FIRST QUARTER 2023
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #10
MARCH 11, 2023
“GIVING BACK”

 

 

This week’s lesson deals with managing for the master in what are often considered the retirement years and beyond.  Managing assets and time in the latter years of life and making appropriate preparation to dispose of financial and land holding at the time of death with the best stewardship principles in mind are decisions that come into play here.  And while these are typical considerations for many in the world, how might we who are awaiting the soon return of Jesus manage that which the Lord has entrusted to us?

In and of itself making preparation for our unexpected death is not a bad thing.  We have counsel to do so.  But let's ask ourselves one simple question.  Which is more likely to happen in our lifetime?  Will we come to the end of our days and pass away, or will we see the Lord's return before we see death?  Have we as Advent Believers put the Lord's return too far off in our minds?  Is the Lord's coming for some other generation and not ours?  Do you see that if we consider the Lords coming distant to our lifetime, we will live differently than we ought and our hearts will tend to look at things the same way most others in the world see them, including how we prepare for and spend the retirement years.

Ought we not to live with urgency as if the Lord's coming is in our lifetime?  No, really.  We do expect to see the Lord's return in our lifetime, don’t we? We need to see this with the same certainty that the three worthies saw that God COULD deliver them from the fiery furnace.  If we live knowing that the Lord's SOON return is sure we will see everything through a different set of eyes.  We will see things though His eyes.  We will do everything in our power to hasten His coming and not hinder it.  Every decision and sacrifice will be with this in mind.  In like manner if we do not live with the certainty of His imminent return, we will in similar fashion delay His coming.

The children of Israel were brought to the Jordan and twelve leaders were sent to evaluate the goodly land the Lord had promised.  Ten out of twelve of them came back with a majority report that advised that they should turn back and that now was not the time to enter in.  The people chose to embrace that report and the net result was that current generation passed away in the wilderness.  And when the following generation came to the borders of the promised land the next time, they chose to receive the minority report of Caleb and Joshua and they followed the gospel box, the ark of the everlasting covenant, into the land.

I can’t help but see this parallel as it pertains to the people of God on the very borders of the heavenly Canaan since the passing of time in 1844.  And with urgency and anticipation in mind of the imminent events before the people of God Ellen White wrote about how the people should prepare--what they should do.  She saw the soon return of Jesus and the imminent events of the final eschaton immediately before them and gave counsel regarding life preparations.

“The Lord has shown me repeatedly that it is contrary to the Bible to make any provision for our temporal wants in the time of trouble. I saw that if the saints had food laid up by them or in the field in the time of trouble, when sword, famine, and pestilence are in the land, it would be taken from them by violent hands and strangers would reap their fields. Then will be the time for us to trust wholly in God, and He will sustain us. I saw that our bread and water will be sure at that time, and that we shall not lack or suffer hunger; for God is able to spread a table for us in the wilderness. If necessary, He would send ravens to feed us, as He did to feed Elijah, or rain manna from heaven, as He did for the Israelites.

 

“Houses and lands will be of no use to the saints in the time of trouble, for they will then have to flee before infuriated mobs, and at that time their possessions cannot be disposed of to advance the cause of present truth. I was shown that it is the will of God that the saints should cut loose from every encumbrance before the time of trouble comes and make a covenant with God through sacrifice. If they have their property on the altar and earnestly inquire of God for duty, He will teach them when to dispose of these things. Then they will be free in the time of trouble and have no clogs to weigh them down.

 

“I saw that if any held on to their property and did not inquire of the Lord as to their duty, He would not make duty known, and they would be permitted to keep their property, and in the time of trouble it would come up before them like a mountain to crush them, and they would try to dispose of it, but would not be able. I heard some mourn like this: 'The cause was languishing, God's people were starving for the truth, and we made no effort to supply the lack; now our property is useless. Oh, that we had let it go, and laid up treasure in heaven!' I saw that a sacrifice did not increase, but it decreased and was consumed.

 

"I also saw that God had not required all of His people to dispose of their property at the same time; but if they desired to be taught, He would teach them, in a time of need, when to sell and how much to sell. Some have been required to dispose of their property in times past to sustain the Advent cause, while others have been permitted to keep theirs until a time of need. Then, as the cause needs it, their duty is to sell.

 

“I saw that the message, 'Sell that ye have, and give alms,' has not been given, by some, in its clear light, and the object of the words of our Saviour has not been clearly presented. The object of selling is not to give to those who are able to labor and support themselves, but to spread the truth. It is a sin to support and indulge in idleness those who are able to labor. Some have been zealous to attend all the meetings, not to glorify God, but for the 'loaves and fishes.' Such would much better have been at home laboring with their hands, 'the thing that is good,' to supply the wants of their families and to have something to give to sustain the precious cause of present truth. Now is the time to lay up treasure in heaven and to set our hearts in order, ready for the time of trouble. Those only who have clean hands and pure hearts will stand in that trying time. Now is the time for the law of God to be in our minds, foreheads, and written in our hearts.

 

“….Some are looking too far off for the coming of the Lord. Time has continued a few years longer than they expected; therefore, they think it may continue a few years more, and in this way their minds are being led from present truth, out after the world. In these things I saw great danger; for if the mind is filled with other things, present truth is shut out, and there is no place in our foreheads for the seal of the living God. I saw that the time for Jesus to be in the most holy place was nearly finished and that time can last but a very little longer. What leisure time we have should be spent in searching the Bible, which is to judge us in the last day.

 

“My dear brethren and sisters, let the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ be in your minds continually and let them crowd out worldly thoughts and cares. When you lie down and when you rise up, let them be your meditation. Live and act wholly in reference to the coming of the Son of man. The sealing time is very short and will soon be over. Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.” -- Ellen G. White, Early Writings, pp. 56-58 (emphasis supplied).

Notice the counsel she gives in view of the time of trouble that precedes the coming of the Lord.  If we are living our lives to hasten His return, with immediate anticipation of His soon return, then we are living with imminent expectation that the time of trouble lays just before us as well.  Therefore, this counsel is Present Truth for us today.

 

“Houses and lands will be of no use.”

 

“the saints should cut loose from every encumbrance”

 

“make a covenant with God through sacrifice”

 

“have their property on the altar and earnestly inquire of God for duty”

 

“He will teach them when to dispose of these things”

 

“if any held on to their property and did not inquire of the Lord as to their duty, He would not make duty known”

 

"God had not required all of His people to dispose of their property at the same time”

 

“He would teach them, in a time of need, when to sell and how much to sell”

 

“Then, as the cause needs it, their duty is to sell”

 

“The object of selling is not to give to those who are able to labor and support themselves, but to spread the truth”

 

How are we to incorporate this counsel in every phase of our lives including the retirement years?  Understand that this world and the things of it are not are home nor our security.  That which we are entrusted with here is His and we are stewards of His possessions.  Lay it all on the alter before Him and inquire of Him continually and He will make known what, when, and how to distribute the assets with which He has entrusted.  And while we are to help our brothers, sisters, friends and neighbors, the principal purpose is to spread the truth for this time and hasten His coming.  The poor will always be with us, and we will help them.  But poverty and homelessness, wars and disease will all come to an end at the Lord's return. Hastening this day by fulfilling our calling to live out and share the Third Angel's Message is our greatest priority.

The title for our lesson is “Giving Back.”  This alone says it all.  All the blessings and assets He has enabled and permitted us to manage are most certainly for our enjoyment.  And the greatest enjoyment of one who loves the Lord their God with all their heart, soul and mind will be in giving to others.  Giving is the great law of beneficence that God is the author of for “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and this will be the principle that motivates and moves everyone of His true followers.

How may we obtain this?

 

“It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour’s matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary’s cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him.” --Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 480.

 

“Now, therefore, the supreme idea in the love of God is this—It is a love which gives. Any love which does not give is not the love of God at all. It is only human. It is earthly, sensual, devilish. Common affection is not true love. The test of all genuine love is that it has in it the element of giving—yea, that its very essence is self-sacrificial giving. …...'God so loved...that He gave.'" (A.T. Jones; Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald, April 16, 1901, p. 250).

 

“The debt that we owe to the world is love, and 'God is love.' Therefore, we owe it to the world-to all our fellow-men-to allow God to reveal Himself to them in us. We owe it to everyone to cease holding down the truth in unrighteousness, so that all that may be known of God may be manifest in us. There is altogether too low a conception in the world of what a man ought to be. The standard of manhood is too low. The possibilities that are wrapped up in the human body are not grasped; but there are men now in the world who will allow God to use them to demonstrate that with Him nothing is impossible. Who will be one of them?” (EJ Waggoner, Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald, July 1, 1902, p. 9)

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).  This is the principle of self-sacrificing love and its results.  It is the law of life for both Creator and creation and it is the principle that guides the heart surrendered to Him.  And this is to be the guiding light for the people of God in view of the time of trouble and the soon return of Jesus and even for the people of God as they enter into the latter years of life.

May it be our desire to behold His unfailing faithful love and allow that to awaken in our own hearts a faith that works by love and purifies the soul.

Even so come Lord Jesus.

 

~Kelly Kinsley