Participants:
Series Code: USP
Program Code: USP210002S
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00:01 What if someone was willing to do the time
00:02 for the crime that you committed? 00:04 Would you be loyal to them? 00:05 Stay tuned to learn about the death row volunteer. 00:13 They try to change us from the outside in, 00:16 and that's never going to work. 00:19 Because I know that no matter 00:21 how hard and cold the exterior may seem, 00:24 I know that inside we hurt. 00:27 So we just want to come and share some hope with you 00:30 and let you know that we love you, 00:32 and that Jesus loves you 00:35 beyond anybody in this world. 00:39 I'm not here today to judge you or condemn you, 00:41 we're today to tell you that we love you 00:42 and we understand the situation that you're in. 00:52 Hello. 00:53 I'm Jason Bradley, just want to thank you 00:55 for joining us once again as you always do. 00:57 I'm here with my brother Lemuel Vega, 00:59 my brother in Christ. 01:01 Lemuel, we've experienced a lot together behind bars. 01:04 We get out the same day. 01:06 But we've been able to minister quite often behind bars. 01:09 But you're still getting packages into prison. 01:11 Thousands and thousands of packages. 01:13 You want to talk a little bit about that death row volunteer? 01:16 Oh, absolutely. 01:17 You know, we've all been handed down 01:19 a death sentence as the human race. 01:21 Amen. 01:23 You know, once sin entered the world, 01:25 we entered into that death sentence. 01:27 But thank God 01:29 that he sent His only begotten Son to die for us. 01:31 His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, 01:33 to die on the cross for our sins, 01:37 so that we could have a shot at eternal life. 01:39 Amen. 01:40 It's a promise. 01:42 It's a promise. 01:43 It says in John 3:16, it says, 01:45 "For God so loved the world's humanity 01:50 that He gave His only begotten Son, 01:53 the death row volunteer, 01:55 that whosoever," I love this brother, 01:58 "whosoever," every nation, color, 02:00 kindred, tongue, people, that's inclusive. 02:04 "For God so loved the world 02:05 that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever," 02:08 that's all of humanity, that whosoever what? 02:12 Believe. 02:13 "Believeth in Him should not perish, 02:17 but have everlasting life." 02:20 And the beauty of the gospel is this, 02:23 "For God sent not His son into the world to..." 02:28 To condemn the world. 02:29 "Condemn the world." 02:30 What condemns us? 02:32 Sin. 02:34 We're born with this handicap called sin. 02:35 So it's sin that condemns us, 02:37 it separates us from our heavenly Father, 02:39 so God sent His only begotten Son, 02:41 death row volunteer, I love that, into the world, 02:46 but that the world through Him, 02:49 death row volunteer, might be saved. 02:52 Yes. 02:53 What is sin? 02:55 Transgression of God's law. 02:56 God's love letter to humanity. 02:58 He wants us, He beckons us, 03:00 He woos us to follow Him 03:01 in His transgression of the law. 03:04 There's an analogy that I've used, 03:06 we've used in the past 03:07 and we actually have a volunteer, 03:09 a group of inmates to come up, but let's talk about sin. 03:14 Let's talk about the variations of sin. 03:16 Okay. 03:18 Now, so what do we... We have sheets here. 03:21 We have sheets. 03:22 We have three sheets, we have three different colored sheets. 03:25 We'll go and put that one up there 03:27 and then I'll hang this one up there 03:29 and this is to represent the degradation of sin. 03:33 So in our world today, we rate sin, 03:36 if you do something really bad, 03:37 you go to prison, you go to death row. 03:40 If you didn't do something so bad, 03:41 you're just drunk driving, 03:43 then you go to jail just for a little bit 03:46 or you get some called probation or something. 03:48 So in our world we vary in sin, 03:50 we give it different names, different meanings. 03:53 But, Jason, if you were going to say that one of these, 03:56 these all represent sin, 03:58 if you were to say that one of these is worse than another, 04:01 which one would be the worse? 04:03 You know, that's a hard thing 04:05 because the wages of sin is death. 04:07 Amen. 04:08 So all of them are the same. 04:10 If we look at Romans 6:23, it say, 04:13 "For the wages of sin is death, 04:15 but the gift of God is eternal life 04:18 in Christ Jesus our Lord." 04:20 So whether it's the individual 04:21 that kills somebody and is on death row perhaps 04:23 or whether it's somebody that's just robbed a bank 04:26 or robbed a Brink's truck or whatever 04:27 or whether it's a white collar person 04:30 that their life is perhaps and they think it's not so bad. 04:34 Society might say, "This is the worst." 04:37 Or, "This might be second. 04:38 This might be third." But you know what, Brother? 04:40 The Word of God said that... 04:42 "The wages of sin are death." 04:44 Is death. 04:45 Yeah. 04:47 And the volunteer, the willing volunteer, 04:49 death row volunteer. 04:50 Death row volunteer, yes. 04:52 Now, I want to share something with you though too 04:55 because it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, 04:59 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, 05:01 he is a new creation, old things have passed away, 05:05 behold, old things have become new." 05:07 So there's hope. 05:09 There's a transformation. 05:10 There's a transformation. 05:11 How did that transformation take place? 05:13 'Cause we got a lot of problems right here. 05:14 Oh, we have a lot of problems, 05:16 but we also have the problem solver. 05:18 And the problem solver upon the cross of Calvary 05:21 brought humanity back. 05:24 Yes. 05:25 That whosoever... 05:27 Believeth in him shall not perish. 05:30 Shall not perish. 05:32 But have everlasting life. 05:34 So He cleanses at the cross of Calvary, 05:37 that's the beginning point for all of humanity. 05:40 Mm-hmm. Yes. 05:41 So the person that doesn't know Jesus, 05:42 what would you say to that individual 05:44 because you and I know that's the starting point? 05:46 Oh, absolutely. 05:47 We've tried to show the analogy 05:49 to where His righteousness cleanses us. 05:52 We were sentenced with a death sentence. 05:54 Yes. 05:55 Adam and Eve, our great grandparents. 05:57 Death sentence was pronounced upon them. 05:59 Yes. 06:00 We were born with that problem called sin and now, 06:02 Jesus came and died, 06:04 that we might have life and have it more abundantly. 06:07 Mm-hmm. 06:08 Let me ask you a question, Lemuel. 06:10 When you were, you know, living a life of crime 06:13 and leading a life of crime 06:15 and breaking the law and all of that stuff, 06:17 did you have somebody that said, 06:19 "Hey, I want to take your drug charge. 06:21 Hey, I want to do your time. 06:23 Hey, I want to do the time for your crime?" 06:26 Did you have somebody who voluntarily went down 06:29 to the court house and just said, 06:30 "Hey, I'll go to jail for him?" 06:31 No. 06:33 All your homeboys, 06:34 everybody say they got your back, 06:35 they'll be there for you and there was nobody there. 06:38 And for all these people that are incarcerated, 06:40 there's nobody there to put bread on their baby's table, 06:43 shoes on their baby's feet, 06:45 to make sure the electric bill's paid. 06:47 There's nobody there to take care 06:48 of their people out here 06:51 and there's nobody there to take care of them. 06:53 But God meets us 06:54 at the worst moments of our life. 06:56 You know, Jason, I got a call from 3ABN and they ask us 06:59 if there was this individual, 07:00 he'd just gotten out of prison and they wanted to know 07:02 if he could come and help Christmas Behind Bars 07:04 and I'm like, "Well, yeah, I guess." 07:06 I said I want to know a little more about the story 07:09 and it's really amazing 07:11 because 3ABN's been going up to the prison. 07:13 Local prison here 07:15 and they were doing services on a regular basis 07:18 and we wanted to take packages to that prison 07:21 because they're already doing services 07:23 and that's what we want to do. 07:25 And so we made 2000 packages for that prison, 07:28 but what we did, if we invited each individual, 07:33 we put 2000 invitations, 07:35 one in each bag and we invited them 07:38 to come out to the existing services 07:39 that you folks were holding up at the prison. 07:42 And this individual, 07:44 he got that invitation 07:45 and he started coming out to the services. 07:47 But in his bag that he got the invitation, 07:49 he got the book called the Desire of Ages. 07:52 Desire of Ages, he said, he began reading that book, 07:54 he said, he had a third grade education reading level 07:58 and he couldn't really understand it. 07:59 So you know what he did, dude? 08:01 He got the dictionary out, 08:03 so now he's reading the Desire of Ages 08:05 and the dictionary. 08:06 Wow. 08:07 And then he began to understand how Jesus got His strength 08:10 from His heavenly Father. 08:11 He said, I want to know more about this, 08:13 so he went, he got a Bible. 08:15 So now, he's reading the Desire of Ages, 08:17 dictionary and a Bible 08:20 and his reading level went from third grade 08:22 to twelfth grade within about six months 08:24 and it was just from reading the Desire of Ages, 08:26 the dictionary and the Bible. 08:28 Wow. 08:29 You know, this individual came to the services, 08:31 he got a little transistor radio 08:33 and he begin getting 3ABN Radio. 08:36 And that strengthened him and encouraged him, 08:39 he made a decision for Jesus. 08:41 And when he got out, he needed a place to go, 08:43 he helped out here for a short period of time 08:46 and now, David, 08:48 he's driving semi and he got his CDL license. 08:51 He's doing good, he committed his life to Christ 08:54 and he's riding down the highways 08:55 and byways of life now. 08:57 But that's one individual 08:59 that 3ABN has been able to minister 09:00 to physically on a weekly meeting 09:03 through the airwaves of 3ABN Radio, 09:06 combined with Christmas Behind Bars, 09:08 receiving the book, Desire of Ages. 09:10 So God is not going to leave us or abandon us or forsake us. 09:14 He continues to call all people. 09:16 And so at this time that we live, 09:19 sin, the remedy is at the cross. 09:21 Yes. 09:22 And there's hope. 09:23 God sent not His Son into the world to condemn us, 09:26 but that we might have salvation in life through Him. 09:30 Yes. 09:31 What would you say about the ministry at 3ABN 09:34 'cause I know you folks are actively involved 09:36 in prison ministry as well? 09:37 Yes. 09:39 I would say that, you know, 09:40 3ABN has been a blessing in my life 09:42 as well in terms of growing my walk with the Lord. 09:45 And that's our goal 09:47 is to just point people to Christ. 09:49 We just want to point people to Christ. 09:51 It's the Holy Spirit that convicts and all of that 09:54 and that draws people to the Lord. 09:57 So we just want to point people to Jesus. 10:00 And that's how it is with Christmas Behind Bars. 10:02 You know, we take thousands of packages 10:04 and, you know, we just pray. 10:06 Physically, we do all we can do, 10:08 putting the packages together, but we just pray 10:10 that when they open that package 10:11 that their life will be touched and encouraged for Christ. 10:14 Amen. 10:15 So we're not looking for numbers, 10:17 we're not asking how many people have been baptized, 10:19 we just want to encourage them for Christ. 10:21 That's right. That's right. 10:22 The seed has been planted. 10:23 The seed has been planted. 10:25 The spiritual material is going out 10:26 and people are hungry for the gospel, 10:28 and we're really finding that out 10:31 more and more as time goes on. 10:33 People are trying to find an explanation 10:35 for what is taking place in the world. 10:38 You know, with Christmas Behind Bars, 10:40 we've been talking about Christmas Behind Bars 10:42 and the impact that Christmas Behind Bars 10:45 is having. 10:47 But how do people get to check out 10:49 Christmas Behind Bars? 10:51 Let's say somebody wants to visit your website? 10:52 What's your website? 10:53 They can go to christmasbehindbars.org 10:55 Okay. 10:56 Christmasbehindbars.org Email address 10:58 is Contact@christmasbehindbars.org 11:01 So email is contact@christmasbehindbars 11:04 website is christmasbehindbars.org 11:07 My name's Lori, I'm at the Boone County Jail 11:09 and I'm a drug addict. 11:13 In 2009, I lost my brother to a heroin overdose. 11:16 I found him in my garage. 11:18 In 2011, the father of my kids hung himself 11:21 in this jail actually. 11:23 And in 2014, my daughter hung herself. 11:26 I found her. 11:28 2015, I found my father dead. 11:31 In 2017, I found my mother dead after a heart attack. 11:34 So I've lost myself through that journey, 11:37 I've lost contact with God. 11:42 To take you guys the time out to come there 11:45 and to spread that word, I thought was huge 11:47 because a lot of people just see us as criminals, 11:50 you know, and that's it. 11:51 But we're way more than that, 11:52 we're moms, we're people's children. 11:54 We are still people and I think it made us feel like that, 11:59 everybody in the block. 12:00 Like we couldn't stop talking about it 12:02 and we still talk about it today 12:04 and that was a couple of weeks ago. 12:06 I've lost my contact with God, but I'm getting it back. 12:09 I'm definitely getting it back one day at a time. 12:13 Jason, I want to tell you something. 12:15 New Castle Correctional Facility, 12:17 3000 inmates, they told me, 12:21 they have a regular suicide watch team. 12:25 When someone's going to commit suicide, 12:27 they put them in a cell 12:28 and an inmate sits outside that cell 12:30 and able to talk to them. 12:32 If they want to talk, 12:33 they're there to talk 24 hours a day. 12:34 Now, what they told me, 12:36 they knew Christmas Behind Bars was coming, 12:38 maybe 4 to 6 weeks in advance 12:40 and they said once they put that word out in the prison, 12:43 they didn't have nobody on initiated the suicide watch 12:47 during that time period. 12:48 Why is that? 12:49 Because they had something to look forward to. 12:52 They knew Christmas Behind Bars was coming. 12:54 We as Christians in this troublous time that we live, 12:58 we look forward to the soon return of Jesus. 12:59 Amen. 13:01 So we must hold on to that hope would supersede the problems 13:04 that we face on a daily basis. 13:05 Amen. 13:07 And I think that story really speaks to our need 13:09 for a relationship as well. 13:11 God created us to be social relational beings 13:16 and so we need that relationship. 13:18 It's interesting that they have somebody out there 13:21 24 hours a day. 13:22 We can go to Jesus 24 hours a day. 13:26 We can pray to God 24 hours a day. 13:28 24/7. 13:30 Never too busy to hear from us. 13:32 Death row volunteer, 13:33 may we be loyal to Him as He's been loyal to us. 13:37 Amen. 13:38 And thank God that He wants to save as many 13:43 as will believe in Jesus and repent. 13:45 Whosoever. 13:47 That's right, whosoever believeth in Him. 13:49 Lemuel, thank you so much 13:50 for what you're doing for the cause of Christ 13:52 and for pointing people to Christ, 13:56 and we want to thank you for joining us. 13:58 You know, if you haven't made the decision to follow Christ, 14:01 make that decision today. 14:03 God bless. |
Revised 2021-10-28