MTYC 2011: Able to Stand

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Montana Youth Conference

Kneeling in Consecration and Standing Tall for Christ

The Kyle Family

Ever

Heavenly Father, thank you for this beautiful day, for the sunshine that you pour into our lives.

We just thank you that we can come together before you and we invite your Holy Spirit again into our lives today.

Come fill us and let us be seasoned with grace.

Let everything we say and do reflect you.

And Father, help us to keep you ever on our minds today and to consecrate our hearts, our lives, entirely and completely to you.

You probably noticed our title for this morning and you probably wonder why this devotional would be titled Ever.

Well the reason is that it's the first in a series called Ever, Only, and All.

And if you remember the last line of the hymn Take My Life is take my life and I will be ever only all for thee.

But still why would we choose such a title to talk about?

Well, it's because we want to talk about consecration.

And consecration is a basic foundation in the Christian's life, and it's something that is so important.

So we want to focus on that over the next several mornings with you.

And we want to talk about consecration of our bodies, our minds, our eyes, ears, hands, feet, all those things.

But that's not the only thing that we need to consecrate.

We also want to consecrate our choices, our motives, our thoughts, our decisions, everything that really defines us as a Christian.

So the bottom line message is that God wants our hearts and that unless we are fully consecrated to Him, we won't ever be able to stand.

And we have to remember that we are never, we are capable of never standing on our own.

It's only, we can only stand when we have Christ's life and power in our lives.

Okay, so I just want to take a moment here to define the word ever.

And we could say, probably it'd be fair to say, that ever means something like always, or continuously, or at all times, right?

Okay, so remember that, and we're gonna take a look at some things just in a minute here, and we want to come back to those definitions to make sure that we're staying within the boundaries, okay?

So if we, what if we tie those words into consecration?

I just want to read some synonyms for you.

I looked up in the thesaurus on ever, consistently, constantly, continually, endlessly, eternally, everlastingly, forever, unendingly, unceasingly.

I wonder what our lives would look like if we lived those words as consecrated lives.

Okay, so if you would like to, I invite you to turn your Bibles with me to bibles with me to first Peter 221.

Okay it says, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps.

And now turn to 1st John 2 6 which isn't too far away.

1st John 2 6 which reads, who who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked.

What do we get out of these 3 verses is that we're supposed to be like Christ.

And also, Christ never calls us to anything that he himself hasn't already given us an example in.

For example, he doesn't call us to be overcomers.

But he does call us to be overcomers because he overcame.

He says, fear not the world because I have overcome the world.

See, so he he tells us these things only because he himself first exemplifies them.

So if we If we want to dig deeper into consecrating our lives, we've got to take a look at God's ever, right?

Because God is the best definition for all things that pertain to him.

So I have a few verses, so we're going to really be jumping through the Bible here, that take a look at God's ever.

First off, I invite you to turn to Jeremiah 31 3.

It says, the Lord has appeared of old to me saying, yes, I have loved you with a What?

But it's for yesterday, today, tomorrow, next year.

How does that fit into our definition of ever?

Alright, I'm going to read it out of a little different translation here, so it might be a little different than what your Bible says.

But the message of Psalm 138 7 is your right hand delivers me.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow, doesn't matter when.

It says, for your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

His kingdom will last forever in our hearts now, in heaven.

Now you're gonna have to follow me on this 1.

Okay, it says, speak also to the children of Israel saying, surely my Sabbaths you shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

Because it's a covenant that he has made between him and us to last how long?

How does that fit into our definition of all times, at all times, and continuously?

God's Sabbath is a covenant or a sign between Him and us forever that He is the 1 that makes our lives holy.

Only

Dear Heavenly Father, we want to invite your spirit to flood this place, flood our hearts, open our hearts.

And as we look at consecration again this morning, we pray that we'll see our need, we'll see that we need to renew that consecration every single day and today we're here to do that this morning.

So please be with us and bless this time.

I want to start by sharing a quote with you, a powerful quote from that I may know him, page 155.

It says, The claims of Christ upon our service are new every day.

However complete may have been our consecration at conversion, it will avail us nothing unless it be renewed daily.

But a consecration that embraces the actual present is fresh, genuine, and acceptable to God.

We have not weeks and months to lay at His feet.

Tomorrow is not ours, for we have not yet received it, but Today we may work for Jesus.

Today we may lay our plans and purposes before Him and for His inspection and approval.

And so we want to explore more about consecration.

And I know that most of us here, we've probably been Christians for many years of our lives.

And we've probably consecrated our lives over and over again already.

But like this quote says, we need a fresh consecration every single day.

We can't consecrate our lives and then say, okay, I'm a Christian now and that's it.

It's every single day we must consecrate again and again and again so that we have that fresh, genuine experience with God.

So I'm just gonna review for those of you who weren't here yesterday morning.

What we're doing is we're looking at the hymn, Take My Life.

1 of the lines that popped out At the 4 of us, we love that song.

And at the end of the song, where it says, take my self and I will be ever only all for thee.

And that line has just really been significant to us.

And we really see in those words, ever only all, that they really sum up consecration, they describe consecration.

And so we're focusing each morning on those words and exploring them deeper.

Yesterday we talked about the enduring aspects of the word ever.

And this morning we're going to explore how only fits into the picture of a consecrated life.

You know, Christians that stand by the word only can really say in all honesty, No 1 else and nothing else can have my allegiance, only Christ.

I think of the verse in Ephesians 4, 5 that says there's only 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism, 1 God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.

But sometimes, sometimes we somehow think that we can take the place of God.

We start to try to maybe take the throne of our own lives.

And really, that's devastating because how can we be so foolish to think that we could take the place of an all-knowing, all-wise God.

Our lives are His, and so when we try to take control of our lives, we're trying to take the place of God, really.

And He's really the only 1 that is worthy of our trust and our allegiance.

The question we want to ask ourselves this morning is, are our hearts completely His and only His?

Because only God in us means victory, but only self-gratification means defeat.

So are we choosing perfect victory or complete defeat?

We cannot try to hold the hand of God and cling onto ourself at the same time.

And as we look at the word ever, what do you think of, I mean only, what do you think of when you think of the word only?

What are some synonyms that you can think of?

1 of the things that I think of is actually purity.

Because if you think of what defines purity, purity is something that is, there's nothing that contaminates or pollutes, it's pure.

What do you, you know, when they say, okay, this is pure maple syrup, that means this is the real stuff and it's just pure maple syrup.

When we, when our lives are only Christ, that means it's only God, it's the real thing.

And there's nothing else that contaminates or pollutes.

In James, chapter 127, it says that pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to keep himself unspotted from the world.

To keep himself unspotted from the world, that's a pure religion.

And that's really, we see that it describes only Christ in us.

Christ is not only our example of purity, but he is our purity in first Peter 119 He's described as a lamb without blemish and without spot and in the verse right before that It says that we are redeemed with his precious blood.

It's his blood that covers us and purifies us.

So only means that we're purely his and not our own.

It means that we are nothing because he is everything to us.

And a life that is filled with God and with his spirit is pure because he is pure.

That's what he longs to see in us, his own purity in us.

We're looking at the word only and consecration.

And I'd like to think for a few minutes about God and the way he has committed himself to us in that way.

Because like we talked yesterday, our commitment, our consecration is a response to his commitment to us.

Even the best of this world is blemished.

The very best that we can see around us isn't perfect, but God is undiluted holiness and righteousness.

He's thoroughly and entirely good and only good.

There's no, in Him there's no sin, there's no stain, no darkness or dirtiness or ugliness, none of that.

He's only light and beauty and virtue and love.

And that's what he longs to fill us with, so that we are only those things that reflect him.

And he wants to fill us with that because he wants only our good.

He wants only what will make us happy and eternally happy.

He wants only the best for us, what will bring spiritual growth and success.

And so every purpose, every plan, every promise of God is to that end, to fill us with His attributes, only with good.

So I wonder this morning what about our purposes?

Only his approval, that's what Jesus did.

And Jesus as our example, he lived only to please his Father and to do only his Father's will.

The entire life of Christ, only to please his Father.

So let's think about the weight, really, of this word, the weight of the word only.

If Jesus, for 1 moment, had chosen to please himself, or to choose his own way, for even 1 moment, he would have failed to bring salvation within our reach.

And if for 1 moment he had not been totally and solely and entirely only committed to his Father, we would have no hope of eternal life.

So Christ consecrating himself ever and only and all to his Father, it meant the difference between life and death for all humanity.

And so when we think of the example of Christ and what we're called to this morning to consecrate ourselves to let him be the only God in our lives, I think that we can realize more fully from the example of Christ that if we will live only to please our Father, if we will do only His will, eternal life is ours because consecration to God is life to us.

And aside from that though, our loyalty is the least we can give in return for his commitment to us.

Okay, so Shaya talked a little bit about what God's only is to us.

She also touched briefly on what ours is, but I'm going to go into a little more detail on what our only is, what our part is in giving our lives only to God.

Now in Matthew 6, 24, you can go ahead and turn there with me if you want.

Matthew 6, 24 is the verse that talks about 2 masters.

No man can serve 2 masters, for either he will hate the 1 and love the other, or else he will hold to the 1 and despise the other.

Why don't we just open with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this Sabbath day.

We invite you into our lives and into our hearts.

Lord, we want to dedicate all of us to you, your cause, and your glory.

And we ask that we'll come to understand a little bigger picture of all you've given us.

Fill us with your spirit and send your presence to to dwell with us and ennoble our minds to think higher thoughts of you.

Okay, so we talked about ever, right, On Thursday morning.

And I think Tyler mentioned it back on Thursday, But really these 3 words sum up consecration.

It basically covers all the different aspects.

And of course 1 hour for each isn't really, or 45 minutes for each isn't really enough to to cover everything but we just pray that that we we get a little bigger glimpse.

So we're going to talk about all and I'm sure we all know what that means when we say the word all, you know, it probably means something like the greatest possible or one's whole interest, energy, or property.

Another definition is holy, entirely, and completely.

So we all have a general understanding, right?

Well, how about in light of consecration?

Do we really have a grasp on what what our all means and what God's all means.

And when we look at it like the greatest possible or wholly, entirely, and completely, what does that look like in consecration?

We want to, I just want to take a moment to look at God's all, because like I said yesterday, the greatest definition for things spiritual is God.

And so I want to go back in time to the emerging days of the human race.

Clear back to right after Adam and Eve sinned.

Okay, and Ellen White writes this amazing amazing paragraph that I just want to read to you.

And basically what we're looking at here is God's all, what he's given us.

So this is right after Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit and Ellen White tells us this, that sorrow filled heaven as it was realized that man was lost and that the world that God created was to be filled with mortals doomed to misery, sickness, and death.

And there was no way of escape for the offender.

Jesus' countenance had an expression of sympathy and sorrow.

He approached the exceeding bright light that enshrouded the Father.

The anxiety of the angels was intense while Jesus was communing with his father.

3 times the glorious light about the father shut him in, and the third time he came from the father, his person could be seen.

His countenance was now calm, free from all perplexity and trouble, and shown with benevolence and loveliness, such as words cannot express.

He then made known to the angelic host that a way of escape had been made for lost man.

He told them that he had been pleading with his father and had offered to give his life as ransom and take the sentence of death upon himself.

That though them through the merits of his blood and obedience to the law of God, they could have the favor of God, and someday be brought into the beautiful garden and eat of the fruit of the tree of life." And then she goes on a little bit later to say that, then joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven.

And the heavenly host sung a song of praise and adoration.

This is all just over us, fallen human beings.

So they sang a great song of praise and adoration.

They touched their harps and sung a note higher than they had done before for the great mercy and condescension of God in yielding up his dearly beloved to die for a race of rebels.

Praise and adoration were poured forth for the self-denial and sacrifice of Jesus.

There was risk, oh no, sorry, for the sacrifice of Jesus that he would consent to leave the bosom of his father and choose a life of suffering and anguish, and die an ignominious death to give his life for us." That's powerful.

So basically, Jesus went into God and said something like this, I want to give my all, meaning his life, in order that we might have their, meaning our, all back.

Jesus is saying to God, I want to give my all, my life, in order that we, meaning God and Jesus, might have our all back, us humans back.

And then it was in God's court to decide if He would give His all, meaning Jesus Christ, in order to have our all.

So this was not just like an automatic boom, you know, we sin and instantly it's like an easy thing.

This was the hardest decision God has ever made.

Do you think very many decisions are hard for God?

But this 1 was like nothing else and like nothing we will ever experience.

Jesus could have sinned and ruined the entire plan And we would all be lost.

However, there's still risk, even though Jesus made it.

And that risk is we could choose not to accept the gift of salvation.

She says further on, this is from SOP, it was even a struggle with the God of Heaven whether to let guilty man perish or to give his son to die for them?" Meaning to die for us.

And so, but I imagine that we know that God sees the end from the beginning.

And so as he's standing up in heaven, or sitting, whatever, as Jesus presented this to him, he looked forward in time.

And he looked all the way to when his son came to this earth and he saw what we can't even imagine.

He saw the angry mob pushing and shoving Jesus.

He saw the demon-possessed crowd screaming crucify him.

He saw the soldier spit, kick, and curse the name of his son.

He saw the vinegar-soaked whip snap down over Jesus' back again and again.

He saw the spikes go through the healer's hands.

He saw the creator of all life hung on a cross in the midst of murders.

There's no way that I can let my creation perish with no hope.

And so He decided to give his son just for us.

It was the thought of us that tipped the thing over, that made him decide, yes, yes, this is worth it.

That's how much he wants us to choose him.

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Kneeling in Consecration and Standing Tall for Christ

Stand

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Ever

35m

Only

36m

All

39m

Stand

51m

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