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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, I get to sit down with friends and colleagues where we get to laugh a little bit, we get to reflect and think about how we're going to live out what we have just learned. If you didn't get to hear the sermon yet, no big deal. Drop down, uh, to the description, listen to this sermon, and then come back. And I hope you will join us in this conversation. And today I am joined by Pastor Ken Prabucki and by Lana Chilton. Hi guys. Thanks. I know Ken. You didn't really. It was like, hey, hey, hey. Ken's not sure if he wants to be here. I'm not sure. We'll see. Okay. And by Pastor Jimmy Kozy. I do wanna be here, and I'm happy to be. Thank you, Jimmy, for acknowledging that you're here and you're happy to be here. Thanks for hosting last week. My pleasure. That was the best podcast we've released all. It. It might. There it is. So humble. Um, and I'm Stacey. And we're gonna start off with a little bit of an icebreaker. Uh, Pastor Zach made it very clear this week, and we have been discussing this very controversial that he is against Mediterranean food. It's so sad. Did he say he was against it or did you said he doesn't like it and you're not gonna make him like it if against like, he will break a friendship over it, is what I heard that to say. My question for us today is, what is the most controversial opinion you have about food? Hot take about food. Some imagine that. Yeah. Mine, uh, is that people who use salted butter don't know how to cook. He's just like, drop the mic. Okay. Because. And my argument is as follows. If you need somebody to tell you how much salt to put in your butter, like, you're gonna let big butter corporation decide how much salt you have. You're just telling me you don't know how to season your food. Okay. And my argument would be, like, you use salted butter for certain things, and there's still times you add salt, so they're not determining a set amount of salt that you need in. You have no idea how much salt is in that butter. Uh, okay, next. What about anybody else? I feel so underprepared for this question. Let me go. Go. Here's my hot tip. People who tell me that using salted butter is a problem might be the problem. Oh, wow. Wow. I do use salted butter. And when I don't use salted butter's surprise. Ken uses salted butter. Big fan of Big Butter. Big fan of big butter. Is that your hip hop name? Uh, I think that could be. Maybe something's on the horizon for Ken. Hip hop, hip hop, Big Butter and the Butter Boys. I can go. Keep going with butter. Wow. There are so many different things out there's so many different things. You have butter in everything. Literally is so. And salt should be. Question. I had. I had assumed we were gonna talk about our favorite food. Zach. It's Mediterranean. That is my favorite food. But favorite food is Mediterranean. Now that I got it out there. Now that I got it out there. If you feel personal, go by Lana's office later this weekend. Didn't feel empty personal. I felt sad. Don't know what happened. You're not even angry. You're just disappointed. What's your controversial. I only buy unsalted butter, but I think olive oil is better than butter in most cases. Stop. Okay, that's fair. That's not controversial. That's just fact, though. I mean, he thinks it's controversial. He told me to, like, hey, I'm gonna make Jimmy thinks a lot of things. Let me get out the you should, uh, try it. So you should try it. No, I think there's a lot of things out there. I feel like we could revisit this question because, I mean, there should be better hot takes about food. But, um, I will just add for myself, I think a controversial opinion is that I eat. This is opinion. I, uh, know you're. Yeah, I eat well. I eat anything for breakfast, so I don't eat breakfast food for breakfast. So I just. Whoa. Controversy. Well, it's not. I'm just saying that breakfast food doesn't need to be breakfast food. It could be chili, it could be vegetables. When it's all just fuel for you because you don't enjoy eating. I don't enjoy eating, which is a conversation that in and of itself is the controversy. I mean, let's have to say it's more sad. It's not that I don't like. I eat fine. I just eat to, uh, survive anyways. Okay, let's jump into the sermon. There's gotta be some great connections in that. But we will revisit things with Pastor Zach and his Mediterranean. Yeah. You know, feel like we need to. But we were in, uh, 1 Peter 2 verses 13 through 25. And I think if I don't know, actually, the header for the section. But I think it's something about submission, Rise Up Submission, rise up and submission. Um, and in this teaching that Pastors Zach did was a great teaching. A lot to pull out of there. His three main points were that God has a vision and then God has a strategy, and that God has a resume. When he talked about strategy. And I think we'll camp on a lot of things, but first of all, that strategy was submission. Submission ultimately to God. Um, and he talked about how submission can look and that it is, uh, about us not shaping who God is, but God again, being someone we follow, not just agree with. And we'll talk more about that, that I know in the coming minutes. Um, but to start things off, was there anything that stood out to you that was something that just as a highlight out of the gate, we just want to kind of make note of? Yeah. I think at the front end of his message, Zach mentioned that God desires to turn enemies into friends. And he got back to it on the missional piece when he was talking about strategy. Uh, what I wrote in my notes was, uh, that I, first of all, I was an enemy of God. Probably the worst of them all, you know, in terms of just God is holy. I'm not, we're not. And so the distance between us is, of course, only covered by Jesus. Yeah. But what really convicted me was that there are. And he was talking about families and kind of the families we see it, and the family in particular. For me, the way it could be, uh, that, uh, you know, I've mentioned before in various spaces, my family'a little bit busted up, a little bit splintered. My relationship with my dad in particular. And I, uh, was realizing that, you know, I actually don't desire to turn, um, my dad from an enemy into a friend. Um, and to the extent that my dad doesn't know Jesus, and I'm not sure that he does, I'm not sure that I want God to turn him from an enemy into a friend. But God wants to turn him from an enemy into a friend and then to go a little bit deeper. And this is when I really started to get mad at Zach, uh, for pushing me. What if God wants to use me, um, to turn my dad from an enemy into a friend? Or just for me to be open to possibility in prayer, if nothing else, to be like, hey, God, would you turn people that I just, uh, for whatever reason, really have an issue with from enemies into friends? Um, that might be my livid out challenge, if I'm honest. But we'll get to that at the end, I think, yeah. Wow, that's so good. I think, um, really what stood out to me the most was on the idea of strategy, and that strategy being submission. We've joked a little bit about the whole Mediterranean food thing and I really did feel sad. But it was such a powerful illustration when he said, you know, uh, a choice has to be made. Do you want lunch with Zach more or less than you want Mediterranean food? And how when we come to those places in our relationship with Jesus that do we just want agreement and where we stop agreeing with Jesus, we start going our own way, or do we want Jesus so much. That's right. That we will say, okay, bring me into agreement with you. Show me what that would be like. And we say we reimagine life because of Jesus here. And I just kept thinking like, that's the reimagined life. That's right. Is saying, hey, this was my vision. Mhm. But you've got a different idea. Help me see it and help me do it. Yeah, that's good. I think for me it was one of the things that was really striking was just thinking about how personal our relationship with God is or can be. And what I mean by that is we sometimes talk about how God has a plan. And I tend to think of that, at least personally, I tend to think of that as capital P, like he's working out a big plan in the world and in history and that's all moving toward his end. But. But I thought one of the things that was really, uh, striking for me about this message was thinking about how God might want to transform individual components and facets of my own life or my family or. I don't often think about my relationship with God that way. So that was that interesting. Actually. Sets up a clip I want to watch real quick. So let's watch that and then we'll jump right back in. God has a vision for changing the people who hate us, changing them into people who know him and love him and love us. But if God has a vision for our enemies, how much more so for us? How much more so for our families, how much more so for our communities did you realize? And if you came in this weekend and it's been a while since you've been in church and maybe you feel right now like you're the one person who doesn't belong here because you hate your story and you don't feel good about your life and you don't like the paint and you don't like the wallpaper and you don't like the carpet. I want you to know that God doesn't see what you are. He sees what you will be. He is a God of vision. And his vision is change. His vision is bringing things back to life. His vision is even changing his enemies into people who will be happy to see him when he gets back. So that, I think really ties in both with Ken, what you were saying, Jimmy, what youre saying. I know it struck me in. I loved what Zack said when he said on Thursday night, his vision is about change. His vision is about bringing things to life. And I'm curious if you think of your own life, your family's life in. Through a lens of going, oh, God has a vision for every aspect of my life that is beyond perhaps where it is right now. Yeah. Uh, probably sinfully, I think, Yeah. I believe God has a vision. And at my very worst, I'm like, yeah. And the work that he's done to pull, like in my family, pull people into his family. Well, I celebrate, like. But if God's vision involves the people that have hurt me, the people that have, uh, just caused chaos, not being part of that, that's an okay vision for me. And, uh, obviously that's such a dark sentiment. I know. But I think there's a certain amount of complacency. Um, it's not that. And I've said something like this before. It's not a question what God can do. I don't doubt that. It's. I think I'm imposing on him what I think he ought to do or where he ought to just stand by and not work, not bring things to life. Yeah. I don't know that I actively think about God having a vision for my life beyond where I sit today. And that s. And for my family members. I think that's part of what struck me about it. And absolutely taking it into the realm of going, man. I don't even maybe think about those that I have a hard time with or are enemies. Um, so that complacency would set in there. But even I think, for my own life, sometimes there's a complacency of not, uh, having a posture of expectation and anticipation and pursuit of what God's vision could be. I think, uh, actually differently from that. For me, what was important about that is I think aboutus, uh, I have younger kids, know, age 11 and younger. I'm thinking about their future all the time. I think clip and sentiment is encouraging because it helps me to realize that God is actively Working and moving them toward a vision that he has for their life that is better than the one that I've crafted in my mind. And uh, so I think, you know, in those moments of thinking about, well, what does this mean for my daughter's future or my son's future and what kind of person do I hope that they end up to be to think, well, hold on a second. You know, the Lord himself actually has a vision for what my children are going to tell what the future our family isn toa be. And he's working that out. And how can I align myself with, with that? That's good. That's really good. Um, yeah. And then, I mean, I do for myself a takeaway from that is even just going, I, man, I need to have, um, a heart that is praying for and thinking about those that are harder in my life, um, even if they're not an enemy. But just going, yeah, God is, can do amazing, amazing things and maybe he can use me in them. But I think, I mean, its not easy, Ken, to your point of going, man, for when there's hurt involved or trauma involved or all sorts of things, that can be a really probably giant leap to even be able to get to a point that you could pray. Those types of things. Yeah. And I think the flip side of it is that we were all at one point enemies of God. That's right. Yeah. And we're and probably still are in some areas of our life because we're not Jesus. Somebody's enemy right now. And just understanding that it is in some ways, I'll speak for me is in some ways hypocritical and pretty self consumed to sit in my own hurt without considering that God is working in me to mend horizontal relationships. I'll say that I have been, um, participating in breaking, you know, and I don't like that at all. But I have to grapple with that. Y. Yeah, let's move on to just the word submission. So what if I was sitting there listening to Pastor Dack sermon and right now because of what our culture kind of dictates or has negatively attributed to that word, I just kind of got stuck. So, um, I don't know anything you would say to somebody that is in that boat. And then again there's, I think a whole world we can open up and thinking through what that does mean for us and the beauty of what submission looks like. But let's start there. What if I'm stuck because of negative connotations that our culture throws our way? I'll Jump in there, Stacey, because I've had a number of conversations on this word with different women. Um, even next week, our chapter is going to bring where we are in the sermon. Next week is going to bring this idea too. And I think I wanted, for this conversation, I looked up a definition of submission because we all have our own idea. And so a definition, a technical definition, which can count. It sounds kind of scary if you interpret it wrongly or understand it wrongly, or if it'wrongly imposed on a person, which God never will. But the definition is yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person. And so again, wrongly understood or wrongly imposed, that can be really scary. But when rightly done, like biblical submission, yielding to God will and yielding to God's authority is what we're talking about here. And it's always a choice. Us submitting to God, that is not coerced, it's not forced, it's not demanded. And that, I think, is where we get confused. We hear submission and we think of the times that it's been wrongly imposed, wrongly understood. That's not what God's talking about. Well, and who God is, he is perfect character. Yeah. He is the one who has created us, designed us, understands how we are designed. Fully trustworthy. Fully trustworthy. And that opens up a whole other picture of why that word and obedience. And again, you could swap in that word for surrender as well and some other things. But, um, why he gets to ask us for that? I thinkre the submission is contextual, depending on who is asking you to submit. That's right. Yeah. I think to your point, Stacy, I, uh, think the way to being more comfortable with the concept of submission is to get, uh, to know God better, to understand his trust. It's like, you know, I don't know anything about cars. And so if I take my car to a mechanic and they say, hey, this is what needs to be done to fix it. And, um, I'm gonna submit to that because I trust the mechanic knows what he's talking about. I'm not gonna be like, well, I think I know better than you because I don't. Don't trust butter companies, but no big butter. They're out there trying to anyways, sorry. Salt into your diet so that you go to the doctor. So that, um. You really threw me off with that. I'm sorry. It's okay. Yeah. But I think that my point is the idea of submission is less about the concept of submission itself, but rather about the trustworthiness of the one who's asking you to submit. And um, so the answer is to seek God and get to know him, find him to be trustworthy. And that over time that makes submission much more. And I like what Zach said about how, uh, the point here is submission to God and he uses like submit to the emperor. Right? And, uh, just the examples that Zach used for Nero in particular, like, that could sound hyperbolic, but it's real. And I just think that resonates even today because in a world where we can shake our heads and lament the state of things and find reasons, uh, to not submit, uh, the time this letter was written, the world was on fire in some ways. And to even hearken back to that and just understand that it's not about, it's not about the emperor, it's not about fill in the blank. It's about God and who he has placed where and is fundamentally he's saying, do you trust me? Do you trust me? And I think just kind of we get caught in, in kind of the intermediary piece of it. Like, what do you mean by that? Meaning, like, is this really about, is this really political? Is this really, you know, uh, pick the context. But God is really saying, submit to me. I'm sovereign over all things. You can trust me in my resume. Don't look at them, look at me. Well, I think submission is the way you go from ah, vision to, okay, what do I do today? That's right. The reality is that every one of us is we are buying into some sort of vision for where we want our life to go. What do we want our life to be like? And the necessary requirement of that is that on a day to day basis, we are submitting to that vision via, uh, our actions and the choices that we make and things that we do. So I think, you know, maybe the analogy I would use is like, I coach football. And uh, I will tell, you know, I'll tell the players, like at the beginning of the season we play a particular style which requires us to practice a particular way, which is uncomfortable and difficult. And you know, and I have to keep reminding them that when we get to the game, it's gonna be really challenging to play against us. But in order to get to that point today, we have to experience, we have to work hard, uh, we have to submit ourselves to that vision via our actions in the moment, even if we don't yet see the outcome. I like what you said though, Jimmy M. That we are submitting to a vis something daily, right? Either God's vision Or it's our own, some other vision. Our own or something. Yeah, that's right. I think there's the autonomy piece, but like. Well, I'NOT if it's about me. I'm not. Well, you're submitting to in some ways your own ignorance to your own lack of ability to see the bigger picture. Uh, to believe that you know all things, understand all things, which is really dangerous and false. I, ah, want to move on to reminding everybody kind of about the. I guess. Is it a Venn diagram if it's just two circles? Okay. Venn diagram that Zach drew. I looked to Jimmy for that one of just the over Venn diagram guy over here know Zach's vision, God's vision. And that we always have that overlap where there's agreement. And um, really that submission, that push comes to shove when there something is in our lives that goes against that. Right. And where do we then turn to? Do we line up with God's vision and the relationship between just agreeing with God and following God and that those are two different distinctions. So first of all, I guess really I just want to unpack that because I think there's a lot we could make mention of in that. But also even asking the questions, are there times or is there anything you can mention about man? I've tried to shape God to be something he's not, uh, to make him like that Mediterranean food. Because I haven't wanted to go in this direction. Um, or times. We've been guilty of that. So that's a lot. Unpack. Uh, m. Maybe one thing I would offer there is that if you're a Christian and you can't think back to the last time that you changed your behavior, even when you didn't want to cor. Because you knew it was something that God wanted you to do, I would take a really hard look at what you mean when you say that Jesus is lord of your life. We run into this a lot in our line of work where, um, through various circumstances we come across people who, you know. For example, I've met with couples who are living together and sleeping together, but they're not married. And they'll say things like, well, I think God wants me to be happy. And I'm like, well, maybe he does, but maybe he has a different definition of happiness than definition that's better than the definition that you've come up with. And to follow him might mean denying yourself something that you want to do right now. And I always think that the Venn diagram made me think of that. That uh, you know, we should be uh, examining our lives to find the areas where uh, those circles need to be pushed closer and closer and closer together until they overlap. Because if the Holy Spirit's at work in our lives, then that means that there are gonna be times where what we wanna do is gonna be our like. We are gonna desire something that is out of alignment with what God has for us. What does it look like in those moments? Well, and that's a really good example of where biblical literacy intersects our day to day. Yah, you knowuse, again, just think about when I meet with folks sometimes I'll ask them, do you believe that God has something to say about this? Truth is, God has something to say about pretty much anything. Yeah, but I gotta invite you to consider that if so, what does he say? You only know what God has to say about something if you understand what he's already said in the written word. And then of course a third question is to your point, do you care? It's a question I have to ask. We all have to ask. But I think understanding God has something to say. He takes a position and it's a position for his glory in our good and pretty much everything. And so understanding what he has to say is so important to living out what he has to say in obedience. So we can't throw up our hands in ignorance. And so I didn't know. Always say think you said that. Yeah, but I completely agree with you. And this is where I was hoping this conversation would go. But what do I do too? If Im hearing that and going like ah, biblical literacy, where do I even begin? I mean I know I always point people like lets start in the Gospels, read the book of John, but you have to start knowing that its not overwhelming. Reach out to us. If youre going, I dont even know where to start. When you say how do I make sure I understand what God says about these things? Um, that's what we're here for. Ye, I think that's a great point. Staceacy. In this passage we see that Jesus has given us an example. But in a few weeks, um, prior we looked at Peter saying follow such and such example. Paul in his letter at one point said follow me, imitate me as I imitate Christ. So it isn't always intuitive depending on how much time you spent in the scriptures or who has helped you to understand the scriptures. And so you say, reach out to us, get involved, jump into a Bible study, find someone just a few steps ahead of you who is following Jesus. Not perfectly correct, but following Jesus with submission, you see fruit in their life that they want more than just a little bit of agreement. They want to follow Jesus and invite them to help you understand. Because it isn't like I'm a Christian and I know exactly what God's vision of my life is. I think I would add to that, just that, um, you know, we can talk about biblical literacy and reading and studying. That's obviously important, but I think there's also. It's incredibly important to live in Christian community. Yeah, I think that's incredible. M. That's something that, you know, I think we have a tendency in our culture to think, if I can just learn it and study it and get to know it. And this is an individual pursuit. And I think the reality is that Christianity was never meant to be lived out that way. To follow Jesus as not to simply read your Bible on your own and follow him on your own, it is to be done within the context of Christian community. And so that's where the biblical literacy, obviously that's important. I'm not saying not to read your Bible, but the reality is that by living in community with other Christians, they will also help you. The Lord will use them to say, to challenge your assumptions, to challenge your actions, your behaviors. And you, if you think you can do this individually, you've misunderstood. Yeah. And I think just to wrap things up, I just want to encourage everybody. When, you know, as Zach moved into his last point, there is an incredible hope when we see that God himself, the example that we have is that he sent Jesus to completely submit, ultimately saying, not my will, but yours to his death. Um, so that we have the hope that we have. And so the beauty of that, the hope of that is an example to us that should encourage us as we think. Like, okay, it is safe, good and wonderful to look at those parts of my life that are. I'm not in this agreement. I need to move towards God's vision because his good, he has only good things for us. So, yeah, I think the reality is in that in submission in particular, God is not asking us to go somewhere that Jesus has not himself gone before. And what an encouragement that is. Um, it's more of a like, uh, not to do as I say, do as I do. But actually, again, follow my example. I've gone there, I've done this. It's good. Trust me, follow me. Itss a wonderful encouragement. I feel like weve mentioned a lot of different ways to live it out this week. So I dont know that we need to do too much more there. But find something out of something that weve talked about and had these conversations as a step that you will take, whether its community, whether its asking yourself the question of where in my life, um, have I not had the Lord Press in for a while now? Um, live it out challenge. Just find those things and find something to go with. But thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks, Nason. Yeah, thanks so much for tuning in to be on the message before you go, just make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on any content in the future. And also, we have content for you all week long on our CCC app, YouTube channel, or even on our website so that you can grow where you are all week long. Share that with friends and with family. Until next time. We'll see you soon.