Empowered

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

ECYC 2011 Plenary Meetings

Valmy Karemera

The Prerequisite of Empowerment

Andy Im

The Lostness Monster: The Empowerment of Identity

Mirriam Norte

The Joy of Full Surrender

The American Facade: The Empowerment of Purpose

Mark Johnson

Outreach Charge

Possessing the Land: The Empowerment of Destiny

We're going to go ahead and start, but I want to begin by just introducing the topic.

Yesterday we spoke about empowerment through right identity.

And although it's on appearance, it seems like it's something so horrible and negative, it's actually the key that unlocks the door to receiving the mercy and the grace of Christ.

And we focused more on, I would say, revival.

We first need to see who we are and what we are.

Now we're gonna talk a little about empowerment through right direction.

And that emphasis is gonna be more on reformation, a change, an alteration of our thoughts, our previous thoughts, and our habits, our ideas, our ways of thinking, our world views, our presuppositions, the lens through which we interpret all of reality.

Let's speak a little bit about right direction.

He says, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

Are you headed to that direction, in that direction?

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for being with us, for guiding us and leading us.

We pray that you would speak through me, also speak to our hearts and our minds and we just want to pray for an extra portion of your Holy Spirit on the Sabbath.

And we thank you so much for bringing us here.

Be with those who are still on their way.

And I'm gonna pick on America, the United States of America, just a little bit, and I can do that today.

Not only, well, for 1 reason, because I am an American, and when you are an American, you have license to pick on your own country.

But The second reason is because I'm in Canada.

And so even though this is gonna go on AudioVerse and elsewhere, I think they'll be all right with that.

So it's a spin-off of the American dream.

Or is there another better, more ultimate dream and goal that we're to be living for?

If you define facade, it's a superficial appearance or illusion of something.

David Platt says this, I am convinced that we as Christ followers in American churches, again we're going to dog on America a lot today.

I am convinced that we as Christ followers in American churches have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical, but that actually contradict the gospel.

How many of you believe that Just because our culture says it, does that mean it's right?

What comes to mind, and this is a little, I guess a little quiz, what comes to mind when you hear the words the American dream, because I'm assuming that's probably the Canadian dream, the European dream, the China dream, and every dream of most people in the world.

But when you think of the American dream, what comes to mind?

You think of making lots of money so that you can have multiple, multiple homes, as you see here.

You think of liberty, life and liberty giving you the freedom to do that.

You think about enjoying life and the American dream, to living the American dream.

You think of presidents in the United States also offering this dream and reclaiming the American dream.

And many people think now, as you see in this sign over here, that the American dream is over.

As many of you know, that the American economy is not doing too well.

By the way, my brother works for a Canadian bank, and so he appreciates Canada very much.

And I'm going to define it in a popular way through Wikipedia.com.

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which Freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success.

In the definition of the American dream by James Treslow Adams in 1931, life should, in other words, it's an entitlement.

Life should be better and richer and fuller for everybody with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.

But we need to look at, and not everything is bad.

Some of these principles are actually not bad ones.

But we need to go deeper into some of the things that the American dream has become to many citizens living throughout the world.

The American dream is also synonymous with the seduction of success.

I mean, everybody wants to be successful.

I want to be successful in preaching this sermon.

The last thing any speaker wants to do is get up front and completely bomb their sermon.

And believe me, I've done that many, many a time.

The American dream is synonymous with the seduction of success.

And in the world's eyes, you would think that Madonna, I mean, she was successful when I was young, when I was a kid, and I'm close to 40 years of age.

I mean, she's been around for a long time.

And often times what drives success, see we need to distinguish between external idols, like success, to the hidden more deeper idols.

And you're gonna see in this quote here that there are deeper motivations that often drive success or these external idols.

And all of my will, all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy.

My drive in life is from a horrible fear of being mediocre.

And that's always pushing me, pushing me.

Because even though I've become somebody, I still have to prove that I'm somebody.

My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.

This drive to become somebody, to be recognized.

I want, let me show you something in Scripture.

Did you know that this is the same drive that drove, the same idol that drove the mindset of the Pharisees of old.

If you go to Matthew chapter 6, and let's turn there really quickly here, you'll see something very fascinating.

This desire to be known, to be seen, to be more than just mediocre.

This desire to be a part of something big because it makes me big in my own eyes and in the eyes of others.

How many of you are naturally possessive?

Don't raise your hands because people may be looking.

That's something that we naturally don't want to be associated with, but we are all instinctually possessive.

You notice in Matthew chapter 6, we don't have a lot of time to delve into this, but notice the motives for why the Pharisees of old, what drove them, what actuated them.

And if you see in verse 1, beware of practicing your righteousness before men, to be what?

If you go to verse 2, why did they give to the poor in sound trumpets?

So that they may be, in my translation says, to be honored.

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Series

ECYC 2011 Plenary Meetings

The American Facade: The Empowerment of Purpose

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Finding Answers In The Sanctuary

47m

Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing

38m

Mind Over Matter

44m

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 2

46m

The Final Generation Must Speak this Language

33m

Is the Church a Social Club?

36m

There is Hope

A Second Look at The First Day

47m

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Stands for Us

48m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

07 The Altar of Incense

1h 11m

Preparing For the End Times

Close of Probation and the 7 Last Plagues

46m

You’re Being Conditioned for a Lie

31m

Daniel 12 and the 1335 with Q&A

1h 28m

Sound Doctrine