Participants:
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR210020S
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00:01 Stay tuned to hear the inspiring journey
00:03 of a powerful evangelist. 00:05 My name is Jason Bradley, 00:06 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:31 Hello and welcome to Urban Report. 00:33 My guest today is Pastor Dakota Day, 00:36 and he's a powerful evangelist for Amazing Facts. 00:39 Welcome to Urban Report, Pastor Day. 00:42 Thanks for having me, Jason. It's a blessing to be here. 00:43 It's great to have you here. 00:45 Man, I want to dive into your testimony 00:48 and find out a little bit about your background. 00:51 We know you're with Amazing Facts now, 00:53 but lead us up to that point. 00:55 What was your upbringing like? 00:57 Absolutely, man. It was something else. 00:59 I was raised in a Christian home. 01:02 My family had a very, 01:04 I guess you can say a high importance upon, 01:07 you know, following the Lord and obeying Him 01:09 and taking us to church frequently. 01:12 And I'll never forget growing up. 01:14 It was a common thing for us always to, 01:17 to go to prayer meeting and go to a worship service. 01:20 And one of the things that I really enjoyed 01:23 was that my parents, even outside of church, 01:26 they tried to raise us with moral values. 01:28 And so that was always there 01:30 and instilled in my mind growing up as a child. 01:33 But you know, you can be raised a certain way, 01:36 but you have to make a decision yourself to accept Jesus. 01:39 And so that eventually came later on down, 01:41 but I'll never forget my family and my mom and my dad, 01:45 my brother and my sister growing up, 01:47 we had a music ministry, so we traveled, 01:49 Days should I say it, how do we say in ministry? 01:52 I was going to say, you sing? 01:53 Well, I sing a little, 01:55 but mostly, mostly it was them. 01:57 And they would travel from church to church 01:59 and they would do concerts for all of these churches 02:02 and all the churches that we went to. 02:03 And it would be a multi-denominational, 02:05 you know, there would be all kinds of churches that would 02:07 have us to come out and do concerts. 02:09 And so in doing that, we got to, 02:10 you know, really travel in 02:12 and study and visit with a lot 02:13 of different church denominations. 02:15 And it was in the process of that, 02:17 that we eventually started learning about the ministry 02:20 of Amazing Facts, the one that I currently have 02:22 the privilege to work for today. 02:24 And so it was a revolutionary time period in our lives, 02:26 but yeah, it was awesome, man. 02:29 So you mentioned something a minute ago 02:31 about not really knowing Jesus for yourself, 02:34 or you had to experience Jesus for yourself. 02:37 At what point did you experience Jesus for yourself 02:40 and what brought that about? 02:41 Yeah, so I was raised, 02:43 you know, like I said, in church and the problem, 02:46 I guess you can say for a lot of kids, 02:48 young kids, especially 02:49 is that they hear a lot about Jesus. 02:51 They hear a lot about religion. 02:53 They hear a lot about the do's and don'ts of life. 02:55 But one of the things I think that a lot of people fail to do 02:58 is to allow that consistency to be in their life, 03:01 to where there's a true change. 03:03 And so while my parents had always been religious, 03:06 you know, they'd always been, you know focused on the Lord 03:08 and trying to live for the Lord. 03:10 But growing up, me and my brother and my sister, 03:12 we were very violent, repulsive kids. 03:14 You know, we had our own, 03:16 we had our own problems that we had to, 03:18 you know, Jesus said to Nicodemus, 03:20 you must be born again, right? 03:22 There's something wrong there with your first birth 03:24 and you need to have a new heart and a new mind. 03:26 And so growing up, I saw, 03:28 you know, all of the carnality 03:30 and the frivolity that was in my, was in myself 03:32 and that was within my, my siblings. 03:34 And it really didn't take place 03:35 until I started seeing a relationship 03:38 in my brother change. 03:41 To tell the story, I'll make it shorter, 03:43 but to tell the story is actually quite funny 03:45 because I was, 03:47 as much as I'd been raised up in a Christian home, 03:49 I was actually becoming a borderline atheist. 03:52 And it was, it was very interesting. 03:54 I had been raised up to hear about this man named Jesus 03:57 that I heard people talk about this man named Jesus, 03:59 but I had never seen Jesus myself ever change anybody. 04:04 And so I was going to school. 04:07 I was kind of a teenager at the time 04:08 and during my teenage years, about 14 years old. 04:11 And God basically, you know, was convicting my heart, 04:15 but I didn't recognize it at the time it had to be Him. 04:17 And so I was going to school 04:19 and I kept having all of these thoughts 04:20 while God was convicting my heart, 04:22 the devil was also after me. 04:23 And the devil kept putting these thoughts in my, 04:26 in my mind, you know, if God's so good 04:28 and He's real, then why is the world so bad? 04:30 Wow, that's a question that a lot of people ask too. 04:33 That is, it's a very popular question. 04:35 And perhaps as I travel, 04:36 that's the most popular question that I get, 04:38 especially from the youth and young people. 04:40 And so I began to have these thoughts in my mind 04:43 at 14 years old. 04:44 And I got bullied in school a little bit. 04:47 And so when I went through a tough year of bullying, 04:50 it really hit me hard when I was about 14. 04:52 And I thought, you know, 04:53 I just not so sure that this whole Jesus thing is real. 04:57 And so I started to question it and I'll never forget 05:01 during the process of all of that, 05:03 my brother was really starting to have an interest 05:06 in spiritual things 05:07 and starting to have an interest in God's Word. 05:09 And I'll never forget one day he walks in the living room 05:12 and he tells my parents, 05:13 I think God's calling me into the ministry. 05:15 I think I want to be a minister. 05:17 And my parents' response was like, 05:19 oh, that's so good son. 05:21 We're so happy to hear that and all of this, right? 05:24 And I'm just sitting there like, 05:26 like, come on, 05:27 you guys are not buying this right now, right? 05:31 Because in my, in my home growing up, 05:33 you know, me and my brother, we were siblings 05:34 and we competed with each other on everything. 05:37 And so I saw the dark side of Ryan. 05:39 He saw the dark side of me. 05:41 And so growing up, I'll never forget, 05:45 you know, Ryan, he was an older brother, 05:47 so I was always trying to be with him 05:48 and his friends, you know? 05:50 And so he was just doing 05:51 what an older brother generally would do, 05:53 you know, hey, Dakota, get out of here. 05:54 You know, we want to, we want to hang out. 05:56 You know, we want to have teenage time 05:57 and you're a little kid, you know, and stuff like that. 05:59 So it wasn't until 06:02 I started seeing changes in my brother 06:06 and then one day I'll never forget. 06:08 You know, my 'cause when he made that, 06:10 when he made that initial statement, 06:13 I was thinking, this is a joke. 06:14 I mean, he's only saying this about, 06:16 you know, he thinks God's calling him into the ministry 06:18 because well, let's face it. 06:20 He wants to make mom and dad proud. 06:22 And so I'm laughing inside 06:25 thinking, this is so ridiculous 06:27 mom, and dad's all happy. 06:28 So I go to my room and I'm just like chilling. 06:30 And I kind of think it's just a phase and it'll phase out. 06:33 Well, it didn't. 06:35 Some months had went by 06:36 and every time I'd walk into my brother's room, 06:38 you know, generally we would play 06:39 video games together, growing up 06:41 and I'd walk in his room and I'd be like, 06:42 hey Ryan, do you want to play the video game? 06:45 And I'm watching him sitting on his bed 06:47 and he's watching Pastor Mark Finley 06:49 smiling from ear to ear. 06:51 It looked like he slept with the hanger in his mouth, 06:52 preaching his heart out. 06:54 And I'm like, and I remember seeing 06:56 this Mark Finley guy, 06:57 you know, make my parents cry on the TV. 06:59 I didn't know who this guy was, 07:01 but I thought, you know, this is interesting. 07:02 He's studying the Bible. 07:04 And I would ask Ryan, you want to go play the game? 07:06 And he's like, nah, maybe later I'll play with you. 07:08 But right now I'm studying the Bible. 07:10 And I'm just like, that is so weird. 07:11 Wow. 07:12 Like, and I, and I left the room thinking 07:14 he must only be doing that 07:15 because he's trying to learn enough 07:17 to sound smart. 07:18 Now, how old was he at this point? 07:20 And how old were you at this point? 07:21 Oh, Ryan. 07:23 I was 14, 07:24 so Ryan's always been four and a half years older than me. 07:25 So he was roughly around 18, 07:27 you know, approaching adulthood. 07:28 And so you know, he had his maturity level 07:32 a lot faster than me being four and a half years older. 07:35 And so I still had a lot of worldliness in my heart, 07:37 a lot of worldliness there. 07:38 And so when I saw my brother 07:40 though start making these changes, 07:42 it started to really spark in my own life, 07:45 like, okay, this is weird. 07:47 You know, I've never seen my brother 07:48 act like this before. 07:50 And then one day 07:51 he made a statement to his girlfriend 07:53 at the time. 07:54 And he basically told her, 07:56 listen, if you can't make Jesus number one in your life, 07:59 then we can't be together 08:01 because this relationship is going to be unequally yoked, 08:03 and it's not going to work. 08:04 Wow. 08:05 And the girlfriend that he had at the time, 08:07 she was like one of the most popular girls at school. 08:10 I mean, she was just, you know, 08:12 all that in a bag of chips, right at school. 08:14 And I'm thinking to myself, I'm sitting in the backseat 08:16 of the vehicle and I'm like, 08:19 you know, I'm like rubbing my ears. 08:21 Like, are you kidding me? Like he just sent that to her. 08:24 And I just, I couldn't believe my ears. 08:25 And I, there I was in the backseat 08:27 of that car that night. 08:29 And I looked at my brother and I thought, okay, 08:31 whatever, my brother has this relationship with Jesus, 08:36 it must be real. 08:38 And I saw tears in his eyes as he had made 08:40 the appeal to his girlfriend 08:42 who later became his wife today. 08:44 Yes. 08:46 And he made the appeal to her to give God a chance, 08:49 you know, because she was young too growing up 08:51 and you have all the poles of the world, 08:53 you know, pulling at your heart. 08:55 And so when he made that appeal to her, 08:57 I knew, you know, 'cause he loved her more 09:00 than anything in the world. 09:01 But when I saw him put Jesus number one in his life, 09:05 put her on the back seat, so to speak. 09:07 Put her in number two, 09:09 I thought that is something marvelous. 09:12 And I want to know, 09:13 I want to get to know the God that my brother's got to know. 09:15 Wow. 09:16 So that's kind of what it transitioned for me 09:18 in getting to meet Jesus for myself 09:21 And see that's, that's powerful because you know, 09:24 one, your brother was around 18 years old 09:27 that said at a time in life where, 09:30 you know, you're kind of like, 09:32 oh, I'm grown, but you know, 09:34 you might still be living at home, 09:35 but you're grown, but you know, 09:37 and you're trying to figure things out. 09:38 And that's a time where the world is pulling at you, 09:41 you know, along with credit card companies 09:43 and everybody else. 09:45 But you know, the world is pulling at you 09:47 and there's so much temptation out there. 09:48 Yeah. 09:50 He made a solid stand for God at that age 09:53 and was like, well, I don't have time to play video games 09:55 right now because I'm studying the Word of God 09:59 and then talk to his, his now while his then girlfriend, 10:03 but now wife about accepting Christ 10:06 or making Christ number one, that's huge. 10:09 You know, I, and what amazes me, Jason, 10:11 about the whole thing is that my brother, 10:13 he had no idea 10:14 the impact that made on my life at the time. 10:16 Now looking back, I've told him the story, 10:18 he's heard it a thousand times. 10:19 I mean, you know, it was, 10:21 but, but then he had no idea that I was watching him. 10:24 I was waiting for him to mess up, you know? 10:27 And you know, I just want to throw this out there 10:28 for those that might be watching 10:30 it's in the times of the greatest trials 10:32 that people watch you the most. 10:34 Yes. 10:35 And especially when you make some profession 10:37 that you've come to know Jesus, 10:39 people are watching you, 10:40 people are paying attention to you 10:42 and I'll never forget 10:44 when my brother made that statement. 10:47 I knew then, it was then that I knew 10:49 that God had changed him. 10:51 And this is a different person. I don't know. 10:53 I don't recognize this brother of mine. 10:55 And so I just want to say for those 10:56 that might be watching now 10:58 your family, your friends, 10:59 your loved ones are watching you 11:01 on a daily basis 11:02 and how you treat them 11:04 and how you ultimately respond 11:05 to Jesus on a daily basis is going to be, 11:07 you know, a big impact that you can make 11:10 within your circle of influence. 11:12 And so absolutely 11:14 that was the transitioning moment for me. 11:15 So that night I went home 11:17 and I walked into my mother's bedroom 11:20 and I said, mom, I want a Bible. 11:23 And she actually said to me, 11:25 she said, what for? 11:28 I got, yeah, I know, right? Can you believe it? 11:30 She said what for? She said, what for? 11:33 And because I had, that was something they never 11:35 heard you ever talking about I wanted to study 11:37 the Bible or read the Bible. 11:39 And I said to her that night, I said, mom, 11:40 I want to get to know Jesus for myself. 11:42 So that night I opened my Bible. 11:44 It took the Bible and I, I turned open to Genesis 11:46 Chapter 1 and I read, in the beginning, 11:49 God created the heavens and the earth. 11:50 And that that's when my relationship with Jesus started 11:52 at 14 years old. 11:54 Wow. That's powerful. 11:55 That's powerful. 11:56 How did you go about, you know, okay, 11:59 now you've developed this relationship with Jesus, 12:01 but how did you discover God's purpose for your life? 12:04 That's a great question, man. That was a great question. 12:06 So 'cause like early on, I was so young, right? 12:10 And when you go to school, Jason, and I know, 12:12 you know, this, you know, we all go to school 12:14 and they build you up to become something, right? 12:17 And that's very important. 12:19 We need to do something with our lives. 12:21 And so when I was going to school, 12:22 the school that I went to this specific high school 12:24 at the time, that was really building us up, 12:25 you know, to go to college and to, 12:29 you know, get that four year degree or, 12:30 you know, master's degree and then whatever, 12:32 and to get a high paying job, 12:34 to make lots of money, because that's 12:36 what life's all about, right? 12:37 Making lots of money. 12:39 That's what they try to, at least it seem like that. 12:41 That's what they pump in your head. 12:42 'Cause I went to public schools. 12:43 So that's what they put in our head and that you're nobody 12:46 unless you got a lot of money. 12:47 And so anyways, that was pumped in my head 12:50 when I was a young man. 12:52 And you know, 'cause the idea is that you, 12:54 you want to get the American dream. 12:57 You want to have you know, the hot wife 13:00 and the big two story house with a white picket fence 13:03 and the big jacked up truck, you know, with 20s on it and, 13:08 and you know, the nice sports car, right? 13:10 And well I got the hot wife, but I didn't get 13:16 all those other things because I wasn't searching 13:18 for those other things, that wasn't not what I wanted. 13:20 I eventually realized at 14 years old, 13:24 continuing my relationship in God's Word. 13:26 I realized why they called it the American dream, 13:29 because you gotta be asleep to believe it. 13:31 Whoa. 13:32 It doesn't bring true happiness. 13:34 It really doesn't. 13:35 And God convicted me about that. 13:37 I was, I was a senior in high school and again, 13:40 I've been continuing my relationship with the Lord. 13:42 And I was a senior in high school 13:44 and there I was sitting there with the doors. 13:47 All the doors were there for my entrance. 13:50 You know, I could go into any door I want. 13:52 If I want to be a doctor and, you know, 13:54 make difference in people's lives by doing operations 13:56 or whatever, make lots of money in any way 13:58 being an entrepreneur or whatever I could do it. 14:00 Nothing was stopping me, the sky's the limit, right? 14:03 But I kept thinking about Mark 8:36. 14:06 Mark 8:36, it says, 14:08 "For what shall it profit a man, Jesus says, 14:10 if he shall gain the whole world 14:12 and lose his own soul." 14:14 And so that scripture kept sticking to me 14:17 and Jesus kept reminding me of that, Dakota, what is it? 14:19 Is it gonna matter if you accomplish the greatest 14:22 of all the things you could possibly accomplish, 14:25 and yet you don't know Me, 14:27 you don't spend your life for Me. 14:30 And so it was at that moment, then that I recognized 14:32 that God was calling me into the ministry 14:35 and I didn't really know how that was going to happen. 14:38 I didn't know where to start, 14:40 but I knew that that was the situation that God 14:43 was moving and calling me and putting that conviction 14:46 that avalanche of conviction of, 14:48 you know, bringing me in to be 14:50 a worker in His vineyard. 14:52 Yeah. 14:53 And so, yeah, that's how it started. 14:54 And see, that's, that's incredible 14:56 because you know, a lot of people 14:57 focus on the 70 years, right? 14:58 The three score and 10 as opposed to eternity. 15:02 Yeah. And so that's deep. 15:04 How did you end up at AFCOE? 15:07 Yeah. So great question again, man. 15:09 I will never forget when I graduated high school, 15:12 I wanted to go and tell everybody 15:14 how much God had changed my life, 15:16 because it was a true, 15:17 like when I was still in high school, 15:19 went to public school, 15:20 there was still a lot of things in the world 15:22 that tried pulling me 15:23 and I didn't live a perfect life then. 15:24 I wasn't really technically a Christian then, 15:26 I was trying to have a relationship with God, 15:27 but I wasn't really fully committed to God. 15:29 And so when I graduated 15:31 after my senior year was over with, 15:33 the reality hit me a lot, 15:34 you know, harder in the face than I thought it would. 15:37 And I think it was Mike Tyson said, 15:39 everybody's got a an idea or got a plan 15:41 until you get punched in the mouth, right? 15:43 And so the punch in the mouth for me was the idea of, 15:46 you know, I didn't realize 15:48 how difficult it was going to be after 15:50 high school was over with. 15:51 Now, I gotta do something with myself. 15:53 Yeah. 15:54 I didn't know where to begin. 15:56 I knew God was calling me into the ministry. 15:57 I just didn't know where to begin. 15:58 So I started, the only place I knew was just to tell people 16:01 what God done for me. 16:03 That's all I knew. There you go. 16:04 So I started calling up my friends from high school. 16:06 You know, I had switched schools 16:08 is where I met my wife at my, the new school I graduated at. 16:11 And so I call up all my friends from high school and I'm like, 16:13 listen, guys, I've got to share something with you. 16:16 It's very important. 16:17 Will you guys just please give me some time to share 16:19 something with you. 16:20 They're like, yeah, sure. 16:21 So I had a meeting with all of them and I just told them 16:23 what God's done in my life, how He's convicting my heart 16:25 and how I know God's calling me to do something big for him, 16:28 I just don't know what. 16:29 Yes. And so I invited them. 16:31 I said, I would love for you guys to experience 16:34 what I've been experiencing in God's Word. 16:36 And so I invited them all to Bible study group 16:39 and then that's when my brother heard about it. 16:43 We had been going for several weeks 16:44 and my brother, you know, he got wind of it. 16:46 He was in the church at the time. 16:47 We wasn't, I wasn't in the church. 16:49 I was just seeking Jesus as much as I could. 16:53 And my brother heard about it. 16:54 And he was like, hey guys, can I, you know, he called me up. 16:56 He's like, Dakota, can I joined the Bible study? 16:58 And I said, sure, absolutely. 17:00 And so he joins the study and then me 17:02 and him started doing like tag team Bible studies 17:04 with all my friends. 17:05 And so like one week he would do this study 17:07 and another week he, you know, 17:09 I would do the study. 17:10 And then we got so pumped about what we were learning 17:12 that we started doing three Bible studies a week 17:16 driving three hours away, three times a week. 17:18 Whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. 17:21 You did three Bible studies a week driving three hours 17:26 a way to do these Bible studies? 17:29 Wow. That's huge. 17:30 We were serious, man. 17:31 God was moving powerful in our lives. 17:33 And so yeah, so my brother joined 17:35 the studies and then I'll never forget, 17:37 my brother made an appeal to us, you know? 17:39 'Cause he had just graduated 17:40 with his bachelor's degree in history, right? 17:43 So he, but he had just graduated. 17:45 And so now he can be a history teacher. 17:47 He is, he's a huge history buff. 17:49 Yeah. He loves history. 17:51 So he just graduated. 17:53 His wife, Stephanie had also just graduated. 17:55 So now they can go get jobs, 17:56 but now God had been convicting them 17:58 to do something for Him. 17:59 The Bible studies man, 18:01 small group Bible studies is where it's at. 18:03 I'm telling you guys those of you watching 18:05 get into some small group Bible studies, 18:07 God will work marvelous wonders. 18:09 So that's what happened. 18:11 We got into small group Bible studies 18:12 and then my brother made an appeal one night. 18:13 I'll never forget it. 18:15 He said, you know, guys, 18:18 we've been meeting all of these months now. 18:20 We've been having powerful, Holy Spirit filled meetings 18:23 where we've been studying all about Jesus. 18:25 That's what our focus was. 18:26 In the small group Bible studies, 18:28 it was just learning all about Jesus. 18:30 And that is key because I think a lot of times, 18:34 you know, when people introduce people 18:37 to the church, it's like doctrine, 18:39 doctrine, doctrine. 18:40 Yeah. 18:41 But why would you care about the doctrine 18:43 if you don't know who the doctrine is for... 18:45 You know who's created the doctrine? 18:47 Jesus. That's right, brother. 18:49 We got to get to know Jesus. 18:51 What you just said is what transformed my life too. 18:53 Because at the time I hadn't been, 18:56 I had a relationship with Jesus, 18:59 but it was more on a doctrinal level. 19:01 When I first started reading the Bible, 19:03 I read it for the purpose to prove people wrong. 19:05 Got you. 19:06 I didn't study it for the purpose to get to know 19:08 the author of the book to prove people wrong. 19:10 And so, when we were doing those small group, 19:12 small group Bible studies, it was then that I realized 19:14 I knew the rules, but I didn't know the ruler. 19:17 I knew the doctrines, but I didn't know the doctor. 19:19 I knew the Word of God, 19:21 but I didn't know the God of the Word. 19:22 You better preach, man. 19:24 Well, this is what happened, man, 19:25 this is the truth. 19:27 And so I'll never forget, man, 19:28 when I was there 19:29 in that, in that small group Bible study, 19:31 that's when everything changed. 19:32 My brother made the appeal. 19:34 He's like, I don't know about you guys. 19:35 He said, I'm tired of slaving for man. 19:38 I don't want to slave for man anymore. 19:39 Said I want to slave for God. 19:42 And I said, you know what, me too. 19:43 And he made an appeal to all of us. 19:45 He says, if you want to slave for Jesus 19:46 and you're tired of slaving for man, 19:48 you don't want to just work a nine to five job, 19:50 you know, eight hour shifts or whatever, 19:52 and draw a paycheck just to buy stuff 19:55 and accumulate all this stuff 19:56 that's going to either rust or burn. 19:59 And for most people, that's what life's all about. 20:01 Yeah. Yeah. 20:02 And it's empty and that's, you know, 20:04 a lot of people spend so much time 20:06 searching for their purpose. 20:08 That's right. 20:09 And they're looking everywhere else but to Christ. 20:12 I've never understood why we tend to put Him last, 20:17 like we, we go everywhere else. 20:19 We search everywhere else and then go to Jesus last. 20:21 I know, man. I know Jesus should be first. 20:24 You know, there's a lot of, there's a lot 20:26 that I've learned from that. 20:28 And the devil sometimes make so many inroads in our lives, 20:32 so many distractions in our lives 20:34 that Jesus doesn't even 20:35 come in first, second, third, or fourth. 20:36 Yeah. 20:38 And you know, that's a sad scenario, 20:39 but nevertheless, we have hope 20:41 that if we will give our lives to Him, 20:43 if we would just give Him time daily, 20:45 you know, just a little bit of time 20:46 getting to know Him, 20:48 then He'll change us. 20:49 By beholding Him, we become changed. 20:51 Amen. 20:52 And that's what happened for me. 20:54 The more I studied God's Word and focused on Jesus, 20:55 focused on His love, His character, His beauty, 20:58 His matchless charms 21:00 became so attractive to me 21:01 because the only, the most attractive thing in the world 21:03 was Jesus and His love. 21:05 And so my brother made the appeal. 21:07 He said, listen, guys, 21:08 I'm either going to go to AFCOE, 21:10 which is the Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism. 21:13 He's like, I'm going to go and become a pastor. 21:15 He's like, I know that's what God's calling me to do. 21:17 I just don't know all the details about it yet. 21:19 He's like, but I got to do something for God. 21:21 He's like, if God shut some door. 21:23 If I'm going through a door that God doesn't want me to 21:25 and He shuts that door. 21:26 That's all right. 21:27 Because I know He'll open up another one for me 21:29 and show me where to go. 21:30 So that's what happened, man. 21:32 We prayed about it. 21:33 And that led us to AFCOE, 21:34 again, which is the Amazing Fact Center of Evangelism. 21:36 And we went to AFCOE 21:39 and we graduated AFCOE four months later 21:43 and it was highly intensive program 21:45 where we learned all kinds of beautiful things 21:47 about God's Word. 21:48 Wow. And changed our lives. 21:51 Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism 21:52 changed our lives 21:54 because it gave us practical ways 21:56 to put, to practice all of the things 21:58 that we had been learning 22:00 to be able to be a winsome witness for Jesus. 22:02 Yes, and you've traveled all over now. 22:04 All over now, I've been traveling publicly 22:07 to do public seminars for the last five years. 22:09 Wow. And so yeah, it's crazy, man. 22:11 Yeah. That's, you've had quite the journey. 22:14 And now the interesting thing is 22:16 you're back at AFCOE? 22:18 That's right. 22:19 So tell me a little bit about that 22:21 and what you're doing with them 22:22 and what people can expect? 22:24 Yeah. 22:26 So now, the opportunity is opened up for me 22:28 to be a teacher at AFCOE now, 22:29 and I've never dreamed in a thousand years 22:32 that that opportunity would come, but it did. 22:34 And I praise God for it and give God all the glory. 22:36 But, when that happened, now that AFCOE 22:39 is going to be back on. 22:41 By the way, guys, AFCOE is back. 22:43 We are back and loaded and ready to go. 22:46 And so the last, you know, three years, pretty much 22:48 we've been, you know, building the word center, 22:50 so much focus has been on repositioning 22:52 and reconstructing our new facilities there 22:55 that we've had to, you know, 22:57 stop a lot of the extra work that we had going on with that. 23:00 But now AFCOE's back 23:02 where we got the program, running 23:03 the word centers going. 23:05 And so now the purpose of AFCOE again, 23:07 is to train and equip young people, 23:10 middle-aged people, old people. 23:12 It doesn't matter. 23:13 In our AFCOE class, 23:14 we had people from all walks of life, 23:16 from all different kinds of ages, 23:17 from 18 years old 23:18 and all the way up to the 70s, even. 23:20 Wow. 23:21 And basically the purpose of that 23:23 is to train and equip people to be able to be gospel tears, 23:27 to be able to be out there and to present the gospel, 23:29 share the gospel in a winsome way. 23:32 Through AFCOE you can create your own ministry. 23:35 We show that, show you how to create your own ministry. 23:37 We show you how to be an effective public speaker 23:41 to learn the Bible doctrines 23:43 that do set us apart from all of the other faiths 23:45 that are in the world today 23:48 to be able to answer Bible objections 23:50 that people might give you, right? 23:51 Those hard questions that people might give you. 23:54 And we're training people 23:56 basically more importantly than anything, 23:58 we're training them, 23:59 how to have a relationship with Jesus 24:01 that will stick and lasts for a lifetime. 24:03 Amen. 24:04 And to help others, to cause their relationship, 24:07 to stick with Jesus and last a lifetime, 24:08 and to equip them to turn other people, 24:12 not just themselves, but other people into disciples 24:14 so that we can finish the work. 24:16 And I'm reminded of what Jesus says 24:18 in John Chapter 4, 24:19 Jesus is speaking with a woman at the well 24:22 and the disciples were shocked 24:23 that he was talking to this Samaritan woman. 24:26 And in John Chapter 4, 24:27 I love this passage 24:28 because it's such a beautiful passage. 24:30 Jesus makes this statement here and I'm going to pick it up. 24:33 John Chapter 4, 24:35 notice what it says in verse 27. 24:37 "And upon this call, came His disciples 24:39 and marveled that he talked with a woman: 24:41 yet no man said, what seeketh thou? 24:42 Why talkest thou with her? 24:44 Then the woman left her water pot." 24:46 Now she come to the well to get some water, Jason. 24:48 She leaves her water pot 24:50 because Jesus gave her another drink. 24:52 Come on. Right? 24:53 "And she leaves her water pot, 24:54 goes away into the city and says to the men, 24:56 come see a man. 24:59 She didn't say, come see a doctrine. 25:02 She said, come see a man which told me all 25:04 things that I ever did, is not this the Christ. 25:07 And then they all went out to the city and came into Him." 25:10 And then notice what took place. 25:11 "While that was going on, His disciples prayed said, 25:14 master eat. 25:16 And then He says, 25:17 'I have meat to eat that you know not of.'" 25:20 Yes. 25:21 And then they say, 25:23 did somebody bring Him something to eat, you know? 25:24 And then verse 34, 25:26 "Jesus said unto them, 25:27 'My meat is to do the will of Him 25:29 that sent Me and to finish His work.'" 25:33 And I'll tell you, 25:35 I believe if Jesus was in the flesh among us today, 25:38 like He was 2000 years ago, 25:41 His mission would not have changed. 25:43 His will is to do the will of Him 25:45 that send Him to finish the work. 25:47 That's what He's calling us to do, Jason. 25:48 And that's what we're trying to do at Amazing Facts. 25:50 And do, you know, through AFCOE is train 25:53 and equip people and finish the work. 25:55 Amen. 25:56 And I'm sure that we have people out there 25:57 that are like, okay, now I need to sign up for this. 26:00 I need to go to AFCOE. 26:02 So how can they sign up? All right. 26:05 So yeah, they can go to afcoe.org. 26:08 So afcoe.org, 26:10 and you can sign up to be able to be in AFCOE 26:13 and to join the three-month program. 26:16 Nice. Nice. 26:17 And I'm sure they're going to learn a lot. 26:19 Now you also go around speaking 26:22 and all of that stuff. 26:23 You go to the cities too, though? 26:24 That's right. That's right. 26:26 We do public meetings everywhere, 26:27 especially the cities. 26:29 All right. Well, how do people book you? 26:31 Yeah, they can book us by going to prophecyseminars.com. 26:35 That is the website where everybody goes to book us 26:39 for an evangelist, or if you want to contact 26:40 Amazing Facts directly, call us up. 26:42 They'll direct you to us directly. 26:44 So, yeah. 26:45 Okay, or you could go to the Amazing Facts' website, 26:47 amazingfacts.org. 26:50 That is correct. That is correct. 26:51 Yes. 26:52 So what final thought do you have for our viewers? 26:56 You know, the final thought I have 26:58 is that Jesus said in John Chapter 4, in fact, 27:02 when he was right after speaking to the woman at the, 27:03 well, He said, pray that there will be more 27:07 laborers sent into the field. 27:09 He said, for the harvest truly is great, 27:11 but the laborers are few. 27:13 And if you're watching now, and you've been contemplating 27:15 what to do with your life, know that your purpose 27:17 and my purpose, all of our purpose 27:19 was to give glory to God and to share the good news 27:21 of Jesus with others. 27:23 So if you want to do that, 27:24 make sure you sign it for AFCOE today. 27:28 So AFCO like everybody that I've seen that comes 27:32 out of AFCOE is an excellent speaker. 27:35 Well, glory to God. 27:36 I mean, everybody that I've seen 27:37 thus far us an excellent speaker, 27:39 so I'm looking forward to seeing 27:41 what you're going to do for God there at AFCOE. 27:44 And I'm thankful that you were able to come on 27:46 the program today. 27:48 Thank you so much. 27:49 And just want to say, thank you for joining us. 27:51 I can't believe 27:52 we're at the end of another program. 27:54 Until next time, God bless. |
Revised 2021-08-30