Participants: Karen Thomas, David Asscherick, Daniel Mesa III
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000039
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00:32 Welcome to another edition of "Issues and Answers."
00:35 We are so happy to be with you once again. 00:38 And we have a very special guest 00:39 that I like to introduce to you in just a moment. 00:41 You know, it's nothing like listening to a real testimony. 00:46 To actually see someone who is practicing their faith. 00:48 And today, our special guest is Pastor Daniel Mesa. 00:52 Pastor Daniel Mesa is a new pastor. 00:55 He is the pastor of the Revelation Promises Hope 00:58 SDA Church and Maranatha Bible fellowship, 01:01 SDA Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 01:03 Welcome to the program, Pastor Mesa. 01:05 Thank you very much, Karen. 01:06 And you are here to give us a word of knowledge 01:08 and a word of your testimony. Yes. 01:10 So tell me have you always been a Christian? 01:13 No, not always. 01:14 I have been a Christian for only about four and half years now. 01:16 Okay. And what's was your background? 01:18 Tell us about your background? 01:20 My background as a child was that I grew up 01:22 in what I just mentioned of my best friend, a halfway house. 01:26 My mother was a Christian, Seventh-day Adventist Christian. 01:28 My father was an alcoholic and he was a hard worker. 01:33 But he didn't live life according to the Bible. 01:35 So during the week we were Christians 01:37 and that's what I profess but during the weekend 01:40 it was very much a war in my home. 01:42 And so as a result of that going through my teenage years, 01:47 I chose to follow the path of my father 01:50 a little more than the path of my mother. 01:52 Influences of the world and those things 01:54 and I began drinking at a very young age, 01:57 started smoking at a very young age. 02:00 And actually started leaving the Lord, 02:04 leaving worship with my mother going to church 02:06 at a very young age, 7, 8, 9 years old 02:09 and I actually became a heavy metal drummer 02:12 at around that time. 02:14 And was a drummer for about nine years. 02:18 I was in a band that we would travel 02:20 just around the vicinity of where I was living. 02:23 I was in Southern California at that time. 02:26 And we were playing parties mainly, lots of drugs, 02:30 lots of drinking and different things, 02:32 you know what comes along with the bands 02:34 and that type of thing. 02:36 And during that time it was quite, 02:40 quite a strange period of my life. 02:41 I didn't know God. 02:43 I didn't care about God, didn't ever read my Bible, 02:45 I don't remember praying much. 02:47 Well, now you grew up in a home at least 02:49 where your mother was trying to be a Christian. 02:52 Did that have any type of influence 02:53 at that time in your life? 02:55 As a child it did. 02:57 I very much loved Christ, I know I did. 02:59 I had Bibles and I remember feeling 03:03 accepted by God and I loved Him. 03:04 I loved going to church, loved to talk to my mother about God. 03:08 And everything that revolved around religion 03:11 was beautiful to me. 03:12 But I'll mention this. 03:14 I started smoking at seven years old. 03:16 And from that point forward 03:18 is when I really started going down the hill. 03:20 So right around that time as I said 03:22 I stopped going to church and different things. 03:24 I just went headlong into the world, 03:26 started drinking at 9 years and doing drugs by 11. 03:30 And so the music was just another part of that. 03:34 In the time of my teenage years 03:36 I had very poor grades in high school 03:38 as most children do in the way of life that I was in. 03:43 And in fact my last grade point average, 03:47 I'm little ashamed to say was .83. 03:50 And I finally did finish high school, praise the Lord. 03:53 But I ended up in, around that time 16 years old I got a car, 04:00 around that time I got into about seven major accidents. 04:05 What was the cause of those accidents? 04:07 Well, basically just driving too fast with my friends, 04:10 being drunk in other occasions, just being a wild youth. 04:14 And there were five major car accidents, 04:16 two major motorcycle accidents. 04:19 And I came away from most of those without being hurt. 04:21 One was at 75 miles an hour. Oh, wow. 04:23 Into the side of a dirt bank. Two were at 65 miles an hour. 04:27 I was sideswiped once at 55, I rolled a red truck. 04:30 I went headfirst into a tree off a motorcycle. 04:33 And another one is just flew off a motorcycle about 45. So-- 04:38 It's a miracle that you're walking 04:39 flying off from a motorcycle. It really is. 04:41 And I think the Lord was sparing me for one specific reason, 04:44 my mother was praying for me. Amen. 04:47 If it were not for my mother praying for me 04:48 I don't think I would be alive today as a result of, you know, 04:51 the different experiences I've had. 04:54 But I was very much committed to myself, making money. 04:59 In fact at age 18, I was making $25.57 an hour. 05:04 And that's a little over $1000 a week 05:06 for a young man that is 18 years old. 05:08 So I blew my money on clothes and women 05:10 and my car and beer and drugs and all the other things. 05:14 I lived life to its fullest as far as I knew 05:17 how as an 18-year-old. 05:19 And at 19 years old, after going through this experience of just, 05:24 you know, immoral lifestyle and all these different things, 05:28 I was impressed by the Spirit of God. 05:31 While sitting around a table not much bigger than this 05:33 with three of my friends. 05:35 And these friends were just talking about some of things 05:37 that would happen in the future. 05:39 They were asking--we were talking about you know, 05:40 what we had invented as far as computers, 05:43 we've been to the moon, we have, you know, 05:45 freeways and cars and all these other things. 05:46 I was thinking what are we going to come up with 05:48 when we are older. 05:50 You know, when I'm 55 05:51 what am I possibly going to invent? 05:53 And as soon as I said that I just got cold chills, 05:56 it was much like a bucket of cold water 05:58 was dumped on my head. 06:00 And I covered my eyes and my face and I just wept. 06:03 I saw for a split second just everything 06:05 that I've been thinking of totally destroyed. 06:07 There was flames and destruction and everything was darkened. 06:11 It just gave me the sense of evil. 06:15 And so that's what broke me down that night. 06:16 I cried and I couldn't speak. 06:17 I had to leave the presence of my friends 06:19 and that's all I remember 'cause we were drinking 06:21 and doing drugs very much that night. 06:24 But about two weeks after that God started calling me 06:27 with His Spirit just saying, 06:29 "Read your Bible, read your Bible." 06:31 He just kept saying, "Read your Bible." 06:34 And I hadn't thought of my Bible. 06:35 I hadn't read my Bible or done anything like that 06:37 for quite sometime. 06:39 So it was very strange to me. 06:41 My Bible was about two miles away from my home, 06:43 in a barn underneath a bunch of junk that was in a bin 06:47 like something you would tow behind a car or a truck. 06:50 And this Spirit was so strong, mentioning to me 06:53 that I needed to go get my Bible 06:54 that I actually jumped in my truck, 06:56 drove the two miles, broke into the barn, 06:58 emptied out the whole bin of stuff found my Bible 07:01 and was so excited. 07:02 When I picked up that Bible I knew that 07:04 that's what my soul was craving. 07:06 I put all the stuff back, closed up the garage, 07:08 drove back home, set it on my counter and I felt as though, 07:10 well, now I've got my Bible, you know, everything is okay. 07:14 But within two days the Spirit was starting to have the music 07:18 that I was listening to make sense. 07:20 I mean, it was--the lyrics were making more sense 07:23 than they were before, I just, 07:24 I would sing them in a different way. 07:26 And He was telling me, "Pick up your Bible, pick up your Bible." 07:28 I was seeing that the people-- they were making the music 07:31 were very unhappy, unfriendly, several of them had died 07:36 of drug overdoses and suicides and different things like this. 07:42 So I was starting to ask questions, you know, 07:43 what is my life going to be like in the future? 07:48 What's the outcome? 07:49 Am I going to, you know, fall away from society 07:51 like some of these guys and just go mad? 07:53 Am I going to end up killing myself 07:55 or am I going to overdose? 07:56 And the Holy Spirit was just continually saying 07:58 till this time, "Read your Bible, read your Bible, 08:00 don't--now that its here read it." 08:02 So I finally went to my room, it wasn't this Bible 08:04 but I picked it up and I just prayed for the first time, 08:09 "Lord, how do I get to heaven?" 08:13 And I popped open the Bible 08:14 and it fell open to the back like this 08:16 and right at the top in big bold black letters. 08:18 It was the answer to my prayer. 08:19 "Who goes to heaven?" 08:23 And one of the--and few of the scriptures that were mentioned 08:27 were scriptures like Revelation 12:17. 08:29 "The dragon was wroth with the woman 08:30 and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, 08:32 which keep the commandments of God 08:34 and have the testimony of Jesus." 08:35 Another one's Revelation 14:12, 08:37 "Here is the patience of the saints, 08:39 here are they that keep the commandments 08:40 and have the faith of Jesus." 08:43 And another one I remember was Revelation 22:14, 08:46 "Blessed are they that keep the commandments of God 08:48 that they may have right 08:49 to enter in through the gates into the city 08:52 that they may have right to the tree of life." 08:54 And so I started focusing on the commandments. 08:55 If in Revelation the end time book this is important, 08:58 I need to understand it and be obedient 09:00 to the commandments by God's grace. 09:02 And so, that's what I started studying 09:03 and found out the truth about the Seventh-day Sabbath 09:06 almost immediately. 09:07 The first week after studying the Bible 09:09 I was in a Seventh-day Adventist Church 09:11 because I knew as a result of studying the Bible 09:14 that the seventh day was a Sabbath. 09:17 Within five weeks of just really pressuring the minister, 09:20 Pastor Mullin, I was baptized. Amen. 09:23 And I was just craving the Word of God. 09:25 I would spend six to eight hours a day studying. 09:28 And there was nothing more I could do. 09:30 My friends were telling me that I was going mad. 09:34 I was memorizing the Bible. 09:35 They were starting to kind of separate from me 09:37 and call me holy boy and, you know, these different names 09:39 and things and I was very much disinterested 09:42 in what they were saying, but more interested 09:43 in what the Bible was saying 09:45 because it was food to my soul. 09:46 I've had the music, I've had the money. 09:48 I've had the cars. 09:49 I've had other, the girlfriends and girls and the fame. 09:53 These different things but this was feeding my soul. 09:56 And that's all I could tell them, 09:57 is listen I found something that's powerful, 09:59 the Bible and Christ in my life. 10:03 And so as a result of studying for this long, 10:05 being baptized in five weeks I left two days 10:08 after that from Southern California 10:10 up to Northern California, 10:12 where I just had a burden to share the Bible with people. 10:15 I ended up going to the mission college 10:17 which is in the Black Hills of South Dakota 10:20 for a three week period 10:21 where there was just an intensive program 10:24 on how to witness, how to study the Bible, 10:26 how to share with others, 10:27 how to hold an evangelistic series. 10:31 I came back home to California. 10:32 I was a literature evangelist 10:34 which is selling books, spiritual books. 10:37 Some of the books were entitled like "Desire of Ages" 10:39 or "The Great Controversy", books on health 10:41 or recipes for vegetarian cooking. 10:45 And I wasn't very good at that, in fact 10:47 I made about $800 in three months. 10:49 And so I was praying God would give me some other thing to do. 10:52 I became a Bible worker 10:54 with Northern California Conference for Evangelist. 10:55 And what's the Bible worker? What do they do? 10:57 A Bible worker basically-- Let us about that. 10:59 Goes into a city with an evangelist, 11:02 I was with Brembo Seth, 11:03 the Northern California Conference Evangelist. 11:05 Mm-hmm. I know him. 11:06 Yes. Very good man. God bless him. 11:08 And we would go in with him to a city. 11:11 The first project that we had David Asscherick 11:13 and myself was Oakland, California, 11:17 Downtown right in the heart. 11:18 And we're in this huge city we don't know what to do, 11:21 and so we basically just started going from door to door, 11:23 knocking on people's doors, wondering if they were 11:25 interested in studying the Bible. 11:27 Well, in period of months David and I 11:29 both had about 125 interests a piece 11:32 that we were dropping off studies 11:33 doing a lot of these we were studying with personally. 11:36 And we had an evangelistic series. 11:38 I don't think the church was quite as ready for it 11:40 as it could have been because there--just wasn't the fruits 11:43 from our labors that we could have expected. 11:46 Now tell me how did you meet David? 11:47 Tell us who David is. 11:49 David Asscherick is today an evangelist. 11:53 Basically I met him in the Black Hills of South Dakota. 11:56 He was working at a little restaurant. 11:58 A vegan vegetarian Seventh-day Adventist restaurant 12:00 run by a beautiful Christian family called Veggies. 12:04 And he was working there. 12:05 He was just converted as a Christian 12:07 and him and I had just hit it off very quickly. 12:10 We prayed together that we would be able to 12:12 work together in the future. 12:13 And that's where we ended up in California. 12:16 Well, at about a year and eight months of being a Christian, 12:19 I was asked to hold my first series of meetings. 12:21 Well, that's, that's really moving in fast motion, isn't it? 12:24 Yeah. And so God was basically stretching me 12:26 as quickly as He could. 12:28 I stood up having spoken about six times 12:32 in front of a congregation 12:34 with audience of about 225 people opening night. 12:38 And I was just petrified with fear. 12:41 Well, God gave me grace I got through that and about two, 12:45 I'm sorry about a half year later, 12:46 I was asked to do another series. 12:49 And this was interesting because I had about a half a month 12:51 to prepare for it from beginning to end 12:54 and then another month to present the series and so, 12:56 the time frame was just intense 12:59 and I think God almost killed me, you know, 13:02 we were not for His grace but I held another series after that 13:06 in Honduras with Honduras 2000 with OCI. 13:10 That was a very much a blessing. 13:12 And what is OCI? 13:13 OCI is Outpost Centers Incorporated. 13:16 I don't understand completely everything they do. 13:18 I believe that they are missionary focused and-- 13:20 That's true. And they actually 13:22 go out of United States 13:23 and they take groups of people with them. 13:25 That's exactly what they did and with me 13:27 which was a real blessing, I'm very thankful for that. 13:30 In between that time I was traveling around America, 13:33 South Dakota, Colorado, North Dakota, California, 13:37 Wyoming, Utah, Florida, all these different places 13:40 ended up in Michigan doing evangelistic series 13:43 with David Asscherick as the speaker. 13:46 And I was either the platform chairman 13:49 or the Bible worker in another place. 13:52 I was in somewhat responsibility 13:54 of a pastor with the youth church. 13:57 And as a result of the series, 13:58 the last one that David Asscherick held 14:00 that I was able to work with him in Michigan, 14:03 Grand Rapids, there was enough baptisms by God's grace 14:07 that they wanted to plant a church and so today, 14:12 they asked me to be the pastor of the Revelation Promises Hope 14:14 Seventh-day Adventist Church. Wonderful. 14:16 And so that's what I'm doing today 14:19 as a result of four and a half years of being a Christian. 14:23 And I was just told last week actually that 14:26 I was asked to be the pastor of the Maranatha Bible fellowship 14:30 in Grand Rapids, so now I'm a two church pastor 14:33 which is quite amazing to me. 14:35 I don't understand completely why God has chosen me, 14:39 but I'm willing. 14:41 And I think, you know, in fact, I'd thought about this Scripture 14:45 that was just shared to me, 1 Corinthians 4, 14:49 I'm sorry, 1 Chronicles 4. 14:53 The Scripture here was brought to my attention a while back 14:57 and it's really affected me. 14:59 And I've been able to preach on it actually. 15:02 The prayer of Jabez is what it's called in 1 Chronicles 4:10. 15:05 The Bible says, "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, 15:09 saying, 'Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, 15:14 and enlarge my coast, 15:15 and that thine hand might be with me, 15:17 and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, 15:19 that it may not grieve me.' 15:21 And God granted him that which he requested." 15:25 And so before-- 15:26 I think that was your question, wasn't it? 15:28 How do you get to heaven? 15:30 That's right. That's exactly right. 15:32 And even before I was told about this scripture, 15:36 mentioned-- somebody had mentioned it to me. 15:39 I believe that I was praying this type of prayer in my heart. 15:42 Really begging that God would take me 15:44 from the influence that I had and the influence that I was 15:48 and just convert me, make me the true Christian 15:51 dedicated to His service, kept from the evil, 15:55 delivered from the things of this world 15:56 and just as it said, 15:58 "God granted unto me that which I requested." 16:00 And I believe He's continuing to grant it to me 16:03 and willing to grant it to anybody, really, so. 16:06 So now tell me, what has happened 16:09 with your mom and with your dad since those times? 16:12 Have you had any communication with them? 16:14 Yes. 16:15 What have they said about your new life? 16:17 Well, my mother actually before I was a Christian, 16:19 her and I-- we didn't get along. 16:21 She loved me, I did not love her. 16:23 I very much had animosity in my heart toward my parents 16:27 because of just who I was 16:29 and when I became willing to study the Bible 16:33 I immediately fell in love with my mother again. 16:35 It was just God just brought us together. 16:37 And in fact, after I had opened the Bible that one time 16:40 when it opened to the back and said who was going to heaven. 16:44 Just about two days later she came into my home, 16:46 I pulled her aside 16:48 and told her that I needed to know what's in this book. 16:50 And we just cried together and it was very much an experience. 16:53 My father, he continued in his ways 16:57 for probably four years. 17:00 I found out right before I went to Honduras 17:03 that he had liver cancer. 17:05 I ended up in Honduras, 17:07 wasn't able to talk to him even once 17:08 for the period of three weeks, 17:10 I thought that he would have been passed away by that time 17:11 when I got back, very hard situation at that time. 17:16 But I came back 17:18 and learned that my father wanted to be baptized. 17:20 Praise the Lord. 17:22 I then was going to fly out to California, I did so. 17:26 He was going to be baptized 17:27 on the 26th at 11:30 in the morning. 17:31 I was going to be able to baptize him 17:33 but before, actually the night before 17:37 he was baptized he passed away at 11:30. 17:40 So it was 12 hours before he was able to be baptized 17:43 but I do believe the Lord had his heart 17:45 and I believe that I'll see him in heaven. 17:47 That was a trying time, 17:49 but also very much a joyous time for me 17:51 and so I do have this hope. 17:54 Well, you know, it is remarkable that, 17:57 you know, children can make 17:58 an impact upon their parent's lives. 18:01 And even though 18:02 sometimes parents go through their own set of difficulties 18:05 and tensions and problems that, 18:09 here you've just shared it with your testimony 18:12 that perhaps what your dad saw happen in your life, 18:15 made a difference in his. Yes. 18:17 And that you actually encouraged him 18:19 to make some changes in his life 18:21 and make a decision for Christ for eternity. That's right. 18:23 You know, I've not seen my father cry many times 18:27 before I was a Christian, five or six times 18:30 but after I became a Christian 18:31 I would see him cry on very many occasions. 18:36 And I just believe that the Lord was using my influence 18:40 and also my mother's prayers 18:41 and just the whole package of Christianity 18:44 around the influence of my father to win his heart. 18:47 And just as the Bible says, you know, if you believe-- 18:49 in Acts it says that you will be saved, 18:52 you and your house, you know. 18:53 And maybe not all of my house will be saved, 18:56 by God's grace they will if they are willing 18:58 but the Lord has promised that He will be merciful 19:01 like He was merciful to Noah with the other seven, 19:04 like He was merciful to Lot with the other three, 19:07 his daughters and his wife. 19:08 And so as I said we do have this hope 19:12 and we are told in the Bible 19:13 to comfort one another with these words. 19:14 That's right. Yeah. 19:16 And now since that time, it sounds like you've been-- 19:18 once you made that decision to have a change in your life 19:21 it seems as if the Lord brought people into your life 19:24 to help and strengthen and to encourage you. 19:26 And you mentioned that you had gone 19:27 to the mission college in the Black Hills. 19:29 Tell us about that. 19:31 Okay, the mission college is a place where-- 19:34 well, let me start over. 19:36 It's basically a call of Christ. 19:39 When Christ went to Peter and said, "Come and follow me." 19:42 That's what to me the Black Hills is, the mission college. 19:47 It's a place where there is 19:49 radical Christianity experienced. 19:51 You are willing to give up everything, your home, 19:54 your family for the present time, everything. 19:57 You move out to South Dakota, you learn how to witness 20:00 and then God send you from there 20:02 wherever He would ask you to go. 20:03 And so I believe it's the call of Christ. 20:05 Not everybody goes where they are asked to go, 20:07 not everybody followed Christ, 20:09 you know, the rich young ruler for instance. 20:11 He said, "Come and follow me" and he turned away sorrowful. 20:14 But I went there because Christ called me 20:18 and He wanted to use me to do radical missionary Christianity. 20:23 And so from that point forward 20:28 I've been doing missionary work 20:29 but what it does is, they teach you how to study the Bible, 20:35 teaches you how to witness to people using your Bible, 20:39 hold an evangelistic series. 20:40 It gives you basic principles of missionary outreach. 20:45 And then they give you the practical opportunity to use 20:48 that missionary training while you are at school 20:51 and also they give several opportunities for those 20:53 that show themselves willing to be used 20:56 such as Bible workers, evangelists, pastors 20:59 and different positions like that. 21:01 As a result of being at the Black Hills Mission College, 21:03 I've done colporteur ministry 21:07 which is the literature evangelist selling the books. 21:09 I've done evangelism, I've done Bible work, 21:12 evangelisms public preaching 21:14 and now I am doing the pastoral ministry. 21:17 And so-- 21:18 And how do you enjoying pastoring now? 21:20 I love it. I love it very much. 21:22 It's a real blessing. 21:23 It's trying and it helps me to know that God is in-charge 21:28 but that's what I like, you know. 21:29 Do you have a story maybe you can share with us 21:31 of someone that was looking and searching for Jesus 21:34 like you were and whom you met? 21:37 And help to change their life? 21:40 Well, I guess right off the back 21:42 there's a man that comes to mind his name is James 21:45 and he was a homeless man in Oakland. 21:50 He walked by with a bottle in his hand 21:53 and a bag around the bottle. 21:55 As he's walking by he stops and he looks at David and I 21:57 who were sitting out on the steps of the church, 22:01 you know, with our hook out 22:03 as we were trying to wait for some fish to come along so-- 22:05 Fishers of men. Yeah. 22:07 So we're out there sitting hoping to witness to somebody. 22:09 He walks by looks at the Seventh-day Adventist sign 22:11 and looked at us and stops and says, "I've got a question." 22:14 I said, "Well, by God's grace I've got an answer." 22:17 He says, "Is the seventh day the Sabbath?" 22:19 And I said, "Well, yes, sir, it is. 22:21 That's what the Bible says." 22:22 And I said, "Well, how do you know that anyways?" 22:24 He says, "Well, my uncle's a Seventh-day Adventist." 22:27 And here this man is at that point 22:30 interested in studying the Bible a little bit. 22:32 David and I take him under wing, we shower him, 22:34 you know, give him some clothes, give him a backpack, 22:37 razor and comb and just the very necessities of life. 22:41 It ends up that he starts sleeping on our porch for months 22:47 and he wants to stay at our home and things 22:49 and David and I got a little bit, 22:51 you know, uneasy with him been around so much, 22:54 but we just kept praying for him 22:55 and studying with him and everything. 22:57 For quite sometime he left, 22:59 he came back after I think a month or two 23:02 and the last time I saw him he had on a pair of slacks, 23:06 he had a pair of matching shoes on, 23:09 he had a turtleneck, a sports coat, 23:11 his hair was cut and combed and he was clean shaven. 23:15 And he walked up to me and says, 23:16 "Daniel, I am going to get a job." 23:18 Praise the Lord. 23:19 And I just-- I remember that story 23:21 as a result of you asking just how God really moves 23:25 and uses just foolish people like me. 23:28 As I said, I didn't get quite the high school education 23:31 that most people get 23:33 because I was just caught up with other things. 23:35 I'd gone also to the pastoral training at the mission college. 23:38 It's a six-month intensive program 23:41 which was quite a blessing as well. 23:43 Another thing I wanted to mention 23:45 is now I am promised to a young lady. 23:50 Oh, how wonderful. Yes. 23:52 Congratulations to you. Thank you. 23:54 My fiancee's name is Julie Vines 23:56 and we've been working together up at Black Hill, 23:59 I'm sorry, up at Grand Rapids 24:03 ministering together, visiting together. 24:06 She's living with one of the local Bible workers right now 24:09 and so it's been a real blessing to get to know her 24:12 and she's just been a real support to me in the ministry 24:14 and, you know, it's been a real blessing. 24:17 God has led us together and it's very evident to us. 24:19 So God gave you a bonus. Yes. 24:22 I met her back in Colorado about a year and a month ago. 24:27 So we've been to Honduras together. 24:29 We've been to South Dakota together, Colorado, Michigan 24:33 and it's been quite an experience. 24:35 Well, Daniel, I want to ask you, 24:37 why do you want to do all of this? 24:40 For a young person that's listening to this program 24:42 that says, "Man, I can't believe this guy. 24:44 He's totally changed his life in 4 1/2 years." 24:48 What is your real reason for wanting to go out 24:50 and work and just labor for the Lord like this? 24:54 Well, I think one of the major reasons I want to do this 24:57 is because as the Bible says, I am dead. 25:01 The person that used to live is gone. 25:03 Daniel that used to drink and smoke and be angry 25:05 and frustrated, he is no more. 25:07 Christ now lives in me, that's what the Bible says. 25:11 And so I believe that by God's grace 25:13 and just spending time in devotions with Christ 25:15 I've been converted and it's Christ that's in me. 25:18 And He is still working out His ministry on this earth 25:22 through me that He started back 2000 years ago. 25:25 And so really it's Christ, it's no longer Daniel. 25:28 So basically it's my will because Christ is in me. 25:33 I want to do it for that reason. 25:36 That's beautiful. I really appreciate 25:37 you're coming and sharing your testimony. 25:39 And I like at this time to invite our viewers at this time. 25:45 You may have said, 25:47 "Well, he has really made some drastic changes in his life 25:51 but I am not sure that I can do all of these things, 25:53 but I really would like to have prayer 25:55 for the Holy Spirit to touch my heart 25:57 and to make these changes." 25:59 Pastor Mesa, would you make prayer time for us now? 26:01 I would love to. Thank you. 26:05 Father, it is such a pleasure to know 26:08 that you are the God that sits upon the throne of the universe, 26:11 ordering all things according to the divine will. 26:15 And I just ask that you would continue to bless us, 26:18 the viewers all around the world 26:20 that maybe are looking for a change in their life 26:23 like you've given to your servant. 26:25 And I just want to pray 26:26 that you would please glorify your name in all things, 26:29 may it be that that one person, 26:30 that two people or the thousands 26:33 whoever it is that are desirous of a change 26:36 that you would reach down to them, 26:37 touch them and answer the prayer that they may have. 26:40 Lord, how do I get to heaven? 26:43 I ask that you would be merciful unto them. 26:45 Show them the way of righteousness 26:46 and give them the desire as you gave me to study the Bible 26:50 that they may show themselves approved workman 26:52 that need not be ashamed. 26:54 And so we just thank you for all 26:56 and we just pray a blessing on every single soul 26:59 that maybe hungering and thirsting after you 27:02 and we give ourselves to you in the name of Jesus Christ. 27:05 Amen. Amen. 27:07 Well, thank you so much for coming to our program today. 27:09 It's been a real pleasure meeting you 27:11 and we certainly wish you the best 27:13 in all of your endeavors for the Lord. 27:17 Tell us real quick, what is your next project coming up? 27:20 We are doing evangelism in Downtown Grand Rapids. 27:23 And we are getting 27:25 one of the downtown open air amphitheaters. 27:28 We're going to be holding a tent series 27:30 and hopefully the Lord will bless with sheep's 27:35 that we can bring in the sheep's. 27:36 Well, praise the Lord. 27:37 And when is that going to be? 27:39 That will be hopefully in July this summer. 27:41 Okay, so for those of you who are living in Grand Rapids 27:44 and you'd like to have the opportunity 27:45 of meeting Pastor Daniel Mesa in person 27:48 come on down to the evangelistic series 27:50 that he will be holding there this summer. 27:52 And until next time may God richly bless you 27:55 in all that you do for Him. 27:56 Have a great day. |
Revised 2014-12-17