Lo-Ammi Richardson Testimony

[Music] one of the most exciting things is to see how god can work in a life and today at secret's unsealed we're going to be highlighting the journey of a very dear friend of mine but before we do so i'd like to begin with a word of prayer dear heavenly father we thank you so much for the way that you work in our lives and as we take a quick look at what you can do we pray that your holy spirit will guide this conversation and that if there's anyone out there who needs to hear this testimony that you will make that possible in jesus name amen i'd like to read a bible verse for you as we begin today and the verse is found in second corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17. the bible reads therefore if any man be in christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new and it is my understanding that this is one of your your favorite bible verses actually it's one of every time i share my testimony it's a bible verse that i that i use to before i preach yeah you all would you mind sharing just your name with us the reason that this is your favorite bible verse my name is lawami richardson and one of the reasons why i love this bible verse is just kind of summarizes what the lord has done you know i look at my life now and i realize i'm someone who's completely different than what i was years five years ago and so i'm not the man i used to be but i'm progressing to the man that god wants me to be and so that first perfectly summarizes you know um my life and and what god is doing in my life amen amen i remember as a young person uh growing up in jamaica i boarded an airplane years ago and flew to this this this strange land called america and one of the first people i met was was lawami and as we got to know each other he he he vanished he he disappeared what happened uh where did you go and and tell us about that journey it's interesting you know as you guys as you know you know we grew up in orlando florida and went to uh grew up in the adventist church grew up went to pine hills and um and just such a major influence in my life you know growing up with church family connecting with friends you know coming from connecticut moving down to to orlando and and just to establish in this community uh that i appreciate it but you know as as any young person may know um not everything in the church keeps you especially if you don't have a relationship with god and eventually um my time in the church the events in the in the social aspect of it and the family and the connections i was making wasn't enough to keep me and eventually i drifted and so that's what kind of happened that's why i kind of disappeared okay so i'm sure that that maybe someone watching is curious to know what what is his journey what what took place in this young man's life and how was god able to bring him back but before that point would you mind sharing just a little bit about your your experience growing up in the church was it a positive one or was it something that that that you did because your family did it tell us about that yeah you know it's funny because when i share my testimony and i've shared my story with others i have no ill will towards the church actually the church was very influential in in helping me be grounded in who i am today um and looking back at it all of the relationships the friendships and the family that adopted me as one of their own it's it's still we still have that relationship um but as i mentioned before when you don't have a relationship a personal relationship with jesus uh the church becomes a place that you go to socialize and to hang out and when you get to a point where you can start making your own decisions you start you become influenced by the things that you watch and see and the people that you hang out with um church becomes less and less relevant right and it begins with missing church one day it begins with um turning on the tv and flipped into the channel and realized wow there's football on saturday you know and those little compromises where you knew you weren't supposed to do you know it became a norm you know you was anonymous nominal adventist for the most part um that didn't keep me in the church and because i didn't have a relationship i didn't really see the importance of church as i got older i knew it was important but not necessarily important enough for me to want to continue right wow so would you say that you were checked out of church before you physically left the church yeah um and i think that's what kind of you know begins this you know going to a black church is an all-day event you know you go there from early morning there's a late night um and with our church specifically we had pathfinders on sunday we had church school you know the the school that was located at the church and so you got to see the same thing and it was the same routine over and over again and you know it's that one sabbath you go to to a friend's church and you're off by 12 and you're like yo this is life like i get to home go home take a nap and and it was at that point that yeah it was kind of checked out i wanted to try new things endeavoring new experiences and so yeah mentally i kind of checked out and just wanted to try new things and that's kind of what you know prompted me to kind of start leaving you know the church as a whole research is showing that that many of the young people that do leave church were already checked out years before they left and if there's a young person that's listening today i believe that there there's some things that lawami will share in his testimony that will be a blessing to you so you were checked out for some time and and at some point you decided okay i'm gonna go and explore what the world has to offer well tell us about that transition yeah so you know 16 is the big age where you get your driver's license you have the freedom you start driving go into other churches and um you know i went to academy all of my life so i grew up in the adventist system you could say all my life and it was about the age of 16 that as i was in uh you know going to a boarding academy at the school forest lake there in orlando it was there that um i just realized that i skipped class a lot my goal and ambition was to be the popular guy basketball was my passion and so i had aspirations of being a ball player and and so that was my focus i wasn't worried about academics i wasn't worried about anything outside of what brought me pleasure and it was at that point where i got into altercation got into a fight that led me to get kicked out of school and um you know that kind of spearheaded as i went to public school for the first time i was scared to death right it went to evans high school which is not known to be a great school you know very poverty stricken area and here i am starting a new in denver a new endeavor in my life and um but it was all these little decisions maurice that i made um as a child you know not listening to you know what my mother would tell me to do what my dad would tell me to do and and just had this rebellious spirit in me that eventually it manifested itself that it got me kicked out an academy to now go to public school and there that's where that newfound freedom that i was longing for right at the age of 17 18 years old that i experienced and and that's where i got to endeavor in the things that i was longing for and i was gave it to experience wow so would you say that being being in the public school setting as opposed to being at the academy at forest lake um propelled you or gave you the freedom to maybe go a little bit further down that road yeah you know it's it's it's no knock on that uh at i'm just speaking on my experience i can't remember one chapel talk i can't remember one bible study at a boarding academy whatsoever and it's interesting that even when i went to public school i felt much more aware of my religious background because you're now an environment where you know no one there is adventist right but my experience in public school was great i think it was probably my for the most part a little better than a boarding academy or uh you know going to a public private school and the reason why i say that is because the relationships i was building they all were christian based you know for the most part they all go to church they go to church on sunday and um and so we had this connection but it was definitely a lot of compromises i was making because of the influence that was there that ultimately you know you know led me to a path where it was going to lead me down the path of destruction you know amen so it sounds like being at the academy somehow slowed that that uh that journey away from church life being in the public school setting maybe maybe was a catalyst to to moving forward in that that journey right you know so so friday nights you're going to the basketball games football games you're now going to prom you're doing all of these things and you have to compromise what you learned but if you're never i was never rooted in any of those things i knew it was bad but it wasn't no conversion experience in my life for me to say well no i'm not going to go to the game friday night because i'm an adventist or anything like that i enjoyed the fellowship this is what my heart was desiring and i was experiencing it you know for the first time and so yeah it was kind of the catalyst to lead me to that in that direction okay so i'm sure what maybe many of us are wanting to know is well what what next uh what took place in the in the life of young lawami richardson did you leave the church and have a great experience out there was it horrible tell us about that you know it's funny because when you share your testimony people always conclude that oh you know the world's horrible it's a miserable place you don't want to go but when you read this uh in the book of hebrews when you talk about the life of moses that he gave up a life of sin that was pleasurable for something better right so in the moment where in my experience growing up i was enjoying what i was doing i was you know at this point i was drinking i was i was uh going to clubs i was uh you know just partying and doing all of the things that desired you know pursuing my my dream of being a basketball player and and focusing all my energy on that and it was fulfilling it was pleasurable because it's everything that my heart desired um but as you know it gets to a point where those things are no longer fulfilling and you have to do more to try to keep that that void filled and so it was those moments where you know after high school when i after i graduated um a public school i went to uh to college and that's when you know the party scene came in that's where you know the the pursuit of of wanting to be uh the glimmers and the glamour of the world and saying yo i i want to be able to uh have the cards have the have all of those things and i was that's was my pursuit you know i remember the one of my favorite artists you know had to say and get rich or die trying and and this crazy maurice at 25 i said i'm either going to be rich or i'm going to be dead being rich and that that was the mentality that i had i had no conscience whatsoever about you know about what i was doing i just knew what i wanted and i was going to do everything in my power to to get it wow and and i think you mentioned something that's very important a lot of us in our attempt to to maybe be encouraging or supportive when we see a young person who seems as though they're on the verge of maybe leaving the church or experimenting with with things in the world we tell them it's going to be a bad experience don't do it you're going to hate it and and in reality the bible says that the the the life of sin is pleasurable yeah but then the balance is that it's pleasurable only for a time right right so maybe speak to that young person who who is on the verge of making that decision to go and explore maybe they've even already take taken a step in that direction and they they've they've looked for the lightning bolt to strike them and they they say wait a minute i'm alive and this is still kind of fun what do you say to that person you know it's funny because i i i think about those young people that i reach and i talk to and and i ask myself this question you hear a testimony like mine that well god brought you out of the world and look at you you're you're on fire for god so that means i can do it too but the bible says that that satan is out like a lion seeking who he can devour he knows that his time is short and i always ask every young person the quest this question what guarantee do you have that you will be able to make it back to the church because all of my friends a lot of my some of my friends that that i that i grew up with in high school and middle school they all thought that they will be able to see 80 years old and now they're six feet under you know under the ground they're dead i have gone to the funerals and and i saw that the lifestyle that i was living there's consequences to that and so i asked every young person are you willing to live with the consequences of the choices that you make when you're purposely not abiding in the within the will of god because once you're not abiding in the will of god you're you're ultimately asking you're giving god's permission to remove his his his protection and it's only by god's grace world that that i look back and reflect those moments where i woke up don't know how i got home those moments where guns were pulled out on me those moments where a police officer pulled me over with no license or registration with weed in my car that he didn't simply ask for my license or registration at that moment knowing that i had those things you know i'm saying i look back at it it's like it's only by god's grace and his mercy that he saw i'm going to protect him but when we enter into that atmosphere where where satan is playing for keeps that's a very dangerous ground and like i said it's going to be enjoyable because it feeds into everything that you desire and want but at the end of the day the only person that can ever fulfill that void and give you the purpose and the longing that you ever desire is god and and that's what i've realized in my life was it fun can i talk about it yes but what keeps me in rooted with christ not only my love for him but realizing at the end of the day though it gave me pleasure there was still an emptiness and a void that nothing else could be fulfilled no matter how much stuff i bought or how much uh glamour i was you know putting out there christ was the only person that can fulfill that for me amen so it sounds like the reality is you you take that step you get there you you you're doing things that that you see as fun enjoyable but then it leaves you feeling more empty more more sad more uh just kind of like you reach the point where just life itself seems just depressing yeah and and you know maurice what the crazy part is for me in my life is that i realized that it was i had no conscience it was things that used to convict me i wasn't convicted about anymore um i remember there was a situation where um we went to the club and and um it was at that point where we said you know we were my friend just purchased a car he had a pistol and he was shooting out in in the apartment complex we were at and um i remember vividly we was going to this new spot that nobody's been to any places in the back of the trunk of the car and and we drive out to the club and we're there having a good time friend of mine is talking to a young lady and as her talking she they knew each other from the apartment complex that he lived that and uh her boyfriend shows up and all of a sudden the guy was like uh oh i don't know who this guy is he's been bothering me this whole time long story short situation escalated full out fight bro there's like five or six of us versus maybe 50 or 60 of them right come to find out the guy he he ended up getting the fight with was a club promoter and he invited all of these people and i remember for the first time man i was sitting there and and and um it's a lost situation there's nothing i can do and all i was asking for was the pistol where's the gun i don't know what i was going to do with it but i knew at that point i was maybe shot fighters in the air i was going to shoot somebody i don't know what was going to take place but i knew that and something needed to be done i went to the car finally found the key go ahead before you before you share what's what comes next i'm sure many of you are are wondering well what happened when he went to that that that car yeah um i just want to i want to bring out this this thought is you go from being this young person who's who's raised adventist you're you're going to the academy and you end up in this situation where now you're you're potentially on the verge of going to jail for taking a life and and i think it's important to highlight that that doesn't happen overnight right right um you would you have seen yourself as you were leaving the church as being a person who'd be willing to take a gun pointed at someone pull the trigger no and and and the process happens with small little compromises it's first watching something on fr on friday night like you know you're not supposed to watch it's going to the movies where you know you're not super host it's eating stuff that you know you're nuts and it's all of these little small compromises that leads to bigger compromises no one ever goes from growing up in a home where you have family worship to all of a sudden to a point where you're like give me a gun i'm about to shoot somebody it's always these small little compromises and this is why going back to what the question you was asking what do you tell a young person that is wanting to make that decision well how far are you willing to go how far are you willing to you know because they want to play safe they want to have their cake and eat it too but it got to a point maurice where i realized i'm looking back and seeing all the little small compromises that i was making the music i was listening to that was influencing my mind that i grew up adventist kid growing up in a pretty decent home you know i went to the hood i hung out in the hood but all of a sudden i felt like i was a trapper you know i'm saying the music you know it was it it molded me into somebody that i wasn't designed to be and as ultimately as those little small compromises took place i got to a point where i was willing to grab a gun and and kill somebody if it need to you know it's those little small compromises that gets you to a point that how did i get here it's never one big leap it's always a little small compromises that gets you to that point yeah a friend of mine once said character isn't made in a day it's made day by day right so we we are essentially the product of a series of small decisions that we make every single day and and the decisions that we make today and tomorrow and the next day essentially creates the person we become right so here you are you've become this person who thinks going to the trunk and getting this gun is a solution to the problem what happens next so i i you know my friend doesn't have the key i'm looking for him and it's the old school cadillac so you have two keys one for the trunk one for the car and so the only car that the only key that i found was a key for the ignition so i went in and i opened you know started the car and i got into the glove department popped the trunk and when i went there there was no gun and for the life of me to this very day no one knows where that gun went and there's only the only conclusion i can come to is that there was an angel who removed that gun from that situation for me not to use it and it was at that point maurice where everything was kind of just falling apart i had to ask myself what am i doing with my life and uh which ultimately led me to a conference where my sister invited me to at gyc in kentucky and um remember making that decision when all of these things that was happening in my life led me to this position where i'm like i'm going to give god a chance if he's real if he's real he's going to have to do something and remember vividly man we was there and a good friend of ours a mutual friend he he tells me did he didn't realize he was being used you know to discourage me but he said man this conference is for little kids man you sure you want to go and at that point i was like yeah i guess i don't want to and as i was leaving you i bumped into you and you're like low what's good like we haven't seen each other in years and um and you told me he's like yo so i heard you're going to gyc and you said these words bro that always resonated with me to this very day it's like you don't i don't think you know what you're what you're getting yourself into and from that day on man i it went from from going to that bus with all of these questions realizing all of the mistakes that i've made and experiencing god for the very first time where i was like man i needed to make a surrender and i wish i could just say oh yeah it was it was all done and i gave my heart to god and it was a moment when i knew i needed to give god my heart that when i came back i tried to do a little bit of god a little bit of me and it didn't work six months into it i'm har my experience is horrible right i'm not gonna listen to i'm only gonna have one beer instead of getting drunk i'm only gonna listen to kanye instead of listening to the jay-z you know and you try to compromise and god said it's either all or nothing and so i told the lord i was like listen if if if you are going to do what you plan on doing in my life you're going to have to leave me send me out of orlando and send me far away and you know went to california that's as far as you can go right learned my experience there and from there man been in full-time ministry worked as a chaplain been able to you know have the privilege to travel all around the world share my testimony i think the highlight of my my my my life was to be able to go to the very conference that changed my life in the city of orlando amen there to share my testimony up front of thousands of people right passing out great controversies and it's just as a recent the lord called me back to orlando and i'll get to work with a ministry that is led by young people you know that's that the whole focus is to impact and make a difference in the city of orlando amen and i realized maurice said that looking back at it now as we're talking looking back and reflecting and seeing god saw something in me worth saving and that is why i've dedicated my whole life to him and we can talk about all the stories we can talk about all the you know good times that we've had but at the end of the day this has been the most fulfilling part of my life bard's on hands down you know wow well i'm sure everyone's curious to know more about what you're doing now but you know this this testimony is especially dear to my heart because like i mentioned earlier one of the first people i met when i came to america was was you your family and um i i remember meeting uh elder richardson at the the faith uh sda church in hartford connecticut and and he greeted us you know with the warm loving hug and and the next week we saw him he remembered our names greeted everyone by name and then you you left um i remember years went by left or connecticut to orlando florida right right and the church that we happened to attend was where your family was and so we connected there and it's been very interesting because that the first church i preached in when i entered full-time ministry um is the first church luami preached in when he started his his journey um in ministry and i remember working for a program called the asi youth for jesus program as a site coordinator and i i left that position and i find out lawami richardson is now the the site coordinator with the asi youth for jesus program um working the same territories that you worked yes so so you were in uh sacramento california i visited luami and and he was taking me to the place he was staying at um and and the conversation catching up we we lost track of where we were and ended up actually at the church he was working for and not at the house and i remember thinking this place looks really familiar and and long story short uh this was the same territory that i worked when i was a student at the uh the amazing facts uh center of evangelism efco and so it our our journeys have been so intertwined you know we played on the same basketball team years ago and um and now to see what god is doing in your life it's a testimony to the fact that he he really pursues us relentlessly and i want to give a word of encouragement to those who may have a friend who you know is going down a path that's um that that no is leading to a a path of destruction maurice was very vital in that he knew what i was doing yet never passed judgment always did everything to try to encourage me and lead me down the path um and and like i said maurice my testimony is so intertwined with with our lives that who would imagine you know 15 16 years ago we would leave you know connect depart from each other and come back and the lord used you know both of our lives to come back together to now we're both working in full-time ministry right coming back and visiting and being able to have this interview and share share what the lord has done and so um you know for those who are making that decision and thinking to themselves well i can go out to the world and and come back and and give my heart to god um that's a very dangerous ground to you know that's a very dangerous uh mindset to have because right now especially with everything that's happening in the world there's no guarantees and i can testify with the friends that i've had that they thought the same thing and they're no longer with us and and for those who have uh who are maybe on the spiritual side and knowing that they have friends um that are are drifted away from god and and and uh are not in the right path continue to be encouraging be there um and and and just embrace them and the lord will do mighty and great things and this is a testimony that of what he can do you know amen so amen and i'm sure coming back is a great blessing but it's not without scars probably oh absolutely there's things that i've wrestled with every single day the doubts that i have and things that have that's impacted me that i still have to overcome you know those scars are reminders of what i came from and what i'm ultimately you know those cars are a reminder of where what i came from and what i what what has happened in my life but ultimately inspires me to continue down the path that i'm going you know jesus has scars as well and as a reminder of what he had to endure but ultimately what he did for you and i right well that brings in the greatest joy and so those scars are motivating because i realized that if god can take me through this journey and still preserve me and still use for you know you use me in the way that he has he can do it for anyone he could do it for anyone amen amen and i think it's a blessing to think about what it's going to be like when we're in heaven and we're able to look back at how god has has worked and and how interconnected we all are you know i wouldn't have been at gyc if it wasn't for a good friend who who provided the means for me to get there um i wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for another individual who invited me to be there you know so it god is behind the scenes working in ways that we just can can can just never really fully understand um but as we as we turn the corner here tell us a little bit about what you're doing now you said you're in ministry in orlando tell us about that yeah after finally you know uh six long years i finally came back home working for an organization called salt which is an acronym for service and love together we're service based project ministry that focuses on the homeless lower income kids and visiting the sick and the shut-in and so we just did an evangelistic series and uh man the lord was just doing mighty things in orlando and he brought me back home to do something you know what i started with the good work he started in me he's going to finish and i'm back home doing it now amen um in 10 seconds there's someone back home who would like to get involved in salt how do they do that check out our website seouloutreach.org find us on facebook instagram or twitter and we can give you all the information our goal is to try to utilize this model and and share it to us many churches all across the world so saul outreach.org is the website you can check us out praise the lord well with that said we'd like to close with the word of prayer today and um lord we thank you for how you lead in our lives we pray that this journey that we're all on will be a blessing to the people around us we thank you we praise you and we ask that you will continue to fill us with your holy spirit in jesus name amen [Music] you

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Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 28 2021