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 back to the Life Group Leader podcast. This is week two of the My Inkshest Thoughts teaching series.
And so as we jump into this series, just a quick reminder, we're having biblical conversations around things that have some technical names. Anytime we come across things like anxiety and depression and mental health, let's just keep in mind that we are not intending to replace conversations with professionals, but instead that we can engage God in what his desires are. When we talk about these things, God does not overlook things like anxiety and mental health. He wants to be a part of those as well, but this doesn't intend to replace that.
And so just wanted to give that quick disclaimer here at the top. Jeremy, great to see you again. Why don't you take us through the big picture of week two here and point us in the right direction. Yeah, thanks for that reminder and introduction.
And so today in the second week, we're gonna be looking at how he is better. God is better. We're tempted to worry about so many things. And most often they're good things.
Usually we're concerned about things that are good, things like opportunities that we have, privileges and responsibilities that we have, but we're reminded today that one of the chief ways that we can keep our priorities, our emotions, our lives really in check and aligned properly is by remembering that ultimately Christ is most worthy of our time, our affection, and everything else when he is in the right place, falls in order behind that. So this week we're gonna look at a familiar story with Mary and Martha, and we're gonna see their two different reactions and a little bit of their personalities, and we're gonna see how Jesus responded and what we can learn from that story that a lot of us may be familiar with. I like this story so much because Mary and Martha are both really like, they're remarkable women. They're both really great.
It's like it's not intended to look at the story and say, oh gosh, there's always one that's wrong here. No, it's true in my life that there are times where I operate like Mary and other times where I operate like Martha. And I think what Jesus wants us to see here is, which one is actually better, right? Is that what you kind of would point out?
Yeah, and so let's go ahead and say the thing to avoid this week because what you just said, I don't know how many times in my life, growing up in the church, we've heard just saying, you're such a Martha or you're such a Martha. And that's okay, maybe there's a little bit of truth. That's not the point. Martha's not actually doing anything wrong and we'll see that in this text, that the leader got points out that culturally, she was doing everything that she should.
The fact that we see that they're in Martha's home. So she is the host, she is culturally, she's doing everything she should do to take care of a guest of honor, take care of Jesus and his disciples. And really, you could say Mary was kind of out of line culturally, like why is she just sitting there? But Jesus instead kind of flips this on its head and uses it as a teaching moment, even though Martha's not actually doing anything wrong in this point, he's pointing out something even better.
As with so much of Jesus' teaching, he wants to flip the common understanding on its head. He wants to take a very well understood thing and say not so with you. It's a counter-cultural movement that we're a part of. And so even in these little things about how we host and spend our time and really be in the presence of God, it's gonna be different than what a lot of us think.
And so Jeremy, are there ways for us as leaders to prepare? I mean, is it as simple as taking audit of our life and think where we have been like a Martha? Yeah, I would think so. We're coming into a season, you know, right now we're sort of in between, if you're a family with kids that have gone back to school, we're kind of in between back to school and all the holidays.
And no matter what your family dynamic is like, the holidays get pretty hectic for everyone. And even just like traffic and trying to navigate, oh my gosh, everyone's out shopping. I don't wanna go past this place. Like things just get busy this time of year.
And so to think through, where am I busy? What time of year, what time of maybe week or day? Am I tempted to be so busy even doing the good things that I have been blessed to do and to steward well? Where am I so busy that I might miss what God wants to do in me and through me in my life?
A simple picture that I felt trapped to last year. I took on the mantle of cooking the Thanksgiving turkey for my whole family. Yes. And it was a really great challenge.
I actually really did enjoy it. But I had that moment where I thought, I've spent more time thinking about the recipe and the process. I had extensive Google notes to make sure that I did not mess this thing up. That I missed the thing to be grateful for.
Like I was so focused on the task at hand that I was not actually grateful in the process of it. You know what I mean? And so this year, I'm doing it again. And I'm pretty sure that not only while I cook a good turkey, I'm not gonna miss gratitude in the process, right?
Isn't that the invitation for all of us in this season? That's a great reminder because last week we saw with Elijah as we introduced the story, he was a prophet of God who was used in just some of the most epic ways in all of like biblical history, calling down fire from heaven, of being fed by ravens. Now he has this death threat from this, like this woman who is still infamous to this day for just like her cruelty and just like, he was scared to death. And then God calls him out in kind of miraculous ways.
Most of us probably haven't experienced those sort of things, right? But here we see Mary and Martha and a house guest and just the drama that happens between people who love each other, like whose job is it to do this? Like, you know, we all can relate to today's story. So the story is super relatable, but help us find ways to make sure that we don't just keep it at that surface level.
Because it is, it's easy for us, for everybody has a story like I just shared, right? How do we ensure that we get into the text, drilling God's word into our heart this week? So one of the things that can help us remember, one of the false dichotomies that people here can kind of create is that God's opposed to the busyness of Martha here. And he loves just the quiet sitting of Mary.
And while he praises that, we know that that's not an overarching truth. He's not calling all of us to, the first thing we see in scripture in Genesis is that God works, he works, he works, he works, and he rests. And that he blesses both and that he invites us to continue into work and bringing order and flourishing around us, kind of in our realms of influence. And then also invites us to rest.
And so we can create a false dichotomy in thinking that doing things is naturally inferior to just enjoying and just appreciating. But we see throughout scripture that God himself has times of active working and rest. We see in the very beginning of scripture, we see it in Jesus's life. And we see throughout scripture that there's a balance.
And there's time for both. And here, Jesus saying, in this moment, let's stop to recognize something that we were not aware of. That's really good. And I would imagine that the way to have a poor week to discussion is to just call out those areas where we are behaving like Martha and we ought to behave like Mary.
But really what we're getting at here is we don't want to cast criticism or judgment on certain things. But we want to find, like you're saying, the balance between those places in our life where we work and we rest, we work and we worship maybe as maybe two better parallel, kind of balancing acts there. Other things that we want to maybe avoid? Yeah, I would say related to that, one of the things that I think will kind of lead us now into the next thing we see a spiritual rhythm introduced this week for our groups is that not only is there the false dichotomy between like quote work and worldly things, especially if we are tempted to think of work as worldly and worship and these kind of devotion and things like that as spiritual and more sacred and holy God, God has declared all these things good.
But there's also the temptation to fall into the trap, which we can see very literally, Martha was doing these things for Jesus. And so it wasn't just that she was busy keeping up the house or trying to look good, but she was busy serving Jesus. And then there kind of came this conflict. And so one of the things that I think would be helpful for leaders to remind the people in our groups is that even in our spiritual lives, even in the things like time in the word, that can become an act of busyness where we miss the fact that we're in the presence of Jesus.
We're not just here to do this thing for him, to please him, to make him happier because we're supposed to, to expect it. But are we remembering that the reason we're doing these things is because God has drawn near in Christ and we're in the presence of God. Yeah, it is kind of a typical thing where we look at annual reading plan, right? So we want to reemphasize this idea of daily devotion being about relationship and not religion.
I love the leader note that you have in here on page 13. Because it is true that we can be in God's word every day and still miss God. We can approach God's word as I just need to check the box so that I can say I did it today. And in some ways I'd say good, check the box, but don't miss Jesus in the process.
Have a posture in an open heart that says, God, what do you want to speak to me today and allow the word of God in the spirit of God to be present with you, right? Similarly, I think that's exactly what Jesus is getting at in this story. That the goal is not that we would do one or the other, but that we would experience God in the midst of everything that we do. And that is a beautiful invitation that no matter where we are in life, whatever we struggle with, whatever is going on, whatever circumstance, God is with us.
And so the invitation to daily devotion, the invitation to finding that God is better in any scenario, is that God is with you. It's an opening our eyes, a spiritualized scene that God is with us, right? Jeremy, any additional kind of thoughts on that? Related to that, we do this every once in a while, where we ask people to share maybe practices that they have found especially meaningful in their daily devotion through using the annual read or other resources to share things that God is teaching them.
I have a group of guys that I meet with every week. And we talk about we're going through the annual read. And we share things that, and this really stood out to me. God really encouraged me, really challenged me.
This just really hit me just right this week. So we do that. And on a regular basis, we try to make space for that in our groups. And not only to share practices, like does journaling help me slow down and think about the fact that I'm in the presence of God?
Or if people familiar with something like Lectio Divina or those practices where I'm going to take time reading intentionally for the purpose, not of studying, not of learning, so to speak, but of just being in the presence of God and letting him kind of comfort me, challenge me whatever he wants to do through his word that is living and active. So sharing those practices that other people have found meaningful within giving space this week to say, and what are some of those things specifically that God has been speaking to you through his word over this past season? Like I said, going into this busy season for all of us that's ahead, being reminded of the ways that we can kind of stay rooted. And to like Mary, appreciate the fact that we're in the presence of Jesus, and not get caught up in the busyness, even in something like reading his word each day, will just be so life-giving over these next few months.
And so just to share those kind of stories with one another. This series I think is really going to help us approach the holiday season with the confidence that we don't miss Jesus in the story of his arrival. It is wild what goes on in Western society, in Orange County. Everything between Black Friday to Christmas Eve is a war against our soul to miss Christmas.
And I'm not against cultural Christmas. We decorate, we got to tree all of it. But I just never want my family to miss Christmas. And I love that in this series, you are giving us, between this discussion guide, these rhythms, and the weekend teaching, we are well equipped, I think, to approach Christmas and really experience it fully in the season.
So Jeremy, as we kind of close, could you just summarize for us, what is that big idea, one more time for this one, and anything that we must do in order to have a really healthy week to discussion? That Jesus in the story, we see that the only thing that's needed, there's so many things that can call for our attention. But what's needed most is to spend time with him. And we do that primarily through groups.
We do it through prayer, but also this daily practice of daily devotion. And so often, we're upset and worried about many things, because we've neglected that most important thing of spending time with him in his word, letting him speak to us as our loving heavenly Father. It's beautiful. Thank you, Jeremy.
Appreciate the work you put into, of course, this podcast. But also these discussion questions. Like our cleaners, we sure hope that you're feeling equipped. I just want to take a minute to and just say, if you've got some great stories that are happening within your groups, if you're seeing life change take place, people who once viewed the world one way and because of God's word and community, they're living differently, would you share those stories with us?
We'd love to be able to celebrate those as a team, share those with our volunteers. They are beautiful and powerful, and we would love to hear it from you. So thank you. We hope that you have a great week to discussion.
We look forward to joining you next week for week three. Take care.