ECYC 2014: Revive Us Again

Seminars

Jonathan Zita

Eastern Canada Youth Conference

Family in End-Time Perspective

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.

Robert Blais

How Does Righteousness by Faith Work?

Lord, we come again to you to thank you for this time that we can return, Lord, from having received physical blessings, Lord, for you to bless us spiritually.

Lord, as we continue to study righteousness by faith, we pray that your Spirit will abide with us, that will give us understanding of these very important truths, that He will convict us of things in our lives that needs to change, and that He will help us to understand that You are God and that we have to be reverent and that you are the 1 in whose hand our lives are.

And so Lord, we simply come to you knowing that without you we can do nothing.

And we pray Lord that you help us this afternoon as we cannot help ourselves.

I pray that you will forgive any sins that we may have committed in the short time that we've left and that you will make us righteous like Christ is righteous And I thank you just for being such an awesome God.

I pray all this Lord, in the beautiful name of your son Jesus.

Before I continue, 1 of the things that I just want to again emphasize is righteousness by faith is not just a theology, a bunch of good ideas, it is something that is transformative, it is something that is empowering.

Once well understood and once it's something that we live by, it changes our lives because it makes us like Christ.

And so as we continue to study these things, don't just take them intellectually and be blessed spiritually, but also make them something that is an integral part of your life, that you live by it.

Remember, there is a way of righteousness, so it's a way of living.

So again, if you haven't taken my email down, please do it.

So the things we've established, we've established that righteousness is the character of God, righteousness is the standard of all character, and the standard of righteousness is the law.

The law is a transcript of God's character and Jesus is the perfect example of righteousness.

We've also established that the law is righteous, but keeping the law cannot make us righteous.

Because keeping the law is only good when we keep it, when I keep it.

But because we have fallen short of the glory of God, we become in debt and no matter how much we keep the law, we are always in debt.

All my righteousness is actually gone because of 1 fall according to Ezekiel and it is also impossible for me to keep the law and please God.

However, only the law can determine what sin is.

Paul says repetitively, when there is no law, there is no sin.

And the wages of sin is death, that is the second death, the everlasting death.

And the law shows me my need for righteousness and for Christ.

Finally, the righteousness of God is by faith, not by the keeping of the law.

Faith is not blind and it's definitely not a feeling and faith is basically knowing, believing and acting upon the Word of God.

And so the last verse we've read is Paul telling us that we are saved by faith through grace, or by grace through faith.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God." Thank you.

Well you've surely heard the usual thing.

First thing is grace is an unmerited favor.

That's in First Selected Messages 331, in Fundamentals of Christian Education 457.

We read that we should continually realize that we do not deserve grace because of our merit, for all that we have is God's gift.

So grace is a gift and grace is an unmerited favor, but what is grace?

You see when we say grace is an unmerited favor, all that it tells us is that I don't deserve it.

When we talk about grace as a gift, it's something that I cannot earn, that I cannot work for, that I have no say, I cannot plead or beg for it.

All it tells us is how to receive it and basically we receive it because God gives it to us.

Bible Roman 11.6 tells us that grace is no more grace if we work for it and that work is no more work if it would be by grace.

So here is in Council to Parents, Teacher and Student 537, Sister White tells us that divine grace is the great element of saving power.

Without it, all human effort is unavailing.

Grace is the great element of saving power.

I think that's pretty awesome that it's just a gift.

It's saving power, power that is available to us and it comes straight from God.

And we're going to look at several elements.

We're going to start by looking at what grace does, The saving grace part of it.

In 1 Peter 1, 10-11, we read that the prophet, having inquired and searched diligently, they prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, unto us.

And that grace that they prophesied about was that they testified before end of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.

The saving grace is what permitted God to send Christ to die for us.

Christ, He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.

You know that that's the reason why Jesus was able to come and die for us, for our sins?

Romans 5, 20-21, sin had reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." The great element of saving power, grace, was demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus.

But it's also expensive for God because it cost Him His Son.

And it's really frustrating when we have so many people that talk about cheap grace.

It's okay we have grace and grace this and grace that and they don't really explain how much bigger grace is, how much more solemn it is, how much more expensive it ought to be thought upon.

But grace is only effective through righteousness.

In other words, grace will only work when righteousness is present.

And Grace also has another, something else that it does is that it transforms.

I want to show you this example by Paul in Ephesians 3, 7, 8.

He says, I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power." Now, he says he is a minister.

Yeah, he preaches the gospel, minister to people, serves the people.

So he went from a persecutor to a minister.

He goes on saying, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given me that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Before he would drag the saints in the streets and bring them to court and testify against them, after grace transformed them he began to preach the gospel.

He also tells us in Ephesians 2, 4 and 7, when we were dead in sin, but God who has endured mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins had quickened us together with Christ.

By grace you are saved and had raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Here grace brings us from being sinners and enemies of God to co-er with Christ.

But you know it's 1 thing to be transformed, but grace does much more than just transforms us It sustains what it transforms.

Here's a few example Speaking to Timothy in second Timothy 2 1 Paul tells us that he ought to be strong in the grace.

Hebrews 4.16 is that we may find grace to help in time of need.

When you're struggling, grace is what you need.

Because grace is the great element of saving power.

According to Peter in 2 Peter 3.18, it's also something that you grow into.

So you don't always remain where you are.

It helps you grow in your life as a Christian.

And what's completely amazing is in Romans 6, 14, 15, for sin shall not have dominion over you.

Valmy Karemera

Scripture Our Only Safeguard

Welcome back to our second session and we are going to begin with a word of prayer as we continue on to look at the issues the church is facing and scripture as our safeguard.

Heavenly Father, we come before you with the humility of mind, recognizing that Lord, we are so inferior to your word.

But we are also grateful that your word gives us meaning.

It gives us worthiness, knowing that Lord, you fashioned us.

You took time to create us in your image.

Father, as we humble ourselves before your word, teach us, guide us.

In the last session, we were talking about different issues the church is facing.

Some of you were not here, but if I may ask randomly a question, What issues do you think are more serious facing the Adventist Church?

I just expect biblical interpretation like a lot of my friends, they don't interpret the Bible as something more.

They see our president as black and white and have him be circumcised.

The thing you think is the most defining issue that faces the 7 day administration, huh?

I think there's 1 thing to interpret the Bible, but if you're not reading the Bible, what's the interpretation?

And the biggest problem would be the youth not reading, even a lot of the adults not reading the Bible.

So she says, you may interpret the Bible, but if you're not reading the Bible, what are you interpreting?

The most defining issue that faces the Seventh-day Adventist Church interpretation of the Bible, okay.

I think you're all right because any issue, no matter how minor it is, and leads someone away from Christ is a serious issue.

Some issues are bigger than others, like Biblical interpretation is a serious issue.

But I just ask so that we can gain awareness of some of the issues out there.

Certainly, most of the issues can be traced to Biblical interpretation.

That is what you will call almost a defining issue.

When you take your Bibles and you go to Genesis What did Satan tempt the first couple with?

Ask a volunteer to read for us those 6 verses, loud and clear.

When you read these verses, what do you think the devil used to deceive?

The devil used doubt to convince Eve to sin against God.

The Spirit of the Prophet says that any time God's leaders failed Him, they failed Him because they failed to trust Him.

Any time in the history of redemption, any time God's leaders, God's people failed Him, they failed Him because they failed to trust him.

And the chain of events, here we are today.

Simple, seemingly minute, but yet so potent.

Verse 4 say, the serpent say to the woman, you surely will not die, surely you shall not die if you eat of this fruit.

Think of the experience of Christ in the wilderness.

Again, we'll ask a volunteer to read it for us.

So you go back from Genesis, the first temptation is what?

And then you come to the temptation of Christ.

And we have to believe this was, you know, if there are degrees of temptation, this was the highest degree of temptation.

If there was the highest degree of, if there are degrees of temptation, the temptation of Adam and Eve was certainly great, was 1 of the highest temptation.

If there are degrees of temptation, the temptation of Adam and Eve was certainly great, was 1 of the highest temptation.

If there are degrees of temptation, the temptation of Christ certainly was 1 of the highest temptations.

I want to submit to you today that 1 of the greatest challenges we face is the doubt we have over the Bible.

And I say that and substantiate that with Scripture, because this is the same temptation that the devil uses against the first couple, the sinless couple, by the way.

With 6, 000 years of sin, he tempted the first couple with doubt, to doubt the word of God.

What is Righteousness by Faith?

Just before I begin, I just want to let you know my name is Robert Blaise and I'm originally from Montreal, now I live in British Columbia and I'm part of a ministry called Unit Ministry and if you're interested you can go on our website which is unit-ministry.com.

It's a little out of date, we had a problem with our server but eventually we'll fix it and it'll be up to date.

So this morning for the next 3 hours we'll be talking about righteousness by faith.

Now as I mentioned a little bit yesterday evening, it is such a broad topic, There is so much things to talk about that 3 hours will be very difficult to cover everything.

And so we'll have to be choosing what we'll talk about.

So you might start your dinner, your lunch a little late, but I can't stop you from leaving and I'm not going to be angry if at 12 o'clock you can't take it anymore and you have to go.

So, but I want us to get as much time together so we can cover as much things together.

So before I begin anything else, let's have a word of prayer together.

Lord, we come to you this morning because you are, Lord, the source of all things.

You are the source of our lives and you are the source of our ways.

And Lord, you are the source of righteousness.

And this morning as we come to you to open the scripture and the words from the Spirit of Prophecy, we pray and ask Lord that you will guide our hearts and our mind that we may understand this very important doctrine.

And I pray Lord that you will be fulfilled today and that all that we'll be doing, thinking and speaking about will be for your glory.

Please Lord, edify your people that are here and help us Lord to do all that you require of us.

I pray and ask also that you put your words in my mouth Lord, because I cannot speak on this matter unless You, Lord, be the 1 speaking.

And I pray that You will also forgive our sins, Lord, that we may all be united and 1 and not divided and not separated from You.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Family in End-Time Perspective

51m

How Does Righteousness by Faith Work?

1h

Scripture Our Only Safeguard

49m

What is Righteousness by Faith?

1h

Adventism in Conflict: Church Issues in End-Time Perspective

38m

Remember Lot’s Wife

39m

Divine Service

49m

Reaching Secularized Eastern Canada

1h 23m

God’s Three Books

34m

Abana and Pharpar

49m

And Jesus Stood Still

40m

Are You Ready?

37m

Sound Doctrine