GYC 2015: Called. Chosen. Faithful.

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Mini-skirts, Mothers, & Muslims: On Being Called, Chosen & Faithful-Even to the Ends of the Earth

Homer Trecartin

1. Risk Takers

This message was presented at the GYC 2015 conference called Chosen Faithful in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

All right, I think it's about time we, Let's bow our heads for a prayer as we start.

Dear Lord, thank you for a good night's rest.

Thank you for the spiritual messages that you've been giving us, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we're feeling already.

And I just pray that on each of the seminars today, your spirit will be poured out.

Lord, we wish we could all go to all of them, but we can't.

And you've impressed some to be here, and I pray that it will be a blessing to them, that you will give us words to speak that will be an encouragement and a support and that will help to finish the work so that you can come.

Be with us now today we pray in Jesus' name.

Now I've heard several people say, miniskirts, mothers and Muslims, is this only for women?

It's, it's, That's actually the title of a book that I'll tell you more about this afternoon.

There's a huge culture clash going on in our world today.

It's probably greater than anything that's ever been experienced in the world before.

We in this seminar, we're going to talk some about that.

I'm going to tell a lot of stories and show a lot of pictures from MENA, the Middle East and North Africa.

I want to talk about the work that we're doing there, the needs that we have there, about some of the amazing things that God is doing in a part of the world that we really haven't done much in as a church.

In fact, it's probably the greatest frontier for missions that the church still faces is the Middle East and North Africa.

We'll spend some time talking more about that.

I want to talk in a general way about what God is doing around the world.

Last night, Natasha mentioned to us the goal of the movement of GYC.

To take the gospel to every person in our generation.

That's really been the goal of the church ever since the early church.

It hasn't happened yet, but we're praying it will.

We need to look at why hasn't it happened.

And we'll do that in some of these seminars.

Do we really mean that we want to take the gospel to every person on earth?

How many believe that's what we really mean?

What about if God gave you a dream a few months ago before Jihadi John was killed that you were supposed to go and share the gospel with him?

That everybody needs a chance to hear the gospel?

In these 6 sessions, I'm just going to give you a quick overview Because in your schedule it just gives you titles, it doesn't give a description of each 1.

We're going to talk today, the 1 called Risk Takers.

It's about safety and security because I guarantee you the first question in almost everybody's minds, for sure the first question in your family's minds, if you decided you wanted to come and help us in Mena, would be, oh, wait a minute.

All the bombings, all the killings, all the terrorists, all the things that are going on over there.

Well, we're gonna talk some about safety and security.

Is there some part of the world that we shouldn't send missionaries to?

The second 1 this morning will be called, Even Them.

Are there people that we can't work for or are there people that we shouldn't work for yet?

I have people in churches many times that tell me there are parts of the world that God is going to have to win some other way.

Number 3 this afternoon, miniskirts, mothers and Muslims, how can we take the gospel across the cultural divides that separate us?

How can you reach out to your Muslim neighbor?

Why is it we're not connecting very well with Muslims in this country or around the world.

This will be a fun 1, the 1 this afternoon.

They'll all be challenging, I hope, but the 1 this afternoon will be a little bit fun as well.

The last 1 this afternoon, Approaching Footsteps.

Does everybody have to hear our Adventist message?

Why is it that God raised up the Adventist movement anyway?

Do we have a responsibility to share with everybody or is it good enough if others are sharing with them?

We're gonna look at that some this afternoon.

Then tomorrow, the 1 that's called Open Your Eyes.

When will the Holy Spirit be poured out in places like the Middle East and North Africa?

Or is it already being poured out and we just haven't opened our eyes to see it?

And the last 1 on Sabbath afternoon, small beginnings.

I know a lot of us would be willing to make a great sacrifice, maybe even give our life, if we thought in the process we could bring hundreds or thousands of people to Jesus.

If we thought that we could go and preach a series of meetings and there would be hundreds of baptisms at the end of it, many of us would be willing to take a risk?

What about if we knew that we were going to go and work our entire life, short or long, whatever it might be, and that we would die not seeing a single result for our works?

Would we still be willing to make a sacrifice to do that?

Today, I want to share with you a very personal and difficult experience to start the discussion of safety and security.

In a way, we're all risk takers, aren't we?

But I wanna share with you this experience that Barbara and I went through, if I get this turned on here.

I know some of you were just toddlers then, others of you that was just a few years ago, but April 30, 2005 we were in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Southern.

Our daughter-in-law, Shannon, had just graduated with her degree in social work there from Southern.

And we were together with all of our kids, our son Homer, our son Terry, and our daughter Becky, and some of our grandkids.

It was a wonderful time together at that graduation weekend.

A week later, May 7, 2005, Barbara and I were out at the Middle East Fellowship meetings in California.

There are more Adventist Middle Easterners living in California than there are in the Middle East.

So it's a good place to go once in a while and connect with some of the folks there.

We were sitting in a meeting, a wonderful time of sharing together.

I see more people coming in and there's still seats scattered throughout and even a few in the front row if you can't find anything else.

We were sitting in a meeting and somebody slipped in behind me and handed me this little pink note.

It says, call your son or Beverly Warren and gave the phone number.

Well, I whispered to the guy that handed it to me, okay, when the meeting is finished, I'll go make the phone call.

And he said, no, the voicemail sounded really urgent, You better come now.

Well, that's not a kind of message you want to get.

And we slipped out, shaking a little bit, wondering what was going on.

Why did we need to make this urgent phone call?

I called my son, and he answered the phone.

Dad, he said, I don't know how to tell you this, but my brother, Terry, that's our middle son, Terry, has just been in a terrible accident in Tennessee and they don't think he'll live till we can get there.

Well, all night long, We flew from airport to airport trying to get to Chattanooga, Tennessee, so that we could go to Erlinger Hospital.

Some of you know the Collegedale area where Terry was.

We were thinking about our boys, our kids, as we did that.

Working at Twixwood Nursery in Berrien Springs.

2. Even THEM?

Dear Lord, thank you that you watch over us wherever we are and whatever we're doing.

Thank you that you do want the gospel to go to every person in this generation so that you can come.

I pray that soon we will see that happen and that you will come.

You know, last night Natasha talked about the gospel going to every person in this generation.

I've had people tell me many times, Adventists, in our Adventist churches, that, Well, you know, those people, whoever they're meaning, usually they're meaning people in my part of the world, in the Middle East and North Africa.

Those people, God's just going to have to reach them some other way.

Maybe He'll do it with dreams and angel visits or maybe probation is already closed for them but there's no use.

You know, I want to ask you, does Jesus want to come?

He sees far more of the horrors than we see, doesn't he?

He sees everybody that's suffering with sickness.

He wants to come far more than we want him to.

If he could finish the work with a dream or an angel visit.

He would send 1 to everybody tonight and he would come tomorrow.

But God can't finish the work with dreams and angel visits.

He is doing the fastest, most effective thing he can by sending us to finish the work for him.

Most people will never respond to a dream or an angel visit until they meet a real live person living in their community who can share what it means to be an end-time believer in Jesus.

They need to see us in the joyful times, they need to see us in the hard times.

In fact, 1 of the best witnesses is when they see us going through a difficulty and how do we respond to it?

God doesn't want us to go through hard times, but sometimes he allows it so that others, watching us through their drapes and blinds, can see how we respond and it can impact their lives.

Our problem in the Middle East and North Africa is we don't have anybody living in most of those communities.

We don't have any Adventists in most of them.

And so I'm going to talk a little bit today about that dilemma of are there people that don't need to hear the gospel?

Are there people that we shouldn't try to share the gospel with?

It was June of 2007 When a young lady in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, now Uzbekistan is not part of MENA, the Middle East and North Africa Union, but it's related to it.

June 2007, not all that long ago, a young lady came to the door of 1 of our members and knocked on her door and smiled brightly and said, hi, I wanna learn more about Christianity, would you take me to your church?

Well, our members in Uzbekistan are very fearful, They have been through a lot.

They are always afraid to admit that their members, they meet secretly many times.

They've been actively working, but they're just cautious.

And so our member wasn't sure what she should do.

Oh the girl said, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you I went to school at the university with your daughter.

Would you take me to your church?" And our member is thinking, you know, that's funny.

She did go to the university, but she never told me about anybody that she was talking to about religion.

But the girl seemed sincere and so she said okay.

She started taking her to our legal church, it's a house church but it's a legal 1 in Bukhara and she started taking her there on Sabbath.

And on Friday night she started taking her to a small prayer group in a home in a nearby village.

At that time, in that part of Uzbekistan, you had to have 50 people in your group to be able to register.

And it was illegal to meet until you were registered.

Well, how do you get 50 people to be able to register?

And so they were meeting, it was illegal.

They had a number of Muslims that had become Adventists, they had a number of Muslims that were studying, and then some Christians, and they were all meeting together every Friday night.

So this lady is taking the young girl with her on Friday night and on Sabbath, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks.

The third week, in that small house group, while they were praying, they heard a noise.

And when they opened their eyes at the end of the prayer, they realized that somebody had slipped over to the door and unlocked it.

And the room, the house, was filled with police.

The video cameras were rolling, the cameras were snapping, they lined everybody up around the wall of the room, and made them, they took their fingerprints and their signatures, description of where they lived and why they were in this illegal gathering.

They dismissed them all and said, you'll be hearing from us shortly.

And in a little while, a few days, every 1 of them that had been there that night got a knock on their door and a policeman was there and he invited them to come to court.

He invited them to come to court but that's not like being invited to a birthday party.

It's not something you can say, oh sorry, it's not convenient for me today.

When you're invited, you're arrested basically.

They sat there in the courtroom and looked around quietly and realized that every 1 of them was there that had been in the room that night except for the young girl.

And then they knew she was a spy that the government had planted to find out where they were meeting and to let them come in.

Well, 6 weeks later, Barbara and I were visiting Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and we met with some of the church members in the church.

This is the house church off here on the side, and these are some of the members.

And we had a wonderful time together, and toward the end of the morning, somebody whispered to us, Pastor, would you be willing to come and meet with us this afternoon in a house group in a nearby village?

I didn't know anything about what had gone on.

This was the room where they had all been meeting and arrested.

When we came in this time, they had a banquet set up, wonderful food in the Middle East and Central Asia.

And we were all sitting around there together.

They had all been confiscated by the police.

And even if they had 1 hidden at home, they wouldn't have brought it here.

But We sang together, we prayed together, we talked together, and then they told us this story.

I was, I think they were afraid that I would be afraid.

I didn't figure Uzbekistan wants good relationships with the United States And I didn't think they would come in while I was there and arrest me and everybody else.

But this was the first time in 6 weeks that they had had the courage to try to meet again in this room.

You see what had happened in court is they all had been fined.

They were told, they were reminded of what the law is.

The law is that if you get caught once you're fine, if you get caught meeting illegally a second time the fine is doubled, if you get caught a third time you go to prison.

Most of our pastors in Uzbekistan have been arrested once or twice and they're facing prison sentences if they get caught again going to meet with an illegal group.

But so we were sitting there meeting again, praying together.

3. Miniskirts, Mothers, & Muslims

Dear Lord, thank you that you can be everywhere with us, wherever we're from.

That you are with us in our homes, you're with us as we gather here.

That your Holy Spirit can be here present with us in this seminar and in all of the others.

And we just pray that you will guide and direct each of us as we learn things that might help us to be able to better reach out to those around us.

All right, on some of your chairs you might have seen a brochure.

Some of them say total employment, some of them say Waldensian student.

I'm not going to talk about those much today.

I will talk about those some tomorrow, but you can always go to our booth.

This morning I mentioned that if we contacted 1 person a day in the Middle East and North Africa, how long would it take to contact everybody?

If you want to see that visually illustrated, go over to our booth.

They have a big bucket of black beans and they have 1 white bean in the black bean bucket to represent the Adventist amidst all the others.

But then they have some little bottles that show you illustrations of other countries too.

And feel free to contact us or ask more information about those programs.

The title for today's seminar, Miniskirts, Mothers, and Muslims, is not original with me.

It came from an old book that's out of print now, but you can still find a few copies on Amazon, and I'll mention it again at the end.

It's by a Christian lady who is married to a Middle Easterner who spent her entire life in the Middle East.

And she has lots of illustrations about the cultural problems that we encounter in those countries as we try to reach out to people.

Things that we don't even understand would cause a problem.

But the same things apply to us when a Muslim moves in next door to us and we're trying to figure out how to relate to them.

So I'm going to share, not just from the book, a number of different things, and then at the end I'll put those books, I have 2 books actually that I'll recommend, and I'll put them up on the screen as we get to the end.

This morning I mentioned that in the Western countries, the United States, Europe, Australia, 75% of all the Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims say they don't know a single Christian personally.

They might serve us in a restaurant or a hotel or drive our taxi or whatever, or be a doctor in the hospital, but they don't know us as a friend.

Well, part of it is that we're all really busy with our day-to-day activities and our circle of friends, and we don't branch out of that very often.

We pretty much stick with the group of friends that we're used to.

Part of it is we're afraid of them, right?

We are all at least a little bit afraid at times.

But I think the biggest part is we just don't connect.

We do the same things with our Muslim neighbor that we do with our Christian neighbor, and we connect with the Christian neighbor but it doesn't connect with the Muslim neighbor.

Or we get in a taxi cab and what works with 1 taxi driver doesn't seem to work with a Muslim taxi driver.

When we don't connect with people, what does that do to our witness?

White says that Christ's method alone will bring true success.

He mingled, he met needs, he won their confidence.

If we don't connect with people, we aren't going to have a chance to really influence and witness to them, are we?

We need to find out how to connect with people.

Now what I try to share with you here in 1 hour is not going to make you an expert on culture.

Don't go out and think you know everything about cultures.

I've lived there for several years and I still don't even begin to know all of the things.

It's not going to make you an expert on Islam.

But what I hope it does is to get your curiosity up.

I hope it gets you excited about saying, okay, they're different from me, but how are they different?

How can we understand our co-workers and neighbors?

You know, there is a clash of cultures going on between the West and the East, between Muslims and Christians, in many different cultural groups.

Series

Mini-skirts, Mothers, & Muslims: On Being Called, Chosen & Faithful-Even to the Ends of the Earth

1. Risk Takers

Transcript

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