Empowered

ECYC 2011 Plenary Meetings

Andy Im

Eastern Canada Youth Conference

The American Facade: The Empowerment of Purpose

We're going to go ahead and start, but I want to begin by just introducing the topic.

Yesterday we spoke about empowerment through right identity.

And although it's on appearance, it seems like it's something so horrible and negative, it's actually the key that unlocks the door to receiving the mercy and the grace of Christ.

And we focused more on, I would say, revival.

We first need to see who we are and what we are.

Now we're gonna talk a little about empowerment through right direction.

And that emphasis is gonna be more on reformation, a change, an alteration of our thoughts, our previous thoughts, and our habits, our ideas, our ways of thinking, our world views, our presuppositions, the lens through which we interpret all of reality.

Let's speak a little bit about right direction.

He says, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

Are you headed to that direction, in that direction?

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for being with us, for guiding us and leading us.

We pray that you would speak through me, also speak to our hearts and our minds and we just want to pray for an extra portion of your Holy Spirit on the Sabbath.

And we thank you so much for bringing us here.

Be with those who are still on their way.

And I'm gonna pick on America, the United States of America, just a little bit, and I can do that today.

Not only, well, for 1 reason, because I am an American, and when you are an American, you have license to pick on your own country.

But The second reason is because I'm in Canada.

And so even though this is gonna go on AudioVerse and elsewhere, I think they'll be all right with that.

So it's a spin-off of the American dream.

Or is there another better, more ultimate dream and goal that we're to be living for?

If you define facade, it's a superficial appearance or illusion of something.

David Platt says this, I am convinced that we as Christ followers in American churches, again we're going to dog on America a lot today.

I am convinced that we as Christ followers in American churches have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical, but that actually contradict the gospel.

How many of you believe that Just because our culture says it, does that mean it's right?

What comes to mind, and this is a little, I guess a little quiz, what comes to mind when you hear the words the American dream, because I'm assuming that's probably the Canadian dream, the European dream, the China dream, and every dream of most people in the world.

But when you think of the American dream, what comes to mind?

You think of making lots of money so that you can have multiple, multiple homes, as you see here.

You think of liberty, life and liberty giving you the freedom to do that.

You think about enjoying life and the American dream, to living the American dream.

You think of presidents in the United States also offering this dream and reclaiming the American dream.

And many people think now, as you see in this sign over here, that the American dream is over.

As many of you know, that the American economy is not doing too well.

By the way, my brother works for a Canadian bank, and so he appreciates Canada very much.

And I'm going to define it in a popular way through Wikipedia.com.

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which Freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success.

In the definition of the American dream by James Treslow Adams in 1931, life should, in other words, it's an entitlement.

Life should be better and richer and fuller for everybody with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.

But we need to look at, and not everything is bad.

Some of these principles are actually not bad ones.

But we need to go deeper into some of the things that the American dream has become to many citizens living throughout the world.

The American dream is also synonymous with the seduction of success.

I mean, everybody wants to be successful.

I want to be successful in preaching this sermon.

The last thing any speaker wants to do is get up front and completely bomb their sermon.

And believe me, I've done that many, many a time.

The American dream is synonymous with the seduction of success.

And in the world's eyes, you would think that Madonna, I mean, she was successful when I was young, when I was a kid, and I'm close to 40 years of age.

I mean, she's been around for a long time.

And often times what drives success, see we need to distinguish between external idols, like success, to the hidden more deeper idols.

And you're gonna see in this quote here that there are deeper motivations that often drive success or these external idols.

And all of my will, all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy.

My drive in life is from a horrible fear of being mediocre.

And that's always pushing me, pushing me.

Because even though I've become somebody, I still have to prove that I'm somebody.

My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.

This drive to become somebody, to be recognized.

I want, let me show you something in Scripture.

Did you know that this is the same drive that drove, the same idol that drove the mindset of the Pharisees of old.

If you go to Matthew chapter 6, and let's turn there really quickly here, you'll see something very fascinating.

This desire to be known, to be seen, to be more than just mediocre.

This desire to be a part of something big because it makes me big in my own eyes and in the eyes of others.

How many of you are naturally possessive?

Don't raise your hands because people may be looking.

That's something that we naturally don't want to be associated with, but we are all instinctually possessive.

You notice in Matthew chapter 6, we don't have a lot of time to delve into this, but notice the motives for why the Pharisees of old, what drove them, what actuated them.

And if you see in verse 1, beware of practicing your righteousness before men, to be what?

If you go to verse 2, why did they give to the poor in sound trumpets?

So that they may be, in my translation says, to be honored.

Mansfield Edwards

Finishing His Work

Our Father in heaven today, we have gathered not because we're determined to make this another ECYC event, but we have come together Lord because this for us must be a moment of transition we invited your presence at the invocation not just to be with us But we know there's always a word from you.

In these horrible moments in earth's history, we turn to you for a word and ask that you will speak now as we hear you.

May salvation, security for the future be assured.

Come with me to the book of Revelation I was asked to speak in Revelation 18 verse 1.

Now I'd like to reread that which was so well read before but just as a reminder let's let's revisit Revelation 18 and verse 1.

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory.

This is encouraging because the words of revelation 17 had some things in it that were not so encouraging.

Revelation 17 we hear about this great harlot who sits on many waters in Revelation 17 and verse 2 we learned that this woman a symbol of a church that is corrupt this great harlot woman had influence because verse 2 says with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Verse 4 says the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls having in her hand a golden cup full of abomination.

Verse 5 and on her forehead and name was written mystery Babylon the great the mother of harlots and off the abominations on earth Things have moved from bad to worse and if you think that this is Something that we are spectators of and that we are not caught up in this as God's remnant people Understand the thrust of verse 6.

I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus God's people are being slaughtered.

John saw this in vision and he responded and when I saw her I marveled with great amazement.

I just like to remind you that God did not raise up his church to be spectators.

Alan White says that every now and then when we are inclined to be casual, we need to go back and read the book of Job and understand the context of the great controversy within which we dwell.

There are 2 great powers that are at war over us.

The devil is desperately determined to get you 1 way or the other.

I was checking the names of the devils and 1 of the names of the devil is adversary and that is translated distressor and the World Health Organization says that 75% of all challenges that we approach our doctors with is stress-related and prolonged stress is defined as distress.

The distressor is the adversary that's his name that's his job description.

We are caught between the 2 and we have got to be very clear on whose side we stand.

The message of Revelation 17 is a challenging message.

Alan White says this in the book great controversy page 382 Babylon is further declared to be that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The power that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs of Christendom is Rome.

Babylon is said to be the mother of Harlots.

By her daughters must be symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and her traditions and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world compromise.

Where do we fall in the whole mix of Revelations 18 and Revelation 17?

Well let me begin with this Every Seventh-day Adventist ought to be very clear on the 3 angels messages.

The first message is that the hour of God's judgment has come.

When you consider the dangers and the implications of Revelation 17 we ought to be consoled by the fact that the hour of God's judgment has come.

The second message is that Babylon is fallen.

And the third message is do not worship the beast his image nor receive his mark.

You see the power of God to bless is contained in the 3 angels messages.

We thank God that through the 3 angels messages through the proclamation of the 3 angels messages the Seventh-day Adventist Church continues to grow from strength to strength in 2005 they said that 15, 000 persons were being baptized in the Seventh-day Adventist Church per week.

Now we are learning that some 17 pastors of nominal denominations are joining the church per week.

At our recent camp meeting we had the testimony in the afternoon of a pastor of a Pentecostal Church who was baptized embracing the 3 angels message at the end of the Sabbath school of our camp meeting.

Today he's studying with his whole congregation and last week he was completing the sanctuary doctrine with them would you say amen.

Now members of his family are saying he must have found something good so they are joining the study too Amen.

And today a Baptist pastor is studying, preparing for his own baptism while preparing his congregation to join him in baptism embracing the 3 angels message.

And he said my prayer is that before the end of this quarter my congregation will be a Seventh-day Adventist congregation would you say amen God is finishing his work Yet Revelation chapter 18 paints an amazing picture of tremendous power that is yet ahead.

Amazing victory in the future of God's church.

A future that is brighter than the present amen.

Revelation 18 1 says after these things I saw another angel.

Well this angel is no different in angelic form than the angels of the 3 angels message.

That's the Church of God charged with carrying the gospel.

The original definition of angel coming from the Greek Angelos translated messengers.

The Revelation 18 1 after these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory.

You see here Revelation 18 is talking about another angel.

Ellen White clarifies that this angel is an angel that's following up on the 3 angels message.

Now this is a follow-up to the proclamation of the 3 angels message.

Number 1 here in Revelation 18 is a restating of the fact that Babylon is fallen.

It says here Babylon is fallen, is fallen.

I like the repetition deepening the impression I like the repetition with a powerful emphasis towards completion Babylon is fallen you read that before in in chapter 17 but 18 says Babylon is not only fallen it's fallen.

I sense his tears were now being wiped away.

The second message of this great angel's message which is a message carried by messengers which messengers constitute the Church of God at verse 3 gives the reason Babylon has fallen, fallen.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.

The nations are drunk with her wine and that's the reason she's fallen.

Well what is God doing in terms of the finishing of the work of outreach?

Verse 4 says, I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues." God is calling his people out of Babylon.

Now I'd like to just say something about Adventist overconfidence that God has his people also in Babylon.

It's a reluctant amen, But they're there.

He will be gathering his children together, calling them out of Babylon.

So Ellen White says here that the the message of Revelation, of Revelation 18 joins with the 3 angels message of Revelation 14.

And so we've got to see them following each other.

She says we've got to be very clear that the chapters of Revelation do not necessarily give the historical sequence.

John is writing as he saw them but here it is Revelation 18 rarely follows up on Revelation 14.

This fourth angel is following up on the 3 angels of Revelation 14.

This message of Revelation 18 is called the loud cry when this message of Revelation 18 joins with the message of Revelation 14, when the 3 angels message come now to be crowned with the message of Revelation 18, this is called the loud cry.

Well it's very clear this is God's final warning to a doomed world.

It's God's last desperate appeal to save sinners.

It's a cry from the heart of God through his people empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It pains the heart of God to see people lost.

The instruments God has on earth as human beings to save people constitute his church.

God has no other hands but our hands, no other lips but our lips and God passionately wants to save people through our ministry.

He can do it without us but he has designed that salvation be executed through us.

Mark Johnson

Outreach Charge

Well, it's a joy to be able to be here today, and I just need to set some of my apparatus down there so that I can turn my attention to you.

I want to tell you how much it means to me as an individual who has a responsibility in God's church To think about how we are going to deal with the great task That we have before us We are living under war conditions Because there is a huge challenge that is going on.

There's a conflict that's called the great controversy between Christ and Satan.

And it's being played out in the lives of individuals, real people.

The challenge that we face is that so many of us have grown up in this room, watching things on television, seeing films, videos, and so on, of things that are not real.

And we've become accustomed to the sense that it's no big deal because those people will appear in another film on another day.

But the reality is is that the challenge between salvation and sin is a deadly challenge.

This past week, as many of you likely are aware, 1 of our Seventh-day Adventist teachers, a principal of the Seventh-day Adventist School in Memphis, Tennessee, was murdered by 1 of her own students, stabbed to death by someone who had been plotting her death since May, who was a student there.

And as I listened to that sad story, and Suzette York was a person who had ministered for the church from the Maritimes to British Columbia and had more recently gone to work in the United States.

As a principal and teacher, I thought to myself at the time that she got up that morning, she did not know that this was her last day.

We live in a time and under circumstances that are very serious, very challenging.

And The reality is that Christ needs for us to understand that so that we can, as people who are a part of his church, be as serious about sin and salvation as he himself really is.

I appreciate the fact that there is, across Canada and I think throughout the North American division, a renewed sense that God is touching and inspiring men and women in different places and from different backgrounds with the same burden and the same conviction that Canada is a beautiful place, but we don't wanna be here forever.

The plans that God has encompasses the need for us to with urgency, communicate the gospel to individuals for whom the very concept of the gospel is a foreign term.

Many of the people who are your contemporaries have no knowledge of Jesus or God as a savior.

To them, the terms God or Jesus have only been heard from the reference of profanity.

Many of these individuals have no point of connection.

The challenge of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America today is the same challenge that we faced many years ago when the church determined that it was going to take the gospel to China, when it was going to take the gospel to foreign lands of Asia, of Africa, and other contexts, where now the gospel had to be presented to people telling about a God that they were not familiar with, using techniques that we had never used in the church before, expressing in language which was foreign to the way that the older saints were accustomed to hearing the gospel presented.

And I'm excited because I know that you are up to that challenge.

God would not have asked you to come here and would not have inspired you to be in this room if he didn't have the power within his reserve to make it happen through your hands and feet and your mouth.

I am so very, very, very excited that I have the privilege of being here.

Last week I was at the ASI meetings in Sacramento.

It was exciting to sit with an old friend of mine who we talked about some innovative ways of doing evangelism.

And he made a commitment that he wanted to be involved in that.

I listened to Elder Ted Wilson talk about the idea of distributing the book The Great Controversy.

100 and nearly 30 million copies will be produced and be distributed in 2012 and 2013.

I was interested as I stood on the campgrounds of Foothills Camp in Alberta just a few weeks ago.

And a woman approached me and told me that she has a burden to distribute that book to all of the postal addresses north of the Arctic Circle in Canada.

Unless you think that that is not a big deal, it's a challenge to find out where those people live on places like Baffin Island, in Nunavut, in Inuvik, in places around the Arctic Sea.

And God is going to use many different ways and means to do his will.

The exciting thing is that if we stay connected with Him, He will let us know what it is that we can do for Him.

And please understand this, that God saves people individually, and he also equips and inspires people individually.

So when you look at your brother or your sister in the pew, it is important to understand that God is not necessarily going to use that gingerbread man cookie cutter to punch out identical Christians with identical abilities to do the same job.

You can do something where you live that I could never do, and vice versa.

I'm excited because everywhere I go I hear stories from people who God has spoken to.

I think about the folks at Black Falls who decided to study the Bible at the public library certain nights of the week.

God inspired them just to sit there and open up the Bible in a library near the fireplace.

And God led individuals to wander in through there and say, what in the world are you doing?

And then God gave them the intuition to say, we're studying the Bible, why don't you sit down and do it too?

God has been using that ministry to build up a congregation in that community between Red Deer and Lacombe.

Dennis Marshall, our education superintendent, as we sat in the Sabbath school class.

God is using men and women wherever they are.

When I was sitting in Winnipeg just a few weeks back, I found myself sitting next to a man who I'd never met before and he'd never met me.

And the speaker mentioned that I was there from the Canadian Union, and after the end of the service he turned to me and said, so tell me what you do.

Well that's an interesting question because I'm still learning what I do myself.

But in the conversation I learned that he was a New Adventist.

Somebody came up and said this guy's a new Adventist and I said he is You are he said I am how old an Adventist are you I said 6 months he said Wow They said Today is 1 of his off days.

Normally, you wouldn't be able to sit in this pew because he would have it filled with people that he brings to church with him.

Because he figured out that because Jesus had touched his life, the important thing for him to do was to say to people, why don't you come with me and we will go to church together and hear the Word of God.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The American Facade: The Empowerment of Purpose

41m

Finishing His Work

42m

Outreach Charge

20m

Possessing the Land: The Empowerment of Destiny

49m

Come Out

1h

Illuminating the World with His Glory

1h

Seek

1h

Kingdom of God

1h

His Righteousness

45m

All These Things

48m

False Leaders

46m

False Gods

42m

Sound Doctrine