July 26, 2024 · 48:53

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

Bible & Theology

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

References & links

Phone lines mentioned

877-616-2396

Full transcript Auto-generated · 8,292 words

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

0:02Darkness is not an affirmative force.
0:05It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
0:08This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
0:13It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
0:17Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
0:20And the philosophies of this world.
0:22God has called you and me to be His ambassador.
0:26Even in this dark moment.
0:28Let's not miss our moment.
0:30And now, the Hamilton Corner.
0:35Good evening, everybody.
0:38Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio.
0:41I'm your host Abraham Hamilton III,
0:43joined in studio by the real Jay Mack,
0:46often imitated, never duplicated,
0:48and we are ready to rock and roll
0:49with today's edition of the program,
0:50What a Week This Has Been.
0:53What a Week.
0:55What a Week.
0:56And it's times like this
0:59that I find it to be most helpful
1:01to revisit enduring truths, you know, to revisit
1:11anchoring truth that aids us in remaining focused in the midst of
1:19tumultuous times, you know, looking at the different things and, you know,
1:27now the media is straight up lying, you know, about Kamala Harris and, oh, no, she wasn't
1:34and borders are you see, even though she was placed in charge of the border.
1:38It's absurd, man.
1:41We are living in absurd times and the absurdity of the times that we're living in are downstream
1:52from an increasingly wicked populace to say, simply an increasingly wicked populace.
1:59But we must remember that God has ordained us for these times.
2:03He's planted us in our nation in this time, intentionally.
2:11He's done so for us to be His hands and feet,
2:15to be His ambassadors and to do what He is called,
2:17us to do individually.
2:20I want to emphasize the reality that if you are in Christ,
2:27every single believer is called to ministry.
2:32Every single believer, every one of us
2:35has been called to serve our Lord's purposes,
2:41actively, functionally in our time.
2:45The only variable is which role we play.
2:47We all have different roles to play.
2:48This is why you have the first Corinthians 12 description
2:55of us being one body with many members.
2:58Each of the members having a different role to play,
3:00one part of the body shouldn't look
3:02at another part of the body and say,
3:03because you're not doing what I am doing,
3:06then you are not a part of the body.
3:07This is what the Lord explained to us.
3:12But it's high time for us to have every joint to supply.
3:17At this very moment, many of you,
3:19and not most of you, you're making your transition
3:21from your part-time job where you generate an income
3:24to your full-time job, which is outcome cultivation.
3:28Outcome cultivation.
3:30This is what we have been ordained for in this time.
3:37Many of you know if you've been following the program
3:39any length of time, we begin each program with a word of God for the express purpose of welcoming
3:46God, welcoming the Lord to frame our hearts and minds according to His word as we navigate
3:52the issues of the day. We never want to be found abandoning the truth of God's word in order
3:58to confront the issues of our day. But we have the privilege and the wherewithal to stand firmly
4:06with in the truth of God's word as we do the work of the ministry. Today we're
4:12going to begin in 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 3
4:18just a reminder again. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I'm sorry if I put the note down
4:24wrong way. I'm sorry. Did I put it wrong on the note? My bad. Yeah. 2 Timothy chapter
4:29two versus one through three.
4:33G. Max, let me know I put a wrong put the note wrong on our internal communications.
4:39My bad man, you knew I've been I've been burning.
4:43Both.
4:44I think we were burning the Canada both ends.
4:48By way of reminder though, Timothy is receiving this letter from the Apostle Paul toward the
4:55latter part of the Apostle Paul's life.
4:56know through the study of church history that the Apostle Paul was executed by Nero
5:03under Nero's authority really and it's about the same time that Peter was in
5:08that in that interesting and this letter is when Paul was written when Paul is
5:14incarcerated awaiting his imminent albeit uncertain execution imminent because he
5:21knows it's coming uncertain because he doesn't know what you did and so this
5:25This epistle, this letter is a part of one of the last things that Paul expresses in Timothy
5:32receives this.
5:34And so this is important for us to understand as we attempt to navigate this particular epistle
5:39and the truth contained therein.
5:41But Paul writes to Timothy with this cultural and contextual backdrop, verse one, 2 Timothy
5:49verse one, you therefore, my son, Paul, right into Timothy, be strong in the grace that is
5:57in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses
6:03entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also suffer hardship with me
6:12as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. It's remarkable that as Paul is facing this imminent, albeit
6:18on certain execution, he is encouraging Timothy to be strong.
6:25He is encouraging Timothy to refuse to allow Paul's
6:29circumstantial conditions to intimidate him to back Timothy
6:34away from following the Lord's course for his life.
6:41Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
6:47Paul also directs Timothy to the source of the strength
6:51that he must draw from.
6:54He's not encouraging Timothy to be strong in his own humanistic capacity.
6:57He'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.
7:19The Greek word for grace is chorus.
7:24It is not only, yes, it is God granting us what we do not deserve.
7:31It is also God's empowerment mechanism.
7:36God empowers his children to follow his purpose.
7:41God does not call us to obey him and yet leave us to humanistic resources to leave us and
7:47leave us to our own abilities to obey him.
7:50He indwells us by His Spirit and empowers us by His Spirit through His grace to follow Him.
7:59Paul is encouraging Timothy to refuse to rely on himself alone, but to remain tethered to the
8:06only source of true potency that is a grace of Jesus Christ.
8:12Denny explains, Timothy, this encouragement is not merely for you, but the things which
8:18you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses reveals that Paul instructed Timothy,
8:25not in a silo, not solo even, but there were others who were present for the instruction.
8:36The things that you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these
8:41to faithful men who will be able to teach others. There is a quality that is necessary
8:51in the would-be disciple for us to be able to identify as we make the decision as to where
9:00we pour, where we invest.
9:05But verse 3 is what I really want to point us to in conveying all of this and writing
9:10Timothy from jail.
9:12And as I've said before, first century Roman jails and prisons are not like American jails
9:17and prisons, but there's one thing about getting mail from somebody in jail.
9:21You know it's jail mail.
9:23And it's not like, oh, this is just a parcel that has come to me from the Punta Kana resort
9:29in the Dominican Republic.
9:30Now this came from jail.
9:31You know, it's jail mail.
9:34Paul encourages the Timothy to want us to pronounce the Greek phrase properly.
9:43So God go pothio joint suffering mutual suffering.
9:47This is something that's not going to sell a lot of tickets.
9:50This this is not going to have arenas packed out.
9:54The call to follow Christ is not a call to flowery beds of each.
9:57It's a call to come and die.
10:00in dying to our self-willed unilateralized man, we are embraced by and we are resurrected,
10:08if you will, to a life of eternal purpose and eternal function. The call to execute our
10:16king's commission is not one that we obey depending on circumstantial environmental
10:24conditions being conducive. You know, well if the temperature is just right, maybe we
10:29obey. If the weather is just right, maybe with all its raining can, the call to follow
10:35Christ is one we obey even in the face of difficulty. That is what I want to point out
10:42to you as we launch off into today's program. You study our family's eternal history. You
10:49find that it is filled with brethren who at the very cost of their own lives, obeyed
10:58our Lord. If it were not for the Spirit of God, superintending our ancestors in the faith to
11:06stake their lives to pass down the gospel, you and I wouldn't have been able to receive
11:11it. You and I have the wherewithal to read the scripture and are commonly spoken vernacular
11:18because they were brethren who have gone before us that literally gave their lives so that
11:23others can read God's holy word. What I'm inviting you to, what I'm challenging you
11:28with what I am exhorting you to respond to is the fact that the great commission's execution
11:39is required even during difficult times.
11:44I know you're facing all manner of difficulty.
11:46I'm facing all manner of difficulty.
11:48I have things going on in my family, you know, had to put in a rear Wednesday because of a
11:56situation that happened in my family.
12:00And to be frank, it's on my mind right now.
12:05But the work must go on, the work must be done.
12:09And it honors the Lord that even when we're facing difficulty, that we press through, that
12:15we press through, the call of follow Christ is not a call for the faint of heart, it's not
12:20a call for the weak, it's not a call for the, for the tepid, for the intimidated.
12:29But it is because we understand the significance of what is at stake, because we understand more
12:34importantly than the significance of what is at stake, because we understand who it is
12:38that is called the phrase I often ponder within my heart and my wife and I discuss frequently.
12:48Is he not worthy?
12:54Is he not worthy?
12:57Is he not worthy?
13:00The issues that we face, the overcoming simple predilections, the often sometimes halting
13:07between two opinions, is he not worthy?
13:11The only appropriate answer is yes, he's worthy.
13:14I've said it before and I'll say it again.
13:16And when you've been captured by Christ, you move away from merely giving offerings to becoming the offering.
13:21You live the declaration that Lord, all that I am is yours.
13:26Every aspect of my engagement, every aspect of my capacity, every aspect of my resources, Lord, all that I am is yours.
13:33And I'm not saying you give away your money and you go broke and let your lights get cut off and all of that.
13:42No, you're manning into the resources of God, places in your care. It's a part of your worship to Him.
13:46But make no mistake about it.
13:50He's worthy of it all.
13:53He's worthy of it all.
13:55And the times that we're living in,
13:58we, we need the people of God
14:02to give it all, man, to give it all.
14:07You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
14:12The things that you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses
14:15entrust these two faithful men
14:17who will be able to teach others also
14:20suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
14:25I'm not a spiritual masochist,
14:26I'm not standing here saying,
14:27yeah, bring on the persecution.
14:30What do I am saying is, Lord, strengthen me
14:32so that I may endure whatever I need to endure,
14:35so that your will will be fulfilled in me and through me,
14:39and the portion that you have for me to offer
14:41as a member of your body,
14:43Lord, I pray you will be glorified as endeavor to serve you
14:46with every breath you have blessed me to receive.
14:51He's worthy.
14:58You've heard a lot about saving babies on this show.
15:00That's because it's important to me personally.
15:03And let me just be frank with you.
15:04We need to save them.
15:06That's why we've partnered with Preborn,
15:08the nation's leader in introducing mothers
15:10with unplanned pregnancies to their babies.
15:13And once she hears that heartbeat
15:14and sees that precious life growing inside of her,
15:17she is twice as likely to choose life.
15:20Now that's a miracle.
15:21But quite honestly, if we don't save them, who will?
15:25Preborn receives no government funding,
15:27So their work is completely dependent on us.
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15:50Together, you and I can save lives.
15:53Just dial pound 250 on your cell
15:55and say the keyword baby, that's 250 baby,
15:59or go to preborn.com, that's preborn.com.
16:02Shiting light into the darkness,
16:11this is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio.
16:15Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner,
16:16Abraham Hamilton III here.
16:18I'm excited to have on a program
16:19a brother whose ministry I just learned about recently,
16:23but I thought it was important to present to you
16:25what he's doing there and hopefully and prayerfully,
16:28you will be inspired to put your log on the fire, so to speak, to offer what God has called you to do.
16:36My guest right now is the executive director of Youth for Christ New York City.
16:41It is a ministry that particularly that focuses on helping to offer hope
16:49and the hope of transformation and particularly to teens that are in crisis, including teens
16:53who are incarcerated.
16:57My guess is none other than Mr. Daniel Sanabria.
17:00Daniel, thank you for joining me here on the Hamilton Corner.
17:03Thank you so much for having me, brother.
17:06I'm really excited to be here.
17:08Oh, man, I'm excited to have you here.
17:11I know I should have included this that you are born and raised in New York.
17:15And you are based in Brooklyn right now.
17:19Is that right?
17:21Yeah, man, born and raised.
17:24It's New York City, New York.
17:27That's my hometown.
17:28from from, you know, I'm all over the place,
17:30but yeah, New York City, baby, it's what my...
17:31That's beautiful Brooklyn stand up.
17:33That's it, baby, all day.
17:36All day.
17:37Now, I wanted to ask you right at the beginning
17:39of our time together here,
17:41if you would just share with our audience
17:44how you came to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
17:47Yeah, man, listen, I grew up in church,
17:49my mom and dad, I'm in a church seven days a week
17:52in a Pentecostal church in Brooklyn, New York.
17:56We raised in a great household.
17:59Mom and dad worked hard.
18:01Business owners, three brothers,
18:04altogether four boys in the same household,
18:07but I had issues.
18:08My issues were, it's securities.
18:10My issues were, you know, getting left back in first grade
18:17and a lot of issues when it came to just like,
18:21just social issues.
18:24My father called me the black sheep of the family,
18:26out of the four boys, I was the one that got arrested,
18:29I was the one that was in trouble all the time,
18:30fighting all the time.
18:32And just had a lot of issues in those areas.
18:36And again, grew up in church, but Danny had some issues.
18:40And verbally abused, I became a bully.
18:43I just wasn't really good with people around me.
18:47And growing up with two older brothers,
18:50not feeling loved.
18:52I know my parents love me, but again,
18:55I had just these thoughts that was coming to my mind.
18:59And yeah, man, then one day, listen, one day,
19:03I went to a retreat, like I always went to, right?
19:06That's a Christian, as a young man grew up in church,
19:09you gotta go to retreats, I went to retreat,
19:12and I heard the gospel for the first time.
19:15It wasn't a gospel about what you do,
19:18you become saved.
19:19the gospel was he did it all.
19:23You didn't do anything and he loves you.
19:27And the guy was talking about that Christ
19:30wanted to be your best friend.
19:31And I was struggling to have a best friend
19:33back in the days.
19:34And I know the gospel was really on point that day.
19:39And I heard the gospel in plenty of times
19:41from my dad from my church,
19:44but this was different man.
19:45And that moment when I said, yes, I accept Christ
19:51the personal savior, I'm a sinner and I need a savior.
19:55And I can't do it anymore.
19:57I can't go to church thinking I'm gonna be saved.
19:59I can't, it's not me, it's Jesus.
20:03And I just felt that love.
20:06I felt that, I felt this weight off of me,
20:09of my anger, all my issues, literally it lifted it for me.
20:14And I felt love and I felt this love to love other people.
20:19And when I went to tell people I'm a follower of Christ,
20:23they didn't believe me, but when I didn't fight,
20:25when I didn't argue, when I started loving my brothers,
20:29they were like, yo, what is wrong with this dude?
20:31Where's the old Danny?
20:34And I said, guys, I'm a follower of Christ, man.
20:36He did everything.
20:38He paid the price.
20:39I don't deserve this.
20:41I didn't do anything that deserves this.
20:44I put my faith in Christ and that was it, man.
20:4716 years old and I went radical for Christ and never looked back.
20:52And now I love to do what God's called me to do, man.
20:55Tell people about this saving grace, this amazing grace.
21:00And I never looked back, bro.
21:02Changed my whole life.
21:03My parents said to me, Danny, it wasn't for Jesus.
21:06We don't know what you would be.
21:07Hey, that man, that is, if that's not the testimony,
21:11I resonate with you so much.
21:14The Lord saved me as well.
21:16I tell people all the time I'm just due from the hood in the
21:19Orleans and the Lord saved me.
21:21Now you work with Youth for Christ, which has been a leader
21:24in missional youth outreach since 1944.
21:27And Youth for Christ is dedicated to uncovering God's story of
21:31hope in the next generation that desperately needs it.
21:35How did you get to the place coming to Christ as 16 years old
21:40to where you then began to work with you for Christ.
21:44Yeah, man.
21:45So God save it.
21:45I was 16, did ministry from there.
21:49I worked in YouTube industry, local church.
21:53I just served the local church since 16 on.
21:56And I went to a Christian school in college.
22:00I got trained there under crew ministry,
22:03called the college was called the King's College
22:05in the city of New York,
22:08trained up in leadership, in ministry.
22:10Then I became a youth pastor, I was 23,
22:14got involved in youth here in New York City,
22:16reaching the young people in New York City.
22:18I started a ministry called God belongs in my city.
22:22That started the prayer walks in New York City all over,
22:26and we started all over the country.
22:27So involved in ministry,
22:30right after a college, really invested.
22:33All of this is volunteer.
22:36They saw, and youth for Christ came to New York City
22:38and said, we're looking for somebody that's loving young people,
22:40that's doing ministry that's involved, that knows people,
22:44that's from New York.
22:45And they said, Danny, I think you're the right guy.
22:48I was like, listen, getting paid to reach young people,
22:51finally, after 15 years of volunteering as a youth pastor,
22:56I'm all down.
22:57I'm down to do this.
22:58And I love the mission, Youth for Christ.
23:01Evangelistic Billy Graham was the first employee back in the days.
23:06And I was like, I want to be part of that legacy,
23:08reaching the loss in the darkest areas of our city
23:13and see these kids know Jesus, you know?
23:16And so I did everything, whatever is possible
23:19to reach a young person, go to the parks,
23:21go to the neighborhoods, go where they're at.
23:24And I loved every part of it.
23:26So when I joined YFC, they said,
23:28Danny, we want you, but there's one area that we,
23:31you haven't touched and that's juvenile justice.
23:34And I was like, what the heck is that?
23:37Like, okay, kids getting arrested.
23:39I've been arrested before,
23:40but I've never visited a kid in prison.
23:43I'm not going to rikers.
23:45I don't know what's going on with that type of stuff.
23:47So I joined eight years ago and I look back,
23:50I'm like, this is the greatest moments of my life.
23:54Mm.
23:55So the idea of getting involved with juvenile justice
23:58was presented to you and it was foreign to you
24:00when it was initially presented to you, right?
24:02Foreign.
24:03I mean, I knew about it.
24:04I have friends involved in it.
24:06But my ministry was going to the neighborhood corners,
24:09reaching kids in the park, inviting kids to church,
24:12doing Christian events, doing prayer walks.
24:15That was my ministry environment.
24:19And I love every moment of that.
24:20I love when the kids came from the projects,
24:22came to church.
24:23That was my thing.
24:25But when a kid got arrested, they're off.
24:28We grew up saying, man, you do the crime,
24:31the time, you know, that was it.
24:34But seems like we had a little bit of a pause here, a little technical difficulties.
24:42Man, technology is fantastic when it works.
24:45You know, just a big thing.
24:48I mean, we have 80,000 kids rested.
24:52You know, it's going in and out.
24:55Oh, man.
24:57That is weird.
24:58I was on fire.
24:59Man, I can tell I can hear you now.
25:02You say, yeah, I can hear you.
25:04Can you hear me now?
25:04All right.
25:05Good.
25:05I hear you know, I hear you know.
25:07So you were explaining juvenile justice,
25:09how many children are arrested?
25:11I think you were referring to.
25:1380,000 kids are in juvenile across the country.
25:18Whoa.
25:1913 to 18, they're in jail.
25:21And who's reaching them, who's walking with them,
25:24who's talking to them, who's visiting them.
25:28Jesus has told us to visit the prisoners, right?
25:30And I believe in, and I'm like, why not?
25:33so when they called me and I said I'm down I want to go there and adjust the
25:43sense there in the rocks.
25:47See man we're having now it was breaking up pretty badly.
25:53I don't know Jeff who might need try to reestablish another connection.
25:57I don't know.
25:57Let's let's try that if we could reestablish a different connection.
26:02Because I can hear you now.
26:07Are you there?
26:08Man.
26:10Yeah.
26:11I'm here.
26:12I can hear you.
26:13I can hear you now.
26:14I have full bars over here.
26:16Okay.
26:17Okay.
26:18Go ahead.
26:19You were explaining 80,000 children are in juvenile across the country.
26:22And you're like 8,000 kids in juvenile justice, 13 to 18 years old and present.
26:27Man.
26:28That is a pivotal juncture.
26:31But I think many people don't realize sometimes
26:36the circumstances you've now can be just as hostile,
26:40if not more so, because you have young people
26:43trying to kind of prove themselves
26:45that they're big and bad,
26:46that they're gangster, something like that.
26:47And it's a pivotal juncture that oftentimes
26:49when you have a young person who goes to juvenile detention,
26:53that they could actually become even more criminally minded
26:56because of the environment
26:58that they're in in juvenile detention.
26:59Is that something you've come across?
27:02Oh yeah, absolutely.
27:02There's a big issue.
27:06There's no right answer here,
27:09but the reality is when you're joining,
27:11you're going to a facility with other young people
27:14that are gang members,
27:15you know, that's not really a good teachable moment there.
27:19They are surrounded by violence, surrounded by stories,
27:23surrounded by their peers,
27:26that are from the same neighborhood or different neighborhoods.
27:29And so they're always on guard.
27:32and the gangs, the violence and the gang stories are real.
27:38And they're surrounded by this stuff every single moment.
27:44And so that's why we're trying to come in,
27:46we're trying to come in to stop that.
27:49Change of story, change the outlook, change the chapter.
27:52That's what we're doing.
27:54And you said you've been doing this now, eight years?
27:58Eight years working with kids in two facilities,
28:01one in the Bronx and one in Brooklyn.
28:03a hundred kids per location,
28:05and I'm trying to round up the churches,
28:08I'm all over New York City,
28:10to see the need of them being invited to inside the facility
28:15and working with kids.
28:16Listen, I can't do it out the church,
28:18I can't do it alone, the church is the hope of the world,
28:21calling the churches right now.
28:24Get off, get out of the follow-all,
28:27walk into a young person's life and serve them.
28:31If it's in the neighborhood, if it's a neighborhood, do it, you know, stop being, you know, lazy.
28:36These kids need us.
28:37And I know that we have a lot of issues here, but we have to be patient, willing, loving,
28:43compassionate, and consistent to work with these young people in our neighborhoods because
28:48I'm dead.
28:49We're not working with kids in our neighborhoods.
28:51It's a pipeline straight to prison.
28:54It's a pipeline, especially in urban context.
28:56There's a pipeline.
28:57We're trying to stop that pipeline.
28:58I so appreciate your your desire to be a co-laborer
29:04With with the local church because sometimes and this is just unfortunate
29:08You have ministries sometimes parachurch ministries that kind of feel like well
29:12We'll go and do all of this kind of stuff, but we really really need the local church
29:17To rally to that cause can you share with the with our audience here any?
29:22Testimonious you're willing to share of you working with one of the young people
29:26who have been incarcerated in how their lives
29:29will change as a result?
29:30Yeah, man.
29:32I would love to tell you a story that a kid,
29:35I know that a lot of people want to hear a kid
29:38coming to Jesus right away and serving church right away,
29:42but this process of working with kids in prison
29:45takes a long time.
29:47There are walls that need to be knocked down.
29:49They are trauma that needs to be worked at.
29:52And so, but we have kids coming to the Lord,
29:55being baptized inside prison, changing their lives around.
30:01But it takes a process and it takes a discipleship
30:03and takes a walking with these young people.
30:06And we are working with kids now for five or six years already,
30:10because we met them when we were 14 years old.
30:12Now their lives are changed because of the constant commitment
30:17of the local church and youth for Christ in their lives.
30:20And they will testify.
30:22For example, Christian is a young man that we met
30:25He was 14 years old.
30:27He's 20 years old now.
30:29And he will tell you today,
30:31if it wasn't YFC or the church,
30:34I wouldn't be here where I'm at.
30:36I wouldn't be consistent having a job.
30:38I wouldn't be back in jail.
30:40If there wasn't for the consistency
30:42and the love that we have for him
30:45and the testimony when I say that
30:47is my set changed.
30:49I'm telling you the conversations are godly.
30:52The conversations are saying,
30:53Danny, I need to do better. I want to do better. What does God say about this? What does God say?
30:58I want this. That's the power of discipleship. It's a constant, we call it Christ-sharing relationship.
31:09You see, we want, we want altar calls. There's people that don't want discipleship. And so
31:16So, all the cause are easy.
31:18The discipleship is harder.
31:20And so, we are believing that discipleship is saying,
31:23hey, when you're in jail and when you come out of jail,
31:27we're gonna be with you.
31:30We're not a program, we're not a program
31:33that will with you six months, we're with you
31:36as long as we're on earth with you.
31:40You search the scriptures, I don't see anywhere in the scriptures.
31:42When those Lord said, go there for me, have an altar call.
31:45He said go there for me, make disciples of all nations.
31:48And you mentioned it is true.
31:51Discipleship is not glitz and glam.
31:53You have to get involved in people's lives.
31:57And the most effective way to do that is really life on life.
32:01It's a life on life reality.
32:02And we often like to say that every person
32:05should have a Timothy and a Paul in their lives,
32:08as we like to say in our local church.
32:09And what you're describing seems to be similar to that.
32:14We're heading to the break.
32:14You can hit that disrespectful music.
32:16My guest is Daniel Sanabria, Executive Director
32:19of Youth for Christ, New York City.
32:21We were talking about the work that he's doing in New York
32:24in the juvenile detention centers.
32:25We're gonna continue this conversation
32:27on the other side of the break.
32:29Don't go anywhere.
32:31You don't wanna miss the remainder of this conversation.
32:34We also want you to get connected
32:36with Youth for Christ, New York City.
32:37Their website is YFCNYC.org.
32:42That is YFCNYC.org.
32:46If you're in that area, you may be able to help.
32:49You may need to connect with Danny
32:51and get into Crossroads, get into the places in New York.
32:54So you can be the hands and feet of Jesus
32:56in this particular application of being an ambassador of Christ.
33:09The Hamilton Quarter Podcast
33:11and One-Minute Common Terrets are available at AFR.net.
33:15Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
33:19Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton.
33:22The third here, my guest is Daniel Sonabria,
33:24Executive Director of the Youth for Christ,
33:27New York City Ministry, Daniel.
33:29Before we went to the break,
33:30we were talking about all of the vital, vital work
33:33that you're doing there in New York.
33:36And for some people, they may not be aware,
33:39but the detention center may be the only place
33:42that some of these use feel safe, have reliable meals,
33:46and are even able to stay sober
33:48because we have young people who often get caught up on drugs at very young ages.
33:53Is that something you've experienced?
33:55Absolutely.
33:56I mean, the facilities here in New York City, the juvenile justice are better than the adult
34:02prison.
34:03I mean, there's a more structured, a lot more people involved, a lot more programming.
34:09And these kids, they definitely feel safe in a way from the streets.
34:16That's absolutely a lot of kids tell me that.
34:18They eat better in jail than outside.
34:22I know that because I get calls and text messages,
34:24and Danny, can you send me money for food
34:26and send me money for this?
34:28And when they're in jail, they have everything.
34:30Healthcare, food, a place to sleep.
34:35The reality is we don't want them there, right?
34:38We don't want them in that area.
34:39We want them to be back home with family.
34:43I have a young girl that actually, she's by herself,
34:47and she left prison, she left facility,
34:51but she came back and waited for,
34:54waiting for some guards to come out of work.
34:57And we asked, she asked, they asked,
34:59why are you here?
35:00Why are you outside of the facility?
35:03Go back home.
35:03She's like, I don't have a home.
35:05You guys are my home.
35:07You guys treated me well here.
35:09And I just wanna hang out with you guys.
35:11And so it breaks our heart that we have young people
35:15that don't have anywhere to go.
35:18A lot of these kids go to shelters,
35:20a lot of these kids go back to being in the foster care.
35:24And so it's a sad sad,
35:30those moments are sad to hear and be a part of,
35:34but the church has to be a part of that.
35:36That's what we're here for.
35:37And we wanna see kids know Christ,
35:39but also wanna see kids get housing, jobs,
35:43finding internships and find a place
35:46so they could have meals in their home
35:49and know that they're worth it.
35:53See what you're describing, it goes back to discipleship.
35:56Sometimes people misunderstand
35:58that and think that discipleship is limited to the concept
36:01that was commonly described as spiritual disciplines.
36:04But the fact is that Christ is Lord of everything.
36:09So a comprehensive disciple making process,
36:12especially with our teams will include them developing
36:15spiritual disciplines, growing in the fruit of the spirit,
36:18but also the application of those disciplines
36:20in the various segments of society.
36:22How do you get and maintain a job?
36:24Or if somebody's entrepreneurial,
36:25you're gonna have to have the discipline,
36:27personal discipline, self-control,
36:28in order to be effective in that.
36:30And so, aiding people and it become well adjusted adults
36:33is included in the concept of making a disciple.
36:36Never get one conversation I had with a guy,
36:38I won't go to a long story, but this dude,
36:41was in New Orleans, he was a former gang banger.
36:44By God's grace, I had an opportunity to administer to him.
36:46You know, he gets saved, he goes to university.
36:51But he was at one point kind of talking a bit
36:54about how he's spending all of his time at college
36:56in the cafeteria sharing the gospel.
36:58And I just lovingly pulled him to the side and said,
36:59man listen, you're not being a thorough witness for Christ
37:03if you're feeling your classes.
37:05If God has assigned you to college for now,
37:08you're not honoring him by making bad grades.
37:10It's not as well for you to be in the cafeteria all the time,
37:13sharing the gospel.
37:13You need to be a witness to your classmates
37:15and to your professors,
37:16not just those of whom you evangelized.
37:18And the whole point was that Christ should be Lord of everything.
37:21We shouldn't silo or segment where we will reference Him
37:25and serve Him through.
37:26And so what you're talking about as you're aiding these young people
37:29to not only become born again,
37:32but to make that adjustment into becoming fully functioning citizens
37:35in our economy that honor the Lord through and through,
37:38that's all a part of discipleship.
37:40Is that what you're talking about?
37:42Yeah, absolutely.
37:43No, we have a program here called Faith and Works,
37:45and actually right now after this conversation,
37:48I will be going into a facility with 20 young people.
37:51And I'm literally gonna talk about entrepreneurship.
37:54This is our third week doing it.
37:55So we do a thing called Faith and Works,
37:58and basically we talk about Christ and entrepreneurship.
38:02They're called to work that their hands and feet
38:05are important to God.
38:06Their minds are important to God.
38:08Most of these kids have got arrested because of the hustle and the entrepreneurship way they have, right?
38:15But the reality is they're called by God to work and work is a product of his creation, right?
38:22We've called to work. It's not a product of sin.
38:25Amen.
38:25We've called to work in the beginning. So when they're taught that and they give these
38:30is central tools such as budgeting and saving,
38:36but also starting a business, creating a business.
38:41That teaches them, wait a minute,
38:43I'm not just a hustler to grab money,
38:46but I could create something to make money.
38:49And so we've been doing it for four years
38:51and we've seen the success kids are loving it,
38:54they're enjoying it, and they're coming out of the jail saying,
38:58Yeah, I could do better than I did before.
39:01And let me use what God's giving me to make a difference.
39:05Man, that's so powerful.
39:06That's so powerful.
39:07How can people connect with you and keep up
39:09with the work that you're doing at Youth of Christ, New York
39:12City?
39:13And if they may be stirred right now to get involved
39:15with Youth of Christ, wherever they may live?
39:18Yeah, I mean, we're in a lot of the major cities
39:20across the country.
39:22But if you want to get involved in New York, there's many ways.
39:25Please pray for us, number one.
39:26Amen.
39:27If you're in New York City, the five boroughs,
39:30please volunteer with us.
39:32If you're across the country and you're trying to help
39:34New York City get to our kids,
39:37if you wanna donate, help us out, listen,
39:39that's part of one of my big jobs to go out there,
39:42knock on doors, ask churches to come and volunteer,
39:44but ask churches to help and support this ministry.
39:48We don't get any federal government money,
39:50we don't get anything like that.
39:51It's, I depend on the people of God
39:54to reach these young people across the city.
39:55And now we're not just reaching young people,
39:57reaching the families, reaching mom and dad,
39:59or reaching the brothers and sisters,
40:01reaching all the above.
40:04We're being the church,
40:05and I believe that if the church can help us support
40:09our initiative, we have a living in New York City,
40:13it's not easy, raising money in New York City is not easy,
40:16even surviving in New York City is not easy.
40:19I'm born and raised in New York,
40:21and there's many ways that I have to make sure
40:22that me and my family are eating.
40:24But the reality is this, we're full time doing this.
40:27We're looking for people to join our team.
40:29We're looking for funders.
40:31We're looking for people to donate to adopt a hall
40:33or adopt a young person.
40:34You go on our website, YFCNYC.org,
40:37and you can donate and help us out.
40:39But our prayers will be grateful.
40:42And if you're in New York
40:44and you want to be a part of juvenile justice,
40:45working with kids, stop it by the cycle.
40:48Come join us.
40:49Go on our website, email us, it's getting involved.
40:53And you mentioned something as you shared that,
40:55that is something I want to ask you about,
40:58is that by ministering to an individual,
41:02child, young person, you actually have
41:04on-trade administered to the whole families.
41:07It seems, and I have a background in,
41:10as an attorney working in law and all this kind of stuff,
41:13criminal justice and all of that.
41:14But what I have found is that one of the common denominators
41:17is when you have people that are introduced to,
41:21and pursue frankly, a life of criminality at any stage,
41:24They often flow from a background, a family background,
41:27is kind of decimated in different ways.
41:29Is that something that you've encountered
41:31through the work that you're doing there?
41:34Absolutely.
41:35Probably 85% of the young people that we work with
41:37have a broken family.
41:38Dad's on a round.
41:40Mom's working a full-time job.
41:43Streets are raising our kids.
41:46And so it's the reality that, you know,
41:49they need a dad in their family.
41:50They need somebody that's a man in their family
41:53to support and love on them.
41:55And so when there's no father,
42:02it affects the whole family.
42:04It affects mom, it affects the children.
42:08And New York City is condensed.
42:10It's very close.
42:11It's not like in the suburbs.
42:13It's far, everyone's on top of each other.
42:16But in the Bronx, in Brooklyn,
42:18mostly kids that we get are from NYCHA projects,
42:21which is NYCHA housing, which is the projects.
42:24everyone's on top of each other. Everyone is surviving. Everyone wants something. And we're seeing this
42:31happening across our city. And it breaks my heart that I have to go into a facility and 98% or 99%
42:39are young men. African American Latinos are people that are suffering. And
42:47it shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't be that way. And we need to stop it. And I think the church,
42:52church is the answer. I'm telling you, I will mention the church a million times. Even if
42:58we have bad news about the church or pastors falling, the church is still the hope of the
43:05world and the church needs to get involved and be a part of this.
43:10Daniel Sanabria, Youth for Christ, is not going to save the world. It's to take the body
43:18of Christ to work together to change the system. Yes, we could put laws down, we could put
43:25legislations down, but that will never change the heart of man. Well, change the heart of
43:31man is a saving grace of Christ and the gospel and the church is the place that brings out
43:39the most. So we really, really, really want the people of God to stand up and help us
43:44through this because let me tell you something.
43:47I guarantee you, men that came to Christ, I would say this, that they would give a few
43:56shut up to the local church of other men in the local church that helped them become men
44:02of righteousness.
44:04So I think that it's important to have the church rise up in these moments.
44:08Man, you mentioned something when the scripture bears it out, he feeds and shap the three verse
44:1310 says that the Manifal wisdom of God would be manifested, would be put on display through
44:19the church, you know.
44:22It is remarkable when you say that.
44:26And I want to invite you to respond to this question and when you say that what's needed
44:31is for the church to respond.
44:33Specifically, what are you referring to?
44:36What does the church need to do in your estimation in order to address what's befalling our nation,
44:43particularly through our young people.
44:47We just, you said it come visit me,
44:49prison free the poor, help the widows.
44:52I mean, he said it, just do what Jesus did.
44:55I mean, at the end of the day, do what Jesus said,
44:58come and see, follow me, come and see.
45:01And it's all about working, walking with people,
45:05discipling people, and the church needs to say,
45:08wait a minute, yeah, we come on Sundays,
45:10we love on each other, we worship God,
45:12But the reality is the church needs to be,
45:16listen, if you're a believer in a follow Christ,
45:18you go to a local church, amen.
45:21But if you're not discipling people,
45:24I don't know what you're doing.
45:26We're called to disciple people.
45:29If I can mention, if I could say,
45:31what are the three people in your life,
45:33or two people, or one person in your life,
45:35name the people you're discipling.
45:37If you cannot name anyone that you're not discipling,
45:40what are you doing as a follow Christ?
45:43What are you literally doing?
45:45I can name you a bunch of kids.
45:47I can name you families I'm important into.
45:50And it's not because I'm a pastor
45:51or because I'm a, it's because I'm a follower of Jesus.
45:54I'm supposed to disciple people.
45:58We're supposed to say, if the senior passage
46:00and leaders across this country saying,
46:02you know what, no more big events,
46:06let's just work with how to disciple people.
46:11And you don't have to be a pastor or a leader to disciple people.
46:16You need to have, be filled with the Holy Spirit to disciple people.
46:19So I really believe that's the case.
46:22Get our people involved is who are you discipling?
46:26I preached the other day and I told a bunch of all my members, hey listen,
46:33what are the three people you're praying for?
46:35What are the three people that you think about?
46:38What are the three people you're pouring into?
46:40If we could do that, the multiplication is undeniable.
46:45The multiplication is undeniable.
46:47It would blossom if we just keep on disciplining.
46:51The numbers bared out.
46:52There are over 6 billion people in the world today.
46:56If the body of Christ, each one of us
46:58would take it upon ourselves to disciple one person.
47:01And that one person disciples another person.
47:03And that process continues.
47:05We could reach the world's population
47:08in a generation and a half.
47:10that just do the math, just do the math yourself,
47:13because multiplication is far more impactful than addition.
47:17And with the compounded impact of multiplication,
47:21that we could have the wherewithal
47:22to a we can fulfill Jesus's command
47:26to make disciples of all nations.
47:29This is the call of Christ.
47:30There's lots of things that we can do,
47:33but there's one thing Jesus instructed us to do.
47:35Matthew 28, Mark 16, go therefore into all the world.
47:40You know, the cosmos making disciples of all ethnos.
47:46That's the Greek word there for nations.
47:48Teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you.
47:50Daniel and Shana Bria, I'm so sorry we've run out of time.
47:53I could talk to you for hours, man.
47:55Because that's the heartbeat of our Lord,
47:57making disciples and it should be our heartbeat.
48:00Once again, tell people how they can connect with you
48:02and use the Christ NYC.
48:04Man, go to website YFCNYC.org or Instagram YFCNYC.
48:09and YFC NYC, love for you connect with us, help us out,
48:13help us reach these kids, help us change the generation,
48:15help us turn our city upside down.
48:17And if you could do it in your city,
48:19turn your city upside down, just like Peter and disciples did,
48:23let's make this happen, man, YFC NYC.org.
48:26Amen. YFC NYC.org, we have the wherewithal
48:30and where I am powered by the Spirit of God Himself
48:34to literally change our world.
48:37And as a result of that,
48:38We are able to change the world.
48:39Thank you for joining me today, Daniel.
48:40Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
48:45The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast
48:47may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family
48:50Association or American Family Radio.

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