Crossroads Live at 11:30 a.m.

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to crossroads we are so thankful that you have chosen to join us for today's experience and in just a moment our band will come out and lead us through a time of worship and then we will hear a powerful message rooted in god's word all together we'll be in this experience for just about an hour and if this is your first time with us we would love the opportunity to connect with you if you're online all you have to do is text new to 55757 and if you're here with us in person you can scan that qr code on the seat back in front of you all just to say thank you for worshipping with us today we would like to buy you a cup of coffee but once again from all of us here at crossroads thank you for joining us let's get ready to worship we invite you to help us worship the lord on today he's worthy of all the praise he's worthy of all the glory he's worthy of all the honor come on put your hands together like this [Music] if you know it sing with us i give you glory for all you've brought me through and now i'm ready for whatever you want to do i'm moving forward after you and now i'm ready for whatever you want to do [Music] [Music] your presence [Music] so come [Music] in down season grace [Music] the best is [Music] [Music] is [Music] are you ready to invite him in because his presence [Music] is good [Music] come on [Music] breakthrough is [Music] is [Music] maybe a promise and it won't stop now [Music] your presence your presence [Music] come on everybody your present please [Music] jesus is faithful amen whether we are on the mountaintop or we are in the valley let him find us praising his name no matter what comes let's continue to worship this morning we need some help this morning [Music] you showed up [Music] me [Music] with all your [Music] is [Music] never stops so why would i assume you'd be somebody that you're not like the sun in the morning every day [Music] [Music] [Music] he's [Music] [Music] when the sun goes down love them in the morning love them when the sun goes your down no matter what caused all your mercies [Music] [Music] god almighty [Music] jesus when the sun goes down jesus in the morning jesus in the news jesus when the sun goes down all right i don't know about you but i need jesus all day all day and night amen and i'm so glad that he's present he never leaves us and his mercy is new every single morning he understands us he's the king of our hearts says we sing this song let's just focus our heart on him and let the king of my heart be the mountain where [Music] let the king of my heart be the shadow where [Music] i wanna lift it up you are good you're good you are good you're good [Music] inside my sails [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] you are good you're good [Music] [Music] you're [Music] [Music] oh [Music] you're good you are good you're good you are good you're good [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] you could [Music] you're good [Music] you're good come on you're good [Music] [Music] you are good in [Music] we're so thankful for his goodness we believe he's good amen he never stops being good thank [Music] you good morning crossroads will you pray with me heavenly father we love you because you first loved us thank you for the privilege of worshiping you in your house today we are so grateful for what you have done we are not worthy for all that you've done for us through jesus as we remember jesus sacrificed on the cross for us may we honor you as we take this bread that represents jesus body and the juice that represents his blood that was poured out for us you've loved us through your son jesus and may we love you back with everything we've got father for those watching online and here on campus that have not accepted jesus as their lord and savior i pray father that they hear the message of salvation and they take that first step of faith so they too can claim heaven as their eternal home thank you for your promises and the hope that we have all because of your great love for us help us keep our focus on you this week we thank you in your son's precious name jesus amen [Music] you know most of the time when i think of god's blessings i think of receiving something but jesus was the one that said it is more blessed to give than it is to receive and right now we're moving to a time in our service where we have the opportunity to give and to experience the blessing of giving back to the lord i hope you'll join me in that if you're online with us today you can give at crossroadschristian.org give any of us in the room today you can scan the qr code on the seat back in front of you scroll down to the give button or you can give in any of the offering boxes around the room but no matter how you choose to give i hope that you will choose to that you will receive the blessing of giving today let's pray together for today's offering father we thank you for the opportunity to be in your house yeah we we thank you for uh who you are and for what you've done in our lives and our church and god i pray that you would use today's offering to do more than we could ever ask think or imagine god that you would use the gifts today that you would bless them that you would multiply them and turn them into so much more than we could do on our own lord let us trust you with that today god i pray for the message that is about to be spoken lord that you would use michael's testimony to touch our hearts to motivate us to encourage us to take steps of faith towards you lord bless the rest of our service today it's in jesus name we pray amen [Music] i [Music] was hopeless i knew i was lost and death and darkness were my only songs i needed someone to come rescue me and mercy [Music] you gave you wash my sins away [Music] that's what your mercy did for me you gave me beauty for my guilty stay and now i'm living take a day by your grace so excuse me if i can't contain my praise cause i know that i've been safe [Music] [Applause] [Music] he came and set me that's what your mercy did for me [Music] [Applause] mercy [Music] [Applause] may me before me [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] you jesus and set me [Music] free for me thank you [Music] for me [Music] [Music] for me [Music] thank you we've had an incredible weekend here at crossroads how many of you were a part of the breakfast yesterday raise your hands oh awesome awesome i i think we may have started something new with women's breakfast around here that was such a success that ladies are saying hey you know um it's been such a joy to have michael and camille francis here their daughter julia julia's boyfriend alec as well and get to spend time with them and when michael came uh i think it was three years ago 2018 uh we became friends and i text him all the time or i'll call him occasionally and we talk back and forth and he'll sometimes i mean it's amazing when i ask him a question he'll respond right back and and uh i try to do the same for him and he's been such an encourager and i i've been so full of joy watching god elevate his testimony all over the world it's amazing over 600 000 i think approaching 700 000 followers on youtube now if you're not following michael francis on youtube you need to do that it's amazing the the stories he does the interviews he does and always brings people back to jesus christ and that's his heart that's his passion and i remember the first time he came and spoke at our men's breakfast and i was sitting down here and he was up on the stage and i'd promoted him to all of our people he's a former mob boss and and all this stuff about the mob and and literally he was on stage for 40 some minutes talking about jesus and i was sitting on the front row and i'm going you need to tell mob's story here i've told these people you're a mob boss and but but that's his passion as you'll see when he comes out he loves the lord and uh if you are interested in the true story about the mob stuff you don't want to get this book there are still some left and uh you can go to the grand hall as soon as this service is over it's only 20 for michael's a book called blood covenant and i've read it it's phenomenal and this is the last copy that we have of camille's book so what i'm going to do is make sure it gets out there and don't don't sneak out of the service to be the one to get it but uh someone will be able to get this these are 10 and we'll get some more through our bookstore but you're going to be blessed it's michael has been amazing today yesterday was awesome but i mean it's been amazing and i even said the message that he preached earlier here was the most powerful message probably ever preached from this pope this platform so you're in for an incredible blessing and i hope when he comes out you'll give him a great crossroads welcome but before he comes watch this [Music] so and then there was pete the killer who was sally balls's brother and you had nikki eyes what's up guys and mikey franchise michael franzis was not just a soldier but a capo in the notorious colombo crime family he spent the better part of a decade in federal prison on charges including tax fraud racketeering and parole violation i grew up in new york where there are five organized crime families my dad sonny francis was the underboss of the columbo family back in the 1960s i went to see my dad in leavenworth in the visiting room and i said dad i'm not going to school anymore and he said okay son but if you're going to be on the street then i want you on the street the right way in his mind the right way was to become a member of his life he said go home somebody be in touch with you do whatever you're told that's how it started for me he was a made member of organized crime his main forte was making money for the mob in a very short period of time he made over one billion dollars for the colombo organized crime family you're by far the most lucrative business i got involved in was the wholesale gasoline business and in a nutshell we devised a way to collect the taxes not pay the government the taxes and i was there to be in business and to make money real money life magazine called him the mob's young genius the government calls him one of the biggest money earners in the history of organized crime handsome and high living young man as rich as royalty and royal he is a prince of the mafia made millions live the flashy life and came to be known as the yuppie dawn did you fix any games in college absolutely he says he doesn't have 14 million dollars he doesn't he has about 50 million how do you know that because i personally delivered it to him i was notorious infamous maybe sophisticated at times but i was a criminal eventually you realize it's a life built on treachery and that money and power are the driving forces and i began to question the life and my commitment to the life at that time making the most money for the mob since al capone michael was the youngest person listed on fortune magazine's 50 most wealthy and powerful mob bosses now as one of the only guys from that list still alive michael has transitioned from powerful mob boss to now speaking in front of thousands of people each week a lot has changed these past 20 years but it's safe to say that michael franzise is a man on a mission [Music] good morning everyone thank you thank you very much thank you there's my dear friend becky drove all the way from a half an hour drive met her in san antonio but good to have you here becky and her husband and her grandson all right signed a book for him good morning how's everybody doing all right well i have to say it really is great to be here i was here in 2018 some of you seen me back then okay not many well that's good uh men's group how many were there yesterday i'm mad at some of you because i heard my wife out attended me she had a bigger crowd than i did but i heard she did great ladies you were there oh there she is right now my beautiful daughter how are you okay all right she's got to sit through this again after hearing me a thousand times but that's okay maybe the lord will bless her but really it's great to be here you know i've been to over 1600 churches i believe over the past 20 some odd years the lord has blessed me in that regard but there are some that stand out and this is one of them pastor barry and i have become good friends brothers in christ and we do communicate quite a bit so i was excited when he asked me to come back and i understand yesterday my wife kind of christened the um uh the youth center there and that was the first event and hopefully many more will happen you'll all be blessed by it so that's great to hear it's a beautiful building by the way and you know funny yesterday we were doing a q a the guys might remember this and one of the questions one of the questions i always get is michael where was all your money and i said to barry how do you think you got that youth center built you know i'm only kidding though only kidding but anyway it's a lot of fun but really great to be here and you know um every time i come out to speak my prayer is always the same realizing that i am just a messenger here this morning and i really mean that any one of us that come up on this stage is not about us it's about what god has done in our lives and so my prayer is always lord let me be effective let me be passionate enough in delivering this message so that you can reach out and touch the heart that you want to touch in this room this morning might be one person might be 10 might be everybody in the room i don't know that i don't worry about that that's god's deal i just want to be effective because people i take ministry very seriously i'm not perfect by any way shape or form but when i get up on this stage it's really the time that the holy spirit i hope works through me for all of you it's not about me it's for all of you i don't know any of you here but my prayer is that you all walk out of here a little bit differently than when you walked in because i know that some of you are struggling or carrying a burden about something and if you're not doing that today it might have happened yesterday and if not yesterday or today god forbid maybe tomorrow that's just life we're always dealing with something in our lives and sometimes we think you know what it's too far gone i'm too far away from god's grace and mercy i've messed up my life god can never forgive me a lot of people think that i've heard that so often over the past 20 some odd years i can't begin to tell you how often and if anything i want you to look at me today and understand that if god can forgive me and i really believe he has and people um it's not easy for me to say that you don't do the things that i did for 20 years in my life and get down on my knees say a prayer and think it's all over no i struggled mightily with forgiveness but when i got into this relationship with jesus i began to realize that the entire message of the bible the entire message of the cross is about what god's grace god's mercy god's forgiveness and if we sincerely confess our sins key word being sincerely because people let me tell you something i pulled a lot of scams on the street i was pretty good maybe i can pull a wall over some of your eyes say oh man michael terrific what a testimony and then walk out of here and be the biggest hypocrite in the world you know what but you know what you can't pull a scam on god he knows our hearts and if we are sincerely sorry for the sins that we committed and we accept jesus christ as our savior we are forgiven that's the entire message of the cross we are forgiven hands down so for those of you that are struggling and think that god can never forgive you that's what this testimony is all about it's about god's grace and god's mercy and forgiveness and i will tell you this right now jesus christ is my not only my savior but he's my hero he's my hero for the man that he was jesus of nazareth the greatest man that ever walked the face of the earth bar none perfect in every way shape or form a man's man he's my hero and he's my savior and all of you should have the same attitude about jesus and selfishly i pray that you walk out of here a little bit differently than when you walked in this morning because i take ministry very seriously and i know that i have a job like all of us do mark 16 15 great commission what did jesus tell us all to do go out and preach share the good word with all of creation it's not only my obligation it's all of ours every one of you have a gift a talent that god wants to use and you have a purpose in life and your purpose is to be a disciple to bring people to the lord you don't have to have a mob story you don't have to be a pastor you don't have to sing in the band but your purpose in life is to make disciples tony evans gave a great message a couple of weeks ago about our obligation to make disciples of jesus christ and remember your obligation your purpose in life or god's purpose in your life might be to bring one person to the lord but remember this all of heaven rejoices when one person is brought into the kingdom and if that's your purpose and you fulfill it you and i are on equal ground that's it no matter how many times i preach we're on equal ground in god's eyes so i want you to listen to the testimony and i want you to don't focus on the mob stuff please you want to hear the mob stuff i mean i'm all over youtube i invite you to the channel subscribe if you like to hear that stuff i'll always talk about my faith all right you can watch the godfather all that stuff goodfellas ladies not for you a little bit offensive i don't want you to watch that but the guys it's okay you can handle it but don't focus on that i want you to look at how god took a very dark time in my life and turned it into something for his glory and remember this what the enemy meant for bad god can turn around and use for his glory if you allow him to amen my dad sonny francis was the underboss of the columbo family back in the 1960s very powerful position in that life you have a boston underboss a kappa regime or captain and a soldier i'm sure many of you have seen the godfather there is a position called consolieri robert duvall played that role played it brilliantly i might add but in the godfather fictional because in order to be a sworn made member of that life and take the oath your dad must be italian mom can be of another descent your dad must be italian and my father in terms of law enforcement investigation media attention very high profile always under investigation always a major target of law enforcement kind of like the john gotti of his day i'm sure many of you heard of john and i grew up a lot differently i'm sure than everybody in this room i grew up hating the police i hated them i hated government i hated law enforcement and not because my dad taught me that way he was smart taught me to respect the law but it was really because of what i witnessed as a kid growing up law enforcement tactics techniques against organized crime very different back then than they are today today everything is very covert undercover informants high-tech surveillance equipment today you can be under investigation not really know about it until it's too late back in my day when you were under investigation they wanted you to know about it and for a period of about 10 years when i was a kid growing up brooklyn radar on long island my dad was under investigation from seven or eight different law enforcement agencies fbi irs queen detective nassau county you name it they were on him and every one of these agencies had a car parked around my house 24 hours a day seven days a week that is cornered on all sides i was one of seven kids whenever we as a family would leave to go anywhere we had a parade of law enforcement vehicles following us everybody knew when we were coming into town and i witnessed some things that were kind of unpleasant you know there was a rough detail every once in a while the agents would get a little out of hand do some things that were kind of off color i remember one night we went into a restaurant sat down as a family get a bite to eat they would file in afterwards sit in a table behind us and watch a seat this one particular night nassau county detective never forget he got a little out of hand walks by the table makes a nasty remark to my dad he didn't like that they don't disrespect my father especially in front of his family dad jumped up went right after the agent the agent got scared my dad was a tough guy pulls out his gun right in the middle of the restaurant everybody started screaming i remember my dad saying go ahead i'll drop you before you get off the first shot good stuff when you're eating right me and my brother jump in between them separate them pull them apart you know normal stuff you do when you're a kid and uh and so i didn't like them very much back then but i want to make this very clear right now especially to all the young people brandon listen up i do not feel that way anymore i finally realized in my life they were the good guys and we were the bad guys at least most of the time look any walk of life anybody can get out of hand we're all human you know it's amazing people how god can not only transform a heart and i think you know he can do that but how he can transform a mind how this whole distorted sense of view i had growing up where good was bad and bad was good god's been able to fix that today some of my dearest friends are in law enforcement all across the country not because i share information i don't do that i don't put people in prison we're just friends many of us brothers and sisters in christ when i learned through this experience we really are all one in the kingdom of god we really are we really are jesus christ being the bond for all of us and you know i give a very powerful message to our young people all across this country devote a lot of time to them i go into uh prisons quite a bit juvenile halls i have a heart for young people spent a lot of time in prison with so many of these youngsters coming in with mandatory minimum drug centers 21 22 years old they got 15 or 20 years in the federal system no more parole you get 20 you're doing 17 and a half it's very hard for a young person to come back after that kind of a deal you don't learn much in prison and i listened to them they all had the same story broken home you can write the same script broken home no father figure in the house mom trying to do her best maybe she had her own problems couldn't deal with it on her own so what happens these poor kids they gravitate to the local gang banker local drug dealer before you know it they're doing their bidding oh god forbid something worse and they end up in there and i would tell them straight out you do not get away with criminal conduct in america anymore forget about it law enforcement is too sophisticated too many weapons you go that route you're going down and one of the greatest messages you can give our young people it applies to all of us but especially to the young people is this listen up i see another one there listen to this in this world today we are who we hang out with you hang with the wrong crowd you're going to be known to be the wrong type of person and yes they will influence you you know when i came to christ i didn't get a lobotomy i don't forget the things i did on the street i get off a plane in new york somebody looks at me the wrong way say hey bro what's up it's like bam i'm the mob guy again just like that it clicks right in you must surround yourself with the right people fortunately i have a wife and children a family that care about me want to keep me straight i have great church that i'm involved in i stay around godly people i have brothers that i'm accountable to we have accountable accountability to one another you must nourish yourself all the time you young people today have more distractions at your fingertips on your phone than i ever had as a kid growing up and remember this people the enemy his function on earth is to do what separate us from god and he's got a million ways to distract us and if we don't continuously nourish ourselves it's easy to get sidetracked and go the wrong way we must surround ourselves with the right people in life but back then it was different i loved my dad i didn't care what people said about him what i read in the newspaper good father good husband to my mom people would say hey you got a mafia dad in a school yard i would fight love my dad he want this life for me wanted me to go to school be a doctor son stay off the street get an education that's what it's all about and i was on that road until my dad got in some very serious trouble in their 60s indicted several times three times in the state of new york twice grand larceny once for homicide very serious he was acquitted in each one of those cases found not guilty then in 1966 dads indicted in federal court for masterminding a nationwide string of bank robbers in 1967 he's convicted sentenced to 50 50 years in prison longest sentence for a bank robbery conspiracy case ever given up to that point 1970 loses all his appeals they ship him off to leave more penitentiary in kansas to do his time i was devastated my whole family was he was 50 when he went in figured 50 on top of that my dad would never come out of prison alive joe colombo boss of my family at that time i was a freshman in in college he kind of took me under his wing obviously i knew the family well mike i would meet a lot of my friends my dad's friends mike what are you doing going to school if you don't help your father out he's going to die in prison i was very uh influenced by that i go see my dad in leavenworth we're in the visiting room dad i'm not going to school anymore if i don't help you out you're going to die in here he was upset no i don't want that for you i want you to stay in school dad too late i'm done with it i was a pretty headstrong kid he knew my mind was made up i remember he kind of threw up his hands he said okay son but if you're going to be on the street i want you on the street the right way in his mind the right way was to become a member of his life he said go home somebody will be in touch with you just do whatever you're told that was it he didn't break it down for me he didn't say this is what's required of you that's a secret life you're not supposed to talk about that life with anybody outside of the life and my dad if he was anything he was a good soldier he wouldn't he wouldn't uh uh confide even in me he just knew i had it in me go home do what you're told that was it and you know what i didn't question my dad i love my dad so much hey dad anything you want me to do point me in the right direction i had blind faith in what my father asked me to do now how many of you have heard that christians are supposed to have blind faith don't ever question god he's god be upset with you well i want to tell you this when you finally get into this relationship with jesus and that's what this life is all about people it's a relationship with jesus that's it break it down cut to the chase relationship with jesus when you finally get into that you're going to look back in your life and i know many of you have had this experience and you're going to say you know what god now i get it now i know why you put this person in my life now i know why you gave me this great joy why you allowed me not cause me god doesn't cause us to go through pain we just live in a fallen word world a hard concept for some people to understand but when you understand your bible you'll get it we live in a fallen world he doesn't cause us to go into pain it happened at the garden of eden you finally say you know what god now i get it now i understand all of this now this meeting very significant my dad was proposing me into a criminal lifestyle life-changing but this meeting because of my relationship with god i started to think and i said you know what god when i came to you when i came to god rather i challenged him i said god wait a second i trusted my father more than anything i followed him blindly into this life and look where it got me it got me in a very bad place i'll get to that you take it a step further in my life i surrendered my life i took a blood oath surrendered my life to the mafia cause an austro people when you come into this life you got to give it all up body mind and soul you don't survive i said god i did this twice in my life i can't do it again if you really are god if this bible is written by men but inspired by you the blueprint for our life and that's how i look at the bible it's god's word in our life it's the blueprint for our life and you take it a step further as a christian what are we to believe the only way to get to heaven is how through jesus christ no gray area black and white jesus or nothing i said well god you're asking a lot of me you put me on this earth you gave me a free will you said i can accept one of any hundred fates or i don't have to accept any faith at all and now you're telling me this is the only way to go no god you've got to prove it to me i can't do this three strikes you're out and i want to tell you these people and especially the men i want you to listen up when i finally opened up my heart my stubborn mind god didn't get mad at me i think he said okay son if you're ready to open up your mind in your heart i'm ready to show you because i am god and i do have the evidence and people let me tell you this i know a little bit about evidence i've been to trial five times i've been to more grand juries than there are people in this section of the room more parole hearings in this section of the room i've been up to the supreme court on constitutional issues in my dad's case for this case for 25 years evidence has played a major role in my life i always tell everybody i live in terms of evidence i think about it you're not selling me the brooklyn bridge when i'm paying attention i want to see the facts when i finally opened up my heart and mind i found out there is more evidence more rock solid evidence to prove the bible is god's word and that jesus is our risen savior because i don't know about any of you i don't put my faith in anybody that's dead and buried in a tomb i learned long ago dead people don't help us there's more evidence to prove that than there is anything else that exists in the world and if you do nothing when you leave here you owe it to yourself god didn't make you a robot he wants to you to come to him because you believe in him because you love him and you can't love somebody that you don't know you can't love somebody that you don't believe in you have to do the work what does paul tell us test everything and hold on to the good that's what he tells us my faith is built on evidence and god has only continued to support that and corroborate that throughout my life not only in my life but in the life of so many others that i've seen that have incredible testimonies that only god can do you need to do the work guys do the work some of the guys say well show me and then they don't want to look you got to do the work that's important so i leave there that day about two weeks later a captain and a family picked me up took me to see the boss i sat with him his name is tom de bella he's passed on now he said mike i got a message from your father he said you want to become a member of our life is that true i said yes he said here's the deal from now on 24 hours a day seven days a week you're on call to serve this family the colombo family that means if your mother is sick and she's dying and we call you to service and you're by her bedside you leave your mother you come and serve us from now on we're number one in your life before anything and everything when and if we feel you deserve this privilege this honor to become a member we'll let you know people a mob is not a business it's a way of life we have a whole it's a whole subculture from everything else that exists we affect everybody around us family friends people we do business with it's a way of life for the next two and a half years i was a recruit pledge had to do anything and everything i was told to do to prove myself worthy could have been something very menial a lot of discipline in that life a lot of alleged respect a lot of authority you had a meeting at eight o'clock you weren't there at 7 30 you were late can never be late in that life a lot of stuff like that and i want to be really honest with you this morning because you need to understand what god has done in my life and apply it to your own life because people i can tell you this if god can forgive me a guy that was every day of my life for 20 years i lived in violation of both god's laws and the laws of man that's that life and if god can forgive me if you believe he did a work in my life what are you worried about that life at times is very violent and if you're part of the life you're part of the violence and there's no escape if anybody tells you differently they're either not being honest with you or they weren't a made man in that life that's the term and i think you all know what i mean and it's not easy for me to confess this to you but i do it for all of you not for me after about two and a half years i proved myself worthy it was halloween night 1975 i was called into a room again with five other gentlemen that night we all took an oath and became sworn made members of the colombo family it was an oath i took very seriously back then i take it very seriously today even though i don't consider myself a member of the life anymore you come into the life you don't sign a contract there's no retirement age you can't say hey i'm done you know what they say they say when you leave that life either leaving a coffin where you join the government and enter a witness protection program obviously i've done neither very solemn ceremony dimly lit room late at night we walked into the room individually the six of us the boss was seated at the head of like a horseshoe configuration under boss conciliary to his left and right all the captains were alongside of them i stood in front of the aisle held out my hand boss took a knife cut my finger right here some blood dropped on the floor this is a blood oath cupped my hands took a picture of a saint catholic called the cop put it on my hands lit it aflame didn't hurt it burned quickly it was merely symbolic and he said something to me that night i don't recall ever hearing in my life before i grew up as a catholic catholic school from kindergarten right through high school all to boy the whole bit but for me for some reason catholicism was like a subject in school i didn't understand that this life was about a relationship with jesus and i'm not blaming catholics just didn't work for me the first time i heard this is when he said tonight michael francis you are born again into a new life into kazanostra violate what you know about this life betray your brothers and you will die and burn in hell like the saint is burning in your hands do you accept i said yes i do that's how it started for me the other five guys went into the room they all accepted it when i came into the life i wanted to do two things you come in as a soldier that's the term i wanted to do two things i was motivated to do uh number one get my dad out of prison i did get him out after 10 years he kept violating his parole he went back five times on violations ended up doing 40 years on the 50. he got out in 2017 at the age of 100 he was the oldest mob guy in the system he was the oldest person in the system i should say federal system at that point in time my dad unfortunately passed away last year at the age of 103 he was the oldest living mob guy in america for sure probably in the world i don't think anybody lived that long but i can tell you this people last 50 years of his life you wouldn't want to live it a lot of heartache and i will tell you this and this is for you young people too my dad did a lot of bad things in his life so did i i went to prison for a crime that i was guilty of i pled guilty i did my time that particular crime that my dad did 40 years on he was innocent my dad was no bank robber i'll take that to my grave i investigated that case thoroughly spoke to every witness they recanted their testimony proved they lied at the trial gave him lie detective test proved they lied we could never get the conviction overturned did 40 years for a crime that he didn't commit but what does that tell you it's what i tell these young people the system is not always fair you put that bull's-eye on your back you become a target you're going to go down at some point in time is it right no i don't believe so the people that make the laws and enforce the laws are not supposed to violate the laws to get somebody else but that's the way it goes you know my dad used to tell me michael you know our family wouldn't have had all this heartache if i wasn't framed and did all this time i said i understand that dad but you weren't framed for being a doctor a lawyer or a priest you were framed because you're a mobster and that's what we live and that's what we got to face in our lives if you want to avoid that stuff stay away from it that's the only way live the right kind of life that was it so um secondly i wanted to make money my dad said in this life you make money it translates to power not unlike the real world you saw the dvd not uh no need to go into that i was fortunate knew how to use that life to benefit me in business i was very aggressive on the street brought some new things into the family they hadn't done before went on to make a very significant amount of money in 1980 the boss of my family carmine persico who passed away two years ago he was convicted on the mob commission case by giuliani got a 100-year sentence said to me mike you're doing a great job for the family and going to make you a cop of genima captain that's a very powerful position from 1980 until 95 when i really consider myself formally removed from that life i operated in that capacity i want to tell you where i was in 84 when i believed god started to make this transition in my life and i didn't see it coming among many things i was doing back then oh let me tell you where i was in 84. i'm a captain in the family they were grooming me to be the boss quite honestly or the underboss whatever way it worked out the boss had a son he and i came in at the same time i uh i had devised a scheme to uh you know defraud the government out of tax on every gallon of gasoline i ran it for about eight years with the russian mobsters they were my partners um at one point in time we were selling a half a billion gallons of gas a month taken down 30 to 40 cents a gallon we were bringing in eight to ten million dollars a week into our operation i had my own jet plane my own helicopter a house in florida house of new york house of marina del rey california i had been to trial five times i beat every case arrested 17 or 18 times i had 300 guys under me ready to do anything i tell them to do top of the world ma going to be the boss of a major family had all the money i'd ever need 32 years old top of the world and then something happened among many things i was doing i was making movies i had a production company in l.a smokey robinson was a dear friend comes to me with a screenplay for a breakdance movie a lot of music a lot of dance a lot of rap music but that's when you can listen to that music on the radio not like today forget about this stuff today but back then it was cool we had the sugar hill gang run dmc curtis blow the fat boys old school rap they were all in the movie i like that stuff right so we're producing this movie in florida we had just finished pre-production i brought cast and crew from la to work in the film 17 professional dancers uh i threw a party on a sunday ready to do the uh hard stuff principal photography on the monday long story short you ladies probably heard this story some of you may know it uh this beautiful young woman is coming out of a pool i'm sitting there watching her everything went in slow motion was like a pepsi commercial and to make a long story short i felt very much in love with this 20-year-old girl she's now my wife of 37 years and thank you sitting here in the front row and she was a young christian girl that didn't want a thing to do with me at that point in time was scared of me said i was an old man because i was 12 years older than her i doggedly pursued her and eventually won her heart and when we wrapped the movie she took me home to see her mother she's very close to her mom her mom irma was the most godly woman i ever met in my life you meet irma for two minutes your name goes into her prayer book she had a prayer book like a telephone book i'm not kidding and i will say this i'd love to talk about this for the rest of the morning but i can't i believe that that woman my mother-in-law prayed me to where i am today she was a very godly woman that took a liking to me but here's what happened okay i'm falling in love with this girl and all of a sudden my love for her is more powerful than this lifelong bond this love this adoration i had for my dad became more powerful than the blood oath that i took and let me tell you i'm 100 mob guy at that point now i said how do you explain this she wasn't the first beautiful woman i knew in my life but there was something about her and obviously after 37 years that something was god i believe god put that woman in my life sometimes she say okay god i know why you put me in his life but why did you put me in his life you know or the other way around whatever it is but uh at any rate you know i'm gonna ask you this at this point who did god put in your life who dragged you into this church this morning who's been praying for you forever you know what god doesn't take a day off he doesn't go to the next church next town next city nets village he's always trying to get your attention maybe through the people you meet maybe through a great joy in your life maybe through something that was unpleasant he's always trying to get your attention the question is are you paying attention so here's the deal i said you know what my life's a direct contradiction to everything these women believe is this going to work it's not going to work so i had a plan always had a plan they were going to indict me on another case so i said okay i beat them on all these cases they want to get some time on me i'm going to take a plea i'll give them some time i'll give the government some money i'll marry camille i move out to the west coast when i get out i'll have parole and probation i can use that as an excuse not to meet up with anybody in new york it's a violation maybe after 10 or 12 years they'll forget about me my plan had nothing to do with god it was selfish i wanted this girl in my life and i was ready to be give up my oath nothing to do with god that was my plan wasn't god's plan so here's the deal i take a plea ten-year prison sentence 15 million dollar restitution five million in forfeitures i gave up the plane a helicopter a whole bit i married camille in july i go to jail in december we were married four months i will tell you this in front of her i'm not the story here my wife is a story that girl didn't have a clue didn't have a clue and she'll tell you i love my husband but if god wasn't in the foundation of our marriage we wouldn't have made it through and you know what people her mom prayed for her kept her strong praying women kept her strong my church they just embraced us they prayed for her they kept my family together that's why i loved the church they kept my marriage and my life together through some very difficult times and it was tough contract on my life when i walked away my father went along with it feds were all over me frenzies you're a dead man cooperate with us we'll put you in a program i didn't want to do that i wasn't looking to hurt anybody i just wanted out of life i go into prison i had a very tough first five years government moved me around to different prisons it was a tough time i get out on parole 13 months big shot mob guy made all this money on the street i couldn't get anything going in la i was like a fish out of water like a fool and i mean this like i hate myself having done this i make a mistake i violate my parole i'm walking out of a bank 15 agents throw me in a paddy wagon lean all my bank accounts go to my house with a search warrant cleaned us out they told my wife your husband will never see the street again we're indicting him on a new charge we violated his parole he's done she had a breakdown you know she couldn't come to see me for weeks again mother kept us strong her faith in the lord kept us strong to bring me down to the the federal jail in la franzis we don't want you to cooperate anymore we're indicting you on a new racketeering case we violated your parole you'll never see the street again they throw me in that 6x8 cell and here's my situation i said i'm done i said another case violated my parole i said i'm done they took all my money you can't fight these cases with a public defender i spent millions defending myself throughout my life i said they can't put me out on the yard everybody's looking to hurt me i'm going to spend the rest of my life in this 6x8 cell how is my wife going to wait for me now she waited for me 5 years 13 months on parole she's 27 years i'm going to lose the girl i did all of this for i want to tell you this i have felt every emotion you can feel in life from ecstasy right down to grief everything in between but by far the worst emotion you can ever experience people is hopelessness when you think it's over everything that was dear to you is gone you're leaving in this deep dark hole nothing you can do to pull yourself out it was the worst feeling in the world my heart hurt so much it was a physical pain that night was by far the worst night i've ever spent in my life and you know i used to demean people that were suicidal i call them weak how do you not face up to your troubles that's weak i don't do that anymore i wasn't suicidal that night i wasn't that brave but you know what i wanted to lay my head on that pillow and not wake up again it was too hard for me to think of my future i just wanted to close my eyes and not wake up call it weakness cowardice whatever you want it applies and i'm laying there just wanted to die a prison guard walks by myself francis you're okay you don't look good i said get away from me man i don't want to see any of you guys tonight leave me alone he left came back about a minute later pushes something through the slot on the door it falls on the floor i hear a thump i look down kind of groggy it was a bible i didn't want a bible i wanted a bottle of prozac or something something to make me forget what i was going through but you know what i'm looking down at that bible i'm not exaggerating it's like everything was building up inside of me i'm angry with god i'm feeling bad just horrible i jump off that cot i picked up that book and i slammed it against the cinderblock wall as hard as i could it's like everything came out of me it took me another minute i said wait a second i said i got nothing but enemies it's only me and god in this cell i believe in god you know i believe in you know in in intelligent design i can't believe that this whole world came from some speck of dust that happened that it don't make sense to me intelligent design god made sense even though i didn't have a relationship with him so i picked up the book and i said you know what god i don't need another enemy if you're really in here i said you need to help me i can't deal with this i need help tonight i'm holding the book i didn't know where to begin catholic school you read the catechism you don't read the bible priest reads it from the pulpit on sunday the gospel i'm holding a book it falls open to the book of proverbs coincidence i don't think so analytical guy show me the evidence i start to read that book solomon was brilliant you know when god said to solomon in the book of kings nobody before you will ever be his wise and nobody after you will ever be his wives with the exception of jesus had a little advantage he was god nobody was as brilliant as solomon and i started reading and i said wow this is you know start take my mind a little bit off of what i was going through and then i come to a verse that just stopped me cold proverbs 16 7 when a man's ways are pleasing to the lord even his enemies are at peace with him now why did that resonate i had nothing but enemies that night people and then all of a sudden the enemies ver verse caught me and then i started to drift back it was almost as if the holy spirit was standing there and saying were you always pleasing to the lord absolutely not i'm a gangster yeah i love my wife she was a christian that wasn't me that was them but i got convicted at that moment and people want to tell you something i never heard god speak to me audibly i've never seen him in a dream i don't have that gift some people do i don't but he speaks to my heart all the time now because i have a relationship with him and that night was the first time amen that he spoke that i listened why because i was desperate when we're at our worst god is at his best in our minds so it caused me to read on a little bit more and i came to a verse that's now become the verse of my life and i think it should be a diverse of every one of your lives i think it all starts here and i don't want to tell you what to do but i am a former mobster i do have a tendency to do that proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 trust in the lord with all your heart trust lean not on your own understanding why because sometimes we don't have the answers people i didn't have him that night in all of your ways acknowledge him because he's our god and he deserves that in all of your ways acknowledge him and get this verse because i looked up the translation he will not he can not he might he will make our paths straight do you know what that's my story people right there summed up in that verse out of desperation i challenged god that night i said god show me now i want to tell you what happened the big racketeering case fell apart they never indicted me praise god they gave me four years on the parole violation that was the maximum i spent 35 more months and 13 days in prison 29 months and seven days in that hole six by eight cell 24 7 me and god people that's not easy we weren't meant to be solo creatures we were meant to be social a lot of guys did not do well trust me a lot of moaning and groaning a lot of stuff went on in that environment but i dove into my bible if you see my prison bible there were more of my notes in there than scripture my wife sent me in books i read about every faith i had a sony walkman you kids don't know what that is but you know you're in the digital world but we used to listen to things on a sony walkman pastor gregory i love pastor greg the way he interpreted scripture amen good friend of mine now i love pastor greg anything that you can get your hands on that helps you interpret scripture soak it up you can never get enough never get enough and i came out of there believing with all my heart the bible was god's word and that jesus is my risen savior and then he just took it from the rest away i never thought i was going to be a speaker i had no clue what i was going to do with my life that's another whole hour if we get into that but we won't but he's allowed me to speak all over the world and i pray that my testimony has helped many come to the lord because that's all we're up here for is to be disciples to bring people to jesus now i want to hit home with this i want to tell you how significant god has been in my life and how he will do the same in your life if you allow him to my book blood covenant guys you want to read a mob story it's a mob story i don't sugarcoat anything they're making a tv series you'll see it next year most likely out of this book ladies it's a love story story about me and my wife how we got together but really it's a story about how god can transform a life that's what the focus of the book is on read the inside cover and by the way um cam you don't have to sign any books because they sold out they still have mine but they sold out of yours i don't know what's going on here but anyway um read the inside cover when i walked away in 95 everybody predicted my death life magazine quote if he holds to what he has promised he'll mark the first time a high-ranking member of the mafia will publicly walk away from his past and live i don't know anybody else who's done it people and i don't claim credit for that because i didn't have a plan or a clue i didn't know how it's going to work out i never held my former associates short they're very capable but god just designed this he navigated this course without a doubt ed mcdonald head of the organized crime strike force my prosecutor goes on national tv in 95 when i'm released from prison he says quote i wouldn't want to be in michael franzis's shoes i don't think his life expectancy is very substantial he was very diplomatic predicting my death bernie welch the fbi agent 25-year veteran of organized crime investigations he wasn't diplomatic at all he got up followed it on the podium and said quote michael francis will get whacked you know what that means in street terms that was in 75 i'm in 95 1975 i walked into a room on halloween night with five other gentlemen today i'm the only one alive not one of those men died of natural causes all five of them were murdered we had a big war in our family 91 to 95. i believe 13 men were killed another 18 became informed 63 men went to jail and you know where i was poor michael was protected in solitary confinement because god had a different plan for me when we're going through our worst god knows he's going through our best i want a little more proof that when god's got a plan and a purpose nothing will stand in the way fortune magazine 1986 50 biggest and most powerful mob bosses in the country big big article half the magazine they featured six of us i was one of the six they had a chart with the 50 of us on there according to rank wealth and power i was number 18 youngest guy on the list five behind john gotti at the time john hadn't been made boss yet he was number 13. and i always say don't ask me how they make a list like that they didn't ask for our tax returns was silly i don't know how they got that but anyway sold a lot of magazines you know what's not silly about that list out of that list of 50 48 of those men are dead number 49 is doing life in prison and number 50 is here for one reason and one reason only to give praise and honor and glory to my lord and savior and my hero in life jesus christ my hero for the man that he was the greatest man that ever walked the face of the earth and for the savior that he is so what does this tell you it tells you that when god has got a plan and a purpose for you and he does for every single one of you nothing is going to stand in the way of him fulfilling that purpose in your life no mafia no cosa nostra no gang no sickness no addiction not even death will stop god from fulfilling his purpose in our lives except for one thing you know what that is that's every one of us people because remember this our loving gracious and merciful god is never an intruder in our life he's always what an invited guest so i'm going to tell you this now if you haven't invited the lord into your life what are you waiting for we're not guaranteed another second in this life we live in a turbulent world people unchanging by the day by the hour by the minute at times it's time to jump on board pastor is going to come up here and he's going to make you an offer that none of you should refuse god bless you all thank you for having me one more time [Applause] before we move into a time of prayer with our church online family i want to encourage you that if god is working in your life today and you would like to make a decision you can either text the word next to 55757 or you can go ahead and connect with one of our hosts in the chat right now would you pray with me father we thank you for today's message we thank you for a church that believes in church online and a church that stands upon your word and father i pray that god if you've worked in our lives today and that you're convicting and encouraging us to step forward in our faith whether it's to accept jesus for the first time that father right now we will do just that father maybe we've ran off maybe we've tried to run away from you or run away from the calling you placed upon our lives and father today we need to turn back around and come back to you and father today if we need to rededicate our lives i pray that we will connect with someone online one of the ministers and we will let them know our decision father today may be that we've accepted jesus already but we've never showed the world around us we never showed our community we've never showed our family and today we need to make the decision to make our faith public through water baptism father whatever our decision is i pray that we will take a step forward in our faith and our journey with you it's in jesus name we pray amen once again if you've made a decision today as you're watching church online you can text next to 55757 or just go ahead and jump in the chat and engage with one of our hosts well thank you so much for joining us online today here at crossroads and we would love to see you either online or on campus next week at 8 45 10 or 11 30. thanks for joining us we'll see you soon you

Channel: Crossroads Christian Church

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Length: 91min 3sec (5463 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021