so this morning our sermon is called rain sleet or snow uh, seems to be a little bit appropriate. We'll be looking at luke. Chapter nine verses 29 through 36 luke 9 29 through 36. Let me ask you a question. How big is jesus? How big is jesus, Poland, uh, Peru Bolivia Brazil, they all have statues of Jesus that are more than 100 ft tall. Big jesus, I think the, the largest tallest statue of jesus in the United States, I'm pretty sure he's in Eureka Springs Arkansas, but it's only about 65.5 ft tall, which led a legal scholar years ago to ask this question, where is our giant jesus? How can we be the world's superpower with only little jesus is the question, you know, every now and then I'm at the stoplight and I'll see somebody in the car next to me and they'll have one of those little plastic jesus is on their dashboard, you know? And, and as we sit here in the middle of this, you know, winter storm watch, this winter storm warning. The words of that old folk song from years ago kind of ring in my mind, I don't care if it rains or freezes as long as I got my plastic jesus sitting on the dashboard of my car. Yeah, the dashboard jesus is interesting, right, he's just right there looking at you all day. So how big is your jesus, 100 ft of concrete up in the sky or or three ft of plastic reaching up towards your rear view mirror, you know, there's a plastic jesus and a concrete, jesus. But but what about the real jesus? What what about the real thing? Lick Duncan asked. This, is that jesus, you worship big enough to overshadow everything in life, Everything? Is he bigger than family problems, bigger than football games, bigger than health issues, bigger than political issues? Is he bigger than rain, sleep or snow? One day, Jesus went up on a mountain to pray and he was with some of his disciples, Peter James and john and I want to invite you into that moment for a little bit. It's a big enough moment. It's a moment that's big enough to give your heart and your mind and your soul the hope and the peace and the joy that you are longing for right now, that your heart is thirsty and hungry for. Let's look at that kind of hope Luke. Chapter nine, beginning with verse 29, dr luke records it this way. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face became different and his clothing became white and gleaming. This wasn't an oxy clean moment. This wasn't like jesus had his church closed and they were a little brighter than normal. No, jesus was different. The same, jesus, you can still recognize him, but but he was different. He was, he was radically different, He was radiant, he was beaming, he was glowing. It was beyond anything that anyone had ever seen. It was all inspiring. It was jaw dropping, you know, in toto, the dog pulled the curtain back on the wizard, the great and powerful wizard of eyes. It was discovered that he was just a man. But that day on the mountain when the curtain was pulled back just a little bit, it was discovered that Jesus was not a man that Jesus was and is God, that's what happened on the mountain. It's been said that this is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performed his ability to suppress his awesomeness, his flashing like lightness to suppress it so that no one could see that it was a miracle. I have a friend who's expecting a little baby boy, in fact, that little baby boy was supposed to join the world this week, but I guess he heard it was just going to be freezing rain, so he just decided to hang out a little longer Now imagine in four or 5 weeks her husband is in the, you know, dashboard jesus store and he bumps into childhood but he hadn't seen in a few years and his childhood buddy says, hey man, how you doing anything new, Everything going? All right? And he says, nah, you know, same old, same old, nothing new. No, it's not going to say that the very least is going to say, hey man, keep it down, I haven't slept in four weeks, okay, just come on, I'm I'm here at the dashboard jesus store, hoping this dashboard jesus is going to help me get some sleep, but more than likely what he's going to do, he's going to pull out his phone And he's going to show him the 243 pictures he's taken of his son since breakfast that morning. You see, there's something about a baby det push is apparent to burst with joy. Jesus was bursting with glory. He was bursting with majesty. There was something about this moment that goes beyond comprehension. It was pure awesomeness and the reality is, there's there's no way that we can describe that jesus somehow in in some kind of miraculous way, normally suppressed all of that so that people wouldn't go blind around him. There's really no way to explain it, but not in human terms, there's there's just something about this moment that is unexplainable but make no mistake. One day the curtain is not going to be pulled back a little bit on jesus, it's going to be pulled back all the way and every single person in all of creation, past, present and future. They will see jesus as he truly is in all of his power, all of his majesty, all of his glory and believers. Well believers will see him like that forever and ever endeavor. That's what happened up on the mountain. You see the wizard help Dorothy a little bit, the wizard kind of helped Dorothy move in the direction of understanding, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, but on the mountain this moment jesus helped his disciples see and know and experience. There's no one like jesus, there's no one like jesus, there's no one Like Jesus, No one so Jesus is up on the mountain, he's praying, some other things are happening, he looks different. His disciples, peter, James and john are there and And some other guys showed up to listen to verse 30 And Behold two men were talking with him and they were Moses and Elijah who appearing in glory were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. So two of the most important men in all of the bible, well they showed up on the mountain to and it was moses, the man of God's law, it was Elijah, god's prophet and they were shiny, but they weren't shiny like jesus and why did they show up? We don't really know, but but there's a sense to this moment, see jesus was about to perform the very purpose of why he came from heaven to earth. His arrest, the crucifixion was right around the corner, so it's almost as if God is listening to his prayers up on the mountain and in kindness, he's encouraging him, it's almost like he's letting him let down his majestic hair for a moment, helping him to enjoy some of his majesty and power and glory. Just for a moment before he takes on the sin of the entire world and maybe just encourage him a little more and an extra kindness. He sends two precious saints to encourage him. And what were they encouraging him about? Well, the scripture says they were encouraging him about what he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. In other words, they were talking to him about the cross. You see, moses he had his day and Elijah had his day. They did some pretty incredible things by God's power and strength and grace. But this is jesus. We were talking about jesus here. I'm not talking about moses, not talking about Elijah, this, this is jesus. The work that they had done was temporary and it mattered and it met needs at a certain period of time. But Jesus and the work that he was going to do on the cross, his work was going to be permanent and it was going to be lasting. It was going to last forever. Have you ever been around somebody who's who's living in the glory days? You know, living in those glory days of high school, those glory days of college trying to, trying to relive with their little tiny flashlight that that little experience, that little time where they had something that mattered. Well, moses and Elijah, these guys had some legitimate glory days, right? I mean, moses, he read lead maybe, I don't know, a million or so people out of 400 years of slavery. That looks pretty good on a resume elijah, he flew up to heaven on a chariot of fire but that's the ultimate mic drop moment right there. I mean no one has ever left a room like that moses rescued people, saved people, but those people eventually died, Jesus, jesus has made a way for people to be fully and finally and ultimately rescued from sin and never die again, live forever, eternal life Elijah, he had, he had some dramatic flair as he went to heaven, but Jesus owns heaven. There's no comparison between these men, moses and Elijah are moses and Elijah, but jesus is jesus and there is no one like jesus, Peter, James and john were about to find that out. Listen to verse 32 now, Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep but when they were fully awake they saw his glory and the two men standing with him, you ever had this happen to, you know, you're, you're praying and you remember those first few sentences but then you, you kinda nodded off after that, Not, not really sure what happened next, but that seems to be what happened to the guys here. They went up on the mountain of jesus, they were good, you know, and then they saw jesus kinda kinda walk off and wander off a little bit to go pray somewhere and they're good, you know, they're dialed in but but the far there, jesus walked off, they were just like yeah, now but then this this glory, this, this majesty, it was happening all around them. They realized that there was some kind of clatter and they sprang to see what was the matter and what to their wondering eyes did appear. They had no clue, they had no clue what they were saying. They were excited and they were terrified, they were clapping with joy and they were cowering with fear. They saw a shiny moses, a shiny elijah and a super, super shiny jesus and they were speechless. They didn't know what to think. Well they weren't speechless for long. Peter finally spoke up, listen to what Peter said to Jesus verse 33 master. It is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for moses, one for Elijah. But he was not realizing what he was saying, I love the smoke, you can hear Peter right? Yes, yes, this this is good, this is my kind of messiah right here let's let's quit all the talk about death and the cross and all, let's quit that. Let's make a christian retreat center right here and and we'll name the chapel after jesus because he's holy, we'll name the gymnasium after elijah because you know he's he's good with chariot races and you know moses, he's okay with fire. And so we're going to have a gas grill and a gas stove, we'll call the cafeteria after moses oh and over here we can put a 200 ft statue of jesus. It'll be great. And over here let's make a souvenir shop and, and we can have shelves, we can get a dashboard, jesus or dashboard moses or dashboard elijah and, and some salt water taffy. Oh, this is going to be great. Can't you just see it so pumped, so excited. But here's what's really happening in this moment. Have you ever been around somebody and they say something and you're thinking to yourself, do they realize they just said that out loud. Peter was saying all of this out loud, oh, hey, let's build some buildings for y'all and we'll put a bronze plaque on the front that will have your name on it and I'll be in charge of construction. Peter's missing what's happened. Look moses, Elijah, brave and courageous, but there's only one hero and the hero is jesus and jesus doesn't need a building. He doesn't need a statue and he doesn't need a souvenir shop. He's the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. There is no one like jesus that Peter was missing that in this moment. We never do that, do we? We never miss jesus in a moment. Right. We never more focused on our, our family or our our hobbies or our sports or, or work or or or the, the weather report, you know, we're never focused on something else and lose focus on jesus, right, peter meant well, but he was missing what was happening, but not for long. Listen to verse 34 while he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. Then a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my son, my chosen one listened to him in the blink of an eye. Everything goes from bright lights, big city to like a scene out of the legend of sleepy hollow. Just a thick, scary fog. I mean, put yourself in their shoes. They just woke up okay. But they're they're a little groggy. They they've seen immediately some some heavenly dazzling things that they can't explain. And then immediately next they can't even see their hands in front of their face. And usually in moments like that a loud voice from the sky does not calm your nerves. In other words, this moment has some appropriate fear. This moment is is one of those moments where Peter James and john they really needed to understand. They were part of something outside of themselves. It was a blanket of trembling, A blanket of fear, but it was also a blanket of hope. It was like a cloud, like a winter storm cloud and it was a cloud. To calm them down to silence them and to help them listen. And once God got their attention, what did he say to him? This is what he said, he said. It's not moses, it's not elijah, jesus, he's the one, he's the messiah, he's my son, he's the author and perfecter of your faith. He's the savior of the world. He's the chosen savior. Listen to him, listen to him. It's as if God was telling them, Look, I I know you saw some really cool stuff up here, but but don't get distracted with that. Don't don't be distracted with the amazing, wonderful mesmerizing things you saw. Keep your eyes fixed on jesus. Someone said this, it's easy to get distracted with good things that fall short of Jesus Christ. It's easy. We we all get distracted, We get distracted with with good things. But as christians we have to fight the good fight to not get distracted with good things. To the point that we take our eyes off of jesus, we need to keep our eyes fixed on jesus, rain, sleet or snow or anything else, We need to keep our eyes fixed on jesus. So what happened when the smoke cleared? Listen to verse 36 And when the voice had spoken, jesus was found alone and they kept silent and reported to no one in those days, any of the things which they had seen. So the radiant light was gone. The mesmerizing, scary cloud was gone, moses and elijah gone. All of it was gone and the bible says there was only one thing left and how appropriate, after all the fun and all the fear were gone, the only thing left for them. It was jesus, just jesus, peter James and john. They found out on that mountain on that day that jesus is big enough, like Duncan asked this if your jesus isn't big enough to live for and die for, he's not the real jesus, you've made a jesus from your own imagination and you've whittled him down to size. But in the great crisis of life, in your losses, if you will worship the real jesus, he's big enough for everything and anything all the time. So I give you this one simple question, how big is your jesus? How big is your jesus?