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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Don Mackintosh

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

And if you know anything about Ezekiel 16, that's a great summary of that, and of how God intervened even though there had been, you know, real problems in Israel's experience, and what a hopeful song to be able to come back.

Well, the title of the message tonight is What's Love Got to Do With It?

And of course, that's a name of a song that you might know.

It's probably not the fight song of Loma Linda or anything.

And that's what we want to talk about tonight.

As social psychologists, sociologists have studied the human condition, they've recognized that if people have certain adverse childhood experiences, so-called ACEs, they're set up for social, emotional, cognitive impairments, high-risk behaviors.

And just to give ourselves a test tonight, perhaps we will just do a test to see how many ACEs that you've experienced in your own life.

So for each 1 of these that I read, just give yourself a score.

Let's just ask the Lord again to bless us.

Father, bless us as we talk about this important subject tonight.

May your spirit come here to be with us in Christ's name.

So we're looking at your ACE score tonight and then that's going to put a foundation for what we're talking about.

Prior to your 18th birthday, did a parent or another adult in the household often or very often swear at you, insult you, put you down, humiliate you, or act in a way that made you afraid you might be physically hurt?

Kind of like an Ezekiel 16 situation here, right?

Alright, maybe just silently by your side, say 1 finger, this or that, or whatever.

Number 2, did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often push, grab, slap, throw something at you, ever hit you so hard it had marks or were injured?

If you say yes, give yourself another point.

Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever touch, funnel you, touch you in a sexual way, attempt to have various sexual encounters with you if you say yes but 1.

Number 4, did you often or very often feel that no 1 in your family loved you or thought you were important or special, your family didn't look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other.

Did you often or very often feel that you didn't have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, or had no 1 to protect you?

Or were your parents too drunk or high to take care of you, or take you to the doctor if you needed it?

By the way, I don't know if any of you worked in settings where you found people that are marking 1 down for each 1 of these.

How many of you see people like this that you're serving?

Certainly, when I worked in a visiting nurse situation back in Chicago, when I lived there, this was the normal for everybody.

They might have been able to put down 2 for each 1.

Were your parents ever separated or divorced?

If you say yes but 1, was your father or your mother or stepmother often or very often push, grab, slapped, had something thrown at her, or sometimes often or very often kick, bitten, hit with a fist or hit with something hard or repeatedly hit.

Did you live with anyone who is a problem drinker or alcoholic or use street drugs?

Was a household member ever depressed or mentally ill?

Or did a household member ever attempt suicide if you say yes, put 1?

And did a household member go to prison if you say yes, put 1?

So you add all those up, and that is your ACE score.

That is your Adverse Childhood Experience score.

Now if you put those things down, these are the normal behaviors you're involved in to try and, or many times involved in, to try and medicate against the pain.

I used to really think, you know, It's really bad if someone's smoking dope or this or that.

Actually, it might be just a sign they're trying to get through the day, because they had so many horrible things happen to them that maybe I don't have any idea about.

So it's not a commercial for marijuana or anything.

I'm not saying, yeah, so let's just all get high tonight.

But I'm just saying it gives you some kind of idea.

Marijuana use, anxiety, all these different things.

Tobacco use, alcohol, binge drinking, life dissatisfaction, depression, suicidality usually comes up.

Well, how many of you didn't have anything on that list at all?

And you're also probably pretty out of touch with people.

Because you just don't really understand what's going on in people's lives.

But that doesn't mean you can't be useful, very useful, but how many of you think that probably Jesus had a few more aces than you did?

How many of you think he had a few adverse childhood experiences.

Now, again, it's not a recommendation for adverse childhood experiences.

Don't feel guilty if you've not had them.

But lots of people you're walking around with, and you look at them, they look pretty good on the outside.

Look at that person next to you and say, you look pretty good on the outside.

You look like you stepped out of a magazine, actually.

But inside, the whole point is inside, there can be a lot of things going on.

And if we don't know that, we can get ourselves in relationships and situations where we really don't know what we're dealing with, right?

The study revealed that patients with 1 or more of these factors suffer from alcoholism, illicit drug addiction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, ischemic heart disease, liver disease, risk for intimate partner violence, multiple sexual partners, sexually transmitted diseases, smoking, suicide attempts, unintended pregnancies.

And the higher the number of adverse childhood experiences experienced, the higher the probability of physical or emotional illness, as well as self-defeating behaviors.

So, you know, you're looking at, you know, 16% of people that you're talking to had 4 or more aces.

And they don't have a sign on the front saying, I'm an ace.

And this is why I think the gospel is so important.

Because a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.

And a lot of people are walking around with no erythropoiesis.

They are really having a hard time even creating red blood cells to oxygenate their tissues because they're under so much stress, internal stress and anxiety.

And then of course this shows up in the literature as attachment disorders then develop damage by being abused or physically and mostly separated from the primary caregiver during their first 3 years of life.

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What’s Love Got to Do With It?

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