Rediscovering Jesus' Rhythm: Belonging Before Belief

Sep 03, 2025

Devotional

Day 1: New Wine in New Wineskins: Embracing Jesus’ Transformative Rhythm

Jesus calls us to a new way of living that cannot be contained by old patterns or expectations. The metaphor of new wine in new wineskins reminds us that following Jesus is not about patching up old habits or simply adding religious activities to our lives, but about being made new from the inside out. This new rhythm is not about rigid conformity, but about openness to the transforming work of Christ, who invites us to belong, believe, become, and serve. Are we willing to let go of comfortable routines and allow God to reshape our lives for His purposes? [02:03]

Matthew 9:16-17 (ESV)
“No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Reflection: What is one “old wineskin” in your life—a habit, expectation, or comfort zone—that you sense God inviting you to release so He can do something new in you this week?

Day 2: Belonging Before Believing: The Order of Jesus’ Love

With Jesus, belonging comes before believing. He welcomes, loves, and includes people before they have it all figured out, before they behave or believe the “right” way. This is prevenient grace—God’s love and kindness drawing us in before we ever respond. Jesus’ ministry shows us that people are loved, graced, and shown mercy before they express gratitude or faith. This radical hospitality is the foundation of true discipleship and the rhythm Jesus models for us. [09:14]

Mark 10:21 (ESV)
“And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’”

Reflection: Who in your life needs to experience belonging before believing? How can you show them unconditional love this week, regardless of where they are spiritually?

Day 3: God’s Everlasting, Demonstrated Love

God’s love is not just spoken, but demonstrated through action—an everlasting love that draws us with unfailing kindness. Like the men shingling a roof in a blizzard, love is most powerfully communicated through sacrificial presence and service, not just words. God’s style is to act first, then point back and say, “See, I have loved you.” Even when we don’t notice, He is at work, loving us in tangible ways that often become clear only in hindsight. [21:47]

Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)
“The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”

Reflection: Looking back over the past few months, can you identify a moment—big or small—where God demonstrated His love for you through someone’s actions or a circumstance? How did it affect you?

Day 4: Love Without Words: Waking Up to Unnoticed Grace

Like the injured man in the story of the Good Samaritan, we are often unconscious to the costly, wordless love being poured out on us. Jesus loves us without waiting for our awareness or gratitude, caring for us in ways we may never fully realize. His love is quiet, persistent, and sacrificial—showing up in the ordinary and the extraordinary, even when we are unable to respond. Waking up to this love changes everything, inviting us to live with gratitude and awareness of God’s ongoing care. [28:37]

Luke 10:33-35 (ESV)
“But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’”

Reflection: In what area of your life do you sense God has been loving you “wordlessly”—behind the scenes or without your notice? How might you respond to that love today?

Day 5: Go and Do Likewise: Extending Costly, Compassionate Love

Jesus’ challenge is clear: having received such extravagant, undeserved love, we are called to “go and do likewise.” This means extending compassion not just to friends or those like us, but even to those who may be considered outsiders or enemies. True discipleship is not passive spectatorship, but active, costly love that risks comfort and reputation for the sake of others. As we wake up to the depth of God’s love for us, we are empowered to become agents of that same love in the world. [26:40]

Luke 10:36-37 (ESV)
“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Reflection: Who is someone outside your usual circle—perhaps even someone difficult to love—whom you can serve or show mercy to this week, following Jesus’ example?

Sermon Summary

This morning, the focus is on recovering a better rhythm for following Jesus—one that reflects the way He actually engaged with people, rather than the patterns that have often developed in church culture. Many churches, including those I’ve led, have unintentionally promoted a sequence of “believe, behave, belong, be seated,” which turns discipleship into a passive experience and makes belonging conditional on conformity. This approach has contributed to a decline in church engagement, especially among young adults, and fails to reflect the life-giving way of Jesus.

Looking at the Gospels, Jesus’ rhythm is radically different: “belong, believe, become, belay.” With Jesus, belonging comes first. He meets people with love and compassion before they believe, before they behave a certain way, before they’ve earned anything. This is prevenient grace—God’s love and favor extended before we even respond. Jesus’ disciples didn’t fully believe in Him for years, yet He welcomed them, taught them, and sent them out to serve. Becoming, in this rhythm, is not about external compliance but about internal transformation—being remade from the inside out to reflect Christ’s character.

Belaying, a term from climbing, is about serving and supporting others, not being the hero but holding the rope so others can climb. Jesus calls us to live on mission, to serve and support others as He has done for us, not just to sit and watch.

Belonging is communicated not just in words but in action. Stories like shingling a roof in a North Dakota blizzard for a family in need, or the parable of the Good Samaritan, show that love is often wordless, costly, and persistent. Sometimes, we’re unconscious to the ways God has loved us—He’s been at work in our lives long before we noticed or could say thank you. The Good Samaritan story reminds us that Jesus is the one who finds us in our brokenness, loves us at great cost, and keeps coming back to care for us, even when we’re unaware.

The invitation is to wake up to this love—to recognize the ways God has already been loving us, and to extend that same kind of love to others. Belonging doesn’t start when we finally respond; it starts when love finds us and decides we’re worth saving.

Key Takeaways

1. The rhythm of “believe, behave, belong, be seated” is a distortion of Jesus’ way, turning discipleship into passive spectatorship and making belonging conditional. Jesus’ rhythm is “belong, believe, become, belay”—a process that begins with unconditional love and leads to transformation and mission. [08:18]
2. Prevenient grace means God’s love reaches us before we ever respond. Jesus welcomed, loved, and included people before they believed or behaved rightly. This grace is the foundation of true belonging and is the starting point for any genuine journey of faith. [09:14]
3. Becoming like Jesus is not about external rule-following but about internal transformation. Jesus gently leads us to become more whole, merciful, and mature, remaking us from the inside out rather than demanding outward conformity. [10:08]
4. Love is most powerfully communicated through action, not just words. Acts of sacrificial service—like shingling a roof in a blizzard—speak louder than any declaration. People are often convinced of God’s love and the authenticity of Christian community by what they see us do, not just what we say. [18:35]
5. The parable of the Good Samaritan reveals that God’s love is wordless, costly, and persistent, often at work while we are “unconscious” to it. Jesus is the true Good Samaritan, loving us at great cost, caring for us before we can respond, and inviting us to wake up to His love and extend it to others—even those we might consider enemies. [27:44]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[02:03] - New Wine in New Wineskins
[03:25] - Rethinking Church Rhythms
[06:28] - The Emo Phillips Joke: Conditional Belonging
[07:14] - The Old Rhythm: Believe, Behave, Belong, Be Seated
[08:18] - Jesus’ Rhythm: Belong, Believe, Become, Belay
[09:14] - Prevenient Grace: Belonging Before Belief
[10:08] - Becoming vs. Behaving
[12:09] - Living on Belay: Serving Others
[13:14] - Story: Welcomed as a Newcomer
[15:20] - Shingling in the Snow: Love in Action
[17:06] - Henry’s Story: Trust Built Through Service
[18:35] - Actions Speak Louder: Proving Love
[19:33] - Jesus’ “I Have Loved You”: Present Perfect Love
[21:47] - Recognizing God’s Love in Our Lives
[24:01] - The Good Samaritan: Love Without Words
[27:44] - Jesus as the True Good Samaritan
[29:37] - Costly, Persistent Love
[33:29] - Closing Reflection and Prayer

Bible Study Guide

Bible Study Discussion Guide: Recovering Jesus’ Rhythm of Discipleship

Bible Reading

Luke 10:25–37 (ESV) – The Parable of the Good Samaritan

> And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
> But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
> Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’
> Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
> He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
> And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)

> The LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

John 15:9 (ESV)

> As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

Observation Questions

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, what actions did the Samaritan take that showed compassion to the injured man? (Luke 10:33–35)
According to Jeremiah 31:3, how does God describe His love for His people?
In John 15:9, what does Jesus say about the way He has loved His disciples?
The sermon described two different “rhythms” for following Jesus: “believe, behave, belong, be seated” and “belong, believe, become, belay.” What is the main difference between these two approaches? [08:18]

Interpretation Questions

Why do you think Jesus chose a Samaritan—a person considered an enemy by the Jews—as the hero in His story? What does this say about the kind of love and belonging Jesus offers? [26:40]
The sermon talks about “prevenient grace”—God’s love reaching us before we respond. How does this idea challenge the way we usually think about belonging in church or community? [09:14]
The Good Samaritan’s love was “wordless, costly, and persistent.” What might it look like for us to love others in this way, especially those who may not notice or thank us? [27:44]
The old rhythm made belonging conditional on belief and behavior. How might this have affected people’s willingness to engage with church or faith? [07:14]

Application Questions

Share about a time when someone welcomed you, included you, or showed you love before you had “earned it.” How did that experience affect you? [13:14]
Think about the last few weeks or months. Are there ordinary moments, coincidences, or small kindnesses that might actually be God saying to you, “See, I have loved you”? Share one with the group. [22:16]
The sermon described “belaying” as serving and supporting others, not being the hero but holding the rope so others can climb. Who in your life might need you to “hold the rope” for them right now? What would that look like this week? [12:09]
The Good Samaritan helped someone who was unconscious and couldn’t respond. Is there someone in your life who needs love or help, even if they can’t thank you or may never notice? What’s one step you could take to serve them? [28:37]
The pastor shared a story about shingling a roof in a blizzard as an act of love. What is one practical, maybe even costly, way you could show love to someone in your community this month? [15:20]
The sermon invites us to “wake up” to God’s love that’s already at work in our lives. What would it mean for you to truly wake up to God’s love? How might that change the way you see yourself or others? [33:29]
The old church rhythm was described as turning discipleship into “spectatorship.” Are there ways you’ve been more of a spectator than a participant in following Jesus? What’s one way you could move from watching to serving this week? [08:18]

Close in prayer, asking God to help you recognize His love at work in your life and to give you courage to extend that same love to others, starting with belonging.

Sermon Clips

“Churches and ministries, ministers including myself, have often operated with an unspoken and unfortunate formula for engaging with people and so if I forget to say it later let me say it now, I'm sorry because we the American standard American church have asked you to engage in a rhythm that looks something like this: believe, behave, belong, be seated—and it's not working very well.”

“Pause. We turned discipleship into spectatorship, making following Jesus a comfortable show to watch instead of a life to live. Pause. Does that sound like how Jesus interacted with people? Is it any wonder why people are walking away?”

“When we truly discover Jesus as presented in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see a more life-giving rhythm that looks like this. Belong. Believe. Become. Belay. You see, with Jesus, it all starts with belonging. And by that, I mean His process starts with love.”

“For Jesus, meeting a new person was to love them. To see a new person was to have compassion for them. When Jesus invited someone to follow Him, He invited people like us, selfish, full of doubt, carrying a lot of baggage, who didn't believe at first that Jesus was who He said He was. To put it simply, with Jesus, people belonged before they believed. They were loved before they had learned. They were graced before they had expressed gratitude. They were shown mercy without merit.”

“Prevenient grace is God's grace that precedes any human action. It's the grace of God that enables us to freely respond to His gift of salvation and love.”

“As people grew in their knowledge and trust of Jesus, they began to believe in Him too. For some, that takes a while. For the disciples, it took years. Many of them didn't confess their belief in Jesus until the final hours before the cross.”

“Behaving, that's the old rhythm, is about external compliance, following rules, being good. In contrast, becoming, that's the new rhythm, is about internal transformation, being remade from the inside out, being remade to be less hypocritical and more merciful, less fragmented and more whole, less sin-prone and more holy, less foolish and more mature, less selfish and more like he created us to be, like himself.”

“In other words, he called them to live life, not from a comfortable seat of watching, but in the servant role of belaying. If you're not from Colorado, you might not know—belay is a climbing term. To belay someone is to help them climb. It's a humble job. You're not the hero. You're not even climbing. You're holding the rope, managing the slack, ready to catch them if they fall. You're there to support, to be an anchor, to serve. Belaying is arguably the most loving thing to do when climbing.”

“We're going to challenge the existing rhythm, believe, behave, belong, and be seated. And we're going to aim to recover something closer to the rhythm of Jesus. Belong, believe, become, belay.”

“How does someone communicate that you belong? Do they just say, you belong? Maybe. When sincere, those can be powerful words, but do they have to be said explicitly, or is belonging something communicated more clearly through action?”

“Henry wasn't convinced our church was a place of love and belonging because of my sermons. He was convinced because we showed up on a freezing roof. Anybody can do that. To put a finer point on it, Henry didn't become fiercely loyal to our community because someone shook his hand in the church lobby and said, we love you. You belong here. Honestly, maybe those words had been spoken to him. I don't know. But any messages of love that had been spoken didn't land until he was pounding nails in the snow with a group of men.”

“Are you catching this? God's style of love is to demonstrate his love first. Prove it. Show it. Then he points back to his actions and says, see, I have loved you.”

“Perhaps even now you can look back and hear him saying it to you too.”

“Belonging doesn't start when you wake up and say thank you. It doesn't begin when you finally recognize who's helping you. It doesn't even require your awareness or consent. Belonging starts when love finds you on the side of the road and decides you're worth saving.”

“If you look closely at the story, the character who most resembles the Good Samaritan is Jesus. And the character who looks most like the man on the side of the road is us. I'm not the only one who thinks this. Some of the earliest church fathers, Origen, Clement, Augustine, saw it similarly. When we read it this way, we get a deeper understanding of the love and the belonging that's available to us in Jesus.”

“There are no words spoken between the Good Samaritan and the injured man. They don't talk. This leads me to assume the man was unconscious since the robbers left him half dead. Therefore, this love is not just without words, but it's also unnoticed. It makes me wonder, how has Jesus wordlessly loved us? How has he loved us in ways we haven't noticed?”

“He'd been loved without knowing it, helped without asking for it, cared for while unconscious.”

“The good Samaritan empties his bank account, his own bank account, not the injured man's, while the injured man lies unconscious. Oil? Not cheap. Wine? Not cheap either. Two denarii? Two days wages. And what about his own life? The Samaritan risks everything on a road known for robbery and violence. Does that sound familiar? Jesus walks straight into our danger, into our mess, our violence, our rejection. Knowing exactly what it would cost him.”

“We may never know how the man responded when he finally woke up but we can know ours. How will you respond when you wake up to his love? Go and do likewise.”

“We're that unconscious man on the side of the road. We're the ones who've received such remarkable love. We're the ones that love keeps coming back to. Here's what I'm getting at: belonging doesn't start when you wake up and say thank you. It doesn't begin when you finally recognize who's helping you. It doesn't even require your awareness or consent. Belonging starts when love finds you on the side of the road and decides you're worth saving.”

“Imagine waking up like the injured man, suddenly aware of all the costly love that's been poured out while you were unconscious. What would it mean for you to truly wake up to God's love? What might change?”

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