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HopeLives365

Christian Martin

The Uphill Struggles of Success

You know there are experiences that as a father are priceless.

Such an experience took place during a family camping trip in southern Utah.

I'll never forget the day that I woke up early that morning at daybreak.

And so I got out of the tent and I looked outside and I noticed this layered mountain range that went alongside our campsite.

And I decided that I would climb to the very top.

And so I threw on a hoodie and I tied my shoelaces and I grabbed my water bottle and my Bible and I started to head that direction.

And as I did, I heard a familiar voice coming out from the tent.

It eagerly asked, "'Papi, can I come too?' It was Elijah, my son, who was 8 years old at the time?

And believe me, it made his daddy very proud that his son wanted to go on this uphill journey with his dad.

And so we got ready And we started to head that direction.

But before we did, we looked up to the very top of the mountain.

And we agreed that we would make our way all the way to the top until we reached this distinct boulder that stood out at the very top.

And so there we were traveling, starting this journey together side by side, Father and Son.

My message today is entitled, Uphill Struggles to Success.

Our Father in heaven, as we take these moments to look at the Word of God and be able to find encouragement for our day, for our journey together with you.

We pray, Lord, that you would speak, And we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

It was author and speaker John Maxwell, who has written several books on leadership and many other types of leadership material.

He said, everything precious in life is uphill.

And if that principle sounds familiar, like, you know, I've heard that before, well, you're right, because Jesus taught this very principle himself.

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to come with me to Matthew chapter 7.

And as we go to Matthew chapter 7, we find the words of Jesus there in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says, Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Verse 14, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.

Jesus himself said that if you're gonna follow me, if you're gonna go on this journey that's headed towards salvation, towards eternal life, it's not gonna be easy.

In fact, He never said it would be convenient.

He never said that it would be a walk in the park to be known as a follower of Christ and to be so faithfully.

As Elijah and I started this climb, it got difficult all right, quick.

Elijah and I were now breaking a sweat, and our uphill struggle, believe me, was real.

But we came to a conclusion that our arrival to the top would be no accident.

To claim success, there was only 1 way to go, And that way was uphill.

We had this hope to achieve success, remember, by reaching that boulder that we had agreed upon to reach, we knew that that would be success.

To have a mountaintop experience, a mountaintop experience, as We all do.

We long to have success, to have a mountaintop experience in our Christian journey.

We all have those longings, those dreams.

We all have that picture of a reality that we want to be ours in our journey.

Fathers striving to be spiritual leaders who consistently exert a godly influence upon their family.

What Christian father doesn't want to do that?

It's their prayer, it's their ambition, it's their aim, their goal to be a godly father.

Mothers wanting to have a close-knit family in their home, to nurture each family member, so that the family unit could be 1, united in love.

Spouses expecting to have marriages where each prioritizes the other.

That's what the marriage covenant is all about.

Young men attempting to break bad habits and forming new clean habits.

Young ladies wanting to uphold the value of modesty in an indecent culture.

We all have those ambitions, those dreams, those commitments that we want to make and 1 day be able to claim success.

We also have good intentions to succeed in the spiritual realm.

As parents we see our young children maturing.

We see them getting physically stronger, but we see them also emotionally maturing.

But we long to be able to experience that spiritually ourselves.

We want to increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

That's the desire that I know of, of every Christian follower of Christ that I've met, To pray more earnestly on a daily basis.

Not to be caught in this repetitive rut where our prayers are on autopilot and we're not just pouring our hearts out to God anymore.

We want to be able to have that connection with God that is contagious.

I want to be able to have those around me feel it and know it that there's something in me that is real, that is within, and it shines forth.

I want to lead somebody to accept Jesus Christ.

I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

And when I come to taste and see that the Lord is good, I can't help but want to be able to give that glorious experience to somebody in my circle of influence.

Again, if I call for an amen, all of us here would sincerely say amen.

To be a faithful steward and return a faithful tithe to the Lord as the master of our lives and so on and so forth.

But remember this, everything precious in Remember this, everything precious in life is uphill.

Everything that I just gave you a picture of, everything I just shared just now, and more, those things that are in your mind, things that you want to be able to accomplish in life, both as an individual but as a family, as a church, those things that are precious to us, they will happen.

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The Uphill Struggles of Success

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