 Happy sabbath and welcome to the 10th lesson of the third quarter of the teens cornerstone connection lesson of 2023 This week we have Baraka on the mission story in the orchestra We have Amy and Ariana on the violins Sakai on the trumpet and Sid on the piano For the lesson panel we have some of the Nairobi central teens along with their teen teachers enjoy Happy sabbath as previously mentioned. My name is Baraka and I'll be taking you through the mission story for this sabbath the mission story comes from the country of Latvia and We know it's not a country that's talked about a lot So if in case you don't know it's located in Europe specifically on the Baltic Sea It has a population of 1.884 million people and the capital city is Riga. Yeah So the story is about a little girl called Anna Who loves Jesus a lot? She loves Jesus to the point where her mom would often call her like a little missionary like a small missionary She's not sure when she started this love for Jesus, but she could trace it back to about When she was five years old at some at some point She was in the car with her friend and her mom and they were driving and her friend was misbehaving quite a lot She was fidgeting moving around She was making a lot of noise and meanwhile Anna was just calmly staring at her and then out of the blue Anna asked her Like Jesus is coming soon. Are you behaving in the correct way? This made her friend pause for a minute and begin to think and Then she asked the question. How is Jesus coming? When is Jesus coming and why is Jesus coming? Although Anna was only five years old. She attempted to answer these questions to the best of her ability She said Jesus is coming in a cloud of White as it says in the in the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 7 Which says behold, he's coming with a cloud and every eye shall see him a Friend had also asked when is Jesus coming to which Anna replied even though we don't know the exact time that Jesus is coming we know he's coming soon sooner than later and After this this sparked continuous conversations between her and a friend about Jesus and as a result Her friends entire family would eventually get saved. They would all give their hearts to Jesus and get baptized thanks to Anna's missionary and So part of this quarters that in Sabbath offering will help children In Latvia learn more about Jesus and his sooncoming the offering will help construct a building in Latvia's capital, Driga We're pathfinders and other children can get to know Jesus. Thank you for This generous offering we encourage each and every one of us to give wholeheartedly so that They may be able to build this sort more and more children like Anna can get to know more about Jesus Before I close I'd like to say a small prayer for this 13th Sabbath offering, so it may be successful. Let's pray Our dear heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the gift of life and everything you've given us Dear God, I'd like to pray that you may please bless the 13th Sabbath offering So that more children like Anna may get to know about Jesus and spread the message of your sooncoming This is my prayer in Jesus name. Amen Rock such an amazing song Start with the lesson of discussion for today's lesson Today we have a very interesting Lesson which is all about the really a state Section before we jump into our lesson discussion of the day I would like us to start with a word of prayer by my brother Seed our father What in heaven will come before you this week for Sabbath morning? We thank you for the gift of life for your guidance your protection and for all the things that you have done to us Lord as we start this lesson. I pray that you may help us understand for this is my prayer in Jesus name Man, thank you so much before we jump to the lesson I would like us to introduce ourselves for my far left. Good morning from wherever you are. I am Salmods Hello, my name is Ashley And I'm said My name is Senate most say I'm going to be one of the facilitators for the for the show Before we go into the lesson We've just had a very very amazing song like we'll build on the rock and this it's one of like my favorite songs like Jesus is the rock if like will Stretch ourselves to the point of like Trusting in him then is going to show us like this is my place. This is the land for you I want you like to hear it for when we look at the lesson we have today the real estate section What do you understand by the word like I'm really a state section seed? of my understanding of real estate is like a housing like Company so like you be like they build a house then you can buy a house from like that specific company Or maybe just a company that manages assets like the LNG white estate Manages all the assets of the LNG white family. Yeah Salma, yeah, I think really really state is Generally managers or Company which builds houses just as it says and then they build it in a specific area So like the real estate section is Area where they're going to bring up the estate the guys can come and buy the houses. Yeah Thank you so much. All your answers are correct But in this case we're looking at out one of the best stories of my life for me If I can say we're looking at one character in the Bible who happens to be Cali. We all know like the role he played When actually they were sent by by Moses to be despised to go and see the land Calibur was one of the guys who came and then he gave a positive Feedback whereby all the other guys they were like no as for us We cannot go into that land because of the reasons they gave but Calib stood and say like no that place It's a good place and he gave honest answer to Moses due to his Honesty we see him like being rewarded something at the end and one of the things that he was given it was land for him He was like He was promised that why he told Joshua like Give me this land. This is what I want. Yeah, and then when we talk about like the really estate section This is what you're looking at like now the Israelites are reached in Kenan and now they are Taking possession of the land The and when you look at the lesson, it's like every person was possessing the land according to his faith So if you had a small faith then the place like what possess was to be Small because they were promised by God and then it brings us into Into the seventh day at the dentist fundamental beliefs number 14 Which says like unity in the body of Christ What do we understand by unity in the body of Christ actually unity Is one is something that's Christ underlined when he was enough and he Asked us no matter what differences we have no matter how much Truth is distorted. We need to keep in mind always the fact that we should Correct one another but keep Unity as our baseline no matter who goes astray. We should just Bring them back with patience and understanding and keep unity as our baseline because the moment when there is this unity Among us then the devil can work among us and do a number of things. Yeah, man. Amen Salman Okay, so I think from the Sunday section the Sunday section Which is into the story we have Joshua The people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal and Caleb say to Joshua 40 years ago we were here with Moses and We stood we were sent as 12 spies to study the land But only me and you came with good report of the land he stood firm and God told Moses the people you love to go around and we went around still loving strong faith and Caleb added that the strength I had 40 years ago now that I am 85. I Still have the strength to fight for the name of the Lord so Joshua give blessed Caleb and gave him inheritance land in Hebron so They had conquered all the cities so the Lord told Joshua Designate the cities for refugees in case someone killed a person Accidentally or unintentionally they will go to the cities stand before the gate And tell and tell it to the priests of the city to the elders of the cities and Tell them that what they tell them what they did so the elders let them in and when One of the king would come for revenge for the guy was killed and intentionally the elders are not to give this person I think from this section we learned that God really cares about everyone even murderers even to this day No matter what you've done. They're still Refugee in God and so After all that after everything was commissioned the Rubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh Left the Israelites and Shiloh and crossed over the Jordan back to Gilead Their own land So they built an altar there Then they are the Israelites came to Joshua and told him oh The Israelites Made an army. They wanted to fight Rubenites, Gadites and man tribe of Manasseh because they built an altar thinking that they had built it for the gods but The Rubenites Gadites and tribe of Manasseh defended themselves saying Built the altar so that when you are when our descendants Are here they won't say that What do you have with the Lord? Everyone will say this is the altar which was built here Just showing that we worship the same God and you have faith in the same God and so they named the altar a Witness between us that the Lord is good Sit, what do you think? It is better to try and fail than to have never tried at all Personally, I think I'll agree with this Because you know how when you were small and you didn't like eating vegetables Your mom would tell you so you're not going to try and you won't know it's nice Then you'll try it and I like oh, okay. This is actually nice So I feel like it's better to try and Fail than to never have tried at all because even putting aside food Opportunities in life you would try and fail but you would have gained experience or you will try and succeed So if you never tried then you'd have never had the opportunity to succeed They say experience is the best teacher Yeah, so it's going to try you fail and then at the end you get the results like you want Salman, what do you think? Yeah, I think I'd agree with that. Yeah, okay Number two The second one is the most well-intentioned effort will ultimately fail without God's blessing I'm gonna have to agree with this because With God nothing is impossible. So like if you if you take God out of it, it's it's impossible It may not be necessarily impossible, but it does not Doesn't bear the blessing of God and therefore you're all alone. It's like it's like Going to university and you're learning maybe let's say architecture But you're teaching yourself all by yourself learn to guide, you know teacher like worse than the person who discovered it, you know so there's nobody who's been there who's had the experience or who's Teaching and telling you turn left because if you turn right you will mess up So I think that's what God's blessing is and much more Yeah, I think this relates to the story of the 10 virgins Five had enough oil and oil in the Bible represents Holy Spirit the You have God but don't but then you don't have God at every time is that time the Holy Spirit leaves you So you are all by yourself They missed Interpretion means that they they missed heaven just because they didn't have the Holy Spirit Here you may miss your target. You may achieve some things But you may miss your target because you did not have God as your guiding light Yeah, exactly and it relates to the to the story of Kali when they went like this way for the land In the eyes of the other guys they were like, you know, we cannot like possess this land. Yeah, but for Kali we was like We have like the blessings of the Lord. We have been sent by the most high God So then what so hard for him that he cannot like give us so for him it was positive because he had Faith in him like God is going to to guide us and we are going to have this land So through that faith and believing like God's blessings are with us. That's how we see him like at the end It was like this is the land Many people they were like we cannot get it. That's why it was like telling our Joshua like for me like give me this land because it's something like God's blessings is with us. God has guided us up to this particular point So it's really when you're doing something always like put God first because God's blessings will help you like to achieve whatever Things you want to have in life. Yeah the third one is Even the flattest pancake has two sides It's a fact. Don't even have to agree But it's it's quite interesting Meaning that anyone you meet in this life as much as you think you know them too too well There's just that other side you have no idea about. Yeah. Yeah, I think we all agree with that The next one is general unity is more important than absolute agreement Very true. We can never agree on everything. We are diverse. Good creators created us differently with different Views to life approaches to life personalities therefore You can disagree but you can be unified your disagreement doesn't have to cause this unity among The fifth one is you can't be too careful Hey, you can be careful You can't be too careful. I don't know may you can be careful. You can also be too careful to see what your Avast or what it is that is making you want to be careful like you put your guard Sorry, so high up that you focused on the guard so much that you forget the thieves. Yeah. Yeah, I think for me What I say is no risk no reward. So we just have to take the risk just how to take the risk to move on Yeah The the next one is if we attend church and don't do anything too sinful Our salvation is secure. I'm disagreeing with us. Yeah, what's what's what's what what is the measure of sin? What is too sinful and less sinful? You know, what's the measure? It's all the same. Yeah, it's all the same. It's all the same. Yeah The next the next one is there's no saying God can't forgive Very true. Very true And it's big like if you get to the point where God cannot forgive you sins. It's because you have Constantly denied the Holy Spirit until it's no longer convicting you of sin Therefore you your conscience is here then you do not you cannot tell what is right and what is wrong yeah and The final one is we should be patient and considerate even with those who attack us It's really hard, but that's what the Bible says. That's what it should strive to do Even though it's very hard. I can't imagine someone. No, I can't tolerate Stabbing me. I'm not patient to the personal. Yeah, so I think we should just strive To be patient to these guys and bring them to God But but also I think if you want me to win these people into the kingdom of God, then like I feel like our character like Show much love and to them to a point whereby they feel like Yes, it is something wrong to this lady, but she is like always there for me She's there like to help me to do all the things maybe want to do I think only that is the only thing that can be able to bring these people and to the kingdom God Even so righteousness is not cowardice You cannot always be wrong then because your Christian just be just allow people to trample upon you And that also reminds me of a quote. I Thought about I don't know or I had somewhere that says in life. There are more misunderstandings than understandings so you're prone to be misunderstood more than understood therefore if you I'm violent to the wrong woman misunderstands you then you'll never be at peace. Yeah Thank you so much. See it. So maybe we move to the Sunday part Salomon can you take us through the Sunday part? Okay, so in the out of the story we have a few questions Which we need to answer Was it important that Caleb approached his old friend Joshua with a group of other tribes? Tribes members to ask for Hebron. I made Joshua from prior experience have been particularly concerned about public perception and opinion Joshua Know knows these people he's been with them. He's known their fathers You know how quickly they can turn against you and how quickly they can start to mum and how they can never be quiet and he's been through all the heresies and the Coups and everything that has happened in the camp of Israel. So a He he seeks to demonstrate to the public that this is just not about my personal relationship with Joshua It's not about the fact that he's the one person who's been with me all these years We figured out Kenan together. We brought back the good reports together We've been leaders together and now he's asking for this mountain of Hebron but It was if we did the key text the key text is Joshua 14 9 It says some that day Moses saw to me the land on which your feet have worked will be Inheritance and that of the children forever because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly So this was a reward to Caleb From God Because he strengthened the faith of Israel amidst the I missed everyone who was trying to bring them down Who was there to stand up for that which is right? And also maybe it was maybe a sign of unity that they went like all of them like they had to go and then claim Because it was like something that it was promised to him. So When he went to approach Joshua, he went not Demanding actually like for him to be given it was like a humble request. It's like something you have worked for Yeah, that's why we went and also it brings out something very nice. It's all about unity He went not for himself, but for the people around him So this one another we will see like the that are unity in the body of Christ. It's another character we see in I'm coming here not for my sake, but I'm coming here for the sake of the people around me So even when to get this land then my people also should get something out of it. Yeah, and also the This this is the land that he asked to subdue was of the Anakites And the Anakites as the other ones who had caused the faith of the Israelites to dwindle and to lose stand Because they thought they were grasshoppers and these were giant. So he somewhat sought revenge. Eleonore says that My faith Kaleb addressed every giant The very giants whose power had staggered Israel's faith and those who did not believe who were like no We're grasshoppers we cannot conquer this land. They saw their fears come to life and they all died in the wilderness. Yeah Well, let's keep a few and we just do one more Why we'll go to point cities of refuge rather than burn privates vengeance all together Let's just answer that the first part of the third question Well, we'll go to point cities of refuge rather than just burn private vengeance Altogether, you know, he cannot go against his words romance 323 I'm not wrong says that the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus therefore He cannot take away the punishment of the law after you have seen he can only give you grace and pardon to say It was unintentional. Therefore, I Don't have to be killed because I did not mean to kill the person It's maybe I was working and something he's he meant he died It was unintentional. Therefore. He gives us grace and a second chance to live even after mistakes have been done yet the sin of murder the sin of murder was He he said that whoso should death a man's blood my man his blood shall be shed You should kill by the sword you will die by the sword. Yeah, so that was pretty important not to abolish the law but also I think like It's like God had a plan for these people all along from From Egypt the first thing was feeling like a time Maybe looking at the generation of Abraham and all that it is something like for him. He had a plan for these people so Whatever like he was doing it's because he knew like what was going to be good for them not good for individuals but good for like Something that is going to please him That's what it was like. Maybe these people they need like maybe together this place because that's the land you deserve You know so you cannot see like come and possess this estate something like like we have not worked for It's like it brings something and then it gives to you You will not Value this thing sure but then again something like you have worked so hard for once you get it You will value that place even look at Calibre was like this the place. I want It's the place like every person was like for me. I cannot go into that place Look at the people who are occupying the place. They were big They were like giants but Calibre was like that's the place. I want he believed he had faith like My God is going to see me through and I'm going to have it So it also builds like our character as Christians like You want something you have to work for it? Challenges are going to be there, but what do you do? You must have faith and believe in the most I go like it's going to see me through until the point I'm going to possess this thing In the flashlight section It says that Caleb did not ask for himself a land already conquered by the place which above all others Above all others the spies had thought it's impossible to subdue To each was given according to his faith the unbelieving had seen the face who filled not with standing God's promise They had declared it was impossible to inherit cannot and they did not possess is Possess it but those who trusted in God looking not so much to the difficulties to be encountered as to the strength of them Almighty helper entered the good land and as I've mentioned before a few minutes ago he He had faith enough faith to know that the Giants that were living on this mountain would be conquered and For me I think it's a good form of revenge as much as the Bible says the revet vengeance is for the Lord he He uses this Promise to take away those who made the faith of Israel to dwindle and he's he's been through with them for the last 40 years He's now 85. They've been complaining. They've had plagues Snakes, you know, and he's not he's not complaining and saying, you know, if it was it was dependent on me would be in this land A long time ago you guys and you had belief is the reason we are still here, you know So I find Caleb really humble and I find Joshua also a bit wise when dealing with Caleb knowing that the Israelites can say oh you're showing favoritism. It's because it's your brother and all these things Exactly. So, uh, let's move to the Monday part. So maybe you take us through the Monday part So the Monday part is the key text The key text comes from Joshua chapter 14 verse nine verse nine Someone maybe you can read that one for us So on that day Moses spoke to me the land on which your feet have walked will be inheritance And that of your children forever Because you have followed the Lord my god wholeheartedly Yeah So it's it's an amazing thing because we are seeing a situation whereby god is rewarding the people because of having total belief in him they had faith in him like If we believe in god then god is going to show us the way like he's not going to live us And then it's something that comes into us christians, you know There are so many promises that god has promised us, you know If you remain faithful to me, then this is what i'm going to do If you work so hard in class, then these are the words that we are going to get So it it's a good thing that God is showing us through the the Israelites story like We have only one god and for us maybe to achieve the things that we want We only have to be living him and have total faith in him. That's the only way We can be able to come to the world Yeah Okay, so we'll move on to the punchlines Where everyone can choose one and just See how it speaks to them personally I'll start Mine is sons 46 verse one god is a refugee strength And ever present Help in trouble I really Love to read verses like this ones that give you strength and hope Knowing no matter what difficulty you are in there is a god Who's there for you waiting for you to go over leading you through I'd choose second Samuel 22 verse 23 which says the lord is my fortress and my deliverer My god is my rock in whom I take refuge my shield and the horn of my salvation He is my stronghold my refuge and my savior from violent people you save me this points to the Cities of refuge that god built in christ is our refuge. She shelters us from the from the Um consequences of sin or from sin itself and he takes us away from violent people You know If I were to kill someone today, there are close relatives of these people who want me dead, right? Would they give me days? To whether test whether it is right as long as they think I killed the person they want me dead no matter The rumors no matter So the cities of refuge were there within a half a day's journey of every where so at the moment You know that you kill this person accidentally you run Without speed we should also run to the savior because the devil is there Trying every way to tempt us and as soon as he tempts us he pulls us into his camp and says yeah God cannot love you because you already did this. So I I I love the part that says from violent people you save me Um, I would pick some subject 91 of us one it says Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the of the almighty I like this verse because You know, it's it's it gives me hope That you know, if you dwell in the shelter Like god will give you rest like I I remember this verse um, it's it's something like Come me who are I'll give you rest But you know, it's it's you know, it gives me hope that Whenever life gets tough Maybe I'm struggling. I'm reading And I'm more understanding what's what what I'm reading so like It gives me hope that whenever I go to god, he will you're for sure give me rest For me, I'll also take a sums 40 46 was fun Uh, which is uh, god is our rivet and the strength and ever present help in trouble for me I'll just look at uh, like the whole story uh, the one uh From egypt and and then to the place where they are right now settling in uh in kenan We see like uh, there was a lot of things happen the wilderness all the way from egypt and all that But all this time like god was ever ever ever present Um with uh with these people at no any given point Are they were like god we have called you and you have not answered our prayer god was always there every time moses was like God this is what the people are crying for and god always provides solutions Our god will always provide for them. So it tells like life it's not going to be or about uh Walking the path, but also there are those times when you feel like Things are not working or maybe this trouble in whatever you're doing But god is there telling us like the only thing that you need to do is just To look on to me To fight for what you believe in if it's the bible then go for it and show the world like you know what God Is here god will answer our prayers if we believe in him and then have total faith in him My man, um that takes us to the thousand day part And to the Tuesday part I will just ask us a few questions and the questions I would ask don't need an answer But I'd like each one of us to think through this and it says that in much of life Attitude is everything the israelites self-defeating attitude left led to defeat Jesus courageous faithfulness brought god-powered success What is god encouraging you to do and what giants are in your way? How can you focus on what god will do through you and not just the obstacles in your way? In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22 and 24 I'd ask seeds to read for us Hebrews 10 26 sorry 26 and 27 Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22 26 and 27 26 um, sorry 22 and 24 Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22 and 24 It says Let us draw near Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water And then 24 22 23 and 24 just 22 and 24 Just 20 24 24 says and let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to and to and to good works Yeah, let's consider another in love and provoke each other to good works um the israelites at some point thought about the had heard about the rumba night and the And the altar they had built and this was This was provoking them and they were feeling like, you know, we should kill them. They've already made a mistake Don't they know what happened in the wilderness? Don't they know what happened after they had created a calf? Don't they know how many people died? They were already quick to judge and quick to think about the consequences of what they're done without really knowing and being given an explanation So while we are not to sacrifice one principle of truth It should be our content aim to reach this state of unity Where now they asked the question, why did you do this and they were just told that it is a memorial And on the altar it was inscribed that it is a memorial lest anyone should Worship on this altar so a spirit of kindness A catcher sobering department may save the airing and hile the multitude of sin so that even under False accusation those in the right can be calm and considered and by this we can draw others to christ Thank you. Thank you so much. And now we are moving on to the The friday patch, which is like marking the almost the end of our lesson for for today Maybe I can invite to read for us. Matthew 24 9 to 14 Matthew chapter 24 verse 9 to 14 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake And then shall shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another And many false prophets shall rise and deceive many And because in equity shall amount The love of many shall works cold But he that But he that shall endure and to the end the same shall be saved And this ghost and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all that world For our witness unto nations and then shall the end come Amen actually looking at this story one of the things we're learning from The real estate sexual it's that sometimes we as christians When we decide like we want to follow Christ there are a lot of things that we We normally face along the way, but one thing that should be sticking to our minds is like God is always there to guide us. God is always there to show us the way if only we can just have that believe in him that god Died for us and god is here to show to lead everything we want to do And the only thing that we need to do as christians is to involve god in all the plans that we have Sometimes along the way as christians we can lose our friends. We can get betrayed. There are so many things that we stand to know to gain when We we want to stand to lose and obstacles. Yeah. Yeah, but the only thing god is telling us is like Be firm on your faith Have some faith in whatever you're doing because if someone deserved to have a good Retirement then it's calling because of the work that he did and actually god gave him Because he felt like this young man has stood for the truth. He has done according to my will What do I have to do? I have to give him a reward and that's the only thing god is promising us like Let's turn to his word Let's do according to his will at the end of the day when he comes for the second time We will be the first people like to see him on the sky like coming and then We live with him forever because there's an estate for us in heaven Not this worldly estate that we see here But there's an estate in heaven that god is preparing for us. Maybe we can get our parting shots from From each and every one of us and then we Salman Okay, so I think for me My parting short is we should believe in god And know that he is our refugee strength and will lead us through every difficulty that Pocas in our life just as he led the Israelites I did the father insight and it says by our unity by esteeming others better than ourselves We are to bear the world to the world a living testimony of the power of truth and also that First John five forces that faith is a victory that overcomes the world our faith can help us conquer Very many things so I'd encourage each one of us to keep believing and having faith in god For me I first want to correct something you said I believe you said We shall be the first ones to rise up to go and meet Jesus in the skies I'd like to correct that it's actually the dead in Christ that will rise first Then we will rise after them. Yeah, and I'd like to see that You know whenever you feel troubled Just remember there's always light at the end of the tunnel and our light at the end of the tunnel is god The almighty God will empower us when we we follow him And in closing says like every person was given according to his faith It draws like again into us like we should have faith in him When challenges are we feel like they're too hard for us The only thing that we need to do is to have total faith in him and believe that He's going to deliver us and he's going to lead us all the way And so I would like to invite our salmon to have a closing prayer for us. Let's pray Thank you lord for this day. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for helping us Read and understand this lesson And share it to the world may you be with us guide us and protect us Give us our sins and trespasses in Jesus name we pray and believe amen Until next time. Bye