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. Well hello, Life Group leaders, and welcome to week five and the final week in this sermon series that we've been in, start with the ending, looking at the book of Revelation. I just love that we've been studying this book together in community.
I don't know if this is the same for you, but I know often for me, I always look at the book of Revelation with a little bit of trevidation, like how do we understand this book, how do we unpack it, and then also, equally, if not more important, how do we apply it? And so I love as a church that we've been walking through just some great sound, a biblical teaching of the text, and then of course, in your life group, you've been able to digest the meaning of the text and put it into application. So we hope that this series has been a great joy and an encouragement to you as you grow in your communities. Well, we have, as always, the wonderful, the very intelligent, profound Jerry Rie Maxwell with us.
And Jerry, before we dive in into this particular week's topic and passage and questions, as we often do at the end of a sermon series, I'd love for you to maybe just zoom out a little bit and give a little bit of a summary recap as we look back at the last five weeks, and we're gonna encourage our life group leaders to the same within their group. So why don't we model that a little bit for them, zoom out before we zoom back in? Yeah, thanks John. And so for this series, I love that we were able to start the year, start the series with this big picture look, bookends of the Bible, we had Genesis and Revelation, and we looked at the tree of life, and just the fact that God has always intended to live in community with his creation, that the human beings, the created world around us, and our creator, God, have always been intended to be in right relationship.
And so we started our series there, we see that we touched on the fall and the fact that sin has kind of this pervasive effect not only in our own personal lives, but throughout all the world, there's just brokenness all around us. And so now in light of where things started, the fact that things are broken, but with a promise that things will ultimately be restored in heaven, how do we live? What are some of these themes, these ideas that we need to kind of wrestle with and come to terms with, topics that we often as humans who sometimes don't want to deal with our own mortality, we tend to ignore sometimes or come up with euphemisms and nicer ways to talk about things. But over the past several weeks, we looked at the fact that the Bible talks a good bit about heaven and the eternal reward.
It talks about hell and the eternal consequence for living a life apart and in rebellion towards our creator. It talked about the fact even last week, just the sobering reminder that all life comes to an end, all life as we know it in this form will come to an end. And that hopefully that's not a morbid reality, but it's a sobering reality that's kind of like that, that splash of cold water to say, okay, in light of that, knowing that life isn't going to just go on forever and ever and ever, I don't always have tomorrow, it's not guaranteed. How am I choosing to live?
What am I choosing to do with my life? Knowing that there is an account, there is an ultimate judgment, and I'm not making the most of that life for the sake of Christ and those around me. And then finally this week, we get a wrap up our series, looking at a similar theme, we're not in Revelation, we're again in some of Paul's letters, but as he encourages Christians in light of all these things to say, how are you living? Are you living in such a way so as to earn that eternal reward?
Are you running the race in such a way so as to win the prize, so to speak? So not just wake up, you're not gonna live forever, but this week really looking at kind of the positive flip side of that coin of make the most of it, make every day count, do what really matters and don't get sidetracked on the things that just kind of suck the life out of us and drag us down. So really make the most of these opportunities that we have. Yeah, that's great.
And I think there's sometimes a tension in that where we can have this sober reminder as you've just talked about that, yeah, this life is final, but it's not the final eternity in that we can have this view of the hope of eternity and heaven and being with Christ and enjoying him forever. But sometimes there's that tension that we talked about this a little bit last week of, okay, well then I'm just gonna back off, hold on, hold on to my ticket and wait till I get there. And that's not our posture at all that we're called to be in as Jesus followers. I can't remember who said it, Jeremy, you can correct me if you know who said it.
For now I'm just gonna say it was our discipleship after we're in Jared Kirkwood. How's that'll quote go that sometimes Christians could be so heavily minded that they're earthly no good, so heavily minded and earthly no good because we're just thinking about eternity and that destination that we fail to recognize the implication and the joy of what that means to live it out here and now. And so I think we've been talking about that throughout the series, but this week in particular, we are hitting on this whole idea of, man, the legacy that we leave and the stories that others will tell about the life that we leave and how we impact others. I mean, what a great conversation to have in our life groups this week.
Yeah, and so this idea of legacy is really, you see movies and maybe you know certain people, I can think about one guy in particular who just always he would bang this drum of legacy that he was all about investing in the next generation, pouring into other young leaders, just taking people under his wing because legacy to him was a big deal. And for us, and with this first question to kind of break the ice and get conversation started, the idea behind legacy, there's that, there's kind of how is your life impacted the people around you? But then it's also just sort of that driving force, like from my friend who that just drove the decisions he made, it affected how he led his family, what kind of parent and spouse he was, what sort of employee and person in the community he was, that it just drove everything about him, that he was living for something greater than just what he could accomplish with his finite time, that he was living for this bigger reward and for him it was this idea of legacy. And so for us as Christians, we have both that sense of legacy, but then we have this eternal reward of eternal life forever with all the people who love God and will live forever as part of his kingdom.
So we get kind of both sides of that, like how will we be remembered and the fact that we'll get to enjoy these people in the presence of God forever in his new creation? Yeah, I mean, there's nothing bigger that we can give our life to than something that's gonna last for all of time and all eternity, the kingdom of heaven. I mean, what else is there? I mean, right now it's football, play offs and everything else and I'm a big sports guy and I'm watching all the shows and they're talking about certain players that have lost out already and what's their legacy gonna be in this narrative they can't win big games and that's gonna be their legacy for all time.
And it's like, man, this is a game we're talking about here and I get it, I'm a sports guy and everything else, but my goodness, I want my legacy to be so much more beyond just temporal immediate things. That seems so important right now. And they infiltrate everything that we think about. They seem so demanding, but in the end, they're perishable, they're things that will not last.
And so what a joy we have is Jesus followers to be a part of something that will last. So it orients how we live now and how we serve others. Absolutely. The passages that we have this week, we have 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 9, and then also 1 Timothy 6, and all of these Paul is writing to either a group of Christians and then in the final instance, he's writing to this young man that he's mentored and taken under his wing.
And he's doing exactly that. He uses all these different metaphors for building a house, almost kind of the three little pigs type story where you see someone who builds with stones and wood and hay or straw. And these things are perishable, but we put so much time and effort into things like our home. And we should value those and take pride in those, but ultimately those are perishable things.
And then he uses this metaphor of a race or training for an athletic competition, like boxing and kind of this Olympic type. We're actually about to head into the Olympics again and just kind of this Olympic type imagery and just all the training that goes into that in order to win the prize, to do yourself and the people that you represent proud. And then finally when he talks to Timothy, he's like, don't take too much pride in riches or these other earthly accolades. As wonderful as those may be as many good uses, as we can put things like our wealth and our resources, we can do all kinds of wonderful good with those things.
But ultimately that is not where life is found, that is not what has eternal significance, but we can use each of these things for the sake of those things that do have eternal significance. Right, and I love that even this week Jeremy, that as we often do in our leader guides, we have a couple of rhythm prompts. Remember in life groups, we don't want to just be students of God's word, but we want to be practitioners and the one of ways that we practice those is the same as we have for rooted. It's these experiences, these rhythms.
And there are a couple of prompts this week that really help us to understand that and put those things into practice. Jeremy, why don't you just walk through the things that are included this week and how you selected those? Why do we think those tie in to this week's topic? Yeah, so this week is unique.
We hadn't done this before and I hope it's okay, but actually mentioned two rhythms this week, because one is kind of looking back, we mentioned the volunteer Expo that people were gonna have the opportunity, whereas last week we really kind of emphasized that, like what are ways that we can serve and be prepared to go into the volunteer Expo and maybe as a group, maybe as individuals. And so there's a note just to ask your groups about that. Did people go check that out? Are there things that they're either aware of, that they hadn't been aware of, that has come to their attention, that they're especially interested or excited about?
And how can you kind of fan that flame and then personally or maybe even rally others in your group to do something together and serving? And then there's also, you know, we talk about, you've probably heard the cliche of like time, talent, treasure, things like that, that we're stewards of these things. And so in addition to serving with our time and our energy or abilities, another way that we can really tap into this idea of legacy and how are we using our lives now for the sake of eternity? What are we doing now to both show our love for God and love for neighbor is through sacrificial generosity.
And so using our financial resources, maybe other material resources and possessions that we have in a way that can really bless others. And there was just another natural tie in to what we're discussing here, as well as to the time and corporate worship. Yeah, and we see that thematically all throughout scripture don't we, that yes, we wanna be a people that are blessed and we wanna see God's blessing and provision in our life. But as you know, it's not just for you, blessed to be a blessing.
You're not meant to be a cold as accurate, you're meant to be a river that outflows for other people too. So they can receive God's goodness and blessing for you. So I love that those are in there this week. So talk about those in your group, volunteer expo.
How did you respond? How can we continue to respond? Sacrificial generosity. How are using our resources not just for us, but for the God's kingdom through us.
Love that. One other thing, yeah, one other thing related to that, that I think would be just kind of a cool way to wrap up as a group is related to the idea of how can we serve? How can we bless others with our giving and our resources? This whole idea of legacy would also include how has generosity, how has being served blessed you?
And so we not only wanna think about who are the people around us that we can bless and serve, but also just to take a moment to reflect and thank God for the people that he's used in our own lives to bless us through their time, through their talents, through their treasures, so to speak, to go back to that cliche. Just take a moment to thank God for those people that he's used in our own lives. Yeah, that could be, that's a great question prompt for you this week. Man, where have you seen that at work and others?
How has God used others to bless you? How have you seen that? I mean, you're so right, I love that. We can get so focused kind of on our own narrative and things about us that we miss the broader work of what is God is doing by seeing that and celebrating that in other people's stuff.
You're so right to bring that out. And then also depending on when you're listening to this, we usually put this out on a Friday or so, you're either heading into the weekend service or you're coming out of the weekend service. I believe we had communion this weekend. And man, that's also a great practice of just remembrance, having an eternal view and perspective and being reminded that we don't strive, we don't try to bring all of the kingdom of heaven now by our good work and efforts, but that it's already come because of the final work of Jesus and communion is that practice that we're given to do as often as we are to remember the finished work of Jesus in our lives.
And so I love that we're ending this series with that rich spiritual practice of gathering around the Lord's table because that's such a great joy. I get lots of questions and conversations about, following Jesus and how can I be sure and do I need to rededicate my life and all these things? And it's like, well, no, you've been given this one time thing when you say yes to Jesus, you become a follower of Jesus, but you have been given this continual reenactment of that through the Eucharist, through coming through to the Lord's table. So I love that we're closing that series on that this week.
Yeah, and just what a picture of what Christ has done on our behalf. We talk about being a blessing and like you were saying that the ultimate act, that God who we saw in those bookends of scripture, Genesis to Revelation, that He didn't leave us to ourselves and to kind of fix what we could never fix, but that Christ made it right on our behalf. And ultimately He has blessed us with that. So I'm excited to end that way as well.
And I think you were about to ask me about where we were headed next. Now I was gonna ask you about your favorite winter Olympic sport. I know it's curling, but we can talk maybe offline about that. I know curling is huge in your part of the country.
But yeah, why don't you just give us where we had it next? What should we expect when we excited for this next series? Yeah, so we have a fun shift of gears after our kind of look at the end of time and all these things. Now we're gonna look at a story.
We're gonna go to a narrative passage for a little mini series, Three Weeks in the Book of Ruth. And we're gonna look at Return to Love and just kind of, it's just rich with pictures of Christ's love for us and those who feel just unlovable or forgotten and neglected, but what a rich, rich picture of God's love, of what Christ has done to redeem us and how we are never forgotten. So I'm excited about this next little mini series here. Yeah, so Ruth is right around the corner.
So leaders, you might get ahead of it. I mean, Ruth is how many chapters is it for? Four. Is it four chapters?
Yeah, read it, read that in one set. And couldn't you read it? Mark down your notes, and I'll give it out to you in preparation for that series. It's gonna enable you to even lead better conversations with your groups.
Well, fantastic. Thank you, Jeremy, for walking through this great series with us. We're looking forward to the next one. And leaders, as always, we're looking forward to what God is doing in and through your group.
Love to hear from you. Love to hear your stories and playing that God would continue to meet you and advance this kingdom in and through your life. We're praying for you. All right, guys.
Have a great rest of your week. We'll see you next week for our podcast series.