The Majesty of God

of us if you'll go ahead and grab your Bibles we're going to be in second Peter today second Peter and you're like well that's not Luke uh we are going to start Luke back um again around uh the middle of February so for the next six weeks we're going to be walking through a series um called vision and the series is um I kind of even added just a little bit of a title underneath it which is building the future by rediscovering the past and so what we're going to be looking at over the next six weeks specifically is who we are as a church

and what God has called us to do at this time for this moment for this city including you as a part of it and and just what all of that means and so if if you've been visiting with us if if you're uh gone through our DNA process which is our membership class um and and still haven't quite not yet joined this is still just a great time for you just to know who we are what we're about what we're going to be doing and and the reason ultimately why we're doing all of those things and so that's what we're going to look at over

the next six weeks then we will jump back into Luke and Lord willing we will finish Luke in November and so we're just going to roll through Luke um from February even through the summer months um and all the way into uh November and and like I said Lord willing we'll we'll finish it then not because we just like want to finish it um but that's that's what the schedule is is for it for the next year um and as we kind of dive into this Vision series just to sort of put my cards on the table My Hope and prayer for this series is

not uh for us to kind of lay out for you what we think is going to make the district Church successful uh I I really don't care about that what we ultimately care about is is whether or not we as a body are fulfilling what God has has called us to do called us to be because if that is what we do then not only will the district Church be here um but it will be fruitful and it will be representative of what God has called us to be as a people as a group as a community within the city of Indianapolis the city will

be better for it because God's work in in bringing the kingdom of God down here to Indianapolis will be um going on that'll be happening and and ultimately people will be coming to know who Christ is and being able to treasure him and help others follow him as well like that will happen if we are about what God is ultimately doing and so it's not about the district church and whether or not it's successful U because if we just wanted to be the district church and have it be successful well there's a thousand different strategies that we could Implement in order to do that there's

there's a bunch of different just marketing plays and employees that we could Implement in order to become big fast and famous and ultimately like that's not what I want for us that that doesn't allow me to sleep well at night time um because that's that's not what God has called us to if you were to go back over the last this is why I say like we want to be a church that builds the future by rediscovering the past if you look back over the past and you look over any type of church movement that went big fast and famous you can't go to those

churches anymore because they fizzled out or they just moved on and swapped over to another church and to another movement or to another organization rather what we want to establish here again is a mentality that we're not focusing on how we can go as fast as possible and get as big as possible as quick as possible but rather build something that last not only for Our Generation but for the generations to come because we are actually relying upon what God has established and what he's building among our people that isn't just for us but it's for the future Generations Beyond us as well and so

what that means is it doesn't just come to you listening to a six week series and saying I like that I agree with that but rather a series in which you come behind it and you say you know what that is something that I can belong to engage in support and participate in because if if you're just looking for a church that you can sit back and say I agree with this and I like this but don't engage in it or participate in it or support it then we're just not the church for you and and and I can give you churches that you can

go and be that in um in order for what I'm going to preach over for the next six weeks in order for it to function and actually come to fruition is going to take all of us being the body of Christ so there's not going to be a an allowance for there to be a spectator mentality there's not going to be an allowance for for you to just simply passively agree with it and wholeheartedly give an amen here and there but rather rather that you actually engage in it and be a part of this church um to give you some analogies if you love sports

there are no Benchwarmers in this if you love Broadway there are no standbys or underst studies hoping that they might actually get in at some point if you love Law and Order shows there are no Junior Associates we we are all rather actual managing Partners lawyers representatives of the Gospel if you love cooking shows we're we're not just judges sitting back saying whether or not we think what is being done is going well or not but rather we are the cooks in the kitchen with the gospel as our recipe that God's given us if you're in the medical profession we're we're not merely the receptionists

at the front of the hospital directing you which floor to go to but we are the doctors with the the gospel as our scalpel if you love politics we we are not simply voting every couple of years on whether or not the church is executing something that we agree with but we are taking what we vote on and go to the streets and actually seek the change that we are voting for but to actually bring it down to a Biblical metaphor we are simply the body of Christ and and as the body of Christ every member of the body has a specific function in order

for the body of Christ to move and have its being to be effective in the advance of the Gospel so if you're going to call the district Church the church in which you are a member then we are together we are going to treasure Jesus and we're going to help others follow him and you're going to have a part that is playing that out and that's what we're going to be talking about over these next six weeks and so be to begin with today the way that you're going to kind of feel this as it kind of moves through these six weeks is we're going

to start off with like a 30,000 foot view um kind of bird's eye view overhead of what God's plan is for the Redemption of the world and then and and and what means he institutes in order for his plan what he is all about to actually happen and then we're going to slowly move it into the ground level which is you individually so that's how we're going to kind of progress through this over the next six weeks and to do that I want to start by telling you a story about a pastor in the mid 20th century that I believe um will serve as sort

of a preface for why I titled this series vision building the future by rediscovering the past and so the year was 1959 uh a Welsh Pastor medical doctor his name is Dr Martin Lloyd Jones many of you might have heard of him or read some of his books or listen to some of his sermons in 1959 he preached a series of 24 sermons on the topic of of Revival um which at that time was just wanted to see an Awakening of God kind of sweep through the English-speaking world at the time because he was actually really frustrated with the current state of the church in

the 50s in in England um now he was in Wales and that's where he was pastoring a church there but he was really struggling with Christianity in his day in in England at the time it was dwindling the church was shrinking secular ideology was was appearing at the time Valiant um and just really determined to sort of conquer the age and some might even say like that's kind of how we feel in a way now where when we look at uh demographic studies or we look at Christendom and we look at Christianity and the church it feels like secular society is winning and the church

is sort of shrinking or pulling back and really what's going on in that and so Lloyd Jones was unsettled at the current state of the church and so he sought out to to Really solve some things but he wanted to pop the hood on the church and what was going on in in his day and age and so he sent a letter to to a lot of his kind of pastoral friends in the area and this was one of the things that he said regarding that he said my dear friends there is only one explanation for the state of the church today it is the

work of the Philistines which was I mean a rough thing to say to your to your friends but what was happening in that day was a lot of the churches were diving into new methods New Age ideologies kind of taking whatever the culture was doing and let's syncretize that let's pull that in and try to use their methods attach Christianity to it and see if that will be effective in its day and age and what he was looking at was saying you're essentially stripping Christianity from its power in order to try and win the culture so you're essentially just trying to take the culture attach

the message of Christianity to it and then roll it out and say here's how we're going to win the culture back and what he's trying to explain to his friends is we're losing this battle if that's what we do if we try to reinvent Christianity by making it look like the culture what we're actually doing is just becoming the culture and that's not going to win anybody what he actually goes on to say um is is eventually in order for us to actually do this we need to ReDiscover the past we need to ReDiscover the effectiveness of Christian Ministry that has tested and proven its

ability over the last 2,000 years in that one of those sermons that he preached actually goes on to um to talk about a passage in Genesis 26 um Verse 17- 18 and the the the sermon that he preached was titled the power and the possibilities the power and the possibilities he was talking about there there's a huge possibility there's a huge opportunity for us to win our world for Christ but we got to have the power we got to have the power and the reason why he preached Genesis 261 17-18 is because it says this Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of

guar and settled there and Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham and he gave them the name names that his father had given them when when he says that the culture is really just sort of kind of acting in line with what the Philistines have done what he's saying there is is historically there's always going to be a party that is running against whatever God's plans are whatever God's people are ultimately doing and that's sort of the spirit of the Philistines it's this group of

people if you're like I don't know who the Philistines are you might know who Goliath is Goliath comes from the Philistines the Philistines are a pagan people who are worshiping pagan gods they're not worshiping the true God and they're always presenting themselves in hostility towards God's plans and God's people and so what he's saying is is that Spirit of the Philistines is honestly just continue on continuing on throughout our entire history there's always going to be someone or a people or an ideology that wants to thwart God's plans be against against God's plans be against God's people and the best way to do it is

to try to get it into the church into God's people to try to render it ineffective and he's saying that Spirit has been what's come into the church in order to rid the Church of the spirit of the Philistines we got to get back to the actual power of the church to the actual substance of the church and he pulls out this passage from Genesis to show that God gave a promise and a plan to Abraham who is the father of the people of God really the start of the people of God he gave this promise to him and he said in order for your

people to have a life of vibrancy you you got to have something that is providing for them and so he tells Abraham I want you to go dig these Wells and from this Wellspring of life this water is what's going to allow for the people and for the countryside to have to have provision to have what they need they need a water source well the Philistines actually came in and they filled in those Wells with Earth and dirt and because they wanted to cut the people off from God's provision well then God comes to Isaac after Abraham has died he comes to Isaac and he

says I made a covenant with your father I made a promise to him that I was going to provide for him I was going to provide for the people and so what I want you to do is I want you to reinvent the will I want you to create some new methods and see whatever the Philistines are doing and just do whatever they no that's not what God does with Isaac what God does with Isaac is he says hey Isaac I I already did something that works really well and I want you to go back and I want you to redig the Wells that I

gave to your father Abraham I want you to dive into that source that I've already provided so that your people will continue to be able to flourish and to live off of The Wealth Springs that are flowing from this which really the wells are all about Jesus Jesus is the Wellspring of our life he's is the Living Water that we're drawing Source from and that's what he's really getting at and that's where Martin Lloyd Jones is also saying is that we've got to get back to this idea of drawing from the wells Springs from the water from the wells that God has ultimately given to

us in order to create and establish a people for this time if we just try to reinvent the will and we try to do new methods of ministry if we try to create new market strategies if we try to do things that look like what's effective in the secular realm well we actually just rip ourselves from the actual power that makes something new and so throughout this series we're going to be redigging the wells in church history that have their foundations in scripture so that the Wellspring of water that is the power of God to make disciples will be what we rely on to Treasure

Jesus and help others follow him and the results will be people coming to Jesus and quenching their thirst from the living water from the true well that is Christ and so I'm going to give you a few Wells that I believe we are to ReDiscover to redig if you will in order for us to build a foundation for what the next few weeks are going to look like and ultimately again putting my cards on the table what the coming de decades are going to look like the coming decades are going to look like because what I don't want us to do is establish a vision

that is essentially just going to be like hey here's how we survive 2024 like here's how we make sure that we as a church celebrate New Years next year like that's a that's a bunker mentality versus a cathedral mentality and what I mean by that is a bunker mentality is Survival Let's just just gather as many resources as we can let let's gather the people that we have let's solidify those relationships and then let's just spend our resources in survival mode let's just make sure we're here a year from now well that's no vision at all that's no vision at all that that's not a

conquering mentality that's a let's protect us and then honestly damn to everyone else right like let's close the doors and let everyone else die but if you actually look at the idea of a cathedral mentality and and when I say Cathedral I'm like literally picturing like medieval Cathedrals like the ones that when you go visit another country this is like one of the sites to see now regardless of what church is involved in the cathedral or or what denomination that's not what I'm talking about there was a reason why they built Cathedrals back in the day there was a reason for it and and before

you like think I'm running down the idea of like well the church is not a building the church is the body 100% the church is the body of Christ like we can worship anywhere in the midst of any four walls that doesn't matter but Cathedrals communicated something back in the day one of the things that communicated was this body of Christ that gathers is gathering for something very specific it's Gathering because of the glory and the beauty of who God is that has brought his kingdom from Heaven to Earth is something Majestic to behold and so what we want to construct and build is something

that in a way reflects this reverence and this beauty that we are beholding in our individual lives and so we want the building to reflect that so when people come into this we want them to have a picture an illustration of what we are experiencing on the inside and so we want to invest millions of dollars into picturing something that is going on inside our souls so we don't want this to be a Shabby tent that we are constructing and building we want it to communicate the radiance and glory and beauty of who Christ is in addition to that one of the reasons why they

built Cathedrals was they wanted to build something that lasts we're claiming this community with what we are constructing which is why when you go back to those they built them in such a way that they're like this isn't going anywhere barring a war comes in and destroys it like there's a reason why you can still go and visit notredam Cathedral it survived a lot of things because of how they constructed it how they built it in addition to that they want to build something that lasts because of the Covenant Community that God is constructing with us is not something that allows us to just say

this is good good for me today but I'm constructing I'm building I'm working towards a life that is not just for me but it's for my children it's for my children's children like I want to live a life in such a way that what God is doing the glory that I'm beholding and the work that he is doing in my heart and in my life is not just for me to have a personal relationship with Jesus but I'm hoping that what he is doing in me is also establishing and so transforming my life that I want my children to behold this I want their children

to behold this I want my great grandchildren to behold this because of who he is and so we're not looking to just establish a bunker for survival but to build a a essentially an ethereal cathedral in the body of Christ that is something to Behold a community of people that the outside looks at and they say wow like there's something there that is different from everything else that I'm experiencing when it comes to community when it comes to work when it comes to relationships there's something different there so I'm just saying let's build a cathedral a vision that reflects the beauty and glory of God

and in turn establishes a beautiful and glorious people here in Indie and Beyond and so think about this in in three Wells I'm going to give you three Wells that we want to ReDiscover redig for today as kind of a foundation for this series moving forward the first well is simply and I've kind of already alluded to it the Majestic glory of God like if you're a part of the district church just because like you were alone you didn't have any friends and you just wanted a community of people like I like our people I love our people I think we're a great people but

if it's just for that I mean there there's so many other organizations that you can go be like go join a YMCA like go join a gym membership like there's so many places and areas where you can go and find Community I mean honestly that's actually the number one reason why people join Cults is because it's a place where they can belong it's like it's a place where someone says I see you I know you I love you I'm going to provide for you I'm going to help you out I'm going to be there for you but again they they could be as far off

from what the true meaning of life is all about but because it's a place to belong it's a place to be a part of it's a place to be seen and to have a place and have a part to be a member of it well again that's not enough that's not enough and so we don't want the district church just to be a place where we can come and have a sense of belonging that's a part of it but it's not the main thing the main thing is the Majestic glory of God as Colossians 3:11 says Christ is all and in all I mean if

there were one like slogan phrase that we want to Proclaim constantly constantly like when we say treasuring Jesus and helping others follow him what we're really saying is is that we want when we say treasuring Christ we're saying Christ is all Christ is all like he's everything my life is about and I want Christ in all which means all of Christ for all of life so I want Christ to be everything that I long for everything that I turn to everything that I emulate everything that I worship I want it to all be Christ and then I also want to get Christ into every nook

and cranny of my life so how I how I um Lord my life in a way how I Steward my life how I how I am self-disciplined because of being all about Christ it allows me to be able to rule myself in such a way that I'm a self-disciplined individual because Christ is self-disciplined how I interact with others and the generosity that I show others is because of the generosity that Christ has shown me how I interact in the domains of my society around me how I interact in my family all of that is because I'm taking my relation relationship with Christ and I'm embedding

it and ingraining it into the world around me why because I'm seeing the Beauty and the glory of Jesus and I'm wanting everything around me to reflect that as well to reflect it that's why 2 Thessalonians 1 11-12 um actually preached this last week so for those of you who were still recovering from New Year's um which it was New Year's Eve when it when we preached it so I guess you weren't really recover recovering from it yet you're recovering from Christmas okay but anyways this is what I preached last week to this end and all and we always pray for you that our God

may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of Faith by his power so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of God our Lord Jesus Christ what he's saying there is the the ultimate end of of everything that we're doing is so that Christ would be glorified in you and you in him like it's all about his glory it's not about your glory it's all about his glory everything God is doing is for the the sake and Renown of his glory and you're like

okay what is that it's looking at God and having him revealed to us simply how amazing he is how wonderful he is how contradictory he is to everything else we experience here in this world because what we experience is a fractured reflection of his glory like you got to go back to the very start of everything in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth he created everything why because he was So Glorious so beautiful so wonderful so Majestic and because he's not selfish he wants to express the glory he wants to share the glory and so he wants to write in through creation

a people who get to experience how wonderful and beautiful and Majestic and glorious he is and so he creates all of creation he does two things he creates creation everything that we see perceive no experience to reflect his glory we just call it the book of creation not that it's like a 67th book of the Bible but the book of creation is putting on display how beautiful and glorious God Is So when you look at the Grand Canyon you're looking at it and and there's a sense of a there's a sense of reverence there's a sense of wow when you when you see the ocean

for the first time I was 18 years old when I saw the ocean for the first time didn't know there was anything else outside of Tennessee but I got outside of Tennessee and I saw something I saw the ocean and I was like I mean there was just a sense of kind of just takes your breath away for a moment like that just so pels in comparison to the Beauty and the glory of God but that's what it was proclaiming like the book of creation is revealing to us something about the glory of God it's a picture into his glory it's a picture into his

awesomeness God created this he painted this when you see mountains that's why that's why we so long as created beings to get into creation and experience it because God wants to reveal to us his glory he wants us to experience it so not only did he create creation to tell us that story but then he took something even further than just what we see in our world he created us as the only thing in creation that actually image his glory that reflect his glory and that's why 1 Corinthians 11:7 says that man is the image and the glory of God which is such a fascinating

word there I mean that we are the image and glory of God which means when when anybody man in its intended creation before sin came in is the best thing that you can look at and see the glory of God to see the the glory of God to have the glory of God unfold and tell its Story 1 Corinthians 11:7 even goes on to say the glory of man is woman like the the most beautiful thing that reflects that is woman like so the between man and woman the best thing that you can see about God is looking at them to gain an insight into

who God is and what he is like so it's all about his glory but then we broke it we fractured it we s against him and therefore now are not rightly reflecting the glory of God and if God's whole reason for why he created everything was so that his glory is told his glory is shared his Beauty and Renown is honored and worshiped and revered well if it's fractured then it's got to be fixed it's got to be solved and so that ushers in ultimately the entire mission of God is to get his glory rightly reflected once again because that's what he's all about he's

all about us experiencing his glory and so what has to happen is Humanity which is the glory of God has to get fixed it's got to be redeemed back to its ordered and perfected glorious state which was what we were prior to sin ultimately and so that's where it enters in Christ and we'll get into that here in the next few weeks but this is what needs to happen unfortunately because of sin God coming with a plan the enemy has constantly been counterfeiting his plan to keep us from ever seeing it to keep us from ever seeing it and so for example if you were

to take at the time of Jesus um well a little bit after the time of Jesus Roman Empire around 161 to 180 ad during the persecu persecution of Christians under Marcus aelius um arenus was the Bishop Pastor of the Church of lion and this is what he stated the glory of God is Man Fully Alive Fully Alive well the only way in which men can ultimately become fully alive again is being able to understand the origin story that God created everything and it was beautiful it was wonderful it was good it was very good and then we fractured it we sinned and He sent Jesus

to ultimately redeem everything and bring it back into its glorious State well during the Roman Empire during that time what's going on what they essentially establishing as their state religion is this polytheistic this pluralistic View of of Greek god and Roman mythology and all they have been doing and and what I just ultimately believe has been the same play over and over and over from the Fallen Angels the demons the Demonic realm the evil sinful humans as well is we're just taking the origin story of God and we're rewriting it we're redefining it we're we're adding to it we're sort of perverting it in a

way in order to give something someone or give someone Something to Believe In that's not the truth thing but something that's kind of similar to it and so for example if you were to dive into Greek mythology or even Roman mythology they're both separate they're both different but they definitely Roman theology is uh built off of Greek mythology ultimately but their belief is that in the beginning was chaos chaos is this God that's ruling and reigning and Chaos which is this emptiness this Darkness this confusion out of chaos begot our Cosmos begot our and and and I included this in the email this week but

but it's really where our universe comes from is that it came out of chaos and then gave way to our Cosmos and we are just now kind of trying to figure that out and so what it's done is is then it's taken all of these beautiful glorious attributes of the one true God and it's compartmentalized all those attributes and just made each of them a God in their own way so for example where our true God can look at the SE and calm it in a moment because it has that ability he he's got that Divinity over it they'll take it the enemy will say

well let's just ascribe that attribute as a god let's name it Poseidon let's just give it a name and just worship that attribute rather than worshiping God and they continue to run that play over and over and over well he's the God of Thunder he's the god let's just name them for let's just name it something else let's just get people worshiping the attributes of God and not worshiping the true God and that's where you get all of this distorted perverted um religions and rituals across all time they're all doing the same thing let's take the true thing pervert it in a different way and

then misguide it and get everybody to believe that thing as long as they're believing that thing they'll never believe the real thing and that's what he's ultimately pulling us down into is we don't believe in the chaos that gave way to the cosmos we believe in the logos we believe in the word of God which is what John 1 tells us when he says this in the beginning was the word logos and the logos was with God and the Loos was God he was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made

in him was life and the life was the light of men just as they sought to re write their history into chaos and not believing the logos guess what we're doing today we're just doing the same thing I mean this was 2,000 years ago but today what are we doing well we're looking at the image of God we're looking at male and female and we're saying you know what let's redefine that let's rewrite it it's not been working out for us let let's let's take the true thing and because we feel different about it let's rewrite it why do we feel different about it because

we're sinful we're sinful we're longing for satisfaction and because we're sinful and we're not seeing it clearly well then let's try to solve it ourselves and figure it out ourselves and so we rewrite our history we redefine our history and it just continues running the same play that's been running for all of human history let's trust back in chaos and Anarchy rather than true L God the one true God which creates order and so we as the district church we don't need to come up with clever Ministry programs or marketing schemes to reach Indianapolis if we in fact experience and rejoice in the Majesty of

Jesus Christ Alone we don't need to rewrite things we don't need to re Define things we don't need to take from and borrow from the current cultural moment and say here's how church can actually be effective we're losing the culture wars so let's just kind of merge in with cultural um what's going on in the cultural moment and let's borrow from marketing strategies and so forth and let's let's win our society no it's not going to work the only way it can work is if we get back to what actually has substance the Majesty and beauty of God the Renown of him and that's why

second Peter 1 I think I told you to turn to Second Peter at the very beginning we're there now um second Peter 111 16-21 says this for we did not follow this is Peter just speaking we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we were eyewitnesses to his majesty I mean remember he's in the context of this pluralistic Roman mythology serving hundreds if not thousands of gods I mean they even they would walk into different Villages and they would see temples to an unknown God like we don't know if we've

missed any we just want to make sure that we don't miss any so let's just create a temple to an unknown God because again we want to make sure we're doing doing the right thing we're on the right side of history and so let's worship something that we don't even know what we're worshiping and he says we do not follow these cleverly devised myths but rather we follow the Majesty we follow the glory of Jesus he then goes on to say for when he Jesus received honor and Glory from God the father and the voice was born Bor to him by the Majestic Glory this

is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the Holy Mountain now what Peter is doing here is he's recalling from memory and experience the time when he was on the mountain and Jesus was transfigured in his midst an incredible moment you don't have to turn there with me um I'll read it for you but Matthew 17 is where he goes with this and it's after six days Jesus Took with him Peter and James and John his brother brother and led them up a high mountain by themselves and he

was transfigured before them and his face Shone like the sun and his clothes became White as light th this is what Peter is recalling when he's explaining this to his people well in that verse the idea of being transfigured in Greek is metamorph which is where we get the phrase metamorphous from and it literally means to transform from one figure into something more beautiful and radiant we get to participate in this Glory as well if you did not know like what happened to Jesus on the mountain of transfiguration is what's happening to us now not necessarily in that fast track of a moment like it

did for him but it's what's happening to us through our process of sanctification and Ministry and discipleship listen to this in 2 Corinthians 3:1 15-18 to this day whenever Moses is read aail Lies over their hearts and all he means by that is when you're um in your sin you can't see the truth like you just can't see the truth God's got to remove that Veil from you but when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom we we want that freedom we want to experience and we

all with unveiled face which means we are now able to behold his majesty and His glory we can see it beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed metamorph into the same image from one degree of Glory to another remember what did I say we are image bearers we are the glory of God in creation of mankind how is God redeeming his glory it's through the sanctification of us it's through the transformation of us it's through the discipleship of us that is how he is bringing his kingdom down to earth mean when we when we're talking about the Lord's Prayer and he's praying Your

Kingdom in Heaven bring it to Earth as it is in heaven bring it here it's as your glory is in heaven reflected in us here it's not just hey things seem like they go pretty well in heaven so like bring it down so that we can have that same type of order with our government with our housing with our family with our school with our like with the domains of society how does that actually happen it happens through your transformation Society will not be transformed if you are not transformed and discipleship does not take place in that moment that's what Peter is recalling when he's

explaining this as it continues on in Matthew as he's there on the mountain of transfiguration says behold there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him and Peter said to Jesus Lord it is good that we are here well it's good that we're seeing this if you wish I will make three tents here one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah he was still speaking when Behold a bright Cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased listen to him and when the disciples heard this they fell on their

faces and they were terrified but Jesus came and touched them saying rise and have no fear and when they lifted up their eyes they saw no one but Jesus only and as they were coming down the mountain Jesus commanded them don't tell anyone of this Vision until the son of man is raised from the dead they still didn't fully understand what he meant by that yet but what's interesting I want to point this out what's interesting about this moment is that the next next event in the story of Jesus's Ministry is encountering a son who had an unclean spirit and was very ill and it

actually says that the disciples when they encountered this this uh boy with an unclean Spirit like they tried to to cast the spirit out they tried to do an exorcism um for this boy Jesus ends up but they were unable to do it Jesus ends up coming in he he helps the boy he casts out the unclean spirit in casting out the unclean Spirit the boy actually dies and then Jesus brings the boy back to life um in the moment and then the disciples then ask Jesus after that event happens the disciples go to him and they said how how come when we tried it

didn't work for us like we did the exact same thing you did but it didn't work for us why and Jesus responded them one simple thing he says this could only happen by Prayer by prayer prayer the glory of Jesus coming down so so picture this Peter James and John they just experience a moment where they see the glory of God come down and rest upon Jesus that transfigures him transforms him in a way he he experiences or expresses the beauty and Radiance of who God is at the same time they're engaging in min Ministry but yet engage in Ministry in such a way where

they were ineffective and so they go to Jesus and say how come it didn't work for us and he says well this one can only be done by prayer which gives us a little bit of insight into the kind of ministry that they were trying to conduct in that moment um they didn't draw on the glory of God and they didn't ask that God do it so at this point in the ministry of them of the disciples they're thinking we've seen some things we've experienced some things we've done some things we've got this we've got this so we don't need your glory and we don't

need your prayer we're just going to run with it ourselves at this point thank you for what you've taught us but we can go from here and so Jesus lets them fumble he he lets them become ineffective and then he shows back up on the scene and he says let me remind you of something let me remind you of the Glory that is the power that comes down the kingdom of of Heaven to us on Earth that needs to come down and then not only that but you need to request it you need to request it in order for those who are dead in their

sins and transgressions to come back to life which is the second well that we dig from the first well is that we need to experience the exact same thing that they experienced on the mountain we need to Behold The Glory of of God and then secondly the well that we dig is prayer prayer we as a church will not be successful in Ministry if we're not beholding the glory of God and relying upon effective Ministry through prayer which means let's not do anything if we are not asking God to accomplish it before we do it what we actually do is we just go out and

we're doing the work of ministry without the power of ministry that's actually just doing it in vain because it's not going to be effective was it wrong for them to go and try and help this boy and cast out this demon this Spirit no honestly what most people would probably say is man just keep going just keep being faithful just keep doing the same thing over and over and over just keep preaching the gospel just keep keep teaching people keep telling them about Jesus keep doing what you're doing but if you neglect the glory of God and you neglect prayer then your means of ministry

is void it's void it doesn't matter what you do or even what you Proclaim if you're not relying upon God by his power to conduct it which is why we preached what we preached last week in that second Thessalonians verse that he might make you worthy of his calling that he might fulfill every resolve for good that he might transform that resolve for good into a work of Faith Like that's Ministry but he captions it with by his power like that's what Paul's praying to the Thessalonians I'm praying that God would establish these things among you but the only way he's going to do that

if it's by his power not yours not your eloquent speech not your cleverly devised myths not your cleverly devised Ministry strategies or plans or whatever it is plan all you want it's not going to work if it's not done by his power through prayer and then there's a third well that I want you to see here in second Peter looking down into verse 19 Peter goes on to say we have the prophetic word more fully conver confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day Dawns and The Morning Star rises in your

hearts knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy has ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried Along by the Holy Spirit the third well is that the word word of God that Peter is instructing us to pay attention to because it is the lamp that lights our path in the midst of our Darkness he's saying three things you need in order to have an effective Ministry you need to behold the word of God you need to request it through prayer and then Proclaim it by his word

something that we did not come up with but rather we carried along with by the Holy Spirit what he's ultimately saying there is is to these people that he's teaching he's telling them everything that was considered in the Old Testament and everything that we are even writing right now as I am living and breathing is by the holy spirit this is not something that again we cleverly came up with ourselves this is not something that we interpreted ourselves but rather this is the holy spirit working in us as scribes to write down the word of God that we need in order to Proclaim God's plan

and his Redemptive truth to the world around us and again this word is the logos the logos we need logos in order to combat the chaos that's what we need we need truth that's why when Jesus says in John 14:6 I'm the way I'm the truth I'm the life right now our society our culture have no idea what truth is have no idea what truth is honestly just truth is whatever you think it is and then and then are preaching a tolerance so whatever your truth is we're tolerant of that whatever your truth is we're tolerant of that whatever your truth is we're tolerant of

that until you say Your Truth combats theirs and then all a sudden now it's intolerant we need logos to combat the chaos because when you put logos and Chaos in a ring logos wins every single time wins every single time so we don't need to water down the word we don't need to Ted Talk sermons like unfortunately and this is what Martin Louis Jones was getting at in his day is that what the church was trying to accomplish as secular culture looked like they were winning was how can we lower the bar enough so that people feel comfortable coming in and we just give them

the bare minimum what's the lowest common denominator that we could possibly give for people to say oh yeah I agree with that yeah Jesus is loving let's just preach that God is love so let's preach that so is if if God is love and Jesus is loving and I and I then love well then I'm doing what God is right we need the word the inspired word of God as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says that is breathed out by God and that's profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training in righteousness that the man of God might be equipped and complete for every good work

which means if you just look at that the word of God is going to be good for me profitable so please give give me the word of God give me the word of God that's why I believe like when Paul talks about the charge of them is to proclaim the whole councel of the word of God and I've said like as long as I'm going to be the pastor of the district Church my goal and the reason why we do expository preaching the reason why we go through books of the Bible is because my goal is to preach the entire Bible to a people and

let that word transform us as we request the power of God to do that work and as it reveals to us the beauty and Glory of who God is like that's why we gather is so that we can experience those three things the behold the beauty and Glory of who Jesus is in contradiction to the culture around us he's different than everything else that we request his power to come down and transform Us and how does it transform us through the proclamation of his word logos which is the written representation of who Jesus Christ is that's what we are doing in order for this church

to be effective in moving forward to actually create any sort of transformation in our society that is able to look at me as an individual and teach me reprove me correct me and then train me in righteousness why because before Christ I was sinful and I was in error and I believed as Proverbs 14:12 was I believe that there was a right way to live but yet it leads to death so if I think there's a right way to live then my thoughts need to be transformed my life needs to be corrected my path needs to be um um evaded and moved in a different

direction and so I need a light to come in and shine in my darkness to show me a better way of doing things a better Direction a better glory to pursue and so church as we seek to understand the Redemptive story of God in human history and our place in it we got to redig the first well of seeking Glory from God himself we got to redig the well well that is the source of prayer to provide effective Ministry and we got to redig The Well of rediscovering the actual word of God and preaching the word of God which is again why we do expositional

preaching it's not just verse by verse preaching you can actually do verse by verse preaching and and and still create it in a TED Talk kind of way expository preaching is exposing the meaning of the scripture to you so that it actually can change and transform who you are for the intention of what God has created you to be that's what you need in order to be transformed from one degree of glory to the next so those are the three things and your application is simple seek the glory of God behold the beauty of God in who he is and behold the activity of God

and what he's accomplishing and then pray pray for your transformation in the gospel pray for your transformation in the word pray for your transformation in one degree of glory to the next through discipleship and then also pray for your ministry in Christ because it's not just for you that you are transformed it's that your domains of society are transformed because of the work of God in you and through you to those around you and then number three know and preach the word of God like you got to know the word you got to know what to Proclaim that actually provides for them what they need

to be able to hear and see who God is to be able to know the Beauty and beholding the glory of who he is and that's what the written word of God provides for us and grow in your boldness to declare it as Peter goes on to say confidence in this confidence like being able to look at our society with boldness and tell them hey uh what what you're believing is just chaos it's Anarchy it's it's it's a fracturing of the truth like I think what you're wanting is something that is beautiful and something that is great and something that is somewhat ordered like everyone

was wanting the pursuit of happiness but the goal and the means that you're using to get there is just not true it's not the true God it's not the true Christ and until we deal with that sin uh you're just going to be the hamster will spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning and never get anywhere and so we got to have boldness to be able to Proclaim that and so that's what we need church and we're going to continue to unpack that and redig those Wells as we move into the mission and vision of this church that's the mission of God and that's the

resources that God has given us to accomplish it and that's got to be our foundation before we continue looking at our actual strategy when it comes to here in Indianapolis let's pray together father we thank you for this ministry that you have established here and we thank you that we have another year 2024 to be able to give our lives over to this but my prayer is not that it's just 2024 that we have our eyes on but that is the next 200 years and we know the only thing that's going to allow us to be a church that is effective for the next 200

years is if we are beholding the majesty and beauty of you that we are bringing and requesting your power from heaven to Earth through prayer and that we are then proclaiming and declaring with boldness and confidence your word that actually brings transformation you we need those things God so help steer Us in that direction pull us in that direction help us redig those Wells and ReDiscover that Wellspring of life God we love you and we're so thankful for you it's in Jesus name we pray amen