What Does the Face of God Look Like When He Looks at You?

From the sermon preached on November 1, 2026

Most of us carry a quiet assumption that the face of God looks tired of us: a little disappointed, waiting for us to get it together. The Bible paints a different picture, one where God's face turns toward you with attention, affection, and delight. True worship is the place where you stop performing long enough to see it.

Picture an elementary school holiday program: folding chairs in the gym, kids filing onto the risers in clip-on bow ties. Every small face is doing the same thing, scanning the crowd for a parent. They are not looking for an audience; they are looking for someone who is looking for them.

That search does not end on the risers. It follows us onto the Greenway at 7:15 AM, into the annual review, and back to the family photo we keep checking. Somewhere under the full calendar and the mortgage sits a question most of us never say out loud: does anyone actually see me, and do I measure up?

Scripture answers with an old blessing about the face of God shining on ordinary people, and true worship is how that blessing becomes rest.

Pastor Justin Ulrich, founder of Terraforma Church in Ashburn, once had a friend tell him he would never hire him. The reason was not a lack of skill; Justin was simply too secure. The friend preferred salespeople with something to prove, because a hunger for a father's approval made them relentless.

It is a funny line, and also how many of us live. When God feels hard to please, we move through the world as people with something to prove instead of people who are already approved. We overwork, we bargain, and we quietly wonder whether anyone notices.

Centuries ago, a prophet confronted King Asa of Judah, a ruler so insecure that he made an alliance with a foreign king instead of trusting God. The prophet reminded him that "the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him" (2 Chronicles 16:9). God is not waiting to be noticed; he is already looking.

Jesus told a similar story in Luke 15 about a father watching for both of his sons: the one who ran away and the one who stayed home keeping score. Both sons were focused on their performance; the father wanted their presence. God's approval and acceptance were never a prize waiting at the end of the road.

Ambiguity with God makes us anxious, just as it does in any relationship. True worship settles the question of God's approval and acceptance, not by trying harder but by trusting what Jesus has already done to close the distance.

Today, notice one moment when you are performing for someone's approval, and quietly remind yourself that God's approval and acceptance came first.

Many of us map our own parents onto God. If your father was hard to please, it is natural to imagine a heavenly Father with folded arms and a red pen.

Proverbs 8:30-31 offers a different image, with Wisdom standing beside God at creation like a master artisan, filled with delight and rejoicing over humankind. One Hebrew word there, sha'ashu'im, carries the satisfied exhale after finishing something good. Another describes laughter that bubbles up and cannot be contained.

Justin describes his son Dietrich pacing around the kitchen island with headphones on, singing in Japanese (a language nobody at home taught him). A visiting friend asked whether that was normal, and Justin and his wife Jamie just stood there and marveled. That is much closer to God's delight in you than the disappointed face many of us imagine.

One of Justin's mentors once told him to stop telling his kids "I'm proud of you" and start telling them "I enjoy you." Pride can quietly tie a child's value to performance; enjoyment ties it to presence. God's delight in you works the same way: it is not earned on a good week and revoked on a bad one.

Sin is real, and it turns our hearts away from God. Yet God does not wait for us to fix everything before drawing near; in Jesus, he crosses the distance himself, and God's delight in you remains.

Before bed tonight, sit for two quiet minutes and let one sentence be true without arguing with it: God enjoys me.

Genesis 1:26 says God made humankind in his image and likeness, two Hebrew words, tselem and demut, that rarely appear side by side. Tselem suggests a representative, like a carved likeness of a king; demut is the "chip off the old block" word. When the pair shows up again in Genesis 5:3, it describes Adam's son Seth, who looked just like his father.

Psychiatrist Dr. Curt Thompson observes that babies are born looking for someone who is looking for them, learning who they are from a caregiver's face. Fear on that face teaches anxiety; delight teaches security. Finding identity through worship works the same way, because some things about ourselves we only learn while looking at the face of God.

The apostle Paul, who met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, wrote that the knowledge of God's glory shines "in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). If you want to know what the face of God looks like, it looks like Jesus. Whatever we keep in focus bends our lives toward it.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, saw that face in Acts 7. As a furious crowd stoned him, he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he died praying forgiveness for his attackers. A young man named Saul watched it happen, and that same Saul later became the apostle Paul.

That is the quiet power of finding identity through worship: true worship lets us become what we behold. Willpower rarely breaks old patterns, but time in God's presence can loosen their grip.

Try finding identity through worship this week by trading ten minutes of scrolling for ten quiet minutes with a short Psalm, such as Psalm 67.

In Numbers 6, God gives Moses words for Aaron, Israel's high priest, to speak over the people. The blessing in Numbers 6:24-26 has been prayed over congregations for thousands of years, and Psalm 67 later turns it into a song.

1. The Lord Bless You and Keep You
What it says: God promises his goodness and protection.
What it means for you: You are held, not merely tolerated.

2. The Lord Make His Face Shine on You
What it says: God's face lights up with grace toward his people.
What it means for you: The face of God turned toward you is warm, not irritated.

3. The Lord Turn His Face Toward You and Give You Peace
What it says: God gives his full attention and his shalom.
What it means for you: The question of where you stand with God is settled.

A few Hebrew words deepen the picture:

• Tselem: an image or representative
• Demut: a likeness, like a child who resembles a parent
• Sha'ashu'im: delight, the satisfied sigh over good work
• Shalom: peace as wholeness, everything set right

If you are tired of performing for approval at work, at home, or even at church, you are not alone, and you do not have to earn your way into the room. Terraforma Church gathers every Sunday at 10:00 AM at Brambleton Middle School in Ashburn, an easy drive whether you are coming from Sterling or Leesburg, from Stone Ridge and South Riding, or from Aldie and Herndon. Neighbors from across Loudoun County and beyond come as they are, with no dress code and no pretending.

The face of God is not frowning over your life; it is turned toward you with attention, affection, and delight. True worship is simply time spent in that gaze, where his character slowly grows in you. As the old hymn says, when you turn your eyes upon Jesus, the things of earth grow strangely dim.

You are welcome to join Terraforma Church on Sundays at 10:00 AM for a relaxed hour of music and honest teaching; plan your visit here.

Start with a simple Connect Card if you would like someone to know you are curious; get started here.