 Today we're in chapter three here in Matthew. We're going to look at verses one through six. We're going to be looking at a band by the name of John the Baptist. And so beginning at verse one, Matthew chapter three, beginning at verse one in reading to verse six, Matthew writes, in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, for this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locust and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins. So to develop a context, this portion of scripture acts as a transition from the early life of Jesus Christ in chapters one and two. Chapters one and two doubt with his first few months, but chapter three begins some 30 years later. In this chapter we're introduced to a very great man, a man that we know as John the Baptist. Let me give you some background information on John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a son of a priest named Zacharias and his mother's name was Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a cousin of the Virgin Mary. They lived in what is called the hill country of Judea and were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. The birth of John was a gracious act of God. His father Zacharias, a priest, was performing his duty of burning incense in the temple at Jerusalem, which was a once in a lifetime event for a priest. When an angel appeared to him informing him that his prayers had been heard and that his wife who had been barren would bear a son. Undoubtedly John had been praying for a son for a long time. His prayers were about to be answered because they were both well advanced in years. Zacharias was told the child that Elizabeth would bear would cause great joy for them as well as causing great joy for others. He was also told that the Lord would use the child in a mighty way and indeed, as we look at the life of John, we see that he did. From his name and his title, we get a glimpse of this great man. His name, John, can be translated the grace or the mercy of Jehovah. He was to proclaim God's grace, the God of all grace and the God of all mercy and the mercy that would be granted through Jesus Christ to a lost world. His title is the Baptist. The reason he's referred to as the Baptist is because this is speaking of his ministry. He was baptizing and that's what he was called to do. So this gracious one sent from God to bring this gracious message also had the ministry of baptizing people in order for them to be prepared for the kingdom of God. When you look at his early years, nothing is known. In the gospel of Luke chapter one, verse eight, it simply says the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel. So him being in the deserts is another way of saying the location that he was living in and that would have been about 20 miles to the east of the city of Jerusalem, to the Jordan River and then down south into the region that is called the area around the Dead Sea. So that's where he lived and that's where he was. He was there in these desert places for 30 years and then the Lord moved him to begin his ministry. There's never ever a mention of Mrs. John the Baptist. So he was a very happy man. I mean, he was a man who was unmarried. We know that he was 30 years old because the Bible gives us that kind of information. We know that he was, according to Luke 1.26, he was six months older than Jesus and Luke 3.23 tells us that Jesus began his ministry at about 30 years of age. And so John was a 30 year old man unmarried who was being prepared by God in desert places for 30 years so that he could come and have a very short ministry. The ministry that he had was very clear. He was sent before Jesus to prepare the way before him. In John chapter one, verses six through eight, the apostle John writes, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That light obviously being Jesus Christ. Now on one occasion, Jesus was speaking concerning his cousin John and he made a very clear comment about him. Now we speak into a great crowd of people who had gathered to hear him as he was speaking. It's recorded in Matthew chapter 11, verses seven through 11. There it says, when John's disciples had gone, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. Who is this man in the wilderness that you went to see? Did you find him weak as a reed moved by every breath of wind? Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? Those who dress like that live in palaces, not in the wilderness. Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. John is the man to whom the scriptures refer when they say, look, I am sending my messenger before you and he will prepare your way before you. I assure you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. It even the most insignificant person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. I assure you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. All you need to do is take a moment to consider the Old Testament and think of the characters that are referred to there. Men that you see like Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel, Moses, the deliverer of the nation of Israel. You see Isaac and Jacob. You see David, King David and King Solomon. You see Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. There are so many individuals that you find in the Old Testament that were amazing that had tremendous testimonies. And yet when Jesus was speaking about John, he said none of these men, none of them was greater than John the Baptist. This was a great man. So the question has to be asked, what makes a person great in the sight of God? What is it that made Jesus say that John the Baptist was the greatest ever born amongst women? Well, one, we know that he was an object of prophecy. If you look at verse three here, it says this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. He was an object of prophecy. The Old Testament spoke concerning this man who was to come. When you look in the book of Malachi in chapter three, verse one, it reads, look, I am sending my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord whom you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant whom you look for so eagerly is surely coming says the Lord Almighty. And so he was an object of prophecy. Second, he's the last of the Old Testament prophets. In Matthew chapter 11, verse 13, Jesus said all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And then third, and this is something that should never be overlooked because it is one of the keys to the greatness in the kingdom of heaven. There was something about John that made him great. And besides the fact that he was at the object of prophecy, beside the fact that he was a prophet and the last of the Old Testament prophets, there was one thing about him that also made him great and it's something that we all ought to ask the Lord to gift us with. And that was that he was humble. He was a very humble man. If you look at verse 11 here in Matthew chapter three, John said, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, humility. He possessed humility. He knew who he was and he knew who Jesus was. If you wanna be used by the Lord, that's one of those things that you need to ask the Lord to produce in you. Lord, help me to have humility. And one of the ways for you to have humility is to simply spend time with the Lord because the more you see him, the more you see of yourself. And the greater you see him to be, the less you think of yourself. Anybody who's looking at themselves in the mirror in the dark looks good. When we stand outside in the noonday sun with that mirror looking at ourselves as to what we really look like that we actually begin to see what we actually are. And the closer you get to the Lord, who is the light, the more of your own darkness will be revealed. And you'll see yourself more clearly in the light of his light. And John knew that. John knew that he came as one who was preparing the way for this one, but he was not that one. In John 3, 25 through 30, there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he was with you beyond the Jordan to whom you have testified. Behold, he is baptized and all are coming to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said I'm not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. Then he says, he must increase, I must decrease. And that was the key. That was one of the things about him. So yes, he's the object of prophecy. Yes, he's an Old Testament prophet, the last of the Old Testament prophets, but also he was a man who knew who he was in light of who Jesus Christ is. And this is a man that we're looking at right now, John the Baptist. So in verses one and two here in Matthew chapter three, Matthew writes, in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Preaching is the calling out. It's preaching is a ministry that normally is associated with an appeal to the will. When somebody is preaching, normally what they're doing is they're calling people to make a decision. And John was in this wilderness preaching. He was calling people to make a decision. And it's interesting, where was it that he was preaching? And the answer here is that he was in the wilderness of Judea. I get these invitations every month, sometimes more than once a month, where people are asking me to come to a conference, not to teach at it, but to come and learn at their conference, to come to the conference that they're going to be having, related to how to build your church, how to grow your congregations. And so if you actually were to go to one of those conferences, which I never have, but I've read the materials that's come. There are books that were written, many books that have been written concerning church growth and how to begin to attract crowds and build them into a church and things of that nature. If you were to go to those conferences, they're real big on a variety of things. They're big on demographic studies. They'll say, listen, if you're going to want to plan a church, you need to know the area that you're going to go into. So what is the population of that area? What is the ethnic makeup of the population of that area? What is the age, median age of that area? What is the educational level of those whom you want to reach in that area? What is their financial situation? You have these demographic studies and what they're saying is you need to do this. You need to do that. You need to go here. You need to know who you're targeting. You need to know exactly everything about them. And they say, come to my seminar and I'll teach you how to do that. I'll teach you how to do demographic studies. I'll teach you how to figure out how to plan a church. But the one thing they would never tell you to do is go into a wilderness. They would never do that. They'd never say go out into Podunk, Oklahoma. Population 16. They would never do that. They would never say go out there where nobody is. But I discovered something a long time ago. I discovered that where Jesus says people will come. When the Lord is moving, people will come. And John was in the wilderness. And as he is in the wilderness, people who had a seeking heart, people who wanted to know what God was all about actually were going to the wilderness. And as they went out into that wilderness, they heard a message. We'll look at that message in a moment. But as they went out there, they began to hear something. You see, in Jeremiah 29, 13, God said this. He said, you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all of your heart. And there he is in a wilderness. Because in that wilderness, while the wilderness is a place where serious seekers would sacrifice in order to come. And there he is out there. And he's preaching this message. I had an opportunity last year to go into Mexico City. And while I was in Mexico City, I was there with a friend of mine, his name's Mike McIntosh, to do some ministry at Horizon Mexico City. And so I was teaching a class, a pastor's class. And while I was there, there were about 60 or so students in the class. My host, the brother who was spending time with me and showing me around and all said to me, would you like to see the sanctuary? And I said, I thought I was in it. And he says, oh no, and he smiles, his sly little smile. And he goes, no. I said, oh, this isn't the sanctuary. It's that 60 to 80 people. I thought that Horizon Ministries out there in Mexico City may have had 60, 80 people. What do I know? They had no parking. There was nothing like that. It's just a small place. And he says, oh no, no, no. He says, would you like to see it? And I said, of course. So he walks me through this maze and I come down finally some steps and there's some double doors. And I opened the door. He opens the doors for me actually. I step in and he has, there's a sanctuary there that seats over 2,000 people. And I looked, I said, this is your sanctuary? And he says, yeah, we have double services. I said, do you have 4,000 people coming here every Sunday? He goes, yeah. I said, where's your parking? They had no parking. There's no parking. They have a little parking structure there that might park 12 to 20 cars maybe. But they have 2,000 people per service showing up. I said, where do they park? He says, down the street. So we step out and look, it's an industrial area. There's no on-street parking. They have to park a half mile at least a half mile away from the church. And they do that twice a Sunday morning. 2,000 people parking in their cars a distance away to walk to the church. And they're on time. And it amazed me. It amazed me. But there's this old preacher who once said, if you catch fire for Jesus, people will drive from miles around just to watch you burn. And John was a man in the wilderness. And he was preaching a message that was drawing people to come and listen. Now here's the second thing that's interesting about this. Look at his message. Because when you look at the message, it's really interesting. As it says again in verse three, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. He had said in verse two, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The message that he's preaching is another message that I have been told I shouldn't preach. I received it from a letter from a pastor who was angry because I had written something concerning repentance. And he was angry about me presenting the word repentance and he thought that's not something the church needs to hear. And yet John is preaching a message of repentance. The word repent in the Greek language, metanoel. Metanoel means a change of mind. It can speak of a change of direction. And when he was preaching repentance, he was telling people, change your mind about how you think you're gonna enter into the kingdom of God and change your direction so that you can. So he was preaching a message that people needed to hear. We're living in dark times right now and pastors like me and many others are being told, shut up, you shouldn't speak like that. Nobody will come and listen to you. That's not true. If there's anything this nation needs to do right now, it's repent. This nation needs to repent. And for us to be told not to say anything, just to love everybody and have tolerance for everything is nonsense. And John was up there and we'll see some of what he has to say next time we're together. But John was preaching a message that spoke to the hearts of people. They knew something was wrong with them. They knew something was messed up in their head. They knew it, but nobody was telling them what it was. So John told them, you need to repent. Repentance is a major theme in scripture. The first message Jesus preached, it's found in Matthew 4.17, was one of repentance. Throughout his ministry, Jesus called people to repentance. In Mark chapter two, verse 17, Jesus said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Repentance is a message that Jesus commanded the apostles to preach. In Mark chapter six, verse 12, they went out and preached that men should repent. And finally, the church today is to continue calling and encouraging people to repent. In second Timothy 2.25, a servant of the Lord is to in humility, correct those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth. To come to know truth, you have to change your mind. You have to. You know, we have what I call, I don't watch American Idol, I used to, I don't anymore. But I did, maybe it was not right, but I did sometimes because I would just really get fascinated by those who have no talent, who would come out saying, I can sing like, and then they'd name whoever it is that they thought was a great singer. I can sing like Aretha, I can sing like whomever, and then you watch them and you just sit there going, oh my, who lied to you? And then they would say, my grandma, my grandma loves the way I sing. Have you ever considered that your grandma may be deaf? I mean, you know, grandmas have a tendency of saying, oh, you're beautiful too. So, but they're all American idols, all of them, every one of them, are you gonna make it? Yes, I am, why? Cause I am the American Idol. Then they go up and go, oh my goodness, that is very sad. And then when they're told they're not, they cuss. And they get all mad, but that's American, that's nature, that's human nature. That's human nature. Who appreciates being told the truth? Not everybody, and the way it's said sometimes is very hurtful, so not everybody responds well to it. And yet you have John out there saying, listen, change your mind, change your mind. If you think you're gonna enter into the kingdom of heaven the way that you are, you will not. He loved them enough to tell them the truth. And they by droves came out to hear this man preach because he had the courage of a prophet who was speaking the truth to them and they listened. He was preaching repentance. Now, repentance, very often people associate emotion or sorrow with the word repentance. You may have sorrow when you repent, you may. But don't confuse the word repent with regret. There are quite a number of people who regret things. I regret what I did to that person. I regret stealing what I stole. I regret getting caught for what I did. There's regret. Regret is a human emotion. It simply means I feel bad about doing something. Judas betrayed Christ. Judas was somebody who sold Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver. He betrayed Christ. He denied Christ. But the apostle Peter also said, I do not know him three times. Judas and the apostle Peter. And yet, when you look at how things worked out for them, in Judas's case, he had a regret. A regret, a sorrow of heart that led to suicide. But in the life of the apostle Peter, he repented and it led to him being reconciled to Christ and restored to ministry. In 2 Corinthians chapter seven, verse 10, Paul said, the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation. Now, when Marie, who is now my wife, was my girlfriend, she and I were speaking on one occasion and she said to me, I don't know if I've really come to salvation in Christ. And I said, why is that? She said, because I'm dating you. No, she said because, she says because when you share about your testimony, when you share about how you got saved, there's an emotion in you, there's a joy in you. And even a tear that comes out, when you talk about that, she said, but when I talk about coming to faith in Christ, I just matter of factly one day said, I need Christ. And I came to him, she says, I don't have that in me. I don't have those tears and all of that. I don't think I'm saved. And I had to tell her that, no, tears has nothing to do with changing your mind. You made up your mind, you said, yes, I need Christ. Yes, I'm a sinner. Yes, I need his forgiveness. I said, for some people like me who had a bad life and a lot of pain that I caused others and went through myself, when I got saved, there's an emotion that's attached to it that I'm very grateful for. But not everybody has that. I might have somebody in here right now who's questioning, did I come to Christ? I don't cry when I get my testimony. I don't feel emotion. I don't feel any of that. And yet when pastors share sometimes his eyes tear up or when I talk to other people, they get emotional and I don't do that. I must not be saved. No, that's not true. Sometimes emotion will follow. Sometimes emotion is part of it, but it isn't the repentance itself. Repentance is the change of mind. It's when you hear what God says and you agree and you ask God's forgiveness and he washes and cleanses you. And that's what actually makes it possible to be converted. You see, repentance speaks of making a decision to turn away from your sins and that leads you to a new life. Now why are we to repent? Why was he saying repent? He said repent because God's kingdom is at hand. God in other words intends to reign over men's hearts. The king is coming. He's entitled to and requires nothing less than true repentance. And anyone who is not willing to repent cannot give to the king what the king deserves. And he says continuing in verse three, this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. The voice of one crying, that word crying in the original language Greek means to be shouting aloud. In other words, the voice is crying out loudly. It wasn't being whispered, it was being cried out. Prepare the way of the Lord. There's a voice of one crying in the wilderness. The wilderness can speak literally as where John was in the wilderness, but also wilderness can be speaking concerning the things that have ruined your lives. The wilderness of sin. Listen carefully because you know this to be true. Sin produces ruined lives. That's what it produces. It clutters and it devastates everything it infects, everything. Sin destroys and it makes a clutter and ruin of a person's life. And when a person is living in sin, when a person's life is not turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, their life is devastated. That's what it is. And God is crying loudly. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. During that day, if a king was entering into a city, there would be an entourage, there would be people sent before him and their job was to clear all the debris and remove the rubbish, fill in the potholes and make the path for the king straight so he could enter in to the city that he was about to enter into. So the crying out in the wilderness, speaking to us is saying, remove the debris and clutter from your heart. Get those things out of the way. That comes through confession. God be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. Confession by the way is a Greek word homolageo. It simply means to say the same thing or to speak in agreement. God says, I'll have sin if I'll short of the glory of God. I confess and say, amen, I agree. God says, there's none righteous, no, not one. And I confess and I say, I agree. And so there's this God forgive me a sinner which is simply a way of saying, and I agree with you for your word is true. I agree, forgive me. And what we do is through repentance and confession is we clear out the debris. And now God has a straight path to enter into our life by faith. God forgive me a sinner. I have done these things. It is my fault. It is my fault. It is my most grievous fault. It's me, I did it. I can't point to my mom and I can no longer point to my dad. I can't point to my heritage of any sort. I can't point to the lack of my education or the lack of finances that I have, the lack of opportunities. I can't point to any of those things because ultimately what it is, it's me. The enemy has been found and it's me. I'm my own greatest enemy. And God I need your mercy. I turn for my sin and I turn to you. I remove the debris through confession and I open the way for your entrance. And this sorrow that I have is not one that is simply regret. It's an awareness that I have a holy God that I have offended and I need this holy God's gracious mercy. That's what John was preaching. In Psalm 32, three through five, the Psalmist said, when I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable. I groaned all day long. Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord and you forgave me. All my guilt is God. That's what happens. If I confess my sin, he is faithful and just to forgive me my sin and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. That comes to repentance. Now, in verse four, John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. I first read this in 1970, so I thought he was hippy. You know, he sounds like a hippy. You know, he's eating locusts, eating wild honey and things of that nature. And I thought, yeah, this guy's cool. You know, I like this guy. What's interesting is that John did not live like, talk like, dress like or look like any other religious leader of his day. And the way he looked could even have confused, perhaps startled, some of who saw him. When you're looking at his description, though, we need to understand something. His clothing actually identifies him as a prophet. Zechariah 13, verse four, says on that day, every prophet will be ashamed of his prophetic vision. He will not put on a prophet's garment of hair in order to deceive. And so it identified him, the way that he was dressed identified him as a prophet. Secondly, the way that he dressed reminded them of another prophet by the name of Elijah. In second Kings, Kings chapter one, verse eight, that verse describes Elijah as a man with a garment of hair with a leather belt around his waist. But third, the way that he dressed served as a rebuke to those who were sophisticated and worldly religious leaders. His manner of dressing lifestyle revealed his commitment to ministry. He lived in such a way that people knew that he was intensely serious about serving God. During the time of Christ, there were those who profited off a religion. They made money from it. It isn't unusual that it occurred then. It occurs to this day and it occurred before. That's what they did. Many people who were religious would profit from, make money from their religion or the faith of others. That happens to this day. I was speaking to a pastor friend of mine who was mentioning to me about something about a pastor from Pennsylvania who had gone into Brooklyn, New York, and he was going through Brooklyn. And as he was going through Brooklyn, he had someone, another minister who was guiding him and showing him Brooklyn. And he pulled up in front of this building and in front of the building were two Cadillac limousines and there were two chauffeurs who were standing next to the cars. And so as he slowed down in front of this building, the pastor says, what is this? And the man next to him said, oh, this is the church. Now it's in an impoverished area. And so as the pastor's there in front of the church, the man who was giving him the tour says, you see those two Cadillacs? And he says, yes. He says, those Cadillacs belong to the pastor and pastors. And he said, those two men? He goes, yeah. Those are chauffeur bodyguards. And so it kind of is blowing this pastor's mind as he's there because he's in a very poor section of Brooklyn. And he says, how's this, why is this? He goes, well, the minister's there. Preach a message that you're supposed to be rich. And so the people there who are impoverished will give of their welfare checks or whatever they have to make sure that the pastor lives out the message that he gives them. And says, the pastor does not live in Brooklyn. He actually lives in Long Island and has an estate there. And he actually is brought in by his chauffeurs. Those guys that you're seeing there, one of them is his chauffeur. And that chauffeur is also his bodyguard who is there guarding the car so that nobody steals it and the guy's armed to make sure that nobody steals the pastor's car. And so when I was told this, I said, how can I get a job at that church? Somebody believes me, I'm just kidding. But that happens to this day. That happens to this day. One of the things about John was that he actually was an open rebuke to those who were profiting off of the kingdom of God. And that's why Jesus would say that if you thought that John should be dressed in a certain way, remember those people live in King's houses. In other words, this individual here is sold out and his ministry is to reach those who are lost. Now as this is taking place versus five and six says, Jerusalem, Judea, the region around the Jordan went to him, were baptized by him and the Jordan confessed in their sins. They're acknowledging themselves as sinners by receiving baptism. And there was a tremendous impact that was taking place. People were ready to deal with their lives and God's call through him spoke to their hearts. Calling people to repentance and genuinely living for God would make all the difference in their lives. One last thing, when I was in North Carolina and I was in the military in 1971, I was a new believer and I used to take prayer walks and prayer runs and as I would be walking, I would be praying. And I can tell you two of the prayers that I prayed every day. I can tell you those prayers, one of them was simply asking God to help me to learn to love people. And two, and this is the words I used to use, God give me a spiritual spine. One of the things that people today, they look at hippies and the hippie movement is kind of resurrecting again, what goes around comes around. And so now people are trying to dress like hippies and all and they're trying to act like hippies and think they're hippies and it's kind of trippy to me to see that. But then it happens they do, they could come around and once again we're out there so far out and this and that and whatever, you know. But one of the things that you need to understand about the hippies that somebody who's pretending to be one today wouldn't know is that hippies were the most self-centered group of people, though we talked about love, it was really about us. When I talked about love, oh man, we need to love one another. That was simply another way of saying can I have some of your pot? You know, or can I drink some of your wine? You know, or can you give me a ride somewhere? See, so that love, that talk about love, it was another way to sleep with girls. We got to love one another and that's how it was. We were very immoral but we were very narcissistic. We were very caught up with ourselves. Yeah, there were marches for peace and marches for that and marches for this but very few hippies really did that kind of stuff. Most went just to smoke pot and drank some wine and party and that's what we did. And we didn't care about anybody else. And your opinion, if you had an opinion, I would say to you, that's great. I'm glad that you have that opinion, that's fine. I never would, I didn't argue with anybody because hippies didn't. We'd say, cool, you know, live and let live, man, that's fine, you want to believe that, that's cool. I don't care. Well, I really believe that we all are deposited by space aliens and they dropped us on Mount Fuji and then people, I'd say, that's cool. That, you know, whatever. You know, I don't care, you want to believe that, that's fine. I don't care, that's what you believe, I don't care. That's why when Christians spoke to me and said, well, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. I'd say, that's cool. That's cool, that's good if you do, you know, you just don't push that down my throat. I'm good with that. So I wouldn't, I never argued. I didn't have argumentative spirit at all. You want to believe that, believe it. I don't care, it doesn't harm me. As long as what you're doing doesn't harm me, I'm good with that. Then I got saved and I started reading the Bible and all of a sudden I start waking up and saying, oh no, I'm supposed to have an opinion. I'm supposed to hold to something. Oh no, because that's not me. You want to believe in Satan and think you're going to heaven by believing in him? I wouldn't argue with you. You want to say that you believe in this or that? I wouldn't argue with you before. And now I'm reading the Bible and the Bible said there's no other way to God except Jesus Christ and I'm saying, oh no, that really shatters my hippie thing. And I started praying, this is the truth, this is the true story, I started praying. I started saying, God in Jesus' name, give me a spine. That's what I would say. You know that I bend with the wind. Whatever the opinion comes, I'm cool with that. God, give me a spine that I might stand up and believe something is true. Because I never believed anything was true. So God, help me believe something is true. Help me believe your word is true. Help me to believe Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. Help me to believe the gospel is your only message. Help me to believe I need the power of the Holy Spirit. Give me a spine. Help me to be willing to stand up in front of people and say thus saith the Lord. I have been praying that for almost 44 years. God, give me a spine. And I'm asking you men and women today, pray it too. Because if there's anything the church needs today, it's a spine. We need to stand up. We do. Stop waffling with every indecisive opinion that comes down the road. Be willing to stand up. Don't be mean. And remember that it will cost you something. They took John the Baptist's head off his shoulders for what he believed. But he believed it to the end. When we get to Matthew chapter 11 in about 10 years, when we get there, he sends a couple of his men to Jesus. Are you the coming one or should we look for another? Why are you asking that, John? Because I'm about to lose my head. And I want to make sure it's for the right person. I want to make sure it's for the right person. A man who was filled with the spirit from his mother's womb, a man who stood up to the king and said, it is not lawful for you to have your brother Philip's wife, a man who was about to get his head cut off. There is a price you pay for having a spine. And I've been praying, God, give me a spine. I want to stand up for you in these last dark days and speak the truth. And even though people say, oh, they'll not come to your church if you preach that they need to turn from their sins, I say that's not true at all. I say that's exactly the remedy for this society that we're looking at right now that is going to hell. And so you teach the word of God and preach the word of God. May God give us a spine. May God give us strength. May God use us in these last days. And I do believe there are many, many people, and even this younger generation that people are giving up hope for. No, I'm praying that God will bring revival, that God will touch young men. Listen, he touched these old, these hippies who are old men now, we weren't when we got saved. I was 20 years old. God reaches young people and uses them. Don't give up hope on the youth. God is going to work in their lives. There are men that God is raising up right now that are going to shatter. They're going to shake this world. You watch. They're going to shake this world for Jesus Christ. And I want to be in on that. I want to be part of that. God will move whole fast. Get a spine and watch what he'll do. God will move.