Apr24-30: The Environment

Teaching Points

1. Read Gen. 1:1; 2:15 and answer the following.

QUESTIONS:

• Who created the earth?
• Who was to care for the earth?
• Who does the earth belong to?

2. Read Ex. 20:3-17 and answer the following.

QUESTIONS:

• In what ways do the Ten Commandments protect the environment?
• What responsibilities to our environment could be enjoined in the Ten Commandments?
• How does forgetting our Creator and the Sabbath affect our environment?  
• How does disrespect for parents, others property, and life itself affect our environment?

3. What happened as a direct result of sin? 

ANSWER:

• Gen. 3:14--19—The ground and snakes were cursed, pain in child bearing, and hatred between God’s people and Satan’s followers.
• Gen. 3:18—thorns and thistles 

4. What has happened in the animal kingdom?

ANSWER:

• Gen. 9:2—animals and man fear each other.
• Rom. 8:22—the whole creation groans and travails.  

OBSERVATION:

• God owns this earth.
• God has placed humans as stewards of His creation.
• The Ten Commandments directly affect how we treat God’s creation.
• If we reject the fact of creation and the Sabbath we no longer have a guard for the family and time together—which leads to crumbling families; and we no longer have respect or value for the amazing person that God created us to be and all creation.
• If we reject our Creator, we have no need or true value for any of His laws.
• Because of sin all of creation suffers and is under the curse of sin. 

5. What is required of us as stewards of the earth?

ANSWER:

• 1 Cor. 4:2—stewards must be faithful.
• 1 Pet. 4:10—We are stewards not just of earthly things but also God’s grace.

6. How will God deal with unfaithful stewards who destroy the earth?

ANSWER:

• Rev. 11:18—God will destroy those that destroy the earth. 

7. Will anything be hurt, killed, or destroyed in the New Earth?

ANSWER:

• Isa. 11:9; 65:25—Nothing will hurt or destroy
• Isa. 11:7—bears and lions will be vegetarians
• Isa. 65:25—wolves and snakes will be vegetarian/dirt eating. 

8. Will there be any sickness, pain, death, or sin in the New Earth?

ANSWER:

• Rev. 21:4—no pain, death, sorrow, or crying
• Isa 33:24—no sickness and iniquity is forgiven.

OBSERVATION:

• As stewards of God’s creation we are required to faithfully care for the earth.
• If we do things that destroy this earth, which are not necessary to living, then God will destroy us.
• Nothing will hurt or destroy in the earth made new.
• Even the meat-eating animals today will be vegetarians.
• There will be no more sickness, pain, sorrow, death or sin in the New Earth or heaven.                                                                                     

THOUGHT QUESTIONS:

• What choices can you make that will help take better care of the earth?
• What choices can you make that will help protect the animals from suffering?
• What can you do to help yourself and others take better care of the earth?
• How will living Christian and sharing Christ aid in limiting suffering on this earth?

9.  What special encouragement is giving to those who take care of little things?

ANSWER:

• Luke 16:10, 11—Those faithful in the little things will be faithful in big things and counted worthy of eternal riches.

OBSERVATION:

• Jesus wants us to be faithful.
• Faithful habits start with little things and as we learn to take care of little things in life then we can be trusted with greater riches—eternal life.

SOP

• If men would do their duty as faithful stewards of their Lord's goods, there would be no cry for bread, none suffering in destitution, none naked and in want. It is the unfaithfulness of men that brings about the state of suffering in which humanity is plunged. If those whom God has made stewards would but appropriate their Lord's goods to the object for which He gave to them, this state of suffering would not exist. The Lord tests men by giving them an abundance of good things, just as He tested the rich man of the parable. If we prove ourselves unfaithful in the righteous mammon, who shall entrust us the true riches? It will be those who have stood the test on the earth, who have been found faithful, who have obeyed the words of the Lord in being merciful, in using their means for the advancement of His kingdom, that will hear from the lips of the Master, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things."--Review and Herald, June 26, 1894.  {RC 227.6}
• Let the diet reform be progressive. Let the people be taught how to prepare food without the use of milk or butter. Tell them that the time will soon come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream, or butter, because disease in animals is increasing in proportion to the increase of wickedness among men. The time is near when, because of the iniquity of the fallen race, the whole animal creation will groan under the diseases that curse our earth.  {7T 135.1} 
• We see in the broken face of nature, in the cleft rocks, in the mountains and precipices, that which tells us a great wrong has been done, that men have abused God's gifts, forgotten the Creator, and that the Lord was grieved and punished the wicked transgressors of His law, and as the result we have its effects in creation. Storms rage with destructive violence. Harm comes to man and beast and property. Because men continue to transgress God's law, He removes their defense. Famine, calamity by sea, and the pestilence that walketh at noonday, follow because men have forgotten their Creator. Sin, the blight of sin, defaces and mars our world, and agonized creation groans under the iniquity of the inhabitants thereof. God has given us faculties to be cultivated, to be improved to His glory and for eternity.  {2MR 308.1}
• The race is groaning under its weight of accumulated woe, because of the sins of former generations. And yet, with scarcely a thought or care, men and women of the present time indulge intemperance by surfeiting and drunkenness, and thereby leave, as a legacy for the next generation, disease, enfeebled intellects, and polluted morals.  {ST, October 31, 1878 par. 3}  

 CONCLUSION:

• God created the earth and He owns it.
• We have been entrusted as stewards to care for the earth.
• The Ten Commandments are a special guard for God’s people and creation but if rejected than the value of life and all God’s creation is lost sight of. 
• Because of sin all creation is suffering under the curse.
• As stewards God requires us to be faithful in caring for the earth.
• God will destroy those destroy the earth.
• The New Earth and heaven will have nothing that will hurt or destroy; there will be no death or pain or sin—even the animals will be vegetarian! 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

• Are you doing all you can to relieve suffering of animals and humans?
• Are there habits that could be changed so that fewer animals must suffer?
• Are you asking that God will help you be a faithful steward?
• Have you committed your possessions to Him and do you seek to faithfully take care of those things?
• Are you seeking to save as many souls from destruction as possible?

Apr17-23: The Water of Life

Teaching Points

1. Read John 4:1-26 and consider the following questions. 

QUESTIONS:

• How did Jesus approach the woman?
• Did Jesus care about racial prejudices?
• What did Jesus ask?
• What did Jesus say about the woman which revealed that she was spiritually thirsty?
• What did Jesus offer this woman?
• Is there a spiritual thirst in the human heart that can only be satisfied by Christ’s living water? 

2.What do these verses reveal about humanity’s thirst for God? 

ANSWER:

• Psa. 42:1—As the deer pants for water so my soul pants for You.
• Psa. 63:1—My soul thirsts for You.
• Psa. 84:2—my soul longs, faints, and cries out for God.
• Psa. 143:6—my soul thirsts after You as a thirsty land. 

3. What did Israel do to satisfy their thirst?

ANSWER:

• Jer. 2:13—They turned from the living water (God) to find their own water (the ways of the world around them). 

4. What is God’s response to our thirst?

ANSWER:

• Isa. 55:1—Come to the waters.
• John 7:37—If anyone thirst let him come to Christ and drink.
• John 4:14—He who comes to Christ and drinks will never thirst.

OBSERVATION:

• Jesus asks for a drink which took the woman by surprise because of the racial prejudices between Jews and Samaritans; it also made her open for conversation.
• She came to the well for physical thirst but Jesus knew that deep inside she was spiritually thirsty.
• She had tried to satisfy her spiritual thirst by men in her life, but this left her more empty, hurt, and unsatisfied.
• The solution to her spiritual thirst was not earthly things but Jesus.
• So often we do the same as this woman. We still try to quench spiritual thirst by the world, but this will never satisfy.
• David recognized and aptly describes this thirst for God.
• The Israelites suffered captivity because they turn from God to satisfy their thirst to their own ways.
• God responds to our thirst by calling us to find our satisfaction in Him. 

5. What is thirst?

ANSWER:

• Webster’s 1828 dictionary: THIRST, v.i. thurst.
• 1. To experience a painful sensation of the throat or fauces for want of drink. The people thirsted there for water. Exodus 17:3.
• 2. To have a vehement desire for any thing. My soul thirsteth for the living God. Psalm 42:2. 

6. What evidence from the past reveals that God will supply our thirst physically and spiritually?

ANSWER:

• Psa. 107:5, 6—God helped them.
• Neh. 9:15—He supplied the Israelites bread from heaven and water from the rock.

7. What promises does God give us if we hunger and thirst after Him?

ANSWER:

• Mat. 5:6—Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.
• Isa. 44:3—He will pour water on us and floods on the dry ground.
• Isa 65:13—My servants will eat, drink, and rejoice.

OBSERVATION:

• To thirst is to have a painful sesation for want of water or a vehement longing for something.
• The stories of God’s past supplying of hunger and thirst, can encourage our faith that He will fulfill His promises today.
• If we are hungering and thirsting after God He will satisfy us—we will eat, drink, and rejoice in the Lord.                                                                                           

THOUGHT QUESTIONS:

• What choices are influencing your satisfaction in life?
• Who or what are you turning to for satisfaction?
• Is Jesus your fountain of living water?
• Are you hungering and thirsting after God so you can be filled?
• Are there any broken cisterns in your life currently or in the past? 

8.  What is Jesus’ invitation to you today?

ANSWER:

• Rev. 22:17—“Let Him that is athirst come”. 

OBSERVATION:

• Jesus through His Spirit invites you today to come to the living waters and drink.

SOP

• Jesus did not immediately answer the question in regard to Himself, but with solemn earnestness He said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."  {DA 187.1}
• He who seeks to quench his thirst at the fountains of this world will drink only to thirst again. Everywhere men are unsatisfied. They long for something to supply the need of the soul. Only One can meet that want. The need of the world, "The Desire of all nations," is Christ. The divine grace which He alone can impart, is as living water, purifying, refreshing, and invigorating the soul.  {DA 187.2} 
• Jesus did not convey the idea that merely one draft of the water of life would suffice the receiver. He who tastes of the love of Christ will continually long for more; but he seeks for nothing else. The riches, honors, and pleasures of the world do not attract him. The constant cry of his heart is, More of Thee. And He who reveals to the soul its necessity is waiting to satisfy its hunger and thirst. Every human resource and dependence will fail. The cisterns will be emptied, the pools become dry; but our Redeemer is an inexhaustible fountain. We may drink, and drink again, and ever find a fresh supply. He in whom Christ dwells has within himself the fountain of blessing,--"a well of water springing up into everlasting life." From this source he may draw strength and grace sufficient for all his needs.  {DA 187.3} 
• The cry of Christ to the thirsty soul is still going forth, and it appeals to us with even greater power than to those who heard it in the temple on that last day of the feast. The fountain is open for all. The weary and exhausted ones are offered the refreshing draught of eternal life. Jesus is still crying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Revelation 22:17; John 4:14.  {DA 454.3} 

 CONCLUSION:

• Humanity has a void which needs to be filled.
• Jesus is the only one who can fill that void or thirst.
• We have a choice to go to Jesus to fill us with living water or we can keep trying to quench our thirst at the fountains of the world.
• God’s dealings in the past can give us reassurance that He will fulfill His promises to satisfy our longing soul. 
• The invitation He still holds out to you. Are you thirsty? Come drink and be full! 

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

• Are you thankful for the satisfaction that comes through a love relationship with Christ?
• Are turning from the broken cisterns of the world to the living fountain in Christ?
• Are you claiming the promise the you will be satisfied as you hunger and thirst after righteouness?
• Do you have a vehement longing or desire for more of Christ and His word?
• Are you responding the invitation Christ gives you to have true satisfaction?