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• John the Baptist preached in a time and place desperately needing revival.
• Many of us are "stuck" in sin, much like Israel was in John the Baptist's day.
• Illustration: Ben Patterson tells of being stuck on a glacier at Yosemite.
• How do we get unstuck?

• The message John got from God was simple: Repent! Repent!
• Repentance is saying I'm going in the wrong direction, and turning around.
• Repentance begins with an admission of my own sin and inadequacy.
• We can't see Jesus in his fullness without looking through the lens of repentance.
• Scripture says repentance results in forgiveness, renewal, and redirection.
• Repentance is a statement of regret for the inner condition of my soul.
  - Illustration: Nineteenth-century Scottish preacher Alexander Whyte was well-loved. When one woman called him "saintly," he replied, "If you could look into my soul, what you would see would make you spit in my face."

• When John baptizes, Jesus steps forward to be baptized.
• You'd think the "model repenter" would be the worst of persons, not the best.
• Jesus has nothing to repent of, so why is he being baptized?
  - He did it to volitionally identify with the sins of the world.
• When Jesus is baptized, it's a foreshadowing of all our sins being washed away.
• That's what repentance does, and that's what Jesus is all about.

• Illustration: How Ben Patterson got off the glacier.
• Jesus helps us get unstuck by reaching out his hand and pulling us to safety.