just got back home. Can't pots freely with family around but here it goes.
Keep in mind that we were encouraged to invite out studies and interested people for talk # 2 so imagine yourself hearing those words when you are not yet indoctrinated.
Talk# 1
En que ha resultado su conducta
Steven Lett
How has their conduct turned out?
We humans are imitative creatures. From infancy we learned to walk, talk and feed ourselves not by reading a book or by verbal instruction. But primarily we learned to do those things by our parents or perhaps older brother or sisters. Andd then without even thinking about it througout life we continue to imitate others. Well in view of this strong imitative tendency Jehova gives us counsel about whom and what we imitate. I'm sure you want to imitate what is good. With that in mind, let's discuss the three best examples in the universe that we can imitate. Now you know that best example in the universe: Jehovah. Efesios 6:1. Everything we can learn about Jehovah is worthy of imitation. Now certainly one thing we want to imitate is his view poinnt, his way of thinking, how he sees things. We want to do our best to hate what Jehovah hates and loves what he loves. Psalms 97:10 o you lovers of Jehovah hate what is bad. This world can h ave us loving what is bad and hating what is good. This world can shape our viewpoint if we're not careful. For example it can have us thinking that homosexuality is okay and there is nothing wrong with it. I can have us thinking that if you don't get along with your mate you have the right to divorce that person. It can have us thinking that if someone dos you wrong you have the right to get even. Those are just a few examples of how this world can have us thinking against Jehovah. But we want to work hard to make Jehovah's thinking our thinking. We alos want to imitate Jehovah's conduct. What is his dominant quality? Love. We want to work hard to that quality dominates us. If we have love for our mate we will have our wihtout contaminatin. If we have love for our fellow man we will work hard to preach to them. Beause it is alos like the sword of armageddon hass cast it shadow over the people of this world. They're in a dangouers situation they need help. Someonen helped us if he have love we will help them too. Those are just a few examples of how we want to imitate Jehovah.
SEcond best example to imitate: Jesus. Like with Jehovah everything we can learn about Jesus is worthy of imitation. He left us a model to follow. We want to fllow his steps closely. Our past convention was entitled Imitate Jesus. If yout hink about it if you imitate Jesus you imitate Jehovah because he was a perfect reflection of Jehovah when he was here. I don't know if you have been to a circus or fair and if you have gone to a disroted mirror it would make you look taller and thinner than you are or shorter and fatter than you are? I prefer the one that makes me looks taller and thinner. That's a distroted mirror. But Jesus is the perfect reflection of Jehovah. Col. 1:15 he's the image of the invisible God. We want to imitate everything we can learn about Jesus.
Third best example to imitate: who would you say is the third best example? Jehovah's perfect, faithful, holy angels. Even though this angels are mentioned about 400 times in the bible but what he know is limited. But everything we learn about them is worthy of imitation. Brieflly discuss 4 qualities of these angels that are worthy of imitation. (1) Endurance - one example of endurance. Remember what happened in Daniel 10? An angel was sent to earth to strengthen Daniel. 13:10 a powerful demon prince tried to stop that good angel. That good angel had to struggle with the demon for 21 days. Finally Michael was able to get past the demon and that angel could strenghten Daneil. Think about that angel wrestling for 21 days without giving up. He could have given up at one or two weeks or after 20 days. He could have gone back to Jehovah and said I fought against that demon but that demons was strong. But he struggled
until he got reinforcements. We likewise we have a struggle against demons. Efesios 6:12. Like the faithful angel we want to not give up, keep struggling, Jehovah will know we've done our part and we will triumph. (2) Humility - Michael and Gabriel. On many occassions the angels could have given their names. Noah asked the angel what is your name. The good angel never gave his name. Becausee of their humility they do not want the honor. They waant it to go where it belongs to Jehovah. That is a good example to us. Maybe we are the ones that study with someone and they want to honor us. But like the angels we want to direct that glory to Jehovah to whom it belongs. Any time someone wants to praise us we want to give that glory to Jehovah because we could not have done it without him. (3) Helpfulness - When jesus was in the garden of Getsemane before his torture and execution an angel came to strengthen him. That help was appreciated. The angel that was sent to Daniel once he got through that powerful demon he was able to go to Daniel. An angel closed the mouth of the lions when Daniel was put in the lions pit. An angel freed Peter from prison before he was executed. What excellente xample of the angels. The angels oversee the preaching work. Those are just a few example of the help of the angels. The perfect timing of their helpfulness. What if the angels sent to close the mouths of the lions had gotten their late. With perfect timing he helped Daniel. We want to be helpful in our congregation, family, territory. Like the angel we want to have good timing with our helpfulness. (4) Integrity - Rev. 12:4 Satan induces goods angels to become demons. And as you know he tempted them to materialize human bodies and have relations with the women. He only succeeded in pulling away. A minority but a considerable number. Many of demons but nothing in comparison to the amount of angels. We want to imitate the faithful angels. Satan wants us to look lustfully as someone of the opposite sex. He will tempt us to look at pornography. Four qualities of the angels worthy of imitation.
Dangers of following men. It's true selectively we can look at other humans and imitate their
good qualities. For example if you look at a brother and he's very approachable you might say I
want to imitate that brother's quality. A sister that is generous with time and resources I want to
imitate that sister. We cannot follow that brother or sister, our leader is Jesus we follow him.
We do not follow an imperfect human as our leader. If we get too dependent on a person and
try to copy them and follow them as a leader? Three dangers (1) doing that is a form of
creature worship. Experience: A young ministerial servant heard a recording of a talk and he
was so impressed with that talk. He was so impressed with that talk that he asked the elders if
he could say that talk at the congregation. He memorized the talk and he gave the talk just like
the brother imperssonated. So rather than developing the outline and developing the scriptures
he gave the glory to the brother. He gave more importance to the human and the bible. It
would really be a form of creature worship. (2) It could threaten the unity of the congregation.
Earlier brother Con spoke about how good it is to imitate Paul. But we imitate his qualities not
the man. 1 Cor. 3:4,5 - Paul had no desire for humans to follow him. He knew if people
followed him it would place the congregations integrity in danger. Paull knew it would produce
division, factions in the congregation if they followed men. (3) You could easily end up stumbled
and fall out of the truth. Someone following another human you think he's great but then that
person commits a grave sin. We could be stumbled out of the truth. Or even worse the one we
are following becomes an apostate and tries to convince us to become an apostate. That is the
danger of following a human. We cannot be too dependent on any human. We have to develop
our own personal relationship with Jehovah. We have to cultivate our own spirituality. Heb.
5:14 talks about how we want to become mature. We want to train our perceptive powers to
discern right and wrong for ourselves. Even though we don't follow the elders as men we are
told to follow three things that Heb. 13:7 - remember those taking the lead, contemplate their
conduct, imitate their faith. Remember, contemplate, imitate. We want to remember those
taking the lead. What does that mean? to remember the hard work they are doing on our behalf. It is easy to take the hard work of the elders. They work so hard on our behalf. Paul said he poured himself as a drink offering for the brothers. Similarly the elders expend themselves. Much of their work you don't even see. For example you may see the elder get up to give a talk but you didn't see him prepare that talk. How long does it take to prepare a 4 or 5 min n the meeting. What if you had a part every week? The elders have a part almost every work. Think of the sheperding calls and judicial matters. It takes a lot of work in preparing for that. Some work in building halls, work in assemblies, hospital liasions. It's kind of like an iceberg you only see the 10% but not the 90% underneath the water. How can we show we do know their hard work? We can periodically commend him for his hard work. Do you do that? We appreciate your hard work? Some never give one word of commendation to the elders. Might not that indicate the elders' hard work? The elders are not going to quit because you don't commend them because they do their work for Jehovah. It may shock them when you do that because it will help the elder feel lighter. Cooperate - we want to be obedient and submissive to the elders. That's what Heb. 13:7 - obedient do what they tell us unless it's something against the scriptures and that would be a rare thing. To be submissive means that we do it with the right attitude? 1 Tes. 5:12, 13 - give them more consideration in love...because of their hard work. One other thing we need to do for the elders - pray for them. Do you remember to ask Jehovah please bless our elders help them with their heavy load? Well we discussed a few way of remembering those who are taking the lead. SEcond thing Heb. 13:7 said is to contemplate their conduct. The title of this talk is how has their conduct ? We meditate on the Bible but we have to meditate on the brother's conduct. It takes meditation how Jehovah blesses him and his family because of his conduct. It takes meditation to reason that Jehovah will bless me if I imitate his conduct. Examples: Dress and grooming - we know that God's word says it should be modest not extremes. Are you able to meditate how the various elders are guided by those principles. Their personal dress and grooming is modest not given to extremes. Do you reason they probably can't afford to buy the latest immodest clothing? They probably can't afford the extreme haircuts or hairstyles? Their guided this way because of their love for Jehovah and faith in him. And can you see how Jehovah is blessing the elder and their families becuase they are guided by these principles in dressing and grooming. Entertainment - it should be wholesome, upbuilding. Are you able to meditate his and his family but you do not know movies that are wholesomen? They are guided by bible principles and they are receiving Jehovah's blessing. Recreation and leisure - should be a small part of our life, serving Jehovah should be the big part. The elder occasionally has gathers but they are upbuilding and end at a reasonable time so the family can go preach the next day. The elder needs to sleep more? He's guided by bible principles that's why he has those gatherings. The conduct of the elders that we meditate on and see how the elders and theirs families are getting blessing and we will too if we imitate. Third thing - Imitate - their faith. Examples: expressions of faith we want to imitate. Some elders simplify their life and even go to full time ministry? Are you able to meditate and reason because that elder knows the real value is treasure in heaven not treasure on earth? Treasure on earth can be here today and gone tomorrow. Jesus said the thief, rust, moth can take it away. But treasure in heaven no one can take it away. Do you see those expressions of faith on the part of the elder and think I want to imitate his faith? Have you noticed elders' enduring difficult trials and don't give up serving Jehovah. Maybe they have chronic illnesses but they don't give up they continue going out to preach. The oldest brother in the GB that I work with is 80 yo, a diabetic for 30 years. Every day he has to give himself shots of insulin but you would never know it he keeps going full speed ahead. Faithfully enduring trials but not giving up not slacking the hand. Another example of elders' faith that we can imitate: elders that have been serving for many decades and they have thought the end would
have come by now but despite unfufilled expectations they don't give up. How glad those elders will be when the end does come. Can we imitate that expression of faith? Those are three emples of their faith. Three things mentioned in Heb. 13:7 that we are to imitate from the elders. We are to remember their hard work. Contemplate their conduct. And imitate their faith. In Satan's world it's not easy to cultivate faith. Almost everything in Satan's world is designed to shipwreck our faith. No wonder Jehovah has given us these good examples we can follow to strengthen out faith. Jehovah, Jesus, Angels and we just considered the Elders. The conduct of these elders has turned out will, will turn out well and will continue to turn out well. If we imitate them our conduct will have good resullts. We will be blessed now and for eternity.
Answer: heb. 13:7 remember their hard work, contemplate how their conduct has turned out well for them, and imitate their faith and reliance on Jehovah. Even though we don't follow them as humans there is much we can imitate from our elders. It is work lots of work but it is worth to strengthen our faith. 1 Tim. 4:10 - We are working hard and exerting ourselves, because we have rested our hope on a living God who is the savior of all living people but especially of faithful ones.