Participants:
Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS025003S
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00:11 ♪♪♪ 00:13 >>Eric Flickinger: Welcome to "Sabbath School," 00:15 brought to you by It Is Written. 00:17 We're glad you're with us today. 00:18 We are taking a journey through an interesting subject, 00:21 a fascinating subject. 00:23 We are looking at God's love and justice. 00:26 This is week number three. 00:27 We are taking a look at how to be pleasing to God. 00:31 What does that mean, "to be pleasing to God"? 00:33 We're about to find out. Let's begin with prayer. 00:36 Father, we ask that You will bless us again today, as You 00:39 have in the past, as we continue to study more, to learn more 00:43 about Your character of love, and to see how You are also 00:47 a God of justice. 00:48 We ask that You will bless our time together today, 00:50 and we thank You, in Jesus' name, amen. 00:54 Well, our guest this week, once again, is the author 00:56 of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson, John Peckham. 00:59 He is an associate editor of the Adventist Review and also 01:03 a research professor at the Theological Seminary 01:06 at Andrews University. 01:07 John, welcome back. >>John Peckham: Thank you. 01:09 >>Eric: So we're looking at how to be pleasing to God. 01:11 There's an interesting story that you share, an analogy 01:16 of a father and a son in the introduction 01:19 to this week's lesson. Walk us through that. 01:22 >>John: I invite you to imagine a father of a 5-year-old son, 01:26 and that 5-year-old comes to him with a poorly-wrapped gift. 01:30 And imagine the father says to him, "You know what? 01:33 "I don't want that gift. I don't need it. 01:36 "It's worthless to me. 01:38 "And you probably bought it with my own money. 01:41 So you can keep your gift, but I love you." 01:43 What would we think of that kind of a father? 01:45 Words like "heartless"-- >>Eric: Heartless, yeah. 01:48 >>John: ..."cold" come to mind, right? 01:50 But some people, when they think of God, they think God is 01:53 like this, that God can never receive anything from us, 01:57 that God cannot take delight in us. 01:58 And even if He could, there would be nothing in us 02:01 worthy of delight. 02:03 And here, this story that I expand upon in some places, 02:06 I imagine that same story. 02:08 Imagine that son comes, and the father, 02:10 instead of reacting that way, he opens up this package, 02:13 and now he finds in this package, you know, 02:15 the ugliest tie that he's ever seen. 02:17 Does he say to his son, 02:19 "Son, this is the ugliest tie I've ever seen"? 02:23 Of course he doesn't. Of course he doesn't respond that way. 02:26 Even if the tie in and of itself is worthless to him, 02:30 the tie is still of value to him--why? 02:33 Because his beloved son brought it to him as a gift of love. 02:37 And it's because of that relationship that it is valuable 02:41 to him, even when the offering itself isn't that great. 02:44 In a similar way, when we bring offerings to God, when we try 02:48 to serve Him, when we try to please Him, even that intention 02:53 is received through His grace as valuable and beloved. 02:58 And not just because He loves us, although He does deeply 03:00 love us as His children, but also through His beloved Son, 03:03 Jesus Christ, "who always lives to make intercession for us." 03:06 And this is taught in 1 Peter 2, 03:08 if you'd be willing to read that for us. 03:10 >>Eric: We're gonna look at 1 Peter, chapter 2, 03:12 verses 4-6: 03:14 "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, 03:18 "but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, 03:22 "are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, 03:27 "to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable 03:29 "to God through Jesus Christ. 03:32 "Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, 'Behold, I lay 03:36 "in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who 03:40 believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.'" 03:43 >>John: So here in this passage, we have this emphasis on Christ 03:46 as our mediator, Christ as our great High Priest. 03:49 And it says, among other things, that He is chosen, 03:53 and through Him, we can also be chosen, right? 03:55 He's "the Beloved." If you think of it 03:57 as a capital "B"--we can be beloved through Him. 04:01 And we can actually bring acceptable offerings to God 04:04 through Him. 04:06 Through Him, even when we bring an offering that is soiled 04:09 in and of itself, Christ's mediation actually makes it 04:13 acceptable to God, that He actually mediates, so that we 04:18 can actually be pleasing and delightful to God by faith. 04:22 And this is wonderful news, and this is how we can 04:25 actually be pleasing to God. 04:27 The book of Hebrews says, "Without faith, it is impossible 04:30 to please Him." But with faith, we can be pleasing to Him. 04:33 >>Eric: And there are so many people who figure, "I don't have 04:35 anything to make God happy," too-- 04:39 and really, that's--they're kind of missing the point. 04:41 >>John: They're missing it. The key is the mediation of Christ. 04:44 And for so many people in their walk with God, 04:46 so many people get discouraged. 04:47 So many people wonder, "How can I possibly be good enough 04:50 or make it?" And the answer is the mediation of Christ. 04:55 It's all about Him. 04:56 And if He always lives to make intercession for you and for me, 05:00 all we have to do is remain in relationship with Him, and He, 05:03 as "the author and finisher of our faith," 05:05 will carry us through. 05:06 >>Eric: Let's talk about the parable of the prodigal son. 05:10 Talk about people who messed up. 05:13 This young man is high on the list of people who blew it, 05:19 if you will. >>John: Yup. 05:21 >>Eric: And yet it illustrates God's compassion. 05:23 Walk us through this parable. 05:24 >>John: Yeah, you have this well-known story, where you have 05:27 this young man who decides he wants his inheritance early. 05:31 So he goes to his father and requests it early, 05:34 which is effectively like saying, "I'd be better off 05:38 if you were dead, Dad," right? "I wish you were dead." 05:41 And his father reluctantly decides that he will give him 05:46 this inheritance, and the son goes off, and he squanders it 05:49 in short order. 05:51 And he's left in a situation where he is basically lower 05:55 than pigs. He has nothing. 05:58 And as he is in this situation, he remembers that it's--even 06:04 being a servant in his father's house is far better than this. 06:07 And so he thinks, "Maybe I can go back, and not--no longer 06:11 "as a son, 'cause I forfeited that. 06:13 "But now maybe I can go back, and I could be 06:15 "one of my father's servants. Even that would be 06:16 so much better than the situation I'm in now." 06:19 So he decides to go home. 06:21 But as he's going home, his father is looking for him. 06:26 His father sees him still a long way off, and he has compassion 06:31 on him, and he runs out to meet him. 06:35 Now, this is significant because 06:36 in the Ancient Near East, 06:38 it was not considered dignified for a lord or a master 06:42 of the house to run out to meet anyone or to run to anyone. 06:46 People ran to him, he didn't run to them, 06:49 but in this case, he doesn't care. 06:51 He sees his son, and he runs to him 06:55 and welcomes him back into the house. 06:58 And he restores him back as his son, not as a servant, 07:01 because of his great compassion. 07:03 And this illustrates--in the story, of course, 07:05 that father is illustrating this great love and compassion 07:09 that God has for all of His children. 07:10 And this is a major theme throughout the Bible, where God 07:14 is depicted as this parent that has a love for His children, 07:18 but actually a love that's even better 07:20 than human parents have for their children. 07:21 And I want to look in that regard at Isaiah, chapter 49, 07:25 if we could read that together, Isaiah 49, verse 15. 07:28 >>Eric: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have 07:31 "compassion on the son of her womb? 07:33 Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you." 07:38 >>John: We recognize probably the greatest kind of love known 07:42 in human relationships is the love of a mother-- 07:44 or a good mother, at least-- for her infant child. 07:48 But even in our world, even a mother can forget or fail 07:53 to have compassion or fail to love her child. 07:55 But God says, "I will never forget you." 07:58 So as wonderful as a mother's love for her children is, 08:02 according to the Bible, God's love for us is 08:06 exponentially greater. 08:08 And we even see in that passage something about the nature 08:11 of God's love, 'cause there's a play on words there, 08:14 that the major word in Hebrew for "compassion" is "rakham," 08:18 and the word that translates "womb" is "rechem." 08:20 And it's almost surely from the same root. 08:23 In fact, the word for "rakham" is actually, like, 08:26 a womb-like mother love. 08:28 And so in this passage, God is describing that He has this 08:32 mother-like love, but even greater than that. 08:34 This warm compassion for all of His people, to draw us into 08:39 relationship with Him so that He looks at you and He looks at me 08:42 as His beloved child and invites us all to come home, 08:46 no matter where we've been or what we've done. 08:47 >>Eric: Beautiful picture there. 08:49 Let me read a passage here, or a verse, 08:51 Zephaniah, chapter 3 and verse 17. 08:55 It says, "The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, 08:59 "will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will 09:03 "quiet you with His love, 09:04 He will rejoice over you with singing." 09:09 Now, we may accept that God wants to have a relationship 09:13 with us. Some people have a hard time accepting that, but we're 09:16 gonna accept that God wants to have a relationship with us. 09:18 But here we've got God singing and rejoicing. 09:22 This is not just "I want to interact with you." 09:24 This is something bigger, something more. 09:26 >>John: It is indeed, yeah. 09:28 This passage looks forward to the day when God's 09:32 redeemed people are restored. 09:33 And He looks on His people, and He has delight 09:36 and has pleasure, which just answers very straightforwardly 09:40 that God can indeed take delight in His people, that 09:44 what matters in our--what happens in our lives 09:46 matters to Him and makes a difference to Him. 09:47 And in this passage of Zephaniah 3:17, this verse 09:51 by itself uses about every Hebrew word for "delight" 09:55 and "joy" that there is in the entire language. 09:57 It's almost as if there's not enough words 10:00 to actually describe the depth and the magnitude of God's joy 10:05 and delight over His people in this passage. 10:08 That is how much joy people bring to God, 10:12 especially when we're reunited in relationship with Him. 10:15 And you have that phrase there, some translations, 10:17 "He will be quiet in His love." 10:20 And some commentators look at that, and they say it's almost 10:23 as if the imagery is that God looks at His people, 10:27 and He's speechless. They take His breath away. 10:30 And it's almost like a marriage metaphor, which is very common. 10:33 I remember on my wedding day when I saw my wife, Brenda, 10:37 and when I saw her appear at the back of the church, 10:39 and I remember that reaction, right? 10:41 It's a good thing no one was asking me to speak 10:43 at that moment 'cause I would have been speechless, right? 10:46 I--and this is the kind of imagery of God 10:48 looking at His people. 10:50 He's quiet in His love, and yet He's so delighted that He's also 10:54 imagery of singing. 10:56 And this is the kind of joy that God has over us, 11:00 and it connects to that parable. 11:01 All those parables--the parable of the prodigal son, the other 11:03 parables--are talking about the joy that will be in heaven 11:07 over even one sinner who is redeemed. 11:09 This brings God amazing joy. 11:12 So if you want to be pleasing to God, just come to Him 11:15 through His Son, and you will bring joy. 11:18 You will start a party in heaven. [chuckles] 11:20 >>Eric: I want to come back to--you mentioned again 11:22 the prodigal son, the parable of the prodigal son. 11:24 I want to come back to that for just a moment. 11:26 We talked about the father and the prodigal. 11:29 We didn't really touch on the other significant character 11:33 in that story, and that's the other brother, 11:35 the one who didn't run away, 11:37 the one who didn't blow his financial gift. 11:41 And yet, he doesn't come off scot-free either. 11:45 Help us to understand him a little bit. 11:47 >>John: Yeah, you have the brother in this parable 11:51 who feels maybe like he's shortchanged, right? 11:54 His brother has gone off and squanders inheritance. 11:57 He's been there the whole time. 11:58 And his brother comes back, and there's a big party for him. 12:01 And the fatted calf is slain, and the red carpet 12:04 is rolled out. And he's been there the whole time, 12:06 and what does he get, right? 12:08 It seems to him like he deserves more. 12:11 And, of course, the father comes to him, again, showing him grace 12:14 and mercy because, actually, he should be delighted 12:17 that his brother has been restored. 12:19 He should be recognizing this is a wonderful thing 12:21 that's happening, but instead he's looking at himself. 12:24 We all have the tendency to fall into that trap sometimes. 12:28 And the father emphasizes to him, "Your brother, my son, 12:33 "who was dead, is now alive again. He's back. 12:36 This is a cause for celebration." 12:39 And this, again, just shows how important it is for us 12:44 to recognize God's love for everyone. 12:47 And, in fact, there is a justice in God's love. 12:50 We'll emphasize that throughout the quarter, throughout 12:53 the lessons together, that God's love--He pays the price to make 12:57 a way for sinners to be saved and for God to remain just 13:00 and for God to remain entirely good. 13:02 And yet, on our side, it is not something we deserve. 13:06 It is almost unfair. 13:08 It would be unfair if God didn't make a way. 13:11 That none of us deserve it. 13:12 And so the other brother didn't deserve the inheritance either. 13:15 But actually, this points to how great God's love and God's mercy 13:19 is, that He makes a way to restore someone who has 13:22 completely turned their back on Him, the father in the story. 13:26 He can do the same for you, and He can do the same for me. 13:28 And He does it in a way that remains just for all. 13:32 >>Eric: Beautiful picture. 13:34 John, we're studying this lesson. 13:36 It's a thin lesson, all things considered, 13:38 on God's love and justice. 13:39 But there is a companion book. 13:42 Talk with us a little bit about that companion book and why 13:44 somebody might want to pick that up. 13:47 >>John: Yeah, in that companion book I get to go 13:49 into much more depth. 13:51 In wider theology, there are many people that say, 13:54 "God cannot actually be affected by humans at all," so He couldn't 13:58 have emotions like delight, that to do so would be selfish 14:02 'cause love should only be giving and never receiving, 14:04 and even if He could, there wouldn't be a way for us 14:08 to bring delight to Him. And in the lesson-- 14:09 in the companion volume, rather-- 14:11 I can go into more depth showing how the Bible teaches that each 14:16 three of those conceptions about God are wrong, and you can see 14:19 a picture of God's joy and delight and how we can be 14:22 pleasing to God in a new way that emerges from the Bible. 14:26 >>Eric: Fantastic. 14:28 If you would like to pick that up, you can do so 14:30 very easily by going to itiswritten.shop. 14:33 Again, itiswritten.shop. 14:35 Look for the companion book to this quarter's "Sabbath School" 14:38 lesson on "God's Love and [His] Justice" 14:41 by John Peckham. 14:42 We're going to be back in just a moment as we continue 14:45 our journey through this week's lesson. 14:48 We'll be right back. 14:50 ♪♪♪ 14:53 >>male announcer: Loving well is a way of life. 14:57 And loving well means wanting the very best for others. 15:02 "Go ye therefore," becomes, "I'll go. Send me. 15:06 "Send me across the world or across town. 15:10 "Work in me to impact lives for such a time as this. 15:15 "And if I can't go myself, I want to send others who can take 15:18 the everlasting gospel to the world." 15:22 It Is Written's office of planned giving gives you 15:25 the opportunity to leave a legacy, to make a major impact 15:29 for Christ, to lead others to faith in Jesus 15:33 in preparation for eternity. 15:37 Let God use you to enable others to go. 15:41 To learn more, visit HisLegacy.com. 15:44 That's HisLegacy.com. 15:46 ♪♪♪ 15:53 >>John Bradshaw: You know that at It Is Written 15:54 we are serious about studying the Word of God, 15:57 and we encourage you to be serious as well. 16:00 >>John: Well, here's what you do if you want to 16:01 dig deeper into God's Word. 16:03 Go to itiswritten.study for the It Is Written 16:06 Bible study guides online, 16:08 25 in-depth Bible studies that will take you 16:11 through the major teachings of the Bible. 16:13 You'll be blessed, and it's something you'll want to 16:15 tell others about as well. 16:16 Itiswritten.study. 16:18 Go further: itiswritten.study. 16:23 ♪♪♪ 16:28 >>Eric: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," brought to you 16:30 by It Is Written. 16:31 This week we are taking a look at how we can be 16:33 pleasing to God, what that looks like in the Bible, 16:37 and, more importantly, what it looks like in our lives. 16:40 John, I want to take a look at a few passages from Scripture 16:43 here, one in Isaiah, one in Psalms, and one in Proverbs-- 16:46 and you draw these out in the lesson-- 16:49 and let's see what we can learn about the depth of God's delight 16:53 in here. I'm going to start with Isaiah 43, verse 4: 16:56 "Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honored, 17:00 "and I have loved you; therefore I will give men 17:03 for you, and people for your life." 17:07 Then we have Psalm 149, verse 4. 17:10 >>John: Psalm 149, verse 4 says this: 17:13 "For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; 17:16 He will beautify the humble with salvation." 17:19 >>Eric: And over in the book of Proverbs, 17:20 chapter 15, we're going to look at verses 8 and 9. 17:24 It says, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination 17:27 "to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. 17:31 "The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, 17:33 but He loves him who follows righteousness." 17:38 So looking at these, help us to understand the depth 17:41 of God's delight. What does His delight look like? 17:44 >>John: Yeah. So in Proverbs 15, the last one that we read there, 17:47 we see both a positive statement of God's delight in His people 17:51 and a contrast with a statement of displeasure, right? 17:55 And so you have very clearly in that passage that God can 17:58 be delighted or He can be displeased. 18:02 And actually, Proverbs 15, verses 8 and 9 puts in parallel 18:05 the language of God's delight with the language of God's love, 18:09 such that they are very, very closely related. 18:11 When you see something in parallel like that, 18:13 there's a very close relation. 18:15 So He talks about being delighted in His people, 18:16 and He talks about loving His people. 18:18 And, in fact, it's not just in Proverbs 15. 18:21 This language of delight-- "chaphets" is one 18:23 of the Hebrew words used throughout the Old Testament. 18:25 It's very closely associated with God's love. 18:29 And the converse is true. 18:31 Things can be done that are displeasing to God. 18:34 And so righteousness is, of course, beloved to God, 18:38 and unrighteousness is the opposite. 18:40 It is displeasing to God and actually vexing and pains God. 18:44 And so when you see this idea of love and delight being closely 18:47 tied together, you have this language in Isaiah that people 18:51 are precious in His sight, that He honors them, He loves them-- 18:55 again, tying love and delight together-- 18:57 and He even says, "Therefore I will give men for you," right? 19:00 And you have kind of a foreshadowing of what God does 19:04 in the atonement by, in Christ, making a way that we can be 19:09 delightful to God through Christ, making a way to save us 19:12 from our sins, making a way to draw us into relationship 19:16 with Him. And Psalm 149 is just one of the many texts that 19:19 makes it clear that God can and does have delight in His people. 19:23 He takes pleasure in us. 19:25 And this is actually part and parcel 19:27 of His love for His people. 19:29 >>Eric: So this idea that some people have that God is 19:30 kind of distant and cold and uncaring, and He's so much, 19:35 so far above us that--what do we even matter to Him? 19:40 You look at the Bible-- it's not that picture at all. 19:43 >>John: It's not that picture at all. God is-- 19:45 it is true that God is transcendent God, 19:47 meaning He is beyond us in ways that we cannot imagine. 19:50 And God doesn't need us. 19:52 He would be fine without us in a vacuum 19:54 because everything depends on Him. 19:57 We--He doesn't depend on us for anything of need. 20:00 And yet He chooses to enter into relationship with creation. 20:03 And He chooses, actually, to take delight in us, 20:08 such that He draws very close to us. 20:09 So He's not only transcendent, but He's also--the language 20:12 for this is that He's immanent. 20:13 And that actual language of immanence, it actually 20:17 comes from a Hebrew term that just means "with us." 20:19 In fact, this is where the--one of the names for Jesus, 20:22 "Immanuel," comes from in Hebrew. 20:24 It's a Hebrew compound term that means "God with us." 20:27 And that "immanu" part just means "with us." 20:29 So when you think of immanence, it's God being close to us. 20:31 In all of these passages, we see this amazing picture of a God 20:35 who doesn't need us, who does transcend us, who draws very, 20:39 very close to us in love. 20:41 And actually what happens to us, what happens in our lives 20:45 makes a huge difference to Him 20:47 because He has bound Himself to us in love. 20:50 >>Eric: So that God who loves us, who brings joy--it brings 20:55 Him joy for us to be who we are. 20:59 You talked a moment ago about marriage 21:01 and the joy that comes in that. 21:03 There's a story of--or a marriage analogy that we get 21:07 here in Isaiah, chapter 62 in verse 4. 21:10 It says, "You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, 21:14 "nor shall your land anymore be termed Desolate; 21:19 "but you shall be called Hephzibah, 21:22 "and your land Beulah; for the Lord delights in you, 21:26 and your land shall be married." 21:28 All right, that could be a little bit confusing. 21:31 Let's try to make it less confusing. 21:33 >>John: Yeah, yeah. So this is language, again, 21:35 where God is speaking to His covenant people 21:37 who have strayed away from Him. 21:40 The covenant should be broken, and the covenant is very often 21:43 described by one of two metaphors. 21:45 It's either this marriage metaphor here where you have 21:48 God, who is the good husband, 21:49 and you have the wife, who's strayed away from Him, 21:51 that He's drawing back into relationship, 21:52 or you also sometimes have the parent-and-child analogy, 21:54 and sometimes those are mixed together, like in Hosea. 21:56 But here you have this marriage analogy where 22:00 the people should be forsaken, their land should be desolate, 22:03 they should be cut off in judgment 22:05 from straying far from God. 22:07 But here God promises, no, He's going to draw them 22:10 in relationship back to Himself like a beloved wife. 22:14 And so He says, "You shall be called Hephzibah." 22:16 That language literally means "my delight is in her." 22:19 It's from that same Hebrew term I mentioned, "chaphets," before. 22:22 "My delight is in her." And "beulah" means "married." 22:25 And so He's literally saying, "I'm gonna give you these names 22:27 that mean 'delight' and 'married,'" 22:29 like a delightful wife. 22:31 And even though everything they had done actually should be 22:34 the opposite, that there's no cause for delight, God says, 22:37 "I'm gonna draw you, and I'm gonna make you delightful. 22:39 I'm going to have that joy over you" that we already saw 22:43 in Zephaniah 3:17. 22:44 So it says, "For the Lord delights in you, 22:47 and your land shall be married." 22:49 So this is language of the restoration 22:51 of that relationship, using this marriage metaphor to describe 22:56 the love that God has for His people and the way 22:59 that He draws them back into this relationship. 23:02 Now, here we see that God Himself is invested 23:05 in relationship in a way that makes a difference to Him. 23:09 And many people say, "How could this be? 23:12 "Isn't love only supposed to be one way? 23:15 Is it even maybe selfish if God is taking delight?" 23:18 Some people have been taught if you enjoy it, then it's selfish. 23:21 Love should be selfless, right? 23:23 And here I want to go to Ephesians 5 to see how Paul 23:26 speaks about God's love for us based on this metaphor of a love 23:30 between a husband and a wife, Ephesians 5, 23:32 verse 25 and onward. 23:34 >>Eric: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved 23:37 "the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify 23:41 "and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 23:45 "that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, 23:49 "not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she 23:53 "should be holy and without blemish. 23:55 "So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; 23:59 "he who loves his wife loves himself. 24:01 "For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes 24:05 "and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 24:08 "For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 24:12 "'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother 24:15 "'and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become 24:18 one flesh.'" 24:20 >>John: So here you have this beautiful imagery of the love 24:23 between a good husband and a wife. 24:25 And then Paul uses this to describe the love that Christ 24:28 has for His church, Christ being the husband and the church 24:31 being, in the metaphor, an example of the wife. 24:35 And so he says a husband will love his wife--a good husband 24:41 will love his wife even as he loves himself, 24:43 "as his own body," in this imagery of no one hates 24:47 their own body. In other words, a good husband should love 24:49 his wife as if she is part of himself. 24:53 And this is the way the imagery in Ephesians 5 24:56 says that God also loves us. 24:59 So, ideally, in a marriage relationship, it wouldn't be 25:03 that I have my interests and my wife has hers, and I'm fighting 25:06 for what I want to have happen, and she's fighting 25:09 for what she wants to have happen. 25:10 But actually, if I love her the way that I should love her, 25:14 then what actually brings her delight, what is best for her, 25:17 is actually what should bring me delight. 25:19 In other words, her best interests should be part 25:22 of my sanctified self-interest, if you will, right? 25:25 It's like her interests are part of me, part of my well-being, 25:30 that what delights her is what I want, 25:33 not only in a sacrificing way, but also because, ultimately, 25:37 it actually brings me delight as well because of my love for her. 25:42 This is the imagery that is used of the way God relates 25:46 to His people, God relates to His church. 25:48 God, again, has no need of us, but He willingly enters 25:52 into a relationship with us. 25:54 He condescends. 25:55 And the imagery is that He makes our best interests 25:59 part of His own unselfish self-interest. 26:03 And so, in other words, what actually is best for us, 26:07 what actually will ultimately bring us the most delight 26:10 and joy--you know, sometimes in this world we don't know what's 26:12 best for us, so it's not always the things we have in mind. 26:14 But the things that actually would bring joy and delight 26:17 for us, this is what brings delight to God 26:20 because He has willingly bound His own interest to us 26:24 in such a way that His own joy and His delight 26:28 hinges on the delight of His beloved people. 26:33 And I just believe this is a beautiful metaphor, 26:36 beautiful imagery. 26:37 >>Eric: So let's touch on something. 26:39 We don't have much time left, but I want to touch on this idea 26:41 of God taking delight in humans. 26:45 What does that help us to see about the relationship 26:47 between heaven and earth? 26:48 >>John: Yeah, I think it shows us that what happens here 26:52 matters more than we think it matters. 26:56 That what we are doing here echoes even in heavenly halls. 27:01 As we talked about earlier in these parables, 27:03 over and over again, they end with this: 27:05 "There will be joy in heaven. 27:06 There will be delight in heaven." 27:08 That when we actually serve God, He not only takes delight in us, 27:12 but when we help others to come to know God and His love-- 27:15 again, everyone who is brought to God in love, 27:17 this sets off a party in heaven. 27:20 And if it's that important in heaven, it should be more 27:22 important to us in the way we conduct ourselves in daily life. 27:25 >>Eric: And that's something that I think can impact us 27:28 on a day-to-day basis or a moment-by-moment basis. 27:32 And I hope that as we continue learning more about God 27:36 and His love for us and His justice, and we're gonna be 27:39 drawing out some more ideas on justice here very soon 27:42 and what that really looks like, 27:43 hopefully that's impacting your view of God, 27:46 and through you, others' views of God can be impacted as well. 27:51 We are looking at a God of love and a God of justice. 27:55 And we're still launching into this quarter's lesson. 27:59 We still have a long way to go, and we're glad that you are 28:02 a part of this lesson with us. 28:04 Next week, we're going to be back again as we continue 28:06 looking at God's love and justice here 28:09 on "Sabbath School," brought to you by It Is Written. 28:11 ♪♪♪ 28:25 ♪♪♪ 28:26 [Captions provided by Aberdeen Captioning www.abercap.com] |
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