What Up Crew!!
"See the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need."
Matthew 6:33
I hope all of you are having a terrific Tuesday...I am excited to be back on track with our study. I am thinking about starting a group on Sunday's that would meet during the first service. We would study some of what we go over during the week in "follower"...would any of you be interested in that?
Summary...
We are beginning to get to the part of Matthew where Jesus is simply doing it! How awesome was it to read all of these things that our Lord did. All of the healing that takes place in this chapter I think can be pointed to the very beginning of Matthew 8....where the leper asks Christ to heal him if He (Jesus) is willing. I love the response from our Jesus..."I am willing...be healed!" How awesome is it to serve a God that is always willing and ready and able to heal our sicknesses! To me this one story really shows the compassion side of our Lord and Savior Jesus!
The Roman officer, or the centurion's, faith moved Jesus. Did you understand what Jesus was talking about in verses 10-12? Jesus did not understand why somebody who was not Jewish, this centurion or roman, who often ridiculed the Jews, had so much faith yet religious leaders in the Jewish community did not believe! So He (Jesus), called them out on it! Basically saying that many of you Jews think you will be chillin with your boy Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but your going to miss out. While these gentiles...anyone who is not Jewish, dine with your heroes and chill with me forever in Heaven! I think what concerns me most about this is sometimes I get upset and look down upon people who do not do things the way I do them...we learn from this passage that there is some serious danger in doing that. We can not judge other's hearts, only God can and we must remember that as we walk this earth and live for Him!
Something I noticed that I thought to be so awesome was when Jesus healed Peter's mother-in- law in verse 14...did you notice what she did after she was healed? She served Jesus by cooking Him some grub. Man how cool is that? That is the mission of my life, to serve my Jesus because He has healed me from my disease, sin. Now for the rest of my life I will serve Him as a way of saying thank You Lord!
When you read verses 18-22, you get the sense that Jesus was not into large crowds. Jesus was not looking for a fan club, but followers...devoted followers! He knows that living life His way is not the popular thing to do and its like He took every opportunity to tell people how hard it would be to clear the crowds out...to separate the pretend followers from the real ones. Jesus calls us to be sold out for Him...are you? The one follower wanted to bury his father first before following Jesus...meaning he wanted to collect his inheritance left by his dad first then follow Christ. Jesus said leave him and follow Me...leave what you think you have earned or what you deserve and live a life of sacrifice alongside of me...that is crazy and totally awesome at the same time! I love me some Jesus!
Questions...
- Which one of the healing stories sticks out to you the most in Matthew 8? Why?
- Do you ever struggle to look down upon people because they do things a different way then you? Why do you think we do that?
- One of my favorite stories from the Bible is Matthew 8:23-27, Jesus calming the storm. List some things that would have been running through your head if you were one of the disciples out on the boat during the storm and even after Jesus did His thing?
- List a verse, it does not need to be from Matthew, that you think we should memorize together.
Lord Jesus thank You for being our great Healer! Thank You for being able and ready, willing Lord to take away my sins! I will forever be grateful for all that You have done for me, and I will give the rest of my life for You and Your Kingdom because You have first loved me! Lord Jesus thank You for being Holy and Sovereign over my life today. I want to stand in awe of You Lord, You are so Great and Glorious God! There is none like You Father! I trust in You, I believe in You and I need You so badly Lord. Please lead and guide my life today Lord. Help me to die to self, and the things I want. Help me to lay aside my agenda for Yours. I trust Your plans for my life, I ask You to be in control of my tongue and my mind. Lead me out of and away from temptation today. Hold me tightly in the truth of Your Holy Word! Jesus bless my friends as they study You. Bless fusion, our community Lord! Use us to bring change to this world God. We want to be apart of a revolution, a generation that would rise up for the cause and Name of your Son, Jesus Christ! Lord we surrender to You, be with us today I pray!!! I love You Lord...
In Jesus Name...Amen!
tom
6 comments:
Hey hey whats going on fellow followers! I would LOVE to meet up as a group during first service to go over Follower study. I think it would help us all out with the extra questions we have or the sense of just having somewhat like a review of the week.
Out of all the stories in Matthew 8 i think the one that stands out the most to me that i like is the one of Jesus healing the man with Leprosy. I love how the man just comes before Jesus ever so humbly and says "Lord if you are willing, you can heal me." Thats just awesome! To me it seems like the guy doesnt even go to Jesus expecting to be healed! What a way to live all out by just giving it all to Jesus in a sense whether you think he will help or not....But we all know one way or another Jesus will help. I just love how i can relate in so many ways to the man with leprosy and just going before Jesus(in my case praying..) and just saying "Lord if you are willing.." I stand in awe of that!
I catch myslef sometimes looking down upon people because they dont do things the way i do them. For example it use to be bad before but now i have more grace, but my father who isnt a follower, i would always get mad when he would try to throw a religious remark into a conversation and he didnt know what he was talking about. Now though, i have learned whether it is my dad or someone else who does things different than me i need to show them extra grace and just love on them like Jesus loved us. Just like Jesus says in John 13:34, love each other just as i have loved you. I think we all need to remember that verse as a "life" verse just like Matthew 7:7-8.
During the storm i think i may have been a little nervouse. I personally feel like i would have had more faith because if all i did was follow Jesus and watch him do miraculous things and cast out demons i would think he would keep us all safe from a storm especially since he was in the boat with us all. After Jesus would calm the storm i think i would stop everything i was doing or in the middle of and worship Him with all of my heart and soul!
I personally found myself thinking of Philippians 4:6-
"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything.Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all that he has done."
Id say it was one of my first verses i memorized and i remember it was Tom, Dustin, Lauren, Drew, Luke and I sitting at Checkers and i told them i think i have it down and i resited it. Ever since i challenge myself to not worry about anything at all and give it to God because he can take care of it all.
Lord thank you so much for what you are doing in my life and my friends' lives. Please keep us all under your wing and focused on living for you! The past couple studies Lord you have made me sit here in awe of you and Lord thats what i want it to be like everyday. Help me stay hungry for you 24/7. Lord i want to be the change that IS going to stand up and share the Good News with all the world. I love you and thank you so so much for all that you are doing in my life!
In Jesus' name...Amen
Enjoy!
Ryan
"Seek first the Kingdom, above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." -Matthew 6:33
The healing of the madmen when Jesus sent their demonic spirits into the pigs and when the pigs commit suicide and drowned. I thought that was intense. I did more research on why the people would be so mad. Turns out the pigs are not supposed to be in Jewish hands and Jesus just told them to depart. The demons realized that 1)Chist is the big man upstairs, 2)they don't really know anything, 3)they know they'll end up being judged by Christ, 4) they can't act unless given the okay from a higher power.
I look down on people when they make poor choices, but don't we all. I try giving that extra grace and humble myself so I don't seem like I'm pointing fingers.
I probably would have crapped my pants if Jesus just calmed the sea and told the clouds to stop raining and they did. I would have known in that moment that Jesus is the Messiah.
Psalm 27:4-5
One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.
For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.
I'd love to meet on Sundays! Sounds like an excellent idea. <3 Mars.
Hey everyone,
Good to get things going again!!!
To me, my favorite healing in chpt 8 is the one with the Roman soldier. It amazed me that this man who was not Jewish, (meaning he had not been brought up to worship God, or even believe in miracles) just trusted that Jesus had healed his servant. He said,"Lord, say the word from where you are and I know my servant will be healed." That is some radical stuff. I pray that i will have his faith in Jesus.
I do struggle with judging people for not doing things the way I do them. A lot of times it is probably based a lot on pride. i think that my way is better simply because i thought of it, or it has worked that way well for me before. God, please break down my pride.
About the storm:
I thought Ryan made a great point. If I had grown up watching Jesus do all these miracles, and seeing him cast demons and heal, I would have had a much easier time in trusting Jesus to calm the storm. However, based on my life, in the here and now, I would have been a lot like the disciples. they had so little faith in Jesus to do his work. Faith is what most stood out to me in this chapter.
A verse that I love is Psalm 34:6
"In my desperation I prayed and the Lord listened; He saved me from all my troubles."
This means a lot to me because it helps me have faith in Jesus when things don't go my way. It reassures me that God listens to my prayers.
Later everybody,
drew
I think my favorite healing story is when Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law, and she gets right out of bed and starts serving Him, and waiting on Him. I want that for my life. I never want to give excuses and push Jesus aside. I have to admit that I do struggle sometimes with looking down on others who do things differently than me. But I have to remember to die to self and love others the way Christ first loved me, no matter what they do or how they do it. If Jesus was in the boat sleeping while all the storms and waves were crashing into the boat, I would be going crazy, I wouldn't know what to do, and after Jesus calmed the storms and seas I would think of all the miracles He's done, and his power, and stand in awe of Him. I think maybe seeing Him sleeping during the storm should probably calm me down, knowing that He's obviously not worried about the storm so why should I, but I don't think it would have clicked with me at that moment. I think a verse that we should memorize and keep with us all the time would be Romans 8:38-39, "Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the world will ever be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That just exemplifies to me how strong God's love for us is, that He won't let ANYTHING seperate us from Him, EVER.
Hope you guys are having a good day today. I pray that Jesus would bless our lives and draw us closer to Him in this study. Amen
Lauren
i would LUV to do a group service it would be really kool. and in a way it would be doing stuff like jesus. W.W.J.D. He got up early to listen and serve God so as a new follower of Him i want 2 do this. Also this would show sacrifice and like Tom preached 1 nite saying God is more important than sleep.
Tom,
what u said about the man who wanted the $ from his deceased father really stood out 2 me. I tend to have a big head and really to mmuch pride but right now iam willing to 4get everything and say to myself the truth,that these erathly things don't matter. NONE OF IT MATTERS W/O GOD. so right now i can't tell u how much i want sing praise 2 him.
But i just keep thinkin this same thought "WHAT IF WE LOVED JESUS MORE?" as Melody Carlson would put it. really what if we wanted him more than the new IPHONE, MP3, or even the nintendo WII. What if we put as much time into focusing on God as much as we do everything else ( watching T.v, reading, talking on the phone) now Tom i know this is not something u were getting at but right know i feel I God is just really REALLY tuggin on my heart cuz truthfully i have ignored him. And here in this moment I just know hes up there in Paradise holding on to a sheep that was once so close but has strayed slightly away. He's telling me i love u, i'm still here watching over u and my love 4 u is still new every morning. Hes saying don't let go.
Hebrews 12:1
A cloud of witnesses is all around us so let us throw off anything that stands in our way. Let us strip off the sin that holds on to us so tightly. Let us keep running the race before us and NEVER GUVE UP.
LOVE,
A
I'm pretty sad we don't do this maybe we could start this up but it could be lead by all the leaders?!
-Mars
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