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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Ted N.C. Wilson

Sabbath School Discussion on the Book of Ephesians

Good morning to each of you and happy Sabbath.

What a privilege it is to worship the Lord on the Sabbath and to be part of his great Advent family around the world.

I've had the privilege of being at Advent Hope for a couple times.

And my daughters, 2 of them, we have 3 daughters, they attend from time to time and really receive a great blessing from Advent Hope.

This morning I've appreciated that fantastic hymn that we just sang.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

This quarter we're studying from the book of Ephesians, 1 of the most inspiring books in Scripture in terms of relationships, in terms of spiritual connection with God and with each other.

It's a very practical book and yet an extremely profound book in terms of our relationship with God and understanding God's faithfulness.

What God has done for us, what He is doing for us in the most holy place in the sanctuary in heaven, and what He will do for us.

There were 2 gentlemen who were traveling in the Central American country of Nicaragua.

1 was a pastor And the other was 1 of his assistants, a church elder.

And they were traveling in a very difficult time in the history of Nicaragua and in a very difficult place in that particular country.

It was during the time of the Sandinistas, a time when people were a bit unsure as to exactly what direction the country would take, and everyone suspected each other.

The pastor and his head elder were headed to a remote mountain church in order to provide literature, spiritual encouragement, instruction, and to foster the church in a wonderful way in a remote area.

On their way, they were stopped by 120 Sandinista soldiers and the head officer.

They were ordered to get out of the car and the officer searched the car.

In the trunk, he found a Bible and a songbook, or in the car.

In the back of the car he found other things.

He asked the pastor, where are you going?

The pastor explained what direction he was taking, going into the mountains to try and help some of his fellow believers.

And the officer said, I don't believe you.

The officer stood there and he began to go through the songbook.

The officer said, You know what we do with spies?

He said, we make them dig their own shallow graves and then we just shoot them.

And as he was going through the song book, he came to a song that said, Take My Life and Let It Be.

So the pastor and his head elder had to stand there and sing that song.

They sang a duet and it touched the hearts of many of those soldiers.

The officer went through the Bible and he came to Psalm 91.

As he came to Psalm 91, he says, Do you know this psalm?

I don't know if you'd be able to stand up and repeat Psalm 91.

It's a beautiful 1, but it's quite involved.

The pastor knew of God's faithfulness and His promises and he knew His Scripture and he knew his relationship with God and he stood there and he repeated Psalm 91 from memory.

He was almost persuaded, but he still doubted.

So he picked out a few more chapters from Scripture.

The Officer was really impressed by this time.

But then he picked out Matthew chapter 4 And he said, do you know this story about Jesus calling His disciples?

This God that has a relationship with His creatures, with His human creatures that He has created.

And so that pastor without notes, without his Bible, took that beautiful story of Jesus calling his disciples and wove it into the most appealing sermon he had ever given through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And he appealed to those soldiers to make Christ the chief in their life.

To have the relationship that only Jesus can have with those who are His creatures.

And when He finished, those soldiers, those hardened Sandinista soldiers, 120 of them, had moist eyes.

They had been introduced to the God of all faithfulness, the God that wants a relationship with you, the God who has made provision throughout eternity since the beginning of time for your salvation.

And as that preacher, that pastor presented that message, those soldiers were soffit.

And finally, the officer in charge of those 120 men said, I am persuaded you are who you say you are.

He said if you had been unable to share with us Those beautiful truths, we would have simply killed him.

But he says, I was once a Christian, but then I lost my faith.

I admire you and I believe in what you are doing.

And he said in the future when you and your associate here, the head elder, need to get up into that mountain area, he said you contact me and we will provide an official escort so no 1 will bother you.

You see, that pastor and that head elder knew who they were, they knew their Bible, and they knew the God of the Bible.

Relationships with each other, but most importantly, your relationship with God.

The book of Ephesians has in it some of the most powerful appeals to our personal process of salvation and to our understanding of who we are and what God has done for us.

The first chapter is what we're studying today, and that's what we're going to get into.

Now, let me tell you, when my daughter Emily told me that I was going to be teaching 1 of the Sabbath school classes, I thought it was going to be 1 of the classes that I had attended in the back where we drew a nice circle together because that's the way I like to teach Sabbath school.

I coordinate a Sabbath school class in the small church that I attend and I'm a member and We have a great time.

We have a wonderful Sabbath school exchange and dynamic.

Because we focus on Scripture, we don't just talk off the tops of our heads.

We read the Scripture and then we ask the Holy Spirit, we allow the Holy Spirit to help us to understand it in a practical way.

So don't think that just because we're all set up here and as 1 of our leaders mentioned earlier, don't move your chairs and we're just all going to have the Sabbath school presented by Ted Wilson.

No, you're going to be the Sabbath school.

Because we're going to talk about this relationship, the relationship that this pastor and head elder had with God.

This relationship that explains the faithfulness of God and what He did from the very, very beginning for us and what He's doing for us right now.

The first chapter of Ephesians, which is what we're going to focus on this morning, is really divided into 3 stanzas, 3 sections.

And just as a little matter of introduction, the first stanza is a section of verses 1-6.

The second stanza is, and this is primarily about God the Father, the first 6 verses.

Then the second stanza begins with essentially verse 7 and runs through verse 12.

And this is talking about God the Christ, the Son.

Then there is a third section beginning with verses 13 and 14, which really emphasizes God the Holy Spirit.

And so you see in the very beginning of the book of Ephesians, in those few verses, the verses that we are actually going to be looking at, we're talking about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And all of them from the very beginning had an emphasis on saving those whom they created.

Now I'd like you to take your Bibles, and I think almost all of you have them, and I'm delighted with that, and turn to Ephesians 1.

We're going to read the first, we're actually going to be reading this entire section, but we're going to be stopping and letting the Holy Spirit help to interpret what we read and what it means to us.

Now, I know what it is like when you're in a setting like this and not in a circle, alright?

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Sabbath School Discussion on the Book of Ephesians

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