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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Tim Riesenberger

The Truth That Transforms The World

Good morning and happy Sabbath to all of you.

It is my joy to see each and every 1 of you.

I'm actually very thrilled to not only see many friends from school, but I actually have a friend who's come all the way from Australia.

I want to tell you that this is a dream come true, and Tim can attest to that.

There are many of us here that remember that this all started at Friday night singing bands.

It all started in very small groups of people who wanted to serve the Lord and share Him with others.

And this is my joy to see many people now here at Loma Linda wanting to serve Jesus Christ to live his truth and to share it with everyone around.

Before I begin I would like to ask God 1 more time to be with us.

Loving Father in heaven, what a joy it is to see your children here.

And we just pray that right now you would not only be among us, but within us.

Lord I pray that Jesus may increase and I may decrease.

Yes, he does Does he love the people that are lost?

I noticed every time I run through this exercise, the answers get a little quieter as time goes on.

And then near the end, it's like, yes, I'm going to share with you a truth that has transformed my life.

I realized that everything else I learned up to that point.

Was dependent on what I had just learned at that moment.

I took all of my invitations from July of 2007 to the next year and beyond and changed them to this, which was 17 appointments.

I remember some of you from the Romanian church are here They're like, well, we've already put the titles on the DVDs.

And they said sure I'm going to share a story that happened to me last year.

So quite a few of you are done with school and My boss had said Tim I need to meet with you Now is that generally something good or bad.

He could invite me and say Tim just want to see how you're doing.

And I began to ask friends to pray about this meeting that my boss was gonna have with me and I had many people praying And I remember that 1 of my friends sent me a text message And here's what it says Praying for you.

I'm claiming Luke 12 that he will give you the words to say when you need them Whatever happens.

I'm proud of you smiley face nice email, right?

Maybe a typical sort of encouraging text message that you might get.

But something bothered me about that text message.

And I thought to myself, whatever happens, I'm proud of you.

Now whatever could be many things, couldn't it?

Whatever could mean, Tim, you're the best physician we have ever had here and we're going to double your salary and cut your hours in half.

Or it could be you are the worst human being I've ever met.

You know, if I was fired, I wouldn't be proud of me.

I have worked part-time and full-time since I was 15, constantly.

I would be disgraced, humiliated, and what a horrible witness, right?

And as I was pondering this God led me to a story.

Open your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 14 and verse 25.

A very familiar story to many of you Now in Israel There was no 1 who was praised so much for his good looks as Absalom From the sole of his foot To the crown of his head there was what?

No blemish This man was gq He was the man of the year.

Did you know that he had his hair cut once a year?

And I can imagine they had the Israeli fundraiser.

You can get a lock of Absalom's hair for $10 and all the girls would go From head to toe he was a true manly man No blemish but unfortunately Sometimes that beauty does not extend deeper Turn to 2nd Samuel chapter 15 verses 1 through 6 David his father is Getting older right his government is becoming less efficient In fact to the point where there are people waiting in line for what?

So Absalom conveniently just walks through the line as people are waiting and he said oh hey where you from how's it going and when they went to bow to him as the prince he wouldn't do that he shook their hand brought him close and kissed him he's a very secure man in his masculinity as well wasn't he and Absalom would say you know you've got a good case But there's no 1 to hear you.

Oh That I were made a judge in the land then I would do you right?

So Absalom here is beginning to break down confidence in who his dad and Verse 6 tells us what this results in in this manner acted Absalom toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment and so what?

Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

Then Absalom sent spies throughout all Israel saying as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet then you shall say Absalom reigns in Hebron Then Absalom sent for a hit the fell the guile of night David's counselor from his city from guile o where he offered sacrifices and the conspiracy grew strong for the people with who with Absalom continually increased in number now do you remember who a hit the fell was who was he The grandfather actually of Bathsheba that's close if you want proof for that You don't have to turn to it.

But it's 2nd Samuel 11 3 and 2nd Samuel 23 34 now if you had a granddaughter and somebody committed adultery with her and assassinated your grandson-in-law and Nothing bad happened to this person and it was found out by everyone.

Would you think that justice had been done?

I mean, just because this guy is the King doesn't mean he gets off scot-free.

Absalom was waiting for a moment in time where he could get even with the disgrace that David had brought to his family.

I mean Ahithophel, I'm sorry, was the first to defect.

But just when you thought it couldn't get worse, it does.

David at this point, does he stay in Jerusalem?

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The Truth That Transforms The World

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