iShare 2011

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Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

iShare 2011 Plenary Meetings

Michael Tuazon

I Dare You

I come before you humbled that you have chosen me, you've chosen us, you've chosen each person in this room.

We're all sinners, we all fall short, we are all in need of grace, but not only do you redeem us and love us and care for us, but you have a high standard that you're calling us to.

And my prayer this evening will be that each person under the sound of my voice, especially the class of 2011, will take this message and run.

That we will take the truth that you've given us and do things that no other person, no other generation has done before.

If you were born in 1901 to 1924, you were part of a generation called the greatest generation.

You lived and fought through World War II.

They saved the world and built a nation in the process.

If you were born from 1924 to 1945, you are part of the silent generation.

You were born during the Great Depression and were kids during World War II.

Time Magazine called you silent and a still small flame.

This generation was known as the post-war generation called the Seekers.

If you were born from 1946 to 1964, you were part of what is called the Baby Boomers.

The biggest increase in birth rates, also known as the me generation, the big spenders.

I think we're all reaping the consequence of that 1.

If you were born from 1965 to 1981, you were part of a generation called Generation X, also known as the Latchkey kids because you grew up in a generation of divorce.

You were never really accepted and you felt that when you grew up you had a chip on your shoulder.

Now I come to 1982 through the late 90s, All of you.

I hate to tell you, but your generation is undefined.

According to this, there's confusion what to call you.

Some of you, some people call you the echo boomers.

Some people call you the net generation because of the rise of the internet.

Either way, when I was doing my research, I found that your generation, talking to you and also those here today, especially the Youth Rush students and leaders.

According to this, your generation has a characteristic of being noncommittal.

In fact, in colleges, 1 of the most popular major is guess what?

We have rise to the mega churches and non-denominational churches because people, your generation, you want to be part of a church without a commitment.

You want to come as you are, stay as you are.

It's interesting because if you grew up in my generation, Generation X or Generation Y.

You've never feared about being called into a draft.

You've never worried about food being on the table.

You've been influenced heavily by the media.

You've been educated by a computer screen, you've communicated through textbook, texas and facebook.

It's interesting because the career choices that you all make, talking to the generation Y, souls list graduates, What you choose for a career is based upon fulfillment.

Past generations, your career choice was defined by survival.

It's interesting, because if you're going into college today, I decided to find out what are the most popular college majors.

You'll find biology, you'll find nursing, you'll find sociology, but because many people want fulfillment, now they have other majors.

Let me see if you've heard of some of these.

Have you heard of a comic book art major?

The University of Connecticut offers a bachelors in puppet arts.

My alma mater, the University of California, Riverside, has the only major, the only university with a creative writing major.

You can also take art history, women's studies, library technology, And get this, these 2 ones will flip your seat.

Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky, they have a professional nanny major.

And my favorite 1, from the Michigan State University, you can get a bachelor's, you can get a master's, you can even get a doctorate in packaging.

Just in case those of you were curious what major to decide on.

20 years ago, you would have never seen these majors.

However, it seems that with each passing generation, priorities have shifted.

Instead of focusing on survival and availability, our generation is focused on fulfillment and entertainment.

If there is a generation that needs to be challenged, if there is a generation that needs to be dared, it's us.

If there is a generation that needs to step it up, If there is a generation that needs to be dared, it's us.

If there is a generation that needs to step it up, if there is a generation that needs to do something in order to get this stigma that we're undefined, that we're undeclared, that we're uncommitted, it's you.

With that being said, we come to the sermon titled, I Dare You.

First off, let me give you the definition of a dare.

A dare is a challenge that proves bravery, according to the dictionary.

If someone issues you a dare, and I'm sure many of you have been issued dares as a kid, I dare you to jump off the stage, I dare you to talk to this person, I dare you to throw the ball into the neighbor's yard, I dare you, we've grown up with that.

There are 3 things that categorize a dare.

Number 2, it's a challenge that someone issues.

And number 3, it's something that you don't normally do.

Keep those things in mind as I dare you tonight and I dare myself.

The first story is found in Acts chapter 4.

We're going to be looking through our Bibles.

We're going to be reading and studying Acts chapter 4.

Dare number 1, class of 2011, youth rush, parents in the audience, I dare you to be bold.

If you were to look in the dictionary, being bold is defined as this, dared to do something.

That is the dictionary definition, 1 of the definitions of being bold, dare to do something.

I'm going to introduce you to some men who are bold.

It says, And as they spoke unto the people, the priests, the captains of the temple, the satchuses came upon them, being grieved, that word grieved is translated to worried in the Greek, that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

And they laid hold on them and put them in hold until the next day, for it is now evening.

How be it many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about how many?" Listen carefully.

What story in Acts is the famous story where we have 3, 000 converting in 1 day?

The 1 story that I believe that is missed, that we don't emphasize much is this story right here in Acts chapter 4.

We have these men and what they're doing is they're preaching the gospel.

And the religious leaders are upset at this, and they're worried.

They're worried that the people won't take their words anymore.

Ricardo Graham

The Ownership Question

Father God in heaven, thank you for these young people who want to share what you have given them, who want to share who lives inside their hearts, who want to share the passion of their lives with people who are going to Christless graves.

We thank you for the many children, young people who are here.

Now, the ownership question is probably the most important question that you'll ever answer.

Before you can determine what you're going to share, you have to make some basic fundamental decisions.

And primary in those decisions is who do you belong to?

Well, you say, well, I belong to my family and to my parents.

But more fundamental than that, which is a result of natural biology, who do you decide to give yourself to?

Who have you decided to build your world around?

Who have you decided is the focus and the centrum of your being from which everything else flows today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your lives.

Who is it that impels you to move forward?

The values that you decide today that will continue to shape your life now, tomorrow, next year, in your 20s, in your 30s, will even become a gray-haired man like me.

And first among that to me is the question who do you belong to?

You see before you can tell people who you are you must understand whose you are because who whom you belong to shapes who you are.

Not only with your friends or during Gold Rush, while you're knocking on doors and giving testimonies.

But when you're by yourself, who really are you?

Other fundamental questions are determined by deciding who you belong to.

Now there are several people in the Bible who answer this question in dramatic ways.

Some do it through devotional, some do it through incidents, some do it through a revelation in a dream.

But I was led to the very familiar Psalm 23.

I'm reading it from the New King James Version.

It says this, The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.

David came to this studied experience out of his life as a shepherd.

It dawned on him 1 day as he was leading his sheep and he was providing for them pasture and leading them beside still waters that as he was to those sheep, God was to him.

He declared it to the angels who were silently watching him.

He declared it to the beasts who were around there to devour his sheep.

And automatically he recognizes God as his protector, his guide, his provider, his being.

He owned David's heart and because the Lord owned his heart David was confident.

Well, he was confident because he knew that God was the Creator.

He knew that he was not the happenstance of evolution.

He knew that he was designed in the image of God and that in his lungs the breath of God resided.

He knew that he had been given a purpose.

He knew that he had been given a mission.

He knew who he was because he first acknowledged God as his Creator, but he also recognized in the promise of the coming Redeemer that God was his Redeemer, his Savior, 1 who would come and pay the price for mankind's sins.

And he looked down through hope and through anticipation and through looking at the words of the prophets that 1 day 1 would come and stretch out his arms on the cross of Calvary and that he would die for all the sins of mankind.

And Jesus lived in his heart even before he was born and David embraced him as his shepherd.

And maybe that's why the Bible writers uses them to describe us.

That This is going to sound a little indelicate, you've heard worse, but oftentimes when sheep are feeding and they don't want to share their provender or their feed with other sheep, they will actually defecate in the food to keep the other sheep from having it.

And so sheep also don't have wisdom about what fountains to drink from.

And sheep have to be led by still waters, particularly when their wool is full.

If they were to fall into rapidly moving waters, they would quickly be rushed downstream and die because they can't swim.

They don't have any claws or fangs or sharp teeth to fight beasts with.

They are prey and we don't have any natural defenses against the devil.

We need to be protected and I am so glad that I have a shepherd who always protects me from the devil's attacks.

No matter where he comes from, my shepherd is always there.

David knew that his shepherd was there to lead him, to guide him.

He knew that he would be led in paths of righteousness.

Now there are a lot of different paths in this world and most of them, all of them are not righteous because they're all built on the same principle that Satan introduced into heaven when he was Lucifer and that is the I-complex.

That is the 1 thing that all human beings exhibit sooner or later, stronger or slower, faster or slower, all of us are selfish because we have been tainted with the evil of the devil.

Somebody should say amen because you know it's true.

Selfishness dwells in our hearts And the only thing that will uproot that selfishness is that we let the Shepherd lead us in his paths of righteousness.

And as the Shepherd leads us in righteousness, he will lead us to a point of denying self and being crucified with Christ, dying to self, that Christ might resurrect himself within us.

The only path to God is the righteousness that comes from God.

You're not going to get there because you're going to go to La Sierra or PUC and get degrees and then go to medical school And and get real smart about science You're not going to get righteousness because you learn history so well that you can cite all the dates in the earth's history that are important Even prophetically You're not going to become righteous even because you memorize a scripture a day and you can recite it.

You can only become righteous because God dwells in your hearts and then refocuses you on his path rather than your own path.

And the only way that we can get righteous and stay righteous is to daily follow the leader.

And as we follow Jesus, then he's working day after day to change us.

I praise the Lord that I'm gonna get older.

I'm looking forward to a long life with God.

But I've been young and now I'm old and I have some children.

Peter Neri

Standing in the Gap

Good evening, all you iShare participants.

I am glad to be here tonight and to see you here tonight.

I want you to know what a privilege it is to stand before you.

Because when I sit there and listen to these testimonies, sometimes it makes me wonder if as a Seventh-day Adventist minister, I'm really doing ministry.

It makes me wonder if I'm doing ministry.

Now I know I'm where God wants me to be, okay?

Your enthusiasm, your energetic, intelligent, willing to take a challenge and go door to door and talk to people.

And so it's a privilege to be here tonight.

My prayer is that God will just use me to enhance your relationship with him and the effectiveness of your ministry.

And I want you to know he gave me a message to share with you tonight.

I want you to look, if you would, at this picture.

The title of this sermon is Standing in the Gap.

And as you look at it, I want you to wonder, what does this have to do with the sermon and standing in the gap?

And if you don't come up with anything, it will come sooner or later.

Because this literally is what God is calling you to do.

And so we are going to look tonight at the sermon entitled, Standing in the Gap.

And I'd like to invite you to join me as I say a prayer, and then we'll start.

Father in heaven, how can we thank you for Jesus and for all he's done for us?

And then to think that you have called us to do ministry and assist you in the salvation of men and women, young and old, of all cultural backgrounds.

And So we are honored and now we want to honor you.

And Lord, I pray that tonight you will assist me to clearly, concisely, and understandably present the message that you have given to us tonight.

That you would teach us, not only how to stand in the gap, but why to stand in the gap.

I want You to banish Satan from this auditorium.

I want You to make him take his evil angels with him and fill every empty seat with angels from heaven that worship and honor you.

Lord, do this for us that our minds may be clear, our hearts would be open, and we could hear from your Bible, your speaking to us individually, each and every 1, and that we will go from here changed because of the time we spent with you.

Use me to this end, Lord, and then teach us to give you the praise and the honor and glory.

Standing in the gap, I invite you to take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to Ezekiel, the 22nd chapter.

The only offensive weapon that we've been given.

And we need to always remember that we are the people of the book.

And let's take a look at this topic, starting in Ezekiel.

And now you're going to be horrified as I read this passage of Scripture to you, and the challenge it has for us.

And the word of the Lord came to me, Ezekiel wrote, saying, Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the days of indignation.

There is a conspiracy in her prophets, in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravaging the prey, they have devoured souls, they have taken the treasure and precious things, they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

And her priests have violated the law and have profaned my holy things.

They have put no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they shown difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbath, and I am profaned among them.

Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravaging the prey to shed blood and to destroy souls to get dishonest gain.

And her prophets have dabbled them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord God has not spoken.

And the people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and the needy.

Yea, they have oppressed the strangers wrongfully." Young people, I want you to notice we're talking about the prophets, the priests, the princes, and the people.

I mean, do you see the pecking order here?

And we get down to the people, the poor pitiful people.

They look around and all they can find are the poor and needy to walk on.

And the people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and the needy, yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully." Who are we talking about here?

And then he says this, and I want you to hold on to your chairs.

"'And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it." not destroy it.

And you read the next 4 words, and I found none.

When we look at this carefully, we discover that there were 3 deportations that the Israelites went through that included Ezekiel.

The first deportation was in 605 BC, when some of the highest regarded youth were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar and he slapped Israel in the wrist but Israel didn't learn the lesson.

So he came back the second time in 597 BC, and this time he took 10, 000 captives, and it included Ezekiel, and were taken to Babylon.

And Finally, the third deportation was somewhere, it was either 587 or 586, they're not even sure exactly which year it was in which Israel was totally leveled and most of the people killed, exiled, and taken captive back to Jerusalem.

And when Ezekiel spoke these words, it was just before the third deportation.

I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not have to destroy it.

And shortly thereafter, Nebuchadnezzar came back for the very third time, and that's when the temple, which had already been sacked the first 2 times, was completely leveled.

Young people, I want to know if there's someone here willing to stand in the gap.

In fact, I've got to show you this, how beautiful this is.

I want you to take your Bibles, if you would, And I want you to turn with me and go to Leviticus 20, chapter verse 24.

I want to share something with you that I hope encourages you and challenges you and makes a difference in your life.

And to let you know that what you're doing is right, to just keep on doing it till God tells you to do something else, and to never look beyond what He's got you doing and where you're at.

For I want you to notice that God told Moses to tell the people this, and I want to tell this to you tonight because God told me to, but I have said unto you, you shall inherit their land and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey.

I the Lord your God, which have separated you from the other people." Did you hear that?

Series

iShare 2011 Plenary Meetings

Standing in the Gap

Transcript

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Parent Conference

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