Junior and/or Earliteen Sabbath School January 31, 2009 This Quarter the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering is going to the Southern Asia-Pacific Division Information adapted from Adventist Mission, Youth and Adult Magazine and the SDA Encyclopedia. The Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will be used to help: •Build a junior college classroom block for Palawan Adventist Academy in northern Philippines •Build a classroom block for a secondary school in Dumaguete, central Philippines •Complete a secondary school in Zamboanga, in southern Philippines. The Southern Asia-Pacific Division includes 20 countries, almost 744 million people and more than 876,000 Adventist members in the countries of Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. It also includes several islands in the Pacific north of the equator. Dumaguete [doo-mahGEH-tee] is a city in central Philippines and is located by the ocean on the island of Negros . Dumaguete has a primary school, but when students finish the sixth grade they must either attend the government high school or travel far away to another island to study in an Adventist school. Picture by Rick McEdward Picture by Rick McEdward Adventist church members in the city of Dumaguete want their high-school-age students to be able to study and live at home. Attending public schools would mean students face scheduling problems and standards of conduct that conflict with Adventist beliefs. Part of the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help build an eight classroom block, the first step in completing an Adventist secondary school in Dumaguete. Once more Adventist students ask your help in providing a Christian secondary school in which to study and prepare for leadership positions in society and in the Adventist Church. Your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will make a big difference to the believers in central Philippines. This quarter’s projects deserve our faithful support and fervent prayers. Please give a generous offering this Thirteenth Sabbath for the millions who need to meet the Savior in the Southern Asia-Pacific Division. Unlike these fishermen, you can seek something even better than food, and with your generous offering can be fishers of men. Collect Offering Exploring God’s World In this section we study one of the countries in the division where our Thirteenth Sabbath offering is going. Today we are going to learn about Sri Lanka. Where is Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Flag Time for the Mission Story We are taking the good news to the entire world. Read the Mission Story on pages 12 and 13 of the First Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine while slowly progressing through the next 3 slides. The name of the person in the story is “Mark.” This story is from the Philippines. The title of the story is “Mark’s Second Chance.” Lesson Study Time THE REAL PRODIGAL Photo by Neva MacPhee Did you hear on the news about the car hijackers who took off with a baby still strapped into its car seat? Down the road a ways they opened the door and pushed out the baby, car seat and all! How do you feel about people who can do something like that? Photo by Neva MacPhee How does God feel about them? POWER POINT Grace reminds us of God’s lavish love. POWER TEXT 1 JOHN 3:1, NIV “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” “Got any work, sir?” the unemployed laborer asked the farmer. “I can do anything.” Sure you can! With soft white hands like that. What do you take me for? “I see you eyeing my clothes, sir. They are a bit shabby; I’ve been down on my luck.” Sure you have! Aren’t we all? This famine is hard on all of us. But you don’t look like you’ve been starving long. Your eyes don’t look clear like a farmer’s either. I bet you’ve had more than your share of alcohol. You probably have a daddy somewhere who is up nights praying for you. “OK, boy! I do have work. You start at the bottom and work up. Haha-ha.” “See down there; it’s the pig pen! Muck it out. Take this shovel and when you are done, stay down there.” “You can shake the pods from the trees and feed the hogs with them. Take it or leave it.” “I’ll take it, sir.” So the laborer, proud shoulders slumped, plodded down to the hog pen. As the young man shoveled the muck from the pig pen, he tried to forget the awful stench by remembering better times. He remembered the fine apartment he once had in the city. And all the friends. He had once been the toast of the town. His lavish parties were famous. Expensive too. Had he really run through his entire inheritance? Well, there would be no more where that came from. With a pang of conscience that nearly doubled him over with pain, the young man remembered the day his dad had handed over the money. The old man had aged overnight, it seemed. “Now there's a thought!” the laborer croaked to the pigs. “Dad knew it would probably come to this! That’s what he was trying to tell me!” The shoveling complete, the laborer climbed a tree that overhung the hog pen. By rocking back and forth he hoped to shake down more than enough pods for the animals and some extra for himself. But by the time his stiff legs got him down, the hogs had snuffled up everything. And that’s when the first memories of home cooking burned into his consciousness. He wondered what they were eating at home. His dad was a rather decent employer who had the farmhands eat at his own table. Not like this stingy farmer. “Real quality, my dad,” the boy muttered. “If only . . . nah! I couldn’t do that.” Dreary day after dreary day followed this predictable pattern. Until the day he realized he had hit rock bottom. There was no place to go but up. And then the coin dropped; the window opened in his recently defogged brain. Why had he not thought of it sooner? I will go home to my father’s house, where there is food to eat and self-respect for everyone. I will tell my dad, “I have sinned. Let me muck out your barn!” And before he realized it, he was running, stumbling toward home. And all the way he rehearsed his confession. Father, I have sinned against God and against you. The father saw his son a great way off and ran to welcome him. The old man didn’t seem to hear the heartbreaking confession. Instead, he eagerly led the boy inside, called for a rich robe to cover the filthy clothes, and laid plans for a lavish welcome-home party. “This my son was dead but is alive again; he was lost but is found,” the old man sang over and over. Even the jealous jabs from the older son could not stifle the old man’s joy. “He was dead but is alive again; the lost is found!” This is a story of grace. The sinner goes to the far place, but the Father never stops loving him. Grace always reminds us of God’s lavish love. Photo by Neva MacPhee Exploring the Bible Luke 15:11-32 The word “prodigal” means recklessly extravagant or lavish to the point of being wasteful. What word in Luke 15:13 indicates that the younger son is prodigal? What besides money does he squander? (His family relationships, his health, his self-respect, his opportunities, his youthful years, etc.) Ellen White says, “Every life centered in self is squandered. Whoever attempts to live apart from God is wasting his substance. He [or she] is squandering the precious years, squandering the powers of mind and heart and soul, and working to make himself bankrupt for eternity” (Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 200, 201). But wait; there are two more prodigals in the story. We find one in verse 28. Who is he? This story is about grace, so we don’t want to talk much about the big brother, except to say that he doesn’t get it. He thinks that it’s about what you do; but it isn’t. Grace is about what God does for us. So at the end of the story this son is outside. He is relying on his works. He is far off from grace. Now let’s find the third prodigal. Look at verses 22, 23. Who is it? In what way is he wasteful or extravagant? (With his love.) So is this a grace story about the prodigal son, or is it really about the prodigal father? (Both, but Jesus told it to make a point about God.) What did the father do after the prodigal left? Look at verse 20. Remember, no matter where you have gone or what you have done, God is waiting for you with open arms. Read Luke 15:7 So now we can understand the Power Text: 1 John 3:1, NIV. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! How could you help God lavish love on children in the following situations? A little person you are babysitting for the evening has deliberately trashed your room. When he sees that you are mad, he acts really sorry. But it’s too late to save your stamp collection. (Note that the father never points out the sin or lays blame. He just lavishes love and reinstates the repentant sinner.) Yesterday a little neighbor rode her bike through your dad’s flower bed and talked back when you asked her to stop. You had to replant the flowers. Today she wants you to play ball with her. How could you tell her about God’s lavish love? Grace reminds us of God’s lavish love. Important Information PowerPoints® art copyrighted © 2003 by the Review and Herald® Publishing Association. Text and illustrations from Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine is copyright © by the General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists. Scriptures quoted from NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1980, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. ClickArt Infinity by Broderbund, © 1999 TLC Multimedia Inc. Notes to Teachers You will want to have a hard copy of the Mission Story ready to read during the Mission Story section. You can find the story on pages 12 and 13 of the First Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. The title of the story is “Mark’s Second Chance.” You can go to the website http://www.adventistmission.org/ and find the link titled “Publications” to download the Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. Copyright Notices Art and graphics copyrighted by the General Conference and the Review and Herald® are included on slides 38-43, 45-50, 53-56, 60-62, 64 and 66-74. Images and artwork are copyrighted by the Pacific Press Publishing Assoc., Review and Herald Publishing Assoc., It Is Written and others. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Copyright Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist School