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Kairos Prison Ministry

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  • Kairos Prison Ministry

    Well, it's time for another foray into Coffield Prison in Tennesse Colony, TX. Kairos #46 will begin Thur. 4/25/19 and go through Sunday, 4/28/19. I'm doing the talk "Friendship With God" Friday morning, so, please keep me in your prayers! I wanted to post the talk here to get your input. Now, most of the talk is "scripted" so pretty much the only place to change it much is in the "testimony" part. Although if you see any issues with the rest, please let me know. Anyway, please let me know what you think!


    Friendship With God


    1. Kairos Community Prayer- pg 11
    My name is Lee and I am Clergy. My talk is "Friendship with God."

    Intro: In the last talk, Brother Phil let us know that “You are not alone”…there are people out there who do care about you. And, man I think that's great! These people cared enough, to pray for you…and draw posters …and to write notes on them all to share their love with you. You know, we're glad there are people like that out there, somewhere, who are willing to offer us love and concern.

    Yes, that's really nice....BUT! I know what some of you are thinking…

    What if they really knew me? Would they still pray for me, and write those notes and all of that? Would they really want to be my friend if they really knew me?

    You know, sending good wishes and prayers are nice ....but what we really need is a true friend. But what does that mean? A true friend?

    I. Let's explore together....What is a friend?

    A. Is it somebody who agrees with me all the time or always takes my side in an issue? No...Not necessarily...In FACT they may disagree if they see me doing or saying something which might hurt me.

    Write this down!
    B. A friend is:

    1. Someone who wants the very best for your life.
    2. Someone who is willing to give some of themselves to help you move toward your best.
    3. Someone who knows when to back off, and can let you make your own decisions - even your own mistakes.
    4. A friend is especially one who will stick by you, even when you make a mess of everything and still accepts you as a friend.


    II. Where do you find a friend like that?

    A. There is GOOD NEWS!

    1. God created us for companionship and to live in community with other people.
    2. God is Love. He created us to love and to be loved. The Bible tells us this in 1 John Chapter 4.



    Write this down!
    III. God is not an enemy.

    A. God is not trying to catch us in sinful disobedience.

    1. The meaning of "sin" is "missing the mark or target." God's target for us is to live in loving relationship with Him. Sin is thus missing that target of a loving relationship with God. It is this separation from God which is sin, just as the prodigal son separated himself from the father.
    2. I’m sure you remember the Prodigal son story from yesterday. That’s the story about the son who wanted his money now, and went off to a foreign land and instead of investing it or something, had one big long party. After awhile, he was broke and working for a pig farmer slopping hogs. And one day he wakes up and comes to his senses and realizes that it would be better to be a servant in his father’s house then to continue slopping hogs. He goes home all covered in pig slop, muck and dirt. His father runs up and hugs him and they celebrated because his son was alive and home.
    3. You see, God doesn't want us separated from Him; He wants us to be part of His Body. We show that we are a part of God's body by is baptism and the renewal of baptismal vows.



    B. God does not manipulate us into separation from Himself so that He can punish us.

    Write this down!


    IV. GOD WANTS TO BE OUR FRIEND!!

    1. God called the Hebrews out of Egypt and offered them a covenant. (Another term for Covenant would be Contract) They drifted in and out of the covenant relationship.
    2. God sent these men: Peter, Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, James and used their friendship with Him to spread His word.
    3. First and foremost, He sent His son, Jesus, the Christ.
    4. Jesus IS God, He and the Father are one and they work through the Holy Spirit, who is also God with them. We call this the Trinity. I know this is a hard concept to get your head around. If you want to explore it further, get with myself or one of the other clergy and we can explore it further with you.
    5. Jesus is the Christ, meaning "the anointed one." It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word, "Messiah," also the anointed one or "liberator".
    6. Jesus announces the Kingdom of God. In Luke 4:18 the Bible tells us that: “He came to set the captives free,” and in Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 16 it says: “And he who the Son sets free is free indeed!
    7. Jesus offers us eternal life. Through His death He enables us to die to self. He gives us life by giving up His own life.
    8. In Jesus, God completes the offer of his friendship to us.

    V. Even God cannot have a friendship alone. It takes two, with both of them giving and receiving affection and esteem. It is up to us to OPEN THE DOOR to God's friendship.
    The story of the lost son or as it is usually called, the Prodigal son, that was told by Jesus, is a story that I can really identify with. You see, it’s a lot like my story. In the story, the young son is me, and the Father represents God. You see, when I was a kid, my family was always in church; I was there just about every time the doors were open. But, by the time I was 12 or so. I had decided that IF God was real then he didn’t care about me. In school, I had a lot of trouble with adjusting. I was short back then...not nearly as tall as I am now...so I was picked on a lot. But all I wanted was to be one of the cool kids; I wanted to fit in, to be accepted. So, I began hanging with the “cool kids”, drinking and smoking cigarettes. I began to experiment with drugs and became a party animal to fill the void, to dull the emptiness inside me. I graduated high school and wandered between jobs. I took a job in Lufkin, TX at a radio station owned by my uncle. It didn’t pay much so, I ended up living in an old studio site. The old studio was where our radio towers were. This thing was literally a shack in the middle of the woods. But, not to long after that, the job with the radio station became part time and I was forced to take another part time job. The only thing I could find was a job at McDonalds. I was kind of hanging around with and partying with some guys going to college full time. I spent every extra dollar I had on booze, pot and other drugs. So, I would take food that was being thrown out to eat. You see, I didn’t have enough money for food, and booze and drugs. One night, when I was alone in my shack, I was watching the only channel on the TV that I could get, and a preacher came on. I didn't want to hear what He had to say. I didn't think he had any answers I wanted to my problems. As I stood up to turn off the TV, the preacher said don't turn that TV off, I need to tell you just how much God loves you. He began to tell me of God’s love for me that included sacrificing His own son so that I could be His friend…
    He talked about the beating Jesus Christ took for my sin; whipped with 39 lashes from the cat-o-nine-tails. Then, they beat him with their fists, and tore out chunks of his beard. They put a crown of thorns on this head and beat it down. After all that, they stripped him naked and made him carry his cross that weighed about 100lbs about a ½ mile. Once he got to the top of the hill, they laid him down and drove metal spikes in his hands and feet, and stood him up so everyone could see his shame. He died on that cross…and with his death, he paid for the freedom of everyone in this room. But, 3 days later, God raised him from the dead to show us that he triumphed over death hell and the grave! After I heard all that, that night, like the prodigal son, I came to my senses and I began my journey toward home both physically and spiritually. I began to seek God, He in turn showed me how He was still seeking me how he still loved me, in spite of everything I had done. AND…I didn't even have to clean myself up, He accepted me just like I was...Just like in the Prodigal son story. You see, the lost son went back home covered in all kinds of nasty stuff from living with those pigs, but The Father didn’t care. He ran to him and hugged him. God did this for me…and for you. He did all that, so you could have a relationship with him.
    The Bible says that NOTHING can separate us from the Love of God. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans said in chapter 8 verses 38 and 39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see, there is only ONE thing on earth that can separate you from the Love of God…..and that’s YOU!
    I FINALLY realized that night how much God love me, Jesus had ransomed me. He paid the price for my freedom…and he did it…JUST so I could now have a friendship with the God of the universe…He gave it all to set all of us free. He can set you free as well…if you let him. All you have to do is Open The Door and believe in his Son who.
    VI. You know, I have found that the most rewarding choice I have ever made is choosing to live in Friendship with God.
    1. I believe that choosing to have a Friendship with God is the only choice that worthy of the Love that Jesus Christ showed by paying the price to ransom us from death. I have found my friendship with God to be an anchor in my life, and I don’t think I would be here without it.
    2. We are all children of God; all of us are loved by him and created by Him.
    3. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, loved and redeemed by Him.
    4. Finally, we are temples of the Holy Spirit, who l lives in us, loves and sustains us.


    We’ll use this wooden circle to represent “Friendship with God”. We’ll be adding things to it throughout the Weekend so it will be left up here at the speaker’s podium. There’s nothing magical about this circle, no hocus-pocus about it. It’s special because of what it represents for all of us, a symbol of Friendship with God. And it’ll be fun to watch it change into something meaningful for all of us.

    Please bow your heads for 2 minutes of silent meditation
    Last edited by Littlejoe; 04-05-2019, 08:10 PM.
    "What has the Church gained if it is popular, but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?" - A.W. Tozer

    "... there are two parties in Washington, the stupid party and the evil party, who occasionally get together and do something both stupid and evil, and this is called bipartisanship." - Everett Dirksen

  • #2
    Excellent stuff, LJ - I'll put this on our Church prayer list and we'll be praying for those to whom you will minister - that God will prepare their hearts before you even open your mouth.
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

    Comment


    • #3
      Kairos #46 at the Coffield unit came to a close yesterday afternoon. Many tears were shed as God moved men's hearts ever closer to himself. We had one Muslim man who came to our weekend. He came in on Thursday wearing his Kufi, (known as a Taqiyah outside the US) and was from the start, un-apologetically proud of his faith. Saturday afternoon, he took it off and professed he was now Christian!!! Sunday at the cross ceremony (we give them a cross to celebrate the finishing of the weekend) As the leader of the weekend hangs the cross around each of the Brothers in White (inmates) necks, he says to them, "Christ is counting on you" to which they respond, "And I'm counting on Christ". Our former Muslim brother, took the cross and said he was counting on Christ!!!

      Many hearts were filled to overflowing with God's love and mercy...many lives were definitely changed. My family Table of St. John, was mostly already serving Christ...but, there are always things that make our walk more difficult, and for someone locked up, it's often more difficult still...they often come face to face with their guilt, and unforgiveness of those that put them their, or their parents or...well, there's a lot of baggage as you might imagine. One man who was at my family table, was less talkative than the rest...but I could see the Holy Spirit working on him throughout the weekend. Saturday night, during our forgiveness ceremony, as we offered up our "forgiveness lists" to the Lord and then dropped them into the bucket to be burned, I watched as this man broke down and began to weep (as did many others). He had a hand towel with him and it was covering most of his face as he wept. The next morning, his countenance was different, and he shared with us why it hit him so hard. He claims he was "set up" by a woman he was living with to take a child abuse rap that he had nothing to do with. He claims she blamed him and testified at his trial that he was responsible, but that she was the actual culprit. He said, "I knew there might be a little harshness going on, but it wasn't my child, and I honestly had no IDEA it was as bad as it was." He went on to confess that he had hated her with a blinding, paralyzing, consuming hatred at falsely accusing and getting him convicted of a crime he did not commit. He had even thought of finding her and "making her pay for it" after he was released. But, that he had been able, with God's help, to finally forgive her that night...and you could actually SEE it in his eyes...he was free from the consuming hatred and anger that had him in bondage and was now a "free man".

      I talked with one man who said, "I've turned down the opportunity to come to Kairos a couple of times. I'm already serving God, and I didn't want to take the opportunity away from someone who REALLY needed it." He continued with, "But, one of my friends who had been through the program convinced me to come...and MAN am I glad he did. I didn't realize just how empty I was...how much I needed a renewing and refreshing of my spirit. You give and give in here, and pour out so much for God, but it's hard sometimes...you burn out...you know? I've received so much love and everything...it's been so wonderful to just soak up God's love and feel the Spirit of the Living God come back ALIVE in me!" One great thing about the Kairos program is no matter where you are on your spiritual journey toward God, whether total unbeliever, or been serving him for many years, you will come away from the Kairos Weekend, renewed and refreshed with God's Holy Spirit...

      There weren't a lot of conversions on this weekend, we had a lot of people already in the Kingdom on this weekend...but, we equipped a bunch of Saints to continue to reach souls in Coffield that we might never be able to see...and that's what it's ultimately about isn't it? To equip the saints for the work of the ministry. I expect Coffield Prison to explode in faith following this weekend.
      Last edited by Littlejoe; 04-29-2019, 03:46 PM.
      "What has the Church gained if it is popular, but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?" - A.W. Tozer

      "... there are two parties in Washington, the stupid party and the evil party, who occasionally get together and do something both stupid and evil, and this is called bipartisanship." - Everett Dirksen

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