C.A.C SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON FOR JUNE 21, 2020 Unit Three: THROUGH THE KINGS, LESSON TWELVE : TOPIC – GOD LOVES AND WORKS THROUGH ALL

C.A.C SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON FOR JUNE 21, 2020 Unit Three: THROUGH THE KINGS, LESSON TWELVE : TOPIC – GOD LOVES AND WORKS THROUGH ALL

C.A.C SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON.
God in the Administration of Man.
Unit Three: THROUGH THE KINGS.
LESSON TWELVE
June 21, 2020.

TOPIC: GOD LOVES AND WORKS THROUGH ALL

Memory Scripture

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it (Jonah 3:10)

Why would God send His own minister to the corrupt gentile people of Nineveh? He loves all equally, because He owns all.

BRIEF COMMENT

Why would Prophet Jonah not be willing to go to Nineveh for God? Peradventure, he had known that God being loving and merciful, would not destroy the people. Therefore, he was unwilling to waste his precious time delivering message of repentance for people who deserves to die, which God would eventually pardon, if they repent. Just like many of us wish bad things happen to those of our presupposed enemies. Actually, Jonah guessed right as God did not visit His wrath on the people, because they repented when they heard the message that reluctant Jonah was made to preach against his own free will. Aren’t we like Jonah today? The notable thing about this Nineveh is that they all repented (wholeheartedly, not partially), even their king and animals observed a fast. The most notorious sinners, if given chance could become the best of saints. God does not have pleasure in the death of sinners. He is patiently and persuasively calling everyone to repentance. There is joy in heaven over a sinner that repents. Those believers who would have wished the enemy of the gospel to be wiped out would have to attend class under people like, Stephen, Moses, Jesus the Master and others. The clarion call: it is high time you forsook your sins and cleave to God to enjoy His grace and goodness.

Devotional Bible Readings For Week One

Mon. 15: God’s Allocation for the Israelites (Deut 6:10)

Tue. 16: God’s Allocation for Esau’s Children (Deut. 2:4-8)

Wed. 17: God’s Allocation for the Moabites (Deut. 2:9-12)

Thur. 18: God’s Gift for the World (Jn. 3:16)

Fri. 19: No Discrimination by God (Acts 3:25,26)

Sat. 20: Heaven at Last (Jn. 14:1-4)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

1. God has no permanent enemy, except those who deliberately refuse His offer of mercy, and reject His invitation to repentance and relationship.

2. Yes, God has no permanent enemy because, He made manages all. His love for all is indescribable and indiscriminate. However, do not make yourself God’s enemy like, Satan did, through arrogance and pride.

BACKGROUND SCRIPTURES: John 3:16

AIM AND OBJECTIVES

AIM: To show God’s perfect love for all and how He greatly uses all to achieve His glorious purpose.

OBJECTIVES: At the end of this one-week lesson, the reader should be able to:

i. explain that God’s love for mankind is unconditional;

ii. describe how God works in mysterious ways; and

iii. describe how true it is that God has no permanent enemy anywhere.

INTRODUCTION

TEXTUAL SOURCE: 1 SAMUEL 27:1-5; 28:16-20; 30:1-20; 31:1FF; JONAH 1:1-9; 3:1-10; 4:1-11

We are highly indebted to God for the success of this series of Sunday School Lessons that He has consistently taken us through, these eventful six months. May He be forever glorified. Amen.

The first unit exposed us to how God used priests in the administration of His own people. The second unit also dug deep into the role God moved the judges to play in the administration of the same people of His. The third unit, as God would have it, x-rayed the God-given and God-supervised roles of kings in the leadership of of Israel. Lesson 11, the previous one, refocused our attention on God’s administrative role in the divided kingdoms of the north and south of Israel. May His Word keep moving us to become His best. Amen.

The lesson we are discussing today is the last, but not the least in the series. It is a one-week lesson that shows the love of God for all He creates. Of a truth, like one of the hymns from the C.A.C hymnal (823), our God moves in diverse and mysterious ways. The faculty of man cannot fully fathom this. Also, He has by this shown that He has no permanent enemies. Yes, He is seen directly and indirectly in the affairs of Israel, Hiss chosen nation. More than that, His Finger is evident in other nations and other people. What a great and loving God!

May we be more refined to be like Him in His unconditional love, as we delve into His life-transforming Word, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

INTRODUCTION TO EACH DIVISION

This is one-week lesson with just on division—GOD LOVES ALL. It is divided into two parts A and B.

DIVISION 1: GOD LOVES ALL

This one-week is the last lesson in this powerful series of the Sunday school. It is broken into two parts A and B. God Works In Mysterious Ways is the first, which brings into purview the dramatic episode on how God assisted David to recover all that was looted from him by a raiding band, led by an Amalekite, using an Egyptian. The second is equally dramatic like the first. It relates the story line of Jonah and the people of Nineveh and how God chose to repent of his action against them because, they heeded His warning through the reluctant, parochial and discriminative prophet.

LESSON OUTLINE
I. GOD LOVES ALL
A. GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.
B. GOD HAS NO PERMANENT ENEMY

LESSON EXPOSITION

I. GOD LOVES ALL (1 Samuel 27:1-5; 28:16-20; 30:1-20; 31:1ff; Jonah 3:1-10)

God is not partial, parochial or preferential, like many of us. As much as He is not a respecter of anyone, He has equal love for all, irrespective of race, gender, nationality, social status or any demographic classification. He demonstrated this in how he released Jesus, His only begotten and dear Son, for man. The only issue is that the love He has for man works best in the life of whosoever accepts God’s offer of love, through Christ.

A. GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS (1 Sam. 27:1-5; 28:16-20; 30:1-20; 31:1ff)

Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick” (v. 13).

i. God’s administration has no limitation of space, time and people (Psa. 22:28).

ii. 27:1-5: David, after many glorious and frustrating experiences, had been forced to leave his home, but was favoured by a Philistine King, Achish of Gath. God was supervising the movement on Asylum to Philistia, where David had killed Goliath (1 Sam. 17).

iii. 30:1-5: Later, the Lords of the land ensured that David was not going to be part of the army (Philistines) to fight the Israelites. David was disengaged from the Philippines Army (vv. 6-11).

iv. 28:16-20; 31:1ff: The Philistines defeated the Israelites according to God’s declaration. God was in charge, watching over the entire events. Yes, David was in the wrong place, under the greatest enemy of his life and those under him. Yet, God was in charge.

v. 30:1-12: David and his men became frustrated. Divine intervention eventually came. God used an EGYPTIAN, a slave of an AMALEKITE to lead David to the hideout of those who had ravaged and emptied him and his followers. God, the unlimited and unstoppable administrator, was involved. Has he changed? No!!!

vv. The greatest enemies of Israel (David’s nativity, EGYPT, AMALEK and PHILISTINE were supervised and stationed by the Owner and Administrator of Heaven and the Earth to fulfill specific purposes. David recovered all.

vii. God’s work and ways are by no means limited to, and by anything whatsoever — be it our circumstances, background, experience, social inclination and political affiliation. However, it is possible for anyone to shut the door of God’s unlimited dealing against him/herself, through disobedience, reprobate mind, unbelief, etc.

B. GOD HAS NO PERMANENT ENEMY (Jon. 1:1-9; 3:1-10; 4:1-11)

And should I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left and much livestock? (4:11)

i. The Kingdom is of the Lord and He is the Governor of all nations (Psa. 22:28).

ii. God loves the entire world (now and then). But He honours those who honour Him, and deals more lovingly and compassionately with His covenant people, Israel, and by extension, the Church.

iii. 1:1,2: The Assyrians had been taken as the avowed enemies of His people, yet (Gen. 12:1-3), He cares for all. So, He arranged for the Assyrians to be reached.

iv. vv. 3-9: God is Heaven saw the need for the Assyrians to be assisted to come closer to God, and as their Owner and Creator, He,, out of love chose to send an Israelite called, Jonah. What was his qualification? (God’s grace). But He chose to be a nationalist and a politician He never wanted to go, but was forced by the Administration of life’s journeys and even the timely actions of animals.

v. 3:1-10: Jonah was taken to the place (against his wish) delivered the message ‘anyhow’. God used the message to achieve His eternal purpose in the lives of Jonah’s real or supposed enemies — the Assyrians.

vi. 4:1-11: If God as the Owner and unequaled Administrator does not discriminate, why do we discriminate on the basis of religion, tribe, profession, sex, etc., today? Jonah was not happy that his imagine/real enemies were saved.

vii. God has no permanent enemy, yet if care is not taken, someone can permanently make him/herself God’s enemy by choice (many have sold their souls to Satan). Satan made himself God’s enemy by choice, through pride and self-will.

LESSONS DERIVED

1. God is the Lord God of all nations. He cares for all nations and can bring anyone from any nation to care for His.

2. God cares and has considerations for nations. No one becomes a permanent enemy of God, until he lives and dies without repentance, so do not make anyone your permanent enemy.

QUESTIONS

1. How does 1 Sam. 30:13-15 show God’s administration/intervention to connect David to the needed information?

2. Jonah 4:11 shows God’s concern for people and animals that He created. Any lessons?

SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS

ANSWER TO QUESTION 1

i. God made it that the Egyptian, servant of the Amalakite, leader of the band that raided David would be sick and abandoned by his master.

ii. He assisted David to encourage himself and pursue for recovery, in spite of the depression and discouragement caused by the loss.

iii. When it was humanly unreasonable to stop for any humanitarian service, God assisted David to stop and attended to the half-dead man, who eventually was the link to David’s recovery. God is awesome and amazing.

iv. Imagine God’s arrangement, He used an Egyptian for an Israelite to uncover the evil work carried out by an Amalakite.

v. Implication, God is not limited by time, space, people or anything. He controls all because, He made and manages all. All things are made for His pleasure, purpose and glory.

vi. You don’t have to be discriminative, unloving, partial and judgmental.

vii. Love, show kindness to all, and watch out for what God can use you for in people’s lives, as you are hoping for what God would use anyone for in your life.

ANSWER TO QUESTION 2

i. Yes, there are lessons for us.

ii. God does not have delight in the death (condemnation, eternal damnation) of anyone, especially sinners.

iii. He has provided for the salvation of all mankind (John 3:16).

iv. What He did then for the Ninevetes, including their animals, He did (before) for Noah and some animals, Lot and His daughters, the whole world through the atoning blood of Jesus and his sacrifice death.

v. If animals could be so precious in the sight of God, how much more man, that He made in His image and likeness.

vi. God’s programme for man is unique and superb.

vii. May we be assisted by the Holy Spirit to appreciate and reciprocate God’s concern and care for us in Jesus’ name.

viii. God so much loves you.

LIFE APPLICATION

Who do you think does not deserve to be shown love, mercy and grace because of their lifestyle, colour, age, sex, etc.? Are you having the feeling that some people should be helped while some should have been hanged? Check if there is a particular race, people, culture you hate with passion. If there are, then you may be suffering from ignorance of what God’s love stands for, discriminative and hateful tendencies. You may even be suffering from godliness that engenders lovelessness, insecurity, phobia, especially xenophobia and low self-esteem.

The only therapy anyone who finds it difficult to appreciate and reciprocate God’s love to God and humanity needs, is Christ. You have to put on Christ and you shall not fulfill the desire of the flesh (Romans 13:14). Take lessons from these lovers and forgivers — Jesus, Moses, David, Stephen, Apostle Babalola and others, whose labour of love produced Christ Apostolic Church, and Nelson Mandela, who never revenge his 27 years imprisonment in the face of racial apartheid. You have to begin to see people with the same eye God sees them. Else…

CONCLUSION

We give glory to God for the beginning and the end of this wonderful and impactful series. God, who is awesome, benevolent, faithful and loving, has been so kind to His church in giving timely, inspirational and transformative messages, through the Sunday school. We bless His holy name for more that we shall be getting in the years to come, in Jesus’ name. Never shall we experience a single dearth or drought of His timely and life-filled messages, in Jesus’ name. All the previous eleven lessons are well centered on the almighty God. He is sovereignty in man’s administrations throughout the ages. We shall not at any point, be obvious of His works in our lives, churches, homes and society, in Jesus’ name. This lesson is twelfth and the last but not the least in the series. It has shown to us that God really loves all (male, female, short, tall, latino, abino, red indice, black, commoner, lords, fat, thin, etc.) and nothing can stand to oppose Him in using anyone to fulfill His purpose and programme. We must keep abreast of this and follow suit. May the Holy Spirit assists us to do exactly, in Jesus’ name.

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