GYC 2013: Before Men and Angels

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Gay Puzzle: Loving Gays to Christ

Michael Carducci

01-Knowing the Difference

This message was presented at the DYC 2013 conference, Before Man and Angels, in Orlando, Florida.

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

I just want to let you know that the Lord heard your prayer and that's why we're here.

I just want to let you know that you're safe here.

We come from the same backgrounds, We're the same generational Adventists as you are, and yet the Lord has given each 1 of us a very special story.

And the stories that we're gonna share this weekend will let you know that we're all 1, we're all struggling.

And you may not struggle with Homosexuality, but the reason that you're here is probably because you know somebody who struggles with it.

And so what we want to do is we want to give you information Not only we do we want to give you opportunities to hear stories about how God can redeem Homosexuality by by public testimonies But we also want to give you presentations that will lighten your heart and let you know how to relate to people, how to walk side by side with somebody who may be struggling.

And hopefully in the end, Jesus, when he comes, His kingdom will be full.

So before we begin, let us close our eyes and ask for the Holy Spirit.

Father in heaven, I thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give voice at GYC, Lord.

It's been a prayer come true, Lord, for several years that we could talk about the things, Lord, that we just don't talk about in church culture.

Father, open up the doors, not only to this room, but to our hearts, Lord.

Let us be your mouthpiece, Lord, to tell a dying world about how our Jesus Christ is powerful, Lord, to overcome every sin temptation.

Lord, help us not to be deceived by the enemy and the word that is out there in the world.

Give us Your power, give us Your grace, give us Your understanding, is my prayer, in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, this is just more than I can almost handle I want to thank you again for being brave enough to walk past those doors and I promise you that as you Come to each session.

We want to give you opportunities to ask questions.

We're going to do a Q&A on Sabbath afternoon, and we're going to give you an opportunity to text any question that you have to this number here, 360-936-8514.

And if you want to be more anonymous we have paper and pens that can be passed out to you They're at the back of the room and then you can submit your questions to the Greeters in the back and someone will take those questions and tally them and on Sabbath afternoon will answer the questions that you have All right We also have a booth at booth number 724, Coming Out Ministries, and we have some powerful tools also if you're interested later on.

And what we've done in our church culture, we've done a really good job about explaining the fact that homosexuality is an abomination.

But we didn't hear the message of how to redeem homosexuality.

And so we're going to show you testimonies and we're going to talk a little bit about that also.

I want to tell you a little bit about our history with Coming Out Ministries.

And I want to introduce to you some of my colleagues.

Wayne, tell us a little bit about your ministry.

Each of us have a ministry that's within Coming Out Ministries.

And so each 1 of us not only have our independent ministry, but we're all collectively underneath the Coming Out Ministries logo.

So Wayne, tell us a little bit about your ministry, please.

Well, I spent 40 years in the gay culture, and when God convicted my heart, I didn't realize that there were other people who were also being met with divine intervention.

So slowly but surely, I began to come in contact with Ron Wolsey and Vierna Santos and Mike Carducci, and I felt like God had called me to a ministry through various ways.

Actually a co-worker of mine said, you need to have a ministry.

I started believing her, I started praying about it, and I had begun to develop know his love.

And so it didn't seem to make sense to me to collaborate or join together with other people but then God convicted my heart that the more voices there are, the more powerful the message is.

And so it's a little hard maybe for you to understand, but because God met us with divine intervention, he then put us together by divine appointment.

And so our ministries, our personal ministries, are clear across the United States in different places.

But that's why we created the umbrella ministry of Coming Out Ministries.

So if you ever go to comingoutministries.org, you can always see the individual ministries underneath that and that'll take you to our individual web pages as well.

You know, God has done amazing, amazing things I would have never ever dreamed of, which shows me that when you seek to do God's will instead of your own, He takes charge.

I get choked up Because when I think about the years that I lived doing what I wanted to do in living for self, and that God hung on to me for such a time as this, this is amazing.

I'm Ron Woolsey, and I pastor 2 churches in Arkansas, the Arkansas Louisiana Conference.

I had been declared as someone who is unchangeable by ministers in our own denomination.

I was referred to as unchangeable and I certainly was unreachable.

But I stand before you today to declare that our God is mighty to save the whosoevers from whatsoever, even to the uttermost.

The night I was baptized, I was launched into ministry by His divine guidance, not my own, and it's been 22 years now.

It was in the year 2000, I believe, that someone from the Review and Herald approached me, hearing of my story and telling me that our church needs resources.

We didn't know who to talk to or what to read or anything.

So I was asked to publish my story and it has been published.

And it's, interestingly, it's entitled, That Kind Can Never Change.

He didn't give it to me, he said that about me.

But That Kind Can Never Change, Can They?

And then I was advised by the publisher who did publish the book to use a pen name for my protection because another author had his house burned to the ground and his churches were picketed and everything and they were concerned about my protection.

So I spent more time coming up with a pen name than writing the book because I wanted the name to have a message and that is Victor J.

Now you think about the name and you'll get the message.

So I have a website ministry, victorjadamson.com.

I have my book and various resources And we have been, the Lord brought us together, as Wayne said, a couple years ago.

And we're finding that there is so much more impact when you're in a concerted effort than when we're all out there isolated atoms doing it ourselves.

And people think, well, that's got to be an exception to the rule.

Well, friends, if we're Christians, we're all exceptions to the rule.

But working together as a team, we're finding that there's much more effectiveness.

And I just praise the Lord for this opportunity to be with you folks today.

I kind of have the gift of gab too, but I'll try to cut it short.

I want to say right from the very beginning that the conversion, the change that is taking place is not from gay to straight.

So let's get that out in the open immediately because we want you to quickly understand that this is not about changing a sexual appetite.

It's about coming to a point where we're having intimacy with Jesus Christ.

So my ministry is called Xeed, which stands for excellence in Christ through evangelism to the erotically defiled.

My history not only was homosexuality, but I was a sexual addict.

And so my ministry extends not just to people that struggle with same-sex attraction, but also people struggling with pornography addiction.

And what's really sad is that 70% of the people in this room probably struggle with pornography addiction as well.

So the voice that I want to give through my ministry is also not just about homosexuality, but about redeeming everyone that's sexually defiled.

So next we have By Beholding His Love and I'm going to invite Vierna and Lisa, Cece and Daniel to come forward.

Ronald Woolsey

02-Can ‘Born-a-Gay’ Be ‘Born-Again’?

It is really nice to see such an interest in this subject.

You know, I, growing up, I thought I was the only person in the world that even had such thoughts and confusion and dilemma in my mind.

I had no idea where to go, who to talk to, how to deal with the issues I was struggling with.

By the way, we have some resource sheets back here.

It's been suggested that someone pass them out as people are coming and going because we all have our various websites and different resources.

But you know this text has already been used and is used quite frequently among us in coming out ministries and it's Revelation 12 11 that we overcome the accuser of the brethren by 2 things, the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.

I used to wonder what in the world does that mean?

And this is how I kind of figured it out.

The blood of the Lamb has to do, of course, with the story of Jesus, his condescension, his life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his ministry in the holy place and in the most holy place today.

You know, the whole story of redemption through Jesus Christ.

But then I realized, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, that many people can tell that story.

In fact, Satan transforms himself into an angel of light and his ministers into ministers of righteousness.

Now you probably have all seen ministers, popular ministries that fill stadiums telling the story, the blood of Christ, the blood of Jesus.

And They give an altar call at the end and people just flood to the front, weeping, giving their hearts to Jesus.

And then someone asks the question, well, what about the 10 Commandments?

Oh, well, don't worry about the law that was nailed to the cross.

You're saved by grace, whoever she is, you know.

They don't, they dismiss the power of God.

You know, and I think Satan himself could tell the story of Jesus better than I can, except he doesn't have a testimony.

He cannot tell what Jesus has done for him.

So, this is why the testimony that we all have is so very important.

You know, I believe that if you are willing and if you will offer yourself, the Lord will bring someone across your path that needs exactly what you have to share.

It's not something, in fact, when I became a Christian 22 years ago, I never even talked about my past.

People would ask and I'd say, well, I come from a life of degradation, Self-destruction and degradation.

You know and I would give my testimony and I would always talk about my self-destructive past and degradation Someone thought that I was addicted to drugs or something and and then I was counseled by a friend of mine Christian Berdahl Whom some of you know he said Ron they need to know what it was because people are struggling with this.

You know, even today it is very difficult for me to use the word gay or homosexual in relation to myself.

I never wanted it attached to me and I never wanted to talk about it.

But I gave my heart to the Lord and I told him I would go wherever I'm invited to go to speak for him.

And now more and more I'm talking about this issue.

Now I never wanted to be peg-holed into a one-issue ministry.

I pastor 2 churches in Arkansas, but I really appreciate the opportunities now the Lord gives to talk about this issue because you know friends this is a global issue.

In Luke chapter 17 we read as it was in the days of Lot, then what?

This is a global issue and to me it is a sign that the global society is in demise.

My story is that I was born into a Seventh-day Adventist Christian home.

But I'm just going to say, I'm not using PowerPoint in this presentation.

I will be in my next 1, but if you need to keep that going to keep the interest, that's great.

But I was born into a Seventh-day Adventist Christian home and we lived in the country.

My parents had moved to the country because they wanted to provide a safe environment for their children.

You know, the devil knows where you are even if you're in the country.

And we read about God, he says, before I formed you in the belly, what?

Do you know before God formed you in the belly, the devil knew you were coming.

And he has a customized plan for your life, and God has a customized plan for your life.

And they both, in this great controversy, they both are battling for your soul.

And when I was a little child, 4 years old, in the country, my dad was a dairyman, He ran a dairy farm in Mississippi.

I was sexually molested by a farmhand at the tender age of 4.

Children at that age don't know how to process this.

I believe children are not sexual unless they're introduced to it.

I mean, sexuality comes, my understanding is, with puberty.

But, you know, like we said earlier, when we were little children, the boys think girls have cooties and girls think boys have cooties.

And, you know, you're not sexual unless you're introduced somehow.

But today, the introduction is through the media, through music, through, I mean it's just everywhere.

Children are introduced to this very prematurely.

But at the age of 4 I didn't know how to process what happened to me.

This was so foreign I just, you know, but I knew it was bad.

If you've ever been victimized in any way, quite often you feel guilty or you are made to feel guilty and responsible.

And even at 4 I felt that I had done something terribly wrong and I hadn't done anything.

And I just can't imagine to this day, why didn't I go to mom and dad?

I didn't, the communication wasn't, we didn't communicate that well.

And so I internalized, but Every day of my life, I relived that incident.

In other words, I was being victimized every day of my life.

Growing up, into my teen years, and into adulthood, it was always as fresh in my mind as the day it happened.

I didn't know how to deal with it and get rid of it.

Well, when you internalize something like that, other things may happen.

I became a bedwetter and all of us, I was 1 of 6 children and all of us had been potty trained by the time we were 2 and here I am 4 and all of a sudden I have reverted back or regressed or whatever.

And so the abuse started from my parents, primarily my father.

He became emotionally and verbally abusive.

So he started shaming me and publicly ridiculing me, mocking me, making fun of me, advertising what I was struggling with, to the point I was so emotionally traumatized I couldn't control myself even in public anymore.

And I would wet in school and I would wet publicly and I was just so emotionally stressed over all of this.

And of course, I believe there are many, many factors that feed into brokenness and people can be derailed in many different directions.

Wayne Blakely

03-Loving All God’s Children

If you have an empty seat, keep that hand up as people are coming in.

If your arm gets tired, I understand, you've got to put it down, but I know there's still people coming in looking for a seat.

So If you're coming in and you're looking for a seat, watch for a hand that is raised.

As you know by now, my name is Wayne Blakely and I will tell you that it is absolutely an amazing gift of God to be able to be here and share with you today.

I have tried to take my testimony which is about 70 minutes long and cut it in half so that I can provide you with a teaching afterwards.

If we don't get to very much of the teaching, the teaching has to do with how do we reach out to people who are same-sex attracted today.

The reason I'm telling you my testimony is because I want you to know that I know something about it.

I want you to know that while somebody else's story might be different, this happens to be mine and I can relate to somebody who is caught up in the gay culture today and thinking that perhaps there isn't even a way out.

So I'm going to go ahead and just get started here.

More than anything, I want you to experience the love of Jesus Christ.

I want you to know that you can come into oneness with Him.

I want you to be able to discover intimacy with Jesus Christ.

That's what I'm experiencing today and I want you to know that I'm this far away from my past And the only way that I am where I am today is from constantly clinging to Jesus Christ.

I want you to know that this message, what you're hearing from all of us today, and throughout this weekend, is immersed in the love of Jesus Christ.

But I also want you to know that sometimes the love of Jesus Christ is like any parent and it looks like discipline.

I lived in darkness for nearly 40 years, in confusion.

And what we're sharing with you here is something that was light years away from me as a child.

I experienced the ridicule, the alienation, the rejection that came from those sitting in the most holy places of the church.

I'm not here to condemn and I'm not here to convict.

I'm simply here to share how amazing God's love is.

1 more time if you would bow your heads I'd like to invite the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father, you know that in this world today that we dare to speak about this topic because the enemy is so angry because he kept this a secret for so very long that people didn't think that there was any way out of homosexuality.

And while your word tells us without question that it doesn't bring you honor and glory.

The world is making it look like we have no other option.

So today I ask dear Lord for the pouring of your blood over this building and over everyone in here and that you would send the Holy Spirit and that the the enemy cannot accuse, the enemy cannot terrorize, the enemy has no place here, Lord, only the angels and the Holy Spirit.

And I thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.

I'm sorry if it appears that I'm going to be racing.

It may not even seem that way to you, but it will to me, because I have a lot to share with you.

I'd like to read to you from the Ministry of Healing, Spirit of Prophecy.

Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control, forbearance, and sympathy.

We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary.

Our understanding of the truth, our ideas in regard to the conduct of life are not in all respects the same.

There are no 2 whose experience is alike in every particular.

The trials of 1 are not the trials of another.

The duties that 1 finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.

So I don't mean to belittle anybody's journey or anyone's experience today because you matter, you belong, and you are loved.

It is only the love of Jesus Christ that changes lives, and I firmly believe that every single 1 of us are level at the foot of the cross.

And so I want to share with you today that there is danger in believing, always believing your feelings as truth.

God gave us feelings, but we need to look and see that our feelings actually are in agreement with God's Word, because if they are not, it's an indication that He wants to do something for us.

The message that I'm sharing again today is meant to be drenched in the love of Jesus Christ to touch each and every 1 of your hearts here and those for whom you may come in contact with.

I thought I would break out with that 1 because usually on the Q&A that's the very first thing asked.

She was around a lot of relatives who would come to her and say, oh so do you think you're gonna have a boy or a girl?

In those days they didn't have amniocentesis.

There was no way to determine the gender of the child before the child was born.

But she was adamant with everyone she met that she was not going to have a baby boy.

From birth, it is vital that we introduce love, the love of Jesus Christ, in a bonding relationship with our parents.

Desire of Ages says, if we live in communion with God, we too may expect the Divine Spirit to mold our little ones, even from their earliest moments.

Ministering angels will guard children who are thus dedicated to God.

It is the duty of Christian parents, morning and evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith, to make a hedge about their children.

They should patiently instruct them, kindly and untiringly teach them how to live in order to please God.

Now I'm going to share something with you today.

Series

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Gay Puzzle: Loving Gays to Christ

02-Can ‘Born-a-Gay’ Be ‘Born-Again’?

Transcript

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GYC 2013 Seminar: The Gay Puzzle: Loving Gays to Christ

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