SWYC 2017: Surrender - Moment by Moment

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GYC Southwest

Plenary

Keala Thompson

Crucified by Christians

Father is your word is open help us but we cannot do anything without you lord grant freedom and your spirit tonight is our prayer in jesus name john 16 verse 2 knows the bible says it says they will put you out of the synagogues yes the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God what?

So first of all, these people go to the synagogue or they go to church.

And while they're going to church, and these are people persecuting you, bringing pain and suffering into your life, they go to church, number 1.

And while they're going to church, and these are people persecuting you, bringing pain and suffering into your life, they go to church, number 1, and while they're going to church, their motive is actually, they're thinking in their heart that they're actually doing God a favor, while they persecute you in the name of God.

And thus, spiritual abuses was prophesied to happen here by Jesus himself that would happen here in the last days and They're thinking all the water doing God a service They were doing what God wanted them to do Have you ever been unjustly treated by others before?

Or worse yet, have you ever been crucified by Christians?

If you have, then I let people know you have either 1 or 2 roads you can choose.

Either you can choose the road to continue to be bitter and angry, a spirit of unforgiveness, or you can go down the road of healing.

Interesting, I was at a youth conference a couple years ago, and somebody came up to me, and she was sharing with me about how she was abused spiritually by her spiritual leaders within her school.

And this incident really affected her, and she said she had a hard time healing from it because she submitted it to such a long time and she has a hard time just dealing with it because the pain runs so deep.

And I realized that this problem runs even deeper than we realize.

And those of us involved in ministry, we see a lot of this happening, and a lot of people are hurting.

And I had another leader come forward and say, you know, I'm a leader of actually other leaders with our program.

And in this program, then, he said, I'm a leader of leaders, and you know what?

A spiritual leader of other spiritual leaders.

And he said, another person, 1 of the leaders came up to me and said, can you help me to be a leader to these other leaders?

And he said, all you need to do is be the father figure to these leaders.

So he went back, tried to be a father figure.

And he came back the next day, and he said to her, You asked me to be a father figure to the leaders, but you know what?

So how would I be a father figure if I never had a father?

So we just see this pain and this hurt and people are hurting within a church and they're being abused as well.

First thing to find out when you've been unjustly crucified is to find out who is the person responsible for your crucifixion?

Who deliberately caused your crucifixion?

And if you understand this, you can better understand healing and move forward toward the road toward healing.

Now, first of all, this person you think, this villain, is not of this earth.

And if you really want to find out who this person is, you must ask the person who has actually been crucified himself, who authored his crucifixion.

So turn with me to John 18, 2 verses later.

The Bible says here, so Jesus said to Peter, "'Put your sword into the sheath.

"'Shall not drink the cup which my, " what?

Who authored the crucifixion for Jesus Christ?

And if you understand this concept, you begin the road toward healing.

If you refuse to accept that crucifixion was from the hand of God, then you begin to believe that you weren't crucified, but you were just merely mistreated by people.

And so you must understand behind the scenes or everything what's really going on.

You went through that suffering by the authored by God whatever you went through in his life whether you lost your child when you went through abortion whether you were sexually abused or whatever type of pain or suffering that you've gone through in this life maybe you lost your job foreclosure home you're deep into death you're struggling in your marriage your children no longer want to talk to you, your family is not close.

Whatever pain and suffering that's hurting your heart tonight, and we're talking about surrender this weekend, but we must deal with the core issues in order to surrender to God.

Whatever you're struggling with, know that God allowed it in your life for a purpose.

You are crucified by the will of God, and thus he alone is the 1 with whom you need to make peace with first Believe that let me say amen.

Amen now Now let's go back before who is it that brings the pain and suffering to this world turn to John chapter 10 8 chapters before in Your Bible John chapter 10 verse 10 was the Bible says here It says here Jesus is speaking.

He says the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.

And I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly.

So Jesus brings life and Satan comes and he's the 1 that's the thief.

In other words, he's the 1 truly behind all the pain and the suffering that you've ever gone through.

And beloved, it's God that brings life to you and me.

I'm going to read this quotation from the Spirit of Prophecy.

It says, Satan has studied the secrets of nature.

He uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows.

In other words, all these natural disasters that's coming, all this pain and suffering and death, You know it's actually Satan, he can play around with nature and he can allow these catastrophic events Hurricanes, even Hurricane Harvey, can he not?

And he can bring it upon this earth and he can bring the suffering to this world Because He can do it, but as long as God allows it.

It is God that shields his creatures from the destroyer.

You know, we think that it's God's fault all the time, but, you know, even in the insurance companies, they call it an act of God when it's actually a natural disaster, right?

Like God gets to blame, but no 1 ever talks about the act of Satan, right?

No 1 ever talks about it's Satan's fault, if Satan did this and Satan did that, or why God this and why God that, right?

Do you know that there's actually a destroyer behind the scenes that's doing everything, and he can manipulate the forces of nature to create a natural disaster.

God's the 1 that protects, He's the 1 that gives life.

Then it says here, The Lord will do what he declared that he would.

Remove his protecting care from those who rebel against his law and force others to do the same.

Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard.

Satan has control of all whom God does not, especially God.

If God does not guard you, then Satan has the control of you.

And then it says here, notice what it says here.

He says, He will favor and prosper some, and all will defer to his own design.

In other words, he bless you, a movie star, bless you a lot of money or you're doing well financially, he's going to bless you.

Just because you're getting blessed doesn't mean that's always from God.

Alistair Huong

Shopping for Pearls

Father in heaven, thank you so much for bringing us up to the mountain top.

Lord, we have seen in the Bible that you meet your people on the mountain.

And we have come before you today with open hearts, with humility, asking that you will show yourself to us.

And that as a result of our encounter with you, we might surrender our all to you, and that more importantly than that, we might become like you.

And so as we begin this session here, as we open your word, teach us, speak to us, and may the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth, we pray in Jesus' name.

My wife and I, we write on a personal finance blog, and as you can imagine, we like to save money.

Perhaps the better word is that we're cheap.

It's SWIC, but it's also Labor Day weekend.

So, if you're like me, your email inbox is being filled up with Labor Day sales, right?

Home Depot, come in, 40% off all appliances, no money down.

It's a Season for shopping and every holiday now in the United States seems to be attached to some form of consumer activity Black Friday, right?

That's the biggest 1 But I want to tell you a story this happened in the city of Geneva in the year 2015 Geneva Switzerland 2015 A Hong Kong billionaire, okay, so a billionaire from Hong Kong was at an auction and He set a world record for purchasing the most expensive diamond in history by carat.

He purchased a rare 12.03 carat blue moon diamond for a record $48.5 million.

The day before, across town in Geneva also, this same billionaire from Hong Kong was at another auction.

This time he bought a 16.08 carat pink diamond, and this 1 he only spent 28.5 million dollars So in the matter of 2 days this man spent 77 million dollars for a blue rock and a pink rock.

But I like your reaction, because you, in your mind's eye, you can already envision what's going to happen when dad gets home.

Over the shoulder, bing bing, and she's back to playing with her plastic toys from Walmart or the thrift store.

But your reaction is telling Because the gasp, the horror, the shock, that's exactly what I wanted you to feel.

Because yeah, 77 million dollars, I don't care how shiny, how beautiful those diamonds are, it's extravagance, it's unnecessary, it's a waste, right?

From our perspective, as Bible-believing Christians, understanding that there is a world to warn and a heaven to win and a hell to shun and a soon coming of Jesus Christ and millions and billions of people who have not heard the gospel, are these purchases worth it?

But I'm here to tell you that biblically speaking, According to the Bible, sometimes extravagant purchases like this indeed are right.

Sometimes extravagant purchases indeed are biblical.

Turn your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew chapter 13, and the clue that I gave you was in the title of our message this morning, shopping for pearls.

We're going to begin reading in verse 45 of Matthew chapter 13.

We're just going to drill deep into these 2 verses, verse 45 and 46, the parable of the pearl of great price.

And perhaps at the end of our Bible study together, we will see how this story ties in with the theme of surrender for a weekend together.

Matthew chapter 13 beginning in verse 45, the Bible says, again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found 1 pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

So we read this story and we think, yeah, I've heard this before, I've read in Christ's object lessons, yeah, that's nice, but let's pause a moment and let's think about this.

This merchant man that Jesus is talking about, for 1 Pearl, how much of his net worth did he spend?

So at the end of this transaction, how much of his net worth was left?

So let's go back to our Chinese or Hong Kong billionaire.

And let's just for sake of argument, let's say he was only, he was a small billionaire, okay?

You must have just at least 1 billion to be considered a Billionaire, right?

So let's just say he only had 1 billion dollars.

He spent 77 Million dollars for those 2 diamonds.

Some of you are really quick on the draw with your math, but I actually Calculated it so let's just make sure we got this right.

He would have 923000000 dollars left 923000000 dollars left At a billion dollars when he spent 77 million, That was only 7.7% of his net worth.

We hear the story of such a extravagant purchase, but was it really a sacrifice for that man?

For those of us in this room, that's maybe a couple hundred, maybe at most a couple thousand dollars.

Jesus uses this illustration of a man who who sold 100% for 1 pearl so what is Jesus trying to tell us if we look at such a worldly case as this Hong Kong billionaire and we say, whoa, that's extravagant, that's going too far, that's crossed a line, that's extravagance.

But Jesus says, uh-uh, there's something worth far more than that.

And it's called the pearl of great price.

Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls.

It's not someone laying in bed at night not able to sleep browsing Amazon on their smartphone This was not just someone who had money burning a hole in his pocket and wondering how can I spend this money on myself?

He's a businessman, he's an investor, he's an intelligent individual who is looking for some way to advance his financial position and he's looking for pearls.

There is an intentionality to what he's doing.

So contrasting, this was not a man who was moved by impulse.

This was not a man who accidentally, accidentally stumbled upon a pearl and just out of gut reaction, not having control over his credit card, he accidentally purchased and sold all that he had it was not that kind of a man It was not by accident.

He was not coming home that day and saying to his wife.

Oh Sorry, sweetheart you wouldn't believe what I did today He went out with an intentional desire to obtain something.

He was a man who had done his research, done his homework, he's counted the cost, he understood value, he'd done his investigation, his research, his study.

How many of you have ever bought a car or a house or even a computer?

Big purchases thousands tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of dollar purchases and Would you ever walk on to let's say a car dealership and say just give me whatever you got Sell me the first 1 that you got.

Before you buy the car, you're going to be pounding the keyboard.

Angeline D. Brauer

Gregory Jackson

Question and Answer

Let's all bow our heads for a word of prayer before we start.

Loving Heavenly Father, we ask, oh God, at this time, that your Holy Spirit would guide each question that is selected, that it would be the right 1 that's needed, as well that you'd be with each 1 of the speakers, that you would give them the wisdom needed for them to answer the questions in a manner that is concise and is a matter that is practical and a matter that is pleasing to you.

It says, as Protestant Christians, should we or is it okay to participate in movements such as All Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, any Bible verses or spirit of prophecy is appreciated.

It's alright to participate as long as you have the right motive.

Your involvement has to be different from the others.

Others are doing it because they want to make their lives on earth better.

And there's nothing wrong with that purpose, but because we know of this, we can participate, but our goal has to be, we want to make their lives better because our goal is to get them to see Christ in our lives, through our actions, and not necessarily to change this world to be a better place, but to change them to be a better people, to be ready to meet the Lord where we will have a better place.

So yes, you can be in the world, but not of the world.

A principle that is helpful, not just in these types of issues, but in general, that is that when we accept Christ, and when we're baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we have joined a prophetic movement with a prophetic identity, with a prophetic mission.

And everything that we do in this life must be subservient to that which we have committed to.

So our careers, our relationships, our entertainment, how we spend our money, on and on down the list, the 1 question has to be, does what I do or what I get involved with help me advance the mission of the 3 angels?

And if the answer is no, then don't do it.

But if what we do can advance that by doing what we're just talking about here, by helping others to come into closer relation with Jesus, to understand who he is, to manifest his character, yes, in fact, there have been things even back in the days of Ellen White, that she joined up with some of the popular, like the Temperance Movement is 1 example, in which she joined with other non-Aventist organizations to advance what might be called secular or civil reforms.

But the underlying mission that undergirded why she participated and why she encouraged others to participate is because it helps advance the 3 angels message.

And the 3 angels message is going to the whole world and this generation is the only solution to sin, no matter what the issue is.

So that's a helpful context to think through all the difficult questions that I apply.

Just going to what he's saying, I believe in, you know, standing up for what is right against abuses that's going on in the government and everyone else, But there's a quote that kind of balances out as well.

It says, talking about Jesus, it says, yet the Savior, this is from Desire of Ages, it says, yet the Savior attempted no civil reforms.

He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies.

He did not interfere with the authority of administration of those in power.

He who is our example kept aloof from earthly governments, not because he was indifferent to the woes of men, because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures, I always believed that you could never vote on a church board a change of heart.

And it says, to be efficient, the cure must reach men individually and must regenerate the heart.

I think it's good to be involved, but to really solve the problem, you gotta go back to the root cause and deal with the heart.

So our next question, we actually have 2, and I think they can be combined as 1.

So the theme with this weekend is Surrender Moment by Moment.

How do I know that I am truly surrendering and not just modifying my behavior?

You're going to have to come to the rest of Brother Jackson's seminar.

It's going to be 3 hours tomorrow to answer that question.

I mean, any quick answer leaves questions.

And even after a long answer leaves questions, bottom line is, and I hit 1 of it, a couple of them today, and the closer you get to Jesus, the more sinful you look in your own eyesight.

And the more sinful you look in your own eyesight, the more deeply you surrender to Jesus moment by moment.

Usually we say, well, you can tell because you're growing, you can see how you're growing more righteous.

But if you're walking close to Jesus, the closer you get to Jesus, the more sinful you're going to see yourself to be and the more deeply committed to surrender you will become.

So that for me lets me know it's not behavior modification because behavior modification says You change it.

If I had to take the life of 1 person to save many, Would God forgive me?

If I had to take the life of 1 man to save many, would God forgive me?

Well, you have to ask more specific questions about the situation, for 1 thing.

I mean, are you doing this in self-defense, in defense of the people that you are serving?

You know, the Adventist Church has a long history of involvement in the armed forces.

We're all familiar now with the conscientious objector, who was drafted or who joined, willingly joined the army, I believe, but did not carry a gun, refused to, and was a saver of life and saved many.

Now, there are others who don't go that route.

And I'm not here to cast judgment on their decision, but what is your motivation?

God is able to save us no matter what we do, what we have done, what our lives have been in the past.

Are we participating in these behaviors willfully?

Are we putting us in a place where we are actually arguing against the Holy Spirit?

Or are we sincerely seeking for that conviction and that conversion, the repentance that leads us to actually put away things that have been bad for us.

So I don't know if that addresses the question specifically, but what is really the underlying motivation of the act that we do and then the repentance that we ask for?

I was just going to mention that the question is phrased as sort of 2 different questions, right?

The question is, can God forgive if I did dot dot dot?

And the answer is, there is no sin God can't forgive, right?

The real question is driving at the root is, is this the best choice for a Christian?

This is Jesus when he was brought before Pilate.

He says, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews.

And again, this goes back to my answer to the previous question is, Which kingdom are we fighting for?

And what am I doing to advance the ultimate cure and the solution to the sin problem?

And the answer is Revelation 14, verses 6 through 12.

And so I believe Pastor Keala here has something else to add, so I'll let him take it from here.

John 11, verse 50, is talking about how to kill 1 man to save many.

It says, that was the thinking of the corrupt religious leaders of Jesus' day.

And they said in John 11, 50, not consider that it is expedient for us that 1 man should die for the people and that the whole nation will perish not.

So, they're thinking of, it's okay to kill 1 person so we can save the whole nation, and that's why they killed Jesus in their mind to save the whole nation.

So, when the Bible says thou shalt not kill, it really means thou shalt not kill, and trust in God that he'll be doing a miracle through you, whatever is weighing as you serve in the military.

Our next question, it states, why does addiction happen as anorexia and bulimia?

So you can listen to the messages from this afternoon on AudioVerse, right Alistair?

So anorexia, bulimia, these are food addictions, basically these are addictions of, or issues of how food is used, consumed or not consumed, binge eating, so on and so forth.

These are real problems that certain people face.

Now, what we talked about today is that in every addiction, what the individual is doing is trying to fill a void.

There's a loss, there's pain, there's suffering in their life that has led to the development of this addiction, it, an addiction actually produces a biochemical response in their brain that eases their pain.

And so they're really medicating themselves with the behavior, with the substance, and yes, even some foods can be that.

So the behavior patterns of that, I would say in a quick answer, look for the pain, the suffering that they have experienced in an earlier part of their childhood or even in adulthood that has precipitated these?

To add to that story, what she's saying is so true, Angie Serrindis.

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