Mark chapter 1 verses 9 through 11 it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and immediately coming up from the water he saw the heavens partying and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove then a voice came from heaven you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased so as we begin let me remind you we have just begun a series in the gospel of Mark and Mark has already revealed to us that Jesus is Messiah he is the Son of God and when he was speaking concerning this that Jesus is Messiah the Son of God that was a way of revealing to us that Jesus Christ is royalty he's the Son of the King of the universe and I was mentioning to you last time we together as Kings did during Mark's day Jesus had someone who went before him this was a messenger a messenger who would prepare the way for the King who had herald his coming the messenger who would proclaim that the King was about to arrive and would make sure that all the roads that the King would travel on were ready in Luke chapter 1 verse 17 it says he speaking of John will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord so John was not simply overseeing the clearing of debris from a road he was calling people to personally clear out the debris of their lives he was preaching what was called a message of repentance he was baptizing those who repented and all the while he was pointing people to the one who was about to come to them well at that point he had yet to arrive but John was saying that his arrival was very soon so in this section Mark is going to present Jesus's baptism as a kind of royal coronation and John had said that he was unworthy to stoop to unstrap his sandals while the one who's about to come is that great of a figure and so it says in verse 9 it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan now when you read your Bible some things may pass you by and so I want to take a moment to kind of develop a few things with you about that because that's a simple statement he came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee we've all heard that before we need to know the background and know a little bit about this you see by this time John had been preaching and baptizing for several months and as John was performing his ministry at the right time Jesus came to John now Mark says that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee now he was saying this to a non-Jewish reader so that they would understand that Jesus was coming from the north the place called Nazareth Nazareth is located in northern Israel Nazareth is a home or was a home of Mary and Joseph it was a small inconsequential town it was populated by a fairly large Gentile population at least percentage wise you see Gentiles were recognized as pagans they were outside of God's promises and Paul made that clear when he was writing to the Ephesians in Ephesians 2 verse 12 he said to them a Gentile church he said remember that at that time you Gentiles you were separate from Christ you were excluded from citizenship in Israel foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and with the without God in the world so the Gentiles were separated from they didn't have a relationship with God God had a special covenantal relationship with Israel but he did not have that same relationship with Gentiles and therefore the Gentiles were outside of the promises of God well because Nazareth had a percentage wise a large amount of Gentiles living there it also had a poor reputation remember in John in chapter 1 verses 45 and 46 how Philip found Nathaniel and said to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph and Nathaniel said to him can anything good come out of Nazareth and Philip said to him come and see well during this time to call someone a Nazarene was to say that he was despised they were rejected they were not regarded why because again they were there were a lot of pagan Gentiles who lived in Nazareth and the surrounding area it was a small small city it was a more of a village Nazareth had a population according to some commentators many actually of around 150 residents and so one they were despised because they were filled with pagans and two it was a small inconsequential city no one would think that such a city would produce anything or anyone that was noteworthy it was just that inconsequential it was it was that unimportant many years ago now many years we had a an outreach actually not even that it was Wednesday night is a Wednesday night study and we in our earlier days rented Ontario High School and we would rent Ontario High School on Sunday mornings and we would use the the high school for our Wednesday nights as well as our Sunday nights for a while and on one occasion I contacted my pastor Chuck Smith and I said pastor could you come out and do a midweek for us would you come out and and teach on a Wednesday and Chuck said he would and so we were there at Ontario High School it sat 1200 people this was back in the in the early 80s and well Chuck was coming out so a lot of people wanted to hear him people who didn't want to hear me but anyway people so Chuck was coming out and the whole place was full and they were sitting on the carpet and pastor Chuck came and gave a Bible study was a great Bible study and and all and and we were walking he and I were walking out I'll never forget this as we're walking out the front door walking towards the the parking lot under his breath Chuck said who would have ever thought Ontario and I thought that's really true who would have ever thought God moves where he wants to move but I remember that it was to him it was like the farthest it was like what's going on out here God was doing a wonderful thing well sometimes people will look at cities and say they're inconsequential but just because they may be in the eyes of man inconsequential doesn't mean that God can't do something there and that's what was happening there in Nazareth you see Jesus came from this village even as Nazareth was with disrespect it was despised it was even rejected so is Jesus in Isaiah 53 verse 3 it says he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised we esteemed him not so it was appropriate the Lord Jesus Christ would come out of an insignificant village and the fact that he did would be a surprise to those who were religious leaders they would have expected Messiah to come from a significant and a prestigious city they would have expected Messiah to come from Jerusalem but God has a way of taking what seems to be insignificant and he uses it for his glory in 1 Corinthians 1 28 and 29 it says God chose things despised by the world things counted as nothing at all and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important as a result no one can ever boast in the presence of God you may see yourself as insignificant and many of us do you may see yourself as not having anything noteworthy about you but God doesn't see you the way that sometimes you see yourself never forget that never forget that God can use you why can't he you have to get into the habit of doing what I've been doing for a long time I've asked the question why can't he why can't he use me why can't he move through me why can't he what would keep him from doing that and there are a lot of believers who unfortunately think oh he can use somebody else but he can't use me and that's not true God uses a lot of people that you wouldn't even think were candidates to be used by him and sometimes we get discouraged and sometimes we think that we're not noteworthy well we don't need to be noteworthy to the world because God has taken note of you and God can do a work through you just ask yourself why can't he use me now there may be reasons at the moment that he can't because there may be something that's stopping him deal with that and then say Lord here am I use me like Isaiah when he saw the Lord he was high and lifted up the train of his of his robe that filled the temple and and he said what was me I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of of a people with unclean lips and and God took an angel took the a call from the fire put it on his lips and said he said go for me and do something for me God can do that for you to never forget that and even though Jesus came out of a of a city Nazareth that was not regarded it was despised he too was disregarded and despised that he came out of Nazareth and he had ministry that we all to the stairs so grateful for now notice how it says in verse 9 that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan when you look at a map of Israel the Jordan rivers is in eastern Israel and just to give you a little geography for this it's fed by three main tributaries that are coming from the north one of the tributaries is known as the Hasbani it's on the western slope of Mount Hermon and there's another one that's called the springs of ladon and then there's a third it's Banias or Panias they call it and that's four miles east of the springs of ladon and the thing is as we go up to Banias it's actually Banias we go there because that's where the Lord Jesus Christ said asks the question who do men say that I the sentiment am and cesarea Philippi well John was busy ministry in his baptism when Jesus came to him the fact that John was baptizing Jews was in and of itself unusual you see Jews would practice various ritual washings including individual they call it mitva individual washings well baptism wasn't something that the Jews would have completely understood because only Gentile converts to Judaism would receive this kind of baptism and that would be as they were receiving the baptism that would have been a confession that there were no better than Gentile pagans so to submit to John's baptism was to admit that you're a sinner it was to confess that you were forsaking your wicked ways it was to admit that you were in need of Messiah but here comes Jesus and the question has to be asked what why would he need to be baptized you see again John was was used to baptizing sinners they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River and as they came according to verse 5 they were confessing their sins they were openly demonstrating themselves to be sinners and and recognizing that by being baptized but here comes Jesus a man with no sins to confess now as you look at that for a moment I want to develop this with you we need to remember that John was born to godly parents his mama's name was Elizabeth his father's name was Zacharias both of them were from priestly lineage they were descendants of Aaron they were of the tribe of Levi that's where the priests came from now John would have been aware of who Jesus was because Jesus was John's cousin and undoubtedly John's parents would have told him of of Mary becoming pregnant by the Holy Ghost without having a sexual relationship with Joseph he would have been aware of that he would have been also aware undoubtedly of some things related to him but he hadn't actually met him it would seem you see according to Luke 180 and John grew up in the wilderness from early childhood that would have been what is called the Judean wilderness that's in the south that's a hundred miles south of Galilee a hundred miles south of Nazareth that would mean and I'm developing this with you that would mean that he most likely would not have physically seen Jesus or if he had ever seen him he hadn't seen him in quite some time in John 131 John said I myself did not know him the word know is a Greek word that means I didn't recognize him so it would seem that either he had hadn't personally met him or it had been so long that he didn't recognize him he had said I have been sent to preach preparing people to meet him but I myself never met him I'm preparing you to meet Messiah a man I have yet to meet myself so I'm simply being obedient to the Commission I'm waiting for the results that reminds me of something we'll be looking at this upcoming Wednesday in the book of Job as we close out the book of Job it reminds me of something that Job said when God was speaking to him it says in Job chapter 42 verse 5 Job said I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you I have been walking by faith and not by sight I've been taught the things of who you are the works that you have done I have heard these things I've embraced these things I've walked by these things these are the things that have filled my life and directed my footsteps but I've never had a personal knowledge or encounter with you until now when the Lord was revealing himself to him through a series of questions and in a way to bring humility to his life and there are a lot of people who have heard of him with the hearing of the ear but they haven't had a personal encounter with him now John was aware of who Jesus was it's not that John was a sinful man in and of itself as a man he was sinful but he wasn't it wasn't a practicing sinner by any means he walked in the Holy Spirit but he was somebody who still needed a Savior and and so he's somebody who's aware of who Jesus is he's heard things of Jesus undoubtedly but he has a relationship with him in that personal way yet and so John being a preacher of righteousness he has been sent to prepare people to meet Messiah has been telling the people that judgment is coming you need to repent and he'd even said in Matthew 3 verse 8 he had said bear fruits worthy of repentance your your lives demonstrate there to demonstrate that you've turned from your sin to God again spend a moment with that thought bear fruit that demonstrates true repentance it's not just saying I'm sorry a sense of sorrow is appropriate very often but and steeper than that it's a sense of I am a I'm a worm and not a man it's a sense of I am I'm all together worthy of judgment I'm an evil person I need help I need God if there's anything that I think is is missing in in the church today it's a healthy sense of a need for God I'll be honest with you I think there are a lot of Christians who have failed to understand that I wrote something on Facebook years ago now and I had said you know something about repentance and I got the weirdest response from a pastor who was angry at me for telling people that they need to repent or that we need to repent he said you take scripture out of context and you know how dare you be saying that Christians need to repent and yet I had to write back to him as a pastor and I had to tell him you realize of course that repentance is a daily thing you realize that we are we are not a hundred percent perfect and that daily we need to yield to the Lord say God continue your work in me I'm sorry for what I've done unless anybody here yesterday didn't sin you probably are doing that already today God help me now yeah it's a fact you know yeah if you didn't sin yesterday I need you as my Savior see the fact is as we sin I'll have sin if I'll show to the glory of God there's not a single perfect person in this room outside of me and so with that knowledge but it's true isn't it it's true you know we need to walk in the Spirit of God and it's it's obvious that we don't make it we sin in word thought indeed that is that is human nature do we want to that's a different question it's not that you want to but you know but there are things sometimes you're inclined to and you can yield to and that's why you say God forgive me a sinner and so John knew that he himself was a sinful man especially when Christ is walking up to him so what does he do well he tries to stop Jesus now Mark doesn't tell us this but Matthew does in Matthew chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 it says Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him and John tried to prevent him when Matthew said John tried the Greek word means he tried insistently he kept on trying to prevent him to stop him and he said I need to be baptized by you and you're coming to me I mean when he saw Christ come he was insistent no I'm a sinner I know that you're not it seemed wrong for Jesus to receive a baptism that was intended for sinners instead of him baptizing Jesus John knew that in fact he should be the one baptized by Christ as incredible as he was John knew he's a sinner and that Jesus wasn't in Hebrews 7 26 it says it was fitting that we should have such a high priest speaking of Jesus holy blameless undefiled separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens John didn't want to baptize Jesus he kept insisting that Jesus should baptize him you see Jesus made it clear that his being baptized was necessary he says this is to fulfill all righteousness in Matthew 3 15 Jesus replied let it be let it be so now it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness and then John consented it is necessary for me to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness now what does that mean how would all righteousness be fulfilled by him being baptized well when in the Old Testament you'll find this interesting I would hope in the Old Testament the priests eligible to offer sacrifices were to be 30 years of age in the book of numbers chapter 4 verse 3 it says take a headcount of the Kohahites Kohahites who are part of the Levites by their clans and patriarchal houses of those 30 years of age until 50 years of age all who are eligible for performing assigned tasks in the workforce pertaining to the tent of meeting and so these were to begin their ministry at the age of 30 according to Luke 3 23 Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age so Jesus waited until he was 30 to be baptized into the sacrificial priesthood that demonstrated that he was submitted to the requirements of the law of Moses and he had said in Matthew 5 17 do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets I didn't come to destroy but to fulfill and so he was submitted to the law of Moses second his is being baptized by John identified him as Messiah to John as well as others and because of this God made it clear made a way for John to know clearly who Jesus was again in John 131 I myself did not know him but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel now Mark 1 7 says there comes one after me who is mightier than I he didn't identify the one by name he did not say Jesus is coming he's Messiah that would be because John did not yet know that Jesus was Messiah so it fulfilled all righteousness by Jesus placing his seal of approval on John now again John's mother and father were old Elizabeth his mother was unable to have children Zacharias the older man prayed fervently for a child to be given to them and so when the angel Gabriel told Zacharias his wife would become pregnant and you gotta be kidding he doubted Gabriel told Zacharias Elizabeth is going to bear a son you shall call his name John now here's something for you and not the little thing that I think is beautiful John is translated God is gracious God is gracious now John was the last of the Old Testament prophets so it is significant that grace preceded our Messiah in John 1 16 of his fullness we have all received grace for grace when John was 8 days old in accordance with Jewish law John was circumcised and at that time his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied over his son in Luke 1 76 and 77 he said you my child will be called a prophet of the most high for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way for him to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins the father prophesied over the son very briefly I'll say this as I was reading then I thought how beautiful it would be if we fathers did the same for our kids you know I had four children we had four we still do actions they had we have four and when my son Joseph was born maybe I had I wasn't planning on saying this well say it very quickly I should probably say it this way we had Corinne and we had David and we didn't give up we thought well maybe we'll have a good kid and so just to see if you're awake now we had my Corinne and we had our David but then shortly after Marie had given birth to David she suffered a miscarriage now for me as a young father under so much pressure when Marie had told me that she was pregnant maybe some of you fathers might relate somehow to this when Marie said I'm pregnant I wasn't happy I wasn't happy I thought oh my goodness you know it's like I'm in a pool holding two children and I'm drowning and you're gonna drop a third one on me and so I was thinking oh no Lord I I know I know I know how all this happens and everything but and I wasn't happy and then I still remember and I hope this isn't too personal but I still remember Marie coming out of the bathroom in her hand she was holding our miss a child and she had this look on her face and she came out with her baby forgive me I shouldn't have told you the story we lost our child and I felt terrible because I had gotten to the point of saying this is a blessing to have a baby and had gotten to that point and instead of the shock of saying oh my goodness we have and so later on obviously she became pregnant again and this was Joseph and when Joseph parted the womb when he was born and the doctor handed my son to me my Joseph I still remember holding them in my hands he's just a little guy I lifted him up like this to the Lord in that room with my wife watching this one shall serve the Lord I still remember prophesying over my son and this one shall serve the Lord would to God the more daddies would prophesy over the children would to God that more daddies would have that spiritual connection from the beginning with the babies Zacharias lifted his son to the Lord and they said you're going to be the prophet of the most high you shall go before him you will prepare the way for him you will give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins and so when Jesus was bab baptized he was validating Zacharias's prophecy over his son John and then in receiving water baptism Jesus was identifying with sinful man his baptism was a demonstration of man's sinfulness and need for a mediator in Hebrews 4 15 we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet was without sin so Jesus our Messiah is approachable because he is here understanding us and ministering and that's why in Matthew 11 28 he had said come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden I will give you a rest so he's approachable identifying with sinful man he had no sin himself but identifying in order that we would know he would be able to be approached Matthew records the story of how Jesus had been invited to his own house for a dinner and as Jesus was at the table there were sinners who came they sat down with Jesus and his disciples and the Pharisees saw it and they were outraged Matthew records that they were outraged because Jesus was eating with these kinds of people and they came and questioned his disciples and they said why is your master doing such a thing well in Matthew 9 12 and 13 when Jesus heard that he said to them those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick but go and learn what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance once again the Lord is calling us who don't know him we who don't know him those who don't know me calls us to repentance he said I'm not coming to the South righteous they don't realize that they even need a savior I have come for those who recognize their great need for a savior which is what we did right it's what I did when I said God have mercy on me I'm a sinner I'm miserable and I make other people miserable by the way that I live and who I am Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 53 verse 12 that he was numbered with the transgressors he was placed between two sinners he identified with with us well in these ways he fulfilled all righteousness you see after Jesus said allow this to be so it'll fulfill all righteousness John John allowed him to be baptized and in doing this he revealed that he too is submitted to God well in verse 10 immediately coming up from the water he saw the heavens partying in the Spirit descending upon him like a dove now I'm just gonna say this briefly you'll see this but Mark uses the word immediately something like 11 times in chapter one alone and that's intended to reveal the fast-paced ministry of Christ as well as his obedience and the Spirit descends upon him and notice it's like a dove that's been called the divine coronation of the Messiah and the event gives us a picture of the Trinity because a father speaks the son is baptized and the Spirit descends upon him and that reminds me of Christian baptism in Matthew 28 19 where we're told go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father son and the Holy Spirit because it says in verse 11 a voice came from heaven you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased so the Spirit descends like a dove in the Old Testament prophets priests and kings were anointed to consecrate them to serve the Lord and that was symbolic of Jesus's anointing for ministry and I say as 61 1 it says the Spirit of the Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor he sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim freedom for the captives released from darkness for the prisoners and Acts 10 37 and 38 you know what has happened throughout Judea beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached now God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit in power how he went around doing good in healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him and the Lord's ministry is to heal the Lord's ministry is to preach those good those good words to those who are spiritually impoverished to be the brokenhearted to be bound up freedom for those who are captives to sin this is what what we celebrate you know we're here in the 4th of July we're celebrating the 4th of July as a nation but the greatest freedom that I ever received was freedom from sin my greatest freedom I ever received was the freedom God gave to me when he forgave me and gave me the liberty to follow Christ and and that's what Jesus Christ came to do is to set us free well as this is taking place a voice verse 11 came from heaven you are my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased Jesus you are my royal son you are Messiah you are the one in whom the Father delights Isaiah 42 one says behold my servant whom I uphold my elect one in whom my soul delights I have put my spirit upon him he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles it would it had been pointed out that at every major point in his ministry the spirit is at work the spirit is it is that work in his baptism we'll see the spirit at work in his temptation we see the spirit at work in his miracles we see the spirit at work in his resurrection and so his father says you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased those words were never said to any prophet prophets are servants even friends but Jesus is the only one ever referred to by his father in this way and everything he did Jesus was well pleasing to his father he always pleases him he said and that included his death on the cross Isaiah 53 10 says that please the Lord to bruise him he put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand now ultimately Jesus's sacrifice is the only one that ever fully pleased the father Jesus's baptism looked forward to the cross but the believer looks back at the cross he was immersed in the river of death that we might be partakers of the river of life Jesus's obedience to the father in receiving baptism is our example his outward demonstration is an example to us of our own need for an outward demonstration so Christian baptism which we're gonna celebrate today Christian baptism looks back at the finished work of Jesus according to Romans chapter 6 verse 3 when we are water baptized we are actually being baptized into his death see water baptism represents Jesus's death burial and resurrection so when we were baptized or are baptized we're totally identified with those events death burial and resurrection the word baptito is the Greek word for baptizer and it speaks of immersion it represents our immersion in him are taken on newness of life when cloth would be died say you had a white piece of cloth and you had you wanted to make it purple you had a purple dye you would take the white cloth and you would go to a vat you would have the various things that needed to produce the color purple that could be used as a dye and you would come and you would put that cloth in you would leave it there forever long you needed it and then you'd pull it out and they would say at that time that the cloth was baptized that was what the word means it would speak about dying cloths and on it was speaking of an immersion and so you when you get saved you are immersed it's a picture of your death burial and resurrection when you go into the water it's a picture of your death dead and buried when you come out of the water it's a picture of your resurrection coming to life so today when we have our baptism those who are baptized when you go into the water it's a picture of death and burial there's one thing about funerals that every person who's ever attended one will know that when that the coffin is dropped into the grave and that dirt is put over it there's a sense of finality there's a sense that it's done and I've been to many funerals and that's exactly what you feel you see the the coffin placed into the into the grave and then that small bulldozer pushes the dirt in it's tamped down it's done that's what happens when your water baptized it's a it's a it's been called an inactive drama it's it's it's a picture of what's taking place I was walking and dead in sins and trespasses without knowing it but Jesus Christ came into my life washed me cleansed me and gave me life and now I've been born again and because I'm born again I follow Christ in baptism why because it's a symbol of what took place when I got saved so I go in an outer demonstration and I make it as a public witness so that people may know that I'm a follower of Christ I step into the watery grave I go down and I come back up I'm dead buried and I come back and that's a picture of resurrection life when I first got saved back back in 1970 and I went to the military and I was there on at Fort Ord and Chaplin Clark I still remember his name Chaplin Clark was our Chaplin and I went and spoke to him and I said to him listen I got saved but I haven't had an opportunity to be water baptized could you baptize me and he said I would and and he would and so I had two friends of mine that I made in basic training and to these two friends I said could you come and be a witness to my baptism and they said yes and so these two friends of mine came with me to this little chapel there on Fort Ord and Chaplin Clark put me in the water and brought me out death burial and resurrection before witnesses I wanted them to know I was a follower of Jesus Christ and that's what's going to happen today there are going to be people who go into the pool and they're going to lay down into it if you will and they're going to come out of it and they're going to be recognized as dead buried before witnesses but alive in Jesus Christ and and that's how it works in water baptism it's an open symbol of your faith in Christ it shows that the old man has been crucified with Jesus and now we're alive in him the Bible in Romans 6 verse 4 says we were buried with him through baptism into death just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life you see John's was a baptism of repentance they were to demonstrate that they recognize themselves to be sinners awaiting the Messiah but you get water baptized because you receive the Messiah and so now that you've repented there's a newness of life somebody you should not let's see how can I put this it's not the washing of the dirt from your flesh or else every day that you bathe or shower you'd be rebaptized that's not the point the point of baptism isn't just washing dirt off the flesh it's speaking of a new heart a conscience that has been exercised towards the Lord in Romans 6 it says in verse 1 and 2 what shall we say then shall we continue in sin the grace may abound certainly not how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it in Galatians 5 24 and 25 those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires if we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit so baptism demonstrates that we're buried with Jesus Christ Christian baptism does again we enter the water we're immersed death and burial we exit the water resurrection newness of life and the newness of life is a sign that we've been born again why because we have a new heart in Ezekiel 36 26 God says I will give you a new heart put a new spirit within you I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and because that's true Ephesians 5 8 says you were once darkness but now you are a light in the in the Lord walk as children of light those of us who are believers do your friends know that you're a believer those of us who have unbelieving parents do your parents know that you're a believer I can still remember and I'm sure it's true to this day how some parents reacted I remember I was witnessing to a friend I had gotten saved and witnessing to a girl I had met at a party she was a friend and she came walking by my house and I hadn't seen her for a while and she came walking by my house I was at my parents house and and she sees me and you know I had met her before visited with her before and and as we're speaking she says what have you been up to I haven't seen you and and I said you know what I gave my heart to Christ he says what's that mean I said what's that mean she goes well I'm a Christian she was a Catholic and she says I'm a Christian well she and I had been smoking pot and drinking together so I thought well maybe maybe you're not so we talked about it and as we shared I said let me tell you what God did in my life and I began to share with her about Jesus and how he forgave me and I asked her have you ever received Christ have you ever asked God to forgive you of your sins and she says to me no I never really have what have you been relying on well you know I've been most baptized in this and I said well you know I understand that I come from that background but do you know I never gave my heart to Christ I never said God be merciful to me a sinner I never said God I need to be born again and I explained her how how that took place I was a brand new Christian I wasn't Christian two weeks yet but I was already telling people you need the Lord telling my friends telling my family you need the Lord and so she said I want to know Jesus and so I prayed with I said remember praying with her in the front yard at my parents house and then I said you know you need to get a Bible study what do I know about teaching a Bible I don't know anything but I said you know what let's come to your house and I'll read the Bible to you and she says okay I'll never forget this I went to her house now this girl was it was you know we were in a party and that's the way it was that's how it was with all my friends you know let's get drunk let's get loaded let's be crazy that's what we were and now I'm saved and she was crazy too and so I go to her house I sit down with her in the front room and and I talked to her and I opened the Bible I don't know anything I said let's just read it together God could speak to our hearts and she says okay so I read the Bible to her and then she calls me she says you can't come over anymore and I said why is that she says my mom doesn't want you at my house because she thinks you're crazy and you're bringing bringing some cult stuff to the house and that's how it's been I had somebody in this church years ago a young man who was into doping the whole nine yards into drugs in the whole nine yards and he came forward at an invitation and we got a call from the parents the mother called and she said I could handle my son when he was on drugs I can't handle my son as a Jesus freak I don't want you near my son you would be perhaps you're not but you would be surprised at the amount of people who would rather bury their children from drug overdoses than to see their life transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ you would be surprised at how many people prefer their children to be lost in the world than to be people who become Christians you would be surprised and so if you've given your heart to Christ your life is going to change people are gonna see it that's how my father came to faith in Christ he said I saw you and knew what you were before Jesus he said that's what spoke to my heart telling me I needed him that's how it works it's a way you live it's a new way of life it's not coming to church today and then going to some some restaurant and drinking your booze there that's not walking in the spirit that's walking in the flesh and so the Lord would have us to live an entirely new way of life again do our do our friends and our family do they know that we have a relationship with Jesus Christ do they know that he is our Savior and he's the one that we live for do they know that if not the pray and seek the Lord and say God help me to be a good witness and if you've blown it guess what God has grace and forgiveness receive it and move on forward if you fall fall forward and watch what the Lord will do I'm telling you that the church needs to wake up it's not so much that we need a new president what we need is a new person we need people in the nation to live for Christ that's what we need that's what changes that's what changes everything it's when we take our faith seriously and do those things that God has called us to do he gives to us a new heart he puts into us a new spirit and our friends will look at us and yeah maybe they don't like us you know what guess what I wasn't like before I got saved and I'm not like now by everybody and that's okay because there's one person who not just likes me he loves me and that's Jesus Christ and that's why I live for him that's that's why and so we were once darkness but now we're light in the Lord walk his children of light and so in the ministry of John the Baptist he came prepared away from Messiah Jesus came to him John resists him insistently I should be baptized by you and and and you are coming to be baptized by me Jesus said suffice it for this time for in doing so it fulfills all righteousness these things will be accomplished he submits to him and to Jesus he baptizes him the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus as the symbol that John had said the one who sent me told me the one whom you see the Spirit descending on and remaining this is he and Jesus Christ is later called the Lamb of God who take it away the sin of the world that was the ministry of John after the ministry of water baptism through repentance Jesus had his own baptism that his disciples would do on his behalf that's found in John 4 and the people were coming to be baptized symbolizing that they are now followers of Christ and then ultimately when Jesus died buried and was resurrected he gave to the church the commission to go out into the world preach the gospel teach them all things that he has declared to us and baptize him in the name of the father the son of the Holy Spirit that is called Christian baptism and then you have the baptism of the Holy Spirit when when the Holy Spirit comes upon you according to Acts chapter 1 verse 8 and and he makes you into the witness by empowering you by his powerful Holy Spirit and then you have you go out in the power of God to bring the gospel of God to a world that needs God and so John came preparing the way he baptized Jesus Christ Jesus submitted to it to fulfill our righteousness demonstrating that he identifies with us as sinners and also that he was one obedient to the law and obedient to the directives of his father and in doing so John allowed himself John allowed himself to be convinced to do that and God gave that open witness this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased would to God that you'd be able to look at me look at you and say this is my beloved child I'm well pleased father we ask that you would work in our lives to such a degree that that would be something that could be said I lift up our congregation to you Lord on this this day that we celebrate the independence the birthday if you will of this great and mighty nation but I pray that that we your children would live in such a way Lord that we would give pleasure to you that you could say of us I'm well pleased by you so I lift up this congregation to you those who are watching right now online and I pray Lord in Jesus name that you would have your way in us and even as our eyes are closed our heads are bowed there may be some right now we need to get right with the Lord you may be an overflower watching online or in this room and you need to get right with the Lord I want to pray for you before we conclude maybe even give yourself to Christ today and if you do give yourself to Christ and come back after second service receive baptism but if you need prayer right now and you need to be right with them would you raise your hand let me pray for you right where you're at just raise your hand father you see these hands I thank you Lord to those whom you're speaking to you right now that you're touching and I ask in Jesus name that you administer every person whose hand is raised father we give you praise we give you glory and we give you thanks for Lord you are the God who makes all things new you can wash in cleanse and you can produce in us a heart Lord that is desirous of pleasing and following you and so now I ask that you would work and that you would do such a thing we give you praise we give you thanks we receive by faith and we will walk by faith from this moment on and we thank you bless you thank you you can put your hands down Jesus I ask that you keep moving in all of us to your glory in your name amen


So hi everyone, welcome to Hyperledge Global Forum. Greetings of the day. My name is Shivendra Yadav, and I've been joined by my colleague Vikram Sharma. And B2 will be taking you through the topic which is re-engineering election process using blockchain and confidential computing. So why re-engineering? Because there has been a lot of improvements and modifications already being done in the engineering process when it comes to the election process, sorry, when it comes to elections. So how we can re-engineer it to make it better. And that is what we are going to discuss in this session. All right, so typically it is bifurcated into three sections. The first three sections are possibly the business related sections. The last three are more technical and plus business session, business related topics, where we'll be talking about how we can re-engineer the complete process using blockchain and confidential computing. What are the key takeaways? But we'll start exactly with a problem statement. What is the problem statement? And what is the solution direction which we see will be a fit seeing the problem statement? All right, so before we jump into any kind of technicality, we have to understand what we are dealing with here. So when it comes to elections, we all know that governments or corporates in different countries try to keep these elections transparent and simple. But still there are certain issues related to elections which have to be countered either using the manual process or using technology. So these issues are typically voter fraud. When it comes to voter fraud, we are talking about voter impersonation or ballot stuffing, which means that a same voter cast his vote multiple times. It happens in various countries. Then ballot stuffing is where you stop the ballot with counterfeit votes or votes which are not legal. So essentially, it is essentially a problem for identity. We are not able to match the identity of the voter with the vote he has casted. So that is the gap. So this is the voter fraud. Second is the counting manipulation. Once the voter has casted his vote, there is manipulation which happens in the background. And there can be a lot of manipulations in terms of counting, in terms of putting votes in the favor of a candidate. So there can be a lot of counting manipulations once the vote has been casted. Then machine rigging. So what happens is when the vote has been counted, sometimes what happens is the votes, generally people make an issue that the votes have been casted for a candidate, but the votes have actually been gone to another candidate for which they have not voted for. So this comes under machine rigging. And these three are the primary issues every country deals with when it comes to election process. And generally, there has been a lot of debates, a lot of arguments as to how we can make these three problem statements go out of the election process. So what should be the solution direction? Before we jump into the actual solution, what should be the direction? So if you see these three problem statements which are related to voter fraud, counting manipulation, and machine rigging, you will see that the common theme is that there is a manual intervention in the process. Even if you talk about voter fraud, there is manual intervention because there is obviously a voter involved. How do we solve that? Can we create a voter identity which is mapped to the votes which he has given so that we know that one voter is only allowed to vote once? Another problem is counting manipulation. So because counting is still being done by humans and there is a possibility of doing fraud at that stage of counting, so can we do automated vote counting using a system, using technology? The third problem is around machine rigging is where can we create a system which will, once the user casts the vote, the votes gets registered somewhere and these remains permanent so nobody can change or manipulate these votes. So can we create such kind of a system? So this is the theme of this session that we want to reduce manual intervention and we want to move towards more technology-centric election process. So keeping this direction in mind, what are the possible technologies? Although there can be multiple technologies which we can look at. But considering this forum, we are talking about two technologies here which we think and we obviously would like to have your comments, reaction, feedbacks on this is, first of all, blockchain. So blockchain is obviously a tremendous fit when we talk about putting immutable records on the ledger because it obviously increases trust of the users when they see immutable records and they know that these records cannot be changed or manipulated. So blockchain becomes a pretty imperative part of the solution which actually tackles the problem of counting, manipulation, or the trust by different users. Data is obviously cryptographically secured on blockchain which means nobody can tamper the data which again proves that the system is trustworthy. And another point is decentralized and distributed. So whenever there is an authority who is controlling election process or there are multiple authorities who are controlling the election process, there is obviously a chance that there might be some sort of manipulation which might happen because wherever there is power, there is manipulation as the statement goes. So can we make the complete election process decentralized and distributed rather than centralized and confined by various authorities? So blockchain can do that. And obviously it becomes a single source of truth because it is the most authenticated database which we have when we implement it in this kind of a process. Now it obviously increases transparency. Blockchain increases transparency and that is a good part. But when it comes to election process, we obviously need to know who has voted for which candidates or probably we want to know that a particular voter has casted his vote or not. But there is an aspect of counting these votes where we do not need that transparency because if in the process of the election, people know in which favor the votes are being going, they might manipulate those votes. That is where confidential computing comes into the play. And we'll be talking about confidential computing in the upcoming slide, what exactly it is and how it complements blockchain. But just to understand it here, confidential computing works in secure enclaves. So there's a concept called secure enclaves in which processing of data happens, but whosoever has shared the data is not allowed to view that processing or he's not authorized to view that processing so that he cannot manipulate that processing of data. They will obviously get the results that who has won, who has not. But the processing, the counting process or the ML algorithm or whatever algorithm has been written inside secure enclave, which is a concept of confidential computing, they will not have access to that algorithm, which means the algorithm become secure. And even if somebody tried to change that algorithm, there is a enclave host program which will attest that particular program before running, whether it is the original program or not or somebody has manipulated that program. So what it does is, so what we are trying to counter here, first of all, counting is being done automatically, using automated ML algorithm and inside confidential computing. So there is a manual intervention which we are trying to reduce here or trying to eliminate completely. Then whenever the data comes, what we are trying to do with blockchain is we are trying to create identity on blockchain and map that identity with the votes which the voter has been, voter has hosted. So using blockchain and confidential computing, we are trying to solve this problem. And in the upcoming slides, we'll be talking about confidential computing, how it helps and what is the solution which HCL has devised. So this is about confidential computing and I will give it to Vikram to talk about confidential computing. But essentially there is a concept of secure enclave and the applications which interact with secure enclave and there is a concept called hardware attestation which will happen here. So I think I'll give it to Vikram. Vikram will probably justify it good here. So Vikram, over to you. Sure, thanks, Shivendra. So just before I start, if you guys have any questions, please feel free to drop them into any sections. We will take those questions towards the end of this session. Okay, so to start with confidential computing. So you guys may already be familiar with blockchain, but for the purpose of this session, I'll give you an introduction about confidential computing. So confidential computing, it is an emerging technology and it is built on the premise that the host of the application or the infrastructure is malicious. What could be is malicious and it still gives you the assurance that your data and your code within that enclave is secure. Now imagine you have patient data or maybe customer data from which you want to derive insights using a proprietary algorithm, third party proprietary algorithm. Now because your data is sensitive, you may not want to hand over your data to that algorithm provider. And that algorithm provider has spent fortunes developing that algorithm. So he's not comfortable sharing that algorithm with you. So now you're in a mix, right? So this is where the confidential computing comes into the picture. That algorithm provider can put that code inside a secure enclave. And that enclave can be deployed on his own infrastructure, on your on-prem infrastructure or any cloud provider using the machines or servers which are compatible with confidential computing. The algorithm provider here is protected because the code inside the enclave is not visible to anyone. It provides you kind of an abstraction where it serves a definite purpose. It accepts a certain type of input and gives you the output. But the code itself is not seen or is visible to anyone. And in terms of you, your data is protected because what you have done is you have encrypted the data using the private key, using the public key of that enclave and you have submitted that request to the application. Now any middle application or middleware application or any application in between will not be able to see your data all they get is encrypted data. That application, what all that application can do is forward that request over to the secured enclave and that enclave, once it reaches within the enclave, will use its private key to decrypt the data. So here your data starting from your organization or wherever your repository till it reached the enclave was protected using asymmetric encryption using the SSL security. And finally, when the data is within that enclave that is where it is decrypted and that is the only place where it is in decrypted form and used for processing. Now that data never leaves the secure enclave. That is the beauty of it. And if for some reason we have to save that data outside that enclave, it again gets encrypted using the public key and gets stored on the database outside the enclave. So during the whole process you have used asymmetric encryption and that asymmetric encryption is not new. And it has been, it is being used for a lot while now. But that new technology or the new aspect that confidential computing brought was till now you were using asymmetric encryption but that private key you have to trust you had to trust someone with that private key to keep your data secure. But with confidential computing that public private key peer is generated within that enclave and that public key is available for anyone but that private key never leaves that enclave. Not even for the owner of that cloud infrastructure or any infrastructure for that matter. And if you wanted, you can also get a remote attestation done on that enclave which will prove to you that this enclave is protected, that this enclave has all the right patches and the latest updates there and will also give you a hash so that you can compare at which you can compare against the hash of the code, that algorithm. So that is how your data, your code will remain secure and it would even allow multiple parties to send the data without sharing the data with each other. That is how what confidential computing can help you with. Until now, yes, your data was secure at rest, your data was secure during the motion, but this ensured that your data is protected during processing as well. It is protected from any hardware base servers as well. So this is all it on confidential computing. Now moving on, yeah, so we at HCL, we looked at this problem statement and we devised this, our electros, which basically talks about what should be the process and the solution hack. So here we will talk about the process. So this solution starts with, has basically four pillars, one voter registration, second, the purpose and candidate registration, the third step would be casting your ballots and fourth would be the tallying the votes. Now we will get deep into each of them. So we start with voter registration. So voters turn up at a booth where their biometrics get registered and those biometrics will be encrypted at source and will be stored on blockchain. So now if the voter record is on blockchain, it is immutable, but that biometrics are not seen by anyone, not even by anyone with access to that blockchain node, right? So that is what the security is at the first step. Now moving on to the second step, that would be purpose and candidate registration. So it is simple, for any voting there has to be a purpose and there would be candidate choices. It could be an annual general election for any state or a country. Or maybe you are voting on some choice for at your annual general meeting for any company, right? So your purpose and candidates, those are registered on blockchain. So they are available in readable format for anyone with access to the blockchain node. They are not encrypted. The third and important step would be, now that D has come and you will cast your ballot, you will let your choice know, right? In this case, this is actually a two step process. First, validation of the voter using the biometrics that we recorded at the first step. So voter will provide its biometrics now and they will be compared against the record on blockchain. If both of them match, that match is actually done within the secure enclave. And if they are a match, a voter is issued a token and that token can be used to cast the ballot. Now, if it is a valid voter, he would get that token. If it's not, then the token will not be issued or maybe the voter has already voted. Then the token will not be issued. The biometrics do not match. The token will not be issued. So there are various things that have been taken care of here. And if that token has been issued, he can cast that word, the voter can cast the ballot and that ballot again gets encrypted and gets stored on blockchain. So it serves multiple purposes. Now that you have voter records on blockchain, so you were secure there. Second, in case of the ballots, they are also there on the blockchain ledger. If there are candidates, if they want, they can create their own ledger. Sorry, they can have to create their own node and get that copy of the ledger. More the merrier, it would be better, the trust. And then finally on the day when you want to tell you the words, anyone with access to a chain code to the blockchain node with that chain code and access to the confidential computing secure Enclave can invoke that chain code, which in turn would start streaming the ballots that were recorded on blockchain over to the Enclave and Enclave will start counting. Now the ballots are in decrypted form within that Enclave only. So that means that is the only place where the counting can happen. And that Enclave has only one purpose, get the stream of records, count the ballots, give the results. So every time anyone invokes that chain code, it would give out the same results and everyone had a blockchain node. So they can't really say that, you know, the votes have been tampered with. They have the secure Enclave. So that means the counting logic is correct. So that is where, you know, this solution will give them a great advantage, right? Now moving on to the next slide. So we actually did a solution hack. So we created the solution as a hack. So there were certain, you know, there were key components that were used. First of all, you know, you would need biometric devices to record the biometrics of the voters. Second, you would need a immutable ledger where we use hyper ledger fabric. You would need a secure Enclave. So that is where, you know, confidential computing came into picture. And obviously, you know, it uses asymmetric encryption. So every ballot was, you know, encrypted using the public key of the Enclave. It was only decrypted within the Enclave with its private key, right? Another component you would need is, you know, Kubernetes, you know, it's port and container management for the hyper ledger fabric blockchain for your business layer that could be, you know, anywhere in between or from the user in the purpose of user interface. User interface, you know, it could be a registration portal where you register the candidates and stuff. And probably from where you are invoking the chain code, right? That is your registration portal in UI. And also, you know, your special purpose EVMs, which would accept, you know, which would request for that token, which would, you know, encode your ballot and, you know, encrypted using the public key. So it would be special purpose EVM, you know, built, right? So that is what, you know, you would need. So these are the basic components.  So that was a solution hack that we did. So moving on, you know, to the next slide, you know, here, you know, we will talk about the benefits and the limitations of this solution. So in terms of benefits, obviously, you know, we are using blockchain. So your records, you know, voter records are immutable. We are using a symmetric encryption to record them on that ledger. So they are safe as well.  So tamper proofing is covered, your immutability is covered. Next part would be, you know, anyone with a, you know, anyone can set up a note. Obviously, you know, the more the number of notes, the, you know, the better the trust is. So you can have, you know, introduce a number of notes. Anyone, you know, if a candidate wants it, they can get it. If a government agency wants it, they can get it so anyone can get a note. And there is no harm because the data, they can, they have access to the data. They, you know, participate in the consensus, but they do not have that knowledge of, you know, that record that what is that ballot? Who casted this ballot and for whom they don't have that knowledge, right? Next step would be, you know, counting can be invoked using a smart contract. So we all believe in the chain quotes in smart contract and, you know, the block, the power of blockchain. So anyone, any authorized user can invoke that smart contract and do the counting. You can do counting multiple times if you wanted. The result would, you know, be the same. And, you know, obviously confidential computing will ensure that data or the count is only decrepit within the enclave. The counting happens within the enclave and the persistent result is given. So these are the benefits. In terms of limitations, obviously, we are talking about substantial investment that would be needed to build those, you know, special devices, you know, EVM devices, which can encrypt that data, send it, you know, interact with blockchain and confidential computing, right?  Obviously, it would have a, you know, longer evaluation period and implementation process.  So people have been using, you know, have started using this, but there are limited, you know, success stories available in public domain. The success stories are there, but in public domain, you know, there are, you know, limited number of success stories available. So I guess those will be, you know, the benefits and limitations.  Over to you, Shivendra. Okay, so thank you, Vikram, for enlightening us, you know, on this topic.  And that is the whole intervention. That is the whole intent of doing this. The problem here is that, you know, obviously, as Vikram pointed out, that there are limited success stories. And there is obviously an investment required to change the whole process, because we need probably special types of EVMs, right? Electronic voting machines, which understands this process, or which gels well with this, you know, new solution. So these are some of the investments, obviously, which is, which are required. Then obviously it enhances the trust in the system. So generally, in the process of elections, people do not trust elections because they feel that, you know, sometimes they lack transparency, because they do not know, you know, who they voted for and whether the vote has gone to that particular candidate or not. So it basically will enhance trust in the system, because it is transitioning more towards technology. So there is more transparency it gives to various authorities, to various people, right? So it enhances trust. Then obviously it enhances more, you know, security of data because casting the votes is such a system that you don't want it to be hacked or be tempered with. Also, data as rest is obviously covered using various encryption methods on the storage. Data in transit is also covered using SSL or different methods we do, while we transfer the data from one place to another. But data in processing is something which has not been covered by any technology at this point in time. So whenever data comes into the memory, it is most vulnerable because that is where, you know, data can be tampered with, right? So using confidential computing, obviously we are securing the data in use or data in processing. So with confidential computing along with encryption and along with SSL encryption for data transfers, we are actually creating a 360 degree security for the data. And that is the beauty of the solution that it has immutability, it has a cryptography, it has data at rest, everything. In one place, obviously there is investment required. So this concludes our session. So let us know whether you like it, what are the feedbacks, comments, suggestions. We are happy to take it. Any questions you have? So this actually concludes our session. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Feel free to ask questions and do feel free to reach out to us. So we are available on this session for another few minutes. And or otherwise you can reach out to us at LinkedIn. So I'm Vikram Sarma, Senior Blockchain Architect at HCL and you can also reach out to Shivendra. He's our product lead at HCL Technologies. All right, so let's wait for a couple of minutes in case anyone has any questions.


Today, I want to tell you why I leave conversion as a myth and I want to give you two things you really need to be thinking about when you're trying to convert lead. What's up, everybody? Ricky Krooth here. Welcome back to my channel for your new year. Welcome to the family. Shoot me a comment below. Introduce yourself and let us know what's going on with you, if there's any questions that we can answer. If there's anything in the world we can do for you. I'm a full-time real estate agent and founder of zerodiamond.com, the fastest growing real estate coaching program in the world and I'm just here to help the industry reduce that crazy high-failure rate one agent at a time. Today we're talking about lead conversion and why I think it's a myth. So I had a chapter in my first book called lead conversion as a myth where it kind of went into this subject a little bit. Here's my thoughts on rationale behind it. I think a lot of programs and a lot of real estate training out there really try to get you to go deep with the conversion. They really try to get you to pound each prospect, contact them so many times and really just go, go, go after them to try to make that conversion happen. And I think that this is not necessarily the right way to handle every single prospect. It might be good for some prospects but not for every prospect. I'm not real fond of how most training puts us agents in a box where everybody follows up with every prospect the same exact way. That's just impossible because every prospect has a different situation. So I mean the first thing behind conversion is finding out why they're trying to do what they're trying to do and really go deep with that to really figure out how we need to follow up with each prospect. But I'll touch on that in another video. Right now I want to talk about conversion rates and how we can close more deals because that's what this is all about, right? Helping more people buy and sell property which equals more closed deals for us. So if you have two prospects or three or four or even five prospects and you're really trying to convert them hard, you're really trying to go and contact them every day and really trying to do everything you can do to stay in touch and push them to make that contract or see this property or sign that listing or whatever the case may be. And you're really putting a lot of forth, a lot of time and energy into those few prospects. Okay? Two, three, four, five prospects is a few amount. It's very little. Two, three, four, five prospects is not a lot of prospects to be working with. A lot of agents get to this level and then they stop going after new prospects and they just focus on these few prospects that they have. What happens is this, out of these few prospects that you have, if you really pound them, maybe you get a little bit higher conversion rate than you would if you didn't pound them so hard. Okay? Maybe. But if you think about and figure into the equation, it's time spent and where's our time best spent and what's most efficient. Okay?  Okay? Let's say the conversion rate is two, three percent. Okay? Something like that out of all the prospects that you have. Okay? If you didn't spend so much time trying to convert these prospects, okay, you touched them and you continued following up with them according to their specific situations, right, which may mean pounding them every day or it may mean trying to get in touch with them once a week or once every other few days or maybe in a month or two. Okay? It depends on their situation and how deep you go with those relationships and how much information they give you about what they're really trying to do, which by the way is the key to real estate in general. But if you spent that time that you would have been trying to convert those and go after new business, okay, now we turn these five prospects into, let's say, 20 or 30 prospects in the same amount of time because we only have so much energy up here to spend on certain activities. And if we spend a lot of our energy on creating new business and just a little bit on following up and making sure everything is, you know, we're stirring the pot with the people that we've talked to to try to find those conversions, okay, now we may bring that two or three or four percent down to one or two percent, right, it may not be as high of a conversion rate, maybe, maybe not, okay, but we've got to have volume. At some point in the game, you have to have volume, okay, you can't just go after one or two or three clients and that's it or even 10 or even 20, okay, we need 50, we need 100, we need 200, okay, we need a volume of clients who we're spreading our message to, who we're getting to know us, we're getting to know them, we're finding out what they need and we're helping them accomplish those life goals with the real estate buying and selling. So if you take those five leads, you're really trying to convert those, okay, in one scenario, maybe you have a slightly higher conversion rate, still really low, but if you spend less brain energy and time and effort on those, you're still taking care of them, but you focus on more, more business, more volume, more prospects, more relationships, more creating and maintaining, getting to know people, right, now we have a huge volume of people and our percentage is still going to be low, but we're going to have more deals out of that scenario. So we spend the same time when we get 20 or 30 or 40 more prospects because we are focusing on, let's go get some more business, our conversion rate's not going to be much different, but we have a lot more people in the pipeline, so our closings are going to be higher, the amount of closings that we have. Now I'm fixing to tell you the two things that I want you to really think about when you're trying to convert prospects, okay, before we get into it, please do me a favor, hit that like button, shoot me a comment below, let me know what you think, it doesn't matter if you just say nice video or thanks for sharing Rick, or whatever the case may be, every little bit counts. The first thing I want you to get is I want you to connect first, then convert, okay, connect first, then convert. I want you to connect with your clients, I want you to go deep with the relationship, I want you to find out why they're buying or selling, I want you to figure out what you, what you relate to them with, okay, is there something that you guys have in common, okay, if nothing else you're both enjoying the day, like find a common ground and really connect with people, take the transaction, take the closing, take the listing, take the buyer agency agreement, take the purchase agreement, take the everything out of the equation and let's just focus on people, let's just talk to people, see what we can do to get to know them, right, and help them and figure out what it is that they're really trying to do so that we can do our job better when we know what they want out of the deal, what they're really trying to do, their mom died, kids went to college, whatever the case may be, we can really go deeper with helping them and when we go that deep with helping people, guess what happens? You get their business for the rest of their life, you get all their friends and family, you get all the referrals, everything, repeat business, referrals and referrals over referrals. This is where you see 10 to 20 deals over the life of your career from every single prospect. The second thing I want you to get out of this is that by spending so much time trying to convert just a few clients, you're doing your future clients that you haven't talked to yet a disservice, okay, because you're spending time on these clients trying to convert every lead when there's so many more people that need your help but you're not even giving them any attention, you're not even trying to talk to them, you're not even trying to find those people because you're so busy right here trying to convert every lead and you're doing them a disservice because they need your help. They're sitting there right now waiting on you to call, waiting on that email, waiting on that Facebook ad, however you create business, they're waiting to see you, to hear your message, to get to know you and to tell you what they need and how you can help them. So don't do your future clients a disservice by spending so much time trying to convert every single lead, right? Do what you need to do to keep those relationships intact, figure out what the follow up process needs to be with each and every lead and follow it to a T but don't let that take up all of your energy, all of your time, okay, all of your mental capacity, okay, this is how you multiply your business, this is how you go from 10 deals to 50 deals, okay, by multiplying your time, time blocking, figuring out what works and what doesn't work, balancing those current clients, new clients and old clients, I talk about it all the time, balancing out your new and old clients is the key to exponential growth. So I hope you guys got a lot out of this video, let me know if there's anything in the world I can do for you, talk to you soon.


Welcome back to the Dominic Dolls show presented by Buffalo Wildwings. I'm Sam Murray joined now with Stevenson Men's ice hockey head coach Dominic Dolls and coach just one game last week, but it was an important game of five to win over Newman. Talk about that your team's performance there. Yeah. I mean, it was great to obviously go on the road and win a game with a lot at stake. I mean, we've talked a lot about our goals this year and a big one was to earn the buy.  And I think we went in there and we execute our game plan and we came out hard and fast. And fortunately, I think we didn't bury early on and they took care of a couple of their chances. But I think mentally we stayed tough throughout the game, buried on a couple power plays, got a couple of key goals by key guys and they're up coming out with a five to win. Yeah.  I mean, it was good for us. I mean, because I think that's one of the first times we've battled back from a couple goal deficit. So to just kind of mentally stay with it and stay the course and just battle back, you know, shift by shift, goal by goal was good. I mean, I think we got our first one probably midway through the second on a power play. And then I think tied it up, obviously, before the third period and early in the third. And then just kind of battled from there and played hard. So you have the first round buy, you don't know who you're going to play. Could be any of one of three teams. How do you prepare for that going into this week? I mean, we're more of the mentality of looking after ourselves or preparing ourselves anyway. So I think for the first few days of the week here, it's just worrying about us cleaning up some things. And then tomorrow we'll worry about, you know, seeing who we play and prepare from there. But I mean, our game plan really doesn't change typically. It's, you know, we need to execute and play play our game and do what we need to do and go from there. And that UCHD semi-final will be on Saturday, February 24th. Our Richard Town Sportsplex puck drop is at 7 p.m. Coach, wish you the best of luck and we'll see you back here next week. Thank you for Coach Dominic Dolls. I'm Sam Murray, and this has been the Dominic Doll Show.


Hey guys, what's up? The video you're about to see is going to be how to handle the addendum as a salesperson This is something right here where I was in a dealership Obviously I fly all over the country I train all around the world and some of the guys were saying 80 on my addendum handling I feel like that that's a problem Look the two strongest thing you could ever have during a negotiation is going to be Report and trust and when going over an addendum with somebody if you don't have the confidence And you don't know how to do it. You can easily lose the cell watch this full video. You're gonna love it Okay, I want you to write this down is getting The most money at the end of ownership Important to you on this vehicle You have to ask that question right out today Remember this the cell can't be closed until it's open. Okay, so you have to ask this quick question So I'll say so hey Andy. I don't want to pay that addendum. Hey, I totally understand number one agree always agree Okay, just agrees. I totally understand Look, let me ask you a question is getting the most money and listen I may reword it a couple different ways But is is getting the most money at the end of ownership which means at the end of you're buying this car today You're driving it off the lot You're going to keep it for a couple years five years whatever is getting the most money at the end of ownership Something that's important to you yes or no Okay What we've learned Okay, you're oh who's the research You're the research You're the expert what we've learned Is that our customers right have received as much as $3,000 or more right for their trading values when using this package Now what I'll tell you is that if I pay $2,300 for something And then five years later or two years later. I can get 3,000 back for it I'm not an investor, but if I can get 23 and get three back. Is that worth it? Yes Absolutely This will be the best return on investment you've ever had Anytime that they appraise vehicles the first thing they do and we decided we went around the things that are on this vehicle Or that are on this pamphlet right on what would make customers vehicles worth more money This was something that wasn't always put on every car Okay, it's on every vehicle we own now In order to get all of the things that I'm going over with you on this brochure Which this is probably my fault and I haven't explained this properly to you But this right here used to be a $4,200 package Our customers all wanted it. They just didn't want to spend $4,200 So we went in and we negotiated a package with the company And we said what if we guaranteed we put them on every one of them because our customers wanted 99% of the customers were buying it You know it's $4,200 right Imagine what they're doing now at $23 they're ecstatic But since you haven't purchased a vehicle from us before right you're not aware of this Here's what I'll tell you this 2300 we negotiated it down for you Do you know why? One of the common first things that happen when someone pulls off a lot is a key loss They lose a key and when they call and they call the parts department. Do you know what my parts man says? $495 and they go through the roof Okay, you don't have to worry about that.  No problem You know the door guards, right? See how you can't see them They're not the big gluey ones that used to be hanging off kind of you know me like the ghetto rides We don't have those anymore. Guess what? We know that your car door is going to hit something It's not a matter of if it's when it's going to hit something And what we learned is that especially around here in vero because we're by the beach the wind blows Which you agree depends on what time it is the wind blows You're sitting there wind blows the door open. Oh, it hits something Do you know what that cost at a body shop to fix?  Remember You told me a minute ago that at the end of ownership that whenever you're ready to replace this car getting the most money was important to you If I could supply give all that stress free stuff and I could still continue to go through everything else, right? If I could supply all that stress free living in this car And still be able to get you top dollar when you traded it back in Guess what?  I don't want your car to get hit Right. I don't want it to happen But I'm going to tell you if I if I went to your house right now And this may be a little deep But I would say if I went to your house right now and I would sell life insurance If I could tell you when you would die I could say I could predict that I can tell you the exact date you'll die Would you buy life insurance from me? If you say no, you're crazy if I could tell you what day you're going to die, would you buy would you buy life insurance from me? All right Will your car get a date? Same thing Same thing if I could tell you right now your car would get a date If I could tell you right now that all these things are going to happen and are right here and you're going to lose your key and all that happens Would you buy it then? You already know i'm telling you the truth all of it's going to happen The cool deal about it is that it's all protected you don't have to worry about any extra expenses out of your pocket right now Look, you're paying a payment for this car right now, right? You know what the difference is between a variable payment and a fixed payment You know what the difference is? A variable payment means the payment goes up and down up and down up and down You deign your car you got to pay for it right you got a $400 payment that month Plus you got to pay some extra money to fix when it gets big am I right? That's called a variable payment When you buy this car It has a fixed payment You know what that means the payment stays the same and if any one of these things here happen Does the payment change a penny? Does any money get exchanged out of your bank account? Zero and then at the end of ownership you still get top dollar for your vehicle You get your money back. It's a win-win every single You guys see what I'm saying Does that make sense? Okay, but did you see how I started out saying is getting the most money for your vehicle at the end of ownership extremely important to you Most of our customers say it is I just wanted to ask if it's important to you Yes, every time you go to trade your car, right? Are you always saying I hope the dealer gives me enough? What if you never had to worry about that again? Does that make sense?


Good morning everyone and welcome to morning prayer. I'd like to welcome those of you joining us online and you're here in the room with us I just invite you to stand as we went into this time of worship and prayer we're gonna start today by Praying out of Psalm 84 How lovely is your tabernacle? Oh Lord of hosts My soul longs. Yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh Cry out for the living God Even the sparrow has found a home in the swallow a nest for herself or she may lay her young Even your altars are a Lord of Hosts My king and my God blessed are those who dwell in your house They will still be praising you Blessed is the man whose strength is in you whose heart is set on pilgrimage As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring The rain also covers it with pools They go from strength to strength each one appears before God and Zion Oh Lord God of Hosts hear my prayer give ear.  Oh Lord of hosts blessed is the man who trusts in you God we just come before you today and we echo this prayer of David Lord we Just say blessed is the man who trusts in you blessed Blessed Lord are we when we put our trust in you And God it is an honor to get to come before you early on this Monday morning To be in your courts God a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere There's nowhere else. We would rather be there's no other way that we would rather start our day Than just be holding and get gazing upon and hosting the presence of the living God Lord we just ask that you would come and be present in this place Would you receive our worship? God with this room would our worship with our intercession Please your heart with the sounds that arise the singing would it be pleasing to your ear? God would you receive our offering today? We want to minister to you Lord We want to minister to your heart We want to please you God. So would you come and dwell here today with us? Would your spirit find the rest here? Would your spirit find the rest here God as we just bring you this offering of worship since we surrender to you We surrender all to you. There's nothing that we withhold. There's nothing that we hold back Lord today, we come before you and we choose not to surrender to any of life's worries to fear to anxiety to depression to financial circumstances or any Anything that life would throw at us God we surrender to you We come and we sit at your feet and we give you those things we give you that financial situation We give you that anxiety. We give you that fear We place it into the safest hands Jesus you are the Lord of lords and the king of kings and we surrender our whole lives and our whole hearts to you today We don't sir. We don't come and give you part of us We give you all of us today not withholding anything Ordin in the midst of those storms. We will ever love and trust you God make us ones who will not who will not Be shaken by the storm, but we'll come and find the feet of Jesus and surrender Lord would you make us ones who love and trust you even in the midst of the storm even in the midst of Whatever situation we're going through would you make us ones who could declare truths about you and come before you with Thanksgiving Lord in the midst of those stressful situations when we not bow to whatever we're facing Would we bow to you and to what you say would we declare your character and your truths? The truth of Jesus, but every day of our lives we come before you and we surrender again But there not be a day goes by that our heart is surrendered to something other than you Jesus. We just want to be Totally and utterly surrendered to you We don't want there to be a part of our heart that is held back a part of our heart that is submitted to something else or just someone else All to you Jesus and we recognize that we can't do that without your help So Jesus we come before you today and we just ask We ask for your help Lord Help us to be ones that fully surrender to you every day of our lives Help us to be ones who love and trust you in the midst of the storm and help us to be ones that day After day after day until we meet you face to face That we would ever love and trust you Help us Lord help us to be ones who surrender to you in Jesus name God would you help us to be ones who day after day Surrender our hearts and our lives to you transition into our first prayer cycle If you'll open up with your bibles or open up with me and your bibles to Ephesians 1 We're gonna be crying out for for prodigals today that Jesus would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation As to the the fullness of God Ephesians 1 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of Of the glory of his inheritance in the saints And what is the exceeding Greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power Jesus we come before you today and we pray for those that are far from you Those who may have known you in the past to those who have never heard of the man Jesus And God we just asked that you would pour out a spirit of wisdom and revelation on them God that it would be like scales falling from their eyes Or that you would reveal Jesus to them that you would reveal the one who who came and died on a cross for them to redeem them from their own sin Or just like you did for me and everyone who calls you Lord would you reveal to those far from you The man Jesus open up their eyes. God. I asked that you would come to them in the night Give them dreams of the man in white Lord in whatever wall Whatever stands in your way I just asked that you would tear it down Lord you are the Almighty God and there is nothing that can separate you from your children and they are your children God Each and every one of them no matter how far you love and Look God you are merciful We ask for your mercy today that she would That she would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation To see Jesus to see the heart of the Father God I know people personally who are far from you and we all do Lord those are souls going to hell and God we just come before you today and we asked by your power by your goodness Would you step in and give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see Jesus God Or would you do everything that you can to save them give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation God in Jesus name and Jesus name with those far from you see Jesus today by your spirit God Let them see the man Jesus In God we just come before you and we ask that as you You open the eyes of the blind to see you that you would set them free from any bondage that they are living in But any demonic presence is over them Lord any addiction Depression anxiety whatever it is that has them in bondage Lord, but you set them free Set them free as you set us all free God you are rich in mercy Your love knows no bounds God I ask that as they see you that it would be a life-changing encounter But I'm asking for for testimonies of Drug addicts who encountered Jesus and are set free in a moment God I'm asking for those who Who are sick to be healed? God I'm asking for those that have Father wounds to encounter Jesus and through him encounter the heart of the father That you would restore the heart of the father God whatever is is plaguing those that are far from you. We just ask that you would set them free And God that they would they would never look back that they would run after you With reckless abandonment all the days of their life God and would you put people in their lives to help them walk with you to disciple them To lead them Or would you give them a godly community? Would you give them a godly community of people who who uplift them and encourage them? And you hold them accountable and teach them Got these these little practical things. They're so important. I asked Lord that you would give them a Good godly community People to help them steward that encounter with Jesus, so God we ask you today that you would Through this encounter change their lives Would they never look back? Would they run after you all the days of their life? Would they lead others to you with their testimony?  Would you give them endurance Lord would you restore would you set them free? From all bondage by your spirit We're gonna enter back in to another time of worship. And so I just encourage you to post your hearts In a place to worship Jesus The cross You're buried by the side he cleared the grave has no Because the enemy is under your feet you have conquered all cross and your resurrection God you have conquered all You are truly the king of kings and the Lord of lords There is no one else that we surrender to No one else that we bow to no one else that we put our hope in nothing else that we put our hope in God But in you because you're deserving because of your love for us Lord when life is great we put our hope in you When life is hard we put our hope in you put our hope in faith the one day You will come back and redeem everything. We trust you We trust you when it's easy and we trust you when it's hard We trust you when we don't want to We still say that we will trust you. We trust you God back into intercession out of Ephesians 3 continuing to to pray for prodigals Ephesians 3 14 For this reason I bow my knee to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ From whom whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might Through his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith That you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all of the saints What is the width and length and depth and height? To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God Lord, we pray this today over those that are far from you Lord, they would one day become those who are rooted and grounded in love Or that they would be able to comprehend With all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height of your love to know The love of Christ which passes knowledge God, we recognize that we can labor, but we can't labor without you Lord, we ask that that you would root them and ground them in love Lord that they would have roots that go deep They would not easily be plucked up God that their roots would go deep into the love of Christ ever searching ever searching it with a heart to comprehend Lord What is the width length depth and height of your love and God as they search Would you just give them little glimpses of Jesus? Glimpses of your heart for them glimpses of how you feel about them But even if even if it's the first time that they've heard it would it wouldn't Would they just continue to go deep?  Down to earth from heaven and take our place take their place on a cross And be resurrected But we ask that you would root them deep and crown them in your love so that when the Seasons of life come to try and shake when the works of the enemy come to try and steer them off course back Into the life that they once known God would they be rooted in your love? Would they be able to tell that season of life or that work of the enemy? No, I know the love of Christ I know how he feels about me, and I will not I will not leave God so in Jesus name would you root and ground them in your love Lord, we pray that you would root them and ground I want us here in the room and to gather into groups of three or four and By name just release a prayer for someone that you know that's far from the Lord Other that be a family member or a friend to release a prayer to the Lord for them And if you're you're with us online I Just encourage you to do the same just to to by name release a prayer to the Lord For them that he would capture their heart He would root and ground them in his love and as we do that the team is just going to continue to to play if you guys have a chorus go ahead, but The instruments you're gonna gonna prophesy as we release these prayers Let's go ahead and gather the groups of three or four God and we just we lift up these prayers to you today For those protocols those that are far from you and we just ask We ask in desperation just that That you would capture their hearts or that you would reveal to them the man Jesus But we thank you that we can trust you with them that we can trust you with these souls With those that we care about that we're close to that don't know you we thank you That you care for them so much more than we do We thank you Lord that you are a merciful God We just ask you to look upon them and to have mercy to capture their hearts And Lord we we thank you for for this time that we have to to come in Worship you and adore you and to release these prayers together So God we just We lift this offering up to you and we just say thank you Say thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you everyone for for coming today and just Interceding and laboring With us in the spirit Well, we have another prayer meeting at noon today one of six thirty tonight If not, we'll see you back here tomorrow at 8 a.m. Thank you. Have a good day You