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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.
Hello, and 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, I sit down with my friends and ministry leaders at CCC.
We usually laugh a little bit, and we reflect and figure out how to live out what we are learning.
If you didn't catch the sermon, no problem.
Just look at the description below, find a link to it, check it out there, and then come back and join us for this conversation.
My name is Stacey DiNardo, and I'm joined today by Sara Koons. Hello. And by Jimmy Kozy
Hey, everybody.
And by Brooks Montgomery.
Hey.
Hey.
We know that Sara's been really thrown off because Yeah.
Jimmy's sitting in my Jimmy took her seat.
Pure.
This is the ultimate day.
Look at
this by the seat now.
We're gonna try to look at that.
On the camera.
We're gonna
try real back in.
So to start things off, Sarah, why don't you set us up with just an opener here?
Okay.
I'm really excited.
Are you guys ready?
I'm very scared.
We're scared.
We have no clue what it is, so we haven't had time to think.
That is true.
And I will say, I really debated doing, like, something kinda safe and or doing something that maybe k.
Feels a little more vulnerable for us.
So my question is and you can it can be very succinct.
What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you on a date?
And it does not have to be a date with your current spouse.
Okay.
I've got one immediately that came to mind.
Is if you guys need a moment to think.
Yeah.
Lydia so my current wife and my only wife, that's what they How
many wives?
I've only
I guess I've just
a different podcast.
Lydia, my own wife.
That's if you're listening.
No.
So we we she was a really incredible runner.
Right?
So this was, summer.
I was, anything but a runner.
I was a goalie in sports because I hated running.
Right?
So she's like, hey.
We're I'm gonna go on a run.
And by the way, this was kinda first date.
Like, I didn't have a resume of a couple dates I crushed with her.
Did you ask her to go on a date and she suggested a run and you agreed to that?
Kind of
a power move.
Right?
Yeah.
Which goes to show I would pretty much do any.
Let's dig into that.
So, three, four miles.
I'm just going a little run, you know, locked me down down in the valley.
I'm like, great.
I'll join you.
No no problem at all.
By the end of the three or four miles, I had thrown up twice.
And not not just, like, all hunched over, like, I don't know.
Like, I mean, like, it looked like you could
be decked.
Projectile.
No.
Yes, sir.
We're leaving the parking lot at Lock 29, driving up the hill of 303, and I feel it coming again.
Pull Oh, no.
Pull the car over, put it in the car.
What did you see?
Like, she's sitting in the car thinking, who is this guy?
Threw up again.
So three miles,
three throws,
first date and for whatever reason, maybe she just felt bad.
Yeah.
Maybe she
just felt bad.
Maybe she just felt bad.
But she kept going on dates and, That's incredible.
Yeah.
Yeah.
See, maybe that's when you should have known.
She was the one instead of your story from last week where the homeless man It's right.
I'm not gonna be the person.
Okay.
I can't I don't think
I ever embarrassed myself on a date.
What is the price?
What's the price?
But maybe people as a date.
Thank you for listening to
Beyond the Message.
But what I can think of, I could think of a time I've probably still middle school, maybe early high school, that I had a crush on a guy, and I had a crush on him for, like, a long time.
And I had braces, and I was, playing volleyball, and he was right across the net from me.
And I went up, you know, trying to be very cool, and it hit I don't know what I did.
I don't even know if I tried to hit the volleyball.
My braces got caught in the volleyball net, and I was stuck.
Volleyball net.
Suspended in midair.
Suspended.
Little floss there.
And I think, if I'm remembering right, my dad actually had to come over and, like, untangle my braces
from the volleyball net.
Wow.
Wow.
And
he was standing right across from me.
It was Wow.
Did you ever go on a date with this person?
I I think I did.
Oh, one.
I'm sure you did.
I'm sure.
I think I did one.
But I think it was like a, like, oh, let's go to this Christian banquet thing, and you kinda had to have somebody on a ball.
A pity date.
Be okay.
Yeah.
That's funny.
Okay.
My first date with Emily, we so I grew up in a
These
are first dating stories.
You know what?
I don't know what to tell you.
Okay.
So I'm gonna finish my story.
I'm getting it.
Sorry.
My first day with Emily, I grew up in a really a small church that's super tight knit.
And, we somehow ended up at church on our first day because we went and grabbed dinner and then, was one of those churches where it had an evening service and you better be there.
Otherwise, people are gonna be, you know, calling you.
And so, a woman came up to me after Emily and I got there and informed us that she was ready to sing at our wedding.
Oh, wow.
Oh.
It was our first date.
What did you do?
I said, you're in.
Did you book her?
Did you book her?
I mean,
were you there you go.
Wow.
And then
Right then and there.
Yeah.
Okay.
Funny.
No.
I just yeah.
No.
It was
fine.
That is embarrassing.
That felt.
We did get married.
Yeah.
That was perfect.
So there
you go.
For me.
Okay.
So my most embarrassing moment was also I don't think it was the first day, but it was at the very beginning.
Yeah.
And, I think it's important to know that this date took place in Fairlawn, and I lived in Hudson at the time.
Matt and I went to a Chinese buffet.
I think I've heard.
Okay?
Yeah.
Okay.
It didn't I went to Barnes and Noble afterwards.
Really didn't date.
Yep.
Started not feeling well.
Condition.
Told Matt we needed to leave.
We maybe got a mile down the road, told him he needed to pull over.
Unfortunately, it was a cemetery.
I went behind a tombstone and
Threw up on somebody's grave.
And, honestly, unfortunately, I didn't throw up.
Oh, even worse.
I had overalls on as well because those were cool.
Never.
The worst part Just
keep going ever.
I mean, Matt was like, are you okay?
He really did not know what was going on.
I was like, do not come back here.
I think we've just crossed some lines Yeah.
In Beyond the Message taking it.
After the vows is coming up next.
Yeah.
We're gonna be good.
Guys.
Like, that is embarrassing.
Again.
We're not gonna be able to release this episode because it's gonna get the tag on it that you have to
That's incredible.
Sarah, I appreciate that, you know, you gave us a vulnerable question.
It's right.
And that I'm willing to answer
yourself probably the most embarrassing out of all four of us.
And yet And yet You and Matt.
And we are married twenty
eight years later.
Some the the next morning, somebody came to visit their grandfather's grave.
I don't
And they're like, what happened here?
I will say that that cemetery we passed by, my kids know that story, and they're like, there it is.
There's her mom.
We have to talk about
lies, this guy, and also a few other things.
Okay.
We're gonna transition on that.
I am literally, like, crying, laughing so hard.
Okay.
Thank you for that.
You're welcome.
Before we jump into the sermon, though, wanted to talk about, the fact that this is week nine of 10.
This is week nine of 10, which means, like, week 10 of 10 is next week.
We're wrapping things up.
Wild.
Yeah.
We have had so many people what?
But wait.
Just really wanted to share that this has been going so well.
Not only have we, I think, really grown from it, I've really grown from it, but we've heard from so many people that it's been, not only encouraging, but has really helped them to continue processing the message each week.
So we are gonna be taking a break after we wrap up the ten weeks.
But we have made the decision to bring it back for the next ten week sermon that we have that is in September, I think, August, September.
So, just really cool, really thankful for all everybody that has been listening and, if you're wondering,
will I get to hear any more stories about staff bodily functions?
Yes.
We don't know.
You will.
We might have to call.
You will.
Call the yeah.
This might be my last episode, however.
No.
Okay.
Well, let's jump in and actually talk about this sermon now.
Man, it was a really good one.
Pastor Zach, week nine.
We're in Genesis 22, which is when God is asking Abraham to sacrifice his son.
And wow.
I mean, I I I know.
I told Zach, I was like, I've kinda been waiting for this week knowing this one was gonna be coming.
First, though, even before I go through the four points that pastor Zach had, he kinda had a pre point, and that point was saying that who even is this guy?
We've seen Abraham over the course of these weeks, and in the story in Genesis just over and over again, you know, lying, sleeping with his wife's slave, which just all these horrible things, lacking in him, just confidence that he had in God.
And now we see God ask him to do something that is crazy, and he wakes up and is like, okay.
Let's go.
And Zach's point being that he thinks the difference between who Abraham was and who he is in this moment with God can unleash the power of God in our own lives in an amazing way.
So his four points that he went through were, number one, the question, the question that God is asking Abraham and that God is probably asking us and we should be listening to.
The confidence that, again, Abraham had, the miracle, and the miracle being that, again, God provided in that moment a ram.
Right?
And and we believe, we see Abraham will going in confidence believing there was going to be something that God provided.
And then lastly, the example.
I mean, this is a story that I think probably more than any other points us to Jesus and to what Jesus did on the cross and God sending his son.
So those are the four points, and that's what we covered.
Noting that there were four points.
There were four points.
And it took me off guard for a minute.
Yep.
Yep.
More to cover.
Yep.
I loved it.
But let's start.
What was a takeaway you had, something that stood out that you wanna share?
Yeah.
I think, I really thought, you know, this is obviously a big point of the message, but the idea of, what it means for Jesus to be Lord is something that I kept thinking about.
I think, we are really comfortable with the idea of Jesus as savior.
You know, save me from my sins, make me be able to spend eternity with you, but that's that's not the only role that he plays.
He also plays the role of Lord, and, that means that he's gonna weigh in on areas of your life that you it's gonna be it's there's gonna be tension between the way that you think you ought to live and the way that Jesus says you ought to live.
And what it means to have Jesus as Lord is to be willing to resolve that tension by aligning with him.
Yeah.
And I think kinda connected to that.
He made the statement that there is the reality that we very much can be around God
Yeah.
But really not know him.
Mhmm.
And I think a lot of us have become comfortable with, like, hey.
85 of my life, I've surrendered to the Lord, but the other 15% and it almost feels like that's good enough.
Because you're like, oh, that's like a b or b plus or something like that.
But that isn't what God is asking from us, kind of like what you were just saying, and so I thought that was that was really good.
Yeah.
I was just thinking, I mean, let's be honest.
This is a pretty odd story.
Like, this is in some a pretty an incredibly weird thing to read.
But it was in I loved how Zach brought up even in Hebrews.
Right?
Like, twice in Hebrews and then in James.
It talks about this exact story as kind of a model of faith for Christians.
And so for us who are having faith in Christ, right,
I think it was just a good reminder that, the way that God wants to, invade our life with his goodness, with his grace to use us, is not going to be based on our intelligence.
It's not going to be based on what vocation you have.
It's going to be solely based on, by faith, how do you respond to how God's leading in your life.
I think sometimes it's easy to compare yourself to others, to think, man, God's going to use other people who have, you know, they're smarter.
They've got, great jobs.
They have great opportunities.
But fundamentally, the invitation for all of us, is to respond by faith, into what God is inviting us to do.
Yeah.
Well, I will share.
I I feel like this sermon motivated me to examine myself in a way that I haven't felt challenged maybe in a long time.
And so, let's watch this clip from pastor Zach, together and then talk about it for a minute.
You see, if you don't give God the one thing, you get the miracles you can provide.
You get the power you have.
You get the wisdom you possess.
But when you give God the one thing, when you say to God, I don't know what you're doing, but I know who you are.
I don't know how the story is gonna go, but I know your character.
When you give God control, he's on the hook for the results.
Friends, there is a powerless Christianity that has become standard in the American church.
And if you wanna know what the root of a powerless Christianity is, it is Christians who keep parts of their lives out of the hands of God.
Yes.
God wants to talk about the one thing.
But not because he's against you, but because he's for you.
Because he can do with that one thing what you can never do.
God is saying to you, would you just give it to me and put me not you on the hook for your results.
Yeah.
I just found I found that really powerful and just, you know, recognizing that I think that's true.
I mean, there is a powerless Christianity that I think we can just be okay with.
And if we really are ready to unleash something that, God wants to do in our own lives, it's trusting in God's character and believing that we can do the one thing.
I mean, the I think we're gonna talk a lot about the one thing and maybe not personally what that is for us, but just the reality of, like, man, let's examine and really think about what it is that God is asking for us.
If he's not asked us for something, I don't know where you are in your faith because it it there should be that challenge and that tension in our lives.
So Yeah.
I think that's the very nature of what it means to have a relationship with God, to have a relationship with anybody is for them to be able to challenge you in the way that God can challenge us.
It makes you think of something that I read or heard Tim Keller say at one point.
He he used the concept of a Stepford God, which is like the from the movie The Stepford Wives.
The whole idea of that movie is that these guys have these custom designed wives that never disagree with them and always do exactly what they and what happens is eventually they find out that's not a real relationship because they have not they don't really have a wife.
They have something of their own creation.
And if God never disagrees with you, then I would argue you don't know the one true God.
You know a God that you've created.
If He
always There's always in agreement.
Always in agreement with you, and, the very nature of relationship is challenged, is Him being able to say, hey, actually this is how you should live.
Right.
And
that being intentioned.
I love the metaphor that Zach gave, talking about walking down a sidewalk a long distance and in a direction with another person. And that being like a relationship with God until, again, one person goes one way, one goes another. The reality is that God’s asking you to go in one direction, but are you actually gonna do it or are you gonna turn and go another direction? You can live and be in agreement with God on almost everything and it can look like you’re following God, and yet are you actually trusting Him? It made me think about—quite a few weeks ago—I realized that the word trust even just implies the fact that there’s gotta be a level of conflict or tension.
Yeah. I was thinking about when Zach was sharing. I love that image, like the rich young ruler. When Jesus comes up, it’s in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and He interacts with the guy. He’s got a lot of money, a lot of prestige. He’s sort of saying, “Hey, I’m trying to live rightly. I’m doing the right things.” And Jesus says, “But there’s one thing, right? There’s one thing that’s keeping you from placing your trust fully in me.” What happens when we’re showing a ruler? It’s funny—he goes away sad. It’s sobering for all of us to say, “Man, is that what we’re all saying? There could be so many things we feel like we’re doing great in our faith, but what it is is we want to remain in control of the one thing.” We think if we do that, life will turn out great or whatever, and we don’t trust God in that. But I think what Zach was saying is that then we have actually missed an opportunity for what God can do in our lives that is so much greater, so much bigger. Because if you control your life, then you deal with the consequences. But if you let God be in control of your life, He’s going to be the one that’s on the hook. But that is good. That’s so much better than what we could ever imagine or anticipate for our own lives.
Yeah. The rich young ruler made me think of the zig versus zag moment where God says, “Give me everything.” Jesus says, “Give me everything you have.” And then he’s like, “Well, I need to go the other way then.” “No? I’d rather not.” And he’s sad about it, but he’s still going in the other direction.
And that’s even what I was thinking—what are helpful ways to recognize when you are zig-zagging apart from God? Scripture talks about self as a mirror, a reflection of ourselves to really look at what scripture is saying, to recognize how we are different from that. But also to recognize the beauty and importance of the church—to have others speaking into our lives, to have people recognizing areas of our life that aren’t reflecting Christ, where we aren’t trusting Him, and we’re missing out on something. When you’re isolated, it’s easy to confuse yourself and think you’re crushing it, but you’re ignoring certain blind spots and setting your spiritual life up for trouble.
Having been on staff at this church for a long time, that’s something that’s easy to do here. It’s easy to come to service but not really engage interpersonally. If you come to church but don’t engage with the community of faith, then you’re missing out on the ability to be challenged—one of the primary tools God uses to challenge what’s going on in your life.
Even in an age where we produce podcasts to reach more people than might come in person to a class, don’t let even this replace community. Don’t let this discussion replace you taking a step to be in community with other people.
So to flesh it out a little more: what do you think keeps people back from giving up that one thing or trusting God with that one thing? Zach talked about internal confidence versus external confidence, and I resonated with that. Sure, I can say I have confidence in God, I believe I do, but do I have more confidence in myself? It’s easier for me to believe, “I’ve got this. I am in control. I can handle this and that.” Being able to shift and say, “Okay, I have confidence in myself, but my confidence in God should be so much greater knowing His character, knowing He’s trustworthy, and He’s proven it over and over.” There’s some other things we could flesh out about what holds one back from giving up that one thing.
I think also it might be a lack of belief that what God is offering is actually better. Depending on what God is challenging you to give up—whether it’s a behavior, a way of thinking, an action—it might feel painful. In those moments, it’s hard to believe that what God is asking you to do is going to lead to a fuller sense of flourishing than what you were doing before. You might feel like, “I’m happy with the way things are, so why would I change that? Turn that upside down?”
At the core, I think that one thing usually becomes an idol in our life. Because idols absorb our hearts and imagination over God. They become more beautiful than who God is. And often idols are good things—they don’t have to be bad things, like family or other good things—but they become ultimate things in our life. That’s why it’s so hard sometimes to look at that one thing and say, “Wait a minute, this has become more important to me than what God has asked or even who God is.” We have to do some work there and reorient ourselves.
It also makes me think about short-term versus long-term. Sometimes what God asks you to do will feel like short-term discomfort or suffering. Think of physical health—if you haven’t exercised in a long time, the first few times you try it will be hard and maybe even sore. But part of trusting God is believing the flourishing that is coming will be so much better than the comfort you had before pursuing Him.
That conviction is why it’s a daily rhythm. Jesus talks about taking up your cross daily, dying to self, losing your life so you can find it. Trusting God sounds lovely, but it’s hard. Even when Christ was in the grave for three days, it looked like it was a failure, but it wasn’t. It’s conviction that even in losing your life, losing control, losing that one thing, something greater is coming. You might not see it now, but because of God’s record, you trust Him in that. The foundation of trust is saying, “I can’t see the ending. I don’t know how this will go. It doesn’t feel like it’s going well, but I’m going to trust God has my back.”
That’s why, when Zach asked, “Who is this Abraham?”—Abraham does trust God now, but he was an idiot for eight messages. Look where it’s gotten him. It’s wild. Abraham gives statements like, “Isaac and I are going up the mountain,” and Isaac comes back to worship. Abraham doesn’t say, “I’m going to kill him.” He just trusts. Trust is transformational.
Abraham moves from fickle, untrusting, questioning to trusting and seeing the power of God. God wakes him up one morning and says, “Remember the son I gave you? I need you to take him to the top of this mountain and kill him.” There’s a question: did Abraham ever witness what Hebrews 11 says, that he believed even if he killed Isaac, he would continue? Did he see that happen, or did he just have that trust? It seems crazy to believe that. It’s easier for us because we have the whole Bible and Jesus. But Abraham just trusted.
That makes me think, how much more is out there for us if we actually take that step with that one thing and just stick with it? Think about Noah—God says, “Go build an ark.” Noah says, “Okay, God.” Or marching around the walls of Jericho seven times. Or David, or Moses going to Pharaoh. These stories are familiar, but God asks them to do things that seem nonsensical, and He has the power. We can look at Scripture and Jesus and say, “Wow, what is actually out there for us if we trust God’s character and put our confidence in Him, not ourselves?”
So any challenges or encouragements for listeners as we think about heading out?
One thing for me is it can be uncomfortable to invite people into locating your one thing, but that’s the grace of God—to have others who love you and know you invite them to speak into your life. Especially as men, we can be blind to areas we need to grow. I want to call a friend this week and ask, “What do you feel is the one thing I’m clinging to and not giving God full ownership of?” It’s humbling but exciting.
I’d say take some time to journal or reflect on this question: When was the last time I did something I didn’t want to do because I knew God wanted me to do it? If you can’t come up with an answer, you might have a problem. You might want to talk to somebody about that.
Mine is similar, connected to those ideas: I don’t think anyone has fully given every single part of their life to God. It might be something small and seemingly insignificant—like watching something on Netflix that feels fine but is creating something in your heart that keeps you from obeying God fully. Ask God to reveal that to you, and then respond. That has been a theme.
I just want to end with this question: What if we became individuals, and then collectively a church, that actually addressed that one thing in our life and gave it to God? What could God do? God is already doing amazing things at Christ Community Chapel, all to His glory, but what if we actually gave Him that last 5% or 10%?
So take time this week to examine that, and let’s be encouraged because God is faithful and trustworthy.
Thank you guys for joining me. We’ve got next week, week 10, and then we’ll be back. I appreciate you guys.
Thanks so much for tuning in to Beyond the Message. Before you head out, make sure to subscribe. We’re wrapping up week 10, but we’ll be back in a few weeks. So I want to make sure you know when that episode drops. All week long, we have content for you—from our CCC app to our YouTube channel to our website—so don’t miss out on content to help you grow right where you are. We’ll see you next time.