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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Luke Cloete

A Christian’s Survival Guide to Loma Linda

Believe it or not, of all the years I've attended here, this is the first time I've won an EMI.

It's a little intimidating, but as almost all of the YouTube videos say about public speaking, never, ever, ever let your audience know that you're nervous, and rather place those words as like excited or passionate.

So I'll take that advice and say I'm very excited to be here.

So it's such a privilege to be here where so many giants in faith and just Bible study have been meant so much to me, just as being such an example.

So I definitely feel humbled to be here, to share, because I'm definitely not a public speaker, but I'm sure God can use, if he can speak through a donkey, he can definitely use me as well.

So with that being said, as you can see, this is not our run of the mill program this morning at Advent Hope.

This is a special Sabbath because it represents the start of the academic year, because we just had the Welcome Back Bash earlier this year.

So it represents the start of Advent Hopes here in a very special way.

So what in thinking about that, 1 thing that I've thought is just so important, we often do a retrospective of the year, but I thought what's so important because I've had the privilege again of being in Loma Linda for over 20 years and seeing just consistent pitfalls that people fall into and just people that have been in Loma Linda, we often compare notes because we see very similar struggles.

So we thought we wanted to create a bit of a survival guide for Loma Linda and ways that you can maximize your time.

Because over this year, I've really been asking people what they would consider important to know about Romanada before you come.

So with that being said, you know, there were a couple, as some of you may know, I did work for a while in the legal field, a while back, not as an attorney so we can still be friends, but you know, In working in the law firm, of all the things I learned, I really came away with an appreciation of recitals.

And for those of you who don't know, that's the things that you read in front of contracts.

Generally start with whereas, and then give a very succinct outline of what the contract is, important notes, and key takeaways.

So With that being said, I wanted to start with a couple of my own recitals, because I always appreciate it when a speaker gives a bit of a roadmap as to where they're headed in their message.

The purpose of this message— and I think I actually have slides which I should use.

The key purpose of this presentation is to give you some sort of framework that you can use to navigate some of the pitfalls away from some of the pitfalls and some of the many blessings that are in store for communities like Loma Linda.

Number 2, we are going to go over 5 survival tips that come from my first-hand experience, and as well as from many of my friends that have been asking over the years as far as like what would you have liked to have known about Lone Lander that would have maximized your experience, as well as just enabled you to get the most out of your time.

And then finally, some of the key takeaways are, number 1, the importance of having a deep relationship with Christ that transcends our immediate feelings and surroundings.

And then 2, the necessity for each 1 of us to surrender to Christ so that we can work through, so he can work through us to create a community of believers that helps each other on the road to heaven.

So tip number 1, well actually let's go ahead and pray first, I'm gonna go back, don't worry.

Dear Heavenly Father, I just wanna pray that you please bless this time that we spend here together.

You know, dear Lord, I'm not a public speaker, but we thank you so much for the privilege of having an opportunity to share with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Dear Lord, you know that none of us are perfect, and it's bizarre, me standing here today, but just dear Lord, thank you so much for this blessing.

Please guide us now as we go through these tips today.

Okay, tip number 1, don't forget the fundamentals.

So a few, you know, at the height of COVID in 2020, I had the opportunity to shadow a dental practice on the East Coast.

As you know, COVID was crazy for a lot of dental practices.

Of course, this company that I was shadowing, they were no different.

Of course, I had to close their practice for an extended period of time, and then they had to reopen in the face of significant staff shortages, as well as just a host of other increased COVID guidelines, and just a patient backlog.

But when I was looking at this company, they seemed to be handling the stresses pretty well.

So it was quite interesting for me to see.

But they were still not immune to these stresses.

But I want to say, though, that 1 thing that this company was very exceptional with is up until that point, I hadn't seen what I would consider to be a quintessentially Adventist practice, where you could see every aspect, whether it's the patient care that they provided, the way they prayed for their patients, the way they just, just the overall atmosphere, they even would hand out literature to people.

And it was just amazing to see them actually practicing what I would consider just Adventist health care.

But with that being said, you know, it looked perfect at face value and I was quite amazed to see that, you know, even with them looking perfect on the outside, there were definitely some struggles.

And I was unaware of these struggles until 1 morning, They used to have a team huddle before each of the days just to get everybody on the same page.

And at that time, the doctor confessed through tears.

She actually broke down and was saying that they were struggling over these past few months again during COVID just because there were so many external pressures, and they had forgotten why they had gotten into health care.

And it was such an impactful thing for me to hear.

But then, of course, I just want to mention that this person that I mentioned that they had was so grateful for a recent series that they had listened to that helped revive that hope.

That it was just basically to treat patients as people, not numbers, and to just give people the care that they needed and to show the kindness and mercy of God.

And this meant so much to me because I'd been hearing so many different, you know, about burnouts in Loma Linda over the years, and you see it, you know, you see so many different students that come with that proverbial fire in their eyes, and then over the course of their studies, you see the fire fade, and then you realize it becomes patently obvious that they're just going through the motions of their profession.

And again, this isn't a judgment, because I know that there are, there seem to be courses of study that are designed to not only deprive you of your sleep, but any time where you think that you can devote to nurturing your passion.

And it was just such amazing for me to see that, with that being said.

So I just want to encourage you with that, don't fall into the trap of neglecting your vision, because it's so easy to think that it's just something that's, you know, it's an extra note, it's fundamental.

Because what I saw with that was neglecting your vision is a recipe, or neglecting the fundamentals is a recipe for both spiritual and professional burnout.

So with that being said, I mean, of course, what's true in the secular realm is definitely true in the spiritual realm.

So let's now go to Deuteronomy 4, Verses 8 to 9, and we'll read this.

And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I'm setting before you today?

Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen and let them fade from your heart as long as you live.

Teach them to your children and to their children after them." And we'll go to another verse here, which is Hebrews 2 verses 1 to 3.

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so we do not drift away.

For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, now how shall we escape if we ignore so greater salvation, this salvation which was first announced by the Lord as confirmed to us by those who heard him?" So what we see in this whole, these 2 verses, is 2 things.

Number 1, we see that we need to diligently keep in mind our experiences, the things that we know for sure.

And then number 2, we need to be careful that there's a propensity to drift away from what we've learned.

We were sitting with some...my family and I were sitting with some friends of ours at a local church in a fellowship hall, and we were talking with 3 of our friends who were struggling with their faith.

What made this interaction so impactful to me was that these friends were just like a year ago, just powerhouses in the faith.

They were passionate about not only learning what they were learning about new things about Christ, but also about sharing it with others.

But what was so sad is we could see that now, there they were, just a short time later, mentioning that they had deep discouragement and they were falling away from their first love.

As the conversation continued, they confided in us 1 of the sources for their discouragement.

They had mentioned that 1 of their fellow members had come up to them and said, you know, it's a sin to have ice in your water.

And as funny as that sounds to us, what they were describing was what I like to call the Matthew 23 verses 23 to 24 community, where there was a lot of gnat straining and camel eating going on.

I wish we could say that my friends had sort of gotten away from this mindset, but unfortunately they didn't.

They ended up just going down this road, and they just left because they thought religion was petty and judgmental.

Sadly, our friends forgot the fundamentals.

They forgot that Christ was a loving Savior and just wanted the best for them.

And that's why it's not something, again, just stress the fundamentals.

We're just getting to basics this morning.

So these are things that I really think that we should learn, I mean, we should keep ever before our minds as we go through this new year.

Number 1, here are just some fundamentals that we can go through here.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not by works so that no man can boast, for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In John 3, 16 and 17, we often miss out 17, but for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

And then Micah 6, 8, he has shown you, O mortal man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of thee, to do justly, well, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

And in John 10, verses 7 to 10, therefore Jesus said, Verily, verily, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

They will come in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes in only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

You know, we know these verses and I know a lot of us can recite them by memory, but it's just so important for us because 1 thing that you're guaranteed when you're at Loma Linda and at Advent Hope for sure, is you will deepen your knowledge base.

Where you'll learn things that will deepen your sort of competence as a professional, but you will also deepen your understanding here of spiritual things, precious and present truth at Advent time.

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A Christian’s Survival Guide to Loma Linda

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