CATALYST Youth- September 29, 2017- "SQUAD GOALS PART 3"

This week, we concluded our series on "SQUAD GOALS" by reviewing our talks from previous weeks, and then looking at one more amazing picture of friendship in the Bible found in Mark 2 and Luke 5.


It tells us about four guys who carried their friend (who was paralyzed) to meet Jesus, believing that Jesus could do the impossible! At the time, Jesus was super popular. He was known for doing incredible miracles (like healing people from incurable diseases) and teaching people about how to get right with God. When the friends arrived where Jesus was teaching at the time, they were really disappointed. There were insanely huge crowds and they couldn't even catch a glimpse of him.


That's when these friends did something a little crazy. They actually hoisted their friend onto the roof of the house Jesus was teaching in, and then THEY STARTED TO TEAR A HOLE IN THE ROOF so that they could lower their friend down right in front of Jesus. This tells us that these guys REALLY believed that Jesus could do impossible things. Imagine how brave and bold you would have to be to climb onto someone’s roof and bust a hole in it just to meet somebody inside!

When the hole was big enough, they lowered their buddy right in front of Jesus. Luke 5:20 says, “Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”

Now this is where the situation gets a bit weird. This guy was lowered down to Jesus BECAUSE HE WAS PARALYZED! It was kind of obvious to everybody that he needed to be healed. But instead of doing the obvious, Jesus FORGAVE THE MAN’S SINS? Isn’t that kinda shocking? This lets us know something REALLY important- we all need to experience God’s love and forgiveness! Without it, our sin separates us from God and we can’t be a part of heaven one day. It’s even a more serious problem then being paralyzed! Sin is a word that describes all of our choices and inclinations to go our own way instead of God’s way—to say and do things that are the opposite of what he wants for us- and the Bible says that our sin separates us from God—that if we don’t have this sin problem dealt with, we won’t be able to have a friendship with God and we can’t be a part of heaven!

When Jesus said this man’s sins were forgiven, there were some religious leaders there who went NUTS! They told Jesus that only God had the power and authority to forgive someone sins- and they were ready to kill him right then and there!
 
Luke 5:22-26 says...

“Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking and said, “Why all this gossipy whispering? Which is simpler: to say ‘I forgive your sins,’ or to say ‘Get up and start walking’? Well, just so it’s clear that I’m the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both. . . .” He now spoke directly to the paraplegic: “Get up. Take your bedroll and go home.” Without a moment’s hesitation, he did it—got up, took his blanket, and left for home, giving glory to God all the way. The people rubbed their eyes, incredulous—and then also gave glory to God. Awestruck, they said, “We’ve never seen anything like that!”
 
Here, Jesus proved that he was the Son of God—and that he has the power to forgive our sins and give us a brand new start--- he proved it by healing this guy right in front of a huge crowd of eyewitnesses!
 
The four friends of this guy did something pretty simple, but super important—they introduced their friend to Jesus! Because they brought him to Jesus, not only did he experience forgiveness and his heart was made right with God, but he was miraculously healed, picking up his mat and walking home! By doing simple things like inviting a friend out to CATALYST or offering to pray for a friend who’s in trouble or sick, you’re pointing them in the direction of Jesus—someone who can not only help them in life, but can FORGIVE THEM and give them a brand new start, just like he did for the paralyzed man!

DISCUSSION FOR HOME:

1. In the account of Jesus healing the paralyzed man, what did you find most shocking or surprising?

2. Jesus was more concerned with where this man was spiritually than the fact that he was paralyzed! What does that tell us about our greatest need?

3. Why did Jesus end up healing the man, almost as an afterthought? What did it tell the crowd of onlookers?

4. This might open up an opportunity to talk to your teen about where they're at spiritually.

5. Take the opportunity to pray with your teen. Pray for their friends who are far away from God and making bad choices in life. Pray that they would come to know the God who loves them and who wants the best for them.

CATALYST Youth- September 22, 2017- SQUAD GOALS PART 2

This week, we continued our series, "SQUAD GOALS", by talking about frenemies! Frenemies are people who act like your friend some of the time, but then do things that are pretty un-friendly. For example, if someone only wants to hang out with you when their other friends are around, if they make fun of you or gossip behind your back, if they are jealous of you when something great has happened in your life, if they are controlling or bossy, if they only talk about themselves and don't listen to you, if they tear you down physically, emotionally or spiritually, then you might just have a frenemy.

Real friends cheer for each other! Real friends have each other's backs! Real friends actually want the best for you and care about you! I shared a story about how one of my guilty pleasures is watching MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA. The thing I like about it is that, while all of the people are competing against each other to be the best chef and win a prize, the way they treat each other is so unusual. Instead of saying mean things behind people's backs, hoping that others will mess up, or wishing that something terrible would happen to other contestants, the people on this show, year after year, ACTUALLY CHEER FOR EACH OTHER! It makes me want to move to Australia! They actually celebrate when someone else does better than them! They treat each other like best friends! They actually cry and hug people who leave the competition! A few years ago, one of the contestants was even willing to give up his place in the competition so that he wouldn't have to cook against one of his friends!

In the Bible, the story of Jonathan and David shows an example of an AMAZING friendship. In 1 Samuel 18-21 we learn that Jonathan was the next in line to become the King of Israel, but God chose David to be the next king instead. Instead of competing against each other, Jonathan was a REAL friend to David. He shared things that he had with him, he stood up for him and protected him when his dad (the king at the time) was trying to kill him. He refused to say or do anything that would hurt his friend, even though if David was out of the picture, he would have been guaranteed to be the next king! One time, when Jonathan stood up for David and refused to hurt him, the king became so angry he tried to kill his own son! Jonathan actually risked his life to protect his friend! We should all be friends like Jonathan! We should all want friends like Jonathan!

Some times, though, our friends aren't at all like Jonathan. Sometimes they're frenemies, hurting or betraying us. If you're dealing with a frenemy, here are a few tips:

1. PRAY FOR HELP
Even though David had an awesome friend in Jonathan, he also had a lot of not-so-awesome friends. In fact, he wrote down a TON of prayers that are recorded in the Bible, where he cried out to God for help. In Psalm 33, he told God about people who were attacking him, against him, making fun of him, laughing at him, and hating him, and David asked God to help him. We need to talk to God when we're dealing with frenemies and ask him to help us.

2. SPEAK UP
If you’ve got a “friend” who’s acting more like a frenemy, then you HAVE to tell them. There’s a possibility that they might not even be aware of how they’re treating you or how they’re affecting you- and if you never tell them, they’ll never know! Jesus said in Matthew 18:15, “If your brother or sister sins against you, go to them. Tell them what they did wrong. Keep it between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them back”. It’s really important that you give frenemies the chance to change their ways. Jesus says that if you go to the person in private and have an honest talk, it might just repair the relationship!

3. CHOOSE LOVE
The Bible has a lot to say about how you should treat people who mistreat you…and it’s pretty shocking! Jesus said in Matthew 5:44, “But I tell you, LOVE your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. And when Jesus says we should pray for people who mistreat us, he’s not saying that we should pray that a piano will fall out of the sky and land on them, but that we should pray that great things would happen to them and that they would change for the better! Jesus is saying that we should treat others with kindness EVEN if they treat us like garbage. That revenge is never an option!
 
That’s REALLY hard to do…because we naturally want to hate them, and hold a grudge against them, or get revenge and make them feel the way they made us feel…so we need to ask God to help us to forgive those frenemies and not stay all bitter and angry.
 
Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that what they did is ok or forgotten. It doesn’t mean that you’re automatically best friends again. But it means that you’re choosing to let go of the anger and hate you have for them.

4. END IT!
Last week we talked about the importance of choosing the right people to hang out with. If you go to a “frenemy” and explain to them how they made you feel, and they keep being a “frenemy”, then that’s probably a good reason for you to stop hanging out with them. That can be hard—because you might like the person 80% of the time, but it’s CRAZY to stay friends with a frenemy. It’s much better to surround yourself with some good Australian chef friends or people like Jonathan who cheer for you, want the very best for you, and really have your back! 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR HOME

1. Ask your teen if they've seen any examples of frenemies. What do frenemies do? Encourage your teen that if they have a frenemy, they need to talk to their "friend" to let them know how they make them feel.

2. Pray with your teen. Pray that they would be a great friend to others. Pray that their "frenemies" would change and become real friends. Ask God to help them to surround themselves with friends who cheer for them and really have their back.

CATALYST Youth- Sept. 15, 2017- "SQUAD GOALS PART 1"

This week, as we kicked off a new season of CATALYST, we launched a new series called 'SQUAD GOALS'. This week we focused on how the friends that you choose will either influence you in good or bad ways. We looked at a few verses from the Book of Proverbs that talk about making wise friendship choices.

Proverbs 12:26 says, "The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray”.


This verse says that people who love and follow God and do their best to live the way that he says is "right" need to be a bit choosy when picking friends. One of the reasons why Christians often get together at church or youth group is so they can be encouraged to keep following Jesus, and challenged to make good choices in life. This is important because there's a lot of temptation and pressure in life to walk away from God or not take following him seriously. We need friends who can cheer us on and encourage us to make right choices in life! 

Proverbs 22:24-25 says, “Don’t be a friend of a person who has a bad temper. Don’t go around with a person who gets angry easily. You might learn their habits. And then you will be trapped by them”.

Most of us have probably got into trouble because we were hanging out with a crowd who liked getting into trouble. This verse reminds us that the people we hang around with might lead us into trouble or into dangerous situations, so it's best that we think carefully about how our friends might influence our choices or behaviour. 

Proverbs 13:20 says, “Walk with wise people and become wise. A companion of foolish people suffers harm”.

Here we're reminded that when we surround ourselves with "wise" people-- people who make solid choices in life (people who love and follow Jesus, people who are hard workers or good students, people who are kind, caring or generous etc...)-- they'll influence us for the better!

Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend”. 

Back in Bible days, they would rub the blades of knives back and forth against each other, and when they did, it would make both those knives sharper. It seems kind of magical to me, but I’m sure some science is involved. Anyway, the point of this verse is that friends should help each other and make each other better the more they spend time together. Does that describe the friendships that you have?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR HOME:

1. Ask your teen if they can think of a time where either they, or someone they know, was influenced in a BAD way by one of their friends. What happened? Do you think the friendship was healthy? Why or why not?

2. Ask your teen to think about their group of friends. In what ways are they a good influence? In what ways are they a bad influence? Remind them that if the bad outweighs the good, then the Bible encourages us to be VERY careful about remaining in those friendships.

3. Take the time to pray with your teen and ask God to help them surround themselves with the kinds of people who make them better instead of worse. Pray that your teen would be someone who would influence his/her friends to know and follow Jesus or to make wise choices.