Hope Sabbath School Lesson 2 Learning In The Family

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] welcome to hope sabbath school an in-depth interactive study of the word of god we are just starting a series of studies you missed the first one we're on study two lessons for life it's all about education learning from the scriptures that will help us to live in these troubled times and i'm excited today we're going to talk about learning in the family you say derek i i grew up in a terrible family well we'll learn some lessons that we don't want to repeat from stories in scripture but also wonderful lessons that will say by the grace of god by the indwelling of the holy spirit my family could be like that with god at the center so welcome to hope sabbath school today and welcome to our team now you take a look folks and you say there's not many people on the team did you dismiss 60 of the team and the answer is no we're filming right now in the midst of a global health pandemic and we have to have distancing we don't sing but we're having some powerful studies aren't we the holy spirit of god is blessing and where you are in your home you don't have to sit six feet away from your computer or six feet away from your flat screen tv because we're right there with you to share the word of god together we're always happy to hear from you our hope sabbath school members around the world here's just a few emails we've received recently arun writes from india and says dear brothers and sisters in christ jesus i am arun george from india i am glad to participate in hope sabbath school every night from 11 30 p.m to 12 30 p.m oh my god every night i thank my lord jesus christ who reminds me to take time to participate in these discussions amen amen amen we're glad you stay up late um there in india to hear the word of god was so thankful you've come to know jesus you speak of him as my lord jesus christ god bless you and your witness there in india we're glad you're part of hope sabbath school brian writes to us from south africa i'm 75 years old i've been listening to hope sabbah school for the past two years and find it's not only very informative but also very stimulating you have a wonderful group of very knowledgeable participants who've inspired me to study the word of god daily amen isn't that wonderful wow god bless you and the hope sabbath school team and the wonderful work you're doing well brian that is an answer to our prayer because it's not just about one team having an in-depth interactive study but encouraging tens of thousands of other people not only to study the word of god but to start study groups go to our website hopetv.org hope ss download the same outline that we're using and people around the world are starting interactive bible study groups we're glad you're part of our team here's a note from a donor in louisiana in the united states of america hello hope sabba school members i won't mention the name but we do want to say thank you this is a donor-supported ministry we're thankful for your support i'm from cajun country in louisiana i'm 81 years old a great grandmother and i enjoy hope sabbath school i always learn something new from the bible every time i study with you i'm sending a small donation so that maybe it will keep spreading the good news and at least one more person will come to know jesus amen i love each and every one of you i know that god is doing a mighty work through hope sabbath school god bless you all i plan to meet you face to face in heaven one day well you'd like to meet that lady wouldn't you she sent a gift of 200 to help hope sabbath school we're part of a great miracle of god together thank you for each one of you you can go to hopetv.org donate you say i want to be part of that ministry especially in this troubled time when so many people need to hear that there's a god who loves us and there's a hope that we have in him yes thank you so much for your support eric writes from the netherlands now i don't know about you but when i think of the netherlands i think secular yeah but does god have his people in every nation and people absolutely yes he does doesn't it yes they may dress differently they may uh have different culture but but they hear a word from the lord and i'm so thankful we don't all have to look the same by the way take a look we're just a small group do we all look the same we come from different parts of the world don't we different backgrounds and yet we're all part of the family of god well eric writes he says i live in the netherlands with my wife she is from indonesia now you know that there were dutch colonies in in indonesia right so there's some dutch influence so i'm guessing that that his wife spoke dutch because of my wife i learned about jesus amen somebody's saying amen amen that's the kind of spouse to find isn't it yes that's very nice and yes i have found peace every week i watch hope sabbath school and i enjoy it and i learn a lot when with jesus in our lives we can manage everything nothing is impossible amen amen continue the great work may jesus bless you all well eric thank you for writing i know the english is not your first language but you took the time to give a testimony and i want to say thanks you don't mention your wife's name here but i want to thank mrs meester his name is eric miester i want to thank your wife for sharing jesus with you we're so glad that you are both part of our hope sabbath school family well here's one last note from burundi and uh it says let's see the name emmanuel emmanuel writes from burundi but now oh no now living in kenya so a bordering country there in in east africa first let me thank the almighty god the source of life amen secondly i appreciate hope sabbas god bless you as you support all the world to make the world ready for the soon coming of jesus our savior well emmanuel thank you burundi we're praying for your country we're praying that god would bless there oh now you're in kenya so we're going to pray for your light to shine there in kenya isn't that amazing we have hopes having school members all around the world and we're glad that you can be with us today as we talk about learning in the family but before we do that we have a song it's taken from proverbs chapter 19 and verse 20. it says listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise in your latter days let's sing it together listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days listen to counsel receive instruction [Music] that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days a merry heart does good like medicine but a broken spirit dries their bones a merry heart does good like medicine but a broken spirit dries the bones listen to cancer receive instructions that you may be wise [Music] you may be wise in your latter days listen to counsel receive instructions that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days pleasant words are like a honeycomb sweetness to the soul and hell to the bones pleasant words are like a honeycomb sweetness to the soul and health to the bones listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days you may be wise in your latter days let's pray together father in heaven i'm so thankful that we can listen to the counsel of your word today lessons for life from the family and we know that there are things in our families that are not perfect but as we come to scripture i pray that we would learn in the family lessons for our lives today may your word guide us by the holy spirit bless each hope sabbath school member we pray in the name of jesus amen amen amen amen now we don't know how many children our first parents had right we we know of uh cain abel and seth but i think somewhere if you read in genesis it says sons and daughters and by the way we got an email one time saying well if cain got married he must have married a sister and by the way abel must have married a sister too right because that's the only family there and doesn't the bible forbid incest and the answer to that question is yes as sin progressed and and the genetic pool became more strained there were guidelines that you shouldn't marry within the family but this is right at the beginning and so yeah that's the only companion that you have right but they went into a committed monogamous relationship with one person we don't know all the daughters names of adam and eve we don't know all the son's names but we do know a little bit about the first family and that's where we're going to start in genesis chapter 4 verses 3 through 7. i would wish that it was all good news but we're talking about learning in the family what lessons jason if you start our study genesis chapter 4 begins by saying that eve has two sons and recognized them as being from the lord but what happens next in genesis four verses three through seven and i'm reading here from the new king james version genesis chapter four verses three through seven and in the process of time it came to pass that cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the lord abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat and the lord respected abel and his offering but he did not respect cain in his offering and cain was very angry and his countenance fell so the lord said to cain why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen if you do well will you not be accepted and if you do not do well sin lies at the door and its desire is for you but you should rule over it so here's the first family and unfortunately if we read on we we see a tragic event occurs in the first family but even before verse eight um what could we learn from this family system that's about as close to perfection as you can get that would maybe help us uh in our own families harold well one thing that you have to understand that children can make their own choices and you have to deal with that and you have to work with that because the same way god allowed us to give choices we also can be also try to be tyrannical over them but you have to work with them okay so children have their own free will i guess it would be a terrible thing to try to take the free will away write them like a little prisoner that's not what god wants right he wants a relationship of love so they're they're independent they've their free will brittany there seems to be a moral instruction given because as god is counseling with cain after he's angry about not accepting his sacrifice he's saying if you do well you know things will go well with you why why is your countenance sad so there seems to be a relationship with god and there seems to be some kind of moral instruction that either they've learned from their parents or they've learned directly from god would it be fair to say that it is not right to expect something of a child if you haven't explained to her what that expectation is right that's not fair yeah you know they turn right and they say you should have turned left it's like did you tell me i should turn up so need for godly instruction clear expectations you're saying from the text that that had been given and god says you knew what i had asked right what else do you learn from this narrative about the or the first family and for our families too jason the process of learning involves making mistakes wow kane made a very big mistake didn't he but even even in the argument the contention the mistake um so what's the what's the desired outcome when we find out we've made a mistake what should we do repent repent yeah abundance say i'm sorry and if we've wronged god we should repent right yeah and actually i wanted to point out verse seven that we see god is reaching out like doesn't matter the mistakes that we make god is always reaching out trying to help us because the holy spirit can impress us like hey they're wrong but i'm here to help you now harold you're not a parent you are married yes but you're not a parent yet by the way for those who don't know your wife is sitting six feet in that direction right brittany um what could you take from the way god related to cain that would be a a lesson for life as as a father yeah well i mean even our on our own personal relationship let's say if my wife does a mistake i see richie makes a mistake i'm just saying let's say i see how god has i see god's mercy towards me because in the end god wants us to be merciful and there's joy in that so i'm like you know what i forgive you let's work it together because we will grow together in this experience it's not just about me it's about us now it's a journey isn't it sabine i also wanted to point out here that the fact that they are allowed to make mistakes is an indication that god preserves freedom and even within the family circle you were not supposed to be authoritarian or to you know impose things without giving people choices so i think that's also a lesson for relationships in general and not only in the family setting now there are a lot of couples uh we we've got a few of you here married but but none of you here have children you all are children in a family but you don't have children yet but i will tell you as a parent that there are many parents who grieve when a child makes a poor choice even blame themselves shame themselves even maybe think god has rejected them what lesson for life could we learn from this first narrative brittany well i just think you know god was the first parent he created adam and eve and they sinned so god there's no wrong in god god is perfect right he never makes a mistake he never sinned so if the very perfect parent of the universe created beings and gave them free will and they made mistakes and he's not at fault for that then we should also give ourselves grace that when we make mistakes look god even made mistakes and he was there to help his children so when our children make mistakes don't condemn them be there to help them and learn and help them learn and grow from that experience all right brittany uh billy yeah i was gonna say that you know no family is immune for from failures and no family is immune from mistakes and there are certain things that we can learn better through our mistakes than let's say you know we obey them so i think um god allows certain things to happen because it might be the most effective way for us to learn from them uh yeah and of course he may not want certain things to happen like cain killing his brother but there's always mercy and there's always love shown right even in that difficult situation yeah it doesn't mean that it doesn't have consequences right so even in thinking of education and thinking of how to go about things in family i don't have children i do have a niece though and i think it's important that you keep with your word probably god has had his heart broken when he saw what happened and he maybe even wanted to redeem him fully from that situation but he had to keep his word it was with grace with mercy with kindness inquiring him to see if he was maybe repented but yet he allowed the consequences to take place gonna hyper space forward to the time of moses because they're always families family systems and a core part of society right and they're always lessons we can learn not only from genesis with our first parents but as we look throughout scripture so let's go to deuteronomy chapter 6 and read jason if you could read verses 5 through 9 i think there's some principles in this inspired council that will help build strong families today i'm reading here from the new king james version deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 5 through 9 you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength and these words which i command you today shall be in your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates i suppose you could take that literally and tie something on your hand or between your eyes or write it on the doorpost that would not necessarily be wrong it could be a reminder but but what what is the lord saying through the prophet moses here yes billy i think you know um that god you know the instruction of you know god and his love should permeate every aspect of our lives and we should not um at least you know when teaching uh that you know we should not compartmentalize uh god or you know only on one day let's say if we worship on one day that okay this is the only day that we're gonna worship but then during the week you never mention god or even mention pray but what uh deuteronomy is saying is that you know everything that you do should uh god should be part of it it's like saturated in your life right yeah yes brittany when it says that it should be in your mind and between the frontlines of your you know my your eyes but it's like your mind and then he talks about in your heart um i think about in my own childhood my mom taught us scripture and and often through music kind of like we do the scripture songs here and and those songs and those scriptures they're in my mind they're in my heart because i learn them at a young age and as i'm reading it in the bible or someone mentions something it comes back to me and so teaching children intentionally um at a young age they can know the scriptures at a very young age there was a little girl at church six years old and she was singing with her parents and another little girl three two you know singing songs about jesus and um just growing up in that way you always know jesus you always know he's there with you he's your friend now there's a principle at the end of verse six that is an essential preparation for verse seven if you don't have the end of verse six verse seven is not going to work right jason what what is it at the end of verse six in deuteronomy chapter six it's so crucial if we're going to have a strong family the words of god god's guidance needs to be in our heart and then when it's in our heart then we can share it with our children with those around us we have to have it first before we can share it with others and what happens if it isn't in our heart but we're just trying to enforce things that we don't practice on our children what's going to happen well harold children might just be following or obeying based on fear and also will try to do the same things we're doing because we're not giving a good example yeah i think they're going to rebel yeah they're going to say you don't do that right yeah billy but also in the in the kids art you know if you're not instructing them they're going to i mean the heart's not gonna be void something's gonna fill it up and i think jesus says that you know out of the heart uh comes it comes comes the issues of life and so if it's not positive the negative will come yes sabine and also the concept of discipline when you look here it has to do with the doing not only with the listening so they if they cannot practice in their own life probably even the education of the children would be lacking something it's not enough just to say things but if you're not putting them in practice they may hear but may not even fully understand what you were talking about not only they will perceive the hypocrisy and you know may want to challenge it but they also will not learn it properly because they won't have a reference for them so when moses is giving this instruction as a prophet of the lord i'm imagining that he remembers his own childhood britain you talked about your parents your mother teaching you the scriptures uh what what experience in the early life of moses reinforced the importance of that godly family environment anybody remember brittany well he was saved out of the river by the the princess of egypt but his parents had put them there him there lovingly to protect him from being killed and then his sister ran and asked if if she needed a nurse so then his mother was able to raise him until he was weaned and went to live with the princess of egypt so he was raised by a godly mother godly father siblings that knew the lord and they were teaching him all that he needed to know not just by words but by their example yeah so that's in exodus chapter two first ten verses right um that picture of the the basket the bull rushes right so not much could have been taught him prior to that time right he's just an infant prayers offered but the teaching will come later now there's a lesson how much time does what was his mother's name do you remember i don't think about it that's right she did have a name amram papa jochebed what important awareness did jochebed have that actually each parent should have when they're mentoring a child what was it brittany i think one of them was that time is short that you don't have much time but you want to invest as much as you can in them well while you have them how much time does jochebed and amram and you mentioned aaron and miriam his siblings who were older how much time does uh how much time does jochebed have do we know how many years maybe uh does he she was weaned he was mean so he was do we know for sure well maybe i can ask those of you watching hope sabbath school send us an email how many years did jochebet and her husband abraham have to disciple their son that's an interesting thought but however long it was every day was precious right what's the lesson for parents today same thing right that time is precious if you're using the secular television as a mentor or a combat video game as a mentor yeah that's going to shape the mind and character of your child right lessons from the family jochebed i imagine every day lord god help me today one more day yeah sabine and the other thing that i can think of is that she had to be very selfless because imagine you just have this beautiful baby you want to nurse this baby you want to grow him up to to jesus to to the lord and to god and then all of a sudden you need to make a decision immediately like just to let the child go and so i think that this is a principle of you need to help yourself by choosing the best for the child and not to yourself you know sometimes you just want to do what appear to be best for you if you have the self-centered thinking whereas you need to think about the best for the child who could have imagined that from those few days of mentoring that god would use that little boy to set his people free and to write a big section of the bible right yeah if she had known that maybe she would have been even more prompt diligent diligent thank you in her work i want to share one other uh godly mother who's a great inspiration to me and then give you an opportunity to share others that you see in the scriptures that really took this ministry can i call it a ministry yes very seriously and that is helping those within our family and it can be true even with the spouse right those within our family to have a personal life-changing relationship with god the one i'm thinking of is a lady named hannah and her story is recorded in the book that bears her son's name what does that tell you that's amazing he didn't even hear the story he was godly yeah yeah she did something right yes right first samuel chapter one verses 9 through 18 brittany we're going to read some in in this uh first samuel book but let's start in verses 9 through 18 of chapter 1. i'll be reading in the new king james version for samuel chapter 1 verses 9-18 so hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in shiloh now eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the lord and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the lord and wept in anguish then she made a vow and said o lord of hosts if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant but will give your maidservant a male child then i will give him to the lord all the days of his life and no razor shall come upon his head and it happened as she continued praying before the lord that eli watched her mouth now hannah spoke in her heart only her lips moved but her voice was not heard therefore eli thought she was drunk so eli said to her how long will you be drunk put your wine away from you but hannah answered and said no my lord i am a woman of sorrowful spirit i have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink but have poured out my soul before the lord do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief i have spoken until now then eli answered and said go in peace and the god of israel grant your petition which you have asked of him and she said let your maidservant find favor in your sight so the woman went her way and ate and her face was no longer sad what an amazing young woman we don't know a lot about her yeah but what do you learn from her just from this short narrative she had faith incredible faith she's praying more earnestly than the high priest is praying crying out to god sabine that she was very humble and wouldn't mind feeling even like people shaming her just you know if she was drunk or drinking wine or beer she was still praying and i like that humility insight because if someone had accused me of being drunk when i was crying out to god i might have got upset with them how dare you talk to me like that you know she's humble even in that isn't she and and what about her words after the high priest we can only assume speaking under the inspiration of the holy spirit says it will be to you how does it express that um the god of israel grant your petition which you have asked what do you think about her response let your maidservant find favor in your sight yes it almost sounds like mary yeah let it be according to your word yeah it's like this is an amazing woman well what's the rest of the story does anybody know she fulfilled the word well before sabine could you read on sabine read on for us verses 19 through 28 yes so i'll be reading from the new international version chapter 1 19 to 38 to 20 28. early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the lord and then went and back to their home at ramah ilkana lay with his hannah with hannah his wife and the lord remembered her so in the course of time hannah conceived and gave birth to a son she named him samuel saying because i asked the lord for him when the men of kana went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the lord and to fulfill his vow hannah did not go she said to her husband after the boy is weaned i will take him and present him before the lord and he will live there always do what seems best to you elkanah her husband told her stay here until you have winned him only may the lord make good his word so the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had winned him after he was winned she took the boy with her young as he was along with a three-year-old bull an effaff a flora and a skin of wine and brought him to the house of the lord at shiloh when they had slaughtered the bull they brought the boy to a lie and she said to him as surely as you leave my lord i am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the lord i prayed for this child and the lord has granted me what i asked of him so now i give him to the lord for his whole life he will be given over to the lord and he worshipped the lord there what would it do to have a praying parent like that wow did anyone have a praying parent like that brittany you always talk about your mother maybe your father too i know you know that what a huge blessing that is some of us may not have grown up with a christian a strong christian family but maybe god provided someone else who was like a godly father or a godly mother for us you say that must have impacted uh samuel's life and you read her prayer in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. we won't read it now but jesus praying in the spirit as just a powerful woman of god you read on in chapter two she weaves a garment every every strand woven with prayer you know for her son that she will give to remind him that ongoing discipleship now i just noticed something here that it says in first samuel chapter 2 and verse 21 that the lord visited hannah and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters and samuel grew before the lord do we know anything about the other three sons and two daughters no i don't think so i mean do you think there were powerful women of god and powerful men of god like samuel it's me i don't know if like samuel but maybe probably the answer is that was a choice they also had to make right yeah could it be that hannah had some sadness in her heart just like eve when one child chose to be strong in the lord and another one walked away and the answer is we don't know do we yeah but we recognize that that's a very real possibility even with an amazing woman of god yeah a praying woman of god like hannah written i just think about lessons for life and what we can learn from hannah one is prayer that you've mentioned but the other is that whenever god gives us a gift a child is a gift from the lord and we're just stewards that they're not ours to keep just like she said i've lent him to the lord i've given him to the lord that should be our focus if the lord blesses us with children that they're not mine they're actually the lords and i'm raising them to serve the lord and and that they're only with me or for a time so let me invest in them and then i'm going to let them have wings and leave the nest and and you know they're the lords and that's what focus powerful powerful insight and and as you said earlier even if we may not have children of our own yet there are children within our circle of influence who need a godly mentor right a godly man a godly woman who pray and invest into their lives and give them every encouragement they still have a choice to make you know to choose god's way herald but we can't forget that we ourselves are the lords because if we don't recognize that we are the lords that we are sons and daughters of god then there's no way that we can recognize that a child that comes from us is also the lord's because we are part of this controversy where god's character is being destroyed because satan is destroying the family but we see here hannah is trying to restore god's character working through this child making sure that dedicated to the lord because she is dedicated to the lord so every child is a precious gift from the lord and a story just flashed into my mind that i don't have time to share but the holy spirit impressed me so maybe someone's watching maybe you're watching sometimes we may deal with the challenge and it was the story of a godly couple who had down's son down syndrome son and that they they taught that boy in the way of the lord and and i had the privilege of baptizing that young man and ever after that people said well can you baptize him he doesn't know him you know what he gave his heart to jesus and when he came popping up out of the water he was rejoicing in the lord and whenever he saw me he would say december 13 pastor december 13th so every child maybe someone needed to hear that today every child is precious to god amen and remember yes there is a day when god is going to make all things new amen so taking seriously whether it's our own child or a child within our circle of influence tell me some other stories we don't have a chance to read them all but just a few then we want to look at the life of jesus because he also grew up in a family and he had some challenges there some other stories that really impressed you of a a person who who took seriously you know we're talking about lessons for life today sabina i'm thinking of abraham i think that the best example that he could have left his son was the fact that at the at the moment he had to let go of again his desire to keep his son and leave it to god and god provided right he provided a lamb instead of the boy and yet that same father had lied about his uh wife and had also taken poor counsel and and slept with his wife's maid there was a whole sequence of poor choices and and yet maybe there's some hope in that too that we can choose to make a better choice and by the way you talk about mercy god showed mercy to hagar and ishmael i'm so thankful for the immeasurable love of god aren't you every family is precious to him and every child is precious to him well we've got to move on tell me another one besides abraham yes i'm thinking of timothy you know the mother and father of timothy you know they raised them right and eunice and lois i think are mentioned in the scripture aren't they right and paul basically trusted timothy as at a young age to lead the church where you know he left off and you know constantly paul always referring to timothy and he's always crediting his parents for doing a great job and paul basically just had to um reap the benefit of that actually crediting his mother and grandmother we don't know about his father we can only hope that that same witness came but doesn't it say that from a child you were taught the scriptures yes so that's a beautiful one thank you billy anybody else another one that where you see godly parents really taking the family very seriously um harold yeah sure also neyman's a servant girl we do not know the girl's parents background but through her advice advising naaman to go to a prophet of god in israel he actually he got saved and yes this little girl is she's called the captive maid yes that's all we know right and yet some praying parents especially after she was uh taken hostage is what we would call it right prisoner of war right they didn't stop praying for her yeah and god used her yeah in a powerful way brittany i think of esther her parents died she was an orphan and all that we really hear about is her cousin mordecai raising her almost like an uncle figure yes and and he taught her of the lord and and through that witness to her and his mentorship of her she was willing to go before the king and plead for her people and we just see such a godly woman that came from such tragedy and and even almost like a single parent model where her cousin is raising her and just the beautiful woman that she became yeah oh we could go on couldn't we there's lots of powerful stories doesn't it say they are written for our learning yes yes romans 15 and verse 4. they're written for our learning we're talking about lessons for life not just studying the bible so we can win a bible quiz but we can live well as followers of jesus let's talk about jesus and his family's system what do we know about jesus and his family well let's look at a couple of verses here luke chapter one jason could you read verses 26 to 28 for us of luke chapter one i'm reading here from the new king james version luke chapter 1 verses 26 through 28 now in the sixth month the angel gabriel was sent by god to a city of galilee named nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was joseph of the house of david the virgin's name was mary and having come in the angel said to her rejoice highly favored one the lord is with you blessed are you among women what message is this angel going to give and how is mary going to respond what's the message brittany you're going to bear the savior of the world yeah and by the way it pointed out that you are a virgin yes let's look billy if you could go back to matthew chapter one because there we hear the other side of the story if you were betrothed to a godly young woman only to discover that she was pregnant and you knew that you had conducted yourself honorably you'd be struggling joseph was struggling what happens matthew 1 18-24 and i'll be reading from the king james version now the birth of jesus christ was on this wise when as his mother mary was espoused to joseph before they came together she was found with child of the holy ghost then joseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily but while he thought on these things behold the angel of the lord appeared unto him in a dream saying joseph thou son of david fear not to take unto thee mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the holy ghost and she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name jesus for ye shall save his people from their sins now all this was done in it that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the lord by the prophet saying behold a virgin shall be with a child with child and shall bring forth a son and shall call his name emmanuel which being interpreted god with us now joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the lord had bitten him and took unto him his wife now i'm impressed to have you read the next verse give a moment for to pull that up on the screen but matthew 1 verse 25 because joseph has received a message that this is a work of god and that he should go forward with his marriage plans but what does it matthew record in verse 25 of matthew chapter one and what's the significance of those words sure and again from the king james version matthew 1 25 and he he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son and he called his name jesus now that that's a i was going to say a technical term it doesn't mean he didn't know who she was right what does it mean she remained a virgin right he was not sexually intimate with her until after so jesus was not only conceived of a virgin he was born of a virgin why did joseph do that he loved her he made a commitment to her they were married why does he wait sabina to consummate that marriage until after jesus is born yeah i believe it's the bible says he was a righteous man in that he believed the word of god that was given to him so i believe he wanted to make sure that the promise of god there was to be fulfilled that he was that the child would be born of a virgin that's the promise in isaiah 7 right in verse 23 it says the virgin will be we have a child so i believe he wanted to make sure that the promise of the prophecy would be fulfilled 700 years ago exactly people would not have questions about it so i made sure okay the prophecy will be fulfilled i'm not going to touch her so that people know it but that supernatural event continued to cause some challenges for the family in what way in what way did it cause challenges well what i'm thinking of joseph you know being in his shoes um the fact that now he had to carry this this um this idea that you know he was basically fathering somebody else's child in that in during that time it was not um uncommon for you know young women to be impregnated by let's say the the the roman soldiers because rip was one one of the ways of oppression during that time so there was some stigma that associated with that and joseph knew that some people may have mistaken this you know holy thing as oh yeah you know mary was just you know maybe raped or things like that and he chose to live through that um and accepted that so it wasn't something that he took lightly you know it was something that he chose to undertake and believe in god for that there was another challenge and that was that there were other children in the family system do we have their names do we know any yes we do let's look in matthew 13 matthew chapter 13 verses 55 and 56 and harold it looks like you have that for us matthew 13 would you read verses 55 and 56 yes and i'll be reading from the new king james version and it says is this not the carpenter's son is not his mother called mary and his brothers james joseph simon and judas and his sisters are they not with us where then did this man get all these things so we've got this name these four brothers are named and sisters though not given by name and yet at the cross when jesus is dying he commits his mother mary into the care of john which would seem to imply that she did not have other children who would care for her so these are children of joseph which would make them older is there any evidence in the text that there were older siblings in the family well let's look in john chapter 7. verses 2 to 5. john chapter 7 verses 2 to 5 jesus is growing up from what we can tell in a blended family because there are these brothers and sisters around yeah there's no record of mary having any more children right jason how does it read there in john 7 verses 2 to 5. i'm reading here from the new king james version john chapter 7 verses 2 through 5 now the jews feast of tabernacles was at hand his brothers therefore said to him depart from here and go into judea that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing for no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly if you do these things show yourself to the world for even his brothers did not believe in him now you have to understand the culture in some cultures the older siblings like they tell the younger siblings what to do right there's this hierarchy right so they're telling this brother they've have enough challenge that he's the messiah they're telling him what to do they're they're acting like his elders yeah are you with me that makes sense why when jesus is dying he says john behold your mother right behold your son so it would seem that jesus grew up with some tension in his family his mother's praying for him his father's praying for him it's not an easy setting is it no no no and also i guess you know what i think of you know when jesus uh you know at the cross you know said to john um to mary you know this is your son john you know where was joseph so could it be that joseph was not around this very clear implicit evidence that joseph died before jesus began his ministry because luke 2 he's obedient until he comes to baptism to his parents but then joseph's gone which would make sense if joseph was older with children when he married mary right but we don't know all of the answers to that we know he was a a righteous man right yes now if the story ended there you'd say wow jesus grew up in a blended family that obviously wasn't working very well but this wonderful text billy maybe you can read it for us in acts 1 14. that brings me tremendous courage we're talking about learning in the family lessons for life okay don't give up if things aren't working perfectly in the family there's always hope what do you read in acts 1 and verse 14. sure and i'll be reading from the king james version acts 1 verse 14 says these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women in mary the mother of jesus and his brethren there they are my bible says and his brothers so it's not just specifically talking about other men right but those within is mary's mother yeah and the brothers yes are there what does that tell you they believed yeah there's hope there's hope right there's hope to build a strong family is not always easy praise god if we had a strong parent like hannah praying but we don't know if all of her other what was it three sons and two daughters yeah well we don't know all of the outcome they also had a choice to make jesus himself in spite of those challenges and the taunts he got about his birth it says he increased in wisdom and stature and favor with god and man luke 252 right so it's possible even in challenging family settings and even where siblings seem unsupportive yeah don't give up on them anybody have a sibling that you should not give up on yes i do maybe you do too we have a lesson that we can all learn i want to to wrap up this idea of building strong families with some counsel from the apostle paul in ephesians chapter 6. ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 to 4 to wrap up our study today we're going to continue learning more lessons for life jason i think you have it there in ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 to 4. i'm reading here from the new king james version ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 children obey your parents in the lord for this is right honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and admonition of the lord that's a very simple concise statement isn't it obey your appearance in the lord that means that they ask you to go rob a bank you say i'm sorry i can't do that but if they're encouraging you to honor the lord yes obey them right and parents it says fathers i think it could say fathers and mothers what don't provoke your children yeah don't make them angry by your inconsistent unloving behavior but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the lord if we just had that one little summary there that would be wise counsel yeah you say pastor derek i've got much to learn and and i do too adam and eve struggled through their family we see great examples through scripture we also see some very poor examples jesus himself needed the blessing of god in his own family system but i do believe that we can pray god make me the parent that you want me to be for my children or children in my circle of influence make me also the the child that you want me to be yeah that will honor my parents and and be a blessing to them yeah it's a challenge it's a lesson for life let's pray together father in heaven we're all part of a family of some kind we want to thank you that you've given us either biological parents or godly mentors who've built into our lives and prayed for us we pray that we could be those kind of godly mentors to those in our circle of influence too pointing people to you who loves them with an immeasurable and unfailing love in the name of jesus amen amen amen well thanks for joining us for hope sabbath school our families are going to be impacted if we not only hear something today but live what we learn lessons for life go out and be a blessing now to those [Music] around [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] you

Channel: HopeSabbathSchool

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Keywords: Hope Sabbath School, Derek Morris, Seventh-Day Adventist

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Length: 58min 34sec (3514 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 04 2020