Radio Interview From Sudan Eritrea Border - Part 2 — Kevin Turner

This is Sid Roth saying, I have a vision. Now is the set time to blow the trumpet in Zion.

Trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm. Shalom, Mishpochah.

Shalom, family. Mishpochah is a Hebrew word. That's what it means, family. We're the Mishpochah, the family with a Jewish heart, made up of Jewish and non-Jewish people, with that middle wall of separation having come down to form the one new man.

We're getting ready, Mishpochah, to blow the grandest shofar. Oh, the grandest trumpet in Zion. We want everyone everywhere to hear the good news. We want everyone everywhere to be red hot for the Messiah.

Christian Ministry in War Zones and Persecution

My guest, by way of telephone, is Kevin Turner. And Kevin's president of Strategic World Impact. I'm catching up with him with his office in the Sudan, Africa area. And he's at their base with his entire family there.

He works primarily in war zones, disaster areas, and where there's Christian persecution. Kevin, you've got a young family. You're a young man. Why are you putting your life on the line and your family's life on the line?

You could do very well in America. You know that. I know that.

God knows that. Why are you? There's a really incredible hymn that I think will sum it up for you. And it says this, only what's done for people. Forget this one. And when it is over, how glad I shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee.

We don't hear things like that here in America. Tell me just three or four hotspots and persecution that's going on to Christians. I mean, you don't have to go any further than Sudan. I don't understand why the world hasn't been in an outrage over this for years.

They've been systematically murdering Christians.

I don't get it, Kevin. Well, unfortunately, I think that, you know, the God of this world has blinded the eyes of our press and various things. And so that, you know, after all A couple million. In the last, in fact, me and my wife were counting on five occasions, our lives have been directly spared.

Jihadists, they were posted on the roadside waiting to attack us with RPGs and machine gun fire. And the Lord prevented that from taking place. And all I can say is this, I believe the greatest thing in life would be for me to live for Jesus.

The Call to Lay Down One's Life for Jesus

And the second thing is to lay my life down for him. I believe theologically that Jesus said, come and die, and he meant it. Question. He meant it. That's one thing for you.

Wait a second, Kevin. That is one thing for you. And yes, he meant that. But how come you have your family? How old are your children?

Well, my oldest is 14, my daughter. In fact, she was attacked here in Africa. And my second daughter, 11, and my son. And it's really interesting about that. We wrote an article, me and my daughter together, my 14-year-old daughter.

It's called Calvary's Love. And after she was attacked, my wife was Now, why was she attacked? Wait a second, why was she attacked? Well, we were, because of the country and the area that we're working.

It was actually an insane man who jumped out and grabbed her by the neck and began choking her. A mob of about 50 people. We barely got out of there with our lives. It was just me, my wife, and my daughter.

Why did the mob attack you? I understand a crazy man, but why the mob?

Well, they're Muslims. And I think what happened is, you know, we're very well known that we're Christians. And they were beating, trying to smash our windshields on our vehicle, which I literally had to fight to get my wife and my daughter into.

They were sitting inside screens. Finally got back to her, you can imagine my daughter's crying. I mean, it was probably 5 a .m. My wife had finally went to sleep and I stayed up even a little bit longer to pray.

Calvary Love and Loving Persecutors

She woke up and she said, Kevin, I just wanna know why. Why did God allow this to happen? I said, because he's giving us the ability to understand what Calvary love is all about. You see, the love of the flesh only goes so far, but to love people that attack your daughter, well, that's Calvary love.

That's the love of Jesus. And what we're able to do through that was grow. And the most important thing out of that entire episode for me was seeing my 14-year-old daughter, she was 13 at the time, weeping, she just turned 14, weeping, crying, pleading with us that she wanted to stay.

She didn't wanna leave. My wife was ready to change the tickets and finally the Lord touched her heart. We ended up staying. When we went back to America, I was scheduled to come back to Sudan and my daughter was weeping saying, Dad, you can't help me, you gotta take me.

Rejecting the Doctrine of Inexpendability

I have to go back. And I'm thinking, this is in the heart of a 14-year-old girl who understands what Jesus meant when he said, come and follow me. You know what the modern lie, the biggest lie in the church in America is today?

What's that? It's called the doctrine of inexpendability. And what the pastors, the preachers and evangelists have told the church in America today is you're too important to die. You're too important to lay down your life.

If you're gonna have good ministry, it needs to be long ministry. And as Jim Elliott wrote in his diary before he was speared to death by the Elka Indians, he said, canst thou bear the short-lived life, O my soul?

And I thank God John Baptist didn't subscribe to that false theology. I believe and therefore I live. And until I knew Jesus, I never had hope. I didn't have anything worth living for. I didn't have anything to die for.

But he revolutionized my life. And because of that, I wanna live for him and even die in his service.

Encountering Jesus in a Life-Threatening Situation

Kevin, what is it like when you're in a life-threatening situation, which happens to you more than we have time to discuss, and you feel Jesus with you?

This right now, I sometimes almost think that I'm in an adrenaline junkie because when I don't even know if I'm gonna be alive tomorrow, I remember one time, in fact, we were attacked by helicopter gunships.

I had my right knee ripped open to the bone, gotten killed around me. But I ended up running 90 miles through the desert. And as they were shooting at me, rockets, my backpack was blown to smithereens by a rocket.

I was crawling on my hands and knees and trying to get into these huge rocks. And I remember as I clawed my way up the side of this mountain and I finally saw this crevice in these rocks, I crawled in and I thought, if I can just get in there, I'll be safe from the fire.

These are helicopter gunships circling us. And literally, when I crawled into that crevice in those rocks, Jesus met me in there. And this is what he said. He said, Kevin, he said, I'll hide you here in the cleft of the rock and I'll cover you with my hand.

And I'll tell you, there's not a dime, there's not a million dollars, there's nothing to give me. Response to knowing that Jesus called me by name and he put his hand on me. And something that you get to experience when you say, Jesus, you're my all in all.

And when he's your treasure, and of course we know he lives in heaven at the right hand of the father, then the things of this earth grow strangely dim. And it's not about your kids and it's not about living for your wife or any other thing.

It's simply this, to live is Christ and to die is gain. And the only way that can be reality, the only way that you can truly say that is when Jesus is more important to you than any.

Faithfulness in Prison and the Global Church

Yeah, you know, I was reading that article that caused me to call you just outside of Sudan, Africa. And I'm gonna quote from it. It says a Chinese Christian who spent more than 26 years in a tiny prison cell was asked upon his release how he handled this confinement.

His answer rocked me to the core. He said it was like a honeymoon with Jesus. Do you remember when he said that, Kevin? Yes, I did.

I also remember being there in that underground church and meeting with this precious saint. He was actually good. They were part of what they called the Magnificent Seven of China, along with Alan Yu and Samuel Lam.

And this was Wang Ming Tao. In fact, there's a book about his life called With These Precious Believers. But before I could sit with him, I had to get to the front of the church because they were calling me to the front.

It was so packed with bodies seated on the floor that the only way I could get there was to step on the hands, on the knees, on the people that were sitting there on the floor worshiping. And I was so humbled because they weren't looking up at me saying, hey, buddy, you bumped me.

Hey, you stepped on me. They were smiling with the radiance of the Son of God. I got to the front of there and I sat with a man who'd been in prison for 27 years. He said that after 12 hours of forced labor, he would literally have 10 minutes behind his cell.

And he said his only consolation in life was he would hum the old rugged cross to himself. And I thought, Jesus, this man knows you in a way that I only dream of. And what I've seen in life, Sid, is this.

Calamity clarifies and comfort confuses. When the church in America wants to say how God has blessed them, they point to things. When the church around the world wants to say how God has blessed them, they point to souls.

They point to the interaction and the divine intercourse of God in their soul. And it's so valuable.

The Prosperity Message Versus Sacrificial Discipleship

It's such a precious thing. It blows my mind. You know, the most popular message on American Christian TV today is give to my ministry and you will have such abundance of money and wealth. How far removed is that from the book, the Bible?

Well, my message to the church in America is come and die. Few people take me up on it, but I believe with all my heart that I have a divine obligation to stand up and say, come and be a martyr for Jesus.

Come and lay down your life for something more important than yourself.

Kevin, we're out of time right now. We'll pick up on tomorrow's broadcast, Mishpochah, but we're making a special cassette available. We call it Kevin's Cassette. If you're lukewarm, if you know someone that's lukewarm, I want you to get this cassette and play it and come have an encounter with the Lord.

It's available for a donation of $10 or more. Kevin's Cassette. If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of our bi-monthly teaching newsletter, materials catalog, or information about becoming Mishpochah or Halatzin, write to me, Sid Roth, Post Office Box 1918, Brunswick, Georgia, 31521.

Or call our order only line, 1 -800 -548 -1918. To place a credit card order, call anytime, 1 -800 -548 -1918. For all other calls, the number is 912 -265 -2500. That's 912 -265 -2500. For a cassette tape of this week's broadcast, send a donation of $10 or more to Sid Roth, that's S-I-D-R-O-T-H, Post Office Box 1918, Brunswick, Georgia, 31521.

To see our television show, It's Supernatural, and to listen to past radio programs, look us up on the web at www .sidroth .org. That's www .sidroth .org.