The Holy Way Week 3

>> Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Tim Powell and I have the privilege and the honor of being the campus pastor at our New Life Church Greenbriar campus. We are a non-denominational church located in the state of Arkansas with 19 about to be 20 campuses across the state. Our heart behind partnering with Pando through God Behind Bars is to allow your family an opportunity to connect to biblical community so that they can be growing in their walk with Christ at the same time that you were growing. So if you do have family in Arkansas, encourage them to check out newlifechurch.tv to find a campus that fits them. Thank you so much for being here. Now let's listen in to today's message. [ Music ] >> I was born in Arkansas. I came out of a divorced home. My parents divorced when I was pretty young and dad was incarcerated. He was in prison really as early back as I can remember. Really my whole childhood could be summarized as just longing for affirmation and to be seen and approval. And so I spent about age 20 just willing to do just about anything to get the approval and you know just from other people. Through high school and early college years grew up just addicted to drugs, alcohol, pornography. And so that went into my college years and I had the opportunity to play a little bit of baseball and school was not really my specialty. And so I just really wanted to play ball. My sophomore year of college blew my arm out and was not able to play baseball and the girl that I had dated for four or five years through high school into college got no car accident and passed away.

And that phone call from her mother was kind of the beginning of my life spiraling a little bit. I had just lost baseball, just you know lost someone who was really close to me. I was sitting in macro economics and I used to cheat off the guy next to me. His name is Tyler. He's a good friend of mine. And we played baseball together. He would invite me to church and he was very persistent. So I end up showing up to the college ministry. And two weekends later they were doing this retreat. It still happens to the states called the standard retreat. And I ended up attending Friday night. I heard the gospel preach learned that I have a father who loves me and responded to the gospel. And that was really the beginning of my life changing drastically. I started a Bible study in our college ministry shortly after I gave my life to Christ. The Lord breathed on it. We would meet my garage and what started with just like four or five guys. There would be some nights where there'd be 45 or 50 guys. We saw guys get saved and set free from addiction in that garage. And that was the beginning of me feeling this pull to ministry. And so what started in a garage ended up kind of developing and speaking a little bit in the church. I got an opportunity to share my testimony at the ministry that saved my life in elevation. And shortly after that, I'll never forget. I had no idea that Pastor Rick, our founding pastor was there. I felt like it did a terrible job. But he texted me and said, hey, I think that you're going to do this the rest of your life. Shortly after I started interning at the church, I got brought on staff part-time to help lead our college ministry.

And I did not know her at the time. But Kendra and I would begin leading this team together. It was really funny. I walked into this meeting. I met Kendra. There were three of us in the meeting. And I told my good friend Amir after the meeting. I said, I'm going to marry that girl. And he said, you're crazy. We met, dated, got engaged, and married in about 11 months. We have four kids, and we're in the thick of it right now. If I yawn on this video, it's because I am tired. And so we have a seven-year-old, a five-year-old, a two-year-old, and a one-year-old. Being a father has been like one of the most redundant things for me. Wow. [LAUGHTER] Wow. [LAUGHTER] Wow. [MUSIC PLAYING] and the Lord broke my heart for a Northwest Arkansas. We've been here for almost five years now, and we've just seen God do truly exceedingly and abundantly more that we could ask, thank or imagine. I never thought that we would be a part of planting churches. I've just been passionate about planting people. I love coaching people. I love being able to see something to say like, man, this is what we could change to be better. And so God has opened up an opportunity recently

with a building in Bentonville, which is just a total God thing. Paul says, "I planted a palace water, but it's God that makes it grow." And so some of us are gonna plant, some of us are gonna water, and some of us are gonna be around long enough to see God grow this thing, and it's gonna be awesome. Shortly after I got saved, I gave my life to the Lord. I bought a basic kind of beginner set of tools and went to a leather shop, got a couple hides of leather, and started just making random stuff, and journals, bags, wallets, belts. And I just fell in love with making things with my hands, and it was really cool 'cause God used it as a ministry tool. I've just always had a passion of making stuff, and it's something I like to say is, I wanna build things that last, and I wanna build people that last. But this is what I would say for anyone who's watching this video, is you have a park to play. Whether you got tricked into church this morning, and you're sitting here wondering, what am I doing here? Or maybe you've been here a while, and you feel like God is pulling you towards this vision. There's friends and our family members that do not know Christ, and they can know Christ because of your obedience.

And so my challenge to you is that you would say yes today, to be a part of the Arkansas Agateses. My name is Seth Tumboli, and I love the Arkansas Agateses. - Let me ask you a question. Have you ever wondered what your purpose in life was? Like, have you ever thought to yourself, like, what is my purpose? Like, what did God create me for? Let me take it a step further and ask you a question of, have you ever thought there's just no way that God could use someone like me to fulfill His purpose? Like the walls that I've built between me and the Lord and the mistakes that I've made, and the things that I've said, and the people that I've hurt, there's no way that God could use me. Well, can I tell you this morning that God can and He will use you, if you will allow Him? Don't you do me a favor. I want you to look at the person next to you. This is no joke. I want you to look at the person next to you, and I want you to tell them there's a place for you here. And now I want you to tell them, God has a purpose for your life. Now y'all quit talking, it's church. We're gonna pray.

Father, I thank you so much for this place. I thank you for the people that are here. And God has asked right now that your presence be tangible in this room. We've already sensed your presence in the midst of worship, and Father truthfully, that's what you deserve is all of our worship. And God today, as we open your word and we reflect on its meaning and the direction that you're giving us, God, we worship you. And we just ask that your Holy Spirit speak through every word. Would you soften the hearts and open the ears of your people today? It's in Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, oh, you can do better than that new life. And everybody said, amen. You know, we've been in a series of the last few weeks titled The Holy Way. And this series is our vision series. And the reason that we have labeled this, The Holy Way actually comes from the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 35, Isaiah is addressing a group of people in chapter 35 that knew exactly what it felt like to just be wandering through life. They'd experienced judgment, they'd experienced loss, they'd even experienced exile. But God gives them a path to something much different

than what they had been experiencing. It was a pathway to restoration, hope and a future. How many of you want a pathway to restoration, hope and a future? Well, I'm glad the rest of you still came to church. That's what we're here for because we believe that God's given us a very clear direction. And He's given us some clear vision on this. Isaiah 35 verses eight through 10 says, "And a highway will be there. And it will be called the way of holiness. It will be for those who walk on that way. The unclean will not journey on it. Wicked fools will not go about it. redeemed will walk there and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing everlasting joy will crown their heads gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away. We believe very strongly that God is preparing us today for what's coming tomorrow but he's asked us to live a life that's set apart from this world and set apart for him. Now we've talked about what this looks like over the last couple of weeks. Joshua three five Joshua told the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. I believe there's a part that we have to play in this. We have a responsibility to turning from the ways of this world and following the direction that God's given us very clearly through his word. But as I said to be holy is to be set apart from sin but also a part for God for the things that he has created you to do. How many of you want amazing things in your families? I do. I want to experience amazing things in our families and our kids and our loved ones. I want to see it in your finances. I want to see it in this next generation. I want to see it in our church. I want to see God do amazing things we all do. But oftentimes the enemy wants to tell you that there's just no way that God could use somebody like you to accomplish amazing things. Now week one we talked about how God's still making away. He's still making away. He's still

tearing down walls just like he did in Jericho. He's still redeeming time just like he did for Joshua. God is still in the miracle working business. How many of you believe that? I believe we serve a God that's still fully capable. Last week Pastor Byron taught on the importance of being people that are set apart. The importance of sanctifying our places, our times and our things. It's prepared today for what he's going to do tomorrow. One of the ways that we do this is through prayer and fasting. Most anytime that I'm asked to teach on leadership I oftentimes reference the book of Nehemiah. To me it's one of the best, clearest illustrations for godly leadership and the pathway to get there. We know that Nehemiah was instrumental in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. You guys have heard the stories? You know that. They rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem in 52 days but he didn't do it by himself. He did it with a team of people that came shoulder to shoulder with him to accomplish something far greater together than they could have ever accomplished on their own. But oftentimes we skip right to the wall being rebuilt and we forget about the process leading up to the construction. We want to jump to the construction don't we? Like we want to be there today where God's preparing us for maybe a year from now. Maybe there's some things that he's working on inside of us. Like I want that relationship. I'm praying for that relationship. Well is God preparing you to be able to handle that relationship? Or god I want this promotion. I don't understand why it hasn't happened. Is God preparing you for that promotion? What is God refining inside of us to prepare us today for what he's calling us to tomorrow? Well Nehemiah shows us a pathway to that. God broke his heart for the people of Jerusalem but before he just ran off and started stacking stones he spent time prayer and fasting. Still to this day you can travel to Israel. We were there in 23 and you can physically touch part of the wall that Nehemiah was instrumental in rebuilding. Still to this day thousands of years later. I don't know about you but I want to be a part of something that's going to outlast my lifetime. I want to be a part of something that we're building in our children and the next generation that's going to outlast this generation. Well we believe strongly as a church that one of the ways that we travel on this holy way and one of the ways that we prepare ourselves to live a life that's set apart is through prayer and fasting. As you know maybe you're just visiting here because we have some baptisms at the end of service today. I love baptisms. It's an opportunity to share what's going on the inside. It's a public declaration of what God is doing but it may be that you're here and you're like man I like this church but I'm not from here.

Well we're not just one church. We have 19 soon to be 20 campuses around the state of Arkansas and we come together almost weekly to pray and seek the Lord's direction and vision for where he's taking us as a church and it's really encouraging right now to see how together and you start hearing the heart of these pastors like Seth and what the Lord is speaking to them and it's exactly what the Lord is speaking to you and it's just confirmation. Well we believe that God is calling us as a church to spend 40 days in prayer and fasting. So what we're asking is starting today, we don't want you to eat anything but only drink water for 40 days. I'm serious. No I'm not I'm just kidding. But we do feel strongly that God is calling us to spend 40 days in the next 12 months in prayer and fasting. So how do we accomplish that? Well each year we usually carve out a week in January for a week of prayer and fasting. We thought well maybe we started in January but we're like why do we want to wait until January to dedicate our life to what God's calling us to do now. So what we're asking you to do and we want you to pray about this. Fasting listen that fasting is not about so you can run around and tell everybody how hungry you are. It's personal and anytime you read through Scripture and you study in Scripture fasting is always referenced back to food. Now there's what we call accessories to fast. Some people fast social media or TV or phone or whatever the case may be but what we're gonna ask is starting tomorrow moving forward it'll start on Sunday but starting tomorrow to just take the first Sunday until the first Wednesday of each month for the next 12 months and spend some time intentionally praying and fasting for what it is that God has for you. Maybe it's something that he's calling you to. Now we're gonna give you a little bit of direction in this but you need to pray and ask the Lord what that looks like for you. We're suggesting the Daniel fast and each month will give you some different ideas but you need to seek the Lord direction in this but anytime that we set aside our desires our wants to focus on what God wants for us amazing things happen. We've seen it happen too many times we see too many illustrations throughout Scripture. So each month for the next 12 months starting the first Sunday so you can't say oh I forgot that was this weekend it's the first Sunday of every month and then we'll fast until Wednesday so for just three days and then on Wednesday we're going to open up our sanctuary from 8 to 10 a.m. It'll give you an opportunity if you want to come in and break that fast maybe you want to take communion if you're on your way to work you can stop by but you don't have to be here to break that fast but we are encouraging you to take and set aside some time I believe when

anytime that we're intentional about seeking the Lord's direction in our life it's a powerful moment amen so that's our heart prayer for you guys so we've discussed the what today I want to talk a little bit about the why and this is something that's that's heavy on my heart right now and I want you to hear me on this God is not calling you to live a holy way just for you it's not just for you guys not calling you to live a life set apart from the world and set apart for God just for you it's also for the people that he's going to place in your path it's also for the people that he has trusted you to steward the relationships with it's also for your family members it's for the people that are around you that are watching you that look up to you I'm going to take you to one of the most common parables or well-known parables we read in scripture you may have never attended church before you may have never cracked a Bible open but there's a chance that you've heard of a good Samaritan I'm going to take you to this parable that's located in the book of Luke chapter 10 if you got your bibles go ahead and turn there with me if not it'll be on the screen and I want to remind you too that we are on the Bible out now so you can open up the Bible out you can text greenbrier to eighty eight thousand it'll take you to a link that's going to take you to these sermon notes but we are there so if you don't have your physical Bible with you which I always encourage you to have this word doesn't change amen you can open it up there we're going to start in verse 25 says one day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question teacher what should I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus replied what does the law of Moses say how do you read it the man answered you must love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul and all your strength and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself right Jesus told him and do this and you will live and the man wanted to justify his actions so he asked Jesus. And who is my name? This is where the parable begins. "So the Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, they beat him up, and they left him half dead beside the road. By chance, a priest came along, but when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road

and passed him by. He didn't just keep walking. He went out of his way to cross to the other side of the street, so he didn't have to address the man that was lying on the side. A temple assistant, some translations refer to this man as a Levite, other translations, a Levite religious man, walked over and looked at him lying there. But he also passed by on the other side. Both men intentionally go out of their way to prevent assisting this man. They crossed to the other side of the street to walk by him. Then a despised Samaritan came along. And when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him. The next day, he handed the innkeeper two silver coins telling him, take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here. Now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits? And Jesus asked, the man replied, the one who showed him mercy. Now don't miss this. And Jesus said, yes. Now go and do the same.

Go and do the same. I wanna talk about these first two men for just a second. I wanna talk about the priest and then I wanna talk about the temple assistant or the Levite, depending on the translation you're reading. The priest, he would have been responsible for worship and service in the temple. So he would have known the law, right? He would have known the law. He also, you don't wanna miss this. At that time, if a priest was to touch a dead body, he would have became ceremonially unclean. So he's protecting himself in doing so. It's actually would have been considered one of the highest degrees of ritual defilement at that time. And then the Levite, the temple assistant, would have also, he'd have known God's law, right? Jesus knew his audience when he's teaching this parable. He knew who he was addressing. And he takes loving others and flips it upside down. He takes these two examples to extreme. Why did he do that? Because I believe many times, even us today, thousands of years later, we still create this image in our mind of what it looks like to love our neighbor and the people around us. Well, to love someone, you must say hi to them. Well, when somebody says they're hurting,

we tell them we'll pray for them. How many times do you walk past someone and they tell you the pain or the hurt that they're going through and you go, "I'll be praying for that." And you walk on never to ever pray for them again. What if when we come across someone and walk apart that told us about the fact that they're hurting instead of going on and finishing our shopping really quick, that we just stopped right there and prayed for them? How encouraging do you think that would be? Is it possible that God's calling us to love people beyond what our imagination can even fathom? Is it possible that God is challenging us in this season at this time to be a church that loves people that everyone else says is unlovable? Is it possible that through all of this that God has orchestrated the series and the sermons and the passages and the words and everything, all the way up to a point in preparation for what He wants to do in you and through you or maybe through this church? I believe the answer to that is yes. There you go, well, the Levite and the priest, they're not bad people, no. As a matter of fact, I bet they both prayed for this man when they walked to the other side of the street. I bet they even had a level of compassion for the man. I want you to write this down. We must allow God to activate our compassion

that faith without works is dead and I pray that we never become a church so immature in our faith that we think what we're doing here is just for us because it's not. I say it all the time Sunday morning should be like half time in the Super Bowl. We come together, we make some adjustments, we seek the Lord's direction and then we get back in the game because there's a game that's been played right now outside these four walls and the enemy is running crazy and he wants nothing more than to still kill and destroy every hope, every dream, every desire, your family and everything else. How do we combat that? I'll tell you how. We make some adjustments, we get in God's Word and we follow Him. God's lead, not the world's lead. Are you all with me this morning? Number two, you need to understand that the holy way that I'm speaking of, it's not just for us, it's for our families, it's for our community, it's for our state, it's for our nation and it's for our country and it's for our nation and it's for our world. God's called us to go beyond the four walls of this building and go, "Well, I do my good deeds, I come to church on Sunday, I hold a couple of babies, I even welcome a few people." Are you living a life outside of these four walls that God's called you to live? Are you living a life in such a way that when the people that don't know you see you know Jesus? Are you living a life in such a way to elevate your own status to make people say look at Him or look at her? I want to brag on you for just a second though, exactly. I want to brag on you as a church for just a minute because to move forward we can't forget how far God's brought us, can't we? We talked about this in communion this a couple weeks ago. I am so overwhelmed and thankful for the heart of this church, it's incredible. And God is opening some doors that I can't even, I can't even believe. And I'm really proud of the men in this room. I teach on a lot about the importance of men being the spiritual leaders and their family and stepping up and leading in it and I'm going to tell you, "Man, I'm proud of you." I am. What you may not know is before we ever deliver a sermon from this platform, every seat that you're setting in is prayed over, every week. It's big on the heart of every one of our pastors. You go, "Well, you afraid the chairs are going to break?" No. No, because those seats

represent a soul, every person that's occupying those chairs is a person that has a story and in that story has a chapter of pain and hurt and loss. And it's something that's been important to us. As we teach on preparing today for what God's going to do tomorrow, this is part of the moment for us of preparing ourselves, preparing our heart, and preparing a place for you to experience the presence of God. And I'm not saying this to shout out my wife, but I don't have any times my wife is prayed over this sanctuary. I have no idea. I don't know how many times she's prayed over the seats that you're setting in. But every time she does, she prays that the men in this room would be like my dioks. And I'll tell you where that comes from as Isaiah 61, where they will be called "Oaks of righteousness," a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. God's splendor, not the men splendor, for God's splendor. I'm proud of you, men. I'm proud of you for the way that you're growing. I'm proud of you for the way that you're standing up for your family, but I'm going to be very clear about something. The freedom and the growth that you're experiencing is not just for you. And it's not even just for your families. It's for the people that God is going to allow you to come into contact with throughout your life. I had a conversation this week with Jenna Bowman, some of you may recognize that name. She's the executive director of the Center of Faith with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington. She reports directly to the president. and women that are fighting for our freedoms, when they're deployed, and they experience combat, and then they come back home and they're struggling with the things that they witnessed and they saw and they experienced. If they are not connected to Biblical community on a weekly basis, they are 80 percent more likely to commit suicide. That wrecked me. Me and it may be that God's letting you experience some of this freedom so that you could be a brother to another one that's coming home. God's not calling us as a church to live the holy way just for us. You go, "Well, man, I'm not a veteran, I didn't serve any time."

Every Arkansan has launched the fatherhood initiative, which our campus will be a part of soon. Did you know that 70 to 85 percent of incarcerated youths grew up in fatherless homes? 70 to 85 percent. There are young men right now in our church and in our community that are in desperate need of a mentor, and not to get ahead of myself, but a lot of the communication that I'm receiving from our partnership with God behind bars is men that's looking for mentorship because they didn't have it as a child growing up. You see, God's not calling and asking us just for admiration. He's calling us to imitation. It isn't about getting into heaven. This is about recognizing the magnitude and the opportunity that we have in heaven that God's calling us to do something about on this earth. I believe that God is ripping the lid off of what He wants to use this church to do. I believe He's taking the lid off of the limitations that we've tried to put because we're just a church in Greenbriark and so on. And I believe there's no limit to what God can do with a willing body, no limit. And as your pastor, if there's ever been a time that I have limited what God wanted to do here because my vision wasn't big enough, I repent for that right now and I'm telling you, I'm not going to limit God's vision anymore. I believe He's called us to go beyond the neighborhoods. I believe He's calling us to go to the nations and I believe He's calling us to reach those that the whole world says is unreachable. And there are a few areas that as a church and as a campus that we're focused on right now that I'm about to share with you, but I don't believe it ends here but I believe it starts here and I believe it's a great start. And I believe it's an area that God has truly breathed upon. You know I've had several people tell me in the last month. You guys do a lot but you need to kind of narrow that down to just a couple of things that you're doing well and I disagree with that.

I see us as a switchboard when people with pain come in that we develop the relationships around the community and around the world that we're able to connect people that are hurting to this group and to that group and whoever it is that's hurting. I don't think it's limiting what our ability is to reach through God's help and His direction. I believe that God has called us and placed us in a place in such an area that will allow us to connect people that are hurting to people that know how to help that healing. That's what we're going to do with everything we got. I want you to memorize this word. I want you to write it. I want you to read it. I want you to study it. But if you don't take this word and move it from knowledge to your heart posture we're no different than the priest and the religious leaders of that time. It's just knowledge. It has to move from knowledge to God. What is it that you are asking me to be a part of and partner with? I want you to ask the Lord to break your heart for what breaks He is and that is a dangerous prayer but get ready when you do. It's the reason I'm standing here today. - Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO] Are you brave enough to do it yourself? Because it's going to take all of us to reach the people that I believe God is asking us to reach. There's no limit if we come together. There's no financial limit. There's no relational limit. There's no spatial limit. There's no geographical limit. I believe God's called us in three areas.

And as a church, I believe you guys are doing great at it. The first one is local. If you're around here any amount of time, you know our heart for local missions. You know our heart. When COVID hit and everything else was closing down, we did more ministry out of this building than any other place. And it was a season and that was a blessing for the time. You also know that we do a Christmas moment of thanks serving every year. We've been doing this since we've been a campus. But I went back and I looked at our reach through that. And it would be really easy to try to limit what you think God can do. But it's with consistency and faithfulness that you're able to reach the magnitude. Our thanks serving is coming up on November the 21st and our Christmas moment is from the 12th. But just in the last five years, we've been doing this for 10. We've been a campus for over 10 years now. But just in the last five years, we've served 5,525 people meals for Thanksgiving. That's a lot of people, isn't it? You know what the population of Greenberry is? What is it? 7,400? In the last five years, we've given 2,129 kids have received presents at Christmas. And you go, well, Christmas isn't about presents.

No, you're exactly right. It is absolutely not about presents. But if it's an opportunity for us to share the hope and to share the love of Christ with some of these kids that wouldn't otherwise be able to receive it, then it's worth a little bit of time. I think you guys would agree with that. Just in the last two years, our outreach team-- I'm so proud of this team. They've distributed over 1,400 meals through our food pantry and our assistance program. Resumays have been written and prepared. Jobs have been found, placed. People have found transportation. And I believe they're just getting started. So as we wrap up our vision series today, there's a card that says the holy way. And at the bottom of that card is a commitment that says, this is something that you want to partner with. Now let me be very clear about something. This series is not about your money. We're going to do all of these, whether any of you give towards it or not. We're committed as a church to do that. But it may be that the Holy Spirit is nudging you in a particular area that you want to partner in one of these areas to support. Let me tell you about the second ones nationally. Now we knew that God was calling us to partner with our God behind bars ministry.

We knew that it was a call from the Lord to do that. What we didn't realize was the magnitude of the reach and the impact that it was about to have. So we went live with this ministry three weeks ago. On September the 5th. And just in three weeks, there has been 29,166 views of our sermons from here. And our testimony. 29,000. Don't look at me like that, you will make me cry. I want you to pull this map up for a second. Now that may not mean a lot to you, but do you notice the states in gray? Those are the only states that have not watched one of our sermons or one of our testimonies. Every state in the United States that has any shade of blue whatsoever have people that are incarcerated, that are able to listen into the gospel message and receive hope. And if you're listening today, I'm going to say thank you, keep listening, keep talking to him. God's got a plan for you. [ Applause ] But that's not the coolest part. Let me show you the coolest part. Go to the next one. Do you see the ones in purple? Just take a guess what the purple states represent. Salvation's. There has been 24 people today that have given their life

to the Lord and surrendered their life to Jesus. [ Applause ] And he doesn't stop there. There's one more I want to show you really quick. I know we're running out of time. But the states in green, these are all states where people are at right now that have subscribed. And every time we upload a sermon or we upload a testimony, they're receiving them directly to their location. You want to know why we do it? Let me give you three quick examples. James that's incarcerated in the Arkansas Department. I wanted to write to say thank you for partnering with Pando. To share your sermons and testimonies to us and Jill in prison. It's a blessing more than you will ever know. I've really enjoyed your sermons. That's the reason I picked his. Suck it up, Tim. Thank you for pouring into a mission field that is overlooked. Many look at us in prison as useless and to be thrown away. But we know that God still loves us and has a plan for us. Or what about Dustin? I said, today I have learned that Christ has a calling for my life and that there's more to life than the way I was living.

Or James that's incarcerated in Florida. Hey James, for the first time in my life, I truly found God and felt Him come over me as I gained a new, found relationship with my father. And James, it doesn't end with that decision. It's just the beginning. Keep it up. I want you to know how thankful I am for you partnering with us with this. I want you to know our camera equipment, all our editing equipment is paid for. Now, there is a monthly expense to this. And we're committed to this monthly expense. It's $1,500 a month is what it cost us to be able to get this in the hands of these men and women. And to me, it'd be worth twice that. But there is a cost to it. And if this is something that you want to partner with us on, let us know about it. We'd love to have you. God bless you. And then third, definitely not last, is globally. So we feel like God's called us locally, nationally and globally, to reach as many with a life-giving message of Jesus as we possibly can. This last summer, we took two mission trips, one to Costa Rica and one to Peru. And we may be going back to Costa Rica as well, but we do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is calling us to partner with Peru

and the area in Borgos. This is a ministry that has been going on for many years that has a reach that's far beyond what many of us can even fathom. As a matter of fact, Pastor Adam, Pastor Byron and myself just went there this summer. And what they're doing is incredible. It's where my call to ministry was confirmed back in 2017. You heard me make that statement about God break my heart for what breaks yours. It was on that runway in a keto's Peru, getting ready to leave and come back to the States when I looked out and I said, God, if you can break my heart like that for a people of another country that I may never see again, I need you to break my heart like that for the people of Greenbriar, Arkansas. And he did, he wrecked me. But we've went over and we've witnessed the magnitude of this ministry and what's happening. They're reaching communities up and down the Amazon River in a powerful way. Not only that, but there is a school, we call it the Jungle School, Mission School, where they bring pastors in from all different communities up and down the Amazon River and they train them for three years. And then they send them back out into the communities of where they're at to share the gospel.

And it's amazing of the impact that it's having. But it also costs money. It's a thousand dollars a week to feed these pastors so that they can have food. Somebody's gonna pay for that. Well, we've also built a school and a church in Nauta. New Life Church has. And the children that are being reached there in that communities, it's incredible. And I'm gonna get to share a lot more about this vision with you in two weeks. Two weeks from today, we are going to launch a sponsorship program and partner with the Aaron Borgo Ministry. And I believe we have a slide that we can put up that has a QR code. It's hope for all nations. And what this will allow you to do will allow you to sponsor a child. Now, these other two areas that I've talked about other than the monthly expense with our guy behind bars, maybe a one time donation, this is a little bit different. This is more of a longer term commitment. And that's the reason I want you to pray about it over the next two weeks and seek the Lord's direction. I don't ever want you to make any decision emotionally. I only want you to make a decision prayerfully, season and prayer led by the Holy Spirit of what you can do.

One sponsorship for a child is $39 a month. And it takes three sponsorships to fully sponsor a child. So in two weeks, you're going to come in and you're going to see a table sit up in the foyer and there'll be photos of the children there in Nauta, many of them that we got to meet, that we got to see. And your sponsorship is going to go towards clean water, education, and food insecurities. And our prayer is that if this continues to grow, right now, there are several of our campuses that are launching this sponsorship program today. But I just wanted, I wanted you to pray about it. I didn't want you to just make an emotional decision, not two or four, without spending some time in prayer. So I told them that we were going to launch this in a couple of weeks. But we have several of our camps, not all of them, but several of our campuses that do feel led and that have partnered with the Erin Burgos and Peru that they are going to join us with this. If we come together, man, I don't think there's a limit to what God can do in that region, that area. And we'll go back. This last time we took a team of 16, we're going to send at least one team this coming summer, if not two teams, we'll do a medical outreach again. You don't have to be a doctor or a nurse. But I believe what God is doing in that region, for His kingdom, He has the right people in place to make the biggest impact. And we've validated this, we've watched this,

there's accountability in place, and there's oversight in place, and there's a board in place, and the cool thing about this sponsorship, and I don't know if I'll go into this a couple of weeks or not, but the majority of the funds, you have to understand, there's administration fees and platform fees and different things that a lot of times with these children's sponsorships, a big part of it gets eaten up. Well, that's not the case with this. So there is a portion of it that goes towards the administration and platform, but the majority of it is going to that area in that region to directly impact that community. And I believe as a church, that's what God's calling us to be a part of. And I'm passionate about this, as you know, I could go on for hours. The first John 3-18 tells us that, "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." God's taking the lid off of our church, and I want you to take the lid off the limitations of what you feel like you can have an impact in. And if the enemy's been lying to you and saying that you're past and your mistakes can somehow prevent you or limit you from doing what God's calling you to do, I speak against that in Jesus' name right now. There are pastors in this room right now that are living in sin right this moment, but that God is going to break those chains, tear down those walls. You're going to find fulfillment. You're going to come out. There are people.

There are men and women right now that are sitting behind bars and think there's no way that God could use them. Let me tell you. You've got a testimony and God will not waste that pain. You've take one day at a time. You keep putting Him first. And you see what the Holy Spirit can do through you. Y'all about your heads for me. Father, I thank You for the people in this place. God, we love You. And we just ask that You feel this room. Holy Spirit, would You just speak to every person individually at the sound of my voice? And if there's an area that You're calling them to support or to be a part of, God, just refill it to them. God, if there's someone here that maybe they're still struggling with trying to find that purpose, maybe that purpose begins with surrender followed by, maybe it's just a mentorship with someone. Maybe it's coffee once a week to just share the wisdom that the gray hairs on their head hold. Father, I know too that before we can begin to walk the holy way and before we can begin to fulfill that purpose in our life, we have to make a decision. And that decision has to be to surrender to our own self and give our life to You. So God, if there's anybody right now that's listening in or maybe that's in this room and for whatever reason, they know that today is the day. God, I just pray that they come to You and say,

"Lord, forgive me of my sins. The ones that I remember, the ones that I'm reminded of every day of my life, even the ones God that I have forgotten all about create a new heart inside of me. And from this day forward, I am committed to living the holy way. I know there's going to be times that I get off track, but God just correct me. Allow the Holy Spirit to just nudge me back on path. Because God, I believe that You're preparing us for what is coming. So God, would You allow our hearts to be enough It's in Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, "Hey man, can we give God some praise in this place?" [Applause] [BLANK_AUDIO]