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 week five of our Life Group Leader podcast. Looking at the book of Jude, our sermon series holding on.
This is the end of this incredible sermon series and we're gonna end looking at some incredible verses. It's all been amazing, right? There's last two verses in here, this well-known, well-resighted benediction. We're gonna talk through a little bit today and I've got our women pastor, Esther Chung, joining us on the podcast.
So say hello Esther, so glad to have you. Hi guys, so good to be with you. Yeah, Esther, how are you doing? How's life, what's happening, what's happening?
I'm not expecting that. Just a relational connection. Yeah, that's great. No, we are full swing preparing for the women's event on April 19th.
So we're just so excited and so expectant. Yeah, Chris is gonna be preaching on, the garden narrative and Genesis and how the enemy calls us into shame, but how Jesus calls us out of that. So I'm so excited. So invite your Life Groups, come with everybody you know, because it's gonna be awesome.
I mean, these are incredible nights, right? It really is. Such an amazing time, just to be encouraged. I mean, there's something about being in a larger room like that.
It's just like the faith that's tangible in that room, the expectation, the hunger like that. They've just been so impactful. Yeah, I honestly think that those nights, like faith is contagious. And you kind of get to, in a sense, like borrow each other's faith as you see people stepping into trusting Jesus and you're like seeing somebody raise their hand, you're like, oh my gosh, I'll try that.
Do that. And I think there's tremendous amount of spiritual breakthrough that happens when truth is spoken over in season's awareness or hopelessness. And so yeah, they've been incredible. Yeah, amazing.
And of course you're stewarding so much more here with women's ministry. I mean, these large events are lots of fun and exciting, but we were just talking before we recorded this just about the amount of women that are in groups and Bible studies right now. Got some great things, your leadership and the big breath of it, but also through the depth of it, their community. Yeah, it's been an exciting time, even the amount of women that are part of deep dives to the Wednesday night talks with Stetser, like the amount of hunger and spiritual depth that women are desiring is such a, I think, grace of God.
Yeah, that's it. Yeah, faith is always meant to be communal, right? That's it. And so that's what we're going to talk about a bit.
I mean, that's a big part of the book of Jude, right? Of recalled, were loved, were kept, and those distinguishing characteristics that God gives to us are best expressed at experience in and through community. So you'll notice that the New Testament letters are written to churches, they're written to groups of people, not just isolated individuals, that faith is a communal thing. And so we're going to walk through that today a little bit, some implications and again, looking at this great benediction.
So first we've got Arlene in question, and I didn't ask you the answers before, so this is going to be live in a moment. I don't know if you have one. We'll see. What is the worst all you have ever experienced?
And of course we can go spiritually, emotionally, but maybe physically, you know, when's the time you had anemic fall? Yeah, so last summer I was holding my two and a half year old daughter, Kinsey. Oh no, I like we was telling. It was bad.
And my sister's stairs, they're not like carpet. They were, I don't know, they're like laminate laminate. I would. And I was wearing socks and I was holding her and I slid.
Oh. And she, she hit her nose on the corner of the stair. Oh. So we had to go to the E.
Oh no. And I had a tremendous amount of mom gills. And one of the question was, what could have kept you from falling? And my answer is socks.
Yeah. So I'm sorry. And laminated would. Yeah.
So that was pretty bad. How about you? Do you call any fall, bad fall? Yeah, I mean, the first thing that came to mind was one time for the sake of the kingdom.
We were handing out flyers, inviting people to Easter services, just canvassing neighborhoods as you do, man. Like at the streets, put something around over the stuff, like door to door, passing out things and having conversations with people. And I was doing this at a neighbor that I wasn't very familiar with. And I came off the curb and I just completely twisted my ankle.
I came down sideways, fell to the ground, flyers all over the place. Nobody saw it. It was just me and the Lord kind of like, here I am suffering for the gospel. Oh my God.
I just wasn't that long ago and I'm older now. And so it took forever for that. Stinking thing to heal. Like I couldn't run.
I couldn't play. Yeah. And when it gets cold, I still feel like, oh no. Like that's stuff.
It's the door to the flesh whenever it gets cold. It's like, OK, I'm dependent. I'm dependent upon that. And honestly, you're so tall too.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't need to be falling slow. Yeah.
There's no graceful way to do it when you're almost 6'4". It just looks like a giraffe that's just trying to ice skate or something. It's not a good situation. So what is, where is, well, I mean, Eric kind of picks up on this a little bit.
He uses this term. I've got this. There are oftentimes in life where we want to power up and power through situations where we feel a self confidence and we can push through something. Or maybe there are times, as he mentions, when people say, hey, I've got you.
I'm going to take care of this and the situation for you. And a lot of times, we realize that, oh, wow, I don't have this. I can't hold on to this. Or this person can't support this.
And that's a big part of the letter of jute to see that man. There is opposition. They're seeing people that are wandering and walking away. There is disruption within this community.
And they're realizing, like, oh, wow, I can't hold on hard enough. And of course, that's a big theme of the letter that we can hold on because he's holding on to us. And so just a great, great conversation from the beginning here. And then we get into verses 24 through 25.
Esther, maybe you want to read it for us? It's just an incredible way that this letter ends up as benediction. Yeah, of course. Verse 24 says, now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory without blemish and with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time now and forever.
Amen. That's what I'm talking about. It is so powerful this weekend. I think we're going to stand and read that together.
It's this great exhale. As we've acknowledged the difficult parts of faith, when we see people wonder, when we wander ourselves, that there is this great reminder of, OK, it's not our ability to stand ourselves. It's not our ability to protect ourselves. But it's all through Jesus Christ to him, who's doing all things, the authority before all time.
So now we can sit on that passage for quite a while. I'll just want to draw a couple of things from the look down questions. One question here says, what qualities of God does Jude highlight that make God worthy? And then how do these relate to contending for the faith and persevering in it?
Anything you want to draw out for leaders there? Yeah, I mean, one of the things that stand out to me is that the immutable quality of God, that God is unchanging, peace consistent from the beginning of time to now, to forevermore. And even like I love the verse where it says, without blemish, but also with great joy. And I think sometimes we think that God is a joy kill, but he actually comes to kill what kills true joy.
And so just a reminder that God's not anti-fun, anti-lifter, that he desires for us to be clean and pure and blemish, without blemish before him. But he also imagines us to be full of joy in life as an after in community and also with him. And so yeah, those are some things that stand out to me. How about you?
Yeah, that's great. That's great. I mean, the enemy comes to still kill and destroy. I've come that you might have life and life to the fullness.
That had joy to the fullness is so good. And I think you're right on there. And a few things Eric picks up on that. He talks about with great joy.
And he talks a bit about like, sometimes the Lord and scholars wonder, who's joy is that? Is it our joy? Is it his joy? And it's ambiguous on purpose because it's actually both, that he is our portion.
He is our joy and receiving him. We experience joy ourselves, which is amazing, that he protects us, that he presents us without blemish. And then of course, the great promise of his glory, his majesty, his power, his authority, that he's the only one that's worthy of praise, that he's before time, he's outside of time. And he has authority that has ruled his reign as overall things.
That these are qualities that Jude wants to highlight to us, that is like, OK, if God is all of these things, and he is all of these things, he's majesty, he's power, he's authority, he protects us. He's without blemish, he were able to experience joy. If he is all of these things, then I can have hope and perseverance because I'm relying upon the one who is above all things, which is great. Those are weighty words.
And I love that. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Then we make the turn to the look in words.
OK, so what other things, people, institutions, does the world, or maybe our own selves, do we look to give glory, majesty, power, and authority? Are they worth it? Can they stand it? Where do they let us down?
They stand it. Yeah, yeah. Where do you? Where do you see that at work a little bit?
Yeah. I mean, I automatically think about celebrities, even athletes that we admire and look up to. And I think there's a difference between recognizing and celebrating talent versus almost worshipping them and idolizing them. And I was kind of even thinking about the temptation in the Western church, like for us to even idolize Christian celebrities.
Yeah, like how we sometimes can give glory, imagine. The almost in the sense of their words have as much weight as God's word or God himself. And so I think that sometimes, yeah, I have the temptation to do that if something is presented to me in a more charismatic way. But only God can handle the glory.
I love how like what can actually stand the majesty and the power and the authority that we even attribute to it. And only God can. Yeah, I think that's really good. We're drawing out on like there could be a temptation to kind of put our faith in somebody else's faith, you know, or the persona of somebody else's faith and to live out our spiritual journey through them.
And part of this letter is we see men, but people wonder and walk away. Like if your faith is ultimately somebody else's faith in Jesus and then that collapses, then what are you left with? Right. And also a question of worship.
You know, we all worship every single person worships. Agnostic, atheist, Jesus follower, we all worship. The things that we have described value to, the things that we give glory to that take our time and our enthusiasm. These are, oh, I'm gonna get you.
Let's talk about that. Come on. We're gonna do rooted strongholds right in the squad. So good.
But the only choice we have is what we worship. And it turns out the only person that's worthy that can take away of our worship is Jesus, right? Because anything else that we worship ultimately will consume us, will let us down. You know, if you worship riches and you pursue that, then you're gonna be found wanting.
If you worship celebrity, you're gonna be found, if you worship beauty, we're all gonna age out at some point. And ultimately you're left with this inward look towards yourself. But if you worship outside externally, the creator, then that's where we find life, and joy, and protection, all of those things. So yeah, good conversation.
So good. That's really, it's always fun doing these with you. All right, look in. So we've looked at the passage, we've drawn out the characteristics of that Jesus wanted to highlight.
We've talked about where we see false representations of this out in culture. And now we wanna look at it. Okay, so for us, where do you struggle to trust in God's ability to protect you from stumbling? What effect has this had on your relationship with him and others?
It's a great, great question. You wanna go first? Oh gosh, no, you go first. You go first.
So many things, right? I mean, I think of, I wanna say like my faith in him is assured, and I believe that it is. It's been a significant part of your journey yesterday, right? I know we've talked about it before, but when I think about different forms of suffering in trials that we may go to, that many have gone through, that certainly been your story in the last bit here, I look at some of that stuff, and I have such admiration for you, particularly for others, where I've seen what they've gone through.
And I've gone through things, right? I've gone through things, but the significant points of trauma, I'm like, oh God, I don't know how I would deal with that. I don't know how I would walk through that. Yeah.
So I think there's a part of that in me where, again, I've gone through things, but what I look at, I know it's not always fair to say significant levels because trauma loss is loss, but not having encountered some of those things. I'm like, I don't know, how would I find my faith in that moment? What would I hold onto in that moment? So for me, there's a bit of a wrestle there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, I think about, yeah, it's interesting how like even sin that we stumble with, it's usually the same stuff. And even our fears, it's kind of the root is the same stuff. And even for me, like, we've lost our son.
And so when I think about Kinsey, who's our daughter, and she's three and a half, sometimes the enemy, or even myself, will take myself to places of like, well, one of my kids was taken, you know, who says she can't be? And then I have to go back to the, like I'll stumble and I'll worry or I'll panic. And I don't think that panic is necessarily the space that God ever designed for us to live in. And I have to come back to the fact that God loves Kinsey more than I do.
And so God will protect Kinsey. And even if he were to take Kinsey for some reason, I mean, this is a practice for me to keep, it's an opportunity of trust for me, but to say, God, I'm just gonna trust that you're a better parent than I am. So yeah, I have a fear that I'll stumble through in my parenting or stumble through marriage or in the way that I love Kinsey, but at the end of the day, she has a better parent. And I think it comes back to the whole idea of this weekend of I don't got it, but God does.
And I remember someone saying like, you're enough, like the fish in the lobes were. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know. It's like without the touch in the miracle, God, it's insufficient, but with God, it supplies every need and satisfies every belly and soul.
That's beautiful. Yeah. What a great opportunity for your life group to kind of get vulnerable in this moment. You could stay surface level, but to really draw out, maybe some of our fears and our temptations, I think could be a great opportunity for our life to go deeper.
That's absolutely. Yeah. And then you've kind of answered this last question. What truth is God inviting you into to combat the lie of self-reliance?
You talked about that he's a great protector, that he will protect. Yeah. And so it's always great when you get to these look-ins, think they're often tied in to the look down. So things that were highlighted in the scripture by you, by your group members.
Often those are highlighted for a reason. It's like you're drawn to something in the text for a reason. It's like we read scripture, but we allow scripture to read us. Oh, because you want to pay attention to what people are noting down, because often that's what God is calling you.
Calling you into. So that's a good thing to be mindful of as you're leading your groups. What truth is God inviting me into combat the lie of self-reliance? I think there is the piece of his authority.
Come on. It's power. It's all of it really. But his authority that he is ultimately in control, that even when I feel like I got a grasp and hold on to it and create my own narrative, that he has a far better way, that he's in control, but he's also loving.
It's hard to trust somebody who is, you know, authoritative, like a dictator in control without love, but that's not who he is. He's authoritative, but he's also sovereign. He's also loving. And so that's the truth that I'm reminded of, even when life may swirl around and things happen that I don't understand, it cause harm.
I can still trust in his goodness and it's offered to you at the same time. So that's what I'm invited into. So amazing, Esther. Well, thank you so much.
This has been a really, really great series as you wrap this up. This is an exciting season. Life Repletors as well. Next week is Palm Sunday.
Palm Sunday weekend. We got rooted celebrations. We got to do life reporters that are coming online. And then in just a couple of weeks, we're hitting Easter, Easter weekend, man.
That's it, right? No, no greater celebration from death to life, right? Like, I love it. Paul says in my own words that if price was not raised, pack it up and go home.
But because he is, everything is different. So we're going to celebrate that to the sillness. And then we're also going to be getting a new series. I need a miracle.
Life Repletors look out for series magazines that are coming with that as well. They're going to be distributed on Easter weekend. You'll be able to pick up copies at your congregation. Gotta be a great resource through this series together.
Esther, thanks again. Appreciate you all that you are and all that you do. I'll let you bring. Thank you.
You're a real one. No, thank you. No cap. Oh, you're way too cool for me.
I got two days. Two days daughter. She's been helping me. That's awesome.
Or hindering me. I don't know. All right, leaders. Have a great week.
And we'll see you back here next week.