Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and I'd love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this has blessed you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it. So share this podcast.
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Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy.
I never thought, never dreamed that I would be a part of starting a church here. I remember when I first realized that it could be possible that Ashley and I would go and plant Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. I could not even imagine what God had in store for us.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Does love have an open door?
Welcome stranger give us your tired and poor all those in need O dreamer, teach us to dream again O children, we wanna see Sa.
Find your haven Liberty is fall who can breathe free oh, dreamer, teach us to see again oh children, we wanna see.
Oh, what a beautiful world what a beautiful world.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: In all these years, God has done some amazing things. He's allowed us to serve our city and to grow our people. It's been a privilege to watch families find their faith, to discover how God loves them and how he has an amazing plan for their lives. It's been profound to see marriages restored.
It's been beautiful to see people coming to a newfound faith in Jesus.
[00:03:29] Speaker C: To bring hope into despair, peace into division, joy into fear, freedom into oppression, justice to inequality and inclusion to the stranger. This is our responsibility to hold each other accountable to the words of Jesus and to bring heaven to earth for all people.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Mosaic was birthed out of a dream, a dream of a diverse community of faith. We are the broken becoming beautiful. We believe that God is creating a beautiful mosaic of people, different people with different backgrounds, coming together and making something beautiful.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Does love have an open?
[00:04:32] Speaker C: All right.
Good morning. Good morning, Mosaic. I am still not over that snapshot of the first 20 years of mosaic. Anybody want to be part of helping us create the next 20 years of mosaic? Yes. Of course you do. I'm so happy. Listen. And we have the perfect opportunity coming up to do so. Easter is coming in only five weeks.
Five weeks away. I know it's early this year. Five weeks away. And here's what we want to do for the next couple of weeks.
As a church, we would love for you to be thinking about people who maybe need a church like this, like the one that you kind of just got a glimpse of. And be thinking of people that maybe are in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your friend group that you could invite in. And so what we would love for you to do is think of three people and actually write their names down. Maybe you put it on, like a post it, and you stick it in your car or your bathroom mirror. Maybe put it in your notes. Apple. But be praying for those three people over the next five weeks for opportunities for God to speak to them, for to set up an opportunity for you to invite them to come and join us on Easter Sunday. Sound good?
Good. Actually. Let's start right now. I'm going to show you how easy this is. We'll start praying for them right now. Okay. God, we thank you so much, Lord, for the people that are in our lives. We thank you for the way that you are already speaking to them, God. We pray for soft hearts. We pray for open eyes, open ears, and open minds, God. And we pray for the opportunity for these people that are sitting here and watching and listening. God, we thank you for their courage to take a step of faith, to trust you and to believe, Father, that there are people that you want to partner with them, to bring into your grace and love and hope. In Jesus name, Amen.
Amen. All right. Well, last week we started a series called Legacy. And really, this series is based off of this anchor passage in.
We'll go ahead and put it up and you can help me read it. It says one generation will declare your works to the next and will proclaim your mighty acts. Because really, the thing about Legacy is it's not about what you leave behind, but it's about where we're going and it's about who we're raising up. And here at Mosaic, Legacy is a series, but it is also a campaign that we have started. It is a campaign to raise $1 million over the next two years so that we can purchase and upfit the space that is on the other side of the wall back here. Okay. We want to expand our ministry spaces, add more classrooms even. We're thinking about putting in a coffee shop and a co working space to bring in even more of the community and Originally, we thought that this was not going to happen until about 2028, because, like I said, the church that meets on the other side is renting, and they had two more years left on their lease.
However, they have found another place to meet. And so we are actually in negotiations right now to get that space and be able to upfit it maybe even as soon as this summer or this fall. Okay. Yes.
So excited.
We told our Mosaic makers about it in a call this week about kind of all the details of how it happened. There's more information on your app. There are cards like this out in the foyer as well as online, and we would love for you to take one of these. It's got some different breakdowns of ways that you can help be part of this campaign over the next two years. We would love for you to pray about that. We'll be giving you more info soon, but last week, because it is going to take all of us, right, not just to raise a million dollars, but also to live lives with legacies, to live a life that extends beyond our time here.
It's gonna take three things that we introduce, and that's faith, sacrifice, and commitment.
Faith, sacrifice, and commitment. Now, if you missed it last week, it was super fun to be able to reveal this big news to you guys. And we had confetti cannons, and it was super exciting. And I watched your faces, and everybody was like, yay, this is amazing. And everybody's all in, right? In that moment, everybody's like, yes, we're going to do it. We're all in. But how many of you know, in real life, when you go to start something new, it's always exciting at the beginning, right? It's always exciting at the beginning. And this is very exciting. We are thrilled. This is going to be awesome.
However, whether it's a construction project or maybe a trip that you're planning for, maybe it's a new job or a new relationship, at the beginning, you have these shiny dreams, all these hopes and goals and plans for what this thing could be and could become.
But then maybe you hit some bumps along the way.
Maybe things don't all go exactly as planned. And at some point, we are faced with the reality of asking, okay, but how much is this actually gonna cost?
How much is it really going to cost? And then after you face that question, you might find yourself asking, and is it really worth it?
Is it actually worth it? The faith and the sacrifice and the commitment, Is it worth it?
Because choosing faith, even as you're like, white knuckling it and you can feel it kind of slipping out of your grasp is really hard.
It's hard holding on to your beliefs. It's hard to face a cognitive dissonance, even where maybe what you're seeing isn't lining up with what you want.
Choosing sacrifice when the people that you have sacrificed for choose to no longer be with you hurts.
It hurts when you give of yourself and you risk and you trust and you risk vulnerability to find yourself feeling rejected.
And choosing commitment, even is hard.
Choosing commitment somehow can feel isolating.
If you, like, commit and you're gonna do the thing and go be social and go out of your house and meet the people, but you don't immediately find that satisfaction of connection.
It can really feel somehow just exhausting.
And I know some of you are doing it. You're showing up and you're doing the things and you're committing and you're putting in the work, and that's awesome.
But for others of you, you might feel like you're in that season of just being on a treadmill where you're like running and going and putting in all the effort, but you're moving in place with no mileage to show for it.
And so you're asking yourself, is it worth it? Is it actually worth it? And I want you to know that I have been there this actual week, I have been there asking myself that question, is it worth it? But here's the thing. Asking the question is not a sin.
Asking the question, is it worth it? Does not mean that you have weak faith. It does not mean that you're a bad Christian. It does not mean that God has left you alone and is no longer speaking to you.
Asking that question is a normal part of wrestling with our faith. But how we answer it is going to determine what our legacy will be.
And I do think that God wants to show us that it's worth it.
Because leaving a legacy isn't just about what we leave behind, but it's about who's impacted because of the way that we intentionally choose to live.
So we're gonna look at a story today. There are a lot of Marys in the Bible.
So Martha served and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. Then Mary, likely already in her spot at the feet of Jesus, took a 12 ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance.
Now, it was somewhat common for oil to be used in anointing, even in hospitality, if you are welcoming in a special guest to your house. But what they would have used is what they had, and that was olive oil.
Maybe they would have mixed it with like, cinnamon or some other little spice so that their guests didn't leave home smelling like olives.
But it was like a little dabble, do ya situation, you know, like, perfect. How do you do aftershave? I only know it from home alone, but I think it's like that, right? Like just a tiny little bit. That's it. Top of the head, maybe that's all. But Mary's oil, what we see here is Mary's oil was special. It was hard to get. It was actually imported from India. And so that tells us that not only would it have been raised really thick and fragrant on its own, it was also very expensive.
And we can see that Mary did not use a couple drops. She had 12 ounces of oil. She had an iced latte's worth of oil.
Okay. Or picture like a Coke can or maybe even this cup right here. This is how much oil Mary had to use on the feet of Jesus. And we can just picture her pouring it slowly all over his feet until it is just running everywhere. So much so that she has to let her hair down and use her hair to start wiping up the oil that is running all over and around him.
Now, while Mary sacrificed a literal pouring out, for a lot of us, I think that we probably feel spiritually poured out.
Spiritually poured out. And our sacrifice feels personal now. I've been at mosaic for 20 years.
I was a young, single, fresh out of college girl when I came to Charlotte. And I was looking for a church. I was looking for a place to belong. Honestly, church has always been important to me. I've always loved church, and it's always been a big part of my life. But for whatever reason, when I came to Charlotte, I really struggled and. And had a hard time finding a place that fit. Until one day, Naim and Ashley and their group of also young adult single people came and moved not just to Charlotte, but into my actual apartment building where I lived. All of a sudden, I had all these new neighbors at the same time that all knew each other. And so once I realized they were not in some kind of weird cult, I was like, okay, tell me what you're doing.
And so I went to a first, like a launch team meeting. And then I got involved and I started serving. And I really found not only belonging, but purpose here. And through the years, people have come and gone, and I Dated some of them, and I married one of them.
And now we are parents here, raising our two daughters in the same place that formed me, truly, as I was growing up in my faith. And so when I Look at that 20 year timeline that's out there in the foyer, I have special memories for every single year that Mosaic has existed. There are things that I am so happy about, that I'm so tender about, and things that I'm so proud to have been a part of.
But unfortunately for me, what I also see are the things that are not displayed.
I see my mistakes and I see my failures as I have learned over the last eight years to navigate actually what it means to be in ministry.
I see out there on that timeline the people that I have accidentally hurt as I figured out and kind of fumbled my way through.
And I see our sacrifices.
I see the conversations that I have to have with my husband when I tell him that someone that he has known and mentored and poured into and trusted and been vulnerable with has chosen to walk away from Mosaic.
And I see the questions of my daughters when they ask the same thing, when they say, why did these people that we loved so much and that we brought in like family, why can they just walk away without an explanation, without a conversation, without even saying goodbye to us?
And I have to say to them sometimes to protect their hearts and not plant seeds of bitterness, all I can say sometimes is, baby, I don't know.
I don't know. But I know that what we believe at Mosaic about the way to follow Jesus is hard, and it makes people uncomfortable sometimes. And not everybody is actually ready to be okay with that.
And unfortunately for them, because their mom is part of the institution and I'm connected to Mosaic, they also feel the sacrifice and they see the loss.
So I see all of these things out there when I look at that timeline, when I watch these recap videos. And every single time, I have to ask myself, is it worth it?
Is it worth it? Or, like, should it be easier than this?
And God reminds me every single time, no, it's not actually meant to be easy, and it never was. Following Jesus has always had a cost.
And there's different things for all of us, right? For you, maybe there are things that you will have to sacrifice in order to leave the legacy that you want to leave.
Maybe you need to sacrifice the pride of certainty, and you need to sacrifice what it is that you've always believed about God or about other people or about yourself. In light of new revelations.
Maybe you need to sacrifice A moral superiority about who the church is for or what parameters it should put in place.
Maybe you need to sacrifice over functioning because instead of living the life that you know God has called you to live, you're performing for other people and doing what is expected of you.
Maybe you need to sacrifice self protection because you're withholding from other people. You're withholding from the people around you, the things that God has put within you to do in this world.
And maybe it's your finances. Maybe you need to sacrifice the fear that is telling you to just take care of you and take care of yours and let everybody else worry about themselves.
I don't know what it is for you, but it's worth asking the question, like Mary, what do you just need to sacrifice? Even if people don't understand or they tell you that it's too costly.
As we keep going, in Mary's story, we see this happen. It says, but Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, Jesus said that perfume was worth a year's wages, it should have been sold and the money given to the poor. And then because John is like, I'm writing my version of the story, he also slips this, and he's like, not that he cared for the poor since he was a thief and since he was in charge of the disciples, money that he offered, stole for himself.
John, this has nothing to do with the story. But okay, thank you heard. Got it. This is what you get to do when you write your own gospel, right?
So money was different back then. It was different back then. But laborers worked basically for minimum wage. They would make one denari a day. Okay? And so if we were going to take account for holidays and Sabbath, let's just say a nice round number that they worked 300 of the 365 days of the year. Okay? For our sake, hypothetically, today, if they made $10 an hour and worked eight hours a day for 300 days, that Coke can worth of oil would have cost $24,000, $24,000. No wonder Judas is like, what the heck, Mary, what are you doing?
Like, we could have done so much good with this. We could have fed thousands of people. And you wasted it.
You wasted it.
And we have to give Judas a tiny bit of credit because we would think the same thing.
I will be, I will admit. We'll see if you guys can admit too. I have walked into someone's house or seen what car they've driven and been like, oh, that was a choice.
Okay, we judge people. We look at their jeans. We look at their shoes, and we find out that they have really bougie skincare things, and we judge them.
And we're like, you spent your money on that.
When people are dying and they need help.
Okay, so let's give Judas a tiny bit of credit, even though he was a thief. All right?
Judas knew the cost. He knew the cost, but also, Mary would have known the cost, and yet she still gave without hesitation because she was committed to. To Jesus. She was committed. And it is hard to commit sometimes. Unfortunately, when it's hard are probably the exact times that we need to lean in and do it anyway.
When it's hard to commit to your marriage, when it's hard to commit to your family, when it's hard to be in relationships with those real complicated people, when your church community maybe makes you a little uncomfy.
Pastor Naim recently mentioned that there are 30% of things at Mosaic that he doesn't like, that he doesn't like when they happen. And it's true. Even as the people that, like, pick the songs and pick the classes and pick all of the things, there are 30% of things at Mosaic that we wish we could change. Okay? Now, Pastor Naeem did say that even 30% of the people at Mosaic make him uncomfortable, which made everyone uncomfortable.
Some of you freaked out. I know. Some of you were like, oh, my gosh, am I in that 30%? Is he talking about me?
And then the rest of us were like, he's not talking about me.
100% of people love me. I know that. I'm good.
Cause this is what we want, right? This is what we want. To be able to assume and to say is that 100% of people love us. 100%.
Last week, I went to Chosen Con.
You knew I was gonna work this in. Okay, thank you. I went to Chosen Con. Anybody familiar with the show the Chosen?
Yeah, my people. Okay, so the Chosen is a TV show about Jesus and his disciples, and it is my favorite show. I am, like, a super fan. Okay. Love this show. It's through the eyes of the people that know him the most, and it really displays, like, the humanity of Jesus and the disciples. So when I found out that that cast was coming to Charlotte for Chosen Con, I was like, I'm getting in there.
I'm gonna get in there. And so, with a very convincing email and a little name dropping, that Elizabeth Tabish, who plays Mary Magdalene, had been on my podcast, Becoming Church, and loved it so much, I finagled myself a media pass.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:23:23] Speaker C: Yes, I did.
So I got to interview the cast on the teal carpet in the media room. So picture this. You walk in FOX News Christian Broadcasting Network, TV Guide, K Love Radio, Me Becoming Church podcast. Okay?
Now, if this is a sin of pride, I will repent later. But I also will tell you, I was so good at those interviews, you guys. I was so good.
Here's how you know five of the disciples now follow Jesus and me on Instagram. Okay?
Hi, guys. Yes. Thank you so much. Okay. I had the absolute best time. Make sure you're following along to becoming church. You'll get all the interviews soon. However, the day before Chosen Con, I was absolutely losing my mind.
I was freaking out. I was spiraling that they were not going to like me.
I texted my friend tr I was voice noting Quinisha, who went with me, and I was like, I'm so nervous. I was like, what if I'm not charming?
What if I'm not funny?
What's gonna happen is they're not gonna think that I'm funny. My jokes are not gonna land, and I'm just gonna be this annoying person who somehow weaseled her way in and is in everybody's way. And I was overwhelmed with the idea that these people that I love and look up to so much were not gonna love me back, that I had already decided the entire experience was gonna be a disappointment.
I know I need help. Okay? But can you relate to this a little bit? Right. I think this is what we're conditioned to. We are conditioned to all or nothing. You love me or you hate me, it's gonna be a success or a failure. You're gonna agree or disagree. We're gonna be fully in or fully out. If it's not 100%, it's zero. Because everything else in the middle makes us uncomfortable.
And it makes us uncomfortable because it requires something of us.
And what it requires is navigating the tension of discomfort to choose to stay anyway.
Now, there are instances where things are serious and harmful in which you should leave. And I'm not negating those situations.
But the reality is, nothing in your life are you 100% happy about.
And you would make no changes, whether it's your physical body, your pace of life, the opportunities that you have, even the person that you love the most in the world does that one thing that really annoys you and you decide to commit anyway.
You stay anyway. And for some reason, when it comes to the church, we revert back to all or nothing where there's no margin.
So Let me tell you something.
We are going to disappoint you.
I hate it, but it's actually true.
One of us is going to say something that you don't like.
You are going to sit next to someone who votes differently than you or believes differently than you or lives differently than you or speaks differently than you. You're going to see an opinion on social media that you are not going to agree with.
You might even accidentally be left out of an event or a group and find yourself feeling excluded and have your feelings hurt.
Because, my friends, that's what happens in a family of human people where every single person likes and appreciates a different 70% of what's happening. The people that have lasted at Mosaic for 20 years are not here because they have loved 100% of what has happened, but they're here because they have committed and chosen to be unoffendable and to put relationships in building God's kingdom ahead of their own personal preferences.
In my experience, also, I Wonder if that 30% is not intentional, if God is not intentionally putting us in the presence of other people who are different from us, just maybe so that he can prune away some things and help us to grow so that instead of curating more of what we love in a church, we can make space for the people that God is teaching us how to love in his church.
See, this is exactly what we see happen at the end of Mary's story. Judas and the others, you know, are telling Mary what she should have done with that oil and said, and Jesus interrupts them and he says, leave her alone.
Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.
And when Matthew, who I got to meet by the way, when Matthew tells his version of the story, he adds that Jesus also said this.
Truly, I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in Help me out.
Remembrance of her.
Yes, for Jesus. But in remembrance of her, Jesus answered Mary's question. Yes, Mary, it's worth it. This will be your legacy, and it's worth it.
See, Mary's legacy isn't just about an outpouring of oil. It's about proximity to Jesus and how she refused to be pushed to the margins, and she refused to be relegated to womanly or appropriate tasks.
Jesus repeatedly protected Mary's place with him. And so that is the legacy that lingers every time someone like me is called to preach or to pastor or to lead. And Our obedience is actually met with criticism or denial or the minimizing of our gifts.
Every time a woman speaks out, when she's been told to stay quiet, every time a woman builds something from nothing, when she succeeds and achieves, whether it's launching a company or setting up a classroom or closing a deal, anytime a woman finds success and her authority is questioned before it is celebrated, Mary's legacy is there. And it's whispering. It is worth is worth it.
See, Mary sacrificed what was costly. So now generations of women get to be included in proclaiming the good news of Jesus and friends. This is my legacy.
You have to figure out what yours is and what you want to leave. But Mary's story reminds me that for future generations, for me, it's worth it.
And also your stories remind me that it's worth it. This is why I've stayed for 20 years.
Not because it's been easy, not because I haven't had the opportunity to leave, but because every time I think I'm ready to quit, I meet one more of you on a Sunday morning who is like, your TikToks won't stop coming across my feed.
And so now I'm giving church a chance one more time. And so here I am.
Or I get a text from, like, this one. Let me show you this picture of my friend Vienna up here. I have a whole album of these in my phone. This is my friend Vienna, and she was at home.
Her mom, Alexa was here leading worship. And so she was at home with her dad and her baby sister. And they'd already watched the first service. And I got a text that will said they were putting on worship the second time just to watch mom again. Then they were gonna turn it off, but when Vienna's friend, Pastor Kristen came back on the screen, she went and got her puzzle and brought it over to the iPad so that she could sit and watch the service again.
See, your daughters, your kids are excited about coming to Mosaic because they see themselves up here. And it's not because of me specifically, but it's because of what we are showing them. We are modeling a whole healthy church. And I've really come to learn that diversity is about so much more than ethnicity and race. And yes, we work very hard, right, to be a multi ethnic, multicultural, multi generational church.
But I've come to realize that diversity actually means that you honor the value of all people and provide opportunities of representation where people can show up and use their God given gifts and skills, no matter their gender, culture, age, race, status, or Relationship.
This is the body of church that I want our kids to grow up in.
And this is actually what they're beginning to believe.
Chris and Meredith Miller have been part of mosaic for 13 years, and last Sunday, their daughter Jacqueline decided that she wanted to get baptized. She'd been thinking about it, and then Sunday morning, she was like, you know what? This is the thing. And I was so honored that Jacqueline was. Wanted me to be the first person that she came and told. And it was so special. We have a picture of getting to baptize Jacqueline last Sunday, and I did find out later that she didn't just tell me. She actually ran around the whole church telling every single person that she was going to get baptized, which was amazing, because what happened was Quanisha, who's our MKIDS director, and Asa, who's her m Kids teacher, and so many other people then got to be in the room and be here to champion her and celebrate her and pray for her.
Because Jacqueline is realizing that growing into a relationship with Jesus is so intertwined with the lives of other people who are growing right alongside her.
If this was just about me and my life, I would probably quit.
I'd probably quit because it's still hard, and the sacrifices still sting, and my faith still comes with questions.
But it's not just about me, and it's not just about you.
So what is the legacy that you want to live?
How are you going to impact the people that are in your lives who need you to show up, the people that are watching you? And it doesn't have to be someone related to you. It doesn't even have to be a kid, but there is someone watching you who is in the same situation with the very same fears and that you used to have.
And as they watch you, they're learning what's possible, and they're learning who God created them to be by watching you navigate the cost and determine that they are worth it.
They're worth it.
I want to leave you with 2 Corinthians as your encouragement this week says. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever.
God is renewing you to be part of something that will last forever. And it is happening here at Mosaic. God is moving, and he is rewriting stories. He is healing wounds that people have experienced, maybe even within.
God is reawakening hope, where despair and discouragement have been thriving.
He is providing genuine opportunity for people who have been excluded to belong again.
And he is opening the eyes of people who are humbly willing to risk discomfort in order to grow and to become more like Jesus.
Friends, you are going to leave a legacy.
The question is, will you do something and will you make intentional choices to leave a legacy that lives on beyond you?
Let me pray that for us this morning.
God, we thank you for who you are. God, we thank you for what you're doing in this church, God, in the hearts of the people around.
And God, I pray that you would help us to see the places, Lord, where maybe we're too focused on being God, the places where maybe we're too focused on having a consumer mindset of getting what we need and then kind of checking the box.
And God, while there are definitely seasons for that, Lord, I thank you for discernment, God, so that we can know we can be in communication with you and know when is the time that we need to receive and when is the time that we need to be thinking about what we can sacrifice, God, what we can commit to in order to grow your kingdom, God, in order to leave a lasting legacy of your goodness. Not our greatness, God, but your goodness for generations to come.
We thank you for what you already know you're going to do in the future, God, and we're honored to be able to partner with you in it.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
