1 Kings 19:8 “So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.”
I have been asked some great questions over the past 36 hours based on “The Valley” lifessage on Sunday. In order to answer a couple of the questions I needed to define something that was left undefined on Sunday.
We didn’t define a mountain top yesterday and I can see how possibly some of us if we wanted to walked out on Sunday thinking a mountain top is living in a manner that makes us happy. We can certainly live a “happy” life apart from God thus our mountain tops are exactly that OUR mountain tops as opposed to a mountain top that God has brought us to the top of. Notice that God brought Elijah in verse 8 of chapter 19 to the mountain of God. If we are on our “happy” mountain we would view anyone who came to knock us off that mountain as a “Jezebel.” But if we are on “happy” mountain as opposed to the mountain of God it won’t be Jezebel knocking us off the mountain but it is actually God’s prophet Elijah knocking us off. Happiness is important but not at the expense of disobeying God, because joy trumps happiness and disobedience to God will rob you of true joy.
To go one step further….is the individual that has come up with their own comfortable picture of the god (yes little “g”) that they can believe in, thus now creating their own personal “god” and thus a simulated mountain of “God.” (Kind of like the holodeck on Star Trek). This is so difficult because a deeper challenge of their view of god is viewed as an attack on god himself in their own personal god creation. When we become like this we are no longer understanding that God’s thoughts are above our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. Again now Jezebel becomes anyone who challenges our thinking about God. For example as a pastor I have many qualifications that are clearly outlined in scripture (see 1 Timothy 3:1-6). Alcohol not having control of me is one such qualification. Because drinking alcohol is not an issue for me, I can boldly proclaim that we as a people need to stay away from alcohol, do not take the risk of getting drunk and so on and I can preach this with absolute authority. Another qualification in that passage is that I rule my household well and that my children obey quickly and quietly. However, when my child acts out in rebellion, even though that is one of my qualifications I more likely will claim “the I’m only human playing card, just give me a break” and I quickly ask for sympathy in this area. Why don’t I give sympathy on the alcohol side? Because I don’t struggle with it, thus my view of God is He is proud of me for what I can do and when I can’t do something everyone else (including God!) just needs to back off and leave me alone. I would imagine if we are all honest with ourselves we all do this, we all have our own personal definition of God and our own personal hidden “files” of who God is that we hide away because we can’t seem to obey in that area and we refuse to believe that God would want that of us, even though His Word teaches it…..
So back to actually being on the mountain of God as opposed to our own personal mountain of happiness…look at the first part of verse 8…Elijah went on (lived on, got through his days on) the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights. What food was that? The food God provided him. Elijah lived by the food that God provided and living by that food brought him to the mountain of God.
40 days and 40 nights should bring something back to your memory if you were at New Heights last May and June (yes, I know I’m challenging your memory skills!). Last May and June we spent 4 weeks in Matthew chapter 4 with Jesus. His temptation out in the wilderness in which He went toe to toe with the devil and the devil had a great advantage….at least so he thought….Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. How on earth was Jesus able to stand up against the devil after not eating for 40 days? He lived by the food that God provided. What was that food? Every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Jesus lived by a food that we often forget about, God’s Word, His truth. It guides, protects, strengthens, teaches and numerous other benefits. This same food helped Jesus know clearly that the mountain that Satan tried to bring Him up onto was not the mountain of God…read the verses below….
Matthew 4:8-10 “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"
Stay faithful to and feed off the food that God provides, His Word and you’ll know the right mountains to climb and you’ll more often be on the “mountain of God.” Which by the way will have something better than happiness…..
Psalm 16:11 “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
“Fullness of joy…” Now that rocks!
Questions to Ask Yourself
1. What mountains have you been on? The mountains of God or the mountain of self?
2. Do you believe that God desires you to be on His mountains? (He does!)
Pastor e
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