The Mountain Within
(Matthew 17: 20-21)
Introduction:
While Linda and I were working at the Baptist Children Home, decades ago, they made a documentary film called “The Mountain Within.”. It was on an old 35mm. reel. In fact, some of you old timers may have seen the movie. It was shown in churches all over North Carolina If you knew where to look, you could have seen Linda, me, Jeff, and Julian, our two sons, in the movie, for about two seconds.
They called in no less than Andy Griffith to narrate the movie. In the prologue Andy referred to Pilot Mountain. Andy said that when you leave Winston Salem and start up Highway 52 toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, long before you reach the mountains and the Parkway, you come to one single mountain known as Pilot Mountain. All of us here in Piedmont North Carolina are familiar with this mountain. Andy says it reminds him of a giant fist that has protruded itself up out of the Piedmont. It’s like a mountain where no mountain should be.
Then he makes his application. The problems in theses children lives that necessitate them being taken from their families and placed in the care of our Baptist Children’s home are like mountains where no mountains should be. Now, just relax I’m not going to give you a lecture on the Baptist Children’s Home, although I am well qualified. That’s where I got this beautiful gray hair.
All of us, if you think about it, know what Andy had reference to. Each of us has our mountains where no mountains really should be. The mountain for these children was a broken family relationship. My mountain was being born with a physical handicap. I don’t know why they call it a handicap. It’s not been that handy to me. Well, except when I want to get out of doing something. Don’t feel sorry for Jesse. I do almost anything I really want to do. I just use this handicap to get out of things I don’t want to do to start with, like washing dishes etc. Your mountain may not be as visible as theirs or mine, but I say again, each of us has our mountains, problems, where no mountains should be.
The success or failure of life depends to a very large degree on how we deal with these mountains. I want to talk with you about three different ways people deal with their mountains.
1. Some people just pretend the mountains are not there.
Have you ever tried to talk to someone that you knew had a problem, and they answered you something like, what problem, I don’t have a problem? It’s their problem not mine. A lot of people want to blame others for their problems. They like to pretend their mountain is not there.
That’s like going with me up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am a parkway buff. Everyone goes to beach on vacation, we go to the mountains and have them to ourselves. No, it doesn’t quite work that way. Anyway, we go up there, and I say to you look at all these beautiful mountains, and you saying what mountains? I don’t see any mountains.
Remember I shared with you, that after I finally got started in the first grade, I forgot for a while that I was handicapped. Folks I’m not joking. I got to laughing and having a big time with my new friends and forgot all about being handicapped. Then they started that football team. Right there on that hot dusty practice field, I had to face the fact that I had a mountain.
Folks, you can pretend for a while, but sooner are later you must come back and deal with your mountains. People try all kinds of thing to help with the pretence, drugs alcohol etc. These may help for a little while, but they never make the mountains go away. When they sober up or dry out or whatever these folks do, the mountains are still there.
2. Some people are stopped by the mountains.
They are like the kids on the bear hunt. How many of you have ever been on a bear hunt with the kindergartners? If you have never been on a bear hunt with the kindergartners, you need to get with my wife and let her take you on a bear hurt. She takes theses kids bear hunting, but they never leave their chairs. Anyway, they come to the mountain, they can’t go over it, they can’t go around it, they can’t go under it, and so they decide to go through it. That’s where they find the bear and they run all the way back to the classroom, which they never left to start with. I tell you, if you’ve never been on a bear hunt with the kindergartners, you really need to go!
Like the children in the kindergarten game some people come to the mountain. They can't go around it, they can't over it, can't go under it, so unlike the children they stop and pitch a tent in the shadow of their mountain How many people do you and I know, that are eking out an existence in the shadow of their mountain? That’s stinking thinking. Because often just over that mountain is their fondest dream come true.
The old house I grew up in had a front porch across the front. It was surrounded by big old oak trees. On the hottest days of July and August there was always a breeze, somewhere on that porch. Mother had an old rocker that always sat on that porch. All one had to do, was find the breeze, pull that old rocker over into it, climb in it and rock. I remember climbing in that rocker when my cripple legs would barely touch the floor. I would just sit and rock, it seemed like for hours in that cool breeze.
Now, folks, I am not as big a fool as I act like, I realize, if that porch hadn’t fallen in, I could still be sitting there rocking. Those were good folk down in Louisiana. They were almost as good as us Carolina folks. They would have fed me. Somebody would have bought me a pair of bib overalls. They would have said, just let the old boy sit there and rock, he’s probably not all there anyway. He doesn’t eat much. They should see how I eat now. People would drive by that old house and wave at me, hey Jesse Wayne. Everyone in Louisiana called me Jesse Wayne. As they drove on, they would say, I wonder how far that old boy has rocked in 80 years? I wish we had put an odometer on that chair. I’ll bet he’s rocked around the world three or four times and never left that porch. Sometimes I think that it would have been nice. No bills to pay, no schedule to meet, no wife to keep happy, just rocking away!
But I want to tell you about another chair. It's one of those space age chairs. When you want to get up, all you must do is push a button, and the next thing you know you’re standing almost straight up. It sets in our den right next our gas logs. Just far enough away that it won’t catch fire. That’s where I participate in my favorite past time, sleeping. There were times when I am sleeping, our grandkids would come in and watch T.V or go to sleep on the sofa beside me. You talk about good sleeping, that’s good sleeping.
Now, look, if I had still been sitting in that first chair, I 1would have never known about that second chair. I would have not known what it’s like to be a daddy and a paw paw. Listen, "the saddest words, of tongue pen are the words, “it might have been." Some people are sitting in a rocking chair at the foot of their mountain. The good news is, “it's not too late for most of you to be all you ever dreamed of being.
3. There’s also another way you can deal with the mountains.
I humbly present myself as exhibit “A” to the fact that your mountains can be climbed. If I can then you can too. But let’s get back to our text. The scripture says, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove to yonder place; and it shall be removed; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. "(Matt 17:20b) I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve been to the cemetery, I mean the Seminary. I didn’t let the Seminary make a fool out of me. I still believe this Bible means what it says and says what it means. God could reach down right now and give me a voice like the late Adrian Rogers and a body like Tom Selleck, but I would not know what to do with either of them. I’m kind of like David Ring. David is an Evangelist with Cerebral Palsy. This lady told Bro. David that she was going to start praying for his healing. Please don’t do that, David replied, you will ruin my ministry. May I confess to you I've never been able to make my mountains go hopping around and I have been condemned for it. Don't you just love the way some people judge you? Now, Jesse, if you really believe God would heal you. So, I really, believed, and sure enough God hasn't healed me. Let me tell you about this man I met on Bourbon Street. It's none of your business what I was doing on Bourbon Street. Anyway, after he pulled me over next to a wall and prayed for me. He promised that the next time I saw him, I would be healed. The only problem is I can't find him. Maybe he was referring to meeting me in heaven, I don’t know.
Well since I can't move mountains, do you want to stop reading now? What kind of preacher are you anyway? You can’t move mountains. Well, just before you stop reading, can I ask you, how many of your mountains have you been able to speak to and them get up and go hopping around? I don’t want to tamper with the scripture; I don’t want the plagues of The Revelation. (Rev.22:18) However could part of what Jesus was teaching be that with your faith in me, and your hand in mine, we can go over your mountains just as if they weren’t there? While I have never been able to move mountains, with His help I have been able to go over many of my mountains just as if they were never there. After all, James says, "Faith without works is dead, being alone.” (James 2:17) I believe that if we confess to have mountain-moving faith, we should get a shovel and a wheelbarrow and start moving rocks.
Conclusion:
What are you going to do with your mountains? Are you going to pretend they are not there? Are you going to be stopped by them or are you going to climb them? What are going to do with the mountains in your Church'? I’ve never seen a Church yet that didn’t have some mountains that needed climbing. In fact, Linda and I have decided, if we ever find a perfect Baptist Church, we’re joining then they will have two “Crooks” to deal with.
