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Beyond The Message is a weekly podcast that dives deeper into the weekend’s teaching. Released after each Sunday service, it offers thoughtful conversation, added insight, and practical reflection to help our community process and apply what they heard. Whether you're revisiting the message or catching up, this podcast is designed to help you go deeper throughout the week.
Welcome to Beyond the Message, the podcast where we take the weekly teaching at Christ Community Chapel and we bring it into your week. Each week we sit down together to talk a little bit, laugh a little bit, reflect, and figure out how to live out what it is that we just learned. If you didn't hear this sermon, just go ahead, drop to the description, listen to it there, and then come back and join in on this conversation. my name is Stacey DiNardo, and I'm joined today by Jimmy Kozy, Ken Prabucki, and Holly Diakandru. Welcome, guys. So glad you're here. This is week two of a series called More Than Religion, where really, we're reminding ourselves, reinforcing or maybe hearing for the first time that really it is all about having a relationship with Jesus and how much he, we are wired to have relationship with him, how much he wants to have relationship with us. And so, the passage this week is John 14:1:3, which is where I. I'll read it later. But it's a house that God is preparing for us is what Jesus is talking about. About in that. So to tee things up with our little quick icebreaker, wanted to ask you, what would your house tell me about you that would be surprising to the rest of us? I am, I have a lot of sharp edges and straight lines and very organized. But at home, I can be pretty messy. Really? Really? Cozy's messy. Like, define sensible. Like, what is messy? So. Well, first of all, there's always a system. So even if it's. That's not really messy, it's my system. But, like, system to your messiness is what you're saying. Yeah, but it's still messy. Sounds like an excuse. I end up. It's not an excuse. It's transparency. Thank you. my dresser has a lot of clothes on top of it because I get them back from the laundry and then I just don't put them away. I'm like, why would I put them in the dresser? Do you not put clothes away or. I don't care. I just don't care. I don't know. I. I know. I mean, I do care and I don't care simultaneously. Do you make your bed? No, I'm gonna get in it that night. Why would I really? This is surprising to me. Yeah. I don't know. I don't make my bed. Why, why? I don't understand why. Well, you know, that's not the icebreaker, so I feel like we would go on a further tangent. We'll talk about it later. Just like, that's five minutes of my life I can't get back. It's literally a minute, a minute and a half. At some point, I'd like to hear about why it takes you five minutes to make the bed. But Stacey's right. We need to keep moving. I have a lot of pillows. I am a. This part might surprise you, but might not. So I think some people think that maybe I'm like, a kind and generous person. I don't know. Yeah. No, nobody's ever. Yes, Collie. Yes, we do. But when it comes to desserts, I am not. So I don't share dessert in my house, and I eat it in my bed after, my kids have gone to sleep so that they cannot. You don't even eat it in the kitchen? No. Where does it. In my bed. Do you. Don't you have to refrigerate it? Do you have refrigerator? I get it out of the refrigerator on my way to my bed, and I eat it. Do you have to. Then, do you finish it completely, or do you have to take it from your bed back to the refrigerator? No, I will leave it on my nightstand. And in the morning, I take the things out when I. So you have to eat the whole dessert, otherwise it goes bad. Well, I take an appropriate portion with me. Seriously, you're at. Otherwise, it'd be crazy. Jeannie. Otherwise, it'd be. It's a waste. A bite. Nobody eats a carton of ice cream. But sometimes what will happen is, like, my kids will. I'll think they're in bed, and then they'll come in, and then they look at me like, what are you doing? I'm m. Like, nothing. Celebrating surviving you. So the last question I have in that is, do you then, like, are you eating dessert at, like, 10:00pm yes. Okay. I'm totally on my head. What's the slightly. Is that tonight? What do you have tonight? Like, what are you having? I have chocolate cake. Chocolate cake from Heinen's hidden in the back of my fridge. What if. What would happen if somebody discovered that and ate it in your house? Oh, I'd go to get in bed, and I'd be like, the worst day of my life. Yeah. Okay. Ken, do you want to go, or do you want me to go? no, I'll go. This was a good guy to think for a minute. I think if you. If you entered my house, you would quickly become aware of the fact that I am 1000% not a DIY. Guy. But I am the king of the ugly fix, so I'm really good at just making it work. So our house, if you were to be like, that doesn't look quite right. Be like, yeah, but it works. I made it work. Stand on it. Okay, I can stand on it and this and that. Yeah. And I think Jamie, my, wife, has come to embrace. That's her moniker, King of the ugly fix. But just like, look, if it works, it works. What more can you ask? All I heard was king, and that's. I stopped it. That's all. Wow. Wow. okay. I thought of this because I. With the question and with the passage, it just made me immediately realize that my family jokes and teases me because I will be very strict and stringent about my house. Looking incredibly clean surfaces, clear, all that. I'm cleaning up after people before they, you know, when they set something down. But if you, like, open my laundry room, a, closet upstairs, certain drawers in my kitchen, it's like, who lives here? This is a disaster. So. And Monica from Friends, my husband, calls me that. Like, where she would open a closet and, like, everything would fall, but everything looked perfect in her house, so. And there's the exact place and the things you could see and resembles. David Eaton, our IT guy, would say this. That resembles also how I organize things on my computer or really don't organize things on my computer. I don't know. That's confession time. I was gonna say both of you have a little messy side to you. I know that is. Look at that. You know, it's selective. Like, my dresser's messy, but I'm with the downstairs counters. It drives me crazy. See, you guys get each other. Just arbitrary. Yeah. Okay. We're jumping in with week two. Pastor Zach, taught. This week is a great teaching. John 14:1 3. Let me read the full passage where it's Jesus saying to his disciples, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. And where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. and then the different, points that Pastor Zach had were something about houses. we're really kind of talking about your house as being an expression of our heart. And it can. You can tell a lot about us and something about what we really Value by how we kind of think about our houses and make space in those. something about work. we'll get into that more and then something about you. So, to jump right in. I know I'm not recapping a ton of the context. Well, let me remind us of this one point. I think in that final point, you know, we're learning how this is all about relationship with Jesus and that we don't earn a room in the house. Jesus has done all of the work already, and we'll talk through that a little bit. but then also, in that last point, it was super powerful as Pastor Zach talked about the context that this passage is. Right after Peter's saying, hey, I'm gonna lay my life down. I would die for you. And Jesus is like, actually, by the time a rooster crows, you're gonna deny me three times. And then he says, but don't let your heart be trouble. I prepared a place for you. So even Peter, in this moment, who is being like, Jesus knows, is gonna completely deny that he knows Jesus, and he's saying, no, I'm making space for you. I've done this already. So, with that, I wanted to start by asking, where are you most maybe tempted to believe that because I did this or because I'm struggling in this area, that there's really not. Maybe there's not a room for me? When do you struggle to believe or maybe fall into the trap of saying, is there really a room for me? Has God really invited me into this space? I would say I don't struggle with that. I struggle with the opposite, of believing that I'm entitled to a room because of my moral performance or my religious performance. Okay, that's good. I mean, well, that's not good that you do that. I think it's good to bring up the fact that, like, as Christians, we might be on the other side of that coin and not. You'd only look at your bed to know that's not true. First of all, it's my dresser. Make your bed, Jimmy. I'm usually sleeping in my bed. I think there's a lot of areas in our life, though, where that can ebb and flow. Where, like, I was thinking about parenting, and so it's really easy for me to be like, oh, when my kids are acting a certain way, like, oh, I got it. But then if I have a kid that's struggling with something, you're thinking, oh, I'm doing. I'm messing it all up. and I think there's a stigma around church that, like, you can't bring your mess here. And so, like, I need to have it buttoned up so that when I enter these doors, I deserve the room that I'm going to get. I think it's hard sometimes to come in and say, like, man, things are a mess and I don't deserve a room here. Yeah, well. And I think people can think because my life is a mess or because I've done this and I keep struggling with this sin and there's no way exactly that God would want me. Right. yeah. I mean, I come across conversations, Right. I come across conversations often with people to be like, I can't walk through those doors. And I'm like, no, no, this is exactly the place you need. I wonder if that has to do. I mean, just thinking about this conversation, I wonder if that has some connection to how long somebody's been a follower of Jesus. Because, like, my background is I grew up in the church. Like, I became a Christian at like 5 years old, baptized at 8 years old. I've never experienced life without, you know, like, everybody, at various times I've been walking more closely or less closely with Jesus. But you have a confidence. We've never had a big falling out. Yeah. And whereas I could see somebody who did not grow up. So that probably leads to me having a sense of like, well, I'm a pretty morally upright person and therefore probably deserving of room in the house, whereas somebody who maybe didn't have that background where they. But see, even by you saying that, I mean, you're admitting obviously that it's, it's flawed the way you're thinking in that. But it is like that is an earning type statement saying because I'm morally, you know, in such a great place. That's why I would get to that conclusion is because. Yeah. but I think you could be a Christian and not. And because I was thinking about this and thinking, I don't, I don't know that I struggle a ton either. And maybe, I mean, I. This. I'm not trying to say this in, any sort of haughty way, but I have, I do have such a confidence in the gospel and in the grace of God simultaneously. I oftentimes, I mean, I question and doubt myself often, but maybe not necessarily that I'm not going to have a room because God is so good, you know? I don't know. Yeah. I think, first of all, to your point, Jimmy, I think that there is something to be said about, let's just, you know, someone who comes to faith. What would you say? Five. Yeah. Yeah. Versus 50, let's say. And just 50 years of living not God's way outside the family of God. I think those testimonies. Five decades, let's say, of life lived, your way of brokenness, of just unhappiness and discontent. I think those make for not just powerful testimonies, but there is a weight that is lifted that just doesn't exist in some ways when you're a kid or when you spent your life. Yeah. And I think that's just a reality. you know, Stacy, what you just said, because I vacillate. I can't just pick one or the other. I can be either extraordinarily lacking in confidence that God has a place for me. or supremely confident to the point of I'm good. So I don't. You know, But I do think, that it's easier for me hearing that passage. It's easier for me to have faith in the eternal aspect. Then I have, like. Then. Then to have confidence that he's got me in the day. Yeah. And he's got me tomorrow. Yeah. So it's like. But they are. They are, of course, tied. They are tethered. Yeah. But I. I see. I often see those very differently. Yeah. And that's. We could talk for a long time, actually, just about that. I want to jump, into, though, and Zach's second point, he. I love that he talked and kind of pulled out all the statements where it's actually Jesus saying the I statement. So I'm gonna read a few of them. Jesus is saying, I go to prepare a place. I will come again. I will take you to myself. basically, I want you where I am at, and you're gonna know where I'm at. so I just. These statements are a picture of Jesus heart and of the fact that it is only grace, that he has done all the work that he has done. I think Zach said something like, God's the one who. He's putting the name on the door. He's paid for the room. He's done it all. so kind of thinking about that. How do these statements, like, how do those strike you? How do they challenge you in our wiring to just, like, want to earn and be wired to earn, when you think about that. Well, first of all, I thought, the context that he. That Zach pulled in, you know, I hadn't thought about that before tonight, which was just the, verses at the end of chapter 13, prior to these taking place, where Peter is basically saying, I'll do whatever, you know, I'm your guy. He's saying stuff like I'm saying. He was like, yeah, you know, you know, I'll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus says, no, you won't. And I, I had never made that connection. I thought that, I thought that was brilliant. And I, I thought that really sheds light into what Jesus is actually trying to communicate in these verses that. To. To what you were saying, Stacy. Yeah, he. He does everything. We do nothing. If you know it, it's just. I think it flies directly in the face for me personally, of my sense of self reliance or, you know, of, of entitlement to a room in the house. Cause he's saying, yeah, but you don't understand. You didn't do. No matter how quote, unquote, good, good. You are, you are. Whether you check. If you check 99 out of a hundred boxes, you still didn't check that one box. And you know that. Yeah, it struck me, how incredibly personal and actually intimate I felt like these statements were when I was writing them out. Like the. I'm gonna come again, I'm gonna take you to myself. I want you where I'm at. Like, it did make me think, like, there's no other person probably besides my husband that would say those types of personal and loving things. And just. I don't know. For me, it was like reflecting on the fact that these are the things that Jesus is saying to people. Wanting that relationship with us, wanting us to realize he's already done the work, was just really struck me. And yeah, the Peter thing I just was writing in my notes, I'm like, peter, exclamation point. Like that guy, he does this. But it's all of us. We all, man, we can fly in the face of all that. And then, yeah, there was this show that ran for a few years called the Good Place. Yeah. Yeah. And, the premise of it, at least it seems to be, is that you, earned your way into heaven and they run through the way to, And turns out that's actually not. Which I think is part of the brilliance of the show. But there's a point in one of the later seasons where one of the main characters is explaining how they had to recalibrate their point system because they were giving you points for eating organic. But as it turns out, like, most avocado farms are run by Mexican or like, Central American cartels, so they had to take points away because actually you're perpetuating the international drug trade. And I just thought like, in that, isn't that the essence? It's just like you can rise and fall on your, what you think is your own merit and things can change. And the, in just the. You're so unsteady. You're just so unsteady. And in the I language of Jesus, it just reminds me and I am comforted by the fact that we serve a God who in Jesus has both the want to and the can do. Right. He loves us, he wants good things for us, and he makes good things possible. And the beauty of those two things together, what an encouragement that is to me. Yeah. I think what really strikes me about this is the idea that he's not just making a room for someone and he's not just leaving the door open for me to find my own way. And if I get there, great. It's like he wants me there and he's made a space for me, and there's nothing I can do to change that status. And you know, when you really sit in that, it's like, wow. Yeah. The, the level of activity on his part in this pro. You know, he didn't say, hey, I've got a room for you. The invitation's open, come over. He says, I will come and get you. I'm gonna write to be here, bring you here. I've prepared the place for. Yeah, I think that's really insightful that he's just saying there's not, there's not a single thing you bring to the table in this process. I'm doing it all, I'm doing everything. Obviously it's a picture of Jesus on the cross, what he is going to do in sacrificing of himself and the miracle of the gospel. So yeah, there's so much in that. And I do think we need. I love the connectivity. If you didn't go back and read again kind of the John 13, really all the way, then through 14. I mean it's right after this, in this passage that he's saying the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father, but through me. And which again is just continuing to reinforce this. so just practically speaking, as we kind of think about starting to even maybe land the plane, but the passage, it starts with let not your hearts be troubled. So you know, I think, you know, Jesus is obviously teeing it up that way, knowing like we're going to battle fear, shame, our thoughts Things like that. and even thoughts thinking we kind of lose our room. Or again, maybe thinking wrongly about earning it. And I've already earned my way because I'm so morally, you know. You know, solid. But what. Is there a practice that you do to combat feelings? Are there any things that you run to and go to to combat those feelings when that fear or shame or thoughts or anxiety creep in around this? Yeah, I think that brings to mind just yesterday, I don't do this enough. But, I keep my prayer requests on my phone. it's like an actual. Like a list that I. And when a prayer is answered, I check it, check it off, and invariably when I go and I look and I go year by year, and so here we are in August, and just yesterday, another answered prayer. And I went and checked it off, and then I just scrolled through all of the answered prayers, and I was just reminded again of the goodness of God in big ways and little ways. Because for me, I think my instability comes from the anxiety. Like I said earlier, do you really have me? Like, yeah, I have a room in eternity. But what about tonight? What about tomorrow? What about this thing or that thing? And so the answer that for me has become more and more, powerful in my life is gratitude. It's gratitude, like, there's an eternal aspect to what's made possible through Jesus, but there's also a God who delights in giving good things today. And he's got me in forever, but he's got me today, too. Yeah, I really echo the idea of the art of remembering. I feel like I've said that in other episodes, but it's something I found to be so vital for me of just being able to look back and see God's faithfulness. I heard an analogy once about a rickety rope bridge across the. I don't know, the cliff that you're going across. And it's like each time you step on one of those boards and it holds, when you get halfway out and you get nervous, you look behind you and you're like, oh, the board before me held, so the board in front of me will hold. And so if each of those are tangible acts of God's faithfulness and his goodness, then, you know, like, okay, I have gotten this far, and no, no, board has broken. I'm gonna keep going. And I love the part of Peter, too, because it's this idea of, like, I could take a wrong step. My steps don't matter. The boards hold whether I step right or whether I don't step. Right. And so I just think that whether it's a prayer request journal, however you're doing, of just making sure that you're stopping to think of all the ways that God has already been faithful to you. Yeah. So why would he stop? Yeah, well, I just thought of this with Peter. I mean, just if you, if you don't know, like, Peter is who Jesus said, I am going to build my church. And he on Peter, like, so, like this. I was thinking about this and I heard the sermon going, man. Like, he denied that he knew Jesus, like completely in the face of this, and yet God's grace still just continues to extend. And he built his church. It's, it's pretty. If you read later in the gospel when Peter and Jesus are reunited post resurrection. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Super powerful because of. Especially when you take into. Take the context of this whole interaction. He has to be loved three times, right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Even before that, it's like when he's saying, like, go tell the disciples and Peter, like, don't leave Peter out. Like, I got a place. Go tell Peter. Like, there's a room. There's still room for him here. Yeah, sorry, I went on a tangent with that. What do you do, though? Well, I think it's actually, there's a theme here because for me, I write my prayers out. I'm not good at. Just like, if you said, sit in that chair over there and pray, it would take about 40 seconds and then I'd be done. I'd be like, I'm out of words to say. But if I. I don't know, go make your bed, Jimmy. First, my bed's unmade and I don't care. You know, I. I sleep just fine. That takes 15 minutes. That's very. I don't have 15 minutes to make. I don't have two hours to make my bed. Every day, everybody. I don't understand what you guys are doing. but one thing I just noticed over the last couple weeks is like the journal that I use, like, I type them because I don't, like, I don't want to write with my hand in the morning. I'm a weird person. So just. But, one of the things that's been a side effect that I didn't expect, that is I've been doing it for a couple of years now. And so every day it shows me what I wrote a year ago that day. Oh, that's really cool. It's kind of cool. It's been powerful in two ways. I Think to your point, Ken. Looking back and seeing things that I was praying for and about that in one way or another, God has brought an answer or resolution to. But then maybe something that undercuts my sense of self, importance or whatever is seeing the ways that I was thinking, you know, two years ago and realizing that the Lord has challenged that thinking over time. And I don't see it the same way. Right. And so I should not be so confident that the way I'm seeing the world right now is completely accurate either. And I should have a little bit of humility. Yeah, that's really good. I clearly need to do a better job of writing things. I do journal some. But I think I. Yeah, I probably bring this up often too, because we have different ways that God's wired us. But I do, I mean, I run, I think to worship. I do run to, I mean to honestly like sometimes just praying out loud and talking to God and asking questions and then worship as well. But yeah, gratitude and all of the things you mentioned, I feel like are really good reflection points to remember. And that's God's Bible. I mean, the scriptures tell us all the time to go back, to remember, to look back so we can look forward and see the faithfulness of God. So. But our emotions, I mean, emotions will come, motions will go, but it is, we can, we have a God we can trust in all of it. So. Well, thank you guys so much for joining. Make, sure we've got two more weeks in this More Than Religion series. Can't wait. We'll see you. Thanks so much. If you are joining us, for beyond the Message, so glad that you've joined us. If before you leave, make sure you go ahead and like and subscribe so that next week you can get pinged with the next Beyond the Message. And in the meantime, make sure you check out other resources we have on our app and on our website so that you can grow right where you're at. And we'll see you next week.