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I want to welcome everybody that's made the
effort to come out tonight and be part
of the first night of a seven-day
missions conference here at Times Square Church, which
if you make the effort to attend these
meetings, not just this evening, but all the
way through to, right through to next Tuesday
evening, you're going to agree with us when
it's all over, these are not, this is
not a conference, this is an encounter with
God.
I believe that your hearts are going to
be challenged like mine is.
The Lord is going to speak to us.
He has promised us in our leaders' meeting
as we began to pray about this particular
time of gathering together that he's going to
speak to us.
He's going to take the borders of our
hearts and where we live and dwell as
a people, individually and corporately as a church,
and he's going to expand us and give
us a larger heart than he's already given
us, and I thank God for that with
everything that's in me.
Every missionary on this platform and those that
will be joining with us in the subsequent
days have been prayed over and not selected
by any committee here at Times Square Church,
but called by the Holy Spirit to be
here.
We have every assurance we've not invited.
There are many that we could have invited,
and we'd be delighted to have them on
the platform with us throughout this week, but
those that are here have been selected by
God, and so we believe that the stories
and the life testimonies, not stories that we're
about to hear, are going to challenge us
very, very deeply.
Good evening.
I always feel so honored to stand before
you as a representative of the single moms
here in the church, the Sparrows Ministry.
And I know that they would want me
to tell the pastors of this church how
very grateful we are for how much you
support the single moms and the environment that
you've given us to raise our children in.
Single moms, we appreciate it.
I raised my children in this church, and
it was just an awesome support system we
had here.
However, when I was a child, growing up
to lead a single moms ministry was not
exactly something that I had a dream to
do.
I grew up in a pastor's home, the
youngest of a big old Walton's type of
family.
I had six sisters, and we slept three
in a bed.
And we had a ritual every night before
we went to bed.
If you watch that series, you know they
always said, Good night, John boy.
Good night, Mary Ellen.
Well, in our family, I slept in the
middle because Faith was afraid in the middle
of the night she'd wake up and touch
me to see if I was still there.
Because if I was gone, she knew the
Lord had come and she'd been left behind.
And that's the truth.
And so there I was in the middle
of that bed, and this was the most
sacred ritual to me as a child.
I would turn to the sister on the
left of me, and I would say, I'm
sorry for all the bad things I've done.
And Barbara would look back at me and
say, you're forgiven, and I'm sorry.
And I would say, you're forgiven.
Then I would turn to Faith, and I
would say, I'm sorry for all the bad
things I've done.
She would say, you're forgiven, and I'm sorry.
And I would say, you're forgiven.
We could all go to sleep in that
sweet comfort that all was well with the
family, so we were all fine with the
Lord.
But my sister Faith had a little bit
of irreverence in her.
And she saw how really important and how
much weight I put on this.
So one night she turned to me, and
I said so sweetly, being the sweet child
that I was, I'm sorry for all the
bad things I've done.
And she said, I'm forgiven, and you're sorry.
And I burst into tears.
And if that is one of the most
traumatic events of your childhood, you know you've
had a pretty good life.
And I had an extraordinarily good life.
I was raised by really godly families.
It wasn't just a functional family.
It was a family that thrived.
And I had great expectations of growing up
and continuing that tradition of marrying a Christian
man and having those adored children and serving
the Lord together and ministering to those less
fortunate than ourselves.
And of course the step one of this
was to find the right man to marry.
And that really wasn't that hard.
It didn't seem right out of college.
I married a young Christian man, raised in
a Christian home, just recently saved after having
been vaccinated since he was a teenager.
And that was step one of the dream.
And then we had our two adored children.
And then the dream crashed and the marriage
crashed.
And I found myself, I was raised in
a small town, Colorado, alone in Brooklyn with
two small children to raise.
And I don't think there could have been
a woman in the world who ever fought
harder for a marriage to work because this
was not my destiny.
And I just couldn't believe that this was
what had become of my life.
I thought I was so easy to get
along with.
I knew what it took to make a
good, happy family.
And I was so ready to do it.
The only problem was I no longer had
a husband.
And that was when God began preparing me
to have a burden for single moms.
When my marriage broke up, I had a
newborn son and a two-year-old daughter.
And just the logistics of raising children by
yourself are overwhelming.
You're called all the time to do the
absolutely impossible, and yet somehow you have to
find a way to do it.
And raising my children was really my wake
-up call to the Lord.
It had all been pretty easy up to
then.
But now self-sufficiency just wasn't sufficient anymore.
And I came to that place where I
knew I needed the Lord like I had
never needed him before.
And now you need to fast forward 20
years.
During all this time, I had been involved
in support staff of some kind, starting in
Teen Challenge, teaching preschool, answering the phones, stamping
the mail, Roger Yonker's secretary.
I did a lot of support staff there
and then was on staff here at the
church in a support way.
And Teresa Conlon said, we're going to be
starting a Bible school.
And I'd like to have a class for
single moms.
Would you teach that?
And I thought, sure, I've been a single
mom.
I've been there, done that.
I can do that.
And so we started the Bible school class.
And that first night was the worst experience
in any kind of teaching or ministry of
my whole life.
I walked in, and I don't know if
it was just God had specifically chosen.
I've never had this experience since.
But I saw the most angry, resentful, antagonistic
eyes looking at me as though they expected
me to say something interesting and give them
some kind of hope, but doubt if this
little girl who seemed to have nothing in
common with them had anything to say.
And many of these women had not only
endured the heartbreak of a broken relationship or
a divorce, but many had grown up abused
all their life and had never been mothered
properly themselves and had really no clue what
being a godly mother then meant to their
children.
And the trauma of my childhood was that
my sister said I was sorry and she
was forgiven.
And I just didn't think they would relate
to my pain.
And so I looked at them and got
one of the biggest lessons of my life,
and that was God did not call me
to speak to these women because we shared
pain that you can find anywhere in the
world.
He called me because I could testify that
when I was weak, He was strong.
And that when I had no faith, He
was faithful.
And that when I didn't know what to
hope for my children, He fulfilled the role
of father in their lives beyond anything I
could ever hope or imagine.
And I could look into these desperate faces
and declare the faithfulness of God because I'd
lived on that faithfulness for the last 20
years.
And once that God began to open my
eyes to the real needs of these women
and what He desired that they know about
Him, the rest of it just began to
flow.
These angry looking women who so intimidated me
and scared me, and I thought I was
instantly rejected.
I mean, I remember having a plan for
how this class was going to go, and
I said, you're supposed to do these warm
-ups.
So I said, if any of you could
invite anyone in the whole world home with
you for dinner, who would it be?
And I expected to hear Billy Graham, David
Wilkerson, Gwen Wilkerson.
And I heard Madonna, Oprah, and I was
like, oh, you know, that's not in my
lesson plan.
But they were the most honest, refreshing women
I have ever come to know.
I count it such a privilege to be
one of the single moms of Times Square
Church because you are so dear to the
heart of God.
You are so responsive to the things of
God, and God works so powerfully on your
behalf that I just felt like I'm along
for the ride, and I love it.
These women were beaten down and disappointed with
so much of life, and they wanted to
check me out and see if I was
real.
But once God began to flow and the
hope began to build in them, and they
began to go home and see that God's
word worked, that he actually had a plan
for them as how to raise their children,
I was so consumed.
I could not wait for the next class
because it's so compelling to see people who
are hopeless and have no clue how to
get their home back in order come back
the next week and say, well, you will
not believe it.
I did this the way the word of
God says that my children are coming under
authority.
Things are changing.
And so I got such a sweet enjoyment
from these women.
Now, just last two weeks ago, I read
an editorial in the Daily News.
It was entitled, A Vicious Cycle of Single
Moms in Crime.
And the statistics were so grim regarding my
children, your children, if you're a single mom.
The highest rate of school dropouts, teenage pregnancies,
and kids in jail.
God says these statistics do not apply to
the children of single moms who know the
Lord, because you are raising your child as
a single mom, but your children are not
fatherless.
They have a father who steps in.
Amen.
I remember when I sent my son off
to college and I went to Pastor Neal
and I said, Pastor Neal, I'm a little
worried about Jordan because I'm the kind of
mother who always listens and reasons with him
and hears him out.
And I'm afraid he won't know what it's
like to deal with authority that absolutely says,
well, I don't really care what you think.
This is the way it is.
And he said, did you raise your children
by the word of God?
And I said, yes.
And he says, did you tell them that
when the scriptures said things that they could,
you know, could we go either way?
I said, no, the Bible is the authority.
He says, the Bible is what God used
to father your children.
You don't worry about your son.
He's going to be fine.
He's been well fathered.
And you know what?
He's never had an issue with an authority
at all since he's been an adult.
God says that the ministry to single moms
is so vital because when our mothers begin
to realize that their children are gifts from
the Lord to be treasured and trained to
be the next generation of godly leaders, every
generational curse is broken.
That's why our youth choir is composed primarily
of children as single moms.
Our children's ministry being raised up by single
moms who've embraced the role that God has
given them to raise these children to be
the next generation of leaders in this church.
And the cry of the single mother.
And I've had this cry.
David expresses in the psalm so well in
Psalms 25, 15.
He says, my eyes are ever looking to
the Lord for help, for he alone can
rescue me.
Come, Lord, show me your mercy.
I'm helpless, overwhelmed and in deep distress.
My problems go from bad to worse.
Save me from them all.
See my sorrows, feel my pain, forgive my
sins.
And God's response in Psalms 34, 17 through
19 is the righteous cry out and the
Lord hears them.
He delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the broken hearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
A righteous woman may have many troubles, but
the Lord delivers her out of them all.
And the Lord further reassures us in Psalms
68, 4, that he's a father to the
fatherless.
He gives justice to the widows, for he
is holy.
He gives families to the lonely.
In Times Square Church, we're the family for
the sparrows.
God does what only he can do.
He saves.
He comforts the broken hearted and delivers them
from their trouble.
But his desire for us as a body
is that we find out individually how he
would have us reach out to single mothers.
And also as a corporate church, which is
why the Sparrows Ministry was born.
And the Sparrows Ministry does this.
It's a very simple ministry.
We have monthly prayer meetings.
We have Friday night Bible studies on a
regular basis where we just talk about the
things that most concern us.
Our children, living singly, finances, very practical teaching,
which is just supplemental to the most important
word that comes out from this church.
But we need the fellowship.
We need the support of one another.
And then God has given us opportunity to
share the testimony of how he's comforted us
with other people this year.
We got to go to a woman's shelter
here in the city with mothers and children
and share there about the comfort God's comforted
us with.
We got to go to Detroit to Tim
Delina's church and participate in an outreach he
had there to single moms.
And in conjunction with the Sparrows Ministry, God
placed a burden on Pastor Dave's heart to
come alongside, to be that father in the
home when there was a crisis need financially.
And he just mentioned it in his newsletter
once, and people began earmarking funds to be
used for the mothers in this congregation who
need crisis financial aid for housing or when
they need food or whatever that might be
on a basis where they have no other
resource.
And the two ministries, Times Square Church and
the World Challenge Widows Fund, just work hand
in hand.
And these mothers are so moved by God's
miraculous Jehovah-Jireh provision that so many have
been drawn close to him as they realize
he really does care.
His thoughts toward me are more than I
could ever count.
It's been one of the primary means for
many that God has used to draw them
to himself.
The true religion scripture is not fulfilled in
this church just because we have a regular
ministry to single moms as wonderful and as
rare as that is.
Every one of us is called to practice
true religion, hearing God's heart and expressing it
to the widows and the fatherless.
The Sparrows are named the Sparrows from a
verse in the Psalms which I want to
read to you.
Even the sparrows find a home there, and
the swallow builds her nest and raises her
young at a place near your altar, O
Lord.
In this case, in the altars at Times
Square Church.
When they walk through the valley of weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs
where pools of blessing collect after the rains.
They will continue to grow stronger and each
of them will appear before the throne of
God.
Now the fruits of this ministry are the
backbone of this church.
And I have with me tonight Eleanor Reed
who is a young widow from this church
who's walked through the valley of weeping.
And has found a pool of blessing.
And I want to share a little of
her testimony with you tonight.
Thank you.
As Gail said, I'm a single mother.
I have a son.
I have a son and a daughter.
And I became a widow in 1999 and
at that time my son was seven and
my daughter was not even two yet.
And that's not something you plan growing up.
You plan to get married and live happily
ever after.
You don't intend to be a widow.
You don't intend to be a single mother
necessarily.
But that's where I found myself.
And I became very angry.
I was angry at my situation.
I was angry at myself because in my
mind I allowed this to happen.
And what could I have done to change
this?
And I had a lot of fear in
my heart because I didn't want my son
to die an untimely death like his father.
And so I became very worried and everything
I did for them was rooted out of
this fear that they were going to die.
Or they were going to turn out this
way.
They were going to go on drugs.
They were going to do this.
And so in my mind I just wanted
them to be saved and obedient.
Saved and obedient.
And it just drew me.
It just drew them farther away from me
and farther away from Jesus.
And to a point where I couldn't even
reach my son and he didn't even want
to live.
I mean he'd be on his bed saying
I don't care if I die.
I don't care if I go to hell.
I just don't want to be here anymore.
And as a parent that's crushing because you
can't change that in their hearts.
And I just recall crying all the time
in the hallway in my apartment like God
what is this about?
And the more he hated living the more
I was angry at him.
And it was just a cycle of anger
and anger and not knowing what to do.
And at the time I was involved in
a church and I would ask the pastor
would you please say something to my son.
Somebody say something to him.
But he was too young to enter the
mentor program then.
So three years later God in his mercy
he sent me here.
And I went straight to single moms and
it's been such a difference and a blessing
in my life.
And just another expression of how much God
loves me and my children.
And the first thing we learned was that
God was going to be my children's father.
Straight and that was it.
He promised to be their father and he
promised to be my husband.
And once I started to believe that and
from the teachings through Gail it changed in
my house.
And I realized that God was the head
of the house and his standard of love
in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
What that truly meant in my life that's
always been for my parents.
But I didn't know how to show that
love to my children who was so emotionally
hungry.
And I had never addressed this loss that
they had for their father.
And I was just about saved and obedient.
Saved and obedient.
And I was just so neglectful for all
these other things that they needed.
But thanks to Gail and this ministry it
showed us practically how to love our children.
That they have emotional love languages.
My daughter loved to be hugged.
She loved to sit on my lap but
I used to hate it.
And I used to resent it.
I was like would you leave me alone.
Leave me tired coming home from work.
But I didn't know that every time I
did that I learned that I was hurting
her and it was crushing her.
And for my son every time he did
something wrong I would harp on it, harp
on it.
And not realize that was crushing his spirit.
And then I was learning through the word
we can't crush our children.
We have to build them up in the
Lord.
Raise them up in the way they should
go.
And not point out all these bad, what
we think are bad.
And just struggling as I am.
And she just taught me what God's standard
of love was in the house.
And every Friday I just recall rushing to
get home to say I'm sorry to my
kids.
Because God was showing me through the class
what I said that day that could have
hurt them.
What I did and all the things that
I was doing.
And just at one point calling them can't
even wait till I get home.
Because gotta be something happening to me on
the way home.
I want them to know that I'm really
sorry for what I've done to them.
And it's just three years later I'll fast
forward.
A year later my son came to me
in the kitchen after coming here and being
received in the church.
He asked me to pray with him that
God would change his heart.
And my daughter last year she asked God,
she asked Jesus to be the Lord of
her life.
And these are children who my daughter was
rebellious.
In kindergarten she tormented her teachers.
They had no control over her.
My son, again, if I said left he
said right.
If I said up he said down.
But now that God is the authority and
I'm learning to talk to them and explain
to them why certain things are not good
for them.
Why watching television, explaining to them, giving them
understanding.
Opening the scripture, looking at what God requires
and just praying with them.
That God would help them.
Instead of me harping on them and beating
them on the head with it.
Now my son listens when I tell him
to do something.
He struggles but he says, Mom, I may
struggle but I do eventually do what you
asked me to do.
Right?
So he's making me see that he's learning
to be obedient.
He ultimately does what I ask him to
do.
And I just want to give thanks to
this church for this ministry.
It's changed my life 100%.
When my son says something out of whack,
I know what the scripture says.
Thanks to Gail, just opening the book.
And I say, you know, you have a
purpose.
Sometimes people say, I haven't changed.
Yes, you have changed.
And God will complete the work he started
in you.
And it's not being angry at him for
not knowing the truth, but it's telling him
the truth.
And I'm just trusting the Lord to continue
to be his father and to cover him
and watch him as he goes to school
and just grow up.
Thank you.
Before I get started, let me just say
how much I love Times Square Church.
One of the reasons I love Times Square
Church is that it's built on a rock.
It's built on a solid foundation.
There's several foundational principles, spiritual principles that this
church is founded on.
And some of these, all of you are
aware of this, is that prayer and fasting
has always been emphasized here at Times Square
Church.
An uncompromising preaching of the word of God.
I know when our pastors get in their
secret closets and they ask God to give
them a message for this church, they hear
from God.
And they're not afraid to deliver a message
that they've heard.
They don't water it down.
So it's an uncompromising word of God.
Another main foundation stone that I love about
Times Square Church is that Jesus Christ is
lifted up.
The name of Jesus Christ.
It's not Dave Wilkerson.
It's not Pastor Carter.
It's not Times Square Church.
It's Jesus Christ that's always lifted up in
this church.
An intimate relationship with Jesus Christ is always
encouraged, not just for the leadership of this
church, but for every one of us.
It's always been encouraged that we develop our
own intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
And last but not least, and what we're
going to be sharing about, my wife and
I are going to be sharing about, is
reaching out to others.
From the very onset of Times Square Church,
there's always been an Upper Room ministry.
There's been a Hannah House ministry.
There's been a Raving ministry.
Isaiah House.
Prison ministry.
And the list goes on and on.
Our ministry was birthed while we were on
staff here at Times Square Church.
About a month and a half ago, or
maybe two months ago, Pastor Carter gave me
a call.
And after we got finished discussing the business
matters that we're discussing, he started to share
with me his heart's cry.
And if you've ever been around Pastor Carter
for any length of time, when God begins
to stir his heart, it's hard for him
to contain the excitement.
And he got sharing about his vision for
Times Square Church.
And he got sharing about his desire for
Times Square Church is to reach out to
the neediest of the neediest.
To the poorest of the poor.
And I don't know about you, but that
excites me.
I know it excites each one of you.
Our goal in sharing today, I mentioned to
you some of these scriptural principles.
And our goal in sharing today is really
just to challenge you to personalize these principles.
These principles are for all of us.
All these principles should be evident in our
life.
In fact, the theme of this conference was
pure religion.
When I heard that, I got really excited.
I love the theme, pure religion.
And the reason for that, it's derived straight
from the word of God.
As Pastor Carter had mentioned, and as you
saw it in the video, James 1.27
says, A pure and undefiled religion in the
sight of our God and Father is this,
to visit orphans and widows in their distress.
This is God's definition of pure religion.
This is God's definition of undefiled religion.
It's not something that originated from Pastor Carter.
It wasn't something that originated from the missions
department, but it was actually God's definition of
pure religion.
This verse, in particular, inspired, probably more than
any other verse, inspired Debbie and I to
start Father's Love.
In fact, we almost called our ministry James
1.27 instead of Father's Love.
Father's Love was more expressive, I guess, of
what we're trying to convey to the people
that we're trying to minister to.
At some time, I got thinking about this
when I was coming up here to Times
Square Church.
At some time, all of us are going
to stand before our Heavenly Father and give
an account of what we've done with our
lives.
And I don't know about you, but I
want to be able to please my Heavenly
Father.
I want to be able to stand before
my Heavenly Father when it's my time and
give an account and have God say to
me, Well done, Roger, my good and faithful
servant.
Or when Jesus was baptized, remember when he
got baptized, he came out of the water
and a voice from heaven said, This is
my beloved son who I'm well pleased.
If you're practicing pure religion, I can't help
but believe that God's going to be pleased
with what you're doing.
Before I go any further, I'm going to
ask God just to anoint my lips and
Debbie's lips and just be with us as
we share what God's placed on our hearts
to share about the ministry of Father's Love.
Heavenly Father, I just want to, again, thank
you for this opportunity.
I thank you, Lord, for Times Square Church.
Times Square Church has had such a major
part in my life.
Lord, it was instrumental in my faith and
the work that you've called us to do,
and I thank you.
Lord, I'm also very humbled to even be
behind this pulpit.
Lord, I know the type of people that
stand behind here and share the gospel message.
Lord, I know the caliber.
I know the anointing on them, and we're
humbled.
And Lord, I just pray that you'll just
anoint our lips now as we just share
and try to convey that which you've placed
on our hearts.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
James 1.27 says that pure religion and
undefiled is visiting the orphans and the widows.
Now, we do not minister to orphans in
the technical sense of the word orphan.
When I think of an orphan, I think
of a child without a mother or a
father.
Most of our kids that we work with
do have mothers.
They either live with their mothers.
One or two of them may have their
fathers living with them, but for the most
part, they live with their mothers or their
grandmothers.
But I sometimes wonder if an orphan who
lost his mom and dad or maybe slightly
better off than someone whose fathers actually walked
out of their lives who intentionally just said,
hey, I don't want you.
I don't love you.
I don't want to care for you.
I don't want to provide for you.
It's been our observation.
We started Father's Love ministry about eight years
ago.
Back in 1997, for the first three years,
we had a farm in Pennsylvania in the
children's department.
In fact, I saw Esther Dietrich, who was
the children's church director at the time, would
recommend kids from Times Square Church to come
out to the farm for a weekend of
ministry.
And after three years, we moved to Charlottesville,
Virginia.
We've been there for the last five years.
But it's been our observation, working with these
kids, that kids really do desire to have
a father in their lives.
In fact, our kids that we work with,
they hang on to the idea.
They hang on to that hope.
That at some time, their fathers will have
a change of heart.
That once again, they'll re-enter into their
lives.
And that repeats itself child after child after
child.
They want to have a father.
They want the situation to be changed.
What we're going to do tonight is I'm
going to go ahead and share with you
about four different kids.
And we're going to just really give you
kind of a flavor or an idea of
what our ministry is all about.
And we're going to, we decided, Debbie and
I were discussing this, we couldn't decide whether
or not to share their real names or
come up with some kind of fictitious name.
But we decided to go ahead and use
their real names.
And the reason for that is we cherish
your prayers.
We asked if you would pray for these
kids.
Not only for these kids, but for all
the kids that we're working with.
But the first one I'm going to be
talking about, I'm going to be talking about
three boys that we've worked with very closely.
And Debbie's going to come and share about
a young girl by the name of Jackie.
But the first boy that I want to
talk about is a boy by the name
of Stephen.
Stephen's about nine years of age now.
His mother's been in prison for the last
five years.
So since he was four until currently, his
mom's been in prison.
His father at one time was in the
military, comes by, used to call him up
two or three times and come by around
Christmas time.
For the last two or three years, he
comes by at Christmas time and I was
talking to the grandmother.
And I was asking the grandmother, I said,
you know, when he comes, does he spend
the entire day?
Does he spend the weekend?
No, he comes and he comes for 45
minutes.
And then he leaves and doesn't see him
again for another year.
But I know when you talk to this
young boy and you see this young boy,
you see the toll that has taken place
over the years.
He wishes, in fact, he gets excited when
he knows that his father's going to come.
Even though it may be the same thing
as last year, it may be 45 minutes
of just visiting with him, but he's hoping
that maybe this time will be different.
Maybe this time his father will have a
change of heart.
Maybe this time his father will, you know,
stay for the entire day.
Maybe spend the weekend.
Maybe take him home.
And he hangs on to that and his
father just gets up and leaves after 45
minutes.
There's another boy by the name of Mike.
He's 14 years old.
Precious young man.
Mike, if he had his choice, he would
be living with our staff members 24-7.
Anything to get out of his home environment,
he'll want to stay with us.
And if you're visiting us, he'll walk right
up to you almost like he knows you,
ask if he could stay with you.
And he just wants to stay away from
home as much as he can.
His father, his mother came up to us
one day and you could tell she was
really upset and said, you need to pray
for Mike.
Mike's going through a really tough time.
And we asked her, what's the problem?
He has known his father for the last
seven or eight, well he's known his father
all of his life.
He knew that he had a father, knew
who his father was.
And would visit him from time to time.
But when he hit 14 years of age,
his mother decided to press for child support.
And when he found out that she was
going to press for child support and had
a pretty good case against him, he told
Mike that he had to go and get
DNA testing.
He told Mike, you know, Mike, I don't
believe I'm your father.
You're going to have to prove it to
me.
And that was a crushing blow to Mike.
And the mother was very upset and knew
that Mike was going to handle that pretty
bad and just asked us for prayer.
Another one was Tim.
Tim is another 14-year-old young man
that we've been working with for the last
two or three years.
His father, in a drunken state, poured gasoline
all over his body and took a cigarette
lighter and threatened him.
Tim had a little two-year-old sister
and they watched their father pour the gasoline
on him and threatened to light it with
a cigarette lighter.
Fortunately, someone called 911.
They saw their father got arrested.
That happened on a Friday.
Friday night we have our youth service.
Tim was at our youth service.
He was, we dismissed the kids.
We have basically two rooms.
We have like a classroom and we have
a gymnasium.
And we dismissed the kids after the message.
And they went into the gymnasium for a
time of fellowship.
Tim was still sitting there with his head
down just crying.
And we went up to him.
I asked my son to go up and
see what was wrong with Tim.
And Tim was saying, hey, I love my
father.
I really love him, but I wish he
would give up the drinking.
Can you pray that he'll have a change
of heart, that he'll accept Jesus Christ into
his life?
And he was just hoping that his father
would be a father that would be doing
things with him instead of getting drunk all
the time.
Now, Debbie's going to come and she's going
to share about a young little girl by
the name of Jackie.
And I'll come back and finish up.
It's really a blessing to be here.
I'm just going to share a little bit
about a little girl named Jackie.
But first of all, I'd just like to
say it's a blessing to be here with
everybody.
This is my home and family and friends.
I'm really thankful to be here.
I know that God's going to do a
mighty work here this week.
And we're honored and blessed to be with
the missionaries and the ministers here.
When I pray for the kids at Father's
Love, a lot of times I'll say, Lord,
send them to China as missionaries.
And that's because I heard my dad always
asking God to pray for the children that
came up here and were dedicated.
Send them to China or wherever.
But God wants to raise up missionaries in
this church.
And not just missionaries overseas, but on the
streets and the cities of New York and
all over across the world.
And He's going to do that this week
even.
And I'm excited about what God's even going
to do tonight.
And we're thankful for being involved in the
meetings this week.
This week I was really attacked by the
enemy.
I just felt a pressure, oppression.
And I was weeping before the Lord.
And I know that the enemy doesn't want
us to be here tonight.
And he doesn't want us to share what
God wants to do.
But it made me even pray even more
for the missionaries and the ministers that are
traveling here.
And that are coming to minister.
And we really pray tonight that God will
touch them and minister to them.
And the enemy won't have any say.
That God will have authority over each and
every one of the people that are going
to be here tonight and this week.
Let's share about a little girl named Jackie.
She was nine years old.
And she came to the ministry soon after
Tiffany, our little daughter, passed away three years
ago.
She was 12 years old.
It was about three years ago now.
And our whole family has such a peace
and a strength knowing that Jesus is coming
soon.
And He's returning for a bride without the
spot or wrinkle.
And He's coming for us.
And we're going to be reunited with Tiffany.
And we're going to see Jesus face-to
-face.
It could be tonight.
It could be tomorrow.
But I'm just so thankful that God brought
Jackie into our lives.
And I feel like He filled that emptiness
in my life as a mother to touch
this little girl in even a little simple
way.
She has a rough background, of course, as
many other children that we'll be talking about
tonight.
And there's one story after another.
But Jackie is just precious.
I don't know if they're going to show
a picture.
Oh, OK.
When I first met her, it was soon
after Tiffany passed away.
And she told me, she said, it's just
so rough that you went through that.
And Tiffany had to go to heaven.
But you know, we're going to all be
there someday.
And when we were talking one night, she
said, one night my mom gave me a
sleeping pill because I was so hyper.
And I wound up, and I wouldn't go
to sleep.
So she gave me a sleeping pill.
In the middle of the night, I woke
up, and I fell, and I hit my
head on the bathtub.
And I passed out, and I was laying
on the floor.
And my mother must have, I think she
was drinking, and she didn't hear me fall.
But she was telling me this story, and
my heart was just breaking for her.
And Jackie loves to come to church.
She loves to come to the place.
And she comes, and she hugs all the
staff.
And she won't let go.
And she clings on to us because she
has such a rough life.
Her home is filled with unbearable filth and
stench of cats and mice.
She has to clean all of it up.
And it just breaks our hearts to know
that she has to go home to that
home.
And we can go home to our nice
homes.
But she comes to our house, and we
take her out to eat and out to
shop.
And so needless to say, we get along
real good.
And she loves to go with Miss Debbie
to town.
And she's growing up to be a beautiful
young lady for the Lord.
She wants her mom to go to heaven.
She says, Mommy, you need to know Jesus.
And he's coming back so soon.
And we can see God working in her
life in so many ways.
And her cousins and her brothers come to
the place also.
So pray for Jackie.
And there's countless Jackies in the world.
And if we don't go, and we don't
obey his call, and I don't know who's
going to do it, it has to be
us.
And if you're discouraged, and you feel like
you've given up, and you've come here tonight,
and you feel that you just need a
touch from God, you just need to let
God renew your hearts, and renew that vision
for the lost.
I know that he wants to pour out
his Spirit.
And 2 Thessalonians says, But as for you,
brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.
And God's going to be with all the
Jackies.
He's not going to let them go.
And we love you all so much.
And we're praying for each and every one
of you in this church, too.
Your prayers are coveted prayers.
We need that.
And we need a touch from God, too,
tonight.
Sometimes we get weary and tired.
The Lord is good.
Amen.
That's all.
These stories that we told, there's three boys
and one young girl by the name of
Jackie.
These are not exceptions to the kids that
we work with.
They weren't told for dramatic effect.
This is the norm.
The kids that we work with, just like
the kids here in New York City, they're
hurting, they're in pain.
We're just thankful.
They're our flock.
God called us back eight years ago.
We had no idea what we were doing.
I was the business manager here at the
church and didn't really have any kind of
experience working with kids.
And we just trusted God.
We had a childlike faith.
God called us by using this particular verse,
and we obeyed him.
And it's been a neat, neat journey.
There's one verse that I just want to
share with you, verse 13-5.
It says, I will never desert you, nor
will I forsake you.
I will never desert you, nor will I
ever forsake you.
Debbie mentioned, and most of you know, that
we lost our daughter about two and a
half years ago.
She would have been 16 this past summer.
But when she was 11, she was diagnosed
with a rare type of cancer.
And she went through brain surgery, went through
the radiation, went through chemotherapy.
The cancer seemed like it left her body
for a period of time.
Then two years later, it came back when
she was about 13 years of age.
That whole time, that two-year period of
time, in fact, it is probably the most
difficult time that I've ever experienced up to
now.
Hopefully I won't have to experience anything else
like that.
But during that whole time, God kept telling
me to trust him.
He says, Roger, I will never leave you.
I will never forsake you.
And now, when I look at these kids,
I can tell them that your fathers might
have left you.
Your earthly fathers might have left you.
But your heavenly father will never leave you,
will never forsake you.
Your circumstances may not change.
You still may live in the projects.
You still may live in poverty.
But I can guarantee you, I can speak
very confidently and tell them that you have
a heavenly father that loves you, that you
are very precious in his heart, that he
has a purpose for you.
And I would encourage you, I mentioned to
you that my desire is to stand before
God and have God say, well done, my
good and faithful servant.
You've been practicing those things that are pure.
You've been practicing those things that are very
dear to my heart.
And my challenge, I guess, and my prayer
for this church is that if you want
to please God, then I'll challenge you to
get involved.
The kids that come into our facility, I
think of Solomon when he asked God for,
he said I want wisdom, I want discernment.
I think of the disciples asking Jesus to
teach them to pray and Jesus taught them
how to pray.
My prayer is for God to teach me
to love these kids.
When they come in, we have no idea
what's happened during the course of a day.
We don't know if, like Tim, for instance,
whether or not his father just seen something
like his father pouring gas on him.
God, just help us to love them.
Tell us which ones need to hug, which
ones need to be spent some more time
with, which ones need to go out and
do something kind of fun or just spend
some time with.
But as Debbie mentioned, we do cherish your
prayers.
I ask that when we do leave here,
you will lift us up in your prayers
because of your prayers is why we're able
to minister to the kids.
So thank you for allowing us to share.
I don't remember how many missions conferences I've
been to in my lifetime.
And I've seen everything.
I've seen every emotional trick that could be
used.
I've seen...
I've been in missions conferences when I was
a boy that the stories were so compelling
and I was so shaken.
I'd run to the altar, Lord, I want
to go there.
I want to go to every mission field.
Some of you thinking that right now, I'd
like to go and do that too.
And missions offerings.
I used to, I'd take my watch off
and put the watch in the...
I would jump in an offering basket if
I could.
But you know, everything I've...
I look back, everything I did by feelings
failed.
In emotion, failed.
And when I was a young preacher and
later when God started using me, there were
a number of things I did by my
feelings and they all failed.
It sounds good.
It feels good.
It's the right thing to do.
It's the right thing to be stirred by
missions and it's right to have these feelings
and our emotions.
God help us if our emotions aren't moved.
God help us if we're just dead to
things that we've heard tonight.
I'm moved and I'm stirred, but you see,
there's a God way.
It's called the Holy Spirit.
And He has a voice and He abides
in us.
And that Holy Spirit will bring to your
attention things.
He'll stir the pastors of this church and
bring all of this to your attention.
But then, you can't just say, I want
to go.
I want to be used like that.
That's a good prayer, but the prayer should
be, you go to the Holy Spirit and
say, Holy Spirit, I'm a volunteer.
I'm willing.
Tomorrow, I won't feel much.
What you feel tonight, you may not even
feel.
Tomorrow can dissipate before the night is over.
But what really counts is to pray that
the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit who abides
in you, will a hold of you.
And He will, if you are willing.
My father said this over and over to
me.
In fact, I was asked by a reporter
today in an interview.
A Christian newspaper said, what has most impressed
you of anything anyone's ever told you?
Who impressed you?
I said, my father, who told me over
and over again, David, God always makes a
way for a praying man who depends on
the Holy Spirit.
And if you'll trust the Holy Spirit to
use you, you don't have to weep, beg
or plead.
You don't have to come here and fall
on your face and say, oh, God, here
I am.
Now, I did that when I was eight
years old.
And God heard those tears and thank God
for the tears.
And if you have the tears, don't try
to make them stop.
But God wants more than anything else a
commitment to seek the Holy Spirit, to seek
Him and trust that He will lead you
and guide you.
And if you have that word behind you
saying this is the way, walk in it.
And every day now, the older I get
and the closer I come to the end
of my journey, the more I'm convinced and
the more I had hoped and wished if
I could ever do anything over again, it
would be to be totally obedient to the
Holy Spirit and not do anything, go anywhere
or try to be anything, do nothing unless
I sought the Holy Spirit and believed that
He could speak and waited on Him to
lead me.
I could have avoided so many tears and
so many foolish moves.
And that's the only thing I have to
say tonight.
I want you to stand, if you will,
please.
The Holy Spirit is here.
Pastor Carlton, I don't know if you're old
enough to remember some of the early Pentecostal
things.
We didn't feel the Holy Ghost was in
the church in some of the early days
of Pentecost.
Everybody was manifesting something.
Either falling or shaking or weeping or crying
or there had to be some manifestation.
People go home and say that was a
dead meeting.
I'm not making fun of that.
It grieves me inside because we didn't have
the light that God has given to this
last generation.
There's light that He's given.
That it's not an emotional feeling that is
going to pass.
It's something that God's doing deep in your
heart.
Just say, Holy Spirit, here I am.
We have some 50 students from the Bible
school up in the balcony from our Bible
school, Mount Zion.
And I know, I know that I know
that doing this service tonight and it's not
by accident you're here, young people.
You're up there and God's speaking to you.
And we can't pound it into you.
We can't make it happen, but there's something
happening up there.
But not just in the balcony with those
who are in Bible training, but the whole
congregation.
God is speaking to you and there's some
of you that belong in a mission field.
There are some of you that have a
ministry that God wants to open.
It could be on your job.
It can be in your home.
There's so many things.
Nobody can tell it.
Nobody can spell it out.
Spell it out to you.
But there has to be something in hearts
that Holy Spirit, I want you to guide
my life.
If that is all that would happen in
this service tonight, it would lead to more
missionary endeavors.
It would open up more doors than anything
you could do.
And you know, if we said, how many
of you want to come up here and
volunteer?
And I've done that over the years in
this church.
Even before Pastor Carter or any of these
ministers were with us.
How many times?
If you were here early in the establishment
of this church, we had many, many people
come and volunteer.
And thank God, many of those who volunteered
are now in full-time service.
The most important thing is to not just
step out, but ask the Holy Spirit right
now.
Holy Spirit, and tell Him, I believe you.
You saved me.
Now you can call me.
You have led me this far.
You can lead me now to lost souls.
You can lead me to needs, just like
these that I've heard.
Heavenly Father, I pray now for this congregation.
This is not an emotional appeal.
This is not just tugging at the heart,
but the mind and the spirit.
Holy Spirit, I thank you that you abide
in us.
That's what you've been teaching us all these
years.
And every pastor that comes here, everyone who
ministers here, and the missionaries who minister here,
it's a call of the Spirit.
It's not just a call to a land.
It's not a call to a mission station.
It's not even just a call to a
ministry.
It's a call to total obedience to the
Holy Spirit, to be led and guided, and
to believe that He has the wisdom and
He has the way to use us.
And all we have to do is volunteer
to surrender to the Holy Spirit, to be
totally obedient and totally dependent on the Lord.
And a cry in the heart that says,
Oh God, I want my life to count.
And as Roger said, to stand before Jesus
one day and say, I've been faithful to
what you have spoken to my heart.
Lord, speak tonight.
Speak to the students from the Bible School.
And send them, O Lord.
They have volunteered.
They have the time and they have the
energy.
And I pray, Lord, for the young people
in this church, they would hear the call
before, even tonight and throughout this week.
Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing.
You have arranged this and it's something deep,
Lord.
We don't want it just to be a
sound here tonight.
We don't just want noise.
We want something, Lord, that is life changing.
That will change us, O God.
Look this way for just a moment.
I'm not going to drag this out.
Here's what the Holy Spirit put in my
heart.
There's someone here tonight.
If there were only two people came here
tonight, it would be an answer to what
I feel God is speaking to me.
Up in the balcony, here in the main
floor, and in the annex.
You have been running from God.
The Lord did touch you.
The Lord did put something on your heart.
And you have turned away.
You've turned away and you've been moved tonight.
And God's speaking to you.
He wants to renew your spirit.
And He wants to put His hand on
you again.
And I want you to step right out
of your seat.
Now, I know this is a bold call.
But I want God right now to speak
to your heart.
Up in the balcony, go to the stairs
on either side of here or in the
annex.
You get right to the exit and the
ushers will show you how to get down
here.
I'm speaking.
There may be more.
10, 12, 15.
I don't know how many there are here.
I want you to get out of your
seat and come here and say, Pastor Dave,
I know that I know God did touch
me.
God did speak to my heart.
God did lay something on my heart.
And I've rejected it.
I've been growing cold and drifting away from
the Lord.
Follow these that are coming and we'll pray
for you.
God can renew that which He laid on
your heart.
Look this way, if you will, please.
You still come while I'm talking.
Look up here, please.
If you, I called for those who had
been walking with the Lord and you drifted
away.
I've seen some of you at this altar
before, but I know that something, God is
speaking to a few here.
He's going to lay His hand on there's
some soul winners here.
There's some those, there are those that are
standing here now that are going to be
used of the Lord in a special way.
It's a meeting like this.
He put his hand on me.
It's a meeting like this that Nikki Cruz
was saved.
Thousands and thousands of others and many, many
in this church.
Pray this prayer with me right now.
Lord Jesus, I know you and you know
me.
You know where I'm at and you know
how I've been holding back and I'm coming
to you now.
Willingly, not just with my emotion, but with
my heart and with a commitment.
Here I am, Jesus.
Cleanse me.
Draw me back to your heart.
Fill me with your Spirit and put your
hand on me.
I offer my life as a living sacrifice
to be used by God.
Jesus, come now.
Do a fresh work in me.
Put your hand on me right now.
I am willing and I'm ready to obey
you.
Just stay right there.
Let me pray.
Father, in Jesus' name, I don't know what's
happening here.
We've obeyed you, but somebody, more than one,
someone here now is being touched.
They're going to be used in a mighty
way.
And Lord, everyone that's here, I pray that
everyone that came forward will be able to
leave this service tonight saying, God, this night
and this time is a place I can
look back that night and say, I did
surrender all.
I came back to that call.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Stand in attention for just a moment.
We're going to ask Pastor Carter to come
and give you closing words.
Pastor Carter, there is no Wednesday night, is
there?
There's no service here Wednesday night, is there?
But Thursday and Friday and there's no service
Saturday night either.
Okay.
I don't.
I guess I was in prayer land or
something.
I don't know.
All I heard was that it was Tuesday
through Tuesday and I did get it.
Pastor Carter had come.
Get me off this stage.
Bless the Lord.
Thursday night intercessory prayer education annex seven o
'clock.
Missionaries will be there will be praying for
the different countries that are represented in this
conference.
Friday night, seven o'clock here in the
main sanctuary, a regular service mission service will
be hearing from our visiting guests on Friday
evening.
And then, of course, Sunday, 1036 and the
following Tuesday at seven.
If you make the effort to be here,
God's going to bless you.
And folks, the greatest growth I've ever known
as a Christian in my life has not
been always at an altar of emotion.
I agree completely with Brother Dave.
It's at a time that I heard from
God and I just said, this is right
and just move towards it.
Trust in God for the grace and strength
to hear his voice and to obey him.
And that's where the victory comes from.
Father, thank you for tonight.
Lord, we thank you for the simple sharing,
but very profound.
Lord, a very simple call to every one
of our hearts.
Lord, we have to trust you now to
lead us and trust you for the resources
to love.
As we heard from Roger this evening, Lord,
and from others, the resources you gave to
Gail, the resource you gave to the young
lady who shared her testimony with her children.
Lord, we've just heard it time and again
that you called ordinary people and they obeyed
your voice and you gave the ability to
fulfill the calling.
Lord, God, grant to us that in our
generation we may all be missionaries.
Beginning tonight as we hit these streets and
subways that we might be missionaries to some
poor, hurting soul.
God, speak to us.
Let us hear your voice.
Let us hear the prompting of the Holy
Spirit.
And Lord, as we move out, you promise
to become everything that we need.
You will meet the supply of wisdom and
love and compassion that we need in our
generation.
Lord, we thank you for this.
Thank you for this sharing tonight.
Bless Gail as she goes to the Ukraine.
Bless this young lady who shared this evening.
Bless Roger and Debbie as they remain with
us and after they return home.
Bless this ministry, God, that you've entrusted into
their hands.
We know that heaven will be rejoicing around
the throne because of the faithfulness of your
servants.
We thank you for such a wonderful evening,
O God, where you have deeply spoken into
our hearts and we leave rejoicing in Jesus'
mighty name.
Amen.
This is the conclusion of the message.