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 Life Group leaders. Life Group leader podcast.
We are here looking at our upcoming series, How to Pray Like Jesus, Learning From Our Savior. And as we always do, the beginning of a sermon series, we've got our senior pastor, Eric Geiger joining us to give us an overview. I'm excited about this series and thank you for all of our Life Group leaders. Thanks for tapping in and listening.
Yeah, man. Absolutely. And every sermon series of extreme importance and equal weight. We're looking at God's word and God's word is always relevant to our lives.
But I love that we're looking at this topic. I mean, just even the title of this series itself, How to Pray Like Jesus. Because there's a lot of barriers I think when people come to pray. I love that we're going to be practical and theological informing people on us.
I love the title too. I'm going to tell you why I love it from a biblical standpoint, but also from a cultural standpoint. Biblically, it's really the only thing we see the disciples asking Jesus to teach us. So the disciples don't ask Jesus, hey, just how to preach.
They don't ask him, hey, teach us how to heal people. They don't ask him, teach us how to have compassion on the crowds. Jesus preached, he healed people, he had compassion on the crowds. All of those things were awesome.
But it's as if the disciples knew the whole reason Jesus is able to preach to heal, to have compassion, is because he prays to the Father. He has this incredibly powerful and intimate walk with God the Father. So God, the Son, Jesus, the Christ has this really close walk with God the Father. Jesus teaches that.
Teach us how to pray. They multiple times throughout the Gospels and we'll hit this in week one, they find Jesus pulling away from everyone and going in praying. And so they see him constantly praying. So that's why they come and ask him, Jesus can you teach us how to pray?
So I love the title, how to pray like Jesus because the disciples actually asked Jesus how to pray. Biblically, I love that. But also culturally, I love that. One day I was looking at Google trends of what people actually asked.
How do I do this? And when it comes to the faith or any type of faith, how to pray is actually at times a trending, in faith related questions, a trending question that people ask because they know they need to pray, they want to pray, but they just don't know how to pray. So we want to teach people how to pray. Jesus, Lewis, cherished prayer, not because he said it would change God, but it would change him.
So prayer is going to change me. Martin Luther the very former said that to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. So you can't be alive unless you're breathing. You can't really be a Christian unless you're praying.
We want to look and see how Jesus prayed and how he taught his disciples to pray. It's beautiful. I love it. Awesome.
Because there was something deeply compelling about the prayer life and rhythms of Jesus that the disciples got to observe in. It's something that I often wonder about. I mean, Jesus needing to pray, like the dependence upon the Father while in submission and cooperation, the power of the Father within him. It's totally your question.
You're like, wait a second. So Jesus is God. Are you saying he needs prayer? Is he if God needs?
Yeah, I'll be thinking about that. Yeah, there's a theological wrestle that if you're thinking person, you're going to ask that question just like you asked. Here's what we know about Jesus, God the Son. Remember, we talked about this in Colossians.
He was not created. He's always been. And so God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit have always been one in community. So Jesus enters our world and he still longs to be one with the Father and the Spirit.
So prayer is him enjoying his everlasting relationship with God the Father. And then what that means for us is we get to have that same level of connection with God, that we get to also pray the same way that Jesus prayed. So there's that answer. The other answer is we have this beautiful mystery that Jesus is fully God and fully human.
And so he's fully God, God the Son, and joining communion with God the Father, but he's also fully human and fully human. He is giving us an example as you live here, you need prayer. Right. Yes, let's communion with the Father just as Jesus illustrated for us.
And it's also a partnership with and outward you go to God has for us. So really good. And you're referencing already a couple times that the Lord's prayer. And I think that's, do we start there?
I think that's in a couple of different ways here. So week one, week one, we'll look at the example of Jesus when he just gets away to pray. So what do we see Jesus doing in his own personal prayers? And then we actually see him teach us to do the same.
Hey, go to your private prayer closet and pray. So get away and pray. Week one, week two is pray this way. And we look at what's often referred to as the Lord's prayer.
What is fascinating is we, and I'll mention this in week two, Jesus used this as an example to pray. He didn't, he didn't, Jesus never really prayed this prayer. So what, are you saying Jesus never prayed to the Lord's prayer? Well, there's a part in that prayer that we know for sure Jesus never prayed.
Think about it leaders. What, I'm going to recite it now. What part do we know Jesus did not pray? Our Father who is in heaven, how would be your name?
Let your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Yes, we could totally know that Jesus would pray that. Forgive us our debts. Well, Jesus for sure did not pray that.
Jesus had no sin to be forgiven. So Jesus is not saying, hey, here's exactly how I pray this way every day. It's a good, it's a magical prayer. They're asking him, how do we, how do we pray?
He says, I was asking and he's saying, here's a model, here's an, and then we'll talk about what are the key elements of that prayer that should be in our prayers. And we'll give a really helpful framework for people in week two. Yeah, that'd be practical as well. So you'll probably get a lot of help.
I'll work at this rate. And the whole series will be proud of it. It's totally, it's totally, it's taught how to. So week one, you're going to walk away with, I need a time and a place.
Week two, you're going to walk away with a framework based on, on the Lord's prayer. And then you're going to be reminded of a parable that Jesus taught that, talk to him like you talked to your dad. He's not, he's not like a blown up replica of a bad earthly dad. He's the perfect heavenly father and talk to him like you would talk to the perfect heavenly father.
Yeah. And I think on that, we can too. We're also going to have an invitation for extended prayer. So we're not just talking about the concept of prayer.
Obviously, how to recede. Yeah, we don't want to, we don't want to do a serious um, prayer and not pray. And then even on week two, I'm going to lead us corporately through that framework of the Lord's prayer. So we'll have moments of prayer in the service that, that are unique and special, but sensitive to, to people at all different places, you know, we're not going to ask someone in that service to, okay, right now, it's been 20 minutes in prayer, allowed in front of everybody.
We're not going to do that, but we are going to give some practical help to people to learn how to pray. Awesome. Beautiful. And then we turn into week four, walking houses of prayer.
I'm still praying through this message and it is, it is a fascinating. That's awesome. Yes. Well, you have Jesus curses a fig tree and then he drives the money changes out of the temple and then he comes back and the fig tree is littered.
There, there is a connection between, no doubt, there's no fruit on that tree. There should have been fruit. Hey, there's no fruit in the temple. There should be fruit.
Where does fruit come from? It comes from you being a house of prayer and the temple is no longer where God lives or even where God meets with people. He lives within you. So you're now the house of prayer or you are supposed to be and if you want fruit in your life, you have to be the house of prayer.
Yeah, those two are very much connected. Yes. That's it. And I think there's a mix of excited updates that weekend as we look at what we're doing, how we're joining through multiplying disciples throughout Southern California through Southern California through Southern California through Southern California through Southern California.
Yeah, launching two new congregations in January and then we'll spend some time in that week praying for all which will be nine or congregations throughout Southern California. So that will be a fun weekend for us. It's beautiful. We've also got rooted that's starting around this time too and rooted is a great environment for us to not only find connection and grow an art of discipleship but to put these things in practice, right?
This is a substantial moment through rooted prayer experience learning these things and so we're going to have all these environments, right? We're going to come together on the weekend. We're going to be inspired by God's word and have spaces where we think and flesh that out and community with others. So rooted groups are common.
So live group leaders, we're thinking about that now about raising up potential rid of facilitators from within your group, people that you know to invite into that. That will be coming up during that. What a great responsibility to hand to something new group. Come on.
Super big discipleship opportunity for you to do that. Totally. I've been in the world all day long. Hey, come watch me leave for a while.
Now I'm going to hand something over to you. So you got someone in your group who the person you think about who's going to cover your group when you're gone or the person who sometimes you hand discussions over to. I mean if you could ask that person to be a group leader for rooted, wow what a huge learning opportunity and then you could just be saying hey we pray for you we're 10 weeks, check in with the person. We'll be free, we'll be free, you know, how's it going?
What an amazing thing if you could raise up a leader who leads rooted? That'd be like Jesus. Absolutely. I mean multiplication is a gospel value for sure.
I mean I see that done here but we're doing that multiplying congregations and we can do that too through our groups. Raise up a leader. Raise up a leader. More, there's never enough room for all those experiences and so man what a better way to enjoy you and have no one.
I raise someone up who's leading the best of people right now. It's the best. Absolutely incredible. And then we get to week five to find a week at the series.
Pray with persistence. Pray with persistence. Looking at that parablet, Jesus told in Luke chapter 18. Yeah, it's a really fascinating text that essentially just keep asking.
You know the conclusion of that parable is you're not, it's really, it's a fascinating story that he's not bothered when you keep asking but he actually moves when you keep asking. Yeah. Yeah, there's, there's that kind of in between space of how do we think about the hat. God is sovereign.
I'll know powerful. I heard of Astro chair. This illustration was that that I mean it's been years ago but stuck with me. The pastor said a mom puts her nurse, her nursing child or her newborn child in a crib at night to go to bed.
The mom knows she's gonna wake up in the middle of the night to feed the job. But the mom doesn't wake up until the child cries. So that illustration helps reconcile this thing that he knows everything so why don't you pray? He knows everything.
Yet he moves on behalf when his children cry out. So cry out. Cry out. Your father is wanting to move on behalf of his children but he's waiting for us to cry out.
That's a great illustration. That's a great illustration. That really helps you understand that concept. Because I think when you think about barriers to prayer there are that I just don't know how but there are some of them.
I think it doesn't matter. What does it actually do? Or what if it doesn't work? What if I don't have a thing that I ask for?
I've been hurt by that. What about that? That's your prayer. Well those big ones.
I don't know how. We're gonna hit that week too. Why will we hit that week time of week three? It's time with your father.
And we will also deal with unanswered prayer which is just not only for some people. Just a little preview. Tim Keller heard him say this. I think I hit this in week three.
Week three. Yes, week three hit this. That when you don't give what you ask for is because you're asking for a scorpion. Because Jesus says, hey your father knows how to give you, when you ask for an egg it doesn't give you a scorpion.
They love eggs back then. So modern eyes will be when your son asks for an egg big muffin at the McDonald's drive through. You don't put a scorpion in between the two buns. And so if we don't get what we're asking for, it's because we were asking for a scorpion.
We weren't asking what's actually best for us. That's easy to understand when you don't get the house you prayed for and six months later you get a better house or you don't get the job you were praying for and two years later you get a better job. You're like, aha, I totally see it. It's harder to hear that when it doesn't make sense.
And sometimes in this life it never will make sense this whole side of eternity. But Kelehurt Keller said further on that illustration he said that you would give yourself the exact same that God has given you if you knew everything he knows. So he knows what we don't know. Which is why he answers prayers differently than.
I'm extremely grateful for that. Yeah, me too. My goodness. Me too.
The eternity of perspective. Yeah, he knows what we don't know. Yeah, that's right. Beautiful man.
I'm really excited for all of our series all of it. Man, this is the faith and teaching of God's work. We're equipping people in a practical way to be able to outwork this conversation community with your groups. But yeah, this seems like they're all substantial.
But man, the main functions of the church is communion with God and where do we find communion with God? I mean, I just love the book and the Bible so much. But this teaching series does stand out. Wow, we're doing a whole teaching series on how to pray like Jesus.
I do think it's going to be a significant teaching series in the hearts of God's people. Also, I'm going to be coming back from study break. There you are. I'll be just filled.
Ready to go. Ready to roll. So leaders, I want you to be there week one ready to roll. Let's jump in.
Let's enjoy. Yeah, it's going to be beautiful in August. And then we'll be very shortly right around the corner. I'm very excited about that, right?
Opening up our brand new outdoor worship center too. Man, loads of great things to be excited about in this upcoming season. We can't wait to see what God's going to do. And through all of you, it's going to be a great time together making space to experience Jesus, raising up leaders.
God's doing a great thing. And he does that in and through his people. Awesome, you guys. Well, thanks for your time.
We'd love to see you on here next week as we carry on through looking at this series of developing how to pray like Jesus.