He Found Him

We are in John, right?

And we're going to be in John for a long time, two years, right?

So we're just kind of getting started.

But this morning we're going to be looking at this interaction of Jesus and his uh this calling of two people, Philip and Nathaniel, right?

And so we're going to dive in the text, got a lot to unpack here this morning.

But if we look at the very beginning of the passage and we kind of 43 through 46, we would summarize uh this chunk of text this way.

Come and see who found me.

Come and see who found me.

Uh we see right at the beginning of this passage, uh, Jesus finds a man named Philip.

So it says that actually uh Jesus uh decided, it says in the text, the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and there he found Philip.

Now, who is this dude named Philip?

Well, uh he he is one of the twelve, right?

He's one of the twelve apostles.

Uh and John's gospel actually shares the most information about this uh apostle named Philip.

Uh we see him uh be found by Jesus here in the region of Galilee.

Uh we know that he was from Beth Seda, uh chapter one, verse 44, we're gonna get into that, but he was from Beth Seda, which was the same town as Andrew and Peter.

Uh if we pause for a moment right there, we see kind of an emphasis of proximity, right?

The influence of proximity of people that we have around us to be able to share the gospel with one another.

If you notice, we're not huge on like sending out, we're not against it, but we're not like primary emphasis on, hey, we got these select elite group of people who are missionaries, and they're the ones who actually share the gospel with people, and we're gonna send them across the globe.

That's great.

But we want all of you to see yourselves and understand yourselves as a missionary of the gospel of Jesus, right?

You're a missionary in your neighborhoods and communities, you're a missionary in your workplaces and school systems.

You are missionaries to proclaim faithfully the gospel of Jesus to those around you.

And so there's a reality where proximity means something in the kingdom of God.

Uh, in fact, the Great Commission, when it says that uh that that you shall go, therefore, and make disciples, that go command is really as you are going, as you are living everyday life.

And so Jesus is assuming rightly that proximity would have a space in our missional emphasis, right?

Uh so so that's a side note.

That was free.

The rest is gonna cost you.

Philip, he said, then found.

So Philip's from Beth Seda.

Uh in John 6, 5 through 6, Jesus tests Philip, right?

It's not one of the greatest things you want to go down in history for, the the creator of all the universe testing you, and you don't really have a good answer.

Uh so if we look at John 6, 5 through 6, uh he says, lifting up his eyes, then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, so Jesus is getting ready to feed the multitude.

Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?

Uh he said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Philip answered him this way: 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.

So Philip is just like, yo, we don't even have enough money to make a dent in this, right?

And Jesus is like, ha ha, I've been testing you.

I'm gonna take these five loaves and two fish and feed them all.

Uh so Philip failed that one.

Uh Philip uh fails again uh in in John 14, 8, because he asked Jesus to show them the Father, and Jesus is like, Seriously, how long must I be with you, right?

I I I if you've seen me, you've seen the father.

So Philip, get it through your head.

Uh and also in 1221, uh Philip is this kind of point man uh for these group of Greeks who who really request to get uh time with Jesus.

Uh and so John gives us the most information about this man named Philip.

But I want us to survey three specific things about this interaction that Jesus has with Philip as he determines to go to Galilee, and in Galilee he finds this man named Philip.

The first thing that we need to survey is that it is Jesus who finds Philip.

It is Jesus who finds Philip.

I I want to set before you this morning that this is the MO of the kingdom, right?

The modus operandi of the kingdom is that it is Jesus, it is God who finds us.

Uh, he comes and searches the darkness and shines his light uh to find us.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

We see in Luke chapter 19, verses 9 through 10, Jesus is interacting with this man named Zacchaeus, and he's at his home to uh share a meal with him.

Luke 19:9–10

And he says this in Luke 9, 19, 9 through 10.

And Jesus said to him, Zacchaeus, today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Uh Jesus finds his people.

Uh we we actually see this in the very beginning of Genesis, right?

Uh uh as God had made mankind, mankind sinned against God, and what did they do?

They tried to hide themselves in the garden.

Like, how big of a fool do you have to be to try and hide behind a tree from God?

Right?

Adam was like, Can you can you see me, Lord?

Well, yeah, dude, you're just behind that little tree.

Like, I can see you.

Plus, I'm the maker of the universe.

Yes, I can see you.

But nonetheless, what happens?

God goes searching for Adam.

God goes searching for Adam.

We see this in the incarnation.

Uh, this is the emo of the kingdom.

Again, what happens?

God doesn't stay distant from us, God doesn't uh stay so far removed from us that he's unable to save us.

Uh, this parallel in Exodus where he says, I will save you with an outstretched arm and a mighty hand so that my glory might be known to you.

We we see this fully manifested in the incarnation of God the Son when he takes on flesh.

It is God who comes after us, even to the point that he becomes in our very likeness in our flesh.

He pursues us.

We see it all throughout the public ministry of Jesus.

The public ministry of Jesus is about him seeking to save the lost.

He is finding those whom are his.

Uh, and then we finally see it in the work of the Holy Spirit today.

The work of the Holy Spirit today is to chase down those who have been purchased by the ransom of Christ through the shedding of his blood that we might be discovered by him, that we might be found by him.

And there's a true sense.

I want to I want to help us understand something.

There's a true sense that we are all seekers.

We're all seekers.

Uh not there's not one person that I've ever met that deep down in their soul doesn't want to have life and joy and peace.

Every one of us is a seeker.

The problem is we are stumbling around in the darkness.

We're stumbling around in blindness, and we don't have an understanding of what we truly need to have those things.

Uh, there's this old philosophical um um uh thought process that religion or or the way to eternal life is like four blind men around an elephant.

And there's an elephant in the middle, right?

But these four blind men, one's at the trunk, and he's touching it and I don't know, smelling it, maybe, maybe tasting a little.

Uh and he says, Oh, this must this must be uh whatever, right?

And then another guy's at the leg, and another guy's at the tail, and they're all blind, and they're saying, Well, this must be something else, something else.

And all religion is like this big elephant and blind people discovering different ways to understand it and pass to get to it.

And it's like this philosophical thought is so flawed because one of those dudes just needs to be able to see, and if they opened their eyes and could actually see, and not all four of them were blind, they'd be like, no, it's not a tree, that's not a serpent, that's not a whatever, it's an elephant.

And so, what does the spirit do?

The spirit opens our eyes to be able to see.

God the Son shines his light upon us so that we're not blind men stumbling around a giant mammal.

We're able to see that life and joy and peace is found in the Messiah Jesus.

You see, it is Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit who awakens us to see and know that he is what our hearts long for.

You want eternal life, you want joy, you want peace.

Jesus says it's me that you're looking for.

And so we need something to get us out of the darkness of our sin.

We need something so we're not stumbling around trying to discover all these false hopes and false gods.

Peace and life, they're not coming except by Christ.

I mean, look at COVID.

COVID was probably the most pro-life movement America ever saw.

But it was so selfish because they were only pro-life because their very life was at stake.

And so all of a sudden they wanted to preserve life because they're terrified of death, and so they tried to discover life in every single way they possibly could.

And I'm not casting judgment upon anyone who made any decisions here this morning, but I mean they found they tried to find life in the end of a jab or through uh restrictions or through whatever means necessary.

Can I get life?

And the reality is we were coming up so infinitely short.

We we we we we needed to shine the light of the gospel to be able to say, if you want life, it's not there, it's in Christ, in Christ alone.

So Jesus finds Philip.

That's good news number one.

Good news number two, Jesus gives the command to follow.

He gives the command to follow.

We can read in the text here it says, uh uh He finds Philip, right, and said to him, Follow me.

Follow me.

This is a this is not a request.

Uh in the text, this is an imperative command, and it's one that's given to all of those who are found by Christ to follow him.

Uh I loved what our brother uh Dr.

Kevin said last week.

That follow means to be joined to another.

That we're actually joining ourselves to Christ, to follow in his ways, to follow after his footsteps, uh, that we might be an apprentice of Christ.

Right?

The point of your Christian life is that you would be conformed to the very image of the Son, of which our sin marred and distorted in the first place.

So what he is doing is he's saving you uh so that you might with the power of the Holy Spirit experience transformation, which looks like conforming to the person of Christ Himself.

So what he does, we do.

The way that he loves, we love.

The joy that he has, we have, the discipline that he has in his flesh, we have in our flesh.

The the fullness of glory as we are entering into the presence of the King in the eternal life to come will be that we are found to be looking like him.

Right?

That's that's the that's the apex of glory that you look like Jesus.

And so he says to Philip, follow me, follow me.

Uh, this is a command to all of us, all of us who have been found by Jesus.

And then the third thing I want us to look at the joyous response of Philip.

The joyous response of Philip.

So so Jesus finds Philip, he says, Come follow me.

What's the first thing Philip does?

He goes and finds someone else.

He finds Nathaniel.

He declared to Nathaniel, we found him.

The one we've been looking for.

Nathaniel, guess what?

We found him.

Philip's response displays for us the effectual call of God that he has for his people.

The the joy that filled uh uh Philip's heart, right?

The the response that he had to go and tell others about what he had been able to see in the face of Christ.

Uh what when we look at this, like effectual calling of God, it's that he is calling us unto himself.

And when our eyes are opened, when our eyes are open to be able to see all that we've been seeking after, standing right in front of us in the person of Jesus, who would not joyously respond in faith.

Think about the power of the Spirit that He's able to open our eyes to actually see and know and savor everything we've been looking for in Christ.

He's the fulfillment of all of our hopes and desires, he's the fulfillment of all of our longings and aches of soul, and when our eyes are actually open to be able to behold Him, who wouldn't respond in such joy to say, Come and see what I've been able to find and know.

Man, I love the Spirit because the Spirit does that for you by grace.

You didn't earn that, you didn't deserve that, he didn't have to do that for you.

That's grace.

And he says, Blind man, open your eyes so that you might see and behold everything you've longed for in Christ.

Who have they found?

Philip says, We have found him.

Who's him?

Who is Jesus?

Man, if this isn't the most critical question mankind can wrestle with, who is Jesus?

Uh let me tell you this.

Your eternity hinges on that question.

Who is Jesus?

Is he just somebody good that we should model our lives after?

Is he just another Mahatma Gandhi, right?

That we should try to be kind and nice and and treat other people the way that he did.

And so if we just model our lives after him, then then us and God we're good, right?

My my scale of eternity is tipped in my balance so that I can get into heaven because I'm like this good person?

Or or is he Lord?

Is he Lord of all creation?

Is he the one that we should submit our lives to in every aspect?

Is he the one that deserves all the glory and honor and praise?

Is he the one who did what you never could do so that you could have right standing with your father?

In his perfect, sinless, fully obedient life, in his substitutionary death on the cross where he stood in our place, condemned, and in his glorious resurrection, is he the one who has accomplished for you and me everything we've strived, but no deep down in our hearts we can't achieve.

Good standing with our Maker.

Philip says, We found him.

We found him.

We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Here's Philip is saying, Him.

We found the Messiah.

We found the Christ, the one that we have been waiting for.

And he says, of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote.

We see in Luke chapter 24, Jesus reveals to his disciples that he is the fulfillment of all of the scriptures.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Everything that Moses and the prophets and the law had written of, he is the fulfillment of it all.

Let's look at it in Luke 24, 44 through 45.

Then he said to them, Jesus said to his disciples, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you.

That everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Then look at the grace of Jesus.

So what was he showing them?

He was showing them everything that had been written, he fulfilled.

So we found who?

We found the Messiah.

We found the one whom all of the scriptures had written about.

Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph, the Son of Man.

Jesus' uh probably most uh used term for himself, the son of man.

We'll get to dive into that because it's done a lot into John.

So we're not gonna take a ton of time here this morning, but it's the son of man, right?

Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

I think this uh speaks again to John's emphasis of the letter.

He he really wants us to grasp who is Jesus.

And so he's gonna take his time, he's gonna be methodical about it to help us understand.

This is another reality that we are privy to, uh, that Jesus is the one who fulfills all of the scriptures uh in uh in in total, uh, so that we might have confidence that he is the Messiah, right?

Uh but Nathaniel doesn't respond the same way that Philip did, does he?

Uh he doesn't respond initially.

Uh Nathaniel tends to have some deterring doubt.

He says, uh, can anything good come from Nazareth?

Right?

There's this deterring doubt that Nathaniel expresses as Philip's joy is trying to convince and persuade him uh to come and see whom they have found.

He's like, Man, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

That's like us uh saying, I don't know what I thought of like neighborhoods and cities I could say, but somebody's gonna get mad because I use one, right?

So just just in your mind, picture a city around us where you're like, can anything good come out of Middleton?

No, uh, but uh uh I'm joking.

Anyway, uh right, somebody's gonna get offended.

Anyway, you're that's that's what that's what Nathaniel's doing.

Can anything good really come out of this place?

Uh it's just that Nazareth was just kind of like a known, it's just nothing, right?

So anything good come out of that?

Deterring doubt Nathaniel's gonna express.

But 47 through 51, here's what we see Nathaniel's eyes opened to see the truth.

Summary of verses 47 through 51.

Eyes opened to see the truth.

Jesus sees uh Nathaniel walking toward him, and he says something.

He says, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.

Um, let's talk about who Nathaniel is.

So we have to realize Jesus had a way more uh big a larger following than just his twelve apostles.

Uh thousands of people followed Jesus.

Uh, and many of them would be called followers, many of them will be called disciples.

It's only 12 who would be called apostles.

And then uh afterward in the New Testament church, other apostles would emerge.

Uh, but we have the twelve.

Uh but Nathaniel's not one of the twelve.

We don't really have any evidence uh at all that Nathaniel's one of the twelve.

There's speculation that maybe he's Bartholomew or maybe he's another person.

Nonetheless, there's no evidence that Nathaniel's one of the twelve.

We can just understand him as a disciple of Jesus.

He's only mentioned here and one other time in John's gospel uh as Jesus reveals himself after his resurrection.

Uh in 21, uh John 21, verse 2, we see Nathaniel present as Jesus is revealed.

John 21:2

Revealing himself after his resurrection.

So minimally we can say Nathaniel was a faithful follower of Jesus, right?

He's there all the way up until even after the resurrection.

And if he fell away from Jesus after the resurrection, the dude's got he's got problems, right?

But I'm gonna believe Nathaniel stayed faithful.

Um and but Jesus says something.

He says, Behold an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.

What Jesus is saying is that the language lends itself to Jesus communicating that Nathaniel's pursuit of truth does not have ulterior motives, that it is an honest pursuit of truth.

And so he's saying, Behold, there's an Israelite here who is seeking truth in honesty.

Um Nathaniel's search for truth is genuine, even if the discovery of its source is unknown or even has a presence of doubt in it.

Could anything come good come from Nazareth?

So we have to understand.

Was Nathanael looking for Jesus?

Uh no.

I would submit no.

Was Nathaniel looking for truth?

Yes.

Was that pursuit honest and genuine?

Absolutely.

What's Jesus gonna do, though?

Jesus is gonna open Nathaniel's eyes to be able to help him understand what you're honestly pursuing is found in me.

And so uh Nathaniel uh asks Jesus, uh, how do you know me?

How do you know me?

He has this uh kind of investigation taking place to try to authenticate the person in front of him.

How do you know me?

And Jesus responds with a statement that's going to fully dispel any sense of doubt that Nathaniel had.

He says, This, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

Man, this this statement that Jesus makes has an extreme impact on Nathaniel.

It has an extreme impact on Nathaniel.

Jesus strikes the very core of Nathaniel's soul, and it leaves him with no other option but to toss aside his previous notion of doubt.

And we have to kind of ask ourselves, right, what's happening under that fig tree?

Maybe Nathaniel was reading through the scriptures to be able to understand who the Messiah might be.

Uh maybe he was praying under that fig tree.

Maybe he was confessing sin to his maker under that fig tree.

Who knows what he was doing?

But there's a strong sense that he believed he was alone.

There was a privacy, an intimacy that was happening underneath that fig tree.

Jesus saw Nathaniel, but even more importantly, Nathaniel felt seen.

Jesus saw Nathaniel, but more importantly, Nathaniel felt seen.

And what was Nathaniel's proclamation after being seen by Jesus?

Rabbi, you are the son of God.

You are the king of Israel.

What's he saying?

Rabbi, teacher, one of whom I desire to follow and model my life after.

That was a common uh uh uh position of authority inside of Jewish culture.

Uh, one that people desired to model their life after were these rabbis who would teach God's word uh to the Jewish people.

And so he's acknowledging Jesus as a teacher.

It's also understood that rabbis held the words of life.

And so there he's embracing the reality that out of this mouth comes truth.

I want to follow, I want to attach myself to that.

But more importantly, Nathaniel says something greater than just rabbi.

You are the Son of God.

The Son of God.

You are the king of Israel.

Here's what I want us to understand.

Faithful proclamation always follows faithful revelation.

Faithful proclamation always follows faithful revelation.

When when the spirit, here's what I mean by it, when the spirit has actually illuminated our heart and mind with the revelation of who Jesus Christ is, out of our mouth will come a faithful proclamation of his Lordship over us.

No man may come to me unless he declares Jesus is Lord.

Right?

Jesus is Lord is the confession of the church.

It is the anthem of heaven.

Jesus is Lord.

And that is only able to be produced by what?

The Spirit.

The Spirit is by the Holy Spirit.

Man may confess Jesus is Lord.

And so after faithful revelation always comes faithful proclamation.

But then Jesus responds to Nathaniel uh uh with this sense of a holy boast, right?

Uh there's there's this term called y'all ain't seen nothing yet.

You ever heard of that term?

We're we're in a we're not a very diverse crowd.

So I'm just assuming you probably haven't used that yourself.

But uh, y'all ain't seen nothing yet, right?

That's kind of what Jesus is going to say.

Oh, you believe in me because I said I saw you under some fig tree.

Uh you haven't seen anything yet.

Uh you're gonna see angels descend and ascend upon the Son of Man.

Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, uh, this is uh really only language used by Jesus.

Uh it's amen, amen.

Uh uh, so it is true, or let it be done.

There's the different phrases and uses of this word.

Jesus is the only one who uses it uh throughout the gospels, and it's when he's trying to emphasize uh a statement that he's making as if you're gonna believe something, believe what comes out of my mouth next, right?

So truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

We see that language again, Son of Man.

Uh Jesus is letting Nathaniel know that it's just the beginning of his witness to the messianic reality of the person and work of Jesus.

John contains seven messianic signs that we're gonna work through as we go through the Gospel of John.

The first one is next week, the wedding feast of Cana, where he turns water into wine, right?

For all of you people who are teetotalers and against drinking, you're gonna get wrecked next week.

Uh but uh nonetheless, uh uh uh we see Jesus uh turn water into wine.

That's the first messianic sign uh that John shows to us, and there's seven in total.

So Jesus is kind of alluding to what's to come through his public ministry.

Uh that Nathaniel, if this gave you faith to believe, you better wait and see what's coming in the future.

Um but here, let's let's look at this.

Found Philip sparked the finding of Nathaniel.

Found Philip sparked the finding of Nathaniel.

Uh small flames make wildfires.

Don't they?

Nathanael had deterring doubt, but it was dispelled by a supernatural encounter with the Messiah.

Nathaniel had his eyes open to be able to see the truth in the person of Jesus.

And in response, his mouth was able to be opened and faithfully confess.

Rabbi, you are the Son of God.

You are the King of Israel.

So here's what I want us to walk away with this morning.

Found people, find people.

Found people, find people.

This principle is at the very heart of the advance of God's kingdom.

People who have been found become people who go and find.

But the reality is God found you.

He came into the darkness of our sin, and he cast his light upon us.

He sp uh uh Jesus spilled his blood to purchase us for his own self and glory.

The Spirit comes from the Father and the Son to apply that finished work of the cross and resurrection to our very souls that we might come to life.

It is God who found us.

We did not find him.

We may have been seeking, we may have been seeking for life and truth and joy and peace, but we were some blind dudes touching up an elephant.

Uh, Jesus comes in and he says, Wake up, sleeper, and see everything you've been longing for in me.

Jesus finds us.

The Spirit hunts us down in holy pursuit to bring us into his kingdom.

And we who are found now share the privilege and call of working alongside God, finding others who are lost, finding those who are stumbling in the dark.

They may be a people who are seeking, but they have no true ability to discover the light of life on their own.

It is critical to the advance of the kingdom that found people find people.

Yeah, many of us struggle with this very notion.

We can't remember the last time that we actually led someone to Jesus.

We can't remember the last time that we had really uh uh uh fruitful gospel conversations with others.

In fact, the the world around us has conditioned us and discipled us uh to be timid about the sharing of our faith, to make sure that we don't upset anyone or step on their toes.

To maybe we should back off this whole thing called Jesus and truth and submission to his word and lordship.

And so we have not seen any fruit of people being found by the Spirit in a long, long time.

That we intentionally searched out the lost to bring them to the one who found us.

And I think there's a couple reasons why we do this.

The first one is I think some of us have no sense of urgency to find people.

Some of us have no sense of urgency to find people.

Let me tell you something.

The thrust of the gospel work of the church is built on urgency.

It's built on urgency.

You see it all throughout the epistles of the New Testament.

The day is closer than it's ever been.

Uh, the day of the Lord approaches.

Uh while you have time, use it, right?

All of this sense of urgency is throughout the New Testament writings to the church.

That we would be a people of urgency because eternity is hanging in the balance for those around us.

Jesus even uses a sense of urgency.

In John 9 4, he says, the uh we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.

Night is coming when no one can work.

Even in his public ministry, he understood time, right?

He understood urgency.

And I think there's a reality where many of us um we we don't have that in our lives.

If we're really honest with ourselves, we're we're terrified of counting the days left that we have in our life.

We're we're terrified of the notion that that the sand is pouring through the hourglass.

And so we don't reflect on that.

And I get it to some measure, like that doesn't want to be your whole life, just like oh I'm gonna I'm gonna die in 600 days.

Um but if we're if we're really honest, our absence of wrestling with that has led to a false sense of uh kind of a long, elongated life here on earth, and we and it's robbed us of urgency.

It's robbed, and I can tell you this here's the here's the number one way you can see it.

Your phone.

Your phone's the number one way you'll see it.

If you do the math, most of us in this room will spend the equivalent of over 20 years of time on our phones.

20 years of time on your phone.

Dude, I'm about to like put it under my rear tire and kick the minivan in reverse.

I don't think my tracks could do much to my phone, but my minivan could do something bad.

Uh what are we doing?

What are we doing with ourselves?

We we have no sense of urgency.

Our eyes are fixed on this world rather than gazing upward toward heaven.

Man, if we thought about heaven more, if we thought about glory more, eternity more, I think that urgency would start to develop in us.

I think also, though, church, if we're honest with ourselves, we have no real belief of hell.

I think it's something that slips the grasp of our framework.

That when someone dies and they're separated from their maker because they have not put their faith in the finished work of Jesus, they spend forever, forever under the conscious judgment of God's wrath.

We can't grasp that in full, and I get that.

But can we try to grasp it a little bit when we see the people around us dying and losing their life and chasing after eternal life in false and empty things that will never be able to provide it for them?

Can we have a sense of urgency in realizing someone's last breath means something next?

And I think lastly, we have an unbiblical view of God's love and grace.

I think we have a very unbiblical view of God's love and grace.

Here's where the evangelical church has destroyed its message over the last 25 to 30 years.

Let me tell you where it's been.

Twofold.

It's like a one-two combination, right?

Jab and then cross.

Here was the jab.

It was the uh primarily Baptist message of cheap grace.

Cheap grace.

If you just raise your hand at some weird fundy camp, or if you say a prayer when the pastor tells you to bow your head and close your eyes or whatever, and you say this prayer, you're now in heaven.

You're set.

And guess what?

You can live your life however you want to after that.

Because grace is gonna cover it.

God's going to forgive you.

It's okay that you mess up.

We're all just a room of people who keep on messing up and keep on messing up, no problem.

We didn't push transformation, righteous obedience, submission to God's law.

We didn't preach the message of costly grace.

We preached cheap grace that had no power to actually save anybody.

And then here came the next punch.

And it was the wave of an unbiblical view of God's love.

That not only can you do whatever you want and grace will cover it, but you can live however you want and God will affirm it.

That's a different twist.

Do you see it?

There's a very different, subtle twist on God will forgive you for what you do, God affirms what you do because he is loving.

And love means he is uh joyous about the decisions I make in my life.

That he affirms me in these identity crisis things that we wrestle with as a society.

You see, this unbiblical view of God's loving grace has robbed us of urgency.

Why would we need to preach the gospel if we can do whatever we want and God will forgive us and we can make any decision or live any life that we desire to, and He will actually approve and affirm it.

You see what that message does?

It creates no need for the cross.

And so, what did Jesus die for?

Nothing at that point.

Nothing.

The cross, the resurrection, all of it means nothing because the church has lost its message.

I think some of us, though, we have lost the joy of being found.

Some of us have lost the joy of being found.

Man, can you just for a moment think back to when you first got saved?

I remember when I first got saved, I was a junior in high school, and uh the Lord just set a fire in me.

Now I was also Pentecostal, so um uh that had some implications on it, right?

Uh not only did I say you need Jesus, but I also said you need to speak in tongues.

I was on Baptist church's prayer list, literally in high school.

They were like this dude, Justin.

But I remember, man, I remember preaching the gospel in school.

I remember sharing the gospel in my classes into my uh uh student body.

I remember uh this one time I invited a couple of buddies.

We used to skate in graffiti together, and I invited them over to a like a sleepover my house.

I was 15, so we still kind of did that.

I don't would do you call it sleepover?

I don't think so.

I just they I have some dudes come and hang.

And um uh what happened was uh I started sharing the gospel with them at night.

Uh and I remember my my stepmom said the next morning her door was rattling in the middle of the night, and she got up because it woke her up and she came and she saw that my bedroom light was still on and she listened to what was going on and she heard me sharing the gospel to my friends, and they both received Christ that night.

They prayed to receive Christ that night.

I mean, I was on fire.

I had a joy that God saved me.

What happened?

What happened?

Man, the world has, we've allowed the world.

It's not the world isn't the the false notion that the world is somehow more powerful than God in us is a lie.

We've got to stop believing right now.

The world, we allowed the world to rob that innocent joy that we've been found by the king of all creation, that the Messiah has opened our eyes and he's found us.

I mean, just be honest with yourself.

Like, where's your joy in that?

Is that joy contagious?

Is it causing you to run like Philip and find Nathaniel?

Or are you just scared?

And look, it's okay to be honest.

We talk about this in my household all the time.

We're never gonna be mad at you for being honest.

We're gonna be disappointed and frustrated when we start believing the lies.

You see, we need to recapture our joy.

We need to recapture our joy of our salvation.

Because small flames make wildfires.

We want to see revival happen here in our city.

We want to see people come to saving faith in Jesus.

Let me tell you the very first place we have to start rediscovering the joy of our salvation.

I believe honestly that that is the root of revival.

Yes, prayer, yes, fasting, yes, the preaching of God's word.

I'm not dismissing those things, but I'm telling you, you won't do those things if you don't have the joy of your salvation.

What's the good news for us?

I'm going long.

I was off for a couple weeks.

My bad, y'all.

Hey, come on.

Uh the good news of the gospel is this Jesus finds his people.

Amen.

Jesus finds his people.

It all started with Adam and Eve when they sinned against God and hid from him in the garden.

God searching the garden, asking Adam, where are you?

Of course, God knew where Adam was.

But here's what he did from that point he set in motion a pattern.

That would follow the remainder of redemptive history.

God searching for lost and hiding people.

That's the motion God set forth out of his very nature and character that he would search for lost and hiding people.

We see this in the parables of Luke 15.

Jesus says, You want to understand what the kingdom's like?

It's like a shepherd who lost one sheep and he leaves uh he had a hundred or something.

So let me back up.

There's a shepherd, he's got a hundred sheep, he loses one, he leaves the 99 to go find the one.

That's what the kingdom's like.

A person who would uh leave all of this to search and seek out and find lost and hiding people.

It's also like this.

It's like a woman who had a silver coin and she loses it in her home and she turns over her couches and tables and searches her home till she finds the coin.

This is the pattern of which God set forth in the garden that we would continually strive to hide from him, to cover ourselves in darkness, and to the point where we actually start loving the darkness, the Bible says.

And so we're stumbling around in the blindness of our own hearts, and we're trying to seek after things that we can't understand or know or the sources.

And what does God do?

He breaks into our existence, he puts on flesh, and he comes and says, I'll find you in the darkness by casting my light upon you, by spilling my blood for you, by bringing you into my kingdom.

I'm gonna grab your hand in the middle of that darkness, and I'm gonna transfer you into the kingdom of my marvelous and glorious light.

Jesus finds his people.

The purpose and the outcome of his kingdom is not dependent upon us, church.

But hear this.

We're invited in to joyfully participate in it.

You and I.

You think God needs us?

That's bad theology.

No, he does not.

God needs nothing, God functions out of his good pleasure.

And so when he made man, he made man out of his good pleasure.

He didn't need relationship with us, he wasn't lonely.

He didn't need you.

It was out of his good pleasure that he decided to create you.

God doesn't need us to accomplish the mission of his kingdom, but out of his good pleasure, he invites us in to joyfully participate.

Man, we get to be a part of people being brought into heaven.

We get to be a part of people's eyes being opened up and being able to see truth and life and light for the first time.

We get to be a part of that.

How amazing is that?

This is how amazing it is.

Man, uh the Bible says that when one sinner repents, heaven stops and rejoices.

Literally, the language is God dances over them.

Man, what if we had that kind of joy?

When Jesus prayed, let it be on earth as it is in heaven.

I believe that that was a part of that prayer.

That was a part of that petition.

That when we see people come to saving faith, it would cause our feet to be moved and dancing because we can't contain the joy that's spurred up in our hearts.

Here's my prayer for us.

I'm closing down.

Sacred Mission, my prayer for us is that we would be a community of found people who find people.

That we would be a community of found people who find people.

If we're gonna leave a legacy here at Sacred Mission Church, man, that's what I want it to be.

A community of found people who find people that preach the gospel faithfully to others, that that share the message of the cross and resurrection of Christ with others, that brings them into the invitation of come and see what we have been able to see with our own eyes.

We found him.

Oh no, no, Philip, he found you.

And we're inviting others to come and be found also.

Man, imagine if this building couldn't contain the people who came into heaven, who found Jesus, or he found them.

It's hard language, I'll I'll get it straight, but can you imagine though?

If we I mean, I love the growth sacred mission has experienced.

I I'm my wife and I, I can't tell you how often we talk about how much we love you, how thankful we are for you, uh, the blessing that we have of having you as our church family.

But can you imagine if this building couldn't contain the people that were being brought into heaven?

Isn't that a better vision?

Isn't that a better endeavor and aim?

Sacred mission, let's be a community of people, found people who find people.

Amen.

Let's pray.