 Well praise the Lord Brother Dale said it very well When we see somebody that doesn't look like us We tend to shy away from that And it seems like this whole weekend. We've been hearing advice against that. We talk about reaching all Nations we talk about going out and making disciples How many nations do we have here representing us? Are we doing our best at that? Or do we like each other so much that we just want to keep just us together? And when the odd man comes in He doesn't feel welcome He doesn't feel that love like we just heard Now I'll admit to you here this afternoon That I am drawn more to the first part of the title of this message than the second part Overcoming evil with good and I'll tell you why because When I begin to talk about ministering to the gangs and Haiti too often We start to lift up this person and can you imagine what that does to God? Now I could spend the whole time here telling you about all of my failures I could spend the entire rest of the day talking about what I am without God To try to prove to you that anything that I do that's not terrible is of God People ask me to come share my testimony, and I just want to say I Want to say no We all need to have a testimony of salvation. We all need to have a testimony of God working in our lives And it's God working in our lives But I like speaking to young man young men I know a lot of people say they feel like young men. I can't say that I feel like a young man I'm not any smarter than a young man But I see brothers like Dale and other brothers here old men older men, excuse me, and I just Can't help but think about the day when they're gone, and I hope it's not for a long long time But it's going to happen like we already heard today, and then it's going to be us We are the future of the church Maybe not all of us Hopefully all of us What do we think about that responsibility? Do we take on that responsibility? Is it exciting to you? Or do you fear it and plan to pass the buck as long as you can? I think we all here we all want to be spiritual. I hope that we do we all want to have a great relationship with God We want God to use us But I found in my life that God will give us all that we want It's up to us You'll get out of it what you put into it Do we believe that? We'll get out of it what we put into it and for some of us that may think that may seem well We're not going to get much out of it because we don't put much into it But it reminds me of a story of a boxer Or a young boy that wanted to be a boxer And when he was nine years old he was from New York City He told his friends I want to be a boxer when I get older and his friends all laughed at him He was shorter than his friends He had some physical problems They made fun of him And then when he was nine years old he made this statement Not only do I want to be a boxer, but I am going to become The world heavyweight champion true story Well that only intrigued the poking fun, and he had a bad childhood Everybody made fun of him His father went to prison His mother left him, but he had something in he had something in mind And that was all that was important to him So when his friends would go out and do something he would say no I Can't afford to do that He would sit down to eat and he would choose what to eat This vision that he had controlled his life It was what was important to him and it didn't take long for people to realize that this really is important to this young man He's never going to become who he is and we he should stop trying to pretend to be that he's that he's somebody He's not but we can't argue that he really really thinks he's going to become the heavyweight champion of the world And we can tell that by his actions not by just what he says And young people at 19 years old. He stepped into the ring With a man twice his size The man was making fun of him Prior to this and in three seconds That young man won that fight And he won the next 19 fights that he fought And he became the heavy the youngest heavyweight champion in the world Now I'm not supporting sports in any way or any fashion. I only tell you that story to tell you this What can we do with God when we set our vision on the crown? What can we not do? We can achieve whatever God would have us to achieve if we just put our focus on there and stop compromising for the things of this world fashions and All of this that's trying to creep in We just need to say no and prove that we're really serious About Jesus Christ have we made salvation too easy? This is a burden of mine Have we made salvation too easy? I want us to know that in the Old Testament the children of Israel they had a law to follow do this Do not do this And I want us to know that we they didn't need God They didn't need God they needed the law do this and I'll shout live do this and I'll shout die And that's what they had to govern them But when Jesus came it didn't take Jesus very long to raise the bar to a level that we cannot possibly achieve Without God is that not true? We're talking about overcoming evil with good and this is one of those things that Jesus Christ introduced It takes supernatural power to walk with Jesus. Do we believe that today? We can't just choose to do it and Continue doing things our way because without Jesus Christ we cannot live up to these expectations We can talk about them and they can make us feel good But we can't actually do them and Because we're not confident of how we'll respond to evil We avoid evil Because we're not confident of how we will respond to evil. We avoid evil in Luke chapter 6 starting in verse 22 Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out Your name is evil for the son of man's sake Rejoice in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven For in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets but woe unto you that are rich For you have received your consolation won't you that are full for you shall hunger won't you that laugh now for you Shall mourn and weep won't you and all men shall speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets But I say unto you Which here love your enemies do good to them Which hates you bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you and Unto him that smighteth thee on one cheek offer also the other and Unto him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy clothe Also give to every man that asks of thee and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again and As you would that men should do to you do ye also to them likewise For if he loved them which love you what think have ye for sinners also love those that love them And if you do good to them which do good to you what thank have you for sinners also do even the same and If we lend to them of whom you hope to receive what thank have you for sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again But love ye your enemies and do good and land hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great And you shall be the children of the highest for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil Be there for merciful even as your father also is merciful Now we read those verses and make us feel good But is it a reality in our life? Do we have the power of God that proves that we can do these things? Or is it just some verses in the Bible that are out there somewhere? We have to remember something it's not us And we already heard this today. It's not us. It's God And I want you to know something when God does something in us that we can't do on our own that produces humility It produces humility When we do something that we do and God did not do that produces pride So that's why it's very important to understand who is doing what? And when it's something that men without God cannot do then it is God Let me let me use an illustration If I'm up here trying to move this pulpit and I can't move it and you're all watching me You see that I cannot do it. I want to do it I'm trying to do it But I can't do it. So I asked for help. I need someone to help me move this pulpit and Somebody comes up to help me Now I should be able to do something that I couldn't do prior And it's not me that did it But the one that came up and helped me I'll tell you a story about a time shortly after I was converted I was at a university preaching and there was a man there You know, we think of Haiti. We think of demon possession. We think of witchcraft. We think of all these things But I'm telling you they're right here in America as well. We just haven't looked for them But I was preaching and I noticed out of the corner of my eye this man that did not seem to be happy And I watched him and he was getting madder and madder at the at the gospel being preached And all of a sudden he was out of my sight. I didn't know where he went and Quickly there. He was behind me and he punched me from behind and hit me right in the nose And then he threw me to the ground and begin to punch Now I want you to know something before I was converted. I was a fighter I've got belts and martial arts in the Marine Corps, but I didn't think of any of those things And I can honestly testify that as that man was punching I was thinking about the love that I felt towards him And you know why I was thinking that because it surprised me. This is not me This is not me My flesh would love to get up and plumb with this man, but I'm not thinking those thoughts I'm only thinking about the fact that I feel love towards this man. That's humbling Pretty soon a several police officers showed up the man ran off and The policeman came up to me and they said we need description of who this was and I said I said this isn't between me and him I'm fine if you just forget about everything And we'll go about our day Because I truly believed that it wasn't between that man and me when we step into the battle There's someone waiting for us there And we're going to come into conflict with evil when we step into the battle wherever you're at Well, the policeman went away and I continued to preach and a few minutes later. They walked up with this man And there I could see him the police talking to this man and they told this man you assaulted him and there's a lot of witnesses But in the state of Ohio If he chooses not to press charges We can't do anything We feel like you need to be Arrested and taken to jail for assault but we can't We just want you to know that and the police been left Was it long before that man came up to me? And he said he was sorry. I believe he's seen something that he'd never seen before and it wasn't me that he saw Do we believe that today? He's seen something that he hadn't seen before maybe been to church before maybe he had some sort of background And that's what happens when we live out What Jesus is saying just this last week or just this week here. I was speaking with a pastor and he was He had quite a background different churches evangelical churches But he was on fire talking about the King James and this and that and we agreed on several things And then he's after a long while of talk He began to tell me how eight years ago a drunk driver killed his son in a car wreck And now he's doing fairly well and he went on and all I could think of was how does he respond to the man that did this? And I had to ask him he said the drunk driver got eight years in prison and he's going to be released this month. I Said can I ask you sir? How do you feel towards that man? You know I asked that because I like to hear about people that are using the power of God. It strengthens me That this man can bury a son and forgive the man that killed him Because that takes the power of God it does We can say we forgive, but when we really truly forgive someone that's God He said brother. I got to be honest with you. I can't forgive him. I can't forgive him and he acted like that was okay. I Want to forgive him. I'd like to forgive him, but I just can't and That's what's accepted in our world today, and it's simply a form of Christianity without any power Can you imagine the power of him going back to him and loving him? We see it we read about those things I want to read a few verses in 1st John 1st John chapter 4 verse 17 Herein is our love made perfect that we have that we may have boldness in the day of judgment Because as he is so are we in this world There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear Because fear hath torment He that feareth is not made perfect in love We love him because he first loved us Do we believe those verses today? That perfect love cast out fear I marvel at this because we think of perfect love is something different or I've heard that too many times Love means that we don't communicate Love means that we talk slowly and softly and the world doesn't connect with that There are people out there that want us to tell them how it is They want to hear it We cannot minister without love like brother Dale was saying Without love, this is all foolishness But it's calling people to repentance love Absolutely when we see people that are not converted When we see a gangster We have to look past their evil Why do we do that? Because we expect them to be evil do we not I know we live in a country where we want everyone to be good We want to stop abortion. We want to stop this and stop that and we forget that the world is evil That's what they are We can't expect the world to try to live like Christians We need to expect them to live just as they are heathen wicked however you want to say it We shouldn't expect the world especially People that worship Satan To treat us well We should expect them to not treat us well. They don't know Jesus There was a gang leader in Haiti that he sent me a word Couple years after we moved to Haiti And he said I've calculated the cost of your funeral to be five thousand dollars If you give me five thousand dollars, you don't have to worry about your funeral But if you don't give me five thousand dollars, you're going to spend it on your funeral anyway That was clever But he forgot something I Look forward to my funeral. He said he was coming back for the money when he came back. I wasn't home. Nobody was at home But a neighbor knew about this situation The police were looking for this particular man and the neighbor called the police and the police came and shot Him dead right at our gate and there was a lot of people that were happy about that But how does it make us feel? I Still question why that happened that way What would have happened if I could have talked to that man if I could have expressed to him That we're not like other people or are we you know, we don't choose what evil comes our way But when we enter the battle we expect evil to come the gangs came. I didn't ask for that in Haiti When you look up Haiti on the news, you'll see a lot about gangs Article after article about gaining activity in Haiti So it just seemed like common sense to me if you're a missionary in Haiti, you're gonna probably have to deal with gangs The gangs came and that gangs did what gangs do They terrorized with fear tactics They threaten to kill they do kill but we have to remember something We could be them We could be them Do we believe that I know it's very hard to imagine but just imagine if you were born in an alley in Porter Prince Haiti And your mother didn't want you And you grew up on the streets Have you ever wondered why you were born where you were born? Why you had the opportunities that you did maybe someone has a better answer than I But I think of myself in the history that I've had in my past I could be there and that creates a love for them and since perfect love cast out fear it goes hand-in-hand Because we can't love them and fear them the leader of that gang Was a vicious man? I'll just be honest. I was kind of excited to work with these gangs. I've been called a fool for this I've been called a lot of names for that and I don't know Why but I've seen it as a ministry and this leader he threatened he had demands But he's seen something in me that came from God and that is a lack of fear and they have to respect somebody that does not fear them They control people just like an animal with fear It's the way it is So I began to build relationships with them. I knew that was the ticket to getting into their lives gaining trust building relationship And that takes time and energy that a lot of us don't have We fill our schedules and we don't have time to build relationships with people that we want to win to the Lord And that's why we have few from the outside amongst us But out front there on the road There was two men that were shot By a gang It was right in front of us there and so I decided I want to see what happened here So I went to this leader and I said the last night to the two men that got shot out here What happened he got a little nervous And he said they they offended some of my people I said, what do you mean? They offended some of your people. He said actually the one of them slapped one of my guys right across the face And you don't do that And I said so you killed him. He said that's right It's hard for me to wrap my mind around that And all the good thing about was the verses that we just read This is more natural what he's talking about someone slaps you and you are highly offended I want to know how many people in here have had someone walk up to you and just slap you right across the face And if that has happened to you it'd be interesting to know how you responded to that I Trust that you responded well, but without God you did not respond well And so I told this gangster that he's a very large man He was just arrested two weeks ago and put in prison. He'll probably never see the light of day again, but I told him I said listen Jesus Christ can give you the power to actually love the man that slapped him. He said what are you talking about? I said just picture this And I lifted my hand up. I said just picture this I slap you right across the face and You possess a power that causes you to be able to love me and just me going in motion like this got this man to rise up He went right to my head. He said if you slap me dead, but I believe that I've experienced that The power of God in our life that causes us to love someone that hates us To overcome evil with good is the testimony today that people are waiting for and they're watching They're watching Teaching the pastor training course there at Cam We were teaching on this topic for the week overcoming good with evil Non-resistance loving our enemies and I really enjoyed it But I didn't I didn't even understand it But one night I got a call and that the gang was very unhappy with me for some reason, which is very common So I drove over there to them and They were very upset with me I tried to just talk to them try to calm them down. It's not uncommon for them at all to pull a gun and shoot and ask questions later But I was trying to get these people to understand the truth of what they're upset about and they begin to escalate One of them ran to get the gun his gun and one said you better leave now because if he gets back before you're gone You are a dead man And I didn't want to leave that way because I didn't know if that would be the end of my work there I couldn't leave They began to push me onto the ground And I eventually got in my truck and left and they threw rocks as I was leaving We were just in their little little compound there their little area There was nobody around Or so I thought the next day in class a pastor stood up He said I want to tell you what I seen yesterday He said I want everyone to know this isn't just something that he's saying he actually lives it remember who I was Without God But people are watching us and you may think well when's the next time I'm going to be in that situation And maybe you never will be but there will be a situation that you're in where somebody's watching you Watching how you react to someone that talks to you Watching maybe it's a child in the back seat watching how you react when someone pulls out in front of you simple things And we often say we don't know how we'll react We don't know how we'll react if someone does this to me. Yes, we do I Argue that Because if you can't handle it when someone pulls out in front of you on the highway with your air conditioning on You're not going to handle it. Well when there's a gun in your face. I Believe that to be true Yeah, we got robbed one day and like I said, I don't want if anyone here is gonna start trying to think anything of me I'll stop talking. I really really prayed and debated whether to say anything about Haiti to be honest But I'm trusting you But we got robbed at gunpoint and everything was taken and It was vicious vicious robbery a lot of shooting. It was over The Lord watched over us But a few weeks later. I got a call from a man. He said I'm the one that robbed you This is how God works things happen for reasons. We believe that he said I want more money. I Know where you are. I said, well, I'm glad you know where I'm at because I've been wanting to talk to you You can take whatever you want, but I won't give you any more money There's people that think that's not the right approach give to him that ask it And maybe I'm wrong But I said I want to give you something that's far greater than money And I just want to talk to you come over so we can talk and it wasn't long before this man told me I Want something better than money This thing we talked several times this thing that you talk about is it real? I want to know is it real and I believe there are so many other people That have the same question and I'll be honest There's probably people sitting in here right now that have that question. Is it real? It's real brothers. It's real It is real We must have confidence in God's sovereign will for our life Do we have confidence in that? We put brother Zach had those pictures of those missionaries that were killed Do you think that they thought it was God's will? I don't know But do you think that God used that situation? Was there sacrifice of their life worth it in the perspective of the kingdom of God or eternity? But when we think of our life we hold our lives too precious we do We've got it all figured out. We can actually go and do whatever we want We can we can we can choose what color paint to paint our houses what what we want on our hamburgers Do we take the sovereign will of God for our life seriously? Maybe it's his will that we do die like we heard about this afternoon Are we ready for that and excited about that are we willing to be a living sacrifice? I Think that's important because we're not willing to do that. We're not going to be able to do what we're talking about Because when you're worried about your life It's very difficult to stand in the face of evil and Overcome it with good. It's very difficult. I tell you all these stories But there was a time when a gangster It was like God was showing me. I couldn't I couldn't find love for him He had done something to my family And I battled with that thing all through the night and I had Evil thoughts, but God was able to bring me to a place Where I began to love him We got it to the point with these gangs that we would meet we'd have its service every other Friday. Oh What a tremendous opportunity We actually had a building maybe this size maybe a little smaller than this Where we had our first meeting and there was hundreds of gangsters there and I wish you could have been there to see that I Be in the sooner they began to preach a man walked in with a gun and just paced back and forth here forth in front of me And people were wondering what it was going to happen But because of the power of God The message was preached long that day There were tears shed in the in the faces of these gangsters And I'm telling you what if you experience that it makes everything worth it They have no hope Without God we believe it one of those meetings I was there and waiting for people to come and Sitting beside two gang leaders And I was kind of talking to myself the one right beside me was a hothead and didn't trust him at all He was their killer. He was the one they'd send out to shoot And I just held my Bible up and I said it's such an amazing thing that this book is more powerful than any gun And I said it with a smile on my face I don't know if I would have said that if I would have known he had a gun with him But he pulled out his gun And he said I don't believe you Now when you come to the crossroads where reality is going to set in where our faith is going to be tried We're gonna find out if what we say is what we believe You know in America we can say whatever we want We can We can preach sermons for years. We can listen to sermons for years But I'm telling you when you come to the crossroads That's what builds our faith And you can't find those crossroads when you're sitting in your easy chairs very often But when you're out working You're out working you come to those crossroads and God is always faithful A few weeks later that man pulled a gun on me again and and this time he was going to shoot me He was certain of it And another leader looked at him and he said not here Not here And I can testify here today that I was at peace with that I have a family I have children But I believe in the sovereign will of God and that God is in control And if God sees that it's best that I be shot down in the street in some Haitian village That I'm okay with that and that God is big enough to take care of my family And people don't understand that they call me a fool But I really believe it it's exciting to me It's the battle And if you don't fight you can't win And if you don't win You can't have faith If you don't have faith you don't have a relationship You have defeat And once you live in this defeat for so long You believe it's the only way to go You believe it's that it's all that there is It's just reality We're defeated people When we go back to the altar many times Do we find the power there at the altar? And if we don't find the power there we're doing something wrong. There was another story I'll share here About a gang leader that was feared A vicious man And I was somewhat waiting for him to show up He did one day and he Wasn't very nice Which we expected right We were gathering We're having a meeting there Us missionaries with our children And they approached and they shot into our group We I knew that we had something on our hands that was maybe a little different than what I'd been used to I'm not sure how much of the story to tell but He was simply going to kill till he got what he wanted He didn't fear anybody And he locked our compound I didn't tell anybody about this there. I didn't want to invoke fear He locked our compound and he said tomorrow morning if I don't have $150,000 You're all dead He told me that over the phone So I went to where they hang out To try to talk to him And it didn't go well But I just told him I'm sorry, but I can't give you that They took the the motorbike I was on and I went back to the Compound He went back with me let me back in I just remember thinking do we believe that god is in charge of this situation? Thinking to myself Do I believe that god is in charge? Or do I believe that this man Can do something that god will not allow? That's the question we need to ask ourselves and I came to a a resolute Conclusion that god was in charge. He was in control And if it was god's will that he come and burn the compound down Then so be it He called me and he said Where's the money? I said I told you I'm not going to give you the money he said I maybe spoke a little too soon on the 150,000 and I realized that's a lot of money If you would give me a hundred thousand that will work. I said, I'm sorry. I can't He got super mad swore cussed hang at the phone About exactly an hour later calls back Fine fine fine 75,000 And this thing's over I said listen if I'm not going to give you 75,000 I'm not going to give you any amount of money, but if you come and unlock our gate I'll come and talk to you and I'll sit with you and I'll listen to you I want a relationship with you. I want to hear your heart. I want to help you But no, he wasn't interested in that. He was interested in money He kept calling all through that night until he was down to bury. Give me one food box I'll unlock your gate. No, I've been called a fool many times But just thinking in your mind what would have happened if I would have gave him that food box I don't know. Maybe you know something. I don't and you probably do But I told him I can't I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't struggle a bit. I'm not going to lie and say why can't I do it But I'm going to tell you this I believe that God was saying no The next morning came I won't rose early and went out The gate was unlocked at about nine o'clock. He called me Hey How you doing? I'm doing good. I said, I know you didn't come. You didn't come this morning Oh, I'm sorry. He said I shouldn't have acted that way. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me? I said absolutely He said but you you didn't say that you come talk to me, didn't you? Now I've seen the I've seen the the the the wicked side of this man very personally He was trying to steal land there And I went out and told him I said do you realize that That God owns this land and he said if God owns this land tell God to come down here And I'll cut off his head But now he seems to be different this morning. He says you said you come talk to me So I said yes, I'll be there at 1 15 I was getting ready to go and a couple of the other missionaries there said they wanted to come So three of us went Went to his house there a little shack Him and his cousin were sitting there And I'm gonna I preached And I'm gonna tell you I preached a hard message to him that day And I'm gonna tell you too that it was out of love love for this man A passion that he would turn his life around I told him what he needed to do He needed to forget about this life. I said you're you're a gangster you kill people But it's just a matter of time before someone's gonna come here and kill you And you can't control that But one thing you can control is where you'll go after you die And I explained him how that's how I cannot fear him Because I'm ready to go I want to go if it be God's will I do believe in eternity And to a man that's never had anybody love him He sat there with his hands with his head in his hands I said can I ask you a question? Will you let me come here on Fridays? And hold a church service right here He looks up me with big eyes Yes He said the only problem is this area would be too small I can get everybody to come he said I said okay You pick a place and Friday We'll meet And we'll have a service and I'll preach And he was excited about it his cousin there excited about it And I can't I can't tell you the joy that I felt for this opportunity That came from simply returning evil for good An opportunity that wouldn't have come another way But as we were there talking I didn't know it But two men came With the purpose to kill that man And they seen us sitting there talking So they waited waited until we left and them two men were executed. I don't understand it. I don't understand it A lot of things that happened In the last year they don't understand But I do know one thing God understands it We're not called to understand it And I need help with that. I want to understand But we're simply called to do what Jesus tells us to do We're simply called to return evil for good and let god do the rest Maybe it doesn't turn out like we think Maybe it turns out different But this that i'm talking about is the warfare that's raging It's the warfare that god is waiting on soldiers to enter And although I have a lot of questions I have some answers as well When we submit to the will of god and we love our enemies It brings peace Knowing despite what other people are saying about you Despite what other people feel about you Knowing that you're doing what god has called you to do brings peace And we have to believe young men We have to believe that god has a calling for you We love each other We love our brothers God forbid that I actually love them gangsters and I can't love my brother But let's pursue it With everything that we have with everything we have We're going to need to say no to some desires to look like a certain way We're going to have to say no to some fashion We're going to have to put on the identity We're going to have to put on the identity of jesus christ and accept that like brother john d said this today Real quick in closing. I'll tell you a story about that identity. My wife come from a baptist home They don't cover their heads. She never covered her head And so after we got converted we didn't cover she didn't cover her head We didn't really think about it. Some people we just didn't do the people we were with they didn't do it but when When we started meeting the anabaptist people that wore the veiling We soon realized that we connect with these people They're in allen county We connect with these people spiritually on a spiritual level For some reason this covering seems to be separating us Listen to this But we fought that thing For what reason? I don't know The only thing I can say today is that we wanted to fit into the world. We wanted to be I we wanted to go into walmart Not everybody look at us We wanted to be able to go to her families get together and not look strange or weird I'ma tell you something after fasting and praying about it. We decided To begin to wear a veiling Just that simple But it changed our lives forever because it identified us with the people of god And maybe that seems trivial to you, but it was not for us. We couldn't hide it anymore We walked into the room and everybody was staring And from that point on it was real easy to identify with christians. It was the egg had broken open And so if you're here today, and you want to ride that fence You want a little bit of the world in you so you can fit in with the world I'm telling you there's no peace there and once you cross over and put on the identity of jesus christ and whatever fashion That is for you. We'll never regret it It is amazing the peace Oh praise god and it adds accountability to your life so many things So god bless you. I believe in you and let's pray for each other