GYC 2017: Arise

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

So You Think You Are a Leader?

Gary Blanchard

1. Get Lit

This message was presented at the GYC 2017 conference, Arise, in Phoenix, Arizona.

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

I think we're supposed to get started, right Bob?

Welcome everybody I'm Pastor Gary Blanchard and I'm honored that you're here today.

Why don't you turn to the person next to you and just get it off your chest just say get lit and now turn to him say get lit in the right way Do that.

They asked me to come up with some creative titles.

So hopefully you didn't just come to hear me talk about drugs, because it's not going to be about that at all.

What an honor to be able to speak to the GYC, the leaders in the Seventh-day Adventist movement right here.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer together, and then I'll do a little introduction, and then we'll get right into what are we talking about here today.

Father, it is an honor to be at GYC, a movement that you started when just a few young people got together from different ethnic backgrounds, and they sought your will, they wanted to do something for you, God, and you impressed upon their heart what now is GYC.

And I want to pray Lord that you would start other great things from the young people that are here.

Start movements and church plants and you'll do mighty things as we get lit with your spirit Jesus.

So I want to pray Lord that you would show me how to rightly talk about your spirit.

I want to make sure that I'm in line with the word and with spirit prophecy.

But Lord, I can't help but get excited about this topic because we all want to be lit by your spirit.

Lord, we invite you here and we thank you in Jesus' name.

I wanted to share with you before I get started here a really powerful book on the Holy Spirit.

How many of you have ever read this before?

What I really like about the book is at the very beginning there's like a training chapter on how to start a small group built around this book and then how also to use amazing facts and other things for continual study.

So it's like not only a book on the Holy Spirit but it's also a little training in that first chapter how to get a small group together.

Also at the end of each chapter there's questions that you can use in a small group setting.

So, if you want to start a small group back in your church, in your dorm room, whatever else on the Holy Spirit and see God do some incredible things for you, great book right here.

Probably the best book to read, though, is the book of Acts.

Powerful, filled with a lot of information on the Holy Spirit.

I also got a lot of my information on the Holy Spirit from you all know this book right here, right?

Steps to Christ is filled with amazing information on the power of the Holy Spirit, how life can be changed with the power of the Holy Spirit.

So I wanted to just kind of give you a quick little introduction.

That's my wife there, obviously, and my daughter.

And Bobby, you guys might remember them when they were real tiny little things, yeah, back in the day.

My daughter's hoping to someday go to Andrews.

And my son over here goes to Southwestern.

And my wife is studying nursing right now in Maryland.

Just recently I got called from the Texas Conference to come serve at the General Conference as the World Youth Director.

So I'm humbled to be overseeing these ministries right here.

You see adventures and it's kind of like a whole discipleship program that we have in the General Conference that oversees the world work.

It begins with adventurers, pathfinders, ambassadors, and it goes to Adventist youth, which includes master guides and a lot of other things.

So a lot of really cool initiatives happening around the world.

If you guys take out your cell phones, this will be like the only time any presenter tells you to do this, right?

Take out your cell phone and go to GC Youth Ministries in Facebook.

And just like us there because We post all kinds of stuff that's happening around the world at our Facebook page.

We also just got this new address for our website too.

If you go here, you'll have all kinds of access to all kinds of material.

How many of you guys are planning to get involved with Global Youth Day?

We had over 150 million impressions last year.

We had over 3 or 4000000 young people participate in Global Youth Day around the world.

But if you wanna know about Global Youth Day, what is it?

How do I start 1 in my church or my conference?

If you've ever heard of something called 1 Year in Mission, anybody heard of 1 Year in Mission?

This is happening all around the world where young people are getting together in teams and they're going into cities to do evangelism for God.

If you want to learn about how to get involved with 1 Year Mission, where would you go?

But I'd like it if you guys would go to GC Youth Ministries on Facebook and just like us there so we can, you can be in touch with what we're doing.

Global Youth Day is a chance for young people around the world to be the sermon.

How many of you have ever participated with Global Youth Day?

You really want to get involved in that initiative and you can learn a lot about that online.

How many of you have ever been on a preaching mission trip before?

We actually are combining efforts with Adventist World Radio, the General Conference Youth Department and Adventist World Radio, and we're holding a mission trip in the Philippines.

We're going to be preaching at over 100 sites around the Philippines.

So you'd have a chance to actually go into a church or into a marketplace where we've set it up and you'll be able to preach the gospel there, the 3 angels message.

If you're interested in that, where would you go to find out more information about that?

2. Learning From Trump

Let's hear some of your reasons why you're here.

What are some of the reasons you came to GYC?

I heard some really good people were sharing with me today some amazing things.

Feeling like you're part of a movement of young people that feel the same way about our message.

Being encouraged to see other young people standing solid for God.

Did you guys appreciate the message last night?

Talk about the spirit of prophecy and the Word of God, getting the Word of God.

Today we're going to be talking about learning from Trump.

And the reason it's titled like that is to get as many of you in here as possible.

So I can see that worked, and we'll be spending a little time on that, but getting into the real meat, because what I really want to learn is learn from Christ.

No matter who the person is, we want to learn from Christ, right?

I want to take just a few moments to have a word of prayer, and let's thank Jesus for being in our midst.

Lord, we are so thankful to be here with you.

Father, we thank you that many years ago, as a group of just a few young people got together, and they cried out to you and said, Lord, we want to do something great for you, and you put on their heart to start GYC.

And now we have 4, 000 here and 7, 000 on Sabbath probably.

You're young people excited about your message that you gave us.

Father, we realize that we're not better than other denominations.

But we've been given a greater responsibility.

You have given our church the very last message of warning and hope to the world before you come back.

Just like you gave that message to Jonah and Noah, you gave it to our church.

Father, we've got to get serious about it because times are dark right now and people need to hear the message.

Leaders who are lit up by your spirit and leaders who catch your vision and get involved in that.

Lord, we're tired of asking you to bless what we're doing and we want to start doing what you're already blessing.

You have a vision and we need to get in line with your vision.

So show us God the way I pray in Jesus name, amen.

So I wanted to introduce you to my family really quickly here that's my son Gary on the left he goes to Southern University.

My daughter Sierra's hoping to go to Andrews University.

Amen, have you noticed that pastors always have beautiful wives?

That's why, because they've experienced it.

She's studying nursing and then my son Benjamin goes to Southwestern Adventist University.

All right, I got a 1 strong amen in the group.

I wish they could be here, but they're packing from Maine and getting ready to head back to university.

I'm the new World Youth Director for the church.

And 1 of my jobs is to oversee some amazing ministries.

How many of you have been involved in the Ambassador Program?

Oh man, master guides are the Navy SEALs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

You get lost in the woods, you want a master guide with you, alright?

And also involved in all types of young adult ministry.

How many of you have heard of Global Youth Day?

Global Youth Day, we had 150 million impressions for Global Youth Day last year?

Over 3 million young people were involved in Global Youth Day last year.

So I hope all of you will plan to get involved in that.

We also have a whole lot of events happening in the world.

I want you to take out your cell phone really quickly.

I know Some of you were in my last class arm repeating myself, but this is my like intro commercial.

But if you could take out your cell phones and go to Facebook, GCYouthMinistries.org, if you just like us there, then you'll be in touch with all the things that are happening for youth and young adult ministry around the globe.

3. Living Dangerously

All right, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer and then we'll get started.

Dear Jesus, what an honor it is to be here at GYC.

And there are many here that are just thankful that they had friends that cared enough about them to encourage them to come.

Lord, and there were others that you impressed personally.

You came and tapped them on the shoulder and said, you need to be here, and they came, and you made it possible.

We're blessed and we're here to with a humble heart to hear what you have to say.

Lord I just just pray your blessing upon us right now in Jesus name, amen.

I'm Pastor Gary Blanchard and I am the new World Youth Director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And what that means is I travel around the world working with youth leaders.

We have thousands of youth leaders around the world, about 3 to 4 million young people.

And around the world, maybe even more if you add youth and young adults, you're looking at about 7 million young people around the world, which is pretty awesome.

And 1 of the reasons I love to come to things like Youth Congresses and Global Youth Day and GYC is because you get to see these young people like yourselves on fire for God, excited about what God wants to do.

How many of you are feeling like God has a special call and purpose in your life and you're just trying to find out, what is that Lord, what do you want me to do?

You guys were probably at the plenary session where I talked about living dangerously for God and I have a theory, you heard me say, that young people are designed to live dangerously for God.

In fact, The more they're challenged to live dangerously the more they they do amazing things for God great exploits for the Lord They're challenged by that they want to be a part of a mission So I just wanted to prove to you from this little video here that young people do love to live dangerously, but be careful, it's pretty scary, so get ready.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ That's kind of a sad ending.

But man, I'll tell you what, I believe that young people were designed to live dangerously for God.

I was a youth director in Texas for several years and it makes my day to see them.

So, you know, we talked, today you heard of the plenary session that I believe young people were designed to live dangerously and there's some evidence right there, right?

And you know, it's interesting too that we find throughout the Bible that there are examples of the Bible of young people living dangerously for the Lord.

While the adults were sitting under the tree.

The Bible actually says they were sitting under a tree.

Jonathan decided to live dangerously for God.

And he went and attacked the Philistine hosts.

In fact, you get the idea that God knocked him down and the armor-bearer went behind him and killed him.

So as Jonathan moved forward, the enemy fell down and then Jonathan's armor-bearer went around behind him killing them.

That's not even the best part of the story.

The best part of the story is that all the people that were freaking out and hiding, they came out and joined the movement.

It doesn't take very many young people to decide to live dangerously for God for a movement to start in the Adventist Church.

Can you guys Think of who were some of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in their ages.

She had her vision and began her ministry.

So God, I believe, in these last days is calling you to find that danger within you and let the wolves back in.

If you heard my plenary session today, start living dangerously.

We need to rewild the Seventh-day Adventist Church and get serious.

By the way, you're immortal unless God says otherwise.

But remember, be as wise as a serpent and what?

We know if we, you study snakes, anybody been bitten by a snake before?

The green mambo in Malawi, that's a whole nother story.

Serpents are very strategic and they wait, they don't work hard, they work smart, and then, at the right time.

Not only that, we need to be as wise and gentle as a dove.

That's why you need to get lit by the Holy Spirit.

Remember we talked about that this morning?

How many of you here were there for that?

The rest of you are like, did he just say that?

We meant get lit by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen?

So if you get lit by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will have special strength to live dangerously for the Lord.

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Series

So You Think You Are a Leader?

1. Get Lit

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Parts

1. Get Lit

48m

2. Learning From Trump

56m

3. Living Dangerously

53m

Sound Doctrine