Pastor Dan's Messages: February 2022

Luke 9:28-36 (NLT) - The Transfiguration

²⁸ About eight days later Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray.

²⁹ And as He was praying, the appearance of His Face was transformed, and His clothes became dazzling white.

³⁰ Suddenly, two men, Moses, and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus.

³¹ They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about His exodus (departure) from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.

³²Peter and the others had fallen asleep. When they woke up, they saw Jesus’ Glory and the two men standing with Him. ³³ As Moses and Elijah were starting to leave, Peter, not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out, “Master, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ³⁴ But even as he was saying this, a cloud overshadowed them, and terror gripped them as the cloud covered them.

³⁵ Then a voice from the cloud said, “This is My Son, My Chosen One.

Listen to Him.” ³⁶When the voice finished, Jesus was there alone. They didn’t tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

Allow me to begin with a QUESTION.

On What DATE - Would You Say

Was The LAST TIME

That The Lord Himself

Communicated With Us?

Was it the Day When:

Apostle John

Wrote the Book of Revelation?

Was it on the Day When:

The Lord Ascended into Heaven?

(Mark 16:19-20. Luke 24:36-53. Acts 1:6-12)

When Would You Say

Was the Last Time

That the Lord Communicated

With Us, Those of us here on Earth?

But – REALLY - Has That DATE Ever Came?

You SEE – The Thing Is

Jesus Is Not ‘Stuck’-In the Past.

Jesus is NEVER - EVER

Unrelatable,

Or Old-Fashion!

He Is Never Disconnected

And He Is Never

Far From Us!

But Rather -

He Is ALIVE!

And He Is FULL of LIFE!

Can You See How Those 2 Statements

TRULY Hold 2 Different Meanings?

Jesus Is ALIVE:

1: Having Life - not dead or inanimate. 2: He still is in existence, He is still a force, And He is still operational: He is active - keeping Hope Alive.

Jesus Is FULL OF LIFE:

1. Full of SPIRIT; "Vibrant - Full of Life in a Man or Woman"; "a Vital or Necessary and Captivating Leader"; He is Lively. He is Animated, - He Has Life and Vigor and Full of SPIRIT.

Now – I Know We are Wesleyan’s

And as Part of Our Belief’s

Include – That we should

Abstain From Drinking Alcohol

But Wine Skins is talked about within the Book of Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:18-22 and Luke 5:33-39.

Luke 5:33-39 (NLT)

A Discussion about Fasting

³³ One day some people said to Jesus,

“John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly,

and so do the disciples of the Pharisees.

Why are Your disciples always eating and drinking?”

³⁴ Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not.

³⁵ But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

³⁶Then Jesus gave them this illustration:

“No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.

³⁷ “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine, and ruining the skins. ³⁸ New wine must be stored in new wineskins.

³⁹ But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”

You See, You Can Really BOIL Down All of

Jesus’ Messages and You would have one theme.

“What the Kingdom of God Looks Like”

That Is IT!

But It is Within Today’s Scripture

We find - Jesus and the Father,

GETTING READY

To make ALL THINGS NEW!

Last week, We talked about

The Completeness of Marriage.

And How Marriage Is Jesus’ Example

For us here on earth

For Us to understand the

Type of Relationship

Which He wants to Have with us.

The Relationship between A Man and A Woman.

The Fulfillment of BOTH of Them

Only – Being Found Within ONE in the OTHER.

The Three (With Christ) - Forms One!

And Here – Today

We Have Much of that Same Message,

Jesus is TELLING Us - HE IS SHOWING Us,

That God, Through Christ & the Spirit

WITHIN THE TRINITY,

They Will SOON - DEFINE

The FULFILLMENT of Life’s Outcome.

Within our Scripture of Today –

They – Together,

Are On the Verge of

Creating The Fulfillment

And the Outcome

of a New Life with God!

The Completeness!

The Unity!

Of A ‘New Heaven’ and A ‘New Earth’.

However – within Luke’s writing 5:33-39 (NLT)

We Hear Jesus’ Words Which Is So Saddening.

^5:37 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine, and ruining the skins.

³⁸ New wine must be stored in new wineskins.

³⁹ BUT NO ONE WHO DRINKS THE OLD WINE SEEMS TO WANT THE NEW WINE. ‘THE OLD IS JUST FINE,’ THEY SAY.”

Jesus Is Saying that the People

That is - You and I

That We Are NOT Wanting

This Completeness Within Him!

This Salvation Through Him!

We Are Telling Him – We Are Fine! We are OK!

We Will Catch You Next Time!

And – This Is Supported

By What Is Happening Within Jesus’ Ministry.

You See - At the Time of The Transfiguration,

This is when we Begin to find That Jesus' Ministry

Is Beginning to Lose Steam.

It Seems It Is That the Newness,

The Popularity of His Ministry

Is Not What - It Once Was!

People Are Deciding

That Things May Not Be as Bad

As They Once Thought.

Change Is Difficult!

It Is Risky!

I Brings a Lot of Questions With It!

BUT The Clouds are already beginning to gather.

The Cold Wind is already blowing.

And it is within These Clouds

And In this Cold Blowing Wind

It will take

Jesus’ Fragile ‘Art of His Humanity’,

All the Way to Jerusalem

And to the Cross.

But Here We Are.

The Need IS Still Here!

We Need to Find

The Truth That Christ is Still

Alive and Well,

And He Is Living Within Ourselves.

When We Come To

Our Decisive Moments -

Our Crucial Hours -

Our Pivotal Seconds -

That Is When We NEED the Truth!

The REAL TRUTH –

Which Is Much MORE Than

Having The Morning Newspaper!

Or Knowing of the Latest Fads!

We NEED God’s Solid Truth

To See us Through.

Within Our Moments of Crisis,

We Need to be Able to Go to The Depths.

We Need to Search and Hang on to True Wisdom.

Wisdom which has Stood the Test of Time!

Now Our Scripture Tells Us that Jesus

Called His Closest and Trusted 3 Friends,

Peter, James, and John,

To Go with Him

Up the Mountain to Pray.

And Yes,

We can Insert in here

Another Reason for this Journey

And that Would Be

So that Jesus Could Plan!

^{Luke 9:30} Suddenly, two men, Moses, and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus.

³¹ They were glorious to see.

And they were speaking about His exodus (departure) from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.

The Scripture says that

Moses and Elijah were present with Jesus.

We must First Acknowledge that

These 2 guys (Moses and Elijah) They are

Not Just Shooting Stars -

Here for a Moment – & Gone in the Next!

Flying Across the Night Skies!

These 2 guys are Also Not Meteors

Who Flash a Great Light

Which Is For Only a Few to See,

And then - They Burn-Up

Faster than You Can Say “WOW”!

No!

Moses and Elijah,

‘Together’ - they sum up

The ‘LAW’ and the ‘PROPHETS’.

This Is OLD STUFF!

This Is GOOD STUFF!

This is the Legacy TYPE of The BEST STUFF!

It Is within THE LAW & THE PROPHETS

TOGETHER - They Bring

With Them the Most Profound

Knowledge About Life!

And About God!

Now - What Is Discussed on the Mountain Top –

Has Not Been Revealed.

HOWEVER - It Had to Do with The Events

Which Will Take Place Soon,

Within the Near Future in Jerusalem.

But – I Believe

We Can Be Assured

That this Conversation

Was A Very ‘Intense’ One.

But – Are You Somewhat Like Me?

You See - When I Begin to

Feel that I am Figuring Things Out,

That is When I Begin to Feel

That I am Coming Closer

To Understanding the Truth -

However – It is Also - in these times - When I Realize

That I Still Have Such

A Very Long Ways Yet to go!

YEP – And This Is Also So True!

Just About the Time

When We Begin to Think

That We Have

All the Mysteries Solved.

And within us doing this,

We begin to Feel that

We Are So Brilliant.

That is When We Are

So Carefully Reminded - That Most of What –

Is the Truth –

Is Actually – “Old School Stuff!”

AND It Is Not - New Thinking Stuff - At All!

Do You Understand What I Am Trying to Say?

You See - We May Have

Solved Some of The Mysteries,

But We Have Not Even Begun

To Solve the Mystery.

This All Makes Me Wonder

Whether Those of Us Who Believe

That By Changing Things to the NEW,

We Believe We Will Have Gained

Those Who Are Lost.

Anyway – Isn’t That the HOPE of it all?

And In Doing This, we want to change:

The Hymns Are Out –

Contemporary Music Is In!

Pews Are Out –

Chairs are Moved In!

Carpet Is Ripped Out –

Tile and Gym Floors are Rolled In.

The Church Rules are Loosened –

‘No Ask – No Tell’ Rules are Created.

Now – Don’t Get Me Wrong

I am not saying that

Change Should Not Happen!

No – That is Not what I am saying.

However, We Need to Be Wise and Realize

That Within Change,

There is Always a Risk

Of Us Losing Ourselves and Others

From the Truth!

But we Also Need to Realize

That It Is Within These Contemporary Styles,

Within This ‘NEW’ Way of Thinking,

Within Modernism,

Science

and/or the Latest Fad;

It is Within These New Approaches,

That is Where We Will Find Many of Those

Who Are Hungry for Finding Everlasting Values,

That Is Why and Where They

Are Searching

For Their Answers –

And YES –

They Are LOOKING

In this Newness!

But - As A Religious Men and Women,

Are We Not Supposed to Keep Watch?

Not Watching by The Most Stylish Digital Clocks,

But Rather - By the Sun and Star Time –

Watching By Eternal Coordinates

Which Are Not Conditioned

Nor Controlled

By What The Morning Paper

Or The Evening News Has to Say.

You Know – Just Maybe

Spending A Little Time with Moses and Elijah,

That Wouldn't Be Such a Bad Idea

For Those Who Believe

That We Have Outgrown

The Forms of Old-Time Religion.

But Isn’t It Scary?

What Will Be Left for Our Grandchildren?

Or Our Great-Grandchildren?

Every Day – Our World Is Telling Us,

You GUYS - It Is Shouting at Us,

That We Are the Dying Dinosaurs.

That We Are the Problem

And We Are Not the Solution!

That It Is Us - Who Needs to Join in With

The Others

The Easygoing –

The New Religious –

The New Feelings & Commitments

That We Need to Allow -

That We Need to Openly Accept -

And Permit Anything and Everything!

But IF We Did Do This -

Then WHAT Do We Truly Stand for?

Would It Be TRULY - Nothing?!

But in All Truth –

How Straight and Tall

Are We REALLY Standing

For the Lord These Days?

In Psalm 119:37, We hear David’s prayer.

“Turn my eyes from worthless things,

And give me Life - through Your Word.”

So, allow me to ask:

1. What does it mean for YOU, That you need

To ‘Turn Your Eyes from Worthless Things?’

2. And of What ‘Worthless Things’ do You need to be turned away from?

Are WE REALLY TRULY EMBRACING

The Ways of the Old?

Are WE LIVING WITHIN The Ways of FAITH?

How Are We – How Are YOU

Preparing Yourself

To Be used By the Lord

In Reaching Others?

Are You Even Opening Yourself Up

To God for Him to Use You This Way?

Do You Even Want to Change

This World’s Outcome?

Do You Want to Change

The Direction of this World?

AND here is the tough one –

Do You Truly Believe

That God Can Even Do This?

IF Your Answer Is YES –

Then maybe a TRUE FAST

During Our upcoming Lent Season

Would be A Great Way for You to Begin.

Putting God Before Ourselves

Is always a Good Thing To Do.

But I So Often Wonder

If Our Modern-Casual-Christianity Faith

Truly Puts Any FIRE

Inside A Person's Soul

Or Any STEEL within

A Person's Backbone.

Has Our FAITH Been Reduced

To the Level of Just Being a Soft Sentiment?

Has Our BELIEF Been Reduced Down to Nothing

More than A Sophisticated Distrust

Which Is Built

Pastor Dan's Messages

Monday, February 28, 2022

02 27 2022 Sermon - Luke 9:28-36