Matthew 21:21-22; Hebrews 11:1-3,6-12
When God told Noah to build the ark because He was going to flood the whole earth as a consequence of humanity’s sin and evil, Noah needed a “mountain-moving faith” to chop down that first tree and begin to lay the keel for the ark.
When God said to Abraham that he was to pick up his family and leave the fatherland so that he could become the father of a great nation of faith, Abraham needed a “mountain-moving faith” to inform his wife Sarah about this change in plans and to take that first step into the unknown.
When Jesus called Peter and told him that he would change the world with the gospel Jesus would give to him, it took a “mountain-moving faith” for Peter to leave his fishing nets in order to become a fisher of men.
When faced with the things in life that you have had to face, have you ever wanted more “faith?” When up against your own mountains and your own challenges in life, when you’re trying to answer the call of God on your life as these biblical heroes did, have you ever wanted a “mountain-moving faith” like theirs so that your faith was not neutralized, diminished, or lost as you faced your mountains?
In Matthew 21:21-22, we find thatJesus talked with His disciples about believers having a “mountain-moving faith.” It was on the Monday following Palm Sunday. They were returning to
On the top of this mountain, King Herod had built a massive, seven-story fortress. It served as a second palace and would have been his “presidential bunker” should things have become dangerous and dicey for him in
Now, here’s the interesting thing. Most of this mountain was actually man-made. In order to be higher than the surrounding hills (because king’s always have to have the highest, you know), Herod had his slaves transport the dirt and rock from an adjoining hill and move it over onto his hill. So when Jesus said to His disciples on that Monday morning walk that believers could have the faith to say to a mountain, “be lifted up and thrown into the sea,” His sermon illustration was right there. What Herod did in the natural, God could do in the super-natural. It was “Show and Tell” time.
During the rest of the month of June, we’re going to have our own “Show-And-Tell Time.” It’s going to be a time when God shows us in the Bible and tells us in His Word, how we can have a “mountain-moving faith” like the faith that was found in the heroes of our family tree who were really no different from you and me. They had their mountains, they had their trials, they struggled with their sins and experienced failures and set-backs, but along the way, they developed a “mountain-moving faith.” And so can we.
Hebrews 11 is a whole chapter devoted to men and women of the Bible, ordinary men and women just like us, who had a “mountain-moving faith.” What can they show us and tell us that will help us to have the same kind of faith when we are faced with similar sorts of mountains as they did?
Today, Noah and Abraham show us and tell us that a “mountain-moving faith” is built upon the Power of Persuasion.
Hebrews 11:6-12
Noah and Abraham had a “mountain-moving faith” because they were persuaded that God exists and that God rewards and blesses those who seek Him.
At the base of any “mountain-moving faith” is the unconditional and unquestionable belief that God exists and that God rewards and blesses those who seek Him.
The story of a boy and his baseball can help us grasp this simple and yet, “mountain-moving” perspective when it comes to our faith in God.
One day, this young boy came into the kitchen where his mom was making lunch. She asked what he had been up to, and the boy answered, “I’ve been playing catch with Jesus.” “Oh,” said his mother. “Is that so? How did you play catch with God?” The boy answered, “I would throw the ball up, and God would throw it back down.”
This boy did not question, he did not doubt, and he did not hesitate to believe that Jesus existed because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he threw his ball up, Jesus would throw it back down.
Isn’t it sad that as we grow older, we allow the things of this world to steal away a precious faith like is seen in this little boy? In Sunday School and in
The older we get, though, the more our questions about the validity and authenticity of the biblical text continue to push our belief in the absolute existence of God further and further to the periphery of our lives.
Do you want to know something obvious about the Herodian?
There is no way that Herod could have moved the one mountain to build up his mountain without the help and assistance of others. He needed an army of slaves to “play ball” with him in order to accomplish this feat.
Well, when you need to move mountains in your life and when the pressures of life have you pinned against the wall, you are no different than Herod in that you need help…divine help. And if you don’t believe that God exists, you’ll not go to Him because you know that you can’t get any help from someone who doesn’t exist. You might as well go to Donald Duck as to ask God for help if you don’t believe that God exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
You’ll never play ball if you don’t believe that God exists and is really on your team.
The writer of Hebrews said that you can’t please God unless you have this kind of simple faith – that God does exist and God does reward. Period!
When I truly believe these two simple point,
See, we’re back to this boy playing ball with Jesus….you throw up the prayer about your mountain believing that Jesus will catch it at the other end, and He’ll reward you by taking care of throwing your mountain out of your way and down into the sea.
Noah had a whole lot of mountains to move – trees to cut down, blueprints to draw up, animals to collect, provisions to gather, hecklers to put up with. But he knew one thing and he was rewarded for it. He knew that God existed and that God would reward him and play ball with him. This gave Noah a “mountain-moving faith.”
Abraham had a whole lot of mountains to move also. But Abraham believed that the God who summoned him to this task truly existed and truly would reward him. This gave Abraham a “mountain-moving faith.”
Hebrews 11:1-3; 8-12
Noah and Abraham had a “mountain-moving faith” because they were persuaded that god could create and prepare new worlds for them simply by His word because they could see all around them the evidence that “what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”
Do you know what is so sad about living in such a scientific, busy, materialistic, and technologically advanced world as we have today?
As we grow older, we lose our eyesight and our hearing. As we age, we develop spiritual cataracts over our hearts so that we not only struggle to believe that God exists and rewards those who seek Him. We also can’t see clearly the message of His existence and His power to move mountains that is all around us. We grow deaf to the message from the flowers that bloom from the winter’s snow that God can create new life.
Noah and Abraham embraced a “mountain-moving faith” much more readily in their day because they did not have the spiritual cataracts and deafness when it comes to seeing the hand of God and hearing the voice of God in the world around them.
I was watching Animal Planet the other night. Since Ellen is down in the
Wow, it was so amazing to see what’s under the sea, besides an oil pipe that keeps polluting God’s beautiful gulf waters. What a whole new world is down there.
Well, some of us need a “new world,” don’t we? We need a marriage where there is harmony, a workplace that is inviting, a family that’s loving, and a behavior that’s godly. We need a “new world,” don’t we? We need a society where there is justice, a market place that is honest, and a community that is drugless.
We need a “new world,” don’t we? But we also know that mountains need to be moved in order to get them, don’t we?
Yesterday, Pastor Jason Manns from New Hope Fellowship and Pastor John Dyer and I went down to Columbus to get training on new form, a Christian form, of recovery from hurts, hang-ups, and habits. It’s called, “Celebrate Recovery.” Well, I heard testimonies left and right as to how “Celebrate Recovery” created new worlds for people and moved the mountains to make it happen. I heard testimonies from the Noah’s and Abraham’s of our day about how God moved mountains and created new worlds for people who were dying in their hurts, hang-ups, and destructive habits.
You see, not only did Noah and Abraham have a “mountain-moving faith” because they believed that God existed and would reward them. They were also persuaded that He could “stand and deliver.” In the world all around them, they could see how God had created the visible from the invisible, and they trusted that He could do it again if they would take the first step. The world around them persuaded them that God exists, that He does reward those who seek Him, and that He can make new worlds.
If you are facing mountains and need a “mountain-moving faith,” trust today that God does exist and that He wants to play ball. He is waiting for you to throw up your prayers so that He can throw down into the sea the mountains that need to be moved. He’s ready to create a new world for you…but are you ready to take that first step?
