A View from the Mountain Top
To Experience the Mountain Top you need to
Let Jesus Lead Us
Look at Jesus as He Really is
Listen to Jesus Words to Us
Intro
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We were on vacation last week.
We went to visit Laura’s parents in Arizona.
Arizona is great.
Whenever we go there though, her parents like to plan small excursions.
I prepare mentally for this because I like down time.
The only thing that I told Laura that I wanted to do was climb Camelback Mountain.
We tried this a few years ago with the kids and we did not plan well enough either in time or water, so we never made it to the top.
This year, I wanted to give ourselves a full day to go and accomplish this feat.
So this past Monday, we ventured out to Camelback Mountain with plenty of water and plenty of time.
After waiting for our parking spot and taking care of bathroom duties, we began our trek.
We had to rest after the first 15 minutes.
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But it was a nice place for a family picture.
We continued on and made it to the top.
After a quick rest at the top,
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we were able to take in the beautiful view that it offered of the whole Phoenix area
It was exciting to climb camelback and to have seen the view from the Mountaintop.
How can we have that same experience in our spiritual life?
That is what I want to take a look at today.
If you would turn over to Matthew 17:1-9,
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we are going to take a look at Peter, James and John and the mountain top experience they had and draw out some principles for ourselves so we might be able to experience those spiritual mountain tops in our lives.
Matthew 17:1-9
1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4 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."
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don’t be afraid." 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
(from New International Version)
If we are going to experience the spiritual mountain tops, we need to
Let Jesus Lead Us
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Matthew 17:1
1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. (from New International Version)
Peter, James and John were not going there own way.
They were following Jesus.
If we are going to experience Spiritual Mountain Tops, we need to Let Jesus Lead.
That sounds so easy, doesn’t it.
Well, I am here to tell you that this is going to be a daily struggle of life.
Why?
Well, we have others vying for leadership in our lives as well.
Satan
Our fleshly nature
Ultimately, we want to do what we want to do when we want to do it.
We want to be in control or at least have that sense of control.
I am going to let you in on a secret though.
You are not in control no matter what you think.
You are following someone.
Now our choice is to either
follow Jesus or
follow Satan and the ways of the world.
You may be saying there is no way I will follow Satan.
Listen to what Jesus says
John 8:42-44a, 47
42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire… 47 He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."
In talking to the Pharisees, He says they can’t hear because the devil is their father and He says that only those who belong to God hear what God says.
You either have God as your Father or Satan.
That is your only choice.
And your refusal to choose is a choice in itself.
But thankfully, God has loved us and sent the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and guide us to the Son so that He can be our leader.
Joshua told the Isrealites in
Joshua 24:15 to “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”
If you are here today and have not made a commitment to let Jesus lead you, you can do that today, or you will never be able to have the Spiritual mountain top experiences that are only available with Jesus leading.
So we need to let Jesus Lead us, but we also need to
Look at Jesus as He really is
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Matthew 17:2-3
2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
We don’t often look at Jesus in all of His glory, or even imagine Him that way.
Too often we see Jesus as only our
friend
brother,
loving and tender babe in a manger.
Now while He is all of those things, we also need to see Him in all of His glory as the
God of the universe who has
created all things and
will judge all things.
We need to see Jesus in His fullness, and not just choose how we want to view Him.
Too often, we want the Jesus who is just like us, and not the awesome God of glory who will judge us.
We need to have a proper perspective and see Him as He really is.
Illustration
When I was on top of Camelback, you could see for miles and miles and see the vastness of the whole valley around Phoenix.
It is so easy to lose sight of it when you are inside your house or even just in the neighborhood.
On top of the mountain, you could see cities and neighborhoods and other mountains, all of it.
It gave you a better perspective of the magnitude of the world.
Here I am 1900 miles from home, and seeing this huge valley with all of these buildings and homes and roads and at the same time realizing that I am only seeing the smallest glimpse of the whole US, the whole world, the whole universe.
It gives you a proper perspective of how big God’s creation is and how small our view is.
We need to have a perspective of Jesus that takes into view the entirety of who He is, God almighty, Savior, Judge, as well as mediator, friend, and first born among many brothers.
Until we are viewing Jesus from that perspective, we won’t be able to experience the mountain top.
The view from Hickory Creek
The great thing about having these mountain top experiences is that we can have these without climbing a physical mountain.
Seeing the things that Jesus is doing here at Hickory Creek is really incredible if you stop and really look at it.
If you don’t really look, you will just see a little parking lot being added, an addition being put up.
But if you stop and really look,
you will see people trusting the Lord
you will see people taking steps of faith,
you will see people coming together in small groups and ministering to one another when there used to be nobody to minister to them.
you will see something that was near death brought back to life,
you will see the glory of God being radiated from the people of God.
When Moses saw God in his glory on the mountain top, his face radiated God’s glory.
Exodus 34:29
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.
When we experience the spiritual mountaintop, we can radiate God’s glory by the things we do and thus glorify the Lord even more.
There is one final thing we see in the passage that we need to do if we are going to experience the spiritual mountain top and that is to
Listen to Jesus’ Words to Us
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Matthew 17:4-5
4 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."
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
The word translated listen could also be translated “hear and obey.”
We aren’t to just hear the words but to put into practice.
It is the same thing James tells us.
James 1:22
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says
If you are ever going to experience the spiritual mountain top, then it is vital to hear and obey the words of Christ.
And this (the Bible) is His word to us.
The major problem in most people’s lives is that we don’t “hear and obey” what Jesus tells us in His word.
People (world) will think we are weird
Don’t trust Jesus for our very best
Think we know better
Want God to give us his reasons first.
To experience the spiritual mountain top, we need to hear and obey without reservations, the words of Jesus to us.
We can start our journey up the mountain together.
I will guarantee that it will not always be easy.
I guarantee that there will be times that you want to quit.
I guarantee that you will think that you aren’t able
But I also guarantee that as you persevere, you will experience a spiritual mountain top and have a view of things that you did not know could be so beautiful.
Conclusion
As we were coming down Camelback, about half way down, we ran into 2 young men in their early 20’s.
They ask what everyone asks, what I was asking on the way up when people were passing me in the other direction.
How much farther?
I told them they were about half way and they seemed kind of discouraged because they were tired already and didn’t feel like they could make it.
One of the young men said this to me as we were talking as they were sitting there resting and catching their breath.
“I need to consider some serious life change. I am only 22 and see that I am terribly out of shape.”
I encouraged them to take plenty of rest and to continue on. I told them they would not be disappointed.
There are some here today who need that same realization as that 22 year old.
We need some serious life change.
You need to change who you are following
You need to change they way you see Jesus
You need to change who you are listening to.
When we are being
led by the Lord and
looking at Him as He really is,
as the awesome God of creation and
judge of the world as well as
the loving Son who was the sacrifice for our sins because of His love for us, and
Listening to Jesus,
Then we will
be able to see God’s glory and
radiate God’s glory and
experience a spiritual mountain top that has a view like no other.
Pray.
