Participants: C.A. Murray (Host), Lemuel Vega (Host), Willie Simon, Andrew Cole, Courtney Jones
Series Code: FIN
Program Code: FIN000021
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00:13 I'm "Free Indeed."
00:18 Willie Simon was a sonar technician in the Navy. 00:22 He's also a trained barber. 00:24 And after he came to this facility, 00:27 he did some of his best work in here. 00:30 He's got a right sense of humor, he's loves to laugh, 00:32 he's loves to smile, he's loves to joke, loves to have fun. 00:36 But his life has changed. 00:38 He realizes now that its, its not all about 00:41 laughing and joking and having fun. 00:43 It's about having joy. 00:44 Same smile, same sense of humor but now that's driven by joy. 00:49 Joy comes when you have Jesus in your life. 00:53 You can't always laugh, you can't always smile 00:56 but you can always have joy. 00:58 Willie Simon has found 01:00 that as long as you have Jesus, you've got joy. 01:04 Thank you, Jesus. 01:07 When I think about the Lord 01:11 How He saved me, how He raised me 01:16 How He filled me with the Holy Ghost 01:20 How He healed me to the uttermost 01:24 When I Think about the Lord 01:29 How He picked me up and turned me around 01:33 How He placed my feet on solid ground 01:40 Help me out, guys. 01:42 When I think about the Lord 01:46 How He saved me, how He raised me 01:50 How He filled me with the Holy Ghost 01:55 How He healed me to the uttermost 01:59 When I Think about the Lord 02:03 How He picked me up and turned me around 02:08 How He placed my feet on solid ground 02:15 It makes me want to shout 02:18 Hallelujah Thank you Jesus 02:22 Lord, your worthy of all the glory and all the honor 02:29 And all the praise It makes me want to shout 02:34 Hallelujah Hallelujah 02:36 Thank you Jesus Thank you Jesus 02:39 oh, the Lord, your worthy 02:41 of all the glory and all the honor 02:43 And all the praise 02:51 When I think about the Lord 02:54 How He saved me, how He raised me 02:59 How He filled me with the Holy Ghost 03:03 How He healed me to the uttermost 03:07 When I Think about the Lord 03:11 How He picked me up and turned me around 03:16 How He placed my feet on solid ground 03:23 It makes me want to shout 03:25 Hallelujah Thank you Jesus 03:30 Oh, the Lord, your worthy 03:32 of all the glory, and all the honor 03:36 And all the praise 03:38 It makes me want to shout 03:42 Hallelujah Thank you Jesus 03:46 Lord, your worthy, of all the glory, and all the honor 03:52 And all the praise 04:00 For those of you, who're singing out 04:02 under my voice today I want you all to know something. 04:07 Jesus is real. See, I know He is real. 04:12 There's no doubt in my mind that I know He is real 04:15 because according to 2 Corinthians 5:17, 04:19 "If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. 04:23 old things have past away, 04:25 behold all things have become new." 04:28 That's why I can shout. Hallelujah. 04:32 Hallelujah Thank you Jesus 04:36 Lord, Your worthy, of all the glory, and all the honor 04:42 And all the praise 04:45 It makes me want to shout 04:48 Hallelujah Thank you Jesus 04:52 Lord, your worthy, of all the glory, and all the honor 04:58 And all the praise 05:02 It makes me want to shout 05:05 Hallelujah Thank you Jesus 05:09 Lord, your worthy, of all the glory, and all the honor 05:14 And all the praise 05:18 It makes me want to shout 05:21 Hallelujah Thank you Jesus 05:25 Lord, your worthy, of all the glory, and all the honor 05:30 And all the praise 05:36 When I think about the Lord 05:48 I was born in Mississippi. 05:52 I have brothers and sisters who--we're staying, 05:56 grew up staying together in church, 05:59 you know, going to church religiously. 06:02 For me in church was, 06:03 it was a party of my early, early childhood. 06:06 I--I really enjoy for the most part 06:10 for I knew about church. 06:15 Well, later in life as I got older 06:19 when out to college I began to experience other things, 06:25 I would say, worldly things, 06:28 more or less like the prodigal son. 06:30 Here I found myself, I found myself 06:32 and, you know, what I mean in comprising situations. 06:36 It's kind of led me to making even more bad decisions. 06:39 Willie, it's a blessing to have you here this evening. 06:41 It's a blessing to be called your brother. 06:44 And I-- and we're brothers. 06:45 Amen. Amen. 06:46 Amen. Praise God. 06:47 You know, and you're my brother from another mother. 06:49 Amen. Amen. 06:50 You know, but as we think about it 06:52 we all go back to God's creation. 06:54 We all go back to Adam and Eve. 06:56 So when we disrespect another brother, 06:58 we're disrespecting God because God loves us as all 07:01 and we all bleed the same, 07:03 we all come from the royal bloodline. 07:05 Amen. Amen. 07:06 Well, how long have you been in prison, my brother? 07:08 Oh, man, as I known for about 20 years. 07:13 20 years. Yeah. 07:14 Brothers, how did this-- 07:16 were you raised in a functional family? 07:19 Yes, I was raised in a two parent home, 07:22 grown up in Mississippi. 07:25 We were in-- we were basically like 07:27 Sharecropper's in Mississippi. 07:30 It's interesting that you're talking about 07:33 like we're brothers from another mother, you know. 07:37 Because growing up I was, I had to experience 07:41 a lot of atrocities of civil rights 07:44 in being a Mississippi, you know what I mean. 07:48 When--during growing up I had this, 07:51 you know, hate toward whites. 07:54 You know what I mean, which kind of led me 07:56 to become like a gang banger. 07:59 Be involved in a pretty notable gang here in United States. 08:07 Fortunately, you know what I mean, 08:08 that life is behind me now. 08:10 You know what I mean. 08:12 And actually, Brother Vega here, 08:16 he said it best, you know. 08:17 I've learned to embrace, you know, 08:21 my brothers from another mother, you know what I mean. 08:25 It's a blessing because God has-- 08:28 He stilled in me, poured out a love 08:30 that I never knew that I could have. 08:33 You know, what I saying. It's amazing. 08:36 I'm still-- He's not finished with me yet, 08:39 you know what I mean. 08:40 Because I still, I still hold on to resentment, 08:45 I still have resentment. 08:47 You know, I still struggle with a lot of things 08:49 that's going on in my past because so my-- 08:53 you know, for what happened to my brother, my younger brother. 08:58 That's why I'm in here now. 08:59 So God is still working with me, you know what I mean. 09:02 And I'm thankful for that. 09:04 Willie, what happened to your younger brother? 09:07 Oh, man. He-- he got killed. 09:12 He got-- I'll just say he died 09:15 from being poison, being poisoned. 09:19 And I was really, oh, man, I was really, really, 09:25 really too careless back then. 09:28 I was-- I finished, I finished college. 09:31 You know, and I had quite a really good job. 09:33 Within a month I'm getting out. 09:36 A month later, my little brother got killed. 09:43 That hit me kind of hard because he's my little brother. 09:47 He was my only little brother, you know. 09:48 And I was like-- my mother passed away, 09:51 so it's like my brother passed away. 09:53 so it's like my It's like then I felt responsible for him. 09:57 Because coming from Mississippi, 09:59 we don't-- they come from Mississippi 10:02 and we had kind of made a vow to each other 10:03 that kind of looked out for each other. 10:05 So I kind of set out, I set out to find the person 10:12 who was responsible, was responsible for his death. 10:16 I began living these double lives again, you know. 10:21 Worked and then in my off time 10:23 I would go back to the neighborhood, you know, 10:28 for information, seeking out information. 10:30 In other words, I felt like the detective 10:32 wasn't doing his job good enough 10:35 and then people were-- God was telling me, 10:37 I'm not gonna say people because you know, 10:40 God was telling me that vengeance is His. 10:43 And my attitude was, you know, 10:45 God I'm sorry but You're not working fast enough. 10:49 You know what I mean, that was my attitude. 10:51 So when I got the information that I needed I shoot, 10:59 shoot the person out, seek attribution. 11:03 You know, and that's why I'm in here for now 11:07 and I received 45 years 11:09 for probably attempting murder on the person. 11:14 And I was kind of like well, dramatic for me 11:17 because it happened at a time where my mother passed away. 11:21 And I was-- I couldn't attend her funeral 11:26 because I was being detained, 11:31 you know, in a federal isolation unit. 11:35 And that really, that kind of like really hurt me, 11:37 you know what I mean. 11:38 It was really painful. 11:40 I didn't want to look at, I didn't want to look at 11:43 my reason, the reason that I was there. 11:46 I didn't want to accept the responsibility 11:48 that it was fault that I was there. 11:51 I began to blame everybody for it basically not putting 11:57 in any effort in getting me out of it. 12:00 I just wanted everybody to feel that type of hurt 12:06 and pain that I felt with the addition to, 12:11 I mean, you know, compounded with drugs and alcohol. 12:17 I began to inflict as much pain on others as I felt, you know. 12:23 So and that's what my incarceration, 12:27 my times of incarceration began. 12:30 I hate the fact, you know, what I mean, that I have to, 12:33 you know, be here. 12:35 You know, nobody likes being in a prison. 12:37 But I'm thankful, you know what I mean, 12:39 that He given me another opportunity in life, 12:42 you know what I mean. 12:43 Because I can sit back, and I sit back 12:46 and I'll listen to my brother. 12:49 Vega testimony a few minutes ago 12:51 and he's talking about loving someone 12:54 when he was spending Christmas. 12:57 Spending Christmas in the dope house, 13:00 you know what I mean. 13:01 I can relate to that, you know, 13:03 I can relate to that testimony because that was me. 13:07 You know, how can I say I love my wife, 13:09 you know what I mean. 13:10 When I was spending Christmas, 13:12 you know what I mean, on a stake out 13:14 getting ready to rob someone, you know what I mean. 13:17 And that was just, that was the life that I was living. 13:22 I'm not proud of it, you know, 13:25 it's something to be ashamed of. 13:28 I'm just fortunate now, man, God is giving me opportunity, man. 13:32 You know, what I mean, to share and his gospel 13:35 because lot of people don't get a lot-- 13:40 second chances, man. 13:41 Lot of people don't have second chances, man. 13:43 I've seen-- I've been shot, 13:44 I've been stabbed, being the best. 13:47 I've done some of that stuff to people too. 13:50 Taking responsibility for my actions 13:54 that's a very big point, that's a big step in a healing process. 13:59 And matter of fact is pivotal in healing, you know. 14:04 Because if you can't own up, 14:07 if I can't own up to what I've done, 14:10 just like I'm still in denial, you know. 14:13 I'm still in denial. 14:15 I'm still not willing to accept my short comings 14:21 and my faults, you know. 14:23 And there's a scripture in the Bible that says, 14:27 "Pride goes before destruction." 14:31 You know, the Holy Spirit before the fall. 14:34 I've learned humility, a lot of people seem to think 14:36 that I haven't got. 14:39 I've learned to, I've learned to humility in this 14:43 and peace of course. 14:45 I got to say God is not through with me yet 14:48 so let's just waiting for Him in life. 14:52 Today, you say you have some peace in your life. Amen. 14:55 Today you say even though you're in prison 14:56 and it's not a pleasant place to be. 14:59 What would you look to our viewers out there, 15:01 there's many people that living a double life. 15:03 What would you say to them and encourage them for Jesus. 15:06 Well--reminiscing about how it was in the past, 15:09 it can be very embarrassing, shameful, you know what I mean. 15:16 It could be very sad 'cause I've done some-- 15:18 I've heard a lot of people done some very horrible things 15:21 to myself and to other people, you know what I mean. 15:24 And this--the devil always likes to remind you of the past, 15:30 but it's God that reminds you of the future. 15:33 So I've tried to forget those things 15:35 that are behind me because I'm a new creation, 15:38 you know what I mean. 15:39 I'm no longer that old Willie, 15:40 so why worry about him? 15:45 I'm more concerned about the one now 15:48 and that's why I continue to press toward the mark 15:50 now, you know, towards the high call in Christ Jesus. 15:53 Well, I want you to know that Paul he was faced 15:58 with a dilemma in the book of Romans in 7 chapter. 16:03 He said that the things he wanted to do, 16:06 he find himself not doing the things 16:08 that he didn't wanted to do he found himself doing. 16:11 He went on to say that he was a ratchet person. 16:14 Who would deliver him from that body of sin? 16:18 And then he gave the rhetorical question of saying, 16:21 praise be to God Jesus, you know what I mean. 16:24 So we know now through God's word 16:27 that is Jesus that will deliver us from any and every thing, 16:32 that double life, you know what I mean. 16:34 So I just want to encourage you guys 16:38 and everybody who's under the sound of my voice, 16:41 you know what I mean. 16:42 God is real, Jesus is real. 16:44 I don't have a-- now that my brother's gone 16:47 and my wife and I, we divorced. 16:49 I don't have a family that-- my family that comes 16:51 and visit me as Pastor Vega, you know what I mean. 16:55 A lot of the volunteers that come here, 16:57 a lot of my brothers here 'cause I sing in a choir, 17:00 that's my family, you know what I mean. 17:02 Those are my family, you know what I mean. 17:04 I'm thankful for that family, I'm thankful for the brothers 17:07 that God has given me as a family. 17:10 You guys are my family now, you know what I mean. 17:12 I don't, you know, that's the visits that I get. 17:16 And I'm thankful for that. 17:17 I'm reminded by a scripture in the Bible that, 17:20 that my brother John always says, 17:23 it's a one thing that I desire of the Lord 17:26 and that's the one thing that I seek 17:27 that I may dwell in His house and choiring His temple. 17:30 So as far as I've left that life of gang banging 17:34 and having money and all of this. 17:36 So only thing I have left, you know what I mean, 17:39 is to see His face. 17:42 So all I want to do is see His face. 17:45 Your favorite Bible scripture. Yeah. 17:47 My favorite Bible, one of my favorite, 17:49 I have a lot of them but one of my favorite Bible scripture 17:52 is the one that I like to speak on a lot. 17:56 A lot of people had probably heard me say it, it says, 17:58 it's in Romans also. 18:00 It says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 18:03 for it is the power of God unto salvation 18:05 for anybody who believes." 18:07 Amen. Amen. 18:08 So that's a start for everybody in the world to believe, 18:11 humble their heart, come to Christ just as they are 18:14 and then the lights will begin to come on. 18:15 Amen. Blessings to you. 18:17 Thank you so much, brother. 18:23 Did you know that you can have joy even when you-- 18:27 you forgive my perjure of English. 18:29 You ain't happy? No. 18:33 Yeah, you can have joy when you are not happy. 18:36 My dad ran from the Lord all his life. 18:40 And in his 81st year, I went home 18:43 and baptized him with my own two hands. Amen. 18:46 One month later, one month later, he had a stroke and died. 18:53 So he was only in Jesus 30 days. 18:58 And folks couldn't understand 18:59 why at the funeral my sister and I were just dancing around. 19:03 We're just as happy and we had joy 19:09 'cause we got him in. 19:12 He made it in. 19:14 So we weren't, we weren't happy but we had joy. 19:20 And folks said, how can you be so happy? 19:23 This is nothing to do with happiness, we got joy. 19:26 See joy comes when you know Jesus for yourself. 19:28 The first lesson from this is the mistake 19:30 that you can't preach Paul's Jesus. 19:35 My Jesus is not gonna do any of you any good. 19:39 You got to know Jesus for yourself. 19:41 Your roommates' Jesus can't help you. 19:43 Your parents' Jesus, you know, 19:45 people say, I grew up in a Christian home. 19:47 Well, that's not gonna do any good. 19:49 You don't get any credit for your parents' prayers. 19:56 You got to know Jesus for you. 19:59 Power comes, you know, they tell about personal Savior, 20:02 personal Savior, personal Savior, it's true. 20:06 Your neighbor's Savior can't help you. 20:10 Your neighbor's Savior can't fight your battles. 20:13 Your neighbor's Savior 20:14 is that don't keep the devil off your tracks. 20:17 You got to have your own Jesus. 20:20 So they went in preaching of Paul's Jesus 20:24 and the devil said, yeah, I know who Paul is 20:28 and I know who Jesus is 20:31 but who are you, coming into my territory? 20:37 The Bible says the devil beat him up, 20:39 sent him home naked and bleeding. 20:43 And sometimes we get beat up, 20:44 naked and bleeding too, don't we? 20:47 You see, there's nothing about you that frightens the devil. 20:52 Bad as you may think you are, 20:55 you can't fight Satan 'cause he's not flesh and blood. 20:59 You're fighting principalities and power 21:02 and you got to have Jesus to fight that battle. 21:05 Spirit's got to fight the spirit. 21:09 But you know what? 21:10 He's there any time you want Him. 21:14 Amen. Amen. 21:15 Any time you want Him. 21:18 You know, a preacher and a microphone 21:20 are a bad combination. 21:23 'Cause I'm running out of time, 21:24 so let me take you to a text. 21:28 That is my--it's my newest favorite text. 21:33 This is the one that I'm-- 21:35 I showed to the guys in Pendleton just the other day. 21:38 Hebrew 13:5, 6. 21:42 Powerful, powerful text. Powerful text. 21:48 Paul says, "Let your conduct be without covetousness." 21:54 He's actually saying, don't always look at everybody else, 21:57 you know, live your own skin, in your own life. 21:59 Don't look at what your neighbors doing, 22:00 what your neighbors got. 22:02 What--you know, what's going on in their life? 22:04 Look into your own life. Don't be coveting anybody. 22:06 I wished I had what she has. No, you got what you got. 22:09 Praise God. Amen. 22:11 And you got Jesus. 22:13 And you never know that Jesus is all you need 22:16 till Jesus is all you got. 22:19 So Paul says don't covet anybody. 22:26 "Be content with such things as you have." 22:30 Jealousy just makes you old and ugly. 22:38 So be content with what you got 22:41 and pray for God to give you more. 22:42 Sometimes God doesn't give you things 22:44 'cause you can't handle it. 22:46 I got a good friend, deacon in other church 22:47 has a pin in each hip 'cause he wanted a motorcycle. 22:51 Prayed for a motorcycle, got to have a motorcycle. 22:54 Lord, let him have a motorcycle. 22:56 On the way from church he had a manhole cover, 22:59 ripped up half a side, now he's got a pin in two hips. 23:03 Lord, let him have what he want. 23:05 Now that didn't seemed like such a good thing 23:06 so he's got a motorcycle sitting in the garage, 23:08 hadn't driven it in 7 years. 23:10 Be content with what you got 23:12 and then ask God to give you more 23:15 and then let God lead, okay. 23:18 Two more lines and I'm done. 23:20 "For He Himself has said," here's the good part, 23:23 "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 23:26 Come on. Amen. 23:28 I'll never leave you nor forsake you. 23:30 "So we can boldly said, 'The Lord is my helper.'" 23:34 How many feel the Lord is their helper? 23:36 Yeah, don't be ashamed of making that statement, 23:38 God's on my side 'cause I'm on His side. 23:40 "We can boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. 23:46 What can man do to me?" 23:51 Amen. Nothing. 23:54 Let me tell you a secret and I'm done. 23:56 I had a little in my last church, 23:58 my last church was 2,142 members right in Manhattan, New York. 24:04 I preached 117 funerals in the time I pastored there. 24:08 One of the saddest funerals was the boy of 13 24:11 happened to be driving by, riding by on his bike, 24:14 a skating ring when there was a drive by shooting, 24:18 took two bullets in the neck. 24:20 So now I got to tell those parents 24:22 something to give them courage. 24:24 Came up with a sermon called bulletproof. 24:26 Simply this. Jesus makes you this promise. 24:33 Once you surrender the life to Him, 24:38 you become bulletproof. 24:41 Amen. Now what do I mean. 24:44 Jesus says, "If you live in Me and die in Me, 24:51 you will live forever." 24:53 Do you hear me? 24:55 So that means even if they take your life 24:59 they haven't hurt you 25:02 because you exchange this life for eternal life. 25:09 That makes you bulletproof. 25:11 Amen. Amen. 25:12 So I told that mother, your young boy 25:16 who sang in the choir, 25:17 was a junior deacon in the church, who loved Jesus. 25:22 You got a promise from Jesus 25:23 as solid as the God who gave it 25:26 that that little boy is gonna live forever. 25:28 He's bulletproof. 25:30 You can't hurt somebody who's in Jesus. 25:33 You can't, you can't curse them out, 25:35 you can't swear them out, you can't beat them out, 25:38 you can't stop them out, and even if you kill 25:42 them you haven't hurt him 'cause Jesus says 25:44 one day they're gonna have eternal life. 25:49 How long is eternal? Forever. 25:53 Oh, no, but is pretty long. Amen. 25:57 Amen. God bless you. 26:08 It's really sad to have to lock these gates. 26:13 Have to lock these gates and have to leave. 26:15 But it's a testimony, if the power of the gospel 26:21 that you witnessed in real life of heart's being changed 26:24 in a maximum security prison. 26:26 So this is where the rubber meets the road. 26:29 We're going home, we have to leave this facility 26:32 but the gospel message resonates in us life 26:34 and it will in a maximum security prison. 26:38 I love my job. 26:39 Honestly, I mean this facility 26:41 and I do enjoy working at this facility. 26:44 I wake up every morning, I'm very excited 26:46 and want to come to work and, you know, do my job. 26:49 The Christians Behind Borders program 26:51 I was first introduced in it, 26:52 to it when I was an officer back in 2002. 26:55 You know, back then it was, 26:59 I saw different side of it and I did see the full of that. 27:02 But I can say in general that everyone 27:04 was very appreciated by that. 27:05 Now that I've seen the other side of it 27:07 from administrative side and an organizational side, 27:10 I see, I definitely see that the benefit of it. 27:13 And you know, I'm glad for it 'cause it's my boys program. 27:15 It does show that more people can have support 27:19 and more people have support for the prisoners inside, 27:22 other than just their family 27:23 and that there is the other element of support 27:25 that they have and know that somebody else 27:27 is looking after them and does care for them. 27:30 A lot of these guys in here, man, don't have a thing. 27:33 And for you guys to be able to come up here and do this for us. 27:36 Man, it just--it's right here, man, it feels good, 27:39 it feels really good. 27:40 And I can guarantee you, I speak for a lot of these man 27:43 in here and they can greatly appreciate you guys. 27:46 And the Lord is with you guys and He's with us. 27:48 Obviously, you guys coming up here and helping us out, man. 27:51 We greatly appreciate it and just want to thank you guys. 27:55 We never imagined that blessing or the beauty 27:59 that God would bring out of this endeavor working 28:01 together for the kingdom of God. 28:04 Bringing hope to our brothers and sisters behind bars 28:07 and now our brothers and sisters behind bars are 28:09 actually bringing hope and encouragement 28:12 to our viewers around the world. 28:14 God bless you and we look forward to you 28:17 partnering with us, christmasbehindbars.org. 28:22 Blessings to you until we meet again. |
Revised 2014-12-17