GYC 2019: By Many Or By Few

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Plenary

Dean Cullinane

A Thousand Shall Run

This message was presented at the GYC conference by many or by few in Louisville, Kentucky.

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

How many of you are excited to be here this evening?

Friends, the first thing that I would like to do as we begin this conference is just give a rousing amen to those that have made it happen.

So many people, most of them here but some that cannot be here, have put so much time and effort into allowing this conference to be a possibility, and we believe that God is going to do something mighty over the next few days.

I was born in the Republic of Ireland, grew up in London, England.

My wife in here who was just on the stage, we've lived in the United States for exactly 4 years now as of last night.

The Lord blessed us with the opportunity and possibility to move to California where I've been studying at Weimar College, 1 of our advanced institutions there.

And I now work as The Dean at Weimar Academy.

I've heard all the jokes of Dean the Dean But I have the privilege of being there and working with some amazing young people From the ages of 14 to 18 and I'm excited as well to just praise the Lord because as of 2 weeks ago, I finished with school.

I'm very grateful that the Lord has led me through that.

And if I had to ask you to have a wild guess as to what it is or what it was that I was studying, I imagine that you would fall into 1 of 3 categories.

Surely I must either be studying theology, I must be studying education, or I must be studying something in the medical field, maybe nursing or pre-med.

And the reason, if you did pick 1 of those 3, I think is because as Adventists, it's almost as if that's just what we're meant to do.

It's almost as if those are the only 3 options available.

I mean if you went to a public secular university, you would have no chance at guessing what that person that you just walked up to is studying.

Zoology, meteorology, engineering, psychology, it's endless.

But if you go to an Adventist, you can look like a prophet if you just take a wild guess at 1 of those 3.

And if you did take a wild guess at 1 of those 3, you would be right.

But I think the reason why we fall into 1 of those categories is because we believe that especially there can we make a difference.

I believe within all of us gathered here this evening that there is a desire to truly make a difference.

So let's choose 1 of those categories, not my own.

How much difference can 1 doctor make in the world?

A group of researchers teamed up with an aspiring doctor that had the same desires to figure this out and they concluded that the average doctor adds to his patients a combined 140 years of life.

Now that's not an easy thing to put a number on, but that's the number they came to with a few degrees of variance.

Now using a standard conversion rate given by the World Bank, they've concluded that 30 extra years of life is considered a life saved.

So on average, a doctor, speaking about doctors in developing countries, save about 5 lives over the course of their career.

Now without wanting to devalue life or underappreciate the work of physicians, 5 lives doesn't seem like an awful lot.

Some doctors though, do achieve an awful lot.

Working in Burma and Bangladesh, he discovered a breakthrough treatment for patients suffering from diarrhea.

He figured out that giving patients water mixed with the specific and just right concentration of sugar and water they would rehydrate at the same rate in which they are losing fluids.

Since then, which was in 1968, the annual rate of death from diarrhea has dropped from 5000000 a year to 1.3 million.

So when you compare the numbers, he's saving hundreds of thousands of more people every year than the average doctor is today.

Those numbers though, dwindle when you compare them to that of Carl Landsteiner who discovered blood groups and changed the way that we even view anatomy and physiology.

Or consider once Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet army during the Cold War.

In 1983, Petrov was on duty as a Soviet missile base when early warning systems indicated to him that the United States had sent incoming missiles.

Protocol therefore dictated that the Soviet army returned the strike.

He reasoned that the number of missiles was far too few to warrant a counterattack and thereby disobeyed protocol.

If he had ordered a strike, there is at least a reasonable chance that hundreds of millions would have died.

The 2 countries would likely have entered into all-out nuclear war, leading to billions of deaths possibly.

If we're being conservative, we might say that Petrov saved 1000000000 lives, but even that could be an underestimation.

Because I feel as though wanting to make a difference is not enough.

Instead of trying to make a difference, I believe that we should be trying to make the difference.

You see, I don't want to just change things.

I want to completely transform and revolutionize them.

I remember shortly after I became an Adventist, I was called to this event.

If everyone reached 1 person, the world church would double in a year And when you look at that kind of exponential growth, we'd probably be going home very soon The problem is when everyone is set such a low target There's not a whole lot of motivation to meet it If I'm set that target in January 1 I can wait until December to try and reach my 1, and then December rolls on and I don't have enough time.

What if instead of each 1 reach 1, It became each 1 reach 1000 Well, you'd better start on January 2nd Friends I'm not comfortable with just bringing 1 person to Jesus Is bringing 1 person good absolutely Does heaven rejoice when 1 person comes to the Lord?

But what I want to speak to you about this evening is about making the difference, maximizing our reach and making the most amount of difference.

Being the ones that are responsible for changing the entire world.

Because when I read the Bible, that is what I see.

I see people that would not settle for anything less than complete transformation.

And when I look at the story of Jonathan and his armor bearer in 1 Samuel chapter 14, that is what I see.

Friends, the title for this evening's message is, A Thousand Shall Run.

Father in heaven, this is your time, this is your stage, this is your Word.

We ask that You would speak to our hearts and change us even now.

I often hark on about reading the Bible for the first time again.

I know It doesn't make much sense at first, first listen, but could you imagine going over the stories that you know so well for the first time and receiving them as fresh as they were that very first time you went through?

I actually started a ministry, a podcast on this very idea, it's called Why They Did That.

We have a booth over there, big yellow booth, that we'd love you to come and check out, about helping you to read the Bible again for the very first time.

You see, we know the stories, but we often don't know why they're there.

It's more than a storybook, and it's more than a collection of storybooks.

The Bible is a manual, a manual on how to live.

And the stories here in the Old Testament are recorded not so that we would know the right order of history, but so that we would be able to enter into the Scriptures so that we will be transported back millennia and look through the characters that we love so dearly and look through, look through them so deeply that we would see ourselves in them.

If you were to go through the story of 1 Samuel chapter 13 and 14, you would get there having a decent understanding of what is taking place in Israel.

There's 2 main players, there's Samuel and there's Saul.

One's the prophet, the other 1 is the king.

And if you continue to read through, if you'll turn with me please to 1 Samuel chapter 13.

We're introduced to the character in whom GYC's key theme is, has come from.

It says in verse 1 of 1 Samuel 13, Saul reigned 1 year and when he had reigned 2 years over Israel, Saul chose him 3, 000 men of Israel, whereof 2, 000 were with Saul and 1, 000 were with Jonathan and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent.

Verse 3, and Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba and the Philistines heard of it and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land saying, let the Hebrews hear.

If you're reading this for the first time, who is Jonathan?

The Great Gates of Hell

I hope that you had a major blessing at the seminars today and that you're ready for outreach tomorrow, amen?

Young people, rightly trained, can change the world.

I believe that education is paramount to the success of our church.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has associations with over 8, 500 educational institutions with over 1.95 million students across the world.

You can believe in those statistics, I got them straight from Wikipedia.

Of all the churches in the world, we have the largest network of educational institutions behind only the Catholic Church.

The true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul.

And working within education, I see just how difficult this can be.

This is something that we cannot do in our own strength.

Many months back in preparing for this message, I came across a quote by the great German reformer Martin Luther.

He says, I am much afraid that the universities will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the hearts of the youth.

I advise no 1 to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount.

Every institution in which men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God shall become corrupt." Friend, the title for this evening's message is The Great Gates of hell.

Father in heaven, we pray for your presence, for your spirit, and for your power.

I believe that Adventism's very identity can be found in the 3 angels' message, the everlasting Gospel.

You cannot discuss the history nor the presence, the presence of our church without this chapter.

It is absolutely fundamental to who we are, To what we are, to when we are, and why we are.

And I think that we would do our best at putting it to memory.

For it is in the first angel's message when the words, fear God and give Him the glory for the hour of His judgment has come, that Josiah Fitch was awakened.

That William Miller was given added impetus to preach the message of the Lord and that the—and that heralded the birth of the great Advent movement.

Ellen White stated that the theme of greatest importance is the third angel's message.

Embracing the messages of the first and second angels, all should understand the truths contained in these messages and demonstrate them in the daily life for they are, listen to this, essential to salvation.

But what does this have to do with education?

Sister White says that the true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul.

The third angel's message is not a complex 1, it is about receiving the seal of God in the mind.

It is about the mind being transformed into the very mind of Christ and that, my friends, is also the work of education.

It was in vision in 1872 that Ellen White wrote, it comprehends, speaking of education, the practice of temperance, of godliness, of brotherly kindness, and love to God and to 1 another.

And in order to attain this object, the physical, the mental, the moral and religious education of children must have attention.

Friends, I hope that this is not new to you, but I fear that it might be.

The purpose of education and the purpose of school is to save souls.

Your soul, your friend's soul, your classmate's soul, your teacher's soul, and your community's soul.

God can save by few or by many, but He has blessed us with such educational institutions because His desire is to save by many.

This is why the very first Adventist schools were erected with this missionary focus.

Of course, so that you could communicate the gospel effectively.

Yes, so that you could support yourself in the gospel work.

Adventist education had a focus, a mission, a theme, with such An army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish how soon the message of a crucified, risen and soon coming Savior might be carried to the whole world.

Friends, I ask you, does that exist today?

Do our schools bear the name of this God-given movement?

Do they still have this philosophy built into the dorms?

Does it unite the student body in mission?

The quote that I just read concludes, how soon might come the end, the end of suffering and of sin.

But it seems to me that sometimes the goal of education looks like it's not to get rid of sin and bring this world to an end, but rather to make our experience in it more comfortable.

As the great reformer Melancthon once said, religion cannot be maintained without schools.

And if you're on the opinion that the church may be struggling, then by default, our Educational institutions cannot be reaching the goals and standards that heaven desires.

Our brief history, mind you, is littered with great schools that eventually lost their greatness, some of which don't even exist anymore.

If you trace the lines through history, if you look at places such as Battle Creek, if you look at Madison, if you go even before the Advent movement and look at Bible schools such as Oberlin College and a little further back even Harvard, you will see a pattern and a trend.

When these educational institutions ceased in making the Scriptures their core textbook, God's blessing upon them also slowly ceased.

Friends, when sociology begins to trump theology, we are sliding down the slipperiest of slopes.

Over time, many of our great Protestant universities dispelled their Christian undertones in favor of funding and worldly acclamation.

In Testimonies volume 5, we're told that The Lord never designed that our colleges should imitate other institutions of learning.

The religious element should be the controlling power.

Friends, a true Christian school not only has the Bible in its curriculum, Bible principles are the guides of the student's life, and the spirit of the Bible is the sole inspiration of the school.

The school must be more than a place for the distribution of information.

We're told that the world does not need so much men of great intellect, as much noble character.

Just why it says that character building is the most important work ever entrusted to human beings.

What the world, I believe, needs to see today is the power of the Gospel.

And that is most clearly seen when the character of Jesus Christ is reproduced in His people.

But to what end does our education work towards today?

Very often I believe it is towards the uplifting of self.

We usually go to school not for the Lord, but for ourselves.

The focus shifts from salvation to success.

Friends, I believe that Success in heaven looks very different to success on earth.

Friends, I believe that God wants to bless our institutions.

But heaven places no value in worldly success.

It cares not about our cars or our homes.

It cares not about our income or our status.

Its agencies are moved no more for those that have PhDs than those that have never been to school.

That's why it's the only thing we're going to take with us.

Jesus Christ came to set us free from the bondage and slavery of sin.

But so often we enslave ourselves to wealth and material things when a fire is coming, friends, that is so hot that not even the purest gold will stand in its place.

And if you think that perhaps we do have the right focus, let me ask you a question.

With all of the Adventist young people we have in schools, How many Adventist businesses are we producing?

You tell me whether we are truly educating people to take forward the work of the Lord or whether we are just teaching them how to make money for the world.

Character is to be the focus of our educational institutions.

My fear though is that on many grounds, academics is beginning to trump discipleship.

I remember being in church and witnessing the return of 1 of my friends after they had spent 4 years in school, they come back with their degree, called up to the front of the sanctuary and given a rousing applause because they have found success.

The problem though, and I know this because they told me this, is that in the same place they found success, they lost Christ.

Friends, it is no victory to achieve worldly status and miss out on a heavenly 1.

What about the students that leave to secular universities And they drop out because they just see they can't maintain their faith.

And they come home and they sit at the back of the church.

Jonathan Walter

GYC Prayer Mission: Iceland

Prayer and faith will do what no power on earth can accomplish.

This is the inspired council that we've been given and as GYC we have made a decision to follow that council this last year.

In August 2019 almost 50 young and old missionaries from around the world, from every continent, came together in Iceland for a prayer mission.

The goal was to reach the country of Iceland within 10 days, just through the power of prayer.

No public evangelistic meetings, no health seminars, no programs, just prayer.

A prayer that echoed the prayer of John Knox, give me Iceland or I die.

The video you just saw was the introduction of a documentary that we'll be releasing soon.

I want to encourage you to make sure that you get a glimpse of what happened there.

But this morning we want to share with you about this mission and what made this mission special and what the power of prayer can do for you in your sphere of influence.

When we were in Iceland, we chose to prayer walk the country.

Most of the population of Iceland lives in the capital region of Reykjavik, where 75% of the people live.

And we focused our attention on that region where we would pray a walk around the city, pray a walk the streets, pray for every home and every person that we see, knock on doors and pray with people.

You're going to be hearing testimonies this morning about what prayer can do when we let God take control.

When we prayed, we would collect prayer requests of people.

We would share them live with all the missionaries and with thousands around the world who were interceding at the same time.

This was truly a collective effort of prayer.

This and more we want to share with you this morning.

And I have my 3 friends here, Eric, Alex, and Jem, who are part of the GYC missions team and who were with us in Iceland.

So Eric, why can't you share with us a little bit about how this mission came about and what were some of the challenges that we faced?

Yes, you know, as we came to this mission trip, we asked ourselves the question, what could we do that would be bigger than we thought we could accomplish?

Because as we all know, you know, Jesus told the disciples, He said, if you have faith the size of a what?

A mustard seed, you could move mountains.

So we said, God, if we wanted to do something bigger than we could ever imagine, what would that look like?

And so, in our discussion, the theme for last year was to the end.

And so we said, well, what if we went to the end of the world and we decided to reach not a town, not a city, but an entire country for God.

To reach the majority or all of the population of an entire country.

To go beyond where we have ever gone before, to take the sacrificial initiative that we were inspired to take care of GYC and to be propelled into Iceland to make a difference.

We set out to go, not to run evangelistic campaigns, not to go witnessing in traditional ways, but to just go and pray, to have that faith and to see what God would do, to see Him move the mountains that we couldn't even begin to shift.

1 of the challenges, we arrived the first day and we realized that the campus that we were staying on did not have enough housing.

There were not enough rooms for everyone that had signed up.

Somehow there'd been a miscommunication of some kind and so here we are and we're short on rooms.

And so we're there and we ended up chatting with some of the people there, and as it turned out, 2, 3 days before, there was supposed to be a men's group that was staying there in the second dormitory.

And for some reason or another, they had just neglected to show up.

And so they opened up the second dorm for us to be able to stay in.

And as far as we're concerned, God caused another group to vanish just so that he could open kind of this ocean for us to be able to walk through and do what he had called us to do in Iceland.

So Eric, tell me a little bit about, you remember we had phone calls and discussions about this mission.

We weren't sure how would we do this, what would we be doing, the challenges we went through in the preparation time.

Yeah, so I mean honestly to pull off reaching an entire country is no joke.

I mean, it takes a lot of logistics, it takes just an incredible amount of planning to be able to map out every street in the entire city.

Some of these things didn't get done ahead of time.

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