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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points, 4th Quarter 2021: Present Truth in Deuteronomy

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

08 Choose Life

We have come to the eighth lesson of our fourth quarter, Present Truth in Deuteronomy.

And this 1 is simply titled, Choose Life.

Pastor Howard, you put together the talking points for this week's lesson, and so you're going to give us an overview of that.

Is there Anything housekeeping we need to talk about this week?

OK, then shall we just dive right into the lesson?

I would say I have noticed a decent bit of repetition in this quarterly.

And so I feel a little awkward sometimes with the talking points.

It's like We're going over this And so I'm imagining some of our teachers are feeling the same thing So we're trying our best to hit from different angles.

Of course repetition deepens impression It's not awful to cover something again, and you have new people in the class but if you're feeling that as teachers, we've been feeling that a little bit but it is good material and we get a good lesson.

Still try to take a fresh look at whatever's presented.

I mean this week's lesson talks a lot about the power of choice which we've Seen touched on previously and then you mentioned is coming up.

Yeah and other lessons so But it's an important point.

So that's right and we're gonna dive right into it.

We are indeed So I tell you what, how about I start with a word of prayer and then you can walk us through our talking points All right, dear.

Thank you so much for another opportunity to study your Word together.

Please now bless in this presentation and those listening to it, especially those teachers and Sabbath school members as they prepare for their local Sabbath school classes.

Help those to be successful, help them to be clear and powerful and convicting, Lord, that our Sabbath schools can be more than just times where we review a lesson, but truly get to know Jesus better through a study of His Word.

So let that be our experience today, for we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

Now, I have to say, I was thinking about, just in general, it might be fun, we've talked before about the idea of talking points being to come away with some key things from the lesson, because you can't cover everything in the lesson.

And there are some lessons that have a point that you could take a whole Sabbath school class on.

And I've entertained the idea of doing a talking points with 1 point.

You know just to, anyway, I didn't do that this week.

No, no, no, no, no, We have 3 talking points this week.

The first talking point is Christianity is a reasonable faith.

We've drawn that from Sunday and Tuesday.

Now this whole lesson, this week's lesson is derived primarily from Deuteronomy 30 and the idea of the blessings and the cursings and choose life which is the title and so I've noticed even in the lesson it was hard to say Sunday and Monday kind of covered this and Tuesday so for example talking point number 1 Christianity is a reasonable faith from Sunday and Tuesday.

Number 2, faithful obedience is not too hard from Tuesday and Thursday.

And then number 3, God wants us to choose life from Sunday, Monday, and Thursday.

So it's really kind of a swirly blend of these common themes here.

That's a technical theological term, swirly blend.

But anyway, number 1, Christianity is a reasonable faith.

Okay, so our lesson on Sunday dives into the idea of a, well, it's kind of interesting.

The story that opened the lesson was intriguing to me about a woman who, a young woman at 22 years old who was diagnosed with a brain tumor and so decided to arrange to have her brain frozen so that whenever technology was developed 50 years, 100 years, 1, 000 years in the future, then they'd take her frozen brain and reconstitute.

And of course the lesson was making a little light of that as you know that's my plan for eternal life.

It's like there's a better way to choose life and this this week's lesson is highlighting.

In fact I have from the quarterly, why don't you read the last paragraph there on Sabbath afternoon's lesson.

Sure, said, this week, as we continue in Deuteronomy, we will look at the choice of life and the opportunity given us to choose life, to choose it on the terms that God, the giver and sustainer of life, has graciously offered.

Okay, so since we're talking about the concept of choice in general, that's where Sunday goes.

We start with the tree of life, and it is, some of these things have been mentioned before, but it's fascinating, you know, in the Garden of Eden, for God to have placed, you know, I've talked to people before who say, well how do we even know we have choices?

Like how do we even know we're living life?

How do we know this wasn't all pre-programmed and we, you know, and I don't know if you ever got into the philosophy, I don't know if we're here.

How do we even know if I'm asking a question right now?

But what's fascinating about the situation of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is that we could say that God gives freedom of choice, but if there was no record of it, who's to say that Adam and Eve ever had?

So that tree is a, proves to us, it demonstrates to us that Adam and Eve had an option.

Like God creates Adam and Eve and says, hey, you have an option to do whatever you want, but you've gotta live by this.

Well, have you ever thought about this too?

Like, you're gonna live in the garden, you're gonna do this, where's my choice?

So there was an option to do something different and it's a glaring option.

Well not only glaring, but it's central to their whole experience there.

It was the tree in the midst of the garden, it was everything.

Their continuance in the garden was predicated on their making a good choice, right?

So God in the very beginning of our experience as humanity enshrined free moral agency as 1 of the key characteristics of our race, and that's powerful.

So I've gotten the outline, the tree of life exhibits the power of choice.

And then again, the idea of the blessings and cursings, which the bulk of this week's lesson is based on Deuteronomy chapter 30, is God presenting options for choice.

So very clearly, in fact, it's interesting, the Quarterly brings up on Tuesday, paragraph 3, the words for good and evil in Deuteronomy 30, 15 are the same Hebrew words used in Genesis for the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

That the good and evil, the presenting of blessings and cursings as the consequences of choices, is building on the whole concept we see in Exodus.

It's like, you've come out of Egypt and you've been bad but now I'm gonna give you these 2 choices now.

Well those are the same 2 choices even before they were bad.

Like those were the original 2 choices that man had.

So this is apart from sin this has always been part of the God's economy, His society, is I'm laying before you choices and there's blessings if you obey, but there's going to be consequences if you don't curse.

Well the lesson also goes into the idea of the fact that there are only 2 choices, which we're going to get to in a minute.

But It's fascinating in this context of choice that Christians would argue that there isn't a choice.

The concept of predestination, that look, God already chose ahead of time.

Some are gonna be saved, some are gonna be lost.

And the mind, there's so many mind-boggling things about that.

But to me, the first thing that rises to the surface is, if God, if the choice is totally up to Him, and He chose to, that some are going to be lost.

So, for example, the person, the Calvinist who believes in predestination says, you know, we're all Christians and we believe in the same God.

The God that I believe in would never choose when it's on him for any to be lost.

In fact, the Bible says God is not willing that any should perish.

So then why are they gonna be perished if it's his will and his will accomplishes everything?

01 Preamble to Deuteronomy

We have arrived, Pastor Howard, at Present Truth in Deuteronomy, the fourth quarter of the year 2020.

It feels like we're still talking about 2020, but we're almost still into 2021.

I've been looking forward to this quarterly just because I love the book of Deuteronomy.

And it's just so, it is like, it's funny that the first thing I saw when I got this quarterly was Deuteronomy.

And I thought, man, Deuteronomy is such an apical book to today.

Right, so it's not just reviewing history.

There's gonna be a lot of application in this 1, and I'm excited about that.

Well, it's funny that you say that, because our first chapter is kind of reviewing history.

Well, to be clear, there's going to be a lot of history in Deuteronomy.

In fact, this first lesson is entitled, well, you know what?

Well, before we even do that, North Asia Pacific is the division that we're highlighting in mission this quarter.

And that includes Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan.

So that's what we're giving to this quarter.

And those are where the special 13 Sabbath projects are going to go to.

Also a thing to keep in mind is that October 29 to 31 we have a Talking Point Sabbath School training at Campus Abel called Thoroughly Equipped.

We're going to be looking at not only things for teachers, but superintendents and even just members of the whole.

If you wanna see your Sabbath school be more effective and productive and more mission focused and more edifying for everyone, you don't wanna miss out on it.

You can go to michigansspm.org and right at the top there'll be this little banner for registration.

You click on that and you can fill out everything you need in that form right there.

What we need to get going in our lesson study today.

So our title of this particular lesson is Preamble to Deuteronomy.

So we're not quite studying Deuteronomy, we're almost to Deuteronomy.

I was a little bit disappointed when I saw that because, you know, how, you Sabbath school teachers understand this, we have 13 weeks to cover 34 chapters and we just took 1 week to not yet cover any of the 34.

And so you've prepared the talking points.

But before we do, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity to study this important book of the Bible, and not just from a history perspective, but for an application to our current circumstance.

So Lord, please bless us with your Holy Spirit now as we record this, and as Sabbath school teachers are preparing and Sabbath school classes are held help all of us to be richly blessed for we pray it in Jesus name amen amen all right pastor Howard what are we looking at this week well as I mentioned we're not really gonna be looking a whole lot at Deuteronomy itself this week because this is the preamble to kind of leading in the backdrop the lesson highlights that we've got a thousand years of history prior to Deuteronomy that we need to understand as it leads into our story so that's what a lot of our lessons going to be okay And so I've got 3 talking points that I've drawn out of this week's lesson.

The first is that the entire Bible is a revelation of God's love.

That's drawn from Sunday and Monday's lesson.

Talking point number 2, God has called out His church from the world with a purpose.

Now I don't know how you're going to fit it on the screen.

I didn't fit it in the notes because it was kind of cramped.

I'm not going to fit it on the screen yet.

So you might just have what I have in the notes is God has called out his church from the world with a purpose.

Now, I don't know how you're gonna fit it on the screen.

I didn't fit it in the notes, because it was kind of cramped.

So you might just have, what I have in the notes is God has called out his church from the world, but with the purposes, we'll explain that.

And then finally, the goal of preaching the gospel is obedience to the faith.

And we'll see the tie-in to that, or the lead-in to Deuteronomy as we get to that part.

So, this entire Bible is a revelation of God's love.

How in the world does that connect to Deuteronomy?

But the memory verse this week is 1 John 4, 8 that tells us that God is love.

And the lesson highlights the importance of understanding the love of God.

And it's interesting that the lesson says on Sunday afternoon, we just aren't able to comprehend fully what God is love means.

I had a friend of mine who went to a camp meeting.

And I remember him coming back and we were saying, how was it?

The guy just talked about love, love, love.

And I couldn't help, you know, you think about it, it sounds so like, who are you, man?

I mean, that should be a good thing, right?

But I knew what he was saying as soon as he said it, like there was no real substance to it.

It wasn't, because here's the thing, when the Bible says God is love, What it's telling us is God defines love.

And what tends to happen is we always tend to want to superimpose on God what we think love is.

So for example, when we get into the Bible, and even with the admission here that we can't fully understand this, but let's just chant love, love, love, love, love, love over and over, and that's going to help people understand God's love better than just reading the story.

In other words, There are some stories where like, oh, you're just starting out in Christian faith.

Go read the Gospel of John, as if you're not going to get God's love in other books of the Bible.

And so the point is, the whole Bible, if God is love, the record of scripture reveals that love and is as foreign as it may seem to my mind how the rebellion of Korah could reveal a self-sacrificial loving God to be willing to give his only begotten son to save us.

Like I can't get that it yet that will be revealed to a person who reads the rebellion of Korah in Scripture because this is a revelation of the love of God and the Spirit of God will bring that home to the heart.

Right so if God's the author of it, it's describing himself, the Holy Spirit is going to lay it on our hearts, there maybe isn't the need for the agency of man to say, well, what this means is love and love and love.

It's like, well, the Holy Spirit is going to work on that, let's just read the text itself.

And so I have in the notes, love is better caught than taught.

You've heard that expression used with other things.

We can try to explain love, even to the point where 1 of our church leaders from times past has used the word histrionic, that preachers try to be histrionic.

And that's a word that's where you try to impose even the tone of voice and make a...

Yeah, the real breathy ones you talk about.

As if you just invoke, you're, what do I say, infusing emotion into your presentation as if somehow that is going to make people get it.

You know, instead of just, and we just need to be clear that the Bible is a divine book.

Ellen White used to use an expression when people try to improve upon God's works, and she said, using the story of Uzzah, where Uzzah tried to study the Ark of God, steady it when it was going to fall, not study, steady.

And she uses that story and she says, hands off the Ark, brethren.

02 Moses’ History Lesson

We have our fourth quarter well underway here.

We're talking about Moses' history lesson, and there's a lot to cover in this week's lesson.

But before we get to that, we need to- I was just going to say Moses' history lesson.

We have a little contention with the contributing editor, author here.

Deuteronomy is almost a history lesson, so we're kind of having a hard time.

But we have some housekeeping items to talk about before we dive into the substance of our study today.

Well, first of all, just want to make a note that many of you are watching this on our YouTube channel, the Emanuel Institute YouTube channel.

You can access that channel through our website, michigansspm.org on the Resources page, right under talking points.

If you subscribe to that channel you will automatically get the updated talking points when they post.

So you don't have to look for it on social media or email or something.

Yeah Because we don't have an outside department, firm, somebody doing this, and there have been times where the lessons didn't post right when they were supposed to, so if you're subscribed to that, you'll get that link right away.

Okay, so another avenue to get these resources is the Emanuel Institute YouTube page.

So sometimes we receive department emails.

Cameron and I, some of you may not, a lot of people don't understand conference work.

It's like when we were pastors people thought you preach on Sabbath and then what do you do all week long, right?

And we sit in a lot of meetings, and so there are people who call and leave emails, and sometimes we're in full day meetings, and then we go home at the end of the day, and it's like, why didn't you get my email today?

So we have a department secretary, which we didn't during the COVID months, And if you want to contact her, S.L.

Howard, S-L-H-O-W-A-R-D at M-I-S-D-A dot O-R-G with any of your questions for us, that gets through to us and we can get back to you in the most timely manner.

So if you have questions, need the Sabbath School supplies and other things that we've highlighted, that's the way to go.

All right, 1 more housekeeping item, the actual document itself.

How do people access it and what do they do with it?

Okay, well you'll find on our Michigan SSPM.org website resources page under talking points, you'll have the weekly outlines.

There's a link and there'll be 3 formats on our site 1 says a device format 1 says single-sided and 1 says double-sided People have requested all of those formats and it used to do them in PDF and they said we want to be able to edit it.

But when it comes to the device, the device outline is just 1 page front and back because on a device you don't need 2 sides of something typically.

And the 2 side printout, some people have figured, how do I get a 2 side printout that's a half page like this?

When you print it, look at the double-sided options in your printer options and select to flip it on the short edge.

Anytime you have double-sided it gives you that option and we're planning to do a video of some of these things in the future but we want you to be able to use these resources.

You don't have to of course, you can feel free to modify them, they are editable or in PDF format but we provide them so that you have that opportunity as another resource to use in your Sava School.

All right, and speaking of opportunities, we want to remind you, and this is our last housekeeping item, but on October 29 to 31, just a few weeks away now, we have our Sava School Workshop, and we're gonna talk about all the different things involved with adult Sabbath school lesson teaching and admission and involvement of people and how to increase the attendance and all kinds of things there so you don't want to miss that at Campus Abel and the registration is at MichiganSSBM.org all right whoo yes let's get into the lesson the Moses history lesson itself Pastor Howard you were the 1 who studied this 1 out and outlined our lesson study this week.

You know, I want to revisit something for talking points.

The whole point for talking points is that there's a lot covered in these lessons.

And a lot of times when you're an adult Sabbath school teacher trying to cover everything, you just can't.

You're trying to get interaction in the class and what have you.

This week, there are pieces in every day.

I could have made a talking point out of every day's lesson, even the Sabbath afternoon's lesson.

And so, obviously, it gives you too much stuff.

So I highlighted on those things that I thought would be the most helpful.

And you may come up with some different things.

Here's what I drew out of the lesson this week.

Talking point number 1, God is a God of order.

Drew that from Tuesday's lesson in the quarterly.

Number 2, talking point number 2, God's reputation is at stake in the great controversy.

I was going to put in the dealing with his people, but it kind of made it too long with great controversy.

I drew that from Wednesday's lesson, this week's lesson.

And then finally, talking point number 3, God's justice is the fruit of his love.

And I drew that from Thursday and Friday's lessons.

Some pretty heavy themes we're going to be addressing this week.

How about we have a word of prayer and then you lead us through each 1 of those.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for another opportunity to study your word and especially as we study the themes that have been outlined here.

Please send your Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and understanding and let the Sabbath school classes that discuss these things have that same wisdom and understanding from on high.

All right, talking point number 1, God is a God of order.

And all of these themes, as you said, are weighty themes, and we can't exhaust them here.

We may not be even looking up the extent of all the passages.

The lesson on Tuesday takes us to this idea of Israel is growing as a nation and then points us to Deuteronomy chapter 1 verses 12 to 17 where Moses recounts what we call the Jethro principle.

Well, I was just looking up in that text, Numbers chapter 1, I mean, Deuteronomy, I'm sorry, Deuteronomy chapters 1, 12 through 17 says, again, this is Moses speaking to his people, how can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints?

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