MOUNTAINS GOD CALLS US TO CLIMB
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: CHATTER BOX
1. Have you ever known someone who talked non-stop? Like, they didn’t even seem to stop to take a breath?
2. A man named Sam had a wife like that. If you got on the phone it was at least an hour. She ended up injuring her jaw & had to go to the emergency room for an x-ray.
3. Her friend enquired, “Did they get a good x-ray of it?” Sam said, “They tried to but she talks so much that it ended up being a moving picture!”
B. THESIS
1. The term “mountain” designates an abrupt rise of the earth’s surface usually more than 2,000 feet. The Rocky Mountains frequently have heights of 13,000 feet or more.
2. Many people love to climb mountains for recreation. The taller the mountain, the more difficult the climb, and it requires more time, effort, and equipment to reach the summit.
3. The term “mountain” is also used as a descriptive word for challenges or troubles. Just like mountains seem gigantic and climbing them is a grueling process, so our trials and tests look huge and seem beyond our strength.
4. Each spiritual mountain is different, requiring new skills and approaches, and each summit has a different view than the others. At least 5 times in Scripture, God called His servants to climb a mountain.
5. Tonight we’re looking at 5 mountains peaks God wants us to climb; they are crucial milestones of spiritual growth in our lives.
6. These peaks aren’t about what we’ve done or what we’ll do, they’re about something far more important; these peaks are about what you are and who you are becoming. Let’s take a look at the “Mountains God calls us to Climb.”
I. MT. ARARAT: PRESERVATION IN TRIALS
A. FORGOTTEN BY GOD
1. Noah was the first one to have to make a journey to the top of a mountain. He got there by an unusual route. Gen 8:1-4 says “God remembered Noah…and on the 17th day of the 7th month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.” (height 16,854 feet)
2. Noah had been floating around for 5 months. This means that the rain had stopped 110 days before, but he seemed lost in a sea that had no end. Noah’s obedience to God had brought him into a place of isolation.
3. Noah felt forgotten. He heard nothing from heaven. God hadn’t told him how long he would be confined to the ark nor when or how he would be released.
4. Very good Christians have sometimes thought themselves forgotten by God. To Noah, the great flood lasted much longer than he thought it would. The only thing he had to hang on to was the promise God had given him.
B. GOD REMEMBERED NOAH
1. “But God remembered Noah.” In my own life these words have been a lifeline that sustained and enabled me to press on.
2. If God had called Noah into the ark and shut him in, then it would have to be God who would open the door and lead him out. The same thing happens to us in trials: we can’t get out of them – but in due time, God will bring us out.
3. Ararat was God’s safe Place, God’s preservation. Thank God He leads us beside the still waters and restores our souls, even in the midst of our trials!
II. MT. MORIAH
A. WHERE HEARTS ARE TESTED
1. In Gen. 22 God commanded Abraham to “take your son, your only son whom you love and go to the mountains of Moriah”.
2. Moriah is the mountain where we, as disciples of Jesus, willingly take all that is dear to us and offer it to God as a sacrifice, as a demonstration of our love.
3. Moriah is the place of personal sacrifice. It’s not a debate room; it’s a place of surrender. The Bible clearly tells us that, “you are not your own, you’ve been bought with a price.”
4. God’s purpose was to see if Abraham would be blindly obey. This is absolute trust. Moriah wasn’t a place of warm feelings; it was a place of dread, a place of tears. It wasn’t until Abraham raised the dagger to slay his son that God stepped in!
B. GIVING IT ALL
1. Sacrifice means that it costs us. When Jesus saw the widow give her two copper coins, He said of her, “she gave all that she had.” There are three kinds of giving:
2. A flint, when it’s struck against a hard surface, gives a spark. A sponge, when it is squeezed, when pressure is applied, disgorges its contents. But a flower that blossoms freely gives its perfumed odor.
3. Which way do you give? Like flint, a sponge, or like a flower? Abraham gave God his heart and soul. As Hasan Pal said, “All that is not given, is lost”.
4. Mt Moriah is the place where God doesn’t want the 95% that we’ve already given Him, he wants the 5% we have kept!
III. MT. SINAI
A. THE MOUNTAIN OF REVELATION
1. Exodus 19:17 “Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.”
2. Sinai is where God and man came face to face. It was the place of revelation; a revelation of who God is and who we are. When the people saw the mountain on fire, felt the earthquake, and heard the thundering voice of God, the Bible says they “trembled with fear.”
3. Up to this time they’d seen mighty signs and wonders – the 10 plagues which destroyed all Egypt and they’d gone through the Red Sea, opened by the breath of God, on dry ground!
4. But they had never been face to face with the Living God before. This was something new!
B. MEETING PLACE WITH GOD
1. Our Sinai is the place we meet with God. It’s the treasured moment when we have private audience with God. It’s a place of intimacy. We lay ourselves bare to Him. It is divine and like Moses, we cry out to God, “Show me your Glory!”
2. ILLUS? Often we don’t see what is in front of us.
a. A Coloradoan moved to Kansas and built a house with a large picture window form which he could view miles and miles of rangeland. "The only problem is," he said, "there's nothing to see."
b. About the same time, a Kansan moved to Colorado and built a house with a large picture window overlooking the Rockies. "The only problem is I can't see anything," he said. "The mountains are in the way." (Craig Larson, Illus. for Preaching and Teaching, p. 241)
3. God is available for audience, but we must get to the place where we want to see Him!
IV. MT. PISGAH
A. THE MOUNTAIN OF DREAMS
1. Deut 3:27 “Go to the top of Mt Pisgah and look west and north and east and south. Look at the land with your own eyes.”
2. Mt Pisgah is the mountain of dreams, of future visions. This mountaintop enabled Moses to see the promised land flowing with milk and honey. It was no longer a dream in the distant future; it was within sight.
3. Mt Pisgah is where we see all that is ours in Christ. Vision is essential to attainment. “Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.”
4. God wants us to see all that God promises us with our own eyes: God’s grace, power, wisdom, love, forgiveness, victory, to be partakers of the divine nature, our resurrection, eternal life, and be elevated to sit with Christ in heavenly places!
B. GAINING WHAT IS PROMISED
1. Hebrews 11:32 talks about the kings and judges who “…through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and GAINED what was promised”.
2. Yes, God had promised it to them, but they had to go forward and possess it. Victories did not just fall into their laps, they had to fight for them.
3. One minister asked God the question “When Lord, when are you going to do it?” And God said back, “Yes, that’s a good question, when are YOU going to do it?”
4. If we take the time to climb Mt. Pisgah God will reveal the hidden things of Christ’s which can be ours if we just take them. Even as Moses could only see a small part of the land of Canaan, so for us there is a lifetime of exploring and possessing what God had promised in the spiritual realm!
V. MT. CALVARY
A. THE MOUNTAIN OF SELF-DENIAL
1. Lk 23:33 “When they came to the place called Mt Calvary, there they crucified Him, along with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left”.
2. Mt Calvary is the mountain we are told to climb every day, that we may take up our cross and follow Him. In Luke 9:23-24 Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
B. OUR JOY OF FELLOWSHIPPING WITH JESUS
1. This is the mountain where we must die to ourselves. It’s where we suffer with injustices of life, where we wrestle with our materialism, and accept a lesser place of humility for the gospel’s sake.
2. It’s where we choose to pay our tithes and offerings, knowing it will curtail our vacations for the cause of Christ. It’s where we turn down a job because it conflicts with our morals or church commitments.
3. It’s taking mistreatment without complaining to follow Jesus’ example; it’s doing good to those who are unkind, etc.
4. The chief joy of climbing this mountain is that we’re climbing it with Jesus! That’s why Paul said, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” Phil.3:10. Come! Spend time with Jesus on this sacred mountain!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A grandfather was taking a nature hike with his 6 year old grandson. The child was running ahead, and came to a creek. The boy tried to make his own plans of how to get across. To him the fast-moving creek was dangerous.
2. The grandfather said, “CHILD, WAIT FOR ME AND I’LL GET YOU ACROSS.” Surprisingly, the child obeyed. When the grandfather got there, he lifted the child up on his shoulders and waded, waist deep, across the creek. The combined weight of both of them neutralized the force of the current.
3. The grandchild said, "If I hadn’t waited on you, I would never have made it across!" That’s was true. It’s true of us and the Lord too! Wait on the Lord and He will give you safe passage through this life!
4. Are you climbing these five mountains God has called you to climb?
B. ALTAR CALL
1. Mt Ararat – are you relying on God in your trials?
Mt Moriah – have you surrendered what you love most?
Mt Sinai – are you seeking a new revelation of God?
Mt Pisgah – are you seeing visions to possess?
Mt Calvary – are you fellowshipping with Christ in self-denial?
2. Let’s pray and draw near to God and ask Him for more faith and power to be spiritual champions for the Kingdom. Prayer.
[This is a rewrite of Steve Kempton’s message of the same title in 2006.]
