The objective of this lesson is to deepen your students' awareness of this truth: the Christian uses God to define life; he or she does not use physical existence to define life. He or she is not owned by physical existence. He or she does not wish to be owned by physical existence. Life's purpose is to serve God's purposes. The Christian allows God to form and shape him or her into Jesus' image. Life's purpose is not to serve physical desires. He or she will not allow physical comfort to form and shape him or her. For the Christian, life's purpose is to serve, not to create physical comfort, enjoy physical comfort, and sustain physical comfort. In every age, people who belong to God understand this truth: they neither belong to this world nor in this world. They belong exclusively to God. Life with God in God's world is superior in every consideration to the pleasures and comforts of this physical world.
"Don't get too comfortable!" When do you hear that statement? In America it is used to caution a person unexpectedly enjoying circumstances ordinarily not available to him or her. Your superior at work is temporarily away. In his or her absence, you are asked to move into "the big office" and care for some of the duties. It is a major step up for you! You enjoy the best work situation you ever experienced. A coworker stops by "the big office" and says with concern, "Don't get too comfortable!"
You live in a $50,000 home. Your family uses combined efforts to meet financial obligations. As a Christian, you are a trustworthy, dependable person. An acquaintance who lives in a $250,000 home places a lot of confidence in you. Necessity requires him to be on a trip for a month. He asks you and your family to "house sit" while he is gone. You agree. In that month your children discover luxuries they did not know existed. They enjoy themselves so much that you caution, "Don't get too comfortable!"
What does "Don't get too comfortable!" mean? Do not regard a temporary circumstance as a permanent situation.
Note: you might want your class to share typical ways that Christians "get too comfortable" in physical life. "Getting too comfortable" results in the Christian's being more concerned about enjoying or sustaining physical existence than serving God's purposes.
American Christians suffer some of their most powerful struggles because they "get too comfortable." Circumstances and situations that oppose godly behavior entice them. We physically exist in a complex, complicated situation. Christians want to be God's light to people who live in darkness, but we do not want to fall in love with darkness. Christians want to reach out to those who are ruled by evil, but we do not want to fall to "the pleasures of sin." Christians live in a world that has fallen to the forces that oppose God, but we do not want to oppose God.
In America this struggle is intensified by our concern for comfort. Our standard of living is comfortable. Our homes are comfortable. Our transportation is comfortable. Our lifestyle is comfortable. Our ambitions include the determination to maintain or increase our level of comfort. Being physically comfortable is good. Being physically uncomfortable is bad.
A significant criteria for our church buildings is comfort. An important consideration in every physical decision concerning the church building is comfort. The temperature should provide our bodies comfort. The pews should provide comfortable seating. The acoustics should provide comfortable sound. The aesthetics should provide comfort for our eyes. The carpet should provide the comfort of quiet. The assembly length should be comfortable. The comfort of the physical circumstances powerfully impact the quality of our worship.
Note: you might want to have your class share their thoughts about why Americans and American Christians attach so much significance to physical comfort.
People from third world and poverty stricken countries would look at our homes and church buildings with eyes we do not have. They would look at our lifestyles, our homes, and our church buildings and conclude we consider this life permanent. Our devotion to physical comfort and material well being suggests that we belong here and plan to stay.
Once two African ministers who were friends visited in our home for a few days. When I lived in their country, I appreciated "windows" into their culture. Since the practices surrounding death and burial are so different, I took them to a funeral home to explain our practices. They were astounded by our expensive, elaborate burial practices. They repeatedly asked, "Do Americans think they will use their physical body again?"
Note: people in poverty stricken countries can see our preoccupation with or addiction to physical comfort better than we can see it.
Many things suggest that we American Christians have settled in this world.
Note: the class might wish to discuss some things that indicate that Christians have settled in the physical world.
Read 1 John 2:15-17.
Christians should not love this world or the things in this world. The key is understanding what it means to love. Love declares significance, establishes priority, and determines value.
When a Christian loves the world [that which defies God, God's rule, and God's direction], the Father's love is not in him or her.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the arrogant [boastful] pride of life do not come from God. The lust of the flesh concerns the strong, controlling desires of the physical body. The lust of the eye concerns the strong, controlling physical imaginations that create our dreams and visions. We long for the physical possibilities of our visions to be our physical reality. The pride of life concerns the boastful arrogance that measures significance by material considerations.
This physical existence and its controlling desires move toward extinction.
The person who does God's will shall live forever.
Read 1 John 3:1-3.
The incredible thing that God gave us is His love.
God allows us to be called His children. God made us, yet He wants to relate to us as His children.
The world does not recognize us because we are God's children. Our commitment is to look like and act like our Father. The world that opposes God has never known God. Neither does it know those who behave and act as would God. The more our priorities, moral values, and ethical principles move toward God, the less the world recognizes and understands us.
Christians are God's children.
We cannot grasp what we will become when we live in God's world with Him.
We will be like God. We will assume our spiritual bodies in our resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15:35-49). Just as the resurrected Jesus has the body of God, so shall we (see Matthew 17:2,3).
Jesus is our only hope for experiencing life with God in our spiritual body. Those who place their hope in Jesus purify themselves in Jesus and commit themselves to a pure existence as defined by Jesus.
Read Hebrews 11:13-16.
The people of faith mentioned prior to these verses are Able (verse 4), Enoch (verse 5), Noah (verse 7), Abraham (verse 8), and Sarah (verse 11).
They confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. People of faith knew [they understood] that they did not belong to this physical realm.
They made it clear that they were seeking a country of their own. They wanted to live where they belonged. They did not belong to the world of physical existence. They were not understood by the people of the world of physical existence. Physical existence is merely a time of transition.
At any time they decided that they wanted to settle in and belong to this physical world and physical existence, opportunity existed for them to return to a life that made this existence "their country." They sought a country in which they belonged because of their desire, not out of their necessity.
They desired a heavenly country [in contrast to a physical country in this physical world]. God is not ashamed to be called their God. To be known as the God of these people is not an embarrassment to God. God has prepared a city for them. God made a place for them to live wherein they belong.
The more we think and act like Jesus, the less we think and act like the ungodly. The more we are like Jesus, the less we belong in this world. Because we belong to God, we want to live where God is. Nothing physical life in this evil world offers us can change our desire. Our goal is not physical comfort in this world. Our goal is eternal comfort with God in His world. As Christians, perhaps we need to be reminded, "Don't settle and get comfortable in this world."
Close by making this point: the more we become like Jesus, the more we become like God. The more we are like Jesus and God, the less we "fit" in this physical world.
Link to Student Guide
Quarter 3, Lesson 12