 Welcome and thank you for joining us as we go through the sixth lesson of the Cornerstone Connections of the first quarter of 2024. My name is Mikael Flex and on the panel we have John, Nelson, Biaki, Peter and our wonderful teens teachers. On the sign language we have Joyce and on the orchestra we have Subira and Shemom. Now join me as I take you through the mission story which a title is Home for a Boy and the country is Nepal. We are starting off with an 11-year-old boy named Sudip who was frightened when father suddenly fell ill and was rushed to the hospital in Nepal. What was wrong with father? What will happen next? The boy questioned himself. The doctors carefully checked father's liver. It wasn't working properly. The doctors carefully checked father's kidney, it wasn't working properly. The doctor carefully checked the father's lung, it wasn't working properly. The doctor checked the father's heart and it wasn't working properly as well. This is very bad, the doctor said. Father's organs are failing because of his drinking. Fado waqt, fado waqt as a builder wu built homes, but he also drank a lot of alcohol in his life. When he got off work, he drank. Sometimes when you wake up in the morning, he drunk. Alko had poisoned his body and he was in a very bad shape. Sudeep wondered what will happen next. Mother also wondering what will happen next gag White'u kou aswa na katusangiku wa nao tuho grafu kana Actually you karanik wa ni ni kochinkacha kakusimiku wa ni si cha you mania W convicted Nisaitea, kutaya gre Silence J komunikana kwa Michi Oni jama vegan Tiku Spiritual J الفa N tail humili, naunu Ksa t sales Abo rotoa kau wa kiwiha yea Jya risati So countdown Lib POL Ono ni si tzuma Ta kimchi hiba sudaip wa mahi kwa matutiga kwa matuta. alive ni matutiisagi ni matachi sudaip. Inipo jatajapu and sudaip pag Holdwekama kwa matati nyezauliki. H�ia jatia na lato sudaipa, hira mahi ni matati wa watu mahi uzeo kwa matati isuzao hila uzeo. kwa matati nisha uzao hiku la ya mahi matati. Hukia jatifi 11 huli, hili na matati hikunia. 실 legislators Mama maisha k feelingsha jamihando maisha umikuli kutusu repenti betus U21. Mwenakwe47 216. Y pagan 216. 216. 216. 129. 159. 139. Um7. 189. 179. are angry that Sudip and Mother are going to church. They are trying to persuade them to stop going to church. Please pray for my relatives." Sudip said. I hope and believe that one day they will come to God. Thank you for your prayers. Part of this quarter's 13th Sabbath offering will help establish a school where children like Sudip can study in Nepal. Thank you for planning our very generous 13th Sabbath offering. Welcome and thank you for joining us kwaitei mk tinyha kwaitei tuwo kwekana Andreida kwaitei nabipei. Naulinwa kwaitei mk iiili dweiyatumu naka kakei. Mk nibirei, kwaitei mk kutaya, mk nibirei nulini kwaitei, kwaitei mk kutaila kwaitei mk nibirei. kwaitei kwaitei nabipei onions, kwaitei nabipei kwiwekana. Ntuffia kwaitei, kwaitei kwaitei, suirira nibirei nbiburei. Please, please, and for the view a panellist moderating the lesson to-day. My name is teacher Donna, one of the tea teachers. Um, bhiaki, please pray for us before we start. Let us pray. Dear Lord we thank you for bringing us here today and allowing us to fill this lessons for all the viewers wherever they may be. Please let the Holy Spirit speak through us and let the viewers understand what we are trying to pass. In Jesus' name, I pray amen. So, we'll be talking about idol threats, this is the sixth lesson in our cornerstone. What are idol threats? And before we answer that question, this lesson will help us reflect on the second commandment, where God explicitly warns us against idol worship. It will also help us to reflect on what we prioritize in our lives and if we have any idols in our lives and what we have put before God. So, an idol is anything that we place before God and the Bible tells us that where our heart is, there is our treasure. So, if our heart is in an idol, then that is where we place most of our priority. So, as we go through this lesson, it will help us decipher if at all we have any idols and to help us know about idol threats and idol worship, we'll talk about one of the kings of Israel, his name is Rehoboam. Through the story, we'll be able to think about what idol worship is and we'll be able to think about ways that we can avoid idol worship. We'll also be able to think about the influences that we have on other people, whether it's our friends or our families. Rehoboam is a king who elevated himself above God and instead of asking for wisdom and assistance from God to rule the people, he instead elevated himself and made himself God as he ruled the people of Israel. So, Nelson, can you tell us a little bit about Rehoboam? Who is he? Rehoboam is the son of Solomon. Solomon was the son of David. David was the son of Jesse. David had taken over from Saul, who was the first king of Israel. Okay, rightly put. So, Rehoboam was the son of Solomon and he was the fourth king of Israel. He ruled Israel for around 17 years and he had 18 wives, 60 concubines and he had around 60 daughters and 28 sons. Rehoboam's mother was from an idolatrous nation and we can see what kind of influence he had, what kind of background he had and this will influence the decision he made in his lives. Can you continue with the lesson? I'll ask John to read for us the key text. Key text today comes from the book of Second Chronicles chapter 12 verse 11. I repeat Second Chronicles chapter 12 verse 1 and it says after Rehoboam's position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord. Thank you for reading the key text. So, it's telling us Rehoboam, he established himself as the king of Israel and after the Lord helped him and he became strong and his influence was strong all around Israel, now he negated the law of the Lord, him together with his people. So, John, kindly take us to the What Do You Think segment. In the What Do You Think segment, the question being asked is rank the following items below in order of importance to the average teenager. One being the most important and ten being the least important. So, personally out of all of these options, what I think is most important in this list, I would say is a Christ-like character. Maintaining a Christ-like character, not only behind closed doors, but not only when you're in front of people, but also behind closed doors I think is very important and a strong relationship with God is also very important. I would say a loving family, good health, friends and some of these can also be idols. So, Nelson, which one of these would you say is an idol? I would say good looks can be an idol. Some people would treasure some of the things that God has given them instead of valing the giver himself. A lot of them, I would say also musical abilities can also be an idol. We find a lot of people that use the gifts that God has given them and produce ungodly things. So, Yaki, what else do you think can be an idol? I think a good reputation can be an idol to some because in the world we live in today, a lot of people care about how they look and in trying to make yourself look like a good person, you can put that ahead of God and focus too much on how people see you instead of ungod. Those are all really good answers and I personally also think friends, the friends that you keep can be an idol. Some people think of their friends very highly and it also depends on what type of friends you keep. Are your friends drawing you closer to God? Thank you so much, John, for allowing us to think about things around us and things that we have either in form of people or things. We realize that having friends or a loving family or good looks or good grids is a good thing, but at the point where we put these things above God, where we elevate these things and we think about them as the so important thing in our lives, then they become idols. So these are good things, but if we use them in the wrong way or if we relate to people in the wrong way, then they become our idols. So we'll talk a bit about Rehoboam even as we go into the story. We want to learn about his encounter and how he allowed idol worship in the Kingdom of Israel. So Peter, tell us about the story. Okay, the story is based on First Kings chapter 12, verse 1 to 14 and Second Crown Calls chapter 10 to 12. Okay, Rehoboam went to Shechem for all Israel had gone there to make him a king. When Rehoboam son of Nabat had this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon. He returned from Egypt so they sent for Rehoboam and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him, your father put heavy yoke on us but now lighten the hash. Labour and the heavy yoke he put on us and we will serve you. Three days later, Rehoboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam and as the king had said, come back to me in three days. The kings answered the people. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders. He followed the advice of the young men and said, my father made you heavy yoke. I will make it even heavier. My father scoja you with weeps. I will scoja you with scorpions. So all the Israelites went home but as for the Israelites who were living in the town of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled them. King Rehoboam said out of Adomariang who was in charge of all forced labour but the Israelites stoned him to death. Rehoboam however managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem so Israel had been in rebellion against the house of David. When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mastered Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 sand-able young men to go against Israel and to reign the kingdom for Rehoboam. But this word of the Lord came to Shemaia, the man of God. Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin. This is what the Lord says, do not go up to fight against your fellow Israelites. Go home, everyone of you for this is my doing. So they obeyed the word of the Lord and returned back from marching against Jeroboam because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord and God turned from him and he was not totally destroyed. King Rehoboam established himself family in Jerusalem and continued as king. He was 41 years old when he became king and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem. The city, the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his name. His mother's name was Nama. She was an ammonite, he did evil because he had not set his heart on taking the Lord. Ya, maybe if we go into out of the story. John, what are some of the people that you know there? Could you tell us about them? I know who Adoram is and from the story we can see that Adoram or Adoniram was a messenger of Rehoboam who was sent to impose forced labor on the people of Israel to get them to go back to work for Rehoboam. And Shemaya who is also mentioned in the story is the prophet who went and told Rehoboam he shouldn't actually go and fight against his own people. We see Hadad was one of the people who waged war against, he attacked Solomon during his reign and Rehoboam of course is who replaced Rehoboam and was leading the 10 tribes. Ahija was a prophet who was sent to tell Rehoboam that he was going to become king of the 10 tribes. Sheshak was one of Rehoboam's adversaries he attacked Rehoboam during his reign and Marka was one of David's six wives. Ya, thank you John. Now that we've gone through the story maybe Peter could give us a lesson that you learnt from the story. Okay, the lesson I learnt from the story is that God is merciful and he is willing to forgive those who are humble. Yes. Thank you, thank you. One other lesson I learnt was that you know without God you can't really do anything. We see Rehoboam once he turned away from the Lord everything just came crashing down. Okay, thank you for that. So maybe Yakki can tell us what do you think led to Rehoboam's collapse? We see he was strongly established after Solomon and then after some time the kingdom came crumbling down such that he was a king that divided the united Israel kingdom which has 12 tribes. He was a king that divided the kingdom into two. So he ruled Judah and the other kings Rehoboam ruled Israel which had 10 tribes. So what do you think led to Rehoboam's collapse? Now when Rehoboam accepted what he was told by the prophets to go back and not to wage war we see that he at first he was prospering he was bringing both the tribes into prosperity. So what happened is he started to put his faith and his security into his riches into what he had, the material things and little by little he stopped putting his faith in God. He signed treaties with other nations and that in turn led to his forth. Maybe John you can tell us what else do you think led to the collapse of this kingdom? I think Rehoboam came prideful and you can see that the people went to him and asked him to he told him that his father Solomon had put very heavy burdens on them and instead he said my father made yo yoke heavy I will make it even heavier so I think he became prideful and 10 tribes were stripped from his reign even from this story we can from the question that Nelson asked but also learned that the consequences to your action and that God took those 10 tribes from him because he was being prideful. Thank you for sharing and his pride reminds me of someone in the Bible who was also very prideful and this was Lucifer when we read Isaiah chapter 14 maybe we can all get there Isaiah chapter 14 this is Lucifer proclaiming and this is said in his heart I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will sit also upon the mountain of the congregation in the sides of the north I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most high This is Lucifer asserting that he wants to be above the most high he wants to take the place of God so at any time or in any circumstance where we want to take the place of God then we become idols or if you allow any person to take the place of God in our lives then they become our idols as John rightly said Rehoboam became very prideful and instead of listening to his people and listening to the council of the wise men who came to advise him how he should rule the kingdom of Israel he went and listened to his young friends this also tells us the importance of pure influence and the influence other people can have around you so his young friends told him that he should assert his authority and he should rule the people with more severity than his father King Solomon so apart from his pride and apart from the idolatry that he allowed in the nation even the influence of his peers also led to the collapse of the nation so this begs the question that how can we in our lives negatively influence people around us and if at all we drift away if we want to drift away from our Christianity as young people in the church then how do we affect the people around us is there any influence that we have Nelson is there any influence that you have at home or in school yeah I would say let's say we drift away from the narrow path and we end up doing something bad when let's say for example our parents see us maybe it's not hurting them physically but mentally in the heart so when this happens they feel bad so rightfully say as much as our parents are older than us we can negatively influence even their religion when you drift away from the faith Peter what do you think or who can we negatively influence if we drift away from our Christianity if we drift away from our Christianity we will negatively influence our friends those who we live with them those who we interact with them because if you have a friend who is a Christian and you are not eventually you might stop or he might also join you he might also join you in the paganism which you are so basically you are saying we can have that influence to our friends who can we negatively influence I think let's say if you are in a position of power of authority and you turn away from God you start doing your own things the people who follow you who look up to you might start doing the same and John maybe you can tell us who can you negatively influence I believe if you are of younger brothers cousins, relatives people who look up to you for guidance you maintaining a Christ-like character is very important because they are going to look up to you what you are doing look to follow in your footsteps so you have to set the right example for the younger thank you everyone for sharing and from all your experiences and your sharing I have gathered that our influence or rather we don't live for ourselves only whatever we do, whatever we say however we dress will influence people around us either positively or negatively and one to us if we were to influence someone else negatively so we need to remember that whenever we walk on the face of the earth either we will help someone to walk on the path to heaven or we will be the influence that will lead them to the path to hell I have an interesting question that I came across in reading the lesson maybe we can think about it we don't have to answer it at this point and it was asking what aspects of God's law do we struggle to keep as young people what aspects of the law because at this point if you realize what aspects of the law you are struggling to keep then you tread very carefully because if you fall in these aspects of the law then you will be a negative influence so let's think about that Pujati, you want to tell us something about the flashlight yeah so the flashlight comes from the book of prophets and kings page 91 the 12 tribes of Israel were divided the tribes of Judah in Benjamin composing the lower or southern kingdom of Judah and the rulership of Rehoboam while the ten northern tribes formed and maintained a separate government known as the kingdom of Israel with Jeroboam as their ruler thus was fulfilled the prediction of the prophet concerning the rending of the kingdom the cause was from the Lord the second one is but as time passed the king put his trust in the power of position and in the strongholds that he fortified little by little he gave way to inherited weakness until he threw his influence wholly on the side of idolatry that's page 93 so this is just a summary of the story where we see first Rehoboam he wanted to become king because as the son of the king the former king you expect yourself to be next in line but the prophet Abidja went and told Jeroboam that he used to take up some of the tribes of Israel ten of them so Rehoboam what he did to separate Israel was when they asked for him to lighten their yoke he instead hardened it and made it worse and that cause the separate governments to form Rehoboam went and he prospered the two southern kingdoms of Judah and Benjamin but in time he put his power in his position and in his strongholds that he had fortified that led him away from God and into idolatry right, thank you for that would you also read for us the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2 to 5 okay 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse chapter 3 verse 2 to 5 chapter 3 verse 2 to 5 and it says people will be lovers of themselves lovers of banging boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient and holy, without love and forgiving slander us without self control brutal, not lovers of good trecherous, rash, conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power have nothing to do with such people thank you for that and this basically describes what kind of people will be living towards the end of time and this is the time we're living in right now basically describing people who have kept certain things before God and they have idols in place of God who is Jehovah but I want us to reflect on this question we've realized that some of the things that we have in our lives are treasures but if we use them in a wrong way then they become idols so what is the difference then between having a treasure and making something an idol what would be the difference a treasure is something you prioritize something that you treat a certain way you take time with it or someone and making something an idol or someone would be putting it above God, spending more time with it prioritizing it above God that's when something becomes an idol and anything can become an idol maybe you have a response I think a treasure can be let's take for example someone that you appreciate someone that you enjoy being around and it doesn't have to necessarily be an idol because you can treasure someone who brings you closer to God and from definition of an idol it's something that comes in the way of relationship with God so treasureing someone that actually brings you closer to God can help you relationship with God so that means if I have a friend and I spend more time with my friend maybe calling them or texting them or she's the first person or he's the first person that I'm thinking about before I read my bible does that mean that that friend is an idol for sure friends can become idols but I think if you send in each other verses having devotion I think that would be better because you both are growing each other Nelson you want to tell us what you think is the difference between a treasure and an idol I would say maybe something can be a treasure but then at some point it becomes an idol when you use the treasure to glorify God so if you use your gift in a bad way that's when it becomes an idol because if you forget the reason God gave you that gift thank you for that have anything to add ok thank you so much so we'll move on to the Friday section and we'll read from the book of James 119 James 119 so James tells us where for my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath let every man be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath this basically just summarizes what Rehoboam failed to do he was not slow to hear advice from the wrong people and then he was not slow to speak because he spoke very harsh words to the people of Israel and he was also not slow to wrath because he became angry and his anger had so many consequences including dividing the united kingdom of Israel and all this was contributed because of idolatry so it begs the question what kind of influence do we have on the people around us and even as we come to the close of our lesson I just want to go and ask the panelists to maybe give us their closing remarks as we finish I'll start with Biyaki you can tell us what stood out for you in this lesson what are you taking home today I'm taking home that when you put something above God you might not even notice it at first it just happens little by little and in turn you can find yourself just fully into that thing and so what I get from that is that you have to be conscious about what you spend time doing and who you are with so that you can fully grow your relationship with God and be led by Him yeah thank you Biyaki you can tell us your closing remarks okay what stood out for me is the part where God lowered His anger or God turned His anger away from Jerobam yeah so God is merciful and if we humble ourselves and turn away from all our and be diligently seeking Him He will He will have mercy on us yes Thank you John what are you taking home I believe this story teaches us that God can put you in positions of power in positions that you have very a lot of influence on other people but even when you are putting this position you shouldn't get prideful like Rehobam did and we should remember the reason it was in the first place that's not so what are you taking home yeah I think the story just it's captured in what Jesus says in Matthew where He says no one can serve two masters one will eventually take importance over the other but something else that comes towards the end of the story is that Rehobam He becomes humble again he is able to turn away and God therefore has mercy on him and it also gives us an encouragement that sometimes even though we fall we can rise again and fall in the ways of the Lord Thank you Nelson and thank you everyone for sharing your tika we yeah so just summarize that this lesson will help us reflect on what we have prioritized in our lives and what we have allowed to be above God in our lives and then again it also helps us to reflect on communication how do we communicate to the people around us do we listen to our peers or do we seek counsel from God and from our parents who are God fearing and then it was also taught us about healthy boundaries with people and things that we need to establish good and healthy boundaries so that we cannot be a negative influence or we cannot be negatively influenced so I'd like to thank all the panelists for joining us as we discussed the lesson this week and I pray that you'll be able to think about Boam and you'll be able to make a positive decision or positive it has made a positive impact in your life such that you'll be able to make God the priority in your life so with those remarks I'll ask John to pray for us as we finish that you are almighty loving father and that you are able to put us in positions of power help us to always remember to put you first in everything that we do to remember you in our daily lives help us to be positive influences to everyone around us and to always be in a Christlike character loving father and as this year begins help us to maintain and to grow relationship with you use me my pray amen