Sabbath School Lesson Week 8

Introduction:

This week is very connected to last week.  Paul is warning the Philippians from being like he was.  From getting so caught up in being something for show for loosing focus and ultimately for loosing sight of Jesus and others.  Now he continues...

Philippians 3 : 7-11

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in^[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

What a beautiful passage.  I kept thinking it needs to be a beautiful song. It certainly is a  love letter to Jesus.
At Pisgah where I work there are often students coming in and wanting to talk about their romantic interests. Most of the time they come to talk when they are loosing someone, or when things are not going well.  Over and over again, I hear them wishing they could have a relationship with this person who either doesn't want to have a relationship with them, or who isn't really the kind of person they are wanting.  But the infatuation is so strong they keep yearning, keep wanting. There is one picture I keep trying to make for these individuals, it is a picture of the day when they find someone who does want to be in a relationship with them, I try to paint the picture of what it will be like when they are in a relationship with someone that is not just good for them but amazing for them! Then I end the story by telling them that when they finally find that relationship this current one will mean nothing.  That is what Paul is saying here.  When he finally met Jesus, when he finally saw him and started this glorious relationship with Him, everything else became nothing.

INGREDIENT #17 - Seek Jesus

ACTION:  Jesus said that he came so that we would know his father.  This week incorporate at least one scripture or one passage about Jesus.  Not just scripture but scripture about Jesus.  Seek Him.

We have been promised that if we seek him we will find him. 

Philippians 3 : 12-14

 ¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

INGREDIENT #18 - Forget what is behind and strain for what is ahead!

 ACTION:  This week write down  using scripture a list of who you are in Christ. 
Example:  2 Cor. 5:17... NEW CREATION  Isaiah 43:1 I AM HIS 
Write it out on a card take a picture of it and make it your phone background or write it on your mirror, keep it posted in your car, saturate your life with the texts about who you are in Christ.

ALSO find a bible verse about heaven and memorize it! 

For one whole year I blogged about letting go of the ick in my life.  I called it something else but here I will just call it ick.  I had spent far too long hanging on to the old, the ick.  I had failed to keep my focus on what I was.  So I everyday I blogged about letting it go, getting rid of it, letting Jesus put it in the depths of the sea and then leaving it there.  I find visuals very helpful for me.  So here is one I use a lot.  Jesus has promised that when we confess our sins he not only forgives us our sins but he then puts them in the depths of the sea. The depths.  So every time I would start to go back to the ick I had already let go of, I would say to myself (sometimes even out loud), "Seriously Beth, you are going to rent a ship, take diving lessons, suit up, tumble into the sea and go to the depths where you can't go safely with even the most advanced equipment to gather up all that ick.  Seriously.  Seriously.  It is gone, in the depths let it go.
 
It is very important her how Paul says not only that we must let it go but that we need to keep looking forward, keep looking up!  Look up to Christ, look to what he has and will transform you to be, look up to his twinkling eyes and experience a transformation!