You Can't Get To The Mountain Top By Standing At The Bottom!

You won’t get to the mountaintop by standing at the bottom!

I want to start out today by asking……. Anyone been in the valley lately?

You don’t have to show hands, but from here I can see a lot of faces and the look on those faces answers that question with a resounding YES.

If you all have known me for anytime, I will constantly let you know that we are indeed in the last days. And in that we are not going to see the “better days” that some of you enjoyed in your younger years or even growing up.

I love the T-shirts out there right now that say, “Normal isn’t coming back….. Jesus is!”. You know, the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, heck even the 80’s into the 90’s for some of us were times with a lot of mountain top experiences. Life was good. Yes, there was plenty of trouble if you went looking for it. And life could get bad. But at the edge of those valleys was a mountain. And once you got to the mountain top …… Life was good again.

Well folks. The mountain tops are much farther away nowadays. In fact, for most of us we have to go through the valley, down a couple of ravines, through the swamp, across the desert, and through the wilderness, just to get to the mountain. And all of those examples are a full sermon series all on their very own. Heck if you will have me back up here sometime, we might get into each of those. Pastor David, there’s some good sermon topic food if you need it.

But all of the journey to the mountain aside and the heartaches and troubles of life just to get to the mountain out of the way. Then we get to climb up the mountain to the mountain top, and sometimes that can seem all but impossible!

Everyone feeling super pumped up and awesome after that??? HA!

I know that wasn’t the most encouraging intro, but it brings me straight into what I want to focus on today. I want us to talk about the mountains. We live in the middle of the mountains here in our VERY BLESSED corner of God’s rock, so its not a stretch to use this and build a biblical example out of THE MOUNTAIN. And you have probably heard many messages and one liner encouragements about the mountain. But mountains can be tough!

We don’t just get magically transported to the top of the mountain!!!

So…..

Anyone here ever actually climbed a mountain?

I don’t mean that you have to have done the full crazy rock climbing picture from the internet with people hanging over rock cliffs with nothing but a rope between them and a 100ft plunge to certain doom. And if you’re anything like me, that was the mental picture that popped into your head right when I said that.

Have you seen some of those people? Hanging there between heaven and earth by a bundle of string????

Heaven knows they don’t make just 1 rope that would hold all of me up off the ground! And I’m not gonna volunteer to test any that claim that they do!

But anyway, have any of you ever really gone up a mountain?

Its really not as easy as one would think is it??

Even walking, hiking, climbing, whatever….. the mountain is a formidable obstacle to overcome.

With all of that being said, I want us to focus today on the mountains that we may be staring at. For some of you, we may be climbing already………. Yes?

So, lets dig into it, and don’t worry, bible verses are incoming! Our key verses are going to be the following, because it is God’s ultimate promise to us in the face of the mountains:

Isaiah 54:10 For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

And also our secondary verse….

Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

…….Lets pray!........

Now, back to mountain climbing……….Mountain climbing is not easy!

And the obstacles and hardships that we face along the way are what we are going to be digging through today.

But where do we start??

I believe that we have to start with God’s word.

Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

How many times have you heard this verse???

Now how many times have you paid attention to the first 8 words? The majority of pastors around the world have used this verse and spent hours just talking about the last 18 words, …… but what about those first 8???