Listen to Him: God's Word and the Transfiguration

And then a voice comes, not from the disciples with questions, not from within, not from the experience or their own thoughts, but rather from heaven itself. Matthew tells us, Matthew 17, what that voice says. And when he was still speaking, Jesus suddenly a bright cloud covered them and a voice from the cloud, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Listen to him. [00:32:45] (39 seconds)  #ListenToHim

God did not save you to sit on the sidelines. He saved you. He saved you so that you can live freely, imperfectly, and boldly under his grace right where you are. And the good news is this, let me make sure you hear this, is is your friends, your neighbors don't need you to be the savior. They don't. They already got one of those. They just need someone who's who's gonna show up, someone who's gonna listen, someone who's gonna speak the truth gently with kindness towards restoration, someone whose life looks so radical, so radical because you're not looking to pay back those who have hurt you. You're not looking to get even. You're looking to see where you can extend grace, where you can ask for and receive and practice forgiveness. [00:36:48] (51 seconds)  #SavedToServe

Peter remembers the voice. He remembers the glory. He remembers the fear. And then he says something almost shocking. Verse 19, and we have something more sure. We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed. And you'll do well to pay attention to it as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. [00:39:24] (38 seconds)  #WordIsLamp

More sure than the mountain, more sure than the vision, more sure than the experience, Peter would say, we have his word. A word that is a lamp that shines in a dark place. Echoing the psalmist that says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Friends, the darkness is all around us, but the darkness does not overwhelm us because the lamp and the light of the word of God is within us and it goes forth and it shines in the darkness with the sureness of Jesus that the darkness cannot cannot overcome it. [00:40:01] (40 seconds)  #LightInDarkness

God speaks and his word will not return empty. That's the promise Isaiah 55 declares. That when God speaks, his word will not return empty, which means, friends, you don't have to worry about how that word is going to produce, what it's going to do. God's got that all figured out. We just simply speak up in the opportunities that pop up in the places God has perfectly positioned us to make an eternal difference. [00:40:41] (32 seconds)  #HisWordNeverReturns

Not someday in the future, not once when you're ready, not once when your life settles down, when you're when you're when when everything else is completed. No, friends. You're already there. In your vocation, in your relationships, in your neighborhood, in your family, your Winter Texan Park, in your work. These aren't obstacles to your calling. They are the setting of your calling. You are perfectly positioned right now, right where you are to make an eternal difference. [00:36:09] (39 seconds)  #RightWhereYouAre

That's the question that's been following us throughout this series, these last thirty plus days. Whether we realized it or not. Because beneath all of the bible reading challenges of reading the top 30 chapters of the scriptures, between our sermon themes and our daily devotions from God speaks, there sits a far more urgent reality. If God does not speak, we do not survive. We cannot survive a silent God. [00:23:40] (40 seconds)  #NeedGodsVoice

Friends, that's where God speaking finally leads. Not to spectacle, not to experience, but to Christ alone. And Jesus tells them something it seems strange to our ears coming down that mountain. He says to them, don't tell anyone about the vision until the son of man is raised from the dead. Why? Why keep what they just experienced to themselves? Because it's only after the cross. It's only after the resurrection will they truly understand what they have seen. [00:34:42] (41 seconds)  #ChristRevealed