<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Peter Chung

The Price of Love

Holy Father, our Father in God in heaven, Father, I'm kneeling in your presence right now because I need help.

And Father, in spite of myself, may I be a blessing, not a curse to your people.

I ask for the Holy Spirit here in a mighty way to touch minds and hearts, to fill me with your Holy Spirit, that Christ be seen and not I.

And so Father, do for us and do for me what I cannot do for myself.

We thank you Lord for the Sabbath, We thank you for the privilege of worshiping in spirit and truth.

And we ask for your presence in the mark manner.

The crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, married a princess named Salama.

To celebrate the occasion, the sheikh's father, the ruler of Dubai, provided the venue for the wedding, which is not an unusual gesture for a parent to make.

In this case, however, the venue happened to be a multipurpose 20, 000 seat stadium at an estimated cost around $22 million.

Ladies, how would you like that for a wedding gift?

Upon completion, the couple enjoyed a week-long celebration within the stadium of their marriage.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the most expensive wedding ever, costing incredible $100 million.

I don't know about love, we don't know for that for sure, but weddings are expensive, amen?

Well, we see here that love can oftentimes be Expensive and notice how expensive love is knows what the Bible says in first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20 The Bible says for ye are bought with the what?

Price therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit Which are God's So the Bible says that we are bought with a price.

If you go to 1 Timothy chapter 2, notice what the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5.

You see I power point all my slides because in my church we have a time limit and potluck time is very valuable.

So therefore I'm trying to save time, so I'm used to it.

But I forget that, you know, at Advent Hope, we turn the Bible, amen?

The Bible says, for there is 1 God and 1 mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.

So the price that was bought, or the price that was paid for our bodies, was the ransom of Christ's own life.

Heaven poured everything in the form of Jesus.

They mortgage everything in the form of Jesus so that we could be bought and love is expensive.

Notice what the Bible says in John chapter 3 verse 16.

It's so numb to us but when we look at it deeper, it has a special significance to Seventh-day Adventists living in Earth's last history here today.

Notice what the Bible says in John 3 verse 16.

For the Bible says, For God so loved the, that he, what is love?

That whosoever believeth, believeth in him, who is the only begotten Son, and who is Jesus?

Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

You see, right now we are in an abusive relationship with Jesus and we are the abusers.

We abuse God's goodness, we abuse God's mercy, we do everything we can to be abusive, but Jesus himself said, I will take the abuse because I want to demonstrate that my love for you is expensive.

In fact, this great demonstration, this greatest gift of heaven was demonstrated in the beginning.

Notice what the Bible says where it was demonstrated.

Notice what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 3.

This is the time and the era in sacred history where humanity fell.

Genesis chapter 3, verse 6, the Bible says, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant To the eyes and a tree to be desired to make 1 wise She took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were what?

Naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves what?

This is the invention of the very first miniskirt.

And so, realizing that the pleasure of sin is temporary, I bet you that fruit tasted good.

I bet you it tasted more good than a Krispy Kreme donut.

I bet you it tasted more good than ice cream or any of the confectories that were ever devised by humanity.

It tasted good and it tasted delicious, just like sin is pleasurable and fun for a season, but then the guilt sets in.

And they realize that we're naked and ashamed, and oftentimes when we sin, and when we are exposed for our sins, what do we do?

We go everywhere else before we go to God.

We try to get public relations to fix things up rather than go to the 1 source that could solve all our problems.

And so humanity, Adam and Eve, set the precedence that when they sinned, they were now ashamed.

Sin might be sweet at a moment, but then ultimately the bitter reality kicks in.

And our first instinct is to fix it ourselves.

They made the first miniskirt that was ever made.

Now how did Adam and Eve react when God approached them?

Notice what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 3, verse 8, the Bible says, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking the garden in the cool of day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden, and the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou?

So it's interesting, God, even though we sin, God is pursuing us, God is trying to dialogue with us, God is still trying to establish a relationship and a dialogue with us, yet as humanity, we run away.

We are running away from the very essence of 1 that could save us and to solve our problems.

And yet God still pursues us because God is love.

And so oftentimes we have a bad picture of God, thinking when we sin, we have to run away from God, that we deserve God's wrath.

But the Bible clearly tells us, no, God is trying to seek us and approach us and try to win us over with his love.

Now, why did they run away from God's presence?

Notice what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 3, verse 10 and 11.

The Bible says, and he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself.

And he said, who told thee that thou was naked?

Has thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

And so Adam is saying that he was afraid of God's presence.

Back to Menu

The Price of Love

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine