GYC 2016: When All Has Been Heard

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Plenary

Moise Ratsara

GYC is You

This message was presented at the GYC 2016 conference, When All Has Been Heard, in Houston, Texas.

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

♪♪♪ Would you have a word of prayer with me 1 more time?

Dear Heavenly Father, we are your children.

I ask that you fill this place with your presence and that at the end of this time together we will never be the same again because we have met Christ.

I want to alert you that I'm going to make an appeal for baptism at the end of my address to you.

The reason why I tell you beforehand is because I want you to make an intelligent decision.

I know some of you have been in the valley of decision, and I'm going to give you an opportunity at the end of my address to make a commitment to Jesus today.

In the book Education, page 262, it says this 1 thing we do, Success in any line demands a definite aim.

He who would achieve true success in life must keep steadily in view the aim worthy of his endeavors.

Such an aim is set before the youth of today.

The heaven-appointed purpose of giving the gospel to the world in this generation is the noblest that can appeal to any human being.

It opens a field of effort to everyone whose heart Christ has touched.

I'm going to give you a rundown of what God has done through GYC, A brief 1.

Through God's grace, mercy, and help, this year alone, GYC has sent a couple of missionaries to the Middle East.

We are present in 6 different continents, except Antarctica.

We have 8 different affiliates, 18 different affiliates, who have planned more than 20 major events this year alone.

Countless GYC-ers were sent to preach full evangelistic series all over the world, including Rwanda, to support our beloved church.

We have more than 500 volunteers, more than 100 of them serving here alone, spending countless hours waving flags, welcoming you, giving you water, all the way to the person who had to sign to get this convention center.

GYC has reached the lives of thousands including myself and some people who are here present have been won over to the gospel because of our outreach in Louisville 2015 and they are here because of what you have done through God's grace.

GYC attendees have knocked on more than half a million doors, passed more than a million pieces of literature in the last 5 days.

But GYC has 1 mission, to finish the work in this generation.

And in order to fulfill this mission, we must be all in for Christ.

You see, the executive committee is not GYC, though they are excellent people.

The board of GYC is not GYC, though they're excellent people.

And this is your movement, and this is your time to finish the work in your generation.

But we have a lot of work to do, and the work lays closest to us.

There's a story of a young boy in the 1800s by the name of William.

And when William was really young, his father told him, William, I'm so sorry, but I have no money to take care of you.

William now was a homeless boy at the age of 16, And he decided to go to New York City to make a life for himself.

There he went on a canal boat and he would have an encounter that will change his life forever.

The sea captain with a deep voice probably told William, He said, William, young boy, what are you doing here and where are you going?

William told him his story and the only thing that William could say that he had done that was useful was make soap.

The captain looked at him and said, I'll give you 1 advice.

1 day there will be the best soap maker in New York City.

It might be you, it might not be you, but whatever you do, whatever you make, dedicate it to the Lord.

William eventually at the end of his life was giving all of his money to mission work all over the world.

Today we know him as William Colgate and some of you probably use his product in the morning.

But beyond that product, William Colgate gave all of his money at the end of his life for missions.

But business people are not the only people that need to be asked that question.

Turn your Bibles with me to 1st Kings chapter 19 and verse 13.

First Kings chapter 19 and verse 13 And in there it reads, So it was when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.

Suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing?

I know the day has been long, but you got to connect with me.

He said, Jesus said, what are you doing what?

And I want to ask the same question to you, GYC.

I hope we are not here to be entertained.

We're not here to dance with the devil, but we are here to walk with God, to be men and women of God.

We are here to press together, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting 1 another so much more as we see the day approaching.

We must press together like never before, friend, for we today face tremendous challenges, especially as young people, young professionals.

We are fighting ever the rising tide of secularism and spiritual decay, characterized by our generation's religious disengagement.

We are facing the storms of division even among our ranks in God's family.

We have become polarized as a people to the point that we are spiritually naked and we don't know it.

We are blind and we don't know it we lack power and we don't seek it we are drowning in the ocean of lukewarmness and some don't even care GYC what are we doing here for if we know more how to argue than to pray like Christ we are in trouble if we are spending more time being consumed by the cares of the world than understanding the heart of God there is a problem If we as young people are pursuing a career more than a calling, we are in trouble.

If we as young people know more about the issues that divide us more than the righteousness of Christ portrayed in the 3 angels message whose proclamation unites us as a people of God we are in trouble for we are suffocating ourselves spiritually and there's ever that constant danger of the undercurrent of selfishness that sways even the best of us into the abyss of self of eternal destruction and impending destruction.

We are in trouble, but I pray, oh, I pray.

And I have a dream and I long that we have gathered here together to face the storms in Christ's name.

We are here because we have gathered from all over the states, all over the world.

Those of you watching online, we have gathered here because we seek to meet Jesus Christ a young boy and his family were traveling on a boat I praise the Lord elder Wilson talked about a boat I'm glad A young boy was traveling on a boat.

Unfortunately, a mighty storm came and the boat was not able to be stable and it lost its balance and capsized at sea.

The next day the search party came and all they could find was a little boy.

They asked the little boy, they said, boy, are you okay?

The little boy looked at them and he says, yes, sir, the rock never moved.

And I tell you, friends, the Word of God has never moved.

And as we face these storms together we shall stand on the mighty rock of God.

Every year we come together looking for something profound, something radical, something significant, a purpose, a vision, a challenge.

We come because we want to be the changes our homes, our schools, our churches, our countries desperately need.

We come to be filled more so that we can give more.

We are here to bury our idols of self, worldliness, divisiveness, and pride, and by God's grace raise an altar of loving sacrifice, of humility, of surrender, of total devotion to our God for a remembrance throughout eternity and to raise it up here.

We are here to be with Christ, to lift our mortal face and look into the face of the Eternal, who gave everything for you and me, who was pierced on a tree, falsely accused, persecuted, rejected, and alone, But it was worth it all for you and me.

We're simply here to seek to be His disciples, in mind and in heart, in action to understand, surrender and be consumed by the greatest subject of all that is found in all of scripture and summarized in 3 simple words, Christ our righteousness.

It is our only hope and we have gathered here because we thirst after righteousness and the promise is given by a covenant God.

Go with me to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6.

In Matthew chapter 5 verse 6, you could read it with me if you have the King James Version, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be what?

Alex Niculaescu

There Was No Man

I'd ask you all how you are, but you'd probably all give me different answers.

I've never spoken before so many people before.

Now you're all 1 person, 1 large person, like the body of Christ should be.

I don't know how much you guys know about it, But I was asked to speak to you about human trafficking, about my testimony, about prayer, and about the investigative judgment, and I've got 49 minutes.

There were some things I was going to leave out, and I was going to basically just focus on the testimony just because the amount of time that we have, but in all honesty I don't think that you'd be able to truly understand the gravity and the enormity of what we call human trafficking without including some parts, so I've written them down so I can just, for sake of brevity, read through it real quick.

I want to warn you, human trafficking is not a pretty subject, so we are going to talk about some, I guess you could say, more mature subject matter if you get uncomfortable about those kinds of things.

I know it's not on the heart of everyone and it's a bit difficult for some people to swallow.

But I would also like to ask for forgiveness.

If anybody in here knows who I am and I've offended you in any way, then please forgive me because I cannot bring my gift before the altar until I've made it good.

I'd like to begin with the definition of human trafficking.

Human trafficking oftentimes is associated with just trafficking.

Moving of persons from 1 place to another.

When I talk about it, people generally assume that it's, oh, some people coming from Thailand or Europe or Africa to America, being prostituted and whatnot.

Human trafficking oftentimes is used as an umbrella term but in reality what I'm talking about is modern-day slavery and I want to give you a definition of what slavery is.

At its core, it is the exploitation of another person's vulnerability for the sake of one's own profit.

If we think about what that means, ultimately, you and I can be traffickers because we do that to each other.

There are vulnerabilities that we see in other people, and sometimes we just want to take advantage of it to get our own way.

We are all capable of being human traffickers.

We're all capable of peddling lies, of peddling each other.

But what we're talking about today is that principle but at the higher level.

If you would bow your heads with me I'd like to open with a word of prayer.

Father, Lord you are our father and sometimes I wonder how it is that you see us, your children, and what it is that we do to each other.

How it must break your heart, not only what we do to each other, but oftentimes those who are nearest to you neglect to help those that are in need.

Lord, I pray that you would open up our hearts, that you would open up our minds to see how it truly plays out in the great controversy, this idea of slavery, and how you, O Lord, the God of the Exodus, Christ on the cross, all the examples that you've given us of how you've come to set us free, to deliver us, O Lord, from slavery.

How you want to also make us abolitionists, redeemers, O Lord, of those who are lost.

I pray, O Lord, that you would give us wisdom, that you would give me, O Lord, the words to say.

There's a lot I could say, but I pray, Lord, that you would give me what I should say.

I thank you, Lord, for your goodness and for the answering of this prayer.

May your Holy Spirit be upon us, for we ask in the name of Jesus.

So my last request before we start is I want you guys not to draw quick conclusions.

There's a tendency when we talk about a subject that is so great that it's very difficult for me to kind of reduce it.

So there's a lot of aspects that we're going, I mean that exist, but we're not going to really discuss them.

I'm going to focus on a very, very, very small window.

I'm going to do the best that I can to give you a general view, but most of it is going to be how I believe God has called us to answer the problem.

If you have more questions about what the problem looks like, find me and I'll tell you.

But I believe that the most important part is for us to know how God answers this problem.

And There were 2 Australians, and they were in London, and they were at a bar, at a pub, getting drunk, and they came out late at night, drunk, stammering, falling all over themselves, and they walked up to a gentleman, and they said, excuse me, sir, do you know where we are?

And the man, he was a very decorated naval officer, and he felt offended that these drunk men came to him and asked him for directions.

In response, 1 of the drunk Australians turned to his friend and said, we're in trouble now, we don't know where we are, and he doesn't know who he is.

If we did, we'd fight in a very different way.

Because who we are is dependent not on what we do, but who we belong to.

Who we are is 100% dependent on whose we are.

I'd like to read some notes that I wrote real quickly, just to kind of give an overview of the great controversy, terms that we've discussed of exploitation and vulnerability.

It all began in heaven with a glorious angel who had turned his strength into his greatest weakness, namely his wisdom and beauty.

Ezekiel 28, 17 says, Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty.

Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.

But listen well for it says, Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom.

This mystery of iniquity is that no 1 created his vulnerability but he himself.

And no 1 set to exploit him but he himself.

He created his own vulnerability and exploited it.

It can be at times that our greatest blessings we can turn them into our greatest curses, and that which was meant for our benefit, wrongly received, caused our greatest fall.

As Lucifer began to fuel a false aggrandizement of himself, he began to place his Creator on a lower plane and himself on a higher 1.

And thus began his belief in himself to be who he was not and his maker to be who he was not.

The corruption of his wisdom grew ever greater till a simple fracture in his thoughts became a fissure and a fissure became a great divide.

Because angels had never experienced anything other than God's goodness, they had no concept of evil.

Because of their great trust in the covering cherub who dwells in the presence of God, they were ripe for the seeding of doubt, that something or someone other than God can be righteous without obedience to God's law.

Because of his position in proximity to God and the angel's ignorance to any other option than God's law, he was able to sow doubt in the angel's mind of God's true character, falsely representing him and sowing doubt into the need to heed God's law, falsely representing it as restricting of freedom.

This vulnerability Lucifer exploited to the fullest.

When the righteous angels attempted to plead with the discontented ones to cease from their revolt, placing before their eyes how God had only been good and just with all creation, Lucifer once again exploited his previously created vulnerability, the doubt in God's justice, by claiming that God was not the type to forgive rebellion once it had already been entertained, and that they had already gone too far to be forgiven by Him.

He solidified the demise of a third of the angels by simply misrepresenting both parties in the controversy, by misnaming, if you will, God as the stern and unforgiving of rebellion, and themselves as the righteous underdogs that were already set on a path of no return.

So their fate they cemented according to their beliefs.

This pattern was repeated to our first parents Adam and Eve whose vulnerability of ignorance of evil ended up being exploited in much the same way as the angels.

And so began the earthly controversy between the 2 seeds.

Those who believe God says who he says he is, and those who believe the devil is who he says he is.

Satan wants nothing more than to destroy the image of God in the eyes of all creation.

And by destroying the image of God, he is destroying our identity in God.

When Satan can peddle you a lie about who God is, He can peddle you a lie about who you are.

And once He manages to peddle you a lie about who God is and who you are, He can peddle you.

Ezekiel 28, once again, says that by the multitude of his merchandise, of his merchandise, he was filled and has filled the earth with violence.

And by reason of his trafficking, he will be devoured by fire.

But God is actually the 1 who repairs the breach.

What Satan really wants is he wants to destroy the family, which is the image of God.

Jason Sliger

Lost Identity

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

I trust that the Lord blessed you today, amen?

I know that the Lord has a blessing in store for each 1 of us, and I'm glad that I could be part of that blessing with you this evening.

We are here to study the Word of God and so I'm going to invite you to bow your heads with me as we start with a brief word of prayer.

Loving Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, that we can come into your presence tonight with our Bibles in our hands, knowing that we serve a God who wants to speak to us.

Thank you, Lord, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

In Jesus name amen I want you to imagine with me tonight that everybody here in this room represents the Seventh-day Adventist Church So all of us here this evening represent the over 19 million members of our church.

Now what I want you to do is quickly look to the person on your left-hand side.

Now, look to the person on your right-hand side.

Now, look to the person next to the person on your left.

According to a study that was done of over 18, 000 Seventh-day Adventists, young people, Only 1 in the 4 of you in your group, yourself and the 3 other people that you just looked at, believe in a distinctive doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Only 1 in 4 of you would believe in that distinctive doctrine.

According to this study, 1 in 4 Seventh-day Adventist young people believe in the doctrine of the investigative judgment.

1 in 4 Seventh-day Adventist young people, according to the study, believe in the distinctive doctrine of the investigative judgment.

Now that's particularly alarming in light of some advice and counsel that we have from the pen of inspiration in the book Great Controversy page 488 where the Sermon of the Lord says the subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment Should be clearly under understood by the people of God.

What should be clearly understood The understanding of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment she goes on and she says this all Need a knowledge How many need a knowledge?

All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest.

Yet studies reveal Only 1 in 4 Seventh-day Adventist young people believe in the doctrine of the investigative judgment.

I'll be quick to say though that Many of these people probably have not cognitively or willingly rejected that doctrine, but most of them have probably not been educated on this wonderful truth.

Perhaps they didn't learn it when they had their baptismal class or their Sabbath school class or a class in school or something like that.

They are not willingly ignorant, I might say.

Perhaps some of you here this evening know people who have left this great denomination because of this teaching.

Maybe you yourself have grappled with its biblical significance in your own life.

And this evening I want to share with you that I believe unequivocally that the doctrine of the investigative judgment is biblical.

Was it something that was conjured up in the minds of early Advent believers in an attempt to cover over the seemingly, the seeming mistake of the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844.

Where did this doctrine of the investigative judgment come from?

Is it something that came from the pen of Ellen White and is a doctrine of hers?

Perhaps the reason why this has been rejected is because it is a doctrine of Ellen White and not a doctrine of God's Word.

Again I submit to you tonight from my personal study.

And I'm not suggesting that you take my study as your study.

But from my personal study, I believe unequivocally that the doctrine of the investigative judgment is biblical.

There's no question about it in my mind coming in as fundamental belief number 24 the doctrine of the investigative judgment formed the foundation of our faith since the mid 1800s with the genesis of the term investigative judgment first being used in 1856 by an Adventist evangelist by the name of Elon Everts.

Shortly after that, about a month later, James White adopted the same term and it became a very common theological expression that you and I are familiar with today.

Yet history reveals that the birth of this doctrine of the investigative judgment came out of much work.

Over 13 years of study and Bible study and prayer that finally led to the conclusion of what you and I believe today, according to Scripture, to be the doctrine of the investigative judgment.

Now, in order for this doctrine to exist from a historical standpoint, there were 4 biblical facts that were discovered along the way.

As the early Advent believers studied the Word of God, there were 4 biblical facts that they discovered in their journey that ultimately led to the conclusion of the investigative judgment.

You could kind of think of it like a like a car a Car needs to have 4 wheels in order for it to be able to move in an appropriate Direction given that it has all of the other equipment the doctrine of the investigative judgment needed these 4 biblical facts to move it forward, if you will.

And tonight I want to just quickly go over these 4 biblical facts that have formed the foundation of the investigative judgment.

The first biblical fact, for those of you that are taking notes, is the fact of the heavenly sanctuary in heaven.

The day after the great disappointment of October 22, 1844, God began to give the early Advent believers an understanding of what had just taken place.

Dear Jesus obviously did not come as they had expected him to on October 22, 1844, which ultimately led to this great disappointment.

Obviously, you know 1 of the reasons that led to the disappointment was the commonly held belief that the earth was the sanctuary, And that on October 22, 1844, Jesus would come and purify the earth by fire at his second appearing.

However, the very next day after Jesus did not return, God came to a man who just the day before had wept and wept until the day dawned and gave him a word of encouragement that helped lead the discouraged flock into what it is today.

And as Hiram Edson on October 23, 1844, the day after, him and a friend of his, Owen Crozier, were walking through a cornfield on their way To go speak some words of encouragement to the disappointed flock According to the history as Edson was going through this cornfield.

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Too Good to Miss

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