 Hi, this is David Rosales, I'm pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California. In the late sixties and early seventies, people were amazed at a new phenomenon impacting young people. Young people were coming to a faith in Jesus Christ. The press took notice of this and began referring to us as the Jesus people, or Jesus Freaks, Interestingly, on April 8, 1966, on the front page cover of Time Magazine, the banner posed the question, Is God Dead? Four years later, on June 21, 1971, the same magazine had a picture of Jesus on its cover with the headline, Jesus Revolution. Now how did this happen? What had led to this radical change? As we look at our day with the violence, the fear, and uncertainty we all experience, we can believe that our times are the worst ever. This obviously isn't true. The actual fact is that in the sixties, our nation was in turmoil. The decade was filled with turbulence, anger, fear, uncertainty, and revolution. The U.S. committed itself to policing a small southeast Asian country named Vietnam. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and I and the nation watched in horror when Jack Ruby killed the alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on TV. Racial riots broke out in Watts, Boston, Washington, D.C., Newark, Detroit, and at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Just fists and cries of burn baby burn rang out in America. During the sixties, Martin Luther King Jr. led marches for racial justice and his reward was being gunned down in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Later on June 6 of the same year, John Kennedy's brother Bobby was assassinated. UC Berkeley, Harvard, San Francisco State, other universities were invaded by students occupied in protest against the Vietnam War. Four students were killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State. We had the Cuban Missile Crisis. We had the Berlin Wall. And in the midst of this turmoil, hippies came into existence invading hate Ashbury in San Francisco. Drugs, alcohol, lovins, free sex became the lifestyle of many of the youth. Timothy Leary encouraged us to take acid, to tune in, turn on, drop out. During the same period came a music revolution. The British invasion led by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the animals, the who invaded America sweeping the youth into counterculture lifestyles, anti-Christ philosophies. I can still recall the anger that rose in the United States 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, and every kind of music you could imagine. It was at that time that singers and songwriters began openly espousing political opinions. Prior to this time, singers and entertainers were expected to entertain their paying audience. But they began to think that they had something to say that everybody needed to hear. Contrary to our selective memory, our revisionist historians, the sixties were anything but happy. We were rightly described by singer Don McLean as a generation lost in space. Paul describes it better in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 16 and 17 when he wrote, We were darkened in our understanding, separated from the life of God because of the ignorance in us due to 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. In the words of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, we were helplessly hopeless. In the darkest moments of these days, God began to move powerfully. Many hippies began to see in Jesus the ultimate hippie, the preeminent revolutionary. This message of love and forgiveness began reaching my generation. Multitudes of hippies came to faith in Christ and it amazed America. The kids that had been written off as filled with rage and hate were getting saved. A youth movement hit the United States. The press quickly called us Jesus people. The Bible was being taught, Jesus was being exalted, people were called to follow him and as God's word was clearly presented, Jesus began to break through the barriers. Out of this movement and in many ways leading the way came Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel Ministries. Of course, there were other groups of believers celebrating Jesus, but I got involved with Calvary Chapel in 1970 as a 20 year old young man. Over the last 50 years, one thing has grown to completely dominate my way of thinking. Sheep need to be fed God's word because it is God's word that guides them and it is God's word that produces spiritual growth and we're living in dark days. It doesn't appear that things will be getting any better anytime soon. So instead of hunkering down in fear, it's time for the church to shine in the midst of darkness. What God has done before, he can surely do again. Don't lose hope, don't give up, don't stop praying, don't stop reading God's word and don't stop sharing concerning the hope that lies within you. It is a time of darkness, but remember that light dispels darkness. We are children of light. So let your light shine so that men may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. If your church has live services and you can go, please do. If your church has online services, praise God, watch and participate. And if you have family at home with you, do so with them. Don't forget to financially support your church because bills still need to be paid. We're looking at the book of Revelation, chapter 11, this upcoming Sunday morning. So if you don't have a church that has opened its doors to live services, you're more than welcome to join us until it does. And remember, look up because your redemption is drawing near. This is David Rosales, pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Geno Valley, California.