Nearly 2000 years after Pentecost, the church still has not received the latter rain. Why is God waiting? Or is He ready to pour out the Holy Spirit, but we’re not? Who is waiting on whom? Discover what it takes to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just for a moment. Filled until Jesus returns.

GYC 2011: Fill Me

<p>Nearly 2000 years after Pentecost, the church still has not received the latter rain. Why is God waiting? Or is He ready to pour out the Holy Spirit, but we’re not? Who is waiting on whom? Discover what it takes to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just for a moment. Filled until Jesus returns.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2011 Seminar: If I Go, He Will Come

Wes Peppers

What On Earth Is HE Waiting On, Part 1

This message was presented at the GYC 2011 conference.

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

I believe that God is preparing to do something magnificent in the world.

You know, when we say that, often young people look around and they say, you know, maybe God's going to do something wonderful in the world, or maybe He's going to do something wonderful in the life of the person next to me, but He's probably not going to do something wonderful in my life.

But I want to tell you today that God is going to do something marvelous in your life here at GYC if you will allow Him to do it.

And I believe, I've been traveling, I don't say this boastfully, but I've been doing work all around the world in the last 3 years.

And what I can see is this, that God is preparing a group of young people to do His last day work.

God is preparing the hearts of young people all around the world to receive His Holy spirit.

And let me tell you, I've been doing in the last 3 years, I've been doing several evangelistic meetings in different areas in Ukraine and in Central and South America and different other places in the world, been preaching in India.

And what I found is that God is not just preparing young people in the church, but He's bringing young people from outside the church into His church all around the globe by the hundreds.

And I'm just telling you, the events that we see happening in the world today, I can tell you that there is no greater time in earth's history than to be living right now.

It is a privilege and the day that we live in to be a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

And maybe some of you young people today are still trying to find yourself within that realm, But let me tell you, everything that you may not know exactly what you're looking for in life, but I can assure you, as a young person, I was 22 years old when I accepted Christ, everything that you've been looking for in your life, you will find in Jesus Christ.

And every ounce of truth you could hope to know, you can find, well, I wouldn't say every ounce of knowledge, because we don't know everything, but the greatest truth in the world is found in the Seventh-day Adventist church.

And I'm telling you, friends, it is so exciting.

You're going to see that in our study this morning.

How many of you believe that we should be a church hopper?

They wake up on Saturday morning and they say, Oh, what church are we going to go to today?

Well, they say, well, who's speaking in such and such a church?

And, you know, maybe if Ivor Myers is speaking in that church, that's where we'll go.

Or if Doug Batchelor is speaking in this church, that's where we'll go.

Not at all, because we need to be in a family, in a home church, right?

It is not healthy for you to be a seminar hopper.

I want to encourage you to stay, because what I'm going to be sharing with you is going to build on each other.

Now, of course, I can't force you to stay, even though I'm going to lock the doors and put chains on you.

You're still free to go if you can escape.

But I want to encourage you to stay because I'm telling you, there's such a rich blessing.

If you go to each 1, yeah, you're going to get a blessing.

But you're not going to be able to build on that experience.

And what we're going to share, I'm going to share in these first 2 sessions.

That's called, maybe we just won't even take a break.

How many of you feel like sometimes you need a break and you need to sleep?

And so that's always what I like to say, you can sleep when you're dead.

But all joking aside, guys, what I'm going to share with you in this first session is powerful.

Because you're going to see the experience of the disciples and what they went through to experience the early rain.

Then we're going to look at the, we're going to parallel that with the experience of the early Advent believers and see what they went through to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And then we're going to compare that to what do we need to do as the final generation to experience the Holy Spirit.

And let me tell you, we're going to touch on some issues that our church is facing today, such as evolution and other things, and you're going to be amazed to see how God's going to pull it all together.

And you're going to see an overall picture today.

Then this afternoon, we're going to look at the role of the Holy Spirit in the sanctuary.

And you're going to see that there were 3 temples in scripture that will reveal the glory of God.

I'm not going to tell you what they are now, but you've got to come back this afternoon.

And then we're going to look at a practical application of how, what do I need to do in my life to experience more of the Holy Spirit?

And then tomorrow, we're going to look at some practical steps for witnessing and prayer and other things.

Well, who is this guy standing in front of you?

You may not even know who I am, and that's OK.

And how many of you have ever heard of AAFCO before?

It's Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism, a powerful four-month training school.

And it's a blessing to have worked there in the last 5 years and others want to share a role brief history of my testimony like 3 minutes is that okay I did not grow up in the seventh day of the church I did not grow up in the Seventh-day Adventist church.

My family didn't go to church when I was young.

But growing up, I did go to church sometimes with my grandparents.

And when I got into high school, I actually, I'm going to show you a few pictures here, I got involved in football.

I didn't know anything about anything, really.

And my freshman year, I became, I was, you can see me, this is here when I had some hair.

I was actually a really good student and I got involved with football because I wanted to, ultimately I wanted to play college football.

And as I began to, as I continued in my high school career, I got bigger and bigger and bigger, and stronger and stronger and stronger.

And I don't recommend this, but I took this stuff called calf starter, and it actually causes you to gain weight.

It's supposed to be for cows, but I was taking it.

And I just got bigger and stronger until my senior year.

I was bench pressing 450 pounds and squatting almost 700 pounds.

And the Bible tells us in Jeremiah, let not the mighty man glory in his what?

And even I was kind of like the high school star around campus, and even though I was the star of the community, my own heart was empty.

And in my senior year, let me just tell you, my senior year I was even All-American playing football, and I was All-State, you can see here, it was in the newspapers, and I was being recruited by several different universities and something happened my senior year in high school.

What On Earth Is HE Waiting On, Part 2

So maybe you have a question, maybe you, about the presentation, maybe you have a question about anything from the Bible, I think this microphone is set up for that.

And maybe we'll take a few questions and then the organizers asked us to spend some time in prayer.

So after we take some time for questions, we will break off into groups of 2 and then we'll pray together.

This is where I get nervous because then no 1 comes.

My question is, in the Adventist church, there is a big focus on baptizing.

But I'm wondering why, like in the times of the apostles, they were baptized and then they prayed, laid hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit.

Why is that not being done after baptism in our church?

1 of the things that I also find that I'll add to that is that many people today, when they are baptized, that they're also not praying daily for the Holy Spirit themselves.

And I'll tell you, in my own life, when I pray for the Holy Spirit consistently in my life, I can sense a huge difference.

I can sense that he works in my life in a different way than he had before.

And so 1 thing, let me say before I address the issue of the church, is that you yourself have to daily be praying for the Holy Spirit.

He's not going to give it unless you ask.

And we have to ask and we have to make sure that all the obstructions in our life are clear so that He can fill us with the Holy Spirit.

So, our tendency at times is to put the responsibility or the blame on the church.

Every believer is a part of God's church, right?

And so sometimes we can say, well, why didn't the pastor put hands on that person and ask them to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

And in my own, when I've baptized people in the past, I always have a prayer for them.

I put my arm around them and I pray for them and I ask God's spirit to lead their life.

So I think many pastors are doing it, but it's also our own responsibility to go to that person and pray with them and ask God to continue to fill their heart with the Holy Spirit.

And so we, as the church, when we think of the church, we think of pastors and elders and conference presidents, but the body of Christ is the church, amen?

So it's not their responsibility, it's Our responsibility.

I think because of the recording they want you to talk into the mic.

When the Bible says that the gospel will be preached to all the world, do you think that, like, when everyone's supposed to hear the Gospel before Jesus comes again, is it the Adventist message that they're supposed to be hearing, or is it just the Gospel message in general that Jesus died and rose again?

Well, I hope that the Adventist message is preaching that Christ died.

But in the Bible, it talks about in Revelation 14, you find a very interesting scenario.

I know you guys know this, but I just want to break it for you.

In the first 5 verses of Revelation chapter 14, you find the people of the end time.

If you want to know what God's people will look like in the last days, Revelation 14, verses 1-5 tell you.

Then, verses 6-13 talk about the message of the end time.

So you have the people of the end, the message of the end, and then you have verse 14 and on, the end, which is the second coming of Jesus.

So the message that's preached in the last days, yes, it is the Gospel, but it's the everlasting Gospel which encompasses the entire 3 Angels messages.

And so the complete message, the 3 Angels messages, everything that's in there, everything that we believe, the 28 fundamental doctrines of the church, you can trace in Revelation 14.

Why do we preach a certain order in our evangelistic series?

The blueprint for preaching an evangelistic series, the subjects and the subject order, is actually found in the 3 angels Messages.

Very, very powerful, but that's a whole other topic.

But yes, it'll be the Advent message, the 3 Angels' Message, and all the world.

Sorry, I didn't understand your presentation, but it's a question in my head.

How exactly do you test the impressions of the Spirit?

How do you test the impressions of the Spirit?

If you look in John 16, she said, how do you test the impressions of the Holy Spirit?

How do you know if it's an impression from the Holy Spirit or from the devil?

1 thing, the main thing is that any impression you receive from the Holy Spirit should never go against what the Word of God already says.

In other words, I've actually counseled with people, I've actually counseled with a man before who was married.

And he and his wife were having marital problems.

And he told me that he met this other girl at work.

And he said that, You know, I can't get along with my wife, and I sincerely believe that God is leading me to be with this other woman.

I mean, not every example is that clear cut and dry, but that's a very good example.

So would the Holy Spirit ever influence you or impress you to do something that was contrary to the Word of God?

So John chapter 16 says very simply, let me look here at verse 13.

He says, However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak." So the Holy Spirit will never tell you anything that is contrary to the Word of God.

If you have the Holy Spirit without the Word of God, if you try to use the Spirit without the Word of God, you have Pentecostalism.

Because they want to go by what the Spirit says, not by what the Word says.

If you go by the Word without the Spirit, then you ultimately have legalism.

So it takes the Spirit to understand the Word, and it takes the Word to be open to the Spirit's impressions.

So the number 1 test that I can tell you is, the Holy Spirit will never influence.

So If you feel like the Holy Spirit is impressing you with something, and you're not sure if it's from Him, then you need to study the Bible until you find the answer.

Because the Bible will address every situation in life with some kind of principle.

Now, what's the difference between an impulse and the Holy Spirit's conviction?

What On Earth Are YOU Waiting On?

Alright we're ready to get started our second half and I think people are even still lunch even now aren't they And so I heard that the plenary got out late, is that right?

That's okay, I'm prepared for that, because before we get into our subject, I want to share with you just a little bit about Global AFCO and what the Lord's been doing.

So this probably, they'll want to edit this out.

I'm just doing this for 5 minutes or so before I go into the presentation.

How many of you have ever considered coming to AAFCO?

AAFCO, of course, stands for the Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism, And it's a four-month Bible evangelism training school.

And when you come to AAFCO, we have a number of things that you learn.

How many of you, we have a few AAFCO graduates.

And Lisa Marie is kind of like a half graduate, because she came for a little while, but then she had to go.

But if you have not ever been to an evangelism training school, either arise or Mission College or AAFCO, I want to encourage you to consider it.

I mean, what you will learn in 4 months will change your life for the rest of your life.

And what AAFCO does is it equips you, it gives you the skills that you need to be able to be a witness for Christ anytime, anywhere, to any person.

How many of you feel like you would want to be an effective witness for Christ anywhere, anytime, to any person?

And so AAFCO really teaches you how to be a soul winner.

And I went through AAFCO myself as a student in 2004, and since that time I went into full-time evangelism, and I've been doing that ever since.

And it's been an amazing, incredible trip, the places that I've been, the places that God has done.

Some people may think to themselves, well, I'm not good enough to come to AAFCO.

I'm not, you know, I don't have talents in ministry and this and that.

What I found about AAFCO is that You don't have to have special talents.

You don't have to be Mark Finley or Doug Batchelor or David Ashrick to come to AAFCO because God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Now I'm not saying Angela is ordinary, but I'm just, actually Angela is quite extraordinary, But do you find that that's true?

And many times people have fear about giving Bible studies and witnessing for Christ.

But you come to AAFCO and we teach you how to not be afraid, how to go out with boldness like the disciples did, and like Jesus did, and share the gospel with others.

So, we've had AAFCO now for about 11 years, And God has done great things.

We've had, I think, over a thousand graduates from the four-month program.

And we've also started the AFCO to Go, which is a ten-day program for busy people.

And if you can't come to the four-month, come to the ten-day.

But AFCO, we decided that that wasn't good enough.

And Jesus said, go into all the world, right?

What AAFCO, stateside, we were having people from all around the world come to us.

And we realized that We needed to take AAFCO into all the world and not just send people into all the world.

So Amazing Facts has launched this vision for what we call AAFCO Global.

We've actually launched 4 schools so far, 1 in England, 1 in Ukraine, 1 that just finished our first session in India, and then we have 1 starting in January in Philippines.

And I've been having the privilege of being the AFCO Global Director where I'm looking for locations and setting up these evangelism training schools.

So this was actually our first ever AFCO Global class in Ukraine.

And this was our second class that took place in the fall of 2010, and then this was the third class in the spring of this year, and then most recently we just had our fourth class in the fall of 2011.

So what we do is our students go through a 4 month program there just like we do here.

So they learn, they have Bible doctrines classes, Bible prophecy classes, they learn how to give Bible studies, they learn how to go door to door, you learn how to do health ministry, you learn how to do all kinds of powerful stuff.

And then we send our students out going door to door doing surveys.

And there were people in Ukraine that said, hey, you cannot knock on doors in Ukraine because it doesn't work.

They said, yeah, you can't go door to door in Ukraine.

And we said, man, you must have really had a negative experience with going door to door in Ukraine.

And they said, well, you know, actually, we've never done it.

But we know our people, and we know that it just won't work.

And we said, OK, let us try it for just, let us just try it and let us see what God does.

We'll train the students, we'll send them out, we'll just see what happens.

And so we trained our students and on the very first day of outreach, on the very first AFCO Global School, the very first school in Ukraine, our students went out knocking on doors.

And in about 5 hours they got over 300 Bible study requests.

Just going to the door, knocking on the door, going through a simple survey and saying, hey, by the way we're offering free Bible studies to people, would you like to know more about the Bible?

300 requests in 5 hours, can you say amen?

And they said, man, they couldn't believe it.

They said, I said, You don't think it works because you've never tried it before, right?

I want to tell you real quickly about a young person named Natasha.

Natasha was 1 of our students, and at 19 years old, Natasha developed breast cancer.

And The doctors thought she was going to die, but God was helping her and healing her and bringing her into remission.

She was working so hard that she started getting kind of weak and sick.

We said, you know, you should probably stop and take a break, take some time to rest and recoup yourself.

And she said, I told God that if he would save my life, that I would dedicate all my service to him.

And her cancer ultimately came back, but now it's in remission again.

But I'm just telling you, this is the kind of dedication from the young people there.

God is looking for dedication everywhere.

He's looking for young people here at GYC.

He's looking for people like you that will surrender their not just their hearts to Christ, but their service to Christ.

And God wants to do something through you.

What we did just this year, I just got back, we actually did 2 meetings, 2 schools in the same city.

And we had our evangelistic series in this hall that's in town.

In the 1960s and 70s, it was the regional center of atheism and philosophy in Ukraine.

And people would come there, and they would hear lectures on why God doesn't exist and why the Bible is a bunch of baloney, and that was in the 60s and 70s.

But in 2011, God was using it to preach his 3 angel's messages.

Series

GYC 2011 Seminar: If I Go, He Will Come

What On Earth Is HE Waiting On, Part 2

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

GYC 2011 Seminar: The World's Greatest Wireless Connection

The Call To Persistent Prayer, Part 1

57m

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Necessity of the Spirit

Conformation or Transformation, Part 2

36m

Relentless Prayer

4. Relentless Prayer

51m

Relentless Prayer

3. Relentless Prayer

49m

OYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Forever Ruined for the Ordinary

58m

Paul Ratsara: Power Spirituality

Power Spirituality: Part 2

1h

Devotions For Decisions

2. Where Did You Find That?

54m

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Prophetic Significance of the Early and Latter Rain

What, and Who, Are You Praying For?, Part 1

1h

Living Free: Building a Better Brain, Body, and Habits – for Good!

5. Leaders Lighting The Way

1h

Keys to Growing a Powerful and Vibrant Prayer Ministry

1. From Contained Mediocrity to Contagious Christian: Gem’s Story

1h 3m

Angelo Grasso and Justin Kim - One Step at a Time: Pathways to Spiritual Growth

By the Wayside: Devotion - Growing in the Right Place

41m

GYC 2012 Seminar: Church Authority - Gospel Order and Redemptive Discipline

Church Authority, Part V

1h

Sound Doctrine