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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2022: In the Crucible with Christ

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 The Shepherd’s Crucible

02 The Crucibles That Come

03 The Birdcage

04 Seeing the Goldsmith’s Face

05 Extreme Heat

06 Struggling with All Energy

10 Meekness in the Crucible

07 Indestructible Hope

08 Seeing the Invisible

09 A Life of Praise

11 Waiting in the Crucible

12 Dying Like a Seed

13 Christ in the Crucible

I'm Cameron DeVasher and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

Now on our lesson 11 of our In the Crucible with Christ quarter, all about this week waiting in the crucible.

And so while last week was about meekness, this week is about patience.

In fact, the little introductory comment I have there says, this week we'll examine the role of patience in our lives.

Both the challenge it is to develop, so like last week the meekness had to be cultivated.

It can be difficult to cultivate patience, but also it provides a blessing when we exercise it.

So there's the positive blessing, but also the development that can be a challenge and we're looking at all of it this week.

The fruit of the Spirit is, ellipsis, long suffering.

The fruit of the spirit is long-suffering.

This week and last week were some of the best transitions into practicing, memorizing the memory verse.

I mean, if you have hesitated, now is your time.

Today, let's make a new, like, we don't have to wait till January 1 for a resolution.

Father in heaven, We are again so thankful for the privilege we have of having your word and the spirit of truth to guide us into an understanding In it.

I pray Lord as we go over this material It would be a blessing to our Sabbath school teachers and participants that we would have rich discussions and not only that Lord we would increase in our understanding of you, our relationships would deepen, and our influence on the world around us would be more Christ-like.

We ask and pray these things in his name, Jesus Christ, amen.

All right, well, we're studying patience, and our talking points are parallel with that says number 1 God is patient now this comes from Monday's lesson and that should kind of almost go without saying because any good trait me this character you know but we're gonna see that we see evidence of God's patience revealed in his word, and it's really a great example for us.

We'll get into that in a minute, but number 1, God is patient.

Actually, you know, even as you're saying it, I think that that's not a...

As much as we'd say it's a truism, the reality is how many atheists, like, I don't believe in God because I've said, God, if you exist, come on down here, send a lightning bolt.

They don't take God's patience for, they do take it for granted, as evidence or as a truism.

So oftentimes the very evidence that the atheist would look for would destroy him prematurely, you know, so it's an interesting anyway.

Well, yeah, well, We'll dive all into that when we get into talking point number 1.

Talking point number 2, patients can be painful to develop.

This comes from Saturday afternoon, from Sunday, from Wednesday, and it's kind of an underlying theme for at least a large chunk of this week's lesson.

And again, it's not 1 of those gifts that you're given.

Talking point number 3, patience can be delightful to exercise.

So that comes from Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

As much it can be a challenge to develop, it can also be a joy to experience when we put it to practice.

So we're gonna look at all of that this week and starting with God is patient.

Yes, in fact this week on Monday's lesson it's titled In God's Time and it refers to Romans 5, 6 and Galatians 4, 4 about in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, right?

And it made me think those are just 2 examples, 2 different types of prophecy, the first coming of Christ prophecies, and then the great end time prophecies.

But those are simply, Again, examples of a greater patience that God himself consistently, I would dare guess, eternally exhibits.

That it's part of his very nature to be a God who takes his time to do things right.

You know, you think of the Greek gods or the Roman gods or even like maybe with a picture the disciples had, call down lightning, you know.

And the idea being that God, however, has the long view in mind, right?

And that should be an example for us, and we'll get to that in a minute, but let's just talk about the very patience of God.

Even before we get into the prophecies and the coming of Christ or the second coming of Christ, the whole issue of sin at all, the great controversy motif, the saga, is a revelation of the patience of God, right?

I put this in the notes here, and it's not in the lesson, but you can Look it up in Isaiah 14, you see it in Ezekiel 28, how fallen from heaven this great perfect being was, and you would think God should have, from our thinking, instantly wiped him out.

But we see that God allows him to be cast out instead of blotted out.

He allows people to see him and it talks about how you will be destroyed but here we are 6, 000 years deep and he's not done yet.

Great Controversy page 495 speaks to this.

Why don't you read that for us, please god in his great mercy bore long with lucifer He was not immediately degraded from his exalted station when he first indulged the spirit of discontent Nor even when he began to present his false claims before the loyal angels Long was he retained in heaven again and again.

He was offered pardon on condition of repentance and submission.

And if you go tallied up, great mercy bore long again and again.

And in the scheme of eternity, because it doesn't tell us here, what is long?

But clearly it was not instantaneous and it was not even short term.

It was some sort of procedure that God allowed to draw out in his great patience.

Now that same patience is seen as we turn our attention to Bible prophecy.

You think of, let's look up Genesis 15 real quick.

I'm thinking of, this is also not 1 that was mentioned in the Sabbath school lesson, but it came to my mind as we were putting these points together that God had this people that he was desiring to establish as his chosen people in the promised land.

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Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2022: In the Crucible with Christ

11 Waiting in the Crucible

Transcript

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