Pastor Don's Sermon 4-10-08

Sermon Title: Listen to Him Scripture: Matthew 17: 1-9; 2Timothy 1:8-10
Intro: It’s easy to get caught up in ourselves and forget the value that God places on others. When we experience the presence of His warmth, love and power it's a place that we don’t want to leave. We feel safe and secure. Yet, God has called us to listen to his son. Go where He goes and do what He does. But first we have to be with him.
From the geologist’s perspective, mountain ranges are evidence of seismic activity, the process of reshaping the earth's surface over the course of millennia.
From the tourist’s perspective, mountain ranges are sometimes beautiful, sometimes inconvenient =P (remember Taos) features of a landscape.
From the skier’s perspective =), snow-draped mountains are an opportunity to enjoy a challenging winter adventure.
From the religious person’s perspective, a mountain is where God and humans meet. It symbolizes reaching up and touching Heaven, and Heaven bending down toward man. Consider Michelangelo’s masterpiece “The Hand of God”
I. When God pulls back the veil. (1-4)
And in today’s passage, the New Testament writer describes an awesome mountaintop experience of God by Jesus and three of the disciples:
.... Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain ... And before there very eyes He was transfigured, and His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light..., a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
In this moment, God's Presence in Jesus Christ exploded before the disciples so intensely they found themselves in the presence of another world, where there is no mistaking the voice of God: "This is My Son, whom I love ... Listen to Him!" And “When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified." (Mt. 17:6).
II. Making what is precious to God precious to you (4-5)
A. Jesus-
To the disciples who witnessed it, the Transfiguration was incredible – so much so that they didn't know what to do and they even appeared as if they wanted to stay. They actually had seen the glory of God shining in and through the Body of Christ.
Of course they wanted to stay on the mountaintop where they bathed in the Gloray of God and to reflect and meditate on the wondrous vision.
Of course they wanted to build a chapel to commemorate it.
Of course they wanted to stay with Jesus in this place where they had just experienced the most incomparable moment of their lives.
But that is not how we show God that Jesus is precious to us, right? How do we show God that He is precious to us?
B. Others
But in that supreme moment, they had heard the voice of God say, "Listen to Him!" And, of course they had to obey Jesus when He instructs them to go back down the mountain where there were people in need. They had to go back down the mountain and minister to them.
And what of us? Who believe, who follow, who obey the Christ? Can we do one or two and not the other? We might like to think so, but not if you choose to take God at His word. To believe means to follow and to follow is to obey. They are one in the same. Those who believe obey.
What about us? Who have come together in this place, shouldn't this worship event be awesome? The glory of God still shines through the Lord Jesus who is in our midst now. The loving Presence of God is made real to us now through the Body of Christ. And the unmistakable voice of God is speaking to us now: “This is my Son, whom I love... Listen to him! Follow Him from this place to where there are people in need -- and minister to them!"
The Lord Jesus Christ is most precious to God. We Christians have no trouble at all accepting that reality. But we do seem to have trouble accepting the reality that we ourselves are precious to God. You and I, and the members of our families, and all our friends, and all our neighbors, and all whom we consider to be our enemies, and every passing stranger, and every human person God chooses to create -- all are precious to God.
When God made the earth, He filled it with everything that is most precious to Him! Can we look at God's good earth and not experience the fullness of it?
Can we look at what is most beloved to God and not experience the majesty of it?
Can we look at what is most beloved to God and not experience the splendor of it? Can we look at what is most beloved to God and not experience the reverence and wonder of it?
We must be on guard, always, against degrading our ability for reverence, and the sense of the sacred in God's creation.
C.S. Lewis recalled the time when he first started going to Church. "I disliked the hymns," he said. "I considered them to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But then I realized that the hymns were, nevertheless, being sung with great devotion by an old saint in rough boots in the opposite pew. It was the kind of moment in which you realize that you aren't fit to clean his boots, and it gets you out of your solitary conceit."1
When God looks out upon humans that represent Him on earth, He sees the whole thing. And the variety that He sees is precious to Him. So precious, in fact that He allows His glory to shine through it, making it possible for us to say, in every human encounter, "I worship the God I see in you." Not that you are a god but by virtue of our existence each one of us bare His image, the image with which our maker has marked us.
It seems safe to assume that God enjoys variety not just on the cellular level...
He didn't stop with a 1000 insect species; He conjured up three hundred thousand species of beetles and weevils alone. In the Book of Job, God points with pride to such oddities of creation as the mountain goat, the wild ass, the ostrich, and the lightening bolt. He lavished color, design, and texture on the world, giving us Pygmies and Watusis, and blond Scandinavians, and swarthy Italians, and big-boned Russians and petite Japanese.2
Allow me to repeat: Every human God chooses to create is precious to Him. That's awesome! That's beyond our ability to fully comprehend. But by the Grace of God, we do have the ability to say from the heart, in every human encounter, "I worship the God I see in you!"
II. Preparing for the future Kingdom (v. 9, 2 Tim 1:8-10)
But even when the world refuses to acknowledge your value... Maybe even those closest to you might measure your worth based on your performance… God refuses to discount your life.
Have you ever wondered if your value has dropped before God because of your sin? Then maybe you listen to those voices too long and forgotten that no may enter the kingdom of God based on their self worth or performance. Or maybe someone acts odd or unpleasant around you or immature and your tempted to loss it with them. Believe me I’ve been there. Remember this..
9who has saved us and called us to a holy life
But why?
not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time
Conclusion:
So we are precious not because we perform but because He has purposed it so. Even so, when “facts” seem to contradict your Christian responsibility to "worship the true God" whom you may not “see” in another, "you have to bend your attitudes to fit them, that's all."
Attitudes are what we choose. They’re a matter of choice. Choose Christ and allow Him to bend your attitudes to be in harmony with His teachings.
The reality is our lives rarely go as smoothly as we wish or hope and the fact that life can hard and faith too can challenge the attitude that we choose to go around with in our lives. For Christians to excel, they must learn to love the things of God, build their faith in God and His word, and hope in His amazing blessings. Choose Christ but be prepared; He may bend your attitudes -- your entire life – until you no longer see yourself but see Him in you!
Listen to Him!!!
1- Brand & Yancey, “In the likeness of God” pg 48-50.
2- Brand & Yancey, “In the likeness of God” pg 48-50