Mountaintop Transfiguration: How Prayer Opens Our Spiritual Shutter

A deep dive into Luke 9:28‑36 that reveals why Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain to pray, how the glory of Moses and Elijah points to His ultimate Exodus, and why true worship requires separation, silence, and an open heart. Learn how prayer + faith can transfigure your life, awaken your spiritual sight, and align you with the voice of the Father.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Well, if you would go ahead and be seated and you can turn to Luke chapter 9. We're gonna get into the word. Worship team, thank you guys for preparing the way. Man, it is good to be back with you guys. I think half of me has returned from Israel, the other half is somewhere in between. But it was such a fantastic, incredible time there. Thank you, Pastor Scotty. And um as you were, excuse me, I brought some things with me in my chest. Um and as you are are getting seated, I want to just make a little note, um, little announcement that um we are going to be discontinuing the Thursday morning prayer, and we are gonna be focusing on the dwelling place, the one uh Monday night a month, and on the Sunday morning prayer. And um, for those of you who don't know, we meet at 9:30 and uh starting this next Sunday, we're gonna be meeting in the sanctuary here, warring, crying out to God, seeking the Lord um for what he wants to do that day. And um, it's like Jehoshaphat putting the worshipers and the intercessors before the army, and um, and then the um, I think it's the second Monday, is that correct, Matt? Second Monday of the month um is at 6:30. Here is the dwelling place, and it's the night of worship, warfare, and just seeking the face of God. And um, this is something we're supposed to give ourselves to. These aren't just events that that are um on top of already a busy schedule. This is priority because it's seeking the Lord. And so just want to communicate with you guys that our heart is we want to be a church of prayer because if we are not praying, we are not winning. Did you hear me? Okay, everything is done through prayer and fasting, and Jesus said, My house will be a house of prayer, and so we cannot forget that. So hopefully you have found Luke chapter nine, and I gotta be honest with you, this is the first time I have ever in my life spoken on this topic, and I was wrestling through um a lot, and I am just so appreciative of how the Lord spoke through three different parts today to show this is exactly where we're supposed to go. And as we get into it, you'll see it, and you'll um you'll uh you'll just see the picture God's painted. And so, first of all, just want to thank Amanda for your heart and for the heart for the Father to bring that word and Dawn for your obedience to to release that tongue and Caitlin to jump and to just kind of get in the river and start flowing there. And how many of you guys know it takes a team to lead? Okay, it's not just one person hearing God, every one of you hear it, and it should be bearing witnesses, witness as well in your heart, and um, and it's an incredible thing to be able to do this. So, Luke chapter 9, we're gonna be picking up um starting in verse 28, and today we're gonna talk about the transfiguration of Jesus. And as I've gone back through notes and as I've been seeking the Lord on this, I realize I've never preached on this topic. And I even asked myself in this preparation, Lord, why is this story in the Bible? It's in Matthew chapter 17, it's in Mark chapter 9, and Luke chapter 9. Why is this story in the Bible? And what is it that we as believers need to know about this story? So I'm gonna give y'all some steak today. So I don't know if any of y'all are hungry, not thinking about, you know, roadhouse now. Oh, I feel the anointing. But it's gonna be a little bit of meat, and it's gonna be something that we have to process, but it goes right in line with the tongue, the interpretation, the encouragement that we've had. And so I want you guys to stand and read the word with me in honor of the living, active, holy word of God. And I want you to um to you can follow along with me and read this. Starting in Luke chapter 9, verse 28. And Scotty talked about his spectacles. I gotta get mine on. Okay, here we go. Verse 28. Some eight days after these sayings, he took along Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. Everyone say to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face became different, and his clothing became white and gleaming. And behold, two men were talking with him, and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep, but when they were fully awake, everyone say, fully awake. And the two men standing with him. And as these were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not realizing what he was saying. While he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. And when the sound or when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone, and they kept silent and reported to no one in those days any of the things which they had seen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And Father, I pray that as Peter, James, and John beheld your majesty, as they beheld your glory on the mountain, God, I pray we do the same today. I pray that as we heard in the exhortation and worship to press in and to take hold of you, I pray that we would do that and that our eyes would be opened to see you as you are and to see your glory. And Father, I thank you, Lord, for your word in Jesus' name. Everyone says, Amen. You may be seated. You can't just pull a story out of a passage and think it's gonna make sense in the way that the authors wanted it to make sense. Now remember, this is found in three other books, and you can overlay them, and that's what I'm gonna do today. It's kind of like red, green, blue. We're just gonna make it overlay them, and we're gonna paint the picture that God wants for us today. And so in Matthew chapter 16 is a very famous passage. Matthew 17 is where what we just read takes place. But in Matthew 16, Jesus, two days before this, or actually it says six, but then you you'll see in just a second. Anyway, about a week before this, Jesus intentionally takes the disciples to one of the most wicked cities in northern Judea. And it was called Caesarea Philippi. It was built by the Romans, and it had a temple to the god Pan. Okay, and it was a symbol of a goat with demonic horns coming out. They sacrificed children and threw their bodies and their blood in the river right below the base of this cliff. It was a horrible, wicked city. And Jesus walks to the disciples there and says, Who do people say that I am? And Peter and some of the disciples say, Well, some say you're Elijah, some say you're this, some say you're that. And then Peter, through the inspiration and a revelation of God, says, But we believe you are Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And he makes a profession of faith through the revelation of God that was life altering to Peter and to the rest of the disciples. This is in Matthew chapter 16. And Jesus says, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And he says, And I'm gonna give you the keys to the kingdom of God, and on this rock the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, because I'm gonna build the church. And this rock is Peter's name, means rock, but it's not talking about Peter, it's talking about his confession of who Jesus is. But then Jesus says, But boys, I need you to understand, the Son of Man is gonna suffer. I'm gonna crucify, be crucified, and I'm gonna die. And Peter looks at Jesus, and in his love for Jesus and his passion, he says, No, this will never be. And Jesus looks at him and he says, Get behind me, Satan, for you are not speaking the things of God. Now, now let's replay this. Peter just spoke the most amazing God revelation statement. And then about three minutes later, in his flesh and in his love for Jesus, he tries to protect Jesus, but he missed the mission of Jesus. And you say, Well, what does this have to do with everything? Well, this is the context of the transfiguration that is going to help us understand what happened up on the mountain. And so after this, Jesus feeds the 5,000. Jesus does some incredible miracles, and then he takes the disciples intentionally up on the mountain. And so I want you to pick up with me on this. You guys with me? So I need you to imagine a photographer. I am not a photographer. My brother is an incredible photographer, and um, that is just not something I've given myself to learn and to do. But I want to show you a picture that he took that just kind of blew my mind when he was in Montana at my brother's cabin. And I want you guys to all see this picture. And so I asked him about it. I think you got, yeah, you guys can see everything. So I asked him about it, I said, explain this to me a little bit. And when you take a picture for like an athletic game, a football game or something, he said the shutter speed which allows light in is open to like one to a thousand. Is that correct? Okay, one one thousand. It's just that quick. It opens a shutter and lets light in. For this picture, he left the shutter open for an hour and a half. And he took tons of pictures and he overlaid them to get their as they were, as the earth was spinning, the pattern of the stars. And he overlaid them to get this picture. And as I began to think about this, Peter had in a moment, he had a revelation from God. His shutter was open for a split second to receive the revelation of God to who Jesus was. You are the Christ, you're the Messiah, you're the Son of God. But Jesus was getting ready to take him on a mountain, and he was going to open his shutter for longer to be able to see what who Jesus really was and what God intended them to see. I need you guys to be a camera today. And I need you to say, Holy Spirit, open the shutter of my eyes and my heart to see your glory. Because we've caught glimpses throughout this life, but we are created for more. Did you hear me? We're not created just to look at the things in this world and spend our life dealing with stuff. We are spiritual beings housed in this body, and we are created for spiritual things. And in order to do that, the shutter of our heart and our eyes has to be open to let light in. Light biblically means knowledge of the divine. We've got to be able to see God. We've got to be able to see things we've not seen as light comes in. Some of you have had tremendous revelations of God in the years that you've walked this earth. And when we have those revelations, what happens to our faith? It increases. But when we don't have revelations for a while, what happens to our faith? It fledgling, it becomes fledgling, it gets weak. Why do we need our shutters open to see the things of God? It's because God wants to transfigure our faith and transfigure us in the same process. So let's get into these scriptures. You with me? Alright. So Luke chapter 9. He says, eight days after these things, he took along Peter, John, and James and went up to a mountain to pray. Now Matthew's account doesn't say to pray. Mark's account doesn't say to pray. But it says in Luke that he went up specifically to pray. Why did he separate those three disciples from all the others following him? It was much more than just the twelve. If you look at the end of this chapter and the beginning of the next one, he sends out 70 more disciples. So there were crowds that were following Jesus. He just fed the 5,000. There were thousands who were following Jesus. But why did he separate Peter, James, and John? And what I need you to see is the encounter begins with separation. What was it that Don's word in tongues and his interpretation that the Holy Spirit gave to him? What did he encourage us to do? Wrestle with God. If we're taking hold of God, what else are we letting go of? Everything. It's separation. Jacob had to be alone when he met the angel. Go back and read Genesis 28 and 32. You see, the times that he was alone was the times that God met him. Separation is required for encounter. If you are so consumed with everything else, God's voice is just another voice in the mix. And that's why our faith is anemic. We have to be able to allow him to separate us, to cut us off from everything else. So it's just him and us in order for us to do business. That's why Jesus said when he was teaching on prayer, go into your closet alone and pray. And if you understand in the Hebrew, he wasn't talking about a specific room in the house where the broom and the vacuum go. Hebrews wore the prayer shawl and they would wrap it around them and it would block out everything that they see and it'd allow them to focus only on God. As we separate ourselves to God in prayer, church, I need you to hear this. He meets us. If you're wondering, man, I haven't heard from God in a while. Well, have you separated yourself from the other voices? Have you separated yourself from distractions? Or you got the TV going, the cell phone in the hand, and a computer up while you're trying to pray. If you can't say amen, say ouch. He meets us. He encounters us, but it begins in separation. And that was the exact word that we heard in worship today. So look at the next verse. It says, and while he was praying, the appearance of his face became different. While he was praying, Matthew's passage says he was transfigured before them. So let's just stop here. What does the word transfigured mean? If you went to old Mr. Webster and you looked it up or um in our day, Google, it says to change form, appearance, or nature, usually for the better, and in a way that is exalted. In a way that is exalted, meaning we go to a place we haven't been before. So as Jesus was praying, God opened the shutter of heaven and light came down. And we began to see, we, Peter, James, and John, began to see Jesus as he really was, even though he was masked by flesh, their shutter was opened and light came in, and they began to see Jesus as he was in his glorified state. And this is why he walked this earth as a human. Why is that important? Because when we separate ourselves to God in prayer and we begin to seek his face, God's presence invades us. And the light of heaven begins to change us. What was the definition? To change in form, appearance, or nature. My wife can really tell pretty quick when I'm prayed up and when I'm not. How many wives would give an amen? You can tell when somebody's been with Jesus and when they haven't. You can tell when somebody's been in the present. Another part of that word, transfigure, means a significant transformation, such as a change in one's emotional state or a complete remodeling of a space. Last week, Pastor Scotty and Taylor talked about making a space for God. When you set yourself to seek the Lord, when you allow him to separate you, and when you go to God in prayer, he invades that time and the shutter of heaven opens. The question is, are we gonna allow our shutter to be open to receive the light heaven wants to give us? If we do, it will change us. So it's in prayer that we're transfigured. You can't transfigure yourself spiritually by do's and don'ts. You can't transfigure yourself just by willing it to be. You have to encounter heaven. That is the only way that we can be transfigured. Why is there such a battle for prayer? Because it's powerful? Because what? Somebody else was saying something. Because prayer changes things. Okay, they were saying the same thing. It's powerful. It changes things. Why is there such a battle to distract us when we set ourselves to pray? Because the enemy wants to fill up that space. And if he can keep us from receiving the light of heaven, if he can keep us from being, you know, invaded by the presence of God in that prayer time because we're so distracted and because we're we're so consumed with all the things that we have. Guess what? He keeps us from hearing, he keeps us from seeing, he keeps us from the very thing we need. There is such an incredible battle for prayer. Last night I usually come up to church and pray late, but I was like, no, I'm just gonna enjoy the cool weather. Hallelujah. Fall is here, even though it's almost November. Hallelujah. And I was walking around our neighborhood, and y'all, I can't tell you how many times my mind started wandering about this, and I'm like, what am I doing? And I'd go back to prayer and I'd be good for a few minutes, and my mind would be on something else. And it was a battle for about 30 minutes, just trying to focus and pray. And it's a warfare that we have to press through. What was the word of exhortation? Press through, wrestle through, don't quit. We have to take hold of this because when God's presence invades us, it transfigures us, it changes us. Amen. All right, next verse. And behold, the two men were talking with him. And they were Moses and Elijah, who appearing in glory, were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Alright, guys, there's a lot in this, and it's meaty, and I just need you to stay with me for a second because God's gonna paint this picture and this whole thing is going to come together. Who were Elijah and Moses? Okay, Elijah was probably considered the greatest prophet in the Old Testament. Okay? Who was Moses? Okay, he was what we attach to the giving of the law. God sent him to Egypt. He sent him to deliver the Israelites because he had fled 40 years earlier from Egypt, and God sent him back to deliver them. And so why in the world would Jesus in his glorified state on the mountain be talking to two other humans? And of those people, the whole time. But what did it say he was talking to them about? About his departure. It's right there on the screen, okay? I need you to get this. The word departure in the Greek is Exodus. Who led the Exodus? Why is Jesus talking about his Exodus with Moses the one who led the Exodus? Let's follow this trail a little bit. If you go back to Exodus chapter 3, you see where Moses was walking in the back of the desert, keeping sheep, hiding from his past for the last 40 years. He was about 80 at this time, and he walked by this bush that was burning but not consumed. And he approached the bush. Everyone says his shutter opened. And he caught the glory of God and he spoke to God. And God said, Take off your sandals, Moses, this is holy ground. And Moses encountered the living God in that burning bush. And God said, Moses, I'm sending you to my people because I've heard their prayer and I'm going to deliver them. If you fast forward to chapter six through some other activities, God says this specifically. What did he do? He opened Abraham's shutter to understand who he was. He opened Isaac's shutter to receive the revelation. He opened Jacob's shutter that we heard about in the tongue to receive the revelation. And he said, Moses, I appeared to them as God Almighty, but by my name, Yahweh Lord, I had not made myself known. Their shutter wasn't open to that revelation yet. But he says, Moses, I'm showing you who I am. Because I am that I am is sending you, Moses. And here's what you're going to do. I'm going to bring them out. I'm going to redeem them. I'm going to take these people as my people, and I will build, I will be their God, and you will be my people, and I will rescue you from their bondage. So the four promises of the Exodus, get this. The four promises of the Exodus, I will bring you out. I will rescue you. I will redeem you. I will take you. What is it that Christ was getting ready to do? Through his death and his resurrection, he was going to bring us out of the kingdom of darkness. Come on with me. Stay with me. He's going to bring us out of the kingdom of darkness. He was going to rescue us from the bondage of sin. He was going to redeem us and bring us into his family. And he's going to take us as his people, and he will be our God, and we will be his people. What Moses foreshadowed and only dealt with physically, Jesus was fulfilling to deal sovereignly and eternally so all of us could come back. So why was he talking to Elijah and to Moses as he fulfilled the law and the prophets? Fulfillment doesn't mean doing away with, fulfillment means completing. They were all shadows and types. And what did The disciples see when they saw Elijah and Moses, they saw the heroes of their faith. They saw the greatest prophets to ever walk, they saw the greatest one, Moses, and they saw Jesus with them, and it changed them. Here's what I need you to see is our exodus is in him. Our freedom is in him. What was the message of this? Look at the next verse. Verse 32, I believe it is. Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep. Do we read that anywhere else in the New Testament? In the Garden of Gethsemane. So a year later, from this moment, Peter and his companions fall asleep again. Now I'm not picking on old Pete. But I'm making a point. Because this next words are life-changing. But when they were fully awake, I need you to see this. When they were fully awake, they saw his glory. Church, today my prayer is that God awakens us. We need our shutters opened. We need the light of the glory of heaven to awaken our hearts to the glory of Jesus Christ, that there is no other God that does what Jesus does and has done what Jesus has done. There is nobody else. Our awakening is in his presence. And if we don't give ourselves to his presence, we cannot be awakened. So they saw his glory and the two men who were standing with them. Now I need to share with you, as you guys know, our team just returned from Israel. And it was nothing short of an amazing, miraculous trip. And God did so many wonderful things. But I want to share, the team is going to share at a later date coming up, but I want to share just two things that that wrecked me on this trip. And this goes right in line with Peter, James, and John's awakening. They've been overcome with sleep, but then they were fully awakened. I want to show you a picture. This is called the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall. And as we approached it on a day that we were in Jerusalem, we saw they have a men's section and a women's section. And this is a picture of the men's section of the wall. And hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were literally crying out to God. All these Jews crying out to God, reciting scriptures, quoting Torah, and just weeping and crying out to God as they touched that wall. And I sat there to observe it, and my heart just began to get really heavy. Because as we were talking about this, we realized that they believe this wall is the backside of where in the original temple the Holy of Holies was. And this is the closest they can get to their temple. Now understand the Jews don't have a temple. The Alaksa mosque by the Muslims is on the Temple Mount, and this is the closest the Jews can get to where they believe their temple is. But why is it important for them to get close to the temple? Because they don't believe unless they can sacrifice that their sins are forgiven. So I need you to understand this. They're carrying lifetimes of sins from old to young, and the closest they can get is to a wall because their shutter is closed and they're blind to the truth of Jesus Christ. And they're coming up hoping by some random act that God will remove their sins. And they're praying blind because their shutter is not open. And I realize how many thousands upon thousands in the last two thousand years since the temple was destroyed in AD 70. How many Jews are praying in vain, trying to touch a wall where God's not at because their shutter is closed. Who's gonna reach them? Who's gonna take Jesus to them to show that he's fulfilled it? And so right after we we went to the wall and and and we we got close to it, we touched it, and I began to pray Isaiah 61 over it. Lord, give recovery of sight to the blind. Open their eyes to see the truth of who you are, Jesus, so that they can be set free and that they can have true hope. Then we walked up to the Temple Mount. And you can see the gold dome on the picture. We walked up right by the El Oksa Mosque, and here's what hit me is that Muslims from around the world come and pray at that mosque, and they're just as blind as the Jews because they can't see the truth of Jesus Christ because they're blinded and their shutter is closed. They haven't had the light of the truth of Jesus encounter them and set them free. They haven't been touched by the glory of Jesus, and over two billion Muslims in this world are blind. Who's going to reach them? Our awakening can only come in the encounter with his presence. Church, you're called to be that light that they encounter. I'm called to be that light that they encounter. So on this trip, we got to minister to some of the underground Muslims, and I can't tell you much about it, and I'm not going to show you pictures of it. But some of them risked their absolute lives just to come and hear stories of Jesus. But billions are blind. Church, this is what you and I are called to. And in our comfort, and as Amanda said, and in our nostalgia, our shutters are closed because we want it the way it used to be. Our shutters are closed because we're so busy and consumed with things of this world that we're not taken in the glory of God on a daily basis. Church, we must open our eyes. So pick up with me in verse 33. And as these two men were leaving him, Jesus, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it's good that we are here, and let's make three tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And I love how Scripture says the next sentence. Not realizing what he was saying. Have y'all ever met somebody that when situations are a little tense and a little crazy, that they don't know what to do, but their mouth just goes. Well, Peter was this one. In his nervousness, they were fully awakened and he realized that's Moses, that's Elijah, that's Jesus. Let's build some houses, Lord. Let's build some tents. Let's just stay up here. Everything's good. We're on the mountaintop. Remember, God loves mountains. We're on the mountaintop. And man, if we this is great. We've arrived. And the Bible says he did not know what he was saying. Mark's version says, for he didn't know how to reply. And I always ask the question, well, who asked a question? He didn't know how to reply. There wasn't a question asked, Peter. But it says, for they became terrified. But like all of us as humans, when we get a taste of God's glory, the only thing we can do is tremble. Because we don't know how to handle for it. But church, I need you to hear this. You're created for it. Don't allow the world to suck it out of you because it consume you with other things. You were created for glory. Can you say, Holy Spirit, open my shutter? So what I'm created for, I can receive. His glory, not ours. So what's the point? We gotta embrace the uncomfortable because God is not gonna fit into our box of comfort. He's not gonna fit into our nostalgia of what was. What was is the enemy of what will be. And if we're holding on to what was because God's calling us into a new season and we're rejecting it because we're holding on, we're going in with half a heart and a divided mind. We gotta let go and we gotta embrace the new season. How many of you guys like change? Man, no hands? What's the matter with y'all? Change is great. Most people, if truth be told, they really don't mind change. They just don't like the loss associated with the change. But if God's saying, I've got something greater, take hold of this, and we're saying, God, this is good enough, he can't give us more. Church, we have to embrace the uncomfortable. Peter's plan when he told Jesus, I can't let you do that, I can't let you suffer, I gotta protect you. Peter's plan wasn't evil, it was just misaligned. And the father dealt with that misalignment by refocusing him on the son. And church, God's re-dealing with our misalignment by refocusing us on the Son. We have to focus on Jesus. Pick up in verse 34. But while he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them, and they were afraid. Now, weren't they already terrified? Now it says they were afraid as they entered the cloud, and then a voice came from the cloud saying, This is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. Now I wish it would have recorded what Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were talking about. That would be a lot, a lot of awesomeness recorded right there. But why did God, the Father, bless his son? This is the second time he did it the first time at his baptism, he did it this time on the mountain, and then he did it on the cross. But why did God bless his son and then tell the Peter, James, and John, listen to him? How many of you guys would say you're really good at listening? There's a few brave people. We live in the most distracted culture on the face of the earth. How well do we really listen? If you ask my wife when she asked me that question, I can tell her everything she said. I can repeat it right back to her. Most of the time I don't have a clue what she meant by it, but I can tell you what she said. It's like, babe, were you listening? Yeah, you said this. Well, what was I talking about? Um, what had happened was why does God have to tell us to listen? Because a lot of times in our fears, a lot of times in our uncomfortable places, we don't listen. But that's where God wants to whisper, God wants to speak, and those words penetrate our hearts and change us forever. Church, it's time that church begins to listen. We embrace the cloud, we embrace his presence, and we listen. And it just doesn't mean just hearing. The word listen in the Greek means hearing in order to obey. Because remember, what was Peter trying to do? Peter was trying to prevent the cross, but now Jesus was asking him to walk with him through the valley, through the death, to the resurrection, and he needed to listen to him. And church, if there's a day we need to listen, it's today. So what's the point? Be quiet and listen. Sometimes in your prayer closet, I'm gonna tell you this just as a papa in your life. Just shut your mouth and say, God, what do you want to say? Because conversations are two ways, not just one. So there's times, and I'm just letting you a glimpse into my life, there's times I intentionally just have to say, Lord, I am not gonna ask you anything, just what is on your heart to share with me today, and I'll just start writing. I've got to just be quiet and listen. And I'm telling you, church, we have to learn to listen again. Faith is transfigured by the father's voice, not by our prayer. Did you hear me? Faith is transfigured by the father's voice. And we're changed by the father's voice, not by our list and all of our things that we're bringing to him in prayer. And I ask the worship team to come back up. Look at this next verse. I believe it's verse thirty-six. And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. I want to just stop there. When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. We can't miss the significance of what God did in this moment. Because it was a completion of the law and the prophets, and only Christ remains. And the disciples needed to see that all they needed was Jesus. So what's the word to us? All we need is Jesus. Do not fear. It says in Matthew's version, and Jesus came to them, touched them, and said, Get up and do not be afraid. And raising their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone. Church, we need to see no one except Jesus Himself alone. Our shutter needs to be opened to receive the light of the truth that Jesus is all we need. When we were in Israel, we were not there to bring a political solution to a spiritual issue between three different nations and three different peoples. We were there to bring Jesus, and that was all that we brought. Moses, the law, couldn't do it. Elijah, the prophets, couldn't do it, but Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets, and he brought it to completion. Everything converges in Christ, and he is all that we need. Now I need you to hear this. Like Peter, we have all we all have times where we lack understanding. We have times where we lack unbelief and blindness to the things of God. And just like we heard in worship, when we're trying to hold on to nostalgia of what was, or or we're wrestling things out with God, we have to rely on one fact. Jesus is the Messiah, He's the Son of God, He fulfilled the law and the prophets, He redeemed mankind, and He is the foundation of everything we believe. And that's all we need. Philippians 2 says he's been exalted far above all heaven, earth, all things under the earth. He has no rivals. Does he have a rival in your heart or in your mind? Because God's telling us to deal with those rivals today. We have to move from being fascinated with him to being formed upon him. Did you hear me? We can't just be fascinated with Jesus. We have to be formed in him and upon him. We don't just have moments, his life is now our map, it's our direction. We can no longer allow things to compete with the picture of who Jesus is. They saw no one except Jesus. In church, this is what we have to do. I want to end with these verses, and I'm gonna ask you guys to stand as we read them. So the apostle Peter is one of the heroes in the faith to me. And church tradition has it that after Jesus restored him, God used him to do many miracles, signs, and wonders. He used him to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. And church tradition has it that he was crucified upside down because he said, I'm not worthy to be crucified the same way Jesus was. Follow along with me. Such a declaration as this was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. And we ourselves heard this declaration made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. What's Peter talking about? What we just read? He says, We've received all this, our shutters were open, heaven came down, we saw Jesus, we knew what God was saying, and what's the purpose? So we have this prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention. As to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. How did Peter withstand to the end? Because he opened his shutter and he received the light of heaven in the person of Jesus Christ. Church, we need a transfiguration. And we need to be transfigured so that our faith changes and goes to a level that we've never been before. Because this new season is gonna require it. Why? Because we preach Jesus and Him crucified and nobody else. Jesus is the name by which lives are changed, destinies are renewed, Jesus is the only option, church. We need a transfiguration in our hearts. So with every hand raised in this place, Holy Spirit, right now, in Jesus' name, open the shutters of our heart. Lord, we choose to let go of things we've been holding on to. We choose to magnify you, God. Open our eyes to see you in the new way. Lord, put the desire in our heart to separate ourselves from the world so that we can encounter the living Savior. Lord, so that only you remain in our heart. Not nostalgia, Father God, not good things, not things in the ways and the cares of this world. God, open our heart to where you remain, and then the rest of that is work in right standing, Father. Lord, in Jesus' name, awaken the church! Awaken us to your majesty! Awaken us to your glory, God! Awaken us, Lord, so that we can magnify you in all that we do and say. So, church, as we go into this song, Christ be magnified. Make it your prayer and let the Holy Spirit do the work in you. Let's go into this song.