OYC 2012: Ready Always

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Oregon Youth for Christ

OYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Justin Kim

Ready Always

Gracious Father, we thank you for the special music that was offered before you today is our prayer.

Father, in our hearts, stir within us a fire that causes us to sing praises towards your name.

May the word of God be vivified this night, not through eloquence, not through intelligence, not through study, but simply by your spirit we pray in Jesus' name.

Verse 15, please repeat after me, but Sanctify the Lord God.

Okay, I'm using the King James, there's nothing wrong with other versions, but just repeat after me, but sanctify the Lord God.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.

No one's going to hit you, just close your eyes.

Trust me, no one's going to, just close your eyes.

Some of you have a lot of anxiety issues, it's okay.

Or you're afraid of the dark, It's okay, just close your eyes.

Please repeat after me, but sanctify the Lord in your hearts.

Oh, I was wrong, Sanctify, I know, I know.

But sanctify the Lord God in your, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.

Keep your eyes closed, but doesn't the meaning, just in a little bit, a little way, doesn't it change just a little bit when you emphasize each word every time you repeat it?

But be ready always to give an answer to every man.

You've got to dig down and get into the Southern Baptist roots of none of us here.

I'm going to ask that this week, if you get a chance, and we're here in nature, to memorize this text.

And if you've already memorized it, don't be hooty tooty snooty, memorize the next verse after it.

Remember something else, but use the opportunity because we are slitting this text together.

And this week is a week on apologetics, on giving a reason for your faith.

We have speakers here who, Sister Janet Page is going to talk about experiencing God.

It's the personal testimony, the experience that she has from her life is the best witness that someone can give.

A brother Stephen Dickey is going to share about, as a Muslim ministry, we have a mission to share even to peoples that we are not familiar with, such as the...

And then we also have a seminar on apologetics that I just mentioned over there today.

But we have a certain responsibility to share our faith.

But here's the thing, when especially young people, and I look out here and there's a lot of young people or a lot of young people at heart here in this room, We are afraid to share our faith.

Whenever I've been a pastor for 10 years now and I heard that, hey, let's go do outreach today, we're doing evangelism.

What always you have is the most bold people, the most courageous people that are like, yeah.

And these are the more sanguine, outgoing, social people who like talking.

They go and they're like, yeah, let's go do it.

And then the normal people, like me, who are a little bit more shy and rather sit in the book next to a fire and don't like people and just kind of like rather be in a fetal position in the dark, sitting inside on the second floor, they're like, ugh, I just, ugh, I don't, ugh.

And then if you're intelligent, you think of intelligent reasons why you shouldn't go to that outreach, right?

If you're not intelligent, you're like, man, I wish I can think of a reason.

But if you're intelligent, you're like, oh, yeah, I have leg surgery or I'm allergic to evangelism or it's not biblical to do evangelism, you find these weird ways to get out of it.

Now if you're laughing, you're laughing because this is you.

But the Bible says, give a reason for the hope.

And today, and I switched the messages around because I thought this would probably be a better message to start off with.

Today, we're going to read a little bit before verse 15, okay?

And whenever you, what you always want to do when you're reading scripture, we have a bad tendency to always look at 1 verse and take that verse out of context and we use it out of whenever we want to.

We want to see where the flow of 1 Peter goes.

And what you want to do is when you're studying scripture, you want to look for French fries.

There was a story and some of you may, I use this story And I just use this for political reasons.

It's a hodgepodge of 2 stories, and I put it together.

But basically, the story is we were going from New York to Berrien Springs 1 time.

You guys all know where Berrien Springs is?

All Evanists know where Berrien Springs is.

And we were going, and it's like a 1, 500-hour trip.

And what happens is, I don't know about you, but for me, and I don't know if it's the male mind or whatever, but when you start driving, you start driving and you do not stop.

And so when you're on a road trip, I don't like traveling with females because females like to stop every 10 minutes.

So I'm here and I have my friend and his little brother are with me and we're driving.

I got my sunglasses on, the ambient temperature is perfect, the angle of the chair is perfect, the angle of the steering wheel is perfect, and everything is perfect.

And once we go, we do not stop except for 1 reason alone.

Rob Norris

Parables in Marriage: Wedding Pictures

Lord, most Holy Father, as we behold Your character and look for You in Your Word and in the life that You've given us to live, I just pray that it might be Your words and Your thoughts to catch hold of us and inspire us to understand the beauty of the plan that you've laid out for your people.

In the book, Desire of Ages, Page 151, we read this.

In both the Old and the New Testament, the marriage relation is employed to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between Christ and his people.

To the mind of Jesus, the gladness of the wedding festivities pointed forward to the rejoicing of that day when he shall bring home his bride to his father's house and the redeemed with the Redeemer shall sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The marriage relation is employed to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between Christ and his people.

So let's kind of go through a journey this morning.

Imagine the future is now and the second coming is just moments away.

The earth is in commotion, there's an air of expectancy.

God's people are in hiding, they're in seclusion.

And the moment finally comes, there's a vast host of humanity covering the planet with all eyes glued to the sky.

You have a vast host of heavenly beings coming to meet that group of humanity.

You've got these 2 groups that now are face to face.

How do we relate to something that we've never seen, that we've never experienced?

I mean, we read about this, we see it in picture form, we see it all through the Bible, of God's coming back for his people.

But how do we really make it real and practical and tangible for us today?

You know, and then I think back, why did Jesus talk in parables?

He said he told his disciples, he spoke in parables and he told stories so that everybody could understand.

So that as people went through their daily life, they would be able to look back and he told the parable of the sower.

And ever after that, when the people saw the sowers out in the field, planting their grain, what would they think of?

That story, yeah, and their minds would just flash back to the lesson that he intended to teach them.

So I think if he was here today, I'd say he would give us another lesson.

The closer to the event, the more the activity level ramps up, doesn't it?

I mean, 6 months out, a year out, what were the plans being made?

I mean, once every week or 2, maybe you put another little piece into the puzzle.

The day before, you're just going frantic, aren't you?

You've got all these details and it's just like, oh no, it's 24 hours away.

The activity levels just increase and now the time comes, the day's arrived, the hour is almost here.

People are starting to stream into the church there.

From the bride's perspective, who is there?

Her family, all her friends, coworkers, everybody that means something to her is there.

In a sense, her whole world is there, right?

They're all, let's see, the bride's side is usually, what, the left side?

But from the groom's perspective, who's there?

Yeah, right on, the bride, that's the most important thing.

He's invited all his family, all his friends, his co-workers, everybody that means something to him is there, okay?

So, but yet, these 2 groups of people, they don't mix, right?

They come in, they take their sides, and so you've got this scenario where you've got 2 groups divided.

Start jumping back and forth between the 2 pictures that we're painting and see if you don't recognize the parallels.

Ask yourself, where do you wanna be in the big picture?

Or do you wanna be 1 of the bystanders watching on?

The second coming, you know, there'll be those 2 groups of people.

So now, at the very beginning of the service, where's the bride at the very beginning?

So the stage, the activity at first is right up front, isn't it?

You've got the bridesmaids, the groomsmen, the minister, and the groom.

It's just, ha ha, this joy, this radiance.

She's brought out and she's ushered down to the forefront of the whole scene.

And they get brought out to the forefront.

Read the last few chapters in Great Controversy, the second coming.

He comes down, and I wish the stairs were over here, but I don't wanna get in front of the speakers there.

You know, as I think about this, how incredibly wise and compassionate God was to provide for us this picture of husband and wife of the man and the woman to show us who he is, what his character is like, built within the relationship that he has planted within us, is a picture that he's trying to get us to see.

And sadly, the world is doing its best to totally obliterate that picture.

But in his wisdom, you know, he creates for us and then he gives it to us in his word that as we dig, we can start seeing that picture painted in more and more color.

You know, I read in the Spirit of Prophecy, she calls the second coming on many occasions the great consummation.

The great consummation, the marriage that we have in the physical sense among each other is a representation of that Great final marriage of all times.

Is the service all about love and romance?

The service, well, love and romance have a lot to do with it.

There's an appeal to law and principle, Isn't there?

Parables in Marriage: The Wedding Garments

The kingdom of heaven is like, how many times did Jesus start his conversation like that?

The kingdom of heaven is like, and then he pointed to so many different things, and he speaks to us today, to the thoughtful listener.

We're told in the things of nature, the things around us in daily life, so that we too can have a tangible Connection to his kingdom.

Now, Sue told me The other day, it's like, okay, you gotta remind people.

What I am talking about with the parable of the whole wedding thing is, is really a Western idea.

The traditional, I am kind of just looking at the traditional Western wedding and just the whole picture there.

It looks different, it plays out different.

But you know what the key is to remember?

Within every culture, God has created the capacity to see his character.

So no matter where you go, the details might look totally different, but they still point to the same God, the same picture.

This morning, if you want to, you can turn to Matthew 22, first half of the chapter.

Matthew 22 verses 1 to 14 describes the parable of the wedding garment.

And I want to take this thought and I want to go back to yesterday's theme of the wedding.

We kind of expanded the picture or kind of dissected the picture of the wedding service as really kind of a parable or a representation of Christ's second coming.

And within this event, I just want to kind of pick it apart just a little bit, politely of course, and look at some of the details and maybe draw some more lessons for us.

In our wedding service today, unlike what we see in Matthew, the guests don't wear a wedding garment like they did in ancient times.

A garment that was supplied by the wedding party for the guests when they come to the wedding feast.

In our wedding service, there's only 1 garment that has symbolic meaning in the whole building.

The groom's, whatever he wears, I mean, he could wear the most expensive tux, it means nothing, right?

So the only thing that means something is what she's wearing.

Now remember in context what we're talking about in the Bible, the woman represents who?

So each of us is bound up in the concept of that bride.

I asked the question yesterday in closing, do you wanna be the bride or the bystander in this great wedding of all times when Jesus comes?

If you wanna, I didn't get a good response out of that 1.

What do you want to be, a bride or a bystander?

Okay, so if you want to be the bride, then what are you doing about the wedding garment?

And I think this is where we can kind of refine the picture a little bit, and where typically we've been a little bit careless.

Okay, typically, yeah, it has to do with moral purity, But you hit it dead on.

It actually, if you read the Bible, and then follow it up with spirit of prophecy, the wedding garment, her dress, declares an issue of character.

The garment of Christ's righteousness, it's all about what?

And so I kind of want to tease this apart a little bit.

We're not totally off when we make that generalization, even in our Western society today.

But what I wanna kind of draw apart is it's her veil that is symbolic of her moral purity, her innocence, her virginity, okay?

And we're gonna look into God's word and what I'm doing today is actually combining 2 separate presentations.

So we're gonna kind of have to scrunch a little bit.

In the book Christ Object Lessons, starting on page 309, we hear this.

By the wedding garment in the parable is represented the pure, spotless character of Christ's true followers.

To the church is given that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

The fine linen, says the scriptures, is the righteousness of the saints.

So where did the saints get this garment?

It is the righteousness of Christ, his own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive him as their personal savior.

This covering, this robe of his own righteousness, Christ will put upon Every repenting, believing soul.

The character, which has to do with what?

Yeah, it's the combined whole of all your thoughts and feelings.

Who you are with your thoughts and feelings when nobody's looking.

And even if people are looking, I mean, we've all got this internal dialogue going on, right?

So, We can be out in public and still have these thoughts and feelings that might be pretty dark if people were to be able to see that.

It says, the man who came to the feast without the wedding garment represents the condition of many in our world today.

They profess to be Christians and lay claim to the blessing and privileges of the gospel, yet they feel no need of transformation of character.

They have never felt true repentance for sin.

They do not realize their need of Christ, nor of exercising faith in him.

They have not overcome their inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrongdoing.

Yet they think that they are good enough in themselves.

I brought up this idea yesterday that there's this inseparable union between what we do in the body and what we do in the spirit.

White talked a lot about on the subject of health, what happens between the mind and the body is also an inseparable union.

If the body is ill and broken down, what's gonna happen to the mind?

Janet Page

God Never Wastes Your Pain

Father, I really need you right now, and I pray for your Holy Spirit to speak to each heart even if it's nothing that I say.

Lord, we just plead the blood of Jesus over this room.

You know, Lord, that we don't want to just do meetings.

We really, really need you to change our lives and to be able to use us, Father, to reach this world.

So I thank you, Lord, and we just love you.

You know, that's the first time I've heard that money's the most thing talked about in scripture.

Because, from what I understand, there's something else talked about most in scripture, or at least what we're commanded the most to do.

We're commanded the most, at least my going through and counting it, is to praise God, to give thanksgiving.

And in Psalms 104 it says, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

You know, even to enter his presence, to enter it with thanksgiving and then with praise.

And we've heard a lot in the last several years about praising God, giving thanksgiving.

And yet, 1 time Jerry and I were sharing a little bit about it in a church, and afterwards, a lady that I knew came up to me, and she said, Janet, really, what is the big deal?

Why not get down to that laundry list, those wants, those needs, and be done with it?

Well, at the time, I didn't know, I didn't really have an answer for her.

And I thought about it, prayed about it over the next couple of weeks, and it reminded me, I started thinking about the first year that Jerry and I were married.

We'd been married I think maybe 7 or 8 months or so.

It's a Sunday, I'm trying to get the laundry done, and I'm folding clothes, and he comes up to me.

And he comes up to me and he says, Janet, Janet, can't you tell me once in a while that you love me?

And I looked at him, I said, well of course I love you.

And he said, Janet, I need to hear once in a while that you love me.

And I said, look, Jerry, just count on it.

He said, Janet, I need to hear how you feel about me.

I need to hear nice things about me, I need to hear you love me.

So I finally started reading some of these books on marriage and I know you're going to say, let's just leave right now, this woman is totally stupid.

But they tell you that it's really a good idea to let your mate know that you love them.

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Series

OYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Keep Coming to Jesus

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Ready Always

52m

Parables in Marriage: Wedding Pictures

32m

Parables in Marriage: The Wedding Garments

56m

God Never Wastes Your Pain

59m

Parables in Marriage: The Honeymoon

48m

Forever Ruined for the Ordinary

58m

Parables in Marriage: Children

1h

Keep Coming to Jesus

58m

Sound Doctrine