WELCOME (15minutes)
Choose one of the following icebreakers:
(If you have first-time guests, begin with a round of introduction and warmly welcome the new visitors.)
1. Favourite App
Get out your phones and show your favourite “unique” app to the group. Excluded: weather, news, messaging and email. Share why is this your favourite mobile app.
2. Dancing Chain
Organise the cell group into 2 subgroups. Ask each subgroup to stand in a circle, and nominate someone to start the dance chain by making a simple dance move. e.g. waving their hands in the air, kicking out a leg, or jumping once. Keep the move simple, as everyone else will need to copy it. The player to their left repeat the move once before adding their own and this continues till the entire circle has done it. Keep the whole process going, until an entire dance routine has been created. The ice-breaker ends with the whole circle performing the routine together.
Transition to Worship:
Think of one thing that you can thank God for the last week. Let us now praise God and let us start by reading Psalm 145: 1-3;
1 I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
2 Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
Amen! Let us praise the Lord.
WORSHIP (20 minutes)
You may use the following suggested worship songs:
- Let The Praises Ring (E)
- Blessed Be Your Name (G)
- Resurrecting (G)
- Hosanna (Be Lifted Higher) (D)
Be sensitive in waiting upon the Lord for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Encourage members to seek the Lord and by faith exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit through prophetic utterances for the purpose of ministering to all who are present.
Transition to Word:
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding, which has its source within the very nature of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with us as we meet, to still our souls and join our hearts as one. May the gentle whisper of the God of peace speak to us through the reading and understanding of the scripture, and be the message of our lives as we leave this place.In Jesus’ name we pray! Amen.
WORD (45minutes)
Memory verse of the week: Mark 7:15
“Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
Sermon Title: Cultivate - Hunger
By DSP Rev Daniel Khong on 12-13 Jan 19
Scripture Passage: Isaiah 43:18-24 (NKJV)
18 “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. 21 This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise. 22 “But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; and you have been weary of Me, O Israel. 23 You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings, nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, nor wearied you with incense. 24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
We are in the season of cultivation as a church and for the past 2 sermons, we learn that we need to have a culture of gratitude, and a culture of grit. Last weekend, we learn that we need to have a culture of hunger. A hunger for more of God is fundamental to our Christian walk. We can’t possibly know who God is if we don’t develop a great hunger for Him in our lives. Throughout the Old Testament we read that the Israelites frequently rejected God, turning away from Him and falling into sin. What led to their downfall was that their hunger and thirst for God was too small. Thus, we need to watch our own walk because we can just as easily fall into the same situation as the Israelites.
The 2 things that will keep us wanting more or hungering for God are:
- Holy Discontent – Develops Our Spiritual Hunger.
- Holy Desire – Determines Our Spiritual Food.
Discovery and Understanding Questions:
Q1. Why is there a need to have a culture of hunger for God?
A1. From the history of the Israelites, we can learn how God’s own chosen people rejected Him. If the Israelites could so easily reject Him, then we need to watch our own walk as well. Because we can just as easily fall into the same situation. God confronted them and told them that their problem was not calling upon Him and drawing close to Him as written in Isaiah 43:22.
Isaiah 43:22 (NKJV & NLT)
22 “But, dear family of Jacob, you have not called on me. You have grown tired of me, O Israel!
Q2. Explain how we can keep wanting more or hungering for God?
A2. The 2 things that can help us to want more and hunger for God are:
1. Holy Discontent – Develops Our Spiritual Hunger.
2. Holy Desire – Determines Our Spiritual Food.
Earthly Satisfaction leads us nowhere; it causes us to settle into comfort wherever we are. Holy Discontent on the other hand leads us out of our comfort zone to where God is. To be satisfied by God – John 6:35; a yearning and desire to have more of God. And to allow God to fill our lives instead of it been filled with other things.
Application Questions:
Break into smaller groups, share, pray and minister to one another.
Q1. Share how you can develop a spiritual hunger for God and a holy desire to be filled with spiritual food rather than spiritual junk from the world. Below are some suggestions that you can use:
- Fast from things that steal your time. e.g. TV, Facebook, Computer games
- Feast on spiritual things – you desire what you give time to.
- Become desperate, make lifestyle changes – if you want something you’ve never seen before, you must do something you’ve never done before. e.g., read your Bible and have a season of prayer during lunch; take a walk in the evening and pray; take time with the Lord throughout your day!
- Ask the Lord to make you hungry for Him.
Spend some time praying for each other after you have shared how you want to develop a spiritual hunger for God.
Family Altar Time (F.A.T.)
(Cell Leader: Encourage your members to be faithful in keeping the weekly F.A.T. and refer them to this segment of the 4Ws for suggestions for their F.A.T. A possible time for the F.A.T. is after a meal together, say during the weekend.)
Use the second icebreaker in the WELCOME segment above, without dividing into 2 subgroups, and select worship songs that are meaningful to your family. If they are old enough, ask your children to select the songs and lead worship, and take this opportunity to teach them skills in waiting on God, praying, and leading with a servant’s heart and as a willing vessel for God.
After worship, you may wish to:
- Discuss last Sunday’s Family Bible Study in the Living Life journal, or
- Review your children’s take-home materials from GKidz, or
- Review and discuss this week’s memory verse, or
- Question: Share about a time when you were dissatisfied with not having something and that dissatisfaction drove you to do something about it.
[Let your family members share freely. Explain that dissatisfaction, or rather discontentment, can lead to grumbling and complaining, but it can also positively motivate us towards action to help us get what we are desiring and hoping for.]
Now have everyone read aloud together Matthew 5:6, Proverbs 27:7 and James 4:8-9.
Familiarize yourself with the Introduction and the Discovery and Understanding Questions of the WORD segment above, and lead in the following discussion.Question: Why is it important that we hunger and thirst for more of God’s presence and seek to experience more of His promises and His work in our lives?
[Let your family members respond freely to this question. Then explain that if we do not, we will become complacent and settle for the status quo or settle in the comfort zone and miss out on what God intends for us. We should have such hunger even if we already experience God’s presence and power. E.g., Moses had experienced many powerful miracles from God and God had even promised to send an angel to lead him and his people into the Promised Land, and yet he did not want to go to the Promised Land if God Himself did not lead them (Exodus 33:15). Moses had already experienced God intimately on Mount Sinai and at the Tent of Meeting (Exodus 33:9-11), and yet he asked God to show him (Exodus 33:18). Only when we hunger and thirst for more of God and of righteousness will we be satisfied/filled (Matthew 5:6).]Question: How can we cultivate hunger and thirst for more of God’s presence and work in our lives?
[Let your family members share spontaneously, then review the suggestions given in answer to Application Question 1 in the WORD segment above and zoom in on one suggestion that you can all work on together.]End by praying for each other that you will always be hungry and thirsty for more of God, keeping the answers to the preceding question in mind. Pray also for the salvation of pre-believing family members, relatives and friends.
Transition to Works:
Thank you, Lord, for your presence with us today. As we end this meeting, we ask you to bless us throughout the week and guide us safely home. Do not let the learning and conversations of this cell meeting die, but, instead, may they continue to ruminate within us and bear fruit in our ministries throughout the year. We ask this in the name of Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
WORKS (15minutes)
- 3x3 Prayer
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the strongholds that bind the people. Ask Him to set divine appointments for us to minister His power over them (words of knowledge, healing, helps, etc.). Pray for one another for boldness, courage and obedience to follow through.
- Inviting Friends to our Services
Continue to encourage one another to invite pre-believing friends to our weekend Services, especially those who attended our recent Cell Christmas Party. Make time to listen to ‘The Voice of God’ for prophetic utterances that speak to our pre-believing friends’ circumstances as a prelude to inviting them. In addition, take some time to discuss, plan an activity and pray toward achieving the goal you have set as a cell.
- Consolidation of New Converts
Consolidate those who have accepted Christ - contact them via phone calls; meet up with them over a meal; make house visits; introduce them to members of the cell and invite them to fellowship with the faith community during cell meetings and celebration Services. Make them feel belonged.
Introduce them to LifeClass. LifeClass is an exciting package of equipping that guides new believers through the foundations of their faith and leads them into a life-transforming encounter with Jesus. It does this through nine weeks of personal study, combined with fun and interactive classroom sessions of Bible teaching and an Encounter Weekend. It replaces the former Pre-Encounter Class, Encounter Weekend and Post Encounter. Please check out the Equipping page at our website or Mobile App. Visit https://fcbc.org.sg/equipping/event-listing for more details.
Announcements:
Please visit https://www.fcbc.org.sg/bulletin/ or our FCBC app for more details.