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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

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

Pastor Howard, we are embarking on a new lesson series today.

A whole beginning of the year, a whole set of new lessons, and this 1 is titled Uniting Heaven and Earth, Christ in Philippians and Colossians.

This is a really interesting, You know, we've been on the Old Testament for a while there, you know, going through the history of ancient Israel.

Now we're headed to the New Testament and 1 of the...

I just can't tell you how excited I am about this upcoming study series.

We're looking at the Apostle Paul and his work for these, specifically these 2 churches, but really principles we can take and apply to the church today.

And I really am excited about this lesson series.

So, well, you are the 1 who is launching this with the Talking Points.

You put them together this week, so let me pray and then you can tell us what we're getting into here.

Gracious Father in heaven, we are thankful for your word.

We're thankful that we can study together, not just here as we prepare this Talking Points, but Lord, around the world, that as Seventh-day Adventists we can be studying your word together as it were and we pray your spirit would guide us into an understanding of your truth and an application of that truth in such a way that would finish the work you've given us to do in this earth for we ask and pray it in Jesus name amen amen well the lessons for this week is entitled Persecuted but Not Forsaken and it's really looking at the Apostle Paul and of course the Apostle Paul wrote these letters to Philippians and the Colossian churches, but he wrote them from prison and so we're going to be looking at, or at least from an imprisonment, you know.

So what was the context for these lessons?

So we're not, this week's lesson is not a chapter by chapter study of the content necessarily, but it's giving a context for what, for these upcoming lessons we're going to be studying.

And how does the church operate with him in this condition?

Well, in my notes I put, this week's lesson looks at Paul's commitment to missionary service, even under persecution, and his strategic approach to evangelistic labor.

So, we've drawn out 3 talking points, as is our custom.

Talking point number 1, for Paul, even prison was a pulpit.

He did not let his circumstances dictate his ministry.

That comes primarily from Sunday and Monday's lesson.

Talk point number 2, successful evangelism requires wise strategy.

If there's anyone who needed to think through how he was going to do stuff, it was Paul with all the different things he was facing, how could he make this work go forward?

Again, this is from Wednesday and Thursdays, but that's exactly how Paul was able to make things successful.

Of course, page 9, the great opening line of that great book.

The New Testament of course was primarily written by the Apostle Paul and they're mostly letters to either individuals or churches who he had helped raise up.

But what we sometimes forget is that of those letters, many of them are written from a jail cell or from a house arrest situation, right?

In fact, they're kind of colloquially known as the prison epistles, Philippians, Colossians, as well as Ephesians and Philemon.

They all talk about him being in prison or mentions his chains or how he's restricted from visiting them, how he'd long to go see them.

It mentions, but none of them mentioned where he was imprisoned, which in and of itself I think is curiously interesting.

He doesn't make his imprisonment Or the location or his struggles the real heart of the work.

He wasn't like here's my condition He just mentions I'm an ambassador, but he keeps talking to them about the work out there and we're gonna see that but anyway But the evidence points he never mentions where he's imprisoned but this is 1 of the first things that we have to address is where's where's he writing from?

There's a lot to be said about that but it is interesting that when we when we suffer today as little as it is in comparison We want everybody to know just how much that's right how hard it was for me to go to that place and They served me food that was cold and there were a couple flies on whatever the case may be So yeah, that's an interesting point where he was in some really nasty situations and never does he describe his jail cells or we can read in Acts of the Apostles when Paul and Silas were in prison and some of what he had with it They were singing in prison and their feet in the stocks.

She gives more detail but he doesn't give that detail.

That's right and it's interesting and what he's always doing is rejoicing and he's thinking of others and he's writing letters to encourage them and plan his next visit and he's just all about that work, right?

Well again, it doesn't mention where he's in prison, but evidence strongly indicates that it's Rome, and the lesson goes through kind of the different suggestions that are out there, but Rome seems to be the landing place for 2 particular reasons.

First of all, Paul mentions the Praetorium in Philippians, chapter 1, verse 13, and he mentions it in terms of quote the whole palace guard right now it could be a reference to a residence of an official in some outpost but this gives them more of the credibility that he's talking about the thousands of Roman soldiers who were in that city and that city of course would be Rome.

Another thing Paul mentions is the believers quote in Caesar's household.

Again, strongly implying a personal connection with people serving in the imperial headquarters in Rome.

So most likely Paul is writing these letters from some type of imprisonment, whether it's an actual jail cell in some cases, whether it's house arrest.

But the lesson brought out that even in house arrest, you'd be chained to a guard.

So it's not like you're just going to the market and you're stuck in this town.

No, you're stuck in this house next to this guy and you're severely restricted in your mobility.

You're not in the house, you're chained to somebody.

Whether you want to eat or use the restroom or whatever else and you're coming with me and it not just a somebody I think the lesson pointed this out that the jar that many of these guards were just very crass and you ever and that you're And that's you're not getting away Can you imagine the type of person it would be like your job is to be chained to the prisoner.

It's like you don't want that to be the soft easygoing guy.

You got it's got to be the tough hard-nosed just and this is what Paul would wake up and there's this guy this is always around you know.

But for him his imprisonment was not seen as honestly didn't even really seem as a setback to ministry it just seemed like well this is where we are today let's go work.

In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 20 Paul describes himself as an ambassador in chains so he just recognized I'm still an ambassador I'm still a minister I just happen to be chained up right now.

In fact, why don't you go to 2nd Corinthians 11 and read some of what Paul describes the various difficulties encountered.

In labor is more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often, from the Jews 5 times I received 40 stripes minus 1 3 times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned 3 times I was shipwrecked and night a night and a day I have been in the deep now he mentions being on the ocean So this appears that he was in the water of the ocean.

Yeah, he's just like swimming around, just like floating.

For a day and a night, or night and a day.

And journeys often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among the false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches.

But notice that all of the other thing, what's really the thing that's heavy on his heart?

Daily is the concern that I have for the churches.

In fact, earlier in the same book in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, chapter 6, starting with verse 3, we read, We give no offense in anything that our ministry may not be blamed, but in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience and tribulations and needs and distresses and stripes and imprisonments and tumults and labors and sleeplessness and fastings.

Yet it says in verse 9, I'm sorry verse 10, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

He says we don't look at our circumstances, whether it's shipwrecked, beaten or imprisoned, as, woe is me.

In ministry, you're going to have setbacks and frustrations and disappointments and obstacles, and even being chained down.

But for Paul, that didn't for a minute stop his daily burden.

I'm gonna get this message out I need to raise up churches I need to be about that mission and so Paul is a powerful example Or as I put it even prison was a pulpit.

He just didn't stop Well, what strikes me is outside of that and you have it in the outline here Ephesians 3 1 Paul says for this reason I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles now The prisoner of Christ Jesus.

I think what if that was our mindset where, you know, if I lost my job, Mark Howard the unemployed for Christ Jesus.

If I broke my leg, Mark the injured for Christ Jesus.

In other words, what if these things that we lament and want to say, yeah, but I'm a victim of this and that and the other, the Lord ultimately allowed it, and so if I'm in prison, I'm His prisoner.

If I'm wounded, I'm wounded because of him, and I'm gonna make the best of it because he's gonna enable that for the furtherance of the gospel.

Yes, well that's why you can talk about being content.

All this I'm thinking I should be having this attitude and I think that's 1 of the things we're supposed to get out of it.

He talks about being content in all things.

I've been in free and I've been in prison.

It doesn't matter and he even goes far far not just to be okay with everything be content.

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

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

We're now on the second lesson of our uniting heaven and earth, Christ and Philippians and Colossians, our whole lesson series.

These 2 beautiful books of the Bible, small letters.

That's like 1 of the old Adventist book titles, you know, the original great controversy between Christ and his angels and Satan and his angels.

So we have a very full title for actually powerful little books.

These are a couple of those prison epistles that were written by the Apostle Paul.

And in these, well, the title for this week's lesson is reasons for Thanksgiving in prayer.

It's very kind of hopeful, uplifting, positive sounding message.

You actually put the talking points together.

What is the context or layout of this lesson?

Well, we're gonna be talking about reasons for Thanksgiving.

Really, the lesson is focusing on the introductions of both Philippians and Colossians.

Okay, well, and Paul will take the ball from there.

The quarterly itself says, and I've taken this from Sabbath afternoon, this week we'll consider Paul's opening words of Thanksgiving and prayer in Philippians and Colossians.

Okay, well, that's a very clear context for what we're studying and then we'll get into the content in just a minute.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you for the Sabbath school lessons.

Thank you for the scripture that they're based on most importantly.

And Lord, as we continue to study these important themes, these important concepts from the books of Philippians and Colossians, help us to know you more, be more like you, and somehow hasten your coming.

So I suppose before we dive in, Cameron, we should probably highlight, as both of us have been working on lessons from this quarter, that they can be a little bit daunting, simply because of you're covering basically 2 books of the Bible in 13 weeks, and there's a good...

Waleen is a scholar, a New Testament scholar, so he wants to dive in to get some of the passages and stuff, which is great, but there's a lot of material.

And so when it comes to teaching the class you're gonna have to pick what you're gonna highlight.

Yeah well I think it's important you brought that up because some of them some of the points in the lesson are gonna be thematic like look at his scope of it but other times you'll dive into a specific word or phrase and so it can be tempting to drill down into that 1 thing and then lose the whole context.

So to your point you're gonna have to choose you want the wide-angle lens or you want to zoom in like a microscope on certain things and there's probably gonna be a mixed bag.

And so this is not to take away from the lesson itself but to say and it's something I emphasize when I teach classes to encourage the students to study the lesson because you can't as teacher you can't bring out all the gems that are in the lesson that's why we had the lesson to study and the quarterly guide to study ourselves and you can get it for free if you don't have any of it in the app, official General Conference Sabbath School app.

So having said that, this is how I drew away my points from this week's lesson.

The idea of course, the introductions of both Philippians and Colossians are prayers or at least Paul's talking about his how he prays for them.

And so I've distilled it into what he's thankful for in his prayers.

Talking point number 1 and then drawn applications for us.

Talking point number 1, we should be thankful for Christian fellowship.

I've drawn that from Sunday and Monday primarily.

Talking point number 2, we should be thankful for God's providences.

I've drawn that primarily from Tuesday's lesson.

And then talking point number 3, we should be thankful for God's promises, and I've drawn that primarily from Wednesday and Thursday's lesson.

Well at least those talking points go along with the title of reasons for Thanksgiving and prayer.

You could say, we should be thankful for.

So I want to start out with, before we get into, you know, topic point number 1, we should be thankful for Christian fellowship, with just an introduction to what the lesson calls others-focused prayer.

Paul's prayers were, according to Monday's lesson, others focused on behalf of the whole church and for its well-being, as opposed to self-centered.

And I think the lesson brings that out on Monday, that it talks about the potential of sometimes we can just pray for ourselves and never pray for anything but ourselves.

And so Paul understood the power of what we would call intercessory prayer.

If you've not heard that term, just praying for others rather than yourself.

Could be other individuals, could be praying for the church or the cause of Christ, you're interceding.

And we're gonna look at Philippians 1, 3, and 4.

If you would read that and then I'll read Colossians 1 and verse 3.

Philippians 1, 3, and 4 says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy.

So there he is praying for them, he says very specifically.

And then Colossians chapter 1 and verse 3 says, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

So he's interceding for them and he's praying for others.

His prayers are not just about himself and I thought it was interesting there in verse 8 if you would read Philippians 1 verse 8.

For God is my witness How greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

So here he basically says the motivation for his praying for them is the affection Jesus has for them.

And this at least takes my mind back to when when Jesus in Luke chapter 22 told Peter, the devil has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.

And so this is Jesus interceding for Peter.

And I'm sure that Jesus interceded and intercedes for all of us.

We talk about him being the great intercessor.

And so Paul is getting this model from Christ and we should get it from Christ and Paul.

Yeah, that we should intercede for, pray for others in prayer.

We're surrounded by people who don't know how to pray, don't know that they should pray and we can pray on their behalf.

Well I was just thinking about how you said well we should follow Paul but actually we should follow Jesus because Paul followed Jesus.

Well, and Paul himself said, imitate me as I follow Christ.

So if we're following Paul's good example, he got it from good sources, Jesus himself.

And again, Jesus is the great intercessor.

Well, I think you have something in here now about when it says I pray he talks about always praying Yeah, and never see something in Colossians.

He says I Let me get back there In Colossians 1 that I just read in verse 3.

He says Praying always for you And there are other places like that where it's just like, so is he basically like a monk?

Well, he says we should pray without ceasing.

So does that mean I constantly have a prayer tab open and running?

And this is why I appreciated there in verse 5, versus, sorry, verse 3 and 4 there in Philippians chapter 1.

Yeah, we just read that when he got it said, thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making requests for all with joy.

So there's that caveat I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.

I mean just like we Paul was making tents, Paul was interacting with people, Paul had things he did work-wise and otherwise where he no he didn't have he wasn't praying 24 7.

He wasn't praying for the Philippians 24-7.

He wasn't even thinking of the Philippians 24-7 when he would remember them.

And I appreciate, So what I have in our notes here is that this is not to imply that Paul prayed non-stop for the believers, but that they were always on his heart as his interests were bound up with theirs.

So he'd go about the common things, but often he would think about the cause, and he would think about the people that he had ministered to.

You know, I know in my Christian experience, there was a period of time where I'd read passages like this and say, well, what am I supposed to do?

03 Life and Death

We're continuing on our uniting heaven and earth, Christ in Philippians and Colossians.

This week we're on lesson 3, Life and Death.

Yes, first quarter in the balmy month of January here in Michigan.

Well I'm looking at this here and as I reviewed the lesson, because I'm the 1 who put the Talk Moins together this week, the title is Life and Death and you would think it's just about life and death, but actually the last half of it is about unity of the faith.

So if I were to edit it, I would say life, death, and unity.

But we'll get into all that in a little bit later.

But we're just basically continuing a study of the mindset and philosophy and approach of Paul as he dealt with things like imprisonment, death, and the unity that he wanted to have in Christ.

Well, listen, why don't I pray and then you give us our talking points this week.

Father in heaven, we are so thankful for your word of truth.

We thank you for the working of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostle Paul to write these letters, not just to the Philippians and Colossians, but to those of us living at the end of time.

We pray you would help us to be able to draw out the lessons that are most needed for those of us that are preparing for the soon coming of Jesus and that it would hasten that coming and we would be ready to receive him when he comes.

All right, a little introductory line says, this week we examined Paul's teaching on unity and the mindset we should have when facing suffering or even death for the cause of Christ.

So this is diving into his mindset and up these important themes.

Talking point number 1, Paul's mindset is worthy of emulation.

That comes from Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

He tells us what's going on inside of his head, and that's helpful to know.

Talk point number 2, the reality of death and the experience of it are different.

This comes from Tuesday, but when he talks about life and death, he kind of can be confusing.

We need to extract that a little bit and say what he's talking about.

The reality of death and the experience of death.

And finally, talking point number 3, Bible truth is our basis of unity.

And this comes from Wednesday and Thursday and we're gonna draw some things out of Friday as well.

All right, this week let's just start with...

First of all, let's go to Philippians chapter 1 and verse 20.

I was just gonna say that was another 1 of those little, 1 take folks, 1 take, this is how we do these.

You know, this is like, that's 1 of those evidence, like you want, you would have maybe started over.

No, I appreciate that you highlighted that for everyone to look at.

They're like, what is he there gonna review the tape?

I want people to know that God accepts our best service.

Well, I would like people to know Philippians chapter 1, verse 20.

So if you could read that for us, please.

Okay, Philippians 1, 20 says, according to my earnest.

This is a Pauline sentence, so let's get the whole context.

For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death." Well, first of all, Look at the positivity with which he writes.

He's like, I know that this is gonna work out.

My expectation, my hope, I'll not be ashamed with all boldness, right?

He was confident and he declared that whether by life or by death, quote, Christ will be magnified in my body.

The first thing about Paul's attitude is he lived and even was willing to die for the magnify, to magnify Christ, to uplift and to glorify Christ.

For him, that was the highest priority of everything he did, that at the end of the day, whether it's my life or even death, that Christ will be magnified.

And he seemed to have confidence that that would be the outcome.

Now there's a couple other passages I'd like us to look at too.

Once you go to Galatians chapter 1, 22 to 24, and I'll look at 2 Thessalonians 1, 11 and 12.

And we find examples of Paul's attitude similar to what he wrote there in Philippians.

Galatians chapter 1 verse 22, And I was unknown by faith to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ, but they were hearing only he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God in me." Notice what was the result, and they glorified God in me.

That my sufferings, well even they hadn't even met me, but they had heard rumor that this guy, and he said that was glorifying Christ in me.

2 Thessalonians 1 11 and 12 we read this similar.

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Talking Points 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

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