and this is the whole point of the transfiguration that the only way jesus can dwell with you and i permanently the only way he can hold you and i and hold our salvation permanently as he must suffer and die there is something to be said about how honest how brutally honest the bible is about your condition and my condition have you ever noticed as you read the bible that the bible just continually calls out the fact that you and i have failures and flaws that even the greatest heroes of the faith had some major flaws and it is such good news because we know that the bible is 100 truthful because it doesn't try to cover up these sins and flaws does it in fact it like magnifies have you ever noticed that right like abraham the man of justification himself and man did that brother mess up brother david right my man david a man after god's own heart and man did he mess up and this is how we know the bible is trustworthy because it is calling your sin and my sin out on the carpet because it's all about not you and not me it is about christ that the whole old testament whole bible points not to you not to me but to christ that christ is our hero that the bible lifts up god and it reminds you and i that we're not the solution we're the problem all right two of us got it cool so so here's what we start to realize as we look at the bible and as we look at your life in my life is we have this one question why am i here on this earth and even the christian has this question why did god save me one of my favorite psalms i love the psalms so rich in theology psalm 106 just recounting really basically recounting the whole history of israel and this is what the psalmist says in psalm 106 both we and our fathers have we have committed iniquity we have done wickedness so this is incredibly important that you and i must look at the world through the lens of scripture not the lens of our feeling do you know why because our feelings cannot be trusted right you eat a bad taco for lunch you're in trouble at dinner and you're not feeling great right so your feelings my feelings change on a dime and here's what we know about wickedness and iniquity you and i are the problem right the bible's not saying it's them out there they're the problem if we fix them out there everything will be hunky-dory he says we have committed iniquity we have done wickedness and here's what i want to just kind of put before you this morning okay teachers you're going to love this god does not grade on a curve right so so this is kind of us let's just be honest here this morning what do we tend to do we sit in the pews and we look down the road we're like yep doing pretty good right got that nice c plus i mean the pastor he might have a b but i got the c plus i've got the passing grade and let me just share with you our teacher god he grades one way pass fail and if you get one question wrong guess what you failed and so so let me just remind you this is what james says james says what that if we've broken just one of god's law we're guilty of breaking all of them and so it is not about you and i grading on a curve it's not about you and i looking around going well i'm a whole lot better than those people that's dangerous for you and i that's right because that'll lead to hard hardness why because no one's going gonna appear before the great white throne room of judgment and go man god i'm so brilliant i chose you man look how awesome i am god i told you i'm so smart i'm so great no what are we gonna do we're gonna fall on our faces god i'm so amazed that you would ever choose me i'm so humbled by the fact this is grace and then we realize when we ask the question what is our purpose here in life why are we here and so often you and i do this man we're like okay got it and we go running out into the world forsaking god and man we hit a wall and we heard it hurts right and we come back to god and goes god why did you do that to me right anyone else here and we've neglected what jesus says hey listen disciples abide in me remain in me don't leave me remain in me stay with me and this is what we realized church this is why you and i were created we were created for the glory of god we are created to praise god in all things your purpose and my purpose why we exist on this earth it's for the praise the majesty of god and i don't believe you didn't think you would so two verses later in psalm 106 this is what the word of the god word of the lord says yet he saved them he's recounting the the exodus he saved them for his namesake that he might make known his mighty power so recognize the reason why you and i are saved by god is for his namesake for his praise for his glory so that the whole world may know the great majesty of our god amen that's why you and i exist this morning and so man the whole church is still what incredible gratitude this is why paul by the way in first corinthians says it was a great sin of the people of exodus to be complaining all the time as they're walking with moses because the christian isn't bent on complaints or bent on gratitude and praise and and so here's what we must realize this morning church salvation itself is not a natural act it is a supernatural act by god we don't talk about salvation in terms of like personal decisions we talk about salvation in terms of god's holy spirit coming and dwelling invading the hearts of the people turning their hearts to the glory and majesty of god and so this becomes your mission in my mission in the whole world that god's name may be praised amongst every tribe nation tongue and language that the gospel goes out to all four corners of the world and we have one plea that god is supreme over all things and this becomes the mission of the church this becomes why you and i exist this is why this is why parents have children's is so that they make little disciples to praise god's name because his name is worthy of phrase and this is what we know to be true and so what is salvation salvation is the holy spirit coming in and invading your hearts how does that happen through the preaching and teaching of god's word hebrews chapter 10. and so let me just remind you yours and my cute little philosophies will not wake a dead heart will it but god's word will amen this is why jesus said lazarus come out lazarus said go well it's time to wake up here i go jesus god woke up lazarus from the dead and how could he do that he could only do that one way and that is through the cross of jesus christ if you have your bibles go ahead grab them we're gonna be in mark chapter nine thanks for letting me take a little breather last week from mark just so we could walk through first john i hope that was edifying to you um i hope that was just edifying to your soul and my soul as we realized that we were saved for a purpose of regeneration that you and i are saved with a purpose to be given a new life but we're gonna go back to mark chapter nine and so i know in our reading plans we've read through mark chapter nine for a week now and we've got another two weeks in mark chapter nine but here's where i wanna kind of put in front of you about this text is what we're going to look at this morning is the transfiguration now here's what's amazing we read the transfiguration and this is what we all do well that seems like it's super important but i'm not exactly sure what's going on here anyone else in here i mean okay there's two of us so the rest of you can come on up preach this sermon who's doing it all right well great i guess i'll do it then so so this is what we must realize that this is a vitally important point in jesus's ministry for his disciples and so often we miss the glory and so that that's my intent to show you today how important this moment is now here's what we must understand in your bibles in my bibles there's these great big numbers and great small numbers okay chapters and verses they're really helpful because it helps us remember where we're at in the story so you can easily find it but make sure that you don't that you don't always divorce chapter eight and chapter nine that these stories run together and so when we look at chapter nine we have to remember where jesus ended in chapter eight remember chapter eight he takes some accessory of philippi who do you say that i am you're the christ living son of god way to go peter you're the man now peter now peter i'm going to tell you what's going to happen the son of man must be delivered over to the priests where he's going to be executed suffer many things and die and what does peter do hey let me rebuke your theology jesus anyone else in here rebuke jesus's theology and what does jesus do he corrects peter and so what we said two weeks ago is we must pay attention to when jesus corrects us right like was anyone convicted in their reading plan this week when they read through the fruit of the spirit right okay three of us good so i look let me just do a little test for you love joyce peace patience kindness anyone been impatient this week oh there it is right so let me just remind you and i that the bible corrects us and it convicts us it's sad that so often we read the bible and we go man i know someone who else has been impatient my spouse right like that's kind of how we read these things and that's not how we're supposed to read it we're supposed to allow the bible to penetrate our hearts for the glory and praise of god and so allow the bible to penetrate your heart to move you and shift you and so we're gonna see this beautiful text this morning on the heels of jesus just saying the son of man must suffer and die and be delivered and if you want to be one of my disciples you must pick up your cross and follow me so i may remind you and i church the cross was a one-way ticket with no return ticket coming back when you picked up that cross you were going to die and why does the christian go to die so that we may live and we're going to see what that living is so before we do that we need to do what we must do and that is to pray and like i said the spirit working is a supernatural event not a natural event and so what the preaching and teaching of god's word will do is it'll penetrate our hearts this does not happen through intellectual assent but through the spirit penetrating yours in my heart so let's pray that god will do that this morning would you pray with me
father god we come before you recognizing that you had a grand plan from the beginning and that plan was to cross that you may create for yourself a holy people the church set apart for your great pleasure and that's us this morning god god we are here to praise you may this be a sweet aroma to you this morning now church i said you pray for me pray that i'll be helpful this morning pray that god will hide me behind and beneath his cross this morning
now church has to pray for yourself pray that god open up your ears your heart and your mind hear his word this morning and they'll cut you deep
father god we thank you for this morning we thank you for your word god do a great work this morning we pray these things because of your son's atoning work on the cross through a spirit that's alive and active within us amen so so before we dive into this text i want to kind of set you and i up for what this text is ultimately going to get at this text is going to be filled with a lot of old testament references one of my one of the greatest tragedies to me is when people say this about the old testament man that's just a book filled with an angry god man i prefer the god of the new testament and so when i hear that i always laugh and go oh my gosh you've never really read the bible have you right because i mean as anyone read acts god killed a couple in church god killed him in church right locked the doors and said hold on for miracles we gotta get this holiness thing sorted out okay in revelation it says when jesus comes he's gonna come with a sword of fire and man he's gonna do work man jesus himself said if your righteousness if your righteousness does not exceed that of the pharisees you have no place with me well the whole old testament's filled with an angry god have you ever read hosea i mean where god says then man that my people are are a people who have cheated on me but man i'm going to go purchase my people back at my own cost the god of the old testament is the god of the new testament that's right the god of the new testament's to god who sent his son who crushed his son who resurrected his son so that you and i may be made right with him and so please friends do not neglect the old testament because it's pointing everything to christ and so we're going to see we're going to do a little test this morning on how well we've paid attention to the old testament but don't worry i'm going to help you so here we go verses two through three and after six days jesus took with him peter james and john and led them up a high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them and his clothes became radiant intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them so jesus takes his inner circle his inner circle peter james and john and so this was part of jesus's ministry what he would is he would preach to the mega large crowds crowds of somewhere between 20 to 50 000 people we don't know how big we know at some point there was 5 000 6 000 men which makes us assume there's 20 to 20 to 50 000 people who were also there so he ministered to the great crowds and in those great crowds he had a other crowd a crowd of about 72 people who were following him and of those 72 he had his 12 band of disciples that were running around and in those 12 he had a band of his inner circle three and that's these guys peter james and john my friends this is a model for you and i on how we are to think about worship so so what do i mean by that so you have your sunday morning that's us the big group gathered to gather but then you have a smaller more intimate group that's your home groups right you should be having those that way you can kind of work out and say man i didn't like what the pastor said on sunday and you all kind of fight that out with one another right i know that happens all right so then up there you kind of have a smaller group a more intimate one to one and that's where you're sitting with another believer and what are you doing you're confessing sin you're calling one another to memorize scripture to walk man are you being a friend a friend of a friend as jesus has called us to me are you being the spouse that god has called you to be i mean how is your walk with the lord and so in your life you must have those points of worship so that you may grow and so let me just share with you when you get to those one-to-one very intimate discipleship moments allow correction to take place someone who refused to be corrected is someone who is not walking with christ you all remember our brother apollos right he came out man he was preaching up a storm and priscilla aquila said come here boyle let me let's talk to you for just a moment set him straight and then sent him back out to preach correction is something we often need because we get blind spots and we can't see him and so have those moments of worship in your life in your week the bible tells us in verse 2 and after six days jesus took with him if you have your mark journal circle those words six days those are incredibly important words for you and for me here's why they're important because there's nowhere else in mark where six days is ever mentioned this is the only time in mark where it's mentioned so why is mark so specific about six days he's very rarely specific about time at all he's kind of like and then they did this and then they did this and then they did this so why is he specific about those six days if you go to exodus ver chapter 24 moses takes a six day journey up a mountain cloud surrounds the mountain and god speaks so you know this because we've done our reading plan that what's gonna happen is god is going to come and speak to the disciples in a cloud so mark is making sure you and i understand take exodus 24 and apply it to this text so recognize that is why this is here next understand and look that jesus took with him jesus led his disciples up the mountain this has been part of mark's whole cry from the beginning is the call to discipleship remember early in mark he said what come follow me and so what jesus is doing is he's going to encourage his disciples why does he need to encourage them because he just took them from the lowest valley and now he's taken to the highest heights he's leading them somewhere and they do not understand where because they're still confused about what jesus said and why were they confused because they had a wrong view of what the purpose of the messiah is and so jesus is continuing to lead and teach his disciples about who he is and so this phrase follow me he led them is very important for your life and for my life because all mark has done in the first eight chapters is said jesus has continued to go on and teach as he has led them so the christian life the christian life is filled with walking and understanding so we walk and we understand and we understand and we walk these two are married and never divorced as we walk we understand as we understand we walk with him if you have one and not the other you're not actually walking with him far too often people try to understand jesus without walking with him they want to walk with jesus but they want to do it from a safe distance while sitting in a chair this is not the call of faith and and so here's kind of how this argument goes because i know you're arguing with me in your mind right so i'm gonna just i'm gonna we're gonna have that inner dialogue so that way you know you don't feel embarrassed as you're calling me out so i'll call myself out for you this is what kind of people tend to do in their lives they're like well it's easier for you pastor because man you love reading i hate reading shoot me if i have to read longer than 20 minutes right like that's kind of how you think and i'm going to tell you lovingly and i'm going to remind you man if i sat down with you for 20 minutes i can find what you're passionate about and the things we're passionate about are things we actually want to learn and grasp and grab a hold of into the intellectuals i mean we just love to read all day man i went to colorado and i was just happy sitting on my porch just reading right like that was great and so to us the the same is true man are you grabbing a shovel and you walking are you walking what you're reading what point is it to understand and not have any walks so they must happen together and so what's really cool you may not be a reader it may be more difficult for you than i but that doesn't mean you get to escape reading does it right and here's what's cool with technology we have we have no excuse do we we have literally an app where the bible will be read to us you didn't have to read it you could be driving and then boom there it is it's reading the bible to me how cool is that we have no excuse do we church and so far too often far too often do we neglect one in our walk far too often do we do this and so the next place is where does jesus take his disciples he takes his disciples up a high mountain most likely mount hemron and so why because it was about a six day journey from caesarea philippi so it would make sense mount hemorrhon during the winter time you would have kind of snow at the top so very similar to us walking up mount lemon and so jesus takes his three brothers up here up to the highest mountain why because he just took them from the lowest valley he took them from the lowest valley and now he is taking them to the highest mountain why because you remember what jesus's rebuke was to peter peter here's your problem you have set your eyes on the things of man you need to set your eyes on the things of heaven anyone else need to hear that rebuked this morning okay three of us again cool come on up preach let's go um so far too often we think of ourselves far too often we think of our situation far too often we think of the problems of this world and we look at the problems rather than looking at the solution and jesus is taking his disciples out of the valley of caesarea philippi and into the mountains so that they may see the victory of christ well i don't understand what's going on so man i got to keep looking at the world to figure out what's going on no you don't you need to set your eyes on the one who's seated at the right hand of god and the earth is his footstool the whole earth gives glory to him this is why jesus john 12 32 said this and i when i am high and lifted up from the earth will draw all people to my self you see far too often in our salvation we ask the wrong questions am i doing this right am i doing that right am i why did i mess up why do i keep failing why do i keep following and what's the answer to that get your eyes off yourself and get your eyes on christ because why friends in your walk of salvation you will often feel like you're walking in the valley you will often struggle you will often battle and my friends never neglect the call of christ to take you to the top of the world this is why worship is so important because worship will change your thoughts they'll change your sights they'll turn change everything you see and this is what we see here do you see that in an instant jesus was transformed before them so so jesus is giving them a picture and he's giving you and i a picture i don't know how many people um are hikers in here i'm definitely not because i'm just lazy so what happens is as you hike you do a few things you get dirty and you get sweaty so you gotta think a six day journey up a mountain these brothers are probably dirty and sweaty right again no stop for kind of showers they're tired they're beat up and in an instant jesus is transformed into great whiteness and so here's why this is important friends and let me remind you why this is important because life is going to be filled with marching up this mountain and you're going to get sweaty and bruised and tired and exhausted but the glory of god awaits amen in an instant you will be transformed the moment of death you will be glorified like christ is here next thing i want you to do i want you to circle that word transfigured i want you to circle that word transfigured it's only used a few times in the new testament it's in the parallel accounts in matthew and luke so that would make sense but paul uses it twice in two different areas one place is in second corinthians chapter three and i want you to just listen to what paul has to say and we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of god are being transformed isn't that good news you and i being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the lord who is the spirit this is jesus's promises to you and to i as we walk with christ we are being made into his image we are starting to look more like christ and less like us and hallelujah to that amen because man we are the problem we just addressed that psalm 106 you and i are the problem but god is the solution and he's making us more like him and this is the promise that this happens how through the power of god not through yours and my white knuckle discipline so if you're in here saying man i cannot do it i'm going to say amen you've got it and this is what paul says he says in my weakness he is made strong so let me just share with you the whole point of the gospel is it calls us weak and powerless but we put our faith in the one who has the power to do anything
another place this is used is in romans chapter 12 do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind and so this is what the gospel is all about we saw this last week in first john the gospel is all about transformation the gospel is all about transforming you and i into the image of christ and how does that do it he changes our thoughts and praise god for that amen that we grow in grace and love as we walk with god paul david tripp said it this way the people who give grace are the people who understand their need for it men so if you're in here and you're like man i'm just not good at giving other people grace i'm kind of that justice guy man i want to encourage you set your eyes on the cross and recognize that's where you belong
and this is what we're promised here in mark chapter 9 is not one ounce of suffering in your life in my life will be wasted why because not one ounce of suffering was wasted on the cross every drop of jesus's blood was used to cover his church for the day of redemption verses four through six and there appeared to them elijah with moses and they were talking with jesus and peter said to jesus rabbi it is good that we are here let us make three tents one for you one for moses and one for elijah for he did not know what to say for they were terrified i love how peter by the way calls himself out i just freaked out and said something right like i love that picture so here we got jesus transformed into unbelievable white and then we have two other brothers appear elijah and moses and so the question you and i have is why did these guys appear so we're going to start with the easy one and then we'll work to the hard one so let's talk about moses for a moment why did moses appear so let me tell you in seminary no one says man i want to have the ministry of moses right now one person in seminary goes i want the ministry of moses give me that ministry do you know why because man that brother was a shepherd then he goes has this powerful great moment i mean great miracles awesome they crossed red sea the egyptians just drowned by the red sea everyone praises sings a song hallelujah and then almost from minute one complaints start right i mean i mean complaints start and not not only they complain start who they blame they blame moses you let us hear you're the problem in our lives and what does the bible consistently say you stiff-necked people right you're the problem and so uh the ministry of moses was hearing complaints his whole ministry and the people blaming moses for what is going on and god's saying no no no it's your stiff-necked people and then they'll always cry this what give us the comfort of slavery back how unfortunate is that and we see this in people's lives when they when they hear the gospel sometimes they're like man i just want to go back into my sin and people say don't go back in the slavery of sin spend time in the righteousness and the freedom of christ amen and we saw this a few weeks ago how does moses's life end this is at the end of deuteronomy do you all remember it and there was not arisen a prophet in israel like moses whom the lord knew face to face none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the lord sent him in the land of egypt to pharaoh and to all his servants and to all the land and all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that moses did in the sight of israel so recognize deuteronomy ends by telling us how did moses die he goes up to a mountain dies and god buries him moses was the giver of the law but there's two other things i think is important that we must recognize in this text on why moses is here text number one do you remember in exodus when what was moses's request to god please show me your glory what does god say he says this i will make all my goodness pass before you and you will proclaim before you my name the lord the lord i'll be gracious to who i'll be gracious to i'll show mercy on whom i will show mercy but you cannot see my face or you will die so what does he do he puts moses moses in the cleft of the rock he passes by him he puts his hand over the clap of the rock and he keeps walking moses comes out of the cleft of the rock and says he saw his backside his butt and what happens god then gives moses the law and moses comes down from the mountain and he is shining bright and he was shining so bright that the people put a veil over his face because they were getting blinded by his brightness in the middle of the day and this is what why moses is here is to remind you and i church that we are the reflection of god's glory in our lives that man people are putting a veil over our face saying you're way too bright because the greatness of god is shining off of you because you are reflecting the glory and the majesty of god and so what do we see here we see moses is seeing the full glory of god in jesus christ
the next thing that is why moses is here that i think is so important if you're here on good friday you know this story well if you miss that well then catch up with me remember in the book of numbers numbers chapter 20 right you've got complaints shocker people complaining right in moses's ministry we need water moses goes to god and says we need water and god says okay just go speak to the rock water will flow out and they're still complaining they're still complaining moses gets angry and he strikes the rock and then god says this because you did not believe in me to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of israel therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that i have promised so you have two things that god's promised you cannot see my glory and you cannot bring these people in and what do we see here moses is where he is in the promised land what god said you cannot bring these people in and where is he at he's in the middle of the promised land and he is seeing the full glory of god and this is the god we serve friend this is the holy god his very nature is that he is a just god and a gracious god abounding instead fast love ready to forgive you and i fully and so moses's failure was turned for god's success and it is seen here and so you're sitting here going well that's good for moses but what about me and here's what i may encourage you this morning all the evil in the world cannot thwart god's plan all the failures you and i have cannot stop god's glory why because god is king of kings lord of lords and here is the good news that our god abounding in steadfast love abounding in graciousness can overcome our greatest failures and here's why that's good news for you and i this morning because if he could not then our lord and savior died in vain and so let me just kind of encourage you because i know that how this happens is especially when there's someone who's new to church as they look around they go man everyone in this room has their act together and my life's falling apart okay so let me just we're just gonna do a little test here anyone want to admit that they have a perfect life no struggles right now look around y'all okay so everyone in this room the pastor included right has great deep struggles great deep failures and and god and his gracious abounding steadfast love is working through all that throwing about his glory his majesty his greatness my friends listen to me if we live our lives only to use god in whenever we need something we'll miss the greatness and the glory of god if we see him as butler rather than king our prayers will only be happening when we need something when something goes wrong and moses now sees the greatness of god in his forgiveness this is what makes god great is that he's able to forgive messed up people like you and me amen that sin cannot stop god's plan and so let's talk about elijah moses is the big one so let's talk about elijah elijah's a little bit more difficult to understand but elijah you have to realize is the bridge between himself which is the prophets he represents the beginning of the prophets and the kings and the law so he's kind of representing all the prophets so what was the role of the prophets one role in one role only not to tell the future okay but to do what to call the people back to god right because what happens with israel they get comfortable they get a little money and they start to stray away from when the the prophets say come back to god or judgment's coming come back to god our judgment's coming and then everyone's shocked when judgment comes how could this happen and the prophet's like duh right so elijah is those who is represents the prophets who are the restorers of israel calling people back to holiness and so this is why these two guys are here is because they're going to represent the whole old testament because jesus is going to make a new covenant jesus already talked about this back in mark chapter 2 the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and they will fasten that day no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment if he does the patch tears away from it the new from the old and a worse terror is made and no one puts new wine into old wineskins if he does the wine will burst the skins so so christ is creating a new covenant with his people bought by the blood of himself we saw this in first john that the whole point of the gospel is it makes obedience for you and i a great joy that the christian life is filled with a great joy to follow christ wherever he leads it's not a begrudging i have to it is a joyful wherever christ goes that's where i will be as well and so this is what we then see here jesus is having a conversation with moses and elijah and let me tell you they're not talking as equals jesus is the one leading the discussion and then peter let's make a tent for you three so this is really important this word tense you also know it as the word tabernacle okay so what is a tabernacle if you remember back into exodus right moses had his tent of meetings the shorthand of that is the word tabernacle it is where god and his people meet and so what what peter's saying is let's set up a new place of worship let's set up a new tabernacle right here for moses elijah and you jesus but do you remember how john starts off remember john's one of the guys up here remember how he starts off his gospel john 1 14 and the word became flesh and tabernacled among us the tabernacle of the new covenant the tabernacle of jesus christ coming and dying is so that he may reign and rule within you it's not on this mountain or that mountain but in spirit and in truth he will tabernacle with his church and wherever his church meets that's where he will be also amen and this is the whole point of the transfiguration that the only way jesus can dwell with you and i permanently the only way he can hold you and i and hold our salvation permanently is he must suffer and die and this is how john ends revelation john excuse me revelation 21 behold the dwelling place of god is with man what better news than that that not only god forgives your sin and my sin but he dwells with us perfectly and permanently why because we have a great high priest who's able to sympathize with us in our weakness because he was made like us in every respect and he was without sin so if you feel alone this morning if that's you in the worst time of your life if you feel alone this morning no jesus knows exactly how you feel do you know why because in the worst moment of his life his all of his best friends abandoned him and one of his best friends betrayed him and so jesus understands all that you're going through so you therefore by definition cannot be alone why because christ understands perfectly
and this is what the writer of hebrews then goes on to remind us he says this i gotta meet this writer i'm so excited to meet him in heaven sorry um he says the veil of the tabernacle has been torn so you and i have great confidence to enter into the holy holies in all of our time the needs so why is the tabernacle important because here's what the tabernacle gives us that we have instant access to god through prayer so you and i have instant access to god the god of the universe the creator of the heavens and the earth we have instant access to the king of kings the lord lords through prayer far too often we neglect our prayer time for one of two reasons reason one is because we use prayer for only when we're in trouble we use prayer for our glory for our wants for our kingdom for our comforts yet prayer is used to call upon god for his greatness for his glory we devalue the miracle of having instant access when we only use prayer for our time of wants and needs do you know how i know that because part of the essential part of prayer is what thanksgiving how do i know that our father who is in heaven holy be your name your kingdom come your will be done prayer doesn't start off with our wants it starts off with the greatness and the glory of god so in our prayers we have great moments of worship the other reason why we neglect prayer is because we actually believe it doesn't do anything and so i want to share with you this might be a shock to some of you if it is then get ready to gasp um we are in a war we've been in a war since literally genesis 3 and and what paul says in ephesians chapter 6 is we have one offensive weapon to fight this war and that is the word of god connected with prayers without prayer we are weaponless and defenseless to the schemes of satan and this is good news that you and i have all of the tools we need to destroy the strongholds of satan and that is with the word of god through prayer and so this is why worship becomes so important because word of god in prayer is central and so what do we see here that the lord gives lord takes away but we will bless the name of the lord verses 7 through 8. and the cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud this is my beloved son listen to him and suddenly looking around they no longer saw anyone with them but jesus only do you know how the book of exodus ends it ends with moses building a tabernacle a cloud filling the tabernacle and god speaking what do we see here a cloud in god speaking and what does god say to the disciples this is my son listen to him so what jesus has been excuse me what mark has been taking painstaking time throughout his whole gospel to bring to your head to my head is jesus came to teach and here you have the fulfillment would y'all just listen to jesus he's talking to the disciples the disciples that saw all the great wonders and mysteries of god they saw demons cast out they saw that death could hear the blind could see storms calm and they're saying listen to him
why is he saying this he's reminding disciples that they still don't understand what jesus just taught them what did jesus just taught them you must pick up your cross and come follow me they're like oh that's not for me that's for so and so right and this is a tough lesson for you and for me this morning that the call of discipleship the call of following christ is a call to die so that we may live amen here we have jesus and he is in the center he is tabernacling among you and i this morning and we have a question are our prayers god centered or me centered do i pray more about my comfort than i do about his glory do i long to see the greatness of god at whatever the cost do i realize what the cross is the cross is the crucified savior not just trying something out but actually purchasing for himself a church right so it's not like god said well the law didn't work let's try this crossing this was the plan that god would tabernacle with his people and make them righteous and this is why moses and elijah have passed away but jesus remains because in this world things will pass away even good things that we love will pass away but jesus will remain amen and this tells us something about our king jesus did not go back up to glory with the father he remained to fulfill his mission jesus was not motivated by comfort he was motivated by the glory of god because he was motivated by the glory of god we get to enjoy him forever far too often we miss that truth far too often do we worry about glorifying our ourselves expect everything else to give us joy to give us happiness jesus wasn't motivated by comfort he was motivated by god's glory on display for all to see my friends people often talk about the cross as showing you your worth that is so untrue it's unbelievable the cross shows the worth of god the cross shows the worth of god the majesty the greatness of god and this is what the transfiguration is about it looks forward to the fact that jesus will not leave you he'll not abandon you he will not forsake you when things fade away when things fail when disappointment comes christ remains he is your sure and steady anchor no matter how bad things get he says i am not leaving you amen we're gonna work through this no no you abide in me you remain in me and i will bear much fruit out of you it is silly for you and i to try to bear fruit outside of abiding in christ
and this is what happens when we sin as jesus said no no i paid for that let me pick you up and let us continue to walk in righteousness remain in me because i have tabernacled with you so how do we live these things on purpose how do we live these things on purpose first we must get on top of the world with our king we must get on top of the world with our king when we find ourselves far too occupied with the things of this world it's a really good indication that we've been neglecting worship this is why god tells his disciples listen to christ for the mission you and i have been given is an impossible mission we cannot do it it's impossible but with christ all things are possible so here's how christ tells you and i to walk in this mission abide remain remain in me remain in me and i will bear much fruit and my glory will be seen to the whole world growing fruit outside of the power of god is a fool's errand it's like trying to catch fog
next because of the promise that christ tabernacled among us we have instant access to christ friends let me ask you a question how are you using your time in prayer are you praying for god's glory are you praying for him to be high and lifted up in your life are you praying for your comforts far too often we struggle in our prayers because our prayers are filled with small trivial things when a call to prayer is a call to be transformed to be to be in praise know that the glory of being able to pray to the holy god came by the crucified savior who came to this earth walked this earth died and they sent his spirit so we may enjoy him forever finally jesus did not lead his disciples up on the mountain and leave him there he led them back down and the reason for this is because you and i have a mission because christ has a mission and that mission is to glorify god in all things god his glory is most clearly seen in the darkest of places jesus never abandoned the darkest places he walked in the midst of this and allowed his light to pierce and he gives that light to you and it's the holy spirit living and active within you so recognize you and i have been given an impossible impossible mission but praise god we have a god who deals in the areas of impossibility let's pray father god we thank you god we thank you for the joy of the tabernacle we thank you that you dwell within us god we thank you for the church god we thank you for the church that you purchased with your own blood at your own cost god because of the cross you we have full assurance that we've been counted right by faith so father god i just pray we will know we will know your love this morning by god we thank you for this morning we praise things in your son's name
amen
hi i'm pastor scott pastor of the oasis church listen we are so excited that you decide to join us for the preaching and teaching of god's word we just pray that this will stir your affections towards christ but we have one encouragement we want to leave you with please do not allow this to take the place of the local body of believers we pray that you will be involved in a local congregation a local church that you can find yourself submitting under the eldership and the leadership of a local church we pray that you will find yourself stirred towards christ and that your joy in christ will be ever increasing