GYC 2025: Seeing the Invisible

Ted N.C. Wilson

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Nothing is Impossible with God!

What an incredible privilege to be here with you in Orlando.

I want to ask you this question and I think I know the answer.

How many of you so far have been blessed by being at GYC?

You know, Generation of Youth for Christ has been an extraordinary force in the church, and I am delighted that the entire World Church can support this initiative.

What a blessing to be part of something that is bigger than yourself.

I want to tell you that being part of GYC and your being here at this convention is 1 of the most important decisions you will have made because it is going to carry you through the tough times, the difficult times, the opportunities that the Lord will give to you in the near future.

Because I want to tell you with absolute affirmation, Jesus is coming soon.

That's why young people have become involved in this incredible movement.

I want to affirm the youth ministries of our church.

We have many different organizations, many different entities.

They're all doing their part to bring young people to the foot of the cross, and from there to engage in mission.

You see, your involvement with GYC is of absolute importance.

God wants you to be part of something bigger than yourselves.

This is not just another church, not just another denomination, not just a nice service humanitarian organization.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a movement born in heaven And we will see its culmination very soon with the coming of our Lord and Savior.

I want you to turn to our Scripture, and we're going to be looking a lot at Scripture.

So you better get your Bibles out, your iPhones, your iPads, whatever it is.

Turn to that Scripture reading that was read for us, and we're going to read just a little more of that as we begin.

Jeremiah chapter 32, kind of in the middle of the Bible, Jeremiah 32.

And let's begin with verse 17 and Look at that.

I'm reading from the New King James Version, and I was just given another beautiful Bible.

I have to tell you, the other day, sometime back and then the other day, I was pulling out Bibles and sharing stories about the Bibles with our grandchildren.

3 wonderful daughters, Emily, Elizabeth, and Catherine, their husbands.

And 2 of the husbands, Cameron DeVasier and David Wright, were presenting here.

In fact, most of our grandchildren and children are here at GYC right now.

You know, it's important to be part of a family, a family that is not only bound by genetic connection, but a family that's bound by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And that's why we're a family here at GYC.

Anyway, I was showing different Bibles and sharing different aspects of it, and, you know, I counted up how many Bibles I have, and Nancy, and let me just tell you by God's grace, Nancy is recovering from a fall that she took about 10, 11 weeks ago.

I want to tell you, you saw her walking out onto this stage.

God is powerful and He can take you through anything.

I was counting up how many Bibles we have between the 2 of us, and over 100 Bibles.

Now you might say, well, Why do you have so many Bibles?

You ought to give a few away." Well, that's a great idea, but some of those Bibles are so precious.

And I'm not going to take time today because my time is going to run out.

I have some important things to share with you.

But I want to tell you, I want to thank you for the GYC Bible.

This is the central focus of GYC because this represents the living word, Jesus Christ.

Verse 17, Jeremiah 32, ah, Lord God, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.

There is nothing too hard for you." Now that's Jeremiah praying.

Well, God responds in verses 26 and 27, actually 27.

26, then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, behold, I want you to take this really seriously because this is the theme of my message today.

Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.

And God responds in the next chapter, chapter 33, verse 3.

Call to me, this is God speaking, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

Now you might say, okay pastor that's really nice but you know what, it's amazing I've been here at GYC it was almost impossible for me even to get here.

Pastor you don't understand I'm I'm 1 of those shy people.

You know, it's kind of like Pastor Justin Kim was saying, he just doesn't like to be around people.

Well, I have to tell you, I've been around Pastor Kim a lot, and he actually does like people.

But you know you might say, but I can't go out and knock on doors.

I was even hesitant yesterday when we went out and knocking on doors.

And I have to tell you I was so impressed by the outreach of GYC.

I want to thank GYC and its leadership for so many aspects, including the outreach.

We had the privilege of visiting 2 different sites, 1 where they were packaging up special packages for prisoners.

Another 1 where they were helping those who are unsheltered.

I learned a new appropriate term for those who don't have a home, unsheltered, bathing them, washing their clothes, feeding them.

But in that place, no 1 leaves that place without hearing about Jesus.

What a privilege to be able to reach out and to touch people's lives but some people might say but it's impossible for me to knock on doors, it's impossible for me to reach my family, it's impossible for me to to understand everything that was being said at GYC, all those great seminars, all the wonderful preaching.

It's impossible for me to even keep God's law.

It's impossible for me to be a Christian.

I don't know why I'm at GYC because I don't even understand why I am here.

Let me tell you brothers and sisters, my young friends, nothing is impossible with God.

God wants you in a special way to leave this convention tomorrow morning after the final challenge to understand that everything is possible with God.

Being a student literature evangelist, knocking on doors, touching the hearts of people, being a health worker, helping people to understand what they ought to do, being someone who is a Bible worker, being someone who is in a discipline, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, whatever trade God has given to you, God will use that to make the impossible possible, to touch the lives of people because God is depending on you, and you, and you, to be part of God's last day Advent movement.

To proclaim those 3 angels' messages with Christ at the center of every 1 of those messages.

As we heard the other day when Pastor Kim was talking in the early morning about the justifying and sanctifying righteousness of Jesus Christ.

God wants to use you to help finish his work.

Now you know along with you I've been watching these things up here on the stage and I haven't checked them.

I think it's a great thing you know I thank you GYC for making us feel at home in Florida.

Now it's probably 1 of the first times I've ever seen it highlighted this way.

But I was wondering, are these things real?

Well, I have to tell you, this is a beautiful bush, but this 1 I'm going to say is invisible because it's not real.

Joshua Ahn

Stephen Lee

Thomas Mayhew

Andrew Park

Allison Toktogulova

Kelsey Unruh

Junior Vertus

Anna Wood

ECOM Sabbath School

So this morning, we are going to study the Bible a little bit together.

So GYC, it started not as this big movement of thousands of people, but it actually started as several young people coming together with a desire to get into the Word of God more and to study it as friends with the deep desire to know more of God and to know more about His Word.

And so of course we as the leadership team, this is something that we love to do not just as the leadership team of GYC but we do it as friends.

Right, yesterday I told you a little bit about some of the things that we like, and as we are sharing about those things, we also love to get into the word of God together, and we would love to invite you to do that with us this morning.

And so, just wanna make a quick note and a caveat before.

We do have some wonderful pastors up here.

I am a humble high school teacher, and I don't have a PhD in the Bible or theology or the chemical composition of manna in the book of Exodus or anything like that.

But I do believe that the Holy Spirit can still teach me.

And I believe the Holy Spirit can teach all of us.

And I believe that as we are studying together, we can see the invisible in what we are studying this morning.

And so, you've had a little bit of a preview of what we're gonna study.

You've seen it actually behind us right here.

And we are going to look specifically this morning at the story of the burning bush.

And so we're gonna be looking at Exodus chapter 3.

So I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles or flip there in your phones to Exodus chapter 3.

And as you turn there I'm going to give a little bit of a rundown of Exodus chapter 1 and 2.

I'm sure most of you already kind of have an idea of what happens but there's this guy his name is Moses but before Moses there are these people called the children of Israel and the children of Israel historically were the people of God and they are in captivity in the land of Egypt And so there's this promise that was made a long time ago that God would surely visit his people and raise up a deliverer and Moses parents know this and so does some other people and at this point in time the Pharaoh is trying to slim down the population of the Hebrews and so Moses parents in faith decide to hide Moses in the basket.

Moses has an adventure through the water and eventually lands at the doorstep of the Pharaoh's daughter who adopts him.

And eventually we see this progression of Moses becoming a leader within the land of Egypt.

And so he thinks in his mind, I'm going to now deliver my people from the land of Egypt.

He goes and he makes an action, kill somebody to protect somebody else, And that action is not, essentially it doesn't turn out the way that he wants it to turn out.

And so now he's on the run, Pharaoh's mad at him, the other people are mad at him, and he finds himself in Midian, and that's where we find ourselves in chapter 3.

So that was a quick spark notes version, a rundown of chapters 1 and 2.

I encourage you to read it for yourself if you want some more context from it as well.

But we are now gonna start reading in chapter 3, and we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna read 1 verse at a time starting in chapter 1.

The executive committee doesn't know where I'm gonna stop them, So we're just gonna read until we reach a point and I will let you guys know when.

So we'll start with Andrew over here, starting in verse 1, and we'll just read 1 verse at a time.

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush doesn't burn.

So when the Lord saw that, he turned aside to look.

God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

I was so excited that I forgot that we need to pray before we read the Bible.

I was too excited to get into the Bible, but we need to invite the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father God, we thank you so much for giving us this time that we can read your word.

Lord, we want you to be here in this moment.

And so, Father, as we read your word and as we read the pages here, may it not just be pages and words in a book, but Lord, may it be the living word of God that has power to change lives and does not come back to you void.

May it bear much fruit in our lives and in our hearts.

And Father, may the soil of our hearts be prepared to receive the seed of your word.

Please teach us about Moses, teach us about the burning bush, teach us about what all these things that are seemingly confusing mean.

And Father, may it not be me teaching, or us teaching, or us sharing just our own thoughts but Lord may it be you speaking through us and to us and teaching us through your Holy Spirit please be with here be with us here help us to fill your presence we praise thank you so much We pray all these things in Jesus name.

Then he said, do not draw near this place.

Take off your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

Moreover he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me.

And I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.

Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

I know they don't really look excited, but trust me, we're all super excited.

And we're going to stop there and look at the first 10 verses together.

And, you know, I have a bunch of questions, but you know what, is it okay guys if I just leave it open?

Can I just like ask you guys, what do you guys see in the first 10 verses?

The first thing that jumps out to me is that this is happening on Mount Horeb, which later in the Bible we see with Elijah and also Mount Sinai.

The mount, which is Mount Horeb, which is Mount Sinai, and that mountain actually comes back a little bit later.

So I do have a point that I saw, but I can't get ahead of myself.

I'm the 1 who set the thing, so I gotta stay within 10%.

So thank you for bringing that up, Kelsey.

I guess a point that I can bring up is this great call that Moses is getting.

And I guess what this speaks for me, and I think for any young person here, is the calling that God has for your life.

It may not come after a worship service per se.

It may not even come in the midst of a Bible study.

It may come in the midst of you just doing simple, ordinary things in life.

And I can go so much further, but for now I'll just throw that in there as discussion.

I was going to say, I know that you have so many other things that you could say with that, and I just want to kind of play off of that a little bit.

You know, it's not only that he wasn't in like a very, you know, well he was in a holy place but it's not necessarily that he was in a temple.

In fact, Moses thought that he was supposed to be the deliverer and when he was in Egypt or should I say the University of Egypt and a graduate from there and in the best position that he could be in.

I mean, when you're thinking to deliver a people, I would rather take a top graduate than a guy who is tending sheep in the middle of nowhere, you know?

And so I think that's so encouraging to me too, where in this sense, Moses thinks that he's ready, but obviously he was not at that time.

And Moses comes, or God comes and visits him when he is tending sheep, when he is seemingly in a very normal, kind of unprepared position.

And we'll see a little bit more of how this plays out as we continue reading as well.

I love that, Josh, because when people look at us and in these positions, they only see the position and the title, and they say that, oh, wow, they're up there on the stage and doing all these things.

But I remember back in the day of my first GYC at Baltimore, I was just sitting in 1 of these seats and looking up.

Jermaine Gayle

Pharaoh’s Compromise

I'm ready to get down to business, are you?

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Exodus, chapter 10.

And tonight we are going to be reading verses 24 to 26.

If you don't mind, I would love to have your permission to challenge you tonight to find your texts quickly.

We don't have a lot of time, and I have a lot of ground to cover.

The Bible says, then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, go, serve the Lord.

Only let your flocks and your herds be kept back.

But Moses said, you must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

For we must take some of them to serve the Lord our God and even we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.

The title of tonight's message, Pharaoh's compromise.

Holy Father in heaven, once more, we ask that you speak to your people in your conference.

Lord, we have the unique privilege to learn from you, all of us together, the speaker included.

We want your voice to be heard above the distractions.

We want your voice to be heard above mine.

And we want you to be seen dear Lord is our prayer in Jesus name and we all say amen I want to tell you about a time that I found myself debating the subject of the nature of sin with a six-year-old.

It was summer camp and I was in charge of a group of young kids.

I want to tell you right now that if you want to learn to be a preacher, work with kids.

This summer we had a program that we would do with the kids and we would teach them half day and then the rest of the day would be just having fun at the pool.

And it was my responsibility to be on guard.

We took the kids to the pool and they were having fun.

I saw some of the kids having fun at the pool earlier today.

This was a fun time for the kids and they really enjoyed being at the pool.

But I had a little child and he was quite the leader.

You know he had his 12 disciples and brought them all and he was leading them.

And friends, he took them down to an area away from the pool where there were some berries and he began picking the berries and started eating them and then was sharing the berries with the other kids.

Well I'm in charge so I am concerned obviously and I you know I to be honest with you I grew up growing up in Jamaica there is a philosophy that is practiced there.

And praise God, I think it has changed now.

There is a thing called communal discipline.

Anybody else know what I'm talking about?

I'm telling you, I remember my teachers would get an ounce in, and then I would get home and tell my dad what my teacher did and my dad would ask, what did you do?

And then I think mom would help and so I would go and appeal to mom and then mom would get hers in too.

So my only option was to negotiate with a six-year-old.

So I'm sitting down, by this time I, you know, I have my best, you know, tools that I'm pulling out of my tool belt as a leader and I'm trying to appeal to the six-year-old saying, don't go down to the berries.

I'm using the very best skills of negotiation that I could possibly use but nothing was working.

In the discussion I realized, you know when you when kids get tired of talking, they just blurt out whatever is on their mind.

And he got to that point in the discussion where he's like, I don't want to talk about this anymore.

So he just blurted out, look, we can never overcome sin.

We are going to sin all the time and there's nothing to stop us from doing it.

And I'm there thinking, you know, I forgot that I was talking to a 6 year old, so I'm like thinking of all the Bible verses, the passages that I could use to negotiate and argue with this young man.

I pulled out my verses and I was ready to convince him.

And then I read my first Bible, he was just checked out.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Nothing is Impossible with God!

1h 55m

ECOM Sabbath School

58m

Pharaoh’s Compromise

1h 28m

The Incomparable Life

39m

Refuse to Be Called

1h

Carry My Bones

1h 37m

Daniel 7, The Sabbath, and Health

46m

The Ten Plagues

1h 5m

The Fire that Sends

1h 15m

33 Years and Forever

36m

Whose Son Are You?

52m

Crossroads: Which Way, Lord?

47m

Sound Doctrine