GYC 2012 Acts: The Revolution Continues

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2012 Evening Devotional

David Shin

If I Had a Thousand Lives to Live

Even a Glimpse

The Highest Honor

This message was presented at the GYC 2012 conference in Seattle, Washington.

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

Thank you so much for that beautiful special music.

Before I forget, I'll try to remind you later, after we pray for the evening devotional and we close, programming has asked me to ask you to remain in your seats.

There is another part to the program after the evening devotional.

I'd like to invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray this evening.

Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for this opportunity that we have to come into your presence.

We recognize tonight that your strength is perfect when our strength is gone.

As we talk about revolution, As we talk about how you moved in the book of Acts, how priorities were shifted in the hearts of your people, we pray that you would speak to us.

We pray that Christ would be uplifted, that Jesus would be seen.

Cover us with your robe of righteousness here tonight.

May our hearts be drawn closer and closer to you.

This evening I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Psalms chapter 90 verses 10 through 12.

The book of Psalms chapter 90 verses 10 through 12.

Revolutions, even though they are corporate events, always begin with individual change.

God always changes the world by changing me.

Revolutions, even though they are mass scale, always begin with an individual conversion.

A conversion is a reorganization of the thoughts and priorities of the hearts.

It's a radical experience, and as Pastor Wes Peppers mentioned this morning, it begins the process with repentance.

And this evening, I'd like for us to reflect on some scriptures that show us that there are certain times in our human experience when even unconverted individuals recognize heaven's values.

The Bible tells us what is important, what we should live for, but there are certain innate experiences that help us to recognize what is ultimately important in life.

In Psalms 90 verses 10 through 12, It's a reflection by the psalmist and he says, the days of our lives are 70 years.

And if by reason of strength they are 80 years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away.

Who knows the power of your anger, for as in the fear of you so is your wrath.

So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of understanding." The Bible tells us that life is short.

And he says here, even back in the days of the psalmist, he says they are 70 years and if by reason of strength they are 80 years.

The Bible is telling us that it is good for us to recognize our mortality, that we do not live forever.

So the psalmist goes on and says, so teach us to number our days.

We need to count, to calculate, to recognize that life is short and this helps us to gain a heart of understanding.

And so this morning, with your permission, I'd like to Have us meditate for a little bit about the brevity of life.

It says to number our days, so I want to take this literally.

Let's say that you live to 70, and I pray that you live longer if the Lord doesn't come, amen?

But just for the sake of illustration, let's use the psalmist's example and say you live to 70 years of age.

That comes to, if you multiply 365 by 70, 25, 550 days.

If you are 20 years of age, you have 18, 250 days left.

If you are 35, and you paid the penalty for being over 35, you have 12, 775 days left.

James says in James chapter 4 verse 14, "'Whereas you know not what shall be tomorrow, for what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.'" Life is short, life is finite.

I remember my grandmother telling me in 1 of those moments that I had that I treasure, she was sitting down with me at the table in my home, and she said, David, I want to tell you a reflection of my life.

She told me how she escaped from North Korea, went to Japan as a missionary, came to America, worked her fingers to the bone to provide an education for her family.

Finally, she said she got to the point in her life where she could breathe a sigh of relief and then she looked in the mirror and she was over 70 years of age.

And it's in this moment that the Bible tells us, reflecting upon our own mortality, that it shows us something about values.

It said for the average American who leaves college at 22 and lives to be 70, so average college student graduates 22, you live to be 70, It's 48 years from 22 to 70 the adult lifespan Can be broken down into a few key activities You'll spend 16 years working 16 years if you were to compress that time that 16 years non-stop without taking breaks for eating, sleeping, or vacationing.

The next biggest drain on your time, they say on average it's media.

They said you could spend up to 8 years watching television on the internet or other sources.

2 years commuting for the average American.

And when you subtract all these things, 16 years working, 15 years sleeping, 4 years eating, 8 years in media, 2 years commuting, you have less than 4 years to do what you actually like.

Time with a spouse or loved 1, time with the children and grandchildren, outings and vacations, it comes down to 1 12th of your life.

And tragically, most of that time will be postponed to a period called retirement, when many people no longer enjoy the health needed to live life to the fullest.

It is a vapor that lives and appears for a time and vanishes away.

Psalms 39 verse 5 says, indeed, you have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before you.

Certainly every man at his best state is but a vapor.

Psalms 103, 15 and 16, for as a man his days are like grass, as a flower of the field so he flourishes.

For as the wind passes over it and it is gone, and it remembers it no more." Billy Graham, that American evangelist, said, the greatest surprise to me is the brevity of life.

Life is short, so the obvious question is, how should I spend it?

If you only have a few moments to actually do, to actually be, to actually prioritize what should I do, how should I spend my life, how should I spend my time.

Ecclesiastes 7 verse 2, that great experiential chapter from the wisest man that ever lived, in a personal reflection upon life, says these words, Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 2.

He says, better to go to the house of what?

He says, better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart." Solomon is saying that it's better to go to a funeral than to a wedding.

If I had my choice, I would rather go to a wedding." Solomon is not saying that we should go to funerals because He's a melancholy individual.

He is saying that funerals, places of mourning, help the living to recognize their mortality.

And it's in this event that priorities and values are recognized.

Several years ago, I had the privilege of going to Africa on a mission trip.

And I noticed immediately that economic poverty does not equate spiritual lethargy.

People would stop me in the jungle and say, do you have any literature?

And it was an experience where I saw souls come to Christ.

There was an element of discomfort though, and it seems like even in the States, whenever I'm in a place that is more tropical, I don't know if it's because I'm Asian or because of my blood, but it seems like I can be in a place and no 1 else is getting bit by mosquitoes, but they're just swarming all around me.

I had multiple welts all over my body, but I said, hey, this is for missions, this is for the Lord.

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Series

GYC 2012 Evening Devotional

If I Had a Thousand Lives to Live

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

If I Had a Thousand Lives to Live

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Breakout Session C

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Plenary

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The Big Questions (Evening Meetings)

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Sound Doctrine