SWYC 2010: Stand

Sebastien Braxton

GYC Southwest

The Urge of a Fadeless Vision

Father, we want to pause to acknowledge how grateful we are for who you are, for the gifts that you've given unto us.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

And 1 of those gifts that you gave to humanity and allowed us to carry outside of the garden was the gift of the Sabbath.

To have time to come apart, to spend time with our Father.

To remember that we are loved, that we are not forgotten, and that God desires our happiness.

We pray this morning that as we have gathered here in this place that the Spirit of God would not fail to speak to every mind and every heart, young and old, revive us again, Lord, and speak to us on this subject of the urge of a fadeless vision, is our prayer in Jesus' name.

The title of our message is, The Urge of a fadeless vision, F-A-D-E-L-E-S-S, vision.

We're going to take a bird's eye view at the life of Paul.

There's 1 thing that I found in the very little experience that I've had in training young people in ministry, studying the Bible, is this inability to concentrate.

Many of us are struggling in our devotional lives because we have a hard time concentrating.

And so we just want to get to the application.

Where's the powerful idea that I can go share with my friends tomorrow?

But many times, if we could read the Bible With concerted thought, chapter to chapter to chapter, there are messages that lie from the bird's eye view of Scripture.

Now there's a place for the depth of every text, and I'm a firm believer.

I don't like preaching on 15, 20, 35 texts.

I know some preachers, you know, that's fine.

Enabled to see when you get to chapter 10, you can connect it to chapter 1.

But by the time we get to chapter 10, we forget what we even read in chapter 1, because of the inability to concentrate.

So today, I want to share a message with you that came out of concentration, trying to remember after chapter, after chapter, after chapter of Paul's life.

In Acts Chapter 9, we're familiar with this passage.

Says in verse 1, then Saul, that was his name originally, still, breathing threats and murder against the what?

Now I want you to notice something that if you were a careless reader, you might miss.

Nowhere in the book of Acts are Christians called members.

So it says, and God added to the church daily as many as should be saved, but when it refers to them it says the disciples were multiplied.

And in understanding that when you look at Simon Peter, Nathaniel, Thaddeus, Simeon, these were the kinds of individuals that were multiplied.

A disciple is an individual whose life is reorganized around his master.

And you have a situation where the Bible says, okay, The devil's always busy.

The Bible says that Saul was breathing out threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord.

Now, if you're not a disciple, Saul has no problems with you.

An individual whose life is lived centered around Christ.

Not Paul, not Peter, as powerful as his sermons are.

And this is something that's very key, just as an aside.

Moving away in our church from this personality-driven kind of movement.

You go places and people have their favorite preachers.

And they have individuals whose sermons they love to download and listen to and preach like.

And I have no problem with mentors and with discipleship within the body of Christ.

But we have this error in our church right now, which in my opinion can be an abuse.

A person gets up to preach and God uses him.

And we praise God that God is still using imperfect men and women.

But we're not to be driven around personalities.

You are a disciple of Jesus, not Randy Skeet, not Sebastian, not Dr.

Disciples of the Lord, and when this movement is become driven by the mission, not a man.

The reason why we gather in this place on this day is because we believe in the mission, not a man.

And when we are driven by that, it doesn't matter if there's an SWYC.

It doesn't matter if there's a conference.

We stand because of this particular message.

And in this sense, as we gravitate away, I pray that we gravitate away from this.

That people do not attend SWIC based upon who is speaking, but because they believe in the mission.

He went to the high priest in verse 2 and he asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, that's what they used to call Christianity, the way, any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said in verse 5, who are you, Lord?

Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

It is hard for you to kick against the pricks or the goads in the new King James.

So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, What do you want me to do?

Then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.

And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no 1.

Then Saul arose from the ground and when his eyes were opened he saw no 1.

But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

And he was 3 days without sight, neither ate nor drank." Now here is a man on a mission for the Lord.

In his mind, as Jesus had foretold his disciples, men will persecute you and kill you and drive you from city to city believing they are doing the Lord's service.

And Saul is a clear fulfillment of that prophecy of Christ.

In his mind, I am jealous for the glory of God, a young man of great promise in the Jewish nation, having learned at the feet of Gamaliel, a Jewish theologian, full of zeal and passion.

1 focus is to destroy this heresy coming in.

Now there's a lot to be said about a man's character like that.

And Saul, whether men or women, dragged you to the tribunal to be tried.

Some condemned to prison, some condemned to death.

And he asked permission, can I go to Damascus, because this thing is spreading beyond Jerusalem?

And so as Paul is traveling, we know the story, the light meets him.

Now I want you to understand what's happening in this passage.

When Saul falls to the ground and out of the light, he hears a voice saying, why are you persecuting me?

And Saul's response is, who are you, Lord?

So you have a situation that up until this point, Paul has believed that he is doing loving service for God.

And now he's on a road to persecute and all of a sudden light.

Plenary Meetings

David DeRose

Daniel’s Work -- and Yours

Father in heaven, you've already been blessing us, not only this morning, but throughout this weekend.

And we've sensed again the shortness of time.

And right now we're sensing, I'm sensing, the shortness of time even this morning.

And yet at the same time we know that you have a message that you want to present.

I pray you'd make that crystal clear to me what needs to be emphasized in the short time that we have and that that same spirit of urgency would be impressed on each of our hearts as we seek you day by day to know just what you would have us do.

We thank you that we can trust you to guide now for we ask it all in Jesus' name, amen.

I don't know if I can imagine a worse situation.

Maybe you've been there yourself, but something that you've really looked at as a unifying theme, a unifying focus in your life.

Maybe it was something that you were putting your energies into.

Maybe it was something that gave you resolve and gave you focus.

And now it seems like everything that really your life was centered around, at least to some extent, has been pulled out from under you.

I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Daniel 1.

We may not catch the magnitude of what's happening in this familiar chapter from the pages of the Old Testament.

But Daniel 1 is a traumatic juncture in the history of God's people.

Remember, the people of God had been physically led by Him, by Jehovah, in the pillar of fire, in the pillar of cloud.

None, they are free in the promised land.

God is leading them physically, showing His physical manifestation.

And yet even in that context, he says, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

There was no question about whether God was with them.

And yet the sanctuary was to be the focus not only of God's physical presence with his people, but it was also a promise.

It was a promise of who God was and it was a promise of what God wanted to do.

And part of that promise was a promise of a God who not only was all gracious and saving and redeeming, but a God who was all just.

For the sanctuary reveals both the love, the mercy, and the justice of God.

The sanctuary was really the focus of God's people.

And so here in Daniel 1, this is a traumatic story in the history of God's people.

Because in Daniel 1, as the account opens in the very first verse, it tells us that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came onto Jerusalem and he besieged it.

And amazingly, it says, the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God.

And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God." Do you catch what's happening here?

Do you catch what the people of that day saw happening before their eyes?

When another nation conquered a nation And they took their gods, their symbols of worship, and brought it into the house of their god.

It indicated that the conquered people's god was impotent, that their God was more powerful.

And you remember some of those stories in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant brought into the house of Dagon by the Philistines.

Same imagery here, only there's no drama that happens in Babylon.

There's no toppling of Chaldean gods and goddesses.

It's been in the ranks of Adventism for years and it's still there.

Have you heard other things like, well, you know, all this stuff that our forefathers believed.

They just didn't really understand things.

We're not bound by those literalistic readings of the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

There have always been voices saying that God's truth is bankrupt.

But in Daniel's day, in Daniel's day, to the mindset of the people of the Old Testament, the people of Judah, to Daniel's peers, what had played out in front of them was seeming to give credence to all the arguments that were raised by the opponents of God's people, and right in their own ranks.

How come I had lived my life with this focus and it wasn't coming true?

And whether it's finances or health or family issues, maybe It seems like you're derailed from that focus.

And people are telling you, well, that's not God's focus for you at all.

And yet you knew he was calling you to something special.

Others of you, it's some area of lifestyle.

And again, the Holy Spirit has been speaking to your heart in these meetings.

He's been telling you he's got a higher calling for you.

And yet you say, but I started going down that path before and it just ended up in misery.

I ended up with a group of kids that ended up leaving the church or I got real serious about my health and I ended up getting sick.

There are times in life where it looks like the things that God has called us to, in fact, not only looks like what God called us to, God had called his people to build the sanctuary, hadn't he?

God was physically present with there, and now it looks, as we read the first verse of the book of Daniel, that God's ways, God's principles, God's truth is laying in the dirt and in the dust.

And it's in that context that some of the Hebrew nobility are brought to Babylon.

Among them, we're told, in verse 6, is Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

And you know how this story plays out there in Daniel 1?

Nebuchadnezzar, I mean, he was a wise king.

I mean, he wouldn't just put foreign rulers into his conquered nations.

He would train the youth from within the church, if you will, from within the conquered nation, and he'd have them go back into leadership positions.

Or was Nebuchadnezzar following a plan that Satan has to this day?

Are there people to this day in the ranks of Christianity who somehow think whether they are forcibly, by circumstances, by family desires, by opportunity?

How many of them think that maybe they will be better leaders in God's work by going to the schools of the Babylonians.

Now, don't misunderstand the point I'm making here, because Daniel was brought to the school of the Babylonians.

But listen to what happens in the school.

And in that peer group, you have a different identity.

Daniel and his friends are given different names.

But beyond that, they start working on you to change your lifestyle.

Elijah’s Work -- and Yours

There are introductions and there are introductions.

But this is clearly 1 of the stranger introductions in the Bible.

I invite you to turn to I Kings with me, I Kings chapter 17.

It's not an unfamiliar chapter, but it's a very strange introduction.

Elijah is introduced to us in I Kings 17, and the first verse.

It says, And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

An awfully strange way to introduce someone, isn't it?

The introduction is with a powerful message.

Yet before that powerful message, There's a reminder of who Elijah was as far as his roots.

Look with me very closely at the first portion of 1 Kings, verse 17, and what jumps out at you as you look at Elijah's background?

What is the introduction of Elijah, other than this powerful message?

What other indicators, what other insights into who he is?

Now for us As Christians today, when we hear the word Gilead, what do we often think of?

Of course, the balm of Gilead ultimately points us to Jesus, the great healing balm in the scriptures and in life.

But to the Israelite mind, was this connection between Gilead and Balm connected?

Or is it something that's more of a modern connection that we make in 21st century Christianity?

Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis 37 and I think we'll come up with some insight into how enmeshed in the Israelite mind was this connection.

And as you're turning there, you may recall the context of Genesis 37.

It's not 1 of the happier stories in the Bible.

It's a story of how God, through adversity, preserved his people.

It's the story of Joseph being sold into slavery.

We're going to pick up the story right in midpoint there in verse 24, Genesis 37, verse 24.

Now, I just have to pause right here because maybe it's possible that some of you right now are feeling like you're in a pit.

I don't know what that pit is, but maybe you're dealing with some difficult things in your life.

Maybe you're even wondering why you're here.

But I want to remind you, as we look at Genesis 37, Joseph is in a pit.

It looks like something really bad is happening to somebody who was quite good, but under inspiration we're told that God in this experience was sending Joseph.

How many of you have been praying that God would send you to just the mission field he wants you to be in.

I realize maybe you're in school right now.

And you say, well, I know where I'm supposed to be.

Or you say, I know I'm supposed to be in this very workplace.

You're wondering what God wants you to do.

I want to tell you that Sometimes it's in the midst of that pit that God is doing the most remarkable work in sending you to your ultimate destination.

But the connection we want to make here is not that powerful 1, but is another, because it follows right in verse 25.

In verse 25, we're introduced to a group of Ishmaelites.

They're coming from none other than Gilead.

That's right, they've got camels with them.

But what do they have in those camels, in the sacks that they're carrying?

They've got spices and of course they have balm.

They have the balm of Gilead with them and they're going to Egypt, the most prosperous nation in the world at the time.

And in the mind of the ancients, this connection between Gilead and balm and healing are intimately connected, going all the way back to the time of Joseph, going back to the Egyptians longing for the finest things that money could buy.

The Ishmaelites knew it And so they came from Gilead with balm.

1 Kings 17, because we're actually focusing this morning on Elijah's work and yours.

1 Kings 17, verse 1, we are introduced to a man who comes from a land where there is balm, where there is healing virtue.

This is, my friends, a glimpse into God's health message, I would suggest to you.

Now, some of you say, well, wait a minute.

You've got those MD letters after your name.

You're making quite a leap here to connect Gilead with healing.

But it's intimately connected in the Bible.

And I just want you, as you're looking at this introduction to Elijah, to realize that it was significant enough for the writer, the inspired writer of Scripture, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to make sure that we knew that Elijah was not just a tishbite, but that he was from the place where that healing balm was found.

And so here comes someone with the health message.

He comes from Gilead, the place where the balm is found.

And so what is the healing message that Elijah brings in 1 Kings 17, verse 1.

I can see some of you are acting quite perplexed, because it doesn't sound like a healing message to say that it's not going to rain, especially in a land that we know, as the story plays out, it's not just a few days of rain.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The Urge of a Fadeless Vision

1h

Daniel’s Work -- and Yours

38m

Elijah’s Work -- and Yours

40m

Stand Apart!

1h

Stand Up!

51m

The Straight Testimony to Laodicea

54m

Truth that Transforms the World

1h 28m

A Brand Plucked From the Fire

1h 32m

Expounding the Faith

1h 30m

Those Burning Chariots

1h 14m

Members in Action

1h 49m

First Things First

1h 43m

Sound Doctrine