Believe & Behold

Two weeks ago, we started this Knowing Jesus series, and we looked at Philippians chapter three.

And Paul, he's reviewing everything in his life that he has done, accomplished, been a part of, and he refers to it affectionately as hot garbage.

It is hot garbage.

It is useless.

It is not even worth considering in comparison to knowing Jesus.

Knowing Jesus is absolutely the most important thing in all of Paul's life.

Knowing Jesus is even more important than anything else he can think of.

It is not just a bonus, it is not an add-on to the very full plate of spiritual things that he is doing and a part of.

It is, in fact, central.

It is everything that we too at West Village Church want to be about.

We want him to be the center of all of these things, and we want to be fully orbed, well-rounded, fully orbed disciples, right?

That who are going to follow after Jesus and desire to know him more and more and more and more.

Knowing Jesus is the highest good that we can experience.

This is what we want, all right?

So we're we're in this series.

We are trying to keep our attention there.

So how do we do that, right?

We want to actually be disciples of Jesus in all of life, or as we go, we want to continue to know him more.

So how are we doing this?

All right, so how is this foundations of discipleship?

The five B's.

Believe, right?

To know him is to trust him more.

Belong to know him is to be united more to him.

Behold, to know him is to be with him more.

Become to know him is to be like him more.

And finally, bless to know him is to love like him more.

So, all right, so imagine these five B's are like big posts that are stuck into the foundation that is discipleship, where we look to Jesus and we say, we want to be faithful, we want to be like you, because we're your disciples, and we want to grow in that.

So this is how we are hoping that we can do this as West Village, not just through this series, but in coming weeks.

So last week, Matt, he preached, he didn't just hit it out of the park.

It went out of the park, over the parking lot, and into the street and caused wrecks.

It was that good.

Please, please make sure you go back and reference his sermon on how we belong.

All right.

So the first thing he hit, we are first united to Jesus because of who he is and what he has already done.

Right.

So it's on him.

We are, we belong to him first.

And then second, we belong to one another.

Because we are his body, right?

So he took us.

We are united to him.

We are united together.

Belonging in Jesus is the best.

And we want to continue to do this.

All right.

So today, we're actually covering two B's because I had every intent on that very first week when I got up here and was very excited to tell you all about knowing Jesus and get everybody on board about where we're going.

I was supposed to cover believe.

I did not cover believe.

And so if we're saying we're going to talk about these five posts that are holding up this foundation, and I completely ignored one, that's not good.

So we're going to hit believe.

Believe, remember, to know him is to trust him more, but we're also going to hit behold.

To know him is to be with him more.

Last week, I have been reading an old favorite book by Henry Nowen.

This book is called The Way of the Heart.

The Way of the Heart by Henry Nowen.

Um, all staff, elders, we are all reading this.

So I'm reading this book.

I'm also trying to craft this sermon, right?

I'm trying to think through ways that I can rightly phrase all of my best words so that you, my friends and family, are able to hear this call to believing in Jesus, to beholding Jesus.

And everybody is wowed because I put all the right words together.

Right?

So that's what I'm thinking about on one hand.

And then now is just confronting my bad heart page after page.

It was really unfair.

Uh this first chapter is on solitude and finding like our absolute satisfaction in Jesus alone.

Only in him.

All right.

Through his words, I realized as I was going through this, I am not, in fact, following Jesus like I want.

Instead, I'm very uncomfortable as I read this.

Uh, I saw that inside of me is this drive to impress you all, this drive to perform, and this drive to pursue love and acceptance from you.

I don't know if anybody has told you this recently, but y'all make terrible gods.

And yet I am looking to you to satisfy me.

So on one hand, I have to deliver a message on trusting God, believe, and being with him, behold.

And on the other, I am seeing in my own brokenness that I am not yet trusting God, and I am not sufficiently beholding his face and satisfying satisfied in him.

So, what do I do with this?

What do I do when my sin is laid bare?

How can I, how can I personally, which is actually the most important thing, how can I actually continue to trust him and be with him and grow in him?

And then how do I then talk about it in an honest way with y'all?

Right?

I need to get my heart right, but I also want to encourage you all so that you can.

So, what am I doing?

What do I do?

What do we do when we are met with that dichotomy?

So here's what I hope that we land today.

I hope that we land today.

Let us live in our belief and run to behold Jesus' face.

Let us live in our belief and run to behold Jesus' face.

That's where I hope we go.

Okay.

So you're all still asking, that sounds great.

How do we do that?

Let's go to a parable.

All right.

Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

We are going to start in verse 11.

This is the parable of the prodigal son.

Stay tuned in, even if you've heard this a hundred times.

I promise it's still good.

All right, verse 11.

Jesus continued.

There was a man who had two sons.

The younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate.

So he divided his property between them.

All right, in our story already, we have three main characters.

We have the father, we have the younger son, and we have the older son.

The younger son does not want any longer to be in the care of the father.

He just wants his money, and he just wants to go and be his own man.

Historians say that him coming to the father and saying, Give me my money, because the only way he was getting his money is if his father died and he didn't want to be with his father, so he said, Give me my money, which is equivalent to, I just wish you were dead.

I just wish you were dead.

And so what does the father do?

He cashes out, right?

He gives the son the money.

The relationship has completely been rejected.

I think it's probably even more clear to say that the relationship has been severed.

It's done.

The son takes his money and he walks.

Verse 13 Not long after that, the younger son got together all that he had, he set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

So, this, our younger son, uh, he finally lived that life he wanted to.

He became his own man.

And that man was foolish, and now that man's broke.

He has nothing.

He has nothing.

More than having nothing, he's taken to living life like a gentile.

Remember, we have Jesus telling this parable to a Jewish audience, and everybody is a part of that family.

So, so at this point in the story, our our younger son character is immediately hated by how he's treated his father.

And now he's living like a gentile, which is like new levels of awful, because did you notice he's supposed to go out and feed the pigs?

Farmers raising pigs?

Those are Gentiles.

Those are not Jews.

Jews don't eat pork.

All right, so now our son, our younger son, is putting himself in an unclean place with an unclean job to care for them, and now he's so busted he wants to eat their dirty food.

To say that he might have hit rock bottom is an understatement.

He is lower than low, and all of the audience knows this.

Verse 17 When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare?

And here I am starving to death.

I will set out and go back to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned.

I have sinned against heaven, and against you I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

And so he gets up, he got up, and he went to his father.

I find this funny.

It does a lot of work in this passage.

All right.

The younger son has a single event of him wanting the food that he's feeding to pigs, and all of a sudden he wakes up from his stupor.

He wakes up from his stupor.

He has rejected his father.

He has rejected his people, he's wasted his money, he's starving, and now he's fallen lower than ever.

So what am I gonna do?

What is a situation that you have been in where you have come to your senses?

What's a situation that helped you realize that you were far, far, far from where you wanted to be?

When you had that realization, whatever that moment is for you, do you find yourself analyzing your actions that landed you there?

Do you interrogate your motives, uh, emotions, or beliefs that brought you to where you are?

Personally, this is where I am and in still going through while reading Way of the Heart.

Now and had this first line in the first chapter.

He's talking about how sometimes ministry leaders think, or busy ministry leaders think they need to act.

He's talking about the thoughts that they have towards the people that they get to lead.

He has this line People must be motivated to come to church.

Youth must be entertained, money must be raised, and above all, everyone must be happy.

And I read that, and I thought, I've thought two of those things just this past week.

And now and is not saying that is a good thought.

And I'm realizing that inside of me, I've got some room to grow.

I've got some room to grow.

Because I am leaning on you more than I am leaning on God.

Through this reading, God is using it to help call me and say, Come to your senses, Andrew.

Though I say with my mouth I trust God, my heart is telling me a different story.

And I ask myself, like the younger son, what am I doing?

What am I doing?

So the younger son found himself here and he decided, I am going to choose to be a servant.

That's what I'm gonna do.

I have already rejected the status of son.

And so, since I've rejected son, maybe servant works as long as I make the boss happy.

The son, the younger son, believes that his offense is so great, he knows he can't come back to that relationship.

And so maybe I can just be good enough.

Do you find this familiar?

Do you find this familiar?

Do you look at your actions, your current or private uh prior beliefs, um, your emotions, your motives?

Do you look back at all of that and you say, ugh, this is terrible?

This is terrible.

I don't like what I see in me.

I've botched this all.

So I know what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna come back to God.

I'm gonna tell him I'm sorry and I'm ready to be his servant.

And then I'm just gonna do everything right.

I'm gonna think through all the right moral things that I know I should have done the first time, and I am gonna check those boxes.

Watch me, best servant ever.

Hold that thought.

The son made a plan and he went home.

Let's jump back in halfway through verse 20.

But while he, the son, was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

And he ran to his son, he threw his arms around him, and he kissed him.

This, in my opinion, is the best part of the story.

This is the best part of the story.

In these short words, what do we learn about the father?

The father was looking for him.

He was watching in love.

He waited and waited and waited.

He was anxious for him to return.

And then the day came.

And the father took off after him.

He did a thing that not a lot of Jewish people were supposed to do in their older years, which is run.

It's very beneath them.

He didn't care.

He took off, he grabbed his son, scooped that man up, and hugged and kissed him.

I found uh a book.

I think the cover beautifully gets at the heart of this story.

The dad who never gave up.

The dad who never gave up.

He sees his son.

He chases after him.

It's this beautiful momentary act of love.

Dead serious.

Can any of you imagine your dad chasing you down like adults?

Your dad hustling down the road to wrap you up in a huge hug and give you the biggest kiss.

This is a big deal.

This is a big deal.

Jesus, when he's telling this part of the story, jaws are dropping everywhere.

What?

The father did what?

No, no, but Jesus loves to drop all of the jaws.

So he goes on.

Verse 21.

The son said to him, Can you just imagine like the the the canned speech?

He's he spent that whole way from pods with the pigs all the way back to the father, repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating.

So he finally gets there.

Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

What does the dad do?

Does the dad take this apology and then give him his desired servant status?

Verse 22.

But the father said to his servants, now before you need to see this.

The son came begging something with an apology, and the father responds, but he heard him.

He had no intention of actually doing what his son said.

He responded differently.

But the father said to his servants, Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Bring the fattened calf and kill it.

Let's have a feast and celebrate.

For this son of mine that was dead, he is here and he is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

And so they began to celebrate.

The father's actions were contrary to everything that the son expected.

And note, contrary to what everybody listening also expected the father to do.

Now I want you to take a second and observe.

All right, so take a step out of the story.

Take a look.

The younger son acted the fool.

He did and he said the unthinkable to the father, and then hit rock bottom, far, far away from the family.

He has been humbled.

And there at rock bottom, he turned and he took one step towards faith, one step towards trusting what he knew to be true of his father.

He knew that his father was a good man.

He cared for his servants.

Okay, I guess I'll go be a servant.

So what did the father give him?

The father gave him back his status of son.

He restored him in full to the family.

So how do I how do I see that?

Okay.

So the father says, Bring the best robe and put it on him.

This is reserved for the most honorable guests.

And his son definitely came from the fields with the pigs and the pod food.

He probably doesn't look or smell all that great.

And the father gives him the robe.

Cover your shame.

You are an honored guest.

This is how we will see you.

Best robe in the house.

Signified that authority status that the father had.

So if you had the family ring, then that also meant that you had that same authority.

It carried the father's blessing.

It carried the father's responsibility.

And it carried the father's bank account.

You could do business.

He'd already taken his share of the money.

And his father welcomed him back, put the ring on his finger, and said, You are fully my son again.

He said, put the sandals on his feet, right?

Sandals were given in this time.

Sandals were given to sons, children, not servants.

Put the sandals on his feet.

Lastly, bring the fattened calf for a feast.

This was reserved for the most special occasions.

And if we are looking back at the Old Testament and we're reading, right, what is the fattened calf for?

It is for sacrifice to God.

It is to, it is the best of the best to be given to the Lord.

He says, sacrifice this because we need to throw a party the right way.

We need to celebrate my son.

And if anyone for any reason has missed what the father feels towards his boy, he declares, this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

He loves him and he never gave up that love.

The father has initiated the relationship again.

But the hug, the bear hug, the kiss, right?

That's a momentary act of love.

By giving him these gifts, he is not doing the act of love, but an establishment of how he is going to love and relate to his son from here on.

It is a continual act of love.

He, the Father, has chosen to mend what was broken.

He forgave his son's offense and he welcomed him back in love.

It was from love and it is for love that he brought his son back in.

Now, before we go to the next verse, because Jesus kind of keeps going, what is the response that you'd want to see from the younger son?

What is the response that you would want to see from the younger son after receiving all of these gifts and this feast?

If the father did all of this, what's the happiest ending you can imagine?

This is how it plays out in my mind, right?

The son having come to his senses, he sits at the father's side.

He hears all the stories.

He shares life like never before with the father.

The happiest result is the younger son looking to his dad, respecting him, responding in love to the love that the father has shown, and being with him frequently and substantially.

This is the happy ending that I want to see in this story.

That's the exact same relationship that God wants with us as well.

With every single one of you.

God wants that same relationship.

And I do want to, as we're talking about believing and trusting in God, I want to invite you to step into that.

Respond to that love that Jesus has shown and believe that He's He's taken care of it.

Trust Him.

And talk about.

So if Jesus has done all of this, and we we look at the Son, right?

He kind of turned back to the Father and he took that step.

I want to encourage us.

Let's not take a step.

Let's take a lot of steps.

Let them come in quick succession.

Let us run to Jesus.

Let us run to him.

Let's live in our belief and run to behold Jesus' face.

Let's behold him.

Let's look at him.

Let's look to him, aiming to be with him as frequently and substantially as we possibly can.

So what's that look like?

Okay, time out.

We'll get there.

Let's go back to Jesus' story.

Jesus keeps going.

We should too.

Verse 25.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field, and when he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

So he called one of the servants and asked him, What was going on?

Oh, your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

The older brother became angry, and he refused to go in.

So his father went out and pleaded with him.

But he answered his father, look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

He referred to his relationship as slaving.

You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours, who has squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him.

My son, the father said, You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours is dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

So the younger son did not want the love of the father and sought it elsewhere.

And the older son did not want the love of the father, and he sought it in himself.

Right?

And now you have done this for this fool?

The older son didn't want a relationship with gracious love.

He actually wanted to earn the love.

He wanted to prove his worth.

Because if he didn't earn it, who was he?

Who was he apart from what he did?

Do you ever feel that way?

That you have to contribute to your faith so that you can look and look to Jesus' face and say, See, I did this.

That's why you love me.

What if you don't say that?

You feel awful saying that.

By the way, I say that.

So.

But what if you don't say that and instead you feel, okay, well, what if I live the most missional life possible?

What if I give all I am to being on mission?

What if I'm crazy and I move to a different country or a different side of the nation to chase after Jesus on mission?

Now that I have done this for Jesus, he is going to love me more.

Now he's going to be extra proud of me.

What if you lead a Bible study at work?

What if you find a way to work Jesus into every conversation, whether it's welcome or not?

There's not enough laughter on that because you know we all kind of do it at times.

Brothers and sisters, be free of this burden.

Be free of this burden.

You can never carry it.

It will crush you.

There is nothing that you can do to make God love you more, and there is nothing you can do to make God love you less.

Our God loves each and every one of us with a never-stopping, never giving up, unbreaking always and forever love.

This is our king.

This is our father.

And this is how he loves.

The younger son wanted the status of servant and was given son.

And the older son had that status as son and wanted servant.

And the father loved them both with a constant, lavish love.

Did you notice?

Did you notice that in this story, we don't see their response to the father?

We don't see either son's response to the father.

Kind of pitched out that that imagination.

How will the younger son respond?

Is he gonna run in?

Is he gonna hug back?

Is he gonna stay in that established relationship of love, wanting to behold his father's face?

Will the older son come to his senses?

Will the older son realize that he already has all that he will ever need from the father?

That he loves him, that he has held him up, and all that he has is his.

So now we're kind of like, okay, we've talked through this idealistic image of going and being reunited with the Father and experiencing his love.

So my encouragement, how do we believe?

How do we live into that trust, trusting him more and more and more?

Let's be honest, and let's come to him as his kids and say, like that father did uh a few weeks ago when we were in Mark, I believe, help me in my unbelief.

I trust you, help me trust you.

It's okay and it's healthy to say that you are still broken and still needing to be mended.

Go to him.

We'll have a moment where we're gonna pray about where you see you are not yet fully trusting him.

And when that moment comes, go to God.

Whatever he reveals to you, turn it over to him.

I want to trust you more in this.

Okay, same vein.

I wish I could describe the ways that you personally need.

I can't tell you what you need.

Jesus knows what you need.

That's exactly what I'm getting at.

I don't know what you need to behold Jesus' face.

I don't know how that looks for you.

This is not prescription time.

There is not one size fits all.

Please eat this behold cookie.

And then when you eat it, then you will be able to behold him in all the ways that you know you need to, and then you can relate to him.

I am I'm trying to be calm.

Inside my heart, I am jumping up and down because the opportunity to behold Jesus' face, to get in his presence, to be with him is the best thing that we could possibly do.

And it is not just the best thing that we could possibly do once in an act of love and say, we got that.

Finally, I got to behold Jesus' face, and now I can go about and do my own thing.

I'm saying, what does it look like for us to sit and behold him and look at him and be with him?

And then when we turn from him and go back to normal life, he is with us and we are with him.

That we want to be with him at all times and in always, in substantial and frequent ways.

If you have been at church for a little bit of time in your life, you have probably heard somebody advise you, encourage you.

Well, if you want to know God, read the Bible and pray.

And I want to tell you: if you want to know God, read the Bible and pray.

And I mean it from the core of my being.

Not because it is a thing that we say in circles like this, but because I have seen it to be true in my life and I have seen the fruit time and time again.

When we read God's word, we get to know him more.

We get to see how he's like.

I was reading this passage to you during my sermon and still finding new things.

And I was trying to stop myself from saying all the new things that I was recognizing because that would have just sent me off.

Right.

And so I got to stay, stay focused.

I have a problem with that.

It's okay.

That's why these, anyway.

So go to God's word.

Go to God's word.

You can read his word and get to know him more.

You can get to know about him, you can get to hear his heart.

You can learn that this God that you serve is the dad who did not give up on you ever.

That's a healthy habit.

But beyond this healthy habit of reading is praying.

And we at West Village are continually trying to encourage, invite, train up you so that you can feel comfortable in praying, so that you can go before God's face.

Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit so that we can be constant in communication with him.

That God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit and speaks for us through the Holy Spirit in prayer.

Right?

So if you say, okay, I do want to pray, I don't know how to pray, I have not been skilled in the things of prayer, I'm a newbie, or I've been at this for a while and nobody's walked me through this.

You can, you can in your mind and in your heart say such simple things as, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And just pray that to him.

You can also say things like, Thank you, God, for all the things that you have given me.

You can be thankful.

You can say, Um, Lord, I have done all of these stupid things, right?

You can confess the stupid things that you have done.

And you can say, Lord, forgive me for that.

And then repent, right?

Ask for forgiveness and repent, choosing to step differently.

We get to do this in prayer, but you can also praise him for all the amazing things that he has done and for who he is, right?

Psalm 145, 1 through 2, I will exalt you, my king, my God the king.

I will praise your name forever and ever.

Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever.

I want to let you know it is not cheating to pray by reading scripture.

You don't have to make up all your own words.

You can read them and say, This is my heart.

I want to say them back to you.

And how do you know what is in scripture?

You read scripture more.

So now it's a loop.

It's a little bit of a loop.

But it's a good, healthy loop.

Read the Bible and pray.

We can come to him in confidence because of who he is and what he has done.

This is why we had Ken read that verse for us.

Hebrews chapter 19, verses 19 through 23.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us by, sorry, I lost my place, new and living way opened for us by through the curtain, that is his body.

And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart, with the full assurance that faith brings, trust brings, belief in him brings.

Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed pure with water, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.

For he who promised is faithful.

As the band makes their way up here, I want us to practice.

I want us to practice taking that step towards him in trust, living out that belief, and running to the face of Jesus, beholding him.

We're going to practice it now.

I'm going to take a couple minutes.

So there are going to be two reflection questions up there.

You can go to him in prayer.

We are going to go to him in prayer.

We are going to have two minutes of silence as we are praying.

Again, pray quietly in your heart.

It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be verbose.

Pray your heart.

Be honest.

Try to answer these questions as you pray.

Lord, how do you want me to respond to your lavish love through trust?

The second question: Lord, how can I take a consistent step towards being with you, my father, who I trust?

So, how can you respond to his lavish love through trust?

How can I take one consistent step towards being with this loving Father I trust?

Let us quietly go to him.

Lord Jesus, open our hearts to take the most important step to your love, which is receiving it.

Lord, let us receive your love, acknowledging that you are good, and you have met us in our need.

Let us receive your love.

Lord, from that open place in our hearts, let us respond in the next moments by beholding your face, being with you, and being satisfied in you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.