 Welcome to the last Sabbath of the quarter. This is the 13th Sabbath. And I truly hope that you have enjoyed this whole quarter, that even though you had highs and lows that you kept on trusting in God. We're going to be doing the 13th Sabbath, which is the drama in the desert. This is going to be done by teens class. And on the panel, we're going to have Finley Chabari, Ashley Silas, Silas Were Jr. and Chayujin Okumo. In the orchestra, we're going to be having Marina Numba, El Cidama and Amy Andagalu. For the mission, El Cicero will do it. And the orchestra will be playing amazing grace. Please enjoy and be blessed. Welcome back to today's mission. The title is Mission Field at Home. It's about this old couple named Victor and Eunice. Victor and Eunice longed to serve the Lord as seventh-day Adventist missionaries in a faraway country like Angola or Mozambique. But a 1974 revolution in their homeland, Portugal, seemed to end their dreams. Things, however, were not as they appeared. When the Portuguese military outs to the authoritarian government, the laws changed. For the first time, the Adventist church opened schools in Portugal. The revolution opened a new mission field at home. In the months after the revolution, Victor and Eunice's church congregation were drawn to Ellen White's advice on education. They read in all our churches and wherever there is a company of believers, church schools should be established and these schools there should be teachers with a true missionary spirit, for their children to be trained to become missionaries. It is essential that the teachers be educated to act their part in instructing children of Sabbath keepers, not only in sciences, but in the scriptures. These schools, established in different localities and conducted by God-fearing men and women, as the case demands, should be built upon the same principles as were the schools of the prophets. The congregation set up a church school. Eunice, a public school teacher and fourth generation Adventist, accepted the invitation to teach at the school just outside the city of Porto. Her decision took a big leap of faith. The Adventist church had never operated as school in Portugal and everything had to be started from scratch. It was like going to Angola or a mission field, Eunice's. We had no tradition to follow. It was all new. Church members both learned for the school and classes started in 1975. A small classroom who said the first students are a group of children from the local church. Enrollment grew as the school gained a name. Adventist parents from other churches began sending their children to the school. Influential and Adventist families also enrolled their children, including local pharmacy owner and the city mayor. Eunice thought of the school until her retirement. Victor, who had worked for 25 years building electrical engines, went back to school and became a teacher. Both he and Eunice served at the school principal at different times. Over the years, Portugal's first Adventist school had turned our mission-minded children, including a union president and at least 14 pastors and four literature evangelists. Victor and Eunice have rejoiced in seeing children give their hearts to Jesus in baptism. One of the favorite memories is of an older student. A young man of about 18 who came to school from an Adventist home. He befriended a young Adventist woman working as a volunteer in the school. The two began to date and later got married. Today, the couple are faithful church members and have two grown daughters, one who is a physician and the other is a pathfinder leader. Victor recalls a time when the city wanted to honor him for his contribution to education. City leaders proposed naming a school or even a monument after him. This 13th sub-bath offering is going to go to Portugal to help building different Adventist schools all over the country. Welcome back to Cornerstone Connections. Today on the panel, I have Vinley on my far right. Vinley, say hi. Hi. Right next to me, I have Ashley. Hi. And on my left, I have Silas. Hi. We'll begin with an opening prayer from Ashley. Let's pray. Creator of the universe, we come before you through a mercy. We ask, Lord, that this sub-bath, as we learn more about you, may illuminate our minds and give us understanding of your word, that it may quicken us as we prepare for your second coming. But there's a humble prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. This is lesson 13, the final lesson of the quarter. And the key text is from the book of Numbers 28, 21 verse eight. The word of the Lord says, the Lord said to Moses, make a snake and put it up on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. Vinley, can take us through the what do you think section. So in the what do you think section, she is traveling as several big households associated with it. If you're flying on an airplane, boarding a train or riding on a bus, all far away trips require some preparation. List five things you must do before embarking on any trip. One is provided for you. And the one provided is, pack everything you'll need for the trip. And the others are, research about the area planning to visit. You may have a reconnaissance and also check whether the materials needed are of good condition. Great. Ashley, what would you pack when preparing for a trip? Other than packing and checking the area, I'd figure out the weather. How is it going to look like? Then now I'd know what I'm going to pack and what I'd need for the trip. Have you recently been rained on? Yeah, quite a number of times. Silas, how about you? I'll just check the safety of the police. Safety, security. If unsafe? Oh, I canceled the trip or I look for security to guide me wherever I go. Very interesting. Which would you guys prefer, a road trip or a pilgrimage? What do you mean by a pilgrimage, camping on the side of the road? No, like going for the sake of worship and prayer. A road trip. A road trip. How about you, Finley? A road trip. Okay. Silas. A road trip. Road trip as well. I feel like when you go for a pilgrimage, the end goal is to meet God and to discover why God created you. I mean, road trips are fun, but fun is very transient, you know? Doesn't really last. But anyway, Silas, do you mind taking us into the story? Okay, the into the story is divided into three parts. The complaints, detours, and then God's punishment and grace. So we'll start with the part of the complaints. So, in the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the desert of Zin. And they stayed there at Kadesh. Their Miriam died and was buried. So now after Miriam died, there was no water and no food. So the Israelites started to complain and they were complaining to Moses and Aaron and asking them why did they bring them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. So they were complaining that there's no water and there's no food and that in Egypt they had food. That was already ungratefulness for what they had seen. And then Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Adam to ask them for permission to pass through their land. And the Adamites refused that the Israelites could not pass in their land. And if they did, the Adamites would attack them. So the Israelites or the brothers of the Adamites and the Adamites refused. So it wasn't really reasonable. And then God's punishment for their complaints was, he allowed snakes to come where they were and beat them and some of the Israelites died. And God said that Moses should put a snake on a pole and anyone who looks at the snake shall live. But it was for the Israelites to trust God that if they look at the snake, they would live. But some didn't trust God to look at the snake and they died. Thank you Silas. Now we go to out of the story and there are some questions I'd like to highlight. First one, Silas you can read us question two. What complaints from the Israelites are you most likely to make? You know something we don't see. And this lesson is that the Israelites are worried. Miriam had died, Aaron was buried. They didn't know where Aaron was buried. Now they're going around the city. They've taken 40 years and they mama and tell God, why did you bring us out here to die? In fact, there's no food, there's no water, no grain, no figs, no grapes, vines, no water, no pomegranates. We detest manna. We eat and eat every day for 40 years. Every single day we detest this miserable food. Even us would not eat the same food for one week. And we think that they did not believe, they did not, but would be most likely to make the same complaint if you were found in their shoes. So what is this thing that you complain about and not think about God's providence in our lives? I found in experience that usually in times of grief or loss or failure, you are most exposed and vulnerable to temptation. We need to be very careful when processing grief or something bad happens to us because usually at that time, the devil sees an opportunity. One theologian said, the devil never attacks during fair weather. He always waits for it to be stormy before he attacks. Let me also mention that a hard heart can turn the extraordinary into nothing. It was the hard heart of the Israelites that made something as spectacular as manna from heaven. Sound like it was the worst thing anyone could eat. Finley, please read for us from the book of Matthew, chapter seven and verse six. Matthew seven and verse six. Matthew seven six says, do not give what is holy to the dogs nor cast your pulse before swine. Lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces. Very important guys, do not give what is holy to the dogs nor cast your pearls before swine. Have you ever seen pearls before? Very pretty, very beautiful, very valuable. Each of us have been given valuable things, gifts from God. Be very careful not to use your gifts before people who have no value for them. This is what happened to the Israelites. God gave them something so spectacular but they treated it like it was nothing. And just to continue the thought that Ashley started us off on, we must take into consideration what they had just gone through. They were grieving Miriam and then this happened. They lacked water. But to take it further than that, they mentioned Egypt. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? Please. Philly, was Egypt a better place? No. Was it Silas? I don't think so. If it was me, I wouldn't think Egypt is a better place. But you know sometimes, okay, Egypt was not a better place but because they were used to that life, you can imagine they were born slaves. They felt like, you know, it's my portion. I was born a slave, I can live a slave or die a slave. And they were satisfied with that life. It was not a big deal. Yet God made them hate Egypt to the point that when they were coming out of Egypt, they did not want to go back there. You know, we tend to do the same thing. When we think where we are coming from is better than where God is leading us. We meet challenges along the way and you sit in question, why did I start after all? I mean, I was just living a comfortable life. You don't have to get to this point. Here I am uncomfortable. I don't know what to do about it. Can I go back? We always tend to have those complaints even though we never say them. They're there. Right. And I love what you've just said. They wanted to go back to Egypt because Egypt was more familiar. Sometimes we can go for what is familiar but not necessarily good for us. So God got them out of Egypt but the next mission was getting Egypt out of them. Would you agree? Yeah. All right, so the next question is what character in the story are most interesting to you and why? Finley? So the most interesting characters are the Israelites and they took complaining as the Aobi because every time when God did this, they must complain. Yeah man, that's a bad hobby. What do you think Silas were the most interesting characters according to you? Moses. Why? Because even after all the complaints and all what he had gone through, he still followed God's instructions. Yeah. You know, Moses at this point had just made the mistake of hitting the rock twice. He was discouraged. He had been told he would not see the Promised Land. He would not step his foot in the Promised Land. His brother had died. His sister had died. People he had always looked up to were no longer in this life. He was left alone to struggle with these people. So it was terrible. Yeah, and he was discouraged. He had hit the rock twice. They had tempted him. They were rebelling. Now they wanted to go back to Egypt because of their own mistakes. They could not go through the shorter route and pass through Edom. Moses was discouraged. He had tried his best, but they never appreciated. So Moses was literally an interesting character in this lesson. I agree with both of you. Moses is standing out here firstly because of how quickly he learns from his mistakes. Just a chapter or so previously, he got so mad he struck the rock twice. But now the same people complain and he reacts differently. He reacts with obedience and following God's instructions. And that is how we are to react as well. We are to be quick to mend our mistakes and to learn from them. The last question is what lesson can you apply to your life this week based on your reading? I think I'll begin by saying we need to value what has value and to reject what is worthless and not the other way around. When God rains bread from heaven, treat it like bread from heaven, guys. Don't call it miserable food, you know? When God gives you health, legs to move about, eyes to see, beauty, the gift of singing, the gift of reading His word, these are very rare things. So you should value them. They rejected the bread of heaven and God gave them the snakes of the earth. Let us not make the same mistake. What do you guys learn? I think I learned that since faith is the only way we please God and by faith we come to Him, we cannot mama against His providence because God, Ellen White says that God never removes, never brings us to the point where there is no doubt, there is always doubt. And if we want to live life and see no doubt and then we expect that now that is God's leading, we will not move forward because He gives us sufficient evidence on which to best faith and if this is not accepted, the mind is left in darkness. It's our duty first to look and the look of faith will give us life. Amen. Silas, any lessons for life? Okay, I learned that in whatever pressure you go through, always trust God. Amen. Finally, any lessons? So God will not allow any temptation that will overcome us. Neither will He let any that we can handle so easily. He will bring a temptation that is equal to our abilities. Right, the Bible says God will never test you more than you can endure. But He will also never test you below what you can endure. And even as before we continue, we'd like to digress to the song, Amazing Grace, and then we'll come back to review what God's amazing grace is. Amen. Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. This grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home. What a wonderful song. We'll move right to the flashlight. Actually, we'll take us through it. The wilderness wandering was not only ordained as a judgment upon the rebels and mamma, and mamma rose, but it was to serve as a discipline for the rising generation. Preparatory to their entrance into the promised land, Moses declared to them, as a man chased on earth his son, so does the Lord thy God chased on earth thee, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or not. You know, the Israelites, as they journeyed, they left Egypt 6,000 men above the age of 20. So if you had to speculate, you would figure, you would find that the people who left Egypt are about two million people, and those are mixed multitude. And by the time the Israelites enter Canaan, no one of the mixed multitudes is alive. And because of their mamma rings, God destroyed them, but it's important to note that the wilderness wandering was not only ordained as a judgment, but it was to serve as discipline for the rising nation. The temptations you go through, the trials you go through are not as judgment, most of the time, they're disciplined to us to prepare us for the heavenly Canaan. Amen. Every wilderness in your life is designed by God to prove you, perfect you for the mission he has for you. If you remember, before the Lord began his mission, we read that he was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. And even David, before he became king, was hide and wear in the very wilderness. So before you walk into God's will, first God will take you through trials that will test you and prove you and make you better and fit for the work he has prepared for you. And now we'll move on to the punchlines. Silas, maybe you can take us through Ecclesiastes 7 verse 9. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 9, it says, not to be quick to provoke in your spirit for anger, resides in the lap of fools. Wow. Do not be quickly provoked. How easily provoked are you? That's a very important question to ask yourself. For anger resides in the lap of fools. In the book of James, God tells us be slow to speak and quick to listen. And elsewhere, one of the wisdom texts, we read that the heart of the fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart. Amen. Actually, maybe you can read Psalm 31 verse 3 for us. Psalm 31 verse 3 says, without my rock and my fortress, therefore for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me. For the sake of God's name, he leads us and guides us. Because he's our rock and fortress. At the end of the day, when we overcome and go through that which was difficult, all glory is supposed to go to his name. Amen. And that should give us comfort, that God doesn't lead us because we deserve to be led or because we're good. Therefore, because it's for his name's sake, he'll make sure he'll do it. Whether we are faithful or not, God will be there. Amen. That is just how amazing that grace is. Finley can take us through Hebrews. Hebrews 13 verse 5 says, keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Amen. As a promise from the Lord that we are to be content with what we have. And truly we have a lot compared to the writer of Hebrews, don't you think? How much did he have? You know, sometimes I wonder how much more would they do if they had Uber and, you know, and Glovo and Instagram and all these apps that have made our lives so comfortable. When Paul was a missionary, he had to endure shipwrecks. But for us, we can bike to a mission, we can fly to a mission. So we have more reason to be content because God has provided even more comforts for us than he did for those who came before us. And I will move on to the connecting to life. Silas, you can take us. Okay, so the connecting to life is just the same lesson. And on Sabbath is the wordy thing section where we talked about what we need for our journey, the five things that we need. Yes, and we talked about safety and the weather. Yes, and on Sunday is a into and out of the story section where we learn about how the children, the Israelites, Muhammad and were not content. Yes, and Monday is the key text for the Bible study. Yes. Amen. I'll just pick up on the key text where we read that God told Moses to place a snake on a pole and whoever looked on the brown snake would live. Something that I got from this is what cured was made in the shape of what wounded. All right, quite often the solution to your problem is wrapped up in the problem, if you're keen enough to see it. And then secondly, it sounds like a dumb idea to look at a snake to cure a snake bite, doesn't it? Someone told you to cure the snake bite, you need to look at another snake. Yeah, so how much weight? Do you think it took for dying Israelites to cast a snail on a pole for healing? And what was God trying to teach the Israelites about his power and their willingness to trust him? I feel like God's salvation always comes off as foolish. Naman comes to Israel, he has leprosy, and then he asks the prophet, what shall I do to be healed? And Elisha tells him, go to the Jordan, the dirty, dirty Jordan. And deep yourselves seven times. Deep yourselves seven times. How many people would be like, okay, that sounds like medicine, no one? Right, so God's salvation quite often seems kind of idiotic, but it's usually a test of pride, which is why Paul writes to the Corinthians in his first letter, the preaching of the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God. And even today, the gospel sounds foolish. Around all this technology, people think salvation can't be that simple, but it really is only for those who are willing to set aside their pride, look and live. And lastly, let me say that delayed obedience is disobedience. Yes, because if he delays to obey, did he really obey or because he realized that I was told this and I didn't do, but I have to do it because I was told. You know, that cost Israel the passing through of Edom and now they had to go through the Mount Hore and turn around because of their delayed obedience. You know, sometimes we're told to do something, but you're not prompt at it and you don't know the consequences. And that leads me to the question that says, are we doing something that's might be preventing us from achieving the blessing that God has for us? Sometimes God needs us to yield for him to use us and we don't want to yield because maybe we say the price is too high, the standard is too high, or you find that if you yield to his calling, you no longer fit in the group or whatever challenges it may bring by your side, but what is it that we do that prevents God from achieving the blessing and the purpose in our lives? Yeah, very important. There's always something standing in the way of God's blessing and usually it's sin. Sin will always compromise you. Sin will always stand in the way of your blessing and of purpose. I'd like to think of sinners like a computer virus. Whenever a virus affects your computer, it affects your memory, doesn't it? It might affect the keyboard, it might affect the CPU. So whenever you sin, sin affects the hardware God has given you, that is your body, and it limits how much God can bless you and how well he can use you for his glory. So it's very important for us never to delay obedience and to be quick to obey God because it's not always going to be, there's not always going to be time to explain why you need to obey him because if you're bitten by a snake, how much time do you need for someone to explain to you? Just an hour and you're dead. How much time do you need for someone to explain to you that this snake bite will kill you if you don't look? So sometimes you obey and you understand later. You obey and understand later. And say something about the serpent, that the lifting of the serpent is to teach Israel an important lesson that they could not self-serve from the fatal effect of the poison in their wounds. God alone was able to heal them. They were required to show their faith in the provision he had made. You know the snakes in the desert, first in a desert there's no water. And the venom in their blood is poisonous because even if a snake bites itself, it dies. Why? Because the venom is only in its teeth and not in the bloodstream. So it puts it into its bloodstream, it dies. How worse if it bit a human being? Yeah, so that was not interesting. It would just kill you. So by looking upon the serpent, their faith was shown and they knew that there was no virtue in the serpent itself, but it was a symbol of Christ. The necessity of faith in his merit was thus presented to their minds. Many had brought their offerings to God and had felt that in so doing they made ample atonement for their sins. They didn't rely on the Redeemer to come of whom these offerings are only a type. The Lord now teach them that their sacrifices in themselves had no more power or virtue than the serpent of brass, but were like that to lead their minds to Christ, the great sin offering. Amen. This all pointed to Christ. And if you look to Christ, you will live. As long as the look is a look of faith, you will live. Silas, please read for us from the punchlines. Psalm 56 verse eight. Psalms 56 verse eight. It says, record my misery, lest my tears on your scroll, are they not in your record? Vinley, how do you feel about the idea that God takes note of your suffering? Pardon? How do you feel when you hear that God takes note of your suffering? What I can say is that I be mindful of my actions because I know he records everything. He records everything. Do you feel reassured that God sees what you're going through? Yes. Yeah. The Bible says that he records our misery and he lists our tears on your scroll. Some versions say he collects our tears in a bottle. And some versions say that lest my warnings, put down my tears into their bottle, are they not in their book? Amen. In fact, that's the version I was talking about. Our suffering is precious in the sight of God because we do not have to do it. You can stop being a Christian but you keep enduring and that is valuable to God. Yes, Silas? That shows that he really cares of every single thing that happens to you. That's why he records even your tears. Amen. And ultimately, it also shows that God isn't really as interested in our flimsy happiness, but in building endurance into our souls that we may be ultimately and eternally happy. Does that mean that when we suffer, God enjoys? No, God is not like a sad or masochist or anything, but even in Isaiah, we read that it pleased God to bruise Christ. Because in bruising Christ, he was saving humanity. True, but that hurts that it pleased him. It hurts. Well, the general, not general, but the overarching purpose of God has always been to save our souls. And sometimes salvation comes to the suffering of others. You know, the matires of today are the heroes of tomorrow. You know, and that is just how life is patterned. We'll conclude with Friday, which I'll read and then finish with the further insight. Israel's journey in the wilderness to the Promised Land, should have taken a few days, but it took them 40 years. Can you identify some things that delayed them from receiving their blessing? And we've already seen it was their constant complaining and disbelief in God. Your journey in life is shortened when you are quick to obey. Amen? Amen. And that reminds me, I figured out just the other day that if you don't overcome temptation, you go around and come back the same way until you overcome. So I'm just wondering the viewers, would you like to go through the same path in your life because you are not overcoming this temptation? Because God will take you through it every time until the point where you yield totally and overcome this. So it's an appeal to us. Amen? The Father's insight says, nothing less than the infinite sacrifice made by Christ in behalf of fallen man could express the Father's love to lost humanity. Nothing could be truer. For God so loved the world that he gave his son. The greatest illustration of God's love is the cross and it was pointed to by the brazen snake that was placed on a pole. In fact, Christ before he began his ministry said, has Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness? To the Son of man. The Son of man. Lifted up. God bless you guys. We'll conclude with a prayer from Finley. Just before we conclude, I'd like to pose this question to each one of you that we should identify something in our life that's preventing God from living and working in us and his will through us and ask God for strength to trust his leading even when the way seems difficult. Amen Finley. Let us pray. Our gracious Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for letting us to know that we should have more faith in you. In Jesus' name we do pray and believe. Amen.