This message finds many of us  distracted and discouraged.   When we come to this point, it is the revelation  that the Father saw that enables us to get our   focus back. You cannot preach a message  like this about the unseen celebration   without at least bringing up  the parable of the prodigal son.   I don't think the message would be complete  without Luke 15. For Jesus, it was difficult   to get the people to perceive what he  was saying when he preached sermons. He would preach on the kingdom of  heaven. "Blessed are the poor in spirit,   for theirs is the kingdom of  heaven. Blessed are the meek,   for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those  who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are   those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,  for they will be filled. Blessed are   peacemakers, for they will be called children  of God." He would teach about the kingdom. It   was a very different kind of kingdom. It was  an invisible kingdom. It was an unseen kingdom. But he would use these things called parables.  How many of you have heard of parables? Yeah,   you've heard of them, but Jesus is the one who  created that format of teaching, or adopted it   and elevated it to its highest level, to show  us what something looks like that we can't see   with our eyes. He would take something we can see  and use it to illustrate something we can't see   in order to help us to understand that what is  unseen is often more real than what is seen. A lot of times, the things you can't measure  are the things that actually matter the most.   Right? Joy matters more than money. I promise  you it does. I'm not rich enough to know this,   but I do know some people who have everything and  nothing simultaneously. If you can't enjoy it,   why have it? So what is unseen is more important  than what is seen. You can see the boat,   but you can't see the fact that the people  riding on it don't even like each other. What is unseen is more important than what is  seen. This is the principle of the kingdom,   the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of the  world. The kingdoms of this world clap for   what they can see. "Oh, you've got followers.  Oh, you've got status. Oh, you've got a BMW."   All of that is fine, but I want to know  what's happening not under the hood of   your car but in the interior of your soul. Do  you have something that can't be taken away? Jesus' most famous parable was  about a son who went to his father   and took his share of the inheritance before his  father died. Jesus was illustrating two different   things in this parable. The first one was about  the Father, and the second thing was about us.   I want to read it to you. I'll read it not in  its entirety but enough where you get a sense,   because it's very powerful  to see what the father saw. We often preach this passage just to talk  about how this young man in the passage is,   as you'll see, making some bad decisions,   and we'll talk about how no matter what  you've done, you can always come home to God.   All of that is true. I hope you know that,  that in this kingdom you're always welcome. The times where you feel like you deserve God the  least are the times when you need his presence the   most. It's so important you pray when you're  struggling, not just when you feel like you're   on top of it. It's so important that if you  struggle with an addiction you pray even while   you're drunk, even while you're high. You need to  pray even when you're in the middle of it, because   he's the God of the mountain  and the God of the valley. The primary point of this passage is not about  what the son did; it's about what the father saw.   Jesus is teaching about this concept of the  outcast being welcomed into his kingdom. He   continued in verse 11. "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." I never noticed the word them, but it  means that both brothers got their share.   And you know what else? The older one got  more. By Jewish law, he got two-thirds of   the estate. Younger brother got a third.  Which one is more…two thirds or one third?   The older brother got more. I want you  to notice that the younger brother left. It says in verse 13, "[He]  got together all he had,   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…" I need those of you who   really know God to pray for someone who needs to  hear this next part because it's where they are. "[He] hired himself out to a citizen of that  country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs."   It got so bad for him when he got disconnected   from what his father's resource had made available  to him… He had the seen resources of his father,   but he no longer had the unseen  reality of his relationship to him.   "He longed to fill his stomach with the pods  that the pigs were eating, but no one gave   him anything." He's waiting for something to be  given to him by people that only his father has.   So he's eating what the pigs eat. He's feeding off of what the world feeds off of.   He's scrolling and clicking and "liking"  and deleting and filtering and cropping   and snapping and clicking and "liking" and  "loving" and clicking and checking and subscribing   and unsubscribing, and everything that is  in his feed is only making him more hungry. What people are most likely to celebrate  is often what is least likely to satisfy.   While he was in this starved state, the  Bible says that (verse 17) he came to his   senses. He's waiting for something to be given  that he had all along. He came to the point   that I'm praying we come to during this series,  where we realize that they can't give it. It can never come from outside. It has to  come from within. Do you hear me preaching   to you today? It has to come from within. It  has to come from Spirit. It has to come from   Source. It has to come from Father. It cannot come  from your friends. Your friends can be a conduit,   but they cannot be the sole content of what your  soul receives. If they give it, they can take it. When he came to his senses, he realized  something. "My father has what I'm hungry for.   My father has what I'm starving for."   Look here. We have, church, what the world needs,  but if we act like the world acts and chase what   the world chases, we cannot celebrate  the fullness of what we've been given.   He said, "My father's minimum-wage employees   are better off than I am. They're throwing  food away, and I'm begging for scraps." The Bible says because he was hungry…  You know, it's good when you get hungry.   "Blessed are those who hunger  and thirst for righteousness,   for they will be filled." But the wrong  appetites can never be satisfied. When   you are starving for status, you will stuff your  soul with what can never satiate the true need. But he got up, and he decided, "I don't have to  live like this. I don't have to chase this. I   don't have to beg for it. I don't have to wait for  it. It's not mine by behavior; it's mine by birth.   I have a father, and I know where he lives.  He didn't move, and I can go back right now."   Kingdom. The kingdom is at hand. So he said, "I am starving to death. I  will set out and go back to my father   and say to him: Father…" He practiced his  speech. He's practicing what he's going to say.   He's writing a speech he will never even need.   You're going to see it. He makes this speech  in his mind; he never makes it with his mouth. "Father… No, I'll say it like this. Father… No,  I'll say, 'Father…'" Practicing in the pigpen.   "Father…" By the way, the Bible never  says the boy's heart was repentant;   it just says he was hungry. Even if you come to  God for the wrong reasons, he has what you need. One brother told me one time, "I  don't mean to judge you," which is a   clear indication that what they are about to say  is going to be the most religiously pharisaical   thing that has ever come out of a human  being's mouth. "I don't mean to judge you, but   over there at Elevation Church you have a lot of  sinners." I was like, "What? Do you want to come?"   I wish you would categorize somebody else.   Sloppy, messy, petty self, talking  about "You have a lot of sinners." He said, "Some of them just come to church  because there are pretty girls at Elevation."   So you don't think pretty girls need pretty  men to get married and have pretty babies and   serve a pretty God? I don't care what you come  for; I care what you get when you get here.   Amen. Thank you, Jesus. I came for the  music, but I got the message. Amen. He come on home. You come home in your soul.   He came home physically. Some of us need to  come home mentally. We keep wanting to be seen,   but we're not really known, because we're only  showing the parts of us we think are acceptable.   But then you come to this place in life,  and you go, "I have to go where I'm known.   It was fun getting approval from people while I  was the one paying the bills, but now I'm broke,   and now I know where I can go." Having that home base is so important for a  15-year-old, a 50-year-old, an 80-year-old.   So he comes on over.   His speech goes on and on forever. All of these  ways we beat ourselves up that God never beats   us up. "I have sinned against heaven and against  you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." Do you see it? He is connecting  his belonging to his behavior.   He's connecting his sense of  self-worth to his decisions.   Why I wanted to preach this  message is what happens next.   All of that is good, but verses 19 and  20 are why I stood up to preach today   for you. "'I am no longer worthy to be called  your son; make me like one of your hired men.'   So he got up and went to his father. But while  he was still a long way off, his father saw…"   The father saw. While he was  still a long way off, his father   saw him. He saw past his clothes that were dirty. He saw past the stench of the pigs that he  had been living with and the decisions he   had made. He saw past the offense and the  foolishness and the waste, and he saw him.   God sees you. He was filled  with compassion and ran to him.   A rich man doesn't do this in Jewish culture,   but he saw him. He saw his son. Even though he  looked like a slave at the moment, he saw his son.   God sees his daughter. God sees the unique  you underneath all of the layers and labels.   The father saw. The word of the Lord  to you today is "The Father saw." He saw the mistakes you were going to make before  you made them, and he called you anyway. He saw   every sin you would commit after he forgave  you, and he forgave you anyway. The Father saw.   When he looks at your life, he  doesn't see the decisions you made;   he sees the death of his Son  and the righteousness of Christ,   and he no longer sees you through the  lens of any of your life's lowest moments. The Father saw me through the finished work  of his Son Jesus Christ. The Father saw,   and the Father said, "I see my son.   I see the next phase of your life. I see this  turning around. I see how I'm going to use this   thing in your life. I see how this dry season  you've been through… I've been preparing the   ground. I've been tilling the ground. I've  been breaking up the ground." The Father saw. Now do you have the faith to  celebrate what you cannot see,   to know that God sees something in  you that people don't see in you?   Your Father sees in you what you might  not even see in yourself. The father saw,   and he embraced his son, because  he saw who he really was.