Dealing with Mountaintops

DR. MIKE TESTIMONY

INTRODUCTION

One thing you may notice is that no one’s story is a straight line.

We like to think of the Christian life as a flat road from Point A of conversion, to Point B of eternity in heaven.

In reality, its a road filled with ups and downs, peaks and valleys.

I don’t want to belabor the point — we all know this to be true, because we’ve experienced it.

We’ve talked a few times in here about how we handle valleys — and in some ways, that’s the easy part.

When life gets hard, as Christians our natural inclination is usually to turn to God. We find ourselves spending more time in prayer and the Word.

On the flip side of this, we don’t talk very much about the mountain tops of life.

I know I told you last week that we’d be doing a spiritual gifts inventory, and we’re still going to do that — we’re just tabling it until next week.

Instead, we’re going to somewhat get a jump start on our next series...

Encounters: Detailing stories of people who encountered Jesus, and walked away changed forever.

Tonight, we’re going to look at some of Jesus’s disciples who had a literal mountain top experience.

Here’s the thing: We’ve just had a taste of a mountain top over the last few days, if you were part of DNow. The questions is, now what? What are we supposed to do coming out of that experience?

Let’s answer that question together...

READ: Mark 9:2-10

PRAY

If we’re going to deal with a mountain top experience, we first need to be able to recognize one when we see it.

TP 1: A mountain top is a time when you experience God in a new or renewed way.

Look at the end of v. 2, into v. 3...

Jesus is transfigured before them.

Put yourself in the disciples’ shoes for a minute....

They’d been traveling with Jesus for quite a while at this point.

If we look just at the end of Mark 8, Peter has just made a bold confession that Jesus is the Christ.

In other words, they know Jesus.

Not just acquainted, they know Jesus. They know who he is, they know him intimately.

And yet, they see him in a way they’ve never seen before.

Notice something though: This is new for them, not for Jesus.

We call this the transfiguration, not the transformation. Why?

It’s only his appearance.

A transformation is total change of character. Why is this important?

Jesus isn’t transforming into some new version of himself, he’s just revealing to the disciples who he’s always truly been.

He’s allowing them to see his full glory.

One commentator says it this way: “As he was transfigured, Jesus’ nature was not changed, but unveiled.”

When we experience a mountain top, we see God in a new way — but recognize this isn’t really new, it’s who he’s always been. He’s just revealed himself to us.

TP 2: When you’re on the mountain top, the temptation is to want to stay there.

v. 5

When we experience a good thing, we want to prolong it.

Nobody’s ever said, “Man this vacation is just too long.”

We want it to last as long as possible!

The same is true when we have a mountain top experience.

We want that mountain top to last forever.

Peter’s ready to set up camp! He’s planning on being there a while!

This intention isn’t bad in and of itself — there’s nothing wrong in Peter’s initial assertion — it was good for them to be there.

But here’s the thing: There’s a difference in wanting it to last, and expecting it to last.

TP 3: Every mountain top comes to an end.

v. 9

At some point, we come back to the real world.

Here’s where we mess things up...

We expect the mountain top experience to last. When it doesn’t, we can believe we’ve done something wrong.

Hear me: If you’re experiencing a mountain top right now, and you feel different next week, that’s ok.

If you experienced a mountain top this weekend, and you already feel like you’ve crash landed back to earth, that’s ok.

Look ahead just a little bit in Mark and see how Jesus is greeted when he comes down from the mountain...

v. 14-18

Immediately Jesus gets hit with the struggle or battle against evil.

Often as soon as we leave the mountain, we’re greeted with temptation — we’re thrown into the deep end of the pool.

CONCLUSION

If the mountain top doesn’t last, what’s the secret to maintaining a close relationship with God, and making sure decisions made on the mountain are lasting?

v. 28-29

PRAYER — Jesus implies that prayer, and therefore a closer fellowhsip with Godleads to growing faith.

SCRIPTURE — knowing God’s Word — it’s how he reveals himself to us “regularly”

Both normally, and consistently

Spurgeon: Which is more important — prayer or Bible Study? Which is more important — inhaling or exhaling?