It is the last book there in the New Testament. And we're going to look at the first chapter. And I'm going to read several verses here from Revelation chapter 1. And let me give just a little promo. Would that be okay? Could I give a little advertisement before I preach? Hard to say, this is, we're coming into year 2022, but for many Sunday mornings, some select Sunday mornings of next year, I will be preaching through the book of Revelation. And it'll be a series of really pointing towards the end times. The title of our whole series will be Things to Come. And so we're gonna be sharing some wonderful truths. You know, people are always, Curious who the Antichrist is you're curious about some of these events How these things will transpire and it will go through these things and I want you to be here for that I want you to invite people if you're down here visiting with family. We want you to move down next year and be with us Okay, so I'm just waiting your appetite for what's going on. But praise the Lord. We're glad to be gathered together Look, if you will, I think I've given you enough time to find the book Revelation chapter 1 beginning in verse number 1 and The Bible says here, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John. who bear record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you, and peace from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him. And they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And what thou seest, write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with the garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as a sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me and saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. Behold, would you say those next three words with me? I am alive forevermore, amen. And have the keys of hell and death. Wow, what a powerful scripture. John is on the Isle of Patmos and receives his vision. It's not a dream because he had some bad pizza the night before. It's a vision that the Lord gave him of not only of himself, an understanding of the times that he lived in, but also of some of the things that were going to be taking place in these end times. And I want to share some truths from this scripture here today. I want to talk about how Jesus is the revealed Word of God. Let's pray together. Lord, I just ask for your richest blessings now upon this time. Please work in a mighty way. Would you guide my lips as I speak the Word of God? Help me, Father, to communicate that which you have given to me this week. And may it be, Father, that you would speak to hearts here today, that folks would respond to the word of God, and that you'd do some mighty works and spiritual transactions would take place in the hearts of men and women here today. And all this we pray in Jesus' precious name, amen. We are here celebrating this beautiful time, Christmas, and Christmas is all about Jesus Christ. And I must say that more than just Christmastime, every aspect of this whole life and this world that we live in truly is about Jesus Christ. The great preacher from years ago, Dr. R.G. Lee, once said this about Jesus Christ. His name blossoms on the pages of history like the flowers of a thousand springtimes in one bouquet. His name sounds down the corridors of the centuries like the music of all choirs, visible and invisible, poured forth in one anthem. He is literature's loftiest ideal, philosophy's highest personality, criticism's supreme problem, theology's fundamental doctrine, spiritual religion's cardinal necessity. Wherever the name of Jesus is known, and nowhere else, there are hospitals for the sick, homes for the orphans, and schools for the young of all classes. Through faith in His name we've seen thousands of lives transformed. Drunkards are made sober. Liars are made truthful. Thieves are made honest. Hypocrites made sincere. Hard hearts are made tender. Hatred is turned to love and cruelty changed to sympathy. His nail-pierced hands have cut new channels in human history, changed the almanac of the world, and swung the gates of empires off of their hinges. My friend, Jesus has certainly made a difference in this world. And this is really due to the fact that when you hold in your hands the very Scriptures, you have the Scriptures of where the Bible makes a big deal about Jesus Christ. You see, it is His book. He is God and He wrote it. But every book within this book known as the Bible points to Jesus Christ as the Supreme One whom we are to look unto. And yet it's very interesting to note that this last book that we come to, the book of Revelation, begins with these first five words in the English language, the revelation of Jesus Christ. The word revelation is the title for this book that we read, but yet the word revelation literally means to unveil or to reveal. Many have looked at the book of Revelation as a difficult and hard to understand book, but I'm here to tell you something, that this book opens up many things to us about Jesus Christ and about the end times, and how important to get the theme of this book of Revelation You see, all too often people focus on the tragic events, the catastrophes. They study out the Antichrist. They look at the various numbers that may be portrayed throughout the book. But I'm telling you something, this book of Revelation is solely about a person, not a program. It is about the Christ, not the Antichrist. It is about Jesus and not the events that will take place. And that's who I want to share with you this morning, that spirit of Christmas Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Could I take you first of all to His identification in this chapter? We're going to focus on verse number 13 in just a moment, but let me take a gander through some of the verses and share with you how Jesus identifies Himself, not only to John, but to us today. Look at verse number 5. Jesus identifies Himself as the faithful witness. You see, when Jesus was here on this earth, that very statement categorized His whole life on this earth. In John chapter 18, verse number 37, Pilate standing before Jesus said to Him, Aren't Thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. John chapter 7, verse 7, Jesus said to his disciples, the world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify of it. You see, Jesus' life, His words, and all of His actions are a testimony to the fact that He is a true witness of what is and what is not in this world. But notice also in verse number 5, Jesus shows to John that He is the first begotten of the dead. This very phrase speaks of His resurrection. In Acts chapter 26, verse 23, the Bible says that Christ should suffer and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. I'm here to tell you when Jesus refers to Himself as the first begotten of the dead and He speaks of His resurrection, He does not mean that He was the first one raised from the dead. We look in the Scriptures and we see others that were raised from the dead, Lazarus being an example in John chapter 11. But this phrase, first begotten of the dead, describing Jesus, literally means that His resurrection, the Lord Jesus' resurrection, was by far the most important one. Why is it the most important? Because anyone else that would be raised from the dead rose again only to die again. But I'm here to tell you Jesus Christ was the first to receive an immortal body, and He was given a position so that way all those that will be raised someday will bow down before that King of kings and Lord of lords. Notice another phrase of Jesus also in verse number 5, the Prince of Kings. This is the future reference to His rule over the earth. Oh, that great wonderful song and whole piece of music that is sung at Christmas written by Handel when he quotes from Revelation 11 where he says, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. shall reign forever and ever. Verse 5 says that Jesus is the One who loved us and washed us. Verse number 8, look down a few verses here. He says, I am the Alpha and Omega. Now, very interesting phrase that Jesus gives here. Literally, alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. And what Jesus is saying here is, He is the beginning and the end. He is the commencement and the consummation of everything. And I'm here to tell you, this can only be a description of God. And because of these great descriptions here of God, notice now further in verse number 14 how Jesus begins to reveal Himself even further to John where He talks about His head in verse number 14, speaking of the purity of this one. He talks of His eyes in verse number 14, that there is a flame of fire. This is His omniscience. He knows everything. Verse number 15, He talks about His feet and it speaks of judgment. In verse 15, His voice, this speaks of His authority where it says, the sound of many waters. His right hand speaking of His honor, His mouth also speaking of judgment, and His countenance here speaking of His glory. And my friend, this chapter is chock full of a description of Jesus, but I want to bring it down to one little phrase in verse 13. Would you look here for a moment? Notice how Jesus describes Himself. John hears here the voice of one who spoke to him and he turned around and who does he see but the Son of Man. Now you can look at other portions of Scripture and that phrase Son of Man is used extensively. But in the book of Revelation it is only used two times, here as well as in Revelation 14. Why does Jesus here refer to Himself as the Son of Man? Why does He refer to Himself as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords? Because He's identifying with John and all humanity. You know what this phrase, Son of Man, is all about? It is the fact that Jesus Christ is representative of all humanity. You know, when I think about God and the gifts that God gave and the gift of His Son, I want to tell you something. God gave the best gift in the world. He gave His Son who came in human flesh. Now, I don't know about you, and some of you still got a few days here to try to find that best gift for some of your loved ones. But some of you are probably like me. You're not good gift givers. I'm awful. I think of things that I like. And I can't wait till my wife opens it. I mean, she's opening it. I'm just, I'm sweating. I'm thinking, boy, she's going to really like this. She opens up. Oh, another organizer for the kitchen. Wonderful. I like that. I'm not a good gift giver, but I'm here to tell you that God didn't strike out when he gave us a gift. He gave us the gift that we absolutely needed. It was His Son, Jesus Christ. Someone once said if our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior, the Son of Man. And I'm telling you here, Jesus identifies with humanity. You know, you look at most religions today, what are most religions trying to do? They're trying to bridge the way to God. They're trying to find their way to God. But I'm here to tell you something. Jesus Christ was sent by the Father as a Son of Man, and He came to us. What a beautiful thing at Christmastime to recognize here that God, the one who identified as the Son of Man, came for you and for me. Now, let me look at something else here in this chapter. Look at verse number 7. Not only do we see that the revealed Word is identified, but now we see His intention. Look at the first word of verse number 7. It is the word behold. Behold. This word is a word that is used that really wants to grab the attention of those that are being spoken to. We might say today, listen up, look at, hear what I'm going to say right now. And John is writing here these words and he's saying, behold. And I'm here to tell you something. What verse number seven tells us is the proposition of the whole book of Revelation. It is the unveiling, the revealing, the coming of the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I today are to look or to behold at that coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm here to tell you something here today as this verse 7 talks about this coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We often are speak about the fact that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is in two different phases. Now, this verse here, verse number 7, I believe is specifically referencing the coming of Jesus at the end of the tribulation. when you jump down to Revelation chapter 19 where the Bible talks about Jesus, known as the Word of God, comes with His saints there and He comes to this earth as all of the enemies of God are gathered together and literally Jesus, by the Word of His mouth, destroys His enemies and comes to establish His Millennial Kingdom. That's what verse number 7 is referring to. Notice the description of this coming. It says here in verse number 7, look at this, He cometh with clouds. Now you look at the book of Daniel, you look at Matthew chapter 24 verse 30, not necessarily with, but literally in the clouds Bible talks about how Jesus is coming. But there's something else interesting in verse number seven. Look here it says, he cometh with clouds, and look at the next phrase, and every eye shall see him. Now we often think about the fact that those that are on the earth at that time that Jesus comes, those eyes will look up and they'll see Jesus. But my friend, I want to tell you, there's more than those eyes that are on this earth. You see, in Matthew 26, Jesus was standing before Caiaphas. And as Jesus begins to quote Zechariah and Daniel, Jesus tells Caiaphas, Caiaphas, your eyes will see my coming. Now I don't know if Caiaphas was a man who in Acts chapter 2 on that day of Pentecost finally placed his faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, but if he did not, That Bible tells me in Matthew 26, verse 64, that Caiaphas, along with all of those that are in hell, will also see the coming of the Son of Man. My friend, can you see that the coming of Jesus is something important? Every eye, all those that have ever been created, all the eyes will be focused on this one event, that Jesus is coming. Now what a beautiful thing about Jesus coming at the end of the tribulation to set up his millennial kingdom. But I'm here to tell you that if you're a born again Christian today, that you're not going to see, you're not going to be there on earth at that coming. You see, if you're a Christian today, there's a description of what's going to happen to you in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Listen to this in verse number 13. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. That is, those that have already died at the coming of Jesus at this point will then be raised. then we, could be us, I don't know, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And I love these words. The Bible says, wherefore comfort one another with these words. Now while the second coming at the end of the tribulation, Jesus is coming in the clouds to the earth. Can I say that before the tribulation, Jesus is coming and he's stopping at the clouds. And all of those in this New Testament age, what is that age? That is all the way from the cross when Jesus died, all the way till that time right now, and from whenever it is that God says to his son, go. Go! all the way through that time, that's the New Testament age, and those who are believers in Jesus will God raise with Him. What a beautiful thing. We'll be raptured and then we'll be in heaven during this tribulation. So I wanna tell you something. The Lord Jesus Christ has a great intention and that is He's coming back. You see, we celebrate this first coming of Jesus, His birth, and we get all cutesy and everything about the manger and the baby and the wise men and the shepherds and all that. But I want to tell you, Jesus' first coming was here and His second coming is coming soon. Can I ask you, are you ready for His coming? I hope you are. Because, you know, that coming of the Lord Jesus, 1 Corinthians 15, puts it this way, that it will be the twinkling of an eye. That's how fast it will take place. That's faster than a blink of an eye. Go ahead and blink for just a moment. Everybody blink for just a moment. Wake up, if you will. All right. Blink. Faster than that. The twinkle of an eye is how fast it is for the light from the sun to reflect off the eye and go back. That's how quick it is. And if you're here today without Jesus Christ, you're also gonna realize where did all these people go? Where did all these born again Christians go? What happened to them? There'll be some pilots flying a plane who are born again Christians, they'll be gone. I hope I'm not on that plane. Well, I mean, I will be going up, all right? But. Let's reverse that. Wow. You know, you get into a message sometimes, you just kinda go, I will be going out, but I just want, I want you to know you got a saved preacher here today, all right? Wow. Man. All right, I'm sticking to my notes, okay? I just kinda got off cuff a little bit. Let's go to the third point, just move on here. Please notice, not only the identification of Jesus. Notice also His intent, but would you look here at the last verse that I read, verse number 18. He says, I am He that liveth and was dead. Behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. But notice this next phrase, and have the keys of hell and of death. You know, it's interesting here, verse 17 and 18 fit together so well. Jesus is telling them, fear not, I am the first and the last. And He says, I'm the one that has the keys here. In essence, if I read these verses here, I could almost summarize it this way. Jesus is saying, look, I had life in myself. And in fact, I'm the consummation of all life, but I became here to this earth, became a man in order to die, that I might rise and live again and be alive for all eternity. Who else can do that but Jesus Christ? Who else can do that but God himself? And then he certifies that this is true. He uses the word amen. Now we use the word amen once in a while. In fact, it'd be good while I'm preaching for you to say amen and go ahead and give me some feedback a little bit. But the word amen means that's true. That's true, that's real. That's the word amen. But notice here how Jesus concludes this. He concludes it by showing the inherent power he has because of who he is. And that's why this third point here is his imperialism. Notice that, his imperialism. This inherent power he has because he says he has the keys of death and of hell. Now when somebody has the keys, to a certain degree, it shows that they have ownership of something. Does not Jesus have ownership of all this? Sure He does. Now when we're speaking about death and hell, we kind of get a little sidetracked about this word hell. The word hell is literally the word Hades in the New Testament Greek, and it is equivalent to the word in the Old Testament, the word Sheol. You see, there was a place before Jesus came to this earth, all of those departed spirits were gathered together in the Old Testament known as Sheol, or in this New Testament era known as Hades, the departed spirits were there. We read in Luke chapter 16 that those who had faith in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ were in a comforted place known as Abraham's bosom. And those who had rejected Jesus Christ were in a place that was far off, separated by a gulf, if you will, but they were in torment. You know, the Bible tells us here in the Bible that Jesus, when he died, that he ascended into the lower parts of the earth. Some have found this confusing as to what did Jesus do? I believe literally that Jesus came to this place where all the departed spirits were, and those that were in Abraham's bosom, he unlocked that gate, if you will, and allowed those that were born again in him to come with Him to heaven to be with Him forever. And no wonder why David, writing some 1,000 years before Jesus Christ, writes these words in Psalm 16. He says, For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. That is, there in the dead. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death, the death of Jesus, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Now when you look at this passage that Jesus has the keys of death and hell, here's the idea. Death and hell represents everything of the unknown that people are very curious about or try to forget about. The whole aspect of the death and hell that is referred to is that invisible world. It is that part that is beyond death that we try to push aside and not even think about. But my friend, I'm telling you, every moment you're ticking closer to that time. Every moment that you live, every time your heart beats, every time that clock ticks another second, you are moving closer to that time that many of you think to yourself, what is beyond the grave? You ask questions like this, well, where will a person go when he dies? How do I know what is beyond the grave? I want to tell you something, Jesus knows what's beyond the grave. Jesus is the one that has the power of over death and hell and has those keys and He can show you the way. Now we've seen here today three real aspects of Jesus. his identification. This is no doubt referring to the second person of the Trinity. We looked at his intention. He has an intention to come back. And we've noted his imperialism. That is, Jesus Christ has the authority over everything about life and death. But I wanna give to you two concluding thoughts that I think is important for you to take. And before I give these concluding thoughts, I wanna share with you this morning why I'm preaching this message here. Some of you may be here today and you say, boy, I came down with some family to visit today and I'm hearing a real barnstormer of a message here. I thought I'd hear a nice peace and joyful message about Christmas and about all that. My friend, I wanna tell you something. Somebody once said that the hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable. You see, the whole reason we can preach about the Second Coming of Jesus is because there was a First Coming. He came as a baby, but it didn't stop there. He came to die on the cross, to be buried, to rise again, to ascend to heaven, and so that way someday He could come back for those who believe in Him. Now, can I give you two concluding thoughts, things that you can take with you and hopefully think about? Number one, I want you to note this, Jesus' second coming is as real as His first coming. Now think about that. Hardly a person in here doesn't know or believe that Jesus came to be born as a baby. We all recognize the fact that the prophets foretold His birth, the fact that He would be born of a virgin. They foretold where he would be born. There were two different Bethlehems, but he distinguished here, he said, of Bethlehem of Ephrata. That's a particular one. The prophets talked about how Jesus would be connected here with Egypt, that he would be born through Judah and would be the son of David, and on and on it goes about the prophecies of his first birth. But I want to ask you a question. Why is it sometimes we have doubt about His second coming? You see, if we have all these beliefs of His first coming, should we not also believe that if all of that was true, this is true as well? Because it is. I'm here to tell you, Jesus is coming. He's coming again. And when the Bible talks about it will be in the twinkle of an eye, my friend, you better be ready. Because everything that was prophesied was literally fulfilled of His first coming, and every prophecy, and there are hundreds of them, will be fulfilled of His second coming. Let me give you another thought here to take with you. Jesus can be trusted for your eternal destiny. Now get that. Look up here for just a moment. Jesus can be trusted for your eternal destiny. Remember the words Jesus spoke here to John in verse number 17? Listen to these words, fear not. Now I'm here to tell you something. I don't say this in any brazen way, cocky or prideful manner. I don't say this because I'm a preacher. But I am not afraid to die. Not afraid to die. But I've met a lot of people who are afraid to die. I've been to a lot of hospital rooms. I've been to places where people don't have long to live and you can tell that they're agitated, they're worried, they're fearful about what is on the other side because they don't know. But the reason I'm not afraid is because I know the one personally who holds tomorrow. I know the one who died and was buried and rose again and said he's coming for me someday. I know him personally. Because there was a time about 18 years old when I came before Jesus and I got on my knees and I said, Lord Jesus, I know that I've done nothing that can earn me to go into heaven. I've lived an awful life, and you didn't have to convince me I was a sinner. I mean, yes, the Bible says, for all have sinned, and I put my name in there, but I'll tell you, I was very well aware I was a sinner. And I believe what the Bible says, that my sin would take me to a place called hell. But you know, Jesus died in my place. He took that hell for me. He died on their cross, took all my sins upon Him, took the sins of the whole world. And therefore, the reason that I can say today that I'm not afraid to die is because on that day, right at about 18 years old, I placed my faith in Jesus Christ. And I said, Jesus, I'm asking you to forgive me of all my sins, become my personal Savior. And you know what I believe happened that day? I was birthed into God's family. Let me use an old-fashioned term from John chapter 3, I was born again. Are you born again? I hope so. Are you birthed into God's family? Has there been a time when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ? You and I do not need to fear death because Jesus holds the keys. He's the one who said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No one will ever get to heaven, come to the Father, but by Jesus. That's it. How are you trying to get to heaven? Which way are you trying to go? You trying to live things on your own? You're trying to be a good person? Think to yourself, well, you know, I just was taught a few little things, and if I live this way and act this way, I think God will accept me. My friend, I wanna tell you something. It's good that you're trying to live good, but none of that will get you to heaven. You aren't good enough. I'm sorry to burst your bubble today, but I'm not good enough. You're not good enough. But Jesus was good enough and is good enough and is asking you to receive him so you have no fear of death. You want a real joyful Christmas? You want a real peaceful Christmas? Invite the one who is Christmas into your heart. Let's bow our heads, please, and close our eyes. Father, thank you for this day. What a privilege to be able to gather together and hear the Word of God, speak about it. Wow, you are an amazing God. You revealed yourself. In this book of Revelation, you share the intent of your future coming. I believe it's soon. Wow, the things that are happening on this earth, we're coming to some catastrophe, some amazing things. And I believe that real soon Jesus is coming. And oh God, I want every person in this room to be well prepared that they too know Jesus. And when that trumpet sounds, they're raptured. They're with Jesus. While heads are bowed, eyes are closed here today, Whenever I preach, I preach for the sake of transformation. I preach for people to make decisions. I don't preach for information only, though you might have learned something from this message today. But right now, while I am talking to you, I'm gonna just simply ask one question. Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Let me phrase it this way. If you were to die today, do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you go to heaven to be with God forever? My friend, if you don't know the answer to that question, it was ordained of God that you be here today, that you hear this message. I've given my life so people would know Jesus as Savior. And my desire today is that you, today, if you can't answer that question in the affirmative, that you would place your faith, your own personal belief in Jesus and in Him alone. I'm gonna invite you to just pray a simple prayer. Please understand, as I say these words, you can pray them, but you've gotta mean it with your heart. Romans chapter 10, verse nine says, that thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart. When you do something with your heart, you put everything into it. If you do that, Bible says, thou shalt be saved. I'd like to pray a prayer out loud and say this, what we call often a sinner's prayer. And if you are not saved and you say, pastor, I don't know where I'm going. I fear what death may bring. Why don't today you just pray this prayer to yourself right after me. Here's the prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, I recognize I'm a sinner and I know that in my sin I cannot go to heaven, but I believe that God loved me and gave his dear son to die on the cross to pay for my sins. And right now, I'm asking Jesus Christ, God's eternal son, to wash my sins away and become my personal savior. Oh, my friend, I remember the day I asked Jesus in my heart. You know, before I got saved, I was a little, I was very timid about Jesus. I didn't wanna bring up Jesus's name. But after I got saved, I wasn't ashamed of him anymore. Because I recognized what Paul recognized, that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. My sins were forgiven. So right now, if you just prayed that prayer all across the auditorium, heads are bowed, eyes are closed. If you prayed that prayer, I won't call you out, I will not embarrass you, but I certainly would love to just pray for you in general at the end. If you prayed that prayer, would you just slip your hand up right now? Preacher, I just prayed that prayer and I'm not ashamed of Jesus Christ. Anyone here today?