Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 10, 2017 | Barry Feaker - What Do Mission, The Number 13, And Duct Tape Have In Common?

Transcript

September 10, 2017 | Barry Feaker - What Do Mission, The Number 13, And Duct Tape Have In Common? · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's an honor to be here today three times in a row.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully I'll get it right this time.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: This has uh been just a blessing to be at uh Topeka Bible.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's so many wonderful people in this church.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know me, I'm not Dr.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Phil.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Some guy in the first service thought I was.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so uh he's not as good looking as I am, but uh maybe smarter.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, uh it's just an honor to be with you, and uh what I want to do today is just give you a little bit of an update of how you've been involved, uh what God is doing in this community with the Topeka Rescue Mission, uh, which you notice up on the screen it says TRM Ministries.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: That is still Topeka Rescue Mission, but today it's grown.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: 65 years almost in the in this community, uh sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, glory to God.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have two approaches that we uh have seen God lead us into over these years.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one's kind of the tried and true approach that you're familiar with.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those are our services to the homeless.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we shelter a little over 2,000 different people a year, men, women, and children, some uh very, very broken, very challenged folks in this life, uh find refuge.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh some are there one night, some are there months and months and months.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so you know, it all depends on what their particular need is.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, oftentimes people said, What's the value of the Topeka Rescue Mission?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, take it away and we'll find out.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I don't think that'd be a great idea.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: We also have a street reach program that reaches out, you know, the national statistics say it takes an average of 70 contacts with a chronic homeless, unsheltered outdoor person before they will come to services, shelter or substance abuse or mental health services.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because of trust.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're out there because they by and large don't trust people.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's just that relationship that we have to develop.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you see people work with we'll work for food or we'll be out on the street somewhere, just know that we're reaching out to them and we're trying one of those 70 times that hopefully we'll be able to engage with them to get them into the kind of help that they need.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we had one guy that was on the streets for 10 years and and uh finally came into the mission and became uh a very great staff member before we went to be with Jesus, and he just couldn't believe that how his life had changed because of the good news of Jesus Christ.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then our food services, which we're known for uh throughout the the years, the decades, uh over a half a million meals are served every year now uh through the generosity of Topekans uh giving food.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the majority of our food would cost us$1.6 million to buy all the food that we served last year.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: $1.6 million, but we only spent$60,000 on food because people like you are donating the food.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Poverty is equated with violence oftentimes.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we I'm not here to talk about all that understanding and that theory today, but but let's just look at food hunger.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you don't eat lunch today and you don't eat tonight, you're gonna feel not so great when you go to bed.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's say let's don't eat tomorrow at all, and don't know where you're gonna get any food from, not just because you want to not eat, but just don't know where you're gonna get it.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Things will happen in your body that are very violent that will occur.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is that shapes what we think, what we do.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so to help people to have something on their table, you know, it sounds kind of basic to most of us, but it's really stabilizing those people.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: A number of years ago, the Lord uh shared with us that we needed to step out of the comfort zone, step out of the safety of what we were doing, if there's anything safe about homeless uh shelter work and feeding hungry people.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I want you to trust me, I want you to step out of the boat.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so our other approach is what's called community stabilization.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I mean by that is when we look at something that needs to be stabilized, it means it's out of balance.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: There is something wrong with the picture here.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so we began to diagnose our community and we began to understand where homelessness was being born, where poverty was generated.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: We found about five hot spots within the community.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord led us over into one area called Highland Crest West, which we known as High Crest.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you saw the front page of the paper today, it's all about that.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Four years later now, some phenomenal things have happened in what's called net reach for neighborhood empowerment and transformation.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, we went door to door and we said, Would you like to be on the team?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: People said, What team are you talking about?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: We said, the dream team, the dare to dream team.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like to be on a team?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: What for?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we can see a transforming of your neighborhood.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: At one time it was the highest number of infant mortality death rates in the whole state of Kansas, one of the highest number of crimes.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, more children in need of care.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: 92% of the children living in poverty.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the list went on and on.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: We said, would you like to be a part of this?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the people said, we've never been asked to be on anybody's team.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: The gangs over there weren't happy about it.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: They did a lot of pushing back the first two years.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: There was a rash of shootings.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, fortunately, the best that we understand, in the last two years, the first two years it was kind of rough.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: The last two years, there's only been one shooting in High Crest.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Crime still is not where we want it to be, but we have a number of people that are part of the Dare to Dream program for the adults.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then we found that we needed to do something with the kids called Dare to Grow because we needed to intervene, not just in one generational, but two generational approach to help those families to be stabilized in the High Crest neighborhood.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: What our hope is that we'll reduce numbers at the homeless shelter, that we won't have as many people that fall out of homelessness.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: We got the High Crest Housing Coalition, which is just awesome.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going out to Seattle in a couple of months to look at tiny homes, possibly bring those here to Topeka to see what we could do.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we're looking at many different options to try to help stabilize our neighbors in our community, to help them to understand the value that they have, not just forgotten and thrown away in a place like called High Crest.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Our distribution services we started in 2003 and basically began to find that there were many people in our community that needed more than just food.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: They needed beds, they needed appliances, they needed pots and pans, they needed tiles, they needed curtains for their homes, they needed all kinds of things for stabilization.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you donate to the rescue mission, that's where it all comes.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It goes into our different distribution areas around the community, also for people who are moving out of the mission to help stabilize them because they come in with nothing, they go out with nothing unless we give it to them.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Also, we have a couple of thrift stores in the distribution services.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one is our boutique on the boulevard.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been there, go there.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you have been there or you go there, buy something, it supports the rescue mission, which then helps supports education services.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have uh different approaches to education.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is called the CARE program: career readiness and education, not just getting a job, but finding out what you're really skilled to do, working with job coaches, helping people to understand their value in life, mentor, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then working with employers in the community to help secure jobs.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Part of the care program, career readiness and education, is people actually doing internships with employers.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're an employer, you're interested in doing something like that, you can have somebody for free for about six weeks out of 12 weeks that actually comes to the job site.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're graduating now in one of those most successful programs, about 40 people a year, and that's exciting.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it's working so well, our goal is that in 10 years, we graduate a thousand a year.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what it would be like?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: A thousand homeless people that came in jobless, that walked out every year and got jobs?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's stabilization.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: We also have a program called the Service and Training.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a one-year biblically based program for people who are really, really going through a rough patch in life that need to learn about the good news of Jesus Christ and really be able to work around the mission in kind of a sheltered workshop.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's birthed out of that is a two-year program called the Center for Biblical Leadership Development.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually certified through the Urban Ministry Institute, which is part of World Impact, which creates missionaries around the world to pastor different indigenous people.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we found is that we've got a two-year program now that is seminary level, that actually, if you graduate from that, you're eligible for fuller theological master's program now.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we graduated our first three here just a few months ago.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's intense, it's two years.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you what, I'm glad I don't have to take those courses, but it's phenomenal in the education area.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Also over in Highcrest, we have what's called Networks, a job training program that's shorter for the residents over there.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you have heard of Doxazo, Doxazo Ministries.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a Greek word for glorify.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's my replacement, I hope.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is these young kids are high school and college age level, what we're asking of them is to examine their call in life.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they on the earth?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: What are they doing?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Some are going to be doctors, some are going to be nurses, police officers, teachers, truck drivers.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: The list goes on and on and on.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what they're going to be or is that what they're going to do?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But what are they?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are they a missionary that happens to be a doctor, nurse, truck driver, police officer, teacher?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or are they a teacher, so on and so forth, that happens to do mission work?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to flip that whole understanding.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got some excited kids that are doing urban missionary work right now to be able to go out and really change the earth for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: High school and college-age kids, some of the most precious, wonderful young people.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Some are involved in this church as well.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Our children's palace, I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's phenomenal, miraculously built.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Millions of dollars came in, never really had to ask anybody for it.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing what God did to take care of the littles, and I'll talk about that.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, our stabilization is something called Restore Hope.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Going to talk a little bit more about that.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to hit that pretty hard today.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a tough subject, but it's called sex trafficking within our own community.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't know what goes on, before you leave today, I'm going to help you understand that.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do we have today?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nine ministries.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Shelter, streets, food services, net reach, distribution services, education, doxazo, children's palace, restore hope.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: All interwoven to work together in a systematic approach to help not only reduce poverty, but to help share the good news of Jesus Christ for stabilization and helping people in our community.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm thankful that Jim asked me to come speak today.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I said, uh I said, You're going to be here, right?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, he's going to be in Honduras.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, that's really too bad.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I really love coming to Topeka Bible.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I said, But uh, men, are you gonna miss something?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: I said in the words of uh our current president, it's gonna be huge, it's gonna be really huge.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he said he was still going to Honduras.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So uh anyway, but I said, Jim, you know, I've met some of those compassionate people, and Topeka Bible's got them.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, greatest servants.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: They lay down their life, they they do some amazing things.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so do some other churches around town.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so do some other people I've met around the world.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but you know, 31 years in the business now, one thing I've never stopped to ask, who's the smartest?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, What do you mean?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, I'm kind of on a quest now.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know how much longer I'm gonna do this before I leave.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's one thing I want to find out.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who are the smartest Christians in Topeka?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what he said without thinking?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Duh.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then he kind of looked up in the sky and he rubbed his little beard.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know how he does?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well, maybe not.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: He said, actually, they're the smartest Christians in the world.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So he's labeled you that today.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, you know, Jim, that's a pretty tall order.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I said, uh, I'm not so sure.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're great people, they're smart, but the smartest in the world?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Yep, pretty, pretty convinced.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, without asking him if it was okay, I decided to come up with a test today.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to find out.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I have um I've got three words, actually, two words and an object here that I'm going to uh show you.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what you're gonna try to do is you're gonna try to see what the relationship between them is.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh don't answer this.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've heard the answer to this before, you're eligible to win the prize.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll show you what the prize is in a minute.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you um if you uh have been to a Nazarene church, a Baptist church, a Methodist church, a Presbyterian church, assembly church, and some Mennonites.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've shared this with them to see if they're the smartest.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there's some pretty smart people out there.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Those Mennonites, I'm gonna tell you what, they take it away.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: But uh anyway, I'm just gonna see if you guys are the smartest, see if you get it the fastest.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So here it is.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: What is the word mission?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: The number 13.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I see Patrick Vinson over here, he's studying this thing, man.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: That guy's smart, I'll tell you what.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And duct tape have in common.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, don't answer that.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: This will come at the end of the time here today.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do mission?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: The number 13, duct tape all have in common.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you were kind of going to sleep or anything, I just wanted to let you know that today, as a very special prize, I have a never before used.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Brand new in the package, silver plated roll of duct tape for whoever gets the answer to this.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not all.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've seen the TV commercials, that's not all.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I have a gold-plated, never before used, which you're gonna be really happy about.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Never before used, giant Twix bar set.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's what's at stake here.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I like about this service?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are more awake than the other two because nobody cheered.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is fun.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk about what do all of those have in common.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the first two services, they were kind of sleepy, you know, so I thought, you know, I would just uh kind of give them a pretest.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you guys don't need this, but I'm gonna give it to you anyway.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of get you warmed up here a little bit.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: The first question, no prize for these.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Is it easier to serve a bowl of soup to someone who's hungry?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or shoot a basket from half court blindfolded?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: What would be your answer?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: A divided church.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: When Jim gets back, he said, You split my church over a question.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I know what the K-staters would say, obviously.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: They would say, shoot a basket from half-court, you know, blindfolded.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: They would be lying because they're K-Stators.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but I went there.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, probably most people would say, you know, probably somebody's hungry, you just give them a bowl soup.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that was an easy one.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, number two.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is it easier to shelter over 2,000 homeless men, women, and children every year, or send a spaceship into outer space and circle the earth?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think is easier?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's getting tougher.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're not getting all that chatter.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's easier to shelter?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: How many say shelter?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
• 13:42
  unknown: Okay.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: How many say say spaceship around the earth?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, another divided church.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, some people say it's easier to shelter, and I say, you haven't trade it.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, okay.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's no correct answer to that.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's here's an important one.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is it easier to put a man on the moon or solve poverty?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: How many say, how many say solve poverty?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: How many say put a man on the moon?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, smart people.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get this.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be good.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is gonna be good.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, on May 25th, 1961, President John F.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Kennedy announced his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was pretty ambitious to say the least.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today we say, oh, that's already been done, no big deal.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: But back then it was huge, really huge.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so what happened on July 20th, 69, those fellows landed on that, got around, picked up some rocks, came back home.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was there, I saw it, not on the moon, on black and white TV as a kid.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: However, on January 8th, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared the war on poverty with the Congress to say poverty is killing America.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Poverty is destroying our country.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: We need to declare war on it.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: We don't just need to do some nice things, we need to declare war on it.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the Congress agreed with him.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And did you know that this war, as vicious as it was then, has been the longest war in American history.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Longer than the war on drugs, longer than the war on terror, longer than any other wars has been the war on poverty.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yet today, today, after 53 years, there are 10.5 million more people on the poverty rolls than there were in 1964.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we spent$22 trillion of your tax dollars on poverty programs.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, was it a bad idea?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great idea.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: That we want to go and want to help people.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, it was missing some essential elements.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: This whole idea of war maybe wasn't taken seriously like it ought to be taken.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe wasn't taken like many Americans today don't really understand what war is really like.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you do, some of you have lived through that, some of you have served, like the colonel.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Some of others of you have served, you've been on the front lines, a nom or somewhere else.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: But many of us don't understand.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: War is really fought over two different things.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one is ideologies that don't come together and it gets political, and people do stupid stuff, and then somebody says something, and somebody goes to war, and a lot of innocent people get hurt.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Another reason war happens is because we are there to stop somebody from hurting people we love.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody who's going to bring harm to us.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the point.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's 7.5 billion people in the earth today.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: The highest population that we've had to date, 7.5 billion people.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the truth.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: The majority of them are going to be harmed eternally because of their separation from God.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ouch.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is gonna get serious as we go along.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: What I said to the last two services, at the end of this, you're gonna really hate me or you're gonna tolerate me.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you'll love me.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're gonna go into some really deep stuff here today.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Really deep stuff.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have a world that's bound for hell.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: But we have an opportunity to do something because of the military that God has brought together.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's ideologies that you're looking at, forget it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about Christians against Muslims.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's already been tried, and vice versa, or Hindus or whatever.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about Baptists and Nazarenes.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, forget that.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: What we're talking about is the enemy in spiritual forces.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, the Bible actually points it out this way.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: We don't wrestle against spirit flesh and blood, but we wrestle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about doing stuff just physically here.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, physical is important, natural is important, but we're talking about supernatural.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are a Christian, because God called you, He did something supernatural in you.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot make yourself saved.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot make yourself worthy to go to heaven.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some people say, hey, we're doing all these great things.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: God's gonna let you in the pearly gates.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, he's not gonna let me in the pearly gates based upon anything that I've done.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's only gonna let me in the pearly gates because of his position that he has already secured for me and the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ on the cross.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's the good news that we get to share with the whole world.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's what transforms people.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what transforms people.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what I'm looking at?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at God's army right now.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at God's army right now.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, is God army, does God's army understand what they're up against?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Did you sign up for this war?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: You said, I just don't want to go to hell.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go to hell.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want nobody wants to go to hell.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get fire insurance, okay?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: You signed up for the army because not only is nothing required of you to be saved, everything's required of you now.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: You have to give your whole life over to him because he gave his whole life to us.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he's got a special assignment for each one of us.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love this prayer.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty cool one.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever heard it.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Give us this day your daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've ever heard that before, you probably have heard it so many times and said it so many times.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing you get stumped on is that debtors trespasses or sin.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Which one do we do?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody gets real silent during that part, you know, depends where you are.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: But here's a key part of this.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this question Can you be in two places at one time?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Another tough one.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: People are saying, no, I don't think so.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I'm in two places right now.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in this building and the one across the street.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that cool?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Technology.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Simulcast.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Also, if you're looking at your cell phone right now, it's alright, you're probably just looking up, you know, scripture.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you're in two places right now mentally.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're thinking about, well, I can't wait to get home to eat because he told me about food and hunger and I'm really hungry.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can be in two places at one time.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, part of this scripture says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of us think that that's future tense, and it is, but it's also present tense.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: How so?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the kingdom of God on earth.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: He said, If you love me and keep my commandments, I will be in you, and you will be in me.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that awesome?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I do those things I see the Father doing, and greater things are you going to be doing.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So the cool thing about it is there's a simulcast going on right now in this church this morning that God is doing something in heaven through his son, through his Holy Spirit, inside of you and inside of me.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're having this conversation right now.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the cool part of all this is that this war that we've been called to fight is not God up here in heaven going, I hope you do a good job.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: This war in heaven is being fought there and here at the same time.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to know that connection.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 1 30 says that you are seated in Christ right now.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, present tense.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: You are seated in Christ right now.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Where's Christ right now?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: At the right hand of the Father.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Guess where you're hanging out?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: At the right hand of the Father.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: We do that by faith in Jesus Christ because of our position supernatural that he put us.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: So recognizing the war.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then we can embrace this stuff.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Give justice to the poor and the orphan, uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute, rescue the poor and the helpless, deliver them from the grasp of evil people.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's a commandment.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a, oh, that's a nice thing to do for Mary to do.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's for all of us to do, depending upon what God calls us to do in that particular approach that He's called us to do.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lady I met with last week, a dear sister, never met with her before, didn't even know she existed.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: She came to Topeka, Kansas, was told to come see me.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: So she walked in my office.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I got a call from somebody I know from the DC area, and they said, You need to visit with this gal?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, fine.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: She comes in, she says, What's her agenda?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't know.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: She said, No, I don't know.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was just told to come see you.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I said, okay, let's swap stories.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: What are we doing here?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, many years ago, I went through a really tough time in my life.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: I really did.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I did, it was horrible.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought the world was over.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then I found Jesus.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came into my life and he rescued me.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And today, 30 years later, my life is amazing.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And she was so on fire for Christ, you could just see her glowing.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so she said, What I found is that I am a prayer warrior.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Ooh, I'm scared of people like you.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, awesome.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, you know what?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I began to pray.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: One day God directed me to pray for this place called Nigeria.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as I prayed, I began to learn it's the largest country in Africa.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the persecution that's going on over in Nigeria is off the charts.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, then I learned about 276 girls who had been kidnapped by a group called Boko Haram.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I began to pray for them, as we all did.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Boko Haram, rough translation is Western civilization is forbidden.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's an Islamic group that some people believe is becoming more powerful than ISIS right now because of their terroristic.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: We don't hear a whole lot about Boko Haram.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: We hear about ISIS or ISIS.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, My eyes were opened to what's going on in this country.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was praying and praying and praying.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: God, send help, send help, send help, but don't send me.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, I know where that's going.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: She said, I met a lady who was standing up to this, came over to the United States, and she said, I met this woman.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And my heart broke for her because she's standing by herself.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And no one's standing around her.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: And she's holding the hands of the mothers waiting for their children, holding the hands of the dads, trying to get the government to do things.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: She's native Nigerian.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And God broke my heart.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, Go to Nigeria.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Barry, I'm in Nigeria.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what to do.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I bet you're seeing some horrible things.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: She said, You have no idea what's going on.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: The media does not report.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: You think all those 276 were returned?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: She said, the government of Nigeria has got corruption in it.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we know that about a lot of countries around the world.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Well, Nigeria is half Muslim, half Christian.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: She said, the Christians are watered down.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're on the take, they're taking food, they're taking different things.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: She was sharing these things.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't share her name with you or the organization she's working with today because there's a target on her.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: A target.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so she said, I've been in there three years, and last week I saw five children get beheaded.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then I said to her, This, you're at war.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And my question to you is, who gets to do this?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: She said, What?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's 7.5 billion people on the world.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Who has been called to go to Nigeria?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who gets to do this?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you think that's kind of special?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, Oh, I never thought about it that way.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Here's your trouble.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: You see the horror of it.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: The horror of it.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: But what God will show you is the victory in it.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: When we go to war, we will see horror.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you about some things in a minute that are going to be horrible.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that in the last 10 years, according to the Center for Study of Global Christianity, that 900,000 Christians have been martyred in the world in the last 10 years?
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's 90,000 Christians every single year that have been martyred, best that they can tell.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's one every six minutes that have been martyred.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: We get to come to TBC today and we get air conditioning and we have sound systems and we can simulcast and we get to go out to lunch wherever we want to get to go to after we're done.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that's wrong.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's that we're the same soldiers as the ones that are getting martyred.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: God hasn't called me to Nigeria yet.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: He may not have called you to Nigeria yet, but he called her.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when I said the victory in it, the Holy Spirit spoke to both of us and we began to weep.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're here for.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're here to be in the war.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Not to say, hey, I'm a soldier in the war.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I'm going to kind of cruise on through until I go to heaven.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, uh-uh.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because one day we're going to look at what God put before us and we're going to say, God, I missed it, or God, thank you that I got in it.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason we don't do it is because we're afraid.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: She was afraid.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: She said, God, don't send me to Nigeria.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm going to send you to Nigeria.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: You get to do this.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Question is, what do you get to do?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: What do you get to do that nobody else gets to do?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful sister.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: So what's going on here?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: In this war.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: God's called us to speak up for the poor, the helpless, to see that they get justice.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: This city's doing this, this church is doing this.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're supporting a rescue mission.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Individually, you're supporting a rescue mission in a ministry.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we're being stretched.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're really being stretched right now.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's what God does with us.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to go to High Crest.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: I used to live there when I was a youth pastor years ago.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I said, God, I don't ever want to go back there.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: But one day when a five-year-old girl was shot and she was on life support, and I was standing in front of 60 residents, and they said, You're an outsider.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know what it's like over here.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're scared to death.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: We do not want any more gang shootings over here.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: We want to quit.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I understand.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I understood it when I lived down the street on Fremont years ago.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: They said, You used to live over here.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to be in High Crest again.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was just that right there that did it.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, You're one of us.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: We got to go where the broken are.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: We got to go where we can speak for the poor and the helpless.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: We got to go all over the world.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, you're here in Topeka, Kansas.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: What is God calling us to do?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: A number of years ago, our street reach team was in abandoned homes and drug houses and different places reaching the women who were in and out of homelessness and addicted.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a group of women in a couple of houses saying, We need out of here.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Can you help us escape this place?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we said, Okay, come on.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Come on down to the rescue mission.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they were saying, No, you don't understand.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: We can't.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean you can't?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're not allowed to.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean you're not allowed to?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: We just can't.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can't say anymore.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we began to discuss and we began to pray, and we said, is that slavery stuff going on here?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is that people being bound?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is that that sex trafficking?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so we began to study it, and in 2014 we found that sure enough, in our own community, that we had identified four women who were victims of sex trafficking in 2014.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: By 2015, we had learned a whole lot more about this issue, and we had worked with 45 some young men who had been victims of trafficking.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: We still didn't know what we were doing.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: But because of a newspaper and some television programming in early 2016, it kind of blew the lid off of this thing.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I wrote an article for the Capitol Journal, and calls started coming in, and one mother called and she says, My daughter was a victim of trafficking out of a church camp years ago.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: And now she is a sex slave right here in our community, and I can't get anybody to do anything.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Will you rescue my daughter?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it took one year to rescue her, to get her away from the traffickers.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: But by the end of 2016, last year, we'd worked with 92 victims of sex slavery in our community.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Which caused us to work with a variety of different entities across the board in regards to this issue, social services, some in the church, local law enforcement, FBI, KBI, federal marshals, the Department of Justice, the District Attorney's Office, all working together now to try to figure out what in the world's going on in Topeka, Kansas.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And finding out that there are stories that would shock you, would terrify you, that were unbelievable that are happening to people in our own community.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: I remember sitting down with one woman who had been trafficked for 20 years, and she was sharing about how her value was zeroed out.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: She's about 35 at this time, 20 years being trafficked.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And there's going to be an article that's going to come out that's going to talk about her story in a kind of an abstract way next month in our newsletter.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: But she said, I was in a garage one day and I was servicing that particular day, I was servicing 12 men.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that was hot and it was terrible and it was horrible, and I felt like there was just nothing to live for.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this voice came to me and spoke to me and says, I love you.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't know what love was.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're not always going to be here.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've been with you ever since that day when you were three years old that your uncle walked into the room and took advantage of you.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've been with you over and over and over again.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And soon I'm going to bring you out of this.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Soon you're going to find your way to rescue.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: Soon you're going to find yourself helping other people because of my immense love for you.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time that she is servicing these horrible men.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it gave her hope.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: It gave her hope.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: She found her way to us, found her way to restoration, found her way to what's called restore hope.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: So far this year, we've worked with just under 100 this year.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we're so only scratching the surface.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: These stories that we hear of women chained up in basements in our own community who are shot up with meth are so unbelievable.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: When they come into an emergency room, they come looking, they're drugged up on methamphetamines, they look mentally ill, they're emaciated, and they make a repeat cycle back through the emergency room after sexual assault, after sexual assault, and somebody can look at them and say there's a crazy drug addict.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: But now our hospitals are looking at it differently and they're assessing it and they're going, wait a minute, they score high on the trafficking end of things, and so they call Restore Hope, a division of Topeka Rescue Mission, to be able to go in and to develop a relationship.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Of the nearly 100 this year, 50% we've been able to get into a stabilized environment, the other 50% we haven't because we don't have resources yet.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Three weeks ago, last Friday, sitting in my office was one of the city's biggest meth distributors, Crystal Met.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'm out.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm out.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he had a literal come to Jesus meeting.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: The reason being is he turned on his traffickers, said some things he shouldn't have said, and they set him up and tried to blow him away with a shotgun.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: He uh barely has one of his arms left.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he's come back to Jesus because the people who had been reaching out to the victims of trafficking heard about him and reached out to him too in the hospital and introduced him to the hope of Jesus Christ.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you folks, there's power in this.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know it, you got it, you received it.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: You got to share it.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: They went and shared with him.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's sitting on my couch, he's crying.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's been dealing with meth for years as one of the top guys in town, and he verified all the things that we'd heard.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: He began to say, This guy's over here, this guy's over here, they got this ring over here.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's a 28 identifications of homes in our community.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we hooked him up with our law enforcement and got him out of Topeka, Kansas, and he's staying in connection with us now every single day as a soldier on the front line because he knows that one day he's gonna meet Jesus face to face.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Trafficking in our community.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say this, guys.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say this in the first service, I took it in the second one, and after I said this, a bunch of women came up to me afterwards and said, please share this in this service.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is hard.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is really hard.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta stop looking at pornography.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking at pornography, you've got to stop.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Two main reasons.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: One is personal.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's proven now medically that when a man looks at pornographic images on a magazine or on a screen, that his brain begins to shape differently.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that the images that he saw last month are not good enough, he has to see something more graphic and more graphic and more graphic.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually it will create a desire in him to not watch it, but do it.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, what it does is it destroys biochemically his ability to have a natural relationship with his wife.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Proven now.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Proven.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Young men, parents, you gotta get a hold of this internet.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, a prosecutor asked me about a year ago, he said, Do you understand that at one time pornography was the largest industry on the internet sales?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I believe I do understand that.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Not anymore.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I didn't know that.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Do you know it's primarily free on the internet today?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you can run into it almost everywhere you go, one version of it or another.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, Why would the pornographers give up their money?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because they made all they wanted?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said, they didn't give it up, but they use it as something that you will understand.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, gateway?
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, absolutely, it's a gateway.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's the beginning, it's an introduction to something that they'll have to have more of.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a drug dealer, you don't go up and give somebody, unless you think you can get by with it, crystal meth to start out with.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: You get them hooked on a joint, some marijuana, get them drinking a little bit, maybe then to coke, then they go on into heroin or methamphetamines.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's a gateway drug.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Marijuana is.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: Beer is a gateway, alcohol to something harder.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pornography, free on the internet, is a gateway to what?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Trafficking.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, Who do you think's paying for this?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Traffickers?
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: He said yes.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he began to describe to me the global epidemic of this issue.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he's been to Thailand.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, he brought the prosecutor brought back a Thai prosecutor so we could talk about what's going on in Bangkok and how they're trying to address this.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: I would learn through Exodus Cry, which is a human trafficking ministry up in Kansas City that goes globally, that today there are one million transactions for legalized sex every single day in the country of Germany.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: One million every single day in Germany.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't make that up, got that from people doing the research.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so on the internet today, we have women who are performing these acts with men as victims primarily of trafficking.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that men will get hooked and have to go pay for it themselves.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is a hideous crime.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: But right here in our own community, not over there in Nigeria, not across the sea, but right here in our community.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: And now my eyes have been opened to what I see with the brokenness of 100% of the women who come to the Topeka Rescue Mission for shelter have been vandalized and violated sexually.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've never met one that hasn't.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: And now I begin to understand the magnitude of this.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Kansas was known as a free state.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Kansas was known as a place that you could come when you were a slave to get away from oppression and tyranny of slavery.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: We were abolitionists, maybe not always in the positive sense, but we fought against it.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have a new modern-day slavery, and I believe Kansas is going to be on the mark again to be able to lead the nation in abolitionism to free the new slave.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's you.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a children's palace.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to hit this early.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: All these children that are coming to us are part of generational poverty.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Problem is that they don't know who they are and their parents don't know who they are.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're a royalty in God's side and in ours.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: So we create a palace so that they would understand how special and precious they are.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: We've got kids who are who are two and three years old that are self-mutilating.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: That we have to work with for two or three or four or five hours to help them just to be stabilized because they're so afraid of their environment around them.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: What's happening because of the trauma that's going on in their little lives at this point is their brains are forming differently.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: What you see is a healthy brain, the one on the right is the temporal lobes and they're diseased, they're broken because in the first three to five years of development, uh, that frontal lobe, when there is food insecurity, there's violence, there's uh there's there's there's drugs, there are all kinds of things.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're not nurtured.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: The frontal lobe doesn't develop right.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what will happen later on in life, and this is science now, they'd be going into these impoverished neighborhoods and saying, how come we see this consistency in families?
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Passing down the generation?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: How come they don't how come they can't learn?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: How come they can't hold down a job?
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: How come they turn to drugs?
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: How come they turn to gangs?
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: How come they turn to trafficking and crimes?
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's because they are damaged and they don't have the capacity.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't take care of it in the first three to five years, you're not going to get it.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: This I call Operation Reboot.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're rebooting the minds of homeless children in our community that we will not know if it works until 20 years, but the science says it will.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: And our missionaries, that's exactly what they're doing.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're wrapping around these little kids and loving on them and nurturing them, and some of them haven't been held, some of them haven't had their diapers changed, haven't been fed right, they've had uh Kool-Aid put in their mouth, they haven't had proper nutrition.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and also at the same time they're reaching out to moms and dads and saying, we know you're broken, we know you're hurting, but let's show you how to know that parenting is a gift.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a program called PIG P-I-G.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Parenting is a gift, and they get to be in that program at the same time we're working with the kids right here in our community.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is war.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, fast forward.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: We face natural problems that need supernatural solutions.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Granted, all of this we cannot face in the natural.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: The war in poverty failed because he tried to deal with it in the natural.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: We have the supernatural.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: You are already secured in Jesus Christ.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're supernatural already, you're already positioned with Christ in the heavens.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: The disciples came to Jesus.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: There were 5,000 plus women and children that were hungry.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, We don't have anything to feed them.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, tell them to go home.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, go ahead and feed them.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they came back to him in somewhat of a protest, saying, Oh, we have some loaves and fish here.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's all we got.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And did Jesus say, Oops, yeah, you're right, sorry.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: No problem.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Give it to me.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we love it when the Lord says, Give it to me.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Lord, take it all.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Give it to me.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so he took it and blessed it.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Fellas, you're not done yet.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and feed them.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know Jesus Christ is involved in feeding people in Topeka, Kansas, but I've never seen him open a can of green beans yet.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's you.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Or wash a dish.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: But he touches your heart to make it happen.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so they had a crucial decision to make.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are we going to step out of our comfort zone, which would be to go home and leave this scene behind?
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do we really want to embarrass ourselves by carrying just a few loaves and fish out and it's done?
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then everybody's mad because those guys got it and these guys didn't?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or do we believe him?
• 41:41
  unknown: Ooh.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Do we believe him?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: In High Crest last Christmas dinner, we ran out of food.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: We underestimated the number of people who are going to come.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm starting to panic.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: We've got nearly a hundred people that haven't been fed yet.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I pulled the team together out in the hallway at the Avondale East Gymnasium there, and I said, Oh, we're not sending them home without anything.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's not going to happen.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go down to that 7-Eleven quick shop around the corner and let's buy all the chips they got and all the beef jerky they got.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're giving them something.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: One young man by the name of Brandon, he goes to Warshburn.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's on our staff working with the youth.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: He said, How about we pray?
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, that part.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I don't know how you're gonna do it.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: But get us down to the quick shop fast or do something.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we got done praying, and I'm still making plans to go to the quick shop.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen this happen so many times.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I didn't that day.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: But uh right after that, one of the cooks from the church came up and said, Hey, guess what we found?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have a whole extra roaster of turkey.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then somebody says, Hey, look, I got a whole bunch of extra mashed potatoes over here in another place that we didn't know we had.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then somebody says, Hey, you know, we got cans of green beans, we can warm those up really fast.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they had everything taken care of with some left over.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, in this day and age, not a story.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: They fed the 5,000, plus women and children.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were excited.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: They saw what God had done.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, sometimes when we do that, we kind of forget about it, or something, the next obstacle comes up to us in this war, and we fail.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: The guys went out to serve, or excuse me, out in a boat on the stormy sea later that same day, and they were fearful for their life.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: They just saw God do an amazing thing through his son Jesus Christ to feed all these people.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was a glorious day.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're afraid they're gonna die, which got even worse when they saw a ghost walking on the water.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Oh no, it's a ghost.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus said, Do not be afraid of design.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this is key.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Peter answered him, Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: On the water.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: Not row, but step out of the boat.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Command me to come to you.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter got out of the boat after Jesus said, Come.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he walked on the water and came to Jesus.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know how long he walked.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: We just know it was amazing.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Until the storm came up and he took his eyes off the Lord, and we know the rest of that story.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: He began to sink.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus went over to him and says, Ye have a little faith, die, sucker, drown, sorry, you know.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: See you in eternity.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: Next.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's not our God.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: We think that's our God.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, but as Peter was going down, he cried out, Lord, save me.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord did.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: He grabbed a hold of him, pulled him up.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what did he do?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: He put him back in the boat.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Why did you doubt?
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you doubt?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: The world is looking for us to quit doubting, quit finding excuses, and to get in the game, to fight the war.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Victims of trafficking today that are being drugged up.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Children that are dying from nutrition and not getting their brains shaped.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: More homeless people coming to us than ever before.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Neighborhoods like High Crest, all those things are great.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not enough yet.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't won this war.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, are we going to step out of the boat after we've identified that the Lord is doing something?
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: If he says come, will you come?
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: If he says join, will you join?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I conclude today by asking the question: what is the word mission?
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: What does the number 13 and duct tape have in common?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Any hands?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Smartest church in the world.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: Who's afraid to step out of the boat?
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, ma'am.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: Bingo.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why duct tape?
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Give her a hand.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: She won the duct tape and the candy bar.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't hard.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so she said Apollo 13.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: On April 13th, 1970, Apollo 13 went up to go to the moon.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: They were on a mission, right?
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: To go to the moon.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was their mission.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: As they blasted off.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, on their way to the moon, an explosion occurred on the spacecraft.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: Bad timing.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: Apollo 13, 13th, all of that.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: It exploded.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now they had a problem.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to have three dead astronauts in outer space, the whole world's watching.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's an expectation.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know there's an expectation on you and me as believers?
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're not just scooting through this.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you know God.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know the one.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: The way, the truth, and the life.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's an expectation on that.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: There was an expectation on mission control in Houston to get them back.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, the mission wasn't over.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: It just got changed a little bit.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the change part was we've got to get them back safely.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to land on the moon today, but we're going to get them back safely.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so they brought all the engineers together and they couldn't figure it out.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the one in charge said, it's not acceptable.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: You will figure it out.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're not bringing back three dead astronauts.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they worked tirelessly, day and night, and still no answers, until one guy came to him, kind of stepping out of his comfort zone on faith, and he said, Tear the manual up.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: Tear everything we know up.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do it over again.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: They said, What in the world are you talking about?
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: Make a box out of the manual.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, make a box out of the manual?
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, make a box.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just do what I say.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: Tear it up, make a box.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now tell the astronauts to take their socks off.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: Make a hole in one side of the box and stick their socks in there.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: That is a filtration system that's going to filter the carbon monoxide that's coming out of their breath that's going to kill them and hook the other end onto a hose because your filtration system is what's broken on this spacecraft.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, How are we going to hold it together?
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Would you believe somebody thought ahead and put duct tape on a spaceship?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they held that together with duct tape.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I share this today with you is that sometimes God puts what we need right in front of us.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right in front of us.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: They got back safely.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: In this war today that is still raging on poverty in the United States.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: God has given us some tools.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the biggest tools is this.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is a Titanic.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Unsinkable cruise ship, right?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody dancing, playing, having a great time, all this kind of stuff.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's going down.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's going down.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of it, you will say, why did we ever get on that boat?
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: God's called an army of people together who are simulcasting with Jesus Christ right now because he's at the right hand of the Father.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: He is in you.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're in him.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you can trust him.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can get out of the boat.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're going to sink a few times.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've sunk plenty of times.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've cried out, God, forgive me, save me.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I will.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Here's the boat I want you on.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: I want you on a battleship.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: I want you on a battleship, but just know this: you're not alone.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole bunch of others with you.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't draw anybody out in this meeting today in either service, but I want to draw one guy out in this service today, and that's Ron Lutz.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's here somewhere.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: Ron Lutz stood with me in a parking lot at McDonald's 31 years ago, because I wanted out of the game in this rescue mission after six months.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he counseled me and he talked to me, and he basically said this.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you're supposed to do it, do it.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: If this is your assignment, do it.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: If it's not, get out of the way and let the right guy in.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I went home that night and said, Is this that plain?
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is this that serious?
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: 31 years later, Ron, thank you for having the boldness to stand up with me in the armada and help me to understand I wasn't alone and that God has a special assignment for me and every single one of you in here.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that we can do this.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: Share the good news of Jesus Christ for now and for eternity.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Please join me in prayer.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you for Topeka Bible Church.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for my brothers and sisters here.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you that they are so committed and dedicated to you.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I just pray that you would translate everything personally today that was said.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the ugliness, some of the harshness, some of the things that I couldn't even say because it would be too revealing.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: But help people to understand, help us understand that we're not on a cruise ship until eternity.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're on a battleship as we go into eternity.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to take some hits.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to shoot back.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go down fighting because you have gone there before us and are in the heavenly realms doing it today.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: Bless my brothers and sisters as we march forward in this great war of eternity.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you.