Who God Was Including Long Before You Got Here | This Is What We Do

Everyone wants to belong.

To a group.
To a community.
To something bigger than themselves. 🫶
But what if you’ve always felt like an outsider?

In this brand new series, This Is What We Do, we’re talking about what it actually looks like to follow Jesus—and it starts with this truth:
God always wanted you in His kingdom.

Long before we were here, God was already building a story of belonging:
✨ Promising Abraham a family bigger than the stars
📖 Speaking through the Book of Isaiah about a Savior for all people
✝️ Sending Jesus to break down division, racism, and exclusion

Jesus didn’t build a closed circle.
He built a wide-open invitation.
And now? That mission continues through us.

As Christians, this is what we do:
We help people feel seen.
We help people belong.
We invite people into something real.

✨ In this message you’ll discover:
Why belonging has always been part of God’s plan
How Jesus challenged division and exclusion
What it means to reflect God’s heart for people today
How you can help others feel like they belong

🙏 Ask yourself: Who around me feels left out?

💬 Comment “Everyone belongs” if you believe this message
🔔 Subscribe for more messages from Fierce Church
👉 Watch more here: https://www.youtube.com/@FierceChurch

You’re not an accident.
You’re not an outsider.
You were always invited. ✨

Transcript

The Pain Of Being Left Out

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's nice to be invited, isn't it? It's nice to be somebody who gets invited. I remember when I was, it was my first day as a freshman in high school. I had gone to a private school for the first K through eight, and I come to my first day and I walk into the cafeteria, and there's this sea of students, and I don't belong to any of them. You know what it's like like you're carrying a tray and you're like, what do I do now? And you just feel dumb, like just standing there, and so you kind of eek over to some place and try to sit down and not bother anybody. You know what that feels like, right? It's like I don't I don't necessarily feel welcomed, I feel on the outside. What about maybe maybe you don't can't relate to that, but maybe in your neighborhood or in your apartment building, there seems to be people that they all get along or they talk or they're like a friend group, but you're on the outside, you don't know how to break into that thing. You know what that's like? I think all of us know what it's like to feel that way, and probably all of us like to be on the inside. Like when you're in the group, like it feels really good. When you have a table, it's like, dude, I got people, I got a table. This is just fine. The danger is we can sometimes forget that there are people that aren't on the inside and they don't feel on the inside, and we forget what it's like to feel like we're on the outside because we're not in that situation anyway. We're not on the outside. Do you know that God has always only ever been building one family? He's only building one family. And he's building it, check this out, from the outside in. He's building it from the outside. He's always, all the time, seeking those who are far from him. Now, if that's on his heart, here's a question. Is that on our heart? Because it's on God's heart, because God is always pursuing those who are not yet on the inside, who are not yet close to him, we got to do that too. And my friends, this is what we do. We seek those who are on the outside to try to get them to feel like they're on the inside too. A lot of people would say, even just Christianity or religion in general, is like, isn't that kind of about being on the inside and everybody else is bad? You might think that based on the way some people behave, but in the storyline of the Bible, there is a golden thread that is constantly shouting from Genesis to Revelation, God is seeking the outsiders. That's who he's seeking. I want to take a real quick sermon here and talk to you about that. God is always the one reaching, and he starts with this man named Abram. He's going to become Abraham, but he starts with Abram and he picks him out and he says this, Genesis 12, verse 1. The Lord said to Abram, Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I'll bless you, and I'll make your name great, and you'll be a blessing, and I'll bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I'll curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. He starts with one guy, but he doesn't stay with one guy. He says, now the the long-term plan here, Abram, is it doesn't stop with you. You don't keep it, it goes through you to others. You know the difference between like a reservoir and a pipeline. I had AI drawing a picture of a reservoir contrasted with a pipeline. Here's what it looks like. A reservoir, dude, it's just there to store. It's there to store water, protect it, don't move it around much, don't send it anywhere, just gather it. A pipeline or a water main that is supposed to go through a city and bring water to everybody. That's what it's supposed to do. God's people are supposed to be a pipeline. They're supposed to be a water main that shower and water all the peoples of the earth around them. That's what we're for. That's what we're trying to do. We're not supposed to hoard it. God made his people to be the vehicle through which he reaches all these other people he cares about. So we start with one guy, but we don't stay with one. Years go by, centuries go by. Now God has made a great nation out of Abraham. We're gonna do a lot of time jumps in this sermon, just here with me, okay? So just we're moving fast here. Four and a half centuries go by. Now there are a great people. Now they're coming out of Egypt and they're going into their own land, and God has given them some laws. And this is what he says: Exodus 19, 5. Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, that means my agreement to bless you as you guys follow me and obey me, then out of all the nations you will be a treasure possession, talking to Abraham's children, the children of Israel, the uh the Israelites. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me. Now check this out a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you're to speak to the Israelites. A kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So on one level, they're supposed to be this holy, that means set apart. They're supposed to be set apart in their behavior and in their heart sets to God, but they're also supposed to be a kingdom of priests. Now, a priest, remember what a priest is? A priest is a go-between between the heavenly and the earthly. A priest is someone who communicates, mediates between the two. And that's what, right, right baked into the definition. Yes, yes, people, you're supposed to be holy, you're supposed to be gods, but you're also supposed to be a go-between. Meaning, I want to reach people through you. I want them to look at you and understand what your God is like. That's what he's saying. I want people to look at you and be magnetized to God because they see the kind of a person that you are. In other words, Abraham and his children and fierce church. This was always supposed to go beyond you, not stop with you. It was always supposed to be about you repping, you representing your God to the rest of the world. So they look at you and they're like, ah, that's what God's like. That's why it's so horrific, why it's so hard, why it's so bad, when if you're a Christian like me, you have misrepresented God. It's confusing to people. It's like, man, are y'all a blessing or a curse to the world? What are you? Which one is it? That's why it seems so strange when people talk about Jesus but embrace ways that seem to deny that very Jesus. And that's why we've got to be very careful to not separate ourselves too much. If our holiness, our idea of holiness, has to do with removing all the people from us, guys, that's a jacked-up version of holiness. That's not what it is. We can't separate from the people whom God is trying to reach through us. Yeah, we have to choose to follow God and honor him and obey him, but within the context at your work where you're tempted to just like seclude yourself. No, that's the place you got to get in with the people and get to know and love them. Even your online life, you can surround yourself with just all the people that are going to agree with you rather than say, no, there's people outside of us that need the special sauce that we're supposed to have. See, most of us don't reject people outright. We just don't build a life that could possibly include them. Are we hearing this? We just have to be intentional about how we do it. Deuteronomy, okay, so 40 years goes by. Now Moses is giving them some commands as they go into the promised land. Verse 6, talking about his commands, oh, observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations who will hear about all these decrees and say, Surely this nation is a wise and understanding people. There it is again. God is saying, See, see, my heart is for the people outside of you. I want them to look at you and say, Dog on, their God is amazing. Can you see how awesomely and wisely he makes them live? Think about the ancient Near East. At this time, dude, the laws of the Israelites that God had given them, these are very different than the nations around them. Okay? They care about the poor, they care about protecting the immigrant, they'll like do debt forgiveness. There's all these things that God's people alone will do, and it's supposed to be attractive. My friends, our lives, if you're a Jesus follower, our lives are supposed to demonstrate to others, look how wise God is. Look how like how things go for them. Look how much peace they have. Look how kind they are to those around them. That's what we're supposed to be doing. It's kind of like a showcase house. Have y'all seen these? I remember the first time I saw one of these, I saw a neighborhood of them. And I was like, why is no one ever home in those houses? Like all the lights are on and there's nobody inside. I didn't understand. No, that's a showcase house. That's the builder showing everybody, hey, this is what I can build for you. That's what our lives should be to everybody else. It should be God saying, This is what I can build for you. Are we hearing that? That's why we're a part of the puzzle. God has a heart and we're a part of it. And that's how we understand even our holiness, even our obedience, even Israel's holiness and obedience, it's not just devotional, it's missional. Our obedience is about reaching other people with the message that God wants to bless all the nations of the world. Well, we're doing another time jump. They get it okay. The Israelites, they do okay at first, but ultimately over the centuries, they're just spiraling downward. It's deteriorating and deteriorating until finally they get to the place where, as God warned them, things are about to get bad and enemy nations are gonna come in and take over. And God even sends a prophet named Isaiah, and Isaiah warns everybody, saying, Hey, you guys gotta understand, you Israelites, you were supposed to be this beautiful vineyard that God had made that was supposed to be attractive and was supposed to nourish those around you. And this vineyard is nothing like what God wanted. You guys aren't anything like him. Now, instead of being different than the nations, you're embracing the ways of the nations, and you also are doing child sacrifice. You're nothing like your God. And then God, as we get through the book of Isaiah, lets us know you know, if we're gonna fix this, I'm gonna have to do it myself. You y'all can't do it. You've had centuries to do it, and you can't do it. So I'm gonna send one who he just calls the servant. He calls them other things like the branch. But the servant is gonna come and he's gonna do something really, really interesting. He's not, Israel itself is a servant of God, but Israel is they're not gonna recover from this unless the servant comes. And the servant doesn't only like show them what it means to obey, but actually is himself a guilt offering for their sin. That servant is Jesus. And Jesus, this servant, as God is describing him through multiple chapters of Isaiah, he says this one line to remind everybody hey, um, by the way, Israel, that's thinking too small. My servant is gonna save everybody. That's who he's gonna save. Isaiah 59, 6. It is too small a thing for you to be my servant and restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the house of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light to the Gentiles. That's everybody else. That's probably most of us in here. That's everybody else. That my for what? That my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. Everybody needs God's blessing for sure, but they need more than that. They don't just need God to even fix some things in their life. What they need, did you hear what it said? That my salvation may reach the ends of the earth. That's God's rescue mission. That is, every one of us and everyone you ever meet, everybody on the other side of the aisle from you, everybody that bugs you at your place of employment, everybody that you can't quite get along with, all of those people, Jesus Christ was a guilt offering for because he wants them. He wants them to be rescued. Can we put this together? We've all got the sin disease. We've all got this version of leprosy, but it's it's an inner leprosy that is decaying us from the inside. And Jesus has got to be the offering that covers for that leprosy and then gives us this brand new spark of life on the inside that begins to grow and take over all the places in our life. And ultimately, when we die, the whole thing busts open and this body of death is gone. But Jesus, hear this, is the linchpin. This plan that God had back with Abraham, the only one who can do it is Jesus Christ. He's the only, he's the only rescue, he's the only salvation, he's the only way for this really to work. So our responsibility is to first and foremost believe in him ourselves, trust him with everything. Say, yes, God, you come into me and create a whole new man or a whole new woman. But then also, Lord, help me make my life about exalting and pointing to the servant, the only one who's able to rescue this thing. Okay, time jumps, 700 years goes by. Jesus shows up and he's gonna drop some bombs on people. He's gonna make sure there's no mistaking God's plan. He wants everyone to know. See, in this time, we we know about racism in our time, but this is a whole different level of racism, okay? Even in our time, at least when there, there's some there's some MOOCs that are racist for sure. They're somewhere, yeah, they live. But in general, in the culture, like, racism isn't good. In that culture, not only is everybody racist, but racism is good. Like, yeah, you should hate those people, and you should hate those people, and you should hate those people. And so that's who Jesus is talking to. People that are filled with, oh, yeah, it's super okay to hate Samaritans. Super okay to hate all these other people. Here's what Jesus says I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. He says, I must bring them also. Why must he? Why must he? Well, because God made a promise to Abraham. God made a promise of what the servant would do. Because God is still focused on the one agenda, baby. He's trying to bring everybody into one great big family. That's on his heart. That's what's on Jesus' heart. Is that what's on our heart? Is that how we think about it? See, here's where God wants us to keep maturing to everybody. When we walk into any room, it's natural we're mostly thinking about ourselves in every context. We're just thinking about ourselves. Hey, what do I need and what I got to get? And how do I get there? And God wants to have a paradigm shift, and he wants us to think a whole lot more like the servant and say, God is thinking about all these people. God is writing a story in all these people's lives. And I want to see if I can participate in it. I want to see if I can be an extension of his love so that they also can hear the story of the God that makes millennia long promises and fulfills every one of them. It's not about me. It's about this one that might be far from God. You who, you with kids, you know about this. Okay, if you've if you have more than one kid, you can see how this plays off. You can have a stage in one kid's life, and this kid is like so happy. They're just going through all sorts of great stuff. You love it, you're happy about it. But then you have this other kid, and they're going through some really hard stuff, some real challenging stuff. Well, you don't just be like, oh, this kid's great. I don't know. Who cares about that one? No, you care about this one, but the one that's going through the challenging stuff, the one that's that seems lost and is is not seeming to make it as well, you're really concerned about that one. My friends, in every room you are in, there are those that Jesus, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit collaborated and made in the image of God. And he cares about them. And he cares about the stuff that they're going through. It's not just about us. John 12, 32. Now Jesus is getting close. He's getting close to going to the cross. Think about what would be on your mind. Now hear what is on Jesus' mind. I, when I'm lifted up, will draw all people to myself. He's still thinking about everybody. He's not just thinking about the Israelites, the Jews, he's thinking about everybody. See, Jesus, he knows this sacrifice that I'm about to do, lifted up, meaning lifted up on the cross, and then it's a double meeting, then he's going to be exalted and resurrected. Uh but he knows it's not just about the insiders, it's not just about the ones who already belong. Um, hey, if you're a volunteer and you're volunteering for all the things, it's it's time to go, babe. We're about to wrap up, but you need to get in your position, so go ahead.

unknown 16:48

Why?

Sent People Who Engage On Purpose

The Big Family Promise Fulfilled

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Because all of us have sinned? Because all of us have created a wall that cuts us off from the presence and personality of God. And Jesus comes and he's lifted up, not so we could have better advice, and not even so that we could have some like material blessing, though that tends to come, but so we could be with God and have the fullness of his blessing through rescue. Okay, it's the night of the resurrection. It's already happened. One more time, John. It's already happened. Now Jesus is back, he's resurrected, he comes to see the disciples. Most of them abandoned him, but they're still super excited to see him. As he spoke, John 20, 20, he showed them his wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord. Again, he said, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Jesus was on a mission. Jesus was sent from the Father. But now we don't say Jesus is trying to reach people. We say, Jesus is trying to reach people through us. That's what's happening. There was a there's an alteration of the mission there. Jesus did his part. Now his part is to strengthen us to reach people. Jesus is sending us. So this is what we do. We put on big parties like we're doing today. We're doing it because people will come and they'll bring their kids and they won't want to be at church. They don't necessarily care about church, but their kids need something to do, and it'll be fun, it'll be a good memory, and they'll get a little bit more comfortable being around all these church people, and they might see something winsome and they might see something attractive, and they might get, man, maybe I maybe my old experience wasn't really what it is all the time. And maybe these guys are onto something that I don't know about. And it might be two, three, four years before those seeds entirely germinate, but we've got to be on mission. And this is what we do, baby. We're having a party for friends so that ultimately some of them will find their way to the table of blessing and the table of salvation. There's gonna be Easter egg hunts, but here's here's what else is gonna happen. We're gonna be tempted to just attend but not engage. We're gonna be tempted to see what's going on, but not be intentional with anybody there. We're gonna miss some of the people that were invited very purposely, very prayerfully to get here. And we're just gonna, instead of like smile at them or wave, we're just gonna keep on going and monotone business and precious. That's your choice if you want to do this. But I just gotta remind you, bro, sis, this is what we do. We do this, we reach out to people, we try to make them feel loved. Why? Because God was doing it from the very beginning. So we are gonna be a bridge. We, this is what you are. You are the servant now. You are the sent one now. You are the one that gets to participate in the mission. That's how God has always worked, that's how He's still working. So we're gonna have some fun today. I want to challenge you, baby, enjoy it. But also join us in being a part of it, be a part of the bringing of this kingdom. Last scene, here we go, it's Revelation, and they sing a new song. You are worthy to take the stroll, the scroll, and open its seeds because, speaking about Jesus, you were slain with your blood. You purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. Not one type of person, not one type of background, one big family that God has been building from the very beginning, from the outside in. So here's the final call. My friends, dude, it's gonna be an exciting day because this is what we do. It's not just that we throw parties or we search for Easter eggs or give our kids activities. No, we reach out to build the family of God from the outside in, the way He's been doing it from the very beginning. This is what we do. Let's bow our heads. Oh God, we want that heart to beat inside of us. Mighty God, keeper of promises, one who sees the end from the beginning. We're asking today, not only that we'd have a lot of fun today, we do pray that we would have a lot of fun today. But we also pray that that heart that burns for those far from God would burn brighter in us, would burn with more heat, would burn with more passion. God, would you help us through our own personality, not by being like anybody else? Would you help us to pray and pursue those who are far from God in Jesus' name? Amen. All right, folks, that's all the time we have, but thank you so much for listening to this sermon. If you got a lot out of this, feel free to share this with somebody who might need it. Also, there's a ton more content on our website, on our YouTube channel, on our Instagram channel, on our TikTok channel. Feel free to check all that. kind of a thing out. Also, if you're interested in leadership type stuff, go ahead and check out another podcast or any other blogs or videos or anything over at BibleLeadership.com. And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.