1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,760 Hello and welcome to Linda and to Martin and to Bruce and we are going to be having our first 2 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:13,480 and hopefully first of many Life Group Live sessions here in between our two services. 3 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:17,840 I just wanted to say thank you for joining me today. Now for those of you who don't know what 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:23,280 a Life Group is, maybe you've never heard of our Life Groups, our Life Groups are small groups 5 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:28,960 that we have here in the church where groups of people meet regularly outside of our Sunday 6 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:36,880 mornings to discuss and to really to go through the scripture and to go through sermons and to do 7 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:42,400 life together. Now we were just chatting before we got on the camera and Linda was letting me know 8 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:49,360 what Life Groups stand for, L-I-F-E. Linda can you remind us what a Life Group stands for? Okay, 9 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:56,560 it's learning, insight, fellowship and encouragement. I think it's a great definition of what a small 10 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:00,720 group is. Like it really summarizes what Life Groups are all about. So the three of you are all in the 11 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:06,880 same small group together. Now I did my research and you are in the Froum small group or Life Group 12 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:13,600 and there are 12 members I believe at least according to our online records. Probably. 13 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:19,440 Around that? It changes. It changes like who's coming in and out. Okay and I was just wondering 14 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:24,320 if I could ask you a few questions about what your Life Group is kind of like. If you give us a little 15 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:29,520 insight into that Life Group and then once we talk a little bit about your Froum group then I was 16 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:33,520 hoping we could go through the scripture and some of the sermon questions that we have here at Trinity 17 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:37,760 as well. Okay so I'm going to start with Martin. Martin can you just let me know when does your 18 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:45,280 small group meet and where? Sure, as you mentioned it's the Froums are our leaders and they open 19 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:51,280 their house to us every Thursday night and we do that year round with the exception perhaps for the 20 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:59,840 couple of summer months and when somebody can't attend we open up a Zoom link and occasionally 21 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:07,280 Steve and Carol are not around so somebody else will host and they'll come in by Zoom. Oh that's 22 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,600 great so you're flexible. Very flexible. Very flexible but you stay to the consistency of it. 23 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:18,800 Now when you meet Linda what does sort of an average group session look like when you're 24 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:24,480 together? How do you structure it? Well it starts out with like because everybody's arriving at 25 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:30,560 slightly different times even though we have a start time it's a chance for us to grab a coffee 26 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:36,960 or tea or cold drink cookie or brownie or something along those lines and greet each other, 27 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:43,520 catch up a little bit then we sit down we open with prayer we go through the sermon questions 28 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:51,440 and it's not often we get through all of the sermon questions. Sometimes a sermon question 29 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:58,400 actually triggers a good discussion. We have some lively discussions and sometimes we get 30 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:08,240 distracted and we can get a little bit off tangent and if we go too far off we're drawn back in but 31 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:14,640 and then we close in prayer and we have prayer requests so people within the group if they have 32 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:20,800 things on their mind or people that they're concerned about we open it up for requests 33 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:26,880 and then we have an open prayer and anybody that feels like praying can pray to the topics 34 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:32,720 if you're uncomfortable praying out loud or aren't called to pray that night there's no pressure. 35 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:38,960 It's very very casual and friendly and open. I love it. I love it. All right now Bruce I think 36 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:44,560 you may have been one of the newer members in the small group or in this life group. I was wondering 37 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:49,840 if you could just tell us and tell everyone who's out there listening what sort of inspired and 38 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:57,120 motivated you to join a life group at Trinity? Well we had always been a member of a small group 39 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:04,400 at our former church and we had led for small groups in the past so it was really critical for 40 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:12,400 us we felt to become members of a life group at Trinity and honestly we chose the fruims. We 41 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:16,720 didn't know anybody really. We'd just come to the church and we chose the fruims because they had a 42 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:23,520 dog and that was the thing. It was like it was like well we can go to this life group because 43 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:29,040 they like dogs and that was the main emphasis so and we've been going there ever since and it's 44 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:33,280 great. I love it. Yeah we have great friends now. All right now I've got one more question and feel 45 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:39,600 free everyone here can answer. How have you noticed yourself or the group as a whole change or evolve 46 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:48,240 or grow since you've been together as a life group? Have you noticed any changes? I think we 47 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:54,480 we do have new members joining us on a fairly consistent basis and we also have members that 48 00:04:54,480 --> 00:05:01,200 have either moved away or transitioned into other areas so we've lost members. So it's always 49 00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:10,160 interesting to connect with new people and make new friendships and be able to support each other. 50 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:15,440 So you're meeting new people and you're learning about other people? That translates into the 51 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:20,160 services here as well when we're coming in for coffee hour and things we've got people 52 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:24,320 recognize and new friends we can talk to there as well. So it's a great way for you to make 53 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:32,400 connections. Absolutely. Yeah and as a couple that was new to the church it was a way to get connected 54 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:38,800 in a very quick way that was comfortable because you're in somebody's home. You're just sitting 55 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:44,080 around chatting and it was just a great way to get connected. So you really were doing life together? 56 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:49,440 Yes. Yes. Well thanks and I like that you alluded to using the sermon questions and some of our life 57 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:53,760 groups here at Trinity do use the sermon questions which are questions that we create based on the 58 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:59,520 sermons from the previous Sunday and they help us to dive deeper more deeply into the weekly message 59 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:05,360 and to really evaluate how that scripture can impact us in our daily lives. Now today in our 60 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:10,320 service we were continuing our sermon series on the live in the dream. We were looking through the 61 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:17,360 story of Joseph in Genesis 39 when Joseph was sold into slavery and he goes to Potiphar's house 62 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:23,040 and he rises in the ranks pretty quickly and we hear that the Lord was with him and that he was 63 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:30,960 prosperous and what he did but then along comes who? No Potiphar's wife. Potiphar's wife and she 64 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:38,960 is attempts to seduce him and she wants to tempt him to go to bed with her and he refuses and then 65 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:45,680 we see the a little bit of a downfall of Joseph. He has tea falls, she accuses him of taking advantage 66 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:50,640 of her and he is sent to prison. So things were looking really good for Joseph and now they're 67 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:55,360 not looking so great and so I was thinking we could just start by talking about some of the 68 00:06:55,360 --> 00:07:01,040 questions. Now if you are at home and you've never seen our sermon questions you can actually find 69 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:07,520 these sermon questions online on our website. They are on the website under Sundays at Trinity 70 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:11,840 and if you go to services and sermon questions you'll find the most up-to-date sermon questions 71 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:16,560 there as well as sermon questions from previous sermons. So I think the first question is all 72 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:20,640 about distractions and Rob mentioned that we live in a culture of distractions. Do you guys agree? 73 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:25,600 Yeah yes I would agree. Absolutely. What do you think are some little things that distract you 74 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:30,960 or people you know on a daily basis? My phone. My phone I was going to say the same thing. 75 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:37,360 I was actually listening to a sermon on my drive-in today from another church but talking about that 76 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:44,000 dopamine hit that we get. So it's such a distraction those for our phones that we can even become 77 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:50,400 addicted to them. So it's a physical impulse and distraction that we get. Anything else come to mind? 78 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:57,280 Just everyday life. You know you've made plans in the morning of what you're going to do and 79 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:02,800 then something comes up and it could be a phone call somebody calls and says hey can you help out 80 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:10,880 with this or can we meet for coffee or I just need a chance to chat or as sometimes as with Martin he 81 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:18,240 likes to play Pokemon Go and get some exercise and yeah so just little things. Yeah little things 82 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:22,880 that sort of derail us from the purpose that we may have had for that day like creep in. 83 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:28,960 I find it interesting that it's usually the things that really don't matter that distract us 84 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:34,960 from the things that actually matter which I don't know why that works but it it seems to be the 85 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:41,280 case. So doing the things that you really don't need to do distracts you from those things that 86 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:47,680 are you should be looking at you should be doing. I was thinking that it's like easier sometimes to do 87 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:53,680 that little thing. Yeah. To do something on your phone to play a game to especially now that we're 88 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:58,800 retired we got lots of time. You don't have to work. So you see that there has been. Instead of doing the work around the 89 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:03,840 house that I need to. Yeah hey you don't have to be retired. I have three children young children at 90 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:10,320 home and it can be distracting to steal away with my cell phone into doing some some quiet time 91 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:17,680 but then it can get out of control a little day. So Rob named two big distractions that can derail 92 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:24,240 our dreams and those are the allure of power and the temptation of pleasure. So like let's look at 93 00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:31,200 the first one. Where have you witnessed or seen the abuse of power and maybe not in a specific example 94 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:39,600 we can keep it general but where have we seen maybe in life abuse of power? Well I think Rob 95 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:47,760 alluded to it. I think we see it every day in the news with the politicians and even past politicians 96 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:55,520 that we had admired. We're finding out now after the fact that you know people are digging up dirt 97 00:09:55,520 --> 00:10:02,960 and finding out about their temptations and their distractions and so I think that's the big one. 98 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:08,960 Probably because it's so visible too. Yeah it's in the news and their public figures and yeah. 99 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:13,360 Politicians. Yep I'd agree with that. And in the workplace. 100 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:17,760 Yeah. The people sometimes people get in a position of power they get in charge. 101 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:23,440 They're the managers or the other leaders in a company and they take advantage of that and they 102 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:30,080 they can force people or coerce people and doing things they don't really want to do. Right. 103 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:37,920 There's a saying that says power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely and I think you see that 104 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:44,880 in in the political arena you see it almost everywhere. Yeah so we're talking about power 105 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:49,840 and corruption and now let's talk a little bit more about that sexual temptation that sometimes 106 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:56,800 comes into play or many times comes into play when you're in a position of power. Where have 107 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:02,480 we seen and we can again keep it general where sexual temptation can lead to someone's downfall? 108 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:09,680 And once again you see it in the political arena you see it in celebrity. You see it in in all a 109 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:16,720 lot of places where you find that power corrupts you find that if it may not happen all the time 110 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:26,720 but the same temptations of with respect to sexuality will creep in and it goes back to 111 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:35,120 it goes back to maybe that whole thing of their their make strange excuse upon bed fellows. 112 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:44,320 So yes. We also see it in schools and you know between teachers and students sometimes. Yeah. 113 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:49,760 Or in other places where there's somebody and doctors and their patients and things like that. 114 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:54,080 Unfortunately in churches. Right and in churches too. Yeah but. I was avoiding that. 115 00:11:54,080 --> 00:12:02,560 Yeah we'll keep it. Yeah the celebrities and the political figures the the people in public 116 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:09,360 you hear more about that but it's happening all around us. I mean I would imagine that if you 117 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:15,680 were to take a poll of even the people within this church a lot of them would have been victims or 118 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:22,000 tempted or you know and it's important hopefully the church helps us deal with it. 119 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:27,760 Yeah but it is it's a very real situation that we see almost everywhere where there's positions of 120 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:34,320 power and trust that we have. Yeah well not only and and even amongst some of our friends we know 121 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:39,840 I know people who have strayed in their marriage and are no longer married to that person as a 122 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:47,120 result. Right and then that's that's a downfall so the relationship is broken. Right. What were some 123 00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:51,120 of the factors we're just going to go to the scripture and I think Rob alluded to some of 124 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:56,800 these in his sermon that made the sexual advantage advances of Potiphar's wife challenging and 125 00:12:56,800 --> 00:13:02,800 tempting for Joseph. So why would he have been challenged by this situation? I think there's a 126 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:11,040 few challenges here. I have no idea what she looked like but I'm assuming that she must have been 127 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:17,440 reasonably attractive if she expected that she could just wiggle her little finger and and get 128 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:25,120 whoever she wanted in in her bedroom. So I mean there's that. She was also confident. Yeah she 129 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:33,200 was in she was in position of power. She was his boss's wife so I mean and as it turned out he was 130 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:40,640 right that she then put in a bad word against him when she didn't get what she wanted. So yeah. 131 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:46,160 Do you think Joseph being single and lonely away from his family do you think that would have 132 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:52,960 contributed to some of the challenges there? See I'm gonna I'm gonna be the the opposite because as 133 00:13:53,520 --> 00:14:00,000 Rob preached this morning I thought to myself yeah Joseph was probably tempted but he didn't 134 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:06,240 seem to be as tempted. I think the real the person who is really tempted was Potiphar's wife 135 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:17,520 and she was the one who was not able to control that temptation and I think I think Rob laid it 136 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:24,960 out very well the the way Joseph was able to withstand the temptation but then what Rob focused 137 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:33,200 on Joseph but which he should have but I think it's a great illustration of the difference where 138 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:37,760 I think we're supposed to follow Joseph's lead and learn from Potiphar's wife. 139 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:47,760 I like that yeah. Because Potiphar's wife really didn't have power. She had power through association. 140 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:58,800 It's like Kate Middleton was at a public school and one of the five-year-olds said to her 141 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:03,680 who are you which it's hard to believe he didn't know who she was but her answer was I'm William's 142 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:10,320 wife and her identity was tied to him and that's really what we see with Potiphar's wife is that 143 00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:16,480 her power was because she was Potiphar's wife and yet she abused what power she had 144 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:24,720 and that was that's what I really took away from it so I think I think Joseph did a stellar job. 145 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:33,840 Yes I think Rob too did mention the fact that even though the response as it's reported in the Bible 146 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:40,480 was pretty quick you know no you know I'm not going to do that he might have been tempted because 147 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:48,480 she may have been able to be a positive influence for him if if she was on his side and he may have 148 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:54,640 had more power or been able to get more done or you know she was able to do that and so I think 149 00:15:54,640 --> 00:16:02,560 that's what I think but I think on reflection as you know God that's not the way God would work. 150 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:07,760 Joseph stayed faithful to God. He stayed faithful to God even when for all intents and purposes he 151 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:11,360 knew the consequences he probably knew her character and knew that she could maybe do 152 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:20,080 something not so good. And Rob's point of the fact that he had determined what was right beforehand 153 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:26,720 was not something he had to decide in the spur of the moment great great point. Yeah yeah yeah. 154 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:36,720 If you if you if you know God and and you know know what his dreams are for you then it's a lot 155 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:44,240 easier to turn from things that that aren't in line with that. I'm not saying that it's it's easy 156 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:50,240 all the time but it is easier if you have that that goal or that focus in mind and you know that 157 00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:55,680 God is on your side. Yeah now let's just pretend for a minute that Joseph is modern day and that 158 00:16:55,680 --> 00:17:02,320 he is living in the 2000s with us. How do you think our current culture would view Joseph and his 159 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:08,960 response to Potiphar's wife in our current culture of sexuality that we live in? Rob said that too. 160 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:14,960 Feels good do it. Feels good do it. I find there are still lots of people though who are not 161 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:22,800 promiscuous or or of that mindset. I think there are a lot of people nowadays who are 162 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:33,440 I think there's a move back to staying true to yourself and and staying true to your vows if 163 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:40,640 you have vows and you know in your marriage and things like that. It's like you know I think back 164 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:45,040 in the 60s for instance I think it was a lot wilder yeah but it's the way the pendulum swings 165 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:49,600 and I think it's it makes me think a little bit of the recent Me Too movement that came out a 166 00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:57,280 couple years ago. Some of this abuse of power came to light. Yes and and then now if people are 167 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:04,240 wanting to abuse that power I think they have to understand that there are consequences. I don't 168 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:12,160 know that there was consequences in the past so though I agree with Martin in that in the 60s and 169 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:19,600 up until the maybe even up until the Me Too movement the consequences weren't as severe 170 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:24,960 but now there are consequences so I think you're going to see a change hopefully. Yeah hopefully. 171 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:31,760 Yeah and then let's just before we wrap this up we're thinking about Jesus's life and Jesus's 172 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:37,680 death. What can we learn about how we can handle we ourselves can handle handle worldly pleasure 173 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:45,600 and worldly power. So what do you think Jesus may have taught us or is teaching us about how we can 174 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:53,040 handle the power that we have? Does anything come to mind? Prayer. Every time he was tempted he prayed 175 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:58,880 three times he was tempted. He prayed. One thing that I love is that he always used scripture 176 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:04,400 to defend against Satan so he used God's power in God's words and he said those words out loud. 177 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:10,320 I think by you know with prayer and asking God for help that I mean that's going to help you 178 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:19,040 withstand a lot of things. Yeah. In the Beatitudes all the characteristics that he mentions 179 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:23,600 really are almost counter what you think of when you think of somebody who's powerful. 180 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:31,920 And I think I think we can learn a lot from that. He he stresses humility. I think we need to stress 181 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:38,480 humility more in society. Looking out for the other people that are not looking out for yourself. 182 00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:43,520 Right. You're focused on that. Well you're self-centered you're looking at pleasure. 183 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:49,520 You're going to chase that pleasure. Well thank you very much guys for joining us today. You're welcome. 184 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:54,000 Thank you. It was a great way to spend the time between the two services. I was actually thinking 185 00:19:54,000 --> 00:20:00,960 about bringing out a plate of cookies to tempt you all while we were doing this interview. 186 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:05,680 But I didn't think that would work so well with a microphone so I decided not to try to tempt you. 187 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:09,520 But I think we have just a moment or two left of coffee hour before we start thinking about our 188 00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:15,600 second service. Hopefully we can get some more life groups to join us for our life group live talks. 189 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:20,640 And if this has encouraged you out there to join a life group as our Froom group has mentioned 190 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:26,400 sometimes they need online. We do have an online group starting up soon within the coming months. 191 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:31,040 So if you're interested in joining a life group please feel free to contact us at Trinity and we 192 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:36,640 would love to get you plugged into that. And if you are joining us for the 1115 service please 193 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:40,640 stay tuned and we'll see you in just a few minutes.