SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON - APRIL 3RD

Week of April 3 - Look Up to Heaven

Lesson Passages Outline
1. To Know Christ Better (Phil. 3:1,7-11)
2. To Be More Mature in Christ (Phil. 3:12-16)
3. To Serve Christ Well (Phil. 3:17-21)

Introduction - by Eli Landrum, retired from Lifeway Christian Resources in 2000; member of First Baptist Church, Nashville, TN.

If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? This question is used sometimes to encourage people to profess faith in Christ. What if instead we asked questions such as these: If you live for many years more, what quality of character will you take into eternity? For what will your life have counted? What lasting spiritual legacy will you leave?
Everyone accepts—intellectually if not emotionally—that they eventually will die. What they do with their years is crucial. A legitimate question to ask anyone—and most of all ourselves—is: What are you living for? In light of eternity, everything hinges on the answer.
Adults have a wide variety of goals for their lives—goals for their careers, savings, home, and retirement. Yet they may never have thought about goals related to their spiritual lives. If so, they may not have gone beyond wanting to spend eternity in heaven. Such a goal is commendable, and—although it is related to the ideal—it still falls short. The highest possible spiritual goals concern a person’s daily life and doing what will reflect the reality of heaven.