Intro: while we were in Colorado we noticed that the cities were all known for their feet above sea level. Denver was the mile high city, Headwaters was 8200 feet above sea level. Some places were close to 10,000 feet above sea level. It is the same with us, we are known for our spiritual level. People know someone who is reaching for God, striving for the highest level. Tonight I want to encourage all of us to reach for the highest level. It is God’s will for everyone to climb up a little bit higher tonight.
Reaching For The Highest Level
Chronicles 33:1-7
background: Hezekiah was a Godly king, he had torn down all the high places built to other Gods in Israel. Manasseh his son followed him, and rebuilt the high places in Israel. He even built altars in God’s house, and worst of all, he carved out idols and put them in God’s house. Today, God wants your high place to be a holy place, a place separated from the world.
There are three areas in reaching for the highest place in God.
I. Your Highest Place is where your dreams,visions and goals are:
God allows us to fill our lives with dreams, goals and aspirations of what we want to accomplish in our lives. He rejoices with us when our dreams in our lives come true. He doesn’t mind us having many dreams and goals for our lives as long as they don’t take the high place in our heart.
God reserves the high place of our dreams, visions and goals for Himself. It doesn’t matter how many goals we have, as long as they don’t interfere with the main goals.
a. what is your number one goal for your life? Here is what God wants in your high place of dreams and visions.
· Your first dream and vision is for God in your life, Jesus Christ in your heart. Every other thing in life must fall below the ultimate goal of having Jesus Christ as Lord of all. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.
· Every accomplishment, every good thing that happens in your life, must be for the glory of God. God wants to bless you with good things, but only if you will give Him the glory and honor for those things.
· If any goal or dream takes the place of your goal for heaven, your spiritual goals, then they are in the high place.
Ill) years ago Pastor Steve allowed something to get into the high place of goals, visions and dreams. I wanted to be a professional bowler, and it was my constant thought. I use to go to bed and dream dreams about winning tournaments, and shooting 300 games. But one day I realized that my high place didn’t include God. So I quit bowling, and gave my life to Jesus Christ, and now I have been in the ministry for 25 years.
II. Your Highest Place Is Where Your Heart Is: Love is a God given thing. He wants us to love people, to fall in love with someone, and to share love throughout our life. He doesn’t even mind if we love our car, our pets, new clothes, or friends in our lives. But all these loves must never reach the high place, because our ultimate love must be first and foremost a love for Jesus Christ, a love for the Word of God, a love for the things of God.
· If anyone or anything tries to take the place of my love for God, that thing is an idol and evil in the sight of the Lord. Manasseh probably said, He loved God, but he placed other God’s in the high place, he put idols in the house of God.
· Hezekiah tore down the high places built to other God’s. The first step in a right relationship with Jesus Christ, is to tear down any high place we have in our lives. Anything that we love more than Jesus Christ must be destroyed, removed out of our heart.
· If you want to know what your high place is, answer this question, what do I love the most in my life? Jesus wants first place, numero uno. In Revelation: Jesus tells the church, you have left your first love, you have lost your fire. Tonight, I want you to make sure Jesus is in the high place of your heart,
Ill) in Bainbridge Georgia we had a young man start coming to our church, his name was Brad. He liked a girl in our church, so I think his initial motive for coming to church had nothing to do with God. We had a concert for our youth one night a few weeks after Brad starting coming, I still remember him responding to the altar call. It wasn’t long after that his girlfriend started running the roads, drinking and drugs, and some people thought, there goes Brad. But to a lot of people’s amazement, he kept coming to church and serving God. A few years later we received a phone call from some people at the church, Brad had graduated from Southeastern Bible College and had taking a youth position in ministry. You see, his high place was Jesus Christ.
III. Your Highest Place Is Where Your Standards Are—Israel was set apart to be the people of God. Manasseh lowered the standards by having high places to other God’s. He placed idols in the house of God. Today, the same thing can happen, if you serve God your standards must be holy. If you allow the standards of the world, the God’s of our society to get into your high place,
They will corrupt the high place. As a Christian, we talk different, we walk different, we act different, because we are different.
· The first standard is simple: WWJD—this is the standard we all must live by: would Jesus go there, would Jesus watch this, listen to this, wear this---would Jesus have this group of friends. You are not a Christian if you don’t live as Christ. You aren’t going to heaven living like hell.
· The next standard is: do I want to be like them or do they want to be like me. Do I want to live like them or do they want to live like me. The Christian’s motto is this: I won’t let the world change me, I am going to change the world.
Ill) at Bible College we had a young man named Mike Barrentine who had served as a Marine. He had high standards in God. Every morning he would go to the orange grove and pray for hours. One morning I was on the way to breakfast when he came back from praying. You could feel the power of God flowing from Him. When He prayed with people they would be healed, released from the power of drugs or alcohol, and filled with the Spirit of God. He wouldn’t have gotten on the cover of GQ, He may not have been voted most popular in his class, but He had the power of God in his life. That is keeping the high place high, and if you want all of God you must let God have all of you.
· The last standard tonight: am I aiming high enough? Ill) years ago I went hunting with a borrowed gun. The guy told me it was sighted in fine. About dark some deer came out in front of me and I decided I would shoot one. I shot, but the bullet hit about thirty yards short. The deer didn’t even move, so I thought, I must of made a bad shot, so I shot a second time, and got the same results. The scope was aiming to low. There are people who want to go to heaven that are aiming to low. You have got to keep the high place high to make it to heaven. You can’t live a low life and reach a high heaven.
Close: how do you keep your high place high? By keeping Jesus in your goals and dreams, by keeping Him in your heart and spirit, keeping His holy standards in your life.
Ill) in 1974 I moved to Tallassee Alabama and attended First Assembly of God. I still remember going to Youth Camp with a bus full of youth. We all came back on fire for God, and everyone was going to live their life for God. The other day I started thinking about that youth group and to my knowledge, only a few are still serving the Lord. Why? What happened in their lives?
They didn’t keep the high place high. They let other things in beside God. And now many of them are far from God, even though they had once served him. Tonight is Jesus in your high place, He wants to be, He wants to be first, let’s come to the altars and put Him in the highest place.
