All In 4 | Where People Belong

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.

How are we all doing this morning?

That was a great time of worship, eh?

Well, I actually want to start this morning with uh as I was listening to Pastor Dave preach.

I've been in this church for a long time, and I actually count myself honored to be here speaking and serving at a church that I grew up in.

And that I was taught by Pastor Dave, and Pastor Brody was actually my youth and young adults pastor, uh, both.

And the only thing he ever says about me when I ask him how I was, he's like, You were intense.

I'm not sure what that means.

He's never expounded upon it.

Um, one day I'll get it out of him.

But I just want to say I'm honored to be up here preaching at this church, serving you.

This is really a great place to be with Pastor Malachi and Pastor Brody on the team.

And I also want to just say there we had an event last night at this church.

We had our movie Family Fun night.

We showed the Disney The Lion King, and we had close to 300 people in this room from around the community and the churches, and it was just a fantastic event.

And we had Talai and Natasha and her team, which I think are sleeping, but they're downstairs sleeping with the rest of the team because they just killed it.

So you see them, give them a high five.

Anyone that worked on the team, they just crushed it yesterday.

This was a giant stage set for a movie to watch a movie, and they set it up last night and vacuumed and did everything.

So it's really exciting uh to see what they did and how many people came out to that.

So we actually are in a series right now called All In.

And the all in series is actually uh there's the saying that we say where people belong in Jesus matters.

Pastor Brody actually started us off in our series with all in, with talking about Jesus first.

And the he said, Jesus is is first in our life and who we are, and without him, what are we?

It says he talked about love, his mission, love, his message.

So we go to church as we are, not as we should be.

And then the next week he spoke, uh, Pastor Burry spoke about being generous with the gifts that God's given you.

And this is all about us being in what we're doing, just not just in church, but in life, doing the things that God's called us to, but being generous in our gifts, being generous and giving of our heart and giving of our gifts and the things that God's giving us.

And then we uh heard from Jeff, he came in just last week, and uh it was all about honor.

We honor up, we honor down, we honor all around, uh, and we just heap honor on each other.

We honor each other, just honor, honor, honor.

It's the key culture of who we are.

And so we have uh uh where our people belong is what I'm actually talking about today.

It's actually where people belong is people are our privilege, our passion, and our pursuit.

Uh and I actually Pastor Brody said something in his very first message called the distance creates distortion.

It's actually something I've talked about multiple times since then.

So it was a really good, good word you had, but distance creates distortion.

And there's a scripture that I want to start out with, Myth, because I'm I want to I want to talk to you today about the heart of KCC, about one part of this, where we belong, how we belong, why we belong.

And I'm actually gonna do uh I'm gonna talk about Jesus.

We sung about Jesus a lot this morning.

Every song was about Jesus.

Pastor Dave was talking about Jesus.

We're ready to hear more Jesus this morning.

Right on.

I'm ready to talk about Luke chapter 7, and I'm gonna start in verse 36, but I just want to read this.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

This actually isn't Luke.

This is 1 John 4.20.

Sorry, I'm just priming you for this.

It says, Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.

Whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen.

So we're talking about the heart of KCC this morning.

And the uh one of our core values where people belong.

And if we say with our mouth that we love God but we hate someone else, do we really love that person?

That was a uh quite a large challenge for me as I was preparing.

I'm like, Lord, I want to love people the way you've called me today.

I actually want to bring it up this way.

When you have distance from God, and this is what Pastor Brody said, and it really brought it together: distance creates distortion.

If you are far from God and you have created that space between you and him, you cannot love people the way God wants you to love people.

Because what's coming out of you is you.

Me and my wife have a saying there's extra grace required people.

There's some people that just require a little bit extra, just a little bit of extra love.

Just, I'm not a hugger, but an extra hug.

You know, like they need a little bit extra in your life.

And so if it was up to me, I wouldn't give them anything.

Because of who I not because I don't love people, because I sometimes don't have more to give.

But when Christ is in me and I'm close to him and he's filled me and in the spirit, and I belong to him, and I know I belong to him, and my identity is in him, I can have no more distortion about who that person is.

And I've cut the distortion down, and I am who God has called me to be, and thus I can love that person the way he's called me to be.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for what you're gonna do in this house this morning.

Thank you for the word, thank you for the worship, thank you for everything uh that you want to do, Lord.

But as we speak, Lord, that you speak through me, that your words penetrate the heart, Lord, that uh we didn't come here just to hear the word.

We've come here to walk away and act on that word.

So we're excited this morning that we get to hear from your Holy Spirit.

We know that you're moving in this place already.

So Lord, just let this be a time of learning, of moving forward in your kingdom, moving forward in our own relationship with you, so that we can cut down the distortion and create that less distance between us and you.

Lord, so this this morning we're ready to hear from you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So as I was doing a little bit of uh seeking on this one, um, there is I went through uh a few psychological websites uh just because I like psycho psychology stuff, and I've been really challenged the the last little while to kind of figure out the motivations of people, of things, uh, and something that people all want, that people all want is there's three things.

It actually popped up on a few websites.

It was the three things were one belonging, which is amazing because that's what we're talking about this morning, so it fit really well.

But people want belonging, and this is the definition of one of the sites.

It says belonging means creating an environment we all feel like we're a tight-knit tribe, where we're all equal and we're all rowing in the same direction to reach our goals.

Everyone wants a place of belonging where you can come and be part of the tribe, moving in the same direction, knowing that you're there.

The second thing that actually came up when that was safety.

People want to belong, but they also want to know that in that belonging where that tight-knit group is, they actually feel safety.

So safety means creating an environment where you can take risks and stretch yourself and not feel judged.

I mean, you want to have feedback and you want to know how well you did, and I'm waiting for Monday just to see how everything went.

But you want, but what I'm saying is they're not gonna come and they're not gonna judge me harshly upon what I and just make a judgment.

They're gonna say, hey, this is what you can do better.

So you in that environment of safety, because you belong to that night tight-knit tribe, you're safe.

You're safe in that place.

You can be who you are, you can fly the freak flag if you want to do, you can do whatever you're gonna do, but in that place, in that belong you're gonna belong, you're gonna be safe.

The third thing that actually popped up in this was people want to matter.

So the thing about this is if you're isolated from other people, one thing you don't have is belonging, the second thing you don't have is any safety, and the third thing is you have no one around you that tells you that you matter.

For me, church has always, always, always been a place of belonging, safety, and I matter.

The friends that I have that are around me, they matter, and I matter to them, and they tell me that hey, I'm doing something.

People want to accomplish something in their life and they want to matter.

I want to matter, I want what I do to make a difference.

Right?

Everyone wants those three things.

I'm sure there's 50 other things that you're like, no, I want this, and that's great.

For the purposes of this, just think about those three things.

Right?

And it comes down to again, distance creates distortion.

If you're distant and you're isolated from God or isolated from people, those three things are very difficult to accomplish.

Right?

And so today, um actually, I w how many of you have Instagram?

By a show of hands, all right?

This is the I'm not judging you.

This is a place of safety and belonging.

So, how many of you have Instagram?

Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, woo, WhatsApp?

Okay, so if one of you or a few of you have all five of those, we have prayer after the service.

There's some healing that needs to happen.

But those things give you the illusion of belonging, they give you the illusion of safety, and they give you the illusion of mattering.

And so I want to start this with I knew when I worked at Shaw just a couple years ago, uh, before I worked here, I started at Shaw when I moved to Kelowna.

And I met this woman, and this was about she's telling me a story, and she knew I was a believer, and she knew I was a Christian, and we talked about that stuff and I was serving at a church, and this is, and I had grown up that way, and that's what I was doing when I was in Prince George.

And so we were talking one day, just sitting around lunch with a few people, and I asked her, Hey, do you want to come to church?

She had by this time she had met my wife and she'd got to know us a little bit, and she's like, Nah, I don't go to church.

And in all the time that I had known her, she was never actually opposed to the gospel.

She never, she never said, No, I don't want you to talk to me about this, but she just was like, No, I don't go to church.

And I said, Well, how come?

She's like, Let me tell you a story.

And when she told me this story, this is about 15 years before that.

She was 17 years old.

She was hanging out with one of her friends, and they were gonna go to the fair or the stampede or something in just outside of town.

And so they came back late, and she had asked her parents, hey, um, can I spend the night at your house?

And so her friend asked her parents, and their parents said, Yeah.

Said, but the only thing is, is if you spend the night with us on that Saturday night, you have to come to church with us the next morning.

So she thought about it, and she's like, Okay, I can do that.

And so she gets up and they were up late, and you know, doing what girls do at night, talking, doing that stuff.

I don't I don't know.

I'm not a girl, guys.

But they're sitting up late and they're doing their nails, thanks.

They're doing their nails and they're washing their hair, and then they they get up that next morning, right?

It's it's not it's not no pass to the pastor's cards after this one.

But she's they get up the next morning and then they're all ready and they drive to church and she gets out of the car and she's feeling a little bit apprehensive.

She's not really quite sure how how she's this isn't the first time in church.

She's never had an experience with church and she's not opposed to it.

So she's with her friend, but she's feeling just a little bit, a little bit nervous, and she walks up to the door, and her parents, her friend's parents, they shake hands with people and they're like, Oh, welcome.

And uh she gets to the front door, and the first thing someone says to her is that is that the best you can dress for church on a Sunday?

Right?

So instantly her eyes well up with tears, and she looks and she kind of turns and she just runs away, and her friend couldn't grab her.

And she's like, No, I don't want to be here, and she runs away.

Have you ever felt like that?

Have you ever felt unwanted, unworthy, undervalued, unwelcome?

Have you ever felt uninvited?

So today I want to actually dive into Luke chapter 7 a little bit.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

We're gonna start in verse 36.

And I do want to tell you one of the biggest truths of the Bible today.

The biggest truth is that Jesus invites those others reject.

Jesus invites those others reject.

Our hard at KCC is that anyone who anyone else has rejected can come here and find who Jesus is.

They're invited into the kingdom of God.

They're invited into this house, they're invited into this community.

So in Luke chapter 7, just I'm I'm I'm going into a little bit of story because I want to know the motivation of what we're gonna talk about today.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

So 2,000 years ago, Jesus is walking the earth, claiming to be God in the flesh.

Now here's the thing if he is God in the flesh, the people around would have thought he's just for the Pharisees.

Because at the very least, if he was a prophet, then he would still just be for the Pharisees, because he's God in the flesh.

Right?

People may not have been able to identify with that, but they wanted to be able to know that he is God in the flesh walking on the earth.

And so if they were for the Pharisees, it would have been that the Pharisees were pious and they were outwardly religious.

There's a scripture in the Bible that says if you're you're fasting, you put oil in your hair to make it seem like you're not fasting.

But the the Pharisees would throw dust in their hair and they would everyone would know they were fasting just because they wanted to show how religious they are.

They wanted to show how outwardly religious they were, how much they knew, all of those things.

Um, but surely if God was if he was man or God in the flesh, he would be for the Pharisees.

And so one day there is a Pharisee named Simon, and he's throwing a party.

Now it's not like a party that we have today.

We sit around a barbecue at Pastor Brody's house, grilling hot dogs and hamburgers, and he's making us the best coffee you've ever had in your entire life on that big giant espresso machine.

But it's not a party like that where there's music playing in the background and there's all kinds of stuff going on.

This is this kind of party is that they had uh in the Jewish culture.

If you were uh a Pharisee, they had an outer room.

And in that outer room is where they would eat their food.

And so they would have the food and they'd all be sitting on their chairs, and there's they would be sitting there, but they would leave the door open so the common folk could come in and listen to them.

And so in that time, they would actually be uh talking about the latest things.

They would be waxing eloquent about the things that they knew.

Uh so as people would come and listen, they'd be talking about the latest Canadian election and how that went and why their guy didn't win, or why their guy did win, and how great they were, or they'd be talking about the latest uh theology question that happened to come up, or they're talking about this prophecy that came from over here, or they're talking about the latest episode of Stranger Things, or whatever it is.

The reason that they did it like this was because they didn't have the internet, they couldn't sit in their bathrobe in the dark at 11 o'clock at night with a bottle of Dr.

Peppers checking on the next theology question.

They couldn't do that, so people would come around, they they couldn't watch the latest episode of the the Real Housewives of Jerusalem.

There was none of that, right?

Or the the Pharisee amazing race.

I don't know, whatever it is, but they didn't have that, so they would come around the Pharisees, and the Pharisees would give them all the latest things that were going on.

And it was an opportunity for the Pharisees to prove how great they were, and how smart they were, and how righteous they were.

And so, in this party, in verse 38, Luke chapter 7, verses 30 37, actually, it's a woman in that town who lived a sinful life, learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees' house.

Luke 7:30

So she came with an alabaster jar of perfume.

So the code language for the sinful woman means that she was the town prostitute.

So the Pharisees were waxing eloquent, and they're sitting there having a great party.

Imagine having a great party, and you know who the town sinful lady is, and she just happens to walk in.

Now, if you're a Pharisee, you're thinking, man, what is she doing here?

She has no right, she's unwelcome, she's unclean, she's whatever she is, she is not supposed to be here.

I didn't invite her.

She's not invited to where I am right now.

And here's here's where my mind kind of just turned a little bit.

What what brought her to this place?

What was the motivation that she would risk that thing and run across into a Pharisee's house where she knew she wasn't welcome?

How where what was what was that motivation?

And so it I started thinking about things that I've experienced with people.

Maybe she didn't have a dad.

The dad wasn't there to show her the proper how you're treated as a woman.

Or maybe the other thing is she did have a dad, but the dad was abusive physically, verbally.

Maybe her parents died.

This actually happened a lot.

The parents would perish, and she had a sibling.

And the sibling one day was like, I'm super hungry.

What am I gonna do?

And she knew that she could make money this way.

Or she had a boyfriend.

The boyfriend pressured her.

And she's like, No, I don't want to do it.

He's like, if you don't, I'm gonna break up with you.

And she's like, No, I don't want to.

If you don't, I'm gonna break up with you.

So they do, and she gets pregnant.

And back then, in those days, there was no, the government didn't supply you with money that doesn't you had to take care of that on your well, they didn't have an Okanagan pregnancy center like we do to take care of these single women that have babies.

They didn't have that.

She was rejected, she was unemployable, she didn't know what she was gonna do, she had nothing.

What was the motivation that she actually went to this place and risked it to meet Jesus in a Pharisee's house?

But I do know this is that she hated every minute of it.

That she despised what she did, she didn't know where she had come.

How many of us have ever felt like that in our own life?

How did I get to where I am?

How did I get to the place where I feel unloved?

I'm ashamed, I'm guilty, I'm abandoned, I didn't make this decision.

I don't have a relationship with one of my children.

I'm suffering from addiction or whatever it is.

What what is that thing that have you ever felt that?

This is all about the invitation to who Jesus is, to it, he's extended the invitation.

This is this is where my favorite part it starts to get really exciting right here.

So it's two things that happen.

She runs in to see Jesus, she kneels in a posture of worship, getting behind him.

She brings that jar up, she breaks that jar, pours it over Jesus' feet.

In an extravagant moment of worship, she breaks that open.

Now, there's a couple things that actually happen in this thing, and it's it's absolutely amazing.

It said, one moment in the extravagant act of worship.

So this perfume would have been so expensive at years' salary.

It showed the men that she was ready, that she's available.

So when she wore that, it was so expensive that it was a year's worth of salary.

Men knew that when she wore that, this is she was ready for that.

So in this moment, she runs in in an extravagant, extravagant moment of worship and just worships him, crying uncontrollably behind him on that floor, laying at his feet.

And this is what happens she breaks that jar.

And that was the symbol she was giving up the most valuable thing that she had, and she gave it to Jesus.

And in that moment, there's a moment of repentance.

She's saying, I'm gonna walk away from my old life.

By offering up the most valuable thing that I have, Lord, Jesus, I'm gonna I'm repenting.

I want to walk away from this life.

Verse 38, as she stood behind him at Jesus' feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears.

Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them.

There was no way that a Jewish woman in that time would ever bring their hair down.

It was not something that they did.

But she is so overcome with emotion, she was so overcome with who Jesus was in that moment that she is at his feet, broke open the jar, and let her hair down.

Why?

And this is this is the part where Jesus is a bit of a superstar.

Well, not just in this one moment, but you know what I mean.

So Simon the Pharisee, he says to himself, When the Pharisee who had invited him, Jesus saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner.

He's essentially saying that if if Jesus was in fact the Son of God or God walk in the flesh, that he would be able to know that this woman is a sinful woman.

So now obviously he's not the prophet because he's letting they're they're together talking.

So that's what he's saying.

So Jesus responds by saying, Oh, let me read your mind.

Because he spoke to himself.

Simon the Pharisee spoke to himself.

He said, Do you see this woman?

I came into your house, you did not give me any water.

But she wet my feet with her tears and she wiped them with her hair.

You did not give me a kiss.

But this woman from that time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet.

You did not give me a kiss.

Not put oil on my head, she poured perfume on my feet.

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins are forgiven.

As her great love has shown, whoever has been forgiven little loves little.

Then Jesus said to her, Your sins are forgiven.

That's an exciting time.

Your sins are forgiven.

She is white as no, she is whole.

She is white as no, the way God because of who he was in the invitation.

Now here's the other question I wanted to answer.

Why did she risk all of that?

Why did she risk everything that was happening right there?

She had probably already heard Jesus speak because if they're in the same town and she had knew that Jesus was some of the Pharisees, those chances are they were in the same place.

And it's actually she probably heard about his great love, maybe experienced who he was, watching him do a healing or something like that.

But it says, um, I'm gonna paraphrase because it actually tells us in chapter 11 there's a there's a parallel in the Bible in Matthew chapter 11 that brings it all together.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

It says, What did Jesus exactly?

He was preaching, did John the Baptist uh were asking questions of Jesus, and he said this is what he said, you are invited.

This is what the scripture says.

It says, You are invited.

So I'm gonna read the full thing.

It says, Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in hard, and you will find rest for your soul.

It says, Come to me, come to me if you're weary and you're burdened.

It doesn't say how long you've been a believer, it doesn't say any of that, it just says, Come to me.

All of you who are weary and burdened, come to me.

If you feel like you have nothing left, come to me if you're overcome with shame, come to me if you're overcome with your rejection, come to me if you're tired of living up to the standards you can't reach, much less trying to reach God.

Come to me.

Come to me, those who are rejected at the front door of a church because that person didn't love you enough to let you in the front door.

Come to me, everyone who is broken.

Come to me if you have filed bankruptcy or considered suicide.

Come to me if you're in the middle of depression.

Come to me.

There's no there's no come to me uh if you're perfect and you have it all together.

It's come to me.

It's come to me.

And this this time we're sitting right here is is an invitation for us to know that people belong in a place where God loves them no matter the situation, the time that you're in.

And I know believers, believers that still don't know this.

That God's love encompasses everything that you've ever done, that you're invited into the kingdom of God, regardless of what you've done.

That right now, the thing that you think is overwhelming, that you can't get past, that you're stuck on, you're invited.

Look to the person to your left and tell them that you're invited.

So here's the thing: what was it that changed her?

It wasn't pointing out the woman's sins that changed her, it wasn't judging her for the lifestyle that changed her.

It wasn't shaming her that set her free.

What was it that changed her?

It was the invitation to be in the presence of God, to know his love.

She knew where Jesus was, and she was willing to walk across the town, willing to walk across all of that just to experience that time with Jesus and understand repentance and move forward in her own life.

She was willing to give up the most valuable thing that she had so she could spend just that time with Jesus and know him more.

It's come to me.

Whatever you have, it's come to me.

And oftentimes we sit in a message like this, hear what the pastor is saying, you're like, oh, that's for someone else.

I want you to just take a second and think, how does this apply to you?

Because we're not, we want to be hearers of the word.

And I can I know the Holy Spirit's moving in this place, and people are feeling this.

You are invited.

You want less distortion, less distance from the Lord.

Here's the invitation.

Come to me, all who are weary and burdened.

You are invited.

We talk about suddenlies in this church.

Right now, in this room, is someone suddenly moment.

Where you're gonna be set free from something that only you know about or maybe people know about, but this morning you're gonna be set free because you are going to accept the invitation that Jesus has for you.

This is who we are as a church where people belong.

Do you know why we belong?

Because of who Jesus is, because of who what he's done for us, for what he's done in our life, not for anything that we can do.

It's about Jesus.

Jesus first, all the time.

So let's just close our eyes and bow our heads.

If that's you, just know that he's speaking to you.

Just know that this morning he wants to move you forward in your relationship with him and cut down the distortion.

So if that's you and you're feeling invited this morning, raise your hands, do what you gotta do, but just take a minute this morning, and I'm gonna pray for you.

And we're gonna see testimony of what God's gonna do because of the invitation that he extends in his word and says who he is.

So, Lord, those people that are feeling it this morning, Lord, that are feeling your spirit move them, Lord, that they would just accept the invitation and something would break in their heart in Jesus' name.

Lord, that they would be set free in a direction of something maybe that they didn't know was holding them back, Lord, that they would just be willing to accept that invitation and move forward in what you have called them to do.

That you can do things that we can't do.

Lord, and that it would be Jesus first, and that in accepting this invitation, it would be new light, a new life, and a new moving forward in Jesus' name.

If this morning, as we keep our heads bowed, if this morning you don't know who Jesus is and you want to belong, and you're feeling like maybe this morning is a moment for us to belong, and that that's what you want.

As our church keeps our eyes bowed, our heads bowed and our eyes closed.

But if you want to know Jesus this morning, we want to celebrate that with you, but put your hand up, and I'm gonna walk you through a prayer with the church if that's what you want.

Amen.

See that.

So, church, you just want to repeat this after me, dear Lord Jesus.

I know that I need you and your forgiveness.

I believe that you died on the cross for me.

I know that you're the only way to God.

So now I want to start living for you.

Please forgive me, change my life, and show me how to know you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Bless you guys.

Thank you for listening.

For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.