Montañas Que Se Mueven | Cómo Un Acto De Fe Lo Cambia Todo

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My name is Kyle.

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I'm our Lead Pastor, if we've never met before.

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So glad to be with you.

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I don't know if you were at Revival last weekend.

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Maybe you showed up to a Crossroads building

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and you tried to get in unsuccessfully.

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Very sorry about that.

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We were meeting at our Base Camp property,

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doing what we call Revival.

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You've heard a little bit about that

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and seen a little bit about that so far.

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So just want to welcome you if you're new,

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if you're new online, so glad you're joining us.

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Thanks for being with us today.

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You may have already, in your short amount of time here,

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come across this phrase that shows up

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everywhere at Crossroads: Born for Adventure.

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And you might have concluded that's kind of

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an interesting tagline for a church.

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I don't know what your background is with church.

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You might have been like, you know,

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I would have said church was more like

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born to be boring, or something. I don't know.

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Not a Crossroads, that's not just a cute tagline

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that we came up with.

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It's what we genuinely believe the Bible has

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for each one of us, that God's intention is

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that we would live an adventure.

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See, the Bible is a collection of stories

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of heroes who don't stay home, who don't play it safe,

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who don't sit still, but who sail oceans,

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climb mountains, cross deserts,

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make it through valleys, go through rivers,

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all in pursuit of the life that God has for them.

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Because of that, we're starting a series today.

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It's called Terrain. I'm very, very excited about it.

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And it's basically about what I would say is like

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the unsung best supporting actor in the entire Bible,

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which is the terrain, the landscape,

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the mountains and the rivers and all that stuff.

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See, God made it all very intentionally.

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If you think about it, God could have made the earth

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like a smooth marble, you know,

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like all Kansas everywhere.

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That would have been -- no offense, Kansas.

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That would have been very boring.

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But that's not what He did.

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He carved it with these landscapes and these features

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and these mountains and these deserts and these plateaus.

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And He did it for a reason.

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It's because that imagery forms the foundation

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of the language that He uses to describe

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what it is like to follow Him in the Bible.

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Bible says that our life is like an adventure,

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and it says the key, the key across the terrain

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is to find the path that leads to life.

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In fact, in the book of John, Jesus actually said

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He is that path. He is that way.

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Listen to John 14:6 as we start this series.

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Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life.

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No one comes to the Father except through me.

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See, the idea from the beginning of this series

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is that there are many ways through the terrain.

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When you encounter a desert in your life,

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there are many voices who want to tell you which way to go.

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When you come to a mountain, there are many voices

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who want to tell you what to do when you come to the mountain,

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how to climb it or get around it,

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or go under it or whatever.

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But Jesus says there's only one path that leads to life,

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and it's Him.

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In this series, we're looking at His path

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through each of these terrains.

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Now, every terrain is unique and it demands

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that you understand how to navigate it.

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See, what you do when you face the mountain

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is different than what you do when you face the desert.

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How you behave in the desert is very different

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than what you might do in the valley.

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Our goal in this series is to equip you

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and push you forward.

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My goal today is that you would not end up like stupid Tyler.

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Stupid Tyler is not in the Bible, in case you're curious,

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like hadn't heard of him. Is he one of the disciples?

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No, not, not one of the disciples.

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Stupid Tyler is the guy that my family

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met this summer on our vacation.

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We went hiking at the most remote island

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in all the Hawaiian Islands.

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We did it on a budget, and so we stayed at the airport

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and my wife got bit by a brown recluse spider.

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That was bad. Hiking was great.

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That story from the other day.

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Hiking was great.

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On the last day of our trip, we took a boat ride

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to a place that we couldn't get to.

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It's because the trail was so dangerous

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and you had to get permits.

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You had to camp multiple nights to climb this trail.

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It's crazy. The Kalalau Trail.

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We took a boat ride off the coast

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and we saw where the trail ends.

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And it is a spectacular, I mean, breathtaking,

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breathtaking view.

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I think we might have a picture of it here to show you.

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There we go. Look at this amazing view.

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Those cliffs, by the way, they look small.

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Those are a mile tall.

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And so to get to this beach,

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you have to do this crazy, crazy climb.

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And we're looking at it and it's beautiful.

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And then we see this little figure.

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I don't know if you can see him here.

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Can we zoom in right there?

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There he is. That's Tyler.

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This little kid starts waving his arms.

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He jumps in the water and he

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swims all the way out to our boat.

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Climbs on. We learn that Tyler is 19

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and Tyler has gone hiking with his girlfriend.

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And they have made it all the way multiple days to this beach.

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However, Tyler tells us in Tyler's words

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that his girlfriend has a gnarly stress fracture

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and she won't be able to hike back out.

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And so can we help? It's like, oh my gosh,

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well, that's not -- That's not good at all.

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And so our boat captain, he explains,

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"Well, I'm not legally allowed to take you on my boat,

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but I can call the Coast Guard and, you know,

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we can help you out and all this stuff."

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And his girlfriend's back on the beach,

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and she's, you know, she's like, "What's happening?

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Am I gonna get -- are we gonna get rescued?"

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And he's yelling back. He's like, "Yeah, good news.

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Got it. All good."

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Then our boat captain calls the Coast Guard,

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and the Coast Guard says, "We'll send a chopper."

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And that's when Tyler's like, "Wait a minute,

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is that going to cost me money?"

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Now captain's like, "Yeah, yeah,

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of course it'll cost you money."

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And then Stupid Tyler decides, "You know what?

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My girlfriend stress fracture, she probably needs

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just to sleep it off, and then she can hike

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all the way back out of here."

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So he jumped back in the water and swam back to shore.

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That is a true story.

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Now, gentlemen, if you've ever been in a relationship,

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if you ever hope to be in a relationship,

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let's review this moment together, okay?

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Let's just not make the same mistake as Stupid Tyler.

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Do you know what would happen if this was me and Sarah

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and I swam back ashore and the boat drove off?

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She would turn me into a canoe, rip my arms off,

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and paddle her way off the island.

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That's what would happen.

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It's ridiculous, stuck there.

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Anyway, don't end up like Stupid Tyler stuck in the sand.

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That's the whole point of that.

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That's not what we're after.

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This is -- what we're after is how do you

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go on these hikes, how do you go on these adventures

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with God and not end up stuck,

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not end up somewhere where you don't know how to get up?

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Not in the place where you don't know how to how to get help?

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How do you follow God through even the hardest,

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toughest seasons and terrains of your life?

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This week and next are something of a two part message.

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I'll be talking about mountains and valleys.

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This week is mountains and this thing that Jesus says

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that we can say to mountains, move and they will.

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And then next week is valleys.

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How do you get through even the deepest,

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darkest valleys in your life?

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And there is something connected.

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Because, see, every valley is framed by mountains,

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and on the end of every mountain is a valley.

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Let's pray before we go any further.

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God, thank You so much for the imagery You give us

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that lets us see You.

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I'm asking that today You'd help us understand You,

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and that You would increase our faith.

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That we would have the courage to do what You say.

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That we would see mountains move in our lives. Amen.

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Today's mountains.

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What do you do when you come face to face

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with a mountain in your life?

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The thing that you can't move.

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The obstacle that's so big

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you could never on your own power, ever hope

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to summit it, climb over it, get around it.

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These mountains come for all of us, by the way,

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they're not a partial thing.

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They don't come for some. They come for all.

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Sometimes in your life you'll have multiple mountains.

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How do you get over them?

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To answer that question, we'll be digging into

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what I think is, at the same time,

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one of the most hopeful and frustrating things

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that Jesus ever taught.

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It's actually one of the places where many people

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have stubbed their toes on faith.

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Many people have misunderstood this

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or heard it taught wrong,

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and so have actually walked away from their faith.

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What I'm hoping today is that the opposite happens for us,

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that our understanding of this,

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because we're willing to dig in

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and ask the hard questions, increases our faith.

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Here's the lines from Jesus in Matthew -- or sorry,

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Mark 11:23, Jesus says, "For assuredly, I say to you,

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whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed

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and be cast into the sea, '

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and does not doubt in his heart,

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but believes that those things he says will be done,

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he will have whatever he says.

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Therefore I say to you,

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whatever things you ask when you pray,

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believe that you receive them and you will have them."

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So there you go. Pretty simple.

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According to Jesus, you look at the mountain

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and you say, move.

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And then if you just believe and you don't doubt, it does.

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And so that's the whole thing.

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Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for --

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Just kidding. That's not the whole sermon.

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It's not cut and dry.

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It sounds that way in the surface, right?

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But this isn't so cut and dry.

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See, I want to be clear from the beginning

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of this message, sometimes, sometimes

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when you look at the mountain,

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sometimes you look at the obstacle in your life,

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sometimes there is a miracle.

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And we do see healings and we do see movement,

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and we do see instantaneous change.

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Absolutely happens.

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We saw that happen this weekend at Revival.

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We see it every camp we do. It's incredible.

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But it's called a miracle for a reason.

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It's because it's not the norm.

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See, sometimes in the Bible there are moments

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where God parts the waters.

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But more often than that, when people walk up to a river

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and they go to cross it, they get wet.

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I just wonder in your life, are there any obstacles

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in your life, are there any barriers

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that maybe you've prayed and you've asked God to move

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and yet nothing has happened?

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Have you ever prayed for a breakthrough

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and you're still stuck?

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Have you ever wanted a change

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and the mountain is still blocking your path?

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See, the bad teaching about this passage, I think,

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has crushed the faith of many, many people.

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It's left them in that moment.

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Maybe it's the moment you're in right now, very confused.

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Why hasn't God done what I asked?

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Why? Why hasn't the mountain moved?

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Is there something wrong with me?

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Is there something wrong with God?

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Well, to understand it, we have to ask

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a couple of questions about this passage

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and about this teaching of Jesus.

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Number one, we have to ask

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what mountains is Jesus actually talking about?

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And number two, we have to ask,

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what does Jesus mean when He says, "Don't doubt."

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Let's start with the mountains question.

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What does He mean when He says mountains?

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Well, some important context.

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A lot of times we'll read the Bible

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and we'll imagine these scenes like this one,

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as if Jesus is sitting in a sterile classroom on his hands.

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You know, He's just kind of doing this.

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And all the disciples are sitting around

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like you in third grade listening to Miss Martin

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talk about whatever she was talking about.

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And you were zoning out. Right?

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It's like Jesus is sitting there and He's like,

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"Well, here's how it works.

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If you just say to this mountain."

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But that's not what happens.

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Most of the words of Jesus are, guess what,

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delivered while He's walking.

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He's going from place to place.

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And this is no different.

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These words actually come from the last week of his life

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where he had this particular rhythm.

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He would stay in the hometown of His friend Lazarus.

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It's called Bethany.

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It was on the backside of the Mount of Olives.

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Now, if you're not familiar with the topography

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of Jerusalem, pretty simple.

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There's a big hill called the Mount of Olives.

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It's right here. Bethany is on the backside.

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And if you go up the Mount of Olives

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and come down to the Kidron Valley,

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the valley of the shadow, and then go back up

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mount Moriah, that's where the temple was,

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the center of the city.

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And so every day Jesus would hike up and down and up,

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and then He'd go back.

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And what we know is that He said this passage

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about the mountain when He was in Bethany in the morning.

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And because we know where He was,

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we can start to discern what kind of mountain

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He was talking about.

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Because, listen, what Jesus says.

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He doesn't say, say to any mountain.

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He says this, "Assuredly, I say to you,

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whoever says to this mountain," this mountain.

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Yeah, not not any mountain.

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This doesn't mean that you and I can ask

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for literally whatever we want.

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I want a Ferrari. Jesus, give me a Ferrari.

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Boom! No! Ferrari. Shoot! You know?

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I want to be six foot six and dunk.

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Ugh. Nothing happened, right?

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It's not that. It's not that.

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It's a particular mountain. He says this mountain.

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Now, when you say the word this about something,

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generally you're pointing, right?

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You go to the donut store and you're like,

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"I will have this donut." Yes.

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Jesus is walking along.

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What we know is that He points and He goes,

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"If you say to this mountain."

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And because we know where He was,

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we can say exactly which mountain He was pointing at,

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because see from that point on the earth,

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there was one mountain that dominated the skyline.

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And it just so happened to be the most unique mountain

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on the entire face of the earth.

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It was the one mountain that God did not make.

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It was literally a man made mountain.

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Maybe you've heard of King Herod from the Christmas story,

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the one who, even before Jesus was born,

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Herod was after Him. He wanted to torment Him.

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Well, you might not know is that Herod

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was this big, oppressive ruler.

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He was basically like Darth Vader of the area.

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And just like Darth Vader had the Death Star,

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Herod had a mountain.

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It was called the Herodian.

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Literally a man made mountain that he had built.

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It's still there today. This is it.

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If you go to Israel, you can you can tour it and see it.

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There's actually a giant

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fortress on top of that mountain.

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So it was even taller than what you see right there.

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Interestingly, it is still there.

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So the mountain that Jesus said,

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"If you say to this mountain move,"

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literally hasn't moved, I want you to remember that.

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I want you to remember that.

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The mountain was visible from Bethlehem,

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where Jesus was born,

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all the way to Jerusalem, where Jesus died.

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In a quite literal sense, that mountain

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had loomed large over Jesus's entire life.

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It had cast a shadow across the whole thing.

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I wonder in your life, is there a mountain that's like that?

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That for as long as you can

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remember, it's always been there.

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It's always cast a shadow over you.

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Maybe it's something that seems a little bit innocent.

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You know, us Smiths, were just always angry.

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Maybe it has a little more teeth to it.

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Us Johnsons, we just drink too much.

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Or everybody in our family, we just end up divorced.

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Or never works out for me.

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Or I've always been anxious

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or I've never had healthy relationships.

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I've never been able to keep a good job.

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I've never felt what other people feel in worship.

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My health will just always be a problem.

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My weight will always be this way.

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Whatever that is, that's what this mountain was to Jesus.

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It was persistent. It was always there.

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If you wonder what qualifies as a mountain,

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I would say the mountain is

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whatever feels like a mountain to you.

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Your mountain in your life

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is different than the mountain in my life.

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What feels like one to me might not be to you.

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But the good news, the good news is that

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Jesus seems to say that those mountains,

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the ones that seem like they were just going

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to always be there in our lives, those mountains can move.

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Well, how? How?

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Slide back into the words of Jesus in Matthew 11.

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Jesus says, "I say to you, whoever says,

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'This mountain be removed and be cast into the sea, '

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and does not doubt in his heart,

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but believes that those things he says will be done,

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he will have whatever he says.

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See the key, it seems like what Jesus says,

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the key is do not doubt.

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Which brings up our second question: what is doubt?

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When Jesus says, don't doubt, what does He mean?

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There are many people who will say, "Well,

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it's really simple. It's it's pretty clear.

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I mean, do not doubt it. It means be certain.

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You must be certain."

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They would say that doubt is a lack of certainty,

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and that certainty is the highest form of faith.

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One of my favorite theologians of all time, Greg Boyd,

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he calls this the idea of certainty seeking faith.

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And in this view of faith, it says that

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your faith is as strong as you are certain

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of what God's going to do before He does it.

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The more certain you are,

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the more powerful your prayers will be.

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And if you can become 100% certain the mountain will move.

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And so what people do is they take this passage

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and they interpret it that way.

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They go, "What I've got to do is not doubt.

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And so if I'll just convince myself,

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I will get a job, I will get a job, I will get a job,

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I will get a job, then I'll get a job.

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If I can just convince myself I will be healed,

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I will be healed, I will be, I will be healed.

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That somehow, magically, God will just, poof, heal me.

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I will beat the addiction. I will beat the addiction.

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I will be -- that somehow, God. Poof!

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That's the idea of certainty seeking faith.

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See if you've ever had that view, I want you to know

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that that's not at all in the Bible.

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That is very popular right now, but it's not.

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It's not biblical theology. It's humanistic fantasy.

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It's called manifesting, and it does not work.

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It's not what Jesus is saying at all.

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That kind of mindset, I would argue,

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is actually incredibly

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destructive and opposite of faith.

00:18:45

Because, see, whether it works or whether it doesn't,

00:18:47

you're still all thrown off.

00:18:49

See, if it works, it's all about your effort.

00:18:52

You did it.

00:18:54

You worked up 100% certain faith

00:18:57

about a thing you couldn't know that God was going to do.

00:18:59

You did it.

00:19:01

And if it doesn't work, it's even more destructive

00:19:05

because then, is it all your fault?

00:19:09

I know people who are in wheelchairs who've been told,

00:19:14

"You know, the only reason you're in the wheelchair

00:19:16

is because you don't have the faith to stand up.

00:19:20

You're not certain that God's going to heal you."

00:19:25

And I just hear that and I go, "Oh, man.

00:19:28

Oh, that's so destructive."

00:19:29

Again this weekend we saw at Revival miracles happen.

00:19:32

It was amazing.

00:19:34

But as a as a pastor of this church,

00:19:36

I don't just get to hear the good stories.

00:19:37

I hear all the other ones too, all the hard ones.

00:19:40

Same exact week in the last five days

00:19:43

I know of a family, young family, who lost

00:19:46

the wife and the mother of the family,

00:19:48

despite praying that she'd be healed,

00:19:50

despite believing that God could do it

00:19:52

and that God might even do it, that He would do it.

00:19:55

I know a family who has a daughter with spine issues,

00:19:57

who prayed for healing and

00:19:58

believed God was going to heal her,

00:20:00

and it hasn't happened yet.

00:20:02

You just go, "What's the -- What? What Jesus saying here?

00:20:05

Is He saying that this is their fault?"

00:20:08

If you just believed enough,

00:20:09

is this what He's saying to you in your life?

00:20:11

If you had just convinced yourself,

00:20:14

be certain of what God was going to do, then He'd do it.

00:20:16

Is that what He means? No, no, not at all.

00:20:20

That's not the character of Christ.

00:20:23

Jesus doesn't refuse to heal us

00:20:25

or move in our lives until we're 100% certain about Him.

00:20:29

That's not what He does.

00:20:31

He doesn't ignore your prayers until you're positive.

00:20:33

Not at all.

00:20:35

There's a time where Jesus was interacting

00:20:38

with a Father who came to Him on behalf of his son.

00:20:41

His son had been having seizures.

00:20:43

He had been possessed by a demon for a long time.

00:20:46

And the guy comes up to Jesus

00:20:47

and this is their interaction in Mark 9. This is Jesus.

00:20:52

He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?"

00:20:56

And he said, "From childhood.

00:20:58

And often he has thrown him into the fire

00:21:00

and into the water to destroy him.

00:21:03

But if You can do anything,

00:21:06

have compassion on us and help us."

00:21:09

Notice the father says, this has been happening for a long time.

00:21:11

Well, that means that's a mountain,

00:21:13

like we're talking about, that's loomed over his life

00:21:15

for the whole -- for a long, long time.

00:21:17

It's always been there.

00:21:19

But notice the father doesn't come and say,

00:21:20

"I do not doubt."

00:21:22

Instead, he says, "Hey, if You can do anything,

00:21:27

could You help us?"

00:21:28

And here's Jesus's response.

00:21:30

Jesus said to him, "If you can believe,

00:21:33

all things are possible to him who believes."

00:21:35

Immediately the father of the child cried out

00:21:38

and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief."

00:21:42

Notice Jesus didn't rebuke the dad.

00:21:45

He didn't say, "Your son would already be well

00:21:47

if you just had more faith, if you were just certain."

00:21:49

He didn't do that at all, instead, He healed the kid.

00:21:53

See, the good news is Jesus doesn't demand perfect faith.

00:21:57

Jesus honors the tiniest scrap of faith.

00:22:02

There's another telling of the story from Matthew 17.

00:22:04

It says this. Jesus says, "For truly I say to you,

00:22:07

if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed,

00:22:12

you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there, '

00:22:16

and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

00:22:19

If you have a mustard seed sized faith.

00:22:22

Now, back then, they didn't know about

00:22:24

the smallest things that we now know about,

00:22:27

the tiniest things we know, like, uh, cells and atoms

00:22:32

and the Bengals playoff chances.

00:22:34

They didn't know about that small of things.

00:22:38

Sorry, Bengals. It's just it's getting, it's getting tough.

00:22:40

We're still -- We're still with you,

00:22:42

I said it a few weeks ago, we still are.

00:22:43

Still with you still rooting, still believing.

00:22:46

Just getting small. That's all I'm saying.

00:22:49

Back then a mustard seed was the smallest thing

00:22:52

that they could conceive of.

00:22:53

There were no microscopes.

00:22:55

They didn't have eyeglasses.

00:22:57

So it was basically the tiniest part of something.

00:22:59

Today we would phrase it this way.

00:23:00

We would say, "If you have even

00:23:02

a subatomic particle sized faith,

00:23:06

Jesus says, you can move a mountain.

00:23:10

So what does He mean by doubt then?

00:23:11

Because He says do not doubt.

00:23:13

Well, the Greek word for doubt is diakrinō,

00:23:18

which literally means to make a distinction or to decide.

00:23:22

So a better translation might actually be,

00:23:25

don't get yourself into a spot of indecision.

00:23:29

You know, indecision is this.

00:23:31

Indecision is like, I'm going to go, no.

00:23:32

I'm saying, you know, I'm going to --

00:23:34

I'm just going to -- I'm just going to--

00:23:35

Which, you know, this is the salsa actually.

00:23:38

Somebody like, that's not the salsa,

00:23:40

that's the white man's shuffle.

00:23:42

And it is. That's all I can do.

00:23:44

That's the dosey doe of indecision.

00:23:46

You don't go anywhere. You're just here.

00:23:49

And a lot of us, we live our entire lives right here.

00:23:52

And it's why we're stuck.

00:23:54

We're just dancing. We're just --

00:23:55

I mean, maybe I could. Maybe it's time to apply.

00:23:58

Maybe it's time to tell somebody.

00:23:59

Oh, maybe it's not.

00:24:01

Maybe it's time to share what happened to me as a kid.

00:24:03

I just -- not. Not today.

00:24:07

But what Jesus says is that mountain will move

00:24:11

if you do this: one tiny step.

00:24:17

See what we think is that mountain moving faith

00:24:19

has to do with certainty between our ears. It doesn't.

00:24:21

It has to do with taking a step with our feet.

00:24:23

It has to do with taking enough faith in God to say,

00:24:27

"I trust You. I trust Your power.

00:24:29

I can't get over the obstacle.

00:24:31

It's too much for me.

00:24:32

But I'll take one step in Your direction."

00:24:35

And if you'll do that, if you'll do that,

00:24:39

you'll see the mountain move.

00:24:42

See how mountain moves the mountains move in our lives

00:24:45

when we have faith enough in God to start to climb them.

00:24:48

That's how.

00:24:50

And when you do that, the

00:24:52

mountain that was in front of you

00:24:54

moves to behind you.

00:24:56

The thing that was a menace in front of you

00:24:59

and kept you paralyzed for your whole life,

00:25:02

suddenly becomes a memory in your rear view mirror.

00:25:06

That mountain, the original one, the Herodian,

00:25:08

like I said, it's still there. It didn't move.

00:25:12

But do you know who did move?

00:25:14

Jesus. Jesus moved.

00:25:17

He went up and over that mountain.

00:25:20

He climbed up onto a Cross.

00:25:23

He followed God day after day after day.

00:25:26

And because He moved, the mountain moved for Him.

00:25:30

He went from beneath it, with it looming over Him

00:25:33

to over and above it.

00:25:34

Listen to what Ephesians 1 says about where Jesus is now.

00:25:37

It says God seated Him at His right hand

00:25:40

in the heavenly places, far above all rule and power

00:25:44

and authority and dominion,

00:25:45

and above every name that's named,

00:25:47

not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

00:25:50

See, mountain moving faith is not about

00:25:53

a measurement of certainty. It's about movement.

00:25:55

It's about movement.

00:25:57

It's about committing to a course of action

00:25:59

in the face of uncertainty.

00:26:01

See faith is not, faith is not being certain.

00:26:05

Faith is taking a risk.

00:26:07

It's risking relationship with God,

00:26:10

putting yourself in a position

00:26:11

where you have to depend on His power.

00:26:14

My one of my favorite hikes to do,

00:26:16

probably my favorite hike in the whole world,

00:26:18

is one that is very, very risky.

00:26:21

You might have heard of it.

00:26:22

It's called Angel's Landing out in Zion National Park.

00:26:26

It's typically rated as one of

00:26:28

the most dangerous hikes in all of America.

00:26:30

You hike this spine of a mountain holding on to chains.

00:26:34

There are some parts of the trail that are three feet wide

00:26:38

with 1000 foot drop on either side.

00:26:41

It's also very slick, worn limestone.

00:26:45

And it is awesome. It is so great.

00:26:48

Now a lot of us will look at that and we go,

00:26:50

"That looks way too risky.

00:26:52

I could never do that. I could never do that."

00:26:55

And I'll tell you, yeah, maybe, I don't know,

00:26:57

maybe that's true for you with this one trail.

00:26:59

I don't know. But what I'll tell you is,

00:27:02

of all the hiking trips I've gone on,

00:27:03

this is my family's favorite pastimes, go hiking.

00:27:05

All the national parks I've ever been to,

00:27:07

all the places I've ever gone, I'll tell you what.

00:27:10

Do you know the most crowded place in the park?

00:27:13

It's the gift shop.

00:27:16

Do you know the least crowded place in the park?

00:27:19

It's the top of the mountain.

00:27:21

Do you know where the views are?

00:27:23

Top of the mountain. Top of the mountain.

00:27:27

But I think for many of us, as we follow Jesus,

00:27:29

many of us are trying to follow Jesus from the gift shop.

00:27:33

We're poking around going, "God, I'm looking for You.

00:27:36

I'll see you. Maybe you're in the key chains over here."

00:27:39

No, he's on the key chain.

00:27:41

Oh, maybe He's in the coffee mugs or T-shirts. No, no.

00:27:45

God's on the mountain. He's on the mountain.

00:27:49

And His invitation to you is

00:27:50

do you want the mountain to move in your life?

00:27:53

What if the thing you thought

00:27:55

was always going to keep you stuck could move?

00:28:00

Not just get less intimidating.

00:28:02

Not like, move off to the side of your vision

00:28:04

so you don't think about it every day,

00:28:05

but it's kind of still there. Move.

00:28:08

What if it became part of your past

00:28:10

and part of the celebration of what God had done in your life?

00:28:14

That can happen, if you trust God,

00:28:17

if you have faith in God.

00:28:20

As a pastor, I find that people all the time,

00:28:22

they ask me to pray for them. You know, pray for them.

00:28:25

And a lot of times people ask me to pray away

00:28:27

the risk in their life.

00:28:29

And I just want to warn you,

00:28:30

if you want me to pray for you, I'd love to do that.

00:28:32

I'm always up for praying for people.

00:28:34

But if you ask me to pray away the risk in your life,

00:28:36

I will not do it. Not going to do it. Not interested.

00:28:39

And what will happen is people will try to trick me.

00:28:41

We'll use code words for praying away the risk.

00:28:44

Like, "No, you know, I just can you just ask

00:28:46

that God would give me clarity over what to do,

00:28:49

whether to take this step or not?

00:28:51

Would you ask that God would make it clear

00:28:53

what I'm supposed to do or not do?"

00:28:56

Nope. I won't do that either.

00:28:58

Same thing, same thing.

00:29:01

See, in my life, every mountain I've ever climbed,

00:29:04

every every mountain that's moved in my life,

00:29:07

it didn't happen because I was certain.

00:29:09

It happened because I took a risk.

00:29:11

When I felt like God wanted me

00:29:13

to leave my corporate career and go into ministry,

00:29:15

was I certain that's what He wanted me to do?

00:29:17

No, not at all. But I took a step out anyway.

00:29:22

When Sarah and I had financial stress in our lives,

00:29:27

and we had this mountain in front of us

00:29:29

called, like, just financial pressure

00:29:31

that hung over us all, all the time.

00:29:33

Was I certain that if we made movement on that

00:29:37

that it was going to be amazing?

00:29:38

No, I wasn't certain, but I took a step of faith.

00:29:41

I did the small thing that I felt

00:29:42

like God was asking me to do.

00:29:44

See, this is always how it works.

00:29:46

You will have to -- You will have to have courage

00:29:49

to follow God up the mountain.

00:29:51

If you want the mountain to move in your life,

00:29:54

you will have to have the courage

00:29:56

to risk following God up the mountain.

00:30:01

I think you and I think that God's goal is to save us steps.

00:30:04

You know? Li, ke God's checking in on your Apple Watch.

00:30:07

And He's like, "How many steps did you get today?

00:30:09

Did you get to 10,000?

00:30:11

That's more than I want for you. I'll tell you what.

00:30:13

I'll tell you I want -- I'd like to keep you

00:30:15

about 2000 would be great, really.

00:30:17

And really, if we get down to zero, that'd be a good day."

00:30:21

That's not what God's doing.

00:30:23

He's not trying to save you steps.

00:30:25

He's trying to turn you into a mountain climber.

00:30:28

If you read the Bible, it's story after story

00:30:31

of people who climb up and down mountains

00:30:33

day after day, week after week, all the time.

00:30:36

Literal mountains, not metaphor. Literal mountains.

00:30:40

I just got back from two weeks of filming

00:30:43

in Turkey and Greece the Life of Paul,

00:30:45

which I'm so excited.

00:30:46

In February next year, we're going to have

00:30:49

our next season of Real Encounters with God,

00:30:52

which is our most popular series

00:30:54

we've ever done at Crossroads.

00:30:55

Going to come out, follow the life of Paul

00:30:57

through Turkey and Greece.

00:30:58

And we got to follow some of his footsteps.

00:31:01

And look at this, this is mountains

00:31:03

that he literally walked across.

00:31:06

Paul was born in a place called Tarsus.

00:31:08

These are the Taurus Mountains right outside his back door.

00:31:11

He crossed these mountains all the time.

00:31:16

Moses, if you go back to the Old Testament,

00:31:18

Moses goes up and down mountains.

00:31:20

You go to Exodus 19, there's this hilarious scene

00:31:23

where he goes up and down Mount Sinai

00:31:26

four times talking to God.

00:31:28

And you read it and you're like, "You know, God,

00:31:30

you you could have like consolidated thoughts,

00:31:32

you know what I mean?

00:31:34

We could have booked extra time on the calendar

00:31:36

instead of these stop and goes like a whole,

00:31:38

you know, like a like a good hour chunk,

00:31:40

one on one, done everything, ad then that would have been."

00:31:42

But it's not what God does.

00:31:43

He sends him up and down the mountain.

00:31:45

It's almost comical if you read it.

00:31:47

Here's Exodus 19:20.

00:31:50

And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain.

00:31:52

And Moses went up.

00:31:54

And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people."

00:32:00

And Moses said to the Lord,

00:32:02

"The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai."

00:32:04

And the Lord said to him, "Go down and come up,

00:32:08

bringing Aaron with you."

00:32:09

He's just like, "Oh, up and down, up and down."

00:32:11

By the way, Mount Sinai, there's about --

00:32:13

There's three different mountains.

00:32:14

We're not entirely sure which one is the Mount Sinai,

00:32:17

but they're all about 8000 feet tall.

00:32:20

This is not, like, "Hey, if you could just kind of

00:32:22

make it to the top of the balcony here in the--"

00:32:24

No, it's it's an 8000 foot tall mountain.

00:32:27

See, the point is, God's not trying to save us steps.

00:32:30

It's not what He's doing.

00:32:31

The life of faith is not the easy path. It's not.

00:32:36

It is going up the mountain. Mountains are everywhere.

00:32:38

The capital city in the nation of Israel,

00:32:40

its Jerusalem still to this day.

00:32:42

Do you know that you cannot get to Jerusalem

00:32:44

without going up a mountain?

00:32:45

No matter which direction you approach it from,

00:32:47

north, west, east, south, doesn't matter.

00:32:49

You have to go up a mountain to get there.

00:32:51

The temple. Where was it?

00:32:53

On the top of Mount Moriah.

00:32:55

Jesus, when he was transfigured, where did that happen?

00:32:58

On top of a mountain.

00:32:59

The second coming of Jesus.

00:33:01

He says that His feet will touch down, where?

00:33:03

On top of a mountain.

00:33:06

The point is, if you're waiting for God

00:33:09

to magically poof the mountains away,

00:33:11

that's not going to happen in your life.

00:33:14

He's waiting for you to trust Him enough to take a step

00:33:17

and start climbing up the mountain with Him.

00:33:20

And when you do, you'll see it move.

00:33:22

You'll see it move.

00:33:23

It's not the easy way. It's the hard way.

00:33:26

But it's the way that works.

00:33:28

It's the path that He's blazed.

00:33:31

This is what Jesus Himself said in Matthew 7.

00:33:33

He said, "Enter by the narrow gate.

00:33:35

For the gate is wide, and the way is easy

00:33:38

that leads to destruction,

00:33:40

and those who enter by it are many.

00:33:42

For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard

00:33:46

that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

00:33:51

Those who find it are few.

00:33:53

See, faith isn't the path of least resistance.

00:33:57

Faith, I'll tell you this very clearly,

00:33:59

faith does not make life easy. It doesn't.

00:34:02

It makes the impossible possible.

00:34:04

It's very important to understand.

00:34:07

If you're waiting around for Jesus to make your life easy,

00:34:09

that's not going to happen.

00:34:11

But if you want a God

00:34:12

who will do the impossible in your life,

00:34:14

that can happen if you follow Him up the mountain.

00:34:17

Not on your power, not on your ability,

00:34:20

not on what you can accomplish,

00:34:22

but on what He can do in and through you.

00:34:25

Don't compare the size of the mountain to the size of you.

00:34:29

Compare the size of your

00:34:30

mountain to the size of your God.

00:34:33

You have the courage to walk up.

00:34:34

And friends, this is what I want for you.

00:34:36

Aren't you tired? Are you tired of being stuck?

00:34:41

Aren't you tired of feeling like it just always be this way?

00:34:45

I don't know what it is for you.

00:34:47

Maybe it's the career you're stuck in.

00:34:48

Maybe it's your physical health. I've just always been unhealthy.

00:34:51

It's been this way since I had kids.

00:34:53

It's never going to change. Well, it could.

00:34:54

Maybe it's the way that you feel between you and God.

00:34:57

I've just always felt more distant

00:34:58

than other people around me.

00:34:59

I'm sitting here in worship services,

00:35:01

and people raise their hands

00:35:02

and they seem to get it and they seem to connect.

00:35:04

And that's just -- That's just not me.

00:35:05

Never has been, never will be.

00:35:07

What if we stop saying never will be?

00:35:10

What if we took a step? What if we took a step?

00:35:15

See, the first step is the step of faith.

00:35:18

For you your first step,

00:35:20

your mustard seed sized step of faith

00:35:24

might be to tell someone about what happened.

00:35:29

It might be to open up to somebody

00:35:31

about the problem in your life.

00:35:33

It might be to ask for help.

00:35:35

It might be to finally confess it.

00:35:37

It might be to finally apply for the job

00:35:39

or for the college.

00:35:41

It might be to brave the doctor's office.

00:35:45

It might be to pray again.

00:35:48

See, faith, it doesn't deny the mountain,

00:35:50

but it does defy its authority.

00:35:52

Faith speaks to the mountain, and it says,

00:35:54

"You do not own me, and you will not stop me."

00:35:57

Let's go all the way back to the first words

00:35:59

that Jesus says in Mark 11.

00:36:01

For assuredly, I say to you,

00:36:02

whoever says to this mountain, "Be removed."

00:36:07

See, you have to start to say to your mountain,

00:36:10

"You will not be here forever, and you will not win,

00:36:12

and you will not define me, and you will not own me,

00:36:15

because I know a God who's bigger than you."

00:36:16

You have to start to say that to your mountain.

00:36:19

You have to say what Jesus says.

00:36:21

You have to believe what He says over your life.

00:36:24

Speak faith into your future.

00:36:27

This is God's words in Zechariah 4:6-y

00:36:31

when He was talking to a guy about a mountain in his life.

00:36:33

I want you to pay attention to these words.

00:36:35

Zechariah 4:6.

00:36:37

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:

00:36:41

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,

00:36:45

says the Lord of hosts.

00:36:47

Who are you, O great mountain?

00:36:49

Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain."

00:36:55

Can you imagine what it would be like to be Zerubabel,

00:36:58

have that written about you in the Bible?

00:37:00

God says, "Hey, I want everybody to know,

00:37:04

mountain, that before Zerubbabel you'll be a plain. ""

00:37:10

What if God said that about you over your life?

00:37:14

"Hey, I want everybody to know, mountain,

00:37:17

before you, before Chris, before Susie, before John,

00:37:22

it will become a plain."

00:37:26

This is exactly what Jesus says.

00:37:29

He says if you'll trust Me,

00:37:32

if you'll start to speak what I speak

00:37:33

about the mountains and the obstacles in your life,

00:37:36

you will see them move."

00:37:41

What you think for a minute

00:37:43

about that mountain in your life.

00:37:45

Maybe it's one that's been there since you were a kid.

00:37:48

Maybe it's one that's hung over your family history.

00:37:52

Maybe it's one that just feels like

00:37:53

it's been in your life forever.

00:37:54

But it's the battle in front of you right now.

00:37:56

I want you to think about that mountain,

00:37:59

and I want to give you a challenge.

00:38:02

If you want to take a mustard seed sized step of faith

00:38:07

towards beginning to climb that mountain in a new way today

00:38:11

I want you to say the words that God says over Zerubbabel,

00:38:17

but I want you to put your name in the blanks.

00:38:19

We're going to put the verse back on screen

00:38:22

and you'll see blanks.

00:38:24

I'm going to read it and we get to the blank,

00:38:26

if you want to say to God,

00:38:29

"God help me climb the mountain.

00:38:31

God, I trust You enough to get going."

00:38:33

If you want to do that, I want you to say your name out loud.

00:38:35

Here we go.

00:38:37

This is the word of the Lord to...

00:38:42

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,

00:38:47

says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain,

00:38:51

before... you shall become a plain."

00:38:56

That's God's promise over your life.

00:38:58

God, thank You so much for Your Scripture.

00:39:02

Thank You that You don't make it easy, but You make it real.

00:39:06

I'm asking that for me and for everybody in this room.

00:39:09

God, that you'd give us the courage to follow You.

00:39:13

That You'd give us the faith that moves mountains.

00:39:15

God, that whatever stands in front of us right now,

00:39:17

whatever blocks our view would be gone.

00:39:20

God, that you'd give us the courage

00:39:21

to take the first step and then the second,

00:39:24

the third step, and then the fourth,

00:39:26

that we would see the mountains move. Amen.

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