The Mountaintop | Mark S4E2 — The Suffering Servant

If you guys have your Bible open up to Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

I want to preach a message called the Mountaintop.

How many of you have had a mountaintop experience with God?

Like we love those times.

I can remember in seventh grade going to a camp.

I was saved before this, but man, God met me in seventh grade at this camp at Point Loma University in San Diego.

And I can remember that whole week.

Like God was just speaking to me on top of this mountain, this cliff that overlooks like the beach.

It's beautiful.

Like we're in creation.

We're separated from like our regular rhythms.

And man, you just get alone with God and you have those moments.

I can remember what the preacher preached on.

It was the parable of the talents.

And in seventh grade, I'm like, man, I want to be found faithful.

I want to be found a faithful servant to God.

I can remember what he was wearing.

I can remember what God spoke to me in that moment.

Have you guys had that mountaintop experience?

And then what happens?

Quickly, you go down the mountain.

You have to.

That's part of life.

The regular rhythms pick back up.

And what do you do with that?

What do you do with that mountaintop experience in the mundane, average part of life?

I want to kind of talk about that today.

And so what we're going to see in Mark chapter 9 in this episode, we just had a really hard teaching of Jesus, which I'll get to in a moment.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

But in this episode, we kind of see this movie trailer.

You guys got any like movies you're excited about coming out?

I know Avengers is around the corner coming out of Christmas.

And so if you've seen the Avengers movie trailer, it's like this epic movie is on the horizon.

We're about to get to witness it, but it's not here yet.

What we're going to see today in Mark chapter 9 is this movie trailer, this little sneak peek behind the curtain of what's to come for not only Jesus, but for Christians.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

And so Mark chapter 9, I'm going to jump right in.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

We'll have it on the screen.

If you guys need a Bible today as well, you can raise your hand, and our seating crew will bring one to your seat.

And we say this every week we have Bibles to give away as a gift.

So if you don't have a Bible, if you don't own a Bible, we would love to put a Bible in your hands.

That is one of the greatest things we can do for you.

So raise your hand where you're sitting, and our seating crew will come find you.

Mark chapter 9, verse 1 says this.

Mark 9:1

He was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it's good that we are here.

Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.

For he did not know what to say.

A lot of times when you don't know what to say, you probably shouldn't say anything, right?

Peter kind of puts this foot in his mouth again.

For they were terrified.

Verse 7.

And a cloud overshadowed them.

A voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved son.

Listen to him.

And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.

I'll stop there for a moment.

Here's the main idea I want to give you today.

When you truly see Jesus, nothing stays the same.

Have you had that kind of moment where you've truly seen Jesus?

Where it changes everything.

It changes your priorities, it changes your desires, it changes your lifestyle.

Sometimes it changes your friends' circles, the places you hang out.

When you truly see Jesus for everything He is, nothing should stay the same.

Your thoughts change, your plans change, everything changes.

Have you had that kind of moment where you encounter Jesus in that kind of way?

When you truly see Jesus, nothing stays the same.

What's happening in this story?

We back up to last week, and maybe you weren't here, and we'll just bring you up to speed.

Last week, Jesus is traveling with his disciples to this town, and he's like, Hey, who do people say that I am?

And the disciples are like, Man, some people think you're Elijah, some people say you're John the Baptist, some are like, you're one of the prophets.

And Jesus looks at them and says, Who do you say I am?

And Peter says, You are the Christ, the Son of God.

You are the Messiah.

And Jesus shouts him out in that moment.

He's like, Man, on that confession, I'm going to build my church.

The gates of hell will not prevail against that.

And then right after that, he's like, and guess what?

The Son of Man is going to suffer.

And he's going to be handed over, and he's going to be beaten, and he's going to be killed.

And then three days later, he's going to rise from the dead.

And Peter's like, Man, Jesus, this is this doesn't have to be this way, but I have a better plan.

And Jesus rebukes him, says, Get behind me, Satan.

And then he says, if you want to follow me, and this is one of the hardest teachings of Jesus, he says, You have to deny yourself.

You got to pick up your cross and follow me.

And on the heels of that, a really hard teaching to stomach.

Jesus gives them a glimpse of hope.

He says, Hey, some of you are going to see the kingdom of God before you die.

And six days later, he takes up three disciples and he gets he gives them a glimpse of his glory.

And I just want to pause there to say this.

Maybe you're walking through something today that is very hard, that is very dark, that doesn't seem like there's a lot of hope.

And you're like, man, I didn't know the Christian life was going to be this hard.

I didn't know following Jesus was going to be like this.

I thought I would graduate from suffering a little bit, right?

And I thought I would have some of this figured out.

I thought I wouldn't need as much faith as I need now, but it seems like every season I need more faith, and God's testing me more.

What we see today in the transfiguration is that God gives us a glimpse of Jesus to say light is coming.

Like the dawn is coming.

Not just like in your life, yes, there'll be days where some days will be brighter than others, but man, one day when you meet Jesus, it's going to be so much better.

And the disciples get a glimpse.

He just said, You gotta deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.

It's gonna be incredibly hard.

But let me show you a glimpse of my glory because it's gonna be worth it.

You can make it.

And so as he's walking through this, he takes up his inner circle, his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John.

And he leads them up a high mountain.

Most people think this is Mount Herman, about 9,000 feet in elevation.

We know something about mountains here.

They hike up this mountain.

So Jesus was pretty fit, dude.

They get up to this mountain, and it says he was transfigured before them.

The Greek word for transfigured is the word metamorphu.

So what does that word sound like in English?

Metamorphosis, which means to be changed completely from one thing to the next.

But it's not changed in a way that's like masquerading on the outside, like Jesus just masqueraded some glory over his earthly body.

But metamorphu, transfigured, that word means he's changed from something that's on the inside that's really him, finally shows on the outside.

And so what we see in Jesus is that he is actually the Son of God.

This glory is coming from within him.

And it says his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

This is the detail that Mark puts in there because in Palestine no one would wear white clothes.

It just did not make sense.

It wasn't very practical.

They would get soiled pretty quickly.

So the fact that they see Jesus shining in white, like something has changed radically in this moment.

And it points to the Shekinah glory.

Have you guys heard of the Shekinah glory?

It's not actually a Bible word, but rabbis and scholars have kind of termed Shekinah glory as the embodiment of the presence of God.

And so it's how God dwells with his people.

It embodies the presence of God.

So think back to the Old Testament.

We have Moses leads the people out of Egypt, out of slavery, into the promised land.

And what guides them through the wilderness?

It's the Shekinah glory of God.

He shows up in a cloud and they follow his presence through the wilderness.

By day, a cloud.

By night, a fire, a pillar of fire.

And then when they finally come to rest in a place where God tells them to kind of settle, they they set up the tabernacle to worship God.

What would descend on the tabernacle?

The Shekinah glory of God, the cloud.

God's presence would be there.

This is kind of how my mind works.

Maybe a little bit messed up, like this is how my mind works, but I always picture that moment like Krispy Kreme.

Maybe you guys don't know the reference, but Krispy Kreme has a sign outside the shop, a neon sign, that man, you want to see that sign on.

Because what does that sign mean?

There's hot donuts, right?

The presence, the embodiment of Krispy Kreme is like in that shop in that moment.

There's always donuts there.

But man, when the sign is on, it's like, man, you you gotta get inside the building.

You gotta get a donut.

They're hot off the press.

Same thing that would happen when God descended, when you saw the Shekinah glory, it was like God is here.

And Moses would go into the tent and he'd meet with with God and he'd come back out, and it said his face would shine like the reflection of the moon, shine, like reflecting the sun.

But here it's a little bit different when we see in Jesus.

Jesus isn't reflecting God's glory.

What's the difference with Jesus?

Jesus is radiating God's glory, like he's not the moon reflecting, he's the sun.

He is He is God in the flesh.

That is what is happening in this moment.

And then we have Elijah and we have Moses.

Why why are these two people all of a sudden, like by the way, they're they're old people, like Moses has been dead, Elijah went to heaven 900 years ago by chariot.

He kind of got the the good the good deal, like he didn't have to die.

God just raptured him to heaven.

But man, these people are ancient, and all of a sudden they're here.

And it's a symbolism of Moses representing the law, the Old Testament, and Elijah representing all the prophets.

What is being said in this moment as Jesus is with Elijah and Moses?

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament law, and he's the fulfillment of all the prophetic prophecies.

The law and the prophets.

Matthew 5 says Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

And so he kept the law perfectly.

Everything in the law of Moses, Jesus kept perfectly.

He never sinned one time.

And every single prophecy that was said about the Messiah, Jesus would fulfill.

He's the fulfillment of both.

But then we get to Peter.

And he's, I mean, you guys have your celebrities, like your celebrity crushes.

Like this would have been for Peter like a big moment.

He's like, Elijah?

Moses?

Like he's trying to get their autograph kind of thing.

Like this is that kind of moment in Jewish history.

And he's like, Rabbi, this is good that we're here.

And he he kind of turns into Oprah.

He's like, Man, you get a tent, you get a tent, you get a tent.

Like, we should just stay up here.

This is amazing.

That's the kind of moment that Peter's having.

And of course, he doesn't know what to say, and so he just like puts his foot in his mouth.

And in the Gospel of Luke, it says that while Peter is still speaking, this voice from heaven interrupts Peter.

Have you guys ever been interrupted by God?

Where he's like, shh, like you don't know what you're talking about.

Here's what I want you to know.

Peter has that kind of moment.

This voice interrupts and says, This is my beloved son.

Don't miss this, too.

The cloud surrounds them on the mountain.

So in the Old Testament, when the cloud descended on Mount Sinai when Moses went up to get the Ten Commandments, it said the people couldn't even get close to the mountain or even touch the mountain or they would die.

There's like thunder and lightning, they're like afraid out of their mind.

Like the majesty of God is terrifying to us like mortals.

But all of a sudden, they don't die in the cloud.

They're actually with Jesus, and the presence of God descends.

As to say, in Jesus, they are shielded from the presence of God.

In Jesus, they can come into the presence of God.

He is the mediator.

And the voice says, This is my beloved son.

What does that echo?

Do you guys remember?

Mark chapter 1, the baptism of Jesus.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

The heavens open up, the voice comes down and says, This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased.

This time he says, This is my beloved son.

Listen to him.

And suddenly looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.

Somehow Jesus just, or God just clears out Moses and Elijah, and the cloud disappears, and it's just Jesus.

And what is God trying to say to them in this moment?

Jesus is greater than even the two greatest representatives of the whole Old Testament Jewish system.

Peter kind of puts them on the same level if you think about it.

He's like, Man, I'm gonna make you a shelter, I'm gonna make you a shelter, I'm gonna make you a shelter.

He kind of sees them all on the same plane.

And in this moment, God's elevating Jesus.

He says, No, this is my beloved son.

Listen to him.

And so today, as we talk about a mountaintop moment, I want to give us three responses to the mountaintop moments.

Number one is this fix your eyes on Jesus.

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

He was transfigured.

And I just want you to think about the glorified Jesus for a moment.

Like when people would see him, even after his he rose from the dead, what's the first thing that Jesus said?

Do not be afraid.

Because I don't think we can wrap our mind around the glorified Jesus.

His Majesty's glory is too great.

And so much I think we have this flippant view of Jesus.

Like he's like the best friend, right?

Like he loves me.

Of course he does.

He's gracious.

But he's also holy and other, and there is no one like him.

Let me ask you today, what are you fixing your eyes on?

You've had those mountaintop moments with Jesus, you've encountered him, but are you still beholding him in the valley?

Are you still beholding him as you've descended into the mundane rhythms of life?

Have you gone back to work on a Monday morning?

We went camping this last weekend, and we were kind of like miles and miles off 285, like into the foothills of the Rockies, at this remote lake, dirt road.

And so it was a perfect opportunity for me to invite my four-year-old into the driver's seat.

I said, Dad, this is like the funnest thing to like teach your kids how to drive, to give them a steering wheel.

And so my four-year-old sitting on my lap.

Obviously, he can't reach the pedals, I'm still doing that.

But my hands are completely off the wheel.

And I'm letting my four-year-old hold the wheel.

He's like trying to get his eyes above the steering wheel like that.

And first he got to drive at night.

The next day he got to drive during the day.

And I'm like, all right, buddy, you gotta follow the road.

So he's driving, and he, I mean, left, left, left.

And he's like, he's whipping it, like he's putting the back.

And then he had these moments, especially the the second time we drove during the day, where he's he would look over at the lake.

He's like, Dad, look.

And and what do you do when you're looking that side of the road?

The car starts to go that way.

Like we're going towards the lake.

And there's also like some massive pine trees on either side of the road.

You gotta thread the needle on this road.

I'm like, Keller, watch the road.

Put your eyes on the road.

And he'd he'd whip it back, and then we'd be driving, and then not too long, he'd be looking this way, and again, the car would be drifting into a tree.

And I'm like, watch the road.

And in that moment, I'm thinking about this message.

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

How many times, like we know what to do, we know where our life should go, but we get distracted by the things on the side.

I mean, the good things in life can even become distractions.

But there's there's a spiritual enemy that you have that wants to distract you, wants to keep you busy, wants to load your schedule, wants to get you to look at all the lesser beauty in creation rather than the most beautiful thing, which is Jesus.

And I think the Spirit of God is telling us today fix your eyes on Jesus, watch the road.

Don't look to your right, don't look to your left.

Because if your eyes are on Jesus, you're gonna be fine.

Behold Jesus.

Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, he's the exact imprint of his nature.

Hebrews 1:3

And so in Jesus, we have God in the flesh.

He radiates everything that God is, he's the exact imprint of God.

He's not like a carbon copy, he's not a created being.

Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God.

Hebrews 12 tells us this.

So let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

How do we do that?

Looking to Jesus.

What are your eyes fixed on right now?

Jesus, the author, the founder, the perfecter of our faith?

Or are there things that have been distracting you?

So there's a question that'll be on the screen, and I want to just pose it this way.

Is Jesus becoming more beautiful to you the longer you follow him?

We would say this in marriage, like the longer I've been following, or like been married to Hannah, like the more beautiful, like, and it's not just like this outward beauty, but like it's a depth to like everything I know about her.

And we've only been married 10 years, like I can't imagine 20 or 30.

But man, is that how your relationship with Jesus is?

Well, the longer you've been with Jesus, the more forgiveness you've received, the more sinful you feel like you are.

Because the closer you get to holiness, the closer or the farther you realize you have to go, the more you see your own sin and flaws.

And so fix your eyes on Jesus.

And as you do that, he should become more and more and more beautiful.

Number two is this forget your plans.

Forget your plans.

Peter has some plans in this moment.

He's like, Man, this is amazing.

Let's just sit up here and bask in this glory, this glory cloud.

Like, let's this is amazing.

Let's let's set up a shop, let's let's make some tents.

And God interrupts him and says, That's not my plan.

I need you to listen to Jesus.

Everything he says, I want you to follow.

This is my beloved son.

I think in Christian circles, especially depending on your upbringing, there's there can be fascinations with like these supernatural encounters with God, these visions.

God gives us these mountaintop moments, and sometimes we just cling to those and then we try to apply them to our own plans.

And the whole point that God gives us mountaintop moments is to confirm the word of God.

The whole point he gives you a dream or a vision, or I mean, he just speaks to you and you can't explain it.

Like you're driving in the car and you just man, God just said this to me.

It's always to confirm his word.

And what does he point to?

The voice of heaven points to the word of God, which we know to be Jesus, the embodiment of the word of God, his revelation.

And so it's not just about this vision and encounter, and Peter gets kind of wrapped up in that, but it should always point us back to Jesus and to God's word.

Peter kind of puts his foot in his mouth, and God's like, You need to forget your plants.

I wrote this down.

If you want to keep getting your agenda into heaven, keep talking.

But if you want to get God's agenda onto earth, start listening.

Peter's a talker.

I was thinking about our two-year-old.

She's our middle child right now.

Man, she is a ball of energy, she's so much fun.

She loves her baby brother, the two-month-old on the front row.

And there's many times where he's sleeping, and I'm like, Garris, crew is asleep.

Like, we worked so hard to get him down to sleep.

So I'm like, don't wake him up.

And she just has one volume.

It's like, and she's always talking.

She doesn't know what it means to be quiet.

Do you guys have friends like that in your life?

Some of you looking at your spouse.

Peter's that person.

In this moment, he should just like sit and listen to God and like observe what's happening and then respond in obedience.

And he keeps talking.

If you want to get your agenda into heaven, keep talking.

But if you want to get God's agenda onto earth, start listening.

I wrote down this question Are you talking about your plans or are you listening for God's plans?

That could be hard because we love to be in control.

God says, ask, I'll give you the desires of your heart.

Like we we even manipulate scripture to like make our plans.

But God's called us to listen to his plans.

And I promise you, it won't be easier necessarily, but it will be far more rewarding to follow his plans.

Which leads me to number three, follow his ways.

We fix our eyes on Jesus, forget our plans, follow his ways.

Verse 7, he says, This is my beloved son.

Listen to him.

And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.

And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

So they kept the matter to themselves.

That's the first time, by the way, and Jesus to this point has been like, Hey, don't tell anyone what's happening.

First time he's like, hey, there's going to be a time where you can't tell.

Because when I rise from the dead, there's a category for them to put all this into.

First time he's like, You guys will be able to tell this in just a moment.

Verse 10, so they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean.

And they asked him, Why do the scribes say that the first Elijah must come?

And what the referencing is in Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, he says, Before the great and awesome day of the Lord, Elijah will come to prepare the way.

That's what they're referencing.

They're like, How are you how are you the Messiah if we haven't seen Elijah?

In verse 12, he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all things.

And how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt?

But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.

And we know from the other accounts that in that moment they realize he's talking about John the Baptist.

John the Baptist was the Elijah to come.

He did prepare the way of the Lord.

And what is Jesus pointing to in the life of Elijah or in the life of John the Baptist?

He said, He got killed because of what he was doing, and so will the Son of Man go.

And in kind of right in line with that, he's like, and so will it cost some of you.

So as they're headed down the mountain, he's saying, I'm gonna die.

I'm gonna lay down my life.

I just told you, you're gonna have to pick up your cross to follow me.

It's gonna cost you your life.

Are you willing to follow?

The voice from heaven said, This is my beloved son, listen to him.

Are we willing to follow him, even if it means leaving the mountaintop, to go down into the valley where there will be suffering?

Because we've experienced the glory on the mountaintop, and there's people in the valley who haven't experienced that.

There's people in the valley that are stuck in brokenness.

There's people in the valley in your life, in your neighborhood, who don't have that kind of hope.

But you've experienced it, you've tasted and seen what is to come, the reward of every believer of following Jesus.

And he's saying, Are you willing to follow him in all his ways, even if it's gonna be hard?

Even if it's gonna mean you gotta forget some of your plans, you gotta give up some of your dreams.

Are you willing to follow him into the heart, into suffering?

That word listen in the Greek is the word aku.

It's the word we get acoustics from.

So when you hear sound, it's the acoustics, it's it means to listen, to hear with your ears.

But the word obey in the New Testament is the word hupo acuo.

You could say hyper listen.

It's the idea that you don't just listen with your ears, but you listen with your whole body.

Hupo akuo.

To follow him in all his ways is not just a kuo.

Like we don't just come to church to a kuo, but man, to hoopo a kuo.

To listen, to follow with everything, with with our whole being.

Like wherever we are with our feet, right?

Whatever relationship we're in in that moment, whatever we're tempted to do, like we are following him in all of our ways, trusting him.

A disciple of Jesus means that we can't stay on the Mount of Glory forever.

But we have to follow Jesus down the hill, down the mountain, into the valley, where there will be suffering, but the reward is worth it.

Following him is worth it.

As a pastor, I mean, for me personally, I usually start message prep on Sunday night or Monday morning for the next Sunday.

And this message is like percolating in my soul like all week.

And I say that to describe kind of what happens in some moments is as I'm like, God, what do you have for our church?

What do you want to say to our people?

Like sometimes I'm meeting people for lunch, and in like a lunch conversation, I'm like, God's like, no, people need to hear this.

There's more people in church going through this, or it's a hospital visit, or whatever.

Sometimes it's running, and it's literally Spotify.

And this last week, this song popped up as I was running.

And I thought of this third point.

And the song is Christ is All by a band called Jesus Culture.

And the words will be on the screen.

It says, Whatever you ask of me, it's not too much.

Whatever is in my hands will be enough.

And there's nothing that you're unworthy of.

You defend uncalculated love.

That idea of uncalculated love is, man, God loves it when you are willing to risk it all.

When you live with this reckless abandonment and you're like, I don't know what this is gonna cost me, I don't know what it looks like on the other side, but I trust God enough to step into whatever he's asking me to do.

God loves it when you live with that uncalculated love.

You're not calculating the risks, you're like, I know he is worthy of it.

There's nothing in my hands that I cannot give him.

There's nothing in my life that I cannot give him.

And the chorus goes on to say this simple phrase Christ is all.

All that matters.

All that matters.

I want to ask you today, have you beheld Jesus in that kind of way?

Or maybe it's been a long time since a mountaintop moment like that.

Where you're like, Christ is all that matters.

And if that's true, I can forget my plans and I can follow whatever he asked me to do in this life, whatever he asked me to do in my marriage, whatever he asked me to do in my career.

I think of missionaries a couple hundred years ago, where they would have this burden to move to another country, another language, another tribe, another people group, and they would pack up a ship to sail across the Atlantic or wherever they're traveling, not even knowing if they're gonna make it.

Like that's how dangerous it was just to get in a boat.

And they would pack all of their belongings, but you know what they would pack with them?

Typically, it was a coffin.

What are they saying by packing a coffin?

They're like, man, this might cost me everything.

I'm probably gonna lose my life for the kingdom.

I'm also saying no to all these dreams.

I'm leaving all the my family, all these friends behind because Jesus is worth it.

And they would step into that boat, and many of them would go on to lose their spouse, their kids.

Like medicine wasn't what it was today.

Like it was you're going into the unknown.

But they would risk it all for Jesus, they would follow him in all his ways because why?

They had experienced the glory of Jesus.

Is he that beautiful to you?

Or it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what he asks you to do, you're willing to do it.

The question I want to ask you are are you willing to follow God in whatever he asks of you?

So, where has God met you on the mountaintop?

I want to just take you back in your life to someplace wherever the Spirit takes you in this moment.

What is that mountaintop that he's met you on recently, distant past?

For me, sometimes it's the Sunday gathering.

Last Sunday, I think, is a Sunday that will mark our church.

I don't know if anyone else felt it that's currently sitting here.

I had so many conversations with people, with staff.

God was doing something in this room, and I think it's gonna mark our church.

It was a hard message to preach, but man, our church is ready.

I think there's a shift in our church that we're just gonna see the beginnings of.

Sometimes it's a Sunday gathering.

For me, like sometimes it's our back deck.

We have this deck that overlooks all of like North Denver, Wheat Ridge area.

And man, I've just gone on that deck and weeped over our city.

Like, I can just go out there, especially at night, and just see all the lights, and I can just feel God's heart for this city.

Some of my most intimate moments have been with Him on that deck.

We're walking up Green Mountain.

I remember right before Easter, this the Saturday night before Easter, about to preach our first Easter Sunday at CBC.

I just went up on Green Mountain overlooking again all of Lakewood, just praying for our city.

And God just met me in that moment in a special way.

I'm asking you, like, have there been those moments where you've beheld the glory of God, where he's that beautiful, the radiance of God, the exact imprint of his nature, your Savior, the one who bled for you, the one who died for you.

And you would be willing to say whatever you ask of me, I will do.

Whatever it takes to follow you, I'm all in.

Because here's what I believe to be true, and this is our big takeaway.

God gives us a glimpse of his glory so we can take his gospel to the world.

There's a world that does not know that, that has not received that, does not even necessarily believe that.

But he's given you a glimpse of glory, and it might be hard right now to follow Jesus, but you know one day he's gonna wipe away every tear.

You know one day what's waiting for you in glory.

Like this body is gone.

Like today I sneezed, and I got a kink at my neck.

I'm up here like literally hurting, like that's gone when we get to heaven.

Ben actually popped my neck over here for a second.

It actually feels much better.

So thank you.

Thank you for loving your pastor.

Man, God is gonna wipe away all of this brokenness, and you got a glimpse of that.

But there's a world there that desperately needs this hope and this message.

So I'm gonna invite us to respond today.

And I don't know what God is leading you to do in this space.

Obviously, we're gonna respond in our four ways.

We're gonna take communion.

I'm gonna ask that if God is asking you to come down to the altar, like, don't worry about what people think in this space.

Come meet with your creator right here at the altar.

Come pray with our prayer team.

But there might be something God's asking to do that you put off.

There might be some lesser beauty things that you've been looking at, and God's telling you to throw those to the side and look at the most beautiful thing, which is his son.

And for some of you, it might be hey, today I need to ask Jesus to save me and to change me, to become my Lord and Savior, to literally take me out of darkness and into light.

Do you guys want to know what Elijah and Moses were talking about with Jesus?

Mark doesn't tell us, but Luke tells us they were discussing his departure from Jerusalem, or his departure that would take place at Jerusalem.

And the word for departure is the same word for Exodus.

And so here's what they were saying.

This is wild.

Just like Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, the Exodus, out of spiritual bondage and slavery, into what?

The promised land.

Jesus is the greater Moses, who at Jerusalem, at Calvary, on the cross, would lead us out of spiritual bondage, out of our slavery.

He would literally step into our Egypt, take us by the hand, and lead us into the promised land.

That's what Jesus did for you and for me.

And maybe you're here today and you've never known that.

Today you can call on Jesus.

Some of you have been ashamed to get baptized.

Maybe today you're like, hey, I'm done with the shame.

He wasn't ashamed of me on the cross.

I'm going all in for Jesus.

Today I'm going to follow him in baptism.

So I don't know what that is.

I'm going to invite the band forward.

I'm going to lead us in a time of response.

If you guys would just bow your heads for a moment, I just want to let the Spirit speak in this room.

Just you and God for a moment.

What's he saying to you?