Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group leader podcast. This week the conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practice the spiritual rhythms and changes the world together. We're welcome to week one of Fighting for Joy. We are so excited to jump in to the Book of Philippians together, not only through our weekend teaching series, but of course, in and through our life groups during the week.
This is going to be just a great book to study together. We're excited to begin this with you all. If you have not listened already, please do go back and listen to the series overview that we released with Eric Geiger on Wednesday. It's going to be really helpful to give you a little bit more of an understanding of the Book of Philippians and also some of the insight of where we're believing God's going to work through this book and through our church.
Well, I'm John, John Donnis here and I'm solo this week. I'm so sorry. It's a scheduling conflict on my part. And so you get to just listen to me today.
So we're going to get through this here together. Why don't we jump in straight away through the lean in? The lean in for this week is this. When was the time in your life that you would say was the most joyful?
Another way to maybe phrase that is, hey, but when was the time in your life when you were overwhelmed with joy? What did that look like? And of course, that's getting us to think about things that bring us joy, calling in to remember in different circumstances, things that we've experienced. And for me, the first thing that was top of mind was the first time that I became a dad, which was more than 14 years ago now.
I remember Olivia being born, our first daughter, Hoag Hospital, Oceanview window, steak dinner, the whole thing. Sounds like it was really easy. It wasn't obviously on my wife. But what an incredible moment.
We'll never forget that. And then being sent home was also a little bit terrifying and overwhelming. But for sure, that for us was a life-changing moment just overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. So what is that for you?
Talk about that with your groups again, just to get our thinking about circumstantial joy. Things that bring us a happiness. And then your look down is split up into two different sections from verses one through five and one through sixteen. I'll read one through five here.
It says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from our God, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer because of your partnership with the gospel from the first day until now. So a couple of questions.
What was it, Paul and Timothy? What was it about the relationship with this church of Philippi that led them to give thanks about them? And then what feelings did Paul have when he prayed for the Philippians? What caused this feeling?
And so if you remember in the message, Eric brought us back to Acts 16, which is really the origin story of the church in Philippi. So you want me to go back and listen to that, but it's a beautiful telling of how God brought really diverse people from different economic, social, economic streams, different ethnicities together. You know, there was this prayer in Judaism, which was God, thank you for that you didn't make me a woman, a slave or a gentile and wouldn't you know it? And Acts 16, the birth of this church, all three of those categories of real people are brought into the gospel.
So Paul is remembering that story. Paul is remembering the partnership of that they've had to see this thriving outpost of followers of Jesus that were birth. So the letter that he writes, it's really sincere, it seems really pastoral. I mean, you get the sense that he'd care greatly for these people.
He knew these people that he saw God do incredible things in and through them. And so that comes through the letter. So you want to call that to mind. It might be even great actually to pick up Acts 16, read that story of how the gospel out worked there because it provides a great context to understand what God did through the church in Philippi.
Then we get to verses six through 11. He says this, I'm sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Indeed, it is right of me to think this way about you all because I have you in my mind and you're all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel that it goes on for a few more verses. But what did Paul mean when he told the Philippians that they were partners with me in grace?
I think he's highlighting that this truly is a work of God's grace, that there's no other way that Paul, somebody who used to pursue and persecute Christians, kill Christians, is now in this position of helping to start up these outposts, these outposts of followers of Jesus and in Philippi, a place that would have seemed unlikely with unlikely people, that there's no other way but through the grace of God that he would bring these people together to be the advancement of his kingdom story. And then what is significant about the Philippians maintaining their support of Paul in prison and then what impact might this have on Paul's sense of joy? Well, Paul is in a prison. He's physically bound.
He can't go and do the things that he was used to doing, starting new churches, encouraging new churches, traveling. He's bound. He's maximizing his opportunity for the gospel. You know, many of the epistles were written in prison in prison, so he's maximizing his opportunity, which is incredible.
But he would have been dependent upon the generosity of outsiders. He wasn't supplied with three square meals a day. He wasn't looked after in that kind of way. And so the church of Philippi sins a representative to check in on Paul to give him some resources.
And this letter is in response to, hey, Paul, how are you doing? And here's some resources and this letter is written in response, which is significant. You can see that there's, it's more than a friendship. I think we have that right in our lives.
It's more than I like you. Like me, there's an exchange of maybe currency in there. You do this for me. I do this for you.
It's so much deeper beyond that. It's so much more eternal than that. It's a partnership in the advancement of the good news of Jesus Christ, which has transformed their lives, which has transformed our lives. So there's some significance there.
And you can see that again in the tone of this letter. As we move to the lookout question, a couple of questions here, which are really designed to get your group to think about the difference between happiness and joy, you know, happiness, of course, being circumstantial, joy being something that can last. And then getting us to think about, man, what are the things that we look to that we search after to find joy? How do those things let us down?
Where they disappoint us? And spend some time talking about that. You might even go back into the lead in question, you know, as I shared, one of the most joyful moments in our life becoming a father. Hey, guess what?
Parents, you all know this that not every moment of parenting is filled with incredible highs and joys that there are deep valleys and deep moments of dependence upon God's leading as you lead to the complexities of raising kids. And so even that, like even being a parent as incredible that it is, is an external identity and external pursuit that cannot be my true source of identity, my true source of purpose and meaning. It can't be my, the thing that's going to fuel the odds or all eternity. So I have a conversation around that.
What are the things that you look to? Where have you seen it? Where have they let you down? And then the look in section, the question here is what are some things in your life that steal your joy?
So not only what are the things that you pursue, but hey, what are the things that are robbers of joy in your life, be it, you know, worry, anxiety or your own self-centeredness or, you know, maybe it's your propensity to try to control an outcome in every situation and know what's ahead down the road. And, or maybe it's you have a desire to be seen as somebody who's powerful and successful and to build a name for yourself. And you found out that, man, this isn't happening. This isn't working here.
What are those things? Have that conversation with your group together, set the pace and vulnerability yourself as a leader of your group. But then I'll have this last question. It talks about the relationships that we have that can really foster joy within one another, relationships that are centered around, around the gospel.
And then this is a great point to talk about that in your group to say where you've seen that in one another, to call it out in one another, to call it to mind. As Paul is calling to mind in his letter. You could say, man, I remember that time where I was in need and you anticipated my need and you came to me or I remember when I was wobbly and my identity of Christ and you reminded me of who I really am. They call that out in one another because again, it's not just about friendship.
We can find friendship in lots of different ways. And that's a great, wonderful gift. But there's a difference between just a friendship and partnership in the gospel. That is the commonality, which of course, there's a little bit of friendship to that and we all want that.
But friendship in and of itself isn't enough. It's friendship that's centered around the unity of the gospel and set on missions. So have that conversation with your group to conclude your discussion this week. And then also want to encourage you, this weekend as an I believe, invitation to the conversation.
And so if you're listening to this, prior to the weekend message, man, join us in praying for many to respond to the gospel this weekend. And if you're listening after the fact, you want to pray that the seeds that were planted, that they would take root, that they would flourish, that they wouldn't come and rob those away, that those that say yes to Jesus would also take their next steps in discovering the grace that is not only brought them into relationship with them, but the grace that's got to fuel the relationship with God going forward. So spend some time praying for that in your groups and then pray with us this week that that we continue to take root. So we're so excited you guys for this book.
I can't wait to study it with my life group this weekend. Set the tone in that your enthusiasm to study this book that goes a long way. And there's nothing better than diving into God's scriptures together in community, letting scripture read us together and then being encouraged and challenged to live it out. So we can't wait to see how God is going to use this series fighting for joy in and through your groups this summer.
All right, you guys, we'll see you next week. And don't worry, I'll have a co-host with me.