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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 as friends and colleagues, and we think about how we're going to live out the message, and we reflect on it and figure out how also to apply it to our lives. If you didn't get to watch or listen to the message, just drop down to the description, and then I hope you'll join us after you listen to the message. My name is Stacey DiNardo, and today I am joined by Jamie Hewett, Jimmy Cozy, and Holly Diakandru. Thanks, guys, for being on here today. Good, Good day. Good day to start things off. So, the Passage is Proverbs 4:23. It's the last week in Proverbs, and the passage says, keep your heart with all vigilance. Far from it. Wow, I'm really struggling. Did it right. Did they write it down in that Bible or did. Okay, let me start over. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. so we're talking a little bit about. Pastor Joe talked about vigilance and, like, caring for your heart in that way. And it's a really good thing, obviously, to talk about being vigilant around taking care of guarding your heart. But I was gonna ask you guys, what are some ways that you think you have become vigilant and maybe not as healthy of ways or maybe healthy ways as you've gotten older? I know my, yeah, go. My kids would probably say and my wife would probably say that I've become very vigilant about our front door being open. Left open in summer months while the AC is running. So this is not a security thing. This is an energy. Oh, yeah, the security. It cares about the security. Yeah, the security is. Let them come in. Let them come in. I'll fight you. I don't care. But regularly, many times a day, there's a comment being made about the front door being open at increasing decibels, depending on which iteration it is. Oh, wow. Wow. So it's not like. Yeah, you're just caring about energy things. He's green. Jamie's a green guy. Green. He's green. I don't know if there's really a good why behind it, but I can tell you that it's efficacy, usage. What was that? That's where safety are gonna come in. That's like a, classic. They might, but it's just that it should be closed. You're Gonna run these. It's just a principle. Relax a little bit, Jamie. Relax. That's the question. I thought this was a safe space, but, dad, this is. I was just trapping. I wouldn't like to live in my house. Trapping in the house. Doors are always open. Okay? My front door has my heart, and I am vigilant. And you don't want your heart to escape. Okay. Vigilance. I thought I could hear that here. She's vigilant. Hyper vigilant about something. I have a similar one to Jamie's, actually. And it is that every day I feel like I have to shut off, like, nine light switches in our house. I'm like, who even turned all these lights on? The sun is out. It's probably one of your millions of children. I don't have a million that I know of. Millions, plural. Cozy nation. Good to see you. You just go around the house, just turning off like this. It's a. I don't. This is. I don't even know my wife about this. Just to myself. but, like. Because typically, at least during the school year, the way it plays out is like, we get every. I get everybody help everybody get out the door, and then I quickly jump in the shower, get ready, and le. But then as I'm walking through our upstairs, I feel like I shut off seven lights. Impressive. Three fans. He's really feeling it. How did all. And that's a spare bedroom. Why were you. It's winter and your fan is on. I don't know if I can explain that. And I just remember my dad. Old man. Doing that. No. I am amazed. And I used to say, I'm not going to care about that. How much does it cost to keep a light on? 5 cents. But I'm like, you know what? I could use 5 cents. And it matters. Jimmy, what you're saying matters. Are really bonding over there. Second and furthermore. Can we name. I was gonna say, can we name things we can say vigilant about? furthermore, I feel as if I was personally attacked in this sermon. You were. You were. It was about you. Joe talked about protein. I'd just like to say prior to this. How many grams have you had today, Joe? I think 190. Okay, see? See? But is this like millions of children or actually 190? It's the actual process. Counting every day. But Jamie is very impressed by you. Here's the thing, okay, America, please listen. Prior to beginning recording, at least two people at this table disclosed that they have become. Begun eating cottage cheese. At least in Part because of me. We did say that. So. Wow. You're taking. Crediters are ready for us eating cottage cheese. For us making healthy cheese. Can I ask side comment? Cottage cheese. Costco actually had the good cottage cheese. Like the brand new culture. Good culture. We bought five. Oh, you're the problem. You're the problem. M. You're being vigilant. And the giant Costco size ones. I mean, we took a picture with the cottage cheese and everything. Were you filling a waterbed with cottage cheese? We're through three of the five containers. Wow. I could see it. Okay, anyways. Vigilant. That's too much. You're being too vigilant about Costco running out of cottage cheese. I don't know that I could think of something really. Well, the only thing I could think of is that I do start being a little neurotic about my sleep. About, like, I'm gonna. I have to get up at this time. So if I go to bed right now, how many hours? Oh, gosh, this kid needs helping. An adult. Yeah. So I don't. But I used to be pretty, like, fancy free with my sleep. I don't need it. I'll sleep when I'm dead. I, need to sleep before then. You are vigilant about your. If you don't sleep. Chocolate peanut butter intake and what you choose. As somebody may have offered you a buckeye that you declined. Because it didn't. No. I'm diligent about what the source of that is. So I will only eat chocolate and peanut butter together in the form of a Reese. I don't want it in ice cream. I don't want it in a buckeye. He offered me a buckeye. Hyper vigilant. I don't want it. What if somebody literally hands you peanut butter? I don't want it. Just a mound of peanut butter in Nepal. Chocolate. I don't want it. She's like, that's not real interesting. Like a Reese's cup is real. Yeah. In the right consistency. Okay. This is crazy. Wow. This is great. She will poke. Yeah. Yeah. this is a lot today, guys. I don't really know that. And I don't really know that I have anything. You guys, though. We have got way beyond two old men right here. I accept that and chocolate peanut butter issues. But let's move on and let's start to talk about. About the sermon. So again, Proverbs 4. 23. Wrapping up this series, but a really great teaching, from Pastor Joe. I want to start off by reminding after he read that verse. There was this analogy of his friend that had a dairy allergy that made me think about vigilance and guarding and protecting something, in a very real way. I was like, man, why does this make sense? That of course, if you have a dairy allergy and it's going to send you the. You're so careful about it. And then with our hearts, we're careless, I think, sometimes. So the points that Pastor Joe walked through is first kind of defining what is your heart and what does the Bible mean when it's talking about your heart? Because that's said over and over again in the Bible, and kind of piecing that together. And then why guard your heart? Pointing out that our heart is very vulnerable. It's very easily influenced. If we don't think we're being influenced by things, we're crazy. and that whatever has your heart has you. And then really a really important one, talking about just that our heart actually determines our capacity to love God and love other people. and then last point on that was just how do you guard it? And two, again, really strong things there is just talking about protecting it first, which that's kind of that being vigilant, stop feeding it things, but then also to feed it the right things. And that was a point Jimmy felt attacked. But feeding it the right things that make it healthy and make it grow, and be healthier. So to start off, I thought I would kind of combo or throw out a few things for us to dialogue about. How have you seen your heart influenced or kind of what has your heart, what has captured your heart? He talked about that, like, what was it, 90 story building and crossing that plank? And that's how you can tell what actually has captured your heart? yeah. And how do we steer our hearts in the right direction to not be influenced by wrong things or captured by the wrong things? this was, I thought the, the dairy analogy about the person who had the. The severe reaction was really challenging because I think for, for me at least, I, don't often think as critically as I should about whether it's the shows that we watch or the media, the podcast, the, you know, whatever shows up on my YouTube algorithm. I think that, it is naive for me to suggest that those things are not impacting me in some way. And of course, if I was like, if I knew, you know, watching this show was going to lead to a total life meltdown, I would never do it. Right. But it never happens that way. It's never that way. Little, tiny. And so I think it was just challenging to. To do a little bit of an audit of, like, what. What actually am I allowing into, like, into my heart to influence me? What. What am I thinking about via the media that I choose to consume? That was challenging. well. And I like, what you were starting to say is, like, it rarely happens overnight. Right. You know, you don't just wake up and your heart has been given to something else. It's a small little what we consume, what we celebrate, what we're worrying about, what we're talking about. And then little by little, our affection starts to change. And then that changes everything. Yeah. Where you find your time and your mind wandering in a moment of downtime, like, where do you go? So when you ask that question, like, I was thinking, what has my heart? And I was like, I've been spending a lot of time. I recently discovered I'm, like, three years behind everyone else. Ola, the online liquidation. Oh, gosh, whatever. Lots of confessions here. But, I'm like, the amount of time that I've just sent, scrolling, looking for, like, the deal, because I'm an old man who likes to shut the lights off, door closed, find a deal price for that coffee maker. But I was just thinking of that as a picture of, like, yeah, I probably could say in some way more than I really would like to admit. Even though I'm doing so publicly, like, I. That has captured my heart right now. So it's wherever we find ourselves, giving our time to. You know what? I didn't like. I didn't like the idea, that my heart is always up for grabs. That was really convicting to me, I think. You know, I would say, like, no, my heart belongs to Jesus. That's the end of it. And then when you start thinking through, like, okay, but on a daily basis, minute by minute, like, my heart, my affection, my attention is up for grabs. And am I being intentional with where I put it? Yeah. Yeah, that was convicting. I feel like I talk about this often on here, and maybe it's because I'm so easily influenced and persuaded and drawn away from the Lord, but, like, I. I find I will go through seasons of, like, listening just to worship music. And then I'll go through a season. I might have been in one lately where I'm, like, just listening to country music, but, like, I find myself, like, just, like, not. I don't know if hardened is the word, but, like, I don't know. My. I think my affection is. Is drawn to different places or just more closed off. And so again, I mean, I. I think it is silly even in thinking about being influenced. I mentioned it to you, Jimmy, that I'm like, okay, I could list off in the last six months the number of things social media has targeted towards me and I've ended up buying. Right. Like, to not realize that we are influenced by whatever it is we're putting in ourselves and taking in M. Or to think we're above being influenced. Yeah. Or to think we're above. Like, that's. Yeah, yeah. You're probably in some danger if you think that you're above that. Which is the line from the sermon. What was it? That sin is more. What was it? I should have written it down. We're wildly allergic to sin. M. We're gonna talk about that. Sorry. How about that? How about that? This felt like a segue. Perfect. no, I mean, I did want. Stacey just bought a segue from, social media. From Ola or from social media. If it was on there, it would be mine. no, he made the point, though, to say that we're way more allergic to sin than we often realize. And so yet I think we convince ourselves that it's okay to, like, dip our toe in the water, to dabble in a little bit. It's not gonna matter if there's just a little bit that I involved in or whatever it might be. So, I mean, why do you think we're so good at believing? yep. Believing that just a little bit is okay. Jimmy, I actually think you started to answer this when you talked about the idea of you don't realize the full extent of the consequences. Right. Watching this one show this one time, what's the problem? And then you don't realize how that's gonna affect. And so we believe, we tell ourself a lie, that, oh, it's just this one little thing. It's not gonna matter. This doesn't influence me. This isn't a big deal. And then slowly it opens the door and snowballs. Yeah. I don't know if this, analogy will make sense or not, but, it's almost like it made me think about, drinking alcohol. And like, we all know the Bible says what that. That getting drunk is right, a sin. But also, if you've been around the church for a while, you also know there's a variety of opinions on drinking. But, like, if you have one drink and then you have a second drink, the line between, like, I'm m sober and I'm Drunk can sometimes become blurred. It's harder to see. It's harder to see. And you don't know where you are. Yeah. So the further steps that you take. Yeah. So the clear line at the end of the second. Yeah. It's not like this is where I'll be. It's not like there's a sign that pops, a notification that pops up. Hey, you've. You've done too much. I think sin's the same way. Yeah. Where it's like we can dabble in things that. That we think are harmless, and maybe in the moment they are harmless. I don't know. Maybe they are. But enough dabbling, and it's no longer dabbling. It's something different altogether. Sin rarely presents itself as sin. Like, it's very obvious. Right. It's a comfort, it's a relief. It, you know, calms the fear. And then the next thing you know, it's sin because you've given your affection. You've totally switched. What? you know, your trust in God has been questioned, and now you're thinking through, like, oh, wait, does he really. Do I really believe what he says? You know, it rarely presents itself as what it is. Yeah. I went back to Genesis 3, and in the garden with the fall. And the lie is, you're not going to die. Right. That's what the serpent says to us. And just how often in my life, I believe that very same thing. The line in the sermon that he said was, you know, I might pay for this later, but I'll be okay. Like. And it's like, I think we think about sin that way. We're like. I think a lot of times we're like, I know I shouldn't do this. And I think we probably accept, yeah, this might hurt me a little. But we don't understand how allergic we are. I think we also rationalize our life and we say, there are levels to this. So, like, I'm watching a show that's inappropriate, but, like, I'm not acting on it. So. And I think that line of reasoning gets you into a lot of bad. Minimize how allergic we actually are and how severe it actually is and how much it can hurt us and hurt our relationship with God. I mean, no one wakes up and says, I'm gonna watch this show because I'm gonna then cheat on my wife. It's gonna lead to. Yeah, right. You know, I mean, like, it's, it's. And again, I'm not making a correlation that that's always how it goes. But it is small little steps. And that's why I think this proverb exists in here and is such a wise teaching to say, you've gotta guard it, you've gotta protect it, you've gotta be vigilant. You know, I don't know how real. I mean, I guess I'm gonna say it. this story has always stuck with me. There was a, well known serial killer named John Wayne Gacy Jr. And murdered a number of people. And after he was caught and arrested, as they were having conversations with him, they said, hey, how did you get here? And he describes, he says, well, it started, when I was a teenager and me and my friend were behind a convenience store and we looked in the dumpster and somebody had thrown out some pornograph graphic magazines. And we pulled them out and we looked at them and just his ability at that point to look back and say, yeah, like, I never thought that, that this is where I'd end up. But the idea of objectifying and treating people as objects to consume, you know, eventually led one thing to another, to this horrible place that most of us couldn't imagine getting. But he never saw that. So. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so what have we around this table? What have we found actually helps feed our heart and helps us to love Jesus more. and kind of, I put a caveat on this. Like, not just what, what are we supposed to say? What's the pat answer for this? But like, what really has shaped your affection for the Lord? And, and do you feed your heart with. Yeah, well, don't all talk. We're good at saying hungry hearts here. Yeah, I. Go ahead. I was gonna say, I think, the times I've had the most affection for Jesus, you know, like you said, Stacy, there are the, you know, the answers you might expect. Like, oh, you should read your Bible. You should. And those things are absolutely true. They are true. Yeah. I think when I am, pursuing being on mission with Jesus and able to see him do things that otherwise could. Were impossible. You know, I think those are the times when I'm the most affectionate toward Jesus and my heart is the most aligned with his because it's like, man, that was amazing. I, could have never had anything to do that with that. But I, because I was here, I was able to see you do something incredible and that inspires affection. Yeah. In John 6, right after feeding the 5,000 and the disciples had a front row seat. They were the ones like handing out baskets. shortly thereafter, after the crowd leaves, Jesus and Then Jesus turns to Peter and he says, are you going to leave as well to the rest of the disciples? And Peter's response is, where would we turn? You alone have the words of eternal life. I just, like, as you were talking, I was like, I just had that picture in my head of what that kind of affection. Having seen Jesus transform people's lives, which is why powerful ways, if you're a part of, like, if you're part of this church or a part of any church, you should find a way to get. Don't just, don't just be there to hear sermons and to, do studies and to like, find a way to get onto the field. Not because it's like, oh, we need you to do this music, but more because it's going to increase your affection for Jesus because you're going to see him do things that otherwise you're just going to miss and you're going to be around other people that are experiencing things and seeing things. That only increases your own faith. And also, I think your affection can go hand in hand in that. Yeah, I mean, I was not saying, like, don't say read your Bible, because that's a pat answer. Like, obviously there's so much value in that. And even when you are like, man, I do need to do this even when my feelings don't go along with it. Like, there is absolute so much value because God's word has power, it's living, it's active, and it can move in our hearts. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of things as Christians that. And we've talked about this before, but you. It is still, it's very good to do whether your feelings are there or not. And affection can follow, you know. Yeah. One thing that's really impactful for me is to keep, record of God's goodness. And so, like, I think, like, I've heard an analogy once where it was like, you know, in the dead of winter, you know, back in the day, or the prairie, wherever you were using food with cellars, but, you know, you would store up, you know, your cellars. And so then when you'd run out of food, you'd go down and draw and you'd go down and you draw from that. And so the idea of however you keep record, like, for me, I love to put it on Instagram, right. It's like my squares of, like, this is God's goodness. Let me stamp it. Let me say, it could be like, I had it did a gratitude journal for a period of time and so then when I get upside down and I lose some affection, I can go back and I can say, like, look at these big things. But also look at all these little simple things that just, show who you are and pointed me towards, like, my creator and the one who designed me and the way he loves me and all the things that he's brought in and out of my life. Then my affection automatically grows, right? Cause I'm automatically reminded of everything that, like, stamped his faithful in my life. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. So, there's an Ezekiel passage 36. Thank you. Ezekiel 36, where, Ezekiel promises that God will give us a new heart, and that's a heart of flesh. He'll take our heart of stone, make a heart of flesh. Which I think just as a side note, I feel like sometimes that is just my prayer too, is like, that I will just like, lord, don't let my heart ever become a heart of stone. Like, let it be soft and, open to what God has. But, he gives us a new heart. And so how does, like, remembering the gospel actually help us guard our hearts and actually change our capacity to love God and to love others? I'm just gonna throw one more thing in here. as Pastor Joe was talking, we filmed this on a Thursday night. So I just heard the message, and he was talking about how it is our, like, the love of God that can change our love for others and our love for him. And it reminded me. If you haven't checked out Faith Stories, that's another podcast we have, but it's. Brandy Williams was on Faith Stories, and he referenced this also in a sermon. But, I won't share the whole thing. But he talked about just her sharing on there, how, she had had a awful, awful, awful situation happen in her childhood and abandoned by fam. Completely abandoned by family and said told horrible things by her family. And the changing point for her was when she realized how much God loved her because it was being taught to her. And she's like, well, if that's true, my life can be changed. And it's just at least one example I could point to going like, man. That is where understanding, realizing the love of God, you see the transformation of what he has done in her life. So I don't know, for us around this table, what can that look like? How can remembering the gospel, be transformative? I think for me, you know, I. When I'm at. When I'm not at my best, I tend to operate from a paradigm of conditionality. Where it's like, you know, I, believe others love me in so much as I'm providing value to them. And if I'm honest, I love others in so much as they're providing value to me. And I think the gospel flies directly in the face of that because, you know, part of the. Of me reminding myself of the gospel is reminding myself that everything that needs to be accomplished for God to give his favor and his love to me was already done for me. Yep. I had nothing to do with it. And you don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. In fact, I deserve the opposite. But instead is given and credited to me through Jesus, life, death, and resurrection. And that is a paradigm shifting, you know, that that allows. If God can love me like that, then that allows me to let go of my need for conditionality in my relationships with others. Yeah. Yeah. The idea of living in a conditional worldview, I think as good as you or I may be, like, it can't protect us from our worst days. You know, it's like, there might be some days, or it makes us terrified of our worst days because our worst days will cost us everything. Yeah. And so, you know, like, I can't. As much as I try to guard this, eventually my worst day, I can't protect myself from that. But the gospel is the only thing that actually is strong enough to save us. I think on our worst days, if we're honest with ourselves, if we're willing to actually recognize who we are can be. Yeah, I like what you said. I was just thinking about the jewel analogy that also Pastor Joe had at the end of, like, if we just knew that we could hold onto this thing and it would transform us. And I'm like, we have it. We have it. And why do we so quickly, like, jump and get, I don't know, distracted by the wrong things? When it's like, no, we have that in the gospel. And just holding onto that, reminding ourselves of that will change us. And I like the idea that Passage is saying, like, he's gonna replace the old heart. Like, I don't have to try harder. And so, like, my tendency would be like, well, I'm m just gonna try harder. I'm gonna do better. Yeah, I'll just. I'll do this myself. And then this reminds me of, like, I couldn't. Can't try harder to fix my fallen and brokenness. Right. It's like he just comes in and it is ultimately like grace and love just replaces it. And then it's like, well, that should change everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's so good. Well, this has been great to discuss. It's been a great series, I think just one that's so practical. So I hope, if you're listening, that again, there's been moments that, I know you could be teaching us things, that's for sure. But again, we kind of just put this out there, hoping that there's little. Little things that we can apply for our lives as we head into our weeks. So see you guys next time. 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 on our website so that you can grow right where you're at. And we'll see you next week.