ECYC 2014: Revive Us Again

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

Plenary

George Cho

Are You Ready?

The title is going to be called, Are You Ready?

I pray that we can learn more about the importance of the time that we live in.

And I want to impress upon each 1 of us that it's very important that we get ready now.

Before I begin, I want to share with you a quotation.

The convocations of the church, as in camp meetings, the assemblies of the home church, and all occasions where there is personal labor for souls are God's appointed opportunities for giving the early and the latter reign.

You know, I was talking last year when we were at Manitoulin Mission.

And you know, he's been to, he has, how many of you guys have heard of GYC before?

He says something to me that was very interesting.

He said, I don't go to GYC anymore to really learn anything, to really receive a blessing.

And youth conferences like this are really great, because you get to meet new people.

How many of you have met a new person already?

And I hope that you guys take advantage of the venue that we have to meet new people, to make new friends, to network.

But you know, amidst the hustle and the bustle, we don't want to miss out on what God really wants to do in our personal lives.

So I encourage each 1 of us, especially this year since we have a very small venue.

Usually we're at a hotel or at a large school, but this year's a very small venue, very intimate.

There's going to be a lot of traffic, a lot of noise, a lot of hustle and bustle.

And amidst all that, we might miss out on what God's really tried to do in each 1 of our personal lives.

So Spirit of Apostles says that gatherings like this is opportunities for God to pour down his Holy Spirit on each 1 of us.

And I hope that each 1 of us can take the time to ask God for that experience.

Alright before we get into are you ready, let's pray together.

Dear God I want to thank you so much for bringing each 1 of us here to ECYC.

And Lord, we want to pray that you please be with us in a very special way.

Lord, you know that I'm a sinner and that I need your help.

We all, Lord, are sinful and we are stubborn.

Our hearts are naturally bent towards evil.

But Lord we want to ask that your Holy Spirit will guide our minds and our hearts and open up our hearts to receive what you have to give us today.

Then 2 men will be in the field, 1 will be taken and the other left.

2 women will be grinding at the mill, and 1 will be taken and the other left.

Watch therefore, For you do not know what hour your Lord is coming But know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come He would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into Therefore you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour.

You do not expect Some people believe that this is referring to the secret rapture.

So you know 2 men will be like on the tractor and then all of a sudden boom God will take 1 person the other person would be like wondering where he went.

You know 2 women will be in some like bakery and then boom God will take 1 person and the other woman will be wondering where she went.

But I think that misses the point of what Jesus is really trying to say.

The point that Jesus is trying to say is that in the last days, that there will be 2 groups of people and only 2 groups of people.

1 group will be ready to meet Jesus and the other group will not.

In fact, I think this actually has some symbolic meaning because Jesus says the field is the world.

And so you have 2 groups of people doing evangelism.

But 1 group will be ready, the other group will be not.

And the Bible says that women represents a church, and they're grinding at the mill making bread.

There'll be 2 groups of people, 2 groups of Christianities.

Actually, both are sharing the word of God, but 1 will be ready and the other not.

But the message to us is this, us as Sampthaea Adventists, are you ready to meet Jesus?

Why does Jesus say to be ready in this verse?

Exactly, because you do not know when He's coming.

You know, This past year, my family, the Lord really taught our family this very important lesson through the tragic death of my mother.

It was in this past March, we got a phone call from the police telling us that my mother's house was on fire.

And it really taught us a lesson that you always need to be ready because you do not know when your probation will close.

And so experiencing my mother's death, it really got me to start thinking, as probably all of us would probably do the same as well, if your mother died tragically, right?

It started to really get me to think and reflect about my own status with God, the last days and the times that we really live in.

So I want to share some of these things with you today.

First thing that the Lord taught me about being ready for His second coming is that you have to, we as young people, to realize that Canada is not our home?

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed them, that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For Those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland, and truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

Well these include people like Enoch, who lived on this earth, but God took to heaven.

These people include people like Noah whose house was destroyed by the flood and people like Abraham who God called out of Mesopotamia to Rome and Canaan.

And all these people did not have their inheritance on this planet.

You know this is a photograph from CTV news and this is actually the picture of my mother's house on fire.

And I do not, you know I still remember to this day When we first got onto the site of my mother's house, because there's a very long driveway into my mother's house, and so you can't see the house, and it's covered by trees, as you can see.

And so the police cars were blocking my mother's entrance, so we couldn't get in.

So what we did, we went to our neighbor's house, and in the distance we can see Our house our mother's house on fire And these are very tall trees so because you can imagine how how big the fire was and you know I was we're driving up to my mother's place.

I was you know I was just hoping against hope that the news wasn't true, that somehow they made a mistake.

But once we saw across the field, we saw the fire burning like that, we realized why it really happened.

I want to tell you guys that everything on this earth is going to burn 1 day.

And everything in this world is very temporary.

And we have to, us as young people, to make up our minds.

Jonathan Zita

And Jesus Stood Still

I had a privilege to do a mission trip out there.

And at the end of the mission trip, we had the opportunity to, a group of us, to go to an island and recreation, just to swim and take it easy.

So a group of us guys, we were swimming near a beach.

And as we were swimming, 1 of my friends looked at me and he pointed out to a big rock.

It was like a big, About half the size of this room and it was about 30 feet high and It was about half a kilometer out into the ocean and he pointed to this rock and says hey, let's go out there Let's swim out there and let's go and climb this rock.

So I kind of could tell about, you know, I was trying to look at the rock, and the rock had a straight or a flat facade, you know?

It was like a big boulder just protruding from the ocean.

And I said, no, let's just stay here a little bit.

And I made a deal with him that I thought he would not carry through.

So I said, look, if you swim half a kilometer out there and you climb that rock and you're at the top of the rock and you call me, I'm going to come.

And I knew he wasn't going to follow through.

So I just kept swimming and having fun with the other guys.

And then about 30 minutes later, I hear a voice that's way in the distance, hey, hey.

And so I look and sure enough, there is that young man at the top of the 30, 40 foot boulder looking at me.

And I tried to ignore him, but you know, he says, you promised, you promised.

And the thought of it, I said, the whole reason we were out there is we were resting.

I didn't feel like swimming half a kilometer and then climbing.

But I promised, so I started swimming the half a kilometer out to the boulder.

And I'm already tired from the week of evangelism and whatever else we did.

And when I get to the boulder, I'm exhausted because I've just swam half a kilometer.

And interestingly enough, when I got to the boulder, I realized that the water was pretty shallow.

The problem was around the boulder there was rocks that were sticking out in the water.

I started to climb the boulder wherever I could find a crack to put my hand and to put my feet.

I climbed 5 feet, 10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet, and something happened at 20-some feet.

I didn't have any more strength to continue.

I don't know if that has ever happened to you when you're doing exercise or something that you're flexing so much that your arms, your legs start shaking.

And that's where it started to happen to me.

I was hanging between life and death basically and my muscles started to shake and you know most of you can tell I'm not the most muscular guy out there so even to swim half a kilometer and to climb it was very, very difficult.

I had literally no strength to keep climbing and I could barely hold on.

But I knew I couldn't let go because if I let go, I was going to fall to not just water, but to rocks.

And I knew I would either get a concussion or something.

So at that point, it's a feeling that it's hard to explain to you, but it's a feeling that, Lord, I didn't come out here to Thailand to die.

I can't go up, and I can't go down, and it's only a matter of time until I'm going to let go.

It's an awful feeling, A feeling that your credit card, your friends, your reputation, your family, none of those things can help you at that point.

It's a feeling of complete helplessness, complete hopelessness.

It's a feeling of, that you've lost complete control.

And there's nothing you have, nothing you can do that can get you out of this situation.

You know, throughout life I realized that that's an awful feeling, but it's 1 of the best feelings you can ever have.

Because it allows you to realize that you need a savior.

The title of this morning was supposed to be, And Jesus Stood Still, but I felt impressed to change it to, We Need a Savior.

Because all of us, we go through life, and there's different situations that we're placed into, but somehow, we always have an ability to get out of it.

Even when we get sick, there's always the hospital and maybe it's the latest technology that will be able to heal our cancer.

But I believe that unless we get to the point as Christians where we realize that There is nothing that we can do.

There's that hopeless feeling of, unless you help me God, I'm going to die.

Unless we come to that point, I believe that we won't be saved.

I want to talk about needing a Savior in the light of losing control.

And more specifically, I want to talk about addictions this morning.

I looked up the word addiction in the dictionary and it says this, devoted or given up to something.

Another definition says strongly disposed or inclined to something.

And I want to submit to all of you this morning is that we are all addicted to something.

And it doesn't matter how pretty you look, how nice you smile, every single 1 of us are addicted to sin without the grace and power of Christ.

We all are devoted or given up to something which is sin without Christ.

We are all strongly disposed or inclined to sin without the power of Christ.

And the Bible breaks it down into the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

But I want to read maybe a little bit more specifically this concept from Romans chapter 3.

If you have your Bibles, we're going to flip there.

I'm going to move quickly this morning and if you can just hang in there with me.

In Romans chapter 3, looking at verse 10, and I'll get back to my story a little bit later as I was hanging between life and death.

The Bible says, As it is written, there is how many righteous?

Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongue.

The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood.

Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned, and do what?

We are told in Romans chapter 6 that the wages of sin is what?

So I want to submit that all of us are addicted.

You know usually what we speak about And the reason I want to talk about addictions this morning is when somebody realizes that he or she is addicted that individual realizes that they have lost control and that they need help.

And so, you know, there might be somebody that's a drug addict and we classify them a drag addict or maybe alcoholic.

These individuals we say are addicts or are addicted.

And so when they acknowledge that they are addicted, what they are saying is, I need help.

Seth Amankwah

Abana and Pharpar

It's my prayer that as we open this word today, he himself will come down and teach us as to how we can receive the latter rain.

I will ask you to bow with me as we invite the Lord.

Before we open the word, let's open our heart first through prayer.

What a privilege to be part of the day that you have blessed and sanctified.

What an awesome privilege to be in the presence of the King of the Universe.

And we thank you for making us being faithful to your command to observe this day.

Father in heaven as we open your words today, spiritual things are spiritual design.

Unless you be with me, I thank you that you remember that I'm a dust, and without your strength and power, there's nothing good in me.

So I pray that you be with me and you put your words in my mouth.

Give me the right idea, the right sequence of thought, I ask.

Open the hearts and the minds of your people, and let us know you through your word today.

Let 1 name alone be glorified today, and that is the name of Jesus.

In his name we've offered this prayer from our heart.

For the sake of spelling, it's in your Bible by the way, but for the sake of spelling, Abena is A-B-A-N-A.

The message is based on the book of 2 Kings, chapter 5.

Let's turn our Bibles to 2 Kings, chapter 5.

But before that, perhaps I need to give you a historical setting to the book of 2 Kings chapter 5.

On the political scene, Ben-Hadda, the king of Syria has defeated Israel in the battle that resulted the death of Ahab, the king of Israel.

Ahab has disobeyed God and has disobeyed his commands and instruction.

God instructed Ahab to destroy Ben-Hadad, but Ahab refused to follow the instructions and the direction of his Lord.

So Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, came and defeated Israel.

After the defeat, the Syrians unleashed a constant border intimidation and warfare against Israel, and as a result, they took some of the Israelites into captivity.

After the death of Ahab, Joram, the son of Ahab, took over the throne of Israel.

So that is a setting on the political scene.

On the religious scene, God who punishes disobedient also reward obedient.

So Elijah, the prophet of God, has led his life so well and obeyed the ways and the command of God and God has translated Elijah without seeing death.

And Elisha, the servant of Elijah, has served Elijah so faithful that before Elijah left, he gave Elisha a double portion of his spirit.

And it is understood that the ministry of Elijah is a type of Christ.

It is not by mistake that the forerunner of Elisha is also a type of the forerunner of Jesus.

So Elijah, the forerunner of Elisha, is a type of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus.

Another interesting thing is that before Elisha started his ministry, Elisha came out from Jordan with a blessing by his forerunner Elijah before he started his ministry.

And Jesus, before he started his ministry, came out from the same Jordan with a blessing of his forerunner, John the Baptist.

So there is kind of a typology between the ministry of Elisha and that of Christ.

And it's not my mistake that Jesus started his ministry with a miracle, and Elisha also started his ministry with a miracle.

So, Elisha is considered as a type of Christ.

The woman was in debt and his 2 sons were about to be taken into bondage, into slavery, to serve, to pay that debt.

So he resorted to Elisha and through God's grace he was delivered from his financial debt.

I don't know what your financial situation is, but if you can trust the God of Elisha, I know that he will deliver you from your financial difficulties.

He also was a blessing to a Shunammite woman who had been asking for a baby for so long a time.

And this woman who was old was able to deliver to have a son.

At the same time, Elisha did 1 miracle by making a poison stew turn edible.

Another miracle Elisha did was also to feed many people with a few food available.

So we see that Elisha started his ministry with a miracle, but 1 of the miracles that Elisha did is what I want us to consider this evening as we go through our ECYC conference, Revive Us Again.

Turn with me, with your Bibles, to the book of 2nd Kings, chapter 5.

The Bible says in the book of 2nd Kings, chapter 5, Now Naaman, the captain of host of king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable because by him the Lord has given deliverance to Syria he was also a mighty man in villa but he was a leper The Bible introduced a man called Naaman, and it says this man, Naaman, he was a captain of host of Israel, of Syria.

If we are considering somebody being the captain of host in our time, perhaps we may say he is the army commander of Canadian Armed Forces.

He was the 1 behind the military plan and the invasion and the destruction of other nations.

And not only that, the Bible says this man was a great man, perhaps a great man in battle.

He did not become the captain of host of Israel because he was the old army person in the army of Syria.

He was somebody whose achievements speaks for itself.

He was a great man, a great man in battle, because by him many nations has fallen to his feet.

At the same time, Neyman did not only get respect from his co-military persons, but also he was an honorable person, meaning he got the respect and it was highly esteemed by the civilians of Syria are you with me so Neyman achievement speaks for itself not only that but the Bible also described this man that he was a mighty man of valor, meaning he is count among the Gideons and the Davids.

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