February 2, 2011

Lesson Series: Relationships, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly


Lesson: Session 1: "Friendships"




Tonight we focused on Mark 2:1-12:


"ž1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven. ž 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” 


________________________


The students were challenged to look at the example set by the friends of this paralyzed man who carried him all the way to Jesus and we discussed 3 characteristics of the men that we should look for in our friendships and how we are a friend to others.


1. The really cared about their friend.

• These men not only carried him to where Jesus was, they carried him UP ON THE ROOF and then DUG A HOLE in the roof to lower him down to Jesus - WOW! This is not something that I think we should just overlook- these guys REALLY cared about their friend and went to the extreme for him.
• We need friends like this in our lives... it is crucial! We need friends who will go the extra mile for us and we need to be a friend that goes that extra mile for our friends.

2. They understood and believed Jesus could heal him

• The verses tell us that it was THEIR faith Jesus looked at before He healed the man. They went through all that work to get him there... they really had to have believed Jesus could heal him. 
• We need other friends in our lives that believe in Christ- friends we can call up and ask to pray for us or share what Christ is doing in our lives with. We all should have at least ONE good Christian friend who can hold us accountable and to who we can hold accountable as well.

3. They brought their friend to Jesus

• They carried their friend to Jesus- literally. A lot of times we lose track of this point in our friendships. We have friends who we have never invited to church- ever. These friends show us that good Christian friends want to see their friends have that relationship as well and so they bring them to Christ however they can.
• The Bible verses do not say if the man became a follower of Christ or not (though we would assume so because of the magnitude of what had happened to him), but we do know that his life was changed COMPLETELY because of what Christ did- and it only happened because his friends brought him to Jesus in the first place.
• We need to keep this in mind and invite our friends to church, Bible Study, etc. We need to be telling our friends about Jesus- through our words AND our actions.

The students were encouraged to not be THAT friend who causes each other to fall.

We also briefly discussed Ecclesiastes 10:1: "Dead flies in perfume make it stink."

• This relates to our friendships in the fact that if we let certain negative and bad things into our lives (through friendships) we can ruin something nice- something that smells really good. We've got to get the "flies" out of our lives if we really desire to have good friendships that are worth something- and if we want our lives to really glorify Christ!

Challenge for the Week:

žInvite at least one friend with you to youth group next week…. Don’t just say “hey come with me to youth group but REALLY invite them and keep trying to get them to come until you are absolutely sure they cannot come.