Live group leaders great to be with you as we are jumping into a series overview for our next sermon series looking at the book of Philippians Yes, titled fighting for joy. This is gonna be incredible I've got the one and only our senior pastor Eric Geiger here to do as we often do these series overviews with our live Repleters glad to spend some time with you looking at this incredible book live group leaders I'm so thankful for you and so excited to do this podcast and talking to you about this upcoming series Yeah, that's it and you can't see it but erics Instagram live. I just I'm just possibly posting something I just I want to see who is gonna actually listen So I'm gonna I'm gonna ask live people leaders. Hey, do you listen to the live your pleater podcast and and suicide?
That's it. That's a great way to measure that. That's right. Yeah, but these are so fun to do these because every week obviously We released them on Fridays for the upcoming sermon and then when we start a new sermon series We get some time with you to do an overview and to give a leaders a little bit of a more of an insight into what to expect during the series This is gonna be a great series.
It's another book of the Bible. I just reject for it, right? I love it. I love it.
I love that our church loves to study the scripture loves to study books of I'll there's 66 books I believe it'd be awesome if I could teach all 66 books during my tenure as pastor marriage church this year We're hitting three books, so we've already taught through the book of Jude now the book of Philippians in the fall We will teach through Daniel so the book of Philippians. It is commonly known. I'm not the only one who said this lots of scholars I've called it the book of joy So if people love to study Jude and our church did you'll love to study Philippians I mean Jude is intense yeah and Philippians is intense as well But in it's really intense about something we all long for joy and where does joy come from how do we get joy joy is mentioned 12 Times in these four chapters so book of lipians is only four chapters But 12 times there is either rejoice or joy in the passage right and I've heard people say the rule kind of our joy quest that rule out They're just trying to find meaning and happiness and things that bring us joy external things and man in something Tell for you know, we're gonna like listening from that's a huge part Like we all seek after experiences and different things You and I were just talking about what of our great passions, you know Sports of basketball who's gonna win this game? Who's gonna like and we let to all these kinds of things to bring that to us The ladies Pascal we famously said all men seek happiness.
This is without exception So we're all looking for it We're all in a quest as you say for joy and many of the ways that well Every way that we live for joy outside of Jesus fails us because he's the the only way we have joy in fact Jesus Lewis said God can't give you joy apart from himself There's no such thing. There's no such thing as real joy apart from him That's good and we know that to be true from the scriptures We know that to be true from our experiences But I think Philippians is uniquely positioned and maybe a walk us through a little bit of the background the context I mean where Paul is writing for him Which makes the kind of the thesis of this book that much more like impactful to consider his circumstance And I want to before I hit some of the background Just say hey life your pleasers This will be a great study for you with your group as the spring is wrapping up and as summer goes in because we'll have You will spend 10 weeks in the book of Philippians because I think a lot of people in your group will probably identify With the need that the book of Philippians addresses So the need is people don't often feel as if they have flourishing or joy in their lives And yet they want that they want they want joy There's an article that really released about a year and a half ago that went viral in the New York Times and the psychologist from Wharton said He quotes some others he said that this is the predominant feeling of all of his friends And he thinks the predominant feeling of the culture now coming out of covid and he said it's not It's the he called this feeling that most of us have the neglected middle child And then on the other side is the feeling of depression and on the other side is the feeling of flourishing And so we know what flourishing is we know what depression is but then he calls the neglected middle child Langishing languishing and that the majority of his friends and the majority of American culture right now if they had to describe themselves They would say I'm just languishing. I'm not and we know depressions are real a real issue We've taught on anxiety and depression, but he'd say he the psychologist is saying most aren't saying that's where I am But most also are not saying I am flourishing and filled with joy that the common human experience right now is I'm just languishing So you as a life-over-pleeder you serve people who whether they've used that term or not likely there's a sense of languishing The book of Philippians is the solution to our languishing and so the apostle Paul writes it as J.T. Nention He writes it from a place he would not expect someone who is going to talk about joy to write from he writes from prison He's most hours believe he's in prison in Rome.
He's writing to people in Philippi and Rome is the dominant world power at the time Philippi is a colony of Rome and so it's under Roman rule as well as much of the world is at that time or the known world is at that time and He has insisted the apostle Paul has insisted not that Caesar is Lord But that Jesus is Lord and that he came here to bring good news Understand how revolutionary that state is crazy. I mean writing to you like I said a colony We're probably there were a lot of you know retired military personnel people that served Caesar where Caesar was Yes, Lord and right me just making that statement is like what do you talk about? He says Jesus is Lord. He also talks about your citizenship.
Yeah, yeah being in that kingdom So not your citizen really Rome even though you're a colony of a colony of a better kingdom Yeah, you you want to bring the kingdom of Jesus the good news of Jesus to Philippi your citizen of that kingdom Jesus is Lord So if all had all these radical teachings that he shared radical in a in a world that the Caesar was viewed and revered as the Lord over a kingdom Paul says Jesus is Lord over the real kingdom that you're part of your citizenship is really in that kingdom and he actually has the Audacity to write that for some prison and to speak about joy Yeah, because he there's so many I mean so many famous passages in the book of Philippians, but hey I could die right now for this but to live is Christ and to die is gained that's in Philippians 1 21 Then Philippians 3 he taught oh we've got the moon not skip Philippians 2 Philippians 2 Hey, let's let's serve one another let's have humble attitudes Why because Christ being the very nature God did not consider quality of God something be grasped and made himself nothing taken very Nature of a servant being found in human likenesses humbled himself He came to death even death on the cross therefore God exalted him and gave him the name of his above every name That thing of Jesus every knee will bow and heaven on earth and earlier and every tunnel confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Hey, if you're wondering if you just open up a Bible or not have that straight from a position of a heart right there I mean that's Philippians 2 it's it's an exit that by the way was a and we'll talk about this when I teach that passage I think that's weak three or four yeah That was a famous hymn that Christians were singing only 25 years after Jesus was resurrected from the debt So we have joy because Jesus is Lord and he rescued us then you get the chapter three and you have a famous passage when Paul says I have all of these things I was Hebrew Hebrews circumcised on the eighth day But all of that I now consider loss compared to surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord or who say I've lost all thanks I want to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his son friends becoming like him as death So somehow to attain to the resurrection from the bed not that I've already obtained all this I've already been made perfect But this one thing I do for getting what is behind and pressing towards what is ahead? So that's that's Philippians chapter three and you get the Philippines for and it's the joy that we have in in Christ And I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me which does not mean I can duck a basketball if I say I don't do it in Jesus name But I take that yeah, I know I'm gonna use to you But that means if I'm sick or not or well if I'm poor or wealthy I can deal with that because Christ is the one who gives me strength So he writes all of this from prison all of this incredible joy So if you're languishing you have a guy in prison not languishing but right about joy Yeah, and in response to also to their to their gratitude and for the care of him as they sent somebody on their behalf to He's in prison right so when you're in prison, then it's a little bit different than now You're totally left on your own. Yeah, they don't provide it in you. Yeah, they don't have each a back You're right exactly you're like in prison and someone has to come bring food to you You're not there's not three square meals a day and exercise time in the lawn You know, it's it's all on you.
It's all on people who love you to come bring you something right So something in the beauty of that their connection to him that they're providing for him right there Yeah, he says in verse six of chapter one that I have a partnership So we've got fellowship community and these people he's writing you're gonna be able to see these people in your group You're gonna be able to see these people even your own life So if you want to do a little background reading on Philippians as a life your bleeder go to Acts chapter 16 And you'll see it says probably the sub-hanger Bible might say Paul in Philippi So the book of Philippians is written to people in Philippi right and you're and this is really fascinating because every Jewish man Prayed every morning God. Thank you that I'm not a woman a slave or a gent time because they found such identity in their gender their ethnicity and their economic status The first three people that you see become Christians in Philippi are a drumroll a woman's amazing by slave and agenda So Lydia this dealer in purple cloth. Yeah, so she's high rolling. She's she is a boss She if there was flights back then she'd be flying from Orange County to New York She's difficult coast to coast that she have places you know in multiple cities and and but yet it wasn't enough her didn't satisfy her So she meets Jesus because he is enough then there's this this young girl who had become a slave and Could actually predict people's future because she has a demon side of her the Apostle Paul cast out the demon she becomes a Christian The slave owners are so upset that they have Paul and his campaign stylist thrown into prison Guy causes the the cells to open the jailer who's watching over them who's a middle-class Lydia drank fine wine He drank beer, you know, he's a middle-class beefed-up guy He's about to kill himself because he was just all honored if Paul and Silas escaped and they said don't kill yourself We're here.
They share the gospel with him. He becomes a Christian So when Paul writes Philippians included in that group and some scholars believe they're probably having their life group at Lydia's house Because I'm heard that she's got a nice pad, right? Yeah, so so the jailer the former slave and Lydia are in a life group together Come on and all the neighbors are thinking what do these people have in common? What is going on with these people and what what they had in common was they had a partnership in the gospel Yeah, the only thing that brought them together was this news that Jesus is Lord Paul's in prison He's writing them and he's thanking them for their partnership in the gospel.
No, it's beautiful Just makes the passage the book just comes to life. It's an awesome book. You're a love saying this book. Yeah It's so cool.
I just wonder when we talk about languishing It's a term you don't hear very often, but what are the contributing factors to that? I'm not gonna talk about this throughout the whole sermon series But just hearing you talk about that the birth of this church and diversity and the radical inclusion around the gospel for people I had no business being together and you know I feel the temptation in my own life even my own group where you we can make comfort Yeah, commonality and our preferences those things they those things come and go though they do but I feel that pool Yeah, my own my own community to make those things a centerpiece of what we gather around but you have a church that was birth through Man, just a radical explosion of the gospel diversity I mean it was missionally focused and missionally set out on others in a situation where it was the odds were stacked against it to thrive Yes, I just wondered you know The pursuit of comfort and how often we can make comfort the main thing Yeah, and then how we find out that actually we remove the gospel the missional mandate the going to searching after others Yeah, when we lose that there's no wonder then where we lose the sense of thriving on our own spiritual relationship So if you Google how to overcome my languishing yeah, I did it and you'll I'm not saying there's not some helpful thing Writing there yeah, but you'll likely read list of do this do this do this and you likely will have will think you know I've done the goose things. Yeah, you know find find a hobby that helps you forget about your Your pain and that's actually really good that yeah, but you can do that and still languish Find a group front find your tribe who accepts you as you are. I mean that's that's great have people who love you and embrace you But there's people who do that and still find themselves languishing the reality is You know and all of our leaders and I think the people in our groups were sophisticated enough to know a lot of the cultural advice about things We can do to overcome our languishing.
It really hasn't delivered It hasn't delivered so will we look will we have the courage to look at this ancient book and see that there's actually Wisdom provided for us from the God who knows us and wants us to thrive with him. That does not mean you know Influencer affluence me again Paul with this from prison But it means a joy deeper than our circumstances and and we find you Paul says I've learned the secret Yeah, I've learned the secret of being content and all situations and the secret is he's finding his joy not in things that come and go But his joy in the one that never comes and goes the one who's consistent the firm foundation, which is Jesus good Yeah, I think there's that Jim Corey Jim Kerry quotes It's a little attributed to him or he said I wish everybody could get rich and famous and get everything they ever wanted Just to find out that it's not enough. That's a great quote, you know, and of course on the other side of it Well, maybe I want to try that. Let's let me find that out for myself But we see that time and time again Yeah, that external things the things that we gravitate towards to bring us join fulfillment They let us not only do they let us down but they destroy us from the inside out But it turns out the only thing that can sustain us and give us life and meaning and purpose.
Yeah is the gospel So this is gonna be this is gonna be a rich series Yeah, I'm glad you said the word of the hospital So the word joys in the book of Philippians 14 times and the word gospel is in the book of living knives rights so there's a there's a connection between joy and Really believing receiving the good news that Jesus is Lord. Yeah, it's gonna be beautiful And as always man, we're looking for God to do just incredible things not only as we gather look at his word But in and through your groups the conversations gonna be a great series of others day We've got a root of celebration I think we have two moment to I believe in tations So this is gonna be great man And we want to encourage you guys lean into it Yeah, and what the greatest things of you leading your group is don't just show up to your group with the questions at hand But man take notes observations when you're you're in the sermon listen to the podcast and preparation Yeah for your weeks and one thing you can learn from Paul. Yeah, who wrote Philippians as a life-group leader is when Paul Challenges the Christians of Philippi he says hey, whatever you have heard from me or seen in me. Yeah, yeah put it into practice So what may Paul a really great?
Shepherd of other people a really great leader is he was able to say hey the passion you've seen in me put it in the practice So I just say life-group leaders one thing that your group is gonna remember about your study with them in the book of Philippians They won't even remember all the things you tell them or all the verses that you read here's for sure with that remember The level of your passion for the book of Philippians, right? So if the people in your group see you be like oh my gosh totally this verse this verse this week wrecked me in all the right ways This verse resonated with me deeply so when God does that in your heart as a life-group leader share it with your group Let them see in you what the word is doing to your soul. Beautiful amazing Would you mind praying for us pray for life as we kick this off? Glad to God.
Thanks for each leader I pray that you will use the book of Philippians in their lives and that they will fall more deeply committed to you Find themselves more in love with you more passionate for you and Lord your word never returns void I pray that you'll use the book of Philippians to bring greater joy to your sons and daughters who shepherd groups of people here at Mariners church in your name I pray amen amen amen all right life-group leaders We can't wait to see what God wants to do in and through this series Stay subscribed to this throughout the series the weekly life-group leader of podcast will come out on Friday stay connected We can't wait to see what God's gonna do