GYC 2013: Before Men and Angels

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Neophyte and the Great Controversy

Taurus Montgomery

01-The Mystery

This message was presented at the GYC 2013 conference, Before Man and Angels, in Orlando, Florida.

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

All right, now, it is very, it's extremely difficult for me to stand still and preach the Word of God.

I'm going to try my best, but we're going to get started.

I think I talked loud enough, but they want me to speak into this mic.

And so I'm going to try to be obedient to what they have asked me to do.

So look, I know we just prayed, but I want to pray 1 more time.

And then we're going to get into our presentation.

Father in heaven, we just thank you so much for this opportunity we have to study your word.

I pray for the presence and power of your Holy Spirit to be with us, Lord, as we learn today.

Okay, as was mentioned, we're gonna talk about the great controversy, and we're gonna do it from the perspective of someone who may not have, you may be new, or this topic is not that much familiar to you, so we're gonna share with you guys based on that perspective.

And the title of our presentation is The Great Controversy and the Neophyte.

Now we're going to use Matthew chapter 13, Matthew chapter 13, verse 24 through 30 as our primary text.

Now because this is a parable, and we wanna be good Bible students, parables usually have 1, are usually given to illustrate or to teach 1 specific truth, okay?

And so there are certain rules that are to govern how we treat a parable, all right?

And so I'm gonna share briefly the primary truth of this parable, but we're gonna use it also to be able to give us a broader perspective of the great controversy.

And so the parable is taken from Matthew chapter 13 verse 24 through 30.

If you have your Bible or if you want to look at it on the screen, it's up here.

Matthew chapter 13 verse 24 through 30 and the Bible says, Jesus is speaking here and he says, another parable he put forth to them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sold what?

We are studying the word of God together.

You sound, I know it's early in the morning.

When it comes to the word of God, I think we ought to be more excited about that than it comes to a football game or a basketball game or a television show or anything else.

So we're going to read together, all right?

I'm just trying to share with you my teaching style so we can be on the same page.

So the Bible says, another parable he put forth to them, saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed what?

Good seed in his field, but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, Then the tares also what?

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

The servant said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up?

But he said, no, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.

The Bible says in verse 30, let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." All right?

Now, we're going to look at this parable.

We're going to ask a basic, basic question, all right?

We're going to deal with just this 1 particular verse, all right?

The parable says, well, the first verse says another parable he put forth to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

So a very basic question, very basic, Basic question, what does the verse say?

You have the kingdom of heaven, you have what else?

He's sowing, alright, and where is he sowing?

So, so, simply put, verse 24 highlights the fact that there's a man who sowed good seeds, where?

So now, let's, let's give a, Let's get an explanation of this, and Jesus explains this parable in Matthew chapter 13 verse 37 through 38.

The Son of Man represents Jesus Christ, or the Son of Man, as he says.

And the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom, OK?

Those people of God, the people of God, the faithful people of God, and his field represents what, everybody?

Now, as we look at this from the perspective of the great controversy, alright, I want you to get this right here.

God, through his son Jesus Christ, and by his spirit, sold or created good things in his field, the universe.

So God, looking at this from the great controversial perspective, God sold good things in his field.

I am going to be very, I hope they don't get mad at me, but I'm just, I cannot stand behind this desk any longer.

All right, so I'm just going to talk as loud as I can.

So I got to be comfortable when I'm teaching you guys.

Moise Ratsara

02-Lawlessness and the Beautiful

This message was presented at the DYC 2013 conference, Before Man and Angels, in Orlando, Florida.

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

Dear Heavenly Father, what a privilege it is to spend another day in your presence.

Father as we realize that when you were the man that sowed the good seeds, Not bad seeds, but good seeds.

Now, Father, as we travel through this journey and we reach scene number 2, may You lead us into all understanding.

Let us go to our parable found in Matthew 13, 24.

For those of you that weren't here, scene number 1 was when God created.

When God says something is good, what do you think it is?

Everything in it is meant to strike a chord of happiness.

In men, in angels, whoever was there, It was good.

And as I'm talking to you, let me remind you that I'm not preaching.

So if you have a question, raise up your hand say Pastor Razzara, Pastor Moise, Pastor Mo.

So feel free to interact with me as we go on through this journey.

Scene number 1, I will just read and go to scene number 2.

Another parable he put forth to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed what?

But while man slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

How many of you think it is something else?

Let me remind you in scene number 1, was man already created?

Who were the people that were around when God created?

As a matter of fact, if you look in that verse, Man is plural.

Now, when the Bible talks about sleep, what does it refer to?

Let us turn and let us read from Scripture.

And I want to tell you from now that you will be using your Bible, so don't put it away.

And I read, Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping, And what I say to you, I say to you all, Watch.

What I say to you, I say to you all, watch.

Sleeping in the Bible is not being Watchful.

Sleeping in the Bible, when it refers to it, it means this man that were there, they were not being watchful.

After all, This were angels because they were the only ones around when God created.

This weren't the men, this were the angels.

We know that from the first presentation that what was God's universe based upon?

Love, Another word for the love of God is?

It is not that he says, well, let me give you this law because I hate you.

He gives you a law because he does not want you to feel hurt.

And his law is what the angels were to watch for.

After all, heaven was not a place where they were all forced to worship God.

All of them there had voluntary service for this God because He was good and He loved them so much, But some angels weren't watching.

And when they were not watching, what happens here?

Let us go back to our main text in Matthew chapter 13, verses 25.

Verses 25, in this beautiful place called heaven, there are some men and they are sleeping.

Now are they sinning when they're sleeping?

03-The Neophyte

I don't know if we have some people here from the second.

Yeah, I don't know if we have anybody here from the morning session.

How many of you know what neophyte means?

You Google what does neophyte mean and what definition did you guys get?

Recent convert, okay Beginner Someone who's new to a subject now how many of you have heard of the great controversy?

No, I'm not trying to tell you you're a neophyte, but all of us somehow we are new we come new to the great controversy because It is ever going All right, some of you had joined us But yeah, I will give a quick summary, but before I do that, why don't we pray to invite the Holy Spirit?

Dear Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ.

And Father, though we may be few, may our praises be mighty for you today.

May you lead us into your word and may you teach us.

And Father, may you bless us and may you give us freedom in you, Father, because the truth shall set us free.

And Taurus and I, Taurus is not here right now, we have been covering the great controversy from the Bible.

Now, there is 1 parable that Jesus used to teach his disciples about the great controversy.

There's 1 parable that God used, Jesus 1 he was on this earth, that he used to teach his disciples about the great controversy.

Now I want to tell you you're at the right place at the right time Because we're about to go through some very exciting things Matthew 24 here, there's a parable of the Matthew 24, here there is a parable of the...

Okay, the wheat and the tares, the sower.

And we will just go over it quickly here.

It says in another parable he put forth Matthew chapter 13 verse 24 to 30.

In another parable he put forth to them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed bad seeds good seeds all right you're following Who sowed good seeds in his field, but while man slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the grain has sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

But he said, no, lest while you gather them up, your tears also uproot the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest.

And at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers first gather the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn.

All right what do you think scene number 1, verse 24 is talking about?

And you can talk to me, don't be afraid, we're few and that's a blessing because you can interact with me.

Verse 24, what do you think is that scene?

Just as we're reviewing what we covered this morning just to catch you up to speed.

Love and what is the best definition of love?

Heaven is based upon the law of God, which is a representation of his character of love.

But now, this is the good, you know, Jesus is good, but in verse 25, what happens there?

And while these men are asleep, an enemy comes and then he sows what?

They are angels, who are the only persons around when God is creating.

Now, how many of you is it a radical thing to hear that some angels were sleeping?

What do you think they mean by they were sleeping?

What does the Bible mean by what is sleep in the Bible?

In the Bible, rest, well, sleep could mean, Let's turn to Mark chapter 13.

Mark chapter 13 and we will see what sleeping means as well.

It says, lest coming suddenly he find you what?

04-The Neophyte and The Great Controversy, Part 4

All right, good evening or good afternoon everyone.

I want to express how appreciative I am of this opportunity to share with you guys.

The title of our seminar is The Great Controversy and the Neophyte.

And it's simply the great controversy for someone who may be new to the great controversy and may not have heard it before or gotten a chance to go in depth with in depth about it.

And so we're just going to spend some time, need to get this situated, we're just going to spend some time studying what we call, what we're calling the different scenes of a particular passage of Scripture.

We're using a parable found in Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew chapter 13, and I want you to turn to, We're going to look at verses 24 through 30.

Matthew chapter 13, verses 24 through 30.

And we're actually going to read, you can read along in your Bible, I'm going to read it from the screen up here.

But before we do that, I invite you to pray with me.

Father in heaven, we thank you again, Lord, for the opportunity to study your word.

I pray and I ask that you would give us wisdom and clarity and insight And I pray, Lord, that as we engage in this study, that we will not just learn good information, but that it will cause us to be transformed as well.

All right, so Matthew Chapter 13, verse 24 through 30, the Bible says, another parable he put forth to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

But he said, no, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

What we're going to focus on, scene 4, what we're going to focus on is this verse right here, verses 27 and the first part of verse 28, where it says, so the servants of the owner came and said to him, sir, did you not so good see in your field?

So just a very quick review, a very quick overview from the first seminar to this 1 right now.

I just want to highlight the different characters, the different characters, the different people that are in this particular parable.

First we have an owner who goes out and sows.

Jesus is the owner of the field and the field represents, we said earlier, the field represents, well the Bible says the field represents the world, but we also see how the field represents from a great controversy perspective, from a more universal perspective, we also see that the field represents the entire universe.

And when we talk about the fact that he sowed, we talk about how God created the entire universe.

Again, we're looking at this passage and we're seeing it from the perspective of the great controversy.

So you have the Son of God, the Son of Man, who is sowing, or who has created good seed, right?

And unfortunately, as the servants of the Creator, as the servants of the Creator look and see at, wait a minute, wait a minute, you sowed good seed, well why is it that there are tears?

So there's this question now, all right, and that's precisely what we're going to deal with.

Now, as I look at this passage, and As we look at this passage together, what has the work of the enemy caused the servants to do?

The outcome, there we go, there we go, there we go, there we go, there we go.

The enemy has caused the servants to look at the field and say, wait a minute, I thought you sold good seed, right?

In other words, this question has created in a sense, in essence rather, a controversy.

You said, we saw you sell 1 thing, or at least, yeah, we did see it because we see we're talking about the angels now.

We saw you so 1 thing, we saw you create 1 thing, but when we look at the outcome, when we look at the results, we're seeing tears.

So how is it that these tears have come about?

In other words, the enemy has created a controversy.

Controversy, what exactly is controversy?

Alright, Let me, just by way of example, I shop at Walmart.

It's probably the only place where you can buy good groceries where I live at.

And as I'm walking through Walmart, you know, I'm noticing all of these guys wearing, or these pictures of these guys wearing fatigue.

And I'm trying to figure out, why are these?

And it seems to be pictures of them all over the place.

And I'm trying to figure out who, what, what is this all about?

They have this, this, this ranch or this compound, I don't know what you call it.

They're very rich, they have a lot of land, and they have a TV show called Duck Dynasty, right?

I don't know what they do, I've never seen the TV show, I don't know what goes on there, but if you walk through Wal-Mart, you're going to see a whole bunch of Duck Dynasty stuff.

And I just saw it all over the place, and so I'm trying to figure out what is this all about?

05-The Neophyte and The Great Controversy, Part 5

First, If we can begin with a word of prayer, and then we'll go right into our message for today.

Father in heaven, we Thank you so much for the opportunity that you've given us to be alive today, God.

Not only are we alive, Lord, but we are alive at what I believe to be the greatest time in Earth's history, Lord.

We have the privilege of living in the toenails of time, God, the opportunity to be able to see Jesus to come through those clouds.

And I pray, Lord, that this presentation, this time that we spend together, will help us to be ready for that moment.

Be with us, Lord, as we open up your word.

Just want to, how many of you guys, this is your very first, very first presentation here at the Great Controversy and the Neophyte.

That helps me because I'm going to just do a brief overview of some of the things that we've already talked about and then we will continue on in what we call our fifth scene, scene number 5.

So, just wanted to run through very quick, quick review we've been talking about.

And you'll see this, we've been talking about Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the tares.

And we've used that parable to help unfold the perspective of the great controversy based on that particular parable.

And so as we continue to go, you'll see how this unfolds.

So we talked about the sower in the parable and the goodness of the sower.

We talked about the lawlessness of his enemy.

We talked about the role of the Messiah, of the promised Messiah to come and his role in the great controversy.

And we talked on yesterday about how the enemy uses doubt in order to get us to disbelieve or in order to keep us from having a strong, solid faith in the 1 who created.

And we see the creator as the sower, alright?

This will become clearer as we read this particular passage.

Series

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Neophyte and the Great Controversy

03-The Neophyte

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Neophyte and the Great Controversy

01-The Mystery

40m

GYC 2013 Seminar: Daniel: Defining Adventism's Role in the Great Controversy

03-Daniel 8 & 9: The Shadow and the Cross

1h

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Most Important Book Outside of the Bible - A Deeper Look at The Great Controversy

03-Adventism’s Prophetic Message in the Great Controversy

1h

GYC 2013 Seminar: Making Friends for Eternity

01-Making Friends for Eternity, Part 1

1h

Stephen Bohr - Exonerating God: the Seventh-day Adventist View of Salvation

Exonerating God, Part 2

1h

Ignite Your Local Church for Mission

Q and A and Final Charge

1h

Louis Torres ~ Gripping the Soul: Reaching the Heart Through Personal Evangelism

How To Get That Decision, Part I

52m

Atheism, Apatheism, or Adventism

1. Do We Need to Win Arguments to Win Souls?

1h 9m

Plenary Sessions

Six Keys for the Western Adventist Church

1h 8m

Christian Apologetics

If God Is Good: Why Does He Seem So Mean? (Part 1)

57m

GYC 2012 Seminar: Unleashing the Power - A Practical Guide for Finishing God's Work

Tools for Transforming Your Local Church

56m

Keys of Revelation

20. The Testimony of Jesus- Part A&B

1h 23m

Sound Doctrine