GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Morning Devotional

Adam Ramdin

Nevertheless

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

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

Apple, computers, used to have a logo around the end of the 1990s that said, think different.

And it caught on, they struck a chord with society.

For we have a cultural affinity today in the Western world in particular, to value change over tradition.

So when they say, think different, it struck a chord with us.

We put merit in something that is new as opposed to what is old.

And if when we're hearing something, if we've heard it previously, we consider it to be a waste of time and meaningless.

Youth conferences in the Adventist church sometimes are affected by this mindset where committees will spend hours literally thinking up a theme for the youth conference that is new, that is different, that is catchy, that is memorable, because we value what's new over what's old.

I'd like to congratulate GYC this year on a great theme, amen?

And I pray that myself and the other speakers here and in the workshop are able to do justice to this theme.

It takes us back to the heart of Christianity 2, 000 years ago, the event that changed the universe and the event for which history evolves at the cross.

You see, today as Laodiceans, we have a problem as Laodicea.

The Adventist Church as Laodicea, We have a problem where we have an endless pursuit of knowledge.

In fact, Laodicea doesn't necessarily need more knowledge, but they want more knowledge.

How many times have you been in a prayer meeting or in a Bible study and the person kneeling down, they said, Lord, teach us something new from your Word.

We want to hear something fresh, something different, something that we have not heard before.

The problem with us as Laodicea is we want knowledge.

Some of us have downloaded 10 gigabytes worth of sermons onto our mobile phone.

Some of us have got our favorite sermons and we've heard them over and over so many times we can recite them word for word.

I was talking to a young man in England 1 time.

He came to an evangelistic campaign that I was doing and he came all the way through, did not get baptized.

2 years later I met him at a youth event, and I was talking to him about his walk with the Lord.

And he said, yeah, you know, da-da-da-da-da, things are going well.

He told me the certain Bible prophecies that he was studying.

He said, after he told me what he was studying, he said, yeah, I'm at that level now.

That I'm studying these things and I'm at that level now.

In other words, what he was saying was, I'm not dealing with the Psalms anymore, I'm not dealing with the Proverbs anymore, I've gone past the Gospels, I'm at this level now." You see, sometimes that's the way we think.

We've got to graduate from the easy stuff and get to the deep stuff and then we really are a mature Christian.

The problem with us as Adventists is when we think about the Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, All too often we say, yeah, I've read that already.

The cross, yeah, I check, I've already heard a sermon on the cross.

I read the last 10 chapters of Desire of Ages, yes, I know that.

It's time for me to move on in my Christian experience.

Well, you see, this weekend, there is no moving on.

In Matthew chapter 13 and verse 52, The Bible says that every scribe that is instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder which brought forth from the treasure things new and things that are old.

You see, this weekend, long weekend, we are discussing an old theme, but I pray for myself and for yourself that we're able to pull new things out of the old theme.

That what is old will become new, what is old may become fresh, And that though it may be an old theme at the cross, we may gain a new experience by encountering Jesus Christ.

Whilst as an Adventist, you may be familiar with the cross, you may have heard sermons on the cross, you may be familiar with what happens around it, you may be familiar with the Ellen White quotation, we need to spend a thoughtful hour each day in silent meditation on the life of Christ, especially the closing scenes.

You may remember all of that, But I pray here at this GYC through the course of what we discussed together, that we may not just know something new about the cross, but that we may come to the foot of the cross.

Let's bow our heads as we start with a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, Lord, truly it is an honor to open your Word.

As you spend the next few moments in the pages of Scripture, Lord, I pray that you would speak to our hearts.

I pray, Lord, that the experience that you went through on the cross, we may see in a vividness today that we can apply to our own personal lives.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me at this time.

If you go to the west coast of San Francisco, there is a bridge there called the Golden Gate Bridge.

If you go to the east coast, as you go up I-95 and you head towards New York City, there is another bridge there called the George Washington Bridge.

For the problem with both of those bridges is that when you cross those bridges, you have to pay money before you go over the bridge.

In fact, as you're driving to the bridge, you'll see a sign up there that will say, last exit before what?

Now, every time that I approach a bridge like that or a tunnel, and you see that sign, last exit before toll, I don't know what it is, but this is what happens in my mind.

Even though I know I'm driving over the bridge, even though I know I'm going on to my destination that may be 1, 2, or 3 hours away, every time the thought comes into my head, shall I get off the motorway before I have to pay a toll?

You see, when you think about this, Gethsemane represented to Jesus the last chance he had to get off the road before he got to Calvary.

Gethsemane represented the last opportunity that Jesus had, the last chance to get off that road.

It was the last time in His earthly ministry that Jesus had a chance to get off before He had to pay the price.

If you have your Bible this morning, I'd like to invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 26.

And we're going to read 1 or 2 verses as they relate to the closing scenes of Christ's life.

The name or the word Gethsemane, it means oil press.

It was the name of an olive yard that sat at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

If you are privileged to go to Israel today, if you would count it such, you can go to where they say Gethsemane was.

There are 8 olive trees there in the Garden of Gethsemane that they may take you to.

But the Orthodox Church says, no, that's not the Garden of Gethsemane.

They have 1 across the road and they say that's the Garden of Gethsemane.

But if you talk to certain Bible scholars, they will say none of them are the Garden of Gethsemane.

It was probably several hundred yards away.

This is where Jesus came oftentimes to pray, we're told.

And we're told that in Gethsemane, he took all his disciples there to the garden of Gethsemane.

He told some of them to wait there, and then he took his 3 favored disciples, and he took them a little bit further, and he said, you wait here.

And then he went a little bit further from them, not out of eyesight, but he laid there on the ground, and there he started to pray to his heavenly Father.

And in Matthew 26 and verse 39, the Bible says, Now what I want to do, we're going to take this verse and look through it step by step.

He starts off, and the Bible says he went a little bit further, but the words of Jesus in red, let's focus on these.

Now the word, oh father, to me that signifies closeness in a relationship.

Today you would say that as a term of endearment.

If my wife said to me, oh Adam, and then she went on to say something else, it would probably mean that I was in her good books at that time.

Jesus is close with his Father and the phrase signifies such.

So he's asking this question, he says, if it is possible, is there any way, is there any possibility about what I'm about to ask?

Three Wise Men

At www.gycweb.org Good morning everybody.

It's a pleasure to be here with you on this Friday morning at GYC.

It's a pleasure to be able to open the Word of God with you this morning.

And as we do that, I'll invite you to bow your heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you this morning for a new day of life, for the health and strength that we have.

Lord, as we meditate for these moments on this great and grand theme at the cross.

May you impress upon our hearts exactly which aspect of this message we need to hear today.

I pray Lord that you would speak through me.

Exactly 100 years ago this year, You may have seen it on the news and you may be familiar with the story a hundred years ago this year on Christmas Day a unique event took place in the countries of Belgium France and Maybe Switzerland Amidst the horror of World War I trench warfare, where it was not a pretty sight and where it was not glamorous to fight for your country, so to speak.

On Christmas Day amidst the horror of the war, something very unique took place.

And from 1 trench to another, some of the soldiers in 1 trench on Christmas Eve, actually in the night, they started to hear the other soldiers sing a song, Silent Night, Holy Night.

And it wasn't just an isolated part of the line between the Germans and the British and the French and so on.

And then the other side, they started responding and singing the same Christmas carol in their language back.

And when you read the accounts historically of the letters that the soldiers sent home to their parents, they say that the next day on Christmas Day, as the morning broke, some of them came out of their trenches putting their hands up and then they didn't get shot and they came out the other trench, and as they came together, they spent a few hours together exchanging gifts with each other, showing each other the pictures of their wives and their children they had left behind or their parents.

History accounts that they played football matches, or as you Americans say, soccer matches together.

There in no man's land, in the middle of the war, when they're supposed to be fighting each other, they were exchanging presents, they were having a good time, laughing and joking and playing football together with each other in no man's land.

If you've never read it before or seen anything, just Google it.

You'll find plenty of information about it.

It's not, you know, it happened, it's a historical event.

And it's unique because in the midst of the horror of the war.

You see this event taking place that is so different to anything else like it, and it just shines amidst the darkness.

That human nature would Have some space for compassion and kindness in the midst of horror.

If you have your Bible, if you turn with me to John chapter 7.

We're going to spend a few moments in a few passages this morning.

John chapter 7, and we'll be reading John 7, the beginning of the chapter.

In John chapter 7, the Bible says, and I'll just paraphrase the first few verses, Jesus was there and at John chapter 7, his ministry has now taken place for 3 years.

By the time of John chapter 7, he has been ministering for 3 years.

Now we know according to the 70 week prophecy that Jesus had to minister or be Crucified in the middle of the week or after 3 and a half days or 3 and a half years His ministry was to be 3 and a half years long and in John 7 is 3 years and the Bible says in verse 1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk in Jewry because the Jews sought to kill him.

Summary, he's up there in Galilee, northern Israel.

He does not go down to Jerusalem, southern Israel.

So his brothers get together and they say there in verse 3 and verse 4, basically they say, listen Jesus, if you really are the Messiah, why are you hiding in Galilee?

Go down and show the world what you can do.

And then verse 5 says the key word verse, it says, for neither did his brothers believe in him.

John 7, after 3 years of ministry, his brothers, his own brothers come to him and they say, we don't basically believe you're the Messiah.

If you really were the Messiah, you wouldn't hide up here.

But Notice what Jesus responds in verse 6.

Jesus understood that there was a prophetic time that he was living on and he said, My time has not yet come.

And the Bible says there in John chapter 8 that Jesus was there in the temple and He just says that before Abraham was, I am.

And in John 8, verse 59, the Bible says they took up stones to stone Jesus, but he escaped and went his way.

They could have killed him, but he escapes.

Now we're gonna see in tomorrow's message, not only was it the wrong time for him to die, it was the wrong place for him to die.

And in John chapter 10, the Bible says there in verse 39 And verse 40, therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand.

So in John 7, Jesus says, my time has not yet come.

In John chapter 8, he escapes when they try and kill him.

John chapter 12, when the Bible says there, turn over the page to John 12, the Bible says there in John chapter 12 and verse 23, we see a shift.

Jesus is no longer escaping and Jesus is no longer saying, my time has not yet come.

In John 12 and verse 23, the Bible says, "'And Jesus answered them, ' this is His disciples, saying, "'The hour is, ' what?

"'Come, that the Son of Man should be glorified.'" The hour has now come.

John 12, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

And come down to verse 28 At the end of this little passage that Jesus speaks, He says, Father, glorify Your name.

Jesus says, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified, Father glorify your name." See, something about the cross was at that moment of history, in the darkness of the universe, the light of Christ's character shone the brightest.

You see, the total sacrifice, the theme for today is the total sacrifice of Jesus.

The total sacrifice of Jesus is a total and a complete revelation of Jesus.

And at the cross we see the Son of God glorified completely.

You see, it's at the cross that we see the unfailing love of Jesus.

It's at the cross that we see the tenderness and the courtesy To those who were abusing Him.

Is that the cross that we see the patience tested the most and coming out victorious?

Is that the cross that we see the compassion of Jesus?

Is that the cross we see Jesus thinking of others and not himself?

Is that the cross that we see all of these characteristics of Jesus' character shining the brightest?

Is that the cross where we see the heart to save others right until the end when he's on the cross?

Is that the cross that we see the serenity surrounding Him in the most unlikely hour.

You see, when the darkness was the deepest, the light shone the greatest.

If any of you have a candle or a light, when you're shining it, you see the power of it in the darkness.

I like to cycle my bike to work every now and then.

From my home to the office, it's about 8 miles there and 8 miles back, 16 miles.

And in the wintertime, sometimes I ride my bike to work.

Now, last winter I was riding my bike to work, and the problem is this.

England lies at 54 degrees north of the equator, which means in the wintertime, it doesn't get light until about 08:00, and it gets dark at 04:00.

I need to be in the office at 8.30, and I need to leave the office at 5, and it takes about 45 or 50 minutes to ride my bike there because I'm not very fast yet.

Which means I ride the bike there in the dark and come back in the dark.

Now foolishly, I don't advise you to do this, last year I rode my bike a few times in the dark with no lights on my bike.

The Outsider

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

2 bow heads as we start this morning's worship.

Father in heaven, Lord, as we bow our heads this morning, I pray, Lord, that you may speak to each 1 of our hearts on this most beautiful theme of at the cross.

Lord touch us, move us, shape us, convict us.

Do any of you know what it's like to experience being outside of the conversation that's going on in the room?

When a joke is taking place and you're not part of the joke, it's not funny for you.

We have a saying that sometimes you can feel like you are out of the loop.

When you're out the loop it feels frustrating.

When you're the odd person out it's uncomfortable.

If you are an outsider nobody, nobody likes to be an outsider.

A sermon this morning is entitled, The Outsider.

If you turn with me in your Bibles, if you have them, to the book of Hebrews chapter 13.

Hebrews chapter 13, we're going to look at a verse of scripture there in our morning study.

Hebrews chapter 13 and the theme for today is total saving grace.

In Hebrews 13 and verse 12 the Bible says, wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his blood, what did he do?

In order it says that Jesus might sanctify the people with his blood, the Bible says he suffered without the gate.

And we're going to take a look at this verse this morning, step by step, and work our way through it.

What does it mean when it says Jesus in order to sanctify us?

There is a view that at the cross Jesus deals only with your forgiveness.

Your justification at the cross is all that is needed to qualify you for heaven.

This theory or teaching goes on to say that the righteousness God produces in you after that has no saving value.

It only gives evidence of your salvation but does not contribute towards it.

Sanctification is therefore a fruit of salvation but not a prerequisite for it.

But this does not match with 2 Thessalonians, if you're taking notes, I don't have time to turn there.

Chapter 2 and verse 13, where the Bible says, God has, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth just like in justification it's our part to believe in God to choose to surrender to him to confess our sins to him it's God's part to forgive us to count us righteous and cleanse us from our filthy garments.

So, in sanctification, it's our part to choose to obey God, to surrender our weak, fallen natures to Him daily, and it's God's part to count us holy, to dwell within us, to empower us and give us the ability to obey Him in the areas where He requires obedience.

When we look at the word sanctification, it can sometimes seem like a long word.

It refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in us from the moment we accept Christ until our last moment.

A work in which our lusts are restrained, our faith is increased, and our character begins to more fully reflect the character and beauty of Jesus Christ.

This is the work that the Holy Spirit does in us.

The verse that we just read says, through his blood he sanctifies us, and he suffered without the gate.

We are sanctified by the powerful blood of Jesus Christ when Jesus died He accomplished 2 things number 1.

His objective was to pardon and forgive us.

Number 2, his objective is to cleanse us.

So in sanctification, we are to look for the cross.

But let me ask you, at the beginning of this year, 2015, sorry, How has the year been with you?

How has God's purpose in your life for sanctifying you been in this past year Ponder the questions if you would in the past year Has your faith increased during the year?

In the past year, have you overcome some corruptions in your heart?

Are you living nearer to Christ now, today, on this Sabbath, than you were the first Sabbath of last year?

Are you approaching Him more in likeness?

Are you more decisive for what is right and at the same time more humble in being decisive.

Are you in all aspects standing for Jesus Christ as your Savior?

How is it with you at the beginning of this year?

Whatever you answer to that question from this day forward, the key is to press on.

Now in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 12, in Hebrews 13 and verse 12, we read the verse, and it says, I want us to take a few moments and look at this phrase outside the gate outside the gate Why did Jesus have to suffer outside the gate?

You see, when you look at the Jewish sanctuary in the Old Testament, in particular the sin offering, the high priest offered the sin offering, sorry, when he offered the sin offering, because it was offensive to God.

It was burned, Not on the altar of sacrifice, but it was burned outside the camp to show God's detestation for sin and His determination to put it away from his people and his church in Leviticus 6 and verse 30 the Bible says and no sin offering whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile in the holy place shall be eaten it shall be burnt with fire the sin offering was burnt outside the camp not on the altar inside the courtyard.

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