GYC 2008: For This Purpose

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Alan Parker ~ Biblical Holiness: A Guide for Sinners

Alan Parker

Radical Holiness: Steps to a Sanctified Life

We want to deal with holiness this morning.

So we may give them just a minute or 2 to find us, and then we're going to begin right away.

I am a professor at Southern Adventist University.

And I teach in the School of Religion there.

Before that I was the Vice President of Evangelism at Amazing Facts.

And it's great to see a number of students around here and people who've worked at Amazing Facts.

Father, we pray that You'll be with us now as we talk about this important topic of holiness.

You know that in many of our lives there's that desperate cry for you to make yourself known.

We ask now that in this time you connect us with you, that you help us to see that an intimacy with you is far beyond anything the world can give us.

Lord, right now there are some of us struggling with deep sins in our lives, things we would admit to nobody else.

But here we take that moment of vulnerability to confess our sinfulness and to pray that You make a change.

What we're going to be dealing with this morning is the sanctified life, but instead of doing a regular here are 5 or 6 ways to become holy I want to deal with some of the foundational principles that make up holiness and in order to begin I think would be good for us to just sing a song to put us in the right frame of reference And so if you'd like to join me in singing, Lord, Make Me a Sanctuary.

And because my voice is still adjusting from Tennessee, I need some help.

Lord, Prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true.

With thanksgiving I'll be a living sanctuary, Lord, for You.

It seems like holiness is getting a bad rap, right?

I mean, you go around, you tell people, you know, I've decided to become holy.

You mean you want to be somebody special that no 1 else is?

And it looks like holiness is getting a bad rap.

We don't need any of that holiness stuff anymore.

It's just kind of getting in the way of our regular life.

When people start talking about being holy, it just makes me feel guilty, and I don't want to feel guilty.

And so some ways we're just getting rid of holiness because at the heart of it we're trying to get rid of sin.

So we have 3 options I believe in front of us.

You know, I'm gonna be a person who keeps my moral standards, and it just seems like they're outdated, but I'm going to hold on to them.

Then the other option is to be more permissive, to go with the anything goes culture.

Refuse to acknowledge sin, to say, you know, there's no problem here, do what you like, God loves you anyway, You can sin and God will still love you and take you into heaven.

And then there's a third option that I obviously want to call us to today, and that is to become pure.

How many of you would like to become pure today?

To live out that radical kind of life that God demanded.

We have fallen for a lie that says you can do what you like and it doesn't matter.

God wants us to live on a different level.

I remember reading the story of a man who had robbed a grocery store or something like that in New York.

And the owner of the grocery store had shot the man in the leg as he was in the middle of the robbery.

And then this man, the robber, decided to take the grocery owner to court about the pain and suffering he was going through, because he was shot in the leg.

He won because he was now lame in the leg.

Well, a few months later, he was actually caught in a wheelchair trying to rob another store.

So here is this guy who feels like He is owed something by society.

His argument was that if society was not so cruel to me, I would not have had to steal.

Another situation occurred, you may have heard of this, of a person who had committed murder.

And when he was on trial, 1 of the factors in his case was that he said he had eaten too much of Hostess Twinkies and it had made him irrational.

So next time you eat Hostess Twinkies, remember what this can do.

And part of his sentence was commuted because of the hostess Twinkies argument.

It's not really my fault, I just had too many hostess Twinkies.

What's happening in society today is that we have minimized sin.

We are getting rid of sin because it is uncomfortable for us, and we have said that we are victims.

Notice what Carl Menninger says, It was a word once in everyone's mind, but now rarely, if ever, is heard.

Does that mean that no sin is involved in all our troubles, sin with an I in the middle?

Guilty perhaps of a sin that could be repented and repaired or atoned for?

Is it only that someone may be stupid or sick or criminal or asleep?

Anxiety, yes, and depression we all acknowledge, and even some vague guilt feelings.

It used to be that in Adventist pulpits you would hear a lot about sin, right?

You would hear sermons that kind of hit home.

But now it's kind of reader's digest, wiffly waffly.

You know, you get up there, it's 5 ways to love your spouse, and it's all very nice.

It was all of these nice phrases, but there was nothing dealing with sin You listen to the popular tele evangelists on tv today and you I'm not talking about adventist evangelists I'm talking about the general evangelists out there And they're preaching to the tens of thousands, but you hardly ever hear them dealing with sin.

So what I want to do is call us back to purity.

I want us to call us to a higher standard because I believe that God has not given us a ministry on this earth just to go with the flow.

God has called us out of the flow to become His people, His holy people.

He has called us a holy nation, called out of darkness into His marvelous light.

And yet, in the societal studies that have been done of Adventism, they find that Adventism looks pretty much like the rest of society except that we got a church on a different day.

There is almost no difference in the way we dress, in the way we act, in the way we talk, in the movies we listen to.

The line of distinction between the sacred and the secular has been broken down.

Well, firstly, it's just a biblical requirement.

It says, follow peace with all men and holiness without which, what?

Sacred Intimacy: Sex and Spirituality

Father, as we deal with this very intimate part of our lives, and as we have a group of young and older people here who are grappling with how sexuality relates to their spirituality, help us to find the answers to how to become a whole person, to surrender this part of our lives to You because we know that ultimately You do love us and You want that kind of intimacy with us.

We thank You for this, in Jesus' name, Amen.

I have noticed today that sex has become a product.

Everywhere you go, every store you go into.

Yesterday, I am trying to work on my presentation and they have a video on in the plane.

And here they have a woman who is revealing more than she should reveal.

And so I had to turn my eyes away and like, oh no, I can't watch this.

And yeah, we have sex has become a product.

You know, everything is about sex these days.

They put it on the bulletins, they advertise it, it's on the billboards.

Everyone is trying to sell sex and they use sex to sell.

And that's created a question, you know, is sex holy?

You know, the devil has such a hold on sex, it looks like he's got the winning hand, right?

So this is 1 of my beautiful children, and as children grow up, they begin to discover parts of their body.

So they begin to discover parts of their body.

And you know, there's my wife, she's going, who made your little hands?

And then she goes, who made your little penis?

But the reality is, she said, I'm wanting them to see that God made them sexual.

Why do we run away from this and let the devil control the realm of sex?

Why is it that we think we can be holy but just not talk about sex?

God made us sexual and so he made us that way.

Lord, my life would have been so much easier if I didn't have to struggle with lust.

If I didn't have to look at God's creation In that kind of way.

And so we struggle with, what's appropriate?

See, God had a plan for sex, and the devil has stolen a march on us.

God's plan for sex was to bring people together in the most intimate way possible.

When God planned for sex, he said, you know, it's not just enough that they have a unity of their minds.

It's not just enough that they have a unity of their emotions.

I want them to have a unity of their bodies.

And so He designs an act that creates that kind of unity.

It represents, and this is why sex is so powerful, it represents the story of God's relationship with us.

A parable is something that illustrates a divine truth.

And what is the divine truth that sex illustrates?

That God desires such an intimate relationship with us that everything will have to be removed to achieve that relationship.

You see, sex, when you look back to how God made it, sex is not possible wearing clothes.

Now I know we can have sexual thoughts and feelings, but the ultimate sexual act is something that occurs when clothes are removed.

Now I know sometimes these days people attempt to do it with clothes on, but the idea of sex, the way God made it, He made Adam and Eve and they were naked.

Now we understand from spirit of prophecy that they were clothed in a robe of light, but they were essentially naked.

And so how did we move from this sense of being able to be this vulnerable with each other to now where sex is such a problem?

Well, we have to go back to the Garden of Eden, and here after God invents this incredible thing.

And we know, what are the 2 things that come to us from the Garden of Eden?

Anyone know the 2 institutions that come to us from the Garden of Eden?

And so we dealt with the Sabbath in the last presentation.

In this presentation we're looking at marriage.

And we're looking particularly at how God enters into a relationship with His people and how He gets them to enter into a relationship with each other.

So he creates this beautiful institution and something goes horribly wrong.

What was it that caused this beautiful pair to suddenly end up in such trouble?

They chose their own way over God's will.

They chose that it would be better for them to enter into their own relationship with themselves to do things their own way, to manage things their way, to achieve God's purposes their way, and as a result, tragedy came in.

Now God comes looking for Adam and Eve and He calls out, Adam, Adam, where are you?

And eventually he comes out and he has this fascinating section in Genesis chapter 3.

His response to God is, God says, you know, why were you hiding?

He says, I was ashamed because I was naked so I hid.

I was ashamed because I was naked, so I hid.

Here's what I've discovered about sexuality.

Sexuality, if it's not done God's way, causes shame.

Sexuality causes, outside of God's will, causes shame.

Now why was nakedness such a problem now?

He says he was ashamed because he was naked.

Don't you just love the way they do the pictures, very appropriately?

And so you have this sense that he is naked, he is unashamed.

Soul Hunger: Why Hollywood Hurts Your Holiness

All right, we want to welcome you back this afternoon.

You've had food, and it's in the afternoon, and things happen.

I remember once how I had a, hearing the story about this guy who always had somebody who fell asleep in his congregation.

And he was going, oh no, what am I going to do with this guy?

So 1 day he decided to play a joke on him.

So in front of the whole congregation he says, I'm going to make sure he never falls asleep again.

So very softly he said, will all those going to heaven please stand?

And everybody in the congregation stands up except this 1 guy who's out there.

And he says, now all those going to hell, please stand.

And then the guy looks at the pastor and says, now, why are you and I the only guys standing?

So I will try and keep you awake this afternoon, but help me out where you can, all right?

We're looking at how Hollywood affects your holiness.

And we want to, before we go into this, what I've been doing with every session is I would like us to just sing a song that I feel really connects us with holiness and that's Lord Prepare Me to be a sanctuary.

So if someone could start that out for us.

To be a sanctuary pure and holy, Pride and true, With thanksgiving, I'll be a Living sanctuary, Lord for You.

Father, we are so grateful to be in Your presence again this afternoon.

You know that our holiness is on the rocks.

We want to find out how Hollywood affects that holiness, Lord.

We want to create a new momentum of young people who will take your holiness seriously.

Help us not to be dependent on the things around us, but instead to be focused on You, in Jesus' name.

Sorry, let me get some water here so that I've got enough voice to make it through.

Okay, at least a few hands go up, you're honest.

You start reading the hymnal because the preacher's going on about something you don't know.

I remember sitting in a congregation in Africa, and the preacher was going on about the stars, all these constellations.

And so the translator was going, I don't know where he's at.

Because first of all, the stars in the northern hemisphere are different from the stars in the southern hemisphere.

So we didn't even have words to describe what he was talking about.

So the translator says, I'm just going to preach my own sermon.

So he starts preaching away in the other language, and the guys, you know, he's looking at you, translating, you know, he keeps preaching away.

And then he gets through about midway And he says oh he's still up there And I'm he keeps preaching a sermon everyone's a many and at least church was a little more exciting that day But the reality for most of us is that church can be boring in fact religion can be boring there.

There is a diminishing of Spirituality And so we have to take a look at what is going on here.

Especially on a Sabbath morning when you're sitting around and everyone's sharing their opinions on the Sabbath school lesson.

Some of you say my prayer life is ritualistic.

I've prayed the same prayer for 20 years.

Doesn't the Lord know what I want to say?

And so We feel like there's nothing to it.

I don't seem to be able to really focus on God.

There you are saying, Dear Lord, please be with me.

And the next thing you know, You're waking up and you're going, what happened?

Then we go to church and we put on spiritual masks, but we're bored at church too.

And so we get to Sabbath school lessons and this completes the background to the lesson, but everybody has fallen asleep.

The guy's got a little remote control and he says, hey, the mute button works at church too.

Have you noticed when you're in church, you can totally tune out what the guy's saying up in front.

And you know, 20 minutes later, what did he say again?

When you're reading your Bibles, have you ever had this experience?

You're reading your Bibles, and 5 minutes later, you say, what did I just read?

And yet, this is the generation that has a cry of the heart.

You know this famous contemporary song, holiness.

Holiness is what you want for me, for me.

Take my will, conform it to yours, to yours, O Lord." You know this song?

Fascinating, you know, how everybody gets together for revival sessions.

I remember reading the story, I think it was Dwight L.

Moody, and he had a whole group of people all lined up there to get revival.

He says, I just want to find out here, you know, just to find out.

He says, how many of you pray for at least 30 minutes a day?

He says, alright, alright, maybe I made it too complicated.

How many of you definitely pray for 15 minutes every day?

And about half of the group raise their hands.

Now I wonder what would happen if we asked the same question.

See, we talk about holiness, we want holiness, but somehow it is not translating into our lives.

Forever Free: Change You Can Really Believe In

All right, we want to welcome you to this next session.

I got different people sitting in different places.

I thought you were a little further over.

You know, I'm always challenged at this time of the day, because I realize this is my last session.

I've got to fit in everything that I have to say in my life in this last session.

No, it's not that bad, but we are going to try and be done in an hour.

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Series

Alan Parker ~ Biblical Holiness: A Guide for Sinners

Sacred Intimacy: Sex and Spirituality

Transcript

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