WYC 2011: Alive Again!

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GYC West

Plenary Meetings

Chester Clark

Contrition, Repentance, Conversion, and the Keeping of the Covenant

You know, I was thinking, I was reflecting this evening about the many times I've visited here at the Weimar campus and the many youth conferences I've been able to attend.

Though this is my first time to Western Youth Conference.

And I was thinking of the many sermons that I've preached, and I sort of realized I had this sort of sensation.

This is sort of marks an ending in my life.

I realize this is the last time that I'm going to be visiting Weimar, and my last youth conference.

And last time I'll be speaking to young people.

And in fact, this weekend will be my last sermons as a single man.

Because next Sunday, I'll be getting married.

And so I feel grateful to be able to spend.

I know that seems like quite an accomplishment, but I'm grateful to be able to spend this time with you.

Some people have said to me, you know, you're going the weekend before your wedding.

But The fact is that I had agreed to be here before I knew I'd be getting married next week.

So I'm trying to keep my commitments as I make new ones.

And I hope to be here many more times with the love of my life.

And she would like to be here today, but it didn't seem wise.

But her parents are here today, so I'm thankful to have my future in-laws visiting today, Mr.

Today we're going to be talking about revival and reformation.

We're going to be talking about what it means to begin a new life with Jesus.

And so as we do so, I think it would be wise for us to spend a moment to ask God's blessings, God's presence here among us.

Father in heaven, today we are grateful that you've given to us so many blessings.

Thank you for bringing us here to this beautiful place, this sanctuary in nature as well as in time, when we can come apart and We can focus on your word and on what you would have us to learn and to know and to grow in.

Today, I just want to pray that you'll be with these few minutes that we have together, that you'll be with my lips, that you will hide me behind the cross of Christ.

That Jesus might be able to be seen in a personal way.

That his voice might be heard speaking to each heart.

Lord, that we might be drawn closer to Him, closer to being prepared for His coming, and to be able to be revived, to experience that new life that can change the world.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Judges, Judges chapter 2, and we're going to be looking here at the story of the children of Israel.

Judges chapter 2, This is taking place after the Israelites have entered Canaan, but before the death of Joshua.

Now, if you think about the context of this passage, you think about the context of what is going on here, You remember that the Israelites have seen a lot of things in their lifetime.

Although most of those who have, who actually left Egypt have already died during the 40 years of wandering, right?

There are still those who have seen the miracles as they've been through those 40 years in the wilderness.

They perhaps, they perhaps seen some of the other miracles that have gone on day after day.

They've seen the crossing of the Jordan River.

They've seen the miracles of the falling of Jericho and so forth and so on.

They've seen God doing mighty works, right?

So these people know something about God.

They know that they are believers in the true God.

They've seen their God compared to the God of the Canaanites and the Philistines and they have decided, they've had evidence to decide that their God is the true God.

And if you find here In Judges chapter 2, you read here these first few verses that even though they knew about the God of heaven, they knew about the God that they worshipped, they still had a problem.

So there was a special messenger sent to them.

It says, An angel or messenger of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you unto the land which I swore unto your fathers.

And I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

And you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land.

You shall throw down their altars." That was the agreement that God had made with Israelites.

In fact, all the way back, If you look in Genesis chapter 17, you see the agreement that he had made with Abraham.

It was a covenant that had been made with Abraham and with his descendants.

But yet the last part of this verse says, But you have not obeyed my voice.

If we could try to understand what Israel must have been thinking, I suppose as they entered the land, I'm just giving them the benefit of the doubt here, but I suppose that as good believers in the true God, they had every intention of doing what God had told them to do, wouldn't you guess?

Wouldn't you think they had an intention of doing the right thing?

They intended to drive out the Philistines and the Amorites and all the rest of those who said should not stay in Canaan.

They intended to do that, but they hadn't quite gotten around to it.

You know, a child sometimes is told by his or her parent to do something.

If a child is told by their parent to do something, and they say, OK, I'll do it, but they keep playing or keep doing what they had been doing before.

They will in their own good time, When they get around to it, when it's convenient, when they feel like it, is that obedience?

But I think that's what the Israelites had done.

I think that's the situation they found themselves in.

I'm guessing because they were good people like you and I are good people.

They were believers in the true God, they knew about the God of Heaven, I'm guessing that they intended to obey God.

They just hadn't quite gotten around to it yet.

It wasn't something that was important enough to be high on the agenda today.

I mean, after all, they had their daily life to take care of, you know?

We tend to think of people in 2011 as being very, very busy.

Maybe we're busier than in previous eras.

But I think probably people in every age have always been busy.

And when you have to grow the food you're going to eat that day, it's a different type of busyness than we even ourselves have today.

And they were busy, and they hadn't quite gotten around to doing what God had told them to do.

And in fact, it hadn't quite taken a high priority in their life.

It hadn't come to the point where it was first place, because if it had been first place in their life, they would have already accomplished it.

Eugene Prewitt

Reading God’s Requirements

Our Father in Heaven, I ask that you would bless me for your own purposes, that you would please speak through me this evening, that you would make your word to be understood, that you would use it to do the very thing you want to do.

I don't write the stories down, so I don't know when they happened.

But it was Blue Mountain Academy in Pennsylvania.

And I had a collection of boys there that I didn't know.

I asked them, do you know what Ellen White says about grace?

And I asked, do you know what she says about the seal of God?

I really don't remember the questions I asked them, but These are like the questions I asked them.

And after I asked a few of these questions about things that Ellen White has written about a great deal, I asked them, do you know what Ellen White wrote about bicycles?

They all knew what she wrote about bicycles.

Now, this is very interesting to me, because I've read.

I don't want to say I've read a lot in the testimonies because there is a lot in the testimonies, right?

And I know that if Ellen White has had this much to say about grace and this much about the seal of God, she has had this much to say about bicycles.

And it's very interesting to me that people would know that.

Isn't that interesting to you that they would know?

It's because there is a knowledge about inspiration that we learn from others.

And there is a knowledge about inspiration that we learn from our own study.

And for many people in the days of Jesus, that first body was much larger than the second.

That is what they knew from inspiration that they had gathered from hearing from other people, there was more of that.

Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 28.

Tonight I'm speaking to you about reading God's requirements.

And part of me wants to give a Bible study about how to study the Bible, but that takes a long time.

But if I did, we would start in verse 9 and 10.

And we would start out with this idea, who will God teach knowledge?

Isn't that who you want to be, the person that God teaches?

The question, who will God teach, is answered by these 2 ideas.

It is those that are weaned from human dependence.

If we had a, well there is a baby here, I can hear it right there, okay.

If you have a baby and you don't feed the baby, What happens to the baby?

What if you don't feed him for a long long like weeks?

The baby will die isn't the baby entirely dependent on being fed?

Now if you invite me to your house for a meal that I'm able to go I will be thankful You have to invite my wife too, but we will be thankful.

But if you don't feed me, I'm not going to die.

That's right, I'll get some food for myself if you don't feed me.

And what I'm trying to do is illustrate for you Isaiah 28, 9.

It's the idea, God isn't saying that you need to be so independent that you don't learn from anyone, but if you want to be taught of God, you're going to have to be willing to go directly to him, to the source, for your help.

Because as long as your fear toward him is taught by the precept of men, there is too much room for you to be confused.

The second answer given in verse 9 and 10 is that you need to take precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.

And despite the pundits who would say the opposite, God very plainly indicates that if you want him to teach you, you're going to have to compare scripture with scripture.

You're gonna have to do it, to take 1 piece and another piece.

Verse 11 and 12 is helpful if you want to give a Bible study on the gift of tongues.

It's quoted by Paul in his chapter on tongues, but we're not there either.

Verse 14 says, excuse me, verse 13, but the word of the Lord was unto the, Isaiah 28, just a moment.

And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to 1 that has learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee.

And he says, I cannot, for it is sealed." This verse so illustrates the condition of many people.

They would like to understand the Bible, but the problem they have is they know they can't.

They tried it, they didn't get it, they read it, and it doesn't make any sense, and so their solution is to go to someone who has a lot of education, and they give it to him to explain.

And what he has to say about it is, well, in this verse what he says is it can't be understood.

Verse 12, and the book is delivered to him that has not learned, saying, read this, I pray thee.

Do you see here that these people are not ready to be taught of God?

What was the first condition of being taught of God?

It was to be weaned from human dependence.

Trying to find someone that will explain it to you.

Wherefore the Lord said, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men." Jesus quotes this verse in the New Testament.

The Bible indicates, for reasons that I think are well illustrated by the Blue Mountain Academy experience, that I cannot afford to have my fear toward God by third party.

My fear toward God, I can't afford to have that come by preceptive men.

They're likely to be confused themselves.

If I have a series of points I want to present to you, talking about the Bible, the first 1 is 1 you've known for a long time and you already know it.

And so all I can hope to do is make you think about it more.

And that is we need to study this book personally.

We have to go after understanding this ourself.

And he is willing to teach us if we are willing to be weaned, to be drawn away from dependence on someone else.

Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 17.

Deuteronomy 17 is a chapter that shows that though David and Solomon were good kings in many ways, at least David for almost most of his life and Solomon for 2 parts of it, yet these men did not practice God's requirements the way that they could have.

Deuteronomy chapter 17, and we're going to look at verse 16.

Andy Im

Rachel Nelson

Steve Wohlberg

Question and Answer Session

Dear Jesus, I ask that your presence will be here with us through the Holy Spirit and that everything that is said and done will be according to your will and that you'll help us learn something more about you about the Bible and about your will for our lives Because of our time together in Jesus name.

Amen So why don't we start down at the end with pastor Wohlberg if you could introduce us Maybe say just a little bit about your ministry and then tell it there's a microphone right beside Andy there You 3 are gonna share 1 and then we're gonna share 1 Tell us a little bit about yourself, your ministry, and then tell us the most common question that young people ask you and feel free to go ahead and answer it.

Okay, I'll have to think about that question.

I'm the director of White Horse Media, which is a ministry based in Northern Idaho.

We are a small group, but the Lord has given us a lot of influence.

We produce television programs, radio programs.

I give seminars as I travel around the country, we have an online Bible school, and do a lot of radio interviews on all kinds of secular news and talk shows, and our goal is to help people to get ready for the coming of Christ.

We picked the name White Horse Media because of Revelation 19, that describes Jesus coming on a white horse, and we love the Lord and we're excited about being in his work.

I have a lovely wife who's not here, and 2 little children, a three-year-old and a six-year-old, and I think my greatest responsibility right now is to be a husband and a dad, and I do the best I can to do that.

As far as the question, the biggest question I get from young people probably these days is, what do you think about Twilight?

The Twilight Vampire series, or why is it wrong?

Why did you write a book called The Trouble with Twilight?

And so we have a whole talk on that and a couple books on it, and I won't answer that question right now but if you want to ask it then I'll go into more detail.

My name is Eugene Pruitt and like many Americans I'm currently in between jobs but just a few weeks ago I was working for Washtenaw Hills College, which is 1 of the best schools in North America.

And in a few more weeks I'll be working for Amazing Facts, which is centered, of course, near here.

And what we'll be doing then, my wife and I, Heidi, we'll be traveling from AAFCO to AAFCO to AAFCO.

That is, there'll be AAFCO programs in many countries right now, England, Ukraine.

India starts next month, and the Philippines will start this coming January, and we'll be doing itinerant teaching there.

And the most common question that young people ask me, I'm sure, is some variant of how do I know God's will for my life?

And that's not a short question to answer, but maybe a two-minute thought on it.

The fifth volume of the Testimonies on page 512 says that there are 3 ways that God speaks to us, really to show us His will and to show us how to show that will to others, and the first 1 there, and these are in order, they're not just a random hodgepodge priority, the first 1 is by going to the inspired writings.

It's by the Bible, you can't skip that 1 to get the others.

The other 2 which are there, when you go to his word first, there is a place there for counseling with the brethren and for watching the indications of providence, for the impressions of the spirit.

And then in the book Education on page 267, you have a little paragraph that says there are 4 rules that would assure success in choosing a vocation.

And young people want to know how to choose a life calling, what's going to be their occupation, I'd look there in the page, education, page 267, yeah, that would be the short answer.

I teach here at Weimar College in the religion department, and I've been here for about going on 4 years now.

And I'm married to a beautiful, wonderful wife that just walked in with our little dog Riley.

I don't even know if we're allowed to do that, but...

1 of the questions that is asked to me a lot is the same 1 that was asked that Eugene just addressed, and I would just go with what he said.

And just to add to that, as far as the experiential aspect of it, a component of faith is waiting on God in spite of not knowing.

And as you're doing these things, God will ultimately reveal it to you.

And that's another important part of the process.

Well, my name is Chester Clark, and I have taught for the last about 15 years at Washtenaw Hills, also Academy and College, and the last 2 years I've been at Andrews University working on a master's degree in church history and that's a an interest of mine and I'm praying about whether to continue on a PhD in that area But right now I'm in the process of moving from Michigan to Georgia where in 8 days, 9 days, I'll be getting married.

And so that sort of consumes my my thinking at the moment, besides Western Youth Conference of course.

And so I think the question that I was thinking about, it may not always be the most common, but perhaps the most important question that young people often ask me is, how do I surrender my heart completely to God?

And, you know, we hear about total surrender, and we hear about giving God everything.

And sometimes those all-inclusive terms seem daunting, Because how do you know you got everything?

How do you know you surrendered everything?

How can you know you gave God everything?

I think young people sometimes struggle with that.

And so the short answer that I have given is that, You know, God does say in Jeremiah 29 13, you shall seek me and find me when you should search for me with all of your heart and I don't think that that means we have to look with all of our heart I think that means we look with a willingness to surrender all of our heart and the way we The way I answer that is that God usually calls for something That is the dearest to our heart and he calls us to surrender that Because we Couldn't make a list of everything right everything every possible thing that's in our lives good and bad that make sure it's all surrendered But what God the Holy Spirit does do is it calls for something?

That's very near and dear and if we surrender that which the nearest and dearest to our hearts We have surrendered everything so for each person on a daily basis We have an opportunity to make that entire surrender and I think it's a different thing as we go through our Christian experience If we go through our lives, Maybe it's maybe it's even something good.

He's asking us to put on the altar to surrender to him Maybe it's a sin.

Maybe it's a habit but Whatever that is The Holy Spirit is is pulling on your heartstrings to surrender to him to place on the altar to give him control of whether it's your future whether it's your talents whether it's a relationship whether it's something you have or a sin when we surrender that thing we've made a complete surrender to God.

I'm Rachel Nelson I was not a speaker for Western Youth Conference.

I'm a pediatrician, and I work as a pediatric hospitalist in Roseville, California.

Probably 1 of the most common questions I have been asked and dealt with myself from Adventist young people and adults is the concept, I have never been out in the world, I've never smoked, I've never drunk, I've never slept around, how in the world can I have a testimony?

And I think a lot of young people who've grown up Adventists wonder that.

And I'll be honest, I've never done any of that.

I don't even know what caffeine tastes like, because I've made it all the way through medical school without any coffee.

So I can freely admit that I have struggled with this question.

And it would take a long, I refer you to Chester Clark's wonderful sermon, The First Night, if you didn't hear it, listen to it on audio verse, because he addressed it in great depth.

But in brief, I just want to refer you to Ecclesiastes 11, verse 7.

But if a man live many years and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many.

Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.

Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, But know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment.

Remove sorrow from your heart, put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity.

And then, and continuing on to Ecclesiastes 12.

Series

Plenary Meetings

Contrition, Repentance, Conversion, and the Keeping of the Covenant

Transcript

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