Transfiguration of Christ — Mark 9

0:00 I want to say something I've never said before. I've never felt so inclined. Morning Justin. Morning. Nice to see you brother.

0:10 That's not what I was going to say. But now that I see it, that's why I said it's nice to see everybody. Want to look at everybody. If there's ever, not that I necessarily believe based on scripture that there's such a thing as a gift of music. Right?

0:31 But that girl, that accompanist, that dear sister, she got a gift. You got a gift, sister. I I I do believe that it's the Holy Spirit ultimately that makes us want to move our feet and keep a beat. So, I always thought the lord's supper was a good place for singing because when you think about the Lord's death, your feet start beating. Not because you're nervous that you're gonna get up next, but just because you're making melody in your heart.

1:06 But if there's anything that can help you do that, it's that sister right there. Very good. I don't even know her, I mean that's the first I believe I've ever seen her but you did a wonderful job. So invigorating to sing songs with a beat. Right?

1:28 Keep it up. Don't let that one go. My assigned topic or passage, Mark's gospel chapter nine. I say a sign because I didn't I didn't just stumble upon this. Although, I'm happy to be at Mark nine.

1:52 Why? Because it's a familiar passage that will not require a lot of expository teaching. Should be a passage that you're quite familiar with. That you know quite well. Oh, open our time with a word of prayer.

2:14 Father, we thank you that we can come together as brothers and sisters in your son. We thank you for him for sending him into the world as we have so recently celebrated his birth, lord, and yet, knowing that he came in a body that was prepared for him. Lord, for the purpose of having laid on his body all of our sins, making him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Lord, truths that we pass and we share and yet are so vastly beyond our comprehension, yet these deep things that you revealed unto babes, Lord, even us, is wonders of your son. We thank you for him.

3:02 We thank you as we read this chapter. These details that you've kept and preserved not only to our generation but for all eternity. The details in this chapter that you would unfold to us and open our eyes and ears of our soul lord to hear why these details and others you left out and so we need your help. We we don't get everything. We don't understand it all.

3:34 We're certainly, as you said, we're in need that without you, we can do nothing. So, if our time would be profitable, lord Jesus, you will be the one who makes it profitable. So, we commit ourselves to you. In your precious name, lord Jesus. Amen.

3:54 So, it's Mark's gospel chapter nine. We will begin not at verse one but at verse two. Believing that verse one is part and partial to the previous chapter. The content of that discussion Verse two, after six days, Jesus took Peter. Is anybody here who's never read the transfiguration before?

4:21 And ever even heard of it about the transfiguration? What we call the transfiguration? Okay? Everybody got it? Alright.

5:01 Whosoever believe to them, whosoever, he has this wonderful offer of whosoever. But it's a work of god to take your sin and put it on his son. So, he would endure what you deserve. I deserve. And instead, We receive what he deserves.

5:34 Now, I don't know what you think you deserve on this planet. Alright? I don't want to necessarily enter into any conversation with Christians about entitlement. I'm happy to do so. It won't be a long conversation.

5:53 As all as I can tell from scripture is the lake of fire is what we are entitled to. And we're not there and that is the god's grace that we sang about, isn't it? His mercy because we should go to the lake for the wages of my sin is death. The gift of god's eternal life. So, instead of getting what I should and what I'm entitled to, I'm offered in its place this wonderful gift of his son who came into the world to save sinners.

6:32 There is no better news. There is not one thing that I could say that's better than that. That is the good news and there is no better news. There is no better news. That's what brings us into this relationship of what we call it being born a second time, being born again, born of the spirit with life from above.

6:59 You see? Because god transferred our sins in a miraculous way. We can't explain it. I can't explain it. I can't tell you that anybody at Calvary, even though it got dark for those amount of hours, details that I'm sure you're quite familiar with, while anybody could stand there and see their sins on his body.

7:20 In fact, I'm quite certain, it was the invisible things of Calvary that are incredibly more important than the physical things. The physical things of Calvary were common to all crucifixions, including the other two that day. Nails, wooden crosses, blood, death, broken bones, except for the lord Jesus, no broken bones. But you couldn't stand there and look up and see your sins. Why?

7:53 Because it wasn't man who put their sin on him. It was god the father. Jesus told his disciples in the upper room. All of you will be offended by me tonight. As it is written, I will smite the shepherd.

8:10 Who? Who's the I? Pilate? Caiaphas? No.

8:17 This is the relationship he had with his father. Father, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless. And when Peter drew the sword to protect him, Christ's response to Peter, put away your sword. Am I not going to drink from the cup that my father gave me to drink from?

8:34 No. I will smite the shepherd. The Romans? No. The father.

8:41 Bruised as it's described for our iniquities. It pleased the father to bruise him. Now, how many of you, and I trust none, are pleased to bruise your own children? You might have bruised them accidentally, some of you maybe more than accidentally, but not deliberately. That it's happened to occur during the time of some form of discipline.

9:11 That happens, I get that in America. But we're talking about God the Father who was pleased to bruise his son because he didn't take any pleasure in your death. Right? He didn't take pleasure in putting you in a lake of fire, he never will. He took pleasure instead of bruising his son so you don't have to go there.

9:30 Again, this is the good news. These are details that you're familiar with. He transferred our sins under his body. Alright? When we received him he translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son.

9:53 They just come upon me while we're talking about this transfigured thing. He's transforming us, every day a little bit different, every day changing something about us, conforming us as he's predetermined. He's predetermined all believers to be conformed to the image of his son. That's a given. Some are ahead of others?

10:13 Yeah, I get that. I get that. I work with a young man, a Christian his whole life, till he became an adult teenager. Then he got goofy. Got married, got divorced, got involved in this, this, that, that.

10:28 Pretty soon he's broken and he's in the hospital in the psych unit and he wants out and he wants help so his father called me. Okay, I can help but it's a spiritual battle. It's a spiritual battle. Because believing that he's genuinely saved, which I'm going to do, which he professes, I want to know where he's at in the stage of his transformation, how God is transforming him. This could be one of the stages that God brought him to, allowing all the goofy decisions that he's made in life, but bringing him to this point, because guess what?

10:57 Somebody's made a huge promise. That's Jesus Christ. He has begun a good work in this young man. He will perform it until the day. He will shine them up.

11:15 You don't have to worry about shining them up. You do whatever you want, Doug. Help him. Discipline him. Guide him.

11:22 Make a ciple. Teach him that. Show him that. Have him read that. Jesus Christ is shining him up because someday, he's going to be shiny in heaven and he's going to bring Jesus Christ glory.

11:33 Just like you. Because he promised I didn't promise to build a church Jesus Christ promised to build a church. One member at a time. And we read the revelation. Come here.

11:56 I want to show you the bride of Christ. Revelation 21. I want to show you the bride of Christ. And when John turned to look and he saw the bride of Christ that looked like a city. Forget about the city.

12:08 That's the bride of Christ. And who's the bride of Christ? Individual members. How were they put there? Made so by the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as he saves individuals one at a time.

12:19 And so, here in the Revelation, Jesus Christ is showing off his bride to John. So, John has an idea even though he's suffering persecution on the Island Of Patmos, I want you to see what the church looks like in the future. Who are the members? All those people at Westlake. 12/29/2019, everyone of you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, he's already showed you off in heaven.

12:45 You just look like a city. You look like the gold. You look like the pearl of gates. He was showing off the body of Christ, the bride, and that's people. He showed you off already way back in Revelation 21 to John on the Island Of Patmos.

13:02 You didn't even know that. Did you feel like you were being shown off? He showed you off already because he's proud. He built a church. You're a member.

13:14 You didn't join yourself. You can join a building. You can't join the body of Christ. And we may be ahead of some others in this room. You may be ahead in a transforming process.

13:31 But Jesus Christ is gonna make you all the same shininess. Ain't gonna be no dull people in heaven. You can be dull on a planet. When you get off this planet you're gonna be shiny, trust me. Ain't no dull Christians in heaven.

13:45 And I mean that both ways. By the way. So, the transformation. Well, yeah. And then we're looking for the great what?

13:56 The great transportation. Aren't we? He's coming. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. He's coming.

14:07 Behold, he's coming with the clouds. Every eye shall see him. He's coming. In the in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye and when's he coming? When people say, I'm not coming.

14:19 That's why I'm coming. Is he coming today or not? No. That's when he come. Be ready.

14:47 I'm one of them. They're hard. They're hard. One thing for sure, five had oil and were waiting and five didn't have oil. And when the five without oil said, give me some oil, the five with the oil couldn't give it to them.

15:08 No. Sorry. See, you can never give away the oil. You can give people a wick, you can give people a holder, you can tell them where the store is to get some more, but you can't give away oil. You can't give people that.

15:26 They have to get it on their own. Now you're individual before Christ. You gotta get that passion firm on your own. I can't give it to you. Bob can't give it to you.

15:39 Carl can't give it to you. Roger can't give it to you. We just can't give people oil. You have to have purpose in Christ. Some passion for them.

15:49 And if you don't have it, don't feel bad. You're gonna have You're gonna have it. Alright? I know your life's complicated. You have a lot of complexities that you have to engage in every day that make up your puny little thing called life.

16:07 I get that. The seventy plus years even if by reason of strength 80. I get that, yeah, mine's complicated too. A lot of decisions, a lot of consequence for decisions, both good and bad that make up why the reasons that let me explain why I shouldn't and why I couldn't and why I didn't. He got you shining.

16:29 You're going to be shining. You're going to be shining. So, there's this transfiguration account. Forgetting the Ts for a second. He took Peter, James, and John with him and led him up a high mountain where they were alone.

16:47 Verse two. So, what do I do? I read it all in all the gospels which I always like and so here's what it says in Luke's gospel. Don't turn there. I've done the work for you.

16:59 You can do it later if you prefer. Here's what Luke records of the same day. He took Peter, James, and John with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. To pray. He took the same three to Gethsemane to pray.

17:21 He took the same three when he was going to heal the daughter of Jairus and left everybody else out. You three come with me, put out most of the family, I'm going to go in and raise this girl. Took the three. So, I have been in my life accused of asking silly questions. Not necessarily silly to make you laugh, but silly that you perfectly well know Doug that what you ask is not answerable.

17:50 You can't answer that question so why would you think about it? Why would you invite people to think about it? Why would you ask that question in public? Really? People have made fun of me.

18:09 Not to the point of ridicule, but find it something worthy to just... He asked the silliest questions. This is, and I'll tell you why, this is one place I have a question. How did the nine feel who weren't invited to go? And I ask that question not because I'm worried about Matthew and and and the others.

18:43 They're with him. That anxiety that they must have had and I only project that onto them because that would be the anxiety that I have if I'm one of the nine. Why have I been left out? Are they closer to the Lord? Is that it?

19:08 Do they love him more? You know eventually he's going to ask people how much they love him. You know that. Another issue, John's Gospel. But if I'm one of the nine and I've had a tough week just like they've had a tough week.

19:23 You go back to when, you know, in Matthew's gospel where they make the confession and Peter says, thou art the Christ and Christ starts talking about Calvary and Peter gets in front of him and says, you're not going to Calvary. Does Jesus say? Don't get behind me, Satan. Yeah, it has a tough six days. I don't know what your week was like.

19:48 But I want to know, for me, has there ever been a time Lord Jesus when you wanted to pray and I was not invited? And if there was lord Jesus could I ask why? Could you explain to me why? Just tell me what it is about me. What am I doing wrong?

20:13 Where am I with you that you would deem me not spiritual enough? Not ready spiritually mature enough to go up that mountain with you? I couldn't handle what you know is going to unfold up there. Why are there always Christians who seemingly aren't engaged with what the lord Jesus is doing? That's a harder question.

20:43 You want to blame lord Jesus for not taking him? That might, we could go down that road. You think any of em had already volunteered. I don't want to go anymore today. No, you gotta think of the actual physical issues in this account.

21:19 It's snow covered. We've got to go up there. If he would have just made a general invitation, hey, how many of you 12 want to go up and pray with me? How many go? Well, took three, so that roughly if, I'm not a mathematician, but if I remember correctly, that's 25% of the 12.

21:46 How many do you have come to your prayer meeting? Compared to this amount here. If you tell me 25%, then we got problems, don't we? You mean 25, 75% aren't interested in praying with you, lord Jesus, tonight? That you already know about and therefore, you gave nine people a day off?

22:14 That's frightening to me. See, these kind of details, they bother me because I don't want to be one of the nine. I don't. Well, it's all all the way up there, you know. Yeah.

22:37 It is night. Yeah. You're only going to pray, right? You're not teaching? Nope.

22:48 We're going up there to pray. Well, that's personal. You don't really need me. These truths beloved, they frighten me because so many Christians are willing to be the nine and take that role in life and say, I'm I'm I'm one of the nine. Destined to be one of the nine.

23:14 He didn't take me. It doesn't but he didn't invite Peter, James, and Mark. He took them. It's always something he knew about those three that he also knew about the other nine. It's the same thing he knows.

23:27 Who's ready and who's not. Who's there and who's not. Whatever it is, I have a hard time putting my finger on the exact thing but the reality of it is he left nine back. When he wanted to pray. At least twice.

23:44 And you know they seemed like pretty serious prayers. The content of those prayers seem pretty serious to me. He wasn't praying for somebody who had the flu. You know, he wasn't praying for the meal. He wasn't asking for peace in Jerusalem.

24:01 Not recorded anyway. Not recorded that he was. I don't know what you pray about on your, do you have a prayer meeting? You have a Wednesday night meeting, right? Is that the prayer time?

24:17 Yeah, we do too in the area. About 25% of the people come. But is it designed that way? I can't believe it's designed that way. I've got to believe that one of them could have said hold it, hold it, I want to go too.

24:32 I don't care how high it is. I don't care what I got to sacrifice. I don't care about dinner. You're going up there to pray, I'm going with you. Even if I don't say a word myself, I at least can learn by listening to how you pray Lord Jesus.

24:47 Because it's something that I've already indicated I'd like to learn how to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. You know, we have, anybody here read the Gospel Coalition blog? And blogs are fun, they're so cute. I mean, they just love listening to people write things.

25:09 You can't hear them but you just, and so there's the Gospel Coalition, the guy Truman Wax writes a blog and he wrote that Jesus Christ is doubly offensive. Because we throw the word offense around like, oh, it's a big scare word. He said, Jesus Christ offends church people because he always invites sinners to come. He invites sinners, he offends sinners because when they come he says you got to repent. You can't do what you're doing anymore.

25:39 That offends people that they have to repent. He's doubly offensive. He's offended to leave the nine, right? But if he took the nine, he would offend him if he told him but you have to check where you're at spiritually. Is it really in your heart?

25:57 Or is you just playing church? You just want to go because it's the end thing to do? You just know that it's right. And my parents always told me I should. I go because my or or you have any real intention of being a genuine disciple of the lord Jesus Christ.

26:21 What would you have done? Now, don't answer me. Don't put your hand up. I didn't see that before. That just appear?

26:34 That's been there, right? Okay. You never know with the lord. He can make oil pure whenever he wants. They're celebrating Hanukkah, you know.

26:46 Anyway, what would you have done? I'm giving you a preference. Let's just suppose, pure supposition, Jesus Christ had the 12 and said, I'm going up to pray, how many want to go? Late at night, well, late day. 5,000 feet, whatever.

27:11 Cool, snow up there. We'll probably be up there all night. No bed, no comfortable, no flat. Would you go in your condition? Me, I'm diabetic, I gotta stay back, take insulin, I can't go, I can't expend that kind of energy that time of day for fear that my blood will go so low, be in a coma.

27:35 I've had all kinds of excuses why I can't do things, you see. Would you have gone? Right now, today, if he asked you today, let's go, I'm going up on a mountain to pray, Could you leave your seat right now and say, I'm going with you lord. Maybe 25% of you would go and I don't know who you are But I know that you have a preference for your attendance to the things of the Lord based on your personal complexities of your schedule of your life. That little thing that James calls it, your life is but a vapor, that's your breath in the morning on a cold morning when you see that vapor, that's your life, Jesus Christ said through James in his epistle.

28:17 Your life is but a vapor. It appears and it's gone. So, in all the complexities of that puff of vapor, what is your personal attendance to the things of the lord Jesus Christ? By your preference. That you prefer to be engaged in.

28:35 That you yourself have set yourself aside to be occupied with because he is the lord Jesus Christ. These are much harder questions for me to answer. I'm busy. I'm old. If I was younger, lord, you could send me on a mission.

29:00 Now, I'm old. Don't we make awful lot of excuses that we can explain with good reasoning? Why isn't so and so here? Well, there, why, where the, the, the, they, Let's go back to the passage. The end of verse two.

29:57 His face shone like the sun. His clothes became as white as the light. Matthew 17. Luke as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Then, two men, Moses and Elijah appeared in glorious splendor.

30:28 Talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure. Which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Wow. We get a little a window into the conversation through Luke.

30:49 We see that his face, we see lightning, we see all, man, it was like a firework show. In the dark, that's could be very blinding. Moses and Elisha with Christ and they're having a discussion about his departure, about Calvary, about his death, and what was going to be brought about through his death. What did that conversation include? Who knows?

31:24 Doesn't tell us. Might include you. Then when the gospel gets to Westlake then the readers are going be saved. Then the Guerrence, you don't know. You don't know.

31:37 We have no idea what the conversation included. All we know is it sounds pretty important. Now the nine are really missing out big time because Jesus is talking with Moses and Elijah, two guys dressed in glory and he's talking his face and now these nine down here are just missing out. How sad it is that so many Christians miss out on Jesus Christ like that. You think it's sad to Jesus that they missed?

32:13 It should be sad to them. You can't make it to a prayer meeting on a Wednesday? You better be on the phone Thursday morning. What did I miss? Not what the requests were.

32:27 You get that too. You can get that via the email. Text message. You want to know what you missed that Jesus Christ said. Oh, he doesn't speak to you at prayer time?

32:41 You have a prayer meeting where you do the only ones doing all the talking? See, that's the bad habit we got in. If we're doing all the talking, that prayer meeting, Christ isn't speaking to us, we're in trouble. We're in trouble and you couldn't ask people in assembly what that even looks like, they wouldn't know. What's it mean to go to a prayer meeting when you're listening to what Jesus Christ is saying?

33:07 How he's moving in the hearts of his people to express himself. Oh, we're talking about audible voices, are we? We're just talking about the ability to have a conversation. What we tell our young people prayer is just a conversation. Well, then if it's not just a reciting of a bunch of lists that we pass down to each other with notes that we can't even look up while writing them.

33:30 We don't want to get through the checklist. Sorry, we're busy. Yeah, okay can, yeah, Oh, you wanted to say something? We don't have time, we've got close in prayer. It's Wednesday night, our kids got to go to school.

33:48 But I share these things because I know they're true, they're true for me. I rush in the prayer meeting and rush out. The clock is telling me when it's done praying. Jesus Christ isn't saying, okay, I'm finished. It's over.

34:09 Let's go. I mean, Jesus Christ took these three, left the night, went up on the highest peak in the land to talk about how low he was gonna go to die for our sins. And, Unfortunately, they were sleeping, aren't they? He fell asleep You don't get that just purely in Mark's gospel You get that in verse five, Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it's good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters.

34:51 One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. You get in Luke that Peter and his companions were very sleepy but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and two men standing with him and as the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said, Let us build. Let us be occupied. Let us do something because he did not know what he was saying as is recorded in Luke's gospel chapter nine. An occupation with the things of the lord is one of the greatest deflections, Right?

35:21 It's an effort to deflect and to redirect anything because we don't want to listen to the lord. Because we don't want the conversation. We do not want a conversation with Jesus Christ. We can have a conversation about Jesus Christ. And we'll hire the greatest teacher there is recognized by man who has the greatest potential gift of the Holy Spirit to teach us what Jesus said.

35:45 But to actually talk to Jesus Christ? That, no. Leave me out. Leave me out. They were frightened, verse six says.

36:14 And when the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified. When's the last time that happened to you in your prayer meeting? When's the last time that happened to you in your personal life? I wanna know, seriously, don't answer me. Some of you probably get on your knees to pray.

36:36 Good. I want to know when the last time the voice put you down. You didn't hear the cute little TV show called The Voice. Yeah. People singing.

36:48 That's a competition, Call The Voice. Got all these cute little people coming up there doing their little acts. It's like a variety show for singing but it's a competition. You vote and all that. This is The Voice.

37:04 That's not the voice. This is the voice. They heard a voice. They heard a voice. Man, Adam heard a voice and hid.

37:21 Alright, and hid. The children heard a voice of an amount and it shook as in Hebrews chapter 12 and they said, but don't let him speak another word to us. Don't let him speak another word to us. It's the Psalm 95 in the midst of the great first seven verses about being in worshipful and learning how to be a sheep of his pastor that he ends verse seven with a sudden change in direction but today, if you hear his voice, don't provoke him. Don't be like the children in the wilderness.

37:56 Today, if you hear his voice. Now, I would tell you flat out, you have heard my voice today but have you heard his? Have you heard his? Today, if you hear his voice, he stands at the door. Behold, Jesus said, Revelation three, I stand at the door and knock.

38:17 If any man will hear my voice and then open, I will come in and I'll have that fellowship meal with him and is that not what most Christians miss the most? That personal fellowship in response to hearing his voice to come in, let's eat together. I have to go to the meeting to get that? No, you don't have to go to the meeting to get that. You have to open when you hear his voice.

38:45 His voice. If any man will open, Hear my voice. Open. We hear his voice for Adams. Let's hide.

38:57 Let's hide. We don't want to hear his voice. You know in the temple, the second temple, there was a hall in the corner called the Hall Of Cut Stones. Here's a rare Jewish writers would tell you it's it's kinda weird that I grew up, my personal belief is because once they started to acknowledge to each other that there was no Shekinah glory in the Holy of Holies, second temple now. There was no mercy seat, of course, that was gone.

39:26 There was no Ark of the Covenant, that was gone. You know in the Day of Atonement the high priest went into this second temple, Holy of Holies to pour blood on a stone, called the foundation stone, because they didn't have a mercy seat. They didn't have a mercy seat. They never came back. Once the first temple was destroyed those things disappeared, they're not back yet.

39:45 They're still looking for them. So, the high priest came out every year to prove that everything's alright but he poured blood on a stone. There was no celebration of God's presence. There was no personal contact. No personal contact with the Almighty by anybody because he didn't live there.

40:05 His glory was not there. So, up in the corner of a temple court, there was this Synagogue Of Cut Stones. You can look it up. You can Google it. It's called the Hall Of Cut Stones.

40:16 It's where the Sanhedrin sat. It's where Jesus went when he was left behind and he walked in there and taught with the members of the Sanhedrin, asking questions, answering questions. It's where they gathered. The Sanhedrin, 72 members, right, including the high priest. And it became the center of all religious Jewish religious activity.

40:41 And when they challenged Jesus about what he taught, it was always, you have to have the authority of the Sanhedrin. You don't have it. By what authority? You don't have it. These 72 men, granted, you don't have it.

40:51 We meet here every day. We meet here. And we discuss and we review and we study the scriptures. And we're the most eloquent there is. And why was that so popular young people?

41:08 Sorry, brothers and sisters. It was an admittance. They were admitting something. That his presence wasn't with them anymore and when you don't have god's presence in your life, when you don't know a personal Jesus Christ, when he's not personable, when he's not with, when you don't, when you don't hear his voice, when you don't speak to him personally, you only have left that which the teachers gather and discuss. You can be part of a discussion about the voice of the lord Jesus Christ and never hear the voice yourself.

41:45 That is sad. That's what troubles us in the assemblies because we have gifted a teacher, gifted teacher, gifted teacher, gifted teacher. We'd rather have discussions and learn new things. We're like the Athenians. Every day let's just gather and find out what we can hear that's new.

42:03 No. You don't want that. You want to know Jesus Christ personally. You want him to knock. You want to hear his voice.

42:10 You want him in. And you want communal dinner. You want to just sit there casually, reverently, whatever you do, however you do it, whatever position he puts you in, you've got to just enjoy it. And they heard the voice, they felt terrified, terrified, terrified. You're terrified?

42:32 You're terrified? And most Christians would be. And we have a lot of Christians. I'll say this reverently as always. And because Ephesians talks to us about the armor of god and so, part of the armor is take the sword of the spear which is the word of God.

43:22 The word of God in the Father's hand. Very delicately slicing us to get the bad out. It's when we're laying on that table of spiritual surgery that the father has taken his word, his voice, and said something to you about you, for you, that we need to end up at the throne of grace, to obtain mercy. When we're laying there at his disposal, we've been opened by your word. We're naked and open unto you.

43:56 Who speak to us? Today, if we hear his voice, your word, what you said to us. If we don't end up at the throne of grace to get mercy and find grace in the time of need, I'm telling you you never felt the point yet. You didn't get the point yet. You didn't let them do the surgery.

44:12 You might hold the sword, you might wounded everybody around you, let me hit you with my sword. I'm just so good at throwing verses at people and correcting people. I'm just great at it. But I'm never going to lay underneath the sharpness of God's word and let him cut me open. And if I do I'm going to go to the throne of grace to get merchant help in time and need and if I don't that will prove that I don't have the experience.

44:35 That's the problem. In the assemblies. I ain't even talking about American Christians. I'm talking about assemblies. Worked out the sword at the wrong end.

44:44 We got a weapon that we're using on each other. Fearful if we ever laid underneath the sharpness of it, God would actually go to work and perform the surgery that's necessary in our lives to continue the transforming process. That is about what he says to us. Today if you hear his voice, today if you hear his voice, don't provoke him. Don't provoke him.

45:14 Suddenly, I gotta hurry up. Suddenly, talk faster. Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. And Matthew tells us, and this is what you want. This is the experience I think you get if you're one of the three and you're not the nine.

45:36 Jesus Christ came and touched them and said, get up. Don't be afraid. Get up and don't be afraid. Matthew 17. Now, would you not prefer?

45:52 Now, what are the nine going through by the way? You know what the nine are going through? You know, what's next? They're at the bottom of the mountain. Somebody's complaining to him.

46:00 There's a big argument going on because my son's got this demon possessed condition and I brought him to your disciples and they couldn't help him. The weak, powerless, nearly worthless. Nine people who couldn't do nothing. The complaint was to Jesus. Yeah, that sounds like the assemblies.

46:19 Lot of Christians are their existence is almost meaningless. What do they contribute to the assemblies? That's a hard question. I ask on myself first, what do I contribute? What do you contribute here?

46:40 Is that one of the reasons why the nine stayed down? They're not contributors yet. And they're down there. He's up there praying. They're down there realizing what does Jesus tell him when he catches up to him the next day.

46:55 This kind of only goes out through prayer. Well, you should've been on the mountain praying. And Jesus Christ is absolutely amazing. Most people don't want the voice. I get that.

47:12 Too personal, too hard, too frightening. I get that. Have you decided yet? Are you going up the mountain or not? It's up to you.

47:53 But we don't practice a lot. We pray that you would burn into us the work of your spirit, lord, to fill us and empower us to be the kind of disciples that you find useful. To the end that we would be at your disposal for what you have planned for this area of Cleveland, this area of Westlake, for our lives, our coworkers, lord, for people we have contact with every day that we would do by the power of your spirit, the work of the evangelist, and that we make disciples of all men, teaching them to observe all things. Commit ourselves to you for that. Christ's name, amen.

48:33 God bless you all for listening so patiently.