Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] This is the fourth week, last week looking at the sermon series. Been thinking about sighting God or seeing God.
[00:00:09] What does it mean for us to see God or experience God, to come in contact with him and be aware of his presence?
[00:00:16] And today we're going to be looking at those amazing experiences where we see God happen. And I think that's what usually when we talk about like, oh, I experienced God, there's like some sort of amazing thing that occurred, usually that we're thinking about when we say something like that.
[00:00:31] It might be like somebody's heart was drastically changed or something physically happened, like a healing or something like that.
[00:00:42] But over the course of the last few weeks, I've been talking about how experiencing God or seeing him coming. Coming into his presence has a lot to do with. With more than just that experience. It's very easy, I think, for us to confuse our own wishes and our own interests with something that God's doing. Like, just because my heart is. Just because I find something interesting or find something like beautiful or good doesn't necessarily mean that that's like, what God is after, what God is seeking out.
[00:01:18] My spirit's formed in all kinds of ways and I've got.
[00:01:22] There are things that I think should happen that I'm betting Jesus would be like, clay, you're wrong on that. Like, things should happen this different way. So I'm not necessarily. My conscience or my. That sensation I have inside of me isn't necessarily on its own the best radar for picking up on whether or not I'm experiencing God just because I'm experiencing something that I found interesting.
[00:01:47] So over the last few weeks, talked about how Jesus Christ literally is the most blatant and obvious God sighting that's ever existed. Like in the person of Jesus Christ is God. Like, the most clear picture into the heart of God was in Jesus. He said, specifically, I only do what I see the Father doing. Like, literally when you're reading through the Gospels and you see him doing stuff, he is only doing what he saw the Father doing. Like. Like he sees the Father doing it, he's doing it. And when we read about that, we're like, yep, that's what God's about. Because he is pure godsiding. And the people that followed after Christ, the church, the people who are the bride of Christ, the people who are submitting their life to modeling themselves after Christ, are demonstrating Christ in the world. Literally. The way the church lives out, its call to follow Christ is vision of God's work in the world. But we talked about how that is important is necessarily formed through Scripture. Like the Bible is the least.
[00:02:55] You know, we can manipulate all kinds of stuff, our spirit. A lot of times we can read the Bible and make it say what we want it to say. We start with what we wish it said and we read that into it. It's going to happen.
[00:03:07] But still, even with that in mind, it is the most clear.
[00:03:13] Like when I read what Paul has to say, or if I read what Jesus has to say about interacting with your enemies, that's just clearly from God. That is a clear message from God. And I can twist that how I want to make it fit what I want to be true. But like, literally, I am looking at words that are purely intention from God's heart. I see Christ. I see God as I read and submit to what the Scripture has to say.
[00:03:47] We talked about how prayer is fundamental in becoming people who are tender to hearing God's voice moving from a position of like, I want to know what to do in the world to having a curiosity and an interest in God's heart and what God is doing in the world.
[00:04:10] Like literally moving our interest and our perspective away from us or away from the moment and what we have to do to what God is currently doing. Prayer is an important process in helping us get to the point that we see God. So we talked about all of that, but with all that in mind, it gets us to the point that we are actually experiencing the world. And we are in the world seeing God doing things. And some of those things are simply incredible.
[00:04:37] And in those moments, we'd say it is a great joy to have these moments where we see God so plainly, where we see God so obviously.
[00:04:49] I want to read one example that I think most people would think of when they think about those obvious moments of God's presence being clearly manifest in the world.
[00:05:00] This is From Matthew, chapter 15, starting with verse 30.
[00:05:05] Matthew records that a great crowd came to see Jesus. And they brought lame and blind and mute and crippled and all others, and laid hands and laid them at his feet, and he healed them.
[00:05:17] And the people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking. The cripple made well the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
[00:05:30] They were amazed, not because they.
[00:05:34] It didn't have anything to do with their character. They were experiencing a moment where amazement was the natural result.
[00:05:41] It's like if you are.
[00:05:44] If you're present to a beautiful sunset, you don't decide to be in awe of the sunset. You simply are like the reason you're not is because you're busy driving, you're busy thinking about something else. But when you stop and just look at it, you don't decide to be in awe of it. It's just that you experience something that makes you feel very small.
[00:06:07] The clear, pristine beauty of something that you can't touch or manipulate or foul in any way.
[00:06:14] You can't own it. It simply is there. And it's just.
[00:06:19] It's just a joy that you get to be in its presence generates something inside of you that feels. It feels good that you don't own it. It feels good that it's not from you. It is something more than you. And this amazement they are present to something that beautiful.
[00:06:37] They are seeing that all of the things that they fear aren't in control of them necessarily the way they thought they were.
[00:06:48] Everything that they are struggling against, everything that they're working, like they're trying so hard to be safe and to like, take into and to work that day for their food. Like, they don't.
[00:06:59] They don't have the technology or the financial resources to stock up for the future. Like, every single day is an effort not to fall into some sort of debilitation.
[00:07:11] And so for them to see people who.
[00:07:14] Who are hurting made well again is a tremendous relief. It's like.
[00:07:20] Like this thing that we were all afraid of isn't what we thought it was. And they are, as a result, amazed. They weren't like, it's not like they were like, thinking well and that they were amazed. They simply were present to it and it was amazing to them.
[00:07:35] That's an example of a kind of obvious God sighting. When you're present to something that's like, outside of.
[00:07:47] Outside of the way things should be working in the world, right?
[00:07:50] The normal course of things, you're like, that's not normal and it's beautiful and it's good and clearly it came from God.
[00:08:00] The problem is, if that's what you're waiting for on a God siding, it's like, why don't I.
[00:08:07] Like, is that. Is that what I'm waiting for? Like, this whole sermon series has been talking about seeing God, but am I not seeing God? Because these are very rare. I mean, even for the Israelites, generation after generation. Like, yeah, they're present to Jesus, but their parents weren't and their kids weren't, you know, like, it's not like. It's not like this was normal for them either. You know, it's not like, it's not like, well, if you just had more faith all the time. Crippled people be walking in stuff and deaf people be hearing things.
[00:08:42] Like, this isn't necessarily the point of stuff, the point that God has in the world.
[00:08:53] I'm going to tell you a story that a lot of you probably heard, because these are the stories I've got. And I've been preaching here for, like, 25 years. So, you know, like. Sorry.
[00:09:06] Yeah, so when I was six years old.
[00:09:09] So when I grew up, I went to a. I went to a preschool and then an elementary school at this church and went to church there, too. My mom and I went to church there when I was little. I don't know what happened. I got it in my head that dad went to another church. It never occurred to me that he didn't go to church. I just knew he didn't go to church with us. You know, I just kind of thought he went to a different church.
[00:09:37] So that was me and mom going to church for a long time. And I loved. I really enjoyed going there. It was a big part of our life.
[00:09:44] And then when I was about six years old, my little brother was born.
[00:09:50] And, you know, little brothers, they ruin everything. No, I'm kidding. I was so pumped. I really wanted a little brother. That was great. I enjoyed that.
[00:09:59] But one day, I remember I was playing in the living room.
[00:10:05] And first of all, both my parents were always real cool to me. Like, they just, like. I don't know, just the way they talk to me and stuff. I just enjoy them. Whatever. Mom came in the living room, though, and she was like, get in the car.
[00:10:17] And, like, totally not the proper tone to be using with me. Right. Like, I was like, you know, not. I was kind of startled. And she said it again, more intense. So I ran out of the house and I jumped in the back of the car. And from the back of the car, I could look out and see the. The front door, and nobody was coming out. She made me get in the car and nobody else get in the car. And she was mean to me. So I started crying. But it was kind of one of those cries, like, I'm upset, but also that, you know, you want to punish people. Like kids want to be like, you know, like, jerk. It was that jerk cry a little bit.
[00:10:49] You know, I wasn't happy. And then mom opens the door, and then dad comes out, and she's holding. Dad's holding my brother.
[00:11:00] And I remember him getting in the passenger seat. Dad. Dad always drove, so I noticed that. But I didn't see much. I Was just crying. And then mom gets in the driver's seat, and then we start to drive.
[00:11:13] Mom, like, it wasn't the right time to bring up the way she talked to me. Like she was crying and dad was quiet. Like, it was very tense.
[00:11:24] And so I'm crying, Mom's crying. I think Dad's kind of like, whatever.
[00:11:28] And then Sean started crying.
[00:11:32] And then when Sean started crying, mom started laughing.
[00:11:36] And then dad starts laughing, and they're like, super happy.
[00:11:39] And I'm just like a wreck in the back. I'm just like, nothing is making sense. And we still haven't even addressed the way he talked to me, you know, like, this is all, like, not working out.
[00:11:50] I found out later that Sean had.
[00:11:55] It's like he stopped breathing and he lips turned blue. It's like, what? Sudden infant. It's like in your packing player, but like, sudden infant death kind of thing. But they caught it before he died. Like, he stopped breathing, but they caught him before. And dad was in the passenger seat breathing. He was doing CPR on him while mom was driving.
[00:12:17] And so, like, my brother who had stopped breathing, started breathing again. Right.
[00:12:27] I see that. This is, like, amazing that God healed my brother, right?
[00:12:34] But dad.
[00:12:38] So dad started coming to church.
[00:12:40] Man, I tried to make this funny so I wouldn't do this.
[00:12:45] So dad started coming to church. And then.
[00:12:48] And then at our church, people would sometimes give testimonies. He got up and he gave his testimony. And I found out that when dad was breathing for Sean, he said, if you. If you will give me my son back, I will come back to you, you know?
[00:13:06] And, you know, people say people, people barter with God all the time, you know, hey, if you do this, I'll do that kind of thing. And I think generally probably not a good idea to go bartering with God. But the difference was, like, my dad became my dad then, and he's never stopped being that guy.
[00:13:27] Like, it's been good to grow up with them.
[00:13:33] And they have been collected together as a unit of faithful followers of Christ my whole life, basically.
[00:13:43] And so when my dad said, I will come back. I'll submit my life to you.
[00:13:52] God, who knows all things, knew that he wasn't just bartering. Like, he was becoming this person forever, you know?
[00:14:02] So everything in my life, like, I think about how a few things. One, I don't really want miracles like that is horrible. I don't want to be in a position where God needs to get my attention in that way. So one thing I took from that experience Was I read this story and I'm like, oh, that's amazing. Why don't I see this more often? And I'm like, I don't want to be in a position where I have to experience this kind of thing a lot. You know, I don't.
[00:14:34] That was traumatic.
[00:14:35] Even at 6, it was traumatic. You know, maybe that wasn't.
[00:14:40] Maybe that wasn't the point.
[00:14:43] Maybe the point was that God was saving my family, saving my dad, saving my family.
[00:14:49] That I became, like, literally, I wouldn't be here if they didn't become who they became. You see what I'm saying? Like, the miracle was the family that was created at the end, not my brother's healing, you know? And so maybe when we look at these stories of what we're amazed by, we're looking at them through the wrong lens. Maybe we have a particular lens that we're looking at these stories and we need flip it and start looking at these stories through God's perspective and see what God sees and what God is amazed by. What was Jesus amazed by when the people were amazed by the healing? I want to look at three stories that look at the amazing.
[00:15:32] Look at what it means to actually see God and to be amazed by his presence in the moment. From Jesus perspective, when was he amazed? So the first one I want to look at is Matthew, chapter 8, starting with verse 5.
[00:15:46] When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, lord, my young servant lies in bed paralyzed and in pain. First of all, this Roman soldier was there because it was there.
[00:16:00] The Jews were notoriously terrible about being Roman citizens. They were like, the worst. And the Romans were there to put a clamp down, like, viciously, savagely on people who were causing problems. Jesus appeared to be somebody that'd be causing problems. This Roman soldier was tasked, likely with his group to kill Jesus if things got out of hand. Like, that's probably the reason why he's. Why he knew enough of Jesus to come to Jesus in the first place. His obligation as a Roman centurion was to.
[00:16:37] Was to squash Jesus if it got bad.
[00:16:41] But as a result, he's spending a lot of time noticing Jesus and seeing what Jesus has going on, right? He sees the man, Lord, my young servant lies in bed paralyzed in terrible pain, okay?
[00:16:55] And Jesus says, I'll come and heal him.
[00:16:58] He didn't even ask at that point. Jesus just said, you who exists to kill me, if things get bad, I'll go help. Help you with your servant.
[00:17:12] The officer says, lord, I'm not worthy.
[00:17:16] I'm not worthy to have you come into my home.
[00:17:20] Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I'm under the authority of my superior officers and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say go when they go, or come and they come.
[00:17:35] And if I say to my slaves do this, they do it. He's literally saying, I know that you have authority over pain, over injury, over illness. The same way I have authority over the soldiers in my command.
[00:17:52] I know that the same way that I could tell them, like, I could just. I could send a rented note from me and they will obey me on the spot.
[00:18:01] And I know that I have seen that you have the kind of authority over sin and death that I have over my soldiers.
[00:18:10] You have complete authority, Jesus.
[00:18:14] This is rough for the Jesus turns. Jesus heard this, and he was amazed, the same way that the crowd was amazed when Jesus healed. Jesus was amazed at this guy's faith.
[00:18:28] Jesus cited the work of his Father in the faith of the centurion.
[00:18:35] Turning to those who were following him, he said, I tell you the truth, I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel. Which, you know, that's got to be bad to hear if you're one of Jesus disciples, because, like, none of you have shown faith like this guy, right?
[00:18:50] But you just have to know that all the followers go. Or as they hear about this, as they hear that this slave is healed, even from a distance, as that word comes back to them, they were probably amazed by the miracle of the work, right? Just like we would be.
[00:19:09] We are amazed when miraculous things happen. Of course we are. Yes, of course we are. Jesus didn't seem to be. Jesus said, I only do what I see my Father doing for him.
[00:19:21] The Father always says, jesus is working out salvation in the world constantly. And he's doing that through all kinds of resources. And like, literally, we can get into the dynamics of all that in different sermon series. But I don't think Jesus was necessarily amazed by the healing. He was amazed by the faith that he saw.
[00:19:45] Because you just know that in the kingdom of God where life is normal, for Jesus, this is normal. And he's been living in a world of strange abnormalities where people don't have faith, which is just, like, not normal in the kingdom of God, like in heaven, where God's will is done. The faith of this centurion is just, like, obvious, you know?
[00:20:07] But look here I see this man who interacts with me the same way all of you will in eternity. I am amazed to see, as if out of time and place, I am seeing the kingdom of God show up right here in front of me. The same way we think we see the kingdom of God in the healing itself.
[00:20:27] Jesus is saying, no, no, I am seeing the kingdom of God. In your faith.
[00:20:31] Jesus is amazed by your faith the same way you are amazed by, by a physical healing. If you know somebody who is crippled and their leg like straightened up and they could walk again the same way, you'd be like, that is that, is, that's wild.
[00:20:49] Your faith, Jesus is like that is wild. In a world where sin, where Satan has so much control, so much power, the lies that exist around you that his message cuts through and you have the faith this woman centurion does. Jesus is amazed by that.
[00:21:06] This is, this is where the Son sees the Father sided. This is where God's. The kingdom of God is sighted through Jesus eyes.
[00:21:15] Okay, I want to look at a couple more because when you start seeing it this way, you start seeing all these stories. How often Jesus reveals where he is interested and where he finds great joy, where he experiences the kingdom of God even here among us.
[00:21:34] And it's not the thing, it's not the circumstances that we generally think of. Second story, Jesus asked Peter, he asked all the disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? Who do people say that I am?
[00:21:46] But you just know a lot of the disciples were like, oh God, like this is gonna like a trick question, you know, like, got this essay I'm not ready for, you know.
[00:21:56] And they're like, well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Like you're like one of these other people that are really big. You're like a really big deal. You're a big deal, right?
[00:22:12] And then Jesus says, okay, but who do you say that I am? And they're like, they're all looking at each other. Peter, who doesn't have a lint, he doesn't have a filter for good and for bad. He says you are the Messiah, the son of the living God.
[00:22:27] He says, you are the savior of the world. You are literally everything that we have ever.
[00:22:34] You are not just this great teacher, you're not just the one that we're following. You are the one that everyone, that all of us forever have been looking for. And you're going to be redeeming your people. Like Peter shot, he took his shot. He's like, I'm calling, I'm putting all the chips on the table, you're everything, Jesus.
[00:22:53] And then Jesus says, you're blessed, Simon, son of John, because you're not nearly smart enough to have thought of that yourself. No, no, he says, because my Father in heaven revealed that to you. You didn't learn that from any human beings.
[00:23:07] This thing that you said, when you recognize that I am literally the answer to your problems, that whatever is capturing you and debilitating you and making you less than the human that God intends for you to be, that thing that you need salvation from, however sin has distorted your life and have made you less than the Father intends for you to be, whatever, whatever way Satan has worked his tentacles into you that requires your salvation, Jesus is your Messiah. And when you recognize that, Jesus says, when you have that kind of faith, I don't even see you having that faith. That is clearly from God. I am citing the Father specifically. I'm telling you I see God in your recognition that you need a Savior and that I am that Savior. When you see that for every person who's ever seen that, like, baptisms are so beautiful because you're seeing that person confessing for the first time, making that statement known.
[00:24:10] I know that I need a Savior and I have found that Savior and I have submitted to that Savior, right?
[00:24:15] And you're looking at that person, and you are. You are seeing the work of God. Because it is simply not normal in this world for us to look beyond ourselves or beyond the physical things that. Things that fit to our kingdom, things that we can control for our own salvation, and to look and to see Jesus and to know that he is the Messiah, that He is the Savior.
[00:24:40] From Jesus perspective, you have literally seen God.
[00:24:45] Every time you or anyone has confessed Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as Lord, that is a circumstance that is a moment where you have literally seen God or that's where Jesus said he saw it. This is not from you. This is straight from the Father.
[00:25:06] I have seen God in this.
[00:25:10] This third story doesn't fit quite as well, but I just love it so much. And honestly, there's like, so many other ones that you could. Once you start seeing it, you can, like, start peeling.
[00:25:18] I think I see this, like things that anything that Jesus was, like, stopped and said. This really impresses me. I love it. Why would Jesus, who only ever does what he sees the Father doing, ever be impressed? It is because he's seeing something. The Father in you.
[00:25:35] If he is impressed by anything, he is impressed by seeing his Father in you.
[00:25:43] So from that, this is where the third story fits. In for me.
[00:25:47] While Jesus was in the temple, he watched the rich people dropping off their gifts in the tax collection box, which obviously is going to be impressive for people that need those taxes.
[00:25:58] Then a poor widow came and dropped off two small coins. Very unimpressive.
[00:26:03] Jesus said, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them combined, more than all the rest of them, for they have given a tiny part of their surplus. But she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.
[00:26:19] So one of the reasons this is like, first of all, I mean, I think you should just be very.
[00:26:27] How can you read that? Not be like, I like that old lady.
[00:26:31] That lady's awesome.
[00:26:34] You know, these old ladies, right? When you get old, you kind of think. You kind of go in two different directions. You either get. You either get meaner, or you get, like, crazy impressive. Have you noticed that maybe some of you get both. Both meaner? And Mom.
[00:26:48] I'm looking at mom now. It's not you, but it could apply anyway. It kind of goes in either direction, right? This lady is, like, really impressive. And you know those old ladies that are impressive like that, you're just like, bro, not only would I never mess with you, but if anybody messes with you, they're going to have a problem with me. You know, the people like that.
[00:27:10] She's one of those ladies.
[00:27:12] So just on his face, it's like that. But when Alice and I, you know, we first started Horizon, we had to raise money. We had to go to churches and be like, hey, we're starting this church with a bunch of college kids, and, you know, we need a salary for a few years and things like that. And there were different churches and organizations that helped fund us, and we'd get those checks and be like, whew, that's awesome. You know, that's like. It felt very humbling because, like, these people trusted us enough to.
[00:27:47] They were like, it's very important to start new churches, and I trust that you're gonna be faithful with this money to do that. Like, it felt very humbling. And it was very important not to waste that, you know?
[00:28:00] But the worst, because that, like, creates this burden. The worst was getting letters from Allison's church in Tupelo when she was a teenager. There was a class of little old ladies, probably they call them Ruth classes, like, in these churches down south. And these little ladies would do this handwritten letter, and they'd send, like, 45 bucks or $125, like, whatever they'd collected and Prayer, you know, and they would give us that money, man.
[00:28:39] Very important that we don't waste that money, you know, very important.
[00:28:44] Like, this church is well off. They were like, oh, yeah, we'll give you $10,000 out of our mission budget. And that was really. That was very humbling. But, man, getting that, like, 45 bucks from that Ruth Sunday School class, it was very important that we didn't waste that money because, you know, these ladies are on fixed incomes. And, you know, like, the faith faithfulness that they had to share out of the little that they had required us to be faithful with it. You know, so far more than the money, the faith behind that giving was revelatory of God's presence. Like, I was.
[00:29:40] I just felt God's presence in that gift.
[00:29:44] You know what I mean?
[00:29:47] So when I read the story, it's one of those, like, very powerful moments of seeing God.
[00:29:57] And the thing is, like, you can go back and you can.
[00:30:00] You can start. You can read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And you're going to see so many different times that Jesus stopped. Sometimes, especially with the disciples, he has some, like, harsh words to say to them because they're clearly not doing things that remind him. He. He doesn't see the. Like this story with Peter. Right after he says, that came from. That didn't come from you. That. That had to have come from the Father. Right after that, Jesus tells him that I'm going to have to be crucified and died. And Peter's like, no way. You can be the Messiah, but you can't be the Messiah like that. And Peter's like, jesus is like, get behind me, Satan. Peter literally goes one paragraph to the other. Be like, you clearly got from that. That from God. You clearly got that from Satan. So, like, this is not about Peter. This is about God showing up in the individual. And I love the fact that you can be super lame one moment, like, get behind me, Satan. Lame, right? And in the next moment, you can do something so beautiful that I can't do anything but say, I have seen God in the way that you did that with that person. You literally brought me closer to the Father because of the way that you just. The way the love with which you engage that person. You know, it might have been a hard love, it might have been a very tender love. But the.
[00:31:22] I just imagine that if Jesus was in that moment, he would have handled that exactly the same way you did. And when I get to be around, when I get to experience those circumstances like this all the time, it's not like I gotta wait around for somebody leg to get straightened out and heal or like somebody raised from the dead or something. It's like all the time I get to see you people who sometimes do super lame stuff like Peter turn around and also do things that could not be from you must have been, must have been from God.
[00:31:57] And I get to see, I get to see God in those circumstances all the time. And let me tell you this, what's important about that is the great joy that you get to experience in life when you get to see God happening around you constantly. When you take your mind out of the need for God to constantly be showing up and like, oh, unless God's doing something like, you know, making almost dead babies breathe again, unless he's doing that, I can't see God working. When you start seeing God present the way Jesus saw the Father present, you get to experience the same kind of joy that Jesus had living a life even in the midst of sin, because you're seeing the kingdom of God break in around you all the time.
[00:32:39] And that is a good life to live.
[00:32:43] It's not just like, I should see God. It is good for you that you experience God continuously noticing where he's at work the same way that Jesus noticed that he was at work.
[00:32:55] And so this idea of seeing God, it's not just like good or we should, it is for your good.
[00:33:06] It is for the restoration of our soul that we get to see God all the time.
[00:33:13] We just have to notice, we have to pay attention to how Jesus revealed himself. We do need to be reading the Bible and familiarizing ourselves with, with the way that God has shown up throughout time. We need to orient our mind to get outside of what we should be doing and focused on what God is a part. Like orienting ourselves to seeing him through prayer and then looking at the experiences around us the way Jesus did and agreeing with him that we are seeing God at work in and among us constantly.
[00:33:47] That's a good life.
[00:33:49] I invite you to be a part of it.
[00:33:52] Pray Father God, the.
[00:34:03] Great kindness that you've shown your children and allowing us to be a part of your kingdom even while we aren't doing that so good all the time, Lord, seeing even in Peter how you know, it wasn't constant, but God, he got to be a part of it.
[00:34:19] And Lord, we get to be a part of that too.
[00:34:24] Lord, I pray that you increase our desire, like make us hungry.
[00:34:29] Give us that heart to be hungry to see you, Lord, that we can experience that same joy that you had in seeing the work of your Father all around us.
[00:34:42] We love you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
