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. Hey, Life Group leaders. This is Scott and Sam back at you again with another podcast.
Today we are going through our series overview on a search for meaning. We're going through the book of Ecclesiastes this weekend. And Scott really excited that we're going to be going through this book. Would you mind sharing just a bit about the book of Ecclesiastes?
Yeah, so the book of Ecclesiastes is part of the wisdom literature in the Old Testament which includes books like songs, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs. But it's really a book. Most scholars think that it was written by Solomon. But it's a book that talks about what is the meaning of life.
And as we pursue things like pleasure and wealth and just different things, are those things truly the things that give fulfillment. And at the end of it all, the end of it all includes that. To fear God is what it's all about. That's good.
The way I was thinking about it is that for the most part, it's an autobiographical speech from this person named the teacher who, like you said, most people would say it was Solomon, King Solomon. But it's almost written like a, you know, imagine someone in high school that's a goth emo person. You find their slam notebook and they're talking about how life is meaningless. And, you know, what is the purpose of life given that we all die anyways?
It's like, whoa, gosh, that's kind of mature in nature. But I'm actually really glad that our church is going through the series and that God gives us a space to bring these feelings to him. And when I think about King Solomon, I think about a guy who had everything that this world had to offer. He had riches, he had wisdom, he had relationships and multiple wives.
But none of those brought ultimate contentment to him and that led him to write this book, which talks about how I'm just going to read off some things in Ecclesiastes 1. Everything is futile. What does a person gain for all his efforts that he blabbers at under the sun? That generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
All things are worrisome. More than anyone can say, the eye is not satisfied by seeing or the ear filled with hearing. Basically saying that will never be content with the things of this world. But like you said, we can find ultimate wisdom, contentment in a relationship with God.
And I think it's a really neat book. I'm glad that we're going to be going through it. And as a lot of leaders, I think it's important, maybe I could show this, is that we can create that space and environment for just honest, raw reflection. And we can have a safe space for tension.
You can sit in that tension where we can point people to God. And so I think that's really our goal for the series. That's really good. We'd love to actually, at a high level, share about each of the weeks that we're going to be going through in this series.
And then we'd love to get your thoughts on a couple that you think would be really helpful for our like group leaders to discuss. So one is the first week, meaning in the meaning list. We're going to be talking about Ecclesiastes, chapters one and two, just high level, what the book is about and how we should see life as being something that is fleeting, but where we can find enjoyment and where we can find contentment. The second week is making the most of a time for everything and joining every season of life, the highs and the lows, the third week, the gifts of work and rest.
And how do we balance the two without work becoming something that we idle? Week four, wisdom on money and contentment. Really excited for this one. I think that is going to be one that speaks to a lot of people.
How do we discern how we should see wealth and how we should see money and how it can be used as a tool for God's goodness? The fifth week is wisdom when life is complex. I think this is one that everyone will connect with. And then week six, living and dying skillfully.
I know that is one that is going to be really vulnerable for everyone, talking about death. And then the last week, week seven, what matters most ultimately? What are we supposed to seek in this world? And that's going to sum up the last chapter of, that's going to sum up the whole book of Ecclesiastes in that last chapter.
We're going to cover what is the beginning of wisdom and that's fearing God and his commandments. So Scott, can this covers it all. This covers what, how we should live our lives now and how we should live our lives in light of eternity. It's good.
What, what weeks are you particularly excited about? And what do you think life group leaders could benefit from? Yeah, I mean, I really, gosh, it's going to be hard for me to actually say which one I'm looking forward to most because I think so many of these topics are relevant and practical to our everyday lives. But I actually think the part of the week six living and dying skillfully, because the reality is all of us, I'm sorry to break this to you, Sam.
What? You just had a baby and you feel like you're just starting your married life. How long have you been married for? We've been married for five years.
Wow. Coming up on five years. Yeah. So you're still a young man.
I am. I just turned 50. We've been there for 22 years. So a little bit longer than you.
And I do think about how many years God has for me. Sure. You know, everyone, when you go to, what do you call it up? What do you call those places where the gravestones are?
Oh, the cemetery. The cemetery. When you go to cemetery and you look at the gravestone, everyone has that dash, right? Yep.
Of when they were born and when they have perished and so... Higher life than that, Dad. Yeah. And to really think about how do we live our lives today and how we, how do we build our lives and prepare lives to meet our creator and our maker?
Yeah. So that's the one that I look so good. I think one that is going to be really insightful for our leaders and then ultimately for their life group members is week three. The gifts of work and rest.
I'm really curious to see what Solomon has written about work and rest because especially in Orange County, I think there's this culture of I need to, I need to afford a home. Let's be honest. It's expensive to live here. And so to be able to afford a home, I need to work really hard.
I need to do overtime. I need to change careers every couple years so that way or jobs so that way I can continue climbing and it's like there is a never ending ladder to feel like, you know what, I've made it and hate to break it to everyone. But once you eventually have enough money to get that thing, you're not going to be satisfied. And it's like we did all of this work for a feeling that is fleeting.
And for things that are fleeting. And so I know that week is going to be really helpful. It's going to be a week for our leaders to encourage our members like, hey, what is the relationship with work and rest right now? Do you feel like you have balanced?
Do you feel like you're treating your work as a little gee God? So I know there are going to be some pockets of wisdom in there. Yeah, I mean, along with that, I think week four, wisdom on money and contentment is going to be a really important one. Yeah.
Ties in well. If God has given money as a gift for us to steward, and with that we can rejoice. But when we make it our God, it becomes meaningless and it becomes something that becomes an I don't know lives. You know, just to give a, you know, in my own struggles, just this past weekend, you know, we're renting right now because everything is so expensive.
Yeah. In Orange County. And as we look at the housing prices right now, I mean, just to be honest, I got depressed. Look at these homes.
You should read Ecclesiastes. Yeah. Yeah. But I think we live in a culture, we live in this hustle culture.
We live in this culture where it's about me, myself and myself, self optimization. I can, I can do this. Yeah. Pick myself up the bootstraps and we find our identity and our achievements.
And Ecclesiastes is showing us, man, those things that we pursue in the end are meaningless. But if we use it as gifts and resources that God has given to us, it takes a new meaning. Yeah. So I kind of want to zoom out from each of the weeks right now and just talk about, you know, okay, we've covered things that are going to lead to meaninglessness.
So just empty feelings, things that aren't going to provide contentment. But ultimately, Ecclesiastes 1213 says the beginning of wisdom is fearing the Lord and keeping his commands and it's having a relationship, ultimately with Jesus. And you know, our mission at Mirrors is to inspire people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Ultimately, we want our leaders and our members to realize that our goal and our goal as a church at Mirrors is to inspire people to follow Jesus and to receive that love that he gives them and then to push it out to other people and to make change in the world.
And that's the kind of stuff that really matters in this world. So I think an encouragement to leaders would be a reframing of like, you know what guys? It's not about having the nicest things, having the house on the top of the hill, having the coolest job that people respect. It's about having a relationship with Jesus Christ and living out that love to other people.
So one encouragement for you leaders is to remind your members of just our mission at Mirrors about our transformational loop. And you know, just as a reminder, Scott, I don't know if you want to share about the loop, it's four stops and how that inspires people to follow Jesus and change the world. Yeah, our transformational loop is to follow Jesus. It's to grow together in community as we're doing right now in like groups.
It's to serve one another as we serve with the gifts that God's given to us here in the local church, your matters, and then to change the world, to be as hands and feet in our local community and faith ventures globally as well too. That's good. Yeah. I mean, those are things that truly, truly do matter.
They truly matter. People matter. People are the wealth as the man guy says. And I think through this series, through the study, we'll find meaning and purpose and giving of ourselves and loving God's people and seeing people made in the image of God and not thinking it's about us consuming or us building up wealth and wisdom.
A kingdom of our own. We have to give it. We have to pour it out. Yeah.
And serving within the church, serving outside the church and local or global outreach, that's just one way to pour out that love to other people. So an encouragement to you, leaders, is just a reminder to your group members about what truly matters in this world and in different ways that you guys can, to show that is through serving at the church, through serving as a group in local or global outreach. This is an encouragement to go to that serve portal and sign up for a group serve in during this series. And yeah.
Yeah. I would love as, you know, this is a magazine series right out here and it's going to be a bunch of resources in there and articles. But as you do these sermon discussions, as you navigate the discussions, there's a flow for every sermon discussions that we create. Lean in, look down, look out, look in.
And I would just love for, just kind of go through that simple rhythm of what that looks like. Keep on mind. Yeah. So every week, every week follows that simple rhythm of you lean in and it's not just an icebreaker question, but it's a moment where, you know, it helps people warm up.
And if the room is quiet, you lead the way, you model vulnerability. And then you look down, you stay rooted, grounded in scripture and this is opportunity for you to not rush, but ask follow up questions like, what do you see that in the text, you know, or what stands out to you personally? And then we look out, we see this bridge between the scripture and our culture. And this is where people start connecting the dots between the text and what we're going to in our everyday lives.
And then the final part is like looking in. And this is so important. This is where you need to go personal. And you slow down here and oftentimes I don't know about your group, Sam, but like some of our group members don't want to go there, but it's kind of encouraging them to, Hey, let's share personally.
And so if you run out of time, I just want to encourage you to prioritize that look in part because that's where change and transformation happens. And I think it's important, as I shared earlier, like it's okay to live in that tension and not be giving quick fix it answers. We talk about that a lot. And what I try to do in our life group is share all these questions, speak about 10% of the time at the very end, wrap up with words and encouragement and what the book, what the study is really trying to say.
Yeah, I love that. I love our flow questions because it does three really amazing things. One, it allows us to look down at God's word. What is God's word telling us?
What is he telling us through this scripture that he's given us? And it also allows us to look inside ourselves and be introspective at how has God been applying this text to my life recently? And then also outward looking application. What are we going to do about it?
What will we do? With this sphere of influence that God has placed me in, the exact place that God has placed me in in his life, how will I use this text and apply it in demonstrating love to others? Yeah. It is so funny.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we were doing a study on Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. And our life remembers wanted to keep it general. And when we were doing the look in part, it was more general responses. This is what we should do.
Rather than what will I do this coming week to model what Christ has done for us. Literally the next day, there was an opportunity where one of our life remembers needed to move and needed help. And that Saturday morning, you washed his feet. People responded and said, Hey, we're going to serve.
We're going to be his hands and feet. That's what I'm talking about. We do this. So yeah, I think that's so important to live it out in our lives.
All right, life group leaders. Scott, actually, how about we pray this out? Let's do it. Okay, I'll lead us in prayer.
Heavenly Father, I'm just so thankful that you give us your word to communicate with us, to teach us, to uplift each other and to be reminded about what truly matters in this life. The things of this world are so fleeting and futile, but you are just standing strong throughout time as the one constant. You are the one thing that can truly bring contentment and enjoyment and rest. And Lord, throughout this series, we pray that our leaders and their members and everyone listening in this are just reminded that you are the thing that brings ultimate joy in this life.
And we may wrestle with, you know, that's easy to hear, hard to do, but that's okay. You need us there anyways. And I'm just so thankful that we have a God who understands our needs and has lived it. So Lord, we're praying for you to just move massively in this series.
In every life group, we love you Lord. We thank you for your son, Jesus, in his mighty name, Amen. Amen. The conclusion of it all is to fear God and chief is commanded.
Scott, you love singing. That's the best way to end it. See you life group leaders. See ya.