Role of the Sabbath in creating a meaningful relationship with God.

<p>Role of the Sabbath in creating a meaningful relationship with God.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Bass Memorial Academy Church

Joe Kim

The Sabbath: Winning Back Our Young People

Our Father in Heaven, we do want to know you more.

We do want to experience your love in our hearts.

I pray then Lord that you would teach us today, as we learn doctrine, may we learn Jesus better today and His cross.

For we ask these things in the name of Jesus.

There was a very famous, I hardly talk about secular things in the pulpit, but there was a very, very well known football player he was a college ballplayer his story came out about a year and a half ago he ended up almost winning the most prestigious award that a college football player can win, which is called the Heisman Trophy.

In fact, that's probably the most prestigious award that any athlete can win in the world.

Maybe, probably more well known than maybe a gold medal in the Olympics.

And he played for probably the most prestigious college football program in the country.

Through history, I mean, not currently, but through history.

And what was remarkable about this young man was he played on the side of the ball that you wouldn't expect someone to gain a lot of notoriety on defense.

Mostly people who win a Heisman Trophy are quarterbacks who throw the ball or running backs who run the ball.

But he played defense, which is unheard of.

And he got second place, which is unheard of.

And during this season that he was having, which was remarkable, He led his team all the way to the championship game.

And so his story got more and more famous as the year went on.

And people would surround his locker after every game, how did you do it?

How are you having such a magnificent year, Manti?" He played for Notre Dame, by the way.

And he began to open up his heart to the media.

And he started to say Things like, you know, my grandmother, my dear grandmother, died this year.

And he is of, I believe, either Polynesian background or Samoan, but he lived from, he was from Hawaii.

And I'm dedicating my football season to my grandmother who died this year.

And not only this, Manti said also within a couple weeks, I don't want to talk about this too much, but my girlfriend died.

I met her about 2 years ago after a football game in Stanford.

And she died within a couple of weeks of my grandmother's funeral.

And I'm dedicating my football season to her, too.

And as you might imagine, the media just ate it up.

Long write-ups in like Sports Illustrated and every media news outlet you can imagine.

Interviews from New York Times to LA Times.

And the media circus just increased and increased.

And you might imagine, after his team made it all the way to the championship, this is all they wanted to talk about.

And about 3 to 4 days later after the game, and this is how I learned about this story, actually, about 3 to 4 years after the championship game, rumors started to spread that this girlfriend never existed.

And in fact, rumors started to spread that Manti made up this girlfriend And the whole country felt duped.

And then reporters started surrounding him, why are you telling us this lie?

Why are you telling us about this girlfriend you never had?

Why did you almost win the biggest award in history and try to leak our hearts about this?

And the president of Notre Dame, you know, the athletic director of Notre Dame, I think it was the president, actually, stood up, probably the most prestigious position in the country in terms of colleges because of the athletics of that school.

He stood up behind a microphone with a packed audience of reporters.

And the whole world's like, what are you talking about?

In fact, this president said, I put my name behind the fact that Manta is not lying.

And the whole world, whole country, you've got to be kidding.

And they went back around Manta, how could you be fooled?

You mean to tell me, after 2 years, you thought you had a girlfriend when they turned out to be fake?

What a puzzling, this is just the weirdest, weirdest story.

It turned out sometime in September after his girlfriend had died.

Sometime in mid-December, this man-tie got a phone call from this girlfriend saying that she was alive and then Manti said that he was just amazed what happened.

You see it was a friend that was pretending to be this girlfriend on the phone through all those phone conversations for over those years.

And they kept on asking Mantai, you mean to tell me you fell in love with a girl you never met?

You just talked on the phone and had a Facebook conversation and you fell in love?

You couldn't Skype or video conference your girlfriend?

The first time, the girlfriend had to cancel.

And the second time, Manti had to cancel to travel home for his grandmother's funeral.

And most of the country was thinking this guy is the most ridiculous foolish man I could ever meet who falls in love on the phone how can you fall in love with someone that you've never seen that you just had phone calls with and a Facebook account with, and that sounds like the most foolish thing you can imagine.

It turns out it was a friend of Manti that pulled The hoax, apparently.

But the world doesn't believe him totally.

You know, our children are not buying it any longer.

They're having a hard time believing that they can fall in love with a God that they've never seen, never touched, never spoke to.

And they're looking us in the eye and they're saying, do you really expect me to believe in Jesus, who I've never met, who you've never met?

And you're telling me I'm supposed to fall in love with him?

I'm supposed to fall in love with God who is like Him.

I'm supposed to risk my life for this, someday not get a mark on my hand, not buy and sell, and some perhaps, someday perhaps die?

I'm supposed to forego riches and fortune and fame in this world, success?

The Sabbath: Winning Back Our Young People

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