ASI Southern Union 2019: Present Truth | Happening Now

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ASI Southern Union

Philip Baptiste

Eran Bates

John Bradshaw

Melissa Bradshaw

Rodrigo Silva

Verlyne Starr

Sabbath School Panel

Heavenly Father, we are gathered here this morning because we have chosen this Sabbath day to be here to taste in a special way the goodness that you have provided for us.

We thank you for your presence here, for without your presence this is meaningless.

Thank you so much for the power of the Holy Spirit, for angels who are sitting here with us, And may we truly taste a little bit of heaven this morning.

When telegraph was the fastest method of long distance communication And when employers advertised promotions, positions, open positions in the newspaper, there was a young man who applied for a job as a Morse code operator.

He went to the address that was listed in the newspaper, arrived and entered into this office.

There were other applicants sitting around talking.

There was a typewriter, those of us may remember typewriters, clacking in the background, and there were other applicants sitting there talking.

He noticed the sign on the receptionist's desk that said, fill out an application and take a seat.

He soon got up from his chair and walked across to an office door that said, inner office.

Opened the door, walked in, closed the door.

The other applicant sitting there said, what's he doing?

And then they got this smug little smile on their face.

He made a mistake and pretty soon he's going to be ushered out that door and he's not going to get the job.

Pretty soon the door opened and out came a man in a suit, ushering the young man in front of him.

The man in the suit said, gentlemen, thank you so much for coming today.

The other applicants begin to kind of grumble and look dismayed.

And finally, 1 brave enough went to the individual in the suit and he said, I don't understand.

We were all here before this man and yet it appears that he got the job.

The employer responded, I'm sorry, but the last several minutes while you have been sitting here in conversation, Playing in the background was a Morse code that said, if you understand this message, come right in.

Present for him and present and he in a sense ratified that employer's method of reaching out to him.

Second Peter, which is the verse that has been chosen for this weekend, is an intense and very passionate farewell that Peter addresses to followers of Christ.

And in your program are listed the, are shown these verses.

If you have your program or if you have your Bibles, you can certainly go to 2 Peter.

We're going to be looking at a few more verses than just those that are listed in the program.

But in 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 10 through 12, Peter says, Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure.

"'For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

"'For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly "'into the everlasting kingdom "'of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

"'For this reason, I will not be negligent As we of these things, though you know and are established in the truth." Sorry, I left out an important word there, in the present truth.

As we look at these verses, We're going to expand a little bit, but we're going to start by looking at some of the language perhaps that's used here, because I don't want us to stumble over that.

Peter says, therefore, and I think we know that that means that something has happened before that.

And we'll look at that in a few minutes as we go through here.

Now in some parts of the world people are going to stumble over that word.

And I'm going to ask the panel here, how do we deal with that?

Well, they leaped so fast, the suspense was killing me.

I'm not speaking because I know the answer, I'm just speaking because I'm afraid of the silence.

Actually, everybody else was afraid to talk because you were on the panel.

I'll break the ice and then they'll be away.

I don't think any 1 of These people are afraid of talking.

There are certain things that we need to do when we consider these, I'm just going to call this a question of political correctness.

At the time when Peter was writing his letter, Brethren, fine.

There was no question of that being politically incorrect and I think the fact of the matter is that we was writing to a group of people, he was more than likely writing to the Brethren anyway.

It was a fairly patriarchal society in that day and age.

Today we don't, for the most part, refer to the group of people as brethren because we'd be addressing 50% and not the other 50% and that's inappropriate.

So today I think common sense calls for at least 2 things and maybe more.

1, that when we speak, we consider to whom we are speaking.

If we're speaking to sister and as well as brethren, then we don't say brethren.

When preachers preach, they need to be sure that they are including and not excluding.

On the flip side, I hope nobody is so precious that when someone says, good morning brethren, and there are 3 women in the crowd of 10 or 20 or 200, that we don't feel like we need to castigate or berate that individual.

It could be a slip of the tongue, it could be a slip of the eyesight, it could be old habits dying hard.

So Christians ought to, on the 1 hand, strive to be inclusive and respectful.

But if I'm in a group where someone says, we're so glad to have such a wonderful group of Americans here, I'm not gonna protest and say, what's wrong with you forgetting a New Zealander?

So I think today we really ought to be inclusive.

And this word here used helps us, I think, to stop and reflect on the situations where we are.

We ought to be inclusive, I think, all the time.

I think it's also an endearing word, a word of love.

The people that he was speaking to were people who were, you know, believers.

And back then they felt like since They were children of Abraham and they all came from 1 father, you know.

But I think Peter uses this in an endearing way, you know, board meetings.

If there's a discussion going on, people say, okay brethren, you know, let's pull together.

Companions, you know, It's an endearing word, I believe.

Yes, and I like that, I appreciate those comments.

My thoughts are that we need to be aware of the inclusivity and to use that and to have that attitude in what we're saying and speaking.

Yeah, I just wanted to read it from a different version.

It says, so friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his choice of you.

Don't put it off, do it now, do this, and you'll have a life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way open into the eternal kingdom of our master and savior Jesus Christ.

And other versions do say brothers and sisters or brethren and sistren.

So I think it's implied here that it's inclusive of all of us.

As a non-American part of the group, for me it was a surprise to know that bathroom is a word that can bring some kind of confusion.

Interesting because in Brazil, for example, the word all, you have male and female.

Then many times when you say good evening for all In Brazil, they use the female and the male word.

Good evening for all men and for all women, but for all include everyone.

Interesting, because in the Bible, the word is a masculine word, adeufoi.

And if I, please, I don't want to offend anyone, but if no, I am a woman, I must be respected.

You are trying to teach the Holy Spirit how to...

Sabbath School Panel

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