ECYC 2014: Revive Us Again

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

Seminars

Valmy Karemera

Adventism in Conflict: Church Issues in End-Time Perspective

Robert Blais

What is Righteousness by Faith?

Scripture Our Only Safeguard

How Does Righteousness by Faith Work?

Jonathan Zita

Family in End-Time Perspective

Is Righteousness by Faith Possible for Me?

Leaving the Cities: Why, When, How?

Wesley Sifflet

Time of Trouble: Who Am I?

Aboubacar Sidiki Camara

The Omega Apostasy

Our loving Father, we thank you for the opportunity you've given us to meet as Christians, be able to seek you and to understand a little bit more what our principles we can abide our lives by.

We thank you that you've not left us in the darkness, but there is so much out there that we can learn from.

You have said, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you shall go.

And Lord, we claim that promise for us personally.

And if we have families for our own families, that we may be ready, O Lord, when You come, and not be found wanting.

Well, so the description, I just want to read that to you that I was asked to share about, was how to have the issue of family in end time perspective.

These are questions that Adventist young people continue to ask as they recognize the nearness of Jesus' Second Advent and anticipate troublesome times ahead.

This session seeks to answer these important questions through an exploration of biblical and spirit of prophecy councils on the topic of marriage and families in the last days.

Who believes that Jesus is coming very soon?

Who believes that Jesus is coming very, very, very, very soon?

Who really believes that He's really coming soon?

The signs really foretell that it's really, really, really soon.

How soon do you think Christ is coming back?

There are certain things that need to happen first.

So are we waiting for the Gospel to be spread to all the world?

Or are we waiting for God's people to be ready?

Did you know that Christ is waiting for us to be ready?

Because once we are ready, the Holy Spirit can come in our lives and it can be a matter of months, maybe even weeks.

There's no limit to the power of the Holy Spirit.

I mean, within just a few years, it's amazing how the Gospel spread from the Acts of the Apostle all around the world and we are told that the power that will fall will be even greater in these last days.

So sometimes we are thinking, well this needs to happen, this needs to happen, this needs to happen.

I have plenty of time before Christ comes.

So before I begin some of the principles, the first thing I want to encourage all of you, if you have not done so, do it, and if you have done so, do it again, is to read a book called Adventist Home.

And now you have no excuse because you can't say I don't have it because if you have a phone that has a smart thing on it or smartphone, if you have an iPad or a tablet, if you have a computer, you can actually read that book online, right?

Of course, it's preferable, I believe, to get a hard copy that you can underline and so forth.

But Adventist Home, I believe every single young person needs to read that book.

Even my wife and I, every other, pretty much every other evening, our worship is focused on family and on relationship.

So what we do is, depending on what we're going to read, we're going to read on things on couples, for us, how to improve, and also how to raise our children.

Because nobody is born knowing how to be a good husband or a good wife, you know, it's not something that's instinct.

I mean, you can love somebody, but these principles, we are so selfish oriented that, and we are prone to do exactly what our parents are doing, that unless we educate ourselves by the power of the Holy Spirit to change, it won't happen.

And so my wife and I will pick up Adventist Home, and we've read it before, but it's interesting as when I read it, I feel as if I've never read this stuff before.

And this is like the third or fourth time I read it.

So that's why we keep reading it, praying that God will help us to incorporate these principles in our lives, okay?

So the first thing that is important to you, I believe that all of us need to do is read Adventist home before any thought of relationship If you're in a relationship read Adventist home if you're married read with no children read Adventist home If you're married with children read Adventist home just read Adventist home.

Amen you get the message Just read the book and I'm shocked When people are married or getting married, and they've never read that book, I'm like, what?

I mean, and I'm even more shocked that they don't read anything.

It's like, well, like, oh, no, we just get married.

I have a friend, this guy doesn't think he needs to read anything about kids.

I mean, the character of the children is like the most important trust.

You read how you need to fix your car, but you won't read on how to raise your kid.

I mean, it just blows me completely away.

So some of the principles, I won't have time to share a lot of principles, but I do believe that if you read that book, God will help you as He's been slowly helping myself and my wife to catch some of these principles in our lives.

So Jesus coming back soon, should I even think about marriage if I am married or children if I am, no, marriage if I'm not married, children if I don't have children yet.

So we had Ellen White, James White, these different people.

Did they believe that Christ was coming soon?

So it's 1844, great disappointment, 1845, 1846, and then 1847, 1848, And then Ellen White, these people, they still believe that Christ is coming soon.

Because we know that there is no more time prophecy after 1844, but now it's like Christ can come back any time after 1844.

And so now we're saying, man, Christ can come back any time.

And then we are told in 1888, we are told that's 1 of the times Ellen White tells us that Christ could have come back if we had been ready, right?

So now, past 1888, it's even a greater confirmation from God to say, hey, I could have come back like 2 years ago.

That means I want to come back like very, very soon.

But yet after 1888, she still publishes all these counsels about children, about family, about marriage, about relationships.

Don't you think that's a little puzzling?

Shouldn't you say, well, Ellen White, don't you think that, you know, Jesus is coming soon and Jesus could have come last year and 2 years ago and that means that He could come any time now.

Shouldn't we be forgetting about councils about marriage and family?

Shouldn't we just be focusing on saving souls for God's Kingdom?

Why should you write counsel on marriage and family?

You know, there's a quote that's very interesting.

It says, You know, there is amazing power in a godly family.

I mean, they can argue your theology, your philosophy, and whatever, but If you have a Christ-like family that we all strive to have by God's grace, it's a power that even an atheist cannot fight against.

There is an amazing power to a godly family.

And that's why I believe, that's 1 of the reasons Ellen White kept writing, because yeah, Christ could come back, but in the meanwhile, occupy till it comes, people will still get married, people will still have kids, and therefore, we need to instruct them to have powerful Christ-like families, because that's 1 of the most powerful arguments in favor of Christianity.

It says, All can see that there is an influence at work in the family that affects the children and that the God of Abraham is with them.

If the homes of professed Christians had a right religious mold, they would exert a mighty influence for good.

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Series

Seminars

Family in End-Time Perspective

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Relationships and Family Life

My ‘Single’ Desire

1h 24m

Why Jesus Can’t be Your Boyfriend

59m

Restoring the Home

03 Biblical Principles for Marriage

1h 4m

Marriage Heart to Heart

3. Malfunction to Miracles

1h 9m

How to Find a Life Partner Who Will Increase Your Usefulness In Service

1h 21m

Love and Marriage

1h 4m

Love and Life in God's Will

05 Heard God’s Voices or My Stomach Growled

58m

The Weight of Waiting

1h 10m

How To Study the Bible and Know God’s Will For Your Life

1h 25m

Do Not Awaken Love Till it so Desires

33m

When it’s not Good for Man to be Alone

1h 9m

How to Know God’s Will

1h 5m

Sound Doctrine