 Happy Sabbath and welcome to the 12th lesson of the third quarter of the teens cornerstone connection lesson of 2023 This week we have Barack on the mission story in the orchestra. We have Amy and Ariana on the violins Sit on the piano and Sakai on the trumpet For the lesson panel. We have some of the Nairobi central teens along with their teen teachers. Enjoy praying for Mosquito It was a very very dark night mother father and little four-year-old Marys was sleeping in their house in the countryside of Latvia It was so completely dark that she couldn't see through the window and you couldn't see your hand if you put it in front of your face Suddenly mother woke up, which was unusual because mother usually slept very soundly When she put her head on the pillow, she fell asleep in two minutes She only woke up when the sun came in the morning. However, this time it was different She woke up with a jolt Very awake that is father was sound asleep beside her and somewhere in the dark room was four-year-old Marys still on his small bed God, why'd you wake me up? She asked What do you want from me? What do you want me to do? Mother wondered if someone was in danger somewhere in the world and God wanted her to pray for that person So she began to pray she prayed for hospitals. She prayed for sick people. She prayed for prisons She prayed for people dying She paid for everybody driving on the roads and for children in the whole world, but still she couldn't sleep Then that's when she had the sound It was the sound of a mosquito and she knew that it was flying around her head Mother jumped up and ran out of bed to the place the sound that was coming from but unfortunately She couldn't switch on the light because it would wake up father who usually slept very poorly She tried to catch the mosquito by following its sound. She grabbed it frantically, but missed over and over again after trying and trying she thought She thought that the best thing she could do at that moment was to pray So she prayed and asked God to help her catch the mosquito and by faith. She stretched out and she caught it She was so grateful to God and she ran to her kids room and Found him and he was awake. She asked if he was awake and he was awake He asked she asked if it was mosquito that had woken him up and he confirmed it and That's when she knew how prayer works first the mosquito woke up Maris her kid Then mice prayed to God for help then after that God woke up the mother But the mother didn't know what to do. She asked God what you want me to do without having an answer She started praying for the whole world And she asked God for a second time what he wanted her to do he pointed her to the mosquito So mother got out of bed and caught the mosquito when she prayed for help God gave her the strength to catch the mosquito um As I was reading this something that really stood out to me is that no matter how ridiculous your prayers may sound none of it is Trivial before God God cares about each and every one of our problems There's a quote that says whatever makes the soul and easy even if it's our Mosquito from mosquitoes to financial problems or it could be school or grades All of it is relevant before God Part of this quarters 13 Sabbath offering will help children know about the power of prayer in Latvia The offering will help construct a building in rigor the capital where kids can learn about the God who hears prayers We'll now say a short prayer for the 13th Sabbath offering that it may accomplish its intended purpose Let's pray our dear heavenly father. We thank you for this day Dear God, we'd like to pray that as people give offering towards the 13th Sabbath that you may please Help it build a place in the capital city of Latvia where children can learn more about you and grow spiritually This is my prayer leaving and trusting in Jesus name. Amen Good morning, good evening Good afternoon and good night from wherever you're watching us here in Nairobi Central SBA church We just like to thank you for tuning in Boy, do we have a wonderful lesson for you today? The title of our lesson today is farming and fish farming and Feasts and before we start I'd just like to ask Our panelists over here to introduce themselves after which we shall say a prayer Hello everyone. My name is Henry Obara My name is Ashley Silas and I'm said Thank you very much. My name is Bismarck Lumber. Could we say a prayer before we begin? Let us pray. I Can and loving father. Thank you for this day for a love in your care Your grace that is ever sufficient your hand that leads us through and through When as we read your word we ask from understanding we ask that your spirit may illuminate our minds and give us Something that will encourage us in this journey for this is a humble prayer in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right Ladies and gentlemen, Karib Usana. Thank you very much Wherever you are, please pay attention because we're going to be getting our lesson this lesson our lesson this week is an interesting lesson It's a lesson all about Money, it's all about money. What do you do with your money? What do you think about money? What God thinks that you should be doing with your money? What Relationship should you have with your money? And You know, it's a wonderful lesson and we're going to dive right in With reading the first part of our lesson just our key text our key text even before we get into it Perhaps I could ask Henry if you could just read for us our key text which comes from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 22 to 23 All right, and he reads be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year Eat the type of your grain new wine and olive oil and The first born of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for his name So that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always Aha, and so the key text is a gentleman is actually a speech from Moses, right? And here Moses is telling the Israelites to remember to remember, you know And be sure to set aside a tenth of all that they have Of all that they have and he has a wonderful list over there, you know That's so far reaching. He said of your grain of your new wine and olive oil You know the first one of your hearts and your flocks He has such an elaborate list and he tells them set a tent of that put a tent of it aside and pay it You know expensive endeavor. I would say I don't know what do you think? I don't know what do you think? What do you think? In the what do you think section? We are going to assume just assume that we had a bottomless bank account And less money and limited cash So the question is what would we buy seed? What would you buy if you had unlimited money? I mean, I'm sure what the first thing that would come to anyone's mind is to buy everything like you have a bottomless bank account you have You're loaded Like you want this you get it I mean that the first thing that would come to anyone's mind is buy everything But for me, I think I'd buy everything that I need And then you know the rest maybe keep for later. Maybe something will come up and then I'll need cash here Henry, what would you buy if you had endless money and limited? I had unlimited money. I'd probably buy myself a bike first, you know And I suppose bike and then yeah, maybe a house and then you know keep the rest for later Yeah, trusting Shabismak what would you buy? I'm curious right now right now I'd buy a land rover discovery if I had a bottomless bank account That would be my first purchase this afternoon You'd walk into a card the last shop and buy a land rover. Yeah, interesting. I am torn I don't know pubs had fly out of the country. I don't even know what I'd do pubs now because I have endless money I'd stopped going to school. I don't know. It's all the knowledge. You'd be now useless I really don't know The following statements which are the ones we agree with and which we disagree is it seem to have more money than you need when others are starving? Sid is it seem to have more money? Than you need when others are starving It's it's not a sin. I mean most people would think like this guy is greedy But it's it's not really a sin to have more money than you need when others are starving Because I mean you worked for that money. So if you have more money than what you need means that you you worked very hard for that money So I don't really think it's a it's a sin to have More money than you need when others are starving plus you could also help them with that Without more money that you have and if you had no more money than you need then you would not be able to help them Interesting. I'm Henry. Is it do you agree with the statement that says people have a right to do whatever they want with their money? I believe I agree with the statement If you worked for your money, you earned it the right way and yeah, God has blessed you with it Then you have the right to spend it however you want. Yeah, you have the choice to spend it however you want However, it doesn't mean that everything you spend your money on would be the right thing to spend it on You could end up spending it on the wrong things. Yeah, and yeah, now you could say You've misused your money. Yeah I'm Shabbis Mark Is money the root of all evil? Money certainly contributes to evil. You know, I you know, we were just talking earlier about this and we were saying that You can't really do anything without money even good charity work. You think about charity work. You can't do charity work without money Right, but And then you asked is money the root of all evil money certainly contributes To a lot of the evil things that go on in our in God's good work But I wouldn't say it is the root of all evil. I think the root of all evil is really the human heart You know in the Bible, they are told that the heart is deceitful above all else who else can know it, you know There's also a fast that says the love of money is the root of all evil So this money is not necessarily The root of all evil, but the love of it I would agree the statement that says that everything we have belongs to God because He owns the cattle's upon a thousand hills And the rubies and the diamonds and the coffers of gold In the entire universe are he's encated by him like think about gods as Like countries have currency, right? But God created the richest currency and that's gold and there's no currency that can match it You can choose a billion dollars to buy gold. Gold is just gold. Yeah Before you move on Ashley, I just wanted to pick up on something that you asked Henry You know you asked him Do we have the right do you have the right to do as you please with your own money? Right, uh, but I noticed that what do you think section? There's a question there that asks, you know, do you think that the money is a gift from God? And if it is a gift from God, then Do you have the right? You know, are you free to do with it whatever you want or are there some constraints? Are there some expectations from God or how you use your money? Okay? My question is said if I want to give you A ten thousand voucher It's a gift, right? Yeah, do you have the right to do with it anything you want or that or add dictate No, you you give it to me. I do whatever I want to this So God gave us everything we have Do we have the right to do with it everything we want or anything? Yeah, think about it in terms of other resources, for example Your time or even your body God gave you your body Do you have the right now to use it or abuse it as you please? You have the right question is We is it is it is it? Is it prudent? Are there expectations exactly for you to do it in another way? Yeah, so Even as matters we have like the legal drugs in Kenya, right? Yeah, we have the right to use legal drugs Uh-huh But is it proud is it prudent should we use cocaine or caffeine or nicotine because it's prudent or tobacco because it's legal Well, you know, that's a question for everybody to ask But I think what we want to impress upon you dear viewer is that you know implicitly implicitly There is We have a responsibility to use our money prudently It is just a resource like any other that God has been able to give us and just the way You know, you don't want to abuse your body because it is the temple of the holy spirit Similarly, you don't want to use your money, you know in vain perhaps Needless spending that perhaps will not bring any glory to God. Yes, so There is almost a given take there that you really have to be careful about Um, all right. Well, thank you Ashley. I think I've really enjoyed the what do you think section and having these discussions with you They're very important By the way, and very complex mind you But we wanted to move into the story into the story Tell us what the whole story is behind the title the offering as we have seen seen take us away So today's story comes from Leviticus chapter 27 verse 30 to 33 and he guy chapter 1 verse 2 to 11 A tithe of everything from the land with a Whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees belongs to the Lord. It is holy to to the Lord Whoever would redeem any of their tithe must add a fifth of the value to it Every title of the herd and flock every 10th animal that passes under the shepherd's rod will be holy to the Lord No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution Anyone that makes a substitution Both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed This is what the Lord Almighty says These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet. Hey guy It is it is is it a time for you? For you yourselves To be living in your paneled houses while this house remains a ruin Now this is what the Lord Almighty says Give careful thought to to your ways You have planted much, but you have harvested little You eat but never have enough you drink but never have you feel you put on clothes, but you are not warm You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it This is what the Lord Almighty says Give careful thoughts to your ways Go up into the mountains go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house So that I may take pleasure in it and And be honored says the Lord you expected much, but uh, but see it turned out to be little What you brought home I blew away Why declares the Lord Almighty? Because of my house Which remains a ruin while each of you is busy with your own house therefore because of you of the because of you the heavens have withheld the Dew and the earth its crops I called for a drought on the fields and on the mountains on the grain the new wine On the grain the new wine the olive oil and everything else the ground produces When people and livestock and all and on all the labors of your hands Yeah, thank you. I think you read that wonderfully Now, um This story is very striking. I don't know if you if you have just looked at it Or if you heard what she'd read But god here is really condemning people who did not pay that time I don't know if you've seen it And he actually gives a very stern condemnation You know in that last paragraph where he says this is what the Lord Almighty says, you know And he said give careful thought to your ways go up into the mountain and bring down the timber and build my house You know later on he says You expected much but see it turned out to be little You know what you brought home and so there is a direct correlation here ladies and gentlemen God is actually saying there is a direct correlation within between you surrendering your money giving your tithe and your offering To the reciprocating blessing that you receive It's interesting that he says you planted much and then the What came out of it like for instance you Planted maize you took it to the push a meal and you expected 10 kilos and you had seven Where did the maize go and god says I blew up on it And he says it's because they had left their house god's house and ruined so I wonder whether Does the service of god or the service that we do to god the things that we do in this life Do they have a correlation with our satisfaction and The blessings that god give us like There are so many people who have everything in the world, but they have emptiness In themselves and all the money they have and everything they own is not enough to fill this gap And there are some who are not They do not have everything they are in between here and they are surviving and they are Fulfilled so the question is can money fill the gap that god has placed in our hearts To draw us to him the gap that only he can feel and service to others Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. Henry. What do you think about it? As we as we try and move on. I think the question here is really, you know Does money bring the satisfaction that that that we all crave? I wouldn't say so. I think that The satisfaction that comes from money is an equivalent to maybe the satisfaction of helping other people, you know, like for example um You see a child on the street and instead of you Going maybe your like 500 chillings to go and buy. I don't know. Let's say a donut or a slice of cake He decides to go and buy bread and milk for this kid. The smile on their face is Far more satisfactory than you going to have bought that cake or keeping it for whatever reason I'm not sure. Do you do you think it's the same for you? Yeah. No, I do think you see What what's actually being told in the story is that the way we spend our money Essentially shows what we value and shows where our heart is implicitly Right. And so, you know, as opposed to, you know, I said earlier that I'd buy our in roma Now you already know what I want. You know, you already know where my heart is Now, you know, you have to think about when they had neglected the temple of the lord You know, was their heart with god any longer? No, you know, it wasn't there at all right, and And just and and just from there, you know, I just like us to read From the Monday part just very quickly And just go through some of the punchlines and some of the the scripture Actually, perhaps if you take us through that very quickly, I will start with Thumbs 50 verse nine as my choice and you all of you can choose whichever of us it says I have no need of a bull From your stall of goods or from your pens for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hails So I think this just goes to say that he owns everything and even when we ask of him He he has not given us every single thing we need though our needs are catered for and Something interesting is that god cares about our one something that That's just about your personality like you personally it's gonna cost a little more But to me personally I can't wear such a clothes. It's it's god that treated you with that Taste so he cares about the things that we find insignificant if you look at the mission story We had earlier someone prayed that they could catch a mosquito if you ask me That was really ridiculous a prayer like how do you ask goods that they you could catch a mosquito? I mean you could just spray doom or something and forget about it. So Yeah, that's actually a very good verse and I like your illustration on it What I think that it's saying you know god already has enough money You know he's saying I don't need the I don't need your contribution And so he's saying I'm not really looking at your money. You know, I'm not looking at your subscription fee What I'm more interested in is your heart Is your heart? look at for example If you go to the book of acts Chapter 17 verse 25 Henry if you could just read it for us there the punch line here All right, and he reads and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything Rather he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else And it's just reiterating the same point that you know god is not interested in our money You know, he's not actually looking for you to give him money You know, there are other places that are interested in that the government of Kenya are interested in your money You know, but for god that's not his key. He already has all the money that he needs See if you could just read for us. Look chapter 12 verse 48 Okay, but the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with a few blows From everyone who has given much much will be demanded And from the one who has been entrusted with much much more will be asked And so really what you're looking for here and what god is really asking you to do Is to give from a place of of of of not necessity but from a place of Voluntarily, you know, he wants you he's actually looking at what is what is your attitude, you know And I can tell you for sure ladies and gentlemen and you can take to the through the bank There's no better way to know what somebody is thinking Then how they spend their money then how they use their money how they regard their money, you know It is a telescope into the heart. It is a telescope into the heart And so god is using this to really know if we are committed to him As as he deserves All right, uh, we want to move swiftly to the tuesday part and this is the flashlight Henry, why don't you shed some light, you know shine your thoughts? All right, light your candle light your candle go ahead. All right. Uh, so our flashlight he reads God has made men stewards the property which he has placed in their hands It is the means that he has provided for the spread of the gospel To those who prove themselves faithful stewards, he will commit greater trust They are the Lord Them the enemy I will honor this is from first summer Chapter two verse 30 So in this flashlight God calls men his stewards that means everything that we have or we own Actually belongs to god and he has just given us temporarily to take care of it for him he further spreads the insight and he says that The property which he has given to man he should be used to spread the gospel so My insight from that would be if you have something and you're not putting it towards a good purpose in terms of helping spread the gospel and showing god's love Are you really being a good steward because again, he says faithful stewards. He will commit greater trust Greater trust may not necessarily mean More wealth more money. It could also mean More support from the community It could also mean that he gives you a greater influence to reach out to more people because its purpose Of us Christians in the church is to spread the gospel for the Lord so that the word can reach all parts of the world So that everyone has an opportunity to be saved Yeah, that's so important. That's so important, you know, god has made us his steward I don't know if you guys understand just how Magnificent that is, you know, god has really entrusted us Mere mortal men, you know, he could have done it by himself You know, but he has chosen us. He has chosen us to do it and I just want to impress on us the fact That's coming from out of the story and the conversations that we have just heard, you know, there is a What what I like about the bible is that there is a there is a law and there is a causation You see you can see that because god has made us two ones Right and he has entrusted the work of sharing the gospel which is really the work of reclaiming this good earth You know from sin, you know, he has now set up a law that we ought to type You know, we ought to give a free will over it, you know Because of the work of salvation and that's really uh, something of of immense importance Then why don't you tell us again about, uh Patriots and prophets, uh Reflecting on page 259. I don't know if you can just read it from the from the third day part there There's a little quote and then perhaps just expound on it. All right So, um, Patriots and prophets, uh any reads The plan of moses to raise means for the building of the taba cano tabanaco was highly successful No urging was necessary No, did he employ any of the devices to which churches in our day so often resort He made no grand fees. He did not invite the people to scenes of gaiety dancing and general amusement Neither did he institute loiteries Not anything of this profane order to obtain means to erect the tabanaco for god The lord directed moses to invite the children of isra to bring their offerings He was to accept gifts from everyone that gave willingly from his heart And the offerings came in so great abundance that moses bade the people to see his brain For they had supplied more than could be used I don't what I'd like to say about this is how It said no urging was necessary. No, did he employ any devices to which churches in our day often I'm not sure if you've ever gone to a construction site For example, something like a church and seen how much machinery is used these days Back in the day, they didn't have such technology But built more magnificent churches than those that we have today what I'd have to say about this is God when god asks you to give it's not because he cannot get the resources he needs himself He can as you can see he said no urging was necessary That means he didn't need to advertise that, you know, we needed Money to build a church He just wanted people to give freely and willingly from his heart And so he compelled many people to actually give towards this cause and the church was erected Yeah When when henry mentioned That they didn't have back in the days. They didn't have this kind of technology And they still built more magnificent churches. It makes me wonder Our men becoming smarter Or dumber dumber Because back in the days if you if you ever go if you ever find time just go google search up one of these ancient buildings You'd see they have they have murals on the ceilings They have they have marble all over and they didn't have this kind of technology if you see pillars From back then and compare them to the pillars that we have now It's it's very different True true in terms of in terms of getting smarter We We are inclined to believe or we tend to believe that as days go by technology gets better The ai is coming up and we are getting smarter But the truth is we are getting them and that's why we need so many machines to do all these things Because back in the day did people have calculators? My father told me that he did not use a calculator in his kcse But us we use it in our biology chemistry everything we use calculators and Even in terms of height Over the ages men are getting shorter and shorter thin is degenerating. So there's no way we can be getting smarter All right. Well, that's a whole other debate but Uh, coming back to this, uh, I'm just impressed, you know by By by by these people, you know And I think what the lesson is trying to emphasize is that, you know, they They didn't have to have a harambe Essentially, you know, they didn't have to changa. They didn't have to do anything, you know These were gifts that were given and you should have seen that tabernacle. It was wonderful. You know He model didn't even have to ask, you know these days you have to do a whole campaign You know, you have to you have to hire a pr team You know, but Moses yet he didn't have to act He said that he did not even invite the people to sing of gating dancing and general amusement You know, neither did he institute lotions or any of the earlier or anything of that profane order You know, they were free will offerings free will offerings I it reminds me of a story by the way in one of my favorite books That is the book of first chronicles and that's when David is just about to die and he's now gathering Material to build the temple, you know, and they give so much they give so much In fact, they give overwhelmingly, you know, and at the end of it at the end of it You know, you'd be thinking David say David would be saying Look look at all the stuff I've brought, you know, oh, we are we are great We are something else. But then, you know, David, he says something opposite. He's saying who are we? And what is my house that I should give so much to the Lord, you know And it's just again emphasizing that attitude that you ought to have when you're given, you know, you ought to be thinking, you know None of this is mine anyway And that and that and that um from that text is where we get the song that was played earlier We give the bad thine own what tear thy lot may be for all we have is bad thine own our trust a lot from the So we we we take what is God and give back to God like we take what is God He has given it was So the illustration I used I give you 10,000 I watch of 10,000 You Split in half and give me back 5,000. It kind of doesn't make sense, you know, but um The Tuesday part was a bit interesting He says that interview someone who has faithfully paid tithes and offerings for many years as the giver If they felt that it was a worthwhile investment If the person has ever had any regrets about giving and it's like a better way to experience the faithfulness of God and through giving And how does it benefit the giver? You know, someone I know Someone I know Said that, you know, he was not paying tithe and then He started paying tithe And it's really like, you know, my money wouldn't be enough if I pay tithe, but he decided to pay it anyway And he got into an accident Not a bad accident but he just bumped into someone's car and the person was like, no, no, no, it's fine. It's fine. You just go It was an accident and he didn't Get a cent out of his pocket and he's thinking. Well, I just began paying my tithe so it's not about Us spending money on God But we benefit more by spending that money in useful things like the charge and charity And the things that have been called to do more than would benefit if you put the money in our pocket Yeah, that's an interesting point that you've just raised. Thank you so much. It's so insightful, by the way You know, I know at times, you know, you pay your tithe and then you think You know, this money I could have used it somewhere else You know, I could have utilized it. I have needs You know, and sometimes it's actually quite a sum of money I don't know what you guys think just before I say my point What do you guys think? Do you think that, you know, you should be Actively looking at it as an investment. Do you think giving of tithe is an investment that you make? Do you should you expect a return or should you just give and forget? Of course in Malachi Three, I think every every adventist knows this text Malachi three eight to ten says that try me Will a man drop God? Now try me try me in this and I'll open up the windows and your storehouse Not be able to contain the blessing that I give you so I think Giving to God is okay. Not an investment But he will give you what you need in the right time if you're faithful He'll also be faithful like, um, henry said that some What's um second summer? I think 230 God Those who honor God God will honor them So I think if you give to him and you're faithful and you are in need of something he has no reason to deny you He has no reason to deny you I'm curious to hear your your comments as well. What do you guys think about that? Should you expect a return ideal? No, uh, personally, I feel uh, when you're giving tithe It's not something that uh, you should expect to receive back because tithe is used to support God's work And also to help, you know, the need in society So when you're giving to search people, you shouldn't say oh, I went back by let's say a tithe. It's 10 000 shillings I want my 10 000 shillings back, you know That that's enough to fill up my cup for the month, you know When you give you should give and forget and be grateful that it's going to make someone's life better Because at the end of the day if you look what uh, many people say they would have spent that 10% on it's not on me It's always on wants. So for example, they would have said, oh, I could have gone to a restaurant I could have eaten at a nice restaurant, you know and paid me a half that money Uh, I could have uh, I don't know taken a train all the way to Mombasa, you know, and then I would have saved some money That's a want but Honestly, those people have needs since you're depriving yourself of a want to give someone else a need Which is very important because you never know when your time of need will come And then you really understand why tithe is important Indeed, um Said what about you? What do you think? Um, I think, you know, you're giving tithe Because god has blessed you with money So you give tithe back to god's house because like You know, what if god didn't give you that that job that pays you well Would you still be asking for the money that you that you that you put as tithe? You would not have anything to give as a matter of fact Yeah, so so like Giving tithe is you saying thank you to god for giving you that job True true true more so more so Yeah, um, all right then, um I think we're going to conclude but I just want to say that even if even if you should not expect a return There is a blessing And the book of malachi that you've just quoted, you know, and we know the you know shaken down pressed together and running over Running over overflowing So there's a blessing that is expected if you are facing All right Now we just want to conclude and go to the friday part An important part of money, you know as god would have it would be giving back to the poor Right and giving back to the poor is something that You know has been Has been in the limelight for as long as we can remember we remember jesus and judas You know when the lady came and watched jesus feed with the expensive perfume And judas said, you know, this this could have been sold and given to the poor You know, and so we just want to understand what should be our relationship with giving and especially the poor Henry part you could take us through that All right, so We're mostly going to focus on phx and prophets chapter 51 which is titled god's care for the poor In summary what I understand from this chapter is Each and every single human being is a representation of god Where the rich where the poor where the ugly where the pretty they are all part of god So when you refuse to give to the poor you refuse to give to god and in the bible I believe it's in matthew when he reads I was sick and he did not care for me. I was hungry and he did not feed me I was in prison and he did not visit me visit me Exactly So, um, what I understand from this is that since everyone is a representation of god the man asked But lord lord, I never saw you I never saw you but god comes in different forms You wouldn't see god as The images you see for example in church You wouldn't see him as the guy with the beard and the really long hair God comes could even come in the form of you yourself, you know, maybe you might be in need Maybe you may want to speak to someone but then people don't want to speak to you And that way you're depriving Youself from helping god So in summary the relationship between god the poor the sake The needy the lonely is that god manifests in everyone god lives in everyone and If you do not take care of people around you, especially when you are a little bit better off than other people who are around you Then you're depriving yourself of An opportunity to enter heaven, you know, because literally you're just denying god You're saying no, I don't want to visit that person. They're in prison. I don't want to associate myself with bad people I don't want to feed that homeless guy. He's homeless. He's dirty. I don't want to be seen with him But the part of being selfless like jesus was to come all the way to earth is what we should try and emulate as human beings Um, and I would like to say that you see the the part The giving of the poor visiting the seek those who are in prison and and the vulnerable of society Distinguishes who goes to heaven and who does not that's how serious this thing is. So I think we do have expectations on how we're supposed to spend our money And spend the time and the treasures that and the opportunities that god has given us and you notice that in judgment we'll not have the omission commission But we'll have the sins of commission and the sins of omission Where you failed to do not because it was not in your ability Or you did not have an opportunity but you overlooked the opportunity. So I hope that um Every one of us would take this into consideration. Yeah, no true true. Um Yeah, this this is a very interesting lesson ladies and gentlemen, mostly because it affects our daily life It's so practical. It's so practical, right But unfortunately we are running out of time and so I just want to give our panelists One more moment To uh, just give a closing remark just a closing remark. Um, what has really touched you in this lesson? What do you think? Go ahead. I will start from say that we go to our left um What caught my attention in this lesson is The fact that you know god God gives good takes So if he gives you And then you're not grateful for what he gave you he'll take it back Like how god was uh like in the story god was uh God was I don't know. I don't know should I say cursing the people that were They they had they had left god's house they they're they're Polishing their houses. They have wooden floors marble ceilings, but the house of god is basically like A pigsty. Yeah Yeah, no true. Um, just as you're saying that I was reminded of the saying take things for granted Take things for granted and they shall certainly be taken from you Right, and we know what happened to the Israelites even after they neglected God's house, you know, it was now taken taken from them And it became a hip of rubble actually what do you have to say my parting shots would be that God intends that those who have worldly possessions shall regard themselves merely as stewards of his goods as entrusted It means to be employed for the benefit of the suffering and the needy It may not be money It may be the Intelligence you have you may be good with people you may be able to talk to people and They they they get a sense of comfort. They get a sense of encouragement We have all been given different gifts as much as money is a major role and it plays a major role in day-to-day lives I'd encourage every one of us everyone who hears this voice You look at what is this thing that god has given you and you do not use it to help others out of necessity but You use it because god has given it to you and most of the time you will find that that thing will give you a lot of satisfaction Yeah, true. I just like the way you've put it, you know Stewardship is not just about money Our lesson today is so far-reaching. It's not just about the money you have It's about every single thing Every single thing your time your resources, you know, your skills your abilities everything How are you going to use them, you know And what god is really keen is on is your attitude. Do you think about them as your own? Do you think about them as something that you can use to You know to to advantage yourself, you know Are they selfish means that he has just given you or are they indeed something that you can use not only to benefit you But benefit everyone in society Henry My takeaway is God doesn't force God doesn't force I feel like the story of The Israelite giving to the construction of the tabernacle is really important and shows that God may give you everything that you have But he will not force you to give back. He will not force you to contribute to Certain causes it has to come from the heart and certainly as everyone has said that If you if you do not give It'll shall be taken away from you. Yeah, and I don't know that that just really hit home, you know Yeah, paying type is super important guys Let's make sure you pay your type because it's not like it's going to a bad cause. It's always going to a good cause Yeah, definitely definitely um totally This lesson ladies and gentlemen is so interesting and it's so far-reaching and we could emphasize Any one of those points we could talk about money. We could talk about giving to the poor We could talk about stewardship We could talk about it the whole day. We could talk about it the whole day But ladies and gentlemen, what I just want to emphasize as we close is that God is not really interested in your ability right if we remember the parable of Of the servants and the and the master who went out for a long journey You know each of them had they were given each of them different, you know different abilities different talents Right, but the only is when he came back the one who got the five and the one who got the two and had multiplied it They all got the same commendation well done good and faithful servant Right, what god is really keen on is your attitude. How do you view? money How do you view your skill sets? How do you view your resources? Are they just you know for your own personal gain? Are they just for yourself? What he's interested in is knowing and seeing That these resources that in your heart of hearts you do not value them Indeed in fact, I'm reminded of the first commandment thou shalt have no other god before me A lot of the times people tend to put money as a god, right? But what? Tithe what stewardship tries to teach us is that we should not have these things at the forefront At the forefront of our lives indeed. They are just tools and so ladies and gentlemen. I just want to thank you so much for being with us here and Paying attention until the end and until next time. We wish you a wonderful week Join us next time. Thank you very much Let us pray Dear father in heaven. Oh lord god Thank you so much for the resources that you've blessed us with father Please help us to be faithful in jesus name. I pray amen