THE THING THAT REALLY MATTERS. We have so many things competing for our attention. This world is filled with many distractions.  Many of them are designed by Satan to divert our attention away from what is really important. How then can we be on guard and distinguish between the important and the unimportant?

This series addresses the concerns we all have: the concern for sin, evil, death, dying, and what happens after we die. Is there hope after death? When God created us, humans, he intended for us to live forever in a loving, peaceful relationship with him. But this relationship has been broken by sin.

Here, we address the origin of sin and look more closely at death and dying.

But, instead of looking at death negatively, we look at it in the context of hope, the promised hope based on what Jesus did for us when he died and came back to life again.

From the Sabbath School Adult Bible Study Guide 2022 Quarter 4: Sabbath.School (See also Hope Sabbath School and 3ABN Sabbath School)

Asking for the Holy Spirit

Holy Father, you are the creator of heaven and earth. But sin has tainted your beautiful creation. Thus, we cannot see clearly.  Give us the ability to distinguish between what matters and what does not matter. In Jesus’ Name Amen

In our previous lessons, Lesson 5 and Lesson 3, we discovered that God has provided us with a Personal Life Coach in the form of the Holy Spirit, who desires to dwell in our body temple. And God has given us an Instructional Manual, the Bible to guide us. It was written by humans who wrote as they were inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit. For more information on the work of the Holy Spirit as our Personal Life Coach, and the Bible, our Instructional Manual, Review Lesson 3 and Lesson 4 at SabbathSchoolDaily.com.

Our world is becoming more chaotic with each passing hour. It is filled with things competing to capture our attention and put within our minds the desire for things we really don’t need.

If not careful these things can steal all of our time and alter our priorities. They also can cause us to make what is unimportant important and make what is important unimportant.

The reality is that this problem is not new. It’s not a product of a global cyber society. For in every age, the people of God have always had to be on guard against Satan’s attempts to divert us, humans, from the things that really matter in life.

If we are not careful, even those who aim to be devoted to our Creator can be in danger of taking their attention off God and placing their focus on the things of this world. I

n the end, these things can’t make us happy. And worse than that they can lead to our spiritual ruin.

Suicide is running rampant among those who seem like they have it all, but they are still not satisfied. That is because, as we have expressed in previous lessons this week, our makeup includes four basic dimensions: the mental, the physical, the social, and the spiritual. When we remove one of those elements, we are not complete.

One of the key elements is spiritual. It involves our relationship with God. Whereby we realize that this earth is a temporary dwelling place that is preparing us to live eternally with Him in a New Heaven and New Earth without pain, sorrow, and death.

But, if we focus our attention on the earthly world, we have the potential to miss out on the heavenly. Thus, what’s important is that we get ready for the Second Coming of Jesus.

Most of us have heard it said that we must prepare for Jesus’ Second Coming. But it is now evident more than ever before that we must get ready and stay ready for Jesus’ Second Coming.

What does it mean to get ready for the Second Coming? 2 Peter 3:14 and 1 John 3:1–3 provides the answer.

II Peter 3:14

14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; (II Peter 3:14)

I John 3:1-3

1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (I John 3:1-3)

It means that we must work on our spiritual dimension. Many people put off or procrastinate in getting ready for the Second Coming. The idea of putting off getting ready for Jesus’ Coming can put us in the attitude of the evil servant which Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24:48-51.

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48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying [a]his coming,’

49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,

50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, (Split)

51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:48-51) (Split)

The evil servant concluded that since Jesus hasn’t come back, He is delaying His coming. He uses this apparent “delay” as an excuse to put off getting ready until a more convenient time.

But the following verses indicate that we need to do otherwise:

 Hebrews 3:7-8

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, (Hebrews 3:7-8)

Hebrews 3:15

15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)

Hebrews 4:7

7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:7) (Split)

What do these verses say:

They say that the time of salvation is always “today” and never tomorrow. Tomorrow may be too late.

The Bible teaches us that we must be ready today. We must accept Jesus and be saved today, and not tomorrow. 

And furthermore, if you think you will change automatically with age, forget it.

Age does not necessarily change bad behavior. So, if you don’t change now, you may never change.

Unless a major conversion experience takes place, we will continue to be what we are right now.

Time does not change the unconverted heart. If anything, unless we are continually growing in grace, and pressing on ahead in faith, the tendency is to fall away, to become hardened, skeptical, cynical, and even disbelieving.

However, Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, changes the unconverted heart. This means that if we desire to change, we must yield our lives to Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

So, what do we do? Every single day we spend it getting ready for Jesus to Come. We continue to grow in faith, in God’s mercy, and in the Knowledge of Jesus.  We keep saying no to sin. We keep praying. We keep obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit our Personal Life Coach and refer daily to our Life Instructional Manual the Bible.

The Sabbath School Quarterly, says it this way: “we can say that every single day of our life is our life in miniature. So, by God’s grace, we should plan for the future but should live each day ready for the return of Jesus—especially because, given the contingencies of this life, today could be our last day.”

Treat today and every day as if it were your last.

Watch Past and Present Lessons at SabbathSchoolDaily.com