OYC 2012: Ready Always

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Oregon Youth for Christ

OYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Justin Kim

Ready Always

Rob Norris

Parables in Marriage: Wedding Pictures

Parables in Marriage: The Wedding Garments

Janet Page

God Never Wastes Your Pain

Parables in Marriage: The Honeymoon

Forever Ruined for the Ordinary

Parables in Marriage: Children

Keep Coming to Jesus

Lord, you know I feel totally inadequate, but I know you're the God who is, and full of power.

And Father, we know you can speak to everyone here, No matter what I say, you can speak to them.

So we ask in the name of Jesus, through the power of his blood, that you will speak to everyone here, Father.

You know the burdens, the needs in their lives.

Lord, just pour out Your love on them right now.

I had something horrible happen to me 20 years ago.

My friends, I call them my ex-friends, did 1 of these horrible parties where they roast you, you know, black balloons, black crepe paper.

They had a cake that looked like a tombstone, and on it it said, Janet Page's youth has died.

And just all kinds of gag gifts, and I'm going, what did I do to deserve this?

And the next morning at home, people kept honking their horns as they're driving by.

And I went and looked out the front window, and I could see the back of a sign on my front yard.

And so I went out to look at it and it says, honk your horn, Janet Page's youth has died.

And so I was going to take it down but my little boy was there with his body against it, not letting me.

And fortunately it started raining and the sign came down.

But he had been told by adults, you keep that sign up, don't let your mom take it down.

So he went out to the garage, got a hammer, and was going to try to put it up.

But he couldn't get it up on the wooden stake, couldn't get it to stay.

So he comes and says, Mommy, can you help me?

So this little guy, who's now a pastor, he's a very determined young man, stood out there in the rain, holding, it was fortunately just misting, holding that sign so everybody could see what happened to his mother.

Pretty soon though, the cars, everybody had gone to work so the traffic died down so he gave up and came into the house.

But I tell you that because I don't know how it is for you.

For those of you who are young, you don't know what I'm talking about yet.

You can't wait for that day you'll get to drive a car.

You can't wait for that day you'll get to meet someone and marry, or when you'll be able to go to college and have a career and it's just like, oh, it'll never come for that time.

You get to do those things, whatever it may be you desire.

Then all of a sudden it all starts happening.

Pretty soon you know, at least for me, I was in my 30s and life just started getting faster and faster and faster.

I felt like I was on a steam engine, you know, they just go faster, faster, faster.

And it's like, it's not bad things, but it's just all these good things coming at you and you say, I can't do them all.

What did I do today is going to make a difference in my kids' lives, in my neighbor's lives, or whoever.

And I thought, you know, it's been so fast to my 30s, because I mean it starts coming fast by the time you get there, and it starts really going fast when you get past that.

For those of you who are trying to still figure out my age, I'm 60.

But I thought, you know, it's been so fast in my 30s, pretty soon I'll be 40, then 60, then 80.

And as I thought about it, I remembered the year in academy, I was 17 years old I think, when my Bible teacher tells us that we need to be spending time with God.

That was a new concept back in the Stone Age when we had, you know, square tires made out of stone.

I mean I go to church, I try to be good, I try to study the Sabbath school lesson.

And he said, if you don't take time, spend time with God, you're not gonna know God.

And if you don't know God, you're not gonna love God.

And if you don't love God, you're gonna walk away from Him.

So after class, I came up to him and I said, well, if I gotta do this, just how do I do it?

And he said, well, there's no set way to do it.

And he said, just read your Bible some and pray some.

And I said, well, how long should I do this?

And he said, well, there's no set amount of time of how long to do it.

And he also at the same time told us of a verse, which I've mentioned in the seminar, that we can claim or to ask God to wake us up.

It says, morning by morning he awakens us to listen as a disciple.

I didn't read until years later why he wakens us up.

The first part of this verse tells, but I never noticed it.

I just would always claim that part for him to wake me up.

But the first part is, the Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know how to speak the word that sustains the weary.

He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.

Now, this is a scripture about Jesus, but it's for us.

And the reason God wants to wake us up and have us spend time with Him.

He wants to help us, encourage our lives, but so that we can go out and help others.

He will lead us to people during the day, but He wants us to comfort and help like He's helped us in our worship time.

But as a young kid, you know, I'm saying, okay, Lord, wake me up.

And, you know, it's crazy unearthly hours.

But I remember the first time trying this, and so I thought I had to kneel the whole time and I'm down there kneeling and I got my alarm clock, put it right there by the bed so I could be sure I did the 30 minutes.

And I'm there, I prayed, I prayed everything I could think of.

Then I looked at the clock to see how much time I had left.

I thought, what am I going to do with 25 more minutes?

I'm so thankful that we serve a God that loves us so much and wants so much to spend time with each 1 of us that He'll take us no matter how and show us how to do it.

He'll do it, it may be look different for each 1 of us, but He will spend that time with us and show us how if we will pursue Him.

But here I was, 17, trying to do this, and I was starting to experience God.

But then I got into college and in college, you know, it's just really busy.

And I had the nursing labs and just busy.

And I would forget about spending time with God until exam week.

And then in exam week it was, oh God, if you'll just get me through exams, I promise I'm going to start reading the Bible and spending time with you.

And I would try to keep my promise and I'd start reading the Bible and I'd start praying and spending time with him, but I'd pretty soon fall out of it again because I'd get busy.

And I'd forget about God until the next exam week.

And it was, oh, God, if you'll just get me through exams.

And I'd try again after that because he'd help me pass again.

And I went all the way through college like this.

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Series

OYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Forever Ruined for the Ordinary

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Experiencing the Revival

1h 16m

The Conservative & Liberal Line

35m

Ignite Your Spiritual Experience!

Experiencing God Through Prayer

1h 9m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

2. Encountering God

1h 5m

The Intercession of Christ

42m

Keys to Growing a Powerful and Vibrant Prayer Ministry

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

1h 3m

The Peculiarity of God’s People

39m

Going ABOVE and BEYOND

Daring to Ask for More - Part 1

1h 8m

ECYC 2012 Seminar: Multiply From Within

Our Missing Ingredient

55m

Ignite Your Spiritual Experience!

Unleashing God’s Power!

1h 12m

How to Prepare Your Church for the Latter Rain

41m

Sound Doctrine