Welcome to the daily disciple podcast where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus our teacher Good morning everyone and welcome to you this season the podcast where we are spending every day with Jesus And I'm excited to spend it with you guys I'm excited to spend it with Jesus But it is good to be back together and we're gonna spend today with Jesus and that's the season of the podcast We're in so we begin our day with Jesus through a gospel passage prayer meditation journaling and then we enjoy Conversation with Jesus throughout the day, so you can turn to mark chapter one I'm just gonna read one verse from mark chapter one in just a moment, but first the title of the podcast is he likes me and Years ago, I was reading one of my favorite books It's called Abba's child by a Catholic theologian named Brendan Manning and Brendan Manning says in Abba's child that the revolutionary idea that changed His entire Christian life and perspective was that when he realized that God likes me He said that was the revolutionary moment that God likes me. He really really likes me He said now if you ask the question does God love me everyone's gonna say yes, right? We're all gonna say yes. God loves me.
God has to love me. God's love. He has to love me But does God like me? Does he like me?
Does he actually like me? Does he enjoy me? Does he want to be around me all the time? And Brendan Manning said that realization revolutionized his Christian life God likes me and the reality is if God likes me Then I can like myself and not only that if God likes me I'm going to naturally like other people because let's be honest There's two you know really big problems and one problem We don't talk about and the other problem we do talk about far too much the first problem that we don't really talk about is that We don't really like ourselves all that much.
We have a lot of problems with ourselves We don't really like ourselves course We don't talk about that and the other problem which we talk about far too much is the fact that we don't like others We don't like this person We don't like that person for this reason or for that reason but the reality is that's so sad and it robs us of so much life and So much liking and and there was something that Jesus knew and I almost titled the podcast what Jesus knew But I decided to title the podcast actually what he knew so there was something that Jesus knew he knew that God liked him He likes me. That was the reality of Jesus. And as we discover this, as we enter into this reality deeper and deeper, it actually will change everything. And so in the Gospel of Mark, very first chapter, like right when Mark opens up his story of the good news, in verse 35, this is very early in the morning while it was still dark.
Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, and he prayed. Now, this verse, this idea, this concept, this practice of Jesus is anything but rare. You'll find verses and comments like this peppered all over the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus prayed all the time in the morning, at night, in the garden, on the cross, before he selected his disciples in a quiet place, in a solitary place.
I mean, he's just always, always praying. And why is that? Well, is it because, you know, Jesus was so disciplined? Well, maybe he was disciplined, but is it because, you know, Jesus was so intentional, you know, about prayer?
Well, I'm sure he was intentional, but let's think more relationally. Jesus knew something, maybe, that is the most important thing to know in all of the universe. He knew the thing that Brennan Manning said revolutionized his Christian life. Jesus knew God likes me, he likes me, he really likes me, he enjoys me.
And there's nowhere else God would rather be than around me, and he wants to be with me, and he wants to be with me all the time. And I think for most of us, we've maybe never really experienced someone wanting to be around us every day, every week, every month, you know, every decade. I don't know if we've ever experienced that from another person, or maybe few of us have, and so we wonder, is it possible for God to really, really like me? Is that possible?
And I think a good question is, could we learn it? And I think the answer to that question is yes, because I think one of the things we see in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is that the disciples are actually learning to know what Jesus knew that God likes me. In fact, I think this is one of the things that Jesus is doing when he teaches them how to pray. They say, Lord teaches to pray, and Jesus says, okay, when you pray, say, our Father.
And implicit in that, Jesus is saying that the way that God feels about me, he feels about you. So it's not my Father. I mean, it is my Father, but it's our Father. So when you pray, say, our Father, and realize like I've realized that God likes you, God likes me.
And again, then we're free, and this is such an important point. We're free to like ourselves, because at a very personal and even tender, vulnerable level, God is saying to you today, you're likable. And sometimes, you know, bless our heart. We act out and we do this, and we do that because we don't feel like and that's sad.
We don't need to act out. We don't need to do this or do that or whatever your symptom is when you don't feel like, because he likes you, he likes me. God likes us, and that will revolutionize our Christian life. And I think that's the fundamental reason why in Mark 1, Jesus goes off to a solitary place and he prays, and he's always praying.
Yes, he's probably disciplined. Yes, he, you know, probably is intentional, but he knows that his heavenly Father really, really likes him. And so that sets Jesus free to like himself. It sets Jesus free to like other people.
And so honestly, I think this is what the disciples encountered when they encountered Jesus. They encountered a man that knew, gosh, God likes me. They encountered a man that liked himself, and they encountered a man that liked them, and they had never seen this before. They had never seen this before, and they followed him because they wanted to know a little bit more about the God that Jesus knew liked him.
And, you know, one of the cool things about the New Testament were truth, Alethea. His truth is truth, whether we believe it or not, whether we feel it or not, it's truth. And so this morning, I want us to just enjoy and celebrate and meditate on this truth that God likes you, that you're likable. And so let's take a little bit of time and journal and just open up your journal and just write a list of all the things that God likes about you.
Just make a list, go for it, go hog wild, write this list about all the things that God likes about you, and God's going to agree with everything that you write. And then let's walk and let's talk with the God that likes us today. Let's enjoy knowing what Jesus knew and what sets us free to like ourselves and like others. And that is a lot of liking.
We'll talk to them all. Thanks for listening to the daily disciple podcast. We truly hope that you were encouraged by it today. Now, if you would like to support or if you have any questions about the daily disciple podcast, feel free to contact us through our Inland Vineyard Church app.
It will give you information on our ministries and our Sunday services, and you can find us in the Apple and Google Play app stores. And we also have our social media pages, which you can find with the tag at Inland Vineyard to see what's going on with our community. Our church events and our other ministries, as well as our revival youth group and our children's ministry. Or you can just check us out on our website at Inland Vineyard.org.