Near & Far: Life On Mission

if you would like to hear more from pastor anthony subscribe to the patriot pastor on youtube as he engages culture through the lens of scripture this monday on september 13th at 7 pm in room 102 behind kid city we will be hosting a disaster relief interest meeting in this meeting we will make plans on how we will show god's love to those affected by hurricane ida [Music] carefest is right around the corner on september 25th we will be taking part in a county-wide community service date with the goal of showing god's love in a practical way if you are able to lead a project or want to volunteer please head to our website alm.tv or the church center app to get registered today every second third and fourth sunday of the month we host discover track discover track is your way to get connected to the heart of alm and who we are there's also how you become a partner with us get registered for discover track at alm.tv or your church center app starting point takes place the first sunday of every month and it is your way to get involved at alm if you want to join our team starting point is the place for you get registered at alm.tv or your church center app today we believe life change happens in the context of relationships so we want to help you get connected to christ and other believers but more than that grow in your relationship with jesus christ small groups is how you can do that visit our website to find out more about our small groups if you would like to hear more from pastor anthony subscribe to the patriot pastor on youtube as he engages culture through the lens of scripture this monday on september 13th at 7 pm in room 102 behind kids city we will be hosting a disaster relief interest meeting in this meeting we will make plans on how we will show god's love to those affected by hurricane ida [Music] carefest is right around the corner on september 25th we'll be taking part in a county-wide community service state with a goal of showing god's love in a practical way if you are able to lead a project or want to volunteer please head to our website alm.tv or the church center app to get registered today every second third and fourth sunday of the month we host discover track discover track is your way to get connected to the heart of alm and who we are this is also how you become a partner with us get registered for discover track at alm.tv or your church center app starting point takes place the first sunday of every month and it is your way to get involved at alm if you want to join our team starting point is the place for you get registered at alm.tv or your church center app today we believe life change happens in the context of relationships so we want to help you get connected to christ and other believers but more than that grow in your relationship with jesus christ small groups is how you can do that visit our website to find out more about our small groups if you would like to hear more from pastor anthony subscribe to the patriot pastor on youtube as he engages culture through the lens of scripture this monday on september 13th at 7 pm in room 102 behind kids city we will be hosting a disaster relief interest meeting in this meeting we will make plans on how we will show god's love to those affected by hurricane ida [Music] carefest is right around the corner on september 25th we'll be taking part in a county-wide community service state with a goal of showing god's love in a practical way if you are able to lead a project or want to volunteer please head to our website alm.tv or the church center app to get registered today every second third and fourth sunday of the month we host discover track discover track is your way to get connected to the heart of alm and who we are there's also how you become a partner with us get registered for discover track at alm.tv or your church center app starting point takes place the first sunday of every month and it is your way to get involved at alm if you want to join our team starting point is the place for you get registered at alm.tv or your church center app today [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning anybody ready to worship today amen stand to your [Music] weapon feet be formed but it won't prosper when the darkness falls it won't prevail cause the god i serve knows only how to triumph my god will never fail oh my god will never fail [Music] [Music] belongs to [Music] there's power in the mighty name of jesus everywhere he wages he will win do you believe it oh i'm not backing down for many giants cause i know how this story is [Music] [Music] i'm gonna see you [Music] [Music] i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna a victory for the battlefield [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] cause you take what the enemy meant for real and you turn it for good you turn it for good yes you do jesus you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good you turn it forward [Music] [Music] for good foreign [Music] i'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to you lord i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see [Music] victory [Music] [Music] victory [Music] foreign so [Applause] [Music] give him praise today for the victory for the victory in your life father god we just praise you lord we worship you god we thank you for the victory god that we see every day lord we thank you god that you rose from the dead god so that we could have victory that you died that you suffered so we could live in victory god and i pray that we would live in victory every day that we would not accept defeat that we would not accept sickness in jesus name but that we would declare and decree that we have victory is ours you have a victory that same spirit that raised christ jesus from the dead it dwells in you today it dwells in you today and you have victory father god we thank you lord we thank you for wholeness in this place we thank you for healing in this place god father i thank you for deliverance in this place i thank you god that chains are broken in this place today all because of what you did god and we thank you lord it's not by power it's not by might but it's by your spirit by your spirit says the lord of hosts and we thank you father we thank you that we have the authority father help us to take that authority in jesus name in jesus name [Music] creation knows the voice [Music] that spoke into the void the breath that brought the dust to life [Music] the darkness fears that drove it back before even though the night is long i know your light will drive it back [Music] things changed [Music] your work it's true on your authority [Music] my fight is is [Music] one word from you [Music] your word [Music] is [Music] one word [Music] is [Music] [Music] will spirits not be silenced and cower at israel for if my god is for me then what have i to fear and i will not deny the glory that is his will is strongholds not removed will spirits for if my god is for me then what have i to fear and i will not deny the glory that is here cause heaven will prevail the strongholds will be moved and spirits will be silenced is [Music] that is change on your authority your word is true [Music] the spirits will be but nothing will deny [Music] oh god we worship you jesus father we thank you lord god we bless your name in this place lord jesus there is no one like you in this place lord jesus we worship your father we bless your name jesus we thank you for your presence lord god we thank you lord that one word from you god things can change with just one word with just one touch from the master everything can change situations in your life that you're going through that seem to be going terrible with one touch with one word everything can change we thank you lord for that this morning father we bless your name jesus thank you jesus [Music] there is a promise that points beyond my failure and there is voice to silence all my fears [Music] [Music] i am healed with one touch i am made whole you have spoken and i know [Music] [Music] you have spoken and i know [Music] and then every season [Music] your purpose is [Music] jesus your kingdom will not be shaken your kingdom will not be shaken by your stripes i am [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] that is [Music] faith [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] is your will be done so let us oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] your is i am here with once i am made whole you have spoken and i know that it is certain cause it's impossible for you to lie in the storm you are peace and your love won't let me go you have spoken and i know that it is so you have spoken and i know that it is you have spoken yet you have spoken and i know that it is [Music] [Music] this song talked about the will of god the will of god is for the followers of jesus christ to carry on his ministry he said to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you and lo i am with you always even until the end of the age two weeks ago in a women's conference it my little girl put together the lord laid on her heart to baptize whoever wanted to be baptized it was spontaneous women dressed nice got baptized it was like 13 of them it was crazy it was it was crazy and i just felt like the next day well just they said well pastor do you want to take the top down i said well no let's just see what happens tomorrow let's just open it up we've had 28 people be baptized in the last two weeks can god can you give god praise for that so here's the deal we're going to keep that tub up now we do change the water we got a little circulator in there we got little you know heaters and so it's it's good it's clean it's fresh so if you want to get baptized i know you're not ready we got towels we got a t-shirt for you have to get finished it says i am not ashamed because that's what baptism is it's an outward symbol of an inward commitment you're already redeemed you're already born again you're already saved but you're saying i'm not ashamed to be a follower jesus christ this is an outward symbol of an inner commitment if put your hands together encourage somebody to come over here right now and get baptized right now come on encourage somebody to get over here and baptize come on derek i know you want to get back to us come on derek get back that's derek is coming right now he spoke to me before service who else is in this place right now you want to get baptized you're saved you're born again but you say i want to go public with my profession of faith praise god amen amen amen praise god i'm just going to take off this apple watch because it's not supposed to be submersed [Music] come on in derek praise god his um his grandmother was a godly woman who i've known for many years and um you know he said to me before service i want to do this because of my grandmother in honor of her let's just have a seat derek tell us tell me tell everybody when did you get saved uh august 2019 really yeah so i've known you a long time so here's the deal so wait a minute hold on you've been coming but you really weren't surrendered until august 2019. what happened the lord spoke to me on my boat in the ocean so get a boat you get saved you heard it no it was the first time in 40 years and i grew up in a pentecostal church [Music] i changed so tell me this is really crazy tell me tell us about well the lord just i was in a bad situation and he told me to move and he kept saying move and for a month i prayed i'm like what do you mean move and then so god just redirected my whole life and here i am praise god god's still speaking to us and we'll just listen amen praise god amen just hold your nose derek [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen somebody bring me a towel kendra wants you to see the offering are you up to it sure amen always ready amen we get to move into the next part of worship right because giving is all about worship it's establishing what we feel that god is worthy of amen amen so worship is more than just standing in here singing songs it's in what we give it's in how we treat our finances it's in how we live our lives it's in how we speak to others that's true worship and so now we're going to go into worship and giving we all know that everything we have was given to us because our father god is jehovah jireh and he provides everything that we have amen and he asked us to just give him back 10 of that and we want to be obedient we want to live under a blessing and we want to help further the kingdom of god amen abundant life is doing many things to reach the kingdom for jesus and we want to just be able to further do that so i just pray blessings on you father god we just pray lord for this offering right now god we pray for every giver lord jesus those that have to give father i just pray that you would bless them abundantly so that they can give more and those that may feel like they don't have to give father i just pray that you would just bless them as well god bless them so that they can give father teach us all how to give and how to worship through our giving lord and god i pray that you would multiply this offering so that ministry can continue to go out and we can begin to reach more souls and disciple them for the cause of christ and we promise to give you all the glory in jesus name amen and amen [Music] we believe that god has a plan and a purpose for your life and he wants to use you to make a difference in this world and our mission at abundant life ministries is to lead people into a growing relationship with jesus christ and we want to invite you to discover track at discover track you'll learn how you can connect to other believers grow spiritually and serve whether it's your first time you've been coming for a while we invite you to take your next step and sign up for discover track which happens the second and third and fourth week of the month we look forward to seeing you there soon [Music] every year around this time we start planning for christmas we save what we have to add a little joy to the lives of our loved ones we make plans with family we think about giving and a little about getting we unpack our decorations and start thinking about buying a christmas tree [Music] our community is coming together to help children globally and locally when you purchase a christmas tree you provide education mentoring care food and housing to children in some of the most challenging places in the world and right here in our own community we will nurture support restore and change the lives of these children this christmas in the midst of all the shopping preparation and planning buy a tree change a life learn more at biotreechangealife.com [Music] we are so excited to be partnering with buy a tree change a life for the first time this christmas if you would like to partner with us this year as we help change the lives of children please consider becoming a sponsor you can find more information by visiting alm.tv or your church center app [Music] when it first happened the minutes felt like hours the hours felt like days and the horror of what happened one detail after another could hardly be processed much less understood then days turned into weeks weeks turned into years memorials were built wars were fought victims names were red survivors tried to pick up the pieces over and over again but no matter how much time has passed we vow to hold these memories we will never forget those that were taken from us [Music] the world changes and shifts this way in that but one thing stays constant one thing is steady [Music] god god weeps with us god mourns with us god bottles up our tears and records them in his book he is closer to you than your own breath and remains the cornerstone of life [Music] god is the solid ground holding us up as the world moves beneath us [Music] it's as true today as it was on that day [Music] our god reigns he reigns over principalities and powers his dominion stretches beyond what our eyes can see [Music] when the thief comes to steal kill and destroy our god reigns we will always remember [Music] in order to keep distractions to a minimum and to be courteous to those around you we ask that at this time please silence all cell phones in addition if you have to exit once the message begins please join us in the cafe for the remainder of the service follow along with pastor anthony's message and take notes by downloading the youversion bible app lastly if you chose to forego or provide a child care we want to invite you to join us for service in our family room with your little one now please join me in welcoming our lead pastor pastor anthony mcdaniel amen amen so i'm not speaking today but it's because as a great man of god in our midst and i just want to introduce him by telling you i've been pastoring in this uh community for 26 years i've actually lived in the tampa bay area 29 years i was over in tampa three years there's a church called city life now it wasn't called that back then when i was a music guy there um long story short i've seen a lot of people blow in blow up and blow out it's so funny and you meet them at pastors meetings and they're giving you their car and they're telling you know you're like okay and i'm looking at them going that's great welcome how long are you gonna be here i didn't tell them that but i'm thinking it you know and um then you got guys like pastor bill lasaso who's um just served faithfully and tried to do what mattered most to jesus which is the bind up the brokenhearted set the captive free set of liberty those who are bound and proclaim the acceptable year of the lord loving your neighbors yourself and this guy you know i really haven't had a lot of interaction with him until the last couple years we started hanging out a little bit um but i've known of his ministry he started pathways community church florida dream center which the pathways became mission city he started those ministries uh guys really used him no one's really done more with human trafficking in this area than pastor bill assassin and i've been around a long time nobody let's give it up for this great man of god seriously [Applause] as you know those that sit under my ministry you know there's um there's a lot of people that talk a lot of christians talk one thing that really is not cool with me is christians who just come and experience the presence of god the power of god the redemption of god being born again and they don't really help others get there that's not cool it's not cool in fact i look as i heard this probably 25 30 years ago when pastor said it and it's become part of my mantra i'm here to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable so if you've been saved you're born again you've experienced the life flow of jesus christ in your heart it is time for all of us to be about the father's business can i get an amen on that and so when i look at our videos and i look at our what goes on here i think man we're a busy church but you know what that's what happens when everybody rolls up their sleeves and says i'm going to do something we can't fix all the problems in the world but we can all do something and today we're going to hear from a guy who's got he's done some great things and we just want to read his formal introduction so you don't you know a little bit more about him uh because i think it's worth you knowing so pastor bill loso was a young hippie in the 1960s at the university of colorado and the holy spirit led him on a journey to success as an executive in corporate america along the way god called him into ministry and church planting responsible for starting seven churches across the united states and guatemala the florida dream center located here in pinellas county florida is a non-profit inspired and modeled after the la james center in california now nine years old it is folk located in lielman a suburb of saint petersburg florida the dream center provides assistance for poverty-restriction families substance abusers homeless and human trafficking victims offerings include advocacy direct services residential treatment as well as a church planted specifically for the people it serves bill serves as chair of the faith-based coalition family-oriented concept unified to serve or focus also located in pinellas county florida and is a member of the pinellas county opioid task force he has served on the boards of multiple organizations including big brothers big sisters junior achievement and the florida baptist state board of missions bill is a national and international speaker on the subjects of human trafficking recovery and community revitalization his commitment to helping the hurt and broken knows no boundaries and remains god's greatest call on his life let me just tell you he started a new organization called restored to dream restored to dream we're going to give you an opportunity at the close of this service to to give to that um so restore the dream that's primarily the human trafficking arm of the ministry will you honor this man of god and welcome him to speak to us today we put your hands together come on somebody come on a better life let's make him feel welcome this great man of god this servant this guy that's been in the trenches for many years faithful day in day out weekend we out year in year out we honor you pastor bill welcome to abundant life okay i'm almost ready to start here we go guys i really look forward to this today for several reasons of course but one of the things is pastor anthony assured me that there are no sinners at the 11 o'clock service and it's pretty good now he said at the nine o'clock they got a bunch of heathens but you know but you guys right here you're it you're all it so that's pretty cool going to be a rough message this morning in the beginning real rough and then it's going to get better so you hang with us i really wish you would and we're going to look at some verses in the bible from the perspective of survivors of human trafficking the worst hell on earth you need to look at the perspective of people other than yourself sometimes when you read the word of god and the title today's message is love your neighbor which is part of pastor anthony's series but what if you don't what if you don't major major difference look at the next slide of course where this comes from when jesus was asked what's the main thing and he said love god and then love your neighbor and you all know that and we love that we salute that love your neighbor as yourself as long as they're not icky as long as they're not different than you as long as they're not dysfunctional long as they can as long as they can give you something you can love them love your neighbor long as they will love you back boy he did not mean that he didn't mean it at all what if instead there's somebody your neighbor and again that means somebody at work at church on the street whatever the god put in your circle and you would rather avoid them than love them he didn't say avoid your neighbor he said you love that neighbor you know who needs your love not the loved ones who can love you back the unlovable the unlovable need you to love them thing is what if you avoided somebody and you didn't pay attention to what was changing in their world to what now their behavior is different now a little kid can't look you in the eye now a woman has disappeared now and you didn't notice you avoided it didn't do anything about it what if you find out the change in their behavior because it was because they were raped oh that would set you back that would break your brain what if they were 12 years old what if it happened 12 times a night welcome to the world of human trafficking in your area guys the average age taken is 12 years old the average times the night they are raped by pigs is 12 times the average life expectancy for somebody taken into this at that point is seven years and they die of four things sexually transmitted diseases overdoses murder and suicide and we we deal with those every day of the week here in pinellas county you love your neighbor but what if you don't and what if you ask one of these girls that got hurt about that verse what do you think they'd say my neighbors are the men who came in here and hurt me hurt me and hurt me and hurt me and you're telling me love my neighbor we had a well before i tell that story i just want to remind all of us jesus wasn't kidding when he gave his commandments and and this one is like the others he wasn't kidding about it it's not an option here's why we had a 17 year old brought to us and she's been trafficked uh as long as anyone in the nation or anywhere else since before she was one year old however much that disgust you i wish i could say she was the only one but she's not it's astounding she's still alive you can go on the dark web which i hope you never ever will and you can see men hurting babies yeah we've had sisters brought to us little ones traffic since they were three and four sold into trafficking by their parents who became drug addicts it's very frequent to have familial trafficking we've had three sets of mothers and daughters both trafficked together you imagine seeing what your daughter is going through can you imagine seeing your mom the damage caused by this trauma affects the brain not just the body and when they are rescued it's not over and i love law enforcement with all my heart because they're the ones who knock down the doors we don't knock down the doors but folks it's not over then they don't know how to live and you're going to see that today we had an 18 year old who'd been trafficked since she was four in a home where no one knew she existed she was a non-person she never left never went to school the day in her life she didn't exist she escaped at the age of 17 i mean 18 she decided to run out into a world she didn't know and she made it and i asked her why in the world did you run knowing that it was if they'd have caught you they'd have killed you because you have too much information why'd you do that and this little 18 year old girl said i i knew that the risk she says but here's why i did it i'm 18 i've had five children every one was sold on the dark web i never got to keep my babies and i am pregnant again and i would rather die in an escape attempt than give this baby up to this world like this and she ran and what do you what do you make of love your neighbor what would she say about love your neighbor what would she say everything has been stolen from these girls their self-esteem they have none walk in can't look you in the eye they're scared to death their hopes they have no hopes they're wondering why they shouldn't kill themselves by the end of the day dreams that's why we started our new organization called restored to dream they do not know how to dream can you imagine it some of you are dreaming about retirement and what you're going to do some are dreaming about a career it's really cool some are dreaming about watching your kids or grandkids they cannot dream they look here right here right now and part of the dysfunction that comes with a trauma-damaged brain they will go back in time when they get scared and they will live in the last place they were safe and i don't have time to go into that but it's very very hurtful to see that they've lost their families their children their safety their sobriety their sanity and they feel they have no reason to live we had a 21 year old brought to us and she was trafficked out of state and the bad guy thought he had killed her so he threw her out of the car on the road they're just property and she survived and was brought here and so she came into our program and cove it happened and spaced restrictions on how many people which any rate and she got housing that wasn't adequate because we didn't have adequate housing and still don't and so what happened to her was the roommate said you're crazy i i can't i can't live with you and guys their behavior is not normal they they can't act like you and i do with the trauma-damaged brain and so the roommate said i'm going to throw you out tomorrow morning and now she was facing homelessness a place she didn't live we couldn't put her in our place and so she did the unthinkable and called the trafficker back in ohio and she got him on facetime and many of you have heard of stockholm syndrome where they want to go back to the one who hurt them it was worse than that it was far worse we never saw it coming i don't know that anybody ever ever did she got him on facetime and she said i i want you to see how much you've hurt me i want you to see what you've done to me and i want you to watch while i kill myself can you imagine that the desperation in this girl i want you to watch while i kill myself it's more to the story but she's 21 she was 21 years old and she's gone now who failed her every single flipping neighbor that ever saw her and said why has she changed why can't she look you in the eye why is where guys coming over there what oh geez we failed them you know love your neighbor as yourself but what in the world if you don't guys what if you don't you know to us it restored human trafficking obviously is not just statistics and demographics and awareness and i'm thrilled for those of you that study it and really are learning and the awareness programs it is about the human beings that walk in that door and wonder why they shouldn't run we've got to help restore them and the cool thing is there are wonderful pictures in the bible where god's done that and one of them of course was god sent a prophet to talk to king hezekiah and he said tell king he's going to die it's his time to die and so the king and i hope you'll read it someday he prayed to god and just said okay please remember me and so god took that prayer and he sent the prophet back to hezekiah look at second kings chapter 20 verse 5. and and god said to the prophet return and say to hezekiah the leader of my people thus says the lord the god of your father david i heard your prayer man i have heard your prayer and i have seen your tears and behold i'm going to heal you and on the third day you're going to go back up to the house of the lord here's the point of this these girls and of course there are boys but i'm just using the term girls they got to believe that god has heard their prayers a god they didn't know god when they were suffering 12 times a freaking night they have got to know that he heard them and he saw every tear they ever suffered they got to know and i'll guarantee you they need to know but here's the deal how are they going to know how are they going to hear it neighbors who saying i am going to go love on the unlovely i'm going to go loving that girl whose behavior is so not right and she can't answer questions right and she's paranoid and scared she's my neighbor i'm gonna go love on her i don't know what happened to her and i may never know and i don't care i i'm called by these verses i need to tell her that god's heard every prayer and he seen every tear and i'm going to go to my neighbor oh folks you know some more they need to know is joel 2 25 where he was talking to israel and said hey here's what i can do and he said i'll make up to you for the years that the swarming locusts have eaten out of your life the creeping locust the stripping locust i can make up to you for that i can restore to you with the locust of eden our girls need to hear this they need to know this i mean they have got to know it because right now they have no life how are they going to hear this how they going to know it what are they going to do accidentally show up and hear listen to pastor anthony someday they're not going to accidentally ever come into a church no self-esteem can't look you in the eye hurt to death somebody needs to go say hi i'm your neighbor i just want to meet you i just i just want to say hi and maybe someday we can do coffee and maybe someday i can take you to my church and other things like that and we're actually blessed to take a team of volunteers out on the streets guys every saturday night after after our church and there are volunteers from several churches that come with us and we go out about 8 30 at night onto the streets of lilman which has the highest concentration of trafficking and prostitution and child abuse and everything else and the team is trained to go up to the prostitutes and go where the damage is being done and go to the spotters and the pimps and to actually talk to them and engage them and we take food that they need we take love and we take hope and i want to tell you about the team they haven't memorized the new testament they don't know evangelism explosion and some of the great evangelistic tools that where you memorize 30 pages or something don't do that they're trained to have two phrases and i'll tell you how it started i should tell you this our little church we started in leoman for the prostitutes for the addicts for the felons for the homeless and for the human trafficking survivors and so they came to me one one day and said pastor we heard about this thing called outreach and evangelism can you teach us about that can you can you have a class on that and i said no there's no class on that i'm not going to give you a class on it you want to do this you come with me after church saturday night and here are the only two things you need to say when you get in and get somebody in front of you and you look them in the eye and they're hurting and they're broken and they wonder if you're going to kill them and you just ask them how are you doing with god how are you doing with god and you better believe that this living god will come into their life and come into their heart i don't mean in salvation wise but i mean he will start them thinking how am i doing with god and i'll tell you and then when it's time to pray you you say hey can i pray with you and and they invariably say yes unless uh by the way unless a pimp is watching and coming towards us but we ask them what do you want what is it that you want they have got to start thinking and dreaming and things we can ask the living god for i can't even tell you how many prayers on saturday nights have been answered that these folks would never even have thought to pray two simple things how are you doing with god what would you like him to do we've got some people here this morning from the saturday night outreach street team and i'm going to embarrass him sue and colin would you guys stand up in the food ministry your mom and let's just stand up let us embarrass you for a minute yeah look at that thank you you know what they are their neighbors and they go to some very what the world would say dangerous risky places but the world forgot that god is there too so we got to teach our folks how to believe how to have faith how to grow and how to dream guys they stopped dreaming so long ago and i'm going to show you part of the ministry when we get to bring them into our program and it's this what this was was a broken chair it's the back of the chair the legs of the chair and it's now a little dog bed wonderful little dog bed i didn't know if it would work or not but little dogs actually love these things and here's how i know mona my wife bought two of these now that alone isn't such a startling thing except we only have one little dog and i got two of these for no no but here's the point of this guys it isn't about the little dogs who do love these what this was was a broken unlovely unusable chair it is now a beautiful little dog bed and the therapy part starts with this where they will say well gosh maybe i can be pretty again too maybe i can be useful again maybe i can be repurposed into something as well and god starts working on their brain maybe i can be pretty again oh jeez anyway after that we have to teach them how to do life maps how and and part of that wonderfully is the dream what what do you want in life and what do you think god wants for you and some say it's a one day i'd like my own apartment with a little fence around it whatever okay then here are the steps that you need to take to get there you have to get a driver's license have to get a bank account have to do this and this will make a list they cannot do it what do you think the chances are of one of our survivors walking into a bank saying hi i'm mary and i'd like to open an account like any of you would do they cannot if they were even to go they would hang their head down and paranoia and they can't do it so guys we have another level of folks and i'll tell you too the two levels we have healthy christian women who help with this and they're called buddies and once a girl comes into our program from six to eight at night on whatever nights her program is the buddy never leaves the survivor survivor needs to go to the restroom the buddy goes with her survivor needs to run outside and scream and cry because something triggered her the buddy goes with her and the buddy helps with the project the buddies do not need to be mechanical or archie craftsy this is all pre-prepared for them to put together but to do the life maps takes another level buddies do this the life maps we train people to be navigators and here's why they get the same list that the survivor does and they say okay time to go get your driver's license i will pick you up on wednesday morning at nine o'clock don't think they can just go by themselves would it love your neighbor well go with them you have to go with them you need to go open that bank account come on we're going to go open a bank account and i'll tell you when you see them grow a step at a time oh my gosh but we have to help them we have to be neighborly what are we going to do say hey i love you now don't come too close to me because you're dysfunctional now we gotta we gotta love them and show it jesus christ showed his love we need to show the love and if we don't we need an enormous amount of volunteers for this obviously that we train our housing is horribly inadequate our we need more teachers we need increased capacity all that stuff we need more folks who are going to actually seriously love their neighbors they're broken hurting neighbors and we've have them by the way from age six to fifty six here's the thing about it guys loving your neighbor sometimes is hard sometimes it's hard sometimes our volunteers who sign up for a six to 12 week session will come to us at the end of it and say i i'm sorry but i need to take a i need to take a break after this i i can't it is hard just to be in the presence of somebody who wants to hurt themselves because of what the world's done to them and so our healthy christian women are standing there and we teach you to never ask them what happened but sometimes they will get close to you and they will start to tell you it will kill you we're not talking about just sex with pigs we're talking about things that ladies in this room if i mention some of these things every one of you would run outside and throw up in the parking lot it it is you know and it's hard to hear those things hearing about trafficking will make you mad seeing two little girls this tall walk in the room and they can't even look you in the eye and they're little girls and they're supposed to be happy and bouncy that's hard just hard you know but that's what being a neighbor is that's what loving your neighbor when they're not unlovely that day i mean when they're unlovely that day and we got to do it you know it might cost you something to love your neighbor cost jesus his life might cost us something will you do it anyway because what if you don't you know here's the thing the good news is when the program works the victories that come are magnificent they're just magnificent look at this last verse from the story of the prodigal son you know the prodigal son went away and blew up his life or and other people helped him blow it up of course as in the case of our girls he came back home dad was happy the brother was upset so the dad says hey luke 15 32 we had to celebrate and rejoice for this brother or sister of ours was dead dead dead dead and they began to live they were lost and have now been found i didn't mention this the last service but one time some tv show was doing a thing about us and a documentary and my assistant at the time it was a production break and the producer came to her and said what do you think of this trafficking stuff and she said well i've been with pastor bill since we started the ministry but until i sat down across the table from a dead woman i didn't know what it was like she believed that no man would ever love her no woman would ever trust her no church would ever take her i was looking into the eyes of a dead woman he said then i understood human trafficking when they're rescued it's phenomenal they are not okay and again i love all the awareness and i love people getting educated you can get educated you can get mad it doesn't help one survivor and that's what we're called you know so the thing is when the victories come they're amazing victories and that the good things are what happens if you do love your neighbors i'm going to tell you some of those because some of you haven't breathed since i started talking girls are now getting self-confidence as they come through the program as they do things like this as they do the other things they're accomplishing tasks for the first time some of them are driving cars for the first time now i wouldn't necessarily encourage you to drive next to him you know what i'm saying but they're going to get better oh yeah some of them are getting fiancees and getting married and of course they have to pass the uncle bill test before that happens pretty rough test some of them are getting jobs i'll tell you this say say one of these beds to tell you how broken they are we will sell these for the girls and they get every penny you know that comes in and it's wonderful when it happens not one of them has ever asked me how much money you know what they say is they start crying and they say i cannot believe somebody bought something i made somebody valued what i did somebody bought what i made oh so when they get to a point where they can go apply for a job even if one of our navigators goes with them what a huge thing what a huge thing and by the way one of our girls when she was 17 got a job at a little restaurant we'll say and the manager of course saw her stuff when she signed up and knew the day she was turning 18. he didn't know her past on her 18th birthday he tried to rape her you love your neighbor do you know what a setback that was what do you think she thinks of these verses today it's going to take some of you or some some people somewhere to show her the love of christ to show her these verses are true we have to show them some of them are returning to school how gutsy and how brave some are getting into other churches you know we built the church for them but if some of them don't live around there and there are other great churches like this one and they can go to those too and some are branching out and going to other churches these victories i just told you are nothing for you you take them for granted you can go get a different job if you want you can go to a different church you can go do whatever you want for them they are huge huge steps the damage is so hard one girl even went through our program and she got so healthy and so good in every way that we hired her and she is now the coordinator for the restored program and folks she is a survivor of human trafficking and the coordinator of the program she's actually here today and i'd like you to meet melanie melanie come on hi guys my name is melanie and i am the restored program coordinator and peer-to-peer leader at the restored program at the florida dream center i was born in china and adopted at two months old to a very loving and wonderful family i have lived in florida most of my life right here in pinellas county my parents told me about my adoption at a very young age after my parents told me about my adoption all i heard in my head was you weren't wanted your parents gave you up how could someone ever love you i felt hurt abandoned unwanted and unloved i started looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places i was teased and bullied all through grade school because i was different starting high school i felt so broken abused and alone i already felt defeated by the world as a teenager i started working at strip clubs as a shock girl i aspired to become a bartender but also loved to dance and to be on stage i had only danced in recitals before in a strip club it was a little different after i danced on stage for my first time i felt disgusting shameful and worthless but i loved the attention my manager caught on to that quickly i would lie to the men and tell them what they wanted to hear i created a whole new persona this protected me from the abuse i had to pay my manager fees for working at his establishment i would see other girls doing the same fear ruled my life i eventually was able to escape for a couple of months a friend of mine told me about a couple he was a pimp and his wife was a recruiter we went to the keys miami up the east coast the panhandle in central florida all i did was travel to different motels and work i was not allowed to look at other men she posted my pictures on an escort website the men called and we were on our way i felt disgusting i felt disposable i wanted to die that was my only worth only god gave me the strength and courage to escape them shortly after jesus gave me the strength and courage i needed to battle my addiction problem i went through therapy for all the trauma i have been through i accepted help a couple of years into my recovery i started to get the urge to go back into the sex industry fear started to rule my life again i ran into a woman i knew from the lifestyle there was something different about her she had been rescued and was attending the restored program she excitedly told me about it and i made the decision to try it out there was a new sense of empowerment and awareness that coursed through me something felt right i knew i was in the right place i had a i felt a sense of peace i was reborn i attended participated and now i am giving back i was offered a job with restored in june 2020 we worked with 88 rescues at least a hundred volunteers if not more and numerous survivors in the restored program i accepted christ back into my life and was baptized on may 23 2021 [Applause] in starting my journey in recovery i've been reunited with my family and now have a family of my own started a photography business and got engaged it is a struggle any day i do not let christ take the wheel today i accept his will for me and the power to carry the message of hope thank you [Applause] folks you know i said how hard it is for somebody who's been hurt like that to even go into a bank or something you know how brave melanie is to give that speech oh the courage it takes to tell the truth and then to do something about it let's thank her again for that you know hearing these kind of things from a grumpy old patcher pastor i mean that doesn't do much but hearing from from a girl who's been through it that's well i hope we all appreciate that love your neighbor if you don't bad things happen if you do amazing things can happen and i know sometimes it's hard and sometimes it'll cost you do it anyway melanie will be at the table in the lobby outside and you can you can chat with her later whether you want to help or donate or whatever it is teach serve pastor anthony allowed us to include a video here it's just three minutes three and a half minutes and it's our theme song and and our theme video and it's even got little kids in it and it's a story of human trafficking that probably you've heard and enjoyed it'll never be the same to you it'll never be the same again and i hope it'll even touch somebody to do something about this let's watch the video called rescue by lauren daigle [Music] you are not hidden there's never been a moment you were forgotten you are not hopeless though you have been broken your innocence stolen i hear you is underneath your breath [Music] i hear your ass so yes you're in so it's [Music] is true i will rescue you oh there is no distance that cannot be covered over and over you're not defenseless [Music] i'll be your shelter i'll be your armor oh [Music] so [Music] the darkest [Music] fight [Music] underneath your breath i hear your face is [Music] it's true [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh i will rescue you [Applause] in lauren daigle's words she has god saying i will send out an army in the middle of the darkness to find you you know who the army is us it's us we're the neighbors hey neighbor you go love on somebody who's unlovely right now somebody who's hurting and broken somebody is dysfunctional somebody who can't even carry on a proper conversation with you i'm sending you you know folks again it's uh it's one thing and i love you listening and hearing about it and some of you from the other service told me they really studied it and did a lot of research i love that i appreciate your hearts but if any of you come to join us when you finally see two little kids or four or two or an adult with a broken face that we had to send to california to be replaced it's um different thing they need to know that god heard their sos muttered underneath their breath when they could they weren't even allowed to pray and he heard them anyway i'm going to close with this story i wasn't saved till i was 35 years old did a lot of bad things but it occurred to me when i got saved and it was the most real thing that had ever happened to me that my father was not saved and i loved my dad as much as a man can love his dad and it just broke me down my dad wasn't saved and i was in dallas texas where i got saved and i was driving down beltline road and i had to pull over because i was crying so hard about my dad and and our pastor was great and he taught taught us things and and one of them was about fishers of men which were all supposed to be and i my dad was in denver area somewhere and i was in dallas and i couldn't save my dad and it tore me up but i felt like praying this god would you would you send a fisher of men to denver colorado somewhere wherever dad is i don't care if it's a man or a woman will you oh god will you put a fisher of men some christian who's really gonna live what you said somebody who's gonna pick up your cross and follow me it'd be hard to witness to my dad he owned bars will you go love on the unlovely my dad would somebody tell him i can't i can't i can't and it killed me and within one year my dad got saved yeah man in the last 15 years of his life he got to come and see the churches we got to plant and we i remember the first time my dad and i ever got to talk about the bible i'm telling you god could have taken me home right there when i get to heaven i want to see dad but i'm going to tell you this i want to meet the neighbor that led my father to christ i want to meet the neighbor that loved my dad again guys we dad had a bar and grandpa had a bar and my uncles had bars and we didn't we didn't even know what moral compass was but some neighbor felt led by the living god to do something and they did it oh my gosh guys um now here's why i'm telling you that i believe this with everything in my bones that there are no accidents in who we meet out on the street and who these people are put in our lives i believe that today there's somebody in denver somebody in dallas somebody in california somebody in washington some mom some grandma some grandpa who was on their face on the floor like i was saying living god i got a granddaughter in a place called tampa bay i think she's getting hurt i don't know what's happening to her would you put a fissure of men in front of my granddaughter in front of my son in front of my i don't know who folks somebody's praying that you know they are you know they are god will you raise up a fisher of men a man or a woman in that tampa area where you put him in the path of my loved one love you god and folks that's what jesus asked us to do love your neighbor they need it and we need to do it thank you [Applause] okay come on somebody let's get up for a warrior let's give it up for a great man of god that's been in the trenches for a long time thank god for pastor bill essasso lord we just praise you god may god give him strength stretch your hands towards pastor bill right now god we pray that you give him strength in this chapter of his life oh god where he's he's rebranding and restructuring this ministry of god lord and uh i just thank you lord for what you're going to do um restore the dream lord i just pray that you use him i pray that the next chapter of his life will be the most fruitful season though god i pray that you send people around him to hold up his arms and help him in the battle to save people from human trafficking we thank you lord for what he's doing in jesus name amen amen well we're going to close the service quick real quickly let me ask you what do we do about this what do we do okay here's two ideas that we can all give right so the ushers are coming let's all give so here's what i want you to do i i know it sounds crazy i want everybody here to give something all right give something you know why because it's important for you to say amen so be it through your finances you know there's some people watching online right now you can give largely somebody here has been deeply impacted by this and if you don't you know you can give cash you can write a check right out to abundant life ministries right down in the column there um pastor bill will make sure it goes to to restored to dream or you can write restored to dream right just write restore the dream in the memo or you can go online here go online to alm.tv and you can go to local outreach we didn't have a special line yet it says restore to dream i apologize but you can local outreach everything you give today every penny will go to pastor bill's ministry called restore to dream human trafficking okay everything will go for that and so um i'm just uh i'm thankful for what what's been done that's number one we can all give secondly we can all go somebody here needs to listen at 74 and a half he's 74 and a half years old somebody needs to come for somebody from this congregation probably needs to come alongside him and say you know what you're passionate about it don't just do it because you want to do it because you're passionate because you know if you're not passionate you're not going to last because it's tough it's tough it's tough it's really tough um but you know god the holy spirit spoke to some people here today you're supposed to come alongside this ministry you're supposed to serve supposed to help them you know maybe you want to go out on the streets with them on saturday night this is here in pinellas county this is happening right here i don't know anybody that's doing more effectively with human trafficking in the tampa bay area i have friends that are close to me that want me to work with them you know how many times i get asked for me to to use the resources of this ministry to help them i don't i don't come along i don't bring people in front of you unless they're highly vetted highly vetted i don't have to be bosom buddies with pastor bill to know that this is a highly effective man of god that's doing great stuff and so i brought him here because there's fruit there's fruit and he's doing it you know i don't want to just bring somebody who said hey i want to do this though he's been doing it for a long time so some of you some of you may need to come alongside him you need to meet him at the table talk to melanie today incredible story that was very amazing for her to be that transparent to share what she's gone through i'm really excited about what happened today the holy spirit spoken to you we can all give and some of you need to go and be involved in this ministry amen i mean let's give now well we thank you god for what pastor bill is doing in this ministry we thank you the team members have come alongside him we pray that you've given more people from this family of believers this community of faith lord god the people will come alongside him hold up his arms stand with him serve with him god i just pray that you'll speak to them i pray that they'll respond lord jesus and i pray that all of us will give something today to make a difference in lives of the people who's broken in jesus name we pray amen amen praise god while you give your offering today i just want to welcome uh you that are coming here for the first time today uh if you don't know i don't know i'm gonna close the service see pastor kirk he's a fine griez close the service machine but i'm going to close it just tell you if you're here for the first time we welcome you you can fill out a card right in front of you you can also scan the qr code in front of you you can do it digitally or you can do it uh on paper take it to our orange tent out there we have a gift for you we're so glad you gay listen let's welcome all of our first time guests will you do that right now praise god our prayer team is coming right now and if you want prayer please don't leave this this sanctuary today without receiving prayer we have people that are prayed up they want to just pray with you no matter what you're going through uh come for prayer we also have a new thing we're putting putting out called alm monthly we always have all of our announcements upcoming events online we want to put something on paper it's out there at the info center you can see what's going on some of you have missed the bulletin this is kind of like uh bulletin 3.0 uh you can have it once a month so you can have that buy a tree online or decide to be a sponsor buy a tree change the life is coming up this is the way we help children around the world and locally we encourage you to do that i'm having a disaster relief meeting tomorrow night at seven o'clock okay i will be here meeting with those who want to go to uh louisiana to do some disaster relief if you have interest in that you don't have to necessarily make a commitment but you can come out learn about it some of you are ready to go we will probably leave on a sunday afternoon work all week come back that saturday so you'll miss all that week we don't have a date yet you want to come to learn more about that be here it's seven o'clock tomorrow night okay i will meet with you in room 102. uh we've gone on about 40 of those trips uh we do a lot of that uh carefest is the last saturday in september it's showing god's love in a practical way we do house we do minor house repair yard work or painting i went to a black church this week i called the president of the upper pinellas ministry alliance said totally black pastor's group why do i do that i wanted them to know a predominantly white church wants to help you on carefest i showed up with the roofer they've spent 22 thousand dollars on getting this roof fixed it's been leaking and leaking leaking it's an easy fix kind of made me mad you know what i'm saying it's like i can do this i really can without any help i can fix it all myself but i need some help so what i'm saying what i'm saying listen just like pastor bill shared today when we show god's love in a practical way it opens people's hearts to jesus because we become curious why are they doing this so i'm asking you to serve on carefest okay be a project leader some of you are skilled be a project leader serve on a team and you can sign up after after after church today so god bless you we love you let's stand together turn your neighbor and say you don't suck have a great day god bless you [Music] everlasting ever strong god your love goes on and on

Channel: Abundant Life Ministries

Views: 80

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: kRgdCBjKbuU

Length: 98min 39sec (5919 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021