GYC 2018: To The End

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

You are Needed!

Dan Serns

1. How to Share the Adventist Message in 30 Seconds

This message was presented at the GYC To The End in Houston, Texas.

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

Eternal Father in heaven, you are right here with us.

You impressed each person here to come to this seminar at this time for a reason.

And Lord, I pray that We'll be able to share simple tools that will help more and more and more people be workers in the harvest.

And more and more people be agents for you.

And more and more people see what a beautiful movement this is, that they can unite with very rapidly.

So the title of this particular seminar is, How to Share the Adventist Message in 30 Seconds.

Could you ask everybody to raise their hand if they have a seat open?

If you have an open seat near you, raise your hand.

And if you're from parts of Asia where I've traveled, you can sit right up here or other places here.

And we'll fill in all the empty seats and then we don't mind standing room only and all the rest.

This lady has 2 seats, it's not that She's Pentecostal, okay?

I don't know, maybe she, I believe in Pentecost, okay.

So come on in, there's some seats right up here.

Okay, and a few hands that are here mean there's seats there too, okay?

So follow the raised hand, follow the leaders.

There we go, and you got some right back here, over here.

Like I said earlier, there's room for Everyone here, just like heaven, so come on in.

Yeah, if you have any, follow people, they've raised their hands because they wanna sit by you.

And I'm going to designate all of you, if you're sitting on these 2 seats anywhere near this door, keep an eye out for people right there.

And so you can get to them first to welcome them and help them find a place even if you give up your seat so they can, you know, whatever you need to do, okay?

This is how it should be in church, right?

So when people come in, they don't have to look around.

If they left their comfort zone to come to ours, we need to do what we can to leave our comfort zone to go to them.

Yes, there are 3 chairs right here and a table to sit on.

I had the privilege of pastoring, well, people are getting settled.

I had the privilege of pastoring the Richardson Seventh-day Adventist Church on the north side of Dallas, and it was on fire for Jesus.

It's so exciting to be a part of a church that's on fire for Jesus.

We did some simple things there and saw that church just grow and grow and grow.

And in the 6 and a half years I was there, it was already growing before I got there, God is at work.

We went from 600 members to 970 members and planted 3 churches along the way.

And my last 3 seminars will be about some of the little simple things we did that can be done in any church of any size, any culture, anywhere.

The first 3 seminars are how you can share individually.

The last 3 are how your church can grow and multiply like God intended, okay?

So, but at Richardson, we got seating like this.

And so, I would be in the lobby trying to help people find seats and my wife would be helping try to find seats and we'd already had a second service and now both of them were full.

And we saw some people leaving just before the second service.

No, no, no, both of us were sitting in 1 of the chairs in the aisle, but when we got up to use the restroom, we came back, 2 other people were sitting there.

Now, I believe God intends that for our churches.

Some churches should never have been built that big.

They need to be built smaller so we multiply churches, okay?

So we're not just trying to fill up these big vacuous buildings.

We may need to resell that building and plant 3 or 4 churches, okay?

And some of you may know too, is this being recorded?

Okay, I'm gonna turn this off for a moment.

Okay, Now that we have more people here, we'll get started again.

We'll have 1 more invitation for the Lord to open our hearts.

Save us from distractions so that we can grasp whatever you have for us.

And Lord, take my 5 loaves and 2 fish and multiply it to feed many.

How to share the Adventist message in 30 seconds.

You'll be done with this seminar very soon and can go to another seminar.

No, we're going to talk a little bit about why.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.

I'm going to unpack this but right now I want to focus on gospel.

In the 3 angels message in Revelation 14 it talks about the everlasting gospel.

There aren't different gospels in different dispensations like a lot of Christians have been taught.

There are not different ways to be saved in the Old Testament than the New Testament than today.

There was only 1 way to ever be saved, and that is to put your trust fully in the only 1 who can be your Savior.

And now in the Old Testament time, they had sacrifices to remind them a Savior was coming so they could put their trust in Him.

After that, we know about Jesus and we put our trust fully in the only 1 who can save us.

3. How To Share the Adventist Message in 30 Minutes

This message was presented at the GYC to the end in Houston, Texas.

Welcome to the seminar, How to Share the Adventist Message in 30 Minutes.

All right, how many of you were here for 1 of the other 2 seminars?

How many of you went on outreach yesterday?

How many of you have already tried to think about or at least or try using Some of the things you learned from yesterday.

Okay, good for those who raised their hand.

Those who just said, well, I enjoy it, do something with it.

Now, here's something that happened this morning just about 20 minutes ago.

And I know that many people eat in their rooms or other places.

How many of you eat your meals in the eating area here?

Okay, I want you to especially listen to me.

This is Leslie and Carla, actually it's Carla and Leslie.

If you were eating there this morning, they helped to service.

And they were working at the, I think, dry cereal area and all of that.

So I saw them and I said, thank you so much for your service.

I'd like to give you something to enjoy on your break.

And I handed them 3 things, a love letter from Jesus, la Biblia y la nutricion, and espanol, both of them speak.

And I said, yes, and my language, my life card.

And they're so thankful, and they said, do you have Spanish Bibles?

And Leslie on the right said, see, yes, yes.

And I said, I will see what I can do to see.

You know, we shouldn't promise if we can't follow through.

So I can't promise, but I'm going to see what I can do to see, I can't promise.

So I can't promise, but I'm going to see what I can do to get, if there are Spanish Bibles around, we can get to you.

I said, are you working breakfast tomorrow?

And they said, no, just today, lunch today.

So I'm just going to ask right here if we can find somebody or 2 people or a team of people who will go on a mission at some point in time, see if you can hunt down any Spanish Bibles anywhere and hunt up Leslie and Carla, who will be working lunch in that area.

Do I have any volunteers who will say, I'm going to try to get a Spanish Bible or 2 to them?

Both of you stand up and look at each other so you can work together on this, okay?

Okay, be sure you get together afterwards, all right?

All right, the seminar after this 1 is to have how to rapidly mobilize people in ministry and mission, and this is what we just did.

Okay, we'll talk about more ways to do that in your own home church.

So now, and really, Moses went to Pharaoh and said, let my people go.

And that's really what God wants to say to all of his church people.

Let them go out and do what they're intended to do.

Not just come and sit and soak and sour, but to go and be revived and renewed.

I like what Pastor Gary Blanchard told me 1 time.

He said, I figure if I'm working hard to bring as many people into the church as possible, I'm not going to burn down the church.

And people who are wanting to burn down the church aren't bringing very many people into it.

And we don't have to get caught up in major discussions and debates with them.

We're going to be about our Father's business.

So don't get up, you can get into certain chat rooms and social media things and debates and discussions and think that you are 3 clicks away from saving the church and saving the world.

It's about sharing Jesus and his word and his final movement and inviting people in, okay?

Eternal Father in heaven, you are here before any of us came into this room.

And we invite you to do your work in our minds and our hearts, in our lives, through our hands and feet and through our voices that only you can do.

And help us, Lord, to not just have 1 more seminar under our belt, but to use this very, very soon, today or within the next few days, to make an eternal difference in other people's lives, knowing it will transform our lives.

In Jesus' wonderful and precious name I pray, amen.

Okay, those of you who were here when we talked about how to share the Adventist message in 30 seconds.

You know, there's not a rote script, but there are 4 ingredients.

Somebody says, what is a Seventh-day Adventist?

We believe that everyone in the world would be happier and better off if they accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord, their Creator, their Healer, their soon coming King, their Intercessor.

If they accepted Jesus in charge of every part of their life, if they took the Bible as God's voice speaking to them, And they said, Lord, send your Holy Spirit to change me and help me to walk in these ways.

And then they got together with other godly people who had the same mind to work together to take the good news to all the world that Jesus loves them and love and is coming soon again.

And many people say, wow, I could agree with that.

And then you say, you'd make a great Seventh-day Adventist.

Invite them in because this message isn't a branch of Christianity, a branch of Protestantism, a branch of Evangelicalism, a branch of the Millerite movement, and then we get down to this little thing called Seventh-day Adventist.

This is a movement of God that calls people out of every bit of false religion into God's final movement.

Nobody is better than anybody here, but we're inviting everybody to be on the bus because Jesus invited us on the bus.

Okay, now that's kind of an expansion of the 30 seconds, but You got that.

Then when we talked about the 5 minutes, we especially focused on the acronym FORT, F-O-R-T, family, occupation, religious background, and testimony, so that we begin asking people questions to find out where they're from, and if they have siblings, and if they grew up here, and things about family.

So we're listening and entering into their world.

And then we ask them questions about occupation.

So we are understanding that part of their world.

2. How to Share the Adventist Message in 5 Minutes

Eternal Father in heaven, I know that you want to come back soon, send Jesus back soon, and you want to use us as agents in taking the gospel to all the world in this generation.

And Lord, thank you for everybody in this room and anybody who might hear this seminar afterwards and recorded.

Or anybody who might learn from somebody in this room.

And I pray, Lord, that the simple things that I offer will be used and multiplied by you to feed thousands.

And Lord, help us to always remember it's your Holy Spirit at work in others and in us, but that you are giving us tools we can use.

I just wanna affirm that what I share, how to share the Adventist message in 5 minutes, is not some secret formula mantra that will always work.

It's the Holy Spirit that changes hearts.

But let me explain some things that I think sometimes there's confusion.

Some people think if I pray enough for the Holy Spirit somehow the Holy Spirit's going to come and the whole world will know.

And so I'm going to do something else and hope the Holy Spirit comes and I'll pray.

No, there are, there's the Holy Spirit and there are skills that are like tools in a toolbox and it works like this.

If you are filled with the Holy Spirit it does not mean you know how to use a hammer.

It does not mean you know how to use pliers.

It does not mean you know how to use a hammer.

It does not mean you know how to use a screwdriver.

A person filled with the Holy Spirit can still hit their own thumb with a hammer if they don't know what they're doing.

But when you learn skills, the Holy Spirit's role is to help you learn good skills for witnessing And to help you know which tool to use in which situation at what time.

And then override whatever you did wrong.

Somebody said if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, you think every problem is a nail.

And that's how some people witness, okay?

So we're gonna give tools within recognition we need the Holy Spirit every moment of every day to do the work in others before we get there and in us and all of that.

So how to share the Adventist message in 5 minutes.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

If you could share the Adventist message in 5 minutes, it would go a whole lot faster than if it took 100 hours.

How long do you think it takes for a person to become a Seventh-day Adventist?

Okay, now how long did it take the Ethiopian eunuch to become a Seventh-day Adventist in Acts chapter 8?

It took probably a couple or 3 hours and it took all of his life.

But here's a key that I did not get for so much of my ministry that I'm going to share with you who are younger than me, which is most of you now, okay?

The Lord is already working on all people everywhere of all religious backgrounds and denominations and religions to bring them more and more light and more and more truth.

And our job is to help him take next steps rapidly.

And so with Philip, who was not a pastor, he's a deacon, he asked the Lord to lead him to somebody that day.

And God says, go out here to this road going into the desert and you'll find somebody.

Well, God doesn't always tell us that, but He will show us.

And so Philip goes out there and by the way, the Ethiopian was traveling how?

Do you see why we have the health message?

It's so you can keep up with your interests.

So if you're not used to exercising, start for the sake of the gospel.

And so God had already brought the Ethiopian and he was reading what book of the Bible?

Now those were scrolls back then, but he was reading the book of Isaiah.

They didn't have chapters and verses back then, we know that, right?

But he's reading through the book of Isaiah, and what chapter was he at according to the way we see chapters?

So, anybody know how many chapters are in the book of Isaiah?

God had already brought him that far and he sent Philip into his life to bring him the last part.

There will be many people in your life, if you're tuned in to God, that God has already brought a long distance and you just help him.

So yesterday between Sabbath school and church, I was sitting in the main auditorium, enjoyed both Sabbath school and church, but it's between Sabbath school and church.

And here's a group of young people from Mission Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And I knew some of them, I didn't know others of them.

And so I got to know them and took a picture and talking and visiting.

And I found out that this young lady and her brother recently moved from Washington State back to the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexico border to go to Mission Hope.

But they'd been here before they left and then they came back.

And then 1 of the guys I know in the church pointed out these young people, and I got into a conversation with your brother.

And I was talking about sharing your faith and witnessing, and either he said it, I think he said it, or maybe 1 of the other people said it, said, I'm not baptized.

When somebody says that, you know what that means.

Okay, this yesterday in this building, okay?

Now we're not talking about something that happened years ago.

Right here in this building yesterday, I'm not baptized.

Is there anything that would make it difficult for you to follow Jesus and be baptized like he was?

Okay, and he said, well, I need to study more.

And I said, how much more do you need to study?

Now, sometimes a person says that because they realize I don't really understand some of the truths I need to know so I can act on them.

4. How to Find Receptive People for Soul Winning

Father in heaven, you know that I am not worthy to be teaching a seminar.

I am not worthy to be a pastor, a minister.

I am not worthy to be a Christian, but I find all my worthiness in Jesus.

And He has done it for me and for all of us.

And because of that, Lord, I can stand here boldly in Your name and Your power, speaking on your behalf.

And if I say things I should not say, or say them in the wrong way, I pray that you will cover that, change that, change it between my voice and the ears of the hearers.

Because Lord, what we all want more than anything else is to know you, to love you, to serve you, to share you, and to see this gospel go to all the world in this generation, and you come again.

So help this to be a little part in that process in Jesus' name.

Series

You are Needed!

3. How To Share the Adventist Message in 30 Minutes

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Most Important Book Outside of the Bible - A Deeper Look at The Great Controversy

01-The Most Important Book Outside of the Bible

1h

The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Sabbath School

The Life of Sabbath School

58m

GYC 2012 Seminar: The Calling - Living and Knowing God's Will For Me

Detours and Redemption

52m

You are Needed!

2. How to Share the Adventist Message in 5 Minutes

1h 8m

Making Sons of Hell? The Don’ts and Do’s of Soul Winning

Addressing Objections and Answering Difficult Bible Questions

1h 2m

Till I Die: A Study on the Commonality of Tears, Blood, and Sweat

Burn the Boats: Challenges to Commitment

1h 11m

The Great Controversies: Relativism's Beauty and Fundamentalism's Beast

On What Basis: The Beginning of Controversy

1h

The GLOW Ministry: A Literature Phenomenon

2. 12 Easy Ways: Creative Ways to Personally Begin Sharing GLOW

50m

Relentless Prayer

2. Relentless Prayer

51m

A Call To Arms: How to Fully Engage In God's Church

1. Red Tape to Red Carpet: Your Unique Participation in the Global Adventist Church

59m

Laodicea Study

Laodicea Study Recap

30m

Bob Folkenberg, Jr. - Evangeliving: The Great Commission in Action

God’s Marine Corps and You

1h

Sound Doctrine