Don’t forget: Two weeks from today is our monthly community night where our life groups gather together over a meal or activity! Please spend some time as a group deciding what you want to do. 

Please pray for who in your life God wants you to invite, and think about how you can reach out and invite them in the next couple of weeks.

Discussion Questions

  1. Have you ever had an experience that was so powerful, you couldn’t help but to share what happened with someone else? What happened?
  2. Sam said that Jesus brings spiritual healing for eternity, but that eternal life doesn’t start after we die - it starts right now. What do you think it means that eternal life starts now?

READ MARK 7:31-37, THEN ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW

  1. What does this passage tell me about God and about people?
  2. If I believe today's teaching is from God and that He loved me so much He sent Jesus to die for me, what is the appropriate way to respond in my everyday life?
  3. Who can I talk to more about this or share this with?

Spend time sharing prayer requests as a group, and close your time in prayer together.

This week in Mark, we read about Jesus healing a deaf and mute man. While the Pharisees were focused on making sure they remained ritually clean, Jesus was willing to meet this man in his pain even if it made him unclean. Jesus models this kind of empathy that shows how much He cares for us as His children. Jesus has this same kind of empathy for us and meets us in our own pain and brokenness now, if we will let Him. Because Jesus gives us the power and new life to face the challenges of our world - and eternal life doesn’t start after we die - it starts now. 

Quote of the Week

Why does Jesus keep saying don't tell anyone? Because everybody's ready for a Healer everybody's in line for a free sandwich but they want to make him King and there's something else coming: it's the cross. That's the open secret. The secret is the cross is coming because I'm here for more than just temporary healing. I am here to heal you for eternity and to share this new life that springs up in you every day through the power of my holy spirit that will meet you where you are with whatever you're struggling with and give you power for a new life. Because eternal life starts now and goes into eternity. It doesn't start in heaven after we die. - Pastor Sam

Scripture

  • Mark 7:31-37 (NIV) - Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35  At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

  • Isaiah 35:4-6 (NIV) - Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come,  he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

  • Psalm 40:1-5 (NIV) - I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. 4 Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. 5 Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.