Episode 807 The Peace of the Mountain
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Welcome to episode 807 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Mario Porrecca from 10 minute mindset. The podcast I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling, having the right inspiration to set your mindset on the right path is key.
[00:00:25] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my good friend, Scott Mader,
[00:00:43] but we all have those moments where we feel the excitement and the piece of finally getting it all together. Finally understanding what's going on. And then refusing to leave and go back out into the world and use that understanding to [00:01:00] serve instead of staying there, stuck in the place that we are welcome.
[00:01:05] And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the work.
[00:01:38] Today's spiritual foundation episode about developing your influence. I talk with you about Matthew chapter 17 verses one through nine. I share how the excitement and peace of the mountain is what we always want. But I also talk with you about how you have to return from the mountain to really be able to serve.
[00:01:57]One of the Sunday services that I [00:02:00] love every year is transfiguration Sunday. And this passage from Matthew chapter 17 is about that. And it says six days later, Jesus took with him, Peter and James and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.
[00:02:23] Suddenly there appeared to them, Moses and Elijah talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish I will make three dwellings here. One for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah while he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud, overshadowed them. And from the cloud, a voice said, this is my son, the beloved with him.
[00:02:47] I am well-pleased listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them saying, get up [00:03:00] and be not afraid. And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone, as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them.
[00:03:08] Tell no one about the vision until after the son of man has been raised from the dead. This passage and others like it, and Mark and other gospels always reminds me of the experience. We have some times when everything is going well, when everything is going right, when we're seeing the world in a new way, when things are transfigured before us, we often have.
[00:03:36] A feeling of excitement and a feeling of peace and contentment that comes up upon us. We feel like we've finally got it all figured out. We finally got it all together. Things are working. If it's a business, maybe finally, it's making a profit. If it's a work situation and you finally understand what you're supposed to be doing and you're doing it [00:04:00] well and continuing to get kudos, if you're in a relationship.
[00:04:04] And finally, you've got things where it seems like the relationship is working and you're communicating better than you ever have, whatever it is, whatever part of your life it is when you have those moments of being on the mountain top. We want to stay there. This is just exactly what happens with Peter.
[00:04:23] They see this tremendous event and he says, Lord, it's good for us to be here. I'll make some houses and we can live here all the time. But immediately there's an answer that says, this is a great moment. This is my beloved with him. I am well pleased. Listen to him. And it then says they were overcome by fear.
[00:04:48] See, oftentimes when we have those moments of great success, that is the same moment that we're suddenly terrified because what if this doesn't last? What if we can't stay [00:05:00] here all the time? What if maybe we actually have to get down off the mountain? And of course that's exactly what happens next. They follow Jesus down off the mountain and all of the next events that are to follow begin to happen one after the other.
[00:05:19] But the truth is that we do have to come down off the mountain if we're going to be able to serve others. The truth is that the number of people that are up there on the mountain top with us is always very limited. And I think sometimes when we have success, we lose track of that and it causes us to be arrogant, to causes us to say and do things that perhaps we wouldn't have done.
[00:05:46] If we were still in touch with what it feels like to be in the Valley below, the truth is most everyone has had moments. Of being in the dark Valley. And most everyone has had [00:06:00] moments of being on top of the world, feeling like we finally got it all figured out, but neither one of those really last, and the reason why they don't is because it's the people that come down off the mountain.
[00:06:14] And help those people who are in the Valley that really make a connection. That's part of this spiritual task of developing our influence. It's not about developing it so that we can spend more time at the mountain. How have you seen that before? You've seen it when famous people or celebrities or people that may be struggled and they fought their way from rags to riches, and then they get there.
[00:06:41] They get the success. And they forget what it was like to not have it, but other people you meet that have come from those sorts of situations have tremendous humility and recognize that they're blessed to be where they are. But because of that blessing, they have an even bigger [00:07:00] responsibility to reach back and help folks that are struggling.
[00:07:04] I've seen both of those happen. And it's interesting because we often. Judge people based on what they're doing in those cases, we judge them by whether they're staying on the mountain or they're coming down into the Valley to serve. And yet we ourselves in a small way, we'll do the same thing and it won't be as obvious.
[00:07:24] Maybe it won't be as big because you don't have the exact same level of success, but we all have those moments where we feel the excitement and the peace of finally getting it all together. Finally understanding what's going on and then refusing to leave and go back out into the world and use that understanding to serve.
[00:07:47] Instead of staying there, stuck in the place that we are, instead of staying there all alone with just a few people. We don't turn [00:08:00] out and recognize that the things that we've been through we'll probably reach and help and serve others. Thanks for listening.
[00:08:14] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship.
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