Participants: PULLED
Series Code: SSP
Program Code: SSP180040A
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00:28 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and we welcome you
00:33 to the 3ABN Sabbath School Panel. 00:36 We're very excited because we're getting ready to start 00:39 a new Quarterly and this topic is "Oneness in Christ." 00:46 We will be focusing on the insights and instructions 00:50 from Scripture that tell us how to live God's gift of 00:56 unity in the body of Christ and we're very happy that you 01:00 have chosen to study with us. 01:02 I hope you have your Bible and a pen and if you 01:05 don't have an Adult Bible Study Guide, 01:09 you can go to: ABSG.Adventist.org 01:14 and download that or better yet, drop by 01:18 your friendly neighborhood Seventh-day Adventist Church. 01:22 They will be happy to give you one and probably invite you 01:26 to join them for a study and you would enjoy that. 01:29 Let me introduce our panel to you... 01:32 We're very excited, next to me is my best friend, 01:36 Mollie Sue Steenson. 01:38 Mollie, thank you for being here today! You're welcome. 01:41 Thank you for having me. 01:42 It's good to have you back here, 01:44 I'll tell you - things seem normal. 01:46 Then we have Pastor John Lomacang. Good to be here. 01:50 Jill Morikone and Pastor John Dinzey. It's good to be here. 01:53 We're just thrilled to have each and every one of you here. 01:57 You know, I was thinking that when God created 02:02 everything, everything was perfect, everything was 02:04 in perfect unity and harmony, but sin fractured that 02:10 harmonious relationship and the thought occurred to me, 02:14 as I was thinking on this this morning, 02:18 that when the first Adam sinned and fractured that unity, 02:23 the second Adam, God Himself, took on our flesh so that 02:30 He could be completely united with us. 02:33 Isn't that amazing to think about? Amen! 02:35 It is amazing, but then in 1 Corinthians 6:17, 02:40 he is wanting to restore the union, so 1 Corinthians 6:17 02:44 says that "Those who are united with Christ are one 02:49 in Spirit with Him." 02:52 So Paul tells in Philippians 2:1-3 that when you're 02:56 united with Christ you have fellowship with the Spirit, 03:01 you're like-minded; you have the same love, 03:04 tenderness, compassion, being one in Spirit and purpose, 03:08 and doing nothing out of selfish motivation 03:12 or vain conceit, but in humility what are we 03:16 supposed to do? Consider others 03:19 better than ourselves. 03:22 Now before we pray, I want to read the "Fundamental 03:26 Belief" #14 and this is called "Unity in the Body of Christ." 03:32 And this is one of the "Fundamental Beliefs" 03:37 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 03:39 And it states, "The church is one body with many members 03:43 called from every nation, kindred, tongue and people. 03:46 In Christ, we are a new creation. 03:49 Distinctions of race, culture, learning, nationality, 03:52 and differences between high and low, rich and poor, 03:55 male and female must not be divisive among us. 04:00 We are equal in Christ who by one Spirit has bonded us 04:05 into one fellowship with Him and with one another. 04:09 We are to serve and to be served without partiality 04:15 or reservation. 04:18 Through the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, 04:21 we share the same faith and hope and reach out 04:24 in one witness to all. 04:26 This unity has its source in the oneness of the 04:32 triune God who has adopted us as His children." 04:37 So that will be our study this quarter it is 04:41 "Oneness in Christ." 04:42 Mollie, would you like to have 04:44 our opening prayer? I sure would. 04:46 Holy Father, We come before You in the 04:48 name of Jesus and Lord, we praise You and we 04:51 thank You for Your presence here and we thank You, 04:54 Lord, that You are calling us into oneness with You. 04:58 Thank You Father that using this study, You are going to 05:01 shine Your light into our hearts, show those areas 05:04 in us that are divisive and, Father, bring us into that 05:08 right relationship with You. 05:09 So, Father, we commend this into Your hands and we thank You 05:13 Lord for the end result. In Jesus name... Amen 05:16 Amen and Amen! You know, I think about 05:19 how on the night of His betrayal, when Jesus was in the 05:24 garden, what was the focus of His prayer? 05:27 He wanted us to be sanctified. 05:29 He says in John 17... He said, "Sanctify them 05:33 Lord, by Your word, Your word is truth." 05:35 And He wanted us to be set apart for God's purposes. 05:40 But He prayed, He says, not just for those who were there, 05:45 but for all who would follow 05:47 and believe in Him through the word that they might be 05:51 one as He and the Father are one. 05:54 So we know that that's God's plan 05:58 is perfect unity. That's right. 05:59 What is Satan's plan? 06:01 He wants to divide and conquer and when you think about that, 06:05 how many millions of people do you think have 06:09 been put off and have refused to join the church 06:15 because of disunity. 06:17 So there's no greater need, than unity 06:21 in the body of the church and that's something 06:23 that, as believers, we should yearn for unity. 06:28 We should pray for unity but never at the 06:30 expense of truth, right? Amen! 06:34 But what perfect unity flows 06:36 out of is perfect submission to God. 06:39 So let's look at Lesson 1... 06:41 This is the Sabbath, "Creation and Fall" 06:45 Let me read the Memory Text: "Then God brought Abraham 06:49 outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, 06:52 and count the stars if you are able to number them." 06:57 And He (God) said to Abraham, "So shall your descendants be." 07:03 And he believed in the Lord, 07:07 and God accounted it to him for righteousness." 07:11 So as I said, to understand God's plan of unity, 07:14 we have to go back to the beginning. 07:16 When God created everything, He said, "Let us make man 07:22 in our image," and we find that what was the root of disunity? 07:29 Disobedience - was it not? 07:34 So the Bible starts with everything being perfect, 07:38 and when the devil twisted God's words and tempted Eve 07:44 deceiving her, that is when disunity came in. 07:51 But of course, God had a plan from the very beginning. 07:54 Revelation 13:8... "The Lamb who was slain 07:57 from the beginning of the world." 07:59 And faithful Abraham who was the father of God's people 08:03 became one of the central figures in that salvation plan 08:07 because it says that Abraham believed God and it was 08:11 accounted to him as righteousness. 08:14 So righteousness by faith unites us - does it not? 08:20 There's nothing that we have that is righteous on our own. 08:24 Let's look at Sunday... "Love as a Foundation of Unity" 08:30 So at the end of the creation story, what does God say? 08:34 He looks and He says, "This is good, this is very good." 08:40 It was a beautiful creation, perfect harmony, 08:44 and when you think about this, what do you think it means 08:48 that God created us when He said, "Let us make man 08:54 in Our image, according to Our likeness." 08:57 In the Hebrew, those words are 08:59 synonyms - the image and the likeness. 09:01 What do you think that means? 09:03 What is the "likeness," is there a physical likeness to God? 09:07 Jesus said in John 4:24... "God is a Spirit, 09:12 and we must worship Him in Spirit and in truth." 09:15 So it isn't a physical likeness, it is more of... let me just, 09:24 I'll digress for a second. 09:26 When God created everything, He spoke everything into 09:32 existence until it came time to create man... 09:37 Then He got down and He got very personal. Yes 09:41 He created man out of the dust, the mold, the earth, 09:45 the elements of the earth, added a little water, 09:48 make it clay and He shaped man and then what did He do? 09:53 He breathed - He ignited man with life by breathing 09:59 His breath into man. 10:00 So when it says that we were created in His image, 10:06 I believe very strongly that what we're seeing here 10:11 is that it's not a reference to His physical appearance, 10:16 but we were created in righteousness and holiness 10:20 with moral sensibilities and responsibility. 10:24 We were created for fellowship; to have emotional capacity; 10:30 the ability to reflect His character of love and patience 10:35 and forgiveness, and kindness and faithfulness. 10:38 He created us with intellectual abilities just as He has 10:44 that we could achieve things and be creative. 10:47 He created us with the freedom of will with the ability 10:51 to reason and to choose; and the ability to exercise 10:57 authority, a rulership over our planet, 11:00 and all of its resources. 11:02 So He created male and female in His image and what 11:09 happened - what did God say happened 11:11 when male and female came together? 11:13 They became one. 11:16 In their union, He said, "Be fruitful and multiply." 11:20 So He gave man the ability to procreate, 11:24 and I think this is how we reflect 11:28 God's attitude and disposition which determines 11:31 the behavior and conduct that we have. 11:34 Do you realize that your human worth is based on the fact 11:39 that you were created in the image of God? 11:42 His image in mankind, as I said, 11:45 was scarred by sin and we lost the moral likeness, 11:50 but although we're fallen, I believe most people still have 11:53 a conscience unless they're ... what do they call them? 11:56 Psychopaths? Are the ones who are without conscience. 12:00 So, we retain something of God's image, 12:04 but by the blood of Christ, He restores the image. 12:11 We're redeemed and He restores the image 12:14 because 2 Corinthians 5:17 says what? 12:17 "We are new creations in Christ Jesus - right? 12:22 So the New Testament teaches that someday we will 12:28 bear the image of Christ and I want to just focus 12:34 for just a couple of minutes I have left on what I 12:39 think is the most important, the essence of God's nature 12:44 which is the most important for us. 12:47 And what is the essence of God's nature? 12:50 LOVE - God is love. 12:53 In 1 John 4:7-8, John writes... 12:58 "Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God, 13:03 and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 13:08 He who does not love, does not know God." 13:12 So if you meet someone who is unloving in their spirit 13:19 and their characteristics, do they know God? 13:23 Obviously not by the Scripture. 13:26 And then John also said in 1 John 4:16... 13:30 "We have known and believed the love that God has for us. 13:34 God is love and he who abides in love, 13:38 abides in God and God in him. That's right. 13:42 So the essential essence of God is the love that is 13:50 unselfish other-centered love. 13:55 And character is derived from your nature, right? 14:01 So all of God's characteristics must line up with that love 14:07 because when you think about it, love and sin 14:12 are polar opposites. 14:14 Love gives of itself, love is unselfish, 14:19 love is the perfect character of God. 14:23 So sin is irreconcilably incompatible 14:31 with God's nature of love. 14:34 So as He establishes His character of perfect holiness, 14:38 the way I say it is... what establishes His 14:42 character of perfect holiness is His nature of love 14:48 because love is totally separated from sin. 14:52 But I just want to point out and I know I often do, 14:55 but this is probably one of my favorite Scriptures... 14:58 is the way God establishes us in holiness to separate us 15:07 from sin - to separate us to Himself. 15:10 The way He separates us is through love 15:14 because 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13, Paul says, "And may the Lord 15:18 make you increase and abound in love to one another 15:21 and to all, just as we do to you, 15:24 so that (for the purpose of) that He may establish 15:30 us in holiness" (making us blameless in holiness 15:35 the Scripture says) - so that is how we are created 15:39 in God's image and Christ is recreating us as we grow 15:45 in love, we grow in holiness and we grow in unity. Mollie Sue... 15:49 Amen and Amen! 15:50 Well, I'm going to pick up on some of the concepts 15:55 that you've laid. 15:57 And I've got Monday, and Monday, we look at 16:02 "The Consequences of the Fall" 16:05 Now "consequences," what are consequences? 16:08 They are the results of something. 16:11 Some things you can do have immediate consequences 16:15 and that's it, but we're going to find that the consequences 16:20 of the fall... now when we say "fall," 16:24 what is the definition of the fall in our thinking? 16:28 Entrance of sin. It was the entrance of sin. 16:31 It's what Adam and Eve did, the sin, but a fall 16:36 is when someone is in a lofty position, 16:40 and they are lowered - is that not true. That's good. Okay. 16:45 Now what Shelley laid, when God finished making 16:52 this world, His final words were, in Genesis 1:31... 16:58 "It's very good." Now think about this... 17:02 God handed over to Adam and Eve a - what kind of world? 17:09 Perfect. A perfect world. 17:12 No evil or discord, it was esthetically beautiful 17:17 but so much more. Amen! 17:20 We were in perfect - and here's the word that I think is 17:26 so important - perfect harmony. 17:28 Harmonious - what does "harmonious" mean? 17:32 You're in unity and that's what this whole study is about 17:37 is unity - unity in the church. 17:42 But we lost that because of the enormous consequences 17:48 are the results of the actions of Adam and Eve, 17:54 and what did they do? 17:56 They were disobedient and that disobedience is called simply 18:01 Sin. Sin, okay. 18:03 Now the definition of "the fall," consequences 18:07 of Adam's sin - God placed humanity in a high position... 18:12 What was that high position? 18:14 Humanity - what did Adam and Eve have dominion over? 18:20 Just this little...? No, they had dominion over everything. 18:24 That is a lofty and a high position and one other thing... 18:31 They were in an intimate relationship 18:35 with God - were they not? Yes. That's right. 18:37 Adam and Eve sinned and humanity fell down from that high place, 18:43 that's the fall - they fell down from their high place. 18:47 And what happened to the relationship 18:51 between them and God? 18:52 You used the word "fractured," it was ruptured, it was broken. 18:58 Now, the disobedience of Adam and Eve started, 19:04 it began the rupture. 19:07 Now remember I said the consequences of some things 19:11 are immediate? 19:12 Like you get up in the middle of the night and you don't 19:15 turn the lights and you stub your toe... what's the immediate 19:19 consequence of that? OW! 19:21 But you didn't break your toe, I'm just saying you stubbed it, 19:24 so that's immediate, but we see that the consequences 19:30 of this sin in the garden; this disobedience to God, 19:36 it started a process... it had consequences and the 19:45 rupture of the harmony that existed between 19:52 all life forms - how many life forms? All life forms! 19:56 You see, it didn't just affect Adam and 19:59 Eve, what did it affect? 20:01 We're going to see, it affected ALL of humanity, 20:05 all life forms - even worse, it started the disunity, 20:09 the discord and the divisions among all human beings. 20:14 And we see that that has continued to grow even to today. 20:19 Now what is the opposite of harmony? 20:22 Disharmony! What would we rather be in? 20:26 We'd rather be in harmony. Yes 20:27 The opposite is disharmony. 20:29 What was the relationship between Adam and Eve 20:34 and God before the fall? 20:35 What did they do in the cool of the day? 20:37 They walked with God, they talked with God, 20:41 they were in harmony, but immediately after the fall, 20:46 immediately after sin, what was the condition then? 20:52 What did they do? They hid themselves. 20:57 They made coverings for themselves out of fig leaves. 21:01 But the point that I was really driving at is 21:04 they hid themselves and who did they hide themselves from? 21:10 God...Can you hide from God? No. 21:12 Okay, now I want you to turn to Genesis, we're going to 21:17 look in the third chapter, verses 12-13. 21:21 I want us to read these Scriptures. 21:24 "Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, 21:28 "Where are you?" Now God is about to ask 21:32 Adam some questions and Pastor Lomacang, I want to ask 21:35 you this question... 21:36 When God asks you questions, is He looking for information? 21:40 He's looking for confession. 21:42 Confession, because let me tell you 21:44 something, God is all-knowing. Right 21:46 He's not trying to find out to determine something, 21:52 He's wanting you to confess. 21:55 Good point - He wants you to confess. 21:58 So He says to Adam, "Where are you?" 22:01 So he said, (this is what Adam says in return,) 22:05 "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid 22:10 because I was naked, and I hid myself." 22:15 And God said, (back to Adam) 22:17 Who told you that you were naked?" 22:20 Had he always been naked? Guess so... 22:22 "Who told you, you were naked? 22:24 Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you 22:28 that you should not eat?" 22:30 Now what is the answer, is this a straightforward 22:32 question, Jill? Yes. 22:34 Have you done this and what is the answer? 22:36 It's either "yes" or it's "no." 22:40 Now does God already know? Of course He knows. 22:42 But let's look at what Adam says, verse 12... 22:46 "Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, 22:53 she gave me of the tree and I ate." Ha, ha... 22:57 That's called blame, shift and justify isn't it Jill? Yes 23:00 First, that woman - and God, you gave her to me. 23:05 So is he taking responsibility for his actions? No 23:09 And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you 23:13 have done?" (and the woman said, 23:15 Lord, I've sinned, please forgive me)... 23:20 What did the woman say? "The serpent deceived me, 23:25 and I ate." What did she do? 23:27 The same thing... blame, shift and justify. 23:30 She blamed it on the serpent. 23:32 Adam - he threw Eve right under the bus. 23:37 She did it and then Eve didn't take responsibility. 23:42 Adam gave Eve up and Eve rather than saying 23:45 "guilty as charged, please forgive me," 23:48 she said "the enemy." 23:51 Now, we're looking at consequences of the fall. 23:56 And here is something - I think this is an important point 24:00 for all of us to grasp... 24:02 We are free moral agents. 24:04 Are we free moral agents? Yes. What does that mean? 24:07 We have freedom to do what we choose to do, 24:10 can we not? We can. Yes, it's true. 24:12 But we can't choose the consequences of 24:15 those choices that we make. That's right. 24:18 We can make the choice, but who chooses 24:21 those consequences? 24:23 See, there's a Scripture that was laid down in Romans 6:23 24:28 and it says... "The wages of sin is death." 24:32 Is there anything we can do to alter that? No. 24:35 We can't change that consequence, 24:38 it's the consequences of our actions. 24:40 Now here are the consequences that the man and the woman 24:44 received consequences of the fall... 24:48 And that would be Genesis 3:16-19... 24:52 Consequences - To the woman He said, 24:54 "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; 24:58 In pain you shall bring forth children; 25:00 Your desire shall be for your husband, 25:03 And he shall rule over you." 25:04 And I want to ask all of you mothers... 25:07 Are you painfully aware that the consequences of 25:11 Eve's choice to disobey God are those consequences that 25:17 have been passed right on to us. Amen 25:19 So she suffered the consequences, but her choice 25:24 brought those consequences on us. 25:26 Well, it continues with Adam... that by the sweat of his brow 25:33 he would work from then on. 25:35 Men, the consequences of what Adam and Eve did, 25:40 the result of their choices have been passed right on down 25:44 to all of humanity. 25:46 So I think my prayer today is that we will be very careful 25:50 when we make our decisions, make our choices, 25:53 that we understand that there are consequences to our actions. 25:56 Amen and Amen! Thank you so much Mollie, well done. 26:00 Well, what we'd like to do right now is just take a quick 26:03 break, stay tuned because we'll be back in 1 minute. |
Revised 2023-12-11