GYC 2014: At The Cross

Plenary

Michael Hasel

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

The Bible, Christ, and Culture

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.

It's a privilege to be with you here again at GYC, especially here in Arizona, where I spent 3 years of my life and thoroughly enjoyed the Sonoran Desert, especially in the springtime when it bloomed.

This last week, I'm not so sure I enjoyed it as much.

I spent Christmas in Michigan in Berrien Springs and there was no snow.

Something's happening in the climate, I think.

Let's bow our heads for prayer before we begin today.

Our Heavenly Father, today we want to be instructed by the living Word of God.

During the Sabbath school time, as we cover the topic of interpreting the Bible in the world we live in today.

As we look at the Bible, Christ, and culture, we pray that your Holy Spirit would be present in this room and present in every room where the television is turned on as people are watching, we thank you that we serve a spirit that guides us into all truth.

We pray for that spirit to be active right now.

I was 20 years old and I had decided to go overseas to experience a dream that I had to study in Europe for a year, learning the language that I had grown up with as a boy.

Bogenhofen was a small school in Austria.

There are no kangaroos in Austria, it's Europe.

And We had a great experience there those first months as I was studying and learning and it was a wonderful small school environment coming from a large university, Avengis University, to a school of about 150 students.

1 thing I didn't enjoy very much and that was the cold.

It was 1 of those wet fall experiences where you basically have this constant drizzle and rain and this kind of wet cold that penetrates no matter what kind of clothing you're wearing down to the very bone.

And I remember I could count maybe on 2 hands how many days of sunshine I had seen that particular fall.

And now it was November and 1 day while I was in the dining room, my father called and I went to the phone and after some small talk he said, you know Michael, he says your mother and I have been talking and we're going down to Florida again this year, down to Key Largo for our vacation time.

We do have done this every year for many years and we were wondering if you want to join us.

The relatives are all going to be there together.

There's going to be about 40 of us camping on the Gulf of Mexico and you know how it is and I looked outside and it was drizzling again.

I thought about my cousins and I windsurfing across the Gulf of Mexico.

I thought of our scuba diving ventures in Pentacamp State Park.

I thought about all of the things that we did, even Santa Claus coming on the back of a pickup truck on the beach.

I thought of the things we did when we were there at the beach during our Christmas holidays for 2 weeks.

And my dad said, look, I want you to make the decision and I explained to my father that I was actually planning on staying in Europe that year.

I was planning on spending the Christmas time with my uncle Kurt who was a pastor in Germany and my cousin Bettina who was a student with me at Bogenhofen and my dad said well, there's no pressure.

You need to make these decisions on your own.

But what I will do, I will go to the travel agent this morning.

I will look at possible flights because it's very late in this discussion and I will call you back in 3 hours and when I call you back, you need to have made a decision because we need to act on this right away." I remember after lunch going to Bettina's room, my cousin's room.

I had permission from the girls dean to go there because I was her cousin.

And I told her about the phone call and I said, you know, I don't know what to do.

I mean, we had these plans to go to your house and now, I don't know.

It's a simple decision whether to go home or whether to stay here for Christmas.

She says, Michael, have you prayed about it?

I felt a little guilty because I was a theology student, second year, and she was a high school student and I hadn't thought about praying about it.

She says, well, maybe we should do it right now.

And so we knelt down in that dorm room, her and her roommate Katrina, kind of strange, Bettina and Katrina, but anyway, and I, we knelt down in that dorm room and we prayed over what seemed like a very simple decision.

The plan that afternoon was to take them into town in my car.

I was kind of the taxi of the school because I had a car.

And they wanted to do some shopping, so we went into the city of Braunau in Austria.

And as they shopped, I wandered the streets.

I went to my favorite sports store where all the latest skiing equipment was available, but I didn't look at the skis.

I kept thinking about that phone call at 3 o'clock.

I kept thinking about what I was going to say.

I kept thinking about all the things that I would have to deal with when that call came.

And I kept praying all afternoon and asking the Lord for guidance and I can tell you something.

It didn't work the way it sometimes works.

I didn't have any handwriting appear on 1 of the storefront windows.

There was no lightning flash that came out of the sky that told me or showed me which way to go.

There was no clear voice that said, this is what you should do.

But I can tell you this, as I continued to pray, every time I thought about going home for Christmas, that is back to the United States and to Florida, I felt uneasy.

And every time I thought about staying, I felt a certain peace in my heart.

And as the afternoon continued, those feelings that sense strengthened on both sides.

And so 15 minutes before the phone call, I made up my mind that I was going to stay.

The phone rang, my father was on the phone and he says, Michael, I'm so excited, I just got back from the travel agency from Ruth and and and and we found a flight It's gonna go from Frankfurt to London London to New York, New York to Miami.

We'll pick you up in Miami 2 hours You'll be down on Key Largo a beautiful island South of Florida and you know what he says Even your grandmother is coming this year.

I looked out the window and it was drizzling again.

There was silence on the phone and then my dad said, oh by the way, your mother and I made a decision.

We're paying for the flight, you don't have to worry about a thing.

I said, Dad, I've been praying about it all day.

I don't know how to explain this to you, but I really feel like I should stay.

Well, listen, the booking will hold for 72 hours.

If you change your mind, call me back and we'll buy the ticket.

2 weeks later, the rain had turned to snow and we were in a winter wonderland.

Driving through Bavaria up into Germany where my uncle was a pastor.

It just felt like Christmas was supposed to feel in Germany.

I'd only spent 1 Christmas before in Germany when I was a child in the black forest with my grandparents.

And so I was really looking forward to this.

Natasha Dysinger

Keynote Address

So it is my privilege to introduce the speaker for tonight, Natasha Neblet, the president of GYC.

I was just quizzing her a little bit backstage asking her how I should introduce her and she said, whatever you do just don't tell them that I'm the boss and so don't remember that.

But She did say that she loves her home, she loves her family, and she loves orphans.

Now, we're often asked at GYC, some of the leadership, how do we go about finding leaders of GYC?

And I'll give you just a little bit of insight into the process of the board of directors.

We spend a tremendous amount of time and thought and more importantly prayer about the leaders of GYC.

We got together when we were going to select the leader of GYC.

We went down, we had our devotions, we did breakfast, things like that.

Natasha was up at 3 or 4 in the morning that same morning on her knees while the board of directors was probably sleeping.

We don't look for people that have qualities of worldly leadership, We look for people that have a deep relationship with their Creator.

And that's why we selected Natasha to be the president of GYC.

And so she went through this prayer session and then she came in and we asked her, what's your vision for young people?

And I remember very specifically, she said, you know, there are X number of children sold into sex slavery every year.

If Adventists don't do something about that, who do we expect to do about it?

She said, there's X number of people who are dying of hunger.

If Adventists don't do something about it, who do we expect are going to do it?

And I sat there and I was personally inspired by her story.

And so tonight, I get to introduce our president, our speaker, and someone that has personally inspired me, Natasha Neblett.

We have an interesting tradition that we do at GYC.

We have a Bible that goes with the president.

And this Bible has had the privilege of going to different places in China, actually all around the world.

Presidents have spoke out of this for opening night.

And so tonight it's my privilege to transition that Bible over to Natasha as our president.

And as I've said, she has absolutely inspired me and I'm confident she will inspire you.

And so here's the Bible and we're thankful and we're here to listen to you.

Let me tell you, this is an amazing moment for me, just to even take it in.

After a year's worth of planning, it actually takes more than a year's worth of planning for each GYC.

It takes about 14 months of planning or so, 14 to 15 months of planning.

So this conference has been a long time in coming.

We were planning it since before Orlando took place last year, 2013.

And to see all the conference calls, all the emails, all the work that the executive committee and the volunteers that have put so much time and effort into this conference.

To see it actually come to reality right here and right now is a truly amazing experience.

But all the effort, all the work, all the labor comes to nothing if we don't have 1 thing, and that's the Spirit of God.

So that's what we're seeking this week and this weekend here at GYC, the spirit of the living God to fall on all of our hearts.

And I'm so excited about the theme this year because it is the very center and it's the cataclysmic moment that took place in the existence of the most precious thing in the universe to me, and that is Jesus Christ.

Let's have a prayer, and then we will jump into our time this evening.

Heavenly Father, you know that I'm small, you know I'm just a girl, I'm young, you know that it's far, far easier to be up on the mountain behind our home just praying than it is to be on this stage.

Lord, not a word that I say tonight can benefit anyone in this room or bring any blessing to them unless your spirit accompanies me.

Please lift up your name tonight and I pray that your spirit would fall upon me and fall upon all the hearers here.

And everyone that's joining us via 3BN or the live stream, Lord, I pray that all of us would see Jesus and not a human.

Open our ears to hear what you would have for us right at the beginning of GYC.

We pray these things in the precious name of our King, Jesus Christ, amen.

I want to just say first, I said this once in my prayer already, but I don't know how many of you would necessarily pick up on this just from seeing myself with my executive committee and going around and planning and whatnot, but I am a very major introvert.

It is not easy for me to be up on a stage.

It is not easy for me to be in large crowds of people or even smaller crowds of people, but I have a God that just like enables and empowers.

And I am so thankful for Him, and He gives me freedom and He gives me peace.

And besides my God, I have an absolutely amazing family.

My parents, by the grace of God, I am what I am because of godly parents who have spent unnumbered hours praying for me.

And I don't know how many days this year my mother has fasted and prayed for me.

It seems like every time I turn around, she's just calmly going around the house and meal time comes and she doesn't sit down and I'm like, mom, are you eating?

And then I find out later she was fasting and praying for me specifically.

She's done this over and over again and she has fasted and prayed for the 2 of, for all of you as well.

My brothers have put in unnumbered hours, unnumbered hours and have accompanied me to the most wild places to support what has happened here today.

And last but certainly not least, 1 week ago today on Christmas Eve, the most amazing man in the world proposed to me and I said yes.

So I am very, very glad and very thankful to God that he has blessed me with an amazing man that knows how to care for my heart, how to protect my heart, how to lead my heart, and how to win my heart.

And if you get a chance, say hello to Paul Dysinger because he is the most amazing man in the world, and I am so honored that I will someday be his wife.

We're going to be sitting through so many plenaries, so many breakout sessions.

How do we gain the most out of it right from the start?

And this is what I want to be talking about tonight.

I'm pathetic at naming my messages, but if I was to name this sermon, it would be called The Impossible Life.

We will get the most out of GYC if we do 3 things.

The first is if we're honest about ourselves and where we really are.

Bible says that we ought not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

First is if we're honest about ourselves.

The second is if we recognize that There is something bigger about Christianity than we actually have in our hands right now.

It never stops, and there's something more to be attained, no matter how long we've been in this walk, if you have never given your life to Christ, or If you have done so over and over and over again for years, for 20 years, for 30 years, for 40 years, however old the oldest person in here is, I don't know.

But if we have given ourselves over to God every day, there's still an eternity more.

There's something bigger than the Christianity that we just have in our hands right now.

And the third thing that we'll get the most out of GYC is if we are willing to be true to the Word of God and who it declares Jesus to be.

I'm going to start out my message with 2 stories of people that are actually currently alive and walking on this planet.

I think you'll understand once I actually tell you the stories.

I'm not confident if they are alive right now.

2 separate stories, but before I get into that, who can tell me where the term Christianity or Christian was coined?

Antioch in Syria is where the term Christian was coined.

It probably was actually not a very complimentary name.

Christian, by the very etymology of the word, Christ, I-A-N, the suffix, Christian, the Jesus people, essentially.

Antioch in Syria was the very center of what Christianity, of where that in Jerusalem, it was just the very center of how Christianity then spread and went all over the world in 1 generation.

I have a passion because Christianity is just about snuffed out of the nation of Syria today.

Kameron DeVasher

Counting the Cost

And all the people said, amen, That was beautiful.

It's almost, you know, your mouth wants to...

I'm happy to be here with you this morning.

I have a message that I want to share with you that's a burden on my heart, And I'm just glad we can be here for it.

It's a blessing to be alive at all, and the Lord expects us to do something with that life.

When we look at the life of Jesus Christ, the death of Jesus Christ, we need to examine our own lives at the cross.

But before we begin any study of God's Word, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for making us in the first place, much less redeeming us at such a great cost.

And now, Lord, as we meditate on the depth of that sacrifice, Lord, help us to not only be inspired and admire, but Lord, help us to emulate that sacrifice in our own lives.

On the cross of Calvary, Christ embodied sacrificial giving.

Jesus sacrificed himself for the saving of others.

Galatians chapter 2 in verse 20, The Apostle testifies that the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and did what?

Now I'm going to ask you to be interactive.

Ephesians 5, 25, husbands are to love their wives just as Christ also loved the church and what?

1 Timothy 2, 5, 6, There is 1 God and mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.

Titus chapter 2, verses 13 and 14, reminds us that we are looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works.

He was the currency that God spent to buy you back.

When the Father gave His only begotten Son, it was an eternal, non-refundable ransom payment that secured our safe return.

That language, by the way, comparing the infinite, inestimable sacrifice of Christ to a mere financial transaction as though Christ were some sort of bill in God's wallet that he paid out.

It may sound crass, maybe even disrespectful, but throughout the Bible, that's exactly the language Scripture applies and describes the plan of redemption.

This is seen especially in the writings of the Apostle Paul.

For example, In Acts chapter 20 in verse 28, the Apostle Paul describes the church as that which God purchased with his own blood.

In Ephesians chapter 1 in verse 14, He refers to believers as God's, quote, purchased possession.

First Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19 and 20, we know this, you are not your own, you were what?

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Of course, we are God's twofold.

It was Christ who made us in the first place.

We're His by… even if He didn't die for us, we would still owe Him our allegiance because He has the patent on our life.

He built us with… He has a trademark on you.

He built you in the first place, but then when you rebelled, He bought you back with the price of Himself.

Now you put all these phrases together that you see in the writings of the Scripture and you get this very picture, by giving his only begotten Son, God, bought you at a price, He purchased you as a possession, therefore you are not your own." Now why would the Bible seemingly cheapen the infinite sacrifice of Christ by comparing it to, of all things, a common financial transaction?

Well, the reason I can see is it's simply this, because that is the world that we live in.

Christ himself would employ this type of teaching all throughout his ministry.

He would take something far beyond our limited comprehension and boil it down and succinct it down to just something that we could grasp.

He would say the kingdom of God is like a seed.

I don't know much about the kingdom of God, but I do know about seeds, right?

In John chapter 6, he would say that he is the bread of life.

He would take these big concepts and boil them down to language that we could relate to.

And nothing, especially in the times in which we live today, my friends, is as more commonly understood, something that every single 1 of us can relate to and appreciate as money.

You heard the question and answer session.

We all interact with it on the daily, every single day.

In our society, everything is a commodity requiring money.

Raise your hand if you sewed your own outfit today.

Okay, I'm glad that wasn't the appeal, by the way.

But we don't farm our food, we buy our food.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The Bible, Christ, and Culture

1h 13m

Keynote Address

1h 47m

Counting the Cost

1h 56m

Complete But Not Completed

1h 6m

The Outsider

51m

Three Wise Men

59m

Nevertheless

1h

Get Off the Couch and Do Something

1h 7m

From Broken to Breakthrough

49m

Downward Mobility

1h 58m

The Risk of Eternal Loss

1h 55m

Unquestioning Surrender

1h 43m

Sound Doctrine