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. Here we go, the final week of Red Letter Invitations.
Jeremy, it has been a joy and a journey to get to where we are right now. Nine weeks, that is the joke of a series. And so Life Group leaders, thanks for hanging with us. We're ending on a really fun one.
I love that Jesus' invitation to us, as we look at the last week of this series, is to rejoice and leap for joy. That is not outside of Jesus' emotional range. Sometimes we just see Jesus in a white robe and a blue sash and he's so serious all the time. And we forget that Jesus also laughed, that there was joy, that Jesus was a true, he was fully God, but he was also fully man.
And so I love that we get to end this way, right, Jeremy? Yeah, yeah, too often he's seen as just serious or even detached, but here we see that joy is a major part of the Christian life. It is, and detached is a perfect word, isn't it? We just sort of think that Jesus, the Spirit of God, hovered above the waters, and Jesus hovered above the dust of the ground.
And he said, yeah, no, but he really was with the guys. So as we look at this week's discussion and where we're heading with our rhythm of this week, how can we get an overview from you, Jeremy? Where are we heading? What's the big idea?
So for the outcome this week really is, right there in the title, it's joy. We want to celebrate, we want to worship, and we can do that in different ways. We'll look at here, but really we're gonna see that Jesus invites us to rejoice in him as our ultimate source of joy, and that when we treasure him above everything else is when we fully experience life. And he becomes our greatest treasure.
Excellent. And so for our leaders, how can we help them be fully prepared for what this week's gonna look like? All right, this week is a little different. I really want to encourage leaders just on an emotional level.
We all have different things going on in our life. And I know as we kind of wrap up possibly school years or whatever else may be going on with work or at home, but as much as possible, and as much as can be done so honestly and sincerely, come this week with enthusiasm. Like this is not just another week, another thing to kind of check off our schedules. If we're gonna be talking about rejoicing, but we're doing so in a way that doesn't express joy and kind of model that celebration, then we're gonna kind of miss out on the fact that this is no really, like this is good news.
This is great. We have something to celebrate. So come with enthusiasm. Yeah, and enthusiasm, and it doesn't have to be this blind happiness.
You know, like we have those people in our life where you're just going, I love optimists, but man, it really does feel like you're disregarding the reality of life sometimes. That's not what we're saying here. We're saying that we all know that when the Spirit of God is in a person, there can be absolute joy in the midst of some of the most difficult things in our life. And so what we want to model is that no matter what's going on in life, there is still joy because of what the gospel has done for us and what the presence of God means in our everyday life.
And so how do we take this deeper, right Jeremy? How do we get the most out of this week's life group experience? And so this week we have three different short sayings of Jesus where he teaches us to rejoice. And the first he kind of compares the Christian life to buying a field just kind of meaning it's worth everything.
It's worth being all in for this relationship with Jesus. He talks about rejoicing even when we're persecuted and suffer and people say bad things because of his name and then just this idea that all of our life is to be should reflect the joy of Christ, that he is our greatest treasure. And so I would say that the first thing we can do is use these different sayings as springboards into review previous weeks. Like we've talked about greatest treasures and things like that.
So use this as a way to review. Where have we been over the past two months for eight weeks now? We've been in this Red Letter Imitation series. What have those invitations been?
How are all of those kind of culminating in this point of rejoicing no matter what? And Jesus being our greatest treasure. And I would say most importantly is if we've identified another invitation each week over the past eight weeks, now we're in our ninth week, how are we doing? Have we been taking steps to move closer to Jesus, to really finding joy and satisfaction in him?
Or if it's just a mental exercise, if we're just acknowledging, okay, here's the invitation I see this week, but we don't take Jesus up on that invitation and really begin following him and walking in all the fullness and abundance of life that he has for us, then we're missing out. So really don't be scared to take as much time as you need to not only review the points from the previous weeks, but then those action steps. Like how are we doing? Are we more like Jesus than when we began the series?
I would add one more to that as well, which is less spiritual and yet no less important in some ways, which is let's evaluate the health of our group even. Let's just pause and say how is the rhythm working? How is it, how's our frequency, as our location? Like just take some time to even go, we're committed to this thing and let's make sure that we don't just settle into ruts, that can be really hard to get out of later.
But summer is coming. And so what does it look like for right now to just reevaluate and go, okay, what's our rhythm gonna look like? Because statistically, across the country, most life groups at every church don't make it through the summer because they didn't go into it with a plan. So they finished the year, summer comes along, and then by the time fall comes back, they've been out of sync for two, sometimes three months, and it's really hard to get back going.
So I would encourage you guys, as you have a natural end right now, let's talk about the summer and let's just think about how are we gonna stay consistent with something, that way when fall comes around, you don't make one of those statistics that say, yeah, we didn't make it either. So Jeremy, what kind of rabbit trails or potential problems might our groups fall into this week? So one of the rabbit trails or problems we could run into this week is really over exaggerating or camping out too long on the persecution or hardship text. I mentioned there's three imitations from Jesus this week and we don't want to diminish any kind of hardship.
James says that we experience various trials. So there's all kinds of hardships that we experience, but one, Jesus specifically says for my name, so as Christians, life may be hard sometimes because you feel like in order to follow Jesus, you do some things that may be unpopular or even face resistance. But really the point of what Jesus is saying there and in all these texts is really about the joy that is even greater than any trials. So there'll be questions and opportunities to share how the joy of Christ has gotten us through difficult times or how we can see that Christ is worth any sacrifice.
But really the point of our time is not to emphasize the hardship, but to really spotlight the joy and the worthiness of Christ. So it's not really, it wouldn't be wrong, but the point here really is on emphasizing the greatness of our King. So really let that be the focus for our time. Which if we know that this whole thing is sort of oriented around this spiritual rhythm of celebration and worship, we will not allow a rabbit trail to take us away from this big picture of wanting to worship God.
In fact, when we focus on the greatness of God, the natural response is that we're going to worship him for his greatness, right? It actually pulls you right in line with that. And so let's talk about a couple of maybe best practices or tips about how to make this rhythm really hum in this week's life group setting. Jeremy, any thoughts for us?
So one that we mentioned last week, well, too, that we mentioned last week as we're preparing to celebrate, we see Jesus do this culturally. One is just Jesus celebrated with his disciples. He had that final one last meal, right? And so kind of the opening question last week talked about maybe meals that bring up special memories and things like that.
There's nothing that really unites people and means fellowship and celebration around the world. It's kind of the universal language is sharing a meal together. And so if you planned that already, make time to enjoy that, make it a part of the group, not just something that is kind of an attack on, but really incorporate celebrating in that way as part of the group. And then also we mentioned music and worship.
And so one of the ways that we rejoice is through song. You see it all throughout scripture and church history. And our worship team has chosen songs to put in a Spotify playlist for us. You may have favorite songs in your group.
If your group is especially musical, have someone bring a guitar or sit down at a piano or keyboard or whatever, maybe you can sing together. There may be other ways, maybe your group's not, especially comfortable singing together, but you could just play some music, you can put on a video. There's other ways maybe through visual art or poetry or something like that. Just find ways to kind of tap into those other parts of our heart beyond just kind of words on a page.
Find ways to kind of remember the fact that we're called to worship God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. So it's a very holistic experience. So food, music and art, just to kind of engage our different senses in our worship and celebration. What else you got for us, Jared?
Well, a couple of, you know, sometimes in my groups, I'll do a, hey, why don't we all take five minutes and grab a scratch piece of paper or a journal and write out what has got, how have you seen God's hand or his presence? How have you seen his providence over the last nine weeks and just call out one of those things. Another easy way to set that up is one of the things we did and rooted was that cardboard testimony 10 weeks ago, I, and now I am, right? So this whole before and after.
And it's foolish to think that if you follow Jesus for 10 weeks really well, that you won't be different. He will have shown you taught you, led you in a way that's gonna grow you at least in something. And it's really beautiful to get to share those things within your group. Occasionally I'll have people draw it out.
So I'll take, everyone gets a blank piece of paper and you have to draw kind of in a two or three act kind of format. I once was and now I am. And there's something similar to what you've said, Jeremy, about music or looking at some visual art of some kind. It just accesses a different part of our brain and our emotional capacity to create, I don't know, just a little more creativity tends to come out in that way.
And so no, very few people are good artists. I am not one of them. So stick figures, it's amazing though, what you can show in a stick figure and then get a chance to tell that story. So why though, the real reason why we're saying all those things, let's not lose sight.
It is to give God glory for what he has done. Anything that's taking place in an individual's life over the last nine weeks because of a red letter invitation, we wanna pause and go, God, that's because of you. Thank you for that. And we actually, it's so beautiful to get to worship God for what he has done in another person's life.
That's why we share. So when I get to hear what God has done in Jeremy's life, that's worship in a really beautiful way. That's beyond me just worshiping God for what he's done for me. That's good too, but it's a little self-centered that that's all we ever do, right?
Well, and sometimes it opens our eyes. You hear someone else's story and you're like, you know I hadn't really thought about it. Like if I think back a couple months ago, and I was in a tough spot mentally or emotionally, and I was constantly losing my temper, but now I'm experiencing the peace of God. And I recognize that to be Christ's work in my life.
And I hadn't really thought about it before, but hearing someone else's story kind of unlocks that in our own lives just kind of opens our eyes to see how Jesus is at work. And I've kind of noticed that most people in my personal life, and I wonder if it's true for you too, Jeremy, most of us are not very contemplative or reflective type people. And so the busier we get as a society, the more forward thinking we are, or at worst, the more present we are in only putting out the fires and having to deal with the day-to-day things. So pausing and looking back is a real skill.
I mean, it's something that you go, I just don't do that very often. And so as a group, when you do that, just like you said, oh my gosh, I forgot about that thing. I'm so busy thinking about my next thing that I forgot what happened nine, seven, eight, nine weeks ago. And the worst part about that is, is if you forgot about it, you probably forgot to praise God for what He did, and who you are now, right?
Yeah. And an easy way to go back, if people are keeping any kind of journal, or if you're going through maybe the Daily Read, a weekly devotional, go back and see maybe what you highlighted, or things you would take a notes on, or things you would written down in a journal, or previous leader guides, keeping some kind of record like that, even if you're not sitting down and reading old journals covered to cover, if you just flip through and see something that jumps out at you, or a note that you scribbled, or maybe something you highlighted from several weeks ago in a devotional, like the Daily Read, it brings back to mind. We see all through scripture moments where they're saying, do this, even the Passover meal from last week, if you do this, so the future generations will ask, why do you do this? And we can remember what God has done in our lives.
So we're called to build those rhythms in that we remember what He's done for us, because we are prone to focus on what I want right now, or what I want in the future, and what I got to do to get it, especially in our culture. So this is an exciting week, just to kind of rest and celebrate and do that together as a group. Yeah, it is. Well, with that being said, Jeremy, any final thoughts for us as we prepare for this week?
No, come ready. Come ready to celebrate. And we have a nice short three week series coming up next. Yeah, I'm excited about digging into the story of Esther and getting a sense of this beautiful book of the Bible that has no mention of God's name.
And yet, my gosh, is he in every sentence in that story. So, life group leaders, I'm so excited for you that as we wrap up week nine of Red Letter Invitations, right after this, we've got a really hard-hitting, great brief series that I think is gonna be really good for your life group. So, we're praying for you, and we hope that you have a great rest of your week. And by the way, if any of those celebration points, those stories, if you've got some standout ones that you would not mind sharing with us, they really matter to us.
We would love if you could shoot us an email, let us know this great stories taken place occasionally. We'll use those stories and we'll film them for weekend worship services. Sometimes we'll use them for social media. But most often, we use those, because we get to share them with our staff and volunteer teams, because that's why we do what we do.
And so please don't hold back with sharing those things with us, because we would love to worship God right alongside you. With that, we're grateful for you. Have a great rest of your day, and we will see you in the next series.