I love to sing and I love to pray,
Worship the Lord most every day.
I go to the temple, and I just want to stay
To hide from the hustle of the world and its ways.

And I’d
Love to live on a mountain top,
Fellowshipping with the Lord.
I’d love to stand on a mountain top,
‘Cause I love to feel my spirit
Soar….

But I’ve got to come down
>From the mountain top
To the people in the valley below;
They’ll never know
That they can go
To the mountain of the Lord.

This seventy’s song, written by Brown Bannister and sung by Amy Grant, made regular church goers think beyond just going to church each Sunday to praise God, read the Bible with our friends who were just like us.  The thought behind the song was to remind us of what God has called us to be and do beyond the comfortable church building of social engagement—“or they’ll never know” our Savior and Lord!

Jesus, along with Peter, James, and John, come down from their glorious mountain top experience with God, hearing His voice while worshipping Him on their knees, to be greeted by demons lying in wait in the valley below.  The demon spirits have possessed the son of a father who is desperate to get him relief.

Matthew 17, The Message

With a Mere Kernel of Faith

^14-16 At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting people. As they approached, a man came out of the crowd and fell to his knees begging, “Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river. I brought him to your disciples, but they could do nothing for him.”

^17-18 Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.” He ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well.

¹⁹ When the disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, “Why couldn’t we throw it out?”

²⁰ “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.”

^22-23 As they were regrouping in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him—and three days later he will be raised alive.” The disciples felt scared to death.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Faith is taking God seriously and seeking His will first.

Faith is obedience to His will.

Our faith is built in Jesus by His Holy Spirit living in us as we walk through the valley of despair. 

Our faith is tested and tried by life.  We discover that when we are weak, God is strong.

Our faith in God becomes stronger when we place all our trust and hope in God to do what God does best.

Faith is believing God is who He says He is and does what He says He will do.

Faith is leaving the mountain top with our friends to help others find and follow Jesus who wander about, lost, in the valley below.

Faith is allowing His Holy Spirit to speak truth with love and compassion through us. 

Faith is waiting expectantly for God to do immeasurably more than we can imagine.

Now praising the Father is a good thing to do,
To worship the Trinity in spirit and truth.
But if we worshipped all of the time,
Well, there would be no one to lead the blind.

But I’d
Love to live on a mountain top,
Just fellowshipping with the Lord.
And I’d love to stand on a mountain top,
‘Cause I love to feel my spirit
Soar…. (Soar….)

A pure seed of growing, fertile faith in God, who is invited to delight in the details of our lives, moves mountains of doubt. 

Faith is believing what we do not see—yet.

Fear grips the disciples as Jesus tells them what will happen soon, but their faith will eventually strengthen their resolve to follow Him in obedience.  Their love for Jesus will eventually drive away their fear.  Their tested by the fire faith will grow stronger still.  Their faith in Jesus will, in fact, move mountains of false teachings of those who thought they killed Jesus and his revolutionary Kingdom of God thinking to a belief in Jesus as Savior and Lord.  (See Acts) Ah, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Faith moves us from the mountain top view to the valley below.  Go and tell.  May we give the people in the valley a new view of God through us.

But I’ve got to come down
>From the mountain top
To the people in the valley below;
They’ll never know
That they can go
To the mountain of the Lord.

I am not saying that worship is wrong,
But worship is more than just singin’ some songs,
‘Cause it’s all that we say and everything that we do;
It’s letting God’s Spirit live through you…

Lord,

Our faith in you is measured, tested, and evaluated daily as we respond to your leading in all that we do.  We know our behaviors reflect what we truly believe.  Continue to cleanse our hearts, remove all that offends you.  Renew and transform our minds of thought and overthought to Kingdom thinking.  Refresh, feed, and fill our souls with Your Holy Spirit.  Restore the joy and peace of your salvation at work in us as we step forward in faith believing.

In Jesus Name, Amen