High Places

Opening

-How many of you grew up with Easter baskets…favorite candies…what I remember most was that feeling as I fell asleep…expectation!

-that feeling of expectation the night before Easter, that capacity of the human heart, especially children, to feel something wonderful when waiting for a moment…it’s a powerful emotion!

Introduction

-whenever people in the Bible were invited by God to join Him atop a mountain…that same emotion filled their heart, expectation, there is nothing sweeter than knowing God wants to speak to me.

-It is no coincidence that God chose a mountain to be the capstone moment of the Easter story…Jesus’ ascension to Heaven, let’s look at it together.

-Luke 24:36-53

-I want us to look at several other mountain top moments in Scripture, each one with a unique message for us, then coming back to this one in Luke 24 at the end…

-pray…(how God has many of us here tonight at these mountains…)

Sinai…Mountain of Invitation

-Exodus 19:3-6

• He’s willing to give a resume!

• His promises are not exaggerations!

• He is always honest about our cost!

-Deuteronomy 30:11-15, 19-20

-We miss out on the fullness of the favor of God because we bristle at the fullness of the demands of God!

-I love this picture of the crowd at Sinai…people were there because they loved God deeply, others were there because their parents said they had to be, others were there because they were curious (Egyptians), and others were there because they felt obligated…

-It doesn’t matter why you are here, the question is what are you going to do with the invitation that is before you tonight…will you yield your life to God at this mountain, the Mountain of your Invitation?

-(have people stand and pray for them)

Genesis 13…Mountain of Declaration

-Genesis 13:14-17 (give a little background)

-tell story of Mosaic coming up for sale…not getting it…God spoke to me “No one can take from you what I intend to give you!”

-(explain about Abram’s dilemma, possibly why he was so generous to Lot…but I believe it was because Abram had an unrelenting belief in the sovereignty of God…look at verse 15!

-for some of you here tonight, you are standing at a Mountain of Declaration…your circumstances are not unlike Abram’s…you have this promise that looks like it is an impossibility and tonight is a night to reaffirm your faith in His sovereignty!

-(have people stand and pray for them)

Gerezim and Ebal…Mountains of Assignment

-Deuteronomy 11:29-32 and 27:11-13

-can you for just a moment imagine what it must have been like to be in that crowd as people were being assigned to one of the mountains…I’m certain there were people on both sides who would have preferred the other!

-(joke some about both assignments…)

-all of us here tonight have assignments from God, some we like, some we don’t…

• sometimes they involve suffering, sometimes they involve sacrifice, sometimes they involve pain and sorrow and sacrifice…

• sometimes it is a matter of envying the assignment of the other person…why didn’t God give me a voice like that, why didn’t God make me a better leader, why didn’t God give me more opportunity, why didn’t God give me a husband, a wife, children…

-I believe some of you are here tonight because God wants you to accept the assignment you have been given…to embrace His perfect will for your life!

-(have people stand and pray for them)

Carmel…Mountain of Power

-so the other night Vannessa says, “Hey, did you know the upstairs hall bathroom toilet is still clogged…?” (tell story of trying to unstop it and then my dilemma of how the manual snake I had needed me to reach in…)

-In that moment, I had a revelation…this past summer building a bridge in Haiti was the hardest living conditions I have ever endured in my life…so really, here I am afraid of toilet, really?

-But that trip affected me in much deeper ways…in the market one day…at the café at the end of the trip…Oh God, I want to have faith to believe that you can!!!!

-I Kings 18:34-39

-I believe some of you are here tonight because God wants you to believe that you are candidate to be used by Him in supernatural ways!!!!

-(have people stand and pray for them)

(Band)

Olives…Mountain of Life

-Luke 20:50-52 & Acts 1:12

-In November, I had the privilege of being at my Dad’s bedside as he breathed his last breath…He was 81. He had finally reached his Mountain of Life…he was Heaven bound.

-All the other mountains and many more throughout Scripture we could have looked at together tonight are not for everyone…but this one, it waits for us all.

-(have people bow their heads…if you aren’t sure what waits for you in that moment…will you raise your hand tonight?)