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. Well, welcome on to week three of our Hope in Hopeless Times series. This is our summer journey through the book of first Peter.
And as our encouragement has been on the weekend here at Mariners, we are not skipping a verse. And so our encouragement to you is to not skip a week. And we know, of course, during the summer, especially in our groups, we have different rhythms with people traveling and doing a bit of things out of town. And so that's a great gift of technology though, that we can have our podcasts, that we can even zoom in with our groups during the business of the summer seasons.
But we really do hope that you are taking advantage of this incredible resource, this great series to really dive into God's word and to use this as just a great jumping off point to forming great community within our life groups this summer. This has really been just an impactful series. I love the conversations that we've been having so far about the reality of Hope, both the present reality of Hope and how Hope is something that we look forward to. And my goodness, there's so much that we can talk about just in that point alone, of how we experience Hope and the present and how we're looking for Hope towards the future.
But first Peter is a book that really guides us through the realities of the Hope that we have in Jesus. That's really comes through this new family, this new identity. And I love again, that you guys are walking that through in your groups, this Hope, this family, this identity, it's best represented in community. And so we're thankful that you're joined with us as we jump into week through.
I'm John Thomas, again, this is not Jared. I've filled in for a few weeks here and always, we've got the mainstay. I wish you could see how incredibly handsome he is on the other side of my camera. The full beard, this is Mr.
Jeremy Maxwell. Jeremy, I don't know if people know, you may have said at some point, but where are you chiming in from? No, I haven't. So I'm glad to be here as always.
I'm just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I'm excited to officially be a part of the Rooted Network team now, as their director of content. So I'm officially part of the team. I've been doing contract work up until just this month.
So I'm excited to be officially on board. Yeah, amazing. So everything that you read in these leader guides is coming from Jeremy, which we're grateful to have him and his influence throughout our whole church. So we're really looking forward to that.
So Summer in Tennessee, what's happening out there? You're holding down the fort? Yeah, it's not quite as beautiful as Southern California, but we're loving it. But you get to say Chattanooga all the time, which that's just incredible.
All right, well, we can pick up our chat and new conversations elsewhere. Let's get to it, Jeremy. Why don't you walk us through the passage of bed and things that we can key in on with our groups this week? Great.
So this week, we're going to start chapter two. We finished up chapter one with weeks one and two. And now we're jumping into Peter kind of turns his attention. And we're really going to be looking at how Christ is the chief cornerstone.
But then we're living stones as well. And we've been joined with him and with each other. And we can rest secure because of who Jesus is and who he's made us. That our identity is tied to this relationship that we have with Jesus and now with one another.
That's the Christian life. And I don't think it's any coincidence that Peter of all people picks up on this language of being living stones, because our listeners and I remember group leaders may remember Jesus referred to Peter, his name, Petra in the Greek, would mean rock. And when Peter confessed Christ, his confession there, Jesus said that on this stone, I will build my church. And so now we see Peter carrying that imagery through to say all people who have acknowledged the gospel, who claim the gospel is have a new identity as living stones and joined to the chief cornerstone in Christ.
That's amazing. And it's such an encouragement to me. When we think about Peter, Jesus saying to him, looking at him eye to eye on you, I would build my church. We're talking about the same Peter who denied him.
Not too long ago before Jesus circles back and restores him and empowers him to be this rock on which the church is gonna be built on. I just find that such an encouragement. When we talk about that we are his, that we're in this identity with Jesus, that we are living stones that he's building with. I think sometimes for me, I can see that as quite intimidating.
Well, who am I, what's my value, what's my worth? But actually, if we go through the whole narrative of scripture, God doesn't use perfect people. He uses humble obedient people that he uses his perfection through. So that's just an encouragement to me.
That's just a little side note journey on just the beautiful reality of scripture that God invites us in despite our imperfections. And we see that certainly through Peter. Yeah, I mean, if people take nothing else from this week, what a great reminder that we're not perfect. We're not expected to be perfect, but we're called to be faithful and our hope is in Christ alone.
And just like Peter and now calling the whole church to point us to the gospel, this week is a great reminder. There's a, we've got one of our seven rhythms. This week is a great reminder about our daily devotion and how we grow in that faithfulness, how we grow in Christ likeness. One of the best ways we can do that outside of community is through constant time in the world.
And so there's a great opportunity to remind people this week for time in the world. So I would encourage leaders as they prepare this week, two things. One, we've got some really vivid imagery. So just camp out in the imagery of the text this week.
Peter talks about us being, again, imperfect, like newborn babies, right? There's a beauty to it, but we're growing. We're immature. We have growing up to do all of us, no matter how far along we are in our spiritual journey.
The living stones, the newborn babies, the pure and spiritual milk, he's referring to the word of God and doctrine in the teachings of scripture. And so there's a lot of rich imagery. And so just kind of see which ones resonate most with you and how they may connect with your group. And then this week, there's also an option to do kind of like a jinga type game.
So if you're meeting in person, if you have a way to do like a jinga type game, we talk about building up and tearing down and how things fit together. And so prepare, you know, come prepared for that. If that's something you want to do in person, if that fits the personality of your group. Yeah, maybe not human jinga.
Yeah, I've tried that one. I'm really wrong in our group. So yeah, it's not a good idea. So go to the store, get the old school jinga, but I love that.
I have to do something tactile, you know, because we're physical creatures and sometimes that helps us bring us into this different understanding when we use different parts of our senses. That's great. I love that encouragement. Yeah, we have different learning styles and sometimes just doing something different like that can just cause us to think differently, use different parts of our brains.
And it opens up kind of new parts of our spirit even. And so also when taking the conversation deeper this week, there's a couple moments that I would really encourage leaders to take advantage of. One in the look in section, really encourage people to share what has helped them, not only acquire taste for daily devotion, but also to crave God's word as good, not just good for you. Like some things we know are good for us, but we don't really enjoy them.
And so what has it been in their lives as leader, what kind of routines and habits have you found really help you crave God's word as good, not just good for you. You know, if people are still tracking along with the annual read, you can point them to that. You can remind them of the Gospel Everyday podcast, but really take time in that kind of inward look to discuss how people are fostering that habit of daily devotion. And then in the look out section, as you start wrapping up your group, it's really a great time to follow up on things that you've been writing down throughout this series or even before.
So as a leader, you know, again, come prepared, know what people have been asking for prayer about. And be sure to follow up on that as we talk about finding our hope, you have great opportunity to ask for conversations or interactions where people have been able to share the hope that they found in Jesus with others around them. That's great. I don't love that.
You know, the last couple of weeks of the series, we've been seeing many in our church show up on the weekends with this Hoping Hopeless Times magazine. And that would be an encouragement to you and your groups. Have to bring that on the weekend. The sermon notes are there, the group discussion questions are built in, and it's a great opportunity for people to write in their observations, their questions now, which really just help feel that conversation.
And during that, I love that you're hitting the emphasis on daily devotion. I mean, we want to be both students of God's word, but we also want to put into practice what you read. And there's no greater way when we think about this imagery of a living stone being built together in a living stone. I mean, the word of God is really the blueprint for that.
And if we're going to really come into an understanding of what that means to be joint with him as a cornerstone, then we really want to get the foundations right of hearing his voice through God's word. And moving from that, ought to should into that compelling desire of actually, this is where I'm reminded of God's goodness. And I want to dive into it fully to be aware of who he is and what he's calling me to. So I love that we're pushing that reminder and that practice this week.
So go for it, Jeremy. As far as things to maybe watch out for this week, there's a couple of things I wanted to encourage leaders to pay attention to. One, as you're discussing the text, verses nine through 12 of chapter two. This week we've just got nine and 10, but verses nine through 12 are going to form the basis for our next series.
Actually, as we kick off the fall and back to school in the new year, so don't camp out there. Obviously, we don't want to skip over anything, but we don't need to spin the bulk of our conversation there as Peter starts describing this new identity that we have because we're really going to dig into that in the fall and people aren't going to want to miss that. So just as a side note, don't spend too much time of your discussion in nine and 10 because we're going to hit that later. And then also in the lookout section, there's a question about in what ways do you see the world stumbling over Jesus?
And the goal with this question, and the next one that follows, is not to point fingers in judgment at people, but the goal is to help people be specific in identifying and empathizing with what other people see as an obstacle to faith in Jesus. And so we may learn a lot about our own public witness when considering the criticisms and objections from unbelievers. And we may also learn how to more humbly yet confidently love our neighbors as ourselves when we put ourselves into their shoes. So the question about what ways do we see people stumbling over Jesus?
Again, the heart there is to identify and empathize, not to point fingers. And so make sure the tone there is one of empathy and love. Yeah, that's so good. And a lot of times that stumbling could just be misconceptions, it could be negative experiences with those that have had around the community of faith.
And I found time and time again that there was such a hope and desire for others that are maybe far from the Lord in the moment to believe that it would be true. But what are those things that prevent them from really taking that step? And to realize that we were in that position, weren't we, at one point and that God has graciously invited us in? And so that's a great reminder for us.
And I love that that gets us looking outside just the confines of our group because that's what we wanna build here with our life groups. Places of support, discipleship, community, but also places of outward facing mission. So we're praying for you guys this week. We can't wait to hear how you're engaging the series.
As always, please do get in touch with our team. If you need help with anything as you go through the series, we're here for you, believe in you. And we're believing for God to be great. Thanks for this series.
I appreciate it.