The Big
Idea
You must
truly desire help and healing before you can receive them.
1.
Acknowledging the need/hurts
2. Desire
for help
3.
Receiving this help and how they can also ask for help for others
I believe
all of us have our daily needs but beyond that on a deeper level I sense that
many of them are hurting now or know of people who desperately need help so I
pray that we will truly let the Spirit guide us through this lesson and let it
not be our words but his because only he can help us recognize this need and
desire to heal or seek help.
Father
Lord, we acknowledge that you alone are King of our lives and that we are
nothing at all without you but often as we live in this world Father we become fooled
into thinking we got to do things on our own, we have to stand up for ourselves
because no one else will. So Father God we try to hide our needs and bury our
pains but Lord you see into the depths of our hearts so please reveal to us the
areas in our own lives that we require help and healing. I pray for the desire
to relinquish control especially in those areas so that Lord you can do your
good work. Father grant us this boldness and faith to receive in your son’s
most precious name amen!
Helping
the Helpless
Tuning
questions:
1. Are
there people in your lives that need help? Do you need help? (try to get them
to reflect and think deeper, 5mins)
2. Do you
think the people who smoke/ think they need help?
Okays this
isn’t a compelling story or anything but it is to illustrate this point.
So I
recently met up with my mum’s friend and her daughter(my friend too J). Her daughter is currently studying
in UK and the next time she returns she is going to be staying in an apartment
on her own so it means she would have to do her own cooking and all. Her mum
being a typical Singaporean mother (haha but really Thank God for them!) told
my mum that she was going to buy all sorts of pots and pans like HAPPYCALL J and instruments like the apple
dicer for her so that it would be easier for her. Immediately when she heard
that she shot back and said I don’t need all of that! I am not going to use l
it! I will eat the apple as it is and just cook my meals with whatever I have
there. I know my friend all too well haha she is what the Canto peeps call tee
kee the more she does not see the need for something the more she would refuse
its use.
I believe
in that it is like this for most of us, especially because we are all vying to
prove ourselves as being independent. We do not want people to identify our needs
much less offer help and solutions to our supposed needs.
The saying
goes (in a Hong Kong accent): “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t
make him drink” So even before we look into anything else we must focus on the
pertinent need to acknowledge and desire for help.
(This is
alex butting in)
Or…. We
could use the tuner in the book. The one where by its like a combination of tug
of war and dog and bone. We could have a few rounds of it on the acjc field. Just
thinking it would be nice to get out of the classrooms once in a while.
Ill bring
down all the necessary materials for the games tmr.
The
questions would be from the book.
1)
How
did they feel knowing that there was someone to help them when they need it the
most?
Let us read
John 5:1-15
The book
suggests reading these verses in a popcorn style seems pretty funn you can try
it out J So
basically choose someone to begin reading the first verse and then after the
person finishes reading he or she must immediately call someone else to
continue and so on. You can impose the rule that whoever is slow in calling or
continuing in terms of reading the verses would need to (do a forfeit later or
something)
Into the
Word:
Healing at
the pool
To
understand why people gathered at the pool to be healed you can read John 5:4
it is not in one of the verses that you just read refer to the footnotes below
and you will find it there.
John
5:4 Some manuscripts include here,
wholly or in part, paralyzed—and
they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would
come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such
disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.
Note
that it is not completely certain whether it was a belief of the people at that
time or that God really sent down angels to stir the waters.
But besides that point, let us look to the story of
this man.
Do you think
the man wanted to get well?
Many
of them including us at first glance it seemed as though yeah definitely he
wanted to be well lah I mean he has already been invalid for 38 years and he is
there at the pool (probably quite often) because he wants to be healed right?
But
then when we think about it again if so… then why when Jesus asked him if he
wanted to be healed why didn’t he reach out for help to be carried into the
pool but he just continued to wallow in the fact that he has been lying on the
side lines not being able to do anything about his problem.
The question then is whether it is the case of he
couldn’t get in or didn’t want to get in?
How would you
describe the man’s attitude before Jesus healed him?
We
see that in his reply in v7 shows his is pessimistic attitude, the “I cannot
because of my circumstances attitude”
If so why do
you think he was like that? What was he focused on?
He was probably focused on his own
limitations and thoughts that no one wanted or could help him.
So was he healed because of his faith?
If Jesus did not come along to heal him,
perhaps he would still be wallowing in self pity. So no unlike so many others whom Jesus healed,
was not healed through his faith. Here is the evidence: First, the man was not
seeking Jesus, rather, Jesus found him. Second, Jesus said nothing to him about
his faith healing him as He often did with others when he healed them. (Matt
9:2,29, 15:28, Mark 1:40-42, 2:5,10:52 .. many others) And third, the lame man had no idea who Jesus
was, even after he'd been healed. When he first conversed with Jesus, he wasn't
looking to Him as someone who could heal him. In his mind, Jesus was no
different than any other person present.
Besides the fact that he was lame do you think that
there are other areas in his life that he also required healing?
Yes, probably
also why Jesus came back in v14-15 and told him to “stop sinning or something
worse may happen to you”. So the man definitely had a problem on a deeper level
besides his physical handicap his soul was also handicapped.
Often in the
study of psychology they do not take physiological symptoms lightly because
often these presenting symptoms are just a way in which the body alerts a
person that there is a deeper problem. So in the same way the reason why this
man may be invalid could have been because he was sinning in some way or
another and Jesus knew that he also required spiritual healing for that. (He
came to meet him a second time!) Also what is worse than being invalid is being
separated from God for all of eternity!
( ALEX BUTTING
IN WITH HIS BIG BUTT again…..)
Another thing
is also what struck me in cell today, about ken saying how God is more
concerned about our growth rather than things of this earth like whether we get
that good job we always wanted or the girl of our dreams. I mean he is
concerned about all those things as well, and definitely he wants us to be
happy. His main focus is our inner man, to be more changed each day to look
like Christ. (Romans 8:29). Must reemphasize
to our youths what God is primarily concerned about.
What are you
waiting for?
Let’s say if you knew a good friend who could help
you fix a problem you had what would you do?
Try to fix it yourself? Google for a
remedy? Ignore it? Ask your friend to help you?
It seems so easy to just ask your friend for help because you trust
him/her and you know that he/ she would definitely try to help you.
Luke 5:12-16
(The Man with leprosy)
God wants to
help us but are we willing to admit to needing help? Can we trust in this friend our savior to
help us with whatever we need?
Just knock on
the door
How would you
get your friend’s attention when you are at his/her doorstep?
Stand outside
and just wait? Try all keys that you have to unlock the door? Make super
annoying noises? Or just ring the bell?
(knock)
Matt 7:7-11
Split up into
groups (as small as possible to facilitate deep sharing)
Are there areas in your life that you feel you have
been trying to cover up hurts/needs with physical excuses or any other type of
excuses? (For eg. Telling people and yourself that you are
just tired but in fact your soul is the one that is actually numbed)
Do you have friends that you know of that are in
need of physical/ spiritual healing?
If you are not able to draw them into a deeper
level at least get them to think about what God has blessed them with when they
needed help and how in turn we should help others too.
John 4:14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed,
the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling
up to eternal life.”
-note that this water: is the spirit that we have in us John
7:37-39 and it is enough to satisfy us beyond that it is supposed to well up
and in other versions it describes it to be like a fountain so we too must let
it overflow into the lives of others! Perhaps it is a perfect gateway to sharing
this gift of living water too:D
Pray for one another.
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