Experience His Glory!

Matthew 17:1-18

A husband and wife, prior to marriage, decided that he'd make all the major decisions
and she the minor ones.

After 20 years of marriage, he was asked how this arrangement had worked.
He answered: "Great! in all these years I have never had to make a major decision!"

We all have choices to make in life.
Some of them are easy, some are difficult.
I would like to talk with you about a very important choice every Christian has to make.
It is a choice we must make every day, and even several times during each day.
Every day we should choose to get closer to God.

We should decide to be the Christian God would have us be.

We should decide to God complete control of our lives.

We should determine to read our Bible every day?

We should pray without ceasing.

We should be faithful in our local church. Let us look at some people who had a close relationship with Christ.

Matthew 17:1-8
This passage details a mountain-top experience.
Peter, James, and John were closer to Jesus than the other disciples.
They were allowed to share some very special experiences with Jesus.
They saw Jesus raise a little girl from the dead.
In this mountain-top experience they had a glimpse of His glory.

Can you imagine what how thrilling it was to see Christ transfigured.
Imagine the excitement of seeing Moses and Elijah!
This was indescribable experience.
But these three were able to do so.
They followed the Lord in a way that we should.
If you desire to have an intense spiritual relationship with Christ
and if you are sick of being a pathetic, powerless Christian then this message is for you.

Peter, James, and John were fishermen.
They were not priests.
They had no formal education.
They caught fish.
All of three of them showed off their tempers.

Even after this experience, Peter's temper would erupt when he cut off a soldiers' ear with his sword.

James and John were called the sons of Thunder, which describes their stormy personality.

John became the Apostle of love, but he was one who asked to have a favored position in heaven.
On another time he wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a town that was hostile to the Lord. In spite of their past and their weaknesses they shared this mountain top experience with Jesus.

Maybe you have something terribly sinful in your past.
Maybe you are thinking that there is no way that you could be used and blessed by God.
You could be thinking that there is no way that you ever become the Christian that you would like to be.
You can decide to follow Christ completely and totally.
You'll make mistakes like the disciples, but you can live close to Christ.
Ask God to forgive you and cleanse you. (1 John 1:9)
Come to the decision that you don't wish to be a casual Christian one moment longer.
Be a Christian who walks and talks with Jesus.

Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, is the only athlete to have hit a Major League home run
and scored an NFL touchdown in the same week.
Sanders tells of growing up on the mean streets of Fort Myers, FL., where exposure to some
would-be athletes spurred him to make become a success.
He explains his past attitudes as -- "I call them I'das. If I'da done this,
I'd be making three million today...If I'da practiced a little harder, I'd be a superstar."

He said that the other kids were as fast as he was when they were kids.
But they chose drugs and a life of street corners.
He said, "When I was young, I had practice; my friends who didn't went straight to the streets and never left.
That moment after school is the moment we need to grab.
We don't need any more I'das."

I think many people will be saying I'da after they die.
Some who would like to think they are Christian, but exhibit no evidence of their faith may be asking,
"Lord, Lord, why have you forsaken me?" :

How long do you think you will live?
70 years, 80, 90, or even a 100.
How much is 100 years compared to all eternity?
The only things that will matter in Heaven is what you did with Christ.

You and I are expected to obey our Lord. (v. 5)
God demands that we to listen to Him and obey Him.
Doing what we please is not an option.

Wouldn't you like to have a mountain-top experience?

Wouldn't you like to truly feel His presence?

Wouldn't you like to be bathed in His power and glory?

Wouldn't you like to get really serious with God? A mother was having a rather hectic day.
Her small son, who had been playing outside, came in with his pants torn.
"You go right in, remove those pants and start mending them yourself," she ordered.

Some time later she went in to see how he was getting along.
The torn pants were lying across the chair, and the door to the cellar, usually kept closed, was open.
She called down the stairs, loudly and sternly: "Are you running around down there without your pants on?"

"No ma'am," was the deep-voiced reply. "I'm just down here reading your gas meter."

God is not like that mother.

He knows what we are doing all the time.

He knows our motivations.

He knows every decision we make.

He knows when we are obedient and disobedient

He also knows those who are Christians in name only. What does he know about you?

Listen - God wants to give us a mountain-top experience.

God wants to walk and talk with us.

God wants to be so close that we could really feel His presence.

God is ever ready to give us a powerful experience. When you get really close to God, you will have glimpses of His power at your work.
When you get really close to God you will be empowered to do things for God that you never
even dreamed possible.

You can make a difference!
Your life can count!
You can. You can. You can.

Just pray: "God enable me to remove from my thinking and from my life the would'as and the should'as."

Begin to give God all that you are and have!
This is when God takes us to the mountain-top and we will experience His power and His glory!

My dear Lord, I want to be completely yours!
Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White