What is Your Mission?

In the previous seven Dayvnist church that I was in

before coming here, one of the elders walked up to

me one day and invited me to check out prison ministry.

I had no idea what would be going on. And

I understand to most of us, when we think of

a prison, you know probably our initial thoughts. So that's

the place we want to stay away from.

But I do not agree with that.

I think that's the place we ought to run too,

not away from. And here's why when we go there,

our team could be two, could be five, but when

we go there, we want to go there to help

and encourage the inmates. But what I've normally found, and

we discuss after we when we're leading, is that we

discovered that the inmates tend to help us more. If

you didn't see their uniforms that you're wearing, you would

think they were church members. Some have radiant smiles, and

some of them have a deep, deep, intimate relationship with God.

And it's as the young man already expressed, they're in

a very challenging place and they need encouragement, and that's

why we come. And some of them are serving life.

Some of them may have some family members nearby who

never come, why because of the shame family shame. There

are some I remember one in me her mom passed away.

She was not allowed to attend the funeral and she

was suicidal, but she made it through and over the

years it has been so wonderful for me personally. I

kind of wonder if I even be here today if

I haven't had not been involved with them in the

previous years. Let's see two things. One is, there are

different ways that anyone can be involved. It can take

months or maybe even years to be able to get

in just because of the security issues and other issues.

It can take a while. But the thing is that

when you come in with the team, you can either teach, preach,

offer a prayer, or perhaps you can just be there

and give the inmates company. In addition to that, if

you don't feel comfortable coming into the prison, there are

other ways you can be involved. You can be a

mentor you can be connected with an inmate one on one.

You can go to the prison and there's a special

room where you can meet with the inmate one on one,

and then you can almosto write letters. So there's a

variety of ways that you can be involved. And I

think the way I wrap this up would be with

an analogy. And we all, I think we're all familiar

with that story. Remember shad Rakneyshek and ben Goo, the

heroes in the Old Testament who willing to die for

the relationship with God. And there they were are thrown

into the oven. And then what happened? What happened after

they were thrown And do you remember.

Jesus joined them?

Someone else appeared. Someone else appeared all of a sudden,

right on time. And I just want you to know

that when we are with the inmates, we have someone

else that has joined us, and that's Jesus himself. And

what a difference that makes. What a wonderful experience that

is when we can experience that on a regular basis.

So I would highly recommend anyone to check it out.

And I know that Sister and Nita is well in

our way to getting involved with this ministry with the inmates,

and she's been been very patient, but a lot of

progress has been being made. So please pray for Anita

that she will, as soon as possible be able to

get into the jes At Prison for Women.

Thank you, Amen, Amen, God is good. Now.

I hope my passion doesn't blow anybody out of their

seats today, because this is an exciting thing. In Before

I start, let me just have a word of prayer,

an extra word of prayer. Father, I pray that your

spirit is poured out on us, that you hide me

behind the cross, that every word will exalt you, and

that we will hear your voice and follow your leading

in our lives. We'll give you all honor and glory

and praise in Jesus' name. Amen, So he hit it.

You don't go into any ministry by yourself. You go

with Jesus.

Amen.

You go in the power of the Holy Spirit. And

all my heroes are prisoners. The greatest prisoner there ever

was was arrested on Thursday night. He was flogged twice

thirty nine lashes. He was condemned as sinner and hung

on a cross. He is my hero. He was thrown

in jail before he died. You know how about John

the Baptist, another pillar of faith, had his head cut

off in prison. Jeremiah thrown in prison, Isaiah cut in two,

thrown in prison.

The list goes on and on.

All twelve disciples are all eleven disciples martyred except for

John the Baptist, and God said not yet. He was

put in boiling oil and that usually kills people, but

he needed the right revelation.

Amen.

So it's exciting to know that Jesus is our example

and he wants us to follow his example. It's really

this is more of a testimony than a sermon. But

I do have a tendency to go to the revelation.

I've had the privilege of sharing Pastor Mike's sermons in

the prison on revelation, starting with chapter one and working

right through the whole book.

Amen.

How many you liked to read the Book of Daniel

in revelation. I would highly recommend it. Jesus even said,

read Daniel the Prophet.

Amen.

Do you believe we're right there fixing in Daniel Levin,

fixing the the Daniel twelve And this thing is over,

that stone that's coming up is going to smash, and

God's kingdom is gonna last forever. I mean, that's exciting.

So to give you a little background, when I was

growing up, my dad went into the penitentiary and did

prison ministry. I was very young, this is probably about

seven eight nine years old.

And we moved out on eighty acres.

He quit going into the penitentiary, so I have that

in my mind. I moved to the Eastern Shore in

eighty eight. I had a dear sister and the Lord.

Her name is Bertha Borkele. She married someone from this congregation,

pastor Mike probably knows.

Anyway.

She told me in eighty eight, you need to do

prison ministry. I just said, no way, am I going

to do prison ministry.

It took me.

Twenty years later before it actually came about.

I started in two thousand and eight.

Unfortunately, in two thousand and four my son was incarcerated,

so I actually started going to the prison regularly every

five or six week. He was over in Virginia in Hainesville,

and I was at church in Rappahannock, Virginia, and they

had prison ministry day, can you believe it? And they

made a call whoever's going and doing prison ministry to

stand up. I had no idea it was going to

stand up, but the Lord made my legs work and

I stood up, realizing I'd been doing prison ministry, and

I got involved. In two thousand and eight, I got

a letter and it was presented at the board meeting,

is anyone interested in prison ministry? It was from another

sister church from Alleghany East there in Salisbury.

Maryland, and I said, I am.

And I took that letter home and got a hold

of Helen Steele and started going into Popular Hill and

the Annex and easy.

I So.

God has just you know, when you minister to someone,

you think you're helping them out, you're actually helping yourself out.

How many has had the Lord tell you to do something,

maybe go see someone, call someone, and you don't do it.

You put it off, and you don't have rest, you

don't have peace. And then finally you go to that

door and you knock on it and they invite you in,

and you open the word and you share with them

and you pray with them. And when you walk away,

you know it's a divine appointment and you wonder why

you put it off so long?

Have you had that experience?

Am I the only one hearing God's voice?

Is so key?

So as we pray, that's the prayer life. As we

read the Bible, he speaks to us. You know, life

gets busy. I know I raise kids and I spent

about one hundred hours with John Oxen Tanko Caven. I

can tell you story after story. We're crazy when we

do thirty hours at a time. We just don't go

in the cave and we drop thousands of feet and

come up through waterfalls, the stuff that probably isn't too

exciting the people in here, but to us, it's fun

to go in for Jesus. Is even more fun when

you have the privilege to lead someone to the foot

of the cross. And by the way, the number one

key that every one of us have in this room

is to lead another to the foot of the cross

to spend time with Jesus. That's Pastor Mike's number one

job to lead his congregation, the one to spend time

at the foot of the cross. So what drives you

to spend time at the foot of the cross?

For me? I told the Lord. I said, I'm really busy.

You know, I got a lot on my plate at work,

and I haven't had time to put a sermon together.

And what am I going to speak about? Can you

give me something? I'm going into the prison, And he said,

I'd love to. If you spend some time with me,

you're on your own. But if you just spend some

time with them every day. I guarantee you you will

have something to say to everyone that crosses your path,

because you've got some fresh bread, and going into the

prison requires you to have fresh bread. They can see

right through a phony. They can know if you're in

the word of God. We were down there Monday night

before last, and I asked the guys, we're going to

come to reaching hearts, And I said, what is it

you would like to portray to the good seven day

Adam and this folk out there, amen? And we got

several different answers. One of the leaders, his name is Rees.

He is in there for life with no parole. That

means death in prison. So if you have no chance

to see a parole officer, you are not leaving the prison.

I've known several of them in the eighteen years that

have died in prison. Usually if they get cancer, they

let him out because it's too expensive for the state.

And then I've watched him die at home. So Reese goes.

Men, you know, we know the pray, we know to

study of our Bibles, and we know the witness to others.

But I'm telling you, when you guys come in here

with a different aspect on the word of God. It

ignites us, It makes us stand tall for Jesus. He

wants us to stand tall for Jesus. It's not about numbers.

Think about this. How many Elijahs were there? Just one,

and he changed the whole course of a nation. How

many John the Baptists were there?

Just one?

The greatest prophet that ever was. Jesus said, So, I'm

gonna ask you to contemplate. I don't know how much

time I got. I hadn't even started my sermon. At

what time do we quit? Is it like twelve thirty?

Is that a good time to quit? I can get

it done because in the prison they stand up and

they give you the ten moment, and then they give

you the five moment, and man, you land that plane

quick because you don't have all day in there. So contemplate,

be seriously praying, not only for yourself, pray for me,

Pray for your pastor, pray for the leaders of this church,

that we will be excited about whatever ministry God's lays

on your heart.

Early in two thousand and.

Three, I had overworked the first week in August is asi?

How many have been to an Asi?

All right?

Well, I highly recommend going to an SI. It's the

first Wednesday of every August, so it's coming up. And

I sat through those seminars and I felt the Lord

telling me the do evangelism.

Now.

You can fight it all you want, but you know

when the Lord's speaking to you.

Amen.

And I used to walk those halls where they have

everyone up, and I'd meet all these people doing incredible ministry.

Some of them I grew up with.

Some of them were from Lincoln, Nebraska, and I said wow,

and they did, what kind of ministry are you wanting

to do? I said, I'm just praying the Lord tell

me to do something. And through that seminar that ASI

in two thousand and four, I heard the Lord say,

do mission trips. And he opened it up for us

to do some mission trips. And one of the reasons

my girls were missionaries is they had the privilege to

go with their parents and do mission trips. Man, if

you got young people, the best gift you can give

him is take him on a mission trip. I don't

even hear a amen. Come on, haven't been on a

mission trip. I'm not trying to glorify anyone, but yeah,

now here's the thing about mission trips. They cost money,

and I said, Lord, that's a lot of money. I'm

taking all my kids and everything. He said, don't worry

about the money. And by the way, I was in

debt to about eight hundred thousand dollars on his spec

house and a bunch of land when we went. God's

got the money. He needs us to sacrifice. There's a

story that David Kim tells when he moved to the

Landsling Church about two thousand and seven two thousand and eight,

when the crash happened, I sat on speck house during

that time.

For a whole year. I used a lot of toilet paper.

The church was dying.

It was right across the street from a university of

over forty thousand young people. And they were at prayer

meeting on Wednesday night. Don't you love prayer meetings. There

were four elderly people that showed up and they said,

you know, we need to pray for the Holy Spirit, pastor,

And he said, you're right, we're not going to do

it tonight. I want you to meet me at four

o'clock on Sunday morning and we will pray for the

Holy Spirit. He thought he had them four o'clock Sunday morning.

He gets there, no one showed up. He's fixing to

have a little prayer and go home, and income sleepy

eyed four souls and they started praying for out pouring

the Holy Spirit. We did that this morning, praying for

that out pouring in the Holy Spirit. It's our number one.

Without the Holy Spirit, no hearts will be subdued.

Amen.

And over the period of six months it began to

grow because there were a lot of people that wanted

to do a later time. They switched at the seven

o'clock on Sunday morning. Are you ready to meet here

Sunday morning at seven o'clock and pray for the Holy Spirit.

I mean, we just did it this morning. There were

a few of us, but check this out. The four

original people that were there early at four o'clock, they

went to the pastor and said, you know, this is okay.

This seven o'clock. We got some more numbers. But there

was something special about that four o'clock meeting when we

prayed for the Holy Spirit.

There's some he's special when you sacrifice for Jesus Christ.

I can't describe it until you do it.

And I am a nobody trying to tell somebody about

a God who can change hearts because He's changed my heart.

And this whole walk with.

As Christian walk, we find ourselves doing this up and

down all the time. We need something to keep us

up there. And sharing the bread of life is what

keeps you in the word of God. What does it

do to you? Oh, it'll set you on fire, you know.

I'll tell the short story. I got a lot of

prison stories. But one year after my son passed away.

He died on eleven eleven November eleven, Veterans Day, and

I have this saying that people ask me how you

do and I always say, it's the best day of

my life.

And it was tough to do that.

After that one year, I have a two hour Bible

study on Sabbath afternoon. Actually did some work for a

Moslem on their temple and they switched it to ten

o'clock to twelve o'clock on Sabbath morning, so we'd go

in the prison that morning. Our service starts at seven

forty five and it runs till.

Ten ten fifteen.

Are you ready to go to church at seven forty five?

That means I leave the house at six forty five. Anyway,

back to the mission. I stopped at the gravesite. Now

I know my son is in the grave, and I

knelt there and I thank the Lord for the thirty

eight years I had with them. I shed some tears,

I heard some birds. I saw the blue sky, I

saw the green grass. I felt the Lord's presence, is

what I'm trying to say. I went into the prison.

We were in the annex. This is the step before

they're released. The annex is where they can get on

work release. Okay, we simply opened the Bible to Ephesians four.

You familiar with the Ephesians, read Evisions four. I'm tempted

to read it right now. We begin always with holding

hands and praying everyone that's their praise. I encouraged, doesn't

matter how long. Say A few words.

After we read that.

We began to pray again, and we all started confessing

our sins, confessing our faults. Tears were coming down our eyes.

There was about six or seven of us there, and

the Holy Spirit poured out on us like I've never

felt before. You know, you feel this warm feeling, but

you feel that you feel the ugliness of sin. Do

you know what I'm talking about? The closer you get

to God, the more your imperfectness is in your face.

John fell as a dead man when he saw Christ.

It was a moment where everyone felt the Holy Spirit

in a way.

We felt that Monday night. You're gonna feel it when

you go in there.

But I'm gonna just say this, because the Holy Spirit's

impressed me right now. If there's someone that's done you

wrong in the past, pray for that person.

Amen.

Do good to those have treated you unfairly. Pray for

that person. The Bible says it was like keeping coals

of fire on their head.

Amen.

And yes, my youngest daughter when she turned eighteen, she

was so thrilled to go into the prison with me.

The chaplain was a the closest chaplain I've had in there.

He was Catholic Chaplain Hancock. He worked with the volunteers

in a way that no other chaplain has. All the

guys still respect Chaplin Handcock. And when he said your

daughter is eighteen, she wants to go into the prison

and preach, I said, yeah. Now, normally you get four chances.

If you're not a volunteer, they can put your name

on the list. You get four goes and then you

have to be a volunteer. He said, don't worry about

the four she can go in all she wants. Eighteen

girl once going to a men's prison where sixteen hundred

men are let her go. And she did fill the

application out and she never got an answer either.

But you know.

God's got the answer. Let me open the word. We've

read this.

I'm going to touch it really quickly.

You know, Jesus tells us in this parable exactly who's

going to be in heaven and who's not. Do you

believe that are the words in red in your Bible?

Are you worried about having a clean, perfect house before

you have company over? Let me tell you a homeless

person won't care. Amen. Are you worried about having a

delicious meal? Someone hungry won't care. You're worried about the

right clothes to wear? Someone without any clothes? Those will

use fig leaves. They don't care. So the last part

forty three on I was a stranger and you did

not take me in. I was naked and you did

not clothe me. You know, there's a lot of different

meanings to this. I've had the privilege of knocking on

doors to do a survey and actually I'm after a

Bible study.

And you stand at the door, they open the door.

You're presenting who you are and what you're doing, and

you're hoping to get invite into the house.

You can't bust into the house.

You wait patiently, hoping they invite you into the house.

And sometimes they're not interested. So you say, you simply say,

do you have a need?

Can I pray for you?

And after that prayer ninety percent of the time and

they invite you into the house.

Amen. God is knocking on the door of every heart

in there. Do you believe that.

The doorknob is on our side. We have to open

the door and invite him in. We have to invite

him in every day, all through the day. So when

it says a stranger, this is a person without Jesus Christ.

When you're naked, you're not clothed with Christ righteousness. We

have the Christ righteousness to give away.

Amen. When you're sick, you don't have Jesus.

By the way, as a testimony, I'm not bragging, but

in eighteen years I've done prison ministry, I've never been

sicked once and missed prison. You want to be healthy

all the time. Never a cold has kept me away

from prison. Never a headache has kept me away. Hail rain,

snow nothing missionary work. I can tell you some stories

where the Lord humbled me and he's still doing it.

But yes, sick or in prison, it did not minister

to you. And by the way, prison just doesn't mean

people behind bars. Prison. We are all in prison of

sin and God has the key. Oh, let's go there,

Let's go to revelation Revelation three, verse seven.

Amen.

You know one of the thrilling things is when you

read the Bible, God speaks to you. That's why it's important.

By the way, my Bible says this is the faithful Church.

How many one be the faithful church?

Amen?

I hope every hand goes up, because you'll never get

it unless.

You don't want it. I found that out a long

time ago.

And to the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia, right

these things saying, he who is holy, he who is true,

he who has the key of David, he who opens

and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens.

This Bible tells me that Jesus has the keys. I

know your works. See, I have set before you an

open door and no one can shut it, for you

have a little strength.

You have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Indeed, I will make those in Samrna of the Synagogue

of Satan who say they are Jews and are not

but lie. Indeed, I will make them come and worship

before your feet, and to know.

That I have loved you.

Because you have kept my commandments and persevere. I also

will keep you from the hour of trial which shall

come upon the whole world to test those who dwell

on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast

what you have, that no man may take your crown.

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in

the temple of my God, and he shall go out

no more. I will write on him on the name

of my God and the name of the city of

my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of

heaven my God. And I will write on him my

new name. Every one of us isn't going to get.

A new name.

Amen. He who has an ear, let him hear what

the Spirit says to the churches. And right after that

we have the church. We are Laodicea.

Amen.

Now I want to close. I'm going to jump ahead

to Revelation eighteen eighteen, verse one. This is what we

are called to do, and this is the fifth angel.

After these things, I said on another angel coming down

from heaven, having great authority, and the heaven was illuminated

with his glory, and he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying,

Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and has become

a dwelling place of demons in prison, for every foul

spirit in cage, for every unclean and hated bird, for

all the nations have drunk of the wine of the

wrath of her fornication. The kings of earth have committed

fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have

become rich through the abundance of her luxury. And here's

what we are call to do, brothers and sisters. And

I heard another voice from heaven saying, read it with me.

Come out of her, my people, lest you share in

her sins unless you receive.

Of her plagues.

It's very clear what we have our marching orders to

call people out of a false system. God's word brings

us in the unity with him. So what do we need,

according to the Layer, to see a church? We need

gold refined in the fire. You know that gold refined

in the fire is trials and tribulations for us to

get the impurities out of us. When you have a

metal has to be heated up to get the impurities

out of it. And when you have pure gold, it's transparent.

God wants us to reflect his glory. He was at

purify us. Praise God for trials and tribulations. Amen. So

what else do we need? We need that faith made

perfect through.

Testing? God tests us. What is that faith that endures

because of love?

You know, love is an incredible thing. When you love something,

it's easy. I've been caving with John Oxen Tanco. He's

worked all night long, jumped in a car with me,

gone to a cave hike two and a half miles,

dropping multiple drops, drop over a four hundred and fifty

foot waterfall, the ropes right in the water, and we

repel down there and then scoop booty for miles and

miles until he says, mister Wilson, I think it's catching

up with me. Turn around till we run out of

energy and get.

Up that rope.

There's a rope we got to get up, and Jesus

is going to get us out of that pit, that

pit of sin?

Amen?

How many wanna As you think about this and you've

been asking the Lord, what can I do?

I'm going to make a simple call this morning.

If you feel God calling you do want to do

a mission? I'm not even say in prison ministry, because

you've got to be pretty crazy to do that. I

haven't really talked about the bad parts of it. And

by the way, writing letters is great. Use your church's address,

use not your name, use secret brother, secret sister. Okay,

and always exalt Jesus.

Amen.

Keep Christ the center of your conversation. How many are

willing to come forward today and say, Lord, I want

to do more. I want to do more missions. Is

it your desire? It's your time, It's your time to

come forward. I mean, I don't need music to hear

the Lord touch me hang on, but I need to

hear God's voice. And to hear God's voice, we have

to spend some time at the foot of the cross,

because it's only the foot of the cross that we

hear God speaking to us. And when we have that connection,

we are going to go places and do things because

He's got in and directing us. Amen, is there someone

that has never done any mission work and saying I

feel the Lord calling me, I want you to come forward.

Now.

I'm not saying God's gonna fund your mission, because he

probably will used you and your talents and your gifts

to want to go, but there could be. I can

tell you lots of stories where this man from Africa

jumped on a plane he was called to go do

some evangelism.

He had no money.

He had a layover in Atlanta, Georgia, and a man

walked up with a brown paper bag and gave him

thirty thousand dollars.

He said, thank you Jesus.

He didn't say the man's name, didn't he just gave

him the bag. I'm gonna tell you when God called

you to do something, he'll give you the bag. Oh,

Pastor Mike, I want you to pray, pray for us. Oh,

I'm sorry you knew, Mike, I got your mic.

You're having.

Father, Thank you for Elder Wilson lifting up the need

to be active Christians. Father, we don't come here to

sit in a few. We'd rather have few than more.

If few doesn't work for God, and I ask in

my life right now, Lord I came forward in this

call because I want to be engaged in more ministry.

And Father, there are people here in this church who

need to be more engaged in support ministries so I

can do more ministry. There are others, Lord, who have

never ever shared Christ with their neighbors, never had a

Bible study in their home, never took a risk to

just share their walk with You. Lord, bless them. For

those who've come forward. May they realize that we don't

have years left on this planet. We have a few, maybe,

and we are meant to make a difference. Lord. Our

universe is the circle around us. So Lord, take every

one of these precious people who decided to reconsecrate their

lives to You for service and make it happen. And

may they not rely on the pastor or a nominating

committee or something like that. Help them find that niche

to make a difference. Now, Lord, I know one area here.

I know in our sabbath schools for our children. We

need more help. Every single Sabbath, we share Christ here

and kids can come to Christ.

Lord.

Tiarza this morning, who told me that she loves Jesus.

She pulled me aside say she loves Jesus. She wants

her life to be for him. Father, I'm going to

ask you right now to bless those teachers that teach

Tearsa and others. And Father, we have people who want

to get into prison ministries they can't or whatever. I mean,

you know where they need to be. But Father, right now,

there are others that are sitting here, and I want

to extend the call Lord for those those of us

who want to say I want Jesus to have one

hundred percent of my life. Right now, raise your hand

to the Lord where you're at, Just raise it high.

And Father, Elder Wilson has challenged us to not be

lateacy in Christians. The Holy Spirit has given the challenge,

and so thank you for loving us. Bless these dear people.

And Lord, I want to pray a special blessing for

Elder Wilson as well. He's going to have the benediction

after our closing song, but I want to pray for

him that you will bless him. He has done a

lot to keep my son in Christ because he's modeled

active Christianity for my boy. May he never forget it, Lord,

that my boy is close to you and a servant

of God in his church because of Elder Wilson's sacrifice

with children. Lord, there are godly men here who need

to mentor young people. May they be called to do it.

And I want to end this prayer by saying thank

you Lord, thank you for this day, and bless and

keep us for your glory in Jesus' name.

Amen, Amen,