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Jul 26, 2024 · 49 minutes

Daniel Sanabria, Executive Director of Youth for Christ New York City, steps into “The Corner.”

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Show notes

0:00 - 15:00. 2 Timothy 2:1-3. Great Commission execution is not based upon circumstantial convenience. 15:00 - 31:00. Daniel Sanabria, Executive Director of Youth for Christ New York City, steps into “The Corner.” 31:00 - 48:00. Juvenile detention presents a critical life juncture. Living intercession at this stage can literally be an eternal life or death situation. To donate call : 877-616-2396

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Transcript

7,720 words, in two-minute parts. Made by machine, so a few words may be off.

0:0048:53

  1. 0:02

    Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite. Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media. And the philosophies of this world. God has called you and me to be His ambassador. Even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment. And now, the Hamilton Corner. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio. I'm your host Abraham Hamilton, III, joined in studio by the real Jay Mack, often imitated, never duplicated, and we are ready to rock and roll with today's edition of the program, What a Week This Has Been. What a Week. What a Week. And it's times like this that I find it to be most helpful to revisit enduring truths, you know, to revisit anchoring truth that aids us in remaining focused in the midst of tumultuous times, you know, looking at the different things and, you know, now the media is straight up lying, you know, about Kamala Harris and, oh, no, she wasn't and borders are you see, even though she was placed in charge of the border. It's absurd, man. We are living in absurd times and the absurdity of the times that we're living in are downstream from an increasingly wicked populace to say, simply an increasingly wicked populace. But we must remember that God has ordained us for these times.

  2. 2:03

    He's planted us in our nation in this time, intentionally. He's done so for us to be His hands and feet, to be His ambassadors and to do what He is called, us to do individually. I want to emphasize the reality that if you are in Christ, every single believer is called to ministry. Every single believer, every one of us has been called to serve our Lord's purposes, actively, functionally in our time. The only variable is which role we play. We all have different roles to play. This is why you have the first Corinthians 12 description of us being one body with many members. Each of the members having a different role to play, one part of the body shouldn't look at another part of the body and say, because you're not doing what I am doing, then you are not a part of the body. This is what the Lord explained to us. But it's high time for us to have every joint to supply. At this very moment, many of you, and not most of you, you're making your transition from your part-time job where you generate an income to your full-time job, which is outcome cultivation. Outcome cultivation. This is what we have been ordained for in this time. Many of you know if you've been following the program any length of time, we begin each program with a word of God for the express purpose of welcoming God, welcoming the Lord to frame our hearts and minds according to His word as we navigate the issues of the day. We never want to be found abandoning the truth of God's word in order to confront the issues of our day. But we have the privilege and the wherewithal to stand firmly with in the truth of God's word as we do the work of the ministry. Today we're going to begin in 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 just a reminder again. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I'm sorry if I put the note down wrong way. I'm sorry. Did I put it wrong on the note? My bad. Yeah. 2 Timothy chapter two versus one through three.

  3. 4:33

    G. Max, let me know I put a wrong put the note wrong on our internal communications. My bad man, you knew I've been I've been burning. Both. I think we were burning the Canada both ends. By way of reminder though, Timothy is receiving this letter from the Apostle Paul toward the latter part of the Apostle Paul's life. know through the study of church history that the Apostle Paul was executed by Nero under Nero's authority really and it's about the same time that Peter was in that in that interesting and this letter is when Paul was written when Paul is incarcerated awaiting his imminent albeit uncertain execution imminent because he knows it's coming uncertain because he doesn't know what you did and so this This epistle, this letter is a part of one of the last things that Paul expresses in Timothy receives this. And so this is important for us to understand as we attempt to navigate this particular epistle and the truth contained therein. But Paul writes to Timothy with this cultural and contextual backdrop, verse one, 2 Timothy verse one, you therefore, my son, Paul, right into Timothy, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. It's remarkable that as Paul is facing this imminent, albeit on certain execution, he is encouraging Timothy to be strong. He is encouraging Timothy to refuse to allow Paul's circumstantial conditions to intimidate him to back Timothy away from following the Lord's course for his life.

  4. 6:41

    Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Paul also directs Timothy to the source of the strength that he must draw from. He's not encouraging Timothy to be strong in his own humanistic capacity. He's not encouraging Timothy to be strong because Timothy is filled with a strength of will in mind over matter and the ability to unilaterally self induced or self willed endurance known be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The Greek word for grace is chorus. It is not only, yes, it is God granting us what we do not deserve. It is also God's empowerment mechanism. God empowers his children to follow his purpose. God does not call us to obey him and yet leave us to humanistic resources to leave us and leave us to our own abilities to obey him. He indwells us by His Spirit and empowers us by His Spirit through His grace to follow Him. Paul is encouraging Timothy to refuse to rely on himself alone, but to remain tethered to the only source of true potency that is a grace of Jesus Christ. Denny explains, Timothy, this encouragement is not merely for you, but the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses reveals that Paul instructed Timothy, not in a silo, not solo even, but there were others who were present for the instruction. The things that you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others. There is a quality that is necessary in the would-be disciple for us to be able to identify as we make the decision as to where we pour, where we invest.

  5. 9:05

    But verse 3 is what I really want to point us to in conveying all of this and writing Timothy from jail. And as I've said before, first century Roman jails and prisons are not like American jails and prisons, but there's one thing about getting mail from somebody in jail. You know it's jail mail. And it's not like, oh, this is just a parcel that has come to me from the Punta Kana resort in the Dominican Republic. Now this came from jail. You know, it's jail mail. Paul encourages the Timothy to want us to pronounce the Greek phrase properly. So God go pothio joint suffering mutual suffering. This is something that's not going to sell a lot of tickets. This this is not going to have arenas packed out. The call to follow Christ is not a call to flowery beds of each. It's a call to come and die. in dying to our self-willed unilateralized man, we are embraced by and we are resurrected, if you will, to a life of eternal purpose and eternal function. The call to execute our king's commission is not one that we obey depending on circumstantial environmental conditions being conducive. You know, well if the temperature is just right, maybe we obey. If the weather is just right, maybe with all its raining can, the call to follow Christ is one we obey even in the face of difficulty. That is what I want to point out to you as we launch off into today's program. You study our family's eternal history. You find that it is filled with brethren who at the very cost of their own lives, obeyed our Lord. If it were not for the Spirit of God, superintending our ancestors in the faith to stake their lives to pass down the gospel, you and I wouldn't have been able to receive it. You and I have the wherewithal to read the scripture and are commonly spoken vernacular because they were brethren who have gone before us that literally gave their lives so that others can read God's holy word. What I'm inviting you to, what I'm challenging you with what I am exhorting you to respond to is the fact that the great commission's execution is required even during difficult times.

  6. 11:44

    I know you're facing all manner of difficulty. I'm facing all manner of difficulty. I have things going on in my family, you know, had to put in a rear Wednesday because of a situation that happened in my family. And to be frank, it's on my mind right now. But the work must go on, the work must be done. And it honors the Lord that even when we're facing difficulty, that we press through, that we press through, the call of follow Christ is not a call for the faint of heart, it's not a call for the weak, it's not a call for the, for the tepid, for the intimidated. But it is because we understand the significance of what is at stake, because we understand more importantly than the significance of what is at stake, because we understand who it is that is called the phrase I often ponder within my heart and my wife and I discuss frequently. Is he not worthy? Is he not worthy? Is he not worthy? The issues that we face, the overcoming simple predilections, the often sometimes halting between two opinions, is he not worthy? The only appropriate answer is yes, he's worthy. I've said it before and I'll say it again. And when you've been captured by Christ, you move away from merely giving offerings to becoming the offering. You live the declaration that Lord, all that I am is yours. Every aspect of my engagement, every aspect of my capacity, every aspect of my resources, Lord, all that I am is yours. And I'm not saying you give away your money and you go broke and let your lights get cut off and all of that. No, you're manning into the resources of God, places in your care. It's a part of your worship to Him.

  7. 13:46

    But make no mistake about it. He's worthy of it all. He's worthy of it all. And the times that we're living in, we, we need the people of God to give it all, man, to give it all. You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things that you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these two faithful men who will be able to teach others also suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. I'm not a spiritual masochist, I'm not standing here saying, yeah, bring on the persecution. What do I am saying is, Lord, strengthen me so that I may endure whatever I need to endure, so that your will will be fulfilled in me and through me, and the portion that you have for me to offer as a member of your body, Lord, I pray you will be glorified as endeavor to serve you with every breath you have blessed me to receive. He's worthy. You've heard a lot about saving babies on this show. That's because it's important to me personally. And let me just be frank with you. We need to save them. That's why we've partnered with Preborn, the nation's leader in introducing mothers with unplanned pregnancies to their babies. And once she hears that heartbeat and sees that precious life growing inside of her, she is twice as likely to choose life. Now that's a miracle. But quite honestly, if we don't save them, who will? Preborn receives no government funding, So their work is completely dependent on us. Preborn has rescued over 280,000 babies. And that's not all. They provide love, support, and counseling for up to two years for free, saving lives and souls. One ultrasound is just $28 or $140 helps to rescue five babies' lives.

  8. 15:47

    Abortion doesn't stop, so we can't. Together, you and I can save lives. Just dial pound 250 on your cell and say the keyword baby, that's 250 baby, or go to preborn.com, that's preborn.com. Shiting light into the darkness, this is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton, III here. I'm excited to have on a program a brother whose ministry I just learned about recently, but I thought it was important to present to you what he's doing there and hopefully and prayerfully, you will be inspired to put your log on the fire, so to speak, to offer what God has called you to do. My guest right now is the executive director of Youth for Christ New York City. It is a ministry that particularly that focuses on helping to offer hope and the hope of transformation and particularly to teens that are in crisis, including teens who are incarcerated. My guess is none other than Mr. Daniel Sanabria. Daniel, thank you for joining me here on the Hamilton Corner. Thank you so much for having me, brother. I'm really excited to be here. Oh, man, I'm excited to have you here. I know I should have included this that you are born and raised in New York. And you are based in Brooklyn right now. Is that right? Yeah, man, born and raised. It's New York City, New York. That's my hometown. from from, you know, I'm all over the place, but yeah, New York City, baby, it's what my... That's beautiful Brooklyn stand up. That's it, baby, all day. All day. Now, I wanted to ask you right at the beginning of our time together here, if you would just share with our audience how you came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Yeah, man, listen, I grew up in church, my mom and dad, I'm in a church seven days a week in a Pentecostal church in Brooklyn, New York.

  9. 17:56

    We raised in a great household. Mom and dad worked hard. Business owners, three brothers, altogether four boys in the same household, but I had issues. My issues were, it's securities. My issues were, you know, getting left back in first grade and a lot of issues when it came to just like, just social issues. My father called me the black sheep of the family, out of the four boys, I was the one that got arrested, I was the one that was in trouble all the time, fighting all the time. And just had a lot of issues in those areas. And again, grew up in church, but Danny had some issues. And verbally abused, I became a bully. I just wasn't really good with people around me. And growing up with two older brothers, not feeling loved. I know my parents love me, but again, I had just these thoughts that was coming to my mind. And yeah, man, then one day, listen, one day, I went to a retreat, like I always went to, right? That's a Christian, as a young man grew up in church, you gotta go to retreats, I went to retreat, and I heard the gospel for the first time. It wasn't a gospel about what you do, you become saved. the gospel was he did it all. You didn't do anything and he loves you. And the guy was talking about that Christ wanted to be your best friend. And I was struggling to have a best friend back in the days. And I know the gospel was really on point that day. And I heard the gospel in plenty of times from my dad from my church, but this was different man. And that moment when I said, yes, I accept Christ the personal savior, I'm a sinner and I need a savior. And I can't do it anymore.

  10. 19:57

    I can't go to church thinking I'm gonna be saved. I can't, it's not me, it's Jesus. And I just felt that love. I felt that, I felt this weight off of me, of my anger, all my issues, literally it lifted it for me. And I felt love and I felt this love to love other people. And when I went to tell people I'm a follower of Christ, they didn't believe me, but when I didn't fight, when I didn't argue, when I started loving my brothers, they were like, yo, what is wrong with this dude? Where's the old Danny? And I said, guys, I'm a follower of Christ, man. He did everything. He paid the price. I don't deserve this. I didn't do anything that deserves this. I put my faith in Christ and that was it, man. 16 years old and I went radical for Christ and never looked back. And now I love to do what God's called me to do, man. Tell people about this saving grace, this amazing grace. And I never looked back, bro. Changed my whole life. My parents said to me, Danny, it wasn't for Jesus. We don't know what you would be. Hey, that man, that is, if that's not the testimony, I resonate with you so much. The Lord saved me as well. I tell people all the time I'm just due from the hood in the Orleans and the Lord saved me. Now you work with Youth for Christ, which has been a leader in missional youth outreach since 1944. And Youth for Christ is dedicated to uncovering God's story of hope in the next generation that desperately needs it. How did you get to the place coming to Christ as 16 years old to where you then began to work with you for Christ. Yeah, man. So God save it. I was 16, did ministry from there. I worked in YouTube industry, local church. I just served the local church since 16 on. And I went to a Christian school in college.

  11. 22:00

    I got trained there under crew ministry, called the college was called the King's College in the city of New York, trained up in leadership, in ministry. Then I became a youth pastor, I was 23, got involved in youth here in New York City, reaching the young people in New York City. I started a ministry called God belongs in my city. That started the prayer walks in New York City all over, and we started all over the country. So involved in ministry, right after a college, really invested. All of this is volunteer. They saw, and youth for Christ came to New York City and said, we're looking for somebody that's loving young people, that's doing ministry that's involved, that knows people, that's from New York. And they said, Danny, I think you're the right guy. I was like, listen, getting paid to reach young people, finally, after 15 years of volunteering as a youth pastor, I'm all down. I'm down to do this. And I love the mission, Youth for Christ. Evangelistic Billy Graham was the first employee back in the days. And I was like, I want to be part of that legacy, reaching the loss in the darkest areas of our city and see these kids know Jesus, you know? And so I did everything, whatever is possible to reach a young person, go to the parks, go to the neighborhoods, go where they're at. And I loved every part of it. So when I joined YFC, they said, Danny, we want you, but there's one area that we, you haven't touched and that's juvenile justice. And I was like, what the heck is that? Like, okay, kids getting arrested. I've been arrested before, but I've never visited a kid in prison. I'm not going to rikers. I don't know what's going on with that type of stuff. So I joined eight years ago and I look back, I'm like, this is the greatest moments of my life. Mm. So the idea of getting involved with juvenile justice was presented to you and it was foreign to you when it was initially presented to you, right?

  12. 24:02

    Foreign. I mean, I knew about it. I have friends involved in it. But my ministry was going to the neighborhood corners, reaching kids in the park, inviting kids to church, doing Christian events, doing prayer walks. That was my ministry environment. And I love every moment of that. I love when the kids came from the projects, came to church. That was my thing. But when a kid got arrested, they're off. We grew up saying, man, you do the crime, the time, you know, that was it. But seems like we had a little bit of a pause here, a little technical difficulties. Man, technology is fantastic when it works. You know, just a big thing. I mean, we have 80,000 kids rested. You know, it's going in and out. Oh, man. That is weird. I was on fire. Man, I can tell I can hear you now. You say, yeah, I can hear you. Can you hear me now? All right. Good. I hear you know, I hear you know. So you were explaining juvenile justice, how many children are arrested? I think you were referring to. 80,000 kids are in juvenile across the country. Whoa. 13 to 18, they're in jail. And who's reaching them, who's walking with them, who's talking to them, who's visiting them. Jesus has told us to visit the prisoners, right? And I believe in, and I'm like, why not? so when they called me and I said I'm down I want to go there and adjust the sense there in the rocks. See man we're having now it was breaking up pretty badly. I don't know Jeff who might need try to reestablish another connection. I don't know. Let's let's try that if we could reestablish a different connection.

  13. 26:02

    Because I can hear you now. Are you there? Man. Yeah. I'm here. I can hear you. I can hear you now. I have full bars over here. Okay. Okay. Go ahead. You were explaining 80,000 children are in juvenile across the country. And you're like 8,000 kids in juvenile justice, 13 to 18 years old and present. Man. That is a pivotal juncture. But I think many people don't realize sometimes the circumstances you've now can be just as hostile, if not more so, because you have young people trying to kind of prove themselves that they're big and bad, that they're gangster, something like that. And it's a pivotal juncture that oftentimes when you have a young person who goes to juvenile detention, that they could actually become even more criminally minded because of the environment that they're in in juvenile detention. Is that something you've come across? Oh yeah, absolutely. There's a big issue. There's no right answer here, but the reality is when you're joining, you're going to a facility with other young people that are gang members, you know, that's not really a good teachable moment there. They are surrounded by violence, surrounded by stories, surrounded by their peers, that are from the same neighborhood or different neighborhoods. And so they're always on guard. and the gangs, the violence and the gang stories are real. And they're surrounded by this stuff every single moment. And so that's why we're trying to come in, we're trying to come in to stop that. Change of story, change the outlook, change the chapter. That's what we're doing. And you said you've been doing this now, eight years? Eight years working with kids in two facilities, one in the Bronx and one in Brooklyn.

  14. 28:03

    a hundred kids per location, and I'm trying to round up the churches, I'm all over New York City, to see the need of them being invited to inside the facility and working with kids. Listen, I can't do it out the church, I can't do it alone, the church is the hope of the world, calling the churches right now. Get off, get out of the follow-all, walk into a young person's life and serve them. If it's in the neighborhood, if it's a neighborhood, do it, you know, stop being, you know, lazy. These kids need us. And I know that we have a lot of issues here, but we have to be patient, willing, loving, compassionate, and consistent to work with these young people in our neighborhoods because I'm dead. We're not working with kids in our neighborhoods. It's a pipeline straight to prison. It's a pipeline, especially in urban context. There's a pipeline. We're trying to stop that pipeline. I so appreciate your your desire to be a co-laborer With with the local church because sometimes and this is just unfortunate You have ministries sometimes parachurch ministries that kind of feel like well We'll go and do all of this kind of stuff, but we really really need the local church To rally to that cause can you share with the with our audience here any? Testimonious you're willing to share of you working with one of the young people who have been incarcerated in how their lives will change as a result? Yeah, man. I would love to tell you a story that a kid, I know that a lot of people want to hear a kid coming to Jesus right away and serving church right away, but this process of working with kids in prison takes a long time. There are walls that need to be knocked down. They are trauma that needs to be worked at. And so, but we have kids coming to the Lord, being baptized inside prison, changing their lives around. But it takes a process and it takes a discipleship and takes a walking with these young people.

  15. 30:06

    And we are working with kids now for five or six years already, because we met them when we were 14 years old. Now their lives are changed because of the constant commitment of the local church and youth for Christ in their lives. And they will testify. For example, Christian is a young man that we met He was 14 years old. He's 20 years old now. And he will tell you today, if it wasn't YFC or the church, I wouldn't be here where I'm at. I wouldn't be consistent having a job. I wouldn't be back in jail. If there wasn't for the consistency and the love that we have for him and the testimony when I say that is my set changed. I'm telling you the conversations are godly. The conversations are saying, Danny, I need to do better. I want to do better. What does God say about this? What does God say? I want this. That's the power of discipleship. It's a constant, we call it Christ-sharing relationship. You see, we want, we want altar calls. There's people that don't want discipleship. And so So, all the cause are easy. The discipleship is harder. And so, we are believing that discipleship is saying, hey, when you're in jail and when you come out of jail, we're gonna be with you. We're not a program, we're not a program that will with you six months, we're with you as long as we're on earth with you. You search the scriptures, I don't see anywhere in the scriptures. When those Lord said, go there for me, have an altar call. He said go there for me, make disciples of all nations. And you mentioned it is true. Discipleship is not glitz and glam. You have to get involved in people's lives. And the most effective way to do that is really life on life. It's a life on life reality. And we often like to say that every person should have a Timothy and a Paul in their lives, as we like to say in our local church.

  16. 32:09

    And what you're describing seems to be similar to that. We're heading to the break. You can hit that disrespectful music. My guest is Daniel Sanabria, Executive Director of Youth for Christ, New York City. We were talking about the work that he's doing in New York in the juvenile detention centers. We're gonna continue this conversation on the other side of the break. Don't go anywhere. You don't wanna miss the remainder of this conversation. We also want you to get connected with Youth for Christ, New York City. Their website is YFCNYC.org. That is YFCNYC.org. If you're in that area, you may be able to help. You may need to connect with Danny and get into Crossroads, get into the places in New York. So you can be the hands and feet of Jesus in this particular application of being an ambassador of Christ. The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Minute Common Terrets are available at AFR.net. Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton. The third here, my guest is Daniel Sonabria, Executive Director of the Youth for Christ, New York City Ministry, Daniel. Before we went to the break, we were talking about all of the vital, vital work that you're doing there in New York. And for some people, they may not be aware, but the detention center may be the only place that some of these use feel safe, have reliable meals, and are even able to stay sober because we have young people who often get caught up on drugs at very young ages. Is that something you've experienced? Absolutely. I mean, the facilities here in New York City, the juvenile justice are better than the adult prison. I mean, there's a more structured, a lot more people involved, a lot more programming. And these kids, they definitely feel safe in a way from the streets.

  17. 34:16

    That's absolutely a lot of kids tell me that. They eat better in jail than outside. I know that because I get calls and text messages, and Danny, can you send me money for food and send me money for this? And when they're in jail, they have everything. Healthcare, food, a place to sleep. The reality is we don't want them there, right? We don't want them in that area. We want them to be back home with family. I have a young girl that actually, she's by herself, and she left prison, she left facility, but she came back and waited for, waiting for some guards to come out of work. And we asked, she asked, they asked, why are you here? Why are you outside of the facility? Go back home. She's like, I don't have a home. You guys are my home. You guys treated me well here. And I just wanna hang out with you guys. And so it breaks our heart that we have young people that don't have anywhere to go. A lot of these kids go to shelters, a lot of these kids go back to being in the foster care. And so it's a sad sad, those moments are sad to hear and be a part of, but the church has to be a part of that. That's what we're here for. And we wanna see kids know Christ, but also wanna see kids get housing, jobs, finding internships and find a place so they could have meals in their home and know that they're worth it. See what you're describing, it goes back to discipleship. Sometimes people misunderstand that and think that discipleship is limited to the concept that was commonly described as spiritual disciplines. But the fact is that Christ is Lord of everything. So a comprehensive disciple making process, especially with our teams will include them developing spiritual disciplines, growing in the fruit of the spirit, but also the application of those disciplines in the various segments of society.

  18. 36:22

    How do you get and maintain a job? Or if somebody's entrepreneurial, you're gonna have to have the discipline, personal discipline, self-control, in order to be effective in that. And so, aiding people and it become well adjusted adults is included in the concept of making a disciple. Never get one conversation I had with a guy, I won't go to a long story, but this dude, was in New Orleans, he was a former gang banger. By God's grace, I had an opportunity to administer to him. You know, he gets saved, he goes to university. But he was at one point kind of talking a bit about how he's spending all of his time at college in the cafeteria sharing the gospel. And I just lovingly pulled him to the side and said, man listen, you're not being a thorough witness for Christ if you're feeling your classes. If God has assigned you to college for now, you're not honoring him by making bad grades. It's not as well for you to be in the cafeteria all the time, sharing the gospel. You need to be a witness to your classmates and to your professors, not just those of whom you evangelized. And the whole point was that Christ should be Lord of everything. We shouldn't silo or segment where we will reference Him and serve Him through. And so what you're talking about as you're aiding these young people to not only become born again, but to make that adjustment into becoming fully functioning citizens in our economy that honor the Lord through and through, that's all a part of discipleship. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, absolutely. No, we have a program here called Faith and Works, and actually right now after this conversation, I will be going into a facility with 20 young people. And I'm literally gonna talk about entrepreneurship. This is our third week doing it. So we do a thing called Faith and Works, and basically we talk about Christ and entrepreneurship. They're called to work that their hands and feet are important to God. Their minds are important to God. Most of these kids have got arrested because of the hustle and the entrepreneurship way they have, right? But the reality is they're called by God to work and work is a product of his creation, right?

  19. 38:22

    We've called to work. It's not a product of sin. Amen. We've called to work in the beginning. So when they're taught that and they give these is central tools such as budgeting and saving, but also starting a business, creating a business. That teaches them, wait a minute, I'm not just a hustler to grab money, but I could create something to make money. And so we've been doing it for four years and we've seen the success kids are loving it, they're enjoying it, and they're coming out of the jail saying, Yeah, I could do better than I did before. And let me use what God's giving me to make a difference. Man, that's so powerful. That's so powerful. How can people connect with you and keep up with the work that you're doing at Youth of Christ, New York City? And if they may be stirred right now to get involved with Youth of Christ, wherever they may live? Yeah, I mean, we're in a lot of the major cities across the country. But if you want to get involved in New York, there's many ways. Please pray for us, number one. Amen. If you're in New York City, the five boroughs, please volunteer with us. If you're across the country and you're trying to help New York City get to our kids, if you wanna donate, help us out, listen, that's part of one of my big jobs to go out there, knock on doors, ask churches to come and volunteer, but ask churches to help and support this ministry. We don't get any federal government money, we don't get anything like that. It's, I depend on the people of God to reach these young people across the city. And now we're not just reaching young people, reaching the families, reaching mom and dad, or reaching the brothers and sisters, reaching all the above. We're being the church, and I believe that if the church can help us support our initiative, we have a living in New York City, it's not easy, raising money in New York City is not easy, even surviving in New York City is not easy. I'm born and raised in New York, and there's many ways that I have to make sure that me and my family are eating.

  20. 40:24

    But the reality is this, we're full time doing this. We're looking for people to join our team. We're looking for funders. We're looking for people to donate to adopt a hall or adopt a young person. You go on our website, YFCNYC.org, and you can donate and help us out. But our prayers will be grateful. And if you're in New York and you want to be a part of juvenile justice, working with kids, stop it by the cycle. Come join us. Go on our website, email us, it's getting involved. And you mentioned something as you shared that, that is something I want to ask you about, is that by ministering to an individual, child, young person, you actually have on-trade administered to the whole families. It seems, and I have a background in, as an attorney working in law and all this kind of stuff, criminal justice and all of that. But what I have found is that one of the common denominators is when you have people that are introduced to, and pursue frankly, a life of criminality at any stage, They often flow from a background, a family background, is kind of decimated in different ways. Is that something that you've encountered through the work that you're doing there? Absolutely. Probably 85% of the young people that we work with have a broken family. Dad's on a round. Mom's working a full-time job. Streets are raising our kids. And so it's the reality that, you know, they need a dad in their family. They need somebody that's a man in their family to support and love on them. And so when there's no father, it affects the whole family. It affects mom, it affects the children. And New York City is condensed. It's very close. It's not like in the suburbs. It's far, everyone's on top of each other. But in the Bronx, in Brooklyn, mostly kids that we get are from NYCHA projects, which is NYCHA housing, which is the projects. everyone's on top of each other. Everyone is surviving. Everyone wants something. And we're seeing this happening across our city. And it breaks my heart that I have to go into a facility and 98% or 99% are young men. African American Latinos are people that are suffering. And it shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't be that way. And we need to stop it. And I think the church, church is the answer. I'm telling you, I will mention the church a million times. Even if we have bad news about the church or pastors falling, the church is still the hope of the world and the church needs to get involved and be a part of this.

  21. 43:10

    Daniel Sanabria, Youth for Christ, is not going to save the world. It's to take the body of Christ to work together to change the system. Yes, we could put laws down, we could put legislations down, but that will never change the heart of man. Well, change the heart of man is a saving grace of Christ and the gospel and the church is the place that brings out the most. So we really, really, really want the people of God to stand up and help us through this because let me tell you something. I guarantee you, men that came to Christ, I would say this, that they would give a few shut up to the local church of other men in the local church that helped them become men of righteousness. So I think that it's important to have the church rise up in these moments. Man, you mentioned something when the scripture bears it out, he feeds and shap the three verse 10 says that the Manifal wisdom of God would be manifested, would be put on display through the church, you know. It is remarkable when you say that. And I want to invite you to respond to this question and when you say that what's needed is for the church to respond. Specifically, what are you referring to? What does the church need to do in your estimation in order to address what's befalling our nation, particularly through our young people. We just, you said it come visit me, prison free the poor, help the widows. I mean, he said it, just do what Jesus did. I mean, at the end of the day, do what Jesus said, come and see, follow me, come and see. And it's all about working, walking with people, discipling people, and the church needs to say, wait a minute, yeah, we come on Sundays, we love on each other, we worship God, But the reality is the church needs to be, listen, if you're a believer in a follow Christ, you go to a local church, amen.

  22. 45:21

    But if you're not discipling people, I don't know what you're doing. We're called to disciple people. If I can mention, if I could say, what are the three people in your life, or two people, or one person in your life, name the people you're discipling. If you cannot name anyone that you're not discipling, what are you doing as a follow Christ? What are you literally doing? I can name you a bunch of kids. I can name you families I'm important into. And it's not because I'm a pastor or because I'm a, it's because I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm supposed to disciple people. We're supposed to say, if the senior passage and leaders across this country saying, you know what, no more big events, let's just work with how to disciple people. And you don't have to be a pastor or a leader to disciple people. You need to have, be filled with the Holy Spirit to disciple people. So I really believe that's the case. Get our people involved is who are you discipling? I preached the other day and I told a bunch of all my members, hey listen, what are the three people you're praying for? What are the three people that you think about? What are the three people you're pouring into? If we could do that, the multiplication is undeniable. The multiplication is undeniable. It would blossom if we just keep on disciplining. The numbers bared out. There are over 6 billion people in the world today. If the body of Christ, each one of us would take it upon ourselves to disciple one person. And that one person disciples another person. And that process continues. We could reach the world's population in a generation and a half. that just do the math, just do the math yourself, because multiplication is far more impactful than addition. And with the compounded impact of multiplication, that we could have the wherewithal to a we can fulfill Jesus's command to make disciples of all nations.

  23. 47:29

    This is the call of Christ. There's lots of things that we can do, but there's one thing Jesus instructed us to do. Matthew 28, Mark 16, go therefore into all the world. You know, the cosmos making disciples of all ethnos. That's the Greek word there for nations. Teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you. Daniel and Shana Bria, I'm so sorry we've run out of time. I could talk to you for hours, man. Because that's the heartbeat of our Lord, making disciples and it should be our heartbeat. Once again, tell people how they can connect with you and use the Christ NYC. Man, go to website YFCNYC.org or Instagram YFCNYC. and YFC NYC, love for you connect with us, help us out, help us reach these kids, help us change the generation, help us turn our city upside down. And if you could do it in your city, turn your city upside down, just like Peter and disciples did, let's make this happen, man, YFC NYC.org. Amen. YFC NYC.org, we have the wherewithal and where I am powered by the Spirit of God Himself to literally change our world. And as a result of that, We are able to change the world. Thank you for joining me today, Daniel. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.

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