3ABN Sabbath School Panel

God’S Call

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Home

Series Code: SSP

Program Code: SSP190042A


00:01 The Bible tells us, "In the beginning was the Word,
00:03 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
00:08 It says, "To receive with meekness
00:10 the implanted Word,
00:11 which is able to save your souls,
00:14 and to be diligent to present yourself
00:16 approved to God,
00:18 rightly dividing the Word of truth."
00:21 Join us now for the 3ABN Sabbath School Panel.
00:25 Our study today is Ezra and Nehemiah.
00:33 Hello, and welcome to another 3ABN Sabbath School Panel.
00:36 I'm Jill Morikone, and we're so glad
00:38 that you have tuned in today for study of the Word of God.
00:42 If you're just joining us, that is okay.
00:44 We are on lesson number 3
00:46 of our study of Ezra and Nehemiah.
00:49 And we encourage you to visit
00:50 your local Seventh-Day Adventist Church
00:52 and join them for this study
00:54 or you can always go online to ABSG.Adventist.org.
01:00 You can download your own copy of the lesson,
01:04 and you can follow along with us.
01:06 That stands for Adult Bible Study Guide
01:09 dot Adventist dot org.
01:11 We are on lesson number 3, God's call,
01:14 and I'm excited as we journey
01:16 through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
01:19 See, the lessons that God has there,
01:21 not just for the children of Israel
01:23 but for us today.
01:25 I want to introduce you to our panel at this time.
01:27 To my left is Kenny Shelton.
01:29 We love you and your wife
01:30 and a privilege to have you here.
01:31 It's a pleasure. Thank you very much.
01:33 Sitting to your left is my pastor,
01:35 Pastor John Lomacang.
01:37 And, Pastor John, always love learning from you
01:39 and your study, the Word of God.
01:41 Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jill.
01:42 To your left is my sister Shelley Quinn.
01:45 And thank you so much, Shelley, for being here.
01:47 Oh, we love.
01:49 I love being here and just love hearing
01:51 what God has led each one of you
01:54 to bring to the table.
01:55 Absolutely.
01:56 And last but not least,
01:58 our sister Miss Mollie Steenson.
02:00 So glad when you can come back up from Alabama
02:03 and join us in Sabbath School Panel
02:05 and glad you can be here.
02:06 Thank you so much.
02:07 Before we go any further,
02:09 we want to go to the Lord in prayer.
02:10 And, Pastor Kenny, would you pray for us?
02:12 Absolutely, let's pray together, shall we?
02:14 Loving Father in heaven, truly is a privilege
02:17 that we had to be part of the family of God today.
02:20 We may come boldly to the throne of grace
02:22 by helping our time of need because of Jesus Christ.
02:25 Lord we just ask and plead for that Holy Spirit power.
02:28 We pray that You illuminate these beautiful truths
02:30 in each of our hearts and our lives
02:32 those who are at home, those watching, those listening
02:34 that each one of us may be in tune with heaven.
02:36 May we see Jesus, may we experience something
02:39 that maybe we've never experienced before.
02:41 Make sure bless each one here on the panel in a special way.
02:44 Lord, we need that Holy Spirit power,
02:46 need these truths to be illuminated in our own minds
02:48 and heart not only to know them but to live them.
02:51 Lord, we give you praise,
02:52 and we thank You in Jesus name, amen.
02:54 Amen.
02:56 We are on lesson number 3.
02:58 But if you're just joining us,
02:59 we spent the first two weeks laying that foundation.
03:03 We talked about the first return
03:05 from Babylon back to Jerusalem.
03:07 That was Zerubbabel.
03:08 In 538 BC, he led the group, 50,000 men,
03:14 women and children went back to Jerusalem.
03:16 Then in 457 BC,
03:18 we see the second return under the leadership of Ezra,
03:22 they went specifically
03:23 for the reconstruction of the temple.
03:26 Then the third return under Nehemiah probably 444 BC,
03:30 and they went specifically
03:32 to rebuild the walls of the city.
03:35 This week, we look at God's call.
03:38 God has always called a special person
03:41 for a specific purpose.
03:43 Think about Noah. He was called to build an ark.
03:47 Abraham was called to be the father of a special nation.
03:52 Joseph was called to preserve the life of his own family
03:55 and the Egyptians from that famine.
03:58 Moses was called to lead the children of Israel
04:01 out of Egypt.
04:02 Joshua was called to lead the children of Israel
04:05 into the Promised Land.
04:08 Esther was called to intercede on behalf of her people,
04:13 the Jewish people.
04:14 Zerubbabel was called to lead the Jews back
04:17 from Babylon back to Jerusalem.
04:20 Israel was called as well so was Nehemiah.
04:23 Jonah was called to preach in Nineveh
04:25 and he turned away from that call in the beginning,
04:27 but then he eventually went.
04:30 The disciples were called to follow Jesus
04:32 and become fishers of men.
04:34 Paul was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles
04:37 and the list could go on and on.
04:40 We are all called to share what the Lord Jesus Christ
04:44 has done in our hearts and lives.
04:45 One of my favorite scriptures is 1 Peter 2:9,
04:48 "You are a chosen generation, a whole royal priesthood,
04:53 a holy nation, God's own special people,
04:57 that we proclaim the praises of Him
04:59 who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light."
05:02 You at home have been called to share the gospel message
05:07 with someone else.
05:08 What qualifies us for the call of God?
05:11 Is there a specific criteria, Pastor Kenny?
05:13 Is it money or is it power or position?
05:17 Is it education or experience?
05:20 Or is it simply willingness, and humility,
05:25 and ability to walk in obedience
05:29 when God makes the call on your life?
05:32 This week, we look at two men
05:34 who were called of God to lead at the time of crisis.
05:37 Our memory text is Ezra 7:27, Ezra 7:27,
05:42 "Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers,
05:45 who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart,
05:48 to beautify the house of the Lord
05:50 which is in Jerusalem"
05:53 Now on Sunday,
05:54 we look at the calling of Ezra and Nehemiah.
05:58 Two different men, but both called of God,
06:01 and it's for a specific purpose.
06:04 Now I want to look at three different aspects here.
06:06 First, we're going to look at preparation for the call,
06:09 then recognition of the call,
06:13 then response to the call.
06:16 So let's look at the preparation
06:18 for the call first.
06:19 Why was Israel called?
06:21 What prepared him
06:22 for the call of God on his life?
06:24 He was a skilled scribe.
06:25 We discussed this in previous lessons,
06:27 Ezra 7:6.
06:29 "This Ezra came up from Babylon.
06:31 He was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses."
06:34 He had training before the call of God
06:37 ever came on his life to lead the people back,
06:40 Miss Mollie, he had already had training,
06:43 he was skilled.
06:44 Second, he was already a leader and a teacher,
06:47 Ezra 7:10,
06:49 "Ezra had prepared his heart to do," what,
06:51 "to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel."
06:55 He was already a leader in Israel.
06:57 He already taught the Word of God.
07:00 Third, and I think this is was critical.
07:01 He was eager to go.
07:03 In fact, he probably even asked to go.
07:06 Ezra 7:6,
07:07 it says, "The king granted him"
07:09 that's Ezra, "all his request,
07:11 according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him."
07:14 So Ezra actually asked
07:17 and the king granted him his request,
07:19 he was eager to go.
07:21 It's one thing to be trained and skilled.
07:24 It's something else entirely to say,
07:26 "Here am I, Lord, send me.
07:27 I'm ready to answer the call of God on my life."
07:32 Another thing, Ezra had firmly set his heart on God
07:36 to seek His face and His will.
07:39 Ezra 7:10, we reference this in a previous lesson,
07:42 "For Ezra had prepared his heart
07:45 to seek the Law of the Lord and do it,
07:48 and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel."
07:51 He had prepared his heart.
07:54 He had set his heart firmly on God
07:56 to seek His face and His will.
07:59 And finally, Ezra was willing to depend on God.
08:02 And he was willing to walk
08:04 with humility of heart we see that,
08:07 him pouring out his heart and prayer before the Lord,
08:09 him coming before the Lord in humility,
08:12 seeking His direction, seeking His guidance.
08:16 So why was Nehemiah called?
08:18 First, he was compassionate,
08:19 and he cared about the needs of others.
08:22 We studied this last week, Nehemiah 1:3-4.
08:26 When they came to Nehemiah and said,
08:29 everything's in disrepair, everything's in reproach,
08:33 the city walls are broken down
08:35 and the gates are burned with fire.
08:37 He sat down and he wept and mourned many days
08:41 and fasting and pray to the God of heaven.
08:44 He could have said, "Okay, well,
08:46 those people are over there in Jerusalem.
08:48 I'm in Babylon.
08:50 I don't care about what they're going through.
08:52 I don't care about their needs."
08:53 But his heart was moved with the need.
08:58 Second thing, he was a man of prayer,
08:59 and we see this throughout the book of Nehemiah,
09:02 that he poured out his heart before the Lord
09:06 and he fasted and he prayed.
09:08 He didn't just say, "Oh, sorry for the needs
09:11 and then he went on his way.
09:13 He was a man of prayer, and he prayed for the burden
09:16 that God had put in his heart.
09:18 Third, he identified with the problems
09:21 of his fellow believers, and he interceded for them.
09:25 Nehemiah 1:6, he clearly says,
09:28 he confesses the sins and then he says,
09:29 in which we have sinned,
09:31 he doesn't say those people bow back in Jerusalem.
09:33 They're dealing with some issues.
09:35 I'm so glad I'm doing better.
09:36 No, he identified with what they are going through.
09:42 And finally, he thought to do something about it.
09:44 This to me reminds me of Ezra being eager to go,
09:47 the same thing.
09:49 He prayed and said, "Lord, please" Nehemiah 1:11,
09:52 "let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant."
09:55 He didn't just sit back and say God,
09:57 "You put a burden on my heart,
09:59 and I'm going to wait
10:00 until you call me to do something about it."
10:02 "Okay, I'm still waiting.
10:04 Okay, I'm still waiting..."
10:05 No, he prayed and said,
10:07 "God, I want to do something
10:08 about the burden you put on my heart.
10:11 And would you open up the way so that I could go forward
10:14 and what you've called me to do."
10:16 That is the preparation for the call, recognition.
10:20 How do you know if you're called?
10:21 I think one of the keys,
10:23 and we've seen this in Ezra and Nehemiah
10:24 is, what is your passion?
10:26 What has God already put into your heart?
10:30 What is birthed in your heart?
10:32 What do you have a burden for?
10:33 Where would you like to get involved?
10:35 People call the office all the time, Pastor Kenny...
10:37 Yes. They say, God has...
10:39 This is a great thing.
10:40 And 3ABN needs to be involved in this,
10:42 and this is a powerful ministry.
10:44 And I say, "Well, if the Lord put that burden in your heart,
10:47 that you're the one
10:49 who's supposed to walk in that out by faith.
10:52 God puts a passion in our heart,
10:55 many times for something He's calling us to do.
10:58 Also, what do people confirm in your life?
11:02 You know, other people can speak into your heart
11:05 and say, you know what, have you considered this?
11:07 God has really put a call in your life for this
11:09 or a gifting in your heart for this specific area.
11:14 Now in this area of recognition,
11:16 we have to be willing to wait.
11:17 Nehemiah waited four months between the call in Nehemiah 1,
11:21 and when he actually saw the fulfillment in Nehemiah 2,
11:24 we have to have that willingness to wait.
11:26 Yes.
11:28 Also a willingness to ask God for His will.
11:31 We can wait on God but then we need to anxiously
11:34 and eagerly say,
11:35 "God, what is your will in this specific circumstance?"
11:39 Nehemiah, when the king asked him his request,
11:41 he didn't just say, "Okay, I got it."
11:43 What did he prayed to the God of heaven?
11:46 He saw God for His will.
11:49 And then a willingness to step out
11:51 and ask for what you believe is God's will.
11:53 Now this is transformational for me in my own life,
11:57 Nehemiah 2:5, Nehemiah said, "If it pleases the king,
12:00 I ask that you send me to Judah."
12:03 Sometimes, we think God puts a passion in our heart,
12:06 other people confirm that passion.
12:08 And then I'm going to sit back and wait for God
12:10 to open up the door.
12:12 But sometimes,
12:14 God wants us to step out
12:16 and what we believe
12:17 He's asking and calling us to do.
12:20 Ezra did the same thing.
12:22 Ezra 7:6, the king granted him all his request,
12:26 according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.
12:29 So the preparation for the call,
12:30 the recognition of the call, and finally the response,
12:34 Isaiah 6:8, remember,
12:36 when Isaiah saw the vision of the Lord high
12:39 and lifted up in His glory filled the temple,
12:42 and His lips were purged from iniquity
12:46 with a coal from off the altar.
12:48 And then the Lord called, "Who will go for us?"
12:51 And he said, "Here am I, send me."
12:54 So I don't know what call
12:56 God has placed on your heart today.
12:59 It might be go out and witness,
13:01 it might be a great call,
13:02 it might be a seemingly small call,
13:04 no call is small.
13:06 When the Lord puts it in your heart,
13:09 step out by faith and what He's called you to do.
13:13 And, Pastor Kenny, you have prophetic timing.
13:16 The timing for this in the call.
13:17 Oh, well, praise the Lord, what a good foundation.
13:19 Thank you for that.
13:21 So much information again, but to try to cover,
13:23 I think Pastor John
13:24 and I were probably pretty close on our lesson.
13:26 So we'll probably overshadow back and forth,
13:28 and I think that's still good.
13:30 True, I definitely will. Yeah, definitely.
13:31 Please do that.
13:32 Yeah, couple just verses in Daniel 9:25-26,
13:38 I believe it is.
13:39 Yeah, 24 and 25.
13:41 Daniel 9, these are two verses
13:43 I think that's very important for us to look at,
13:46 to read, set a little of foundation
13:48 which to work upon.
13:50 Daniel 9:24-25 says,
13:53 "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people
13:56 and upon the holy city to finish the transgression,
13:59 and to make an end of sins,
14:01 to make reconciliation for iniquity,
14:04 to bring in everlasting righteousness,
14:06 to set upon the seal of the vision and the prophecy,
14:09 to anoint the Most Holy."
14:11 Verse 25,
14:13 I think this is really key for this prophecy
14:15 when many people seem to misunderstand.
14:17 "Knowing therefore and understand that
14:19 from the going forth of the commandment
14:21 to do two things,
14:23 to restore and to build Jerusalem
14:25 until Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks
14:28 threescore-two weeks, streets shall be built again,
14:31 and the wall even in troubles times."
14:34 So a lot of information in those passage of scripture,
14:36 and we have to go over.
14:37 But I really believe that Daniel 9:24 and 27 reveals,
14:42 you know, amazingly the prophecy,
14:44 the ministry of Jesus.
14:45 It's really 'cause Jesus what He was doing,
14:47 how He's doing it,
14:49 so on and I think it's a wonderful prophecy.
14:51 Too bad that many times that is misunderstood,
14:53 hopefully through this lesson,
14:55 everybody putting in little something
14:56 to help us to understand it better.
14:58 This kind of prophecy,
14:59 I think as we see it fulfill should establish our faith.
15:02 I think it should be on...
15:03 We see prophecy in the Bible, we read it,
15:05 this maybe already taken place,
15:06 it should say, well,
15:08 God's going to do exactly what He says He's going to do.
15:10 And, Lord, our faith should be You.
15:12 I've heard it said timing is, what?
15:14 Timing is everything.
15:15 Timing is everything and really it is.
15:18 God has His timing.
15:20 God gave a message.
15:22 Certainly working through the Holy Spirit.
15:24 Holy Spirit working through the prophets of old,
15:26 they write it down in a book for us,
15:27 for us to read now for our admonition
15:30 and we need to be in the predictions there.
15:33 You mentioned that there's a rule there in 5:38
15:36 I think it was in our first lesson there,
15:38 Ezra 4:57 is kind of interesting,
15:41 4:57, Ezra was called in.
15:44 It was the same year that Artaxerxes
15:46 signed the decree to begin,
15:48 I said, were the 70 years or the 2,300 years
15:52 of Daniel 8:14.
15:53 So the same thing. So there's something...
15:56 God calling there's for,
15:57 I want to call special ministry.
15:59 Special work,
16:01 people have work, it's all special.
16:02 It's all good.
16:03 But this year, God had him in mind for this prophecy.
16:08 So, you know, that year is significant
16:10 as far as I'm concerned in the book of Daniel.
16:13 It's all about as we saw it starts in Daniel 8:14.
16:16 It says 2,300 days and shall what?
16:18 The sanctuary be cleansed. The sanctuary be cleansed.
16:19 So we go through it very quickly just verse
16:21 after verse after verse,
16:23 and then I think maybe
16:24 we have time to even talk about it.
16:25 Gabriel came to Daniel, what did he say?
16:27 You know, he didn't want to understand,
16:29 he said 2,300 days
16:31 and then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
16:34 And then Gabriel came in verse 16
16:37 to help him to understand,
16:38 verse 17, we're still in Daniel 8:17.
16:42 Gabriel said, in the vision,
16:44 it will be at the time of the end,
16:47 that will help us to understand
16:49 about when this vision would take place at the end.
16:52 And then verse 26, just skip down quickly,
16:54 it says, "And the vision of the evenings
16:56 and the morning,
16:57 which was told is there is true,
16:59 therefore shut down the vision
17:01 for their shall be for many days."
17:03 So it's going to be down there,
17:04 it's going to be toward the end of time
17:06 that this will come to pass.
17:07 And notice this, what he saw,
17:09 this is my opinion,
17:10 people don't like your opinion but that's what you read,
17:12 you study, he must have saw.
17:14 Okay.
17:15 He must have saw some things that blew his mind.
17:17 Yeah.
17:18 Because what it was, just...
17:20 Well, this has come to an end
17:21 and this is going to happen here, it made him sick.
17:25 He fainted. He was sick.
17:27 It says, he was astonished at the vision
17:29 but none understood it.
17:31 It was so deep, so heavy that he said,
17:33 "Man, we just didn't understand this.
17:35 So he got sick."
17:36 So Gabriel was said, "Man,
17:38 there's no use to try to get him understanding now."
17:39 So in Daniel 9,
17:41 he comes back to give him understanding of Daniel 8,
17:45 and he said, talk about seven years
17:47 are determined upon my people,
17:48 I think you talk more about that in a moment,
17:51 people nowadays refuse to look at this prophecy and say,
17:54 70 years are determined,
17:56 but cut off the 2,300 years,
17:59 probation for the Jewish Jews as a nation
18:02 would come to an end.
18:04 That's why Jesus said, you know,
18:05 go to the house of Israel before Jesus died.
18:07 Don't go to Gentiles yet, go to the house of Israel.
18:09 Why?
18:10 Probation was getting ready to close.
18:12 Jesus knew it.
18:13 So he wanted to go right in there
18:15 and give a last shot, last chance.
18:16 So it just says, you know, look at it to restore
18:18 and to reveal two things is very, very important,
18:21 as you know, as you studied the lesson
18:24 because Artaxerxes, why,
18:26 because that was the one
18:28 where they would be restored through religious autonomy,
18:31 they'd be able to set there as government,
18:32 be able to worship God the way they were supposed to.
18:35 And that's what God had in mind for them.
18:39 And so we realized it was Cyrus,
18:41 wasn't it Cyrus in Ezra 1,
18:44 you had Darius and Ezra 6,
18:47 and then you had Artaxerxes in Ezra 7.
18:51 So these are one...
18:52 But only the other two, just permission to build
18:54 and here's the stuff to do it with and so on.
18:56 But Artaxerxes, you had the two identify marks there
19:00 of when the date would start, so this is...
19:01 which means very important.
19:03 We have a correct starting point.
19:04 I've often said it if you don't have a correct starting point,
19:07 how can you come up with anything in there
19:09 that would mean, you know,
19:10 and people start what kind of world they want to.
19:12 Pastor, you've seen that over the years.
19:14 And so it leads a lot of, you know,
19:16 misinformation about this beautiful, wonderful,
19:20 I'm talking about awesome prophecy,
19:23 the 2,300 days pointing, you know,
19:25 to Jesus and to the cross and then becoming our Messiah
19:29 and the judgment,
19:30 our giving the three angels' message,
19:31 a warning message to the world, this is an awesome thing.
19:34 Yeah. That's right.
19:35 And so the devil is going to do all he can
19:36 to make sure we don't get the right starting day.
19:38 That's all you need is a wrong day
19:40 to start and everything else goes out of whack.
19:42 That's right.
19:43 So that's why I said this is how you can know
19:45 that this is why...
19:46 When these two things, and certainly God said,
19:48 you know, they'll be 62 and 7 weeks at the,
19:52 you know, the 69 weeks to the Messiah.
19:54 We realized that, what, of the 70,
19:56 70 weeks to determine my people,
19:58 day for you and Bible prophecy and numbers in Ezekiel,
20:01 I'm going fast whether we're, you know, day for a year
20:03 but still yet 409 years were given to them
20:06 to come back to Christ, it did not happen.
20:09 So but when that prophecy...
20:10 483.
20:11 483, I'm sorry, it's up to Christ.
20:13 Yeah, and then you had one other the week.
20:15 And so that was the 70th year.
20:17 And so we find the baptism of Jesus in 27 AD.
20:20 We find the crucifixion around 31 AD,
20:23 stoning of Stephen,
20:25 the message going to the Gentiles
20:26 of Paul getting involved,
20:28 and the message going, 34, take 34,
20:30 1,810 and what,
20:32 1,844, as left of the 2,300 days
20:36 gives you the judgment, our message.
20:38 So really, you know, Adventism,
20:40 where God's last day people just preaching this message
20:43 and teaching it to the world.
20:44 I think this is vital that we understand it.
20:46 You know, again, it's not easy,
20:48 you don't do it in 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 minutes.
20:50 It takes a lot of time to go over to...
20:52 I think Pastor John's worked it out.
20:53 I haven't worked it out,
20:55 to really get it to where it's just you can do
20:57 all of that that needs to be proven too,
20:59 you know, not just that, well, this is what it is.
21:01 But give all the passage and look them up.
21:03 But still it is very, very important to realize
21:06 that this leads us to the judgment hour
21:08 in the coming of Jesus Christ.
21:10 And so I believe that's part of the message
21:12 that we have today,
21:14 Daniel referred to it's going to be at the time of, what?
21:17 What would be at the time of the end,
21:18 so, you know, and I believe that
21:20 we are at the time of the end,
21:22 I believe, we've hit a time in Earth's history
21:25 and a time of this world
21:26 to where we can look at these prophecies right now and say,
21:28 you know, there's something in here for us.
21:30 There's something in here for you.
21:32 There's something in it for everybody,
21:33 but we really grab a hold of what these truths are
21:36 and understand these truths.
21:38 They will change your heart and your mind
21:40 because Jesus said we sanctified in John 17:17,
21:43 he said, what, "Sanctify them through thy..."
21:44 Truth. "Truth, thy Word is truth."
21:48 We need to be around where we can hear truth
21:50 and hear the Word of God.
21:51 And sometimes that means make an awful lot of changes
21:54 in our hearts and in our life.
21:55 Maybe you can keep them different company going
21:57 different places, you know,
21:58 but we're in that time
22:00 where this work will not be finished without sacrifice too.
22:03 That means not only just giving and doing
22:05 but I think it means changing things in our own life
22:08 and maybe our own friends and old friends,
22:10 takes down the wrong road again,
22:12 they come separate, you know, get separation
22:15 and God's calling out specific people do this.
22:17 So in this chapter again,
22:18 I know Pastor John will go on with in Daniel 8 and 9
22:22 that to me is one of the most important
22:24 and exciting prophecies in the entire Word of God,
22:28 and certainly 2,300, that's a long time prophecy,
22:32 that how it fits exactly with the way
22:34 God intended for it to and that it helps me.
22:37 I don't know about you, but it helps me
22:39 to have faith in Scripture
22:40 as I can see this and go back in history
22:43 and look at some of these things say,
22:44 "Wow, it's just like I said it here."
22:46 So hopefully, it'll help you today.
22:48 You know, if you study the Word of God,
22:50 you want to know the issues on this,
22:52 keep in the Word of God,
22:53 keep praying for the power of the Holy Spirit.
22:55 Lord, I want to understand,
22:56 I need to understand this message
22:59 that most of all I need to understand Jesus Christ.
23:01 And I indeed understand the plan that He has for me.
23:04 You know, this is what... You know, where do I fit?
23:06 Where do you fit? That's very important.
23:07 It's not where somebody else fits,
23:09 it's where do I fit.
23:11 And then when the call is made,
23:13 will I respond the way this God did.
23:16 "Lord, glory, here am I, send me."
23:20 Thank you so much, Pastor Kenny.
23:22 That's incredible.
23:23 We're going to take a short break,
23:25 and we'll be right back.
23:31 Ever wish you could watch
23:32 a 3ABN Sabbath School Panel again
23:35 or share it on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?
23:38 Well, you can by visiting 3ABNSabbathSchoolPanel.com.
23:43 A clean design makes it easy
23:45 to find the program you're looking for.
23:47 There are also links to the Adult Bible Study Guide
23:51 so you can follow along.
23:53 Sharing is easy.
23:54 Just click share
23:55 and choose your favorite social media.
23:57 Share a link, save a life for eternity.
24:04 Welcome back as we continue with Tuesday's lesson,
24:06 the 70 weeks and the 2,300 days with Pastor John Lomacang.
24:11 Well, thank you, Jill.
24:13 This is a topic, thank you Pastor Kenny
24:14 for laying the foundation.
24:15 It gives me an opportunity now to just get on the runway
24:18 and take off.
24:20 Let's go to Daniel 8:14,
24:23 and we're going to look at the 70 week
24:25 and 2,300 year prophecy, 70 weeks have,
24:28 a week has 7 days, 7 times, 70 years, 490 years.
24:34 So the word determined here in Daniel 8:14,
24:38 let's first look there
24:39 because this word determined
24:41 which Pastor Kenny made clear means cut off,
24:43 cut off from what?
24:45 Daniel 8:14, And he said to me,
24:48 "For two thousand three hundred days,
24:50 then the sanctuary shall be cleansed."
24:54 And verse 26 says, "And the vision..."
24:56 because Daniel didn't understand
24:58 what that meant, yet.
25:00 This was yet to be understood and Daniel 9 takes the place.
25:04 Verse 26, "And the vision of the evenings
25:07 and the mornings which was told is true.
25:09 Therefore seal up the vision
25:11 for it refers to many days in the future."
25:14 Verse 27, "And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days,
25:19 afterward I arose and went about the king's business.
25:22 I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it."
25:26 Because the understanding was yet to come.
25:27 Now let me lay some foundation very quickly because Ezra,
25:29 Nehemiah, Daniel, were contemporaries.
25:33 If the work that was done by the commission,
25:36 we're going to read now in the book of Daniel.
25:38 If the commission was...
25:40 It covers a whole entire platform,
25:43 and Ezra and Nehemiah are needed for a work
25:46 that started to be finished.
25:49 Now I'm going to just say that again.
25:50 This entire 2,300 year period,
25:53 the beginning point is listed in Daniel 9,
25:55 and we'll look at that very carefully.
25:57 There are intervals of times
25:59 that are revealed in the 70 week prophecy,
26:01 the smaller period
26:03 that's cut off from the 2,300 year period,
26:06 or more specifically, out of the 2,300 years,
26:10 there's 490 specifically for Daniel and his people,
26:14 the Jews.
26:16 Let's look at Daniel 9 very carefully.
26:18 Now what we're going to see here,
26:19 I'll just lay the foundation
26:20 because when we read Ezra in one of our past lessons,
26:24 we talked about the opposition that was felt by those
26:27 who will call to finish the work of building the wall.
26:31 And in Ezra 4:24,
26:33 I'll just read these because of time,
26:35 "Thus the work of the house of God
26:37 which is at Jerusalem ceased,
26:41 and it was discontinued until the second year
26:44 of the reign of Darius king of Persia."
26:47 Now we go to Daniel 5:31,
26:49 now to show you where Daniel comes in
26:51 under the same time.
26:53 "And Darius the Mede received the kingdom,
26:57 being about 62 years old."
27:00 So that's talking about the fall of Babylon.
27:02 So when Babylon fell,
27:04 the kingdom now of Babylon ceased
27:06 and the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians
27:09 took its place, Darius being the first king.
27:12 Then we go to Daniel 6:28.
27:19 And so we're looking at Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel.
27:22 So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius
27:26 and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian,
27:28 so linking both kings together,
27:30 Cyrus, Darius, and Daniel is talked about.
27:33 And so Ezra, Nehemiah,
27:35 all the work that's talked about in those two books
27:38 are including the work
27:39 that began in the 70 week prophecy of Daniel 9.
27:43 Now let me go ahead and bring this out very carefully.
27:45 Let's go to Daniel 9.
27:47 And here's the point I want to make very quickly.
27:49 This prophecy misunderstood,
27:52 gives room for something that is known in Christendom,
27:55 there's a secret rapture,
27:57 misunderstanding this prophecy
27:59 will come up with blocks of time
28:01 that are not fulfilled.
28:03 There were three commissions given,
28:05 Darius, Cyrus, and Artaxerxes.
28:09 When you start with Darius, the prophecy never finishes,
28:12 there's gaps
28:13 because you can't find the command to restore
28:15 and rebuild Jerusalem,
28:16 you find a command to build a wall by one,
28:18 a command to build the city by the other,
28:20 but to completely restore
28:22 and rebuild Jerusalem was only given by Artaxerxes.
28:25 So if you saw with the other two,
28:26 which many theologians do, they always fall short,
28:30 coming up with people like Antiochus Epiphanes
28:32 instead of Christ.
28:34 So second thing is Darius and Cyrus,
28:37 if you start with the decrease they give,
28:40 the prophecy never happens.
28:42 If you start with Artaxerxes, the prophecy is complete.
28:46 Second thing is Daniel 9:24, very carefully,
28:51 Daniel 9:24,
28:52 "Seventy weeks are determined."
28:54 That's cut off.
28:55 "For your people and for your holy city,
28:58 to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins,
29:01 to make reconciliation for iniquity,
29:02 to bring in everlasting righteousness,
29:04 to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy."
29:07 Right off the bat you see
29:09 it's not talking about the Antichrist but the Christ.
29:12 Let's go on, verse 25.
29:14 "Know therefore and understand,
29:15 that from the going forth of the command
29:17 to restore and build Jerusalem
29:19 until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks
29:22 and sixty-two weeks.
29:24 The street shall be built again, and the wall,
29:26 even in troublesome times."
29:27 That's where Ezra comes in.
29:30 That's where Nehemiah is commissioned
29:32 to get that job finished.
29:33 Now why is it broken down at 7 and 62?
29:37 It's broken down in 7 and 62 for particular reason
29:40 because 7 times 7 is 49.
29:43 When you look at the project that began,
29:45 it was finished 49 years later
29:47 after Nehemiah came and finished it within 52 days.
29:53 It was broken down, the work was opposed.
29:56 We read that in Ezra 5, Ezra 4,
29:58 "The word was opposed that ceased."
30:00 The Nehemiah came,
30:02 he's given a commission by Artaxerxes,
30:03 he's given all the supplies he needs.
30:06 And with the people that had a mind to work,
30:08 they finished the project 52 days after it starts.
30:12 And that 7,
30:14 that's in the first part of the 490 years,
30:18 it was finished 49 years after the commission was given,
30:21 that's 408 BC.
30:23 When you break that down, the prophecy exact, so 408 BC,
30:26 then you have just the rest of the time left after that.
30:29 So now get this, 7,
30:31 and then you have the 483 years left.
30:34 So now, let's go to the next part of it.
30:36 I know you're following.
30:38 In verse 26,
30:40 "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off..."
30:45 So right after the walls that are built in that first 7,
30:48 you have 62, 7 and 62 is 69.
30:52 So it takes you right up to the Messiah.
30:55 It's 69 weeks or 483 years
30:59 takes us right to Christ, and He is anointed.
31:03 And the anointed one means...
31:05 The Messiah means the one that is anointed.
31:08 And He was anointed at that timeframes,
31:10 and He at 27 AD, when He was baptized,
31:14 He went down into the Jordan,
31:16 and He was declared the Messiah,
31:18 meaning the anointed one.
31:19 Then that last seven-year period began.
31:22 Now follow this carefully.
31:24 This is the question many Christians must ask themselves.
31:27 You got to choose
31:28 either the prophecy is pointing to Christ
31:31 or the Antichrist.
31:33 If Jesus didn't have a 3.5 year ministry,
31:37 then we could scrap it, but he had a 3.5 year ministry.
31:40 Baptized in 27 AD,
31:42 crucified in 31 AD, 3.5 years later.
31:45 So that takes up the 3.5 year period
31:47 from the secret rapture period.
31:49 So if the next 3.5 years doesn't exist,
31:53 we might say,
31:54 "Oh, we have room for the secret rapture."
31:55 But now let's follow.
31:57 Let's go to Hebrews 2, okay?
31:59 Because before you go there,
32:00 I'm going to read verse 27 of Daniel 9.
32:04 Listen to this.
32:05 Daniel 9:26,
32:08 "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself."
32:10 That's after 62 weeks.
32:12 Look at verse 27.
32:14 "Then he shall confirm a covenant
32:16 with many for," how long?
32:17 One week. "One week."
32:19 Okay, let's get this now.
32:20 So how many years was the Messiah in ministry?
32:23 Three and a half years.
32:24 So then how could I do seven years
32:27 if I'm going to confirm the covenant for one week?
32:29 How am I going to do it in 3.5 years?
32:31 Because we know at the end of the 3.5 years,
32:33 what happened to Jesus?
32:34 He ascended to heaven.
32:35 Let's go to Hebrews 2.
32:37 Let's look at this, okay?
32:39 Hebrews 2:3 because remember,
32:42 before Jesus ascended,
32:44 He said to His disciples,
32:46 "Go first,
32:48 to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
32:51 Why go to them?
32:52 Because there are 3.5 years left.
32:55 That was the final appeal later in Acts 13
32:58 when they finally rejected the message,
33:01 they stoned Stephen, and then Paul said,
33:04 since you judge yourselves
33:05 unworthy of everlasting life low return to the Gentiles.
33:08 But listen, now let's see
33:10 how this 70 weeks was confirmed.
33:12 Let's see how that last week panned out.
33:15 Look at Hebrews 2 and remember,
33:17 He shall confirm his covenant with many for one week.
33:19 Let's watch this.
33:21 Hebrews 2:3," How shall we escape
33:26 if we neglect so great a salvation,
33:28 which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord,
33:33 and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him."
33:39 So was the prophecy confirmed?
33:41 Was that seven-year period confirmed?
33:44 Yes, Jesus confirmed his covenant
33:46 for that seven-year period,
33:48 three and a half years, Himself,
33:50 and the last three and a half years
33:53 through his disciples.
33:55 And so that's why when that time period ended,
33:59 Acts 13:42-44, the apostle Paul says
34:03 that Jews have judged themselves
34:05 unworthy of everlasting life, low return to the Gentiles.
34:09 So here's a nutshell,
34:10 if Jesus Christ did not exist on Earth,
34:14 then there's room for the Antichrist
34:15 and the rapture.
34:17 Since He did exist, there is no room
34:18 for the Antichrist and the rapture.
34:20 Yes. Good.
34:21 Amen. Marvelous.
34:23 That's a difficult topic to try to explain in 10 minutes,
34:27 but that was wonderful.
34:28 Okay, I have Wednesday's lesson,
34:30 which is God's election.
34:33 And, you know,
34:35 many of us have heard,
34:37 I grew up hearing, a devil lie.
34:42 There are people who teach that we have no choice
34:46 in the election of salvation,
34:48 that God predetermines,
34:50 those who will be saved,
34:53 and then that those
34:55 that he hasn't predetermined to be saved
34:58 are going to burn in everlasting torment
35:01 without ceasing
35:04 that flies in the phase of two Bible truths,
35:07 it violates the principle of free will
35:10 to say that you have no choice in the election of salvation,
35:14 but it also violates the truth of the second death
35:18 that is mentioned four times in Revelation.
35:22 You think about that, no wonder there are atheists.
35:25 If people believe that God creates you
35:29 but He predetermined you to go to hell
35:33 and burn forever and ever,
35:36 no wonder people turn away from God.
35:38 True.
35:40 So 1 Timothy 2:4-6 is one of my favorite scriptures
35:44 because it says that God desires
35:47 all men to be safe
35:49 and come to the knowledge of truth.
35:53 You know, John 3:16 is something
35:56 that is so familiar.
35:58 It's a verse that most people
36:00 who don't even go to church can quote,
36:01 and it's universal in scope.
36:04 It says, "For God so loved the world
36:06 that He gave His only begotten Son,
36:10 that whosoever believe in Him should not perish..."
36:15 Come on.
36:17 But the juxtaposition is, "Have ever lasting life."
36:22 So there's two options,
36:24 you're either going to perish
36:26 or you're going to have everlasting life.
36:31 Man is not an immortal being.
36:37 The Bible says, "When Paul is describing God,
36:41 he talks of Him as the King of kings,
36:43 the Lord of lords,
36:45 and then He says in 1 Timothy 6:16,
36:48 "Who alone has immortality?"
36:51 That's right.
36:52 At this moment, only God has immortality,
36:55 and it isn't until we put on immortality
36:59 when we are raised from the grave
37:01 or for translated at the last trumpet.
37:05 Paul makes that clear in 1 Corinthians 15:52-53.
37:09 Let me read that real quickly.
37:11 1 Corinthians 15:52-53, Paul says, "In a moment,
37:17 in the twinkling of the eye, at the last trumpet.
37:22 The trumpet will sound,
37:23 and the dead will be raised incorruptible,
37:26 and we shall be changed.
37:28 For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
37:33 this mortal must put on immortality."
37:37 Yes, That's right.
37:38 So this immortal, this idea of living
37:44 and burning forever, this is not truth.
37:48 But the idea that we have no choice
37:51 in the election of salvation is err as hell.
37:55 The pathway to perishing
37:57 when he said if you believe in Him,
38:00 you won't have to perish
38:01 but you'll have everlasting life.
38:03 The pathway to perishing,
38:06 you follow that when you have a non-repentant heart,
38:09 when you reject the person and the power
38:13 and the provision of Jesus Christ,
38:15 it's your choice.
38:17 If you hold onto sin and reject Jesus.
38:22 In 2 Peter 3:9, Peter writes,
38:25 2 Peter 3:9, he says,
38:27 "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise,
38:30 as some count slackness,
38:32 but is longsuffering toward us,
38:34 not willing that any should perish
38:38 but that all should come to repentance."
38:41 So what does the Bible say about our election,
38:46 what God has called us to, what he has chosen us for?
38:52 If you look at Romans 8:28-30,
38:56 and by the way, you cannot separate Romans,
39:00 actually I'm sorry, Romans 8:28-29.
39:04 This should be...
39:06 You know, they didn't have the punctuation
39:08 in the verses before.
39:10 But here's what Paul says.
39:13 "We know that all things work together for good
39:16 for those who love God
39:19 and are the called according to His purpose."
39:23 And now it goes on and explains what the purpose is.
39:26 For those...
39:28 "For whom He foreknew,
39:30 He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son."
39:35 See, the purpose of election,
39:38 the purpose of predetermination,
39:42 the purpose of God,
39:44 it's not that God is saying,
39:45 "Okay, one, two, three, four years sake,
39:48 you go here.
39:49 One, two, three, four... No.
39:50 What He is saying is that if you accept Christ,
39:55 if you receive the call,
39:57 you receive the gift of salvation by grace,
40:00 you are predetermined by God
40:03 to be conformed to the image of His son.
40:06 I think that is so wonderful.
40:09 Now one thing I want to point out,
40:12 everything that God does is for eternal benefit.
40:16 So if He allows suffering in our life,
40:19 the reason He allows suffering
40:21 is because He's refining us by the fire.
40:25 And I think about Joseph, you know,
40:27 in Genesis 50:20,
40:29 when he said to his brothers, you know,
40:30 Joseph brothers throw him into a pit,
40:33 and sold him into slavery, he went into prison,
40:36 and he went through all of this, but then he...
40:39 God lifted him up,
40:41 stood him up to take the second place
40:45 in the whole kingdom of Egypt.
40:48 He was second only to the Pharaoh.
40:50 And Joseph says to his brothers,
40:52 what you intended for evil, that's okay.
40:56 God made it for good.
40:59 And so God's going to work out everything in our lives,
41:02 even when we go through suffering,
41:05 God will work it out to help conformance
41:08 to the image of Jesus
41:11 and that's what it's all about.
41:12 I can honestly say,
41:14 and I don't have time to go into it.
41:15 But the worst year of my life
41:18 turned out to be the best year of my life.
41:21 That's all there is to it.
41:23 God predestines all
41:26 who received the gift of salvation
41:28 to be conformed to the image of Jesus.
41:31 So, you know,
41:32 God knows the end from the beginning.
41:36 Events don't take place
41:38 because they're forcing, they're forcing
41:41 because He knows it's going to take place.
41:43 I am out of time... Oh, no, I am not out of time.
41:45 Good. I looked at the wrong clock.
41:47 I thought, oh, no.
41:48 All right, so let's look at Ephesians 1,
41:54 and we're going to look at verses 4 through 6.
41:58 Ephesians 1:4-6,
42:01 Paul writes, and he says,
42:02 "Just as He chose us in Him, in Christ,
42:06 before the foundation of the world..."
42:09 Revelation 13:8 says that Jesus is the Lamb
42:11 who was slain
42:13 from the foundation of the world.
42:14 Before God ever created the Earth,
42:17 He had the Calvary plan in mind,
42:19 He knew that God was going to have to come down
42:22 and become a man
42:24 to serve as our substitute and save us.
42:27 He said, "Just as he chose us, in him, in Christ
42:30 before the foundation of the world,
42:32 that we should be holy and without blame
42:34 before Him in love, having predestined us," what,
42:39 "to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
42:45 according to the good pleasure of His will,
42:48 to the praise of the glory of His grace,
42:51 by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."
42:55 Beautiful. Hallelujah.
42:56 So election is in Christ.
43:00 It's by God's love.
43:02 It is His glorious grace.
43:05 He predestined you and I to become like Jesus.
43:10 So the purpose of the election is transformation
43:15 and adoption as His children.
43:18 And then verse 30 says, "Moreover whom He predestined,
43:22 these He also called, whom He called,
43:25 these He also justified, and whom He justified,
43:27 these He also glorified."
43:29 So as we read,
43:30 we respond to God's call of salvation by grace,
43:34 we're converted, and they we're justified,
43:37 we're declared not guilty.
43:40 And that would go on and by grace,
43:44 we are sanctified are separated from sin.
43:46 These are all prerequisites to be glorified,
43:50 and God only,
43:53 God alone can accomplish His scholar.
43:56 But now just very briefly,
43:59 so in election, there's general election,
44:03 and it's a personal, I think that's what you said.
44:06 The call is general, the response is personal.
44:10 But then our lesson also shows us Romans 9,
44:13 which we don't have time
44:14 but it shows God's election for special purpose
44:17 like the nation of Israel,
44:20 who was to bring the message of salvation to the world
44:25 or when God said, Jacob, I loved, Esau, I hated,
44:29 He didn't mean that He didn't like Esau,
44:31 it meant that He had chosen Jacob
44:34 to be the father of the Israelite nation.
44:39 Amen and amen.
44:41 You know, that is so encouraging me
44:43 that we have been predestined
44:45 to be conformed to the image of Christ.
44:48 And that is just that
44:49 sanctification process working out.
44:51 Is that not true? That's right.
44:53 Amen. All right.
44:54 Well, I've got first day
44:55 and first day looks at our responsibility,
44:59 concerning the call
45:03 that God would place on us, and now you may say to me,
45:08 "Mollie, I don't have a call of God on my life."
45:11 But I just want you to know,
45:13 all of those are special in God's eyes,
45:16 and He has a special word
45:17 for each and every one of us to do.
45:20 Now I'm going to back that up with Ephesians 2:10,
45:26 "For we are His workmanship,
45:29 created in Christ Jesus for good works,
45:34 which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
45:41 One of us may be an encourager,
45:44 one may be given to hospitality,
45:47 can you think of anybody in your church
45:49 that's just given to hospitality.
45:51 And you like to be around people that are encouragers,
45:55 I don't like to be around people
45:56 that are discouragers, only encouragers.
45:59 Some maybe call to pray.
46:02 Others, like this illustrious panel
46:06 that God has allowed me to set with,
46:08 our call to worldwide evangelism.
46:11 Now tell me that we're not worldwide evangelists
46:14 because this message right now that is going forth,
46:18 what corner Earth is it not touching?
46:21 That's truth.
46:22 The signal that goes forth from this little corn field
46:26 in Southern Illinois reaches the four corners of the Earth.
46:29 Thank god.
46:30 Three Angels Broadcasting Network, in my opinion,
46:33 is the number one evangelistic tool
46:36 in the hands of God today,
46:38 and it is allowing us
46:40 His simple servants to evangelize the whole world.
46:44 Okay, some are teachers, some are pastors,
46:48 but I want you to know
46:50 that one call is no more important than the other.
46:54 Let me tell you what success is in the kingdom of God.
46:59 It's not having a church of 40,000,
47:04 it could be having a church of 10 members.
47:07 Being a success in the kingdom of God
47:11 is doing the will of the Father,
47:13 just doing what He's asked you to do.
47:15 Now I'm going to use myself as an example,
47:17 and I hate to do that but I use myself as an example.
47:22 Do you know, there was a time
47:24 when I was on the staff here at 3ABN,
47:27 I'm a retiree now?
47:29 But when I was on the staff,
47:32 when I was part of this ministry in a functional way,
47:36 I think my role that God called me
47:38 to do was just hold hands,
47:39 Danny up, hold his arms up,
47:41 so he could accomplish
47:43 what God had called Him to accomplish.
47:45 But I said in a secret,
47:46 I could mean in front of the camera,
47:48 and I, you know...
47:49 And so...
47:51 But that was the season
47:53 and the call of God owed my life at that time.
47:56 But now, you know,
47:58 God has called me to something else.
48:00 Do you know what the call of God is on my life right now?
48:03 The call of God is for me to take care of my husband,
48:07 my husband who has had stroke, and is in need of care.
48:11 He's called me to do that.
48:13 What I want you to know,
48:14 I was no more successful in the eyes of God
48:19 when I was teaching and preaching and proclaiming...
48:21 That's right.
48:23 Then I am now when I am loving and nurturing and caring
48:26 success in the eyes of God
48:29 is doing the will of the Father.
48:30 Amen. That's right.
48:31 Okay. That's good.
48:33 So what is our responsibility taking into account
48:38 that every one of us have worked
48:42 that God prepared beforehand for us to walk in them.
48:46 We all have free choice.
48:48 I love to talk about that preacher wise
48:50 because you can't blame anybody else
48:53 for the decisions you make.
48:54 You make your own decisions.
48:56 We can accept or reject
48:58 the area of ministry God has prepared for us.
49:02 Just as we can accept or reject salvation
49:06 that the Lord Jesus Christ died for us to have,
49:09 we can accept...
49:11 It comes down to making a choice.
49:14 Now I'm going to have us look
49:16 at a good example of a bad example.
49:18 Now I appreciate this in the Word of God,
49:21 we can look at those good examples and rejoice,
49:25 but sometimes, you can look at a bad example,
49:27 and you can rejoice there too, saying,
49:29 "Look, he didn't do all that was right,
49:33 and God used him anyway."
49:34 That gives me courage.
49:36 And a bad example
49:37 that I'm going to look at is Moses.
49:39 So go to Exodus 3.
49:41 Now let me give you a quick story of Moses.
49:45 The Hebrews were in captivity in Egypt,
49:48 am I correct?
49:50 And a baby was born in his name, was Moses.
49:53 And what were they doing to the Hebrew baby boys
49:56 that were born?
49:58 They were killing them.
49:59 And so his mother didn't want him to be killed,
50:01 so she did something,
50:02 she put Him in a basket in the bushes.
50:05 Well, then Pharaoh's sister I believe it was, Tammy,
50:09 if I am wrong, was it his sister or his daughter,
50:12 believe it was his sister.
50:13 Came down to the river and she was bathing
50:16 and guess what she found?
50:18 And do you think that was an accident?
50:20 It might have been divine providence.
50:23 She found Moses.
50:24 And the end of that story is Moses was raised in the palace.
50:29 He got all of the perks of being raised in the palace
50:34 and then he became acquainted with some of his Hebrew
50:40 fellow countrymen,
50:42 and he was going to rescue them
50:45 and so he killed somebody anyway
50:47 that was spread onto bone
50:49 and so he had escaped for his life so he escaped.
50:53 I'm just going to say this to the backside of nowhere.
50:55 How long was he there?
50:57 Forty years.
50:58 Do you know what he was doing
51:00 while he was on the backside of nowhere?
51:02 He was tending sheep.
51:04 He was a shepherd.
51:06 Well, you know what God was doing this 40 years.
51:11 He was learning
51:16 how to shepherd stubborn sheep.
51:21 God was preparing Him to shepherd over a million,
51:28 and I wrote this down hard headed,
51:30 stubborn children of God.
51:32 Do you all relate with that at all?
51:33 Oh, yeah.
51:35 Did Moses run into us?
51:37 Okay, so let's look quickly, look at what Moses ran into.
51:40 Moses had an encounter with a burning bush
51:44 that wasn't consumed.
51:45 Now if you were in the backside of nowhere
51:47 and you saw a burning bush, and it wasn't being consumed,
51:50 will that get your attention?
51:51 Well it got Moses' attention.
51:54 So in verse 2 it says,
51:55 "And the angel of the Lord..."
51:57 And we're in Exodus 3:2,
52:00 "And the angel of the Lord appeared to him
52:02 in a flame of fire amidst the bush.
52:05 So he looked, and behold,
52:06 and the bush was not consumed."
52:09 God introduces himself to Moses in verse 6.
52:12 He said, "I am the God of your father,
52:14 the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
52:16 and the God of Jacob."
52:19 Moses responded just like we probably would.
52:22 "And Moses hid his face
52:24 for he was afraid to look upon God."
52:27 Okay, Moses is hiding.
52:29 God then explains to Moses why he had come down to Earth,
52:33 verse 7 and 8.
52:34 "I have surely seen the oppression of My people
52:37 who are in Egypt," God tells Moses,
52:39 "and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters,
52:42 for I know their sorrows.
52:45 So I have come down to deliver them
52:47 out of the hand of the Egyptians..."
52:50 Praise God, yippee.
52:52 Look what god is going to do.
52:54 That's great.
52:55 God's going to deliver His people out of Egypt.
52:58 Verse 10, "Come now, therefore,
53:01 and I will send you to Pharaoh
53:03 that you may bring My people,
53:04 the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
53:06 Wait a minute,
53:07 this isn't what Moses was expecting.
53:10 God said he was going to do it.
53:11 Now God is putting a call on Moses life.
53:16 Let's see how he responds.
53:18 Verse 11,
53:20 "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh
53:22 and that I should bring the children of Israel
53:24 out of Egypt?"
53:25 God responds,
53:27 "I will certainly be with you."
53:28 Then God gives Moses clear instruction
53:31 how to approach the children of Egypt.
53:33 Moses excuse but I'm not eloquent.
53:36 God says, "I'll teach your mouth
53:39 and teach you what you should say."
53:41 Moses goes on every complaint, everything that Moses threw up,
53:48 God says, "I'll take care of you."
53:50 And I want you to know there is not a thing
53:54 that can come against you in fulfilling the God...
53:57 The call that God has placed upon your life,
54:00 that God won't send His Word to confirm you
54:04 and uphold you and there is something
54:06 that we say so often.
54:08 Kenny said it earlier,
54:10 if God calls you to dig a ditch,
54:12 He'll give you the shovel to dig it with,
54:15 and if you break it, He'll give you another one.
54:16 Trusting God with that call to sum your life.
54:19 Amen. Exactly.
54:21 Thank you so much, Mollie, and Shelley, and Pastor John,
54:23 and Pastor Kenny.
54:25 I wrote down what you said, Mollie.
54:26 Been a success in the eyes of God
54:28 is doing the will of God.
54:31 I love that.
54:32 And as we see the foreknowledge of God
54:35 throughout this whole lesson,
54:37 we see the election,
54:39 how He calls each one of us for salvation,
54:43 for transformation, for adoption,
54:47 and we see God putting in place years
54:50 before it happened, these prophecies,
54:52 and they unfold throughout the Bible.
54:54 That's incredible.
54:56 I want to give each one of you a couple moments
54:58 to share about today,
54:59 and let's start with you, Pastor Kenny.
55:00 Okay, just a Bible passage came to my mind
55:03 I thought it'd be interesting to read it here
55:04 because it has to do with salvation,
55:06 it has to do with God's called people together,
55:09 to prepare Him for His coming to get ready.
55:11 And I love that in 1 John 3:2-3, it says,
55:15 "Beloved now we are all the sons notices
55:18 we the sons of God,
55:19 and it does not yet appear what we shall be."
55:22 Yes. I like that.
55:23 "But we know that when He shall appear,
55:25 we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is,
55:31 and every man that hath this hope in Him,
55:34 purifies himself, even as He is pure."
55:38 That gives me hope and encouragement.
55:40 Amen.
55:41 Habakkuk 2:2-3,
55:43 " Write the vision and make it plain on tablets,
55:46 that he may run who reads it.
55:48 For the vision is yet for an appointed time.
55:49 But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
55:52 Though it tarries, wait for it because it will surely come,
55:54 it will not tarry."
55:56 My Lord gives you a vision, be patient,
55:58 it will come to pass for His glory.
56:01 And one thing I want to correct,
56:03 I said no room for antichrist,
56:05 but only for Christ in Daniel 9,
56:07 no room for any prophecy pertaining to the Antichrist.
56:11 It only pertains to the life of Jesus.
56:14 Thank you.
56:15 I wanted to read a little quote
56:17 from the Sabbath School quarterly
56:19 that I didn't take time to.
56:21 And it says there are two types of election
56:25 in choosing that God does.
56:27 First, God chooses every single one of us for salvation,
56:33 and He wants us to be transformed
56:35 into the image of Jesus.
56:38 Second, God chooses different people for specific tasks.
56:42 That's right. Amen and amen.
56:44 I just want to give us a scripture, Proverbs 3:5,
56:49 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart
56:51 and lean not into your own understanding
56:54 in all your ways, acknowledge Him,
56:57 and He will direct your paths."
57:00 Trust in God. Amen.
57:02 Thank you all so much for your study of the Word of God
57:05 and for sharing with our 3ABN family at home.
57:07 And we're delighted that you have joined us as well.
57:10 I want to leave you with a closing scripture.
57:12 This is found in Matthew 28, the last Chapter of Matthew,
57:17 verses 18 through 20, Jesus is speaking,
57:20 this is the Great Commission,
57:22 "All authority has been given to Me in heaven
57:25 and on Earth.
57:27 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
57:31 baptizing them in the name of the Father
57:34 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
57:37 teaching them to observe all things
57:39 that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always."
57:44 He said, never will He leave us,
57:45 never will He forsake us.
57:48 He is with us always, even to the end of the world.
57:51 So whatever call God has placed on your heart and on your life,
57:57 know that all his biddings are enabling.
57:59 Know that He will give you all power to carry forward
58:04 that work of sharing the gospel message,
58:07 the message of Christ's love
58:09 and salvation with a lost and dying world.
58:11 Join us next week for facing opposition.


Home

Revised 2024-01-03