A Glimpse of His Glory

Good morning, Crossing. Good to be back with you all. As Dave said, I'm Will Coleman. If you've never met me before, and those of you who have, your cousin from North County is back. How y'all doing? Good to see you all. Shout out to all of the sites watching, Grants Trail, Midrivers, Fenton, what's up, and everybody watching online. We're glad that you all are with us, and glad that you all are with us here at Chesterfield as well. I am so glad to be back. The last time I was here, someone has mentioned it at all of the services. They remember me because I got on a ladder. There is no ladder this time. I almost fell at one of the services, so I'm not putting myself in danger to preach the gospel today. But I am glad to be back with you all, and we are in this series on peak experiences. And I've been following along, and I know the last few weeks, we've been meeting Jesus, or Jesus has been encountering people on mountains. Some of these have been incredibly powerful moments. Some of these have also been incredibly challenging times as well. And so, we're going to continue that today with today's peak experience. We're going to meet Jesus on a mountain again. And this one is actually called the transfiguration of Jesus. Has anybody ever heard of this particular story, the transfiguration? Raise your hand. Let me see if you've heard of it. So, some of you all may have never heard of this story. Don't worry.

We're going to get into it. So, it's the transfiguration of Jesus, but it's also going to be the continuing transformation of Peter and some of the other disciples that experienced this. Now, I must say that this is one of the most jaw-dropping moments in all of the Bible, especially in the New Testament. You're going to see some things here momentarily that you don't typically see. And as I was preparing for this particular message, I was like, man, these guys saw something, and it changed everything for them, everything. And I started thinking in my own life, there have been a few everything-changed moments in my life. Now, some of us may just have one, others of us may have a lot, but I started thinking about what are those in my own life? And so, as I was thinking about you all, some of those could be like the first time, guys, that you saw her, ladies, the first time you saw him. It could be the first time you held your child. It could also be the day you got fired from your job. It could have been when you got that call or at that AA meeting. It could have been your first time here at the crossing. Or maybe it was even just last Sunday when you came down for prayer. That moment changed everything. What I want us to do, because as your cousin and that I've been here a few times, I know that you all like to talk amongst yourselves here at the crossing. So what we're going to do is we're going to take one minute. I want you to think about one everything-changed moment, share it with somebody, and then let them share it with you. You got one minute. Are we ready? Let's go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38,

Okay, I know that wasn't a whole lot of time, but hopefully you got to share at least something, some story. And if you didn't have an everything-changed moment, here's the thing, just wait, it's coming. One is coming. I promise you that. I'll share one of mine here in just a little bit later in the message, but I wanted you to just go there because what we're going to see is that the guys who experienced this moment, they were... ever the same, ever again. And I need you to know how unusual this particular moment is in all of scripture, especially when it comes to Jesus. Because typically we see Jesus in the New Testament and he is preaching or teaching. He may be telling a parable. He's not doing this here. You may see him doing some type of miracle or healing somebody. That's not this. He's not feeding the 5,000. It's none of those at all. If you are new to the Bible and you read through this, this may actually feel much more like a Marvel movie. Anybody ever seen a Marvel movie before? Than anything else. Because it's gonna seem as though maybe the time-space continuum folded over, a portal from another dimension opened, or maybe even the multiverse glitched. It's gonna seem like it.

Because what you're gonna see here is there's gonna be light, there's gonna be voices, clouds, there's gonna be God showing up from centuries before, showing up in the present. There's gonna be a whole lot of just crazy things that are happening here. And I know the first time that I read this when I was a kid, I was like sitting back going, what just happened? What just happened? Then I kept asking other questions. I'm like, okay, well, who are these guys from the past? Why are they showing up on a mountain? Well, we know why, because we're in the series called Peak Experience, so it needs to be on a mountain of some sort. But for me, when I was a kid, I didn't know. I'm like, why are they on this mountain? Why this moment? You'll find out in the story. Jesus is gonna tell these guys who saw this, don't tell anybody until after much, much later. I'm like, what is going on? Are there gonna be any other people from the past, supernatural beings showing up like Thanos did? And what's gonna be happening here? What's going on? And it's gonna feel otherworldly. And when I started preparing this, I'll be really honest, I had way more questions than I had answers.

And maybe you're new to the Bible, or maybe you're not new to the Bible, but you've read parts of the Bible where you were intrigued and you were confused. Happens to us all. What I wanna tell you is keep leaning into scripture. God will reveal himself to you, as you're gonna see here in just a few moments. So before we try to solve all of this, let's step into this story about the transfiguration. And I didn't define what that word actually means. We get that word because Matthew's gospel account calls it the transfiguration. And what does that mean? That means a visible change in appearance, or to change form, to transform appearance, a visible change that happens right in front of the people who are about to experience this. And you can find this in Matthew, Mark, and Luke's gospels. But today we're gonna focus on Luke's, and I'll sprinkle in a few things from Matthew and Mark's gospels as well. So let's go right now. Let's read this all together. This is Luke chapter nine, verses 28 through 35. Y'all ready? Here we go. About eight days later, Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray. And as he was praying,

the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus. They were glorious to see, and they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem. Peter and the others had fallen asleep. And when they woke up, they saw Jesus's glory, and the two men standing with him. Moses and Elijah were starting to leave. Peter, not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out, It's wonderful for us to be here. Let's make three shelters as memorials, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. But even as he was saying this, a cloud overshadowed them, and terror gripped them as the cloud covered them. Then a voice from the cloud said, this is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. And when the voice finished, Jesus was there alone. And they didn't tell anyone what they had seen, at that time, what they had seen. Let's pray. Father, open our eyes today to see Jesus clearly. Help us not to just understand this story, but to encounter you. Speak to us today,

and help us to listen to you, in Jesus's name. Everybody say it. Amen. I told you, this was, when I first read it, weird. What just happened? But in order for you to understand. What just happened, I actually, we actually need to, what just happened and why it matters, we have to go to the 27 verses that happened before this, because it'll give us context to what we just read. So at the beginning of Luke chapter nine, Jesus asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? And they're saying Elijah, some say the prophet, all of this, and then he looks at them and says, but who do you say that I am? And Peter yells out, you are the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, you didn't come up with that on your own, that was given to you by my father. So he proclaimed that Jesus is the Christ. Then right after this moment of clarity and then proclaiming who he is, Jesus tells them, I am going to suffer and I have to die. And Peter, me and Peter, is like, hold up, Jesus, not on our watch, that's not gonna happen. You wouldn't, you, the Messiah, you're not about to suffer, and Jesus had to actually say to him, get behind me. Satan, you don't know what you're saying. This is my mission.

So after that, he's talking to, Jesus is talking to his disciples and others around him, and he's telling them, if any of you all wants to be my follower, you must take up your cross and follow me. And here in just a few weeks, we're gonna learn about that cross that Jesus got on on top of a mountain. In a little bit, is anybody glad that Easter is coming? It's coming. And so here they are, the disciples are thinking, glory, he's the Messiah, he's about to take over. And Jesus is talking about suffering. And that's the tension that they're wrestling with as they prepare to go up this mountain. Glory is promise, which glory means honor, power, exaltation, the full weight of who God is. That's promise, but then there is suffering that is predicted. Glory and suffering. And then Jesus leads three of the disciples up on a mountain. Verse 28, eight days later, after all of this, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain to pray. Now, first thing I want everybody to understand is usually when Jesus would take a few disciples to get away, to get secluded, it was always these three guys. And this should be encouraging for all of us because he took three hotheads with him.

Peter cut a guy's ear off and he was ready to defend Jesus to the death at any point. James and John, they were brothers and one time some people didn't believe in Jesus and they were like, Jesus, you want us to call fire down from heaven on these folks? Let's get them. And Jesus was like, chill out, sons of thunder, chill out. And I share that with you because if Jesus wanted to spend time with guys like that, none of us are too far that he doesn't want to spend time with us as well. So he takes these three guys up on a mountain and the Bible doesn't tell us what mountain this was. If you've been with us in this series, there's been other mountains we know exactly where it is. The Bible tells us it's Sinai, it's Hermon, it's Tabor. It tells us all these mountains, but not this one here. Some think it could have been Mount Tabor. Others think it could have been Mount Hermon because of if it's the geography of where they had just been at, but it doesn't say. And the reason I believe that it doesn't say is intentional because it's not about the location. It's about the person that's going to be revealed on that location and on that mountain. And that person is Jesus. This story is about Jesus, not the place, but him. And what's about to happen is while he's praying in verse 29, it says that everything changes.

Look at this, he was praying and the appearance of his face was transformed. His clothes became dazzling white. Jesus' face changed, his clothes were ablaze. Matthew's gospel says that his face was shining brighter than the sun. This is incredible. I don't know about you, I've never seen somebody that bright before. Like when I first saw my wife, when we were in college, man, let me tell you, she was shining. I was like, who is that? But she wasn't that bright though. Jesus' face was shining like the sun. And while this is called the transfiguration, Jesus was not transformed like we may think a caterpillar becomes. butterfly. This was actually Jesus still being fully Jesus, but now the disciples were truly seeing him as he really was. Because Jesus was fully man, but he was also fully God. They had only seen the human side of him, but now they were getting to see the divineness of Jesus, or the divinity of Jesus in his full glory. And this mountain experience shows us who Jesus is. The disciples got to see him as he really is. But it doesn't stop there. Just when you think the scene can't get any more intense, look at what happens. Verse 30, Moses and Elijah appear, and they were glorious to see. Now, my first thought was, when I saw this, was two things. Number one, how did they know it was Moses and Elijah? Like, those dudes had lived thousands of years before, like hundreds or thousands, not hundreds of thousands, but thousands of years before this moment, or hundreds of years, right? And they didn't have cameras.

How did they know? Then my other thought was, why those two guys? How come it wasn't Adam and Eve? Why wasn't it King David? Why wasn't it Joshua? Why wasn't it Deborah? Why wasn't a guy named Mephibosheth? And you're like, Mephibosheth who? It's in the Bible, I promise you. I'm not making it up. Why these two guys? Well, it was intentional. Moses represents the law. He is the individual that God gave the law through to the people. If you remember the last time I was here, and I got up on that tall 12-foot ladder, we were on Mount Sinai, and God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, the law. And the Jews at that time, they held the law in the highest esteem. It was God and his law. That was how they lived their lives based off of. Then you had Elijah, who was one of the prophets. And who were the prophets in the Old Testament? These were the people who would speak from God. God would speak to them, and then they would speak to the people. And many of them were predicting the coming of the Messiah. So here you have this moment where the two things that the Jews held up in the highest esteem, the law and the prophets, are now standing next to Jesus. And this is an incredibly powerful moment. Moses was the law. Elijah, the prophet. And Dale Bruner actually says that both of them, who would have been held in highest esteem, were deferring to Jesus. They were not equals with him. They were listening to him. And what's so cool about this moment is there's a few things. There's a few things I need you to know. Luke says that they were talking about Jesus' exodus in verse 31. Now, I looked that word up because the New Testament was written in Greek, okay? We translated it into English. When I looked up the Greek word for exodus, it's a powerful word, and you won't believe what it means. You know what it means? Exodus. It's the same word.

It just changes a couple letters for us. But here they were. They were talking to Jesus about his exodus. And why was this important? Number one, Moses led the children of Israel in an exodus out of slavery in Egypt. Now, Moses is meeting with Jesus, who is about to lead the world through the ultimate exodus out of slavery to sin and death. Powerful moment. The other cool part about this, now, again, I don't know if I can prove this, but if you may remember Pastor Kimberly's message, when Moses got to see into the promised land from a mountain, but he didn't get to go in, remember that? He died not getting to go into the promised land. Now, we, again, don't know what mountain this was on, but I think we can be led to believe that where they were standing at was the promised land that Moses never got to step into when he was alive. And here's what's so great about and exciting about that. Moses didn't get in because of his disobedience, but now he's with Jesus. Because of Jesus, Moses got into the promised land. And why is that exciting for all of us? Without Jesus... We are all just like Moses We're disobedient We're sinners that need a Savior But because of Jesus we too can get into the promised land of eternal Relationship with Jesus Christ is anybody excited about that at this church? That was about 35 golf claps I'll take it though I'll take it though because I forgot at the beginning of my message to Mention that you can clap you can talk back to me Okay, you can say amen last service. Somebody said amen at the wrong time, but I didn't say that was wrong I was like keep saying it brother. It's okay. It's okay It was okay. All I was doing was reading one word. He was like, amen. I was like, that's good That's good practice. Keep it going

Keep it going But it's because of Jesus That we don't have to to be stuck in our own disobedience and Then this powerful moment happens in verse 34 the cloud comes The cloud comes it overshadows them and in Scripture the cloud is the presence of God When I was here with you all talking about when Moses was on top of Mount Sinai the cloud came down It was the presence of God. The Israelites were led by a cloud by day. It was God himself This is God Descending coming into our world into our history into our realm a cloud comes down and this Represents God's glory and when God shows up in any place like that It's holy ground where they're at and look at what happens the voice speaks. This is the voice of God And what does he say? This is my son my chosen one Listen to him Notice it doesn't say this is my son admire him But it says this is my son Notice it doesn't say this is my son admire him Debate him Analyze what he is saying He says one thing He says listen to him Don't add him to the list of important people that you look up to he says listen to him How do we know that we're listening to him? Is it just because I paused and got quiet? No, no, no, it's not just in those moments It's because we're not always going to be in church when God wants to speak to us You're not always going to be in church when God wants to speak to you You're not always going to be in church when God wants to speak to you We're not always going to be in church when God wants to speak to us You know, you're listening to him when you start living differently

When those things that you used to do and And you felt nothing about it and you start doing them and now all of a sudden you feel like maybe I shouldn't do that That's you listening to him when All of a sudden you start taking steps of faith and you're like this is crazy That's how you know you're listening You know that you're listening When you hear him and you do what he says Scripture says that how do we know that we are following Jesus? We obey his commandments So the Lord says Listen to him Why because the mountain where they were at again? It's not about this location But the mountain does show us who Jesus is in this moment These disciples were getting to see who Jesus is and God is saying this is my son. I Chose him. I Sent him. He's the one you listen to not all these other voices that are out there He is your final authority Jesus So imagine being Peter in that moment you see Jesus's face as bright as the Sun God comes down in a cloud you hear the literal voice of God and you don't die What would you do next You Might think oh man, I would I would just bow in honor of God But most likely you'd be like Peter Let's look at what Peter does right after this incredibly holy and powerful moment. Look at what Peter does right? In verse 33, he shouts out, Lord, let's build three shelters and stay here. This is miraculous.

I don't know what to do with my hands. He just shouts out something. And Mark's account actually tells us Peter didn't know what to say. He was just terrified. And you know, some of us in here, you are uncomfortable with like the silence. I can imagine that Peter was like, like some of us, like I am, like sometimes when it gets quiet, I'm like, somebody needs to say something. And that's what Peter does. He just, ah. And if you know about Peter, Peter's always doing crazy stuff and saying stuff he shouldn't say all the time, right? And he gets a bad rap sometimes. But I'm gonna cut him some slack. Because I think in this moment, it was so powerful. It was so life-changing that he started saying this because he wanted to freeze this moment. I mean, think about it. You're getting to see Jesus's full glory, hear the voice of God. And before you got up here, he's talking about suffering. And I'm thinking if I'm Peter, I'm like, okay, if we can just stay here, we don't have to get to that suffering part. Like at the bottom of that mountain, real life is going on.

But this right here, let's just stay right here. I wanna freeze this because this may never happen again. And some of you may be able to connect with that. You've had moments in your life where you can't explain it, but you just know it was the Lord. And it was so powerful, the thought of just moving on from that, you're like, man, let's just stay here. Others of you, you've experienced God in such a great way that you think, man, it'll never get better than this. Like this is the pinnacle. I just wanna be right here because what else could there be? I can totally understand why Peter said, let's build some shelters because there's been moments in my life that I wanted to freeze. I'm 15 years old and my parents and I go to this pastor's conference in Orlando, Florida. It's at Disney World, y'all. Yes, it's at Disney World. And my parents had just started up, planted our church a couple years before this. And so we go down to Orlando and so there's about 1,000 or more pastors that are at this place and we're in this huge hotel at Disney World. And so while all of the pastors and the adults are in one section of the hotel,

there's about 1,000 or more PKs, pastors, kids, teenagers, and we're all in this other section. And I experienced something I had never experienced before, a room full of young, passionate, on fire teenagers for Jesus, all hands up lifted during worship, praying for each other. And I'm sitting here, I'm like, this is incredible because at our church, our church was very small and at that time, we didn't have a youth group. It was me and one other girl. We were the only teenagers. So I didn't have a youth group, I had a friend. That's all we had there. And so I went to a Christian high school here in town, but a lot of my friends and classmates, they weren't really trying to pursue Jesus like that. And so I just felt a lot of times, I felt all alone. Here I am, 15 years old, trying to walk with Jesus, but it's difficult out here, but now I'm in a room full of 1,000 other kids just like me and I did not wanna leave because I was like, when I get back home, I'm gonna be alone again. I wanna stay here. God's presence, you could almost, you could feel it. It was so thick there and I had never experienced anything like that. It was a lot like, for me, it was like Elijah

when God told, Elijah felt he was all alone, that he was the only person that hadn't bowed down to Baal and God had to show him, there's a whole bunch of other people that are just like you. I saw this moment where God's kingdom was greater than I could have imagined at that time, but I wanted to stay there. At the end of the conference, we get to go to Disney World and don't get me wrong, y'all, it's a wonderful place to be at, but I'm spinning around on the teacups and all I'm thinking about is the last four days, I got to spend with 1,000 other teenagers who love Jesus. I don't wanna go back to St. Louis and be by myself and have to live for Jesus on my own. Jesus, can we just stay right here? When I got back home and school started back up, I'm like, yup, that's how I thought it was gonna be. And there were days, a couple times, y'all, I'm gonna be honest with you, okay? I'm a pretty tough guy. Don't let these shoes fool you, okay? I'm from the north side, okay? Rough, rugged, and raw, but I had some days, y'all, where I was crying, weeping, because I wanted to go back to that moment. God, it'll never be like that again. That's what Peter was experiencing.

But what I need you to know, and what I had to understand at that time was that these peak experiences, they're not permanent. They're preparation. We don't live on that mountaintop. That peak experience was preparation. It was powerfully good, and there were other peak experiences that are incredibly challenging. You've been learning about them during this series, but none of those peak experiences are supposed to be permanent addresses. They're preparation for when we go down from that mountain and back into the valley, or quote-unquote real life. Preparation for us. And what God wants you to know is, yes, you're gonna experience these moments with God, but he's not done with you. Those moments up there are for down there, and the God that was with you there will be the same God with you when you go back. I had to learn that. But this truth sets up the most important part of this whole story. Now you're thinking, wait a minute, hold on. Wait a minute, you mean, I thought that Jesus showing his full glory. I thought God speaking was the most important. No, it's this next part that's the most important part. Verse 36, the voice stops, the cloud lifts.

Moses is gone, Elijah is gone, and there is Jesus alone. Peter, James, and John look up. It's Jesus only. Jesus only. Matthew's account tells us that when they saw Jesus by himself, they bowed down in worship. They fell face down. Because that is the only appropriate thing to do when you truly see Jesus as who he is. You don't see Peter trying to blurt things out at this point. You see Jesus shut his mouth and just worship. I've seen who Jesus is. It was Jesus alone. Listen, Moses, important. Elijah, important. The law was important. The prophets were important. But Jesus, he's the most important. The law, Moses, all of that, the prophet, the law and the prophets, all what they were doing was pointing towards Jesus. And here is Jesus now. And everything after Jesus died and rose from the dead is from that moment. It is Jesus only. The most important figure, person, being in all of human history is right there alone. And their response was, worship him. Because they saw him as who he was and who he is.

That's another way to know that you're listening to Jesus. You see, Peter, James, and John weren't like, what just happened, Jesus? We good? They didn't try to debate. Well, we think Moses showed up because of this. They just worshiped Jesus only. Now understand, this moment was not a Marvel movie. This was not some cinematic thing that they just threw in the Bible. This was a holy moment where God's holiness broke into human history and Jesus was revealed in glory. This was holy. This was not hype. This was not nostalgia. This was not a feeling. This was about Jesus and Jesus alone. Somebody say Jesus. Jesus. This was all about him. And this moment for Peter, James, and John did not fade with time. They never forgot this moment. Years later, Peter writes about it in his second epistle, chapter one, verse 16 through 18. He says, we were not making up clever stories. We weren't. We're not just making this stuff up for kicks and giggles. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes. We saw Jesus as who he was.

John actually said in his epistle. First John, he said that which we have seen, heard, and touched, we know what we saw and we were willing to die for it. You cannot change our minds. Because if you saw that, you would never forget it. And he keeps going, we ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Peter never forgot it. It wasn't his imagination, it wasn't an exaggeration. He knew what he saw. He lived it. And this moment anchored his faith. This moment anchored his faith. Tradition tells us that Peter got crucified upside down, martyred, because he refused to die in the same way that Jesus did. And I believe with all my heart that he remembered that moment. I will die for this. I believe in who Jesus is. If you're spiritually curious and still trying to figure out this Jesus thing, listen, you're not alone. But keep looking for Jesus. You will find him. He will reveal himself to you. Bible says if you will seek him, you will find him. But this anchored their faith. And the other part about this that you need to know

is if you know Peter's story, this moment changed everything for him. But Peter was still Peter. Because the same dude who said a few days earlier that Jesus, you are the son of the living God, you are the Messiah. The same Jesus that saw his face shine like the sun. The same Jesus who didn't know what to do with his hands. The same Peter who didn't know what to do with his hands. The same one, just a little bit later, will be the same Peter who denied Jesus not once, not twice, but he denied three times that he even knew who Jesus was. And I don't say that to give Peter a bad rap. I say that to encourage every single person under the sound of my voice. You can have an everything change moment with Jesus. You can know who he is and still fall. But what I love about Peter's story is that he went back to that moment. And even though he denied Jesus, he came back to Jesus. I know what I saw. I'm sorry I denied you, Jesus. Forgive me. And Jesus restored him later on. He kept coming back to what he believed. Jesus is the son of God and Peter was to listen to him. And it's the same for us. When you know who Jesus is and you see him as he truly is, will you listen to him?

Which makes what Jesus says next even more interesting. In Matthew and Mark's account, Jesus told them not to talk about this moment with anybody till after the resurrection. I'm gonna listen, y'all. I don't know how they did it. I would have been telling everybody, yeah, y'all, you will not believe what I saw. But those three kept it to themselves until after Jesus rose from the dead. And scripture doesn't tell us why he said that, but it makes sense. If they started telling about Jesus's glory before he suffered, people wouldn't have understood Jesus's real mission. You see, there could be no glory without Jesus suffering on that cross. So he said, I don't want you to talk about this moment. This moment is preparation, but I still gotta get on that cross. This moment is powerful, but there's another moment that's gonna be much more powerful. And it's gonna be the two moments that shape our whole faith, him getting on that cross, but then him not staying on that cross and not staying in that tomb, but getting up from that grave. That is the anchor of our entire faith.

And so he says, listen, this is powerful. You got to see it, but don't talk about this yet until after I ascend into heaven. You can't separate glory from sacrifice. And as quickly as this all began, church, lights, clouds, voices, history, stepping in past, stepping into the present, it was over. no cloud, no more voice, no more glory. And then if you read in every gospel account, the very next verse typically will say, and they went down the mountain. This incredible moment with Jesus. And the next day, we're going back to life. And immediately, if you keep reading, there's chaos. Soon as they get down, a desperate father pleading for his suffering child. And in one sentence, in one paragraph, we go from glory to pain. It's almost like the writers, like if I was writing, I would have tried to give so much more explanation, but they just go right back to life. It's not accidental though. Because the mountain shows us who he is, but the valley shows us why that mountain experience mattered. Because Jesus on top of the mountain was radiant and powerful.

But guess what? Down in the valley, he's just as radiant and just as powerful. On the mountain, Jesus was affirmed by God and needed by the disciples and all of humanity. But down in the valley, he is just as affirmed by God and just as needed by every single one of us. Jesus is the same on the mountain as he is in your valley. He is not less powerful when you're going through. He is just as powerful as he was in the moment you experienced him like you never had before. That should give us all hope that the same God who is with us in these moments is with us in our moments of suffering and chaos and turmoil. Jesus is the only one who is like that. He's with us. We don't live on the mountain, but we carry what we saw there into the valley. And this is where their story, it stops just being their story and it becomes ours. I told you I was gonna share a peak experience or an everything change moment in my life. And it happened almost seven years ago, Memorial Day weekend, 2019. Now it wasn't on a mountain. I wish it was, it'd make the story much cooler,

but it wasn't. But at that time, my wife and my kids, we went to visit a church we had been a part of for 10 years before this. And my wife and I got married there. We served there. I was a youth pastor there. When we first started going there, this is early 2000s, we're in college. And it was such a powerful experience because the church was in the hood of North Tulsa, okay? And it was right down the road from where the 1921 race massacres happened. And our pastor, it was very unusual, not just for Tulsa, but really for the whole United States. We had a white pastor, but a predominantly black congregation. And our pastor would tell us that the Lord told him to start this church in the hood in North Tulsa because God told him this church will reverse the curse of what happened almost 100 years ago. No, it can't undo what happened, but God can restore the things that have happened in this world. So while we were there, we're just, God, when we gonna see it? I'm looking around, I'm like, still most of the black people up in here. I'm looking around, where everybody else at? I don't see it.

We left there and 10 years later, we show back up just to visit. We walk in the doors of the church and worship is going on. And my wife and I are looking around and we just start crying. I mean, she's hugging me, I'm hugging her, we're crying. People are just like, oh, look at that couple. They're just going through so much. Had nothing to do with that. We were weeping because when we looked around, I saw black folks, white folks, Native American, Hispanic, Asian. We saw in this church a glimpse of heaven, what our pastor said was going to happen 20 years prior. We're witnessing it and it's in this moment, I feel like God let me and my wife see this moment to see that what he says will come to pass. But that wasn't the end of the moment. Worship goes forth, we're crying. I'm still crying. Listen, I didn't tell y'all two times I've been crying in my life. Listen, I don't cry that much, okay? I'm just sharing with you that. When I have these God experiences, tears come, a little bit of tears, and sometimes it's my allergies come out of my eyes, okay? It could have been allergies. It was in the month of May, okay? But I'm still crying during the service,

and I wish I could tell you that I'm sure that it was the audible voice of God. I don't know if it was, but I heard a voice say, it's time to go back home, trust me. And it sounded like the person behind me said it, so I turned around. And I realized they didn't say it because they went. And I went, my bad, I thought you said something. That wasn't you? My bad, I'm sorry. And so I turned back around, and I hear it again. It's time to go back home, trust me. And I knew what that meant, y'all. I knew what the Lord was saying in this moment, to go back to St. Louis. And I knew that that meant to be a part and to lead the church that my parents had started. And so I said, okay, Lord, if you said it, I will listen to you. And when we listen to him, there is action that follows. A year later, we moved here, and the next five years, y'all, I wish I could tell you it was sunshine and roses. Became the pastor of this church, and these have been the most challenging five years of my entire life. Don't get me wrong, I've seen God do some of the most incredible things ever in my life. I've seen people get healed. I've seen families restored.

I've seen people come out of addiction. All of this, but at the same time, it's been so difficult. There's been so many times, y'all, I've wanted to quit. I'm like, God, this is too hard. Why'd you send me here? I'm living off faith. I don't like living off faith. I like living off certainty. What are you doing here, God? And every time I would get to that point, it's more times than I would like to admit, I would go back to May of 2019 when I heard him say, trust me. And that trust me, nearly seven years ago, has anchored me when my life has been like this in the valley. And I share all of that to show you because some of you all have also had these mountaintop experiences, these peak experiences where you know without a shadow of a doubt that you heard God. There was a knowing in your heart that God was telling you to do something, that he was telling you to step out on faith. Maybe it happened to you at Winter Blast just last month, or maybe it happened for you last week when you came up for prayer. Maybe it happened in your home. Somebody told me at another service,

it happened when they were driving in a car and they just remembered God showed up in this moment. And I'm here to tell you, he didn't do that to tease you. He did that to give you a glimpse of who he is so that when you go to where he's sending you to, when you step into what he's called you to do, your faith is anchored, not in who you are, but in Jesus alone. Listen to him. He's not teasing you, he's strengthening you. And he gave you that to help you in your confusion, to help you in your valley, to help you in your suffering, to help you in your obedience. Listen to him. Listen. He's speaking. And so what do we do with this? What do we do with this information, this knowledge? When I see Jesus clearly, when you see Jesus clearly, what do we do with this? Well, we were just in the valley. Let's go back up on that mountain as the band comes up. When the disciples saw Jesus clearly, they didn't argue, they didn't debate, and then say, oh, are you sure, God? Did we really see you? Did we really hear the voice of God? They did one thing. They worshiped. They bowed down before him.

That's the right response. Not noise, not analysis, but worship. And we're gonna do that together as a church. Worshiping is how we will conclude this message. I'll pray, and then the band will lead us in a worship song called Holy Ground. Because for many of you, today is the everything change moment. I believe God is speaking to some of you here right now at the different sites, in this room, online. He is speaking to you now. This is a moment that will change everything, and your response should be to listen to him and worship him. So as you worship him, some of you may wanna kneel. Some of you are going to want to stand, but let the words of this song impact your heart and your life. This is about Jesus alone. He is with you on the mountain and in the valley. So let's pray and let's worship Jesus alone. Heavenly Father, help us to see Jesus clearly. Help us to listen to Him in every season. Help us not to debate Him or try to figure it out on our own, to try to finagle things in our lives. Help us to trust You. Help us to listen to You, but not just listen. Help us to obey You, even when it may not make sense. Thank You for being the God with us on the mountain. But I'm so thankful that You're the God that is walking with us in the valley. In Jesus' name, help everyone here. In Jesus' name, Amen.