Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY220057A
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00:05 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:15 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:25 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:36 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:57 ♪ ♪ 01:07 Hello and welcome to another 3ABN Today program. I'm 01:10 Jason Bradley and I'm so glad that you've decided to join us 01:13 once again. We have an exciting hour planned for you and you 01:18 know we often hear the question Where are the young people in 01:22 the church. We're going to talk about just that very thing and 01:25 we're going to let you know where they are. Here with me 01:29 to discuss that we have the president of GYC (Generation of 01:34 Youth for Christ) Andrew Park. It's great to have you here. 01:36 Thank you so much for having us. We're so excited to be here. 01:38 Yes sir, yes sir. And we have Junior Vertus. You are the vice 01:43 president of evangelism for GYC. 01:46 That's right and I'm more privileged to be here. We've 01:47 been praying for this experience here and I know God's going to 01:50 be with us, with our discussion. 01:52 Amen, amen. But before we dive into that discussion and find 01:56 out who you are and about GYC and all of that we're going to 02:02 go to our song. We'll be blessed in song by Hope Velasquez and 02:07 she'll be singing Blessings. 02:08 ♪ ♪ 02:26 ♪ We pray for blessings we pray for peace ♪ 02:35 ♪ Comfort for family, protection while we sleep ♪ 02:43 ♪ We pray for healing for prosperity ♪ 02:52 ♪ We pray for your mighty hand to ease our suffering ♪ 03:01 ♪ And all the while, you hear each spoken need ♪ 03:11 ♪ Yet love us way to much to give us lesser things ♪ 03:18 ♪ 'Cause what if your blessing comes through raindrops ♪ 03:24 ♪ What if your healing comes through tears ♪ 03:28 ♪ What if a thousand sleepless nights ♪ 03:32 ♪ Are what it takes to know you're near ♪ 03:37 ♪ What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise ♪ 03:53 ♪ We pray for wisdom your voice to hear ♪ 04:01 ♪ We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near ♪ 04:11 ♪ We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love ♪ 04:18 ♪ As if every promise from your word is not enough ♪ 04:26 ♪ And all the while you hear each desperate plea ♪ 04:35 ♪ And long that we'd have faith to believe ♪ 04:43 ♪ 'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops ♪ 04:49 ♪ What if your healing comes through tears ♪ 04:52 ♪ What if a thousand sleepless nights ♪ 04:56 ♪ are what it takes to know you're near ♪ 05:02 ♪ What if the trials of this life ♪ 05:07 ♪ are your mercies in disguise ♪ 05:14 ♪ When friends betray us When darkness seems to win ♪ 05:23 ♪ We know the pain reminds this heart ♪ 05:27 ♪ This is not, this is not our home ♪ 05:39 ♪ This is not our home ♪ 05:46 ♪ 'Cause what if our blessings come through raindrops ♪ 05:54 ♪ What if your healing comes through tears ♪ 06:00 ♪ What if a thousand sleepless nights ♪ 06:03 ♪ are what it takes to know you're near ♪ 06:07 ♪ What if my greatest disappointments ♪ 06:14 ♪ or the aching of this life ♪ 06:17 ♪ is the revealing of a greater thirst ♪ 06:22 ♪ this world can't satisfy ♪ 06:27 ♪ And what if trials of this life ♪ 06:33 ♪ The rains, the storms, the hardest nights ♪ 06:40 ♪ Are your mercies in disguise ♪ 06:48 ♪ ♪ 07:05 Wow, such a beautiful, beautiful song and so appropriate for what 07:09 we're going to be discussing. Andrew tell me a little bit 07:14 about your background. 07:16 So I was born in Metro Detroit, Michigan. Born and raised 07:20 there. I lived 07:21 in the same house my whole life. I grew up in an Adventist 07:24 home. But like a lot of other young people, I didn't know what 07:28 I believed. I went to public school. Went to church every 07:31 Friday and Saturday. Attended a Korean church, it was an ethnic 07:36 church. And growing up church to me was, you know, you go to 07:43 church, you don't eat pork, you keep the Sabbath and that was 07:48 essentially...you love God Jesus died for you. That was 07:51 essentially my Christianity. And so that's not a very strong 07:57 grounding and going to public school it's very easy with the 08:01 environment of your peers to be sucked into a different route. 08:06 And I would say that was my life for the first 20 years. I was 08:13 going to say I lost my way but I never really had my way. And 08:17 we were talking earlier and you were kind of sharing with me 08:19 your story. And I had a similar experience where high school, 08:24 especially middle school, high school I started getting 08:26 involved with substance abuse and that continued for good six 08:31 years or so and then halfway through college. I went to a 08:35 public university. After a lot of Adventist students were 08:38 reaching out to me. Missionaries were reaching out to me, telling 08:42 me to come up in small groups. Hey we have free food, come eat 08:45 this. Inviting me out to retreats. It was through that 08:48 ministry, even though it appeared unfruitful that I made 08:53 a decision to participate in a literature evangelism program. 08:57 And the reason I participated was because I needed to make 09:01 some money and pay for the house that I was going to be 09:03 living in with my friends. Little did I know that I would 09:06 have my conversion experience there and actually take a year 09:10 off, go to a Bible college. Afterwards I was baptized. I 09:14 learned about what it actually means to be a Seventh-day 09:17 Adventist. That's kind of my story. 09:19 Praise God. That's an incredible testimony. You went in kind of 09:23 with the wrong motives (all the wrong motives) but then God took 09:27 that situation and drew you in closer to Him. That's powerful. 09:33 And even though it appeared that I was living a careless life 09:36 the Holy Spirit was working on my heart way before then and 09:40 then it just happened to be that the seed bears up into fruit. 09:45 Amen, amen. Junior what about you? 09:49 Yes you know something I realized in Andrew's story and 09:51 my story is well God had given us a foundation in our home and 09:56 I think one thing as young people we may struggle with is 09:59 that in all reality just because you're in the church does not 10:02 mean you may know Jesus and I was in a home that loved Jesus 10:06 but I found out I wasn't one that loved Jesus. And so I came 10:10 to the point in my life when I was in my high school years 10:14 actually what I wanted to say well I prayed and I said Lord am 10:17 I really about you or am I not? And as I opened His word I went 10:21 to the text found in Matthew chapter 5, verse 13, where God 10:24 says look Ye are the salt of the earth. And that text began to 10:29 just convict my heart, you know. I really began to wonder, am I 10:33 living up to the standard God has for me? Am I really being 10:37 the salt that God is saying that I'm supposed to be. So after 10:39 much reflection, after much pondering I said Lord I haven't 10:43 been this salt but now I actually want to be this salt. 10:46 And so I actually went out and said Look Lord I don't 10:48 know where to begin but I'm going to start somewhere and I'm 10:51 going to start just telling people about Jesus. And ever 10:54 since then God has been helping me now and still today I'm still 10:57 telling others about Jesus. And that experience of telling 11:00 others about Jesus led to where even young people around me 11:03 said look let's actually be the salt that God called us to be 11:07 and we'll see how later this story connects to what I'm doing 11:11 now. But let me tell you. God has ways of leading us which 11:15 we don't know. Like He will prepare you for the next stage 11:19 of life. After reading Matthew chapter 5 verse 13 and wanting 11:23 to witness to the world I've actually been able to gather a 11:25 couple friends of mine and we said look let's have a youth 11:28 conference in our area. This wasn't GYC. This was just a 11:34 group of young people who said look let's have a youth 11:36 conference in our area. We do several of those conferences, we 11:40 later work with pastors. We're doing more conferences in the 11:43 city but I won't say too much now because we'll see how this 11:46 later connects with how God opens the door for me to later 11:48 work in this youth ministry of GYC. 11:51 I love it. I love it. 11:52 Can I add one thing. Junior went to a public high school 11:55 Public high school (that's right) while he was doing 11:58 all this. (That's right) 12:01 Wow. That's incredible. Would you say you know that you can't 12:06 live off of someone else's relationship with Christ Because 12:11 that's what it sounds like I'm hearing from your stories. Is 12:14 you recognize you know you can't survive off of someone else's. 12:19 You have to taste and see for yourself that God is good. 12:22 Um so all right I love it. I love the background information. 12:27 Now that we have established who you are let's talk about GYC. 12:31 What is GYC? 12:35 Great question. We actually have a video that I'd love to share 12:37 with everyone watching. 12:39 All right. Well let's check that video out right now. 12:42 It was once said the greatest want of the world is the want 12:47 of men and women who won't be bought or sold, who in their 12:52 inmost souls are true and honest who are not afraid to call sin 12:58 by its rightful name whose conscience is as true to duty 13:03 as the needle to the pole who will stand for what's right 13:09 though the heavens fall. 13:11 ♪ ♪ 13:34 One of the most exciting things about GYC is when the young 13:38 people are mobilized for ministry and they're taken out 13:41 in the various neighborhoods. This happens in other parts of 13:42 the world to either meet people on the street in a downtown area 13:46 to give out literature, pray with people, to knock on doors 13:49 and they go out at first they're terrified but when they come 13:52 back they are so excited because they see God working. 13:56 GYC provides the framework and opportunity like no other 14:01 opportunity that exists right now where young people can come 14:05 and be part of something where the Spirit of God will descend 14:07 and set them on fire and they can go away with a renewed 14:13 vision and a renewed commitment and a determination and an 14:16 understanding that God is big enough, big enough even to use 14:20 them, big enough even to change their lives. They can come to 14:23 GYC and find a vision for what their future could be like. 14:29 ♪ ♪ 14:34 Wow. You know if we stopped right there people would be 14:39 inspired to go to GYC. That's a powerful, powerful conference. 14:42 What is GYC to you in your own words? 14:46 GYC is a ministry that exists to show people what it really 14:52 means to be Seventh-day Adventist. And John 8:31 says, 14:57 If you continue in my word (Jesus speaking) then you are 15:00 my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the 15:03 truth shall make you free. Jesus said the qualification for 15:08 discipleship is a continuation in the word of God and that's 15:12 something that we need at this time in Earth's history, not 15:15 just listening to sermons, not just listening to you know 15:19 seminars or things like that 15:21 but to actually get into the word of God for yourself 15:25 personal study and confrontation with scripture. And it's as the 15:30 young people see the power that is found in the scriptures that 15:35 everything else flows out of that, that experience. 15:39 Yes, yes, so that's the foundation. 15:40 The word of God GYC seeks to really ground people in the 15:46 scripture. Once again, not just through sermons or seminars 15:49 but for themselves. 15:51 Yes, yes. One of the things that I love about GYC is that 15:55 wherever GYC goes the city is not the same after they leave. 16:00 In a good way. You know the witnessing that takes place is 16:04 amazing. I don't want to go into all the components because I 16:06 know I'm going to talk about that in a little bit but I love 16:10 that conference. Junior what does GYC mean to you? 16:14 You know more than just the name you know the initials stand for 16:18 Generation Youth for Christ, but GYC is more than just a 16:22 conference. It's a movement. And it's a movement led by young 16:26 people for young people. And the whole point of this movement is 16:30 like look Jesus is coming soon. Let's get our young people 16:34 ready. _ It's our young people that's going to 16:36 finish the work and that's why GYC's more than just going to a 16:39 place where you listen to nice sermons. It's more than just 16:42 going to a place where you pray but actually, a place where you 16:44 get your hands dirty working for the gospel and GYC has been a 16:48 wonderful component in my life on starting that revival for 16:51 Jesus and getting involved in that work. So GYC is a movement 16:56 that just starts a fire in the hearts of our young people which 17:00 does also start a fire in our church as well. 17:03 Amen, amen. Andrew how did you get involved with GYC. You're 17:06 now the president of GYC. How'd you get involved? 17:10 Yeah it's definitely an interesting story. So after my 17:15 conversion I took a year off, went to a Bible college and 17:19 afterwards, after my baptism I returned to the public 17:23 university that I was attending. Very scared. I thought I was 17:26 going to lose me faith like that had happened many times before 17:30 but I got involved with public campus ministries and it's 17:35 basically, young people who are Adventist on these universities 17:39 who are seeking to reach their peers. And these students they 17:45 took trips every year...there were other missionaries there 17:49 as well...to the conference and that's kind of how I had my more 17:54 in-depth exposure to the Ministry. It was through that 17:57 exposure and contact that I eventually got the opportunity 18:02 to serve in this position. 18:04 Amen, amen. And what's it like being the president of GYC? 18:08 Um, you know that's a really good question. I'd say it's... 18:14 there's a lot of learning experiences and really it's just 18:23 another opportunity to serve God in a different capacity and I 18:26 think the biggest 18:27 thing that I hope that any other young person would see in this 18:30 would know is we're all just young people in the cause of 18:36 God and we're having the opportunity to work for Him. 18:39 Amen. It's a faith walk. I would imagine there's a lot of prayer 18:42 that takes place in these meetings and in GYC meetings and 18:46 all of that as you're planning for the convention and all of 18:49 those things. And what about you. How did you get involved 18:55 with GYC? 18:57 You know it's interesting because like I was sharing 19:00 earlier you know once I was convicted that I needed to get 19:03 involved in the Lord's work I began doing youth conferences 19:05 in my city. But when I was doing these youth conferences like I 19:09 said earlier I did not expect to be involved in this youth 19:13 conference. And so as I'm doing youth conferences in my city 19:16 a pastor reaches out to me, he's like look I'm also doing another 19:20 youth conference and I want you and your team to get involved in 19:23 this. And so now we went from just a few hundred to more 19:25 hundreds of people and now we're working with all the local 19:29 churches in this local area where I'm at and actually for 19:35 this conference I became the outreach coordinator. I had to 19:39 contract like a way for us to get buses. I had to think of 19:42 different ways to just flow people, you know, hundreds of 19:44 people, just get them involved for mission. But a letter also 19:48 came in 2019 where I attended a GYC by many of our viewers who 19:53 came that year. I got to be more acquainted with GYC that year 19:56 And next year actually of course before COVID hit and everything 20:01 like that, next year GYC had reached out to me as they were 20:05 hearing all the evangelistic efforts I'd been doing they 20:08 reached out for me actually to be a seminar speaker. And 20:12 actually, I responded yes I was glad to just testify to the Lord 20:15 of how good He's been and also be the means to encourage other 20:18 young people to get involved for service. And so that was like my 20:23 first way of getting to know GYC Then not too long later they 20:27 said look we would love for you to be part of this team and as 20:31 Brother Park was mentioning you know this calling is actually 20:34 another calling to service you know. I'm not greater than any 20:38 other young person out there. And that's what I love about GYC 20:41 the leadership is all young people. It's young people once 20:46 again leading the conference to inspire other young people to 20:49 get involved for God's service. 20:51 Mm-hmm. And what would you say GYC is generally known for? 20:56 GYC is known for bringing people back to the word of God. That's 21:02 what it's known for. And bringing people back to the word of God 21:05 as we see from scripture always brings revival. So that's what 21:10 GYC has been known for. Getting them back to the word of God, 21:13 inspiring people to love Jesus and to really say look I want to 21:17 see Jesus come in my lifetime and I'm willing to do whatever 21:19 it takes. 21:21 And what's your experience been like? 21:23 It's been amazing. You know it's been lots of meetings, lots of 21:26 planning, lots of praying. But let me tell you God answers 21:29 prayer. Like we've been just like Israel of old following the 21:33 pillar of cloud as He leads. There's been lots of doors 21:36 that's opened. There's been several doors that's closed. 21:38 But let me tell you the whole experience has been a journey 21:41 and what has been awesome is that throughout this year we've 21:44 also implemented more people into this lovely team and also 21:49 seeing now other young people who thought they couldn't be 21:51 leaders, now they're becoming leaders as well and that is the 21:54 whole point of GYC. Inspiring young people to be involved in 21:59 God's work. And like I said earlier, if we get our young 22:03 people involved they will finish the work and they will see Jesus 22:05 come in their lifetime and that's my prayer as well. 22:09 Amen, amen. And Andrew what's your experience been like with 22:11 GYC and on top of that question not only what has your 22:18 experience been like but how has it strengthened your faith? 22:23 I think my experience with GYC has been just the opportunity to 22:27 observe a lot of different young people in many different places 22:32 of the U.S. and also around the world just to see that 22:39 Christianity is not just a you know hey you know let's go to 22:44 church. All right time to go home. Let's go do what we 22:46 actually want to do. Christianity can truly be a life 22:52 of wholehearted dedication for the Master and that is actually 22:57 the greatest privilege to take part in and young people who may 23:04 have opportunities to other things in the world are saying 23:06 you know what I actually have something better that I want to 23:08 do. I want to serve God. So just that opportunity to see that has 23:15 been wonderful. In terms of... what was your second follow-up 23:19 question? 23:21 How has it strengthened your faith? 23:23 Yeah, so 2020 of course has been challenging for the whole world 23:30 and that's when I came in to serve with the executive 23:35 committee so just the circumstances of time 23:39 and seeing the challenges that arose, the need to overcome a 23:46 challenge, the need to spend time in prayer, the need to you 23:49 know have conversations with other people, the whole thing 23:53 has been a very faith building experience for obstacles to 23:58 challenge to obstacles and asking God okay Lord what do you want 24:02 us to do? Just every step we need to follow God. 24:06 Amen, amen. Absolutely. Why is it important that young people 24:11 attend GYC? 24:13 So I read this little book. It's called Camp Meeting: It's 24:18 Objective, Its Object and How to Conduct Them. It's written 24:21 by Ellen White. I think it was written in 1900. I don't know 24:24 if it's a compilation but she talks about all the different 24:28 reasons and purposes for the camp meeting. Something that she 24:34 says is that it is one of the most important aspects of our 24:38 work. It's a means to arrest the attention of the people and it's 24:42 also, a means to promote spirituality among our own 24:46 people. Some other things that it was sharing if people think 24:53 oh you know what these aren't really necessary. I can just go 24:56 to church. I have my own personal walk with God. But 25:00 Israel of old God instructed them to have three holy 25:04 convocations a year. And the purpose of it was to guard 25:08 against worldliness corrupting their hearts, to preserve faith 25:13 and gratitude to God and also to gather together in Christian 25:19 fellowship and really just have that experience continually 25:22 renewed. So as opposed to thinking you know gatherings 25:26 like this are nonessential actually, it's necessary in our 25:31 experience to keep us kindled in the faith. And that's why I 25:35 think it's important for any young person to be a part of 25:38 a conference like this. 25:39 Absolutely. And there's so many young people that attend. I mean 25:45 like huge numbers. So people ask the question where are the young 25:51 people in the church? They're at GYC. And if they're not they 25:55 should be. Absolutely absolutely So what are the different 26:02 components of this year's conference? 26:05 You know this is one of my favorite questions. You know 26:10 like I mentioned earlier GYC is a conference that leads our 26:13 young people back to the word of God. And so we're actually going 26:16 have the bread, the word, broken every single day, morning and 26:21 evening. Thousands of people will come together listening to 26:24 what God has for them and the inspired word. Not only will we 26:29 also, be diving into the word of God through our plenary which 26:33 is like the bit time when the whole congregation comes 26:36 together but this year we're actually going to do something 26:38 interesting that we haven't done before. In years past GYC has 26:42 done like breakout sessions and these breakout sessions have 26:45 been through relevant topics like you know like what's 26:48 relevant at that time and we'd cover so many topics in our 26:51 breakout sessions. Last year we actually just had study seminars 26:55 where we just dove into the Bible and we studied. This year 26:59 we're doing a little bit of both This year we're going to be 27:02 having breakout sessions and study seminars and actually 27:06 we've been planning, and I kind of laughed about this this 27:09 morning but God has just been so good. You know both in the 27:11 seminar sessions and the breakout sessions 27:13 we'll be having 27:14 well-known people of our church leading those out. So whoever 27:19 comes to GYC will have almost a little battle where do I go? 27:21 Like I kind of want to be here but I want to be there as well. 27:24 But I'm letting you know it's going to be an amazing time. 27:27 But not only will the word of God be shared but guess what? 27:30 We're going to be spending time in prayer together. In our GYC 27:35 there's a famous thing called 5 a.m. prayer session. And you 27:40 almost wonder, how in the world can a 5 a.m. prayer session 27:43 dare be famous. Let me tell you Hundreds of people come to that 27:46 5 a.m. prayer session. God has given Brother Jim Castro 27:51 a wonderful gift on leading congregational prayers. And as 27:54 I said my in experiences at GYC I have enjoyed the 5 a.m. prayer 27:59 sessions. I've had experiences where I've gone with family 28:02 members to GYC and I remember very strongly how a mother would 28:06 be telling her children look we're going to get up at 5 a.m. 28:09 and go to those prayers. The first day the young children 28:12 were like no, no I'm not so excited. It's too early, so 28:15 early. I don't want to go. Let me tell you after one day or two 28:18 now it was the young people waking up the parents saying 28:21 look let's go to that 5 a.m. prayer session. And so hundreds 28:25 of people come together. They're excited to wake up at 5 a.m. to 28:28 pray. They pray together. Let me tell you there's even moments in 28:31 that room where you're brought to tears. You just sense the 28:35 Spirit of God moving upon you. You feel convicted of your wrong 28:40 doings. You confess them to one another and you're praying Lord 28:44 Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart, like the old song 28:47 says. But not only will we be spending time in prayer, we'll 28:51 be spending time singing together. But GYC's more than 28:54 just that. We'll actually be spending time fellowshipping 28:57 and networking together. Whether that's in the halls, 29:00 whether that's 29:01 during the meal times. There's this lovely thing called exhibit 29:04 hall you know like where lots of booths are just in one area 29:08 there's so many different ministry opportunities where 29:11 young people can just get involved. So we're opening the 29:15 door. If a young person is wondering how can I get involved 29:18 come to GYC. They'll be so many booths around that we say hey 29:22 look we want young people to be a part of this work. But just to 29:28 wrap this answer up this is one thing I'm really excited about 29:30 this year. Usually, we do this thing called midnight prayer. 29:35 Actually GYC this year we're going from December 28th to 29:39 January 1st and that January 1st is a Sunday. And so what we'll 29:43 be doing Saturday night is hundreds of people will be 29:46 gathering together maybe around 10 p.m., 11 p.m., whatever it 29:50 takes. They'll be gathering together. They'll begin singing 29:52 songs, bringing praise to the Lord and praying all the way 29:56 till midnight comes. They'll be opening the year on bended knees 30:00 praying for God to bless them this next year. So there's so 30:03 many different components and I'm telling you GYC will be a 30:06 special thing. 30:08 That's beautiful. 30:09 Can I add to that? (Oh absolutely) You know the 30:13 experience of a gathering like this. Some people may think hey 30:18 you know what I've done a lot and that's good. I go to church. 30:22 As we approach closer and closer to the end inspired council 30:27 tells us as opposed to this tapering off and we don't do 30:30 this anymore, we're actually supposed to gather together more 30:34 and more frequently as we prepare ourselves for the 30:38 conflict that is going to come upon us. And so I just want to 30:42 affirm everything that Junior was saying that the experience 30:46 is not just a one-time but a continual time to gather 30:50 together, seek God's face and come together in Christian 30:52 That's a good word, that's a good word. What is the theme for 30:57 this year and what's the reason or purpose behind it? 31:00 So our theme for this year is Break Forth and it's taken from 31:06 the text Isaiah 58:8: Then shall thy light break forth as the 31:10 morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily. The glory 31:14 of the Lord shall be thy rearguard. The idea is that when 31:19 God's people take part in the true fact that He's outlined 31:24 His light will actually break forth through our lives in 31:29 unselfish service to others. The reason why we thought Isaiah 58 31:33 was so important was because last year our theme was Nothing. 31:38 Kind of a funny theme but we were focusing on the Laodicean 31:46 message. And if you read the first volume of the Testimonies 31:49 chapter 32 Ellen White had the vision where God's people 31:54 received the straight testimony of the true witness and this is 31:58 the message to the Laodiceans which is our church. And this 32:04 receiving of the message leads to a great heart-searching of 32:06 the people of God. Those who accept it stay in the church. 32:11 Those who reject it are shaken out. And this group of people 32:15 who accept that message and are rising up and proclaim the third 32:20 angel's message with power and the Holy Spirit. And from our 32:24 study it appears that those we accept the Laodicean message 32:30 their light is also accompanied with the light of Isaiah chapter 32:33 58. So this is really a continuation of the study of 32:37 what happens when you receive the solutions that Jesus lined 32:41 out for His people. Faith that works by love, faith that works 32:44 by love, the righteousness of Christ and eye salve that we can 32:49 see spiritually. What does that lead to? A true life of 32:53 unselfish service where His light breaks forth through us. 32:56 Amen, amen. I love it. Why is the evangelism component so 33:02 crucial during and after GYC? 33:06 You know this year's GYC evangelism and I don't only say 33:09 because I'm vice president of evangelism. I say it because I'm 33:13 telling you, it's one of my favorite things about GYC. 33:16 Thousands of young people get on buses and in these buses they're 33:22 singing, they're praying, you know they're singing Hallelujah 33:24 Lord be with us as we go out. On the way back from evangelism 33:28 they're singing, they're praying they're singing Lord Hallelujah 33:30 that you have been with us. But this year evangelism's just 33:34 going to be a little different. You know often times when we 33:37 think of evangelism we may limit evangelism to either just prayer 33:42 for people or just Bible studies for people. But I really believe 33:45 that the Spirit of God led us to this theme this year found in 33:48 the book of Isaiah 58 specifically verse 8 which is 33:52 our theme. But I'm actually going to read two verses before 33:54 verse 8 and just summarize why evangelism is so important for 33:58 this conference this year. I'll read it. Isaiah 58 verse 8 verse 34:02 6 says this: Is this not the fast that I have chosen, this is 34:06 the Lord speaking, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the 34:10 heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and that you 34:14 break every yoke. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry 34:18 and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out, when 34:22 you see the naked that you cover them and not hide yourself from 34:26 your own flesh. Then, the Bible says and this is the GYC theme, 34:31 your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing 34:34 shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go 34:38 before you, the glory of the Lord be your rear guard. You 34:42 know this reminds me of one of my favorite statements 34:44 especially this year from Steps to Christ, p. 80. She says this: 34:49 Those who thus devote themselves to unselfish effort for the good 34:53 of others are most assuredly working out their own salvation. 34:56 What that means, as you work for God, God is able to work in your 35:02 life and that is why we're doing GYC. That is why we're doing 35:05 evangelism this year. But we're taking evangelism to a different 35:09 notch. This year we're going to actually, get our hands dirty 35:12 meeting the needs of the people. There's going to be different 35:16 opportunities. There's going to be a Great Controversy 35:19 distribution to many homes in the Phoenix area. There's going 35:22 be opportunities where they look a several groups of young people 35:25 will be going to maybe a gathering and they'll be meeting 35:28 needs of people whether that's providing things for them or 35:31 whether that's maybe helping them with something in their 35:33 homes, something at a church school. GYC this year is taking 35:37 evangelism beyond just prayer and Bible study but actually 35:41 meeting the needs of the people dealing our bread to the hungry 35:44 as God has told us, letting the oppressed go free and hoping 35:47 that by God's grace, God will fulfill that promise of then 35:52 our light shall break forth. 35:53 Amen. So in other words what you're telling me is you're 35:56 going to be implementing Christ's method of evangelism. 35:59 That's right. Christ's method alone. It's successful. Right? 36:02 It's the best method... 36:04 We need to study, we need to study Christ. 36:08 Yes. I believe it's so important and this is a beautiful thing 36:12 especially about this year's theme is...Because we're going 36:14 be looking at the whole Isaiah 58, not just one text, the whole 36:17 book of Isaiah 58. And that's why I'm happy about these 36:20 components because we're not only studying God's word but 36:23 we're giving our young people an opportunity to implement 36:27 God's word at the conference. You see what I'm saying. So it's 36:30 not just studying but it's like hey what we just studied let's 36:34 go do it right now. And hoping that by God's grace this 36:37 ignites a fire that they can take to their homes, that to the 36:41 churches and go beyond that. For example like the 5 a.m. prayers. 36:44 Many people have attended and they'll go back now to their 36:47 churches, I'm talking young people now. They'll go back to 36:49 their churches and say look, I'm going to gather my members and 36:52 pray together and we're hoping this year that with evangelism 36:56 young people will say look I have seen that evangelism is 36:59 more than just Bible studies. Evangelism may mean hey I'm 37:03 going to make peanut butter and jelly for the homeless people. 37:06 And so we're trying to show that evangelism is not limited. 37:11 Evangelism can be a great thing for God's service. 37:13 But is it only evangelism at the conference? 37:16 No, it's more than just evangelism. It's more than just 37:19 evangelism at the conference. And here's the thing about GYC. 37:22 We want to also instill in our young people and also in our 37:25 minds as well that look evangelism is not limited to 37:29 four days at GYC. Evangelism should be evangeliving. 37:33 Come on now. 37:35 It should always be evangelizing and so that's why we take 37:39 evangelism there. And we're going to be showing, look you 37:42 don't need deep pockets to do evangelism. And so that's what 37:44 we're trying to do cheap evangelism for lack of a better 37:48 term you know. You can make a simple sandwich and go to the 37:50 homeless but making people smile is evangelism. And so really 37:56 this year we're trying to take evangelism beyond the conference 38:00 for evangeliving by God's grace. 38:02 Amen, amen. What concern do you have for young people 38:09 specifically in Adventism? 38:10 Yeah. So being a young person in Adventism who grew up on 38:17 social media grew up pretty much immersed in whatever the 38:20 world had to offer this is the reality of many of our young 38:25 people. Even young people who are active in the church. And so 38:30 the concern is that as we live in a social media-saturated 38:34 world and as we live in a world that seems to be turning more 38:38 and more towards money-making, how can I get you know side 38:42 money, all these different things, can we be subconsciously 38:47 bringing these principles because of being entered into 38:51 our minds into the way we do church? And so it's a big 38:58 personal burden of mine and really the need that we have at 39:02 this time going back to the whole foundation of GYC, let's 39:05 get back to the simplicity of the scriptures. Not just to get 39:09 information to understand the doctrine but for life. 39:13 Concentrating on the word, Joshua 1:8 I think about this 39:17 verse. It says this book of the law shall not depart out of thy 39:20 mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou 39:25 mayest observe to do all that is written therein. Then you will 39:28 make your way prosperous, then you will have good success. It's 39:32 not just studying, it's meditating, it's obeying and 39:36 then God says listen everything else is going to come from that. 39:40 Seek ye first the kingdom of God yeah. Absolutely. Well said, 39:44 well said. What about you, you know. 39:48 I'm worried that today in our young people that they may feel 39:52 that they are not valued or they may think that church is boring. 39:55 Now both of those two ideas I do want to say that GYC shreds 40:00 those ideas into pieces. I mean GYC destroys it. There's a whole 40:05 conference that is saying look we're going to spend four or 40:09 five days focusing on just how important our young people are 40:13 to the church of God. And that's the whole motive of GYC. Once 40:18 again, getting young people to love Jesus and getting young 40:20 people to love His work and GYC takes that and just says look 40:25 that is not the case. That's something I realized just the 40:29 other day was that look you know Jesus and his disciples, Jesus 40:33 began His public ministry at the age of 30 years old. And all 40:38 around me, people can testify that 30 is not old. Thirty is 40:41 still a young person. 40:43 I hope so. 40:46 In a sense you know Jesus was also, a young person that was 40:49 involved in ministry but check this out. Jesus' disciples were 40:52 younger than Him as well. You know from inspired counsel we're 40:56 told that John the beloved disciple would be the youngest 40:59 disciple. But look Jesus took John at a young age, involved 41:02 him in ministry and because of that John never left that. So 41:07 this whole concept that young people are not valued or they're 41:11 not important GYC shreds that to pieces and GYC says look as a 41:15 young person, you are important to the cause of God. Get in it. 41:18 Because if we want to see Jesus come or if we want to go to 41:22 heaven it's our young people that need to finish it. But also 41:25 about that church is boring GYC shreds that to pieces as well. 41:29 GYC like church people come together. Like that's it. Church 41:34 people fellowship together and guess what. They study God's 41:38 word together, they pray together and every person that 41:40 had gone to GYC will leave saying man that was a fun 41:43 experience. So guess what. Church is fun and our young 41:46 people will enjoy it as well. And so I praise the Lord that 41:49 GYC just shreds those ideas and says like that's not true. 41:53 If I can add onto that. Young people are not valued in the 41:57 church because church members say look we value you or because 42:01 people pay attention to you. You're valued in the church 42:04 because God calls you into the body of Christ. Jesus is the 42:08 head. If you have a relationship with Him, you are part of that 42:11 body and so whether people talk to you or not, whether people pay 42:16 attention to you or not, whether people involve you or not, it 42:21 doesn't matter what negative things people do because Jesus 42:25 is saying look I've called you to this piece of the vineyard, 42:28 I have a work for you. I have something to teach you and maybe 42:33 the environment that's not so favorable now is actually 42:36 perfect for your development. 42:38 Amen. Well said. You know we've discussed evangelism, we've 42:43 discussed you know reaching out and all of that stuff but let's 42:47 take a moment to talk about inreach. How important is having 42:51 your own devotional life together? 42:57 The importance of your personal... 43:01 Yeah, your own personal devotion. 43:03 Yeah, I was actually reading something last week where it was 43:08 saying the life of Jesus actually, His childhood. He had 43:12 unfavorable influences, he came from poverty, the religious 43:16 leaders were totally just didn't get it, and He came from 43:22 Nazareth. What good thing can some out of Nazareth. And she 43:25 says He still lived a life of complete purity and devotion to 43:30 God and anyone who says I'm dependent on circumstances, I'm 43:34 dependent on all these external variables, she says this is a 43:37 rebuke to that. His life is a rebuke to that. So the personal 43:41 time with God. You don't need to be doing two hours a day if 43:45 you're not there. Just one step at a time. You grow with God 43:49 just as a plant grows in the dirt and you leave the rest up 43:52 to Him. Just one step at a time. 43:55 That's very practical advice, I like that, I like that. 43:57 Here's the thing, GYC really encourages that personal time 44:02 with God. It's that personal time that you take on a daily 44:05 experience so as to keep the fire going for the rest of your 44:09 life. And listen, the word of God is not boring. Like you know 44:14 these stories are amazing stories and so I really want to 44:17 encourage all of us and all those that may be watching and 44:20 all of those that plan to come to the conference like our 44:23 personal time is the real part of Christianity and for us to 44:28 actually have energy to go and evangelize the Lord we need that 44:32 personal time. Now I'm not saying you need to have that 44:35 personal time before you start evangelizing. I'm telling you as 44:38 you evangelize you'll find that look, I need more personal time 44:41 As I share more bread I need to get some bread to keep sharing 44:44 some more bread. So I'm telling you personal time is so 44:47 important. 44:48 Yeah, you can't give what you don't have. I have an uncle that 44:52 says you don't lead where you don't go and you don't teach 44:54 what you don't know. And so that always stuck with me throughout 44:59 the years. A powerful saying you know. You don't lead where 45:01 you don't go and you don't teach what you don't know. Why are you 45:05 guys personally excited about this year's conference? 45:10 So 2020 was pandemic. Like we're still in that realm but last 45:20 year's conference was more of a transition you know. A lot of 45:25 researching still. But this year we're hoping to have a full 45:31 conference, hoping to get out to the community. We're hoping to 45:35 have as many young people come together as possible. We can 45:38 really just dig into the scripture, seek God's face, and 45:44 I'm just really excited for what God has to offer for those who 45:49 come and the blessing that he wants to pour out on our lives. 45:52 Amen, amen. 45:55 I'm excited to be in the presence of thousands of young 45:57 people that want to learn more about the Lord and want to be 46:00 involved in His service. I'm excited to fellowship with all 46:03 those who do come and attend. I'm excited to eat those amazing 46:07 meals that we'll be having together. 46:08 Now you're speaking my language. You're talking about the meals. 46:12 What else are you excited about? 46:13 Multiple voices. I'm also excited about just seeing what 46:17 God will do in the area of Phoenix. You know this year for 46:20 evangelism GYC we're not only passing out Great Controversy 46:23 but in the Great Controversy we actually have this new thing 46:27 this year. We have a GYC Glow tract. And that Glow tract 46:31 actually goes over Isaiah 58. It's a beautiful tract and hey 46:35 we won't show any photos of that tract right now. It's done but 46:38 you need to come for the conference to see what it looks 46:40 like. But it's an amazing tract and I'm just excited to see what 46:43 God is going to do in the area of Phoenix, what God's going to 46:47 do for our young people who also, come to this lovely 46:50 conference. 46:51 Absolutely. What are some of the needs of GYC as an organization? 46:55 So you know right now registration is open and will be 47:00 open all the way until I think the conference. I probably have 47:04 to double-check on that. But seeing that we have counsel that 47:10 all should be urged to attend our camp meetings. This is a 47:14 camp meeting for young people. Not to take away from the camp 47:17 meetings of other places but in addition to that. And we really 47:23 hope and pray that as many as God is moving upon may come 47:28 and in order to come people need to hear about it and they need 47:33 to be invited. So you know if anyone is watching this 47:39 broadcast and you may not be a young person but you know a 47:43 young person or you know of someone who knows a young person 47:45 I highly encourage you to invite them to come out to GYC because 47:50 God may have a very important blessing for them at that place. 47:55 Amen. I know that it has to take a lot to put this conference 48:01 together. There are a lot of moving parts, right? You guys 48:04 need volunteers, what are some needs in that area and also you 48:09 know-how can people support monetarily if they want to make 48:13 a donation to GYC. Maybe they're sitting there saying like I love 48:18 what these young people are doing and how people are on fire 48:22 for the Lord and I want to support that. Do you guys take 48:26 donations as well. 48:27 Yeah. If someone wants to volunteer on our website we do 48:31 have a place where you can put in your information to volunteer 48:34 (GYCweb.org) if you go to registration. And on our website 48:38 there is a place to donate. Of course, this is a nonprofit 48:44 ministry, so all of your donations help us to continue 48:47 the work that God is impressing upon our hearts and any donation 48:50 that you make is greatly appreciated. 48:53 And your website is GYCweb.org 48:56 Okay great. Yeah hopefully volunteers will be mobilized. 49:03 Attendees will be mobilized. Finances will be mobilized as 49:08 well. And people will grow in the Lord. 49:12 Just to add onto that. You know I don't want to be cliché in 49:16 this response but even if you're planning not to come to GYC we 49:19 want to solicit your prayers for those couple days. We want to 49:23 solicit your prayers for the area of Phoenix those couple 49:27 days and I do want to counsel and even call our church members 49:31 you know, like Brother Andrew had mentioned you know young 49:35 people that's at your churches. Whether you may feel your 49:38 donation to GYCweb.org is a little one I do want to also 49:42 encourage you maybe you and a couple others can gather up some 49:47 finances and maybe even sponsor a young person to go to GYC. 49:51 Because really we want the young people that need to be there to 49:54 be there. And so that's really what we want. At the end of the 49:58 day we just want to ensure that all who want to be there are 50:00 there and that they can receive the blessing that God has for 50:03 them. 50:04 Amen, amen. 50:05 You know lastly, you know this may sound cliché but your 50:09 prayers, people's prayers, it moves the hand of God. He's 50:13 already willing to do it but it brings us into alignment with 50:17 His will. And prayers go out as sharp sickles into the harvest 50:20 field. So we solicit all your prayers because we understand 50:24 that we exist in a great controversy and the one that 50:29 Satan really wants to grab are the young people before they 50:32 reach their potential in Christ. So we know that it's also going 50:35 to be a battlefield so all the prayers are solicited so that 50:39 God can have the greatest impact in their lives that He desires. 50:42 Yes, amen. Junior, real quick I want you to recap for us the 50:48 components of this year's conference. 50:52 Yes really quick, yeah the components of this year's 50:53 conferences. Study of God's word prayer as a congregation 50:58 together, evangelizing the neighborhoods in the lovely city 51:02 of Phoenix and by God's grace and taking all that we have 51:06 learned and now taking to our homes and to our churches and 51:09 raising up a generation of young people that want to see Jesus 51:13 come in the clouds of glory. 51:15 Amen, amen. It's going to be an exciting conference, a fruitful 51:21 conference and one where a lot of people are led to Christ. 51:24 Well we're getting ready to take a short break. We want to show 51:28 you how you can support GYC and get in touch with them. So we'll 51:33 go to an address roll and a news break and we'll be right back 51:36 If you would like to contact or know more about GYC you can do 51:43 so in the following ways: You can write to them at 51:45 1445 Valleyhigh Dr. NW #6383 Rochester, MN 55903. You can 51:55 call them at (707) 234-5492 You can visit their website at 52:06 GYCweb.org or send them an email at Office@GYCweb.org |
Revised 2023-06-27