May 9, 2007

God Still Touches Lives

Think back to 19 years ago

·        What was going on in your life?

·        We had one young child and another on the way

Meet Michael Kuol

19 years ago:

• He was 5 years old
• He lived in Southern Sudan
• The Sudanese civil war ripped through his home
• Michael joined 26,000 other young children that became known as “The Lost Boys of Sudan”

• They literally ran into the desert and wilderness to escape death or enslavement
• They left their families behind
• Many left with no possessions, some even with no shoes on their feet
• They ran for days, weeks, and months for hundreds of miles

• When the pain in his legs became too much to bear, one of the older boys would pick him up and carry him
• When he had gone days without water, he sucked liquid from the mud
• When he was so weak from hunger that he felt he could not take another step, he ate leaves or wild berries
• Some boys simply sat down and died of starvation or dehydration
• Others lagged behind, becoming easy prey for lions
• Some died from poisonous leaves

• After two months of walking they eventually made it to refugee camps in Ethiopia
• In 1991 more gunfire sent them running and walking again as the Ethiopian government attacked them
• As they tried crossing the Gilo River, thousands drowned, were eaten by crocodiles, or shot
• The survivors walked for more than a year to Kenya arriving in 1992
• Only 10,000 boys made it

• Michael spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya
• He eventually become one of about 3600 of these boys that the U.S. government would bring to the United States
• He came to the United States in 2000 and was originally supposed to go to Chicago
• Because the agency office in Chicago had closed, he ended up in Nashville

• Michael went to Glencliff High School and then to Lipscomb University
• He hasn’t seen his mother in 19 years and last spoke with her in 2004
• Saturday, he graduated with a degree in nursing and has a job waiting for him at Vanderbilt
• His fellow students, Lipscomb, and Vanderbilt handed Michael a $5000 check Saturday so that he could go back to Sudan and visit his mother

Touched by God

·        Four weeks left to go

·        If you’ll remember the list of people we put on the board at the beginning of our study, we will not get to most of them.

·        Tonight

o       Understanding how important it is to touch and to be touched - the importance of touch

o       Understanding that Jesus felt compassion for the people that he healed

o       Understanding that we need to reach out for God’s touch

The Importance of Touch

We're all born with a great need for touch. To thrive, newborns must be fed touch as much as food. Studies in orphanages and hospitals repeatedly tell us that infants deprived of skin contact lose weight, become ill and even die. We know that premature babies given periods of touch therapy gain weight faster, cry less, and show more signs of relaxed pulse, respiration rate and muscle tension.

            -- http://library.adoption.com/parenting-skills/the-importance-of-touch/article/3060/1.html

• For some, touch is one of the most important human needs

Biblical examples of touching

• Healing
  
   
• Blessing

Mark 10:13-16 - The Little Children and Jesus

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16 And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

• Imparting of the Spirit/Setting apart for a special work

• Acts 6:5-6 - laying hands on the first group of deacons
• Acts 8:14-17 - laying hands on the people in Samaria to give them the Holy Spirit
• Acts 9:17-19 - Ananias laid hands on Saul to give the Holy Spirit
• Acts 13:1-3 - hands laid on Barnabas and Saul before they begin a mission trip
• Acts 19:1-7 - Paul lays hands on those at Ephesus to give them the Holy Spirit
• I Timothy 4:11-14 - the elders laid hands on Timothy
• II Timothy 1:3-7 - Paul laid hands on Timothy

The Untouchables

There are those that society puts on a lower level

• In the 1st Century
• In the 21st Century

Unfortunately, we sometimes conform to society instead of being transformed

However, Christ gives us the better example to follow

If we look at the 1st century, who were the most untouchable? - sick, widowed, deformed, lepers

Laws concerning leprosy:

• Leviticus 13-14
• Leviticus 22
• Numbers 5
• Deuteronomy 24

Old Testament leprosy:

• Numbers 12 - Miriam becomes leprous after opposing Moses
• II Kings 5 - Naaman healed of his leprosy
• II Kings 7 - four lepers in famine ridden Samaria discover that the Syrians had left
• II Kings 15 - King Azariah of Judah is stricken with leprosy (apparently for no reason)
• II Chronicles 26 - King Uzziah of Judah is stricken with leprosy for trying to burn incense on the altar in the temple

New Testament leprosy:

Much like the woman with the flow of blood

Not only religious outcasts (unclean)

Also social outcasts

A Man With Leprosy - Mark 1:40-45 (also Matthew 8:2-4, Luke 5:12-14)

40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”  42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:  44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”  45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. 

Matthew - follows the “Sermon on the Mount”

Mark - follows Jesus healing others and praying

Luke - follows calling of the first apostles

Mark includes the “filled with compassion” phrase

• Again we have someone with only one hope - Jesus
• V. 41 - “filled with compassion”
  • Have the bowels yearn
  • Feel sympathy or pity
• “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man”
  • A very simple statement
  • Yet a very powerful action
  • This man may not have been touched by another human being in years

Mark 7:31-37 - The Healing of a Deaf and Mute Man

31 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 him to place his hand on the man. 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.”

• The man with leprosy came to Jesus
• This man was brought to Jesus by others
• There are some that we need to lead to Jesus
• Notice that they “begged him to place his hand on the man”
  • These people were aware of the power of Jesus’ touch
• Jesus does several things:
  • He takes the man aside (vs. 33)
  • He puts his fingers in the man’s ears (vs. 33)
  • He spits (vs. 33)
  • He touches the man’s tongue (vs. 33)
  • He looks up to heaven (vs. 34)
  • He sighs (vs. 34) - original word means grief, groaning
  • He speaks (vs. 34)
• Jesus touched both of the areas that the man had problems with - his ears and his tongue
• In this case, the touching alone did not heal the man. He was healed when Jesus spoke.