Mr. Ken preached this Sunday about the remnant who not only followed Christ, but followed him to the highest mountains and through the greatest of difficulties....persecution, rejection, living day by day and not having a permanent dwelling place.
The multitudes followed Jesus in the plains, where it was easy to follow him and there were not many obstacles. In fact, it is where Jesus taught them, healed them, and fed them...so why not follow Him?! Matthew 4:23-25
Then in Matthew 5-7, during the sermon on the mount, the crowds dwindled. There the disciples were among the few who followed Jesus. The mountains represent difficulties that arise during our walk with the Lord....tests, trials, tribulations. No one ever said life would be easy if we followed Jesus. In fact, just the opposite! Mountains can be treacherous. Footholds are not always secure and sure. There are falling rocks, the air is thinner the higher you go making it harder to breathe, the fog can be denser making it difficult to always see where you're going. Though the end result is a deeper relationship with their Savior, many choose not to climb out of fear and uncertainty of the path that leads to the mountain top.
Finally, in Matthew 17, we see that Jesus took only three of his disciples with Him to the high mountain atop where he would allow them to witness His great transfiguration...only Peter, James, and John. It's not that the others were not necessarily worthy, but for some reason these three men were the remnant that were CHOSEN to follow Jesus to the very top, where they were exposed to their Master in all his wondrous glory. Oh to be one of those few! Still, if the climb to the mountain where Jesus taught about the Beattitudes was/is a difficult one, imagine how much harder the climb to the high mountain atop was/is. The self-sacrifice must be a great one in order to achieve the kind of relationship with Jesus that Peter, James, and John must have had with Him to make it to that mountain top.
To teach this to the kids, we played a game of follow the leader. First, we paraded them around inside the warm and well-lit church, going around chairs, under tables, sometimes hopping on one leg. Then we went outside the building and did the same thing. Outside, however, it was dark and cold. There were shadows to be wary of, trees and railroad ties to avoid or go around, and ant hills to be on guard for. Lastly, we took the kids to the parking garage at the Hard Rock Hotel. If you've never seen it at night, it's quite a spectacle...daunting to say the least! There are 5 levels to the garage and 77 stairs leading to the highest one. And yes, we climbed up each and every one of them (Ok, confession - John and the kids did....four-month-pregnant Tara watched from down below.)! There were also two kids who couldn't make the climb because they were too fearful. One attempted, but only made it about 1/4 of the way.
After returning to church, we discussed which of the times it was easiest to "follow the leader". We talked about how, not knowing what was next, it became a little more difficult and scary to follow us, even though the kids love and trust us. We compared each of our three journeys to the plains, mountain, and high mountain atop that Ken spoke of and the daily disciplines (Bible reading, prayer, etc...) required to press onward, forward, and upward for that goal and prize of a deeper and more personal relationship with our Lord and Savior.
