Chris Shimanek

Child of God, husband, father, pastor, and diehard Hoosier fan!

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Chicago lost the Bears this week. A team that's been in the city since 1921.

They didn't lose them to a bigger market or a better deal. The Bears decided they'd rather be a tenant in Indiana than deal with Illinois for one more year.

Think about how badly you have to run a place for that to be the smart move.

They lost them for two reasons.

The people running Illinois would rather villainize a builder than keep one. And they're bad at their jobs.

In 2021 the Bears spent $197M on the old Arlington Park racetrack.

Before they could break ground, Cook County valued the empty lot at $192M (Bears said $60M). They were salivating at the chance to extort a building that didn't even exist yet.

That fight dragged on for years.

The Bears were ready to put $2B into the stadium. All they wanted was a promise the county wouldn't reassess them into oblivion, plus $855M for infrastructure everyone uses. Roads, transit, utilities. A $3B project, two thirds of it private money pouring into Illinois.

Springfield had since 2021 to get this done. They dragged it to the final night of session, passed it through the Senate at 3:39AM, and the House went home without voting.

So now it's all gone.

The funniest part? This started because Cook County tried to grab the tax early. They knew a built stadium would pay $53M a year. Now they get under $4M on a vacant lot. No jobs, no buildout, no new anything.

Congrats on fighting for scraps and losing the whole prize.

Pritzker: they're "an $8.5B valued business" that doesn't need propping up.

But be smart for a second. Almost every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Not charity. The return is real. Tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game days, property tax on a huge development. The math works.

Indiana did the math. While Illinois sat on it for years, Indiana passed a bill in months, put up $1B, and took the team.

And the Bears took a worse deal to get there. In Illinois they were going to own their stadium. In Indiana they rent it from the state. A team that wanted to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape Chicago.

Nobody won but Indiana. The Bears lost their stadium. Illinois lost the team, the $2B, and $53M a year in taxes.

Pritzker after they left: "I wasn't willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team."

There it is. "Billionaire-owned."

That's how Democrats talk about any business right before they run it out of town. Call them a billionaire, act like you're saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.

Meanwhile they're running the whole state into the ground. And you already know how this ends. You're living in it.

Pensions are $143B in the hole, worst in the country and not close. You pay $6,285 a year in property taxes, double the $2,969 national average, for a city that's $1.15B in the red. The mayor called its finances "the point of no return."

When you run things this badly, you sell what's left.

They leased the parking meters for 75 years to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi. Took $1.15B and burned through it in two years. The investors already made it all back, with 58 years left to collect.

Sold the Skyway. Sold the downtown garages. Every asset that made money, gone for one check.

But a fixed property tax rate for a team that's been here 106 years? That's "propping up billionaires."

Companies are leaving. Boeing for Virginia. Caterpillar for Texas. Citadel for Miami. In 2023 alone Illinois lost 56,000 people and $6B in income to other states. The ones who left earned a third more than the ones who moved in.

Indiana didn't outbid anyone. AAA credit, 16 years straight. A $676M surplus. Fourth-lowest debt per person in the country. They just weren't a disaster.

Illinois could have collected $53M a year. It chose zero. Ignore all the bad management but make sure to stick it to those evil, pesky billionaires.

[Jeff Rabjohns @JeffRabjohns]

Final college football scores this season:

Indiana 20, Michigan 15
Michigan 19, Alabama 13

The committee got it right.

[Jeff Rabjohns @JeffRabjohns]

Final score: Michigan 19, No. 11 Alabama 13.

Per SEC directors of disinformation Kirk Herbstreit and Paul Finebaum, Alabama will be awarded the victory because their opinion is that SEC teams are better and scores of games don't matter.

[challies @challies]

"Legalistic remorse says, 'I broke God’s rules,' while real repentance says, 'I broke God’s heart.'" (Tim Keller)

[𝕊𝕠𝕝𝕒 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕕 🎚️ @sola_chad]

“The great motivation for me isn’t eternity, it’s Calvary.” -Paul Washer

[Emmanuel Acho @EmmanuelAcho]

Also, Ryan Day, your whole team is in the midst of a brawl, and you’re on the sideline asking “what happened?” Huh!?

Get your butt on the field and command your players go to the locker room.

[The Gospel Coalition @TGC]

Would your sermons make sense if Jesus didn’t die and rise again? If the answer is yes, your sermons may well be instructive, insightful, and inspiring, but they aren't yet Christian.

In this episode of The Everyday Pastor, Bryan Chapell—a “Jedi master” on the topic of Christ-centered preaching—brings decades of experience to this conversation with @MattSmethurst and @LigonDuncan on why (and how) to make Jesus Christ the hero of every sermon.
Watch the full episode below or listen to The Everyday Pastor wherever you get your podcasts.

📝ON THIS VIDEO:

00:00 Why we need Christ-centered sermons

6:33 Don't skip the application

11:46 Practical advice for preaching Christ from all Scripture

23:26 The relationship between law and grace in preaching

30:48 Why your sermon needs illustrations (and how to do them well)

41:09 Application: what, where, why, how

45:53 Encouragement and sympathy in preaching

[Steven Curtis Chapman @StevenCurtis]

So much stirring in so many of our hearts right now, it seemed like a perfect time to remind myself & anyone else who needs to hear it…
“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”
Psalms 46:10 NLT

[Megan Basham @megbasham]

Weed and abortion amendments now look likely to go down in Florida. Whatever else happens tonight, that’s more than enough reason to praise God!

[Chris Shimanek @CShimanek]

@CubsZone Absolutely not

[Michael Reeves @mike_reeves]

The Bible is not a manual for self-improvement, but good news about Jesus. See that and replace drudgery with joy.

[Nick Adams @NickAdamsinUSA]

WOW: Ohio State football players hand out 10,000 bibles, lead thousands of students to Christ!

[OBVIOUS SHIRTS® @obvious_shirts]

RYNO IS CANCER FREE!! OUR HERO. #RYNOSTRONG

[sᴄᴏᴛᴛ ᴀɴɪᴏʟ @ScottAniol]

Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Any attempt to add to or subtract from this truth is a distortion of the gospel.

[Scott Christensen @pastorscottc]

True

[Tom Buck (Five Point Buck) @TomBuck]

You can say all you want that abortion is a "State" issue, but as long as the Federal Government allows for the abortion pill to be shipped in the mail, no state will ever be able to enforce whatever abortion laws it has. These pills can be used to murder a baby up to 3 months!