Behold: Continue the Practice | Part 4

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Week four, behold.

Week one, Ryan defined behold as to gaze, to wonder, to look at someone or something until that something has been grasped of the significance of that person or thing.

That's a lot of essence for me to say without it on the screen, so I'm really sorry.

But I think that's what we've been doing.

Good job, by the way.

That's what we've been doing.

We've been looking at Jesus and trying to behold him, trying to understand him, trying to worship him the way that he deserves to be worshiped.

And with it being a worship series, not just because I'm the guy that does the singing up here.

I think you've done a really good job interacting and engaging with these sermons.

I don't know if it's because it's family worship, which is top tier in my book, 10 out of 10, to have our kids with us.

I don't know if it's what families up here like reading scripture and doing a call and response and you know leading our entire church in something that's really traditional.

I don't know if the songs are really good and the guy that picked them is just really great at his job.

I have no idea.

That's a yes.

Um, I don't know if really humble today.

I don't know if it's just that Ryan has listened to the Lord and given us a sermon and a sermon series that we really needed to hear.

But you've been really engaging with worship.

We talk about it every week.

And staff meeting and after church, oh my gosh, did you hear them sing?

Oh my gosh, did you watch them?

It's crazy to look out.

I don't know everybody, but to look out and see the people that we know interacting with the songs that we're singing and be like, oh man, I know your story, I know what that means to you.

That's really cool to watch you worship that way.

It's really cool and really encouraging.

So good job, number one.

Um but yeah, week one, we talked about preparation.

You know, he's saying, make room five thousand times.

That's what Ryan said.

Like, how are you gonna prepare for the king?

How are you gonna make room for him?

Week two was about presence, and it was uh Ryan's bread and butter passage, he calls it about Isaiah when he's when the throne room is revealed to him, right?

And he's like, Well with me, I'm a man of unclean lips, and uh you know, they're having a reverence and an understanding for how great and and majestic and powerful the Lord is.

And then last week was posture.

We went through the other like typical Advent passage of you know, a son will be given to us, you know, an everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Amen, all those things, all those names.

And we talked about the different postures we can have in worship.

Um, and today, like a good Baptocostal that I am, we're gonna, it's gonna be alliterative, okay?

And we're gonna talk about practice.

And I was thinking about it, and I was like trying to pray through, like, what do I say?

And I was just standing in front of my whiteboard, you know, with nothing on it because I didn't know what to say, and what we're gonna do.

And I was like, God, what would you have me say about practice?

How do we practice?

Like, how do I how do I practice worship?

How do you how do you practice beholding the king?

Like, what do you do?

And what do I tell our church to do?

And I just felt like a nudge from the Holy Spirit, a little bit of conviction, and I was like, it's kind of like the voice in my head was like, Well, I'm like, Well, what did Jesus do?

And I was like, Oh, that's good, I'm gonna write that down.

So I wrote it down and I was thinking and praying about it, and then the thing we came up with was communion.

Look at the Bible here in Matthew 26.

The Bible says this in Matthew chapter 26, starting in verse 26, as they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, Take this and eat it, for this is my body.

And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it.

He gave it to them and said, Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people.

It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.

Mark my words, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it, anew with you in my father's kingdom.

And they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

If you know uh the rest of the story, if you know the rest of the scriptures, that's where Jesus goes into the garden where he's betrayed.

Um he has the longest night that was ever lived, and he's crucified the next day.

I was thinking about it and I was looking at it and trying to figure it out.

You know, Advent is not something that's super familiar to me uh before awakening.

You know, I we like kind of grew up in church, um, but it was kind of just like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

You know, December was just Christmas, it wasn't really Advent, and it wasn't really until I came here that I experienced Advent and learning that Advent just means arrival, right?

There's an anticipation, there's an expectation, all these scriptures in the Old Testament that talk about Jesus being born, about a savior being born.

It's kind of like, oh, we're excited for him to arrive, we're excited for the Advent, we're excited for Him to come here.

And to be honest, that never really meant that much to me.

Because I was like, oh, like I'm on this side of the cross, right?

I'm on this side of the covenant, I'm on this side of the promise.

I already have a relationship with Jesus.

I'm not really like waiting for a savior to come and do anything.

I get to live in that.

And this year, I'm kind of it's shifted for me.

It's been shifting over the last couple years being here, but it's really shifting.

Because we also like, well, yeah, he did come already, right?

He's coming back.

And that's not something that I really have a reference for it, I think about often.

Even alludes to it, like here, 29.

Mark my words, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you and my father's kingdom.

Like he's gonna come back.

And so while I sit in this kind of like second covenant, this like new covenant, like second testament advent of like waiting for Jesus to come back, it's been really hitting me really, really, really hard this year.

And I think it started over Thanksgiving.

We were uh, I was in Arizona, I was visiting my parents.

Hi, mom.

She's here.

I was visiting my parents, and my mom's side of the family came uh from the East Coast, and it was really cool.

We haven't been together since my wife and I got married, and so for us to all be together, or most of us to be together, you know, and then to like be there with the babies and stuff like that was really, really, really, really cool.

It's really fun.

Um, and I do this thing now.

Uh, whenever we get together with family, I just want to hear about them.

I'm getting to an age now where like the older generation is starting to pass away, you know.

Uh we've lost like a couple elders in the last couple of years, and there's so many things that I was like, oh, I didn't get to say.

You know, there's so many things that I didn't get to do, there's so many questions that I have that I didn't get to ask, there's so many things that I want to know about you that I don't have access to anymore.

And that's been really hard and weird to wrestle with.

And so now, anytime we get together, we're all in the same place.

I'm like, somebody tell me a story.

Like, tell me something.

Like, I want to hear.

Like, tell me about your siblings.

What do you remember about your grandmother?

Like, what do you remember about your aunts and uncles?

Like, what do you remember about this stuff?

It's really important to me to know.

And I'm also like jotting down like the lineage.

So I'm like, we'll use that name, we won't use that name, we won't use that name.

You know, I mean, that's like an old lady name, that's a weird name.

Spell it.

Definitely not Adolf.

Uh, let's work back today.

It's also weird to never mind.

I'm gonna stop.

You see where I'm going.

But, anyways, we do all this stuff, and it's really important to me to hear, you know.

And so I think it's Thursday night.

We're sitting down, we're talking.

Uh, and I'm asking, it's my mom and my grandma.

I think my wife is there, and we're just I'm just asking questions.

I'm asking mom, I'll sort of call her.

I'm asking my mom about her parents and her aunts and uncles, and if she remembers, you know, grandparents.

And so we're listening off people and talking about where they used to live and the things they used to do.

And this thing started just kind of to like hit me in the moment that I know so much about the gospel and the love of God because of that side of my family.

Like I primarily, I think my some of the things we read in scripture about what we receive as adoptions as sons and daughters and what it means to uh to be a child of God and come into like God's family, though that like fam familial analogy means so much to me.

I understand it in such a different way, I think, because of my family.

Because if you if we know each other really well, you would know, but most of you don't.

Plus, I'm good at keeping secrets, so why would you?

My mom that we're talking about is not actually my birth mom.

She's my stepmom.

Best parent out of the three, as far as I'm concerned, but she's she didn't have me.

She picked me.

You know?

Uh, you know, my dad was married, uh, split up obviously, got remarried, and my mom was there.

And so I'm listening to this, uh to this, and I'm like, oh.

I was like, oh dude, this is so cool.

Then I'm like, oh yeah, you picked me, right?

And all these people have loved me since the day that they met me.

I came in, you know, came on the scene at like six years old.

And they've like loved me a hundred percent since then.

No distinction between who's her blood and who's not, who's not.

So I'm listening to this stuff, and I'm talking, we're talking about my grandpa and my grandma and then being married and stuff like that.

My grandma had um a son before she was married to my grandpa, but you know what?

All four of those kids call him daddy.

He's my uncle's dad.

They refer to him as dad.

There's no distinction between the kids that came before their marriage and the kids that came afterward.

And I learned that's also Mama's story.

Her mom, grandma mush, was married, had four kids.

Her husband was not a good man, so he split up.

And so she's you know, a single woman raising four kids.

And then my grandpa, Robert, meets Grandma Mush, and then they get married.

It was like, oh yeah, they got married, he bought a house, all five, all six of them, four kids, and the two of them lived in a house, and then they had more kids, and he just loved them.

You know what I mean?

My mom and my all right, my aunts, my uncle, that's their grandfather.

This man who just chose to love their mom.

This man who just chose to love their aunts and uncles.

And I think it goes back a couple more times in generations, that kind of thing happens.

And I was just like, oh man, the legacy of just like the spirit of adoption, you know what I mean?

And the understanding of just loving people and bringing them into your family is so strong, and I'm such a benefactor or beneficiary of that.

It's really, really cool.

And so the next day, I'm talking to my mom, I'm like, when did you love me?

Like, when did you know?

Like, when did you know you love me?

And she looks at me and she goes, I just did.

You're easy to love.

And I was like, Oh my gosh, girl, stop.

You love me, girl, stop.

Say it again, you know.

No, please stop, say it again.

And so we're talking about it, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I go to bed all happy.

We're getting up at four o'clock in the morning because you know, we have to come back so I can see you on December 1st, which I love doing, by the way, love you so much.

Um, and so we go to bed, wake up, four o'clock in the morning, we're loading up the car, I come back inside, and my mom goes, I have an answer to your question.

Like, I know the answer.

And I was like, huh?

And she's like, your question you asked last night about like when did I know that I loved you?

After we went to bed, and I was like in the shower or whatever, and I was thinking about it, and I was like, Oh, it's like a thing I felt like the Lord reminded me, like I know the answer.

And I was like, When?

So the time when I was little and I came in, like we, you know, came into the picture together, I guess, when I was like six.

A couple years later, my mom and my dad weren't doing great, and um, she left to go to a funeral, and oh shoot, here it comes.

Um, she left to go to a funeral, and she had just decided she wasn't coming back.

And I don't remember the day, I don't remember the time, I don't remember how long.

I just know she came back.

And so we're talking about it, and she goes, I know I remember the moment where I knew that I loved you.

She said, I came back for you.

And the way that I'm like thinking about it now, right?

The same way that she came back for me, he's coming back for us.

She knew the best thing for me was her, and it's true.

Psalm 73 talks about it's a psalm of Asaph near the end of the chapter.

I think a translation, one of the old ones says, uh, the nearness of God is not good.

The best thing for us, right, is the presence of God, is the nearness of God.

And he's always made a way to be near his people.

From the garden, right, to the tent, to the tabernacle, to Jesus.

Now at this point, having the Holy Spirit alive on the inside of us, and we look forward to the advent when he comes back and we see him face to face.

The best thing for us is the presence of God in the same way.

I want you to get it.

Do you get it?

The same way that she came back for me, he's coming back for us.

Ryan will you come up?

So thinking about this stuff, if you know the rest of the story, looking back at Matthew 26, right?

They sang a hymn, I think verse 30.

And they go up to the Mount of Olives.

And what happened?

He's like, Oh, let's pray.

Jesus is praying, hey, let's pray, disciples, let's pray.

He just wanted to pray.

Pray with me, pray with me, pray with me.

I wanted his prayers say, Oh, God, my Father, if there's any way that this cup can pass from me, I do it, please.

I don't want to do that.

He's in agony, and I don't want to do this.

Nevertheless, your will be done.

His reverence for God the Father.

To say, like, I really don't want to do this, but you know what?

I see you, I behold you, I know you for who you are, and I'm gonna submit.

The presence of God was great there.

He understood something about the presence of God, and then his posture.

We know about the rest of the night, how he was betrayed and beaten and mocked and scorned and hung up on a cross, the most gruesome of deaths.

He did everything he physically could, quite literally.

An amazing posture.

And so from that point until we see him again, we get to practice.

We get to gather together and to pray and to worship, to spend time together as a community, to encourage each other, to correct each other.

Some of y'all need that.

Not me though, I'm perfect.

They laugh because they know it's true.

But we need it.

We need the practice.

Ryan said this, and I wasn't going to, but I will because I think it's funny.

And my friends here, especially the ones in the room today, in the service today, love Christmas.

Jesus never called us to remember his birth.

Merry Christmas.

He said, Remember, do this in remembrance of me.

Body broken, blood poured out.

The establishment of a new covenant, of connection between man and God, looking forward to the day where we'll see him face to face with no tears, no weeping, no mourning, no sickness, no death.

That's what we get to practice today.

That's what we get to celebrate today.

The person that did that is a person we're singing our worship to today.

So, in the next couple moments, we're going to give you the opportunity.

Practice preparation, even now, to think.

Meditate on the goodness of God in your life, on his perfect character on his sacrifice.

Acknowledge who it is that you're thinking about and his presence.

Let him bring things to mind and let submit to him.

Whatever posture you need to take, take it.

And then we'll practice by taking communion.

If I could have reserved, sir, we could come up this service, please, and thank you.

Just take your time.

Ryan's gonna sing.

And just think, just meditate.

And when you're ready, practice, and then we'll conclude our service with worship.

Let me pray.

Jesus, thank you.

We can't think about you too much.

It's too wonderful to think about.

Too wonderful to comprehend.

Too great and too marvelous to understand.

But you've given us a glimpse.

And so we just want to say thank you.

We give you our gratitude and our worship and our praise, our thanksgiving.

For who you are and all that you've done.

Holy Spirit, would you fill up my brothers and sisters today?

Would you allow them to encounter your presence?

Would you give them a touch and a taste of heaven in this moment?

And God, would you show them that we're doing something physical that has spiritual implications, God, as they take this bread and juice, God.

Would you do a work in their spirit that can't be undone?

Conform us to your image.

Jesus' name we pray.

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