Near & Far: Life On Mission

[Music] carefest is right around the corner on september 25th we'll 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 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 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] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning anybody ready to worship here today amen stand to your feet [Music] weapon may be formed but it won't prosper [Music] when the darkness falls it won't prevail cause the god i serve knows only how to triumph oh my god will never fail my god will never fail i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to you lord i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to there's power in the mighty name of jesus every war he wages he will win do you believe it and i'm not backing down from many giant cause i know how this story ends i know how this story ends [Music] [Music] i'm i'm gonna see your victory [Music] [Music] i'm [Music] belongs to [Applause] oh i've gotta worship you lord [Music] cause you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good you turn it for good yes you do yes you do you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good [Music] you turn it forward [Music] [Music] you turn [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] a victory [Music] victory [Music] oh [Music] you oh come on give him praise in this house if you've seen him turn terrible things in your life into victory he deserves all the praise today he is a good god he is a victorious god and he's working all things out together for your good in your life father we worship you god and we praise you god we give you glory lord you are worthy you are worthy jesus we give you all praise lord [Music] creation knows [Music] the breath that brought the dust the darkness fears that drove it back before and though the night is will drive it back once more [Music] it's true on your authority [Music] is [Music] one word [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] and strongholds not be moved will spirits not be silenced encounter at his room for if my god is for me then what have i to fear and i will not deny the glory that is [Music] foreign [Music] glory that is so what have i to fear but nothing will deny glory that is [Music] your is [Music] so what have i to [Applause] glory that is [Applause] father we bless your name jesus we give you all glory in this place lord jesus father we bow at your authority lord jesus we bless your name jesus we thank you god we thank you for your word lord jesus [Music] we worship jesus [Music] there is a promise that points beyond [Music] silence all my fears [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] and your love won't let me go you have spoken and i know in every season your purpose is unchanged [Music] [Applause] [Music] your kingdom will not be shaken your kingdom will not be shaken [Music] and i know [Music] [Applause] [Music] is it is [Music] is [Applause] it yours is the kingdom forever [Music] forever down [Music] i am made whole you have spoken and i know that it is 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 [Music] is [Music] father we thank you that we can trust your word that you are a good god that you are a rewarder of those who seek you we thank you that you're not like those other gods you're not like those other religions but you really are magnificent and glorious you really are the king of kings and the lord of lords you really are just high and above everything else when everything else fades away in our life and when the troubles come lord we can stand and we can trust in you so we thank you for your word we thank you that it won't return void in our life you might be here this morning and and god might have been tugging on your heart for the last little bit and every single week over the past few weeks and going forward we're going to be doing baptisms here god might be moving in your heart right now you might have been invited by a friend or you might have been in the congregation over the past couple weeks and thinking you know what i'm ready i'm ready to do this i'm ready to take the next step and right here right now our baptism is open if you'd like to get baptized i just invite you to move from your seat you can walk right over here to the side of this tub and we'd like to baptize you so if you can be see that the rest of you guys can be seated for a moment if you'd like to get baptized this morning if you're one of those you can stand up you can walk over here and we're ready to baptize you anybody in the balcony no awesome well we are gonna keep this going guys we're gonna keep on doing this because we just believe that god is doing a real work in our midst and in our county amen we have had 28 people over the last three weeks that have been baptized and as pastor anthony brought up a few weeks ago it's really on us it's really our responsibility those that would call themselves believers and followers of christ it's on us to go out in our community to share of the good news of jesus christ and to help other people step in to what god has for their life because god brings freedom right amen well it is time for our tithes and offerings here at alan let me hear you oh we can church we can do a better job than that right god has blessed us with jobs and livelihood and ability it is time for our tithes and offerings [Music] we can get excited about that we can i mean i get excited that there is something in my life that i have to give god has blessed me i can bless and i can help others as i was thinking about our ties and offerings you know it dawned on me that people can walk in condemnation one of the reasons why they don't give one of the reasons why people don't get connected to things in their life is they feel a sense of shame and condemnation will come over them i'm not doing all the right stuff and and then it it kind of freezes us and we don't take that next step in our life in in romans 8 paul talks about it a little bit he says this he says therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus because through christ jesus the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh god did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering and so he condemned sin in the flesh you could be frozen in your life not taking the steps that you need to take not giving not serving not connecting to other christians because you feel a sense of shame over your life but that does not come from god and my encouragement to you today is to take that step you might say i don't have a ton of money to give no one asked you for ten thousand dollars today god didn't say that he didn't say give a specific amount of money he said give a percentage of what i've given you so that my kingdom can go forth and i just want to encourage you today if you feel a sense of shame around giving or connecting that's not from god that doesn't come from god that is sinful you need to feel freedom in your life to take the step that you can take do what you can do because that's all god has asked of you amen let's pray father we thank you so much for blessing our lives we thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to serve you to love you and to love those in our community we ask that you would bless the outreaches of this house lord that you would bless the ministry of this house we ask that you bless our speaker today watch over everything that we do lord we thank you so much that we can trust in you in your precious name jesus amen 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 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 we are so biotreechangealife.com 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 [Music] then days turned into weeks weeks turn 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 the world changes and shifts this way in that but one thing stays constant one thing is steady 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 god is the solid ground holding us up as the world moves beneath us 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 you version 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 praise god i'm wearing my shirt because football is back hallelujah real spiritual right thanks tyler for making me cry dear lord did you make that video dude let's give tyler a big hand this september 11th video wow [Applause] i was watching it thinking this is really good and that sounds like tyler i kept listening and thinking this is really good and that sounds like tyler did tyler make that i mean like tyler that's like one of the best 911 videos tyler's now full time for us doing video man let's give him a hand one more time i'm excited about that wow that's crazy good i got chill pastor kirk you know he did that they got good people around here i'm coming back next week all right so i'm gonna make a couple announcements to turn over to turn it over to one of the best christians that i have ever met in pinellas county and i really mean that that's why i speaking today i've never heard pastor bill preach he might suck i don't know but he's like what we traumatized him already in the back room he's like wow we just have fun around here here's what i know about pastor bill his heart is so close to the heart of jesus i don't care how he says it whatever he says today we need to hear it because he has the heart of christ he's built one of the best churches in this area how many remember pathways church years ago became mission city this is the guy that started that he started the florida dream center this is the guy that does more with human trafficking in pinellas county than any other organization he just got a call from law enforcement while we were here this morning this is a guy who does it i want him here today because we're talking about loving neighbors yourself and spreading christ in our local area and this is one of the best guys that i know that's doing that and i'm gonna let me just read a little bit about him um i'll just actually before i do that i just want to tell you i'm gonna have a disaster relief meeting tomorrow night at 7 pm i'm i'm gonna be here to meet with everybody who wants to learn more about we're gonna go to louisiana to do some disaster relief okay so if you want to just find out more about that come tomorrow night at 7 pm we're going to go in room 102 in the back to come in those glass doors take a left and it's a it's a it's back right there in the back seven o'clock what time seven o'clock so tell anybody i don't care if you have friends i don't even go to church they want to go do some disaster relief tell them just come here seven o'clock tomorrow night we're gonna talk about it and we're gonna make some plans so um that's that if you want to give to hurricane ida relief just it's online uh i think it says hurricane relief there you can start giving to that we're starting to pull together some supplies i know when i watch the video i think man we're doing a lot but you know what when you really get jesus in your heart you do stuff you know faith of that works is dead so let me just tell you pastor bill is going to stir our hearts this morning here's the day i really mean this don't come into this church and sit here and soak up the presence of god the experience of god and not do anything don't do that you can't do that here i'm here to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable seriously that's why pastor bill and i get along he's a doer of the word don't be just hearers of the word be doers everybody here needs to do something you know what i'm saying you need to do something all right so you everyone needs to be busy about the father's business there's brokenness there's hurting there's peoples whose lives are in shambles and they're looking for answers how do they believe that jesus christ is still the way the truth and the life he's the anybody believe that here today then let's let's do something man let's do something so i just appreciate everyone here that's doing something i just i want to honor you there's people that serve every week around here i just want to honor you and then the last thing i'm going to say is carefest is the end of uh september we need you to sign up there's a table after service today it's a lot of coordination to make that happen so please please do that uh to to um so we know exactly uh who's gonna show up okay i'm looking there it is praise god i found it i just got to read some nice things i gave you the nice the raw version of pastor bill let me just tell you a little bit more about him pastor bill's story as a young hippie in the 1960s at the university of colorado 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 in pinellas county florida is a non-profit inspired and modeled after the la james center in california now nine years old it is located in lielman a suburb of saint petersburg florida the dream center provides assistance for poverty stricken 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 united to serve or focus also lake 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 he started a new organization he's starting right now restored the dream got it right restored the dream and at the close of the service we're going to give you an opportunity to give to that human trafficking effort there's a lot of people as a buzzword of human trafficking our last five or six years but this guy's been doing it for a long long time nobody does it better than i know of in pinellas county will you give honor to a great man of god as he comes to bring the word come on somebody make him feel welcome in this place honor this man of god has been in the trenches who served he's done everything he knows to do all he can to make a difference in people's lives amen amen praise god i'm going to try not to suck really nice introduction pastor you guys can't hear me okay now great [Applause] now you can hear me suck okay so here's the idea i was looking forward to coming here seeing what the lord's doing through you guys and i'm going to love teaching this service because pastor anthony assured me that there are no sinners at the nine o'clock service so now he said at 11 o'clock you got heathens all right you know that's right so i have a good time at this one so let's see what god's doing guys this is going to be a rough message in the beginning and i hope you'll hang on and it'll be very wonderful at the end but we're going to look at some verses in the bible today but from the view of a point of view of a survivor of human trafficking most rotten filthy thing that exists on a planet today what do these verses mean to them what would a christian who comes and says something like that to them what would they feel it's going to be different title to today's message is love your neighbor fits with pastor anthony's series but what if you don't what if you don't so the next slide when jesus was asked what's the most important thing he said love god with all you got and then he said the second is like it love your neighbor and you know that your series is on that so we salute this we agree with this love your neighbor as long as he's not icky as long as she's not weird as long as they're not irritating is love your neighbor as long as they've got something you can take from them flat out crap you know who needs your love is a neighbor that you don't want to look at you got anybody in your life guys that is a neighbor or somebody at work or somebody that god's put in your circle and and you'd really rather avoid them you're not going to punch them but you'd like to avoid them man i'll tell you what if you didn't pay attention to their lives because it was easier to avoid them i admit it i know it it's way easier what if you didn't notice the signals that god was putting in front of your face that they're going through something that something changed that that woman that guy is hurting that little kid is behavior changed what if you didn't notice what if you didn't do something about it so one day you found out what change was the neighbor got raped that's why her behavior is different you know what would do to you would break your brain wasn't you that got raped it'd break your brain now what if that neighbor was 12 years old what if that neighbor was getting raped 12 times a night welcome to the world of human trafficking average age taken is 12 average number of rapes a day is 12. average life expectancy is seven years once they're taken into that they die of four major things sexually transmitted diseases overdoses murder and suicide and we deal with every one of these every single day right here in pinellas county love your neighbor what do you think one of these girls that's brought into us thinks of that verse these people that hurt me or my where my neighbors i mean they're coming in and hurting me oh love your neighbor what if you don't you know jesus wasn't kidding when he said that he wasn't kidding and i know it's easier to love your neighbors that love you back and that are cute and that have puppies and i know he didn't say it for that did he he didn't say it for that he said i want you to love the neighbor that can't even look you in the eye the neighborhood's so broken and they and they're pretty sure you don't want to look them in the eye either dog gone so we had a 17 year old brought to us and she was the youngest person ever trafficked and probably tied with some others she was sold sexually before she was one year old and the fact that she's alive today is astonishing yeah i hope you'll never go on the dark web you have no reason to and you shouldn't but you can see men hurting babies on the dark web we've had brought to us sisters six and seven years old little little girls sold into trafficking by their parents who became drug addicts love your neighbors little ones love our neighbors do you know that little kids brought to us many of them don't have the language skills yet to describe what happened to them they can't put it in words we've had three sets of mothers and daughters who were trafficked together you imagine that's my mom look what's happened to my mom look at my daughter this is absurd love your neighbor you guys been an 18 year old brought to us that was traffic since she was four and she'd never been out of the house that she was trafficked in no one knew she existed she'd never been to school one day in her life she was a non-existing human being and she ran she escaped into a world she didn't know and so when i was talking to her i said why in the world did you run you you knew they would kill you if they caught you and she said yes i know she said but here's why i ran i'm 18. i've had five babies everyone's sold on the dark web and she said i'm pregnant again and i would have rather died in the attempt than putting this new baby inside me into that life again what do we say to her love your neighbor what do we say here's what we say to us love your neighbor because what if you don't when these girls get rescued brought to us escape and come to us whatever it is that's fabulous that's step one do you know how damaged they are can you conceive of how broken they are i mean you can't we had to learn everything as we go too rescue is fabulous but it is step one everything's been stolen from them from self-esteem which they have none to hopes hope i want to die tonight i want to die no dreams i'm telling you we named our new organization that's totally specifically and only for human trafficking restored to dream because we have to teach them how to dream you guys can dream man my kids my grandkids my future my retirement my career none of it you have to teach them how to dream they have no families now they have no children no safety no sobriety no sanity the trauma damaged brain makes you react in many ways but all of them inappropriate all of them different than way you would react to certain situations they feel they have no reason to live and um we had a 21 year old trafficked in another state and she came to us and actually the bad boy threw her out on the road he thought she was dead but she made it and she came here and we had her in and out we're trying to do stuff and it's a that's a longer story but the point was she had a roommate situation and her behavior again guys are just not normal and it's not because she didn't want it to be they get triggered they get things and so the roommate said i you can't stay here anymore you're crazy and you got to get out in the morning so she was facing a place she didn't know being homeless in the morning all the paranoia the all the things and she did something you wish they'd never do she called her trafficker back in ohio got him on facetime and those of you that know about stockholm syndrome you fall in love with the abuser so you you think that guys it was so much worse than that i can't even tell you none of us saw this coming she got this guy on facetime and she says i want you to see what you've done to me i want you to see how much you've hurt me and i want you to watch while i kill myself love your neighbor oh my god there's more to the story but she's gone she's dead complete desperation what if we don't what if we don't integrate to us it restored its name of our program i think you can tell human trafficking is not just statistics it is not demographics and it is not just awareness i'm happy for awareness it must be these are human beings these are your neighbors many of these do come from pinellas county not all of them but many many many many and we've got to help restore them they're wonderful pictures in the bible of god doing that there are and they don't know them one was when god was talking to king hezekiah and he was a good king one of the few good kings and a prophet was sent by god and prophet said hezekiah you're going to die it's your time to die and hezekiah had a great prayer and i hope you'll look it up someday and he just turned to god and he uh he said god please remember me and and what god did he sent the prophet back to hezekiah and look at second kings chapter 20 verse 5. said return and say to hezekiah the leader of my people thus says the lord the god of your father david i heard your prayer and i have seen your tears and i'm going to heal you and on the third day you're going back to church man you're going back to the house of god point is god said hezekiah i heard your prayer you didn't know i heard your prayer i did i hear everyone i saw your tears hezekiah i see everyone now our girls have got to believe this the tears they shed in captivity the prayers they uttered to a god they didn't know they have got to believe that he is there and he knows it and he hears it and he sees it how are they going to know that unless a neighbor tells them how are they going to know you don't intuitively know anything you don't know to go to the bible you don't know what it says they cannot do you know that your reason you might have that dysfunctional person in your life is to invite them to church to hear your pastor speak the word of god it may be so you speak the word of god to him but i know they don't look like you and wake up like you and stuff there's a reason they're in your life oh man the next verse joel 2 25 one of the great things that we've used even in our recovery ministries for years god says you know if if you come to me then i will make up to you for the years that the swarming locusts have eaten the creeping locust the stripping locust annoying locust i can make up to you for the life i can restore what was taken the girls need to know that how are they going to know it they have to hear it from us and if you don't feel equipped to do that yet you know where you can bring them you know where they're going to hear the word of god they got to hear it we're actually blessed to take a team of volunteers from several churches out on the streets of a place called lielman it's the highest trafficking area highest prostitutionary everything else and we go out every saturday night after church after our church at 8 30 and we we intentionally go up to the trafficking the girls will be in traffic the prostitutes the pimps the spotters we go to them on the street middle of the night we take food we take love and we take hope and i'll tell you this you don't have to have memorized the new testament to be on this team you do not have to have gone through evangelism explosion which is wonderful all the evangelism programs are wonderful here's what you have to know to get a woman who's wanting to kill herself when you engage her we'll teach you just this simple thing look her in the pretty eyes that are full of tears and say how are you doing with god how you doing with god she will tell you in her broken little words whatever it is and then it's time to pray and you'll say can i pray for you yes then here's the other thing the only other thing you need to know to be on an evangelism animal honey what is or girls can say that men can't say that what is it that you want what do you want from this god that i believe in with all my heart they don't think about what they even want how are you doing with god what is it you want we've seen miracles done through the saturday night teams and there's part of them here right now they will astound you you know why because god loves them these are his most broken children we've got to teach him to believe to have faith to grow to dream part of our program when they come in to the restored program is this this was a broken chair this is the back of the chair these are the legs and we teach the girls to put it together and make a dog bed and it's a pretty little dog bed and i was stunned little dogs actually love these you know i know my wife bought two of them okay you know what's worse pastor we only got one little dog and i got two dog beds never mind that i'll be okay but but here's the thing guys what they did the reason they do this is they took something that was broken it was unlovely it was unusable and they repurposed it and it's all that and you know what gets this is the first step in their brain to say well gosh maybe i can be pretty again too maybe i can be useful maybe i can be repurposed into something that god wants me to be you don't even ever have to think about this they it's an unbelievable new concept so those are the type of things we need buddies healthy christian women to come in and help them you don't have to be arts and crafts this is all prepared where it will work but we need buddies to come and do that then we have to teach them life maps you know the dream part we actually have to sit down and talk about what would you like and stuff and so we we learned things the hard way there too okay you want a little house with a picket fence here's what we got to do and you have to get a driver's license and an id and a bank account make a list they can not do it the chances of one of them who has no self-esteem walking into a bank and saying hi i'm mary can i get a bank account never it's not going to happen so we have to train another level called navigators and the navigator gets the list too and the navigator lady says hey sweetheart it's time to go get your driver's license i'm picking you up wednesday morning at nine o'clock and we're gonna go get together and when it's time to do this we're going together and sign you up for school and whatever it is this is gold this is loving your neighbor this is loving your neighbor they they are so stunned by the way to see healthy christian women they've never seen it and you're surrounded by them they they're not they've never seen it we have to teach them survival skills and how do you write a check and how do you cope when you walk outside the door and see a man that hurts you what are you gonna do anyway all that we need an enormous amount of volunteers as you can tell and we train you you know you don't just jump in we need housing so badly i can't even describe it to you teachers increase space to do what we do love your neighbor now here's the thing about that sometimes it might be hard sometimes it might cost you something will you still do it will you still do it or did did jesus really leave something out and he he said love your neighbor as long as it doesn't cost you anything as long as it isn't hard you know because he wouldn't mean that baloney what if it's hard we have volunteers who come to us after one of the sessions of a few weeks and and say i i need to take a session off it's just so hard and they'll come back but it's hard for our volunteers just being with what these girls go through that's hard good news is when the program works and the victories come it's magnificent look at this last verse here from the story of the prodigal son you know his life was destroyed and he came back home to the dead the brother didn't like it well luke 15 32 we had to celebrate and rejoice for this brother or sister yours was dead talking dead dead and they've begun to live now they were lost and they were found and we better celebrate boy i'll tell you the celebrations we get are mountaintops and they're worth it what happens when you do love your neighbor your unlovable neighbor what happens when you do we have girls who are getting self-confidence they're accomplishing tasks they're driving cars i wouldn't recommend driving next to him right away you know what i'm saying pastor but you know they'll get better yeah that's it we have girls who are getting fiances and getting married now of course they have to pass the uncle bill test you better believe that they're getting jobs some of them are returning to school some of them are getting churched out in the community and you know we built we made it created a church for them but they can go anywhere they want when they feel safe enough and healthy enough many other victories that you would take for granted every morning when you wake up you don't even think about it for them it's a mountaintop one girl even went through our program and is so amazing and so healthy and so helping others that we hired her and she is now the coordinator of the entire restored program as a matter of fact i'd like you to meet her her name is melanie and a survivor of human trafficking leader of the restored coordinator program and i'd like you to meet her melanie will you come up and talk to us hello my name is melanie 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've lived in florida most of my life 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 and how could someone ever love you i felt hurt abandoned unwanted and unloved i started looking for love and acceptance and 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 the 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 and 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 had been through i accepted help a couple 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 restored 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 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 and at least a hundred volunteers 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 have been reunited with my family and now have a family of my own i started a photography business and got engaged [Applause] 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] guys can you imagine the honesty and the bravery of melanie to get up and tell you that we're so proud of her we can't even describe it but here's the thing love your neighbor if you don't bad stuff happens if you do amazing stuff can happen amazing stuff from wanting to kill herself to being one of the leaders of the program it's unthinkable so she's going to be at a table in the lobby out there and if you have questions or want to chat pastor anthony allowed us to add something here at the end it's our theme song video and i'm sure many of you have seen it but i hope today it will ring in your brain like it never had before and it is uh in fact i hope somebody would be called to do something because of this it's a lauren daigle video it's got little kids in it too and it's called rescue let's watch rescue [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 whisper underneath your breath [Music] i [Music] [Music] to find you in the middle of the darkest night it's 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 i hear you whisper underneath [Music] i will [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] underneath your breath i hear your fears [Music] is you [Music] [Applause] [Music] i will rescue you [Music] [Applause] in the song god says i'm going to send out an army you know who the army is you're sitting here you're sitting here it's not just pastor anthony you're the neighbors and and i'm going to close with this i wasn't saved till i was 35 years old and it hit me like a ton of bricks my dad wasn't saved and it tore me up i was driving down beltline road in dallas texas and i had to pull off the side of the road because i was crying so hard i couldn't see my dad wasn't saved i was in dallas he was in denver i couldn't i couldn't get my dad saved and from what i'd read in the bible as a new guy i heard about we were supposed to be fishers of men all of us and i said living god i can't save my dad but would you put a man or a woman in a place called denver colorado would you would you god would you put some fisher of men who takes this seriously who's going to love on my unlovable dad would you within a year my dad got saved and the relationship we had the last 15 years of his life i wouldn't i can't even describe i can't wait to go to heaven and see my dad but i'll tell you who else i want to meet that fisher of men who took his neighborhood seriously oh and here's why i'm saying that and i'll close with this do you realize guys that there may be a mom a grandma a dad somewhere in denver today somewhere in washington somewhere in california who was on their knees saying living loving god i have a daughter somewhere in a place called tampa bay i have grandkids i have a grandson who's on the street would you send a fisher of men i can't save them i can't reach them they're being hurt would you send a fisher of men to tampa bay somewhere and would you god and it might be you i'm just saying folks jesus said love your neighbor they need it let's go do it thank you now you know why i wanted him to come i was just planning to meet with him a couple months ago it's probably been six eight months ago and i said uh it took a tour of the facility and i said man i need you to come and talk to our people i need you to share what you know because the heart you know the heart is there you know i don't ever want to lose that sense that i can do something some people feel like well i can't fix this problem so they just go overwhelmed and they just shut down let me tell you something don't shut down do something some of you can go volunteer some of you women go volunteer and be a mentor come alongside and support some all of us can give something today you know what i'm saying i was you know when i you know here's the thought hit me and i don't want to be disrespecting hold of you pastor bill 74 and a half [Laughter] he did not suck today didn't do a great job today that was outstanding man wow [Applause] um 74 and a half you know the thought hit me there may be somebody maybe a couple of people in here that you need to get really involved with this ministry and serve alongside him because at some point he's going to slide off the stage who's going to take his place seriously i've been in this town 26 years pastoring i'm not going to use any names i've seen a lot of people blow in blow up and blow out and they did suck just so you know full of ego full of themselves trying to build a name for themselves they weren't willing to do what he does you know what i did with him the first day i saw him we were meeting for lunch actually this this day sometime last year probably six to nine months he said can we take a drive went over to a um underneath a a bridge where people live he brought him stuff he told me about what goes on there and i was sitting there thinking man this guy loses stuff pastor bill wilson is a lot like this guy and that if you don't stay close to the pain you won't be changed until you're close to the pain so you look in people's eyes and you hear this story you live your insulated life that's why i need to go on that mission trip that's why you need to show up at the food page that's why you need to get involved in people's pain you need to hear their stories because when you look into their eyes and you hear their story and you watch what's happened it changes you we need it today didn't we need today we needed today today was we needed today and i'm praying that god will shift there'll be a shift so i want us all to give something now i mean i mean everybody in this place i want you to give something pastor i don't have a lot give something because you know what it's saying amen it's saying pastor pastor bill i see what you're doing you're making a difference i want to help this so i want everybody to give something you know if you just go to your app you go to the alm tv if you've never given online it's not hard go to pull out your phone go to alm.tv click on give we don't have restored the dream on there but give to local outreach and everything that's put into local outreach today 100 percent will go to pass a bill in this minute i trust him i know god is using him amen so ushers if you will come let's give to this today and then as you're giving i have just a couple last little reminders um what a great day [Music] you can get involved and talk to melanie in the back there this is about the kingdom of god man we're building the kingdom of god now we're building the kingdom god it's not about me it's not about anything that you know it's about being the king of god i would be ecstatic if we had a number of you that served every week over at this ministry [Music] it would be it'll be awesome we i don't i don't feel equipped to do what he does he's doing it we don't need to re-duplicate the wheel let's come alongside him we supported someone doing human trafficking about five years five years ago their level of understanding and impact was nowhere near what pastor bill's doing then we moved away from that ministry and we didn't you know we just gave this person an opportunity don't want to say anything disparaging this is a man of integrity this is a man of fruitfulness man of longevity let's give cheerfully some of you some of you can give largely some of you have been so impacted by today the holy spirit wants to give large listen i came in with a number today knew what i was going to receive an offering during the presentation it doubled [Music] i'm laughing because i should know these things i should be hardened by now i'm not i just i want to be soft i want to be generous i want to do more anybody want to do more to make a difference you know what i mean praise god i thank you lord jesus for pastor bill restored to dream we thank you for melanie we thank you for the many lives especially women and children they've touched that they've rescued out of human trafficking god i pray lord jesus you'll give him strength you give him partners given people that'll hold up his arms and ministry send them the workers lord send them the finances i pray for favor bless him coming in bless him going out maybe everything he puts his hand to do prosper in jesus name i pray god that this church will respond i pray those watching online somebody can give largely this morning to make a difference in human trafficking in pinellas county god i think that he's willing to go out on saturday night lord god i pray that others will be ready lord jesus we can do something more to go out and actually engage on the streets lord god in between life and death god bless us offering and bless everyone who gives in jesus name we pray amen amen praise god as you give just have a couple little reminders first of all if you're here for the first time and welcome you here i normally don't do this part i said guys send me a script what i'm supposed to say at the end so if you're here for the first time we welcome you there's a there's a card in front of you you please fill that out take it out to the guest tent the orange tent we got a gift for you if you don't want to do the card you can scan the qr code right in front of you with your phone put your camera on put that qr code just fill it out right there we are so glad you're here in fact if if you can just let's welcome all of our first time guests will you do that welcome good to see you here today god bless you amen you're so welcome [Music] amen uh prayer the prayer team's coming now if you need prayer for any reasons just just come we always have a prayer team that's ready to pray for you we don't want you to leave this building without an opportunity to have personal prayer they pray before the service these are people that we have great confidence in godly people who have a relationship with the lord uh one last thing is that we have alm monthly about what's going on us at the info desk somebody wants some printed materials you can have what's going on in our church we're printing it now we used to do a weekly bulletin then we went totally digital now we're giving you something to put back in your hand once a month you have that's at the info desk you can get those this morning uh you can buy a tree online or decide to be a sponsor and that's that's online at our website where all that money goes towards children in need around the world half of it goes to pastor bill wilson metrowell child the other half goes to our local outreaches amen let's stand together praise god turn to your neighbor and say you don't suck amen have a great day god bless you see ya [Music] sometimes on this journey i get lost in my mistakes what looks to me like weakness is a canvas for your strengths and my story isn't over my story's just begun and failure won't define me cause that's what my father does yeah phil you won't define me cause that's what my father does here in the father's [Music] you're house the father's house [Music] and the story isn't over if the story isn't heard oh when the father's in the room

Channel: Abundant Life Ministries

Views: 115

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Id: xPY_2CWcJt8

Length: 88min 10sec (5290 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021