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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Flickinger Weekend

Eric Flickinger

01 Treasure Hunters

Father, we thank you for drawing us together this evening.

We are encouraged to know that while this world may be in no small amount of turmoil right now because of the pandemic and because of the social unrest and because of the political uncertainty and so many other things, financial challenges that many people are facing.

It's encouraging for us to know that you are still on the throne, that you are still in control, and that you are still a God who hears and answers prayers.

So we ask that this evening as we open your word, you would pour out your spirit, that he might enlighten us to the message that you have for us, and that we might come away from this evening encouraged, inspired, and challenged by your word.

So as I mentioned, this evening's message is called Treasure Hunters.

And for those of you who have heard me share messages before you know that there is 1 kind of story that I like more than any other kind of story and that is something called a true story.

Back on August 21st, August 21, 1922, a baby boy was born in Indiana.

Now, Mel Fisher developed a love for reading at a young age, loved reading, and 1 book that he came across, he loved more than any other.

It was a book by an author named Robert Louis Stevenson or Robert Louis Stevenson.

There's a high likelihood that many of you have probably read that book or know something about it.

It was about emeralds and precious stones.

It was about adventure and excitement for a young boy.

In a word, if you were to summarize what the book was about, the book was about treasure.

And that really caught Mel Fisher's imagination.

Now there was 1 challenge that he faced in realizing what he hoped to be a life full of adventure, to kind of live the life that he saw in Treasure Island.

1 of the biggest challenges that he faced was, well, he lived in Indiana and there's not a whole lot of pirates.

There are not a whole lot of pirate ships.

There's not a lot of gold and silver, so to speak, in Indiana.

Now, you've got some pretty fertile soil there And if you work it like a good farmer should, you could make some money, but that wasn't really what he was interested in.

But he was stuck in Indiana raising chickens.

But at this particular time in history, sport diving was kind of in its infancy.

People were just starting to get into it, to learn about it.

But he began diving when that sport was in its infancy and developed a passion for it.

In fact, what he ended up doing was moving out to California and he opened the very first dive shop in California and started training people how to dive.

But as he was doing this, he remembered back to his childhood that story, that book that he had read so many years ago about pirate gold and lost galleons.

So he started looking for them out there in California And he said some success, he found some gold, he found some treasure out there, but not really what he had hoped to find.

It was a book about a ship that was lost in the year 1622 in a hurricane.

The name of that ship was the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, or as it was often called, the Atocha.

There were 40 tons of silver and gold on that ship, at least according to the records and the stories of the Atocha.

And he thought to himself, if I could just find that ship, I would be able to realize all of my life's dreams if I could just locate that ship.

And so he started to gather together information about the Atocha.

He went over charts and maps and historical documents and he began to narrow down the search area to where he believed the Atocha may have wrecked.

He eventually ended up moving his base of operations out to Key West.

So from 1 coast all the way to the other, out to Key West, and he sent out ships to try to find the location of that wreck.

But finally, on July 20th, 1985, 16 years after he began his search, at 105 p.m., his son was out on 1 of the ships and he radioed back to his father who was there in the dive headquarters and the radio crackled to life.

The message was, dad, put away the charts.

They had indeed found the wreck of the Atocha.

They managed to bring up 114, 000 pieces of 8.

There were artifacts of gold, of silver, Colombian emeralds, over 1, 000 silver ingots came up from the wreck.

The value of that wreck, the value of the treasure that was brought forth from the sea?

It was the greatest treasure found since King Tut's tomb.

But is that really what life is all about?

Is it about finding gold and silver and emeralds and wealth?

I think you and I both know that there are more valuable things in life, but there are probably some people out there who would argue with us.

It all depends on what your sense of value is based upon.

But there's a wonderful quote in a book called Steps to Christ on pages 94 and 95 that are going to kind of give us our launching pad for the study that we're going to do this evening.

Again, this is found in the book called Steps to Christ pages 94 and 95.

It says, why should the sons and daughters of God be reluctant to pray when prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's storehouse where are treasured the boundless resources of omnipotence.

The boundless resources of omnipotence are found in heaven's storehouse.

So what does heaven hold that is so valuable?

Tonight, we're gonna go through about 5 or 6 passages of scripture to see what heaven's storehouse holds.

And if we can find what heaven's storehouse holds, I think we are going to find that it is worth much more than $400 million.

We're gonna turn to the book of 2 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles, and we're going to look at verse, chapter 1, verses 7 through 11.

2 Chronicles, chapter 1, verses 7 through 11.

We're going to look here at the story of a man that you're probably familiar with if you spend any time studying the Bible, and that is a man named Solomon.

Of course, Solomon was David's son, and We're going to take a look at this story when Solomon made a request of God.

And there are some significant things about Solomon's request here that if we can grab a hold of will benefit us today many, many years later.

So we are in 2 Chronicles chapter 1, beginning in verse number 7, and we'll probably read down through verse number 12.

In fact, let's go back to verse number 6 just to get a little bit of context.

In verse number 6, it says, And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the Lord, which was at the tabernacle of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

So you can see here that Solomon was very sincere, very intentional about his service of the Lord.

It says here in verse number 7, on that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, ask what shall I give you?

And Solomon said to God, you have shown great mercy to David my father, and have made me king in his place.

Now, O Lord God, let your promise to David my father be established, for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude." Now notice his request here.

Now give me wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this great people of yours?" Notice as Solomon is making this request, He's not making it for his own personal benefit.

It says, Then God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches, or wealth, or honor, or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life, but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge my people over whom I have made you king.

Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you, and I will give you riches and wealth and honor such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor nor shall any after nor shall any after you have the like." So when Solomon asked for that wisdom, when he asked for that knowledge, again, he wasn't asking for it for himself, he was asking for it so that he could do the work that God had given him to do.

It wasn't to benefit himself personally, but it was to benefit God's work and God's people.

So what is 1 of these treasures that heaven has, that God has in his storehouse, that he wants to give to you, that he wants to give to you, that he wants to give to me, that he wants to give liberally to anyone who wants to have it.

The first gift, the first treasure that is in heaven's storehouse is wisdom and knowledge.

02 Making the Most Change

We thank you for giving us an opportunity to open your word this morning, to commune with you, to connect with you, and to allow you to give us some guidance on how we can best adapt to the changes that are happening on a daily basis in our lives.

There are many people around who have no hope, who have no anchor, and who are swayed left and right by the changing times.

We want to be able to anchor our faith, our beliefs, our emotions, who we are in something solid.

And so we turn this morning to your word.

We ask that you would bless us in Jesus name, Amen.

So we are indeed in a time of change, significant change.

And change has happened, well, ever since creation.

But sometimes changes that we face are unpleasant.

Change has been a topic that people have been talking about for hundreds, for thousands of years.

In fact, not too many years ago, a book was published called Who Moved My Cheese?

It says an amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life.

It's the number 1 bestseller on change written by Spencer Johnson, MD.

I'm not going to go into a great deal of detail on what the book is all about, other than to say it's a very easy read.

And if you were to sit down, you could probably read it in less than 45 minutes.

Some practical things that can help us learn how to deal with change.

It was published on September 8th, 1998, has been translated into 37 languages.

Essentially, it's a motivational business parable, and there have been over 28 million copies of the book sold.

It tells us that number 1, change happens.

If they've sold 28 million copies of the book, clearly change is happening.

And number 2, it also tells us that people want to know how to deal with change.

How do we deal with change when it does happen to us?

At least 28 million people want to know the answer to that question.

Fortunately, there is another best-selling book that has sold more than 28 million copies that also tells us how to deal with change.

And we're gonna spend the bulk of our time this morning digging into that book so that we can learn how to deal with the changes in our lives.

Whether it's changes that are going on in our church, in our lives, in our health, in our society, in politics, really doesn't matter.

Somebody once said that the only constant in life is change.

You can expect that change is going to happen, but when change is happening around us, it's important to recognize something that doesn't change.

And that's found in Malachi chapter 3 and verse number 6.

In Malachi 3 verse number 6, it says, For I am the Lord, I change not.

Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

So in a world that is changing, if you are going through some stressful times because of change, because you have not been able to adapt to something that's going on, or you're worried about something that's going to take place, remember that in the midst of change, God is a constant.

Life changes, culture changes, but truth remains forever constant.

Sometimes changes come to us from the outside, and we don't have much to say or that we can do about them.

But sometimes we desire change from the inside.

Change often results from dissatisfaction.

Sometimes we want changes, and we work hard to try to accomplish them because we're dissatisfied and we think that maybe if something was different, my life could be better.

But if you stop and think about it, are all changes good?

If you think back in Old Testament times, God's people existed under what we would call a theocracy.

He was the 1 who guided his people in 1 direction or the other, and their responsibility was to follow him.

But as God's people looked around at the other cultures around them, they began to realize something.

What they realized was that they were different.

They wanted to be like the other cultures around them.

And as they looked at what the other cultures had and that they didn't have, they realized that they wanted what the other cultures had.

We can look back on that decision today and say, you know what, that was a poor decision.

They felt dissatisfied and so they hoped that change would improve things.

Unfortunately, things went the other direction.

You can go back into the New Testament and God's people again were dissatisfied.

Now they had the Romans who were over them telling them what they could and couldn't do, where they could and couldn't go, and they wanted to change again.

And so when Jesus came along as the Messiah and they saw him feeding people and healing people and helping people and providing for people, well there was an incredible story after the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, where the people said, this is the person that we need to have leading us.

He's the 1 who can put us back where we want to be.

And in John chapter 6, verse 15, it says, when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

So people were dissatisfied and they said if we can just change the world around us then we will be happy.

But Jesus realized that there was something bigger, something more significant than just wanting to see the world around them that they were dissatisfied with change.

Jesus saw things from heaven's perspective.

And if you missed last night's message, make sure you go back and watch that because it's all about looking at things from a different perspective, from heaven's perspective.

So before making a change or calling for a change to take place, First of all, we have to make sure that we understand the issues.

Not just the surface issues, but digging deep to understand what's going on.

Now, some of these changes that we often desire to have are maybe personal changes, some are theological changes.

Unfortunately, something that I run across with far too much regularity is people who have been studying the Bible for a long time and they understand it well and they get it.

But when they continue studying the same things and hearing the same things and understanding the same things, they can get a little bit bored and they look for something new.

They look for something different, something exciting.

And unfortunately, sometimes those new and different and exciting things can lead them down some theological rabbit holes to some very, very bad destinations.

So before you ask for change, Before you go looking for change, make sure that you are, make sure that you have your mind in the right place, that you are connected to Christ, because otherwise you can end up in some bad places.

Albert Einstein once famously said, if the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

They can be misinterpreted very well, but the truth that we have in God's word, it does not change.

And if we start going around and trying to change those facts, we find ourselves in bad situations.

But what if we're not the originator of the change?

What if change just kind of happens to us?

Richard Marcinko, who is a motivational speaker, a former soldier, says change hurts.

It makes people insecure, confused, and angry.

People want things to be the same as they've always been because that makes life easier.

If you're comfortable, sometimes it's just easiest to stay there, but that may not be the best thing either.

Series

Eric Flickinger Weekend

01 Treasure Hunters

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

God’s Plan for Financial Security

33m

Plenary

From the Ground Up

1h

How to Stand at the end of Time

1h 6m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

07 The Altar of Incense

1h 11m

ASI 2012 Seminar: Evangelism

Bible Studies Made Easy

1h 22m

Lessons from the Sower: The Conditions of the Soil

43m

Plenary

The One Thing Jesus Can’t Give You

55m

A Thoughtful Hour

A Thoughtful Hour- Part 2

1h 17m

ABC's of Prayer

3-Coon’s Own Nightmare Experience

38m

Finishing the Mystery of God

49m

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Composite Christian: Character Development

02-God vs. Satan: Death Before Dishonor

56m

Cultivating Faith

Cultivating Faith

1h 35m

Sound Doctrine