Beyond Sunday

Asking for a Friend: Week 1

• King of Kings Church

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In this Beyond Sunday episode, Dina, Peter, and Pastor Zach explore Luke 15 and the heart of a God who notices, searches for, and celebrates each one of us. They unpack how shame’s lies distort our identity, what it means to belong before you believe, and how God’s love reshapes the way we see ourselves—and the people we find hardest to love.

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Thanks for listening!

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings podcast, where we dive a little bit deeper into our sermon series and see what we're taking Beyond Sunday. My name is Dina Newsome, and I've got some guests I haven't had together for quite some time.

SPEAKER_04:

Reunited. Yeah, it's actually great to be here. I'm Jeff Probst from uh Survivor on the TV channel. What TV channel am I on, guys? TV TVS. That's right. This is a Survivor podcast. So Carissa Bay, you can be listening to this one.

SPEAKER_00:

We've just spent the last 10 minutes talking about Survivor. So my opening question to you guys is what's your favorite part about Survivor? Is it like the challenges? Is it the tribal? Is it the relationships? Is it Jeff Probst? Like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_04:

I I gotta come clean. This is actually Peter Bay, and I've just been trying to get Carissa to listen because she loves Survivor so much. She only listens to Survivor podcasts. My favorite part of Survivor is that Carissa and her family loves it so much. They all come together, they talk about it, their joys, their disappointments in it. I just love being part of those conversations.

SPEAKER_00:

It brings people together. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And Carista, we are cheering for you that you become uh contestant on Survivor. Let's get that application in, that video in. Let's see. Carista Bay. In season 53, I'm just gonna name it. So what season are we on now? We're on 49 right now.

SPEAKER_00:

50 has been filmed.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. But my favorite part of Survivor, it's it's just gotta be the in-between, the drama, the conversation, watching people kind of socially work their way through the game. I find it fascinating. How about you, Miss Dina?

SPEAKER_00:

I my favorite part is when there's conversations and changing things at tribal. Oh, yeah. And everybody's trying to whisper and the mics are trying to get through there. And um, they're they're whispering about me right now, folks.

SPEAKER_04:

How about the size of the pen? Oh, for the yeah, when they vote them out, I like how they can never tell which end to take off.

SPEAKER_00:

That's uh it's always a challenge each other.

SPEAKER_04:

It's the most preposterous pen you've ever seen in your life. Survivor on CBS.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but let us know, folks. Are you a Survivor fan? Maybe that's a a sermon series coming up some year in the future. Yeah. I like it. Um I'm gonna put that on next year's option list. Yeah, for 2027.

SPEAKER_01:

Outwit, outplay, outlast.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. All right. So that was deep. That was deep, Peter.

SPEAKER_05:

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00:

Um so let's switch now to week one, going from season 50 of Survivor to week one of our asking for a friend series. So we just jumped into the series, and Pastor Greg Griffith kicked us off this week with Does God love me? And does God love them? That's kind of a survivor attitude there for you, you know, us versus them kind of thing. So, what are you taking beyond Sunday from this message?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, the the theme of this was really um a conversation of worth or a message on worth. Uh, and am I worthy, or the people around me worthy? And uh which was impactful for me. I tend I have a high tendency to downplay myself, and I think it's always benefited me in a way of like if I have low expectations for myself, the people around me might have low expectations, and then I can overcome that versus if people have high expectations, I feel like I might fail them. Um, and so that speaks to like the worth that I've kind of put on myself over the years, and um having a hearing a message about like I'm worthy, but not because of what I've done, but because of I'm claimed by the king of the universe, uh, that stuck with me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I think what stuck with me similarly is just every every person is valuable and every person has worth. And it's really easy to get into my own little world and my own little echo chambers and to think other people that are different than me are crazy and whatever, whatever. But just a great reminder that uh God created all of us, just really unique, really different, and loves all of us. And how can I be a person then that even if you know we may not see eye to eye on something, how can I be a person that still sees you as valuable, sees you as worthy, and uh treat and treat treat with love? Uh, I think absolutely it's something that we all need to hear more of. And so I hope I not only intellectually take that beyond Sunday, but hopefully more by my action.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I really liked the reminder about how important God sees the one. Um, when we talked about some of the the Bible um chapter that Greg went over, which we'll talk about in a sec, too, but just the idea of finding the lost one and how we each are the most important. And if it's not me, it's the person that I don't like. And if it's not them, it's the person I really love. But God sees us all as important enough to chase after us and continue to pursue and truly valuable. So Greg started out by jumping into Luke 15, which he referred to as the lost chapter of Luke. I had not heard it referred to that um before, but it makes sense. So in this chapter, we hear about the lost sheep um and how God goes after He'll leave the 99 to go after the one. We hear about the last coin, the um woman that lost her dowry coin and the prodigal son, the last son. Um, how does this uh Bible chapter hit you guys? What do you carry with?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I feel like the one that gets the least play on here is the coin. You said dowry. What's that?

SPEAKER_00:

Dowry is what um like a woman's family brings to the marriage when they're gonna marry a man, right? Yeah, I'm I'm not clueless on this, right?

SPEAKER_04:

I know I did research, I had no idea. I was like, oh, I'm gonna take something that no one's even heard about, but then you just said it. Oh because I was like, dang it, I don't know what dowry. It kind of sounds like dowdy, like the little thing on the table. What's up with dow? Doily doily that's a great word. A doily. It's so it's supposed to be so ornamental and fancy, and it's called a doily.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it sounds like you're saying it wrong. Like that's what it's one of those words that sounds like you're butchering it when you say it right.

SPEAKER_04:

And doily doesn't have anything to do with dowry.

SPEAKER_00:

No, okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, let's rewind here a little bit. What I love about this lost coin, very serious. Yeah, this is the one that you want to talk about. This is the one I want to talk about. But the the that dowry or that bridal headdress, there were, I guess, 10 coins on it. And um, if she loses one, it's less about her being poor or like just finding a coin because in my childlikeness, I've always read that and been like, oh, it's a coin. But no, it was a coin that was much bigger than that because it matched up with her identity. And at uh for her to like sweep or turn over that entire house to find that one coin, uh, that's a worth thing. God sees us as his kids. Um, and it's it's the a value based off of our relationship, not based off of our performance. And I loved, I love that takeaway from uh the lost coin.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think it's like it's so fun to just find something that was lost, wasn't it? When is that ever not fun? And and and even these situations, like you you, you had it, you lost it, and then you got it back. We've had that a couple times in our in our family with Allison and her her engagement ring. I believe it.

SPEAKER_04:

Because every time Allison and Zach come to our house, she leaves back like 2.5 things at her house.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not gonna comment on that.

SPEAKER_00:

2.5. I'm curious about the point five, but we'll talk about it.

SPEAKER_01:

One time three, one time two, and he's going averages here.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, yeah, he's I thought she's leaving half a thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, she could easily, but like one time it was lost for two years. And I was like literally the next week gonna be going to buy it, and we had friends that found it. And it's just such a great thing to find something that's lost. And uh, you know, you think of, and gosh, uh how what do I think of this chapter? Like, this chapter is probably one of the top 10 chapters in the Bible. I think if you were to ask people, what are your favorite chapters? this would show up in the top 10. And so we could spend hours talking about it. But I just think it's so fun to find what's lost, and especially the more value something has, even the greater fun it is to find. And so God and his kids, like we're the most valuable possession that he has. We're the apple of his eye, the prized possession. We are created for his glory. And so when when we who were created by him are lost and he finds us, like, oh man, of course that's gonna be just an incredible party. And so, how do we then join him in his mission to help find find God's kids? Let's go rescue them. It's super fun. And and that that was what made it really even greater on Sunday is that we had so many people that got baptized in all three of our campuses. And that's like the tangible, it's more than a symbol, but it, but it's a a sign of new life of I was lost and now I'm found. And it's just it was a really powerful Sunday.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I really liked the connection between baptism, thinking of that last and then found and the prodigal son.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Prodigal son's always been one of my favorite stories. And I can remember when I was young, before I had children, I always thought, what a stupid, stupid father. Like, how can you just take him back and be so celebratory when he just blew all your money? Like, what are you gonna do? And now that I have adult children, I totally get it.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I like I yes, slaughter the calf. Yes, let's throw the party. Like, I can't imagine the the sadness or the worry or the concern that he went through not knowing really where his son was when he went off on his own. Um, and so to think, God, that's how God thinks about us. Yeah, wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And if anyone's listening, if you want to go deeper with the Luke 15, especially the lost son uh parable, one of my favorite books of all time is by Tim Keller, and it's called The Prodigal God, and just a really masterful way of breaking down this story in greater detail that focuses not only on the son that we call prodigal, the which means recklessly wasteful and extravagantly wasteful, but also spend significant time talking about the older brother, who, if you notice in the story, he's still invited at the end. And I actually think that's the main audience for this. It's less about, in fact, if you go back to the very front of the Luke 15, it's it's there's two groups of people that are meeting with Jesus. There's tax collectors and sinners, and there's the Pharisees and teachers of the law. And and I would argue that this, these stories, like the tax collectors and sinners, as Jesus is sharing three stories in a row, are like, yeah, boom, celebrate. Like this is what God's done. And I can just see the Pharisees and the teachers of the law kind of gritting their teeth together, like, ah, no, this is not. But at the end of it, what it is, it's it's an invitation for those that that live like Pharisees and live like teachers of the law, that live judgmental and I always got to tick the right boxes, but man, when I do, and that old that younger brother of theirs made all the mistakes and God, like it's an invitation for all the self-righteous people that you have a place here at the party too. And it actually doesn't get resolved in the story, which I think is fascinating. Anyway, I could talk about Luke 15 forever.

SPEAKER_04:

And great shout out to the late T. Kelly. Come on, Tim Keller. Yes, that's awesome. Yeah, and I think though the whole idea that we are part of God's treasure is crazy humbling. That he sees me not as like the mess I am, but he instead like goes into the mess, into the dirt because I'm his treasure. Yeah. So goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

Amen. All right. So Greg kind of shifted and talked about um, you know, we all have things that go wrong. And when we do, we get caught up in what he calls the three Ps. So that's being personal, pervasive, and permanent. And so, Peter, I'm wondering if you can, if you can uh, you know, just exude some of the emotion in the statements that um when something hits us and we do something wrong and it's personal, yeah. Like what is that, what does that feel like?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it's all my fault. Oh, I I did this, I can never fix it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, now what about per pervasive?

SPEAKER_02:

Everything in my life is upside down and it's all a mess, and it's so terrible.

SPEAKER_00:

I I like it.

SPEAKER_02:

And permanent, it'll never be good again.

SPEAKER_04:

Or if another voice, you may be familiar. Well, I guess it'll never be good again. Eeyore. The worst of all animated characters, and people love wearing like eeyores on their shirts and stuff, and I'm always like, wow. I mean, I get I get if you have empathy for him, but that dude was such a bummer. I'm more of a tigger guy.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh tiggerism.

SPEAKER_04:

Tigger was a poor. Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm a poo. I'm a poo fan.

SPEAKER_04:

You're that is a weird thing to say in a podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm Winnie the Pooh fan.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you for that clip.

SPEAKER_00:

You know what I you know what I loved about ER though? You know what I loved? All of his friends would go and check on him. They didn't try to change him, they didn't try to oh just snap out of it, or we're gonna do this to make you feel better. They just accepted him the way he was. That's true, and just still loved on him. All of the characters had their quirks.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. They just kind of let him be. They're just like, he's just one of the dudes. Yeah. Hey, if you're an Eeyore out there, we're here for you. Still come to church.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. So these three P's, personal, pervasive, permanent, how do those hit you? What do you take away from his description of those? Do you recognize this in your so Dina, frame it a little bit?

SPEAKER_01:

So is this are are these three things that we may feel when what?

SPEAKER_00:

When when something goes wrong.

SPEAKER_01:

Something goes wrong.

SPEAKER_00:

It doesn't go to plan. Yes. Or we jump to all three. Or all three. Yes. Yeah. Do you find that to be true? Do you find one of these that you struggle with more?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I think probably the one I would struggle with the most out of those three would be the personal, of not taking it too personal. Uh and how how do you yeah, how do you keep moving forward without yeah, taking people's shots or what they say about you negatively. Yeah, even last week I put a video up of something that happened in our denomination um that I didn't agree with, and I posted a reaction to it, and it's you know, you you can see the comments, and there's a lot of people that are very positive, but there's a number of people that have honestly taken it really personal against me. And and so in the midst of that, how do you stay above above that? And uh again, how do you how do you still believe that person who maybe said it in a really rude way and was super unfair is still valuable, is still worthy, is there something truthful about what he or she said that I need to know so that I can be better? Like I hope I'm asking those questions, but it's really easy to just jump to personal and well, let me get defensive and shoot something back. That's a slippery slope. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Maybe it's just that face you're making on the thumbnail.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it's like Oh, it's a frustration. It was it was uh palm in face frustration, which is a top five out of ten thumbnail reaction. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh Carissa said it's called soy face.

SPEAKER_01:

Is that that's what called soy face?

SPEAKER_04:

It's soy something like yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's exhaustion, it's frustration.

SPEAKER_04:

It's just you can't even believe it. Yeah, it's I mean that I listened to the pod or your re response and I thought it was really good. The face annoyed me. That's fine. I should have commented, but I chose not to.

SPEAKER_01:

So you're doing it publicly.

SPEAKER_04:

So I wanted to give my public apology for uh right now. No, yeah, but but seriously, Zach, I I am grateful uh for you bringing up some of these topics and be what being willing to to talk about them in our Senate, it matters. So thanks for your courage for that and for persisting even amid personal uh attacks, um, and acknowledging, like, yeah, they may have an opinion I need to hear and think about.

SPEAKER_01:

It's one of the things on that line of uh that again goes with value and worth that I'm trying to remind myself of is like even if I disagree with something, someone, uh I need to take a posture because that person is valuable, is worthy. I need to take a posture of I can learn something new in every situation that I go into. Can I learn something new? And I believe I can. You know, we can we we may still walk out of a room and disagree with each other, but can I bring a posture of I can learn something new? I've been trying really hard to like say that to myself before I walk into some of these conversations of like, yeah, just be open. You don't have all the answers, and I don't, but it's it's uh certainly something that you you gotta remind yourself of.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. So for me, the three P's, um, personal, pervasive, and permanent, um, I think that those happen in my life when I forget that God is right there and wants to carry my burdens for me, and I like lose all freedom, and I'm like, I gotta figure this out. And even in in like, there's a whole range in those challenges of things that are life shattering and things that are very small, but in all of those, if I was just to like invite God into them, very quickly that personal, pervasive, and permanent kind of fades away. And then I actually have freedom and I'm not on my own, and I remember the creator of the universe is on my side, and then when I'm focusing on him, well, all of a sudden his word starts coming alive in my heart and in my mind. And um, so that's usually the trade-off that that I need to make when I get stuck in a personal, pervasive, or permanent problem. The four pieces nice, nice, you added a P is that I need to purvey persistent my prayer, my prayer to the propitiation prevents performance. Yes, that was great. But yeah, if you could read through the lines, you'll glean something powerful. That's a terrible sound for listeners. Goodness. Oh, by the way, have you heard that like men and women uh like women can't do machine gun sounds, but men can. No, that's such a stereotype. Do machine gun sounds gonna do it. Dina, do it first so I so Dina, you go first.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I'm not gonna go first.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, when you're home, ask your family members to do this because men know you do it. Give me what a machine gun?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, like I I think there's a variety of okay.

SPEAKER_04:

There's there's a couple. There's a more throat one, that or the or the more the lip one. Um, but like that's a machine gun. Guys know that you go and you always make the hand motions or whatever. Yes, yes. Dino, what do you got?

unknown:

Got nothing.

SPEAKER_04:

She's not gonna do it. Ask is ask around, see if this is true. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Pew pew pew.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I've never shot a machine gun, so what uh how did that relate?

SPEAKER_04:

Because you were like, gotcha. So that was me.

SPEAKER_00:

You were machine gunning our listeners.

SPEAKER_04:

Machine gun Zacky.

SPEAKER_00:

So one of the ways that Greg wanted to recognize that we can pull ourselves out of the three Ps was by remembering the three things that he talked about: our value, our worth, and our belonging. And I really liked um that Greg made this really interactive and we had to repeat with gusto, you know, several of these phrases that I am valued, I am worthy, and I belong. And so I just want to kind of walk through those and see what stuck with you guys about the discussion or something about your personal life. Value. What really jumped out at you when he was talking about value? I really liked that um he that we can be so odd by creation that we question our value. I find that to be true. I feel like God is such a big God that my problems seem too small. And I've said this before on here, you know, that it sometimes feels disproportionate that he's gonna care that much about me.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Um, I think like I'm worth being searched for. A God searched and found me in my sin in my muck and and send Jesus to redeem me. That uh I'm not measured by my usefulness or my performance. I'm measured as a son of God, like a son of the most high king redeemed by Christ. Uh that that's a big difference in value versus what I what have I done lately.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I think a value, I think it's such an important word to ascribe to people and to just remind our listeners that you are you are only worth what someone is willing to pay. Right? And we all know that exercise where uh you may have a possession and you may think it's worth, like our kids are perfect examples of this. They, you know, they have a baseball card or they've got a coin or they've got whatever collectible, and oh, it's worth$100. It's like, no, it's worth whatever you can get for it. Uh and typically it's not worth what the Beckett magazine says it is.

SPEAKER_04:

Go back to Beckett.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh man. But you are only worth as much as someone is willing to pay. And if you take that threadline all the way through, you see through Jesus how valuable you really are, that he is willing to pay and give everything, every ounce of his blood to pay in full for you. And so when the world comes at you, and when the enemy lies at you, and when the people in your life let you down, and when they say things negatively about you, go back to the cross to see how much our Lord and Savior was willing to pay for you. And there's your value. It's an incre it's why it's the most incredible love story that we ever we've ever had. Is because he was willing to do that for us, like Peter said, when we were at our worst. Yeah. Like that's crazy. It's easy to bring value to things that work well for you or connect with people that you might be able to network and connect your way up. Like you may find them valuable, you might talk about them in that way, but to see something that actually the rest of the world would let go by the wayside, to see the prodigal son that has nothing good to offer and's already taken everything, the best of what you have, and ruined it, and and to welcome them back, like there's no there's no story like it.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, and you you kind of uh tipped your toe in the pool of worth already. So let's keep running with that one. I think um running with that uh like sports card analogy, you and I both collected cards growing up, and uh I've never gotten too far into it as an adult, but now I know that if you want to see what a card is really worth, to even find out if anyone will pay for it, you have to get it graded. Yeah, and the higher grade it is determines how much it's worth. So you can have two of the same cards, but if one's graded a six and one's graded a nine, or six, seven, six, seven. That's for you, fourth graders listening to the pod. Uh so yeah, I mean the six, the the six is gonna be worth three dollars, where the nine might be the four hundred dollar card. Right. Um, and so I think that is so typical here on this side of earth where we look at the people around us and we are seeing on our appearance, on our usefulness, on our um like how shiny and prepared and good we're looking on our stuff, and God is the opposite. Um, our worth is not determined on how shiny or new we are. God sees us as beaten in our beaten down, dirty states and says, Your worth is enough for that my son died.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So yeah, the value and worth though I think they really work together.

SPEAKER_01:

They go together. I have an easier time believing that I am valuable than I am worthy. Uh it they're similar, but I there's something about worth, worthy, that for whatever reason in my brain, I have a harder time getting to than seeing myself as valuable. And I and I I obviously we get the word worship, yeah, right, from worth. And I did not know that. Not obvious to me. And worth ship? Come on. But like typically, and this is just what I do, but when you you've been in church and you know this the songs are going on, and the worship leaders will say, All right, sing it in your own words, sing your own words, sing your own words. And I that's so confusing to people. I but for me, it's not confusing or hard for me because but I've also grown up in church, but I always like whatever my language is or whatever song quote that God gives to me, the worthy is always the first word. I just can't stop singing how worthy he is. And so there's so I I know I'm worthy because of what Christ has done, but I have a harder time without context saying I am worthy than I do saying I am valuable for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, well, and and I think when we think value, we do think of like what what skills has God given me? What strengths? Uh and you take strength finders or you take the spiritual gifts test or whatever, and you're like, Yeah, I've got values, and we can see that in ourselves and the people around us, but worthy, yeah, it's it is a different conversation. And I think as a good Lutheran, I grew up being like I'm unworthy over and over again. Now there is that whole like, but I'm redeemed, I'm saved through Christ, and my worth is in him, which makes me worthy. But like I've I'm still cautious to say that. So yeah, that was uh I think I felt that in myself and felt it a little bit in the room when uh Pastor Greg was giving us that truth. You are worthy. I was like, I squirmed a little.

SPEAKER_00:

I was really struck um by when he said, God's up in heaven. And when you call out to him, he's like, Shh, all of heaven, shh, Peter spoke my name, or you know, Zach spoke my name. That was an image that kind of knocked me out. Like I was like, oh my gosh, I never would imagine that. I feel, like I said, very small in God's world. I know he loves me, I know he cares about me, but I don't think of being that important, that worthy sometimes. So that really struck me.

SPEAKER_05:

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00:

I really liked um Greg also said when he was talking about being worthy and he was talking about shame, a lot of the our feelings of unworthiness come from shame. And he said, God is actively seeking the shamed to restore their honor. And I really liked that. How that just felt uplifting. All right. So belonging is the third one. What do you think about belonging?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so the son comes home and he's like, make me a servant. I don't, you know, I'm I don't have the value, I don't have the worth. And um the father says, No, let's do the opposite. Kill the fat and calf. Like I'm no matter what you've done, it doesn't change who you are, my child. And uh, and kind of what you said earlier, I I see that better now as a parent. Um my kids can get the best of me often, but I would never trade them away. I would never devalue them. They're still my child. And at the end of the day, I I thank God that they gave that He gave me them and that that they are mine. Um and so that belonging is we belong to the Father regardless. Of what we've done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I like that image of Luke 15, too, that when we talk about belonging, it's not like uh you belong here, kind of quietly, secretly make your way in and you know, sit in the back. You can belong, but you know, don't come up to the front.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I like the fact that no, I belong and and you belong. If you're a listener, you belong. And when you are in God's presence, when you get out of that baptismal water, like we're throwing a party, we're killing the fattened cat. Like it's the it's the best meat we've ever eaten. The whole, the whole party, the whole, the whole village is coming. Like it's about to go down because you belong. Like you are at the come to the front. Come to this is what it's all about. This is re-reunited. And it feels so good. It feels so good. But no, you you belong. But I want people to know that they not only belong, like just sort of on the fringes of belonging, but you belong in in the in the in the very center of all of this. That's what I think is really cool.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, and and you belong whether you've been good at it, whether you've been bad at it, whether you've done it your whole life, whether you like the thief at the cross met Christ um minutes before your death. Belonging isn't something you've earned. Belonging is something you've been given. And that's a gift. And I just have to receive it. And then it's mine through faith. Uh, and because of what Christ has done, I belong. And I think it's hard in our Western culture because we want to earn everything. And most things you can you have a chance to earn, but not this. You can't. It's been given to you. Receive it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I also like the idea of belonging and how God models that for us. Because, like the the title of this is Does God Love Me? Does God love them? And the idea of this they that we may not like or we don't understand, or we just don't know who they are. They belong to. And to remember that in such a divisive culture, you know, where it's very easy to get us versus them. Them is still a child of God. Them is still created in his image. Them is still who he's going to leave the 99 to go find. Them still gets to sit at the head table. Like it's just this idea of um how he models that for us. And Greg said, his love is relentless and transforms us to love others. And I liked that. That struck me as okay, that's an area I can work on. Like I don't struggle as often, I think, with feeling like I belong as I do with maybe my worthiness. But I do struggle to remember that others belong too.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. I I wonder, I think the the church, we have a tendency to love them certainly post-baptism and like on the way towards baptism.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

But the people who blatantly are living differently and and they don't know that they're creating God's image and they're living contrary to that, which by the way, I do the same thing. Um I think the church, we have struggled to love them well. And that whole thought of like if I if I want someone to um if I want someone to know Christ, what's gonna work better for me to like love them, to show them care, or to be against them and to push them away? I mean, it's so obvious, even as I disagree. And most people I'm around don't mind if I disagree, but they do mind if I'm a jerk. And so that was a good reminder to me, um just really to shift who the way I treat them, the people pre-baptism folks.

SPEAKER_01:

And and if you look into the story too, right? He's talking to those two groups, it's the tax collectors and sinners. And what I love about Jesus is he I I think you could make a really good argument that he he does not ask them to believe before he asks them or invites them to belong. And I think sometimes we have to get that, we get that mixed up in the church, is we expect people to come all buttoned up and neat and tidy and pretty. And sometimes when people come to the church, church, they're sloppy, they're wet, they're messy. And and and I we need to create an environment where come as you are and you can belong here. And what's neat is the more you belong, the believing will come. The more you're around Jesus, like these these people couldn't wait to sit around Jesus and his feet and learn from him. He had compassion and love and kindness and care. And so I think sometimes when we get that order backwards and we're so afraid of messy church, let's just call it, that we create a system where it's only for the nice, tidy, neat people that already kind of understand or maybe halfway have their life together, that already ascribe to what we believe. And it's like, awesome, we want to be a place for you too. But no, how can we be a church that no matter who you are, what your story is, where you've been, and no matter what will come of it, whether you one day get baptized or not, you have a place here. You can belong here before you believe. And the more you're around Jesus, I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit will do great work as we his as our his people um live more and more like him. And I hope and pray that all all would come to believe.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely. So as we wrap up, what are your final takeaways from this message?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I would I would say that uh um whether you know it or not, there's a doily with your name on it.

SPEAKER_01:

Waiting for you. That's good. I think for me it's yeah, getting back to the realization personally of being able to say, I am worthy. I am worthy. And then seeing other people in that same light and really going over the posture that this person's valuable, they're worthy. I can learn something new from them.

SPEAKER_00:

I really liked one of the last things that Greg talked about was um he was encouraging us to be joyful with the baptisms that were happening. And he said, you know, that that they celebrate in heaven when this happens, you know, there's hooting and hollering in heaven, and that he talked about joy being communal. And I I just liked that idea. And because I can have the most ecstatic thing happen, but it's so much nicer when I'm sharing it with other people. And so, how does my faith become that joy that I share? And how does that help others belong?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Well, thank you guys for being on today.

SPEAKER_01:

And Dina, could I could I do something I'd like to uh Greg was talking about in the sermon that he's been working on songwriting?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, did you get that?

SPEAKER_01:

So have I. So I have a song for us. You don't need the drum, it's just not a cappella song I've been working on this this uh podcast. Do you need harmony? Uh maybe. I mean you just flow with me if you want. All right. The title of the sermon was what?

SPEAKER_00:

Does God love Does God love me? Does God love them? Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Does God love me? Does God love them? Let me clear my throat. Does God love me? Does God love them? Oh no, I got a little phlegm. But the answer is yes. The answer is yes. And so if you're asking for a friend, does God love me? Does God love them? Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

The answer is yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I think there's nothing that can top that.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, you usually have a song to go out. No, I like it. I like what you just did. Did you have one prepped? No, I I thought we could do a two for uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

My my song is more about uh one of my favorite holidays coming up because there's not enough songs about Thanksgiving, and that gobble gobble one is brilliant, but it's like the only one. So I wanted to make up one song about Thanksgiving right now, and it goes, what's it called again?

SPEAKER_00:

Wait, but what is the gobble gobble song?

SPEAKER_04:

Matt Matthew West, check it out. Gobble gobble, great Thanksgiving song, Blair It. Okay, it's great. But what's the name of my song, Dina? My Thanksgiving song?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, my turkey had an egg.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's it. My turkey had an egg. I know that's weird for you, because turkeys do not lay eggs, or perhaps they do.

SPEAKER_04:

Doily doily Sunday, Monday, beyond Sunday. You can listen doily daily, doily, doily, you know.

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