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. Welcome back to the Life Group Leader Podcast. This is week six of the fall series.
We've been walking through a series called You Are, and then there's a blank, and it has been such a fun series to look at our identity in Jesus, the things that we do not have to achieve for ourselves, but simply things that have been achieved for us by the person of Jesus. And these are beautiful pictures of who we truly are, even the ones that we don't necessarily feel like we are all the time, some of the things that we don't feel like we fully deserve, some of the things like this week, for instance, ones where I don't feel like I'm really great at. But I am excited that as our Life Group leaders have been going through this series, they have been really good, courageous conversations about what does it mean to embrace our identity and live differently because of it. Jeremy, as you recall, we sat with Eric beginning at the beginning of this series and he walked us through the overview of kind of everything that we could know what is coming.
And I love that he had a beautiful blend of theology and practice that it was about being and about doing. So as we get into week six this week, Jeremy, can you just take us, how did we get to where we are today and then really what are we trying to accomplish with this week's discussion? Let me start by reciting First Peter Two-Nine and hopefully some of our groups maybe took us up on that challenge at the beginning of the series to have group members say this aloud every week or even memorize it. And so First Peter Two-Nine says, but you are, there's a series title, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
And so today is this final week really is the culmination of both of being and the doing. That's what we're going to look at being an ambassador, is someone who proclaims the praises of Christ in this kingdom that we're to live as. So we've looked at our identity as being part of the family of God, being someone who is that kind of intermediary between God and the world around us that we've been, that we're the bride of Christ, that we're servants of God, that ultimately our this world is not our home that we live for a heavenly kingdom. And so now all those things really culminate in being an ambassador.
We are in a foreign land, so to speak. We are exiles and aliens like we talked about last week, but we're not just there living amidst people who have different values and worldviews than we are, but we're there to represent the kingdom that we belong to while we're in the midst of this other culture. And so today that's what we're going to look at, what it means to be an ambassador of Christ, and to represent the kingdom of God and share the gospel and all that we do, all that's rooted in our identity and that should flow out in every sphere of our life. And we're even going to have some opportunities to to practice that today, talking about the way God has been working our lives.
Last week when Steve taught at Irvine, he had a great quote from William Barclay, which essentially said, the greatest missionary force in the world is the Christian life. The number one way that people are going to see and experience God and kind of decide, do I want to be a part of that thing is by looking at the way Christians live. And this week, as we talk about being an ambassador, it feels like an insinuation. It's like, okay, let's double click on this idea of what does it mean to live in such a way that we put on display the beautiful, lovely, and attractive way of living that is following Jesus.
And so Jeremy, as we get started, and you think about our leaders, these great men and women who are volunteering their time to lead their life group, a group of people that are just trying to figure out how do we follow Jesus in the year 2021 in Orange County, California, what encouragement would you have for our leaders? How can they begin preparing for this week's discussion? So as always, be praying for the people in your group, be praying for how the spirit wants to work as we start to wrap up the series and spend more time in his word, really looking at the identity that we have in Christ, because really understanding that is a total game changer. Like, when we really start to embrace who we are in Christ and what that entails, a lot of the things that we so often put our attention on, like, what should I do?
What should I not do? What's appropriate? Kind of what are the different rules of the Christian life, so to speak? All of those are going to ultimately flow out of who am I and who's am I?
Like, I belong to God. I'm here for his purpose, not my own. And so all those other questions flow out of this spend time praying that the spirit would really awaken people to that, just those glorious truths of who they are in Christ, and then be thinking about specific ways in your own life to view the experience God's working in you to kind of open your own eyes to those things. That could be as recent as this series, or looking back kind of a long-year journey of we're going to talk later in this episode and in this lesson about sharing our stories.
So kind of think about what is it that God has done in my life, so that I can be ready to kind of lead out by example and share my story and how it fits into the greater story of what God is doing in the world around me. I think this is a great week for us as leaders to just think about the last five or six weeks and go, okay, God, what have you shown me, taught me what something that I've learned, embraced about my identity, maybe a risk that I took, perhaps some kind of stronghold or frustration or something that God has really done some work on, and model that in our groups by just sharing. Here's what God has done in my life recently, because that is going to build the basis for what we're about to encourage everybody to do, which is a part of sharing their story, so we'll get to that in a few minutes here. But I just, I think for us as leaders, for us to prepare and to think ahead and then to model what we're hoping people to do is still going to be the most important thing as we ask people to consider practicing this spiritual rhythm this week.
So is there a way that we can ensure that our conversation doesn't just stay at a surface level, anything that we can do to just drill in deeper about being his ambassador? Yeah, so one thing that I would recommend and really based off what you brought up at the end of last week about living as strangers and exiles in a foreign land and that we're a holy nation and to not to make that a political thing. When we think of about being an ambassador, that's obviously very intentionally political language. It's someone who's representing another kingdom.
But this week, what we want to be talking about is the fact that our job as Christians, as members of the kingdom of heaven, we see in 2nd Corinthians 520, let me read it real quick. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us, we plead on Christ behalf, be reconciled to God. So our purpose here is not culture war, it's not to avoid the culture, but really what does it look like to help people meet and be reconciled with God. And so, and I want to point out the phrase, since God is making his appeal through us, that one of the big pressures and misunderstandings, I think, when it comes to evangelism or sharing the gospel or whatever word we want to use, this idea of being an ambassador, that God's word will accomplish his purposes.
And we know that the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit, ultimately it's God who saves, but he works through us. And so there's a lot of freedom there to know that ultimately it's not my job to talk somebody into believing. I shouldn't try to manipulate a conversation or force a conversation or a response, but I want to be faithful to my king as his ambassador to say, this is what I've experienced to be true. This is the freedom that I've experienced.
I want the same for you, but ultimately, to put kind of that ball in their court, so to speak, to say, ultimately, you have to be reconciled to God. And that's between you and God and through the work of the Holy Spirit. And so, as we talk about this, and even as we talk about sharing our stories, make sure people don't feel that pressure and maybe even use a leader, don't feel pressure to elicit a certain response from other people. Like trust the timing of God.
He promises that his timing is perfect and that his word does not return void without accomplishing his purposes. So we just want to be faithful to proclaim the truth in love and let God do his work. Really well said. I think that when we use this phrase ambassador, we can keep in mind that we're representatives of Christ.
And the purpose of what we're trying to do here is point people to Jesus. We reconcile to God means that we want to point people to Jesus who is the ultimate redeemer, restore the one who saves. We don't have to replace Jesus. We just point people to him.
And I think a danger that I see occasionally is if people really do take on this mantle of ambassador and they believe that that is my responsibility in the world will now all of a sudden, do I kind of take that a little too far and start believing that I speak for God? And God wants you to know and now I'm this judgmental, critical, I'm giving out citations in the name of Jesus because I'm his ambassador. That's what he's asked me to do. That's really taking this quite far, right?
When we look at the context of this, but instead it's like you're saying it's being somebody who does represent Jesus, making his appeal through us so that people can be reconciled to God. The point is, let's point people back to Jesus. I see that as a potential pitfall. Somebody taking this little too far.
Is there any others Jeremy that we might need to watch out for? Yeah. Well, and you touched on it about, I forget exactly how you said it, but essentially we're not kind of policing other people. Again, an ambassador, even though they live entirely under the authority of the kingdom or nation that they belong to while in this other culture, they're still respectful of the people around them.
So I'm glad that you brought that up. And then also don't miss the part of the verse that talks about to the praise. So kind of back to Steve's point that one of those greatest testimonies is the joy and the praise. Like what are we grateful for?
And those affections are going to be a huge testimony to the people around us that we found this joy and this freedom and this hope like we talked about in the previous series. All that comes from the fact that our identity, our citizenship, all those different facets of who we are in Christ that we've been talking about in the series, all of that ultimately points out into something good that we cherish and treasure. It's not a matter of do's and don'ts. All those come out of my love and affection for the one who loves me.
Man, that's really great. Right. When we think, hey, don't get caught up in a negative pessimistic view of this verse, but instead show that ambassadors is directly coordinated correlated to praises that we might allow our joy be the thing that is the most attractive thing about our community. That's a really fun thing when I consider about just our life groups that we might be the most joyful, generous, caring, kind, compassionate people.
That's the most attractive thing that we can do. And from what I'm hearing you say, that really is what our responsibility is as an ambassador. Yeah. Yeah.
So as people talk about this rhythm, I want to kind of kick it back to you for any final tips on looking at this practice of sharing their story, but leaders will see in the facilitator guide this mention of knowing that our identity has an active purpose. Like that the Christian life is not just, I'm now saved. I get to go to heaven when I die. Like God has a purpose for me here and now and he wants me to experience abundant life in this world here and now not just eternal life in the world to come.
And so really, there's some prompts there to help people in our groups think through specific darkness that Christ has called us out of. And not just that, because again, that's a temptation for when people share their stories or their testimony, just to let me focus on all the bad things God saved me from. But yes, we want to acknowledge the specific darkness that Christ has called us out of. And that's a way that other people can empathize and find hope in their sort of, wow, if I thought I was the only one or if God saved him from that, he could save me from this.
But then we also ultimately always want to point to the light and the true joy, peace and freedom that we find in Christ. So that's the lesson I wanted to say about this. Like what other tips would you give people about this rhythm of sharing their story? Well, I find it fascinating and it's true in my own life.
So I completely understand it that this is the spiritual rhythm that people probably practice the least. When you think about being in God's word, praying, serving, being sacrificially generous and so on, sharing your story or evangelism in the old kind of church framework is the one that we are oftentimes most afraid of. We don't want to look like, you know, that person. We don't want to be somebody that disrupts and frustrates people.
But let me just break that down a little bit because I think what we tend to get wrong here is when we think about sharing our story is I have to tell you my conversion story. I have to tell you about the way I came to Jesus and that, you know, that may or may not make people uncomfortable. That's not really what this rhythm is about. Although that may be a piece of it.
Really, this is about what is God doing in your life today. And that's why Jeremy, I love these prompts that you have because telling a story about what God is doing in my life right now is actually the most compelling thing that we can do as followers of Jesus because it shows that God is alive and active and we are spiritually connected and growing as well. He did not just do one thing in my life when I was 18 years old. But instead, since then, he's done a whole lot of other things in the last 20 years.
And in fact, even in the last 20 days, God's done some pretty amazing things. And when we talk about this spiritual practice of sharing our story, it's sharing a story about what God is doing right now. So leaders, what I would encourage you to do is as we've kind of mentioned up at the top in alluded through throughout this episode, think about what God has done just through the You Are series. How has God inspired you about something new facet about this identity that we have achieved for us and the person of Jesus?
How have you practiced, tried, attempted, taken a risk, done something different with that identity? And what has God taught you in that process? That's a story. Every story has a beginning, middle, and end.
It's simply, I once thought God did. And now I see the world in this way, right, which is a, essentially you had an orientation on life. There was some kind of a disruption into that orientation. And now you have a new orientation.
And then to what Jeremy you said earlier is, I like to attach some kind of a theme from God's word to any story I tell because it really helps me ensure that my story is not about me, but it's really about an attribute of God or an activity of God or a theme that we find in the gospels and so on. And so that may be like reconciliation, redemption, love, kindness, mercy, something like that. So leaders, I would encourage you, what has God done in your life in the last six weeks? What can you share with your group?
That way people can start to articulate what it is that God is doing right now. And then I would encourage them, Hey, this week, let's go out and share that story with somebody in our family, our workplace, our neighborhood, something like that. And it doesn't have to be a perfectly packaged with a pink bow in a story. It can just be like an unfinished God is teaching me this and I can't wait to see what he's going to do with that.
That's a great story. And if you feel so compelled, you can invite people to the next series. We're actually starting a brand new series on October 23rd 24th called My Anxious Thoughts. And I believe that this is going to be a very important series for our church coming on the heels of a pandemic.
I think we can say heels of a pandemic. I hope we can at this point. There's a lot of anxiety, a lot of mental health issues have come up, a lot of people battling with depression and various things that they've been feeling. And I'm really grateful that we believe Eric has has a great series coming that's going to help us kind of wrestle through some of those things and find God in the midst of whatever we're feeling.
And so as we close out this series, we're going to kick off the next one with a conversation with Eric where we're going to hear from him and overview of the next series. So with that in mind, leaders, we're grateful for you as always. And we look forward to talking with you next week. Have fun with this last one in the UR series.
We're praying for you. And we can't wait to hear the stories that you go out and share with others. Have a great week.