 Hi, this is Pastor David Osales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California. In the late sixties and early seventies, people were amazed at a new phenomenon that was shaking the younger generation. Young people were coming to faith in Jesus Christ in great numbers. And the press quickly referred to us as the Jesus people. This was not something that the unsaved world would have expected, because there was a great turning away from the Christian underpinnings of our nation. And there was a creeping worldliness that was settling in and transforming American culture. Interestingly, on April 8, 1966, Time Magazine ran a cover headline with the question, Is God Dead? Then on June 21, 1971, the same magazine had a picture of Jesus on the front cover under the banner, The Jesus Revolution. Now how did this happen? How did this youth revival begin? As we look at our day with the violence, fear, and uncertainty, we can believe it is the worst time that this nation has ever had. But this obviously isn't true. The simple fact is, in the sixties, America was in turmoil. The decade was filled with turbulence, anger, and revolution. It was during that time that the U.S. committed itself to policing a small Southeast Asian country named Vietnam. In the sixties, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. And Jack Ruby killed Kennedy's assassin, J. Harvey Oswald, on TV before a live audience. Civil riots broke out in Watts, Boston, Washington, D.C., Newark, Detroit. And at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, raised fists and cries of burn baby burn rang out in America. The sixties was a time of chaos, anger, and protest. During the sixties, Martin Luther King Jr. courageously led marches for racial justice and his reward for such concern was being gunned down in Memphis in 1968. Later John F. Kennedy's younger brother Bobby was assassinated. UC Berkeley, Harvard, San Francisco State, and other institutions of higher learning were invaded by students and occupied in protest against the war in Vietnam. Four university students were gunned down by National Guardsmen at Kent State. Later, at law enforcement, was high and young people began to cry, kill the pigs. We had the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Wall, and in the midst of this turmoil, hippies came into existence, invading San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District. Drugs, alcohol, lovins, and free sex became the lifestyle of many of the younger generation. Psychologist Guru Timothy Leary encouraged youth everywhere to begin to take acid. Our mottos became tune in, turn on, drop out, and if it feels good, do it as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. This new philosophy of life found a way to make its way into the mainstream and was normalized through a revolution in music. The British invasion led by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the animals, the who invaded America, sweeping the youth into counterculture lifestyles and anti-Christ philosophies. I can still recall when John Lennon stated, the Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ. Though it caused outrage, at that time, I agreed with him. We had rock music, folk music, protest music, soul music, psychedelic music. We had rock musicals, every kind of music that you could imagine. It became a time when singer-songwriters openly espoused politics, believing that it was their social responsibility to do so. Thousands of young people gathered at Yazger's Farm in Woodstock, New York, and became the Woodstock Nation, which inspired folk singer Joni Mitchell to write the song Woodstock, which was popularized by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Jung. Contrary to our selective memory and revisionist historians, the 60s were anything but happy. We were rightly described by singer Don McLean as a generation lost in space. The Apostle Paul describes it better in Ephesians 4, 16, and 17. We were darkened in our understanding, separated from the life of God because of our ignorance in us. By the hardening of our hearts, we lost all sensitivity, and we gave ourselves over to sensuality, indulging in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. Again, the words of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Jung are correct. We were helplessly hopeless. In the midst of those days, in spite of the moral darkness, God began to move powerfully. Many hippies began to see in Jesus the ultimate hippie, the preeminent revolutionary. His message of love, community, faith, and forgiveness began reaching my generation. Multitudes of hippies started to come to faith in Jesus and it amazed America. The kids that had been written off as angry and filled with rage and hate were getting saved. A youth movement hit the United States and the press quickly called us Jesus people. In 1967, Ed Plowman, the assistant editor of Christianity Today, wrote the book The Jesus Movement in America. In his book, Plowman attempted to describe what had begun sweeping through the United States. He followed the Jesus people from Haydashbury to New York City, chronicling the movement, and in his introduction Plowman wrote, I just couldn't believe it was the real thing, hippies reading the Bible and praying, yet there they were. In the storefront coffee house, some ministers had opened near the intersection of Haydashbury in San Francisco. What I saw and heard distalled my doubts about these wild-looking young people and the sincerity of their belief. Drugs didn't seem to matter anymore. They said Jesus Christ had given them a better high. They spoke freely of their new love for God. They loved the Bible. They loved each other. And in the electric atmosphere of vibrant unselfishness, I had a strange feeling they loved me. What was true then is still true today because Jesus broke through those barriers. At that time, the Christian band Love Song wrote the song Little Country Church, which included the lyrics, long hairs, short hairs, some coats and ties, people finally coming around, looking past the hair and straight into the eyes, people finally coming around. And it's very plain to see it's not the way it used to be. Out of this movement and moment in history came Calvary Chapel Ministries. Of course there were other groups of believers celebrating Jesus, but I got involved with Calvary Chapel as a 20-year-old young man, and I've been following Jesus now for almost 48 years. With all of this said, I just wanted to remind you that God is still on the throne. I wanted to remind you that it isn't over yet, and God still has much to do. I wanted to encourage you to trust God's Word, to be filled with the power of His Holy Spirit, to seek Him daily, to fellowship with Him in prayer, and to not forsake relationships with like-minded believers. I wanted to remind you that when it seems to be the darkest, God's light shines the brightest. I also wanted to remind you that with God all things are possible and that God still loves the world and desires all to come to Him in salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. Sometimes it can seem that there is no hope and that we should just give up. This isn't true. We need to remember that if God is for us then who can be against us? We need to remember that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Hold fast to God, trust His promises, don't give up on sharing your faith with family and friends, with your neighbors, and when given opportunity, share your faith with strangers. A.W. Tozer once pointed out that when the world has been in its darkest times, God has moved mightily and though things are difficult in our day, it is time for the church to be the church to wake up out of sleep and to do the work of ministry. It's not too late, hold fast, trust God, and be still. We shall see the salvation of the Lord. This is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California.