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. All right. Welcome leaders.
We are here on week two of our Promise Christmas series. This week we're looking at Jesus as the promise and perfect prophet. We're going to love this discussion with you. And as you lead it with your life groups this week, we know that your groups might be on a different rhythm as we're in the holiday schedule, but many of you are probably still meeting.
And so we want to walk through these questions as you talk with them in your group. I've got our marriage pastor, my good buddy, Linda Vino with me today. What's happening? Yeah.
What's the difference between us? You feel like? Oh, yeah. I'm feeling it.
Oh, yeah. Like in a good way, like excitement or what's the what are you feeling with this Christmas season? Behind a little bit behind. Yeah.
No, that's real talk. Yeah. It's like a switch went on. Only three weeks, not four weeks with Thanksgiving being a little bit later.
We feel it a little bit. Right. Everything is more smashed together. Yeah.
We just had our team party today, which is great. We did. Which is a lot of fun. But yeah, even I feel like you eased into it more.
And this one you just like woke up and you turn a switch on. Yeah. Okay. It's Christmas.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like it.
It's a song for you. What do you love? I like it does have to be spiritual. Yeah.
It's only night. Sure. Hands down. No, I cannot hit that note.
Yeah. I like that. The chestnuts roasting on open fire going for like classic. That's a good one.
Classic ones. I guess it's Christmas songs versus carols. Maybe. Yeah.
Christmas carols Christmas hymn somebody. Sure. The herald angel saying that's all. I love it.
So, all right. Well, let me jump into it here. We are going to look at Luke chapter two and the story of Simeon as he encounters Jesus the long-awaited Messiah. We've got Doug Fields that's teaching and then we have several live teachers at different congregations.
So, no matter what congregation you're at, it's going to be the same text, same set questions. And Arlene in question says this. Have you had a wise mentor in your life to help you? What made their wisdom so impactful for you and why?
Linda and I were just talking about, I don't know if I've ever had like a real legitimate somebody who I would say was in a real formal mentor relationship. Sometimes that word mentor can seem like I don't know if I had that. But you could maybe reframe that of, you know, who's something in your life that you've looked to for wise advice. Yeah, you're go to.
Yeah. Yeah. What does that look like? Right.
I mean, aside from my husband, obviously, but I think throughout life, she was spiritual. She was my spiritual call it compass of just, you know, what does this mean? And what do you think I should do? Just my prayer partner, prayer advocate.
Right. Really new God's word really, really well. So I would say she was definitely that for me. That's good.
That's right. And if people are going to grow up, I never have one before. Right. What you could also ask is, what are the characteristics you think of somebody who would be a wise mentor?
That's good. Would you look for a never-person? Right. And obviously you'd want somebody who's wise.
That's always a great story. Yes. Relatable, who's involved, who's approachable. Nonjudgmental.
No judgmental. No judgmental. No understands you, but you're relationally connected with somebody who's trusted. Sure.
Who's not just like, I'm not sure you can try this, but it can help you think. And I think too, what's that adage where you should have someone who's five years older than you, ten years older than you, and 20 years older than you. Right? Yeah.
Right. So you have peer groups, people who you think are wise, or maybe have parented a little bit of head of you. But I think it's also wise to pick someone or to have relationships with people who are ten years older than you. Right.
And 20 years older than you. Right. And through things before you. Yeah.
That's good. Smart. Very good. All right.
Well, we're going to jump in now to Luke two. I'm going to read it from, I'm going to actually read from verses 25 through 32. Again, this is after the birth of Jesus, we think about maybe eight days after the birth of Jesus, Simeon. We're going to learn about him for the passage here a little bit.
Encounters Jesus. And he has a really astonishing response to seeing Jesus. And so questions here in the look down, can you summarize what Simeon says in just one sentence? Simeon says that God has fulfilled, promises salvation is for who?
You want to basically learn these questions or say, Hey, what do you learn about Simeon and what do you learn about his reaction to Jesus? What does this tell you about? What does this tell you about who Jesus is? Just your observations from the texts.
I'll read it. Right. And don't be afraid if there's people who want a little bit more deeper context, there's all kinds of apps and things where you can get the context and the background on what was happening and who he was. And there's lots of things.
Yeah. That's a good way to to die a little deeper as well. Yeah. The Doug impacts a little bit that in his message here too, as he talks about, you know, the entertainment period between the Old Testament and the Old Testament, Malachi and the New Testament and how you have in the Old Testament, you know, the activity of the prophets, root prolific, quite loud, and quite right after the Old Testament.
And then you have these 400 years where it seems like, seems like God got a silent, like the prophet, the age of the prophets in that era ended. There's this long promise of the Messiah. 400 years go by and still, you know, where is he? He hasn't shown up on the scene.
And so Jesus burst onto the scene in that context of long waiting, probably disappointment of a doubt. Yeah, total this long promise of the same and it comes from the standpoint of, yeah, meeting direction, needing, needing backness. And so that's that's a bit of the context of where we're at here. So Luke two starting verse 25.
There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. The man was right just in the vouch, looking forward to Israel's consolation. That word basically means hope or comfort, the long way to relieve restoration that the Jewish people were expecting. So really through the Messiah and the Holy Spirit was on him.
And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord's Messiah guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him, what was customary under the law, Simeon took him up in his arms and praised God and said, Now, Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace as you promised. From our eyes of senior salvation, you have prepared it in the presence of all peoples. It liked for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.
All right. So what we learned about Simeon, what we observed there and what we know about him for the passage and what we learned about his response to seeing Jesus. Well, he was immediately responded knowing that he was the Messiah. There was not a question.
And he continued to trust in God in that silence, knowing that God was faithful. I think that's a good lesson for all of us. He knew right away that he was the Messiah. Right.
Yeah. He was just he was devout, looking forward to Israel's consolation, looking forward to the Messiah. So you could fill in some of the gaps there to say, yeah, he knew the story. He knew the scripture.
He knew the messianic promises throughout the Old Testament, probably most prominently through Isaiah. He was familiar with the prophets. He was familiar with the story. I think he'd also say, man, he's somebody that was faithful.
He's somebody that heard God's voice. You know, he had this promise by the Spirit that, you know, you're not going to die before the Messiah. I mean, imagine that imagine having that assurance of hearing God's voice that more than likely we know he's older in age. He's been waiting.
He's been told you're not going to die until you see this till happens. Right. And then you're going to be in that expectation throughout your whole life. We don't know how long it was.
We don't know if he was a young man, older man when he heard that promise. We don't know. But even if it was just, you know, if you're less to be carrying, to be carrying that promise. Yeah.
And so I'm pretty impatient. That would be, you know, I know for me, my doubts would start going, I don't think it's going to happen. Yeah. Maybe it's not true.
And then the thing about like the eyes of faith that he must have had, right, unbelievably to think without a doubt, he's he knew he sees a baby. We think we think we think he saw Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
No, this is eight day old. Nothing spectacular about him. Like I said, no duty to attract us to him, you know, right. And this is it.
This is it. I mean, it's it's pretty astonishing. Right. And so somebody who's really connected to God's voice, leading of God's spirit and certainly a person that's full of faith and astonishment and wonder.
And then to any so sure. Yeah. And he knows like I can die now in peace. Like I just even know like where the story is I don't even know the rest of the right.
Right. I have seen. Yep. He promised it.
The deliver is here. I've seen yourself. But one is going to lead and guide this people. I mean, it's an astonishing passage.
All right. So let me go to look out section. What are some common places people try to find wisdom in our culture today? What makes it difficult for many to trust God to give us wisdom that helps us in our daily lives?
Well, we go a lot of places where we go to social media. We go to schools. We go to other articles online or people we trust or the Bible. There's lots of different places.
Yeah. Or ourselves or experiences or our desires. Right. Right.
Our thoughts are head right. Yeah. Totally. We do not go anymore, baby, which there's something really beautiful in that.
Like, you know, maybe you've had this sentiment before. Man, if I was back then I would miss Jesus. There's no way. Right.
I would be right next to him through all the stuff. I've seen all the miracles. There's no doubt in my mind. Totally.
And but we still miss Jesus so much today. Right. We we have our own expectations. We have our own, you know, what we fears, doubts, pride, selfishness.
Right. Right. Right. And so we look for wisdom in all these different places because we think that they can deliver that can fulfill their promises and we miss like the leading of God's spirit through his sin, through his sin Jesus.
And why do we do that? Well, maybe because we don't like what it said or maybe we don't want to ask for help or we don't want to be seen as weak and me getting that kind of level of guidance, you know, the message to talk a lot about kind of the I got this mentality. I got this. He talks about you can listen to Irvine.
I've had this great so many times wandering through the the aisles of Home Depot and looking for that thing and not knowing where to find that thing but pretending that you could find that thing walking past that orange apron guys five times because you don't want to be that right. Right. Right. Yeah.
Actually, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that hinders us from actually asking for help because we do carry this sense of like, I don't need it.
I'll figure it out. Totally. But Simeon. No, the baby.
That's the one. I'm singing in song. We see I'm singing and praising God for fulfilling his promise by sending a Messiah. How does God for feeling his promise help you to have faith?
And in what ways can we can lean on God to give us wisdom that helps us to live faithfully? I just believe hardly in prayer. Seeking God's word, trusting in his testimony, trusting in his promises. Even though I doubt sometimes more than I would like to admit, I have to keep returning and reminding myself that the truth of God's word, his promises are true, the testimonies, what he has done in the past that he does give wisdom, that he does faithfully give us everything we need to do the work that he's called us to do.
And that he will prove himself over and over again for those who don't know. Yeah. That's right. And Doug's really got two main points here of, you know, in what ways can we lean on God to give us wisdom that helps us to live faithfully?
Like how do you receive the wisdom from the Lord? You know, to talk about if you last wisdom, you should ask and he'll give liberally. So what does that look like? And these two main points really were turned on the light with scripture.
So being in God's word, habit, routine of reading God's word, allowing it to read you. And walking in white spots, so turning up a light scripture, so scripture illuminates the light before us. And then we see it. And then the second point is walk in the light spots, which is basically be obedient.
So read God's word, understand the light, the truth in God's word, and then walk in it through obedience. And that right there is where you're going to see the people of Sagata in your life. Right. I think there's just an overwhelming piece that he brings through that.
That is so clear that he is with us, I think to praying before we enter into God's word and into his presence, asking specifically, God, we know that God hears our prayers and that he responds. His word says in James, wherever I just person is powerful and effective. And we need to those things, knowing that he will give us exactly what we need. Yeah.
Yeah. So as our church, we want to help you with that. If you're engaged with God's word, every year around this time of year, we highlight our annual read. Which I love.
Are you in it already? No, I'm not getting ahead. I'm a real follower. So I stick with it.
I know that about you. It's true. It's true. So this devotional through the year with Warren, where it's a great devotional and you can find it in the bookstore.
This is a tool to help us to engage God's word daily. You may have other tools, other ways, I'm sure Linda that you do and practices that you have through that. And sometimes the idea of reading God's word routinely can seem overwhelming. And you know, we're turning the corner to the new year and how many times have you started.
I'm going to read the Bible this year. It gets like a good. I'm going to come back to it later. And we feel guilty or whatever that is.
But yeah, it's not about that. It's about and just get in. Get back in. If you fall out, get back in.
Right. Yeah. Like guys, we're to illuminate the light of truth and then walk in lights back. And I promise we'll make a difference in your life.
That's it. Awesome. All right. Well then thanks for joining us.
Of course. Last one of the year, right? Let's go. That's it.
2025. We're on Christmas is here. It is here.