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| Sabbath School Programs and Teaching Plans for your Church |
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Formerly Sabbath School Leadership, LEAD is a quarterly magazine to bring more power and polish to your Sabbath School programs and Sabbath School teaching.
 Listen to the Sabbath School Theme Music for this Quarter
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02.20.10: The Fruit-Faithfulness 
Cultural Context
We live in a culture that respects dependability, honesty, and integrity. Even when these attributes seem to be a rare commodity in society as a whole, faithfulness is considered essential in the workplace, family, and in the marriage.
In an ever-changing, fast-paced world of relativism, individuals are looking for a dependable constant, someone or something they can trust as an immovable anchor of faithfulness.
Necessary Background/Further Resources
• The Desire of Ages, chapter 3
• Prophets and Kings, chapter 40
• Relativism—the view that truth varies, no absolutes.
Preparation
Read the resources listed above, look at how prophecy is an indication of God’s faithfulness and how it builds our faith.
Point of Contact
Questions
• Do you think that society views Christians as being faithful?
• Why is loyalty considered an essential attribute in society?
• Even in our age of relativism, do individuals desire a constant? Why/Why not?
Points of Conversation
Read Luke 2:21-38. God had promised Anna and Simeon that they would see the Messiah before they died. Look at the response of Simeon to having God’s promise fulfilled:
Questions
• What does Simeon’s response tell us about his faith?
• What is the relationship between faith and faithfulness?
• How do you think this experience impacted Simeon’s faith?
• When has God fulfilled a promise to you?
• How does God’s faithfulness affect promises to us?
Read Daniel 2:1-24. How does God prove faithful to Daniel?
Questions
• Why does God allow our faithfulness to be tested?
• What did this story reveal about Daniel? about God?
• How does a crisis reveal God’s faithfulness?
• What is the relationship between our faithfulness and God’s faithfulness?
• Has your loyalty been tested? What is the difference between loyalty to men and loyalty to God?
• How did Daniel’s faithfulness affect the unbelieving Nebuchadnezzar?
Daniel’s faithfulness to God proved to be a powerful witness to the heathen king of Babylon. If ever there was a skeptic, it was Nebuchadnezzar. During those years in Babylon, Daniel must have been tempted to be faithful to Nebuchadnezzar instead of the God of heaven. The story of Daniel illustrates that there are moments when our faithfulness to men and our faithfulness to God are at odds, when our faithfulness to God will be viewed as treason. Daniel’s life also shows that when we are faithful to Jesus, He will be faithful in taking care of us.
“As God called Daniel to witness for Him in Babylon, so He calls us to be His witnesses in the world today. In the smallest as well as the largest affairs of life, He desires us to reveal to men the principles of His kingdom” (Prophets and Kings, p. 487).
Parting Thought (Buzz words are bolded.)
Faithfulness to God is our highest priority. Every relationship, every ambition, every desire is secondary to our highest allegiance. And it is when we accept this accountability that we are the most effective witness to a skeptical generation.
Faithfulness flows out of our framework of faith. Faithfulness is faith revealed. A steadfast focus on who God is and trusting implicitly in His Word enables us to be constant in times of crisis. This type of faithfulness will be a witness to an unbelieving world of the reality of a constant God who never changes.
“The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall” (Education, p. 57).
Faithfulness, dependability, honesty, and integrity are all attributes that can be a powerful witness to our world.
Reach Out
Pledge time and/or money to your church or ADRA and follow through. Or help with a local church evangelistic effort. Partner with the conference evangelist.
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