GYC 2012 Acts: The Revolution Continues

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2012 Seminar: How to Share My Testimony - Omissions, Inclusions, Purpose

Heidi Carpenter

He’s Working All Around You

This message was presented at the GYC 2012 conference in Seattle, Washington.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Father, God, and heaven, we want to praise you and thank you for all the things that you have done in our lives.

Lord, we are full of gratitude today And we are thankful for the way that you are able to lead us and draw us into closer and closer relationships with you.

Lord, we pray that your presence would be here in our hearts and in our minds, as we share with 1 another, as we share from the front, and as each person shares, Lord, individually, that your presence would be here and that your name would be glorified.

We thank you and we pray this in Jesus' name.

It's such a privilege to be here and I'll just introduce Ken to you.

Ken works actually in the Michigan Conference and he's the Youth Director there.

I can tell that he loves Jesus and he loves young people so it's something that definitely overflows from him and I know that it will be a blessing for you to hear his sessions as well as mine.

Just as we talk about testimony, I know if you've looked inside of your little bulletin, it says how to share my testimony, omissions, inclusions, and purpose.

And that is something that we desire for you to be able to take away from this seminar.

However, some of the conclusions you will need to come to on your own.

There's a lot of purpose, a lot of ideas and things that will come in.

This won't be a PowerPoint presentation that gives you the do's and don'ts of sharing your testimony.

It's much broader and bigger than that to really think about and to pray through in your mind.

Each time we'll have opportunities in the middle of each session, whichever ones you're able to come to, And we'll have little times in the middle of every session where we're going to break off, and you're going to be able to think about certain aspects of testimony, because there's many different aspects.

And you'll get to share personally, and think a little bit more in your own life, or the things that you see God doing around you.

And the more and more we share, the smoother it gets.

The more and more we share those testimonies of what God's doing, the more and more we recognize God's work around us, the easier and easier it becomes.

But in many ways, how to share your testimony, it's from the very foundation, I'd like to bring our minds to the conclusion that it's not ours.

And when we think about that, it's what God is doing in our lives.

The testimony that we have to share, what we see Him doing in other people's lives, we must give Him glory.

It's all about Jesus and his work in our lives and in our hearts.

I'll share a little bit of my own personal testimony before we go into today, but today God is at work all around you and the amazing ways that God can work in people's lives.

The more and more we recognize Him, the more we're able to then share with other people what we see God doing.

And it always amazes me to think about how God could take an atheist and turn them into a Bible-believing Christian.

I have friends in my life and even close family members who have gone down that road and yet who have somehow miraculously through a series of events, they have come back to God.

And it has been as if some unseen pole has been drawing them towards God.

And it also amazes me how maybe a selfish, self-centered teenager, for instance, could become a missionary and want to go serve God.

Those are things where it's just like, how in the world does God change someone's life like that?

For me, my testimony will be much different, I'm sure, than Ken's, because we both had different experiences in life but nonetheless it's the way that God has been working in such a powerful way and I would love to hear every single 1 in this room because I know the fact that we're all here today means that God has somehow, someway been working in our lives.

And for me, it wasn't necessarily a life of, you know, whatever, drugs and alcohol and debauchery or whatever and coming back to God, but it was a little bit different.

I grew up in a Christian home in Kansas, far away from where I live now in Southern California, big city, totally different than what I grew up in.

But it's been quite the experience to see how God has led.

Growing up in an Adventist home, my dad was a held elder in our church, and so everyone kind of looked at our family.

It was almost kind of like a PK type experience, where everyone's looking at you, expecting you to be perfect in so many different ways.

And I remember going to church and just being involved in Sabbath school, always knowing my memory verse, always getting the star because I knew it every week, in a row.

And I don't know if they do that anymore, but it was amazing though.

During high school, I got involved with a relationship that started leading me away from God.

And I know it's amazing how interacting with other people can end up taking you downhill spiritually.

The relationship definitely wasn't of a spiritual nature and even though my boyfriend was in the church, he didn't really have a deep, he didn't have a relationship with God on his own.

And it was amazing to see how the more and more time we spent with each other, the more and more time I didn't desire to spend with God.

And my parents at this time were praying for me.

I still remember, it was during my junior high, high school years, my parents were so frustrated with seeing the path that I was taking in life.

And I remember going upstairs, I was what you would consider a rebellious teenager at that time.

I remember going upstairs and I was going to ask my mom something.

I heard her as if she was talking to someone inside of the room, but I knew that no 1 was home.

And I was about ready to ask her a question, but I said, you know, I'm just going to wait really quick and see what she's really doing.

So I put my ear up to the door and I'm listening.

And the more and more I listen, I realize that my mother is in there and she's crying and she's praying for me.

She's like pouring out her heart, and like, Lord, bring Heidi back to you, and all this kind of stuff.

And at that point, I can tell you honestly, my first initial reaction was to be angry.

Because it's like, and the very next thought was, why is she praying?

And it's like, my whole life is going to change now.

Growing up even in a Christian home, it was so easy for me during my time of, whatever you want to call it, rebellion in mind and heart from God.

There were things that I would do that I would say, oh this is going to be a really good part to add to my testimony.

And yet, through those 3 years that my parents really prayed for me, God did a lot in my heart.

And I don't know if there's anyone in this room that's praying for a testimony that's not yet realized.

Maybe you have family or friends that you've been praying for and you know their testimony is undone.

Don't stop praying because God answers prayer.

I remember 1 day going to sleep, completely in love with this guy, waking up the next morning and having absolutely no feeling in my heart for him whatsoever.

We had been together for about 3 years or so.

And waking up and realizing that, you know, I just had no feeling for him.

I went to school, he tried to give me a hug, and I was just like, I pulled him aside, took his hands in mine, and I said, I don't know how to tell this to you, but I don't like you anymore.

And you know, from that point on, the breakup was an immature high school breakup of course but nonetheless it led me to Jesus.

I went home that night and I was so fed up with human relationships because he got really mad and did really immature things, you know, because I broke up with him.

And I remember collapsing on my bed and saying, Lord, if you can do something with my life and if you want to use me, go for it." And that was me, no pastor asking me to make a decision.

You know, I wasn't at church, it was in the quietness of my own room, and no 1 was coercing me into this decision, but I made the decision.

From that point on, I have thoroughly enjoyed everything that the Lord has taken me through and into as a result of making that choice.

And the experience all began with reading this book.

I started by reading it 10 minutes a day.

I think it's funny how we give him 10 minutes out of twenty-four hours, but nonetheless, I started with 10 minutes, And it was that experience with God that really started to help me understand who He was.

And He's taken, of course, He's taken me all over the world to so many different places to do mission work and to be drawn into a closer relationship with Him.

But again, when I look back, since I gave my life to God it's been maybe 8 or 9 years and yet the testimony hasn't stopped.

I think 1 misconception that we can often have about testimony is that it's 1 experience or it's 1 turning point.

And I hope that those of us in this room can take that as 1 of the purposes.

Find a seat, there's a few up here too, there's 4.

I know these people weren't kind enough to sit in the front row.

Ken Micheff

God Working in Me

This message was presented at the GYC 2012 Conference in Seattle, Washington.

We want to welcome you guys here this morning.

Were you guys blessed by the morning devotional?

And it's always a blessing to re-evaluate motives, isn't it?

And just ask the Lord to purify and cleanse everything inside of us.

I'm so thankful to be a part of this session.

Ken here is from Michigan, and we actually just met because of doing this seminar, and it's a blessing to be able to do it together and share with you.

We're going to be going off and on, but it's how to share your testimony.

A lot of these conclusions you'll want to draw for yourself from the different talks that we have.

It's not going to be some, Like I said yesterday, it's not going to be a PowerPoint of telling you what to show and what not to say and how to say it.

It's more the big principle idea of what is God doing in your life, giving glory to Him.

And yesterday we were talking about how God is working all around us.

If we'll just open our eyes and actually look for it and see it, we can give Him glory so many times by keeping our eyes open.

And so today we're going to be going into a little bit more of that experience, but before we do let's just say a word of prayer and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide today's session.

Father in heaven, Lord we want to praise you for the way that you're able to work.

Thank you for even working in our lives this morning, in our own personal time with you.

Thank you for working in our lives through the devotional our interactions with others and father.

We don't want you to stop We don't want you to stop working in our hearts and our lives And we claim Philippians 1 6 today that we can be confident that He who has begun a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Lord, we ask for you to continue that work that you have begun, and we pray for your spirit here today in our individual hearts and minds, that we would truly be led by you into a deeper understanding of how to share the testimony you've given us with others, Lord, that we might truly share because we are compelled by having something so good that we can't keep it in.

Lord bless Ken as he shares, please anoint him with your Holy Spirit.

Before I begin, would you turn around and just smile at somebody?

You've got to give somebody a high 5 today.

In fact, don't share your name right now.

If you can't pronounce them, ask them how.

Okay, Those of you that are in the back rows, would you mind coming up front?

Because if you're at a church, and you're inviting people that are not Seventh-day Adventists, or are not of any faith at all, and they would come to your church, they aren't going to want to come and sit on the front row.

Let people that are of just hearing of the faith, of the Word of God, The Holy Spirit has sparked their interest.

And let them feel as comfortable as they can.

Think about what it's like to be new in the faith.

Well, we have asked the Holy Spirit to be here.

I am convinced that God is going to bless us today.

In fact, 1 lady here had a dream and said that God told her to come here today.

But we realized from yesterday that our testimony is valuable.

That it could actually mean the salvation of someone else.

That you could build hope in somebody else.

I want you to think about this for a minute.

When people are around you, do they walk away and say, Wow, Francisco, I don't know what it is, but every time around him, I'm a better off by being around Him.

I want to be a better person when I'm around Him.

And I've noticed that when I'm negative or I'm critical, He doesn't side in.

Have you ever been a part of encouraging gossip?

Have you ever thought about your presence having detoured someone from Christ?

You know, I'm sad to say, I have done that so much.

I am here standing with Heidi as a sinner saved by grace.

Guys, as early as I can remember, I've been selfish.

If the devil would go on vacation for 2 weeks, I'd still be lost.

You know, don't say the devil made you do it.

As early as I can remember, sneaking over to my neighbor's house and watching television and my parents didn't know it.

You know, and listening to Westerns and then when I got home, what is he doing?

Where did he learn to act like he had a gun in his hand and shooting his brother and his sisters.

Why at 3 years of age did I see somebody flick a cigarette?

And I look, oh that's cool, and I picked it up and I didn't know what to do with it, but I put it in my mouth.

And my mom's looking, and I said, uh-oh, this isn't good, I know that.

I remember when I was in high school, the fear of why I wouldn't share a testimony stifled my testimony.

Guys, when I was, just a few years earlier, I was baptized.

I had given my life to Jesus and I was at a camp.

Counting the Cost

We have a lot to share here and I want to get started.

We're just going to trust God to minister to our hearts today.

We don't want to leave this seminar having not been with God.

So I want you to open up your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 10.

We're going to pray that God would give us understanding as we study the scriptures together and as we talk a little bit about the sacrifice, the counting the cost.

Father in heaven, I want to ask for your Holy Spirit to be with us as we want you to guide us into all truth.

Lord, we believe the Word of God has the power over Satan, over self, over anything, power, principality, over everything.

And we know that if you will give us understanding, that we can believe and accept it and that power can be applied in our lives.

Lord, we've come from all kinds of backgrounds, various places, but we want to go back changed in your likeness, building hope in the kingdom of God.

So I pray your Holy Spirit to be with us now in Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, you know, when you give your life to Jesus, when you surrender your heart to Him, you do it unconditionally, like we said.

I mean, it's, okay God, I'll serve you, but I am not going to teach a Sabbath school lesson.

Honey, oh, this meal is so good, but what did you do to your hair?

I mean, it just sort of ruins it, doesn't it?

It sort of wipes out, it negates everything that you said.

When you give your life to Jesus, you give it to him unconditionally.

Okay God, if you want me to teach a Sabbath school lesson.

I remember when I went to church someone asked me to lead song service for Sabbath school.

Now I hadn't had any music appreciation at all.

But I loved the Lord and I would sing and I loved to praise Him and I'd sing out loud and they asked me to get up front and lead.

And so I just noticed that people would do this with their hands and I thought they were just filled with the Spirit.

I didn't know that there was a timing in music.

I didn't know about 4-4 timing or 3-4 timing.

I just thought they were excited about praising the Lord.

And so I would get up And I would sing, come on, and I'd get the church, come on guys, let's sing, you know.

Finally 1 sister came up to me who was the organist of the church.

She says, Ken, she says, please, would you, What are you doing with your hand?

I says, well, I'm just praising the Lord.

Praise God for people that aren't critical.

I mean, you know, a music, someone that appreciates music, someone that has perfect pitch.

Do you know how things could irritate them?

And she's like, until 1 day she just had to talk to me.

You guys, but if I would have said, OK, God, I'm not leading music again because I didn't do it right, or I didn't know what I was doing.

I made a fool out of myself in front of everybody.

And she sat down and she said, OK, the beat when it goes down, and this timing, 4-4 timing.

Those of you that are older in this room, are you mentoring people?

Are you mentoring people that are younger than you?

Are you younger people mentoring people that are older than you?

There's so many things that you young people know that I don't.

Older people, You know, instead of a bulletin that we're killing trees, get that bulletin.

Figure out how to do it on PowerPoint or on smart phones and get it out there.

Open up your houses and say, hey guys, on the weekend, I really don't know how to talk to young people.

I don't really know how, I don't know your language, but I want to.

I don't know how you guys think, I don't know how you guys think, I don't know how you guys act, but here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to open up my house on Friday night and I'm going to have haystacks.

And you can just hang out, you can bring guitars, you can sleep on the floor, We can have a Bible study, but my home is going to be open on Friday night and all day, Sabbath Friday night and Sabbath afternoon.

Guys, I need you to come to my house on Wednesday and start a prayer meeting.

My house is open for you to have a prayer group.

Guys, you that have resources, make them available to the youth.

What if they break a vase that was bought in Hungary and it cost you a bunch of money?

What are you going to do when Jesus comes?

What They See

Doesn't it feel better now that you know somebody and that you feel good?

That way, people that come into your church late, They really, the Holy Spirit has brought them to church, but they don't want to come.

They don't, they're not used to wearing a tie maybe, or they're not used to wearing a suit.

And so they feel really awkward to come into your church.

If all of the members fill the back rows, they're going to have to walk past you to come to the front.

You don't even think about what it's like to be in the world, under conviction, God's telling you go to church and the devil's telling you, no, you don't want to be there.

You know I can look in the congregation and so and so sits there every time.

Series

GYC 2012 Seminar: How to Share My Testimony - Omissions, Inclusions, Purpose

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