Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader Podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource you to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Hello and welcome to the Life Group Leader Podcast. Once again, I am Kirby Wood, the group's pastor here at Mariners Church, and the host of this podcast to help you feel prepared to lead your life group in discussion this week.
Today, I have with me, Tim Luke Guy, our men's pastor. So glad to have Tim with us. Thanks for having me, excited to share this week. Yes, we're gonna help you guys prepare, feel equipped for everything that can come, as you guys know.
And I am so, so excited for this weekend. I hope that you guys were able to attend and hear Chris. Christine Kane, speak on this incredible, as we get here to the end of the Galatians message, that incredible message on how we can view ourselves and how God views us as kids and heirs of his kingdom. And yeah, I hope it was a great weekend.
We have a great conversation today that we hope that we'll prepare you as we look at some of the questions and things, but really the main point here is we really hope that you help your group understand that not only are they kids and heirs and that they get a loving experience and relationship, but Christ freed them from the law that was powerless, powerless to rescue us. But Jesus, he is powerful, he made it happen. And we're so grateful that the law helps us know that we need him, but that Christ sets us free from these things. Isn't that such a great point, Tim?
Absolutely, I love the idea of being God's kids. It's just a beautiful picture of our dependence on him. And I think it's really helpful when you do have kids of your own in the way that we love and desire to take care of our kids the same way that he desires for us to be taken care of and loved and watch over. Yeah, well, Tim, I'm really glad I have you with us then today, because you are an incredible dad to your kids.
I also know your munchians and love them really well, but I love them a lot. Thank you. I love you as a dad and I think something I see so well that works and also super highlighted in this conversation is relationship. The relationship that we have with God is truly father, son, father, daughter.
And that actually is a beautiful, beautiful relationship that we get to step into. So as we look into the discussion this week, we have first and as always, Alina, that I absolutely love, of course, I love a good nickname. As you think about family, my family often picked on me in different ways with silly names, but even my own colleagues here like to call me a couple of different nicknames. But Tim, I know you like to call me a, what is that one?
I love nicknames. I just feel like they're endearing. It's another way that we show that we know someone and so Kirby has many nicknames there. One of which is just curbs, curbs for sure.
Curbs, of course. And then sometimes, depending on her mood, I'll call her curbalicious. Yeah, that's definitely just because it's super easy. I get that one a good amount, which is pretty funny.
But Tim, what about you? Do you have any funny nicknames your family jumps to you on? You know, when I was a kid, I loved playing flag football and baseball and I was pretty fast, not nearly as fast anymore. So I was nicknamed Flash in elementary school, which is super, I mean, huge, huge compliments me.
No longer, very fast. So I remember that nickname, but I no longer called that. That's hilarious. I love that.
I can honestly see that in your own kids too. Like your kids very quickly, Maverick and Sawyer, just being like, watch me, I can run fast. I'm trying to beat each other and all that. So good.
But I really love that the reason this question can come up and start some great conversation for you guys this week is because in the text, it says, Abba, rather than father or Lord, we get to see an endearing term that we call out to God and say. And so as we think about endearing terms for those that we love, know that we have an endearing term that we can call our Lord and our Savior. And that's Abba, father, as we cry out to him, which is even my own self, I'll admit, this is a little embarrassing. But my dad and my phone is still daddy.
And I'm one of those girls. So please forgive me. But I can't help it. I put it in there when I was really young.
And it's kind of an endearing thing. And I'm grateful to have that close personal relationship with my dad that it's sweet. So all right, as we look at the look down, as always, we want to read the scripture out loud with a group because we know when things are set out loud that more ways or more things that we can see in God's words will be illuminated for people in our group. So definitely read that Galatians verse out loud.
Is anything big was sticking out to you, Tim, as you thought about these questions and as in the scripture? Yeah, going kind of back into understanding that term that talks about Abba Father and how God sent the Spirit and his son and his heart was crying out, Abba Father, going back and that translation, like you said, really the closest translation is daddy. And I know that when my kids call me daddy, it is a whole different level than someone calling me Tim or daddy, even in it's during and it's loving and it's one who is cherished. And so it's just a beautiful term of that we are God's kids.
We are God's children. And we're designed in his image and that beauty of the relationship of Father, Son, Father, Daughter. It's special and I think that's a lot of what the passage is depicting. Sure.
And I don't know about for you, but I feel like with the word Abba or daddy, there's almost a sense of need and dependence that comes from that more, yeah, just general or almost like slang term in that way. It has like this innate sense of like, oh wow, like I really need help or I need something greater than myself. And so I think that's really cool. Even as you look at the comparison in the scripture, that question that first question says, what is meant by comparison of a child, someone who's a need independent to a household servant.
In the scripture it says slave and how we can better understand our own enslaved to the law, but yet Christ allows us to be free indeed, but still a child of the Lord. And so I love that this conversation can take place in your groups as you compare and contrast the two and even the two that we see ourselves as. The scripture calls us both in certain ways, we are a slave in certain ways, but we are in freedom and truth, we are a child. So love that kind of comparison.
Also, I love the second question here. How does adoption help explain transformation of identity we experience in Christ? I mean adoption is one of the most compelling illustrations in some ways of how we can view our relationship with God and in his kingdom. I have any friends that have grown up with adopted parents and their connection to them is incredibly intimate and beautiful because they feel chosen.
They feel like these, although not birth parents, they chose me, they wanted me and they feel so deeply loved. And so their relationships that I've seen with a lot of friends who have adopted parents are actually often much richer than sometimes a relationship with a birth parent. And so this desire of someone saying, no, I want you and I want to call you my son. I want to call you my daughter.
It was a beautiful picture of God's heart in understanding that we're his, we're his kids. And that's the epiphany that we are hoping and praying that you have, of course, but especially those in your group, that they would in this conversation, that there could be that moment of God chose me, God fought for me, he died for me. And that's kind of the really encapsulate, what encapsulates this discussion is that concept around adoption. And hopefully this scripture will illuminate that for others.
As we continue in this conversation before we moving on to the next part of this series of questions, if the conversation is not as robust as you would hope, I really like that last question. What else does this passage reveal about God, about humanity and grace? Coming back to that question will always help you reengage those that may not be wanting to jump in just yet, but it really will hit everyone and allow everyone to have something to share. So with that, as we go to the look and questions, I think it's really important that maybe someone who wasn't responding as much to the scripture might have some of these questions to really hopefully answer and you might even want to direct them intentionally to people in the group that weren't speaking up before.
And that's because we don't want to assume that every single person completely not only understands the relationship of child father when it comes to your relationship to God, but we know that our earthly relationships can inform or oftentimes inform our spiritual relationship with the Lord. So this is a really great way to open up the conversation to people to have very different experiences with their parents, with their dad, and with them even identifying themselves as a child. So I know Tim, what do you think about, I mean, you're our men's pastor. Do you feel like it's harder or easier for men to kind of see themselves as children of God?
I think that it's very common for both men and women to have issues with their father. Unfortunately, you hear a lot of statistics and Barna studies about the language of a fatherless generation or just absent fathers. And much of that wounds comes back to our family of origin, mom and dad. And so I see a lot of father wounds in the men's ministry.
I see a lot of men who are broken. And they would be honest enough in the right setting to share, well, I've inherited a lot of these poor broken behaviors because of my absent father, or this is how he was, and this is how I have become. So I know that I've spoken once about my relationship with my father, which was actually a pretty relatively good, but there are issues like many of us. And I remember that particular message.
I had more people, more men come up to me after than any other message because it related clearly to the room. So I can't imagine reading a passage using language like Abba, Father, and this idea of God being that to us, Father, God wouldn't have some potentially negative connotations. However, it is also very redemptive. And when we do not have a good earthly father, how Jesus, and God the Father is that in our lives.
And for those people who have engaged that kind of health in their story, it can be a very beautiful, very redemptive part of their walk with God. Absolutely. I love that. And I think someone who has a great father relationship is not going to be scared in this conversation.
They'll be like, me and my dad are doing great. So that's why maybe you even might want to lead it, not trying to turn your group into a therapy session, or nobody has to share things that they don't want to. And nobody's going to fix anybody's father relationship, or maybe people are struggling with inheritance, or different things in their lives with people who have passed away. And there's all kinds of things that can come up.
And nobody's going to solve anybody, or solve anyone's problems in this conversation. But you might want to open. You may want to open and just be able to say, hey, you guys, I know that not all of us have perfect relationships. Has you guys ever seen the way that this could influence your relationship with God, and allow those that may have a more a harder story with family to go first, to open up the discussion?
Because those of us who may have a better relationship with our father, we still have ways that our father has failed us, as all of us human beings fall short of what we intend oftentimes. So that's what we're hoping for your groups this week, that this part in this look and discussion will be a really safe and also vulnerable place for you, or would be a place of vulnerability that you can lead and that others will be able to share about how their earthly relationships impact their spiritual relationship with the Lord. So anything else you want to say about looking before we move on to anything jumping out of town? I think we hit it.
Good, good. And you guys, as always, if you have questions about how you're hoping to prepare, always you can reach out to your life group coach to help you think, OK, I know of some things that are going on, or someone in my groups recently, his father, or his mother just passed away. Know that we have great grief support groups, all kinds of things that can help people take next steps in their grief journeys as well. And yeah, so if things come up, don't be afraid to reach out.
Moving on to look out, identifying the relevance of God's word and these convictions in our lives. We hope that you guys are able to have a great conversation, maybe hopefully, about someone in your group who said, I believe, and if not someone that you invited that said, I believe these kinds of this message this weekend is so mind-boggling. It can be so beautiful to really fully realize that despite my earthly relationships and despite my feelings of feeling less than or I'm not enough that I am an heir, that I am a child of God, and that can inspire some courageous decisions for people that were in the audience. So this is a great opportunity to debrief some of those conversations, or even what it looks like as you watched other people stand up and say, I believe.
Tim, what's going to, I know you've had some incredible, believe moment that man amends breakfast, and also hopefully here at Man Camp. What are some of those emotions that come up to you when you watch people stand up and say, I believe? Yeah, I was thinking about this message, and so much of it is about our identity, our true identity. And as people who are heirs, we are a part of God's family.
The God of the universe calls us sons and daughters. Crazy. And the more we understand our identity, the more that we can embrace the grace that God has for us. And so I just think that alone could drive a lot of the conversation in these life and in these different meetings, and just understanding God's grace and his identity and who we are.
We know that identity is an area where many of us struggle, and understanding who we are. We know who we are, but have we really, has it really gotten to all that we are in our heads and our hearts. And so I think that'll be really helpful to understanding identity in the concept of this. We are God's kids and heirs.
As far as I believe, yes, I've seen so many incredible people stand up and say, I believe, at Man's breakfast is at Man Camp, but of course on the weekend service, we should never get complacent and retired of watching someone cross the line of faith, and how beautiful it is. Every Man Camp, which is coming up, we give an opportunity in an outside amphitheater called Victory Circle. Cool. And so there's usually anywhere from five to 15 men that stand up across the line of faith.
And the next morning they have the opportunity to baptize. And many of those men I know to this day that have happened throughout the years, and some of which are one of which drove himself to Man Camp on a whim, hadn't been to church in years and years and years and years, and heard about Man Camp Camp came the next weekend, gave his life to Jesus, and he has now served in many different areas in our church. He's actually a shepherd and elder. He serves on my core team.
He serves in outreach. He's gone to Congo multiple times. So we see people understand that they are child of God, and their lives are radically changed. That's incredible.
I love what you said too about the, I believe that that continues to be something a challenge for us to not grow complacent. I know right when I first became a believer, it was so challenging to hear an eye book, not challenging, but it was a little confusing, I guess. When I would hear an eye-believe message, I'd be like, do I need to stand up again? What am I supposed to do in this time?
And so this question that says, what encourages are challenges you when you see people respond to the gospel? That's a great question for your group to help them know. You should feel encouraged. You can feel excited.
It doesn't mean you have to stand up again, or that doesn't mean that you are, you know, and you're not a believer, but that excitement that you have is purest of the Lord that says, this is for you. You can re-remember your identity in Him. And so I love that you share that incredible story. Like, wow, we can celebrate others on their journey.
And you can feel encouraged as you watch others take their steps. So we hope that this week, you guys will have a great life group leader discussion. And as to mention, there's man camp coming up. So for all the men in your group, whether you're a singles group, married group, men's group, or you're a women's group, and you know some men.
We hope that you will invite your guys to join us at this upcoming man camp. Anything else you want to throw out there about man camp? Yeah, that's it. Get registered, because it will sell out.
And as soon as you get registered, the better, the accommodations you'll receive. Absolutely. Oh, love that. Alrighty, guys, well, we are praying for you that you will, you and your group will better understand how incredibly loved you are by your father, God, and that you are an heir and a child of God.
God bless and have a great week.