Conversation on Evangelism

A Prayer for Edifying Conversation and Gospel Witness

Father, we love you. We thank you that we can have this opportunity, Lord, to exalt you. And I pray that our conversation, Lord God, is edifying and that it's an encouragement to you, Lord God. We want to live our lives, Lord God, in a way that glorifies your name, Lord God.

Let our words today, Lord, be an encouragement to those that either watch this, Lord God, or have heard about it, Lord. We pray that maybe there's some Timothys out there, Lord God, that need encouragement to go share their faith.

Or maybe there's someone, Lord, that has never thought about sharing their faith and they've just been convicted of you, Lord, to go tell the world about this good news, Lord. So I pray that our conversation will be one, Lord, that does just that, Lord.

Thank you for my brother, Tony, for taking the time to be here. And thank you, Karim, for putting this together, Lord God, with Brother Ken and Brother Matt. So we just want to rejoice in knowing you and trusting you and being able to go tell the world this good news.

In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen and amen.

Introductions and Personal Testimonies

My name is Tony Miano. I am an open-air preacher. I served 20 years as a deputy sheriff with the County of Los Angeles in California. I've served as a church planter. I've also served with a ministry called Living Waters for four and a half years, teaching others how to do evangelism.

And I also served for a time as a chaplain with the L .A. County Sheriff's Department. And now I'm out on the streets full time, preaching the gospel in the open air, going to college campuses and other places to bring the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to others.

And I'm Sean Holes, and I have a ministry called Luke 10 .2 Ministries. It's a family ministry, primarily sharing good news on college campuses around the country. Street corners will definitely share the good news in even churches to encourage the saints.

And I've been a Christian for about 10 years, and in the process of getting saved, I just had a burden for sharing the gospel with people. So that's what we are now, is just a family that desires to see God's name be glorified and see souls be one.

So what Matt has asked us to do tonight is basically have a conversation about open air preaching. Why we do it, how we do it, when we do it, who should do it, maybe who should not do it. And it's really just going to be a conversation between two brothers who are out there on the streets.

And this will go until we're done. So what is one of the most common questions you get asked about open air preaching from someone who doesn't do it?

Well, for someone that doesn't do it is they would want to know why we're doing it. And so it's a difficult question really to answer in some ways, because I think our passion is to bring glory to God, to exalt the name of Jesus Christ.

But they'll want to know more of that. They'll want to know some more details. So I think that it's important to explain to them that we love them. We're out there, we're doing this because we love them.

And we do want to see souls get saved, Tony. I mean, it is important that people get saved, right? We're soul winners.

That's why the church is still here. The church is still here because there are people God still intends to save. That's why the church is still here on earth. For me, open air preaching, in the end, is an act of worship.

Ultimately, I'm preaching to an audience of one. At first, I was really wrapped up in the size of the crowd and how many people can hear me, how far does my voice carry. And the more I've been out there on the streets, and I don't know about you, but I spend more time out on the streets by myself than I do with teams or groups of people.

That's just the way it works out. Oftentimes, it's just me and the Lord out there. Ultimately, I'm preaching to an audience of one. I want people to hear. I want people to come to repentance and faith.

But I try to keep my mindset one of, God's hearing what I'm doing. Am I doing this to glorify Him? Am I doing this because it's a fun hobby for me and I don't want to do anything else? Whose name, ultimately, do I want people to remember?

Mine or God's. If I keep the mindset of this is an act of worship, some of that superfluous stuff just seems to drift away. One of the questions I'm often asked is, hey, is this effective? Is this really effective in reaching the lost with the gospel?

I'm sure you've heard that question a lot. I've heard it a few times.

How would you answer that? Depends on who I'm talking to. Sometimes I'll answer that it's not effective at all. But we're not pragmatists. We're really not. I'll say, well, I'm not really trying to be effective.

On the other hand, I want to be as Christ-like as possible. I want to be honoring my Lord as much as possible. In terms of effectiveness, yeah, we're preaching to an audience of one. Is it effective?

Yeah. God's hearing it. It's lifting up that name of Christ. Tony, I think that the gospel, at least in America, has become so watered down and so compromised, at least from what I'm seeing, that effectiveness is just exalting the name of Jesus Christ.

But it's hard to convince people of that. It really is.

Especially here in America, where so much of the American church is pragmatic in what we do, what are the end results? How many people have come to church? How many people have raised their hands? And unfortunately, a lot of churches will compromise the message, water it down, like you said, because they're certainly going to get more decisions if the message is palatable to the masses.

I like to tell people that the only time we fail in evangelism is when we fail to evangelize. If we're doing it biblically, if we're doing it with a right heart attitude, loving God and loving people, the only time we fail is when we don't do it.

People have often asked me, well, how many people have you led to the Lord? And I've started answering, everyone. And they get a funny look. Everybody you've talked to? Yeah, I bring everybody right to the foot of the cross, and I trust in the sovereignty of God to either save or not save that person, either at that time or later on.

How many decisions did you get today? Everyone decided today. That's right. Everyone made a decision. They either decided to repent and believe, or they decided to walk away and continue in their hatred of God.

It's a serious, it's a very, you know, it's a privilege to go share the gospel, whether it be one-on-one or whether we're out singing in the streets or handing out gospel tracts or publicly proclaiming the message as an open-air preacher.

It's humbling, and it's, I think it's just such an honor to be able to do that. And so it's so serious, and it's so sobering. You know, you get these people that you talk to, and you want to see them at least somehow grasp what you're talking about, but there's no way they can grasp it.

They're blind. They've not been born again. That's right. So it's hard to make it make sense. Yeah. I have just a couple verses here. Paul, you know, when he was writing to Timothy, he said he wanted to encourage him.

It was his last letter he wrote, 2 Timothy. And Paul's dying. He sees this young man coming up in the ranks and wants to encourage him. He says in 2 Timothy 4, starting in 2, it says, Preach the word.

He didn't say go out and live your life in a way that people will be enticed to your religious views. Or live in such a way that people ask you why. He didn't say that. He said preach the word. He said be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering.

Those are very serious, encouraging words. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering. He's giving him a great commission, isn't he? Christ said go. Go. So he's saying that to him. Then he says, I love hearing that.

When Paul was writing to Timothy, he says, Here's Paul dying. He didn't say make sure that you're making lots of money or that you've got a bunch of people listening to you. He's just saying go out there and do the work of an evangelist.

Then he says, Isn't that encouraging? I know that Paul would take the time. I think of this man that knows his days are numbered and tells Timothy to go do this. Like I said, a privilege to share the gospel.

The Biblical Basis for Open-Air Preaching

Oftentimes one of the questions is,.

Is what you're doing really biblical? I think you really have to look at the pages of Scripture with your eyes half closed to not see open air preaching throughout the Bible. Noah. Noah was probably the first open air preacher as he's calling people to repent, to turn toward God.

All of the prophets. All of the prophets were open air preachers. Jesus was an open air preacher. The disciples were open air preachers. Yes, it's biblical. Why? Because we see it throughout the Bible.

Then we also know that it's been supported throughout history. Open air preaching didn't stop with the Bible. It continued throughout all of history. This is not something new that has come on the scene.

There has always been open air preaching. Amen.

But things have changed, we're told. The culture is very strongly taught in our churches. As you know, Tony, we run into these people that are all about the culture, and then really what it comes down to is they're really not believing the Bible.

Then it's a different discussion now because we're having to talk about the inerrancy of God's Word and that it can be trusted and that it's double-edged and it's inspired by the Holy Ghost. So a couple of discussions now are going on, but really it comes down to them not wanting to trust the Word of God.

The culture is what's being taught. You're going to reach more people with the right pair of jeans and the right haircut and, I guess, the right pizza party.

And this idea that open air preaching is not culturally relevant, it's never been culturally relevant. Ever. The Gospel has never been culturally relevant. The Gospel wasn't culturally relevant when Jesus was walking the earth.

They killed him over it because it was so against the culture of that day, the religious culture of that day. Yeah, it really is. I think this idea of being culturally relevant, and they often go to where Paul says, be all things to all people and twist that around, take that out of context.

But I think this idea of being culturally relevant is more often than not just an excuse for not sharing the Gospel. I think Christians have a very easy time of finding excuses for not sharing the Gospel.

Absolutely. And then they see us out on the streets, and maybe it's something they've never seen before. Yeah. And I think a lot of Christians are convicted when they see open air preaching. I know that to be true.

I'm sure you've experienced this, where Christians have come up to me. Not all of them say, hey, you shouldn't be doing this, I'm a Christian. But I've had many Christians come up to me and say, people actually do this.

When did you start? I need to be part of this. How do I become part of this? We've had Christians come up and tell us those things.

You know, when I started out, Tony, I would generally, I just love talking to young people. I love encouraging young people. And I mean, if a 50-year-old guy comes up and he's asking questions or he wants some type of encouragement, I love talking to them as well.

We're not singling people out because of their age. But the young people come out, and I just want to say, you know, when I first started talking to them, maybe five years ago, I'd say, not everyone is called to be an open-air preacher, or not everyone is called to do what I'm doing right here.

And more recently, brother, I've been thinking, you know, we really shouldn't even be planting that seed of making them wonder if this is just something for some people. Not that we would expect everyone to get up and stand on a street corner and preach their guts out.

But why give them a way out if God's calling them to do it? Exactly. Let's encourage them.

Let's just say, hey, listen, you know, if you're called to sing a song in the streets or hand a gospel tract out or maybe you're even called to stand up and preach, then so be it. But if the Lord is convicting you, and more recently, too, I've been saying, you know, I think the Lord's probably already been talking to you about this.

Isn't that the way it always is? Because they'll say, you know, I was just thinking this, or I just dreamt something, or I just read this verse, and then it's begun to occur to me that God's trying to talk to you.

He's just using me to confirm what He's already been speaking to you in your prayer time and in your time in the Word. So don't discount this, you know. We're all called to share our faith. And hopefully there's even men out there listening to us now, young men that are a little Timothy or, you know, a person that, hey, even when someone goes and they go out and buy groceries, shouldn't they be evangelizing or do the fast food?

They should be sharing their faith.

I love what Ray Comfort says. He says, you know, I used to go to the store to buy milk and maybe share the Gospel with someone. Now he goes to share the Gospel. Now he goes to share the Gospel, and while he's there he picks up some milk.

So a complete change in mindset. So, Sean, how long have you been doing this? How long have you been an open-ended preacher?

You know, Tony, right when I got saved I started sharing my faith, and I didn't know how to do it. I really was uncertain of even what the Gospel was. All I knew was who had saved me and what I'd gotten saved from.

So in terms of training-wise, in terms of, you know, background, in terms of experience, I guess since the day I got saved, I wanted to tell people, I got saved. You know, you remember that woman that Christ talked to, and she was at that well, and she went out and told the whole city?

I mean, that's the way I was.

I was like, let's go tell people. Come and see the man who told me everything about me. Amen.

So that was kind of my testimony in regards to sharing my faith. But then over time, you know, I got involved with, you know, different ministries that were good at teaching, you know, men how to evangelize.

And, you know, from there it's just been get your feet wet, make lots of mistakes, you know, be humbled every day in what we do. You know, I don't think I've met the guy that's perfect at it yet. No. But I've met a lot of men that the Lord's using, and praise God that he is using men still.

And so, you know, I would say full-time five years, full-time.

What was your first open air like? What was it like getting up there on the box or the bench or the stool for the very first time?

I stood up, got off, got up, got down, got up, drove home. Drove two hours to go preach. Drove home. Went there the next time. Did the same thing two hours there. Got up, got down, got up, got down. Drove home again.

Third time. The guy I was with, I said, listen, this is getting a little silly. We got to at least do what we came here to do. And I think I preached for about 45 seconds and then got down and wanted to hide under a rock.

And, you know, that was the very absolute very first time.

So how about you? Well, it's amazing how similar our stories are. For me, I think now it's been about seven years, six and a half, seven years. And I had been handing out tracts. The light bulb went off for me later.

I came to Faith in Christ in 1988. And I didn't start sharing the gospel biblically with strangers, probably until about 2004. But I didn't start open-air preaching until a little after that. And I finally determined, okay, I know I have to do this.

I'm in sin if I don't do this. I know this is the right thing to do, and if I do not do it, I'm in sin. But I wasn't going to do it in my hometown. I wasn't going to do it at a place. Where a patrol car is going to drive up with one of my former partners.

You were a sheriff, right? Tony, yeah. Tony, yeah, you have lost it. So I drove 50 miles, 60 miles from home to a beach community. I took my wife, Maria, my youngest daughter, Amanda, who was probably 10, 11 years old at the time.

And we took an EZ-Up. We took a table. We had Bibles. It took me about an hour to set things up. And it took me about another hour to get the courage to tell my wife to take our daughter and go down to the beach and tell people I was going to give money away for answering trivia questions.

And she looked at me like, no, no, no, we're here for support. Maria is like the total wallflower. Wants to be behind the scenes all the time. And that's where she serves best. And I had so little courage and so little faith that I pushed her out to go do this.

And I remember watching her walk over the rise from this park to the beach just like her and my daughter were walking away and they were never coming back. And within 10 minutes, I see like ants to a picnic.

About 30, 40 kids, teenagers, almost in a run coming towards me. And I'll tell you what, I would have been more comfortable in that moment being in a darkened alley with armed gangbangers down at the other end than seeing those kids running towards me.

And unbeknownst to me at the time, Maria and Amanda had totally disrupted a Sweet 16 party on the beach saying, hey, there's a guy over here who's giving away money. It's the only thing they could get out.

And so money and teenagers. And they're just sprinting at you. And this still happens to me today. I got my right foot, and I still have the box that I used that first time. I got my right foot up on the box and the gravitational pull was so extremely strong on my left foot it was like it would not come off the ground.

And I stalled and I delayed like I was praying. But I was just scared to death. I finally got my left foot back onto the box. And then I picked the smallest looking kid in the group, the kid I thought I could take if things went south.

And then I was doing the good person test at that time. So I took him through that, and I shared the law and the gospel with the crowd. And I was done. Mine was maybe, I don't know, five, six minutes, something like that.

And I remember looking at these kids' faces, and they wouldn't leave. And I actually, I remember saying to them, that's all I got. I'm done. You can go now. I got no more money. I got no more In-N-Out gift cards.

I said what I'm going to say, and I really want to go home. You can go. But they had questions. Some of them wanted Bibles. And I remember weeping on the way home, repenting for all those years that I hadn't been out there.

And I knew at that moment, somehow, someway, this was going to be the way I spent the rest of my life, was being out on the streets proclaiming the gospel.

The Aim of Evangelism: Worship, Sovereignty, and the Cross

It's an encouragement in our faith. It strengthens our faith to share the good news. And people's responses isn't really necessarily what we can base that encouragement from. It's just such an honor. You know, as I said, I've learned over the years, and I've definitely, I've fallen flat on my face sharing the gospel.

It's just so many changes over the last five years. But one thing that has remained the same, it's bringing people to the cross and bringing people to the realization that they are undeserving of God's mercy.

They aren't deserving of forgiveness, that He loves them. Well, the Bible says that He committed His love in this, and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us, that He knew we were going to sin.

We're sinners saved by the most amazing God, the only God of the world that loved us enough to sacrifice Himself. When we tell people that God took on flesh to come to this earth and die for sinners, resurrect from the grave, for us in our unworthiness, it's just like we've got to tell people about the cross.

If all we did is get up and tell them about the cross, it'd be great. And oftentimes we have. We can preach the grace of God all day long. We can preach the blood all day long.

I tell people who are new to open air preaching that you should preach the law loud, preach grace and the cross louder. Right? And it's interesting. Many people think, well, if you use the law in evangelism, you're just going to turn people away.

But my experience has been, preaching in the open air, that it's the law that draws the crowd. It's that tension, the voyeuristic nature of people, wanting to see if a fight's going to break out or an argument's going to break out.

People are very attentive, curious, and engaging during that part. When people start to flee and when the crowds dissipate is when you mention the name of Jesus Christ. Because they justify themselves by the law.

They think they're good people. They think they merit God's grace and forgiveness. And soon as you mention the name of Christ, they flee like cockroaches when you turn on the light. And sometimes what I'll do to try to mitigate that is before I transition into the gospel, I'll say something like, look, I'm about to mention a name that most of you hate.

In fact, you hate this name and this person so much, as soon as I mention his name, some of you are going to leave. Now look to your right, look to your left, because some of these people are going to be here in just a moment.

And what that does is two things. One, the person who does hate Christ, if they do walk away, they're going to know exactly why they're walking away. The prideful person who hates Christ and says to themselves, I'm not going to let this open air preacher get the best of me, they're going to stay and they're going to hear the gospel.

And so while that doesn't always, certainly keep a crowd or draw a crowd, I think that brings a level of conviction to people because it is, and Jesus said, they will hate you, men will hate you because of me.

And if everybody likes what we're saying when we're talking about Jesus, then we're not talking about the real Jesus. We're not sharing the gospel.

Here's what Paul said. He said to the church in Rome, he said, and this is in Romans chapter 10, starting in 14, he says, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.

You know this, well, two more verses it says, but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? Remember when Isaiah was saying that? And then he says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Well, we're out there preaching the word of God. We've preached so many times to people and their response is, why are you preaching hate? Why are you preaching hate?

How much more loving could it be than for a savior to come to this world and redeem you? That's pretty much love, isn't it?

And what I'll tell people during some of my open airs is like, if you do not hear this as a message of love, it is because you love your sin more than you love God. It's because you love yourself more than you love God and whether consciously or subconsciously, on some level, you actually think you are God.

That's why you hear this as a message of hate. That hurts, though.

That hurts, but remember we're reading and we're supposed to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering? I think that would be pretty much all those things.

Yeah, and I think this passage is so important. Again, the emphasis is that how will they hear without a preacher? The gospel is a spoken message. It can be communicated in writing, certainly, and it was through letters during the early church, but it is a communicated message.

And this false notion that so many Christians have, especially in the American church, that somehow people will see Jesus in them and will be drawn to Christ by what they see in them ignores what the Bible says about human nature.

People are dead in their trespasses and sins. They're spiritually blind. They cannot discern that which is spiritual. And none of us being perfect, there are many times when we look just like the world and nothing like Jesus Christ.

Isn't it proud to think that.

People would literally be drawn to Christ by seeing Christ in us?

It's as if people are saying, Christians are saying the gospel needs our help. That somehow the gospel is insufficient. People aren't simply going to turn from their sin and put their trust in Christ if all they hear is the gospel.

We've got to feed them. We've got to clothe them. We've got to be kind to them. We've got to invite them to barbecues. We've got to do all these things. And I really liken that, and some may think this is too strong, but I really liken that to blasphemy.

You are basically saying that the gospel of Jesus Christ is insufficient to change a human heart. That somehow God needs you.

To accomplish His work. Here's what Paul said to the church in Corinth. He says it in chapter 1. It's starting in 18. People can read this stuff for themselves. This isn't like, thus saith Tony Mion. This is just Bible.

So it says, this is in verse 18. It says, So the preaching of the cross, we're preaching the cross. It's foolishness to those that are what? They're perishing. It says it pretty plainly here. Where is the wise?

Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? I love that verse. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.

It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So it's foolishness.

But God uses it to save people that believe. In fact, Paul would later say that to those who are perishing, the preaching of the gospel will be an aroma of death. And to those who are being saved, an aroma of life.

I think it's important that those of us who are out on the streets preaching, and I think this adds a level of sobriety to what we're doing, if representing Christ isn't enough already. And it is. But God may use the communication of the gospel that day to be an aroma of death to those who are going to perish in their sin and spend eternity in hell.

And I think as preachers, that should break our heart. There may be some who are hearing the preaching of the gospel who God may in fact save, cause to be born again, and extend to them the gifts of repentance and faith.

And there may be others for whom the preaching of the gospel that day is a form of God's judgment upon them. I think there needs to be a maturation in the open air preaching community. You're actually out there in a wider sense more often than I am.

You've been to more places around the world and around the United States than I have preaching. You've been with a lot of open air preachers. I know you spend much of your time with real solid folk, experienced men who are preaching the gospel.

But as I listen to people open air preach, maybe those who are newer at this discipline than others, it seems like it is the pendulum has swung so far to making sure that we use the law of evangelism for so many years.

American evangelicalism didn't. But it's gotten to the point now where for some it's 90 law and 10 grace. It's almost as if the cross and the gospel is simply the cherry on top of this large law cake that they've put together.

They don't spend nearly enough time talking about the person of Christ, the deity of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ. What exactly does his shed blood on the cross mean? The resurrection of Christ, which apart from the resurrection, we're most to be pitied by men.

And I think in open air preaching we need to spend as much time, even more time, making much about our Savior, making much about the cross, and of course preach the law, but we need to spend a lot more time talking about Jesus.

There are so many different Jesuses in the world today. There are so many different Jesuses in the American church today. And I think especially here in the United States there's this assumption that when you mention the name of Jesus, they know who you're talking about.

But we've got the Mormon Jesus, and the Jehovah's Witness Jesus, and the Muslim Jesus, and Oprah's Jesus, and Rob Bell's Jesus, and the health, wealth, and prosperity Jesus, and all these other Jesuses.

We have to make sure that people understand who it is we represent.

I agree. But we're not preaching hate, brother. They would think that that's hateful to say that this Jesus, this biblical Jesus, is the one that died, was buried, and resurrected for our sins. And they would think that that's hateful to say, well, we're believing in a different Jesus.

How many conversations have you had with people, and you've explained the differences that we might have with them in terms of who they view Jesus as? And then after using 10 Bible verses, and spending lots of time doing apologetics, and even giving personal testimony, pouring into them, maybe even praying at some point to just seek the Lord, and all this, they say, well, we agree.

We agree. How can we agree?

You know, the Jesus that I'm telling... If you agree with me, and you attend the LDS Church, then you're not a Mormon. Exactly. Run for your life.

You can't agree with me and be a Mormon. No, we don't agree. And so we've got to make sure that we're preaching this Jesus Christ of the Bible. And so, yeah, I agree. But that's one of the nice things lately that's been great in terms of the way the Lord has blessed me, is to be around other men that are able to be out witnessing while I'm preaching, or vice versa.

Because for so many months, and even years, I went out alone, and there's nobody that'll go out, and suddenly it's almost like there's plenty. But while we're out, we can encourage each other. I know one man the other day that I was preaching with on a campus, he's an excellent preacher, and I said, same message, different tone of voice.

And later on, he said, you're right, man. I was just coming across as being hard. You know, when we were preaching one day, another guy was bringing up, he was preaching to the unbelievers as though they were believers.

I said, brother, you've got to be careful, man. I mean, it's not the same message. The saints, they've been saved by the grace of God. They're going to understand these things. Their eyes have been opened.

The unbeliever has no concept where you're coming from. And what you're preaching doesn't apply to them. It just simply doesn't apply to them. So it's been a blessing to have that along in my own life, brother, because we can encourage each other along, and give each other feedback, and make sure that we are pointing, we've got to point these people to the real Jesus Christ of the Bible.

And we've got to make sure that, like you said, with all the media pushing this whole, you know, I'm Mormon. Even if you do websites or Internet searches or whatever, and you look for a term, Christianity, Mormonism is jumping up on the Internet.

Are you kidding me? It's not even close to Christianity. It's not even apples to apples. So, yeah, we've got to preach that Jesus Christ of the Bible, make sure that they understand who we're telling Jesus is.

I like something you mentioned there about.

Being called on preaching hard. I've experienced that recently. In fact, it was my sister who listens to all the audios and all that, and comes out with me from time to time when she can, and she told me not long ago, she said, Tony, I don't know what it is, but you're just sounding more angry.

You're just... It's righteous anger. Right, and that's the easy fallback position. It's righteous indignation, but there is such a fine line between righteous indignation and sinful anger, and so I really needed to evaluate that in my own preaching.

And just this last weekend when I was out at our area subway station, North Hollywood subway station, I got into a conversation with one of the vendors who was out there every Saturday. And he looked me in the eye, unsaved guy, looked me in the eye, and he said, you know what?

You always seem mad at people. You always seem mad when you're up there preaching. And we spent about a half hour talking, and by the end of the conversation, his name's Rick, he said, he said, now, Tony, I know you.

I know you. I've talked with you, and while I may not agree with what you're saying, I don't think you're a jerk anymore. But that really caused me to take a step back. Is that really how I'm sounding?