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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 bring it into your week. Each week, we sit down as friends and we laugh a little bit, we reflect, and we figure out how to live out what we are learning. If you haven't yet seen, or watched, or listened to the sermon, that's okay. Drop down to the description, there's a link so that you can view it there, and then come back and join in on this conversation. My name is Stacey, and today I'm joined by Brooks Montgomery, Holly Diakandru and Jimmy Kozy. Welcome, guys. Excited to be here. Yeah, I love that energy. Brooks, you're like a week or two out from Men's Summit. That's right. I'm giving you your three seconds to give a plug right now. You may see every single article of clothing, including my mug, may be promoting men's. But no, can't wait. It's going to be, an incredible weekend for guys. So excited to see just what the Lord does on that weekend. And can't wait. Brooks actually has the Men's Summit logo tattooed on his chest. I don't know if you guys don't know this, but you have to come to the Men's Summit to see it. That's right. That's right. Live on stage at the Men's Summit. Holly, I just want to welcome you. You are first time that you're joining us, and Holly's our Guest Experience Director, so leaning into that a little bit, thought I would ask the question, what is a pet peeve of yours or something that maybe drives you nuts when you go into a public space, restaurant, hotel, something like that when it comes to hospitality. Ooh, ooh. I have, like, 15. I have a lot of. I figured you would, Holly. Yeah, I got a lot. I think most. The most frustrating is when I walk into a place and they are, like, annoyed that I am there. Like, they don't know why I'm there. If it's a hotel and I'm like, I need to check in here. I am. And they're like, I'm here to give you money for your services. Or even like a restaurant where I have to order at the counter and they're all doing something when I feel like, should I leave? You're in position. Yes, yes. Yeah. Like you're an imposition. And they are in the hospitality business. Doesn't make sense. I have a few things that you connected to. Connected to restaurants. I think the first. I don't know if there's anything to be done about this? Maybe attentive servers. But, a lot of times I'm in a restaurant and I'm having a significant conversation, and it's like sometimes it feels like the servers know exactly when to come up to try to pour water in a glass that's 75% full. And so I have to stop what I'm saying and wait like the 30 seconds while this server stands there because I don't want to talk about whatever's going on in front of them. That, that's. But they are attentive. Like, you appreciate the fact there's like a balance. Attentive, but being too attentive. It's like, come on. Like, you can tell when you Second. Yeah, you're actually more attentive if you're like, oh, let me wait until they finish this conversation. Second thing. And they're tied together. Not tied to the first one. But I don't like. I don't like upcharges. But then I don't like them even more when you do it and the person warns you that you're doing it because you're insulting me. You're like, like it's. First of all, put the whole price on the menu. Just put. Yeah, just put the whole price on. Second of all, if I do order something that costs extra, please assume that I can read and I know that it costs extra instead of treating me like I'm foolish and illiterate. So you're not talking about like a credit card upcharge, you're talking about like guac extra. I know guac nowadays. Are you sure, sir? Can you. Can you afford this? I mean, I'm going to have to take out another mortg. Do they have that on the menu that it is an upcharge to get guac unlikable. I don't feel like they have that. It used to be, I don't know, it does when you order online and it used to be the case that every time you did it in person, the person at the register is like, walks extra. And I'm like, come on. I know that. I can see what the menu says. Please. Okay, okay. What about you, Brooks? Anything? I, It could be the best meal of my life. Like, it could be, I mean, food wise, hospitality, service, experience. And if the water tastes bad, you know those restaurants where there's bad water, just bad. And we're tap water, tap water type people. If there's bad, tap water will not return. I was at a restaurant recently for our anniversary and the. They had a craft water menu. And I was like, this is the. Is this going back to the upcharge? They had a sommelier who was for watermelon. Sommelier curated craft water menu. I was like, emily, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. But I think Brooks would be good at that job. Brooks probably has. He would be like, this is for me. Come to the men's summit for sommelier craft water. We are going to have the highest quality reverse osmosis water at the men's summit. Lead from the front. Outstanding. yeah, I feel like I could create a list, too. I'm not. I don't feel like I'm quite in Jimmy's camp with, like, how I don't feel so hard about it. Things like, ask for my opinion. What do you want me to do? I did. I did. Smudges on windows drive me nuts. Like, I will. I can't. It just makes the whole place feel dirty to me. And then the other thing I would say is there is like, this is that smell in a restaurant that's usually just not maybe a real, real great restaurant that is like, everything's been cleaned, but it kind of smells like plastic mixed with sanitizer. Yeah, that smells nice in general. Smells in general can be a real problem, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Good stuff. Well, we care about guest experience here because, we just want to be a great. Yeah. Be a great place, be hospitable to people. We have good water here. We do have good water. And I would just say, if you are listening and have not met Holly before, she is incredibly creative. When you think about, like, wow, making that Mother's Day bouquet of flowers. Whose idea was that? Holly's idea. All the really creative, cool things that happen in the atrium and so much more are because of Holly. So love it that you're here. Thanks. okay. Pastor Joe spoke this week. This is week two of More Life, our vision series for this year, rooted in John 10, where Jesus says that I've come to give life and life abundantly. And Pastor Joe, really walked us through Psalm 19, which I know I've reread a couple times since I heard the sermon. And it's a really amazing psalm, that starts off by speaking about creation and about how magnificent, amazing God is and what he has made, and then, talks about God's word and about the. All the life that really comes from that, and then has some great questions at the end. So Pastor Joe's points were, look for amazing. Speaking of creation, read for life and then pray for hard. so just to start things off, wanted to ask you guys about the, you know, maybe the greatest takeaway. You had things that hit you that we would want everybody listening to. Yeah. Think about. I would say the one line that. That Joe said that really hit hard for me was he said, you can choose your sin, you can't choose your consequences. And I feel like it just made me think about, how every day we make choices and sometimes we ch. We ch. Do choose to sin knowingly. And I think thinking about the over, you know, choosing to disobey God's design or. Or to stray from what he said to do ends up adding up, and you just don't know what the end result of that is going to be in your life. And that's sobering. Yeah, that's. Yeah. I really liked at the beginning when he set the stage and he talked about how God really designed and created us for more and to flourish. And I don't think that's the normal narrative. I think we've come to believe that, like, if we follow God, we're going to have a smaller life, a more narrow life. That, obedience means less joy. We have to choose, like, responsibility over delight. And this was such a good reminder that that is a trap and a lie and the complete opposite, that life with God is bigger, more whole, more full, more joyful, more delightful. And so I loved that that's the way we, like, framed the sermon. Yeah, that was really good. Brooks, did you have anything? Yeah, I was just thinking about, I mean, I think every single person would raise their hand and say, hey, I would love more life. Like an aspiration we all share. But when Joe is even talking about, hey, looking for a ma. Recognizing that I think more life is aspiration and action. Like, I need to have a desire for more life and the life that Christ provides. But also I need to be willing to fix my eyes on Jesus, to discipline myself to be in scripture. As he talked about in a second point, like, more life is accessible because Christ gave up of his own. That's right. But I'm not naturally just going to drift into that. To Jimmy's point, I think we, by default, we drift away from Jesus, away from a conviction that more life is found in Him. Him. And it takes a lot of intentionality to pursue that more life. And so, just kind of that aspiration and action, in response to the. The life Jesus offers us. Yeah, no, that's really good. well, let's take a look real quick at something that I thought really stood out to me that Pastor Joe said. Life can be exhausting for anybody, for all of us. From work to relationships to marriage to children, to just all that you have going on. What do you do when it's not just your body that is tired, but it's your soul that is weary? If you're like me, you might settle just for distractions. You might binge on Netflix or get lost scrolling through social media or down a rabbit hole on the Internet, or exercise or playing or doing a hobby, whatever you do. But what if after you're through with the distraction, if your soul is still weary? Right. your soul will not be revived, will not have more life until he gets the food for which it was created. And that's what the psalmist says that scripture is for. I think I related to so much in that. I think the. You know, getting to that point, as I think we talked about last week, too, where there's just. It's this exhaustion. I feel like we. I can look around at people in my life and know, man, there's people there. But then also the reality of just looking to distractions, from my phone to all those things, to even hobbies or things that I have. and then when Pastor Joe just kind of summed it up by saying, hey, your soul's not going to have more life until it gets the food, meaning scripture, for which it was created, I thought, wow, that's pretty powerful. So, I don't know. That's a great place to start. That was from point number two, which, again, we'll get to in a minute. But let's look. At first, we started off by saying, man, look for amazing. So. And that was, again, he talked about the son and just the power of it. But, I wanted to ask the question, are there times that you have discovered more about God or learned more about God because of something that you have seen in creation or. Yeah. Brooks, you got something? Yeah, I was thinking, about Job, and at the end of job, job 38, God kind of, in response to Job's questions about, hey, why is this happening? His response is really rooted in, hey, where were you when I created all of these things? Right. And I think it's. He says a lot of things in that. He says a lot of things. I actually would prefer not to have been on the receiving end of that. Yeah. Seriously, gird up your loins. And I'm, Good. My m. Keep going, bro. Sorry. I think that oftentimes, even when in creation, you know, especially for me, near mountains and just the vastness of just recognizing kind of that question of, hey, where, where were. Where was I when God created all of these things? It's that idea of transcendence and nearness, the mystery of God to understand that, like, I can miss and I think oftentimes selfishly make myself and my life the center of the world. And oftentimes in creation, it's a really good reminder to recognize the vastness, the transcendence of God. Yet some crazy way, he's also so near to us. and that was just so helpful, that kind of thought in my mind as Joe was talking about creation, looking for amazing, that question from God, saying, hey, when life is difficult, sometimes the right kind of humbling posture I might need to take is the thought of man. Where was I when God created everything? And knowing that, that God is near in my life is powerful. I know many years ago I looked at. It might have started off being like a leaf or it was probably in science class, but underneath a microscope. And I know this was a moment that clicked for me. And I talked about it recently somewhere where I was speaking. But, just the order and pattern of which everything is made. And if you look at a, leaf, if you look at cells, if you look at the are, there's so much order in the patterns that are on the leaf that make up what it is. But it just speaks to the fact that I think when life is chaot, when there are things that are out of control, that our God is a God of order and is one that, is, you know, that is. It speaks to even just how, like, how do you create something that has that much structure and order to it? I don't know. It was just something that showed me more about God. A characteristic of God that I didn't realize in seeing that in creation. But even if you take that a step further, like, there are so many parts about creation that exist beyond the function of it. So there's so much like things that are just there for joy and delight. Think about all the flowers and how the stars shine so bright and the colors of the sunset. Those don't have to be in there for there to be order. It is just because God is generous and he wants us to delight. And he doesn't just create life to sustain it, but to enrich it. And so I think about the mountains and all of those things. He wants more. And it's so evident when we look all around us. Yeah. I mean, I'm a very functional person, and so I don't always see those things. That's one of the things I appreciate about my wife. Like, she will, you know, she, in the summertime, will relentlessly plant dahlias. And I mean, relentlessly. It's unbelievable. And, you know, you don't get any fruit from dahlias. You don't eat them. You don't. And I'm like, well, let's plant something we can eat, you know? but that's not why you look at dahlias. But then, beauty of it, though. They're some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. It's incredible. And I think that's one of the things I have to discipline myself to do, is to stop and not think exclusively about function and think about the beauty of what God has created. And. Yeah, and it does point to more life. That's really good. Yeah. Pastor, Joe asked a question straight out in his sermon that basically was just saying, hey, what is the Bible for? And why do you read it or not read it was also what his question was. So I thought I'd ask us that question and say, man act base value. What. How do. Why do you read the Bible? M. Kick things off. Okay, here we go. yeah, I was thinking about this as I was thinking, about the message. Just. I think the idea that I have in mind when I think about reading the Bible is that, first of all, any large transformation that you see somebody experience starts with little acts of consistency that came from, a cultivation of dissatisfaction with the current state. And so, you know, you think about, like, if you want to be more like Jesus, I think the best piece of advice I can give you is to show up every day or as consistently as you can. And that's why I think that when I. If you ask me why do I read the Bible, I read really consistently. And for me, I think Joe said this in his message. I'm probably similar to him, where there are days where it's really meaningful, and then there are days where, you know. And I also try to write in a journal. And there are days where I write in the journal. I'm like, I don't know if I really have a lot to talk about today, but I think the exercise is not, The exercise is about showing up, because there are days where it's really meaningful. And so there's a Q and A. That was after. Yeah, that's what I was about to say. Oh, yeah, it was after the 7:30 service, little plug for the Thursday 7:30. There's a Q and A. And Pastor Joe, someone was asking him about reading the Bible, and he's just like, hey, there's a lot of days I don't get anything out of it. I'm just being honest. But it is about showing up. But he spoke and related it to food and just said, it's like, food. I know that if I just don't eat, it does catch up with you. And so the nourishment that comes from food and relating it in that way just. I know, stood out to me. That's what I was gonna say. He talked about how some meals he eats and they're like, oh, man, this is delicious. I loved it. It was so great. And, you know, in other meals it's like, you know, well, I'm hungry. I need to eat something. So you eat carrots? They don't. Wow, you didn't do anything for you. But you know that they are actually doing something for you. That's right. Like, they're making you stronger. They're making you, What is the m. Carrots of the Bible. You know what's funny is I tried to look up for like, a pun of like, carrots. Like, you know, but yeah, sometimes you read and you're like, oh, man, the Lord is talking directly to me. This is for me. And then other times it's like, carrots. You're like, well, I read it and I have to believe that the Lord is going to use it to make me stronger and healthier. Yeah, yeah, it's, no other book. I've been trying to pray for 10 seconds before I open my Bible. No other book is living and active. That's right. Yeah. Every other book I read, it's helpful. It maybe has, great information, great insight. But no other book is transformative can deposit wisdom that only comes from above. And so even in my head it's like, hey, when I approach scripture, I want to remind myself I'm not just approaching some dead, moral, lifeless document. That's helpful. I'm approaching, like, a lifeline that I need. there's a quote I love, D.L. moody, says, either your Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from your Bible. And that's always just a helpful way to kind of consider, even in seasons where it feels more like discipline than joy. Right. Ultimately, what you are hopefully developing is a life that's on a trajectory towards life and not sin. And that's why Scripture is so necessary, even when it's not necessarily easy to read. Yeah. And I just hope that's an encouragement, because I think, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that are like, yeah, I pick up my Bible, and it just. Sometimes I don't feel like anything happens and going, you know, to your point, Jimmy, really, everybody is just going. It's about showing up. It's about opening it and believing and knowing the truth of that. It is living and active, and God will use it, to change us and to shape us. So, Pastor Joe went through, you know, really four things. I was going to just kind of start with Juan to say, well, he said the. The Bible does four things. And this is straight up from Psalm 19. So, again, I would encourage you to read that again. Increase that reading. God's word will increase wisdom, revive your soul, allow you to rejoice, and then those aha moments. So is there a verse that you can say or point people to or point us to in this room that just was refreshed or revived to your soul, or that you look to for maybe any one of those four things? What do you think, Holly? You got something? Yeah, I. Colossians, 1:17 says, he's before all things, and in him all things hold together. And it kind of goes back to what you were saying, Stacy, about how the comfort you found when you looked at that leaf. Yeah. And so when I feel like my life is, chaotic or it's out of control, that verse always refreshes my soul to remember. Nope. The same God that spoke creation into being sustains it, and he sustains you. And so when it feels like everything is out of control, he is in control, and everything is held together by Him. Yeah, that's really powerful. I would say, for me, it's all of Ephesians 2. the reason why is because, you know, part of my personality is that I will. When I'm at my worst, I will tend to believe that my value is the sum total of what I've accomplished and what I've done. And I'll translate that into my relationship with God. So, you know, I'll think there's a direct connection, that God's love for me is directly proportional to my obedience and my accomplishments for Him. And I think that whole section talking, about, you know, that our, you know, we're saved by grace, not by works. We were dead in our sin. And that just takes all that and, really dismantles it. Yeah, that's really good. I was just talking to a guy recently. Just, had genuine anxiety, relational strife, a lot of things going on. And, Philippians 4, 6, 7, which talks about, you know, make your, whatever is anxious, bring it to the Lord. And it's interesting, kind of the. If that's the input, the output is that, the peace of Christ will guard your heart and soul. And we were just even talking. It's kind of that moment of just the life of Scripture that God will not remove anxiety. Perhaps God will not remove what is hard, but what is promised is he'll infuse peace into those moments. Right. A peace that surpasses understanding, which is his presence that's near in that moment. And even that, it's just. Again, the. The nature of Scripture is, God is continually reminding us. Yeah. That even in difficult moments, he's near. And because of that. Right. We can endure. that was just a powerful moment, I think, for both of us. Yeah, I. These are all really good. Mine's pretty basic. I was thinking, about that, in particular about restoring and refreshment. And I often will just go to Psalm 23, which I think we talked about. Was it last week? Last week, yeah. But the Lord is my shepherd. But just straight up in there, it says, and he restores my soul. And I think that's just something that I'll often replay in my mind and in my heart when I'm stuck in a place or, you know, not feeling just weak or feeling down and going like, no, I can trust in this. So, the last point I just want to at least touch on, said it was praying for hard. Starting with Psalm 19:12, where it says, who can discern his errors, find me innocent from hidden faults. And so just really that. Talking about, like, blind sp and speaking about the fact we all have them, and how do we pray for God to show us and to allow us to show up or show me and then stop me. So when you hear that and just what emotions surface when you hear Pastor Joe's call to go, hey, show me, stop me where my sin, where my blind spots are. Yeah. I mean, first of all, when he said, you know, it's funny, when he first laid out his points for the message and he said, pray for hard, this is not where I expected him to go. I thought he was going to say, you know, you should pray for challenging things to come into your life. As I thought I saw where he was going. So this, was really good. It really caught me off guard that the direction that he took it was actually you should pray for God to have hard conversations with you. But I think it's so true what he said. You know, if I think back to any situation I've seen where somebody's life has, has gone, got where it's fallen apart and it's been because of them. I would guess it wasn't a situation where they woke up that day and they said, you know what? Today I'm going to wreck my finances or I'm going to dismantle my marriage. I mean it started with not being willing to allow God to search and find and root out the individual sins and choices that are taking place on a day to day basis. So yeah, well. And he talked about a disease and like it's not, you know, with almost every disease he made everybody in the room wonder if they were dying. Exactly. If he was dying. Going over time. Right. You know, and that is small compromises, small steps. But man, to not realize, of course we all have blind spots and where are they and how. I know I pray for kids. If you're listening. When my kids are growing up, I would pray for hard things for my kids. I would even ask the Lord and be like, let me catch them or let someone catch them in their sin. And it's. But it's because of that point of going like it is a good thing to stop your sin and it is a good thing to even get caught and to have those things pointed out because you can grow from that and be again just grow into not having the pain. I don't pray that for my kids because I want them to have pain. I pray that. Because you want them to have more life. Right. So anyways, any other thoughts on that? For me, I was convicted because I think I often approach prayer as I pray so that things outside of me can change external circumstances. And that's one of the reasons I think if we're being totally honest, prayer can seem super discouraging because oftentimes things we pray for externally don't happen or they don't happen as quickly as we pray. but, but John Calvin said prayer changes you more than it changes. Right. Like to understand perhaps the most transformative space that God is inviting me into and perhaps all of us into is that prayer is fundamentally the place where God will change me. M. Not things outside of me. And that kind of approach to prayer, perspective to prayer, all of a sudden that creates honest conversation, that creates kind of those show me, stop me Moments. And, for me, just trying to reframe even the way I come to prayer, I think. I still think it's scary, though. I think it's hard. And I think, like, my initial reaction is, like, I don't. I don't want to do that because I don't want to do that. Hard things, I don't want to know that is going to require me to change something. and I have to really reorder my thinking to get back to the fact of, like, no, no, no, no, no. He, wants more for me. So what he's asking me to change is for my best. And I think back to that passage in Jeremiah where, like, the people are, like, trading this good, beautiful living water, and they just have their, like, broken cisterns of dirty water. And it's like, that's what it is, right? We want to stay in our broken, dirty cisterns of water, not knowing that the Lord is offering us so much more. So I think initially it's scary, but it's scary, but it's good. Yeah. And it connects back to that. The whole idea that more life is available to us through Jesus. I think this makes me think about, you know, oftentimes in prayer, maybe not oftentimes, but from time to time, God will make clear to me that I've done something or sinned in some way, and I have to take action to make it right. And I hate it because it's incredibly uncomfortable sometimes to do or say the thing that I'm gonna have to do to undo the thing that I said or did before. But I think that's where it goes back to believing that what God is asking me to do, even if I really don't feel like it's gonna be a pleasant experience, is gonna lead me eventually to further flourishing, more life, everything that Jesus has. And that's what's fundamentally behind the stop me, show me ideas that God has better things for us, but sometimes the way to them is to go through hard dealing with your sin. And I like that this is his third point. Because if we are looking for amazing, it is way easier, quicker for us to get there, where we're like, wait, wait, wait, what did we just see today? We just saw how God is m. You know, doing all these amazing, beautiful things. So of course what he's gonna ask us to do is going to lead us to more beautiful and amazing things. That's funny. Cynicism often doesn't lead towards a heart posture. Ready to be convicted, ready to be changed. Right. It's that starting point of gratitude for what God has done that leads to it. It's a great point. Yeah. Well, that's great. This has been wonderful. Week two, more life done. We'll move on. Can't wait for next week. Thank you guys for joining me today. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks so much for joining us for Beyond the Message. before you head out of here, I want you to know that on our app, on our website, on YouTube, there's all sorts of ways that you can grow where you are throughout the week. So check those different opportunities out. And before you leave, make sure you subscribe, so that you won't miss next week's episode. Thanks so much. We'll see you next week.