Why You Feel Like You Don't Belong Anywhere

Hello.

Hi, good morning.

I'm Misha.

And some of you got a text from me this week that says, it's your boy Misha.

And I'm real.

I'm not AI.

I'm a real human.

So this isn't the same Misha.

If you didn't get that text this week, if you fill out a connect card, we'll uh we'll make sure you get a text from me this week.

It says it's your boy Misha.

We're starting a brand new series today that that's all about belonging.

For the next few weeks, we're gonna talk about what is it what does it mean to belong?

And experiencing belonging almost always begins with the question, what's your name?

What's your name?

Uh if if if you on your way in, you you should have gotten a name tag that says, Hello, my name is.

If you uh haven't written your name on it already, if you will, if you if you didn't get one, you can raise your hand.

And to our friends in Monroe and Saginoff, thank you for joining us.

You should have gotten the name tag as well.

And if you want one, you can raise your hand.

Um, and if you're watching online, you can go grab a sticky note or something to write on if you want to play along.

But but what is your name?

Um, what did you write on your name tag?

Look at the did you write your first name?

Full name?

Maybe some of you put a nickname or a joke name, or you wrote down the name that people call you, even if it's not really like the name that you were given.

What did you write on your name tag?

And and okay, now I want you to think a little a little more about this.

What other names or labels could you have added to your name tag?

Think about think about the way people label you.

Maybe it's based off what you do for work.

Maybe you could have added a label there.

Or maybe people have given you labels based off of what?

Maybe what you look like, or your personality, your achievements, maybe even your sin.

What what what what what do you have on what does your name represent?

Maybe you carry around labels that you've given yourself.

And maybe you didn't write them down, but but all of us, we kind of our name represents more than just whatever we would write down on, hey, my name is.

Um I wrote the name Misha.

Uh Misha is not my given name.

Some of you know my given name is Michael growing up.

Most people called me Mike, but for at least the last 20 years, uh, Misha's kind of the name that most people call me.

I the name actually I comes from a summer that I spent in Ukraine in 2005.

I did some work with kids, and the kids all called me Misha.

And because of what God did in my life and how he molded me and shaped me that summer, kind of since then I've kind of gone by Misha.

And it's this daily reminder for me of the work God's done in my life and the work that God's doing in my life.

So I wrote down my name is Misha.

But I'm more than just a Misha.

I'm a husband, I'm a I'm a dad, I'm a foster parent.

I grew up in Michigan.

I love being outside, I like identifying birds.

Uh it's kind of pastime.

I like running, uh I like Detroit sports.

You know, I like coffee.

All this is true about me.

It didn't all fit on the name tag, but it's all part of what my name represents.

My my name carries with it a story, and and so does yours.

So, what's what's the story your name carries?

What is what what what have you done in your life that's part of that story?

Where do you come from?

What matters to you?

What do you dream about doing?

What is your name?

Maybe you didn't think that question was gonna be so deep, okay?

I get that.

But it is, and it's important for us to think deeply about our name and honestly about our name, because how we see ourselves and how we make ourselves known to others will impact how we experience belonging.

Like belonging, belonging requires us to be known by people, which is like scary for some of us, because you know you better than anyone.

And you know what it means for people to know you.

And so if if being known, if belonging requires people to know me, like, yeah, there could be some fear there, there could be some anxiety.

So for the next few weeks, we're gonna talk about, we're gonna unpack this concept of belonging.

And my prayer as we've been developing this, and in my prayer as we as we go through this, is that you will discover that you belong here.

And by here, I mean like actually here in this space, and for our friends in Saginaw and Monroe, like in that space, like you belong here.

We we pray over this space, we pray over you.

Even people we don't know that will come here every week.

We we create a space that's welcoming and safe for you.

You belong here, and you belong here, like as a part of our church community.

Like we we belong with one another, and we're gonna unpack that specifically a little more next week.

And and you belong as a part of God's family.

Yeah, this is part of why God invites us all to address him as our Father in heaven.

That's why Christians might sound a little awkward, but but sometimes we refer to each other as like brothers and sisters in Christ.

It's all about communicating, belonging.

You belong here.

And that kind of belonging is central to the gospel, central to the good news of Jesus Christ.

And so for the next few weeks, we're gonna actually be walking through the book of Philippians in the New Testament if you want to turn there.

And we're gonna see today that right off the bat, this concept of belonging is central to the gospel.

So, Philippians chapter one, the very first verse, Paul he's just writing this, but he kind of reveals his name tag.

It says this Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.

Now, if you know Paul's story, Paul's given name was not Paul, it was Saul.

But here he addresses himself as Paul.

Timothy is his apprentice, so they're both kind of writing, and he adds this to their label, servants of Christ Jesus.

And then next he labels his audience.

Here's how he labels them.

He says, Two, all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and the deacons.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then he says this I thank God, I thank my God, every time I remember you, in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Can you already sense how connected Paul feels with the people he's writing to?

He's like, every day I'm always praying for you, I'm thinking about you, when I think about you, when I pray about you, I may have them filled with joy, but he's he's deeply connected with the people he's talking to.

Now, Paul, a little context, had planted this church like a decade before he wrote this.

So he planted this church, he got to know some people, he raised up some overseers and deacons, some leaders, and then he went into the next town to plant some more churches.

And now he's writing back to these people because he keeps hearing as he goes on with his travels about how the people that he raised up are now like continuing to share the gospel.

That whatever whatever happened when he was there, it hasn't ended.

They've gone and they've continued, they keep sharing the gospel with others.

And so now he sees them, he's like, You're not just like a church that I planted, you're partners with me.

That's the label he gives them, partners in the gospel.

And it gives him joy, but it also gives him confidence that the work that God had begun through him is now continuing on through them.

And so I want to make it clear when he talks about this work that God begins.

I want to be clear about what he's talking about.

I want to be clear about what the gospel is that's that they're partners with him in.

So I'm gonna share with you, uh, maybe some of you have seen this, the three circles before.

Um, this is a tool to share the gospel.

I'm gonna model it for you.

The the first circle here is represents the world as God designed it.

It's whole, it's made in his love, there's there's harmony, there's peace in this.

This is the Garden of Eden.

This is the way God intended creation to be.

Unfortunately, this is not the world that we experience.

Something happened.

God's good and perfect and whole creation rejected their design.

We humans, made in God's image and in his likeness, we chose to rebel against God's plan.

The Bible calls that rebellion or that rejection of his way sin.

This is this is and sin leads to brokenness.

This is the second circle.

This is the world we know.

We we all broke we all sense brokenness.

Something feels off between us and God.

Anytime you feel that, that's part of the brokenness.

Anytime you feel something's off in the world, something's off in me, this is all representation of the brokenness.

We all sense it, we all experience it, and the bad news is we all contribute to this.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And because we all sense this, this is all play, the brokenness.

We all want to get out of it.

We all want to escape the brokenness.

We all desire to get back to wholeness.

And so we make attempts for that.

And some will some will go after pleasure, some will go after comfort, some will go after achievements, some will go after approval, some will go after accumulation of stuff, distractions, whatever we can do to get out of this brokenness and to get back to the wholeness.

The problem is most of the things we attempt, if not all of them, just lead to more brokenness.

They leave us feeling further from God, further from others, further from ourselves.

And God sees this too.

And God longs for us to be whole as well.

It's how he made us.

So he made a way.

Jesus is the way.

This is the third circle.

God sent his son Jesus to live in that broken world.

And yet, Jesus, while he existed in the broken world, he did not contribute to it.

Jesus lived and did not sin.

He lived his life in perfect alignment with the way of God.

And despite that, he faced the ultimate consequence of our broken world.

He died.

And he died a humiliating sort of death on the cross.

But because he lived his life without sin, and because he willingly took the consequences of the broken world, God restored him back to life.

He rose him from the dead.

And what and what Jesus taught is that if we would acknowledge that God did this, if we would acknowledge our part in sin, our part of uh bringing brokenness to the world and turn from it or repent, and if we would put our trust in his death and his resurrection, he would restore us as well.

That we can actually be restored to wholeness in our relationship with God, and that wholeness then could flow out into our lives, into being restored with each other and being restored to ourselves.

And when we trust in Jesus, God sends us back into that brokenness to lead others to put their trust in Jesus.

This is the gospel.

This is what Paul was saying.

You've been partners with me in this.

And when he hears the stories about his friends in Philippi, he's like, he's overjoyed by the fact that all these friends they're experiencing wholeness again.

And they're leading other people to wholeness.

And he's like, This is it.

You're you're you're doing exactly what I asked you to do.

And because of that, he feels and senses this deep sort of belonging with them.

It's what leads him to write this next.

He says, It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart, and whether I'm in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you sharing God's grace with me.

God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Okay, and I want to pause just real quick.

Did you catch that Paul is writing this from prison?

Okay, and we're gonna he's gonna be a little more explicit later in the letter, but the the part where he's like, whether I'm in chains or not, he's in prison when he writes this, disconnected like physically from these people.

He's not even able to get to them, and he's in chains because he was preaching the gospel, and he's writing to his friends, keep preaching the gospel, keep keep doing this.

And and what it points to is this idea of belonging, it's not primarily about proximity.

There's something there, but it's primarily about connection, it's primarily about relationship.

And and who doesn't want to be connected to someone who writes stuff like this?

I have you in my heart.

We share in God's grace with each other.

I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

That sentiment, it is the output of belonging.

It's the output of going through, maybe even the anxiety of saying, I'm I can be known to this group of people because once I'm known, they're gonna love me and they're gonna be like we're gonna be a part of something bigger than ourselves together.

That that's this sort of belonging.

There is a deep sense of bonding and connection and relationship when we share in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is why, honestly, why if you hear us talking about groups, I know you know we talked, we you heard about rooted earlier.

This is this is why groups are so important to who we are as a church.

Because that's gonna be the place.

It's it's not in a setting like this, we're in rows, and I'm talking up here, and you're kind of watching or watching online.

It's gonna be when you get in a circle, around someone's living room, or around someone's dinner table.

That's where you're gonna build those relationships that begin to you get to work out that belonging.

And so if you're not in a group right now, man, that ought to be a next step that you consider.

And if you're not in a group now, the best way to get in a group right now is to sign up for Rooted.

These rooted groups, it's an 11-week commitment.

You're gonna get to know people, people are gonna get to know you, you're gonna get to know God, you're gonna work out kind of what is how do we grow with each other in this journey?

And and the reason why this is the best time to get signed up with rooted is because those groups start at every location the the week of September 20th.

So again, if you if you're not in a group, do this.

Talk to someone on in the next steps area after service.

This is so important.

So Paul starts this letter, he kind of addresses this connection he has with them, and then he does a little bit of a pivot.

And so we're gonna kind of sharp turn here.

This is what he says next.

This is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Paul's prayer is that their love would grow.

And that as their love grows or as their love abounds, it's gonna lead to all these other things.

Notice he doesn't pray for all these other things to be the things that grow.

He says, I pray that you will, that your love for one another will grow.

Because he's confident if you're if your love for one another grows, like you're in, you're gonna you're gonna experience the all kinds of fruit of righteousness.

What Paul is saying for these these people is he's like, man, that that commitment you made to the way of Jesus when I was with you, man, I want you to keep that commitment.

And as you lead others to trust him, I want you to help them commit to Jesus so that his love will grow in them and so that it will turn into fruits of all kinds of righteousness.

And what it means for you and me is that as we commit to Jesus, his love will grow in us, and it will well up, it will grow in us, and it will turn into fruit.

Like we'll start to see the impact of his love in our lives and in the world around us.

But you have to commit.

And following Jesus is a whole life commitment.

27 years ago, to the week, maybe even to the day, I don't know the exact day.

27 years ago, I made a commitment to follow Jesus with my life.

It was the week before my freshman year of high school.

And God began molding me and shaping me, and 27 years later, I am way more committed today than the day he saved me.

And he's still molding me, and he is still shaping me, and I've still got a long way to go.

But my prayer every day is that God's love will abound in me, and that it will grow in me, and that it will turn into fruit, and that I'll actually get to see, maybe, and even if I don't get to see, that it will turn into impact in other people's lives.

And you know what?

You know what my joy looks like?

Man, last weekend, uh young man, he's 26 now, I've known him since he was a kid.

He he said, Hey Misha, I I'm I want to be baptized.

I I'm ready to commit my life to follow Jesus.

And I've known this kid for the last decade, his his faith journey has been a roller coaster.

And over the past eight, nine months, he's started this steady direction of okay, what is it gonna look like to keep my focus on Jesus?

And last last Saturday he made I got to baptize him right here.

Yeah.

And here's why it brings me joy because Stephen's life is now hidden in Christ.

Like he he's experiencing true belonging that comes through making a commitment to follow the way of Jesus.

And it's in Christ that his true life is beginning.

It's in Christ that our true belonging begins.

And and it's in true, it's it's in Christ that our true belonging is brought to completion.

Because it's only in Christ that we even have the hope of any sort of eternal belonging.

It begins with Jesus, Jesus sustains it, and Jesus will carry it to the end.

If you feel in your life that you're, man, there's something off between me and God.

If you feel like that relationship is broken, if you feel disconnected from people, if you feel disconnected from yourself, like somewhere in the course of life, man, you you feel like you've become lost to you.

Jesus invites you to receive a love that restores.

A love that restores you first to God, but also to one another.

And ultimately it restores you to yourself.

So the real question today is are you committed to Jesus?

Or will you commit your life to Jesus?

And if it's yes, or if you're if you're ready to do that today, you can do it today.

You can make this commitment today.

Whether it's for the first time, or whether for it's the thousandth time, or in a fresh way, or in a new way, or in a new area of your life, you can you can make the decision to decide today to say, I'm choosing to trust Jesus with my life.

And when you say yes to Jesus, here's what he does: he gives you a new name.

Not like a new birth certificate.

Okay, not everyone needs to change their name from Mike to Misha or whatever, some version of that, Saul to Paul.

But he but what he does is he gives you a new identity, he gives you a new purpose, he gives you a belonging that impacts not only your name, but everything, the entire story that your name carries with it.

It impacts all of it.

When you trust Jesus, it changes everything.

And you don't have to do anything to earn it, you don't have to try to pretend that you're holy to sort of keep it.

When you put your trust in Jesus, you belong to him forever.

He calls you his child, he calls you his beloved.

You are in Christ.

So, will you commit to follow Jesus?

We're gonna actually give you a chance to do something, to commemorate that.

If you're like, yeah, I'm ready, or you know, I've already done that, but I want to say it again.

We're gonna give you an up um, we're gonna create a moment for this.

And actually, um I'm gonna I'm gonna turn it over for our friends in Monroe and Saginaw.

I'm gonna turn it over to your campus at that at this time for specific instructions.

All right, and with the magic of the internet, it's now it's just us.

And if you're on the field, I see you.

If you're watching online, I see you.

She did a little thing, and then now they got their feed.

Um but but at the end of every one of our our messages, we we kind of, if you're new to us, we we close this out by by taking some time and saying, okay, God, what are you calling me to do?

And and for us today, as one way of symbolizing, hey, I'm ready to say yes to Jesus.

Um if you if you have your name tag, we have uh there's a table right here, there's one in the back, we got some on the sides, we've got one in the field as well.

Um, there's gonna be a little basket on the table.

And if you'll just take your name tag during this time and place it in the basket, that's a way of symbolizing.

I I'm all all that represents me, I'm I'm choosing to trust it in Christ.

In another letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians, he describes this idea of trusting God as he says, I've I you you are you've died to yourself, we're taking off our own life, and he says, Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

So this is what this is symbolizing.

And if during this time you're like, yeah, I'm ready to make that commitment, if you'll you you'll put those in the basket again.

We got them around the room.

Now I know some of you you're not ready to make that commitment.

Some of you, you like your next step is to just pray, God, I need you to meet me here and help me get there.

Or you got something that feels like it's blocking you, you gotta, you gotta you have part of your story.

So I'm not ready to surrender that.

We're gonna have a prayer team around the room at this time, too.

They got the illuminated lanyards, they would love to pray with you.

Maybe, maybe you just reach over to the person next to you and say, could you pray for me?

Here's what I'm going through.

Maybe that's your next step.

During this time, we also we have communion available every week.

We still have communion stations around the room.

Communion is this reminder, a personal reminder to believers that man, Jesus died.

Jesus died.

He didn't just come and teach something great, he did, but he also died.

And and in his, we we take the bread to represent his body that was torn on the cross.

The juice represents his blood poured out.

He gave his life so that our sins could be forgiven.

There's gonna be some movement around the room, so be patient.

But during this time, if you're ready to say, Yeah, I'm gonna hide my life in Christ, you can do put that in the basket if you need prayer, if you want to take communion.

First talk with God.

And wherever he leads you, that's where you should go.