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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Joshua Schulterbrandt

God Hunt

Okay, so like I said, I graduated from Weimar University, and there I used to lead a Sabbath school class.

When I was leading that Sabbath school class, I asked my girlfriend, her name is Savannah, to join me in leading the Sabbath school class.

And Weimar is known for its adherence to uncompromising Bible-based education.

And that's a noble ideal for a school and also as a personal Christian goal, you know, to live the truth of the Bible.

And as young people trying to understand how we fit in the world, the question of how we relate to religion is a huge part of that process.

And it becomes very easy to see Christianity, religion, Adventism as extra rules rather than what it truly is, which is a loving relationship with someone who loves you so much that he gave his life to help you become the happiest and most successful version of yourself.

So with all this in mind, I explained to Savannah that what I really wanted was to have a Sabbath school where instead of emphasizing the do's and don'ts of Adventism, we could have a chance to look at God's love in the Bible.

Because what sense does it make to listen to what someone says if they don't care about you?

But if you know that they do care about you and want your best, then their instructions are more than worth your consideration.

So she agreed, and she also liked the topic, and it was settled.

An important aspect of our search was that I didn't want to explain what I thought about God.

I wanted to allow each person in the class to see the evidence and decide on the answer for themselves.

Because who am I to tell you who to trust?

It's better that you observe for yourself and decide if this person is worthy or unworthy of your trust.

And I believe that the truth is the truth.

And if Jesus really is the truth as he says he is, he doesn't need me to explain anything.

So we'll just look for the truth and see if he is real or not.

And I wanted my friends to see God's love, but I also wanted to see it for myself.

Growing up in a Christian and Adventist home, I'd always been told about his love, but I wanted to see it by what he did and said in a more unbiased way.

So I was really excited to see where our search would take us in the Sabbath school.

And I was so excited that when I was asked to share what the topic of the Sabbath school was so it could be announced in church, I didn't really think twice and I gave my answer.

This proved to not be a genius idea because my girlfriend wasn't very impressed with me when all of my friends at our quite conservative school began to make fun of me because the topic of my cyber school was love in action and it was by Josh and Savannah, so it was kind of an awkward situation.

Anyway, after getting through that, the mocking and all that, we began our study in the book of Matthew using several questions that we called love analysis questions.

So in our first study, which is the 1 we're going through this morning, there were a few questions that we used to analyze the passage of Matthew 11 verses 25 to 30.

And the reason we went through that passage specifically is because in it, Jesus tells us how to know God.

You can see the title of our sermon is God Hunt.

We want to learn how to know who God is this morning.

Father in heaven, as we go through this study this morning, we pray that you would be with us and that you would teach us.

We pray that you would give us the wisdom to see the evidence and help us to make a decision based on what we see, not based on what other people tell us, but based on our experience with you.

We thank you so much for giving us that opportunity to choose as humans and we pray that you would bless our study this morning.

And keep in mind, after we read the passage, I have a question for you, 1 of the love analysis questions.

So get ready to answer it, and I'll give you the opportunity to give your answer if you'd like, or you can keep it to yourself, there's no pressure.

I know when I'm sitting listening to a sermon I like to like keep it to myself but you can answer if you're 1 of those people that likes to do that as well.

But I do value being able to draw conclusions for myself and I want you to be able to experience that too.

So here's the passage without further ado.

It says, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.

Even so, Father, for it seemed good in your sight.

All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no 1 knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the 1 to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Okay, so this passage is where we'll be mostly this morning and it's a pretty well-known passage because we can see right off the bat there are some pretty important things here for Christianity.

First of all, we have the concept of the foolish things of the world confounding the wise.

But here it's basically, it's said in a different way.

He says, you know, God has revealed these things to babes as opposed to the wise.

The next 1, there's something important here to know about knowing God.

The third thing is that Jesus promises rest down there in the end.

And the fourth is that there's an invitation to work with him.

So keeping those things in mind, let's get right into it.

And this first question was inspired by a social media trend that I liked, actually.

And me and Savannah, we decided that we were going to try and make questions that were a little different than normal to help with the engagement in the actual thinking.

So like for example, I'm standing here and this is my POV, but I might like share a story or reel or something where the piano, I'm looking from the piano's POV, you know what I'm saying.

So based on the passage we read, it's still on the screen, why would you be happy that God had hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes?

So I'll give you a few seconds to engage with the question.

If you're Jesus, Why would you be happy that God had hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes?

If you're Jesus, why would you be happy that God has revealed these things to babes?

And if you wanna give your answer, you can, or if you wanna keep it to yourself, I'll give you a couple seconds.

Anyone can understand it if a babe can understand it.

Those are very good answers and that's totally along the same lines.

So here, let's read this passage together.

This is taken from Signs of the Times in 1893, the December 11.

And it says, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes.

The Lord Jesus presented the heavenly treasures to the Jewish people, but many of them would not receive them.

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God Hunt

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