GYC SE 2022 Fall Conference

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GYC Southeast

Jeremy Arnall

Not Just Any Gospel

It's been several years since I've been to a convocation here, but it's good to see you, and it's humbling to be invited.

So thank you, GYC, and thank you, Southern.

I want to take a moment to just say again that I am an identical twin.

My wife as well, we grew up together in Asheville, North Carolina, and we supposedly met in strollers, but it was in my fifth grade diary.

We went to school at Pisgah, and We went to grade school and high school there.

And at first, second grade, she was just a girl, you know?

Third and fourth grade, I thought, she's pretty cute.

I started school when I was 8, so I was a little older.

Fifth and sixth grade, I have the diary in my office right now and somewhere in there it says I thought about Tina today I think she's pretty well I kept that in my diary and I went on with life and then seventh and eighth grade I still thought she was pretty and I started trying to show her, you know, the best a seventh or eighth grader can, that I thought she was something and didn't go so well.

So she went down to the freshman year and I watched her find a boyfriend, much to my chagrin, and went down a year later, because I was a year behind, she broke up, amen, and I was there, and I was there to comfort her in her grief and her sorrow.

And about 2 months later, we ended up in a Y2Y, our Youth to Youth event at Cahutta, and on February 13, 1992, It was a concert and she came up to the front, she couldn't find a seat.

I was once again tried to be there and said, I'll sit with you.

And so I went down and sat with her towards the back, not that the back's a good place to sit, but nonetheless, we sat and we went through the concert and I will say something clicked that night in which I just had this fire under me to pursue her and here we are today.

She's a twin, my twin passed away, I might work that in somewhere here, but her twin is still living, and no, our twins didn't marry each other.

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men?

For if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort in all long-suffering and teaching.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." What is it about the gospel, which translated, of course, means good news, what is it that becomes so repulsive that people turn it away and draw to themselves teachers who will tell them a different gospel.

I want to assure you today that we have been called to herald a gospel that is not just any gospel.

Dear Lord, I pray that you would please remove all distractions.

There's still tests to be had, quizzes to be preparing for.

There's still appointments to meet, friendships to develop.

Lord, I pray that in spite of all of this, in spite of the pings of social media and email and text, I pray that all of that will be just removed and in this quiet moment, you will create sacred space, sacred time with your presence.

Last night, we looked at the calling that we have as Seventh-day Adventists.

We rehearsed our story as found in Revelation chapter 10, and today we want to pick up with the message that we have been purposed with.

This is our calling, This is our reason for being a remnant.

It's not that we're the only ones that will go to heaven someday.

What we are special for is because we have been given a message that is unique for this very hour.

Revelation chapter 14, verse 6, for I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God, Give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come.

And worship Him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs, or fountains of waters." That's the first angel's message.

And if we miss this message, if we somehow sleep through that message or sleep through that sermon or whatever, if we fail to study verses 6 and 7 of Revelation 14, then we are in no way prepared to receive the message of the second and third angel.

You know the 1 with the beast and the Babylon and all the fire and all this.

In fact you may be 1 of those scoffers that says the church talks too much about beasts.

We should throw those brochures in the trash.

We need to only talk about the love of Jesus.

And if you have received that message, you will be welcoming.

You will urge the heralding of the second and third angels message because you will realize the need to avoid the deception of the false Christ.

But if you fail to receive this message in all its beauty, You will scoff, you will ridicule, you will reject.

Or at the very least, you'll be afraid of the second and third.

Well, if you have your Bible or I don't know if you can use your smart phone here, whatever, just turn to Genesis chapter 20 and I want you to notice verse 12.

I want to give you an example, 1 of many examples in scripture that talks about what fearing God looks like.

Abraham is being called to give up his only son.

Now he had another son, you remember, by Hagar, But this was in the eyes of God, the Son.

And so his only son, his son Isaac, he is called to sacrifice and he has made his way, he has prepared it, he has laid his son on the altar, and now he is ready to slay his son and I want you to notice after the angel stops him, notice verse 12, he said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him.

That you fear God, since you have not withheld from me your son, your only son from me.

Simply put, to fear God is to give God your all.

In fact, let me just go ahead and interject this piece because this is what I want you to take home today.

Saying perfection, being right with God, is not what so many legalists have made of it.

Noah was perfect, Job was perfect, you too can be perfect if you'll just do this 1 thing.

Say yes to God with all your known choices.

It's a fancy way of saying complete surrender.

Abraham surrendered all even when all meant his only Son.

Jesus gave everything even when it meant his very life.

Jesus is inviting you to fear God, to not only reverence him but to so reverence Him that you'll give Him whatever He may ask." We're talking about the first angel's message, fear God, give glory to Him.

Well to give God glory is to recognize first that glory doesn't come from within.

I want to take you to Romans chapter 4 verse 20.

Romans 4 verse 20 tells us, again talking about Abraham here, this time Paul's writing and we read these words Romans 4 verse 20 what does it mean to give God glory he did not waver talking about Abraham he did not waver at the promise Let me back up with verse 19.

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform.

To give God glory is to to believe what God says is applicable to you.

To take his promises as if they were so certain that the promise had already been fulfilled.

It can be fulfilled when we say yes to God with all our known choices.

When you say yes to God, you are saying yes to His blessings.

You are responding and you are recognizing that you are no different than Adam when he was but dust.

And you are recognizing that the only way that dust would become a living being, a living soul as Genesis 2, 7 describes, is when God leaned over and breathed on him the breath of life.

And we recognize that if I am to give God glory, if I am to fear God with all, I must say yes to God with all my known choices.

And even if it doesn't come, even if I don't want to, I can say, Lord, I'm yours.

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Not Just Any Gospel

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