Moments In the Mountains Part 2 | Judah Smith

hey welcome back to another weekly service here at church home I'm so glad you're here I'm Judah and we are just several days now removed from uh an unusual political chapter here in the United States of America or wherever you are in the world we love you this talk is part two of moments in the mountain what do you do when life feels like a climb what do you do when life feels surrounded by mountains uh I shared last week that I went on a hike in Arizona with my wife years and years ago I

hope I never go on that hike again and on that particular hike uh I think she said it was going to be like a 15minute hike it turned into like at least a 45 minute hike up and then a 45 minute hike down which is approximately 2 hours which I thought was going to be 30 minutes and I remember going up the hill seeing people come by asking them how much longer coming around another bin seeing another Peak and another climb and more do and it got me thinking about what happens when life feels like

that maybe your candidate did not get voted in maybe life feels overwhelming maybe you feel like you're in the mountains and it got me thinking about a passage where Jesus references Moving Mountains in fact he says if you have faith enough Mark 11 speaks of this as well but we've been looking at Mark excuse me Matthew chapter 17 in Matthew 17 Jesus says if you just have a little bit of faith you can say to home Mountains go over there and and they'll move what could he possibly mean and how could this be relevant to

you and me in these Mountain chapters of our life now you might be watching this going I'm kind ofing the best season of my life that's so awesome this definitely could be one of those um things you could just register for later because life is going to have moments where you feel overwhelmed you feel like you're in pain you feel like there's lot lot of problems lots of challenges and if you're like me I feel so much of kind of what's going on around me and what's going on in my country and what's going on

in my neighborhood what's going on in cities and then I read uh my news feed in the morning in the bathtub and I feel like what's going on all over the world sometimes just gets overwhelming and all of this kind of like helplessness and hopelessness settles in over me like a dark cloud it's like oh gosh what do I do I think today this story will give us perspective it'll give us scale when it comes to these challenges and difficulties let me read this to you in the passion translation Matthew chapter 17 starting with verse

19 it says later the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked why couldn't we cast out this demon and he told them well it's because of your lack of faith I promise you if you have faith inside of you no bigger than the little size of a small mustard seed you can say to a mountain move away from here go over there and you'll see it move nothing nothing will be impossible to you there's nothing you won't be able to do now keep in mind in context this is Matthew's gospel written primarily to a Jewish

audience also keep in mind that a the ancient Jews at this point are experiencing incredible political unrest in relationship to Rome and oppression from Rome there is uh exorbitant taxation amongst many other things that are happening to the Jewish people and when Jesus speaks of mountains he is using using also so you understand what the ancient audience is hearing he's using a very famous term Mustard Seed was the the probably the smallest seed known to man at the time and it kind of grew into like a 10 feet um uh plant that was pretty significant

so he's simply Mustard Seed isn't the goal Mountain isn't the goal or the point he's making um metaphor and illustration that is very pertinent and relevant to his audience in those days rabbis were said to be uprooter of mountains if they could help you understand theology or philosophy more accurately and so Jesus is saying hey if you have a little bit of faith in me Eugene Peterson says in The Message Bible when the guys come and they say hey why can't we cast out this demon he says we're not taking god seriously which is to

say you're not truly absorbing all that Jesus is doing what he's showing you about God so I want to make three observations that I think can help you it is certainly helping me in season of unrest in seasons of mountainous moments that seem overwhelming insurmountable when life feels a lot like that hike I went on with my wife it's like around another turn there's more to climb there's more to do there's more to try there's more to attempt there's more to earn there's more for you to do and more for you to work on if

you're like me I just want to turn on Netflix and eat my favorite candy and forget about the world maybe you feel like that the challenge is when I'm done watching the Netflix show and eating my favorite candy the problem the pain and the challenge is still there what are you going to do natural cultural kind of accepted prevalent teaching today tells us you need to work harder try harder do more be better and then you can rid yourself of things like fear or pain or sensations of being overwhelmed I think there's a better way

and I want to show you the better way that Jesus speaks of here in Matthew 17 first observation is this there is no if in this Faith Jesus says I promise you if you have faith inside you no bigger than the size of a mustard seed now we take that if and what we think Jesus is saying is if like there may or may not be faith I want you to know right now the fact that you are here even listening to this content is evidence enough to me that there is Faith already in seed

form in your life so it's not an if that if is a how should I say it is a a way that Jesus is communicating to pull the audience in and say if there's no if faith is not something you concoct or you conjure up Faith is something God gives you as a gift and I'm here to say that God has given you this gift of faith in seed form already that's why you're here watching this content or that's why you're a part of this Faith Community all over the world you already have a faith

you can already absorb what God is doing and you can take it to the bank or as Eugene Peters says you can take it seriously there is no if you have faith what if you acted with the assurance that you have this faith that Jesus speaks of he says if you have an ity little bit of this Faith what is that Faith it's the persuasion that God has revealed himself in the person of Jesus and remember the ultimate Mountain that we learned last week is the mountain of rules and list of laws that you have

to fulfill and I have to fulfill so that we can finally feel good about ourselves and right with the one who made us and built Us in the first place but we don't have to do that anymore life is not about climbing life is not about earning life is not about deserving life is not about a list of rules regulations principles or moral Concepts that you adhere to or I adhere to Jesus has completely changed our realm of thinking operating living and even processing The Human Experience it's no longer about you and me it's about

him and what he did so now that Faith that's erupting in your heart even right now think about the rest of your life the rest of your life can no longer orbit around this idea of what you do or don't do or if you're enough or not enough but now your whole life can orbit around the fact that he's enough and what he did was enough the Bible says that when Jesus died on the middle cross between two thieves that the Earth Shook and the sky went dark and there was an earthquake even the groaning

of creation itself s recognized that the man on the middle cross that day in Calvary was different and just like he said he didn't die like thousands of people died in crucifixion he was buried in a rich man's grave three days later he appeared to more than 1,500 eyewitnesses and then levitated into the clouds and said he would return again which is to say he has conquered death as we know it so even the sting of death and the fear of death is gone you can tell I'm excited about this because our entire orbit of

existence changes now that has to impact our finances that has to impact our physical body even our identity and our appearance that has to impact how we view uh politics in our respective countries or even who's in the presidency or who isn't in the presidency that has to completely change our entire Outlook of life now that was a lot but I want to bring you back to Matthew 17 because remember the context of our story these guys come to Jesus because the dad earlier in Matthew 17 says I have a son who suffers from a

demon and the demon causes him epilepsy the demon causes him to have seizures I took him to your disciples your followers and they couldn't cast out the devil or the demon so I brought him to you Jesus cast out the demon in a moment and the boy is free and healed and healthy later the disciples which is the pastors were studying they pulled Jesus aside and said why couldn't we do that thing you did why couldn't we set the boy free from the demon their mindset was completely focused on a boy and a demon and

how they could do that Jesus response is not specifically about one instance it's not specifically about one challenge it's not specifically about one mountainous moment Jesus is panning the camera back if you will and he's trying to tell his deciples what all of life is about he's saying all life is about trusting Jesus all life is about trusting what I am doing on your behalf all of life is understanding that the mountain that stood between the Divine and man that kept us apart that mountain I have come Jesus is insinuating to remove so that we

can have communion fellowship and relationship with the Divine which changes everything the guys want to know about the boy and a demon Jesus wants to let them know how the whole earth and the orbit of human existence has changed forever due to his arrival and what he would do on the cross his death his burial and his resurrection today maybe you want an answer on God what about this one instance what about my money what about my body what about politics what about my political party what about my greed what about my fear what about

my addiction what about my pain what about my anx xiety what about my and all of that is so significant to God but today we're panning the camera back to put all of those problems in perspective Jesus says if you had just a little bit of faith if you took god seriously you could say to that mountain speaking even about the demon and the boy or whatever you're facing right now move over there and it would move which got me thinking and this is my second observation the first is there's no if you have faith

this is proof right now this moment you have this little itty bitty seed form of faith in Jesus and what he's doing it is already taking root in your life it's already existing so there is no if you can act that you you now know confidently that you have faith but my second observation is put that mountain in its place you got fear over the political landscape of this country put that mountain in its place that mountain wants to be prevalent in your life that mountain it might be bankruptcy or greed or cancer or gossip

or fear or insecurity and that mountain comes to tell you you don't have power he says if you trust in Jesus you can say to all of the problems and pains and fears and anxiety in your life you go back to your place you go back to your place my dad used to say about little babies they think the whole world revolves around them they literally don't know when that baby grows up and we did didn't we hopefully you start to realize while the Earth doesn't orbit the sun doesn't orbit around me it orbits around

the earth it's it's not all about me and all of a sudden you learn perspective you learn scale Jesus is speaking of scale and perspective he's saying listen you've got to put this political season a president is a president for four years Max eight years you got to put countries and continence and policies and and all these things in their proper place not to say they have no value but they're of so much smaller significance than what he has solved which is that now man and God have relationship and now they're can be a friendship

between humanity and a holy holy wonderful God so now you can look at everything else in your life and say hey you you m Mountain it's not saying that I'm necessarily go away but you move over here all of the sudden I get hope not because some of my back pain goes away forever I still wake up sometimes and my back hurts but I say to that mountain hey you you you are not as big a deal as you make yourself out to be you're not the end of my existence this isn't the end of

my life because the candidate that I wanted didn't get voted in is not the end of my life and I'm not going to live in fear and I'm not going to live in worry and I'm not going to live in anxiety I'm going to put you over here I'm going to say to that mountain hey the mountain isn't the mountain Jesus solved the mountain the mountain was separation of God and man but Jesus sawed that mountain removed that mountain so I'm going to speak to my mountains I'm going to talk to my mountains and say

Hey you move over here fear you move over here anxiety you move over here bankruptcy you move over here divorce and not that we make light of divorce or bankruptcy or cancer or fear or loss I lost my father to multiple my Loma and that is still something I think about every day it's not a lack of empathy or care or concern but is a proper perspective we are Eternal beings and we will live forever no matter what we win in this life or the next and so when there is pain on our pathway of

this life instead of grinning and bearing it gritting our teeth and trying to earn our way and deserve our way and warrant our way and moral our way and deeds our way and work our way we sit back and we trust and that makes us peculiar amongst all people on the planet because instead of more stress and more striving we get into more resting and more worshiping and we trust The God Who removed the mountain of separation between God and man can move any other Mountain that comes along our way in this life and lastly

my first observation is there's no if you have faith I believe it in seed form put this mountain in it's place and lastly there is nothing higher than him in his love there's nothing higher there's nothing higher he says there's nothing you couldn't do there's nothing you can't go through there's nothing you can't face how would you know that Judah how would you know that my family has pain like your family has pain my family has problems like your family has problems I have fears like you have fears I have unknowns like you have unknowns

I have money problems like you have money problems I have relationship breakdown in my family like you have relationship breakdown we have fights in I have fights in my marriage like you have fights in your marriage my friends we are in this together brother and sister look at me when I say it we are in this together and I know what it feels like for marriage to feel like a mountain I know what it feels like when a lack of money feels like a mountain what are you going to do can you make it through

can you even last the next four years can you make it through this bankruptcy can you make it through the diagnosis you just got from the doctor what is going to happen friend I can't promise you the outcome you want but what I can promise you is there's nothing you can't go through why because nothing is higher than his love 1 Corinthians 13:2 says if I were to have the gift of Prophecy and profound understanding of God's hidden secrets and if I possess unending Supernatural knowledge and if I had the greatest Gifts of faith that

could move mountains but I didn't love then it's nothing which is to say all the great feats of Faith Mountain Moving Faith none of it is higher more important more powerful than love and that love spoken in 1 Corinthians 13 is not average romance we see on Netflix that is the unconditional unending love that only comes from God and it is the highest most potent powerful thing in the universe and you have it unending and unconditional therefore there is no mountain higher than his love there is no pain higher than his love there is no

diagnosis higher than his love there is no bankruptcy higher than his love there's no relationship break down higher than his love his love will see you through his love will carry you higher his love will carry you through you will make it through because his love will see to it because he loves you and he'll never leave you nor forsake you in in this life and in the Life to Come nothing is higher than his love there is nothing you can't go through because he loves you will you close your eyes just for a moment

and I want you to hear those words as we conclude with a guided prayer I want you to hear those words there's nothing you can't go through with his love nothing I wish you didn't have to go through this friend whatever it is you're going through I wish I could just take it away he does that sometimes it's a mystery but a lot of times he doesn't but he'll see you through his love is higher his love is stronger his love is wider his love is richer his love is stronger his love is more true

and his love is eternal your eyes close and I'm speaking those things over your life you have you please hear me you have not come this far to stop now you have not trusted him to this point to go back to the old life now you've come this far to keep going into all that he has promised you I wish that that promis included no pain I really do but with your eyes closed I hope you hear me he will see you through he will see you through he will see you through with your eyes

closed I want you to see yourself rejoicing to see yourself celebrating I want you to feel the love of God congratulating you that's right congratulating you for trusting relying resting and letting go with your eyes closed in this guided peray moment here's what I'm asking you to do I'm I'm literally asking you to if if you can see yourself letting go of the most mountainous painful problem in your whole life right now let it go he won't ever let go so that you can literally let go of it might be your parents might be your

own fears it might be a secret that you feel like nobody knows and if they did they'd never love you you let it go God I can only imagine what people are feeling right now watching this message but you are there and that's proof proof enough that your love never ends I thank you for that I thank you for that as we conclude I want you just to look in the camera with me and I'm doing my best to look right in the camera in hopes that it's as if we're making eye contact and we're

going to do something in conclusion and we're done but I literally want you to say this with me I'm Letting Go say that with me I'm Letting Go that's right and you know what you're letting go of and you know what you should let go of say with me I'm Letting Go I'm Letting Go I think the disciples heard Jesus say these statements and I think their eyes went Way Beyond just a plagued problem that they couldn't cure and they realized the whole world had changed their whole life was changing and they needed to take

God more seriously one of the ways we take God more seriously is we let go so going to let go you already said it by now I hope and I'm going to leave you to it now in hopes that you're watching this with a few friends where you guys can dialogue and talk and maybe perhaps even pray for each other I love you Church home thank you for joining us and I'll see you again next week [Music] cheated on the highest throne a love like I have never [Music] known the Lord of Earth and Heaven

Holy [Music] One there is no one like you Jesus Jesus You're So Beauty I fall down before you Jesus Jesus you can have me all of my heart is yours [Music] ways you never change you still take my breath away king of all creation Holy One there is no one like you Lord Jesus Jesus you're so be for I fall down before you Jesus Jesus you can have it all all of my heart is yours [Music] W I want a heart that burns with Holy Fire Lord you deserve it all Lord you deserve it All

I Need A Hallelujah that reaches High Lord you deserve it all Lord you deserve it all I want a heart that burns with Holy Fire Lord you deserve it all Lord you deserve it All I Need A Hallelujah that reaches higher Lord you deserve it all Lord you deserve it all oh oh oh [Music] w w w w Jesus Jesus you're so beautiful I fall down before you Jesus Jesus you can have it all all of my heart is yours [Music] Oh Lord You're [Music] beautiful your face is all I see for when your eyes

are on this child Your Grace abounds to me oh you're [Music] beautiful your face is all I see for when your eyes are on this child your great AB me your grace abounds me your grace abounds to me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]