Youth Conference 2018 Friday Q&A Session

we're gonna try to do our best to answer a few questions kind of a sampling of the questions that we've received if you have a question I would I would encourage you to talk to your youth pastor talk to your pastor about it if we don't get to your question and and just get in habit of approaching people not talking to people about the questions that you do have so we're looking forward to this time together stand in the back hall I'll tell you what this is a nerve-wracking thing to do these speakers haven't had any time to be prepped on these questions that to jump in and do you know an in-depth study on these so we're just gonna we're gonna try to cover these the best as we can and we'll get through of them through them and have a fun time together we'll introduce our panel real quick at the end is brother Toby England do you have a microphone Toby might have to share okay it's coming tell us what you teach here what you do at the college so my name is Toby England I work here in the Bible Department I teach in apologetics and first year Greek our focus is helping students in the Bible College understand why it is it they're a Christian and how they can present their Christianity to people that are unsaved or maybe hostile to their faith Toby's a pretty smart guy that's why he's up here if we get stumped on a question we'll just look to Toby like I saw one can you explain what non-conflicting absolutism is those are the type of questions we're gonna throw go ahead give us a nutshell a 20-second explanation okay so this is something that comes from ethics again the question is what its non-conflicting absolutism and as Christians we believe that there are some things that are not relative to your setting it's not contextual it's always wrong to do certain things so non-conflicting absolutism would say that everything that is right is an absolute moral imperative so if it's always wrong to lie and it's always wrong to kill and it's always wrong to be dishonest what do you do in those contradict we've got a course in the college that answers that dr. Getz teaches it but that's what non-conflicting absolutism is anything you would add for the Miller and I am absolutely sure I will never understand that brother Miller's our speaker Dave Delaney good friend and then dr. Getz so we're gonna we're gonna take a minute and kind of work through some of these questions and we'll start with we'll start with since we just came through a service and we we heard a message about a call to surrender someone asked the question how do you know if it's the Holy Spirit calling or if it's emotions dr. Getz would you give us some thoughts on that how do you know if the Holy Spirit's at work in your life or it's just an emotion you're feeling at the moment how do you discern between the two well motions are a part of our life there's no question about that but the Holy Spirit of God has been given us to guide us into the truth so the purpose of the Holy Spirit Jesus said was to guide us into truth and the Holy Spirit never contradicts the Word of God so when you hear the word of God preached the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart and he guides you to that truth so you make decisions based on what you've heard in the Word of God not necessarily based on your emotion though you're feeling something you're experiencing something as you hear the word of God that's the way God made you and he appeals to your love he appeals to what moves you but always make sure your decisions are based on the Word of God because that's what the Holy Spirit uses to convict you and bring you to that decision brother Miller we'll move to you another question here one question that was asked specifically for you can you tell the cow popping story again I like I'll let you answer that by the way yeah I say no cuz we don't have an hour to out here here but brother Miller we had quite a few questions relating to dating and relationship one person asked how comfy how comfortable is too comfortable with a crush someone asked when is a good time to start dating and we're trying to look for the the question here oh when do you think is a good age to start dating and then show me a verse in the Bible okay so what ain't I think this is good because there's a lot of things that we should do and shouldn't do and there's not a specific verse in Scripture that points us to that so we'll talk about dating here for a second but but would you take that brother Miller well it's a great question as a dad with three girls you're always too young to date I think really a lot of times the questions show us that we're thinking the wrong way about dating and our mindset is is that we have this emotional attachment of this crush we call on somebody and we let that person then take a priority in our life and we want we want to we want to begin a relationship with somebody that really can't proceed beyond a certain limitation so in other words when you're when you're in ninth grade and you have someone that you like that's a natural thing that you're gonna be attracted to somebody that's a good thing but if you begin to develop a relationship with that person that cannot proceed you know your ninth grade you're not ready to get married and so I think I think the great thing I taught my girls about dating was this keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life you don't give your heart away to somebody else because then that person is gonna be in control the course that your life takes second thing I taught my girls was my son give me thine heart honor your father and mother and defer to them and I think if you'll defer to their wisdom and you'll guard your heart and let Jesus Christ be priority here's the thing God's gonna bring you the person you know I'll just say this very quickly a lot of times we think in the world's philosophy that if I can find the right person and I can fall in love that I'll live happily ever after and what we do is we define love as a feeling and emotion this person makes me feel so wonderful love is this noun of person place thing or idea it's a fuzzy feeling it's emotional but that's not God's process God's process does not find the right person God's processes be the right person God's process is not fall in love but walk in love love is an action learn to have a giving life and then when you are the right person and you're walking in love but you're gonna find happiness it's kind of it's kind of a bummer to be the person that somebody else's happiness depends on you so you're looking at this crush and like oh you're so wonderful you make me so happy you know you're my whole world you're my happiness go make me happy well that's a lot of pressure for somebody and then when they don't then you think well I found the wrong person and then it just repeats the process over and over and over again so just keep your heart with all diligence defer to your mom and dad into godly leadership guard your heart and do time God will give you what he has for you yeah that's good and by the way you guys can hop in any time if you if you have anything to add David everything to add to that thought of you know show me verse no but what I would say is I would say the final part of his answer I probably was the best part of that answer and that is defer to godly leadership and really be open and honest with your parents about how you're feeling towards someone and about someone and about what you're even feeling internally and they'll probably help you walk through that better than you can you know trust your 12 year old friend that's good some of these questions are really tough so this tough one is for you Dave you ready for it this is the this is big this is a big one we all have to grapple with why bacon why bacon that was the question why bacon why not bacon see there that's good by the way we had about 20 different um finger circle it got all you right now got all of you guys we got about 20 different of those pictures texted in as well so thanks for those you got it brother England brother Larry yes I have can I submit it psych connection text me a question okay ask questions brother Miller wants to know what this means he doesn't he doesn't understand the whole video last night when he got done he's laughing at the video he's like hahaha I don't know what they're doing how many of you had a youth pastor to ask you what is that alright alright how many guys still don't know what that is alright maybe we need to reverse the question and answer and let brother Miller ask some question so we could help him understand brother England someone asked the question should politics and religion mix should politics and religion mix what are your thoughts on that I think this is an important question for Christians because we're called to be the salt and light of the world we certainly don't want to have no influence in the communities and the states and the country where we live there is some distinction between this and and young people this is one of the reasons why I love being a Christian but I love being a Baptist too because if you go back in history the Baptist Church was the church that had the right balance on this you've heard of the Crusades the Catholic Church and the killing and murder of other Christians and Muslims and I mean all the awful things that comes out of that well when we settled when the United States was settled there was Massachusetts with the Puritans and all these different Maryland and all these different colonies and you had to be a member of the Maine Church in order to be elected into office or anything like that then there's the name of Roger Williams in Rhode Island and he was a Baptist when he founded that in fact he founded the I think the first church dr. Getz you know in the United States are certainly within in Rhode Island First Baptist Church I've been to that place and he was the first one that in the United States advocated for religious liberty and who's a Baptist and here's why because he realized what he called the liberty of conscience he realized that you have a responsibility to choose what you believe why because there's no compulsion in religion you can't force somebody to be a Christian so how does that apply to our position as Christians and politics well we want to influence politics we don't always have the ability to separate different parts of our worldview we follow Christ and that's going to affect our politics and areas of abortion all of that so they're not the same but they overlap together and I think you don't want to separate them to two totally different spheres because what you believe about God and what you believe about Jesus and the Bible will affect every area of your life and absolutely that affects politics that doesn't mean yeah the church is a political organization it's not we're all political our main allegiance is to a kingdom that's not of this world but while we're in this world in Jeremiah chapter 29 pastor Chapel preached it maybe it was in church rule recently where Jeremiah tells his people pray for the Shalom of that city of Babylon where you are pray for the peace pray for the blessing pray for the full and fullness of that city and we want to be that in our country so we want to be the salt and light dr. Katzen anything that you would add to that because I I know even just being on social media there's just so much political agenda and politics and political issues that are constantly being discussed and there were more questions that were submitted about particular agendas that we want the time to to address but would is there some encouragement that you would give some Christians teenagers as they filter all that and process that well I think it's exactly what pastor preached a moment ago that you don't want to compartmentalize your faith you know don't just pray for your food when you're around Christians don't just pray over your meal at home pray your meal at McDonald's in other words God intended that theology mixed with life well you read the Bible everything that God tells us to do he mixes it in the mail ooh of our life so that you know no matter where we are whether we're in Babylon or whether we're back in you know our home place we're to live for God and so be careful that you don't say well that's a religious topic I only talk about that at church talk about God everywhere you go talk about Jesus Christ wherever you go talk about doing right wherever you go and I think sometimes as Christians we think well I don't talk about that out there and you want to be very careful it's like the England said we're light well light doesn't just shine in certain places right the Sun doesn't just shine on Lancaster not Palmdale okay shines on the whole world so the light is not compartmentalized okay it shines to everybody and that's what God wants us to do that's good someone not even ask a question along the lines of I've been with a friend with someone you know I've had a friend for a few years and they feel like it's time to let them know they're Christian and really that should be something that that that your friend is kind of already observing you know and I don't know I haven't talked to that individual so I don't know the relationship maybe it's just someone you see every once a while but if you're around someone for any length of time they should know pretty soon what you believe in where you stand on things I noticed the question there someone had asked about being on the internet with a friend for a couple of years and they the burden for them when how and how do I present Christ to them if you're a facebook friend with somebody for two years they should know you're a Christian by now in other words if Christianity is a part of your life you're not gonna be able to hide that you know you this isn't the secret service that's good that's good and by the way just as a youth pastor here I would encourage you to develop I know we all have online friends and can actions and you know people that were following but really develop develop some real-life connections in your youth group you know and have a purpose for those relationships so again I haven't talked to that individual so I don't know what the end goal of those acquaintances are I understand that but but really use those opportunities to show the light brother Toby we got a question here and this one's more of a theological moment we're talking about light Genesis 1 3 God said let there be light but God hadn't created the Sun yet how does that work well the things that's curious when I read Genesis it's obvious that it's not just a description of evolution over millions of years because everything's out of order and you see this with a lot of different points I in the creation account when we talk about light and Genesis there's a lot that God doesn't tell us and when we read the Bible this is something that amazes me in John's Gospel when he gets the end he says this not everything that Jesus didn't said is written in this record because the world couldn't contain the whole so it's it's important to recognize that everything in the Bible is true but not all truth is in the Bible there's some things that it's just it's just only so big so when it comes to creation God tells us everything we need to know but not everything and when it comes to light prior to the Sun being formed God describes light God describes light and it even talks about evening and morning so there's a directional source of light prior to that but it wasn't from the Sun and we know that our Sun is an eternal but light is eternal because it's one of the things that we have described in heaven even from the throne of God so God doesn't need the Sun in order to create light God can create light God uses the Sun to give us life yeah that's good that's cool cool to learn brother Miller we're gonna move move here to some some cultural issues but we had a few questions along these lines as well I think we'll see more and more questions like this as we progress as our as our culture digresses if a christian becomes gay or transgender did they lose their salvation was the question well assuming that the person is a Christian meaning that they've been born again they've come to Jesus Christ for salvation then we understand that being gay and transgender is not a condition it is a sin it's a violation of God's law it's missing the mark and so as Christians we believe that when a person comes to Jesus Christ for salvation and is born again that person has eternal life we believe in what we call eternal security I cannot lose my salvation if I were to go out tonight and I were to get drunk is that a sin yes would I lose my salvation no but I would lose fellowship with God I would lose blessings and I would fall under the condemnation of that sin remember the Bible says be sure your sin will find you out God's not trying to find you out Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Jesus does not condemn sinners nor does he condone sin he doesn't give it a pass he confronts it with grace and truth and then he can forgive it see this is the problem in our world today is that we're not labeling things as sin we label them as a condition and when somebody labels you as something there's no hope in that now that's what you are and you're always going to be that but if we say that is a sin then there's hope that it can be forgiven sin Corinthians chapter 6 Paul said he went through the whole list of things about adultery and fornication and the effeminate and the abusers of themselves with mankind all kinds of the wicked sins of the world and he said but such were some of you but you are washed you know I'm so thankful that God forgives sin and God forbid that a Christian who names the name of Christ would give in to temptation and lust of his flesh and become something that God did not make him but if he did if he did I'm thankful that God's mercy is everlasting and that salvation is eternal and that God is not gonna save me based on my faithfulness but about his faithfulness and so I want to say there's an obligation in all of this to understand that Jesus Christ gave us eternal life and that's forever our obligation is that's why we take the communion that's why we take the lord's table to see the broken body and the drink of that shed blood to remind us of what jesus paid for so that we live a life that was worthy of his death and let it not be said not one time let it not be named among you this kind of sin but if you do sin there is forgiveness and the blood of Jesus Christ okay Dave someone asked a question that they had a friend that just announced their sexual homosexuality how should how should I treat them was the question you should treat them like you would treat anyone else you know you should treat him with love and kindness but you should also be willing to tell them the truth in in a in a loving and kind way Jesus was full of both grace and truth and this is what attracted people to Jesus that he wasn't just mean and angry in singling out but that he was really harshest on those who knew better and I think that sometimes what happens in these situations but you should be loving kind patient the same way would you would reach anybody the same way you would help anybody in any sort of like what Dean talked about with any sort of sin that that somebody's entrapped in or entangled in you you you confront it head-on but the same time you can do that in a way that's loving and kind and patient hey can I say something real quick how many of you would agree that Jesus Christ how many of you would agree that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners let me agree with that how many of you how many of you believe that he was full of a love that you and I cannot fathom and Comm and yet there were people that came to Jesus and they came to Jesus seeking eternal life and Jesus confronted them with the truth in love he confront them of the truth so that he might save them he was willing to save them and they rejected that truth and went away and Jesus had to let them go how broken was his heart how grieved was his heart to know that he could deliver that person from sin and save them he offered them salvation but to see them go away the father in the story the prodigal son had to what let his son go away here's my question to you you have a friend that comes out and announces that they're homosexual and that they're gonna live in a sinful lifestyle do you love them enough to tell them the truth in love with the grace of Jesus Christ tell them what God says about that and what you believe about that and that you love them and you want them to be delivered from that sin and are you willing then to watch them walk away that's I think that's the hard part for the Christian that was the hard part for Jesus Christ and we've got to be careful but here's the great thing about Jesus he was always there when they found their way back dr. Gant's you have anything that for those thoughts these are excellent thoughts I think it's so important that our generation today understands that when it comes to these sexual issues we are making choices the world is trying to convince us we're born a certain way and there's nothing we can do about it you've been hearing all week long here that you're making choices we make choices it's interesting there's a university here in our state that on their application for college they asked the question what is your gender and the had six choices six choices the next question was what gender were you assigned at birth and there were two choices it's kind of self-incrimination isn't it in other words we were all assigned a gender at birth you know why that's biological right when I came out of my mother's womb at 6 p.m. on March 25th 1950 - the doctor held me up and he looked at me and in a very quick glance he told the nurse male right it's not complicated it really is it are only two choices male female one quick glance male okay that's what I was assigned I wasn't a sign because that was a doctor's choice or my choice my parents choice that was God's choice he assigned me a gender okay so if I pick something other than that later that's my choice that wasn't God's choice don't blame these things on God that's what the world wants to do we make choices and like brother Miller said the great thing about it is when we make bad choices God's willing to forgive us because sin can be forgiven and that's a wonderful thing to tell yourself but also to tell people around you Larry Oh Jeff on that and I say sometimes you you say things or not you but we say things like you know well I have these feelings right so okay doctor getcha if I wasn't born that way then why do I feel a certain way toward somebody of my own gender you know what what do I do with these feelings how do I do I have them right yeah because some they validate right reaction so this is feeling validates what the world's been telling me because I feel internally like I am you know attracted to somebody of my own gender so in the answer to that dr. guests showed this earlier but the answer to that is whether you war were born homosexual or whether you were born heterosexual there's still a guideline that God calls us to live by right so I'm attracted to women but that doesn't mean I can you know have a relationship with every woman I ever see right it's one man one woman for one lifetime that's God's prescription for his life for our lives so you know whether whether that conversation is well I have these feelings internally you know and that validates it or not you you still have to uShip to live your life according to the Word of God that goes back to the same question about politics you know whether you're a Democrat or Republican right there are really good Christians who are Democrats there are really good Christians who are Republicans but you still have to call you still called to live your life according to God's Word whether you identify as any of those sorts of things or not that's beside the point we identify our lives with the Word of God that's what we have to keep doing you know and and I think maybe maybe you could add to that too because okay if I do have these internal feelings and it's validating what the world's telling me then what then what do i do how do I wrestle through that well I really feel like I'd like to have your watch no sir but that doesn't mean I can take okay it still would be wrong to take it the feeling doesn't give me that right to take his watch that's excellent Toby you have anything to add there on the end I was good we about covered it yeah let's let's talk about this we had a few questions sent in people want to know why does God allow bad things to happen why does God allow trials to come into our life and even just a sampling of the questions I know that we even have some hurting teens in this room and family situations and sickness and trials why does God let that happen I think this is an important question for everybody to deal with why do painful things and and evil things happen to people and sometimes it doesn't seem like it's the worst people that get the worst life sometimes the worst people seem to have the best life and sometimes the best people have some of the worst lives and we wonder why does God allow that and we could talk a long time on it but the that the core of the answer is God gives us a free will in the the world that God created didn't have sin it didn't have suffering it didn't have evil and the world that we experience now is radically different than that so there's how illustrate it to somebody if there's if there's a question of why is there suffering why does the world look the way it does why are my parents do this or why did this happen why this world's a mess and God's good God's all-powerful so why does why is the world that he made such a mess and in my mind I always picture a car that's been in an accident and maybe it ran in telephone pole and it's totaled I wouldn't take a picture of that car and mail it back to Detroit and ask maybe Ford Motor Company why did you guys build a wrecked car because they didn't build a wrecked car they build a car where everything worked on it right maybe not it feels a Ford maybe it's like a Chevy or something like that yeah everything worked on it but see I wouldn't mail that back and ask why did you build a wrecked car because they build a car that was just about perfect and somebody wrecked in the world that we live in is not in the same condition as God created it because somebody wrecked it and and here's the thing if God were to remove the possibility of evil he would have to remove our freewill we couldn't love we couldn't worship we couldn't have a relationship with God or others so instead of removing the possibility of evil God overcomes the existence of evil and he does that through the cross that's good for the Miller but a few questions along this line how do I overcome guilt after repenting of sin and someone had even wrote in about something's a bad struggled with they'd prayed and confessed it but they they still have the baggage of that you have any thoughts along those lines sure guilt is to your conscience what pain is to your body pain is a good thing we think no I don't want pain well pain is a good thing if you couldn't feel pain you would be a mess you'd break bones you'd be hurt all the time and you wouldn't know it so God gave you pain but pain tells you is that pain says hey something's wrong don't do that so guilt is to our conscience that that same thing it's a warning that something is wrong when when you if you were to put your hand on a hot stove and you burned your hand you would oh man I'm burning and you'd want something to stop the pain well the pain is not the burn the burn is actually the wound the pain is just a symptom of the wounds so if there's guilt going on in your life if you have guilt constantly about something that you've done then that means that there had been a wound there's maybe there's a sin something that you did that you know you should have done that wounded your conscience and the guilt is the symptom of that well who's the healer the Lord Jesus Christ and so we go to the Lord and we confess our sin and then we rest on his promise that he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin David had a wonderful psalm about this David wrote a whole Psalm on his guilt and David went through the entire thing about what happened to his body and he what happened to his mind he couldn't sleep he was just wracked by guilt of what he did and then he ran to God for in repentance and mercy God forgave him and then here's what David did David had to rest not in David didn't have to look back at what he did he looked at what God did and that gave him a reprieve from the guilt you know the devil's an accuser as well so the devil will come along and remind you of what you did wrong how many of you are like me you you try to go to prayer and when you go to prayer all of a sudden your mind starts thinking of all these things and you're thinking well God's never gonna hear me how have you ever done that okay well God's not gonna hear me okay I happens to be all the time in fact some of those blasphemous thoughts I've ever had in my life when I went to prayer and so what I've learned to do is this if there are things in my life that I have come up in my mind then it's the Holy Spirit's conviction I confess it and then if I confess it he's faithful and just to forgive it but if there are things that I know I've already taken to the Lord for him forgiveness and the devil just keeps throwing him in my mind and he accuses me of it trying to separate me from God I used those not as a way to feel guilt but as a way to glorify God then the devil brings up my did my - at man praise the Lord God thank you for forgiving me that I can see something Lord right now in my mind I see something I did several years ago and Lord it bothers me that I did it and I'm not gonna tell you what it is God but I see it in my mind right now but I know that you can't see it because you forgave it under the blood of Jesus Christ you put it behind your back it's in the sea of forgetfulness it's as far as the east is from the west and God thank you for forgiving sin let me tell you something the devil doesn't like to hear that so before long he just likes to leave feel like if you'll if you'll take the sin you've done and confess it God will forgive it and then you rest in that forgiveness and you glorify God in that forgiveness and you can have victory over that guilt yeah first John if our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and and sometimes the reason why we keep bringing it up over and over is because it's evidence that we're trying to work out our own right our own salvation we're not trusting the good grace of God which you know is exactly chocolate anyone else have anything to add along that I think may be excellent but I think along that line further would be you've got a you've got to replace in other words you get something out you got to replace it with something else God is interested in change okay he wants to change us salvation has changed sanctification has changed glorification one day is gonna be changed okay if I'm gonna change clothes what does that mean if I'm gonna factor this session I'm gonna go change my clothes what does that mean well I'm not gonna go home and put on more clothes over these that's not change that's adding layers okay nor am I gonna go home and take these clothes off and come back with nothing on that's not change either right so change is taking off and putting on and a lot of times what happens we come to a conference like this and oh man Preeti just gets to us and we start going to get the sound I'm gonna get gonna get rid of this for the millers message the other night we came forward we got some things right we repented we got them out well guess what if you don't replace that now with the right patterns the devil is gonna swoop in as soon as you get home and fill your house with seven more things that are worse than before so that's that's in the Bible you go find it so so you've got to replace it look if God dealt with you about your music this week or your friends this week or whatever he does with you about before you get home you better have a replacement because you can't just take off you got to put on that's why pastor Chapel said Sunday walk that out tell your pastor you made your decision that's part of that putting on see it's replacing it with something else that that's so important to and and that's gonna help you overcome the the process that hangs on the devil wants to keep condemning you he wants he's an accuser of the Brethren so he's gonna keep throwing that at you until you replace it and get a new pattern going in your life that's good and that changed doctor gosh you've written none on the mind before that change takes place that transformation is in the mind and I think what happens a lot of times is teens will want to try to change the way that behave without changing the way that they think if you want to change your behavior you need to change your thinking and that'll be an outflow of that Dave someone else a question and I understand why someone would ask this question especially and maybe dr. Getz she can respond to this one as well at a conference like this what would put such emphasis on surrender and calling someone asks do you guys think that all of us teams are called to the ministry and we do that we talk about that a lot so what are your what are your thoughts on on do we think that everyone is called to the ministry no we don't think and we recognize that actually the vast majority the people here won't in the end be in ministry it's it's not that we feel like everyone is called but what we do believe is that the ministry is worth the risk and that's that's the language the language is surrender yourself right so through your parents through your youth pastor pastors through a host of of college instructors and professors surrender yourself to the Ministry and allow these spiritual advisors spiritual leaders to help mold you shape you direct you into into what the Lord would have for you and and help help of them or allow them to help you rather develop gifts and abilities that maybe God's given you that are better exercised in different places sometimes terminology is really important to to you know clarify there when we say ministry what do we mean right yeah we're talking full-time ministry we say full-time ministry we mean we want you to risk your life for the sake of preaching the gospel someplace else and we're not gonna back down from from presenting that need because while thousands of hands went up when Pastor Chapel asked how many of you surrendered to ministry the reality is the need is that we need a thousand more and and if we're not willing to to put that call out there to you well then who is putting that call be out there to you so there's there's a lot of people saying give your life for the military and give your life for you know your company and give your life for McDonald's and give your life for all these things but as as ministers of God what we're saying is give your life to the ministry because the needs great it's worth it and in the end you only have one life and live it for eternal eternal purposes but at the same time what I would say on that is if God does not call you to ministry then you should wholeheartedly pursue God in whatever area he has called you to and serve Him faithfully in your church Daniel was not a pastor Joseph was not a pastor David was not a pastor Ruth was not a pastor I mean we can go down the list of all these wonderful heroes in the Bible who served God insect environments and secular places and yet their names are reserved for us in God's Word so if God does not call you to ministry you are not a second-rate citizen you are not a second-rate citizen in the church you're not a secondary citizen in this place and that's why West Coast offers one year Bible College you know one year bible training and those sorts of things and other institutions do as well but that's why they offer those for equipping and helping and edifying so that's not that's not to say there isn't a call of God on your life even though it's not that but but the bigger point of that would be the by with risk your life for the sake of the gospel yeah the Bible talks about when we received mercy we received a ministry so all of us we shouldn't have this mindset where we separate it like well I'm not preaching or teaching or doing whatever on Sundays or collecting a paycheck from it but we are full-time ministers of the Gospels if you receive that mercy doctor gets you you speak out a lot and a lot of camps and conferences you have any thoughts to add to this though well there if your house was on fire and all of your family - escaped except your daughter Delaney okay and the five of us are standing there in the street we see your houses on fire and you're saying Delaney's in there Delaney is still in there we don't all need to go but we ought all we all ought to be willing to go there it's not going to take all five of us to go in there and get that little girl just take one but who what kind of a person would we be if we weren't willing to go and there's a law what's in business called supply and demand when there's a demand guess what we do we bump up the supply we meet that need if you need more cars we make more cars we need more microwaves we make more microwaves supply and demand there's seven point six billion people on this planet and they're going to a place that's on fire forever do we all need to go only God knows the answer of that but we all ought to be willing because right now the supply is is is is is not meeting the demand the demand is greater than supply and the and in the ministry is the only place where that's happening everything else in this world we make sure supply meets demand somebody is entrepreneurs enough to make sure that happens and that's why we have a conference that's why we have a college that's why your church exists because the demand is so great in the supply is not enough and so are you willing tobe one of the questions that kind of relates to this that was asked earlier and we skipped over this one but what about someone that's never heard what about what about a city you know somewhere in the world where there's not a gospel light I want to go directly to that I do want to say that I'm an example of somebody that was raised in a Christian context my dad actually was an atheist until his young adulthood and then got saved and went to Bible College did they use a pastor so I was raised as a PK and I intended talking briefly about the call to ministry I intended to go into physics I was always kind of a you know kind of a math nerd guy always made sense to me and I thought I'd go study astronomy and yeah that's kind of what the direction I was headed but God led me to do one year West Coast Baptist College and it was it was definitive I knew that that was God's will and my parents were part of that but I knew God wanted me and I they we used to ask on the application do you intend to graduate and I said no not for West Coast because I was just coming here they still take me but here's what I found that during that time the Lord put some things into my life that I was missing and I don't know if I'd have gotten anywhere else except for this type of environment and here's what I found you know people this is absolutely amazing I still love the stars and I still have math and I love all of that I love school and I love degrees but here's what I found God can put a desire in your heart that isn't there now that is greater than anything that is there now for his work and I've experienced that it's absolutely incredible I want to go back to the question what about those that had hurt and scriptures clear on that that there is one name under heaven whereby we must be saved Jesus is the way the truth and the life so it is absolutely necessary for somebody to accept Jesus Christ in order to go to heaven now what we do find in Scripture is that as people are when people respond to the light that they have God sends them more light and we see this with the Ethiopian eunuch we see this with the Macedonian call we see this throughout Scripture God's given everybody some light Romans chapter 1 tells us that through creation everyone can see the eternal Godhead and power that we are without excuse we in that passage are they in that passage just those that don't have the special revelation or the gospel or the Scriptures they're still without excuse because why the heavens declare the glory of God and as people respond to the light that God has given them through general revelation God sends them throughout scripture throughout time God sends them more light here's the amazing thing that's where we get to be part of what God is doing that's where we may be the answer to someone's prayer perhaps someone has never heard and they're calling out to the stars at night and they're reaching out the little bit of light that they have and what they don't know is that on the other side of the world God's beginning to answer their prayer in this room this morning that's good we're gonna go ahead and kind of wrap this up here these have been excellent I think excellent questions that you guys asked and some great answers hopefully this has been helpful to you but brother Miller where do we go from here you speak at a lot of youth events what are some what are some encouraging last thoughts that you can give us as as far as living out our decisions how many of you have Jesus Christ living in your heart all right then is it true I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not i but Christ liveth in me what was the what was the life of Christ Jesus said I do always those things that please the father not my will but thine be done if any may have follow me I'll make him to be fishers of men I think I think sometimes we think to be a to be a full-time minister or full-time ministry is one thing and then listen you cannot divide the Christian life away from ministry the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and so here's the thing if Christ lives in you follow him and here's what I believe I'm so excited because here's I think your generation the generation of the generation of technology the generation of if anything has said you can google it and find out if it's true or not you're always seeking what is true and I think your generation just wants real let's just make it real and I think the thing is is the raw authentic Christianity is this Christ in you doing the will of God pleasing to God and bringing souls I think so many so many people are not fishing because so few are following I think if you'll follow this if this group right here brother Larry if this group will follow Jesus Christ let Christ live in them they will please the father and they will bring a harvest of souls in the end days let there be an end time harvest before Jesus comes and this is the group to do it whether you're a preacher or not Christian Airy a Christian Christian is synonymous with missionary it's a Christian Airy somebody ride that down that was good [Applause] that's good hey just a second we're gonna watch a conference recap video and I think you guys gonna really enjoy this but what I want to do in this moment right now why our thoughts are a bit focused is just have dr. Goetsch if you give us some closing thoughts and just a prayer of dedication on this conference on the decisions that were made and then as soon as dr. getcha is done praying we'll watch this video and give you some more thoughts I just want to say this for I pray you have a lot of people for you young people there's a lot of people on your side to live for Christ you've got people back home that if you'll share your decision with not just your pastor but people back home share your decision and they'll pray for you when I was a little boy it was lady in our church we called her grandma Testament she's an old lady and she come up and she'd Pat on my head she said I pray for you John I pray for you didn't mean a thing to me didn't mean a thing fact it embarrassed me when I was a teenager it was worse she'd still Pat on my head John I pray for you and like you know let me go over here then I went to college I went to college my home town so I went to church every Sunday at my home church and mrs. Tesman would come up and she'd say John I pray for you oh wow and that meant something cuz I had to pay my bill and I had to get good grades I needed her help I remember when mrs. Tesman died grandma testimon died my mom called me one day and she said John grandma Testament died I felt like there was a hole in my life I felt like something that just left don't undervalue what you have back home in your church and your youth group in your youth pastor your youth workers your mom and dad there for you there's people here for you places like this we care about you we love you we want you to live for Jesus Christ we're here to help you we're just a text away we're just a phone call away just a visit away whatever it is we want to help you get to the top

Channel: West Coast Baptist College

Views: 2,485

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

Keywords: youth, conference, West Coast Baptist College, Lancaster Baptist Church, 2018, Pastor Paul Chappell, Larry Chappell, Dean Miller, Dr. John Goetsch, Dave Delaney, Tobi England, questions, answers, session

Id: 2wsMvvuB9lw

Length: 49min 9sec (2949 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 13 2018