Sabbath School Class Week 18

Sabbath School Class Week 18

INTRODUCTION:  Like most of the country at one time or another you have watched a couple minutes if not entire seasons of the "Biggest Looser".  Or you have heard testimonies of celebrities and their transformed bodies.  Inevitably someone makes a comment about how easy it would be, or how they could do it too if they had that trainer, a personal chef, and on and on.  Last week we started the chapter with a reference to running a race.  This week it talks about letting Jesus be our trainer.  Look, being in a relationship with him, we will be transformed.  He loves us too much to let us sit in our ick... if we are willing he is willing to be our tainer, our motivator.  

Read:

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”[a]

It is good for us to remember how difficult it was for Jesus to do what he did! He sweat blood, was misunderstood, persecuted, beaten, mocked, gave his life and then over and over again rejected by the very ones he died for.  So if he is to be our trainer, guide us and help us to grow even when it is painful, even when we suffer for it... he has suffered more! He isn't ever asking us to go through something he has not already experienced and felt.  Also all he is doing is just in an attempt to bring us great joy.  He created us, he knows where we need to grow and how we were intended to be.  Yet we resist him?

READ: 

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

What are your thoughts after reading this?  

This next section of scripture I really like how it reads in the Message Bible.  

God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

So many times we read this passage where it is talking about discipline which we often read as punishment.  After all when I was disciplined it was often time outs, or a spanking or some kind of punishment.  Pais, and paideuó  are the two greek root words here for discipline. Both speak of a child in training.  Discipline here is a noun, NOT a verb. Why is this important?  Well, if you read this passage as I have... you see a God who is wanting to punish and "discipline" us.  The fires we are going through are our punishment.  Yet if you see discipline, as the noun it is.  If you read this as we are His Discipline, or we are his child, a child in training for a heavenly home where we are in communion with him.  Perhaps you could also say Disciple. As any good parent will guide, train, help to grow their children Christ does the same for us.  See this passage is more about us understanding our title. Us understanding that we are His child, princes and princesses of the King of Kings and we are in training.  We are an apprentice.

OUR CHALLENGE:

Believe that we are His Discipline.  We are HIS child, whom he gave it all up for because He loves us soooo much.  Believe that if we will let Him, He will transform us, he will train us, and we will someday sit at his feet beside the sea of glass and praise Him.  This week let us focus on believing that we are truly a Prince, or a Princess.  We are adored loved and there is no pain in this training process that won't benefit us and strengthen us if we will let Him be apart of our life!