I’m in Raleigh, North Carolina, with 2000 students at Campus Harvest 2010.
Adam Mabry, Lynette Lewis, and Rice Broocks all knocked it out of the park this morning. Ferdie Cabling is on tonight, then I speak at the final session tomorrow morning.
Here’s my message: “Learning to Love the Mountain Tops AND the Valleys”
We all love life’s mountain top moments—those spiritual highs that come with conferences, retreats, and miracles. But we live most of life, not on the mountain tops, but in the deep dark valleys.
My text is Matthew 17:1–9.
Verse 1 – Jesus took three of his disciples to a mountain top where strange and supernatural things happened. . .
Verse 2 – shinny faces, glowing clothes
Verse 3 – dead OT heroes walking & talking
Verse 4 – “It is good for us to be here”—everyone likes the mountaintop
Verse 5 – a bright glory cloud and a voice from heaven
Verse 6 – disciples fell down—“slain in the spirit” as they say today
Verse 7 – Jesus told them to get up off the ground—falling down in ok, but we have to get up
Verse 8 – “when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus”—we probably need to look up more often and see Jesus rather than ourselves and our problems
Verse 9 – they went down the Mountain—this always happens—we can’t live on the mountain—eventually we have to go down
The mountain top experience was amazing. The valley experience was less than amazing.
As soon as they got off the mountain top, they encountered DEMONS (vs 14–20) and TAXES (24–27).
I’d much rather have glowing faces, shiny clothes, glory clouds, heavenly voices, OT heroes, and the presence of God—but most of my life is spent in the realm of demons and taxes.
Demons and taxes—that’s the real world—the world that needs Jesus. That’s why we can’t live on the mountain top. That’s why we need to get up off the ground and go down the mountain to take the gospel to a messed-up world.