There is a little note up here that says, “It is not necessary to move or lean into the microphone. Don’t worry, you will be heard.” Is that interesting? My heart is, “But that’s the message the Lord has for us.” I pray He will be heard. We pray that He will be heard.
Welcome, everyone. My name is Dan. I’m from Virginia. It’s great to be here. We know there are still some who are on the way. Is this true? Can you really hear me? I can’t tell. Okay, all right.
There are still some traveling, so let’s remember them in prayer as the Lord continues to gather us here in His name for His purpose. That is not an empty comment. Much, much prayer has gone into this. Even as some of the brothers gathered to pray prior to this time, we sensed the power of the Lord, because His heart is so much for you.
His heart is so much for us together this week: seeing Him more clearly, maybe even more clearly than we thought possible. So welcome.
I was thinking back to last year when we met, and it is really still on my heart to an extent. How many are here for the first time? This is the first time you have come.
That’s great. That is close to a third or so, I would say. So welcome.
Last year, as we gathered, what the Lord had put on my heart was this: sometimes when you come to a gathering like this, there are a lot of welcomes and a lot of introductions and yada, yada, yada. I would like to begin the same way for a minute.
We are all glad to be together, and those who have prayed and labored to put this conference on are certainly glad that you are here. But now that we are here, we need to be glad to be here and to welcome the One whom we have come to meet with.
I would like us to have a few more minutes of prayer. You can stand, if you like, because I would like for us, again, to stand and, with prayer and from your heart, welcome the Lord into our midst. Welcome Him into your life.
It is interesting: about thirty of us came up in some vans from Virginia, so I know some of those kids. Well, I know them all by name and face, and I know some of their struggles, some of their joys, and some of their hurts—all the things. But a lot of you, I do not know. I do not see your faces. I am glad to see you. I am glad to know you in the Lord.
But the Lord knows precisely where you are, and that is a wonderful thing. He knows why you have come here, even if you do not. It is okay.
For us to start off together tonight, I would love for us to be able to stand together. So let’s stand.
With a real resolve, I want us to pray together and welcome the Lord into the midst of this place. If there is business, transactions you need to do in your own soul—the work of sanctification and taking the cleansing of the blood—we have had a wonderful time of worship and songs together.
But let’s have a few prayers, a few audible prayers. In every heart, invite the Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to come into your being, to work, and to have His way this week—starting now; starting earlier, actually; starting with this moment.
Some of you may have done that, but when we sit down, I want us all to be on that common ground. Even if it is, “Lord, really, I am not sure what to expect or why I am here, but I do trust You, and I want You to work in my life.”
Others of you may be those who have been here in the past. You know why I am back here. Well, obviously, I am not a high schooler. I have been so blessed, and we have been blessed, because the Lord has used this conference to seal things that will make a difference in eternity in the hearts and lives of the young people who come and apply themselves to what goes on.
So let’s take a few moments. If some of you feel to pray, we want to individually welcome the Lord into our being—to move, to have His way, to speak to us, to do what needs to be done, to prepare us—because His return is soon. Let’s pray.
Lord, we have come from many places. You have brought us, and we say, “Lord, we are gathering together unto You.” May the gathering of these young people, and all of us who are here, be unto You.
We welcome You, Lord Jesus Christ, into our being. We are in Your presence by Your grace and by Your mercy, through the blood of the Lamb. Hallelujah, Lord.
We call upon You to fall upon this week, to fall upon each one of us with power, with conviction, with liberty, with healing, Lord, with cleansing, with freedom in the Spirit, with liberty in the Spirit of Christ.
Lord, there is so much that You have done for us. Your Word refers to the unfathomable riches of Christ. Lord, we do not want to leave here paupers. You are unfathomably rich, and more than willing and more than full of desire to work by Your Holy Spirit to make us rich in Christ.
We welcome You, Lord, into this place, into our hearts, into our beings. We implore You, Lord, to come and have Your way with each one of us, wherever we are, in Jesus’ name.
Father, we are so blessed to know that we have the assurance by the Spirit that You will finish the work You have begun in us. Lord, we want to be very, very honest with You this week.
If there are some here who do not know You, even then we know it is possible to know You. Lord, if we do know You and we are not where we should be, Your blood is available to cleanse us. You will not leave us under condemnation. You will forgive us and cleanse us.
Lord, establish us in Your presence for what it is that You are going to do this week. We give You full sway with our lives.
Lord, we want to say that by Your Spirit we are like the three who were to be thrown in the fire, for they said:
We know that our God is able to deliver us;
But whether He does or not,
We will not bow our knee to any other.
Lord, we want to say, as this little note up here says, “May You be heard.” By Your Spirit, may You be heard, and we even choose that You will be heard in our hearts this week. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Be seated. Thank you for your prayers. It is wonderful to hear the Spirit of Christ coming through and beginning our time together.
The brochure that went out for the conference, and the theme of the conference, is a challenge to each one of us. When you are talking to a group, we have a tendency to kind of morph into a blob. You know what I am saying? You are just kind of out there.
This challenge that the Lord gave is not to a blob; it is to you, by name, specifically. We are being called to walk worthy.
Worthy of what? You ponder that. And to redeem the time. Why? You ponder that.
We will be touching on these things this week. There are three verses that are also associated with the conference. I am just going to read them. I am not going to go into them. I feel so bad for these cats when they get up and speak and say, “Well, so-and-so already gave my message.” I am not going to do that at all, but I do want to read these verses. I do want to challenge you.
At the young age you are, I am not saying this only about redeeming the time. Obviously, you folks are younger than I am. But in terms of the Lord’s return, you do not have any more time than I do.
When He comes back, I think of it as when the whistle blows. I hope that does not offend anybody. You know, when the game is over, when you blow the whistle, it is a delineation. It is done.
When the Lord returns, it is going to be in an instant. So it does not matter if you are thirteen, thirty, forty, or fifty-something. What we have allowed the Lord to do in our life, in the time that He had us here on this earth, is what we will take with us.
So this is an important, important topic. I think it will be looked at from many angles, and I think you will receive much help and much insight if you apply yourself.
If you drift through the week, if you came for a vacation, you might pick up something anyway. Have you ever heard the saying, “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while”? It stumbles across it.
Let’s go into this with our eyes wide open. Let’s expect the Lord to work. Even if you are fearful for some reason, know that He really, really does love you.
He really, really cares. And I know from experience.
You know what? I actually always feel like I am really young, even though I am not. But I have come to realize that really the only difference between you and me, and those of us around here who are starting to gray, is that we have just been here longer. So we have had a little more experience, and experience is what teaches you.
You all are young, and every day you are gaining more experience. Does that make sense? There is not much difference.
It is such a blessing to me to see in our fellowship saints who are in their eighties. At Bible study, they are asking questions, smiling, and joyful. You know what? Life is tough. It really is. The One never promised it would not be, but He did promise to be with us.
To see these older ones joyful in the Lord gives me such hope. We want you—I want you—to be full of hope this week.
As I read these verses, I want to read them with some emphasis, and I want to challenge you this week as you read the Word. Again, I mentioned that when we get together in a group, we get this blob mentality.
Sometimes when we read the Word, we read like this: “Okay, it is my turn to read: ‘Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil.’” You know what? Pay attention to the Word of God when you are reading it.
Even this: walk worthy. Redeem the time.
One of the verses, Ephesians 5:15-17, begins with the word “therefore.” Someone shared with me one time that every time you see a “therefore” in the Word of God, you need to look in front of it to see what it is there for.
Many things have been set up, and there is a therefore. I am not going to do that here, but I thought I would share that.
In Ephesians, many things have been laid out. But the Word says:
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
Making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish,
But understand what the will of the Lord is.
This says to us, among many things, that it is possible to understand the will of the Lord—not in its entirety, because we are finite—but to understand the will of the Lord for His church, His bride, and your part in that, in His body.
Then 2 Timothy 2:22:
Now flee—take off, get out of there; do not mess with it—youthful lusts,
And pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace,
With those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
It tells you the cause and the effect, the action and the reaction. Not as unwise, but as wise. Flee these things, but pursue righteousness. That is what we are to pursue. You do not have to sweat it: “What am I to pursue?” Righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
And here is a beautiful thing: with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart—with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Then 1 John 2:17, the verse that was chosen to solidify this word in our hearts:
The world is passing away, and also its lusts;
But the one who does the will of God lives forever.
Amazing clues here, amazing insights. Does that make knowing the will of God a little more important to you? Hopefully, as this week goes on, it will.
What I want to do tonight, just as an introduction for the week, is use a little example set up over here. How many of you thought we were going to have the Lord’s Table? It looks like that, but that is not what we are going to do. I want to do a little demonstration.
I saw this myself long ago, and it had such an effect on me. As I sought the Lord about this particular time tonight, this is what He put on my heart. As I continued to pray, it stayed there.
I will start here because—let me try this thing. It will come on, I guess.
I was thinking about this. These are the equivalent, at my age, of what happens to you when you are thirteen or fourteen and your voice cracks. My eyes are not quite bad, but they are not quite good, and it looks like this pointer is not quite there yet.
Okay, now, do I keep holding it down? It flashed, so maybe it is working. Or maybe I feel like The Price Is Right. It is on. It is free. Okay, sorry about that.
What I would like to do is give you a visual. You are really going to think we are having the Lord’s Table when you see this. I thought we were going to be in a little more intimate setting, but these are little plastic cups, obviously.
But they are also you. The green area that you see in front of you is Christ. This area out here is the world.
What we are looking at is a general interpretation of how someone comes to know the Lord. I have always been so impressed with the fact that once you are in Christ—and that is what I want to demonstrate here—in Christ, you are in Christ.
The Word of God says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So you are out here. Here is the dividing line. Over this end of the table is the world, and you are lost, separated from God.
You are out here. Here is Summer, Daniel, Faith, Ben—anybody else? Your name goes here, okay? Oh, look, here are the twins. You are all here.
At some point, your sin was recognized by you. The Lord convicted you, and you said, “Lord, I confess that I am a sinner. I want You to come into my life. I want You to fill me, and I want to be Yours.”
I hope you can see what I am doing. I am filling these little cups with water—water representing being filled with the Spirit.
So when that happens, you are no longer in the kingdom of darkness. You are in the kingdom of light. You are here in Christ. You are saved. You are born again. You are redeemed with the precious blood of the Lamb.
Now here is an interesting thing. Maybe somebody whose name I do not know, but the Lord does—and actually, it could be me. I will say it is me for the sake of illustration so nobody will feel uncomfortable, but it could be you.
“Yes, Lord, I really do not want to go to hell. I mean, it just does not sound good. But I am really having a good time out here. So tell You what I am going to do.” You say that. There you go. I like that. Kind of easy, kind of comfortable.
Then here is somebody else: “Oh, Lord, I am so glad to be saved. I am so glad I met You, but I am really slipping. I really do not feel like I can stay there, and I am back in the world.” On and on and on.
The wonderful thing is that where your life was empty—plastic, kind of nothing—the Lord has filled you, and you are in Christ.
This is sort of the way people think of it in general. The Lord comes into your life. What is going on here? This is sort of a free-range thing. I have said this is the church.
A beautiful thing that is true is that once you are in Christ, you do not get out. It is forever. “You must be born again,” He said. If you are born again, you are born again. You cannot unbirth yourself.
That has happened. You do not get out of Christ. You may live out here on the perimeter, but you are in Christ. Do you all agree? Is this making sense? You are sort of seeing it that way.
Well, let me change things up a little bit. It is a simple illustration, but this is really what, as we go into this week, I want you all to see.
What I have demonstrated is that, yes, we are lost. There is no way we can get over here without the Spirit of God bringing us. We cannot get in on our own.
But to be filled with the Spirit gives you all kinds of membership privileges, if you do not mind me putting it that way. The Word is so full of the riches in Christ.
But there is a different way that I truly believe the Lord would have us look at this. Here it is.
I named some of you all. What you saw was that, yes, you gave your life to the Lord and were filled with the Holy Spirit, right? In one sense, that is true. But in another sense, what I am going to show you is much more true.
If you grasp this and apply this, I am going to read some verses that I think, after I show you this, will sound different to you. As you apply them to your life, they will have much more meaning. I hope that is the case. I hope you never forget what you are about to see.
Who is this? Somebody. This is Summer. Summer, when you prayed and asked the Lord into your life—and I know that He has, because she has been baptized too—this is not about baptism, even though that big bowl is full of water.
That big bowl represents Christ. The first demonstration showed you that you were filled with Christ. But in a way, you were still sort of out here, disconnected. You know, you were just sort of free-range.
When you are filled with Christ, what He has actually done—that bowl represents Christ—is that rather than Him coming out and filling you, this is how you are filled: you are plunged in Him.
You are placed in Christ, and you are filled. When you have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, you are not filled from a distance. You are placed in Christ.
James, you are in Christ, filled. Pierce, in Christ, filled. Ashley, when you are born again; James; and everyone else—you are in Christ.
You are related. You are submerged in Him. I wish this bowl was as big as the universe, because Christ is. But you are not out here struggling on your own.
In Christ, the Lord deals with you, but you are not estranged from God any longer. When you ask Him, He places you in Christ, and amazing things go on in Christ, because you become part of this.
Now, all illustrations fall apart at some point, so bear with me. But this one can cover lots of things. This is the body of Christ, joined members.
Rather than thinking of yourself as an island that God has come along and filled, and you are just going to kind of get through life and hopefully do the right things, I want you to see that you have been placed in Christ Jesus—in Him, literally.
I want to read some verses now that might sound a little different than when you read them before. I am going to start in Romans.
This is Romans 6:11. I have quite a few, and I just want to read them. I want you to listen to them from the point of view that you have been placed in Him.
Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
For the wages of sin is death.
You stay out there, and the wages are death, not eternal life.
But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Again, in Romans:
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor powers,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,
Shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Then Romans 12:5, a beautiful saying. We will have to picture the bowl completely full of you all:
So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
This is the building of the body of Christ.
For as in Adam all die,
Out there on the other end of the table, lost in Adam, all die.
So also in Christ all shall be made alive.
You all know this, right?
Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature;
The old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
When you are here, you have a new identity. That verse points out that you are a new creature in Christ. You also have a new identity.
There is neither Jew nor Greek;
There is neither slave nor free man;
There is neither male nor female;
For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Just a few others—there are many more. Maybe, I hope, you are thinking of some yourself.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
In Christ is faith. In Christ is grace. In Christ is hope. In Christ is life, and you are in Him. You do not have to wander around looking for those things. You are in Him, and they are all in Him.
And raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
See how secure you really are in Him?
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Paul said—and I want us all to say this:
I count all things rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him,
Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law,
But that which is through faith in Christ,
The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
You get this when you are in Christ. This is what He has given us.
And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ Jesus.
In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Does it change those verses a little for you? I hope it does, to recognize this.
Even the charge to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2:1:
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
It is all in there if you are in there. You have access to all that He is, all that He wants to do, and nothing will change that.
Now, I think as this week goes on, possibly one of the things the Lord has on His heart is that once you are in Christ, there is still a work that goes on in your life. It is the redemption, the salvation, of our souls. It is a process.
The work of salvation is finished. What had to be done to put you in Christ is finished. So why do we have to redeem the time and walk worthy if it is all finished?
The answer is that in Christ there is a process of the Lord preparing us to be His bride. I think that is what this week is going to be: the revealing of many of these things.
There are so many verses that I hope, as you read them, this will come to your mind:
But the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ,
Will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Know, dear brothers and sisters, that you are in Christ if you have given your life to Him. If you have not, please begin there tonight.
If there are any here who have never said, “Lord, I never really have gotten this, but I am curious,” if you just open your heart to Him and take a step, He will meet you.
He is more interested than you are aware of in showing you His love, revealing Himself, and moving into that place that He created in you that nothing else is going to fill except Him.
So do that. If you are hungry for Him and walking with Him, pray that this week, as we are here together in Christ, He will move in a powerful way.
Brother Hosea is going to come and share a word with you all. But that is what was on my heart to begin with. After Brother Hosea comes, John Lee will have a few words, and then you will know what to do after the challenge. Hosea, come. Let’s have a word of prayer.
Lord, the way You have made each one of us is unique, because You know us intimately. Lord, as we are together this week, and even tonight, we pray that the reality of what You have done—Your death on the cross, Your suffering in our place, Your dying in our place, Your being raised, placing us in You, and being raised from the dead so that we are raised in newness of life—would become real to us.
We pray that a freshness, a clarity, a deeper understanding, and a deeper desire to know more of You will overcome us all. Again, Father, we commit ourselves to You and give ourselves to You to continue to complete the great work You have begun in us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Can you hear me? Okay. I just wanted to say a few words to you, young brothers and sisters, and share what we all need to hear—not just this evening, but words that need to be remembered again and again and again, because God’s Word is eternal truth, unchangeable, good for all time.
So I am very thankful for that opening word. Now, I am going to be very, very brief. I want to share with you a secret of how to get there.
Knowing what is there is one thing, but how to really get there is quite another thing.
Before you came to Toronto, in some ways, you all made some preparation. Am I right? You prepared yourselves. If not spiritually, you prepared physically—the clothing you wanted to take and so forth. You prepared.
The reason you prepared, adequately prepared the way that you thought you needed to prepare, is that you had an objective in view. You prepared to get there. To get there is never by chance. You need some preparation.
So I am going to say very briefly how to get there. First, we need to recognize that the way to get there, and how to get there, is humanly impossible.
Otherwise, there is no need to believe in God. There is no need to trust Him. To get there that way is humanly impossible.
Unless God makes it possible for us to get there, there is no human way—humanly speaking, no way. You see what I am saying? No way.
You cannot save yourself. You cannot put yourself in Christ. You cannot. It is His doing.
So to get there is humanly impossible. No matter how you try, it is impossible. Unless God opens the way, there is no possibility.
In fact, Christ is the way. He came here to open that new and living way for us to get there.
Would you turn with me to a few verses of Scripture? You all have your Bibles with you. This is a spiritual conference. You better have your Bibles with you.
John, Mary, what is a requirement to attend this conference? Say it loud so I can hear you. Okay, do you hear that? Okay, let’s do that.
The Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verse 37.
This is a beautiful verse. These are the words the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary:
For with God nothing shall be impossible.
With man, nothing is what? Possible. But with God, nothing is what? Impossible.
Now, to get there, believe it. That is who He is. That is what God is. All that He wants to do in us—you and me—are the impossibilities.
If we could do it, we would not need Him. We need Him because we are utterly incapable. Therefore, He Himself makes that way possible.
With man, it is impossible; but with God, nothing is impossible. If God says nothing is impossible, what should be our response?
Hearing the words is one thing, but accepting them and taking them to heart is quite another thing.
Many of you have come to this conference in Canada for many years. How many years now at Redeemer’s College? This is the fifth year. Wow, imagine that.
How many years did we have this conference in Lebanon, Pennsylvania? Six years. Wow. And previous to that, how many years did we have this conference in Canada, up north? Five years.
This is almost twenty years. Wow. Imagine that. And we have heard much. But in reality, how much of what we have heard has sunk in and become part of our life?
God says to you, young brothers and sisters, this week, “I want to do that which is impossible. I want to do it, I will do it, and I can do it.”
Now, how should we respond? Look at verse 38. These are the words of Mary:
Behold, the maidservant of the Lord!
Let it be to me according to your word.
She placed herself as a maidservant. What does a servant do? Listen and obey. That is it. What does a servant do? Listen and obey.
Now listen: “Let it be to me according to Your Word.” Boy, that is the prayer. Let it be to me according to Your Word. Make what I have heard, Lord Jesus, real in my life.
That is the secret. There is no other way. Is that your prayer?
Let it be to me according to Your Word.
Now, brothers and sisters, if you take those words as your prayer, the Lord will do the impossible this week in your life. No doubt about that.
Tonight is a wonderful way to prepare our hearts for the following days.
Then comes the assurance: the promise of sure fulfilment.
God says, “I will do the impossible,” and you say, “Oh, okay, all right. Let it be to me according to Your Word. Do in me, do to me, according to what You say.” It is very personal, very personal. That should be your attitude.
Then turn to verse 45. If we listen and make up our minds to say, “Lord, let it be to me according to Your Word,” blessing is guaranteed.
Verse 45:
Blessed is she who believed,
For there will be a fulfilment of those things which were told her from the Lord.
There will be fulfilment. There will be realization. What you hear, if you take it to heart, He will make real in you.
That is all we need, brothers and sisters. Those few verses are not only for you young people; we older ones are not different. What you need is what we need—exactly the same thing. That is why I am here. That is why all the older ones are here: for the same thing, for the Lord to do the impossible.
You press the Lord: “How can You do it?” And the response from the Lord says:
Blessed is that person who believes,
For there will be fulfilment of those things which were told that person from the Lord.
That is for sure.
Those three verses are very precious to me. Before I came to this conference, they called me and said, “Brother Hosea, would you say a few words after Brother Dan?” I struggled. I said, “Should I say something deep and profound? What do I say?”
The Lord said, “Just say a few words that are really simple. Just make it simple. Make it workable. Make it real. Make it understandable. Do not be complicated.”
God says, “I can do the impossible.” You say, “Oh, do it according to Your Word in my life.” Blessed is that person who believes, and all that Word will be fulfilled in you. That is real blessing.
I can see that all my older brothers and sisters are nodding their heads in agreement with me. Is there any other way for the Lord to do the impossible? Is there any other way? What do you think? No other way.
Simply say, “Lord, according to what You say to me, do it in me. Do in me.” Blessed is that person who believes, and all that is said to you will be fulfilled.
Now, brothers and sisters, that is the gospel. That is the gospel for the unbeliever, and that is also the gospel for the believer. We need that every day.
So, very simply, do not forget those three verses. Luke, chapter 1, verse 37:
For with God nothing will be impossible.
Take that to heart. That is God. He always does the thing that is impossible.
Verse 38 is the response:
Behold, the maidservant of the Lord!
Let it be to me according to your word.
Do you know why Gabriel departed? Because there was no further need to say anything. She took it to heart. That is it. If you take that to heart, we can conclude our conference right now and go on to the Lord’s fulfilment. You see what I am saying?
That is it. There is no need for further speaking when the work is done. That is a spiritual principle. But if God keeps speaking, it means the work has not been done yet.
In verse 45:
Blessed is the person—she, Mary—who believed,
For there will be a fulfilment of those things which were told her from the Lord.
Now, this is what I have to share. By the end of the sharing and all the workshops, young people, they are not their own words.
These brothers and sisters are simply channels. They are speaking for God. Pray for them that they will be faithful.
It is simple, right? That is all. The Lord bless you. That is all we need—those three verses—for life.