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, life group leaders. We are chugging right along in the red letter Invitation series, and we are now at week six.
It has been an incredible journey so far, looking at these invitations of Jesus. And now we're about to make this huge turning point as we start to think about what does it look like as a disciple, as a follower of Jesus, to be sent to go. Because what I love, a theme that I like to share with my group, my own life group, leading a rooted group right now as well, I love to remind people that when we follow Jesus, and even when we have that moment of salvation, that moment of salvation was not just for us. When Jesus rescued us, he rescued us for a purpose beyond, just us being saved.
There's something beautiful about us being saved, of course. But my gosh, he left us here, which means there's work to be done, and there's great passages of scripture that we're gonna look at in today's conversation. That really do remind us that when we are saved and follow Jesus, we are the sent ones. We have a responsibility and a job to do, and that actually is really good for our own hearts.
Because it prevents us from just becoming inward facing, followers of Jesus, but that we might actually be missional followers of Jesus who join in with what Jesus did with his disciples. Okay, my rant's almost over. I'm just really excited. I love conversations about sending and going, and that's exactly what we're here to do.
So Jeremy, why don't you give us kind of the big picture, what's the outcome for this week, and I'll stop talking? Oh, that was a, that's perfect, because this week's topic, being go, I love that you always come back to the fact that we're not just safe ourselves, we're safe for a purpose, and we're sent out. And the purpose this week, we want the outcome to be enthusiasm. Like we want people to be excited, to share stories of life change, through experiences with Jesus, and this should be a really easy and natural follow up, kind of riding the wave and momentum of serve weekend, that the text may be a surprising passage for some people, on this topic of being sent out, but we'll discuss more about a demon-possessed man who was healed in pretty dramatic fashion, and the responses that he got, but this weekend should draw emotion out of us.
So let me just say to Life Group leaders, that the natural drift for your life group is always going to be inward, it's always going to be caring for one another, and that is appropriate at times. But when we study God's word, and we really do look at the way that Jesus led his disciples, he refused to just let it be all about them all the time. There was always an implication that as leaders, we have got to push and move forward with our people, and that oftentimes lifting our head above just our own personal problems, and lifting our eyes outside of our group, and seeing the areas where we can serve, and meet the needs of others. That's a part of spiritual development, spiritual growth as well.
So Jeremy, as we look at these two passages, a story of a demon-possessed man, and then the great commission, how can we prepare well as leaders? Yes, so start by preparing to open up this week. I don't mean just prepare to open your group time, I mean personally, to open up and share, remember that you're the pace-setter for the journey that your group is on, and people will more or less follow your lead. So if you say safe and surface, then the group is potentially gonna miss the adventure of this kind of life change in following Jesus and fearlessly changing the world, as we say at Mariners.
So, but related to opening up the group, like brainstorm for the icebreaker, just something that people may not know about you, that sounds too good to be true, too amazing, but this could be fun, it could be kind of deep and meaningful, it could be sad, but kind of open up your group time by opening up your own life, and just sharing something that they may not know about you, just something to kind of spark this time and say, today we're gonna really dig in and get to know one another. And I would encourage group leaders to take a little extra time this week with the Leader Note commentary, because there is layers and layers of stuff happening in the story of Jesus meeting this, he's not really a zombie, he's not the living dead, but he's this man coming out of the tombs, possessed by a legion of demons, casting them into a herd of pigs, like literally and symbolically, this is just a treasure chest that's full of rich things to explore, and then tying that to the Great Commission is just such, on the one hand, it's so obvious, on the other hand it's so unexpected, but they just married together perfectly. So spend a little extra time in the commentary, so you can kind of see what all is happening in this text, it's really good. That's a great reminder, Jeremy, just to look at the Leader Notes, and to remember, we have provided for you some helpful background information, and also some cross-referencing of some other scriptures, and for things for you to consider, but as a leader, don't ever feel like it's your job to be the sage, the spiritual expert, the one that has to have all of those answers, but instead, you're a great leader that can listen to a person's question, can watch the way that we wrestle through discussion, and guess what, if you don't know the answer, it's so easy to say, I don't know the answer to that.
But let's turn it in. That can be a great answer. It's one I still use all the time, because it's better to say, you know what, let's figure it out together. Let's find the right person to ask, or let's do a little bit of our own background study, and see what we can come back with next week.
Those are all wonderfully appropriate things, because it's very human. It's human for us to not know all those, every single thing, especially when you're dealing with challenging passages of scripture like the demonic, and things that are just outside of our current Western American experience, right? So with that, Jeremy, what are some ways that we can take this conversation deeper this week? So sure, be ready to, like I said earlier, to share some of your own story, and then invite others to do so.
And sometimes people aren't ready just to kind of jump in, just share a story out of nowhere. So really kind of tee up some softballs, like kind of give them some leading words. Like when have you felt, so thinking of this demon-possessed man, like identifying with him, like when have you felt alone, or misunderstood, or even neglected? And when has Jesus met you in that loneliness, and suffering, or how has Jesus changed your life, in ways that nobody expected?
Maybe not even you. Like if people were to see you now, like would they recognize you? Like how has your life changed over time? Some other questions just to kind of think outside the box, like maybe when have you been resistant to, or skeptical of Jesus and his help.
And what he might do if you fully let go, and surrender to him. And then also what you see in the text, another good question to think about is, when have the good changes in your life, the work that Jesus has done in your life, when has that caused more conflict, and new types of conflict with others around you? And then finally remember to turn the conversation to look out to serving others, both in word and deed, and think about the daily opportunities, that you may have to share your story with the people around you, to serve them both in word and deed with the love of Jesus. It can be sometimes challenging as life group leaders to find the common denominator when we are dealing with challenging passages of scripture.
But Jeremy, I love what you just said about, looking at this demon possessed man and saying I bet that every one of us has felt loneliness or isolation. We've felt the effects of being separate from our community. And that's a great skill for a life group leader to first do the work in themselves, to say I can relate to this man's experience because we have both felt isolated, we have both felt lonely. I can start to find myself in this scripture by allowing myself to recall the emotions, the feelings, the circumstance around my isolation or loneliness and what that would have done to my own spiritual health, my mental wellbeing and so on.
Then that's a great way for us to lead a discussion in a group as well, is to be able to bring those things into the group and say, hey I bet every one of us has felt this before, while we may not ever say, oh yeah, I was demon possessed. Well, okay, but I would have bet, I would have bet that everyone has a story of isolation and loneliness and what it feels like to be separate from. And then the beauty is that doesn't demean this man's experience, the rescue that Jesus provide for him, the relief and the freedom. It actually allows us to identify with Jesus who wants that for every single one of us.
He wants us to be set free from bondage, from slavery, from sin, from anything that's separating us. So, and then the next thing you said after that, Jeremy, I think is so fascinating from our group context, which is to think about how are we gonna share these stories? How are we going to be a part of serving the world, caring for people outside of us and then sharing those stories? Can you give us a little bit more on that idea?
Yeah, so there are people all around you. And when we look at this text, we see that this was to sort of people in the town knew that this guy was out here, like big knew who he was and they had kind of, we don't know his whole backstory, how he ended up in this place. But the townspeople knew who he was because when they saw him sitting clothed in his right mind, it freaked them out. And so, just to think through in our own lives, like there are people all around us that we may not know their whole story, but we've kind of seen, we've picked up on some patterns or we're around them enough to know like something's going on in their life.
And the word legion that he uses to identify kind of the demons, it means many. It's technically a Roman military term, but it just means many. Like, and there are people around us who have all kinds of problems. There are many problems that kind of oppress and have flipped us today.
And so, there are people at work and in our neighborhoods, like all around us, even one another in these groups that we have the opportunity to kind of speak hope and really to recognize the humanity and dignity and recognize kind of the image of God and other people that maybe others just bypass and overlook and maybe see as being helpless or too different from me. So, we have the opportunity to stop and really love somebody that has either been forgotten by others or avoided by others or just kind of just pass over. And it's great. And any kind of any questions, rabbit trails, any problems that we might run into this week that you could help us avoid?
Yeah, I would say just a couple of things. One, don't forget that even the demons knew the truth about Jesus. And so, the goal of Bible study, the goal of kind of gathering as the church and as a life group is not just to learn things about Jesus, but it's to really get to know and love Jesus and let him work in our lives. That's what discipleship is.
That's what it means to grow spiritually. And so, there's a couple of things we don't want to happen in this group. We identify kind of with this lonely, hopeless situation. We don't want our group conversation to devolve into gossip or fostering bitterness towards others who maybe neglected us when we were hurt or lonely, those who didn't love others well.
Maybe they didn't know what to do in our situation. Maybe they did intentionally hurt others, but we don't want this to devolve into kind of blaming and gossiping on others. We want to focus on what Jesus wants to do and how we've experienced that life change and just the joy that this man, this man didn't kind of harbor, he didn't sit there and brood on the way everyone had treated him before. He was excited and he wanted to follow Jesus and then when Jesus sent him out, he went out and shared his story.
And that's the point of this text. And I would say related to that, the only other thing to watch out for, you kind of alluded to this, that it can be a tough passage, especially in our Western culture when something like demon possession comes up. The point here really isn't about the demon possession. Like that's part of the story.
It's an undeniable fact to the story, but the emphasis isn't on his possession. It's on his liberation and transformation. And so we don't want to get bogged down in like how does demon possession work? What is it?
Like the point here is that Jesus met this man's need and changed his life and then sent him out to tell his story. So that should be our focus in this time as well. Yep. Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
And I think related to what you just shared, there's a trap that I think we can fall into on two sides of this one is, I can believe that my spiritual growth is equated to how much more knowledge I can obtain. If I can just study enough and know enough, then hey, I'm gonna become enough. And the reality is that just isn't the case. Every Pharisee that Jesus encountered in the New Testament knew a whole lot more than any of us, probably ever will know.
And yet they were still quite far from who Jesus intended us to become, right? So it cannot just be a pursuit of knowledge. It really has to be a pursuit of practicing and applying that knowledge into our life. And that is what I believe sharing our story does so well, because sharing our story as a rhythm of being a spiritual discipline in our life is not sharing the knowledge that we have obtained.
It's sharing what God is actively doing in our life today, which means that God is doing something in our life today that's worth talking about. And we don't have to think about sharing our story as putting a sandwich board on and standing on the street corner repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, right? That's fine, but it's not really what we're intending. What we're intending is God's doing something in your life and your marriage with your kids in your personal finance, whatever it is, like God's doing something in your life and you are becoming more like Jesus, that's the story that we get to share.
And it's knowledge and studying God's word, a hundred percent is a part of that, but it isn't a hundred percent of it. It's the application of God's word into our life, our daily practices, our behaviors, the change that we see in ourselves or others may see in us, and we get to share those stories. It's the best thing that we can do in evangelism on the planet. When we share what God's doing today in our life, people want to be a part of that, right?
They don't necessarily connect, they may connect with your story of conversion, the story of when you said you're, you know, yes to Jesus for the first time, that's amazing too, but man, I want to know that God's still doing something decades later, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
I got a lot of rants today. I'm feeling really, I'm feeling well-caffeinated and excited this week. Yeah, there you go. That was the goal, wasn't it?
That's right. Any final words for us? Share your story. Don't be scared to talk about it.
When God gives you the opportunity and opens that door, go through it. Share your story. That's right. And you can practice in your group.
You are welcome to share in your own groups. Here's what God's doing in my life. That might give you just the courage and the practice to be able to share that with a family member, to be a co-worker, a neighbor, when God gives you the right opportunity. So like our leaders, we're praying for you.
We know it's going to be a great week. We believe that your group is designed not just for itself, but that you might view your group as a rally as a time to get together and say, what is God calling us to do together to be a part of changing the world. So we're praying for you. We hope that you have a great week.
Take care.