Michigan Camp Meeting 2017

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Young Adults

Chad Bernard

It Will Happen

Dear Lord, thank you for just the short time that we have together this morning.

I pray that our worship will be acceptable to you.

And Lord, I just ask that you would reach our hearts, communicate.

Lord, use me any way you want, but just hide me behind you.

You know I don't even know how to speak properly.

So Lord, please now we ask for a special blessing on your Sabbath day in Jesus' name, amen.

So this is this thing I've been processing.

If God says it's gonna happen, It's gonna happen.

Over and over, I think about it, and I think about it, and I think about it, and I've been processing.

Have you ever read the story of redemption?

There's that little book, the little red book Ellen White has written.

In the first couple of chapters, she breaks down this conversation that the Father and the Son have.

Essentially, they're like, hey, we're going to make this new world.

But then there's an issue because the whole rebellion, Lucifer's rebellion happens, and he gets sent down to, if you were here this week, Tohu, Bohu.

He gets sent down to this blob of the earth without form and void.

And I ask myself this question, because you know he knows everything.

Would you create the world if you knew that the devil was going to be there?

A lot of people think about this, it's a huge question that's been debated and everything, and here's what I've come to the conclusion.

I've processed what would cause God to do such a thing?

As much as He didn't want sin to happen on this planet, As much as he didn't want his son to die on the cross, what's your name sister?

Give me some land, give me some trees, give me some bees, give me some knees, we're gonna have a world.

His love for you was greater than the mess that he was going to have to clean up with His Son's blood that the devil created.

And remember that what he says is going to happen is going to happen.

He says it's going to happen and then he tells somebody, Rick I'm going to tell you.

I'm going to give you some time to process this and get ready.

And then I'm going to raise somebody else up And they're going to be like, hey, hey, remember what Rick said?

And he goes, this is what's going to happen.

Just look at a couple of quick stories this morning of just really cool things of this to be true.

And here's what I found out, that these people that announced it, they weren't anything special.

And because of their faithfulness to the message, We now think that they're amazing because of what God did for them.

Some dude sees the British coming, he's like, they're coming, they're coming, they're coming.

We write poems about them, little children, they're coming here, the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

I mean, we think this guy's so amazing, right?

He essentially got on a horse and said, give everybody here...

But these people were just flesh and blood like you and me.

Verse 21, He loved the Lord so much that He named His Son, at His death it will come.

Now I know some of you, we have a lot of women here this morning.

Okay, we process like, what are we going to name our kid?

Oh, how does it sound with the last name and the middle name?

My wife and I had a really hard time naming our kids.

I was convinced that she just didn't want to name our daughter anything that I came up with.

I created a fake website, put a bunch of names that I knew she would hate, and then the 1 I really liked.

And I sent her the link and said, you should check out this website.

And the first word, alphabetical, she wanted an old English name that was really awesome.

So I named the website old English names that are awesome, like something so crazy that you would just think it would have to be true.

And I'm not going to name the other names, because that might be yours.

But anyway, what I did was, the first 1 was A, and we're going to have a girl.

And her name, it said Adelaide, which I absolutely love that name.

And I remember, because we weren't even together, we were on the phone and she goes, ooh, Adelaide, I love that name.

Want vs. Will

Let's ask the Lord's blessing to be with us.

Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to be with our brother Chad.

We just pray that your Holy Spirit would speak through him again today.

We ask your blessing to be with him and with us, Lord.

We plead and pray, for we cannot do it ourselves.

We have no strength in ourselves, and we need you.

We bless you, we praise you, and we come in Christ's name.

Has everybody, my mic, okay, we're good, we're good.

You click the thing and it advances the slide.

If any of you are interested in the stuff that I'm presenting, If you email me, I'll send you a PDF of all of it.

Some people like to take notes, some people don't like to take notes.

It kind of sounds arrogant, be like, you're gonna want to write this down.

That's not what I'm trying to be, but It's been really huge and a benefit to me.

And I just thought, if you want it, cool.

And we talked about what you do with freedom.

Once you have freedom, you all of a sudden decide on what you want.

And once you've decided on what you want, you go after it, right?

I mean, typically, when you think things through.

If you don't decide what you want, everything around you will decide what you get.

So like, being very purposeful, I believe, is intentional.

And intentional is a huge, huge thing in life.

So I'm gonna talk to you this morning about habits.

And we're gonna talk about some habits that are good and probably some habits that are bad, but just essentially, have you ever like, man, how'd that happen type of thing?

So I wanna read to you something that's kind of interesting.

Many are inquiring, how am I to make the surrender of myself to God?

You desire to give yourself to him, but you're weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin.

Like I really, truly want this here, but this is like the only part of my body that wants it.

My eyes, my ears, my heart, everything else is like no.

And you're wanting to figure out how to fix that.

Your promises, I can so relate to this, your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand.

You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections, the knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weaken your confidence in your own sincerity.

Like, you've tried to do it over and over again and you fail, fail, fail, until you start to think, man, maybe I don't even want this.

You've failed so many times that you question whether you're even in the right state of mind.

And causes you to feel that God cannot accept you.

But here's what she says, but you need not despair.

What you need to understand is the true force of the will.

This is the governing power in the nature of man.

Everything depends on the right action of the will.

The power of choice God has given to men, it is theirs to exercise.

Can you, I mean think about this, what people have done, even atheists have done with their will.

Remember that dude that was climbing, he got caught, his arm got caught?

He's like, yeah, I'm going to die if I can't get out of here.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out.

But he's just like, nee, nee, nee, nee, nee.

Because his will to survive was greater than his will to die, or his situation.

But God has given us this beautiful power.

If we surrender it to Him, anything is possible.

Doesn't the Bible say, I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength?

You cannot change your heart, you cannot change of yourself, give to God its affections.

He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

Thus, your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ.

Your affections will be centered upon Him.

Your thoughts will be in harmony with Him.

What she's basically saying is it's going to happen if you just give Him your will.

Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go.

Like, oh, I want to be such a good guy, or I want to do this, or I want to do that.

Steven Conway

Young Adult Sabbath School

Would you bow your heads with me for a word of prayer?

Loving Father and our God, truly there is nothing else that we can stand on that will give us a solid foundation other than Jesus.

As the Apostle Paul said, other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid in Jesus.

I pray that our time on this Sabbath and throughout the remainder of the days of camp meeting, that they might tend to help us to be more firmly planted on the rock, which is Christ Jesus.

May all of our challenges and all of the burdens that we brought into this place be lifted today as we worship you in spirit and in truth is what we ask in Jesus' name.

Thank you very much for helping the song service.

Brother Corey, I'm going to need you to, unless he left the clicker and thank you very, very much.

I'm excited about this cyber school program, but I must confess that I'm also a little bit hesitant.

I'm hesitant because in cyber school you're supposed to get participation and I'm hesitant about your willingness to participate.

But I think by the grace of God we'll do well today.

Now you all smiled when I talked about participation and now, okay, okay, you're going to build something.

You're going to work together as a team and you're going to build something.

Well you might have to talk to the people you're building with, but not to the congregation.

Watch these wonderful builders get, nobody heard what we said, my microphone was off.

So nobody knows what they're supposed to be building.

Let's give a hand to our builders, participants.

I wish I had so many more bricks, but the bricks disappeared.

Now, with the exception of our builders, I would like you all to take a guess as to what they were building.

And if they had more blocks, they could have made the little thingy that goes over and you turn it.

Somebody says, can I have those blocks and maybe I can cover them with something and I can make a nice fire pit in my backyard?

The Tower of Babel, oh man, yeah, it could be a Tower of Babel type of structure.

Somebody else, what were they trying to build?

An altar, okay, yeah, yeah, it could be an altar too.

A pillar, right, a pillar, right, like 1 that, I think it was King Josiah stood by and called all of the people to make a covenant or enter into a renewed covenant with the Lord.

Now I'm going to come back to the project that they were trying to construct here.

But I want to read something to you because this is a very important part of what we're gonna be talking about in cyber school today.

Isaiah chapter 55, and this is a, we're gonna read verses 1 through 13, and the version I have here is a little bit different, but you can read along in whatever version you have.

All right, and this is a familiar passage, or at least it should be.

We've heard at least some portion of this.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

It will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace.

No, no, she asked what version I'm using, right?

My wife did this for me, bless her heart.

So, the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn, instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree and instead of briars, the myrtle will grow.

All right, So God says here, he makes a promise, that when he sends his word out, it is going to bear fruit.

And what is the illustration in nature that God uses to assure us or to guarantee us that his word will produce fruit.

As the rain comes down, right, and like the snow, and they cause the earth to produce seed and so forth and so on.

Just like that process happens, and that process happens how often?

It happens all the time on a year by year basis.

We go through winter and we see everything dry up and then springtime comes, then we start seeing the changing colors, or not the changing colors, but we start seeing green to return again because of the moisture that has come and watered the earth.

Has your life, has your life produced fruit?

The type of fruit that God promises here in Isaiah chapter 55.

Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree and instead of briars the myrtle will grow.

And the reason this is important is because a lot of times in our Christian experiences, we get rid of stuff.

Everybody should raise their hands if you're a Christian.

All of us have gotten rid of stuff, but the challenge is what we have displaced is not replaced with that which is better.

1 of my favorite books, I think it's a book, Education, it says the watchword of true education is something better, something better.

So I want you to ask yourself, think with me this morning.

Has my life produced the type of fruit that God promises as a result of coming into contact with his word?

What do I mean coming into contact with God's word?

How many of you go to church on a weekly basis?

I'm not asking you if you study every day, but you study on a weekly basis, something, all right?

So that means that every week, I don't know how many days, but we are coming in contact with God's word.

And that means, according to what we just read in Isaiah chapter 55, that our lives ought to look a certain way.

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Series

Young Adults

Want vs. Will

Transcript

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Parent Conference

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