Call to follow (John)
Hi guys,
After a discussion with vicent our team leader. He advised and assured me of a couple of things. Firstly that i should focus on my time from now till the day i fly. I shouldnt be too worried about the mission trip and also making contingency plans for the mission trip as well.
He also assures me that if we were to go ahead with the mission trip, the training will not be so intensive for the youths and the leaders. Thus we would be able to do it after the youth's o lvls, within two months. Yup sooo for the next 3 months, we have two main ideas for the youths.
1) A study on john (the person not the book)
2) Exposure trips: To st luke's elderly care, faith acts and cleaning up the parks. (One for each month)
Somehow i just feel that the youths know God but i just get that feeling like that they dont know know God? Its in their heads not their hearts. This affects the way they treat God's word. The yearning for God isnt there because they havent tasted enough of God's goodness i believe? For me im like that too. I live under this rock in the bottom of the sea, where to me its comfortable and i say to myself this is absolutely lovely. I have a rock chair and a rock tv. Only when God pulled me out of the rock and showed me the wonders of a sponge chair then i was like this.
Now i understand what i was denying myself. (I hope my analogy works)
What do you guys think? Is exposure what our kids really need?
These two main ideas are also in line with our focus for the rest of the year. Which is transformation and harvest. Evangelism doesn't only mean articulating the gospel to people but also living out the gospel in our lives. We hope that through learning more about Jesus through the gospels and the exposure trips to the different places. The youths can apply whatever they learnt from God's word into practice.
Im thinking every month, three weeks book study and one week exposure trip. Waddaya guys think?
Oh oh oh, and vicent also suggests that the girls and guys for ariel's group split from now till i leave. The reason being that the guys require more attention and mentoring.
Ok now the lesson plan for sunday.
A CALL TO FOLLOW
TUNER (10 MINS): Who's the leader?
- Play just three rounds okay!!!
- One person from the group has to go out of the room.
- Form a circle with the rest of the group.
- Designate one person to be the leader.
- Start doing a particular action, scratching your chin etc.
- Invite the poor soul back into the room.
- Finally leader gets to change the action as he or she pleases.
- The poor soul has to stand in the centre and catch the leader.
Bible verses/ stories we are focusing on.
1) Calling of the first disciples (matthew 4:18 to 22)
2) Taking up the cross ( Matthew 16:24 to 26)
Calling of the first disciples.
Read Matthew 4:12- 22
Main point: God is the one who plucked us out of our depraved lives and called us to be his disciples to walk with him.
Notice first in verse 12: The place that Jesus choose to start his ministry was at Galilee.
Matthew Henry: Galilee a remote part of the country, that lay furthest from Jerusalem, as was there looked upon with contempt, as rude and boorish. The inhabitants of that country were reckoned stout men, fit for soldiers, but not polite men, or fit for scholars. Thither Christ went, there he set up the standard of his gospel;
Verse 15: That there are people living in darkness, living in the land of the shadow of death.
Living in darkness: Living without the light, living without God. You can be a good person as the world terms it but still living in the darkness.
Living in the land of the shadow of death: A man that is desperately sick, and not likely to recover, is in the valley of the shadow of death, though not quite dead; so the poor people were on the borders of damnation, though not yet damned-dead in law. And, which is worst of all, they were sitting in this condition. Sitting in a continuing posture; where we sit, we mean to stay; they were in the dark, and likely to be so, despairing to find the way out. And it is a contented posture; they were in the dark, and they loved darkness, they chose it rather than light; they were willingly ignorant. Their condition was sad.
Means they do not see the light, the dont understand what is the light, they cannot appreciate the light and all the wonders it brings. Do we understand how depraved we are? Do we understand the state of the world that we are living in? Are we in a contented posture where we love the dark? Even though we have seen a great light?
Take 3 mins to reflect.
Great light: When the bible uses the term great light. It does not mean a torch in a dark room but a flash bang in a room. A light that is great goes forth in STRENGTH.
Also notice that the light has dawned, it sprung forth. The people living in the darkness did not go and seek or find the light. The light came to them.
Only when we understand how much we have sinned then It makes sense for the next sentence.
Verse 17: Jesus began to preach: Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.
Only when we understand the depths of our sins then we understand that we need to repent.
Take some time to reflect on our lives (3 mins)
This is where Jesus forms his ministry. he calls his first disciples (from verse 18- 22)
Things to note:
1) This is not the first time that the fishermen had met Jesus. They had met Jesus before and also heard about his miracles.
In verse 19, when Jesus calls them.
He called them into a new life. A life with a calling of honour.
Ministers are fishers of men, not to destroy them, but to save them, by bringing them into another element. They must fish, not for wrath, wealth, honour, and preferment, to gain them to themselves, but for souls, to gain them to Christ. They watch for your souls (Heb. 13:17), and seek not yours, but you, 2 Co. 12:14, 16. (2.) It is Jesus Christ that makes them so; I will make you fishers of men. It is he that qualifies men for this work, calls them to it, authorizes them in it, gives them commission to fish for souls, and wisdom to win them. Those ministers are likely to have comfort in their work, who are thus made by Jesus Christ.
He called them into a new life. A life with a calling of honour.
Ministers are fishers of men, not to destroy them, but to save them, by bringing them into another element. They must fish, not for wrath, wealth, honour, and preferment, to gain them to themselves, but for souls, to gain them to Christ. They watch for your souls (Heb. 13:17), and seek not yours, but you, 2 Co. 12:14, 16. (2.) It is Jesus Christ that makes them so; I will make you fishers of men. It is he that qualifies men for this work, calls them to it, authorizes them in it, gives them commission to fish for souls, and wisdom to win them. Those ministers are likely to have comfort in their work, who are thus made by Jesus Christ.
We are these fishers of men as well. It is Jesus who always initiates and shows us the way to abundant life. The logical thing for him to tell us to do is to follow him and leave behind our old life.
Analogy time. You only have one hand. You dad can give you an ice cream cone with 5 scoops of chocolate icecream. But in your hand you have one scoop of licorice flavoured icecream. What would you do? You woud throw that licorice icecream straight down the bin.
ok ill stop here for now.
ok ill stop here for now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment