Loving fellowship enabled the disciples of Christ to receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Discover how this life changing principle opens our lives to the Holy Spirit today.

GYC 2011: Fill Me

<p>Loving fellowship enabled the disciples of Christ to receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Discover how this life changing principle opens our lives to the Holy Spirit today.</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: The Spirit-led Discipleship

Sebastien Braxton

The Love Factor, Part 1

This message was presented at the GYC 2011 conference.

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

And of course, as much as possible, I always encourage people to move as close to the front.

So we shouldn't be resistant to drawing closer to 1 another all these empty seats here and there like salt and pepper.

I won't make it mandatory because I understand.

And the Lord will work on your heart in his own time.

Secondly, I just want to give you a little bit of a trajectory of the layout of the land, where we're going to be going this week.

I am extremely excited by this subject when we chose it as a seminar to say how can you talk about the Holy Spirit and not talk about discipleship and being spirit led.

The Holy Spirit, first of all we're going to deal with the idea.

Vikram and I will be going back and forth and Vikram, you saw him on stage last night if you were here, and he's right up here up front supporting me and giving me moral courage to press on.

I'll be doing the first sessions of each section will give you a little break in the vehicle will finish out and so I'll be dealing with first of all personally what does it mean what are the conditions that we need to fulfill to be filled with the Holy Spirit, personally.

Vikram will be dealing with the corporate infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Then in the second module this afternoon, I'll be beginning to talk about Christ and Spirit-led discipleship, as illustrated in Jesus's life.

And then Vikram will be looking at a case study of Paul's life, and we'll be going back and forth again from seminar 2 to seminar 3.

In the third module, we'll be dealing with very, very deep practicals.

We'll go through some, I'll be looking at an exegetical study of the book of Matthew and to show that the way that the book of Matthew is structured is designed to show us what Christ sought as to be paramount to what he needed to teach his disciples.

That the disciples were the core of everything Jesus did.

So that's kind of where we'll be heading on.

Vikram will be also ending in that third module.

We'll be talking about Bible memorization, getting the word in your heart, because thy word hath I hid in my heart that I might not, what?

Yes, there's no better way to not be filled with the Holy Spirit than to keep sin in our lives.

So practically, we need to have practical ways to combat the sinful tendencies, cultivated or hereditary, albeit there's still power through God to overcome those things.

And that is really where Vikram and I want to end this seminar is on that.

So with that being said, this morning, I'm going to have a quick word of prayer.

We will look at the 5 commissions in the New Testament of what did Jesus tell his disciples to do before he left.

And in that commission, we'll use that as a launching pad into the qualifications of being filled with the Spirit.

So that's what we'll be looking at, all the 4 commissions, the 5 commissions in the New Testament, and then we'll look at a verse in Ephesians chapter 5 and begin to develop that and to process what are the conditions of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

So let's go ahead and pray together as we get started.

Father in heaven, these young people could have chosen any seminar and we know Lord that it is not because of any wisdom that we have above any man, but that there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, who is concerned about the condition of his church, and especially young people whom he has called at such a time as this.

And we pray that that would exactly describe what's going to take place in these next 50 minutes.

That we would be used, that we would not use God or His word, but that his word would speak clearly to every soul.

Father, you know that I am but dust in your sight and I ask that you would breathe upon me breath of God and fill me with life in you.

Speak through me and speak to me That we all may be blessed and that Jesus may be uplifted is our prayer in Jesus name Amen Take your Bibles and turn to the gospel of Matthew chapter 28 Matthew chapter 28 So we're going to be looking at the 5 commissions and what exactly did Jesus command us to do.

If you're not there you can say have mercy.

Matthew 28, we're going to start in verse 18 to 20.

And what we want to look at is, what did Jesus command his disciples to do?

So whenever you're studying the Bible and you want to get the action of a passage, you look at the verbs in the text.

You want to look at what is the action taking place.

Verbs like is, be, went, present, beseech.

Those verbs give you action in the Bible, what is taking place.

And most things in the Bible are describing the actions that's going on.

So adjectives, adverbs, nouns, who's receiving the action, who's committing the action, but the verbs give you the action.

And so, when we look at Matthew 28 and verse 18, the Bible says, And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all what?

Power, if you have the King James, if you have a new King James or NIV, it'll say all authority.

He says, all power or authority has been given to me in heaven and where?

Now, in the Bible there are 2 different words that are mainly used for the concept of power and authority.

The first word is the 1 that many of you probably are familiar with.

It comes from this Greek root called dunamis.

Now, you in English is upsilon in Greek, and it's usually spelled as a Y.

So if you're ever reading a Greek Bible, it'll look like it says dynamis, but it's actually pronounced dunamis.

This is 1 word you'll find in the Bible for power.

Now the next word that we have in the Bible is the Greek word exousia.

Okay this is a root and this deals with authority or the right to do something.

Power, or the newer translations use the correct, which would be authority.

That means Jesus says, I have every right.

We usually use this to say Christ has the power, but it's not dealing with the power, it's dealing with the right, the position.

Now let me explain what I mean in practical terms.

In Matthew chapter 8, you remember that a centurion came to Jesus.

And this centurion came, and he said, Lord, my servant at home is sick.

And while his servant was at home is sick, the Jews commended this centurion to Jesus and said, look, you should heal his servant because he helps the Jews, he supported the synagogue, on and on and on.

He says, Lord, you don't have to come to my house, just speak the word, what?

The next statement of the man was I am also a man set under authority.

I speak to 1 to say go and what does he do?

So now the man, the centurion doesn't have to physically act on his word.

So being set under authority means whatever you say, everything in this realm, let's say for him it's in the Roman army, but Christ says all authority is given to me in 2 places.

Vikram Panchal

The Love Factor

Dot o-r-g right well good morning everyone It's a real privilege to be here at GYC with you.

I was only expecting 1 or 2 hands, but there were a number of people here who are visiting for the first time.

Our seminar for this weekend is on discipleship.

And if you came last evening for the evening devotional, you would have heard Sebastian and myself talk about the importance of discipleship.

I believe that this is a missing link in our ministry today.

And just to give you an overview of what to expect today and tomorrow as well, there are in total 3 modules.

The first module is the 1 you're sitting in right now.

The second module will take place straight after lunch and there Sebastian will present the first message and then I'll come back and I'll do the second message after that.

The third module will also be tomorrow in the morning, same time as our module today.

Sebastian will do the first message, and I'll follow up with the second message.

Discipleship is something that our churches fundamentally need.

And so if you Come this afternoon, straight after lunch, we'll be talking about discipleship revolution.

And over there we'll be looking at a biblically founded basis for discipleship.

That's a session you don't want to miss, Because that's when we'll get to the crux of what discipleship actually involves.

Tomorrow morning, we'll be looking at some hands-on practical ways and how you can actually start discipleship programs in your local church.

This morning, though, I want to share with you my journey into discipleship.

Sebastian had a wonderful, powerful message for you this morning, and I want to back that up with my own personal testimony, sharing with you how the Spirit of God worked in my own life.

Now some of you have been raised as Adventists.

Others of you have recently come into the faith.

Regardless of where you come from, what background you have, I believe that the Spirit of God has been leading you throughout your life and even as you've come here for GYC.

Now, I have 1 request for you this morning.

And they're presenting all across this convention center.

It's very easy for us to be distracted and to seminar hawk, if you know what I mean.

You hear of all these great speakers and you don't want to miss them, So you go for 1 topic here, you go to the next room and get the other topic there, and you want to make sure you can get everything.

But if we are here to receive training and equipping, if we really want to learn what it means to be disciples for Christ, then I encourage you to come back to every session and stay on and you will get the training that you need in discipleship.

Come back next year and you can then attend another seminar by a different speaker.

I just found out yesterday that at GYC, we have people representing over all 50 states of the United States.

But not only that, we have people from over 66 countries that are present here just for this weekend.

And I believe that the Spirit of God is going to be poured out in these next few days.

Our theme for this weekend is Fill Me, Our Earnest Plea.

The Spirit of God is longing to fill our hearts and our minds.

The Spirit of God wants to renew our souls to bring us revival and reformation for these end times.

GYC was raised up by God to train and equip disciples to prepare us for His soon coming.

God wants to use young people in powerful ways like He hasn't used them before.

And I believe that as you come here over these next few days, we will sense the Spirit of God moving in a powerful way.

I want to share with you because I just came back from a mission trip to Taiwan.

I was still feeling jet-lagged and sporadically I was falling asleep.

I was trying my hardest to prepare for these seminars, but next thing I'd know I'd be asleep on my desk.

You know, when you suffer from jet lag, it's hard to get back into the rhythm of things when you're in a different time zone.

I went with my home church in Australia and we had a team of about 10 people.

I'll be sharing a little bit about this in my next session after lunch.

And we were running an evangelistic series for a period of a week.

And so they invited our church from Australia to come down and do an evangelistic series and provide training for the members.

I had the chance to arrive in Kaohsiung, which is in the south of Taiwan, and then we made our way to Hualien, which is a beautiful scenic place out in the east of Taiwan.

From there we made our way north to Shalu, where the Evangelistic Series was conducted.

Now just to give you an idea of the schedule, it was pretty hectic.

We started at 8.30 in the morning with morning devotionals and I was doing morning devotionals on Adventist identity.

From there we did outreach in the community, inviting people for an English class we were running, and also healthy cooking classes.

And we were going to link that to an evangelistic series that was going to take place.

If you come back this afternoon, I'm going to share a powerful testimony of how God used our humble efforts to bring Buddhists and people who worshiped ancestors to hear about the Seventh-day Adventist message for the very first time.

And you will be inspired to see how God is doing an incredible work in Taiwan.

What about the work that God is doing here in the United States?

We had 10 people go to Taiwan, and God worked powerfully.

But as I look here in our midst, there are 5000 people gathered.

Are you just here to receive another powerful message?

Or are you here to do something when you return back to your home church?

I believe that's the fundamental question.

We have all the knowledge you could possibly receive.

Some of you have been coming to GYC since it first started.

Others of you have just come here for the first time.

But God not only wants to inspire us and revive us in our time here, but God wants to give us practical tools that we can implement in our local churches, such that each church can become a lighthouse for God and the work can be finished.

You know, yesterday we had a speaker's luncheon.

And during that time, Sean Reed, the vice president for programming, reminded us of our need to humble ourselves before God.

The first was that God would break our hearts as speakers.

That as we presented the Word of God before you, as we broke the Word of God before you, that we would share the Word of God with sincerity and with humility.

The second point of prayer was that God would also break your hearts as well.

That in the time that you're here, it would not just be business as usual, but that it would be business unusual.

That the Spirit of God would be unleashed in new and unique ways.

The third point that he asked us to pray for is that God would give us divine appointments in the community.

And that God will give us divine appointments in our time here.

You know, yesterday I went for a walk in the morning.

And as I start to walk, I began to pray for the residents in Houston, Texas.

I said, God, give us divine appointments as we got on outreach on Friday.

But I also prayed for those who will be coming to GYC too, as well as myself.

But it wasn't too long before, as I start to walk in the morning, that I heard a man following me.

Discipleship: Revolution, Part 1

Dot o-r-g alright, good afternoon how you doing?

Yes alright well I'm let me get started in a moment I'm just pulling up my notes I don't usually like to use notes, but I realize the importance is you try to quote all these things, and then people ask you, where did you get that from, and you don't remember.

So I like to use notes, prefer to do things that way.

And in this module, we're going to talk about now being filled, after being filled with the Spirit individually and corporately, the Spirit led Jesus to do some things and that's what we're going to look at in a broad stroke.

So in this session, this first 50 minutes, we're simply going to evaluate 4 threads throughout the life of Jesus.

And really there's 3 threads throughout the life of Jesus.

The fourth 1 kind of is established after Jesus' life.

In those threads, we're going to look at that as kind of the basis of Jesus's method of discipleship and how he sought to train the men who being filled with the Holy Spirit are the ones that changed the world and launched this movement that we call Christianity.

Where a third of the world now subscribes and worships Jesus.

And so we want to look at that today and that's where we'll kind of wrap up and then maybe take some questions depending on our time.

Father in heaven, we have been busy here and there.

We've already heard hours of sermons and testimonies.

Very quickly, Lord, we can become weary with all the things that are going on.

And it is our prayer that you would lead us, that you would teach us about Christ, the master teacher.

And that you would inspire us with the understanding, with the eyes that when we look at Jesus' life today we would see it differently.

Lead us on, Lord and speak through this man into him in spite of him in Jesus name.

Amen All right So there are 4 threads that I want to suggest to you that underline Jesus's life.

Now, for those of you who are taking notes, I'm gonna give them to you, and then I'm going to go through them piece by piece.

Now in the next session, we're gonna look at Matthew, the structure of the book of Matthew, as a method of how Jesus trained and prepared them.

Matthew is actually very methodically set up and designed and clearly inspired by the Holy Spirit.

And so I think you're gonna get a lot more practical things.

So number 1, undeniable facts about Jesus's life.

Number 1, Jesus lived the most dependent life ever lived.

Jesus lived the most dependent life ever lived.

Number 2, Jesus lived the most obedient life ever lived.

Number 3, Jesus lived the most loving life ever lived.

And as a result, number 4, he lived the most powerful life ever lived.

As I reflect and look at the life of Jesus, and you ever read that statement in Desire of Ages where Ellen White says, hey, you know, you should take a thoughtful hour each day on the life of Christ, especially the final scenes.

How many guys have ever read that quote before?

Yes, to take a thoughtful hour, I would encourage you a week after you leave from GYC, each day take an hour just to think about Jesus's life.

And this was the result of me thinking about Jesus's life.

So now let's start off with the most dependent life.

Now first of all let me ask you a question.

Do you agree with those 4 things about Jesus's life?

Did anyone live a more dependent life than Jesus?

I wanna build a case for these 4 threads in the life of Jesus.

But first of all, let's talk about the most dependent life.

You and I know that most cultures inspire us to pursue control over our circumstances.

Most cultures lead you to say why should you go to school and get an education So you can have control over your destiny.

We also realize that uncertainty is 1 of those things that's unbearable in life.

For many of us, we would rather go for a weak alternative that is certain than a great alternative that is uncertain.

So they say, look, here are your options, sister.

You can either, for sure, come to Michigan and I will give you $100, 000 if you stay for a year.

But you could also come to Tunisia for 5 years and I might give you 10000000000 dollars at the end.

How many guys said I'll go to the second option?

Now you guys are the risk takers, you know?

You guys are the ones who are like, look, hey, If I get it, I get it.

I'm just blessed by the experience, right?

But for those who are the rest of you, I also share something with you, is there are some options I won't take, no matter how much the risk.

For example, you know, whenever my wife and I, each week we try to have like a date night where we go out, just me and her, just to spend time together.

Series

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Spirit-led Discipleship

The Love Factor, Part 1

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

WYC 2010: Evening Meetings

The Rest of God: The Creator’s Calm

1h

Opening Our Hearts

42m

Trust God Through the Uncertainties of Life

What Am I Suppose to Do?

45m

In the Spirit and Power

1h 22m

Breakouts

1. Desiring God

50m

Kneeling in Consecration and Standing Tall for Christ

All

39m

Prayer

04 Prayer

53m

Ignite Your Spiritual Experience!

No Limits! Thriving in Relationships

1h 8m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

2. Encountering God

1h 5m

Something Bettering

41m

Adventist Fake News

Game On, Game Over, Gave Up

49m

Joseph

Imprisoned and Forgotten

41m

Sound Doctrine