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ASi 2006 Youth Devotionals

Alistair Huong

Servant of God

Father in heaven, we thank you Lord for a new day of life.

We are grateful that you have given us the opportunity of gathering together in this location early in the morning to study your Word.

I ask, Father, for the gift of your spirit this morning.

You promised 2 or 3 are gathered together.

You would send the spirit in your and to bring your presence.

And we claim that promise this morning thanking you and that the word spoken cannot fail if we but believe.

And we thank you and we ask this in Christ's name, amen.

We are here, but we are scattered throughout.

I'm wondering if both in the back could come forward, just so I still need to use the mic for the tape, I guess, but just so we're a little bit closer together.

Well, What have we been discussing together in our time this week?

And today, at first glance, at least when we first go through this story, you may not perceive how this has anything to do with being a servant, at least directly.

Because We're going to be looking at 1 of my favorite Bible characters which I believe as you will see from the Bible illustrates clearly what a servant needs to be particularly at the end of time right before Jesus comes.

My favorite Bible character is none other than the character Daniel.

And we're going to be looking at Daniel chapter 6, which is a familiar Bible story.

Maybe you've heard it as a bedtime story, but I believe there's something far more significant to the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den than simply the fact of it being a nice story to teach children good morals and to put them to sleep.

The first 6 chapters are primarily stories.

And the second half, or the last 6 chapters, are primarily prophecies.

And the book of Daniel, as we know, is a book dealing with judgment and the end of time and the last 6 chapters of Daniel I believe using the prophetic symbols and signs shows us the who and the when and the how of the final events and of God's judgment at the end.

It gives us the mechanics, it gives us the the the framework if you will.

The first 6 chapters of historical narratives, that's what the theologians and professionals call it.

What do those stories have to do with these end time prophecies that we find in chapter 7 through 12?

The last 6 chapters of Daniel gives us an idea of what will take place How it will take place and who will be the primary characters at the end but the first 6 chapters give us in living demonstration in the biography of the life of Daniel and his friends a snippet or to use another theological term a type a representation of what will take place again at the end of time.

I believe the stories in chapters 1 through 6, not only do they have good moral value, not only are they good for teaching children good stories before they go to bed, but they also give us important details about how we ought to live as we pass through the events and the times are outlined in the last 6 chapters.

How does this chapter, Daniel chapter 6, the story of Daniel in the lion's den, how does this project itself into the future?

How does this story show us how we ought to live right now?

Let's turn our Bibles to Daniel chapter 6 together and we will begin reading in verse 1.

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and 20 princes which should be over the whole kingdom.

And over these 3 presidents of whom Daniel was first that the princes might give account unto them and the king should have no damage.

Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.

Daniel chapter 6 starts out to me in a very interesting fashion.

The reason being is that Daniel chapter 5 previously is a story of the fall of the nation of Babylon and Daniel was already elevated to be 1 of the chief leaders in the nation of Babylon.

But we read in Daniel chapter 6 that in the new kingdom, the kingdom of Medo-Persia under the reign of King Darius, Daniel is transferred to being the second in command of a new conquering nation.

Now imagine with me if you were the Vice President of the United States of America, and someone came and took over you, your nation, the United States, this is fictional, a new world superpower, overcoming or overtaking this nation, How likely would it be for you to continue in the new government as a second in command?

Now not only did Daniel transfer his position from 1 kingdom to the next, he originally came as a captive from the nation of Judah.

So there's something we can learn from Daniel right here.

There is something about Daniel that even when his enemies take over his kingdom, they still want him on their side.

There's something innately so attractive, so noble, so beneficial that Daniel would be to this nation that King Darius himself not only employed him in his service in a low position, just in a worker position, he left him second in command which was actually a higher position than what he had in Babylon to begin with why is it that Daniel was so beloved Why was he so trusted that he was placed in the second in command position even in a conquering nation?

Well, the Bible tells us, verse 3, Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because, the Bible says, an excellent spirit was found in him.

I often wonder what does it mean to be excellent, but I believe Daniel gives us the illustration gives us the picture of excellence Daniel was marked by excellence in all aspects of his life from the very beginning in Daniel chapter 1 we see Daniel he was excellent in the area of his health and his diet he would not compromise for even 1 meal he would go and he would ask for permission to be tested that he may be proved and as a result he continued to be faithful in his studies after 3 years in the Babylonian University he became 10 times wiser than all the wise men of Babylon that includes his teachers in just 3 years he was excellent In his social relationships we are told that he was brought into tender favor and regard with the Prince of the eunuchs.

He was able to relate with people in a way that was winning, winsome, caring, so they would trust him.

In Daniel chapter 2 when the king sent the command to kill all of the wise men, Ariok, the captain of the guard, comes to Daniel and instead of just killing Daniel right there on the spot, Daniel was said to respond with wisdom and counsel.

And I just imagine Daniel, he opens the door, oh hi, Ariok, how are you?

And Ariok's saying, you know, Daniel, I don't know, the king wants me to do this.

All the wise men were saved and King Ariok didn't have to do his dreadful duty but look a hardened soldier was willing to sit down and share his difficulties with this slave Daniel.

Daniel's life was marked by excellence in his political career and everything that he did in the small details of life he was excellent and as a result King Darius saw this man he understood that in his life of integrity of his faithfulness in the little things He could place him in the second in command position Daniel was worthy of his trust Even though he was quote-unquote the enemy Daniel represents to us what I believe we need to be particularly at the end of time we continue the story Daniel in verse 4 then the Dan chapter 6 verse 4 then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom But they could not find none occasion nor fault for as he was faithful neither was there any error or fault found in him now Daniel was in a very elevated position in the nation.

And sometimes we may catch ourselves feeling as though or almost coveting the higher positions that we see people possess or hold ahead of us.

Sometimes we see our friends who are in student government positions or we see friends who have privileges or responsibilities that we somehow inside there's this feeling like I wish I could have those responsibilities but really looking at Daniel is this such an envious thing to be in a high position I mean Daniel was faithful sure He probably had a fairly comfortable life, okay?

But all of his colleagues wanted to kill him because of his faithfulness, because of his integrity, and because of their jealousy of his position.

And just think of the decisions that Daniel had to make, understanding that his enemies are those that he's working with.

Knowing that the people closest around him are those who want to get him the most.

Personally speaking, I'm glad I'm not in that position.

I'm glad that my life is simpler than that and that I can serve the Lord in my sphere of influence now without the pressure of someone trying to kill me at every step.

Being a servant of God is simply being willing to go where God wants us to go, to submit our will to Him, to do whatever He asks us to do, if it be in the lowest position or if it be in the highest position.

The spirit of the servant is being willing to do our best no matter what it is that the Lord places before us.

Not simply striving to get the highest position or the most responsibility But Daniel's colleagues looked at Daniel.

He's taking our position He's telling us what to do and he's not even 1 of us.

But this testimony of Daniel I always find very impressive.

You understand who the enemies are that are trying to trip Daniel up.

These are not just common thugs on the street, not the gangs that don't have much of an education.

We're talking about the highest government officials.

We're talking about the most powerful men in the nation.

And these men, when they wanted to get Daniel, they could look at all of his credit card history, all of the records of his financial transactions.

They can check all of his report cards through school.

They can check how he uses his telephone, his cell phone.

They follow the traces of all of his emails.

They could track his IP address and see all of the websites he's been on.

They could see all of his traffic violations, how many times he's broken the speed limit.

They could see Daniel in every nitty-gritty, nitpicky aspect of his life.

And what's the only thing they could say about Daniel?

Wise and Faithful

But I guess my body clock is still in Australia.

But it's my pleasure to be with you this morning.

And just out of curiosity, how many of you have your Bibles?

I think percentage-wise we're doing better than last night, but we're happy you're here anyway.

Remember to bring your Bibles to these meetings and I believe the Lord has something to teach us well this morning the title of my message is good and faithful It's sort of a meaningless subject I suppose unless you know what I'm talking about.

We're going to be looking at several parables that Jesus told about servants.

And looking at the stories, we're going to put them together, Maybe in a way that we haven't seen them before and perhaps we can gain something practical and beneficial to our Personal Christianity today.

So to begin why don't you turn your Bibles with me to the first parable?

It's found in Matthew chapter 18 And may we use this as the setting for the rest of the parables.

The lessons that we can glean out of this parable I believe if we apply them to the other parables we're going to look at we may get a little added blessing that we haven't received before so Matthew chapter 18 beginning in verse 23 therefore the kingdom of heaven therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants.

And when he had begun to reckon, 1 was brought before him which owed him 10, 000 talents.

For as much as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt.

But the same servant went out and found 1 of his fellow servants which owed him 300 pence and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying pay me that thou owest and his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying have patience with me and I will pay thee all and he would not but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt.

So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done.

Then his Lord, after that, he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because you desirest me.

Shouldest not thou also have compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?

And his lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him.

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you.

If ye from your hearts forgive not every 1 his brother from their trespasses." Familiar parable we've read and we've heard before a man owed his Lord an Incredible and may I use a word impossible debt It was so much even though he said I will pay the all the Lord knew in his mind it's not possible and aren't we all indebted to God in the same way we owe God a debt we have something we need to pay Him, but it's something that we can never fully repay.

We have sinned, and this debt of sin means that we cannot ever fully repay this debt to God.

And God, like this master, He recognizes the impossibility of the task.

And He looks at us and He offers us freely the gift of forgiveness and salvation.

And so we as this servant which owed 10, 000 talents, we have been forgiven an impossible debt.

With this thought in mind I want to take us a few more steps.

If we know that we have been forgiven so much, What would be our natural response?

This servant in this story even though he had been given this incredible gift of grace and mercy he goes out to someone who owes him a couple bucks and will not let him off the hook and says I'm gonna throw you in jail just because you can't even pay back these few pennies and of course the obvious direct literal application that Jesus wants us to understand is that we need to also forgive as we have been forgiven.

But I want to think a little bit further, and that is, knowing that this man is a servant, he is In the service of this Lord, of this Master who has forgiven him, how do you think he would go about his duties and his service after this encounter or after this experience with this Lord?

Would he go through in his mind thinking, oh, I'm off the hook, let me just kick back, just take it easy.

Or will he in his mind, almost subconsciously, I would think for any normal human being, he would almost think, or without thinking, do more.

Go above and beyond the call of duty, out of gratitude, out of the indebtedness to his Lord.

There's this thing, there's a term in Chinese, the Chinese word is Ren Qing.

And what that means is human relation or human compassion.

It's this understanding between Chinese people that if somebody does something good for you, you have to do something good back to them.

I mean I think it applies to all cultures but Chinese we have a term and it's a very big deal.

If somebody invites you over to their home for a meal, you are required by the duty of culture to invite them back or to repay them in some way.

If some man forgives you, you are now indebted to that person to do something good for them.

And during Chinese New Year, we give these little red envelopes with money inside.

But if you receive an envelope, a red envelope from such and such auntie and uncle so and so, automatically my parents are now required, bound by their culture, to give their kids a red envelope too, even if they didn't intend to before.

And I think that this type of mentality is common throughout cultures and humanity.

And doesn't it make sense to have this natural desire to do something back for the person who had done something good for us.

Now let's put this in the context of God.

God has forgiven us something that we could have never repaid.

Something that would have costed us our eternal life.

Do we possess this Chinese culturism called Renxin?

Do we look at God and what he's done for us in the grateful perspective?

Or are we just living life as though, oh great he'll forgive me again because he's forgiven me before.

So from with this concept in mind, with this idea in mind that God had forgiven us so much and now our natural response as his servants, as his followers would be to serve him more, more wholeheartedly.

With that in mind, turn your Bibles with me to Matthew 25.

Matthew 25, and we're going to look at another parable about servants.

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods.

And unto 1 he gave 5 talents, and to another 2, and to another 1, to every man according to several ability, and straightway took his journey.

Then he that had received the 5 talents went and traded with the same, and made him other 5 talents.

And likewise, he that had received 2, he also gained other 2.

But he that had received 1 went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money.

After a long time, the Lord of those servants comes and reckons with them.

And so he that had received 5 talents came and brought other 5 talents saying, Lord you delivered under me 5 talents behold I have gained beside them 5 talents more.

His Lord said, well done thou good and faithful servant.

Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.

He also that had received 2 talents came and said, Lord thou deliverest unto me 2 talents.

Behold, I have gained 2 other talents beside them.

His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Thou hast been faithful over a few things.

Then he which had received 1 talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed.

And I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth.

His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed.

Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and that at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which had 10 talents.

For unto everyone that has shall be given and he shall have abundance, but from him that had not shall be taken away even that which he has.

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth a familiar passage to all of us a familiar story about the 3 servants who received talents Now drawing the connection between the 2 stories we've read so far, this principle that God is a God of forgiveness and that he forgives his servants applies to all his servants, right?

So practically speaking, all 3 of the servants, realistically when applied, they all have been forgiven the 10, 000 talent debt.

Instead of saying forget it, I'm never entrusting you with my money again.

I'm never going to let you close to 1 penny of my wealth.

Instead of saying that, God says, look, I'm going to give you talent.

And I want you to do something with that.

I want you to improve them, to invest them.

Now tell me, how would you think, how would you feel if your Lord, if your master entrusted you with his wealth after you owed him 10, 000 talents and he forgave you the debt.

What would be a response to what you are going to do with the talents you've been given?

I want to give as much back to the Lord as I can because I'm indebted to him no matter what it is that I may have been forgiven.

I still owe him that duty to do something in return.

Not My Will

Al Huang is a student at Washtenaw Hills College and I teach at Washtenaw Hills Academy and Al came to our academy as a senior.

When he first arrived, he was on my construction crew.

He arrived from California and having never done much in the area of construction before I can remember him arriving and my crew had been working with me for a year or so and we were building a new staff house and we were putting sheathing on the outside and we were building with metal studs and we're screwing all the sheeting on into the metal studs.

And if you've ever done that, anyone ever done that?

If you get used to it, you put the screw gun and my fellows were going zip, zip, and Al came and he would grab the thing and go, zuh, zuh, zuh.

Took him about 10 minutes to get 1 screw in.

And Al worked away, but 1 of the things that I have appreciated about Al is that He was a testimony to me of when you put your heart into something, you decide to do it, God blesses your efforts.

And Al became 1 of my favorite faithful workers on my construction crew, able and skilled not only putting screws in, but in almost every area.

And it was a testimony to me of when you give your talents to God and he may not have such 1 that when you first arrived but when you start using it when you start doing it and grows and I can I was having to be gone and I turned out and said okay Al you're in charge now construction He and 1 of the other fellows had been on it?

And he gave it to him and he took it and he and the other fellow, they ran it and they put up the whole wall and the roof, I mean, the section, they framed it up and I came back and it was all done.

But not only has he been in that area, but you know how I've seen him Mature and grow spiritually and he's a sought-after speaker traveled around the world through Asia and particularly speaking young people's at youth meetings and camp meetings and so forth in Asia and various places.

He's spoken many times here at our school and he is working with General Youth Conference.

If you don't and aren't, you should And I would challenge you to go and get familiar with it this Fall or really December in Baltimore there's a Congress something like ASI, but it's only for young people your age and older but mainly for young people.

It's a conference over the Christmas holidays that focuses us right on growing and being challenged to spiritual excellence.

And Al is working with that as the logistics, the coordinator for the housing and so forth.

He's involved in many areas of ministry for the Lord.

And so I know we're going to be blessed tonight by the message that the Lord will share with him.

Also in the morning, I just encourage you, it's 07:00.

I know it may seem early, but we're going to have special times with God here as Al's going to share with us in the morning, through the morning devotional.

Is that before breakfast or after breakfast?

If your stomach's growling, you can't do anything because breakfast doesn't come until what time?

Yeah, it's not until after our program anyway.

So, come and enjoy the time of spiritual fellowship together.

You know, my wife, when I got married, 1 of the things that I appreciated about her is that 1 of the commitments she has made is that if this if there's a decision should I buy this book should we spend this money should we do this if it is something that is going to enhance my spiritual walk with God it is by far worth the effort the the expense whatever it takes if it's gonna help me grow closer to God and so these are times that are offered but many people come and we like to sleep in a nice hotel I've had a there's never been an ASI like this 1 for that I've been to anyone know this is 1 incredible place if this is your first time not only size are quite like this don't get too used to it But don't neither get too comfortable.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus and the things of earth, tinsel, go strangely dim.

Again let's just bow our heads in the light of God's presence.

Father in heaven, Lord I just ask that you might bless Al again as you've blessed him many times as I have sat in his audience listening.

And I pray Lord that you might anoint him again and that he might share a message from your word for us tonight that would help us spiritually in our walks with you.

That when we finish and leave this room that we might realize that your presence was speaking to our hearts, giving us a message not only to hear, but to put into our lives and to practice.

And that because of our time spent here, that we might be ready for you when you come back 1 day.

Very soon, Lord, the signs of the times in this world are rapidly fulfilling, indicating We may not have much time left, and I pray, Father, that you might urge us on to spiritual excellence tonight.

By your Spirit speaking throughout, we ask in Christ's name, Amen.

It always makes it easier with the handheld mic.

It's always interesting to hear what people will say about you and your introductions particularly when people know you and Mr.

Neal as you can tell knows me quite well and he was gracious enough to leave out all the experiences where he left me with the project and he came back and it wasn't done properly.

But it was a learning process nonetheless.

And I just want to share a little bit with you about the General Youth Conference before I get into the message tonight.

I don't remember what number we are, but feel free to come drop by.

We have some pamphlets and some information about our upcoming convention this December in Baltimore, Maryland.

And the purpose of our convention this year, our theme, is really to emphasize the relevance and importance of God and his inspired writings in our lives, in all aspects of it.

And I just want to encourage you that you not settle for just what the world says is good and right and best.

There is realities beyond what we can touch, see, taste, feel, hear that is worth our time much more than the things that occupy us right now.

And GYC tries to instill within us as young people a principle.

And without going into too many words, it's a principle that I think if we grasp and understand and apply to our lives, we can end up being the most happy, like Rachel was talking about earlier, the most fulfilled, and the most successful people in this world.

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ASi 2006 Youth Devotionals

Not My Will

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