Free Indeed

Our Lord God is Mighty

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Lemuel Vega (Host), C.A. Murray (Host), Sargeant Vivian Malone, Clifford McGee

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Series Code: FIN

Program Code: FIN000025


00:01 I was once an inmate in this maximum security prison,
00:04 just on the other side of this wall.
00:07 And I called out to God one day,
00:09 it wasn't through technology
00:11 I got down on my knees and I prayed
00:14 and now today I'm free indeed.
00:16 We are going inside
00:18 for another episode of Free Indeed.
00:21 Their testimonies, their songs,
00:23 about how they too called out to God.
00:26 Stay tuned for another episode of Free Indeed.
00:42 I'm free indeed.
00:47 Tell me your first contact with Christmas Behind Bars?
00:52 My first contact with Christmas Behind Bars
00:56 was approximately eight years ago
01:00 may be nine
01:02 and the sheriff at that time
01:05 Mr. Vega contacted the department
01:09 and the next thing I know, I am sitting in office
01:11 with the jail commander and a sheriff
01:13 and they are like what do you think about this program?
01:16 And I looked at and I thought
01:18 well, it can't harm, let's try it.
01:22 Well, that me and my big mouth
01:24 and always saying try
01:26 because the next thing I know he says
01:28 well then you take care of it.
01:33 And I say, okay. So that's what we did.
01:38 He told me what the layout of his program was
01:41 and I said okay then this is what we are gong to do
01:44 and we are tried it and it was just fantastic.
01:48 It was during the holiday time
01:51 that's when people in jails and prisons get most depressed
01:55 because they don't have the time with their families.
01:58 And when I saw the impact that it had with the inmates
02:03 it was like, okay we are going to continue to do this
02:06 just as long as He calls every year
02:08 and they want to do this program
02:11 that is what we are going to do.
02:13 Then when he told me about that I want to come in
02:16 and see how this stuff was going.
02:19 Well there I go again, yes may
02:23 and I'm now packing all these bags
02:25 and all these thousands and thousands of bags.
02:29 But it felt good
02:30 and all the people that were there in the warehouse that day
02:33 we sang, we talk, we--
02:37 I mean it's just a total fellowship all day long
02:40 and it's for a good reason.
02:43 And I don't comeback here to tell everybody
02:47 I want-- did this for you
02:49 it's just a good feeling for me.
02:51 I don't need to comeback
02:52 and say that but now Mr. Vega
02:55 makes it's a point, to tell everybody
02:58 that I go and do this every year all my time
03:01 but it's just not me.
03:02 Now, the department and administration
03:06 and other officers are buying into this also.
03:09 So it's just a good thing all way around
03:12 and the inmates really do appreciate it
03:15 and I do see that
03:17 and that's what makes this work wow.
03:19 And that's why I'm in this with Christmas Behind Bars
03:23 and as long as Christmas Behind Bars is coming,
03:26 want to come I will support it.
03:29 All right, now you support it
03:31 not only by allowing them to come in
03:32 but I was, I was with you and some friends
03:36 that you brought couple of February's ago.
03:38 It was a cold warehouse there wasn't any heat in there,
03:41 except the heat you brought with you.
03:43 And you were in there most of the day packing
03:45 and packing and packing and packing.
03:46 You actually felt that that was a blessing to you.
03:49 That was positive for you. Yes, I do.
03:52 I feel it was positive to me,
03:53 because I'm able to-- each one of those bags
03:58 that you pack everything that you put
04:01 and to those bags is more than a candy bar,
04:06 a granola bar or a bag of chips, its life.
04:11 It's care, its part of you that's going in that bag.
04:16 Not the stuff but its you that's going in there.
04:22 And that's what the inmates receive
04:25 is the care that goes into it.
04:26 Okay, I gonna ask you one of those high concept
04:29 ontological questions that they are sometimes.
04:35 Talk to me about the reciprocity
04:39 the reciprocalness of helping others
04:42 that helps you that serving others kind of serves you.
04:45 You follow when going? Yes, I do.
04:47 Yeah, give me your-- your take on that.
04:50 What I think about serving other is that--
04:55 you get something out.. Some people in life think that
04:58 everything that you do has a monitory value.
05:03 Give, take or just take and take.
05:07 If you give something of yourself
05:10 a promise that in the end you will receive something back.
05:17 If you give just a little bit of yourself,
05:20 if you give a little bit on knowledge
05:23 a little bit of care
05:25 I guarantee that you will
05:27 get it back at some point in time.
05:30 I went through cancer eight years ago
05:34 and people always ask me,
05:36 why that project was so dear to me?
05:39 For 15 years prior to having cancer
05:41 I did that program relay for life
05:44 year after year not knowing that one
05:48 July seven years ago I would get sick in August.
05:53 I was diagnosed with it.
05:55 They told me 25 percent
05:57 but I gave so much to relay for life
06:01 and for cancer never knowing that it was me and I got back.
06:06 Now eight years later I have my life. Amen.
06:11 Giving into this program is the same exact thing
06:16 whether the inmates care for me or like me or not.
06:21 I do have knowledge
06:23 and things that I say do have a meaning
06:26 and at some point of time in life
06:29 somebody is gonna look back and say,
06:32 she gave this to me by something that she see it.
06:37 That's all that matters. Amen, thank you so much.
06:46 Hallelujah, salvation and glory
06:53 Honor and power unto the Lord our God
07:00 For the Lord our God is mighty
07:04 Yes, the Lord our God is omnipotent
07:08 The Lord our God
07:11 He is wonderful
07:17 Halleluja, salvation and glory,
07:23 Honor and power unto the Lord our God
07:30 For the Lord our God is mighty
07:34 Yes, the Lord our God is omnipotent
07:38 The Lord our God He is wonderful
07:44 All praises be to the King of Kings
07:52 And the Lord our God
07:55 He is wonderful
07:59 All praises be to the King of Kings
08:06 and the Lord our God
08:10 He is wonderful
08:15 Halleluja, Halleluja,
08:19 Halleluja, Halleluja,
08:21 Halleluja Halle-lu-ja,
08:25 He is wonderful
08:29 Halleluja, Halleluja,
08:34 Halleluja, Halleluja,
08:36 Halleluja Halle-lu-ja,
08:39 he is wonderful
08:45 Halleluja salvation and glory
08:51 And the Lord our God,
08:54 He is wonderful
09:00 Halleluja salvation and glory
09:05 And the Lord our God,
09:09 He is wonderful
09:12 All praises be to the King of Kings
09:20 And the Lord our God,
09:23 He is wonderful
09:27 All praises be to the King of Kings
09:34 And the Lord our God,
09:38 He is wonderful
09:41 All praises be to the King of Kings
09:49 And the Lord our God,
09:52 He is wonderful
10:16 Christmas Behind Bars, never dreamed
10:19 when we partnered with 3ABN of the beauty
10:22 and value of a new program called Free Indeed.
10:27 These men and woman are behind bars perhaps,
10:30 most of them forgotten by society
10:32 but not one has been forgotten by God.
10:35 The new program Free Indeed, that you are viewing
10:38 has been a partnership
10:40 and we thank you for being willing
10:42 to sponsor 3ABN and Christmas Behind Bars
10:46 to bring this together
10:48 for the honor and glory of God
10:50 and for the furtherance of the kingdom of heaven.
10:52 We would like you to be involved on a personal level.
10:55 Please contact us at Christmas Behind Bars,
10:58 we need new Bibles, used Bibles,
11:01 we need devotional books.
11:02 There is a lot of different aspects
11:04 that you and your church
11:05 can bring this program to your area.
11:08 Because many more people to reach
11:10 and we look forward
11:11 to the kingdom of heaven being full.
11:13 Blessings to you until we meet again.
11:19 I'm from St. Louis which is pretty wild city
11:23 and in I have been in correctness service since 1986
11:26 and now I now I am in Missouri
11:28 and I have always made all kind of excuses while--
11:30 you know why not to go to church.
11:32 How come I'm not gonna-- you know may be I should.
11:34 Well, I'm not gonna go because girls go to church
11:37 and once they get out
11:38 they don't even put a bible in their hands.
11:39 So I made all types of excuses, you know,
11:42 why I'm not gonna go to church
11:43 but I guess I got to point
11:45 where I be myself of so much
11:47 you know, I was like, man,
11:48 there is got to be more life in the way I'm living.
11:51 I got to try something difference
11:52 because, you know, how we get out there out of prison
11:55 and we think, well I'm gonna try some of little bit different
11:58 and may be you have to work in a desert
11:59 because we don't want to submit ourselves.
12:00 We are going to rationalize sin.
12:02 Right, okay to make a long story short
12:04 I was in county jail
12:05 and I looked at the Book of Proverbs
12:07 and it says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
12:10 and do not lean on your own understanding." Praise God.
12:13 And when I-- when I looked at it
12:14 that it was like it was just speaking to Him.
12:16 You know, I was like wow, may be God talking to me
12:19 because all this time in life
12:21 I have been leaning towards my own understanding.
12:24 Amen. And is never worked.
12:26 So I could say, since that--since 1986
12:30 untill now I am doing a bit here Indiana.
12:32 Our father said you know what
12:34 I'm gonna give God a chance.
12:35 I'm going to give God a trail and it helped me
12:37 because I have been able to serve myself
12:40 with people little better,
12:42 I have and thank to God
12:43 I haven't had a conduct violation or confrontations
12:46 since I have been here. Amen.
12:48 And he is trying to change my character
12:50 and my believe system period
12:52 because I tired I beat myself now
12:54 so much now, I believe God
12:55 put me in that position to where
12:57 He says okay, Cliff,
12:58 you got to make some serious changes
13:00 because I have so many opportunities,
13:01 you know, turn my life around
13:03 and I did this to me
13:06 and I'm just asking God to help me,
13:07 you know change, change my life.
13:09 Change me on the inside, you know.
13:11 So brother, may that scripture remain with you
13:13 now until Jesus comes
13:15 to not lean on to our own understanding
13:17 but as we search the scripture
13:19 and we say Lord, "Thy will be done, not mine."
13:22 Amen. Amen.
13:23 God bless you, thank you so much.
13:29 Isaiah 29:13 Bible says, "therefore the Lord said"
13:34 so this came from God.
13:36 "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouth
13:40 and honor Me with their lips,
13:43 but have removed their hearts far from Me.
13:47 And their fear towards Me is taught
13:50 by the commandments of men."
13:51 So God complained here in Isaiah is that
13:56 they talk a good game,
13:58 that anomy with their mouth
14:01 but their hearts their lives
14:04 don't reflect their talk, you follow?
14:07 They talk the talk
14:08 but they aren't walking the walk.
14:11 That's Old Testament.
14:13 In the New Testament
14:14 Jesus in Matthew 15:8
14:22 says this, "These people draw near to Me with their mouth.
14:28 And honor Me with their lips,
14:30 But their heart is far from Me."
14:33 That same text in a New Testament.
14:36 This time it's the words of Christ.
14:39 One of things that most people say
14:41 that they dislike about politicians
14:44 on political reassess is the nasty way
14:47 that politicians talk to each other
14:49 and treat each other.
14:50 You heard on TV there will slice each other up
14:54 and talk about each other just to get elected.
14:58 Now there are several articles that have come out recently
15:01 and they have conducted studies that say,
15:03 most people think politicians will say anything,
15:09 promise anything just to get elected
15:13 and then once elected do almost nothing.
15:17 And that's why people get started disgusted
15:19 with the political system
15:21 because a lot promises are made
15:25 but they are never kept.
15:27 And what people are saying is-- what people are looking for
15:31 they want their leaders to be real that's all--just be real.
15:35 Don't tell me what you think I want to hear.
15:39 Don't tell me what you think will please me.
15:43 Tell me the truth and then do
15:47 what you say you are gonna do, make sense?
15:51 They call it the truth vacuum or the trust gap.
15:58 Mean what you say,
16:00 don't butter me up, don't wax me,
16:03 don't blow smoke upon nose,
16:05 just say what you mean
16:07 and mean what you say. Be honest.
16:12 Now the reason this text is so important that God said it,
16:17 Jesus said it in the New Testament is that,
16:22 God is saying if you are going to do something,
16:25 do it and be real.
16:28 If you gonna talk the talk, walk the walk
16:32 because for many people
16:33 the only Jesus they will see is the Jesus is in you.
16:38 And the truth is many times
16:40 Christians are guilty of false advertising.
16:42 We carry the name Jesus
16:44 but we are not gonna live the life of Jesus.
16:47 And Christ is saying if you gonna
16:49 talk the talk then walk the walk, amen.
16:54 Be honest, be real.
16:56 There's a story about this great General Alexander the great
17:01 and he had a guy in his army
17:03 who had the same name, Alexander,
17:06 but the guy was a goof-off.
17:08 Never showed up on time, shoes dirty, armor not polished.
17:11 He was just a flicker-- just like goof-off
17:15 and he had the same name.
17:17 And so Alexander the general went to him
17:19 and said listen man he is your choice
17:22 you ought to either change your ways
17:24 or change your name. That's the choice.
17:28 Change your ways or change your name?
17:30 Well, it's the same way with Jesus.
17:32 If you will take the name Jesus
17:34 you got to live like Jesus. Amen. Amen.
17:37 And you don't take the name Jesus
17:39 then you got to trust Jesus. And here is the thing,
17:42 the most miserable people in the world are people
17:46 who try to fake Christianity.
17:48 Trying to be a fake Christian is the pain in the neck,
17:53 because Christians are suppose to forgive.
17:56 So, some one that comes along
17:57 and slaps you and you are a fake Christian.
18:05 See it's hard to forgive when you are faking it.
18:08 And the devil will put you in a situation
18:10 to revile yet true stuff, he will--he will out you.
18:14 He will have something, you know,
18:15 you may have one nerve,
18:19 the one last never and the devil will see to it
18:23 that somebody is going to pull
18:25 that one last nerve come on well, that one last nerve.
18:29 So you see, see if you are faking it you will be exposed
18:33 but if it's really in your heart
18:36 when somebody does you wrong you forgive from your heart.
18:42 You see, vengeance hate the people
18:46 is like taking poison hoping the other guy is gonna die.
18:55 The person that destroys is you, Amen.
18:58 Say, a true story down with them.
18:59 When I was in college I had a roommate
19:00 from Liberia, West Africa.
19:03 Nice guy but he had this habit of chewing with his mouth open.
19:12 And he really enjoyed his food
19:16 and he like to eat nuts and grapes,
19:19 which I actually till this day I eat nuts
19:21 and grapes I got that from him.
19:22 But he would chew it.
19:29 And I said, you know what,
19:31 this guy is doing this to get on my nerves.
19:34 You know, when you are in a college
19:35 you are in a dorm it's a little tiny room,
19:37 you know, you're share in the same space,
19:39 breathing the same air, you can't get away form him.
19:45 I see, I am gonna put up.
19:47 You know, he is my roommate
19:48 but I see he is doing this to get on my nerve.
19:51 Now the truth is he didn't know he was getting on last nerves.
19:55 He didn't, he didn't know.
19:57 He is just doing what he always does.
19:59 I found that his whole family chewed that way.
20:02 I went to his house on Christmas vacation
20:04 we sat at the dinner table and I couldn't believe it.
20:09 Everybody, you got, you got,
20:11 you got a dozen people on the table and everybody.
20:17 You know I couldn't believe it.
20:20 So he didn't know because he grew up that way.
20:22 That's the way that they chewed food
20:24 in his house in Liberia, West Africa.
20:26 Guys have free and don't know how to do, bless his heart.
20:29 And I just--I was just I he was driving me crazy.
20:34 And I said he is doing it on purpose.
20:35 He never knew.
20:38 And then one day he and his girlfriend
20:40 in his little green Volkswagen
20:42 went up to this kind of lovers lane place
20:44 where the college students use to go to have Bible studies.
20:51 And coming down the hill he flipped his Volkswagen
20:54 and she got hurt and he got hurt.
20:56 So I came back from church that Sabbath,
20:59 Saturday evening he was in a bed arm broken
21:02 and you know mourning and groaning and I felt so bad.
21:04 I said--I said his name was Francis Jockey.
21:07 I said Francis, now what happened.
21:09 My God, brought in for you,
21:10 you want some nuts and grapes.
21:11 You know anything you want to do,
21:12 I'll get you anything you want, you want anything--
21:14 you know can I help you in any kind of way?
21:16 I was so glad that he didn't go, you know.
21:20 And that's way, that's the way we were.
21:24 So, you got forgive and be in the real
21:26 if you gonna walk the walk
21:28 you know, talk the talk, you better walk the walk.
21:31 And the blessing come
21:34 when, when Jesus leaves your lips
21:38 and moves into your heart.
21:39 That's when the blessing come, that's when the strength come,
21:43 that's when the forgiveness comes when--
21:45 when it's not just in your mouth its in your soul.
21:48 That's when the strength come, that's when the power come.
21:51 Forgiving lets you out of jail. Amen.
21:57 Holding a grudge puts you in jail.
21:59 Tell you the last, and this one leave in my notes
22:00 and I am done last story I think.
22:05 I was at motor vehicle in New York,
22:06 I have all my ministries are in New York City.
22:09 And I was, I was re-getting insurance for my car
22:14 and there was a fellow in front of me,
22:17 nice looking tall 6' 3'' blond
22:19 just cursing on news. He was just mad.
22:22 He said that, I am gonna rip of her arm
22:25 and shove it down her throat and I am gonna,
22:27 I'm gonna-- he was just having a fit
22:30 and the Lord said you need to talk to him.
22:33 I said, no I don't.
22:37 And you, you know, when trying to fight God,
22:39 and God is just nagging.
22:40 He said, because he was just oh, my God, oh God.
22:45 He was just going on and God said talk to him.
22:48 And I said no, Lord, not me not today, not no time,
22:53 nor I'm going to do it no way.
22:56 And the Lord just nagged me, so I said to him.
23:01 Once I got to nerve if I say hey man,
23:05 how long you are gonna stay in prison?
23:10 He said, say what?
23:15 I said, how long you are gonna stay in prison?
23:19 He said, what are you my warden?
23:23 I said, actually said to him you are my sub warden.
23:28 Then I said no man I'm just trying to get you out of jail.
23:32 So he, he I saw his shoulders,
23:34 you know, you can see his shoulders
23:35 kind of drop down a little bit and I said what's up?
23:41 Evidently his, his wife had left him for another guy
23:47 and had--the guy that she left him for was an attorney
23:52 and they had gotten his house and his car and his son.
23:57 And he was left with this old raggedy Chevy
24:01 that he is trying to get insurance on it.
24:03 They got everything
24:04 and he was just full of hate and revenge.
24:07 And I said to him that,
24:12 your wife is off with her new lawyer boyfriend
24:15 in your house, driving your car
24:17 and the best you can do is push yourself in jail.
24:21 I said, you got to get free.
24:24 She is not thinking about you,
24:26 so you-- you need to start giving her
24:28 the power to destroy you. You got to get free.
24:31 You got a son,
24:33 if you do all the stuff that you want to do to her,
24:36 who is gonna take care of your boy?
24:39 Who is gonna take care of your child?
24:40 You got get free.
24:42 You are drinking poison hoping your wife is gonna die.
24:47 Get free man.
24:50 And so we talked about that for a long time
24:53 and when we are done, we prayed together
24:57 and I said just free yourself, free yourself.
25:01 That's what the Bible says, "If the Son makes you free,
25:07 you really will be free."
25:09 That's where true freedom comes.
25:11 Let me close with a text.
25:15 I love this one, Hebrew 13:5, 6.
25:20 I'm, I'm the kind of guy
25:22 who read the Bible several times.
25:24 Lot of people has favorite texts
25:25 that they kind of just lock down on
25:27 kind of give them strength. I don't have favorite text.
25:29 I have favorite anything.
25:30 My wife kind of get up, aggregate in me
25:32 because she says, what do you want to eat today?
25:34 I don't know.
25:35 I don't have favorite color,
25:36 favorite food, favorite clothes, favorite text,
25:38 I don't have favorite anything.
25:39 What I have is text in the Bible that means
25:42 some to me for that point of time.
25:44 Then I move on to another text and that gets me through.
25:47 When I got my cancer diagnosis a couple of years ago
25:50 I had, Joshua 1: 9 "Have I not commanded you?
25:54 Be strong and courageous.
25:55 Do not be afraid you to be that is made
25:57 for the Lord that God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."
25:59 That was not for a while, then I moved on to,
26:01 Micah 6:8,
26:02 "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good,
26:03 and what doth the Lord require of thee,
26:05 but to do justly, and to love mercy,
26:06 and to walk humbly with thy God?"
26:07 You know, I get him and I loose him
26:09 and I get him I get another one.
26:11 Well, this is the hot one now.
26:14 Hebrews 13, I think its 5 and 6.
26:17 Let me just find it real fast and I'm done.
26:20 Hebrews--
26:25 see it's so knew I haven't quite
26:27 committed to memory yet.
26:29 That is coming, Hebrews 13:5, 6.
26:31 "Let your conduct be without covetousness,"
26:33 that means don't envy anybody anything,
26:35 just live your own life don't be a tourist in your life
26:37 live yours, let them live theirs.
26:40 So, "Let your conduct be without covetousness,
26:42 be content with such things as you have."
26:45 Whatever you got that's what God wants for you.
26:47 So don't look in over at hers look at yours.
26:51 Amen. Amen. I said Amen. Amen.
26:55 All right, so, "Be content with such things as you have,
27:00 for He Himself has said," this is God.
27:03 "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Amen. Amen.
27:08 There is no hole you can crawl into or fall into.
27:10 God can crawl down there and find you. Amen.
27:13 So when you get in a hole don't say Lord, help me out,
27:16 say Lord how are you gonna get us out of this mess
27:20 because He is the hole with you, amen.
27:22 You are not down there by yourself, okay.
27:24 So, this is a parallel, "We can boldly say,
27:28 'The lord is my helper.'"
27:30 Amen. God is my helper.
27:33 "I will not fear, what can man do to me?"
27:38 Cannot hurt you when you are in Jesus,
27:40 even if they take your life they haven't hurt you
27:44 because the Bible says you live in Jesus
27:46 and die in Jesus, you will live for ever.
27:49 So once you get God you get forever. Amen.
27:55 What can man do to me?
27:56 That's Hebrews 13:5, 6,
28:01 it's a powerful, powerful text.
28:03 And it will study you in time.
28:05 So walk the walk, talk the talk, live the life
28:10 and Jesus will be your Savior and your friend.
28:13 Thank you so much, God bless you.


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Revised 2014-12-17