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

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the blessings of this conference.

And we thank you so much for teaching us, for speaking to our hearts through the appeals, the messages, where we have been revived.

And Lord, there's also been some reformation also going on in our lives as well.

And we just wanna pray that as we move forward with a new purpose, a new identity in you that we will also have in mind the destiny that you have outlined for us as Christians as Seventh-day Adventists living at this period of time.

We thank you Lord and we ask all this in your name, Amen.

Possessing the land empowerment through right destiny.

Throughout scripture, throughout scripture you have this, I guess, this sequence of promise.

Theologians speak of this sequence of promise and fulfillment.

Promises are given by God and then you see their fulfillment.

1 of the things that I have added in there is within this sequence you always see with it, with the promise, obstacles.

And here you have a picture of the Red Sea.

You better believe it, because how many of you have walked on water like Peter?

How many of you have walked through water like the ancient Israelites?

I don't think any of us have done that before.

And we're going to detail how God or throughout scripture, we see this sequence from promise to fulfillment.

But before fulfillment is attained or achieved, there are always obstacles that are put in the path of those who are marching towards Zion.

So, let's start with the call of Abraham.

The call of Abraham and what was the promise to Abraham?

Well, the promise to Abraham involved a number of things and of course we're not being exhaustive here.

I'm just picking a few stories and a few things throughout Scripture here.

But the promise we know was that the Messiah, that would be the coming of the Messiah, that all families of the earth would be blessed through Abraham's seed.

And we see that in Genesis 12, verse 3, you can mark that down.

You also have the promise to Abraham of territory.

You see that in Genesis chapter 13 verses 14-15, the possession of Canaan for his posterity.

And then finally you have this promise to Abraham of posterity, because at that point, he was childless.

And the Bible says in Genesis 15, verse 5, we know this story very well.

And I'm going to, before we mention that, how many of you have looked up into the dark sky in a night where you're not in a big city?

Because if you're in Toronto, you're not gonna see stars.

You're gonna see buildings and their lights, right?

How many of you have been out in the boondocks?

I'm actually a southerner, as some would call a hick, you know, but I'm Korean so I never pass for that.

But in North Carolina, we live kind of out in the woods and when you look out into the night sky, You don't quite see it with this type of clarity, but you can see stars.

And how many of you have done that before?

How many of you like imagining, I wonder if there are people around over there.

I love stars because it brings me to a sense of awe and inspiration that there's a God in heaven.

So Abraham was looking at the sky and he was in awe.

And the Bible says that God told him in Genesis chapter 15 verse 4 and we're going to read 5 through 6 verses 5 through 6, 1 who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

One's going to come from Sarah because he didn't get the right idea there, the right picture.

And you see this progression where throughout scripture if you study it.

Now and then God brought Abraham outside and said look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them.

And so Abraham in awe looking at them he says Lord I can't count them.

And God said to Abraham, so shall your descendants be.

And he believed in the Lord and God accounted it to Abraham as righteousness.

But there were obstacles as Henry Ford says, obstacles are those frightful things that you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

And he certainly took his eyes in a way off the promises of God.

And he had some legitimate, I'm talking humanly speaking, he had some legitimate excuses.

And so 1 of the obstacles I put up here is the obstacle of time.

In Genesis chapter 12, verse 4, we see the age of Abraham when he left Haran.

Is that pretty old to begin your child planning career?

The Bible says, So Abraham, in Genesis 12, 4, So Abraham and Lot went with him, and Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Alright, now how old was Abraham when he had through his servant or his wife's servant, Hagar, how old was Abraham at that time?

Well the Bible says in Genesis 16, 3, then Sarai, Abraham's wife, took Hagar, her maid, and gave her to her husband after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan.

How many of you have you waited 10 years on God before?

How many of you have waited 10 years in your life for marriage and you're still waiting and counting?

It was a part of my life for a little while.

Well, in Genesis 16, 16, says Abraham was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Now how old was Abraham that point when he had Isaac?

Now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

So even from this point of 86 to 100, 86, 87, 88, 89, Lord, so shall your seed be, so shall my seed be rather, Social your seed be?

How many of you have ever waited on God for almost 25 years?

Some of you in this room, maybe many of you in this room, are not even 25 years of age, and yet he waited, Right, almost a quarter of a century before his son Isaac was born.

So we have time, we as Adventists have been proclaiming the message of God, of Jesus' soon return.

It involves a waiting period where the Word of God itself tests through time whether there will be a fulfillment or not.

So God uses time sometimes to strengthen our faith and that's why, and that's a later slide, but the second component I do want to mention before we get there, is you have the obstacle of age, And I've already alluded to that.

In Hebrews Chapter 11, Verse 11, speaking of Sarah, the Bible says that she was past the age.

Those are the words that Paul, I believe Paul uses to describe Sarah's situation.

Speaking of Abraham, I like how Paul puts it here, he was as good as dead.

He was as good as dead when he had a child, when he finally had Isaac.

Paul had a sense of humor, as good as dead.

You see that in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 12.

There are many, many faithful old grandmothers and grandfathers who have been waiting through time and now they're old, waiting for the reception of the promises, the fulfillment of the promises of God.

And many of them now are as good as dead.

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ECYC 2011 Plenary Meetings

Possessing the Land: The Empowerment of Destiny

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