Listen to Him: Gathered, Transformed, and Sent

This is life sometimes, isn't it? Where you don't follow the instructions and you just figure you can just wing it. And some things in life, maybe that works. Other things in life, like putting together a rocking swinging chair thing, not so much. Relationships, not always so much. Right? There are some foundational steps that are pretty important. Similar to our faith journey, there are some foundational steps that are really important that if we neglect or ignore them or think we know better, the further on down the road we get, we realize, wait a minute, this is not working out. Something's out of alignment. [00:24:13] (35 seconds)  #foundationalsteps

It wasn't about this moment, but it was understanding who Jesus is. This is the son of God, the messiah, the king of kings and the lord of lords, the one who is the answer to all of the problems we are facing, the one who we should be modelling our life after. Amen? That's who Jesus is. That's the Jesus that I follow. [00:46:55] (28 seconds)  #whoisJesus

Well, it's not about the amount of faith as it is the focus of the faith. See, they were focusing on all the wrong things. But if they would have just focused on Jesus and who Jesus was, This is what he's saying. And often in their teachings at the time, the example of a mountain meant something impossible. And so here Jesus is saying, I will make it possible. [00:45:55] (32 seconds)  #faithFocus

The disciples asked him, why then did the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first? Jesus replied, to be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished in the same way the son of man is going to suffer at their hands. [00:43:50] (23 seconds)  #ElijahUnrecognized

where Brooklyn is taking this next step in her faith journey and following God and saying, yes, this is the next step for me. And in the baptism when she is submerged under the water symbolizing the cleansing that we get from Jesus Christ from his death and resurrection on the cross, and then she comes back up out of the water cleansed and free, free from sin. [00:35:11] (23 seconds)  #BaptizedAndFree

Distraction has been around since the beginning of time. There is always something asking for your attention. Always. But yet, we are called at moments in time to take a step away, and this is why Jesus called his disciples up that mountain to remove the distractions to experience fully what was about to happen. As they got to see him transfigured, they saw his divinity. [00:39:31] (29 seconds)  #RemoveDistractions

See, how often in life do we think, well, if I bring up my if I do this and if I do that, how about Jesus? How about we focus on Jesus? Because if I think it's about me, I've missed the point. Much like how Peter missed the point, much like how I missed the point of the instructions about tightening those bolts and then Peter missed the point of seeing who Jesus really was. [00:46:26] (29 seconds)  #FocusOnJesus

they should have realized in that moment, and they sort of do, but as you follow the story of the disciples, find over and over again, they're they're still thinking that they know who Jesus should be instead of understanding who Jesus is. They're thinking that Jesus should be like this, and Jesus is over and over again showing them, no, this is who I am. [00:25:46] (25 seconds)  #SeeingJesusClearly