but for the entire West because if it had weapons of mass destruction, WMDs, then it's an issue of security. So the US had a right to do that. But does Vladimir Putin have exactly the same excuse of national security? Can we say that if Ukraine went along the way it was going, joined NATO, then he had a problem because NATO's nuclear arms were going to sit right next to his border and he didn't want that to happen. And it was a national security issue just as the US had in Iraq now talking about Iran. Vladimir Putin wanted the same thing. He wanted Ukraine to stop joining NATO, not allow joint military exercises with the US and the West, with NATO and EU and not join EU. So this is what he terms as his own national security interests. Let's see whether he has a point there because let's look at what Europe looked like in the 1980s. One of the things here what you're seeing is Germany on that map on your screen. Germany of course was split into two parts and all these small states that you see were all on the right side next to Russia were all part of the USSR at that time. Germany got reunified and at that time the Soviet Union, the erstwhile Soviet Union and Western nations they had talks and there was a promise made which the promise was that NATO would acquire Germany. Germany would join NATO but it would not move an inch to the right. So this is what in 1991 NATO's map looked like. All the erstwhile East Bloc countries, the ones which were part of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact of that time, they were not part of NATO. But what happens in 1999? You can see a lot of these erstwhile countries have now joined NATO and it's moving closer and closer towards Russia's border. Let's move further. 2004 some more smaller countries joined NATO. 2009's a few more countries joined NATO. 2017 another country joined and even in 2020 we have one more country joining and you can see the yellow spreading NATO and moving more and more towards Russia's border. And in 2021 last year the US made an offer to Ukraine to join NATO as well and what does that mean? That means that NATO with its armed forces, with its nuclear arms, with its missiles would be able to sit right next to Russia's western border and you can see that Moscow is actually pretty close from there and the point that Putin wanted to make is that this is going to be within striking distance of Moscow. Whether that is valid or not is not the point. The point is that it would be hypocritical of us to say that this is wrong but the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and the sanctions on Iran, they are alright. Why? Because we automatically assume that the US and the West are beacons of democracy. But what is the US doing right now which you did not see in your news feed that did not become the top headline which wasn't being talked about all over and this is civilians being killed in US bombing in Syria. And I am holding back the date. Here is the date, 3rd February 2022. This is just beginning of last month. 6 children, 4 women, 13 people killed in special operations launched by US in the Idlib province in Syria, in someone else's country. They have gone and bombed these places. So the US is known to be the big brother across the world but do we have to be hypocrites like that to assume that what the US does is right and what Putin does is wrong. They both wrong. They both wrong but another thing that I want you to see, Israel our big friend and we all hold Israelis as our big heroes now. What does Israel do in the Palestinian regions in the Gaza Strip? Here is a list of the number of children killed, Palestinian children killed in Israeli attacks between 1987 and 2022. And the source is Betheselem. This is not an Arab source. This is not something which is critical of Israel. This is a source within Israel. This is run by a Jewish group which wants to end the war and this is the number of children killed. 2464 children killed. This is the record by Betheselem. If you look at Palestinian record, this would be 4-5 times higher. Do you see anyone talk about that? Do you talk about that? Is it on your WhatsApp message group? If it's not and it's happening every single day. And this is just guilt. Children maimed, injured. That's a very, very high number as well and I'm only talking about children here. The adults, it's endless. The number of fruit trees cut down the way in which it has been turned completely barren, the Gaza area. Do a little bit of research on Google. Go to YouTube. You'll find a lot of documentaries which don't make the headlines right there for you to watch. And the western media and unfortunately our mainstream media will never tell you these things. And I'm just going to give you an example of how Time Magazine reports these wars. Time Magazine reports it. Here is Serbia. And what it says, bringing the Serbs to heal. And that is Time Magazine's, a massive bombing attack opens the door to peace. A massive bombing attack opens the door to peace. That's what Time Magazine says. And look at the spin there. A bombing attack is peaceful. And again in Iraq, right? Saddam Hussein, overthrown by the American army, invading army. Illegally, he's a sovereign leader of a sovereign nation, supposedly with WMDs. Time, we got him. We got him. This is the Time Magazine, right? Respected Magazine. What happens when Putin enters Ukraine? The return of history, how Putin shattered Europe's dreams. Now look at the comparison right there on your screen. Bringing the Serbs to heal. Massive bombing campaign. Bombing attack opens the door to peace. And on your right is the return to history. Return to history is in some ways an illusion to what happened when Hitler started taking over countries nearby. So this is how it's being reported. Now the interesting thing is that one of the things that the western media tries to keep quiet about is the way in which Ukraine itself is actually heavily dominated by extreme nationalists and by neo-Nazis. And you can see this, which came out right there in one of the interviews being done on the BBC. And I'm just taking it from Twitter. This has been put up by Twitter handle by Alan McLeod. And he talks about the most racist Ukrainian coverage on TV news. And you should watch it. You should listen to it. This man is Ukraine's deputy chief prosecutor. And the language he's using is completely neo-Nazi. It's a neo-Nazi language which the western nations, the western media is never going to point out. And they're going to basically try and say that this does not exist. Listen to it. I'm sorry. It's very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed, children being killed every day with Putin's missiles and his helicopters and his rockets. Sir, of course I understand and respect... But yes, of course you can say that okay, they are right-wing. They are extreme nationalists. They are neo-Nazi. But as long as they're not being violent and killing people inside, no one else has the business. Any external force doesn't have any business entry. There can be arguments about that because this neo-Nazi movement in Ukraine has been violent. It has been violent against a lot of people, against minorities, against ethnic Russians. So there can be an argument against that as well. But the point here is that has the West, has the US been innocent of regime change in Ukraine? And I'm going to rewind a little bit and take you back to 2014 when the Euro-Medan revolution took place. When young people came and took over the central square of Kiev along with support from opposition parties and opposition leaders and they basically forced the elected president Yanukovych to resign and leave, right? Was that a completely spontaneous thing? There are two pieces of evidence to believe why it is in the case, why the West was actually deeply involved in the regime change at that time. And there are two pieces of evidence. I'll start with the first one. And that is this conversation that took place between a senior US official, Victoria Nuland from the Obama administration who was in charge of Ukraine at that time, and the US ambassador to Ukraine, Jeffrey Pyatt, right? And you can see that it clearly tells us that the US is actually calling shots as to who will form the new government, right? Listen in, and this is all happening while an elected government, legal, lawful government is still in place. I'm just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead, we want to keep the moderate Democrats together. The problem is going to be Tony Boke and his guys. And, you know, I'm sure that's part of what Yanukovych is calculating on all of this. I think Yats is the guy who's got the economic experience, the governing experience. He's the guy, you know, what he needs is Clich and Tony Boke on the outside.  I just think Clich going in, he's going to be at that level working for Yats and Yuk. It's just not going to work. Yeah, no, I think that's right. Okay. Good. Well, do you want us to try to set up a call with him? Here's the next step. All right. You heard that Yats is the guy. Newland is allegedly saying that in that tape. And Yats or Arseny Yatsenuk was the guy for the U.S. because he was made prime minister after Yanukovych was ousted, right? And this is, as I said, while Yanukovych was still in power before that, there are Western reports and a lot of reports at that time which believe that the police had used snipers to basically shoot down protesters.  And the snipers apparently were from the opposition, not from Yanukovych who was ousted, right? Against whom the protests were taking place. How do we know that? Again, this is a leaked conversation that took place between two people. Again, a telephone conversation. And this is between EU's foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton and the Estonian foreign minister, Urman Spite. And again, listen to what is being said here. Well, all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides among policemen and even from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides. So that, and then she also showed me some photos. She said that has medical doctor. She can, you know, say that it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets. And it's really disturbing that now the new coalition, that they don't want to investigate what exactly happened so that there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers they were, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition. Who was doing this? How did this happen? Why did these false flag operations take place, which helped a regime change take place and anti-Russian regime take place in Ukraine, which was once a close ally of Russia. What happened? Again, as I'm saying, the important thing here is to remember that big powers all have blood on their hands. There is no good side. There's no bad side. Both are acting in terms of power. And yes, you can say they're all bad if they impose war on innocent people. This war right now is being led by Putin. It has been created over a period of time because of conditions of conflict between two sides, Russia on the other side and NATO on the other. The victims of it are the Ukrainian people. But remember when you feel sympathy for the Ukrainian people, which you must, when you feel angry that there's war and you feel worried about war and you want peace, do look into your own heart and say, Would you do it again when the Israeli forces kill more Palestinians? Will you do it again when the US bombs and in collateral damage some civilians die in some other poor country?


I'm the oldest of 11 children from a small town in Louisiana. Wanted to go to college, and so when I started college, unfortunately, because, you know, we were so many kids, my father didn't have a lot of money. So he gave me $500, and off to college I went, and I finished college. And after four years, I was having a tough time finding the job, you know. Like most people, it was 1979, and I was having a tough time finding the job in my small town, and I thought, I've got to do something because job security and getting paid was very, very important to me. So I joined the Navy, and I came in as an E3, and immediately one of the things I learned was that I learned to be a good follower. I understood the importance of supporting my leadership and, in turn, supporting the mission of the command, and eventually because I was such a good follower, I got to manage a program. They put me in charge of a program, and through managing that program, I learned how to be a good leader because I had folks working for me, and I had to provide them the guidance and the mentorship that they needed so that we could get the job done to ensure that the program would be successful. I came up through rank pretty quickly and was, you know, Master Chief, and put in for the Command Master Chief program, and eventually became the Force Master Chief for the Hospital Corps, which is such a great honor because those men and women are my heroes. I transitioned from the Navy about a year ago, and what I learned in the Navy that has done me well in the civilian, in my new role, in my new civilian job is this. I learned management. I learned communication, the importance of good communication, and I also learned the importance of leadership and as well as teamwork. You know, in the Navy, you learn very quickly that there's no I in team. It's a team effort, and in my new role, in the job that I'm in now, I've learned that, you know, you have to be a part of a team to get the job done, and that was instilled in me in the Navy.


You can open your Bibles with me this morning to Romans chapter six. I'm gonna get to several different scriptures before we get there. But this is part four of what I've been teaching on called When God Is Your Father. And today we're gonna be talking about this, that when God is your father, two things happen that are very significant that we just have witnessed right before our eyes.   You see, one of the greatest longings of the human heart and one of the most, I believe, difficult issues of our culture that we're facing in our day is that people are asking questions and one of the major questions and it's an internal longing, it's an internal question. It's this, it's who am I? And what am I here for and what is my value? These are some of the questions that people wrestle with. Who am I really? And one of the central aspects that's completely appropriate because the gospel is good news is this, is that not only does God and God alone have the ability to define for us who we are, but he's also the one that through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross has fully affirmed our value and redeemed us from our broken identities and given us a brand new identity and it's not based on a meritocracy, it's not based on us achieving anything, it's based solely on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and God's mercy. And that's the good news is that in a world where we're all searching for who we are, you know, for many, many years in my family, if I had time I would show you some family pictures and tell you a little bit more background, but in my family's history, especially on my mom's side we had all these rumors that we had Native American in us. And so like I grew up hearing all of these stories about oh, your great, great grandmother was a Shawnee, full-blooded Shawnee Indian and that kinda come through the family line and so we talk about that a lot. And so several years ago, maybe four or five years ago, I got one of those kits, the 23 and Me genetic DNA testing.  And anyways, I got back to report and no shock, like I'm 95% Northern European. I mean, shocker.  Irish, Scottish, English, all in the middle of a big civil war in the middle of our family. But then as I'm scrolling down the list, there was a little bit of German, there was a little bit of French, surprising. I was 3% Ashkenazi Jew. I was like, I'm part of the tribe, baby. All right, didn't see that one coming, but I'll embrace it. But there was absolutely no Native American Indian in our genetic code. In fact, I had like 0.3 Portuguese and Spanish. I'm like, I'm more Spanish than I am Indian or native. And I broke it to my mom. I'm like, mom, just to let you know and my younger brother who's like really captivated by I'm like, there are all those stories about us being Native American, they're not true. It's all a lie. Well, here's what I discovered. I discovered because on ancestry.com and 23andMe, they list like important documents, like ancient documents like census polls, birth certificates, weddings, all those kinds of things. What I discovered was a document from the 1800s where one of my relatives living in Illinois wanted to get subsidies from the government. So somehow scammed it to claim that he was Native American and got his name put on a roll. That's my family. That about sums it all up right there. They got their name signed on some line in Southern Illinois in order to get some subsidies. And I'm like, yep, that's as accurate as it gets. So all of these years, I thought I was somebody other than who I really was. And you know what's interesting is I think a lot of us struggle, not just in our family dynamics, because we know our last name, we know our family, we know the good, the bad that comes with that. But there's a deeper level that we're all searching for of who we really are. And more importantly, who we were meant to be. And who we were always meant to be, no matter what kind of background that we come from is we were always meant to have a part of us connected to the heart of God, because we were destined and we were created to be children of God. Sin messed that up.  You see, in order for God to become your father, John chapter one in verse 12 says that to all who received him and believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You see, when you are born again, when you believe in Jesus, two things are required for you to enter into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You have to believe and you have to receive. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came to the earth, sinless, spotless man, both fully God and fully man, that he went to the cross of Calvary to pay for the sins of the world, my sin and your sin. And when we do that, he gives us the right to receive sonship or the right to enter into God's family. And when we believe that and we receive Christ, the Bible describes what happens to us as being born again. We experience a second birth into the kingdom of God and more specifically into the family of God. John chapter three, Jesus is having this conversation with a good Jewish Pharisee named Nicodemus. It's in the middle of the night, Nicodemus doesn't want anybody to know that he's asking Jesus of Nazareth questions. And so he comes to him and so this is the original Nic at night. Nicodemus comes to, I'm sorry. But Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he says, what does a man have to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says to him, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus is using language about how we come into the world, how our identity in sin and our broken identities that are fractured self, our fractured soul, our sin-impeded spirit is born the first time. But now Jesus says the way into the kingdom of God is you have to be born again. In fact, in John three, five, he says truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water, that's your first birth.  It's born out of water and born of the spirit. You cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's our first birth. And that which is born of the spirit, that's the second birth. He says, do not marvel that I say to you that you must be born again. So the way that we come into the family of God and God becomes our father is we're born again. We receive him, we believe. And to as many as believe, he gives the ability to become a child of God. So it's not, listen, it's not just about believing in the existence of God. It's about believing in God's way unto salvation, which is his son Jesus. And so when we believe in him and we receive him as our savior, then we're described as going through a new birth experience. It's being born again. It's like coming alive on the inside.  It's like all those old identities and all the things that we thought were our true identities get exposed at the cross for the fraud that they are. Well, I thought I was an addict or I thought I was enough or I thought I was a good person or I thought I would be able to figure it out. All of those old identities, the generational, the family identities, even the social identities that we identify with because they give us this false sense of belonging. All of them get brought to the foot of the cross and exposed for how weak and how insufficient they really are. And when we believe in Jesus, we go through this experience like being born again and we enter into the kingdom of God and we enter into a relationship with the Father. And when we do that, he defines for us who we are, who we really are. And it's not in ourselves, it's who we are in him. Do you remember when Jesus was beginning his ministry and it says that he went to the Jordan River where his cousin John the Baptist was baptizing and he had him baptize him. And when he baptizes Jesus, it says that the heavens opened up, it says that the Holy Spirit came like a dove and landed and remained on Jesus. Think about that. And a voice came out of heaven that said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Sonship has to be defined and has to be declared by the Father. This is what God does.  To as many as received him, to them he gave the ability to become children of God, to be born again. First Peter chapter one three, it says, blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy. According to his great mercy, that he's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. See now look over at Romans chapter six and when you see in Romans chapter six, beginning in verse three, it's talking about what water baptism is specifically and why it's so important. I know that maybe many of us come from lots of different quote traditional or denominational backgrounds where baptism is actually something that we do as a way of identifying and marking children or infants. And you know, at radiant, one of the things that we do is we dedicate children because we see incredible value in that and that family coming together and making that commitment that we're gonna train up our children and the Lord. But baptism, the reason why we baptize by immersion and we baptize believers is because that we believe that baptism on the other side of our faith is more than just an impartation of grace. It's actually a public funeral and a birth announcement. Look here at Romans chapter six. It says in verse three, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. Verse five, for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him. That's our old identity, that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. That's what happens when we're born again. Our old identity is crucified with Christ and now we're raised up with Christ in the newness of life by faith. Now if we have died with Christ, we no longer believe that we will also live with him and we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once and for all but the life that he lives, he lives to God. So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So what happens at baptism when we're water baptized is first of all, baptism is something we do after we believe, we've declared and we've received. We believed, we've received and now we're called to be water baptized because it is a public declaration. It's an announcement. You see, many of us have gone to funerals and we open that up and we invite people to come and to watch as we bury those who in their death are now being committed to God. But we also show up at showers and hospitals and our family members' homes and church services for dedications, when we're celebrating a new life, baptism is both of those things. See, because when you were born the first time, you were issued a passport and the passport, this is probably one of the most valuable things that as American citizens we own. People around the world wish they had a passport from the United States because of the benefits that goes with that and the freedoms that we have. I mean, all passports are not the same, right?  There's no other passport in the world, in world history, that people wanted more than an American passport.  Okay, so I've got your picture there, but it's all of your details, your height, the date of issue and the fact that it has the seal of that government. Now here's what I want you to recognize. When you were born the first time, your passport did not say the kingdom of God. It did not say in Christ, what it said was in Adam. What it said was darkness. You were part of the kingdom of darkness and you were limited as a citizen of the kingdom of darkness in the nation of Adam that was under a curse and only the rights and the enslavement to sin were the privileges that that passport gave you. All it did was guaranteed you slavery and death and a curse. But when you are born again, when you receive Christ Jesus as your Lord, God becomes your father. He incorporates you into his family, but he takes your old passport out of the kingdom of darkness and in Adam and he destroys it and he buries it in the waters of baptism and he issues you a brand new passport that says in Christ in the kingdom of God with a brand new name that it never expires with all the rights and the freedoms and the privileges of eternal life, forgiveness, adoption and salvation, healing, provision and his blessing upon your life and it can never be taken away. That's what happens when we're saved. That's what we mean when we're saved. What are we saved from? We're saved from what we were under and now we've been brought in, translated. Which literally means taken out of one and brought into the kingdom of God. And so literally when we just watched, people go down into the waters of baptism. There's nothing holy about this water. It's Kalamazoo water. It's better than some other towns but there's nothing holy about this water but there's something holy in the act of faith, of getting in the water publicly and declaring, you know what, I was dead but now I am alive. I was a citizen of the world and bound under the judgment and the curse of my own sin but Jesus took it and paid it all and has made it possible for me now to become a child of God. I've been born again. I'm a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. And so now I am publicly standing in the water and I'm burying my old man, my old identity. I'm burying him and I'm coming up out of the water just like Jesus came out of the tomb on the third day in the newness of life filled with the spirit, beloved by the Father with a destiny and eternal life and a family called the church and the power of heaven called the Holy Spirit living on the inside of me and nothing can separate me from the love of God. Church, that is why we celebrate when people are baptized. It reminds me of a story that I read years ago about a missionary who went to China. I believe, I may be incorrect, but I believe he was part of Hudson Taylor's inland China mission and he went into the interior of China and as he began to proclaim the gospel from village to village and from town to town and every village there was a chief of the town. If you could influence the chief, the rest of the town, the rest of the village would open up but they'd never heard the gospel before and as he proclaimed the gospel to the chief, the chief was very serious or this leader of the village was very serious in listening to it for many, many days. And after many, many days he said to the missionary, he said, I believe what you are saying, give me 24 hours to prepare to receive this new king. And the missionary thought to himself, he was like, man, this man is taking it very, very seriously. So after 24 hours he came back and the leader of the village said, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready to be baptized. And this missionary had explained to him that we are saved by grace through faith that we believe and then receive but then baptism is our public burial of the old man and the resurrection of the new man. And so this man said, I'm ready to be baptized. And so the missionary was gonna take him down to the river and the leader of this village said, first let me, let me greet my family.  And the missionary, so called off guard by this is like, I've never seen anybody so sober about this moment. And the missionary said, now I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Identifying with Christ in his death, his burial, his resurrection. And he put the man down into the water and he held him there.  And yet he was willing to do it. And the very fact that he was brought up, even though he misunderstood it through a translator, the language wasn't clear, he came up and for the rest of his life, he served Jesus. And the reason why he was later asked why he served Jesus so passionately, this village leader was used to be an apostle to other villages and to bring the gospel to other people, groups of China. And he said, because I've already died and been buried once, everything from this day forward is a gift of life from Jesus. Oh, that we would view our identity and our baptism this way. Because this is what happens. It's a watery grave where we bury our old identities. And listen, just like all those years I believed part of my identity was partly Native American. And then I was surprised by some things that were in there and there's all kinds of history in my family lineage just like there probably is in yours. Things that we're proud of and things that we're not. All our earthly identities are buried with Jesus. And we come up not only in the spirit but out of the waters of baptisms and the newness of life with a brand new identity in Christ with the Father speaking over us. This is my beloved son or daughter in whom I'm well pleased. If you were just baptized today the Father is speaking that over you today. That this is my beloved son or daughter in whom I'm well pleased. If Jesus Christ is truly the Lord of your life if you've really been born again and you've repented of your old identities and you've traded them in for your brand new passport in the kingdom of God. You've been born again than what the Father says over you. He doesn't see your past. He doesn't see your stains. He doesn't know about your mistakes any longer. Those have all been washed by the blood of Jesus. All he sees is spotless, holy, blameless son and daughter of the living God. And he speaks blessing over your life. Isn't that good church? It's so good. See, in Christ we're no longer free agents. We're not left to ourselves. That's what a free agent is. In Christ Jesus, we are no longer free agents but we are redeemed. Everybody say redeemed. Redeemed. Redeemed is a word that is in New Testament first century language. When you read it, we understand redeemed like Christian language. Oh, I'm redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. But we don't oftentimes know what redeemed means. When Paul uses the word redeemed, he's thinking about slave markets.  And according to Paul, this is what happens to us in our own sin, as citizens of darkness, under sin. Our old identities, we're enslaved to sin, to our passions, to that internal fire that burns and combusts that we can't control, that we know is wrong and we don't know how to fix it. It enslaves us and humiliates us and strips us of our human dignity and the image of God that we were created to bear. And here we are in the slave market. In the enemy, the devil knows that we're on a chain, that we're on a tether, and that he has legal right in our sin to abuse us and to take advantage of us and to deceive us and to manipulate us.  And he says, how much? And the answer is, your life. And the man who comes down to the slave market says, I'll pay it.  That transaction is to be redeemed. And when the Bible calls you and I in Christ, it means we're not our own. This is part of our identity. We are not our own. In 1 Corinthians, chapter six, Paul is writing to the church filled with people that came out of paganism and idolatry and immorality and great wealth and influence in a Greco-Roman culture. They also were people that were very familiar with this language because they had their own slaves and many of them were slaves or they were familiar with the slave markets. And so when Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 60 says, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? In other words, you've been born again. You are not your own. Wait a second. The world says you do you or be your best version of yourself or do it yourself or self-improvement. But the Bible says you, this is to Christians are not your own for you were bought with a price. The New Testament language of you were bought with a price is you were redeemed.  You see, that's what happens when our God becomes our father is he changes our identity, he defines our identity and then he reveals to us our identity and affirms our value. This is the beautiful thing about Christianity church. It's not about a religious construct only of just here's a bunch of rules. Now you do them. There's God's law, there's God's standards and there's God's guidelines. Absolutely. But we're not required to do them in our own strength. God actually saves us and redeems us and puts his own life on the inside of us after he's exchanged his own life for us. And he tells us what our value is. Turn over into Bibles to Ephesians chapter one real quickly. Ephesians chapter one, this is one of the most powerful chapters in the entire New Testament. This is Paul's Magnum Opus chapter about our identity in Christ. And in Ephesians chapter one, Paul writes blessed, blessed be the God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundations of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love for he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us. New King James says in which he has accepted us in the beloved in whom we have redemption. There it is. And what's the price of the redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. Ha! If you memorize any few verses in the New Testament you need to memorize those. Blessed be the God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I mean, memorize this. Get it deep on the inside of you. And you say, well, why do I need to memorize it? Because it's who you are. It's your passport.  Because let me tell you, there are a lot of Christians. There are a lot of people who believe in Jesus Christ who have been born again, even been baptized who are walking through this life with old passports. You don't realize your new passport's been issued. Everything's changed. Your citizenship is different. Your citizens are the kingdom of God. Philippians says that your citizens are the kingdom of God. It says in 1 Peter that you're foreigners and strangers living in exile here in this world. This is not our home. But there are a lot of us still walking around with old passports that say kingdom of darkness, slave, curse, death. A lot of old pictures in our old passports of how we used to look that are affecting the way that we're living today. What did Paul say? We come up out of the water in our new identity wise so we can walk in the newness of life. In other words, he wants us to live differently. Listen, when you got a brand new identity, everything changes. Just sit right back and let me, you know, it's like a fresh prince of Bella. Let me tell you about a prince who lived in Bel Air. But down, but down, down, down, down. Went to live with my auntie and uncle in Bel Air. I don't even remember the lyrics anymore. It's been so long. But you think about the change of identity. What if we're walking around with our old passports? And so every time we get into a situation where we're like, I'm struggling with my value. Do I mean anything to anybody? All you have to do if you wonder your value, just look at the cross. What was the price of your redemption? Jesus' blood? For you? What does this blood say about you? Better things than anything out of your past. Ephesians one tells us this about our new identity. It says, we're chosen by God, we're not tolerated. You're now holy and blameless. You're not stained by sin anymore. You've been adopted into a family. You've not been rejected and left as an orphan any longer. You're accepted, not rejected. You're redeemed no longer a slave. And the price, the price that was paid for you, the value, Jesus' blood, God's own son. And God willingly paid it. And at the end of the day, what does God give to us? He's not lavished. He's not poured out judgment, condemnation, anger, frustration. It says no. Think about these words in verse eight. God has lavished his love on us. It's lavished, not sprinkled, not rationed. He's lavished his love on you. When God is your father, he's the only one who can define for us who we really are. And to affirm our value, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Do you know that if you are in Christ, God's no longer looking at you through your good days or your bad days, through your best efforts. He's not waiting on you to earn anything. It's all been paid for. He sees you now through the rose-killer glasses of Jesus' blood. And when he sees you, he sees Jesus. When he sees you, he sees spotless. When he sees you, he sees forgiven. When he sees you, he doesn't see the pauper with an old passport. He sees the prince or the princess seated with Christ in heavenly places, with robes of righteousness on, with a ring of the family on your finger, and with a new way of living sandals on your feet, and a sword of the spirit in your hand, your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life, an internal destiny before you, and nothing in this world, nothing above, nothing beneath, nothing in your past, nothing in the future, not in heaven, not in hell, not in your own mind can separate you ever from his love. And that is the good news of the gospel. I want you to stand with me if you would all across this room. Second Corinthians chapter five and verse 17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are gone. And behold, all things have been made new. All of this is from God, a new creation, which means the old creation's done. Who we were before is put away, but a brand new identity, a brand new beginning, a brand new future is found in Jesus. This morning I want to invite our prayer team down to the front, make their way up along the front, and I'm gonna pray and dismiss here in just a moment, but before I do that, I wanna just say to all of us, you may have come today, you may be here in church, it's your first time or maybe this is all new to you, but I want you to know this, the same Jesus who died for the sins of those who you just watched get baptized today is the same Jesus who died so that you could receive eternal life. He's the same Jesus who made a way for anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord. What's required of me that I believe and that I receive to as many as believed in him, to them he gave the ability to become children, the right to become children of God. You can become a child of God today. God can become your father, not because you've earned it, but because Jesus has paid for it. If you believe, the next step is to receive that, and I'm gonna pray today, and we always open up the altars for those who have prayer needs, and if you are here today and you have a need of prayer, we invite you to come after we pray and dismiss, but you may be here today and say, I need most a relationship with God. I want my sins to be forgiven, I want a new identity in Christ. What do I do with that? First, believe it, and then in a moment when we dismiss, come and receive it. We're gonna invite you, if you are here today and you would like to make Jesus the Lord of your life, our prayer team would be thrilled, beyond comprehension to pray with you and help put your hand in the hand of the Father and to see a change, a born again experience take place in your life. So let's pray together, church. Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your mercy upon mercy and your grace upon grace. Thank you for Jesus, thank you for his precious, redeeming blood. We pray, Father, that as we leave today, we celebrate the new life that we've witnessed and that we walk in the newness of that life, each and every one of us. Or go before us, follow after us and lavish your love upon us and help us to do the same to those who are around us today. We go in your name, in Jesus' name, amen.


Going on everyone Sam here with latent sports car driven 23 plates and patches football hobby 12 box full case break number 2 Random team style. There's a look again at your random results as always can find those on the website under the results tab as well as link in Chat get after everybody good luck 18 to go on the next one everybody 18 spots remain on the next one. It's gonna fill it up Mean six to go on divisions as well 25 on our mega dual case 18 to go here everybody To go Best hits in Bowman, so I meant to answer your question Brad. I would say we hit a gold solace true gold solace first That was a big one Yeah, I'll see like a one-on-one shield dude 235 AJ Brown There's Travis ETN. No if one guy bought every single spot. He would do it. There's Stetson Bennett double coverage 275 for the Rams Which one? Really? Yeah, it's just like Dr. Pepper. I feel that is gonna be Taijai Spears to 75 three colored RPA for the Titans Congrats Tennessee Nice one there. Taijai Spears and Going to the Lions tendon hooker 10 to 75 little QB action to car RPA Congrats Lions Congrats Lions box to here we go Here we go box to Okay, we got eight in O'Connell rookie to 3,500 Henry. That's pretty sick. I like this one I like this one Spears out snapped Henry on Saturday. That's not good for Sam's fantasy team Antonio Gates to 149 Going to the Chargers So Taijai Spears out snapped Derek Henry on Sunday. Really? Yeah And Sam took Eric Henry in the first round in LSE fantasy, so nice one here to ten eight in O'Connell Five of ten going to the Raiders full coverage gold acetate auto What?   There's Justin Herbert to 25 Got Dorian Thompson Robinson RPA to 149 congrats on that Brown's DTR Brandon M with two spots down to 16. Let's go 16 to go Brandon. Thank you, buddy 16 to go Brandon appreciated very much. That is a Jake Hainer 101 out of 149 for the Saints Shoot us an email default Shoot us an email swag champ to 50 Travis Kelsey kill a Trab nice one there and scratch cheaps Shoot us an email default 25 AJ Brown on the green for the Eagles Quentin Johnson rookie nice one Chargers CJ Stroud to 75 double coverage Patch in Jersey congrats on that Texans We're at 16 to go everybody 16 to 16 to go It's gonna filled up almost there Aiden O'Connell nice one there steal signatures And it's gonna be number two at 300 nice one coming up here too. How about this? Going to the Cowboys that press got two of 20 on card mystic marks That's kind of nasty.  That is an on-card DAC auto He's got a great sig Dallas Colby congrats Colby s. Let's say why not go ahead on that one Well QB action Yeah, he's got his sig is top-notch for sure. All right, we've got a lot of plates coming up Luke Shoenmaker Rookie to 25 No, no, I got your date. I Completely get that default hundred percent. I know exactly what you mean Kirk Cousins. Yeah, shoot us an email shoot us an email You need the email just let me know Cooper cup six to 25. I need him so badly to be healthy for fantasy Michael D Michael D's taking two spots in the next one. We're down to 14 We are down to 14 on the next one everybody 14 spots remain. Let's get after it guys Thank you all appreciate that We've got will Anderson jr. Steel signatures to 300 It's a really good box right here For the Texans and then how about a live Jackson Smith and jigba Going to the Seahawks Nice one there JSN Yeah, he's a stud Course I have Tyler Lockett in fantasy. So he takes touches away. I think dude. I stunk our trap I don't know what I was doing. I really don't I don't know what I was thinking I I like for some reason really wanted to take Brandon Iook and I was like no, I'm taking Drake London instead Drink one to have one target for zero catches and I look at two touchdowns and over a buck over a buck in receiving Come on man. What are you doing? Yeah, you're focused. I know that is gonna be a tank Dell to 35 All right, who's got him? Who has them Tyler N? That is an Anthony Richardson steel signatures to 300 congrats on that buddy on card signature. Let's go Collins coming in taken to Matthew's coming in taken one You want to know what we're down to Sean? We're down to 11. We're down to 11 everybody 11 to go. Thank you all. I appreciate that 11 to go that is breaking next We've got Luke Schoonmaker full coverage acetate two of 10 on card auto for the Cowboys Cowboys have themselves a break She's Joshua and double coverage to 75 Jordan Addison one and two color patches We are halfway through the case now everybody. I thought it was so tiny Zero what up, buddy? Yo Yeah, it's been a minute. How you been man? Happy bowman chrome and plates and patches released a Chris Godwin to 35 for the Bucks We've got a Quinton Nelson Next up is a Stetson Bennett 16 of 55 three color and one color. No, no, Timmy now Chad with a division. Let's go Chad Down to five to go and Divis. They know five to go and Divis. Let's go We've got Plexico Burris marquee marks on card signature that is 68 of 99 Now that was only if someone bought every division spot in the divisions And to 300 Kendra Miller on card steel signatures for the Saints So we're down to just five to go in plates and patches Divis Let me show you guys the mega dual case here really quick as well That is gonna be a full case of this 12 boxes in a full case of NT That is at 25 to go take a look at that all teams in 530 a spot so that's 16 total boxes 12 of this for NT's a Lot of good stuff is gonna happen there Big time is right To 25 Alec Pierce on the green Alec Pierce Mike will I swung there For the Chargers. I don't got anything on dude Sam La Porta on the rookie Reflections that's what it is to 55. I think I might need an update Nice. This is awesome. Joe Cleco Hall of Fame auto to 75 class of 22 Congrats on that Vicky basket I'll change your mind. Yeah, I don't think so Timmy Six Wow Josh Downs on the steel signatures to 300 I swung Colts Off to take a look at something after this Lobby Lobby Jamiro Gibbs to 35 nice one there lions.  That is dope to 25 the deck is sweet on card to a man. I love it I swung their Cardinals. This is sweet. How about an Isaac Bruce auto class of 2020 to 50 for the Rams? Congrats LA That is that is what I like to hear right there and full coverage What a five full Nike swoosh Jordan Addison? Let's go man Two Tudys Two Tudys. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow Jason each two three zero zero five nine That's what we like to see Two Tudys Yes, sir Sean's gonna hit the gritty real quick You don't want that. I say arrive Dude that's nasty that is so nasty holy cow that is awesome. We'll get that into a mad. Congrats I was not expecting that man Jason H. That is you. Okay.  I know Alec Pierce the other Pierce You say Deuce Vaughn nice one there for the Cowboys again to 75 doos The old doos Go into the Jags Tony Macelli three of 75 on the all-hauls signatures Tanner McKee RPA to 149 for the Eagles We've got on the track 11 to go on the next one everybody Yeah, I don't they didn't give him a great pen that was the issue. Yeah, I mean his sigs not terrible It ain't great.  Look at this Jalen waddle. Let's go on the American medal That's cool, dude. That's really cool. I'm in on that. I'm very in on that Congrats dolphins Jackson Smith and jig but a 55 Three color and technically one color your plutonium. We've got a Uh Jaren Hall steel signatures to 300 for the Vikings Nice one here. I'm assuming no, this is Saints right here Jamal Williams 4 of 25 It says Saints and it said signed by Saints blah blah blah when so I go to New Orleans You might want to tag this one And then Vikings again another Jordan Addison rookie reflections to 50 Steven you with a spot Brent C with a spot. We are in the single digits. We're down to nine. We're down to nine Nine to go Sean nine to go Sean's there. Have a fun night here tonight, everybody Bowman chrome release day Lot of nonsense going on Eli Manning, what'd you say? Got a Matt Stafford nice one there to 25 7 to 25 for the Rams a Travis no tank Bigsby. I thought that was Travis ETN I'm a bop for that one Nice one Jags tank Bigsby Next up CJ 2k Chris Johnson highly revered to 149 Congrats Titans. That's awesome, dude Well CJ 2k he's been signing a lot man. I've been liking that been liking that a lot and a Jonathan Mingo 26 of 50 double coverage for the Panthers Let's do a quick recap here everybody before we start. Here is your link to divisions as well five two go We've got jerseys Jordan Addison JSN Deuce Vaughn Kyler Murray Sam Laporta Stetson Bennett Jonathan Mingo Jordan Addison a Cooper Cup Travis Kelsey CJ Stroud CJ Stroud again Stetson Bennett again CJ 2k Tank Bigsby Jamal Williams Jaren Hall Tanner McKee Tony Baceli Isaac Bruce Josh Downs Joe Cleco Kendra Miller Plexico Burris Luke Schoonmaker Will Anderson Jackson Smith and Jigba Aiden O'Connell Dorian Thompson Robinson a Jake Hainer Aiden O'Connell Antonio Gates Henden Hooker Ty J Spears We had the Dak Prescott two of ten On card for the Cowboys Anthony Richardson number two three hundred on card for the Colts and then how about one of five Jordan Addison For the Vikings full Nike swoosh Acetate full coverage auto insane that'll do it for the break guys. Thanks again for the fill up next number three Let's fill it up


From time to time our mind wanders to the extreme parts of our very consciousness that wonders about the things We don't even dare dream like who or what created everything and before there was anything was there still something There's very little room with a question like this to say. Yeah, there's always been stuff. Therefore. There's always been life The very fact of the matter is that at some point in time There absolutely must have been a beginning or so our mind tells us There is a chance that the answer to this question is beyond human comprehension Therefore we can't grasp a proper answer for some reason. We're drawn to the sky for answers to the question of our purpose on earth Since the dawn of time we wondered what the hell we're doing here If you ever woke up at a stranger's house after a party well that feeling of disorientation is a feeling we humans have lived With on earth It's as if the planet we're told created us didn't have anything to do with us until fairly recently Here's a thought what if the entire universe is exactly one thing one cell living within an unimaginably big organism Which has billions of quadrillions of other cells? That many individual cells or universes as we call them make up a living thing that we may refer to as the creator That'd make a good episode of Rick and Morty, right? The emerald tablet of Hermes states that as above so below It's said to be inscribed with the secrets of the universe The source of the original emerald tablet is unclear Hence it's surrounded by legends the most common legend claims that the tablet was found in a cave tomb under the statue of Hermes and Tiana Clutched in the hands of the corpse of Hermes Trismegistus himself another legend suggests that it was the third son of Adam and Eve Seth who originally wrote it others believe that the tablet was once held within the Ark of the Covenant Thoth was among the most diverse and popular deities of the Egyptian pantheon He's attested in the Old Kingdom and was regarded since the most primitive period as the god of the moon and Thoth derived much of his authority from being the secretary and counselor to the Sun God Ra He became the regulator of time and individual destinies It's sensational to think that ancient documents such as the emerald tablet or the Dead Sea Scrolls exist from a time That we know very little about even with contributions and translations from the criss-crossing of documents from different languages and religions We still only get a gist of the story That's truly epic in every sense of the word another text which was discovered right around the same time as the Dead Sea Scrolls Is the absolutely enlightening but very controversial no-stick texts wait till you hear this Discovered in 1945 and quickly sold on the black market through antiquities dealers in Cairo The manuscript soon attracted the attention of officials of the Egyptian government through circumstances of high drama They bought one and confiscated 10 and a half of the 13 leatherbound books called codices and deposited them in the Coptic Museum in Cairo But a large part of the 13th codex containing five extraordinary texts was smuggled out of Egypt and offered for sale in America Word of this codex soon reached Professor Giles Quizbowl a distinguished historian of religion at Eurect in the Netherlands Excited by the discovery the professor urged the Jung Foundation in Zurich to buy the codex After discovering some pages were missing he flew to Egypt in the spring of 1955 to try to find them in the Coptic Museum arriving in Cairo He went at once to the museum borrowed photographs from some of the texts and hurried back to his hotel to decipher them Tracing out the first line the professor was startled as he deciphered the first line which read these are the secret words Which the living Jesus spoke and which the twin Judas Thomas wrote down This discovery of the whole texts raised a new question Did Jesus have a twin brother as the text implies? Could the text be an authentic record of Jesus's sayings? According to its title it contained the Gospel according to Thomas yet unlike the Gospels of the New Testament This text identified itself as a secret gospel Professor Quizbowl also discovered that it contained many sayings known from the New Testament But these sayings placed unfamiliar context suggested other dimensions of meaning Other passages he found differed entirely from any known Christian tradition The living Jesus for example speaks in sayings as if both cryptic and compelling Jesus said if you bring forth What is within you what you bring forth will save you if you do not bring forth what is within you What you do not bring forth will destroy you What the professor held in his hand the Gospel of Thomas was only one of the 52 texts discovered in 1945 Bounded in the same volume with it is the Gospel of Philip which attributes to Jesus acts and sayings quite different from those in the New Testament The companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene, but Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often The rest of the disciples said to him why do you love her more than all of us? The Savior answered and said to them why do I not love you as I love her other sayings in this collection Criticized common Christian belief such as the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection as naive misunderstandings Bound together with these Gospels is the Apocryphon which literally means secret book of John Which opens with an offer to reveal the mysteries of the things hidden in silence Which Jesus taught to his disciple John the discoverer of the texts incredibly admitted that some of the texts were lost Burned up or thrown away because he feared he and his family would be punished by the Egyptian government for grave robbing But what remains is astonishing some 52 texts from the early centuries of the Christian era including a collection of early Christian Gospels previously unknown besides the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip the find also included the Gospel of truth and the Gospel to the Egyptians which identified itself the sacred book of the great invisible spirit another group of texts consists of writings attributed to Jesus's followers such as the secret book of James the Apocalypse of Paul the letter of Peter to Philip and the Apocalypse of Peter you have to wonder about the validity of such texts that appear to have survived from a time in history in which they were written Uninfluenced or altered since they were first created in that sense There must be more truth within these words than our modern day translations Anyway, we hope you guys are all set for the holidays a lot has changed on this channel since last Christmas As you very well may know and it's you guys who have driven us forward as we created over 200 videos in 2018 it's been a bumpy ride and it's only gonna get bumpier So join us on the journey as we attempted gently peel back the lies and reveal the truth about our civilization And remember the ways at which we arrive at knowledge is hardly less wonderful than the discovery of these things themselves Thanks for watching