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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Nelson: Christian Lifehacks

Eric Nelson

Christian Lifehacks 1: John

This weekend, we're going to spend some time together talking about some Christian life hacks.

It's been about 8 years since I've been able to present any messages here at Advent Hope.

And I'm very excited about some of these messages and some of the specific points I'll be sharing because they've had an impact in my life, and I hope they will in your life.

Much of what I'm going to say this weekend is very, very simple.

It's nothing that probably will be new to most of you.

How many of you are familiar with the term life hacks?

How many of you have never heard the term life hacks?

If you go to Google and you type in life hack or life hacker or something like that, you'll get a lot of simple hints that can make your life easier.

When heating leftovers, space out a circle in the middle, it will heat up much more evenly.

Don't you just hate it when you're heating up spaghetti and part of it is really hot and the rest of it is cold?

And this is an example of a life hack that you can find out there on the internet.

There's thousands of these things that might make your life a little bit easier.

So if you just put a wooden spoon across the top of the pot, when the foam starts to rise, well, it'll hit the wooden spoon and go back and it just won't boil over.

And you'll find more of these things on the internet.

Use a can opener to open blister packs and avoid cutting yourself.

You know, something very simple that somebody thought of that, you know, might make your life easier if you open a lot of blister packs.

So the sermons I'm going to share are Christian life hacks.

How we can live the Christian life more simply, more effectively, and I think probably the key word is simple.

In fact, the sermon this evening has only 2 points.

And the sermon tomorrow morning has only 2 points, 2 life hacks, and the sermon tomorrow afternoon has only 1.

This evening we're going to look at only 1 text, 1 passage from 1 John.

Tomorrow for the Advent Hope Sabbath school time, we're going to look at 1 pass, actually 2 passages, I'm sorry, from the writings of Paul.

And I'm most excited, I think, about tomorrow afternoon.

I'm going to share a message that kind of brings everything together.

It'll be based on John chapter 17, and that I think is a very powerful chapter and I'm extremely excited about that.

I want to share a side note before we pray and read our passage from 1 John.

This is an observation, I can't prove it to you, but I think in my own life it's true and I think it might be true for a lot of other people and that is that I'm just gonna guess based on who comes out on Friday nights from Advent Hope.

I'm gonna guess that this group of people here is very negative.

By that I don't mean that we're critical or we have negative vibes about people or that we you know we See the negative side of things.

I don't mean you're pessimistic, I don't mean you're unhappy, I don't mean I'm this way as well, so I'll include myself in this.

What I do mean is that, again, I'm guessing about who you are because I don't know some of you.

We as a group resonate with the negative commands of Scripture more than the positive commands.

The 10 Commandments would be a good example.

At least 8 and a half of the Commandments are negative commands.

But there are positive commands in Scripture, too.

Love your neighbor as yourself, rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, you know, whatever it is.

There are positive commands of Scripture, too.

I believe that for myself, and I'm betting for this group of people, in general, we resonate with the negative commands of Scripture more than the positive commands.

And so what I'm going to share this evening and tomorrow, there's only 2 points.

But keep in mind this concept as we go forward through this weekend, that we want to understand both the negative and the positive commands of Scripture, and we want to pay attention to both of them, because they're both important.

Dear God, I ask that we will understand the commands of Scripture, that through this very simple message, the words of the Bible will speak to us, and that we will learn something new that we can apply in our own lives to help us walk the Christian walk.

More simply, pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Open your Bibles to 1 John 2, very familiar passage.

I put it up on the screen here in case some of you don't have your Bibles.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

What's the negative command in this scripture?

Now, as we'll see in a moment, this is more of a spiritual concept of not loving the world, but Let's start very, very, very simple, very concrete in our thinking.

Don't love this planet as a geographical location.

What should we love as far as geography goes?

In fact, there's at least 3 passages that I came up with right off the top of my head.

We don't look at those things which are seen, we look at those things which are not seen.

The things which are seen are temporal, they're temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal, they're the real things that are going to last.

2 Corinthians 5, 1, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, just went away, well we have something more permanent.

We have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

And probably the clearest, talking about loving the world versus not loving the world, Colossians 3, 1 and 2, famous passage, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.

Your affection, your love, what you like, what you think about.

Set your affection on things above and not on things of this world.

So as a geographical location, don't love this planet.

Now, this should be pretty easy, I would think.

I mean, how many of us are looking forward to going to heaven, right?

But as I thought about this, I think that at least in my own life and maybe in yours too, sometimes we say we want to go to heaven, but sometimes maybe we don't.

And I'll give you 1 good example that I'll bet Applies to almost everybody in this room at least at 1 point in your life I remember thinking this way when I Was young younger than I am now We all want Jesus to come back.

Christian Lifehacks 2: Paul

This weekend I've been sharing a short series of messages on Christian life hacks.

And I was surprised last night, some people didn't know the term life hack.

How many of you have heard the term life hack or life hacker before?

How many of you have never heard the term life hack?

A life hack, if you go to Google and type in life hack, you'll usually get a bunch of pictures with short captions that are ways to make your life easier.

Simple problems that all of us have, things like your computer cords always get tangled.

When you heat up spaghetti in the microwave, it doesn't heat up evenly.

All sorts of simple problems that all of us have.

And there are simple solutions that most of us have never thought of before.

Life hacks, ways to make your life easier, simple ways to make your life easier.

Well this weekend I'm talking about Christian life hacks, ways to make your Christian life, your Christian walk easier.

Last night I shared a very simple message, only 2 points.

Anyone who was there last night, what is it we are not supposed to do?

We talked about some practical ways in which I love the world and I'll bet many of you love the world too.

What was the second thing that we were supposed to do?

Have the love of the Father in our hearts, because that is the only way not to love the world.

Today, and that was of course from the gospel, not the gospel, that was from the book of 1 John, chapter 2, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

This morning, we're going to notice 2 life hacks from Paul.

The first thing we're going to study is what to do.

I'm very excited about this afternoon's message.

There's only 1 life hack, but We're going to study together this afternoon John chapter 17, that marvelous prayer of Christ.

And I know that each 1 of you who come will learn something new about John 17 because It turns out that this huge prayer of Christ is prophetic.

It also turns out that this prayer of Christ touches on pretty much everything there is in the entire Christian walk.

And we're going to notice the overview And then we're going to study only 1 life hack from Christ to make our Christian walk easier this afternoon.

How many of you want to be within God's will?

And sometimes it seems that knowing the will of God is hard.

There's a lot of decisions in life that you have to make.

This morning we're going to study something that guarantees you can be within the will of God.

Guarantees you can be within the will of God.

Right now, Rachel and I are going through a lot of decisions in our lives.

Rachel's my wife, we have 2 lovely children.

A lot of decisions, and I know each 1 of you are making decisions right now every day, and each 1 of us as we make decisions, I pray anyway that each 1 of us want to be within the will of God.

Let's pray together now and then we'll notice our first text for today.

Oh God, I ask that you will be present with us here this morning through the presence of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, that you will speak through the Bible.

The Bible will teach us something new about how it is we can live the Christian walk more simply, more easily, and be within your will.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

We want to understand how we can be within the will of God and we're going to notice our first Christian life hack.

I'm reading verse 18, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18, In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

If you give thanks, you can know for sure that you are in the will of God because God's will for you right now is that you give thanks.

In what situations should we give thanks?

Be thankful in all circumstances as the New Living Translation says.

It doesn't say that in the passage, but if you look at the verse right before it, it's talking about praying without ceasing.

The implication is we're speaking to God, we're giving thanks to God.

You know I think we do, but I have it on good authority, the book Steps to Christ, that none of us give thanks enough in our prayers.

Now, I read this passage and I wanted to understand what it means to give thanks.

And I read it, I'm supposed to give thanks how often?

It's kind of like the phrase you've probably heard, I love him but I don't like him.

The idea is that this person is not so nice of a person, but the Bible says I need to love everyone, doesn't it?

You know, we need to love, and so I love this person, but I don't really like them that much because they're not that nice.

And I read this passage about giving thanks the same way.

I want to give thanks all the time because the Bible says to, but there's not that much to give thanks for sometimes.

So I'm going to give thanks in spite of my circumstances.

I'm going to give thanks in spite of my circumstances.

This is going to takes us to the next level?

It's not just giving thanks all the time, it's giving thanks all the time for everything.

That's not the way I gave thanks, at least not in my prayers.

We're going to come back to that concept at the end, the idea that we need to give thanks all the time, not only all the time, but for all things.

Christian Lifehacks 3: Jesus

Before we start our message for this afternoon, why don't we review a little bit about what we've learned so far this weekend.

Again, This weekend I'm sharing Christian life hacks, things to make the Christian life easier, more effective, and hopefully they'll be helpful to you as they have been to me.

Our first meeting Friday night, I shared 2 different life hacks.

And what was what we were supposed to do?

Have the love of the Father in our hearts.

And 1 John chapter 2, verse 15 through 17 shared that message that we shouldn't love the world.

And we talked about some practical ways that, well, maybe we do love the world.

And that's why Jesus has to tell us not to.

This morning at, it was almost the 11 o'clock hour, we talked about 2 other things.

As I look over this room, you know, there's a lot of things in probably each 1 of our lives that it's difficult to give thanks for, you know.

And then what were we not supposed to do?

This afternoon, we're going to share 1 more life hack, only 1, from John chapter 17.

My goal this afternoon is not only to share that 1 life hack, but we're going to paint a bigger picture.

I'm extremely excited about this message because I believe John 17 is 1 of those chapters that all of us need to understand better.

I know that I want to understand it better, and so we're going to try to make it through the entire chapter.

Before we do, why don't we bow our heads for prayer.

I invite you to bow your heads for prayer with me.

Dear God, I ask that the Holy Spirit will be present here.

This is an important message, an important chapter.

1 of the prayers that you prayed for us gathered right here now.

I ask that the Bible will speak and that as we read through these verses of this prayer, each person here will learn something new about Jesus, something new about ourselves, and hopefully something that will make the Christian walk easier.

I pray these things in Christ's name, amen.

This is from a wonderful book called 8 Volume of the Testimonies, and I've put it up on the screen there, you can follow along.

The instruction given me by 1 of authority is that we are to learn to answer the prayer recorded in the 17th chapter of John.

Every gospel minister, every medical missionary.

Do we have any medical missionaries in the crowd today?

And I'm not just talking medical students either.

Every gospel minister, every medical missionary is to learn the science of this prayer.

Prayer is a science, and this prayer specifically.

My brethren and sisters, I ask you to heed these words and to bring to your study a calm, humble, contrite spirit and the healthy energies of a mind under the control of God.

Those who fail to learn the lessons contained in this prayer are in danger of making one-sided developments which no future training will ever fully correct.

John 17 is important, And I hope that we'll all learn more about it through our study today.

So again, we're going to focus only on 1 life hack this afternoon.

But my goal is to paint a big picture of John 17.

I want all of you to be able to read John 17 in the future and understand the outline of the entire chapter John 17 has a lot of good information.

In fact a careful study John 17 talks about justification talks about sanctification talks about glorification Unity you all know John 17 talks about unity, talks about perfection.

John 17 talks about the great controversy, prayer, how to have a relationship with God, and many other huge concepts, all of which we could spend an entire sermon series on.

If you're the kind of person that likes picking 1 thing and studying it very carefully, this presentation may be a little bit frustrating for you because our goal is to paint a big picture.

We're going to study the entire chapter verse by verse, but I'll be skipping over a lot of excellent information, and I realize that, and I'm sorry, I apologize in advance.

What I like to do with this study is something we don't do very often as a church family, and that is I'd like to read scripture together.

What I've done on the screen is simply put the passages, every single passage from John 17 on the screen, And I'd invite all of us to read together.

It helps save my voice, and I think there's some value to corporately reading scripture together.

These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come.

Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee.

Do you think it's important to study the Bible in context?

It is, and that's especially true when the Bible itself calls attention to the context.

It's fascinating to me that this passage, this prayer of Christ in John 17, which as many of you know is a call for unity in several places, comes in a very specific context.

If you look at John chapter 16, the end of the chapter, Jesus has just told the disciples about what's going to happen to them.

Jesus tells them, you're all going to go this way, that way, and you're all going to leave me.

There's a couple lessons from that, but at least 1 of them is that this prayer of Christ's is prophetic.

It's not looking only at the immediate circumstances that Christ is facing, but he's looking to the future.

There's a few interesting lessons from this verse as well that I invite you to study further, and that is lessons on prayer.

What position is Jesus in when he's praying?

He's not even standing, he's just walking by the way with the disciples, isn't he?

And not only that, he's lifting up his eyes to heaven.

You know, there's at least 7 different positions of prayer that you find Jesus praying in in the Gospels, and it's a very fascinating study.

The rest of this verse we're going to study along with verse 5.

As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." What do you think the key word is in this text?

Series

Eric Nelson: Christian Lifehacks

Christian Lifehacks 3: Jesus

Transcript

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