GYC 2012 Acts: The Revolution Continues

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2012 Seminar: Conversion - My Own, Around Me and On the Go

Felipe Ferreira

A Shift in Gears

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

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

I know it's only been a day yet of GYC, but I've been richly blessed.

And even as I've heard some of the messages here and there, it's amazing how God leads.

And some of the presentations that I will be doing, I saw some of the things that God has impressed me.

He's been impressing other speakers and other people.

So I can see how God is uniting all of us together.

So, How many of you are from Washington State?

I missed that 1, but good to be here this year.

Well, before we start and have a word of prayer, I'll just tell you a little bit about myself.

As you can see on the program, my name is Felipe Ferreira And I'm actually, I was born in South Africa.

I'm Portuguese, but I grew up in the US most of my life.

Even though I have been to Portugal many times, even growing up every 3 years, my parents would go and travel.

Because Portuguese is kind of what we grew up, even speaking the language and eating Portuguese food at home, but in many ways I'm an American.

And you know to tell you the truth, I grew up in a quite conservative home.

And I was, yeah, I grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist.

But it wasn't until about high school that the God that I was growing up hearing about and even going to church worshipping became reality to me and I actually didn't never wanted to get into ministry to tell you the truth.

I wanted to actually become a chef and through providential leadings in my life, I ended up studying the Bible at a small missionary training school and then after that, I have 3 years of knowledge.

I need to share this information now that you have blessed me and so god opened the doors for me to Bible work in Virginia and then now I'm currently in the Bay Area Bible working for a local church in Mountain View.

So it's amazing how God takes our original desires and he just molds us and changes us and takes us paths that I never thought I would be.

And my wife is not here at the moment, but I'm married almost 3 years now in April to a beautiful young lady.

And we're just happy to be here and to be presenting on this topic of conversion, which I believe is so important because when we're talking about acts, the revolution continues as has been already mentioned throughout some of the main presentations.

Our personal experience, our personal conversion with god and so, It is 3 o'clock.

So, I'm just going to go ahead and start.

And before I start the presentation, if you don't mind just bowing your heads with me as I pray.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much that you have brought us to this beautiful Sabbath day to be able to fellowship with like believers here at GYC.

Thank you Lord for blessing us already with your Holy Spirit this morning and for continuing to walking with us and talking with us and Lord we pray now that as we take some time and open your word and see what you have to say regarding our personal salvation that you would speak to our hearts that you will open our minds that we may not only receive these precious truths, but Lord, that you would make this a reality, that each 1 of us would be personally connected with you.

And please, Lord, hide me in the cleft of the rock, that I may not be seen, but that you would be lifted up and draw all men unto you.

The topics that we will be covering in these 6 sessions will be conversion, my own, around me and on the go.

And I won't necessarily be telling you my own conversion, even though in, you know, throughout my presentation, I'll be sharing some stories.

But I will be talking about how we can have a personal conversion experience with God.

And my first presentation today, I will be briefly talking about what is conversion and how conversion is seen in the book of Acts and also 1 personal story from the book of acts of an individual's experience with God.

Then tomorrow I will be looking at conversion experience through the sanctuary.

And you're going to see how that all ties in.

And then the third presentation called Preservation, I will be dealing with some questions that people normally have, saying, you know, I've experienced conversion, but every once in a while I'm doubting whether I'm converted or not.

So I will be dealing with those questions on the third presentation called Preservation.

And then on the fourth presentation, so my first 3 presentations have to do with my personal experience or our personal individual experience with God.

And then the last 4 have to do with how I relate to people.

So number 4, entitled The Aftermath, is going to deal more with how God equips me to reach out.

And then number 5, we're going to be dealing with how God wants us to interact with people.

How do I find out what are the needs of individuals?

And that presentation is called Sensitive Seeker.

And all these presentations, Someone asked me yesterday if it was culture specific.

Everything I'll be presenting is just principle based right from the Word of God and so it can work anywhere you're at.

And the last and final presentation is how to make conversion.

Not only my personal experience but even reaching out an everyday thing.

Because I don't know about you, but we have lives.

We may be studying in college or in high school, or we may be working, and we sometimes wonder, how can I make this real?

So the last presentation I will be dealing with that.

So without any further ado, we're going to be looking at shifting gears.

And the way I would like to start off this presentation, actually before I continue, I also do have worksheets.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to get printed today.

So the 1 for today will be made available tomorrow.

Footprints

Our Father in Heaven, we thank You so much for this morning.

We thank You for renewing Your mercy and Your grace.

And Lord, I am just but a mortal man, also in need of You, and I just pray that You will speak through me, that you will hide me in the cleft of the rock, and that I may not be seen, Lord, but that you would be lifted up, that you will draw our hearts to you as we study the plan of salvation and as we see it through the sanctuary, that we will follow you each and every step and that you will send the Holy Spirit in a mighty way.

Open our ears and our hearts to not only receiving but to experience these truths personally in each 1 of our lives.

You see if we want to understand more about conversion, this character transformation, it really boils down to us following Jesus everywhere He goes.

And the Bible tells us in Revelation 14 that at the end of time there will be a group of people, the 144, 000 in Revelation 14 that follow the Lamb everywhere.

And so my question to us today, where is the Lamb?

Because if my experience, if my conversion is a character transformation through the power of God, and if you think of the Acts revolution, their revolution was because they experienced Christ personally.

The disciples had a personal experience and then that experience was spread throughout the then known world.

But even that experience that they had in the book of Acts did not really start there.

It really started with their time being with Jesus, those 3 and a half years that Jesus was there ministering and the disciples were following, that's where the revolution began.

But this revolution was not just all of a sudden just took place.

This was something that God had foretold many thousand years before.

This revolution of Jesus Christ coming to the earth is actually something that we're going to be looking at today as we look at the sanctuary message.

I believe that the sanctuary foretold even the great revival and the revolution that took in the book of Acts.

And so that is our purpose today, is to look and follow the footsteps of Jesus.

Not just through the book of Acts, but as it is foretold in God's sanctuary.

If you come with me to Psalms 77, look at what the Bible has to say in verse 13.

In the sanctuary, who is so great a God as our God.

So if I want to follow God, if I want to be a faithful Christian, And I want to experience this transformation.

1 of the greatest places to find God is right there in the sanctuary.

And of course we're going to be looking at the earthly sanctuary, but all of it really points to God fulfilling that which is in heaven and what He's doing right now for us.

And so we're going to be following the sainthood because there we find the footsteps of Jesus.

And you know how that poem goes, the footsteps?

There was 2 footprints, sets of footprints on the sand and then all of a sudden there was only 1 and the man asked the Lord, why God?

And then God told him that it wasn't you walking.

I actually picked you up and I carried you through.

And I believe the sanctuary is that exact message.

God is showing us how Christ himself walked and how we need to be following Him.

But at the same time, we cannot do it in our own strength.

God has to pick us up and take us, but we need to be willing.

And so, as we journey through the sanctuary, You come with me thousands of years ago in the dusty wilderness.

And there we see that God tells Moses to build this earthly temporal structure.

And this structure is pretty much composed of 3 main sections.

Which we know as the courtyard, and then inside the tabernacle you have the holy and the most holy place.

But before we get into those sections and follow Christ through each 1.

I believe for us to understand conversion, conversion does not start necessarily in the courtyard, even though often times that's where we focus in the beginning.

I believe actually conversion starts in the encampment.

And the reason why I say that, because the Bible has said that we are all like what?

Look at what the Bible tells us in Isaiah 53 verse 7, He was what?

Oppressed and was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, he is brought as a what?

Lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before his shears is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." What is this prophecy about?

This is pointing to Christ and it's using the illustration, the analogy of a lamb being brought to the slaughter.

But before a lamb can be brought to the slaughter, he needs to be what?

This prophecy not only is describing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but before He could sacrifice, He had to become like 1 of us.

So I see the first experience that we need to have is to behold the Lamb of God, not only at the cross, but the whole life.

If you come with me to Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8 verse 3, Paul describes how Christ became a man.

You know, even John the Baptist recognized that Jesus was that Lamb of God.

And he called Jesus the Lamb even before Jesus was beginning His ministry.

Jesus had not even been baptized at that point, and John the Baptist was already saying that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

And look at what Paul tells us about how Jesus came into this world.

In Romans chapter 8 verse 3 it says, What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.

Jesus, God himself, came to be like 1 of us.

And so God sent His only Son to come in the likeness of sinful flesh.

He came like you and I with sinful flesh.

And that word likeness used to trip me up a lot because I was like, oh that means he's not really like us, he's somewhat like us but not really.

But then when you actually look at the original language, the beginning part of that word in the Greek is actually the word homo.

The same word that we saw begins the word confession in the Greek as well.

So basically Jesus had the same nature, but Hebrews tells us that he never sinned at all.

And so Jesus is our example and just like we saw yesterday, our conversion begins as we receive a revelation of God.

So God wants us to spend time beholding the Lamb there in the encampment, The life of Jesus Christ.

It is interesting from there that we have to go in to the sanctuary.

But what is the only route into the sanctuary?

You're not supposed to dig a hole through.

The gate is the only entrance into the sanctuary.

You see, it is very interesting to me that as we established earlier, Jesus is also described as a sheep.

And 1 day I was working in San Francisco in our local church there.

Preservation

So the title of this specific presentation is called Preservation.

So we started off yesterday with shifting gears, a complete change of direction.

That's what conversion is all about, a transformation of character.

Then we looked at, right at the last presentation, we looked at following the footsteps of Jesus throughout the sanctuary and how it relates to my conversion.

Now we're going to be looking at preservation.

Now I have this experience, how do I maintain this experience?

Sanctification deals with that, but what do I do with doubt?

What is this that people talk about higher powers, lower powers, we're going to deal with some of those things.

As we've already seen some of the quotations, that's what God is telling us.

He wants to give us complete victory in every area of our character by the power of God.

But we're going to be looking at specifically how this is going to happen.

But before we do that, let's just bow our heads for another added word of prayer.

Our Father in heaven, as we start this second half of our meetings today, Lord we are grateful that you've been pouring out your Holy Spirit upon us, and you have given us your word to guide us in your path.

And we just pray that you will continue to teach us, Show us how you want to preserve us in this experience of justification and sanctification.

And Lord, that you would eliminate some of the doubts, and that you would give us victory over every little area of our lives.

Please Lord, once again, hide me, that I would not be seen, but I would just be a conduit of the message that You have given to Your people.

So the first part that I'm going to, the first question that I'm going to be addressing is how to deal with doubt.

We've experienced the forgiveness of God or sometimes we wonder if we've been forgiven, or we're in the journey and all of a sudden we get bombarded, different things happen, and we wonder, like, is God still with me?

The first step to deal with doubt and to deal with the question, am I being saved?

Am I being converted by the power of God?

His number 1 principle, claim God's promises.

Over and over again, this is only our safeguard.

He tells us in John 6, 37, Him that cometh unto me, I will in what?

If you are coming to God, What does that mean?

When you feel rejected, you feel like you're praying but your prayers are not being answered, remember the promise.

And look at what the servant of the Lord tells us in manuscript releases, volume 10, page 175, if you have nothing else to plead before God but this 1 promise.

Let's just say you didn't know anything else in the Bible.

The only thing you knew is the text we just read, John 6, 37.

I would encourage you to memorize that text.

But let's say that's the only thing you know.

If there's nothing else to plead before God but this 1 promise from your Lord and Savior, you have the what?

Assurance that you will never, Never be turned away.

If it may seem to you that you are hanging on by a single promise, maybe you're just hanging on with your fingernail barely falling, barely hanging on, but you're about to fall off, just keep hanging on.

Claim His promise, but appropriate that 1 promise, appropriate that 1 promise, and it will open to you the what whole treasure house you're talking about the treasure house of heaven it's gonna be poured out the riches of the grace of Christ just because I've held and claimed that 1 promise?

That is the importance of claiming the promises of God.

I don't feel it, but I'm claiming it anyways.

Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out present this assurance to Jesus.

I don't even feel like I want to be your son or daughter, but I've asked for forgiveness.

Present it to Jesus and You are as safe as though you are where?

This blew my mind away, as though we're inside the city of God.

We're talking about, can we experience the kingdom of God today?

By us claiming the promises, It's as just as though I'm in the city of God.

And those that are in the city of God, how protected are they?

Matthew 8 verse 2 and 3, And behold, there came a leper.

The leper comes to Jesus, asks His Lord, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

Leprosy in the Bible is a symbolism of sin.

And Jesus put forth his hand to touch them saying, I will be thou clean.

There is 1 thing that you and I can be guaranteed.

There are some things in life we don't know.

But 1 thing we can be assured that God wants you and I to be clean.

He wants to be clean from sin and immediately his leprosy was what?

When God, when you've confessed and you present yourself to God in a humbly way like this man did, what happens?

And by God's grace, He will keep you in that experience.

We are told with the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give place to doubt?

The Aftermath

So I believe it is now 9.45 and I need every minute to spare that I can get.

So we're going to go ahead and start this morning.

Just to do a quick review, as I've mentioned earlier and I've repeated throughout, our first 3 presentations have specifically dealt with our personal experience with Christ.

And the first 1 we saw what conversion is all about, the transformation of our characters back into the image of God.

And then we saw that the book of Acts is filled with stories of conversion.

But conversion has to start in the Acts revolution that God wants to continue in our lives has to start with individually so that we can share it with others.

And then we saw in our second presentation the Gospel message through the sanctuary and how God wants us to experience each of the steps there.

And we also saw in our third presentation that God doesn't just want to make us clean and make us justified and forgiven, but He wants to keep us in that condition.

And that is through sanctification so that when Jesus comes back and He finishes His high priestly ministry in heaven and sins are blotted out, that we can be changed into the physical image because we have His character in our lives through His power.

And so now the next 3 presentations, the first 2 this morning and the last 1 this afternoon, are going to be dealing with how our conversion impacts us and how we relate to 1 another.

And how God wants us to share the Gospel.

And so the first 1 is called the Aftermath and we're going to be looking at how God actually equips us to witness to 1 another.

And before we do that, let us go ahead and bow our heads for an added word of prayer.

Our Father in heaven, we thank You this morning for waking us up, for renewing Your mercy and grace to each 1 of us.

And Lord, we are in need of Thy Holy Spirit.

For Lord, we know that spiritual things are spiritually discerned and we want to be more like Jesus.

And so send Thy Spirit to help us understand these truths and transform us by Thy powers.

So now that I have experienced conversion, I'm experiencing daily I'm dying to self, what should I do?

Series

GYC 2012 Seminar: Conversion - My Own, Around Me and On the Go

The Aftermath

Transcript

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