Hartland Spring Convocation 2021: In the Days of Lot

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Michael Carducci Weekend

Michael Carducci

01 Bows and Ribbons: TRANS-formation

It's an honor to be here with you tonight.

I I just had the opportunity to spend 6 months in Europe Is that amazing and I just want to explain to you a little bit I was invited to to go to Germany to participate in a symposium.

And they had not only pastors talking about the history of sexuality and LGBT and same sex attraction, but they also had invited me to be the testimony to talk about my experience coming out of that into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

So ironically, you know, I was invited a year and a half earlier and that's just the way Germans are.

They're very organized and they're very ahead of time and so I thought for sure as of last March they would cancel any minute.

So then they called me in August and we still were talking but they still weren't ready to cancel and then miraculously just 2 weeks before I was to speak in Germany they opened up the borders for the United States to travel to Germany if you had permission from the embassy.

So I showed up at the airport with my luggage and my negative COVID test and my passport and they sent me back home.

They said, you don't have permission from the embassy so you can't fly.

So then my pastor wrote a letter, the people at the symposium wrote a letter, I wrote a letter, and they still said no.

But we asked them, they said, why do you keep saying no?

And they said, well, he's not staying for 90 days so he can't travel.

And I said, I've got nothing else going on.

And so they stamped my passport and off I went.

So I had to quarantine and test again once I got to Germany, to Stuttgart, and after 2 days of quarantine, I got a negative test result and so I was free.

So I just wanna break this down for you just to share with you how amazing God is.

Okay, good, that was much more energetic.

So God is so amazing that I traveled to 9 countries, 14 times.

I traveled in only 2 days of quarantine in 6 months.

I followed the laws of every country that I went into.

Sometimes I had to leave a country early to avoid quarantine and mandatory lockdowns.

And then other times I had to leave the country to arrive in another country before they would lock down the country.

And so the Lord just artfully did that for me.

I did planes, trains, public transportation, buses, cars.

I spoke in churches, home churches, conferences, and schools in 6 months.

So I wanna thank you for this opportunity.

And a lot of my roots really do belong here at Heartland College Institute.

And 20 years ago, I was baptized and I celebrated my 20 year anniversary walking with Jesus Christ.

Isn't that amazing that God can hold somebody together so closely and it hasn't been an easy journey.

I would beg to ask any Christian if your Christian walk is easy.

So 20 years of walking with Jesus Christ and it's amazing that probably the second year after I was a new Christian I came here to Heartland Institute and I was really moved by the medical missionary message and it's been a part of my life ever since.

I recognized the application of the health message with my own walk in purity and the understanding of that.

And so Coming Out Ministries was started 10 years ago with that message in mind to provide the resources that we were desperate for when we were young people that walked out of Adventist culture and Christianity into the lives of the LGBT community, only to come out 20 years later recognizing that they still were no resources for people like me.

So Coming Out Ministries has now been in business for 10 years, going internationally to not only provide these resources, but to equip the church, to educate the church, and to inspire the church about how God's power is still available to people like me, as well as to people like you.

I think 1 of the greatest compliments that Coming Out Ministries has received is when somebody comes up to us and they say, you know what, I was never gay, but everything that you shared helped me to understand my own struggle with sin.

And Duane Lemon actually calls our ministry a present truth ministry, talking about the issues of today.

And I think that that's probably, to a large extent, why our ministry is so popular is because it really is the message of the hour.

So I wanna thank you again for this opportunity to speak here this weekend.

Fasten your seatbelts if those chairs come with a seatbelt at all.

I believe that the Lord will take us all on a journey.

So tonight I wanna talk about the transgender issue.

And that is 1 of the issues that I struggled with.

And you know, it was something that was buried so deep in my past that it wasn't until probably about 7 or 8 years ago that I recognized my own struggle and how that was a part of my testimony as well.

So I'm gonna take you on a journey through my own personal experience, as well as touch on where we're at today, the challenges of the church today, but I also want to inspire you at the very end to show you the power of God changing lives.

So before I begin, let's have a word of prayer.

Here we are, Lord, on a Friday night, and you've been waiting for this opportunity Lord to spend time with us, to share with us, to fellowship with us, and to celebrate.

So Lord we come expecting a great celebration Lord with you because this is the time that you promised to set aside with us.

I pray Lord that tonight that you will send your Holy Spirit, that you will touch the lives of those that are here and also those that are listening.

So I pray Father that you would also challenge our thinking and some of the thoughts that we may have or prejudices in our heart that we may not have known are there, and I know, Lord, that this message may be challenging for some, but I also pray, Lord, that we'll affirm not only your love and compassion, but also, Lord, your truth, because it's very difficult to live in this world today.

And the compromising of the truth is in many churches.

But Lord, I pray that you will help us to see how to be compassionate and loving and still uphold the biblical understanding of identity and sexuality in a very difficult world.

I thank you, Lord, for what you're about to deliver, and in Jesus' name I pray.

So I wanna talk about transformed and again, the transgender issue.

It's interesting that in National Geographic, they actually dedicated an entire issue to transgenderism.

Now if you notice underneath these images of this magazine, it has just a sample of some of the different ways that you can identify with.

You can identify as non-binary, agender, androgynous, cisgender, gender binary, gender conforming, gender dysphoria, gender expression, gender fluid, gender identity, gender marker, and the list goes on.

Did you know that now there's over 100 different ways that you can identify?

Raise your hand if you've even heard of some of these terms.

Usually it's people under 30 that their hands go up.

So many of our young people are exposed to these terms.

Many of us over 30, some of these terms are very unclear to us and confusing.

But I want to share with you some of the things that are going on in our world today that you may not be aware of.

This is actually a video clip of a program that was taking place in the United States.

It was talking about the issues of the United States.

The way I work out is I like to go, go, go, go hard and fast and strong.

And a lot of the guys can't keep up with that.

On the surface, Tan is strong and confident, But for years Tan has struggled with a conflicted sense of self and a secret.

It's 1 of the most basic ways of identifying ourselves, male or female.

But for millions of people, their physical gender doesn't line up with their inner sense of self.

Imagine your brain in the opposite gender's body.

And so this just gives you an example of the transgender issue that is going on in our world today.

This is an image on the left that you can see that I got out of a magazine.

You're actually looking at a transgender male to female as a picture of a little boy in the inset.

This person is making a lot of money giving beauty tips to women on how they can be more feminine.

02 All Wrapped Up and Where to Go?: Who’s Salvation Is It Anyway?

And while the young lady, I don't even know her name, I don't even know who was saying it, but I was in the back and I was listening to, you know, we all struggle with identity, right?

I'm sorry, but that's really new to me, because I knew what I was struggling with for all those years, and of course now, with so much attention on identity and on other issues that are in the world, it didn't even dawn on me that you struggle with your identity too.

And as I was standing in back and as those ladies were singing, I was feeling my inadequacies, of course, all this morning.

And even when I woke up, I found it even very difficult to pray.

And I said, okay, well, I'll do the best I can.

And then it hit me while I was standing in the back and tears started coming in my eyes a little bit, is that my identity is in Jesus Christ alone.

I'm not identified by my history, by my past.

You know what, let's have closing prayer.

But wow, how beautiful that I'm not identified by anything but Jesus Christ.

And he said, he said that his strength is made perfect in my weakness.

Just recognize that there's just no way that you can do this on your own.

If we can't do it on our own, that means his strength is always then perfect, And that's when we can receive it best, right?

He wanted us to work in partnership with him.

Isn't that really the intimacy that we all desire?

I don't know if it's filtered into Virginia yet, but in Tennessee we say, you and me are down like 2 flat tires.

And I say that because what he was sharing this morning, I'm even using some of your verses, you know, that the Lord impressed you with this morning.

And so that was another affirmation to me that the God is speaking, right?

Thank you for being surrendered to him that I might get the affirmation that I can work for him also.

So with that, I'd like to open in prayer as we begin.

Thank you, Lord, for an identity that I don't deserve.

Thank you, Lord, that you have given me above and beyond anything that I could ever ask or even want.

And yet Lord, because you asked me to identify in you and you alone, it washes away everything else and I'm new.

I'm a new creature in Christ, Not because of what I've done, but because of what you've done.

So Lord, these people have come and they expect something.

And I know Lord that you're gonna deliver.

And I pray Lord that you'll use me if it's your desire.

I thank you Lord for part 1 that David gave so eloquently this morning, and I was so moved by that, Lord, as you affirmed what I wanna share today.

So Lord, we're asking for something divine, and that you would use something, Lord, that's weak and human and frail.

I think it's just going to open up some things this morning.

I hope you're in the mood to kind of go on a journey with me.

I'm gonna run a little bit rogue, I think.

If the Holy Spirit kicks in, it'll be a roller coaster, okay?

So, Coming Out Ministries has been around now for 10 years.

For 10 years, we've had opportunities to go worldwide, internationally, talking about not just the LGBT issue but about sexual purity, but not just about sexual purity, about victory of overcoming through the power of Jesus Christ.

Now you're going to get used to doing that a little bit more because I really want to talk about the power of Jesus Christ.

The power of Jesus Christ has gotten so watered down in our religion and our experience and you know there's so many of us that are just going through the motions.

We're going through the motions and we show up for church every week and we look pretty good you know we can clean up right We know how to comb our hair, if you have any.

We know how to fix ourselves up and we look pretty good.

But are you really experiencing the power of Jesus Christ?

Because if you're experiencing the power of Jesus Christ, then you would have something to give to somebody like me that is struggling.

And in this world where we're talking about social constructs and different ideologies that come straight from the depths of hell, if you don't know that the power of Jesus Christ is still alive and well today, then you're just going to sit back and let the world take over.

If you don't know that your identity is in Jesus Christ, then how are you gonna help me to know what my identity is too?

And if you think that your identity is exclusive and that excludes people like me, then you've missed the message completely.

Coming out ministries, our vision, and I think that it's much broader than just our ministry about sexuality and identity.

It says our vision is to ignite an unquenchable fire that restores all men and women back to the image of our creator God.

Isn't that what happened in the Garden of Eden?

Isn't that what happened to Adam and Eve as they got messed up, they got deceived, and something precious was taken away?

And so from Genesis to Revelation, isn't that what God's trying to do?

Get us back to the image of our creator God?

That doesn't mean that we mutilate our bodies.

That doesn't mean that we wash away the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross.

What he did on the cross establishes the fact that I can now have that creation back inside of me, the way that I was meant to be.

It's not a watered down version where we just say that, well, I'm just gonna sin until Jesus comes, but instead he says that through his word, and if I allow him to work inside of me, I have the ability to be back into the image of my creator that I was created to be.

I think that that's pretty powerful, isn't it?

Okay, so let's start talking about COVID because David, you brought it up and I'm just gonna drag it out.

We're gonna beat this thing until it's gone.

We could just talk about it until we have to take off our masks and just walk free.

I wanna share with you some really valuable things that I think you may not be aware of.

But while I was in Europe for 6 months, God gave me the opportunity to be in Europe for 6 months.

I was only supposed to be there for 2 weeks.

And the government of Germany, they said that I couldn't come unless I stayed 90 days.

I thought, no problem, wouldn't that be great?

I'll speak for 2 weeks and then I'll have a 90 day vacation in Europe.

But that wasn't God's plan and for almost every single weekend I had somewhere where I was speaking, I got added invitations, I was speaking in churches, I was speaking at conferences, I was speaking at home churches, I was speaking in schools.

I would wake up in the morning and I'd say, Lord, thank you for being spontaneous.

I'm not a really organized person, and if you expect for me to show up on time, that would be a challenge.

But I'm telling you, if you have something spontaneous that you want me to do, I'm in.

All right, so while I was there in Europe, what was really amazing is I thought to myself, well, I'm probably gonna get COVID, being around a lot of people, being on planes, public transportation, trains, buses, cars, being with countless people, living in their houses, sleeping on their sofas, being in nice beds or whatever.

I even got a new set of teeth, but that's later.

03 The Gift Came with Wrappings: In His Image

I'm really excited tonight to be able to share this program with you.

I want to give you a little bit of background.

And I was actually invited to speak at an academy.

And this academy had K through 12th grade.

And so they said, we're going to allow you to speak to the children, you know, every day from 9 o'clock to 10.30 or whatever.

And I said, well, wait a minute, you're going to have the K through 6th graders listen to what I talk to the, you know, 7th through 12th graders?

I go, well, yeah, it is, because I can't share with the K through 6th graders what I want to share with the older group.

I said, but the little kids need something too.

And they said, well, we'll just, we'll leave out K through 6th grade and you can just speak to the young adults.

The world is already trying to educate our children even before they get to school.

And then once they get to school, then they educate them even more.

I said, we need to have something for the younger kids.

So the Lord really impressed me to kind of make it simple and make it plain and how can we educate our children about identity and sexuality without instructing them?

But how can we do that in a foundational way so that when they're exposed to the darkness, when they're exposed to the things that are untrue about God, that they would be prepared to be able to handle it, right?

Raise your hand if you're a parent of a young person.

All right, raise your hand if you're a parent of an old person, doesn't matter.

So again, isn't that the challenge today is, how can we educate our children so that we're not instructing them, but giving them the foundations of God about identity and sexuality to prepare them and to arm them for when deception comes.

I'm going to fill it in with some adult things, you know, so it's not too primary for you.

But I also want to break it down and show you, if you are a parent, how you can introduce these concepts to your children in a way that is not going to harm their sensibilities and also instruct them in ways that they shouldn't go, but also to prepare them, because isn't that our responsibility is to prepare them for the world that we're living in?

So without further ado, I'd like to open with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father we thank you Lord for this day and it's been an incredible day to be able to connect with old friends and new friends to meet new people to have conversations and also Lord to experience the goodness that you have prepared and set aside by your very presence Lord being in this day.

I love how somebody was saying earlier that we shouldn't rush into our secular world, but yet we should savor every moment that we have of the Sabbath hours.

And so Lord, as the Sabbath is approaching and we go into this program, Lord, we just ask that you would extend that blessing for the time that we're together tonight.

That Lord, that maybe rather than the times when we fly into the Sabbath and begin our worship with you, that Lord, that as the Sabbath is ending, that we would slide out of the Sabbath as well.

Send your Holy Spirit, illumine us, enlighten us, and equip us, Lord, for the onslaught that is coming that is already here at the door.

And I thank you and I praise you in Jesus' name, amen.

So while I was in Europe, I just wanna tell you this amazing thing, amazing thing.

There were a lot of miracles that happened while I was gone for those 6 months, and of course, many opportunities opened up for me to speak.

But I actually went to Bogenhofen Seminary College.

That's okay, it's there, trust me, it's in Austria.

So for a homeless guy living in an RV, that was really a lot of fun to be able to say that I'm staying in a castle.

So while I was staying at in Bogenhofen, the first time that I was there I actually gave this program to the educating students and also to the to the faculty of the education department.

When I was done giving this program, I said to the director of education department, who I've known for about 5 years, I said, I really want to put together a resource, right?

I wanna put together a resource so that we can educate our children, we can use it for parents, we can use it for teachers, we can use it for Sabbath school teachers.

Wouldn't it be great to have a resource where we can be in charge of educating our children about identity and sexuality in a biblical way that's safe for them?

Wouldn't that be a good resource to have?

It takes an ex-gay hairdresser who's never been married or had children to be able to put some of these thoughts together.

But I think that you'll find it valuable because they did.

And when I was done with that program, the director of the education department, she said, listen, I really see that we could use this resource.

And she said, in Austria, and in many countries, they have this law that even if you're in an Adventist school, a Christian school, what happens is the sex education workers, they come in and they excuse the teachers out of the classroom and the sex educators, they actually educate your children about sex from kindergarten on up.

And she said this, she said, I want a curriculum, I want a certification where when my educators graduate from Bogenhofen Seminary, that they can actually go out into the world and they are actually sex educators themselves, but with this program rather than what the world does.

And then that way it would eliminate having the government step in and bringing their sex educators.

You didn't have cayenne in your popcorn, I know.

But listen, the best part comes after this.

I was walking back to the castle, and as I was walking back to the castle, this young woman comes up to me, and she said, listen, I was really touched by your program.

And she said this, she said, I actually just got a master's, a master's degree, and she said, and while I was in my master's training, I actually became a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

And she said, I actually have a master's, get this, in gender studies.

So she says, I've got a master's in gender studies and I would love to help you with this program if you would let me.

He will allow somebody that's the director of education at a seminary college to help work on this project with a hairdresser ex-gay person that never had children and also we're gonna have a person with a master's in gender studies who believes in biblical sexuality working on this program.

Okay I there's hope for you, There's hope for you guys, okay.

Oh, we got locked out because I took too long.

Series

Michael Carducci Weekend

04 Unwrapped:LGBTQ & the Church

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

LGBTQ Issues and the Church

1h 14m

Redemptive Discipline: Concept & Application

Redemptive Discipline: Concept & Application- Part 4

1h

Plenary Sessions

Final Charge: Will Your Anchor Hold?

1h 52m

Health

Depression and Anxiety - Blessings in Disguise

1h 34m

Reprioritizing in the Last Days

Fervent Love for One Another

1h 5m

Family Life

Sex- How & When Do I Teach My Child

1h 12m

Great Expectations: Mental Health and the Gospel

1h 3m

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

13 Power Grab And Civil War

42m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounters at the Cross

41m

Dave Fiedler: Core of the Controversy

Omega - Nothing New Here

1h 27m

The Ideal Homestead: Country Living with a Mission

1h 5m

A Relevant Health Message for a Global Church

Farmstew & You - Part 1

43m

Sound Doctrine