SWYC 2010: Stand

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GYC Southwest

Sebastien Braxton

Standing In the Midst of Pain

That's the reason we all are to love Him.

It is a privilege and an honor to be able to open God's word with you.

I know that by God's grace and by the movings of his spirit, we will not return home the same.

It's always my prayer when I get an opportunity to preach that God would help me to be a different man.

And so these themes challenge my own life.

I bring you greetings from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Guam, Micronesia.

That's where I've been spending the last month of my life.

And, you know, I used to get angry when Dr.

Pippin would say that, because in my mind nothing was happening.

But something must be happening, because he says there's something happening.

But now I see, having had the privilege to gallivant the earth to different places and meet with young people, different cultures, and to recognize that, as my good brother mentioned on the stage, there is a famine in the land.

And I recognize that the harvest is plenty.

And so I trust that as I come back to North America, Jesus says that when you're overwhelmed, you pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers.

I want you to know that I'm praying that some young people here this weekend, God will send you into his vineyard.

I'm, I used to be of the persuasion that the answer was just work harder, stay up later, get up earlier And I used to do those things.

And I recognized that you will live a short time in ministry.

And I had some of my friends canvassing, say, Sebastian, you know about James White, right?

Dedicated to the work, but if God is using you, you need to preserve yourself.

So we heard a presentation on souls, and I'm sure other ministries will be highlighted, but that God would touch young people's hearts to enter into his vineyard.

I cannot tell you how much work is to be done.

I just want to mention 2 things, and I'm just going to dive into my message after that.

First of all, when I was in Ethiopia, you can't go door to door in Ethiopia.

And when I was sitting down with the evangelism team, I'm like, what?

And apparently, there was some instance that happened in the history of the nation that used to be under communistic rule.

And so as a result of that, the nation decided to ban any such activity, not to mention that orthodox is very strong in that part of Africa, Ethiopian orthodox, Coptic orthodox, et cetera, et cetera.

And so they said, well, this is what we're going to do.

We're going to do a health expo at the Adventist School in Akaki, which is just outside Addis.

And so I went there to do the trust in God booth to counsel people.

So you get their little paper, their health age, and counsel from the doctors.

And so I'm trying to just kind of transition from the health into the trust in God.

So as I start counseling people, I'm recognizing that the Bible, you know, and the Spirit of Prophecy talks on the book Education, the chapter on faith and prayer.

She says that there is a time coming upon us where the mind, body, and spirit is engrossed, she says, for the desire for gain, and then she makes a phrase, she says, and the struggle for existence.

I don't think I understood what that meant until I went to Ethiopia.

People are literally struggling just to exist.

And you bring out your health principles and the lady says, I can't do that.

You're like, ma'am, you know, it's good to have some exercise time, some time for rest.

She says, I walk 12 miles to work every morning.

But she leaves her five-year-old and her three-year-old at home.

And her five-year-old daughter ties her three-year-old brother to her back and she goes out and begs the whole day hoping for money.

And her mother walks 12 miles home just hoping that her children are there and not kidnapped or placed into child trafficking.

You recognize that in counseling those people, after an hour, I had to get up.

I said, look, I need somebody to replace.

Because all I could literally do was pray for them.

They said, sure, I would love to have you pray for me.

I was doing a week of prayer at the SDA clinic in the morning and for the island in the evening.

And on Wednesday night, preached a message on acceptance.

And she has done some work for the SDA clinic and she's very familiar with 7 Day Adventists.

So she came to the meeting and my initial story was about my friend in Botswana, his wife.

And when I was preaching in Botswana about 6 years ago, the University of Gaborone, She wasn't coming to the meetings.

And I was wondering why she wasn't coming to the meetings and he gave me her background story, which I may share later on this weekend on Sunday night's message.

And as I told that story to start my message, The lady sent me an email subsequent to the sermon.

She left very briefly after the end of the message.

She said, send this to Sebastian and to Pastor Torres, because he's the president of Micronesia right now, the mission.

And she said the story that he told at the beginning of his sermon is my story, word for word, exact same experience.

She said she thought someone had told me that something had happened to her, or somehow we got a hold of the information, and they gave it to the preacher to go over and tell the story.

And she said that after that night, she went home, she prayed to God, she said, Lord, reorganize my schedule to make the rest of this man's meetings.

Then she brought her daughter, other people from the Baptist church.

And on Sabbath, we were overflowing in the church.

And you had even the pastor, the New Covenant Baptist Church, visiting the church.

Now you have a situation that 1 person cannot continue follow up and investment and discipleship in those lives.

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Standing In the Midst of Pain

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