Three Lessons Learned

Thank you again. Well, actually, we do have more than one shepherd here. We have three elders that help us out as well. And deacons and members, and we're all helping out. So I feel very supported and helped in this way. That we do have a number of elders that when I travel, they're here. They're going to take care. They're going to shepherd the flock as well. It is a great privilege, brethren, to serve brethren in different countries. Not everybody has a chance to visit, get to know different cultures, speak another language. And I'm always learning new lessons along the way. It tells us in Proverbs 17, verse 10, and I'll read it in the Good News Bible version. It says, An intelligent person learns more from one rebuke than a fool learns from being beaten a hundred times. In other words, a word to the wise is sufficient. And we have to learn lessons to apply them, to not repeat mistakes, and to learn from the good examples of others. As they say, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Somebody comes up with something that is useful, that is working. Well, we can incorporate it. Sometimes we don't have to go through all the hard toil of doing it for the first time. We can learn from others. It was Isaac Newton who said that because of his great discoveries in physics, he stood in the shoulder of giants. So he was able to see farther because there were others who had helped with discoveries that had propelled them forward. He didn't do it all. And that is the same way with biblical lessons that we can learn. And so on trips like this, you're seeing how God's word is applied, sometimes how it's not applied. And what are the consequences? So you have this rich panoply or multitude of examples that you can learn from. It's not theory. It's not armchair philosophy. No, you actually live with a brethren. You see their situations. And there are many lessons to be learned.

And so from this past trip, I'd like to share three important biblical lessons that I have learned that I would like to share with you. They're practical. They're not abstract. There's something very practical and also applicable in our lives. And so I'll just go through these three lessons and hopefully they will inspire all of you and also help apply these lessons in our lives. The first lesson came from a young member in Bolivia. He's living in the Santa Cruz small congregation. And I have known him since he was a little child. I've been traveling to Bolivia on and off since 1985. So that's over 33 years ago. Quite a young man when I was living in Chile and they asked me to do some Bible lectures in La Paz.

I did some lectures there and this small little group was formed. And among that group was a mother with a young child. Oh, he's in his 30s now. But it was interesting to talk with him because he's had a very varied life, ups and downs. And his life started well along the way. He was about 19 or 20 when he was baptized into the church. He was deeply committed. Had told me he prayed frequently. He read his Bible. And then a girl came along that swept him away. Unfortunately, she wasn't from the church.

And she took him right into the world and he learned about another lifestyle. Now, she eventually did come into the church. But during that first stretch, he lost his bearings. No more prayer life. He was out there having a good time. And this girl was from a very wealthy family. And so they just partied and had fun and forgot about responsibilities for a while. So he adopted a worldly carnal lifestyle, eventually left the church. Then he got a pretty good job and made quite a bit of money. Became vain, but was struck down. So he lost the money.

He kind of woke up like the prodigal son. He says, what am I doing? I'm in the pits. And so he came back to the church. And then he had a couple of more ups and downs. So when I met him this time, he had come back. He had repented. And I sort of marveled that this young man didn't give up like so many do. Once the youth leave, many times they never come back. He did. And not just once, but several times.

So that got my curiosity going. Now, why was he different? Why it made him come back? I had no idea. He was breaking the mold. He was doing something I hadn't seen very often. And so when we were... he came to the meeting on Sunday to La Paz. And so we got together and we had a talk. And I said, why is it that you've been able to come back after leaving and seeing what the world is like? And then coming back and then all of a sudden something else is his life. Goes bad and he leaves and he comes back. And here's the answer. I'll give it to you next week.

Oh, no? No? You want to hear it now? Oh, okay. All right. I thought it was pretty interesting, too. He said, I didn't make a manmade contract with God. Contracts are made and contracts are broken. I made a covenant with God, which is far deeper, far more committed than a contract. And so I was committed despite my mistakes, despite situations where he was far from the church, but still he would keep the Sabbath, watch services wherever he was at.

And so that got my attention. Because he said I made the commitment with God at baptism and that was for life. I've had a lot of ups and downs, but I've never quit looking to God. That reminded me of the difference between just a contract. Some people think, well, this is something that if you can do it, fine.

I could ask here, Joel, as a lawyer, how many contracts are actually respected from your experiences? How many would you say? 50%, 80? 50%! You know, legal documents and you're supposed to enforce it, and you've got all of these things and people, they just walk away. What are you going to do? Chase them down and grab them, put a noose on them and try to get something. You can't torture people nowadays. So a lot of people, they just say, well, I don't have the money. I can't do anything. So what are you going to do? But this young man realized he had made a covenant with God. And it reminds me of the covenant that God established with Abraham, but it would be with his descendants as well.

Notice in Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. Starting in verse 7. God is speaking to Abraham and said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit. And Abraham said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? So he said to him, bring me a three-year-old heifer, that's a young cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. So here you have several animals. You can count them for yourself here, five different animals. Then he brought all of these to him and cut them into down the middle and placed each piece opposite the other.

But he did not cut the birds in two. So these were God's instructions. And so you had this pathway with these different animals that had been cut in two parts. They were bleeding. You could tell, just splitting too. And there was this pathway. This is what God instructed him. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abraham drove them away. Of course, vultures saw all these dead animals. They wanted some of the meat. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham.

And behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then talking to God here, said to Abraham, Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them. And they will afflict them for a hundred years. That's when they would go to the Egyptian nation. And also the nation whom they serve, I will judge afterward. They shall come out with great possessions.

That's the Exodus that the second book of the Bible describes. Exodus out of Egypt. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. In other words, I'm not going to allow anybody to kill you. You shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation, they shall return here for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

And it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark. Okay, this was a new day that was starting. That behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day, the Lord made a covenant. The term here means cut a covenant because when you made a covenant, it was far more serious than a contract. You actually had blood shed.

You cut an animal. And basically, you would say that if I broke this covenant, may I be split in two. In other words, may I die. This is my word. I will keep it. So the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying to your descendants, I have given this land from the River of Egypt to the Great River, the River Euphrates. And so Abraham knew. God meant it because God went through that same pathway and he committed. He says, I'm going to commit myself.

And if I don't fulfill my vow, may this happen to me. And so somehow this young man realized the seriousness of his commitment, of what he had done. And we cut a covenant with God at baptism. It isn't a human-made contract. It's not for three years, five years, ten years. It's a lifetime commitment. Once we set it up with God. Notice in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 23, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23.

Here it talks about the same commitment that we have made before God. It starts in verse 23 because it starts about meeting together Sabbath assemblies. When we meet together for the feasts. It says verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. We saw God committed himself to fulfilling his promises. He says, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some. Even at that time, there were some that weren't very committed. They'd show up on occasions, but it wasn't a full commitment.

It wasn't cutting a covenant with God. But exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. As we see that day of Christ returning, how much more do we need to encourage each other? And then he says, what happens if we don't have that type of commitment? Verse 26, for if we sin willfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, if we turn our backs on God, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. We've gone back to the world.

But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much more worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot?

His sacrifice? We've trampled it. We've broken our covenant with God, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace. So that's what happens when we go back. We look at the covenant as a common thing here. It's something that we don't regard as holy anymore. Just a common thing.

It was just a promise. Well, I can break promises to God. It's not a big thing. We've seen people break that covenant just with man's instructions. God's law is holy. Whether we want to obey it or not, that's different. But nobody can change God's laws based on the Great Ten Commandments and the extensions of those laws. We can either choose to obey them or disobey them, but we cannot change them. No man has the authority to tell you you don't keep any of those or that you can break some of those without any type of consequences before God. We shouldn't believe that. Never. And then it goes on to say, For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God under those circumstances. Because we cut a covenant with him. We took it for something serious and committed. And so this young man taught me a bit of a lesson that he never gave up. As you know, young people, they're not as mature.

Sometimes they don't know what a full commitment is. As when a person is older, they've understood. They're more serious about life. And they want to cross that finish line. They want to persevere to the end. But here, there was a young man who taught me a lesson about perseverance.

Reminded me that we're all baptized, and we have all made not a human contract, but a spiritual covenant with God. Once we put our hands to the plow, we shouldn't look back. Let's go to Luke, chapter 9. That's where we have the Scripture, Luke, chapter 9. There was a gentleman in the Santiago, Chile church that referred himself to this. In Luke, chapter 9, in verse... Let's see here... Oops. Let's see. Yes. In verse 62, it says, But Jesus said to him, No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Now, this gentleman, he came from a farming community. As a young man, he would plow the field. And his father taught him that once you take a hold of that plow, you've got to concentrate and look at the very end of the field there, because you're going to push that plow forward. And if you look back, you lose your orientation. That divot, that mark that you're doing, the opening there, it's going to go either way.

You're not going to be able to plow a straight row anymore. And he said, this is something that you learn in farming. Once you do that, you can't be thinking about other things. You can't be looking back, wishing you hadn't committed yourself to it. You have to commit. And so we have to concentrate and focus, not on what's behind, but what's ahead. That's what God wants us to remember. All right, let's go to the second lesson. In our travels through Bolivia and Chile, we noticed how important it is, especially for the young people, to learn to have good manners, to be sociable, because it's becoming less and less common all the time.

It just seems like it's hard to get kids' attention anymore, and especially with all the gadgets now available, they lose touch. They're not entombed, and they're not engaged in many ways. And when you see a good example, it's so nice. I know Ben Appie is a great example of a young man who greets you, says hello, wants to be engaged, but that's becoming more and more of the exception to the case.

In Proverbs 18, verse 24, this is a basic principle to apply in our lives. Proverbs 18, verse 24, it says simply, A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

And so if you want to have friends, you better be sociable. If you're just there watching that little smartphone and just engaged, you're not going to be able to make more friends. You're going to be just thinking about yourself, involved with yourself, and it's very sad. We live in the age of the smartphone now. People are getting addicted to it. You see it everywhere. How anybody raises their head anymore. Even sometimes in the church, see the kids, and they're all in a little corner, and they're all looking at their videos or chatting away with someone else.

I thought this was a very interesting article. I read it from the Orange County Register, November 25th of this year. It's called Limiting Screen Time for Your Kid. It's harder than it looks. It says, it is Saturday morning, and 10-year-old Henry Haley is up at the crack of dawn. Oh, great! Here, Saturday morning, and this kid is, ah, he must be dynamic. No, still in PJs, his microphone-equipped headphones glowing blue in the dim basement, he fixates on the popular online game Fortnite on a large screen.

What? Right as I was about to finish it, I died. Because a lot of these are shootouts, I guess. And then the digital battle resumes, and little Henry's enthusiasm, 10-year-old, never wanes. Would he play all day if his parents let him? Probably he concedes with a slight grin. But the parents do not go along. Like many other parents, the Halies are on a reinvigorated mission to limit screen time for Henry and his 15-year-old brother, Everett. For some parents, it feels like an exercise in futility. They are busy, overwhelmed, and tired of the fight against increasingly omnipresent screens. Getting Henry off screens has been a constant battle, his parents say. Then once he's off, there's a lot of complaining and grumpiness for a while as we try to coax him to do something else, says his mom.

He's upset. He says, Mom is a crank. What's it all for? The goal, experts say, should be to help kids learn to manage their own time as they get older and to stay physically active and socially connected as much offline as on. But parents and many American households are finding the power struggles, tantrums, withdrawal, and in some cases, even school and discipline problems.

Difficult, especially as more kids get access to screens at younger and younger ages. A survey of 13-17 year olds released this fall by a nonprofit commonsense media found that 95% of U.S. teens have their own mobile device. 70% of them check social media several times a day, up from 34% in 2012. More than half say that their devices distract them from homework or the people they're with. Researchers who study these trends generally refrain from using the word, quote, addiction when it comes to screens, as it's not an official diagnosis in the mental health world.

But this summer, the World Health Organization added, quote, gaming disorder to its list of afflictions that is gaming that severely interferes with relationships, school, and work. The diagnosis is still under review by the U.S. health authorities. Sometimes, experts say, digital immersion exacerbates an existing condition such as depression, anxiety, or issues with body image. That's why teens who attend treatment at Newport Academy, suppose that's Newport Beach over there, a residential rehab and mental health program, we've got some of the most expensive ones right here in Orange County, with sites across the country must check their digital devices at the door when they arrive.

Almost always, one of the symptoms is excessive amount of time on smartphones, says Heather Senior Monroe, a Newport Academy administrator and licensed clinical social worker, and is usually a large symptom. In other words, very serious.

Then an article goes on about what parents are trying to do. But we are living in a world where we're losing good manners. No longer do you see people asking how you are doing.

And also engaging about also saying thank you when somebody does something for you. We're losing all of these habits that society had in the past.

It reminds me of what 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 5 tells us about before Jesus Christ would come, what kind of society would we find ourselves in?

I'm going to read it again from the New Living Translation. It has a little clearer language. It says, You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times, for people will love only themselves and their money. Boy, that sure spells out what society is like today. They will be both full and proud.

Again, people have been both full, but now it's a general situation. People boast about this, how much you have, what kind of a new vehicle or new sport or hobby and proud. Scoffing at God, we see papers. They hardly mention God anymore. He's been kicked out not only of the classrooms, but also out of the newspapers.

Disobedient to their parents? Well, if you're going to be addicted to all of these mobile devices, yeah, they're going to want to be with their little gadget all day long and ungrateful.

We see this as a trend. People just don't give thanks anymore. They will consider nothing sacred. We live in a more secular society.

The polls and the surveys taken of people that are truly religious are just going down, down, down in society around the world.

England is even worse. They hardly have. They're selling their church buildings because hardly anybody goes there anymore.

Thousands of buildings have been sold already. Continuing on, it says they will be unloving and unforgiving.

Look at all of these massacres and shootings going on. They will slander others and have no self-control.

It's hard to watch the news for more than five minutes because all of a sudden you see slandering going on and accusations back and forth.

No self-control. You don't see that as well in society.

They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.

That certainly does describe our society today.

From the 1960s on, it's just been a trend to fulfill 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 5. It's just becoming more and more that way.

That's a lesson. As you travel, you see more and more how society is sinking lower and lower in its morals.

Like I said, good manners basically is very rare to see.

Hardly anybody opens a door for a woman or has a woman that wants a man to open the door. But in the church, we have to teach our kids and also give the example as well.

So that's the second lesson. I've learned so many, but I just have limited time, so I've limited 2-3.

Here's the third lesson. This actually happened this week when we came back.

Started calling people, seeing how they're doing.

Not only the sick, but those who have been widowed recently.

I spoke with Kerry Heish, who's here.

She recently widowed, and what she said deeply moved me.

She said about the scriptures that gave her comfort and consolation.

She just brought one scripture after another.

I said, Kerry, could you write those down and send them to me?

I really want to have them. I want to learn from the scriptures that you have used.

Here are Kerry's scriptures, and they remind me of Romans chapter 15 verses 4-6.

When she said this, this was a scripture that came to my mind.

Romans 15, 4-6, it says, For whatever things were written before, were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

That's what Kerry has now. Hope. You can see her. She's positive, close to God, inspired by Him.

Then it goes on to say, Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, so we are supposed to comfort one another, that you may, with one mind and one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is what she wrote. I asked her permission to use it.

She said, These scriptures comfort me because they remind me of God's watchful care since my birth.

Here are promises that God has begun a good work in me and will finish what He started.

He will be with me all the way to the end of my days.

He will bring me through every trial and perfect me through it.

When I am weak, He comes along and picks me up and carries me.

My God will redeem me from all my sorrows.

He gives me new hope every day as He speaks to me through His word and through His Spirit.

So these are the scriptures she wrote down, and I find them so inspiring.

Believe me, some of them opened my eyes to them to see them in this light as I hadn't seen them before.

Isaiah 41, verses 10 and 13.

Isaiah 41, 10 and 13, God, speaking to His people, said, So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear, I will help you.

Did you know that? There's a scripture that says, I'll take you, just like a father takes the little hand of his son or daughter, and they feel so comforted. He says, I will do that with you. I will walk. You're not alone.

Isaiah 43, verses 1 through 5, and verse 7, it says, But now this is what the Lord says, He who created you, He who formed you, do not fear, for I have redeemed you. Redeemed you means I have bought you. You are mine. I have summoned you by name, and you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, boy, we've had a lot of fires, you will not be burned.

Nor shall the flames scorch you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you. Everyone who has called by my name, whom I have created for my glory, I have formed him. Yes, I have made him.

Isaiah 46, verses 3-4, it says, Listen to me, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried you since you were born.

Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am he.

Well, a lot here have gray hairs, but he says, listen to me. I am here. I am with you.

I am he who will sustain you. I have made you, and I will carry you. I will sustain you, and I will deliver you.

In other words, God will never abandon us, although we can abandon God. That's our concern.

Then Isaiah 48, verse 17, it says, Who directs you in the way you should go?

Are we following him? Are we learning the lessons he wants us to learn?

He knows what is best for us. Who directs you in the way you should go?

Are we letting God direct us for him to open up the doors where we should go through and close the doors that are not good for us?

That we should avoid. We should ask God to direct our paths. Kerry then says, Very well put.

Psalm 71, 5-6, and 17-21.

It says, Have we let him guide us since our youth?

From birth I have relied on you. You brought me forth from my mother's womb.

I will ever praise you. Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation. Also your righteousness, O God, is very high. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you, you who have shown me great and severe troubles, shall revive me again and bring me up again from the depths of the earth. You shall increase my greatness and comfort me on every side.

So here we have just three lessons.

Remember, we haven't made a man-made contract with God. We have made a covenant. We have cut a covenant with God, which is far deeper, far more serious, far more of a commitment.

The second, the importance of keeping good manners. Maybe the rest of the world won't do it, but we need to continue giving a good example of that, and especially teaching our children. When you're talking to an adult, just put this smartphone down. Don't be rude. We are still, in our generation, families who don't want to just hear this little texting. We want to hear a human voice of our children and later of our grandchildren.

We don't want to just have this cold little text all the time. I know there's a place for it, but there's nothing as warm as a human voice that cares that you are involved with.

So we need to continue engaging with people, showing concern, thanking people for what they do for us, and not become addicted to these horrible little machines that look like they're hypnotizing most of society today. You can use them, but they should be your servants. You shouldn't become their slaves, and they are masters.

And finally, the third lesson, how God comforts us in our afflictions. And the promises that He has made when we search the Scriptures, when we draw closer to Him, especially when there is a loss that some beloved person has been lost, instead of fleeing from God, distancing from God, we should become closer to God. And Carey has given a wonderful example, and we can share this understanding in the congregation. So remember that He has made these promises, and He promises to comfort all of us to the end.