Doug Batchelor - When Alone (Sabbath School Study Hour)

[Music] good morning friends welcome to Sabbath school study hour here at the Granite Bay seventh-day Adventist Church in Sacramento California I'd like to welcome my friends joining us across the country and around the world as well as our regular online Sabbath school members we delighted that you've tuned in to study our lesson with us today and of course I'd also like to welcome our regular service school members here in person as well as those who are joining us our visitors that are here very warm welcome to all of you now as many of you know that's been attending for the last few weeks we started a new series talking about the family and at the topic today lesson number four our lesson is entitled family seasons and topic number four is when alone and that's gonna be a study for today but before we get to our lesson we'd like to let you know if you don't have a copy of today's Sabbath School lesson you can download for free a copy of the lesson at lesson dot a-f-t-v dot o-r-g again that's lesson dot a-f-t-v org lesson number four and you can study along with us we also have a free offer we'd like to let you know about this is a premium gift that we would like to make available to those who are viewing online in north america a book written by pastor Doug entitled marriage divorce and remarriage if you'd like to get a copy of this book the number to call is eight six six seven eight eight three nine six six and ask for offer number eight three one or you can download a digital copy of this book we'll send your link it's the way you can go to download just a fantastic book dealing with the subject of marriage divorce and remarriage well before we get to our lesson today I'm delighted that our orchestra is here with us and we're going to begin by lifting our voices in song I'd like to about our song leaders to come forward we'll be singing number 310 in the seventh Avenue Seminole I would draw nearer to Jesus will be singing the first and third verses please sing with us [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] see [Music] Thank You Missy [Music] let's fire it forward of her dear father in heaven give me thank you that we had this opportunity to get in your house to worship you on this special day that you have set apart for us to worship you in a special way we do ask that you bless that time now as we open up the word and study for we ask this in Jesus name Amen how listen today is gonna be brought to us by Pastor Doug morning happy Sabbath want to welcome everybody who is here at our granite be Church I'm glad you're studying God's Word with us today and our friends who are joining us on television we have some of you who are part of our our online Sabbath School class and some of our online members from around the world good to see you as well we enjoyed being with our friends at the White Memorial Church of this last week and a number of people there said that they watch every week and we just claim you as family we're continuing in our Sabbath School quarterly dealing with family seasons and today we've got an interesting lesson and it's it's on when alone now in this lesson we're gonna be talking about a lot of aspects of what it means to be alone as a Christian some of those deal with just loneliness we're gonna be talking about alone through divorce some people are alone through singleness some are alone by a command of the Lord and so a very important study for dealing with loneliness now we have a memory verse and the memory verse comes from Genesis chapter 28 I'm sorry Genesis 2 verse 18 Genesis 2:18 and this is in the New King James Version if you'd like to say that with me that'd be great are you ready and the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone I will make a helper comparable to him I don't know how many of you have heard the story of Robinson Caruso Robinson Caruso is a book written by Daniel Defoe many years ago and it actually is based on a true story it's about a young man by the name of Alexander Selkirk he was born in Scotland and here's a son of a tanner he was very adventurous and he decided that he wanted to run away and go to sea so he did and he joined up with some ships and over a short period of time he ended up becoming a sailor on a ship with a famous captain William Dampier and um Pierre was going up and down the Pacific raiding Spanish ships England was at war with Spain during the time and along the way Selkirk who was a little bit hot-headed got into a pretty fierce argument with Captain Don Pierre and when they got near an island they stopped at an island called San Fernando that's 400 miles off the coast of Chile to get some water and provisions it was a deserted island but they could get some water there he said I'd rather live by myself on this island than sail anymore with you and because of his pride in his anger the captain said good enough we're leaving you here and so they put him off on the island and gave him some gunpowder and some basic provisions he had a knife and an accent and a flintlock I think I've got a little note here that tells us when Selkirk was put ashore he had with him clothes and bedding a flintlock some gunpowder bullets a hatch and a knife a kettle a few books a Bible he tried to say busy but for the first eight months he had to bear up against terrible melancholy and the terror of being a left alone in such a desolate Island for the rest of his life have you ever thought what would it be like if you were the only one left on earth sometimes I'm actually excited about that thought but not everyone's that way he tried to stay busy but the first eight months he had a real struggle he built two huts with Palmetto trees he covered them with long grass and lined them with the skins of goats which were abundant on the island when his clothes wore out he made himself new ones with goat skins when his gunpowder was spent he created fire by rubbing sticks together upon his knee at first he was plagued with great numbers of cats and rats that bred on the island because when ships came ashore sometimes rats got off the ships and cats got off the ship and a few had escaped and multiplied but he tamed many of the cats so that they would lie about his Shack in hundreds and soon delivered him from the rats he also tamed some of the goats and he diverted himself now and then and he'd sing and dance with them and his cats so he at last came to conquer all the inconveniences of his solitude and to be very happy Selkirk remained there on the island for four and a half years finally in February 1790 he was discovered by captain woods Rogers another famous captain in the sailing ship Duke whose pilot happened to be his old captain Dompierre now the rest of the story is after Dompierre who was captain dropped him off on the island they left their ships sank and most of the crew perished except on Pierre and a few officers and so if Selkirk had stayed on the ship he likely would have died with the crew but now captain woods Rogers oh by the way something else it was interesting is when he first got back on board the ship he had gone four years without talking to people talk to the goats and the cats and he would kind of speak it took a while for him to get regular speech rhythm going again because if you don't talk to anybody he started to lose the art and but they had conquered some Spanish ships and so they made Selkirk captain of one of the Spanish shirts ships and Tom Pierre was his pilot so he ended up being the captain of his former adversary it's very interesting story they got back to England and eventually when Daniel Defoe heard the story he thought this is a great story and he wrote wrote a book called Robinson Crusoe so have you ever felt lonely before Cleese EEOC's chapter four verse nine two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor for if they fall one will lift up his companion but woe to him who is alone when he falls for he will have no one to help him up again have to lie down together they'll keep warm but how can one be warm alone the one might be overpowered by another two can withstand him and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken so here in Ecclesiastes proverbs is talking about how important it is to have friends and companionship now when Jesus sent out the disciples preaching how did he send them two by two let's look at some of these verses here mark 67 he called twelve to himself and he began to send them out two by two and he gave him power over unclean spirits and again later after these things the Lord appointed seventy others also and he sent them out how to by two to go before his face into every city in place where he himself was about to go now why did the Lord send out the disciples two by two well for one thing when we trained people at Affco we send them out two by two survival method when one is making a presentation another one is praying if one gets discouraged on sensibly the other one will encourage them two heads are better than one you ever heard that and so sometimes you're making a decision about what to do which way to go in the combined judgment you can make better decisions and you know while I don't agree with their message I do admire the method of Jehovah Witnesses and latter-day saints because they send people out two by two we believe in the sending people out two by two and we do that as I mentioned in our evangelism training this was a method that Jesus were I commended not a moment someone's gonna read to me from mark 14 you'll have that huff tease okay I'm gonna read Luke 10:1 I'm sorry I'm gonna read John 1632 indeed the hour is coming yes is now come that you will be scattered each to his own and will leave me alone and yet I'm not alone because the fathers were me so how did Jesus deal with loneliness he's well I'm never really alone because God is with me God is my companion and then Philippians 4:11 2:13 Paul was often imprisoned by himself and he said not that I speak in regard to need for I've learned whenever state I'm in to be content I know how to be a base then I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I've learned both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me so if you are a believer are you ever alone no right go ahead read for us please mark 14 33 and 34 and he took Peter James and John with him and he began to be troubled and deeply distressed then he said to them my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death stay here and watch isn't that an astounding thought that here the creator of all men was lonely and he wanted people to be with him to support him you know the Bible says Christ was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin was he tempted with loneliness he was a hundred percent human did God create humans to enjoy and thrive in companionship what happens to a person when they live all their time alone I'm an expert I can tell you about it I've shared with you before there's probably not too many people here that can tell me I have spent five or six days by myself where I did not hear another human voice no radio no telephone no TV there were no cell phones bedroom and no human input so I'd go several stretches rise all by myself do you know when you live all by yourself you become eccentric you start to develop unbalanced ideas we sometimes by communication we start to balance our wisdom off each other and it sort of keeps you in the middle and God does something or something about social interaction do you know they've discovered that in the animal kingdom the smartest animals are social animals they found that some of the the most highly intelligent dolphins are social animals they're always in pods they swim together they interact they communicate that play games together and it does something to build their intelligence and it gives them balance they work in cooperation with each other and there's several different groups of monkeys and different animals that when they work in social groups like that there's combined intelligence and so um God designed that we should not be alone he told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply so when the Bible says it's not good that man should be alone it doesn't didn't just mean that man needed a woman it's also a broader principle that people need people and that we are social creatures in America we're a little more independent than some countries you know you go to India you go to the Philippines you go to China a lot of countries where I've traveled they've got large families and family is very important and they spend a lot of time in family functions even if you go down south of the border in the Mexican families they get together and they have large families and they interact this is part of life that they communicate you come north and we're an independent country you know there's a lot of reasons for that America a lot of people came from different places so they didn't always interconnect and we had a large land without wasn't so heavily populated and it just seems like we developed a little more independently but there are a lot of folks that are very lonely it's not God's plan for that that's part of why we have church amen so that we could have fellowship and spend time together so yeah you never really need to be alone if you're a believer you read in Matthew 28 one of the last words in the New Testament teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you and there was a Chinese gentleman who converted from Buddhism to Christianity his name was lo Wong and when he finally got to Matthew and he read it he learned some English it said lo I am with you always it was very special to him he said lo I am with you always even to the end of the age and so God is promising and I am always with you so are we ever really alone and then you read in Hebrews 13:5 let your conduct be without covetousness be content with such things as you have for he himself has said I will never leave you or forsake you now that's hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 what verse in the Bible is Paul quoting in Hebrews where he says I will never leave you or forsake you we can't find it in the Gospels do you realize that Paul is quoting something Jesus obviously said but the Gospel writers did not write down that exact phrase but we believe Paul if you have a red-letter addition when you read Hebrews 13:5 it's in red I will never leave you or forsake you you don't find that the four Gospels but you do find it in Hebrews and so Jesus made that promise but it's kind of like that when he said I'm with you always right to the end of the world all right so as a principle God does not want us to live as Islands now before I go too deep into the lesson I think it might be good to mention at this point is it always bad to be alone no being alone sometimes is a wonderful thing who is it Isaiah that said woe to them that join house to house and lay field to field till there is no place where a man may be alone in the earth did Jesus sometimes rise up a great while before it was day and go alone and he even asked the disciples he said you know we've been so busy with the multitudes he says we need to come to a desolate an isolated wilderness place so we can rest John the Baptist where did he go for his ministry to the wilderness and he spent a lot of time out there in the cathedral can of God's creation I think it's good sometimes for people to get out by themselves and spend some time alone with God I think that when you enter into your closet to pray matter of fact there's a quote Karen show this to me this morning if you go to your lesson I'm gonna jump to Friday Friday usually doesn't have a subject it sort of got like further thoughts and then if you go to Friday in your lesson it talks about Enoch and it says in the midst of a life of active labor Enoch steadfastly maintained his communion with God the greater or more pressing his Labor's the more constant and earnest were his prayers he continued to exclude himself at certain periods from all society after remaining for a time among the people laboring to benefit them by instruction and example he would withdraw to spend a season in solitude hungry and thirsting for that divine knowledge which God alone can impart communicating thus with God Enoch came more and more to reflect the divine image how did he do that he got away from it all and from everybody it's sometimes I think creates a healthy balance in our character not only to know how to deal with people but are you comfortable by yourself it's not a bad thing I'm even in a family and a marriage for you to say I need some what's the word for it a long time and every now and then Karen will say Doug you just need to go to covilhã and I'll hop in the truck and I'll Drive up there by myself and I'll spend a couple of days and pray and you know it's wonderful just to be alone with God and you read and get out in the woods and and you wouldn't believe some of the places I've been by myself out in the wilderness and I just think oh man you see such wonderful things but then you know what the problem is you see such wonderful things you think I wish I could show this to someone or share this with someone but I said Lord thank you for showing this me so it's not always wrong to be alone the Bible says that actually can be a problem if if you can never be alone all right so then we go to the next section the unmarried life if someone's gonna read for me in a moment Luke 23 29 okay I'm gonna read Jeremiah 16 1 & 2 now this is talking about there is a time to choose to be unmarried a little later in the lesson we'll talk about those who are unmarried just by circumstances and this is some people who have been told by the Lord Jeremiah 16 1 and 2 the word of the Lord came to me saying you shall not take a wife nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place now why did God tell Jeremiah not to marry you don't ever hear about mrs. Jeremiah why he didn't tell everybody that what's the general order for humans it is a good thing he that finds a wife finds a good thing and if you're married to either fine she defines a husband finds hopefully a good thing and so that's the normal order of things but it's not the absolute now why did he tell Jeremiah I've had what time did Jeremiah live in what happened during Jeremiah's life Nebuchadnezzar came and it was foretold many times to Jeremiah that I am going to destroy in a big way the city that the city is going to be besieged there's gonna be starvation there's gonna be cannibalism there's gonna be bloodshed there's gonna be plague that people are gonna be carried off the houses will be burned the temple will be burned he said you better not marry are there other times in the Bible regardless and then jesus said in Matthew 24 speaking of the tribulation in the last days woe to them who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days now when are those days sometimes I'll have young couples come to me and they'll say pastor day we read these verses in the Bible we think we're near the end should we have children you know what I tell them I said I don't know you got to be very careful about telling people how to run their lives that way if you know Adventist history you know the Adventist Church was born out of the belief in the imminence of Jesus coming and I do believe Jesus is coming but there were several times where James White counseled couples we're so close to the end we shouldn't even have children and he later repented of that he said I should have said that of course he and he and Ellen had four so how many of you have gray hair thought Jesus would have come before now or any of you remember like world war two a couple of you alive back then when the nuclear bomb they said this is it but don't have any children now yeah well the world's ending of course kids born back then now our grandparents so you got to be careful about saying you know when that time is every individual needs to pray about when they think that time comes go ahead read your verse for us look 23:29 for indeed the days are coming in which they will say blessed are the barren wombs that never bore embrace breasts which never nursed now when did Jesus make this statement he's on the way to the cross it's a short little sermon Jesus preaches to the women who are weeping as they see him bearing his cross to the place of crucifixion and he says don't weep for me now why did he tell them that because Jerusalem was going to be destroyed in the generation so the days are coming and the same thing that happened in the days of Nebuchadnezzar happened again in the days of Titus when the city was burned the people were besieged the temple was destroyed it all happened again so he said there's a time when it may not be a good idea to start families so let me give you some examples of that here if you read first Corinthians as Paul writes to the church in Corinth persecution had arose see it was later in the ministry of Peter and Paul Rome began to crack down on the Jews and as they crack down on the Jews you can read an expert says all the Jews had been expelled from Rome it started slowly because the Roman the Jews were beginning to rebel against the Roman Empire and they could see was fomenting and it was turn into a rebellion that a great persecution happened from the Romans against the Jews because Christians shared so much with the Jewish religion Christianity really was the Jews thought as a sect or a branch of Judaism they were monotheistic they worship the same God Jesus was a Jew they were they read a Jewish book they kept the Jewish Sabbath and so the they really put Christians in the same group and Paul said looked persecution is beginning first corinthians 7:8 i say to the unmarried into the widow's it's good for them to remain even as i am all right let me just pause right there was Paul married maybe once we don't know no some wonder if Paul wasn't married at some point because what seems a Paul may have been part he was a Pharisee and he was part of the Sanhedrin and somewhere in the Jewish Talmud it said to be part of the Sanhedrin you had to be married it's kind of like what Paul says that a pastor should be the husband of one wife he kind of drew that from what they had is you're gonna be a spiritual leader you need to understand family and we just hired a new youth pastor but I can't tell you who it is yet but one of the criteria was the board said we want someone who is married that has a little bit of experience because they're gonna be helping lead the young families and the children so Paul may have been married his wife could have died he may have been married but when he converted to Christianity the things fell apart but he never did remarry and the some may argue that he was never married but evidently when he writes these words here he's not married at this point because he says to the unmarried I asked that they remain even as I am single but if they cannot exercise self-control let the marry know one reason that some people think Paul at least had been married at some point is because he sure seemed to give a lot of counsel on marriage and you think he must have known something about it it's good for them to remain even as I am but if they cannot exercise self-control let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn with passion so I've got kind of designed everybody that you know once you reach the teenage years the hormones begin to surge and God naturally programmed people to start craving that opposite sex and if that didn't happen none of us would be here right and so there's that natural desire now if you don't eat sex is a physical desire but it's different because if you don't eat that's a physical desire to you will die but even though sex is a desire if you don't fulfill it you will not die you may think so but you won't and so it's something that should be controlled until it is fulfilled in the marriage relationship and if not there the Bible's pretty clear that you supposed to live a pure life and Paul talks about that first corinthians 7:25 now concerning the virgins this is during that same time period when the persecution was beginning paul is beginning to advise families of christians you better think about the rough world you're gonna bring your spouse and children into if you marry concerning virgins I have no commandment from the Lord yet I give my judgment Paul is speaking by permission here as one whom the Lord in his Murray mercy has made trustworthy I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present distress see what he's talking about the persecution that it started happening against Jews and Christians that it is good for a man to remain as he is if you're bound to wife if you're engaged don't seek to be loosed you've you know made a covenant of engagement if you're loosed from a wife sometimes the wives would leave through either divorce or separation do not seek a wife but even if you do marry you've not sinned and the per virgin marries she's not sinned nevertheless such will have trouble in the flesh but I would spare you he says I'm trying to save you the problems that if you marry now during these difficult times of persecution it may be harder but this I say brethren the time is short so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none for those who weep even as though they did not weep those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice those who buy as though they did not possess and because they had to make me flee and leave their possessions and those who use this world is not nursing it a misusing it for the form of this world is passing away but I want you to be without care don't be encumbered with the cares of this life he who is unmarried cares for the things the Lord you're free to go out and do mission work how he might please the Lord he was married cares about the things of the world how he might please his wife and there is a difference between a wife and a virgin the unmarried man carries about the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and in spirit there is talking about that purity but she was married cares about the things of the world how she might please her husband I've seen this happen many times where you got some Affco graduate and he's on fire and he's out winning souls and then some woman landsem and unless she's mission minded she says oh man you got to get a better job you can't be a missionary how are we ever gonna build a house and buy a car on that and pretty soon he gets pulled out of the Lord's service because he must please his wife and I've seen it the other way you get some young ladies he's a Bible worker she's a soul winner but meets a guy and next thing you know she has 62 children and she's not not that given Bible studies anymore not that's an exaggeration but you know what I'm saying so Paul is just saying you know you're a little more free they were saying look let's take the gospel to the world but once they got married and with the persecution it became a little more difficult now I'm gonna read something that Jesus says about this the disciples said you know they were asking him a question about marriage and divorce and Jesus threw something in in Matthew nineteen twelve he doesn't mention it anywhere else for there are eunuchs no we all know what a eunuch is now there are their eunuchs Daniel was a eunuch in the palace of Babylon that was foretold by Isaiah that the children of Hezekiah would be captured by the king of Babel and made eunuchs in his palace and the eunuchs were often the wise men and they made him eunuchs so because coming and going in the palace King has he hmmm there they didn't want to know all the king's children were the king's children and so Jesus says there are eunuchs who were born from their mother's womb there are some people who they just have no desire in that respect and there are units who are made eunuchs by men some are captured and they're forced into that then there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs and that could mean either by practice or by procedure and then jesus said and he says for the kingdom of heaven's sake and then he who is able to accept it let him accept it and so jesus said you know there are some know what's Christ married it's a trick question no technically to the church who's the Bride of Christ so now there's in all a dopey belief that goes around in the world today that Jesus really was married to Mary Magdalene there's not a shred of historical or scientific or biblical evidence for that it just made for good movie telling and they found some cryptic Gospel where Jesus something about kissing Mary I'm going to talk today about Mary kissing Jesus feet that doesn't mean they were married and so they've tried to build this whole crazy scenario out of some apocryphal piece of a papyrus and that's all it says so no Jesus was not married so all right let's go to a difficult part it says when a marriage ends Genesis 24 14 first of all how does God feel about the horse maybe I ought to read Malachi before I read Genesis I'm gonna read Malachi 2:15 and in a moment someone's gonna read John 4 7 17 alright Malachi 2:15 and this is the second thing you do you cover the altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and crying so he does not regard the offering any more nor receive it with goodwill from your hands you say for what reason because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have dealt treacherously yet she is your companion and your wife bike but did he not make them one having a remnant of the spirit and why one he seeks godly offspring God wants families to stick together he wants a godly offspring we all know is it more difficult on children that have been through divorce therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with a wife of his youth for the Lord God of Israel says he hates divorce for it covers one the garment where the violence says the Lord of hosts therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously now Moses made in his law a provision that if there was some uncleanness found in a woman are technically the woman with a husband there could be a certificate of divorce this was not God's plan but Jesus said because of the hardness of your hearts he permitted this it was not his ideal obviously but by the time of Christ they had actually written laws that if a wife burned her husband's food he could write a certificate of divorce I mean the reasons for divorce had become really bad and and they had no social services once a woman had been married for several years and she was divorced sometimes they were divorced because they couldn't have children why did Elkanah take a second wife because hannah at first was barren and he felt like I've gotta have children he's gonna run the farm when I'm old I mean that was the only thing you had to have children and so I look at all the hardship it brought into that family sometimes they were just divorced their wife and get another one that they thought would be more prolific and so God says you are breaking the Covenant dealing treacherously that's like the word treason with the wife of your youth but having said that are there times when even God commanded divorce yeah let's look at Genesis chapter 21 14 so Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and he put it on the shoulder of Hagar and he gave it the boy to Hagar and sent her away and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba God told Abraham after there was internal strife between Sarah and Isaac and Hagar and Ishmael he said you need to put away Hagar that word put away is the word divorce he obviously he was in a marriage relationship with her but this was never God's plan do you know when we're in Africa and when the Adventist Church is doing evangelism over there they still practice polygamy and so the church has been faced with a conundrum what do you do when you have somebody who comes from some of these pagina sakra legions and they accept the truth but they've got two or three wives typically was the Chiefs that had multiple wives and a lot of children and the church grappled with that because he think you know what he do and they said finally they came up and they said you need to keep the first wife but you need to continue supporting the other wives and children but you can only have one wife we ran into this when I was pastoring on the Navajo Reservation I met this this gentleman and they said yeah this is his wife a little while later they said yeah this is his wife I'm going well which one is it they say oh you ain't married sisters and that creates some difficult situations all right go ahead read for us John 14 17 and 18 John 4 17 18 the woman answered and said I have no husband jesus said to her you have well said I have no husband for you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband in that ye spoke truly all right now back when I first joined the church I was led to believe no one actually said it but just the feeling was that when a person had been through a divorce that was sort of the unpardonable sin that doesn't say that in the Bible do we have examples like Abraham how about David did David have more than one wife when David sinned with Bathsheba that was adultery that was a sin it must not have been the unpardonable sin and what do you do if let's suppose you divorce without biblical grounds we'll get to that in just a moment and then you remarry is there any forgiveness in those categories well there can be but it forever creates a taint on your your credibility here Jesus reveals himself to the woman at the well and he says you've had five husbands and the one you're living with you're not even married - but does he show her that he's the Messiah and then does he use her in ministry in reaching other people so he forgives her God meets you where you're at and I meet people to say pastor Dec I've been married six times can God forgive me and I died was a pagan I didn't know and I heard a pastor say once you cannot unscramble scrambled eggs everybody comes to the Lord a little bit scrambled now if you grow up in the church you're a little more responsible a lot of people came to Christ and they they didn't know David when he sinned with Bathsheba Nathan the prophet came he confronted him with a sin there was terrible punishment for the sin not only did the baby die but there were three other sons of David that died and he lost a lot of respect from his people but do you know what it says after the baby died first it says you've taken the wife of Uriah but then after that and after David spent seven days on his face praying it says David comforted his wife and he and Bathsheba ultimately had Solomon who became the next king so was David and were David and Bathsheba forgiven yes was it a sin a terrible sin but he was forgiven and so we need to just keep perspective on this and then you read in Matthew 19 you can also read about this in the Sermon on the mountain he says have you not read that he that made them at the beginning made them male and female and he said for this reason a man leaves his father and mother and has joined his wife the two shall become one flesh so then they are no longer two but one flesh therefore what God has joined together let not man separate and they said to him why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and put her away he said Moses because of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so and they say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery so if a person is in a state of singleness because their spouse is either abandoned them and you can't force another person to do anything everybody's free but they've been abandoned or if one spouse sometimes if they have their mind made up I'm leaving on you know divorce maybe they found someone else and they get married and you find yourself alone you're not alone if we're you're with the Lord and in a church we often talk about the context of family but we need to be sensitive to people who are alone because of divorce or because of singleness or because of death and we need to remember to integrate everybody as part of the family although say men all these people need to be treated as part of the family we see them Jesus did dealt with it this way um death and loneliness I got so much more I could say about the other you need to get the free offer that we're mentioning because it talks about it death and loneliness Isaiah 57 1 & 2 the righteous perishes and no one takes it to heart merciful men are taken away while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil and he will enter into peace and they will rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightness and so the Bible talks about a situation where even good people die and ultimately someone may be alone because their spouse is dying not always but typically women live a little longer than men I think that the average lifespan of women in North America is for two or three years I see some doctors here that might correct me longer than men the gap used to be much bigger because more men died in working accidents but there's more safety precautions now so we're closing the gap but women - physiologically live longer than men not always that way you know I've known a lot of men that just outlive their wives but we have people who are lonely that maybe they're single and you know it's really tough sometimes when you know if somebody loses their spouse and they're 35 and they're widowed and there's a good chance they're gonna have a lot of life together they may say well I'll remarry it's not as likely after they've been married to somebody for 50 years or something that you know you're set in your ways your whole all your memories are filled with this one individual and and it's especially hard when you've been married to someone that long and then they're gone I remember talking to one dear saying she was married for 5060 years to the same person they died and she said oh brother Doug gee I forget that he's not alive and I'll walk down the hall and I'll just shout out his name jack because I need his help with something and then I I'm hit with the truth that he's gone and it says a terrible wave of sadness so it's very difficult and we need to show love for our widows and widowers that are in the church and and help bring them and involve them in the things that are happening but you know you can still get married even after a hundred and thirty Abraham did so Sarah died and Abraham took cateura not only did he get married again he then had a whole litter of kids with totora so the miracle was not so much abraham so age as Sarah's age revelation 21:4 and God will wipe away every tear from the eyes there'll be no more death sorrow or crying neither will there be any more pain you know one of the beautiful things that we read about loneliness and the lack of loneliness is how does the Bible end we're separated from God from our sins but the Bible says in heaven God Himself will be with us and we'll never be alone again will not see that it that's just to me such a wonderful truth we'll see him face to face you ever thought about that also we find comfort if a person is widowed in the resurrection first Thessalonians 17 now you know when I go to work I kiss Karen goodbye I say I see you later sometimes I say I'll see you at lunch or sometimes I say I'll see you later in the afternoon sometimes I get on a plane I say I'll see you in a month that's the worst case scenario that's happened twice and that's really tough but she gets through it okay I get through it okay because you know you'll get back together and you count down the days if you believe the Bible and your loved one is saved are we gonna get back together so you'll look at it as a temporary separation people always ask me pastor Doug will we be married in heaven I said what the Bible says there'll be no new marriages in heaven he says they neither marry as a verb act of marrying or are they given in marriage but when Adam and even get to heaven does God give them divorce papers so if you have the standard person where you've got one marriage there's no baggage no interruptions they're married 60 years they die Karen's grandparents Ed's parents were married how long Bonnie 72 years about 72 years they died in the same room on the same day within two hours of each other and they were always afraid that one would die without the other and what's their next conscious thought 10 minutes apart and next thing they know they're back together again right resurrected do you think they're gonna get to heaven and say oh I'm glad to be through with you now I don't have to be married to you anymore that's what the Lord said I know one lady she'll say it right in front of her husband she said Jesus said man I've married you 30 years when I get to heaven I'm on my own they're teasing each other but so I think that that command doesn't mean you can't be with the one you love now they're probably no new births in heaven because the Bible tells us God is gonna populate the world with the redeemed he told Adam and he be fruitful and fill the earth at some point it would have been full and you know God doesn't need us to forever bunnies procreate you know through the universe but that doesn't mean that the married people who have not had interruptions won't still be free to choose to be together then we've got those who are single either by choice or just circumstances they find year by year goes by they haven't found that person and they wonder if they ever will I'd say first of all choose to be content until God's timing to be happy I know several people got married first time like 50 Moses didn't get married until he was 40 Isaac was 40 Jacob was 60 and then he got four wives so be careful what you pray for so I also always thought it was interesting that Jacob found Rachel at a well Moses found his wife had a well Isaac's wife was found at a well and so for those who were single I always say hang out by the water fountain you never know you might get lucky but sometimes they just it's a loneliness you want somebody and you said why isn't it happening is that am I not attractive and is my character you unders there's something wrong with me I'll tell you what you're better being alone than being in the wrong marriage so don't rush to get married if you're single I've met people it's just the main burden in life is I got to get married anybody will slow down please marry me and it ends up being a disaster so you're much better off being alone with the Lord than married to the wrong person Isaiah 45 sorry Isaiah 54 5 for your maker is your husband that would be if you're a man or woman God is technically your husband amen the Lord of Hosts Hosea 2:19 and 20 I will betroth you to me forever so you're not alone the Lord is your spouse yes I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice and loving kindness and mercy I will betroth you to me in faithless but it's like since the little boy is going to bed and he was nervous and it was raining outside and and he he said dad can you lay in bed with me I'm scared and he says you're not alone Jesus is with you he said yeah but I want someone with skin so the single people out there I say you know the Lord is with you and this yam I want someone people somebody with skin on them hey you know I want a real person Psalm 72 12 for he will deliver the needy when he cries the poor also with no helper you're never really alone with God I've got more I can say but I'm out of time we do have a good book that talks more about some of the things that said about singleness marriage divorce remarriage this is really a premium offer if you don't have this we'd encourage you to go and ask for it we'll send it to you for free and ask for when you call the number it's eight six six seven eight eight three nine six six that's eight six six study more if you want to be able to download a PDF of this you can text SSH one to five that's SH one to five texted two four zero five four four and if you call in its offer eight three one god bless you friends were out of time for today's study Lord willing we will do it again next seven don't forget to request today's life-changing free resource not only can you receive this free gift in the mail you can download a digital copy straight to your computer or mobile device to get your digital copy of today's free gift simply text the keyword on your screen to four zero five four four or visit the web address shown on your screen and be sure to select the digital download option on the request page it's now easier than ever for you to study God's Word with amazing facts wherever and whenever you want and most important to share it with others amazing facts change lives [Music] early 1982 all the baby boomers were turning 21 the nightclub scene were exploding and I started a entertainment lighting company I was the president and there were six divisions doing the raves in the 80s and 90s you know in some warehouse where he was setting up lighting and fog and you know who knows what's going on in there and and nightclub nightclub installations I loved it and it was who I was bought a new house out of town and we moved about two or three times but we were all going into different churches we're in a Lutheran Church and then we were in a Methodist Church I think we were in three different Baptist churches my wife was raised Catholic I would raised Methodist currently I've been out reading all the Hal Lindsey books and watching all the Left Behind movies until I really wanted to understand what the book of Revelation was all about but nothing really ever made sense to me one day pastor Logan came knocking and he had that net 99 flyer we were preparing for an evangelistic series and different people were going different directions with handbells didn't find people to the meeting I saw that coming at me you know all the colors and I thought oh no this is some kind of cult thing and should thank you very much interested myself well my husband like that kind of thing Boyd said would you give it to him please and I said okay I will so I took the pamphlet and I put it on the calendar Gary came home and he walked by it ran through the kitchen to quickly eat and take a shower and go back out and work a show two or three days went by like this and I that brochure from the counter put it on the dining room table put it back on the counter and I actually threw it at the garbage as I threw it in that garbage can I could hear him and see his face saying would you give it to him please and I actually took the garbage out and and that night lying in bed I kept seeing his face and hearing his voice and thinking oh boy I gotta get that brochure out of the garbage and I think took that and I put it right underneath remote control bright colors he'll see it finally sat down in my living room and they picked up the remote and I saw that angel holding out that scroll whoa cool what is this and I was in the kitchen cooking at that Oh No I looked at it and I turned it over and there's a little building a little church building and it wasn't too far away it was about six houses down and I said Friday night and I certainly wasn't going I mean it wasn't my intention to go I didn't have any shows going on that night and so I thought it was a one night deal I went and as I heard about the Millennium man I was just blown away I didn't want it to end I knew what I was hearing was all from the scripture and it wasn't Bates on Hollywood movies or other books that were written they said come again tomorrow night and I thought wow great two nights so I tried to tell my wife about it and she still wasn't interested and then she decided to come I started to hear the truth you know and I started to get fed every night after the seminar they would hand us an amazing fact study guide I couldn't do those outs you know the business kept us going seven days a week and it was night and day crews working all around the clock and so when we when we finally heard the Sabbath message you know so far everything been true right from the Bible Church on Saturday no anyway it all clicked both our heads turned at each other a jaws dropped open I said we can't do that and the first thing that came out of my mouth we have to I knew that it would be a sacrifice and I was in fear about it we didn't know how we were going to do it but we talked to the pastor about it and the pastor said we'll just pray about it and God will open for it I didn't want to give up all the connections I made all the networking all the money all the investment we went to the board and asked them if they would if they would consider closing on Saturday and they agreed to so we closed the storefront on Saturday you're still doing productions and that kind of bothered us so a couple months later God opened the door for my wife exited the company I prayed about it and got open the door for me to Gary shortly after was offered a job being paid more money than he made as an owner of the company he said give you $1,000 raise and he will never work another weekend and we were able to keep the Sabbath and enjoy the wonderful blessings that God had for us on the Sabbath day my kids never again had to say quit talking about work after the seminar would go over my wife and I and my children were all baptized in the seventh-day Adventist Church even if I gave up everything I knew that God would have something better I have much more understanding and there's much more depth in my Christian walk with the Lord we started an amazing fact Bible School and a church that allows anybody to understand the scripture understand the entire church change my life dramatically and I'm very happy and excited to be a part of it [Music] [Music]

Channel: SDA Burgas

Views: 28,015

Rating: 4.6816978 out of 5

Keywords: doug, batchelor, when, alone, sabbath, school, study, hour, sda, burgas, seventh, day, adventist, amazing, facts

Id: rja0GWYmeZ4

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2019