Transfiguration Glory

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To the Gospel according to Luke, chapter nine, the gospel of Luke, chapter nine and verse 28. And when you found that, go ahead and stand for our gospel reading this morning.

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Notice these words as found in Luke 9. 28.

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Now, about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now, Peter.

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Excuse me. Now, Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Not knowing what he said while he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.

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Then from the cloud came a voice that said, this is my son, my chosen. Listen to him. When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone, and they kept silent, and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, teacher, I beg you to look at my son.

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He is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until the foams. Until he foams at the mouth it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.

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Jesus answered, you faithless and perverse generation. How much longer must I be with you and bear with you. Bring your son here. While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.

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And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

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Jesus, thank you for your holy word. We pray now that you would supernaturally come among us and teach us and heal us so that we too are astounded by your greatness. We pray in your name. Amen. You can be seated.

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Well, here we are, the last Sunday of Epiphany, which is one of the days that we celebrate and observe the transfiguration of the Lord of the Christ. And it's appropriate to be this way, because right here, before the Passion of The Christ right here. If you remember the sequence, especially in the Synoptic Gospels, which are the three Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the three similar gospels, if you remember the sequence of Jesus, once Peter makes the confession, you are the Christ in all three of those Gospels, then Jesus turns his face to Jerusalem. Now, part of that is then to go up on a mountain and be transfigured before three of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, or as Luke changes up the order, Peter, John's, and John and James here. And he will be transfigured among them, before them, and then comes down the mountain as we just read, and heads to Jerusalem to suffer, be crucified, and die, and then rise again on the third day.

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So before we join Jesus in His passion, which is to say his suffering, before we enter into that wilderness of suffering through Lent, through this springtime observance, we need to look at his glory. He shows them his glory. He reveals to them, which is the idea with epiphany, right? That's what the term means, a revealing or a sudden appearing of his glory. Now, of course, his glory is going to be preeminently seen in the acts of the cross, his suffering and death.

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Yes, that's the glory of God and in his resurrection that glorious morning. And of course, as we just. We just actually said it in the Nicene Creed, that one day he'll come, what, in full glory. And we'll see him face to face. Now, keep that in mind as we enter into this.

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As we enter into this text. So we. We begin really with the very beginning of this text, where it says, after eight days. Now, eight is an important number, especially here in the New Testament for us, because seven, as we oftentimes say, and we were just talking about this with the youth last. Or a couple Wednesdays ago, maybe it was last Wednesday, seven is the perfect number.

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Why? Because it's a full week, right? Six is the number of man. Symbolically, we're speaking here, little numerology. Nothing, nothing crazy here, but six is the number of men.

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Why? Because, well, on the sixth day, what happened? God created man, right? And man obviously falls short of perfection. Okay, right.

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Because it's not a seven. Seven is perfection because it's a whole week. All right, which is. Which lands on the Sabbath, of course. Now, so you say, well, Pastor, what is the significance of 8?

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Why does. Why does Luke mention this? And let me just say this. Anytime any of these authors mention any little detail that you're like, well, that's kind of interesting, you know, why change up the names here, for instance, listen, it's not by accident. He's not just laissez faire writing this, but rather inspired by God's spirit.

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This is the eternal word of God. It will never go away. It's God's word. It'll never go away. Which is why we shouldn't do funny business with it, by the way.

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That's the danger. Anytime we're playing around with God's word, we're really playing with God himself. It's a very dangerous thing here. So weight that's put on anyone that would speak from this pulpit or anyone that would speak from any pulpit, whether it's at work or anywhere now. So you say, pastor, what's up with the eight number?

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Right. Well, what would be the eighth day then? When I ask that, typically people say, well, Monday, of course, it's like, no, I'm sorry, that's not. Our week does not begin on Monday. Aren't you glad of that, by the way?

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Everybody's like, case of the Mondays, you know, Right. The week doesn't actually begin. Today is the first day of the week. Today is. It's the eighth day.

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Notice, not of the old week, not of the old creation, but of the new creation. What is he doing but recreating man, Transfiguring man. Lifting man up to the highest of heights, which is God himself in the flesh, being transfigured among them. On the new day of creation, it's typologically looking toward the resurrection, isn't it? On the first day of the week.

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And even to this day, on the first day of the week, Christians gather to worship the risen Lord. He is not dead. He is risen. Risen. And he's king.

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And we know that. And that's why we're here, here on the first day of the week, right? Worshiping him. So on the eighth day, we're already into some of the deep symbolism here that Luke wants to offer. And then notice he takes with him Peter, John and James.

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And we must remember that around Jesus. When you're reading through the gospels again, putting Jesus life together, harmonizing those gospels, you will see at certain times that only Peter, James and John are invited into certain events of Jesus. Certain particular and unique events that the other disciples are not invited to. And you say, well, man, that's not really nice of Jesus. Right?

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Well, also, we weren't invited, were we? You know, we weren't alive at that point. Don't you think? He ordained your life? And here we are in 2025, not in the first century, not with one of the disciples.

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Okay, so yeah, we weren't invited. Along with a lot of other people that weren't invited. And here's I think, a, not just a spiritual reality here for us, but actual physical human limitation that Jesus is letting us in on, and that is this. You can't be best friends with 20 people. That is a physical, spatial, time bound reality for humans.

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If you're in a body, you only have so much time. If you're in a body, you're only in one place. And to spread yourself over 200 people trying to be their best friend gets you nowhere. It's like having one stick of butter and it's already in half and you got the whole loaf to butter up. It's just not going to be good.

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Okay? You've got to pick and choose. And Jesus did he not chose his disciples? He chose them. And before he did, he prayed on them.

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You remember, he actually fasted and prayed before he ever chose his disciples. And so Jesus always bear in mind, here's Jesus and around him are concentric circles of, of human relationships with the living person of Jesus. Like we're incarnational here. Now, at the same time, God knows everyone and has a relationship with everyone. He is the light that lights every man coming into the world.

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He's the Son of God. Yes, but in his human nature there is physical limitation to his relationships. And so the first concentric circle around him is going to be his best friend, John the beloved, the one who leans on his chest at the supper. You remember when Peter says, hey John, can you ask Jesus who it is that's going to betray us? And he leans back because he's so close to his Lord.

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He's also the one, the one disciple, the one and only, that is at well of the 12, right? That is at the crucifixion of Christ. And Jesus from the cross says John, your mother, mother, your son. This is Jesus best friend. Then you have the three, which includes of course John, but Peter and James as well.

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And of course Peter is the spokesman. We all know this. For the disciples, whether elected or not, he's the one who speaks up. And, and even in the Scriptures, he's the one who speaks up.

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And then you have James, which is actually John's brother. So you have a set of brothers that makes it into this inner circle of the three. And then of course you have the 12. And then of course you have women and other disciples that traveled with Jesus in this, that are very close to him, but they're not part of the 12, and they're not part of the three. And.

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And they're not close to him like John is. And then of course, you have all the other people that end up following him because of fanfare or are enemies of him, etc. And so on.

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Who's your three? Who's your one?

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We're told. I don't put a lot in psychology, but we're told by psychologists that friendship is on the rocks right now in America, particularly with men. Most men don't have a close friend. Most men don't. That's a really sad reality.

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Friend. What is life without being able to share it with other people? You're the richest person in the world. You can go wherever you want, but there's no way to share it with anybody else. What a waste.

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What a waste. Perhaps for Lent it's time to find a friend. And the way to get a friend is to be a friend, right? I mean, listen, I'm not teaching some preschool thing, but listen, some of us just need to go back to the basics here, like open your life up to another.

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Jesus did. Jesus did. And he invites Peter, John and James up the mountain. Why the mountain? Well, it's the meeting place.

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It's a typical meeting place of God, Right? All throughout the scriptures. I mean, we can. We can list all of them. And one of the main ones, of course, is Sinai.

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Okay, this is Mount Tabor, but Sinai. Think of Sinai and Moses there. We just read it, did we not? He came down the mountain and his face is glowing because he had been talking with God. What is that?

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Well, we call it one word prayer. Prayer is talking with. He'd been talking with God and didn't even know that when he came down, his face is shining.

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He had been sharing in the glory of God, which is a unique thing here to even consider.

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Well, they go up a mountain because from a high point you can see it all, you know, the mountain. When we say Lord of the heavens, you ever notice that we don't say Lord of the underworld? Now he is Lord of the underworld, but we don't look down to get to God. When we think of the divine, when we pray to God, we lift up our heads. Now we bow them in honor because we are lower than him.

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That's what worship means, is to bow. But what prayer does, when we bow ourselves and submit ourselves to God in worship, he then lifts our gaze. In a sense, we close our eyes in order to shut out the temporal things, in order to focus. Focus on. In Order to concentrate on what is eternal, what is everlasting.

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And so we bow to what is higher than us. We close out and shut it down. Everything that is temporal, which are the things that are seen. There's not anything that can be seen that's not temporal, not changing, and will pass away. We're told, well, they're up on a high mountain.

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And notice that it is while he was praying that he's transfigured. The term here is a term that we get metamorphosis from, in fact. So he's, in a sense, metamorphed before them. Okay, now we think in terms of a caterpillar, then to a butterfly, which, I mean, if you've ever seen, like, that whole. We've probably seen, like, a YouTube video.

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That's quite a process, isn't it? This little hairy. I'm thinking green caterpillar, right? Because of the. What is that book?

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Thank you. The Hungry Caterpillar, right? And he goes into the cocoon and then is revealed as this beautiful thing that is able to do what now? Fly. Fly up, notice, which is, again, why angels are depicted, you know, with wings, okay?

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Is because that is simply because that, you know, again, they're not bodily, okay? They're spiritual. But the wings are able to go up. If you had wings, then you could simply. You know, you're like, man, what's going on out there?

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We all rubberneck at some point, right? Drive. There's a crack. You know, There was a fire I passed last night, and it was all kind of fire. I wanted to just lift myself up like a drone, you know, just so I could.

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That's the point. When you're up high, who is the highest then who can see the most? It's God. And yet oftentimes we refuse to trust him. When he can see the whole landscape, the whole thing, there's nothing that his eye doesn't fall upon.

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And so while he was praying, the appearance, notice of his face and then of his clothes, very interesting detail. Become dazzling white. Some of the other gospel writers will say it this way, buddy. It got so white, it was more than you could ever bleach anything.

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For Luke, it has to do with white light, bright. And then suddenly they weren't expecting it for sure. I mean, if that sight wasn't enough, that now they're, you know, in most depictions of. Of this scene, art wise, or iconography wise, as here is on the front of the bulletin, you hide your face from the light, right? We've all been in a dark room and someone suddenly turned.

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Turned on the lights. And what do we do? Oh, man. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. Can you not dial it up?

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Where's your little adjuster? Right. Imagine the brightness and the light of God's essence shining upon them. Now you would flee. You would close your eyes, which is why I think.

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I think I really don't know what to make with it. Just be honest with you. I've looked at this, and they were weighed down with sleep. You're thinking, at least when I read. Because this is only in Mark's account, by the way, that he talks of it like this.

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I'm just. Mark. Luke's account, that he talks like this. And I'm thinking, guys, you're asleep. At this point in the story, notice what he.

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But since they had stayed awake, they were able to see his glory. What is going on with that? Well, it's interesting. In the Bible, when God comes close, there's not only light, but a type of darkness that ensues, which, trust me, I understand. Those seem light.

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Worlds apart, right? Light and darkness. But hold on, think about it. What happens on Sinai? A cloud comes.

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And what does that mean? You can't see out of it anymore. Your visibility is limited. Think of a fog that sets. You've been in deep fogs, dense fog.

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Where? I mean, I can't even see here to the back of this room. Which is kind of scary. In other words, when God comes close, we realize our limitations, expectations. It gets cloudy.

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If you've ever tried to think about who God is and try to understand the deep things of God, the deeper you go, the cloudier it gets. May I get an amen here? It is not easy for us to think about God. In fact, it is the most difficult thing to do. And we get our reason.

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Gets cloudy. It gets clouded and is limited. Boethius, in the constellation of philosophy pictures. Lady philosophy. And she is trying to console him from his situation because he's actually going to die.

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And she can see. He can see her at his bedside as if she's the doctor. And as he looks at her, he looks up, and she just keeps going up, up, up, up, up. Until finally she is leading him to the heavens, where all of a sudden, there's a veil. You can't see beyond it.

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You can't see beyond the heavens. And the truth be told, none of us can. Which is why God has provided his holy word. From where? From on high.

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From the heavens. He comes down. We don't climb up. That's impossible for us to do. He Comes down and reveals himself and reveals his glory here to us and to these three disciples.

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And suddenly, along with that amazing epiphany, now we have two men who are talking. And you can imagine, you know, trying to see this, right? And there's almost this veil over them, perhaps, like what happens to Abraham. You remember this. When God makes covenant with Abraham in Genesis, he goes into a deep sleep.

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When the Shekinah glory of God moves through the animal pieces, you remember this covenant? He goes to a deep sleep. I don't know if it's so much an actual sleep or not. I really don't know here. Maybe it's both.

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All I know is when God comes close, it's as if this is my illustration. It's as if he pulls us in so close, you know, my dad giving me a bear hug. And now I can't see anything but where I'm at right here with him, Jesus only. And so then Moses and Elijah appear, of course. And much has been made of this.

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I mean, my goodness, what is going on here? Well, it's the law and prophets for sure, which is a fulfillment of all of the Old Testament, all of the prophets who have come before. And Moses is considered a prophet too, by the way. But also, all of the commandments of God are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And they, just, as the icon here shows, bow before him.

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They are not equal to Jesus. In fact, contrary to what Peter says, remember, he gets excited because they start leaving Jesus. He said, can we not. Should we build three tabernacles here? Right?

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And the scripture says he just didn't know what he was doing. He was just trying to get something done. You know, Peter's that kind of guy, right? Like, if something's about to happen, it's like, let's just do something, man. We got to mark this.

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You know, let's. And all of a sudden, a cloud comes in. Notice a cloud. And the Spirit is often associated with a cloud, by the way, when the temple, remember, was filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with God's glory and presence, what happens? It was filled with what?

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Smoke. You can't see through that.

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And so the cloud overshadows. And then a voice comes from heaven. And notice what he says.

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This is my son, my chosen. Listen to him, not Peter. Listen to him. Not your doubts. Listen to him, not your anxiety.

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Listen to him, not the world. Listen to him. Should I go on? Listen to the Lord.

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And then when the voice had spoken, there was only Jesus, only. Okay, so what do we have here? We have the Holy trending. The cloud moves in. That's the Holy Spirit.

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The voice from heaven is the Father above. And then here is Jesus in his human nature, along with his human nature, we should say, unified in one person before them. And it is that face, Christ face, that becomes dazzling white and is transfigured.

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Then his clothes, which many have interpreted as the church, right, covering his body, that he then puts on us in baptism. Because, like Moses, we too, are called to reflect his glory. Now, notice, Moses was a reflection of the glory of God. He did not emanate God's glory from himself. That's impossible.

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It is a shared glory. Just like with creation. You remember, even the heavens declare what the glory God. That is his presence, his very character.

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You remember Moses, when he says, lord, let me see your glory? What does God say to him? He says, well, listen, if I show you my glory, you will die, Moses, and I'm not really done with you yet. We're still up here on the mountain. You.

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You got to carry these 10 commandments back down there because you just broke all 10 of them at one time. You know, he's the only person in human history to break all ten commandments at once. But I'm. Shh. I know nobody ever laughs at that, but.

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And here he is. He's transfigured before Moses, who. And by the way, Moses joins him here, as we said. And here's Moses on the mountain, and there's no transfiguration here. We're going back into Old Testament again.

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So we're on the mountain Sinai, and now God says, yeah, I will let you see me. But. But I just let you see my back. That's it. I can't really show you my face, because if I show you my face, you will die.

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Come. So he puts him in the cleft of the rock, you remember, and then he even covers him. So it's like. So it's like he's not only in the cleft of the rock. And I'm going to pass before you, but it's only going to be my back, but I'm also going to cover you just to make sure you're okay here.

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And what is Moses description when he gives it of what he saw? Did he say, man, the Lord had just massive trapezius muscles, you know, really been working on those lats, you know, because that's kind of. We think, oh, yeah, God is awesome. Which means he's just buff, you know, Lay like Zeus or something. No, no, no, no, no, no.

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In fact, Moses doesn't give us a description at all of a physical thing that he saw, but rather he says, what I saw was chesed, mercy, loving kindness.

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Yeah, it's the character of God. That's what his glory is. It's not that he can kill us in a moment. That's not glory. Okay.

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It's that he is good.

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It's that he is merciful to us.

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So we have Elijah also, who joins in with being taken up into glory. And maybe that's two instances and two guys from the Old Testament. Perhaps that's why they're here. But we know what they're talking about. We're actually told what they're talking about with Jesus, which is kind of nice to know, because I would want to know.

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And they're talking about his departure or his Exodus, or as some translations might have it, his decease. In other words, his death.

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Jesus knows where he's going, but the disciples don't just yet. Fully. He's been telling them they're not getting it, but this is their conversation, and this is why ultimately they keep silent about it until later, when, after the resurrection, it all makes sense. And, you know, that's a good word for us when we don't understand something. Let's not make something up.

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Let's just be like, okay, yeah, I'm not there yet. I don't know. That's okay to say. That really is okay. Especially when it comes to God.

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I'd rather say I don't know than say something wrong about the Lord. Okay, now you say, pastor, why did you read the next day story about the demon and all that kind of stuff? Well, it actually is part of our reading today. For one, it's actually coupled there as the end of this story and the beginning of his march to Jerusalem. But it also shows us the variation between light and darkness.

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Here we have a young boy who is demon possessed. And he's shrieking, he is foaming, he's convulsing, his father's begging. And the disciples aren't able to do anything about it, but Jesus is. And he rebukes the unclean spirit and he leaves. The boy gives him back to his father.

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And they're all astounded at the greatness of God. Do you know that there's an enemy?

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Do you know? Just as clear as the light of God is shining, so too there is real darkness. And it's not the presence of God, it's the presence of another. And the genius, the devil. And his work is to stay hidden.

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And where is he more hidden than here in America, where most people don't even know if they believe in a spiritual world, an immaterial world, much less some devil in horns and red suit, which seems ludicrous to most. And as he says, Lewis says, I don't know about the red suit and all, but certainly you've had the influence of the devil on your life, of the demonic on your life, dividing you from God. Demonic comes from a term that means division, dividing you from loving one another, dividing you from your very own self. Now, let that sink in. In a culture that tells us to exert your true self, when in fact the true self doesn't line up with one another, with the created order that God said was good, with the binary of male and female.

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Should I get clearer? You see, Ken, you say, pastor, why you get into politics? This is not politics, dear friends. God is the one who created Adam and Eve, male and female, and that spreads across creation today to where that's the only way that life is produced. That's the only way you get another human being.

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Well, there's darkness, there's cloudiness, and it's not all of God today. There's other voices that are from the pit of hell, young people taking their lives, young people wishing their lives away on social media. These things are demonic. Dear brothers and sisters, and if you're a parent, if you're a grandparent, if you're a spiritual parent and grandparent, which I know we have in this church, let's all be vigilant to pray for these little ones. Pray for us, all of us that have these devices in our pocket, these mediums.

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That's where you get the term witch from, by the way, a medium. We have all these mediums that access us to the entire world. And let me just tell you, the entire world is populated with good and evil spirits. And then there's the Holy Spirit, and that's who we need the most.

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I wonder if we could commit to intercessory prayer, even over Lent, for this generation, for one another. Because trust me when I say the devil's got a plan for every single one of our lives, and he's working it and he's staying hidden. And that's why when the light comes, things start squirming that are in darkness. Right. Justin read earlier the.

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What was it, the Second Corinthians or. No, no, no, sorry, the. Yeah, Second Corinthians reading.

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He did veiled face, but we with unveiled faces ought to reflect him, ought to reflect the Lord. And when the light comes, the darkness has got to go. There's no way to have both. And some things, as you already know in your life, grow in the darkness. They only grow in the dark.

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Shameful things. That's the way Paul puts it here, Shameful things. And so, you know, we'll end with this today. Much more that could be said, but we'll end with this. Second Corinthians says, invites us to do these things.

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And I think this is a great thing to consider for Lent this year. You know, it's not just about giving up things. It's about taking on things. It's about filling ourselves. You're not called to be a void just to empty.

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Let's just be. That's some sort of Buddhism where you try to clear my mind. No, no, no. Fill your mind with good things. Think on these things.

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So let's do these things that Paul says here at the end of our reading in Second Corinthians, he says this. Engage in ministry. How many of us don't have a ministry at all? We barely are coming to church, and we're just trying to check a box.

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Let's engage in ministry. What? And who is God calling you to minister? Now, I can go ahead and tell you right now. It's wherever you work, it's wherever you live, it's who's ever in your house.

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Remember the concentric circles? That's the way we minister. It is not. You know, Marshall, I've been thinking about, like, I think it might be Africa. Like, that's wonderful.

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But if you can't minister in your own home, you're not going to Africa.

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And home is the most difficult place to minister because people see the real you. There's no hiding there. And if you. If you're able to hide at home, that is demonic. It's demonic, okay?

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That needs to be thrown out. And Lent is not a time to give up sin. That's not what we're talking about. No, no. Sin must be given up.

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Now, Lent moves beyond that to improve faith, hope, and love in us. Okay, so engage in ministry, Paul says. And then get this. Don't lose heart. I love this one.

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Don't lose heart. Some of us need to hear that. Don't lose heart. I know what it's like to want to give up. I really do.

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I know what it's like to just feel like your life is worthless. Like, I don't even know, man. Like everybody else is doing something good for God. But I know, Trust me, I know. Don't give up.

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Don't lose heart. Don't let others lose heart. We got to come alongside other. Y'all seen those, you know, reels where you're like, oh, yeah, because that guy's helping that other person get across the finish line. That's our job as Christians.

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Why do we cry? Why does that move us? Because it's our calling. If you're just trying to take care of your own little thing, what a waste. Who are we called to?

00:38:41

Don't lose heart. Yes, but then don't let others lose heart. All right, number three. Renounce shameful things. Renounce shameful.

00:38:54

Let the Lord shine his light. Just like a doctor, you know? Let me see that thing. They pull a light down here, you know, open up, buddy. You know, like, open up.

00:39:04

Shine the light. Get it out. Renounce shameful things. And then refuse to play around with the word of God. Don't listen to people who are playing around.

00:39:22

You know better. And it's time somebody said that. These. Even within Christianity, there's denominations that are playing around with the word of God, doing little trickery things. It's demonic.

00:39:39

And then finally commit yourself to one another in the sight of God. That's what Paul says. Submit yourselves one to another. All right, man. Whoo.

00:39:56

Right? It's tall order. It's as tall as the heavens, and it's impossible to follow without the Holy One who comes from the heavens to lift us up. Transfigured this morning. I hope in your own mind, I hope God gives you an epiphany of who he is so that you can then receive the suffering and the cross that he has for you to bear.

00:40:24

May it be so. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.

Total Duration 00:40:29