 This August, welcome to the Teen's Cornerstone Connections lesson. In this series, we'll be drawing a line in the sand. Lesson number eight, first things first. With rhythmic music from our orchestra, with Amy on the violin, Sibir on the clarinet, and Kiki on the trumpet. Our mission comes all the way from the European division, Poland Warsaw, Witame. Enjoy with our sign language appealing to the deaf community. Lastly, our amazing panelists, Ashley, Salomon, Silas, Seth, and our wonderful teen teachers. Be blessed. Happy Sabbath, everyone. So as Sibir let you know, our mission is coming from Poland, and I'd like to give you guys two fun facts about Poland. Poland has one of the oldest salt mines, which was established 400 years ago. Secondly, Europe is home to Europe's heaviest animal, the bison, winging over half a tonne. So today our mission comes from Poland, we're still in the Warsaw division, and it is titled Oranges and Lemons. So do you like candy, sweets, chocolate? Not too long ago, if you asked a child in Poland, they would have told you oranges. Maybe for you you can find oranges at your local convenience store, but in Poland, oranges and any other citrus fruit was only found during Christmas. Children and adults used to drool watching the cargo ships bring in the citrus fruits all the way from different countries, such as Egypt, Turkey, and Cuba. So our story talks about a young girl called Maria, and when Maria was young, she too loved oranges like every other child in Poland. After she grew, her obsession with oranges and lemons did not go. When Maria was a young wife to a pastor named Rizad, unfortunately she felt sick, and it seemed like everything was coming to an end. So she asked her husband if he could get her an orange or a lemon. Keep in mind they were pastors, so they could not afford oranges or lemons, and despite the fact that they couldn't afford it, it was very, very far from Christmas. So Rizad prayed and he prayed to God, and he asked God to provide oranges and lemons. On that very day, he went to visit an old woman. The woman was lonely, her husband was not there, and her daughter had moved to the United States. However, she had been sent a package by her son. So Rizad went to visit the old lady, and the old lady had received a package from her daughter containing oranges and lemons. So the old lady offered to give some oranges and lemons to Rizad. His prayer had been heard by God. Rizad was beaming ear to ear, and could no way to go home to show his wife what had happened. When Rizad went home, he let his wife know about the miracle of the day. He showed her the oranges and lemons. Maria was beyond disbelief, she was happy, and she felt rejuvenated. It's a true miracle what happened for Rizad and Maria, how they were able to receive the oranges and lemons just as she'd asked when she was sick. Our key verse comes from Philippians 4 verse 19, and he reads, My God shall supply all you need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Thank you for your sub-school offering that helps teach people around the world about our loving God who supplies all our needs. Thank you. Amen. Thank you very much, Ocastra, for that beautiful item. Now into this week's lesson, I'd like to welcome you to this week's lesson study, and it's a beautiful heading, Fast Things Fast. And before we start, I'd like to ask Salmon to please pray with us. Let's pray. Our kind and loving father, thank you for being with us. Thank you for bringing us here. One more Sabbath. Please be with us as we go through the lesson. In Jesus' name we pray and believe. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much. I'd like to introduce the panelist today. I'd like to start from my extreme left. Please introduce yourself. Hi, my name is Silas. Happy Sabbath. I am Salmon. Hello, my name is Ashley Silas. Hello, my name is Seth Mokai. Thank you very much. And I am the moderator. My name is Kelvin Nyagantja. Now Fast Things Fast Salmon, thank you. What do you think about what is happening here in this chapter? So here we see it's Joshua, and it's like he's making the Israelites have something like a pledge to God to follow his commands. So from the what do you think section, we are being asked when was the last time we sang a national anthem or repeated a pledge of allegiance. For me it was when I was in school before the break. Every Monday and Friday we have an assembly where we sing the national anthem and the East African anthem just to show our pledge of loyalty to our country and to God. So we are told to finish the following statements by choosing from the list below. The reason why I sing my national, my nation's anthem and repeated is to pledge to prove that I know it so my parents and teachers will not household me. So I think you can just do it and agree or disagree. Seth, do you sing the national anthem to prove that you know it? Actually, the national anthem is more of a prayer to the nation. Like I don't think you should actually sing the national anthem to please others. It's like a prayer to the nation. Yeah. So Silas, do you practice it because you want to join military when you grow up? No, I don't want to join military. That's not the reason why I sing. Personally, I practice the anthem because it is to show my patriotism and my allegiance to the laws and the values of this nation. In order in age, we are not very patriotic because we don't want to join politics and all these things. But being a citizen who upholds the constitution and follows that which is in the anthem, that is patriotism enough for our age, we are not called to go and die on the battlefield. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much. Simon, you want to maybe ask some more questions? Yeah, one more. We are told in the Bible that Joshua called this holy assembly just immediately after Israel had conquered I. Why do you think Joshua didn't let the people relax a bit before training the law in stone? In other words, the question is after achieving a great success, what do you do? Do you party? Do you celebrate or do you actually worship? Guys, what do you think? OK, in everyone after achieving something, great parties. But I guess what we should do is not to party, but go and worship and thank God for helping us achieve this greatest thing. For military, when they achieve something, they will have a celebration, but first they will recite their pledges and allegiance to the nation and not ascribe the glory to themselves but to the nation itself. Yeah, so that should be what would happen to us as well when we overcome or we accomplish something. We would first remind ourselves of who we are, whose subjects we are, who enabled us to do this thing, ascribe glory to where it is due, then celebrate. So in other words, what I'm getting is after every success that we may achieve, we can borrow the title and say fast things fast, not to celebrate, but worship fast. Thank you very much, Salmon, for taking us through that beautiful session. Now, Ashley, I just want you to just elaborate for us what is happening in the story and out of the story and ask us maybe questions that we'll learn from this particular story. Our into the story this week is quite short and it's from Joshua chapter 8 verse 30 to 35, which says, Then Joshua builds on Mount Eber and alter to the Lord, the Lord God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones upon which no iron tool had been used, on each they offered to the Lord bound offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings, then the presence of the Israelites. Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses. All the Israelites, their elders, officials and judges were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the levitical priests who carried it. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Eber. As Moses the servant of the Lord had formally commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people. Afterward Joshua read the words of the law, the blessings and the castes, just as it is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not reach the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children and for the foreigners who lived among them. Now, I would say that before Moses died he commanded that the children of Israel be taught, be read for the word from the scrolls, that they might be acquainted with the word of the Lord, that the children might know of the Lord through being told by their parents. So here it says that Joshua read all the words just as Moses had said. Now, a question. What huge battle took place prior to the assembly at Eber and Gerizim? That is, just short after 8 verse 1 to 9 and I would presume that it was in the last lesson. Mendithion, what battle had taken place? The battle where they had conquered the eye. During this battle, was this the battle where Joshua told the son to stand, that he may finish? Or which battle is this? It comes just after Jericho, right? And just before the scene of Akhan. But we're not going to focus a lot on the battle, but we're going to focus on the renewal of the covenant. Akhan had sinned and had done which that was expressly wrong. They said that God had said that they should not take any spoil from Jericho. He had taken spoil and hidden in his tent and men had died of the children of Israel. Now they had to renew their covenant. They had to take their caste thing among them and sanctify the people. But tomorrow the Lord, God of Israel was going to come among them. Thank you for that. So what do we get out of this story? I think what you can get from this story is that God really hates disobedience. And in this journey of the Israelites, the lessons we are doing now is really clear on matters of disobedience. Moses disobeyed once, cost him not going to the promised land. Here Akhan disobeyed him and his children. The generation after him in his line died. So I think disobedience is a really key factor when God says something, obey. In the Didino section it says that Jericho assembled the people of God in front of two mountains, Ibal and Gerizim. Ibal means rocky and the description is accurate and Gerizim, unlike Ibal, is lush and beautiful. This gives us two scenarios or picture two things. One, Ibal would represent the castes that would follow Israel if they pursued God and Gerizim demonstrated the wonderful blessings that they would attend the people of God if they remained faithful. So even in our anthem and our pledge of allegiance, we need to look at the things that establish a nation. Because nations don't just wake up one morning and they're established. There are things that the founders of this nation had to go through for us to have a republic. And we ought to remember these things and have integrity and honesty. Because only on the principles of diligence can we build a successful nation. Amen, amen. Now let us to read Joshua 832 and 33 and it reads, There in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. All the Israelites with their elders, officials and judges were standing on both sides of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Now Seth, I just want you to maybe just elaborate for us what's happening here. We've seen Joshua has copied the law of Moses on the tablets of stone, as the people watched. And then from the little that I know, stone is a bit hard. You know, it's not like the machines for nowadays where you can just photocopy and in seconds you have you have a copy, actually copied on tablets of stone. Can you maybe elaborate that for us and what our attitude should be when we handle matters of God? Actually, I don't think Joshua, like, you know, the 10 commandments were into two tablets. Then Moses actually broke them again. So I think, like you said, tablets, the stones are hard. They're not like clay, which is soft. And we both know that clay is a soft soil and it is the poorest. It is the poorest in all the others. So I think he actually did that, but he didn't actually copy paste it within an hour. And, you know, in this generation, we have computers and cell phones. Those days there were no computers, there were no cell phones, and there were no any signs of communication rather than sending messengers to where you are told to go. And that person is supposed to get that message urgently. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. And I think maybe the highlight of that particular excerpt is that Joshua did not take any shortcuts. You know, he did what exactly the Lord would like him to do. Now, I just want us to read the flashlight, then maybe Benedict can take us through. Maybe all that flashlight means to you, okay? And here it reads that Satan is ever at work, endeavoring to pervert what God has spoken. Okay? And to blind the mind and to darken the understanding. And thus lead men into sin. Now, this is why the Lord is so explicit, making his requirements so very plain that none need are. Now, God is constantly seeking to draw men close under his protection that Satan may not practice his cruel, deceptive power upon them. Silas, what do you get when you read that? Okay. We see in this flashlight that Satan is working to take us to his fold and Christ is working to bring us back to the right place, which is his fold. And we see that we have a role to play in this, in this war by choosing the right side. So if we choose the right side, Christ wins. If we choose the wrong side, we make Satan happy. I think we need to underline the part where she says that this is why the Lord is so explicit, making his requirements so very plain that none are. He is so explicit. Yeah, like if you look at how God wanted the altar to be built. Here it says, then Joshua built the altar, an altar to the Lord, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. The ability according to what is written in the book, an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tune had been used. Twelve uncut stones piled in a particular way. God is into the details. He is so explicit. He wants us to work in a particular way and he shows us which way to go. So since God is explicit, therefore it technically means that for him being explicit he's trying to hold us and guide us from falling into the snares of Satan. The only reason why God is explicit, it's so that Satan might not take advantage of the circumstance and lead us to a way which we might not even benefit from the promises of God. Thank you very much for that contribution. Now Salmon, we have several punchlines and I want you to focus on Galatians 5, 524. What can you allude and what do you get from these punchlines in connection with the story in this precept? Galatians 5, 24 reads, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So from the story it's about allegiance, love to God, and the focus is heaven. We're not only, we are just temporary citizens in our respective countries because our focus is permanent citizenship in heaven. So those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh. What do we get from that? No, Christ's crucifixion was just to make sure that we will be in heaven and live with him forever. That's why we get the thing of being explicit. It's either on God's side or on the devil's side. So there's no in-between, in-between means in the devil's side. So that's why Joshua made sure the people are having a pledge because Akan sinned, cost death, and the people, it's like they were pure, now they're impure, now they need to be brought back to purity. So Joshua makes them do a pledge just to make sure that when the Lord is there, there with him, because the Lord dwelt among them, and we know that the Lord cannot dwell with sin. So I think we as Christians have to be ready for crucifixion in respective honors just as the other Christian matters before us. Okay, in our current day and age we have the freedom of religion, the freedom to speak out what we believe and what we see as right. And because of that there's a lot going on, and there's a lot of people saying a lot of things that don't make sense just because of freedom of speech. So we may not be necessarily called to die today as a matter, but standing out for the right is the best you can do. As you said we focus on Galatians 524, those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Once you belong to Christ you die to self, you die to man, and you have a life that's divine strength with human effort, and therefore the things that you do are that which pleases God. So in other words you are alluding that in our struggle to crucify flesh or in our struggle to obey God Christ plays a role. So what role does Christ play in this battle of crucifying self? And as I mentioned that there's a text that comes to my mind that says that we can do all things through Christ to strengthen us. So Christ has a role to play and we also have a role to play, and what that means is basically we need to cooperate with Christ in this great battle of crucifying the flesh. Now thank you very much Salmon for your contribution. Now point to note is that when these guys were going through these battles they were strangers and there were aliens in amongst them. And I want Silas maybe to just maybe elaborate for us in the third part that how do you share your faith with those people whom you think do not know God, and do you hide your faith from people who you maybe perceive are not Adventists, how do you go about it? Because there were aliens there and all the commandments that were given even to them they were supposed to follow. Silas what do you think? Okay I think we should not hide our faith because by hiding our faith we show that we are ashamed of it. Yeah so I think that we should share our faith so that someone is able to know what they're supposed to do and what they're not supposed to do so that the burden lies on them and not on you who didn't share your faith. Because the castes still apply to everyone so we should enlight people and not let them remain in ignorance. Just to add to what my brother just said there's a verse in the Bible that says that if I know the truth then I don't tell you the truth and you die in your sin your blood will be required of my hand. So the blessings and the castes apply to those who are saved and those who are not saved those who believe and those who do not believe. So it is our responsibility every one of us that those we come in contact with we should not think that because the things we do are not popular we should now keep them in the dark and conform to what they do and be them when you're with them then be you when you're alone. Man any other contributions in regards to that? Yes I know. So you know something else there were strangers in the land so you'd expect them to lose and so you might think that these aliens who are maybe even spies just to sell them out but just as Ashley has said God will judge us if we have the truth but we'll not tell it we'll not show it it's like you're being ashamed of the faith you have because there I think what distinguished them from the strangers may not have even been raised maybe they are practiced because all the other nations were doing idolatry so the Israelites were syncretic focused on one God Jesus Christ so I think them they had a role to play they had to turn those even though they were not from the original 12 tribes just to make them no God and yeah that's all I have. Amen. Thank you very much. There's a song that says that one person got the God saved and thought to himself that he will not tell it to a living soul how he got salvation and he made it whole but he found that he could entire love as Christ in impact you will notice that if Christ is living in you there is no way you will be saved and not want others to be saved as well there is no way you will hear the word of God and get saturated but not share it because the spirit of Christ is a spirit of giving and as much as you give as much as you receive you also give yeah. Amen. Amen. So in other words by the very essence of professing that you're a Christian charges you to actually share your faith wherever you are and whatever time you may be okay so says you see when you read the book of Psalms 95 verse 6 it's basically about worship and everyone worships okay whether we attend church or not okay whether we pay our tithe or not okay whether we eat foods or not whether we listen to preachers or not it happens in bars in clubs in election in small towns and in big cities everyone worships now God wants worship and Satan also wants worship now have you ever stopped to think of the reason why you worship God you know for me God is the only God we believe and I remember during COVID while I was still recording a few it was actually VBS we were recording VBS and it was just an amazing experience through acting because it was actually my first time acting for a while so I remember there was this time I was actually on stage and I remember that I remembered one thing that struck in my head is to always believe that you're that you're going to be guided by God and not the God with small G the God with the capital G because other people believe in the gods the small G gods because the worship idols once in a like the worship idols most of the time like during COVID it was actually difficult to live stream while people are not in church and it's it's sometimes difficult and sometimes sometimes difficult sometimes it works if only we keep keep time we start the service early and finish early because we don't to keep children till one and was still in the preaching part and the preachers usually at times they usually extend till 1 30 then you find out your the services ending at 150 and actually the services to me I find it actually easier to just come to church all the time because it's more of an experience that you don't to just sit in the house and watch the service online it's it's about why people worship it's not about whether we should come to church or not so I think that there is no you cannot have your feet in two places you cannot be in the middle you cannot be 50 50 you cannot be non-religious you can only choose either to follow Christ if you're not following Christ you're on the other side they just two choices to make some 95 sixes or come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker for verse 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand verse 8 today if you will hear his voice do not harden your heart as in rebellion as in the day of trial in the wilderness we worship God because he is our maker that is the sole reason because he's our maker he dies he he deserves our worship and the devil worshipping the devil may not be you may not be a devil worshipper you may not go get a stone and put it here and tell the stone you are my god anything that takes the place of God in your life that is your idol reach your school work beat success anything that takes a place of God in your life that is an idol so I think even us as Christians we need to look out for this thing yeah yeah yeah just to add on what she has said that anything that takes a place of God is an idol for example here in church on most football soccer games are played on Sabbath on weekend sorry so you find that the mood on football fans is not even with God yet they think that when you're in church you're worshipping God but your mind is elsewhere your body is here which is very visible but your mind you're thinking what are the scores what is happening out there so we should really watch out for these destructions because you might think that we are very religious but we may be on the losing side now I'm reminded of the story of the rich young ruler in the book of Luke I know it was not illustrated in this lesson but the young man approached Christ and told him I have kept the commandments from my youth up okay yeah kept all the commandments and but he still had something in him and and he wanted to know what he needs to do to follow Christ fully okay then Christ told him that go and give all that you have and come and and follow me and what did the young man do he went away sad okay in other words he didn't want to give up that which he was given so in other words there are some who they esteem the things that God has given them above the giver okay and hence the question why do you actually worship God now there's a text that I have in mind I think it's in the book of Revelation and it's quite clear it says that worship God why for he is the Creator he made the heavens and the earth in other words that alone qualifies God to be worshipped I mean like and and you see as as my sister here said that every one of us actually worships in some certain way we actually worship so in other words as as you worship quote it is important also to just point out what are you worshipping and what have they done to you to be able to qualify to gain that worship so therefore we can declare and say that we worship God because first he created the heavens and the earth and I mean he created us and that is sufficient for us to to actually worship him now I'd like to read an excerpt here from the book steps to Christ and it says let us place ourselves in right relation to him who has loved us with an amazing love let us avail ourselves of the means provided for us that we may be able we may be transformed into his likeness heaven is open for us God has graciously granted to us everything that we need and as Joshua here was telling these guys first things first okay he took his time the tablets of stone curated them one by one first things first and that's our loyalty pledge that we owe our loyalty first to God then the rest follow I'd like to close it at that if there be any contributions before we close I just like to quote the first standard of our anthem that says oh God of all creation our country as is acknowledges that God is of all creation as we citizens of this country live in this country may we know believe that God sees everything that we do and at the end of time he will bring to account everything that we do and not a jot of his law will get passed and that is why it is written in stone amen amen God is worthy of our worship because he created the heavens and the earth and he created us and that qualifies him for worship I'd like to ask Seth to close with a word of prayer okay um let's bow our heads for a word of prayer thank you lord for this day thank you for this hour that we are going to finish our lesson I pray that you may have another panel coming up that's next next week I pray that we may those watching this content may be blessed through our hard work that you have put through this job for this we pray trusting me living just name me pray amen amen amen