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 excited to sit down together again and talk through this week's leader guide.
My name's Jared and joined with me is Jeremy. Jeremy, how you doing? I'm doing all right. I'm kind of hanging in there, fighting all the seasonal allergy and sickness and whatnot, but hanging in there.
Yeah, a little bit of who isn't at this time, right? Yeah. Well, this week we're jumping into week two of the series, Start With The Ending, and this is a doozy, right? We get to have a conversation both in the weekend and in our life groups about the doctrine of hell.
And it's going to be, I think, a really, a good conversation for our groups because it doesn't have to go the way that our fears can sometimes lend us to believe it's going to go, that this conversation is gonna be doom and gloom and it's gonna cause more fear and concern, but instead, actually, when we have, or in embrace a truthful doctrine of hell, it creates a more beautiful picture of salvation and what Jesus has done for us. And so, Jeremy, do you wanna give us a little overview of where we're heading this week? Yeah, I love that you set it up that way because it really is something that a lot of us, either shy away from talking about and maybe even thinking about just because it makes us uncomfortable or we've often associated it with something scary or whatever, but it really is a beautiful, though it is intentionally sobering. It really does highlight some beautiful things about God and his desire for us.
And so, this week, one of those big questions that we all have to wrestle with is how can a loving God send people to hell? But really, and this is often a major stumbling block for people to even come to faith. So, it may be a good time to even invite others to join, as you mentioned last week, just this whole series is a great time to invite people to join us for worship. But what we're gonna see is that part of God's love is his justice, is his holiness.
And so, it's not a matter of God sending people to hell, but we'll see how God actually rescues us from judgment and provides a way out for all of humanity to come to him and escape judgment, but that judgment is pending, but that we have hope even as we face judgment, that in Christ, we have hope beyond that judgment and beyond this life. So, as our leaders are listening to this and they're now sort of considering, okay, I'm gonna engage in a dialogue with my life group about a subject matter that can be a little touchy, it can be difficult. For many of us, even the book of Revelation is so intimidating because we haven't spent much time with it. How would you guide us as the leader to prepare well for this week?
Yeah, so there's two major things that I wanna encourage. Well, three, one, just a reminder that, as we started the series, I mentioned that each week, we're gonna open just kinda with sharing what sort of ideas have we picked up along the way in our lives through culture or whatever, about each of these topics. And so, this week, what sort of ideas come to mind when we hear the word hell or judgment. So, that's an important piece to consider, come prepared for.
Secondly, look at these texts because, again, a lot of what we often associate with pictures of hell are more from culture, even ancient culture. What we're gonna see in the biblical text that we actually discussed today is more the reality of judgment, that there is judgment, there is consequence, but it doesn't go into deep description about what is hell like, so to speak. So, really, the emphasis is gonna be more on the fact that there is judgment and consequence for sin, more so than what is hell actually like. So, I think that's important to kinda prepare for.
And then finally, we're gonna spend a good bit of time even today in this podcast, talking about the fact that we have a prayer experience in light of judgment, in light of kind of facing God at the end of our lives. We're gonna have a time of prayer experience that we built into this small group and even prepare people for an extended time of prayer in worship next week. So, what I'm hearing you say is that our discussion is less about determining exactly what we believe what hell will be like. And instead, it's using hell as an opportunity for us to look further at God and be overwhelmed by the love and the beauty that is a part of his justice plan for the world.
Is that right? Yeah, absolutely. So, we may find ourselves drifting into a conversation, there's commonly, there's four views of hell that are believed, there's the literal, the metaphorical, the annihilationist view, and then there's the universalist. And the conversation here is not really about which one are you and which one is right and wrong.
And to have a lengthy debate about why you believe that, various versions. Those are fascinating conversations and I think that it's important for any believer to do the hard work that may take a long time, like more than you have in just a few minutes of a life group conversation, to see where you do land on those kinds of things. But for our life group leaders, what I want to encourage you to remember is that your role in this group is not to help people arrive on what their solidified belief is about their doctrine of hell in this conversation. In fact, one of the things I love Jeremy that you did in the study guide is you are bringing us more towards a prayer experience rather than a debate where we land on our academic or intellectual, you know, landing point on this doctrine.
And so, why don't you kind of take us forward in this study guide, pointing out the things that we need to see, but then let's get to that prayer experience together. Sure, so I love that you mentioned even the different views of hell. I picked up just recently, I may have mentioned on this podcast before, but there's a series by Zondirvin called Counterpoints. And I recently picked up the edition on hell just because it's, I'm weird like that.
And I read theology and it's like, oh, I was sitting in the doctor's office the other day reading a book on hell, which I'm sure a great conversation starter. Yeah, but so in this, in our text today, we're gonna jump into Revelation 19 and Revelation 20, two texts that are some of the more familiar passages out of Revelation, even for those of us who aren't overly familiar with a book. And we're gonna see, we're gonna see this picture of Jesus and coming in for judgment and very strong war-like imagery, but that we see ultimately that in all of this imagery, and that's pretty intense, that there's this description I love in verse 16 where it says King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that ultimately this passage and all of this is about Christ is King, he is ultimate overall, and he's righteous and perfect even in his judgment, even in the things that we may not be as comfortable with, he is right and he is good even in those things. So we're gonna see that emphasized in Revelation 19 and then the Great White Throne of Judgment and Revelation 20, where we do see even imagery of like a fire and the second death and whose names are written in the book of life and those who are not.
And so again, the emphasis there really being about, is your name written in the book of life? More so than getting into a debate like you said about the like a fire and what all that means and what all a second death looks like, really the take away should be for any of us is, okay, in light of all those things, what does it mean to have my name in the book of life? How do I respond to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in such a way that honors him and I can be forever a part of his kingdom? And so we asked some questions really just about the severity of sin, the urgency of salvation.
And there's a leader note that kind of points us back to last week and some of the imagery that was brought up in the story of Genesis and the fall of man and sin. So there's some notes there if you wanna have that discussion, just to try to kind of point out some parallels. But then before we get into the prayer experience, we look at that text and then just ask the simple questions of kind of how, what thoughts, emotions, questions are being stirred up in our hearts even as we read this together in the small group. What is that?
How might the spirit be prompting us to respond either in a renewed way, maybe for the first time and then to bring in any of the other insights that we may have picked up from the sermon and the teaching and other discussions. And then as we begin to look out at how all the supplies to our lives and the people around us, put a pretty detailed some options for a prayer experience. This weekend, we are giving people an opportunity to stand and say, I believe it would be impossible to preach a message about hell and judgment and the book of life without giving people an opportunity to stand and say, I believe. And what I would encourage our life group leaders to remember is that you cannot lose your salvation.
So for any of us who are in a life group, we've given our life to Jesus, the beautiful thing about the book of life is that when your name is written and your name is in it. And that does not mean though, that we don't pause and reflect and repent whenever an opportunity arises for us. And so while we believe that salvation is once and for all, it is also about the invitation to a life of sanctification becoming more like Jesus. And so there's these continual invitations.
And I'm praying that for this weekend, for every one of our life group attendees, that this isn't an invitation to go, thank you Jesus for what you have done for me. And let me re-center my life on you and consider how can I live differently. And that's my prayer for this prayer experience as well. God, bring things to the surface of our minds, bring things in areas of deficit where we need to work.
I'm thinking it's all 139, it just search me and know me, God. Bring to the surface of my mind the things that I need to do work with you about. So last note from me and Jeremy, you can take us to anything you want us to hear about for this prayer experience. I want to encourage us to look towards the following weekend where we are going to have an extended prayer service, which means that anything that comes up during this prayer time in your group, know that you can come to church this weekend, this coming weekend, come down forward and our team is ready to pray for you for anything that may be going on in your life.
I am so confident that God is going to do a great work in thousands of people's lives over the next couple of weeks here because of the nature of the content that Eric has prepared from God's word and by the preparation we're putting into what happens both in our life groups and in our weekend services for prayer. So Jeremy, anything that we need to know from the prayer experience that's in the leader guide? Yeah, so what you just said is one of the things that I love about this series. We've been extra intentional this time to prepare people before some of these big moments that are coming up corporately.
So to your point about the I believe service that we just have, be sure to ask if anything happened, if there's anything to celebrate with group members, either for them personally or for people they know or their things that they can celebrate. And then like you said, almost like when you see a baptism or a wedding, you're married, you're married, when you've been baptized, like you've been baptized, it's just that constant reminder of being grateful and even kind of inspired again, kind of freshly awakened to the goodness of God in your own lives. So in the prayer experience this week, as we lead into the following week, this week we're gonna look at a passage using second thessalonians, kind of the opening paragraph of second thessalonians, which is a letter both from Paul and Timothy to the church in Thessalonica and in it have provided two different options depending on how much time you have. So we'd encourage leaders to set aside, if you can, we have a 25 to 30 minute option.
And then we have a more extended period of time for 45 to 60. And if you don't have either of those times, I would encourage leaders to read this passage and just use just a couple of prompts that would fit your group. But I've tried to detail out for leaders a pretty specific prayer experience to really guide us all through a way to respond using that text, reading a verse over the group, encouraging them to pray silently and then something to pray aloud. So for example, I won't go through the whole thing because you can see it in your prayer guide.
But for example, as we get started, reading verse three about how we have to thank God, always for you brothers and sisters and rightly so since your faith is flourishing and the love each one of you has for one another is increasing. So provide a moment just to thank God for the people who have been especially influential in your life. And then for about five minutes, you could speak short prayers for group members, like pray specifically out loud for the people in your group, thank just thanking God for them by name. If any known requests that have been raised over the previous weeks or recently, like lift those prayer requests up on their behalf and tell, do that so that every person is specifically mentioned by name.
And then we work back through. So each of these prayer points has something to kind of silently reflect on based on what the scripture brings up, especially in light of God's justice and his righteousness and holiness and how we're to respond to that as believers, which again, I think is important. This prayer experience and the way Paul talks about judgment here is the exact opposite of what we kind of mentioned. A lot of us are scared to talk about or sometimes even think about hell because of the way we've heard it used to kind of scare people and maybe even manipulate a response.
Paul here is speaking specifically to Christians about how to respond and to live out our lives, knowing that there is judgment, but it's really meant to be an encouragement and an inspiration, not a fear tactic or an manipulation. So you can look over each of these prayer points, but again, it's walking through a passage, reading a verse aloud, pausing to allow some prayerful response silently. And then there's a prompt for a way you can pray together as a group and specifically for one another as a group. And then even for the upcoming prayer experience, praying for the leaders of our church, the church congregation as a whole and who God's may be working in their lives this coming weekend, that this extended time of prayer would be life changing for those in attendance.
And let's remember the focus of a prayer experience is to hear from God, right? It is to put ourselves in a position where we can be open and attuned to what God may want to say to us. And then life group leaders, my encouragement to you after every prayer experience is to run a little debrief where you can just simply create some room for people to say and share what they heard. And that's an opportunity for you to point out and make some connections that perhaps they're not seeing for themselves.
And I have found that in my own time of doing these prayer experience with groups, that debrief is where a lot of meaning comes to the surface for a person. That's usually what they will remember, what God said, and then helping, having someone help them figure out what that actually means. And so Jeremy, thanks so much for the work that you've put into this guide today. We're really excited to see what God does throughout this conversation.
And so life group leaders are praying for you, and we will see you next week.