ECYC 2012

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

ECYC 2012: Plenary Sessions

George Cho

Life is a Mission, Not a Trip

Let's turn our Bibles to Judges chapter 14, verse 1.

Those of you who are new to ECYC, we're very Bible-based.

And so you're gonna have to bring your Bible to each session, to each seminar, because we go directly from the Word of God.

If it's not from the word of God, we find it as useless.

So please bring your Bible study session, we'll be using it.

Judges chapter 14, verse 1, we come to a character that's really well known to each and every 1 of us.

Verse 1, it says, Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines.

And so it says here that Samson went down to Timnah.

And so if you just stop there, you might think, oh wait, that's a really good thing.

I guess Samson is gonna go down to Timna and start destroying the Philistines.

But what does the Bible say he went down to?

Samson's life was supposed to be a mission, but he lived his life more as if it was a trip.

There's a, see me, my sister, we have this thing.

You guys hear this, yeah, I went on a mission trip.

We really don't like that term because we believe there's a difference between A mission and a trip.

So if I say a trip, what comes to your mind?

Vacations, hotels, sipping something on the beaches of Jamaica.

Now If I say mission, what comes to your mind?

I think of like the military, you know, the Green Berets.

These people who have a specific goal and they're disciplined, okay, that is a mission.

Samson, he was born to fulfill a specific mission, but his life was lived more like as if it was a trip.

I remember several years ago, we went to Cambodia on a mission trip.

And I remember there was several teams that came together, these Korean teams that came together to do the mission trip mission, sorry.

And I remember that some of the missionaries, we're supposed to be exemplifying Jesus, but some of the missionaries, they would go out late at night, and they would go to, I'm not sure what they were doing, but I heard that they were going to the bars, and they're going out and hanging out and doing some things with illegal substances.

And so for them, they're taking this mission more as if it was a trip, while others were taking in their life, their this, the trip to, the mission to Cambodia, as if it was a mission.

But the question to us is, how about you and I?

Are you living your life mission-focused?

Or are you going through life as if it was some kind of journey where you could indulge in pleasure seeking?

You know, the irony is that those who live their life mission focused are the ones who get the most enjoyment out of life.

So when we say, you know, trips are bad, You know, it's like, oh, the Christian life seems to be a drag.

Those who live their life fulfilling the purpose, the mission that God's given them, are the most richly blessed and the most fulfilled.

I Remember, how many of you guys like working out?

Some people go to the gym on a mission, yes?

Then there are others who go to the gym for a trip.

And I'm sorry to say, but it's typically the dainty, delicate Asian girls who seem to go to the gym as if more, as treating it as if it was a trip.

And so, you know, sometimes You're at the gym, you see these guys, they're lifting heavy weights.

And they're going to get bigger and stronger because they're lifting heavy weights and working hard.

Then there's other people who are working out.

It seems like they're not doing anything.

I remember at the Good Life that I go to, we saw there was a bunch of Korean guys there.

And they would do 1 set, and then they'll sit there.

They'll look at the TV, and 10 minutes go by, and they're still sitting there.

There's another girl, she's on the, you guys know the leg abductor thingy?

The 1 where you move your legs like this?

Remember, she's sitting on there, and she was on her phone the whole time.

I went through several machines, and already she's still on the phone.

Some people go to the good life, to the weight room, treating it more of a trip than a mission.

Now who is the 1 that gets the most fulfillment out of that, the ones who work hard or the ones who just kind of fool around?

And I think it's exactly the same thing in the Christian life.

Christian life is not about having fun, yet those who fulfill the purpose in life are the ones who are enjoying their life the most.

And that's the thing I want to talk about today.

Samson should have lived his life purpose-driven, but he lived his life more for enjoyment, and at the end of it all, he lost it.

He failed, and God had to use some radical means to get him back on track.

How about you and I, as Canadian, average young people, here at ECYC?

What kind of experience are you gonna leave this place with at the end of these 4 few days that we spend together?

Let's all bow our heads for prayer before we start.

Our Father in heaven, Lord, we want to thank you so much for bringing us here.

And Lord, each moment is fraught with eternal consequences.

I pray, Lord, that the 4 days, the several days that we spend together will not go to waste.

I pray, Lord, that you please be with each 1 of us here.

May we not leave this conference the same person that we came in.

Lord, as we sit here tonight, I ask that you please speak through me.

A sinner, I ask that you please place your words in my mouth.

Lord, we come from various backgrounds, from various places, our lives are all different, and we come with all these distractions.

I pray that you please help us to leave these things aside, clear our minds so we can hear your voice, your Spirit speaking to us.

This we pray in the mighty name of Jesus, our Lord and our Savior, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

The Bible says, The angel appearing to the mother of Samson, she says, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head.

Benjamin Ng

The Fear of God

Lord, we've come this morning to seek your word and to seek your will.

We ask, Lord, that you would please send us your Holy Spirit.

And As we open the Bible, Lord, please open our hearts and our minds.

May you please guide us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 24.

We're looking at a text that our sister, 1 of the ladies quoted yesterday before she sung the special music, Matthew 24, in what verse were we looking at?

Verse 14, I believe that was what she was quoting.

The Bible here says, And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in how much?

All the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.

Friends, the mission of God for us today is to preach the gospel to the whole world.

And of course, we know this gospel in Revelation chapter 14 that the Bible outlines as the everlasting gospel where this angel is holding that in his hand And he's crying with a loud voice to all nations and kindreds and tongues and people.

And he says with a loud voice, this everlasting gospel.

If there's anything that we ought to know today, it's the 3 angels' messages.

This is what we should teach today, because if we don't do that, we're not fulfilling the everlasting gospel commission and Jesus is never ever ever coming back again.

He will have those people that will understand this message and that will live this message.

And I want to look at the first part of this message this morning.

Be it familiar to maybe most of you or if not all of you, the first part of the first angel's message is what?

And I'm gonna take a deeper look into this, and maybe you've already studied this before, but maybe it bears a bit of repetition to us this morning.

But I want to look at this message of fear God and how it applies to us today in our life because I tell you now, friends, the gospel just preached as we know it today will not bring in the second coming.

The gospel just preached today as we know it.

As in a person standing up on a podium and he's sharing the Word of God, it is not enough to bring in the second coming.

Now we have media, we have evangelists, we have music evangelists, we have people that travel far and wide.

Why is our church still in such big trouble?

Why are we not keeping up with the growth rate in the world today?

Why is our church still at the same point?

Could it be our methods really are not working?

I want us to really think about these things today as God has called us all to be servants for him, amen?

I'm going to go through this story quickly, but I want to look at some other texts that will help us to gain understanding to this 1 question that I posed before you this morning.

What's the purpose of living this righteous life?

Because to be a servant of Christ affects us not just to share the gospel but also personally in our lives.

Verse 1, and it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and he said unto him, Abraham and he said behold here I am and he said take now thy son thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon 1 of the mountains, which I will tell thee of.

And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took 2 of the young men with him and Isaac his son and claimed the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him." Here we read the account of God coming straight to Abraham, and he says what?

Go offer your son, your only son, whom you love, as if to rub salt into the wound, And I want you to sacrifice him.

And it's interesting in verse 3 that Abraham, he rises up and he takes that which God told him to do.

You see, Ellen White says that Abraham, he went back to the tree where he met the 3 men, which was Jesus and 2 angels.

And he was waiting and waiting and He was pacing around, Lord, are you sure this commandment that you gave me was true?

And he was waiting, but he never met anybody.

Verse 4, worship and come again to you.' And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them together.

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, my father.

And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

Oh, how those words must have pierced the heart of his father.

For he did not know that he was that sacrifice.

And yet Abraham still had to divert the answer without giving his son the direct answer, but at the same time not lying.

God will provide for himself a burnt offering.

And Abraham said, my son, pardon me, verse 9 now.

And they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Friends, you know, this shows how wonderful and faithful a father of Abraham was.

He trained his son in such a way that even when the son did not know what was going on, he still obeyed his dad.

God knew that Abraham would command his household after him.

Can you imagine your parents taking you to a mountain ready to sacrifice you?

I'm sure Isaac had seen a sacrifice before, right?

He's asking his dad, dad, where's the sacrifice?

But yet, when his dad took him and put him on the altar, Isaac willingly got up and he lay there.

His dad was over 100 years old by now, probably closer to about 120 years old.

Abraham didn't live that much longer than we did.

And his son, 17, 18 years of age, willfully gets on that altar.

You know, if it was me, what I would have done?

My mom would have come out at him with a big stick.

And then it says in verse 10, that Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

And the angel of the Lord called out to him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, lay not thine hand upon the land, neither do thou anything unto him.

For Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." It was at the point that Abraham had his hands stretched out that the angel stops him and says, now I know that you fear me.

This example here points it out quite simply.

Dwayne Lemon

Messenger Without a Message

Father in heaven, we thank you that you have blessed us to make it safely through another week.

We thank you for your amazing grace and your tender mercies.

And Father, we ask you to please forgive us of our sins, to send us your Holy Spirit, that he may come and teach us and open our eyes and help us to behold wondrous things from your word.

And Lord, I ask that you'll do something special in this group tonight, something that mere humanity cannot do, but only divinity and humanity combined can do.

I thank you, dear God, for hearing this prayer, and I trust that you have answered it, for I ask it in Jesus' name.

1 of the great things that is the focus of God's people in these last days is to receive the outpouring of his Holy Spirit.

While we have received showers of blessings at different times, there still is a great outpouring that the Lord wants to give.

The latter rain should be the focus of every 1 of us because it is through the power of the latter rain that we are able to give what the Bible refers to as the loud cry.

The loud cry work is a work that must be done.

And this should be the focus of everything that we do is, Father, how can our conferences, how can my morning manna, how can my morning and evening worship, how can my midweek services, how can my efforts in the work, how could all these things better prepare me to be a recipient of your Holy Spirit through that wonderful Lateran experience that I may give the loud cry?

And You will find that there are many different ideas and thoughts and concepts that comes up with this, but I want to share a quotation with you from the Spirit of prophecy that says in the Youth Recorder 310, it says, Every truly converted soul will be intensely desirous to bring others from the darkness of error into the marvelous light of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, every truly converted soul.

It says, the great outpouring of the Spirit of God, which lightens the whole earth with his glory, that's Revelation 18.

It says, the great outpouring of the Spirit of God, which lightens the whole earth with his glory.

It says, the great outpouring of the Spirit of God, which lightens the whole earth with his glory, will not come, will not come until we have an enlightened people that know by what?

That know by experience what it means to be laborers together with God.

You know, in the business world, they have something called the 80-20 rule.

And in the business world, the 80-20 rule simply means that 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people.

It's a shame because that which should have hopefully just been reserved in secular business, we are now seeing in the church as well.

80% of the work done by 20% of the people.

And we do not understand that if we do not play our part, brothers and sisters, did you know that it's an issue of salvation for you?

In other words, if we are going to think that we're going to leave it up to the leadership to let them go ahead and do the work, while we sit back and just watch the results, brothers and sisters, you might be losing a lot more than just an opportunity.

Christ wants us to understand that there is a work for every single 1 of us to do.

It's not that God cannot turn Canada upside down.

If Jesus can work through 12 human beings and then even 1 of them became the ultimate apostate, but yet God was able to work through a small number and turn the world upside down, what in the world could God do with all of you in just the country of Canada?

If we could just simply capture the vision and see ourselves through the eyes of Christ and what he can do in us and through us for his glory, You would be amazed at what God can do with such simple instruments like you and I.

I want to finish this quote because I'm building here.

It says, when we have entire wholehearted consecration to the service of Christ, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of his Spirit without measure.

You see, right now we've been getting measurable pourings, but God longs for the day that he can do an outpouring of his Spirit without measure, that the world can be lit up with the glory of God.

This is what Christ is waiting for, and the problem is not with Jesus.

It goes on to say, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of his Spirit without measure, but this will not be while the largest portion of the church are not laborers together with God.

I often thought about what is it that God cannot do?

And I would often say God cannot, that is an oxymoron statement.

God can do anything, but then God told me God cannot do something.

It says, God cannot pour out his spirit when selfishness and self-indulgence are so manifest.

God actually cannot pour out his Spirit if self remains the focus.

And this is why we need to come to that cross and we need to behold it in such a way that by beholding Jesus we can actually become changed and get to a point that we can realize that I can count my life but done for the glory of God for his work being done and for his work being finished in this generation This is the message that came to you last night.

Your life has to become a mission, brothers and sisters.

Now, understanding this reality, we know that God wants us to do a great work, but now I want you to turn your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel chapter 18 with me.

In 2 Samuel chapter 18, it is true, God wants us to go out.

God wants us to tell others about his soon coming and about the realities of the events that will come before he comes, because you do understand something's coming before the second coming of Christ.

I am often challenged when I see us as God's people.

We talk so often about the second coming of Jesus, and we're trying to say that Jesus' coming is soon.

But, brothers and sisters, if the second coming of Jesus is soon, then that means that Revelation 13 is even sooner.

And that's a final crisis, brothers and sisters, that I don't understand why it is that many a times we don't talk enough about the crisis.

We try to make the Word of God fight itself.

Oh, don't talk about the crisis, just talk about Christ.

You read Mark the 13th chapter and you tell me what he's talking about.

He says, "'When you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place.'" You know, that that time be to do, and Jesus gives all sorts of instruction on how to prepare for the final crisis.

Now, brothers and sisters, if Jesus found it relevant enough to make me aware of it, I, as God's minister and servant, must make you aware of it.

If Jesus is coming soon, that means that crisis is even sooner.

And brothers and sisters, there's a reason that crisis is called a final.

Right now, many of us are going through life and we're going through pop quizzes.

We're going through some various challenges in all different shapes, forms, and sizes, But when that final crisis hits, brothers and sisters, there's a reason it's called the final, because if you fail that test, there's no rebound.

And Jesus loves us way too much to not make us aware of how to prepare for that final crisis.

In 2 Samuel, the 18th chapter, I want to show you something because we have a people who named the name of the remnant that need to be prepared, and then we have a world outside of the remnant church that also needs to be prepared.

We have to prepare those within the church.

We have to prepare those without the church.

And, brothers and sisters, this cannot come by might nor by power, but only by God's Spirit.

But when we get ready to do the work as God laid it out for us to do.

Did you know that God gave a story in the Bible that you and I would do well to pay attention to it?

Now, it is because of time that I'm going to go ahead and give you a little bit of the backdrop, but I want you to listen carefully to what's taking place.

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Series

ECYC 2012: Plenary Sessions

The Tree of Life

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Life is a Mission, Not a Trip

43m

The Fear of God

51m

Messenger Without a Message

1h

The Tree of Life

48m

To Be a Servant

42m

A Special Work of Reform

54m

The Almost Christian

54m

The Mind of a Servant

55m

Sound Doctrine