GYC 2015: Called. Chosen. Faithful.

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Mini-skirts, Mothers, & Muslims: On Being Called, Chosen & Faithful-Even to the Ends of the Earth

Homer Trecartin

1. Risk Takers

2. Even THEM?

3. Miniskirts, Mothers, & Muslims

4. Approaching Footsteps

5. Open Your Eyes

6. Small Beginnings

This message was presented at the GYC 2015 conference called Chosen Faithful in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Dear Lord, thank you that you watch over us wherever we are and whatever we're doing.

Thank you that you do want the gospel to go to every person in this generation so that you can come.

I pray that soon we will see that happen and that you will come.

You know, last night Natasha talked about the gospel going to every person in this generation.

I've had people tell me many times, Adventists, in our Adventist churches, that, Well, you know, those people, whoever they're meaning, usually they're meaning people in my part of the world, in the Middle East and North Africa.

Those people, God's just going to have to reach them some other way.

Maybe He'll do it with dreams and angel visits or maybe probation is already closed for them but there's no use.

You know, I want to ask you, does Jesus want to come?

He sees far more of the horrors than we see, doesn't he?

He sees everybody that's suffering with sickness.

He wants to come far more than we want him to.

If he could finish the work with a dream or an angel visit.

He would send 1 to everybody tonight and he would come tomorrow.

But God can't finish the work with dreams and angel visits.

He is doing the fastest, most effective thing he can by sending us to finish the work for him.

Most people will never respond to a dream or an angel visit until they meet a real live person living in their community who can share what it means to be an end-time believer in Jesus.

They need to see us in the joyful times, they need to see us in the hard times.

In fact, 1 of the best witnesses is when they see us going through a difficulty and how do we respond to it?

God doesn't want us to go through hard times, but sometimes he allows it so that others, watching us through their drapes and blinds, can see how we respond and it can impact their lives.

Our problem in the Middle East and North Africa is we don't have anybody living in most of those communities.

We don't have any Adventists in most of them.

And so I'm going to talk a little bit today about that dilemma of are there people that don't need to hear the gospel?

Are there people that we shouldn't try to share the gospel with?

It was June of 2007 When a young lady in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, now Uzbekistan is not part of MENA, the Middle East and North Africa Union, but it's related to it.

June 2007, not all that long ago, a young lady came to the door of 1 of our members and knocked on her door and smiled brightly and said, hi, I wanna learn more about Christianity, would you take me to your church?

Well, our members in Uzbekistan are very fearful, They have been through a lot.

They are always afraid to admit that their members, they meet secretly many times.

They've been actively working, but they're just cautious.

And so our member wasn't sure what she should do.

Oh the girl said, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you I went to school at the university with your daughter.

Would you take me to your church?" And our member is thinking, you know, that's funny.

She did go to the university, but she never told me about anybody that she was talking to about religion.

But the girl seemed sincere and so she said okay.

She started taking her to our legal church, it's a house church but it's a legal 1 in Bukhara and she started taking her there on Sabbath.

And on Friday night she started taking her to a small prayer group in a home in a nearby village.

At that time, in that part of Uzbekistan, you had to have 50 people in your group to be able to register.

And it was illegal to meet until you were registered.

Well, how do you get 50 people to be able to register?

And so they were meeting, it was illegal.

They had a number of Muslims that had become Adventists, they had a number of Muslims that were studying, and then some Christians, and they were all meeting together every Friday night.

So this lady is taking the young girl with her on Friday night and on Sabbath, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks.

The third week, in that small house group, while they were praying, they heard a noise.

And when they opened their eyes at the end of the prayer, they realized that somebody had slipped over to the door and unlocked it.

And the room, the house, was filled with police.

The video cameras were rolling, the cameras were snapping, they lined everybody up around the wall of the room, and made them, they took their fingerprints and their signatures, description of where they lived and why they were in this illegal gathering.

They dismissed them all and said, you'll be hearing from us shortly.

And in a little while, a few days, every 1 of them that had been there that night got a knock on their door and a policeman was there and he invited them to come to court.

He invited them to come to court but that's not like being invited to a birthday party.

It's not something you can say, oh sorry, it's not convenient for me today.

When you're invited, you're arrested basically.

They sat there in the courtroom and looked around quietly and realized that every 1 of them was there that had been in the room that night except for the young girl.

And then they knew she was a spy that the government had planted to find out where they were meeting and to let them come in.

Well, 6 weeks later, Barbara and I were visiting Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and we met with some of the church members in the church.

This is the house church off here on the side, and these are some of the members.

And we had a wonderful time together, and toward the end of the morning, somebody whispered to us, Pastor, would you be willing to come and meet with us this afternoon in a house group in a nearby village?

I didn't know anything about what had gone on.

This was the room where they had all been meeting and arrested.

When we came in this time, they had a banquet set up, wonderful food in the Middle East and Central Asia.

And we were all sitting around there together.

They had all been confiscated by the police.

And even if they had 1 hidden at home, they wouldn't have brought it here.

But We sang together, we prayed together, we talked together, and then they told us this story.

I was, I think they were afraid that I would be afraid.

I didn't figure Uzbekistan wants good relationships with the United States And I didn't think they would come in while I was there and arrest me and everybody else.

But this was the first time in 6 weeks that they had had the courage to try to meet again in this room.

You see what had happened in court is they all had been fined.

They were told, they were reminded of what the law is.

The law is that if you get caught once you're fine, if you get caught meeting illegally a second time the fine is doubled, if you get caught a third time you go to prison.

Most of our pastors in Uzbekistan have been arrested once or twice and they're facing prison sentences if they get caught again going to meet with an illegal group.

But so we were sitting there meeting again, praying together.

Series

Mini-skirts, Mothers, & Muslims: On Being Called, Chosen & Faithful-Even to the Ends of the Earth

2. Even THEM?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Reach the World Next Door

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Medical Missionary Work & the Three Angels' Message

5. Medical Missionary Work: In Action, Stories of Faith in America Today

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Reach the World Next Door

4. 144,000 Attractive Ways to Witness

1h

Breakouts

When Translation isn’t Enough: How to Communicate Present Truth Cross-Culturally

1h 9m

GYC 2013 Seminar: Health Evangelism

03-Impact Medical Missions

1h

Mission Possible!

4. Introduction into Global Mission/How to be a Missionary

59m

Medical Mission Work

03 The Bloody Nose That Healed London

48m

Plenary

Ellen White Finally Exposed

51m

The 4th Angel: Literature Evangelism Made Relevant In A Postmodern World

4. How to Reach the Five Major Religions Using Literature – Part 1

49m

The 21st Century Challenge

1. God’s Call to the Cities

1h 6m

Special Interest Forums

Medical/Health

1h 2m

Plenary

MENA (Middle East and North Africa Union)- A Final Frontier Mission

1h 42m

Sound Doctrine