Come to the Mountain

Move to the Mountains

We are so blessed to live here on this mountain.

Sovereignty of God aside, most of us live here by choice. We could live anywhere. When you’re retired and have some resources you could go wherever you want.

A few of us had some outside influencers that brought us here.

I was hired to be the pastor. So we moved out here.

Some of you, your parents already had a place here.

So many moved here over the past couple of years. The turnover has been dramatic. Housing prices are soaring.

Many moved here to get out of the high taxes of CA.

Many moved here to get out of densely populated areas and into a more, rural area. We have the best of all worlds here.

The pandemic has driven the migration. If you want to move to, or go to a mountain, it’s important to pick the right one.

Mt. Everest

A surprising number of ppl thought this would be a perfect time to climb Mt. Everest.

Travel restrictions caused a big problem for ppl w/ this idea.

Outdoors, breathing from your own oxygen tank, socially distant, until you get into the line.

250 summit Mt. Everest Every year. 5 ppl die on avg every year.

It costs $45K or more for each climber.

So you see the line of climbers waiting to summit.

The summit of Mt. Everest is one of the most crowded places on earth now.

So, if you’re trying to get away from ppl, in a nice, safe environment, that may not be the right mountain.

Mt. Ararat

How about an expedition to find Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat?

Paul Meier, a psychiatrist. He and his partner, Frank Minerth, started the Minerth/Meier clinics, counseling centers.

Dallas, PHX, LA, Chicago. After they went to med school, they went to Dallas Seminary and earned MAs in Biblical studies and opened these Xian counseling centers.

When I was a Dallas Seminary, Paul Meier came and spoke in one of our chapel service. He told us the story of being the doctor on an expedition to find Noah’s Ark.

Mt. Ararat was still open for those things in the 80s. Not now. The Kurds believe the mountain to be sacred ground. The Muslims don’t want to encourage anything Jewish or Christian.

Anyway, the 2nd day of their expedition up the mountain they were accosted at gunpoint by a militant group that stole all their equipment and sent them back down.

There were numerous tribal groups that did not get along but were adamant they did not want anyone else on their mountain.

There was no way to sign a treaty w/ all the groups b/c none of them got along either.

Their plan B, they found a USAF airman, who flew reconnaissance missions out of Ankara and into what was the Soviet Union taking pictures. Meier and the group described what they were looking for.

He told them they have pictures of the petrified Ark. Lots of them. Said to meet him back at the restaurant and he’d bring them one.

They showed up back at the restaurant, no sign of the guy. They looked him up on the base. He said he’d never seen them before and didn’t know what they were talking about.

The pics are classified. Our air force has pics of Noah’s Ark but cannot publish b/c they are classified.

Obviously, God does not want it out. Maybe someone would make an idol out of the boat.

But if you’re looking for a nice, safe place to live w/ a view of a boat, that might not be the right mountain.

Kilauea, HI

How about Kilauea, HI. A beautiful place. HI is known for it’s tropical beauty. Of course, here, you might melt you Keds.

Volcano National Park. Some friends who used to live here, Doug and Jan Hansen, were with the Indian Bible College, they were just there and posted some beautiful pics of the live volcanoes.

Walk right up to them. But I don’t think you want to live there.

Fast asleep on the cool lave and have the molten lave run right up to you. Beautiful, but a little scary.

The White Mountains in Eastern AZ

Sara’s family has a cabin in Pinetop in the White Mountains. Pinetop, Lakeside, Show Low, they are all much more densely populated.

You see the storms.

I’m reminded of when I was in college and went to a Christian camp for the summer. There were two, supposed mountaineers, young guys in their 20s, who took us on a hike up one of the 14K’ peaks in CO. La Plata.

In their brilliance, we set out right after lunch. They had us on the summit at 3:30 in the afternoon.

So you know what happens every afternoon at 3:30 in the Rockys?

We encountered every kind of weather. It was raining, sleeting, thundering all around us on the summit. Lightening struck the ground about 100 yards below us.

One of the mountaineers was taking a group picture when the camera started to buzz and vibrate. Metal. Electricity in the air.

We thought it best to start down then.

I was part of the 2nd group who started down. Boulder field near the top, no trail, I found my own way a short distance away from the group. I was wearing a rain poncho, baseball cap.

Suddenly, the strings to the poncho hood started to vibrate. I thought I was dead. I quickly knocked the cap off my head. Metal button on top. I got as small as I could. It wouldn’t have done any good, just boulders around me and lightening travels thru the ground when it strikes.

It never came out of the clouds.

Lit a fire under me. I don’t know who was behind me, but I was the first person down below the clouds that day.

If you’re looking to visit a mountain, I don’t think 3:30 in the afternoon during monsoon season is the best time to do it.

How about this mountain?

“Welcome to Munds Park”

We get some lightening during Monsoon season but our firefighters and forest service are doing a great job of protecting us.

We aren’t densely populated. Unless you consider more than 6 cars parked at the post office density.

All the volcanoes in the area are dormant. Long since dried up and dead. No concerns about molten lava flowing into our homes.

There aren’t any militant guerilla groups, that we know of, in the area. We have a few armed citizens. Okay, maybe more than a few.

But no concerns about being accosted and robbed. It’s safe.

The ppl are friendly and community oriented.

Great restaurants. An attentive post office. A couple of gas stations. I don’t know that we need 7 bars. But, if you’re thirsty you can certainly find something to drink here.

A great little country church on the west side of the interstate.

20 min from Flag w/ all the amenities.

If you think there’s a better mountain to live on, or even visit, I’d argue w/ you.

Hebrews 12 describes 2 mountains that people have had the opportunity to visit w/ 2 very different experiences.

You are going to want visit one of these. When you do, it is important to pick the right one at the right time and God makes it clear which one that is.

1 mountain was big in our past. The other is big in our present and future.

The one from the past placed a burden on us. The other one provides benefits. Now, we get to choose which one we want to spend our time on.

The Burden of the Past

Hebrews 12:18–21 NIV

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

He’s speaking to the c.1 Xians. “You have not come to this mountain.”

But your ancestors did.

This is what they had to do. You don’t. More on that later.

This is what happened on Mt. Sinai when Moses rec’d the 10 commandments and the law.

It was awe-inspiring. Majestic. And, terrifying all at the same time.

Like looking at a live volcano and the lava flow. The power. The energy. The danger. They’re all real and right there to be felt.

When Mo went up on the mountain to receive the law from God, clouds surrounded the summit. Lightening struck. Thunder roared. Darkness surrounded it. A massive storm.

In fact, the ppl thought Mo had died he was gone so long and the storm so severe from their perspective.

The ground shook w/ each peal of what they thought was thunder. It was constant.

We’ve all heard the thunder that rattles our windows.

But, the thunder was God’s voice speaking to Moses.

A trumpet sounds every time God appears. The trumpet introduces a major announcement of the most authoritative person in the universe.

Ancient kings would be announced by trumpets.

The military band plays “Hail to the Chief” whenever our President makes an appearance.

When Jesus returns, there will be a trumpet blast announcing His arrival and His announcement that He has returned in authority to rule over the earth.

God would only speak to Moses. No one else was qualified to hear directly from Him. The rank and file could neither understand nor hope to obey what God had for them.

They proved that over and over. Even though Moses got the law from God, he wrote it down perfectly, they couldn’t begin to do what it said.

No other gods besides God. Immediately, there was a man-made calf, made out of the gold they took from the Egyptians.

Don’t wish another person dead. Don’t wish to be intimate w/ someone other than your spouse. They couldn’t do it.

They hated ea other and they wanted to sleep w/ ea other’s spouse all at the same time.

B/C God appeared to Moses on the mountain it was considered holy ground.

Just like the burning bush, Moses was instructed to take off his dirty shoes, nothing between his human feet and the holy ground where God appeared.

B/C the mountain was holy, no man could even tough it. No animal could touch it. They would immediately drop dead if they had so much as stood at the base.

Remember when David was transporting the Ark of the covenant back to Israel from the Philistines on an ox cart. The oxen stumbled and the ark teetered. Uriah reached out steady so it would not fall off.

His heart was in the right place.

The ark should not have been on an ox cart in the first place. B/C he touched it, it was holy. He was not. God killed him immediately.

Even Mo trembled w/ fear on the mountain and he was qualified to be there.

This is the God of the OT and how he interacted w/ the ppl after they left Egypt. This was the procedure even once the temple was built in Jerusalem where only 1 priest could enter into God’s presence each year.

The other priests would tie a rope to his ankle so if he died in God’s presence they could pull him out w/out going in themselves. If anyone, unqualified, even walked into the presence of the holy God he killed them.

Animals were sac’d for their sin. People were stoned b/c of their sin. God established the seriousness w/ which He considered their sin.

Everybody sins. This created a huge problem between holy God and all the ppl.

As long as people did their best to obey all the law. Took seriously the way to atone for the deficit they created when they didn’t, everything went okay for them.

But there was always that tension. Just across the line was the wrath of God. Sure He loved them, saved them, but He’d drop them like a bad habit if they messed up bad enough just once.

This was the covenant, the deal their ancestors walked away from.

Their belief became a combination of a sense that they deserved better treatment, they kept the law good enough, they didn’t deserve t/b punished or even live under the fear of it.

God kept a very clear distance between himself and the ppl and that distance made it easier for them to walk away.

They didn’t respect God so they didn’t worship Him.

They worshiped. Just not the 1 true God.

Command #1: Worship no gods other than Me, the 1 true God.

They walked away from God. As a result, God didn’t speak to them for 400 years, until JB was conceived and Jesus appeared and taught them a new way.

Who would have wanted to have been on that mountain?

But it was better than the alternative. They had been slaves in Egypts. Then they were free.

They were given their own land. All they had to do is live faithfully and obediently and they would get to stay in the land, it would produce for them and they’d be protected by God in it.

As difficult of a place that Mt. Sinai was, it was better than what they otherwise ended up w/.

But these c.1 Xians didn’t come to this mountain. No storms, lightening, thunder, molten lava, earthquakes, no trembling in fear; none of that.

Jesus brought them to a different mountain. The contrast could not have been more stark.

As much as the first mountain was better than where they had been and where they ended up; it was a burden to stay there.

The second mountain came with benefits beyond their imagination.

The Benefits of the Present

Hebrews 12:22–24 NIV

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

They didn’t go the first mountain. They’ve been to this one.

The old mountain rep’d the old covenant given to Moses.

The new mountain rep’s the new covenant est’d thru Jesus.

The distance God created at the first one versus the nearness of this one was both confounding and a relief.

One of the reasons the ppl did not recognize Jesus as God was because the God they were used to was distant and intimidating. Jesus was anything but.

The approachable-ness of Jesus would have been a huge relief. But, if He is God, how w/out taking your life in your hands?

And God used to only speak to Mo, then the high priest. Jesus speaks to anyone.

Jesus dwelled among the ppl and spoke to everyone. No one was afraid of the close contact. Jesus put them all at ease. In fact he healed ppl who touched him.

Then, when he left, he sent the HS to dwell in the ppl and speak to us.

When we came to Mt. Zion, we came as citizens of heaven. Citizenship has its privileges. Roman citizens did not pay the same taxes as non-citizens who lived in the empire.

As US citizens, if we get into trouble, in theory, the US military will come to our aid.

We pay no taxes in heaven and the army of God comes to our aid to protect us and provide for our safety.

We worship w/ thousands and thousands of angels.

There is a finite number angels. They are created beings. Created by God. They do not procreate. We don’t become angels when we die.

They are servants of God and he sends them to serve us.

We all worship the same God, in the same way as believers on Mt. Zion.

The emotion on this mountain is joy. The emotion on the old mountain is fear. Unbridled joy.

We are the church of the firstborn. Jesus is the firstborn, firstborn of God, firstborn of all creation. When we come to faith, we become members of the family, all w/ the position and benefits of being firstborn. Our names are all in the book of life kept in heaven.

The church is made up of all firstborns.

That’s why we can get so much done, w/ God’s help

They say congress and prisons are full of firstborns.

We are driven and we do stuff. Sometimes, to get things done, we stretch the rules.

Mt. Zion is a place of grace.

God is still the Judge. He evaluates. He declares guilt or innocence. He pronounces sentences.

Our sin is still something not to be taken lightly. He punishes severely for sin.

He just doesn’t punish us. That is, once we accept Jesus and His death on the cross for our sin. Somebody has to die for sins I commit. It does not get any more serious than that.

Those who do not know Jesus should be afraid, but probably don’t know it. Those of us who do know Jesus don’t need to be afraid. That’s not the emotion on this mountain.

For those who play fast and loose w/ the rules, God is still the Judge and will address the behavior.

Once you believe, your on the new mountain. And it presents lots of opportunities. Take advantage of every opportunity.

Take Full Advantage

Hebrews 12:25–29 NIV

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

He speaks. Jesus is still alive and speaks to us.

Don’t refuse what He has to say.

Their ancestors rejected God as He spoke thru Moses to tell them how to take advantage of his offer then.

Live faithfully and obediently and the land will produce, they’d be protected, and they’d get to stay there.

They rejected God and missed their opportunity.

We live under the new covenant. What qualifies us to live on the new mountain is what John wrote

John 1:12 NIV

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

As children of God we have opportunities to enjoy the peace, joy, patience, wisdom, power, kindness, love, and goodness he offers.

But if we reject Him, the same way those on the first mountain rejected him, we waste the opportunity we have.

It’s so much easier now to believe and behave. But consequences are just a severe.

Just as God’s voice shook that first mountain, He’s going to speak at some point in the future and the entire earth will shake.

As he destroys this earth, the new earth will appear and we will stand secure on it.

We will get to live in a brand new promised land. The land will produce. We will be protected and provided for. And we will live securely forever.

In the meantime, always be thankful for what you have. It could be so much worse.

Worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.

Same God. Always has been. He is awe-inspiring.

Worship means ‘worth-ship’. What is God worth to you?

What is being able to live on this second mountain w/ all it’s benefits worth to you. What will you sac for Him.

Give up your old life to get a new life. Give up all of it.

Give up what you want to get what God wants for you.

There is no better mountain to live on. It’s even better than this one.

Worshiping w/ the angels w/out fear and filled w/ joy b/c we’re in the presence of God.

He gives us life and makes us alive. We get every opportunity to live. We’re not just waiting to die.

Pick the right mountain to live on and pick the right time to go.

Mt. Zion. Right now.

Applications

Which Mountain?

Which mountain are you on?

Are you living in fear? Or, are you filled w/ joy?

Are you afraid lightening is about to strike you down?

There is no lightening, no lava, no pushy crowds, no militant groups on the new mountain.

Believe in all that Jesus is and receive Him to be your mediator w/ God and come to the New mountain.

Which Mountain?

Which mountain are you inviting your friends to?

Are you pressing them w/ rules? Or, are you introducing them to a relationship?

Demonstrate grace and invite your friends to experience it, too.

Worship

And, I don’t mean just come to church.

Communicate to God His worth to you.

That means, sacrifice. Sac the time to come to church.

Sac the things you want in order to get the things God wants for you.

Worship well and take full advantage of everything God offers.

There is no better mountain to live on. It’s even better than this one.

Worshiping w/ the angels w/out fear and filled w/ joy b/c we’re in the presence of God.

He gives us life and makes us alive. We get every opportunity to live. We’re not just waiting to die.

Pick the right mountain to live on and pick the right time to go.

Mt. Zion. Right now.

You are going to want visit one of these. When you do, it is important to pick the right one at the right time and God makes it clear which one that is.

1 mountain was big in our past. The other is big in our present and future.

The one from the past placed a burden on us. The other one provides benefits. Now, we get to choose which one we want to spend our time on.