10: From Exile to Restoration - Teaching Plan

Key Thought: There is temptation to relax our vigilance in God’s service and conform to worldly customs. Confession, repentance, and obedience are still responsibilities for God’s presence among His people.

1. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 8:9-14.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. How could the spiritual leaders and the people have fallen into this kind of apostasy?
C. Personal Application: In what ways could our church leaders and members be in danger of being led into spiritual apostasy in worship?.
D. Case Study : One of your relatives states, “The Muslims don’t use pictures, statues, or any kind of images in their worship of God. The Catholics use all kinds of icons and statues in theirs. What do the Adventists think about using images in their worship services?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Nehemiah 1:4-11.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. What do you think is the greatest need of the church at this time? What steps can you take to help their need?
C. Personal Application: How often do you pray for the church body – the G.C., the local conference, your church, your church members, and bring them before the Lord?
D. Case Study : One of your friends states, ”How do we reach out to our neighbors, the city, other cultures without being in danger of compromising our truths, lifestyle, and worship? How can we even tell if we have compromised or not?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Zechariah 1:2-6.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. Do you think the Lord has been displeased with the SDA church and its members over the years? Do you think He is displeased with it now? Share your thoughts.

C. Personal Application: How do we become more spiritual and better at worship than our parents? Everything seems to be on a downhill slide. How do we move upward?.
D. Case Study : One of your neighbors states, “I think one of the problems we have as a church is that we have ‘modernized’ our worship and thinking. Most people take Ellen White’s writings as outdated and irrelevant in our high tach and liberalized world. If we heeded only a fraction of her counsel in relation to Biblical truths, we would have revival and reformation in our lives and in our worship.” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Nehemiah 1:4-11.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. What does it mean to worship something? How can we keep from worshipping anything but the Lord?
C. Personal Application : Does our compromising a little now, or our indifference and lethargy, contribute to how we might react to threats, social pressure, and confinement for not compromising in the future?.
D. Case Study : Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this
week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with
them.
(Note: “Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.” MH p. 149)

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I think that we always forget the real reason why we need the church and why we are in it,the world and its churches seems that somehow changed the reasons to socialization, fellowship, brotherhood,a family, even entertainment seems to be the main reason and some people leave the church for such reasons too.But the real reason is so crude and it is not liked by us, by our nature, we are SINNERS who are facing eternal death, a judgement, tribulations of all types because we have a very cruel enemy, we are bad, hating to do God's will, we are lazy, we are selfish, we are negligent, we want to pass good, to enjoy and to have pleasure in our lives, and somehow the devil and his agents put in our minds that God is boring, too much strict, too inflexible, too demanding, too much for us, we want liberal churches, emotional worship with spiritual orgasm ( and physical) and we will call this a close relationship with Jesus, but the TRUTH IS, the TRUTH WE HATE, that that type of religion will not save us IN THAT DAY, we need to prepare to face God, prepare to face Judgement, prepare for the end of the time of Grace, prepare for the calamities that will come on this world, we need to know God experimentally, that we can trust Him for our protection in the bad times ahead, this world is getting closer to its burning day, humanity is getting closer to its end like we know now, only a few will be able to escape to live in the new earth, and we need to know how to escape, to face God we need to be HOLY, to be Holy we need a person who know how to make us holy, hiding us in HIMSELF, to hide in Jesus we need to allow the Holy Spirit to live in us, so He can apply to us the blood of Jesus, we need to be children of God, resembling Him in every aspect, we cannot have any resemblance to our former father the devil, all that make us looking like Lucifer needs to be erased forever from our character and personality, if we go to church recognizing our terrible condition and the penalty of eternal death on our heads, we will not care so much if church is boring, if the brothers are not that friendly, if we are not to popular or fashionable as other churches, because we know this is the only chance for salvation, the school that God put in this world and the Mission He gave to us: Go and teach, for that we need to stand firm and learn first, learn how to ABIDE IN JESUS, learn to pray and instead I will use the word COMMUNICATION, LEARN TO COMMUNICATE WITH JESUS, tell Him your position at all times, your plans, your strategy, so He can guide you to better plans, to abort the enemy traps, to change your mind, to open your eyes, He will surround you with LOVE, PEACE, HOPE, UNDERSTANDING, MERCY,HIS PROTECTION WILL BE LIKE WINGS OVER YOU, time is short, all in the world is FANTASY, unreal, illusion, the glory of the world cover abuse, addictions, perversion, crimes, misery, torture, suffering,murders, sorrows, things so ugly and cruel that even God cannot suffer anymore, so the end is very close, we are reaching the time of violence of the days of Noah, and the corruption of the Sodom and Gomorrah, people are crying to God because the pain caused by the sins of others, and such cries reached Heavens, we do not need a church that is attractive to the natural human being, but one our natural self will hate, until we learn that God loves us so much that in order to save us from ETERNAL DEATH there is not other solution, our disease of sinfulness require drastic measures if we are going to survive and LIVE FOR ETERNITY. Rosita.

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Comments

10: From Exile to Restoration – Teaching Plan — 9 Comments

Olive Dorbeck on August 31, 2011 at 6:47 pm said:

I have seen these sabbath school lesson helps at my sister
a few times in the past, now I would like to subscribe.

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- Inge Anderson on September 1, 2011 at 12:23 pm said:
  
  You may subscribe to have these lessons emailed to you (see Teaching Helps in the menu above), or you can subscribe to all of our posts in an RSS feed (see bottom of sidebar)
  
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millicent padera on September 1, 2011 at 3:52 am said:

the problem with our church now is that we are now suffering from gradualism.we are slowly conforming to the ways of the world & through comprome we are trying to justify our worldly ways.This lesson has helped me remember that indeed earth is not our permanent home as we have a home to look forward to.We as children born in "exile" have taken to the ways of the country that has us in bondage ,which in this instance is this world.Fellow brethren let us hasten on the day of our restoration through toiling for the kingdom of God.

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vonetta campbell on September 1, 2011 at 1:07 pm said:

I do agree with the last post, and I must add God is a God of variety that is why we are created with our own gifts, physical features,nationality,even our parents were hand picked by God. The one thing we have in common is that we were created to worship the creator in all that we do. Though my religion plays a vital role in my life if I look at it from the perspective of a reformer it lefts a lot to be desire. As a saint I introspect and with repentance I strive everyday to present my body as a living sacrifice to God. To love him with all I have and love everyone as I love myself. It is then we will be call disciples of Christ. So lets begin with me to make my worship accurate, relevant and pleasing to God thru Christ Jesus.

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Aalice on September 2, 2011 at 11:08 am said:

But why do we compromise? what weakens us to compromise and how can we avoid it??

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- R. G. on September 2, 2011 at 4:45 pm said:
  
  IMO, for what it's worth, all of our serious problems come down to pride and self-indulgence. Our inner thought is that we are reasonably good people, and we don't really feel our need of divine grace. If the Holy Spirit tries to open our eyes to our true condition as sinners, we think it is the enemy trying to undermine our hope of salvation, and we regard the light as unwelcome. Thus we press on, indulging in sin and selfishness, neglecting the needs of our fellow man, all the while somehow justifying it in our minds. We compare ourselves with others, thinking that we are not so bad after all. Meanwhile, the present evil age goes on and on, while the task given us by God is neglected, and more and more wrath hangs over our heads. Nevertheless, we find ways to quiet our fears, focusing on the love and goodness of God, and carefully overlooking His justice. We review the evidences that we are, after all, God's remnant people, or we find new and more exciting ways to celebrate our acceptance with God. He has clearly told us what He is planning to do about the problem, and we should be trembling in our boots, but we have put these things out of our minds. Need I go on?
  
  We need to seek repentance with our whole hearts, implore God's mercy, and aim to obey Him. He will abundantly pardon.
  
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- Olive Dorbeck on September 2, 2011 at 5:22 pm said:
  
  Because we do not put self aside to please God sincerely.
  I see compromise like trying to serve two masters, while the bible tells us that this is not possible for God
  does not accept our halfhearted service. When our will
  is conflicting with His will, we must choose to give up
  ours to please Him and eventually His will becomes ours also.
  
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Glecio N. Jr on September 2, 2011 at 5:12 pm said:

It was an amazing lesson for my spiritual life.

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rosa ofelia alonzo on September 2, 2011 at 6:04 pm said:

I think that we always forget the real reason why we need the church and why we are in it,the world and its churches seems that somehow changed the reasons to socialization, fellowship, brotherhood,a family, even entertainment seems to be the main reason and some people leave the church for such reasons too.But the real reason is so crude and it is not liked by us, by our nature, we are SINNERS who are facing eternal death, a judgement, tribulations of all types because we have a very cruel enemy, we are bad, hating to do God's will, we are lazy, we are selfish, we are negligent, we want to pass good, to enjoy and to have pleasure in our lives, and somehow the devil and his agents put in our minds that God is boring, too much strict, too inflexible, too demanding, too much for us, we want liberal churches, emotional worship with spiritual orgasm ( and physical) and we will call this a close relationship with Jesus, but the TRUTH IS, the TRUTH WE HATE, that that type of religion will not save us IN THAT DAY, we need to prepare to face God, prepare to face Judgement, prepare for the end of the time of Grace, prepare for the calamities that will come on this world, we need to know God experimentally, that we can trust Him for our protection in the bad times ahead, this world is getting closer to its burning day, humanity is getting closer to its end like we know now, only a few will be able to escape to live in the new earth, and we need to know how to escape, to face God we need to be HOLY, to be Holy we need a person who know how to make us holy, hiding us in HIMSELF, to hide in Jesus we need to allow the Holy Spirit to live in us, so He can apply to us the blood of Jesus, we need to be children of God, resembling Him in every aspect, we cannot have any resemblance to our former father the devil, all that make us looking like Lucifer needs to be erased forever from our character and personality, if we go to church recognizing our terrible condition and the penalty of eternal death on our heads, we will not care so much if church is boring, if the brothers are not that friendly, if we are not to popular or fashionable as other churches, because we know this is the only chance for salvation, the school that God put in this world and the Mission He gave to us: Go and teach, for that we need to stand firm and learn first, learn how to ABIDE IN JESUS, learn to pray and instead I will use the word COMMUNICATION, LEARN TO COMMUNICATE WITH JESUS, tell Him your position at all times, your plans, your strategy, so He can guide you to better plans, to abort the enemy traps, to change your mind, to open your eyes, He will surround you with LOVE, PEACE, HOPE, UNDERSTANDING, MERCY,HIS PROTECTION WILL BE LIKE WINGS OVER YOU, time is short, all in the world is FANTASY, unreal, illusion, the glory of the world cover abuse, addictions, perversion, crimes, misery, torture, suffering,murders, sorrows, things so ugly and cruel that even God cannot suffer anymore, so the end is very close, we are reaching the time of violence of the days of Noah, and the corruption of the Sodom and Gomorrah, people are crying to God because the pain caused by the sins of others, and such cries reached Heavens, we do not need a church that is attractive to the natural human being, but one our natural self will hate, until we learn that God loves us so much that in order to save us from ETERNAL DEATH there is not other solution, our disease of sinfulness require drastic measures if we are going to survive and LIVE FOR ETERNITY. Rosita.

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10: From Exile to Restoration – Teaching Plan