Well good morning and happy fall break to all of our Paulding County peeps. Happy fall break to you guys. All you Cobb County people, one more week, right? One more week so you get a break from we really don't know what, but just a break. Happy 2020 by the way, the first time in history, Paulding County, Cobb County have not got their breaks together. No, not dogging, any of our school officials. Okay, we love you guys. But come on, really? We all live together. Let's do this. Well, look, if you're joining us online today, I know a lot of you are on a break weekend.  Hey, do us a favor, jump over into the comments section. And just tell us where you're joining us from? Let us know. Here's why. Because we're envious of you. We want to be there. We want to be there. If you're in house church here. If you're with your life group here and you're sneaking the phone in, just let us know where you're from. And just the fact that you know what, there are a ton of people that are still with us online, that are gathering with us online. And it's a great community out there to be able to do that. 

Hey, welcome back to week three in a series that we're looking at on The Mountain. We've named it The Mountain because it's dealing with this, event in the New Testament, that's commonly called the Mount of Transfiguration, or the Transfiguration of Jesus. And scholars would tell us, and you know what the word scholar means, right? It's just smart people. Scholars would tell us that there are five major events in Jesus's life that anybody that claims to be a serious scholar of Scripture should really dial into, should really spend some time just really soaking them up. And, the birth of Jesus and that's an obvious one. It's the kind of incarnation when Jesus came, he put on flesh to live on this planet for us. And, that's a big one, we also have the baptism of Jesus, as number two.  It's the coming out or the moment in history where Jesus begins his public ministry, his public time, and shows us how to walk our faith and how to talk and how to be a godly follower. There's also the cross of Jesus, that's a pretty obvious one without the cross, salvation doesn't happen. And we have a whole passion, that points towards the cross of Jesus, why? Because it's only through that sacrifice where Jesus become sin on my behalf, that I can approach the Father. We know, that right? 

There's also the Resurrection of Jesus. The Resurrection of Jesus just means basically, that we don't serve a dead God. We're the only people on the planet that can make that claim that our God lives. And He's alive that He conquered sin, He conquered death, and He conquered the grave, and now He is living. But in the middle of kind of those four is this idea in this story of the Transfiguration.   It's the story and here's what I've noticed, man, we've got whole months that celebrate the kind of Birth of Jesus, we've got whole weeks that point towards the Passion Week, we've got whole events that point us towards the Crucifixion story and the Resurrection story. But for some reason, the Transfiguration, it just gets, the shaft, and it gets slipped by a lot in a lot of churches. And what we've been doing over these last two weeks out of Matthew's account in Matthew 17, is we've been looking at what is it that the Transfiguration of Jesus is showing us.  What's happening in the story? Why is it there? And what is it showing us.  Week one, just kind of get you caught up, because in a good TV show, you kind of got to look back at what's going on. Week One, we looked at this idea of that God is concerned with the planet, he's concerned with redeeming our nation. He's concerned with saving the world. He's concerned with doing all of these big G national God moments, but He wants to start in us. And He wants to start by working inside of us. And we said that it's our private time with Jesus and our private moments with Jesus are what shapes our public life in Jesus. 

And we said that we can pray all that we want to God move in this nation and move in our community and God heal the world, save the world, but God is going okay, but it's going to start with you. It's going to start in you.  And we saw this through Jesus leaving the big crowds stepped away from the healing crusade, stepped away from the multitudes of people and He took with Him these three guys, Peter, James, and John.  He took them up to this mountain and dealt with them personally, just them. And we said that it's our personal time with Jesus that shapes our lives. And that only comes when we have just this intentional solitude, a prepared heart, and we talked about that it's this kind of capstone, when we spend time in the Word of God. And with consistency, and over time, it changes us.  That was week one. 

Week two, last week, we dove a little bit farther into the story, we only made it through about three words on week one. Last week, we looked at the idea in the story that Jesus Transfigured himself. Now that's not a word that we use a whole lot.  It's where we get our word metamorphosis.  It's where we get our word kind of showing from the inside to the out. And we said that it's really easy to fall into this trap that Jesus called down a new revelation from God, but he didn't. Jesus didn't get a new power; he didn't have a new superpower given to him. He wasn't born a new person on this mountain. what Jesus did was He took the veil off; He took the mask off was one of our illustrations. And He showed us last week exactly who He is. He showed us His Power and His glory and His Majesty and He showed us through this event on the mountain, that He wasn't just a good teacher. He wasn't just a good Prophet; He was those things. But He was more than that, Jesus was God. He was God in the flesh. He was God in all of His glory. And He was showing us that He is eternal. And I love that. I love the language in the verses we looked at last week that it says that His body, it became luminescent, it shown like the sun to show us that Jesus really is the light of the world. And it said that He was not only just the light of the world, but He was the fulfillment of the prophecies, and the law. That's why we have Moses there. That's why we have Elijah there. They're all there to do one thing and that's to validate who Jesus is. And we walked out of here last week, just asking ourselves this question just deep down of, am I recognizing Jesus for who He really is? Am I loving Jesus beyond anything else in my life? And am I listening to Jesus? That's what God gave us. The Father spoke last week. Now. I know some of you like, woah, that's a lot. It is. 

Welcome back to church. But here's the thing. All right? That's only the first five verses. Right?  That's only the first five, we got to get to verse eight today. So we got some work to do in the story today. So, I'm just gonna beg you don't give up on the story. Don't give up on the story. I know that eight verses in three Sundays is a lot, but don't give up because I need you to see something today. What we're going to look at today is what I would just call one of the most incredible macro doctrinal statements of all of God's natural and extra natural experience.  It's all of God.  What God is going to show us today and we haven't mentioned this yet, is this theme of the whole Bible, to where it really can change our lives, if we can just live in the tension. And what we're going to see today is that God presents Himself to us in two really big natures. In two really big themes, He shows us His character, and He introduces us to who He is. And it's an incredible moment of how we're going to spend our last day on the Mount of Transfiguration. Alright, so here we go. I'm going to start it just by showing us what Jesus does. 

Matthew 17, verse 1 says this, "After six days, Jesus took with him, Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and led them up a mountain by themselves.   There, he was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as the light.  Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.  Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters-one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is my Son whom I love; with Him, I am well pleased.  Listen to Him!"

Now, when we read this event, just in these first five verses, we have this incredibly telling description of the nature of God. And we're going to see that there's two really, truly foundational truths about God that He would have you and He would have me gather even just from the story and number one is this.  God would want us to know that God is a transcendent God. He's a transcendent God.  Now I get it. I know some of you are like, Matt, that is too big of a word. It is the weekend. All right, I get it. And I know some of you are like Matt, all this Bible talk, I'm just not getting it. So, let me do this. I know it's a $5 word, but if I don't do anything else at this church, I'm going to increase your vocabulary. 

All right, here's what that means. A transcendent God means that God is, above all. That's all it means. He's above all, that He is all powerful, that He is overall, that He is the Creator, universally and that He rules, and He reigns in the universe. When we say that God is a transcendent God, not only will that make you sound really smart over coffee this week, but what that does in our lives is it gives us this perspective of God, that God is the God of the universe.  That He is an incredibly big God, that He rules and reigns everywhere, all at the same time, over everything. Now, this is important. So, for some of you to go, Matt, get rid of it. This is not theology class, you got to grasp this.  This is incredibly important, because here's what we do.  We have the tendency, maybe not us, but maybe some other churches, we have the tendency to place everything in this universe, on an orbit around us and not God. Now, let that soak in just for a minute. Because this is why the transcendence of God is so big. And, why we don't talk about this a whole lot. Because we like the fact that this big green ball that we call Earth, is just nothing but a movie that is about me, and I'm the star role in it, and everything else supports me. But the transcendence of God tells me that no, no, no, no, this earth is about God. 

This earth is about His power. And it's His promise. And it is His perspective that matters the most. You see, so many times we don't see the transcendence of God, because all we see about the earth is that it is a place that everything around it should bow down to my desires, to my wants, to my desires, and my preferences, and everything else in this planet should just look to me as God. Now, we don't say that. All right? We don't say that with our mouths. But we live that with our lives, don't we? You know, you have.   All right, I'm not judging you. I'm just saying welcome to the party, because I live part of my life there too. You know, you have found yourself in statements before in the middle of the statement going good night, I just made myself God. You know, your family looks at you and goes, she just made herself God. He thinks he's God. Why? Because sometimes we lose sight of the fact that it is God that is transcendent that is above, and we put ourselves in this place. 

I love this idea, because here's what this idea does for us. When we see God as a transcendent God, overall, we're seeing in this story right? God is showing them a picture of his transcendence.  Here's what this does.  I love the idea that we can just say that Jesus is our buddy. I love the idea that we can just say that Jesus is my best friend. You know, we have these posts all the time, don't we?

I love the idea that we can just say He's closer than a brother. I love the idea that we can just say, I've just climbed onto His back and I'm riding Him down the sand of life. I love all of that stuff. But here's what I need us to see. He's also God. He's the God of the universe. He's the ruler of the universe, and not me. Not me. Can I just tell you, there's too much pressure being God. You don't want that pressure. You don't want that feeling. But we live ourselves right there. In this moment.  That God we get to know He's God. He's the ruler of all, and I am not.  Mankind is not.  Culture is not.  My opinions are not the transcendent God of the universe. That God is not simply just attached to his creation, and just does what we want Him to do. He's God. This mountain scene shows us this.  Does it not?

These guys thought they knew Jesus, didn't they? They thought they knew God. They had seen Him heal. They had seen Him feed people. They had seen Him do miracles.  They had seen Him teach. But at this moment, God reveals His transcendence. That's a big word, His otherness, His bigness, and the fact that God is not contained in the sinfulness of mankind. He's above it. You see, here's the thing, when you get a glimpse of the bigness of God, it changes your life. It changes your life, it changes your heart, it changes who you are at a soul level that is way more powerful than just looking at Jesus as your buddy. Somebody you can just pick up when you want Him. See here's the principle behind this that I put in your notes. 

The principle is that a right view of the transcendence or the bigness. A right view of the transcendence of God. It elevates our reverence to God. It elevates it.  You see, I think we have a reverent problem. I think we have a reverence problem. And I'm not talking about running in the hallways of the church, you can do that.  This is a gym to, right? I'm talking about when we stand before God, I think we have a reverence problem because we have brought Him down to our level where we can take Him or leave Him as we so choose. See, when we see God as a transcendent God, what it does is it begins to challenge our self-centeredness mand it begins to let us just stand in awe of God going,  God, I don't even know what to say. 

We see this all over the Bible, Isaiah 55:8 & 9 says, and this is God talking, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  As the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts."  I love Isaiah when he says that, because he also says it in Isaiah 6:1 when he says, "I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple."  And He is high, and He is lifted up. This is the idea of the transcendence of God, that He is big, that He is high, and in my life, it should just lift Him up, it should point to Him.  Everything that I do and say I love Jesus.  He even alluded to this in John 8:23 He says, He's talking to the disciples, "You are from below; I am from above.  You are of this world; and I am not of this world." You see, there's something we need to grab onto here. And what's happening is the the disciples are getting a picture of the fullness of God, and the transcendence of God. And God is more than just this guy that they're just walking with every day. He's the God of the universe. Let me ask you a question. When was the last time that you just experienced the bigness or the transcendence of God? Or have you just brought Him down to the level buddy? 

Have you just brought Him down to the level of just yeah, it's another God among the many gods?  Can I tell you something? It's this right here that separates Christianity from every other thing on this planet, and that is that we have a God of the universe number 1, but number 2, check this out. God is not only just transcendent; God is an eminent God. He's an eminent God. Now I know that's another $5 word, but we're gonna be smart this week meeting with the ladies, right? 

Here it is, eminent just literally means this. He's just close to us. And He's with us. He is for us. And He is fully present in the physical world and catch this, He's accessible. Now, we just need to look at this just for a minute, you're feeling this tension. We're going to talk about this tension a lot today. Because here's what we've got.

Here's what separates the "big-G" God from all the little other gods.  It's that we have a God that is over the universe, He is big, He is other, He is out there, and He is supreme. But we also have a God that says, I'm with you. You can study any other religion.  You can study any other manmade division or sect that is on this planet, and you will not find one that claims that their God is this.  You know why? Because they can't.  Because they don't have a God that is.  They just don't.  You see, I love this idea of the eminence of God.  Because the eminence of God it literally means that God truly relates to His creation. Truly He relates to me and to you. And what does that mean? That means that he hears you. That means that He walks with you, that He wants a relationship with you. That He responds to the prayers of mankind, that He gives us strength, that He does rebuke us when we need a rebuke and then He loves us even to the point of sending His Son Jesus to die for us. Yes, we have the big God. But yes, we also have the with us God of the universe.  I love how Wayne Grudem explains this. He's a systematic theologian. 

He says this, "The God of the Bible is no abstract deity that is removed from and uninterested in His creation. The Bible is the story of God's involvement with His creation, and particularly with the people in it."  So, I just want you to feel this.  Luke 12:6 it says, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?  Yet not one of them is forgotten by God."  God cares.  Acts 17:27 & 28, Paul just summarizes this and he's just saying, "though God is not far from any of us." He's with us.  Jeremiah 23:24 God says, "Do not I fill heaven and earth."  John 1:14 says, "The word" Jesus, "became flesh and made His dwelling among us." He lived among us. Even one of the names of Jesus, Emmanuel means that He is walking with us, and I want you to feel this tension. I want you to feel this tension.  Matt, how in the world could we serve a God that is out there, that is separate that is over and that is big, but yet He's with us? How does that happen? Here's what I say. Yes. I just answer it with a yes. Because I don't know how? I just know that it is Yes.

He does. He does it. And we see it right here in the mountain of Transfiguration. You know there's no other place in the New Testament that we see it, this incredible with these people. Look at Matthew 17:6. Verse 6 is after the glory has gone, after Moses has gone, after Elijah has gone, God has just spoken over them. And look at verse 6, it says this, "When the disciples heard this, they fell face down on the ground, terrified." Now leave that verse right there, because I want you just to kind of let that soak in. Now, before we get too hard on the disciples here, I mean, here's the deal. They just saw God in His fullness. I mean, they just experienced God, and now they're on their faces terrified. Before we get too hard on these guys, we get scared when there's a bump in the basement at nighttime. All right?  These guys just saw God. I mean, they just experienced God in His fullness, right?  

And they're on their face before God. And this is not a negative fear. It's just a fear out of respect and out of honor. And I don't even know what else to do. But just to go, hey, that's You, that's You and I'm a little bit afraid to look at You. Because I've read the Old Testament, it doesn't turn out well for people when they see God, right?   So, if you got that, some of you didn't.  There's a reverence there right, of these people. Then look at verse 7. I love, love, love what happens right here, because we get to see what Jesus did about it. You see, He didn't leave us in the transcendent-ness, he brought the eminence into the story right here and watch the balance right here of the with-ness of God and the otherness of God. So, you get the bigness of God and the with-ness of God. Watch what happens. Number 7, but Jesus, and anytime there's a but something good is coming right? But Jesus came, and he touched them.

He touched them. He says, "Get up, don't be afraid." You think about something, think about the story. Everything's in the context of the story. Don't leave the story. Think about what just happened. God, the Father just spoke from the cloud over these people validating Jesus, right?  They're on the ground, they're terrified in front of Jesus and the first words, the disciples get after the message of a mighty God, after the glory of God is shown to them is these words from Jesus, here they are, "Get up, don't be afraid."  Their minds were blown. They had just been soaking in the power of God, and they just felt Jesus touch them. And the first words out of Jesus's mouth, and I can't think of a better thing for 2020 is what Jesus gave them right here. What did he say? Quit being afraid. Quit fearing. Get up? Can I just tell you that whenever you feel your fear meter of life, begin to kind of peg out a little bit. Here's the truth that this has given us, it's probably because you're not fully resting in the presence of God and in the witness of God. It's probably because something's gotten skewed a little bit. It's probably because we got off a little bit. And we began to put some things out of context. 

I just wonder sometimes if we were to realize what the disciples are realizing right here that God is big, as powerful as, other than is out there. But God is also leaning over us, touching us and telling us not to be afraid if some of the things that we design our lives around that we're afraid of or afraid to be exposed just probably wouldn't matter anymore, would they? They probably wouldn't. Some of the self-centeredness that we have, some of the vainness that we have, some of the friend problems that we have, some of the identity crisis problems that we have, in our workplace or in our school place or in our athletic paralysis says that we're just afraid of a little bit it probably wouldn't matter anymore. When we meet the eternal God and the with me God all at the same time, because perspective would come on to us that came on to these disciples.  It would be incredible. Look at verse 8 it keeps going, "when they looked up", can you imagine them going, oh man, don't do it, don't do it, alright we gotta to do it. 

"When they looked up, they saw no one but Jesus."  You see, it's not good enough for Jesus to show them His fullness. It's not good enough just to hear the comforting words of an eternal God. It's not good enough for Jesus just to stoop down and touch them. What does Jesus do? Jesus stays with them. He stays with them. Are you feeling the tension in this moment? The big God of the universe is with them stooped down over them, touching them, comforting them, and what else is He doing? After all else fails. Who's the only person left with these guys? Jesus, Jesus. He stays with them and catch this. He stays with us.

He stays with us. He doesn't stay with us physically. We're not walking down a physical mountain with God, although that would be incredible, but He stays with us in the form of the Holy Spirit, right?

Catch this at the moment of salvation, when you give your heart and life to Jesus, when you surrender your heart and say, God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I need you to rule and reign in my life, come into my life, forgive me.  At the moment, that is your heart's cry, listen, you get the assurance of the staying power of the eternal, big God, and the with me, God of Jesus, all at the same time for the rest of your life, for the rest of your life, and they're showing us this right here. This is why I want us to sit in this just for a minute. It's the fact that God offers Himself to us in both of His natures, the bigness and the with=ness.  If you want something that rhymes, He offers us to both, always at the same time, and He walks with us.  Here's what I mean, we can't give ourselves to the closeness of Jesus until we realize that really is Lord of all.  We can't give ourselves fully to the bigness of Jesus until we fully realize that He rules our hearts.  

Now I get it, these two things don't belong together. They don't. Our minds are, they're a little bit blown. When we think of the bigness of God and the with-ness of God. But here's what He wants us to do. Here's where we're gonna land this series as we get ready to walk out, and that's just a preacher trick because we're not done. All right? Here's where we're going. God asks us not really to fully understand it, but He asks us to respond to it. Let me give you just 3 walkaway responses this morning of how we are to respond to the bigness and the with-ness of God that we're seeing in the story. Number 1, He asks us to respond by just being astonished and in awe of God's bigness.  That's how He asks us to respond.  You say Matt, what does that even mean? This sense of astonishment, we don't use that word a lot. But the idea is this; that when something gets in front of us, that is so big. Everything else in life kind of goes a little bit dim. You know what I mean by that? 

Well, let me give you a story. I remember when I got married, and that's a good thing. You should remember that. Um, but I remember my wedding day standing down front on the aisle. I get to do this all the time now with other people. But I remember there were a lot of people there.  Hectic day, not really for me, but for Melissa. Um, she's marrying me.  And I remember all of a sudden, the music kind of changes a little bit. Everybody just kind of stands to their feet. And I remember the moment the back doors of that church opened up. And oh, my goodness. Heaven just met Earth right there. And I don't know what else was happening. I don't know what the jack legs beside me were doing that were my groomsmen. I don't know what the flower girl was doing running around. If we even had one I don't even remember. All I know is I was absolutely astonished by what was walking down that aisle at that very moment. Was there a football game on? Probably? Was there craziness going on in the family? Probably.  Was there just wedding just madness happening all around? I didn't know it, why? Because I was astonished by what was happening in front of me. That's what He asks us to do.

That's how God asks us to operate. I remember when my boys were born and they handed me this pile of flesh going, oh my, what am I gonna do? Man, I didn't know anything else on the planet was happening. I remember the first time I saw; I remember being in the outback of Australia. And just looking up in the middle of nowhere. There's a few of you that were with me on this day and seeing the Milky Way Galaxy. Oh, nothing else mattered in that moment. It wasn't that other things weren't important.

Nothing else mattered.

I remember Scotty Priest. I remember seeing the Rocky Mountains for the first time standing on these mountains going, these ain't hills. Wow! Nothing else seemed to happen at that moment. In fact, some of you are kind of visual people. So, I got a slide for you here that just kind of represents how God is asking us just to be astonished. And in awe of His bigness. He's just asking us to stand in this moment. And, just go, hey, I don't really understand it. I don't really have a full grasp on it. All I can know is I'm standing at the base of this slide and God, you are big. You're big. This is what Psalm 33:8 says, "Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere Him."

Just standing in awe of the Father. See, this is the moment when the disciples looked up, right? They looked up. They're like, whoa, man. We were taking a nap and now look at what is happening. That's where God's called us to live. He's called us to live in that moment where we're not kind of, we're not swooning over a star. We're not swooning over a place. We're not just setting our lives in a direction for a movement, but what are we doing? We're looking, we're standing in awe of the Creator God and going God, I don't even know exactly how to respond. I'm just astonished by who you are. Here's the question, when's the last time that's where your heart was wrapped up in? Or have you brought Jesus down to the level of buddy where it just doesn't make a difference anymore? It just doesn't carry that astonishment anymore.   

Has He just become so commonplace, that now when you stand at the base of the mountain, it's just, eh? Number 1 we stand, or we were astonished in awe.  But number 2 here's the opposite side of that.  We live devoted to God's personal and unfailing love. Now, you're seeing the opposites, right?  The bigness, we're just in awe of it. Man, God that controls me, that makes me move. But now we're looking at the devoted and the personal love of Jesus. This is the personal side, this means this, that God is not just a god that's in the universe, He came to this earth to become sin on my behalf so that I might become the righteousness of God. 

I love what David says in Psalm 27. He says, "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I  seek:  that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple."  You see David right here, he just goes, hey, look, I know that God is big, and I know that God is out there, but God, all I want to do is, I just want to be with you. I just want to devote my life to you. And that's the goal of the Christian life, right? Isn't this what Peter dud in the story, right? We're not deviating from the story here. What did Peter do?   Lord, it's good for me to be here. It's good for me to be with you. What happens at the end of the story, the disciples, they walk away with Jesus, right? Why? Because they're devoted to his love, they're devoted to his promise. 

You see, there has to be a moment in your life where God is not just out there, that the God that is out there has to move into this level of personal relationship with you. Look, if you grew up in church, and you've just been living this existence of a good life, knowing that there is a God out there, that's not going to cut it for you. Why? Because God has called you to live a devoted life that has invited him to become your Savior, God has said, hey, I want you to become my child. I want to be with you. I want to walk with you. This is God's design for our lives. This is how we navigate the bigness and the with-ness is that with the bigness, it draws us bigness, draws us in reverence, but the with-ness pulls us in a relationship. Because it is what Joshua 1:9 where it says, "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."   Hebrews 13:5 says, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."  Psalms 136, the whole chapter, just keep saying God's endless love just endures forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. And God is calling us to walk in devotion to his witness. In fact, I was coming up with an image this week of some of your visual, we haven't had a lot of pictures in a while. Here's the picture of with-ness I just want you to get right here. Look, before you go, well, Matt, theologically, it's a different look, get off of that, I just need you to see this. 

There's no better picture on this earth of love, devotion, and witness than this picture right here on somebody's wedding day. There's just not. You see, this idea right here is just showing us that there's 100% satisfaction. Just 100% love, is God's closeness because of the sacrifice on the Cross draws nearer and nearer and nearer us are drawn to more of a relationship with Him. 

So, what do we do?  We just seek Him.  God opened my eyes to see this. So, what are we doing? We're reacting in the astonishment to the bigness of God, we're walking in devotion to the love and the closest of God. And here's number 3, this is our last one. This is where we're landing this thing. This one ties both of them together. We're constantly surrendered and reverent fear, to God's presence. We're constantly, we're just surrendered in reverent fear to His bigness and His with-ness. This one ties both of them together. We see them in verse 6, when the disciples heard this, they fell face down on the ground, terrified.  Now, this terrified is not the, let's get the heck out of dodge. This terrified is a devotedness. And it's a level of me going God, I'm raising you to the level of reverence.  I'm walking with You in my life. And my response to You is just to submit to who You are. It's just to submit to your presence. And what are they showing us here? They're showing us that the fear of God or the terror that God brings us boils down to this idea of do I place God in a place of respect in my life, where I just treat Him flippantly. You see, what does it mean to fear God, it just means to reverence God to hold God up, to hold Him high, to bring Him above everything else, to exalt Him and to honor His position. The idea is not to be afraid of God and run away. The idea is to be in surrender and say, God, I can do nothing without you. I can be nothing without you. 

Psalm 33:8 says, “let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere Him."  But all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. You've seen how all this is tied together now. See, when we treat God, as the big God that He is, when we are devoted to Him with the with God that He is, we place Him in a reverence in our heart, where we live a life that walks right down the middle of these things that are polar opposite. See, I came up with a picture of the fear of the Lord. And it's a little bit weird, but go with me, it's the mountain theme. 

Check this picture out right here. The fear of the Lord is kind of like the grizzly, right? This is the king; this is the king of the forest. You don't want to meet this guy in the forest if you're not in good shape, why?  He can take you. Your life is in his hands. And I get it. You're like, Matt, you just said don't be afraid. I know. But I needed a mountain thing. All right? But here's the thing about this. This guy right here chooses whether you live or die. This guy right here chooses what your life is about to look like when you meet him? How are you going to meet him? The fear of the Lord is more than that. The fear of the Lord, check some of these out, Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," it gives us knowledge. Proverbs 9 says it makes us wise. Proverbs 16 says it keeps us from evil.

Proverbs 3 says it heals our body. Proverbs 14 says it gives us confidence. Proverbs 19 says it leads us to live.  Proverbs 10 says it prolongs our lives. Here's the thing. The fear of God literally just means the gun, I've come to a point in my life where I realize how big you are and how in control you are. But I've also come to a point in my life where I have realized that God, it is You who rules my heart and are in my heart, and God, my only response to You is just to say, God, here I am. And I'm moving where You want me to move. And I'm going to be who You want me to be. And my desires are going to begin to be wrapped around your desires. And can I just tell you, this does not make sense on an earthly manner. It's kind of like this picture right here. It doesn't make sense.

There's nothing in that picture that makes sense. I'm in awe of the mountains, I'm devoted, I'm seeing this devotion to these couples, but you better get out of there, because the fear is coming. Doesn't make sense. Now you're like, Matt, what is that picture? That picture just means this, you will never forget this message the rest of your life. But that's the tension, right?

We have a big God, that is a close God, that wants to walk with you. You know, this week, whatever comes up, it's gonna fall into one of those categories. God, you're so big, I know. You can handle this. God, you're so with me? I know that we're walking in this. God, you're so big. I know that I shouldn't fear this God, you're with me. And we can walk this together? But here's the question. Do know, God? Has there been that point your relationship where you say, God, here am I, come into my life? You know, in just a minute, we have designed specifically, just some, just a few minutes on the backside of the service, just to be able to praise the God of the universe and the God that is with us. 

But look, if you've never given your life to Jesus, let me just ask you to do something this morning. If there's something that is happening inside of your life that is calling you, that there's a feeling you don't even know what to really do with it, but you just know that you need to respond somehow. And you need to kind of look more into this Jesus thing. Here's what I want to ask you to do. Katie mentioned this earlier, I just want you to text the next steps number.

Just text it. It'll walk you through some questions on hey, maybe today, you need to give your life to Christ. Maybe today is the day that you're deciding that God I've never been obedient in baptism.   God today, I need to connect to a group so that I can begin to walk out my faith more, in a time just not attending a deal, or God, maybe today, I just need to make this place home. I need to kind of have a covenant moment where I'm going to say this is my faith family. If that's any of you in this room, if that's any of you online, with the students or in any of the life group rooms that are meeting just text that number, whatever gathering you're in, here's my promise to you. Within 48 hours, someone will follow up with you and walk you through what it looks like to take your next step for a big, big God and a with you God. For the rest of you today. 

Here's my challenge. Walk it out. Just walk it out. He's the God of the universe and He's the God in our heart. He's the transcendent, luminescent God. But He's the God that stoops over us and puts His hand on our shoulders and says Get up and don't be afraid. 

Lord Jesus walk with us. In these moments today, as we worship, the Creator of the mountain, and the Giver of life, and Sustainer of our salvation, it's in your name we pray. Amen. 

Let's stand and worship together.