Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Playlist, Part 2: Scars to Your Beautiful

Episode Date: April 23, 2017

Your life has a soundtrack. Every peak, every low note, and every rhythm make up a part of who you are. Don’t just shuffle through your days—create a Playlist worth listening to. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God is doing at Church online. If you ever have any questions or you'd like to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.church.

Or we'd love for you to stay connected throughout your week and everywhere you go with the Life Church app available for free wherever you download your apps from. You know, in today's world, it can be harder than ever to have a positive self-image with so much pressure to look or act a certain way. But when we begin to understand that we were created by the master, it changes our perspective and helps us see that we are his masterpiece.

And today we joined back with Senior Pastor Craig Rochelle as he uses yet another popular song to help illustrate this biblical truth in part two of Playlist. Hey, welcome today to all of our life churches. Would you help me celebrate over 1,000 people being baptized, new life in Christ? Jesus, I've said it before. We're not praying for revival. Somebody help me out. We're in the middle of one.

God is doing so many amazing things. And I just want to give a little shout out to some of those being baptized. At my location, we had one person get baptized twice. I don't know what that's about, but like the first time and the second time just to make sure, man. Sometimes you just need to be sure. But Kayla in Owasso, Oklahoma. Congratulations to you. Katie in Albany, New York being baptized.

Suzanne in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jeff and Liz in South Tulsa. And of course, Berkeley Pock, whose mom volunteers in my office. Congratulations to all of you. New life in Christ, your sins are completely forgiven and you are made new. I also want to say that Amy and I are very excited this week. We're going to be visiting two of our life churches, those of you in Albany. New York, we're heading your way. And then we're going to spend an evening with those of you at Life Church Hendersonville, Tennessee, and we could not be more excited. Let's dive into

today's message. I want to just tell you very honestly, I've spent more time praying about this message than I normally do because I believe that for some people, this is a very deep and significant issue. And I'm praying for God to do a very real and healing work through the power of his word, and I just, I believe he's going to do it. And so I want to tell you very specifically who this message is for. This message is for those of you that feel less than. If you've ever felt like you're not good enough, maybe not smart enough, not pretty enough, not attractive enough, if you feel physically insecure, if you feel unattractive in any way, this message is for you. And the reality is,

I believe this is most of us. In fact, I'm just going to ask, and I hope that at all of our churches, you'll participate, how many of you would say, honestly, that there's something that you wish you could change about yourself? Just raise your hands. I think almost everybody feels that way.

I think the first time I remember really feeling that way, I was in the fifth grade. I had a crush on my next-door neighbor, a little girl there, and I was over at her house swinging with her on her swing set. I'm not going to say her name, but Ashley Chambliss was a little bit. next to me on the swings, as actually is a real name. And Ashley, I'm sorry if this

embarrasses you, but I'm still getting overpaying for my counseling for what you did to me in the fifth grade. Yeah, anyway, we were swinging and I was pumping my legs, trying to go really, really, really high just because I thought that would really impress her. And she was next to me, looking at me from the side, and I thought, wow, she's kind of like into my swinging. But she wasn't. She said, Craig, you've got an ugly profile. I didn't know what a profile was, but it didn't sound good, that mine was ugly. I said, it was a profile. She said, from the front you look normal, but from the side, you got a really, really big nose.

Well, I argued against her because I had only seen myself from the front. I had never noticed myself from the side. When I went home, got out a mirror, and looked at myself from the side into the mirror, I was like, ah, no one ever told me. I do have more nose than the average guy, and it was completely devastating to me. It was totally embarrassed. From that point on, anytime I'd meet a girl, I would just make sure to be head of, head on us.

So she goes this way, I would just kind of keep my, I would make sure they'd never see me from the side. And that was, it really, really did bother me. The next issue came up in junior high. I was on a trip somewhere, a church trip or something. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. And this girl named Christy, she was sitting next to me. And she said, has anybody ever told you you've got horse legs?

I didn't know. I thought maybe as a compliment, but based on the look on our face, I was thinking probably not. So I didn't wear shorts again for like years and years until I had to. And I'm thinking myself, how am I going to get through life when I got too much nose and horse legs? This is a real issue. And we kind of laugh about it now, but a lot of times when we feel really insecure about something that we don't like about ourselves, it is no laughing matter. What we're doing is we're in a message series called playlist.

And if you missed last week, we're actually taking popular songs. and we're kind of almost using them like parables. Jesus told stories that the culture could relate to, and then he would pull truth out of those stories. We're taking popular songs, and we're pulling spiritual truth out of those songs, teaching the Bible in a way that relates back to some really, really cool songs. And the one we're going to look at this week, I just want to tell you,

we will play the song for you at the end of the message, but it's a song written by a girl named Alicia Kara, and the song is called Scars to Beautiful. I read an article about this young girl, I think she's about 20 now, and she was kind of discovered with her musical talent at the age of 16 or so. She was the daughter of a hairstylist,

and so she would actually try to straighten her frizzy hair over and over and over again. And as a young girl, her hair actually started to fall out in clumps, and she became very, very insecure about this part of her body. And so she wrote this song called Scars to Beautiful to help women to see themselves as beautiful. What's really cool about this performer

is she will only perform this song wearing no makeup at all to get the message across you're beautiful just the way you are. What I want to do is I'm going to read you the lyrics now and a few of the lyrics later on. I edited them slightly in your notes. You'll see brackets around the places I made edits just to make it a little bit more

spiritual and to broaden it a little bit as well. She directed it toward ladies. I want to direct it toward everyone. Here are the edited version of the lyrics. She says, we just want to be beautiful. We go unnoticed. We know no limits. We crave attention. We praise an image. We pray to be sculpted by the sculptor. Oh, we don't see the light that's shining. deeper than the eyes can find it. Maybe we've made ourselves blind. So we try to cover up our pain and cut our woes away because cover girls don't cry after their face is made.

If you've ever felt insignificant, unnoticed, less than unattractive, you are not alone. and this message is specifically for you. I want to give you one big thought and one big portion of scripture and it is my deepest prayer that God would connect his truth with your heart and do a very powerful healing work.

One big thought if you're taking notes is this. I hope that you'll embrace and believe this truth. With Christ, you are God's masterpiece. By the power of the risen Christ, You are God's masterpiece. And I want to read to you a portion of scripture that's very, very personal to me from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 10. And the reason this is so personal to me, because back in college, as a non-believer,

I actually started reading through the Bible. I started in the New Testament, and I read all the way through to Ephesians chapter 2. And these were the verses that completely transformed my life. And so it's with great emotion that I share these verses with you. This is what Scripture says. God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done so that no one can boast about it. Let me stop there so we'll understand. When we come to faith in Christ, the Bible says we are saved. We're saved from the power of darkness on this earth. We're saved from our sins. We are forgiven.

We're a new person. The old is gone and the new has come. And that's what we celebrate today in baptism. The old life is buried in a watery grave. When people come out of water, they explode in the new life of Jesus Christ. Our sins are no longer counted against us, not because we were good, but because God was good and perfect through Jesus Christ. And because of that, we are saved. and made new.

Not by our good works, but by the perfect work of Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven. Then Paul goes on to say, for we are God's what? Let's all say this aloud. For we are God's masterpiece. What are you?

Say it aloud. You are God's masterpiece. Look at your neighbor and say, you're God's masterpiece. Just do it right now. Look at your neighbor. Now look at the other one and say you're God's masterpiece too.

I didn't mean to leave you out. You are God's masterpiece. You are the perfect work of God through Christ Jesus. Scripture goes on to say we're God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. We're not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works.

God created you. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. He made you exactly the way he wanted you. He placed you at this moment. in history because he knew you could best serve and glorify him. You are a masterpiece of God. In fact, I love the Greek word that's translated as masterpiece. It's the word poema. If you're taking notes, it literally means a beautiful poem. It means a perfect workmanship or a tapestry. What are you? You, because of Christ, are a poetic statement. You are the workmanship of

You're a tapestry of His goodness displayed to bring glory to his name in this world. You are his masterpiece, who is God. He is the artist and you are the art. He is the painter and you are the canvas. He is the sculptor and you are the clay. And he has shaped you, created you, formed you in his image so that you can glorify

and serve him in this world. You are the perfect workmanship of God. Now, some of you can say, okay, that feels good, but I still need thinner legs. Am I talking to anybody? Don't raise your hand, and don't you dare elbow the person next to you. You'll go to hell if you elbow the person next to you

and don't do that. I need slimmer hips. I need wider teeth. I need fuller hair. I need bigger muscles. Whatever it is, you know. I'm not smart enough. I'm not talented enough.

I wish I could sing or whatever. Well, what you might hear if you go to counseling is this. Well, you just need better self-esteem. You just need better self-esteem. What I want to tell you is this. You need Christ esteem. You need to recognize who you are because of Christ. We don't need just self-esteem feeling good about self,

but it's Christ in us that helps us understand how valuable we are. We are worthy of the life of Christ. He loved us so much that he said, this is what you are worth. When we recognize who he says we are and start to believe it, then we have Christ esteem. Our worth is not based on what someone says about us. Our worth is not what the standard of the world is.

Our worth is not based on what someone did to us. Our worth is not based on how we feel about us. us, our worth is based on who Christ says we are. And he says that we are a masterpiece created by him to do the assignments that he prepared before you were even born to do, that's who you are. Christ esteem. You are the perfect workmanship of God created

to bring him glory. And why does this matter so much? Because what you believe about yourself on the inside will manifest itself on the outside, right? What you believe about yourself on the inside eventually comes out in how you represent yourself on the outside. And this is why so many people don't feel attractive on the outside because even more so, we don't feel worthy on the inside. And Amy and I have had the privilege of working with lots of young teenagers, both young men and young women. There's a few that really stand out in our hearts.

And one of them was years ago, this precious little girl that was abused in ways that I wouldn't even want to go into detail. But I will say it involved her dad and some of her dad's friends. And whatever you imagine is, I'm going to promise you it was worse than this. And because of what she endured, you can only imagine internally she did not feel good about herself. Wasn't her fault, but you know how our enemy messes with our mind. and so she felt shame and she felt dirty and she felt ugly. And the way she felt on the inside showed in the way she presented herself on the outside. She just didn't take care of herself.

She didn't feel worthy enough to try to present herself in a good way. And her body language was just, all I can tell you is she just, she looked closed, timid, afraid, vulnerable, full of shame and everything twisted that our enemy, uses when someone else abused us to make us feel bad about ourselves. And so we worked with her some and got to the place where she trusted us more. And there was one particular week where she just was looking really, really down after church. And I just called her by name and said, would you give me permission to touch her face? Because she was very sensitive to any kind of touch, especially from a male.

And I want to be very respectful. And she said, sure. And so I took her hair and I brushed it back behind her ears because she'd cover her face and I just pulled it back and just looked down at this precious little girl and said, I want you to hear this, not as if it's from me, but I want you to hear it from God. You are beautiful. You're a beautiful girl inside and out. You are being healed. You are being renewed. You are not what someone else did to you. You're beautiful because God made you beautiful. And she just looked at me for the longest time, as if can I even believe this? And it was the longest, most kind of awkward moment. And then she just took her arms and threw them around me and just held me and cried and cried and cried and cried and cried.

Sometime later, we received a note from her. It was the sweetest little note written about how that one moment helped begin the healing on the inside. Let me tell you about this girl today. When you see her, you would never know what she's been through because she's been healed by Christ on the inside. And when you talk to her now, you see joy and you see confidence and you see a poetic statement. You see a poetic statement of the power of Christ

to take someone who was broken and make them better than new. The past is good. gone. The past is healed. Now we have a masterpiece of God. And I know that there are some of you, you've been through something similar to that or something maybe really different, but internally, it's shaped how you feel about yourself. And I want you to hear God say, you are beautiful, inside and out. Believe what he says about you. You are special, created by God, fearfully and wonderfully made. And if there's anything in the past that's hurtful, painful,

creating a shameful self-image. Because of Christ, you can be made new. Even if you were a victim of what someone else did to you, his healing power is real. Because of Christ, you are his masterpiece. I want to read you the lyrics of this song, and again, I edited them slightly and noted that in your notes, but I want you to feel the power in this as if God is speaking directly to you.

The lyrics say this, you don't see that you're perfect because of Christ, your sins have been forgiven. You don't understand you're worth it. Or that beauty goes deeper than the surface. So to all the people that are hurting, let Christ be your mirror, help you see a little bit clearer, the light that shines within. Please hear this.

There's a hope waiting for you in the dark. You should know you are beautiful just the way you are. There's a hope waiting for you in the dark. You should know you're beautiful just the way you are. Do you understand, internalize it, that our good God loves you. He loves you. There is nothing you could do to cause you to love him,

for him to love you more, and there's nothing you could do to cause him to love you less. He loves you. It's not just what he does. Love is who he is. And yes, God loves everybody equally, but I want you to understand this. God doesn't just love you equally,

but he also loves you uniquely. He has a special and a unique love just for, are you. And Amy, we know this well. And anybody who's got multiple kids, you know this. When you've got one, when we had Katie, I was like, how could I ever love anyone more than this, this one precious daughter? And then Amy and I looked at each other, because there for a while, every time we looked at each other, we got pregnant. I mean, it was like, well, it happened again. And so number two, three, four, five, and six. And when Mandy came along, how in the world am I going to love another one as much as Katie? And here's the way. And here's the one. And

what I figured out. I could love them equally, but guess what? I also love them uniquely. And God loves you uniquely. You may start to embrace that. And then you walk out in church feeling a little bit better, and then you go back into the social media world. You think, well, that's good and fine, but I still need a six-pack. I still need bigger muscles. I still want to look good in my yoga pants, even though I've never done yoga in my life. I'm just saying, Right? Okay. Here's what I want to understand. More than what's on the outside, please believe me, is who you are on the inside that matters. It really is who you are on the inside that matters. Ladies, that there is no beauty in the entire world that shines brighter than Christ in your heart.

You want to see a beautiful woman. You see a woman submitted to the goodness of God in pure and humble worship. And you will see, you'll see the most beautiful image of a woman. For men, there's nothing more attractive than godly confidence born out of inner spiritual character. It's a life of integrity. It's a man of God. It's a man of his word. It's a man who prays and seeks God on behalf of those that he loves. It's a man who's willing to lay down his life for those around.

You want a woman to look and say, there's an attractive guy. You be a man who lays down your life for your wife, and you will never be more attractive to her because it's who you are that matters so much more than what's on the outside, the masterpiece that God created you to be. In fact, if I can unpack a little bit of our story, I told you last week about how Amy and I met years ago. If you missed last week, it was really fun

because someone was making fun of me for being too Christian. like you're a weird Christian guy, and then they met Amy and said, oh my gosh, you've got to meet this girl. She's weird Christian girl, just like you. You'd be perfect for each other. And so Amy was actually at a different university than I was. I had never met her, had never seen her. This was before social media, so we had never seen a picture of each other,

and we just started talking on the phone. And what's really special to me is how we connected emotionally before we ever saw each other physically. Then the day came when she actually didn't stand me up for the date like she did on the first time I told you last week. And she let me come to her apartment to meet her. And I was so nervous, what would she think about how I look? She knocked on the door, she opened it, we walked out, and I managed to walk all the way to the car. Like that, you know.

And we started to get to know each other, and it was going well. One day I was driving my little Honda cord, and she was just staring at me from the side. I said, what are you looking at? She just, she smiled. She goes, I'm just looking at your nose. Like, this was going so good and now it's over. And she said, I love your nose. Like, you what?

You love it? She said, yeah, she said, your nose. It's such a strong, sexy Roman nose. Now, to be fair, she claims she didn't say sexy. But I heard. sexy. And that's the way I'm telling the story for as long as I live. Strong, sexy Roman nose.

I'm like, you want to touch it because you can touch it if you want to. I really think, she'll, I love your nose. I love your nose. I say, you ever think I have horse legs? She said, I never thought of it, but now that you mention it, you kind of do. And I love horse legs. I had no idea. These were my greatest assets.

I've got strong, sexy Romanos, and I'm a horse-legged man of God. And she's like, I love your legs. And all of a sudden, the very thing I was most insecure about was something that was something that she loved. Now, she'll tell you, and I believe this is true,

and I'll tell you this about her. It's not about what's on the outside that matters. And she says over and over again is who you are that I love. It's who you are that I love. And she's very attractive woman. And just for the record, I never thought I'd be like crazy attracted to her grandma. And well, now I am, okay?

But it's, let me tell you, it's who she is that matters more than anything else to me. It's who she is. And this is what's really special is, let me just say this. I'm 49, she's 46, and our best physical days are behind us. It's all downhill from here. I mean, we can get some stuff done and look surprised or whatever, you know, but it's our best days are behind us. And I could not be more in love with who this woman is. Couldn't be more in love.

And honestly, I just, I look forward to growing old. One day, you watch, I'm going to be 80, she's 77, and we'll be walking in the mall, holding the hands, wrinklies can be. Huh? What did you say? You like my nose? I know you do. Because she's a masterpiece of God, and so am I. And it starts on the inside. Who are you? You're God's masterpiece. Created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do. I'd love for you to hear this song. Scars to Beautiful. We actually had Stacey Willis from Life Church, Hendersonville, Tennessee, performed this song. What I love about Stacy is she was a part of our church attending, like many of you, while she was in She's in her early 20s and was invited to be a worship leader when she felt too young and very insecure about leading worship. How can a young female command the authority to lead people in worship? And she had no idea that God had made her just the way he wanted her and it opened up the door for her to do exactly what she's created to do.

I had always struggled with my weight growing up, like struggled to feel pretty enough. I just never fit in. I was always, you know, the eyeball. It was like if you see a group full of horses, I was the zebra. I really did focus so much on my outer image, and I felt like I didn't know who I really was. As a 12-year-old, I had brain surgery. I have a 6-inch scar at 18 stitches. When I hit puberty, I got a lot of acne.

especially on my face, and teenage girls are ruthless. I couldn't be a part of their group, so they kind of like treated me different. You know, I went through so many years, I couldn't even look people in the eyes. Because when I looked in the mirror, I saw who I really was as this broken, hurting child. I thought I was stupid, worthless.

She just wants to be beautiful, she goes, unnoticed she knows. knows no limit she craves attention she praises an image she prays to be sculpted by the sculptor oh she don't see the light that's shining deeper than the eyes can find it maybe we have made a blind so she tries to cover up her pain and cut her woes away because cover girls don't cry but there's a I was scared to be an envy so she says I could go a little while longer. She fades away. I was scared whenever I first got my patch,

but my mommy and daddy told me that I'm beautiful with my patch. So today when I think about that scar, I feel like it's God's mark on my life. When God made me, he knew what I was going to struggle with. Just knowing that there is a greater lobe. A greater love, that's all that actually end up mattering to me. Now I realize that the reason why I didn't fit in was because I wasn't supposed to fit in. I was special.

I don't look like a model in a magazine, but I know that I'm beautiful. Now I see a strong woman that God has created with a purpose. And so it doesn't really matter what people around you think. It matters what God thinks. Yeah, I am pretty beautiful. You're beautiful no matter what. Why don't you clap for that, huh? I hope you'll write these four thoughts down and internalize them.

God loves you deeply. God values you highly. God provides for you fully. And God planned for you carefully. God loves you deeply, values you highly, provides for you fully, and planned you carefully. accepted by Christ, you are secure in Christ, you are complete in Christ. Don't believe what anybody else tells you about yourself. Don't believe what your past says.

Don't believe what the inner voices say. Don't believe what society says. You have Christ esteem. You are who he says you are, and he says you are his masterpiece, fearfully and wonderfully made, created in Christ Jesus to do the good works that he prepared for you long ago. because of that you recognize. He may love you equally. He also loves you uniquely. When you know and believe who he says you are, you can do what he calls you to do. Who are you? You are the poetic statement of God. You are the perfect workmanship. You are the beautiful tapestry of expression of his glory and goodness in this world. You are his masterpiece. All of our churches praying, Father, we thank you for who you say we are. May we embrace it on the inside believing what you say about us

is true. All of our churches, those today who say yes, I've battled maybe with body image. I've battled with an insecurity. I felt less than. I felt unworthy. I want help having Christ esteem seeing myself as he sees me. If that's you today, would you lift your hands right now? just all of our different churches in a moment of honesty. Father, my heart breaks for so many people today, and I know that in this culture, there are so many images and so much pressure that makes us feel like we don't measure up.

We're not good enough. I pray God that by the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would seal this truth in our hearts, that you created us, that we're fearfully and wonderfully made. that you knit us together perfectly in such a way that we could serve you in this generation reflecting your love. God, may we believe what you say about us so true on the inside that it's reflected in how we live on the outside that everyone could see. We're beautiful as we

are because you made us, God. May they see your glory in us. I pray God for healing. I pray God that the power of shame would be broken. I pray for restoration. I pray that minds would be renewed, that we would believe in our hearts. We are who you created us to be because of Christ. We're a new creation. Old is gone. And the new has come. All of our churches as you keep praying today, nobody looking around. There are those of you that you might say, well, you know, maybe that's not me. And I might say, well, maybe it's not. If you're here today without a living relationship with the Son of God, guess what you might have? You might have some shame, a lot of shame, some guilt. Maybe fear, where do I stand with God? I remember before I read those

verses in Ephesians chapter 2, I remember all the internal heaviness that I felt, the guilt and the shame for all the people that I hurt. And I wondered, could I ever be good enough for God? And what I didn't realize is, no, I couldn't. There's no way. There's not a single one of us that are ever good enough for God. And that's why the scripture is so clear that we're saved by the grace of God, not by our own works. There's not a person that can say, I was good enough. None of us are good enough. Jesus was the one who was good enough. He was perfect in every single way. He loved us as we are, but he didn't leave us there. He came to become sin for us on the cross, to die in our place,

to be raised again so that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name would be forgiven, changed, and made new. And all of our churches, there are those of you, you recognize, yes, I feel the guilt. Yes, I feel the weight. I don't know where I stand with God. You're here today because it's your moment to call out to him to say, yes, Jesus, I need your grace, I need your forgiveness. Today, by faith, I give my life to you.

That's your prayer today. All of our churches, lift your hands high right. now and say, I surrender Jesus. Be first in my life. Lift your hands and say, yes, Jesus, I trust you to save me. Be the Lord of my life. Church online, you all click right below me. And at all of our churches, as we have people coming to know faith in Christ,

would you simply pray aloud? Pray Heavenly Father, I trust you to forgive me, to change me and to make me new. Forgive me of all my sins. fill me with your spirit so I could follow you every day of my life. My life is not my own. I give it to you. Thank you for new life.

Now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray. All of our churches, would you worship God? We get to experience new life in Christ over and over and over again. As a church, it's our honor to play a small part in all that God is doing in and through your life. and we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be and your relationship with Christ,

all you have to do is go to life.church slash next. You know, Easter weekend is one of our favorite weekends here at Life Church. In fact, it's the pinnacle behind the entire mission we have as a church. And Easter 2017 was no exception. And here's a look back as we celebrate the resurrection. Jesus needed one good reason to stay and you were his freezing.

Jesus did it for you because of his perfect work. Death was conquered. Satan was crushed. Our sins could be forgiven. If you want to go back and watch our Easter message or any other message here at Life Church, all you have to do is go to life.church slash watch.

Or you may be a pastor or church leader in need of resources for your church. Well, you are in luck because you can find thousands of resources available completely for free at open. church. You know, here at Life Church, it's our mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. That statement drives everything we do here as a church as we help people find God and find life.