Sabbath School lesson is one of the worldwide lessons studied by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and we are in the Forth quarter of 2023. We are currently studying the God’s Mission My Mission, and the Sabbath School lesson for this week is titled “God’s Mission to Us: Part 1” September 30 - October 06. Join Pastor Mark Finely as he gives a short preview of this week’s lesson.

<p>Sabbath School lesson is one of the worldwide lessons studied by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and we are in the Forth quarter of 2023. We are currently studying the God’s Mission My Mission, and the Sabbath School lesson for this week is titled “God’s Mission to Us: Part 1” September 30 - October 06. Join Pastor Mark Finely as he gives a short preview of this week’s lesson.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2023: God's Mission My Mission

01 God’s Mission to Us Part 1

02 God’s Mission to Us Part 2

03 God’s Call to Mission

04 Sharing God’s Mission

05 Excuses to Avoid Mission

06 Motivation and Preparation for Mission

07 Mission to My Neighbor

Unlocking the Secrets of Prayer

08 Mission to the Needy

09 Mission to the Powerful

10 Mission to the Unreached Part 1

11 Mission to the Unreached, Part 2

12 Esther and Mordecai

13 The End of God’s Mission


Welcome back to another quarter here on Hope Lives 365 of our Sabbath School Lessons. The title of the lessons this quarter is especially interesting to me, God's Mission, My Mission. You know, when you think of mission, we often think that we do mission and that it's our mission. But to sense that mission is God's, that God is working on every heart, he's working in every individual life, he's working in each neighborhood, each city, town, and community to draw people to himself. So mission is God's.

When we participate in mission, we participate with God in his mission. The lesson begins with the title of God's Mission to Us. And 1 of the interesting things I thought about the lesson as I reviewed it was the fact that you can never understand God's mission and the mission of God unless you understand the God of mission. And so this lesson focuses on God. It begins by telling the story of Adam and Eve's failure and disappointment to God and Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden.

And here, after Adam and Eve's sin in the garden, the Bible says God goes on his mission. Sometimes you think mission may begin with Abraham, may begin with the Old Testament prophets who proclaim God's love and grace. Some people think, well, mission took place when Jesus came, or when the disciples came in the book of Acts. But actually, mission took place far, far before that. God's mission began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned.

And it's interesting when you look, for example, at Genesis chapter 3, and I think this provides the basis for our lesson this week. Genesis 3 verse 8 and 9. Adam and Eve have sinned, they run, and they hide from God. In sin, the Bible says in Isaiah 59, verse 1 and 2, your sins separated you from God. And here in verse 8, Adam and Eve hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees.

When we live lives of disobedience, when we rebel against God and sin, we feel uncomfortable in God's presence. We don't feel the oneness that we once felt with God, and our tendency is to run from God and hide. But when you look at God's question to Adam and Eve, now, they've been placed in a perfect garden, they had perfect natures that weren't fallen, God's love reached out to them constantly, but you cannot have love unless you have freedom of choice, because if you take away freedom of choice, you take away the ability to love. And so here in Genesis chapter 3 verse 9, it says, the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? So here you have the first indication of mission in these words, where are you?

God speaks, calls to Adam. Now notice what God didn't say. God didn't say to Adam, why'd you do that? He didn't say to Eve, why did you disobey me? Why did you sin?

His voice was not condemnatory, but loving. The God of mission comes lovingly looking for his lost children. And if you look at Sunday's lesson, there's an interesting paragraph that says, of course God knew exactly where they were. Dominated by fear, Adam and Eve were the ones who needed to see what was going on. But they also needed to be confronted so they could understand the dreadful consequences of sin.

Satan also needed to be defeated. For that, God then began to present his mission, the plan of redemption, the only hope of reconciling the world to himself. When you look at the entire Bible message through the lens of mission, the whole Bible then becomes God's exposition of his own character in mission. From the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, God has 1 primary goal, and that's to restore us into his image. That is to redeem us and get us ready for heaven.

Now in the garden when Adam and Eve sinned, God didn't let them go. God didn't push this planet out into the far reaches of space and destroy it. God rather came to where they were. God longed to be with them. And this is the story of mission, the story of a God whose heart longs to be with us.

We see this in Monday's lesson in 3 instances, Genesis 17 7, Genesis 26 3, Genesis 28 15. We see God saying to Abraham, I will be with you. Let's just look at 1 of those texts, Genesis chapter 28 verse 15. If you're following along with your Bible, please take it and turn to Genesis 28 verse 15. We see this God who longs to be with his people.

In Genesis 20 verse 15, it says, speaking to Abraham and his descendants, the children of Israel, "'Behold, I am with you, will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I'll not leave you until I have done what I've spoken of to you." So you see, all through Genesis, when God is speaking to his people, and particularly speaking to Abraham, what does he say? Behold I'm with you. I want to be with you. I want to dwell with you. I care for you.

The God of mission is the God who longs to be with us. Now we see that in the ancient sanctuary when Israel built the sanctuary. Remember in Exodus 25 verse 8, it says, "'Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell with them.'" So God always has longed to dwell with his people. He's always longed to be with us. Sin has separated us from God, but yet God bridges that gap.

And the prime way that God bridged the gap between human beings and God was through Christ. This is why Tuesday's lesson gives strong emphasis to the angels' discussion in Matthew chapter 1. And I think this is 1 of the most precious texts in all the Bible. I think it's 1 of the clearest texts in all the Bible on why Jesus came. Matthew chapter 1.

I start there with verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. So what took place in Mary's womb was the union of the divine and human. Christ was not born naturally, he was born supernaturally.

That which was conceived in Mary's womb was a divine act, Christ conceived by the Holy Spirit. And notice as you go down through the passage, Joseph is concerned. He was afraid to take Mary as his wife, so the angel had to explain to him in verse 21, 22, 23, And she will bring forth a son, you'll call his name Jesus, for he'll save his people from their sins. Christ was to come, live the perfect life we should have lived, die the death we should have died, come forth from the grave as our resurrected Lord, ascend to heaven as our interceding high priest, and come again as our coming King. This Christ that came once came to reveal the Father's love and grace.

He was God with us. Now notice verse 22, Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a son. They shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. So Jesus is God with us, God dwelling in human flesh. This is the God of mission, the God who wouldn't let Adam and Eve go, who calls for them, where are you?

The God who was with Abraham as he called him out of his family and friends, led him on a journey that Abraham didn't even know where he was going, but God said, I'm with you. And this God that was with Adam and Abraham and each of the Old Testament patriarchs, he is the God in Christ who is with us. In fact, that's what John chapter 1 says. Look at John 1. Again, the God who is where?

Where is this God? He's with us. John 1. In the beginning, verse 1, was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of man. Now notice, as you go down through this passage, it says that this Jesus that came in human flesh was the light that lights every man, verse 9, that comes into the world. So Christ is with us through his Holy Spirit, convicting our hearts, drawing us to him.

He indeed is the God of mission. When you look at Wednesday's lesson, our author does something that I thought was quite surprising. He says, read and carefully reflect on John 3 16. How do you see God's love and mission interacting here? In other words, we know John 3, 16 so well, but sometimes you can know something so well it becomes just kind of rote in your mind.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." What is significant about that passage when it comes to mission? Well, first, God so loved. The greatest love story in the world, God so loved that he gave love gives. His what? Only begotten Son, the most precious gift that possibly could be given.

That whosoever the greatest promise believes in him should not perish. So the God of mission self-sacrificially gave everything he had in heaven. All of heaven was summed up in Christ. All of heaven was emptied in Christ. All of heaven was given in Christ.

So mission requires sacrifice. And if you and I are to participate in God's mission, it's going to require sacrifice. Sacrifice of time, sacrifice of finances, sacrifice of some of our cherished possessions. All love requires sacrifice. God so loved that he gave.

In Matthew chapter 28 we have this great commission. You know, Christ, after his resurrection, said to his disciples, Go to the Galilee and meet me there. And so the disciples came to Galilee. And you look at Matthew chapter 28, this great commission that Christ gave. You notice the imperative words, the very strong words in the text.

Jesus says here in Matthew chapter 28, he spoke saying, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. I want to pause there. All authority. What does he mean? The word for authority there is exousia.

It has the idea, it's a Greek word, exousia. It has authority, King James Version says power. It has the idea of sovereignty. It has the idea of victory over the principalities and powers of hell. So what Jesus is saying is, all authority has been given to me.

He's saying, I am the supreme, all-powerful God, and I'm gonna send you on a mission, but you don't go in your strength, you go in mine. You don't go in your feebleness, you go in my divine power. You don't go in your weakness, you go with wisdom from heaven. All authority is given to me. What Jesus is saying is, I have triumphed over the principalities and powers of hell, and because of that I'm qualified to send you on a mission.

As it is so often said, Jesus does not call the qualified, he qualifies those whom he calls. When we go on God's mission, we go on God's mission with God's strength, with God's power, with God's wisdom. Now notice, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore. Very strong words.

Go therefore. In other words, you win souls as you go. You become linked up with Christ's mission as you go. God can't bless any literature we don't pass out. He can't bless any books we don't distribute.

He can't bless any Bible studies or evangelistic meetings we don't hold. Notice, go therefore and make disciples. Now that making disciples is the key thing. Make disciples. He leads us out into his mission to lead people to Christ so they can grow in grace and become his disciples.

But then you come down to the end of the passage, it says, teaching them to observe whatever I've commanded you. So the full Bible message is taught. But then in verse 20, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world. So he is the God that came looking after Adam. He's the God that was with Abraham.

He is the God that was with Isaac and Jacob. He's the God that came in Christ and tabernacled in human flesh to show us what God was like. And he is the God that will be with us in mission and never leave us. On Thursday's lesson, we learned that he's the God who 1 day will come back for us. John 14, 1 to 3.

Scripture puts it so beautifully, "'Let not your heart be troubled. "'You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, Jesus says, I will come again, next few words, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also. The Ellen White comments on this passage and on Revelation 21, verse 3, where John hears this loud voice from heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God will dwell with men, he'll be with them, they'll be his people. See this intimacy, Jesus is coming back for us. Christ will 1 day have the tabernacle descend from heaven and be with us. But Ellen White comments on it.

You find it in Thursday's lesson, middle of the page, middle paragraph. The work of redemption will be complete. That's after Jesus comes. It's after the thousand years, after the Holy City descends. In the place where sin abounded, grace, God's grace much more abounds.

The earth itself, the very field that Satan claims is his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted. Here where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity, where the King of glory lived and suffered and died, here where he shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with men. And through the endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise him for his unspeakable gift. Emmanuel, God with us. 1 day, in a land called glory.

1 day, on streets called gold. 1 day, in a place called heaven. You and I will walk with Jesus. We will talk with Jesus. The plan of salvation will be finished.

God's mission will be consummated. And together with Christ, we will live forever and ever. God's mission, my mission. Here's your thought for today. If indeed God's mission was to reach lost people And if indeed God's mission was to be with us, then our mission is to cooperate with God to reach lost people so they can be with him.

Here's your assignment for this week. Think through people around you who you don't currently know. Maybe a work associate. Maybe if you're a student another classmate. Maybe some nurse at the hospital where you work.

Maybe some physician. Maybe a gas station attendant. Maybe a person in a grocery store where you shop. Think about some person who you don't know. Learn their name this week and begin daily to pray for them and watch what God does.

Let's pray together. Father in heaven, thank you for your love and grace and goodness. Thank you with all of our hearts that we can serve you and live for you. We pray that you would help us to cooperate with you in self-sacrificial love and your mission to the world. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Series

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2023: God's Mission My Mission

01 God’s Mission to Us Part 1

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 God’s Mission to Us Part 1

19m

02 God’s Mission to Us Part 2

18m

03 God’s Call to Mission

19m

04 Sharing God’s Mission

22m

05 Excuses to Avoid Mission

17m

06 Motivation and Preparation for Mission

25m

07 Mission to My Neighbor

20m

Unlocking the Secrets of Prayer

21m

08 Mission to the Needy

25m

09 Mission to the Powerful

29m

10 Mission to the Unreached Part 1

19m

11 Mission to the Unreached, Part 2

25m

12 Esther and Mordecai

23m

13 The End of God’s Mission

25m

Sound Doctrine