Whats The Name Of Your Mountain?
Mark 11:22-24 NKJ
22. So Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God.
23. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
24. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
Everyone thats gone through life for very long, ( that is, those who have made it to and survived adulthood and all it has to offer, for any length of time)
knows that life, seems to run in cycles, there ups and downs we all go through.
Mountain top experiences are always the best, thats why the accuser always seems to come along and wants to bring you down any time that you get near one.
his goal, is to always have the mountain in front of you, because he knows, once the mountain is behind you, he has lost the battle.
You see, God through His Son Jesus, wants to bless you in every situation you face, He wants all of your needs to be more than met, be it;
*physical
*spiritual
*personal
*financial
There is no need that you may have, great or small, that God does not want to see met and exceeded,
because Our God is always a God of more than enough.
The accuser on the other hand, doesnt want to see any of youre needs met,
thats why he tries to make mountains out of everything and anything.
For most, 99 times out of 100, he doesnt succeed. But the one time he thinks hes on to something,
hes going to do all he can, to turn it into a mountain.
Its those times, TBS. we need to have faith in God!
Vs. 22. So Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God.
The key words are in God.
Jesus didnt just say, Have faith, to be having faith, but Have faith in God.
A person can have all the faith in the world, but unless its in something, or someone, its rendered powerless.
Faith has to have an object to work, you see faith has no value in that and of itself; only the object (God) has value.
A lot of people, seem to only have faith, in faith (which really means, they have faith in themselves)
Now dont get me wrong, you should believe in yourself and have confidence,
But you have to realize, when you only rely on yourself, you are only limited to your own natural abilities,
Its only when you have faith in God, that you open up yourself to realm of unlimited possibilities, because of His supernatural abilities!
The Bible doesnt say to have faith in faith, because when someone does that and only relies on what their capable of when a problem happens
They feel like if they can somehow just muster up enough faith, they can take care of the situation on their own,
thats how faith in ones self, works,
After all, how hard could it be to obtain a mustard size portion of faith?
thats exactly what the children of Israel thought, when they asked God for the Law to be passed down.
They were tired of depending on God for everything, they said just tell us what we need to do
They were ready to rely on their faith in self, instead of the faith in the one, who had saw to their every need for 40 yrs!
Their mountain, with God leading the way, had always been in the rearview mirror,
But at that point, their will, had set it down, right smack dab in front of them.
Mans faith in the natural, is never going to remove the mountain.
Only the supernatural capabilities of God, can remove the mountain and cast it into the sea.
When all of the disciples were in the boat, all of them had faith in the boats capabilities,
But only Peter, had faith in the object that could make his request happen, and that object was Jesus.
Matt 14:28-33 NKJ
28. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.
29. So He said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, Lord, save me!
31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? 32. And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God.
The moment that he took his eyes of Jesus and noticed the wind and the storm, he began to sink and get scared!
At that moment, he only saw what he was capable of in the natural,
instead of what he had just been able to accomplish through his faith in Jesus, in the supernatural!
Thats when Jesus stepped in and saved him and said O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
In other words, why did you start having faith in faith, instead of having Faith in Me
When you focus on the problem, instead of focusing on the problem solver, when you let your mountain get in your line of vision,
thats when your faith becomes little or small, thats when it becomes only about your ability, instead of Gods Amazing Ability!
No one knew that better than David!
1st Sam. 17:4-11 MSG.
4-7. A giant nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine line into the open, Goliath from Gath. He had a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in armor126 pounds of it! He wore bronze shin guards and carried a bronze sword. His spear was like a fence railthe spear tip alone weighed over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked ahead of him.
8-10. Goliath stood there and called out to the Israelite troops, "Why bother using your whole army? Am I not Philistine enough for you? And you’re all committed to Saul, aren’t you? So pick your best fighter and pit him against me. If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you’ll all become our slaves and serve us. I challenge the troops of Israel this day. Give me a man. Let us fight it out together!"
11. When Saul and his troops heard the Philistine’s challenge, they were terrified and lost all hope.
After all that Israel had witnessed what God had done for them, down throughout the years,
They had seen the Great God of Israel;
* split seas wide open and make dry land appear (not only once but 2xs)
* Wipe out Pharaohs great army
* Let them walk out of Egypt in broad daylight, with all of Egypts wealth
*Overthrow and destroy Jericho, one of the most heavily fortified cities ever built, with just their breathe alone.
* Produce, let me see, roughly 3 million meals a day 5 days a week, plus 2 days worth to cover the Sabbath on the weekend, times 40 yrs.
If my math is correct, thats like, 438 trillion meals.
Thats was all when their faith was in the God of endless possibilities,
But now their faith, was in themselves and only in what they were capable of!
Did you know, that the Sun is a rather commonplace celestial object. It is a star of ordinary dimensions and of ordinary brightness.
But to observers on the Earth, the Sun remains an object of magnificent proportions.
This fiery ball of superheated hydrogen and helium gases contains 99.9 percent of all matter in the Solar System,
and a million Earths could fit inside the Sun, with room to spare.
Did you also know, that you can completely block out the sun, if you just position your thumb in the right place of your line of vision.
Thats what all of Israel had done with Goliath,
even though in person he was huge by any comparison, to any standards of man
Compared though to God, he was nothing more than a blip on a radar screen!
Yet he had all of Israel shaking in their boots, trembling with fear, all of Israel except for one!
One is very important number you know, when it comes right down to it, just one point decides the outcome of any game.
All the other points seem to disappear along the way and its always the one, that put you over the top, that seems to remembered forever!
Enter David onto the scene
1st Sam: MSG
16. Each morning and evening for forty days, Goliath took his stand and made his speech.
24-25. The Israelites, to a man, fell back the moment they saw the giant totally frightened. The talk among the troops was, "Have you ever seen anything like this, this man openly and defiantly challenging Israel? The man who kills the giant will have it made. The king will give him a huge reward, offer his daughter as a bride, and give his entire family a free ride."
26. David, who was talking to the men standing around him, asked, "What’s in it for the man who kills that Philistine and gets rid of this ugly blot on Israel’s honor? Who does he think he is, anyway, this uncircumcised Philistine, taunting the armies of God-Alive?"
27. They told him what everyone was saying about what the king would do for the man who killed the Philistine.
David heard all this talk of Goliath and he didnt seem to see the same thing as everyone else, which was only fear!
What he saw, was an opportunity
28. Eliab, his older brother, heard David fraternizing with the men and lost his temper: "What are you doing here! Why aren’t you minding your own business, tending that scrawny flock of sheep? I know what you’re up to. You’ve come down here to see the sights, hoping for a ringside seat at a bloody battle!"
29-30. "What is it with you?" replied David. "All I did was ask a question." Ignoring his brother, he turned to someone else, asked the same question, and got the same answer as before.
Did you know, I want to let you in on a little secret this morning, the only thing that misery loves, is other misery
Misery loves company, nothing else. It doesnt want to hear about possibilities, or that the cup is half full, because the accuser knows this one thing,
Hope is contagious, Hope in God is dangerously contagious
31. The things David was saying were picked up and reported to Saul. Saul sent for him.
32. "Master," said David, "don’t give up hope. I’m ready to go and fight this Philistine."
33. Saul answered David, "You can’t go and fight this Philistine. You’re too young and inexperiencedand he’s been at this fighting business since before you were born."
Saul had gotten excited, when he had heard that someone actually wanted to stand up to Goliath,
But when he saw David with his natural eyes, Davids age and inexperience, or so he thought, were no match for insurmountable challenge that faced them
His short lived faith, was only in faith itself and what he thought the young boy was capable of, instead of what God was capable of.
Thats exactly how the world does, thats exactly how people are still today, even in the church.
Quick to point out all the reasons why you cant do something, or why you cant be successful,
Clearly oblivious to the fact, that it only takes one reason, or one thing to be successful in whatever you attempt,
And that is simply to just have faith in what God is capable of and not what you are capable of.
34-37. David said, "I’ve been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I’d go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. Lion or bear, it made no differenceI killed it. And I’ll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of God-Alive. God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine."
Saul said, "Go. And God help you!"
For a brief moment, David almost had Saul on the Faith in God Bandwagon,
but then he fell off and got his eyes back on the problem, rather then the problem solver!
38-39. Then Saul outfitted David as a soldier in armor. He put his bronze helmet on his head and belted his sword on him over the armor. David tried to walk but he could hardly budge.
David told Saul, "I can’t even move with all this stuff on me. I’m not used to this." And he took it all off.
Saul still could not get his focus off of what he thought that mans efforts or self was capable of,
Self will get in the way every time and keep you from achieving what you are capable of,
because self is only what you are capable of in the natural,
But David knew it wasnt about what he was capable of,
he knew all those things he had been able to accomplish, taking care of his fathers sheep, had only been possible with Gods Help!
40. Then David took his shepherd’s staff, selected five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s pack, and with his sling in his hand approached Goliath.
44. "Come on," said the Philistine. "I’ll make road kill of you for the buzzards. I’ll turn you into a tasty morsel for the field mice."
This is where David took Goliath from the position he had been standing in,
Out of the focus he had been receiving from the nation of Israel, blocking what God was capable of doing, to where he belonged
Instead of running from the mountain all Israel had made, he addressed the mountain with his faith in God, not himself
45-47. David answered, "You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel’s troops, whom you curse and mock. This very day God is handing you over to me. I’m about to kill you, cut off your head, and serve up your body and the bodies of your Philistine buddies to the crows and coyotes. The whole earth will know that there’s an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone gathered here will learn that God doesn’t save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to Godhe’s handing you to us on a platter!"
He was bold, you know when your faith is where its supposed to be, in the Lord and not of yourself, you can be bold!
God wants you to be bold!, He gets no Glory in being weak and fearful,
and thats why He wanted all of Israel and the world for that matter to know,
Just exactly what He was and is capable of!!
48-49. That roused the Philistine, and he started toward David. David took off from the front line, running toward the Philistine. David reached into his pocket for a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine hard in the forehead, embedding the stone deeply. The Philistine crashed, facedown in the dirt.
At that point, you could have probably heard a pin drop, no one on either side could have predicted what they had just witnessed!
It was nothing short of Amazing!
50. That’s how David beat the Philistinewith a sling and a stone. He hit him and killed him. No sword for David!
51. Then David ran up to the Philistine and stood over him, pulled the giant’s sword from its sheath, and finished the job by cutting off his head. When the Philistines saw that their great champion was dead, they scattered, running for their lives.
What ever the name of your mountain is this morning, thats what God wants to do to it,
To be done with it and send it on its way, with a one way ticket in hand,
but the only way it can happen is,
By having faith in what He is capable of and not what you are capable.
Just like David showed all of Israel, exactly what God was capable of,
He wants you to realize the same thing,
There is absolutely, no way you can set the bar to high for Him!
Dont limit Him, by what you think Hes capable of, If God be your partner, start making some big plans!
Start thinking outside the box from now on, as to the endless possibilities that await you in this awesome life and opportunity you have been given!
And dont forget to give Him all the glory for all the Blessings along the way, for every mountain He puts in your review mirror!
Praise God!!
Lets pray
