Sabbath School 2026 Q 1 Lesson 2 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

♪♪♪ Eric Flickinger: Welcome to "Sabbath School," brought to you by It Is Written. Glad that you're joining us today. We are taking look at some fascinating books in the New Testament. We're looking at "Uniting Heaven and Earth" and finding Christ in the books of Philippians and Colossians, fascinating study. And this week, we are looking at lesson number 2, "Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer." We're glad you're with us, let's begin with prayer. Father, we're grateful to be here today as we continue to learn more about Christ through the writings of Paul in the books of Philippians and Colossians. We ask that You'll bless us today as we learn more about Him and more about Your desire to have close relationship with us as well. We thank You, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we're also glad, in addition to having you with us, to have the author of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson with us as well, and that is Dr. Clinton Wahlen. He is an associate director of the Biblical Research Institute. His expertise is in the areas of New Testament and hermeneutics. Clinton, welcome, we're glad you're here. Clinton Wahlen: Thank you, Eric. It's great to be here. Eric: So we are taking journey now. This is lesson number 2 of 13 that we're going to be doing together, looking at Philippians and Colossians. And this week, we're looking at "Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer." It's interesting when you take look at Paul's letters, he often begins his letters with greeting. Let's kind of unpack that greeting little bit and see if it can help us understand thanksgiving and prayer for this week's lesson. Clinton: All right, well, of course, Philippians 1, verse 2 says, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." And it's interesting, Eric, that this greeting, as Paul's greetings generally do, combine ideas that we find in the Greek world and also in the world of Israel of the first century, and even far beyond that. Grace was typical greeting, you know, when they would say "chaire" in Greek. That would be like "hello" or "greetings." And that's the word Paul uses here in Greek. And in Hebrew environment, in Israel, "shalom," even today, is common greeting, and that means "peace." So he combines greetings that the Greeks would be familiar with and Jews would be familiar with, and it--already, it's reminder that the church is combination of everyone-- Gentiles, Jews, everyone. And it's for everyone. Eric: And so just in the introductory verses of this, we're seeing this theme that we're exploring throughout the quarter here in Philippians and Colossians, and, of course, as you said, in Paul's other writings as well. There's an interesting passage here in Philippians, chapter 1, just little bit beyond where-- what we were just talking about, in verses 3 through 8. And want to read those verses because Paul expresses some-- his thankfulness for many things. And his thankfulness might be little different than some of the things we find ourselves thankful for on regular basis, but maybe there's something we can learn from this. So let me read Philippians 1, verses 3 through 8. He says, thank my God upon every remembrance of you, "always in every prayer of mine making request "for you all with joy, "for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day "until now, being confident of this very thing, "that He who has begun good work in you "will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; "just as it is right for me to think this of you all, "because have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains "and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, "you all are partakers with me of grace. "For God is my witness, how greatly long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ." So he's thankful for lot of things. Walk us through some of these things that he's thankful for. Clinton: All right, sure. Well, the first thing is that he's thankful for the Philippians. You know, he established the church in Philippi. They were close to his heart, as he reminds us right here, as were all the churches to which he wrote, even Colossae, which he never visited in person. He says, "You don't know me in the flesh." It was raised up by someone else. But he has this personal connection, and that's so important for Paul and for the church being established and really also today. You know, the fellowship that he refers to here, or "koinonia" in Greek, in verse 5: "your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." You know, this is--this talks about the common bond that we have with--through Jesus, that the differences that we have melt away as we are one in Christ, and that's so important. And it's interesting to me that he focuses not on himself, although at the very end he does talk about his chains, and yet it's almost like he's thanking God for his chains, because he's able to--and we'll get into this more as we look further at the book of Philippians, but he's looking to the defense and confirmation of the gospel that he has opportunity to do, even in--as prisoner in Rome. Eric: So these are things that--I'll speak on your behalf for the sake of argument. If we found ourselves in prison, if we found ourselves in difficult--the natural response would probably not be, thank You that I'm in these chains, in these difficulty, in this prison." That's not the natural human response to trials and difficulties and tribulations. And yet, Paul seems to be able to find, even in those challenges, things to be thankful for. Clinton: Absolutely, and you might recall that, you know, when they were in Philippi, Paul and Silas, they were put in prison there. And instead of complaining, as many of the other prisoners no doubt did, and arguing and fighting, Paul and Silas are singing hymns of praise to God, so much so that--so different, of course, that the jailer, his attention was arrested, and, eventually, he was converted to the faith of the gospel and faith in Christ. So this is actually vivid example of what it means where Jesus is uniting heaven and earth, that He is, through us, He is imparting to the people around us an idea of what heaven is like and what He wants our life to be like. Eric: And so we've got keyhole view of it here, just-- and these are the introductory statements or comments that Paul makes in this book. And already this idea, like you said, of uniting heaven and earth, they're coming together for us to understand. He continues with his prayer in verses 9 through 11. Let me read those. And he kind of-- he dwells on something similar and yet little bit different. Verse 9, he says, "And this pray, "that your love may abound still more and more "in knowledge and all discernment, "that you may approve the things that are excellent, "that you may be sincere and without offense "till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits "of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and the praise of God." So what are some takeaways that you think Paul wanted us to walk away with as he's writing? Of course, he's writing to the church in Philippi, but by extension to us, lessons for us to learn. What does he want us to learn from those verses? Clinton: Well, again, Eric, it is imbued with the love of Jesus, what it is like to walk with Him. So he talks about their love, which, of course, comes from God. God is love. He's the source of all love. Everything we know about love on earth has nothing, really-- connection with God, necessarily, because love can mean many different things to different people. But God's love is special. It's gift. It's gift from heaven. And so this is something that they experienced, and Paul wants them to experience even more. like that because we will never get enough of God's love. Even once we are in heaven and face-to-face with the Lord, we will still understand more deeply, more profoundly through the ages of eternity what God's love means. And so this prayer is asking that that grow. But notice that it is to grow in special sense: in knowledge and in all discernment. It's not just vague, vacuous kind of, you know, feeling of love, but it actually has to do with the knowledge of God. That's how we know what love is, how He has dealt with us. have to say, you know, that learned more about what it means to be father--being father of two children--from God than from any earthly father because how He's treated me, and that's wonderful privilege. You know, we may not know father that is Christian. You know, many may not have Christian father, may not have Christian example, model, but we have wonderful model through our heavenly Father. And so Paul tells us that we need to know Him, to know Jesus, and through that, we also would understand discernment, that we would know and be able to distinguish what is harmful from what is spiritually helpful. Of course, we learn that most of all, most clearly, through God's Word. Eric: And you look at the world around us today, and there is wide range of understandings of what is right and what is wrong. And to great extent, people are making those decisions based on their own ideas rather than having an objective standard, which, obviously the Bible would be that standard that we would-- should go by, but not everybody does. beautiful picture here of God wanting us to know Him better and Christ better through His words so that we can have that discernment. Clinton, we're looking right now at "Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer," and the lesson study is fantastic. It goes through lot of things. But there's more to this than what we've been able to--or what you've been able to get in the lesson study. So there is companion book to this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson. Why might somebody want to pick that companion book up? What's in chapter 2 that goes along with our lesson number 2 that would help us to understand reasons for thanksgiving and prayer little bit more clearly and thoroughly? Clinton: Well, of course, Eric, there's lot more in the book than can be covered in the lesson in such short space. And so, in connection with prayer, there are actually scientific studies that have been done about the benefits of prayer. And in the book, it outlines number of them. I'll just share few of them. Prayer has been found to make people less angry, less aggressive. It helps us see situations in new light. It calms us. It has calming effect. You know, if we're agitated, stressed, prayer, it reduces our blood pressure. It calms our heart rate. It improves our relationships with others and with God, of course, because we're--you know, praying to Him. It can lift our mood and make us more positive people, give us greater sense of connection not only with God, but with our values and what's really important to us and to connection with other people, and it gives us tolerance of others and also even physical pain. So prayer has been found, you know, to even alleviate pain. It's interesting, isn't it? Eric: So that gives us little bit more information of what's in that companion book. If you are interested in the companion book-- and would encourage you to pick it up-- it's very easy to do. Just go to itiswritten.shop. Again, that's itiswritten.shop. And look for the companion book to this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson. You'll wanna pick it up, and you will be blessed by what you find in it. Each quarter--or, pardon me, each chapter goes through in greater detail what you're studying in each week of the "Sabbath School" lesson. We're going to be back in just moment as we continue to look at "Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer" here on "Sabbath School," brought to you by It Is Written. John Bradshaw: There's something want to tell you about that is so important. It's My Place With Jesus, It Is Written's ministry to children. Take the children you care about to myplacewithjesus.com. At My Place With Jesus, you'll find so much that will bless your children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren or the children at church. There are the My Place With Jesus Bible Guides, 21 studies that will take the children you care about into the Word of God. They'll learn the important things, especially the love of God and the sacrifice Jesus made for them. As well, take your children to Journey Through the Bible. It's there at myplacewithjesus.com. It's special Bible-reading program that will get children into the habit of reading their Bible daily and connecting with God regularly. So, don't forget: myplacewithjesus.com from It Is Written. Eric: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," brought to you by It Is Written. We're looking at lesson number 2 of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson looking at "Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer." Clinton, we talked before the break little bit about Paul and Silas and their attitude while being in prison. What can we learn from Paul about his--he spent some, fair bit of time in prison, one prison or another. It was regular habit of his, if we can call it that. But he had an attitude that might be very different from the average person's attitude about being in prison. Talk with us little bit about that. Clinton: Well, it's interesting. First of all, he was not afraid of prison. He was not afraid, it seems, of just about anything because he had Jesus. And that was the key for Paul and for all of us, really. In Philippians 1, beginning with verse 12, he says, want you to know, brethren, that the things "which happened to me have actually turned out "for the furtherance of the gospel, "so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ." So Paul, far from lamenting the fact that, mean, obviously he can't travel; he's under house arrest. It's not exactly the Mamertine Prison in Rome. We shouldn't, you know, think that he's, you know, in dark, dank prison. That's not where he is, as was mentioned already in lesson 1. But he is not able to travel. He's not able to visit the churches and the people that mean so much to him. He's not able to do many things. And yet, he recognizes that this is providential, that he is meeting people. He--there are guards that are changed regularly and every four hours. And he's able then to meet with many of them that he would never otherwise meet. We know also that he even has touched Caesar's household through this imprisonment. And so he recognizes that even these things can be blessing and actually further God's purposes. Eric: So not every time something quote, unquote "bad" happens to us is it necessarily bad thing. You know, it all--much of it depends on how we respond to it. And Paul said, "Even though I'm in chains, "even though I'm imprisoned, "there are opportunities here that might never have had if still had my freedom." And there are probably some challenges that we face. Maybe we're not in prison-- maybe you are in prison, and God's giving you opportunities. But for those of us who, at least at this particular point in time, are on the outside of the bars, there are other challenges that we face in life, maybe an illness that we have to go into the hospital, and there's long treatment regimen, and it's difficult and challenging. But God's giving us the opportunity to maybe reach some other patients in there, maybe some of the medical staff in there, so we can learn something from Paul and the challenges that he faced. Clinton: Absolutely, mean, I'll be the first to say don't like bad things happening to me. And always--don't always respond as would wish. Sometimes think, man, why did say that?" Or--you know, and, in fact, many times, it has worked out to just the opposite of what thought, that there was good things that came out of it. But we only see that later. And so we need to trust God through everything. Eric: Clinton, in understanding some of the things that Paul has gone through and the challenges that he's facing, he asks for some things, asks God for some things on behalf of the Colossians. What are some of those things that he asks for for them? Clinton: Well, yeah, he asks for some significant things. First of all, he asks for their focus to be on heaven and the hope that is before-- this is verse 5-- and the truth of the gospel, because this is what anchors us spiritually as Christians. It's knowing Christ, knowing His Word, and knowing the hope that we have through Him. And all of these, you know, when you think about it, he has faith, hope, and love that are mentioned there. And, you know, Paul also refers to that, of course, in the great chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. These are gifts, these are heavenly gifts. And we've talked little bit about love already. Faith is what we also receive. It's gift. It's not something that we generate. It's not just mere intellectual belief. Sometimes we get that confused. We think, you know, need to think things correctly." And that's true, but faith goes beyond that. It's trusting of God. It's placing of our life in His hands. like to tell young people that have, from the beginning of my faith in Christ, have always placed my future in God's hands, and have never been sorry. He has planned for me far better than could ever dream, and that's true. So faith is wonderful gift. It relieves us of worry about the future because we know tomorrow is in God's hands. He holds it in His hands, and He has our best interests in mind. Eric: You know, especially you mentioned young people. run into many young people. I'm hardly young people myself anymore. Back in the day was, now not so much. But lot of young people are worried about the future, what it looks like, whether they're going to be able to get the job that they want. What about the economy and the challenges that we face? What about finding the right person? There don't seem to be so many people out there as potential spouse who meet the standards that they have. They spend lot of time worrying about the future. And, to be fair, those of us in the advanced years probably do, too. But when you face the future with that perspective, that God's got it-- "What happens if get fired?" God's got it. "What happens if get sick?" God's got that, too. "What happens if my children wander away from the faith?" God's got that as well. That doesn't mean we don't care about things, but it does mean we kind of settle into trust relationship with Him. Does that sound about right? Clinton: Absolutely, yes. We believe that God knows the end from the beginning. And like--there's statement that has meant lot to me: "God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose "to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning "and discern the glory of the purpose... they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him." mean, God does have this. He sees so much more than we can, and we can trust Him, absolutely. Eric: And like that last portion of the statement, that we are coworkers with Him, even in the challenges and uncertainty that we face. And that's powerful. So let's talk for moment. We've got just few minutes left in our program this week. How do we know what God's will for us is? And this is like--this is the big overarching question in life. What is God's will for each and every person? It's--and we're trying to solve this in the four minutes we have left, which is not going to be quite long enough, but we'll at least take crack at it. So, help us to understand, what is God's will? Clinton: Well, God's will is written, of course, in His Word. And so, most of all, it's through knowing His Word that we understand God's will, and it's living Word. have been continually impressed as read the Bible. You know, study the Bible for living. What wonderful job, right? And yet, see new things all the time. think, "How did not see that before?" And so God gives us insights for what we need when we need them as we study His Word. We should not be afraid of it. He's also given us wisdom through the Holy Spirit, through prophets. We're told, "Believe in the Lord your God, "so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper." And that continues all the way up through the last days. There's promised prophetic gift and insights that He promises in the book of Revelation for that, as well as His leading in our lives. We need to discern--this is part of the spiritual discernment we were referring to earlier, that we would see God's hand, His leading, and the reasons why. You know, sometimes our prayers may not be answered exactly how we expect them to, but as we look for indications of God's providence, we can see, "Okay, yeah, this is His will." And, of course, the Holy Spirit is our guide. He's our Helper, Jesus says. He would send another Helper like Himself that would be with us always. So through these gifts of God, we learn His will. Eric: And that does take lot of the guesswork out of it when we have something that we can say, "Okay, here is how God actually does lead." And so we need to be familiar with His Word. We need to be open to hearing what He shares in His Word to find His will. We need to be open to the moving of the Holy Spirit and set aside lot of our own desires and say, "Okay, Lord, what is Your desire for me and for my life?" That can be challenge. It can be real challenge. Clinton: It can be, and it can be these big things. It can also be little things. You know, we can--we shouldn't be afraid to bring little things to God. Just this last week, for example--I'm runner. like to run. And have this--it's an interesting vest that has two large sacks of water. And as was running this past week, one of the nozzles fell off. And I--you know, it's pretty expensive. didn't want to replace it. And so was praying, "Lord, help me to find this." And went back, stopped immediately, looked, didn't find it. The next day, my wife and both, we prayed, we went out and looked for it, we didn't find it, and just as was giving up-- you know, we had decided, okay, you know, the leaves were falling, you know, and it was different from what it was the day before. As I--we were walking back, glanced over to the left, and there it was. It just jumped out at me. said, "Thank you, Lord." You know, prayer answered. So, you know, we need to just recognize--and took that to mean, okay, rely on God. You know, we can search, we can put all our efforts into things, but it's--we need to rely on God ultimately. Just rest in Him. Eric: And sometimes it's those little things, like the nozzle on vest, that kind of open our minds to what God is capable of doing in the big things in life. And we trust and hope that you are finding that to be the case in your life as well. This quarter, we are looking at how God unites heaven and earth. We're looking at the books of Philippians and Colossians, the experience that Paul has had with his friend, the God of heaven, and we trust and pray that it will be blessing to you as well. God bless you, have wonderful week. We will see you again next week as we continue studying here on "Sabbath School," brought to you by It Is Written. ♪♪♪