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Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Mark Finley

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

03 Life and Death

04 Unity Through Humility

05 Shining as Lights in the Night

06 Confidence Only in Christ

08 The Preeminence of Christ

09 Reconciliation and Hope

10 Complete in Christ

11 Living With Christ

These lessons are just speeding by on Philippians and Colossians, deep spiritual truths that are life transformational.

What does it mean to put off the old man and put on the new man?

What does it mean to be a new man, a new woman in Christ?

What does it mean to die to self and be raised again in Christ?

And what does it mean to set the mind on things above and seek eternal heavenly values?

Those questions are answered in our lesson today.

So let's pray and then delve right into the topic.

Father in heaven, we thank you with all of our hearts for the opportunity to serve you.

We thank you that we can study about what it means to set our affections on things above and not on things on earth.

We're thankful that this lesson is a practical lesson that helps us to draw closer to you.

So draw us close to your heart, we pray in Jesus' name.

You know, have you ever heard the saying, you better not be so heavenly minded or else you will be no earthly good?

Well, that's true of course, but there's the opposite side of that coin too, isn't there?

What if you're so earthly minded, you're not much heavenly good for the Lord.

And so this lesson focuses on what it means to be heavenly minded.

Our memory text is found in Colossians 3 verse 14, but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

There are a lot of people that talk about perfection today.

Perfection is coming before God with an undivided heart, so our hearts are open to receive his love.

We love the things of eternity, therefore we choose not to indulge in earthly pleasures which are destructive to spiritual life.

There are some things of this earth, of course, that are perfectly innocent, but there are many that destroy our spiritual lives.

We jump right into Sunday's lesson, Colossians 3.1-4.

Let's go over it verse by verse, phrase by phrase.

If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God." What does it mean to be risen with Christ?

It means that just as Jesus went into the tomb and was resurrected from the dead to live a new life, so we make a choice to rise with Christ from our grave of sinfulness and to have our minds focused on his death, his resurrection, his high priestly ministry.

To rise with Christ means that we focus on things above, not on things on earth.

That our mindset has changed, that our thought patterns are changed, that our way of thinking is changed.

We are focusing now on eternity, not simply this life, its sins, its pleasures, its corruptness, its earthliness.

Notice what Paul says, if you then be risen with Christ, verse 1, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on earth.

The question is, where is your affection?

What do you love to do in your spare time?

What we do in our spare time, what we talk about indicates what we really love.

So the scripture says, set your affection.

The word set has to do with a conscious choice.

So choose to place your affection, that is the deepest love of your heart on things above, verse 3, for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

So when we are dead to the sinful nature of this world, our lives are hid with Christ in God.

Jesus presents us before the Father just as if we'd never sinned, and he imparts to us deep spiritual realities so that constantly our minds are drawn out to him.

The Holy Spirit impresses us with heavenly thoughts.

The power of the living Christ comes into our lives from the sanctuary above.

Then verse 4, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then we shall also appear with him in glory.

Paul's interesting in verse 4 because what he does in the first 3 verses is he urges us to have the mindset of eternity.

If our minds and our hearts are focused on eternity and we live heaven's values here, we are ready for the experience in verse 4, when Christ appears, we shall appear with him in glory.

Notice the note under the second paragraph and the third paragraph in Sunday's lesson.

Instead, only through a miracle of grace.

You see, our minds can be changed only through a miracle of grace.

We can't change our thoughts, but God can.

We can't change our mindset, but God can.

We can't change the way that we view life, but God can.

So instead, only through a miracle of grace whereby we died with Christ and were raised with him, figuratively pictured by baptism is it possible to draw nearer to heaven.

The next paragraph is the 1 that is very interesting.

Notice that from the beginning of Colossians 3, the repeated emphasis is on what's above.

That is, that there is in heaven those things which are above, where Christ is, things above, with Christ in God, with him in glory.

You notice that all through Colossians 3, 1-4.

The question then becomes, where do you choose to place your thoughts?

Is your deepest desire to have a sweet, loving relationship with the 1 that created you, the 1 that redeemed you, the 1 that is interceding for you, and the 1 that's coming again for you.

We jump into Monday's lesson, End Earthliness.

I thought it was kind of interesting that first paragraph.

We hear many slogans today, end war, end deforestation, end nuclear weapons, but 1 we hardly ever hear, probably never have heard is end earthliness.

It doesn't fit with our sensibilities of this world.

There's nothing wrong, of course, with the desire to end war, we want to do that, or end deforestation, or end nuclear weapons, they're all good things, but the most important thing is to end earthliness so that our hearts and minds are united with God and our minds are 1 with God.

Colossians 3 verses 5 and 6, The question is, under Monday's lesson, how do we experience what it means to be dead to self and to earthliness and alive to those things that are above?

Mortify, that is, put to death, therefore your members which are upon the earth.

Fornication is immoral sexual activity before, during, or after marriage.

By during I mean if you have a partner, a lover, somebody other than your wife, that falls under the general heading of fornication.

So fornication is this broad term that has to do with sexual relations before marriage, sexual relations with somebody else other than the 1 you're married to, or sexual relations if you've gone through some trauma in your marriage and you use sexual relations with another person as an excuse to fill a certain need.

You can abuse, a man can abuse a woman outside of marriage using her again as his, to simply accomplish his own pleasure.

That can be talking about, for example, pornography, unclean.

It can be talking about indulging in unclean thoughts, inordinate affection, placing your affection on that which is not a spouse, evil concupiscence, that's evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry, coveting what you don't have.

For which thing's sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience?

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Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

11 Living With Christ

Transcript

Parent Series

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Recorded

Parts

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

26m

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

24m

03 Life and Death

23m

04 Unity Through Humility

26m

05 Shining as Lights in the Night

25m

06 Confidence Only in Christ

23m

08 The Preeminence of Christ

26m

09 Reconciliation and Hope

23m

10 Complete in Christ

25m

11 Living With Christ

25m

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