Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. 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. Welcome leaders to our Life Group Leader podcast. In this episode, we're going to be looking at week one of our brand new series, Jude Holding On.
I'm so excited for this series as we're going to look at this very impactful and relevant book. I'm always amazed that the truth of God's word is timeless. Although this book, like all the books of the Bible were written for a specific audience, at a specific place, at a specific time, the words, the truth of God's word is so applicable to the day and age in which we live. If you haven't done so already, I do want to encourage you to listen back last week as we did a series overview with our senior pastor Eric Geiger.
He gave us more of the context with the letter of Jude, a bit of direction of where we're going throughout this five week series. So if you haven't listed it, listen, you might want to go back and do that. Well, this week, sadly, you're just going to have me, due to scheduling difficulties, it's just me on the end of the podcast today. I'm going to walk you through the group leader questions as we do every week.
And the next week, we'll go back to our mobile program. You have a good co-host. But this is going to be an amazing start to this passage. And even as Eric mentioned last week, and we've been talking about this with our team as we're coming on the transition of the On The Table series, which was so incredible, I think our hope for this series, as it is anytime that we look at God's word, we're going to be impacted by it, is that this is going to feel like an encouraging XXL, really.
You're going to see one of the throughlines through this amazing book is the reminder of our status in our relationship with our creator, that we have been called, that we are loved, that we have been kept, and that actually there's no amount of striving that's necessary on our end to keep up the grace in which we have received. Now, of course, as followers of Jesus, we're always growing in our fellowship of Him and the implications of what that means and the impact that's going to have on ourselves and those around us. But the important thing is that we do that, not from a standpoint of trying to earn, get, or prove anything, but we do that out of the overflow for the gift that we have already received. And you and I, we live at a time where many have watered from that gift of grace, where many are trying to add additional parameters or expectations to get that gift of grace.
Many have walked away from the faith and Jude writes to times which are very similar to ours. And amazingly so, he writes into a time which is just a few decades on for the resurrection of Jesus and during this time, you've got false teachers that have crept into the church, you have people that are just swaying from the simplicity and the profound nature of the gospel and trying to add into it. Folks that are questioning the truth of the grace that they've received. That are causing others to stumble because of their false teachings.
And it would have been a very startling time for them as it is for us. And so we're going to get some insight through this book of Jude of what does God say to the cultural moment in which we live in? How do we hold on to the one who in fact is holding on to us? So our lean in question today starts with this.
It says share about a situation where you were greatly encouraged by another. What was that moment like? What was the result of that encouragement? Now you want to leave time as you always do in this lean in question to invite as many as possible to response because as it is the more that respond to the lean in, the more likely they're going to respond all the way through the rest of the set of questions.
But what are we trying to get at this question? We're really trying to set up a tone for the entirety of this letter. This letter is one of incredible encouragement that yes, we may face difficult times and we see people that are wandering and walking away and we are not excluded from our own doubts and wandering. But actually we can be reminded that Jesus is with us, that he is holding on to us.
And so Jude said to the tone of the whole letter of one of encouragement. And then we get a real kind of picture into who Jude is with his opening statement. I'll just read this for us in Jude starting at verse one. You've got to say it's verse one.
It's not chapter one one because this is twenty five verses and one chapters of Jude one says Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James to those who are called, loved by God, the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. And so the look down question as you read the passage, you look at God's word is you want to start pulling out some things that Jude makes in his opening statement. What you learn about him, what you learn about the direction of his letter and you want to draw special attention as you're going to be guided to through your leader notes in this week's questions that Jude, he comes out with his title, a servant of Jesus Christ, which is really interesting because we know that Jude was one of the half brothers of Jesus.
But yet he doesn't lead with that, which is interesting. I mean, Eric talks about that in his message that so often we want to name drop the people that we're hanging out with and our associations and you would think that Jude being half brother of Jesus that would probably be for me, the first thing that I would want people to know, but he comes straight out to say, no, actually I know full well my place and my place is that I'm a servant, that it's my identity comes from who Jesus is and what he has called me to be in response to his grace. So you want to note the implications of what that means that he leads out with that, that he's a servant. And as Eric highlighted in the message, he may want to draw out to your groups that actually actually means Judas.
And when we hear the name Judas, of course, we think of Judas the betrayer, the one that went his own route that pursued his own safety and security who betrayed his friend, our Lord Jesus for his own gain. But actually the Judas that we read about here who writes this letter, we learn a lot about him by his, his statement, his identification is he is a servant. He recognizes that all that he has has come from a good and gracious father who loves him, who sees him, who knows him and he lives out of that place. Jude then goes on to encourage us by reminding us that we have been called that God himself has pursued us, that he chooses us, that he reconciles us to himself.
And what an amazing truth that is. And I would think that for many, that might be one of the parent stumbling blocks to believe that actually this is a gift of grace that we don't have to earn in and of ourselves, that there is a loving father who laid down the life of his son and that he calls us his own. Your next question in the look down section is going to highlight the three things that Jude prays for us, the outset of his letter. He prays that mercy, peace and love be multiplied to us.
So you want to draw out why that significant, why that is important, that it's not so much that we conjure up these things within ourselves, but that we would have this awareness, this heightened understanding of the mercy of Christ in us, the peace for difficult circumstances that they were facing, that we were facing and that the love of God would be multiplied to us, that it would have is a fact that it would take a deep root within us. So we are called, we are loved, we are kept, Jude prays that we would experience mercy, peace and love. And then as we transition into the lookout section, you want to start to explore some of the reasons why people walk away from the faith. Who are the friends that you've seen, what the circumstances around that, what led to that, not just wandering, but to that complete rejection of the gospel.
And I've got many, many friends who have had that been a part of the journey and it's heartbreaking and I can tell you the common thread of those that wonder is a misaligned understanding and expectation of what the gospel actually is. For some, it was too good to be true. And so they felt like they had to earn, that they had to keep it themselves. And you know what, they actually got tired and burned out and discovered that they couldn't do it by themselves.
For others, maybe it was just a mischaracterization of what the gospel is, that the gospel is here to fulfill my own project and my own dreams. And if it doesn't work in the way that I want it to work in the immediacy, then it must not be true. But you do want to talk about these things in your group to draw out what are those things? What are those things that kind of fuel people's people's wandering?
And I think what you'll find a commonality there is there's a misaligned expectation or understanding of the gospel of we're trying to add things in or subtract things away, which then we don't want to just think about those out there. But you and I, we should continually take inventory for those things ourselves, which is where the look in question is going to lead us. The question says, what other things have you turned to for elastic encouragement, only to eventually find them fleeting or unsatisfying. And then the final question, how does reminding ourselves that we are loved and kept by God encourages us when other circumstances don't leave a lot of room for hope?
Because as it is, if we put our hope in anything else, those things are fleeting, they will ultimately let us down. Either we think that, you know, we've got to chase after them, that we've got to perfect them, that we've got to hold on tightly to these things, that they can't, they can't bear the weight of those hopes. And of course, the truth of the gospel is Jesus is the only one that can bear the weight of our hopes. And he is the one that is holding on to us.
And so as you lead your group through this conversation, this week, we want to, again, encourage you to use the questions that are listed, pay attention to the leader notes. But I know many of you already do this, but one of the best things that you can do as you sit in a teaching this weekend is have your Bible, have your notepad, have your pen ready to go, have the manners app ready to go, take notes about things that are particularly highlighting into you. And as you're sitting there in the message this weekend, they can praying for those in your group, because really the best way that we can lead our group is by being impacted by God's word first ourselves. And so listen well this weekend, ask the spirit of God to lead you through as you're engaging in the message, make notes, draw out things, what is God highlighting to you.
And then as it is every week with these questions, these questions are really meant to be, they're a guide, right? They're not a strict turn by turn. So you want to have a sensitivity and discernment for what is actually happening in your group. But the best way to get to that sensitivity, discernment, and even spontaneity of what's happening in your group is to first really sit with and under God's word yourself will allow it to read you.
And as it reads you, you're able then to facilitate great and meaningful conversations this week. Right leaders, so that is week one. We are with you as always praying for you, believing for God to do great things in and through your groups. And we'll see you back here next week.