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TEXT: Numbers 13: 25-33; 14: 6-10; Josh. 14: 6-15
TOPIC: The Mountain Top
THEME: How to live on the mountain while living in the valley.
HOW TO HAVE A MOUNTAIN IN YOUR HEART
INTRODUCTION:
1. I believe God wants His people to live on the mountain top.
2. This is the familiar story of the children of Israel when they are located at Kadesh Barnea. Moses has sent 12 spies to survey the Canaan and have come back with their report. Ten of the spies give a negative report and two of them give a positive report. The names of two men who gave the positive report were Joshua and Caleb.
3. There are a lot Churches and Christians today who are living in verse 33. They are living in the desert overcome by their problems rather than enjoying the benefits of Canaan.
4. They have unsuccessful lives because they have unsurrendered wills. Yet, Caleb was a contrast to the rest of his people. He walked in victory and lived on the mountain top. Throughout the entirety of his life, Caleb lived on the mountain top in his heart.
5. Even during the 40 years of wilderness wanderings, Caleb lived on the mountain top while the rest of the people lived in the desert.
6. What causes one Christian to live in victory and the other in defeat, one Christian live on the mountain and the other in the desert, one to live in the Spirit and the other to live in the flesh?
T.S.: How did Caleb live on the mountain all his life? There are three steps to living on the mountain top the entirety of our lives.
I. WE MUST SURVEY OUR CHALLENGES (Numbers 13:22)
Our challenge is four-fold as we move into uncharted land.
A. Our Challenge is Strong in Pride (v. 22)
Ahiman--What I am
Sheshai--Who I am
Talmai--What I can do
They were strong in pride. They challenged anybody who came on their turf. They said you better look at what I am, who I am, and what I can do.
B. Our Challenge is Strong in Position (v. 28)
They had walled cities to protect them. These cities were built on the mountains. They were high up. They had an advantageous position. They were in control.
C. Our Challenge is Strong in Population (v. 32)
They devoured the land. They were so many of them, that the land could not contain them.
D. Our Challenge is Strong in Proportion (v. 32)
They were 8 and 9 feet tall. Goliath was a descendant of these people. The Anakims were an entire race of giants. The Hebrew People were of average height.
II. WE MUST STIMULATE OUR COURAGE (14: 6-10)
The King James states: They are bread for Us." The NASB states, "They are prey for us."
What made Caleb and Joshua different from the rest of the people? What makes one church different from another church?
A. We Must See from God’s Perspective
The number one problem that people have in their lives is seeing things from God’s perspective. Do you look up at the problems or down at the problems?
They had a grasshopper complex. They had a grasshopper mentality. Instead of saying, "Look how much bigger God is than the giants." They said, "Look how much smaller we are compared to the giants.
They were little thinkers. Little thinkers make big stinkers. Little thinkers make a big stink why we can not possess Canaan.
So many Christians have a grasshopper complex. They want to live on thee mountain top and live in victory. Yet, they think so small in their hearts. All they see are the giants in the land. They see the giants of:
Doubt
Discouragement
Debt
Depression
Bad Economic times
Family Problems
When we start thinking like grasshoppers, we start acting like grass-hoppers. Eventually, we become grasshoppers. You are headed in the direction of your most dominating thought.
The grasshopper complex slows down the work of God, stymies the work of God, and stops the work of God.
If you have grasshopper complex, then everything looks like a giant. Everything to a grasshopper looks impossible. Yet, from God’s perspective, everything changes.
Eph. 2:6--God has raised us up together to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Thus, we are looking down on our problems in Christ Jesus. We must see them from a divine perspective from above rather than grasshopper perspective below.
Did you know that all of the people who said that they could not conquer Canaan died in the wilderness. Only Joshua and Caleb entered into Canaan.
B. We Must See through God’s Purpose (14: 9)
The giants were food for the Israelites. They were bread or food for them. They were food that they would consume to make them grow stronger.
God’s sends us problems to not to discourage us, but to develop us. Problems and difficulties become food for our development. Just like food enlarges us, so do problems. We do not like problems, but this is how we develop and grow.
C. We must See Through God’s Promises (14: 8-9)
Caleb had promises from God. He was claiming the promises of God. There are more than 9,000 promises in the Bible for the Christian.
III. WE MUST SECURE OUR CONQUEST (Joshua 14: 6-15)
Caleb said after 45 years that he was ready and willing to take the land. How could Caleb climb and claim the mountain for God? How could he still have the strength and drive for God?
A. We Must Have an Undiminished Faith (vv. 11-12)
There are two ways to possess something. You can either possess something in your heart or in your hands. Most of us want something in our hands, but we do not possess it in our heart.
Even though Caleb did not have the mountain in his hands in the wilderness, he had a mountain in his heart. Do you have a mountain in your heart? Do you live in victory while in the wilderness?
If you want to live in the wilderness where the cactus and the scorpions are, that is up to you. I want to live where the eagles are and the air is crisp and clean. I want to live where the rivers and the streams are pure and cool.
While we live in the wilderness, we must never lose sight of the mountain in our heart. When you lose the mountain in your heart, then you will eventually fail in life.
Do you have a mountain in your heart? I do. There is going to be revival in America. There is a mountain in my heart.
What you dream in your heart eventually will end up in your hand.
ILLUSTRATION: Florence Chadwick
Already the first woman to swim the English Channel in both direc- tions. At the age of 34, her goal was to become teh first woman to swim from Catalina Island ot the California coast. On July 4, 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats. She struggled for more than 16 hours. She quit with only a half of a mile to go. She quit because she could not see her goal. Two months later with the shore clearly pictured in heart and mind, she accomplished it.
B. We Must Have an Unqualified Consecration (Josh. 14:8)
Caleb was totally dedicated to doing the will of God. You can not live on the mountain with one foot in the valley and one foot on the mountain. You can not divided in your heart before God. You can not have one foot in the Church and one foot in the World. You can live in the Holy Spirit and one foot in the flesh.
C. We Must Have an Undying Strength (Josh. 14:11)
Caleb was as strong at 85 as he was at 45. He had an undying motivation for God. We need this in our lives. The older we get the greater the tendency to lose our dreams and determination.
ILLUSTRATION: Thomas Edison
Port Huron, Michigan. More than 1,300 inventions. When he invented the light bulb, he tried over 2,000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be 2,000 step process."
ILLUSTRATION: Edmund Hillary
He attempted to climb Mount Everest in 1952. A few weeks later after his failed attempt, he was asked to address a group in England. Hillary walked to the edge of the stage, made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, "Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I’ll beat you th next time bcause you’ve grown all you are going to grow. . . but I’m still growing!" On May 29, 1953, only one year later, Edmund Hillary succeeded in becoming the first man to climb Mount Everest.
CONCLUSION:
1. Do you have a mountain in your heart? Will you allow anyone to take your mountain away?
2. If you desire to live on the mountain top while your feet are in the wilderness, then you must survey your challenges, stimulate your courage, and secure your conquest.
