 Happy Sabbath and welcome to the last but certainly not least lesson of the teens cornerstone connection Lesson 2023 This week we have Baraka in the mission story in the orchestra We have a song by Ashley Accompanied by John playing the guitar and for the lesson panel We have some of our Nairobi central teens along with our teen teachers. Enjoy a Totally new girl is the title for today's mission This mission like the previous four comes from the country of Latvia that's located in Europe and the Baltic Seas It's the fun fact about Latvia. The first church was established in the mid 1900s The story begins with a girl called Agnes Agnes is a very very unhappy girl Someday she cries most days. She's sad Sometimes she gets angry and even refuses to eat She sounds like a very relatable character until you realize why she's in why she's in such a state Agnes had an accident when she was seven years old a Very very bad car accident that left her bedridden and paralyzed This is the main reason for her behavior Agnes was never used to Staying in one place for long or being unable to do things that she could previously do with a lot of ease like running around using her hands to draw Playing with her friends and so this setback really changed Agnes and it made her more Sad and depressed She'd take her classes in from her hospital bed. She'd had many different teachers come the teacher languages math But none of this ever made her feel any better Because she still wanted to be out there like the rest of the children Our age and play and do other things that she could previously do However one day things changed when she got a new teacher and this teacher was different from the rest of the teachers She's had before this teacher talked more about God and about heaven and how Jesus was coming soon And he was gonna take everyone to heaven and heaven is a better place and at first she didn't quite understand it But the more they talked the more she realized that This message that she was hearing from this teacher was a message of hope the teacher talked about how in heaven The lion would walk with a lamb everyone would have they'd have pets She'd be able to run she'd be able to use her hands and legs Just like she did before and this really gave this really gave Agnes hope and One time the teacher even held a big birthday party for her it was so big everyone came She had children from the school come they organized a party They had a lot of going going on and it was even broadcasted on the news and this made Agnes very very happy and Then after some time even though the teacher stopped coming Agnes The message that she'd received was enough to change her for the better and to change her forever She became more hopeful. She stopped becoming angry should eat. She became more pleasant to be around Simply because of this message of hope that she'd received from my teacher Part of this quarters 13th Sabbath offering will help other children in Latvia No, Jesus the offering will help construct a building in Latvia's capital rigour where children can learn more about Jesus and his Heaven filled with friends and animals and no pain or illness I'll now say a short prayer to Forgot to bless the 13th Sabbath offering. Let's just pray Our dear heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for life and everything you've given us Dear God, we pray that like Like the girl in this story that you may please help your message of hope spread around the world So it's more and more people may come to you we pray for the 13th Sabbath offering that it may build a Building in the capital of Latvia where children can learn about you more and grow spiritually Thank you for listening. Which is our praying Jesus name. Amen Good morning. Good evening. Good night and good afternoon wherever you may be watching us from Thank you so much for joining us and boy. Do we have a lesson for you today? But before we start, I'll just invite our panelist just to introduce ourselves themselves from the far right there Go ahead sir. Yes He is given the greetings. So my name is Gideon and I'll be taking you through My name is Marie My name is Zecha Osano And my name is Bismarck Lumumba. Let us pray before we begin. Dear father in heaven. Oh, Lord God, we come before you father at this time. We'd like to thank you so much father for another opportunity to read your lesson Please father help us to understand it and just in my prayer. Amen. Amen So ladies and gentlemen today, we are going to be learning all about The human nature the human nature and particularly we are going to be looking at pride Ambition and humility and what do these things mean to us? What do these things really mean to us? You know And at the end of the day, we'd like to know You know How should we relate with one another? You know, how should we think about one another in regard to Humility, you know, is humility a good thing? You know, it's pride a bad thing You know, what about ambition? Is ambition good or is ambition bad? Right and before we start, you know, I just wanted to let just ask What do you guys think? What do you guys think about all these pride ambition the human nature in itself? And I'd just like to invite Marie just to take us through What what do we think about this? So In the lesson we have the what do you think section it asks you to pick true or false So the first statement says Before honor and wealth comes humility I'll say it again before honor and wealth comes humility. What do you think of this? I personally thought it was false, but I like to hear what you have to say Mm-hmm. Uh, what do you think? It depends on what perspective you take on this But I think the more Christian approach to it would be that humility comes before honor and wealth Yeah, so it's true Personally thought it was false because in this world and how everything functions Is based off pride and greed and corruption And the only way to get to the top is ungodly and unjust All right. What about you Leca? What do you think personally? I think it depends on how one got the honor and wealth And if they got it through dark ways, there was never humility before that But if they got it the right ways Sometimes they might have been humbled by life and They were humility They were humbled. Yeah, they're humbled. All right. All right The next question is corruption pride and arrogance lead to worldly wealth Is this true or is this false? Yeah, what do you guys think? It's true Also um They've been really specific here to say worldly wealth So if it's worldly wealth There are so many people who acquire that through corruption and They are pride and they are arrogance because it's just worldly wealth, but If you put it in terms of general wealth like heavenly wealth All that come amounts to nothing indeed well as you have observed when one is kind and gentle and humble they get walked all over and don't have a chance for them to stand up and be their confident self And in this world, that's the only way to acquire your riches Yeah, yeah, that's uh, that's very insightful money actually But it's just interesting, you know the ideas that we have that And I think Gideon put it very well Wildly wealth Wildly wealth. I have a question too What do we think about a wildly wealth as opposed to to heavenly or eternal wealth? What do you guys think is there? What do you think about what do you think worldly wealth is? Worldly wealth Is the material you have now the car you're driving the house you live in The shoes you wear every day and that's what you term as worldly wealth And with regard to the question this corruption Uh corruption a corrupt person All In one way or another comes out successful in terms of acquiring worldly wealth So this worldly wealth you will always have it by this Corrupt means and your pride and your arrogance. Okay. Okay. What about eternal wealth? Can you gain eternal wealth through? corruption pride or arrogance Eternal wealth comes with one's behaviors one's character traits so to term it right Corruption pride and arrogance are not the character traits that We see in Christ that you try to emulate in our daily lives So because those three are not part of what you try to emulate then they cannot Be the right way to acquire that eternal wealth But rather it will just to just give you the earthly wealth earthly wealth So you can't actually acquire eternal wealth through pride arrogance or corruption In fact, if anything you think you might lose it Right. I don't know if you're going to gain eternal life through pride arrogance or corruption, right? You look at if you have something to say Yeah, you see in worldly wealth is fame and friends and how you identify with people I don't think anyone would ever find you cool if you came and shoved Jesus in their face or started talking about God. They want you to go party and Drink and all these ungodly things Well with Jesus you just have to obey him and live how he intended for you to live All right. All right. Well, that's very insightful and I like the the conversation that we're having here And we've already started distinguishing between two ends And we've turned them here very colloquial. He has world's wealth and eternal, right? And so now I just wanted to move on to Zekker You know, we're looking here. What what what what does the the pen of inspiration really? Have to say about this in regard to particularly looking at Insights on selfish ambition because ideally, you know, whether you're looking for world's wealth or you're looking for Eternal wealth you are ambitious. You're looking for something, right? You want your you're sort of Looking toward attaining something. I don't know. Zekker. What what what does she have to say? Personally, I think that All these aspects which we talked about corruption, fighting arrogance Yes, the can leads to worldly wealth and as you've put it You might end up losing the eternal wealth and yes All these aspects have some sense of ambition in it Yeah, one can be ambitious and Maybe not in the right way can be ambitious to Get some source of funds in the wrong way or you can be ambitious To work legitimately to gain a position where you want to be So, yeah, I think that all these aspects do leads to all the wealth I just wanted to point out And it's true what you've said, you know, these things do lead to worldly wealth If you look at the lesson at the father insight, there is a quote there I don't know like if you can be able to read it for us lng white design of ages page It says Christ was establishing a kingdom on different principles. He called men not to authority but service The strong to bear the infirmities of the weak power position talent education Place the possessions under the greater obligation to serve his feathers Yeah, yeah, no just from that quote, you know just from that quote if you read it and you just think about it, you know It's almost upside down. You know this kingdom that christ over here is building is the sort of upside down kingdom You know, he's the principles upon which they are being built are not of authority You know, they say that government can only coerce through with the authority. That's why they have the police. That's why we have the army Such that if you do something wrong, then you know, you go to jail, you know And there's the police there to to to enforce it. However, here we're being told that, you know The kingdom that christ is setting up is one Where there is no authority but service, you know, and the strong bear the infirmities of the weak, you know And these are great insights on what christ is really telling us about humility and about eternal life and eternal wealth Now, you know, and this also played out in his life, you know, there's a very good story about two sons of zebed Who came about and you know, they were seeking to rule in this kingdom You know, they wanted to be the big kahunas They wanted to be the ones to sit on the right one sit on the right one sit on the left I just invite Gideon Gideon, why don't you take us through that story? So they're into the story section we have three stories That's give reference to the topic pride ambition and humility So just to go them go through them quickly After jesus and his disciples arrived in kapanam the collectors of the true drachma Temple tax came to peter and asked doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax? Yes, he does he replied when peter came into the house jesus was fast to speak What do you think simon? he asked From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes from their own children or from others From others peter answered then The children are exempt jesus said to him and that comes from matthew chapter 17 verse 24 to 26 And the next one is from matthew 18 1 to 4 At that time the disciples came to jesus and asked who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven He called a little child to him and placed at place the child among them and he said Truly i tell you unless you change and become like little children He will never enter the kingdom of heaven therefore Whoever takes the lowly position of this child in the is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven And the last one from matthew 28 verse 20 to 28 Then the mother of zebedee's sons came to jesus With her sons and kneeling down asked a favor of him What is it you want he asked She said grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom You don't know what you're asking jesus said to them. Can you drink the cup? I am going to drink We can they answered jesus said to them You will need to drink from my cup but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my father When they turned hard about this they were indignant With the two brothers jesus called them together and said you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord eat over them and Their officials exercise authority over them Not with you instead Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant And whoever wants to be the first must be your slave Just as the son of man did Did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many so to understand this we should first have the Have the definitions of these three terms clearly outlined in our minds that is pride ambition and humility So that we see how they have played out in these three case studies So pride is defined as a feeling of self-worth or a steam And excessive a feeling of self-worth or a or a steam excessive self-esteem Conceit and a sense of one's own importance Desire for power ambition is desire for power wealth and success Humility is a state of having a low estimation of one's abilities modest and pretentious service so these three They correlate in one way or another But they are there has to be a line that will draw between them to understand them clearly so humility is more often than not People term it as someone speaking lowly of themselves undermining yourself not being Not believing as much in your abilities, but I disagree with that because humility is the state of having low estimation of one abilities So it doesn't mean that because you're humble you don't You don't Do things because you're humble you can do whatever you're doing even in your humility But you're not going doing it to glorify your own name. You're doing it because it is what should be done So humility does not hinder you from doing anything big anything small anything Just whatever you want to do in general But humility means that you're not doing it for your own glory At the end of the day, you want to see that it was actually done And if they praise you well and good, but it was that that was not the essence of it. So that's what humility is Yeah, thank you so much. Um I think that's very insightful even the definitions that you have given us particularly I want to I'm looking at the the stories themselves and just uh, you know, how Radical how radically different they are From the kingdoms that we know, you know, for example, you look at the first story if you look at the first story about taxation, you know here you have Jesus talking to peter and he asks me my rhetorical questions. He says You know who from whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes from, you know, their own children or from others You know, and he says peter says from others, you know And jesus is just trying to show the difference between the kingdom of god And the kingdoms of this world, you know Here the kingdoms of this world they'll charge you tax, you know, and if you don't if you do not pay Then you're in big trouble But then in the kingdom of god, it's not really about, you know, inflicting Taxation upon others, you know, but each one of us and he emphasizes that he says that each one of us are his children Right and then you look at the next story where he emphasizes that for you to enter the kingdom of god You have to be like a child. You know, you have to be like a child And later on zekka is going to come and explain to us the characteristics of a child And then finally in the final story in the final story He tries to cut down the ambition of these two men and to tell them that it is not indeed Their own ambition that will fulfill The coming of the kingdom But it is god's will, you know And so he's really redirecting us to understand that our ambitions play a secondary role You know, and that essentially we need to lay down self Which is exemplified particularly in the key text Uh, uh, that is at in the lesson the key text marie. What does the key text say and how can we apply it to our lives? The key text says It's from second current the ends chapter 10 verse 5 and it says we demolish argument And every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of god And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to christ Um Totally, uh, if you look at the monday part, um, it's trying to tell us to do something with that key text Yeah, so as you see the in the key text, it's paul is defending his ministry now Not everything may be relevant today as it was then so how would you phrase this verse to be relevant to you today? Yeah, um, uh, what is the rest of the panelists think, you know, it's a it's a it's a text over here It says, uh, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets yourself up against the knowledge of the The knowledge of god and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to christ Um, what do you guys think that he's trying to say in that text? Um, leka. What do you think? What I can take from this text is that Uh, like to pass this question to gideon Gideon, uh, help your friend Uh This is just paul trying to justify his ministry and he says that they demolish the arguments and every pretension That sets itself up against the knowledge of god and they Take captive the thought that make it obedient to christ so by demolishing arguments that Go against the knowledge of god and taking captive every thought that makes it obedient to christ. That's just Them trying to say that their ministry is entirely aligned with christ and Anything that goes besides it any argument that does not involve whatever christ Um says whatever Whatever is christ like if I may say is that they're demolishing those arguments and they're taking captive Yeah Setting themselves setting christianity apart from what is of the world demolishing the views and Putting forward christ views Yeah, no, you guys are totally right. Um, you know, even in the the final part of the of the verse it says We take captive every thought every thought and this really really Uh responds to To what our lesson is talking about about selfish ambition and pride, you know, and he's saying that even when we are prideful Sometimes when you know, we feel proud about what we are doing and we think that, you know, paul was an amazing preacher You know, he would see millions of people get converted You know on his preaching and even when he would get proud of that and say, you know, without me this gospel wouldn't go anywhere By the way, you know, I'm the number one here. I'm the guy, you know, and he said even when he gets such thoughts, you know He takes them captive and then he tries to refine those thoughts and try and You know understand that, you know, it's really, you know, the kingdom of god that is that has been set up and not really him right Yeah, and that's I think very insightful Moving on swiftly moving on swiftly. We want to look at the the flashlight the flashlight Uh, this is now you the flashlight. Um, I don't know if you can if you are able to read for us the flashlight And this particularly just talks about the characteristics of of a little child, you know, what what are the characteristics of a little child? The flashlight says The simplicity the self-forgetfulness and the confiding life of a little child are the attributes that heaven values This are the characteristics of real greatness His kingdom is not characterized by earthly figures His kingdom characterized by earthly dignity and display at the feet of jesus all these distinctions are forgotten The rich and the poor the night and the ignorant meets together with no thought of quest or worldly preeminence But as blood both souls are like dependent upon one has redeemed that them to god deserve edges page four and that seven Just tell us in your own words. What what what do you understand by that from this article you can tell that No matter what we do here on earth no matter what rank you have In heaven will all be one all before christ and We all need to be humble Then just like a little child you need to be blameless And have and try to attain the attributes which heaven requires Yeah, yeah, very good. Very good. I think I agree totally with that Just when looking at the at the flashlight Marie you said something very insightful when we were just having a chat out there. You said that And just remind me you said that humility is not thinking about humility Is not thinking Less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less. So you're not Not Making yourself small you're just not thinking about yourself not obsessing over yourself Yeah, yeah, I thought that was very insightful and and really corresponds to what we're saying here Another aspect of this verse that I really liked was the fact that you know In in the kingdom of god, you know in the kingdom of god, and this is something that I find very reassuring even in my own life, you know, it says The kingdom of god is not characterized by earthly dignity and display At the feet of jesus All these distinctions are forgotten The rich and the poor their learned and the ignorant meet together With no thought of castes of caste or worldly preeminence. That means ladies and gentlemen The the question of this world The cracks of this world the things that are important in this world are not whether we are rich or poor Not whether we have gone to school or we haven't gone to school Not whether we have a title or we don't have a title or that we are just a lay person on the street The real agenda of this world the real key to surviving in this world is knowing jesus and knowing god and I find that Um Very reassuring that everything else Pills in comparison to knowing god. All right. Well, uh, moving on to clear to that We just want to go and look at the punch lines Uh, the punch lines amary. Why don't you take us through that? So, uh, I'd like to ask each of you to pick a a verse that touches you and Explained why? I'll go first Pride leads to destruction This is proverb 16 18 and 19. Okay pride leads to destruction and arrogance to downfall It is better to be humble and then to stay and to stay poor than to be one of the arrogant And get a share of their loot On earth you will be prideful and arrogant you'll get your money you'll get your fame you'll get your friends But what does that amount to in the end? Your eternal life will be doomed instead if you're humble and faithful You will have eternal you'll have a promise of eternal life in the future Wow, that's uh, that's very good. Uh, give you um, what is your favorite verse? Um, I'll take the last one romance 12 3 it says For by the grace given me I say to every one of you Do not drink do not think of yourself more highly than you ought But rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith god has distributed to each one of you So this text tells us not to Not to Put a high a high twice a standard not to Put a high value or a high value or Put yourself out there too much Overestimate yourself. Yes overestimate yourself but Have sober judgment of everything in accordance with the faith god has distributed to you So just just think of yourself right think of yourself soberly don't be too Too proud about yourself, but Have reasonable thoughts Indeed indeed and it even reminds me of what maria has told us right now You know don't don't don't think less of yourself You don't don't think less of yourself because indeed you're a child of god and god made you special, you know And you uh, you are special you are beautifully and wonderfully made each and every part of you You know and this verse is just admonishing us as the gillian has rightly put it that uh, you know, we ought to be confident That we are children of god and that he loves us But then again, you know, we are not to be proud, you know And overestimate ourselves, you know as better than everybody else, you know better than anyone else, right? Uh-huh. Like what is your favorite person personally for me? It would be john chapter one verse 29 which would be Behold the lamp of the lord which takes away the sins of the world And as humans we need to try to avoid all these characteristics, but we are Due to fall into them at some points And we need to repent and come back to god for help if we do amen amen My favorite verse is uh here in the punchline is a verse from the summits And it's some 131 verse one and it says uh, my heart is not proud Lord my eyes are not hot I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me, you know And you know, you have to remember who's speaking here. This is david You know, and david was a great man and you can just see the humility that is in him, you know, he he he sees himself as not fit Even to concern himself with with things that are too wonderful for him. And I pray that we might have that same, you know Self distrust almost self distrust almost, you know and to look unto god as uh zeka has rightfully said now zeka Just as we as we look to close there is There's something on the Thursday part Right a quotation there by ellen g word from the desire of ages Page 438 perhaps. Could you read that quote just page 438 you can just read it from here It says Speaking of any bad habit that may lead to sin Ellen white writes our lord is put to shame by those who claim to serve him But whom is interpret his character and multitudes are deceiving and led in false paths Thank you very much. Now we as christians we have we have just gone through A majority of the lesson and we're thinking about You know pride ambition and humility, you know, and this quotation here is telling us that, you know, we have to really watch ourselves Uh, what insights do you get? Why do you think that ellen g words saying or the book is saying uh that we need to watch ourselves Lest, you know, we fall or lest we influence others Wrongly as I said, uh, we are only human and we are prone to error So, yeah, we cannot be always right along the way you might stumble and fall But what you do after you fall is what really determines Of course, you might fall and I might come back to Jesus What I might fall and continue on the same path and not even think of looking back to where I came from Yeah, yeah, yeah, indeed, you know, uh, we are human beings and we fall constantly and uh, you know, sometimes You know, we we we have to get back But then we also have to be careful Uh, to see that, you know, we don't misrepresent the character of god, you know, uh Because people are looking at us and we are confessed christians, you know, you can imagine that The number of people that you're bound to lead us straight If you know, once you have confessed you fall once again, right? And so let's pray to god as zeka writes, he said, you know, let us pray to god that he may help us Do well. All right Finally, the lesson tells us to read the book of romance chapter 12 as 3 again I don't know if you're able to to open that Omari, uh, if you're able to open the book of romance 12 as 3 And just look at, you know, you know, uh, the admonition that's given there about how, uh, pride Really at the beginning of the world and we know it how pride changed angels into devils, you know And how humility Uh, conversely makes men into angels, you know, you can imagine. Do you have it? Yeah, so romance 12 verse 3 says For by the grace given me I say to every one of you Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought But rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance to with the faith God has distributed to each of you Yeah, yeah, that's a verse that was just read by uh by gidion Um And thank you so much Marie for reading it once again. And essentially what it means is that, you know, We have been Given grace. We have been saved by grace. God has done a marvelous work. And if we are humble And we rely upon him then, you know, we shall be converted into angels, right? Before we go, I just want to give our panel is just, uh, you know, one or two minutes each Just to just to say what really stood out for them in this lesson and what and what they they they got Yeah, we'll just start from gidion there what stood out for me in the lesson is The lesson at the end of the day when you think about the lesson it tells us to draw a line between pride and humility um Though they sound like two different worlds a humble person and a proud a proud person uh There is a way between those two different worlds they can connect Someone who is humble Doesn't mean that that person is doing nothing That person does something but does not glorify their name with it that person is Doing it for the right reasons not doing it to be seen you can For instance, let's take someone making a contribution to our church project If I come here and declare it before all of you I have contributed this and this sum of money That is now pride You know in one or another But if I just anonymously I contribute the sum of money that you still contributed but When you come and declare it here, you've glorified your name and When you just do it anonymously It will go a long way to glorifying the name of god So we have to draw a line between pride and humility Being humble doesn't mean you put yourself down and Doing something and getting recognition for it does not make you a proud person if you're not giving yourself If you're not taking yourself out there advertising yourself giving yourself the recognition That is just doing it but doing it and glorifying yourself. That's pride. So we need to be There is a verse that We've read here and it says that Oh, it's just the roman's 12 3. It's if I may quote it It says do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought but rather Think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance to the faith god has distributed each of you Amen. Amen. Thank you very much for that. Marie well, I take to sacrifice Being humble being or being proud Most people are act a certain way to get a certain something that in their life, but It only lasts for a moment. Then it's gone. How about when jesus comes back? Do you think you'll still have your Ferrari? When you when jesus comes back, you'll have your values and what you did on earth So it's better to be humble and be sure of eternity Yeah, that cut me right deep anyway. All right. What do you think personally? This lesson made me internalize myself a lot Because I read somewhere stated that there are two types of christians Those who are proud and think they're humble and those who are humble and think they're proud And I ask myself, why do I fall between those two? Yeah, that's the question we ought All of us to ask ourselves, uh Yeah, I just wanted to conclude with a verse. He says uh, and this is from the book of look chapter 16 verse 15 It's actually in our punchlines And he said he said to them This is jesus speaking and he says you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others but god knows your heart What people value highly? It is test is detestable in god's light and to end conclusion. I just want to say that god knows us He knows us intimately. He knows us even better than we know ourselves Why don't we rely on him? You know just tell him god? I don't know what i'm doing help me out All right, and I think that's really been our lesson today that we ought to trust in god implicitly Thank you so much for joining us It's been a wonderful time. We hope that you will Be kept by the grace of god god bless you and goodbye Ah, let us pray Dear father in heaven, oh lord god, we come before you father this time We'd like to thank you so much once again for the opportunity To read your lesson, please father help us Help us to impart what we afraid into our lives in jesus name. I pray amen