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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Adwoa Wiafe

Holy Ground

As we start, I would just like to start with a word of prayer.

Dear Lord, I thank you so much for bringing us all here together in this place.

And Lord, I know that you are here in our midst, and I ask for your spirit to just rest on us.

I ask that you open our hearts, our ears, to be able to hear your voice, your voice speaking so clearly to us that we're able to catch another angle of your face that we've never been able to experience before.

And Lord, I pray that you anoint my lips as I speak, that you are the 1 speaking, Lord, and that I'm hiding behind you.

I thank you so much for bringing those that need to hear the message today here, and I thank you so much for going ahead and preparing the way ahead of us.

All right, today's message is titled Holy Ground.

When I was praying and asking God for the message for today, He said the key is in Isaiah chapter 4, starting in verse 4.

So this message is for you, and this is what God would like you to hear today.

So we can go ahead and start reading, starting in Isaiah chapter 4, verse 4, and reading up until verse 6.

And it says, the Lord will wash the filth from beautiful Zion and cleanse Jerusalem of its bloodstains with the hot breath of fiery judgment.

Then the Lord will provide shade for Mount Zion and all who assemble there, he will provide a canopy of cloud during the day and smoke and flaming fire at night, covering the glorious land.

It will be a shelter from daytime heat and a hiding place from storms and rain." As we listen to those passages, I'd just like us to keep those in mind as we look at the story of Moses.

So, Moses was born in an environment that was kinda hard.

He was born where the leader of the land wanted to kill all babies like him, all the baby boys.

And so his loving mother was concerned that she hid him for some time and she decided to put him inside a basket and and send him off on the river.

And so Moses was able to escape death in infancy from the loving watchful gaze of his mother and his sister and most of all from God.

Thankfully as he was drifting away on the Nile River he was found by the princess of the Egyptian palace and when she she saw him he captured her heart and she wanted to take him as her own And it's so amazing that his sister was watching to see where her brother was going on to see and saw that he was he captured the heart of the palace.

And she, the princess wondered who would be able to nurse this child until she can then raise him later on.

And she offered, hey, I know who can be able to take care of this child, and was able to actually bring Moses back to his mother and be nursed, and then he came back to live in the palace.

So we'll think about that story, and then read another story, which is actually 1 of my favorite stories in the Bible, found in Ezekiel chapter 16, Starting in verse 4.

Feel free to follow along in your Bibles, but the text is up there.

It says, on the day you were born, no 1 cared about you.

You were never washed, rubbed with salt, and rubbed in cloth.

On the day you were born, you were unwanted, dumped in a field and left to die.

But I came and saw you there, helplessly kicking about in your own blood.

And As you lay there, I said, live." I think you might be hearing some similarities between these 2 stories.

Now as we think of these 2 stories, I want us to just listen to this story that I heard 1 really good friend of mine share her own experience of her son.

So her son was born pretty early, and so her son had to go to the NICU.

If you're not familiar with what the NICU is, it stands for the neonatal intensive care unit.

And it's pretty much a hospital for babies that need extra support, extra care.

Maybe they might not be able to breathe on their own yet.

Maybe they might not be able to eat on their own yet.

And So the NICU is that place for them to get the care that they need.

And so it's really hard when a mother gives birth because by the time she's healed and ready to go home, her baby has to stay in the hospital.

And so she, you know, comes every day to bring milk and spend time with her baby.

And it actually is very hard for a mother to go through.

Maybe there might be someone in this room that has probably gone through a similar experience, being able to see their loved 1 go through a challenging experience like that.

And the part that really touched me is she said that every day she would go to the NICU and she would watch her son struggling there in the incubator.

And as she would watch her son struggling, tears would just fall down her face.

And she would go through this every single day, and every day she would come and bring food for her child.

And so, you know, there's so much similarity between these 3 stories, is that each of these children were born in a very tough environment.

In an environment where the world was stacked up against them, where there might have been a death warrant on their back.

And so what I love between these 3 stories is that they were not left alone.

That there was a watchful gaze by someone that loved them.

And it's through that watchful gaze that gave them a shot at life, that gave them an opportunity for a new life.

And I want to say that we are all in that story.

We have all been born in a toxic environment called sin.

And I want you to know that we serve such a loving father who's been watching us every single day since we were born and just showering his love on us and has his watchful gaze, making sure that we have a shot at life again.

You know, sin has this death warrant on our back, saying that the wages of sin is death.

But we have a loving father here that is watching us and wanting to offer us life, wanting to offer us life.

You know, I'm very touched by this because it can't help but remind me of my own personal story.

I like what Ezekiel 16, verse 6 says, "'But I came by and saw you there helplessly kicking about in your own blood, and as you lay there, I said, live.

I want us to kind of read on just a little bit before I kind of dive into my own personal experience.

Starting in verse 7, reading on in Ezekiel 16, and we'll read to verse 9.

He says, and I helped you thrive like a plant in the field.

You grew up and became a beautiful jewel.

Your breasts became full and your body hair grew, but you were still naked.

And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love.

So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows.

I made a covenant with you, says the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

Then I bathed you and washed off your blood and I rubbed fragrant oils into your skin." So as we look into this story, we see here that before this child was even aware that she has love being showered on her and really the ability to thrive like a plant in the toxic environment that she's in.

We see here that God is just like showing and showering his love.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Before we could even open our eyes to even recognize or give him the credit for what he's doing in our lives, he's there really doing the most in unseen places and unnoticed places.

It's kind of like made me take a back and look back at what God did for me before I even had the kind of relationship that I have with God now.

As it was mentioned from my bio, I was born in Ethiopia in the mission field.

And the way that we came to this country is very miraculous.

My parents had the plan to go to Jamaica to further their education.

And while they were doing their mission work in Ethiopia, Dr.

Hart kind of posed the idea, you know, you guys could possibly further your education in the U.S., you know, in Loma Linda.

And my parents were, you know, they thought about it, but they were like, well, That sounds very nice, but the living expenses here are just no match for what we are getting and our life savings will be gone by the time we hit the floor.

So it just didn't seem like that that would be a great option for us at that time.

And so my family, my parents made their plans.

And really, through so many amazing steps in the way, God made it that my parents were able to get a scholarship to get their education here and when we came here we didn't come here with much we just had the things on our back We didn't know where we were going to stay.

And so when we came here, God sent someone to help us find a place to stay.

And the place that God led us to, it was an apartment complex.

And it was just amazing because my parents needed to go to school, but me and my siblings were so young, we needed someone to watch us.

And my parents were told, you know, in this country, we don't leave kids, young kids by themselves.

And so my parents were looking for someone to be able to watch us.

And the manager of our apartment complex offered to watch us for a very low price.

Holy Ground

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