Full Circle (Week 3)

The Big Idea: People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Intro: Build a Tower

Building a tower is kind of like building up to a Gospel conversation.

Towers work better with a good foundation, and so do Gospel conversations

That’s why Gospel conversations are so much more successful when we have already have a close relationship with that person

Does this mean that we should never share the Gospel with a stranger? Of course not.

But the most effective way to share the Gospel is in the context of relationship.

This is where the Care component of the Prayer, Care, Share model comes in.

What worked well with building the tower?

What challenges did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?

Did you build the tallest tower you could? Why or why not?

Were there any general building principles that seemed to be common among those teams with the taller towers?

Review

Throughout this series, we have been talking about The Cause Circle and how that serves as a model for how we can share the Gospel with our friends

And this model comes from Jesus Himself.

He modeled a Prayer, Care, Share approach when engaging with people about His message.

In Jesus’s life and ministry, the Prayer, Care, Share elements broke out like this:

Prayer: Jesus often went off to be alone to spend time in prayer.

Care: He cared deeply for those in need—helping and healing people’s physical, emotional, and relational needs.

Share: Prayer and care laid the foundation and helped people open up, so that He could more effectively share His message—out loud, with words.

Last week, we zeroed in on prayer.

This week, we’re focusing on care.

Body:

What are a few examples of stories about Jesus that demonstrate how central love and care were in His life and ministry?

Healing the sick

Feeding the hungry

Forgiving sin

Dying on the cross

Crying over Jerusalem

Etc.

Stories about how Jesus demonstrated His care for people are all over the Gospels.

Jesus didn’t just talk about caring for others, He actually did it.

And one of the most radical things about how He loved and cared for people was that He wasn’t afraid to love the “losers”— the bad, the bullied, and the broken.

His care extended to those whom the “popular and powerful” crowd had marginalized.

In fact, that was one of Jesus’s biggest frustrations with the “popular and powerful” Jewish people of that day—they were being mean.

They were creating their own religious rules that put up barriers that kept ordinary people from connecting with God.

And they were using those rules to be harshly judgmental—to bully and exclude people.

If you recall, we’ve been using the story in Luke 5 about Jesus healing the paralyzed man as a snapshot of how He modeled THE Cause Circle of Prayer, Care, Share.

I want to re-read

just a few verses from that passage today.

As I read them, be thinking about how you see care being demonstrated in this part of the story.

Luke 5:17–20 (ESV)

17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

Luke 5:24–25 (ESV)

24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.

How do you see care being demonstrated here?

What do you imagine it would be like to live your life as a paralyzed person back in Jesus’ day?

No wheelchair access

No medical care

No government safety net for the disabled

No way to earn a living

Etc.

So this man was pretty desperate.

It would have taken a big commitment to be his friend.

It’s kind of amazing, really, given how high-maintenance he obviously was, that he even had these friends in this story who cared about him enough to go to all this effort to get him to Jesus.

But these men demonstrated remarkable care for the paralyzed man.

And Jesus demonstrated care in the story by healing the guy.

Throughout the Gospels, we see this pattern over and over: Jesus didn’t just “preach” at the people who came to Him with their hurts and heavy loads—He cared for them.

They weren’t “projects”—they were people.

He cared for them as a whole person.

Maybe you’ve heard the saying: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

These are wise words for us as we seek to introduce others to Jesus.

One of the greatest passages in the Bible about how to love others well is found in 1 Corinthians 13.

It may be a familiar passage to many of you, but this time I want us to take a look at it with a fresh set of eyes.

1 Corinthians 13:2–7 (ESV)

2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

God calls us to extend His agape love to others, in His name and through His power at work within us.

This is a big calling.

We’re here to be salt and light for the sake of Jesus and His Kingdom.\

We’re here to live out the love of God by “being God with skin on” to the people around us, because people don’t care how much you know about God, if you don’t care about them as individuals.

As that first verse we just read put it: “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

The act of showing someone the agape love of God can wear a lot of different faces.

It can happen across a few minutes, a few weeks, a few years, or even a few decades.

Whatever the length of your relationship with someone, demonstrating care can happen in loads of different, creative ways.

So let’s get really practical for a few minutes now and brainstorm about what this can look like in our own lives as we think about the people in our own Cause Circle we’re seeking to care for with the love of Christ.

What are ways that we could demonstrate Care for others this week?

Time

Help

Listening ear

Gifts

Notes

Acts of kindness

Standing up for someone who is being bullied

Sitting with someone at lunch

Offering to pray

Etc.

And quite honestly, sometimes you may have friends who are struggling with things that are really heavy.

If they’re hurting, meet them in their place of need and seek to bring them to the Healer.

I want to pass along a website you can go to that has several helpful, free ebooks about some of the tough issues teens face—like depression, bullying, self-harm, suicide, addiction, relationship problems, and more.

If you go to thehopeline.com/ebook, you’ll find ebooks for teens on about two-dozen different topics that might help you come alongside a friend who’s struggling.

These ebooks each have a section in the back that specifically talks about how you can help a friend who’s struggling with that issue.

And I also want you to know that you can always come to me for help with a friend, if you ever run into a serious problem that requires adult help.

Or TheHopeLine also offers a free 24/7 hotline anyone can call for help.

Application

So here’s the challenge for this coming week.

Take one or two of these ideas we just brainstormed—or come up with your own—and use it to reach out to the person in your Cause Circle who is most “paralyzed” (most hurting) right now—perhaps they’re “paralyzed” by anxiety, depression, addiction, emotional pain, relationship struggles, or something else.

Whatever their struggle is, step up and do something this week that shows you care.

This is a “report back” assignment, so come back next week ready to share about what you did and what happened.

And finally, before our closing activity, I want to take a moment to speak specifically to any of you here who may have realized that you’ve never actually experienced the kind of unconditional agape love of God that we’ve been talking about today.

The really great news is that God’s unconditional love is freely available, just for the asking.

You see, God made us to be with Him—He loved us deeply and purely.

But then we humans rejected that perfect relationship with God, and we sinned—we turned away from Him.

Our sin created a chasm between us and our holy, perfect God.

The Bible makes it clear that our sins can’t be removed by the good things we do.

It’s only Jesus’ death and resurrection that paid the price and made it possible for us to get back into a restored relationship with God.

Now everyone who trusts in Him alone can receive the free gift of eternal life that begins here and now and lasts for all eternity.

If you’ve never put your trust in Jesus, you can make that decision right now in the quietness of your own heart. (Pause.)

And if you’ve just put your trust in Christ, I invite you to pray this prayer of thanksgiving silently along with me.

So with every head bowed and every eye closed, let’s pray:

Dear God, I know that my sins have broken my relationship with you and that I could never do enough good things to change that.

But right now, I believe that Jesus died in my place and rose again from the dead.

I trust in Him to forgive me for my sins.

Through faith in Him, I’m entering an eternal relationship with you.

Thank you for this free gift and for defeating death through your work on the cross!

In Jesus’s name, amen.

When we closed our gathering the first week of this series, you might remember that I asked each of you to visualize one of your unreached friends sitting in that chair.

Today I want you to imagine your most “paralyzed” friend sitting in that chair.

Consider some of the personal struggles and challenges that are weighing them down.

Whatever their load looks like, just picture them sitting there alone, trying to carry it all by themselves.

Now I’m going to put a second chair in our circle.

I want you to imagine yourself sitting down in that second chair, right next to your friend.

God has put you in their life for a reason.

Close your eyes now, and silently ask God what it might look like for you to come alongside your friend and demonstrate God’s agape love as you seek to care for them.

PRAY