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This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Hi, friends. Hey, welcome to the new episode of our Life Group leader podcast. This is Scott.
The Cycloship Pastor Gator Vine, and I'm here with Esther. Welcome Esther to this episode. Thank you. What's up, like your leaders?
What's up? So we're continuing in our series of Genesis and what we get beginning of Sacred Versoles, looking at Joseph's story. I love this story, and this has been a huge impact in my life the way that he responds when difficult times come. So let's just dive in to this week's study.
And as we can lean in, the first icebreaker question is, can you share a time in your life that was really difficult? Ultimately, ended up making your life better in the long run. I love these started questions. In our life.
We're going to go deep in the first question. No warm up. It's like question sometimes it's just going deep into it. Yeah.
You mind sharing us? Yeah, sure. I mean, this year, David and I, we celebrate 10 years of being married. And if anyone says marriage is easy, I don't believe them.
Yeah. So it's a sense of, you know, it's really two centers. And for us, it's, you know, we're working by grace because we've led of Jesus, but we bring our stuff and we still live on this side of eternity. And so, yeah, we've had such seasons that are marriage where it was really difficult and we had to seek help or we wanted to give up.
And sometimes it's not just like between us, but it's like external things that come into our relationship. So yeah, I would say those are some really difficult seasons that sometimes I didn't feel like there was any hope and my heart was hardened. But it's so amazing because as we saw the Lord and sought help, we saw that God is fighting for us more than we're fighting for each other. And on the other side is friendship, on the other side is teamwork, on the other side is being on mission together for the kingdom of God.
And so, yeah, that's something for us. Yeah. I don't know that resonates with you or what about you Scott? What's something that was difficult that ended up being great?
Yeah, I think for me, I've had many transitions in my life. And I think about some of the transitions I've had in ministry settings. I think about what now was part of a church for 16 years. Wow.
This was a church that I was part of when I was a freshman in college. Oh my goodness. So I really grew in my faith where I felt the call to go into full-time ministry. And it was really a community that I grew up in.
And we felt, my wife and I felt after 16 years of serving and leading up in part of that community, a call out. But we didn't know where the call to us. That's always great. It was definitely hard.
And it was a season where it was really just trusting God. Like God, where do you have for us? And exploring as a mission field, is it in another church setting? And so really I didn't have a job.
I didn't have an income. It was my wife and I were recently talking about it. Those are some lean years. We didn't know where our income was going to come from, but also where our next community to faith was.
And God helped us land in a place where it was truly an amazing church community that was a family that we really loved serving with, but also helped me to expand as a leader, as a pastor. Wow. And so just through all that, to understand God is faithful as we step out in faith, as we step out in obedience to Him. Wow.
So yeah, I mean, all to say, I did something I always share. But for the life group leaders, even the very gecko, when you share it, it really models away for the rest of your group members to share. Well, let's dig into the scripture passage for today from Genesis 50 to 21. So as a human reading that passage.
Yeah. Let's go for it. When Joseph's brother saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, Joseph is holding a grudge against us. He will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.
So they sent this message to Joseph before he died. Your father gave a command. Say this to Joseph. He said, I forgive your brother's transgressions and their sin, the suffering they caused you.
Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when this message came to him. His brothers also came to him, bowing down before him and said, we are your slaves, but Joseph said to them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
You plan evil against me. God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people. Therefore, don't be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.
And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. And obviously, like there's a lot of story before this of Joseph being kicked out of his house and his brothers selling him, him landing in Egypt and all of that. And so we see here Joseph forgiving his brothers and showing grace. So in verse 20, that question is we look at what does Joseph say in verse 20 and what does that tell us about God?
Wow. Amazing. I love, I mean, you'll hear in an Eric's message too. And he shares in the beginning that not everything works, not everything is good.
So like losing your job could not be good losing a child or something tragic happening is not good. And so you don't have to say just because God is good, something else is good. I love in this passage. And then another passage in Romans that says that he works for good.
Yeah. Yeah. And so I think that Joseph obviously threw all the ups and downs and through the message, you'll see that Joseph gained a perspective of God's kind of behind the scenes work. And so he had a deeper revelation of God.
Like the God that he knew when he prematurely shared with his brothers about his dream, like the lack of wisdom and the lack of character he had, you see, years and years later in Egypt, like this transformed Joseph. And I think it's because he's met God in the pit and Eric shares, you know, there's a pit and then the palace and then you go through a greater pit and then a greater palace. And so yeah, I think it reveals that God is sovereign, that God is working for good. And now Joseph has a real experience, revelation of that.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know that verse in Romans 8, 28, it says God makes all things work for the good.
And I think sometimes we give that remark, whatever people are going to, he'll work it out. He's gonna work it out. But even in the midst of like what you're saying in the pit, the challenges and struggles, do we understand that God has a bigger picture. And I think you're saying that.
Yeah, so good. He has a perspective that we often don't see right in front of us. So that's what we got. So the second question, what does Joseph do in verse 21?
How does his love for his brothers reflect the heart of God? It's okay. What about you, Scott, what are your thoughts? Yeah.
I mean, I think just seeing like Joseph's forgiveness and grace and how he comforts and even provides for his brother. That's a travian. Who sold him this slavery. That's that's hard.
I have an older brother. He's an older brother. He's against a lot of fights going up. But even my brother, like when he's wrong me, there was this heart to take vengeance or to make sure that he, you know, I can get him back.
But for Joseph to bring that kind of comfort and progression really shows God's heart to bring his grace and mercy even when we wronged him. Even if we fall in short. That's okay. I know about even if I fall short.
I'm 10. Yeah. How about you yesterday? Yeah.
I mean, Joseph's posture is like what a reflection of the person of Jesus that he died. And you know, it would be one thing if God just redeemed us from hell. And we now, you know, because of the blood and the cross in his resurrection, like we were exempt from going to hell. But it says that we are now children of God, that we are co-heirs with Christ.
Like we are brothers and sisters. Like that is wild to me. So the extravagance of God is, I think essentially, you know, Joseph is kind of a miniature version of Jesus who will show the forgiveness, the generosity and the extravagance that is to come in Christ. And so that's such a, yeah, such an amazing story.
Yeah. Now looking up kind of just practically like I love this question as we look out that second part of that question. You know, why is it so hard to believe that suffering can happen? Yeah.
God can be real at the same time. Yeah. There's a question that I get. Yes.
God is loving how could he bring suffering in our world. Yeah. But how do you reconcile those things? Yeah.
I think suffering is so real and it's so tempting. And I think that's the reality of living in this broken world that we can't prevent suffering. But I think, you know, when we look back, we're able to see that God uses it for good. And I think oftentimes my tendency is when suffering happens, my first thought is who is to blame?
Like who's that fault? And I remember somebody once saying when you point a finger out, you have three fingers pointing back at you. And so I think it's an opportunity for us not to necessarily examine the origin of where a certain suffering is coming from in the season of our life, but an opportunity to examine our hearts and say, okay, where is God confronting me in my heart? And maybe there's a suffering that's happening in the world that I'm meant to be a contributor.
Like I'm meant to be a solution to a problem that's happening to this world. And I think that that's what Christian and Christians in the body of Christ is supposed to be. Yeah. That's good.
I mean, I think when people ask me, like when they're going through times and trouble and something, I ask this myself too, there are many reasons why suffering happens. First of all, like you said, we live in a broken and simple world. But sometimes suffering is used to shape our character. And so we really mold us and allow us to trust him even more.
And for us to be able to see the greater good and the picture that God has for us as well too. So good. And so yeah, I think those are things that will be discussed in our life groups. And if there's no easy, sometimes answers, but to walk alongside people through the suffering.
So continuing on with that question, the second part of the looking question is more specifically, how can we as the body of Christ come around one another and support each other when we experience difficulty or suffering? That's such a great question. And I think it's so practical for a life group because I say this quite often. Different churches call other groups, small groups, cell groups, community groups.
And I love that at Miriners, we call it life group because life isn't always ready. And so suffering in our life group is bound to happen. Even in my own life group, we've experienced right now someone has lost a job and infertility, loss of a child or a dyke. One of my life group leaders, her sibling had to get a transplant and would work in.
And so life happens. I think we can show up for each other one by listening to by asking, like following up, how are things going and three through prayer and really believing that prayer is actually supernatural. Like God is hearing us and supernaturally moving on behalf, whether it's on the other side of the globe and that God cares. And then some other practical things are like maybe doing a meal train.
Maybe when we had our son, we had our life group, like everybody brought diapers, you know, just to contribute in those ways and gift cards. And so I think that there are so many ways that we can show that we care. But my greatest encouragement is to lean in. And don't back out.
Don't feel like, oh, maybe I'm too much or maybe I'm too dramatic. Generally, I think we back away. So to lean in and to ask the questions, I think is my greatest encouragement for all the life groups and also life group leaders. Like you don't necessarily have to play a referee, you know, like you don't have to be the one coordinating everything.
I mean, you have a snack coordinator or serve champion and all that. But like lean into maybe, you know, asking the group, hey, how like you can ask directly to the person suffering. How do you want our support? You know, you don't have to do the mental math and then, yeah, invite everyone else to contribute to their ideas because I think that's the beauty again.
I love this question. It's the body of Christ because someone's a hand, someone's a foot, someone's eyes, someone's ears. So I think hearing from everyone on how to listen, pray, show up, give back off all those things alongside discerning with the Holy Spirit is such a beautiful experience of what it means to be God's redeemed people. Yeah.
That's really good. I just think community is such a gift. And I'm so thankful actually for our life group. Just like yours, like we have people, members in our group who've had job loss recently, they've had a lot of love one, challenges with kids and all those things.
And those are things that my wife and I and our family struggle with, Asian parents, all that stuff too. But really thankful that through those challenges and hardships and suffering, like we're there for each other. Yeah. And you know, every meeting, at the end of every meeting, we have time in the prayer and I know a lot of our life groups and we encourage you to not having those times.
Yeah. Make sure to carve out time. That's good. That's so good.
Praise reports, testimonies, prayer requests. Yeah. Because we really need each other. Yeah.
And so prayer is such a huge thing for our group. But another thing is just presence. Yeah. You know, oftentimes as a guy, as a man, I want to get solutions.
I want to get some promise. Yeah, yeah. For sure. Just to be present and I heard about the ministry of presence.
Yes, that's huge. You don't need to do anything just to be listening, to be just to listen in ear. That's good. Is such a big gift for people who are going through tough times.
And I would start this thing where grief is cut and happen and joy is doubled and multiplied. And so, wow. Yeah, I want to encourage like all of your life groups, all the leaders that are listening to this like prayer and presence goes a tremendous way that we don't have to answer and fix problems. God has been one, the Holy Spirit is the one who's going to move and lead and provide.
Yeah. So good. Yeah. Esther, this has been a great conversation and like leaders just know that we are praying for you and believe that God is with you through these times of challenge through these discussions that you have with the group through your personal life as well too.
And know that we're here for you. The coaches and the life group staff are here if you have questions or concerns reach out to us. We love to come on. Thanks, Esther.
Awesome. Wonderful. So, there you guys. Yes.
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