GYC 2018: To The End

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Cosmic Conflict

Sikhu Daco

1. The Genesis Before Genesis

This message was presented at the GYC to the end in Houston, Texas.

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

So the first session is going to be, we're going to look at the beginnings of the story.

For those of you who are somewhat familiar with the cosmic conflict as a meta-narrative, what our purpose is gonna be in setting the foundation is to come up with principles that will help us in the second half of our seminar when we're gonna be applying now the great controversy to different scenarios.

So there are a lot of themes and a lot of things you can get out of the great controversy, but what we're going to try to do is get principles out of it that are going to help us when we're now trying to apply the narrative to different scenarios.

So that's what we're doing in the first half.

So mainly the first and second, and then the third 1 is going to start that application process.

And then the second half is going to be mostly really practical stuff.

I think we'll talk about relationship stuff.

So like dating, marriage, those type of things.

Men, women things, gender relations, et cetera.

The next 1 will be about lifestyle things.

Yeah, the meniscus marijuana 1, it's alluding to lifestyle stuff.

So the way you dress, entertainment, extracurriculars, et cetera.

And then the last 1, we're going to talk about stuff that affects us in our churches.

I saw most of you have been in an Adventist church, at least more than a year.

So issues that come up in our churches and how we can use a great controversy as a lens to help us navigate these things.

It's really weird for me to be here at GYC because I was at the second GYC that was ever held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and I was a college student back then.

So it's like, it's really trippy for me, like being at a GYC as a seminar speaker, because I'm like, but I'm an attendee.

I'm the person who goes to GYC and is blessed.

And this is side note before we pray and get into the seminar, you know, I think for a lot of us who have grown up with the GYC thing from our late teens, going into our 20s, 30s, When we went to GYC, we weren't planning to keep going to GYC.

Like, we really, really believed that, like, we left GYC with this fire, and we were like, we're going to go and do crazy stuff for God.

I remember I took a year off after college to work as a missionary on a public university campus.

And I see a couple other campus missionaries here, Ezra.

And when we did that, like that summer after the program, we went canvassing.

And the way that I knew about canvassing was like it's something that high schoolers do.

But we're like, we're going to go crazy for God and like we're going to sleep on the floor and we're going to spread the gospel.

We're like, we're going to give out, we're going to sell the great controversy, like that book.

And I think maybe That's where my passion for the great controversy kind of started.

We'll go door to door and we were like our summer goal was like 250 great controversies.

Before the half the summer we were done with the goal.

I mean, we were just like everybody needs to know the stuff that we know.

Yeah, you know, and our goal wasn't to come to GYC next year.

It wasn't like, hey, let's go to GYC, have a good time, and then next year we're gonna come to GYC and meet up with our buddies and go to another GYC." It was like, yo, let's go home and let's go all out for God and next year, no more GYC because we're gonna be in heaven.

So that's why it's trippy for us, you know, like for me, being here, it's like, dude, we're still here?

But at the same time, and this comes out for me as we study the great controversy, I think about the mercy of God, the fact that we're still here.

Because how many of you were born after 2003?

We actually got people who wouldn't exist.

Like you would not exist, and yet God in his wisdom, God in his wisdom has seen fit that you are here, and that you are part of this end time movement and we are going to finish the work together.

If Jesus was coming soon then, I believe it with all of my heart, he's coming even sooner now.

And if we don't get on board, we're going to get left behind.

And just because I'm past the age of being a GYC-er, technically, doesn't mean that I can't be part of this movement.

Let's bow our heads for prayer, and we'll start our seminar.

It's been a blessing hearing all the messages, the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts.

Lord, we know that there's a world that is dying for a knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And Lord, we are here because we want to gain that knowledge so that we can spread the gospel to the world.

Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit would be in this room and in every other seminar as well, that you would come in a mighty and a powerful way, that you would fill our hearts with the knowledge of Christ that would compel us to go out and spread the gospel to the world.

The seminar is, the title of This session is the genesis of the genesis.

It's like, it's the story behind the story.

We're gonna come up with 7, blah, blah, blah, blah.

7 lessons about God that we get from Genesis 1 and 2.

These are not the only things you learn about God from Genesis 1 and 2, but these are going to be foundational for us as we, voila, as we go into our cosmic controversy narrative.

Verse 1, in the beginning, is anyone against reading the word of God?

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.

The evening and the morning were the first day.

2. Good God, Evil World?-Theodicy

This message was presented at the GYC To The End in Houston, Texas.

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

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for this day and for waking us all up and for being so faithful to us to provide jewels that we will be able to possess from this life to the next.

And Father, I pray that as the speaker gets ready to come up and present the message that you have put on her heart, I pray Lord that you will sanctify her mind, sanctify her lips Lord, and prepare our hearts for the message that you have foreordained since the beginning of this world for us to hear on this day.

In the name of Jesus, I pray this prayer.

Let's see by a show of hands those who weren't here before.

For those of you who weren't here before, nobody told me the students say lessons.

In the past session we went through Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2, whirlwind style, and we got things that we learned about God, we talked a little bit about how those apply to our lives, and we started delving into the story, the story behind the story of the story of Genesis.

On your program things, it says this session is about the theodicy, the question of theodicy.

Before we go into that, I wanted to finish up on what we started previous session on the story of the great controversy.

Is that acceptable to you guys who weren't here before?

Okay, I got a thumbs up from 1 person and an mm-hmm.

We went Genesis chapter 3, And then we went Revelation chapter 12.

Let's turn to Revelation chapter 12 and pick up there.

I asked in the previous session, I asked how many were familiar with the great controversy as a meta-narrative, as a story, and I got a show of hands.

So there are enough new people here and since that's what kind of what we're going to be going through, I just would like a show of hands so I know how in-depth to go.

How many of you are familiar with the great controversy as a story?

There was a great dragon in verse 3 of chapter 12.

Do you mind sitting in the front over there?

So that I don't feel bad about the board.

And verse 4, his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and we went to verse 7, talked a little bit about that.

Michael and his angels fought and the dragon fought and his angels, they didn't prevail and then the dragon was cast out and he took a third of the angels from heaven.

We have, the Bible talks about Michael, and you know, Catholicism has an interesting angelology, Angelology, I think is what they, angelology, like the study of angels?

And they say Michael, you know, they have these angels, they're like Michael, Gabriel, et cetera, and they have Michael there as 1 of the angels because you have him in the Bible.

But actually in scripture, do you guys know who Michael actually is?

Can anyone show me from the Bible, Michael is Jesus?

There's no direct statement, but you know, you have, but there's several places, you know, Daniel chapter 12, how Michael stands up, who is the intercessor for his people, 1 Thessalonians 4, Jesus returns with the voice of the archangel.

I wasn't prepared for a Bible study on Michael.

The Bible talks about Michael is not some random angel.

Michael is actually Jesus Christ himself because there's no created being that has the power to resurrect.

So if this archangel, if this Michael, if this archangel has the ability to, with the trump of God, with his voice to resurrect, he's gotta be more than just a created being.

So that is to create the scene that in heaven, you've got Jesus on this side, who is fighting with angels, And you got Satan, the devil on this side, fighting with angels like on his side.

Here's, here's, just, I'm scared to say because I don't want it to muddy the waters, but it will be interesting for some of you.

If it doesn't interest you, just forget I said it, okay?

So like open your brain and then if it sounds not interesting just shut your brain off real quick.

And we see God, name the persons of the Godhead.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

They're 3 co-eternal, they're all God, right?

This is, it's a mystery for us to fully comprehend.

We have glimpses of some kind of an understanding when we look at the marriage relationship, for example.

You've got 2 separate individuals, they've got their own brains, and hopefully their own personalities.

You know some people get married and they forget who they are, and then they morph into each other, which is weird.

You've got 2 separate individuals, and yet they are 1.

That gives us a glimpse of an understanding of what the Godhead is kind of like.

I say that, I refer to the Trinity because it is hard, let me say, near say impossible to ever fully grasp a full picture of God.

God is so far above us, so far beyond our comprehension that we could never wrap our minds around Him.

3. Free Will and the Sovereignty of God

For whom was it their first time going door to door?

I really am, because you did it in spite of the rain.

I was talking to my husband, and I said, you know, we were praying in our room, looking out at the rain.

But I said to him, I said, you know, it's kind of unfortunate that it's raining today.

Because if it's your first time to go out and you're scared, and then it's like, now you have an excuse because it's raining.

But if you push through that, then you guys are going to be like I mean you guys are super missionaries you know that means nothing will stop you.

On my way here while I was trying to get here sequence of events happened this morning and then the last 1 of which was my son, who's almost 3, hijacked my phone and he hid it and I'm like, where's my phone?

Because I have my notes on my phone and he's like, no mama, I'm going to go preach.

I was like, okay, what you gonna preach about?

But I eventually found my phone and here we are.

This is, it's a very simple song, God is so good, and yet it's actually very profound.

Because it goes to the heart of what the Great Controversy is about.

And our speaker this morning spoke a little bit about this, right?

About the guy who was on the plane and because as he traveled around he was seeing all of the pain and the hurt and the injustice that was happening in the world and it made him doubt the existence of God to the point that he would have concluded himself to be an atheist.

So this morning what we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about 2 things.

I'm trying to decide which part of the board I don't really need.

On your programs it says free will and the sovereignty of God.

We will talk about that and we will also talk about the question of theodicy, which we only managed to intro yesterday.

But before we get into those things, I just wanted to make a couple of notes about the great controversy as a metanarrative.

Why is it important to know the story that we talked about yesterday, the story that we outlined yesterday, why is that important for us to know that?

It's important because truth makes a difference.

What you know about a situation changes the way that you perceive the situation.

It changes the way that you relate to the situation.

That's why we go out and spread the gospel, right?

Because people need to know the truth because it changes your life.

And so the great controversy as a story, as a meta-narrative is important for our lives and it's important for the lives of the people we share it with is because it changes everything.

When I give Bible studies, 1 of the first Bible studies I give, if not the very first, depending on the situation, is the great controversy metanarrative.

And the reason I do that is because it gives you a global perspective of everything else you're going to talk about.

After that when you talk about the Sabbath, when you talk about state of the dead, when you talk all these other doctrines that we end up sharing, when you put them in the perspective of the great controversy and you understand that there is a battle that is going on right now trying to convince the world that God is not trustworthy, that God is not good, then these falsehoods that are competing with the truths of the Bible now make sense in a context.

I remember I was working at Grand Valley State University as a chaplain and I was giving Bible study to these young ladies And I gave the Bible study on the, and this was the moment where I decided that I'm always going to do this as 1 of my first studies.

We had studied a bunch of different things but when I gave the Bible study on the great controversy, they looked at me like, what?

And I was like, yeah, you know there is this huge cosmic battle that started up in heaven where Lucifer, 1 of God's created beings, the highest among all the angels decided that he wanted to usurp the position of God and ever since then he's been on this vendetta to tarnish God's name and we fall into that picture And everything he does in our lives to try and mar the picture of God is because he's got this huge vendetta that started a long time ago.

We've been going to church all our lives.

Like, it makes sense, you know, why I get tempted.

Did you ever wonder, like, man, like, why the devil just dogging me?

Because there's a bigger picture that is involved.

And we're gonna talk today the story of Job.

We're gonna touch on the story of Job when we're talking about this free will and the whole question of theodicy.

So we fall into this picture of the great controversy that's happening.

What I'm saying is truth makes a difference.

Look, if you've ever been told that you have to have devotions in the morning and evening and focus on the word of God all day, this is why.

You know, I had a struggle 1 time, and I said, Lord, you know, there are things that I know that I should want to do, but I don't want to do them.

Like the things that I know that I should want to do, but I don't want to do them.

Okay, because I've gone to church and I've seen those fake Christians who be standing up there saying hallelujah, but you know what's going on behind the scenes.

And I was like, I don't want to be 1 of those.

So I want to be an authentic Christian, but there are things that I know I should want to do, but I know I don't want to do.

How do I become the person that does the things that I don't want to do that I should do.

There are young people who choose not to go to church and I say this from personal conversations with them.

They choose not to go to church because they want to be authentic Christians and they're like you know what I'm not gonna fake it.

I'm not gonna go to church and be up there saying, hallelujah, I love Jesus, when I know I don't love Jesus.

Now, It's a real dilemma because I know I've experienced it.

4. Martian Men and Venusian Women

I was kind of rebuked when he prayed he said help us to turn off our devices.

I Have my notes in my device so Okay, all right if you're taking notes with your device, you can keep it on, right?

You guys are here for Martian men and Venetian women?

We've been talking about the great controversy and issues in the great controversy.

We've talked about the story of the great controversy that the whole narrative that the the the I keep getting this word wrong crux not clucks right crux and clutch clutch is like like like the.

OK So the crux of the matter in the great controversy has to do with God's character.

This is broad overview for those who are joining us for the first time.

The the the the character of God is under attack.

And what we ended with towards the end of our last session was that the way that we live our lives becomes an argument either in favor of God or in favor of the devil's accusations against God.

So we want to live lives that argue in favor of God.

A life that says, you know what, God is worthy of my trust.

God is worthy of me surrendering my life to him because he's a God of love.

When I refuse to surrender my life to him, I'm saying something about what I think of him.

I'm saying I can't trust him with my life.

I can't trust him with this aspect of who I am.

Psalm 37 and verse 4 says, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

I shared, I think it was 1 of the first seminars that I struggled, 1 of my struggles with surrendering to God was because I was afraid that he would end up making me do things that I didn't want to do.

And It was 2 areas that I struggled with.

1 was I was afraid that I was going to be a boring person if I gave my life to Jesus.

It's like, Lord, if I surrender to you, I'm going to be like those people at church who never smile, and they're serious all the time, and they never laugh.

I was like, I can't be a Christian if that's what it looks like.

And all the holy people I knew never laughed.

That was at least what I considered to be holy and I was like, I can't be a Christian if that's what it looks like.

The second thing I was afraid of was that God was going to make me marry someone I didn't want to marry.

I don't know if that's like a ha ha, you're funny or ha ha, I know what you mean.

Because, and I shared this before, every story I heard was yeah, you know, I was living my life and doing my own thing, and then I surrendered my heart to the Lord, and I would never have married this person, but then that's who I married.

Those are my 2 greatest fears that kept me from surrendering my life to the Lord.

What I said at the end of that session was, what's stopping you from surrendering?

You're afraid that he's going to take away your career?

You're afraid that he's going to take away certain relationships?

You're afraid he's going to, what is that pet thing that you're like, I don't want to surrender this to Jesus because he's going to give me what I don't want in this area of my life?

Well we read in Psalm 37, it says that, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Okay, I delight myself in the Lord but then what I desire in my heart is not necessarily what he would necessarily desire for me.

But this text actually resolves pretty easily is that when you delight yourself in the Lord you actually change.

You become a different person and then the things that you thought you wanted before, they change.

And you're like, I thought I wanted this, but I don't actually want that anymore.

Like growing up, I thought I wanted to be a doctor.

Series

Cosmic Conflict

3. Free Will and the Sovereignty of God

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

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