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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 1st Quarter 2023: Managing for the Master Until He Comes

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 Part of God’s Family

I'm Cameron DeMasur and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

For those of you just joining us or maybe discovering Talking Points for the very first time, this is a weekly video resource for reviewing the Seventh-day Adventist Adult Bible Study Guide.

Now a lot of people are familiar with that, but some people might not understand that in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we want to be a people of the book who study God's Word, and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists produces a resource, again, once every quarter, so 4 times a year, a Bible study guide that covers either a particular subject or a book of the Bible, so that anywhere you go in the Seventh-davened world you can stop by a local church and have a family of believers who are studying from God's Word literally on the same page.

So our last quarter for example was on death and the resurrection and I think before that was the book of Genesis.

I think it was about how to deal with difficulties.

So, either a topic or a book of the Bible as you stated.

And this week we begin not only a new year but also a new study topic and this 1 is titled Managing for the Master Till He Comes, and that is the role of stewardship in our Christian experience from our possessions, our lives, and we'll get into how everything is his and we just want to take care of what he's lent us in his graciousness.

If you would like a copy of this, it's completely free.

In the description box below, you'll have a link to a PDF copy of this.

So if you go to the App Store, I think it's both an Android and the iPhone App Store.

I don't have an Android, so I can't search that, but I know with the iPhone if you just search Sabbath School, it's the second thing that pops up on my phone.

The first is just a Bible, an online Bible, and then it says Sabbath School, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Officials.

And we'll put a screenshot on so you can see what it looks like and exactly but anyway there's all kinds of resources available whether you're a church member or not you're welcome to study along with us either right here with talking points or drop by a local Seventh-day Adventist Church and that's what we'll be covering this quarter that's right With that introduction out of the way, we are talking about...

Believe it or not, yeah, and we have a whole new study series.

We're going from death and the resurrection and the truth about it, which by the way, those are online if you'd like to hop back and review those.

But now we're looking at this topic of Christian stewardship and you studied this particular lesson to prepare the study notes, so should we have a word of prayer and then you can walk us through what we're looking at this week.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to study your word.

Thank you for this study guide that has been prepared and of course the word itself to teach us how to be more like Jesus.

So bless us in our time together today if we pray it in Jesus name, amen.

Okay, well as you stated this quarter's lesson is on stewardship and the first lesson is entitled Part of God's Family.

And as I was going through, well this will become apparent in my outline, It's interesting to have the title of this.

It kind of connects us into this concept of in a family there are certain responsibilities to take care of the family and what have you.

And we'll touch on some of that, but I really wanted to, in this introductory lesson, just very clearly establish that idea of stewardship.

Not everybody really grasps what stewardship is and what it means.

The Bible's full of passages on stewardship.

And I'm guessing outside of a religious context the word stewardship is, I mean it's not like it's only a biblical word, but you don't, it's, I wouldn't imagine it's a lot of people's common parlance, they're just talking about stewardship a lot, so it could be a foreign concept.

So going into this week's lesson, so this week's lesson, we're laying some foundational pieces for the study of stewardship.

And talking point number 1 for this week, typically we come up with 3 takeaways, sometimes more, sometimes less, but generally it's 3 takeaways from the lesson.

The first is that all the world is God's and we are merely stewards.

Of course, that's just a play on the all the world's a stage and we're merely players.

But this is Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday's lesson is where that's drawn from.

And then talking point number 2 that we're going to look at is loving obedience includes faithful stewardship.

That's drawn primarily from Wednesday's lesson.

And finally number 3, faithful stewardship is a cure for selfishness.

And that is drawn primarily from Thursday's lesson.

That's probably a good time to also mention not only is the Adult Bible Study Guide itself available in the description box below but also you can have a link to our study notes that we made to go along with this.

And you can visit those either in the study notes or at our website michigansspm.org That's right.

So we make an outline each week that you can use however you would see fit All right.

So what are we talking about all the world's all the world is gods and we're merely stewards Okay so I've got in here in our outline that the dictionary definition of a steward is a person employed to manage another's property and so the Bible presents God as the creator, as the owner and sustainer of all things.

In which case, if he owns everything, we don't own anything.

And if we don't own anything, then everything we manage, be it money, time, resources, is, they're his.

Yeah, so there's no our stuff and his stuff.

From a biblical standpoint and so that makes us stewards.

Now for example, our property and possessions belong to God.

If you look up Psalm 24 verse 1 and while you're doing that, First Chronicles 29, I will reference this.

The lesson brings this out on Sunday that when David, I'm sorry, it's not Sunday's lesson, it's Monday's lesson, but when David was gathering materials for the temple, for the building of the temple, God told him he couldn't build the temple because he was a man of war, but he could collect and gather it.

And when he was about to sacrifice to God and, you know, look at all these things we've gathered, he said, what is this, you know, offering that we're giving to you since All things come from you and of your own we've given you.

Like- Right, we're just collecting a portion of the stuff you've sent graciously.

And so that's not, have you ever had that happen with your kids where they give you a present?

Yeah, like where'd you get the money for it?

Like my kids went through a phase, a lot of kids seem to go through a phase where they they like to give presents, but they don't have any.

Well, Psalm 24 speaks of that verse 1, the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.

So the stuff is God's, the people are God's, everything belongs to him.

And of course, then going beyond that, when the Bible speaks about the sacrifice of Christ for our redemption, you know, to redeem something means you buy it back.

And so that's a purchase price that was paid for us in the Bible.

The Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 620 talks about us being bought for a price.

Therefore he says, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

So what we do in the body and how we take care of our bodies is stewardship.

So it's so fascinating because without the sacrifice of Christ, we'd still be God's by creation.

No, but the point is we would be his possession by ownership because he created us.

But then once we strayed, he sent his son to buy us back from sin.

And so we are not our own, the apostle says.

So even in our bodies, our health and what have you, that's a level of stewardship.

02 God’s Covenants With Us

I'm Cameron DeVasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

We are now on our second lesson of this quarter's adult Bible study guide.

Now sometimes we refer to this as the quarterly, and if you're just joining us, you know, people are, what is this quarterly thing?

Well, every quarter, the Seventh-day Adventist Church produces a resource called a Bible study guide.

It covers a certain subject or topic or book of the Bible.

And this time we're looking at stewardship.

The whole title is managing for the master.

And as we learned last week, stewardship is when a person basically manages another's property or possessions and because God owns everything that makes us stewards.

And this time we're looking at our second week's lesson called God's covenants with us.

That's covenants plural because God doesn't just have 1 arrangement with humanity, he's actually made several agreements with us, and we're gonna take a look at those this week.

I don't think we have any other commentary that needs to be made, so if you could offer a word of prayer, we'll go through our lesson notes.

Father in heaven, we are so thankful for your word of truth and the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth to guide us into an understanding of your word.

We pray, Lord, now that you would be with this study, that you would guide our discussion, and it would be to the edification of those who are watching and tuning in and those who will be teaching this lesson.

We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name and for his sake.

All right, well as mentioned, the title kind of gives away God's covenants with us and they are many and there are at least several I should say and so this week we're gonna look at those covenants and what is, it doesn't say it explicitly, but what I read into that is not only did God set up these covenants but the bigger takeaway lesson is what is our response, what is our role in those covenants?

Well you have in our outline and you've taken from the quarterly some significant bilateral covenants.

Yes, well that was a term that they used in here and we're gonna explain that in a minute, but let me walk through what the talking points are then we'll go 1 by 1.

Talking point number 1 is that God's blessings are often conditional.

We take that Sabbath, Sunday, and Monday's lessons, but the idea is sometimes they're unconditional, but sometimes they are most often conditional.

Talking point number 2, tithing Was a central part of Israel's covenant with God God's people in the Old Testament were expected to tithe and God outlined how and we're gonna look at what that meant for them and Now talking about number 3 our commitments to Christ must be our top priority.

In fact, it's been true ever since God created humanity that we should seek first the Kingdom of God, and that comes from Tuesday and Thursday.

Okay and you are referring here to our weekly outline which we make available in the link below so if you want to follow along with the outline you can do that as well.

Now Sabbath afternoon's introduction to this week's lesson talked about the just incredible goodness of God and creating us in the first place and even after we sinned, Like even after the destruction of the world with the flood, God promises never to do that again.

It's not like, if you return to faithful tithe, I won't flood the world.

The same thing can be true of like seasons.

The rain comes down from heaven, waters the earth, the sun.

So there are certain benefits that God gives to humanity without any expectation of comeback for all.

But that's not true for most of the other things that are God's arranged relations with humanity.

They are conditioned on a response from us.

So if you go to Deuteronomy chapter 28, probably 1 of the clearest examples of this.

The blessings and cursings outlined there.

And we're certainly not going to read the whole thing, but we'll just get a little flavor of it real quick.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, chapter 28.

Let's see, it's race, who's going to get there first?

Why don't you read just a couple of verses there, just to get the start of it.

Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God." And then it goes on and itemizes it.

Blessed shall you be when this and this and this and this.

Now the contrast of that still in the same chapter, you've skipped down to verse 15, But it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments, and his statutes what I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." And then itemizes those out.

And at the end it summarizes, so you basically have a choice.

And it hinges on the condition of our response to God's blessings, right?

So in the quarterly on Monday, it summarizes it this way from paragraph 2, it said, they, speaking of ancient Israel, were God's chosen nation, recipients of great blessings and great promises, but those blessings and promises were not unconditional.

They needed to be accepted, received, and acted upon.

And obviously the implication of the study of the Old Testament conditionals is the same thing that this is the arrangement God's going to see in the New Testament too with all of his people when he gives blessings and benefits it's up to us to Appreciate and walk in the conditions of them.

Okay, you know, it's interesting to me as I'm thinking about this that you know you have some disagreements and discussions in the Christian world about whether or not you know we start talking about obedience and all this and are you not getting a little bit more legalistic.

And I think what what people stop Christians should realize is you know there's there's 1 of 2 ways of looking at God.

Either he's an arbitrary God who just rules based on a whim, like I just feel like it because I'm God, or he's a loving God and all of his rules are made because they're for the good of his creatures.

Now if that's true, the second 1 is true, that means that the laws have a purpose, they're not just random, And if they have a purpose and they're not just random, they're not just arbitrary, that means there's a cause and effect.

And so we're talking about the blessings and cursings and conditional.

Well, you're saying God is not gonna unconditionally bless everybody.

Well, you can't unconditionally bless people if there is a actual cause and effect to violating God's commandments.

So if God says I want you to do this, I mean you've got a parent who says to your child I don't want you to eat too much candy or you're gonna get sick, Right?

So is it your rule or is it the nature of the exchange?

Do you torture them when they eat the cake?

And so I think that's important to keep in mind here that it can't be otherwise.

Yeah, so God's not saying I'm gonna arbitrarily be good or arbitrarily be bad.

He's like, I'm going to lay out the conditions of the arrangement, and it's up to you to engage in them how you feel best.

Which, by the way, salvation itself, we want to talk about conditional promises of God, he provides full and free salvation for anyone who wants it.

But that doesn't mean for everyone automatically.

So there is a concept in the world known as universalism, the idea being that God's going to take everyone to heaven regardless of your response, regardless of any, you know, come back on your part, and is that really, people might think, oh that's the most loving thing you do, just give everybody, but if you don't honor people's decisions, that is actually the less loving thing to do.

Well we were talking about this beforehand, I mean if you were to go to your non-Christian friends and say look I know you're not a Christian and you don't like going to church, you don't like gospel music and what but I'm gonna force you to sit in church to fellowship with Christians to talk about Bible things and sing Christian songs where they be like oh thank you God bless you yeah no like ah you know I even worse yet I'm gonna give you eternal life of that so you can never escape it.

Like you're gonna be sitting in church, you're gonna be around Jesus people and follow his rules, like I'd rather just die.

It's incredible to think about, but it's so true.

In fact, Jesus comments on in Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14, and if you want to be looking up 2 Peter 1, 10 and 11, that'd be helpful too.

But in Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus himself says, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it." So Jesus himself, the 1 who gives himself for the opportunity of salvation, outlined the fact that there are 2 paths and many will choose the other path but there are some who will choose the path that leads to eternal life in him.

So it's written here to 1st Peter 1 so I'm sorry I think 2nd Peter is what you want.

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.

So notice the entrance to the kingdom, I think I got it correct in there, second Peter, the entrance to the kingdom.

Why would you be diligent to make your call on election sure if it's already sure?

03 The Tithing Contract

I'm Cameron DeBasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

We're now in our third lesson of our 2023 first quarter lesson series, Managing for the Master Till He Comes, and this 1 is titled The Tithing Contract.

Now that's an interesting way to phrase that.

It's a contract of tithe that we have with the Lord, not just a, you know, a generic spiritual recommendation or good practice or something like that.

So it's an interesting way it's worded there, it makes it almost kind of formal.

But you're gonna be leading us out in that discussion here in just a minute.

So I don't think we have any of the preliminary conversation we need to have.

All right, so I'm gonna recommend I'll have a word of prayer, then you can pick up the baton and take from there.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you for the opportunity to study these important principles that are found solidly in your word.

Help us to understand them, not just academically, but put them into practice, Lord.

Help us to be faithful to that tithing contract and all the things you want us to do.

I believe the language here is intended also to express, as you said, that this is not an optional thing, and it's a solemn and sacred practice of returning tithes to the Lord, And so if I don't say it again, I think I will.

It's a responsibility, and yet God never forces anybody.

There are people outside the church and inside the church who do not return a faithful tithe, and God doesn't strike them down with sickness and what have you, but it still is an obligation.

We're going to see that as we go through the lesson.

So, obviously, this week's lesson explores the biblical instruction concerning the tithe, and we're not going to exhaust that.

There's a lot more that we can look at, but just the high points.

And so here are 3 takeaways this week, our 3 talking points.

Number 1, the tithe is the Lord's, and that's actually taken straight from Scripture and Sunday's lesson, and that's talking point number 1.

Talking point number 2, the tithe is for the spread of the gospel, primarily from Monday into Tuesday.

And then number 3, a faithful tithe is a tithe given by faith and that is Sabbath afternoon and Wednesday and Thursday.

I guess it makes sense you need faith to do something faithfully.

All right what does it mean that the tithes is the Lord's?

This might mean 1 of the most low-hanging fruit things but that's kind of the basis understanding of everything we're doing right now.

Well, let's go to Leviticus 2730, and this is where we find this in scripture.

Leviticus is the third book of the Bible, and I'm going to have you read that for us.

It says, and all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's.

Okay, now a couple things that we should make clear is, first of all, a tithe means a tenth.

I know there are always people who will say, you know, I could say look it up in the dictionary and say, well the dictionary is not the Bible, you know, and so how do we know it hasn't changed over time and what have you, but if you were to refer, for example, to Hebrews 7 verses 4, 6, 8, and 9, it uses those terms interchangeably.

And so you'll see that from a scriptural standpoint, there's no guesswork here.

Well, there's no such thing as an 8% tithe.

It wouldn't be a tithe, and by definition, it's either 10 or it's not.

And so we would more literally read Leviticus 27 30 to say all the tenth of the land is the Lord's.

Now this is interesting because in lesson number 1 we looked at how you know all the the Lord owns all the fullness of the earth.

He is the creator and sustainer and what have you.

And you know I've got a couple verses in there, Psalm 50, 10 through 12, Acts 17 where you were gonna say...

Well it just makes me, because I'm thinking the tithe is the Lord's, but then you go back to it, it's like, plus the other 90% is Lord's too.

So everything is, so anything you, once you say that the, that everything is the Lord's, then everything inside of that is by default the Lord's too.

So it's an interesting, like, which is the Lord's portion?

It's like, first of all, let's go back to remember, it's all the Lord's.

So really what is the Lord allowing us to enjoy or use?

So this is where we get into the contract idea and the obligation idea.

Like, God owns everything but he's chosen to only claim a tenth as his.

All the tithes of the Lord whether the fruit of the tree, the seeds.

But what the Lord does is he claims that only claims a tenth for himself.

And so now we find this command in Leviticus.

I point out that's the third book of the Bible.

It's where you find a large chunk of the Mosaic law.

And so some people have pointed out that the tithing system was given through Moses.

And it was a part of the Mosaic law that was done away with.

Which would have been also then only for the nation of Israel as constituted after the Exodus, you know, it was very limited.

Now I think that clears that up when we start to understand, and we'll get into this in our other talking points, the purpose of the tithe.

Now I've had people say, oh well the gift of prophecy was to end at the close of the canon of Scripture.

Like it's not in further in the New Testament.

It was just to get the church kick-started or something.

But then it's like, but when you read that the spiritual gifts were given to help the church finish the work of preaching the gospel.

Well, if the work of preaching the gospel isn't finished yet, why would God take away 1 of the tools to do it with?

And if the tithing system, and we're getting into the next talking point a little bit, was for the furtherance of the gospel.

So what I have in the notes here is, and the lesson highlights this as well, that while God gives an explicit command here in Leviticus 27, yet we find the evidence of the practice of tithing much earlier.

For example, we see Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek.

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