FYI 2011

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Florida Youth Initiative

Kameron DeVasher

Character Transformation, Part 4

I am so thankful for the opportunity to have been here at FYI.

We're bringing the whole conference to a close this morning, but I praise the Lord that conferences like this exist, and I hope to see all of you back next year when we have FYI again.

I'm also been, I've learned a few things this weekend, more than a few things I'm sure, but 1 of the things is I've learned a new scripture song.

You know, our theme song we sing it over and over and over and now what happens with theme song, you know, I can't look at 1st John without seeing, when I start reading through 1st John, when I hit behold, all of a sudden I go into song.

Behold what manner, you know, I can't even in my mind read without singing the song.

And I have a feeling The same thing's gonna happen with 1 Peter.

And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, they stumbled being disobedient to the word to which they were appointed.

You know, it's just gonna be locked in your mind.

The Lord gave us music, not to just simply enjoy, but praise the Lord that we can enjoy it.

But it's a method of hiding God's word in our heart that we might not sin against it.

And I also appreciate what I believe is the leading of the Holy Spirit.

David Asherick and I have never particularly spoken.

I think we've had the longest conversation we've ever had in our lives was at the Q&A yesterday.

We've had 1 phone call before that just to make sure we're not exactly preaching the same text, that kind of thing.

But other than that, no conspiracy theory trying to get everything lined up, nothing like that.

And I feel that the Holy Spirit has led and we're talking about the character of God.

He's been talking about the evening and in the mornings we've been talking about reflecting that character in our lives.

And it seems to be a seamless, seamless presentation and I praise the Lord for that, because I believe this is a message of importance for this time, that we need to have a clear understanding of the character of God, and we need to have a clear understanding of our responsibility, our privilege, of reflecting that character to the world.

And so as we wrap that up this morning, I wanna look at 1 more time this idea of character development.

What it looks like and what it will look like when Jesus returns.

Let's, before we again, I know we just had a word of prayer, but let's do it again 1 more time.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I praise you so much for the opportunity of being here amongst fellow believers.

I thank you for the time that you've put out of our schedule so we can come away from the world, not as a retreat, but for preparation so we can go win souls for Jesus Christ.

Help us now as we study your word to understand, give us discernment, give us spiritual eyes to have so we may see spiritual things clearly.

And most importantly, Lord, help us to not just observe them, but help us to assimilate those truths in our lives through the power of your Holy Spirit, so that we can be transformed into that chosen generation who will finish the work and see Jesus come.

Very quick review, the purpose of the Bible is not to teach us merely about the establishment and eventual restoration of a Garden of Eden.

The more significant teaching of the Bible is the original establishment and restoration of the image of God in man.

The result of resumption is not just a restored place, but a restored people.

Our Christian experience entails more than a passive acceptance of Christ's work for us, but an active development of the character of Christ within us.

We need to shift our thinking from transaction to transformation.

That's what we've been talking about this week.

Romans chapter 8, we were there yesterday.

We're gonna highlight just 1 slightly different aspect of this great chapter, Romans chapter 8.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed, and what are the next 2 words?

There is a glory of God that he wishes to reveal in his people, through his people, in us.

And look at verse 19, as we talked about in the sermon yesterday.

For The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

Creation is waiting, you know, again, this is that paradigm shift.

We're not waiting for an earth to be made new, the earth is waiting for us to be made new.

This is a shift in our thinking, but apparently, according to Paul, this is the object, to have the glory of God in you, and that is what the expectation of the creation is.

The glory, the character God will be revealed in us.

The glory of God will be revealed in us prior to his second coming.

Character is not something you get on the way up to heaven.

So again, the creation is waiting for the revealing, not of the Son of God.

They're not waiting for the revealing of the Son of God when he returns, they're waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, plural, the children of God.

Verse 20, For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

You know, I've always wondered about that.

Whenever back in the Garden of Eden, neither Adam or Eve were cursed.

God outlined the consequences of their sin, but only 2 things were cursed.

And the creation has been subjected, it's been tied down, and it's waiting for something to happen.

And according to this text, it's waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

So it's like there's a lot of children, there's a lot of creatures on this planet, but the creatures are like, but where are the sons of God?

Where are the sons of God amongst this people?

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now.

Not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption.

So this is what, once we develop that character of Christ, what are we then waiting for?

The adoption, the redemption of our what?

We're eagerly awaiting for the redemption of our bodies, not the redemption of our characters.

We await the redemption of our bodies, okay?

We're eagerly awaiting new bodies, not new characters.

The character of God, the glory of God, is to be revealed within us before he returns.

I have some statements from the pen of inspiration about this.

You see here, A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next.

When God says lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, what in the world is that?

A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure we can take from this world to the next.

So apparently it will exist in this world before we go to the next.

Let's go to Review and Herald, June 11, 1901.

The characters we form here will decide our eternal destiny.

Where in this, Where's the location where the formation of character takes place?

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Character Transformation, Part 4

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