Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. This week the 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 to Life Group Leaders of the Life Group Leadership podcast. So glad that you're joining us today.
Man, we are looking at week five of, I need a miracle. It's just incredible to see what God has done in the last four weeks, not only in our weekend services with three out of those five weeks with extended prayer, but also what's happening directly in your groups, the conversations that you're having. It's just been amazing when we open ourselves up to God's word that he is faithful, that he moves and that he acts. And so excited to unpack this final week in the sermon series with you today.
Before we do that, just a real quick public service announcement. We have something happening on May 15th that you do not want to miss. It is our Life Group Leader huddle. It's happening on Monday night, May 15th.
It is for all Life Group leaders, all Life Group coaches. This is going to be a great evening together. We're going to share a meal. We're going to hear some stories of how God's working in and through our groups.
We are going to have members of our care team. Our care pastor, actually, Luan is going to be there and give us some practical leadership principles on how do we navigate issues of care and recovery within our groups. What are the resources are available to us? And then we're also going to point to some things that are coming this fall.
I know that sounds like way far off in advance, but we are slowly turning the gears of the summer. And so we want to give you a preview of not only what's happening throughout the remainder of these next few months, but also what's coming in the fall and how we could be thinking, praying, and preparing in our groups for that. So don't miss that. You should have received an invite either from your coach or on our Life Group Leader email.
If you didn't, just reach out to our team, LifeGroups.tv research.org for all the details on our leader huddle on May 15th. All right, that's enough from me. I have got one of a, can I call you one of my great friends? Yeah, I think later, right?
That's what we're totally here. It's co-worker, co-labor, our marriage pastor, the one and only the Vino is here. Yes, I am here. And I'm excited about what we're going to be doing with marriages and our married life groups, and hope that you guys can all attend the Life Group Leader huddle as well.
We also have marriage matters coming up on May 20th. We do. That's just right around the corner. Right around, right after Mother's Day.
You're starting to think obviously about the next kind of several months ahead and what might be happening with marriage matters and good conversations with Doug, but just so incredible what's been happening. Not just at that event, but the fruitfulness of how it's impacting marriages and groups. And you're out front leading the charge, leading a charge of that. So we're thankful for you.
I'm so grateful. I think each season we have the most rooted groups that transition into Life Groups. And we know that there's such great community for marriages within the Life Group arena, which is fantastic. Hey, and this comes up for the Friday, before the weekend, this weekend's Mother's Day.
Yeah, it is a big deal. I already said all my kids will list. I was going to say, how do you help your family prepare for that? Right, and I just said honor your mother.
Yeah. That's what's happening. So if they don't look at the list or get me anything. So not very high expectations.
I trust me, it's everything from a $10 gift to some pricey things. But depending on who was the most nutty at the time. Incredible. Well, I'll take flowers.
You're not only incredibly faithful in what you do here. But I know you two be incredibly faithful. Love, Joyfield, Mom, you're just everything to your kids. You leave that out with just such grace and humility.
And so I've told you that before. Probably just got so much respect for you for how you and Greg, just really to stop with your adult growth kids now, right? Right, right. But I love being a mom.
I'm a classic enabler, so it's helpful. Yeah, it is it though. Exactly. All right, that's great.
Well, why would you turn into the message this week? We're looking at Loop Chapter 8. And I think in your series magazine, it has you jump in from 42. But we actually want to have you start to read from verse 40.
And this is the great miracle of Jesus' heels. And Eric talked about this. It is serpent. It's typically called the issue with the woman with the issue of blood and how she was known for that, how her identity was camped around that, and how Jesus really transforms, transforms that.
But the first leading question is getting us to think about restoration and where we've seen that. So the question is, are you more of a fixer up type person or do you prefer new things? Do you like to take our projects where you're. Definitely do not like fixer up or type things.
Good to know. Definitely like new things. Yeah. Now I don't mind the first door thing.
Something that's been used. But I am not a let's bring it down, stand it down to nothing and repaint it. Nope, not a restore. Yeah, I'm with you 100% on that one too.
Not only do I lack the technical skill and ability to think of that stuff. If I'm honest, there's a lack of like patience. Oh 100%. That's exactly what it is.
They're great. Patience. Garage sales, thrift store, spin your whole story day and then spend several weeks sending. Or you can go down the street and buy something and make it look like a little bit.
I hate it. But Lindy, my wife is the master at the former. That's what she does. And I have an appreciation for it.
She loves that, huh? Our garage is full of things. All of things. That she's turned into great projects or houses.
So she's the real deal. That's great. But restoration is possible. It is.
But I like buying new things to me. All right. So that's a little bit about us. Hey, I'm going to read the passage.
It's only eight verses. And then we'll work through the questions together. It says this. Luke 8, starting at verse 40.
When Jesus returned, the crowds welcomed him. For they were all expecting him. Just the anime named Jairus came. He was a leader of the synagogue.
And he fell down at Jesus's feet and pleaded with him to come to his house. Because he had an only daughter who was about 12 years old and she was dying. While he was going, the crowds were nearly crushing him. A woman suffering from bleeding from 12 years, 12 years, in the passage to her twice, suffering from 12 years of bleeding who had spent all she had on doctors and yet could not be healed by any, approached from behind and touched the end of his row.
And instantly her bleeding stop. Jesus said in verse 45, who touched me? When they all denied it, Peter said, master, the crowds are hemming you in and pressing against you. Someone did touch me, said Jesus.
I know that the power has gone from me. When the woman saw that she was discovered, she came trembling and fell down before him. In the presence of all the people, she declared that the reason she had touched him and how she was instantaneously healed. Jesus says this in verse 48, daughter, your faith has saved you, go in peace.
Beautiful passage. Yes. And as we've alert through these miracle stories, miracle narratives that we've been looking at each week, there's so much more that's going on behind the miracle. There is the miracle of the unbelievable healing, instantaneously the passage tells us that she's healed.
But there's so much more that's going on there. So the look down questions are helping us to think critically through that. What did the woman suffer from? What did we see that in the passage?
And then what were some of the consequences associated with having this issue? What was you say? There's the search for reading, but there's also more going on before we understand about the content. The culture, right.
Well, unclean, uncleanliness for sure. And then I just think her shame. I just picture her crawling to just get the tip of his robe to touch it in her shame. And I'm sure that a lot of people knew what her issue was.
It's not nowadays where we could hide behind things and stuff things down. People knew. Yeah, no, that's really good. And it strikes me too that she's nameless.
We hear of Jaira's, he's named and his daughter, who's been suffering for 12 years. He's his name, but she's un. Right. And it's very intentional of, yeah, that's right.
All this stuff that you're saying, that she would have been socially cut off, ceremonially unclean. Full of shame. Full of shame. For Sunday, she couldn't even control.
Totally, totally. And we know this about lepers. At the same time, like if they were to enter into a public square, which often they wouldn't, because they were out in colonies or out skirts of the town, they would have to actually announce their presence. Unclean, give people a fair warning that they're coming, that they touched them.
Because it was a belief that someone's uncleanliness comes in contact with you, and it also makes you want to play. Right. And there's so many miracles. Wow.
Jesus' cleanliness, his righteousness, his goodness, transcends our uncleanness, that he's not compromised by somebody's uncleanness, but actually his righteousness transcends their uncleanness. So it's just a beautiful thing. There's so much that's going on. Well, and he wasn't the spec concerned about it.
Totally. Right. That he stepped fully into all of those situations. Right.
So the next question, we're talking about this a bit now, but why do you think that the women, the one might have been terrified to have been called out by Jesus? And what is it that gave her peace in sin? Well, I think she just wanted to remain so unseen. She had been so used to being unseen by so many people, and she did not want any attention drawn to her in any way.
So her thinking, she was so desperate, but her thinking was nobody will even know if I do this. But yet Jesus turns to her and calls her daughter, which is such an intimate word. Right. It just automatically values her as part of his family when he says that to her.
And there was no harm done with his words that she was probably expecting. And so that's where the peace came, just the gentleness and the affirmation in what she was doing. And he just embraced it. Yeah, I mean, she's in a completely desperate situation.
She's been trying to pursue healing through medical means, which we are big fans of. We pursue healing in every avenue that's available to us for sure, but she's used her life savings for that. And yeah, she may be thinking, you know, am I going to be cut off and cast away like I have been so many times. I'm nameless, people don't want to be around me.
Am I going to be, like you said, if you put to shame as I have been so many different times? Right. But there's something in her desperation mixed in her faith. There's crowds around Jesus for a reason, because people are starting to see and understand the stories are being told about this great miracle worker.
They're still confused about who he is, Messiah or not. I don't know. But there's this miracle worker that he just said at the word, like people are being healed. And so she's willing to like risk that shame and her desperation doesn't drive her away from Jesus, but her desperation drives her to faith in Jesus.
And just what you said too, so beautiful, right? Calling her daughter where she's been nameless. Like you're chosen, you're seeing. Right.
And with you and in that go in peace, like we miss sometimes the profoundness of what it means that peace word, you know, we think of like a temporary state of calm, but Jesus, go in peace, it's like shalom, like go in fullness and wholeness where like nothing is broken, nothing is missing. You're not only physically healed, you're socially, ceremonially, relationally restored. Like everything is back to where it's supposed to be. Right.
Which is just so great. I love it. And it just must have been so overwhelming for her because it was the full breadth of everything. It's like you had mentioned socially, physically, her identity, what she could do moving forward now, what she was capable of doing, how her life would be different.
Right. And I love that Eric teases this out in his message. I never thought about this before, this passage, if you study this passage, if you look at how a lot of our Bibles give headers to this passage, it's commonly known as the woman with the issue of blood. And we remember it.
That's how we, that's the bleeding woman. Right. You know what I mean? Right.
It is like, no, the woman who was completely restored, but she's called the dog who's set, who's set in peace, that she's not known for an issue. And I'm so glad, oh my goodness, that we're not known for our issues. Yes. That we don't walk around with, here's John, the man with the issue of control.
You know, what I mean? We impatient guy. Yeah, but that's the work of the enemy, right? To like cast these lies about things that we carry, that we internalize, that we create.
That's who we are. That's exactly who we are. Yep. Jesus comes just to completely wreck it.
Right. So no, your daughter, go in peace. Yeah. So good.
All right. So you can spend a lot of time just observing the passage. That's what we want to do in the look. Yeah.
Look at the passage, observe it. And then we get to the lookout. We start thinking about where we see this passage at play in a world around us. So when we think about desperate situations, where do people turn to outside of maybe faith in Jesus and how does that work out?
Oh, golly, the culture has given you crystals and drugs and all kinds of ways that people desperately seek, whether it's healing or something in their mental health or relational, they're always looking. But you know what? It's interesting to me that if you, I have never once that I can remember said, can I pray for you? And someone said, no, I don't want you to pray for me.
It's almost still in that desperation that people will still think that perhaps prayer could be the answer to my issue. Right. Right. Yeah.
People are, you're just right. People are so willing to explore so many different avenues. But we see it so many times, whether it's your career, whether it's even your identity as a mother, as a father, whatever it is, all these things ultimately let us down, that there's nothing that can bear the weight of our salvation, our restoration outside of Jesus. And I think you're right.
People are more open than we often think. There's all kinds of research about spiritual curiosity and spiritual openness. It's elevated. It's so elevated.
Sharon and people are open or open to that. And the great thing is Jesus meets us. He meets us with our desperation. He meets us with our faith.
And he's the only one. But there's also the idea here, but you also don't want to preach a come to Jesus and everything works out. Right. Right.
Right. We're in a series of idea to miracle. And we've seen incredible miracles. And Eric has reminded us each week that the greatest miracle has already been won, right?
Salvation, eternal security, which even in this passage, daughter. Right. Well, I think the prosperity gospel too, is people can assume that, oh, if I do have them pray for me, then God will heal me. Or if I do do this, well, I think it's too, we say it so often on the weekends when we do the healing prayer in the Elder Prayer Room, the oil is not a magic oil, that it's just a representation that we're following what it says in James 5, right?
But it's not the healing power of the oil. It's the coming before the Lord surrendered to what Jesus can do. And I think that's what she did in desperation, that she believed that perhaps if I just touch his robe, perhaps something will happen. Yeah, that's good.
That's great. So we're thinking outwardly. And then now we look inwardly, right? So to our own situation, to the things that are happening in our group, there's two questions here.
But really, the theme of these questions, if you were to put them together is you could either say, when was there a time where you're in a desperate situation? How did you see Jesus intervene in that? Or you can go presently? What's the situation that you're facing right now?
That, yeah, it just seems overwhelming. Were you tempted to run the things outside of Jesus to solve those things? Well, what it would look like to you to come to Jesus and faith in desperation? So you want to spend some time?
It's both a bit of a look back, but presently, where has God come through in desperate times? Yeah. Where do you need them? Where do you need them now?
And I do believe too, you had mentioned the medical thing, and she had exhausted all possibilities. So she was looking to Jesus as a last resort, whereas believers, we go to Jesus first. For me, I know I depend on the Holy Spirit to say, go to this medical doctor or do this thing or call this school counselor. And so the first thing as believers is to go to Christ and say, hey, this is a situation.
I'm laying this at your feet. Please give me the wisdom that I need to get on the path that you want me to take. Right. Yeah, that's good.
So I think it's like a flip flop of what she did. She came in her desperation as a last resort. Whereas believers, it's imperative that we go to Jesus first. Yeah.
Maybe we don't know right? Twelve years of suffering that, maybe this is the first opportunity that she had. Oh, right. You know, she comes to her maybe.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Still, it is true that there is like this impulse of I'm going to him when everything else is exhausted and nothing else is coming through.
Like I'm going to him and then again, like what we find is so, so valuable. He wants to bring us in immediacy, healing, restoration. We see that sometimes we don't. Sometimes we don't see.
Sometimes we don't. But what he does bring us is the ultimate healing with the victory over sin and death forevermore. And that is the greatest musical time. So, yeah, so good.
Yeah. What a great series has been. We're so grateful for you guys, leaders and Linda Grigle for you. Thanks for sitting in on this this weekend.
Yes. Great stuff going on. So don't forget, Life Group Leader Huddle on May 15th, and the next marriage matters on May 20th. Yeah, just a couple rhythm reminders.
And a lot of times when we've been out of reading for a long time, we forget the rhythms are rooted in implementing them into our life groups. So just remembering that this might be a time for, to talk about repentance and what it means to come before the Lord and for repentance or serving, serving your community and our church here, sharing stories again. A lot of times I know from my reading group, towards the end people are like, I don't remember any one stories. Can we do that again?
So just any, anything you can do to just implement those rhythms in your life groups. Amazing, guys. Well, thank you so much for your time, everybody. Look forward to a series overview with our new series, Spiding for Joy.
It's a study in the book of Philippians going to be coming out. So Eric joins me. That's going to come out on Wednesday. So you'll get an overview of the entire series before we get back to every Friday, releasing for our new series, Spiding for Joy, which is going to be great.
Can't wait the study of the book. Oh, I cannot wait. It's so good. So good.
So good. All right, that for prison. I know. We talked about to be joyful, rejoice over 16 times.
And we can play about the weather. Unbelievable. All right. Thank you so much, guys.
We will see you soon.