Lets take up an offering

Matthew 17:1–8 NIV

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

his is the second time that Jesus has taken these three with him..... the first time time watched as He raised Jarius’ daughter from the dead..

what an amazing privileged they had to be a part of something so unique… so intimate with Jesus

I have to ask my self if they understood just how lucky or blessed they were at this moment..

I think we need to ask ourselves the same thing.... do we understand just how blessed we are to be serving God in His intimate circle?

Think about it for a minute… in the last several months we have....

at Trinity found a new building...... started to launch a new ministry which we are seeing the fruit of..... launched an amazing youth group that is bringing live into the young people of the congregation....

At Mentone: we have witnessed miracles.... we have one sitting with us her today..

we have welcomed new people into our congregation… and watched as younger people step up into positions of leadership.... Allyson Ross is now in the chair of our outreach team.

Jake Wright is an anchor in our AV department, and he and Mateo are invaluable to our VBS and children’s ministries....

not to mention the other youth that passionate serve in those areas...

oh and by the way we have a children’s ministry… and a vbs… neither of which we had three or four years ago!!!!!

We are serving are a part of Jesus inner circle.. and we get to experience the amazing things that He is doing here..... anyway that was just a side note...

ok, so I want you to get this in your mind… last week Jesus ask the disciples who people think He is.

they answer you know some think a prophet like Jeremiah, or Elijah… some think John the Baptist...

Its interesting that they all think He is some dead dude… right...

So then Jesus asks this question… and it is a question by the way that all of us have to answer”

Jesus say who do you as I am?

Peter called Jesus the messiah the son of the living God… Jesus praises Peter, and tell him that He will be the rock that God build the church on...

So Peter is filling God about himself.

then Matthew tells us that after this conversation with Peter Jesus begins to talk about His upcoming death.

which makes sense… The disciples should be ready… I mean peter just answered the question right.

But peter… good ole peter.... well he takes Jesus aside and says come on man......

and Jesus rebukes him with that famous rebuke.... get behind me Satan.

I tell you all of this to say… that I am sure Peter is felling somewhat vulnerable when this supernatural amazing thing happens.

Ok so back to the story.... so picture this in your mind… you have been asked to spend time privately with Jesus… I mean this is the Man you love...

The hope that you have for the future...

The chosen one of God… and the last time you spent this type of time with Jesus you watched Him raise a young girl from the dead...

its a beautiful morning (I have no idea, but I like to think its morning)........

and before your eyes Jesus is transfigured.

transfigured.... his face takes on this pure, brilliant glow… his clothes clothes go from being dusty and dirty from walking and traveling to being spotless clean and prefectly white… Oxy clean only wishes it could make clothes so white…

He is physically changed in front of your eyes

(possible talk about the word transfigured)

not only that but Elijah and Moses are standing beside Him..... dude Elijah and Moses....

I dont think you get it… Let me put this into perspective……

in 1974 the us post office confirmed that Hank Arron got just over 900,000 pieces of fan mail....

he was a big deal… he broke all kinds of offensive records, for 18 years in a row he hit at least 23 home runs...

He held the Home Run record for years...... big deal… He is a household name still today and he retired … and he retired when I was 3..... he is a big deal..

But hank Arron is nothing compared to Elijah and Moses to the Jewish people… right..... most of you knew who hank Arron was..... Most of you knew he was famous for baseball, but the stats I gave you, I’m sure (unless you are a huge baseball fan) very few of you knew them

everyone, every Jewish man, woman and child knew everything about Elijah and Moses. All of the stories, all of the prophecies… everything...

So can you imagine how Peter and the rest of the disciples felt?

An Peter missed it… He missed what was really going on.

He tells Jesus, let me build something for each of you… a church, a tabernacle something to memorialize this moment....

Let me do something religious....

Tell the Joke of the airplane going down.

Unfortunately that's how we react sometimes.... when we encounter God we don’t know what to do… so we do something religious...

Think about it… someone knows your a Christian… and you are at some sort of gathering...

all the sudden they look at you and ask you to pray.... all the sudden you hands get sweaty… your knees start to buckle… you get a lump in your throat… right...

then you think.. what if I dont know the words...... what if I don’t sound “Christian enough”… so you try to cram every sermon, sunday school lesson, and devotional you have ever been a part of into one 30 second prayer...

I mean you have to do something religious...

possible tell the story about Vicki and my dad.

Peter was so worried about preserving the moment he missed the fact that he was standing in the presence of God.

sometimes we need to just take time and sit in the presence of God.