Up and Down/ Up on the Mountain of Worship Page 1 of 8 Up and Down --- Up on the Mountain of Worship Exodus 19:1-8, Psalm 121, Acts 3:1-8 INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES Up and Down. That s this summer s sermon series. It is, of course, a tongue in cheek reference to the low attendance numbers that appear during the summer. The numbers are up and down. Why? Because that s where our people are. Up in the mountains and down at the beach. You know the old saying If you can t beat them What? That s right join them. So that s what we are doing. We are joining all those traveling folks. We are going up to the mountains and down to the beach. How? By choosing a particular kind of Bible Text for our summer sermons. We are choosing Scripture passages that reference mountains or some coastal or water scene. Pastor Mark and Rev. Monica have already gotten us started. They used coastal scenes. I m taking us up on the mountain. INTRODUCTION TO SERMON As you work your way through the Scripture Old and New Testaments you can t help but notice that ours is a mountaintop religion. From Father Abraham on Mount Moriah with his knife raised over the young Isaac and his arm halted by the sound of the Angel s voice, to the mountain where Moses saw the burning bush, heard God s call and received God s instructions for forming a holy nation, to Elijah, facing the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and on and on. To the mountain tops of the New Testament, to the mountain where Jesus stands against the temptations of Satan, to the mountaintop where He instructs His followers, to the mount of transfiguration, the Mount of Olives and eventually to that hill outside the gates of the city called Mt. Calvary. This story of God s love is a mountaintop story. Ours is a mountaintop religion. You and I (all of us who follow Jesus) need a mountaintop faith, and I believe we can have it. With God s help, we can search for and climb the mountains we all need to be the people of God we are called to be. Today we make our way up to the mountaintop of worship. PSALM 121 I believe this passage from the Old Testament can help us:
Up and Down/ Up on the Mountain of Worship Page 2 of 8 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved, he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore. The writer, on his way to worship in Jerusalem, raises his eyes to the hills all around him ---I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills --- and poses the question: From whence cometh my strength? And you know friends, we need to ask the same question. Where does our strength come from? This psalm is particularly appropriate for us since we are acknowledging all the travel that happens in the summer. You see Psalm 121, one of the Psalms of Ascent, was written for those traveling to worship on the Holy Hill called Jerusalem. To undertake such a journey was to risk hardship and suffering. Along with the general difficulties of travel in that day came the risk of being attacked by robbers who knew only too well the holy seasons and the pathway of pilgrims. As the writer of this psalm sits at his campsite and lifts his eyes to the hills around him, he probably saw the guards who were posted there for security. But this traveler can see even more. He sees the Lord himself, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, who protects and preserves, who keeps his going out and his coming in forever. As we continue on our shared journey of faith and ministry, you and I are on a holy journey too a pilgrimage. And there may be risks but they are well worth the taking. Because Beloved, I believe that when we do dare to lift our eyes, we too will find all the strength needed to make our journey. I believe we will find the Lord, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, the one who longs to keep our going out and our coming in forever. EXODUS 19:1-8 And as we climb, we join those worn and weary Israelite slaves on their journey. Now they have been traveling in the wilderness for some time and finally,
Up and Down/ Up on the Mountain of Worship Page 3 of 8 they have come to the foot of Mount Sinai. While they are there, some remarkable things happened on top. Exodus 19:3-8 3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites. 7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do. Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. God met Moses on that mountaintop and did three things that are basic to the relationship God seeks with all His people including you and me. If we intend to be the people of God we are called to be, we need to find our way to this mountaintop of worship. WHAT GOD HAS DONE Here, God reminds Moses and His people, of what He has done for them in the past. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I brought you here with all the care of a mother eagle. You know, folks, sometimes before we can set out on a new venture, we need to be reminded of what has happened in the past. God has already proven that He is worthy of our trust, that He is powerful enough to deliver and that He is loving enough to protect. Moses and His people needed to be reminded of that. And when we attempt to do new and bold things for God, I suspect we need to be reminded too. The people called Williamson s Chapel have been hard at work for Jesus and His kingdom for 105 years. In that time they have grown from a small country church to a middle size church to a large church. They have evolved from a country church to a rural church to a regional church. They have launched a new congregation and added worship service after worship service. They have become a primary leader in community ministries AND worked for Jesus on other islands and continents. They have built building after building to meet the needs of a growing
Up and Down/ Up on the Mountain of Worship Page 4 of 8 community, and today we are once again exploring an expansion of our facilities. Why? For the same reason those before us built the Chapel and then the Fellowship Hall and then the Sanctuary to reach the growing numbers of people in this region with the good news of Jesus Christ. City officials expect the population of Mooresville to double in the next 15-20 years. God has enabled this church to reach increasing numbers of people every step along the way. The people who made those difficult decisions to build and prepare for the future trusted God to be there. And God came through. I believe God is still worthy of our trust. But sometimes we need to be reminded. EXPECTATIONS And, having reminded Moses of His faithfulness in the past, God then explains what the people need to do now. God s expectations are quite simple really. Oh, we try to make them complicated but what God actually wants from you and me is really very, very simple. Obey my voice and keep my covenant. Before we ever get to the list of commandments, all the dos and the don ts, the call from God is for simple obedience. To obey God requires so much more than simply adhering to a set of rules and regulations. Don t you see? We trust God and so we obey. It s important to understand that this call is for an open-ended obedience. God is asking His people to obey not only the known commands but also the unknown commands that will come in the future. From this moment on, God s people make a serious mistake, one we still make today. They try to put God in a box, to define and limit what God asks of us and how God will act. But I want you to hear this, friends. If you hear nothing else I say today, hear this. God will not accept human-made fences or stay in human-made boxes. Our obedience is to be open ended, based not on fear but rather on the personal relationship we have with God. We obey because we trust. And that sounds hard, doesn t it? But we see such trust demonstrated all around us. Children accepting the guidelines set by loving parents. Pets accepting treatment they can t understand from loving owners. I remember when our beloved dog Maggie had her first real bout with an illness. Fighting the infection required daily doses of antibiotic and ointment for her eyes. Only problem: Maggie didn t like the antibiotics or the ointment. When she saw the dropper come out, she would attempt to slip quietly away. But when called by name, she would be still and let us put that medicine down her throat and rub that ointment on her
Up and Down/ Up on the Mountain of Worship Page 5 of 8 eyeballs. She never growled; she never whimpered. She was a smart dog for sure, but she could not possibly have understood what the medicine was intended to do. She obeyed and yielded herself to us for one reason alone. Maggie trusted us. Her trust was based on the past but completely open-ended to the future. Understand this, my friend. God expects the same from you and me. DEFINES RELATIONSHIP And third, up on that mountaintop, God affirms and defines the relationship. You shall be my treasured possession, a holy nation. This relationship is based on a clear understanding of who God is and who we are. In verse 5, God defines Himself. The whole earth is mine. Everything belongs to God, including us. One reason we need to spend a little time on this mountaintop is to be reminded of that fact. Corrie Ten Boom, that remarkable woman whose family befriended the Jews when her nation was taken over by the Nazis, once made this comment to a friend: Jill, people thank me so much and it used to worry me because I didn t want to get a big head. So I began to collect those compliments like flowers. Thank you, I d say. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Then at the end of the day, I d kneel down and I d say, Here You are Jesus, they re all Yours. It s easy in this world of pride and flattery to forget just exactly who we are. One reason we need to make a trip with Moses to this mountaintop is to remember not only who God is but who we are too. TRANSITION to WORSHIP But Moses wasn t the only mountain climber we meet in the pages of the Bible. New Testament writers tell us that Jesus also used the mountaintops as a place to meet God. Going up is actually a Biblical way to describe worship. You see, even though Jerusalem was built on what we would consider a low hill, it was regarded in scripture as a high mountain. Over and over again, the writers describe worship as going up. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus up to Jerusalem. The Psalms of Ascent, like the one we used this morning are given that name because of this image of pilgrims ascending to the temple, going up to worship. You see, friends, truly worshipping God, meeting God face to face requires effort and energy. I sometimes think that we have made worship a bit too easy. The word worship is actually a shortened form of the old word worthship. It
Up and Down/ Up on the Mountain of Worship Page 6 of 8 meant showing God the worth he holds in your life. Don t you see --- that s what we do when we gather here, not only by coming to this place but also by our attitude when we are here, by the sacrifice we make to place an offering in this plate, by the attention we give to the hymns and the prayers? What we do here, positive or negative, shows God the worth He has in our lives. Maybe we have settled for too little, made worship too easy. Real worship requires a trip up --- up to the mountaintop and that --- well, that s never an easy journey. ACTS 3:1-8 Seems to me that truth is made very clear in a New Testament story. Acts 3:1-8 1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, Look at us. 5 And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. [vs 1] Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. Notice that Peter and John are simply following a regular routine of worship. Three o clock is one of the three appointed hours of the day for prayer and Peter and John are making their way up to the temple to share in that worship. Please don t miss the significance of this. Jesus has been crucified; His followers have been ridiculed by the religious people around them. If ever anyone had good reason for turning their backs on a religious institution, they do. Snobbery, irrelevancy, hypocrisy, bigotry it was all there in that temple as surely as it is a part of any church today. Even so, Peter and John go up to the temple to pray. Why? Why do they go? Why should we? A while back I read, though I can t remember where, that reasons for attending church fall into one of two categories. Good or bad. In the bad category
Up and Down/ Up on the Mountain of Worship Page 7 of 8 would be things like: attendance is socially acceptable; God is angry if I don t; going earns God s favor. It makes me feel better. But here s the problem with those reasons. Those motivations all dishonor God and are simply among Satan s most effective lies. In the good column are reasons like: God s Word commands it; I need Christian fellowship; others need my encouragement; I can hear the Word; I can meet God. I remember hearing this old story, from a church in Washington, D.C., that makes the point well. It was a church that the President himself sometimes attended. The telephone rang in the pastor s office and an eager voice asked: Tell me, do you expect the President to be there this Sunday? That I cannot promise, the pastor replied patiently. But we do expect God and we believe His attendance will be incentive enough for a reasonably large congregation. John and Peter were going up to worship for the right reasons. That s why failure and hypocrisy did not keep them away. That s why failure and hypocrisy do not keep God s people away today either. When we join the church we promise to be present. Just showing up is an important witness. When you come through these doors on a Sunday morning, please understand this: You are making a statement to the world about the worth of God in your life. Early in my ministry, I had a deaf man who was my neighbor and a member of my church. He was there every time the church doors opened even though he could not hear a word. I couldn t help but think about Carl when I came across this account of a deaf man seen walking to church every Sunday. When asked why he would spend his Sundays at church when he couldn t hear a word, this was his reply: I want my neighbors to know which side I m on. That, my friends, is our witness every time we go up to worship. But Peter and John are not the only ones in the story. [vs 2-3] 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. Now this fellow came to worship for the wrong reason not to meet God, not to stand with the community of faith. He came to see what he could get. I hate to admit it but many of us show up for the same reason. We are hoping to get something, such as a better reputation, approval of a loved one, maybe a few new contacts, to catch up with friends, out of habit, to be entertained. So why are we here this morning? The reason we go up to worship makes a difference.
Up and Down/ Up on the Mountain of Worship Page 8 of 8 [vs. 4-7] 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, Look at us. 5 And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And the cripple does receive something that afternoon but not what he expected. He receives more than he could have hoped or imagined. All because Peter and John pause on their way up to worship. You see, true worship can never be separated from action. God expects us to be conscious of the people in need around our doors. Peter and John were going to worship the name of Jesus but they stop along the way to use the name of Jesus. They postpone prayer for the sake of service. And what happens? [vs.8] 8 And leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. Yet another joins them on their climb to the mountaintop. CONCLUSION Ours is a mountaintop faith. Every time we gather here, we are going up to worship. But this, Beloved, is not a journey we are meant to travel alone. After every ascent to the mountain in this book, there is a corresponding descent. Those who have been on the mountaintop go back down. Why? To live in ways that will call upon others to come and join in the climbing. It happens more times than I can tell. When asked why they are visiting for worship, people almost always say something like: So and so said they worship here. So and so invited me to come. So and so told me about this or that program or ministry. In other words, someone who has been up on the mountain did something that made them want to try the climb too. And that s what being up on the Mountain of worship is really all about. In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen