SWYC 2006: Let it Rain!

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GYC Southwest

SWYC 2006 Plenary Sessions

Ray DeCarlo

The Early Rain

Well, before I begin, I'd like to just say how thankful I am to have the opportunity and the privilege to be here.

It's always an opportunity to receive a great blessing when we come together to worship the Lord, to seek His counsel.

I only hope and pray that each of us will earnestly seek the Lord at this time because I don't think I really should have to elaborate in too much detail what is really taking place, not only in this country, but around the world.

I think if you're just half awake to what God has said in the Holy Bible and the spirit of prophecy, you will come to see that we are at the end of time.

And so it should place upon us a sense of urgency where we should begin earnestly to rearrange our lives and set our priorities.

Now, I'm going to be sharing with you some very important statements from the pen of inspiration.

And I want to make something very clear before I begin.

I want to be able to clarify my position on the spirit of prophecy.

Now the reason I say that is because I think it's of the utmost necessity that you know where I stand on that issue.

The reason I say that is because I'm the 1 going to be speaking to you.

I believe that we as a people have a God-given right to know where the speakers stand on certain issues.

And we ought not to be apologetic when We ask them, what's your position on X, Y, and Z?

Now, I've always believed that if after you receive an answer, you can't quite figure out what has just been said.

Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes it leads you to the conclusion that you didn't get a straight answer.

The gospel is not complicated, the spirit of prophecy is not complicated.

Truth is simple, clear, precise, to the point.

Anything that is given to you that causes your mind to be confused and to question what has just been said, you know full well you didn't get the truth.

You know, we want to be able to at least show you we've got a college education, at least our diploma didn't go to waste.

But I want to do my very best to stay away from pontificating.

I want to be able to just simply share to you what God has shared with me.

Now before we begin, though I know we've already had prayer, I'm going to ask you to pray with me now.

You know, I know and I'm sure you're aware of the fact that the Bible says we ought not to covet our neighbor's goods.

Of course, that's obviously the fundamental principle is dealing with selfishness, greed.

But the Bible does say we should covet spiritual things.

So there is an element of a desire, a thirsting, a hungering after something that doesn't belong to you that's good.

And that, of course, is coveting, as I said, spiritual things, being filled with the Holy Ghost, coveting to have the mind of Christ, or coveting to be kind and thoughtful and considerate, and you know, the character of the Lord Jesus.

We should, you know, do all that we can to strive to reach those expectations.

You know, if you don't ask, you don't receive.

But all I want you to remember to pray for yourselves and pray for 1 another.

And as we do that throughout this weekend And we anticipate the blessings of God.

God will give us precisely what we anticipate if we place ourselves in a position where He can bless us.

Father in heaven, once again, we thank you for the privilege we have to come together to worship you.

And Lord we pray that you will guide us, that our minds, dear Lord, will be opened to understand the truth, to embrace what we hear, and Lord to follow and to obey.

Now please dear God give us we pray the outpouring of thy Holy Spirit help each 1 of us to recognize our true condition not to see ourselves as we want ourselves to be, but rather to see ourselves as you see us.

And help us, dear God, I pray, that this weekend will not be Just another 72 hours that has been spent in vain.

Let it be productive for the kingdom of heaven.

Now, Lord, please, once again, through the name of Jesus, through his atoning work, forgive us of our sins.

Help me to speak the words that is essential for eternal life.

May your angels watch over us and keep us.

Now the theme of our weekend together is on the preparing for the latter rain.

When Norman called me, he shared that with me and I was very much pleased by that theme.

He also added that You may preach whatever the Lord leads you to preach.

And I always enjoy when people tell me that, because I must be honest, I don't really like being told what to preach.

I must also be honest with you, even if you did, I don't really think I'd do what you would tell me to do.

I believe that you should do exactly what God tells you to do.

You know, you may anticipate 1 thing, but sometimes we anticipate something that God is not wanting you to anticipate at all.

Blessings sometimes come in very strange and odd ways.

But whether they come in strange ways or whether they come in the way we anticipate, let them come.

Now I'm going to read to you some statements from the Spirit of Prophecy on the latter reign.

And as I mentioned to you, I want to be able to clarify to you my position on the servant of the Lord, at least in terms of the concept of the Spirit of Prophecy.

Now, as Seventh-day Adventists, we are greatly privileged in many, many ways.

And in 1 particular way is the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy.

Now today we have come to a position in our beloved church where there are those who are very cynical, very skeptical in regard to the spirit of prophecy.

They have relegated her writings to, you know, good counsel.

Some even go as far as say, well it's just good advice.

Some have said, well, you know, if she were alive today, she would, she would have written the great controversy differently.

She would have been, you know, she wasn't able to see what we see today.

And often when I sometimes hear those kind of comments, I wonder, well, well, well, of course, she's not alive in our day.

But that doesn't preclude her from speaking about our day.

I mean, simply to say that because she didn't live in our day, therefore it excludes her from terms of the relevancy of the writings for our day, well, then you're going to have to exclude the Bible.

If all that the spirit of prophecy is, is simply good advice, good counsel, nice, you know, opinions, then that's not divine inspiration.

Believe it or not, once in a while, I can give you good advice.

May not be as often as I like, but once in a while I can give you good advice.

But that doesn't make me the son of a prophet, doesn't make me a prophet.

The Holy Spirit clearly is the author of all gifts.

Now we know that from 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, and Ephesians chapter 4.

These 3 chapters constitute the spiritual gift chapters.

Now, there is no 1 chapter in the Bible that deals with all the spiritual gifts.

You put them together and you've got pretty much every spiritual gift lined out.

Now what's interesting in that, if you turn with me quickly in your Bibles, now you did bring your Bibles.

I mean, you didn't come here to hear me, I hope.

Because if you did, you're going to be disappointed.

You came, I hope and pray, to hear the words of life.

Now in 1 Corinthians 12, I want to show you something about spiritual gifts.

Now, as I mentioned to you, they're in those 3 chapters.

And there are various gifts laid out in administration, hospitality, pastors and teachers, and prophets, and various gifts of healing and speaking in tongues and so forth and so forth.

And there are others as well as I mentioned.

But all these worketh, all these gifts operate or function.

Richard O'Ffill

Fatal When Taken as Directed

You know, I think you're probably wondering to yourself, what in the world, at a youth meeting like this, you have these real old people?

You'd say, hey, Ophiel, aren't you supposed to be down at the convalescent home tonight for Vesper?

And the reason I'm here is as a warning to you, that as you are, I was.

It says, remember your creator when you're young because it doesn't call them the golden year, calls them the evil day.

Norman there, he has access to all the records and I just checked the lab records of everybody here tonight before I came today and discovered that every 1 of them, Norm, is old age positive.

Now, some of you have symptoms, but these people on the front row don't, but you will when you're 45.

You know, I appreciated what we heard a moment ago when we were talking about our theme being the Holy Spirit.

It made me think of a Sabbath school class I was in 1 time in which the Sabbath school teacher said, let's pray that the Holy Spirit will be outpoured.

And I said, sister, it is being outpoured.

Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, we're in the sealing time right now.

White said, when the latter rain comes, Those who don't get it won't know it's happening.

So don't you think that it's going to be announced in the newspaper?

If you're not getting it, you won't know it's there.

I believe the Holy Spirit is being outpoured as never before among the people of God.

I have simultaneous attacks of amnesia and deja vu.

Anyway, Norman, what was I saying before I was so rudely interrupted?

It's on, because I'll tell you what, I think, I meet people that I've never met in my life, and we don't even know each other by name, and we get each other a hug.

And our spirits witness, if you can say with each other, that we're sons and daughters of God.

The issue is not, you know, back in the old days, us conservatives used to say, you know what?

And the other person said, oh, wait till you've given up sugar.

But I want to tell you, the issues are greater now.

We want Him to give us the fruit of the Spirit.

You don't have to be born again even to give up pickles.

It's being filled with the fruit of the Spirit.

That's where we're at, ladies and gentlemen.

But at the same time, that there's a hungering and thirsting after righteousness going on amongst the people of God.

There's an unprecedented fall into worldliness.

Remember the scripture says the love of many would wax cold in the last days.

That doesn't mean they would stop going to church.

We've always had worldly people, but they were in the closet.

Now they're in your Sabbath school class arguing as to why they don't believe in a particular doctrine of the church.

You know, somebody asked me, They said, what are the last days going to be like?

Well, you know, I think that we thought in the last days it would be about physical persecution.

All right, you know, the police would come and get me and they'd say, All right, Ophiel, you're going to tell us where Ryan is.

No, listen, in the last days, I know there'll be a physical part, but it's the mind that the devil's after.

Tonight I'm going to talk to you, you know, not about the pillars of the faith.

The pillars of the faith are there, but the terrible thing is that the foundations that hold them up are being eroded out.

We expected in the last days the devil would come in like a herd of elephants.

By the way, I'm going to be like the Apostle Paul tonight, he preached until midnight.

And it's quarter till 12 where I come from.

I just hope if you don't fall out the window, Miguel.

Anyway, he's going to fall out on the floor here and I hope he doesn't kill himself.

But anyway, we expected the devil to come at us like a herd of elephants.

Anybody who is anybody's had termites down there.

1 day my youngest son said, Dad I think you got termites.

And there was just a little hole in the trim over the garage doors.

And I popped off that big trim and I want to tell you it was all messed up.

Eugene Prewitt

Message to Laodicea

Of all the churches that were in the first century, it looks like the Colossae was the 1 that was most similar to the Laodicean church today.

I conclude that because near the end of the book of Colossians, the Colossians are told to read the letter that was sent to the Laodiceans, and the Laodiceans are told to read the letter that was sent to the Colossians.

And in chapter 2, looking at verse 1, For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." 3 categories of people that seem to have something in common, those that lived in Colossae, those that lived in Laodicea?

Do we need to move this further or am I speaking too loud or too quietly?

The first thought I want to leave with you this morning is that if you'll study the book of Colossians You'll be reading a message that has been fine-tuned for the church in the way that it is today Colossians chapter 2 and going on That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and until all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledging of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ.

What was it that Laodicea needed, that Colossae needed?

The first thing it mentions is that they needed to be comforted, having their hearts knit together in love.

Love plays a significant role in the end of time.

This passage that we're familiar with, as many as endure unto the end, or he that endures unto the end, the same shall be saved.

What is it that must endure unto the end?

It's the verse before that tells us that because iniquity abounds, the love of many will wax cold.

In our day, it's an enduring love that will make a difference in the salvation of the last day people.

Colossians needed to have their heart knit together in love, but there was something they needed, and it was a full assurance of understanding of the mystery of God.

Maybe we're more familiar than most people.

And is that from the same context of Colossians 2?

Well, you know, it's only 5 verses before this very verse.

In chapter 1, verse 27, Paul was saying that Colossi had 2 problems.

1, they had some disunion, their hearts weren't knit together in love, and the other, they weren't fully persuaded about this issue, that Jesus was going to be in them, a hope of the character that they could develop with Him.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 3.

The name Laodicea is similar in meaning to the name Daniel.

You might remember the blessing slash curse on the tribe of Dan, that Dan would be a judge of his people.

The last day church, we're the ones who are living in the time of the judgment?

Colossians 3 and verse 14, Revelation 3, sorry, verse 14.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness.

Moving to verse 17, because you say, I am rich and increased with goods.

The contrast between verse 14 and 17 is that Jesus has something to say to us as a people, and also we have something that we tend to say to ourselves.

What does Jesus tend to say to us as a people?

Among other things, he says, I know your works.

What do we tend to say to ourselves as a people?

And knowest not that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

What I want to do for you in the next 10 minutes is, and if you take notes, this is a good time to take them, I'm not a preacher, I'm a teacher, is to give you an understanding of those 5 words, something in particular that they mean.

When Jesus says to us as a people that we're wretched and miserable, poor and blind and naked, to understand the message he's communicating, turn with, Keep your finger here, or if you have a little piece of ribbon, it will help you turn back to Revelation 3 quickly.

Put it there, and then turn with me to Romans chapter 7.

In Romans chapter 7, we're looking at this word, wretched.

What did Jesus mean when he said to us that we are wretched?

In fact, the Greek word translated wretched is only used 1 other time in the entire Bible and that is here in Romans 7.

Romans 7 and verse 21, I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.

And verse 23, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.

Paul is describing a situation of someone, is this person in captivity to the law of sin?

Does the person want to do the right thing?

And in fact, that is why he cries in verse 24, O wretched man that I am.

It means wanting to do right, but being unable to do right because we're captive to the law of sin.

In general, that describes our church today.

Wanting to do right, Jesus says, but captive to the law of sin, to the law of our flesh.

The Greek word translated miserable in Revelation 3 is also used only 1 other place in the entire scripture.

In 1 Corinthians 15, speaking about the resurrection, Paul begins to reason what life would be like or what we would have to be thinking if there was no resurrection.

He says that if there was no resurrection, then Those who are sleeping are gone.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 18, They also which are fallen asleep in Christ Jesus are perished.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

What does miserable mean in 1 Corinthians 15?

It means living your life thinking you're going to heaven, dying and not going.

In 1 Corinthians 15, it would be because there was no resurrection.

That's the hypothetical, but it's not that way for Laodicea.

There is a resurrection, and yet the word describes her living all her life thinking that she's going to heaven and then dying and not going.

It says, woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord.

What do we call people who desire the day of the Lord?

And if I can just read that verse again with that interpretation, woe unto Adventist.

To what end is it the day of the Lord for you?

The day of the Lord is darkness and not light.

As if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him.

Do we talk this way that we can't wait to go to heaven because then we're going to be free from the devil?

You know, he's a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

And when we go to heaven, he's not there anymore.

This passage says it's as if a man was looking forward to getting away from the devil and he met a bear.

Where in the Bible does someone meet a bear in judgment?

It's a number of youth who treated God's prophet without proper respect.

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SWYC 2006 Plenary Sessions

The Loud Cry

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