Shaped by His Glory (Derik Fuller) | Shaped By Jesus

Good morning everybody, happy long weekend.

Happy actual summer weather outside.

Excited about that. Turning your Bibles to Luke

Luke 9 · chapter mention

Chapter 9, Luke Chapter 9, verse 28 to 36, where we're going to

Luke 9:28–36

be today. If you don't have a Bible,

there's some Bibles under some of the chairs and seats here in

the auditorium. And if you don't have one of

your own, take that as our gift to you.

We want you to have the word of God in your hand, and we would

love to see you take one home if you don't have one already.

If you have a ton of Bibles, don't take one.

You don't need a Bible collection.

This is not your missing piece, OK?

I just want to encourage you. We had an announcement that went

up. The big serve is less than two

weeks away and I am so excited about the opportunity that we

have to go out and serve our community in Cambridge, in

Kitchener, Waterloo Region, in Brant County.

Because I was just reading this week in my devotions from

Matthew chapter 5, verse 16, that we're called to go and do

Matthew 5:16

our good deeds. Let our light so shine before

men so that they would see us do our good deeds and praise our

Father who's in heaven. That as we go out and we serve

in the name of Jesus, Jesus name gets lifted up.

And I want to encourage you if you haven't signed up yet, we've

got a lot of great projects. There's also a lot that are

fully filled up. So you want to get on this.

You don't want to wait till the last second or you might not

find the project that you're hoping for, but we're praying

that over 400 of us will go out over that Friday and Saturday

and serve and just lift the name of Jesus high.

And it's also a great opportunity.

I know Tammy mentioned this a few weeks ago when she was on

stage to invite others in who don't know Jesus yet.

Friends, neighbors, coworkers who just love the idea of

serving in the community and help them see why we serve in

the community. Help them understand the why

underneath the what. And so I just encourage you to

put that little thought in your mind.

Got an announcement here? Before we get going, some of you

will have seen this e-mail, but I know based on how many emails

get opened up, because we can track it, they're probably like

70% of you who got this e-mail haven't opened it up yet.

But Pastor Kirk and I did a little video announcement

letting you know something that is both on a personal level and

as a church. It's going to be a little sad to

us, but also really, I think there's a lot of joy and I'll

explain that in a second in this, that Pastor Kevin and Jen

Pence are going to be leaving our staff come August 5th.

I know many of you have been impacted deeply by Kevin.

Jen. They have been here and on staff

for almost 20 years. Jen has spent almost her entire

life in this church out of a other than a brief foray to

California for 10 years. And this is not an easy decision

for them to come to. I can just tell you, for me

personally, my entire time on staff, they have been on staff.

And they're not just staff, they're friends to me.

And so there's a sadness there that I know.

But here's the joy that I want to tell you about.

They are going to a church and Tillsberg Pastor Kevin is coming

on staff as pastor of discipleship there, where God is

going to use them in such a great way.

They are just desperately needed there.

It's my home church, so This is why I know it's the church I

came from. My parents keep on kind of

cheering and celebrating every time I go home right now, which

is a little frustrating, but they're so excited because that

church has exploded to like from like 150 people to like 450

people. And they desperately need some

reinforcements there. And we talk about the fact that

we're a multiplying church and a multiplying church is our core

value means that there are going to be times where we send people

out. We did that last year.

We sent a whole crew of people out to start a new location and

brand. And I'm excited to be sending

out again because a Kingdom win is never a loss.

And I know that they're going to be a blessing there.

And God's got great plans for the Pence there.

And I know that then he's also got something for us and that

God loves his church. He's building his church.

And so here it forward. I know God's got something in

store for us. We don't know what that is.

You can be praying for us as we enter into a season of figuring

out who to bring on next on to staff to help us take our next

step as a church, but also be praying for the pens.

They're going to be around for a while.

He said August 5th, I think I told you already, is their last

Sunday. And so we're going to have lots

of time to celebrate them and say our goodbyes, but wanted to

make sure that you were all aware of that this morning.

We are in a passage in Luke that is known as the Transfiguration.

Theologians, historians, church historians, This is what they

have called this. It is a moment where the

disciples, Peter, James and John, the three are going to be

up on the mountain and see Jesus in his full glory in a way that

they have never experienced before.

And it got me thinking about late 90s, early 2000s ROM coms.

As you can imagine, it probably did.

How many of you were around in the 90s and 2000s?

And by around, I mean old enough to actually watch movies.

Put your hand up. Don't be ashamed.

Now my hand is up and they're OK.

OK, for those of you who don't and weren't around, there was

this movie trope in that period of time with romantic comedies.

Legend will call it the Ugly Girl Makeover.

Some of you already know what this was, right?

That there was apparently this girl who was so ugly that nobody

paid any attention to her, and she was picked on and

marginalized. And the makeover was they took

off glasses and took the scrunchie out of the hair, and

she was transformed. And the male lead for that movie

couldn't believe what he hadn't seen in front of him the entire

time. It's about as believable as

nobody knew Clark Kent was Superman, right?

Because he put glasses on in today's passage.

We're going to have that type of transformation, but like, real,

where people are really going to Peter, James and John are really

going to see Jesus differently than they've ever seen this guy

who they've been traveling with day by day for almost three

years now. They are going to get a glimpse

of the glory and the majesty and the beauty of Jesus such that it

is so going to make a mark on Peter that we know that when he

goes to send a letter out to the churches about 40 years later to

Christians who are who are scattered around the

Mediterranean. He marks this as a marker of

like firming up his faith. How he knows without a shadow of

a doubt that Jesus is God. Let me read these verses to you

from second Peter 116 to 18. Peter writes and he says for we

did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made

known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, I know that we're not making up who Jesus is in all of

his power and all of his glory when he came, how does he know

that? He says, instead we were

eyewitnesses to His Majesty. He received honor and glory from

the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory

saying, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

Now, this is not a Jesus baptism.

No, we ourselves heard this voice when it came down from

heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

This moment that we're about to encounter today, it changed

Peter. Now there's going to be a whole

lot of Peter that still comes out and comes up over the days

ahead as we walk through the Gospel of Luke.

There's a whole lot of stuff that still need to be changed.

And Peter, but somehow this moment was a marker for Peter.

We've been looking at this question, Luke's been taking us

to this question over the last few weeks, who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? We think 2 out of the last three

weeks, maybe two of the last four weeks, that is the

question, who is Jesus? And today, all week, I have been

praying. God just give us just a little

glimpse of the glory of who Jesus really is.

I think if we got just a glimpse today, just even a little bit

more understanding of who Jesus is, just like it changed Peter,

it could change us. It could be a marker point for

us because seeing the glory of who Jesus is, that's what it

does changes us. We see him, not really see him.

Our hearts are changed. Somebody here today, you're here

and you are exploring spirituality, you're exploring

faith. Maybe you're exploring

specifically the person of Jesus, and I am, I say this all

the time, but I'm super glad that you're here.

I would want this to be a place where you are welcome on your

journey to to figure out who God is and who Jesus is.

But you need to see a glimpse of Jesus that wipes from your mind

any idea that Jesus is is simply a good teacher or a good

example. That Jesus is maybe just a

source of wisdom or morality. That Jesus was merely another

religious guru that we could learn at the feet of even that

he was in some way specially and specifically miracle worker

empowered by God. You need to see that Jesus is

God made flesh who came to dwell among us and died on the cross

for your sins. He is the one who spoke

existence into being. He spoke this world with a word

and then He came into the world for you and some of you may

you've been walking with Jesus a long time and by God's grace,

you've got a number of times in your life where you've got

glimpses of Jesus. My my prayer this morning.

So you get a fresh glimpse that that your heart would be set a

fire and a flame again as you see Jesus for who he is.

That if, if you've lost a little bit of your awe and wonder over

the years, that would just get stoked up inside you.

If you got a Jesus who has become too comfortable and too

safe that you see a lot bigger, a lot more fulsome Jesus today,

you would, you would not allow Jesus to become the beautiful

girl with glasses on in front of you that you're missing those

glasses that scrunch. You would, and you would be

captured again and afresh by the beauty of Jesus that we all

would be able to say, like Peter, we leave here today, man.

We are eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

And so here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to invite us just to just to pray and, and just ask

the Holy Spirit to do this. I'm just going to hold out my

hands. You can do that too, because

here's the truth. There's nothing I can say today

that's going to give you that glimpse of glory.

My words are insufficient to the task.

We need the power of the Holy Spirit in this room today.

And the good news is that Jesus says in John 1614 that part of

the role of the Spirit is to glorify the Son.

Part of the role of the Spirit is to help us see the glory of

who Jesus is. And so if you want to join with

me, just opening your hands and just praying, Holy Spirit come,

Holy Spirit, come and help us see Jesus maybe for the very

first time that our eyes would be open to who he is, or maybe

just a fresh and undo with the new wind, the new empowering in

us that we would be transformed as we encounter Jesus today.

And it's in his name we pray. Amen.

So we're going to walk through this passage and then I'm going

to break it down starting in verse 28, says about 8 days

after this conversation. And just as a reminder, that's

eight days after the conversation of last week.

That's eight days after the I have to die, but I'm not going

to stay dead conversation. The conversation where he said,

oh, and by the way, if you're going to follow me, you better

be prepared to die. That's that's the eight.

It's eight days after that conversation, he took along

Peter, John and James and went up to the mountain to pray.

Now we don't know what mountain this is for sure.

There is debate amongst scholars as to whether it's Mount Tabor

or Mount Hermon. It doesn't matter.

Let them argue about it doesn't matter.

As he was praying, that is Jesus, the appearance of his

face changed, His clothes became dazzling white, and suddenly two

men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah.

They appeared in glory, and we're Speaking of his departure,

which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.

So Moses and Elijah show up and they're talking about his death.

That is to come on the cross in Jerusalem, His departure.

This is a plan. This is a necessity.

This is the reality for which Jesus came.

It's not. It wasn't an accident.

It wasn't a side side quest. This is the reason for Jesus is

coming. Peter and those with him were in

a deep sleep and when they became fully awake, they saw his

glory and the two men who were standing there with him.

Now if you struggle with not falling asleep while you're

praying, you're in good company right now.

The original Greek here, the word probably is best translated

overcome with sleep and and there is some sense maybe that

God was behind kind of putting them to sleep into a deep sleep

In that moment as glory descended upon the mountain as

the two men were departing from him.

So as Elijah and Moses are getting ready to leave, Peter

said to Jesus. Peter's got another brain wave.

Master, it is good for us to be here.

So let us set up 3 shelters, one for you, one for Moses and 1:00

for Elijah. Not knowing what he was saying.

Poor Peter. I just, I think this is

important to Mark. I just, I always like to point

this out because I I think if you're a skeptic about whether

the gospel stories are real, my question to you would be if

these things were written later on, why would Peter be written

as such an idiot all the time? Why would you include in all of

these accounts that make the guys who are the founders of the

faith, the leaders in this movement look like dummies?

That is not how you myth make. It's not how it works.

These read like eyewitness accounts of the things that took

place without edits. While he was saying this, a

cloud appeared and overshadowed them.

They became afraid as they entered the cloud.

Then a voice came from the cloud saying, This is my son, the

chosen one. Listen to him.

After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.

They kept silence and at that time told no one what they had

seen. So this is just an amazing

scene. An amazing story is Peter, James

and John go up with Jesus onto the mountain and Elijah and

Moses kind of come down and and the glory of heaven kind of

encompasses and comes down on this place.

So what can we learn about this? How do we see in this that

seeing the glory of Jesus will change us?

Well, let me give you just a few ways.

The first is this. I think we see in this that

Jesus often gives gives us glimpses of his glory in moments

to strengthen and steady US. Jesus had just said eight days

ago some pretty hard stuff to the disciples.

He had told them, I'm the Messiah that you need, but not

necessarily the type of Messiah that you were hoping for.

That that I've come to rescue and I've come to save.

But the salvation that I'm coming to bring you is going to

come through a cross, not a crown.

These guys are are they've been watching Jesus, right?

Do miracles and healings and even raising people from the

dead. And they are, they're pumped.

They're excited the Kingdom is coming because the king is here.

They're watching the crowds go and they're saying, we're guys,

we're in the inner circle. We're going to be a part of

this. The king is coming and we're

kind of his crew. And Jesus says, yeah, about

that. Guys, I know you have dreams of

how this is all going to go. It's not going to go quite how

you expect it, but it's going to go the exact way that it needs

to. I've I've got to die, but don't

worry, death can't hold me. And in Matthew and Mark, if you

read that same account, in that moment, Peter rebukes Jesus in

Matthew 1622, says this right after Jesus makes this

declaration, he says Peter took him aside and began to rebuke

him. Oh no, Lord, this will never

happen to you, right? That announcement shook these

guys. And that wasn't the totality of

it, because then Jesus says what he says.

Oh, and by the way, following me means you're going to die too.

You got to be willing to pick up your cross if you're going to

call follow me. And I think the disciples,

probably like a lot of us, are like Jesus.

I like the parts where you say come and see.

I'm not so sure about the parts where you say come and die.

Like Peter, I have had a lot of Lord No moments.

You recognize the irony in those words, right?

Back-to-back Lord, Which means you're the boss, you're in

control. You are head over everything.

No, it's a rebuttal of what you just said and I've had a lot of

those moments. I've had those moments where I

felt the Lord calling me to hard uncomfortable things.

I've had those moments where I felt like God, you, your word

can't honestly mean as you can't honestly be asking me to do

this. I felt, first of all, God say I

want you to go into ministry. I've told this story before when

I was 13. I did not want to hear that.

In fact, there's a whole bunch of things that I didn't want to

hear from the Lord. In my understanding, Jesus had

saved me. Now he could advise me.

Then I had to come to grips at the age of 13 with what was it

really going to mean to follow Jesus?

Not just to be saved by him, to know him not just as Savior, but

as Lord. Because those two don't get

separated out. And even as I came to a point in

the back of a church tearing up and saying, yes, Lord, I had a

whole list of no's that I gave him in that moment.

Yes, Lord, to ministry, but no to any place rural, no to youth

ministry, and no to anything global.

The first church I ever served that was in Burford as a youth

pastor. Some of you know I oversee our

global engagement piece now and I've had the opportunity and the

blessing to travel all sorts of places into all sorts of gnarly

situations and uncomfortable spots to see God at work and to

bless the people who are doing God's work in those places.

Later on I would feel the Lord calling us into church planting

to which I understood the Lord to mean help other people plant

churches into which he said to me how about you go plant church

and it was another one like God. I just don't want to do this but

but but but alongside all those and almost always in concert

with him in his grace. Part of the way that he has

moved my heart to be able to fully and more fully overtime

surrender and I still have Lord no moments was by giving me

glimpses of his glory and goodness by providing for Amanda

and I improving himself as good and as faithful over and over

again. We were in Burford and God had

sent us there, and the church had no money.

And I've shared some of this before you, but we had just

story after story at the beginning of our ministry life

together of tires not wearing out and clothes not wearing out.

And somebody slaughtering a cow and bringing beef over when we

had no money for groceries and somebody dropping off a basket

full of cleaning supplies and we had no money to buy those.

And for the only time in my life, in my ministry life,

having just a check that somebody felt compelled to write

for the exact amount that we didn't have to cover Amanda's

medical supplies. And they had no idea that I had

woke up that morning in tears, crying out to God saying what we

get. What am I supposed to do as a

husband? And he gave me glimpses of his

glory and his goodness. Because sometimes fallen Jesus

requires us to believe things and to do things that are hard.

And I want you to see here that God made a promise in verse 27.

We didn't get into this last week because I wanted to cover

it here. Verse 27 at the end of what he

said to them, the end of the hard things, right?

He says, truly, I tell you, there are some standing here who

will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God.

That fulfillment is the 8 days later that we find right here.

See, God has given them some hard things, but then He said,

hey, I want to prove myself to you.

We give you a little glimpse of my goodness and glory so that

you can trust me in these hard things.

He fulfills this close promise, right?

This, this smaller promise so that he, they would be able to

believe the bigger promises that he's making.

That he's going to go to the cross and die, but that he's

going to rise again, that he's going to come back when he

ascends, he's going to come back again.

They, they, he's going to ask them to believe some stuff.

And so he's got to give them some glimpses of his goodness

and His glory so that Peter can say we didn't follow cleverly

contrived myths. When we made known to you the

power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

That's why we can declare these hard things as true things.

He did what he said he would do on the mountain.

That means that he will do all that he says He will do.

And it's a it's I give this to you because it's important for

you to mark when God shows up. I think far too many of us in

this kind of moment by moment culture that we live in, this

crazy, hectic, no memory of anything culture, We don't mark

moments. We just get caught up in the

next moment. You need a mark when God shows

up and gives you a glimpse of His glory.

When He does, when you pray a prayer and he shows up and he

answers, you mark that down. Is there going to be moments

where you need that glimpse to go back to, to remind yourself

that He's true? These are glimpses of goodness

and grace and trustworthiness. And those glimpses, just like

they were for Peter, James and John, they're meant to

strengthen and steady you. Because things will get tough

and things will get hard and things will rattle you.

So tell your stories. Write down your stories.

Share your stories with others. Because sometimes we forget that

we need somebody else to whisper in her ear.

Yeah, But you remember when God showed up in that He'll show up

for you again. Jesus gives us glimpses of his

glory to strengthen and steady us.

But there's a second piece here that's really important.

These glimpses of glory are meant to fuel us, not to freeze

us in place. Peter, James and John, they wake

up to this unbelievable scene of Jesus and Elijah and Moses, and

Jesus doesn't look. He's Jesus, but he looks

different than Jesus because he's glowing and he's radiating.

Moses and Elijah are there in their perfected bodies.

And just a side note, I think this is like kind of a cool

little thing. It's a reminder that in our

resurrected body, somehow, some way, you're going to be

recognizable for who you are. I don't know what that looks

like, but they knew it was Moses and Elijah, and they're taking

it all in. They don't want this moment to

end. And so when Moses and Elijah are

getting ready to say their leaves, So if they were

Canadians, they said goodbye in the living room, and then they

said goodbye in the lobby. And then they stepped outside

the door and they said goodbye and they were waving goodbye

from the car, right. Peter says, wait, hold up.

I got an idea, Master. It's good to be here.

I don't need to go anywhere else.

Keep Moses. Keep Elijah.

You stay here. We'll stay here.

We'll build you all little shelters, and let's just camp

out in the glory. It's so good.

And if you've had times where you've got glimpses of God's

glory, I'm sure you felt this way.

I know I have. Maybe it's been in like a a time

of worship where you just like you're something different going

on. Your heart opens up and you're

just seeing Jesus and his beauty in a way you've never seen it

before. Maybe it's out of retreat.

You get away from all the noise and you just have time to jump

into his word. You're surrounded by nature and

you experience God in a powerful way.

Or maybe it's at a conference. I was just at the Alpha

conference and I don't know how many times I turned to a man and

say, hey, can we just stay in London?

Man, this is so good. Join it with 6000 other

believers worshipping across the nominations, across continents

and just raising the name of Jesus.

I don't want to leave. Just want to stay here.

Even got a worship song, right? Worship song called nothing

else. This is the word.

Part of the words are, I'm caught up in this holy moment.

I never want to leave. It's OK to feel that way.

And I'll let you know someday that day will be every day.

That's what heaven looks like. So the new heaven, new earth

looks like it's every day is that it's glorious.

But that's not today. Ultimately, on earth, when we

get moments of glory, they're meant to fuel us so that we can

go out. They're meant to give us fuel to

leave. That's the problem, though.

Peter's. Peter's suggestion, well, has a

couple of problems. First, he's obviously still

struggling to understand what it means for Jesus to be the

Messiah because he says, hey, we're just going to build 3

equal shelters up for up here for you.

And I think he thinks that he's elevating Jesus in a really

positive way by saying one for Moses, one for Elijah, one for

Jesus. But Jesus is not an equal of

Moses and Elijah. Only one person on that mountain

was worthy of worship. Moses and Elijah, by the way,

are there why? Why are why those two will

Moses, he represents the law, right?

He's the lawgiver. And Elijah represents the

prophets and the Jewish people referred to the Old Testament as

the law and the prophets. And in a Jewish setting, it took

two or more witnesses to witness to the truth of anything.

And so in this moment, the law and the prophets are witnessing

to the truth of the glory of Jesus, that this is all about

him. Peter, he still wants a Messiah

who's going to make life easy. He wants a Messiah who's going

to take him into glory and leave him there.

He he, he still wants Jesus Kingdom in a way that bypasses

the cross. He still doesn't get the

mission. Moses and Elijah, they were

speaking to Jesus about his mission.

They're up there on the mountain talking about the mission which

was Jesus was about to accomplish through his departure

in Jerusalem. That word departure is the same

Greek word as is used for Exodus, which is the Old

Testament paradigm for God's salvation and rescue.

Moses and Elijah are there saying the true the better.

Exodus is about to take place through Jesus at the cross.

The fullness of salvation that the the Old Testament only

points towards is about to take place through Jesus.

And the problem if they stay up there is you can't get to the

cross. You can't get to the cross from

the mountaintop. Jesus has to go down in order to

get to the cross. And that's where salvation is

going to be found. We often make the same mistakes

as Peter. We get you get a taste of glory

and it's meant to fuel us for mission.

But instead, getting the taste of glory becomes our obsession.

It becomes our fixation that takes us off the mission.

Man, lots of Christians want to spend all their time in

Christian bubbles. Just get me another Bible study,

get me to another worship service.

Get me to another retreat. Get me to another conference.

Find me another Christian book. Here's another Christian podcast

to listen to. And all we want is fuel.

But the fuel is meant to send you out.

If you don't go out, you just try and live on the mountain

top, you don't get the mission. We need to go out into the hard

places on Earth. The mission is often going to be

hard. It's going to take us into the

valleys and away from the mountaintops that we want to

stay on. But if we stay where it's easy,

if we stay where it's pleasant, if we spend all our time in the

church and around Christians but never get out into the

community, if we spend all our time in the Word and in prayer

but never in the world. If the glimpses of the goodness

and glory of Jesus and His Kingdom become our goal, rather

than the mission of moving people towards Jesus and His

glory, then we'll fail in the mission.

We need glimpses of the glory of Jesus to strengthen us and

steady us, but they're meant to be a fuel for the mission rather

than to freeze us and fix us in place.

The third thing is this Seeing the glory of Jesus helps us move

towards obedience. While he was saying this, a

cloud appeared and overshadowed them.

They became afraid as they entered the cloud.

Then a voice from the cloud came saying, This is my Son, the

chosen one. Listen to him.

Do you know the more we see Jesus for who He truly is, the

more it ought to drive us towards obedience to Him.

At the core of sin always is a failure to fully see Jesus for

all that He is. It starts with coming to

salvation, choosing to follow Him.

If you're going to choose to follow him, you're going to need

to see some things about Jesus. You're going to need to see that

you can't save you and you make a terrible Lord, that there's

nothing that you can do to fix yourself up.

It's not about doing better, trying harder, pulling it

together, making up for the past mistakes you made by doing more

things better moving forward. There's nothing that you can do

to make yourself right with God. And actually, when you try and

be God, you screw it all up, make a hash of it, make a mess

of your life. And that seeing that Jesus can

save you and that he's the Lord worth following, you got to have

both those things. You got to see that Jesus really

was the creator God of the universe who takes on flesh and

enters into the story to live the perfect and sinless life

that you may try to live, but you'll fail miserably on that.

He takes that perfect sinless life and He goes to the cross to

pay the penalty for your sin, because He was the only one who

could pay it. And that if you trust in Him,

His righteousness and His Holiness become yours.

And when you understand that, then you see that there's a God

who loves you so much, who's so glorious, that why wouldn't you

follow him? He obviously has your best

interests at heart all the time, even when you struggle to see

it. But seeing Jesus, it doesn't end

with your salvation. It's also the means of your

sanctification. It's the means by which we grow

and we change. Is is to see Jesus more fully.

And that's not just my words. This is what Paul says in 2nd

Corinthians 318. We're going to put it up on the

screen. We all with unveiled faces, are

looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord.

That's Jesus and are being transformed into the same image

from glory to glory, so that somehow as you and I see more of

the glory of Jesus, we become more like the glorious Jesus we

see. That's what Paul's saying.

The the, the key, one of the keys to sanctification

transformation is, as Pastor Keith said this morning,

beholding to become what we behold.

We become. John Owens, the great Puritan

writer, said this in his book, The Glory of Christ.

Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of

Christ, and virtue will proceed from Him to repair all of our

decays, to renew a right spirit within us, to cause us to abound

in all the duties of obedience. It will fix the soul upon that

object which is suited to give it delight, complacency, and

satisfaction. When the mind is filled with the

thoughts of Christ and his glory, when the soul thereon

cleaves on to him with intense affection, they will cast out,

or not give admittance unto the causes of spiritual weakness and

in disposition. Nothing will so much excite and

encourage our souls here unto as a constant view of Christ and

His glory. Let me put it this way, behind

all sin is a failure to see Jesus for who He truly is.

You don't just need to stop sinning, you need to start

seeing Jesus more fully. Once you close your eyes for a

moment, I'm going to read a couple passages of scripture.

Just ask the Lord to help you hear these and see Jesus in

them. John chapter one one to three.

John talking about Jesus says in the beginning was the Word.

The word was with God and the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning and all things were created

through and apart from him. Not one thing was created that

has been created. Now hold that picture in your

mind, Jesus, Creator God, who speaks existence into being and

holds it all together by His power.

If we truly saw Jesus in His glorious fullness as the Creator

God, what would that begin to change in our lives?

If you really believed in this moment, you exist.

Everything exists only because He wills you too.

That nothing exists apart from His say so that all of the

resources of the universe and beyond, because the universe is

His creation, belong to Him. What righteous fear would that

put in our souls when we choose to stand in defiance to Him and

sin? What confidence would it put in

your soul when you know that you're walking in obedience to

Him in saying yes and Amen to what He has called you to do?

What ah and wonder would it place in you that that God chose

to come and die for you? Give you one more scripture?

John 15/9 As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you.

As the Father has loved me, Jesus says that's how I love

you. What would it mean for you to

believe that you are fully and completely both known and loved

by Jesus? That he knows everything about

you? Yes, even those things, the

things you try and block out from yourself and you hope

nobody ever finds out the ugliest parts.

And he loves you, and he runs towards you instead of away from

you. What acceptance would you be

able to feel if you could see the glory of that?

What peace would you feel inside of yourself with joy?

How would it kill your constant need to compare yourself with

others, to compete with others, to destroy others through gossip

and slander because you just want to puff yourself up?

You don't need to puff yourself up.

You're loved. How would it change the way that

you hear His word and trust it if you knew He loved you that

deeply and that much? And what would you entrust to

Him and be willing to give up to Him with open hands?

If you knew His love that deeply?

Watch Him just open your eyes. You know that God gave us more

than a glimpse. He gave us a guarantee that we

are loved by Him. He gave us a promise that you

can be forgiven, accepted, redeemed, and restored by the

blood of Jesus on the cross. And then he gave us this

constant reminder through taking communion that it is true to

strengthen and to steady us a glimpse of His glory.

That's what communion is. It's a glimpse of his glory.

And so if, if you're a follower of Jesus today, I would invite

you to take part with us as we take the communion elements

together. If you're not a follower of

Jesus, this is for those of us. What we're doing is we take

this, we're confessing. This is true for me.

Jesus died for me. His body was broken for me.

His blood was poured out for me. If you don't have one, you just

put your hand up in the air if you didn't get one coming in.

And we've got some people who will hand them out to you from

our hospitality team. See on on the mountain, the

disciples saw the glory of Jesus revealed.

But at the cross, at the cross we see the glory of Jesus

defined, that the glorious Son of God would be willing to have

his body broken, be willing to have his blood poured out for

the forgiveness, not just of randoms, but from for my sin,

for our sin. That what looked like defeat in

a moment was actually victory for all time.

What looked like weakness on the cross was in fact glory.

When we gaze upon the fullness of Jesus, when we see His

Holiness, we see His righteousness.

It should move us to see that we are more unworthy and sinful

than we could dare realize. But when we look at the wonder

of His body broken on the cross and His blood poured out for the

forgiveness of our sins, it should also make us realize that

we are more loved than we ever dared hope.

So we're going to take these elements together.

We're going to mark this as a moment and remember once again

the glory of a God who loved us so much to die for us.

Take the wafer and let's pray over it together.

Father, as we take this wafer, we take it not just as a piece

of bread, not just as a ritual, but as a reminder of your

goodness and grace and glory. Your body broken for us.

We declare it to be so. Father, thank you for loving us

so much. May your love and the wonder of

that love grow in US. May it transform us.

May we move as we look at the glory of it, from glory to

glory. We ask this in the name of the

Jesus who died for us. Amen.

Let's take a knee the same way we take the cup.

We're told as a marker of the new covenant, as the new

relationship, that that it is Jesus blood and Jesus blood

alone that creates the conditions for us to come into a

right relationship with God. The wonder and glory that God

would so graciously gift us that we don't earn it, we don't

deserve it. It is given as a free gift to

receive. Let's pray over the cup.

Father, thank You for the glory of the gift of the blood of

Jesus Christ, which watches away not just a few of our sins or

some of our sins, but all of our sins, and allows us to stand

holy and glorious. You see us through the glory of

the sun and make us your sons and your daughters and adopt us

into Your Kingdom. We wonder that you would choose

us. What wonder?

What glory? And we thank You.

In the name of Jesus Christ, let's take and drink now let's

worship and let's sing and praise and adoration to the King

who is worthy of our worship.