An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Teachings
on February 11th, 2024 at Enclave Community Church in Turlock, California.
The text is Mark 9 verses 2 through 9 on the transfiguration of Jesus. What's
unique about this one is how I started it. So a couple weeks, maybe three weeks
before I preached this sermon, the oldest son of the then senior pastor of this
church had taken his own life and it was awkward for me to to preach on a passage.
Well, it was my first time addressing some hurt that the congregation was
feeling. If you remember in the sermon before this, someone passed out and my
pastor said, "Always address the elephant in the room." And so coming into this
sermon, there was a huge elephant in the room. And so I actually spoke to my
pastor whose son had had passed and we talked about how to address that. It was
a beautiful moment, that conversation that him and I had, and I think the
sermon was was helpful to the congregation. And so yeah, here it is.
Mark chapter 9 verses 2 through 9 and enjoy.
Good morning. Today's reading, scripture reading, is going to be from Mark chapter
9 verses 2 through 8. And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and
John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured
before them and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on
earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them, Elijah and Moses, and
they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is a good thing
we are here. Let us make three tenths, one for you and one for Moses and one for
Elijah." For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud
overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved son.
Listen to him." And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with
them but Jesus only. Let us pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this time that you
have given us to gather together, to worship you, and to hear your word. We
pray, Lord, that you be with Jacob as he delivers his message and that you would
help us understand his message and apply it in our daily lives. I pray these things
in Jesus's name. Amen. Thank you, Tyler. Morning, everybody. I make no promises
about getting you out of here before the Super Bowl starts. But before we get
started this morning, I want to share with you something that's been on my
heart. Our text this morning might remind us of recent tragedy in our church, has
faced and is facing. And I had a hard time, as I prepared the sermon, on how to
address that or whether or not to address it. And Andrew's taught me many,
many things in our short time together. And one of those things is to bring you,
God's people, into my mind and heart as I teach and preach. To let you know my
actual thoughts, not just prepared statements. And as I met with him this
week, he reassured me of something. He told me that it's in times like these
we need to be beholding the glory of Christ. And he said he wants me to do
that today, obviously. And he even said that if we could ask Moses today, that
Moses would tell me, "Jacob, preach on Christ this morning." So that's what I'm
gonna do. And we're gonna look at this text in Mark chapter 9. Amen. So please
be praying for the decanters continually this week and as we move forward. But
before we begin, I want to start with a story about exercise. So I've been into
exercise all my life. I started lifting weights about eighth grade and I got
really into it. I was never strong, never good at it. I still am not. And so that
passion for lifting weights continued through high school and college and even
today. And a couple years ago, I came across this program called Starting
Strength. It's been around for decades and it's a really, really simple program
that promises quality strength gains. And so I tried it out and the first time I
did it, I kind of tried it, right? I didn't really follow the program. I didn't do
what it said to the letter. I just did some of it. And I got a little bit
stronger. It worked just a little bit, but not much. And the second time around, I
really followed it. You can ask my wife. I was probably annoying about how much I
follow this program. That's all I talked about. That's all I listened to. That's
all I read about. I followed it down to the letter. I got exactly the exact
amount of sleep, the exact amount of calories. I followed the program as
closely as I could. And even in doing that, I thought to myself, there's no way
that this program really delivers on what it promises. It's way too simple.
It's just these same exact exercises on the same days, the same sets, the
same reps. There's no way. I'm not gonna get that much stronger. Well, in
three months, I got very strong relative to where I had begun. Don't ask me how
strong I am now. I'm not that strong. But relative to where I started, I got really
strong. And so I got a glimpse into the reality that when you follow this program,
it really, really works. I got a glimpse into the fact that this program works
and it grows me in strength. I didn't stop doing it and kind of gotten ties
with other things. But that example of sort of having doubt about the program,
seeing for a short window that it really works, is kind of what the disciples are
experiencing a little bit in our text this morning. Earlier in the gospel of
Mark, Jesus tells the disciples some troubling news. And he says this in
chapter eight, verse 31, "And he began to teach them that the Son of man must
suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the
scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again." And some of you may
remember that at this point, Peter says, "No, we'll die with you." And in fact, in
Mark's gospel, it says Peter rebukes Jesus. That's a, I don't want to ever do
that. And then Jesus rebukes him. It says, "Get behind me, Satan." They don't
understand, like they've been with Jesus for these three years. He's teaching, he's
preaching, he's performing signs and wonders. And then he says, "Well, all this
is great, but I still have to suffer. I have to die and I will rise again." They
don't really get resurrection yet, like we do, right? There's not, there's some
questions about resurrection in the different forms of Judaism, so they don't
get it, which is why Peter says, "No, no, no. You're not gonna die. I'm not gonna let
you die, and if you die, I'll die with you." He's not grasping the significance of
what Jesus must go through. And then in chapter nine, verse one, Jesus offers a
little bit of hope in a cryptic way, right? He says, "Truly I say to you, there
are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of
God after it has come with power." So a little bit of, a little bit of hope, like
some of you will be here when all these things take place. In our passage this
morning, the disciples at the Mount of Transfiguration get a glimpse of the
glory of Christ, and they get a glimpse at the program of God's kingdom. And what
this does is it strengthens them. They're leaving the mountaintop experience of
life in ministry with Christ, and they're about to go into the suffering portion
of his ministry. And this glimpse at the power and glory of Christ strengthens
the disciples. So the main point of our passage this morning is this. Beholding
the glory of Christ strengthens us when facing doubt, fear, and suffering. Beholding
the glory of Christ strengthens us when facing doubt, fear, and suffering. We're
gonna see this in three main points. We're gonna see, because Moses and Elijah
appear to Jesus, we're gonna see how Jesus is the new Moses leading a new
Exodus for God's people, a new final Exodus. Second, we'll see how Jesus is the
new Elijah bringing in the new covenant age. Third, we're gonna see how Jesus is
God. He's a son of God, God in the flesh. And then I want to spend some time
talking about how do we actually behold the glory of Christ. So as you read this
passage, there can be some confusing things. Like why does Mark say after six
days they went up? He doesn't usually reference, you know, days
like that. So that's new for Mark. Why do Moses and Elijah appear? So some Old
Testament figures appear, but why those two? Why does Peter offer to build them
tents? Is there any significance behind that? There's a cloud that comes and a
voice, like what is all this? This is a unique event even for Scripture. But the
thing is, all of these symbols, all these things happening, they point back to the
Old Testament. And they specifically point back to events at Mount Sinai in
Exodus. So let's look at some parallels between what happens with Moses
on the mountain in Exodus versus what happens here in our text this morning.
First, there is a six-day period in both passages, right? And by the way, these
aren't exact parallels. They're not one-to-one. So there's a six-day period
where that six-day period is different in Exodus than in Mark. Both Jesus and
Moses bring up three people with them, three of their closest friends with them
to the mountain. They go up a high mountain, right? That's specified in both
texts. In both stories, a cloud overshadows the mountain and comes to the
mountain. And the voice of God speaks from the cloud in both of the stories. So when
one reads the Transfiguration story, all of these symbols, they point to something
very specific and they remind people, right? I think we kind of underestimate a
lot of times how unfamiliar we are with the Old Testament and how familiar the
people of Jesus' day were with the Old Testament. I'm not saying you can't grasp
this now, but if you were steeped in the Old Testament and you read this
passage in Mark, your mind would automatically think of those things,
mountain, Jesus' face shining, right? Clouds, all these things. And so it's
communicating something. It's communicating to the disciples that Jesus is like
Moses. He's the new Moses. If you remember my last sermon, I spoke about how Jesus
is the first, I'm sorry, how Jews in the first century had some expectations of
what the Messiah would look like. And one of those expectations is that he would
be like Moses. Deuteronomy 1815 says, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me," like Moses, "from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you
shall listen." In one way, Jesus is like Moses, again, like I said in my last
sermon, is that he performs signs and wonders. Moses in Exodus performs signs
and wonders that lead to the Exodus, and these signs and wonders in the Exodus,
they liberate God's people and they judge God's enemies. In my last sermon, we
talked about how Jesus is healing, resurrections, and casting out demons.
They communicated something, that God is coming to liberate his people from the
true enemy and lead a new Exodus. So he's like Moses in that he liberates and
judges, and he's like Moses in that, again, he leads us out of our bondage to sin and
death. He does this except with our true enemies. Our enemies, Paul says later in
the Bible, is not against flesh and blood, it's against the spiritual realm. Jesus
is liberating you from the bondage of sin. Like you know that if you were in
Christ now, you are no longer a slave to sin. Those chains that held you, the
slave master that drove you, that's all gone now in Christ Jesus. And this is
what Moses in the Old Testament was pointing to. He's led us out of captivity
from our true captors. And so beholding Jesus means beholding that the Messiah,
the new Moses, has come. His ministry demonstrated this for some time now with
the disciples, but his recent talk about suffering and death had him afraid and
doubtful. I'd imagine you're with someone for years who's doing wonderful things
and then they're telling you that they're gonna have to die. I don't know
if I would take that news very well. It's hard news to understand. And so for the
disciples, when they see Moses, and it's interesting to me that they just knew it
was Moses and Elijah. That's divine revelation. There's no like physical
indications, right? So they knew, like by the revelation of God, they knew this is
Moses and Elijah. And so they see Moses and they remember what Deuteronomy says
in all the Old Testament and they see Jesus is who Moses talked about. And
that strengthens them. And when we look at Jesus, we behold the one, again, this
cannot be overstated. We behold the one who led us out of our captivity. Like can
you, I don't know if your experience is like mine, where I know how bound I
was to my sin. And that because I know that, I know how powerful Jesus is in
breaking those chains and bringing me out. How powerful it is that he has
liberated me from sin and death. When you see Jesus, when you read about him, talk
about him, this is the Christ that you behold. So the appearance of Moses at the
transfiguration tells us that Jesus is the new Moses, but he's also like the new
Elijah. Elijah, who also had an experience with God at Mount Sinai, he talked with
God, he was used by God to challenge Israel's King Ahab because Ahab had kind
of sponsored worship of false gods. Most of us are probably familiar with the
really dramatic episode at Mount Carmel where Elijah's challenging the
prophets, right? And he says, "He might be relieving himself. Maybe
that's why he's not coming down." And God used Elijah to tear down the old system
that King Ahab was leading to take down this nationwide Baal worship. Jesus is
doing that in a new, different, and better way. Like Elijah, Jesus is seen as a
treble. That's what Ahab calls Elijah. You're troubling us, and that's what the
Jews call, tell Jesus. You're causing us trouble. So Jesus is, like Elijah, he's a
treble who charges Israel with abandoning the intent of God's
commands. They were following them, but they are missing the point of almost all
of them. And in fact, they were following us for false gods. Jesus says, "Your
Father, the devil." And so Jesus is a new Elijah,
defeating these false idols. You notice that in the Gospels, they're never like,
they're never challenging Jesus. You don't see them coming to Jesus challenging,
you know, who's the better prophet. They actually come to him and beg for him to
not destroy them yet. And with Elijah, there's this sort of a battle, dramatic
scene with Jesus. It's, "Please don't destroy me yet," because he's come to crush
false idols and false gods. There's a more striking similarity, though, between
Jesus and Elijah, and it's in Malachi. Malachi speaks of this great and awesome
day of the Lord. Malachi 4-5 reads, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes." And one commentator
notes this. He says that there was Jewish belief that Elijah would bring general
eschatological restoration. Eschatology is a nerdy word for end-to-end things,
right? So Elijah would bring, in the end, restoration. And Jesus says this later in
Mark chapter 9 and verse 12. He says, "And he said to them, 'Elijah does come first
to restore all things.' So when the disciples saw Elijah at the
transfiguration, what they saw was confirmation that Jesus is putting an
end to the old covenant age." We might get confused and read the Bible like the end
of the age, and sometimes we might think that means like the end of the world.
Most of the time refers to the end of this old covenant age, this old system that
Matt's gonna tell us about in a few weeks. This old system of sacrifices, that old
covenant that God made with Israel. He's bringing that to a close and he's
starting the new covenant. And that means also that the kingdom of God is coming
and invading earth. That has massive implications. And so the disciples who
are afraid that Jesus has to die, what do you mean you have to die? I don't know
about this resurrection thing. They're seeing most in Elijah and saying, "Well,
he's the Messiah and the kingdom of God is really coming." And if the Old
Testament's true and Jesus in all his glory, we see him as these as this figure,
then at least in this moment, this doubt and fear is relieved. The appearance of
Elijah at the transfiguration tells us that Jesus is the new Elijah who's
announcing God's kingdom, closing the old covenant age and ushering in the new. So,
but even in this instance, in this story, at this point, the disciples are still
unclear. Let's read verses five through seven of chapter nine. "And Peter said to
Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you, one
for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were
terrified." Classic Peter speaking up out of turn, saying nonsense. I was reading
commentaries and some people were like, "Well, maybe the tents refer to this," but most
of them are like, it's almost irrelevant. He's just saying something because he
feels compelled to because he's scared, right? But he does make one mistake in
that he makes Jesus equal among Moses and Elijah, but that's neither here nor
there. He's terrified, right? I think if you saw Jesus walking with his humanity
pulled back in his divinity on full display, you might be too. So he just says
some random stuff. "And then a voice," I'm sorry, "and a cloud overshadowed them, and a
voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. Listen to him." All throughout
the Old Testament, again, everything is pointing back. In the Old Testament, the
cloud is the glory of God in the presence of God. 1 Kings 8, 10 through 11 says, "And
when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the
Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the
cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord." All right, so this
cloud is God's glory coming physically. It both reveals and conceals God's glory.
And in many passages, only those closest to God are able to stand in this glory
cloud, right? This is the same cloud that Moses came down from and his face was
shining. Additionally, God speaks from the cloud of his glorious presence. In Exodus
33.9 it says, "When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and
stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses." So
remember the disciples, they are familiar with all this, and this cloud comes and
overshadows the whole mountain. They're all there, and they see the glory cloud,
they see in the cloud the presence of God, and a voice speaks to them. And what
God says solidifies the significance of this event for the disciples. What does
he say? He says two things. First, Jesus is my son. In the beginning of Mark, God said
the same thing, but he said it to Jesus in Mark chapter 1 verse 11. He says, "You
are my son and who I am well pleased." Now, in Mark chapter 9, he's saying, "This is
my son." He's speaking to the disciples. Not only that, he echoes what we heard in
Deuteronomy 18.15. In Deuteronomy 18.15, a prophet like me will come out
from among you, and you must listen to him. And then God says, "This is my son.
Listen to him." One theologian says this, "God's speaking out of the cloud to Moses
was intended to ensure that the Israelites would thereafter heed his
words." Alright, so in Moses, the Israelites would heed Moses' words. "Hear to
the voice is not so much a pronouncement to Jesus, but is addressed to the
disciples and calls on them as a result to listen to him. The manifestly divine
means of communication authenticates the messenger." So if the disciples had any
doubt of who Jesus was and what he was doing, this event solidified it. He's the
new Moses. He's the new Elijah. He's the son of God. God in the flesh come to
dwell with us, and you should listen to him. "At the mount of transfiguration, the
disciples behold the glory of Christ revealed to them, and as they hear the
voice of God speak to them, they know that Jesus is God come in the flesh." So
the glory cloud, the voice of God, Elijah, Moses, all of this is pointing to the
fact that in Jesus, God is fulfilling all of his promises. Now that means
something as we change different perspectives. For the people in Jesus'
day, that means everything we've learned about he has fulfilled, but also for those
people and us today he is continuing to fulfill as well.
Everything promised in the New and Old Testament God is fulfilling in and
through Jesus even today. This is not a reality that we simply look back on. It's
something that we must behold as we live today. This story, one theologian says, has
united two expectations which are alive in Judaism. The coming of the prophet of
the end time who is like Moses and the appearing of Elijah at the dawn of the
end time. It has declared to every Jew that the fulfillment of the history of
Israel and every hope for the glorious end time have already begun with the
coming of Jesus. At the Mount of Transfigurations we behold the new Moses,
the new Elijah, and God in the flesh, which leads to a question for us. What
does this all mean? And this is the hard part. What does it mean for us to behold
Christ in all of this glory? Now we can't really behold Christ like the disciples
did. I'm not saying it's impossible. I just don't think it's normal for us to
see Jesus shining with Moses and Elijah around. Again, it's perfectly possible but
it's so improbable it's a little doubtful. But we will be rest assured we
will see Christ like that one day when we're with him in the new heavens and new
earth. This vision that the disciples see that theologians call the beatific
vision. We will be with Christ in person beholding this glory. That's something
you have at least to look forward to. Beholding the glory of Christ in here,
right, with him. We're not there yet though. So today, right now, what does it
mean for you to behold the glory of God? I thought a lot about this as I was
preparing. I had a really really hard time with this. I think I called multiple
people to kind of ask like what do you think this means, right? So I
would read my sermon notes and I'd pray and then do that over and
over again. Like why? How do you behold? I can't see him. What does it
mean to behold Christ in faith? And then God led me to the Puritan John Owen and
John Owen wrote a book called The Glory of Christ which is kind of on the nose,
right? And so I started reading that book in my spare time. And in one of the
early chapters, this is so difficult to hear and encouraging to hear, okay? So in
one of the early chapters, he gives some practical advice on how you behold the
glory of Christ. He says first recognize that this is a privilege we have as
Christians. If you're not saved, you can't really behold Christ by faith. It's
a gift and a privilege you have that by faith you can behold the glory of Christ.
Second he says it's a mystery. It requires much wisdom and insight. It
requires some time and patience to understand how to do this. Okay, I'm
tracking with you. You're not saying anything new that I don't know. I still
don't get it. And then in point three he says this, okay? And I think it's up. It's
gonna be on the screen I think. Oh man. Learn how to behold the glory of Christ
by remembering how you once set your mind on worldly things. Sinful, unregenerate
people, filled with lustful desires, continually think about and conjure up in
their minds those objects which satisfy their desires until their
eyes become full of adulteries and they cannot cease from sinning. Okay? If they
work as hard as that to feed their lusts, shall we not work just as hard and
beholding that which transforms our minds into Christ's likeness so
that the eyes of our understanding shall be continually filled with his glory?
Then we will actually see him. We shall behold him without any interruption and
we shall never cease to delight in him and to love him. What John Owen is saying
is in some sense this mystery beholding Christ isn't a mystery at all. You do it
all the time with your sin and it's like, ah, I was at, I was reading at night and I
was on the couch like, oh man, I don't, I don't feel good about myself but also I
feel really excited about beholding Christ now because us as sinners we, I
don't know if you recognize this, you spend time thinking about your sin. You
spend time ruminating on it, dwelling on it. You might even spend time on how you
can sin better sometimes, right? These things fill your mind and if you fall
into that sin it's because it's, it's so filled your mind that you've fallen into
temptation and you've sinned and if you want to know how to behold Christ, do
that but with Jesus. Instead of thinking about this sin that might have you tied
down at the moment, think about Jesus. Fill your mind with Christ. The mechanics
of beholding the glory of Christ is not difficult because we do it every day.
John Calvin says our heart is a, our heart is a factory of idol-making. We're
constantly doing this. Do it with Christ. Behold Him in reading and I don't mean
reading like, okay, today's, you know, February 11th, so my Bible plan says
this, read, right, commune with God through reading, through prayer, through talking
with one another. One of the things that's changed my sermons is I constantly
call people to ask questions because in communion with other believers I get to
learn more and I behold Christ that way.
Beholding Christ is as easy as dwelling on Him continually. He's filling your
mind through reading, prayer, and fellowship. I don't know, I hope the
Spirit of God can get this into your heart. I don't know what words to say to
make this a tangible reality for you and for me. No, one, actually I do know one
way, okay. There's this really embarrassing feature on iPhones called
screen time. It's really depressing sometimes and so here's my challenge to
you. This week, until next Sunday, turn that on or if you have a pen and paper,
track how much time you spend on not sinful things, just things you don't need
to be on. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, maybe you read too much but
don't tell us that because it's kind of annoying if you think that. Write all that
down. Track your habits and behaviors and then the following week spend all of
that time on dwelling on Christ. You spend an hour on Instagram every day, okay, no
one's judging you. Next week spend an hour dwelling with God, reading, praying,
talking about Him. I find it hard to believe that if you do that, I don't
think you're gonna come to me and say that didn't work. I think if you ruminate
on Christ, you will be, here's how I know you'll be transformed. First, 2nd
Corinthians 3, 18 says, "And we shall with unveiled face beholding the glory of the
Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to
another." I know this is gonna work because God, through Paul, says so. "Beholding
the glory of Christ changes us." And if it doesn't change you, you need the Spirit
of God. The reality that Jesus is the new Moses, the new Elijah, the Son of God, the
Messiah, it changes us. In fact, Paul says it changes us into the image of Christ.
When you dwell on your sin, and I'm speaking out of experience, ruminate on
your sin. Think about your sin. You are being conformed to your sin. You are
becoming like your sin. That's how our hearts work. And so if you dwell on Christ,
think about Him. You will be conformed to His image. When we sin, we're being
transformed into something that God did not intend. But when we dwell on the, and
behold the glory of Christ, we are being transformed into the image of Christ.
Paul also says in Romans 12 too, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind. Don't behold your sin. Behold Christ.
Don't behold your sin and be conformed to it. Behold Christ and be conformed to
Him. I promise you, I promise you this will work. And not just for your good,
but for the glory of God also." Man, we live, we are fearful. I'm fearful. We're
doubtful. We are facing suffering. We have faced suffering. We will face
suffering. And the only solution to this is Christ. Whether it's momentary or long
lasting. I have friends going through hard times and I tell them, "Listen man,
you're gonna hear a lot of advice. The only solution is Jesus. And I will tell
you that until I'm blue in the face. Nothing's gonna work unless you behold
Jesus. And it will work. It will work for your good. And better, it will work for
God's glory. Maybe sometimes the cry of our heart is that, "God, I don't know what
your plan is. And that has me scared and in doubt." Or maybe it's, "God, I have a
hard time seeing how your plan actually works for me in the end." That's a very
real possibility as well. In these situations, behold the glory of Christ.
Ruminate on him. Think on him. Dwell with him. Pray with him. Speak about him. These
realities of transfiguration. Remembering that Jesus is the new Moses who
is leading us out of bondage of sin and death. Liberating us from sin. Remembering
that he's a new Elijah who has come to bring all that God has promised. He's
come to bring that to you today. And remembering that he's God in the flesh
dwelling among you. These three things and many, many more things will strengthen
you in your doubt, in your fear, and in your suffering. It will transform you
from one degree of glory to the next. It will conform you to the image of Christ.
Now notice, none of these things, none of this might solve your situation.
I'm not saying that if you do this, your worldly troubles will go away. I'm not
saying that. In fact, I think sometimes we're promised the opposite in Scripture.
What I'm saying is you will be strengthened during these times. This
whole transfiguration scene that mirrors Moses and Elijah. Moses, Elijah, and
Jesus all experience this in hard times during their ministry.
Moses, the Israelites are rejecting Moses. They're upset with him for bringing
them out of Egypt. And God is strengthening Moses during that time.
Elijah's running because they're killing the prophets. God strengthens him on the
mountain. Jesus is about to suffer and his disciples as well. And God brings him
up the mountain, transfigures him, and strengthens him. He still has to go down
the mountain and suffer. Right after this, he goes down and talks to a
father of a boy who's even possessed. And he has to deal with all that, and he's
gonna keep going down the mountain until he dies. Jesus' trouble of dying wasn't
wiped away because he beheld Christ, but he was strengthened in that. The disciples
were strengthened in that because they saw the glory of Christ. Let's pray and
then Elon's gonna lead us through communion. Lord, God, this is this is so
difficult sometimes for me. Sometimes I'm so single-minded on stuff that
doesn't matter. And then I have the audacity to complain to you why I don't
feel your presence, why I don't know you better. And it's so simple because you
tell us that if we behold you, we have the faith to see you, that you will
strengthen us. So God, I pray that as we go throughout this week, give us practical
ways of strengthening us, give us practical ways of beholding you. And God,
I pray that we are radically transformed by your glory. That the
reality that you are leading us out of sin and death is a radical reality for
us. That this new age, the kingdom of God that we partake in becomes a reality for
us. Lord, thank you for showing us your glory and show it to us in greater and
greater degrees. Amen.