And so John chapter 4 John chapter 4 John chapter 4 Yes, I got to get there too and We'll be reading just two verses here verse 34 35 and Jesus said unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for allowing us to come into your presence, oh Lord, heavenly Father. We thank you for inviting us into your presence. Oh Lord, we thank you for the Holy Spirit that you have sent forth to be our comforter, oh Lord, to keep us, oh Lord, right with you, to strengthen us in the midst of trials and tribulations. Oh Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ who came from heaven, oh Lord, to die upon the cross for our sins. And Lord God, as we open up thy word, we pray that you would draw us closer to you, Lord. Pray that you will increase each and every one of our faith, O Lord, that you would speak to us directly and give us a burden and a direction for missions, O Lord. Lord, I pray that you would remove all the distractions, O Lord God, that you would hide me behind the cross and help me to preach what thus says the Lord. Lord, I do pray that you will be with Selena and Selah, that you would remove their cough and strengthen them, oh Lord God, help the kids to be well-behaved and obedient during the service. Lord, I just thank you for all that you are doing. Lord, may you be glorified. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So I grew up in Chicago. My testimony is kind of lengthy, but I grew up in Chicago, grew up in the gangs. And my mother and father was both a part of starting what they considered an organization, which is known by the world as a gang. And they encouraged each and every one of their children to follow down that pathway because their ideal was that it's not a gang, it's an organization, it's beneficial for the community. They ultimately was trying to stop crooked cops and they was trying to police their own neighborhood. It's almost like a neighborhood watch, Chicago style. And so that's what it was. And they was trying to keep other rival gangs out and things of this nature. Imagine, if you will, like the Black Panthers, you know, they didn't necessarily think what they was doing was wrong or evil or anything like that. That's how my family was in this organization or gang life. And so I grew up with the burden of also keeping it alive. And my family, all of my family was a part of this. This was like a family tradition. It was just what we were, who we were. And truth be told, it wasn't easy for a black American family in Chicago during the 70s and 60s, 50s, 40s. and 80s, and so to find work and to survive. Most of them was on some type of a government assistant programs. Most of them was, you know, wasn't able to get work and things like this. And so like many of the inner city families during that time, my mother separated from my father, single black mother on welfare, raising four children. strategically had all of her children pretend to have mental health problems and learning disabilities in order to receive SSI for each of her child. This is something that is very common. in the inner cities, and sadly, it still happened to this day. As I speak, it's all over Triton, all over North Minneapolis, all over Minneapolis, all over the inner cities, all over the place, where children are intentionally, their parents are intentionally having their children pretend like they can't learn, and pretend like they have mental health problems, so that their parents can receive some resources at the end of that month. And so my mom had each and every one of her children pretend to do the exact same thing up until we wasn't pretending any longer. We absolutely just wasn't that intelligent anymore because we suppressed our education. And so growing up in that lifestyle, my mother, I don't believe she intentionally was trying to destroy my future. But unbeknownst to her, what she was raising was an insecure young man who would handle almost every single problem that came his way with violence. And so that's how I was who I was. When I started rebelling against my mother at the age of 13, She would then in turn turn around and bring me to a psych ward and told them I was having a mental health problem because I had a lengthy record of mental illness, right? And so that was her tool she would use to discipline me and to keep her children in check. And I hated it in the psych ward. I hated them physically forcing me to take medication that I did not want, that did not agree with my body or agree with my mind. I hated the treatment that they would, the way they would treat us in there as if we wasn't even human. And I just absolutely hated the psych ward altogether. And so I found out very early that instead of going to the psych ward, I can just commit a crime and go to juvenile. And so sadly, but truth is that juvenile and jail became my haven. It was my rescue place. Instead of, I would run from the psych ward and run to a jail any day. And that was my options of life, and that's what I took. And so I spent the majority of my teenage years locked up. In fact, I think I had a few, three to four months free from 13 to 18. And I got released on my 18th birthday from the juvenile facility. And about a month later, I was arrested again for assault and robbery and kidnapping, where I would go on to take a man to a bank and try to rob him. And so now, as an adult, the judge, first offense, the judge is trying to be lenient, gives me six months, and threatened me with going to prison. Unbeknownst to the judge, prison wasn't really a threat for me. But this was the threat, and I went to the workhouse, got out January, February, I was arrested again for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm, where I would go on to shoot someone. And thank the Lord that man survived, but this was my life. Now I'm entering into a prison as an 18-year-old, impressionable, gullible young man who's lost, lost, I mean very lost. And my heart was hardened towards all things, hardened towards my family, hardened towards God, hardened towards the streets. I didn't think there was any hope for me. I got into prison, and I continued to grow in the gangs. And due to my violent behavior, I got kicked out of the prisons and got sent to Oak Park Heights Maximum Security, where I would go on to spend three years and four months of my life in solitary confinement, miserably. And can I just say, you know, that time almost broke me. It was a hard time of my life. When I got out of prison, I was second in command of a gang in North Minneapolis at this time. I went right back to the things I knew best. I went back to the robberies, went back to the drugs, went right back to the alcohol. And at this point in time in my life, I added soliciting women to my record. And it was during that time, while I was living that life, in the world that I was able to get reacquainted with Samantha. Now, Samantha grew up in a Christian home. Her mother got saved off of a native reservation. And her mother was one of those those women who they get saved. They get on fire for God. Right. They want they want to serve in a bus. They want to they want to do everything they can do for the Lord. Right. That was her mom. Her dad brought her mom to church trying to calm her mom down. She got saved and took off. And so Samantha was a drug child. She was drugged to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday, everything. She was a part of every group they had in church. But my wife didn't get saved until much later on in life. We oftentimes talked about this trying to figure out because we want to be a blessing to people when we go preach at churches. I want to be transparent. I want to be honest. I want you all to know what God is able to do what he's still doing. I want you to know some of the errors we made along the journey and some of the places that was hindrance in our life and So me and Samantha would talk about possibly why she didn't get saved. And what we come up with was this. Though she was in church every single time the doors was open, though she was in Patch the Pirate Club, though she grew, memorized Bible verses, sang in church competitions, there was no real standards at home and there was no real boundaries at home. She was able to watch what she want, listen to what she want. She was able to go to friends houses who was unsafe. She looked apart, but then her outside the church life was different. And I just want to encourage parents who are spending their time coming to church all the time, who wants their children to grow and be good and to be healthy, have a healthy relationship with God. Don't be double standard. Don't don't don't be double minded. You know, put up walls, put up guardrails, put up boundaries, put up standards, have them, please. Because we don't want to lose the next generation. Her brother still has not come back to the Lord at all. But that was her life, and so she knew right from wrong, but she wasn't saved. And so we got reacquainted, and she took one look at my life and was like, no, I don't want nothing to do with you. And I was like pursuing her hard, right? She was like, no. And so I decided at that time I was living with a bunch of women, and she didn't want nothing to do with that life. And so I decided that I was gonna go back to prison to get these women out of my life so that I can pursue Samantha. Now, I know that sounds crazy, but my Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. The reality, I was lost. My mind was blinded. I, honest to God, thought that to get people out my life, I just had to go back to jail. That's it. Because my whole entire life, from the age of 13, I was used to every time I went in, people disappeared, including family. And so I did this. I went back in for a few short months, and to me, it was a sabbatical. go in, talk to the friends of mine, you know, check in on everybody, tell them how much bad I was doing in the world. And when I got back out. I got in contact with Samantha and she came. She came over to the halfway house I was living in. And I think the Lord, she came. She came with the gospel. Right. So now here I am lost, second in command of a gang. She she at the time was going to school to be a police officer. And we had some conflicting lifestyles. Nevertheless, she came with the gospel. And so unsaved, I'm unsaved. We move fairly quickly. We get a place together. We get engaged. and things of this nature, but I never stopped living that lifestyle. She continued to go to school, I continued to take advantage of her kindness and everything else like that, and then one night I end up committing another crime that, I was on my way to commit a crime that would have cost me life without the possibility of parole, but the Lord had a different plan for my life. And he had me get he had me get arrested before I was able to fulfill what I was trying to do. And I thank the Lord for his interventions and be careful to get not to get mad at God when he's stopping you from making a fool of your life. Right. Amen. I thank the Lord for that. And so I get locked up. This is all part of my testimony. I get locked up. And when I got locked up, Samantha got a hold of my phone and things like that. And she came to visit me after she found out I was unfaithful, after she found out I've been just doing whatever I wanted to do. And before she came to visit me, she ended up getting saved in a homeless shelter. And then she came to visit me. And when she came to visit me, she called me out on all the things I was doing. And I said to her, just thinking like it's going to be exactly just what has always been. I said, listen, you don't need an excuse to leave me. If you want to go, you can go. And she looked me in my eyes and said, leave you, leave you. I'm a Christian woman. I'm not going to leave you. Can I tell you, this was the first time anyone ever declared to me that they was going to stay a part of my life. And she said, I'm a Christian woman. I'm not going to leave you. I was uncomfortable. I wrestled all night with the Lord about this. In my mind, how do you love me, Lord, when you keep letting me get locked up, when you taking me away from my son, when you when you keep destroying my life? I was blind. Right. So I blame God for all of my problems. And and one day on my way to go take a shower the following day, in fact, the Lord said to me in my mind, You've been loyal to the streets, you've been loyal to your homies, but you've been disloyal to me who died for you. That right then and there, I got on my knees and I got saved. Gloriously, magnificently, I got saved. Can I say this? Listen, I got saved, amen. Praise the Lord, I got saved. The man that I was before I got on my knees was a man whose heart was so hardened, all I thought about was crime continuously. I was plotting it, I was planning it, I was just, nothing in my life was consumed with hate and evil. But when I got up off of that ground, I could not explain to anyone what happened, but I knew something. I just didn't want to do it no more. I was tired of it. I was over it. And so I got saved. And now I'm still facing charges in the county jail. And can I tell you something else? I got saved. I was lying about the crime up until I got saved. And I had convinced the judge I was innocent to some degree. And she was going to give me a year in prison. And then I got saved and went in a courtroom under heavy conviction. and told the judge the truth and got four years. And I left that courtroom as happy as can be, because finally there was nothing between me and my savior anymore. And I tell you, you know, when someone gets saved, their life get changed. Right. Amen. My life was radically changed that day. And so I will go off to prison. Samantha and I will continue to grow as Christians together. And we were getting married while I was in prison. And then while before I came home from prison, she will move away from the inner cities and and move to Duluth, Minnesota, giving me an opportunity to live a better life. And and I thank her for that. She got grounded inside of a church. And so the moment I came home, my very first week out of prison, I was inside of a church, a good Bible, believe in a Bible, believe in sin, hate and devil fighting mission minded church that preached the word. And and I thank the Lord for that. It was North Star Baptist in Duluth, Minnesota, where me and my wife and children were for the last 10 years serving the Lord with gladness. And but during that time, my heart has always been burdened to go out and reach others. to share with them what I know works. You know what, I got saved, and being second in command, I had a lot of enemies. And so I get saved, and I couldn't explain what happened to me, but I just know what happened. And I said, all right, well, I need to get my enemies saved then. That'll get them off of me. And so I started sharing the gospel with everybody, right? I was trying to get my enemies off of me, trying to get my friends to get saved. I knew something happened to me, it'll happen to them, right? If it's true, if it's real. And so here it is, the answer to all of life problems, a wayward child, a woman who don't know how to be a mother, a man who is an abusive husband, or don't have the ability or whoever thought to be a good father. Here's the answer to all of the inner city problems, the drug addicts, the abuse, the violence. The answer is the gospel. Reaching them with the word of God. That's the answer. And so, Um, now how we got here is another thing is praying for the last 10 years to go into full time ministry. And during that time, I, of course, like many others, I thought I'm ready, Lord. Years ago, the Lord said no. And he sat us down and he allowed us to train and train. We served in many different ministries back in Duluth, Minnesota. I was the evangelist director. served under the bus ministry. I was the bus captain. We served in discipleship ministry. I ran that, led that. We served in every ministry from the nursing home to reaching the homeless to baking cookies and going to the police stations and giving them out. We just served wherever we can. When that riot took place, with the George Floyd thing, the Lord burdened my wife and I hard to go down there in the midst of the riot with a Bible and start preaching the gospel. And we saw two people saved during that time. It was magnificent and amazing. But and so we've been we've been praying for years. And the Lord showed us that this was the year to step out by faith into full time ministry. And so, May, we got a call to come out here to knock doors for the crusade. We didn't know anything about it. They didn't really know anything about us. They heard of us through a traveling evangelist, and so we came eagerly. They said, sin-hating, devil-fighting, soul-winning. I was like, son, we on our way. They didn't promise us anything. We just collected our family, got in a van, and drove. It's like 20 some hours away. We came While we was out here the Lord started to burden our heart for the city of Trenton, New Jersey Seeing all of the burnt down homes seeing the children who did not even know where to find Genesis in the Bible Seeing the the severe neglect by not only the parents but by the government and the educational system And can I add the church? Broke my heart Here I am, a man who knows where to put a family together. I lost parental rights to my oldest son, he's named Leviticus, he's 17 years old. The courts deemed me an unfit parent. I was, too. But here it is, you see seven beautiful children who God said, I'll restore you. And I will put them in your care. And he's called me to steward these children. Here it is, I know the answer for the problem in Trenton, New Jersey. We came and knocked doors and God was working in our heart. And after we knocked doors and did a few days at a crusade, we went back to Minnesota where I was an elected official. I was a Port Authority Commissioner and working as a union iron worker, making close to $100,000 a year. And the very first week of June, the Lord placed it on our hearts to go. Can I tell you, I resigned. I quit my job. People thought I was crazy. You don't have support. I didn't even know really how to get support. Where are you going to move to? I don't know. What are you going to do as far as education for your kids? I don't know. The very last week of June, we was in a U-Haul truck with nowhere to go, and we was driving this way to New Jersey. Along the journey, God has provided us with everything we need. Oh, he's so faithful. He is so faithful. Before we ever left Minnesota, God provided us with a pull-behind camper, which we stayed in for months. And our family grew so close in that camper. We watch God continue to provide church after church, meeting after meeting, place after place. He is so faithful. And so that's how we got out here. Actually, we just picked up and left and went. And so, because of this verse here, my meat, is to do the will of him that sent me. I wonder, is it your substance? The thing that gives you purpose and meaning? Is this the thing that makes you significant to do the will of him who sent you? Here's Jesus saying, listen, everything that I need is bottled up in this to do the will of him who sent me and to finish it. And sometimes we understand this and we get all excited after a revival meeting or after mission conference at the missions conference and we make secret and private commitments to God. Lord, I'm going to start giving Lord. I'm going to start tithing. Lord, I'm gonna start a Bible study. Lord, I'm gonna start soul winning. Lord, I'm gonna start leaving tracks in the afternoon. Lord, I'm gonna start witnessing. We get conviction after conviction from God, and we say we're gonna do all these things, but then after some speed bumps, we fell out. He said, my will is to do the work and to finish it. We need some people of God who will come to a place where they understand that their life is a vapor. Here today, gone tomorrow. And all that you do now is only for Jesus Christ is the only thing that will last in this world and the world to come. And we need some Christian people who would determine by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in them, that I am going to finish the work that God has set me to do. Amen? As we consider Missions Month coming up, that's the assignment for every believer. to reach the world. It is a personal endeavorance that God has set each and every one of us on. But thanks be to God that he has given us a church that we can come together and collectively reach the world or attempt to. Number one, we must send and we must go because the harvest demands it. In Matthew 9, 37, it says, Here it is, the Lord saying, hey, there's a harvest. When I look at Trenton, New Jersey, almost 90,000 people and eight square miles, what I come to understand is there is a harvest. When I look at the neglect of churches inside of Trenton, New Jersey that are of our stripes, what I come to understand is there is a harvest. Since we've been out here, we've seen about 17, 18 people saved directly from our ministries, and we got burdened to start our services, and so August the 15th, we started having Thursday night services, the Trenton Baptist Church, and God has blessed those services. We've seen numbers of people come in there. We have visitors, it seems like, every week. Our highest day was 36. We stayed floating in the mid-20s with people on our Thursday night services. I'm watching people's lives change. People's lives are being changed. They came in without a Bible. They came in without knowing the hymnals. They came in without knowing how to quote scripture. And I'm watching them take their Bibles and go home and come back with the discipleship material filled out. I'm watching them call me, Pastor. Hey, this verse was just on my heart and quoting scripture to me. And can I tell you, I'm watching mothers learn how to be mothers and husbands learn how to be husbands. I'm learning wives learn how to be wives. And I'm watching children who had the look of depression and doom and gloom all over their face the first time start to come to the church, skipping down the way. They're excited to get there. They're excited to get in the kids' class and to sing those songs. They run around the church and it brings me joy. They're excited to be in the house of God. I'm watching the Lord Jesus change people's lives. Because, see, there is a harvest. There's not a problem with the harvest. There's a problem with the labors. He says the labors are few. Who are the laborers? We are the laborers. Those who've been given the great commission is the laborers. He says, pray for laborers. I assume we don't pray for laborers, because then we might realize that he's calling us, each and every one of us. I've trained my children not just to be Christians, but Olympic Christians. I want them to be Olympic soul winners. I want them to memorize their Bible like Olympic Christians do. They know more scripture than me, probably, by memory now. But you know what? I thank the Lord for that mentality. Sahara and Soraya runs our youth program. They got kids in there that's their age. Is any of them older than y'all? No. All right. They got kids in there. They age. And and I believe is a second or third week. They they won two twins to the Lord. That was 13 years old. I thank the Lord for that. I thank the Lord for all that he's doing. We need to understand that there is a harvest to be had. And number two, we must understand this, that the hour demands that we send and go immediately. Romans 13, 10 says, love work of no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. The Bible is so clear, it's time for us to wake up as people of God. You know, we're the greatest organism in the world. We're the greatest organization in the world. We're the greatest military in the world. We're the greatest everything in the world. We don't work for the President of the United States. We don't work for some big Fortune 500 group. We work for the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Omnipotent One who reigns, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega, the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star. We work for God. Woo! We are great. We are great. We must understand something. It's time for us to wake up and start reaching the world. If our gospel be hid. It is hid to those of whom the God of this world has blinded their minds. Sometimes I watch Christians get highly opinionated about people who are continuing to sin. That's called being the world. That's called being blind. That's called being lost. What's the antidote? The gospel, the gospel. Perhaps instead of us judging them and being critical we'll start to reach them. We'll start to get him a track We'll start when we see a couple arguing or people fighting we will start to say hey, hey Hey, did you know you're created in the image of God? Let me give you something that would change your life Let me share some love with you It is our direct responsibility, and the hour demands it. Every hour goes by is another hour we get closer to eternity. That's the reality. You know, I got saved. And when I got out of prison, I went along to get along with my family because I wanted to see them safe. And that worked out for some time. But my family continuing in the same lifestyle, just really, I didn't agree with it. And eventually, due to some things my mother was doing, I asked her if we can sit down and talk. And I'll tell her I wanted to share with her how life was for me from my perspective growing up. And of course, easy for her to tell me what her perspective was. She was a good mother. She was good this, good that. Well, we sat down because she had seven or eight of my nieces and nephews, and it was all the same system, right? Putting them all on SSI, a lack of education, acting like they got mental health problems. And so I sat down with her. And I began to share with her what life was really like for me. She quickly stopped me, she kicked me out of her house, and then she proceeded to not talk to me ever again until she passed away two years later. You know, the reality is that time is ticking. People will face eternity. My mother, I believe wholeheartedly, has died and went to hell. Not because she was an evil woman, not because she was bad, but simply because she did not believe the gospel. She did not put her faith and trust in Christ. And I wonder how many of us sit here with loved ones and we need to understand that the hour is demanding that we start to send and we start to go immediately to reach them with the gospel. We don't have forever to reach them. Life is not promised to anyone. Here today and gone tomorrow. In Luke 19, Jesus calls his servants and tell them. Occupy till I come. Or he he gives the parable here about occupying until he comes. The Lord wants us to occupy. That means to get busy, get to work until he comes. And Jesus said of himself, I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. I believe we ought to have an urgency about us. You know, I love reading the Gospels and especially the Gospel of John and what I see in there was an urgency to get to the next place, to reach the next person. Do you have an urgency about getting the Gospel out to the world? Don't complain about the problem if you're not a part of the solution. Don't complain about the murders and the overdose. And don't complain about the people on welfare. And don't complain about all the chaos in the world if you are not a part of the solution. And the solution is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.