GYC SE 2012: Ultimate Purpose

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GYC Southeast

GYC SE 2012 Plenary Sessions

Doug Batchelor

What Is Truth?

Good evening everyone, welcome to Ultimate Purpose.

We are glad you are here on the campus of Southern University, and I'd like to welcome those who are watching across the country and around the world.

This is a four-part series committed to exploring the most important questions in life.

Now this is going to be an interactive study of God's Word together, and if you have a Bible-related question, we'd like to hear from you.

For each program, we're going to be setting aside a certain amount of time to take Bible questions.

So, if you have a Bible-related question, you can send us a text, and we're going to put that number up on the screen for you.

So if you have a Bible question, just send it to that number and we will try and answer as many questions as possible each evening.

All right, the first question is an obvious beginning point and it's what are these meetings all about?

You know, you are living, when I say you, I'm speaking to those who are in the college age that are viewing or here in the auditorium at the real crossroads of your life.

The age between 17, 25, the most pivotal decisions in life are being made regarding everything from what your career is going to be, your boyfriend or girlfriend that may end up being your spouse is often chosen during this phase in a person's life, and even more important, where you're going to spend eternity.

Most of the decisions that are made regarding what a person's spiritual course is going to be, what their world view is going to be, that will define who they become, is made during these very crucial years.

And so I've just had a real burden on my heart having kids that span from 16 to 35 and seeing how pivotal this time is.

You know, we just wanted to put together a series with amazing facts and 3ABN and really target, as well as we humanly can, with God's help, speaking to the hearts of young people in these formative years in these very important pivotal years and so you know it all boils down to what is the ultimate purpose in life?

You know, I don't believe that you can be happy unless you understand 3 very important basics.

Where you came from, what you're doing here, and where you're going.

And we're going to be exploring those things in this brief series.

Well Pastor Doug I think we have a video question that's come in and we'll take a look at that now.

Pastor Doug, Why should I read a 2, 000 year old book when the culture is very different from my own?

So that question is related to the Bible.

You know, is it relevant for where I am today?

People will say, well, the Bible, you know, it's written 2, 000 years ago.

The Bible was actually written over a period of 1, 500 years from start to finish, and so it managed to stay relevant during all of that time.

And you have to ask yourself, why is it still a bestseller around the world today?

And this is actually, I'm holding right now a new amazing facts Bible.

I think it's 1 of the first times I've used this Bible in a public meeting, and I'm reading through it, and every time you read it, you find something new.

The principles that the Bible teaches are relevant because they speak to the heart of man and while technology might change and while there are certain cultural nuances that may change.

In essence, the dilemma of man has not changed.

And as I've often said, if you live long enough, you're going to die.

If Jesus doesn't come first, And we've got to know what is the purpose of life.

Jesus addresses that with his very simple teachings.

I know there's a lot of artist portrayals.

We don't know exactly what color his clothes were.

Those things never really played into his life.

The teachings of Jesus, You read the Sermon on the Mount, and it can't be misunderstood.

It applies to the heart of man today, and it really defines what the priority ought to be, seeking first God's kingdom and his righteousness.

We all still struggle with sin and temptation, what the purpose of life is, and the Bible answers all those questions.

We got another question that is a text question that came in, so let's take a look at that at this time.

The question is, truth is so subjective, isn't sincerity more important?

But sometimes sincerity is not going to do it.

I remember 1 time I was driving across North America making 1 of many trips from California to Texas.

And, you know, sometimes families want to enjoy the trip, and the father, the man, wants to conquer the trip.

And so I drove all night long while the family was sleeping.

I thought I can get some peaceful miles behind me.

Started running low on fuel, pulled off at 1 of those areas to fill up with gas and filled up with gas, got back on the on-ramp, started speeding down the interstate again.

And after about 10 or 15 minutes I thought, boy, they must have a chain of these gas stations and restaurants because I know I just saw 1 of those further back.

And as I went a little further I said, boy, this is just like a mirror image of the places I just passed.

And it occurred to me, I looked and it said instead of it being Interstate 40 East, it said Interstate 40 West.

Well, there's no way in the world I was going to get to Texas going that direction, even though I drove for half an hour absolutely sincere.

And I'm sure that the Lord smiled down upon me when I was doing that.

But I still was never going to get to Texas.

But truth, you want to know what the truth is.

And so it's not just all about sincerity.

You know, Pastor Doug, I'm not a pilot, but you are.

And I understand that when flying, especially in cloud and in fog, you need to keep an eye on your instruments because sometimes you can think that the nose of your plane is going up when in reality it's going down.

You can't just trust the way you feel, and that's probably true with life.

You can't trust how you feel in every situation.

You got to have the book, the Bible to guide you.

Let me ask you, if you're flying across the Pacific on 1 of these jumbo jets, and the pilot came over the loudspeaker and he said, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention for just a moment.

I've been talking with my co-pilot and he's absolutely convinced that this machine can also function as a submarine.

There are aviation laws, And if you violate those laws, you're going to get wet.

And in life, sincerity is important, but you need to know what the truth is or it can be fatal.

Our next question is a video question, and we'll take a Look at that.

Pastor Doug, with such a busy schedule, hectic with life, studies, how do you balance your spiritual life with your real life?

So how do you balance spending time studying God's Word and in prayer with all of the homework assignments that have to be finished?

You know, I'm hoping my dear wife is watching right now, but she'll probably think I'm the least qualified person to answer this question, because I struggle all the time with trying to strike that balance between work and study and family and rest and exercise.

Pastor Ross and I played a little racquetball last night.

How Did We Get Here?

I'd like to invite Pastor Doug Batchelor, president of Amazing Facts, to come out and join me on stage.

And we're going to take a few moments to look at some of the questions that have been texted in.

All right, well, let's begin with our questions for this evening, and the first 1 is a text question and it's this, how do I know God has not given up on me because of my past?

Of course, if all of us were to ask that question, we'd all have reason to think God gave up on us, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Meaning, as soon as you reach the age of accountability, virtually everybody has sinned and we all could worry from 12 years old onward or whatever that age is for the individual, oh can I be forgiven, I've got this past?

And I'm saying that somewhat facetiously because here I am 55 years old and when I hear university students expressing concern that their burden of guilt from their past is going to separate them from God, don't think that you're a better sinner than God as a Savior.

The reason Jesus came is to save us for our sins and if his sacrifice was effective enough to cover the sins of the entire world then I suspect he has enough for you too And so whenever you're willing to genuinely repent and come to God, he's willing to receive and to forgive you.

Our next question is a video question and we'll take a look at that.

Pastor Doug, I have a friend who's completely rejected Christianity and turned toward Wicca and paganism.

You know, if a person has known the truth and they turn away from the truth, tells us in the first book of Peter that that group of people can sometimes be harder to reach, but it doesn't mean they're unreachable.

I mean, you've got examples in the Bible of people like Peter that at 1 point denied the Lord, and then they were converted.

Or Solomon, who was led away from the Lord by his pagan wives, but then he repented when a prophet was sent to him, and that's how you get the book of Ecclesiastes.

And so even after a person drifts away, there's really 3 things you can do for somebody that you love that has rejected Christianity and whether they've gone off into being involved in Wicca, which is a, you know, pagan version of witchcraft.

I mean, you know, you can be a nominal Christian, it's almost even more dangerous for a person to be lost in church because they can have just enough Christianity to deceive themselves.

At least if a person's off in paganism, they're not kidding themselves, they say, I have nothing to do with Christianity.

But there's 3 things you can do to reach your friends.

And I'm not saying that as it's some passé, powerless thing.

And if they're open, try to share information with them in a tactful, loving, winsome way.

Say, you know, I've got something I'd like you to read or consider.

I found a great study in the Word of God.

And you know how much a person is willing to listen or not to listen, but if you can engage them, if you can share information, do that, be a good witness, pray for them, and then put it in God's hands.

But all of us know people that maybe knew the truth that wandered away, And they need a little extra prayer.

Our next question is a text question that came in.

Last night you spoke about what is truth and this is a follow-up on that.

Well, we're right now not far from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and it is true I could get to California going east, and it's also true I can get to California going west, but I will never get to California going north and south.

So if you want to you can create a complex answer out of that, but California hasn't moved.

The truth about the longitude and latitude of California hasn't changed.

And so in that respect, truth is absolute.

As sometimes people approach it differently, but the truth doesn't move.

When you're flying from point A to point B, point B is gonna stay point B.

There's a lot of different circuitous ways you can get there.

Mountains might move, rivers might relocate, the truth doesn't change, and God said, I am the Lord, I change not, and Jesus is the truth.

Our next question is a text question as well.

It says, How can I regain a love for God after my heart has been hardened?

Well, that's similar to that question about a friend who's wandered away.

You know, but the Bible talks about the new birth.

Everybody that comes to the Lord really has a hard heart, because the new covenant and the new birth, the promise is, I'll make a new covenant with you, I'll take that heart of stone out of your flesh and I'll give you a heart of flesh.

And when we pray and ask God to give us His Spirit and help us to experience the new birth, and this is something worth seeking after.

This is something worth knocking on Heaven's door.

I still am of the persuasion that girls are different than boys.

And I think that a girl, if a boy has taken an interest in her she will appreciate being reminded that he's interested assuming she's interested in him And even though Karen and I have been married for many years, she doesn't ever get tired of me showing an interest and she may want to go for a walk with me, but it means so much more to her if I say, would you like to go for a walk?

He wants to know that you really want him.

Whenever anyone asked Jesus to leave, He didn't bother them anymore.

But whenever they asked Him to come in, He came into their hearts, He came into their homes, He came into their lives.

What could be worth more than having God in your life?

And He will soften your heart, He'll give you a new heart.

You know, following up with that, Pastor Doug, often we hear the question of, well, maybe I've committed the unpardonable sin.

My heart is just so hard that God can't reach me.

And we hear that question on the radio program.

People call and say, I think I committed the unpardonable sin.

Now, we know if someone even is wondering whether they've committed the unpardonable sin, they haven't.

It means the Holy Spirit is still speaking to their hearts.

You wrote a book not too long ago dealing with the subject about the unpardonable sin.

Yeah, we get this question all the time and it really concerns me, especially when young people call our radio program, we do a live program on Sunday nights, and they say, Pastor Ross, Pastor Batchelor, I'm afraid that I've gone too far.

God was talking to me about this problem in my life and I ignored him and ignored him and ignored him and now I don't hear him talking to me anymore and I think I may have grieved away the Holy Spirit and there's no hope for me.

And usually the very fact they're concerned about that is the Holy Spirit still in the background tugging on their heart.

And so, yeah, if a person wants to know more about that, we explore that.

We don't want anyone to think, God's given up on me, I should stop seeking Him.

The book is entitled Beyond Mercy, and you can learn more by going to the Amazing Facts website, just amazingfacts.org, and you can type in there, Beyond Mercy, and you can actually read it online at the library there.

Pastor Doug, some psychologists have proven that a Christian's dedication to God has actually improved their brain pattern, making them more intelligent.

But some psychologists have said that this is only psychological and that God is not an actual being and it's as if we had just a relationship with a best friend.

How can we disprove this and how can we make God an actual being, not some psychological entity?

Well if I were to summarize and simplify that, how do you know that God is not just something you're imagining and you're dealing with reality, it makes it easier for you to have faith in this superior being, otherwise how could you cope with the uncertainties of life?

If it gives you some kind of psychological comfort, how do you know beyond that that God is real, that it's not just in your head?

Well, God does make a difference in your mind and in your heart, in your life, but things happen around you because of the faith that's in you that can't be explained any other way than the power of God.

Mark Howard

Ultimate Purpose

Father in heaven, I thank you so much for the Sabbath day and the privilege that we have to be here worshiping together Father we know that you're in our presence, and you have invited us Actually into your presence on this Sabbath day We pray Lord that that time would be well spent that we would have ears to hear and hearts to respond to what you have to tell us today.

We ask and pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake.

I want to start out by talking a little bit about the ultimate purpose and the whole idea even behind this.

I feel really excited and privileged to be here and to be a part of this because As I mentioned in our brief description of seminars last night, the 19, rather the 18 to 29 year old age group is the missing-est group in the church today, and that's not just in the Adventist church today.

According to the Barna Research Group, teenagers are some of the most religiously active Americans.

Now listen carefully, teenagers are among the most religiously active Americans.

You take all Americans and you look at the Christian experience and the most active Christians are the teenagers, 20-somethings are the least active.

So you go from the teen years to being the most active, and then you get into the 20-somethings and you're the least active.

And as I mentioned, the ages of 18 to 29 are, quote, the black hole of church attendance.

So what happens between the teen years and the 20s?

And just so that we don't think it begins in college, because we could say, well, it's college does it to them.

A professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary named Kenda Creasy Dean wrote a book called The Almost Christian.

1 summer she interviewed 3, 300 teens between the ages of 13 and 17 about their faith, and she describes it as 1 of the most depressing summers of her life.

They can talk about money, sex, and their family relationships with nuance.

But when they got to the subject of faith, they were indifferent and inarticulate.

Okay, so this is the active population, the teen group, and she surveyed these 3, 300 teens, and some people said, well, you know, maybe they're shy and that's why you're finding them.

They can talk about all kinds of things until you get to spirituality and then they seem to be indifferent.

She concluded that more American teenagers are embracing what she calls moralistic, therapeutic deism.

Moralistic, you know, I've got some moral values tied in there.

She says that more American teenagers are embracing what she called moralistic therapeutic deism, a watered down faith that portrays God as a divine therapist whose chief goal is to boost people's self-esteem.

That's what Dean said in her book, The Almost Christian.

She goes on to argue that many parents and pastors are unwittingly passing on this self-serving strain of Christianity.

She says this imposter faith is 1 reason teenagers abandon churches.

If teenagers lack an articulate faith, she said, it may be because the faith we show them is too spineless to merit much in the way of conversation.

Too spineless, too empty, too accommodating to the world around us.

In another book written by David Kinnaman, now he's the president of Barna Research Group.

He wrote a book called You Lost Me, looking at this generation, this black hole of 18 to 29-year-olds.

And He commented in his book, he says, the problem that we're seeing arises from the inadequacy of preparing young Christians for life beyond youth group.

The dropout problem is at its core a faith development problem.

To use religious language, it's a disciple-making problem.

There's a problem in the church today in understanding what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

And that lack of understanding has taken out the purpose of Christianity.

And that's what I want to explore with you this morning as we look at the ultimate purpose.

I want to ask you the question first of all, I mean this is a real commonplace question and I think everybody would have a pretty straightforward answer with this.

If you were to say, and I don't even want to stay within the confines of Christianity, If I throw the word disciple out there, what is a disciple?

Somebody who follows somebody with the purpose of being like them.

How many of you would connect with that definition of discipleship?

And of course a Christian is going to be a disciple or a follower of Christ.

Is there a difference between a disciple and a Christian?

I'm getting a little bit of Babylon out here, huh?

Some yeses and some noes and some Let me ask it this way, should there be a difference between a disciple and a Christian?

What are we saying when we say, oh yeah, there's a difference between a disciple and a Christian.

A disciple is an active Christian, right?

I mean, if somebody was going to say there's a difference, isn't that kind of the difference?

That's what I assume when I've talked to people in conversations.

I've had people, when I have this conversation with people and they elaborate a little bit, oh yeah well the Christian is a believer and then the disciple, they're a believer who actually gets out and does something.

I hope you have your Bibles this morning.

We're going to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 11.

And in Acts chapter 11, we're going to verse 26, just to give you a little bit of background, great things were happening in the early church.

Among the lay people, that is the church members, not the pastors, not the priests, the leaders, the apostles.

The church members in Antioch, the church was just going gangbusters in Antioch.

I mean the church was growing by leaps and bounds, so much so that word went back to Jerusalem and The church in Jerusalem decided they're going to send Barnabas out to check it out.

So Barnabas goes to Antioch and Barnabas gets to Antioch and wow, he's blown away by what's happening there.

So then Barnabas goes out and finds Paul.

And he says, you've got to come and check this out.

He finds Paul and it says in verse 26, Acts 11, 26, when he had found him he brought him to Antioch.

So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people and notice the disciples, the who?

The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

The disciples were first called Christians.

Here's these people, all they're doing is talking about Christ, this Christ this and Christ that and the people who heard them said, you guys are a bunch of Christians.

No biblical distinction between a disciple and a Christian.

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Series

GYC SE 2012 Plenary Sessions

What Is Truth?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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