Sabbath: Keeping the Church Faithful
Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Thess. 2:13-3:18, Acts 17:11, Luke 10:25-28, Matt. 7:24-27, 18:15-17.
Memory Text: “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thessalonians 2:15, ESV).
Key Thought: Even with all the grand and glorious promises for the future, we have to deal with daily challenges and struggles in the church. The Thessalonian church was no exception.
Churches are a lot like plants. If a plant does not grow, it will die. In other words, change is wired into the way plants were designed by God. Similarly, a church that does not change and grow will also die. But not all change is good. Change can lead us away from who we are. It can cause us to lose touch with God’s purpose for us. The Seventh-day Adventist Church must be especially on guard, because this present-truth message is being proclaimed by no one but us! That’s a heavy responsibility-one we all, whether laity or ministry, must never forget.
Through revelation and Spirit-guided consensus, God has led the church to even more light. The light of the past helps the church navigate its way through the treacherous waters of change. Paul’s final word to the Thessalonians gives us inspired guidance in this crucial area.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, September 29.
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I have to present the sabbath school lesson for the coming Sabbath for my class, do you have ideas about how I can help the members really feel and understand what Paul was trying to teach the thessalonians in his letters. Any idea, skit or illustration will be greatly appreciate
Hopetv.org/hopess is a good help, but it's not about how much you know. The little you understand, if prayed about and presented in humility will be much to your class.
Paul in this memory verse he is talking about God's way of living on earth..ie God tradition NOT their own Culture traditions we need to get this point.
There is no struggle to learning onto truth when we SUBMIT TO GOD and allow ourselves to be led by the HOLY SPIRIT.
All the winds of doctrine are blowing much these days.....and there's only ONE TRUTH. GOD is too willing to Inspire each one, His church when there is complete submission and dedication. The struggle and commotion in the church comes in when error and truth is mixed together...accepting other pagan practices of the world in His church, in other words, bringing Baal worship into God's church is abominable to God--- and that is Satan's determined purpose to misled if possible the very elect. However, God wants us to possess PURE FAITH.
Olive, what is faith?
Andrew, your question to Olive reminds me of Pilate's question to Christ, "what is truth." I hope your question isn't given in the same sense that his question was but rather to prod for a clarification of what faith really is.
To me there seem to be two major texts that define what faith is and one that raises a question concerning relationships of faith. The first is, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb 11:1 NKJV). In this text faith is something that is intangible. It is something you can't put your hands on yet it exists because there is evidence to support it. Christ's explaining the Holy Spirit also, in part, explains faith, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes" (Jn 3:8 NKJV). We can't see the wind but we can see its effects. So the evidence is the effects and through those we can believe that wind actually exists.
The second is Paul's statement, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph 2:8-9 NKJV). Even though we are made for good works what Paul says here separates works and faith. Faith does not include works but it does lead us into works. To illustrate this let's think of the simple task of walking into a dark room, and, in order to see something, we reach for the light switch. But why? Because we believe that if we do and turn the switch on, the light will come on and give light in the room. Our belief was not the act of reaching but gave us the motivation to reach. To put it another way, think of it as electricity which is the movement of electrons through a conductor. Ohm's law describes the relationship of the three main parts of electricity which are voltage (the force applied to the electrons), current (the actual flow of electrons), and resistance (what impedes electron flow). If you want to increase the current you need to either increase the voltage or lower the resistance, or both. Faith is equivalent to the voltage; it is the push - the force that is applied. Works is the current; it is what happens when faith overcomes the resistance.
Then there is James' statement, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:26 NKJV). Like the wind, if there is no effect, then we can't account for the presence of wind. For faith to be effective it has to overcome resistance and produce an effect. So truly, without works faith is for all intents and purposes nonexistent. One can wish to do something but until that person does it what faith he/she has is meaningless.