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. All right, leaders, well, we are here with Eric Geiger. Eric, thanks so much for spending time to be with us and our leaders again, appreciate and value your time.
This is gonna be a special podcast for you leaders as we are looking at and over-hewing and gonna begin equipping you on this great series called On the Table. Man, I don't know if I've ever had so much anticipation for a particular recession series. I mean, every recession series I do is impactful for so many different reasons. It's not like a God's word, that's what happens.
This sermon series in particular, I actually just can't wait to actually get this thing rolling and talk about this. I'm gonna be stressing and then you quick our leaders with it. So, me and honored to have the time to spend with you now and chat through that a little bit. But, man, we'll let you just give us a little bit of an overview about the why behind the series and then we'll get into some of the particular weeks and the topics that we've been looking at over these next eight weeks.
Group leaders, I'm super thankful for you. I think this podcast might be a bit longer than some of the other ones we've done. Just don't want to be really helpful to you and equip you. This teaching series is also on the longer side of the sermon series we do.
We typically do a five to six week series. This is eight weeks. And then because of the topics that we're hitting, you may want to just go ahead and budget for two drive times or two runs or two bike rides to listen to. It's definitely two of my runs.
Somebody bike rides it'd be for you. Oh, this is just a half bike ride. Just talk about New Year's Gold. It's happening here, by the way too, right?
I'm here. So, I love all of our sermon series. Obviously, anytime I'm teaching one, I feel like this is the most important one. That's right.
And I really believe that guide has directed each time we teach a series where we're teaching through a book about the Bible or teaching some important topics. This sermon series, I do believe, is gonna be one that probably brings some clarity for a long time. So, every sermon series I believe God uses is super impactful. But this, because we're gonna answer some questions people have.
And the questions that we're gonna be addressing in these eight weeks, and if you're wondering what they are, just right now, think, what are the big questions people are talking about and asking me? That's the ones we're hitting, and we'll talk through each of those. But because we're answering questions of where people are, I think it's gonna be a series that's really helpful and clarity defining for people. Absolutely.
And I love that we're creating that space here. Not just in the service series, but all the different ministries and offerings that we have, that this is and has always been a place where you can come and explore and ask your questions. And as the sermon, the title, the acronym, it's on the table. There's nothing that's off the table.
This is all a place to host and have these conversations. We're putting on the table, and just like we saw Christmas, Jesus welcomes us, he's with grace and truth. And so, we're gonna bring truth to these questions, but also know that Jesus meets us in our struggles, in our doubts, he's always gracious and kind towards us. And so, I hope and believe that as we answer each question, you'll sense both grace and truth.
That's right. That's right. That's right. So, why don't we start by looking at week one?
Yes. Because beginning is a very good place to start indeed. And I loved that we are doing week one on this question of can I trust the Bible? Why is that week one?
That's week one in this series, because the other questions we're gonna hit, you really, it starts from the foundation of trusting the Bible. Because the answers to the questions are in the Bible, in the scripture. And so, it's really important to start this way. There's a video that will play week one in all our congregations from Susan Lim, who is at our North Irvine congregation.
And she's actually writing a book right now on the idea of the second confession. So, you become a Christian when you first believe in Jesus, the first confession. And then, you really grow when you have the second confession, the second confession being when you believe that this Bible is the authority over my life. I mean, you don't need the second confession to become a Christian.
There's obviously things you need to believe about Jesus to become a Christian, but there's people who become Christians and haven't yet submitted fully to the scripture as the soul of the worthy over their life, as God's word for them. But really, if you need to grow as a Christian, you have to really believe that this is the breathed word of God and it's for me. So, we're gonna spend week one. It's really, why would I believe the scripture?
Has the scripture been preserved? What about, can I trust the manuscripts? We're gonna spend week one looking at the beauty in all of scripture. Can we really trust this Bible?
Right, and I love that. The crucial difference between, it's authoritative. It sits over me. I don't sit over it.
And we can make that switch in a lot of different subtle ways where we pick and choose, or we can textually apply something because God can possibly understand my circumstance and my situation, so this doesn't apply to me. And it's a big subtle difference. If we lower the scripture to one of many ancient books or one of many sources of wisdom, we really are lowering the primary place the scripture should have in our life. And the glorious trust of us following what God has already declared in his word.
And so we believe that because the Bible says it. But I love that you're also gonna unpack it from kind of a scholarly aspect of, we talk about, I know a little bit, textual criticism, the amount of volume of manuscripts related to the time that it was preserved. I mean, we can trust the scripture not only, but primarily because God said it, but also because it's back. I'll throw out just an nerdy word for group leaders.
I don't believe this is actually in my sermon, but just a phrase that you can know that scholars hold to, those of us who really believe that the Bible is God's authoritative word. Verbal, pleninary, inspiration. So verbal, meaning that God spoke this word. He breathed this word, pleninary, meaning every bit of it, all of it, and then inspired that it's God-read.
He didn't just inspire the thoughts, he inspired each word. So Jesus said that every jot in tittle is critical. So each word we hang on to as breathed by him for us. So that's gonna be the main thrust of the message.
This is breathed by God for us. That's good, that's good. That's really important for our everyday growth and discipleship, and as you said, it's setting the tone of the foundation of the rest of the series, that we don't ask these questions in an isolated chamber where we ask you through the lens of scripture. So we too, let's talk about that.
This is a great question. We've gotten to talk a lot about it. Is Jesus the only way to go? Yeah.
You know, hey, I love Jesus and he's great for me, but is he the only way? What if someone else wants to get to God another way? So we'll look at the really controversial verse where Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life, and we'll talk about how Christianity is both radically inclusive and radically exclusive, is radically inclusive in that every single person is invited. You are invited, every person from every background, every person from every, no matter what you've done in your past, everyone's invited.
But the only way you get in is through the door of Jesus. That's the only way you get in. Right, which comes to that point of the conversation. If you're journey with somebody who has questions, I mean, so often people are, well, high five of you about Jesus.
And yes, I won't argue the historic person of Jesus. I won't even argue against his teachings. But when you start drawing the line that he drew it, we don't draw it for himself. That's right.
That's right. That's a good distinction, Katie, because it's not as if we're saying Jesus is exclusive. Jesus himself declared that he is the only way for us to have real life, the only way to get to the Father, the only way to have eternal life. And because that is true, it's not gracious to not teach that.
It's actually super kind and gracious to teach what Jesus thought. Because through Jesus is the only way that there's real life. It's good. I think in some of the conversation I've had, sometimes there's a tonal shift between like, can I trust the Bible or Christianity?
This is a real thing. You can have a conversation about apologetics and back it up historically and extrofical of evidence. Everything else, is it true? Right?
That's a question that sometimes people hit. This next week, I think we're getting to the point of even, is it good? Okay, if I can say yes to all the stuff and it's true, is it actually good? Does it cause more harm?
I mean, let's talk about it. I think it's a great shift. Because week one and two is Jesus true, is Bible true. But then week three, you're right.
We start seeing a shift. Is this faith good and beautiful? Is this a beautiful faith? And here's a question that we have received often as American Christians really in the last couple years.
And that is, is the Christian faith oppressive to some people? Is it oppressive to women, for example? Is it oppressive to minorities? And the reason that question has been asked is because sadly, there is some painful history among Christians of being oppressive.
Both of women and of minorities. But what we wanna distinguish and we will in this sermon is that that is an inauthentic expression of Christianity. True Christianity, and this goes back to the previous week, week two, is radically exclusive through Jesus, but radically inclusive. And Jesus championed women, and Jesus pursues people from every single tribe, tongue, and nation.
So really, a true view of Christianity is that it is, it always historically, when you go back to the Roman Empire, Christians were champion multiple ethnicities, but they were also champion women. I mean, women were viewed as property and slaves. And so Jesus elevated women, the early church, elevated women, the early church was pulling together people from every ethnicity around them, worshipping together Jew and Greek. And so we're part of this beautiful legacy as Christians that welcomes people from different backgrounds.
And so we're gonna be able to really celebrate that in week three. Yeah, and it makes me sad, when you look at the origins of the Christian movement, and you're so right, it starts there, it often starts on the fringes with people on the margins of society that become this gathered people, this new humanity. It's one of the reasons that it grew and spread, and then yet there's this kind of false perception, this false claim, but that's one of the things that's wrong about Christianity. It's oppression, and yeah, a lot of things have been done falsely in the name of, but really what you find movements that have really propelled the move of society outside of the name of Jesus, the tenets of faith.
The reality is Christians have made some egregious mistakes, errors since, waffle since in this regard in the past. But over time, Christianity has welcomed, minorities has pursued the well-being of women, the vulnerable, including the unborn, coming as well as those who were oppressed. I mean, Frederick Douglass, who was a slave, and then fought for the freedom of others after he was freed, he made a distinction between what he called the Christianity that he saw in real Christianity, and real Christianity. Real Christianity, Jesus, the founder, welcomes people and pursues people from all backgrounds.
Oh, come on, all day long. Sadly, that real Christianity. We use that to maybe define, well, how do you practice, and how does your church do this, and how does your church do that, but the real origins of what Christianity is. It's beautiful.
And I think we can be helpful with people, because it's actually a gospel with somebody who's not a Christian, this is a common question. So, hey man, as Christianity hurt others, and I mean, I've done so much reading and preparing for this series, the reality is even non-Christians who have looked at human rights over the centuries have said, we really don't have true human rights without the Christian faith. Because the Christian faith is who introduced to society that people are creating the image of God. And so when you have the Christian doctrine that the image of God is placed on people, that's us, you have societies that start to value individuals, because they have value on them, because God created people in their image.
So really, as a, any society that has a high view of human dignity, there's some Christianity in the background, because Christianity really introduced human rights and ethics into the conversation. Right, it's beautiful, let it. All right, we do it okay? Let's keep going.
We're gonna go. All right, the next week, have a conversation about Christianity inevitably this question is gonna come up. It's not just a real, it's personal, it's the question of suffering. How do we navigate that?
It's a question that has been intact on the Christian faith for years. If you're sharing the gospel with an atheist, well, if your God is good, then why is there evil? If your God is good, then why is there suffering? Because if he's loving and powerful, then of course he can get rid of suffering.
Now that's the intellectual part of it, but like you said, the reality is, it's a very personal question. And you can have an intellectual answer until you or someone you're close to goes through suffering, and that's where there is really a struggle. So we're gonna answer this question and wrestle with. I love what Jesus said about it.
He really turned it around and said, the fact that there is a crooked line, the fact that you know there's crookedness, like man, this is the suffering's wrong, the evil's wrong. The fact that you see a crooked line, the only reason you know what's crooked is because you down, you know, there's a straight line. So the only reason we're able to call out atrocities and suffering and pain in our world is because we know deep down, because God gave us this, we were made for more than that. There's eternity on our hearts.
This is not how it should be. But we're also gonna see, now that's just an intellectual side, that guy comes close to us in our suffering. He's the reason you're the broken hearted. So week four, I hope and pray, we'll be really helpful for people.
We're gonna have extended prayer for healings in all of our services that we can. But I imagine in group time, week four, it could surface pain that people are going through. And there's always in every group. There's someone in pain.
Someone coming out of it, someone who thinks everything's great, that's about to go into it and somebody in it right now. That's right. And as a group leader, the best posture that we can have in those moments, because we've all been there. Whether you're leaving that moment or you're experiencing yourself, is that proximity with it, listen really well, not try to rescue, solve and answer every question that's raised.
And as you said, ultimately point to the hope that it's just you suffer to an RB half. I mean, come on. Let's remember on the suffering question, Job's three friends. They were at their best when they were just there and present, not when they were trying to be logically answer every question.
So we're gonna teach them theology in the weekend. I think in your group time, just to be with people in their pain and their suffering to pray with them, to level them. There's an old song by K. Can you call all you to listen to this in college?
There's a little phrase, words aren't remembered for presences. And so just remember as a group leader, when someone's in pain, your words aren't what's remembered, your presence is what's remembered. It's beautiful, amazing. Well done.
All right, turn to the corner here. This is a tough turn right here. This is it. So as we said, you might want to do a part one and part two.
This might be the place where you pause right now. You might want to get off the spin bag, the treadmill, do the thing or keep on going with us because we're gonna keep it here. But man, there is a lot of anticipation. I'm really excited.
I'm proud of our church and how we are gonna be hosting and having this conversation, not just on the weekend, but all the incredible resources that we're gonna be pointing to for you as group leaders and for our whole congregation. But why don't you talk to us about the topic of this week and how we're thinking and navigating it. So week five is gonna be about gender. And specifically gender dysphoria and the transient movement, which I've been a pastor for years, went to seminary, masters, doctorate, never one time in a class was this ever brought up.
So this is not something that when I became a pastor, I thought I would ever preach a sermon on it. And it's not something that I thought, I mean, I can't wait to preach a sermon on this. The reason that, I believe in that we're needing to talk about is the sheer number of questions that I'm getting from people in our church. And then people in our church, not only who have family members who are wrestling with gender, but people in our church who have friends and neighbors who are wrestling with gender.
So we have to remember that. I'm not gonna give some scripture on this and hit some principles that we've seen in the text and I'll give you the overall viewing moment. But we have to remember as we have this conversation and a couple others coming up, that we aren't just talking about ideas, we're talking about people. And it goes back to the realizing that the Christian faith is radically inclusive and exclusive at the same time.
Because the way in and is through Jesus, but Jesus loves everyone, has created every single person. So we believe the image of God is on all people. So as we have this conversation, let's remember when I talk about ideas, we're talking about people. And imagine people, like real people, imagine if you're a parent and you went through the process of naming your son or daughter, and then 12 years later, 14 years later, your son or daughter comes to you and says, I think I'm a different gender and I want to transition.
And so imagine the pain of that parent, with that parent with confusion of that parent's mother, that parent Googles tries to read some resources, wants to talk to a therapist, many therapists are now told that they have to do gender affirmative care, which means that a kid comes in and whatever the child says, he or she wants to be called that the gender affirmative care would say, recognize whatever it's called. So the parent is, the parents also read statistics that say suicide rate is really high for those that are wrestling with gender dysphoria. And so just the short version of what the term gender dysphoria means is that there is a disconnect between the biological sex of the person and then gender what the person identifies mentally as. Now, in the sermon, we'll see that God really combines gender and sex.
It's society that has separated the two and has made gender separate from biological sex. But that's where the term's coming from now, that I can feel something different than my body. Now here's the compassionate answer to this. I'll also imagine being a teenager.
I mean, all of us who have been teenagers before and all of us have wrestled with struggling with who we are in our identity. I mean, for decades, social psychologists have said, when you're a teenager, you wrestle with who you are. And then imagine as a teenager being told, if you wrestle with who you are, you can decide who you are. So our teenagers are under a lot of pressure or encouragement that they can choose whoever they want to be, including their own gender.
So when it comes to gender dysphoria, this feeling of I'm not in the right body, really, if there's anyone that can understand that, it's us Christians. Well, because as Christians, we theologically believe that we are at war in our own body. That, I mean, Paul talks about in Romans 7, what I want to do, I don't do, what I hate, I do. There's a war going on in the members of my body.
We also believe that the world we live in is in our ultimate home. So I'm not saying that all Christians understand gender is void. I'm saying all Christians understand the tension and the pain of something's not right. Something's not right.
So that's the compassionate view, that the truthful view which you'll get to in the sermon. So this is the main thrust of the message. When there is a disconnect between mind and body, the world says, change your body to match your mind. The scripture though, says the opposite.
Allow God to transform your mind to match your body. The Christianity has a really high view of the body. That's your body's a gift by God. He's the one who created male and female.
The Christian faith has such a high view of the body. I mean, think about this. We sing songs to a resurrected Jesus, who is in a resurrected body. I mean, we're gonna have resurrected bodies one day.
The world has a low view of the body. That you can change your body, use your body, use your body. Christianity has such a high view of the body. That your body is a gift and your body is a gift by God.
And so when there's a struggle, we wanna be with you in the struggle, wrestle with you in the struggle, but Christianity would say, allow God to transform your mind, receive as a gift of body that he's given you. Now, this is personal for me. I mean, I have, I'll give you something in the sermon, but, and by the way, I do wanna make a difference between generous for ya and what's called the intersex community. And so intersex is when someone is born, and there's an abnormality in the pair of the 23rd chromosome, which is what your gender is.
So I have a family member on my wife's side who had a chromosomal abnormality in the abnormality in the 23rd chromosome in that pair. That's, depending on your definition of intersex, that would, you know, whether it's a different, not clear on the body part, or there's some things that are hormonal or off. So she took medication to hormones to align to what the body that she gave, right? That's intersex.
Transgender is, I'm taking hormones or surgery, or I'm going away from, not going towards the body I received, but I'm going away from the body I received. Am I making sense? I mean, yeah, again, you can say so much here in the podcast. So it's gonna be here.
But those are the things. We're talking months and months and months. As you can tell, I don't even know if you have notes in front. I've heard about 15 books on this in spend time of prayer and study.
Yeah, for sure. But here's the reality. We wanna be really kind to those who are struggling. And we wanna say, listen, God gave you your body.
He has a high view of your body. We're gonna be with you in the struggle, but God's invitation to you is to embrace the body he gave you, and allow him to transform your mind. We think that as a teenager, when I was a teenager, my mind changed all the time. To change your body, to match your mind, you're changing your body, to match your mind that is constantly changing.
I had a conversation with a pediatrician in our church, and basically, we would talk about, and actually multiple therapists in our church as well, that if a teenager goes in and says, hey, I'm fat, or I'm struggling with being overweight, and they're not, they're anorexic. The counselor would never say, oh, that's what you wanna be, and let's have a surgery set up for you, or let's get you on some type of medicine. It'd be the least kind thing. That'd be the worst kind of circumstance.
The therapist would say, let's work on your mind. And so the kind thing is not to talk about transitioning the body, but to realize the body's a gift, and to allow God to change the mind. Now I have a really close friend who is, love Jesus. Godly, I mean, I trust this guy.
He has a son who wants a transition. The son is in high school. And my friend's response to me is so beautiful. It is, son, I'm gonna be with you in this.
I'm with you in the darkness, in the pain, in the mess. But because I love you, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna encourage you. We're not gonna do any type of transition while you're here, because when I was a kid, my parents didn't even let me get a tattoo that I could later regret, right? I'm gonna be with you, but I wanna help you love the body that God gave you.
So that's gonna be the overall posture. We wanna be super compassionate and loving. We're not trying to start some kind of counter movement as much as we wanna be helpful to people who are really wrestling with us. Well, and the interesting thing, I'll make it brief if you keep talking about this all day long, but we're already starting to see a bit of a counter movement within culture.
And the counter movement of culture is aggressive, it's weaponizing, it's not kind, it's not through the through line of the gossip. No, that's a good point. So there is starting to be a lot of pushback. And I think the reason there's such pushback on the transgender movement is because Americans value individualism.
And so actually transgender is the full fruition of an individualistic society that I can actually become whoever I wanna be. But it's actually what's gonna crumble the movement because your individualism is now encroaching on my individualism because you want your child to go to the same bathroom as my child and that's what's causing all of this. But you're right, as Christians, we need to have an answer that is kind, as truthful and as opposed to a weaponized, realizing that the people we're talking about are image bearers of God. So we just have to understand that, yes, we wanna bring truth, but we also wanna do so in a gracious way because everyone is creating an image of God.
That's right, beautiful. And this is gonna tell you nicely to the next week too, right, we're having a conversation about gender. Then we're gonna, just sex in general, why does God even care about my sex life, how I outwork that, why are we having this conversation? Man, I'm tired of talking about the gender movement.
No, it's a good turn. We're hitting it all. We're getting there. It is called on the table.
Yeah, yeah. Okay, we say, why does God care about sex? So why does God care about transgender? He has a high view of the body.
Why does God care about sex? He has a high view of sex. And sex is not only about the body. And so gender, the gender, transgender movement has really separated person from body.
The sexual revolution has also separated person from body. And God views us as this holistic person. And so he cares about your sex life. He cares about you.
And so we're gonna be in first, month, and sixth. And we're gonna see just a really high view of sex. That, you know, obviously this is gonna be a week where we wanna be cognizant of kids in the room. But we're gonna see that the sexual revolution has failed.
There, I mean, this is like a whole lot of even non-believers who are releasing books right now talking about how the whole idea that I can have sex with my body and my mind not being involved is not true. It's not true. And it's not true because God didn't design that way. We have a pornography industry that is just horrifically causing damage to people who view porn, but also to people who are trafficked and abused because of the pornography industry.
We have, you know, the sexual revolution has just brought a lot of damage into people's lives. Yeah, and it's real, it's every day. And I know you sit with people, I sit with people who are group leaders who are with people that have been affected by this view of sexuality. It's just a neo-nocism all over again.
It's a detachment of my body from everything else. Explain that, because you're right, it's exactly what NASA is. So people are saying, hey, this is so new, it's all new. It's really not new.
Even the transgender is not new. So when you say NASA's in JT, what are you saying? Well, that we're separated. That our bodies are a separate thing, that they're indispensable, that they're not of ultimate worth of value, you can do whatever you want with the body and still be okay.
It's sort of a spiritual sense. But I didn't design us that 100%. We just be floating around if that was the case. Yeah, so NASA's says you're soul is holy, or soul can be holy, your body's not, is that's true then, use your body for anything.
You can use your body for any kind of gender thing you want to do, you can use your body for any kind of sexual pleasure that you want, your body's a fool. And Froy did not help us with that. I mean, Froy essentially said, you know, God's design for sex is so repressive that you're gonna miss out on life. But the reality is those who have used their body as opposed to viewing their bodies again from God, sexually have, we just have gone through so much pain.
But the good news is that God's grace is so, is bigger than all of our vessels. It's beautiful man. It's almost like we're a part of something that's eternal and everlasting. It's not some ancient manuscript, it's not some ancient teaching, but it foresees, he's sovereign, he knows, it's beautiful.
Hosea and Gomer, he's an illustration of the Old Testament, where, I mean, so he basically used somebody to be in sexually promiscuous to illustrate us, that's how we are with God, we wander from him. So all of us have struggles and we're gonna throw the big question of sex on the table. What we're gonna see is that God's design for sex is much bigger, it's not just about our bodies. That's right, and it's really kind of a two week and it's an eight week series, but the next week is also gonna do some more specific conversations around sex extraction.
We'll be really just a, hopefully a beautiful picture that God's design for sex is the best design. And we're gonna be walking through first with him in sex. Then week seven, we're gonna get into marriage, singleness, same sex attraction. So clearly we'll see that God's design for sex is in a covenant, monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, that's what we're gonna say.
And so, okay, what does that mean for those who wrestle the same sex attraction? Because we all have wrestles, we all have struggles. What does that mean for those who wrestle with being attracted to the same sex thing would ever wanna be married or can't imagine being married to the opposite sex? What does it mean for a singleness?
If sex is only to be in a marriage, what does that mean for me if I'm not married? So, we're gonna spend time looking at Jesus' words in Matthew 19 and the Apostle Paul's words in verse Matthew 7. And what we're gonna say is that marriage is not, and this goes against the culture. Marriage is not just about me, or about you.
Marriage is a much bigger story. It's a picture of God. Marriage is a picture of God's relationship with us, the picture of the gospel. But so, the singleness is beautiful.
So, Sam Albury said that marriage gives the shape of the gospel, that to become one, we become one with God. So marriage gives a picture of the shape of the gospel. But singleness gives a picture of the sufficiency of the gospel. I don't need anybody else to be one.
I don't need anybody else to be complete. You know, there's this whole thing that I think sometimes the church is messed up on that. You know, you're incomplete, another person's incomplete. You come together and you're complete.
Gosh, that's a horrible message to about singleness. I come against it every time I do a wedding. You heard, you complete me. Let me tell you.
You are complete because guys, you were one with him. And so, we're gonna be able to celebrate the beauty of singleness. Beautiful. Awesome.
Great. And then we're gonna end on a real easy week. Because man, seven weeks, let's just take an easy conversation here. I'll take it a nap.
Yeah, this is it. I think this is the title on this one. How does hell exist if God is a God of love? It's a tough one.
It's a tough question that people have had for a long time. And you know, what we'll see is that Jesus experienced hell in the cross for us. The wrath of God poured out on Jesus. Sin is so atrocious because it's a violation of who God is and his character.
But he loves us so much that Jesus experienced hell so that if we trust in him, he pays the full price for us. That's a long podcast. That's a long podcast. And it's gonna be a longer series.
But rightly so, that we're given time and attention to these questions that are not just background conversations. These are already on the table. They're on the table and you're home. They're on the table like your coffee shop with your group leaders.
There's questions about it. And we're gonna address them, tackle them head on. And as leaders, man, we wanna be in this with you. We're gonna have additional resources.
This podcast is gonna be in every week. It's not gonna be 35 minutes with me and Eric. But we're gonna have other leaders that are gonna be a part of this leaders page. We're gonna have a workshop coming up and some more information for you.
And then just beyond the group world, you're gonna be seeing lots of different resources to equip you and continue the conversation. But this is gonna be a beautiful series. We've got two, I believe, we've got an extended prayer moment in it as you mentioned. So yeah, two, I believe we're gonna see Jesus rescue people.
And I'd say this to group leaders. So Jesus meets us with truth and grace. Actually, the order in the scriptures, grace and truth. So let me just encourage you.
As people wrestle with these questions, grace and truth. Grace, we love people right where they are. Truth, although it's not kind to not be honest about what the scripture teaches, right? So grace and truth.
And when it comes to truth, here's the overarching idea on all of these. Man, I am so sorry you struggle, grace. I'm with you in the struggle, grace, truth. I believe that God's design is best.
And over and over again, when society and when individuals have stepped outside of God's design, over time we see the deep pain that's stepping outside of God's design. Brings, and so grace, I'm with you in the struggle. You're struggling with this, you're struggling with this. I'm with you, I love you.
Truth, God's design is best. That's right. So somebody's asked, can I come to Mariners Church if I don't believe what Mariners believes in all of these things? Of course, we have people every week who are at our church who don't believe all the things we believe.
But we actually believe it's kind and gracious to be upfront about what we believe as opposed to being ashamed of what we believe. I never wanna be ashamed of what God teaches in his word. Because how beautiful do I believe God is if I'm ashamed of something he is or something he says? Yeah, it's part of the joy and the responsibility of shepherding the flock too, right?
Not only host these conversations, but equip our leaders to be able to host these conversations with the confidence, with grace and truth. But I wanna be the full. Just let the leaders all hook a little bit. Guys, I spend like dozens and dozens of hours for all of these.
So I don't want you to feel like you have that to be able to know every single question. You don't have to have every answer to every question. You just, it's even okay to say I don't know. It's even okay to say I don't know.
I don't know, I don't know. But this is what we've studied in the scripture. I don't know, but I'm gonna hold on to what the scripture says. I don't know, but I'm gonna be with you in your struggle.
Yeah. And then that wrestle often is we're searching as Jesus says, ask seek knock. A lot of the people come for people, honestly when they struggle through this. So don't be afraid of somebody struggling in your group.
If they keep pressing and keep seeking truth and seeking Jesus, the other side is so good. All right, I got you long enough. Do you mind praying this out? Yes, guys, please give these leaders wisdom and compassion as they shepherd the people in their groups.
Lord, I'm so thankful for them. I'm so thankful that you have them leading the group, that you haven't leading before the foundation of the world. You knew that they'd be leading this group when we talk about these things. And so when you're a providence in your sovereignty, you have each group leader with this group in this time.
And so Lord, I pray this via an amazing growing experience for each leader in your name I pray. Amen. Thanks, Eric. Right leaders.
Love you.