Mountain-Moving Faith

---

Let me ask you a question. What is your earliest memory? That is the question that the famed psychologist Alfred Adler would ask every patient he counseled at their very first counseling session. Adler would listen as they shared their earliest memory and his response would be the same with every client every time. After they shared their earliest memory, Alfred Adler would say, ‘And so life is.’ Adler believed that our earliest memories leave a unique and powerful imprint on the soul that create a baseline in our lives. For better or for worse, those early memories become emotional and mental default settings, if you will.

So let me share three of my earliest memories. I was five years old. I was at my grandparents’ home in Minnesota. I always had a blast at their house. They only had one rule and the rule was this. My grandfather was a professor of the University of Minnesota and one of his prized possessions was a fossil collection. So the rule was do not play with Grandpa’s fossils. Those fossils were the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! You can call me Adam because I remember picking it up with my five year old hands and I remember the fossil falling out of my hands and I remember it cracking on the ground and as it did, my heart cracked in two. My grandfather walked into the room and he assessed the situation. He didn’t scold me. He didn’t spank me. What he did I will remember for the rest of my life. He picked me up and held me close and gave me a bear hug. It was my first taste of grace. It was the first time I experienced an incarnation of grace. I was scared. I knew what I did was wrong but in that moment, that is my first definition of grace.

We have a core value as a church, love people when they least expect it and least deserve it. It traces back to that one incident. And so life is.

Let me go back a little further. When I was four years old, a neighbor friend rode his bike over to my house and made a little pronouncement. I had a habit of borrowing his bike whenever I wanted to and so evidently he got tired of it and he came down and told me I couldn’t ride his bike any longer because his dad took off the training wheels. And then he biked back to his house five doors down. Well I marched down to his house and I got on his bike and I rode his bike back to my house without training wheels. And I kicked the kickstand down in our driveway. Because I want to tell you something, if you want to get me to do something, tell me it can’t be done. I need a challenge. I have needed a challenge since I was four years old. And so life is.

But neither of those are my earliest memory. My earliest memory would be this. I was three years old and I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t breathe. And that sensation for a three old, scary experience. I walked into my parents’ room and woke them up and my Dad picked me up and carried me out to the car and drove me to the hospital where I got a shot of epinephrine and as that adrenaline began to flood my bloodstream, my lungs began to open back up and I could breathe again. We went back home and I went back to sleep. That routine was repeated night after night after night, week after week until finally we went and saw the doctor and the doctor diagnosed me with asthma and gave me an inhaler. And that inhaler became my best friend for the next 40 years. Every single day, I would take a puff of that inhaler multiple times. I never went anywhere without it. I was an athlete. I played basketball in high school and college. Everywhere I played, there would be an inhaler in my sock. I would exercise with it. I would sleep with it right next to my bedside. Hardly any nights that I wouldn’t wake up and have to take a puff. I would swim with it. You name it. I never go anywhere without my inhaler. Never. That is my earliest memory. And so life is.

So let me ask you a question. What is your earliest memory? I want you to hold that thought and I want you to turn to Deuteronomy 1:6. Let’s stand as I read God’s Word. I think this is a good ending note for the Mountains Move series.

6 “The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites.

You have stayed at this mountain long enough. Turn to your neighbor and say enough is enough. Enough is enough.

If you are taking notes, jot this down. I think it is a framing thought. It is hard to imagine what you cannot remember. It is hard to imagine what you cannot remember. Let me explain what I mean. If you grew up without a father, or if you grew up with an abusive father, it is very hard for you to imagine a loving heavenly father because you don’t have a memory of a moment with an earthly father to give you a benchmark, a baseline in your life. Because you don’t have a memory, it is a little bit harder to imagine.

I had a dad who had to take me to the hospital night after night after night and he would do it patiently and lovingly and willingly and I hadn’t really thought about it before this weekend but I think that memory of my dad taking me to the hospital helps me imagine a heavenly Father who is an ever-present help in time of need.

It is hard to imagine what you cannot remember. What does that have to do with Deuteronomy 1:6? Everything. What was the earliest memory of the Israelites? Their earliest memory, their only memory was slavery. This is all they had known their entire lives. It was all they had known for 10 generations. It was their baseline. It is was their default setting. And so life is. It was hard for them to imagine freedom. What is that? It was hard for them to imagine a promised land, a destiny beyond slavery. It was hard for them to imagine victory. When you have a 400 year losing streak, it tends to create a defeatist mentality. Slavery was their status quo. Their memory was their mountain. And I think that’s true for many of us. Painful memories. Shameful memory. A memory of a mistake made. And the enemy starts playing games with us. God has forgiven it and God doesn’t just forgive, God forgets. But the enemy reminds us over and over and over. So my earliest memory is an asthma attack. It is all I can remember so it is very hard for me to imagine anything else. But something happened seven weeks ago. I’ve been waiting to tell you. We kicked off this series with a challenge. The challenge was this. What is the bravest prayer you can pray? Instead of me re-hashing it, let me go back and show you two minutes from that message and I will come back and show you what happened.

So what is the hardest thing that you can believe God? What is the bravest prayer that you could pray? All I know is that Joshua asked the sun to stand still and then Elijah asked an iron axe head to float. Oh, and then Jesus asked his Father to raise a man who had been dead for four days. You can ask God to move that mountain.

Oswald Chambers said let God be as original with others as He was with you. When I read the gospels, I don’t see miracles happening the same way every time. They happen in different ways and crazy ways and I think the reason is because God knew that we would try to reduce it down to a formula. It is not a formula that results in healing and it is certainly now any combination of words formulated into the right prayer that becomes some kind of abracadabra.

It is about our heart and about being in a posture of humility.

It is about consecrating ourselves to God.

It is not about telling God how to do, what to do and when to do what He does.

It is just about letting God do something in your life.

God healed me. God delivered me. And I’m going to back it up with some discipline. I’m going to work like it depends on me.

So here we are. I went back and looked at my journal. I keep a gratitude journal and I number them. About every day, it really upped my total over the last fifty days! Every day, day six, no inhaler, day 12, no inhaler. To me it is 365 gratitude's a year.

You have stayed at this mountain long enough. And this is says, let’s get back into the text here, you’ve stayed at this mountain long enough, then it is the next two words that are critical, break camp. It seems like a simple command but it is easier said than done and this is where I want to get in your business. Let me come at it from a different angle. How many of you have ever lost your salvation on your way to church? Let me see your hands? C’mon. How many of you have put your marriage in jeopardy and almost got divorced on the way to church? And then how many of you almost put your kids up for adoption on the way to church? I don’t know what it is, it seems like the enemy’s number one tactic is people going to church. He gets in our business. I have found that it is hard to get our family of five anywhere, anytime for anything. And I remember when we had babies! Good luck! You will never be on time for anything. When you go to the bathroom, there is a high chance they will be swimming in the toilet. It is ridiculous trying to get myself from here to there. It is harder with my wife and I. And with a family of five. Here’s my point. Try millions of people camped at Mount Sinai and God says break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites. They had babies. They had flocks and herds and animals. They rode donkeys. There was no air conditioning. How was anybody in a decent mood? Oh and then there was the tabernacle. The Levites were responsible for moving the tabernacle. There were three clans, 8,580 tabernacle movers must to move the tabernacle. What I’m saying is, I bet they were saying can’t we just stay here. Breaking camp is a big deal. But if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you are going to keep getting what you’ve always gotten. If you want God to do something new, you cannot stay camped out at that mountain. You can’t keep tolerating it. You have to stop tolerating and start dominating. That is God’s original commission to you.

Genesis 1:28

God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply and increase in number and subdue the earth.

I like that word ‘subdue.’ The Greek word is kibosh. It’s a Batman fight word. Bam! Wham! Kibosh! It is a submission move in martial arts. It means to conquer, to thoroughly conquer. You have to take dominion over your attitude. You have to quit complaining. You have to quit making excuses. Quit playing the victim. You’ve stayed at this mountain long enough!

You have to take dominion over your thoughts. Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. It is not easy. Is there another option? No, not biblically. You have to take dominion over your body. Paul was not exactly an Olympic athlete. He was probably a 100 pound weakling. That’s my guess. But I love his description in I Corinthians 9:27

I train my body like an athlete.

The King James says I bring it into subjection. Don’t tolerate it. Take dominion over it. Some of you need to take dominion over your marriage. It starts with taking some action. I think a lot of people think that going to see a counselor is a sign of weakness, but no, it is a sign of strength. Very few people are strong enough and have enough courage to actually say I have an issue that I need help with. You have stayed at the mountain long enough. How is it working for you? If it is not working, then it may be time to break camp.

That is what I want to challenge you to do.

We started this series talking about Zachariah speaking to the mountain. I wonder if that was what was going through Jesus’ mind as we look at this last verse, Matthew 21:18 18

Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

Yes, He was talking to a tree! An amazing miracle, one of my favorites. He cursed a barren fig tree. Most of the miracles bring things back to life but this one does the exact opposite. One of my mantras is thou shalt curse barren fig trees. What I mean is, what is not producing fruit in your life? Where are you wasting time, talent and treasure? That is another sermon for another day but at some point, you have to curse the barren fig tree. You have to speak to that part of your life. This isn’t the only instance. He spoke to wind and waves. Peace be still. And the storm went away. Remember Peter’s mother-in-law, he rebuked a fever. Then He took it one step further in this passage.

21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Talk to God about your mountain. But then at some point you have to fill the script and you have to start talking to your mountain about your God who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us.

You have stayed at this mountain long enough. Break camp and advance into the destiny that God has for you.

Transcribed by:

Ministry Transcription

margaretsalyers@gmail.com