Empowered

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

ECYC 2011 Plenary Meetings

Valmy Karemera

The Prerequisite of Empowerment

I am happy to be here, and I'm excited to be here.

I'm excited to be back in Toronto after, I think, some 12 months of absence.

It's good to be in Toronto, and it's good to have you all come to ECYC.

So on behalf of the ECYC, I want to really extend a cordial welcome to each and every 1 of you and say that we are truly excited to have you with us this evening and throughout this weekend.

You know, in every generation, in every generation across history, God always calls young people throughout history, he always extends this call for young people.

He calls for young people who are committed, young people who are dedicated, young people who yearn to do ordinary things and to do them extraordinarily well.

As young as he was, Abel chose to die rather than offend God.

Think of Joseph, who arrived in Egypt in his late teens.

God always extends this call for young people.

Think of Samuel, who was a child, but God extended that call to him.

Think of the young slave girl in Naaman's court and God extended that call to her.

Young people, throughout history We see God extending this call to young people.

God calling you and I for such a time as this.

Think of Daniel and his friends in Babylon.

Some of them, like Joseph, arrived in Egypt while he was probably finishing his high school.

Think of Timothy, whom Paul charged with the sacred trust of taking the gospel to the entire world, to the entire known world.

Think of that trust that Paul entrusted to Timothy as a young person.

Take this gospel, preach the word in season and out of season, think of those responsibilities.

Think of the solemn responsibility of carrying Jesus, God.

The responsibility that were laid upon Mary to carry Jesus, to nurture Jesus.

She was young, she was a virgin, she was a young person.

The responsibility laid upon young people.

These solemn responsibilities that God, this call of God that rings throughout history.

Think about the youth of Waldenzies who paved the way for the 16th century reformation.

Think of the Wesley brothers who in their 20s established the Holy Club at Oxford.

John Wesley would later on be the founder of Methodists.

They were in their 20s when they established that.

Think of our pioneers who laid the doctrinal foundation of our church, who studied until they laid the foundations of our church.

So we see that across history, across the span of history, God always extends his call to young people, to you and I, to help finish the work.

So it is no coincidence that you and I are here this weekend for such a time as this.

It is no coincidence that you drove, no matter where you came from this evening, that you are here this weekend.

This call is extended to you and I to finish the work of God.

This call is not exceptional for this time, for we see that throughout history, God extended this call.

So this is the reason also that ECYC exists.

Exists to respond to this call, to this call for such a time as this.

So that as a young person, when you leave this conference, you didn't just attend a conference in Toronto, but you carry the spirit of being empowered to reach and reach friends across where you are in your fields of study, at work, so that this spirit of being empowered, this call of God that rings throughout history, that also you may carry it with you.

This call of God as God calls each 1 of us, God also empowers us to finish His work.

God also empowers us to carry forward this work.

So throughout history, we see God calling young people.

So it is no coincidence that this weekend, our theme is entitled Empowered, because we want to finish this work.

Because we want to be like Christ and finish this work.

It is no coincidence that our theme is empowered.

The prerequisite of empowerment, the prerequisite to be empowered, the prerequisite to be empowered, What is it to be empowered?

Our message this evening is entirely the prerequisite to empowerment.

It can be summed up in these following words, believe and you shall receive power.

You know, in all scripture, as you study all Scripture, nowhere in Scripture, the Bible discusses more about the work, the person, and the deity of the Holy Spirit than in John.

The chapters between chapters 14 to chapters 16, we spend much of our time there.

That's where we find that the Bible discusses at length about the work, the person, and the deity of the Holy Spirit.

So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to John chapter 14.

I should mention that the book of John is unique from all other synoptic gospels.

You find that the book of John does not mention anything about the baptism of Christ.

The book of John mentions nothing about his transfiguration.

The book of John makes nothing, mentions nothing about the experience of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.

The book of John also has only 1 parable.

The Book of John also is the only book that mentions the miracles, the few miracles of Jesus Christ, like the miracles of turning water into wine.

The Book of John also is the only book that mentions of the healing of the paralytic man at the pool of Bethsaida.

The Book of John is also the only book that mentions about the healing of the man born blind.

The book of John is also the only book that mentions about the resurrection of Lazarus.

The entire corpus of John is concerned with the divinity of Christ.

And so John writes his book, interestingly, John writes his book so that you and I might believe.

Andy Im

The Lostness Monster: The Empowerment of Identity

Well, I want to go ahead and start and if you don't mind, I'm actually going to come down here a little closer to you and speak from this area.

Before we have a prayer, I just want to go ahead and say a few things.

If we could go ahead, Let me get started here.

We're gonna talk about the lostness monster.

And typically, you wouldn't associate the lostness monster with empowerment.

Would you use something positive like empowerment with something seemingly so depressing like lostness monster?

And I'm gonna share with you this morning a little bit about how we can be empowered through right identity.

And I pray and that this message will be a blessing to you as it as it has been to me.

But I also want to speak a little bit about revival and reformation.

We're hearing a lot about revival and reformation these days.

How many of you are hearing a lot about that?

And sometimes we don't know exactly what that means.

Ellen White says in First Selected Messages, page 121, that a revival is needed, that a revival of true godliness, she says, among us, is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.

To seek this should be our second work, our first work.

There must be earnest effort to obtain the blessing of the Lord.

Not because God is not willing to bestow His blessing upon us.

God is so eager, way more eager than we possibly can be to pour out His blessings.

The reason why it hasn't been poured out yet, ever since the days of the pioneers until now, is because we are unprepared to receive it.

And I'm gonna share with you the very last slide of this presentation, why it is we're unprepared in the context that I'll be sharing today.

She goes on in Review and Herald, February 25, 1902, a revival and a reformation must take place under the ministration of the Holy Spirit.

Revival and Reformation are 2 different things.

Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life.

How many of you have come to this conference to be revived with spiritual vitality?

A quickening, This is only something that God can do, not man.

And we're going to see that in today's message.

A quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual life.

Again, the emphasis is resurrection, something that you and I cannot and are unable to do.

Reformation, on the other hand, signifies a reorganization, a reshifting, a change in our ideas and theories, habits and practices.

And notice what she says here, Reformation, Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness, even though you can reform and do all the right things.

It will not be the good fruit of righteousness unless it's connected with the revival of the Spirit.

Unless we're truly converted and the Spirit is actuating that revival, Reformation will only be legalism.

Just going through the forms and you want something better.

Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work, they must blend.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we just invite your spirit once again to speak to our minds but not just our minds we pray for you to speak to our hearts to convince us of what you would have us to be convicted of.

And Lord, we pray that you would speak, help the words that come out of this mouth to be your words and not my own.

How many of you have used this expression before?

How many of you, and we hear a lot about this today, words that connote self-expression, like be real.

And we've all used these expressions before.

And the question that I'd like to ask you this morning is Who is that you that you let out when you are real?

Who is that you that comes out when you are?

This morning we're gonna have a reality check and and so we're gonna see what scripture has to say about what comes from our insides.

What is the only thing that can come and derive from mankind.

In Romans chapter 7, verses 18 through 20 and 23, We're going to go through these really quickly.

And so Just follow along Paul says I know that what are the next words?

Nothing good dwells in me Nothing good Dwells in me Paul's about to beat beat us up here.

But we don't have the ability to carry out those desires.

The good that I want to do, those are the things I don't do, but the evil I do not want to do is what I keep doing.

And the sin or the power, he comes to this realization that the power of sin, this law of sin, is present within him.

And it makes him captive, captive to this law of sin that dwells in my members.

When someone says be real, what is the real you that comes out?

Job 14.4 puts it this way, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

Jeremiah 17, verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things.

Did you know that your heart, your very core self, lies to yourself, as well as to others?

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it?" Now that's the most profound question of this passage here.

You may be thinking, well, I know myself.

Friends, if you think that you know yourself, I can guarantee you that you have no clue, no idea what you're about because The power of sin and who we are goes so much deeper, so much deeper than what we often observe and see to ourselves.

By the way, this blindness, this unawareness, is really the crux of the Laodicean message.

The faithful and true witness, Jesus Christ, and he's the true witness.

See, We lie, we deceive ourselves, but Jesus is true.

And this is His message to the Laodicean church, to us as Adventists living at the very end of time.

There's a profession that we are in the right place.

See, their claim, our claim, is that we are rich.

But in fact, we're neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm.

Mirriam Norte

The Joy of Full Surrender

This afternoon I've been asked to address 4 questions throughout this presentation, mingled with my life experience.

And so before we start, let me just give a prayer.

Father in heaven, I thank you so much for being so good to us and for the many blessings that you've bestowed.

Father, you know that I'm not worthy to be here, but I have a willing heart.

Father, to please you, I ask for your Holy Spirit to work in each and every heart and in my heart as well that you may speak to me and through me, Father, and that your words may be received and that it may give you glory.

Okay, So the first question that was asked to me was, explain why is it important to keep occupied in the Lord's work?

Why is it important to keep occupied in the Lord's work?

For me to answer that question, I need to know what is the Lord's work?

You know, people sometimes have a very distorted view of what God's work is.

If you remember Paul, or should I say Saul, before he got converted, for him God's work was to kill and persecute Christians.

And he would go to churches and try to get them and throw them in jail.

And even nowadays, you know, there are some people who have that mindset of God's work is to criticize and to gossip and to persecute God's people, even within the church.

Some people think that God's or the Lord's work are like a Pharisees, you know, that they come in, in tie and suits and, you know, nicely dressed, very modest, go to church every single Saturday, even go to Sabbath school, and you know, they teach, they preach, they have this godly form, but at the same time, they're denying its power.

Like the scribe in 2 Timothy 3, Verse 5, they love the position, they love the respect from the people, but somewhere deep within their hearts, there's some sense that they cherish.

Is that how we should do the Lord's work, or is that even the Lord's work, like the Pharisees?

Some people think that God's work is to be part of a ministry, just like Judas.

Judas was part of the 12 disciples, right?

He was seeing Jesus every day and he was spending time with Jesus every day and yet in his heart he had a selfish motive.

He wanted temporary materials, you know, riches.

You know, he wanted the earthly gratification that he thought Jesus can bring.

But Jesus had something greater than that.

Could it be that some people think that God's work is to sell the grace of God when it's real?

You know, many times, sadly, there are ministries out there that care more about the money than actually the souls that they're ministering to.

Some people view God's work like Martha, who gets busy organizing and planning and going here and there and having meetings.

And throughout all those work, they forget to spend time at Jesus' feet.

They value so much, you know, what people are going to say about what's happening or the meeting or the outcome of an event.

They forget that, hey, this is not about me, but It's about my Jesus.

If you can turn with me in your Bible to John 6 verse 29.

You will need your Bible in handy because I'm going to try to go as fast as I can so that we can all eat very soon.

So John 6 verse 29, if you're there please say Amen.

Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

God's work is for us to believe in Jesus Christ.

What was Jesus' work when he was on earth?

And it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended not.

The light that Jesus Christ lived was the light of men.

And it says, For God, who commended the light to shine out of darkness, had shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Yes, the light is the knowledge of the glory of God.

We learned throughout this convention that the glory of God, represented in Exodus 34, verse 6 to 7, represents the character of God, right?

So it's the light of the knowledge of the character of God through Jesus Christ.

You see, at the beginning, throughout the great controversy, the devil accused God to be unjust, And his character was defiled and misunderstood even by angels and by many people.

And even nowadays, a lot of people have no clue who God is, what his character and how he is.

And so Jesus Christ came to earth to show who God is and what is his true character.

And we read in 1 John 4 verse 8, a well-known verse, it says, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.

And Jesus Christ wanted to portray that His Father is love.

Hebrews 10 verse 24, Hebrews 10 verse 24, it says, And let us consider 1 another to provoke unto love and to good works.

So let me just rephrase everything and put it all together.

The question was, why is it important to keep occupying God's work?

We saw in John that God's work was to believe in Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ's work was to reveal the true character of his Father, which is love.

In Hebrews it says, to provoke unto love.

Many times as Christians or as people, human beings, we tend to provoke each other in hatred.

We tend to provoke each other into envy, into jealousy, but not in love.

You know, in my family, we were not very, let's say, we don't show much affection, you know, and so When somebody shows kindness, you feel a little bit awkward to it and you don't know what to do with it.

So God's purpose was to show us his love so that in turn, there can be love awakened in us and we can love him back.

The American Facade: The Empowerment of Purpose

We're going to go ahead and start, but I want to begin by just introducing the topic.

Yesterday we spoke about empowerment through right identity.

And although it's on appearance, it seems like it's something so horrible and negative, it's actually the key that unlocks the door to receiving the mercy and the grace of Christ.

And we focused more on, I would say, revival.

We first need to see who we are and what we are.

Now we're gonna talk a little about empowerment through right direction.

And that emphasis is gonna be more on reformation, a change, an alteration of our thoughts, our previous thoughts, and our habits, our ideas, our ways of thinking, our world views, our presuppositions, the lens through which we interpret all of reality.

Let's speak a little bit about right direction.

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