Beginning at verse 1, today we come to verse 6. And where the Bible reads, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. And that was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. As we began this section, we began the prologue looking at verses 1 through 5 in our last series of sermons. We saw the Word, right? And the Word was with God and the Word was God. We saw the Word outside of history, timeless and eternal. And so now as we begin verse 6 today, we see the light coming into the world. And what is timeless and eternal, these timeless truths now we are learning are anchored in human history. Our faith, the saving faith of God, the saving truth of God isn't simply grounded in someone's imagination. It's not simply grounded in our intellect, not grounded in the thoughts of man or in the ideologies of the imaginations of man or in the philosophies of the ignorant as every other world religion is. These are grounded. Our faith is grounded on the truth of God's Word and grounded in who Jesus Christ is. It's not grounded on nothing. It's not grounded on air, suspended by nothing. This is observable historic reality. The good news of Jesus Christ is the history of God's actions and work through Jesus Christ in the world to save sinners to himself. And in that it's observable fact. It's observable history to bring the light to blind sinners. The coming of the light into the world doesn't necessarily bring with it reception or acceptance. Most frequently the light brings rejection. But John says that all people are blind to the light in their fallen condition. And in their sin, they love their darkness. And so they reject the light. Most people choose to reject it and hide themselves in their own dark corner, live for themselves. So then the light coming then, as the light comes into the darkness, shining in the darkness, that light by its very nature demands a response, demands a response. People must respond to the light. They must desire to leave behind the darkness they love, step out from the darkness into the light. They must leave the darkness that they are imprisoned in and come into the light. That requires the new birth, the Lord opening their eyes. It is a shameful testimony to the depravity of man that man needs a witness to point him to the brightest light possible. A man is truly blind apart from Christ, devastatingly blind apart from Christ. And so John in his gospel, in the first five verses as we study Jesus Christ and who John in his gospel presents him to be, we see the highest possible Christology, a highest possible portrayal of the excellencies of Christ. And now as we come to verse six, we begin in John's gospel to unpack the utter depravity of man, the lowest view of man. That's good biblical theology, right? A high view of God and a low view of man. Many make the error, the mistake, the sin today of elevating man and pulling down God to our level. As if he's some genie in a bottle. We can rub the lamp and get what we want. This is a high view of Christ, a high view of God and a deservedly, a rightfully low view of man. So in verse five, as we study that verse, we see the light coming and shining in the darkness. And now in verse six, we are introduced to a man sent from God to bear witness of the light. So as we consider our text this morning, we've got to take application of this for ourselves. We must make application of this from our witness. Listen to what one commentator said. The view that witnessing is every Christian's job was certainly the belief of the early Christians. Their acceptance of this task was perhaps the single most important factor in the astounding outreach and expansion of the early church. It was not simply that Peter and Paul and Stephen and others spread the good news of salvation in Christ. It was rather that all Christians, small and great, rich and poor, slaves and freed men, made it their consuming passion to tell others about the Lord. Today, John's evangelistic purpose becomes John the Baptist's purpose, becomes our purpose. God lines up in the Gospel of John, an impressive list of witnesses. God throughout Scripture, throughout history, lines up an impressive list of witnesses who come onto the stage of human history and point blind men to the light. And he does that here today in the Gospel of John all with the same purpose.  And that was John the evangelist's purpose. That becomes John the Baptist's purpose. That becomes our purpose if we're in Christ. All designed to reproduce witnesses to Christ from those who would come to believe in him by faith. So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. So in verses 6 through 9 now, as we begin to unpack this paragraph, we're going to see our responsibility in this saving purpose of God to, one, go to the blind. The world is blind and lost in darkness. You were once blind, dead in your sins and trespasses, imprisoned in darkness, and someone pointed you to the light. We are to go to the blind of this world and point them to the light. We see in verse 6 that a man named John was sent from God. That sending from God presupposes a purpose for which he was sent. And in that sending and in that purpose, we see an example for every Christian. John is an example for gospel ministry that demands those that call themselves Christians go themselves and bear witness of the light to spiritually blind men. We are to go to the blind with the light of the gospel. Point two, when we go, we're to speak of the light. In being sent, John was given the role of opening his mouth. The responsibility of opening his mouth about Christ. And then three, with the desired result that blind men might be saved. Now following that model for gospel ministry, we have the same role. We have the same responsibility. We desire as Christians, don't we, the same result. And that's in accordance with what God's desire is. God desires that all men everywhere are saved. That's the desired will of God. We're to go to the blind, we're to open our mouths and speak of the light. And thirdly, we'll see we are to stand for the truth. We're to stand for the truth. Go to the blind, speak of the light and stand for the truth. For the sake of the gospel, for the sake that souls would be saved, we as Christians are to take a stand for all that is true. In taking a stand for all that is true, we're to take a stand against all that is false. It requires both. We're to take a stand against all that is false. There is saving light in no one else but the true light. There is salvation in none other. For there is no other name given under heaven, among which, by which we must be saved. We have to go to blind men with the true light, preach the true light, stand against that which is false. So let's take a look at point one. First thing we have to see is that we're to go to the blind and we see that from verse six. Again, taking application here from John the Evangelist talking about John the Baptist. In verse six, the Bible says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now in verses one through five, as we looked at this glorious Christology that John lays out in these opening verses, we move from the eternal Word who was, right, from eternity past. That means he is infinite. He is individual with God and yet he is indivisibly God. He is independent aside from creation. He is incarnate and Jesus Christ is invincible. And in stark contrast, we get to verse six where there now came into being a man. The man whose name was John. As notable as John is, that's a pretty stark contrast. The way that John opens up verses one through five describing Christ and now moves into verse six explaining John. It just points again back to the deity of Christ. Jesus Christ is a man, but he's not merely a man. John, as notable as John is, is merely a man. But Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. John, the author of our Gospel, John the Evangelist, simply mentions in verse six by first name only. It's just this is John, a man sent from God whose name was John. Now John often throughout the Gospel will give last names to clarify who he's talking about. He gave a last name to Judas, to Mary, to Joseph, but here it's just simply John. That's probably because our author John never mentions himself by name in the Gospel. So there's no confusion here. John refers to himself as simply the one whom Jesus Christ loved. But here he refers to John the Baptist as simply John and no confusion there. It's Matthew, Mark and Luke in the synoptic Gospels that add the descriptive title, the Baptist or the baptizer. So it is John the Baptist, John the baptizer. And that's because of John's ministry. John came baptizing in the River Jordan. Now notice here, right off the bat, it's not John the sprinkler. It's not John the Dabber or John the dropper. This is John the Dunker. This is John the Immerser, John the Submerser, John the Baptist. He wasn't immersing babies in the River Jordan. He was commanding people to repent and people who knew what it meant to bear fruits worthy of repentance. They asked John about that. John explained it to them and they understood it. So they weren't baptizing babies. So as we're introduced now to John the Baptist from the Bible, we see right off the bat through Scripture that John the Baptist was a very unique figure in human history. A very important figure in biblical history and redemptive history. He's given prominent mention in all four Gospel accounts. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all talk about John the Baptist and there's a reason for that. He had a particular ministry to fulfill, a very important job to do. And he had great responsibility from God in redemptive history. All of this is wrapped up in this opening statement in verse 6 that he was sent from God. John was sent from God. So the first thing I want you to see, in your charge from the example of John to go to the blind, in the same way that John was sent from God, you are sent from God. I am sent from God. We're all sent from God. If you're in Christ, you are sent with a mission. And let's unpack this. There's a lot of evidence in Scripture for why John was sent. We see that throughout the New Testament. Why John was specifically sent by God. One, we can see that he was specially sent due to the miraculous circumstances around John the Baptist's birth. John of verse 6 was the only son of Zacharias and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was barren up until this point. Never had any children. So John was her first. And the Bible says that they were advanced in age. They were in their 80s when Elizabeth became pregnant and eventually gave birth to John the Baptist. And so that's a miraculous birth, isn't it? Doesn't it remind you of Abraham and Sarah in the same way? This is a miraculous birth. Now in addition to that birth, which is miraculous, Luke also tells us that John was filled with a Holy Spirit from before his birth from his mother's womb. And that John, John the Baptist, was the fulfillment of several Old Testament prophecies. And let me give you an example of that. Flip back with me to Luke chapter 1 and let's see John introduced in Luke chapter 1 to us beginning in verse 13. He was filled with a Holy Spirit. He was miraculously born. And we're going to see he's the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy or prophets prophesying about John the Baptist. And we find that in Luke chapter 1, look down beginning in verse 13. It's also interesting that John's birth was announced by the angel Gabriel. If you remember that story, Gabriel came, it was not unlike the story of Abraham and Sarah. The angel came, the angel Gabriel told Zacharias he was going to have a son. Zacharias didn't believe it at first. And so what did the angel do?  Zacharias became a mute for a period of time until John was born. And so here in verse 13, the angel said to him, said to Zacharias, Do not be afraid Zacharias, for your prayer is heard.  And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth. For his purpose here, verse 15. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. All that is in fulfillment of prophecy. Verse 17. He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready of people prepared for the Lord. Now that last section there in verse 17 is an Old Testament prophecy. It's a quote directly from Malachi chapter four verses five and six. So we see that prophecy now fulfilled in John the Baptist. Other Old Testament prophecies in Isaiah chapter 40 in verse three. Isaiah also says of John that he is the voice of one crying in the wilderness saying, Prepare the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God. It's another testimony of the deity of Jesus Christ. And speaking of Jesus Christ as God from the prophet Isaiah. In Malachi chapter three verse one. Behold the Bible says I send my messenger. That messenger is John the Baptist. And he will prepare the way before me that me is Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ from the Old Testament. So again, we see the miraculous birth. We see the angel announcing his birth. We see the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled. He's given time in all four gospels. Peter mentions John the Baptist in his sermon in Acts chapter 10. Paul mentions John the Baptist in his sermon in Acts chapter 13. When the apostles were picking a replacement for Judas, right? When the apostles were picking a replacement for Judas, that man that was eligible to be a replacement apostle was one who had been with them from the baptism of John until that day, right? So John was even mentioned in replacing an apostle. Now those today that call themselves apostles, either they are really old or they are really fake. One of the two. There are no apostles today. And you know that Jesus commends those in Revelation two that test those, right? In Revelation two that test those that say they are apostles and are not. And he commends them because we find them to be liars. So the Lord through Revelation two commends us today. Apostles today, if they call themselves an apostle, they are liars. No apostles today. They don't fit the qualifications of being with John, okay? John the Baptist additionally would have been exactly what the Jews were looking for. It would have been what the Jews revered. By birth John the Baptist was a priest. By appointment John the Baptist was a Nazarite. He took a very strict code of moral conduct. He was a Nazarite. By calling he was a prophet. And he was the first prophet in 400 years. So Israel was ready for John. And John was like Elijah. He said he was an Elijah like figure. He rough and tumble guy. Out in the woods preaching repentance. Wearing camel hair. Which is not that soft tan camel hair. Guys were today. This is like wearing porcupine. It wouldn't have felt good. He was a tough guy. He was eating locus, wild honey. And he was preaching for the children of Israel to turn from their sin. Preaching boldly for the people of Israel to turn from their sin. All of that. And John the Baptist was sent at exactly the right time. The Bible says that in due time Jesus was sent to save the ungodly. All according to God's sovereign plan. Every detail foreordained. And so John the Baptist was sent at exactly the right time just before Christ. He was the forerunner of the Messiah. And lastly, the fact that John is sent from God is still bearing truth today. In the sense that John still speaks. He points people to the light. Even now as we talk about him this morning. Hebrews 11 chapter 4 says being dead he still speaks. As John the Baptist sent from God. So how does this apply to us? John was sent from God. We also have been given a mission. In many ways we have the same mission. We're also sent by God. We as John are to go to the blind. And we're to point them to the light. We're to go to blind men with the light of the gospel. The light of Jesus Christ. We're to point them to the light. In Matthew chapter 28 verse 19. Written to every Christian. Go therefore and make disciples. Mark chapter 16 in verse 15. To every Christian. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Luke chapter 24 in verse 47. To every Christian. Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations. In John chapter 20 in verse 21. To every Christian Christ says as the Father has sent me. I also send you. You therefore as John was have been sent by God. If you're in Christ. If you claim the name of Christ. If you've been saved from your sin. You've been sent by God. Is that to be done in your own power? Can you accomplish that mission in your own strength? Are you able to do that? You must exercise faith in Christ. And he promises you at the end of Matthew 28. In the great commission. Christ promises you that if you will go. He will be with you even to the end of the age. In chapter 1 of Acts verse 8. To every Christian Christ says. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me. John in verse 6 sent from God. In verse 7. He's the bear witness. He's the bear witness of the light. He's the point blind man to the light. That's our mission also. So let me ask you a question. John took his commission from God. And was obedient. Even to the point of death. John was sent from God. Took his commission. Took his sending from God so seriously. He was obedient to that sending. Obedient to that commission.  Why? Why? Why would John do that? To his death. Why would John do that? Certainly you could say because of Christ. Because Christ says in scripture. Christ came to save sinners. But the Lord of glory entered human history to save wretched wicked darkened sinners like you and me. And that is worth it, isn't it? Certainly because John loved Christ. Certainly because John himself needed a savior. He was a sinner. He was grateful for the salvation that he had through the Messiah. Grateful for the forgiveness that he had in Christ. Why? All of that is a fruit of faith. John believed Christ. And because John believed Christ, John obeyed Christ. Why? Did he go with that commission to the point of his own death? Because he believed Christ and because he believed Christ, he followed Christ. Because he believed what Christ said, he obeyed what Christ said. Why did John preach until they took his head? What produces that kind of devotion in a Christian? Why did the disciples go right back into the city that crucified the Lord and preached the Lord there until they were killed? What engenders that kind of devotion? It's faith. Saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God authored Christ exalting faith, a gift from God. Because they believed Christ, they followed Christ. The disciples saw the risen Lord after the resurrection and it emboldened them to go right back into the city that crucified him and preach Christ until their deaths. This is the fruit of genuine saving faith. That saving faith produced in them a profound love for Christ. That genuine saving faith produced in them a desire to see God glorified in the salvation of sinners. That saving faith produced in them a profound desire to see friends and loved ones and lost people on the street corner saved. Because they believed in him, they obeyed him, they preached him, they followed him. That pertains to you and I. We say that we love Christ. You say that you love Christ. You say that you want to see friends, loved ones, lost people saved.  And you are saying that you believe him. And if you believe him and take him at his word then you obey him, you follow him. You go with that mission to the blind, to point blind men to the light. People who claim Christ, who don't preach the gospel, they don't preach the gospel because somehow they don't believe in Christ and what he has done for sinners. They don't believe what Christ has said he will do, what he will do. And their faith is weak or non-existent. People don't preach Christ because really it all amounts to unbelief. If you believe that Christ is a savior of sinners then you will preach the gospel to sinners so that they can be saved. People that don't preach the gospel that claim the name of Christ is simply a lack of faith. It's a lack of faith. John believed and he preached the gospel until he was exiled on Patmos and died there. John the Baptist believed Christ and he preached the gospel until they took his head. The disciples believed. Paul was beheaded. Peter crucified upside down. How strong is your faith in the Lord? Check your evangelism. How strong is your faith in the Lord to do what he says he will do? He came for that reason to save sinners. How strong is your faith in the Lord? Check your evangelism. Let the spirit of God work in you and through you, faith in Christ, faith in Christ is the victory that has overcome the world. The greatest need of Christians, those that call themselves Christians, the greatest need of Christians is to exercise their faith in Christ. Your greatest need as a Christian, while the Lord has you here sanctifying you, conforming you into the image of Christ, your greatest need is to exercise your faith in Christ, to not allow it to be something that is merely intellectual, merely ascent to a set of facts, but so that your faith is a living practice, a living habit, a living faith. You need to exercise faith in Christ. How is your faith, how's your faith today? Is your evangelism a burden? Is it a fainting, withering, shrinking back kind of duty? Where is your faith? Do you believe Christ, when he says that he saves people through the gospel, then exercise your faith and go to the blind? John exercised his faith and went to blind men with the light. Paul exercised his faith, went to the Gentiles with the light. The disciples exercised their faith. Of course, faith in Christ, faith in what Christ has done, faith in the person and work of Christ is gloriously helpful, isn't it, when the Christian finds himself weak and needs strength? Exercise our faith when we have need and the Lord is our supply. The Lord helps and aids in our need, meets us where we need something. We exercise faith when we're in trouble. We rely on the Lord to protect us. Exercise faith when we're... just don't know what tomorrow holds and we need hope. Exercise faith when you're in battle against sin and you just can't overcome it in your own strength. We're not supposed to. We exercise our faith in the Lord and through the strengthening and powering work of the Spirit within us, it's faith that overcomes. Faith is the victory that has overcome the world. Exercise your faith. The demons believe and what? Tremble. Hippocrates say they believe and they lie. God's people believe and speak. Paul said, didn't he? I believed, therefore I spoke, right? So first we see that we are sent from God and the same way that John was, we're sent from God. Secondly, in going to the blind, this sending then presupposes there was a very important purpose for which John the Baptist was sent. The fact that God sends presupposes a very important purpose for the sending. John, here in verse 6, is an earthly man and this earthly man was sent by God. Sent by God to be a heavenly herald. Sent by God to be a heavenly herald. He was an authorized emissary, so to speak, a royal ambassador. John is the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. And he was sent to preach repentance to fulfill promises and to prepare the way in Israel for the triumphal entry of the Lord Jesus Christ. So John goes, according to his sending, with that commission from God, he prepares the way for Christ. And you have Jews all over Jerusalem, all over Judea, pouring out of the cities to come out of the wilderness to hear John preach. And he was preaching that people should repent.  Turn from your sin, turn back to the Lord, repent. And John may have been an important figure. He was certainly preaching an important message. He had an important commission. But Christ said of John in Matthew 11, verse 11, assuredly I say to you, Christ says, among those born of women, there is not risen one greater than John the Baptist. Among all of those born, up until this point, there's not one been born that is greater than John the Baptist. I'd submit to you, that's not because John the Baptist was overly smart, smarter than everyone else. Or that he was holier than everyone else. He was more spiritual than everyone else. Or more humble than everyone else. John the Baptist was the greatest among those born of women, until this point. Because he had, up until this point, the greatest purpose. He was a prophet. But he was a greater prophet, Christ said, than any of the prophets that came before him. Because he was the prophet that prophesied the coming of the Messiah. He was the forerunner. He had a great purpose. That led Christ to say of him that he was the greatest among those born of women. He was the greatest because he had the more blessed opportunity of being the one who prepared the way for Christ. So faithful was John. So faithful was John in his calling and in discharging his duties that it cost him his head. Want a great example of meekness? Sometimes that word is difficult to define. Want a great example of meekness. Blessed are the meek. Look at John the Baptist. John the Baptist was very humble. Very humble, but very strong. John the Baptist was humble but he had a backbone of steel. A forehead of flint. John the Baptist was humble but he was resolved. He was uncompromising. He was determined. The Pharisees come out. You brood of vipers who warned you to flee the wrath to come. Sometimes we have a tendency to think of meek as weak. Anything but. Meek is humble but resolved. Humble but uncompromising with truth. Humble but bold for the Lord. Humble but strong. Full of strength. That's John the Baptist. Uncompromising and bold. Resolute even to his death. That's biblical meekness. Blessed are the meek. That's John the Baptist. So what purpose? What was the purpose for which he was sent as a herald, as an emissary? Go to the blind and point blind people to the light. And we see his ministry laid out for us in verse 7. But now think about this before we go on to verse 7. Think about for a moment the utter tragedy of this. This is tragic. This is absurd. It is a travesty. The very source of life and light having come into the world on all men. The very source of life. The very source of light and men love the darkness more than the light. Isn't that absurd? All that we know of who Christ is. All that we know of what Christ has done he is yours and mine. He is our creator. He knit us together in our mother's womb. He made us. Created us. Created everything that we see and yet men love the darkness more than the light. It is tragic. So God knowing this sends Moses sends the prophets. God sending Moses and the prophets sends Stephen and Stephen says in Acts 7, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised and heart-near. You blind people which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute and they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one. Sent Stephen to prophesy to them in Isaiah 6. God sends the prophet Isaiah to blind people.  People in Isaiah 6 who hear but do not understand, who see but do not perceive.  He says there they have eyes and they don't see. They're blind, right? They have ears and they don't hear.  So he sends Ezekiel. He sends Ezekiel to those he calls an impudent, hard-hearted and rebellious people in Ezekiel chapter 2.  Prophet after prophet after prophet witness after witness, God sends the rich man, cries out to Abraham, Abraham send Lazarus back from the dead to my five brothers that they might, you know, avoid this place of torment that I find myself in. And Abraham responds, listen, if they don't hear Moses and the prophets, if they can't see that light, if they can't be pointed to the light by Moses and the prophets, then they're not going to be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead. And so what does God do? God rises someone from the dead. He condescends himself. He preceded by a great prophet, preceded by a forerunner, John the Baptist. God himself enters the stage of human history, wrapped in flesh. Stepping out of glory, coming in great humiliation, the life and the light of men performing miracles, living sinlessly, forgiving men of their sins. And so what do men do who love their darkness more than that light? They chop off the head of the forerunner and they crucify the light. That's what men do. And he is raised from the dead. What do they do after he's raised from the dead? Those that believe preach. Those that believe go, sent from God to blind men. But those that are in darkness they huddle in their darkness. They love the darkness more than they love the light. They come into the light, their deeds are going to be exposed. You and I have done no better outside of Christ. We've done no better.  We deserve judgment.  And we rejected and rejected just like those Israelite stiff-necked, uncircumcised and heart and ears blind. Consider the light that you've been given. Consider how outside of Christ we loved the darkness. Loved our own sin. If you're here today and you're outside of Christ, this is you. Considering all that Christ has done, you have loved your darkness. You've loved more. You're drinking. You're partying. You're sleeping around.  You're angry.  You couldn't care less about the way that you've neglected Christ.     You don't care about his life. You don't really care about the fact that he died. You're not really that concerned about living for him. You don't really care at all that whether he's going to be in heaven or not when you think you're going to get there. All because you loved your darkness.   Outside of Christ men are God haters and the tragedy of all this it's absurd. Men are so depraved, so blind, so darkened in their heart and their understanding that at the same time the infinitely bright shining radiance of God's glory in the sun in all its brilliance shines. We still need someone to come along grab us by the arm and point us to the light. Outside of Christ you are wicked, so unrighteous. You're going to stand before a holy and righteous God. You'll stand before Jesus Christ, the righteous who will judge you judge the living and the dead at his appearing and your sin has left you under judgment. The verdict is death and the sentence is hell. So what is your greatest need this morning? Do you know what it is? God does. God knows what it is and God in stark contrast we are so blind we can't see the light God continues to send witnesses of the light. Think about the astounding grace and mercy and patience of God reaching out when you don't deserve it reaching out when you deserve hell and in mercy sending witnesses sending his son and meeting our greatest need. Do you know what the name John means? The name John means gift of God is gift of God John the messenger John was a gift of God a gift of God's mercy and grace to blind people who need the light God's gift to you is sending someone with the gospel to point you to the light. He sent John 2,000 years ago to say behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is the Son of God, God in the flesh Lord over all. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary he lived a perfect sinless life suffered under Pontius Pilate he was crucified bearing the sins of wicked sinners in his body on the tree he died and was buried three days later God raised him from the dead he had conquered death he proved that his perfect sacrifice was acceptable to atone for sinners he satisfied the perfect justice and perfect wrath of a perfect almighty God he gave his only hope his own the hope of resurrection from the dead and now he has bodily ascended into heaven sits at the right hand of the Father reigns and rules victorious making intercession for his people and from there he will one day very soon return in judgment to judge the living and the dead at his appearing John the evangelist and John the Baptist both were sent with the purpose that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ you may have life in his name and John sends you and I with the same purpose to blind people pointing them to the light that if they'll believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God they might have life in his name that light that believing is saving faith in Christ saving faith in Christ comes when God causes you to be born again of his spirit your eyes are open to your wicked condition you see the filth of your own sin the majesty of God you mourn your sinful and helpless condition before him it's a belief, it's a saving faith that results in a hatred for sin a love for Christ and a hungering and a thirsting for righteousness it is a heart change within you that you couldn't have wrought yourself that produces a lasting commitment a lasting devotion moving from reliance upon ourselves to reliance upon him alone it is both trusting in him alone for salvation and trusting yourself to him alone in all things turning from your sin is genuine repentance agreeing with God in the mind about the wickedness of your sin and that God would be right to punish you right to send you to hell for all eternity and you become as a result of that poor in spirit and the bible says blessed are the poor in spirit that's not simply happy that means saved and rejoicing blessed are those who are poor in spirit repentance involves grieving over your sin because you know how your sin offends God and the bible says blessed are those who mourn repentance involves mourning that results in a deep humbling of yourself before God blessed are the meek and resolving and determining in your will to forsake all sin blessed are those who hunger thirst for righteousness and those who turn from sin turn from idols to serve the true and living God when you repent and believe in the gospel the lord radically changed your life you become a new creation in Christ you're not the same person any longer the bible says and now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation repent and believe in the gospel for my brothers and sisters if you're in Christ here today this is an example of your charge you're to go to the blind as John did you're to speak of the light so we'll see next week and you're to stand for the truth John chapter 17 verse 18 Jesus says as you sent me into the world father I also have sent them into the world Jesus Christ sends you and I in John chapter 20 verse 21 Jesus says again as the father has sent me I also send you as a Christian you are sent from God and you are given the responsibility of speaking pointing bearing witness to the light that through you as through John the Baptist all might believe so are you really going to hoard your light under a bushel you as a Christian are a city that is set on a hill that cannot be hidden you're in Christ exercise your faith how strong is your faith exercise your faith go to the blind preach Christ do you believe like John the Baptist do you believe like Elijah do you believe like Malachi do you believe like Hosea do you believe like Ezekiel do you believe like Paul do you believe like the disciples exercise your faith go to the blind and point them to the light that's our mission God sends us and God promises to send you in power it's often times that you must exercise your faith in order to experience that power from God exercise your faith and see God come through in Christ for you exercise your faith in obedience to the Lord and the Lord will help Lord promises to be with you even to the end of the age but it takes an exercising of your faith how strong is your faith sometimes people view faith as this ethereal sort of otherworldly untouchable kind of thing but we're commanded in Scripture to exercise faith in Christ to place our faith and trust in him and to do what he has called us to do the fruit of that will be someone who believes Christ and follows Christ Amen let's pray Father in heaven we're thank you for your word God thank you, thank you Lord testimony of John testimony of John the evangelist about John the Baptist and what a great example we have in Scripture of meekness faithfulness we've seen many concepts so far in John chapter 1 from light and darkness the word there's attributes of God that we see in Christ Jesus our Lord today this attribute or this keyword of witness what it means to be a witness and I will tell you in that and Lord find us faithful God find us exercising our faith because you are worthy God find us exercising our faith for the glory of God to see you exalted where we want Christ to have the full reward of his suffering and we your children believe you take you at your word Lord that you save sinners you came into the world to save sinners and in desiring all men to be saved you send witness after witness after witness to point blind men to the dark what great grace what great mercy is that God and Lord you continue to send your people to witness to blind people of the light and I pray God that we be faithful to do that faithful as John was for your glory God we thank you Lord for the blessing of being able to do that thank you Lord for the gift of faith and repentance glorify yourself God in the faith repentance of your people the obedience of your people the labor of your people God and glorify yourself in giving your people fruit for their labors for your great namesake that you may be exalted you may be made famous among the gentiles that you may be worshiped praised, honored, glorified magnified for all eternity by redeemed saints worshiping you in heaven we love you Lord in Jesus name


okay guys here's a short for you I still got five or six more things to do yet got to put the Santa Claus out and the Christmas tree got some snowman over there I need to put out I've been on this for 11 hours I think so I put the star up on the roof it was right there right in the center of the screen last year but this year I put it on the roof I'll explain more about that later so thanks for watching guys stay tuned there'll be another video to come


Morning everybody. So the goal of the 10-year plan is to keep rates predictable obviously to keep them down as much as we possibly can but also to to bring in some stability and predictability for rate payers whether they're residential commercial or or industrial. To accomplish that government will direct the BC Utilities Commission to set rate increases for the initial two years of the 10-year plan. First year is 9%, the second year is 6%. The Commission will set the increases for the following three years but they'll do so within capped rates for those for years 3, 4, and 5. Year 3 is 4%, goes to 3, 3.5%, and then in the fifth year it's 3%. In the final five years of the plan rates will be set by the BC UC and the actions by BC Hydro and Government that Charles and I have described here today will ensure that increases remain low and predictable. The existing 5% rate writer will remain in place over the course of this plan. The cumulative increase over the first two years of the plan is significantly reduced from the previously forecast increase, forecasted increase of 26.4%. This has an impact on customers. We're aware obviously that we need to keep rates down as much as possible for all classes of rate payers. For the residential rate payer a 9% rate increases about $8 a month. For the small commercial customer a 9% rate increase, average bill increases about $20 a month. We're particularly focused on the impact on the large industrial users. There are there are a few users in BC that use an enormous amount of electricity and rate increases for them can be very difficult to manage. A 9% increase results in an average bill increase on the industrial side of about on the heavy industrial side of about $139,000 per month for those customers. So we're doing additional work around the industrial customer base to reduce their their power usage and help them minimize the impact of that rate increase.


I appreciate how you're here today, got a lot to cover. I've talked to these two gentlemen and I'm going to kind of give them some guidelines but let them run from there. They know this doesn't matter very much and the rest of us will go jump in. First thing you're going to talk about is just the momentum. Economic development announcement, Scout, FN, Purpose Solutions, Pure Power. Starting with Chairman Walker, tell me a little bit about how you're trying to leverage the momentum, be selective, but also knowing that some of these are going to take a couple years to get built out and not pass it over to the opportunities that are moving themselves now. We're making, let me just begin. By the way, can everyone hear me clearly? Let me just begin by saying thank you to the Chamber for the invitation, for having me this morning. Thank you, Mayor Rickman, for being willing to have me sit next to you for what's going to be, I think, a really good conversation. And also I'm going to shout out Susan McPherson because she is the only person in all of South Carolina who could get me anywhere before eight o'clock in the morning. The last time I made it anywhere prior to eight o'clock I was in law school but Susan also happens to be a constituent so I cannot tell her no. And please remember that come on June 2024, a primary season, okay? But what I would tell you all is that the county has had momentum for quite some time in the area of economic development and I think you have to go back prior to my time over at some county council. Beginning in 2012, the council commissioned the Richie County Economic Development Office and Jeff Rubel heads up that office and the approach, if you will, to economic development for quite some time has been buying product, finding sites, finding land, industrial parks, what have you with the aim of attracting investment. That's the one of the ways that we've sort of been able to maneuver or work around some of the challenges or hurdles that our tax structure presents. And so if you look at the run that we've been on, especially for the past five years, it's been a rather impressive run. It's been historic. Between 2012 and 2023, if you include Scout, we've seen about $4 billion in capital investment. If you include Scout as far as the number of jobs, that's approximately 15,000 jobs created during that period. If you just look at the last, say, three to four years between 2020 and 2023, the lion's share of the investment has come during that time. Nearly talking close to $3 billion in investment and nearly 7,000 jobs created. Again, that's if you include the $2 billion investment from Scout along with the 4,000 jobs that are expected. So we've had this momentum going for quite some time. I've been told that if it ain't broke, excuse the back language, bad English rather, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And so the approach we've taken, it has yielded positive results. We've been able to grow the tax base, we've been able to create jobs, we've been able to improve our infrastructure, we've been able to increase the value of the mill, which is very important when you start talking about the military and making sure that we can pay for services of a growing county without having to raise taxes. So that is what we've been doing, making as far as just trying to build on that momentum. Great, and they recommend, tell us a little bit about your thoughts on this process. How involved you were with your sat-student leverage spending on the city standpoint? Well, first of all, he's being very modest. A lot of these deals that you see before going on right now, would not happen if it wasn't for his leadership. I can say that because I sit next to him in a lot of meetings. And how someone works with a business community, how they help recruit, and Scout wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the efforts of the chairman and Jeff Ruble. The city had obviously a major role because without water and sewer, that project wouldn't happen either. So working together to make it possible was incredible. But I think one of the things that we're forgetting to talk about here, too, is we named all the major players. But just in the last 16 months, we've had close to 1,300 new small businesses open. Just here in the city, and I know the county has a whole stack as well, people are moving here and taking opportunities. They feel the momentum. They see what's happening around them, and they want to be part of it. And so we've got to remember the backbone of this community, why we're excited that Scout's going to be here, and it's going to help spin off some smaller spiderweb businesses, much like we saw in the upstate. You know, there are over 500 companies in the automotive industry in South Carolina. We're going to add a whole lot more right here in the Netherlands. But the investment of the small businesses here is the backbone of this community and has been for the Netherlands for a long time. And I think we're also starting to get the recognition as a region that we haven't seen before. And I was at the U.S. Conference of Mayors the other weekend. In Columbia, South Carolina, as a city and as a region, got more national play in that three-day period without any of us pushing it. People talking about the things that we are doing here in our community in the region. They talked about the economic growth in the region from Scout. They brought up White Claw. They talked about other, even projects that aren't even supposed to be public, people were talking about. But they were also talking about that we're gaining our reputation of being business-friendly in a center in a capital city. And I think those things are important as we continue to grow. As we move these barriers and the hurdles out of the way to grow these small businesses, I think we're going to see more growth in our community. I mean, this is the land of opportunity right here in Columbia, South Carolina. Speaking of you, Mary, I know when you started serving your first term, a big initiative was that this is certainly permitting all those items being taken into account. What kind of reception have you seen from that? Are you getting positive feedback? Do you feel like the staff has adapted to the change you're making? I think that what we're seeing in so far is that people are grasping to what we're doing. You know, we start taking, you know, sewer expansion fees away and opening up the opportunity for somebody to get into a space much cheaper and an opportunity where we're making it easier, having more meetings. We're having less zoning, those meetings that we've ever had before because changing the code, changing the processes made it easier for things to happen at the staff level. Even in the technology, the training and frankly the autonomy to do their job has made things much swifter. And I think that's why we're seeing the impact that we're seeing on the small businesses, the business license. So that's the best way to look at it. We also look at, you know, last year in 22, we did almost a billion dollars in permitting for upfits and new construction. And that was done very quietly. But it was done because we're getting there. We're getting to the point where it's much easier for people to get there. And I think the staff has embraced it. Ayesha Griggers, our head of OVO is in here. Ayesha, raise your hand. She's back there. She's seeing the influence. She's doing an incredible job about outreach. And Ryan Coleman is in here somewhere. I mean, we are economic development. We just brought on Spencer Green to help us with the real estate to really help us when we're out there recruiting. We want to fill every space. And when I say the land of opportunity and why it's important to have that reputation of business friendly business, next time you go downtown, go to the Capital City Club and look out all four of those windows. And what you'll see is a lot of parking lots across our city. Those all could be filled with people living and working downtown in Columbia, South Carolina. Great. Thank you. Thank you both. Staying on that subject and talking about road development and job opportunities. Both of you spoke publicly about the imminent need for affordable or poor housing. We just want to touch on that. How do you all collaborate?  They need, you know, both of your men. And not all cases, but if there's something that crosses the city's limits, see both of your clients and talk about it a little bit. Sure. Well, I'll take that question. So the county, at least up until, I would say this year, really was not in the affordable housing game, to be quite honest with you. But back in 2022, we agreed and adopted a strategic plan. And so to make sure that we're not a run-aless council and that we have priorities that we want to, you know, set as well as meet, we actually decided that we were to include what we call inclusive and equitable growth. That's part of the strategic plan. And part of that included affordable housing. When we received, I believe it was, $80 million in ARPA funds or American Rescue Plan, that dollars from the federal government, $4 million of that was set aside for affordable housing. Another $2 million was set aside to address homelessness as well. And I'm aware that Greenville, I believe, has resorted to using economic development as a tool for trying to expand affordable housing or workforce housing. I believe they use a special source revenue credit if I'm not mistaken, but they kind of dangle that out there in an effort to entice developers to include workforce or affordable units. But I think economic development, you kind of stand along that line, going beyond incentives. It's about creating jobs that pay a little bit of wage as well. I think it can't just be, well, let's see if we can build, and I'll use this term loosely, but cheap housing. Because I think that's what people tend to think of the status stigma that's associated with affordable housing. But how can we make housing more accessible? And so I think one of the best housing programs you can have is a jobs program. When you bring in jobs that pay a little bit of wage, that allows someone to be able to afford the home of their choice, but I think they have to walk and chew gum at the same time. So as they're trying to increase jobs that pay a little bit of wage, you also entice developers to create what we would call a workforce housing or affordable housing units. I would tell you that we need 16,000, almost 17,000 units of housing. We've got 5,000 plus people waiting right now for assisted housing in the marketplace. So yes, we've had a lot of conversations because there's a lot of pressure to create a housing trust fund. When you build a housing trust fund, you've got to have a way to fund it long-term, not short-term, because that money will disappear very quickly. So two things that we looked at in the survey, what are our true needs? We bring them embarked on this. It was a very interesting conversation because 85% of their future needs aren't around single-family homes. It's around party flexes, duplexes, town homes, and condominiums. And why is that? Because we have an aging population. The majority of folks that are looking for future housing are going to be baby boomers, single mothers of their kids at home, which is a very large category that we don't talk about a lot. There are millions that just want minimal space and they want to be out of access to come and go. But how do we do that? Well, we have real need for class A office space in Columbia. People are downsizing, but they want quality. So we've got to create incentives. How do we convert those B and C office spaces into housing that's affordable, creating that workforce housing, keeping people downtown? Because the more density we have downtown, the more opportunity we have and even if we get 15 million visitors but only 5 million spend the night, we've got to have reasons to have people here and density of life is part of that. And we need to build on the momentum we have. I think the other part is that we're going to have to do some creative things. In Charlotte, North Carolina a group of hedge fund, the ex-hedge fund guys got together and created a, I guess you would call a financial plan to attack affordable housing. I'm going up there in a couple weeks to sit down with these folks and they're willing to share the plan with us. They don't want to be the investors but they want to give us the roadmap. The entire plan on how you can build a reoccurring fund and make it what they have done and realize that to attack affordable housing and truly bring attainable opportunities within the community. You've got to have a sustainable model and it has to be a business model. It can't be a subsidy model. It can't be a model that's dependent on what administration is in the office. And so I'm very excited to see what they've done and how they do it. But we're innovating. And I want to give a call to my counterpart, because we talk all the time about what we can do together, how to tackle these issues and housing is one of them because there's crossover. And I mentioned earlier we have a lot of pressure around housing trust fund. But Chairman Walker and I both know that if we put $10 million in a housing fund the five projects that are floating around there right now will feed that up right now because they average about $2.1 million each when gap financing that they need to keep it at that level downtown. That's not a sustainable model. So we've got to be creative and I think this is where the business community and the opportunity and the relationships that we have with other communities we can take what's worked and bring it here and address the issue. But it is a major issue for us and it's not getting easier to tackle and you're going to have to tackle it sooner than later. The city is part of that is taking every residential model it has and we're putting it out there. We're putting in infrastructure and we're working with developers to build those houses and put those back out in the market. We're also consolidating and evaluating every piece of property that we have. We're going to use those properties that we're no longer using or don't have a need for is incentive for housing and business. We're going to approach the state. I'm going to go on record we are approaching the state because if the state is going to continue to move things out of the city all that property for us to use is economic development incentive not only for business recruitment but for housing. DHEC leaves this campus. Think about how many downtown affordable attainable housing structures we could build that would build up our density would help us with our food desert help us with our workforce needs and allow us to detract more and more. We are the capital city. Speaking of the bridge gap financing, I saw something in the news last night about a $50 million project proposed for North Main Street and up for incentives. Is that something that is under under consideration for both of you all? For which project? We've got some meeting coming through again. I think it might have been a challenge. So we're working with them at the city level because the part of their structure they got a kind of complicated structure and there's some HUD financing. I think Steve Middleton is the developer of that project he's out of Virginia, he's got a very good track record. I think it's going to be the first step we need projects like that to jump start. I mean when you look at that stretch North Main, how many places in America can you go to that somebody has an opportunity to buy on Main Street that's affordable and build something you can walk out and point at the state house. I challenge you there's not many places. That is the land of opportunity. We need that first step to show people that there's a path and a willing way to do that. I think a lot of their base is looking for, we're working together along with I think Mayor Covell is in here from NPC. Mayor excuse me, they're changing and they're here with us to help the county and the city come up with a standard and send them. It wouldn't be a chamber event if we were to talk about tax monetization and I know that Chairman Ballard, that you your council has rejected the last two gun conditions and reasons to keep that in line and obviously they're going to put the tax monetization in the place, it's got that other way. Where to go from here? How are you all collaborating? When will the state get involved with the delegation? I just love to meet you all and possibly work out where you see that going. Is it just two minutes? You've got 27 more minutes before you go to the court. Well, it's an important issue. So, taxes, I find myself asking if taxes will ever be low enough and I don't ask that question sarcastically but you live in a state where we have some of the lowest income taxes. We have some of the lowest sale taxes. We have some of the lowest or occupied taxes and you got Act 388 which then exempts additional properties from tax rolls. And then the governor recently signed in 2022 that was the comprehensive tax reduction which effectively brought the assessment ratio from 9% to 6% for manufacturing. And we still hear that taxes are too high. And so that's why I asked myself the question do we ever reach a point where we feel that taxes are low enough? Yes. I think two things can be true at once. With respect to the tax structure being a barrier or a challenge to growth at least in the county's vantage point that has not been the case. You've heard me rattle off some of the statistics over the past decade as far as the county has been able to accomplish in the area of economic development but also understand that for investment properties and commercial properties that don't qualify for many of those incentives that don't qualify in the county industrial park incentive. They don't qualify for the special source revenue credit. They don't qualify for the fee of a little tax. I understand that taxes can be a challenge because the mayor and I we've been having those conversations. We'll continue to have conversations. As far as the tax monetization study I certainly believe that it is a good faith effort to make us more competitive from a tax standpoint when you start talking about non-owner-occupied properties or investment properties and the like that does present some challenges for the county. I would say keep in mind that the county has not yet commissioned a study. The study was commissioned by the city. The mayor has been more than generous with his time in sharing that with us. We've had multiple conversations about it. We've he's met with me as well as the auditor, the treasurer, the county administrator. There's going to be another roundtable discussion but the challenges presented to us as a county is that it would require us to, I guess, implement, if you will, some rather obviously austere measures when it requires you to actually scale back on spending and any revenues you see from new growth as well as additional revenues from spending cuts that would go into an S4 account to then eventually pay for any sort of reduction in the assessment ratio. And so with the county that's growing and with the county council that we're already running on a pretty tight budget. Currently the county has a triple A credit rating. The county has received numerous awards for being fiscally prudent and what have you but that's because we are on a very tight budget and so any funds that we actually, I guess any surplus revenues, if you will that usually goes into fund balance and that fund balance is used for purposes of our credit rating so in the event we have to borrow say for major projects we make sure we get the lowest interest rates. The other piece of this is the county we do have a lot of major projects that are going to be coming up pretty soon. We've got the 911 emergency services that's a 40 million dollar bond we have to take out. We're going to have to pay for that. We've got the family services center that's when these unfunded state mandates. There are certain state agencies that the county is required to provide facilities for without any assistance from the state. That's going to run us nearly 40 million dollars. We also have the jail that we're still dealing with. That's going to run us approximately 25 million dollars and then we're talking about a new courthouse as well. Not sure last time any of you have been to 1701 Main Street but it's we can do better to say that we're the capital city and the courthouse ought to be one of our proud jewelers with respect to being a county building and unfortunately it's not. That's going to run us nearly 200 million and so at this point I believe in the county that we anticipate is any, I guess, revenues that we may see from future growth. Yes, we will continue to use those funds to increase our fund balance but at the same time we're going to have to use those funds to pay for major projects that will be coming down the pipeline. So the banner now we will continue to have conversations. We're going to talk about tax modernization. I think it's going to be coming upon the county at some point to at least have our own study commission and one that takes into account our ability to generate revenue to provide, to make sure that the agencies that we fund continue to provide the vital services that many of our residents need often tell people, you know the city is a corporation but the county is a conglomerate. We just don't have Richland County government that we take into account for purposes of funding. We've got the school district, free school district we've got Midlands Technical College we've got the library, we've got the zoo, we've got Columbia area middle health, we've got Richland County Recreation Commission and that's before you get to the Sheriff's Department which comprises a third of the budget, the coroner's office the solicitor's office the clerk of court and so on. So I think before the county can go down the road of committing to, I guess, Tinkering if you will with the assessment ratios or doing anything that could impact our revenues, we'd have to ensure at least commission study that takes into account our needs as well as our ability to generate the revenues to provide for those agencies which in turn provide, you know, to central services for our residents. Thank you. Very good. Well, you know, we've been meeting and I'll have to disagree with my colleague here on the approach because the study actually does show us as a whole as a county and it accounts for the growth. We've been living off one and a half percent growth for over a decade so it's a historical. When we put this plan together the plan was over a ten year period so the first two years and we can set the growth rate and we have the ability to set the growth rate where we need to but we've accounted for all these things in the past we can account for them in the future but long term the play here is to reduce our taxes because we're on average 34 percent more expensive than any other city in South Carolina. Charleston is 48 percent less than we are Greenville's 38 percent less than so when we talk about funding agencies and this and that part of the issue here is that we've allowed the agencies to benefit from the value of the millage and not capture that for other uses as well. I'll give you an example the school board asked for a funding and millage increase this year well you know just the value of the millage was going to give them close to 14 million dollars without even having to ask. So we've got to truly analyze those costs and looking at the revenue in the future growth we lower taxes and build up the tax base it's going to far exceed any money that somebody may lose you're not going to lose money when you're talking about lowering a quarter percent of the tax structure over a 10 year period it really happens the first two years kind of caps we created a financial bridge a reserve fund to protect us from anything moving forward we put a floor in there we don't see the growth that we know we have to stop it we build in a floor to that but when you look at it over a course of the period what makes us competitive right now every big business is getting an incentive but 98% of the businesses around here are small businesses they're not getting that and so we've got to do something you can't talk about affordable housing if you're not talking about taxes because the renters are paying the property tax right now the average collection is three and a half months of the collective rent is what goes to pay for the taxes this is huge when you start talking about competitiveness look we're fighting landlords every day we're absentee landlords that aren't putting money back in how are we going to create a competitive nature that people can't come here we can't build 300-unit apartment complexes at the 10 of 80 to 120 million dollars everywhere we need the ability for folks to build small individual units for people to be able to have those secondary properties and I want to give you an example what the delta is here we've got a house that's assessed at $580,000 in the city they're paying around $4200 a year the same building on the commercial side is paying close to $16,000 a year that's money that's not going back in to cover employee health plans to grow that's what's keeping us from growing is that competitive and I know the county doesn't hear it as much as we do but it is a huge huge issue for the small businesses even for larger investments we had $60 million a project coming in that would provide apartments in an area where we needed help the same project agreement will cost them on a tax structure roughly around $3200 a unit here would be $5,000 in the best based on what the assessor was providing we don't have a choice but to address this issue we have an avenue with the legislature to do it the state legislature is willing to help us and create an opt-in program but what we have to do with the county is build a pathway and show what the true effect is we're not talking about going from 6 to 4 in year 1, we're talking about over a 10 year period slowly building in so that we can recruit and build we have over 100 people in the tax modernization meeting and I simply ask these are folks from all over the southeast, I said if we implemented a plan like this would you invest today or would you wait till the year 10 hands raised up they would start investing today because they know the path well we need these type of investors to grow and at the same time we need to have the ability to support the small business growth when you got folks calling you so I'll give you an example who owns a pizza place out in the northeast his base ram is $22 square foot, the time he repensiles at the end of the year is $36 square foot, where do you think that money is coming from? That's coming from his bottom line, any of those that have been in the restaurant business it's a middle business folks we need to protect every pin and the increase in costs for supply and demand today insurance, gas, utilities and then taxes, we have the ability to levelize these taxes by working together and budgeting yes, there's going to have to be some budgeting but we've already done it at 1.5% growth so we can make it 2% growth and we account for the future needs but for everybody coming down with Scout, everything else think about if there's not a better opportunity to do it, I don't know when there is and there's a way to protect us but we have to sit down and do it and we can't look at it as zoom state of the day I've heard folks say well the school district needs more money the school district has more money than most school districts in the state I have to tighten my bell every year and so should other folks we've got to work together but if we don't fix it and we continue to grow and I will tell the population we've also sent it to the city in the city which is also in the county so that tells you there's some shifting going on we've got to think strategically about what our long term growth pattern is going to be and how we're going to compete because when we talk about taxes corporate taxes, you talk about income taxes, our neighboring states have been lowering corporate tax, property tax for the last decade there's a reason why Raleigh is at 12.5% growth there's a reason why the bedroom community is around Charlotte and other places going there's a reason why the state of Georgia is going at the rate it is we have all the aspects for quality of life and everything but this is a major component that we have to address and there's a way to do it and we've talked a lot about getting back in the room and saying let's come up with something that makes sense not only for the small guys but for the future investors that keeps us competitive because the midlands has more opportunity than any part of the state that's why Scouts here we've got a built in workforce we have three major highways we have a quality of life we have things that other communities dream about we've had the reputation of being business unfriendly and tax heavy and part of this is we've got to look internally we've got to understand the value of our millage rates we need to work together to do things and I brought it up before and I'll bring it up again I support the zoos growth but I don't support it with property tax I want to support it with hospitality and accommodations tax because that's why those taxes are in place we need to understand the value we need to make sure that when we're moving forward that when someone asks us for a millage rate or a bonding capacity like the library did years ago we need to make sure that we're capping it at that value and that growth goes back to the county so that they can continue to move things forward and take care of these problems so yes I believe there's a path yes there is support for but it's incumbent on all of us to show support and hear their voices that this is a major issue for our region making it if I may I just want to add to what the mayor has said I think it's important for everyone in this room to know that the county has not raised its millage in over five years as well as the county council has not raised the school districts millage in I want to say in almost five six years now and that has a lot to do with the concerns that we've heard about our taxes in the county but it also as I said to the media when a request comes before me I have to reconcile the needs of that agency with the bandwidth of residents to absorb a tax so I just want to be very clear about that that we have not increased the millage for the county's general fund nor for the school districts going on almost five, six years now I think another piece that's oftentimes excluded from the conversation about taxes is property values because when you look at how a tax bill is calculated you've got fair market value you've got the assessment ratio and then you've got the millitrate and your property value or total assessed property value in a county that is what would drive the millitrate oftentimes in Richmond County the value of the mill in my most recent conversation with the auditor was 1.8 million so pretty much the mill would generate 1.8 million in our property tax revenue then when we get to Charleston the value of the mill there is approaching 5 million so they're able to charge or assess a much lower millitrate or fewer mills generate more revenue from services that are needed while at the same time more in the tax bill so in some ways it's not a fair comparison and what drives the property values in Charleston has a lot to do with all the multi-billion dollar properties that they have there they lead a half thousand in Richmond County we may have a few hundred and you look at Greenville they have over 600 manufacturers we don't have anything close to that in Richmond County so we're on the right path the mayor and I will continue to have very candid conversations about this his heart is in the right place my heart is in the right place but I'm also realistic about the challenges while we're in the position that we are when it comes to taxes it's not because of profit government spending at the local level it has more so to do with value of properties in Richmond County we would be juxtaposed with property values in Charleston versus property values in Greenville thank you a few more minutes I'll let you go first since you have a hard stop we will continue to want to sell a little more time it's something that's here in your community to track the businesses that's the public safety and health services issues the mayor he's not just today I'll let you start I'll tell you then the mayor so make him tell me what's the question I'm just talking about the status of public safety how are you involved in your staff with PTO and officers on payroll all the well the mayor I would say probably more directly involved with public safety than I am because he has a police chief that reports to him whereas I don't have the sheriff doesn't report for Richmond County council the sheriff is a constitutional elected office he runs the office just like I do and he is beholden to the voters and not Richmond County council you fund the sheriff's department I know for county council we take a pretty comprehensive approach of you when it comes to public safety it's not just the sheriff's department it's EMS it's the solicitor's office it's the coroner's office as well and so when I get asked questions what is your perspective for public safety in the county or if you think the county is safe or not you refer to the folks with such amount of expertise which would be the sheriff which would be the solicitor but if you would ask me the anecdotal sense no I don't feel unsafe in my own county I mean I've lived here for I'm 42 years old I've been here since 1986 1987 how many years that is but I do recognize that there are communities that are unsafe there are communities that are dealing with gun violence they are not just sat on a panel together with NAACP this past Sunday talking about that issue games I know in certain communities are an issue as well as illegal drugs so we know that crime is an issue in Richardson County it's a problem nationwide but what we try to do is make sure that we support the sheriff's department we support the solicitor's office we support EMS we support the coroner's office we ensure that there is adequate funding I think I said earlier the sheriff's department comprises nearly a third of the entire county budget well county budget for fiscal year 24 is just over 200 million so you all do the math on that and you can sort of glean from there county council is committed to public safety but I don't think it's sufficient to be I guess tough if you will you gotta get tough on the cause of the crime and I think the best anti-crime program goes back to economic development it's a jobs program I think if you can put people to work engage in workforce development make sure they have educational resources there provide the jobs pay a livable wage people less likely to be involved in criminal conduct children who grow up in homes economically stable less likely to be involved in criminal activity or behavior that's the approach of county council it's taking to make sure that we're paying our deputies well in fact we allocated three million dollars out of our funds to increase pay for our entire public safety apparatus two million of that will go towards the sheriff to the solicitous office Richland county EMS I think some will go to the coroner's office as well we also are implementing a four percent cost of limit adjustment for this upcoming fiscal year that would be the second cost of limit adjustment well for all of our county employees but the sheriff's department and other public safety agencies that would be twice now over the course of one year and so those are the things that we're doing to make sure that our community is safe and that it remains right for economic development and that we have a community that where people feel that they can safely live work and thrive thank you we'll say Paul for our mayor and our respondents and thank you chairman Walford for joining us today we'll be here on time thank you question but you can also focus on your press conference yesterday that should be put in place how does this popular population downtown take our view for the fiscal and see who's not just your head following the plan so you know public safety is the number one issue that we deal with everyday and I'll tell you every time I go to bed I hope that my phone doesn't ring because one of the things I'm scared about everyday in our community is somebody else being shot by our prime is as I said coming back from the U.S. conference of mayors there wasn't one conversation that we didn't have but believe it or not some of the policies and the things that we are trying in the community to make it natural one of the programs that was handed on in the mayors press conference I didn't know what was going to happen but they pulled Columbia South Carolina and talked about our handle with care it's our program where officers work with the school system to let them know that a child has been involved in a violent crime or seen it or been part of it in their neighbor so they can plan to have the counselors and everyone in there working with them to get there public safety we got a crisis folks on our police officers folks are not lining up to become police officers anymore we have a shortage so we're having to be creative because we can't continue to poach from each other in that area we can't have people going from the county back to the city and into the department of corrections we're just recycling so we're doing everything that we can today to recruit we've stabilized we've increased funding we've invested in technology and training we're using a lot of technology but we're also bringing in private security to help to handle property crime for us false alarm calls things like that so that our officers can't focus but there are more tools out there for us to use that we can keep our officers focused on major crimes speed cameras and red light cameras you don't think it's a big deal but an average officer when he shows up to an accident it's an hour and a half of this day so if we can eliminate that think about the time and it's different the sheriff doesn't have to deal with accidents he doesn't have to deal with homeless he can focus on crime our guys spend downtown corridor and this is why we're looking at private security to take a role in it so we took the hotspots 911 and looked at 70% of our calls in that area have to do with paid crime drunkenness addiction problems property crimes we're sending multiple resources so we have to deal with the hotspots but we have to invest so we're announcing in the next two weeks we're bringing forth candidates for the office of violence prevention to have a quarterback somebody who's got a long history in this field to work with our youth bring all these groups together to start to help do the three things we know so we know people places and behavior it's about 1% square mile distance of our community and focus on those hotspots so we can put in prevention intervention and law enforcement putting crisis teams we've hired five pathway units these folks are clinicians they come through the department of health they'll work with our officers to deal with the crisis both in our unsheltered population and our non-population we're building up crisis teams to work to start to get into their friendship but we also have another challenge our judicial system is not working for us folks the 11 kids who were shot the shooters that already been arrested three times in a 60 day period before that with the good and unlawful weapon it is a revolving door we can't get our neighborhoods to support our police department because they're afraid that those people by the weekend will be back in their neighborhoods we've got to change the narrative and by doing that by continuing to invest in our of course try unique recruiting but addressing the problem working with our communities changing our conditions livable conditions we can't go back in our neighborhoods I spent the weekend this weekend riding around I rode 278 miles across the city I went to every neighborhood that was in the city of Columbia just to see what's going on what are the kids doing what are our neighborhoods doing what are the challenges that we need to be looking at real time challenges we're investing in lighting fixing our sidewalks cleaning up things like limbs those are safety issues that create but we got to get our community together back to clean up we're tackling our landlords and I say this because our most vulnerable population has been left with nobody fighting for the Columbia apartment had 157 calls for service last year and we all know what we've heard about the crime and the shootings but what you don't know what you may not know is that during Christmas for four days an entire community had no heat and no water and the only reason any of us find out about it is because somebody got shot and killed and when the police arrived the neighbors started talking they felt so we need them like their neighbor's leaders so yes we're fighting with HUD we're suing the owners we're doing everything we can to go after because we've got to change the conditions and that's part of why tax modernization is important we need people making investments and new quality housing so that we can put people in the housing we need to show people how they can get into home ownership and cost out situations we don't need 300 unit apartment complexes we need smaller unit singles we need our community to work together with us is this a community issue volunteering and being in people's lives every day not just showing up once a month and then going to church on Sunday and Saturday there's groups like pray columbia and love columbia they're aligning up volunteers to make the effects of these communities so we're looking at this public safety from all angles it's about investing in our children in early prevention job creation we're working with Christy Savage we created a skilled working center now you can go get trained for HVAC and electrical work right here at our incubator we're building a neighborhood incubator in the Brooklyn Washington Heights civil place that the city's funding where neighborhood nonprofits and startups have the ability to have space when they have access to the internet and copiers of things so they can build up themselves and have an opportunity we're working with the state to get funding we've gotten close to four million dollars to build a community center in the gymnasium in a neighborhood that has nothing to give these kids an opportunity to be investing in our parks and our parks programs we're working with every opportunity there is out there so it's not just about police recruitment but it's also about working on the judicial system it's working about how we build up the quality of life for individuals with better housing showing people a path for opportunities creating more opportunities for kids we've got to show people that there's a different path than violence violence prevention should be our number one thing domestic violence at 31% on the internet shootings up 18% 118 shootings last year 93% of those shootings were young males within the ages of 18 and 20 there were more jobs available than there ever is but we've got to show people that they can get those jobs and show people how they do the interview how they prepare themselves to get those jobs so as we talk about public safety we're doing the things you all know about but there's a lot of things we're doing to change the opportunities out there and show people there's a different path so just remember prevention, intervention and law enforcement are three avenues and let's focus more on prevention and intervention then law enforcement because putting somebody in jail is not solving the problem either Thank you Mayor, we appreciate your time today right around the ball for Mayor


Welcome back to Tennis Talk, my name's Cam Williams and Alexander Zverev has just brought out some footage of him back on his feet After getting surgery on his ankle, which he of course hurt at the French open a couple months ago Let's go over and read some of the comments that Zverev had to say regarding his injury and when he's likely to come back Hey guys, uh, well, yeah, my surgery hopefully went well and, um Now it's gonna be a road back and hopefully I see you guys on the court Soon and I'm looking forward to being back. I miss tennis already. I miss the fans already and Yeah, we'll see we'll see how long it'll take me, but I'm excited about it So you have it that's what Zverev had to say about a month ago And then of course you can see there the footage of him outside of surgery and rehabilitation seems like he's doing okay now He wants to play the US Open which is coming up in about a month or two's time Which is probably a little bit earlier you would think especially Considering the severity of his injury, but he's being optimistic. He might be playing then But he's more likely I think to play in maybe October September October at the end of the year Maybe the Asian swing which he's done well out in the past But let me know down the comments below. Do you think Zverev is gonna play the US Open? Do you think he's gonna come back and be competitive? It's a pretty gnarly injury that he got a couple of months ago Of course at the French Open he rolled that ankle and he was in pain screaming on the ground Do you reckon he's gonna come back and if he does in the next couple of months? Do you think he's gonna be competitive against these guys that have been playing the last few months?


So in this video I'm talking about how to recover quicker. Now obviously the fitter you are the faster you're going to recover but there are a few things that everyone can do to recover quicker. So first of all being aware and actually focusing on recovery is going to give you an advantage right away. What do most players do when they get like this, they get tired, they get out of breath, they're panning, hands might go down in the knees, they just let the breath overtake them. They lose focus of what's going on on the field. Their body language is poor, they're on their heels, they're not ready to react.  So what you want to do instead is first of all be aware of your breath. Try to calm it down, try to slow it down.  You don't want to have super deep breaths, you want to have calm and controlled breaths. Now handling your breathing is one thing but guess what you can't take all this time to just focus on your breath, you still have to play the game. So while you're recovering first of all get yourself back into position, don't walk or don't jog back into your defensive space. If you know you should be there, get there first. Now you're set in position, focus on breathing but I'm also doing my job for the team. I'm in the right position, I'm focused on the play, I'm aware of my surroundings, I know where the ball is, where the opponents are, where my teammates are, where the space is, where the danger is, where the opportunities are, I'm aware. Okay, so breathing, staying alert, focus, stand up straight.  Even though you're gassed, you still may have to defend someone. You still may have to support the player, get forward to attack. So even though you're tired, you have to keep going. So stay focused, control your breath, good body language up straight. Again, if you're standing up straight, you're going to get more oxygen into your lungs as opposed to down here. Your body's compressed, make yourself nice and big, stand up straight, focus. Okay, and get yourself in the habit of still playing when you're tired. As I said, the game doesn't stop when you get tired. You have to keep going, so even though you're tired, focus on and ask yourself where should I be right now, what should I be doing if you have the ball? Focus on your quality and composure because when you get tired it's so easy to have sloppy touches to make mistakes and give the ball away. So focus on your recovery, breathing, body language, awareness, still focusing on the game, being ready to go at any moment, but bringing your heart rate back down to resting rate or as much as you can so you can go for another sprint and you can keep going.  So even though you're tired, when you get tired so many players say, oh man, I'm so tired, oh I'm just going to rest for a bit, oh no, I'm not going to track that guy, someone else will get him. Okay, you need to talk positively to yourself and your mind, you need to say, I'm tired but I'm going to keep going, I can do this, I can push through the pain, I can handle this, I'm better than this, I'm a beast, I won't stop, I'm unstoppable. Talk to yourself like that in your mind and you'll be able to push through the pain.


It is the night of our death, Saviour's birth, Long lay the world in sin and narrow Till he appeared and the soul felt its woe A three rejoices for you, a new and glorious morn The skies are brightly shining sea and the soul felt its woe


Howdy! This is Mitch Mitchell and this is my backyard and you probably won't believe this but it's rare that I come into the backyard. Matter of fact I think last year I might have come into the backyard three times once to fix something that was on the house and the other two times just to walk around outside and see if things were going okay. I really don't like being out here. I'm not necessarily crazy about nature. Why I bought a house has all this nature and if it wasn't spring and it was only 57 degrees if it was warmer I wouldn't be out here at all. And I'm gonna link to another video that I did the one time that I went back out in those woods because my property actually goes out further into those woods and I got a stick because the stick is the protection. So I got this big old yard here and it's about little under half an acre I think or a little more than half an acre.  Well actually that line was set up to make it look like that's where my backyard ends but it really ends way deeper in there. It's just that we're not going out there right now. And I decided to do this video because I wanted to talk a little bit about change as in changing up every once in a while the things we do and the things we see where we were actually like doing the videos or doing our writing or different things. You know I work for myself and when I'm not on a consulting assignment out of town I pretty much work from the house. I work in my office and I love my office but truthfully there are times where I just need to get out of there. So what I'll do is I'll hop out and either go to Barnes & Noble or I'll go to the library or if it's a Wednesday I'll go downtown Syracuse. We have a place called Co-Works. Syracuse Co-Works where on Wednesdays you can go for free and use their Wi-Fi for free just to get me out of house and actually get me a very very little bit of socialization because you know most of the people there are working and so you're not really talking a lot. And this is kind of what my house looks like in back. Yes it's a ranch and it's a lot bigger than you think it is. When we first looked at the house we thought wow this little dinky house but it's it's kind of big in there and I want to make it bigger one day. I want to claim some of this yard and make it bigger because that's another thing about change is that you can decide to go smaller you can decide to go bigger and it's rare that I start thinking about going smaller. So basically I wanted to show you parts of my backyard. I know at this time of year because it's not quite fully warm yet that I don't have to worry about any of the beasties and if you think I'm kidding you haven't seen some of the things we've seen out here or some of the things that we've heard at night. So anyway that's all this was it's just a little short video for this week. I mean my goodness I did 21 videos in the month of April and I want to thank all the new subscribers. I'm shocked and I really appreciate that you know some of you folks decided to subscribe and watch some of these things that I'm doing here whether it's the personal stuff or whether it's the stuff about blogging and writing or pretty much anything else. I really appreciate you and if you guys ever have any questions or anything you'd like me to share or talk about you know just leave a comment and please share the video. Please share the video and that's it. We're out.