GYC 2007: Be

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Richard O'Ffill - God the Comforter: the Holy Spirit's Role in Your Life

Richard O'Ffill

God the Comforter, Part 1

Heavenly Father, we come to you today and we recommit, as we've already done in our lives, to you.

And we pray that not only the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts might be acceptable in your sight, but that in a special way that you'll reformat us in every way and that the Spirit of God will be in us and the fruit of the Spirit will prove it.

You know, I'm the kind of person who wants to try to put everything in plain language.

We were discussing before, when the people were coming in, that every profession has a vocabulary.

If we could speak it, not that we'd be good at putting in fillings and everything, but at least we'd know what she's talking about.

And an engineer has an engineering vocabulary.

The problem that we have in the Christian life is that it is a vocabulary that most of us don't speak.

And I've noticed in ministry that when we come to church on Sabbath, a new vocabulary sets in, but most of the people Don't speak it.

So we'll go through all the motions, we'll say everything, but if you ask somebody, what you talking about, I'm not sure what it is.

So at the end of the road, What we've got to do, the life in Christ is a practical life in Christ.

And so what we've got to do is resist the temptation to shrink our spiritual life.

In other words, don't get hung up on 1 part of it.

In other words, we're so desperate to live a life in Christ that instead of making it bigger, we make it smaller.

We don't need somebody who's specialized in whatever.

And sometimes with tongue in cheek, I'll say that, you know, the Christian life, and let's be honest, it has its ups and downs.

You hear some people talking and it sounds like they're just on a cloud and they've arrived.

If a person thinks he's arrived, he didn't know where he was going.

It's a continual journey, that's what it is.

And so I think we have to have that vision because our expectations can mess us up.

Now it's true that higher than the human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children.

But to hear some people talk, they've arrived there, and they see everybody else's lesser life forms and make the rest of us feel like we're losers.

You see, that's not the way, you hear where I'm coming from.

In fact, and I'm starting off on a little negative turn, am I among friends?

Can I just talk to you like your grandpa?

I'm just going to talk to you really, heart to heart, see?

I have simultaneous attacks of amnesia and deja vu.

Oh, you know, and some people say, you know, I think that my Christian life would be better if I could decode Zephaniah.

You know, I think all the problems I'm having is because I don't understand Zephaniah.

Or another person would say, I think the problem is the General Conference.

They have the White Estate there and they've got all the writings of Mrs.

Anyway, they've got the spirit of prophecy all locked up and if they would just let it out, my problems would be over.

That for most of us, let's be honest with ourselves, We're not moving forward.

We've just hung up and we're trying to have it both ways.

But see, what we have to resist, and when I see this crowd in there, and I know that this is a committed crowd.

But it doesn't mean when I look at the group and you're like my grandchildren and I look out there and my children, I'm thinking to myself, they could get tripped up.

In fact, we could be here for different reasons.

In other words, some are coming in, some are here wrecked lives, did you know that?

And they're trying to use GYC to put it back together.

And so this doesn't mean all the glitters here is not gold.

And so 1 of the problems we have is that some of us have a split life.

We have a sacred part and a profane part.

I was in a church 1 Sabbath, and in the church bulletin they said that 2 weeks later they were going to have a Church Heritage Sabbath.

And for the Sabbath school, they were going to have the review of our founding fathers and mothers.

And for the worship service, it would be our doctrines.

In the afternoon, it was going to be that mission outreach of the church.

And Saturday night it was going to be a video, Godzilla meets Frankenstein.

I've got my religious life and I got the other 1.

In other words, we must guard that the devil doesn't split us.

No, but we know where we're going and it's not just on Saturdays.

And 1 of the things I think that's a burden that I have on my heart is that we used to go to church as a guide to learn how to live.

They're beginning to to make church look like every day.

That's where we get the rock and roll church and all the rest if you listen to rock and roll all week It sounds good in church But but but but those of us who just stay away from that stuff, then we go to church We hear it it breaks our hearts in that so But anyway, I think that's that's what we want to do is don't let it be split on you.

And I think, as I said before, that we have our ups and downs, and if we have a down, don't quit.

God the Comforter, Part 2

Remember I was telling you before the break that it's possible to do good things for people and not be loving about it.

Us Men, you all don't know about this yet because you're not married.

But we're not very, you know, from a woman's point of view, we're not very romantic.

Because for a woman, she likes thoughtful things, you know.

And so 1 time it was going to be Valentine's Day.

And so the week before, I thought, I'm going to be really romantic.

And so I wanted to be real romantic that year.

So the week before, I said to my wife, honey, it's going to be Valentine's Day next week.

That's really, that's romantic, isn't it?

But my wife said, watch this, she said, let's don't, let's just exchange cards.

And I felt like I'd been slapped in the face.

I don't know if you guys are like me, but I was very shy when I was in high school about asking girls out.

And I asked a girl out like the first thing at the academy.

I went to Ohio Mount Vernon Academy and she turned me down.

And it hurt me so bad that I think it was 6 or 8 months before I could get up the courage to ask somebody else out.

So when I asked my wife to go to that restaurant, I was so proud of myself, but when she said no man, I got flashbacks.

It reminded me of when I was being turned down when I was in the academy.

Now when I get mad, I don't cuss or scream or throw stuff.

But in my stomach, man, I said, I think to myself, woman, you can't do this to me.

And I'll tell you what I'm going to do next week.

You say you want to exchange cards, I'll do 1 better.

But you know, there was a few days, And so as the days were passing, I was thinking about it because remember, I want to get even with her, see?

And I thought, I know what I'm going to do.

She's going to get me a card and I'll get her some flowers.

I want to show her up, Make her cheap looking.

Now this is crazy, but I was mad, but you couldn't tell her.

So Valentine's Day came and she worked at 1 office and I worked at the other.

So I stopped at the supermarket because they have flower things in them, you know that.

So I bought some, it wasn't really spectacular, it was the minimum, just to make her look bad.

And so it would be something she'd sit on her desk.

And so I walked in And I said to the receptionist, would you take these up to Betty?

And the receptionist smiled at me and she probably thought, oh, I wish my husband was like you.

But she really wouldn't if she didn't know what I was up to.

And So she said, Betty's not in her office.

She's across the street at the conference office.

And I thought, I didn't see her over there.

I went back to my office and on my desk was a package and a love note.

And I didn't get 1 package and 1 love note.

And the only reason I tell you that story is because just think of what an idiot I would have been to do nothing.

But the reason I started telling you that was because we can do the right thing for the wrong reason.

And obviously the purpose of the spirit-filled life of the fruit of the Spirit is to get it right on the inside.

You know what I've done in my house, and we're going to get through this, and I hope you'll think about it, and that is I've printed out a card that has the fruit of the Spirit on it and I stuck it to the refrigerator.

You all don't know about this, but grandpas and grandmas, they stick stuff from their grandchildren on the refrigerator with magnets.

And so I challenge you, wherever you're at, you're at school or whatever you're at, print out the fruit of the Spirit.

You don't make it like a billboard, but just make it something that reminds us of that's what we're praying that Jesus will do in our lives.

How the Holy Spirit is not speaking in tongues or all the rest.

And there's so many of us that think, well, I'll prove that I'm like Jesus out.

But you don't have to be born again to do that.

A clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.

And I believe, and you may disagree with me, That the renewal of the spirit is not something you do once in your life It's something we do every day and I heard somebody say 1 time, you know, there's certain things you can pay people to do for you in other words your car breaks down you can pay the guy to fix it.

Or whatever it is, you can pay him to fix it.

But there's 2 things you can't pay people for.

1 is to breathe for you, and the other is to eat for you.

And in the same way, we can't pray, or I should say we can't hire someone to be our spiritual whatever.

By the way, I was thinking this morning, too, about when we ask Jesus into our hearts.

Do you know having Jesus in our heart is not our initiative?

You know what I'm talking when I say that?

What's the scripture says, behold I what?

In other words, this whole thing we've got in our head to come to Jesus is His suggestion, not ours.

Remember we were talking about the Hindus and the Muslims and all these people.

Now, you may not agree with me, But there'll be those in heaven who never heard of Jesus.

God the Comforter, Part 3

You know what I thought would be a good idea as we start out this afternoon?

At the end of the day, have you ever heard the expression, the satisfied customer?

You can talk about the theory of something until you just talk about it and talk about it and talk about it.

But at the end of the day, it has to work, doesn't it, really?

And we talk about giving our hearts to Jesus and the fruit of the Spirit.

What let's do first is, remember I said I was going to ask you what you heard?

I've got to tell you this story before I do.

I was doing a series of meetings at a church, I forgot where it was at, somewhere in the West, and they said to me, �Pastor Ophiel, why don't you come over and speak at the chapel at the academy?" And I thought, oh no.

Because you know how the young people are these days?

And when I was a young person, there were only 2 people in the world who wore their hats like that.

1 was the catcher and the other was the umpire.

Because, you know, they both have all that stuff on their face.

And by the way, I know you all are young people, but I've discovered how I can talk to young people perfectly, and you'll think I'm really...

1 of them is cool and the other is awesome.

And so you can come up to a young person and just say cool and they'll say awesome.

And then you say cool and they'll say awesome.

Then you say awesome and they'll say cool.

And you just carry on a conversation that way.

Anyway, so they wanted me to do this chapel.

What can you say to hold their attention?

So I went into the chapel and I said, you know business people spend a lot of money going to seminars where they learn how to make more money.

And I said, in the chapel this morning I'm going to teach you how to lose money and I'm going to do it for free.

And they thought, man, that's going to be awesome.

And so I stood up and I said, now remember, I'm going to teach them how to lose money.

I said, 1 way to lose money is to neglect it.

That means just put it under your mattress or in your closet or wherever and forget about it.

I said, I have some Peruvian money, they call them soles, That used to be worth $37, 000.

And in 6 years it went bad and it was worth about 3 cents.

So how did you lose the money with a solis?

Stick it under your mattress, come back 6 years later.

You just take a $20 bill, lay it on the chair, walk out, finders keepers, losers weepers.

And another way to lose money is just to waste it.

So I did that for about 5 minutes and I said, the seminar's over, How'd you like it?

And I said, I'm going to do another seminar now.

And I said, you lose your girlfriend is you neglect her.

You abandon her or you're unfaithful to her.

You know, you're fooling around with other girls.

And I went over that for a while and I said, the seminar's over.

And I said, the last seminar is how to lose Jesus as a friend.

And so I got done, and I felt like I'd done so good I should be in the youth ministries.

So I went back to the meetings and the Sabbath came and I walked in the door and they said, Pastor Phil, would you come and speak to the youth?

So I walked in the room, the Sabbath school room, and I said, do you remember me?

And they said, you're Pastor O'Phil, you spoke at the chapel on Monday.

I said, do you remember what I talked about?

They said, uh-huh, you told us how to lose money.

And they said, you neglect it, you abandon it, or you be wasted.

And they said, you told us how to lose your girlfriend.

And I thought to myself that this is the way it goes.

That you can be preaching a sermon, but it's only as good as what the people are hearing from their lives.

And unfortunately, most people aren't into spiritual values.

They're into their girlfriends or their boyfriends or whatever it is, or making money or whatever it is.

And at the end of the day, it's got to be what Jesus means to us that really makes a difference.

You know, what he's doing in our own lives.

So now don't preach to me, But I want to take a few minutes and just those of you who want to, just stand and tell us, maybe could I say what the Spirit's doing in your life?

Now we're not people from the skid row or whatever they call it here.

More than Meets the Eye: What it Means to Be Like Jesus

Heavenly Father, we're thankful for the promise you've given us that a new heart you'll create, and for the promise of the Spirit who is sent to engraft in this, to change this Lord in every way.

We're talking about the fruit of the Spirit in the life of those of you who just come in.

And we were saying that when we think of the Holy Spirit, usually the Pentecostal people have a corner on that.

I'm wondering, now I've got to be careful when I say this, I don't think that we ought to have a cult of the Holy Spirit.

I think the Pentecostals do, because they tend to worship the Holy Spirit as a broken off unity.

I would say they may, some of them, talk about the Holy Spirit more than they talk about Jesus.

Jesus is kind of a means to an end instead of an end to itself.

And of course the scripture says that the Holy Spirit would come and who would it testify of?

And this is why, now I don't understand, of course as Adventists we're Trinitarians, You know what that means?

We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

By the way, let me alert you to the fact that the early founding fathers and mothers of our church were Arians.

And they didn't believe in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So a lot of people then say, well, you know, whatever the early church fathers believed, we should believe and the answer is no.

Remember, our early Adventists were, you know, were, what did you say, Sunday keeping pork eaters.

That was the founding fathers and mothers of our church, right?

But God called them and He used them and He moved them to where we are today.

So I think that in the 21st century, let's don't go backward.

In fact, I even say about scripture, and you may not agree with me, let's don't use anybody in the scripture as our role model, except Jesus.

It's not safe to do that because where there are champions of God in the scripture, everyone had a flaw.

And So don't say you want to be like David or you got a Bathsheba problem.

Well then you know you married too many times.

So I don't know that there's anybody in the Bible that I want to be like.

And I was saying in the other class that, remember the people in the Old Testament, everything was signs and symbols to them.

Series

Richard O'Ffill - God the Comforter: the Holy Spirit's Role in Your Life

More than Meets the Eye: Issues of the Heart

Transcript

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Parent Conference

Sponsor

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