How to Recognize a Real Mountaintop Experience:
- Jesus is highly EXALTED , and I am HUMBLED by his presence. (Mk 9:1-6)
- God clearly SPEAKS to me, and I am CHALLENGED by His Word. (Mk 9:7-13)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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00:00-00:06
Open up your Bibles to the Gospel according to Mark, and we are in chapter 9.
00:13-00:29
If you've been with us through this tour of Mark, and again we're going to be going on a little pause here, but really this message is going to sort of serve as an introduction for the next four weeks, because we're going to be talking about God's glory.
00:32-00:43
And the next four weeks, these speakers are going to be talking about how God's glory is on display in the church, through things like the church's mission and evangelism and prayer and worship.
00:44-00:52
But if you've been with us on this tour, going through the gospel of Mark, I'd like to remind you, this portion is such a turning point in the gospel of Mark.
00:54-01:02
And it really started when Jesus said to his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And his disciples said, well, some say like John the Baptist or Elijah one of the prophets.
01:03-01:19
And Jesus said, "But who do you say that I am?" And remember, Peter spoke up and he said, "You are the Christ." And you can't underscore how huge that confession was.
01:21-01:33
Peter was saying, "I believe that you are the promised Messiah that God has been all through the Scriptures, all through the history of Israel, even way back to Genesis chapter three.
01:35-01:37
God promised that He was going to send you.
01:37-01:56
I believe that you're the one that God has promised throughout all history." And then Jesus began a new chapter of his teaching, saying, "Yes, I am the Christ, but listen, disciples, I'm heading to Jerusalem to die.
01:57-02:09
I'm going to Jerusalem and they're going to reject me, and they're going to kill me." You remember Peter stepping in.
02:10-02:12
The Bible says that Peter rebuked Jesus.
02:13-02:14
You can't talk like that.
02:15-02:16
You're not going to die.
02:16-02:17
Stop saying that.
02:18-02:20
I don't ever want to hear you talking like that again.
02:20-02:20
Okay?
02:21-02:22
That's not going to happen.
02:23-02:27
And then the Bible says that Jesus turned around and rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.
02:29-02:30
You're not thinking about the things of God.
02:31-02:43
Your minds are on the things of man." And then Jesus made the call to follow, saying, "By the way, if you follow me, there's going to be a cross for you too.
02:45-02:47
So Jesus knew what was coming.
02:48-02:53
Jesus knew what was coming for himself and he knew what was coming for his disciples.
02:53-03:04
In this passage that we're looking at, Jesus wanted to build their faith because he knew the struggles that they were going to be facing right around the corner.
03:06-03:12
And if we're honest, we are a people that deal with struggles, amen?
03:14-03:20
And from a pastoral perspective, understand that when I look out, I don't just see faces.
03:22-03:24
There's something in me that sees what you represent.
03:25-03:32
What I mean is when I look at you, I think of the joys that the Lord has been doing in your life.
03:33-03:36
as a pastor, I also think of the struggles that you're going through.
03:37-03:41
The things that I read on the friendship register, write in my prayer journal, and pray over through the week.
03:41-03:43
When I see you, that's on my heart.
03:43-03:47
And I think, these are people that are struggling.
03:48-03:50
We're all struggling with something.
03:50-03:51
There's health issues.
03:53-03:59
I was absolutely just shocked this week as I was going through my prayer list.
03:59-04:03
All the people that are dealing with cancer specifically, there are a lot.
04:06-04:16
I think of people that are dealing with financial struggles and employment struggles and struggles with their young children and struggles with their adult children.
04:22-04:26
The experience of life on earth is going to be struggle.
04:27-04:29
And Jesus said that, right?
04:29-04:33
"In this world you will have trouble.
04:33-04:39
In this world you will have tribulation," he said in John chapter 16.
04:44-04:46
So what's going to keep us going?
04:48-04:55
What's going to make us want to get out of bed And take that next step.
04:59-05:06
Quite frankly, we would rather just roll over and hit the snooze button until Jesus comes back.
05:06-05:06
Amen?
05:07-05:09
Anybody else have days like that?
05:10-05:12
I don't even want to face what I have to face today.
05:17-05:28
But what if, what if I could give you a peek into heaven?
05:30-05:31
I want you to think about that.
05:32-05:33
Think about the stuff that you're going through.
05:34-05:39
What if I could pull you aside and I say, "Hey, look, I know what you're going through.
05:39-05:41
We have prayed about this together.
05:41-05:42
I've been praying for you.
05:42-05:43
I know what you're going through.
05:45-05:48
And I know it's hard, but I want to show you something.
05:48-05:56
What if I could just give you a little peek into heaven and say just for five minutes, I just want you to stand here and I want you to look.
05:57-05:59
Because this is where you're spending eternity.
06:00-06:04
And yeah, you're going to be on this mud ball of suffering for a few years.
06:06-06:09
But we weren't made to be here forever.
06:09-06:10
Look, see this place?
06:11-06:12
Look at this place.
06:12-06:14
This is where you're going to be for eternity.
06:15-06:22
So your life here is going to be about knowing your Lord and growing in the Lord and seeing His grace in the midst of your hardship.
06:23-06:24
That's what life is here.
06:27-06:28
But the best is yet to come.
06:29-06:38
How many people here think that if I could just show you heaven for five minutes, it would be a huge encouragement for you for what you're going through?
06:38-06:39
How many people think that that would help?
06:40-06:41
That would help me?
06:42-06:44
God help me, you guys know what we struggle with.
06:44-06:53
We struggle with health issues and we struggle with children with some developmental delay issues and sometimes it feels like it's going to be this way forever.
06:56-07:05
But I think, man, if I could just see into heaven for five minutes, I would just be like, you know what, bring it on.
07:07-07:26
Because I'm just passing through and I'm ultimately going to be a winner because of what Jesus accomplished. Well, if you can understand the sentiment behind that, you can understand what's happening in this passage that we're going to look at.
07:28-07:54
Because Jesus knew his disciples were going to go through some suffering and some struggling when he was arrested and crucified. And even when he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he knew that his disciples were going to be struggling with things. So in this passage, he's simply giving them a peek into heaven.
07:57-08:19
Look at chapter 9, verse 1. It says, "And he said to them," remember this is coming off the tail end of the call to discipleship, "And he said to them, 'Truly I say to you, are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power." This is like one of the most misinterpreted verses in the whole Bible.
08:20-08:26
People are like, "Well, Jesus is talking about like after he resurrects and ascends.
08:26-08:27
That's what he's talking about.
08:27-08:37
And what is he talking about here?" Well, the answer is actually in this passage.
08:39-08:41
Look at verse 2.
08:42-09:00
It says, "And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John," three of his disciples, "and led them up a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them." This is what Jesus was talking about in verse 1.
09:00-09:17
He says, "There are some people standing here that are going to see the power of the kingdom of God." And those that he was referring to was Peter, James, and John.
09:17-09:21
He takes them up, and your Bible says that he was transfigured.
09:24-09:27
What does "transfigured" mean? That actually comes from two Greek words.
09:27-09:27
Thank you very much.
09:27-09:31
We have some water vendors here coming around to assist you.
09:31-09:32
Thank you guys so much.
09:35-09:37
Mike, we're gonna get this fixed for next week, right?
09:37-09:40
I guess the air conditioner is on like a timer.
09:42-09:43
They can't keep up?
09:44-09:45
Oh, we're gonna fix this.
09:45-09:47
Ice packs for everyone to sit on or something?
09:50-09:51
Thank you for the water, brother.
09:54-10:05
Okay, so your Bible says that he was transfigured them. And transfigured, as I started to say, comes from two Greek words, meta and morphu.
10:05-11:18
What does that sound like? Metamorphu. What does that sound like? Metamorphosis, like transformed. What that literally means is his appearance changed. And you're like, appearance changed into what? Well Mark tells us, "And his clothes became radiant, intensely white." How white? I think this is kind of cute, this next phrase. Mark was receiving this information from Peter. So, okay, so Peter was telling Mark about this incident and I'm just imagining as Mark's recording this gospel, I'm imagining the conversation that's going on, that Peter was like, "Jesus' appearance was so white!" And Mark's like, "Okay, I'm writing this down. I think we should describe how white Peter, I think maybe just saying white isn't going to cover it.
11:18-11:19
So can you give me like a description?
11:21-11:23
And this is what he came up with.
11:24-11:25
As no one on earth could bleach them.
11:27-11:35
His clothes were so white, it was like-- you know, my grandma is so good at laundry, but even grandma couldn't bleach his clothes this white.
11:36-11:36
You know what I'm saying?
11:37-11:39
Like, is that the illustration we're going with here?
11:39-11:40
OK, that's the one that we're going to go with here.
11:41-11:41
OK.
11:42-11:42
All right.
11:43-11:43
But you get the point.
11:46-11:53
It wasn't like, "OK, I've seen people with white clothes before." Mark's like, "Not like this you haven't.
11:54-12:07
His clothes were whiter than anybody can clean them." So they saw Jesus Christ for who he is.
12:09-12:11
They saw Jesus Christ for who he truly was.
12:14-12:18
And listen, they would never see him the same again.
12:20-12:25
I want you to understand the purpose of the transfiguration.
12:26-12:29
You understand Jesus didn't do things just to show off, right?
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You get that.
12:30-12:33
Jesus wasn't some entertainer, some magician.
12:34-12:36
Like, why did Jesus do this?
12:38-12:45
because he just told the disciples that the call to follow him was a call to your own death.
12:48-12:49
And there were a lot of questions now.
12:49-13:05
Well, we just confessed that he was the Christ, but he says he's going to die, and he says we need to carry our cross, and Jesus said, "You're going to see "the kingdom of God in power." And this week I was thinking about that.
13:05-13:10
You know, one of the things I work on through the week is what's a way that we can illustrate this?
13:11-13:21
You know, in a church where there's like younger people and older people, and this is like a radical concept here that Jesus actually showed his disciples who he really was.
13:22-13:25
I'm not just some guy, I'm God.
13:25-13:27
And like, how can we illustrate?
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Is there something that, is there something that we can kind of relate to this concept of, I'm going to show you who I really am.
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And you know what I was thinking about?
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Actually, it came to me yesterday as I was working through this.
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You guys know Clark Kent, right?
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How many people know Clark Kent?
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You guys know who Clark Kent is?
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Everybody here knows who Clark Kent is, right?
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Well, Clark Kent has a thing for-- what's her name?
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Lois Lane.
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OK, that was a test.
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Lois Lane.
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But Lois Lane doesn't really have a thing for Clark Kent.
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Why?
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because she likes Superman, right?
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And Clark Kent, in her mind, is just what?
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He's just like some geeky guy, right?
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He's some geeky guy, he wears a suit and he has glasses and he's kind of a nerd.
14:26-14:30
So Clark's got this thing for Lois and Lois has this thing for Superman, right?
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And you remember what happened, right?
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That some things happened that Lois started to think, Clark's not just like an awkward, nerdy guy.
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Like, he just fell in the fire, and his hand was unscathed.
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You saw Superman too, right?
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Lois started noticing that there were some things about Clark little more than meets the eye here.
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And eventually, what did Clark do?
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Clark said, I've got to tell you something.
15:09-15:22
And he's like, Lois-- and do you remember Lois's reaction?
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(yells)
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You're not nerdy reporter guy.
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You're Superman.
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Do you think that changed the way she thought about Clark Kent?
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You're like, yeah, until he kissed her and made her forget.
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Forget about that part, okay?
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That's not a real Superman power.
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That should have been taken out of the movie.
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So stupid, just running around, kissing people, making them forget stuff.
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If you haven't seen that movie, that actually did happen.
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But understand that's, by way of illustration, for Clark Kent to say, look, this is who I really am.
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Now multiply that times infinity, And that's what's happening in this passage here.
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You guys have been following me and you call me rabbi and you're a good teacher and you're pretty controversial and you're healing people and you're the Christ, but you're talking about death and it's not making sense.
16:42-16:53
And in essence, what Jesus was doing was he was pulling these three disciples aside and going, listen, This is who I really am, but not Superman.
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Somebody infinitely greater.
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He was showing the disciples I am who?
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I am God.
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I am God.
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You see, let's go on in the text.
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It says in verse four, "And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking to Jesus." Okay, so Elijah and Moses show up and they start talking to Jesus.
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I have a question.
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How did they know that was Moses and Elijah, right?
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Think about that.
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They have photographs of Moses and Elijah?
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Peter was like, those guys look familiar.
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He pulled out his iPhone and was getting on Facebook and was, I've seen that guy, I've seen that guy.
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Oh, that's Moses, okay.
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I'm gonna look at his friends list and okay, that guy's Elijah.
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And no.
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How did he recognize Moses and Elijah?
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I have a thought on that.
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I believe that something supernatural beyond human understanding happens when we go to glory.
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I believe that there's going to be a supernatural recognition of one another.
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Here's what I mean.
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I believe when we get to heaven we are going to supernaturally be able to recognize everyone.
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What I mean is we're not going to be spending eternity like, "Oh, I don't think I've met you.
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What's your name?" Like, "Oh, I'm Ken." "Oh, hi Ken.
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I don't believe that's going to happen. I believe that there's a supernatural recognition that takes place. And I get that from this passage in Luke chapter 16. It also gives me reason to believe that. I believe that they supernaturally were able to recognize Moses and Elijah. Okay? So it says they show up and they're talking to Jesus. Now, are you with me in this scene? Here's the three disciples and Jesus is like, "I'm God." And here, the two greatest people in the Old Testament show up.
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You're like, "Are you sure they're the two greatest?" Yes, I am sure they're the two greatest.
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Because when Jesus was revealing His glory to His disciples, these are the two that showed up.
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Moses, the lawgiver.
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Moses, the one who...
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You know, like the law was named after him, the Mosaic Law.
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He was a prophet. He was a leader.
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And then Elijah, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament.
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They show up and they're talking to Jesus and you're like, "Man, I would love to know what they were talking about." We know what they were talking about.
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Do you want this referenced on Luke chapter 9 and verse 31?
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Tells us exactly what they were talking about.
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Do you know what they were talking about?
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Jesus' death.
19:51-20:28
I don't know what they were saying about that, but Luke chapter 9 verse 31 says that when showed up, they were talking to Jesus about His departure that was going to happen at Jerusalem, His death. Oh, I would love to know what that conversation was like. Here's the glorified Christ, glowing and radiant and awesome, and Moses and Elijah show up and they're talking to Him about His death. Why? Well, understand this conversation was really for the disciples, to show the disciples, "Yes, Jesus is the Christ. Yes, Jesus is God.
20:29-20:56
And yes, death is part of the plan." That was the purpose of this. Disciples were like, "I don't really know about this Christ dying thing that Jesus is talking about." And Moses and Elijah show up and they're like, "Yeah, yeah, this is totally part of the plan. This "And Peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good that we are here.
20:56-21:08
Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.' For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified." Poor Peter.
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Do you know somebody that can't stand awkward silence?
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Do you know somebody like that?
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Don't point.
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Some of you are like, "Yeah, him.
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Him.
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My husband." that they have to talk just for the sake of saying something.
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We have a kid like that.
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I'm not going to mention his name, but he's the younger one.
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But all the time, and talking when there's nothing to talk about, and just constantly like recapping things.
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And he's one of those people, but you know what?
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He gets that from his dad.
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I'm one of those people, too.
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I can't stand awkward silence and oftentimes I'll say something and it's stupid, but I just...
21:57-21:58
Well, Peter was like that.
21:59-22:05
Okay, so here's Jesus and Moses and Elijah and they're talking about his death and Jesus is glowing.
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And Peter's like, "Oh, it's good that we're here and let's...
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We'll make tents, okay? We'll make a tent for Elijah, we'll make a tent for Moses, and we'll make a tent for Jesus."
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(sobbing)
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And Mark's like, yeah, he just like, didn't even know what to say.
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And honestly, church, I'd be right there with him.
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Like, what do you say?
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Why did Peter say that?
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Well, what he was saying was, this is important.
22:45-22:48
What he was saying was, let's never leave here.
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We don't have to leave here. You know, you're talking about death, and you're talking about suffering, and you're talking about all these struggles, and I would like to propose that we just build some tents and stay here. And nobody He has to suffer.
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And I've so been there.
23:21-23:25
You're gonna hear us talk more about it as we get closer to Harvest University.
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I say that every year.
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I know people that go with me are like, oh, he's saying the let's make three tents thing again.
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I say that every year and I'm gonna say it this year.
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That's what I love about Harvest.
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You know what Harvest U is like?
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It's like heaven because you have people from all over the world, all tribes and languages.
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And you have all these people from Harvest Bible Chapels all over the world coming into one place to cry out worship to the Lord.
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And to me, that's like the closest we're gonna get to heaven on this side of heaven.
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And every year I'm just like, man, I don't wanna go back.
24:06-24:22
Nothing against like here, but I'm just saying There's just something about that moment, being with God's people from all over the world and just spending days, just worship, worship, worship, worship, and then it's over.
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And you're like, man, I don't wanna leave.
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Let's just pitch a tent right here.
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Right here where James MacDonald preaches, I want my tent right there and I don't wanna go home.
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Well, that's kind of what was happening with Peter.
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And then verse 7 says, "And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, 'This is my beloved Son.
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Listen to Him.'" Poor Peter had a rough week because he was rebuked.
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Think about this.
24:55-25:00
He was rebuked by God the Son and by God the Father in the same week.
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That was a rough week for Peter.
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that when God says, obviously the cloud representing God's presence and the voice coming out, "This is God the Father," when He says, "This is my beloved Son, listen to Him," He wasn't making a general statement like, "Listen, disciples, I think a good principle for you to carry in your life is to make sure you take note of the things that Jesus says." That's really not the sense in which He was communicating this.
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What He was saying was, "Jesus was talking about His death.
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You rebuked Him.
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Jesus made the call for discipleship.
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Then we come up to the Mount of Transfiguration and you're still just wanting to stay here and avoid the whole death thing, even though Moses and Elijah are talking to Jesus about death.
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So what God was saying was, listen to what he's saying about his death.
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That's what he's saying.
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This is my beloved son, listen to him.
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He's talking about his death, listen to him.
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Stop sidetracking the issue, Peter.
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Listen to what he's saying.
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So Peter comes down and the disciples are talking and Peter's like, "God spoke to me." And like, "What did he say?" And Peter's like, "I think he told me to shut up." No, God isn't rude.
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God is not rude.
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But in essence, God was saying, "Peter, you need to talk less and you need to listen more specifically to what Jesus is saying about his death." And suddenly looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.
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Just all of a sudden, gone.
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The cloud.
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Moses, Elijah, just all of a sudden, gone.
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And they're just standing there and it's like it was just, you know, it was just Jesus again in his earthly form, in his flesh and blood.
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Well, verse 9 says, "And as they were coming down the mountain, He charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead." Okay?
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So we've talked about this so many times, it's come up so often.
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Jesus didn't want the story to be told until the story was complete.
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Jesus is like, "You know what?
27:25-27:26
Just keep this to yourselves.
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Eventually I'm going to die, I'm going to rise from the dead, then tell everybody.
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don't say anything yet because then people are going to think the gospel message is Jesus has really white clothes. That's not the gospel. The gospel is about his death and his resurrection. So it says in verse 10, "So they kept the matter themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean." Like, okay, so if Moses and Elijah are talking about it, then apparently guys we need to rethink this whole Messiah dying thing because what does that mean? And they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?" Taking us back to Malachi chapters 3 and 4. And he said to them, "Elijah does come first to restore all things and how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt. But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased as it is written of him." Like what was that exchange about? Well they're still trying to make sense of everything and they get focused now they're on another issue. They're like, "Okay, so let's talk about Elijah now." And notice Jesus brings him right back to his death. Do you notice that? He says, "You're saying, 'How can you be the Messiah if Elijah hasn't come?'" And I would like to retort, "How can I be the Messiah if I don't suffer?" Because the Old Testament talks about that, right? Psalm 22, was it Psalm 69, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 10, all through the Old Testament it talks about the Messiah suffering. So Jesus is like, "How can I be the Messiah if I don't suffer?" Think about it that way. Oh, and by the way, you were asking about Elijah? Jesus said he did come.
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John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah, and they did to him whatever they pleased, which was they killed him because he stood for righteousness.
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So as we get on the homestretch here, I just want to make two points of application on your outline. And I want to ask you, church, what is the most important thing that happens here on a Sunday? If I would say to you, you know, we're, in a sense, we are churchgoers.
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If I said, "What's the most important thing that happens in a church on Sunday?" What would you say? Some would say, "Well, I think the most important thing that happens is music.
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You know, this church and really this fellowship of churches is really about worship.
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So the congregational worship has to be pretty much the most important thing.
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And somebody would say, "Oh, no, no, no, no, it's prayer." And certainly our, you know, third pillar, we believe firmly in the power of prayer.
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So if we don't pray, nothing's going to happen.
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And some would say, "Well, you know, with this fellowship, because of the connection James MacDonald, I think a lot of people would associate us with preaching. But none of those are the right answer. The most important thing that happens in service on Sunday morning is that we encounter the Lord. The most important thing that happens is that we show up to worship and we leave this building or Fort Marshall we leave the building having this sense in which we encountered God today and I would go so far to say if anything less than that is a fail Anything less than that is a fail. If the music was pretty and the sermon made me feel nice, we failed. If the people were friendly and the children's workers were great with my kids and that was the sum total of your experience, that's a fail. The most important thing that should happen in church is you leave with this sense of, "I've encountered the Lord today. I met with God today. God glorified himself in his church today." And I leave with this sense of, "I really feel like I was in God's presence today." So two points of application, like I hear what you're saying, but you know, Pastor Jeff, I've been to a couple churches and I've had some experiences. Is it God's glory? Is it emotionalism? Is it sentimentalism? Is it how do I know that I've really met with God? I hear what you're saying, Pastor Jeff, but how do I know I've really met with God? Well, there's two ways. That's why on the top of your outline, it says how to recognize a real mountaintop experience. How to recognize a real mountaintop experience. Number one, Jesus is highly exalted and I am humbled by his presence. Jesus is highly exalted and I am humbled by his presence.
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And you know, it's a sad experience in a lot of churches.
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The very thing that Jesus said in Matthew 15, 8, quoting Isaiah, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." We don't want to be a church that just says the right things and sings the right things and has the right things on our bulletin and on our websites.
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We want to be a place where there is a fresh, genuine, real encounter with God and His glory.
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So again, when you leave the church, it's not, "I like that church because the preacher's handsome," or "He tells some really good stories," or "He has really funny jokes," or "The music was great." I'll tell you what, that bass player, aside from being a good-looking guy, man, he really plays well.
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We're not going after that.
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When you leave church, it should be, "I met with the Lord today." When you study God's Word, you see that everyone in the Bible who encountered the Lord felt this sense of, "He is exalted and I am humbled in His presence." You see it from Peter in Luke chapter 5.
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You see it in Isaiah chapter 6.
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Isaiah saw the Lord in his temple, you know, with the angels crying out, "Holy, holy, holy," and completely overwhelmed by being God's presence. Exodus chapter 3, remember, Moses saw the burning bush. The Bible says that he was afraid to look at God. God was exalted. He was humbled. Even in Revelation chapter 1, you know, this is after Jesus came, he ministered, he died, he rose from the dead. I think it's fair to say that the Apostle John was probably like Jesus' best friend on earth, right? Because John's gospel, John is referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved, you know, last supper, it's like John's the one kind of leaning on Jesus and they were like best friends on the earth. Did you understand that when John himself saw the glorified Christ in Revelation chapter one.
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You remember his reaction was he says, I fell at his feet like a dead man.
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He was completely humbled.
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Looking at the glorified and exalted Jesus Christ.
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And church, there's nothing that we can do to make God manifest himself, but there's There's a lot that we can do to keep that from happening.
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We can cater the worship service around man.
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Let's do just songs that people like and let's make sure our service is everything that the people are asking for and not that we are trying to disregard people.
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We're sure we love you and we're here to serve you, but we are not here to center our worship around you.
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Our worship is to be centered around the Lord.
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Man-centered preaching.
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There's a lot of that going on.
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I'll tell you a couple poems, tell you a couple jokes.
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You feel happy, you feel sad, you laugh, you cry, you leave, you felt something.
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needs, emotionalism. Church, we need to be a people who show up desperate. We need to be a people that show up not saying, "God, we hope that you show up today." We don't want to be a people that even say, "God, we invite you to show up today." We don't even We don't want to be a people that say, "God, we want you to show up today." We need to be a people that say, "God, we need you to show up today.
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"God, we are so desperate for you.
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"God, we are so desperate for you.
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"We need you to show up.
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"For us to come as a congregation and worship "and get unto your word, God.
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"We can't leave here without knowing "that we've been in your presence." God, meet with us.
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So how do you know that you've met with God?
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You know you've met with God when you are humbled.
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We talk about being humbled, listen church, I'm not saying leave feeling bad about yourself.
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I'm not saying that.
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Like it's the preacher's job to make you feel bad about yourself.
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Like good morning sinners, how rotten were you this week?
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Well we're probably all disappointed with you at Harvest Bible Chapter.
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No, that's not… that's condemning.
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Okay?
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That's not humbling, that's condemning.
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We're not here to make you feel like a loser, but there's only one biblical reaction to being in God's presence, and it's a phrase that's used over and over and over.
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It's called "the fear of the Lord." Right?
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You've read that, right?
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In your Bibles, "The fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord." The fear of the Lord doesn't mean you're afraid of God, like, "I hide under my bed from God," because guess what?
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He's under there too.
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The fear of the Lord doesn't mean, like, "I'm scared of God." When we say fear, we think of things like, "I'm scared of bats, and I'm scared of spiders, and I'm scared of ranch dressing, and I'm scared of these things." That's how we use fear, but the fear of the Lord isn't, "I'm scared." The fear of the Lord is just simply holy reverence.
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It's something that we say here often, right?
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That He is God and I am not.
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It's reverence.
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It's reverence for God.
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You should leave rightly humbled because you encountered God's awesomeness.
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So how do you recognize a mountaintop experience?
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Like the disciples, it's when you walk out of here knowing that you've been in God's presence.
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That's what we're going after every week, and if that doesn't happen, we fail.
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Number two, how do you recognize a mountaintop experience?
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It's this, God clearly speaks to me and I am challenged by His Word.
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God clearly speaks to me and I am challenged by His Word.
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That's certainly what we saw with the disciples.
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They heard a clear voice from God.
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They saw God reveal himself.
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And your Bible actually says, what did they do?
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They walked away from that, questioning what it meant.
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Hey, that doesn't mean like they were doubting.
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They were trying to process what God was saying.
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And church, that's when you know that God's spoken to you.
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If you just leave here going, "Yeah, that was nice." Fail.
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But if you leave here going, "You know what?
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I guess I didn't really realize that about God's word.
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and what does that say about me?
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And how should I reflect that truth in my life?
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And wow, I really feel challenged by what the Bible says.
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That's when you know it's God that spoke to you.
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If you're like, man, I haven't really been catching that, I certainly put the burden of that on us in bringing you God's word, but I would also add this, just because you miss it doesn't mean that God hasn't shown up.
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I want to say that again.
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Just because you miss it doesn't mean that God hasn't shown up.
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To see the things that God has been doing lately has been incredible.
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Seeing people baptized and growing in Christ and making major life decisions for righteousness sake and hearing stories of people growing in their sharing the good news of Jesus with other people.
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And we saw that video here a couple of weeks ago.
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All these things that we're seeing, we have a group of people right now that have a bunch of kids on a mission trip.
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We're seeing God do some great things in and through the people in this church.
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And if you're sitting here saying, "Well, why haven't I really been like shaken to my soul by God's word like you're talking about?" I would simply ask if you come ready to receive.
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James chapter 1 says that you need to prepare yourself to receive God's Word.
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It's the preacher's part.
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Mine, Mark, Bob, Darren, Dan, the preacher's part is laboring to accurately communicate the Word of God, but you have to come ready to listen and ready to wrestle.
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You have to come ready to take the Word of God with you, getting involved in a small group where we take that and dig even deeper in the application of God's Word.
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So you know you've had a mountaintop experience when you leave saying, it really wasn't what Jeff said today.
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It was what God said today.
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It's my prayer for this church that we don't just become another group, another church plant, another social club.
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My prayer for this place, first and foremost, is we're a place where God's presence humbles us, and we're a place where God's word changes us.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 9:1-13
Do you come prepared to encounter the Lord on Sunday? How would you tell someone to prepare themselves for Sunday service?
For what purpose did Jesus become transfigured before the 3 disciples? Why was it Moses and Elijah who showed up? Why did Jesus' death keep becoming the focus of the conversation (Mk 9:9-10, 12, cf. Luke 9:31)
Breakout Questions:
Pray for our church - we would be a place where God continues (increasingly so!) to show up and show us His glory.