Newsletter Archive: Two Sinners Pray for Salvation During Miami Outreach – 4/03/2009

For many years, the newsletters for Open Air Outreach were only published through email. Those newsletters were not posted online. We are now in the process of archiving these old newsletters online so that they are available to the body of Christ at large to read and be encouraged and edified by them.

The contents from this post was an email newsletter sent out on 4/03/2009

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Two Sinners Pray for Salvation During Miami Outreach
Jesse Morrell
Apr 3, 2009

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WE THANK GOD FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT

SOAPA CONFERENCE CHRISTIAN PERFECTION SERMON CAN A MAN GO A SINGLE DAY WITHOUT SINNING?   At the Southeastern Open Air Preachers Associations conference, I was blessed with an opportunity to speak about the doctrine of Christian Perfection. My sermon was divided into a few parts: 1. What sin is. 2. What sin is not. 3. What perfection is. 4. What perfection is not. 5. Moral perfection attainable in this life 6. Remarks SIN & PERFECTION Essentially I argued that sin is the choice to violate God’s law; moral perfection is an obedient heart; moral perfection is attainable in this life because God wants us to be morally perfect in this life. God supplies us with the ability and influence necessary to obey His law. GNOSTICISM: SINFUL FLESH UNTIL GLORIFICATION I also argued that sin is not a substance, therefore you do not need to wait until you have a glorified body to be morally perfect. Gnosticism teaches that sin is a substance, that matter has moral qualities, that our flesh is sinful, therefore we cannot be morally perfect in this life until glorification. The truth however is that moral qualities can only be prescribed to states of the will, not states of matter. Only what violates God’s law can be considered sinful. God’s law tells us what types of choices to make, not what type of body to have. Therefore our choices can be sinful, but not our flesh or nature. Sinfulness is the choice of the heart to disobey God’s law. Perfection is the choice of the heart to obey God’s law. God has given us a free will to choose between obedience and disobedience. God influences us to obey Him. Therefore moral perfection is possible and attainable in this life. Physical perfection however is not attainable until glorification. Gnosticism however fails to distinguish between the physical and the moral. DOES GOD WANT US TO BE SINFUL OR PERFECT? I argued that God wants us to be perfect. Since God wants us to be perfect, He gives us the ability to be perfect. If God does not give us the ability to be perfect, He must not want us to be perfect. If God does not want us to be perfect, God wants us to be sinful. Therefore if moral perfection is not attainable in this life, sinfulness is the will of God. Many of the open air preachers at this conference greatly enjoyed the message. Even the Pastor of the Church said that he liked it very much. I am in the process of uploading this sermon to my YouTube account: www.YouTube.com/BibleTheology MIAMI FL OUTREACH CONFRONATIONAL EVANGELISM CHANGES LIVES I was able to meet Brother Martin during my time in Miami. He is the man in this picture holding the bullhorn. A couple years ago Brother Micah came through his campus and preached for a week. Micah preaches very strongly about sin, hell, judgment, and Jesus Christ. Martin came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and gave his life totally to the Lord. Now he is involved in open air preaching! People ask all the time “where is the fruit of this type of ministry”. Talk to Brother Martin and you will find out how life changing ministry like this can be.   PLAIN PREACHING In soul winning, the object is to get the mind of sinners to consider the truths of sin, judgment, hell, and Jesus Christ in order to influence their will into submission to God. The most effective way of achieving that object is by plainly preaching about those issues.  We stationed ourselves right next to an open area that has outdoor showers. This area has a lot of traffic of people going to the beach and people coming from the beach. Standing on the public bench for elevation so that everyone could see and using a bullhorn for amplification so everyone could hear, we attracted many crowds that gathered around and listened. These crowds mainly listened. There was very little heckling and very few questions. Most of the time they sat or stand and simply listened as we preached the full Gospel. NATURAL BARRIERS ARE GOOD TO LOOK FOR This slab of grass provided us with a very ideal location for preaching. The land was raised just slightly an it has bushes which creates a boundary for the crowd. I often look for places like this to preach because the crowds can close in on you which makes it hard to minister to the entire audience. Using this location we had some great open air meetings, calling sinners to forsake their wicked ways and to make Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior.   INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH South Beach in Miami not only has university students coming to see it but also has internationals coming to visit. Two Christian men from England saw us with our signs and banners and were greatly encouraged by our ministry. A Christian woman from Romania also heard us preaching open air and said that she was so excited and encouraged by what we were doing out in the public. Another man came to South Beach all the way from Sardi Arabia! He however was not a Christian but was a Muslim. He read our banners, heard our preaching, and talked with me. I encouraged him to read the “Injeel”. He knew what that was. It is the Islamic name for the Gospel of John. I thought that it was an absolutely amazing opportunity to minister to a Muslim from the Middle East. If we preached to him in Sardi Arabia what we were able to preach in South Beach, we would have been beheaded! Who knows who else from other foreign countries were also in the area and read the banners or heard the preaching! THE POLICE & SPITTING SINNERS The Conference notified the local Police to let them know that we were going to be preaching in the beach area. They granted us the liberty to use our banners and bullhorns without any problems. One Officer did approach us to tell us that we could not use the bullhorns but when he made a phone call he found out that we already cleared it. Though the Police gave us a lot of liberty, they also gave the crowd a lot of liberty. At one time some sinners were getting in our faces and spitting upon us, but the Police ignored it and even drove away. Still, we held our ground and preached the truth. TWO SOULS PRAY FOR SALVATION We preached during the day and during the night. During one of our night time outreaches Ruben prayed with a young man who was apparently very serious about the condition of his soul. We preached the Gospel plain and simple and therefore I hope that this man genuinely committed his life to the Lord. Another individual heard us preaching for days. She was a young homeless woman who hangs out at the beach. She would stay and listen to us preaching for hours. One of the brothers was able to pray with her for salvation. She seemed to me to be very genuine. We also have some brothers who live in the area who knew of a Christian program that she could become apart of to get her off the streets. FAYETTEVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY, NC PREACHING SOLO My wife is further along in her pregnancy and Kerrigan has been busy getting things ready to move his family to Kentucky. That is why I went out to Fayetteville State University solo recently. I gladly preach with groups and partners but when there is nobody to preach with I’ll gladly preach with only the Holy Spirit. Years ago I used to preach solo in front of the bars and clubs in the inner city late into the night. Compared to that, going out on campus alone is easy. TRADED OUR CAR FOR A TRUCK My wife took a picture right as I was leaving for campus. That is the truck that we traded our car for in the picture. It is exactly what we need to haul our 5th wheel. The Lord is very good. THE SPICE GIRLS & GOD’S HOLY HATRED When I arrived on campus and began walking to the area in front of the Union where we preach, some of the students must have recognized me because they began singing, “Yes Jesus loves me. For the Bible tells me so.” As I was getting ready to preach, I rose up my banner that says, “TURN to JESUS and LIVE” and “REPENT and BELIEVE on JESUS”. I decided to spring board off their song. I said, “You know, even the Spice girls sang that song on one of their CD’s. The Bible says in Ps. 5:5 that God hates all workers of iniquity. The Bible also says that God hates the hands that shed innocent blood. God does not have an emotional love for sinners. God is emotionally disgusted with the wicked. There is nothing in their moral character for Him to take emotional pleasure in. But that is not to say that God does not have a love for sinners. God so loved the world. God has a benevolent care and concern for everyone, including sinners. God’s hatred is an emotional abhorrence, but God’s love is the benevolence of His will. God both loves and hates the sinner at the same time.” SUPPORT FROM A STUDENT I continued on preaching a very basic Gospel of repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ. One student seemed to be very supportive of me and sat down on the bench I was preaching from. He even talked to a few of my hecklers. When he noticed that my voice was getting a bit raspy from the preaching, he went into the union and got me a water. When he came back out, he put the water on the bench and put a ten dollar bill underneath it. I normally do not take money from anyone while I am preaching. I always turn it down. I dont want people to think that I preach for money. I have freely received the Gospel and I freely preach it. But when he put the bill and the water on the bench he immediately walked away. I am grateful for the Lords provision. SECRET HOSTILITY FROM A PROFESSOR As I was preaching Jesus Christ, I saw an older man listening and making a call on his cell phone. I had a feeling that he was calling the Police. I had dealt with the Police in the past on this campus and didn’t expect any serious problem from them. I assumed this man was either a professor or an administrator. Sure enough, shortly after he made his phone call a Police Officer arrived on the scene and he began talking to him. Nothing ever became of it. They left me alone completely. WAR AGAINST GOD I warned the students that if they have sin in their lives, if they are disobeying God’s law, they are at war with Him. God is not their friend, they have made themselves His enemies. They will not win their war against God. They will lose. God has given us a law and God will uphold it by punishing disobedience. It is hopeless and pointless to fight against God. I told them that they should immediately submit and surrender unto the Lord. Jesus Christ died on the cross to provide a substitute for our eternal punishment. I admonished them to turn from their sins and trust in Jesus Christ so that God could pardon their rebellion, so that God could set aside their eternal punishment. THE IDOLATRY OF SELF At one point during the open air preaching I began expounding on the Ten Commandments. Starting with the first, “Thou shalt have no other god’s before me.” I asked the students if they consulted God on whether or not they should even go to this university, or if they even asked God what He wanted them to major in. I explained that if they did not care to consider the will of God for their lives, then they are governing and controlling their own lives. This is essentially making themselves their own god. This is self idolatry. God is the one who is supposed to be governing our lives. His wisdom far surpasses our own so we should gladly submit to His will. God knows what is best for us. We should always immediately obey Him. KNOWING BETTER THAN GOD? Every time a person sins, they are essentially saying that they know better than God. God tells us not to sin and He must have very good reasons for commanding such. Yet sinners choose to sin regardless of what God says. Therefore they must think that they know better than God. The truth is that sinners do not know better than God. If God says we shouldn’t sin, we should never choose to sin. Disobeying God’s will is never a good idea. Sin is completely foolish. YOU CAN BE PERFECT I explained to the crowd that sinners are not fit for the Kingdom of God. If God let sinners into Heaven, it wouldn’t be Heaven anymore. Sinners would ruin the place. Heaven will be Heaven because everyone will obey the law of God. God will not allow fornicators, blasphemers, idolaters, homosexuals, etc into Heaven. The only place they are fit for is hell. Criminals are not fit to be with the general population. Sinners cannot go to Heaven unless they stop being sinners, that is, unless they become born again new creatures in Christ. Jesus said, “go and sin no more”. God’s forgiveness and acceptance is conditional upon a change of moral character. Unless the wicked forsake their way, God will not pardon. Unless a man forsakes his sin, he will not find mercy. Sin is essentially a disobedient state of mind, a rebellious heart. Repentance is a change of mind, a change of heart. Unless a person repents, Jesus said, they would perish. I told the crowd, “Stop sinning! Jesus said be perfect!” A man in the crowd said, “You can’t be perfect”. He probably heard that in Church from a sinful preacher. I said, “Why would Jesus say be perfect if it wasn’t possible?” He asked me to show him where Jesus said that. I opened up the Bible and read to him the Sermon where Jesus Christ said that we should be perfect. I went on to reason and argue, “If God wants us to be perfect, He would give us the ability to be perfect. If God does not give us the ability to be perfect, God must not want us to be perfect. If God doesn’t want us to be perfect, then God must want us to be sinful. Therefore if God does not give us the ability to be perfect then God wants us to be sinful.” I also explained how moral perfection was nothing more than an obedient state of mind, a heart of submission and obedience to the Lord. IS THERE HOPE FOR OBAMA? Many of the students on this campus voted for Barak Obama. They walk around campus wearing their Obama 08 t-shirts. I preached, “Jesus Christ is the hope of America. Not Buddha. Not Obama. Jesus Christ!” One of the girls said, “Don’t bring Obama into this!” I said, “Obama is a hell bound sinner.” The crowd roared! I said, “Yes. Obama supports abortion, homosexual marriage, and socialism. If Obama doesn’t CHANGE there is no HOPE for him. There is hope with Jesus, there is hell without Him.” VERY CLEAR GOSPEL I finished off the day with a very clear Gospel message. “It is Heaven or hell when you die. It is your choice. If you choose to continue on in sin, you will go to hell. But if you choose to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior today, you will have eternal life. Jesus died for you. He shed His blood for you. If you repent and believe, God will pardon you through Jesus Christ.”

We have two very important sermons now available on DVD. “Why Preach God’s Wrath” deals with the issue of evangelism. Is it necessary to mention God’s wrath against sin when soul winning? Can a person see their need of Jesus Christ if they don’t understand God’s wrath? These are the types of questions this DVD addressess. “True & False Repentance” deals with the many popular yet false concepts of repentance, while presenting a truly Biblical definition and understanding of what repentance really is.   “Understanding Open Air Preaching” is a teaching on the heart, concept, and practicalities of public preaching. Many in the Church today seem to misunderstand open air preaching as a whole. That is why many reject open air preaching completely as a good form of evangelism. This DVD is designed to explain open air preaching in a very basic yet powerful way. HOW TO ORDER Order through PayPal by Clicking Here or mail in your order to the address provided at the end of this newsletter. * Anyone who donates a gift this month of $30 or more will receive two free DVD’s. That will cover the material costs and shipping while also helping us preach the Gospel full time in the open air. Please be sure to fill out your full address.

BABIES R US Dear Friends, Time is drawing close and we are getting everything ready for the baby.  Krista and I are greatly excited to have our first baby in May! We will find out once the baby is born if we have a boy or girl. We will raise the child up in the fear of the Lord. Becuase our 5th wheel is smaller then a house we have to be choosey with what we get for the baby.  So we decided to start a registry at Babies R Us.  This also makes it more convient since orders can be done on line and we can pick up at any Babies R Us.  If you would like to get us a gift for the baby, this registry is the way to do it. Thanks in advance to any friends who buy a gift for the baby! You can look up our registry online at www.babiesrus.com Search for “Krista Morrell” or by our registery # “91778963“.

LOOKING FOR PLACES TO PARK Starting in the fall Krista, the baby, and I will be traveling with our 5th wheel all over the country. Our plan is to travel every month to a new location. During the school year we will be preaching on the campuses and during the summers we will be preaching at the beaches. We are looking for places near Universities and beaches where we can affordably park our 5th wheel. Our 5th wheel is 30 feet long. If you have a place or know of a place where we could park so that we could do ministry in the area, please let us know. All that we absolutely need is a slab to park, a fosset for water, and an outlet for electricity. We could park at Churches or in drive ways. If you have a place where we could park, please email jessewm218@hotmail.com the following information: Full Name: Email Address: Phone Number: Location: Thanks!

HOW YOU CAN HELP SUPPORT The financial support we receive from the body of Christ makes it possible for us to continue to travel and preach the Gospel full time. All personal gifts from $5 -$500, either monthly or one-time, makes a huge difference. Will you consider being a monthly supporter, giving as little or as much as you can? Paypal: Click Here Physical Mail: Jesse & Krista Morrell P.O. Box 1527 Lindale TX, 75771 Special thanks in advance to our supporters. THE BATTLE IS ON! We couldn’t do all of this without you!

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